A tiny, lithe figure lay on the oddly bent tree of star shaped fruit, watching the stars. Brown hair like cinnamon moved in the warm, tropic breeze, and brown eyes that were lightly tinted with bright amber looked up at the sky with contentment. The boy, not even a proper teenager yet, had a figure that came from years of being active and eating healthy. He was still very skinny, as his "big brother" Riku liked to remind him. Constantly.

One would have a hard time believing this was the next Sky Guardian who guarded the way to Kingdom Hearts.

"KWEEE!"

The boy sat up and yawned in a lazy manner.

"What's up, Cielo?"

"Avoiding work again, Natsu?"

"Riku-nii!" yelped Natsu.

A silver haired teen with sea green eyes looked at him with amusement, while another boy with hair almost the same shade as Natsu snickered at him. This was Sora, Riku's best friend.

Cielo, got up and let Natsu use him as a way to get down. He hated being short, but nothing he did fixed it. The adults who took care of the "orphan" who more or less lived alone on the island assured him he'd hit a growth spurt eventually.

Natsu didn't really live with any of the other kids, but he attended school with them. So long as he was healthy, happy and not into trouble, the adults left him be. He didn't particularly mind wearing the old outfits the other boys outgrew. Besides, he had Cielo.

The orange chocobo had the rare gift of flight, and with how small Natsu was he could fly for some distance. He also had a very vicious kick, but he was domestic so it was alright. As long as Natsu had his bird friend, he was perfectly safe. Kairi had even helped Natsu braid a simple strap with a name tag so people knew who the bird belong to.

Not that it mattered, because outsiders were so rare it wasn't worth mentioning, but Cielo didn't seem to mind.

"Come on Natsu! We need Cielo to complete the raft, and you know he only listens to you," complained Sora in good humor.

With Cielo to lift the heavy loads, the raft came together a lot faster and was much more sturdy. Needless to say the others agreed to take Natsu with them, because like Kairi he remembered a world very different from the islands.

He didn't regret leaving it though, even if he had only been five at the time. He remembered that some of the other children weren't so nice to him, and his father barely acknowledged he existed.

He just wished he could find the man who brought him to Destiny Islands and thank him.

"Come on Cielo. You know Sora will try to get out of work and leave it all for Riku-nii and you to finish," said Natsu.

"Kwee," agreed Cielo, nuzzling Natsu's hair.

"Hey, you were the one sleeping in the tree," said Sora teasing him.

"Yeah, but you haven't been able to beat Riku-nii yet with those practice blades," Natsu shot back. Sora made a face.

"I still say that weird intuition of yours is a total cheat."

Natsu smirked.

For some reason, whenever he was fighting he was able to go into a hyper-focused state. It was so powerful that he could almost literally see how someone would move before they did, even if he couldn't always counter it in time.

And that was before his eyes turned into a brilliant amber like a sunset.

He was the only boy who had been able to beat Riku consistently whenever his eyes changed color. However Riku never held it against him, mostly because if he couldn't beat Natsu in a fight with the wooden swords then it meant he had a long way to go before he could beat someone genuinely strong with a real blade.

Besides, outside of a fight Natsu was pretty helpless. He needed his "big brother" to keep him out of trouble that he always found himself in, mostly because he was too kind to turn someone down.

Riku gently ruffled Natsu's hair. He let out a light squawk of surprise, causing Sora to snicker.

Next to Natsu, Sora's hair looked tame in comparison.

"Sleeping away the day again, Natsu?" said Kairi with a giggle.

"School is to boring! The homework is way too easy!" complained Natsu with good humor.

"Hear that Sora? Natsu thinks the homework is easy, so why don't I ever see you doing yours?" Kairi challenged with a grin.

Sora made a face, but kept that bright smile on.

Between him and Natsu, they were the butt of a lot of good natured teasing, especially from Riku or Kairi.

They had no idea that their raft would never be used.

Natsu woke up, holding his chest as a pervading sense of overwhelming dread and wrongness hit him like one of Cielo's kicked to the chest.

Something bad was happening. Something so terrible it would cause untold damage. Cielo could sense it as well, because he was in an agitated state and looked ready to kick the first available target that came within range.

Looking outside at the sky, that sense of wrongwrongwrongevil only grew stronger until it was impossible to ever ignore.

He had the feeling things were going to change, and that it would be some time before he came back to the islands again. Grabbing the backpack he had gotten during a past Christmas from Santa (he didn't care what Riku-nii said, he had seen something putting the well wrapped box next to his bed along with a treat for Cielo) he started putting away all his most important possessions and all the clean clothes he could wear. Cielo crooned nervously, staring outside with eyes so wide they were practically black.

He was terrified of something, and Natsu really didn't want to find out what could do that.

He packed his things a little faster. He paused when he reached something that had lain in his drawer for so long he generally forgot about it.

It was a ring with a cute lion's head on it.

Natsu didn't hesitate. He put the ring the same finger as the nice teenager who had taken him away originally had it on. It felt right, but it was always awkward to do anything when he was terrified the ring would slip and fall off his hand.

He was finally big enough that it fit snugly, even if it was partly the ring's fault everyone called him Natsu. The second it was in place, he could feel a warm, almost purr from the 'lion' head. Like it was alive. It had been so long since he was called Tsuna that he had almost forgotten his original name.

"Kwee!" cried Cielo in alarm.

Tsuna looked outside and saw black figures on the beach. A sharp spike of alarm and terror hit him, before his eyes shifted to amber and his mind went crystal clear.

He threw open the shutters completely, ignoring the wind of the storm.

Cielo didn't need any input from him. The second the boy was on his back the chocobo charged outside in a fierce desire to fly away. Good thing the backpack was able to double as a saddle bag.

The creatures were black, vaguely humanoid but not tall enough to be adult sized, and had glowing yellow eyes. Just looking at them made his danger sense twinge rampantly.

Natsu was about to reach Riku and Sora when he saw him. The teen who had brought him to the islands.

Concern for his friends and a desire to meet the teen warred. Then he saw Sora summon something like a blade and his way was clear.

He aimed Cielo towards the teenager who saw him coming clearly.

It has begun. Now, not even that man can stop the events in motion.

A feeling of inevitability and chaos raged inside his heart. The teen looked him in the eye, his warm browned turned completely amber and with a brilliant orange fire on his forehead and hands.

He calmly pointed at Natsu with a flame-coated hand, the gauntlets practically shining in the remaining light.

Survive, little Sky. Survive so that the future is not beholden to darkness. Survive...so that you might awaken the blood that flows through you unchained.

Something was happening to him. There was a burning that flowed through his blood, coating Cielo and through his wings.

Now little Sky... you must test your resolve against the coming darkness so that the worlds may find their light and rise up against it.

He was falling. Falling deep into darkness...but at the same time surrounded by light.

He would wake up in a new world much like his old one, but felt darker.

It took him a few seconds of panic before he saw Cielo out cold next to him, very much alive and still with the bag slung across his back via a strap.

"Kwee..."

Cielo sounded so pitiful that Natsu couldn't help but pull out the bag of treats and give him two. The chocobo munched down, but Natsu could tell his heart wasn't really in it.

"Hwuk. Are you okay?" asked a voice. Natsu looked up and saw someone really strange...but his 'intuition' as Riku-nii called it said that the odd duo were trustworthy.

"I think Cielo didn't like the rough landing so much. Know where I could find a doctor or a vet?" he asked.

The taller of the two shook his head, but the shorter one that looked like a rather cranky duck noticed the look the taller one gave him before sighing in irritation.

"This is really stretching it," he grumbled. He took out a strange staff object and hit Cielo with a glowing energy. The chocobo blinked before letting out a louder cry and attacking the second treat with considerably more enthusiasm.

"Thanks!" said Natsu relieved. "How did you do that, by the way?"

The duck grumbled under his breath, before saying "Magic."

Natsu tilted his head.

"You mean like this?" he asked, before his right hand became coated in orange fire.

It had freaked Riku, Sora and Kairi out pretty good when he first did that, but then they quickly realized that Natsu, for some strange reason, was quite literally fire-proof.

The duck's eyes widened in shock, before his grudging grumpy nature vanished. Now it was more like concern.

"Definitely need to get you to someone who knows how to train mages. I think Master Merlin lives around here...somewhere."

Natsu made sure to hold onto Cielo's collar, mostly because the chocobo had a habit of wandering off if he noticed Natsu distracted.

"Hwuk! What's your name?"

"I'm Natsu, and this is my partner Cielo. Watch out for when he's agitated...he has one mean kick," said Natsu.

Seeing a familiar head of hair passing an alleyway, Natsu almost bolted after it. That looked way too much like Sora to be a coincidence.

Was he thrown here too?

He got an answer to that three hours later. Along with the names of the two oddballs.

The friendly 'canine' (he didn't know what he was, but he had the loyal canine feel so he stuck with that) with the shield was named Goofy and had a really laid back attitude with the feel of 'rain' and 'lightning' for some reason. He didn't like weapons, but his shield could deal some really painful hits and he was always quick to act in defense of his friends.

The grumpy duck with the staff was Donald, and he was just naturally irritable. He seemed to warm up a bit when Natsu admitted he was well aware that there were multiple worlds already (having come from one before being sucked out of the islands), but had been completely unaware that travel between them was even possible. Donald had the odd feel of 'storm', 'sun' and what Natsu could only describe as 'fog'. And once you got past his grouchy exterior he was an alright fellow.

Seeing Sora after the older two crashed into him and started talking excitedly about the weird blade he had (something about the king and a keyblade), Natsu suddenly felt a spike of warning.

"Guys, look out! Something really bad is coming!" he shouted.

Sora didn't hesitate and took battle position before the other two registered the warning.

Natsu found himself on the outside looking in as walls appeared out of nowhere and blocked him and Cielo from getting close. However he was able to shout warnings and allow the fighters below a better chance to avoid injury.

Donald, when it was all said and done, looked at Natsu with genuine respect...and a slightly wary expression.

"Hwuk! How did you know they were going to show up?" asked Goofy.

"Natsu has this weird sixth sense. It's never wrong," said Sora matter of fact. He grinned and hugged the slightly smaller boy. "You have no idea how relieved I am to see you're alright. You too, Cielo."

"Kwee!"

"Gah! Why do you always go for the hair you crazy bird?" complained Sora, fending off the chocobo. The bird continued to 'nuzzle' Sora's hair until it grew bored.

"So what now?" asked Natsu.

"Well Cid said that Merlin wouldn't be back for some time, so you could join us I suppose," said Donald.

"Hwuk! You could teach Natsu the basics!" said Goofy.

"Or I could ask that girl Yuffie for advice on how to fight. She seems like she might have an idea or two how to fight without a weapon. And Aerith seems to be pretty knowledgeable about herbal remedies," offered Natsu.

"That might be a better idea. I don't think our small ship could fit that big bird of yours," said Donald, eyeing Cielo. Not without paying Cid and delaying their departure for who knew how long.

Sora looked disappointed, but at least he knew Natsu would be learning how to fight and protect him later.

Natsu quickly found himself the errand boy of Cid in between learning from Yuffie how to fight. She seemed openly thrilled he had asked her for training instead of Leon. And Aerith was happy to teach him how to make basic herbal remedies to speed up healing.

For some reason, every time he got into working on his own healing kit the medicine would always end up coated in some sort of yellow fire and work much faster than they should.

It took him a week before he was able to consistently bring out the yellow color, but it was never as strong as his orange one.

"Oi, bird-boy! Got a delivery!" shouted Cid.

Natsu rolled his eyes. Ever since Cid found out Natsu had Cielo trained to the point it could outrun any heartless they ran into, he turned the duo into his personal delivery service.

Though it really sped things up when Cid finally figured out how to outfit Cielo with some really nasty shoes that allowed him to kick any heartless into dust. Cielo took far too much pleasure in doing so once he realized that...and Natsu quickly learned to get over the shock of being on the chocobo's back when it emulated the few birds of prey he had seen on the islands. Cielo developed the most irritating habit of taking to the roofs, finding a bunch of heartless and then attacking from above. With Natsu still firmly on his back.

The first time it happened the boy had yelped, and Cid about died laughing his ass off from the look on his face.

The second time Yuffie literally fell on her ass laughing while Aerith bravely tried to hold back her own amusement, since Natsu was holding their recent shopping purchases.

"Where to this time?" asked Natsu.

"You're going to be happy about this one. Merlin finally came back and he's agreed to see you."

"Finally!" said Natsu with considerably more enthusiasm. He packed a lunch and got Cielo outfitted.

"Kwee!"

Cid handed him the delivery, and they were off.

Inside Merlin's home...

Archimedes looked up from his book with surprise.

"There's a Sky heading this way. Untrained, by the looks of it," he commented.

Merlin blinked. Cid had told him that his new delivery boy was interested in learning magic, particularly healing spells so he could protect his friends.

Skies were exceptionally rare, and that rarity only went up outside the world they originated from. Add in the ridiculous flame purity he could feel from here... this would be an interesting challenge. He hadn't had this much potential for fun since Arthur.

There was a knock on the door, and a surprisingly young voice called out from the other side.

"Master Merlin, I have a delivery from Cid for you."

Merlin grinned. This was going to be interesting. The young were so much more adaptable and could learn quickly if given the right direction.