Hey, guys! Still not entirely back from a HIATUS due to family problems and writer's block, but I had this chapter and a few others written out so I might as well post it and see how you guys like it.

OCs (c) Me

Kingdom Hearts (c) Square Enix

Kingdom Hearts

Sanctioned Soul

Chapter 13

"C'mon guys, pick up the pace!" Miu called as she and Pocahontas ran, the boys right behind them as they tried to keep up. Sora groaned as he looked at her, sweat dripping from his brow because of the exertion.

"If you guys would slow down, then we could catch up!" he called to them. Miu rolled her eyes as she looked back.

"Look, we don't have time! He's going to be executed at sunrise, and the sun's already rising over the forest! If we don't stop them, then people are going to get killed on both sides!" she exclaimed. The boys were quiet as they ran, before nodding in agreement.

"Okay, we're speeding up!"

-At the border of the Village and the forest-

"Look, I see everyone gathered just ahead!" Sora cried as he ran beside Miu, having caught up to her and Pocahontas. Miu looked off to the side, seeing Ratcliffe and his men as they approached through the trees, a few heartless in front of them as they did so. At this time, Chief Powhatan was standing over John Smith, who was laying on a rock with his arms bound behind him and a rope around his neck. She paled.

"And I see Ratcliffe and his men, too! And they've got John laying on a rock…"

"No! They're about to execute him!" Pocahontas exclaimed, her voice laced with fear. Axel growled before looking at the young woman.

"Run ahead and stop your old man! We'll help, but we've gotta stop Ratcliffe and his men too! Got it memorized?" he called. Pocahontas nodded and ran ahead, pushing through the crowd of village men who had gathered to fight and watch the execution. The Chief took a step forward as he raised a heavy club over his head, preparing to bring it down on John's head.

"No!" Sora called as he and the other pushed through the crowd.

"Stop!" Donald hollered as he tried to move past the million legs that had gathered because of his small size. Goofy covered his eyes, not bearing to watch.

"Gawrsh! I can't watch!" Ratcliffe and his crewmen stopped as well, watching as Chief Powhatan brought it down-

"No!" Pocahontas exclaimed as she rushed in, shielding John's head with her own. The chief immediately pulled back, throwing the head of the club to the ground to stop it from hitting his own daughter. Pocahontas glared up at her father from where she lay, John's head in her arms as he too looked at her in surprise.

"If you kill him, you'll have to kill me too!" she spoke, her voice brave as she stared at her father. Miu was at her side in seconds, standing in front of the two as she glared at him. "Me too!" she proclaimed, her chest puffed out as she braced herself for the chief's wrath. Chief Powhatan looked back and forth between his daughter and her friend, anger etched in his features.

"Daughter, Miu, stand back!" he ordered. But Miu shook her head as well as Pocahontas. They knew that if John Smith were to die, not only would they lose a companion, but war would break out on both sides and people would die.

"I won't!"

"Me either!"

"Us too!" Sora, Donald, and Goofy cried in unison as they joined the two girls, Axel and Demyx flanking them as the group faced the chief on, not once hesitating. Both sides stared at the group in surprise, what were they doing?

"Look around you, this is where the path of hatred leads us!" Pocahontas started as she moved her head, indicating everyone around her as they prepared their weapons for the coming fight. Sora nodded as he took a step forward.

"She's right! If you guys keep going, then people are going to get hurt!" Sora exclaimed. Miu joined Sora as she glared at the two parties surrounding them, disgusted at their intentions.

"And for what? Differences? Greed? People will lose their friends, their family, if this goes on! So grow up! Are we not adults? If we are, then stop acting like children! Sure, we may be different, but is that so bad?" she snapped, her eyes alight as she glared them down. Pocahontas turned to her father, her eyes calm.

"This is the path I choose. What will yours be?" she asked. Axel stood quietly for a moment, before focusing his gaze onto that of the chief's.

"You've got two choices, make peace or die fighting. That's what all of this boils down to, got it memorized?" Axel stated truthfully. Demyx nodded as he took a step forward, so that he stood next to Donald and Goofy.

"Yeah, c'mon. Can't you guys try to make things work out? It'll be easier for the rest of us- Ow!" he started, but stopped when Donald whacked him in the shin with his staff. "You're not helping!" Donald scolded, causing the melodious nocturne to glare at him as Goofy chuckled.

Chief Powhatan stared at the group before him, his expression calm and passive as he took in the sight before him. Ratcliffe's men were ready with their guns raised, while his own men aimed their arrows and pulled back the strings on their bows. After a few tense moments, he made his decision as he raised his club over his head, staring at the group of pale men before him.

"My daughter and her friends speak with the wisdom beyond their years. We've all come here with anger in our hearts, but they've come with courage and understanding." Sora, Pocahontas, Miu, and the others smiled in relief as the chief lowered his club, pressing the head of it to the ground while he griped the butt of it in his hand.

"If there is to be more killing, it will not start with me." he turned to the closest man and pointed to John Smith. "Release him!" the man walked forward and cut the bonds on John's hands, freeing him.

"Whoo-hoo! We did it!" Miu exclaimed as she began jumping up and down, her hands raised as she celebrated. Sora grinned, turning to Donald and Goofy. They smiled back, before tackling him.

"Yeah, we did it!" they rejoiced, the feelings of joy and relief in the air as they celebrated. Pocahontas and John smiled before embracing, causing Demyx to blush a little and Axel to smirk, before it died away into a small frown. Thomas and the other crewmen watched the scene with confused expressions as they lowered their guns, they didn't want to fight?

Ratcliffe looked back and forth between the two sides in anger, his eyes narrowing, before unsheathing his blade as he pointed at them. "Now's our chance! Fire!"

"No." Thomas growled as he put his foot down. Ratcliffe looked at him in confusion. "What?"

"They let him go!"

"They do not want to fight!"

"It's a trick don't you see? Fire!" he exclaimed. But the other men joined Thomas, Ben, and Lon, glaring at Ratcliffe. The man shook his sword at them in anger, before glancing back to where the chief stood. Without a moment's hesitation, he grabbed a gun out of one of the crewmen's hands.

"Fine! I'll settle this myself!" he growled as he aimed. John Smith looked over to where Ratcliffe stood, then looked back to the chief. His eyes widened when he realized what the Governor was planning to do, and leaped forward.

"No!" a gunshot rang out as a bullet lodged itself into John's side. Sora, Miu, Donald, Goofy, Demyx, Axel, Pocahontas, and Chief Powhatan watched in both shock and disbelief as he hit the ground, a hand to his side as blood began to pool from the wound. "John!"

"John!" Thomas exclaimed as Miu and Pocahontas rushed to his aid. Then he turned to Ratcliffe. "You shot him!" Ratcliffe stared at Thomas as the other men began to gather, at first shocked but it quickly turned to pride as he smirked.

"He got in the way! It's his own fault!" he stated. Sora growled as he, Donald, Goofy, Demyx, and Axel ran over to where the Governor was standing, prepared to stop him before he did any more harm.

"You're gonna pay for that!" Sora exclaimed as he pointed at the large man. But the man smirked at him, a black aura beginning to emit from his body.

"Oh my boy, you should have just stayed out of this. Now you'll all have to pay, and once I'm through with all of you, that gold will be all mine!" with that something began to lumber through the forest, attracted to the darkness and greed that Ratcliffe held inside his heart. In moments, a large humanoid willow tree lumbered into the clearing, decorated with various heartless insignia's and adorning a fearsome and monstrous face. The crewmen and the villagers, upon seeing the monster, began to panic as they ran back into the woods while other heartless joined the large tree. Miu turned to the chief.

"Chief Powhatan, get your people and the crewmen to safety! Sora, Donald, Goofy, Axel, Demyx, and I will deal with Ratcliffe and his heartless! Hurry!" she commanded. The chief nodded as he and Pocahontas rushed John and the others to safety, leaving Sora and the gang to deal with the heartless boss as it grabbed Ratcliffe and placed him on its branches. Sora and the others summoned their weapons instantly, with Miu drawing her blade as she joined them.

"You guys ready to take this ugly thing down? 'Cuz I'm not fighting with you if you're all just gonna slow me down!" Miu called as she got into position, her eyes becoming hard like when she had fought the heartless hours before. Sora and the others nodded.

"Just don't slow us down!" Sora joked, winking at her. She snorted as she rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, like I'm anything like that!"

"Would you two quit messing around and fight already? It's not like we're in the middle of a game of tag or whatever, we're fighting a heartless that's ten times bigger than us!" Axel retorted, snapping the two out of their competitive mode and focusing them back of Ratciffe and the heartless as they began attacking.

The large heartless began hurtling seeds filled with dark energy and poison at the group while Ratcliffe fired his gun, the group dodging both the bullets and the seeds as they tried to land blows on the monster. Miu worked separately from the group as she danced around the heartless' attacks, giving no regard to the other's safety as she dodged and attacked. Sora cried out as he ducked, barely managing to avoid a bullet that was aimed at him.

"This is insane! We can't get anywhere near the heartless without getting shot. How can we stop them?" he exclaimed. Axel looked at the monster's roots, to Ratcliffe, then back to Sora as an idea popped into his head.

"That's easy, Sora. You just have to do this-" with that he threw his chakrams, getting the heartless at its roots as they caught fire, causing the heartless to cry out as it began to jerk around wildly. Miu smirked as an idea popped into her head before she ran, jumping and grabbing a handful of vines that were connected to the heartless. She quickly began to run, circling the heartless with the vines still in her grasp as Sora joined in, grabbing vines and running counterclockwise from her. Once the heartless was wrapped up enough, they tugged on the vines and the heartless began to lose its balance. Though the girl wasn't keen on working together with the boy and his companions, she wasn't going to let it get in the way of the fight.

"Timber!" she hollered as she got out of the way, Demyx, Donald, and Goofy crying out in surprise as they ran to get out of the toppling heartless' path. Once the heartless fell, the force threw Ratcliffe to the ground as the heartless lay there, defenseless. Demyx waved his hands over to the others as he began hitting it with his sitar.

"C'mon, now's our chance! It's down!" he exclaimed. Within seconds, Donald began hurtling fire spells at it with Axel while the others used their weapons to attack. But after a few minutes, the heartless lashed out, throwing them back as it got to its feet. Like before, it grabbed Ratcliffe and placed him on one of its branches. Everyone quickly regrouped, panting as they glared at the heartless.

"Ah phooey! We almost had him!" Donald growled. Miu grinned as she turned to him, giving him a thumbs up.

"Hey, no worries! We just repeat that a few times, and he'll go down for good. So c'mon, quit standing there and get moving!" with that she ran back in and began taunting the large heartless tree, causing the others to deadpan at her recklessness. But without a moment's hesitation, they followed after her and began the process of knocking it over again.

Like Miu had said, after a few times of repeatedly knocking it down and dealing damage, the heartless was finished as it began to stagger. Ratcliffe, who had fallen on the ground like before, looked up in shock as the heartless toppled over where he was sitting, causing the man to cry out once it fell. The second it fell, it disappeared and a large heart was released, but there was no saving Ratcliffe. The darkness had devoured him, a fitting end to a person as greedy as he. Miu grinned as she began jumping up and down in celebration.

"Whoo hoo! The heartless is gone and the evil has been vanquished! And it's all thanks to Miu, adventurer extraordinaire! …and I guess her sidekicks." she cried happily. Sora, Donald, Goofy, Demyx, and Axel glared at her as they growled.

"We're not your sidekicks!" they exclaimed, annoyed. She turned to them and puffed her cheeks, before giving them a raspberry.

"Nyah, fine! I don't want to be the leader of a group of dummies, anyways! Scratch that, I don't want to be a part of a group anyways!" she pouted as she turned away, arms crossed. Axel rolled his eyes before looking to where the villagers and the crewmen had gathered, surrounding someone. Then he remembered.

"Guys, let's go and see how John's doing. He got shot, didn't he?" he called as he turned to them. Sora gasp, remembering that Ratcliffe had shot John Smith before the large heartless showed up.

"Oh yeah! C'mon!" Without a moment's hesitation, they ran over to where everyone was gathered, the large group parting so they could reach Pocahontas and the Chief as they stood over a barely conscious John Smith. Miu knelt over as she began to examine the wound, her eyes narrowing the more she examined it. With a frustrated sigh, she looked to one of the crewmen.

"You guys got any bandages? We need to bind his wound to stop the bleeding and prevent any infection." they nodded as one of them ran off to where the supplies were at, before she turned her attention back to the wound. Demyx and Donald took a step forward, cure spells at the ready.

"Can we use cure on him? Will it seal the wound?" Demyx asked. She was silent before sighing, shaking her head.

"No, we can't use cure because there's shards of the bullet still in his side, as well as the bullet itself. It could cause life-threatening problems later if we heal it with the bullet and fragments still inside him. I could try to get it out, but he could also die from blood loss since I don't have the proper tools." she explained as she placed her hand against the wound, adding pressure so she could try to stop the bleeding. Pocahontas looked at her, devastated.

"Then there is no way to save him?" she asked. The girl was quiet for a few moments, before shrugging her shoulders.

"I can't say. Your people don't have the means to save him, but as for his people…" she turned back to the crewmen as one walked over, carrying the bandages she asked for. "Do you guys have doctors and medicine back where you came from? It's a long shot, but I think if you guys can get him back in time, it might be enough to save him."

"Yes, I believe you're right. The doctors back in England have the supplies you're talking about, and might be able to get the bullet out of John." Thomas answered as she began to bind the wound. She nodded as Sora turned to him.

"Then you guys better get him back. There's no time to lose."

So, what'd you guys think? I suck as usual on the fight scene with Ratcliffe, but oh well. Anyways, please read and review!