Darkmoon: These chapters in the beginning either are too short or don't flow well. But I am going to make Aqua quite fluent in Japanese, 'cuz the language is so cool. Sigh… I am running out of things to say… but I don't own kingdom hearts, Tala, or Disney. A friend of mine has a friend who owns Tala-Mawla.

"So, how are we going to get to Radiant Garden, Sora?" asked Riku.

"Well, we could use the gummi ship, but according to Donald, I would just crash us into a meteor… we could build a raft, but we know what happened last time." Sora yawned.

Riku contemplated this. "So it's crash into a meteor and hopefully manage, or spend a lot of time building a raft, maybe not ever make it, and perhaps accidentally cause our world to fall to darkness again…"

Kairi raised her hand. "I vote gummi ship!"

----

Minutes later, they were all in the gummi ship on their way to Radiant Garden. Luckily, Sora had had the sense to add an Auto-pilot gummi before departure, so they were free to do whatever they wanted.

"Hey… Sora?" asked Kairi.

"Mmm?"

"Well, before we left, didn't you feel a… chill?"

"Not quite, but I did feel like I was being watched."

Kairi didn't respond, but Sora could tell something was wrong.

"Did you… want to tell me anything else?"

"Er… No! I- I just- Never mind…" Kairi looked away, blushing.

"Hey!" called Riku. "We're almost there!"

Everybody braced for the landing, which ended up being in the Dark Depths where Sora had once fought Sephiroth.

"Augh… its night already!" groaned Sora, looking at the darkened sky.

Kairi looked around with interest. "So… this is my former home…"

Riku walked to where the edge of the cliff was, staring out at Maleficent's former fortress. "What's with the building?"

"Oh!" said Sora. "That's where Maleficent hung out until she arrived at the world that never was."

"Really…" Riku's eyes became unreadable.

As Kairi looked up at the half-moon floating in the sky, she gasped. "Sora! Look out!" she cried, pointing at a silhouetted figure holding a keyblade.

As Sora turned, the figure leaped down, keyblade brandished, and swung it at Sora, who blocked it just in time. "Gah!" Sora pushed against the figure's weapon with his own. It was too dark to see the person clearly.

"I thought I killed you… Vanitas!" the woman growled.

"Huh?"

The woman pushed him off her blade and engaged him in a battle. (Meh… I am no good with fight scenes) As Sora fought her, he found that she used magic quite well. However, he found himself soon exhausted. The woman raised her keyblade.

"Its over, Vanitas!"

As she was about to strike the final blow, two keyblades intercepted her own. She looked up to see two other figures. A young man and a girl. She blinked.

"Light!" She shouted, holding her keyblade up. She then held her blade like a flashlight.

"Daré…" She looked between Riku and Kairi, then looked back at Sora. "Wait! You're not Vanitas! I saw you a long time ago… didn't I?"

Sora and Riku looked at each other, confused. The woman chuckled. "That's right! Sora and Riku, né? I saw you when you were just little kids, playing on your Island!" She then smiled at Kairi. "And you were living here as a little girl with your grandmother. The king told me you live on Destiny Islands now."

Sora tilted his head, confused. "Umm… wait. Why were you attacking me? Who's Vanitas?"

The woman looked away for a while. "He looked almost exactly like you, save the hair and eye color."

"Umm… could you tell us your name?" asked Kairi.

"Hai. My name is Aqua. Like you, I'm a keyblade wielder, though I passed the Master Qualification Exam."

"Whoa…" Sora had never met a true master of the keyblade. He was the chosen wielder, true, but the keyblade had powers even he didn't know of.

Aqua continued. "I knew that Terra had chosen Riku to be a wielder, and that man I met in the dark realm also said that the name of the current wielder was Sora, but I never imagined that princess Kairi could use a keyblade!"

Kairi smiled. "I wanted to help Sora, so Riku gave me a keyblade."

Aqua was silent. "But… how? You can't just have a keyblade appear and give it to someone. Unless…" She stared at Riku. "…are you associated with a man named Xehanort?"

Riku shook his head. "No longer. The only darkness left in my heart is my own dark strength."

Aqua nodded slowly. "I see…" She turned towards the Great Maw. "We'd better get to where the others are. The king is waiting for you."

As they walked, Sora heard a voice in his head that he recognized as Roxas.

Sora?

What is it?

That girl, Aqua… I feel as though I know her… but I don't.

It might be one of my childhood memories you picked up.

I'm not so sure…

Eventually, Kairi thought she saw something in the distance. "Hey Sora, is that a…"

He nodded. "It looks like a wolf! But there are no forests nearby…"

"And the wolf looks like its coming for us," added Riku.

Sure enough, when the wolf saw them, it quickened its pace until it was in front of them, where it glowed and changed form. The girl it now was had dark brown hair and tiger stripes on her face. One eye was a frosty blue, while the other was a bloody maroon color. There was a scar over the maroon eye as well. She wore a brown sleeveless shirt and a jean skirt dyed brown that reached to her knees. Two small fangs jutted out of her mouth and poking out of her hair were two dog-like ears. Aqua clearly recognized the girl.

"Tala-Mawla," Aqua nodded respectfully.

The wolf girl grinned. "The king said that we are meeting at Ansem's castle instead of Merlin's house. He said he wanted to look into something." She then noticed Sora and the others. "Hey! My name is Tala-Mawla, but you can call me Tala. My name means Wolf protector."

"So, you're a werewolf?" asked Kairi.

"Not quite. I'm half wolf-demon and half vampire," said Tala, turning around. "Now, enough chit-chat! Let's get going!"

-----

When they arrived at Ansem's castle, Aqua stared up at it. "Things have truly changed in the past ten years…"

Sora blinked. "Huh? Ten years?!"

Aqua smiled. "The realm of darkness prevented me from aging while I was trapped there. Eventually, I went to the Dark Meridian where I continued aging, starting from where it left off."

Sora blinked again. "…uhh… let's just keep going." His eye then fell on a skateboard lying on the ground and he walked towards it.

Riku noticed. "Umm… Sora? What are you doing? You know you can't Skateboard."

Sora turned and smirked, saying "See you in Ansem's Lab!" With that he rode away.

"Darn!" muttered Riku. "We don't even know where his lab is!"

A voice sounded behind them. "I could lead you." They all turned around to see a girl with dark red hair that spiked in the back and on the sides, and emerald eyes. She wore a red t-shirt with a hole cut open in the back, and there was a small vertical scar under her left eye.

"And you are…?" asked Kairi.

"She's Miho. A new member of the restoration committee," said Tala. "Along with myself and Mizuki."

Miho didn't acknowledge her. "This way." She began walking towards the corridors under the castle. The others followed them.

"Everything is going according to plan." A figure cloaked in blue with slightly darker blue wings was watching Miho lead the others. "Let's just hope 'Tala' doesn't mess things up for us." He vanished in a flash of light.