Kyrie (c) Me

Kingdom Hearts characters/some of the story (c) Square Enix

Kingdom Hearts

Bonded Soul

Chapter 31

"How is Sandy Claws supposed to relax with all this going on?" Jack asked as the five stood in the middle of the square. Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Kyrie looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders before he snapped his fingers, looking at the four.

"That's it, fellows and Kyrie! Sandy Claws needs bodyguards. Are you up to the task?" he asked. Donald, Goofy, and Kyrie jumped. They had not expected Jack to ask such an outrageous question.

"Us?" Donald asked. Sora nodded enthusiastically, ignoring the looks the others were giving him.

"Yeah." He answered immediately. Donald placed his hands on his hips and tapped his foot, frustrated at Sora's enthusiasm. Kyrie followed suit, crossing her arms as she glared at him.

"Sora, you never think things over! You're such a kid." she thought. Jack grinned at Sora's answer before turning, waving in a 'follow me' gesture as he began walking.

"All right, bodyguards!" he called. Sora followed the eager skeleton while Donald and Kyrie followed grudgingly behind, not able to hold their ground against Sora's childish nature. Goofy smiled from behind them, he was more than happy to follow Sora, wherever the boy went.

"Christmas Town is this way! The doorway is in the woods just past the graveyard!" he continued, pointing beyond the town. Kyrie gave a sigh, maybe now was the time to ask them who Santa Claus was and what Christmas was all about.

"Better now then later, when we have to meet the man himself." she thought. With that, she pulled out her notebook and ran past the group, stopping a few feet in front of them, her feet planted firmly on the ground. They gave her confused looks, wondering why she was stopping them.

"What's wrong, Kyrie?" Goofy asked. Kyrie quickly held up one finger before writing down in her notebook.

Who is this "Santa Claus" that you all keep talking about? And what is "Christmas" exactly?

"What? You don't know who Sandy Claws is? Or Christmas?" Jack asked, astounded. Sora came to her defense immediately, placing a hand on Jack's arm as he did so.

"Kyrie lost her memories before we met her, so she wouldn't remember who Santa was and what Christmas is. She didn't even know what Halloween was when we first got here, so we had to explain it to her." he explained. Jack seemed taken aback as he looked at the white-haired girl in front of him.

"Oh…"

"Kyrie, Christmas is a holiday, like Halloween. But on Christmas, you don't scare people and get candy like you do on Halloween. On Christmas, you give and get presents from other people, like family and friends. You also get presents from Santa Claus, who travels all over the worlds to give presents to good kids." Sora explained. Kyrie nodded and allowed them to pass, seeming pleased with the answer. As they made their way to the Hinterlands, the group continued to explain all of the holiday traditions to her, like kissing under the mistletoe or decorating houses with lights and other decorations.

Kyrie was like a child, taking all of this information in and constantly asking/writing more questions. Jack was more than happy to explain more to the girl, like a teacher was to a new student. Sora allowed him to do so, with him, Donald, and Goofy adding some input from time to time.

"Wow…Christmas sounds like a wonderful holiday. I can see why Jack loves it so much." Kyrie thought as they walked, finally allowing the group a break from explaining things to her. The group wandered into a clearing where there were many trees, and one tree stood alone in the center of the clearing. It had a door in it, that resembled what Sora explained as a "Christmas tree". Kyrie stared at the door curiously as Jack began to ramble on.

"Here it is! The door to Christmas Town. The spooks of Halloween can get so tiresome year after year. I wanted something new. And I found this!" he explained, pointing to the tree. Sora leaned in towards the door, his hands on his knees, looking at the door with a mixture of happiness and excitement on his face. Kyrie smiled gently at the expression on the boy's face, it was endearing to her.

"Beyond this door is a world filled with wonders the likes of which you've never seen!" Jack continued, snapping the two of them back into reality as they looked at him. "At first I couldn't believe my eyes! Everything was so fresh and exciting!"

"C'mon! Just open it!" Sora cried, his excitement getting the better of him. Donald and Goofy looked anxious too, as if they were going to bust through the door in five seconds if Jack didn't open it. Truth be told, Kyrie was excited too, but not in the same way they were. She was more excited about learning more about the holiday itself. Jack nodded as he opened the door, allowing Sora, Donald, and Goofy to jump in. Kyrie hesitated, looking down into the darkness apprehensively. Jack caught this, and smile at her.

"There's nothing to be afraid of, you won't get hurt in any way, shape, or form. Now, ladies first." and with that, he gave her a little push, causing her to jump and fall in. With that, he jumped too, closing the door behind him.

-Yuletide Hill-

Kyrie fell and landed on something soft and squishy. But when that soft and squishy thing gave a groan, she jumped and got off, Donald, Goofy, and Sora in a dog pile beneath her. She ducked, nearly avoiding Jack as he followed after them, but unlike Sora and the others, he landed perfectly on his feet. After untangling each other from the pile, they stood and looked over the beautiful sight that lay below them.

"Wow…it's so beautiful. I have to draw this later, when all of this is said and done." Kyrie thought as she stared. The town was alight with many Christmas lights and covered in holly, candy canes, and other Christmas decorations. Nothing but glistening snow covered the ground, making Kyrie shiver a little from the cold.

"So where's Santa?" Donald asked as he looked around. Jack chuckled as he patted the duck on the head, before pointing to one of the larger buildings in town.

"In his workshop." He answered. Then he turned to the others, smiling brightly at them. "Shall we?" he asked. Sora and Donald nodded eagerly as they followed the bony man into town, Kyrie and Goofy standing alone for a few minutes as they watched them go. Goofy was about to follow, but stopped when he noticed Kyrie's hesitation.

"You sure you wanna come? We'd understand if you don't." Goofy asked. She gave a small nod, she wanted to come. But she wasn't sure about seeing Santa.

"Maybe he can give me answers, since he knows everyone's names and whether they've been naughty or nice. Maybe he knows something about me that I don't." she thought. She began to walk, making Goofy smile as he followed after her. Once they caught up with Sora and the others, the five began walking into town, when a group of heartless appeared. Startled, they jumped back as they summoned their weapons.

"Here too?" Sora cried. Kyrie nodded as she held her keyblades tightly, she wasn't at all surprised at the appearance of the heartless in Christmas town. She would've been more surprised if no heartless appeared in town.

"En garde, loyal bodyguards!" Jack cried. The group nodded as they ran in, engaging the heartless in combat. Kyrie had to duck when a toy-like heartless ran at her, knives raised as it slashed at her wildly. Using her keyblades to deflect it, she jumped back and summoned her shield, stopping the heartless and taking this opportunity to cut it down. After a few minutes, the boys had the heartless cleared and joined Kyrie as she stood by the carrousel, taking out one last heartless as it rebounded off of the carrousel, disappearing almost instantly.

"Christmas is in big trouble!" Donald spoke, his voice grim. Goofy nodded in agreement.

"Gawrsh, we can't let anything bad happen to Christmas." He agreed. Kyrie and Sora nodded in agreement before Jack walked forward, pointing to the largest building in town.

"That's where Sandy Claws lives." He called. Sora and Donald were gone in a flash, nearly knocking Kyrie off her feet as she stumbled, Goofy and Jack catching her before she could hit the ground.

"Sorry, Kyrie!" the two called as they got to the door. She huffed before shaking her head, a smile on her face. She really couldn't get mad at them, since they had such adorable looks on their faces.

"Besides, I can't blame them. I'm a little excited, too." she thought as they walked to the door. Sora knocked on the door, and after a moment or two, the door opened to reveal a tiny person. An elf.

The elf looked at them in confusion before spotting Jack towering over them, making him sigh.

"Please come in, Jack Skellington and company. Santa's in the living room, looking over his list." the little elf explained. Sora and Donald were the first through the door, Goofy and Jack following close behind. Kyrie was the last through as the elf closed the door, stopping to kneel and shake his hand in thanks before following the group into the living room. The room was decorated with many lights and little candy canes and whatnot, a big tree in one corner of the room, and a large couch where a very large man with a white beard dressed in red sat. She stared.

"This is Santa Claus? Hm…he does match the description Sora and the other's gave…" she thought as she looked him over. The man was currently looking over a large roll of paper that was halfway unfurled, the rest of it sitting on the floor a five feet away from him. Looking up, he spotted the group as they stared at him in awe.

"Well, hello everyone. Did you come to see if you're on my 'nice' list?" he asked, his voice kind. Sora nodded nervously and hesitated.

"Your name?" Santa asked, looking at Sora.

"Um, Sora, sir." He answered, nervous. The man looked the list over, speaking as he did so.

"Well according to my list, Sora, seven years ago you told everyone you did not believe in Santa Claus. Oh, that is unfortunate." He spoke, causing Sora to blush brightly and sigh sadly. Kyrie quickly placed her hands on his shoulders, trying her best to cheer him up. Donald looked almost smug before turning to Santa.

"How about Donald and Goofy?" he asked. The man looked his list over before looking at them, nodding. This caused the duck to jump up and down happily, before Santa turned his attention to Kyrie.

"How about you, young lady? What is your name?" he asked. Kyrie jumped and hesitated, before Goofy stepped in.

"Her name is Kyrie, Mr. Santa Claus, sir. She can't talk, so I'll ask you in her place." he explained. Kyrie shot him a grateful look before Santa looked at her, eyebrows raised.

"Kyrie, you say? My, I haven't seen that name on my list in over eleven years. The last girl who had that name disappeared, and she was only seven or eight years old…" he spoke, making the others look at the girl in confusion.

"Eleven years? Kyrie…what happened to you?" Sora asked. She stood there silently before Donald began to berate him.

"Sora, she can't remember what happened to her! Remember?" he quacked. Sora blushed a little and mumbled an apology before Kyrie pulled out her notebook and pen. There was one thing she needed to ask Santa.

Mr. Santa Claus, I lost my memory some time back and right now I'm trying to find out who I was. Can you perhaps…tell me about the girl who had my name last? Maybe she might be me. Please?

The man looked her words over, stroking his long beard as he did so.

"Hm…very well. Maybe you are her, and since you asked so nicely, I'll tell you. The girl who had your name last lived in Hollow Bastion, with her family. She had her grandfather and parents, but when she turned seven, her parents were killed. Her last Christmas before she disappeared, she had only one thing that she asked for, but it was something that I couldn't give her. I felt badly for her that year, because that was the only thing she wished for. And then, she disappeared." he explained. She nodded and wrote more.

What was that one wish? What did she want?

"Well…" he hesitated, not sure how to continue without hurting her feelings. But after looking into her brown, pleading eyes, he continued. "She wanted her parents back. She wanted her family to be whole again, but unfortunately, I can only give material things. I can't bring people back to life." he finished. The room went silent as his words died away, before Kyrie clutched her notebook tightly over her chest.

"That was all I wanted? To see my parents again?" she thought sadly, the feeling of her heart being torn in two. She didn't remember who they were, but from some of the dreams and visions she had, she could only guess that they loved her very, very much. And that she, in return, loved them the same. Heat began to build up behind her eyes, making her close them tightly. She felt a hand on her shoulder, but didn't dare to see who it was.

"Kyrie? You okay?" she heard Sora ask. She quickly shook her head, before turning and heading towards one of the doors. She didn't want them to see her cry, she had to try and be strong.

"Kyrie, wait-" but she closed the door quickly, cutting the voice off. She heard muffled voices, one of them telling Sora to leave her be. Walking into the snow, she slumped, sitting on the cold, snow-covered ground and pulling her knees to her chest, burying her head into her knees. She allowed the tears to fall, since she was now alone.

"I wish I could remember…I hate not being able to remember anything! I want to remember them, I want to remember everything! No matter how painful those memories are…I could live with them. I could." she thought as she sat there, crying. Suddenly, Axel's words came back to her, making her pull her head up and stare at the night sky.

"Hey, it's all gonna be okay. Just take your time, and we'll help you through it. Don't forget, Roxas and Xion lost their memories of their somebody's life too. So we'll just take it one step at a time, and you'll remember everything eventually."

She stared at the sky for a moment, a few more tears falling down her cheeks as she did so. Then hope blossomed inside her, causing her to smile sadly and brush a few tears away.

"Axel…thank you."

Well, that's the end of this chapter. Hopefully, I'll have the Halloweentown part of this story done by the time Christmas eve comes. Anyways, enjoy!

And please, I hate repeating this but...read and review!