Hello, everyone! My name is RobotToxic and welcome to "The Light of a Darkened Heart: Meifu no Yumiya"! If you are new to the series, I'm sorry to say this, but you have to read "The Light of a Darkened Heart" and "The Light of a Darkened Heart: Dark Descent" first in order to understand the story-line for this story. Basically, this will follow the next generation of the Defender of Worlds, the Heart Twins (Aeris and Nico Heart), Sarah (daughter of Kairi and Sora), and so many more!

Here we go!

*I don't own any of the Kingdom Hearts characters, I only own Katie, Aeris, Nico, and Sarah.

"There you are, Aeris!" an energetic voice yelled.

Aeris peeked past the rock she was hiding behind and meekly smiled at her twin brother, Nico. Hyper, hyper, hyper. He can't stay still for the life of him.

"You're so quiet! You always find me when we play Hide-and-Go-Seek..." Nico groaned. "Wanna spar instead?"

"I'm not very good at fighting..." Aeris mumbled.

"I'll go easy on you! Promise!"

Aeris looked at the shore line of the abandoned island. "Don't you think it's time to head back to the main island?"

Nico shrugged. "I dunno...the mainland is lame. Nothing to do."

"There's nothing to do here either...and Mom and Dad live on the main island. So does Sora, Kairi, and Hikari. Does that mean that they are lame as well?"

Nico face turned bright red. he shook his hands and head as he stuttered, "N-no! Of course not! Th-they're awesome!"

Aeris couldn't help but smile at her brother. She sighed, "Oh, Nico...what am I going to do with you?"

"Hey!" Nico yelled.

Aeris laughed and raced him to the docks.

Their mom met them at the dock when they returned to the mainland. She smiled warmly at them. "Hey, you two...I was wondering when you'd come back home."

"We're here now, Mom!" Nico said enthusiastically. Aeris just returned her mother's smile.

Their mom softly laughed at Aeris' smile. "Let's go back to the house, okay? Your father might be wondering what's taking us so long."

"Okay!"

As they made their way to their house, Aeris noticed her mom's face shadowing pain. "Mom? Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yes. I'm fine, thank you for asking, Aeris."

"You look confused, Mom," Nico chipped in. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I just have some things on my mind." She shortly answered. She took a deep breath before asking, "Hey, how about you two go see Hikari? I heard she just got her Keyblade."

"Really?!" Nico shouted. "That's so awesome! I'll see ya later, Mom! C'mon, Aeris! I wanna see what it looks like!"

"I don't kno—WHOA!" Before Aeris could finish her sentence, her brother grabbed her wrist and dragged her behind him.

Their mom waved after them. "Goodbye!" she waited until her children were gone before pulling down her right glove. Her eyes widened and ran towards her home as fast as she could.

"Uncle Sora...! Aunt Kairi...!" Nico yelled at their door. "It's Nico and Aeris!"

The doorknob clicked open to reveal a very young, about eight, girl with dark brown hair and in a cute white and blue dress with a black short sleeve jacket that was far too large for her (since it was her father's jacket). Her dark blue eyes twinkled happily when she saw who it was. "Hi, guys! What's up?"

"Mom said you got your Keyblade!" Nico answered. "Can we see it, Sarah?"

Sarah looked at the sandy floor, her cheeks tinted red, "Um...you see..."

"Don't tell me you don't have one!"

"I-I do! It's just that—hey, where's your sister?"

Nico raised an eyebrow at her. "Um...right here-" he pointed his thumb behind him but heard nothing. He glanced over his shoulder. Sarah was right, Aeris was gone. "Aeris?! Where are you?!"

"Aeris...!" Sarah called as she and Nico looked around the outside of the beach home.

"Find her?" Nico asked. Sarah shook her head. He made a small sigh, "Where could she have slipped off to?"

The way her mom left them had Aeris worried. She could tell that her mother was lying earlier. Something is definitely up. She creaked her home's front door open slowly and peaked her head inside, no one was in the rooms visible from the door. Aeris tiptoed into the house and carefully shut the door behind her before she crept into the house as if she was trespassing. As she went into the hallway, she could start to hear the low rumble of her father's voice. Then it was followed by her mother's. Aeris followed their voices to their opened-to-a-crack bedroom door. She peaked inside the crack, only able to see the lower halves of her parents.

"Are you sure?" her dad's voice asked. Why did he sound nervous...scared, even?

Aeris' mom's legs shifted nervously. "Yes, I'm pretty sure...see for yourself, Riku." Her mom took of her right fingerless glove that as well covered her wrist. Aeris silently gasped at what was under the glove. On her mother's wrist was a large black x-shaped scar surrounded by little black tattooed flames. The tiny flames seemed to move like real fire. "Th-the seal...it's...breaking."

The legs of Aeris' father took a step back, most likely a reaction to the mark. "Katie..." he went closer to Aeris' mom. Aeris could hear her crying. "I won't let him take you away from me again."

'Who are they talking about?' Aeris wondered. She snuck away from the door quickly when they came to the door. She was halfway up the hall when she heard it open and in her room when she heard footsteps. Aeris knew that her parents believed she was with her twin brother and if she was found home without him...again, she'd be in big trouble. She ducked under her bed and coward against the wall.

"That's weird...I thought I heard something."

"You're hearing's getting bad, honey. The only people in this house are me and you...and, well, the cat if you count it." There was a meow. "And he's been with us the whole time."

A chuckle came from Aeris' dad, "I can't believe he's still alive. You've had him since you were four, right?"

"Well, yeah...but he's not exactly a cat. He could live forever, if he wanted to! Just keep the Keyblades away from him and he'll be fine."

Why were they acting so cheerful? They were in despair just moments ago.

Aeris heard the front door open, her heart jumped when she heard her brother's voice, "Hi, Mom! Dad! Have you seen Aeris? I can't find her anywhere."

It was their mom that asked, "Oh? She's not with you?"

"She was then she disappeared."

Aeris crawled out from under her bed and snuck over to her window. She opened it and climbed out of the window to drop to the sandy ground below. She shut the window carefully and snuck to the front door of the house. Taking a deep breath, Aeris opened the door and said quietly into the home, "Mom, Dad? Have you seen Nico—? Oh, there you are!"

Nico raised an eyebrow at her. "Where were you?"

"Looking for you and Sarah. I thought I saw something while we were at her house and when I realized it was nothing and came back, both of you were gone!"

"Oh. Uh...sorry about that then, sis..."

Their dad patted Nico on the shoulder, "It's fine, Nico, just be lucky that she wasn't hurt."

"I can take care of myself..." Aeris mumbled. 'Why does he get away with everything? If it were me, I'd have privileges taken away!'

"But..." her father continued. "Never leave Aeris again, got it? She may get lost and something bad might happen to her. And...that thing that happens to her with stick with you forever and make you wish that you never left her alone."

Nico and Aeris blinked at their father. He looked dead serious and something shone in his eyes, but they couldn't tell. Did something happen to him and was talking from that experience? Nico nodded slowly and said as slow, "Okay...?"

"That didn't sound so sure, young man," said their mother. Then she shrugged. "Oh well, get washed up. Dinner will be done in a few." She glanced at her husband. "All of you."

He smirked and chuckled lightly, "Okay."

"No, I'm serious. I don't want germs getting in your food then in your mouth. The next thing ya know, you're sick in your bed and unable to move because it makes you puke."

Nico shuddered. "Ew..." he rushed to the bathroom and washed his hands...twice.

The twins couldn't sleep. Nico's reason was for the thunder storm that was starting to form, he doesn't like thunder. Aeris' was due to their mother and father's behavior. Nico opened Aeris' door. "Aeris? Are you asleep?" he whispered into the room.

"No, come on in." Aeris answered as quietly. As Nico entered and closed the door gently behind him, Aeris asked him, "The storm keeping you awake?"

Nico nodded. "I'm not good with thunder storms..." he muttered. "They remind me of that dream. And the story Uncle Sora told us."

"What happened to Dad won't happen again, you know that. Mom told us so."

"But what if it does? We might wake up on another world tomorrow morning."

"And say if it did, then we'd all be together." Aeris assured him.

Nico mumbled, "No we won't...we'd get split up like Sora, Kairi, and Dad did."

Aeris sighed and shook her head. "Nico...those things won't happen again. Mom and Dad told us so." 'But now I'm not so sure...'

Nico jumped when thunder clapped loudly outside the window. In a frightened voice, he asked her, "I-I know we're too old for this but...c-can I sleep in here...with you?"

"Whatever makes you feel better," Aeris told him with a soft smile. She motioned at her bean bag chair. "You can sleep in that. It's about as comfortable as a bed."

"Thanks..." Nico mumbled sheepishly.

Aeris returned her attention back to the window after her twin brother settled into the bean bag and fell asleep. She was curious why there was no rain, mist even. When there's a thunder storm on Destiny Islands, there is always some type of rain with it. She's never seen a thunder and lightning only storm before. The only place she heard of such a thing was in Uncle Sora's stories of his past adventures with his wife and Aeris' and Nico's father. According to the story, the storm came when Darkness took over Destiny Islands...

Aeris carefully got out of bed and crept across the wood flooring, hoping it wouldn't creak under her feet with each step. The last thing she needed was to play 20 Questions with her brother, or more importantly, her parents. Their version of it was more demanding than Nico's. Aeris peeked her head into her parents' room, seeing their forms under the covers. But Mom's side seemed...flat. Aeris slowly opened the door a bit wider, trying to get a better view into the room. Her mother wasn't in the room at all, even the master bathroom was unoccupied. 'Maybe she's somewhere else in the house...' Aeris thought. She slinked out if the room and continued to go down the hallway. She raised an eyebrow to see that her mom wasn't in the family room either. Aeris straightened up and started to walk normally about. She past the mud room but stopped. She backed up and looked inside. Her eyes widened. "Mom's boots are gone..." she ran into her parents' room. "Dad!"

Her dad jerked up from the covers. He looked tiredly at Aeris and asked her in a yawn, "What's the matter, sweetie?"

"Mom's gone!"

And there is the first chapter of the new story! I hope you like it and if so, leave a review! Love you guys! See you in the next chapter! Bye-bye! ^-^