One day later after another mission in Traverse Town and Ice Cream with Axel the Savage Key was ready to catch some sleep. "Just two more days of this nonsense and maybe I can at least stop acting as Xaldin's punching bag." She said while putting a few band-aids on where those lances nicked her. Even with the use of her clones it was difficult just to stay in the game and any time she improved he just fought harder making all her progress feel for naught when she'd just end up flat on her behind needing a potion. Crawling into her bed after nursing her marks from battle she put the covers over her body and prepared for a nice long sleep... Until a few hours later when suddenly she heard a voice wake her up.

PROTECT THE LIGHT

The voice was certainly female, but she couldn't put a face to it. "What the he-" She didn't even get to finish as suddenly now her Keyblade seemed to summon itself on its own floating in mid-air. Before she could let out any potential foul language the voice spoke again.

SAVE THE PRINCESS

And then as if possessed her weapon tilted from vertical to horizontal and lit up shooting out a strange beam which when it hit the wall summoned a strange portal. It wasn't a dark corridor as she couldn't feel any darkness leaking from it, instead it seemed neutral not being bathed in either energies and just a simple path to another place. As she starred at it Dark Desolation hovered towards her beckoning her to grip it. Unsure of what to do she hesitated before deciding she had nothing better to do and took a deep breath. "Just hope this doesn't get me killed." Her last words before she jumped through not even remembering to bring her Organization Coat with her, on the other side she landed on uneve terrain and immediately tripped up falling face first into what she soon recognized by the taste as sand. "Ugh!" She yelled now spitting the bits that forced themselves on her tongue out completely disgusted by it. "Reminds me of back my somebody's home." A few bad memories resurfacing before a sound broke through her thoughts.

"AAAHHH!" She heard the cry of a girl and looked up now noticing that the sky was very dark, now normally that would not be a cause for alarm, but there was also a giant floating black and red ball in the sky. For a moment she just looked at it with wide eyes until the same noise from earlier repeated interrupting her thoughts. Curious at what was that annoying sound Larxene stumbled up and went to check it out. Over at a corner behind some trees she then saw a few shadows surround this red-headed girl with a white shirt and purple skirt.

Figuring she wasn't in the mood to hear more screams as the heartless ripped her heart out Larxene intervened. "Hey ya filthy animals let's see you chew on this." She smirked and using her Keyblade easily struck them down like fish in a barrel. "I swear these things are just a waste of space, can't even get any hearts from them." She grumbled and turned to leave already bored of this fighting and a bit grumpy from lack of sleep.

But before she could walk off the girl spoke up. "Wait!" The Savage Key turned to regard the girl who ran up to her with eyes so pure and earnest it nearly made her retch at the sight at such naive innocence. Of course, to even do so she'd need a stomach that wasn't empty which turned out to not be the case as she had accidentally skipped dinner. "T-thank you for saving me. I'm Kairi." The girl introduced herself and expected to be given the common courtesy back.

Unfortunately, Larxene found she hated the prim and proper manners after having them drilled into her head back in her former life and just shrugged. "Well nice to meet ya and have a nice life. As for me I'm gonna get outta here and get some sleep I'm beat." Just as she went to leave her head suddenly felt like a sledgehammer just connected to it.

At the same time, she felt Kairi latch onto her arm her voice cutting through her headache. "Please you have to help me find my friends! I can't fight those things and I don't know if they can either!" Her tone pleading.

Despite the pain Larxene managed to open her eyes and face Kairi her face one of irritation as she prepared to tell the girl to piss off, but as she looked at her something strange happened. One moment she saw the girl, and the next she saw someone different. The red hair and blue eyes were still there but they had transformed into different shades both brighter than the girl she just met. Even stranger was the hair style now having two pig tails reaching down to her legs, just looking at this new figure made Larxene's chest feel tight as a pain she hadn't experienced in what felt like an eternity coursed through her body. Even when she couldn't a name to this new face the nobody knew it was someone important someone who meant a lot to her, or maybe it was her somebody she didn't know. Just looking at those eyes full of fear brought waves of agony and she wanted it to stop so bad she'd do practically anything. "Fine kid I'll help, just stop looking at me with those eyes." She mumbled. As soon as she said that the headache slowly alleviated and Larxene was staring back at the face of Kairi her new temporary emphasis on that companion. As for the girl her eyes which had previously held worry and concern were replaced by gratefulness and again the blond felt the urge to vomit, whether it because she disliked seeing such genuine emotion or because the positivity was directed at her she was unsure. "Well lead the way, not like I got all night."

Now filled with a sense of urgency Kairi began to explain as they ran. "Well my two friends are Sora and Riku. The former has brown hair and blue eyes while the latter's hair is silver. We'll stop by Sora's place first since it's pretty close to here and make sure he's ok." As they arrived both noticed the window was open and Larxene using her agility quickly climbed up and saw the boy was gone with some of his clothes strewn on the floor.

Seeing a bit of munny on his desk Larxene decided to "borrow" it. "(Hey considering I'm being so charitable only fair I get a reward.)" Completely missing the idea of charity but that never stopped her before as she hopped back down to where Kairi was. "Your friend wasn't in there, but it looked like he tossed some clothes around. Might have decided to go for a walk and changed in a hurry." Of course, that just meant now they would need to find him and the older girl held a sigh.

Kairi meanwhile tried to think of where her friend could have gone when the idea struck her. "He must have gone to the smaller island where the three of us just started on our raft. With this storm it might just blow all the stuff we got away, let's go there then because wherever Sora is Riku is sure to be close." With that in mind Larxene found herself being led towards a dock with heartless continuing to hound the two.

What they hadn't noticed was a hooded figure watching them its eyes held nothing but contempt mostly for the one wielding that cursed weapon he had grown to despise with a passion. If only he had a body then this vermin would be gone in an instant and his plans would be going as they should like how he needed the Princess of Heart to lose hers so that boy Riku would have a bigger reason to fall, but instead he could only summon heartless in an attempt to destroy both. Yet she seemed to be doing fine which implied the mysterious girl had already slain quite a few, which meant he would need to pull out something special to finally be rid of her.

As the two saw the dock in the distance suddenly they felt the ground shake and much to their shock it seemed to open up. "Earthquake!" Kairi cried and it was a struggle not to fall down. From the chasm below they then saw a large hand emerge digging into the ground as it rose from the bowels of the underground. "I stand corrected." Was all the red head could say as the creature rose up revealing a spike or to be more precise the top of a helmet.

By the time it came to its full height now laying two giant feet on the earth it was massive bigger than any heartless she had seen before. "Oh sweet merciful crap baskets." Larxene could only get out at seeing what reminded her of a giant Soldier Heartless with extra features that made it looked deadlier than ever. Its claws resembled sharpened knives while the chest area now held a metal plate that resembled crude armor with the heartless symbol plastered on. Summon her Keyblade the girl got into a stance. "I suggest getting some distance cause this is about to get messy." Doing as instructed Kairi went behind a nearby tree. Now starring down her opponent Larxene tried to analyze the situation and find a weakness, but she couldn't really find one. "Well when in doubt go for the head." Was the only thing she managed to get out before it started attacking jumping high into the air bringing its massive foot down right where she stood. Thankfully she managed to jump out of the way her speed saving her from becoming an electric pancake.

"It isn't even one of those slow and lumbering giant monsters!" She yelled before striking at the leg her weapon slicing through part of it. For a moment she thought that might have slowed it down, but then darkness poured from the wound and it managed to fix itself until it was as good as new. "You've gotta be kidding me!" Her tone indicating, she was quickly becoming exasperated by this fiend, and that would only get worse as she looked up to see it stretch a palm out and sensing it was not meant for a high five ran away from the spot she was in. Just as she suspected it fired another attack this time a solid rod of darkness right where she had been standing the object coming out of the large hand before retreating back, but seeing that gave The Savage Key an idea she would have to test out when given the chance. Which this monster seemed to not want to give her as it continued its assault this time raising its hands to the sky up high towards the large ball above, and when she squinted she noticed a smaller orb came out of it still massive in comparison to her but only a fraction to the actual thing. This smaller ball landed right in its hands and the heartless that by now she had named The Officer as a nod towards its similarity to a Soldier squeezed the ball tightly until it had popped like a zit.

Next thing she knew tons of small balls fell down landing randomly on the battlefield, and while they weren't fast to fall the unpredictability and sheer quantity made it difficult for Larxene to effectively avoid. Soon enough one managed to land right on her back making the girl stumble right into a second and then third damaging her enough to force her to the ground. Trying to get up the girl found herself stunned the pain in the moment making any further action difficult. "Larxene move!" The voice of Kairi ringing in her ears warning that something was about to happen, only by her reflexes did she manage a roll ignoring her earlier agony. Just as she finished, she felt a foot come down incredibly close to her current position, and if she had failed to move then she'd certainly have been squished. "(Remember to think the pipsqueak later for that.)" Her mind noted before she managed to get herself back into the game. Thinking quickly, she hopped back on her feet and onto The Officer's now deciding to try and climb the beast. In the back of her head she couldn't help but be reminded of a story she read once about a boy killing a giant, only it couldn't have been as hard as this. As if to confirm her current theory she felt its leg shake violently almost immediately knocking her off only saved by the fact she summoned her knives and dug as deep as possible into The Officer.

If she weren't currently fighting for her life, she might have made a comment about missing her knives, but thankfully she knew when to focus and continued her climb continually stabbing the heartless with each inch gained. Finally she had come to the chest area where the emblem had shown but this time found her progress hampered by the metal plate being far too thick for her knives, but seeing a giant hand near she decided to take a chance and leaped off raising her arms high to catch the arm now swinging on it like an acrobat at the circus. Using the momentum, she swung her body high using all of her agility and training to propel herself up towards the head. Summoning Dark Desolation she began to hack at the Officer managing to get a few good hits, but her insistence on offense made her lose focus as the other hand rose and before she could think about defending found herself smacked off falling far down with only the sand she landed on being her saving grace. Even so the force of that slap disoriented her and as Larxene tried to recover the hand opened its palm preparing to finish her off with another rod attack.

Kairi who had been watching looked in fear seeing her new ally unable to move in time and felt a surge of emotion in her system. "Don't hurt her!" The girl cried and from her body light began to shine fueled by her need to save the girl that did the same for her, before she knew it a small ball flew out from her body right towards the Officer hitting it dead on in the face. That action was just enough to disrupt the heartless' aim and the rod as it shot out missed striking the ground a few inches to Larxene's left. After a few more seconds the girl managed to recover enough and remembering her idea from earlier quickly grabbed the object as it began to recede back into its body. Reaching the palm she hopped off now running up the arm and as another hand came to smack her once again this time she jumped above it bringing her Keyblade up and with one final move brought it straight down slicing through her the monster's head all the way down through its entire body until she landed back on the ground. Roaring in agony the heartless began to fade as the heart itself spawned out of the creature and lifted towards the sky, but that wasn't the only thing as soon both girls noticed they too began to lift. "What's going on?!" But Larxene held no answers only confusion which very soon turned to fear fueled by self-preservation as even nobodies could feel that as they began to soar towards the ball up top that spelled doom.

On the smaller island a boy named Sora was also waging a battle with his new weapon confusion running rampant in his mind but unable to do anything about aside from fight his giant creature made of pure blackness. Before the battle could come to a conclusion suddenly, he felt a strong force nearly send him flying towards the sky as he grabbed a chunk of wood buried into the ground to keep himself from flying up into that terrifying ball above him like that monster. Yet his hand could not hold on forever and soon he began to fly upwards unable to stop himself, but as if sensing his fears, the object he had gained only mere minutes earlier summoned forth into his hand facing the sky. Summoning light the Kingdom Key shot out a beam, but much to the boy's surprise it seemed to link up with another similar one and the two combined before plunging right into the ball of darkness. The next thing he knew it exploded like a supernova sending the boy flying into the cosmos the force of which taking away the last bit of energy he had before he succumbed to the black void of sleep.

Currently the one known as Donald the King's Magician had just finished reading the note he had found from one of his closest friends his mouth wide open in shock. Yes, he had noticed Mickey acting odd the past few days, but to just up and leave without telling anyone was something no one had expected. To make matters worse now he would be the one to have to tell the Queen and he did not look forward to that prospect. As he made his way to the Courtyard to find his other friend Goofy who despite his best guess could never truly figure out how he became Captain of the Guards the Duck heard a loud noise. "Ya ha ha ooy!"

CRASH

Running frantically to check what had happened he found the oh so reliable Captain buried underneath a strange boy, but that was the second thing he noticed as in his hand was just the thing Mickey had mentioned in his letter. "THE KEY!" His shout getting the attention of both Minnie and Daisy who soon arrived to see what had happened.

Summoning a few servants, they hauled off this new visitor wondering just how he had arrived here with Goofy for once having a few wise words to share. "Well shucks I'd say fate brought us together to save the day." To that Donald had to agree and hoped this was a sign things were looking up.

In the World That Never Was currently a bit of a panic was going on which when concerning nobodies wasn't much but still it meant something. Currently Xemnas held a harsh frown as Saix had just informed him that Number 12 had apparently went missing with nothing beyond her coat left. He wondered just how this could have happened, but part of him did suspect forces outside of her own ambition had something to do with her absence. For now, he had merely instructed Saix to continue everything as normal before the Keyblade was discovered and only have the others keep an eye out for their missing member. For the first time in years the Leader of Organization XIII found himself stunned by these recent turns of events. "It seems that not even I can fully predict the tides of destiny." His words reflective over the many years he had spent trying to influence everyone and everything leading to the entirety of his subordinates under him, yet even so there was almost always something unexpected that he had not accounted for that would minorly alter his plans, yet now a major change may have just occurred.

AN: And now we get to the real beginning of our story now that what I would describe as the Prologue is over. Yes, starting next chapter things will continue to take more unexpected turns than they already have as you can no doubt tell just by the fact Kairi is not just a useless sack of potatoes in this story. Until next time.