(Disclaimer: Look in first chapter)

Long Time No See

"Mmmm…" The sound of emptiness was what I could hear as I rhymed a hum. My legs were sprawled out on a flat hard surface where my body faced, just now waking up from a snooze. My eyes blinked slowly. I leaned up on my hands and brought one to touch my forehead, a strange sensation within me.

"What…?"

It was dark and occupied of only me from what I could see. "What the hell? Where am I?"

Anticipation rose as I finally decided to stand up. There was nothing I could see, not even a light in neither direction. The blood in my veins pumped faster and faster, starting to feel rather hot. "Uhm…h-hello!" No reply but the sound of my echoes that spoke back. I placed my hand on my hip while my eyebrows contorted with thought.

"What is going on? Wait a sec…"

My mind just started to recall what happened in little fragments. Twilight Town…Heartless…Axel…that's all I remember. My eyes widened.

I passed out!

My breathing became a little heavy, not knowing what to do at this point. I started to look back forth. There's no where for me to go, but I can't just stay her. Sadness came over me like a blanket of gloom, what do I do?

Suddenly out of nowhere, a voice loud as a thunder came up in the darkness that disrupted me from my sad dilemma. "Deonna…"

"Ah!" My body jumped with a yelp of surprise. I wrapped my arms around myself feeling bare of nothing.

"What-wh-what the…!"

"Please do not be afraid." The voice spoke again, this time realizing the voice was gentle enough to take ear. "Uhhh…" My heart was beating so fast that it could have hammered its way out of me. I wiped my forehead quickly of sweat and started to feel that I should speak up with my primary question. "I-uh- who are you? Where am I?"

"Please do not be afraid," the voice said, "for you are in your awakening."

My awakening?

From that word, light and movement illuminated from under me as I shielded my eyes from the shock. After the feeling of inanimate objects disappeared, I unshielded myself. Wait… I looked above me to see a school of birds flying ahead of me in one direction, the same scene I've envisioned in my dream. I looked back down, trying to adjust the sight of bright light in my eyes. My eyes finally adjusted after a few moments, so I rubbed them to see faces of people I've never seen before, and a few who I knew just with one look; they were all in a circle separate from each other as I stood on one. There was a boy with spiky brown hair and blue eyes with a genuine smile on his face; one who was another boy with silver long hair who shown a small grin and blue eyes. What surprised me was that I saw Axel's face in one of the circular panels with a smile. Axel. My feet walked further up to see a friend of mine who I haven't seen in a long time, since the darkness took over the island a few years ago; she had brown hair that was uneven on either sides with a smile plastered on her face. Jian. I saw a guy with brown skin, blue eyes and white colored hair in a panel as well; never seen him before. There was my sister in the middle of all of them with that cute grin of hers. "Kris…"

Is this a dream…just like the dreams I've been having…?

I looked on my right and saw a brown-skinned girl that looked like she was elongated on the entire platform, overlapping a few of the panels; she almost looked like me, holding a keyblade in her hand, sleep. "Wait that is me!"

The voice spoke again. "It is you."

My eyes directed me to look upwards toward the darkness that was still sparse above, even though light gave it a matte presence. "Why am I here? Who are you?"

"I am Kingdom Hearts and you are here so I can tell you of the journey ahead of you." I felt my heart stop. Kingdom Hearts was the heart of all the worlds.

Kingdom Hearts!

My eyes just gazed ahead, not looking at anything really. My mouth couldn't produce any words at that moment. My legs gave way to the ground as I felt my head spinning. "This gotta' be a dream," my hands rose up to my forehead in perplexity, "this can't be real. Yes I've definitely gone insane."

The voice spoke yet again. "But this is very well real. I advise that you listen to what I say for the time that you have here." I shook my head, trying to shake off the dubious feelings I was presenting to Kingdom Hearts and give it my undivided attention, despite how confused and edgy I was. I got up off the shiny surface, wondering what Kingdom Hearts would say. Kingdom Hearts spoke up again. "I know you are on a far-off journey to find your long-lost sister who has disappeared from your sight."

At that, I got the urge to speak up. "My sister? You know where she is?" My fists tightened.

"The only way for you to find her is to follow the spirit of your heart."

"The spirit of my heart?" Wow, I never knew Kingdom Hearts would be so poetic-like...

"The spirit of your heart, listen to it and follow it, for that is the way you will find all the answers you look for."

All the answers huh?

"Look," Kingdom Hearts began, "the faces who you know and who you have not seen before, you must find them."

"Find them…?"

"Yes, for if you find them not only will they be helping you, but you will be helping them as well."

I nodded. "Uh huh." My eyes stared down at the faces that illuminated with huge keenness. They will help me…and I will help them…in what way? I walked up to the panel where Axel's face was in. I looked down at him and put my finger on my chin, starring at him with thought. Well, Axel is helping me in a way, to find my sister. I am also helping him to find his heart…wow aren't I a genius…

"Deonna," Kingdom Hearts spoke, waking me up from my train of thought. "The major thing you must accomplish is to find the 'key'."

"The 'key'?"

"Yes. It is but a mere boy whose name means 'sky', who journeys the worlds locking keyholes from the darkness of heartless." The voice paused. "He, to, is searching for the answers he look for, but in order for him to complete his mission, you must find him and help him, for he will help you to."

"Oookay," I said as I elongated the 'O' part. "What is his name?"

"Your heart will know once you encounter him." I moaned and looked down feeling empty. Why won't Kingdom Hearts just tell me? I brought my head back up, wanting to get a clearer answer on the matter. "So the only way for me to find my sister and my friend's heart is to find the boy whose name means 'sky'?"

"You will find your sister with the spirit of your heart, as well as him."

"How? How do I follow the spirit of my heart?" I didn't mean to sound demanding, but I just couldn't help myself. There was a few seconds of silence, which made me feel even worse. Kingdom Heart spoke again. "You must listen to it and follow what you believe is right. Don't believe what others might say otherwise. Believe in yourself, and in that you will find. For a great calamity is on the horizon of existing worlds.

Calamity?

"The Keyblade will help you conquer this darkness, but first, you must find the people who will soon become friend of yours." My eyes narrowed. The people I don't know… I looked down at the two boys, who I might eventually encounter soon. I'll find them with the spirit of my heart and my sister…but wait.

"Darkness?" I looked up, "what darkness?"

"You will soon encounter this challenging foe and it might be quite difficult, but with the great experiences you encounter, you are likely to achieve." After that sentence, the light from the platform began to illuminate more brightly, even more than the sun. "Ahh!" I threw my arms over my eyes. Then the voice of Kingdom Hearts came up enchantingly in my ears.

"Follow the spirit of your heart child, then you will have nothing to fear."

The ground was hard and felt narrow in comparison to myself. My body was on the ground, yet again, this time with a rugged feel. My eyes opened and found that I was exposed to the sky in a way that appeared that I was in the atmosphere. The sun's radiance glimmered on the concrete parapet that shielded me from seeing its light head on. I sat up using my hands, trying to regain what just happened to me from the encounter of being in a dream-like space. "Mmmmm…" I moaned as I closed my eyes. What happened…did I pass out again?

I rubbed my eyes and removed unwanted waste. I sat up further, only to bump up against a hard figure that was at my side. My eyes opened as I turned my upper body to the left to see Axel with a grin. "Ah good morning sleeping beauty!"

A groan came forth as I closed my eyes again.

"Axel…"

"You sleep well? I hope you did because I had to defeat all the heartless by myself," he said as if that was a bad thing, which does suck. Ignoring Axel's scolding, I opened my eyes to see the sun that was on the horizon far off into the distance where a train appeared stationed below. "Huh?" I leaned over the parapet to see where I was, but saw that I was high up on a building. A strike of energy hit my chest and leaned back. Oh man, why the hell am I up here? I turned towards Axel to see how my body was laid; my legs were behind Axel who sat against the building arching over them, looking at me with curiosity. I didn't take notice and felt somewhat abashed.

"Hello! Planet Deonna! Anyone there?"

"Uh-eh?" Obviously I was spaced-out, and it took Axel at least five minutes to see that, gee why did I even bother to partner up with this guy.

"Man you really are far gone." He took his glove off his hand and leaned over with his face close to mine, placing his hand on my forehead, checking my temperature the old-fashioned way. My cheeks flushed, quickly moving his hand off and my legs from behind his warm body, sitting on my knees. "Hmmm… are you okay Deonna?" I quickly looked at him and turned back, feeling warm with shyness for some reason. "I'm okay I guess…"

"You don't look like it."

"How long was I out anyway?" I asked, wanting to talk about something else as I turned to look at him. "Well," he looked at his wrist like there was a watch there, "for a while I guess. I mean, for like a few hours."

"Hours!" My muscles jumped in astonishment. His eyebrows were contorted from my outburst with a sheepish grin. "Uh, yeah, perhaps. I mean I don't have a watch."

"Then why did you look at your wrists as if you had one?" I said, trying to mortify him. "Uh, well y'know some people do that." He looked away with his eyes narrowed with a mild flush in his cheeks. I just had to giggle at that, causing a reflective moment to stir within me. I stopped. "But really, hours?"

"It felt like it," he continued, "when you passed out earlier and I couldn't wake you, I put you on the bench where we were sitting on and went to defeat the heartless on the street. When I finished, I came back and tried to wake you up again, but nothing worked." He turned to look at me with his eyebrows curved up with a gloom. "I got to admit, you had me pretty worried there."

"Mmmm…I'm sorry," I said feeling guilt-ridden. His lips turned up into a slight grin. "But, I had a feeling you would wake up though, knowing you were still alive and all. So I took you up here, on the clock tower waiting for you to wake up."

"Huh- this is the clock tower?"

"Yep! Got it memorized?" he tapped his head.

I groaned. "Yeah, I got it." He chuckled and turned back to look where the sun shone on our faces. My eyes followed the direction of his to look at the orange-red marble in the sky. Its warm bright colors lighted up the entire town that made it glow, ceasing the faint loneliness of children and people present who has lost their hearts to the darkness. My eyes turned downcast into losing that shining thought. That dream.

My awakening…was it truly real? It sure felt like it…but this means I really do have to follow the spirit of my heart. I brought my knees up and put my arms on them to rest my chin on. Following the spirit of the heart seems like a riddle that has to be deeply understood. Follow what you believe is right and listen to it? Mmmm pretty understandable...probably means to listen to your conscious or instinct or something.

My face turned slightly to look at Axel, hoping to not get him to notice my stare. I guess it wasn't a bad idea to run into him after all. I grinned and turned back to let my legs go, crossing my arms comfortably. I guess he really is that important to my life than I knew. Huhhh…he's going to help me…and I'm going to help him…but…Jian.

Soon enough, Axel stood up to sit on the ledge of the tower and exhaled air. "Y'know, when I was in the organization, I used to bring my best friend up here with me to watch the sunset."

"Organization?"

He turned around, his eyebrows crooked with a grin. "Oh yeah, you don't know about the organization," he paused, "I used to be part of a group called 'Organization XIII' which included thirteen members. We banded together in order to find our lost hearts by bringing lost hearts to Kingdom hearts. We did this not to only get our hearts back, but to study the mystery of the heart as well." My eyes narrowed, not really getting all that he said.

"Okay you lost me there."

He sighed and turned back toward the sun. "I don't feel like explaining all that anymore."

So much for even bringing it up…

"Well anyway," he continued, "me and Roxas would look at the sunset after missions to talk about stuff, like friends would do," he sighed, "it made me sad when he left, like I was alone like before in the organization." He sounded doleful to my ears, his energy seeping in me. I didn't really know what to say as I listened to the glumness of his voice, so I just sat there with understanding. "He made me feel, like I had a heart."

My eyes widened a little bit with my eyebrows contorted. "Ooookay." He heard my elongated 'O' and turned his head with his eyebrows stitched, studying my face. "Hey, I didn't think of him that way! Keep your mind out of the gutter!" I laughed sheepishly, feeling like an Idiot. He turned back around with his arms at a cross. "Since I'm telling you this, you should at least know how it feels to loose a friend. Besides, when you're a 'nobody', you would like to spend time with the person who makes you feel like you're human again." I had a feeling that I should reply to his logical comment.

"Uh huh."

"Well, even though he was the only one who was my friend in the organization, I can't help but get the feeling that someone else was here up on the tower with us. It's weird."

Interesting…

"Y'know, Roxas was the 'nobody' of Sora, his 'somebody', who was my other friend." He turned and looked at me with a smirk. "You know both were able to use the Keyblade."

A smile curved up on my lips that made me lean off of the wall. "That's cool!"

He chuckled. '"I had a feeling that would make you smile," he said as he turned away. "Well yeah, I have to admit, they both were special. Able to use the Keyblade and defeat Heartless. Good times…"

I gazed at his soft demeanor and felt rather happy for him, how this conversation sparked into a nostalgic daze within our minds, which made us both seem bright. I could tell Axel was having a contended moment in silence, so I stayed quiet, while letting go of faint titters at the same time. Axel then spoke suddenly.

"You know, the stronger your friendship is, the stronger your heart?"

"Yeah, I've heard of that."

"And you know it's true?"

"Well, it has to be," I replied, remembering a phrase from back home, 'That it's better to be two than one.' After that, a few moments passed in pleasing silence of watching the sun and the light touch of the wind. Since it got so quiet, I decided to talk about something else.

"Um, how can you like sit at the edge like that," he turned and I continued, "I mean, you're not afraid that you would fall?"

"Ha-yeah right, like I would be afraid…speaking of which…" He got up off the ledge and walked past me on my right and picked up something that sat beside me; it was black and shabby.

My bag…

He stuck his hand in it and started to pull something out.

"Hey! What are you-" I said as I started to get up and wrench it out of his hand. I missed as he pulled away, for his height was so much that I could bare. I didn't realize I was standing up, so I stood up against the building.

"Relax doll face…" he said as he held out a black piece of clothing. "I got you something special." He dropped my bag on the ground and extended the structure of the clothing by holding it out in front of me with both of his hands. "It's a black cloak like mine," he lowered it to show his face above, "what chu think?"

I couldn't help but smile and reach out for it to grab with examination. I took it out of his hand and put it up against my body to see if it could fit. "Cool Axel! Thanks! It even looks like it could fit!"

"Yeah, yeah don't mention it," he said as he waved his hand in the air with modesty, "just try it on already. I spent a while looking for one of those while you were sleep, and now that I remember, I want to see if you can fit it or not." I nodded and unzipped the cloak to put on, while making sure I didn't fall off the tower at the same time. Once it was on, I looked down at myself, wondering how it looked on me. "How does it look on me Axel?" I looked up, waiting for an answer.

His eyes were in full examination and after a few moments, his face changed to that of a little kid with big eyes, which was very strange. " Axel? What is it? You're freaking me out here just answer the question." He scratched his head, eyes wandering towards the sky as if to avoid my gaze. "Uhmm, well you…look fine…never better in fact," he said, his back now facing me. My arms crossed, observing his strange behavior. "Okay…thanks." Gee what a puzzle that guy is…

"Well, I think it's about time we start going now, don't you think?"

"Mmmm yeah, the nap was nice while it lasted, though it did take up a lot of our time…"I said with a yawn

"Hey there's nothing wrong with naps. It gives you more energy for the day and to do more things. Don't feel so bad about it we got a lot of time," he said peeking at me. Axel then waved his hand and up came a portal on the side of us on my right. "Let's go," he said as he started to walk towards the portal. My eyebrows curved, my feet quickly hurrying up behind him.

I should get close to him in case the portal shuts off when he enters…but can that happen? With that doubtful thought in mind, I stayed close to enter into the dark portal, grabbing my bag as well.

We finally exited the dark tunnel and found ourselves just at the bottom of the clock tower. I looked up to see how tall it was; its giant structure seemed to have ruled out all the buildings of the entire town all together from my stand point. "Okay, first things first," Axel began as he snapped me out of my gaze, "we have to get started by asking the people of this town do they know your sister."

"Right."

"So, what is your sister's name? What does she look like?" I brought my finger to my chin. "Well, her name is Kris. Her hair is dark brown and was straight the last time I've seen her and she has brown skin like mine."

"Okay, but wait- we have just a few problems."

"Huh? What's the problem?" He crossed his arms. "Well, y'know when you turn into a 'nobody', your appearance changes as well, so she'll probably not look the same." I moaned. "That's just great…"

"But, her name probably didn't, so we'll just go with that." I looked at him and changed my lips into a grin. "Okay, we'll just try that."

After our little planning, we started off into the town with a spring in our step, finally ready to start searching. We went to the area Axel called Market Street, that seemed to stretch through out the whole town with shops. We were in this area for most of the day, asking people have they ever heard of my sister's name or if they've seen a girl who favored me. None of them complied with a good enough answer. Soon, we decided to just look around the town; in alleys, by trains and even a few houses. Nothing turned up our faces. When we decided to take a break, we went to sit on the same bench where we sat the first time we got here.

"Ugh, it's about time I sat down" I groaned as my body sat on the wooden cold bench. "Yeah, but we'll only sit here for a little while though," Axel replied. I leaned my head back and put the back of my hand on my head, liking the feeling of weightless pressure off my feet. My eyes closed as I soon felt myself feeling at rest, like I was all alone in the world. The wind blew, the sound of laughter of children coming from the left of me, so I opened my eye to quick a peep. Two boys, one muscular and one chubby and a girl was running in the winds direction with there arms out straight like they were trying to catch something.

"Get the ball Hayner!" the brown haired girl cried, the sides of her hair flying back as she ran. "I'm getting it! Come on Pence, run faster!" said the blond haired boy named Hayner. "Wait up! Olette and Hayner!" cried the chubby boy named Pence as he ran after them. I heard Axel mumble something under his breath. Wondering what he said, I turned and decided to ask.

"What? Did you say something?"

Axel faced me and shrugged. "Oh, it's nothing, just thinking of something."

"Oh okay…Axel I was sorta' wondering," I said with my eyes downcast, not wanting to hear a bad answer from Axel's mouth of what I was about to ask. "If we can't find her here, do you think she's at another world, or something?" I looked up and he looked at me with his lips pursed, appearing uncertain.

"Well, I don't know what to say," he paused, scratching his head, "It's either that or the other way around." I gave out a sigh, feeling anxiousness come up in me.

"But hey, don't let yourself get down. She could be at another world. Every cloud has a silver lining. If you really knew your sister, you would probably know how strong her heart could have been or is." I looked up at him and turned ahead, just thinking of his brief comment.

Hmmm, I knew my sister really well, and I know she must have had a really strong heart. Of course, I would know. I turned back to give him a grin. "Yeah, she did have a strong heart. Y'know for a 'nobody', you're pretty engaging in optimism."

His face turned a little hard like he seemed surprised for some reason. "Uh…thanks... but I'm not that optimistic."

"Hmm?"

He continued while his face turned pink. "But that's what friends do," he turned to look ahead from my curious gaze. "They make each other feel better…or whatever."

I just stared at him, feeling myself smile from his peculiar display. Oh snap did I just make Axel blush just because I complimented a trait of his?

I then giggled and leaned forward to see Axel's face. It was almost crimson like a red lollipop, which made me titter even more. Obviously, he was trying to ignore me by looking away in the opposite direction, so I decided to leave him alone. "Yeah… thanks a lot," I said looking away, encouraged in finding my sister.

After a few moments of silence, a yell disrupted the peace.

"Hey!"

Huh?

Hearing the yell come from my left, I turned in that direction. My eyes landed upon a girl who stood near a shop door across the bricked road feet's away from me. She started running up to me with a small smile and her eyes squinted low. A feeling of uncertainty came up, wondering did I know her.

"Deonna you know her?" Axel asked as I felt him lean off the bench. I shrugged and she finally made up to the bench. I noticed her hair was uneven on both sides with the color of a dark blue. She had on a yellow shirt that seemed tattered at the ends and brown caprice with two belts hardly tight in the loops. She looked rather familiar.

"Deonna? Is that you?" said the girl, her hands clasped together appearing patiently chaste. She gave me a wayward smile, a smile that I've only seen years ago from my best friend.

"Uh…J-Jian?"

Her eyes were sad, trying to drip a drop of tears as she bent down to embraced me into a hug.

"Long time no see friend."