- Chapter 1 -

Dragon Slaying

Author's Note:

To answer my guest reviewer, I don't really plan on featuring the Key to Return Hearts, sorry. In any event, stay tuned...

I would like to thank PrismRain13, Kristen Verne, and xxNeverEndingTwilightxx for reviewing, PrismRain13, Kristen Verne, ArisatoKirin, and grassrfire101 for faving, and PrismRain13, Kristen Verne, and ArisatoKirin for following.

Soundtrack for this chapter:

* Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX - Shrouding Dark Cloud: www. youtube watch?v = 2HccRrDxOSw

The Lanes Between

Flying through the Lanes Between was the Gummi Ship that had been used for the past two years by Sora and his friends, the Highwind. Though it looked like a blocky child's toy on the outside, the interior was quite comfortable. The walls and ceiling were composed of a silver metal, and the floor was covered in a blue carpet with a red rug on top. The front of the ship consisted of three large silver spinning chairs, in which sat Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. In front of them was a dashboard decorated with several buttons and controls, with Mickey piloting the ship. Riku and Kairi were seated on a comfortable red couch that was built into the wall, with Lea and Max were seated on an identical couch across from them.

Mickey turned back to look at the others. "We're approaching Wutai right now," he said. No sooner had he said that then a loud warning siren went off. Everyone snapped to attention.

"What's going on?!" Kairi demanded. Mickey looked at the screen to see a large "Warning!" reading going off.

"There's a powerful Heartless reading coming from Wutai!" he shouted. Kairi gasped.

"Oh no, Sora!" she exclaimed. "Floor it, guys! He might be in trouble!"

Mickey quickly hit the throttle, and the Gummi Ship took off at full speed for Wutai.

Wutai

*The Dark Dragon let out a powerful roar that seemed to shake the very air. Hikari drew her sword, a look of determination on her face. Even if she had never seen a Heartless that big before, she wasn't about to back down.

Hiro closed his eyes intently, focusing his power on his own sword. From what Sora had managed to learn, Hiro's sword was called the Twilight Blade, named as such because it had been imbued with the combined powers of light and darkness upon its initial forging by Hikari's ancestor, who had ruled Wutai during the days of the legendary Keyblade War. Since then, it had been passed down through the family to the next heir.

The aura of light became dominant on the blade, and Hiro swiped it horizontally, sending a crescent-shaped wave of light from the sword. The wave slammed into the Dark Dragon's foreleg, scorching it. The dragon bellowed in pain and rage before lashing out with its tail, catching Hiro across the chest and sending him flying through the wall.

"Papa!" Hikari screamed, fearful of her father's condition. Sora quickly dashed over to the hole left by Hiro's impact, and saw Hiro laying there, dazed, but otherwise alright.

"Sir, are you okay?" he asked, helping Hiro up. Hiro nodded.

"Don't worry about me," he said. "Let's just slay that Heartless before it destroys the village!"

The two dashed out to see Hikari standing before the Dark Dragon, her sword held out behind her and her eyes closed in concentration, with cherry blossom petals descending from the sky out of nowhere. As the dragon glared down at her, Hikari's eyes snapped wide open, and she darted forward faster than the eye could see, slashing her sword across the Dark Dragon's ankle. A split second passed, and black fog spurted out of the wound, with the dragon howling in pain as Hikari backflipped out of the way. Sora recognized the attack as the Zantetsuken technique, which he and Riku themselves knew, and which Hikari had used against him during their training.

Mustering up his magic power, Sora launched into his Sonic Blade attack, darting around with lightning speed and stabbing the Dark Dragon repeatedly. The dragon lunged forward, trying to bite him, but Sora casually dodge rolled out of the way.

The dragon opened its mouth wide, and the three could see its mouth glowing with fire. Just as the Dark Dragon let loose with a wave of black-and-purple flames, Sora already had a plan.

"Get close to me! Now!" he yelled. Hiro and Hikari obediently jumped behind him, and Sora cast a Reflega spell around them. The flames billowed around the magic barrier, but held, and the field exploded in a burst of light, wounding the Dark Dragon.

Sora immediately took the opportunity to go in for the kill, with Hikari close behind. With perfect synchronization, they jumped high into the air and sliced cleanly through the massive trunk of the Dark Dragon's neck.

With that, the Dark Dragon let out a final roar of pain and fell to the ground, a large pink heart already floating through the sky, freed from the monster's body. As the Heartless perished, Sora and Hikari whirled around to face Young Xehanort, who had stood off to the side and watched the entire fight.*

"Sora!"

Sora, Hikari, and Hiro whirled around to see Riku, Kairi, Lea, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Max dashing up to them, their weapons drawn.

Riku's Keyblade, the Way to the Dawn, greatly resembled Riku's other weapon, the Soul Eater, except it consisted of a straight black-and-red demonic wing with small angelic wings serving as the teeth, with the guard consisting of one angelic wing and one demonic wing. The key chain was the Heartless Emblem, but without the spiked bars crossing it.

Kairi's Keyblade, Destiny's Embrace, reminded Sora greatly of their home, the Destiny Islands. It was round and curvaceous to the point of appearing harmless. One side of the hilt was formed in the shape of a breaking ocean wave, while the other was formed into a beige vine of sand that wrapped around the shaft, which was colored to resemble a sunset. The vine connected to a bouquet of colorful flowers, which formed the teeth of the Keyblade and entwined to outline a heart. A red silken key chain connects the hilt to a token of a Paopu fruit.

Mickey's Keyblade, the Kingdom Key D, was a mirror of Sora's own Kingdom Key. Where Sora's Keyblade was silver, Mickey's was gold, and vice-versa. Even the rainguard, which was blue on Sora's Kingdom Key, was red on Mickey's, although both Keyblades possessed a dark-colored handle.

Lea's Keyblade was called Raging Fire. The guard resembled his signature Chakrams, the Eternal Flames, but with a straight hilt rather than a cross-shaped handle. The blade and teeth took the shape of a translucent streak of yellow-orange flames, with the teeth forming the shape of a hook. The Keyblade's chain links resembled Lea's Chakrams; the token also resembled a pure silver version of the weapons.

Donald and Goofy weren't Keyblade wielders themselves, but had their own weapons. Donald wielded the Mage's Staff, a magical staff with a handle that was black with a red pommel, grey rings on its handle, while the head of the staff was bent and dark violet and had a blue "collar" with white edges folded over it. The upper half sported a brown hat with a long, curled tip and a black, silver-buckled belt around it. Goofy held his trademark Knight's Shield, which was a circular sky blue shield with thin gold edges and a large black silhouette of Mickey's head emblazoned on its face.

While Max had no shield, he had a red-and-yellow skateboard that bore a red-and-blue arrow, with a silhouette of Mickey's head similar to that on the Knight's Shield on the top and bottom.

After a brief confused glance, Sora, Hikari, and Hiro turned back to Young Xehanort as the other seven ran up, ready for a fight. After glancing over the group of ten, Young Xehanort wisely decided to cut his losses and summoned a corridor of darkness.

"I'll let you go for now, Sora," he said as he backed into the corridor. "But know this: you will be ours."

"We'll never let that happen!" Kairi shouted. Before the group could do anything else, Young Xehanort vanished into the dark corridor, which sealed up behind him.

After a few tense moments, Hikari turned to the newcomers.

"So, are these your friends that you told us so much about?" she asked curiously. Sora grinned.

"You got it," he said.

Some time later...

Sora and his friends were seated in the meeting room of Hikari's family house, seated before Hiro and Hikari's mother Akiko, a beautiful woman in her early thirties who resembled an older version of Hikari, with pale skin, long black hair, and green eyes. She was dressed in a beautiful lapis blue kimono with a deep purple obi, with purple butterflies embroidered on the sleeves and skirt of the kimono in a pattern. They were currently meeting with the two to discuss Hikari's request to accompany Sora.

"So, you wish to depart with Sora and his friends on their quest?" Hiro asked, looking at Sora and Hikari. Hikari nodded.

"Yes, Papa," she said. "I just can't sit idly by while Xehanort and his forces threaten innocent people to get there way. I have to do something. And, well..." she trailed off as she looked at Sora, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks.

"With due respect, sir, ma'am, we'd be happy to have Hikari along," Sora said, seemingly oblivious to Hikari blushing. "She helped out quite a bit with that dragon Heartless, and we need all the help we can get."

Hiro thought for a moment, then smiled. "Very well, then," he said. "If Hikari is with you and your group, I will allow it." Akiko nodded in agreement.

Hikari broke out in a big smile and hugged both of her parents tightly. "Thank you, Mama and Papa!" she cried out. Hiro gently disentangled himself from his daughter's embrace.

"Before you go, I want you to take this." he said, handing Hikari his sheathed katana. Hikari gasped.

"The Twilight Blade?" she said, refraining from touching it. "But Papa-"

"Take it," Hiro insisted, holding it out to her. "You'll need it where you're going." After a moment, Hikari took the sword.

"I will wield it with pride," she said, tears in her eyes before hugging her father again. After a moment, she broke the embrace and turned to her mother, who pulled her into a hug.

"Be safe, my child," Akiko whispered as she gently kissed Hikari's forehead. "And come home soon."

"I will," Hikari replied as she pulled away from the hug and turned to Sora's group. "Okay, Sora. I'm ready when you are."

"Alrighty then," Sora said, turning to Hiro and Akiko and bowing politely. "Thank you for letting me stay here and helping me train. I owe you."

"You're quite welcome, my boy," Akiko said. "And-" Mickey cut in.

"Don't worry, we'll bring Hikari home safe." he said. Akiko smiled.

"Thank you, King Mickey." she said. With that, the group stood and made their way out the door. Akiko sniffled, and Hiro put a arm around her shoulders.

"My baby girl..." Akiko said in a voice choked with tears.

"Hikari will be fine," Hiro reassured as he pulled her into an embrace.

The Highwind

The group made their way to the Gummi Ship, with Hikari gaping at it with awe.

"So this is a Gummi Ship?" she said, having heard of them from Sora's stories. "It's so cool!"

"Yeah, it's a nice ride," Riku said. "Well, let's go. Xehanort won't wait."

The group filed onto the ship, with Mickey pressing a button and retracting the walkway. Donald seated himself behind the wheel, with Mickey and Goofy sitting on either side of him. Sora, Riku, and Kairi sat down on one of the couches, with Lea, Max, and Hikari doing the same.

"Okay, is everyone ready?" Donald declared, getting answers in the affirmative. "Then here we go!"

With that, the Highwind rose into the air and blasted off into the sky, on its way to another world.

Author's Note:

Okay, I'll just come right out and say it. Hiro and Akiko were seventeen and sixteen, respectively, when Hikari was born. I'll reveal more of Hikari's backstory later on.

As for why I named her mother Akiko, it was just the first Japanese name that popped into my head.

Max fighting with a skateboard also originated from PrismRain13, again used with her permission.

Please R&R. Until next time!