Author's Note: Chain of Memories was the first KH game I ever played so, and even if the combat system is...flawed, I would never have gotten into the series and fell in love with it.
This won't be long as Adventure because I'm only putting in worlds that are relevant to the game's plot and are not simply recycling KH1 in regards to Sora's storyline. It would be like writing the same chapters over and over again. And also Riku's storyline would be occurring at the same time as Sora's instead of after like in the games.
I hope you enjoy!
The group was walking along a random pathway somewhere.
"Where do we go now?" May asked.
"I dunno," Sora replied, walking with his hands behind his head, "Wherever the roads lead us."
Sarina sang a song from one of her favorite books.
"Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains in the moon," She sang softly to her herself as they walked.
"Sing louder, Rini. We need some entertainment wherever we're going," May encouraged.
Sarina blushed deeply and stopped singing.
"But what about Riku and the King," Donald asked glumly.
"We gotta find them," Sora responded casually.
"But, uh, where do we start lookin' for that there door to the light?" Goofy also asked, confused.
Everyone stopped and dramatically sighed.
They were already lost.
"Huh?" Sora asked as he heard footsteps.
Pluto walked in front of them with the happiest smile. When he saw Donald and Goofy, he wagged his tail eagerly as his master's best friends.
"Pluto?" Donald asked, wondering where the hell has the dog been this entire time.
"Hey Pluto," Goofy greeted, "Where have you been?"
Pluto said nothing as he had a letter in his mouth.
It was sealed with the stamp of King Mickey.
"Hey, have you seen King Mickey?" Sora asked, kneeling to the dog's height.
Pluto said nothing. He just simply ran off.
Goofy and Donald looked at each other, wondering if the dog was leading them to King Mickey.
"Come on guys, let's go!" Sora said excitedly. He ran off after Pluto.
"Well, there's nothing else to do," May shrugged before following him.
They ran off to a whole new adventure.
Sora, a boy of fourteen, woke up in the middle of the night. Having a sudden urge to walk through the fields, he looked at his friends to make sure they were all asleep. Donald, the court wizard, and Goofy, Captain of the Royal Knights, were sleeping on top of each other, with Goofy snoring loud as usual. May, a dark-skinned girl who was the Princess of Heart of Earth, lay flat on the ground with Sarina, her younger and brown-skinned twin sister, hooked underneath her arm. Both fourteen were as well, they joined him and the two royal knights when their own world was overtaken by the Heartless. While their world was restored, they had no other options but to stay with Sora.
'I hope Pluto's leading us to Riku and the King,' the spiky-haired brunette thought to himself as he walked down the seemingly endless pathway. They lost track of Pluto, but he didn't worry as Pluto always seemed to appear out of nowhere when it was convenient.
"Along the road ahead lies something you need," a soft, yet masculine voice said, and Sora turned sharply around to see a figure cloaked in black in front of him. "However, in order to claim it, you must lose something that is dear to you."
He disappeared before Sora could run up to him. 'Who are you and what do you mean by that?'
Sora ran back to his sleeping friends and promptly shook May. "May! May! Wake up!"
"What the hell, Sora?" The ebony skinned girl replied groggily as she stirred awake.
"May, someone just appeared to me! We all have to wake up now!"
"Huh?"
Inside the white walls of a room, pale hands drew a castle of odd proportions and colors inside a sketchpad.
She observed her artwork before placing it on a white table.
"That is the weirdest castle I have ever seen in my life," May remarked as she and Sora walked up to the castle. Although Sora didn't have his keyblade, Kingdom Key, out, she did because after finding out that she was a Princess of Heart of Earth and being kidnapped for it, May wanted to have a weapon on her at all times. She may not been an immediate target like Cinderella, Snow White, or Kairi were, but she still had a target on her back. Sunlight was the name of her keyblade, and the tip was shaped into the sun,the teeth was made up of sun rays, the body was sky blue, and the handle was orange with a sun shaped chain.
The castle was small and brown with teal roofs, and it was...uncomfortable to look at. Roofs and windows were twisted all over the place, and several areas were upside down on flat surfaces.
May had a strange feeling about this place. It felt somewhat familiar to her though she couldn't fathom why. 'Maybe I saw it in a nightmare or something?'
Donald, Goofy, and Sarina caught up to them, and Donald and Goofy began to argue over whether or not it was a good idea to enter the castle.
"Where else are we going to go? Look, I don't know about you guys but I'm tired of walking on a road to nowhere," May reasoned. Sarina stood back behind her with her arms folded. She too, felt a peculiar connection to the castle.
Sora was the one who made the first move. Brushing past Donald and Goofy, he walked right up to the castle entrance and one of the doors opened right up as if it was waiting for them.
'Okay, this is freaky and I don't like this,' May thought to herself as she followed Sora into the castle and pushed the other door open.
The Entrance Hall was all white from the floor, to the pillars, to the small statues, to the giant white door on the other side of the room, except for the neon blue lining that traced the floors. It was eerily quiet and May already wanted to leave the castle and walk on the endless road again.
"Hey, ya think it's okay for us to barge in?" Goofy asked in a nervous voice as everybody looked around. Donald looked at his friend.
"But we gotta do it, if we're gonna find the King-"
"The King? King Mickey's here?" Goofy replied in shock as he looked around wildly.
"Something just told me he'd be here, ok?" Donald assured with his arms folded.
"Really? 'Cause now that ya mention it, I was kinda thinking the same thing."
"Seriously? Me too! One look at this castle, and I knew," Sora added cheerfully. He put his hand over his heart. "Our very best friends-they're here."
"Hyuck! I guess great minds think alike!"
"And something tells me that there is a lot of darkness in here," May thought to herself, not wanting to kill the excitement. It was probably do to her abilities as a princess, but she could feel darkness radiating off the walls along with a sense of...emptiness.
"Wait, hey, hold on!" Jiminy Cricket said as he hopped out of Sora's hoodie. "It can't be just a coincidence!"
"Oh no, Jiminy. You don't mean that-"
"Yep. I had it too. Mm-hmm! I had the exact same feeling."
Everybody looked at the twins.
"I have a feeling our friends are here too," May admitted while Sarina simply nodded in agreement. The younger twin hardly ever spoke as she didn't think her voice mattered as much as her twin's. To May, her statement wasn't a lie, because she did have a feeling Riku and the King were here. It was just that she also sensed bad vibes in here. Very bad vibes.
"Gawrsh, maybe it's just contagious," Goofy said.
"No, no. Something's screwy. We gotta go take a look," Donald barked.
"Alrighty then, let's go," May said as she, Sarina, and Sora took a couple steps forward.
"Wak! Where are you two going?" Donald asked nervously. Sora and May looked at Donald as if he was crazy.
"That way," Sora replied as he pointed to the door, "To the door. Are ya scared?" He finished as he and May sported teasing grins. The court wizard growled. "Aw, don't be ridiculous! Come on, let's go, Goofy!"
"Hey guys, shouldn't we shut the door behind us before we go?" Goofy said. He turned around to shut the front door. "Kids!"
The rest of the party turned to face the same cloaked figure that Sora saw earlier. The door behind the figure closed slowly.
Sora had enough. "That's it! Who are you?" He demanded as he summoned Kingdom Key, and took a battle stance. May gripped her keyblade cautiously as she observed the figure. He was unarmed, but who knows what power he held?
Donald was the first one to attack...or at least try to.
"Wak! Heartless! Oh yeah? I'll try some magic! THUNDER!" He called out as he waved his staff.
Nothing happened.
"Come on...Thunder!" Donald called out again.
Again, nothing happened.
As the rest of the group looked at Donald with worrying glances, the court wizard began to get agitated. "THUNDER! THUNDER! THUNDER! THUNDER! THUNDER!"
All attempts were futile as not a single bolt came forth.
Donald looked at his staff in great confusion. Perhaps a different spell would work? "Come on...Blizzard!"
It didn't work.
"FIRE?"
His staff didn't even heat up.
The figure walked towards the group and May felt sirens ringing in her head in alarm.
"Why isn't it working?" The court wizard wailed as he hung his head in shame.
"I should think it's obvious," the figure finally spoke, "The moment you set foot in this castle, you forgot every spell and ability you ever knew. In this place, to find is to lose, and to lose is to find. That is the way in Castle Oblivion."
'Castle Oblivion? Now I know we are not in a nice place," May thought to herself in alarm.
"...Castle Oblivion?" Sora replied in confusion. That name didn't sound good at all.
The cloaked figure disappeared in black tendrils, only to reappear right in front of the three teens.
"Here you will meet people that you known in the past. And you will meet people that you miss," he directed the last statement to Sora.
"I miss?" The brunette asked in confusion. "Riku! You mean Riku's here?"
"If what you want, is to find him…"
The figure held out his hand, and a burst of cherry blossom petals combined with a strong current of wind swept through the room, and especially through Sora, May, and Sarina. The figure went through Sora, causing the brunette to step back. Sora quickly turned around and tried to slice through the figure, only for him to disappear in cherry blossom petals.
'Who is this guy?' Sora thought, frustrated that he couldn't land a hit.
The figure appeared on top of the steps.
"What'd you do?" Sora said.
"I merely sampled your memories," he replied, "And from them, I made this." He pulled out a blue card with a world on it.
"To reunite with those you hold dear-," he tossed the card to Sora, who caught it with ease.
"You want us to play with cards? What is this, Yugioh?" May asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It is a promise for the reunion you seek," the figure answered while gesturing to the door behind him, "Hold the card to open the door. And beyond it, a new world. Proceed, Sora, Princess."
"How do you know my title?" May asked in shock, "And I have a twin right here, you know!"
The figure ignored her question as he continued. "To lose and claim anew, or to claim anew only to lose…"
He disappeared in darkness.
May rubbed her fingers into her head in a combination of worry of and irritation. "Why do I have a feeling that we have giant targets on our backs and that this is all a damn setup?"
"We have no choice but to go on, May! Riku could be here!" Sora argued.
"Or maybe that cloaked weirdo told you that so he could set you up! Why does he know our names? How does he know I am a Princess of Heart? Why does he want use our memories to create that card right there?" May shot back. She knew how narrow-minded and determined Sora could be when it came to his friends, but she wanted him to think hard about what he was about to do.
"May, please! I don't trust him either but this might be the way towards Riku and the King!" Sora took her hand and squeezed her gently. He gave her a pleading look. "Please."
Looking in his bright blue eyes, May sighed. Sora's eyes were a weakness of hers, so of course he used that to his advantage. 'Damn that boy and his pretty eyes!'
"You win, Babyface. We'll go through this stupid castle, but if things get too screwy, we're leaving," May relented, using her nickname for Sora.
Sora smiled. "Fine with me, Princess."
May snorted.
"You two fight like an old married couple," Donald commented as he rolled his eyes. May and Sora stuck their tongues out at him in response.
Sora walked up the steps and held out the world card the figure gave him. The door opened widely and bright light greeted them from the other side.
"Let's go," he ordered.
The world they entered was not new at all. In fact, it was the very first world they ended up on.
"Traverse Town?" Sarina finally spoke as she looked around. The world was exactly like she remembered when she first landed in there and in subsequent visits , and it appeared they were in the First District.
"This can't be right," Sora said in confusion.
"And it begins," May muttered to herself.
"What you see isn't real," the figure spoke as he appeared. He disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the district. "This town is an illusion created by your memories in that card."
"Our memories? How?" May questioned.
Jiminy hopped out of Sora's hoodie and landed on the brick paving. "Forget about that! We lost Donald and Goofy!"
"Huh? Donald? Goofy?" Sora replied as he looked around wildly for their two friends. "Guys, where are you?"
"What did you do with them?" Sora demanded of the figure.
"They are at the mercy of the cards now. Master the cards, and their strength will be yours again," the figure answered.
"So that's the catch, huh?" May replied casually as she summoned Sunlight. "Square up, douchebag." Sarina held her arm out to block her twin from doing something rash.
The figure continued to speak.
"The laws of this castle require that your friends be transformed into cards. If you value your friends, you won't fail to pick them up. Cards you pick up are added to the top of your stack. Use them, and your friends will come to your aid. The cards you use will vanish, but they will reappear to aid you time and time again. Cards are the hearts of your friends. Everything in this castle is used by cards, whether an enemy or a door confronts you, cards are the only way to proceed."
Two cards floated down from the night sky, and Donald and Goofy materialized from them in white flashes.
"Donald! Goofy!" Sora called as he and Sarina ran up to them. May stayed and fixed the figure with the hardest glare possible.
"What happened to the two of you?" Sora questioned them.
"You tell us! When you open the door, we saw a strange light, and the rest is just...blank," Donald answered.
"Gee, that doesn't help," Jiminy commented, "Try to remember what happened! I have to keep my journal up to date!"
"Hey, Donald, where'd I get the new clothes?" Goofy asked he inspected his new clothes that came out of nowhere.
"Wak! Me too!" Donald said as he noticed that he too had on a new outfit adorned with belts and zippers. "Somebody's been messing with our clothes!"
'But that's the same outfits they have been wearing the entire time! They only switched them out for regular clothes at the end of our journey!' Sarina thought to herself. 'How could they forget that?'
"Could it be the cards again?" Sora asked the figure.
"That is for you to ponder," the figure replied cryptically. "Master the cards and make your way through the castle. But from here, you walk alone."
"Alone!? We can't let the kids go alone!" Goofy argued.
"Yeah, those kids can't do anything without our help!" Donald added.
"HEY!" Sora and May shouted at the same time, while Sarina stayed silent with a frown. Even if they were talking animals from cartoons, Donald and Goofy were technically the only adults and authority figures in the group, and to lose that comfort felt like a slap in the face to her.
"You sure, you'll be okay?" Goofy asked the teenagers.
"Of course!" Sora replied. He turned towards the figure. "You want us to go alone? Fine. We can take care of ourselves."
'This is definitely a trap of some kind. But what is this guy planning?' May thought to herself suspiciously. First, they lose all their abilities, and now Donald and Goofy were isolated from them? 'That leaves us, the three keyblade wielders...wait.'
Something clicked in May's mind but she wasn't ready to voice it until she had enough proof to convince Sora.
"Hmph, the boy speaks boldly. Go then, the rest of Castle Oblivion awaits. Walk down the avenues of latent memory, and you shall meet someone dear to you," the figure said as he disappeared.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Jiminy commented.
"You're not the only one," May added, with a fixed look at Sora.
"Relax, guys. I'm ready for any tricks he got up his sleeve and you guys should too," the brunette said. "How hard can it be to figure out how to use these cards? All we have to do is use one in front of that door right there. Come on guys," he said while gesturing to a door on the other side of the district. A deep blue card lined with gold appeared in his hands. It had a key on the front while "Key of Beginnings" was printed at the bottom. Then, an entire deck of room cards appeared, some green, some red.
As the group walked up to the door, Sora held up the Key of Beginnings card so it can open the door.
Instead of opening the door, the door instead glowed red.
"Perhaps, we need to use one of the red cards?" May suggested.
"Okay…," Sora said as he reached down into his pockets and held up the first red card in his stack. It featured a large swarm of Shadow heartless on the card. "Teeming Darkness", the card read.
"Let's see if this card works. This can't be that hard!"
"Let's not ever use that card ever again unless we have to," May said while glaring at Sora. The brunette grinned sheepishly while rubbing the back of his spiky hair. "I didn't know it was going to be that many heartless! Traveling by ourselves isn't as easy as I thought it would be."
"There were like fifty Shadows on the card alone."
"Hey! I didn't see you protesting!"
Two blue cards fell from the sky and suddenly, Donald and Goofy appeared again.
May and Sora shrieked as they held onto each other in fright.
"Ack! Don't scare us like that!" May rebuked. Then she and Sora looked at each other, and quickly the both of them split apart. They looked in separate directions awkwardly.
"Hey, it's not our fault! We don't know what's going on!" Donald replied.
"Gawrsh, Sora and May, your fighting has gotten kind of rusty. You sure you don't need our help?" Goofy asked in concern.
"We're fine, honestly," Sora boasted, though deep down he was not sure.
May pondered what Goofy said for a moment.
When she fought, she oddly had forgotten how to wield a keyblade properly. And her favorite spell, Aero, did not work at all.
"Ayuck!" Goofy shouted as he pointed to something behind the teenagers.
It was Pluto, who wagged his tongue happily. Sarina walked over to the dog, bent down, and rubbed his neck affectionately, leaving the dog to bark happily in response.
"Things keep getting stranger. What's Pluto doing here?" Donald asked.
"There's nothing strange about that. We came to Traverse Town with Pluto, didn't we?" Goofy replied.
"Did we?" Donald asked in mild confusion. He remembered he and Goofy landing in the world, but he didn't remember Pluto. Then again, his memories of Traverse Town were getting kind of foggy…
Jiminy hopped out of Sora's hoodie again. "No wait! According to my journal, it was before you met the kids that you came to town with Pluto!"
Donald suddenly remembered. "Wak! You're right! We were chasing after Pluto, and that's how we ended up in Castle Oblivion!"
"But aren't we in Traverse Town?" Goofy asked.
"Well, it's not really Traverse Town. I think the card created this town inside Castle Oblivion," Jiminy explained.
"Aaghh! Who cares about all of that? It's all confusing!" Sora said.
"Is it confusing or you're just dumb?" May said with a teasing grin.
"Shut up! I don't know where we are, but let's just keep moving forward and defeating Heartless! We'll get somewhere!"
"And by 'we', you mean you, me, and Sarina because Donald and Goofy are just going to turn into cards again! And where is somewhere?"
"Arguing like that, you'll be heartless fodder," said a voice.
A man with long brown hair, blue eyes, and a scar on his forehead, walked up to them. He was dressed in a black vest, a white undershirt, black pants, black gloves, and black shoes. Brown belts adorned his entire outfit.
"Leon?" May asked, raising an eyebrow. The young man in front of them was Squall Leonhart, "Leon" for short, who they met in Traverse Town along with Yuffie, Aerith, and Cid. They worked to make Traverse Town a safe world for refugees who wanted to escape their fallen worlds, and they fought the Heartless.
"What are you doing in Castle Oblivion?" Sora added. 'Is this what that guy meant by meeting someone dear to you?'
Leon looked at Sora, confused. "Castle Oblivion? What are you talking about? This is Traverse Town. And how do you know my name? Who are you?"
"Um, the hell you mean 'who are you?' You don't know us? We just saw you like a week ago, Leon!" May replied, shocked while Sora's jaw dropped.
"I've never seen any of you in my life," Leon said with the frown.
"What? Really, huh?" May replied incredulously. "We weren't gone for that long!"
"Quit playing, Leon! We all fought the Heartless together! You know that!" Sora shouted. 'How does Leon not know us? Why doesn't he know us?'
Leon shook his head. "Look, I don't know what either of you are talking about. I don't even know your names."
Sora and May looked at each other in horror.
"You...don't?" Sora said.
"...Not even the tiniest idea?" May added with widened eyes. 'What even is this castle? Is this really Leon?'
"Sorry," the taller brunette apologized in a flat tone as he turned his back to them.
"I can't believe this. How can you have forgotten about us?" Sora argued.
"Yeah, we visited Traverse Town like six times, bro!" May commented.
"I feel you, but you've got the wrong guy. Happens all the time. Don't take it so personally, Sora, May," Leon replied.
"Bro we just saw-Wait, did you just say our names?" May asked.
"You DO know their names!" Donald said as he pointed an accusing finger at the man.
"Now,now hold on! Why do I know your names?" Leon said.
"Because we've met before, plenty of times in fact. You were the first person Sora encountered and had an actual conversation with. You taught him how to fight Heartless, you led us to Merlin, and you explained to us as to what happened to our worlds. Do you have amnesia, Leon? Did one of those Heartless smack your head too hard?" May explained.
"I'm telling you, you got the wrong guy," Leon asserted.
"You think Leon's just kidding around?" Goofy whispered.
"If he is, it's not funny. Those kids are really upset," Donald whispered back.
"He wouldn't act so genuine in his confusion if he was joking," Sarina said, catching both of their attention, "He doesn't remember us."
"Who's kidding around, Goofy? You and Donald are the ones who-" Leon stopped himself as the court wizard and guard looked at him.
"I don't get it. Something's wrong with my memory," Leon tried to convince himself as he held his head. "What's happening here?"
"I dunno Leon, Maybe Aerith was onto something afterall," a younger, more feminine voice said. From another entrance, a teenage girl with short black hair and brown eyes walked up to Leon.
"She said she sensed some uncanny kind of power," she explained. She was dressed in a tiny green top held up by blue belts, beige shorts with blue belts, beige stocking, a grey bandanna wrapped around her forehead, brown fingerless gloves, brown boots, and a yellow scarf. "Well this is as uncanny as it gets. Maybe you should take Sora, May, and Sarina to see Aerith."
"Yuffie!" May addressed her in relief. "You know our names?"
"Yep! Looks like you know mines, too," the other girl replied in a cheerful manner.
"You know them?" Leon asked his female companion.
"Nope! Total strangers, but I definitely know their names! Strange, yes, but convenient! We can skip the introductions!"
Leon sighed as he shut his eyes. "How can you accept this situation so easily? I don't get you…"
"Well, I'm gonna run ahead and fill Aerith in. Leon, you give them the grand tour. See ya later!" She waved cheerfully at the group as she walked away.
"I'm uncomfortable," May muttered.
As Leon led them through the streets, Sora and May talked amongst themselves.
"What do you think is going on with Leon?" Sora asked the older twin.
"I don't know. How can he say he doesn't know us but he knows our names?"
"Perhaps he's slowly recovering from amnesia?"
In the second district, Leon opened the door to one of the hotel rooms.
Inside was Yuffie and a pretty woman with brown hair tied down into a long plait, and striking green eyes. She wore a long pink dress with brown boots. She was Aerith Gainsborough.
"Aerith, have you forgotten us too?" Sora asked with sad eyes.
"I don't know whether to say 'nice to meet you' or 'it's good to see you again'," she answered honestly. "I don't think I know any of you, but I still feel like you belong here."
"Yeah, exactly! Like we've never met, but it still doesn't feel weird knowing your names," Yuffie said, agreeing.
"But we're telling you, we HAVE met. We took on the Heartless together. We were a team!" Sora said.
"It feels like you're right, but I can't remember…," Leon replied.
"Then I guess you can't remember what you told us. In Hollow Bastion, when I sealed the Keyhole: 'We may never meet again…'"
"...but we'll never forget each other," Leon finished for him.
"See you do remember!" Sora said.
"He's right, Leon! I remember you saying that too," Yuffie added in shock.
Leon folded his arms. "I guess I can't write it off as a coincidence, then."
Aerith spoke up. "I don't have any memory of it, but I still remember. I think your hearts are doing the remembering for us."
"Our hearts?" Sora said while placing his hand over his heart.
"What do you mean by that?" May asked.
"We don't know you, May, or Sarina, but your hearts are full of memories of us together. Those memories must resonate in our hearts, too. Maybe they tell us things we couldn't otherwise know," Aerith explained.
"So you're saying the kids' memories are affecting ours?" Leon asked the brunette.
Aerith turned towards him. "Their memories do seem to have a certain power."
"Maybe it's just like that guy said, then," Sora said, thinking of what the cloaked man said earlier, "This town is just an illusion. Something our memories created."
"But they feel real! Everything in this town feels real," May argued to her sister. Sarina held her chin in thought.
"And...there is someone important to you in this town?" Aerith asked the group softly.
Sora gasped. "But-How did you know?" He then relaxed in realization. "Ah I get it. My memories are resonating with yours, telling you what happened."
"You guys should be remembering us now," May added.
"A friend of ours is somewhere in this town-I mean, Castle Oblivion," Sora explained.
Yuffie tilted her head in confusion.
"Castle Oblivion? What's that? There aren't any castles in Traverse Town," she asked.
"That's not what I mean," Sora replied.
"The kids probably still have questions of their own, right?" Aerith inquired the group, trying to keep a cheerful opposition amidst all of the confusion.
"We do," May responded, "And the only answers to them is by looking around here."
"Then look around town. There are heartless, but that's no problem to any of you," Leon suggested.
"Damn right! We're experts at kicking heartless ass!" May boasted, shoving her fist into the palm of her other hand.
"So you know we can fight?" Sora asked with a confident grin.
Leon simply folded his arms at the claim.
"I can't say I remember, but I am starting to believe.
In the third district, a middle aged man with short blond hair was chewing a cigar. He turned around and grinned when he saw the group.
"Well, whaddaya know? It's Sora, May, and Sarina?" the man greeted with a thick country accent. He then frowned in confusion. "Wait, what am I saying? I don't know any of you damn kids." He squinted at the teens to get a closer look. "But you do look like a Sora, May, and Sarina with those big ol' keys in y'alls hand. I guess I just call 'em like I see 'em."
"Well, Cid, those are our names," May said with a teasing smile.
Cid took his cigar out of his mouth.
"So y'all heard of me? I can't say I'm surprised," Cid replied, puffing his chest out arrogantly.
"Anyway, maybe you can help us out?" Sora suggested. "A friend of mine is supposed to be in this castle-er, town," he corrected the last bit.
"Your friend, huh? Lately all there've been around this town is heartless. Can't even take two steps without gettin' attacked," Cid explained, "This plaza here's the worst."
Cid looked towards a bell tower.
"Word is we'll have a jumbo-sized heartless on our hands when that bell rings."
'Bell ringing? Why does that sound familiar?' May thought to herself.
Cid turned back to the group.
"If you value your hide, you'll get out of here while the gettin's good."
Cid walked away, leaving the group to think about his warning.
"Something about this seems familiar," Sora said.
"Because it is," Sarina explained, "Here is where we fought the Guard Armor."
"The what?" May asked her twin.
"The big, knight-light heartless with the detached limbs."
May looked at her sister in confusion. "Huh?"
Sarina frowned. "You don't remember?"
"I mean, I don't remember fighting a "Guard Armor" either," Sora spoke up, rubbing his head.
"But...but that's how we all met!" Sarina exclaimed. "Donald, Goofy, remember "All for one and one for all"?"
"Um….," Donald and Goofy said together, trying to remember the event.
"Gawrsh…," Goofy said, whacking his head.
"Are you sure that this actually happened?" Donald asked with an eyebrow raise.
Sarina's eyes widened in shock. She had no idea what to say. Everyone's memories were slowly going away as the cloaked man said.
But why was she the only one to not have her memories affected?
Sarina was about to say something before a loud bell rang.
The heartless was coming.
"Sora! Look out!" Goofy shouted, and Sora rolled away just in time before a set of armor limbs fell from the sky and crashed onto the ground. The limbs, colored red, white, blue, and yellow, formed into a giant heartless resembling a statue of an armored knight. Its head rolled out of its torso and onto the top of its body.
"Rini? Is that the thing you were talking about?" May asked, summoning Sunlight.
"Yes," the younger twin replied before getting smacked by one of the heartless' gauntlets.
She skidded a few feet before retaliating with Firaga. The fire blast instantly destroyed one of the gauntlets.
"Hey! Why does she remember how to cast Firaga?" Donald questioned before getting kicked away by one of the hammer legs. "AHHAHAHAHAHA!" The court wizard shouted as he flew in the air.
"Hey you big asshole! Over here!" May shouted, hurling her keyblade at the beast's torso.
The heartless stumbled back, before all of its remaining body parts stumbled to the ground.
Sora rolled over to the heartless and started bashing various limbs. Sarina casted Curaga on her and Donald before calling upon Thundaga.
Now, both of the heartless legs were gone. The area was flooded with a minor shockwave before the heartless reassembled itself. With only one gauntlet and its torso left, the heartless used the remaining gauntlet to jab at Goofy, but the royal deflected the blow with his shield. Goofy charged and smashed the gauntlet into pieces.
The heartless used its torso to bounce around the field as its last stand.
Donald charged up his staff and shot a ball of ice at the torse, freezing it before it could slam into him. Sora jumped into the air and sliced up the heartless.
The heartless disappeared in a flash of white light, blinding everyone.
When it disappeared, Sarina was nowhere to be found...and two cards appeared in her place. One had an ice crystal on it and the other Simba from The Lion King.
May looked around frantically. "Rini?" She looked up into the air. "Rini?"
She ran around the area, and her anxiety was at an all time high. "Rini? Where are you? RINI!"
"So your friend wasn't here?" Yuffie asked as she, Leon, Aerith, and Cid investigated the area.
Sora shook his head. He had his arm wrapped around May as she still called out for her twin numbly. "No, I don't think I'll find him in this town. But he's somewhere around this castle, I know it."
Cid chuckled in disbelief at the idea. "Castle? Like this whole town is in some humongous castle? Hoo that's rich!"
"It is!" Sora protested, putting his other hand on his hip.
"He's probably right, Cid," Leon explained, "We may not understand what's going on, but Sora and May probably does. They can see that reality is bigger than just this world."
"I wish we were that sure," Sora simply replied with an unsure look on his face.
"Rini? Rini? Rini?" May asked repeatedly, hoping the more she said it, her sister would appear. She couldn't believe it Rini just disappeared like that, and to where? Rini never liked being far from her, and while May was the more independent of the two, she didn't like leaving her sister alone, especially in this creepy castle.
Sora rubbed her back soothingly. "We'll find her May, I swear."
"You kids will be alright. No matter what shape reality takes, you can handle it," Leon said, reassuringly, "I may not know either of you, but I know you in my heart."
Sora gasped. It was something Leon would say to them. "Leon!"
"Take care, guys," Yuffie said with her cheerful grin.
"I'm a little lost...but best of luck anyway!" Cid added, giving them a thumbs up.
Everyone walked away...except Aerith. She walked up to Sora, realizing something.
"What's wrong?" Sora asked her.
"I don't have any answers, but there's something the both of you should know. Your memories created this town, right?"
Sora nodded, while May just stood there. "That's what the guy who gave me the card said," Sora explained.
Aerith frowned at what she was about to say. "If that's true, then this town is just a figment of your imagination, and so are we."
That snapped May out of her trance immediately.
"What?" She asked, shocked.
"But...but you can't be a figment! You're standing right here! The town is here too!" Sora argued.
"But I'm not really me," Aerith explained, "I don't remember the things I should. I sense things I shouldn't. Sora and May, beware your surroundings. In the journey to come, you'll be faced with more illusions. Sometimes the shadows will deceive you, try to leave you astray."
"So, uh what exactly does that mean?" Sora asked. May chose to say nothing as she tried to comprehend Aerith's words.
"I'm just another illusion, Sora. The truth is out of my reach," she replied sadly.
"Don't say stuff like that! It's depressing.."
"No, Sora! You musn't let illusions distract you from what's truly important," Aerith responded with a much more cheerful tone.
"We'll be alright?" May asked, barely above a whisper.
"I don't know for sure, but I have a strong feeling you both will be."
"Okay," Sora said.
"Sora! May!" Donald called. He and Goofy were by the exit.
"You kids ready to go?" Goofy inquired.
"Yeah! Be right there!" Sora replied. He motioned May to go over to then while he said one last thing to Aerith. He then brightly smile. "Well, Aerith, I'd better be going."
He turned around and nothing was there.
"Huh? Aerith?"
"What about her?" Donald asked, confused.
"Wasn't she literally just talking to the both of us?" May added.
"Yeah! I was just talking to her, and now she's gone!" Sora exclaimed.
Donald and Goofy looked at the both of them like they were crazy.
"Aerith left with Leon and the others, remember?" Goofy said.
"But..," Sora was thoroughly confused.
"You kids were standing there, talking to yourselves. We wondered what was going on," Donald explained.
'So this is what she meant…,' Sora thought glumly.
When they walked out of the Traverse Town exit, they entered the exit hall of the first floor of the castle.
The cloaked figure from before appeared from a portal of darkness.
Everyone summoned their weapons as he took a threatening stance.
"Well, Sora and May? Did you enjoy meeting your memories?" The figure asked.
"It was good to see everyone again," Sora replied, "But why show us an illusion? What do you want from us?"
"Where is my sister? Tell me where she is?" May demanded. She tried to glow as a sign she meant business, but to her frustration, she couldn't.
"Where ever your sister has gone is up to the castle to decide. I do not have the answers to that."
"Bullcrap! Why can't you give us a straight answer?"
"That depends on what you have to give," The figure said as he began to walk menacingly towards them.
"Boo," a mysterious voice said.
Everyone paused at the unknown voice.
Another portal of darkness opened up, and out stepped a tall young man wearing the same long black coat as the figure in front of them. However his hood was down, revealing a rather handsome face with a widow's peak. His eyes were an emerald green, his eyebrows were thin, and there were two purple, reverse teardrop-shaped markings under each eye.
The most notable feature of him, however, was his long, thick, and flaming red hair, slicked back in multiple spikes.
"Hello!" The young man greeted with a cheerful, yet dangerous grin.
"What do you want?" The unknown figure asked.
"I got bored, what with you hogging the heroes."
The figure stood there silently before tossing the redheaded man a card. "Then perhaps YOU'D like to test them." He then disappeared.
"Perhaps I would," the redheaded man replied. He then looked at the group with a taunting smirk on his face. "Looks like it's my show now, keyblade masters. Who am I? My name's Axel, got it memorized?" He introduced.
"Uh...sure," Sora replied awkwardly.
"Committed to my memory," May added dryly.
"Good, you're both quick learners," Axel said. While still smiling, his face took on a more sinister look. "So now that we're all getting to know each other better…"
Axel held out both of his arms, and with a burst of fire, summoned two big red and silver chakrams in each other hand.
"Don't you kids go and die on me now!"