Kyrie (c) Me

Kingdom Hearts (c) Square Enix

Kingdom Hearts

Shattered Soul

Chapter 23

The day after Kyrie's trip to Twilight town, word came in that the dusks couldn't bring Roxas back. Immediately Axel and Kyrie, who knew Roxas the best, were called in by Xemnas. The two stood silently as Xemnas gazed at them from where he was sitting at his desk.

"Axel, Kyrie, it seems that the dusks have been unable to bring back Roxas. Now I am going to send the two of you to where the dusks have found him. I want you both to capture him and bring him back to us, am I clear?" he explained. Kyrie nodded as well as Axel, although both were reluctant to go and capture him, they didn't want to face Xemnas' wrath either.

"Very good. Then you both are excused. You may prepare for your mission, but meet Saix in the Grey Area in ten minutes. He will have a corridor prepared for you, because this is a delicate world that Roxas has been taken to. Understood?"

"Understood." Axel answered. With that, the two walked out of the office. They stood outside the office in silence for a few minutes, both wanted nothing to do with the mission. Axel sighed before looking at the girl at his side.

"Kyrie…we might as well go. You can go and get whatever it is you need to bring, I'll meet you in ten." he spoke softly. She snapped out of her thoughts and gazed at him, seeing that he was staring at her. The look in his eyes…they looked so sad. She knew nobodies couldn't feel, but they acted like they had hearts. And that got to her.

Okay. I'll go and get my things.

And with that, she took off. Passing Demyx, Xigbar, and Luxord along the way, she merely waved her hand in greeting as she sped past, not having the time to talk to them or anything. As soon as she got into her room, she ran in and grabbed her backpack, cloaks, sketchbook, pencils, and the rest of her belongings. She stared at the star plush on her bed for a moment, before she reached out and took it.

As soon as she was done, she was back out and running towards the Grey Area. She hoped she hadn't taken too long, especially if that left Saix and Axel alone in the Grey Area as she did so. But halfway down the hallway, however, she felt someone grab her left wrist and yank her back. Startled, she stumbled a little before looking behind her and stiffening. Xemnas was holding her wrist as he stared at her, and she got a feeling that if he could feel, he could be angry.

"Young Kyrie…I hope you won't mind telling me why you failed to show up and give me your report a few days ago." he spoke coldly. She stared at him for a few moments before he began tightening his grip on her wrist, making her gasp painfully as she tried to yank her hand back, but it was no use since he was much stronger than her. She felt her wrist snap before she gasped again, and this time he let her go.

She yanked her hand back and winced as she tried to move it, he must've sprained her wrist just by gripping it. Then again, she probably made it worse by struggling.

"Be thankful that Axel showed up in your stead to give your report. But the next time something like that happens, I won't be so merciful." and with that, he walked away. She stood there for a moment, cradling her wrist, before turning and running. Now she was more sure that Xemnas was evil, since he had gone as far as to snap her wrist just because she didn't show up and give her report.

"Ugh…he could've just given me a lecture instead of spraining my wrist…" she thought as she ran, cradling her injured hand. When she got to the Grey Area, she was relieved to see Axel and Saix there, staying as far away from each other as possible. She was about to approach before she looked at her wrist.

She couldn't let him see that something was wrong with it, then he'd start asking questions. Reluctantly and painfully, she let her arm fall so that dangled near her waist. Axel looked up and saw her, motioning her to come over.

"Hey, you ready?" he asked. She nodded as she slipped on her cloak, wincing as the material passed over her wrist. As soon as it was on, she pulled up her hood to try and obscure her face…but considering she had white hair, some of her bangs slipped out of the hood and made her stick out. Axel chuckled a little.

"It was a good try, but you still stick out a little compared to the rest of us." he chuckled as he tugged on her bangs. She smiled a little before Saix opened a dark corridor. She winced, she hated walking through the corridors of darkness. But she had no choice, none of the nobodies could stand walking through her corridors of light.

"Axel, here's the report of the world. You have to stay inconspicuous and make sure that when you find the target you capture it immediately." Saix explained as he handed Axel a folder. Axel nodded as he took the folder before walking towards the corridor. Taking a breath, she walked through.

The two walked side-by-side as they traveled through the dark corridor, neither saying anything as they did so. When they got to the other side, however, Kyrie gasped. They were in Twilight town! She quickly grabbed her notebook from her bag and wrote something down.

Axel, why're we in Twilight town? Roxas couldn't possibly be here!

"That's because this isn't Twilight town. This is an alternate Twilight town, a digital one. A man named DiZ captured Roxas and trapped him here." Axel explained, reading the mission details in the folder. Kyrie gaped at him before a few dusks appeared.

"I'm gonna send some of the dusks to search around, it'll make the search easier. We'll wait at the Station tower until they come back." Axel spoke as she summoned a few dusks. Kyrie nodded silently and watched as he set the dusks loose, hoping they would stick to their job and not harm anyone along the way. Even if they weren't real, she still didn't want them harmed. Suddenly, one turned and looked at her.

"Be at peace, my liege. We will search for our target, and we will not harm those who have hearts." and with that, it slithered away. Kyrie blushed brightly when she realized Axel was snickering. Angrily, she smacked his arm.

"Ow! What was that for?" he shouted, rubbing his arm. She just huffed and turned her head before walking. He quickly gained on her in three long strides before leading the way, with her following behind him.

As they walked along the streets of Twilight town, Kyrie noticed that the people took no noticed of them. Which was strange, because normally when they walked through the real Twilight town, people always stared at them because of their cloaks.

"But these people aren't real…they're fakes…" she thought as she walked on. But as soon as they got to the Tram Common, however, Kyrie stopped dead in her tracks. She saw a man, wearing a similar cloak like hers and Axel's, standing on a nearby roof. She watched as he stared at her, before beckoning to her. A second after that, he took off.

Immediately, she followed him.

"Kyrie, hey! Come back!" Axel called as she ran after him. She didn't stop as she continued pursuit. As she neared a back alley, he took a different direction and fled though what looked like a whole in the wall. She followed after him, and was shocked when she realized that this was the forest where she discovered her keyblades.

"Why did he want me to follow him? And who is he?" she thought as she continued on. Maybe this man knew where Roxas was, and if so, she'd have to beat the answer out of him. Then again, maybe it was a trap. But trap or not, just by simply wearing an organization cloak raised many suspicions about him and she had questions for him to answer, willingly or not.

When she exited the forest, she stood in front of gates to a large mansion. At the gate, stood the man as he waited patiently for her. Glaring at him, she summoned a keyblade, Lost Memory, just to be safe. He looked at her keyblade, then back to her.

"So it's true. You can wield a keyblade." he spoke, his voice deep. She glared at him before he continued.

"DiZ wants me to capture you, conscious or not. Prepare yourself." and suddenly, he lunged, summoning what looked like a sword designed like a dragon's wing with an eye at the hilt. Gasping, she stepped back and narrowly avoided getting smacked in the gut with the back of his blade. Taking her chance, she dove under him and brought her keyblade upwards, almost getting him in the chin.

But he quickly moved back, just missing her blade by inches. He jumped back, distancing himself from her before diving in again. She ran forward and tried to hit him, but he simply moved out of the way, as if he were toying with her. This pissed her off.

Then, she began to see red again, like when she had gotten angry at Larxene. Then, like before, she seemed to lose control of herself.

The man watched as she stopped and stood still for a few moments, her gaze lingering on the ground and away from his view. When she finally looked up, he stiffened. Her eyes were blood red, and the aura around her seemed more dangerous and blood-thirsty. Mostly, the energy seemed to come from her right eye as it shimmered, black lining the red in her iris.

Moving forward faster than he could ever imagine, she ran at him, keyblade raised, as she leaped into the air and brought it down on his shoulder. Unable to move back, he took the blow and grunted on impact before jumping back, giving some distance between them. The two stared each other for a few moments, waiting for the other to make the first move.

This time, she moved forward and brought her keyblade in a downward sweep with one hand and kept the other above her head. He quickly jumped to avoid the keyblade on the ground, but couldn't avoid the one in the air as she quickly summoned it and brought it down on him. He growled as she brought it down on his chest, and recovered from the impact quickly as he jumped away, distancing himself from her yet again.

"Hmph. Seems to me like you've got more fight in you than Roxas did." he grunted. She stopped, the anger fading away as her eyes returned to their normal brown.

"Roxas? He's the one who kidnapped Roxas?" she thought. But this distraction proved to be her downfall. He rushed in, ready to strike her down. Realizing this, she moved back, but not in time to avoid his blow. He brought his blade down, and it slammed right into her left shoulder.

"Agh!" her thoughts screamed as she dropped her keyblade. Pain exploded from her shoulder down to her sprained wrist, making it throb painfully. Taking his chance, he moved forward and slammed his fist into her stomach, knocking the breath out of her. Gasping, she fell to the ground at his feet and glared at him through tunneled vision. But before he had a chance to grab her, he jumped back to avoid two chakrams as they flew at him. Glancing behind her, she was relieved when Axel appeared, catching his chakrams as he glared at the unknown man.

"You're gonna pay for that." he growled before running in and pulling Kyrie out of harms way. The man simply stood there and watched the two before opening a dark corridor and stepping through, giving them one last glance before the corridor closed behind him.

"That girl…she really is…"

...I really don't have much to say today. Surprisingly.

Anyways, please read and review! You guys have been too quiet lately.