Familiar Faces
A Kingdom Hearts fanfic
By:
Chison
"so…that makes you a Nobody, since you don't have heart." Zeoshi scowled, with a smirk on his face, the teenager grew angry, but simply turned and left, "I would watch your backs. You never know what's in the darkness…" his voice echoed throughout the room, Iris turned to Zeoshi, "I wonder if Zeoshi knows that he is a Nobody…" but he had already started to go down the stairs. "Hey wait for me…" Iris said as she hurriedly caught up to him, and they passed through the doors to their right. Walking outside, they came to a balcony that followed the left side of the wall, and they started walking along the path, however Iris turned around to see the building they had just came out of: it was run down, with many holes in the walls, however there was a massive Heartless symbol on the wall, painted with red, "uh…Zeoshi…I know where we are…" Iris said as she stopped to turn back to him, "we are at Hollow Bastion." Zeoshi lifted his head to the symbol and then put his right hand on his chin in thought, "I feel…like I've been here before…"
Iris was confused, "you've been here before? How?" He looked down at the ground and placed his right hand over his heart, "I feel it right here. I've been here before." With that they continued onward, moving towards the platform, and riding it down to the base of the valley, getting off, Zeoshi spoke, "Our best option is to climb out of here…" With that, he started scaling the blue cliff face, with Iris close behind him. After 15 minutes of climbing, they reached the top, and laid down on the ground and looked at the distance they had just climbed. "I…Never…Want…To…Do…That…Again…" Iris panted, trying to catch her breath, however Zeoshi had already climbed to his feet and looked at the buildings off in the distance, "Look, there might be something there…" Iris tried to get up and see, but it was no good, her body was weak from the climb. Seeing this, Zeoshi bent down, "want me to piggy-back you there?" She gave a simple nod, and he picked her up, and they started walking towards the buildings.
Walking for what seemed forever, they finally made it to the outskirts of the town, however as they made their way into the city, several Heartless made their appearance, Zeoshi quickly set Iris down against a wall, and summoned his sword, and defeated two of the five Heartless before he realized how weak he was from carrying Iris. As he fell to his knees in exhaustion, he saw flashes of light, cutting through the Heartless, and then the beams faded, it revealed a teenager dressed in black, with brown spiky hair. "That was close…Are you all right?" The man said as he turned around, revealing a pair of ocean blue eyes, and a crown necklace, along with two red pouches on the side of his black shorts. "Yea…I'm all right…but I don't know about Iris…" he turned to her sitting against the wall, and the teen rushed to her side, "it just looks like she's fainted, we should get her to Merlin's house." Zeoshi nodded and the teenager carried her to the house.
"Hey Merlin! I need your help." The teen shouted into the small house, and a man with a blue pointed hat and robes came from another room. "Sora? What is going on?" Merlin asked, looking over Sora then Iris, "It just looks like she is unconscious. Lay her here." He said, pointing to the bed, which he did, and Zeoshi sat down at the foot of the bed, "don't worry, Ill watch over her. You must have things to do…" With that, Sora walked out of the small house and into the street, fending off the small spurs of Heartless. "how did you get here without a Gummi ship?" Merlin asked, waving his hand, and making a chair come to life, walking behind the wizard, allowing him to sit, "I…We traveled here by Darkness…" He listened to the words, and put a hand to his chin, "Darkness you say?" Zeoshi nodded, and Merlin got up from the chair, "I have things to do, I will leave you in her care until I return." With that, he disappeared in flashes of colored light.
Stirring in her sleep, Iris' eyes gradually opened, revealing she was in another place, and frantically looked around the room, and saw Zeoshi sitting beside her bed, asleep. "Hm…Maybe Zeoshi is more like Zashi than I ever thought…" She thought to herself as she climbed out of the bed and wandered towards the window of the small house, seeing a small neighborhood, with people sweeping their walkways, and greeting each other as they passed. Suddenly there was a knock at the door, and it swung open, "Merlin? We've come to hold the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee Meeting!" A loud, female voice echoed throughout the house, then turned to see Iris, who had turned to see the people at the door. The teenage girl in the doorway had black hair, along with a short black shirt and a matching pair of short shorts, "Who are you?" she asked, and Iris stood up, "Im…Iris…" with that, a man moved past the girl with black hair, "Yuffie, who is this?" the man asked, having brown hair and blue eyes, along with a vertical scar across his face, wearing a set of leather clothes.
Another woman followed behind the man, having light brown hair and shining green eyes, she wore a pink and white dress, Iris repeated herself, and the group took their places, with Yuffie sitting on a chair, the man standing against the wall, and the other woman was sitting on a chair as well. "I have a question…" Iris started, "do you know two friends of mine named Zashi and Marlena?" This made the group interested, the man moved away from the wall, pointing to himself, "I'm Leon," pointing to the teenager with black hair, "that's Yuffie, and…" and lastly pointed to the woman with brown hair, "this is Aerith." With that, Leon took his position against the wall, and Aerith spoke, leaning towards Iris, "Marlena and Zashi came to visit us before they left to fight Melantha, the embodiment of Darkness. Zashi seemed concerned, but he did not tell anything, and the last we saw them, they were headed to Melantha's home world…" Iris inched forward in her seat, "do you know what happened to them after?" Everyone solemnly shook their heads, "We've looked in the sky every night, but nothing…" Yuffie spoke, hanging her head low, "however Sora came back to us and helped us claim Hollow Bastion and restore it to what it once was…" Leon's voice echoed.
Iris was confused, "all of you lived here once?" Leon nodded, "we all remember the true name…Radiant Garden." Aerith spoke, looking out through the window and into the orange sky. "do you guys know how I can find my friends again?" Iris asked, looking at each of them, but none could give a response, "Its all right, we will just find them ourselves, right?" Zeoshi's voice rang as he got to his feet.