Enjoy chapter 21.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

Chapter 21

"Hey, Axel, I don't think this is a very good idea anymore," Riku said.

"Oh, don't wimp out now! I mean, it's just a cave, what's the worst that could happen?" Axel replied, crouching down to fit into the cave entrance. As he moved further into the hole, the faint lines of the door began to open.

"Anything could happen." Axel continued to ignore him, and soon, he had disappeared inside the cave, Demyx trailing behind him.

The rain poured even harder on Riku and the twin's heads.

"Guess we don't have much of a choice," Sora sighed. He moved forward to enter at his turn, but was cut off by Roxas who got in first. Riku eyes stayed glued on the nearly invisible door until Sora came back and got him.

---&---

The inside of the cave was filled with drawings that they and some of the other kids had drawn. At the very back of the cave was a knob-less, wooden door. But today was different; the door had a large keyhole smack dab in the middle.

"Ah! I knew my feelings were right!" Axel shouted excitedly, examining the strange keyhole.

"So what?" Riku asked. "There's a way to open the door, big deal. We don't have the key to open it."

"Way to ruin the mood, emo."

"I'm not emo, clown-face!" They continued on like that for the next few minutes. Demyx came closer to the ever quiet twins.

"What do you guys think?" he asked. Both were staring off into oblivion and looked as if they saw a ghost. "Roxas? Sora?" He waved his hand in front of their faces but no reaction.

"Well why don't you try using your keyblade?" Axel snorted, crossing his arms.

"Maybe I will," Riku replied, summoning his weapon. "I doubt it will work. Just because its shaped like a key, doesn't mean it will unlock a door." He walked closer to the door and inserted his sword in the opening, then tried turning it; no luck. Riku turned and stared at Axel with an 'I told you so' look on his face.

"Ya, well, maybe you did it wrong." Riku released the Way to Dawn, which then disappeared, and stomped over to Axel, grabbing him by the collar.

"Look, it doesn't work, ok? Now you can ether find a way to get off the island safely or can shut the hell up," he nearly yelled. Axel was taken aback by Riku's sudden outburst.

"Hey, calm down Riku. It's no use getting mad now," Demyx said, taking his attention off the twins. The younger teen continued holding Axel before sighing and letting the pyromaniac go. He turned to leave the cave when he noticed Sora holding up Oathkeeper, facing the door. A small light began to glow at the end of the blade, then shot out, landing directly on the keyhole. A large click rang in the cave and the keyhole disappeared, leaving the door blank.

"What did you do?" Riku asked.

"I locked the door," Sora answered.

"But wasn't the door already locked?"

"No."

"How did you..."

"They told me," Roxas cut-off, pointing at a rock.

"The rock told you?"

"No, behind the rock." Riku walked over to the designated rock and look behind it; a small, black, ant-like creature stared back up at him with round, yellow eyes. He stared back quietly for a few moments and then turned back to the others.

"And what is that thing?" he asked.

"A Heartless!" Sora answered cheerfully.

"Right..." The creature, Heartless, came out from behind the rock and ran over to the door. It examined it and then started jumping up and down.

"What's it doing?" Axel asked.

"It's happy that we locked the door. Apparently, Solluna was getting inside and messing with this region's 'heart' or something like that. If we didn't lock it, the dust would eventually corrode the heart and everything would disappear in the area. The storm was the first stage of that process," Roxas answered.

"I like, barely understood half of what you said, but it didn't sound good," Axel replied.

"Wait, does that mean there is one of these 'hearts' for each different region, area, whatever it's called?" Riku asked.

"Yes," Roxas answered.

"How..."

"...Does he know all this? Like I said before, the Heartless told us," Sora finished.

"You can understand that thing?" Axel asked.

"I can't but Roxas can."

"So how many are there, in this area, I mean?" Demyx asked, picking up the Heartless and poking it, which made it shake as if laughing.

"A few thousands," Sora answered, placing his arms behind his head.

"That many!?"

"They usually hang out in the forest, so we don't see them much." The Heartless jumped out of Demyx's hand and ran outside, the others fallowing behind it.

---&---

The sun was high in the sky and there wasn't a cloud in sight. It was as if the storm never happened. Their boat, which had been launched onto the beach at their arrival, was now quietly waiting at the dock.

"I guess it was telling the truth," Axel said, looking up at the sky.

"But that's got me wondering; if this happened to our region, what about the other ones?" Riku pondered. The Heartless, which was moving to head back into the forest, looked at Roxas before leaving.

"It said that all the doors became unlocked when the moon hit the earth," he answered.

"Does that mean we have to go lock them?" Sora asked. It looked like he was trying to hide his excitement.

"Maybe," his brother answered. Sora would have probably burst with happiness, but instead, he ran over to the boat and jumped in.

"Come on! We got to go tell Leon and Cloud!" he said in the most serious tone he could pull off at that moment. Really, he was just going to ask them if he could go lock the doors himself; an excuse for an adventure.

I'm probably the only person who didn't make the Heartless evil. That and they are completely OOC.