*I don't ANY of the Kingdom Hearts characters or the Lion King II: Simba's Pride characters, I only own Katie.
Riku jumped out the way of a falling burning branch, the fire was getting out of hand. Moving his shoulders to keep the unconscious Repliku on his back, he yelled at Kairi, "How much farther?"
"We're almost there! I just know it!" Kairi hollered over her shoulder. She coughed and said, "This fire is getting out of control!"
Riku nodded in agreement. "Yeah, we better find her quick." They continued to run through the smoking grass. Riku suddenly heard violent hacks over the crackling flames, but it was too far away to be Kairi. "Did you hear that?"
Kairi stopped and pricked her ears, forcing her hearing to go farther. She soon heard the violent coughs. "Yeah!" She flicked her tail to the side. "It's coming from that way!" Kairi ran east. Riku scrambled after her, still not quite running on all fours and having a dead weight on his back didn't help that much either. Kairi served around a corner, noticing that the grassland is suddenly stopping. "We're here!"
"How can you tell?" Riku asked.
"The Outlands doesn't have grass! It's just a bunch of broken earth!" Kairi answered. She went to a large boulder and sniffed the floor. "This is where Katie was…but…where is she?"
Riku looked around with worry flashing in his eyes, where is she? A shadow creeped up the boulder's wall and started to bubble. "Kairi, look out!" he yelled.
Kairi turned and gasped at what she saw, Heartless! She ran away from the boulder and next to Riku. She wielded her Keyblade, Destiny's Embrace. It appeared in her mouth. Over the Keyblade's hilt, she groaned, "Man, these guys have bad timing!"
Riku nodded and huffed in agreement. As the Heartless formed, he slowly set Repliku down and set a Dark Barrier around him, to keep him safe. He wielded his Keyblade, also appearing in his mouth. Out of the boulder came out Riku has only heard from in Sora's stories of the Pride Lands; Shaman. About a baker's dozen appeared. "I'll the ones on the right while you take the ones on the left." He told Kairi, his voice muffled by the Keyblade.
"Got it!" Kairi and Riku charged at the Heartless. Turning her head to the side and sending it down, Kairi slashed at the Heartless. Since she wasn't as strong, the Heartless didn't disappear at the Keyblade's contact. The attack only weakened the Shaman. The Shaman countered attacked by sending a flurry of blue flames at Kairi, the flames circled around her. Just before the will-o-wisp hit Kairi, Kairi quickly retailed and sent the flames to the Shaman, making it disappear. Lucky for her, the blue flames also hit the Shaman next to it, setting it on fire and burnt it to a crisp. Kairi rushed at the Shaman coming behind Riku and extended her from paws with her claws unsheathed. She pounced the Shaman and ranked its face, then quickly getting off of it to stab it with her Keyblade. The Shaman disappeared with a puff of smoke.
Riku thanked Kairi by flicking his tail upwards. He went back to the Shaman he was fighting; he threw his Keyblade at the Heartless like a boomerang. The Shaman disappeared with a puff of smoke. One the Shaman dodged and took off its mask, the mask glowed blue and radiated blue flames, it flew towards Riku. Riku didn't have time to block; the enchanted mask rammed him over and dealt major damage. Riku hissed in pain and dropped his Keyblade, he heaved himself up to his paws but the enchanted mask just knocked him back over. This continued for quite some time.
Kairi was in a predicament herself; too busy fighting off the Shaman that got too close to the crystal barrier that protected Repliku. Kairi finally casted a Blizzara spell around the crystal barrier to secure it better, batting her way through the Heartless she got to Riku. She sent a small thunderbolt towards the glowing mask that kept attacking Riku. It did nothing. Kairi bit her bottom lip, unsure on what to do. Taking all risks, she jumped at the mask and wrestled it away from Riku. She winced at the flames singed at her fur. The Shaman's mask suddenly stopped glowing and disappeared, making Kairi fall over. Scrambling back up to her paws, she ran up to Riku. "Are you okay, Riku?" Kairi asked as she helped him up.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Riku answered sternly. He limped to his Keyblade and picked back up in his jaws. He charged at the Shaman. The Shaman jumped to the side and then jumped back towards him, scratching its claws to his side. Riku winced at the sharp pain but held his ground. With his Keyblade, he slashed at the Shaman. The Shaman twitched then disappeared. It was quickly replaced by another Shaman; it kicked its legs at Riku. Riku blocked and countered with a blast of Darkness. This destroyed the Shaman and the one next to it also. Spinning around, Riku casted a Thundaga spell at three Shamans. He was surprised that the magic spell didn't even scratch the savannah-native Heartless. The three Heartless tackled him, making Riku let out a growl of frustration and surprise.
"Riku!" Kairi yelped. She rushed to her friend's aid but got knocked down by one of the Shaman's masks. Kairi tried to get up but the pain was too great, she couldn't get up.
Riku saw Kairi's fall under his attackers. "No, Kairi!" he yelled. One of the Shamans dug its claws into Riku's pelt and ranked his side, making blood flow. Riku let out a yell of pain and tried to whack the Heartless with his Keyblade, but he couldn't reach. The weight of the Shamans on him only made the pain worse, his vision blurred. He was almost to his breaking point.
Suddenly, a roar broke into the silent air. The weight disappeared on Riku and he heard the chime of a Cure spell, the pain was gone. Riku went back up to his feet and didn't see anything except for a handful of Shaman and Kairi, still on the ground. Riku's eyes widened when a flash of darkness picked Kairi up and send her next to him. He didn't see who…or what it was. A crystal barrier suddenly went around them. The dark blur jumped high into the sky. Red light shot from the blur and rocketed at the ground. Slowly, red light grew on the cracked earth around the Heartless, making an odd circle around him with foreign and runic symbols. Red lighting shot from the sky and hit the ground around the Heartless. The circles burst into red flames and caused a large explosion that made a crack in Riku and Kairi's crystal barrier. In the dying flames where nothing, the Heartless were gone. The only thing left was a large black mark on the dirt. The crystal barriers shattered.
"What was that?" Kairi asked.
"I think…I think that was Apocalypse…" Riku said, he turned to Kairi and healed her quickly. A flash of darkness caught the corner of his eye. Riku spun around and wielded his Keyblade. "Who—what are you?" He growled at the dark blob.
The dark blob appeared to look at the ground, the darkness melted away, revealing a lioness. The lioness was full grown and was a very light brown that transitioned to platinum blonde as it got to its paws, which the right forepaw was a very light silver. It's under belly was a pale yellow. The lioness muzzle was tinted grey; its eyes were gold with its whites a pale yellow. It also had medium lengthed human hair on the top of its head, a third of it was silver and the rest of it was light brown frosted with platinum blonde. Its tail tuft was silver and under its eyes was pure black and also outlined its eyes as it was a raccoon. On its wrist was an orange star-shaped charm and a silver and black heart-shaped pendant dangled on its neck.
Kairi slowly walked to the lioness, as if she was hesitant to approach it. "K-Katie…?"
Riku gasped. This lioness did repressible the teenager that he's known for over three months, but the eyes and the patches of silver it didn't feel right. He slowly approached the lioness, too. "Katie? Is that really you…?"
The lioness narrowed its eyes at Riku and its gaze shifted to Kairi and Riku, as if it was trying to read their faces. "Why are you guys staring at me like that?" she asked. She scoffed, "Of course it's me!"
"But-! You didn't have the eyes a-and the silver hair when I saw you last!" Kairi exclaimed.
Katie's eyes widened. "You can see my eyes?!" Riku nodded. Katie sighed, "Ah, man…I really didn't want to show you guys them…" She turned to Repliku and gasped. "What happened to him?!"
"He sensed a spike in the Darkness. It was so great, he passed out." Riku explained.
Katie took a step back, was that a flash of gilt in her eyes. Before Riku could identify, Katie turned away from him and pulled Repliku to her back. "I'll carry him." She offered, her voice suddenly emotionless. "Where's everybody else?"
"We split up. Simba's daughter was out hunting and then there was a fire! Sora and Lea went to go help him while we went to find you." Kairi answered.
"Oh." Katie walked ahead of them. "Let's go and meet up with them. I've spent enough time in the Outlands." With that said, they went back to the Pride Lands.
They walked until they saw a dark brown lion and a pale yellow lioness bickering. Katie recognized them as Kovu and Kiara. Before they fully approached them, Simba's voice yelled, "Kiara!" Simba, Sora, Lea and Nala arrived. Simba jumped in front of Kiara, snarling and growling.
Nala, Kiara's mother, bounded towards Kiara and nudged her with her muzzle. "Kiara, you're alright!" she breathed.
Kiara broke away from Nala and growled at Simba, "Father... how could you break your promise?"
"It's a good thing I did." Simba growled. "I almost lost you. No more hunts for you; not ever!"
Kiara gasped, and protested, "But I was doing just fine! Even before Kovu-!"
"Kovu?!" Simba repeated angrily. He faced the dark lion and roared at him. Kovu growled and returned his roar.
Sora was surprised by Simba's ferocity. "Simba?" he asked hesitantly. Simba shot a glare at Sora, making him shut up.
"Hey! You!" The gang turned around to see a baboon with a white beard and a walking stick.
"Rafiki!" Sora said cheerfully.
Rafiki grinned at Sora for a few short seconds before returning his attention to Kovu. "How dare you save the king's daughter!" He laughed, pointing at Kovu.
Simba raised an eyebrow and returned his fiery gaze at Kovu. "You saved her? Why?" he questioned bitterly.
"I humbly ask to join your pride." Kovu simply stated, his head held high.
"No!" Simba yelled immediately. "You were banished with the other Outsiders"
Kovu still held his head high as he explained, "I have left the Outsiders. I am a rogue. Judge me now, for what I am... or am I to be blamed for a crime I didn't commit?" The last part was spitted out like venom.
Simba snarled and passed back and forth in thought. Nala looked hard at him, "Simba... you owe him your daughter's life." Simba stopped at stared at his mate. Nala returned his hard stare.
Simba growled and turned back to Kovu. "...Hmmm. My father's law will prevail. For now, I reserve judgment. We'll see who you really are." He turned away from Kovu and stalked back to Pride Rock. The Keyblade Wielders looked at each other, then shrugged. They followed Simba.
Katie felt bad for Kovu; he wasn't allowed to sleep in the king's den, like the rest of the Pride and themselves. She wanted to go outside and be with him so he wouldn't be alone. But she then thought of the still unconscious Repliku. "Will he be okay?" she asked Riku in a low voice, trying not to wake up the lions and lioness.
Riku sighed and shook his head, "I don't know, Katie. That dark presence was just too much for his mind to handle. Maybe he'll wake up tomorrow." Before leaving her, he added, "Try yourself to go to sleep."
Katie's eyes wavered in uncertainty. "But what about Xeh-?"
"He won't get you, Katie. I promise. Not while Sora, Lea, Kairi, Repliku and I are around. I know that you haven't been asleep naturally for three months now…it's not good for your health, Katie. I believe staying awake is only making it easier for Xehanort to invade your body. I mean, you're eyes are gold!" Riku told.
"But-!"
"Katie, please. Just get some rest." Riku walked away.
Katie sighed and looked at the ground. It was true that she hadn't slept for three months, the reason why she stayed awake for this long was secretly using an Esuna Materia on herself that she got from Zack and the fear of not waking up as herself but as something evil or not even wake up at all! She returned her gaze at the prone form of Repliku. She tip-toed slowly to him and laid down around him, wrapping her tail protectively over Repliku. As soon as Katie laid her head on her paws, darkness took her vision.
Dah, that was a cute yet mushy ending! xD I ended that way because Katie and Repliku have a brother/sister relationship...in case you've forgotten.
Okay! This the order of the world visits so far for Katie!
1) World That Never Was
2) Radiant Garden
3) Mysterious Tower
4) Kohona (Naruto)
5) Berk (How To Train Your Dragon)
6) Earth (The Light of A Darkened Heart Christmas)
7) Pride Lands (Lion King...you are here! xD)
I only made that list so you guys could keep track of the worlds cuz I know that can be very hard sometimes...:D
Fun Fact!: Besides Kingdom Hearts, Katie's favorite video game series is Pokemon and her favorite video game is Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core!
She's never gotten past the fight against Angeal...xD
Katie: Neither have you!
Me: Oh, shut it!
Katie: At least I've played the original Final Fantasy VII game!
Me: That's it you-! (Tackles Katie to the ground)
Repliku: ...(Faceplams)
Sora: Bless your face. And if you sneezed while reading this KH fanfic, then bless you. Peace off. BOOP!
Me: HEY! That's my line!
Sora: Sorry!
Riku: Actually, that's Tobuscus' line...
Katie: See?!
Me: (Slams head on the keyboard) Oh my God...
(Oh and sorry if I sound greedy here you guys but Light of A Darkened Heart needs an appropriate cover like it's an actual book! So...If any you guys are good at art, may you please make a cover for LoaDH? But you don't have too; just a thought!)