Part Three

By Jive Maxwell

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

(Kingdom Hearts: Traverse Town)

The bright glow faded and Link and Sora appeared, just

inside the gates of a large, mid-sized town.

"I don't know where we are," Link said.

Sora looked around.

"Well I sure do!" he said happily. But I thought I'd never

see this place again!"

"Is this your home?"

"Sort of," Sora tried to explain. "I helped restore it, but

when the connections between worlds were destroyed, I didn't

think I would ever come here again."

Link stared suspiciously at Sora.

"Are you a hero?" he asked.

"Yup," Sora said proudly.

Link looked at him with newfound respect.

"Oh. All this time I thought you were an amateur."

"Gee...thanks," Sora grumbled. Link walked away to

explore.

"Yeeeaaaa!!!" he yelled suddenly, catching Sora's

attention.

A small, shadowy creature had crawled out of the ground,

and Link had struck at it. It sank back into the ground and

escaped.

"Heartless?!" Sora gasped.

"It's not so tough," Link sneered.

"I liked you better when you didn't talk!" Sora snapped, still

smarting from Link's last comment. "The Heartless feed off the

darkness in people's hearts. Weaker people-" Sora remembered

Riku and how the Heartless had nearly consumed him. How he,

Sora himself, had once become a Heartless.

"No." He corrected himself. "Desperate people submit to

them."

Link stared at him, hurt and angry, but curious.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you," Sora said, ashamed. "But you

must understand: in other ways, the Heartless are more powerful

than they look, and...they were supposed to be destroyed."

"Is this town in danger?" Link asked, forgiving Sora

sympathetically- mostly, anyway. Sora nodded.

"But there's one person I know who'd protect this town!"

he said suddenly, remembering. "He'll tell us what's going on!"

Sora headed for the Third District, noticing bitterly that

there was no one on the streets. The night sky setting seemed

darker than ever before.

As usual, the Heartless were drawn to him, and appeared

suddenly in groups that seemed bigger than ever, probably

because he and Link were hopelessly outnumbered. But then,

"HII! HAAAA!!" Link yelled and raised his hands before

going into a crouch. A burst of flame cleared the area of

Heartless.

"What was that?!" Sora choked.

"The power of Din," Link told him.

Sora didn't ask.

"This is Leon's house," Sora told Link, knocking on the

door.

Cloud Strife answered. He stared at Sora in shocked

silence for a long moment.

"Leon," he said finally, in his usual growl, closing the door

in Sora's face, "you get it; I think my eyes are failing me."

'That's sure to get Leon's attention,' Sora thought proudly.

Leon's real name was Squall Leonhart, but his world, like

Cloud's, had been destroyed completely by the Heartless and

was beyond repair, so he and Cloud and their friends now made

a living helping the people of Traverse town.

Leon opened the door.

"...S- Sora," he stammered.

"Yup! And this is Link!" Link gave a small wave.

Leon studied the two of them thoughtfully for a while.

"I don't know you're friend," he said finally. "But you've

grown a bit, Sora."

"You should see Riku," Sora bragged. "He's grown a whole

entire inch!"

Link was beginning to feel a bit left out.

"Come on in." Leon opened the door.

"How's your light?" Cloud asked slyly.

"You mean Kairi?" Sora laughed. "She's fine. What about

yours?"

"I found it," Cloud said happily, smiling. "How did you

come back?"

"More importantly," Leon added, "why?"

Thunder began to rumble outside.

Sora explained about the oncoming darkness and the

mission to bring together the Heartstones.

By the time he had finished, a storm had summoned itself

up and was waging war against the small house.

"So, unless this world becomes united with the others,"

Leon said thoughtfully, "it'll be destroyed?"

"Well, there are only two worlds united so far," Sora

admitted. "But there'll be more- you'll see."

"So all the worlds will finally be together again," Cloud

marveled. "Like they were long, long ago."

"Sora," Leon said quickly, as if he'd just gotten an idea.

"Perhaps it would be best if you left this world- left it

alone-"

"But the people-" Sora began to protest.

"The Heartless are still here, Sora," Leon snapped. "We

don't know why or even how; they should have been

destroyed along with Ansem, but, if you unite this world

with the others, Sora, you know as well as I do that the Heartless

will spread."

Leon sighed. "Sora, if this world is destroyed-"

"Than so are the last of the Heartless," Cloud finished for

him.

"I can't just leave you and the others here," Sora argued.

"You'd be overcome by darkness. It's coming even as we

speak."

"Maybe that's better than putting the united worlds at risk,"

Cloud murmured.

"No!" Link said firmly. He felt left out, as they all seemed to

know each other, but this was his decision, too.

Cloud and Leon stared at him.

"You're the heroes," Leon said coolly. "You decide."

Sora and Link exchanged determined glances.

"We'll unit this world," Sora sighed. "And we'll deal with

the Heartless later. We can't leave anyone behind, no matter

what the risk."

"You haven't changed a bit," Leon accused.

"Neither have you," Sora said with a scowl.

"If the darkness is gathering as quickly as you say," Cloud

interrupted, "Than you should get going. You know where to

go."

Outside, the storm had become much like a monster. Rain

fell heavily and without mercy; thunder boomed and

lightning cracked like a whip. Sora and Link left.

"I don't know about this," Leon sighed, leaning back in a

chair and putting his feet up.

Cloud smiled evilly.

"Look on the bright side: at least we won't be destroyed by

darkness."

Leon laughed bitterly. After seeing their own homes in

ruins, there didn't seem to be much left of themselves to

destroy.

"Follow me!" Sora called to Link over the loud growls and

groans of thunder. He led Link to the Second District, where the

fountain was.

"I had to lock away the heart of this world once before," he

explained. "I already know where the Keyhole is; what I'm really

worried about is the Heartless. What if uniting this world

hurts the others?"

"Princess Zelda will know what to do," Link boasted.

"I guess; well, let's get going."

They retrieved the Heartstone and returned to the Temple

of Time again by using the Song of Time on Link's Ocarina, not

seeing the shadowy figure that watched them eagerly from the

roof of the Gizmo Shop.

"That's right," it mused. "Fall right into my trap."

"Oh, you did it!" Zelda said happily, seeing the Heartstone.

"Were there any problems?"

"Yeah." Sora explained the situation about the Heartless.

"Well, as bad as they are," Zelda sighed, when he had

finished, "the unstoppable darkness is worse. We knew that

there would be complications, so, we'll deal with the Heartless

later; for now, we must continue. We're acting only hours ahead

of the evil for each world."

"Right!" Sora and Link agreed, putting the newest

Heartstone with the others.

But Sora had a nasty thought.

'The Heartless are an unstoppable evil,' he reminded

himself.

(Kingdom Hearts: Destiny Islands)

"Riku?" Kairi asked softly. "Do you think Sora is...alright?"

"Of course he is, Kairi," Riku chuckled, trying to sound

certain. "Sora can take care of himself."

"I-I don't know, Riku," Kairi mused worriedly. "I can't shake

the feeling that he's in over his head right now. I think he

needs help."

They were on the small island next to the Destiny Island. It

was so nearby that you could swim to it, but usually they used

the bridge. It was Riku's favorite place, and there was a special

tree growing there at an angle that was nice to sit on. He and

Kairi were there now, watching the sunset.

Riku looked at Kairi in concern. Her eyes were filled with

worry. He reached out hesitantly and took her hand.

"Don't worry, Kairi. Sora will find help if he needs it. But we

have to believe in him right now, okay? Whatever's going

on...he's not alone. And wherever he goes, we're right there with

him. We're in his heart, remember?"

Kairi's eyes widened. Then she smiled and nodded.

"You're right, Riku!" she agreed wholeheartedly. "Now let's

go!" She got up and began to walk away.

"Go...where?" Riku asked in confusion, following her.

Kairi stopped but didn't turn around.

"Sora said he was coming back for us, remember? We

have to be ready for him."

"Oh...right..." Riku sighed.

"Oh, and...Riku?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks." Kairi turned suddenly and gave him a quick kiss

on the cheek. Then she turned and ran away, leaving Riku

blushing brightly.

To be continued...

JM: Bwa ha! It's Cloud and Squall! And we close off this chapter

with a bit of Riku and Kairi.

Cloud: This chapter's word.

Squall: Fer shizzle.

JM: Kairi's hot.

Sora: She says this just to be weird.

JM: Please review.