Disclaimer: The franchises utilized in this story don't belong to me. They are properties of Square Enix, Disney and Toei Company.
CHAPTER 4 - ENCOUNTER
TRAVERSE TOWN
After a long time of traveling through space-time, Nami, Mele and Murphy finally arrived in a world which was named Traverse Town.
"I'll stay here to watch over the ship in case something happens, girls." Wagon said willing to stay inside.
"Okay, Wagon, be careful." Mele replied as she and her partner went out of the ship.
As soon as they stepped on the ground, the duo and the robot dog looked at the sky and something concerned them.
"Another star just went off." Nami talked showing concern. "We have to hurry."
"Akared was right, Nami." Mele replied before thinking about a plan to reduce the casualty toll. "We have to come up with a plan to rescue the stars that are shutting down. But how?"
"But most importantly. Where's THAT key?" Nami couldn't tell about that clue either.
"Beats me." Mele admitted about not having an idea about the subject. "We should go and find Leon, he may have some answers we look for."
"Okay." Nami shook her head as they walked towards the person they would talk to. "Murphy! Where did you go? Come on! He got away... stupid dog..."
Murphy strangely drifted away from the girls somewhere else in the alley following a strange smell he was breathing...
However, that smell turned out to be Sora who was sleeping against the wall, and the girls hadn't become aware of his presence!
Murphy proceeded to lick the boy's face making him wake up and yawn.
"What a Dream..." Sora said in a sleepy tone as he struggled to open his eyes only to notice the robot dog staring at him with such a joy and sweet behavior.
"Huh!? This isn't a dream!" Sora was amazed by the pet's aspect, he never thought he would see such a robot dog toy coming to life or something! "Wha-What is this?! A robot dog?!"
Murphy made a typical normal happy dog bark to let him know that he wouldn't hurt him, aside the fact that he was moving his tail aside like every dog would do to let him know he's nice to Sora.
"Oh, thank you for waking me up, buddy." Sora thanked him caressing his head. "Where are we, anyway?"
Then Murphy came to reveal him through his visor the place they were.
"Traverse Town? Mmmm... It is strange." Sora was intrigued by what the dog showed to him.
Suddenly, Murphy ran away from Sora, but not before he barked in a gest for him to follow him in the town if he could.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Sora shouted trying to chase the dog, not realizing that something up ahead would change his life forever.
The town itself was huge, really huge for someone who had lived in an isolated island like Sora and his friends, anybody can become overwhelmed by the city's huge infrastructure like in New York.
"This is totally weird..." Sora was surprised by the world's aspect. "The robot dog looked like he was right... Im in another world! Anyway... I have to find the robot dog so he may help me find Riku and Kairi."
Sora walked through the town and headed to a door which lead him to another side of the place...
SECOND DISTRICT
As soon as Sora entered the district, he witnessed a man whose heart just moved away from his body.
That scared him, it frightened him seeing the man perish like this out of nowhere, afterwards, the heart went towards the dark smoke that appeared in front of him.
"What the...!" Sora gasped in shock as soon as the heart fused with the smoke, which resulted in a dark-themed with yellow-colored eyes monster in front of him.
Another set of dark creatures showed up surrounding Sora.
"Those monsters..." Sora said remembering his first encounter back in Destiny Island. "They are those i fought in the island! How did they get here?"
Sora summoned the key weapon willing to defend himself against the dark creatures. "Let's go!"
He began clashing the monsters with everything he got while dodging every incoming attack he could, despite being outnumbered, Sora was more than determined to take em out and survive.
"Take this!" Sora shouted slashing the last monster with all his might.
The battle wore him down and he needed to find somewhere to rest and have his stamina reloaded before clashing the monsters again, and then he came to find a bell tower and decided to take his route and opened the door to get inside and rest for a while...
Meanwhile, Mele and Nami walked outside of the hotel looking for Leon no avail.
"Damn it, Leon's not here." Mele said as she tried to think about his whereabouts.
"Maybe we should look somewhere else." Nami suggested her. "He could be anywhere, maybe."
Mele then felt something within her chest, like it was telling her that their objective was near or something.
"Are you okay, Mele?" Nami asked with concern.
"I'm fine, Nami. Don't worry." Mele answered her trying to wash the tension away. "I may have a gut feeling or something."
"A gut feeling? It's about the key, isn't it?" Nami was figuring out what her friend was telling her.
"I guess so. Something tells me we are near our target, we just don't know where it is, if only Murphy didn't leave us like this." Mele expressed her suspicion about their objective whereabouts. "Anyway, let's go find Leon and have a talk."
Elsewhere, inside the place named Gizmo Shop, Sora took enough rest to get up and keep moving around the town, like the last time, the dark creatures emerged from the ground, making Sora not have a choice to enter to the combat zone with his key weapon and give them a great beating like any ranger would do fighing his way to another door which lead him to another zone of the town...
THIRD DISTRICT
As soon as he entered to the zone, Sora summoned his key weapon to fight his way throughout the place resisting the beatings he was receiving from the dark creatures he encountered, was there no way for these bastards to leave him alone for once?!
FIRST DISTRICT
After fighing his way around the town, Sora went to the main district only to hear something that made him turn around...
"They'll come at you out of nowhere." a man's voices was heard from the key weapon wielder's shoulders.
"Who are you?" Sora interrogated him in defensive stance.
"And they will keep coming at you." the man, who had brown hair with black leather jacket with silver necklace warned him with serious manner. "As long as you continue to wield the keyblade. But why? Why would it choose a brat like you?"
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Sora retorted feeling disgusted by that offensive comment.
"Never mind. Let's see the keyblade." the man tried to take Sora's keyblade but the teenager didn't want to hand it over.
"What?! There's no way you're getting this!" Sora refused in a challenging voice.
"Alright. Have it your way." the man drew a weapon which had a gunsword, ready to fight him.
Sora and the man clashed their respective weapons which resounded throughout the town, anyone could affirm that this man was an experienced swordfighter unlike Sora, who had begun his adventure.
Sora tried to land a slash on the man but he counterattacked and sent him to the ground, defeating him in the process, he was super strong, it's true.
But even so, the man with the gunsword held back as not to kill him of course.
"You a-are pretty strong, you had me there." Sora rose admitting his defeat to the man.
"Hey, you found it. Nice going, Leon." a girl with a easy-going attitude with ninja attire showed up.
"Still..." Leon spoke with serious voice like always, showing concern towards Sora. "Looks like things are worse than we thought. Really worse."
As soon as Leon said that, Sora lost consciousness and was then taken to the safety...
Unknown location
Elsewhere... Riku slowly regained consciousness and got up to see he was in a very unknown... and creepy place, he couldn't figure out what the world was nor neither find a way out, he needed to find Sora and Kairi, but how?
"Sora! Kairi!" Riku shouted their names trying to see if he had an answer, but as expected, nobody was there.
However, he didn't realize of a mysterious... but sinister figure was watching over him, it had finally found a prey to grab and toy with.
TRAVERSE TOWN - Alleway
Elsewhere, the duo had been walking around the town trying to find Leon to no avail, this was frustrating the girls.
"We've been walking around the town for two hours and still no sign of Leon." Nami complained and panted. "My feet are killing me."
"Come on, Nami. We gotta find him no matter what." Mele told her to keep up, they couldn't afford themselves to slack around.
"But...!" Nami was about to whine when suddenly...
"Excuse me, did the king send you?" a girl's voice interrupted them.
"What? Who are you?" Mele asked.
"My name is Aerith, girls." the girl with long brown hair and green eyes introduced herself. "I find it wise we have to talk somewhere, shall we?"
"Do you know where Leon is?" Nami asked her about him.
"I'll explain you girls, come with me." Aerith invited them to.
While the girls went to somewhere to have a big talk, Sora woke up because to Kairi's apparent voice echoing throughout his ears.
"Come on, lazy bum, wake up."
Sora slowly opened his eyes and shook his head to wake up to Kairi's appearance, or something like that unless he was allucinating.
"You okay?" Kairi asked him.
"Yeah... i guess." Sora replied in confused mood, everything was strange and bizarre at the same time.
"Those creatures that attacked you are after the keyblade." Kairi warned him, which was confusing for the boy. "But it is your heart they really want. Because you wield the keyblade."
No way, Kairi wouldn't have such information, would she?!
Sora found it strange but nevertheless, he decided play along. "Im so glad you're okay, Kairi."
But then...
"Kairi? Who are you talking about?" It was Yuffie's voice right before returning back to normal, much to Sora's surprise. "I'm the great ninja Yuffie."
"What?!" Sora shouted in surprise and amazement. "You were..."
"Yeah, i was copying Kairi's body. That's right." Yuffie teased him. "I think you might've overdone it, Squall."
"That's Leon." he corrected her while looking at Sora's keyblade to transition to the subject that mattered most.
"The keyblade..." Sora said while looking at the weapon with intrigue.
"Yes, we had to get it away from you to shake off those creatures." Yuffie explained. "It turns out that's how they were tracking not only you but the others who DO wield the same weapons as you."
"Wait a second! Are you telling me that i'm not the only one with the keyblade?!" Sora was rather surprised by the latter. How come didn't he think about this the whole time?!
"Yes, and it was the only way to conceal your heart from them." Leon seconded, leaving the boy more than concerned. "But it won't work for long. Still hard to believe that of all the people you of all the people you were the chosen one."
Just as Leon swings the keyblade, it disappeared from his hands and reappeared on Sora's hands, no wonder the said weapon considered the boy as his master or something like that.
"Well, i suppose the beggars can't be choosers." Leon acknowledged Sora as the legit keyblade wielder.
"Why don't you start making sense?" Sora demanded to know what the hell was going on. "What's going on here? Who are the other ones who have their respective keyblades as me?"
"Okay, you know there are many worlds out there besides your castle and the town, right?" Aerith began.
"We are aware of that." Nami replied understanding the concept.
"The worlds used to be connected with each other but something went wrong and the worlds began disconnecting with each other." Mele came up with the recent events.
"That's right, all of this happened when the heartless came, everything changed." Aerith stated the reason of this big disaster going on.
"The heartless?" Sora was rather attentive to Yuffie's explanation.
"Yes, those creatures that attacked you, remember?" she affirmed his question.
"Those without hearts." Leon seconded pulling out further explanation.
"The darkness in people's hearts... that's what attracts them." Yuffie declared the kind of those monsters were the keyblade wielder facing before.
"And there's darkness in within every heart." Leon gave one another but important information which was crucial to Sora.
"Hey, have you ever heard of someone named Ansem?" Yuffie inquired him.
"Ansem? What are you talking about?" Mele, like Sora, asked about it with such intrigue going on through her mind and the others.
"He was studying the heartless." Aerith gave them an important intel which would help the mission... "He recorded all of his findings in a very detailed report."
"Do you mind if we see the report?" Nami asked.
"Sorry, Nami, the pages are scattered everywhere." Aerith said letting them know that she didn't have it in her hands.
"Everywhere? Don't tell me that..." Mele intuited her statement.
"In to many worlds." Aerith confirmed her intuition.
"Maybe Akared went to look for them." Nami guess what the king was doing out there.
"Yes, my thoughts exactly." Aerith replied.
"We should get out and go find him, but we don't have the 'key'." Nami expressed her will to carry out the objective.
"That's right, girls. The Keyblade." Aerith gave them one important clue which would help them. "Like the ones you wield."
"So, this is the key." Sora took a look at the said weapon.
"Exactly." Yuffie affirmed his reply.
"The heartless have a great fear of the keyblade." Leon gave him one important data the boy must take account to. "That's why they will keep coming after you, no matter what."
Sora didn't want to be involved in such a war like this, all he wanted was to reunite with Riku and Kairi and go back to the island to have a cozy life with the others, not this.
"Well, I didn't ask for this!" Sora spoke with frustration, he wanted to be out of this.
"The weapon chooses its master, Sora." Yuffie refuted in a teasing voice. "And it chose you."
"So, tough luck." Leon said admitting that the boy would have to deal with the dark creatures from now on if he wanted to live.
"How did all this happen?" Sora wanted to know the events. "I remember being in my room..."
Suddenly, he came to remember his house, the island and most important, Riku and Kairi's whereabouts!
"Wait a second! What happened to my home?! My island?! Riku! Kairi!"
"You know what? I really don't know." Leon admitted not having an idea, he really didn't have an idea about their whereabouts.
Sora needed to go out and find his friends and go home no matter what, he couldn't bring himself to stay inside without doing nothing nor give up without a fight.
"I need to step outside, please." Sora pleaded with determination.
"You have know that they will come after you once you step outside, your best bet is to prepare yourself." Leon advised him.
"Prepare myself?" the keyblade wielder asked with curiosity.
"To fight for your life. Are you ready?" Leon clarified him and made Sora think about it for a minute.
If he really wanted to find his friends, he has to risk his life end this nightmare and bring Riku and Kairi home and safe so he made a choice.
"Im ready!" Sora gave him a determination gaze, which made the man smirk.
"Very well. Yuffie, let's go join Aerith." Leon said willing to go to the streets and risk their lives fighting the creatures. "She should be there by now with the other visitors."
But suddenly, a heartless appeared out of nowhere.
"Yuffie, go!" Leon told her to leave.
On the other side, Mele and Nami heard those noises and the latter was about to investigate when she was accidentally struck on the nose by Yuffie who suddenly kicked the door which hit Nami and made her fall to the ground wincing in pain.
"Ah...! Fuck!" Nami winced in pain as she tried to recover from the injury.
"Nami!" Mele ran to her help her out. "Are you alright?"
"Yuffie!" Aerith was surprised by her sudden appearance.
On the other side, Leon and Sora went out to the streets to combat the heartless with everything they had.
"Don't bother with the small fry." Leon asked him to not slack around. "Find the leader! Let's go!"
And that's how Sora fought his way throughout the streets taking down the heartless he encountered up until he got to the Third District to keep fighting them.
Nami and Mele were wandering throughout the town when they found Murphy in such a urgent state.
"Murphy! Where have you been this time?" Nami asked him.
The robo dog barked in a sense of telling the duo where the objective was.
"He's asking us to follow him, let's go!" Mele urged to follow the dog.
Nami shook her head and decided to head to where the objective.
Back in the third district, Sora was still combating the heartless which kept merging from the ground despite the best efforts to erradicate all of them.
"They'are still coming..." Sora began to pant, he was getting tired literally of fighting the dark creatures. "But i gotta save Kairi and Riku!"
Those words reached the girls' ears which prompted them to take a closer look and...
"Heartless!" Nami summoned her keyblade to have a brawl with the monsters.
"Get out of our way!" Mele did the same as she summoned hers to take the monsters out.
The duo and Murphy fought the monsters as they entered to the third district, as soon as they finished the heartless off Mele noticed something that left her speechless.
"Hey! Come take a look!" she said.
What had witnessed struck em in surprise, they had found Sora with the keyblade who has been risking his life to take the heartless out.
"The keyblade...! "Nami was shocked at their objective. "We found him!"
"Why don't we go join him? We have a lot things to talk." Mele asked them to join the battle.
That's how the girls and Murphy decided to jump in the battle and help the boy...
"Hey you!" Mele called him, which everything beside Sora, Nami, her and the robo dog went white.
It was at this moment when everyone would remember and Sora's life would change forever...
End of chapter 4.
A/N:
Hello! it's been a long time since i last began this fic.
I have been busy these days and sitting in front of the computer trying to write something makes me tired, literally and i want to have a chilling and cozy life, you know? Anyway, the final fantasy characters that the trio interact with have the same appearance as their original versions from their respective games, but anyways... I hope you enjoyed it.