Chapter VIII

Sora seemed to float in a world of nothingness for the longest time. So long that it was like he had been nowhere else, he had never known anyone else… Until a voice cut through the darkness, the nothingness.

"Are you okay?" He opened his eyes to slits. Could it be? Could it really be Kairi, here with him again? Opening his eyes, he saw her face, clear as day. It couldn't be any one else.

"Kairi…" He muttered sitting up.

"Kairi?" Kairi's voice seemed to change to an older, snappier version of itself. The image of her was replaced by a picture of a woman whose face was indeed similar, but totally different. Her hair was black as night, bangs held up by a headband. A light cream scarf was loosely wrapped around her neck. She took a step back and Sora could see her incredibly short green sleeveless shirt and, again, incredibly short cream shorts.

"I think you hit him a little to hard on the head, Squall," she said over her shoulder. Behind her was the man that had attacked him. Sora was about to jump up with his Keyblade, until he realized that it was no longer in his possession.

"That's Leon," the man said, turning his glance to the woman. She just shrugged.

"I'm Yuffie," she said.

"Sora," Sora replied. Squall, or Leon, or whatever his name was, walked over to the bed that Sora now sat in.

"Those thing that were following you were called Heartless," Yuffie said. "It turns out that they were tracking you through the Keyblade. We had to take it away."

"I know they're called Heartless," Sora said, angrily. "I know they steal people's hearts. But why are they after me, specifically?"

"Because," Leon said, holding up the key, "they are afraid of the Keyblade." The Keyblade instantly vanished from Leon's hand to Sora's. Sora smirked.

"The Keyblade," Yuffie went on, "is the only thing that can stop the darkness, and the Heartless created from within it." Just then, they all started and turned slowly. Someone, or something, was pounding at the door.

Sabrina and Jeremy had somehow managed to follow the man all the way to the Hotel in the Second District, mostly by flying. They didn't notice the puff of black smoke that followed them all the way there. Finally, they had arrived at a door to their suite on a small balcony. Sabrina pounded on the door, not expecting the man to get out his big gun and aim it out the door when he opened it.

"Put that away before you poke someone's eye out!" She shouted angrily. "I wanna talk to the Key Bearer!"

"Leon, who's here?" Yuffie stuck her head around the door to see a very angry Sabrina, wings instinctively stretched out to maximum capacity to make her self look bigger and more menacing.

"WHAT THE HE-"

"Listen, I'm not here to tell you my species and why the heck I have wings," Sabrina said, tapping her foot. "I've had about enough to do with humans for my life time."

Leon, in the least likely way possible, looked amused. "If you've had enough to do with humans, I do hope you weren't hoping to join up with the Key Bearer. He's human, too."

"Yes, which is why I'd like to get introductions done as soon as possible. They're awkward." Sora got up off his bed to get a better look at the girl on the other side of the door. Before he realized it was happening, a Heartless, one of the knight ones, smashed the window and attacked him. He was on the ground before he could do anything. It was about to try and get a grip on his heart when a girl, hair jet black against her pale face giving her the look of a vampire, blood red wings not helping, was upon it and cut it in two with a sword. She sheathed it, holding out her hand to him.

"I'm Sabrina," she said.

"Sora," Sora said, gripping her hand. She hauled him up to his feet.

"I've been looking for you. I, well, Jeremy and I," Sabrina said, nodding to a pale faced boy with blonde hair and blue dragon wings like hers, "want to help you get rid of the Heartless."

That's all! You guys can have whatever you want to eat, plus a Fairy Harp, Oathkeeper, Oblivion, and One Winged Angel keychains. And a Keyblade if you don't have one! Also, you get a glass cup with your favorite KH character on it with two bags of either milk chocolate or dark chocolate M&M's ®. Seeya next Monday!