This makes me really sad in my heart. All my reviewers abandoned me. That's the main reason why it took so long this time. :s But really, I don't blame any of you. I probably would've abandoned me, too. But still, I mean, not even a single review! Meh, oh well, I'll deal.

:Disclaimer:

Akana: Wah! Not fair!
Leiko: Shut up already!
Akana: But... But... No one left a review...
Leiko: Yeah, so deal with it. Anyway, we don't own anything relating to Kingdom Hearts, so don't sue us.
Akana: Yeah, especially when you don't even give reviews. 'sniffle'
Leiko: 'rolls eyes'

:End Disclaimer:

So, yeah... I'd really appreciate some reviews this time around. Please. Pretty pretty please. With sugar on top. Well, I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 4, A Sparring Partner
.:Traverse Town:.

"Hello? Anybody in there? Traverse Town to Tara..."

Tara opened her eyes, startled, to see Yuffie. "Oh! Sorry," she said, shaking her head a bit to get rid of the memories in her head about that day, two years and two weeks ago.

"What's up?" Yuffie asked. "Your eyes were closed and you were totally spaced out! What were you thinking about?"

"Just the past," she responded simply, shrugging like it was no big deal, which it really wasn't at all. She looked over at Leon and Sora to see that they were still talking, now about what to do next.

"The door to your friend Riku and King Mickey is still out there somewhere," Leon told Sora. "You should keep looking for it, but first I think you should go see Merlin and tell him what's happened."

"Merlin's back!" Tara exclaimed, rushing over to the two. "Why didn't you say so earlier!" Delight shone in her eyes as she ran up the stairs leading to the secret platform that floated up to Merlin's house.

Sora put his hands behind his head in a casual manner. "She seems really excited," he commented.

"Merlin's sort of been like a grandfather to her," Kairi explained. "She told me that her real grandfather died when she was young, and I guess she thinks of Merlin as a replacement."

"Hurry up!" Tara's voice echoed from the top of the stairs. "C'mon, you two!"

Sora shrugged and put his arms down. "Well, I guess we should get going, then." He was about to start up the stairs when Aerith stopped him.

"Wait," she said. "Take this." She held out a keychain that looked like it took a long time to make. It was in the shape of a star that was made of deep blue denim and outlined in red yarn. In the center, a smaller star was outlined in more red yarn. It was definitely an odd keychain. "It will transform your keyblade into the Friendship Keyblade. The more friends you make along your journey, the stronger the keyblade will become with this."

"Hey, thanks!" Sora said. He gladly accepted the keychain. When he attached it to his Keyblade, the color from the keychain spread rapidly along the keyblade, turning it the same deep blue with the same red outline. Sora stared at it and then grinned at Aerith before heading up the stairs after Kairi and Tara.

"You should've told him that it was from Squall," Yuffie commented once he was out of hearing range, leaning against the wall. She glanced over at Leon and smirked when she saw the glare he was giving her. She never tired of using his real name.

"If he'd wanted me to tell," Aerith explained with a knowing smile, "he wouldn't've given it to me to give to Sora. Right, Leon?"

Leon said nothing. He crossed his arms and stood as impassive as ever, though Aerith was indeed right.

"Merlin!" Tara exclaimed when the magical platform brought them into the warm, cozy, one room house that served as Merlin's living quarters. It was exactly like she remembered it, too. There were books scattered everywhere, on the chairs, on the tables, on the floor, on the bed. Furniture was put in the most random but out-of-the-way places. Even if Merlin with his pointy hat and long white beard hadn't been there, one could easily tell the place belonged to a wizard. "You're back!"

"Hm?" Merlin had been sitting in a chair and studying one of his books on the center table, but he now stood and turned to face Tara, Sora, and Kairi. "Why, Tara! You've certainly grown," he said. "As have you, Sora, Kairi."

Indeed, it wasn't only Tara who'd changed. Sora was taller, and he wore a different outfit. It was composed of four different colors: red, blue, yellow, and black. He still wore shorts, but they were baggier and blue. The seams were outlined in black. He wore a black belt and a red short sleeved shirt. He wore a yellow short sleeved jacket over his shirt that was outlined in black, just like his shorts. His shoes were plain black, as were his gloves. He still wore all the chains he used to have.

Kairi had also changed. Though her hair was still as short as it used to be, she, too, was taller and had different clothes. Her white tank top had been replaced with a grey one that had a few pink flowers at the bottom. She wore a grey skirt that faded into pink and stopped just above her knees. Her shoes were pink also. She still wore her black choker and gold necklace, but she also had a plain black wrist band.

Tara suddenly felt self-conscious. She absently shrugged off her tattered jacket and held it slung over one arm. She shifted from one foot to the other, realizing that she hadn't had time to change her outfit since the Heartless had attacked her. Merlin just chuckled and raised his wand. Light engulfed Tara, and when it faded, her clothes were returned to normal. She smiled and nodded in thanks.

"Merlin," Sora said, "we have something to tell you. The Heartless are back, and so is -- "

"Ansem," Merlin finished with a nod. "Yes, I am already aware of this. King Mickey came and told me."

"King Mickey?" Sora, Kairi, and Tara echoed. Had Goofy and Donald been there, they would've most likely done the same, and then immediately asked a million questions about where he was and how he was doing and why he didn't stay longer.

Merlin nodded again. "He found a way to escape, and so did your friend Riku. They have split paths; Riku is looking for Ansem and you, and the king is on a quest for information."

"Then, Riku's okay?" Kairi asked in delight.

"That's great! We can finally meet up with him again," Sora said excitedly.

Tara was silent. Riku, she thought. He's the one who came to my village. He's the one who saved my life. I have to thank and repay him. But how? What can I possibly do to pay a debt that size?

Sora looked like he was about to head out the door of Merlin's small house. He even took a few steps towards it, but Merlin stopped him. "This will be a much harder journey than it was before," he said. "The Heatless are much stronger now. You will need to train to defeat them, and to defeat Ansem when you meet up with him."

"Well, I can train around here, then go to other worlds and look for Riku," Sora said impatiently. He had stopped walking, but he cast anxious glances towards the door. "After all, finding him should be first priority. What if something's happened to him?"

"I think Riku can take care of himself. He did, after all, survive for nearly two years in the darkness where Heartless are born," Merlin answered. A twinkle was in his eyes as he said, "You need a sparring partner. Someone with skills that are equal to or perhaps greater than your own. Tara, would you like to take this job?"

She was stunned. "W-Wha...? You want me?" she asked. "But... I'm not very strong at all! I mean, you should've seen what happened to me when all those Heartless were there yesterday. I was so weak that I let them overwhelm me!" Sora had his doubts as well.

"Don't sell yourself short," Kairi said, internally laughing at her un-intentional pun. "I know you're really strong. I remember watching you fight the Heartless when I was here before. I think you and Sora would make great sparring partners!"

Tara and Sora looked each other from head to toe, both rather reluctant to fight the other. When Merlin said, "It's final," though, they both knew that it truly was. They were sparring partners, whether they agreed with the idea or not. "You should start right away," Merlin said. The platform that Kairi, Sora, and Tara were on rose by magic to Merlin's secret attic.

.:Hollow Bastion:.
Hollow Bastion. Riku remembered the place better than he would've liked to. This was where he'd turned on his best friend and stolen the keyblade along with Sora's other friends, Donald and Goofy. This was where he'd fought with Sora and lost. Where he'd become jealous and opened his heart to darkness. Where he'd done the unthinkable: tried to sacrifice his friends.

He could see clearly in his mind Kairi's motionless body. He'd taunted Sora, not to make him stronger like he usually did, but out of sheer malice, and then told him about Kairi's heart. Riku could've figured some other way to save Kairi, he knew he could've, but he didn't. He wanted to use the keyblade that unlocked hearts, taking Kairi's from Sora and sending Sora into complete darkness. Then he was going to use Kairi's heart to create the keyhole, toss her aside like she was no one, even though she had been the whole reason he'd come to Hollow Bastion.

But then... It was Sora who saved him. Sora defeated him again, but he wasn't quite gone. Ansem still watched the scene from the shadows, and Riku saw through his eyes. Sora used the keyblade to give Kairi back her heart. Sora had guessed that he would become a Heartless, and yet... This act of kindness, of unselfishness, of love was what pulled Riku from darkness. He realized what he'd done, and so when Ansem was going to get rid of Kairi, Donald, and Goofy, he stopped him. Riku used all his strength to stop Ansem from killing the only best friend he had left because he was too late to help Sora. Kairi, luckily, ran.

"I don't deserve to be here," Riku whispered to the air as a slight breeze picked up around him and tousled his long silver hair. He stood staring up at the enormous castle gates. "I don't even deserve to live. Not after what I've done."

"Not many things are that bad," said a voice behind him. "Unless you killed someone who didn't deserve to die -- "

"I have," Riku interrupted without even looking at the person. It wasn't technically Riku who'd killed them, but nonetheless, he couldn't erase the faces of those Ansem killed by using his body after leaving Hollow Bastion. The images of those desperate, pleading faces would forever haunt him, in his thoughts and in his nightmares.

"You didn't let me finish," the voice said. "Unless you killed someone who didn't deserve to die... and didn't feel the least bit of guilt about it. I can tell that you, however, feel guilty, so you do deserve to live." Riku said nothing, and so the voice kept talking to avoid the uncomfortable silence that was sure to come. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

"Searching for someone," Riku said simply. "The King advised me to start my search here, in case there are clues lying around somewhere that will lead me to him."

"Does this someone have a name?"

"Ansem," Riku said bitterfly, fists clenched. "Ansem doesn't deserve to live."

Ansem was angry when Riku stopped him. He went around to other worlds, using Heartless to destroy them and killing more and more people. Riku had spent all his energy in stopping Ansem that once, and so he had none left to stop him now. Most of the time, he wasn't even conscious enough to tell what was going on. On many occasions, Ansem spared him just enough energy to keep him wide awake to view the horrible destruction that was so easily caused by this terrible monster.

One such occasion was when Ansem found a rumor about some sort of magical pendant. He went to the village on the world where it was kept, and burned it down to the ground after killing everyone living in it, even the youngest children. He then followed the trail of two people, a mother and a daughter, the daughter only fourteen. He cornered them in a cave, and Riku was powerless to stop him from killing the mother. Howvever, when Ansem turned on that girl, cowering against the wall, an image of Kairi flashed in Riku's mind. This girl reminded him so much of Kairi, and he suddenly had a strong urge to protect her. He summoned the very little energy he had and stopped Ansem long enough for the girl to escape. All his strength thus spent, he was finally flung into the deepest depths of darkness, where the Light of Creation shone and where Heartless were born.

He was flung into Kingdom Hearts.

.:Traverse Town:.
Tara and Sora stood facing each other on opposite sides of the room. Both of Tara's swords were in her hands (Sora had rescued them from the battle the night before, and she'd found them lying beside her on the bed when she awoke), and Sora had his Keyblade out. Neither wanted to start the fight, but for different reasons. Tara felt herself too weak to face the famous Keyblade Master. She knew she'd have to go full force to keep from being harmed. Sora, though he wouldn't admit it, also thought Tara was too weak. He was afraid of hurting her on accident, and decided to go easy on her.

Kairi stood on the side lines, watching. Tara's jacket was slung over her arm. She realized with vague frustration that they wouldn't start the fight without a prompt. "On go!" she said. "Ready... Set... GO!"

Tara dashed towards Sora, and he dashed towards her. Keyblade and swords clashed and clanged together for a few minutes. Unfortunately, since the brightly lit attic hadn't been used in two years, there was a lot of dust that was stirred up under the pair's feet. Kairi soon couldn't make out their shapes and only had the clanging sound of metal to tell that their fight was still going on.

Soon the sound stopped, and the dust settled. Everyone was surprised. Sora was lying on the ground on his back, his Keyblade lying a few feet away. Tara held her swords crossed above his neck. The two were too stunned by the results to move at all.

Kairi was first to be relieved of the stupor. "Tara is the winner of round 1!" she declared in a loud voice, though it was painfully obvious.

Tara resheathed her swords and held out a hand to help Sora up. I beat him? she thought with disbelief. I actually beat him? I beat the Keyblade Master? "You held back," she said, her voice shaky with amazement. That was the only explanation.

Sora took her helping hand and stood looking at her. She beat me? he thought with disbelief. She actually beat me? A girl beat me? "Yeah," he said dumbly. "I held back." He must've held back more than he thought. That was the only explanation.

"Match 2!" Kairi called. The two got back into position, each clutching their respective weapons. "And... go!"

Sora and Tara both entered the battle with new attitudes. Sora was forced to go all out while Tara was the one who held back. The fight was a bit longer, of course, but it wound up with almost results as before. The only difference was that this time, Tara had let Sora knock one of her swords away. Still, though, Sora rested on his back with Tara's remaining sword held above his neck. The sparring continued thus, sometimes with one or both using magic to aid them.

After a few hours, they both were exhausted. "Take a break," Kairi suggested, waking up from her little nap and seeing their exhausted faces. "You two can rest up a while, then go out and fight some Heartless to see how well you fight together instead of against each other."

They both readily agreed, and the three went back down to the first floor. Merlin was bent over the same book as earlier, and this time he didn't even spare them a glance as he said, "I could hear you fighting from down here. You two are definitely perfect partners for this. I assume you both learned something about each other? Perhaps now you have learned not to over or under estimate yourselves and your opponents."

Sora and Tara glanced at each other, then hung their heads in shame. Tara had known all along how good she was, and she shouldn't have thought that she would be beaten just because Sora was the Keyblade Master. Sora thought that he was far better than her not only because he thought he had far more experience, but also because his opponent was a weak-looking girl.

"Now that you have proven yourselves to one another in battle," Merlin continued, "you should get to know each other. Unfortunately, there is no more time to be wasted here, and so you must do that on the way to other worlds. Go find Donald and Goofy and leave."

"Where should they go first?" Kairi asked, curious to know where her friends would be. It was a very logical question as well, for who wanted to fly through space in a gummi ship blindfolded with no idea where to go?

Before Tara could stop herself, she blurted out, "And what's that book you're reading?"

Merlin smiled and turned a page, his eyes never glancing up from the words. "It's a rather boring book," he admitted. "However, it contains much knowledge about items of significance, like that Friendship Keychain you received, Sora." This made Sora glance down at his Keyblade, which was still in his hand. "Now, as for where to go," Merlin continued, "I would suggest Hollow Bastion. It's familiar, and it has recently become re-infested with Heartless. And who knows? You may meet a few familiar -- or unfamiliar -- faces."

Tara's eyes lit up. Hollow Bastion. That's where Leon, Aerith, and Yuffie were from. She'd finally be able to see their home, where they had sometimes disappeared to before finally leaving when the Heartless were destroyed. She'd finally be able to see the grand castle Yuffie was always talking about, and that huge library Aerith said was there. Maybe she'd even get a chance to see the secret laboratory that Leon sometimes mentioned.

Kairi turned and smiled at the two of them. "Well, that should be interesting," she said. She knew how many memories it held for Sora and her. Her heart had been given back to her there, and she'd lost Sora. A Heartless had come up to her a short time later, reeking of the scent of Sora. Somehow, she knew this little Shadow had no malice towards her, and she knew for fact that this was indeed Sora himself. She never knew quite how she'd been able to do it, but she brought Sora back from the darkness and returned him to his former self.

Sora nodded slightly. He, too, remembered all that had happened, though his journey to Kairi as a Heartless was hazy. He could only remember that impenetrable darkness through which he had drifted. He remembered feeling nothing and wondering if he was even still alive. Where was he? Who was he? And then, suddenly, he heard something. It was a distant voice, calling his name. He saw a light, and he recognized the voice as Kairi's. He closed his eyes and felt warmth, and somehow he knew he was in the Hollow Bastion Castle, his arms wrapped around Kairi. "Thank you, Kairi," he'd said.

"Well, what're we waiting for?" Tara asked, stepping off the platform and making her way past piles of junk towards the door, her hair sweeping along behind. "Let's go get the others and head to Hollow Bastion!" She pushed aside the "door", really just an old curtain, and walked out into the dark cave. Kairi and Sora followed.

Merlin remained staring at his book once they left. It was rather boring, but it contained much knowledge about items of significance, like the Friendship Keychain Sora received.

Like that pendant hanging around Tara's neck.

'gasp' Suspense! ... Of course, I'm sure there are a lot of people who guessed that Tara's pendant was somewhat important, since Ansem wanted it and since it was always glowing and stuff. Don't worry, it will soon make sense. Sort of. Okay, not really soon, but soon-ish.

I am in dire need of opinions. Who should the mysterious person at Hollow Bastion be? It's definitely someone from one of the Final Fantasy's, but who? I don't want ANYONE from FFVII (7) for a few reasons. A) There's already too many from there and B) I haven't even played the game. I'd like someone from FFVIII (8), FFIX (9), or FFX (10). Here are the characters I'm considering:

Quistis
Rinoa
Zell

Zidane
Garnet/Dagger
Eiko
Freya
Amarant

Lulu

I'd prefer one of the FFIX characters. Also, I'm open to suggestions. Unfortunately, though, I've played KH2 and beaten it, so I know all the FF characters in there and I know I can't have them. Ex: Yuna, Rikku, and Auron all from FFX. Well, anyway, please review and tell me who you want to see!