Here's the last chapter Penelope will be appearing in for a little while. Depending on the length of it, we may get to Sora's awakening, but it really just depends.

Like usual, I own nothing but my OCs.

Now, I present chapter 4!

-o-o-o-o-

Chapter 4: Sora's Awakening

(Hall of Light)

Zia was somewhat saddened yet happy by the outcome of Sora's awakening. She felt somewhat at peace knowing that Roxas didn't decide to use violence on Sora, but she was also sad he was gone. For a while now, the lady of light knew that Penelope was already affected by this knowing the outcome, so she got why Penelope didn't want to see Sora at this time.

The woman almost wanted to see Penelope now. But she really couldn't, knowing the weakness of her powers. It would be far too dangerous to risk going out now, mainly due the Organization XIII's emergence. She feared that if she went out and were caught by nobodies now, with them somewhat knowing her disposition, she could end up being a prisoner. If not, she could die too with its risk, and she couldn't go into another comatose state now.

She knew that Penelope needed her, yet she could do nothing.

So now, it was time. She found a piece of paper and a pen and began writing something down (being the first thing in a long time). Upon adding her signature and reading over what she wrote (which was a letter), she did one last thing.

"Maria. Where are you?" She called. Maria appeared with a flash of light and Zia sighed in relief.

She created a pale yellow ribbon out of light fragments and rolled up the paper before tying it. Standing up, she turned to Maria. "I believe now is the time for you to meet Penelope. While you're there, could you please deliver this to her?" Zia asked as she approached, presenting the letter.

Maria's brown eyes stared at it rather puzzled before she took the letter and attached it to her belt under her tunic. She furrowed her eyebrows together and then asked, "Well…how will I know where Penelope is? I'm still not used to this idea of being her somewhat mentor."

Zia sighed. "She's in Twilight Town, Maria. Please, go to her."

Maria saluted Zia and straightened up. "Yes ma'am! Right away!"

The other woman scurried over to another side of the room on a platform and vanished with a flash of light like she came in. A sad smile appeared on Zia's lips before she turned around and moved back to the center of the room and sat back down, continuing to observe what was to happen next.

XxXxX

Penelope reappeared out of the mansion gates in the real Twilight Town, adjusting to the temperature a moment as she stepped out of her corridor of darkness. She was happy she could finally use one at this point, but she doubted she would be able to use it on her adventure with Sora as much (noting they had the Gummi Ship and the corridors were dangerous for most to use).

She ran a hand through her much longer brown hair. Now that she thought about it, she really had matured a bit more over the course of time Sora was asleep. She could tell she was a bit taller for one thing, and was a bit curvier as she was developing a bit more.

However, she wasn't going to take the time to look through a mirror. She knew Sora would be showing up outside of the gates pretty soon, so she decided to take her leave. The Guardian left through the forest.

She headed up to the marketplace plaza through there and silently walked through the streets. Her destination would be to the Train Station where the clock tower was as she knew she had someplace to go. Sora was probably going to be there at some point, but she didn't know when. Still, she could wait for him.

She had ended up waiting for him for nearly a year now, despite that it took a lot to wake him up.

…Like that girl and Roxas having to basically be sacrificed.

Penelope felt her heart twinge as she was saddened by it. Regardless of such though, she kept moving. As she was going up through the station heights, she decided to call for Zia. It was a bit fuzzy of what exactly she was supposed to do next.

Though, Zia didn't come right away. Penelope sighed. "Zia? Where are you? Can you even hear me?"

When she got a response, she didn't hear Zia's voice. "Hey-o! How are ya doing today?"

Penelope immediately flipped around to see a completely different person. Her brown hair was up in a ponytail, and she also happened to have a brown vest and brown fingerless gloves (with her boots also being brown). She was also wearing these capris lined with silver and a green tunic laced with brown ribbon. Her brown eyes also appeared cheery and enthusiastic.

There appeared to be something on her capris, as it went under her tunic, but was probably under her belt. Still, Penelope was unsure who she was, or why she appeared instead of Zia. She instinctively summoned Leviathan and aimed it at her. The woman put her hands up.

"Okaaay, you're a bit violent by the looks of it, but I'm not gonna hurt you. Zia sent me."

"…What? How do you know Zia? Who are you, for that matter?" Penelope asked, raising an eyebrow as she dismissed her Keyblade.

"I'm Maria! I'm kinda like Zia's secretary, assistant and her best friend."

Penelope frowned at her, summoning her Keyblade once more. "Last I checked, Zia didn't have any friends I think. How do I know you're not tricking me?"

Maria pulled something off of her belt, and it looked to be a letter. She offered it to Penelope, who dismissed Leviathan again and hesitantly took it. Pulling off the ribbon, Penelope proceeded to read the letter. It described the situation and why Zia wasn't there, and why Maria was in her place.

Though she was still suspicious, Penelope decided to trust Maria… but only for now.

"Fine. Why exactly are you here now, Maria?"

"I had to drop off that letter and introduce myself. Though you have somewhere you need to be, don'tcha?" Maria asked, putting her hands on her hips. Penelope perked up and nodded, turning in the direction of the clock tower.

She ended up ditching the other woman, but Penelope got why. "Okaaaay! C'ya later, Penelope! Just call me if you need anything!" Maria shouted before vanishing.

Penelope got up to the Station Plaza and into the station while Sora was awakening and a hooded Mickey Mouse was getting off of a blue and gold train (which was mysterious in itself). Penelope ended up bumping into him.

"Oh! Your Majesty!"

Mickey tensed up before looking to see Penelope. "Guardian Penelope? Wait, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with Sora?"

"I couldn't bear to see him right now. But I need to ask you something really quickly before you go."

"Alright then. Go ahead." Mickey permitted.

"After all this was over, I was wondering…"

XxXxX

"Sora?"

It was dark, and Sora was unsure where he was, or who was talking to him. He was still somewhat sleeping when he replied. "Who's there?"

He heard voices from outside where he was at. "Sora!" The first voice he heard sounded like Donald.

"Sora, wake up." The second voice belonged to Goofy.

Finally, Sora awakened. The pod opened up again and he saw Donald and Goofy. As Sora was stretching, Donald and Goofy started bursting out into laughter. Why?

Well, you know Sora's outfit from KH1? That outfit?

Sora happened to be wearing that over the course of his year in slumber. And Sora happened to grow while he was asleep (which was expected, noting the process it took to wake him up).

So, his outfit…. Well, now it was really, really small on him. Like, hilariously small.

Like small to the point where the bottoms of his pants were basically at but also slightly above his upper thighs. Sora didn't really notice, but he was happy to see Donald and Goofy.

"Donald, Goofy!" Sora greeted them, hopping out of the pod and pulling his friends into his arms. As the three of them reunited, they hopped around joyously in a circle. Jiminy, who had also been asleep, climbed up on Sora's shoulder and stretched whilst yawning.

"That was some nap!" Jiminy exclaimed before hopping down to the floor.

"You mean; we were asleep?" Sora asked back, his eyes widening.

Jiminy shrugged. "I guess we musta been, or else we wouldn't be so drowsy."

"When do ya think we went to sleep?" asked Goofy to Jiminy, or at least anyone who knew.

Donald tried to recall when. Sora was the one who recapped everything as he pondered on it. "Let's see… we defeated Ansem…"

"Yep." said Goofy with a nod of agreement.

"...restored peace to the world...found Kairi... Oh yeah, and then we went to look for Riku. I think that's right so far." Sora stated, before looking at the group and having a quick mental roll call.

Sora then found something to be very much wrong. He, Donald, Goofy and Jiminy were all asleep, and now present in this room. He was pretty sure Penelope was with them during their last adventure, but she wasn't here.

"Wait… where's Penelope? Wasn't she with us when we started to look for Riku?" Sora asked, searching around.

"When we woke up, we didn't see her anywhere." Donald replied.

Goofy thought about it. "Maybe the journal has a clue. What does your journal say, Jiminy?" the dog asked to the cricket.

Jiminy decided to go and open up his journal to see if it could shed any sort of light onto this situation. He was somewhat upset and disappointed to find that literally all of his hard work was gone, but all he found was a sentence, which said "Thank Naminé".

"Gee, there's only one sentence... "Thank Naminé." Hmm... I wonder who that is." Jiminy reported to the others. Even if that were the case, it was rather unhelpful when trying to recall what happened. Or where the heck their other companion was.

So for now, the best thing they could do was try to adjust their surroundings. It was honestly the best thing they could do, noting they were asleep for a while and had no clue where they were. And if they looked around, they could maybe go and find Penelope.

That was the plan. And so, Sora, Donald, and Goofy headed out (with Jiminy hopping onto Sora's shoulder) to do some reconnaissance, figure out just what had happened over the amount of time they were asleep and also find Penelope.

It would be hard to start the adventure without one of their key party members, after all.

-o-o-o-o-

I suppose this was more of a 75% Penelope chapter and a 25% Sora one. Then again, I didn't want him to start traveling around Twilight Town yet until the next chapter. Especially noting how long the first three chapters were. Plus, this one was kinda short.

Still, despite she's mentioned, I believe I'll have Twilight Town and the Mysterious Tower exploration split up into a few parts. As result, Penelope won't be appearing for a few chapters, depending on how many chapters there will be and their length.

Other than that, please review if you'd like, please try to refrain from flaming and please tell me how I can improve.

I will see you all in the next chapter.

Ciao!