Well after a week (I think it's been that anyway) of nothing but doing an essay, it's time to return to what I call fun writing. Now we're talking, so without further ado, let's return to the world of Kingdom Hearts.

Chapter 11

The Garden Isle

The ship slowed to a crawl just outside the world's orbit. For the amount of time Pete was there, he simply watched with a bored and the occasional yawn as ex-Captain Gantu (for he liked to often remind Pete that he had once been a captain) ranted and raved about some obsession he had for capturing the experiment that had nearly ruined his life.

Pete gave a nod every so often to give the appearance of listening but his mind was elsewhere. It had been ever since Maleficent had been taken down by the Keyblade Master. That was not to say he had been entirely fond of Maleficent's derision of him as an incompetent oaf but at least then he had a title he could be proud of, one to identify him by. He wasn't just an incompetent oaf, he was her incompetent oaf and that drastically changed whenever he performed well. For example, it had been he who had come across Abraxas in the first place as well as having assisted in the capture of the King and he had been greatly praised by Maleficent for doing so.

This was not the case with David Xanatos. The new leader of the syndicate now renamed as KRONOS was meticulous in every way, leaving absolutely nothing to chance. If, for some reason, there was even a degree of likelihood that a plan could fail, then that plan would be redrafted over and over until that degree of probability was lessened. Unfortunately for Pete, he was one of those degrees of probability. 'The weakest link' he had overheard them call him in a meeting that he had not attended because he had so conveniently been chosen for a mission in Radiant Garden at the time.

It was clear that Xanatos and pretty much everyone else in the room saw Pete as a liability and it was impossible to blame them. Apart from screwing up on multiple accounts, everyone knew the proximity of the relationship between Pete and Maleficent had been close and so allegiance wasn't likely to be gained overnight.

"Now is finally the chance I have been waiting for. You are stranded you little abomination and there is no way out for you now!" Gantu declared in a mighty roar.

"Hold it bub. Shouldn't we be more concerned about the three people on the ship instead? Y'know… the Keyblade wielders?" Pete pointed out after Gantu had finally stopped shouting. Their sensor had managed to pick up four lifeforms on the Gummi Ship ahead of them that had just blown its engine and was plummeting into the atmosphere below. One of these lifeforms, the scanner detected, showed signs of an artificially created yet destructive life form with an incredible level of intelligence and the ability to process information.

"Do you forget who you're speaking to? Bah, as if a bunch of pubescent hormone driven humans could ever stand a chance against me." Gantu replied. He flipped a few switches on the console as the ship steadily hovered over the world before becoming stationary once again. He dug into his pocket and pullet out to devices, throwing one of them to Pete. "Xanatos tech. We get in. We capture 626. We get out. These instant teleportation devices will beam down and back up in no time."

"Trust Xanatos to think one step ahead of the ole curb." Pete humored himself with covert sarcasm.

"And trust you not to mess this up. I know of your track record and if you even think about getting in my way-"

"Wouldn't dream of it. He's all yours." Pete replied resisting the urge to yawn.

"Oh, um… very good then. Yes, he's all mine and I WILL make him pay for what he has done!" Gantu repeated with just as equivocal a demeanor as before. After what had felt like hundredth session of laughter that day. Gantu finally gave the call to teleport down towards the strange new world. Gantu received nothing but an ambiguous smirk from Pete. After all, who was Pete to tell Gantu that he had another thing coming if he really believed taking on those three kids would be a walk in the park? No, Pete would absolutely just hate to spoil the surprise.

It wasn't strange to Sora that tracking a small destructive alien would have proved difficult. The clump of trees in the area made for an easy hiding spot and if he wasn't there then there was still the dirt road that Stitch could have taken. If Riku's theory was correct about Stitch needing energy then it was likely that he would have headed for the next possible source of food. This thinking combined with the direction Stitch had been seen heading in helped to narrow down their search perimeter somewhat.

As the single path continued, the dense palm trees became more spacious and eventually gave way to a beautiful sandy beach. It shouldn't have also come as a surprise that once again he was reminded of the islands, what with the shimmering waters and its accompanying waves rushing backwards and forwards along the shoreline. There were no doubt clear differences such as the beach seeming to extend around the island's huge circumference, or at least the side which he was on. Emerald green and dense forests draped over the island like a curtain with tall and pointy mountain spires in the background. It would be hard to argue that it was anything like the much smaller Destiny Islands if one were to purely look at it from appearance but it was the near identical atmosphere that hit home.

On his previous journey with Luna, he honestly had not put much thought into finding his islands. He had thought it a selfish wish at the time to mention in front of someone who had lost both their memory and home. Standing here now though made him wonder if such a wish was truly selfish at all. His desire to see his home had never been stronger and a part of him found it humorous that he had barely given much thought to look for his own world beforehand.

Riku soon joined him in staring at the ocean waters. "Something on your mind?" he asked digging his hands into his pockets.

"A lot of things, for example this place reminds me of our home a lot." Sora answered while keeping a fixed gaze on the horizon.

"I can understand that. I'm feeling the same. Sparring against each other with our wooden swords, playing Blitzball with Tidus and Wakka..."Riku tried to list with a thoughtful expression.

"School? Don't you dare say school." Sora warned letting out a chuckle in the process.

"It was the farthest thing from my mind, trust me." Riku replied allowing his own heartfelt laugh to escape from his lips. Even with the list Riku had mentioned, Sora found a strange feeling, or rather a lack of feeling when hearing these activities. It wasn't that he missed his friends but he couldn't deny that there was definitely a feeling of reluctance dwelling deep within as well. He wondered if there was something wrong with him.

Sora only had to glance Riku's way to catch sight of their target in the background sneaking his way over to the hotdog stand. He summoned the Kingdom Key and flicked his wrist launching a gravity blast at the creature. The small purple orb entrapped Stitch before expanding around him. However the creature seemed to show nothing indicating that he had been affected by this, jumping out from inside the blast and continuing on his rampage.

"Well that didn't slow him down. I guess he can withstand the increase in gravity." Riku gathered before rushing forward past the dazed few who had probably just witnessed their first act of magic. Sora attempted to follow but, feeling slightly heavier than usual, could only jog over with gritted teeth. Unfortunately his body was still recovering from the after effects of the poison. He felt weak but he tried not to show it in front of them as usual.

Stitch jumped onto the stand to the surprise of the vendor and snatched the buns out of his hands before throwing them at Riku. He sidestepped the incoming buns easily before throwing his Keyblade forward. Stitch jumped over the Way to the Dawn only to land closer to his catcher than he had been before. With a final push, Riku threw himself forward and tackled the creature, clutching him towards his chest as if he were an invaluable object.

"How are we going to contain that thing? I suppose we could just put it to sleep again but there's no guarantee it won't run away again the second we take our eyes off it." Sora said arriving at Riku's side. He knelt down and nodded at Riku. The silver haired teen seemed to understand what Sora was about to do and slowly unwrapped his around Stitch exposing him to Sora. "Hey Stitch. Terra, Ventus and Aqua told us about you. Remember them?"

Stitch's huge eyes rose up to meet Sora's, his face contorting into one of thought. "Terra… Ven… Aqua… friends…?" he questioned slowly.

"Right, they're our friends too. They told us that they helped you learn the meaning of that word, friendship. Well, other than just having people to talk to and have fun with them, a big part of that is also about seeing things from their eyes. So for example, if you were to put yourself in mine or Riku's shoes right now, not that you would need shoes but that's beside the point… anyway, if you did have feet and put yourself in our shoes, would you appreciate it with we did something you didn't like? We want to be your friends Stitch. We want to help you and have fun together, but we can't do that if you won't let us."

Stitch's ears twitched flexibly for a good while, a reflection of his inner pondering Sora and Riku would think. "Sorry." he eventually apologised as he lowered his head with a look of shame on his face. Sora turned his head to Riku enquiringly when he heard his friend let out a light chuckle.

"Looks like you have a way with words." he lauded with amusement.

"I do seem to recall a certain someone mentioning that my speeches were very cheesy." Sora pointed out to him with a teasing smile.

"They're not mutually exclusive." Riku admitted. Now this was what Sora called a natural conversation. It was the exchange of dialogue between him and Riku that didn't feel as stifling as it had done so back in Radiant Garden, one that didn't feel boorish or full of bitter feelings of intolerance and selfishness. Though the two had managed to evade returning to the conversation, Sora felt that the emotions were still there and their attempt to hide the fact that the conversation took place proved it.

Kairi calling to them broke Sora away from a recollection of tensions. She along with Lilo and Nani soon arrived at the hotdog stand. Nani in particular looked as if she had just seen a ghost. Her eyes were watching Stitch with weariness.

"I just contacted Aqua and told her about our problem. She says that she's on her way. I didn't ask but I guess she's going to stop by Radiant Garden for an engine before coming here." Kairi notified them. Other than that, there really wasn't anything else Aqua could contribute by coming here. In the meantime, Sora figured it would be best if they scavenged the island for any other objects pertaining to Gummi blocks.

"Kairi, I think you've confused our friends here." Riku said glancing back and forth between Kairi and the frightened Nani.

"Yeah… I think I slipped up halfway. Well that and seeing Keyblades in both you guys' hands probably didn't help." Kairi said feigning an innocent and yet at the same time completely guilty smile.

"It didn't really sound that convincing anyway. I guess we should explain what really is happening, though I don't think that explanation is totally convincing either." Sora said with nervous laughter.

"Hey, are you planning on paying for your pet?" the vendor alerted them to his presence. Suffice to say he looked absolutely furious at what had just happened. Fortunately since no damage had been caused to the cart itself, Nani (who had opted to pay in their stead) did not have to pay much. Once he was satisfied, Nani led Lilo, Stitch and the three strangers from the beach and back into the trees.

The door closed behind them with a loud bang. Sora, Riku, Kairi and Lilo stared onward with startled faces as they watched Nani sneak around the room as if it wasn't her own, checking to make sure no visible light could come through from outside. The room went darker by the drawing of curtains until Nani felt there was no other possible source of light but that coming from the hallway.

"Will someone PLEASE explain to me what is going on here? You are not secret agents!" Nani accused with a pointed finger. "And that's not any regular dog I've seen. I mean look at it! It's blue and-"

"Hey, don't discriminate against my friend here." Sora said thinking a jovial approach would help to lighten the mood. The crazy look in Nani's eyes proved that to be a failure however. He quickly re-treaded on his words. "I'm not sure you're going to believe but what the hey—we're not from this world but another one and this little thing, we call him Stitch, came down with us except that we didn't intend for him to come along with us, he kinda just sneaked on board. As for what he is, well he's an alien or I guess an experiment that was created by someone, I don't know all the details, you'd have to ask my friend Aqua when she gets here."

By the time the out of breath Sora had finished, both Nani and Lilo looked frozen rigid in their expressions and their movements like two perfectly crafted statues. Eventually they unfroze and gave way to reactions that challenged the trio's determination to keep straight faces.

"So you're still going to lie to us then?" Nani asked.

"Wait, what? No, he really is telling the truth. I mean it is kind of, no, I take that back… it is REALLY hard to believe but there are other worlds out there. I'll prove it to you. Have you ever seen any creatures that look really odd and weren't there before?" Kairi asked with an expectant glance switching between the two pairs of eyes staring at her. The change to a more uneasy demeanour spoke for their silence. Kairi continued, "Well those are what we call Heartless. Our job is to take care of them."

"Right, hence this…" Riku held out his hand to summon the evidence.

"Wow… that is so awesome!" Lilo screamed in delight. The reaction stupefied Riku and caused Sora and Kairi to chuckle. Her older sister however, didn't seem too impressed by this though it was clear that she was starting to believe them. Nani nodded her head and leaned against the wall with her hand over her mouth.

"You won't cause any trouble while you're here will you? You'll fix your ship and then you're out?" she asked struggling to quell any agitation in her voice.

"If that's what you want. We're looking for a friend so unless we find some reason to believe that she's here, then we'll be coming and going." Riku answered.

"Hey, if you are leaving do you think you can take me along with you?" Lilo asked.

"LILO, I-"

"I don't think your sister would be happy with that." Riku finished for Nani without shouting.

"It doesn't matter what she thinks. She's nothing but a big joykill!" Lilo remarked.

"It's killjoy, and I so can be fun." Nani said parting from the wall. She grabbed the smaller girl and proceeded to give her a noogie, though this seemed to annoy Lilo more.

"Hey, stop that! You are so annoying sis." Lilo grunted. She managed to find her way out of her sister's grasp before leaving the room and running upstairs despite calls to come back from Nani.

"I see we've stepped in on a happy family." Kairi commented with cheerful sarcasm.

"Happy… that's a word you don't hear too much around here these, at least not since our parents died. I've been trying to make it… trying to look after her but she drives me absolutely nuts sometimes. She refuses to grow up." Nani explained. Sora needed only look at her appearance to see that what she was saying was true. Her face articulated the words fatigued and stressed clearly. How difficult it must have been to look after such a rambunctious sister all by herself especially after the death of their parents, Sora had no idea but surely that deserved an achievement in itself.

"Well she is just a kid so I'm sure she trying to deal with it in her own little way. I'm sorry to hear about your parents though. I lost my mom when I was young and Kairi lost her parents. For me, things were never the… forget it. I'm bothering you with my own problems. You have enough on your plate as it is." Riku said posing in a very Leon-like manner.

Sora watched in silence as Kairi, Riku and Nani consoled each other over their own losses. He couldn't say he had ever lost a parent and knowing that each of them had made him feel somewhat out of the picture. He had experienced a personal lost though in Yeul's death but he was trying to take Colette's advice about not thinking about it. He was losing.

Out of the corner of his eye, he managed to pick up on Stitch once again sneaking away from them and heading up the stairs. Making the excuse that he wanted to check up on Lilo, her sister gave approval allowing Sora to quickly leave the room and follow Stitch. As he slowly made his way up the stairs, he chose not to call after Stitch. He didn't think that Stitch would try to leave them again but Sora also couldn't help but be curious as to where he was going.

He reached the second floor landing and made sure he left as little sound as possible as he made his way to the one room near the back of the hallway that was slightly ajar. The closer he got to the door, the more he began to ruminate over the past. He felt like the child he had once been who would sneak back into his room after violating a curfew just to hang out on the other island for a while. It had felt as if the whole of the Destiny Islands had been a backyard or a garden for him to play in. He also supposed he had never been freer, for that was a time when all this weight that plunged him into a world of nightmares now had not been hanging on his shoulders. Now he'd be lucky if he could ever live a normal life, whatever that meant.

Sora peered through the door to see a most unexpected sight. Perched on her window and looking down at the water below (for the house was located right next to a cliff overlooking the sparkling sea) was Lilo chatting away amicably to Stitch who seemed to be listening to her every word. Sora watched with a smile as the creature nodded his head up and down while Lilo talked about topics that he probably didn't even understand.

Sora was about to retreat for downstairs when he made a wrong step, triggering a creak on the wooden floorboards. It was loud enough to cause Lilo to turn away from the window and Stitch to look at the direction the noise had come from.

"Sora?" she asked more in a way that indicated she wanted to make sure she got his name right.

"Busted. You got me." Sora replied pushing open the door and raising his hands with a guilty smile. He walked over to the window and looked outside in curiosity.

"Did my sister send you?" Lilo asked, an irritation stirring just underneath the surface of her voice.

"No, I came for Stitch but it doesn't look like he's bothering you or anything," Sora noted. "You know my room looks just like this, with the window overlooking the sea and lots of toys and comic books stacked around. It's also rather messy… my clothes were all over the floor…" Sora remembered back to the time when he had fallen into a deep sleep in order to recover his memories. At that time, everyone had forgotten who he was. This included his parents so the image of them cleaning their son's room without knowing who was occupying the room was a hilarious one. Even during that period of forgetting him, they had never once thought to clear the room of its possessions. While his existence had been forgotten, it certainly hadn't disappeared for good. It had been like they were waiting for someone, or knew that the room had a special reason for being as it was.

"What is your home like? Uh, you're from another… world you said?" Lilo questioned. There was no surprise that she was confused by the whole concept, and it probably wasn't just because she was a child.

"Right, worlds. Kinda confusing huh? I mean my world wa- is pretty similar to this one actually. It's an island with a beach, and a sea and… stuff." Sora said.

"Stuff?" Lilo repeated inquisitively.

"Well, we had this game back on the island called Blitzball. I played it occasionally along with my friends Tidus and Wakka. And then we often had sparring matches between me and Riku over silly things like dares." Sora explained scratching at his cheek lightly. Most of the dares he had fought over then now seemed hard to believe, especially when they related to Kairi. "There were two islands so I would take a boat from my actual home to the other where it was like a giant playground, or, if you excuse the pun, a giant sandbox."

"Sounds like heaven compared to here. Hey, if you are going if you can't take me then can you take someone else? Her name is Mertle. She's in my classes and she's nothing but a bully to me. Can you make her disappear with that key thing of yours?" Lilo inquired.

"Disappear? I'm not a magician, no," Sora said before leaning in and whispering in her ear, "though if you want revenge, that's another thing entirely."

Lilo giggled before running over to her bed and grabbing a really… ugly doll that was lying on her pillow. "This is Scrump, my friend… my only friend really, until I met you guys anyway." Lilo said holding him up.

"He looks… nice." Sora almost squeaked. "Where did you buy him?"

"Buy him? I made him!"

Don't sound so proud about that! Sora wanted to yell out. Instead he faked a smile and complimented Lilo on her handy stitching. His mind was elsewhere however. Lilo had just admitted that she had no friends except for the inanimate object in her grasp. Had this been before her parents' deaths or after the fact? Either way, Sora knew that having no friends was probably the worst possible thing in the world. He felt the need to leave his islands just because he feared Riku and Kairi leaving him behind.

"Sora! We're heading out to look for spare Gummi parts!" Riku's voice bellowed from downstairs.

"Be right there!" Sora yelled back before looking at Stitch thoughtfully.

"Don't worry, I can look after him. We'd just started talking about things when you came in." Lilo assured him.

"Okay, I'll leave him up to you. But don't be afraid to give him a good talking if he gets a little too rowdy." Sora said. When Lilo nodded, he smiled and turned to walk out of the room. He stopped just outside of the door and was about to close it when he heard Stitch repeat the word Lilo had just taught him. "Ohana, huh?" Sora repeated with a whisper before leaving them.

It was to be expected, but finding Gummi pieces proved a lot more difficult than it usually did. Every now and then, scattered space junk would be subject to the world's gravity when it got to close and would fall down. According to the King, that gravity was held in place by the keyhole, and if the Heartless were to find and take the keyhole, then the gravity of the world would "go all funny pal." This was how Sora had come across them on his previous journeys along with Donald and Goofy, but on those journeys it was usually that the Gummi pieces found them and not the other way around.

Right now not only was it them trying to search for the pieces but a problem also arose in the type of terrain they were on. They were on an island with trees surrounding them for miles. Taking that into consideration, it would be almost next to impossible to find a Gummi piece conveniently lying around.

Riku proposed starting with the beach as it was the most exposed area. In Sora's head he was playing around with the idea that if gravity was what attracted the blocks, then it was probably somewhere near the keyhole that was the most likely place to find them. Of course that entailed finding the keyhole in the first place so that immediately put a stopper on that theory for the time being.

Riku watched as Sora called out Yuna, Rikku and Paine to help them before saying, "Let's all split up and search around the beach. We'll meet back at this spot in the next hour with our results."

This sounded reasonable to Sora, after all they hadn't even covered a tenth of the beach that extended around the island. The six explorers split up in different directions and set off. Sora took enjoyment in the familiar soft yet crunchy sounds of sand underneath his feet as he walked down the beach. He almost half expected to see another small island somewhere where there was a tree containing Paopu fruit. In front of him, a group of people were playing a game of volleyball. He had played a few matches himself back on the island and his sparring matches with Riku had certainly paid off when it came to increasing his reaction time.

Hmm, kind of wish I could play right now. Maybe I can! Thirty minutes is all I need, then I'll start looking for that Gummi block, Sora promised himself (albeit very painfully) before making an effort to raise his hand eagerly. He was about to call out to them when human flesh grabbed at his wrist and pulled him into the trees next to him. Sora fell backwards into the foliage with a startled look on his face, and maintained that expression as he looked up into the eyes of his mystery attacker.

"What the h-"

"Hey, no questions from you. Just sit down like a good little boy and then maybe I'll let you go." The girl said. She spent the next few seconds inspecting Sora closely giving nods and murmurs of approval here and there.

Regardless of the girl's words, Sora felt the need to speak. "Who are you?"

The girl smirked and shook her head. "What, did Sea Salt never tell you about me? I'm the one who has the answer to your biggest question."

*Insert Doctor Who theme here* No really, that was actually how I imagined that last line playing out in my head. Darn you Steven Moffat. Anyway, until next time folks keep up with the likes and reviews, they are greatly appreciated!