A/N: Yay! 83 reviews! Most reviewed story I have! Ok, so, now we really are getting into the plot of 358/2 Days, which is one of my favorites in the franchise! Yeah…well, its Friday! WHOO! Ok, ok enough of my pointless blabbering, and on to the story!
Hope hummed a tune as she walked around in the library, putting back books that belonged on the shelves, when she was interrupted by someone coming in. She turned around and smiled when she saw it was Roxas.
"Good morning, Roxas. What brings you to the library this early in the morning?" She asked, placing another book back on the shelf.
"Have you seen number XIV?" Roxas asked, a bit of a hopeful expression appearing on his face.
"Hmm? Xion? Sorry, but I cant I say I have."
Roxas sighed sadly, looking down at the floor. "It's been ten days now already…"
Hope looked at him sadly, "I'm sorry, Roxas. If I could tell you anything, I would, but I left the castle just as soon as Xion joined, so there's an awful lot I missed." Hope said, patting his shoulder in hopes to sooth him.
"I feel bad. I promised we'd all get together for some ice cream." Roxas mumbled.
"Well, although I cant exactly be of much help, I'll try to pick some peoples brains and see if they know anything, ok? For now, you just focus on work, all right?" Hope asked, giving him a smile.
Roxas looked up, a smile appearing on his face now. "Really? Thanks, Hope."
Hope smiled as she watched him exit the room, shortly following after and walking down the hallway, the heels of her shoes clicking against the tile, making it echo off the walls. The one thing she would never get used to was how the castle was always empty and eerily quiet, unless Axel was yelling about something. She walked into the Grey Area and was immediately met by Axel. "Good morning, sunshine!" Axel greeted her by pulling her into a big hug, causing her to giggle.
"Morning!"
"Axel, Hope. Stop fooling around and get to work." Saix ordered, shooting a glare their way. Instantly, Axel opened up a portal, dragging Hope through it with him.
"Woah…this place is…amazingly big!" I exclaimed as I stared up at the statues that were by the doors of what was apparently the Coliseum. The size of this place was huge!
"You got that right!" Axel agreed, glancing around. "Hm…such a big area means twice as much ground to cover. Let's split up. I'll look around the town, and you can look around the Coliseum. Sound good?"
"Ok, sounds good to me. I guess we can meet back here in awhile, ok?"
"Yeah. Remember, try not to look to suspicious looking!" He called as he headed off for the direction of the town, while I stayed in the general area of the Coliseum. Immediately, several heartless popped up, and I summoned my sword, engaging in battle, easily getting rid of them within seconds.
"Hmm….I wonder, if there's any kind of event going on now." I asked myself. If there was, it would explain the reason no one was really around at the moment. I headed over to the entrance and moved to push the doors open. They wouldn't budge. Well, so much for going inside.
"Looks like you're a little too late," I turned around upon the voice of a stranger speaking, finding a man with black hair that was a bit spikey, and wearing some armor, a sword in a sheath on his back. "The Coliseum just closed for some type of 'private' training session." He explained to me as he approached, stopping right in front of me and staring up at the doors.
"Oh, I see…what a shame." I began to feel as if I should've have gone with Axel instead of having us split up.
The guy looked back down at me and I noticed he had the most amazing, vibrant blue eyes I had ever seen. They were like the color of the sky almost. If he hadn't of started talking again, I probably would've kept staring at him. "Were you here to sign up and enter the games?"
"Uh….games?" I asked, feeling a bit stupid for not even knowing what he was talking about.
He laughed, grinning. "Heh, you must just be a tourist passing through, huh?"
"I guess you could say that…although you've suddenly piqued my curiosity about this place." I explained, giving him a small smile, "What about you though?"
"Me? I dunno…it's been awhile since I was last in the games. I'm here on vacation, visiting some family. Oh! I'm Zack, by the way." He introduced, holding out a hand for me to shake.
I took a hold of his hand and shook it, "Nice to meet you, Zack. My name's Hope."
"Nice to meet you, Hope."
0o0o0o0oo0
Zack and Hope talked about themselves with each other, each of them listening to the other in interest. While they talked, Zack noticed that his new friend looked a lot like someone he had once met 6 years ago. When he had saw Hope, he had thought it was that one girl, but when he noticed brown hair instead of blue, he realized he had the wrong person. He had always wondered what had happened to the three friends he had met all those years ago.
"Say, did you ever meet three people named Ventus, Aqua, and Terra?" Zack asked Hope, surprising her when she recognized the first two names immediately.
"I met Ventus and Aqua when I was 15. As for a Terra…I don't recall ever meeting anyone by that name." Hope said, looking up at the sky sadly, remembering that Ventus had lost his heart, while Aqua was…well, missing.
"Really? When did you last see them?" Zack asked, hoping that it hadn't been too long.
"Its been six years since I saw them. I always wonder what happened to them…." Hope said, lying to Zack about what happened to Ventus and Aqua.
"Oh, I see…Well-" He was cut off by giant Heartless, a dark side to be exact, appearing. Hope stood up in surprise, glaring at the thing of darkness.
"Stupid heartless…" She mumbled under her breath, ready to move forward, only to be stopped when Zack jumped in front of her, his sword in hand.
"Get somewhere safe! I'll take care of this monster!" Zack exclaimed, ready to play hero to a damsel in distress, only Hope was not in distress. Instead of running away, she moved to stand next to Zack, and raised her arm, Hope's Sky immediately appearing in her hand.
"Believe me, you cant take this guy on your own!" Hope sent him a smirk, causing him to grin. The two ran forward and began to attack it, slashing back and forth, and dodging each attack that got sent at them. Hope jumped up into the air and used a blizzaga spell, sending it at the Darkisides face, while Zack focused on attacking the arms of it. Once she was back on the ground, and determined that it was weakened enough to finish it, she turned to Zack. "Throw me in the air!" He did as she had said, and grabbed her hands, spinning around and hurling her straight at the heartless. Hope aimed her sword at the heartless, her sword lighting up as soon as it pierced through it, everything becoming consumed by the light.
Zack uncovered his eyes, once he was sure the light was gone, and looked up just in time to see a pink heart float up and disappear. "Wow…That was cool!" Zack exclaimed, causing Hope laugh.
"Thanks, I guess…"
"Hey, do you have a dream?" Zack asked all the sudden.
"A…dream? Yeah, I do. My dream…is to help save the people I lost. If I can do that, then I think I can prove to myself that I can help everyone. What about you, Zack?" She cocked her head to the side, looking at him in curiosity. "Do you have a dream?"
He grinned, "Yeah. My dream is to become a hero!"
"A hero, huh? You remind me of this boy I grew up with. His name was Cloud. But, unlike you, he wasn't as outgoing as you are. Instead, he was extremely shy and quiet, but he looked up to the general of my home world. I remember him saying he wanted to be a hero just like him when he got older. I wonder if he ever achieved his dream…" Hope trailed off, smiling as she thought of her old friends. "I think…you're on your way to becoming a hero. Just don't ever lose sight of that dream, and you can be whatever you want, Zack."
He smiled, "Ok. Thank you, Hope."
She nodded her head and opened her mouth to reply, only she was interrupted by someone yelling her name. "Hey, Hope!" Axel called, waving his hand at her, "It's time to go home!"
She rolled her eyes at Axel, "Ok, I'll be with you in a second!" She turned back to Zack.
"Will I ever see you around here again?" Zack asked, hoping that he would be able to see his new friend again soon.
She smiled at him. "Of course you will! We're friends now after all, right?"
He nodded in reply. "Right."
Hope grinned, reaching into her pocket and turning around, a small glow coming from her hand before she turned around again, opening her hand to reveal another luck charm, this one green and yellow. "Here, take this as a reminder of our friendship. That way, we'll always be connected, ok?"
Zack looked down at the heart shaped charm, studying each little detail on it. He smiled as it glowed softly, "I like it a lot. Thanks Hop-" She was already gone when he looked up, no longer standing in front of him like she had been. He smiled again before looking down at the charm once more. After several more minutes, he pocketed it and looked up to the sky.
'Don't ever lose sight of that dream, and you can become whatever want, Zack.'
"Thank you, Hope. I hope we meet again one day…just like I hope we meet Terra, Aqua, and Ventus again."
A/N: So crappy…ok so I made a new picture of Hope, and I posted it up on Deviantart, so go to my profile page for the link.Ok, so I hope someone out there didn't find this chapter all that crappy, and will be nice enough to leave a review. Later Taters!