Disclaimer: i do not own kingdom hearts. only lynn.

again, sorry it took so long. i just finished a research paper and wrote 10 senior letters for band so i've been swamped. x( anyway, here it is.

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Chapter 4

When Lynn opened her eyes, all she saw was a sunset sky the color of her sweater and a cerulean-hued cliff before random scenes from the previous night played themselves in her mind.

She did it. She had successfully run away from home. Strangely, Lynn felt no sense of victory or accomplishment. In fact, she didn't feel... anything. Like any emotion she felt would be but a faint echo of what it should be, reverberating off the walls of her empty chest. Lynn wished she could sleep again, sleep forevermore if only to escape this dreadful hollowness. She took a great, shuddering breath in, letting it out in a half-hearted, mournful sigh, and sat up.

The first thing she noticed was that the cockpit was empty. There was no sign of Sora, Donald, or Goofy. The second thing she noticed was the absense of movement. Everything felt so still after a night (if, in space, there was such a time) of constant motion. Or had it been a night? Perhaps Lynn had fallen asleep moments before reaching their destination, and had been so deeply asleep that she'd missed the landing. Maybe Sora, Donald, and Goofy had left hours ago.

What were they doing here, anyway? Sora had said the place was "crawling with Heartless," and they had purchased a great number of supplies, so they were obviously expecting trouble. Of what sort, Lynn didn't know, and neither did they, she thought, suddenly remembering Goofy's voice from what seemed to be an age ago, "We don't know what's out there..."

All this Lynn pondered, sitting cross-legged and listless, staring at the cockpit wall but not seeing it. She wondered idly what she looked like after sleeping on the cockpit floor. She shrugged it off- looks aren't everything- and besides, no one was around to see her in this state. She was alone.

Alone. The word ripped at her, like some dormant beast had awakened and was intent only on ripping her very soul apart. It roared in triumph at her agony, reveled in her angst.

Lynn felt that the walls were closing in on her, compressing the air so she had to gasp for breath, her head spinning. She couldn't stay in the cockpit with nothing but her misery any longer. She crossed the small space to the controls on her knees. Her eyes swept the control board anxiously; there were so many different buttons. Panic rising within her, she slapped what she hoped was the right one. The clear dome above her retracted long enough for her to scramble out, still breathing heavily, fighting the horror inside her. She landed on her knees in her haste. Breathing fresh air did her some good; she was calmed slightly and her terror ebbed. Lynn stood and looked about her as the cockpit dome closed itself.

The sound of rishing water filled Lynn's ears. There seemed to be a lake of some sort below the stone where she stood. She could see clear to the bottom, but no life inhabited it. Though Lynn heard the waterfall, there were no mists of water falling into the pool. In fact, the water seemed to be moving towards the cliffs...

The girl gasped. Defying any and all laws of gravity, water cascaded up the rock: a translucently blue and silver sheet caressing the cliff face. Her eyes followed the stream of water up, up, until it disappeared over the other side of the cliff, sending a fine spray up into the delicate rose quartz sky. Scanning the line of the cliff, Lynn's eyes fell upon a plume of gray smoke, a tower thrust into the sky...

The castle had a rather unfinished and broken air to it. While some of its visible parts where of white stone, most was red, as if its face had been ripped apart. It stood straight, yet it twisted and turned in on itself at the same time. A large symbol was stamed into the architexture. Lynn didn't know what any of it meant, and it made her skin crawl.

Bringing her sights a little closer, Lynn stared with surprise at a large bubble suspended in midair above and a short way before her. She wondered why it didn't float away, but then she surmised there must be water inside the bubble- there were smaller bubbles floating inside it. Bubbles within a bubble... But if it was filled with water, why didn't it fall?

She ran to the edge of the rock she was standing on and leaped, her arms outstretched. She didn't even think about what she was doing, she just had to know, her dull curiosity overpowering everything else.

The bubble let her hit it, but it didn't pop. Before Lynn realized what was happening, the bubble was swallowing her, then she was the bubble, inside of it was a swirling mass of water, and she was falling. She blinked-

- and found herself on the bottom of the lake, as herself, her upper body encased in the bubble now full of air so she could breathe; and she did, an intake of amazement, as she stepped forward-

- suddenly, Lynn was jerked backwards, being lifted by a force she could not see; she was being folded into the bubble once more, and moving towards the surface...

The bubble broke. Lynn landed with a small spash- on top of the water. She gasped, looking horrified at her own feet, but her flats stood perfectly dry on the surface of the water. In fact, she was all dry.

Lynn looked up at the rocks suspended in the air above her. These she had to use to get to the castle. She couldn't stay here, didn't want to, because doing something made her forget the horrible emptiness: hence the reckless leaping at the bubble.

Hollow Bastion, Lynn turned the name over in her mind. A humorless smile twisted her lips, The perfect name for this place, that echoes exactly how I feel inside.

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that's all! review if you want to. chapter 5 is coming soon! it's the longest so far, but since my paper and senior letters are done, it should be up sooner. thanks for reading!