*I don't own ANY of the Kingdom Hearts characters, I only own Katie.
Katie sluggishly opened her eyes and slowly got up to her feet. She glanced over to the prone form of Ventus; she winced at the sharp pain that ignited in her head. Shaking it off, she walked over to Ventus. Katie leaned close and stared at his face. She straightened up and scratched the back of her head. "Man...to think that I carry his dark half..." Katie heard a soft moan come from the comatose boy. "Ventus?" She looked at the boy with concern and put a hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong, Ven?" Her eyes widened as she see witnessed something she wasn't supposed to. Ventus' eyes were slowly opening. "Ven!"
Ventus' eyes opened half way, they were extremely dull. He moved his head up slowly and stared at Katie. "A…qua…?" He asked between tired breaths.
Katie shook her head, "No. I'm Katie…I didn't mean to wake—" She let out a surprised yelp when Ventus jumped out of his throne and wielded his Keyblade. He pushed Katie out of the way and threw his Keyblade. Katie looked over her shoulder and her eyes widened, it was a Dusk. Ventus just saved her from a Dusk. The Dusk obliterated from existence at the Keyblade's contact to its grey skin. Katie scrambled back up to her feet as the blonde Keyblade Wielder lurched forward, just in time Katie caught Ventus before he hit the floor. Slowly, she lowered him and herself to the floor. "Are you alright?"
Ventus slowly nodded his head after a few seconds of recognition. "Are…you okay…?"
"Yes, I'm fine." Katie looked around the room for a brief minute to see if there anymore Nobodies, to her relief there wasn't. She noticed Ventus fighting off falling back into a coma in the corner of her eye. "It's okay…you can go back to sleep. Your heart hasn't recovered completely yet." 'In fact, it's not even here…I think.'
Ventus shook his head slowly. "No…I can't." His breathing became slower as he spoke, "I need…to go and find Sora…"
"I know Sora. I'll take you to him, I promise." Katie vowed. Ventus made a very weak smile then let out a small, tired sigh. He slipped back into his coma. Katie looked at the ground then back at Ventus. She shook her head. 'I can't believe I'm doing this…Aqua's gonna kill me.' She slid one arm under Ventus' knees and wrapped her other arm around his shoulders, she lifted him up carefully.
"No. No, uh-uh. We are not helping him." Vanitas hissed.
'Then go in someone else's head. I'm helping him whether you like it or not.' Katie spat back mentally. 'I keep my promises…always have and always will.'
"Then I'm not helping you if you get into trouble while helping this idiot."
Katie huffed out her cheek in frustration. 'Hmph. Fine…I'll just use this Firaga Materia Zack gave me instead.' With one hand still holding Ventus, Katie dug into her pockets until she felt a familiar orb. She pulled out the glowing green Materia and clamped it with her teeth; she pushed the orb into her wrist, making her arm glow a lime green. 'One day, I hope you get over your hatred of Ven. He's not bad of a guy and neither are you, you two just have different aspects of the world. After all, you both come from the same heart.' All Vanitas did in response was a deep growl. Katie smirked and shook her head, with her hand still free, she grabbed her cloak's hood and pulled it up. "Where's there is a Nobodies…there's a controller." Katie turned on her heel and ran to the staircase and down the stairs. When she was half-way down the stairs she looked behind her shoulder, she couldn't believe what she saw. Each step suddenly started to disappear. 'Time to pick up the pace!' Taking in a deep breath, she launched into full speed. In a matter of seconds, she made it to the final step and ran through the golden door and slammed it shut with her foot. She growled at the portals that opened from the floor. Dusks. Lots of Dusks. Katie raised her Materia hand, with a yell, a large fireball launched from her hand. The Firaga spell zoomed through the Dusks, making a handful of them disappear back into the Nothing. The basic Nobodies were quickly replaced and lunged at Katie. Katie jumped high in the air, making the Dusks crash into each other. She sent down a red light from her hand and closed it to a fist. The light exploded, taking the Dusks with it. Katie landed firmly onto the chard floor and opened a dark portal; she rushed into the portal, holding onto Ventus tightly.
What was at the end of the portal made Katie clench her teeth, more Dusks. With a yell, she sent a large fireball towards the Dusks. The Dusks scattered in all directions, some on fire some not. A few finally notice Katie weaving through the panicking Nobodies and slithered towards her. She looked over shoulder and growled. With all her might, she punched the Dusks that came to close to her and Ventus. "Leave us alone!" She hissed. In the sea of Dusks, Katie found a hole; she dashed in the hole and opened another dark portal. She burst out of the dark portal's exit and noticed she was on the main floor. Katie glanced down to Ventus; he was still in peaceful deep slumber. Looking back up, she made a break for it. Katie skidded around a corner, not slowing down. She jumped over an incoming Dusk and sent a small fireball at the basic Nobody, it disappeared. As she descended back to the floor, she round-housed kicked a couple of Nobodies. The two Nobodies crashed into each other with great force and crumbled to the ground, with a twitch, they disappeared. Now on her feet, Katie burst into a sprint. A wave of relief came over her as the entrance of Castle Oblivion came into view. While still having a good grip on Ventus, Katie reached for the large door's handle. Just as her fingertips got mere centimeters from the handle, something grabbed Katie's head and yanked her backwards. She let out a yelp of pain and surprise. The sudden jerk backwards made Katie drop Ventus; he landed with a hard thud. "No!" Katie reached out to grab Ventus but was yanked back, the force made Katie get on her knees and look at Castle Oblivion's marble floors.
The sound of a portal being created filled Katie's ears, then heard footsteps come towards her. The next thing she knew, her face got slapped with great force, making Katie taste blood in her mouth. The force made her look up to see a hooded figure. Katie's eyes widened, this was just like her dream she had before she found Terra. Katie made a deep growl in her throat, "Xemnas..."
Xemnas pulled down his hood. "So you know my name...yet I do not know yours..." He grabbed Katie's hood and pulled it back, he smirked. "Well, if it isn't the legendary Number XIII, Katie Heart...I thought you didn't want to join the Organization."
Katie spat blood at Xemnas' feet. "I don't. And I never will..." She eyed Ventus then at Xemnas, she chuckled. "Man, you guys keep on forgetting something..."
"And that is?" Xemnas asked with a raised eyebrow.
Katie smirked then disappeared with a flash of darkness. Quickly, she reappeared behind Xemnas and kicked him on the side of the head. "I can teleport." She turned to Ventus and slowly raised her hand, "...I always keep my promises..." Darkness swirled under Ventus and rose up and around him. 'Sora...please wake him up when he gets to you...' Katie looked over her shoulder and growled when she saw Xemnas rise up from the ground. He rushed at her and grabbed her shoulders, he threw Katie to the side and pinned her against the wall. Remembering a trick that Saïx did in Kingdom Hearts II, Katie tapped the wall. With a smirk, darkness started to surround her and swallowed her whole, making her disappear from Xemnas' grip.
Katie jumped out of her portal and automatically closed it. She glanced over her shoulder as pale light shone in her eyes, before she could see what it was; she felt something drip onto her exposed head. Katie looked up, storm clouds started to role in, just like that, thunder cracked and it started to pour down tons of rain. Katie sighed and pulled up her cloak's hood. She walked down the dark alley-way that her portal sent her too; she had no idea where she was. All she imagined was to be anywhere but Castle Oblivion, surprised that the portal even worked in the God-forsaken castle. Out of the alley-way, Katie looked around to verify her surroundings but her shoulders drooped in disappointment for only seeing neon signs on vacant buildings that didn't register in her mind. Just as Katie started to turn around to create a new dark portal, a building far down the road caught her eye. Curious on what it was, she walked down the slippery road. It was a black skyscraper that was covered in blue and yellow neon lights and was very similar to the Chrysler Building's structure and design. On the skyscraper's top was a massive television screen. Katie stared at the large television, images started to flash on the screen, and Katie definitely recognized them. One of the images was a portrait of a young adult girl with black hair pulled back in a ponytail, her hazel eyes flashing mischievously and a man with a brown bowl cut came running from behind, around the same age as the girl and hugged her from behind. He grinned. "D-Dan…Clementine…" The images flashed again, this time it was a dark brown haired girl rocking out on a black electric guitar. The girl stopped and waved. "Tori…" The images flashed, but this was one Katie didn't want to see. A gold mini caravan crushed into nothing on a highway, a wrecked red semi sat on top of the caravan. It was the car-crash that killed everyone in Katie's family. Katie's eyes overflowed with tears and let out silent hicks. Before she looked away, one more image flashed on the giant television screen. It was Terra, getting ready to fight and appeared to protect someone; Master Xehanort was standing before him. Terra rushed at Master Xehanort, a hand reached out to Terra; Katie's hand. The screen turned black. Light burst from the sky, Katie looked up and gasped. The moon was shaped like a heart, in front of it was a white hovering castle: Castle That Never Was.
