Disclaimer: None of the characters or anything belong to me. I just like to pretend they do.

"Hey," the one with the red hair said, "you ok?"

Riku opened his mouth to answer but no words came out as darkness claimed him.

Reno noted that this Riku character seemed to be swaying on his feet, and no sooner than he had asked the guy if he was ok, he fell over. "Whoa," said Reno, reaching out and catching Riku as he fell. The hood fell back, revealing hair that seemed to be silver and a face disguised by a blindfold. Reno frowned. Even though his eyes were hidden, his face seemed fairly young, which didn't make sense with hair that color.

He noted Quatre was moving forward, stating that he had some medical training. The young prince removed Riku's long coat, wincing at the amount of blood the dark material had been hiding. A yellow vest had been worn beneath the jacket, and it was stained crimson, and he could see that the grass below Riku was rapidly staining as well. He pulled the sash from his waist and pressed it against the wound in an attempt to staunch the flow of blood.

Relena frowned and moved closer. He seemed to be coming to, and she saw one of his hands raise to the material around his eyes. For some reason, she found her hands moving out, taking hold of the black material, and pulling it from his eyes. She reached out; his face was young, perhaps around Reno's age.

His eyes cracked open, and Relena caught a quick glance of sea-green eyes before a scream of agony was ripped from his throat. He began to thrash, and the boys quickly moved to hold him down before he could hurt himself further. Riku struggled against their grip, trapped in the agony that was consuming him, his head was going to split open, he was sure of it.

"Stop!" a voice behind them shouted. They found themselves literally thrown aside as the kid with the spiky brown hair burst through them. He fell to his knees beside Riku, throwing his hands over the other boy's eyes. "Shh, it's okay Riku," he turned furiously to them, "Where is the blindfold?" he hissed.

Relena reached out shakily, the blindfold still grasped in her fist. The boy swept it away and swiftly replaced it over Riku's eyes. Riku's ragged breathing slowly returned to normal, and the other boy hovered over him.

"I… I'm f-fine, S-Sora," he panted, "Th-ey… didn't… know."

The other boy, Sora, nodded shortly, "You're bleeding."

"N-no kidding, would you do somethin' 'bout it?"

Sora nodded, and rose. With a rush of wind and a flash of light, he summoned his weapon and raised it above Riku, "Heal."

A pale green light and the tinkling of bells followed and the blood flow from Riku's side slowed considerably, but did not stop. Sora's brow furrowed and he glared at his weapon, he smacked the weapon against his palm a couple of times, and several sparks flew from it. He didn't notice the others take several steps away from the sparking weapon. He glared at the weapon one more time and raised it again. He only had the energy for one more, "Heal!" he shouted. Once again came the green glow and tinkling of bells, stronger this time. And this time the wound in Riku's side sealed. Sora beamed and plopped down next to his friend.

Riku pushed himself up onto his elbows, "Thanks."

Sora, once again beaming, responded with a, "No prob." He dismissed his weapon in a flash of light.

Riku glanced down at his side, groaning at his bloodstained clothing, "Darn it, I really liked this vest…"

At this point, the others decided to make their presences known once more, "Ok," Reno burst out, "What the hell is going on?"

Sora turned to him in surprise, "Eh?"

"You sit there and tell him to heal and he does. Your weapon goes 'poof'. And there are shadows running amok smacking people around!"

Riku chuckled under his breath.

Sora seemed oblivious, leaping to his feet once more, "Hi! I'm Sora, I'm a Keyblade Master!"

Riku face-palmed, "Sora! What are you doing!"

Reno blinked, "A what now?"

Sora glanced down at Riku, "What?"

"You're meddling!"

"I'm being honest!"

"You're going to disturb the world order!"

"Wait, what's a Keyblade Master?"

"I am not! I've done this before!"

"And it's a miracle you're still alive."

"Oi, what's going on, yo?"

"Hey! I just saved your butt!"

"Excuse me." The quiet voice demanded confidence and power, and with two words, the verbally sparring friends silenced.

Sora glanced up at the speaker and almost jumped in surprise, "Princess!"

She merely raised an eyebrow, "Are you going to provide some answers or not?"

Riku and Sora exchanged glances. Sora put on his best puppy dog eyes, and even though Riku couldn't see them, he knew they were there. He groaned, damn those eyes. "Fine, do what you want. Just, watch your words. Donald would flip."

Sora grinned, "No worries, Riku!" He turned to the group of people while Riku sighed and flopped back on the ground. "What do you want to know?"

They exchanged glances, and seemed to come to an agreement, and the slender blond young man stepped forward, offering his hand, "My name is Quatre Raberba Winner, if you don't mind, I'll ask the questions for all of us."

Sora cheerfully took his hand, "I'm Sora, it's nice to meet you Quarter, no wait, um…"

Quatre smiled good-naturedly, "Quatre."

"Quatre. Right. Got it! What do you want to know?" he repeated.

Quatre nodded, "Well, let's start with the obvious. What were those things?"

Sora's face turned serious, "Those were Heartless. Neo-Shadow Heartless if you want to get technical."

"Heartless?" Duo asked, "What?"

"Heartless are just what their name suggests," Sora explained, "They are beings who have lost their hearts. They have no minds, no consciousness. All they have is hunger, hunger for strong, pure hearts. That's what they do; they steal the living's hearts, their soul, and devour it. The victim disappears completely and is turned into a Heartless as well."

Sora paused in order to let the information sink in. The one with the long hair pulled back into a braid was the first one to speak again, "So basically, you're trying to tell me that those shadow-ish things are soul eating monsters?"

Sora nodded, "Pretty much."

The one with the dark hair tied back snorted, "This is ridiculous."

"Wu Fei," chided Relena.

From his position on the ground, Riku spoke up, "Believe what you want. But today's battle should have been proof enough for you."

Wu Fei snorted again, but didn't say anything else.

Relena spoke again, "What are they doing here? What do they want?"

Sora frowned, scratching his head, "Well, see, that's the problem. We're not entirely sure."

"What the hell d' you mean 'you're not sure'?" Reno cried.

Sora shrugged, "Well, we haven't seen any Heartless for about three years. It doesn't make sense; they were supposed to be sealed away."

"You've had, er, contact with these things before?"

Sora nodded, "The first time I fought the Heartless was when I was fourteen, that was four years ago now. But they were supposed to stay in Kingdom Hearts after I defeated Xemnas."

Duo leaned forward, "Kingdom Hearts? Xemnas?"

Sora blinked, "Oops…"

Riku again smacked his palm into his face, "Sora! The World Order!"

"I know! I know! I'm sorry! It slipped!"

Heero finally spoke up, "What are Kingdom Hearts and Xemnas?"

Sora sighed, "I'm afraid I can't tell you that. Like Riku said, it would disrupt the World Order. I can't risk telling you more than that."

Heero's hand twitched towards his gun, Duo noted with some apprehension. Riku too noticed and pushed himself to his feet standing between Heero and Sora, "And you will accept that answer." Heero and Riku seemed to be having a stare down, which, to Sora, seemed ridiculous seeing as nobody could see Riku's eyes. He finally rolled his eyes, and pulled Riku back by his shoulder, "Next question."

Reno piped up, "What's a Keyblade Master?"

Sora sighed, "I'm a Keyblade Master, and so is Riku."

"Yeah, got that part, what does it mean?"

"Erm, it means that we wield a Keyblade…"

"Which is what?"

Sora sighed and held out his hand in front of him a light appeared in his hand, and suddenly his weapon reappeared, "This is a Keyblade. This particular form is what I call the Kingdom Key."

Wu Fei raised an eyebrow, "Your weapon is a big key?" he asked skeptically.

Sora nodded seriously, "You'd be surprised. This weapon is the only thing standing between this world and its destruction at the hands, err… claws, of the Heartless."

"What's so special about this key of yours?"

"It can only be wielded by someone strong in heart, and it chooses its Master. The Keyblade is a powerful weapon, and the only thing that the Heartless truly fear. I'm sure you noticed it was particularly effective against the Heartless today."

"Okay, then what about his?" Duo asked, motioning to Riku.

Riku raised an eyebrow, and reached out for his bat-wing weapon, "This is my Keyblade, it just has a more ornate design because I have a more powerful Keychain on it."

"Okay," Duo said, "I got one, how do you get your Key-sword thing to disappear like that."

Sora sighed, he could see now why Riku hadn't wanted to answer any questions, "When I'm not using it, it says in my heart," he said, placing a hand on his chest, "When I need it, I can summon it from my heart."

"Why are you the Keyblade Masters?"

"Um… because the Keyblades chose us?"

"You really don't know why they're here?"

"No…"

"Where are you from? You're not from around here."

"Er, Riku and I are from some other island nation called Destiny."

"What are you doing here?"

Sora seemed to shrink in on himself, and in a soft voice, responded, "We're looking for someone… someone very important to us."

Relena took pity on him, "Who? Maybe we can help."

Sora shook his head, "No, Kairi's not here. I would have felt her presence if she was."

"What, she your girlfriend? She run off or something?"

Sora's head shot up to glare at them, "Kairi would not just run off! She wouldn't leave me, Kairi-" A hand landed on his shoulder gently, and he turned to see Riku looking at him.

"Don't bother, Sora," his friend said softly, "You don't need to explain."

Sora nodded, and turned and walked away. Riku sighed, watching him go, "Kairi is the most important person in his life. Unfortunately, her status as a Princess of Heart, and as someone very close to a Keyblade Master mean that she is in danger constantly. She disappeared a month and a half ago, and we've been looking for her ever since. This attack is the first lead we've had. I have a feeling that whoever sent the Heartless also has Kairi. And if they have Kairi, there's a possibility that the other Princesses of Heart have also disappeared."

"These, these princesses of hearts, who are they?"

"Young women with exceptionally pure hearts, they are the key to… well, a great deal of trouble. There are seven in all."

Quatre nodded, "Seven is a powerful number."

Riku blinked, "Errr, right…"

Relena was looking past Riku at Sora, "Is… is he going to be alright?"

Riku glanced back at Sora. He was staring at the sky, one hand on his heart, a distant look in his eyes. Riku sighed, "He'll be fine. He gets like this sometimes. In about two minutes he'll have that cheesy grin back on his face," he chuckled, "It's hard to keep that Keybearer down."

"You two… are very close, aren't you?" she asked.

Riku glanced at her in surprise, and then frowned thoughtfully, "Yeah, I guess you could say that. We've had our, erm, disagreements, but, I guess when it comes down to it, Sora's the brother I never had."

Sora seemed to choose that moment to stop moping, and walked back to them, "Riku, we've wasted a lot of time here."

It was an unusual comment coming from Sora, proving to Riku that his thoughts were still on Kairi. Riku decided that he'd let Sora pout long enough, raised his fist, and brought it crashing down on Sora's skull.

"OW!" howled Sora, clutching his head, pouting up at Riku, "What was that for?"

"Your attitude."

Sora blinked, then grinned ruefully, "You're right."

The others had been watching the exchange in surprise, and were further surprised when Sora turned back to them again, a grin once again on his face, "Well, it's been great me-"

"Redbird! Redbird, where are you?" a new feminine voice interrupted, shouting.

Reno groaned, "Oh, for the love of…" he trailed off as a young woman with short blond hair came running around the corner. He stepped forward to meet her.

"Elena, yo, over here." The woman turned, spotting him, and began to charge over.

"Why aren't you using my code name?" she demanded.

"Because they're stupid, yo."

She stomped her foot angrily, "Reno! Where is the Princess? She was supposed to be with you!"

He raised an eyebrow, "She is."

The woman's composure changed instantly and she looked around his shoulder and spotted Relena.

Elena sighed in relief, "It's good to know Tseng can trust you to do something right."

Reno drew himself up to his full height, "Hey! What's that supposed to mean, yo?"

She snorted at him disdainfully, "Tseng sent me to update you. Half of Parliament has disappeared."

"Eh? They run away?"

She shook her head, "It looks as though they've literally just disappeared. We have witnesses who've stated that those weird shadow things showed up as they were waiting for Relena to arrive, and people started disappearing. Tseng wants us to try and hunt them down."

"You won't find them."

Elena turned to look at the speaker. Standing with the group that consisted of Relena, Lord Quatre, and their assorted guard were two young men she didn't recognize. The one who had spoken had odd silver hair.

"Excuse me?" she demanded.

Riku sighed, "You won't find them. They've had their hearts stolen. They're Heartless now. You might as well say that they're dead."

"Who the heck are you?"

Reno put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head, "It's true, don't push it Elena. I'll explain later."

She glared at him, "You've been shot."

Reno blinked then glanced at his side, "Oh yeah…" Somehow, in all of the confusion, he'd forgotten completely.

The other boy with the silver haired one stepped forward, "I can take care of it."

Reno shrugged, "Sure, Sora."

Sora held out his hand, and the Keyblade reappeared, he figured he had enough energy to deal with this wound. It seemed fairly superficial. He raised the Keyblade above Reno, "Heal."

It was a soothing feeling, Reno reflected. He could hear bells, and there was a cool feeling around his side. The muted green glow and the feeling receded, and he looked back to see his wound had almost completely disappeared, "Sweet, yo."

Sora grinned, nodding, resting his Keyblade on his shoulder, "That's the power of the Keyblade," he beamed.

Elena blinked, "What just happened?"

Reno patted her head, "I'll tell you later."