Chapter 2: An Unbreakable Connection

The barren streets of Traverse Town were now littered with Heartless that popped up when aware of our presence. We made our way through the district as Donald told me about their plan to seal the keyholes and find the king, who had recently disappeared. So far, they had no luck finding the king, but had successfully sealed three keyholes. After hearing about all that they were doing, I decided it might benefit all of us if I agreed to join them.

As we entered through a set of doors, I made my announcement. "Okay guys!" I said, getting there attention, "I'll come with you."

Everyone turned around to face me after hearing my decision. Sora and Goofy were beyond thrilled, but Donald just simply nodded. At that moment, two Heartless appeared behind them. But, before I could warn them, the Heartless were struck down. A boy with silver hair stood where the Heartless once were.

"There you are." he said with relief, "What's going on?"

With wide eyes, Sora whirled around to face him and yelled, "Riku!"

Sora then proceeded to pull at the corners of Riku's mouth. I let out a small giggle at his childish actions. I was relieved to see that they were still such good friends after all this time.

"Hey, hey, cut it out." Riku said as he swatted Sora's hands away.

"I'm not dreaming this time, right?" Sora asked hopefully.

"I hope not. Took forever to find you." Riku said with a laughed.

Confused by their conversation I asked, "What do you mean by that?"

Remembering we were still there, Sora introduced us, "Oh yeah, Riku, this is Angel, Donald, and Goofy."

Riku only gave us a blank stare while Sora explained what happened to his home and friends. My heart ached for him as he told me everything. I knew all too well what it was like to lose everything and I admired him for being so strong through it all. Riku and Sora then continued to talk as I clutched a purple star shaped charm in my hand. I would never forget the day I received this precious gift or what it represented.

~Flashback~

Terra and I strolled up the mountain path, hand in hand. We often did this in our spare time, which wasn't much because of our approaching exams, and it was clear that Terra was stressed over it. I glanced up at Terra and gave him an alluring smile. He then leaned down to plant a soft kiss on my lips which I returned. Even though he did this many times, it still made me weak in the knees. A smile lingered on my lips until we made it to the summit.

Upon reaching the summit, I spotted our dear friends, Aqua and Ven. They were sitting down looking up at the stars. We made our way over to join them.

"Hey, Aqua. Y'ever wonder what stars are? Where light comes from?" Ven asked thoughtfully.

Aqua replied, "Hmm…Well, they say-"

"That every star up there is another world." Terra finished, making our presence known.

"Terra. Angel." Aqua said surprised.

I greeted them both with a smile before saying, "It's hard to believe there's so many worlds out there besides our own."

"The light is their hearts, and it's shining down on us like a million lanterns." Terra continued.

Ven looked at Terra perplexed and asked, "What? I don't get it."

"In other words, they're just like you, Ven." Terra explained.

"What does that mean?" Ven asked persistently, still not understanding.

As the two young men continued to bicker, I walked over to Aqua and sat down beside her. We both watched in amusement at the two while we laughed at them.

Noticing our laughter, Terra asked, "Hey, what are you two laughing at?"

Stifling my laughter, I answered, "We can't help it."

"You two would make the weirdest brothers," Aqua said giving them both a smile.

Terra and Ven then joined in on our laughter. When we calmed down, Terra sat down beside me and wrapped his arm around me. Ven followed suit and took a seat beside Aqua. We gazed up at the stars until Aqua suddenly jumped up as if remembering something important.

"Oh yeah. Terra, Ang, we have our Mark of Mastery exams tomorrow." she said before pulling out four key chains with star shaped charms attached to them. "I made us good luck charms, they're Wayfinders."

Terra, Ven, and I stood up to get a better look. Aqua then handed me a purple one before tossing an orange one to Terra, and a green one to Ven. She kept the blue one for her own.

"I get one too." Ven said astonished.

"Of course. One for each of us." Aqua responded. "Somewhere out there, there's a tree with star shaped fruit and the fruit represents an unbreakable connection. So as long as you and your friends carry good luck charms shaped like it, nothing can ever drive you apart."

My hands traced over the intricately crafted charm as I admired its every detail. "It's beautiful, Aqua." I commented, "You made them yourself?"

She nodded sheepishly before saying, "Technically, I think you're supposed to make them with seashells, but I did the best with what I had."

"Oy, sometimes you two are such girls." Terra teased.

"Hey, what do you mean "sometimes"?" Aqua demanded while I gave him a playful glare.

"I just…what I meant was…" Terra stammered and laughed nervously.

"So this isn't a real good luck charm?" Ven interrupted as he looked down solemnly at his Wayfinder.

Forgetting our squabble with Terra, Aqua replied, "Well that's yet to be seen. But I did work a little magic on it."

"Really? What?" Ven desperately asked, with hope shining in his eyes.

Aqua raised her blue Wayfinder to the sky examining it and said, "An unbreakable connection."

Even without the charms, I truly believed we had an unbreakable connection, through our hearts. That was the real magic, and our Wayfinders were great representations of that. I looked at my friends…no, my family, this was all I could ever want and so much more.

"We're heading back, are you coming?" Terra asked while holding his hand out to me.

I gladly took his hand, interlacing our fingers, and nodded. I leaned my head against his shoulder as we walked back down the mountain path. That was the last night we ever spent beneath the same stars, and I would never forget it.

I gripped my Wayfinder harder as that bittersweet memory caused a single tear to fall. Quickly, I pinched the bridge of my nose in attempt to stop the remaining tears from falling. Luckily, Sora's voice distracted me from my oncoming emotional breakdown.

"Huh?" Sora questioned glancing down at his empty hands, "Hey, give it back."

Sora ran after Riku in hopes of retrieving his Keyblade that Riku was holding. At that moment, I could sense a small hint of darkness in Riku's heart as he examined Sora's Keyblade. Riku then swiftly dodges Sora, who ends up falling face first into the ground. I immediately rushed to his aid and helped him up.

"Are you okay, Sora?" I worriedly asked him.

"Yep!" he answered cheerfully and returned his attention to his childhood friend.

"Catch!" Riku warned Sora as he tossed the Keyblade back to its owner.

Sora barely caught his Keyblade and hopefully asked, "Okay, so you're coming with us, right? We've got this awesome rocket. Wait 'til you see it!"

"No, he can't come!" a suddenly furious Donald interjected.

The two continued to bicker until Goofy interrupted, "He's gone."

"Riku?" Sora asked while frantically looking around, then turned to Donald, "Nice going."

I placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and said, "Don't worry, Sora, we'll find him."

"Oh well, at least he's okay. And who knows? Maybe we'll run into Kairi soon, too." he said, instantly cheering up.

"That's the spirit, hayuck." Goofy encouraged.

"And we'll be here to help you." I added with a wink, "Right, Donald?"

Donald just crossed his arms and grumbled, "Yeah, yeah."

Sora, Goofy, and I laughed at Donald which only made him more upset, in return we laughed harder. I could instantly feel a connection forming between us, an unbreakable one. There was no way I could let Sora lose everything like I had, and I was going to do everything in my power to help him.