Author's Note-Wow..sorry for taking so long. I went on vacation, wrote more, came back, slacked off a bit, started school, and started writing a lot more. So hopefully I'll start updating a lot sooner since for some reason I write more in school... Thanks for all the reivews so far. I don't own Kingdom Hearts or anything else except for the original characters and Gaia. So anyways, on with the fic!

Green eyes opened slowly. "Huh…?"

Taro turned in his chair to see that Tam was finally awake. "Tam? You're okay!" he exclaimed, walking over to the waking girl and sitting on the edge of the small cot.

Tam sat up, looking over at the blonde. She blinked, then nodded slowly. "Uh huh…" she replied quietly. She looked around. We're…back on the ship… she thought. "What happened…?"

"You passed out, so we had to carry you back to the ship. Sora fell asleep soon after we got here…" Taro explained, smiling.

"You mean…you actually managed to get the gummi ship to take off without my help…?" Tam asked.

Taro nodded. "Yep," he replied. "It wasn't too hard after all the help you gave me."

She blinked again, but then looked away, frowning slightly. "I'm sorry," she said quietly, "for all the trouble I've been causing you guys. I must be a real burden…"

Taro blinked, surprised at this almost random apology, but then smiled. "Hey, it's okay. We should be thanking you. Without your help, we'd have never made it this far. Hell, we probably would have a lot more trouble in that battle without your help. Thanks."

However, this only made the redhead frown even more. "Look…Taro…"

"Approaching planet. Approaching planet," the ship's computer suddenly announced.

"Huh…?" Taro asked, getting up and walking over to the control consol. Tam sighed.

"…Where are we headed?" she asked.

"Some world called Traverse Town, it looks like," Taro replied.

"Traverse Town…?"

Taro nodded. "Yeah. Looks like we can get some rest here," he said. He smiled. "Not to mention that the others might be here…"

Tam nodded. "Yeah. Great…" she replied quietly.

Taro frowned again as Tam looked away. He sighed. What did I do to upset her? I'm never going to understand women… he thought.

The ship came down and landed in the lit town. Taro walked over to Sora. "Oi, kid," he said, shaking the brunette. "Time to wake up."

Blue eyes opened sleepily. "Wh-what…?" Sora mumbled.

"We're here," Taro replied.

"Where's 'here?'" Sora asked, sitting up and looking around. He seemed to have gained his strength back, or at least most of it.

"Not sure, exactly. Apparently some place called 'Traverse Town,'" Taro replied.

"Traverse Town…" Tam repeated in a murmur.

Taro glanced back at her and blinked. "Have you ever heard of it?" he asked.

Tam blinked, then held up her hands and shook her head. "What? Me? Of course not!" she said, smiling.

"Ah. Okay…" Taro said, turning back to the windshield to look out at the view of the planet. As he turned, Tam looked down and frowned.

Sora looked over at her and blinked. What was wrong with Tam? Maybe she's just tired… he thought. Something told him otherwise. What happened while he was asleep?

The ship settled down in front of a large gate. Taro pushed a few buttons and the door opened. He stepped out into the night air, followed by his two friends, and pushed the large doors to the town open. His golden eyes scanned over the colorful bright little square. It would be considered almost cheerful, if only it wasn't so empty.

"Where is everybody? This whole thing reeks of Heartless…" Taro commented grimly.

"Wait! I think I see people over there!" Sora exclaimed, pointing out a group in the shadows of a nearby café.

Taro and Tam looked over as a man dressed in mostly black emerged from the shadows, his hand cautiously going to the weapon he carried. The man's serious look quickly turned to surprise when he saw the newcomers.

"Sora!"

Sora blinked. Taro raised an eyebrow, he and Tam looking down at the younger boy. "Friend of yours?" Taro asked.

Sora shook his head. "I can't remember…" he reminded.

"Oh yeah. Your memory. Right," the blonde sighed. He peered at the stranger, taking a few steps forward to get a better look. He blinked. "Wait…Hyotoko?.!"

"Squall! Squall-" a girl's voice started.

"It's Leon."

"-Did you say Sora was here?" A girl with short black hair asked as she came out of the shadows.

Taro blinked, then looked somewhat disappointed when he saw that the man wasn't his childhood friend.

"Uh…hi…" Sora said, smiling slightly and rubbing the back of his head.

Tam raised an eyebrow. "Who are you guys?" she asked.

"Who are we? Who are you?" Yuffie asked suspiciously, narrowing her eyes a bit.

Tam noticed the suspicious looks coming from both the girl and Leon, then remembered that she was still wearing Taro's black jacket. She smiled and sweatdropped. "No one important…" she said. She turned to Taro, taking the jacket off and handing it to him. "By the way, I almost forgot to return your jacket to you.." she said.

Taro blinked, then sweatdropped to see that the suspicious stares had turned to settle on him. "…Gee, thanks."

Tam simply gave him a 'better you than me' smile in return.

Sora blinked at the two a bit cluelessly, then smiled at the young man and woman. "Hi. I'm Sora. What are your names?"

"Those wretched little brats…" Shere Khan growled as he emerged from the river. "I'll rip them limb from limb…"

"Did I come at a bad time?"

Shere Khan looked up to see a red-haired man, Chaos, standing on the rock before him. From the trees came a young girl with long, golden hair. The girl was almost as quick and agile as a monkey. Machi.

"You…!" the tiger said accusingly.

"You failed to destroy Sora, and let him seal the keyhole. Our contract has been terminated," Chaos said calmly.

"But you didn't say that the boy could make fire!"

"Fire?" Chaos asked, grinning a bit homicidally at the tiger. "You mean like this…?"

There was a sudden dreadful shriek echoing throughout the jungle as the tiger went up in flames.

"The poor kitty. I would've wanted to keep him as a pet…" Machi commented, watching from her perch up on the branch.

"He was a bad cat, Machi. He would've tried to eat you. Now, down to business. Did Winterfall do her job?"

"She tried to keep the barrier up for as long as she could, but the cute brown-haired keyblade wielder overpowered her and popped it!" Machi replied.

Chaos turned to blink at her, then looked back at the fire, he expression unusually thoughtful. "Hm… Despite his loss of memories, it seems that he may still be stronger than we intended…" He grinned. "Good. I need a good fight."

"By the way, what about the youngest boy? The ninja one…?"

"The homunculi are probably dealing with him for now, if he's happened to stumble across that world. Of course, I'll probably have to check on them soon. They didn't quite strike me as the brightest flames in the fire."

"Homunculi?" Machi blinked.

"Non-Existent ones. Like us, but not quite the same," Chaos mused.

Machi blinked again, then shrugged. "Whatever. I'll just keep tailing the wielders."

"I suppose we should get to leaving now. There is nothing left for us here…"

With that, the two Non-Existent disappeared into a black mist. The only proof that they were even ever there was the lump of charred, smoking tiger lying next to the river.

"I hope nii-san's okay…" Al said, watching the door. "Those creatures…they didn't look normal. They were like…chimeras or shadows or something…"

"You see? Those were Heartless!" Kiyoshi said, frowning. "What happened to Ed?"

"He's fighting the Heartless outside. Don't worry, he'll be okay," Al assured.

However, this just caused the younger boy to frown even more. His eyes suddenly wided. "Al!"

Contrary to belief, Ed was not faring as well against the Heartless as well as he had hoped. Sure, he could slice through the Heartless and they would disperse, like figures of ink disappearing into a vapor almost. But more just kept coming. Not to mention that the wound on his back was still bleeding freely and slowing him down. And the fact that these creatures kept covering the surrounding street with ice.

Dammit! How are they doing it?.! They're completely ignoring the principals of equivilent exchange! he thought. And not only that, but…just where in the hell are they all coming from?.!

Another claw scraped against his automail arm, followed by a ball of fire and lightning hitting the wound on his back. His amber eyes widened and he cried out as he felt himself being electrocuted, stumbling forward. He slid and fell forward, onto his face. Too many…there was just too many of them…!

As he lifted his head, he couldn't help but wonder how Al and Kiyoshi were fairing. Though he had complete faith in Al's fighting ability… Just stay alive in there, guys. Don't die on me now…

As these thoughts were being thought, Al was using a shotei punch (open palm fist) to knock away the Heartless that had managed to slip inside away from Hyotoko. The Heartless went flying back into the corner.

However, it merely sprang back up, bearing its blades. Al got into fighting stance. Kiyoshi attempted to stand, but fell back into the chair. Oh no! I'm still too weak…! he thought a bit frantically.

"Don't worry, Kiyoshi. I'll fight it," Al assured him as he kept his eyes on the Heartless. "I'll protect you and your friends."

Kiyoshi frowned. "But…!"

"You're too weak to fight. Just keep yourself safe."

The Heartless leapt forward. Al countered with a punch, but the lengthy blades of the creature managed to dig into one of the leather gloves and the chest plate of his armor. There was a long pause as Al mentally panicked, praying that the blade left his bloodseal untouched.

Kiyoshi's eyes widened. "Al!" he cried, afraid that one of his friends was seriously injured, or worse, dead.

"Don't worry. I'm okay," Al assured, knocking the Heartless away.

"But your wound…" Kiyoshi started.

"It'll be fine. This is really tough armor," Al replied.

Kiyoshi was unconvinced. He had seen the blade go almost entirely into the armor with his own eyes, and it was a fairly long blade. But Al didn't sound hurt…either he was really good at hiding it, or that suit of armor was really roomy… "Al, lookout!"

Al looked back over at the Heartless, seeing that it had landed gracefully and was now rebounding in what was practically a quick glide. Al was already in fighting stance, but there was no need as a blade suddenly appeared in the Heartless's path. The monster ran into the blade and fell back. Both boys looked over at the new fighter.

Surprisingly enough, it was Kairi. The redhead smiled over at Kiyoshi. "I figured you and Hyotoko might need some help," she said. She then looked up at Al, recalling how big and fierce the Heartless that Sora had fought were.

She got into fighting stance, blue eyes narrowed a bit. Amazing. She had never used a blade, hardly had even the slightest bit of practice with weapons of…well, any kind, really. The only fighting she really knew was what Tifa had taught her in karate and what she had seen her friends do in sparring matches. And yet…she somehow knew what to do. It must have had something to do with the bladedheartstaff. It wasn't controlling her, exactly, but quite suddenly, her mind and body knew a whole lot of techniques now that she didn't know a second ago.

"Who are you? Are you a Heartless?" she asked warily.

Al seemed to go bug-eyed as he held up his hands-a universal sign of peace. Kiyoshi and Kairi could almost swear they spotted a drop of sweat on the armor's helmet. "What? No…I'm Alphonse Elric. That's a Heartless. I think," Al replied, pointing down at the twitching Heartless on the floor that now lay on its back.

Kairi looked down at the Heartless. "Yep, that's definitely a Heartless, alright…" she sighed, relaxing a bit.

Al looked her over. "Are you sure you should be up yet? Nii-san did just finish bandaging your wounds, after all…"

Indeed, the princess had a bandage wrapped around her head, as well as her arms and stomach. She shook it off, though. "I'll be fine. And nii-san? You have an older brother somewhere around here?" she asked, looking around.

"Yeah. Ed's fighting some Heartless outside at the moment," Al replied.

"Right…" Kairi said, stabbing down at the Heartless at their feet, which was just starting to get up again. It twitched, then withered and faded away.

The girl then frowned a bit, looking back up at Al. "Think you can handle anything that comes in here? Your brother may need help. Those Heartless are no pushovers, as you may have seen."

"But…your wounds…"

"They'll be fine. Once Kiyoshi and I are strong enough, we'll be able to fix all the damage up with healing spells," Kairi said, smiling up at him.

"Healing…spells…? You don't mean like magic, do you?" Al asked, a note of surprise in his voice.

"Yep. Kiyoshi can explain. Take care of my friends while I'm gone," Kairi said, waving when she got to the front door and shutting it behind her.

"Wait! I don't think that's a good i-" Al heard the door shut and sighed. "-Dea. Why doesn't anybody ever listen to me..?" he groaned. He turned to Kiyoshi. "Now what's this about healing spells…?"

"Oh, well our friend Aerith taught Kairi and I a healing spell before we left Traverse Town. She can use magic," Kiyoshi explained, smiling slightly.

"I see…" Al said, sounding a bit unsure.

"..All a load of crap, if you ask me…" a voice said off to the side.

"Huh…?" Al looked down to see that the brunette boy on the couch had awoken. "Oh, you're awake…"

"Hyotoko!" Kiyoshi exclaimed.

"Yo…" Hyotoko said calmly, trying to sit up. Kiyoshi and Al watched with surprise as Hyotoko didn't seem to even register the pain or the glass in his shoulder. Rather, a confused frown was on his face. My arm… I can't seem to move it at all. Why…? the brunette wondered.

His brown eyes traveled down to the shard of glass and widened a bit. His frown deepened. What the…?.! This doesn't make any sense… Why can't I…

"Hyotoko…can't you feel it?" Kiyoshi asked, a bit of a worried frown upon his face as well.

"N-no…" Hyotoko admitted.

Is his arm paralyzed? Or could it be something else? Hm… Al thought a bit grimly. Whatever it was, it was taking away the pain from Hyotoko. Most likely not a good thing. Something was up with this kid…

Author's Note-Once again, sorry for taking so long to update. Hopefully, now that I'm writing more, I can get back onto the 'posting once a week' schedule thingy. Probably gonna be on weekends when I update most often, though.. As for those reading Lost Souls, I shall try to update that more often, as well. It may just take a bit longer since I'll admit, I'm a bit more dedicated to this fanfic and this one comes first... Demonsurfer, I agree. Poor Riku. He's fun to torture.. -grin- And yes, I'm thinking that it's either a cross between magic and alchemy, or just entirely magic. I'll figure it out.. -nodnod- Namine3419, I'm glad I wrote more to Riku, too. And I shall continue to do that, lol. Yes, Samurai Champloo rocks, and I'm definately considering putting it into Dark Rain. The question ish, which group should go to that world..? (Suggestions are welcome. -smiles and sweatdrops-) Doghouse, I'm glad you like both of my fanficcehs. Thankies for the voodoo doll! I shall use it well. -nodnod- And yus, the Heartless are purtiful. It ish fun to make monsters, lol... As for what's going on with Yukiro...well, hopefully what would be a better explanation ish that he's not waking up from the poison, Seika's heart ish creating a shield to keep him from dying and his heart leaving him, and creating some sort of dream world in his mind with of old memories so she can speak and explain to him... Somethin like that. It'll all probably become much clearer later. And yes, poor Ed. Because he is fun and easy to torture. Like Riku (which by the way, Riku, that should answer your question..) -grin- Kingdom Alchemist, thankies! I'll update whenever I can, now that I'm writing much more again. Andd yes, I know. I matched some of the traits up with the actual characters whenever I could so I could fill some of the gaps in their mental traits and abilities (since this is one of my first times using them as teenagers, after all.) Tsuki Kimoto (that girl), lol, thankies for the review. But sheesh..locking your son up in a dark place? I can see why Taro ish so screwed up in the head, now, lol.. (nah, he's not that bad, lol..) And no, I do not normally Yahoo (unless for pictures.) I Google. -grin- And sheesh, that was a lot of replying..long author's note.. So anyways, I'll hopefully have the next chapter out probably by next week (as well as the next chapter to Lost Souls, hopefully.) I may even get my rant and author status updated (for those that actually read that, lol..), though that I can't promise.. Anyways, please review and I shall try to update sooner. Until then, ja ne!