The Blizzard Experiment

IV

Leon watched Sora eat some sandwiches that Aerith made and wondered how he could stomach it. "So after this Twilight Town business you're taking her to train with this Phil person?"

Sora nodded, "yup!" he finished off his third sandwich, "he's trained me and the guys before and got us a Junior Hero ranking."

"Junior Hero? Wouldn't that…never mind…" He saw Merlin walk out of the house with Julia, who was smiling happily. "Well?" he raised an eyebrow.

"She's got quite a knack for the healing spells that Miss Aerith taught her but she's also quite apt with fighting spells!" Merlin stroked his beard as he explained. "She's a quick learner and the energy she puts into making the spell work is actually half of what any one of us use so she'll be a great spell caster. But…"

"But what?" Leon knew that if the old man said it like that there was something definitely wrong.

"She can't properly channel it through her keychain so she'll need a new one."

Sora raised an eyebrow, "but keychains are hard to come by."

Merlin nodded, "of course my boy but you'll need to do it if you want her spell casting to be at its zenith. Watch, Julia my dear please cast your favorite fighting spell…"

Julia nodded, "what should I aim at?"

"This," Merlin pulled out his wand and gave a little wave, by the wall a little heartless doll popped up.

"Okay!" She pointed her Star-Seeker keyblade at it and attempted to cast the spell, "Blizzard!"

"Sora duck!" Leon pushed the boy to the side as a ball of ice came flying their way. "So that's what you mean? It gets misdirected?"

Merlin nodded, "yes and it's about half of what it should be considering that most of that ice would have actually been inside of the heartless and done more damage..."

Donald shook his head and muttered something about, 'being useless either way.'

"But not to fret! I have a feeling that soon you'll find some new keychains! Ah and my boy may I have a word?" Merlin pulled Sora away from Leon before he could answer.He stoked his beard watching Julia play with the keychain as Leon tried to make some friendly conversation with her. "Sora, my boy, is there and explanation for this?"

He shook his head, "I'm really not sure. That's why were here looking for-"

"So this girl..." Merlin cut in, "Yes...I see." He flicked his beard, "My boy, you'll need her help in finding those special memories."

"Are you talking about the artifacts?" Sora watched as Merlin nodded.

"They are very important, very dangerous so be wary. Make sure they don't fall in the wrong hands."

The boy nodded, "so what…are they damaged or anything?"

Merlin chuckled, "Not very likely, but they did take on a different forms for different worlds. Rumor has it that because of the heart shower and destruction of the real Altar of Naught, the barriers surrounding the worlds have disappeared and the time regulation has been disrupted...." Merlin stroked his beard again, "With just one of those artifacts, you could destroy a single world. But with all seven."

Sora's mouth hung open and he had a blank look on his face, "What? She said we only needed to get them back to close Kingdom Hearts."

"I wish I could tell you all I know, but you must learn the truth yourself," Merlin said sadly, "She doesn't remember everything for a reason, and it's better if she didn't for now."

Sora sighed and watched Julia, "It has to do with Kairi, doesn't it?"

"Everything is connected, but Kairi is safe...for now. I fear that the princesses are in danger from another force." Merlin turned to look at Julia, "but for now…focus on finding those artifacts and on the way deal with whatever is mucking things up amongst the worlds."

Leon smiled at the girl as she answered any and every question he asked. "So how do you know Sora?"

"I'm not sure but I hope to remember in time." She twirled her hair around her fingers as she talked to the slightly taller man.

"Well since you're joining the team what kind of talents do you have?" He wanted to see if it would stump her into a long stretch of thinking.

"Well…" She looked around and then down at her hands, "oh! Do you have anything I could mix or make?"

Leon was surprised she asked that, 'is she a moggle in disguise?' He thought as he noticed Yuffie running down with her usual stock of potion after a fight. "Yuffie bring that over here…"

"Uhh…sure!" she ran over and looked over how everyone was standing, "Leon are you playing nice?" Yuffie teased but quickly got a scold from him, "well okay what do you want my potions for?"

"Julia asked if we had anything to mix…" he plucked out a potion and ether. "Can you do anything with these?"

The blond thought about it, "I'll need one of these…" she plucked out another potion and ether, "plus I'll make an added bonus…" after quickly gathering the ones she needed she spun around and mixed them. "Taa-daa!" Leon noticed she held a Mega-Elixir, one of the hardest things to come by as of late since most of the ingredients to make one from scratch were scare, and a Mega-Ether.

"How did you do that? Only certain types of sprites and Moggles can do that…" he took the Mega-Ether and looked it over.

A look of confusion painted itself across Julia's face. "Well...I just can. It seems to be one of my talents I suppose."

Sora watched unsure if to note this was a bad thing or not. Maybe she didn't remember but he had heard stories where villains had lost their memories and could be the sweetest people in the world until they remembered what they were really like. "Julia lost her memories in an accident a year ago so she doesn't remember much," he hoped this excuse would be enough and there wouldn't have to be any awkward questions or explanations.

Leon nodded, "so she has a bad case of amnesia…have you ever fallen into darkness?"

Julia shook her head quickly, "for one to fall into darkness you must first has darkness in your heart…and I feel as if that's something I couldn't have…"

Merlin cut in once he saw Leon raise his eyebrow as if he was about to interrogate her, "well! Anyways shouldn't you be going to help your friends in Twilight Town?"

Sora, Donald and Goofy quickly nodded their heads.

"Then go…" Leon had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach when the three took off running and Julia only looked up at him with a look of mixed confusion and sadness before taking off after them. "Merlin do what you can to find out about that girl…"

"I was thinking of doing that very thing Leon…" Merlin ran inside to consult his books and astrology charts.