Author's note:

I just wanted to make a short comment on how this is a remake of a fanfiction I started on over eight years ago. I would much prefer if you didn't go and read the original. The only thing I can say about it is that I'm surprised by my sense of humor back then. This new version of the fanfiction has a more serious tone to it, but I hope not to have too much retconned from the original version. Thank you and I hope you enjoy.

When expecting death, it might not come as a surprise that pain would be involved. Usually, it is hoped that the pain would disappear quickly, though. This was not the case for Daniel. His whole body felt like it was on fire as he writhed about. He would have screamed, but it would have taken too much effort. A bright light appeared, barely being noticed by Dan, with his eyes shut tight. The light died down and the pain finally decided to go away.

The boy became still. Surely he was dead. His whole life didn't pass by in his mind, but he never really believed in that myth anyway. He waited patiently for about a minute, but nothing happened. He then figured it wouldn't hurt to open his eyes.

A night sky filled to the brim with twinkling stars revealed itself to the boy. He was momentarily mesmerized by the stars, never being able to see such a sight due to light pollution, until he noticed a hand reaching out for them. It was his hand. Going from complete pain to none made him feel like his body was completely gone. Before he could be excited about still having a body, something landed on it to remind him that his pain receptors still worked.

"Dan, you're okay!" The blonde head of a girl appeared in his view.

"Sam?" His sister continued to hug him tightly. "What happened?"

"I thought you were – I thought..." Tears were forming around her eyes. Dan pushed himself up, Sam being forced to rise with him. They were in an alleyway surrounded by stone buildings with wooden trimming. This didn't seem right, though. He didn't recognize this place nor remember how they got there. He wracked his brain, trying to remember what the last thing they were doing was.

"Weren't we falling?" He blurted out.

Sam lowered her eyebrows in confusion. "Falling?"

Dan then remembered more. "That's right! That big earthquake happened and we fell down a chasm!"

Sam let go of him and stood up. Her concentrated look made Dan think she was also try8ing to remember the events. "But how did we end up here?"

Dan stood up while patting dust off of his shorts and replied, "Beats me. The last thing I remember is, well, yeah..." He trailed off, not wanting to speak about his experience.

"Uh, well, I guess we should figure out where we are, then," Sam said, trying to change the subject. "This place doesn't really look familiar." She frowned as she looked around the alley. The architecture was pretty bizarre. It was as if they were somehow teleported into a different culture or era.

The two walked out of the alley to find themselves in what must have been the business district of the city. A courtyard laid in front of them with a few people walking around in it. An outdoor café was to the right of the courtyard while two massive doors were to the left and across from them. The building right next to them, with a large, glowing sign that read "jewelry" easily grabbed Sam's attention. "I know where we're going first." Dan simply sighed as he was dragged into the building.

"Hey there, how can I- "The shopkeeper stopped his sales pitch when he noticed how old the two were. "Aw, not more kids."

"Excuse me, I am plenty old enough to be considered an adult," Sam quickly took offense to the man's remark.

Dan shook his head. "Eighteen is still pretty young, you know. Besides, we don't know if..." He stopped as he actually took a good look at the shopkeeper. His blonde hair and gruff face looked very familiar.

Sam continued on with her tirade. "It shouldn't even matter my age, I came here to shop, and as a customer, you shouldn't be trying to insult me." She had a tendency to not like being called a kid.

"All right, all right. Just holler if you need anything, "the man waved her off.

While still perturbed, Sam decided to let him off easy and started to browse the jewelry collection. Dan continued to stay glued to his spot, starring at the shopkeeper. "What kind of a selection is this? Don't you have any earrings or at least some necklaces?" She only found some chains that looked too big to use for anything and a few rings.

"Hey now, earrings cost quite a bit to make," the man retorted. "I'm lucky enough to have what I've got. And until that stupid moogle workshop up there finds more materials, don't expect anything fancy." Sam followed the shopkeeper's gaze up to a trap door on the ceiling with a ladder lying across it. She suddenly had a dreadful feeling that she had come upon a child labor shop.

Before she could ask about the workshop, Dan muttered out, "Cid?" After hearing the word "moogle," he couldn't ignore how the shopkeeper looked like a certain Final Fantasy character. The white shirt, broad, blue pants and brightly colored, tall belt wasn't the usual getup he'd normally wear, but everything else about him seemed right. The piece of straw in his mouth instead of a cigarette made Dan question if this was a smoke-free environment.

Sam looked on curiously as Cid answered, "Yeah?" He waited for a moment, expecting a reply, but he didn't get one. "Do I know you?"

Dan's expression didn't change as he looked down to the ground. "No, sorry, you just look like a Cid."

Cid grunted while rubbing the stubble on his chin. "Yeah, I guess I do."

The entrance to the shop swung open quickly and then slammed shut, causing the three to look over at a boy bracing himself against the door. He looked like he could belong in a circus with his attire. Unordinary large, yellow shoes adorned his feet, which matched well with what initially looked like red shorts, but was actually an onesie that went all the way up to his neck. A white jacket with blue trimming was worn on top and matching, fingerless gloves were on his hands. A seemingly useless, blue belt was wrapped around his waist. Sam ended up staring at the impossible brunette spikes that made the boy's hair. They went in several directions and must have been a paint to gel, if that is even how they got that way

"The – the Heartless are attacking!" the boy shouted. Dan looked at him in concern while Sam's eyes went wide.

Cid, on the other hand, waved the boy off, sighing, "Not again. Just wait a bit and they'll eventually leave the district." The boy didn't seem to believe that, but after looking out one of the small windows on the doors, he calmed down and said they were gone.

The room seemed to become more relaxed as the group settled down, but Dan felt he was missing a pretty important piece of information here. "What are the Heartless?"

The room was silent. Sam kept her head down in thought, and Cid seemed confused by the question but couldn't quite think of where to start. Sora looked completely perplexed by the siblings' appearance, having just noticed them. "What do you mean?" Sora asked. "Didn't the Heartless show up on your world? How else did you get here?"

World? Were they on a different planet? He didn't even answer Dan's question, but instead brought up even more questions. "We're not sure how we got here," Sam answered. "We just kind of showed up."

"So I take it that means those two aren't your friends," Cid said disappointingly.

The boy shook his head. "No, definitely not."

"Wow, harsh, man," Dan folded his arms to his chest. If the guy wouldn't answer his question, then he might as well toy with him.

"What? That's not what I meant – I don't even know you!" It seemed to rile the boy up in a fit of confusion.

Dan smirked at his success before getting punched in the shoulder by his sister. "Ignore him; he's just trying to be funny." She headed to the doors, passing the boy, and looked out the window. She didn't see anything; the small crowd that was in the courtyard was gone. "No one's out there," she muttered. Facing the boy, she introduced herself. "Oh, my name's Samantha. The doofus over there is Daniel." Dan grunted in annoyance at his introduction.

"The name's Sora," the boy said confidently.

Sam nodded her head at him. "Okay Sora, well we're going to head out now." She dropped her cheerful attire and added, "The jewelry here stinks anyway."

"I heard that!" Cid shouted. "You should probably go too, kid," he said to Sora. "You're bound to find your friends somewhere."
The three left together. Dan was pretty happy to finally be out of that store, but as soon as the doors were closed behind them, he turned to Sora and once again asked, "So what are Heartless?"

Sora rubbed the back of his head with his left hand. "Uh, well I'm not really sure myself." The disappointment on Dan's face was a bit too obvious. "The creatures showed up on my island before I got here, and the only way I could defend myself was with this." Raising his right hand up, a bright light flashed and a giant key with a guard around the base appeared.

"What!" Sam gasped at the sight of the weapon. Dan looked dumbfounded, both at the reveal of the weapon and its appearance.

"Umm, a giant key?"

"Hey, it's a pretty good weapon!" Sora defended himself.

"Sure, I bet you can easily unlock people's death with that." Dan chuckled.

Sora was trying to come up with a retort, but someone behind him spoke up. "They'll come at you out of nowhere."

Sora whirled around and the three saw a figure walk up to them. "Who are you?"

The figure ignored him and continued. "And they'll keep on coming at you, as long as you continue to wield the Keyblade." Stepping into the light, the figure revealed himself to be a man wearing a leather jacket with a white undershirt, leather pants and matching leather gloves. The spiked down, brunette hair and plenty of belts once again reminded Dan of a Final Fantasy character. The man held his hand to his forehead, right above a scar that went down the middle of his face. "But why, why would it choose a kid like you?" He definitely didn't seem happy about the predicament.

Sora took that question very personally. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Never mind," the man reached out his arm and moved slowly toward him. "Now let's see that Keyblade."

Sora readied himself for a fight. "What? There's no way you're getting this!"

The man smirked. "All right then, have it your way." He took out a blade with a hilt that looked like a revolver and held it in both of his hands.

Without warning, he charged at Sora, causing the boy to barely jump out of the way of a strong swing. Sam and Dan backed up in fright. Thankfully, the man chased Sora down to the courtyard, leaving the siblings alone above.

"This is not good," Dan said, crouching behind the railing. It looked like Sora wasn't new to sword fighting, but his challenger barely left any openings to attack, constantly swinging his sword when near or shooting a fireball out of the gun-part when Sora moved too far away.

"Yeah, but Sora has a – um, that Keyblade thing. That should mean he's a good fighter, right?" Sam looked on from behind the railing as well. Unfortunately, it didn't look good for Sora.

"It doesn't matter, if he's fighting Squall." Dan muttered.

"Who's 'Squall?' And for that matter, how did you know Cid's name?" Sam demanded.

Dan's head dropped down, giving him a better view of the cobblestone ground. After a bit, he replied, "They're videogame characters. They're from the Final Fantasy games, but they aren't even in the same game as each other."

Sam began to relax while listening to him, though she was still confused by the answer. Once he stopped, she cocked her head and stated, "That's weird."

"I just don't get why Squall is fighting Sora. He was the main character of his game, and a hero." Dan went back to watching the fight. Squall looked like he was getting tired, but Sora looked like he was about to fall over. "Why is he fighting a kid?"

"I guess he really want that key." Sam figured. "Wait, Sora isn't from a game, is he?"

Dan shook his head. "Not that I know of. I think I'd remember a game with him in it, unless he was just some random background character."

They continued to watch the fight for a bit more before Sam started to wonder why they weren't using this time to escape. Sure, Sora seemed like a nice guy, but she'd rather care about her and Dan's lives first. She turned to tell him to move, but she stopped when she noticed him tense up. She looked back at the courtyard to see Sora had fallen over on to his back. He was out cold. She quickly tried to grab Dan and run, but Dan jumped over the railing, muttering, "This isn't right," and ran between Squall and Sora.

"Get out of the way, this doesn't concern you," Squall pointed his blade at Dan.

"But why did you attack him?" Dan raised his arms up, trying to block the man from getting past him.

"I have to take that Keyblade – "

"But why? It's just a weapon! Y – You're supposed to be a – he's just a kid!" He wasn't even sure what was causing this anger to erupt, but Dan was happy to have it over fear at the moment.

Squall seemed to be done trying to answer questions. "Move now or I'll make you."

Sam's body was completely tensed up watching the two's standoff. She let out a great sigh of relief when her brother spat out, "fine." He turned around and looked down at Sora's still form. Squall slowly walked up to them. Sam stood up and started to make her way to the stairs when Dan suddenly rushed over and grabbed the Keyblade form the boy's hand. He made a wide slash behind him, causing Squall to leap back to avoid the attack.

"Suit yourself," Squall grimaced, followed by launching a fireball at Dan. Dan ducked down to avoid the blast while running towards Squall. Mimicking Sora, Dan lashed out with three attacks while holding the Keyblade with both hands. There was definitely something he didn't like about the way he was holding the blade, but he had to put his mind back on Squall in order to back away from a wide swing.

"I can tell Sora tired you out a bunch," Dan quipped. Squall answered by jumping at him, swinging his sword down. Dan tried to block it, but the Keyblade was pushed out of the way and his chest took most of the attack. The pain surprisingly didn't feel that bad, but the shock of being struck by a sword remained on his mind. Blood started to pool around the wound, surprising Squall.

Dan touched the wound with his left hand, and then brought it up to his face to see the crimson left on his fingers. "I, ugh, think I need to finish his soon." He shakily pointed the Keyblade towards Squall with his right hand. Squall lowered his blade slightly, seeing how his opponent looked to be losing his energy, but Dan suddenly shot right at him, swinging rapidly at different angles, making it difficult to block them all. Squall soon found himself on one knee and keeping his sword held up in a position to stop himself from taking any more hits. Dan finally started to lose his steam, which gave Squall time to raise his blade and shoot a fireball point blank into Dan's face. Dan landed next to Sora's body, joining him in his forced slumber.

Squall stayed kneeling to rest for a second, but quickly stood up when he heard a fast set of footsteps approaching him. The steps quickly stopped when he turned his sword towards them. "Please, I don't want to fight!" Sam sputtered out.

"I hope you don't feel too upset that I don't believe you." Squall remained still, waiting for her to make a move.

"But Dan's going to lose too much blood if I don't do anything!" She pointed behind Squall, who reluctantly took a quick glance towards the boy he just fought. The crimson liquid was forming a puddle on the cobblestone pavement. He realized there were specs of it all over his arms and chest from when he was being attacked by the boy.

Sam quickly took this chance to rush over to Dan's side. The wound was decently deep and she realized there was nothing she could do in her state. "Just take the stupid weapon!" She shouted while pressing her hands on the wound. "But please, do you have anything to help with this wound? It's really bad! You're supposed to be a good guy, right?" She looked over to Squall, who sheathed his blade.

"Yuffie." A girl appeared behind Squall, as if he announced her presence. The mixture of browns, yellows and blues on her short-shorts, short top, scarf, removable sleeves, and headband confused Sam on whether she wanted to be sneaky or obvious to find.

Yuffie scrounged around in her pockets before saying, "Looks like I have some potions. For the right price, I guess I coul – hey!" Squall snatched a bottle from her and held it out to Samantha.

Sam looked at the bottle, down to her bloody hands still pushing on Dan's chest, then back to the bottle. "Right, sorry." Squall poured the content of the bottle into Daniel's mouth. Instantly, the wound on his chest sealed itself up, though the blood remained.

Sam lifted her hands up slowly, making sure the wound really was sealed. No more blood came out. She let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding in before grabbing the Keyblade from Dan's hand and standing up. "You idiot! You almost killed him!" She shouted at Squall.

"He was the one that started the fight," Squall tried to answer calmly, but there was a sense of confusion and worry in his voice.

"Whatever; just take this stupid thing and go." The Keyblade was thrusted forward, right in front of Squall, where he could safely grab it. He tried to protest, but Samantha cut him off. "My brother says you're a hero. You didn't let him die, so I'm trusting that he's right. You better've had a good reason for all of this."

"I'm no hero," Squall said while taking the Keyblade, "but thank you. The Heartless are drawn to the Keyblade. Keeping it away from wielders will lower their activity."

"They can sense the weapon?" Samantha turned to Sora's and Dan's unconscious bodies. "What kind of creatures are they?"

"We can tell you if you come with us!" Yuffie piped up. "I mean, I guess it's the least we can do after beating up your brother. He could definitely use a bath. "She pinched her nose while finishing talking.

As much as Sam wanted nothing more to do with these people, Yuffie had a point. And if those Heartless appeared, she wouldn't be sure what to do. "Okay, fine."