"Someone, anyone! I need help!" Navani cried as he pressed through the large, main double doors of the Hollow Bastion Castle. "What happened?" he asked, collapsing to his knees with Magnolia in his arms still, her eyes still closed. "Magnolia, what happened to you?" he asked.
"Hello? Anyone there?" a female voice called in the distance.
Navani looked up from the ground. "Yes, please help!"
A pale face shone in the distance atop the circular steps that descended from either side of a menacing fountain ahead of dark double doors. She flipped back a strand of hair. "Who are you?"
"Kairi?" Navani called. "Are you okay?"
"You know Kairi!"
"Who are you? You're not Kairi?"
She stepped into the light and smiled. "My name's Aleisa, Kairi's sister."
Navani's jaw dropped. "Y-you.." he studdered.
Aleisa's eyes perked up. "Hey, you were my neighbor, weren't you? Glad to see a familiar face!"
"You actually noticed me?"
"Sure. You tried peeking in through my windows all the time," she snickered.
Navani scratched his head, then frowned and looked to Magnolia. "Do you know what's wrong with her?"
Aleisa knelled to Magnolia's side. "What happened to her?"
"The island I came from was swallowed into Darkness. A friend of mine freaked out and she's been out since."
"Think she's just passed out?"
"It may be more, but I'm not sure what."
Aleisa looked past Navani's long, dark bangs, and into his eyes. "You know Kairi?"
"Yes, she's here somewhere. I didn't know neither you nor her had a sister."
She grinned. "Now ya do."
"But why wasn't she with you?"
"Dunno. We've been separated since just about birth. She just disappeared one day. Our Nana said it was because she was special." Aleisa shrugged and rolled her eyes. She smiled. "But yeah, she's here somewhere?"
"Where did you come from?" Navani asked.
"I came here with my friends Donald, Goofy, Sora"
"Sora! You know him?"
"You mean you do, too? This is such a small Universe."
"Kairi talked about him all the time! We're going to have to reunite them!" Navani said excitedly, taking Aleisa's hands into his. He quickly pulled them away, then hid his glowing face.
"Where is she?" Aleisa asked.
"I dunno. Kairi, Cheisu, and I have been separated since we got here."
"You don't think she's in danger, do you? I don't remember much, but I know she easily got into trouble," Aleisa added.
"We need to get Sora up here," Navani said. "She was always saying how strong he was. We need him and the others to help find her and Cheisu." He looked down to Magnolia. "In the meantime, what can we do with her?"
"Leave her," a voice called in the echoing emptiness.
"Who's there?" Aleisa cried.
"Her heart will not awake," said a boy who faded from the shadows.
"You!" Aleisa screamed, recognizing Axel. "What are you doing here!"
Axel shrugged. "I am saying what is merely a fact. The new keyblade wielder's unpurity drained her heart from her. She will never once again awake."
"You're bluffing!" Navani shouted.
"I bluff you not," Axel said, sounding rather bored. "I have business to attend to with your friend. Chio," he said with a devilish smirk as he faded once again into the Darkness.
"Wait!" Navani shouted, running forward for the dark double doors.
"Hey, wait up!" Aleisa pouted as she followed behind.
"What did you do to her!" Cheisu shouted as he saw Kairi floating in an aura of colorful energy that kept her floating in a sleeping slumber. She lay at the top of a staircase ahead of the keyhole for a following Galaxy.
"Calm down, kid," Axel said, rolling his eyes under his closed eyelids. "She's not in any danger if you cooperate."
Cheisu turned to Axel and lifted his keyblade to strike. The weapon swept right through him.
"Are you just trying to piss me off?" Axel said, swaying away from the keyblade. He faded into a semi-molecular form, and then appeared human once more. Cheisu's jaw dropped and he fell backward.
"What do I have to do?" Cheisu asked, holding back his anger.
"I want you to kill this boy," Cheisu said, swirling his hand into a void and showing a projection of Sora, Goofy, and Donald nearing the Castle Gates.
"He.." Cheisu started.
"He looks strikingly similar to you, yes. I thought the same. We're hoping that will be your strongpoint in confusing him, perhaps." Axel looked to Riku, who had pulled his blindfold back over his eyes as well as his dark cape. He remained motionless and silent, leaned against the wall. "What do ya say?"
"I dunno," Cheisu said, looking to the ground.
"This is the boy Kairi likes," Axel added. "The one she constantly nagged on."
Cheisu looked to the ground, his eyes narrowing.
"You want him to win Kairi instead of you?" Axel added.
"No, I won't!" he screamed, and then smirked with anger still burning in his eyes. "No problem. I'll take care of him."
With this, he departed from Riku and Axel for the Castle Gates to meet with this stranger, and the doors slammed after him.
"I still have a bad feeling about this," Riku muttered.
"Don't worry, things will go according to plan."
"You know he can't kill Sora. We need Sora for"
"I know, I know! He's too weak. He might wear him down, and naturally, Sora will be drawn here," Axel explained. "I know what I'm doing. You think I'm gonna have such a vital role be killed? Please, Riku."
"Don't call me by my name," Riku grumbled.
"Oh, I'm sorry, what did you want to be called? Prince of Darkness?" Axel laughed and narrowly missed a blow from Riku. He smirked. "You seriously think you're going to harm me?" He laughed once more when he felt Riku's keyblade being forced into his chest. This time, he felt the pain.
What is" Axel said horsely as he watched the blade being stabbed into his heart.
"The power to unlock hearts," Riku merely said, and swiftly twisted the blade into Axel's chest. The sword pulled a black plasma, the Darkness, from Axel, and he faded into an abyss.
Riku swung his keyblade over his shoulder and headed for the double doors. This time, without Axel nagging at him.