Chapter 3

(Scene 1)

A sudden blaze lit the afternoon sky, and something streaked across the azure blue above a small girl's head. She stared up in wonder with brilliant green eyes, tracking its progress until it touched down far on the horizon. Raising a cloud of dust, the girl ran back in the direction of a small town, jet-black hair flying back behind her.

"Papa, Papa! A falling star!" she cried as she flung herself at the knees of an older man.

"What have I told you, honey? The correct term is a meteorite," he said, still avidly studying the star charts before him.

"But Papa, it landed in the forest!"

"That's nice, dear."

"But Papa-"

Her voice faded as the girl realized he had already gone back to his charts. From the hallway watched an identical pair of bright green eyes, a long curtain of ebony hair almost hiding a worried face. Silently, the teen slipped out the back, leaving her sister and father behind as she trekked off in the direction of the fallen star.

(Scene 2)

Sora rose, watching as his memories streaked off above him, gazing as they sputtered out into darkness. He sighed, turning to his companions, smiling happily.

"Come on, let's go."

Donald and Goofy exchanged glances.

"Where?"

Sora shrugged, heading off in the direction of the gummi ship. He put his hands behind his head, walking slowly along.

"I don't know, but we've got to start somewhere."

The three climbed into the ship, settling into chairs. Sora pulled a world map towards him. He studied it closely, poring over each world with a keen eye, leaning forward until his face was mere inches from the inked surface. With a soft clatter, his pendant slid out on its chain, glowing gently blue again.

"Hey, Sora, look!" Donald exclaimed in surprise. Sora turned his head to look at him.

"What?"

He caught sight of the pendant, tugging lightly at the chain, stretched towards the map. Sora glanced quizzically at his friends, then slipped the chain from around his neck. He held it above the map, and the furthermost tip touched down upon a single world, pulling steadily against his grasp. Sora lifted the charm from the mao, swinging it gently around before lowering it again. It swung in an arc, sweeping around to stop, quivering, once more on the same world.

"I guess we're going here," Sora said, and the ship turned, blasting off into the sky. After a few hours, they landed in a grassy knoll a distance away from a little town. The bright afternoon sun glared down upon them as they traveled, and Sora once again found his pendant tugging ever so gently against its chain, glowing so faintly as to seem to be merely reflecting the sunlight. He headed in the direction it pulled, tousle-haired head bowed as he followed it into a wooded valley, Donald and Goofy trailing along behind him.

Sora continued on through the valley, keeping a steady pace as he walked what seemed a random course. He stopped only once to rest, and then spoke very little to his companions, his mind distracted and focused on his search. A sudden rustle behind the group, however, made him vividly aware of his surroundings. Sora shot a quick glance at the other two, silently telling them he would take care of it. They nodded, and the Keyblade appeared furtively in a hand behind Sora's back. He shifted positions carefully, then swung the Keyblade around in a blur to point at a treetop.

"FIRE!"

The spell ripped through the air to impact beneath the largest branch, and a loud squeal, followed by a hollow thud, came from the tree as something toppled heavily from the limbs. Sora rushed over to the black and green heap, brandishing the Keyblade.

"Gotcha!"

"Eek! Oh, please don't hurt me! Ow-"

Sora stared as a girl about his age stood up and brushed herself off. She tied her long raven hair back behind her head, gazing uncertainly at Sora with emerald eyes.

"Hey, I could have killed you! What were you doing in that tree?"

The girl's hands fiddled nervously behind her, and her head bowed to touch her green shirt. She looked back at Sora bashfully through her bangs, speaking to the ground.

"I saw you coming and wanted a closer look, but you looked so preoccupied, I..." she blushed and looked away. Sora blinked, then grinned at her.

"Oh, is that all? Well, in that case, I"m Sora." He held out his gloved hand.

"Uh," she looked at it shyly, then shook. "I'm Nova. Actually, my name's Nova Libra, but only my dad calls me that. He's an astronomer."

Nova sat down alongside Sora, glancing uneasily at Donald and Goofy, soon staring openly with visible curiosity. They shifted uncomfortably, and she continued to stare, raising an eyebrow. Her mouth opened to speak when she caught sight of the Keyblade.

"What kind of weapon is that, a flamethrower? That was quite a blast you shot at me."

"A flamethrower, Heck, no!" Sora laughed out loud. "Nothing but metal here!"

"So you magically summoned a giant fireball out of thin air, did you? Not unless you can break the Law of Conservation of Mass, not to mention numerous laws of physics, you didn't."

Sora laughed again, sheepishly this time. Nova grabbed the Keyblade, running her hands along its handle and examining every inch.

"Hey, the Keyblade is not a toy!" Sora snatched at it, but she pulled the blade back out of his reach.

"'Keyblade?' This is a sword? Yeah, right. The balance is off, too far forward; the blade isn't remotely sharp; and it is completely un-
aerodynamic. Trust me, my dad's an astronomer , my mom's a physicist and I read Trig books when I was eight; this is completely useless as a weapon."

She swung the Keyblade, but it disappeared in a flash to reappear in Sora's hand.

"What the-? But that's impossible! You just defied the laws of nature!"

Sora flicked the Keyblade in a flash through a series of thrusts, parries and blows, flourishing it dramatically at the end. He grinned, somewhat abashed.

"Guess it's too late to say you're dreaming?"

Nova stared, flabbergasted, her mouth flapping open and shut like a fish. Sora put the Keyblade away, causing her eyes to bulge even further. He sat back down.

"So what are you doing all the way out here all alone?"

Nova though for a bit, and when she recovered sufficiently from her shock, she answered.

"My little sister said a falling star landed somewhere near here. My dad didn't believer her, but I saw it, too. I figured the probability of us seeing the same phenomenon at the exact same time and it being an illusion was approximately 765,894 to 1. So I went out to see if I could find the fallen star. Excuse me, meteorite."

Now it was Sora's turn to stare, as well as Donald and Goofy. When they had digested and translated this information, Donald's eyes widened.

"A falling star? Sora, that could be-?" Sora shot him a look, silencing him. We've already meddled enough, he thought, telling her about the memories would just make things worse. Nova looked from Sora to Donald, wondering what he was going to say. Sora composed himself quickly.

"Could you show us that falling star? We're looking for something like that."

"Sure," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "I don't know exactly where the meteorite landed, but I do know it hit somewhere over there." She raised a hand to point off to their left. Sora looked, then glanced at the pendant. So far, Nova hadn't noticed that it was glowing against his chest. He tucked it in his shirt as it pulled him in the direction she was pointing, stronger now than before. He wondered if it was guiding him to the memory shard. Rising, he walked off, and Donald and Goofy came after him.

"Sora, wait!"

Nova raced up to the three.

"If you're going to look for the falling star, can I come with you?"

She blushed brightly, fidgeting her hands behind her back again. Sora stopped, thinking. Another pair of eyes would be useful, and he didn't want to leave her out here alone.

"Alright! We'll split into two groups to cover more ground; you'll go with me, Nova." She brightened immediately, and the two groups set off on slightly skewed routes. Donald and Goofy trudged off as Sora and Nova went on through the trees.

(Scene 3)

Two teenage figures walked in the mist of a scrying orb, their voices echoing hollowly from its depths. Sashiro watched irritably, her mind still puzzling over the Keyblade Master. Rumor placed his head on her knee, and she gazed into the panther's golden eyes.

"He draws closer, my pet. Too close..."

Her eyes narrowed, and she flicked her hand at the orb. It began to show a flyby of the valley, zooming past the two searchers and through the trees. After a few seconds, a glowing crystalline shard came into view, glinting in the dark beneath a tree root.

"It will not take him long to find that shard," she mused. "We must...delay him."

She smiled wickedly and Rumor rose.

"Send the Keyblade Master a message, Rumor," Sashiro tied a scroll around his neck, "and give him our warmest wishes!"

The panther nodded, purring, and strode off into the darkness, shadowy creatures appearing to follow him. The Crimson Sorceress turned and walked to the back of the stone room where a large iridescent shard stood encased by glass, bound by chains of dark magic. It was shining brightly, reacting to the smaller shard shown in the orb.

"In the meantime, I have other things to attend to." Her pale fingers caressed the glass, and she almost opened the case, but she knew the power contained within the memory shard far surpassed anything she could muster quickly.

"You shall not be alone for long," Sashiro whispered, a hand twitching. Behind her, the image in her scrying orb faded, giving way to another picture; a view of a small shard glowing beneath the surface of a lake. She laughed softly.

"Soon, soon."

Her crimson robes swished once, and she vanished into the gloom.

(Scene 4)

Sora walked along, Nova beside him as he followed the silent pull of his pendant. They kept up polite conversation, Nova throwing in comments at random about some interesting fact or describing some fascinating natural process, often sounding as if she was regurgitating a textbook. Sora listened, replying when he understood what she was saying which was about half the time. He was forced to take another break after an hour or so, secretly glancing at the charm when Nova's back was turned. It was glowing brightly and the pull was getting quite strong now.

"We've got to be close," he muttered.

"What?" Nova turned to look at him from her seat.

"We've got to be close, Nova. We must have gone miles."

The girl rose, eyes twinkling with the light of adventure, and she handed a canteen of water to Sora, who took a long draw from it.

"You know that the length of time it takes to find something is directly related to the importance of said something and inversely related to the amount of patience contained by the finder."

Sora raised his eyebrows as he handed the canteen back to Nova.

"Whatever that means."

She grinned mischievously, laughing, and ran off ahead as he called after her. Her laughter echoed through the trees as they ran, and she turned her head to stick her tongue out at him impudently.

"Oh, you'll pay for that!" Sora yelled, laughing as well, chasing her and closing the gap.

"I'll get you, Nova! And you will tell me what that meant back there! Nova?"

He stopped as he almost collided with her back, and he swept ivory hair from his face. Sora looked at her, but Nova's emerald eyes were fixed on something ahead of her. He waved a hand in front of her face.

"Hello? Earth to Nova."

"I've found it," she whispered excitedly. Sora started, and he followed her gaze. There, under the gnarled roots of an ancient oak, glimmered a memory shard. He approached slowly, not wanting to believe it in case it was just an illusion. Ever so carefully, he reached out, almost touching the crystal when a stifled scream came from behind him. Sora whirled around.

"Nova!"

He pulled his arm in a wide arc, the Keyblade flaring into life in his hand. Surrounding the girl were countless shadow creatures, and Sora could feel the dark magic of Sashiro pulsing through them. Nova backed up, terrified, into the wave of monsters, shrieking aloud as one took a swipe at her, missing by inches.

"Sora, help me!"

"Hold on, Nova! I'm coming!"

Sora rushed the creatures, scattering the frontrunners before clipping the Ultima charm to the Keyblade. He struck out into the mass of shadows, obliterating a handful of the things as he cut a path to Nova's side. Sora reached out and pulled her close. She clung to him, scared out of her mind.

"What about the meteorite?"

"No time for that now!" he yelled, dealing a crushing blow to the nearest creature, and it vaporized into a puff of black smoke. It seemed, however, that the more Sora killed, the more came to take their place.

"They're multiplying exponentially, Sora!"

"If you have to talk, talk in English!"

Sora held the creatures of as well as he could, but it was only a matter of time before the wave of darkness swept both him and Nova away. AS he moved, the pendant around Sora's neck flew out of his shirt, and it now glowed a brilliant blue.

"Hey, Sora! Over here!"

"Donald! Goofy!" His two companions came running up from their left, Donald blasting the creatures with his magic, Goofy barreling through with his shield.

"Goofy, protect her!"

Sora began to clear a path towards the memory shard, wading through the shadows' onslaught. Goofy ran up to the raven-haired girl.

"Don't worry, miss Nova!" he said as he bashed the head of a shadow with his shield. Sora closed on the ancient oak, the shard coming into view, glowing brightly in response to the pendant. His fingers almost grasped it time and again, but he was always swept away from the roots at the last second. Nova watched from behind Donald and Goofy, and she threw her brain into overdrive. She watched as the creatures neared the shard, always skirting the edge of its glow, those that touched it flinching away in pain. Her green eyes widened suddenly as an idea struck her. She wrenched the shield from Goofy's hands and began to shove through the monsters, heading straight for Sora.

"Please and thank you!" she yelled behind her.

"Nova, what are you doing?" Sora cried, disappearing as a fresh wave caught him and he was forced to hack his way through.

"I've got an idea, Sora! Please, trust me!"

Nova, smaller and more agile than Sora, dodged through the tiny openings and between the limbs of the shadows, and she rushed past the oak roots, snatching the memory shard fast as lightning. She ran further on until Sora thought she was running away. Nova stopped, suddenly dropping to her knees. She stuck her tongue out, biting it as she quickly calculated angles in her head. She jammed the shield into the ground, tilting it forward until it stood facing the shadow army.

"I hope this works," she said to herself, and she ran back towards the raging battle a few yards. Her eyes shut tight as her face turned away, and she thrust her hand at the shield, the memory shard held clenched in her fist. The shard's glow streaked out in all directions, and within seconds the shield lit up, reflecting the blue light back towards the dark creatures. A loud wail came from each monster's throat as they vanished in a hazy vapor. Nova opened her eyes cautiously, and the first thing she saw was Sora grinning broadly at her.

"Brains over brawn, huh?"

She smiled as well, shrugging casually.

"Naturally. You see, it occurred to me that-"

Her mouth opened in a gasp as a black panther dropped her to the ground.

"Nova!"

The panther's momentum carried it past the girl, and she groaned softly as she tried to rise. She winced in pain, but she struggled up. The cat growled and readied itself for another attack, its eyes fixed on the glowing crystal in her hand.

"Sora, catch," she said, pulling her arm behind her head as the panther leapt towards her. Nova flung the shard as hard as she could, and just as it left her hand, one giant claw slashed across her chest. Three long gashes appeared down her front, and warm blood began to seep int her green shirt. Sora instinctively reached up to catch the flying shard, and it connected with his flesh in a dazzling blaze.

"Nova!" he screamed, buy he was cut short as his pendant blazed suddenly vivid blue, and his body jerked to his knees, flaring with light as well. Sora's head snapped back, eyes wide open, and he thrashed about with the magic. He moaned involuntarily as the memory shard sunk into his palm, and the light faded away.

Donald and Goofy raced to his side worriedly, but Sora had already risen and was brandishing the Keyblade at the panther.

"Leave her alone, you stupid cat!" He hurled the blade towards it, and the cat leapt nimbly aside, snarling at Sora. AS the Keyblade flew back to his hand, the panther's eyes glittered dangerously, and it shook its head, dislodging a scroll from around its neck. The note fluttered down to land next to Nova's motionless form, and the panther ran off in the shadows.

Sora hurried up to Nova's side, grabbing the scroll and reading it angrily. It contained only a short message in neat, handwritten cursive:

Your heart will yet be mine, Keyblade Master

Until we meet again

He crushed the paper into a ball in his fist, gritting his teeth in rage. Sora lifted Nova's limp form gently into his arms, cradling her close and turning to his friends.

"Come on, we need to het her some help. I don't know why, but something tells me that panther's dark magic will make our cure spells useless."

The three began to run through the valley as quickly as they could without risking Nova's health.

(Scene 5)

"Help! Somebody help her!"

Sora, Donald and Goofy made their way down the dirt road to the village through the twilight, people rushing up to guide them to the astronomer's house. A small girl, almost a miniature Nova, held the door open for the party, her eyes wide in fear. Her father appeared in the hallway, frantically running his hands through his hair as he watched Sora lay his daughter down on her bed.

"Oh, my little Nova Libra, what happened to you?" he asked, caressing her face and brushing her hair back behind her ear. Donald and Goofy led him out to the sitting room, trying to calm his distraught nerves. Sora stayed, helping her mother and the doctor clean and bandage the wounds, slipping her a potion when they were busy. He lay a blanket over Nova's unconscious form, telling her mother and the doctor to get some rest and promising he'd watch over her. He stayed awake by her side all night long, waiting anxiously to see if she'd awake.

AS morning broke through the bedroom window, Sora felt his eyes grow heavy. He closed them for a minute, resting from the fatigue of worry. When he opened them, he found himself staring into two bright green eyes.

"Nova! You're okay!" he exclaimed in relief. She smiled weakly and tried to sit up. Sora tried to push her back down, but she fought until she was upright.

"I'm fine, really, I am," Nova protested. "But really, Sora, thank you. For saving me, and for being my friend. I still can't figure out how you did everything you did, but I'll always remember you, even if you are just a dream."

She grabbed something from her bedside table and pressed it into Sora's hand.

"Please, take this. To remember me by," she added, blushing. Sora looked at it; it was a small charm in the shape of an iridescent star with gold carvings of a constellation.

"The night I was born, my father had just discovered a new supernova, and just as they were naming me, a falling star shot through the constellation of Libra. My father, always the astronomer, decided on the name Nova Libra then." She turned to stare out of the window into the brightening morning. "New Justice. That's what it means in Latin. And for the fist time yesterday, I really felt as if I were living up to that. My mother had that charm made especially for me from that meteorite that fell, and now I'm giving it to you, Sora."

Sora started at this and tried to shove the charm back into Nova's hands, but she hid them under the sheets.

"Sora, you gave me something special, the feeling that I was actually doing something that mattered for a change. For once, my brains were put to a use past getting good grades in school. I want to give you something just as special. So take it already before I make your head explode with complicated math equations." She looked at him imperiously, and he gave up, both breaking down into giggles.

"Okay, you win. Thanks, Nova. For everything."

(Scene 6)

Rumor materialized in the gloom by a lakeside, his golden eyes searching for his master. She was by the water's edge, conjuring with her dark magic.

"So, did the Keyblade Master get my note, Rumor?"

The cat purred, and she smiled wickedly.

"Good, my love. Soon, he will not have as much of an advantage as he thought."

Her dark magic shot into the lake water, and she cackled softly to herself. Deep below the surface, something stirred, and two blood-red eyes stared up from the murky depths.