Deep among the ocean was a small group islands. The first and largest of these islands was a town where many worked and ran. The second island was a playground for many of the kids ran around on the sandy beach. The third island was small, and only held a single palm tree with a yellow star shaped fruit. It is on this second island, a boy slept, his sleep disturbed by strange dreams.

The boy woke up not moments later. He yawned as he briefly opened his blue eyes. He laid down seconds later, his brown, spiky, hair hitting the floor with a plan to fall back asleep and closed his eyes, relaxing on the beach. When he opened his eyes, a girl stood above him. The girl had dark red hair and purple eyes. The boy pushed himself off the ground in shock, narrowly avoiding her head. "Woah!" The girl laughed. "Give me a break Kairi!"

"Sora, you lazy bum. I knew I'd find you snoozing down here," she said. A smile lit up her face as she watched him gather his thoughts for a moment.

"No! This huge black thing swallowed me up!" he said, his voice was panicked as he remembered the suffocating feeling of being drowned in the Darkness after he lost to the strange shadowy monster. "I couldn't breathe, I couldn't-Ow!" He stopped as Kairi flicked him lightly in the head to get his attention.

"Are you still dreaming?"

"It wasn't a dream! Or was it?" Sora sighed. The more he thought about it, the less real it seemed. "I don't know…what was that place? So bizarre."

She laughed, instantly dismissing his strange dream as just that. "Yeah sure."

"Say, Kairi, what was your hometown like?" Sora asked. "You know, where you grew up."

"I've told you before, I don't remember." Kairi was a bit unusual in terms of the residents of the islands, as she wasn't born there nor did she remember where she was from. When she was younger, a lot of the kids were interested in the mystery, but as they got older, she became more of an accepted part of the island and with the exception of a few close friends, not very many people remained interested in this mystery town she once lived in.

"Nothing at all?" He hoped asking her again might prompt a memory. Whether she would ever admit to it or not, Sora could tell Kairi was slightly bothered by the fact that she knew nothing of who she was before the islands, especially about her birth family.

"Nothing," she said.

"You ever want to go back?" Sora asked.

Kairi seemed to pause for a moment before answering. "Well, I'm happy here."

"Really…" He was disappointed. Helping Kairi find her home was one of the excuses they told their parents for their great adventure they were planning. If Kairi had no interest, he doubted he'd be able to get away with it forever.

"But you know…I wouldn't mind going to see it," she said as though she sensed his disappointment. He perked up.

"I'd like to see it too," Sora said. "Along with any other worlds out there! I'd like to see 'em all!"

"So what are we waiting for?" she asked. It was definitely a journey they were both excited for.

"Aren't you guys forgetting about me?" A boy walked up to the two, this one with silver hair. His light blue eyes were amused even though his voice feigned hurt. He walked by and tossed the log at Sora, knocking him back to the ground. "And you're just as lazy as he is." He pointed to Kairi.

She giggled. "So you noticed. Okay, we'll finish it together. I'll race you!"

"Huh?" Sora looked at her in confusion.

"What, are you kidding?" the other boy asked.

"Ready! Go!" she shouted and the boys both leapt up at her call. Their longer legs allowed them to cover the distance faster, but it still wasn't all that long until they arrived at the other side of the island where a bunch of logs sat. The boy went over to the logs while Sora stood in front of Kairi.

"So, can you gather the rest of the supplies?" Kairi asked. She noticed Sora's lack of response and snapped her fingers in front of his face.

"Huh, what?" he looked at Kairi in surprise. She sighed.

"Sora, were you even listening to me?"

"Yeah, I heard you," he said.

"Okay, here's what you need to find: two logs, one cloth, and one rope," she listed each other materials off one by one. "Bring everything back here. If you need any help, just ask. I'm counting on you."

"Okay, see you Kairi." Sora ran off from the shack and started walking towards the cove area of the island.

"Hey Sora!" a girl with light brown hair in a yellow dress walked up to him.

"Hey Selphie, what's going on?" he asked.

"Not a lot. Hey, wanna spar?" Selphie asked.

"Can't, I've gotta find supplies for the raft, Kairi's orders." He smiled.

"Aw, your no fun," Selphie pouted, "but okay. If you need any rope, I think Tidus has some up in the tree house."

"See you Selph!" He continued on his way up a ladder and into a wooden platform. A blond boy was there practicing with a wooden sword.

"Hey Sora! Bet you can't beat me this time!" the boy said as he noticed Sora's entry.

"Kairi sent me looking for supplies, and I was told some rope would be here," Sora said.

"I do have some! Tell you what, beat me and I'll give it to you!" the boy, presumably Tidus, said.

"You're on!" Sora jumped down the ladder and onto the ground, followed by the boy and they walked onto the sand of the beach. Off to the side, Selphie, another boy, and the silver haired boy stood watching the battle.

Tidus started off by slashing at Sora with a wooden sword. Sora lifted up his own in defense before knocking Tidus back and using a quick strike of his own to knock him back further. Tidus charged at him again, but rather than hitting him he ran past him to behind Sora, where he hit him with the sword. Sora turned around with his own sword and once more gave a quick slash and hit Tidus again. He threw the sword a final time, knocking Tidus off his feet and onto the ground.

The sword is definitely better than the shield, Sora thought as he offered his hand to Tidus. Tidus grabbed his hand and smiled.

"Thought I'd get you this time, here's your rope." Tidus climbed up back into the tree house after handing Sora the rope.

He looked around the island for a couple more minutes before walking over to the other side where a couple of logs were strangely lying around. He walked over to the shore and picked up a piece of cloth with hope it was big enough for what Kairi wanted.

"Hey Sora!" the silver haired boy called him from the smallest island, leaning back against a palm tree.

"Riku!" Sora waved and ran over quickly. "What are you doing?"

"I finished most of the raft, so I figured I'd take a break," he said. "Since you appear to be done, I figured you could use the challenge."

"I'll win this time!" Sora and Riku had been competing against each other for as long as they'd known each other, and they were always rivals. Sora was currently three down to Riku's wins.

"We'll see." Riku picked up a wooden sword from the ground before getting off the Paopu tree. He lifted up his sword so it was raised above his head and charged. Unlike with Tidus, Sora barely had enough time to life his sword up to guard against the attack. He found himself pushed back several inches before Riku finally relented in the strike, giving Sora time to retaliate. Riku blocked his strike with a move that had very little effort and pushed back on Sora. Sora ran up again, this time managing to hit Riku.

Riku wasn't even knocked off balance however, as he lunged at Sora, unconcerned with the strike that had just hit him. Sora lifted up his sword again, however was pushed back even further near the edge of the island. Sora rolled out of the way of another strike that was aimed at him, causing Riku to nearly fall in the water.

"Nice trick," Riku said with a smile. Sora hadn't meant to trick him, but smiled back considering it meant he had a chance. He charged against Riku one last time, this strike actually putting him in the ocean. "Okay! I surrender!" Although his tone remained cheerful, his eyes darkened.

"Yeah! I win!" Sora cheered.

"Good job Sora!" Somewhere in the middle of the fight, Kairi had walked over to them to watch. "Did you finish gathering supplies like I asked?"

"Yup!" Sora pulled out each of the items.

"Thanks Sora! We'll finish up the raft tomorrow," she said and looked to Riku. "You did good too Riku."

"He only got lucky," Riku said before leaning back against the tree. Kairi's eyes narrowed slightly in confusion, but she didn't comment.

"Well, since we found everything and we don't have to go back until dark, we should watch the sunset here tonight!" Kairi jumped onto the tree.

"Sounds great," Sora said before jumping onto the tree as well.

"Are you two going to actually help with construction tomorrow or am I going to be left alone to do that too?" Riku asked.

"We'll help!"

"Yeah, we all want to see the other worlds, especially Kairi's!" Sora said before looking at Riku and Kairi. "Kairi's home is out there somewhere, right?"

"Could be, we'll never know by staying here," Riku said.

"But how far could a raft take us?" Sora asked.

"Who knows? If we have to, we'll think of something else," Riku said.

"So, suppose you get to another world. What would you do there?" Kairi asked. Her answer was obvious, at least to Sora, she had to find her lost family and learn about her home world. He wanted to explore everywhere, but that never really explained why Riku wanted to go.

"Well, I haven't really thought about it," Riku said. "It's just... I've always wondered why we're here on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one? And suppose there are other worlds... Then ours is just a little piece of something much greater. So we could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?

Sora lay down on the tree. "I don't know."

"That's why we need to go out there!" Riku's voice grew determined. "Just sitting here won't change a thing. It's the same old stuff! So let's go."

"You've been thinking a lot, haven't you?" Kairi asked. She seemed almost saddened by Riku's statement.

"Thanks to you. If you hadn't come here, I probably would've never thought of this," he said and smiled at her. "Kairi, thanks."

"You're welcome," she said. "It's going to be dark soon. We should head back."

"I guess…" Sora said. Kairi jumped off the tree first to head back to the docks. Sora went to follow her example, but was stopped by Riku.

"Sora," he said. A star shaped yellow fruit was tossed in his direction. "You wanted one, didn't you?"

"A paopu fruit…" he looked at it in confusion.

"If two people share one, their destinies become intertwined. They'll be a part of each other's lives no matter what." Riku repeated the legend that was famous among the islanders about the star shaped fruit. "C'mon, I know you want to try it."

"What are you talking-" Sora stopped as Riku walked by and laughed. He looked at the fruit for another moment, briefly thinking of Kairi before tossing it away. It was possible he had feelings for Kairi that went beyond friendship, but he hadn't actually thought of sharing the paopu fruit with her before.

-x-

In another world different than the one our protagonist lives on, a man wearing green with overalls was walking back to his house after a successful trip to the nearby town. "Big bro! I'm back!" The man shouted. "Still no news on the missing princesses, but-" he paused as on the table was a note addressed to Luigi. He picked up the note. "Off on some adventure without me aga-" he stopped as he read the contents before panicking.

"Princess! Princess!" He ran through the streets of the nearby town. He didn't pay attention to any of the mushroom residents and ran straight up to the castle at the head. As though by habit, he ran straight into the throne room.

"Luigi?" A woman dressed in pink stood up from her throne. Her blue eyes shone with worry over the man.

"Princess! It's horrible! Mario's gone!" Luigi said.

"Does that mean he found out where Daisy and Rosalina disappeared off to?" the princess asked.

"No I mean he's gone as in left the Mushroom Kingdom!" Luigi explained and handed her the letter. "Come on, we've got to go before-"

"Gwar har har! Mario, missing? I can't believe my luck that I chose today to capture Princess Peach!" A giant turtle entered the room through the front.

"No way! Just cause my bro isn't around doesn't mean you can capture the princess!" Luigi jumped in front of her.

"Hang on Luigi, Bowser might be able to help us," Peach said. "You will help us, especially since I plan on going to find Mario."

"Why would I help with that?" Bowser growled at her.

"Because the mission Mario left for will require your help and mine," Peach said. "Otherwise none of us could be around for much longer."

"But-"

"At least hear us out, please, for me?" Peach asked.

"Fine, but only because you asked," Bowser grumbled and sat on the floor of the throne room to listen to what the princess had to say.