Chapter 4

Aerith set the last steaming cup of tea in front of Merlin. Everyone was assembled around his table, which seemed to have magically grown larger with every chair that was pulled up to it. Aerith had prepared tea and snacks, knowing this would be a long afternoon. Everyone seemed tense and anxious except for Sora, who was contentedly munching on some cookies. Donald and Goofy were especially nervous, so much so that Goofy's teacup kept shaking and rattling every time he took a sip.

"Well," Leon stated, shattering the silence. Everyone looked up towards his strained face. "I suppose it's about time that we begin. Sora, most of us know this story well, so it will be hard hearing it again. But for your sake…and hers, we must tell it once more."

Leon cleared his throat before beginning. "Let's see, it would have been about 15 years ago. Back when Hollow Bastion was a beautiful place and its people lived happily under its ruler. It had been raining all night, and rivers were running through the streets. The sun was coming up, and the city was just opening its eyes. At my house, my parents and I were preparing for the day – I remember it especially because we were going to go to the annual fair in the town plaza."

"We were celebrating the town's centennial birthday," Aerith added sadly.

"Yes, banners and flowers were everywhere; the town and its people were dressed in their finest," Leon added, disregarding Aerith's interruption. "My mother was running a booth, so we had to be there earlier than usual." Leon paused, taking a deep breath. "However, the happy day it was supposed to have been was not what occurred. We arrived at the plaza only to hear shrill crying – my mother told me not to worry though, because it sounded like a baby's voice. However, a crowd was milling around the central fountain, so I ran to investigate. Pushing through everyone's legs, I stumbled to the edge of the fountain and was amazed at what I saw."

"What was it?" Sora asked, snitching yet another cookie.

"It was a baby, but something was different about it. It was small and wrinkly, just like any other baby, but had the deepest ocean blue eyes and brown spiky hair I've only had the pleasure of knowing on one other person."

Sora choked on his cookie, suddenly realizing the extent of the story that Leon was telling him. Donald pounded on his back, helping the Keybearer to swallow the large chunk of oatmeal raisin in his throat.

"Ahem. As you can tell, everyone was surprised. Who would leave a baby floating in the fountain? My father got everyone to quiet down long enough to find out if anyone had any information on the baby. The town watchman had found it first, when he was making his early morning rounds of the plaza to make sure none of the children were making trouble. He said he wouldn't have noticed it at first, except for the light coming off of it. 'Looked like a piece of the moon had fallen out of the sky,' he had said. Anyway, so there we were with a baby that belonged to no one, with no idea how it got there.

"Some of the families decided that someone should go and get the Elder; he was a wise man and would know what to do with the infant. One of the older boys was sent running to the castle to bring him to the plaza as soon as possible. After this, people began dispersing towards their own booths and duties for the day, but with an eye and an ear in the direction of the fountain. As this was going on, my mother stepped forward. She began to reach for the baby, but my father stopped her.

'Don't touch that thing! We don't know where it came from, or what it might be!'

'For goodness sakes! It's a baby – what harm could it do besides drowning us in drool?' my mother replied. She bent down and gently brought the basket into reach. Slowly, she reached down and picked up the dripping basket and set it on the ground. The baby stopped crying (finally) and peered at us with its large eyes. Myself, my father and mother, and the several people still lingering crowded around to see the baby. The basket that held it was made out of some kind of silvery vine, but woven tightly so as to be waterproof. The blankets it was wrapped in were like cotton, but softer than silk. The most amazing thing, however, was the locket that the baby wore; it was a silver heart on a chain, with a key inscribed onto it."

"What was inside of it?" Sora asked, sitting forward in his chair.

"No one knows. We could never open it, and we didn't feel like smashing it in order to find out. My mother checked around inside of the blankets, searching for any other kind of identification. There wasn't any, and the baby starting fussing at my mother's touch. She lifted the baby gently and brought it up to where everyone could see it. Like I mentioned before, it was quite an ordinary baby, except for its hair and eyes. I leaned over to see more, and while so discovered that the locket had flipped around and there was something written on the other side of it."

"What did it say?" Sora, now ignoring the food, was almost sitting on top of the table as he leaned toward Leon.

"It only had three words….Genevieve Keilanyi Astraea. Using common sense, we all assumed this must be the baby's name. At least it had that much. While pondering over that, the messenger showed up with the present Elder. Making his way through the crowd that was beginning to grow again, he took the baby from my mother's arms and examined it closely. My father repeated to him the watchman's story, his eyebrows furrowing deep in thought. Suddenly, he addressed the crowd.

'My good people, I see no problems with this child, even though it has come to us without parents or a visible carrier. However, we will care for the child and see if any come to claim it. For now, let us continue with the festivities! Now, where is Lady Soleste?' The crowd cheered at the good news, which of course led to the baby crying loudly yet again. The Elder and the baby – along with its basket and an elderly woman – headed back towards the castle and I didn't see them until the next day. However, the excitement – or maybe a better word for it would be agitation – was not finished with us.

"Of course, the fair was just getting started. There were performers, games, food, and a small parade that would take place that afternoon. Everything went fine for a few hours….until the sky abruptly darkened. To me, it seemed like everything slowed down – people stopped and just stared at the sky. Clouds were swirling in an out of season tempest, and lightning was shooting through it. The skin on the back of my neck was standing up, and my mother was clinging to my father. The darkness seemed to permeate into everything – but the strangest thing was, the darkness appeared to be alive."

"Heartless?!" Sora stuttered, a little louder than he had anticipated. It seems he was caught up in Leon's story just as much as the others were.

"Yes. Once the darkness began to manifest itself, pandemonium ensued. People were running left and right, stalls were overturned, and nightmarish screams rang out throughout the city. My mother grabbed my hand, and we began running towards home. However, I tripped and fell – I was so weak…" Leon paused, his hand clenched into a fist.

"When Leon's parents realized he wasn't with them, they turned around to go get him. However, a large Heartless appeared in front of them, and….you know the rest. Leon lost his parents that day, and almost a third of the people in the city lost their lives as well," Aerith explained calmly, placing her hand over Leon's shaking fist. Slowly Leon regained his composure, and smiled tightly towards Aerith.

"Oh, I, um," Sora stammered, trying to find the right words.

"It happened a long time ago. Apologizing now won't bring them back. Besides my parents, Aerith and Yuffie lost their parents, and Cid lost his wife. We were all orphans, and somehow we survived that first terrible day. Those who were left found shelter in the castle; parents who had lost children found children who had lost parents – families were broken and substituted within hours. We knew that no one could survive alone against this new terror. The city began utilizing its emergency codes; rations and blankets were passed out and everyone did their fair share of work, including the children. I don't believe many people slept that first night, but we at least had a little comfort in all of the lights we kept on – with darkness as the enemy, the once comforting and restful night became enemy number one.

As dawn broke, no one wanted to leave the castle – too many of us were afraid of the black monsters roaming the streets outside. Only one man prepared himself to enter outside – the Elder. He gave us words of courage, saying 'Monsters are only the creations of children's imaginations; these things will not break us.' Wielding a sword and a shield, he opened the main gates and stepped forward. Nothing happened. Not one monster approached him. When he reached the city wall and stepped within the boundaries of it, a small black thing darted towards him, claws extended. With a yell, the Elder drew his sword and attacked the small creature – surprisingly, within seconds, the sword had slashed through the creature and it vaporized into thin air. We cheered – we could reclaim our homes and our lives. The men of the city grabbed every available weapon and charged into the city, yelling battle cries and swinging blades. The smallest creatures were easily dealt with, but the larger ones – some as big as a cart – still took down a man or two with it before it vanished as well. Of course our Elder wanted to know our enemy, and after examining the battles and watching how the black creatures stole people's hearts, he thus named them Heartless, the beginning of the universe's death sentence."

"And that's when we came in," Donald stated to Sora. "The Elder called upon King Mickey for his help. The Elder here had been studying hearts, so creatures that devoured hearts were of great interest to him. King Mickey had also been interested in the Elder's findings, and they talked quite often about them. That's how we met her, during those visits."

"Considering this story is about the mysterious girl you met, Sora, let us be getting back to that topic. Anyway, as I said before, the name on the locket read Genevieve Keilanyi Astraea. It was decided that a foster family would be provided for her until someone came to claim her. A small family was found, the Mouri's, who would care for her (they had lost their own son to the Heartless). Since her named was too long for everyday, we opted for a nickname: Geni. So Geni became apart of the city of Hollow Bastion. That is how Geni arrived here."

"So, Geni is my sister? My twin?" Sora said carefully, tasting the foreign words in his mouth. "How did she end up in Hollow Bastion and me in the Destiny Islands? Is my mom our mom, or am I adopted too?"

"Yes. Of course she is your sister, we wouldn't find that out until much later – but that is a later in the story. As for your other questions, we don't know. For now, the story is from how we found Geni – until a little over one year ago.

Geni grew up healthy and strong, considering the bad luck that came with her arrival. You see, with Heartless, we know now that until the Keyhole within a world is sealed, the Heartless will keep coming and coming. That is how it was for us. Everyday Heartless would appear, and they would be destroyed. Children and adults alike were trained in how to defend themselves against this seemingly infinite enemy. They didn't appear in the hordes as when they first arrived, and sometimes we had holidays where they wouldn't appear for a few days at a time. Geni, of course, didn't know this fear. She was as happy as any baby could be; she grew up healthy and strong, and was walking and talking within a year or so. Most of the adults loved her, but there were a few of them that blamed her arrival with the onslaught of the Heartless, and treated her as if she had the plague. Of course, she couldn't tell – and no one was willing to tell her. As far as she knew, she was Geni Mouri, not a strange baby who appeared in a fountain. However, all this was to change only three years into her small life.

It had been raining, and the sky was cloudy and sinister looking. Yuffie, Aerith, and I had left school for the day. Aerith was supposed to babysit Geni while her foster parents were at defense practice, but decided to bring her shopping with us at the town plaza. She was like a little bug, flitting here and there, touching and picking up everything. Like any adolescents, we began to get irritated with her – so we gave her a coin and told her to go and toss it in the fountain and make a wish. Her eyes lit up, and she took the coin eagerly and ran away with it. We should have watched her more closely, but we were more interested in the new shipment of trading cards. After about ten minutes, Aerith noticed Geni hadn't come back from the fountain yet. Walking over there, she found her little backpack, nothing else. She started searching the plaza frantically, and finally ran back to us.

'I can't find Geni anywhere!' she yelled hysterically.

'Okay, okay, she couldn't have gone far, we'll help you look for her,' I said nonchalantly. We began scouring the square again, asking the vendors if anyone had seen her – of course no one had. Now we began to worry – someone had already been attacked by Heartless that morning. We began to run around the side streets, calling her name loudly. We ran and ran, and after about five minutes Yuffie screamed out. She had found Geni's favorite doll, a star with dangly legs named Hikari, something she never went anywhere without – she had already put up a fuss earlier about having to leave it home when Aerith picked her up. We ran down the alley it was in front of, and found the most horrifying sight any of us had ever witnessed." Leon paused, taking a sip of tea to clear his drying throat.

"What was it?" Sora whispered, eyes wide, drinking in all of Leon's words.

"A large Heartless, the size of four people, was sticking its claw into her chest, drawing out her heart. Of course, the three of us jumped into action and set about destroying the Heartless. However the damage had already been done. We annihilated the Heartless, and were taking deep breaths, when we realized that Geni was lying motionless on the ground. Aerith ran over to her, and starting calling her name softly. Yuffie checked for her vital signs, and told us that it was faint, but her heart was still beating – she was alive, at least for the moment. I picked her up gently, and we ran as fast as we could back to the plaza for help. By a miracle, we ran into Mr. and Mrs. Mouri on their way back from practice. When they saw us and Geni lying limply in my arms, Mrs. Mouri screamed. Mr. Mouri took Geni from me and told us to follow him. He ran to the hospital; Geni was still unconscious when the nurses took her from him and told us to wait.

It seemed like hours before anyone told us anything; even the Elder had come from the castle to see Geni. When he came to us, his expression told us everything we needed to know: it was bad, really bad. Geni was alive, but the Heartless had succeeded halfway: it had taken half of her heart. The doctors didn't know if she would make it through the night; she was put on a machine that would help her live.

When we were finally let in to see her – Mr. and Mrs. Mouri had already been in for a while – she was still sleeping, but she looked half dead. She was so pale; you could see every vein in her arms and face. It would be almost a day before Geni would wake up, and then we would find out the extent of the damage the Heartless had done to her."

"So, my sister has half a heart? What does that mean, specifically?" Sora asked, a questioningly look in his eyes.

"Well, from then on, Geni wasn't the spirited ball of energy we had come to know. She would get tired after walking around for only five minutes. Especially being only three years old, it was a difficult adjustment for her. She matured quickly after this – well, as much as a three year old can; she could not play, she couldn't really have any fun. She became very quiet – before, we couldn't get her to stop talking; now she barely said a few words every day. It was like she turned into someone else completely. One good thing – maybe in some ways more than others – that happened because of this accident is Geni found out that she could use magic."

"Like me? What Merlin's teaching me?" Sora said.

"Yes, but your magic is mostly for battling. Things started…happening, after the accident. Since Geni has an all-around sort of magic, things would start flying through the air with a wave of her hand, or her toys would turn into kittens and puppies. She could battle with it like you do, yes, but she could do so much more – like master Yen Sid and King Mickey. At this time, King Mickey first came and really talked with Geni about her future. Since no one had come to claim her in the three years she had been living here, we assumed that she had no real family. King Mickey offered her a life of study at Disney Castle, where she would be tutored like in a normal school, but learn the art of magic and other things as well. King Mickey also offered her this choice because of another reason: here, in Hollow Bastion, Geni and her condition would leave her with a life of boredom, of working menial tasks day in and day out. If she went to live at Disney Castle, at least she could learn to use her new found power and maybe help other people as well.

Well, as you probably thought, Geni accepted King Mickey's invitation. We were sorry to see her go, but the King promised to bring her back for visits every now and again. So off she flew with King Mickey, Donald, and Goofy to begin her new life at Disney Castle.

"And that's where we come in," Donald stated. "Poor girl was frightened out of her wits the first time she came home with us. She was used to people, and non-magical items to help with chores. She practically rushed back into the gummi ship when the broom brigade came by to clean the first time." Donald and Goofy shared a small chuckle at that. "At least then, she was slightly smaller than most of us there, so she fit in just fine. Considering the small suitcase that contained all her worldly possessions, it didn't take long for her to move in. Queen Minnie and Daisy took a liking to her almost immediately; they gave her the grand tour of the castle even before lunch time. Geni's favorite room was…excuse me, is, the Grand Library. We have books from almost every world we've ever encountered in there. Geni was fascinated, even though she couldn't really read the large words yet, she loved looking at the pictures.

So that's how she started; each of us had a job in schooling her, besides our other obligatory work around the castle. Queen Minnie taught her reading and writing, Daisy taught her mathematics and science, I taught her rudimentary magic and King Mickey taught her advanced, and Goofy taught her anything we left out. She did take music lessons and healing classes with a private instructor, but I never really met her. Geni was always very quiet and self-reliant since her accident – she never really wanted to bother anyone, but occasionally she would act her age and start running around the castle. Poor thing would get so exhausted that she would collapse somewhere and would have to rest in bed for the rest of the day, at least.

As the years passed, Geni grew older and wiser. You never met a kinder soul, or someone more willing to help out her friends. She also absorbed knowledge like a sponge, and I wouldn't be surprised if she knew everything in our library by memory. She also seemed to gain a vast amount of knowledge from elsewhere too – she would be gone for several days at a time on "learning excursions" with Her Majesty – who knows where they went. Her strength grew as well; the magic training helped with that. For to do magic, you need plenty of physical, mental, and spiritual will. Geni would walk around the castle all day while reading, helping with the chores like cooking and cleaning (Geni makes a mean apple spice cake!), and also keeping us in line – especially King Mickey when he would fall behind on his paperwork. She also grew taller, so she is at least a foot taller or more than most of us, and she is quite pretty too." Donald blushed a little at that statement. "Anyway, so even though Geni is slightly weaker physically, she makes up for that in excess with her knowledge and magical abilities. I've seen her perform spells I've never even heard of!"

"Donald, can we please get back to the story? You're almost to the most important, and most painful part," Goofy admonished gently.

"Oh, sorry everyone." Donald cleared his throat loudly. "Well, as if you couldn't tell, everything was fine until a little over a year ago. We all believed that Geni was happy with her life at Disney Castle; she could do whatever she wanted and go wherever she wanted to within reason. However, we couldn't have been more wrong. Geni's heart was hurting her, and she was having visions that she never told us about; they were about you, Sora."

"Me?! She was dreaming about me?" Sora squeaked.

"No, not dreaming, having visions about you. Once and a while, Geni would see something – like a movie – play in her mind, but it was about you and then our journey. You see, around the time we left to look for the "Keybearer," you, Geni began seeing you. She knew more about what was going on than anyone else, and she wrote it all down in her journal with all of her other secret feminine stuff." Donald brought out a small notebook that he had been holding; it was a faded purple, with plenty of dog-eared edges. "I thought you might want to have this." Sora held the notebook with a kind of reverence.

This belongs to my sister! I can't believe I'm holding something of hers! I wonder what she wrote about – is she like me at all? Sora thought to himself. He held the notebook tightly. "What else does she know about me?"

"Well, she never told anyone a great deal. If she told anyone, it would have been Queen Minnie. She became like Geni's adopted mother after she came to live at the castle. There was nothing Geni could hide from her. Through Queen Minnie, we found out that Geni knew of the fate of the Destiny Islands, of our search to close the Keyholes and find King Mickey, fighting Ansem, and of reuniting yourself with Kairi and Riku.

Seeing all of us, I think she felt a touch helpless and distressed; the three of us on our quest, King Mickey searching for the Keyblade of the Darkness. I know she had asked King Mickey to accompany him on his quest – we all had – but he had refused. He did mention her heart condition though, and it putting limits on what she could and couldn't do. I think that is what struck her the hardest; she had been working all those years to overcome her disability, yet it still held her back at every turn. That was a little over a year ago, just after our quest began. Today, however, when we saw Geni battling alongside Organization XIII, Goofy and I realized what must have happened the day Geni disappeared."

"What do you mean, 'disappeared'?" Sora said.

"Her heart gave in to the darkness," a small voice supplemented. King Mickey spoke softly, leaning against the doorway in his black cape.