Title: Shadow Sora

Author: Rogue Feline

Rating: R

Content: Bad language, sex, blood...just about everything that makes an R-rated story.

Chapter: 1

Summary: A story that took my boyfriend and I several years to develop and we STILL aren't quite finished. The story takes place two months after the first Kingdom Hearts game.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Disney, or any of their characters. My boyfriend and I own Shadow Sora and our own original characters.

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In the vast multiverse, Traverse Town was one of the few worlds that remained peaceful, free of Heartless invasion, and would always open it's arms to welcome in the homless, sick, wounded or troubled. Today, it was going to open it's doors to a gummi ship spinning out of control towards it's surface, with a duck and a dog screaming panicked gibberish inside.

Goofy was sent flying harshly through the windshield as their ship hit the ground hard and landed several feet away, wincing as cuts opened and began to bleed.

Donald was smacked against a wall and slumped, dazed in the wreckage.

Goofy was the first to recover, thankfully his wounds were not severe, though a few might leave scars. His black fur was covered with dust and blood and his outfit had more than a few tears. He sighed, wincing as he adjusted his hat, trying to appear calm though his eyes revealed obvious panic. He limped over to the destroyed ship and dug through it slowly until he found a bruised Donald Duck. He pulled his white-feathered companion out and dusted his limp form off.

When Donald woke up (not two seconds later) the first words out of his mouth could definitely not be found in any Disney movie. I won't repeat them.

Goofy flattened his large ears at the harsh words and frowned. "We still could have saved him ya know..."

"He was dead! There was nothing we could do against that many Heartless!" Donald chattered, displaying sorrow through anger. "If the Keymaster couldn't stand up against that many Heartless alone or with our help, what makes you think we could've done anything alone!"

Goofy looked down at his feet and didn't want to admit that Donald was probably right about Sora being dead.

Barely two months after the Heartless King Ansem's demise, Sora, Goofy and Donald had been making their way to the Hallow Bastion, which had been reclaimed by several of their friends who called that place home before the Heartless invasion.

As they landed, and stepped out of their ship, they found instead of a warm welcome from their friends, an ambush by the Heartless.

The first wave was a small number of Shadows. They leapt from the ground and slashed at the trio with sharp glaws and gnashed little fangs. Fire, ice and lightning rained from the sky as Donald held his staff high, Goofy ducked behind his shield and rammed several into the walls and pounded the rest into the floor, and Sora darted about, slashing them apart with his Keyblade.

They stood together, Goofy wearing a grin, Donald a frown, and Sora a worried smile. It had been a very small attack, yes...but the sight of Heartless at Hallow Bastion, no, the sight of Heartless in general, was very disturbing. Ansem had only been dead for two months, but shouldn't the dark creatures have stayed hidden away?

Before they could take a step forward or think about the situation any further, a shrill giggle rang out and echoed through the vast, eerily empty castle. Goofy stumbled, Donald's eyes shot wide open, and Sora immediately began to seek out the source of the noise.

"There!" he pointed up towards the roof, where a giggling Soldier bounced around, grinning down at them.

"Heeheeheeeheeeee!" he cackled, his wide yellow eyes gazing down at them. "Heehee! Kills them! Kills them all! Weeeeeeeeee!" The insane creature leapt down towards them, and spread four large, white-feathered wings to swoop down right at Sora's face. Sora yelped and brought up his Keyblade to swing at the abomination, barely having time to think about why a Soldier had the wings of an Angel.

He stopped short of being slashed, and squealed, holding his feet as he spun higher into the air, out of his reach. He dodged a fireball shot at him by an angrilly jabbering Donald Duck and giggled, his eyes wide with glee. "Ooooh! Kills them! Go! Go! KILLS THEM!"

The ground shook, and Sora wisely tore his eyes away from the still laughing and screaming Heartless floating above him, and his jaw dropped in terror as he saw not one, but five roaring Heartless Behemonths lumbering towards him, three on one side and two on the other. Instead of the usual purple, these had deep black skin and red heartless symbols on their chests glowing like fire. They arched their backs, displaying the symbol proudly and opening their fanged jaws to roar to the heavens. As they did, a flock of ten Wyverns soared into sight overhead, calling out shrilly to the Behemoths below. Sora was unable to count the sheer number of Shadows and Soldiers that were weaving between the Behemoth's legs towards them, nor the Air Soldiers and Pirates that swooped in from overhead.

Sora felt sweat on the back of his neck and his skin turned white. He faced one way, Goofy and Donald faced behind him, where Sora could hear more Heartless showing up, and he had a painful feeling that two more Behemoths were following closely behind.

"KILLS THEM! KILLS THEM ALL! GET THE KEYMASTER! WEEEEEEE!" the insane flying Soldier let out a squeal of delight as the ground below him became a flurry of claws, bites, swords, and magic...and blood, and screams.

Goofy shut his eyes, slowlying returning to reality and trying not to think about what had just happened. God only knows how they survived the fray. While Donald his his emotions behind screams of rage as he quickly piloted the ship away from Hallow Bastion, Goofy openly sobbed into his hands for the loss of their friend. He glanced out the window, and sniffled softly, watching the Heartless return to a massive Battleship he saw off in the distance. The Heartless had had no intention of re-taking the Bastion. They'd just come for Sora.

"Stop spacing out and follow me!" Donald screeched, jerking Goofy back to reality again. He gazed over at Donald, who was struggling to push the massive doors to Traverse Town open. Goofy limped over slowly, extended an arm, and lightly shoved the doors open. Donald fell flat on the ground, but got up soon, screaming at Goofy and drawing a lot of attenion.

Goofy didn't mind, his patience had reached it's limit and he began yelling back angrilly, his fur bristling.

Several people were staring at them, and several more hurrying on their way. One young man, who had just come out of the Moogle's Item Shop, was struggling to peer around an armload of heavy brown bags. The bags blocked his view and his scruffy brown bangs were in his eyes, tickling them. He winced, his arms shivering with the weight of the bags as he tried slowly to shift the bags and move his bangs at the same time.

Well, I'm sure you can guess the result. The bags tumbled from his arms and the boy let out a loud howl of pain, clutching his foot and hopping up and down, swearing.

Goofy flicked an ear and looked up, and Donald even stopped his yelling to look at the poor boy.

The foul language soon ceased and Goofy slowly made his way over, ignoring a glare from Donald, and smiled down at the boy. "D'ya need some help?"

"Eh?" he snarled, wincing as he held his foot. "Oh! Um...yes, thank you." The boy, looking to be in his late teens, knelt down, mumbling his thanks as Goofy helped him gather up his things. He stood up, holding two of the larger bags and dropping one of them on Donald for him to carry.

"Um...well, wow, thanks," the boy said, smiling as he brushed a hand through his dusty, tangled brown hair. He looked up at them with hazel eyes, wearing black jeans, and a leather trenchcoat over a white shirt. He looked like a street thug – but acted very polite and educated.

He grunted, shifting the three bags he was still carrying and extended a hand. "My name is Gregory Hale," he winced faintly. "But I prefer to be called Ry."

Goofy smiled and shook his hand. "Name's Goofy. And this here is Donald Duck."

Donald let out a bitter laugh as he was crushed beneath the bag he was trying to carry. Ry blinked nervously down at the angry Black Mage, and frowned softly. Those names sounded familiar...Oh well!

"Here, we'll help you with these bags...where are ya headin'?" Goofy asked. He felt much better now that he was helping someone out. Now that he wasn't thinking about Sora...best not to bring that up anymore.

"To Merlin's house – I'm his apprentice," Ry grunted as he led them out of the busy First District and into the far quieter Second District. This area was filled with a few small stores, but most of it was taken up by a very large motel, and a few homes.

"Merlin!" Donald exclaimed.

Goofy nudged him along with a foot, and ignored his angry chattering. "We know Merlin – we need to talk with him if that's alright?"

"Don't see why that'd be a problem," Ry grunted, becoming more and more curious about these two newcomers as he knocked a door open with his hip, and walked down into the sewers.

Goofy sniffed the air as they trodded through knee-high water, and quirked an eyebrow. This is still the cleanest sewer I've ever been in... he thought with a smirk.

Ry looked over to his left, admiring a mural on the stone walls nearby. He sighed softly, smiling. He loved how beautiful that mural looked. Of course he didn't know how important it had been. Goofy and Donald both remembered...it's where Sora had made his oath to Kairi...to always be there for her...

They were thinking about him again.

Ry stepped onto a section of stone that seemed separate from the rest of the floor, his arms shaking with the heavy load of bags again. Donald and Goofy stepped on after him, and the stone platform quivered, then began slowly raising itself higher and higher, and finally, up into Merlin's cluttered house. The powerful wizard could not be seen, but snoring could definitely be heard.

Merlin was sleeping in a large red chair who's back faced them. Only the tip of his tall blue hat could be seen over the top. Ry dropped the bags on a large table after knocking a few books onto the already messy floor (Goofy and Donald just put their's on the floor nearby) and moved impatiently over to the sleeping wizard.

Merlin's eyes were shut with sleep and his hands rested lightly on his long silver beard. He mumbled softly in his sleep and Ry rolled his eyes and heaved an annoyed sigh.

"Merlin," he grunted quietly, nudging him. No response. And apparently Ry lost his patience rather easily. He grunted, took a deep breath, leaned close to the old man's ear...and screamed "MERLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!" at the top of his lungs.

With a loud yelp, Merlin tumbled backwards over his chair and hit the ground with a thud. Ry smirked, but still looked annoyed and Goofy rubbed his ears. Donald was laughing openly, rolling around on the floor. And I thought he was polite? Goofy thought.

"Gregory!" Merlin growled. Ry winced at his real name being used and narrowed his eyes. "Ahem...that is no way to treat your master."

"You were fast asleep! Either way, I got your stuff," Ry beckoned over to the large bags.

"Yes, yes, well, I of course knew you were coming," Merlin said quickly as he dusted his beard off. "I was merely meditating!"

"Of course you were," Ry said with a doubtful sigh. Merlin's beard twitched in annoyance.

"I shall have you know that—oh. Goofy! Donald!" Ry and his powerful lungs fled his mind quickly when he noticed the knight and the mage standing nearby. Donald had stopped laughing but was still crying tears of mirth. Goofy bowed respectfully.

"Oh! How fantastic to see you both!" Merlin laughed, smiling warmly at them. "Come, come, do sit! Have some tea—" as he spoke, a tea pot and several cups eagerly began to work, boucning happily along a large round table in the middle of the room, knocking more books and papers over as they did, "—and tell me...where is young Sora?"

His eyes expanded as the two became silent and grim. "Oh no...it's happened hasn't it?"

Ry was anything but silent and grim. He let out an almost girlish squeal. "Goofy and Donald! Wait...wait, no...don't tell me that these two are the Goofy and Donald? The two heroes who travelled with Keymaster Sora!"

Merlin ignorned him and slowly sank back into his large red chair, rubbing his forehead, his hat askew as he tried to take something apparently very mind-blowing in. Ry was having a hard enough time registering the fact that two heroes of the multiverse were standing five feet from him.

"Friends...sit," he whispered. "Ry...stop your ridiculous jabbering and shut up." He turned his attention back to Goofy and Donald. "While I don't know exactly what happened to Sora...I do know enough to tell you that he is not dead...and that a great challenge for all three of you lay ahead."

Goofy stammered. "Wh-whaddya mean he's not dead? Where is he then?"

"You KNEW this was going to happen!" Donald roared in outrage. "Why didn't you tell us!"

"I did not know it was going to happen so soon!" Merlin snapped, and Donald sank back into his seat quietly. "Otherwise I would have!" He sighed heavily. "I do not know Sora's exact location, but I do know that he is being held captive somewhere at the End of the World. You must hurry and rescue him, or I am afraid he will soon be dead."

Ry was sitting on the edge of the table, staring at them with wide eyes and trying to ignore an angry teapot beating a spoon against him in protest. He was in the way of their work!

Merlin heaved a sigh and took a sip of his own tea. He then blinked, and his chair turned around to face the window if it's own accord. Merlin gazed outside. "Oh...we have a guest."

"Wha--?" nobody was able to ask him what he meant before a loud splash and explosion was heard outside that shook the dust from the ceiling, knocked Ry to the floor, and made a pile of books fall atop Goofy and Donald.

The teapot and the cups went proudly about their work as the charred remains of a gummi ship began to sink into the lake outside.