- Chapter 2 -

City of Shadow

Author's Note:

I forgot to mention this before, but in this fic, Kingdom Hearts 3D takes place about a year after Kingdom Hearts II, so this fic is set a year and a half after Kingdom Hearts II. Also, in this fic, I've placed Terra, Aqua, and Ven's ages during Birth by Sleep at 19, 17, and 15, respectively.

The Lanes Between

The Highwind cut silently through the Lanes Between, with its occupants sitting in relative silence. Hikari sat near one of the many large windows of the ship, looking out the window with a sad look on her face. Seeing this, Sora got up and sat next to her, the others glancing over.

"Hey, Hikari," Sora said, the kimono-clad girl turning to look at him. "Are you okay?"

Hikari nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said. "It's just..." Kairi got up from her seat and sat next to Hikari as well.

"You don't regret coming with us already, do you?" she asked.

"Of course not," Hikari said. "This is just the first time I've ever been off my home world. I guess I'm starting to miss my parents." Sora put a comforting hand on Hikari's shoulder.

"Hey, we'll be back soon," he said, smiling. "Maybe we can even drop by for a visit now and then." After a moment, Hikari smiled.

"Thanks, Sora," she said. Sora patted her shoulder before going back to his seat, with Kairi smiling at her before doing the same. As soon as they weren't paying attention, Hikari put a hand on the spot of her shoulder that Sora had touched, feeling a slight tingle from the contact. She looked at Sora and Kairi, who were seated on the other couch, and her lips curved into a bittersweet smile.

I guess some things just aren't meant to be, she thought. Her thoughts were interrupted by Donald's voice.

"We're coming up on a new world, guys," he said. The group snapped to attention and went to the front of the ship.

"Well, since we're here, we might as well check it out." said Sora.

Sublime City, Outskirts

The Gummi Ship landed behind a rock wall, with the group filing out to see a rolling countryside on the edge of a large city at night. The area was mostly farmland, but there was one large temple-like structure on the edge of town. There was a wide river flowing between the edge of the city and the countryside with at least three long stone bridges spanning the gap, with several docks on both sides that offered travel by boat. Dirt roads led from the bridges towards the mountains in the distance.

Sora turned to Donald. "So, according to the nav system, this world is called Sublime City, right?" he said. Donald nodded.

"Let''s check out the town," said Riku. The others nodded and took a few steps forward, only to stop short when a group of Heartless manifested in front of them. They had a vaguely humanoid body structure, with round, spherical heads with circular, glowing yellow eyes, and two long, twisted antennae sprouting out of the top of their heads. Each of their hands had three clawed fingers, and their feet were large and lack any discernible digits. With the exception of their eyes, their bodies were completely black. It was a Shadow, the most basic type of Heartless.

"Not here too!" Sora exclaimed as the group summoned their weapons. With the group's combined might, the Shadows went down with ease, but out of the corner of her eye, Hikari saw one Shadow dashing off to the city proper.

"Guys, look!" she shouted, pointing in the direction of the fleeing Heartless. The others looked and saw it.

"Oh, no you don't!" Kairi yelled. "After it!"

The gang took off after the Shadow.

Sublime City, Fifth District

The gang entered the city proper and got a proper look at their surroundings. The city was urban with an old gothic motif that reminded the group (sans Hikari, who had never been there) of The World That Never Was, but this city had lights in some of the windows like in Traverse Town. They were standing in the middle of an empty and deserted intersection with cobblestone streets. The gang looked up to see the sky blocked out by thick black clouds.

"Well, that's ominous," Sora said flatly. The gang turned to see a sign that read "First District" with an arrow pointing down a nice clean street. Another sign to the left of the group read "Seventh District," but had a crude handmade sign dangling from it that read "Danger!"

"Yeah, something tells me we shouldn't go that way," Lea deadpanned. The others agreed and made their way towards the First District like the sign said, walking in silence until they came to an open area between a row of buildings with a fountain in the center. Kairi looked around nervously.

"What kind of city is this?" she said, rubbing her arms. "It's so quiet. We haven't seen any people."

"And what happened to the Heartless?" Hikari said aloud. As if on cue, large Heartless materialized around them, but not Shadows. They had a more humanoid body structure than a normal Shadow, but shared the same pitch black skin and spherical, glowing yellow eyes. Their crooked antennae were quite long and fell back behind the Heartless. They seemed to be rather muscular, and their hands were very large, each one sporting five clawed fingers. Their feet, like those of a normal Shadow, were long and lack digits, but their feet more resembled boots. Their bodies were also lined by several faint, blue veins. They were Neoshadows. Donald looked at Hikari, raising an eyebrow.

"You just had to say something, didn't you?" the duck said sarcastically. Hikari rubbed the back of her neck and let out a sheepish giggle.

"Okay, enough of this," Sora said. He thrust his Keyblade into the sky, glowing with a bright light as he prepared to cast a Faith spell. "Light!" he shouted, a column of light surrounding him. Several pillars of light surrounded him in a circle before spinning outwards, destroying the Heartless in one fell swoop, with the light fading as he did so.

"That was incredible, Sora!" Hikari declared in awe. Sora chuckled as he folded his hands behind his head.

Mickey looked around. "Okay, I don't know about the rest of you, but I say we get outta here before any more Heartless show up."

"Good call, Mickey," said Riku.

Sublime City, Fourth District

The group continued walking until they found themselves in a market square, with a number of closed storefronts and street side stalls. They looked up and saw a banner that read "Fourth District: Market."

"Okay, I'm confused," Riku said. "Where the heck is everybody?"

"They're all inside for the night, where else?" a young girl's voice answered.

The gang spun around to where the new voice came from and saw a young girl around Sora, Kairi, and Hikari's age standing atop a nearby stall with her hands on her hips. She had spiky brown hair kept in a long ponytail wrapped tightly in white strips on the back of her head and blue eyes. She wore a pink T-shirt under an open short-sleeved purple hoodie and a pair of criss-crossing purple straps over her chest. Around her waist was a series of pink-purple fabrics and the right leg of her dark purple shorts was longer than the left, with a black-and-white checker pattern that reminded Sora of Roxas' wristband around the cuff of it. She wore a pair of dark purple fingerless gloves, and on her left shoulder was a metal plate of armor colored dark purple, pink, and black (1), and a pair of brown hiking boots with white socks. Finally, she wore a black armband around her left arm that bore what Mickey recognized as the Mark of Mastery emblem.

Terra, Ven, and Aqua wore that same insignia, he thought. But how...

He pushed those thoughts back for the time being as the new girl hopped off the top of the stall and made her way over to them.

"What are you guys doing out at this hour?" she asked, looking at them curiously. "It's not safe."

"Yeah, we could tell by the Heartless," Donald said flatly. The girl looked at them curiously, an eyebrow raised.

"You guys fought the Heartless and lived?" she asked. The others nodded, with Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, and Lea summoning their Keyblades. The girl stepped back in surprise.

"Oh, wow!" she said. "Never thought I'd see more Keyblade wielders around here!"

Sora raised an eyebrow. "Wait, more?"

The girl stretched out her hand and in a flash of light, a Keyblade appeared in her hand. It was similar to the Keyblade Star Seeker, being curved like Star Seeker but colored blue with streaks of yellow running across it. The blade seemed to spiral around a single yellow star to form the tooth, the blade and tooth combined to look like a shooting star. The guard was similar in shape to the guard on Destiny's Embrace, but had a faded yellow star at the spot where the two sides of the guard and the base of the blade met like a linchpin. The guard was colored a faded blue and the key chain was a yellow shooting star with a blue trail.

"You have a Keyblade?" Sora said in shock. The girl nodded with a cheerful smile.

"Yep. It's called Wandering Star. I'm a Keyblade apprentice. My Master's out dealing with the Heartless in town right now and I usually come along to help as part of my training."

"Where is your Master right now?" Mickey asked. The girl jerked her head in a "come on" gesture.

"Follow me, I'll take you to her." she said. With that, she and the others started walking through the Fourth District.

"By the way, my name's Nixe (2)." the girl said.

"I'm Sora," said Sora.

"Kairi."

"My name's Riku."

"Mickey Mouse."

"Donald Duck."

"Name's Goofy.

"I'm Max."

"Name's Lea, got it memorized?"

"My name is Hikari. Pleased to meet you." said Hikari, bowing politely. Nixe smiled.

"Nice to meet you all." she said. Just up ahead, they saw a blinding flash of blue light and heard a bestial roar of pain.

"What in Kingdom Hearts was that?!" Max shouted. Nixe smiled.

"That's my Master." she said. The gang ran up ahead to see a massive beast of a Heartless sinking to the ground. It was a Behemoth, a massive, quadrupedal Heartless. Its body was predominantly lilac in color, but its back and all four of its legs were violet. Each of the Behemoth's legs had two toes with black claws. It had two large, curved tusks sprouting from its lower jaw that were white on their upper half and lilac on their lower half. The Behemoth's conical, black horn was on its forehead. Like most other Heartless, it had yellow eyes and a jagged maw. Its Heartless emblem was on its chest.

As the Behemoth fell to the ground, its body dissolved, and a glowing pink heart was released. As soon as it vanished completely, a figure landed on the ground where the Behemoth was standing. The figure was dressed in a blue robe with gold lining, and the hood was drawn up, hiding its face. The figure turned to see Nixe and Sora's team.

"Nixe, who are these people?" the figure asked in a woman's voice. Nixe gestured to the others.

"They came from another world, Master," she said. "And here's the thing: five of 'em are Keyblade wielders just like us!"

The figure looked over the group slowly. "You don't say," she said. Her eyes stopped on Mickey, and she let out a gasp of surprise.

"Wait a sec," she said. "Mickey? Mickey Mouse?" Mickey looked at her, confused.

"Have we met?" he asked. The figure chuckled and raised her hands to her hood.

"I'll say we have," she said as she dropped her hood, revealing the face of a beautiful woman in her late twenties or early thirties with long dark brown hair that reached the base of her neck and curled inward, and bright green eyes the same shade as Hikari's. It took a moment, but Mickey's eyes widened in recognition.

"Sï'Lea (3)? Is that you?" The woman, Sï'Lea, smiled.

"Yep. It's been a while, Mickey."

After a moment, Mickey jumped into Sï'Lea's arms and hugged her tightly, with the others looking on curiously.

"Okay, Master, what's going on here?" Nixe asked. Sï'Lea laughed as she set Mickey down.

"It's a long story."

Author's Note:

(1): Think like Ven's shoulder guard, but without jagged edges.

(2): Pronounced "nix-e," like Wall-e.

(3): Pronounced "sigh lee."

Ah, the plot continues to unfold. But who is this Sï'Lea person, and how do she and Mickey know each other?

Sï'Lea, Nixe, and Sublime City are the property of Star Tours Traveler, used with his permission.

Please R&R. Until next time!