Kyrie (c) Me

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

Kingdom Hearts

Bonded Soul

Chapter 47

"Mulan!" Kyrie thought as she ran towards the young woman, waving her arms wildly as she did so. Hearing the crunching of snow, the woman turned and smiled as she spotted a familiar face.

"Oh, Kyrie! It's you!" she exclaimed as the two hugged. The two quickly pulled apart as Kyrie pulled out her notebook.

How've you been, Mulan? And why are you here?

"I'm great! But I'm here because there are rumors of a spy in black lurking around the mountains. I've been trying to catch him, and just now I almost did! But he got away…" she explained. Kyrie nodded sympathetically as she wrote more.

Well, let's look for him together. Two sets of eyes are much better than one.

Inside, Kyrie didn't want to find the man in black because he was after her, but she couldn't turn down a friend in distress. And with Mulan with her, the man wouldn't stand a chance against them. Mulan smiled.

"Right."

-A little while later-

Both girls had been searching high and low within the burned out village, but there was still no sign of the black-hooded man. But then they got to the exit of the village that led to the mountain summit, they spotted three familiar figures as they ran after something.

"Sora!" Mulan called. The boy stopped and turned to her as she and Kyrie ran to meet him. But once he spotted Kyrie, his eyes widened.

"Kyrie!" at this, Donald and Goofy turned as well.

"Kyrie?" the next thing she knew, she was being tackled by Sora, Donald, and Goofy, who were hugging the living daylights out of her.

"You're okay!" Goofy cried. She smiled and hugged them back, glad to see them again. But they pulled away quickly, turning to Mulan.

"Mulan, hey. No time to talk. We gotta catch that guy!" Sora explained. Mulan nodded.

"I'm following him, too!" she explained. At this, Donald waved his arm at them.

"Then let's go!" he exclaimed, pointing to the path to the summit. The group nodded as they took off across the snow, hot on the pursuit of the mysterious cloaked man. As they got closer to the summit, they could see the perpetrator's footprints in the snow, a clear sign that he was just straight ahead.

"Maybe when we catch him, he'll tell us why he's after me. But I think…I know the answer already." Kyrie thought as she ran. Remembering the events that happened in the digital Twilight town, she grimaced.

"DiZ. He's still after me. I think that's why." she thought with a nod. When they got to the mountain summit however, the man was nowhere to be found. Mulan sighed.

"Looks like he got away." She sighed. At this Goofy turned to her.

"How come you're after somebody from Organization XIII?" he asked. At this, she raised her eyebrows at him.

"What is that?" she asked. Kyrie resisted the urge to face palm, but then again, it would be normal that Mulan didn't know who Organization XIII was.

"The guy in black." Sora explained. Donald nodded.

"One of the bad guys!" he added. At this, Mulan smirked as she placed her hands on her hips.

"I knew it. There's a rumor in the Imperial City about a spy in black, lurking in the mountains. I'd been up here tracking him, but when you arrived, I lost him." She explained. The three bowed their heads sadly.

"Sorry." Goofy mumbled apologetically. But she shook her head.

"Don't apologize. But I do wonder where he went." She spoke as she looked around. But a sudden noise caught their attention as they looked up, to see hordes of heartless at the top of the mountain. Kyrie groaned silently.

"This again? Didn't we have to go through this when Shan Yu was around?" she thought with a growl as she summoned her keyblades. Donald groaned.

"Again?"

"Okay, first things first!" Sora called as the horde of heartless began to charge. The group began to charge as well, but Sora stopped, making Kyrie turned and gasp. There stood the hooded man who worked for DiZ staring at them. Sora growled.

"Hey, you! Quit sneakin' around!" he growled. But the man simply summoned his weapon, not once uttering a word to the boy. Kyrie shook her head and focused on the heartless in front of her, Sora could take care of himself, she didn't need to help him. The heartless were fairly easy to dispatch compared to their comrades back in Hollow Bastion, and before long, they were all destroyed. Turning her attention back to Sora, she spotted the boy as he ran towards the ridge.

"Are you okay, Sora?" Donald asked as they approached the boy. Goofy looked over Kyrie's shoulder to get a better look of the boy, worry clear on his features.

"Did ya get 'im?" he asked. Sora was quiet for a few moments, before answering.

"Hmm… Oh…he's gone." He answered. Donald growled as he began jumping up and down.

"What? You lost him?" he exclaimed. But Sora quickly looked around, ignoring the duck's ranting and raving.

"Anyway… What now?" he asked. The group was silent for a few minutes before Goofy spoke up.

"I think that we better get rid of all of the Heartless first." He suggested. Kyrie nodded in agreement.

"Yes, the heartless should be our number one priority." she thought in agreement. But suddenly, the mountain began to shake and rumble, causing the group to cry out in alarm.

"Come on, we better get off the mountain." Mulan ordered. Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Kyrie nodded in agreement as the group began to run down the mountain. But once they got to the ridge, another large earthquake shook the mountain, causing Kyrie to slip in the snow. But because the snow was so slippery, she began to slide towards the edge of the cliff.

"Kyrie!" Sora cried as he ran after her. Just as she was about to plummet, she summoned her Lost Memory keyblade and stabbed it into the cliffside, lodging it in the rock and saving herself from falling. But before Sora and the others could pull her up, something shot out of the mountain, hovering over the ridge as it looked down at them. It looked like a large, blue dragon with fan-like wings. But the familiar heartless insignia was visible on its torso. With one last look, it took off towards the imperial palace. Sora and Goofy quickly pulled Kyrie up, just as Mulan pointed.

"It's heading for the city! We've got to warn Shang!" she exclaimed. The group nodded in agreement as they continued on, running through the burned out village, the mountain path, and then the checkpoint. Soon, they were at the palace.

"Huh? Everything's fine." Sora stated as they looked around, not a heartless to be seen. But a familiar gruff voice spoke up, causing them to turn.

"Well, now… Look who decided to show up." Yao said as he approached the group, with Ling and Chien-Po at his sides.

"What? Is that a problem?" Donald asked, raising an eyebrow. But Ling shook his head.

"Nah!"

"We're just glad you're not in black cloaks." Chien-Po added. Mulan gasped.

"You saw him?" she asked. The three men nodded as they pointed to the palace doors.

"Yeah…he's in the palace." Yao answered. With that the group took off, not wanting to waste any time. When they got to the palace doors, Sora and the group began to bang their fists on them, trying to get them to open.

"Open up!" he cried. But the doors remained shut as Mulan looked around, before eyes landed on a large pillar.

"Over here!" she called to the boys. They looked over before Donald ran over, jumping on the pillar and clamping on as he began to climb like a spider. Goofy and Sora followed suit, and Mulan was the last to go. Kyrie waited on the bottom, looking at the pillar anxiously.

"I don't think I can climb this…but I have to try." she thought. With that, she jumped on, but fell off almost immediately.

"Are you okay?" she heard Sora called as he and Mulan stopped to look at her. She nodded and got to her feet, trying again. But because of her long skirt, she couldn't get the proper footing needed to climb up the pillar. Growling in frustration, she walked over to the palace doors and summoned her white kingdom key, before pointing it.

"Get me in to the other side." she thought. The keyblade lit up immediately, shooting out and creating a corridor of light. Sora and Mulan watched with wide eyes as she passed through, before it disappeared from behind her. They looked at each other.

"How did she do that?"

-Once inside-

Kyrie sighed in relief as she exited her light corridor, relieved that she was inside the palace instead of somewhere else.

"At least I know I'm getting better at this." she thought with a smile. Hearing a thump, she looked up and spotted Donald, Goofy, Sora, and Mulan as they finished climbing up the pillar. With that they jumped down, with Donald losing his footing and landing on his side, causing her to giggle silently. With that they looked ahead, spotting a cloaked figure standing in front of the doors that led to the emperor's throne room.

"Wait!" Mulan called as they got closer, causing the figure to cringe. Kyrie knew who it was immediately, because only one person in the organization had a body posture like that.

"Xigbar!" she thought happily. But Sora quickly took a step forward, curiosity clear on his features.

"…Riku?" he asked. But the figure turned, pulling down his hood to reveal scars, graying hair, and an eye patch. Kyrie's smile grew.

"I knew it, it was Xigbar!" she thought. Xigbar shrugged his shoulders at the boy. "No. Never heard of him." But just as he said that, numerous sniper nobodies appeared, allowing the freeshooter a chance to escape as he opened a dark corridor.

"Hey Angel, lookin' good!" he called as he ran, making her giggle a little at his comment. But she quickly turned her attention to the sniper nobodies as they gathered, weapons at the ready.

"Time to take out the trash."

...I can't think of anything to say today. Oh well. Please review!