Disclaimer: Yeah, you know. I don't own anything about Kingdom Hearts. All I own is me, my copy of KH, and Akara & Kila. Really, I don't own my own copy of KH . . .

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Chapter 4

New Friends and New Enemies

"So, this is my home..." Akara whispered.

"Yes. This was the first world the Heartless overran. Now Heartless run free in your once-green pastures, and no living being has been seen here for a while. Hopefully, that will soon change," explained Kila.

"What do you mean?" asked Akara.

Kila was silent.

"I'll stay here to guard the ship. Call upon me in times of need. I'll help best to my abilities," said Kila.

Akara started to walk away.

"Oh, wait! There is a few people here. Be careful. We have no idea if they are on our side."

"Whose side are we on, anyway? I know we aren't on evil's side, but our main goal isn't destroying the threat, so maybe we aren't on good's?" asked Akara.

"We have a foot in both places. We aren't necessarily good nor evil. We're just... there."

Akara finally got away from the ship, not knowing that a cloaked figure watched her from above.

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Sora rushed across the roads of Hollow Bastion, looking for Beast. He knew without Beast's ferocity, he wouldn't be able to survive for long in this Heartless infected world.

He heard signs of battle above him, by the stained glass windows by Rising Falls. He looked up, ready for the worst, ready for the Heartless to jump down and fight him. He saw nothing.

"Hmm..."

He started to walk forward again, only to hear the sounds again. This time, he saw the battle. A girl, looking around his age, was hacking away at the heartless with a long staff-like thing.

She ran across the roof, bashing away anything that got in her way. She was nearly done with the Heartless when a huge wyvern appeared, and knocked her weapon onto the road below. Sora reached for it, but an unknown force shocked him and kept him from touching it.

The girl pulled a fan from her belt and held it in front of her. A gem on her wrist glowed with a grim anticipation. The wyvern slowly glided forward, it's yellow eyes set on it's prey. It rammed into her, but was deflected by a red shield growing in front of her.

The gem glowed brighter with an eerie light, and Sora saw her lips move. The wyvern froze, then shattered into small white pieces. The pieces fell around Sora and disappeared the moment that they did. The girl jumped down, never taking her eyes off Sora, and picked up the fallen staff.

"Heh. It's so much more powerful when I haven't been world hopping. That really drains my strength," she said.

"Oh, um..." Sora said.

A large number of Heartless suddenly appeared, surrounding the both of them. Sora knew that he couldn't take on this many. Even the girl, with her great strength, couldn't kill all these. Unless she had a hidden, secret weapon up her sleeve.

The Heartless inched forward, making the two back up until they were back to back.

"Sorry it has to end like this, huh?" Sora said.

"It isn't going to end here. Do you have an Ether or a Potion or something like that? I can save us if you give me one."

Sora handed her an Elixir.

"Thanks," she said, and drank it.

She immediately dropped her staff and held her fan up to her face.

"Get ready..." she whispered, "My friend is coming."

"Your friend?" asked Sora.

"Close your eyes. I don't know what she'll do."

The girl disappeared and Sora fell down, not realizing that he was using her to stand. He closed his eyes, heeding the girl's warning.

Even with his eyes closed Sora was temporary blinded by the bright flash that occurred. When the light dimmed, the Heartless were gone and the girl was standing alone.

"Goodbye. Your friend is waiting and I don't want to delay you any longer," she said, then smiled, "Say, I read some pamplets about a "Coliseum" somewhere. If you ever go to it, I'll fight you, and your friends."

She walked up to the edge of the road.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye, for now."

She stepped off of the edge, falling into whatever was below.

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Akara was sorry she had to drop out on the boy like that, but while the battle raged between Kila and the Heartless, she had seen a darkish figure watching the battle. She just... had a feeling that he was evil. After the battle, the figure had headed into the dark depths of her once home. She couldn't follow the figure now, but she would later. Her first priority was to find something to rekindle her memory.

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Gaimal stood in front of Maleficent, explaining what he had seen. Being one of the original citizens of Hollow Bastion, he was sorry to what it had become. But still, he prided himself on siding with the side that would most likely win. That was the Heartless' side. And if that meant having to try to kill a girl he had crushed on as a child, so be it. It was better to survive and bear painful memories than to die and have good ones.

"I knew that girl when I was little. She was the daughter of the leader of the castle before the Heartless overran. She's always been stubborn and never budges. If she was to find out about our operation and dislike it, the only way to stop her would be to kill her. It was believed that she died in the invasion, but that has been apparently disproven."

"Relax. That girl bears no threat against us," Maleficent said.

"But she seems to have allied herself with the Keybearer. If they joined forces, they could be unstoppable."

"Like I said, relax. She holds no idea about who he is. Anyway, she has lost her past. She knows nothing about who she once was or what happened here."

"This castle holds many memories to many people, but the most to the ruler. And to the ruler's daughter, that would be no different. We can't let her find anything about her past, or she might find out about us."

"The only area accessible is the dungeon, and even that is guarded by a multitude of Heartless. The doors to the main hall are shut, and Riku is there, with the Keyblade."

"Oh, so we have a new Keyblade master," said Gaimal.

"Exactly. You know what the Keyblade can do. If she gets in, let her meet that fate..."

Gaimal smiled at this idea and sheathed his sword.

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