AuNo: Chapter two already! That means that I might very well keep up with this! XD So, now that you've been introduced to our main character, Kosma, in this chapter you'll get a nice little idea of the kind of person that this 'voice in her head' is, and where she's headed now. Maybe. Sort of. Oh well xD. Anyway, disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts, I wouldn't go on- okay, never mind. I'd probably go on fanfiction even if I did own Kingdom Hearts.

Chapter Two

Lethal and Beautiful

Well it would've been, could've been
Worse than you would ever know.
Oh, the dashboard melted
But we still have the radio.

Modest Mouse, "Dashboard"

The first sensation that Kosma became aware of was the smell of the air. Nothing smelled like Nebula Heights anymore; that mixture of oak trees, burnt leaves, car exhaust and freshly cut grass was long gone. It smelled more like a city, like one of the places she heard of on the radio that contributed to most of global warming. Not that Kosma cared much about that at all. She cared about knowing what was going on.

Next, Kosma became aware of hard ground underneath her fingertips. Something stick and warm was underneath her, like water spilled on the pavement on a hot day. It smelled coppery and thick, and mixed with the smell of her surroundings, made her want to throw up a little, but she managed to stay bile-free. The smell matched the irony taste in her mouth, which, upon swallowing, she noticed was blood.

Kosma groaned. Looks like the vocal cords are still in order, she thought, commending herself.

Of course they are. You're fine, just a little disoriented.

Kosma's eyes flew open. Where had that voice come from? It seemed only slightly familiar. She was aware of the voice's echo in her head, but refused to believe that the source of it wasn't standing around her. She had woken up in some sort of an alleyway, and surely enough, what she was lying in was a puddle of blood- her own blood, running from her back. But she could feel nothing; she was numb. She could not get herself to cry out for help, or just plain cry, both out of pride and sheer lack of energy.

Boxes were everywhere, neatly placed in front of landings to make ascending to another level in that alleyway easier, no doubt. Strange markings covered the ground, and the buildings were made out of brick and stone. Then why did it smell so much like a big city? Kosma managed to push herself off of the ground to get a better look at her surroundings, but she had seen the gist of it.

Then where did that voice come from?

You can stand around like an idiot all day, said the voice, or you can get up so we can try to get some answers.

"Who are you? And where am I?" she asked, refusing to let her voice shake. No, Kosma was stronger than that; not many girls at the age of sixteen could say that they laughed at some of the most gruesome horror movies. Kosma was strong.

But this wasn't any horror movie. Kosma could tell. She could feel it on her fingertips, on her tongue, but especially on her back, where that giant bug- that giant Heartless, as that voice had called it before- had attacked her. Still, feigning strength in a time where it was necessary seemed like a more logical solution than breaking down.

My name's Rex. Like the dinosaur. And I can't tell just by looking at an alley.

"Let me get this straight," Kosma began, trying not to fume, "Rex. You can speak to me in my mind and hear what I think, but you can't tell me where I am right now?" That didn't seem possible at all. Someone, somewhere, was playing a cruel joke on her. "Where are you, anyway? Behind here?" She walked carefully to the edge of the building that she had been lying against, but nothing lay around the corner. Peculiar.

You won't find me back there. I don't know why, but I can see what you see and feel what you feel. Emotionally, not physically. And I can tell that right now, you're very scared. Seems you're pretty good at hiding these things when you speak. She could swear that she heard a laugh in his voice. Kosma furrowed her brows. If you see a street sign or something of the like, I might be able to tell you where we are. Try looking for one. Kosma looked up from where she was standing, but shielded her eyes with her hands, only to find that there was no sun above her. Instead, only the night sky and a few stars were in the sky.

Blink. Blink.

It seemed, slowly, one by one, they were going out. "So earlier," she said, "I'm not crazy."

Earlier? Rex asked, That happened three days ago. You've been asleep, or unconscious or something. I don't know. I was trying to wake you up forever.

"So you're really in my mind?" Kosma asked, but she was thinking, That's it, I've finally lost it. Next thing I know, I'll be chasing a rabbit down a hole and having tea with the mad hatter. A fitting situation.

I don't exactly know, Rex admitted, all I know is that I'm inside of you. The last thing I remember was a Heartless stealing my heart, and then, I sort of remember being that Heartless, but it was almost like a dream. And then, I was destroyed, and I ended up here.

"A Heartless?" Kosma asked, blinking curiously as she stood dumbly in that alleyway, "You mean that you were a Heartless? That creepy shadow-like bug thing that was attacking me? What are those, and why were they at my home? Where am I?"

Slow down, kid-

"Hey, who's there?"

It was all too much. For a moment, Kosma ignored the little voice in her head and flipped around to meet a figure that had approached her from the alley. Some brunet with a mullet had showed up dressed almost in all brown. His hands were on his hips, and two accusatory dark eyebrows were raised at Kosma.

"Sorry," Kosma mumbled, "I was just leaving."

"What's that?" he asked, pointing at the puddle of slowly drying liquid that, coincidentally, she had stepped in and had been making frantic footprints with during all of her pacing. "Is that blood? Are you hurt, miss?"

Kosma rolled her eyes, shook her head. "I was just leaving."

"Are you sure you don't need any help?" he asked her.

Say no, Rex whispered into her mind, he's not important. I doubt he knows anything about keyblades and Heartless. We need to get you somebody who does know, someone who might be able to figure out why I'm suddenly in your mind and body and why you have a keyblade.

"The keyblade..." she mumbled, "Rex, I lost the keyblade-"

"What?" the man asked worriedly.

"Um," Kosma was stammering now, overwhelmed by the voice in her mind conflicting with the voice from in front of her, "No, no thanks," she said, "I'll be fine. I just have to-"

Ask him if he knows where Leon is.

"Leon?" Kosma asked. "Do you know where Leon is?" She kept her voice controlled now, just like a puppet doing as she was told. Whoever this Rex was, he obviously knew more about her situation than she did, and could help her more than some random person off of the street, whoever he was. He frowned at her.

"Leon, Leon..." Suddenly, the man snapped. "Yes, he came to visit Merlin today."

I know where that is. Thank him and go.

"Thank you," Kosma said quickly, and sped past the man. On the way, she almost slipped on the blood that was still sticking to the bottom of her old Converse shoes. Those shoes could survive everything, from running around with her dog to playing soccer with Siobhan to getting knocked unconscious by some giant Heartless.

Rex gave her instructions in her mind, but Kosma could barely pay attention to them once she got out of the alleyway. The city was beautiful, lights flickering gently through every building in the place. She had been resting against some accessories shop, she noticed, but it wasn't as if it mattered; she didn't have any munny to her name. It was all back at home, back in her wallet, wherever home was. Little fluffy alien-looking things walked the town, but even if they were being malevolent, Kosma wouldn't have been afraid; they look like the kind of stuffed animals she expected to protect her from the monsters under the bed when she was five.

West. No, your other west.

"For just some random voice inside my head," Kosma growled, "you're really getting on my nerves. Couldn't you just say left or right or something? I don't have a compass on me and I have no idea where west is. The sun's already set."

The sun's always set on Traverse Town. Left.

"Is that where we are?"

Yes. Now, you'll see a pair of double doors. Yes, those. When you go through them, some Heartless may attack you. They got rid of them for quite some time before, but since your world was swallowed up, there's obviously something going on. So-

"Wait, slow down," Kosma said abruptly. She didn't quite care how many eyes were glued to her, as enough people were staring at her already; it wasn't exactly common to see a teenage girl walking around a town she has never been in, blood smeared all over her clothes and hair disheveled, talking to herself. "First of all, who's 'they'?"

'They' are Sora, Donald and Goofy. A trio of heroes that helped save all of the worlds from darkness. Sora is the keyblade master. He has the same weapon as you, but a little different. Every keyblade wielder's keyblade is different, unless you put a keychain on it.

"So there are multiple worlds, mine has been swallowed up by something, and I'm a keyblade wielder. Any more fun facts for the day?" Kosma laughed irritably and must have looked like some woman on crack. "Oh, I've got one! I fucking lost my keyblade when I was knocked unconscious by my new best friend."

"Are you alright, sweetie?" a mother called from behind her in at the benches. Kosma ignored her and waited for Rex's response.

You didn't lose your keyblade, and your home isn't gone for good. It's at a resting place, in End of the World. It seems like worlds are being unlocked and destroyed, paths between worlds being broken. Most likely, the path to End of the World has been broken, too. That's what happened to Sora, Donald and Goofy.

"So what did they do to get to End of the World?"

They locked up all of the worlds that were unlocked so the Heartless couldn't enter again. When they made it to End of the World, they sealed the Door to Darkness, and that restored all of the broken worlds. But we might not be dealing with a Heartless here. We might be dealing with a Nobody.

"What's a Nobody?" Kosma was holding the side of her head, trying to process this information all at once. Surely, she was only looking ten times more insane as she continued to speak to herself in front of the entrance to a second part of Traverse Town, but Kosma couldn't care less what people who knew nothing about her thought of her. She wanted to know what was going on, and she wanted to get her world back, and that was it.

Well, first of all, a Heartless is what happens to the darkness in a person's heart when they're heart is stolen. A Nobody is what happens to the body. They become a different person, depending on how strong their heart was when it was stolen. Some people don't even have Nobodies.

"When you say that their heart was stolen-"

It doesn't mean death. Death is completely different, irreversible. But Sora and his friends have proved that, sometimes, losing ones heart is reversible. That's probably what happened to me. My heart was stolen, but here I am, speaking to you and seeing everything you see.

"Which isn't weird at all," Kosma said faintly, "let's just get out of here. How do I get my keyblade back?"

Hold out your hand and call for it with your mind.

Kosma rolled her eyes, but held out her right hand and willed the keyblade to appear. She was shocked out of her mind when a weight appeared in her hand, somehow as heavy as bricks and light as a feather in the same time. Under the city lights, the sparkles on the keyblade crackled like fire, lethal and beautiful. Letting out a breath she barely noticed she was holding, she took one swipe in the empty air, and processed the gasps that she heard behind her.

"Mommy, the crazy lady has a giant key!"

"Shut up, kid or I'll show you crazy," Kosma snapped. The little boy that she had yelled at was frowning, and soon his face crinkled up into a big bawling mess. Not having time to deal with that kind of a distraction, she pushed the doors to the next area open.

This is Second District. We won't be in here long enough for you to have to fight any Heartless. Just... run.

"What?"

I said, run!

As if on cue, darkness pooled beneath them, and beady, yellow eyes blinked out from the black. In moments, tat least ten of those Heartless had formed and were swarming around Kosma. She backed up for a moment.

They're just shadows. You can outrun them. Run!

So Kosma ran. She took off like a bullet, following Rex's instructions like a machine. Left, left, down the alley, through the second pair of double doors. She found herself in the Third District, which didn't look all that different from the second one except that she was able to pick out a pretty fountain (that might have been much more beautiful if it were actually running) and a large bell that reminded Kosma of the ones they used to ring at church.

New Heartless were chasing after her now, ones that didn't look a thing like the bug-like creatures she had fought before. These had armor encasing their bodies, and they twitched around like madness in a living form, lunging at her. But Kosma, bless her long legs, was too fast for them. Soon enough, she neared a door with an odd flame-like symbol on it.

Don't worry about the symbol, Sora already unlocked it. Just run through.

"Are there Heartless in there, too?"

No. You'll be safe there.

No Heartless? That sounded like a good plan. Like hell, she ran to the door and pushed it open, slamming it closed behind her. The scenery before her took her breath away.

A pond, a very still one, was the first thing she saw. In fact, it was eerily still, stiller than death. Moving platforms floated from side to side in the water, all making their way towards a small island in the center of the pond, where a patched-up tent lay. "Who lives there?"

Merlin, Rex answered her. His voice was slightly louder now, either that, or it was easier to hear now that they were in perfect silence. He's a very powerful wizard, and was once part of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee. But ever since the committee, well, restored Hollow Bastion, he returned to his secluded little hut to live. If trouble really is happening, that's probably why Leon is here. I'll bet you anything that they need Merlin to help restore Hollow Bastion again.

Something sunk in Kosma's stomach. "Who destroyed it?"

The Heartless, most likely, Rex answered, or the Nobodies, or a combination of the two. It really depends on who wanted to do the destroying. You have to hop across those platforms, get to the house and talk to Leon. He'll be able to tell you everything.

Kosma laughed at him. "You're funny, Rex. Me. Moving platforms. Brilliant idea. Let's just get me to balance on a high wire while juggling torches. Completely safe, no doubt." And, of course, on her first jump, she missed the platform by a mile and landed in the water.

Meanwhile, a boy stepped out of a Gummi Ship in a world almost painfully familiar to him. How many times he had landed there with his two companions, Donald and Goofy, just months before. The marketplace was quiet, as usual, one of the first places of Hollow Bastion to be completely rid of Heartless. The boy wondered if this had anything to do with the letter that King Mickey had sent him when he and his friends returned home after their last journey.

It warned them of a new keyblade wielder, one that had been hiding in the shadows. Maleficent's secret weapon. The King did not know much about this boy, except that he had his heart stolen, he was a Nobody, and he was working with Maleficent for something. That spelled danger no matter what.

He should have known better than to leave Maleficent and Pete at the castle.

"Sora," the boy's friend called from the Gummi Ship. He hopped out, brushing his hands off. They had to destroy so many Heartless ships on the way there, it was no wonder that his friend Riku looked so disheveled. He ran a hand angrily from his scalp to the ends of his silver hair and gave Sora a look. "You never told us why we had to suddenly come down here."

Sora blinked. "I didn't?"

"No, you didn't," came a female voice, and his redhead friend stumbled from the ship. "And you know how much I hate Gummi Ships, so this better be good, Sora." Her lilac purple eyes were evaluating him silently, pushing him to go on with his explanation. Sora knew that look from Kairi all too well.

Sora sighed. "I thought I told you. I got an urgent call from Yuffie and Cloud. They said that they're restarting the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, and they want to give us some information about why."

"So King Mickey was right?" Kairi asked, her eyes, which were originally in accusatory slants, had widened to look like a deer in the headlights. "Already? Maleficent's already trying to gain power? But... we just defeated Xemnas."

"Not just Maleficent, whoever that 'keyblade wielder from the shadows' is. And something tells me this is going to be big." And then, the pair of lilac eyes narrowed at him, followed closely after by seafoam green ones. "I'm sorry, I thought I told you! Punishment later, Yuffie and Cloud now. God, I hope Merlin isn't there."

He walked ahead of the two in silence. The way to Merlin's house in Hollow Bastion (considerably different than his house in Traverse Town) had become so ritual that he had forgotten his feet were moving by the time he made it there. Heartless did appear, but they didn't bother to call upon their keyblades, Kingdom Key, Way to Dawn and Destiny's Light, as the defense system did a pretty good job of taking care of them. (AuNo: I don't know Kairi's keyblade's name, nobody else does either, so I'm making it up. Dx)

Sora didn't even bother to knock (which earned him a worried look from Kairi). He simply walked into the house, and before he could even register what that rapidly moving black blur was, he was tackled by Yuffie, pulling him into her crazy embrace. They let go fast, however, and Yuffie was simply beaming. "Sora! I'm so glad you can make it. And you brought Kairi and Riku. Good. We'll probably need them."

"What about Donald and Goofy?" came a voice. A tall, blond man wearing equally dark clothes walked in the room. Cloud had never really been a member of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, but he was always working for them- no, Cloud didn't work for anybody, he was working with them- and had pretty much been honorary.

"They're still at Disney Castle," Sora shook his head, "we didn't have time to go and get them. You guys sounded like you needed us urgently on the phone." And thank God that Sora had started using a cell phone. He was lucky that he was able to get communication between Destiny Islands and Radiant Garden- obviously fallen back into the chaotic state of Hollow Bastion again, but that was another story- except the long distance charges were ridiculous.

"And it's a good thing that you didn't," Yuffie said, frowning, "because, you're right. We have a lot to tell you, and no time to waste. Leon's off getting Merlin so we can restart the Committee. But we can start without him."

By the time they had made it to the little island, just outside of the tent-like house, Kosma was wringing lake water out of her hair. For the fourth time. It was a good thing that she had let her keyblade disappear, because she would have never been able to swim out of that godforsaken pond while clutching it with her dominant hand. "Great, now I'm going to have to shower and walk around with my hair wavy..."

You straighten your hair, don't you? Don't worry about it, kid, I'll show you plenty of spells to fix silly things like that.

"Spells?" Kosma asked, "And will you stop calling me 'kid'? My name is Kosma." She let her keyblade reappear in her right hand just in case.

"Kosma, is it?"

"Yes, Ko-" but Kosma stopped dead. That voice was most definitely not in her head. She flipped to her left to see a man that looked to be in his late teens, with dark brown hair, swept oddly on top of his face. He was dressed head to toe in what looked like some vampire hunter gear you would see in cheesy old horror movies, but most importantly, he had one long scar running in between his eyes. Next to him was an old man that certainly fit the description of 'wizard', with a ridiculous hat and garments and a beard that practically touched the floor. That had to have been Merlin, which meant that the brunet was Leon.

"And you're the Nobody that's been starting this whole mess. Don't give me that look, I see your keyblade. You're the one that's been destroying the worlds." Leon, without waiting for an answer from Kosma, pulled out a long weapon that looked like a cross between a blade and a gun. Maybe it was both. A bladegun?

"Wait! I'm not a Nobody-"

"That's what they all say," Leon shouted and ran toward her with his weapon. Kosma, instinctively, blocked his blade with her own keyblade, and jumped to the side.

Kosma. Okay. Fight him, but don't kill him. You have to find a way to show him that you're not a Nobody. Obviously, the bad guy that we're looking for right now is a Nobody. Think, what do people have that Nobodies don't?

Kosma needed only to block a couple more strikes before yelling, "What?"

"What?" Leon asked bitterly, and swiped at her one more time with that godforsaken weapon. This time, he actually left a pretty deep welt in her left arm, causing her to cry out in pain; Kosma would never get used to being able to hear a voice that nobody else could hear.

A heart, Rex answered her hastily, you have to show him that you have a heart.

"How do I do that?" she asked.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Leon said, shaking his head and looking at her like she was crazy. He actually managed to stop attacking her for about a minute, standing still in front of her, because she was freaking him out so much. It had to be good for something.

You should really start thinking your answers to me, Kosma, you know I can hear your thoughts. And what you're thinking about Leon right now? Not very nice. Anyway, I don't know. What are you going to do, just take his hand and put it to your he-

Before Rex could finish, Kosma deemed that a perfectly natural solution. She made her keyblade disappear so she wouldn't seem like she was attacking him (only to further Leon's confusion), and grabbed his left wrist. It was strong and sturdy, she realized, as she pressed his hand to where her heart would be, just under her left shoulder bone. She could feel her heartbeat- no, two heartbeats- through Leon's hand.

Ba-ba dump-dump.

Leon, as if he had just been slapped silly, jumped back. "You're not a Nobody," he said.

"And you're just figuring this out, Einstein," Kosma murmured, shoving her hands into her jeans pocket. Boy, had she had enough for the past few days, even if most of them she spent unconscious with Rex yelling at her.

"And you have a keyblade."

Kosma nodded. "And there's a lot you need to tell me."

"Actually, after feeling that heartbeat, I think there's a lot you need to tell me."

AuNo: Actually, I was pretty satisfied with this chapter! I got to get a nice little Sora scene in there to introduce them before they meet Kosma, and I got Kosma to get in on a little action. All that bothered me was that she didn't destroy one measly Heartless in this chapter... ah, I'll get over it. XD Anyway, please review!