A/N: This chapter was, for whatever reason, very hard to write. Be happy that I managed to get it up at all. xD
Disclaimer-Kingdom Hearts isn't mine, sheesh.
"Close the portal, Axel." It was surprising for anyone to hear Kairi speaking in a commanding voice, let alone speaking to Axel that way. Though clearly flabbergasted, he reluctantly closed the portal to appease her wish.
Sora turned toward her. "Kai, what is it?"
"You couldn't really have believed that I would have thought this was a good idea," she muttered quietly. "We need to find her Nobody, but we can't go running after Organization XIII so soon."
"I agree," said Cid from across the table. He took out his chewing tobacco as he overlooked the distraught group. "Weren't the group of you havin' trouble with the Organization when you were in good practice?" They slowly nodded their heads, seeing where he was getting at.
"But we can't just wait and let Keira's - Stefa's," Cloud quickly corrected himself, "heart sit in the darkness, or Kingdom Hearts, or that Organization!" His sudden outburst easily caused the baby beside him to start crying.
Tifa stood, quietly shushing the baby as she started out of the room. "Let me take Aerith upstairs."
"Aerith, huh?" asked Roxas while Naminé's eyes became starry.
"That's so sweet!" she squealed, her mind temporarily away from the situation.
Paine's calm voice returned them to their conversation. "We need to think for another minute here. What better way to get back into practice than to visit other worlds?" Riku glared at her so coldly that, surely, it would have caused anyone other than Paine to freeze.
Sora's eyebrows knitted together. "What do you mean?"
"Other worlds, including this one, have reported having many Nobodies," Leon told them.
Pouting, Yuffie added, "And you saw how beautiful we made this place!"
"Don't you guys need help here?" Roxas asked, surprised.
Rikku waved him off. "Do you not see that we've got powerful Leon and Cloud here? We're just fine." She said as she and Yuna giggled.
"What worlds are having trouble?" asked Kairi.
"Let's see," Yuna tapped her chin, "Twilight Town, Halloween Town, the Pride Lands, Atlantica, the Land of Dragons, Olympus Coliseum, Neverland, and I'm sure there will soon be more."
"It looks like we could be of some help to other worlds while we're trying to figure this out," stated Naminé with a small nod. "We might be able to figure out if anyone has heard anything about the Organization, too."
Roxas and Sora turned toward Riku. "What do you say?"
Though it was clearly not what he wanted, he reluctantly agreed, "...Alright."
"Don't be in such a hurry to leave, though!" said Rikku with a pout. "Stay here for the day."
"I thought you said that you guys were 'just fine'?" Riku asked with a quirked eyebrow while Rikku laughed nervously.
Yuna grinned. "We could always use more help, and, besides, after a couple of years, don't you just miss us?"
"It'll be a good way to start our training," agreed Sora with a smile. "Let's do it."
Rikku jumped out of her seat and ran to the fridge. "Perfect! I'll get some drinks."
"She does realize that we're all perfectly capable of taking the few steps it takes to get to the fridge, right?" Kairi whispered to Yuna and Paine.
Paine shrugged. "I've been around these two for so long that I've finally stopped asking questions." Yuna giggled.
XxxxxX
A bubbly Elie found herself heading for Stefa's house to see if she had found out anything about Riku and the others. The first thing she realized when she reached the house was that, when she approached the driveway, the flag that hung off the garage was at half mass. Elie thought this particularly odd as nothing significant had occurred in the world for this to happen; however, when she rang the doorbell and the door flew open, she was unsure.
Elie recognized the one who opened the door as Jake, Stefa's twenty-something-year old cousin. He was such a carefree knucklehead that she was surprised to see his eyes puffy and bloodshot. "Uhm, is Stefa here?" She asked a little hesitantly as the boy gave a great sniff.
"She's gone with her heart," moaned Jake, another very unusual thing for him to do. "Those friends of hers, Sora, Riku, Roxas, Kairi, and Naminé, they set off to find her." His trembling eyes could take it no more as the tears filled over the brim and down his face, causing him to slam the door in Elie's face.
She blinked at the wood before her. "They were here, Stefa lost her heart, and they didn't come and tell me...?" Her hands closed into fists and she closed her eyes tightly to stop any tears from falling. "Damn it." She muttered stomping her right foot. "Damn it!" Elie found herself shouting before she opened her eyes, wet with tears. She held out her hand automatically and found herself surprised that she could still call upon a portal. "A-almost every person has a N-Nobody. I'll fix this anyway that I can," she declared, turning her back on the house and entering the darkness.
XxxxxX
How could you tell if you were alive or not in such bitter darkness? It was a biting cold that continuously washed over Stefa and she wondered if the only reason that she could see her body was because she was dead. It was a familiar darkness, but it felt different: more cold and bitter and terrifying. "I... lost my heart, didn't I?" She whispered, but her voice still echoed in the nothingness.
She soon found herself just floating in one place in the darkness, staring up at more black. Well, pretty soon, her vision wasn't only filled with black. A face dipped over hers with a casual smirk. "You figured it out, huh?" The boy muttered, shaking his head. "You always were the clever one," he added in a sarcastic voice.
"How can a figment of my imagination be making fun out of me?" Stefa growled with annoyance. "This must be my imagination because, surely, I could never see your face again."
"My name isn't 'Shirley' though." The familiar brunette boy stated with a wider smirk, the same boy that had been haunting her dreams for the past two years.
XxxxxX
"So Yuna's taken up Aerith's place as the healer of the group, huh?" asked Sora of Leon as the two of them watched said girl heal a deep cut on Naminé's leg, caused by an Assassin.
Leon nodded. "It's good that they showed up when they did, but they never said why they look the way they do now."
"Sure they did, silly," said Yuffie as she joined them. "They said that it had been some spell cast by Maleficent, which is probably the only other reason they were helping her in the first place, and it wore off after she was killed by us."
"It all still seems weird, though," mumbled Sora.
"Doesn't all of this?" sighed Tifa's from behind them. Sora remembered, with ease, how taken Stefa had been with Tifa and Cloud, and vice versa. "It's a terrible greeting to receive two years later, and we weren't left a very good one from Keira in the first place. I mean, Stefa."
Sora sighed, "This must be terrible for Cloud."
"You have no idea," agreed Tifa. "It's heartbreak for him. At least last time he had a bit of faith that Stefa was okay, but, now, we're presented with direct proof that she's not."
Out of nowhere, Yuffie asked, "You know, wouldn't Stefa have a Heartless somewhere?"
"I was thinking about that too, but I somehow doubt it. I don't think that she can have a regular Heartless, even if she does have darkness covering half of her heart. I think it needs to be plunged into darkness only and, still, she would still have her body, just be completely evil." Leon stated as they continued to stare at Yuna and Naminé for seemingly no reason. The fact of the matter was that no one understood Stefa's heart; they were just learning things as they went along.
Tifa wondered, "Would she have a Nobody then?"
Sora nodded his head slowly. "I think that she still would because she has such a strong heart, but I think it'll be like Naminé; her Nobody won't have any real memories. Maybe that means it's Riku's turn to have false memories planted inside of him," he said, laughing with the others.
XxxxxX
Any outsider would have a difficult time adjusting to life in an organization whose objectives were unknown; unknown only to Reixka, apparently. She had quickly learned to ignore the whispers in the halls, had adjusted to the large, annoying, and common meetings. One of the oddest as of late was admitting an older member back into the Organization. The member was girl with a heart who had betrayed the Organization, so why they still wanted her... It didn't matter, though, not to Reixka.
The only thing that mattered was the fact that she, herself, had a distinct feeling of loss within her. She did not know why she felt that way, but she did. At the moment, she was lying across her bed, staring at the ceiling, which was dark blue. She was pleased that her room had color; anything to save her from the suffocating white that was within the entire castle.
Aside from the world doors; those had color. She'd never been allowed inside as no one knew of the conditions of them now. Apparently, they still contained the cards of the boy... the Keyblade Master's memories.
Reixka put a hand to her chest and closed her eyes; there was no comforting rhythm of a heart. She was aware of what she was now, a 'Nobody'; a being without a heart. Though she should not have been able to feel without a heart, her eyes fluttered opened as they filled with burning liquid.
"What is this?" she whispered, her voice trembling as the liquid slid down her cheek and onto the tip of her finger as she touched her face. Reixka placed her finger to her mouth and licked it; it was salty. "Warm salt water?" But something within her said otherwise. 'Tears. Tears fall when you cry. You cry when you feel sadness or happiness, sometimes.'
"I don't feel, though," she told herself, placing her hand to her chest once more. There was still no reassuring thump. "Why does this feel so wrong? So sick and so terrible?"
"Because it is," a female voice answered. Standing in her doorway was the chocolate-haired girl that had joined the Organization. She stared at Reixka's tear-streaked face as said Nobody sat up, staring back at her. 'If it weren't for those highlights, I'd be sure that I was in the wrong place, but I must be right.'
"Another beautiful thing about this place is that the term 'privacy' is unknown," growled Reixka without emotion as her stare turned into a glare.
"You need answers, and you'll want them soon enough." Elie told her in a controlled, calm voice, though it was taking a lot of willpower to not scream out happily that this girl was definitely Stefa's Nobody. 'At least, I'm 99.9 percent sure. Her attitude, that's definitely Stef!'
"I want answers about a lot of things," said Reixka in the same emotionless voice, though it was steadily becoming cold. "You can leave now."
Elie quirked an eyebrow, "Are you gonna force me?"
"Well, actually..." Reixka scrambled to her feet, not skipping a beat as an oversized key with a familiar design materialized in her hand. Elie laughed at this, a childish sound.
She curtsied with a wide smile, "Whatever you say, Princess." With that, Elie pulled out of the room, leaving a confused Nobody in her wake.
"Princess?" echoed Reixka as she stared at the strange weapon. 'The same one that the other girl had...' she remembered, staring at the broken hearts on the key.
XxxxxX
Kairi and Naminé had lost count of the number of times they had gone to Yuna for healing. The last time had been the most serious. As foolish as it was for the two of them to be a duo in destroying Nobodies in one part of the world (The Great Maw/Graveyard), everyone else had split into other groups so that they could take care of every other inch of the Radiant Garden.
The last time Yuna healed them was because of their fight with a Behemoth; the Behemoths that Sora had encountered looked like kittens in comparison to the one Naminé and Kairi had taken on. To make matters worse, it had been a Nobody, which made it abnormally strong; at least they had managed to defeat it. "It seems the Organization has finally gotten around to making stronger Nobodies. First, the Twilight Thorn and now a Behemoth," noted Axel as he watched the terrible cuts on Kairi's skin disappear with the touch of Yuna's white magic.
"I have to admit that it's good that we're sticking around here to train," muttered Riku, also watching Kairi being healed, thinking about how much worse things would be without Yuna.
XxX
"'You've screwed up everything, Demyx,'" mumbled the Nobody in question as he strolled amongst the flowers in the Great Maw. He had watched Kairi and Naminé make mincemeat out of the Behemoth Nobody after it made several good attempts on their lives. "'That Nobody of the girl should've had the princess' heart, but it didn't. Why didn't you just capture her in the first place?'" He quoted, sourly, from the meeting he had just attended. "Well, I told them that they sent the wrong guy, but since when do they ever listen?"
Larxene turned toward him with a snarl. "Stop talking to yourself, Demyx!" She had been walking ahead of him for quite some time, but now stopped to allow him to catch up. "Since you're such an idiot, I had to come here, too."
"I don't understand what we have to do, anyway," complained Demyx, arms folded over his chest.
Larxene smacked her forehead. "We are here to see Roxas and the others so we can get answers from them; they always knew more about that princess' heart than Maleficent. Got it?" She asked so fiercely that Demyx only nodded his head with a terrified expression. "Good." As they exited the Great Maw, went past the Fissure, and finally made it to the castle gates, Demyx noticed one of two things. For one, the gates looked much more put together since the time he had fought Sora. Two, there was a slightly familiar blonde girl fighting off Dusks and Assassins.
Larxene stared at the girl and then Demyx, back to the girl and then Demyx again. "Do you know her?" She finally asked at the expression on his face.
He nodded solemnly as he thought for a minute. "I think that she was helping Maleficent once... Only, she was usually with two brown-haired girls. The three of them used to look like pixies, though."
Larxene grabbed a handful of kunai. "Well, either way, she would be the enemy. Not to mention her being all by herself is such an easy target." A familiar expression appeared on her face as a sadistic smiled pulled at her lips.
"We need to figure out what happened to the princess's heart, remember, Larxene? If you kill off one of their friends, they might get mad." He reminded her, but they were cut short when Rikku killed off the last enemy and noticed them. Recognizing the black cloaks as a sign of trouble, she quickly turned tail.
Larxene rubbed her temples, summoning a portal. "And now our cover is blown. Now I'm going to kill her."
Rikku climbed the walls instead of taking the stairs through the Bailey and, on the last wall, scaled a rooftop. From there, she jumped rooftop to rooftop until she reached Merlin's house, finding a few of the others assembled outside. "Uhm, guys? We've got a bit of a..." She paused as Larxene and Demyx exited a portal that appeared on the adjacent rooftop. "...Problem," she finished, a nervous smile on her face.
Larxene glared at the Al Bhed girl, "Fast but not fast enough, what a tragedy." She hurled her kunai, and Rikku had little to no trouble dodging.
Rikku stuck her tongue out. "Bad aim!" she called, grinning.
Paine, beside Yuna on the ground, shook her head. "You know that she's going to need rescuing in a few seconds, right?"
Yuna nodded. "Yeah, but, in the meantime, we'll let her believe that she's beating them..."
"Demyx, if you would," whispered Larxene as she took a few steps back, and he stepped forward with sitar in hand.
On the ground, Sora took three steps forward, Ultima above his head. "What are you doing?" whispered Kairi.
"Saving Rikku, I hope," he answered. "Thundaga!" A bolt of lightning shot out from the tip of his keyblade, but Larxen, who had anticipated this, deflected the spell with hers. Demyx strummed his sitar once, twice, and a huge geyser shot out of nowhere beneath Rikku, first sending her into the air, and then sending her hurling toward the ground.
Shocked by the new development, no one made a move, leaving Rikku to fall. Fortunately for her, a strong blond-haired man stood beneath where she would have fallen and caught her with ease. "Thanks, Cloud," she mumbled sheepishly, cheeks blushing.
XxX
Since Demyx and Larxene departed for another world, Reixka had found the day after Elie badgered her to be both good and bad. Good because she was still kind of afraid of Larxene, and bad because she liked hanging out with Demyx. She awkwardly wandered around the castle, making sure to stray away from the world doors. Having learned earlier that day to summon a portal, she used one to get to the first floor of the castle. From there, for the first time, she stepped outside. Though she was unsure if she was or was not allowed to do this, she did so anyway.
When she stepped outside, she realized that it was dark out and, when she examined the castle, she noted creepy clouds surrounding the higher levels. Rei glanced back at the sky, wondering, though she did not know why, if it was eternally dark in this particular world. 'Whatever, it's a welcome change to all of the white inside.' She gazed around and did not find much other than a dirt road that led away from the castle; Zexion had told her that it stretched very far and that it was probably not wise to follow.
She sighed at the emptiness as she summoned a portal. "It's so boring here." Another portal appeared directly beside her, and she jumped.
"It's good that you think that," remarked a man with a long ponytail and an eye patch. She recognized him as the Free-shooter, Xigbar.
Her portal flickered and disappeared. "Why's that?"
He did not answer her, instead saying, "The Superior wants to talk to you," he started back into his portal, "Come on."
Upon following him, she found herself in the temporary meeting room (A/N: In Re: CoM, there was a room that Larxene, Axel, and Marluxia always met in to talk about their plans. This is the meeting room.) Aside from the Superior, Saïx and, she noted with disdain, Elie, the room was empty.
"Number Fifteen has informed me that you can wield a weapon, the mysterious keyblade," stated Xemnas; the weapon flashed into her hand. "Yet you have no memories of your original self, is this true?" She nodded. Apart from the image of the girl holding the keyblade, she knew nothing. "In that case, I will allow you to join the other Organization members in searching each world."
She glanced down at the keyblade's intricate design. "Excuse me, but... What do you mean by 'searching each world'?"
"The Organization is on a... search, you could say, for the Heartless of your Somebody. We also have other Nobodies stationed in many worlds," answered Saïx in a way that made it seem that there was more to it than that.
Reixka looked back to Xemnas. "Where am I going?"
"We are giving you free reign. However, if you do something that you shouldn't, there will be serious consequences." His expression did not change, but his voice, in its utter seriousness, painted a decent picture of what would happen to her.
Reixka nodded, a slightly frightened expression her face as she summoned a portal. "I'll do my best."
Once she was gone, Xemnas announced to the remainder of the room, "Once we find the Princess's Heartless, we will need the boy, Riku." Saïx and Xigbar nodded in understanding, as did Elie. He said nothing more, which she took as her sign to leave.
Her heart clenched as she disappeared into a portal, and, only then, did she allow her fear to show.
XxxxxX
Sora took a few steps closer to the building Larxene and Demyx were standing atop. "What do the two of you want?"
Larxene smiled sadistically. "Tell us more about Stefa's heart structure, and you'll get something in return."
The group did not need to look at one another to come to a decision. "No."
She shrugged. "If you don't want to know about her Nobody, then..." Larxene turned around, and disappeared into a portal with Demyx.
Sora and Riku cried, "Wait!" The portal reappeared before them, and the two Nobodies stepped out, grinning.
"I thought you might have a change of heart," admitted Larxene. "Spill it. Where would we find her Heartless?"
"You wouldn't." It was Cid who spoke, having just returned from the castle.
Larxene's eyebrows knitted together as she spun around. "Excuse me?"
"She wouldn't have a Heartless, because she can only have one under special circumstances." He held up a bunch of papers to Sora and the others. "I was just searching Ansem the Wise's computer, and I found one last report."
This seemed to upset Larxene quite a bit. "Damn it!"
"What now?" Demyx asked as she summoned a portal and pushed him inside.
Glaring at the others before disappearing into it, she grumbled, "You get off this time."
"What about her Nobody?" demanded Riku, but the two were already gone.
Yuffie glanced at the reports as he joined them. "Is it true, Cid?"
"Sadly so. It says that she would never have a Heartless, but a Nobody with few memories. He also said that it would be a big problem if her heart was lost to the darkness since it would be impossible to call back," he reported bitterly.
"There's nothing that we can do?" asked Naminé in a quiet voice.
Tifa frowned, "The odds don't look so good."
Kairi shook her head, voice full of determination. "But the odds don't matter. I called back Sora from the darkness, so there must be a way to get Stefa back. She's there somewhere, waiting for us to help her."
Riku smiled. "Kairi's right. We can't lose hope now."
XxxxxX
"Are you really you?" asked Stefa, who was seated on the 'ground.' Now that she was not completely alone, she felt more in control.
The brown-haired boy ran a hand through his hair to push it out of his face. "Why, yes, I do believe that I am me."
"No one else can be a smartass like you, Quince," she said with a faint, fond smile as she closed her eyes and tilted her head back.
Quince stared at her. "Your heart is gone, you're floating through darkness, and still you can manage even a small smile?
"I can't find the light to get out of here this time," she mumbled, seriously, with her eyes still closed.
There was a sad expression his face, but she could not see it. "You don't have a Heartless, you know? I'm not sure if there's a way that you can return to the world."
"My heart isn't nowhere, you know," she said in a matter-of-fact voice, "My Nobody has it. It's strange, but I can feel it... somehow." Her eyes fluttered opened in time to find brown eyes directly over hers. She could feel the press of lips on hers and returned it; it was so familiar, and yet... 'Wrong.' Something inside of her said.
"You'll be alright," he announced as his lips left hers. "You have the right friends looking to save you."
Stefa's eyes filled with emotion as she fought to keep them open, but they slowly slid shut again. "Are you really real?" She asked, numbness beginning to overcome her. 'Friends? Who are they? Why can't I...?'
"You know, that's really a good question," he agreed, a small smirk on his face. "I'll always be with you, though, Stefa. Whether or not you can hear me or see me, you'll always be able to feel me. This darkness won't..." Quince trailed off as his body began to disappear into golden light. "...last long."
And that was the last she heard as numbness engulfed her with darkness.
XxxxxX
'Help me.' Reixka blinked as she heard the voice, which sounded loud and close to her ear. It was impossible; there was no one there, in the Marketplace. Her boots thumped against the stairs as she descended them and glanced in the direction of a fountain, 'Cute,' she thought. Her hood was pulled up in order to obscure her face, something Xigbar had advised her to do. It didn't bother her, much, but, when she approached the fountain, she took it off, feeling oddly curious.
Someone was staring back, a girl with blond hair with black highlights and sections of red. She smiled at Reixka who stared at her dumbly. The girl resembled her quite a lot, only Reixka's hair was in a long braid while the girl's was down; the girl also looked kinder. Oddly, as she stared at the reflection, she realized that the girl in it had a heart. 'Wait, what am I thinking? This reflection, which isn't even mine, could not have a heart. It can't even be.' She placed her hand on the back of her head. 'What is wrong with me?' The reflection was smiling, which seemed quite odd, and Reixka wondered why for a moment. When she pulled her hood back, the reflection of the blonde disappeared.
'I've been to see him.' A voice echoed in Roxas' head as he ran into the marketplace, barely able to hear his own footsteps because of it. One of the workers had alerted him that there was a suspicious-looking girl in the marketplace. He had described her with brown hair that had silver highlights. 'He looks a lot like you.' He came to a dead stop in the center of the marketplace as he noticed the suspicious girl, dressed in an organization coat.
She was facing in the opposite direction of him with her hood pulled up, but he still had no doubts that this was the girl he had been warned about. Apparently feeling his eyes burning holes in her back, she turned to face him and, out of reaction, Oathkeeper and Oblivion appeared.
Even though her face was shrouded in the darkness, he could tell she was glaring. She was distantly surprised when a keyblade of her own flashed into her hands, made of white metal and decorated with cherry blossom petals. "Who are you?" demanded Roxas.
"I know all about you," she growled. "You're one of them; a keyblade wielder."
Roxas reminded her, "You're wielding one, too!"
"Shut up!" She shouted, charging with her weapon. For some odd reason, seeing this boy caused her an abnormal amount of pain. As she neared him, he could feel the confusion, anger, and hate radiating off of her in waves.
'She's her.' He did not know how he knew that, but he did. The sound of metal clashing emitted as his keyblades clashed against hers. Roxas had hit her so hard that her hood flew right off to reveal pale grey eyes and dark brown hair with streaks. She let out a cry of frustration, and pushed harder. 'She must be.'
'I've been to see him; he looks a lot like you.'
A/N: And there you have it, end of chapter four. This is a bit longer than last time, I'm trying to make up for the short chapter. My intentions for this story's plot are drifting in another direction as they so often do when I write, but don't be alarmed, if anything, it will make the story longer and more interesting.
See you guys next chapter. :D