Author's Note-Hah! I finally posted! Though I have to write a lot...lot more...now... -sweatdrops- I am trying my best! I don't own Kingdom Hearts by the way, so don't sue me! -hides-

Mickey, Taro, and co. raced to the chapel. Goofy, with his big, bounding steps, made it to the doors first. "The doors' locked!" he exclaimed.

"Locked?!" Donald demanded.

"C'mon, there's gotta be a way i-" Taro pushed on the doors, then fell through the doors. Solid doors. "-In..." he finished softly. He looked around. "Hello?" he called. "Is anybody there?" He ran out into the middle of the circular room and looked around. Looking back at the doors, he could tell they were still shut. And locked.

"Hm..." he said, walking out the door that was off to the side of the room and to the lift stop. When he got to the large set of doors, hesitantly, he pushed them open. A creak echoed throughout the room.

Taro ran out into the room when he was suddenly surrounded by monsters. Heartless, he now knew they were. Forming his keyblades in each hand, he sliced through the Heartless, working his way up the stairs as he went. When he reached the top and finished off the Heartless, he looked up at the large mass of swirling colors before him. "A keyhole...?" He jumped up and in through the keyhole.

He landed in wet streets. Very familiar wet streets. After taking a look around, he exclaimed, "Hey! Hey, I'm back home!" He spotted a dark lump lying in a puddle in the streets. "...What's that...?"

Cautiously he approached the lump. Two golden, glowing eyes suddenly raised up beside it. A shadow Heartless. Taro slashed through it with ease, thankful that it was only one. He was getting pretty tired of fighting with Heartless constantly. Then he looked down at the lump he had just saved.

It was a kid! A boy not much younger than himself, from what he could tell. This boy seemed to be unconscious. Taro reached out to the boy and touched his forehead. Taro's eyes widened slightly. The kid was burning up, running a fever. He had to get him to a doctor.

Taro looked up and around, seeing several glowing eyes surrounding them, watching them from the shadows. Glaring at them, he scooped up the boy and ran down to the street, thankful that it was no longer raining. Sunlight was in fact beginning to peek its way demurely through the clouds, casting a dim dawning light over the silent town. Taro ran for about twenty minutes until he finally came to his home.

It was strange, seeing it so deserted. Even though it was dawn, usually his dad would be training in the little gym they had upstairs, his sister would be snoring in the room a little ways down the hall from his. He would be sleeping in his room and his mom would be sleeping in his parents room down the hall. And Riku...Riku probably be roaming about the house, training by himself on the roof or sparring with his dad in the exercise room, sword against sword.

It hurt him to see the house abandoned. All memories of family were unearthed from his mind. Family that was now gone.

He shook his head as his throat tightened slightly. No. He would not cry. 'But I will have revenge for the death of my family. I swear it.' He thought.

He slowly carried the boy into the house and in the living room, then set him down on the couch, then shut the front door and locked it. He wasn't sure how well this would keep out the Heartless, but it was the best he could do and would at least by him some time until... Until what? Help came? He was sure that these Heartless monsters hadn't left anyone alive. Or maybe they had just killed everyone close to him because he was the dual wielder. He shook his head and growled. He hated this. Why was this all happening to him?! Why him, of all people?! He was only...

"Sixteen years old. Oh yeah. It's my birthday..." he muttered to himself. Strangely enough, with everything that had been happening lately, he had forgotten. He scowled. Just another thing to damper his day. He then sighed in defeat and shook his head. 'Oh well...'

"Whatever happens, happens." He muttered, walking back into the living room. He snapped on the light and walked over to the boy. "Now who...is this kid...?" When he studied the boy for a moment, he gasped.

He looks just like you.

The boy did look just like him, only brunette and slightly younger. This had to be...

"Sora..." Taro whispered. He then shook his head and went to the kitchen. He threw his coat untidily over one of the chairs at the table and walked over to the medicine cabinet. Opening it, his eyes scanned over the various bottles and boxes inside, his eyes finally resting on a glass bottle. "Ah. There." He said, taking a bottle out. He checked the label and got out a spoon. "Dad said this cures from bruises to the flu. It had better work on fevers. And I mean just any random fevers, because I haven't a clue what this kid's got."

He walked back over to Sora and opened the bottle. Reading the label again, he gave the medicine to Sora. Then, not being able to think of much else to do, he grabbed a book from the bookshelf and began to read it. His father had made him read it before, though he never really concentrated on the book and paid attention. Now, though, might would do him a little good...

It was 'The Book of Five Rings' by Musashi, a swordsman, like his father. A quite popular book that stressed strategy. Popular, despite the fact that it was over hundreds of years old. Unfortunately, he was still hardly able to focus on it.

Everything that had happened as of late...it was mind-blowing. The Heartless, princes, kings, keyblades... It was all just too much. And he had to go to other worlds, but how was he supposed to do that when he didn't even have a spaceship? And Riku. What was the deal with Riku? And Hyotoko? And Sakura? And Kiyoshi? Would he ever see him again? Was he safe, or even alive for that matter?

And then there was Sora. Taro peered over at the sick boy from over his book. Who was this kid? As soon as he had laid eyes on the kid, he felt some kind of older brotherly instinct towards him...why? Could they possibly be related? And why did Sora look 'just like him?'

"My brain hurts." Taro groaned as he lowered his head and closed his eyes.

Outside, a red-haired unknown watched the blond boy nod off to sleep through the window.

-----

Kairi ignored the sounds of music and chatter behind her as she stood out in the middle of the street and stared out at the island they hung out on, the sunset backdrop giving it a magical glow. Her crimson hair, which she had grown out, fell softly over and around her shoulders.

Tifa came up behind her, an almost-mischievous grin on her face. "Ya ready?" she asked.

Was she ready? A mix of jumbled emotions arose for Kairi with this question, but she nodded anyway. "Let's go."

Tifa nodded and hopped onto her scooter, Kairi following in suit. They rode down the hill together and got to the docks. Past the fishing boats they went until they got to their tiny rowboats. When they arrived there, they folded up their scooters and threw them into their respective rowboats, and then jumped in themselves.

"Sora. I'm coming." Kairi said. They rowed out to where Tifa was sure the shooting star had hit and looked around. "Sora? Sora?" Kairi called, looking around.

"Over there!" Tifa yelled, pointing to a black and bobbing object.

"Yeah, but...neither Sora no Riku have black hair..." Kairi muttered as she rowed over to the object. She gasped when she saw that the black object was really the hair of an unconscious floating boy. "It's a boy! It's a boy!" she shouted. Tifa rowed over as well and helped Kairi get the boy into the redhead's boat.

"This looks like all that we're going to find. Let's get over to the island. Quick!" Tifa exclaimed.

"But..." Kairi looked over at the water, then back at the boy, then sighed and followed Tifa to the island they hung out on. As the boats nudged the wet sand of the shoreline, they dragged the boy out and onto dry sand. They had to go up to the platform, because the tide was already beginning to quickly rise.

Kairi and Tifa looked down at the boy. The boy was wearing a life vest, but...

"He's bleeding." Tifa said, observing the cuts on the boy's arms, "And he's not breathing. Crap. That means that I'll have to do CPR. Alright. I'll do that-you go get a blanket from the tree house. Hurry!"

Kairi nodded as she ran to the tree house. Who is this kid? she mentally demanded. By the time she got back to the boy and Tifa with the blanket, the boy was already coughing and choking up water.

She studied him for a few moments as Tifa threw the blanket over him. The boy's hair was black and shoulder-length, and he looked about a few years younger than them. Sky-blue eyes opened slowly. He looked over at Kairi. "Sakura?!" He frowned. "No...you're...someone else..."

"Calm down, kid! That's Kairi. I'm Tifa. What's your name?" Tifa asked.

The boy coughed again. "Kiyoshi." With that, his eyes closed and he passed back into blissful unconsciousness.

-----

A red-haired man sighed and leaned against the wood of his cabin. His head tilted upwards and his eyes closed. Too long. This was taking too long. Six years of training and he still wasn't strong enough to defeat him.

Footsteps were heard in front of him and stopped. "And what is it that you want?" the man asked. "Have you come to challenge me, is that it?"

"You are...Tranquility...are you not?"

"That all depends on who's asking." The man-apparently named Tranquility replied, cracking open an emerald eye, then sitting forward and opening both eyes to watch the black-clad figure curiously.

"You... You will be needed...soon..."

Tranquility raised an eyebrow. "Needed? For what?"

"The darkness between worlds is spreading...the war of darkness versus light is soon to be upon you. Strong fighters such as yourself will be needed. What side..." The figure said, looking around and then back at the man himself. "Will you choose?"

"Neither."

"Hm?"

Tranquility stood up and threw out an arm to state the visual of his point. To show the forest around his home. "I am a hermit-I chose to be a long time ago. I will not be troubled by such things as war, darkness, and light. I have found a balance between the two, and recommend that you should do the same. I have...my own battles to fight." He said.

There was a long silence. Then, finally, "...Have it your way..."

With those words, the sky began to darken. An ominous wind whistled through the trees, swaying the crimson strands of Tranquility's hair. Tranquility's eyes narrowed. "So you will force me to join your side, huh?" His hands grabbed two large, spiked, white wheels and he got into fighting stance. "Should that be so, then most definitely will I be on the side of light!"

"..." The figure didn't respond. Tranquility watched as shadows pulled up out of the ground around him, and his eyes widened slightly.

"Sorcery... You're a demon, aren't you?"

Blackout.

A man dressed in black bagging pants and a kimono top with shoulder- length hair and silver eyes with black marking under his eyes walked over to the bleeding man a few hours later. His rival, Tranquility, lay on the ground, bleeding from a thousand wounds and gasping for breath from shredded lungs. The man smirked and shook his head, then took the long, slender golden sword that was attached to his back and pointed the tip at Tranquility's heart.

"Chaos..."

The man looked up and turned to see a figure dressed in a black, hooded coat. He smirked. "You rang?"

"Your rival...he is nearly dead, and hardly by your hand."

Chaos's eyes narrowed. "...Your point?"

"Why not absorb him and gain more power and then join us? The darkness will give you anything you desire, so it should be worth your while." The figure said. "We are not looking for people full of sentimental rubbish. And we are not seeking out the unwilling. We are looking for cold- blooded killers that are submerged in blood and in darkness such as yourself. Are you...up for it?"

Chaos looked down at the dying Tranquility. If I agreed...then my power would double almost. And then I could wreak havoc wherever I please... He thought. He grinned. "Yes."

He didn't see the wave of darkness that hit him until it was upon him.

-----

The redhead rubbed his forehead. Another random image. It seemed so familiar, yet he couldn't remember it happening to him before. Was he going insane? How could one tell?

You're already a madman.

The redhead flinched. And what was this voice? This voice that always tried to stop him whenever he wanted to or had to cause harm. Whenever he wanted to kill.

Stop this.

You can't stop it. You can only help it to succeed. The redhead thought, glancing back at the door as he locked it. Now all he had to do was wait.

Tch. Voices are only voices. Only actions could hurt him, and he was sure that that would never happen...

Author's Note-Anybody wanna take a guess at who the redhead dude is now? –grin- Anyways, I thought it would good to leave you guys hanging. And also, please review! And I'll try to write more and post it as fast as I can, honest! Ja ne!