Credit to respective owners!

BTW, a reviewer left a very valid point.

Human interaction and how it wasn't my best point.

To be utterly honest… I well and truly SUCK at that. Both IRL and NRL I constantly alter what I think and say, switching and changing personas and attitudes (which is due to my utterly screwed up and broken psyche and not knowing who I am and all that jazz) faster than the music pace when I accidentally thump my sensitive earbuds. Practically all of my writing up until this point HAD a basis for interaction though. The characters I used reacted to things in ways I could observe and somewhat and replicate in a psuedo-believable fashion. It's actually one reason I started this fic, I wanted to see if I could introduce a believe OC into a well crafted story and have him mesh well.

Practice makes perfect after all.

Depending on how this does, I may abandon it, or finish it, OR give it up for adoption.

*unbothered shrug*

Anywho, you guys probably don't need to hear/read all that and sooooo…

ONTO THE STORY!

-Y.A.R.N.

P.S. Edited (slightly)

Things went from worrisome to downright horrible in an instant of the 'battle' starting.

The man leapt with a speed that was just unfair with a sword that big, and came right at us. Sora and I both leapt aside, diving to the right and left respectively. He came down and swept his blade up at Sora, who raised his keyblade in a desperate guard and was sent skidding back despite blocking the blow, falling off balance when he slid to the stairs and tumbling down into the plaza. I lunged at the man's back only for him to casually cross his blade behind him and catch my attack. With a swift turn, he pushed my blade off and brought his sword down in a one-handed downward chop. I desperately slashed Starlight to my left, catching the chop and using the force to slide to the right. Almost casually, the man back-handed me and sent me flying away into the door of the item shop.

Suddenly, the man stumbled forward with a grunt as Sora's keyblade thunked against his back. Frowning, he turned to see Sora on his feet and his keyblade materializing in his hand. He stalked towards Sora as he held his blade up in front of him. To my shock, fire swirled in front of him and shot out in a fireball. Sora's eyes widened and he rolled to the side as the flames exploded on the ground where he had been standing. As I got to my feet, the man began shooting more and more of the fireballs that had Sora dodging and diving out of the way. When there was finally a slight pause, Sora pivoted on his heel and dashed at the man before leading an assault that was easily fended off. I got back to my feet and ran in to join; although my assistance didn't exactly help in any real way.

The man still weaved through our assault with enviable ease and sent us sprawling when he hit us or we failed to react in time; repaying any blow we managed to land with excessively strong force and then some.

I staggered away and took a moment to catch my breath and see if I could think of something in order beat him. felt like I had more bruises than I could count and slumped as I used Starlight as a crutch for the second time that day. With a burst of dismayed clarity, I realized that no matter what we thought of, we weren't going to be able to beat him. He was much more skilled, stronger, and faster than either Sora or I; that was without counting the fact that both Sora and I were already exhausted from traversing the districts and hadn't rested up. We would have to try something unexpected and hope that we could catch him off guard against it. A slightly interesting idea sparked and after a moment of praying and bracing myself, I ran at the fray and flung Starlight at our opponent as hard as I could.

"Sora, duck!" I yelled as I approached.

Sora ducked away from a wide swipe and backpedaled, Starlight spinning past him at our opponent. The man swiped his blade at Starlight only for it to vanish into motes of light as it dematerialized in the air. I leapt at him, Starlight already materializing in my hand as he tried to bring his now off balance weapon around to defend himself. I brought my keyblade down to hit him in the shoulder with a downward swipe. He grunted in pain as he shifted down and caught me with his free hand before tossing me bodily into one of the lampposts that were in the city plaza. I cried out in pain as my back hit the metal and landed in a heap at the base of the lamppost, my mind swimming and vision blurring. I moaned weakly as I struggled to rise before giving up entirely and let the darkness take me I passed out.

When I slowly was dragged back into the land of the living, I was laying on a soft and comfortable mattress and frankly felt a lot better than I had when I passed out fighting that guy.

Wait…

My eyes snapped open as that last thought crossed my mind and I sat straight up. I scrambled out of the bed as I scanned the room to see the man from before leaning against the door and some girl with black hair and dressed like a beach-goer, or at least that's how it looked to me. I scowled as I saw both Starlight and Sora's keyblade propped next to the man. I cursed when I saw Sora still conked out on the bed in the corner of the room. I stretched out my hand and Starlight reappeared in my hand.

I dashed over to the bed to put Sora behind me, "Back off!"

The man sighed and straightened while the girl raised an eyebrow at him, "You overdid, didn't you, Squall?"

He closed his eyes as he massaged his face, "It's Leon."

I pursed my lips and considered my options, which weren't good. Fighting would get me nowhere, the man probably could have beaten Sora and I even earlier if he had wanted to, and that wasn't even mentioning the girl. I considered breaking one of the windows and slinging Sora over my shoulder, but even if I managed to get outside, I had no way of knowing where I could be. Cid had only given us a very basic overview of the Districts, if I got lost, it wouldn't end well if I got attacked by heartless while having to carry Sora.

Hell there might not be a ledge, I might not even be on the first floor of whatever building we were in, and I might just end up in a alley with my back to the wall.

"Calm down, kid." Leon said, giving me a flat look as I pointed my keyblade at him.

I scowled, "Yeah, just lower my guard against the guy who beat me and my friend up and smile like that's fine. Do you think I'm an idiot?"

"At least dismiss your keyblade." The girl said, her voice from behind me, I flinched and whirled to see her perched on the end of Sora's bed.

How in the hell did she get past me?

"You'll only attract the heartless if you don't." She continued cheerfully.

Damn, no chance to grab Sora and bolt. I glared at them both, but decided to listen. I didn't know if I could trust them, but I wasn't in any position to try anything; plus, any info I could get would be welcome and probably would help me out later. I sighed and let go of my keyblade, and it vanished into light before it hit the ground.

"Fine…" I growled, "So can you explain what - EXACTLY - you wanted without beating me into unconsciousness?"

"Wait for your friend… Sora, was it?" Leon queried.

I nodded.

"When he wakes, then we can get it all out of the way." Leon said.

"Alright…" I mumbled, I turned to the girl, "So… can I get your name?"

"Glad you asked!" She said, leaping off the bed with a flip and flourished bow in front of me, "I am the Great Ninja Yuffie!"

I blinked in slight astonishment before cocking my head and replying with a somewhat bemused, "Um… okay?"

Her shoulders slumped in disappointment in what I assumed to be my lackluster response.

When the meet-and-greet was over and Sora finally woke up and he mistook Yuffie for Kairi - which was worrying considering the only thing that was even remotely similar was their hair, and that was only by length - Leon and Yuffie began the explanation. Apparently there were different world that existed, however they hadn't been connected, at least until now. Heartless were apparently creatures that took hearts and were apparently drawn to those with darkness in their heart. When someone lost their heart, the darkness in their heart would manifest into heartless, the more darkness, the stronger the heartless that came. They were trying to swallow all the worlds in darkness and apparently our island had fallen to the darkness and we were lucky to escape intact. The heartless, however, they feared the keyblade, but were willing to attack any keyblade wielder in the hopes to take their heart.

"So we're basically heartless bait?" I yelled, dismayed at the general situation.

"I didn't ask for this!" Sora said.

"They keyblade chooses its wielder." Yuffie replied, "And it chose you two."

Leon waved a hand dismissively, walking back to the door to lean against it, "So tough luck."

"What about me? Isn't their only one keyblade?" I inquired.

If it was such a legendary weapon, it was practically divine law that there be only one.

Right?

Leon shook his head, "I'm no expert… I thought there was really only one, but apparently it's not the only weapon of its kind. Count yourself lucky, it's probably due to its influence you even survived the fall of your world."

After a moment to let that thought sink it, Yuffie turned to Sora and me.

"Have you heard of Ansem?" Yuffie asked.

We both shook our heads.

"Who is he?" I asked, "An old keyblade wielder or warrior like that?"

"No." Leon said, "He was a scientist who was studying the heartless and recorded everything meticulously in a journal."

Sora hopped up to his feet, "Then lets get it! It might have a way to get back my world and return to it!"

I opened my mouth to second that, but was cut off.

Leon sighed, "That's not going to be easy…"

"Why not?" I said, standing up straighter, "If we all work together, I'm sure we could find out where we need to go and work on getting the book back together!"

I still was dubious when it came to Leon and Yuffie, but to be honest, any help was appreciated; most of what they said seemed to make some sense.

Sora survived, and he had a keyblade.

I survived, and I had a keyblade.

We both hadn't been able to find anyone from our world and they didn't have a keyblade and so either the keyblade saved us or we just got incredibly lucky.

And luck was never something I considered to be counted on wholeheartedly.

"It's not that." Leon said, "The problem is that the journal itself was torn apart and scattered across the worlds. To find all the pages and then reassemble it… you'd need to find a way to traverse the paths between the worlds. Without that, it's not going to matter even if we knew where each page was."

I collapsed onto the bed with a disappointed sigh, "So we're stuck here? There's gotta be a way to get out of here to other worlds!"

He shrugged, "Maybe you can. Yuffie, let's go join Aerith. She should be there with the other visitors by now."

Yuffie instead yelled, "Leon!"

She pointed at a corner of the room where a armored heartless was manifesting and landed with a clatter.

"Yuffie, go!" Leon commanded as he swiped his hand through the air and drew his sword with his right.

I summoned my keyblade as Sora and Leon both fell into their stances.

"Lets go!" Leon growled.

And he smashed the heartless out the window before vaulting off the balcony onto the streets below.

We both leapt out of the shattered window and took got ready to fight.

"Don't bother with the small fry, find the leader and destroy it!" Leon said as he easily fended off some of the heartless.

Leon slashed through a heartless and kicked another one into the small stream of water; he dashed to a red door and jerked his head at it.

"This heads to the Second District! Don't bother with the small fry; see if you can find the heartless boss that's in Traverse Town!" He said as he went through the door, "I have to protect the First District!"

Sora and I nodded but were almost buried as three of the armored heartless decided that they were done listening to us talk and charged. I dived under a wide-armed hug into the the shallow stream of water and rolled to a crouch while Sora ducked away from another. I backpedaled as two of the heartless decided I was their target and began to attack. I immediately noticed that they were definitely stronger and faster than the previous heartless and had some sort of whirlwind roundhouse kick that they used very liberally. I jumped back and imitated Leon, kicking one of the heartless in the stomach with all the force I could muster.

The heartless bent over my leg (at least I could hit them with my physical body) and I wasted no time in stomping down on that foot to propel myself forward. It seemed to have the wind knocked out of it (did it even NEED to breathe?) and drove my keyblade straight into its head. It exploded into shadows and twirling, I swept my keyblade behind me to drive the other heartless back before slamming the tip of my keyblade into the ground. I then used a move Sora had once demonstrated back on the islands, and used the keyblade as a solid point to drive myself off of into a sliding attack that knocked the heartless feet out from under it. I quickly took the moment it fell to bring my keyblade down on its back. I took a moment to straighten and sighed slightly as I drew back.

Two down, billions to go.

I clambered out of the stream and dashed to aid Sora who was fending off three of them with his keyblade. As it turned out, he didn't need the help. He slashed one through the waist and blocked one of the others' set of claws before knocking it down with a elbow to its chest and impaling it. He rolled away from the last one as it executed a cyclone kick that missed and left it off balance; Sora didn't dither, and threw his keyblade at the heartless and killing it. We stood side by side and I sighed at my soaked clothing, taking off my hoodie and wringing it out as thoroughly as I could before tying it around my waist. Suddenly, more armored heartless began to spawn around us and Sora quickly recalled his keyblade.

"Oh come on," Sora growled, quickly angling his keyblade in front of him, "We need to get out of here!"

I nodded and we both bolted for the door that Leon had taken and soon found ourselves next to the fountain of the Second District. I glanced around hoping to see a heartless that looked like the leader, but there wasn't anything there that seemed to signify something special. We began to jog across the plaza, heading for the third district. Suddenly, shadows and armored heartless began materializing and stalking towards us. I clicked my tongue and discarded the notion of summoning my keyblade, there was no point in using it if all it would do is tire me out by dealing with small fry.

"Remember what Leon said!" I yelled, "We need to find the boss of the heartless! These guys will just slow us down and tire us out!"

Sora ducked away from a heartless intent on beheading him and sidestepped another, "Third district?"

I jumped back as a shadow smashed into the ground where I was standing, "If you don't mind, that sounds great! Now go!"

We both bolted across the plaza and tried to ignore the clatter of heartless following us as we sprinted down the alleyway that led to the third district. As we finally burst through the doors and slammed them shut behind us, I allowed myself to sit against the door and slump slightly. I dug into my pocket and fished out one of the potions, relieved that Leon and Yuffie hadn't taken it off me.

"Sora," I said, "Take a potion, if the boss is here, we can't afford to be exhausted."

He blinked and smiled, "Right, good idea."

Sora dug one out and drenched himself in it, I watched in somewhat bemused confusion as I gulped my down.

"Sora… don't you have to drink those?" I asked him.

He waved his hand in a dismissive way, "Actually, they work if you pour them over yourself and injuries too."

I blinked, that was something I was glad to know before I got into any real fights, uncorking the flask and then bringing it to my lips to guzzle it all down did require a certain amount of focus mid-fight. I had to be aware of when there was a gap in the fight to do so. After fighting dozens of shadows and armored heartless, I was able to get a decent grasp on what exactly their fighting style was like. I could predict when to gain distance to drink a potion or just get out of the way, but I was sure there was more than just those heartless in the worlds and Leon had mentioned that there was a way to get to the other worlds…

I stood up and stretched before summoning my keyblade, looking around, "Let's get moving."

Sora nodded and we both just jogged down to the third floor plaza when there was a big explosion above us. Sora and I looked up and we both scrambled to get out of the way but before we could get too far, two figures crashed right down on Sora.