Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to its rightful owners.

CHAPTER THREE: PROMISED DAY

SASUKE

"I wish there's a way to know that you're in the good old days before you've actually left them."
- Andy Bernard

"OH, DEAR! WHAT could this mean?" Daisy asked as they all finished reading the letter.

It was the same one the King had left with Pluto. However, this letter contained some rather . . . upsetting information. None of them could believe that the King had just up and left so quickly. Not only that, but he had managed to get away without anyone noticing.

"It means we'll just have to trust the King." Queen Minnie sighed, putting the letter onto the desk. "He knows what's best."

"Gawrsh, I sure hope he's all right," Goofy whispered.

Donald shook his head, and stood up straight. "Your highness. Don't worry. We'll find the King and this 'key.'" Donald said, putting up a brave front.

Queen Minnie smiled. "Thank you, both of you."

"Daisy," Donald started as he looked over at the woman. "Can you take care of—"

She cut him off with a nod . . . almost looking ready for them to leave. "Of course. You be careful now, both of you."

"Oh, and to chronicle your travels, he will accompany you," Queen Minnie announced.

Her hand gestured to something on the desk. Goofy and Donald leaned closer to see what it could have been. As far as they knew, nothing was on the desk besides a lamp and a whole bunch of papers.

"Over here!"

They looked closer to see something in a top hat jumping up and down. Well, no wonder they didn't see him before. It was a small cricket.

Said insect tipped his hat, bowed, and introduced, "Cricket's the name. Jiminy Cricket, at your service."

"We hope for your safe return. Please help the King," Queen Minnie added in.

Donald saluted, waiting for Goofy to do the same. When he didn't hear the sound of the dog's armour clanking together, he turned his head to the left, and saw nothing. Instead, Goofy was standing next to Daisy, waving goodbye to him.

"You're coming, too!" Donald shouted.

He grabbed onto him and pulled him toward the door. There was no way he was going to leave the dog to lounge around the castle while he did all of the hard work. So, sighing in defeat, Goofy followed after his smaller friend. There was no point in fighting. Besides, he knew that Donald was right, anyways.

They headed to the Gummi garage to prepare the ship for their departure. It was located in the castle's basement, blocked off by guarding brooms. Once they were past the guards, they were faced with another delay: the long, winding stairs leading downstairs.

The endless stairs grew tiring after a while. That, they'll admit. But, despite that, they continued to walk.

"Gawrsh, Jiminy, your world disappeared, too?" Goofy asked, as they walked downstairs into the garage.

He was walking a bit behind Donald, who seemed to be growing more and more impatient with each step. Not that he minded. His temper tended to speed things along.

"It was terrible. We were scattered," Jiminy explained from his spot on Goofy's shoulders. He was far too small to walk down the stairs by himself. "And as far as I can see, I'm the only one who made it to this castle."

Donald turned his head to shoot his friend a warning glance. "Goofy?"

"Oh, right! I gotcha. While we're in other worlds, we can't let on where we're from. We gotta protect the world border!"

The duck shook his head and sighed. He had to remind Goofy about the rules or he was sure to forget . . . Which he did.

"Order."

"Right! World order . . ." Goofy laughed it off as they walked down the last few steps.

They went through a long, dimly lit hallway to get to the garage. A golden door shaped like a crown stood in front of them once they got to the end of the hall. Donald was the one to open the door leading into the giant room. Machines, robotic hands, gears, and all sorts of mechanical stuff decorated the garage. There was not a piece of metal in the room that wasn't moving something else.

Donald walked over to a gold speaker, leaned over to talk into it, and shouted, "Hello up there? Donald Duck to launch crew! Anytime you're ready!"

Two, small chipmunks peeked their head through their tower to see the two friends standing there. With a thumbs up, the first one pulled down a red lever. Suddenly, two robotic hands reached down and grabbed Donald and Goofy by the collars of their shirts; Goofy laughed while Donald growled furiously. The hands dropped them into the prepared Gummi Ship, and opened the exit.

"Blast off!" Donald yelled, pointing his finger to the dark tunnel.

They waited for the ship to charge forward . . . only for it to fall down into a tunnel. The both of them screamed loudly as it plummeted lower and lower. Well, this definitely was not how they thought it was going to turn out.

I SAT OUTSIDE on the sand of the main island; the wind blowing through the palm trees surrounding me. It made a lulling, rustling sound to match the crashing waves a few inches away from my feet. Stars twinkled above in the dark sky. It didn't even surprise me when I seen a shooting one. They were common, especially lately where they seemed to fly by every night.

There was nothing interesting to do in my apartment. Nothing but silence filled the small living space. My silver eyes moved to see if there were any constellations in the sky today. I wonder if we'll find my home out there after we leave. In the words of Riku: who knows, I thought, staring at the full moon. Another shooting star shot across the sky as if to answer my question. Maybe we were. It was hard to tell anymore.

I laid on my back, and linked my hands together behind my head. It would have been amazing if we did come across my real home.

I had arrived on Destiny Islands eight years ago when I was six. Ever since I've lived here, every day was filled with the same things. I would wake up, train with Tidus, have a strength contest with Riku that I never won, helped Kairi with whatever she needed me for, played blitzball, find Sora napping in the most ridiculous places, then go home to go to sleep. Repeat. It was getting tiring doing the same thing over and over again. But, hey, wasn't that the reason we all came up with this idea?

Loud crashing brought me out of my thoughts. Sitting up in a sitting position, I glanced around looking to find the source of the noise. Dark clouds were rolling in over the small island where we spent most of our time. I stood up, my fingers absentmindedly brushing over my silver necklace. No good feeling came from this. So, I did the first thing that came to my mind: untied my little row boat and headed over there. This didn't feel right at all.

The waters were choppy. It was hard to row straight with the usually calm waves suddenly picking up. But it was still possible.

"What the hell is that thing?" I whispered, arriving at the front of the island.

The wind was now blowing so hard that it whipped my hair in all directions. My hands raised to block the blowing sand from getting into my eyes. I didn't bother tying my boat up. It just didn't seem like something I needed to do at the moment.

In the air was a large ball of black and purple. Electricity sizzled around it as it spun around in a slow circle, not looking inviting at all.

Something sharp scratched at the back of my leg, leaving behind a burning sting. I looked down to see a hunched over, bug-like monster behind me. Its yellow eyes seemed to glow against its pitch black skin. It didn't walk in a straight line, either. Instead, it was twitching with every step it took.

I inwardly cursed myself for leaving my wooden sword at home while I reached down for a long stick in the sand. It would have to do as a makeshift weapon for now. But, as five new monsters appeared, something told me that it wasn't going to be the least bit useful. Swinging it at the monsters was almost second nature. Though, the stick just went right through them, making my eyes grow wide. Just what was going on here?

"Sasuke!" A voice yelled behind me.

My head turned to see Sora running full speed towards me. Why was he out here? Usually his mother would make him stay in the house at this time of night. Yet, here he was, on the small island in the middle of this mess. He grabbed onto my hand to pull me out of the way before one of the monsters could cut at me. Rather than thanking him, I was still wondering why he was here.

"What are you doing here?" he asked me.

It was hard trying to answer while attempting to run as fast as he was. "I came to see what was going on!"

He led us into the shack that went up to the bridge. That was all that we could do. We couldn't fight them, so there were very limited options. Though, something caught my eye on the way there. My index finger pointed across the bridge to the bunch of silver shining in the distance.

"Sora, wait. It's Riku."

His grip on my hand faltered the tiniest bit. Why was Riku here, too? Why were any of us here? This wasn't the safest place to be right now. Realizing that, Sora dragged me into the shack, up the stairs, and across the bridge with him. I wanted to shake my head. It was a good thing that he was holding onto me because I couldn't sprint around as fast as he was without his help.

The bridge connected the island to an even smaller one that the paopu trees grew out of. Right in the middle stood Riku. His back was facing us as he looked out toward the main land. He was in complete silence . . . almost oblivious to everything happening around us. I looked up at the black mass in the sky, then the black creatures below the bridge. Was it that hard to see what was going on?

"Riku!" Sora called out to the older boy, dropping my hand to take a step forward. "Where's Kairi? Is she not on the main land? Is she with you?"

Riku's head simply tilted up to look at the sky. "The door has opened . . ."

And perhaps it was just me. Perhaps it was the slight paranoia running through my veins. But something in his voice sounded almost . . . happy.

I took a few steps closer to him. "What?"

"The door has opened, Sasuke!" he repeated, turning around to face us. He had one of those sincere, bright smiles on his face. "Now we can go to the outside world!"

He held out a black, gloved-hand for us to grab onto as darkness swirled around his legs. It wrapped itself around his body. Something about it . . . didn't look all too friendly. Even though I had no clue what it was, something told me to stay away. I slowly took a step backwards while Sora ran over to him. He tried so hard to grab onto Riku's hand, but the darkness was keeping him away. The darkness was surrounding the two; it was hard to see anything from where I stood.

"Riku, Sora?" I cupped my hands around my mouth to make sure they would hear me. "Are you guys all right?"

A bright light shone within the darkness; it made the black wisps tear away. It was scaring it off. When the darkness disappeared, only Sora stood in its place. Riku was gone . . . along with the black mist. Sora turned to look back at me. Something was off—that much I could tell. Then, there it was.

There were multiple thoughts running through my head. Like the one telling me to go back home and act like this never happened. Or the one telling me to stick around here. But they all appeared to fade away when I seen what he was holding in his hand. He was holding onto a type of key. It kind of resembled a sword with its silver blade, golden hand guard, and blue grip. It was still a key, though, and there was still a pattern at the end of it, as if it was designed to open a lock.

He was quick to start running again, jumping off of the bridge, and yelling, "Come on!"

I followed him and jumped, too, dodging the monsters that were coming for me. He swung the key at them, and they actually disappeared this time. He was running toward the secret place. However, this was different. Instead of vines blocking the entrance, an elegant, white door sat in their place.

"Let's go."

I shook my head and took a step back. "I don't want to go in there. You go. Find Kairi and meet me out here."

He stared at me as if wondering whether or not he should let me. My eyes narrowed into slits. He should have known better than anyone. If I didn't want to do it, I wasn't going to. There wasn't a thing that he could say or do that was going to make me move. Sighing in defeat, he pulled the doors open. Sora did know—he knew I was a stubborn mess. He gave me a nod and went in, closing the heavy doors behind him.

I didn't know why, but something screamed at me to not go in there. It was just a bad feeling. The last time I didn't follow my gut, I ended up in this situation. A person only makes that dumb mistake once. Maybe four times if you were Sora.

One of the black monsters stared at me, but didn't dare come closer. It was like it knew something was going to happen. I gripped the stick tighter in my hand. What could happen that would cause those things to stay away from me?

BAM

MY EYES SHOT open to find that I was face first in the golden sand. My back was throbbing, but I still managed to sit up and look around. I wasn't even on the ground anymore. A chunk of the island was yanked out of the ground and hoisted into the sky. At least, that's what it looked like. Other than the chunk that I was standing on, there was nothing left of the world we once called home.

Lying beside my head was the stick that I had used to defend myself against the monsters. It glowed a blinding white, making me squint my eyes so that they wouldn't sting, before turning into a key. This one was black and silver, and looked different from Sora's. It was a lot less friendly-looking; chains and spikes made intricate designs on the weapon.

My back hurt way too much for me to fully stand up. Sora must have hit me with the door when he opened it from the inside.

"Sasuke, hide!"

Turning my head, I seen Sora standing at the centre of the floating piece of land, gripping onto his key in a fighting stance. My brows pulled low. Hide from what?

I looked up, my jaw almost dropping when I seen the giant, black monster that stood around seventy feet tall. It had messy, black hair, and a heart-shaped hole in its chest. Its toes were curled upward in a twisted fashion. Oh . . . hide from that.

The monster got on its knees, and darkness filled its empty chest. Sora charged at it and repeatedly attacked its arms with his new key-sword-thing. The monster shot out balls of darkness from its chest; some of them aimed at Sora while most of them were headed towards me.

"Get out of the way!"

I jumped up and grabbed my dark key before moving out of the way. Swinging rapidly at the balls that were coming toward me, my eyes searched for a way out of there. The balls came to a stop before they dissolved into thin air. This key-thing wasn't so bad after all. I moved to help Sora take down the big monster, but a wave of pain shot through my spine. My back really wasn't in the best condition right now.

I did as Sora told me and hid behind a pile of debris while he did all of the work. He was too busy hitting its arm to notice the small monsters creeping up on him. I threw my key at them and they disappeared, causing the sword to land in the ground behind Sora.

He attacked the monster one last time with a powerful hit. It quickly crashed to the ground before getting sucked up into the glowing black and purple orb in the sky. Everything started spinning, getting pulled into the giant mass of darkness.

I sprinted to the key, grabbing it so that it wouldn't get pulled away. Sora clutched onto my foot when his body began to rise into the air. The only thing weighing us down was the key wedged into the ground.

"I'm . . . slipping . . ." Sora grunted, holding onto my high tops as long as he could.

They key loosed—it was going to give any second now. I tried to reach for something else, but my leg suddenly became lighter. Sora had flew into the darkness . . . with my right shoe. I attempted to grab him, but the key came a loose, and I was pulled into the mass right along with him.

I SHOOK MY head as the world came into focus. My body was leaning against the wall of some kind of building. Neon yellow lights lit the town up with signs and whatnot. Where the hell was this?

"Hey, Sasuke, is that you? Are you okay?"

Lifting my pounding head up, Tidus came into view, standing in front of me with a worried expression. My head slowly moved up and down to show that I was fine as I rubbed my aching back. It was hurting even worse now. Tidus held his hand out for me to grab. Locking my grip into his, I used his strength to help me onto my feet. It took a lot just to not doubt over in front of him.

He shot me one of those teasing smiles. "You know, people usually wear two shoes when they go outside."

I looked down at my feet. Indeed, one of my black high tops were missing, leaving me in checkerboard sock.

"Sora took it." I groaned. Tidus raised a blond eyebrow and shook his head. "Where are we, anyways? Are Riku and Kairi here? Is everyone okay? Have you seen Sora? What happened to the islands?"

"Hey, calm down with the questions. I know about as much as you do. We're in this place called Traverse Town. I guess we ended up here after Destiny Islands went missing," the older boy explained.

I stared up at him dumbfounded. What was he talking about? Maybe he had gotten hit on the head with a blitzball too many times. Then again, this wasn't the only time my seventeen-year-old friend made no sense.

"Destiny Islands went missing?" I asked, nothing but pure shock covering my tone.