The Road to Dawn
By Ariana Aislinn
Chapter 8: Starblaze

I know this chapter took a while, but like I said, I was busy for a few days! Besides which, I wanted to make sure these next two chapters got beta read before I posted them. Many thanks to Perhelediel for doing that for me! And yes, you get two chapters instead of one this time, and I have chapter 10 on the way soon. I know one reviewer said it was nice that I didn't jump around a whole lot, and now here I'm doing exactly that. But don't worry, we'll probably get back to Riku in chapter 11, I think.

Update 2/9/06: I've made some minor revisions, since Koorino Megumi was kind enough to also beta this for me. She had some good suggestions as well.

Standard disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and its characters are the property of Square-Enix and Disney, not me.

They arrived in Gateway at around noon the next day. The city was busy at that hour, and they had to weave carefully to avoid bumping into people as they moved through the crowds that streamed through the streets. More than one person looked askance at Donald and Goofy, but no one questioned or approached them. Sora wondered if seeing such strangers was unusual, but not unheard of, in this place. Judging by the huge variety of clothing he was seeing, they certainly got all kinds here…

"So, uh…where do we start lookin' for some way out of here?"

"I have no idea." Sora shrugged. "I don't even know where we could go! Do you think the barriers really are down?" He frowned. "They shouldn't be. I mean, after we went to all that trouble to seal the door to darkness…"

"Maybe you have to find the door to the light before it'll be permanent," Donald pointed out.

"Maybe. I guess we won't know till we find it, huh?" Sora scanned the streets, peering down toward the docks. "I guess our best bet is a ship of some sort. I don't know if it could take us offworld, but it's worth a try…"

Donald startled him with a sudden "Wak!" of surprise. Sora and Goofy turned to follow his pointing finger.

"Hey Donald, is that who I think it is?" Goofy grinned. "Heya, Pluto!"

Sure enough, the orange-yellow dog perked up his ears and turned in their direction, panting eagerly. He sat outside a sausage vendor's stall, looking hopeful. As soon as he saw the others, he got up and bounded toward them.

Sora laughed as Pluto pounced on him and proceeded to give his face a good slobbering. He spluttered, trying to shield himself with an arm. "Cut it out, boy!" Pluto gave him another huge lick for good measure, then proceeded to lovingly gnaw on Sora's forearm. The whole time, Goofy guffawed while Donald shook his head and snickered.

"All right, that's enough!" Sora climbed to his feet, gently pushing Pluto away. The dog sat down in front of them and panted happily, wagging his tail. "Where've you been, anyway, Pluto? We lost you when we chased you down that road all those weeks ago! If you expect us to catch you, you're going to have to run slower!" He shook a finger at Pluto, who looked severely chastened.

Goofy scratched his head. "Hey, weren't we chasin' him for a reason?"

Donald nodded. "That's right! He had a letter with him!"

Sora leaned down to the dog. "What happened to that letter, boy?"

Pluto suddenly barked and took off down the street. "H-Hey!" yelled Donald.

"Follow him, guys!" Sora took off after the dog, Goofy and Donald quickly joining him. It wasn't exactly easy to follow Pluto as he wove in and out of the crowds in the city's main streets, but eventually he started taking some lesser used roads. The houses here were a bit more rundown than in the other parts of the town they'd seen so far. They were small, and laundry hung between windows on the upper stories.

After a bit, Pluto slowed, then turned into a narrow alley between two houses. Sora went in after him, peering about cautiously. It was shaded from the early afternoon sun, but light still filtered down, reflecting off the brick of the upper stories. Pluto led them over to a little pile of old newspapers and rags, where there was an empty cardboard box. A ragged blanket was tucked inside, and on top of it lay a couple of well-gnawed bones. Pluto went inside the box and sat down to chew on one of the bones.

Sora sighed in frustration. "Is that all you wanted?" He looked around. "Doesn't look all that nice here…I wish you could have found someplace better to live."

Pluto just looked up at him placidly, thumping his tail.

"It isn't that bad," said Donald. "It isn't very cold here, and this is a pretty clean alleyway as far as alleys go."

"Yup!" Goofy pointed to a worn out little teddy bear hidden in a corner of the box. "And it looks like he's got a friend! Wonder who gave that to him?"

Sora perked up his ears, listening; he could make out sounds from the building next to him. It sounded like children laughing, but he couldn't tell for sure, as it was muffled. "Did one of those kids bring you the bear?" He could have sworn that Pluto nodded, but that was a bit ridiculous, wasn't it? Pluto surely couldn't understand everything he said. Then again, whispered a part of his brain, did you forget that you're traveling with a walking, talking dog? Goofy may not look much like Pluto, but they're probably distantly related. Sora grinned and shook his head. He'd gotten so used to the oddity of it all that he seldom thought about it much anymore.

As he pondered this, Sora's eye caught a scrap of white tucked behind the teddy bear. He reached in and pulled at it, drawing out a paper envelope. On the back side, where the flap folded over, sure enough - there was the king's seal, an impression in the wax of three circles that reminded him of the king, looking a little like a head and two round ears. "Hey guys, I think we've found it!"

"Really?" Donald practically crashed into him, standing on tiptoe to try to read over Sora's shoulder. Goofy joined them, and Sora broke the letter's seal and began to read aloud.

Hey pals, I just wanted to tell ya not to worry! I know we got separated when the door to darkness closed, but everything's okay - I'm sure there's another way out of here, and I bet we'll be out real soon! Don't worry, I'll take good care of your pal Riku, Sora. Right now you just gotta find the door to the light - that's the most important thing. Oh yeah, and Sora, wouldja take care of this for me? I found it and thought it might be useful to ya.

The letter was signed only with the king's seal, but it was obvious from the tone of the writing who it was from - at least to Donald and Goofy. Sora could only judge by their reactions, not knowing the king himself.

"What does he mean, everything's okay? He's in the realm of darkness!" Donald quacked. "How's he supposed to get out?"

"Gawrsh, I dunno." Goofy shrugged. "But if the king says he'll do something, he'll do it! And besides, Riku got out somehow, so I'll just betcha the king's with him. After all, Naminé said someone was helping him, didn't she?"

Sora nodded. "You're right, she did. I'm sure your king's okay, so don't worry, Donald!"

"Aw, phooey," the duck muttered. "If you say so. But what's he talking about? What did he find that would be useful to you?"

"Hmm, I don't know." Sora shook the envelope, and something rattled. He upended it over his outstretched palm. A small, blue stone fell into it, glowing very faintly in the dim light of the alley. "What's this?" He held it up, peering at it.

"Looks kinda familiar, don't it?" said Goofy.

It was hard to read in the darkened alley, but Sora could make out writing on the stone. "Starblaze," he read slowly. "Hey! I know what this is - it's a summon gem!"

"But all the summon gems vanished when the barriers went back up! Where'd this one come from?" Donald frowned.

Sora shrugged. "I don't know, but we're not really sure the barriers are still holding anyway, right? Let's not worry about how it got here. I'm sure the king's right and it'll be useful, so let's see if we can awaken it!"

"But how? We haven't got that there Fairy Godmother to help us now."

Sora grinned at Goofy. "Don't worry, I'll bet I can handle it! I mean, I've learned a lot since then. How hard can it be?" Sora produced his Keyblade, the grip settling easily into his hand as he called it to him. "Let's see if this works…" He placed the summon gem on top of Pluto's cardboard box, then took a few steps backward and held the Keyblade out, pointing it at the gem. He focused, drawing magic power from inside himself. Instead of releasing it as one of the spells he'd learned during his journey, he took the power and pushed it into the Keyblade, willing the magic to come out the other side as a focused beam of light. He wasn't sure if this would work, but somehow it seemed to be along the right lines. It was almost like intuition…perhaps some sort of knowledge that came from the Keyblade.

The beam focused, light spilling over the gem and sloshing down the sides of the cardboard box. Pluto continued to peacefully chew his bone, ignoring it. The beam continued to flow for a moment, but then it began to waver, the Keyblade shaking. Sora tried to hold onto it, but before long the beam of light vanished, flowing back through the Keyblade and hitting him full in the chest. "Oof!" Sora was knocked to the ground, the Keyblade vanishing from his surprise. He sat on the cobblestones of the alley floor, blinking. "Oops? I guess that didn't quite work."

Donald pointed at Sora, clutched his belly, and laughed hysterically in a way that only the duck could. Sora scowled at him, but he had to admit, it was sort of funny. He could only imagine the look on his own face as he went flying backward. Goofy chuckled a bit too at the sight.

Sora stood and dusted himself off. "Well, fine then, you give it a try, Donald."

"I will! You should've asked me to begin with. My magic's a lot better than yours." Donald held out his staff and cleared his throat, then paused. "Um…what was it you did?"

Sora snickered. "Try focusing the magic through your wand, but don't make it into a particular spell. I tried to make a beam of light. It seemed like it was working for a minute there."

"Okay." Holding the staff aloft, Donald muttered something under his breath. A moment later, light spilled from the staff and flowed over to the stone, washing it in light again. This time it held steady, and when the light trickled away to pool on the ground before vanishing, the small stone glowed brightly, pulsing steadily blue.

Sora grinned. "Hey Donald, I think you did it!"

"Well, of course!" Donald huffed, putting his staff away.

Sora stepped forward and picked up the stone, which felt pleasantly warm against his fingers. "Now let's see if we can find out who's inside of this thing." Calling the Keyblade back again, Sora held it aloft and tossed the summon gem into the air. Gathering power from the Keyblade, he called to the gem as it rose and began to fall again in a smooth arc. Before it hit the ground, a swirl of light came from the Keyblade and touched the stone. Sora lowered the Keyblade as the gem hovered, sparkling. Then there was a bright flash, and suddenly a blue streak rocketed into Sora, knocking him over again.

Sora lay on his back, staring up at an extremely odd little creature. It perched on his chest, grinning at him with one of the biggest mouths he'd ever seen. "ALOOOOOOOHA!"

Sora blinked. "A what?"

"I think he means hello, a-hyuck."

Sora stared at the creature. It was small and fluffy, covered with blue fur from head to toe. Aside from its huge mouth, it had an oddly shaped blue snout, big floppy ears, and large eyes that were solid black, except for a faint glint of reflected light. Even more oddly, in addition to the usual two legs, he appeared to have four arms.

"Um…could someone get this animal off me, please?" Sora pleaded. "I'm not sure if he's going to hug me or eat me."

The creature climbed off Sora on his own, however, looking indignant. "Not an animal!"

Donald approached cautiously as Sora sat up, rubbing his head. The duck poked at the creature with his staff, but the blue fuzzy thing dodged it, baring its teeth at Donald in a horrible grin. Goofy watched, looking merely curious and unconcerned.

"Well, what are you then, if you're not an animal?" Sora eyed the thing, looking baffled.

It sat down and twitched its stubby tail. "Puppy."

Sora blinked at it doubtfully. "You don't look like any puppy I've ever seen."

The thing grinned, drawing itself up proudly. "Nope!"

"Gawrsh, where could it have come from?" Goofy mused. He didn't flinch as the creature came over and started to sniff his shoes.

Sora stood up, clasping his hands behind his head. "I don't know, but it can talk, at least. Still, it might not really know what happened. Its world probably got destroyed like the others, so how would it know?"

The blue thing shook its head. "Stitch not know what happened. All of a sudden, boom! Then here."

"Stitch? Your name's Stitch?" Sora cocked his head. "That's kind of odd. What kind of animal are you, anyway?"

"Told you, not an animal! Stitch very smart."

Donald crossed his arms over his chest and harumphed. "Well then, if you're so smart, how come you talk that way?"

"'Cause."

"That's not an answer!" Donald sputtered. "Besides, what puppy ever had two legs but four arms? That's just ridiculous!"

"Puppy!" the creature called Stitch insisted stubbornly.

Sora laughed. "All right, calm down, Donald. We might as well take his word for it. After all, for all we know, dogs in his world do look like that. Goofy's a dog, and he's nothing like the dogs I'm used to from the Destiny Islands!"

"Yup, you're right!" Goofy said cheerfully. "So, uh, how's this little feller supposed to help us?"

There was a skittering sound at the back of the alley. Stitch whirled, producing two bright red objects seemingly from nowhere. In a second, two jets of some bright, almost liquid light hit the fence, leaving a sizzling hole near the ground.

"Maybe like that?" Donald shook his head. "He'd come in handy against the Heartless!"

"Just a rat." Stitch grumbled. "Sorry. Wait, you say Heartless?"

Sora leaned down. "You know about the Heartless?"

"Black creatures, attack everything! No hearts, just destroying. Right?"

"Yeah, that's them! Did they destroy your home, too?"

Stitch looked down at the ground and kicked a foot at the cobblestones. "Yeah. Lost ohana."

"Uh…ohana?" Sora scratched his head. "What's that?"

Stitch sat back, taking a tone as if reciting something. "Ohana means family. Family means no one gets left behind."

Sora's grin faded, and he felt something unpleasant in the pit of his stomach. "Yeah," he said slowly. "I guess I know what you mean, then."

"Sora?" Goofy patted the boy's shoulder, looking concerned.

"I'm okay, don't worry." He turned to Stitch. "I know how that feels. I left some people behind too. I didn't want to, and I'm trying to find them again."

"People…your ohana?"

"I guess you could say that, yeah." Sora smiled. "We've been friends so long we might as well be family."

Stitch nodded emphatically. "Ohana! Doesn't matter how long. Still family. Yep."

The boy couldn't help but grin. "I guess you've got a point. Well, I'll tell you what - while I'm looking for my ohana, you can come with us and we'll look for yours, too. What do you think?"

"Really?" Stitch grinned impossibly widely again, then pounced at Sora, wrapping all four arms around his leg and hugging it. "Stitch come help! Fight Heartless, find family!"

"Great!" Sora nodded. "Then we're agreed. Right, Donald? Goofy?"

The other two nodded, but as they did so, there was a flash. Stitch vanished, and a glowing blue stone dropped to the ground next to Sora.

"What happened?" asked Goofy, scratching his head.

"Don't you remember what happened with the others? They couldn't stay long outside the gems," Donald reminded him.

Sora leaned down and picked up the summon gem, cleaning it off on his shirt and stowing it safely in his jacket pocket. "That's right. The gems are creatures that would have been destroyed with their worlds, but their hearts were too strong, so they became gems instead. They can't be completely restored till their worlds are. So until then, our new buddy Stitch can only come out for a limited time."

"Oh yeah, a-hyuck. Now I remember." Goofy grinned, nodding.

"So what now?" Donald frowned. "This is great, but it doesn't tell us what to do next."

Sora sighed, folding his arms. "I think we're going to need a gummi ship. I don't see any way around it. We've got to get out of this place if we're going to find anyone, and even when the barriers were down, that was the only way to do it."

"But how are we supposed to find a gummi ship in a place like this? You can't just buy them at the corner store!"

"I know, Donald, but have you got any better ideas? Besides, Naminé said we needed to come to Gateway if we hoped to get offworld. It's just possible they might have seen gummi ships. We might at least be able to find some gummi blocks. If we have to, we could cobble together our own ship."

"Uh, Sora, I don't know nothin' about building gummi ships. You don't either, do ya?"

"Nope, but if we have to, we'll figure it out somehow! Come on guys, we can't give up yet. Let's at least go ask around, okay?"

"Oh, all right." Donald whistled. "Hey, Pluto, are you coming?"

The dog joyfully bounded out of his cardboard box, abandoning the bone he was gnawing.

"All right then, let's go down toward the docks and start asking around!" Sora nodded decisively, and the little band set off.

A quick note about this chapter. Much of the basic premise and dialogue was based on some notes I'd scribbled in my idea notebook a few months back. Oddly enough, this was before I ever saw the trailers or magazine scans that showed Stitch appearing as a summon in KH2! I'm so good at predicting things. Besides which, Stitch as a summon is just plain awesome. Strangely enough, a couple of readers have hinted to me that I have an uncanny sense of how the story will go in KH2. No one has elaborated, and I certainly don't wish them to (no spoilers!!), but I find that interesting.

Chapter 9 will be up shortly, as soon as I finish editing it. And as I said, chapter 10 is in the works, so it won't be long in coming either.