The Road to the Heart
Chapter 11: Neverland
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters involved except Kira
Kira disembarked from her Gummiship onto a new world she had found. When the light faded she was standing in what felt like the hold of a ship, the swaying motion at least confirmed it was a ship. Looking around Kira noticed a large amount of stacked barrels and crates. She took a step forward when a group of Heartless surrounded her.
"This place looks really bad." She said summoning The Road to Strength.
The heartless that surrounded her were a mixed group of Shadows and a new Heartless; they wore a red bandana over their heads and had an eye patch on their right eye. They wore gold wrappings on their wrists with a small red shirt, they had brown pants and shoes, and they carried a large black saber. (Pirates; these heartless use their swords to carve away anything that stands before them, but they neglect to check their backs every once in a while.)
Kira swung her keyblade in a heavy left-way arc, but the pirates deflected the blow with ease sending Kira off-balance. She was quickly hacked to pieces before she regained her footing. She swung in an overhead blow and made contact quickly destroying a Pirate. As she turned on the other heartless a figure flew past. It was an orange haired boy wearing a green cap and green clothes with brown shoes. He flew past her and slashed at the Heartless with his dagger, golden dust falling off of his body. As the Heartless turned to face this new threat, Kira mopped them up with one powerful stroke.
The boy alighted down next to her and smiled. "Hello, who are you?" he asked.
"I'm Kira." She told him, "Thanks for the help… uh-"
"Peter, Peter Pan." He told her.
"Peter." She confirmed.
"What brings you here?" Peter asked.
"I'm here to deal with the Heartless, and it seems this world is full of them."
"Yeah, those guys are popping up everywhere. Even on Neverland."
"Neverland?"
"It's a magical place full of pixies, and mermaids, and the native forever kids."
"Sounds nice." Kira agreed.
"It's amazing, but like I said, it's been overwhelmed with those black creatures lately."
"Don't worry, there's definitely a boss around here somewhere, and when I find it I'll destroy the boss and the Heartless will stop."
"Awesome! I think I might even know where the captain of these Heartless is."
"Really? Could you show me?"
"Of course, follow me."
Peter flew through a set of door and Kira ran off after him. He showed her through the entire ship until they arrived on deck. As Kira shut the door behind her Peter dropped down to the deck of the ship and pointed at a man wearing a red hat and coat with a hook hand.
"That's Captain Hook, he's the meanest pirate in all of Neverland. I bet he's behind the Heartless attacks." Peter explained.
Kira nodded, summoning the Road to Scares she rushed forward and swung at the Pirate, but she was blocked by the sudden appearance of a Pirate. It deflected her blow and sent her off-balance. She swung again from the right and it made contact, sending it flying. By now Captain Hook had heard the battle behind him and turned to see Kira and Peter Pan engaging the lone Pirate.
"Blast you Peter Pan!" Captain Hook shouted before drawing his own sword and charging in.
Kira dispatched the Pirate but barely had time to deflect the thrust from Captain Hook. She swung in a retaliating blow but the Captain leapt back and lunged again. Peter appeared, catching the blade of the Captain's sword and sliding down to the guard, the two were caught in a match of strength as their blades trembled with the force behind them. As they fought Kira noticed a new group of Heartless appearing. She left Captain Hook to Peter and began to dispatch the Heartless, although she had a bit of difficulty. The Pirates could block her moves, and a new heartless, a group of flying pirates (Air Pirates; They use their ability to fly to inflict damage with their martial-art-like techniques) would fly out of the range of her keyblade. She managed to defeat one of the Pirates but she was beginning to feel exhausted. She kept swinging with all her might, often having the magic of her keyblade assist in the damage and would send the Pirates reeling.
"Peter Pan, why would you attack me ship like this?" Captain Hook asked as they pushed each other back and forth toward and away from the plank of the ship.
"I'm trying to stop the Heartless." Peter told him, "And the only person I could think of who would fight with them is you!"
"Blast you Peter!" Captain Hook shouted as he pulled his blade away and began a rapid assault of slashes that pushed Peter closer to the edge of the ship.
Kira luckily dispatched an Air Pirate when she noticed Captain Hook and Peter fighting. She turned to help but a Pirate slashed her across the back sending her sprawling on the deck of the ship. She weakly tried to push herself up, but collapsed. She watched helplessly as Peter was pushed over the side of the ship. Suddenly, a green blur darted by, Captain Hook was pushed into the water and Kira could hear his screams of agony as she assume he was eaten, but she saw him running on the water into the distance, apparently being chased by a sort of crocodile. Peter landed next to her and made her drink a potion which brought back some of her strength.
"Come on, we need to finish off these Heartless." Peter told her with a grin.
Kira nodded and pushed herself up. She summoned The Road to the Heart and charged into the mob of Heartless with Peter. The two of them fought through the horde and when they reached the middle Kira raised her keyblade above her head "Thundara!" the lightning rained down and dispatched a majority of the Heartless. She swung to her right and destroyed a Pirate while Peter flew overhead, chasing down the Air Pirates. The Heartless had apparently lost their cohesion at the loss of Captain Hook, they put up little resistance as Kira and Peter finished off the last of them. When Kira swung through the last Pirate, sending it up in smoke Peter flew over to her with a smile on his face.
"We did!" he shouted happily.
"Yeah, hopefully with Captain Hook gone the Heartless won't attack Neverland anymore." Kira told him.
He nodded, "Here, I want you to have something." Peter reached behind his back and produced a small keychain, he took his feather out of his cap and tied it to the end before handing it to Kira. She examined it for a second before tying it to her bracelet.
"You should come back some time. I'm sure Tinkerbell would love to meet you." Peter said with mock seriousness.
"Why's that?" Kira asked.
"Well you're real pretty for one." Peter told her, his smile widened when Kira's face turned red.
"I better be going." Kira said, trying to end the conversation quickly.
"Just remember you'll always be welcome in Neverland."
She nodded and turned to leave, when she disappeared inside the ships hold she took a deep breath before she was warped up to her Gummiship.
As she sat down in the command seat she brought up a communications screen to talk to Cid.
"Well, seems you've gotten all of the worlds." Cid told her when he answered.
"I don't think so, my radar says there's one more world with a large amount of Heartless in it." Kira told him.
"Oh, I didn't think your scanners would get that world." Cid told her.
"You know about it?"
"I know about it alright, it's where we come from; Me, Leon, Yuffie, Aerith. It's called Hollow Bastion. It was a once great city with a giant castle in the middle, but it's all ruins now, ain't no point in going there."
"Cid, I have to defeat all the Heartless. If I leave one world alone to build up then it could bring a whole new wave into the other worlds."
Cid was silent for a moment, "Alright. But be careful, that world is full of ruins from us. There's traps and puzzles aplenty, and I don't want you getting' hurt. Couldn't live with myself if you ended up dead out there."
Kira nodded, "Don't worry Cid. I can handle myself." She told him with a smile. "Kira out."
The screen closed down and Kira set her thrusters to take her to Hollow Bastion. She sat back in the seat and began to think about all the adventures she'd had and all the friends she'd made when a sudden blast shook the ship. She sat up in the chair and saw a giant, swirling cloud of energy in front of her. She grabbed the sticks and attempted to steer the ship away, but it was too strong and the ship was being pulled in.
She tried to fire her weapons at it, but they didn't do anything and as she began to be consumed by the wave she sent out a distress beacon to Cid, hoping he'd come and find her. As her command seat passed through the portal she lost consciousness, a heavy force pressed down on her, tiring her immediately. Her last thought before she hit the floor; "Where am I going now?"
Eight years passed before anyone saw a Keyblade wielder again. It was a young boy with spiky brown hair who went by the name of Sora. He, along with two knights from King Mickey's court set out with a new quest to forever stop the Heartless from entering worlds by sealing the keyholes that led to the heart of the world.
In the time between Sora's arrival and Kira's disappearance, a few changes had occurred between the worlds. Cid had given up on being a Gummi Engineer, after Kira's disappearance in the Gummiverse, he couldn't bring himself to build another ship for anyone that could end up the same.
Kira's key chains also returned to their worlds, as Sora retrieved them for himself later on. It also seemed that no one could remember Kira, no matter how hard they tried. All memory of the black-haired keyblade wielder had disappeared except for those who lived in a different world from their own, and nobody had told Sora of Kira, so as not to discourage him from completing his quest. He did complete it though, as he locked the last keyhole, the keyhole of Kingdom Hearts, the heart of all worlds. He lost his friend Riku, and King Mickey to the other side of the door as they had to seal Kingdom Hearts from the other side. Sora didn't give up though, he continued to search for his friend with the help of his two new friends. What he didn't know, was that his and Kira's paths were about to cross for the first time.