Kingdom Hearts: Lines In-Between

Prologue

kingdom hearts ii

"Take care of her," Riku said as the door closed.

Sora nodded. He would. But did it have to end this way? Was there no other choice to protect and restore the worlds? Ansem was dead; Riku and the King could come out from behind the door and help push it closed…

The door closed and sealed with the use of the keyblades, Sora could only think of the memories he had with his best friend on the island.

"Sora! Riku!" the voice of Kairi yelled out. Sora turned around and saw the red head running towards him.

Donald and Goofy snickered as Kairi embraced Sora. "You're okay," she whispered. She released him and looked into his eyes. "Where's Riku?"

Sora looked down, thinking of his best friend, trapped behind the door. "He's…In there." He pointed to the Door to Darkness. "His heart chose to prevent the darkness from seeping out."

Kairi looked to where the door once was. "Then we…We have to go find him then."

Sora perked up. "What? What do ya mean, Kairi?"

"I mean…There has to be other ways out of the Door to Darkness right? Or else how do the Heartless get out in the first place?"

The boy thought about it deeply, or as deeply as he could.

"Gwarsh Sora, she's right," Goofy spoke up, placing a reassuring hand on Sora's shoulder. "The King came from behind the Door to Darkness. I'm sure he found a way in."

"Yeah," Donald added. "The King and Riku will find a way out."

Sora nodded, hope aflame in his heart. "Let's go find them."

"I'm going with you," Kairi declared.

"Wha...But Kairi…"

"No buts about it. Riku is my friend too. I'm tired of standing on the sidelines. Ansem is defeated; the immediate danger is gone."

Sora looked at her; her determination was not going to take "no" for an answer. He feared over her getting into huge danger again, but she was right. Ansem Seeker of Darkness was gone.

Roxas awoke from his sleep in a loft in Twilight Town, from another dream about the boy with a giant key for a weapon on a journey to find a guy with silver hair, and a girl who he could not make out most of the time.

It was five days before the end of his summer vacation.

Yesterday, it was the guys in white who had stolen photos of him. Why they wanted photos he had no clue.

Perhaps he was just going crazy. He got up, threw on his garb, and went to meet Hayner, Pence, and Olette at the usual spot. Running down the back alley, he suddenly felt the world around him...stop. He couldn't explain it, but he felt his limbs moving while everything else just plain stopped. He slowed down just in time to come face to face with someone.

Before the teen was a girl, with pale blond hair, in a simple white dress. Her smile on her lips was one of happy familiarity with him. But he had never met this girl before...had he?

"Hello, Roxas," the girl greeted.

"Uh, hi?" he scratched the back of his neck, unsure what to say. This day was weird already.

"I am...My name is Naminé." She looked at him, expecting the name to ring a bell, but he had no clue what her name was supposed to mean.

Her brow furrowed in confusion and she simply walked away. Once out of sight, the world continued on again.

As Hayner ranted on about Seifer as always, Roxas couldn't stop thinking about that mysterious girl. She gave off a sense of familiarity, as if they met before. He felt compelled to find her, to find Naminé.

The next day, Roxas still felt extreme guilt over losing the 5,000 munny they had gathered. A guy in black hit him with a stick and just stole it, yet no one else but him saw the pickpocket.

Things were becoming stranger and stranger. But Naminé still remained on his mind. He had to find her.

Heading to the usual spot, Roxas found a note from Hayner, telling him to go to the beach, and not to sweat the munny.

He smiled at being forgiven by his best friend.

The world stopped again. Feeling everything pause, he turned around in surprise to see Naminé in front of him.

She smiled, but not as enthusiastically as last time. "Hello, Roxas."

"Uh, hello, again."

"Do you...know who I am?" she asked, hopeful.

"I...No."

Her cheerful expression faded. "Oh." She turned to walk away, but Roxas reached out and grabbed her wrist to stop her.

"Wait," he pleaded. "Who are you?"

"I...Come to the mansion, I will tell you more."

Her hand slipped out of his grip. Walking out of sight again, the world returned to normal time.

He needed her answers, now. Roxas sprinted to the mansion, the beach forgotten completely. Running through the sandlot, Seifer shouted some remarks at him but he didn't care. Something within him knew Naminé.

The guys in white had returned. Seifer shouted at them as they twisted towards Roxas in particular.

The world was spinning beneath him. Since when did the everlasting sunset become dark as night? His stomach lurched as the world opened up beneath his feet and sent him falling into the abyss. Gravity eased the farther down he went, like he was floating in water. Roxas aligned himself up, landing on what felt to be solid ground with his feet. He looked around. Where was he? Taking a step forward the floor opened up. A bright blinding light shone through as dozens of doves flew up and away into the darkness. The floor was stained glass, blue with a splash of red. There was an image of Sora on the stained glass, asleep.

Roxas had to be dreaming.

The giant monster in white reached out to him, trying to snatch Roxas away.

We have come for you my liege.

"I'm not in league with you, so buzz off!" he shouted, slamming the keyblade into the head of the monster.

The white giant fell over on top of him, creating a massive hole of darkness where it fell into oblivion. The same darkness latched onto Roxas, trying to pull him into that same oblivion.

He cried out, his limbs struggling against the tight hold of the darkness. His hand outstretched, he pleaded for help, his cries echoing through the black abyss.

A soft, familiar hand grabbed his. Light and warmth emitted from the hold.

He was safe.

Eventually, he awoke from his stained glass nightmare to Seifer taking pictures next to his limp body on the ground. Getting up, he brushed aside the comments from Rai about how Seifer was gonna drive the guys in white away and headed towards the mansion.

Roxas passed through the woods and arrived at the locked front gate of the haunted mansion. "How do I even get inside…?"

He didn't have to, for he felt himself fall into a daze on the spot. He found himself standing in the white room on the second floor.

"Naminé?" He looked around for her. She sat at the end of a long white table. She nodded her head towards the various drawings on the walls.

One was of Sora and himself, standing side by side. Another was of Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

One in particular was of him and Naminé. He placed his hand on it, feeling as if he forgot something. "Naminé…I know you, don't I?"

She looked down at her hands. "You used to."

"Who are you then? Tell me, so I may remember."

"I'm a witch, with power over Sora's memories and those connected to him."

"A witch?" he tilted his head in confusion. Who would call her a witch?

"That's what DiZ calls me. You and I…Are friends, Roxas. In this life and in the next one."

"We are? How could I have forgotten something so important then?" he asked.

"Because…You..." She stopped. "I'm sorry."

Roxas felt the grass beneath his feet again.

Sitting on the clock tower, Roxas handed each of his friends one of the four crystal orbs on the Struggle Trophy he earned in the tournament. His mind was going crazy at this point. Naminé mentioned the next life. Then, a guy named Axel appears, and he too acted like he knew him. Then, a man in red who claimed that Axel was deceiving him. Roxas didn't know what to think anymore.

"I got a gift too, for everyone," Olette said as she pulled out four ice creams, snapping Roxas out of his daze. He stood up suddenly, his balance being thrown off. He toppled over, falling off the clock tower. The screams from Olette and the shouts from Pence and Hayner pierced Roxas' ears as he descended to the ground. He closed his eyes in anticipation. This was it, was he going to…

Within the open floor of the mansion in the woods, all debris of an abandoned past was cleared to the sides to leave room open for free movement. A red haired girl dressed in white shorts and a white tank top held her practice sword firmly in her grip. Her partner, a tall figure in a black cloak, was poised with his own practice weapon, ready to strike.

"Kairi, you ready?" the figure asked in a deep voice.

She nodded. "Mmhmm."

He rushed forward. Kairi sidestepped the assault with ease. "You've progressed greatly. I'm impressed," he complimented.

She smiled for a moment before it faded.

"What's wrong?" the man in black asked.

"Do you remember a boy, back on the island?" she questioned. "We used to play together all the time, but I can't remember him. His name, his face. I feel awful about it."

He knew that feeling all too well. He had forgotten too. Everything was such a haze to him, to the point where he forgot, not even remembering his face or name, but he knew he was there, just like Kairi did.

"Yes. I am the same way. But I know one day we will see him again." Only she would see him again. The man would never face his best friend again.

Kairi felt wobbly all of a sudden, a headache coming on.

"Naminé?" a boy's voice called out to her.

She toppled over, the cloaked man catching her in his arms.

Roxas, in a desperate attempt to figure out why he wasn't perishing from his fall, why the world was slowing down, reached out to Naminé like he did back at the mansion.

Naminé…? What's happening to me?

Who are you? And that's not my name. I'm Kairi.

Kairi...I know you. You're that girl he likes.

Who? Please, a name!

I'm Roxas.

Okay, Roxas, but could you tell me HIS name?

You don't remember my name? Thanks a lot Kairi!

Huh?

O-kay, I guess I can give you a hint. Starts with an 'S'!

The man in the cloak looked at the sleeping Kairi in his arms. Soon he would have to leave her, and he felt envy towards his other friend who will be with her instead.

The haze was starting to clear. He would have to ask DiZ about this.

Kairi's eyes opened up. Her brain searched hard for the answer to the hint she was given to that familiar voice. It wasn't Roxas' voice who gave her that hint, it was someone else's. That boy she used to play on the island with.

"You okay?" he asked her.

"Ye-Yeah," she said as she sat up. "I...I don't know what just happened." Kairi reached into her pocket and took out a rolled up piece of paper. "Here, I want you to give it to him just in case you find him first. I wrote this letter yesterday. Until I remember everything about him, I refuse to go home."

The man took the paper carefully, placing it in his pocket. "You sure you want me to hold onto this?"

"Yes, I am sure. I trust you...Ansem."

She stood back up and looked to the sunset in the back window to the garden of the mansion. The colors remained constant no matter the time of day. Eternal twilight. "Starts with an 'S'. Right? Sora?"

Ansem stood behind DiZ as he looked over the progress on Sora's memory. Roxas was never in any danger from falling due to the failsafe he built in. Ansem, though, had different questions on his mind.

"His progress is astounding," DiZ commented.

Ansem looked at Sora's progress as he bounced a tiny blue crystal orb in his palm. 79% restoration. How DiZ came up with this technology to monitor Sora's own memory and heart, he would never know.

"So, what happened?" he asked as he slipped the orb into an orange pouch.

"Naminé's encounter with Roxas put his heart in contact with Kairi's. And that in turn, affected Sora. You see?"

"Naminé…She's a wonder."

"She wasn't born like other Nobodies. She can interfere with the hearts and memories of Sora and those aligned with him."

"But whose Nobody is she?"

"I could tell you…But first, you could tell me your true name?"

The man removed his hood, revealing tanned skin, silver hair, and golden eyes. "It's Ansem," he stated with a smirk.

DiZ began to laugh almost hysterically. "It is an honor, Ansem."

Axel sat in his chair in the Round Room, glaring at III, who just gave him the order to eliminate Roxas. The red headed man knew he was lying through his teeth trying to save Roxas, but he didn't care. He wasn't about to go destroy his best friend like that.

"But it's not like that, he didn't betray us, he can't return!" he declared.

"If he doesn't return, you know what you must do," III simply stated, one of his purple lances appearing in thin air. "Or you will face the consequences." The lance shot at Axel, cutting only a couple of hairs as it stabbed into the back of his chair. Axel remained unfazed by the act. He knew III wouldn't let this go. He knew III, VII, and even their leader would use Roxas to test his loyalty to the Organization.

The Superior lifted his hand to make III pause. The lance disappeared. The leader then raised his hand, a blue electric aura in his palms. It was a threat, a very serious one.

Axel looked away. "So you'll turn me into a dusk…All right! I'll do it! If that's what you want."

Why did it have to come to this?

Perhaps the most painful thing for Naminé to admit to Roxas was the nature of Nobodies. The Organization, long ago explained it, but now his memory was gone. No matter how much she desperately wanted to restore his memories of his friendship with Axel, his friendship with her. But DiZ would eliminate her on the spot once Sora's memory was restored. She would never live to see Roxas again.

"You were never supposed to exist, Roxas."

"What? How could you say such a thing, even if it is true?" he asked, bewildered.

She almost wanted to cry. "I'm sorry. I guess there really are things better left unsaid."

"Are the holes in your memory starting to fill in?" DiZ asked Ansem before him, sitting in a chair in the mansion. Tomorrow Sora will need the last component to awaken, Roxas himself. He carries the last bit of his strength and memory.

Ansem couldn't help but nearly lose his patience with this man. "Yes, the haze is clearing." He could remember Sora again.

"The same thing is happening to everyone who had ties to Sora. Very soon, to them, he'll be like a good friend who's gone away for a year."

Ansem sat down in a chair across from DiZ. "I've waited and now I want to know. What is it that you want?"

"Revenge," DiZ stated simply.

Ansem's hand resting on the armrest clenched up into a fist. "Revenge…"

"Now for the finishing touches. First, we must dispose of Naminé. She did a splendid job with Sora but it's high time she disappeared. Roxas isn't the only one who was never meant to exist. All you need to do is let her and Kairi meet. Take care of it Ansem."

"Roxas!" Naminé called out to him in the White Room, as DiZ tried to take her away. "You and I are friends, always. You made a promise to me once, that no matter what, we will always be friends. We will meet again, and I promise to restore all of your memories. You may not know it is me, and I may not know it's you. Someday soon…I promise!"

Roxas reached out to her. "Let her go!"

DiZ, Naminé, and Ansem disappeared in the dark corridors, leaving Roxas all alone.

He left the White Room, only to bump into a red haired girl.

"S-Sora?" she asked innocently. "No…Not quite," she said, examining his blonde hair.

He shook his head. "I'm Roxas…Wait, you're Kairi, right?"

"Yes…Oh. We've met before, haven't we?"

"Yeah, we have."

Ansem appeared before her. "Kairi, we need to talk," he said.

She looked to the man and nodded. "Alright." Kairi smiled at Roxas. "Nice to meet you in person, Roxas." The two walked into a dark corridor, leaving him alone once more.

DiZ shoved Naminé into the broom closet. "Until Ansem can dispose of you, you shall remain here."

The door closed, leaving Naminé in darkness. All she had was her memories of Roxas to keep her company.

"Kairi, you must make a promise for me," Ansem said. The two stood in the library of the mansion.

"Yes?"

"Do not mention me to Sora."

"Ansem…Why?"

"He cannot know, lest his new journey is wrought with pursuit of me when his true enemy is Organization XIII."

She didn't want to accept it, but she had to. "Okay, I promise."

He presented her a Keyblade, a gold and red blade with flowers on the teeth. "You are ready. You will soon see him again." She took it, looking over it with wondrous eyes.

He disappeared in a dark corridor. Kairi, with a heavy heart said, "Thank you for everything."

Now, she had to find Sora. But where could he be?

"Simply amazing Roxas," Axel remarked as the blond finished off a bunch of his assassin lackeys.

Roxas remembered. He remembered him. His first friend.

A friend who failed to tell him the truth, again, and again.

Yet he felt pity for him. In hindsight perhaps leaving as he did only made things worse. He knew who Sora was now, but to what cost? To what end?

"Axel…"

"You really do remember me...I'm so FLATTERED!" he ignited a large ring of fire in the room, trapped Roxas inside. "But you're too late!"

Roxas sighed as he pulled out not one but two keyblades in each hand, Oathkeeper and Oblivion. It really did come down to this. He didn't want to fight Axel; he wanted answers more than anything.

He wasn't going to get his answers, possibly ever, not until Sora did.

"Who are you talking to? Me? Or Sora?" Roxas mocked to DiZ. The room was white and endless. At the center of it all was a large, white pod holding the key that connects everything. In front of said pod was the man who was only using him as a tool of revenge.

DiZ gave his derogatory answer, "To half of Sora, of course. You reside in darkness. What I need is someone who can move about the realm of light and destroy Organization XIII."

Roxas remembered Organization XIII, but not all the lies they had told him in order to use him. His memory was still fuzzy. Blurs of Naminé and Axel returned to him, but the details were lacking. He didn't have the complete picture, not yet at least.

He, however, knew who Sora was and what his ties to him were. Why was it always Sora? Sora…Sora…

"Why? Who are you?" he demanded.

"I am a servant of the world," DiZ responded. He laughed before continuing, "And if I'm a servant, then you should consider yourself a tool, at best."

His jaw and fist clenched in boiling anger. He was a puppet in the palm of the Organization, and now he was a puppet to DiZ as a means to an end."Was that..." he spat out, trying to form coherent words. "Was that supposed to be a joke?" the Keyblade on instinct, appeared in his right hand. DiZ was going to pay. "'Cause I'm not laughing!"

The teen sprinted towards the man, striking him with the Keyblade, but it went right through, leaving the man unharmed. He stood up straight, clenching the Keyblade tight.

"My apologies. This is only a data-based projection," DiZ explained.

He had snapped. Anger took over. He screamed and viciously attacked the hologram. Growing tired, he swung the Keyblade down on the hologram one final time. The hologram disappeared completely. He huffed for air, the same mantra repeating over and over in his thoughts. He screamed his name over and over in his head.

The hologram of the man in red appeared a few feet away from him. "Come, over here."

This man removed his memory, led him to lead a fake life, only to be forced to give it all up. This man was doing this to him. He absolutely refused to fade. With a fierce glare, the teen spat out words laced with fury. "I hate you so much..."

"You should share some of that hatred with Sora. He's far too nice for his own good."

He couldn't take any more of those heartless words. "No! My heart belongs to me!" he declared. He ran towards the hologram, cutting through it and causing it to disappear. The pod opened before him, showing who was contained within.

"Sora..." If he, a former member of the Organization, couldn't stop them, then at least he could help the one who can.

This is his fate. He felt his heartless existence fading away. He looked at his hand, which was now translucent. Looking away from his hand to Sora, he gave his last words: "You're lucky. Looks like my summer vacation is...over."

Kingdom Hearts II

A/N: This is a revamped version of my old and abandoned fanfic "What If". It was never finished as a result of lack of interest and a loss of an outline, but now I've made a new outline and I'm fully ready to go all in with this project after the successful completion of "Final Fantasy VS XIII".

A few things to note here:

Each chapter will cover a world. There will be 2nd visits (and this will be important later).

And there will be report entries written entirely by me.

Feel free to leave a review! :D I will see you next chapter.

Thank you my beta, ThreeDegrees for combing over this chapter and giving me super helpful suggestions!

And thank you Umbrella6661 for asking about this story and getting me motivated to pick it up again.