Author's Note-Sorry for the delay and happy Mother's Day! -sweatdrops as she rhymes- Eheh...um...right...anyways... ; Yeah, I'm being a bit delayed from being weighed down with school work and crap...but, I'm trying to post these chapters every day/night. So yeah...well, enjoy the fic, then.
Taro flung his hook up and caught the top of the TV screen. Suddenly he saw a person jump off the TV. "Riku!" he exclaimed. He dug into his pocket for a backup rope and found it. He tossed the hook up and it caught.
It was only by luck that Riku's hand grasped the rope. "Oi, thanks, kid." He called over, climbing down the rope as Taro climbed up past him. The screen was slick from rain.
"No problem! Riku, what the hell's goin on out there?!" Taro called.
"Don't go up there!" Riku called back.
"What?! But Riku, Kiyoshi's-"
At that moment, there was an explosion of sparks and flame.
"Gone." Riku said as a gummi ship blasted out of the center of the TVs. That was all there was time to say before the force of the explosion knocked the hooks off the TV screens, sending them flying.
Flying into the shadows below.
-----
A humanoid duck and dog walked through the dark halls of Hollow Bastion. "Er...Gawrsh, Donald. Do you think we'll find him here? I don't see him anywhere...in fact, I don't see anybody..."
"We'll find him, Goofy. C'mon." the duck said determinedly, opening the 156th door to the castle. It was a big castle! They'd been searching all day today and all day yesterday, and they hadn't seen a single soul. The whole castle had been as silent as a tomb.
"..." Goofy looked around. "Sora!" he called. The name echoed throughout the castle.
"Quiet, you big palooka!" the duck snapped, shutting the door and going to the next one. As an afterthought, he called just as loudly, "Sora!"
"Er...whadda 'bout this room?" Goofy asked, pointing to a door with a snowflake imprinted on it.
"I doubt he's gonna be in there! That'd be a freezer or something. Don't open it." Donald ordered.
"Uh..." Goofy, who had already gone inside, said. "Gee, it's cold in here..."
"Ah! Goofy!" Donald shouted. His voice reverberated eerily off the wall. He ran in after his dog friend. "I told you not to-whoa..."
The two looked around at all the capsules in the room. Berths. They were glass with a light blue liquid inside. And floating in that liquid was-
"Donald, look! People...!"
-----
"Kairi! ...I'm okay, Kairi. See? Don't worry-I'm gonna try to get back to you soon. I promise." A boy said.
The girl with red hair that was once short looked over at the boy with sad, blue eyes. "But Sora...you said that a year ago. What happened to you? You don't even come to visit..."
The boy-Sora-sighed and laid back on the paopu tree like he used to when they watched the sunset from there. It was almost like old times, only, they were missing someone... "I don't know, Kairi... I really don't know. I mean, aren't we home right now?"
"Only in my dreams!" Kairi argued. "When I wake up, I'm home and you're not there!"
"That's strange..." Sora mumbled. "I'm here all the time...except..." he sat up took Kairi by the hand. "Follow me." With that, he pulled her to the secret place. The door...it was gone to reveal a black void. "I explored inside a few hours ago. I saw someone there-a kid that looked like me. Only...he was blond... We fought a heartless-one that I had never seen before; one that was pretty powerful. Kairi, I think something is going to happen. Something soon."
"Do you think it could be the Heartless?" Kairi asked a bit fearfully.
"...Dunno..."
"Sora, if I stop hearing your voice, I'm...I'm going after you."
Sora, who had been observing the doorway, smiled. "Don't be silly, Kairi. You'd be much safer staying he-" He turned, only to see that Kairi was gone. He sighed. "Not again..."
Slowly, he walked out of the Secret Place to see that night had fallen early. Storm clouds moved towards the island, floating threateningly on the horizon and making the already dark sky darker and quite ominous looking. "Uh oh. Rain clouds. I should probably take shelter."
-----
"What?!" Donald exclaimed. He looked around, looked into the berths. Inside, people /did/ sleep.
People like Leon, Cloud, Cid, Aerith, and Yuffie.
"Hey! It's the others!" Goofy exclaimed.
"We've got to get them out of there!" Donald said. He began to run through his spells. "Fire!" he yelled. A fireball shot from his staff and was just kind of absorbed by the plexi-glass.
At this result, he tried his next spell. "...Freeze!"
This time, an iceball bounced around the room, off the plexi-glass, and back to Donald. "Wha...!" Was all that the duck had time to say before he was frozen in ice.
Goofy blinked. "Maybe all you have to do is press these here buttons..." he said, going to a control panel nearby. He pressed several random buttons. With a dramatic cloud of mist, the liquid drained out of one of the berths and the plexi-glass slid open.
Blue eyes opened slowly as a tall brunette slowly took off his oxygen mask. He stepped out and then grimaced as his hand flew to the long gash drawn down his arm.
"Leon!" Goofy exclaimed.
"Goofy...?" Leon said. Unused legs suddenly gave out on him and he suddenly fell to his knees.
"Yeah. Leon, what's the matter?"
"Where's Sora?"
"Uh..."
The ice around Donald shattered. "Leon!" he exclaimed.
"Where is Sora?" Leon repeated.
"That's who we've been looking for! And for a year, no less!" Donald quacked. He saw Leon's wound and raised his staff. "Heal!"
Green light floated around Leon's wound, but then turned red. Leon bit back a cry of pain as it felt like someone had shoved a hot-iron sword into the wound. The three watched in bewilderment as the gash began to bleed again. Leon closed his eyes and shook his head, then stood up and started weakly over to the first aid kit to treat his wound the old- fashioned way.
"What happened, Leon?" Donald asked, a bit concerned.
"We were attacked..." Leon said simply.
"What?"
"We were in the entrance hall...there was a swarm of Heartless...we were overrun...and the man who led them...Silence..." Leon looked up from his bloody bandages at Donald and Goofy, who stared at him quietly. "...No, Silence was the man's name..." he said.
"Silence?" Donald repeated.
Leon nodded slowly. "Yes...and if I remember right, Silence was a very important man in the royal court."
"Hey! It's Sora! It's Sora, you guys!" they heard Goofy call from the back of the room.
Leon finished tying his bandage and followed Donald to Goofy. They looked up to see a huge glass bubble, the glass tinted a green color. The bubble was filled with some kind of liquid. In the center of the bubble floated Sora, eyes closed, with an oxygen mask over his nose and mouth. Several wires were hooked up to the boy, and Sora had his arms spread out and his head was lowered, forming a cross. Underneath the bubble was a control consol.
"What the hell..." Leon sighed, beginning to work on the consol.
-----
The wind whipped through the brunette's hair. Sora had been unable to get inside anywhere. All of the doors had been locked, and there seemed to be a ward in the doorway to the tree house... He walked out to the small island and stared up at the sky. 'This storm...it looks fishy...' he thought.
Suddenly, shadows began to rise from the ground. "Heartless!" he cried. He reached for his keyblade-it was gone! And these were new and improved shadow Heartless, too.
The Heartless leapt upon the defenseless boy and stabbed his ankles, arms, wrist, chest, back, and back of the neck with their claws. The next thing he knew, the claws were drawn slowly out as he was lifted into the air, then shot off like a bullet. He was flying back over the dark, choppy waves of the sea. Flying into a Heartless symbol of light.
"Fragments... Fragments of memory...fragments of heart...the Heartless will strive for them...and they will never be satisfied...until they have your heart..." a voice, the voice from the dream, whispered.
-----
"He's coming to!" Donald exclaimed, his face right over the brunette boy's. The liquid had drained out and the wires and needles had slid out. The oxygen mask fell off and Sora had dropped through the little doorway at the bottom of the tank, caught by the duck and then laid down on the marble floor. Sora coughed again. Goofy and Leon came over to stare down at the boy. Dark blue eyes slowly opened."Donald...? Goofy...? Leon...? What happened?" Sora muttered.
"That's what we'd like to know..." Donald said.
"How did you get like that?" Leon asked.
Sora frowned has he slowly sat up and thought back...
-flashback-
"Donald? Goofy? Pluto?" Sora called, looking around. He walked a few more steps forward, then turned back to the forest that he'd just come out of. "Man..." he sighed. "Now I've lost them, too. Great..."
He kicked a rock. He turned back to the path that stretched into the hills. "Oh well..." He began walking down the path again. "Donald." He called. "Goofy."
He kicked another rock and watched it go around the bend. "I have the worst luck..." he grumbled, following the rock. Suddenly he heard something. Saw something. The flash and sound of a blade?
He ran over to see a black figure wielding a golden keyblade. Wait. A /keyblade/?
"King Mickey!" Sora exclaimed. Suddenly King Mickey turned and pointed the Keyblade at him. Sora suddenly felt himself being jerked back and flying into darkness.
The last words that he heard spoken was King Mickey saying "Oh dear..."
-end of flashback-
"But that doesn't make any sense! Why would King Mickey do something like that to you?!" Donald demanded.
Goofy covered his mouth, eyes wide. "Suppose he turned evil like...Ansem..."
"..." Leon stood up and went over to the other control panel for the berths.
"Don't be a bumblebrain! King Mickey would never turn evil!" Donald snapped.
"Don't be so sure. We all thought the same thing." Leon said, his eyes never leaving the panel.
Ja ne-Until next time (I believe...)
Author's Note-Yay! Sora is finally in the ficcy! And not just a dream! Aren't you guys excited? -sees all the people that don't like Sora shake their heads- Oh...well...I'm sure some of you are. wonders if there are any Sora fans in the room in the first place Right...well, anyways, please review...