Chapter 3: Good old days

Everyone was feeling miserable on the gummi ship after seeing Disney Castle taken over by a mysterious force and finding out what had happened to King Mickey. Sora had told everyone what had happened to the king and he cursed himself as he felt that he could have done more. He felt even worse after hearing that the king had been trying to get Queen Minnie back. Riku was currently flying as Sora didn't feel like driving at the moment, Kairi was helping Goofy calm down the children from Disney Castle, and Donald was resting in his room recovering from the injuries he had received while trying to help the king.

The gummi was heading to Radiant Garden to drop off the citizens of Disney Castle before they started to search for the king. Riku put the ship on autopilot as they entered the Radiant Garden defensive system, that was about five hours away from Radiant Garden itself, before getting up and when to check if Donald was alright. Sora's thoughts soon got to the best of him as he forced himself up and started to walk to his bedroom. Kairi wanted to see if he was alright but knew that Sora needed time alone to clear his thoughts. Riku walked passed the depressed Sora, rubbing his head, after getting kicked out of Donald's room. Kairi asked about it and giggled when she found out that Riku had forgotten that Daisy was nursing him better. Riku also said that he felt bad for Donald for having Daisy as his personal nurse.

Kairi and Riku turned to the sound of children settling down to the captain as they all sat down. Riku and Kairi decided to join in and quickly took a seat on the sofa as Goofy began to talk, "Ok boys and girls. This is the story about how….how…"Goofy struggled as he tried to think of a story.

"How King Mickey met the queen," supplied Riku

"Thanks Riku." Goofy smiled, "Anyway, this story happened twenty years ago. Even before King Mickey was a King." Kairi turned to Riku with a questioning look.

"He was like Donald and Goofy before he met Queen Minnie; A citizen of Disney Castle." Riku whispered. Kairi knew that Sora would have loved to know how those two royal mice met, but that it would only make him feel guiltier.

Goofy started to tell the story. The main point of the story was that Mickey, Donald, and Goofy wanted to become knights whose job it was to protect the queen and her lady in waiting Daisy, known as a musketeer. It was explained by Pete who was the captain of the guards that Donald was too much of a chicken, Goofy was too dumb and Mickey was too small. Kairi couldn't think of Donald being like a chicken but she couldn't argue with Goofy who was actually there. Goofy continued his story as he explained that the only reason Captain Pete let them be Musketeers was so the queen would stop complaining about not having any bodyguards and that he was secretly was planning to take over the throne. Mickey then met the queen and they couldn't stop thinking about each other. Goofy then explained to the curious children as well as to Kairi who was listening carefully to the story, that they found out about Pete's plans and stopped him, saving the queen and Daisy. Soon after that, Mickey married Queen Minnie and took his place as king, giving the job of captain of the musketeers to Goofy while Donald became the royal court wizard of Disney Castle.

After hearing the story, Kairi started to think about where her and Sora come in their friendship. She wondered if there was a chance of them being more just friends. She didn't know at the moment but she had a feeling that this adventure will change them forever, something that she was afraid of happening. Kairi quickly looked at the clock to see that it took over three hours to tell the story and to see that Riku was back at the steering wheel of the gummi to speed up the journey a little. She decided that she'll check up on Sora before they land on Radiant Garden.

BOWBOWBOW

Sora was in his room…asleep, like the lazy bum he was. He started to turn and talk in his sleep. In Sora's dream, there was a dense fog so he couldn't really tell what was going on. The only thing he could tell was someone running up a flight of stairs with a group of people far following. The person had a Keyblade that he had never seen before; the person's right hand was a white shadowed claw with a few marking going up the person's arm. The person got to the top of the stairs and what that person saw, Sora saw clearly as well. The green armoured solider that took both King Mickey and Queen Minnie was fighting Kairi. The person was trying to get into the room but was blocked by the same barrier that Sora had faced while trying to help the King. Sora was shouting "help her" in his sleep but the person couldn't get through. Sora watched horrified as Kairi fought the green solider and then suddenly, something Sora never wanted to see happened.

The solider forced his weapon through Kairi's heart.

Sora suddenly woke up, shouting Kairi's name as he awoke and started to breathe deeply. He put his hands on his face, feeling tears that must have formed while he watched Kairi get killed in his dream. He wiped the tears away and sat at the side of his bed. "Maybe Riku was right." Sora muttered to himself, "Maybe Kairi should have stayed on Destiny Islands." He knew that it did not matter what he said, he couldn't stop Kairi from adventuring with them considering that she had been left out on the last two journeys.

He went in the bathroom to wash his face when someone knocked on his door. He went to check who it was while drying his face at the same time. It was Kairi. He pressed the buzzer to let her in and sat back on his bed. Kairi came in, seeing that Sora was upset. "Sora…" she asked, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah. I'm alright" he lied slowly, "I'm still just upset about not getting to the King in time." Kairi came and sat next to Sora on the bed, putting her hand on his shoulder.

"You tried your best to get to King Mickey," said Kairi, trying to comfort Sora. "There was nothing you could do with that barrier up."

"Thanks Kai" said Sora as he turned to face her and grinned, making her blush as she saw him giving her his goofy grin. "Kairi. Are you alright?" asked Sora after seeing Kairi blush. "You're not getting a fever are you?"

"I'm fine, Sora" giggled Kairi

"Remember the day when you first came to the Islands?" Sora brought up.

"Of course, it was the day we first met" Both of them started to think about that day on Destiny Islands.

Flashback…

Sora was four and Riku was five when they were on the island with Riku's dad, waiting for the meteor shower to begin. Riku's dad had quickly gone to the main island to get something that one of the boys had forgotten, leaving the two of them on their own on the beach. Sora and Riku were talking about their last sword fighting game, Sora claiming that he had beaten Riku, when the meteor shower began and the two boys watched to event in awe.

While watching, Riku closed his eyes and whispered something that Sora couldn't hear. Riku opened his eyes and looked at his confused friend. "My Dad said that you have to wish on a falling star." Riku explained

"Does it work?" Sora asked

"Only if you don't tell." Riku finished and carried on watching the event. Sora soon closed his eyes and made a wish in his mind, as soon as he was finished, Riku started to tug on his shirt. "Look!" he pointed upwards.

There was a larger star falling and was stood out from the rest. The two boys watched the star from the rest, giving their attention on that one star. Riku stopped looking at the star when he saw his dad arrive but Sora still had his eyes on that star. It was as if the star was coming towards the island.

That because it was.

Sora saw that the star wasn't a star at all but rather in a shape of a bird or a plane. No. It was a person, a small person. Sora got up and ran towards the small Paopu Island to get a better look on the so called star. When the small boy watched the star fall towards the sea, he could see a hint of red before seeing the star hit the water.

Sora started to rush off the small fruit island and was about to run into the sea to see what the star was when someone had lifted him off the ground. "No! Let me go!" Sora whined, kicking his legs.

Riku's dad didn't let him go though, "C'mon Sora. You remembered the deal." He said to him as he started to carry him towards the shack, "You and Riku would watch the pretty shooting stars and then go to sleep." He said with amusement.

"But there's a star in the water." Sora tried to pushed out of Riku's dad grasp but couldn't. "It was shaped like me."

Riku's dad chuckled at this, "Well I'm sure that we can search for your star-like self in the morning." He said as their walked into the shack, where Riku was waiting. Sora knew that he had lost this battle but he will not rest until he sees that star.

When Riku and his dad had finally fallen asleep, Sora had woken up and quietly came out of the shack. Sora had to cover his eyes since it was the crack of dawn but quickly ran onto the beach to see if he could find that star. He remembered the hint of red that he had saw last night and started to search for it again. After an hour of searching, his eyes caught something near the shore.

Sora ran towards the sea to find the hint of red that he saw last night, rather a hint of red hair. Sora finally reached this so called star that had washed up on shore to see that it was a small girl. The girl had shoulder length auburn red hair and had a blue and white sundress with sandals. Judging from the clothing, Sora thought that she must have come from the other islands that were far far away but she wouldn't have come from the sky.

Sora kneeled down near the girl and placed his hand on her shoulder, shaking her a bit. "Hey. Are you ok?" he asked her, only to received the girl to look at him with confusion before smiling at him weakly and rested her head back on the sand. Sora made the girl face upwards, thinking that the girl wouldn't want sand in her face.

"SORA!"

Sora turned around to see Riku and his dad approach him with both relived and panicked faces. "Sora, what you doing out here at the crack of dawn?" Riku asked his 4-year-old friend, not noticing his father going towards the sea.

"I found the star that was shaped like me." Sora said cheerfully, pointing behind him. Riku looked behind him, as well as Sora turning around, to see Riku's dad carrying the girl.

"Can you boys play on the island while I'll take this girl to the Mayor's house?" Riku's dad asked. The two boys nodded and watched the girl get taken to the main island. After answering some questions from Riku, Sora and Riku started playing their sword game again…………until Sora mentioned the monster that he had heard last night from behind the tree.

End of Flashback…

"To think, if you didn't find me or sneaked away from Riku and his dad, I wouldn't be here." Kairi smiled.

"Well, curiosity can sometimes save the cat as well, I guess." He laughed.

A sudden thought came across to Kairi as she faced Sora again,"Hey Sora, What did you wish for before you saw me?" Kairi asked, staring at him.

Sora thought about it and looked at Kairi, "I wished to meet someone new and hoped that I would be their friend forever, no matter what."

"Even if it's more?" Kairi asked

"Even that." Sora grinned as they both stared into each other's eyes and started to lean in. They were about to kiss when the speakers when off.

"Hey guys! We'll be arriving at Radient Garden soon. So get to the bridge and prepare for departure" said Riku, who was on the speaker. Sora and Kairi looked at each other and quickly moved away, blushing crimson out of embrassement.

"Come on, Sora. Let's get to the bridge." Kairi got up and walked out the room with Sora following.

"Man, that was close" he thought to himself as he went to the bridge.

BOWBOWBOW

In a world very similar to Transverse Town but a bit bigger and more futuristic looking, a boy with red hair that was a bit spiky was running down the street. He looked similar to Sora with the same kind of hair style and innocent blue eyes. He wore a red and white sleeveless shirt with an armoured shoulder guard. He had a black glove on his right hand with a few markings appearing at the top of the glove. He was wearing ripped blue jeans with white trainers. He had a staff held on his back behind his backpack which had something white in it.

He was running through everyone to get somewhere. Citizens would yell 'watch it' or 'be careful like your brothers'. He came to a large white building which he ran into even though it had a 'no entrance' sign on it. "DANIEL!" he shouted as he stormed into a meeting full of people, a person with long blue hair stood up.

He was wearing similar clothing to what the boy was wearing. The only difference was that he had a blue and white shirt, he didn't have a glove on his right hand and he had the 'kingdom key' keyblade instead of a staff.

"Brian! What is so IMPORTANT that you just had to interrupt this meeting, even though there are lots of signs outside saying 'DO NOT ENTER'" shouted the man who was probably Daniel.

"It's Disney Castle" he said as he caught his breath, "It has been taken by the Unbirth." The crowd started to shout all over the hall saying, 'Disney Castle can't be taken by darkness' and 'what are the Unbirth?' Daniel gestured to the two people next to him to get up.

"Brian. Go into the next room. We will continue this talk in there." commanded Daniel. Brian nodded and when in the other room, he was soon followed by Daniel and two other men.

One of the men looked a few years younger that Daniel, he had a purple t-shirt and his right arm was robotic. His hair was short but had three hair spikes at the front that were purple. The other one had a black t-shirt with orange markings on the back. He was wearing a red bandana that covered his hair and had a giant hammer strapped on his back. They came in and all gave Brian a curious look.

"Why couldn't you wait till the meeting was over?" complained the robotic arm man, "Now the whole of Little Devon is thinking about what's happening in the universe!"

"And how did you find out what happened to Disney Castle before we did?" asked Daniel

"And why have you got my white cloak?" asked the other man. Daniel and the robotic armed man noticed the bit of white cloak coming out of Brian's brown bag. Their eyes widened as Daniel grabbed the cloak from Brian's bag.

"This is Scott's cloak!" shouted the robotic armed man.

"Hey, Daniel, Kyle, Scott." said Brian, "I'd love to hear you yell at me for the 500th time," a hint of sarcasm in his voice, "but we have to prepare for their arrival."

"Who's arriving?" asked Scott

"The Keyblade master. The chosen fool" he said slowly. The three men looked at each other with seriousness, knowing that their hard work will have to begin very soon.

Kingdommad