Shadow of the Heart

By Magniitude

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts

Chapter 1: Reunited

A/N: Haven't played Kingdom Hearts in a while, so forgive me for my mistakes (if there are any.)

POV: Sora

"Hello-o-o-o-o-o… anyone here?" It was that voice again. I kept looking around, trying to locate the source. It was a familiar voice, soft and gentle; it reminded me of thing long ago. Home.

"I'm over here!!" I yelled out as loud as I could, hoping that the voice could hear me. I could almost sense the joy of the other person, but I prepared myself just in case. After all, it could be another of the Heartless' tricks. I didn't have my trusty Keyblade with me, (must've been confiscated when I was imprisoned in here,) but those long hours training martial arts with Riku back on the island must have paid off for something. The footsteps began to grow louder as they began to reach me. I poised myself just in case, but I relaxed once I saw who it was.

It was Kairi. I don't know why I was able to see her in the darkness, but I didn't care. Oh god it was so good to see her again. By the looks of it, she hadn't changed one bit. Same crimson, hair, but it looks like she grew it, and it now reached halfway down her back. She was wearing some light armor, which consisted of rough, worn, brown shoulder pads over a torn leather vest. She had on a pair of lightly worn kneepads and a pair of flexible leather boots with a small but loose skirt. She looked, different.

"Sora!" I smiled and ran over and gave her a big bear hug. We were friends after all, but I didn't think I would see her again, not after the Heartless had taken away her away.

"Kairi! Where the hell have you been all this time, where the hell are we, where did get those clothes!?" I was so happy to have seen her again.

"Whoa, calm down Sora, I'll explain everything." She took a deep breath, sighed, and began.

"It must've been when the door to the world of the Heartless was closed."

"Thanks to me." I added in with a smirk.

"Yeah, well, I suddenly woke up, as if everything had been a bad dream. I felt really drowsy and hungry, maybe because of the fact I was "away" for so long. I don't know. All I knew was that I needed some food. So I started to walk around, until I reached a small town on the outskirts of Hollow Bastion. What was really strange was that no one was there, not even a single person."

"That sounds strange…." I crossed my arms and sat down as she continued the story. She sat down too.

"Tell me about it," she replied, "Every single house was boarded shut, like a ghost town. I wandered around a bit, still feeling nervous, like that feeling you get like something's gonna pop out at you." I nodded in agreement and she continued.

" Eventually I came up to an inn. It was all deserted, but I decided to look around anyway. Upstairs I found some clothes, which is what you see on now. Then I went back downstairs and heard a sound. It was like a table bumped into a wall or something. I went into the bar, and to my surprise there were these little black creatures, with lifeless yellow eyes that just stared onto me!"

"The Heartless…" I muttered.

"Yeah, that's what you call them right, the Heartless? So they just came towards me and then everything blacked out.

So here I am…what about you Sora?"

 I thought back to everything. The Destiny Islands. Goofy, Donald. The quest of the Keyblade. King Mickey and…

"It's a long story Kairi, you wouldn't understand."

"Suit yourself." she replied, and began to talk more about what happened before she got here.

Suddenly a piercing ray of light shined on us. We tried to look up, but the light blinded us, forcing us to cover shield our eyes.

"What the hell-," I blurted out before a cold, deep voice chuckled.

" Hmm… seems that you have not fallen under the control of the shadow yet. Very well, soon, you will find that you can't resist the power of the Heartless…" With a thundering crack, the room broke into a billion pieces, and before Kairi and I could muster out a yell we were falling. I started to feel weakened, and everything began to turn black. I just saw Kairi falling helplessly before I blacked out.

When I woke up, I found myself chained to a brick wall. I looked beside me, and Kairi was chained too, though she was still unconscious. I looked around, hoping to find a way to escape. We seemed to be in a dungeon of some kind. Rotting piles of bones lay scattered around us, signs of other prisoners who had not been fortunate. I hope we won't suffer the same consequences. It was pretty dark in here, and the only light that I could see were the moon's light flowing in through the bars on the wall… that's it! We must be inside somewhere, and that means there is a chance we can escape.

I heard murmuring beside me, and realized that Kairi had woken up.

"Sora…? Where are we…?"

"I'm not sure, but it looks like a prison of sorts…"

"Are we still alive…?" I smiled, unnoticed to her. It was funny the way she talked like that.

I heard footsteps slowly walk toward us, and I looked around to the cell door to see who or what was it was. It was just a plain old guard, wearing simple armor, with a large metal helmet on concealing its identity; armed with only a large, unruly shield. I was confused. Weren't we just in the clutches of the Heartless? I looked over at Kairi, and she seemed to be thinking the same thing. The guard's movements were slumped and clumsy. It reminded me of someone long ago…Na, it couldn't be…

"Hyuck, time for you to see the master now."

That voice! Could it be?

He carefully unchained us and tied our hands together with rough twine and led us through what seemed like hours of silence in a dark, cold castle. Eventually, we reached a pair of tall, black, gothic doors.

"Hyuck, you gotta go in to see the Master now." I shot a glaring look at the guard as he sent me and Kairi in.

We entered a gigantic, chamber, and it was unusually bright. A large balcony was lined around the room overhead and colorful red drapes embroidered with gold hung from it. The floor was smooth marble with magical lights reflecting off it from above. A magnificent red carpet led up to a large throne. But the colorful scenery didn't throw me or Kairi off guard. Black, shadowy, lifeless Heartless were swarming about, glaring at us with their deep, yellow eyes, ready to strike at any moment. On the throne suddenly appeared a figure wearing a long, black cloak with a mysterious hood covering his face. He stood up, and started to come toward us, with a ghastly fog surrounding him as he glided up to us. He looked down at the both of us, then chuckled deeply, the same voice we had heard before.

"Hmm… seems to me that my Darkness chamber did not seem fitting to you?" He grazed Kairi's cheek with his right hand, and I could see that they were wrinkled and lifeless. She flinched, but stayed strong. That's what I liked about Kairi. So spunky.

"Very well… I think you will tell me all that I need to know about the whereabouts of King Mickey, will you not? Or else I will-"

Suddenly, the guard swung his shield at the Master and sent him flying back into a wall. "Now!" He yelled out. Another shorter guard jumped out from the balcony, pointing a large staff at us, and quacked, "TELEPORT!" A spiral of mist surrounded us as I saw the Master sending the Heartless after us, through the mist I could barely see him…then I heard a deep chuckling and we were gone.

A/N: Well, out of ideas for now! Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for the reviews! See ya next time!