K² ::Rise K to the Second Keyblade::

Once people prayed to Blue Sky for something.

The craving for power gave birth to the HEARTLESS.

The HEARTLESS drove people to the depths of ruin.

And then it has calmed down.

--

Author's Notes: I edited the first chapter a little bit changing some of the words and italicizing a quote. Just finding some loose ends here and there so I felt compelled to do some renovating. There's a lot of flashes of lights in up-coming chapters. Can't help it though.

Special thanks goes for this story's first (and only reviewer): Fairy's Light! (A very cute username! ) Glad to know that you find this story different from the rest. I'll try my best to keep updates flowing at least a post each month if I can balance typing with school work at the same time. I've already started on 3 pages of the next chapter.

Countdown to CoM's release in U.S.: 7 weeks.

The Serious Sounding Grinding Disclaimer: Tomogirl doesn't hold any ownership toward this story. Everything here belongs to its respectable owners. Only certain settings that don't exist anywhere else may be of Tomogirl's creation, but alas, all else are not hers.

Quotation Key:

"text"-quote

'text'-thoughts

----

----

Chapter 2: Light's Awakening Into Blue Sky

"Wha--!?", Sora gasped as he bended down with pain etching into his eyes. He tried his best to stay focus on the cathedral, but to no avail, the image came cruising into his head.

The red hair girl was giving him something.

"Sora, will you protect me?"

The spiky haired kid jolted from the spiel as something strange was occurring all around him.

'This light! Where's it coming from!?', he was flooded with great brilliance. His body was soon levitating into the air.

"Woa-ahhh! I did not ask for a flying lesson!!", he shouted before he vanished with the light leaving the boat without a guide to go anywhere else.

"!?", three heads from three different locations looked up. One was a blonde hair girl, the second was a guy with a mark on his forehead, and the third was Sophie who could only stare at the light with shock.

"That light. It can't be... That's an Omega Warp!" she started to jump from roof to roof hoping to make it to the cathedral on time.

Sora felt himself flying at full speed. His eyes showed full terror and his open mouth could've been screaming. The vortex, he was stuck in, looked like a never-ending cyclone of swirling white, red, and purple colors. Eventually, he did get to the end of it, appearing in the room that's full of calamity.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up. A white light filled the top part of the room and a boy exploded out of the light.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!," Sora was falling and closed shut his eyes knowing it could be the end of him. He didn't land on the hard floor as he expected himself to do so though. The cushion, he fell on, was something soft, yet very cold. Opening both eyes, he looked down only to get a reality check at the thing he was laying on top. A black four-legged creature was staring up at him with intense yellow eyes. Its two dog-like wrinkled ears wavered for a bit.

'Hn...? What? Is this some kind of an animal?', he had sweat pouring down by ten folds just watching the creature.

"Ack! It is you!", a voice was piercing the air, "You're that boy who works at that juice store! What are you doing here!?".

Sora looked up seeing that a whole army of yellow eyes were looking at him. The black haired girl was standing amidst all of them with a finger pointing straight at him.

"Hey, you're that girl! ....Uh, what's going on here? Is this some kind of a show?"

"Stop talking and move! You're gonna be eaten by that heartless, you're sitting on, if you don't do anything!!"

"A heartless?", Sora returned his attention back at the black creature with a dumbfounded look glued on. Out of nowhere, a blast of a laser's light came bashing the Shadow Heartless's body, making Sora jump back one foot in the air only to land back onto the floor.

"You know him, Yuffie? Is it possible that this boy is who I think it is?", Aeris came running toward him swinging her sword in other directions at the heartless. Sora looked up recognizing the girl who pulled the black haired girl out of the store. She extended a hand out to him with a warm smile once, she was standing right over him.

"It's alright. Please just grab my hand and I'll let my assistant take you out of here safely."

Sora took her hand but was unfortunately still a bit slow.

"Thanks, uh. So this isn't a show?"

"I don't believe this. Wake up!! Do you think humans could actually fit in any of these monsters if they were costumes!?", Yuffie was going ballistic before realizing something else, "Aerith! Hurry! The heartless are.."

She couldn't finish her sentence. A man was approaching them from the other side of the room. Laughter was bouncing off walls like streams of madness. His staff glared a red glow which made various of the Shadow Heartless crawl back.

"I've been waiting for you," he raised his staff high.

"Oh no you don't Jafar!!", Aerith swung her sword down creating another force of powerful air. The sorcerer didn't even flinch from its affect. The girl was enraged and pushed Sora toward Yuffie.

"Go! Take him outside!"

"But Aerith.. What about you?"

"I can take this sorcerer down any day. Just because we haven't seen each other for awhile doesn't mean, I'll give in to his new acquired powers," Aerith spoke that quickly as she dodged a beam of electricity flowing from Jafar's staff.

"Alright. Fine! Hey kid......!", Yuffie turned her head to see no one standing next to her, "Araghhh!!". She twisted her body to see Sora rolling himself to the safe. Her entire body froze on spot.

'What is that thing? It looks like a child is in there," Sora's curiosity was high as usual. To his luck, most of the black creatures have disappeared from the area so navigating was very clear. He was about two feet away ready to peek through the hole when instantly, the two mushroom heads popped up right out from behind the safe.

"Hey! Hold it right there! We won't let you near Hikari!"

"Yah! If you dare step one more kid, we might have to send you to your death! Mwahahahah! Who are you anyways? Are you one of Leon's officers?"

"Leon? Who's he? I'm just a regular juice delivery boy for 'Cid's 100 Juice Shack' where we make the juice always on the spot. Never from the can. Open 7 days a week, 9-8 p.m. Here, have a card," Sora did as he said, handing one of them the business card. Both shrooms were staring at the card with surprise not expecting such a thing to happen from someone who wasn't an inch afraid of them.

"NOOOo! You fuzz ball brain kid! What are you doing!? Get away from those two!!", Yuffie came shrieking with a dashing crazy run. Sora didn't seem to notice as he went the last seven feet in order to touch the safe. He peered right through the hole which reacted a rush of another heart attack.

"!", Sora's body bended down into a crouching position. The two mushroom heads were scrambling in his direction followed by Yuffie. They were all screaming out to him. Paralyzed, he couldn't do anything as shouts of those voices were being drowned out by a new one.

Two people were sitting on a bench in the foggy atmosphere. A candlestick, hanging from a tall pole, was the only source of light that could be provided.

"Isn't this nice? It's like we're on a date sitting here by ourselves. No one to come in and interfere our fun," Kairi was looking down with a smile at the little spiky hair boy. His expression was emotionless. There was no way to tell what he was exactly thinking. The crown shaped pendant that laid against his sweatshirt shone with brilliance as usual.

"Too bad, we can't see any of the sky. It would've been pretty if we could see the far ends of the universe. Stars. A moon," Kairi kept on talking, knowing the fact that Sora was always quiet therefore, he'll never respond. The boy turned his head to look straight ahead of him following that with a look up at the sky. The fog was a blanket of white opaque smoke. Sitting lazily taunting someone to come and get rid of it. Kairi couldn't help but giggle at Sora's little movement.

"Here," she took a small little key out of her pocket, "This is my gift to you." The key was passed onto the boy's hand. He looked at it closely and noticed that it had a tiny handle at the end of it as if someone, the size of an adult's hand, was meant to hold it.

"That key doesn't open any regular door. It only opens and locks certain special doors. Perhaps, doors to other worlds. Funny when you think about it, eh? We're locked here in a world disconnected from everyone else. You get this sense of feeling left out on everything", she looked down wistfully. Sora watched her for a few seconds before taking his pendant off his neck.

"Eh?", the girl raised her head to see him holding out his necklace toward her, "For me?"

The boy made a small nod as she took the necklace and placed it around her neck.

"It's very beautiful. Thank you,"once she said that, she then bended down to his eye level, "Sora. Will you protect me?"

With one ounce of strength, Sora managed to straighten himself up again. He dreadfully stared at the little girl sleeping peacefully in the safe. Her necklace, bobbing up and down, kept gaining his attention too.

'Kairi..'

The second, that thought entered his mind, a sparkle of starry lights were building around the safe. The boy backed away from it as soon as those sparkles changed into a big glow of white light.

"What!? The safe!!", the shrooms were grabbing a hold of Sora's shorts, but were more fixated on the box itself. Yuffie could only stare at the entire scenario. She never saw anything like it before.

"No! Not yet!!", Aerith was dismissing her fight with the sorcerer as she appeared in a blink of an eye beside Yuffie, "I knew it! That boy is the keyblade master. I've been wondering how he Omega Warped over here earlier. He has the power to awaken her. You should've grabbed him tight and make sure, he didn't go anywhere near the safe."

"You mean that bubblehead juice boy is the keyblade wielder!? No way! You didn't even tell me to make sure he didn't go near the safe," Yuffie was still in awe, but managed to protest a little.

"It doesn't matter now. It's too late to stop the opening of the safe. Whatever happens, we'll have to try to make the best of it."

The white light fully blinded the area. Once, it started to recede, a figure was stepping out of the safe. She walked over to Sora, who was covering his eyes with his arm from the light, and grabbed his hand. The boy felt the softness of a child's fingers and looked down, unraveling his arm from his head as he did so. The red head stared up at him with innocent big blue crystal eyes.

"Hey kid! Thanks for awakening Hikari for us! This makes our job easier than finding some bitty ugly key!", a mushroom head clamped one of his black hands onto the girl's gown. (Arrow points: It seems both shrooms decided on what the key is going to look like.) Strangely, the girl didn't seem to look frightened at all as she kept staring at whatever's going on.

"Hikari? You mean, Kairi," Sora raised his hand a little making the red head stand on her toes.

"Look kid! We don't have time to play name games with you! Just hand her over to us and we'll be gone before you know it", the mushroom head threatened; releasing his hold on the girl's gown in order to cross his arms.

"Yeah! She's a princess and has potential power that's gonna be useful to our Master," the other shroom added in. Sora scratched the back of his head looking like he was tired.

"A princess? I dunno. Everything here is just too weird for me. I think the only thing I can do right now is..," he grabbed the child by her waist, "find a way out of here!". He leaped over the shrooms' heads and zipped by Aerith and Yuffie.

"Hey! Come back here!", the two shrooms were screaming in agony before shouting out a command, "Shadow Heartless! Bring us Hikari!!"

Heartless were crawling out of the floor, and started to chase Sora around the room. Constantly looking behind him, Sora began to feel fear deep within his heart. Thoughts of not making out alive were always circling his mind as he tried many ways to shake the heartless off his tail.

"These guys are everywhere!", he grumbled as he was zigzagging through some of the cathedral's pews. Other attempts that obviously failed are: cruising behind the safe itself, and through several of the massive ionic columns. He even came face to face with Jafar, who was simply standing in the far end of the room watching silently. Sora's eyes were bulged big looking at the sorcerer and his thick black goatee. Turning around quickly, he spotted the cathedral's two door entrance which were completely destroyed. He began aiming his speed at the entrance, but was put to a halt seeing that a whole pile of heartless were forming a gigantic mountain to block his exit. Twisting his head again in panic, he felt there was no where else to go. Eventually, he came across some stairs that were positioned along the room's corner. Struggling with his free hand, he managed to climb each step successfully with his blades on along with holding the girl at the same time. Even more impressive was the quick speed that he was using on the stairs.

The minute, Sora disappeared from sight, all the heartless were gone from the vast big room revealing every single crack and fallen debris brought on by Aerith's sword. The missing heartless included the two shrooms who ended up running up the stairs after the Shadows.

"The dimwit has been running around without a head for this brief amount of time. I'm surprised that he survived this long," Yuffie puffed some air while bending her arms at her sides. Ignoring Yuffie's comment, Aerith reached into her pocket to grab her cell phone.

"It seems, the situation has really gotten bad. I'm going to contact Vice-Commander and make sure she gets here pronto."

"Hey, I'm right here! I sneaked in before those Shadows crowded the entrance," Sophie popped up right behind the two girls with a grin. She walked over to the stairs peering up into the dark square that the stairs go through to the next floor.

"That boy will be able to withstand them to the very end so I don't think he'll need us.....yet."

"And how do you know that?", Aerith looked at her intently. Uncertainty was still hovering over her.

"Don't you see it? It's practically a given," the Vice-Commander smiled at each of her companions leaving them with questionable stares. Yuffie felt like pouting even more, but soon felt something else hit her head. She jerked her head up at Aerith.

"What happened to Jafar? Weren't you fighting him?"

"I'll get him next time. You know how these sub-masters always vanish when something important comes up. Right now though, we need to worry about reporting this to the Commander."

Sora was strolling in through a long dark hallway. He knew yellow eyes were crawling after him from a not so far off distance, and it won't be long now before they catch up. His feet were beginning to wear out.

'I feel like I've been traveling for an hour just going around this place in circles,' he was looking to and fro at each of the doors that were on either sides of the hallway. He knew, he should've gone into one by now, but something kept tugging at his heart to not go into any of them. Why was he afraid? All of the rooms should mostly be the same.

His head reared up and halted his blades instantly. The creatures were appearing out of the floor in front of him.

"Ha! We have you cornered now!", sneered a familiar voice. Sora's eyes glowered for a bit knowing there was no other easy way out. He ran to his left into an open doorway.

'I don't think I'm ready for this ,' the boy found himself peering through the room's window looking down with a timid look. The chills that were radiating from the creatures started to increase, the longer he stood there. He walked back a little to give himself some running room. The heartless were beginning to invade the room. Without thinking further as to what he was about to do, he charged his entire body through the window and into the darkness of the night.

"Uwa-------------------h!!", his eyes were shot closed, 'There goes my future! The grave!'

Air was blowing right along his face. Feelings of never making it out alive were mutually stuck in his brain. Yet, he didn't notice that the same white light that took him to the cathedral was surrounding both he and the girl once more. The red head flashed a smile up at him. It only took another second before they got swallowed up by the light and vanish altogether.

--

In the undisclosed location, the sorcerer was once more in conversation with his own boss.

"Sire. It seems the keyblade wielder has been found. Yet, it's been learned that the keyblade isn't needed to open the safe."

"Fascinating. I still puzzle its power. Perhaps, the legend isn't true then. Hm. On other news, tell me, Jafar. Where's Hikari?"

"That's the bad news, my Lord," Jafar looked down to the floor, "The wielder has taken Hikari with him."

"...... I see that as no problem for us. This wielder should be a weakling. I leave the situation in your care."

"Yes," he bowed feeling anger boiling through his veins. His whole plan was taking longer than expected. Clicking his heels, he exited the room ready to snap his staff at the two mushroom heads, who were waiting for him outside. A figure was standing by the hall several feet away to where they were. He knew, Jafar would never be able to sense his presence. Dressed all in black with a large zipper going down his middle suit, and two strings hanging from the hood; he bowed his head slightly trying to see if there was anything else, Jafar had to say was important to his ears. The figure then turned around and walked silently away disappearing into the dark end of the corridor.

------

A.N.: Somehow, this chapter was probably the hardest chapter ever to plot out. I had to change so many scenes and blablabla.

As a special treat to this opening of possibly, the last fanfic, I might ever work on (with the exception of the others in my writing file): I present to you the first K² omake (/blooper)! (inserts thunder sfx.)

K-chan (from Cardcaptor Sak.): Your last? Gee. That makes me want to eat more.

Tomogirl: ...... See you readers later. Need to correct something on this stuffed animal's stomach. (grab K-chan by his tail)

K-chan: Hey! Stop it! Whatdayadoing!? Where you taking me!? Help! I'm being kidnapped!

--

Chapter 1- (Near the end)

"Yup. We're about to barge in until you called up."

"You sure, you don't need any backup yet?"

"Nope. Perfectly fine. I think, it's not going to be so bad."

"Alright then. See you later!"

"See ya!"

Both girls hung up with just a simple press of their buttons, or so they thought....

"Um, ah (in a quieter voice) Sophie? I can't seem to hang up my phone. It won't let me make an 'End Call".

"Funny thing. Mine won't either..."

"What's going on!? Hold on.. ", Aerith puts down her cell phone, "Yuffie, can I borrow your cell phone for a moment? I need to call my cell provider."

"Can't do," the shorter girl shook her head sadly.

"Why not?"

"Because he has it...," Yuffie touched the cathedral with one tip of her finger. The entire front of the cathedral fell down like a book toppling over. You can see that the back of this cathedral side is all made out of wood. On the other side of the cathedral's fallen front is the platform that Jafar steps on when arriving at the place. Sitting now on the platform is the spiky hair kid holding the cell out in front of him.

"SORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Are you playing games on it!?", Yuffie demanded angrily. The boy looked up with a shock look on his face.

"Uh-oh...Uh. Here!", he threw the cell phone into the air only to land right onto the backing of the wooden cathedral set. It broke in three pieces. Yuffie stared at it with shock and her mouth could be seen gaping. Aerith could only stare. Sora sweat dropped knowing he's doomed.

"Um, Yuffie.. Haha.. Sorry! I..uh.... Gotta go. By-E!", he hopped off the platform and ran off for his life through crowds of people sitting in chairs and working on cameras.

"That...that....little...weasel! It took me three years to get that cell! Come back here cell phone killer!!", Yuffie dashed off in the direction that Sora ran off to. Aerith watched her disappear before going back to her cell phone with a dead look on her face.

"Sophie, I think our problem just got complicated."