Thank you for the all of the support guys. :) Disclaimer- I do not own KH, only my current OC's and many more to come.
IV ~ Reunited Hearts?
Twilight Town...
"Are you sure we should be here?" Axel asks as he watches the girl search around the all too familiar white room. The mansion was not the best place to come back to, if he wants to keep his promise in protecting Namine, she should stay back in HQ as it is the only place the organization won't look. He reminds Namine, "The organization is still looking for you. The longer we stay here, the higher the chances for not only you to be caught- but me as well! I already failed in retrieving that girl for you! It's fine that they still trust me, but there's only a little I can say if they find out you were with me this whole time!"
Instead of stopping, she still continued searching around the room for whatever it is she direly wanted so badly for her to risk exposing herself out in the open like this. Axel pinches the bridge of his nose and yells, "You're still not listening!" Finally, she answers him, "I'm looking for something. Something that will help the Purest of all Hearts." Having enough of this, Axel grabs her by the shoulder to stop Namine. "Then let me look for it! You need to go back into hiding!" He thought he had finally reached her. But instead of complying, Namine blurts out, "I know you only want to help me so that I can help you bring Roxas and Kairax back..."
He wanted to say something but decided to keep his mouth shut, knowing that nothing he will say won't hide the fact that he had been caught red handed by the girl.
"I want to keep my promise... I promised that I'd find a way for her to find the lost fragments of her light..."
Right before Sora stepped into his pod, he comes to a complete stop and asks Namine, "I know I won't remember you after this... but can you do me one last favor?" She nods, "Anything." He slowly takes one last glance at the white pod beside his own. "Can you find a way to help Akari recover? After everything that's happened, I never thought I'd ever see her again. She sacrificed herself to save us from Ansem and helped me close the doors to Kingdom Hearts. She's really important to me… I'd love to see her up on her feet smile again." Namine could hear the pain in his voice. Unsure at first, Namine weakly smiles at him, "I promise, I will do my best. But once I do, you have to be the one to help help and protect her while she searches for what she's lost."
Right as the pod began to close shut, Sora flashes his signature goofy grin at her. "Don't worry! That's something I'll definitely do! I am her Protector!" was the last thing he said to Namine before entering his deep slumber and slowly begins to forget Namine and the past events of Castle Oblivion.
Destiny Island...
At the spot where the paopu fruit was left behind, a certain red head chanced upon it as she was wandering around the small island during her free time. "Huh?" Picking it up, Kairi puts it close to her chest and looks around. "Akari...? No it can't be... I saw her disappear but... Could she really still be alive?"
Hollow Bastion...
"The Purest of all Hearts is returning..." Maleficent spoke up out of nowhere. Pete jaw drops at the sudden news, "What!? There ain't no way that brat is still alive! She disappeared just like all the rest of 'em long time ago! How can you be so sure she's still alive?" Maleficent walks towards the large window and pets her crow, "Her light is the strongest of them all... Even I, a being of darkness, can sense her light no matter how much I try to ignore it. She's a being of the purest light, born directly inside of Kingdom Hearts itself, and that not only attracts the heartless towards her even more but those bathe in the darkness... wanting her to join as well."
"So what do we do now?" Pete asks. Maleficent extends her arm, summoning a couple of soldier heartless at her side. "Her fragments are still scattered… As long as she doesn't recover them- she is of no threat to us till then. I want you to search for the beings that protect the fragments and corrupt them. If she gets near them, they'll make sure she will never recover her heart ever again."
I want to pick up the pieces... but they're all scattered... Who am I...? What am I...? Regardless of what lies ahead... the future doesn't scare me at all... because I know even if I don't remember him... I can still feel he's still there...
The first world that the three had come across was one of the many they were hoping to encounter on the way. As soon as they landed, all three rushed out until their path ended and soon found themselves staring up at the familiar tall castle. "It's Hollow Bastion!" Sora exclaims. Goofy looks around in amazement, "Gwarsh, it looks kinda different now." The last time they visited Hollow Bastion was when it was infested with Heartless, now it was ten times better compared to back then. "I hope Leon and the gang are doin' okay!" Donald spoke up, now curious about how their friends are doing since they last met.
Up above on top of a nearby house, two heartless were spotted first by Goofy before disappearing from the spot. "Uh-oh. Looks like we're gonna have to do some fightin'." As they wandered around a bit, a certain blue haired girl appeared at the corner of Sora's eye with a big smile crossing her lips as she watches the three pass by her. Sora wanted to ignore it, thinking that his mind was simply playing tricks on him again. That is until he hears her voice, "So this is where you've been hiding! You really know how to find a good sleeping spot Sora. It took me forever to find you!" That caused Sora to finally turn to face the person, now knowing it was not his imagination.
The second he saw her, time seemed to freeze around them. "Akari...? Is that really you!?" She didn't respond. Instead, she sadly smiles back at him in response and begins to walk away much to Sora's dismay. "Akari! Wait!" he runs as he reaches out to her, fearing that she'll disappear from his life again. Akari turns a corner, right past Mr. Scrouge's shop and disappears in a ball of light before Sorta could catch up to her. "Akari-" Sora stops in place when he sees Akari was nowhere in sight. Donald and Goofy call out as they rush over to him, "Sora!" Sora hesitantly looks at the two, feeling even more depressed than ever before.
Donald demands, "Don't disappear like that! We're supposed to look for the others! Where do you think you're going!?" He sheepishly smiles at the two and closes his eyes to hide the sadness in them, apologizing, "Sorry guys... Just thought I saw someone over there." Sora walks the two, trying his best to hold back the tears that threatened to come out. Goofy whispers to Donald in concern, "I think Sora's still taking it hard… he seemed pretty cheerful earlier when talkin' with Master Yen Sid…" "We can't do anything now Goofy…! There's not much we can to…"
Castle Oblivion…
A corridor of light appeared in front of the castle, and in a matter of seconds someone rushes out as a corridor of darkness appears a few feet behind. Xigbar rushes out and calls out, "Hey get back here!" She looks over her shoulders then back at the castle. Demnyx runs out not long after. "Where... is she... going...?" Xigbar clicked his teeth as he aimed his weapon at her, "I have an idea... but it better now be it..." As he aimed at the runaway, for a second she transformed into someone wearing... armor? He hesitated at first-struck by sudden shock to see that all too familiar armor after so many years since becoming a nobody.
"What are you doing!? She's getting away!" Demyx rushes past the one eyed man and summons his sitar, sending multiple water clones of himself towards the girl. Jumping in the air, the girl twist around and dives down as she summons her star kayblade in hand. "Damn it...!" curses Xigbar as he finally starts shooting at her. The orders were to not harm the girl, but with the multiple escape attempts and constant chases he had to go through just to keep the girl from getting to Sora, it was high time he grounds her- permanently. He aims at her chest as she continued to swiftly defeat each water clone at lightning speed, too fast for neither he nor his sad excuse of a partner could keep up with.
Once again they had underestimated the girl- fractured heart or not, something inside her was keeping the girl on her feet and is making her unconsciously fight back. Xemnas had confirmed to every member that her current heart pieces are in a sleep like state, meaning she should be in a comatose state until someone wakes those fragments up. "Wah!" Demyx yelps in fear as she quickly rushes towards him, sending his sitar flying out of his grasp. As it lands on the ground a few feet away from where they stood, the blue haired girl raised her keyblade up in the air and goes to slash at him, but stops halfway. Under the hood, her blue eyes glimmer to life for a second and then pulls away, causing Demyx to huff in relief.
Xigbar stops aiming at her to watch what will be her next move. Silently, she de-summons her keyblade and turns to face the castle. "Ven-" Xigbar quickly shoots her in the chest before she finish saying that wretched name. It didn't kill her. He kust painfully put her back to sleep. The arrow disappears, a heart crest mark flashing for a brief moment then disappearances as she lays on the limply ground. Xigbar marches up to the girl as Demyx stood up and says, " Thanks for the save man!" He doesn't reply. Instead, Xigbar scoffs as he walks past his 'comrade' and picks the girl up over his shoulder. "He better have an idea how to get rid of this one soon... she's starting to get on my nerves."
Dive into the heart...
Asleep in the darkness that surrounds her, the two fragments of her heart swirling around above her chest, a woman, with long pink hair and wore white robes, walks up to Akari as she held a keyblade that looks much similar to Xehanorts. Except this one was pure white. "You must not interfere," a voice spoke up. A girl steps out of the shadows with a dark look in jer blue eyes. She and the woman looked exactly like Akari, the only difference between each other was that the girl that stept out of the shadows wore what seems like armor and had a damaged helmet- her face partially showing and her pink hair dangling out in a side ponytail.
If she didn't have the helmet on, she would show she bore the exact resemblance as Kairax. Akari's former nobody. The older one sneers at her presence, "I've had enough of this! Let me take over for now. I can't stand being near that man, especially his nobody!"
"I understand that you were betrayed by the boy you once loved and lost your heart in the process! I lost mine as well! His light may be gone... but he'll come back someday! I know it! So maybe your's will come back as well, his light isn't gone. Remember this isn't your body... this is Akari's. Yes our heart is inside her... but she's the current purest of all hearts. Let Akari be the one to decide her fate."
"Fate huh...?" the older one de-summons her keyblade and turns her back on the two. "I'm pretty that she didn't decide to be the purest of all hearts... none of us did." Sadly watching the older girl walk away, the other girl looks down at Akari as she continues to sleep in her deep slumber. "You're lucky you know... you get to make the decision none of us had the chance to..." she mutters as she too begins to make her leave. She stops and said one last thing to Akari as light began to envelope both her and Akari,"Good luck."
Hollow Bastion...
"Welcome to the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee!" Yuffie excitedly introduces the three to the committee. It felt nice to see old faces again, Sora even joked about Leon's last words to them when they thought they'd never see each other again. Their reunion seemed to cheer Sora up a bit until- "So where's Akari?" questions Aerith, finally noticing the absence of a certain blue haired girl. Sora bows his head in shame and turns away. "Uh… About that…" the look in Goofy's eyes and Donald eyeing the boy in pity gave them a clear answer on what happened. None of them anticipated this with how Sora was determined to save her back then.
They were so sure he would save her. Leon gets off from the wall and walks over to Sora. "Listen," he places a hand on the boy's shoulder, "it wasn't your fault Sora… you did what you could and I know she knows it too. She knew the risks. Don't blame yourself for what happened." He didn't like the way Leon put it, but Sora didn't want to take his anger out on his friends. Not now when they've finally got to meet each other again.
Ansem raises Akari's heart in the air as he commands the dark being, "Now Purest of all Hearts… use your hatred and destroy your protector!" Sora didn't have the chance to react- Akari lunged at him and didn't hesitate to slash. The fight lasted longer than he thought it would. He would occasionally strike back at Akari, but he still couldn't find the heart to hurt her. Akari summons a wave of darkness in her hand and aims it at Sora, nearly hitting him as he dodges away as the black shaped arrow cuts the cloth of his sleeve. Without warning, she appears at his side before he could stand up straight.
"Aaahhh!" She knocks him down, sending him flying a few feet away from where she stood. "Sora!" Goofy yells. "Sora you have get up!" Donald cries out. Both helplessly watch from the other side of the barrier as Akari slowly makes her way to Sora, her now yellow eyes focused only on him and her star key blade readied for her final strike. Sora struggle to get up but collapses. She stops in front of him and kicks his kingdom key away, aiming her blade at Sora. Ansem laughs at the boy's defeat, "You see now Protector? No matter what you do, eventually the darkness that she's been holding back this entire time will be your doom. Both you and her predassesors came to this exact confrontation every generation. The darkness shall conquer all worlds! And her heart is a fine example of that!"
"Any last words?" she asks. "Yeah… I do," Sora grabs the handle of her key blade and pulls her into a tight hug- a small glimmer of emotion sparked in her eyes. "I'm sorry… if I had paid more attention to your feelings back then things wouldn't have ended up like this… You always supported me through thick and thin while I just… shunned you away… I failed both as your best friend and protector to notice how you felt… You mean everything to me Akari… and yet I treated you so badly." Ansem look at Sora then Akari, his hands shaking in rage as he tightens his hold on Akari's heart. "Destroy him!"
Sora hugs her tighter and whispers, "Please come back to me…" The darkness that surrounded Akari's body began to slowly slip off her body like sand, her yellow eyes slowly turning back to their normal blue color. "So…ra…?" she mutters. He pulls away and couldn't stop smiling. She smiles but her expression became twisted in fear. "Insolent brat!" "Sora look out!" Akari pushes him aside as beam of darkness heads towards their direction. It took Sora a moment to register what happened until he caught a small glimpse of Ansem at the corner of his eye before being blinded by light.
By the time the light died down, he gasps to see Ansem with a tight fist and a displeased look- light fragments scattering in the air like stars. He quickly turns to Akari.
"AKARI!"
Mysterious Tower…
Yen Sid stood by the star shaped window, watching a certain star flicker in the vast night sky. "Interesting... I have never encountered a situation such as this before..." mutters the wizard, stroking his long white beard with one hand as the other holds a strange trinket. Behind his back, the wooden door opens- two girls step in wearing a garment similar to Yen Sid's. The oldest of the two had long black hair with dyed blue bangs- her eyes yellow and had cat-like slits for pupils. The other had light blue hair and deep blue eyes. "Aura, Jade-" Yen Sid addresses them from left to right, surprised at their unexpected visit.
"We heard about what's happened from the King so we rushed over as fast as we could," Aura informs, bowing down in respect. Her sister on the other hand, began to boast, "Actually it was more like we crash landed here on the way here. I even kicked some major butt on the way up!" Aura slaps the girl at the back of her head, hissing at her, "Show some respect...!" "I was just saying! Someone really needs to do something this heartless infestation! I'm sick and tired of not being able to really do anything." Aura wanted to say something to the girl, but kept it to herself, knowing all too well how it feels to not do anything.
"You are right Jade, that is why I am sending you both to two separate worlds," both girls look up in show at Yen Sid. He continues, "Now that it is confirmed that Purest of all hearts still lives, her light has been scattered to many unknown worlds. I have no clue as to what has happened to those fragments, but I need someone to guard two very important fragments. Aura, Jade- both of you will do so separately in separate worlds. If you are able to successfully complete your duties, I will consider making you both my full-fledged apprentices."
Hollow Bastion...
After reuniting with their friends, Leon brought Sora, Donald, and Goofy to take a good look at the castle that was once occupied by Maleficent and where the fight with Ansem's heartless for the first time took place. Shocked to see the number of heartless swarming the castle, they offered their immediate assistance to Leon's cause on wiping the heartless out of their world. But then they were suddenly interrupted by organization XIII. "Organization XIII!? What are you doing here?" Sora demands as all four prepared to face them off. One of the members were peculiar to Sora, one seemed much shorter a slimmer compared to the rest of them.
He didn't know why, but he felt his heart leap at the sudden sight of that one certain member. "Now Keyblade's chosen... show us your power!" A large number of strange nobodies appeared. Watching them fend off the nobodies from breaking the sealed gate that led towards the town, the smallest of the Organization began to react and took a step forward. The leader saw this and looked at one of his comrades to stop her. "Hey now! Don't do anything stupid," one warns as he grabs the person by the shoulder. Still struggling, Xigbar almost lost his grip on their prisoner when the hood flew off during the struggle, freeing long locks of blue hair out into the open.
Her blue eyes were hollow but they stayed glued onto Sora as he continued to fend off the nobodies with Donald, Goofy, and Leon. Panicking, Saix steps in front of the girl right when Sora was about to take another look at the Organization- to see if they were going to make anymore moves on them. Xigbar roughly pulls her hood back on. If Sora saw the girl right now, he would ignore the lesser nobodies and immediately go after all of them instead. The fight was over and all the nobodies were gone, pleasing Xemnas at how well Sora fought today, though it he wasn't nearly as powerful as he thought the boy would be. "We shall meet again Keyblade's chosen."
Their fight was seemingly over, but as Sora and the others were about to walk down the stairs to the right to check on the lower gate, one of them reappears in front of him. "What now!?" Sora draws his keyblade as Donald and Goofy run up to his side. He raises his hands up in defense. "Woah now kid! I'm not here to fight! Just here to deliver a special welcome back present for you!" He gestures to the spot where the members previously stood. Upset, Sora angrily looks up- his anger subsides when he sees the exact same Nobody that almost caught his full attention thought out the fight. "Let's just say she's waiting a long time for you… Protector."
Another organization member appears at her side. He looks at the one in front of them then back at the two that stood above them, his eyes widening in realization. They all watch in shock as the girl was pushed off the edge- not even trying to fight back and allows herself to fall. Without thinking once about what he was doing, Sora drops his keyblade and rushes to catch her- adrenaline pumping through his legs as he sped faster to the girl. He slid on his knees as she got closer to him and the ground. The moment she fell into his arms, Sora felt a sudden large thump in his chest.
"Sora!" Donald and Goofy rush to his side and stood in front of him protectively, glaring at the Nobody as he chuckles in amusement at Sora's actions. "That's right... he used to give me the exact same look when his girl was hurt..." He salutes at the trio and begins to disappear through the darkness, saying, "Happy hunting." "What did he mean by that…?" Sora mutters and glances down at the hooded girl in his arm. "You three alright?" Leon asks the groups as he rushes to them after securing the gate. "Yeah but…" Sora's attention averts back to the girl. Leon see's her and steps to the boy's side, going down on one knee to level himself with the rest.
Donald and Goofy peer over the two as Sora reaches down her hood in hesitation. Once the hood was removed, Sora's body shook all over as his watery eyes stared down at the familiar girl in his arms. "Akari... it can't be...I thought the entire time it was my imagination but... she's really here..." he sobs, bringing the sleeping Akari closer to him and is cradled in his arms.
Dive into the heart...
Kairax stared up at the dark sky above and couldn't help but smile at the odd familiar warmth that wrapped around her body. "Seems like you found him..." she smiles. Against her back, Akari tilts her head up and slowly opens her eyes. Kairax turns her head a bit and reassures her other self, "Don't worry... even if you can't clearly remember him- as long as he's by your side you'll never feel lost ever again."
~After Story~
Sitting alone on her white throne, the hooded woman gasps and drops her star shaped pendant on the white floor below. "The light... it's still there..." She waves her hand in the air and, magically, hundreds of heart shaped stained glass appear all around her in a circle. Each on had a different key blade wielder lying face forward with the same pink haired girl. A new one appearing before her as she took a few steps forward. Unlike the rest that a pinked shade on the top jalf but different on the bottom, this one was completely sky blue.
The two inside the stained glass had Sora on his side facing right with his eyes open and Akari doing the same on her left. Both held their hands tightly and were merely inches apart from each other. The white hooded woman smiles and looks back at the one beside it. It was the completely similar to the current stained heart glass, but had bright pink at the top half and faded with a shade of green at the bottom. "Indirectly," she starts and put a hand on both stained glasses, "you are the only one who continued to stay by her side... though you are sleeping inside the heart of another, you kept your promise to always by her side."
I know this sounded stupid for trying to 'hide' Akari's identity, but I was trying to think of it from the game's perspective and Sora. Of course, if it's your first time playing kh 2 back then you wouldn't really know the gender unless the person spoke. Two new OC's actually belong to my friends/fellow KH fans and I offered them to be a part of this fanfic. :) But I had to alter their original OC's appearance to avoid complete copyright (and also I remember my friend, who's Aura in this, change her drawing again and it's in black so...) since they technically don't belong to me. Aura is the OC of my friend Aura Stormseer, also known as Stormseer Knight on tumblr. Jade well... it was hard to put in her personality fully cause she's rather, a potty mouth. XD In a good way of course! So this ended up a tad shorter than usual... but this was very hard to recollect with what happened and tried to stay focus on Akari's story. Pls R&R and I'll try and update as fast as I can!