What We Once Were

by HeartApart7

"The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes" . . . From Riku and Sora, The Restoration Committee, the recently turned somebodies of Organization 13, and three friends thought to be lost forever, they must all work together to stop the growing threat of darkness. OCxXion, RikuxOCxIenzo/Zexion, VenxOCxslight Vanitas, OCxLea/Axel, OCxArc from FF3, OCxLeon

2. Cause and Effect

Welcome to Chapter 2 of What We Once Were. Thank you for reading!

This chapter's POVs were written by-
Hunter- Twilight's Inferno
Sara- SplitPersona2u
Xanaya- EmoFairy1
Ria- RisingAngel8
Disclaimer- We don't own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy just our OCs and our Ideas!
Reviews are very much appreciated! Enjoy!~

~Hunter POV~

It was late in the night when we finally made it to the town, street lamps were lit so that helped a little. From what I could see this place was kinda beat up, but by the evidence around it was much worse before.

"Xion it's the middle of the night, you saw all the Heartless on the way up. No one's going to be out." I said as we walked only a long walk above houses.

"Hunter we have to find someone soon though."

"I'll be fine till morning. We just have to stop…agh…walking." I grunted when we hit the stairs. That didn't really feel good on the leg

"We can't." She said firmly. I had to admit it, the girl was determined. No lights were on in any of the houses as we continued, we finally came to what looked like a market area. Only thing was there was more stairs to get down to it. We didn't go down, Xion finally just propped me up against a wall. She was tired, I could see it in her eyes.

"Don't worry Bambi, I'll be fine." I told her with a smile, she gave me a very fake slight smile. I looked over her shoulder.

Two teen girls were walking up one with long blonde hair, in a pink skirt, white top, and wedge heels. The other had short brown hair, glasses, an orange plaid skirt, white dress shirt with a brown shoulder sweater, white knee high socks, and brown loafers. They both had the same purple eyes, and by their facial structure they had to be related. They looked over at us, the blonde hair girl's eyes grew in surprise, but the brown haired one just stood there.

"Oh my goodness. Are you okay?" The blonde asked coming over, her heels clicked on the stone. The brunette just walked over behind her, I didn't like the calculating look she was giving us.

"I'm alright. Just got a little hurt." I said, not wanting to ask for help.

"Can you help him?" Xion asked quickly

"Of course." The girl said kneeling down by me. She raised her hand holding it inches from my face. Suddenly there was a cold feeling just above my eyebrow where my cut was, I looked at her confused as the cold changed to warm which went away quickly and left a tingly feeling. I reached up and touched where the cut was and there was no evidence of it.

"Whoa. You know that's pretty cool. So you have magic?" I asked her smiling

"Yes. Healing magic and the ability to control plants," The girl said, "My sister, Nellie," She said with a gesture to the girl behind her, "she controls gravity." The brunette, Nellie, sighed a bit. Like she didn't want people to know. "I'm Chrissie by the way."

"Hunter." I told her with a nod, "This is Xion." I said then flinched when the blonde, Chrissie, touched my leg then rolled up the pant leg to get a better look

"I'm sorry, you okay?"

"I'm fine." I said keeping my voice calm. The cold feeling and then warm tingle went through my leg as she healed it. It was still a bit red when she was done.

"It might be a little sore." Chrissie informed me.

"Alright." I gave her a nod, the street lamp above us flickered out.

"I guess they haven't fix everything yet." I heard what had to be Nellie say. I smiled, a chance to impress. I extended my hand

"No worries." I told them then let a fireball come into my hand. Xion smiled, Chrissie looked really surprised, and Nellie…well, I couldn't tell really she was good at not showing what she was thinking.

"Oh wow. That's amazing." Chrissie said smiling, I saw Nellie roll her eyes behind her.

"What you have a Keyblade too?" Nellie asked slightly mockingly. I gave her a charming smile

"Well as a matter of fact…" I said letting my Keyblade appear in my other hand. Chrissie smiled a little more.

"Wow. I've only heard stories about these well aside from… never mind… it's amazing." Chrissie said in slight awe. Nellie looked annoyed.

"Good guess Nellie. You know you're as smart as you look." I told her with a smile. She gave me a slight glare.

"Are you meaning to imply that my intelligent demeanor shows me as, what's a good word, a nerd, perhaps?" She asked her voice almost cold. I gave her a warm smile,

"Well a cute nerd." I told her with a smile. Xion and Chrissie both smiled at the comment, thinking it was nice probably, that's how I said it. But Nellie, there wasn't a hint of a smile on her face, she gave me a cold glare from behind her glasses, her violet eyes were sharp like she just put me on a very bad list. Guess that was the wrong move Woods.

"Come on Chrissie. We're leaving." Nellie practically ordered her sister.

"I want to make sure he's all okay." Chrissie said

"He's fine, let's go Chrissie." Nellie said and Chrissie got up to follow.

"Thank you for helping." Xion said, Chrissie turned and smiled

"You're welcome. Oh and there's an inn down the street there." She informed us.

"Thanks Chrissie." I told her. She nodded, smiled, then went to catch up with her sister and they disappeared into the dark. "Well then…" I said after a bit

"Come on. We better go to that inn." Xion said standing up, I got up slowly. Chrissie was right, my leg was a little sore, but I could walk now.

So we walked together, my little fire ball lighting the way as we went.

~Sara POV~

I felt something soft brush my leg, then my arm. I wanted to move but I couldn't. Something rough and wet scraped my forehead. My eyes flew open and I sucked in a deep breath. I felt my heart beating soundly in my chest. I sat up slowly and carefully looking around for what had disturbed my sleep and there he was; Shadow my heartless cat glared at me from the top of my pillow.

"Hi Shadow! Oh you look sort of angry… Did I sleep through training again?" I questioned.

'Look around you.' His voice rang through my head as clear as day. But he spoke urgently, was something wrong?

I turned my head and studied the room around me, it was dark but I could still tell…

"This isn't Land of Departure!" I exclaimed a small note a fear crept into my voice. "Where are we?" I asked standing up slowly.

'You have slept a long time Sara, Land of Departure has disappeared and it seems that we have all been kept in this…chamber.' Shadow forgot to mention a very important point.

"Where are the others?" I murmured quietly.

'Sleeping as you have been, and if it wasn't for me you would be sleeping still.' I took a step forward cautiously the clack of my pink heels echoed around the room. I looked around to see if anyone had noticed but it seemed I was alone, with Shadow and countless sleeping students.

'Let's get out of here.' Shadow instructed pointing one way with his tail. I started walking in the other direction determined to find him. 'Please tell me you're not looking for Thanos!' Shadow pleaded.

"He's my friend and I owe him my destiny, I'm not leaving him." I kept walking in silence, Shadow followed, sulking. We walked passed hundreds of people all asleep waiting for a morning that would never come. And then I saw him, He was hard to miss with his red jacket black shirt, black jeans with silver chains attached, black shoes and of course his red hat. He was also holding a relatively large knife and I really don't want to know what he was doing before turning in for the night all those years ago. I glanced at Shadow who glared defiantly up at me. I glared at him, my piercing green eyes boring straight through his yellow ones. He sighed his black fur ruffling as he approached Thanos and licked his forehead. Thanos' blue eyes flew open immediately starting to change to red.

"Thanos! Don't go Blood Night on my cat!" I yelled throwing myself in front of Thanos.

"He licked me." Thanos spoke in his deep dangerous voice.

"It was the only way to wake you up! We slept through our present time Thanos, we're in the future!" I said excitedly. Thanos pulled off his hat and ran a hand through his brown hair.

"I wonder if this means my records clear…" Thanos wondered and then smiled evilly before pulling up his black face mask and adjusting his hat. I smoothed down my pink sundress to avoid answering Thanos.

'Let's get out of here…' Shadow reminded me.

"Oh good idea! Let's!" I turned towards the exit and started walking.

"What did the cat say?" Thanos asked.

"Oh he wants to leave this place." I answered remembering quickly that only I could hear Shadow.

"Hmm" Thanos responded following us while spinning the knife around in his hand. I explained to him, on our long walk, what was going on although he really didn't seem to care so much. Finally I pushed open a huge door and felt the wind from the outside blow my long brown hair out behind me I caught a quick flash of pink as my pink ribbon was caught by the wind.

"There's my ride." Thanos said suddenly pointing towards a gummi ship.

"Oh do you know who owns it?" I spoke nervously.

"No." Thanos said uncaringly. "I'm going to Twilight Town." He then announced and walked over to the gummi ship and after hot-wiring the engine he got in and took off.

I started to freak out after Thanos was gone, sure he was pretty much a fugitive but at least he could kill anything that got close to us.

'Why don't we go visit your home world?' Shadow suggested seeming to guess my dilemma.

"Uh, sure!" I said unsurely. I through my keyblade into the air and summoned my keyblade glider. It was shaped like a motorcycle almost without the wheels and the seat was slightly plusher. The body color was a silvery pink color I sat down in the seat and Shadow leaped into my lap. I revved the engine and I flew through the atmosphere of the world and headed straight towards Traverse Town.

I landed in Traverse Town and looked around. It seemed exactly the same. In fact I was beginning to wonder if Shadow had lied to me about this being the future. Then suddenly a loud wailing siren suddenly people raced out of their houses and hung up some charm thing. I got a closer look at one, it looked like a broken heart supported by thin strands. The lights of houses turned off, window blinders were stretched over windows, some people came back outside lighting 3 candles and rushing back in and locking the door. On some homes you could see a fiery glow where I assumed there would be 3 candles as well. One small kid came running up the street screaming "The heartless are coming!" He disappeared in a house and I summoned my keyblade Wave of Destiny. Shadow got into a fighting position and we waited for the heartless to come but all that came was a mangy looking dog.

"False Alarm!" A loud voice said over some kind of speaker. I threw my keyblade up into the air. This wasn't my Traverse Town, everything had changed, now the people here were just superstitious freaks. I forced the threat of tears from my eyes, hopping on my glider and flying away from there, as fast as humanly possible. The funny thing though, about going as fast as humanly possible, is that you mess up and in this case I nearly crash landed on to this semi destroyed world.

'Pull up before you kill us!' screamed Shadow. I grimaced as I pulled the vehicle into a landing position. I coasted down toward the lights of a town in the distance and as soon as we got close I stopped.

"Where are we?" I asked my cat.

'It seems like I remember this place being called…Radiant Gardens.'

"Wow what a lovely name!" I gushed, as I strolled the streets quietly with Shadow. I soon came upon a scene I was used to but still didn't like. Thanos was following a cute blond girl who was dressed in a white shirt, pink ruffled skirt and wedge heels. I ran to catch up with Thanos before he ripped her head off, literally!

"Thanos!" I hissed at him while dragging him into an alley, "I told you not to go around randomly killing people."

"Well what else can we do? It's not like this is our time period. Plus I won't get caught." Thanos' eyes lit up slightly, I could tell he was grinning evilly under his facemask.

"Well I guess we have to make our destinies then!" I proclaimed, "and Thanos that doesn't involve killing everyone!" Thanos sighed and then suggested we find somewhere to stay for awhile because who knows how long it will take to come up with a destiny.

~Xanaya POV~

I hated that new experiment of my father's, I was his experiment not her. I couldn't take it. What troubled me more though was I felt sorry for her. I never felt things but this time I did. What Desiderio was doing was wrong. I had to leave. I wasn't going to be apart of this.

I stumbled through part of a dark and dreary cave. It's what Desiderio used as a nice big lab which you could find deep in the heart of the cave. However I was heading away from it. I didn't want to deal with his new experiment and I wanted out. Let's just say Desi and his experiments were going to get a gift that would blow them away. I grabbed a torch and used the wall and Eithera, my tiny heartless shadow creature that i found that actually had someone's heart in it, guide me. My light blue and grey wings fluttered nervously as I kept going. I found a room. Just the room I wanted. I snatched up a black over the shoulder bag and and found some of Desiderio's files he kept hidden. I stuffed Eithera in there as well and took off running. If anyone knew how to navigate these caves it was me.

Eithera stuck her head out and made a little noise that sounds like an 'Ahrgha.' I looked over my shoulder but nothing was there. I kept running. I was sorta thankful that Desiderio trained me for endurance. I snatched my weapon FaerieDust from its holder. It was purple and was a special Lance/Staff/Bow hybrid. I burst out into the open air. The bright lights blinded for a bit and the slap of the fresh spring plants from the jungle was a smack to my face which my lungs took in happily.

I ran through what Desiderio called Deep Jungle. It had vines all over the place and large trees and some stuff which I didn't know the name of but I knew it was good sliding on when you wanted to sneak up and kill something quickly. I ended up slightly tripping over some broken boxes, vases, and useless weapons and I found a broken Greek vase. I stopped and picked up the greek piece. On it was sketched picture of a mother, father, daughter, and son. The children looked too be about 2 years apart. Something about it just seemed. . . . familiar. I stuffed it in the bag next to Eithera and went on. As we ran I heard a large boom in the distance and saw an explosive cloud. A cheery feeling entered my heart but my face remained brutal and unforgiving.

I found a main port where many people came too and from probably just sight seeing and such. I recognized it from the map I stole from Desiderio. I watched people from the shadows. My annoyingly long purple and black hair blew in the wind along with my gold and grey swirled see through skirt wrap. I adjusted my brown wrap, around knee length sandals, and my gold and grey arm gloves. I saw a weird looking egg shaped thing. It was blue and had weird fin like things on it. I guessed people rode this or something but it looked a flat fish too me. I read the words on it saying World travel. I figured it could take me somewhere else I grabbed it and ran.

In midst run the machine thing came on and I was surrounded by weird light and shadows. I got pretty dizzy when my focus came back and I was in some weird cavern thing. It was kinda dark and menacing and had better etched out walls then Desiderio's weirdo place. I heard a voice that was kinda deep and dramatic. I inched closer in the darkness. I felt Eithera sink down in my backpack that wasn't a good sign. I zipped it up slowly so that Eithera was covered.

A deep scraggly old voice started to speak, "Traverse town will be first to go as possibly an enjoyable decoy."

Eithera moved in my bag a sign that it was time to leave. I ran quietly using my wings to make me lighter on the ground and much quicker. I may not have been able to fly on these giant fairy wings but I could sure as heck push myself to run faster and quieter. I had to make a lot of twist and turns and got lost a few times in my run. I heard a few steps come after me but I sped up to lose whoever that creeper was. I finally made it out into the blinding light once again. I found a very sad looking town. I heard voices in it but the town looked torn to pieces. I slowly climbed my way up towards an area of falling water. I looked up and saw someone with long flowing brown hair and nice looking black jacket that had white fuzz on it. I was definitely going to have too get me one of those. I glared when I saw it was a man. I found some stairs and put my foot on one of them. I felt really dizzy now and not so hot. My throat felt dry and I was a little queasy. Maybe I would feel better at the top. I made my way slowly and stumbled a bit before falling.

The man caught me, "Woah hang in there. I'll take you to our Healer. Don't worry." I tried to shove a dagger into his chest or something to get the male away but the most I got out of it was a limp body and a black out.

~Ria POV~

The heartless populations were growing with each coming day. The problem seems to have spread to Transverse Town, and who knows where else. Floods of people were migrating to Radiant Garden for protection, but most of the refugees we've gotten were from Traverse Town. They say heartless populations were growing at an alarming rate, and they didn't have the necessary protection. But, just a few days ago, an old enemy appeared. It had been almost 11 years since the unversed wreaked havoc, and they chose now to resurface. Because of them our enemies have almost doubled in numbers, but at least we hadn't suffered any casualties. Yet. On top of that, we got a new installment to our team. A girl named Chrissie arrived about a day ago, and helped heal a heavily injured man in just a few minutes. If one of us had tried to aid him, it would have taken at least two hours, and he would have already been dead by then. Without her, we would have lost him. Even with Chrissie, the Restoration Committee is still too small to handle all of the world's troubles. Just eight active members against legions of heartless, and unversed. I don't think we'll be able to stand our ground for long . . .

Radiant Garden was one of the most protected worlds. We have an active defense system called Claymore to kill off weaker heartless, like shadows, and to occupy stronger ones, like wyverns, until a committee member arrives to handle the situation. Just recently, when the heartless populations increased, we set up safe-houses for the citizens. However, the city's walls were still in repair so when Leon told me that a party of heartless, and unversed managed to enter the city, I wasn't surprised.

"We need to you guard safe-house 88. It's the closest safe-house to where the heartless, and unversed were last spotted. We were told that it was a small group, so you should be able to handle them on your own." explained Leon.

"Right." I said. As I turned to leave Merlin's house, Leon placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Just remember, the lives of those citizens are in your hands, Ria. Be careful, and never underestimate the enemy." murmured Leon.

When I arrived at safe-house 88, I realized something. Someone screwed up on the numbering! There were only 50 safe-houses throughout Radiant Garden! If I wasn't underage, I would have bet it was either Yuffie or Arc.

My attention turned back to the safe-house. Everything seemed quiet. No one was on the street this late anyways. Even if they were they would have left after we sent out the alert about the pack of heartless, and unversed in the area. I noticed it was slowly getting darker outside. The street lights began to flicker on, barely illuminating the night.

'I should get inside the safe-house, the heartless will gain the upper hand in the dark. I'm not sure about the unversed, but I'm not taking my chances.' I thought to myself.

The citizens inside had barred the door, so it took some convincing before I could actually get in. When I entered, I found close to twenty people inside. Only six men were present, the rest were women, and children.

"Have you found any sign of the heartless or unversed?" I asked.

"No, they haven't shown themselves yet. Personally, I think they left. I mean, the streets are bare. It's like a ghost town out there so they probably just left when they couldn't find any victims. You guys said it was a small group anyways. Nothin' to worry about." replied one of the men.

"I wouldn't be too sure of that, both of them travel in packs. Their numbers could have increased. Wait! Where are you going?" I yelled. The man had turned around to leave, and was removing bars from the door. He reached for the handle when I lunged at him.

"Are you insane? You could be putting all these people's lives at risk!" I screamed as I yanked him back from the door "Don't you care?". But I was too slow. He had already unlocked the door. It swung open revealing nothing but the empty street.

"See? What did I tell you? Will you let go of my freakin' sleeve now?" he asked.

"Sorry sir . . ." I mumbled.

"I told you there was nothing to worry - GAH!" he screamed.

Black claws ripped through his torso, and blood spurted as he fell to the ground. Behind him appeared a shadow. Wait, a shadow did that? How is that possible? They're, like, one of the weakest heartless, not to mention a pureblood!

"Everyone! Get back!" I ordered. I was trying to take control of the situation like Leon had taught me. I had to appear calm, but how could a shadow do something that horrific?

I was flung back into reality by a shriek as more heartless, and unversed poured into safe-house 88. I heard screaming in every direction. I summoned my keyblade, The Fallen Angel, hoping that maybe that would draw their attention away from the citizens. In a flash of light, my keyblade appeared in my hand. The handle was adorned with a set of pure white wings, the neck was sky blue, and the blade was made up of razor sharp feathers.

In an instant, the heartless, and unversed were charging towards me. I did my best to fend them off, but they seemed to multiply. I heard more screams, that's when I realized that they had gotten to the citizens who were hiding in the back of the single roomed safe-house.

"No! Wait!" I screamed "Get out while you still can!"

Several people tried to make it to the door, only to be cut down by several unversed who had broken in. My world tipped sideways as a flood unversed knocked me down. I couldn't see past the morphing shapes of black, and blue to see if anyone was still alive. How could this have happened? Just then, I remembered what Leon had told me before I left:

"Just remember, the lives of those citizens are in your hands, Ria."