Jade opened her eye, where was she? She thought to herself, and why was it raining? She sat up looking around her, she was in some kind of alley; dark storm clouds swirled menacingly over her head. Silvery rain fell in sheets and icy winds were swirling around her making her shiver so violently she dropped what she had been holding. Wait a second, Jade thought; she hadn't been holding anything earlier. She looked at the ground beside her and almost dropped her items in shock. Keyblades! One in each hand! The first gleamed as if completely made of silvery moonlight. Its form shimmered under her fingers as if ready to vanish at any moment. The second was more of an eerie color, its green base blazed with the internal light of a thousand emerald flames. Jade quickly scrambled to her feet, suddenly being hit with memories of what happened. She had to get moving, she had to return to Oz. She needed to find her mother, to find Collin …to find Sean. It all seemed like a horrible dream. Everything that had happened was mixed up, blurred in her mind. But Sean's betrayal was sharp she could not just forget something like that, had he meant any of it? It seemed so impossible now. But now was not the best time to just stand around and think; the rain was pouring down mercilessly and the wind felt as if it were coming from the coldest part of the Universe. Jade shivered again, so violently, she almost lost her balance. Not only was this making her feel miserable, it was going to give her an early death if she didn't get warm soon. She pushed against the icy wind trying her best to find an open building among the darkened buildings of the mysterious world she had found herself on. But as she continued, it became harder and harder to keep moving. The wind continued to blow without lightening up in the least, and the longer she kept going the more she'd have to stop and shiver. Her breath crystallized before her, the rain felt like sleet pounding on her face. She was too wet to start a fire, even with the aid of her magic. Jade continued to trudge along, thinking that her current situation could not possibly get any worse. She was cold, wet, and only the Wizard knew how far she was from Oz. She looked ahead of her; still all the windows in the buildings she passed were dark. Wherever she was it was fairly deserted all the people had evacuated or… There was a hissing noise that brought Jade's attention to the ground. At first she had thought the dark water was simply the reflection of the black sky above. But a closer examination revealed that the black was actually moving. Thunder rumbled its warning above her head. She stepped backward and not a moment too soon Right where her foot had been a sleek black hand broke through the water. Jade looked around her, everywhere sleek black creatures were pulling themselves up. She was completely surrounded! She had read about these Heartless in her History Books. NeoShadows: One of the strongest Heartless types in existence, if confronted allow Professional to take care of them. Jade lashed out with her Keyblades but the Heartless seemed only to find her weapons a mild annoyance at most. They shook off her attacks with unnerving ease. Suddenly lightning struck before her making one of the advancing NeoShadows retreat in anger. Jade looked up to see a figure in the distance. At the same time the figure spotted her. They blasted their way into the circle using some type of gun weapon. "Come on this way!" The figure instructed. They sounded like a girl no older then Jade. For a brief moment Jade considered not following, but what choice did she have? She followed the girl as she blasted her way out of the circle of NeoShadows and into a nearby building. Once inside Jade got a better look at her rescuer. A young blonde girl around her own age with sharp green eyes. She dressed rather simply except for the goggles she wore on her head almost hidden by the unruly blonde hair. "Hey you ok?" The girl asked walking over. Jade nodded wordlessly. They were in some kind of shop; thankfully a fire was burning nearby. "I'm glad, but you look like a drowned Heartless." the girl laughed. She looked at the Keyblades her eyes widening. "It's YOU!" She exclaimed happily. She ran to Jade embracing her ecstatically. "You! You're the new Keyblade Master?" Jade nodded, the girl seemed to have known about this longer than she had. Was there some kind of memo she had missed?

"I think there must be some kind of misunderstanding really... You saw how well I was fighting out there. I think the Keyblades made a mistake or something." Jade said uncertainly. She had been longing for variety in her life since she had been very young. But this was a little more than she bargained for. The girl couldn't be any older then she was, yet she seemed so familiar with the Heartless. Skillfully using her gun like weapon; how long had she been dealing with them?

"I heard there was a new Keyblade Master but I thought it was just a roomer! You know like the one about Sora coming back? But here you are! The real Keyblade Master! That means that something big is about to happen and you've been chosen to take part in it and save the Universe from the Heartless! The Keyblades Never make a mistake… Chosen One." The girl took a deep breath, grinning widely. She seemed to know so much about the current situation. Again Jade was forced to wonder if there was some kind of intergalactic bulletin board with her name and the words: Keyblade Master beside it and she had just missed it. "Can I go with you? When you go off to save the Universe? Please! I'm really good with my weapon! I promise I won't slow you down any!" Jade looked at the girl as if she were speaking Arabian. Well, Jade really did need help. She couldn't exactly take care of herself as she had demonstrated a few minuets ago. And the girl did know more about what was going on. Her mom would never allow anything like that…

"I don't see why not," Jade said confidently. She could use all the help she could get. The girl's face lit up when she agreed. It must have been a long dream for the girl because she seemed as if she didn't quite believe Jade had agreed. "I'm Jade and you are?"

"Rikku!" The girl said excitedly. "My name is Rikku; I came here a few years ago and have been stuck here ever since." She walked over to a shelf in the store. She pulled out a dark gray coat. "Here, you'll need this it's cold out there." Rikku said handing it to Jade. "This shop belongs to a friend of mine. She won't mind if you take it." Rikku reassured her. "She's a battle trainer, Quistis Trappe; she'll teach you everything you need to know about fighting Heartless. She taught me." Rikku said with a grin.

"A battle trainer, you're serious?" Jade asked hoping she didn't sound as relieved as she felt. Finally, someone who could help her train to fight Heartless so she wouldn't be completely clueless when she did whatever it was she had to do.

"The best of the best," Rikku added with a grin. "She taught me how to use my special gun." She held it up allowing Jade to see it clearly for the first time. It resembled a gun with some king of strange circle around the place where the bullets should come out. "It let's me use the special abilities of Heartless against them. Once I learn one all I have to do is shoot and poof no more Heartless. Like that Thunder attack you saw me use earlier I learned from a Yellow Opera." The door at the back of the shop swung open a young woman with long blonde hair and glasses magnifying her intelligent blue eyes walked in. She dressed in clothing better suited for the dark environment around them. She looked at Jade quizzically. "Jade, this is Quistis." Rikku said.

"Pleasure to meet you." Quistis said giving Rikku a questioning look. Suddenly her sharp blue eyes spotted the two Keyblades hanging in Jade's hands. "Ah yes!" She said loosing her collective composer, though only briefly, giving way to childish excitement. At once she was back to her calm collective self. "Well done Rikku. Jade, am I right?" Jade nodded and opened her mouth to speak but Quistis shook her head. "No time, you must eat, dry off, and get some rest. Tomorrow your training will begin."


1 MONTH LATER

Sora looked around him. The rain constantly dripping in his sharp blue eyes was not at all helping him navigate his way through Traverse Town. It had changed so much since his last visit, and it wasn't for the better. The ongoing storm seemed as if it would never end. This kind of thing could happen if a world relied too much on darkness. But why? First of all Traverse Town had been destroyed when he sealed Kingdom Hearts. It was no longer needed because the Heartless would not destroy worlds any longer, thus no one could go here when their world was lost. So its return alone was bad news, but the overwhelming darkness that dwelled within the overly silent streets? It was too much for Sora to comprehend. He had been gone for no more then a few weeks and in that amazingly short span of time the universe had fallen almost completely under Darkness's spell. Thunder rumbled in the distance making both Donald and Goofy jump. Though they had been turned human no skill had been lost. They were still his old friends they just looked slightly different. But right now he just longed for the comfort of Kairi; it was so hard seeing the effects of his failed mission. Something to his right grabbed his attention; a hooded figure was standing looking at him. He blinked and they vanished. To his left Sora heard the all too familiar hissing of NeoShadows. "Donald. Goofy," Sora said suddenly. Both his companions stopped looking at him quizzically. "I heard something to our left. You two check it out. I'll go to the right and see if it was a distraction." Donald opened his mouth to object but Sora shook his head walking off to the right. He heard the sound of his friends' footsteps fade away melting into the steady thud of rain. Soon rainfall was the only sound that filled his expert ears. He saw the hooded figure not too far up ahead. So far the only hooded people he had met were members of the Organization, not the most pleasant of people. He took out his Keyblade approaching the person with extreme caution. It was too dark to see more than the outline of the figure but Sora felt he should not retreat to light. That would show weakness. The figure did not retreat either So Sora swung at them experimentally. They blocked with weapons of their own. It was too dark to tell more about the weapons other than there were two. The figure struck back knocking Sora backward slightly. He recovered at once charging back at the figure this time hitting them in the right shoulder making them drop one of their weapons. They reached down to pick it up and Sora charged, but they had been expecting this and rolled to their side grabbing their second weapon and cracking Sora's spine with their first. Sora let out a small cry of pain he had not expected such a strong blow. He fell to the ground but kicked out knocking his opponent off their feet as well. He rolled over grabbing them from behind trying to hold them down. But suddenly the figure shook an arm free and raised it up. Sora felt himself lifted off the ground. The figure pointed forward and Sora found himself thrown against a wall. The two charged at each other their weapons making a loud clang that broke the silence that had fallen over them like a knife. Sora was winning pushing his mysterious opponent toward the ground. Suddenly lightning sizzled through the sky illuminating his opponent. Under the hood was the face of a girl around his own age. Her eyes were mismatched one blue and one green. She saw him as well for the first time as the lightning showered them with bright revealing light. The girl looked at him with disbelieving eyes. She dropped to the ground Sora reached out grabbing only her necklace. The string broke as the girl ran off vanishing before Sora could say anything at all to her. He looked at the necklace in his hand. It was a long thin emerald glowing with bright intense light. He pocketed the emerald necklace. When he found her again he could ask her all the questions that had started to buzz in his mind. "Who was she?" Sora asked the most urgent of the questions aloud. Yet there was still one more that deserved his full attention. "And why did she run?"


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