Cool air blew against the skin of his face and arms, stirring the teen boy from his sleep. His eyes slowly opened, and his fingers twitched to life as the breeze settled down.

Water.

His tired eyes saw water, falling all around him. No, that was not right. He blinked once, then twice, and got a better look at the lengthy waterfall that went all the way through the canyon he was in. That water was not falling. Rather, it was rising to the sky, opposite of what waterfalls did.

Riku groaned and pushed himself off the freezing ground. Much of his strength was sapped, but he thought that might happen. He caught himself before he could fall back to the stone foundation.

"Where... am I?" he breathed out. Riku's gaze shot around wildly as he remembered the events taking place back home on Destiny Islands. That was right, he thought. He made a great escape from that world, and the darkness took him away to the outside world. However, he detected that something was amiss. In the vast canyon, he was all alone. "Sora! Kairi!"

Those two were nowhere to be seen. All he could see was a bunch of floating rocks moving up to the far end of the canyon.

If the darkness took them like it did him, then they must have ended up on some other world. Riku gritted his teeth and thought back to the person who he thought he would have escaped with. Their hands touched, he recalled, but only their fingertips.

"Kara," Riku spoke her name in a soft tone. Seeing that none of his friends ended up there with him, he dropped his gaze to his feet and sobbed without tears.

There was no one to help him explore this new world, or so he thought.

Watchful eyes observed from a distance, somewhere above Riku's point. A woman with sharp talons for nails that were painted red. She grinned at the sight of the youth, for he seemed like the perfect specimen for her grand agenda. His calls were heard by only her ears, though he may not have known it.

That boy needed someone, she thought.

Someone like her.

Leon and Yuffie. Those were the names of the surprisingly kind people who took me and Sora to the hotel for safety. The swordsman guy was a lot nicer than I thought, but he seemed really scary the first time I met him. Well, that was because of the fact that we fought against each other. I was just glad Sora and I got out of that mess without anymore problems.

While staying with them in the hotel room, I learned a little more about Traverse Town. The morning sun that I was hoping would come was not going to because the night never ended. Although, the hour did change to fit the normal time of day.

Much of the townspeople, including these two, came from other worlds taken by the darkness. It was a world for refuge, until everything returned to normal.

But, there was no telling how much longer this place was going to stay safe. Those monsters roaming around town were growing in number, Leon told me, and that meant that this world was in danger of being destroyed. The same kind of destruction that took place at home. It crushed me inside thinking about it, but I acknowledged that that was the truth.

It turned out that a lot of the other worlds apart from this one were in danger of being destroyed.

I looked to the black and white Keyblade sitting on the table next to me. My fingers pushed the bottom end a few inches over as I glared at it.

That thing appeared in my hands the moment I was in danger, but it was apparently responsible for the Shadows chasing after me. Was it a tracking device, or something? Either way, I was able to wield it with fluidity, and it helped me bypass those creatures that were attacking.

"You fight pretty well for a kid," Leon broke the silence and leaned against the door frame. He was out patrolling the area but called it quits after a couple hours. And, the first thing he called me when he got back was... a kid. Even when I went through the trouble of telling him my name, he stilled referred to me as that. I supposed that there was no helping it. "Who taught you how to fight like that?"

He was talking about our fight in the First District, I assumed.

I could tell him a long story about my life on the islands, but there was probably not enough time to do that. The short story was what he was going to have to accept.

"Back home, I always sparred with my friends," I explained. "We just had wooden swords there, but we made it work."

"Right," Leon nodded slowly and glanced at Sora, who was still sleeping on the bed. "You and Sora, and those other two friends of yours. Which one of you was the best?"

Only three of us actually did the work behind sparring- Sora, Riku, and I. Kairi preferred watching us, so she was not exactly a fighter. "Riku, and then me," I said, watching Sora sleep. "Sora's pretty strong, too."

"That explains a lot," he said, shaking his head with a soft chuckle.

"Yuffie, wake him up so we can get started"

She poked Sora in the arm and shook him slightly to try and stir him awake, but he was too tired to respond. We watched as Yuffie gently slapped his cheek, which was amusing to see. "Come on, lazy bum," Yuffie sighed. "Wake up."

The way she said it made me freeze in place. It sounded exactly like something that Kairi would say to Sora. Actually, I was sure that, at some point, Kairi did say those exact words to Sora the day before our home was destroyed. The two did look alike, sort of. And they sounded similar, too. It was just as amazing that he woke up in the blink of an eye when Yuffie mimicked Kairi's ways, albeit unintentionally.

"You okay?" she asked him, having noticed that he still looked a little dazed.

"I... I guess I am..." Sora nodded his head, and he sat up to stretch his arms.

Yuffie nodded and moved to the side. "Those creatures that attacked you are after the Keyblade," she told him. But, I had a feeling that nothing was really registering in his head. "But it's your heart that they really want,because you wield the Keyblade."

Sora tilted his head back and smiled awkwardly at Yuffie.

"I'm so glad you're okay, Kairi," he said and attempted to hug her.

Yuffie's shoulders twitched and she jumped back to avoid the hug. "Kairi?" she scoffed. "I'm the great ninja, Yuffie!"

"I think you might've overdone it, Squall."

I was stifling a giggle as Yuffie examined the bump on Sora's head. Leon, or Squall, sighed and revealed himself to Sora. He folded his arms and glared at the two of them. "The name is Leon," he corrected her.

Sora's gaze was then fixated on his Keyblade leaning against the wall next to Leon.

"The Keyblade..." he mumbled.

"Yeah, we had to get it away from you to shake off those creatures," Yuffie explained, sitting next to Sora. "It turns out that's how they were tracking you."

"It was the only way to conceal your heart from them," Leon nodded. "But it won't work for long. Still, it's hard for me to believe that you of all people are one of the chosen ones."

When Leon took the Keyblade into his hands and held it back from Sora, it vanished and appeared in Sora's hand. He gasped, and so did I. "I suppose beggars can't be choosers," he went on to say.

"This doesn't make any sense," Sora remarked, and he glared at Leon. "What's going on here?"

"Then listen up," Leon shot back a glare and took a seat at the table with me. "You listen, too, Kara."

Leon and Yuffie explained as much as they could about what was happening around us, starting from the beginning.

They told us about the other worlds apart from Traverse Town and Destiny Islands. This was apparently supposed to be a secret, but some kind of disturbance changed that. Something caused for the worlds to be connected.

The Heartless, those creatures that were attacking us all the time, were seemingly the cause. It was pretty obvious to me, but they were denizens of darkness that lacked hearts of their own. As explained by Yuffie, it was the darkness in people's hearts that attracted them. I found it haunting that there was darkness in my heart. How much was in there? I had to wonder. It did not feel like there was darkness inside me, but there had to have been if the Heartless were coming after me, too.

"Hey, have either of you heard of someone named Ansem?" Yuffie asked, but we shook our heads.

The name was not familiar to me or Sora, so they talked about him to clear out the confusion.

This Ansem guy was some scientist studying the Heartless and made some reports about his research. However, those reports were missing in other worlds, so we could not read through them. But if we happened to run into any, Leon welcomed the idea of seeing what they were all about. And, Ansem disappeared along with their world. No one knew where he was, if he was still alive and not one of the Heartless.

"With the key, we should be able to return the worlds to their original state," Leon pointed out, gesturing to our Keyblades.

I took mine into my hands and studied it from top to bottom. The strikingly blue eyes on it were mesmerizing, and a little creepy. But, as intimidating as it looked on the outside, I recognized the flow of power in it. It resonated with my own strength. This thing chose me, I fully realized. They called me and Sora the chosen ones because we wielded Keyblades. I was not entirely sure what made someone a chosen one, but Leon did mention something about the strength of one's heart. Maybe our hearts were so strong that the Keyblades sought us out.

Riku was pretty strong, too. It made me wonder if he could also wield one, but I was not going to know until we found him.

"So... this is the key?" Sora thoughtfully examined his own weapon.

"The Heartless have great fear of the Keyblade," Leon continued. "That's why they'll keep coming after you, no matter what."

"Well, we didn't ask for this," Sora stood up and shook his head.

I sighed and pulled the Keyblade closer to me. "I don't think that's how it works, Sora," I told him. It was painfully obvious after their explanation of the Keyblade. "Whether we like it or not, we were chosen."

"How did this happen?" he plopped back down onto the bed, and looked at his feet. "We were home on the island. I remember being in my room... Wait a minute! What happened to our home?! The island! Riku... Kairi..."

"You know what? I really don't know," Leon leaned back against the closed door, and he looked the other way.

Our meeting came to an end, but there were still some questions I had for Leon. He knew a lot about what was going on.

For now, though, we rested a little more and did some planning for what to do next. According to Leon, it was only a matter of time before the Heartless found where we were hiding out at.

I was looking out the window while the others did their own thing. It was dark out in the alley, but I could still see the Shadows searching the back street. "Hey," Yuffie skipped over to me and put her hand on my shoulder. "You know, I've heard that the Keyblade can open all sorts of locks. You ought to give it a try sometime... Maybe to find some treasure. Right?"

"Treasure?" I blinked. "Is there really treasure around here?"

"I sure hope so!" she blurted. "One time, I found a whole bunch of munny in the street. I won't share any of it, of course, so you'll have to look around yourself."

A whole bunch of munny. Treasure. It sounded too good to be true, but she sounded pretty confident about the possibility. Now that I thought about it, my pockets were feeling a little light. What munny I had on me was from picking up what I found after defeating some of the Shadows. Did they hold onto munny, too?

It may have been my imagination, but I could have sworn that I saw a Heartless picking up munny.

For a little while longer, Sora and I sat around with Yuffie and Leon. We ate and had plenty of water to regain our strength. I was happy to get some sleep after that ordeal, but it was almost time to figure out the next course of action. During the time, I figured out how to work with the Keyblade by myself- summoning it and concealing it through the use of my own will. That way, I did not have to walk around everywhere and carry it on my person.

Sora and I approached Leon, letting him know that we were just about ready to go out and restart our search for our friends, but he was not quite interested in letting us go just yet.

"Sooner or later, the Heartless will find you," he said. "You'd better prepare yourselves."

"Prepare ourselves?" I looked to Sora, and he looked to me.

"To fight for your lives," Leon straightened up and looked at us both with serious eyes. "I hope that the two of you are ready for the worst."

It was tough to say since we were only beginners in saving the world from the Heartless, but that did not mean that we were not ready.

Nodding, I smirked and pounded my fist against Sora's. "We're ready!" I said.

Leon had a small smirk on his face. He looked pleased seeing the spirit burning in our eyes.

"Yuffie, let's go join Aerith," he said, turning to the ninja girl. "She should be there by now with the other visitors."

Everything was going just fine, until Yuffie discovered a puddle of darkness slipping in from under the door. It stopped in the middle of the room, and a monster with red claws emerged from the darkness. It looked like the one that we saw back in the Second District, when all of those Shadows began to attack the town. This time, I noticed the red and black emblem on its chest. That indicated to us that this monster was a Heartless.

Leon urged Yuffie to flee and find the other young woman while he dealt with the stray Heartless.

"Sora, Kara, let's get going!" he ordered us to follow him, and the skilled swordsman sent the Heartless flying out the window.

We gave each other a nod before jumping off the balcony and into the alley. But, before going after them, I thought I heard someone groaning in the other hotel room. It may have just been my head playing tricks on me, so I went ahead and followed the guys without bothering with it.

Outside, we found ourselves in the midst of a Heartless ambush. There were Shadows and several Heartless with the emblems on their chests.

We took out the ones closest to us and regrouped a few minutes later. Leon kicked one of the monsters away, then turned to us.

"Don't bother with the small fry," he told us. "Search the town and find the leader!"

"Let's go, Sora!" I pulled my friend along in hopes of finding this Heartless ringleader. Just as Leon said, it must have been somewhere in this town and controlling the actions of the other Heartless.

We still had to fight our way through the districts as we hunted down the boss. But, whenever we had to take a little bit of time to rest, we returned to the First District where the others were. They did a lot to secure the area, so it was free of any Heartless. We also met Aerith, who was a kind woman that gave us some items to help with our fight.

We've already gone all over the Second District, so that means the Heartless leader is somewhere else, I thought to myself.

Where was it?

I sighed and sat down on a bench. There were really only corners to look in, unless...

"Hey, Yuffie, where do these doors lead?" I walked up to the ninja girl, who was standing in front of a pair of tall doors.

"This way goes to the Third District," she told me. "That place is probably swarming with Heartless. I'm not sure how safe it is over there."

"I see..."

I folded my arms and thought about it for a moment. That was the only place I never checked out much during my time in Traverse Town. Surely there was something going on over there, but I could not go through these doors. It was locked from the other side. I was going to have to go around the other way.

There was a chance that the Heartless leader was hiding in that district. I had to look into it!