I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters.

Plague

Tyler walked onto the bridge, yawning and looking around. Lightning was standing beside the hologram map of all of the worlds with Fang and smiled over at him as he stepped ino the room before turning back to the map. Fang snuck him a wink and Tyler rolled his eyes, walking over to where Vanille was watching the darkness around them.

"So, any progress with Fang?" Tyler asked.

"No," Vanille sighed. "I don't have enough courage to say anything."

"You should," Tyler said. "But I'm not really one to give advice. I nearly lost Lightning and I'm still too much a coward to say anything."

"It's fine," Vanille smiled, before the smile grew. "We're here."

"Where?" Tyler asked, looking around.

In front of the ship was a world with a massive, pure white tower on one side, and a sea of black, thorny roots on the other.

"Where is this?" Tyler asked.

"One of the worlds where our pilot found traces of Serah's presence," Vanille said. "Are you feeling up to going?"

"Alice might be down there," Tyler said. "Nothing will stop me from going there."

Vanille nodded and they walked over to the others, Tyler not even bothering to ask Lightning if she was going. He knew her answer.

"Noel, you want in?" Tyler asked. "Just in case you get to play the hero?"

"Happily," Noel nodded.

"Alright," the pilot said. "I'll send you down now, then."

Tyler glanced at Vanille and winked and Vanille blushed just before light blinded Tyler and the others. When it cleared, they were standing in the center of town, a short distance away from the castle and with no one anywhere nearby.

"Where is everyone?" Noel asked.

"Hey you!" a voice shouted suddenly, everyone turning to look at a soldier on top of the castle walls. "Get inside before you catch the plague!"

They all sprinted for the castle instantly. Within minutes they were inside the entry hall, staring at dozens of people, all lying motionless on makeshift beds, all seemingly dead.

"Oh great, more comas," Tyler groaned.

"You're not from around here, are you?" a scrawny man asked.

"No," Tyler said. "What's happening here?"

"It's terrible," the man said, looking around, Tyler noticing that everyone in a coma was a young attractive female. "All of our young women have fallen into comas. More fall by the day. And then, a few days later, they die."

"What?" Tyler asked.

"Their bodies just shut down and they die," the man said. "My...my sister...she died three days ago. My fiancé is...she can't have more than a day or two left."

"Heartless?" Tyler asked, looking to Lightning and Noel.

"Never heard of them dong this," Lightning said, staring at one of the women. "They still have their hearts. Heartless don't waste food. They wouldn't let the women die without their hearts being taken first. I think this is something else."

"Go home," Tyler said. "Send Sazh down."

"No way," Lightning said. "I'm not afraid of this. I'm not running away from it. Besides, Serah might..."

"She's fine," Tyler said. "If she's here, I'll bring her back with me. If not, we'll look somewhere else. But if it's only women being affected, I need to know you're safe, so go home!"

"No!" Lightning said. "I'm not leaving and there's nothing you can do about it! Just accept it and help me find whatever's causing this so we can save these women."

Tyler sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Fine. Let's look around for Serah and ask around for leads."

Lightning nodded and Noel moved to the townspeople who were awake as Tyler and Lightning began to look around for Serah among the sleeping ones. Once they didn't find her, they began to talk to the rest of the townspeople as well, asking about leads for the plague, or if there had been a girl that looked like Lightning there before. They both found out that she had safely left the world without catching the plague, and that there were no leads. Finally, they met back up by the door, Noel walking over as well.

"Any luck?" Noel asked.

"None," Tyler said. "They were here but they left. And there's no evidence of any kind for what this might be."

"I see," Noel nodded. "I was afraid of that. Maybe it really is a plague."

"Maybe our pilot can scan the world for heartless," Tyler suggested.

"No luck," Lightning said. "I can't reach him from inside the castle. The walls are blocking the signal."

"We can teleport ourselves from one world to the next if we wanted to, but we can't get good enough signal to make a call?" Tyler scoffed. "That's some bullshit."

I'm going to try and find whoever owns this castle," Noel said. "Maybe they know something their citizens don't."

"I'm going to keep asking around here," Tyler said. "Maybe we missed something."

"I'm going to head outside to try and call the ship," Lightning said.

"Be careful, please," Tyler said.

"I'll be fine," Lightning smiled. "I'll be back before you can say hurry up."

"Hurry up," Tyler said.

Lightning rolled her eyes and turned, walking out of the castle, the door swinging closed behind her. Noel turned and walked the other way, heading toward a large door on the far side. Tyler turned, walking around and talking to people again. After about ten minutes, he looked around. Still no Lightning. He turned making his way to the door and slipping outside, looking around. Nothing.

"Lightning?" he called out.

Nothing.

"Lightning!" He walked away from the castle, following the wall up a hill.

After a ways, he stopped, looking around. He could hear something. Muttering. He turned to an alleyway, walking slowly toward it, readying himself for a fight. As he reached the mouth of the alleyway, he peeked into it, stopping as he saw a man in fancy but ripped clothes, with disheveled brown hair and a tattered cape kneeling on the ground, rocking slightly and muttering. Tyler was about to call out to him when he froze, staring at the legs peeking out from under the cape behind the man. He knew those combat boots. He had been hit in the head with them enough times that he would recognize them anywhere.

"Lightning!" Tyler shouted, summoning his keyblade and sprinting toward her.

The man sprang to his feet, spinning and drawing a sword, Tyler slashing at him only for the man to block it and leap away.

"What did you do to her!?" Tyler shouted, watching the darkness curling off of the man's body.

The man muttered something before turning and sprinting away. Tyler turned to Lightning and knelt, feeling for a pulse. It was weak, but she was alive. He picked her up, sprinting back to the door just as it opened and Noel peeked out, shouting in surprise and stepping out of the way. Tyler ran in, setting Lightning down, someone running over immediately and quickly doing a cursory examination of Lightning, checking for injuries, it seemed.

"She banged her head pretty good when she fell, probably she'll have a concussion," the man said. "But...if we can't stop this plague and find a way to reverse it, it won't matter."

"There was a man," Tyler said. "His clothes looked like he might have been a lord, or maybe a prince, but they were all ripped up."

"Prince Phillip," a man off to the side said, walking toward them.

Tyler only spared him a glance, but even that was enough to tell him that it was the king speaking.

"He was our beloved princess's true love," the king said. "My daughter was once under a horrible spell, and slept endlessly, unable to be awakened no matter what was tried. Then one day, Prince Phillip arrived. He fought the wicked witch Maleficent, who had cursed my daughter, then awakened my daughter with true love's kiss. However, not long after, my daughter was taken away, never to return. The loss changed Prince Phillip. He became obsessed with finding her, and then when he could not, he became angry. And then, one day, he simply left. He moved into Maleficent's castle and hasn't been seen since."

"He's putting your women to sleep," Tyler said. "Not some plague."

"I see," the king sighed. "Then he is trying to recreate my daughter."

"What?" Noel asked, brow furrowing.

"He is trying to find someone to love, and to love him, and to awaken them with a kiss," the king said. "Just as before. That way he'll know it's true love."

"Except that Maleficent hasn't put anyone under a curse since your daughter, so there's no one asleep," Tyler said.

"There's plenty now," Noel said. "Why hasn't he woken any up?"

"Maybe because we're guarding them all," Tyler said. "Maybe he can't. Judging by the way he looks, though, and by the darkness radiating from him, I'd say he can't."

"Wait, darkness?" Noel asked. "Oh shit! That actually makes sense!"

"What do you mean?" Tyler asked.

"He's possessed by a heartless," Noel said. "That specific type is called, quite fittingly, a possessor heartless, because that's what they do. They possess people and make them turn on their allies and kill them. As they do, they leech off of the person who they've possessed's heart. They get stronger with one heart than a normal heartless would by stealing ten that way. That's also why these girls have their hearts. The heartless would make Prince Phillip lose his mind and become obsessive in order to make him fall to the darkness faster. The prince isn't trying to save a girl from sleeping, he's putting them to sleep either as a tribute to the princess, or because that's how he met her, and that's what he associates her with."

"Can he be saved?" Tyler asked. "And if we destroy the heartless, will Lightning wake up?"

"I don't know," Noel admitted. "It's worth a shot."

Jut then, a column of light appeared beside Tyler, Fang stepping out.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Tyler asked.

"It's a possessor Heartless, right?" Fang asked. "Then I don't have to worry about catching some plague. I just need to not be caught alone by that asshole."

"Okay," Tyler nodded. "Let's go."

Noel and Fang nodded, the king giving them directions to Maleficent's castle, and they all left, moving as quickly as they could.

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