Ugh. I finally finished this chapter. I am soooo sorry that it took so long! I've had a lot of things going on lately that have taken precidence (s/p?) over this. I'm sorry! I hope that you forgive me. Well, the good news is that the Astoria-going-camera-crazy chapter will be coming up soon.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed. This story wouldn't have made it this far without you!

Note: For those of you who think that this is a MarySue or a MaryJane fic, it's NOT. Astoria might have some qualities of me, but she's not me. She's a character that I made up, and I wouldn't mind having her personality. If you want me to draw up a list of what we have in common, and how she is NOT like me, then I will. Don't flame me and tell me my story is a piece of shit just because you think a character is supposed to be me. That's fucked up, and unappreciated. Not to mention, you have no life if you're going to read a story just to call it a piece of shit.

After we entered the train station, Hayner, Pence, and Olette came running through the doors. Standing in front of us, they all smiled sheepishly.

"We wanted to see you off," Pence said. "It felt like the right thing to do." Sora smiled, and then something odd happened. He shed a tear.

"Uh. Um," He stuttered, wiping it away, shamefully. "I don't know why that happened. I'm just… Sad to leave you guys." The trio in front of us nodded, looking just as sad.

"Sora, come on!" Donald hollered from the strange train. Goofy nodded.

"We gotta get goin'!" Sora nodded and turned hesitantly, but I pulled him back before he could go.

"I want to come with you," I said.

"I don't know… It'll be dangerous… Are you sure?" Sora looked unsure.

"Yes. I can hold my own, and I can help you. I promise I won't be a burden. Please?" I looked up at him, my eyes pleading. He sighed.

"Alright. The more the merrier, right?" I let out a whoop of joy and dashed forward to hug him.

"Thank you thank you thank you! I promise I won't let you down." I looked up and grinned. Seeing a faint blush upon Sora's cheeks, I pulled away

"I'll see you on the train, then." I nodded. "It was really nice meeting you guys." Sora waved, turned, and then boarded the train.

Turning to face the first friends I gained here, I felt the tears well up. Olette was already crying, and Pence looked a little misty eyed.

"We knew that you would be leaving, somehow. We got you these, as a gift."

She extended her hand and opened it, palm up, revealing a pair of earrings. One was a silver star, and the other was a silver crescent moon. Holding back tears, I put them on and gave her my best smile. Olette ran forward and hugged me tightly.

"Come back soon," she whispered. I nodded, and then turned towards Hayner and Pence. The latter sniffled while the other rolled his eyes. I smiled.

"Don't be sad, you guys! I'll be back soon!" Pence sniffled again and nodded. "Tell Seifer not to miss me too much, and take care of Bella!" I winked, gave them one last smile, and boarded the train, but not before I heard Hayner yell:

"You better take care of yourself, or else!"

I bent over at the waist, gasping for air. I wasn't used to fighting hordes of Heatless while running up infinite flights of stairs. Leave it to a wizard to make things difficult. At least the Heartless Pete sent were only at a few at a time. These were ten to fifteen at once. To my relief, I wasn't the only one reaching their limit.

Sora was leaning against a wall, clutching his side. Goofy was letting his giant shield support his weight while he caught his breath. Donald was the only one who didn't appear winded. In fact, he was jumping up and down while yelling at us.

"Why did you stop! We're almost there! Come on! Get up! We have to go see Master Yen-Sid!" We all rolled our eyes and complied, walking stiffly to the next door, which took Sora and Goofy to open.

Donald dashed inside, followed by Goofy, then Sora, then finally me. I looked around the room we were in and wasn't very impressed. It was mostly bare, with books lining the walls in shelves and a desk with a chair in the middle. There was a pointed hat on top of the desk that I thought I recognized.

"Master Yen-Sid?" Donald called, looking around. "Master Yen-Sid, where are you? It's us, Donald and Goofy!"

A puff of smoke appeared behind the desk. Sora and I immediately got in our fighting positions, but Donald and Goofy only bowed. Huh?

Standing where the smoke had been was an ancient looking man in blue robes. He had piercing gray eyes, a long beard, and was wearing the blue hat. Oh, he's the scary guy from Fantasia.

"Master Yen-Sid! It's an honor!

Wow. Could Donald suck up any more?

"Hiya." Sora waved. Donald hit him on the head and forced him to bow.

"Sora, show some respect! That's the king's teacher!" Sora's mouth opened with an "Oh." Yen-Sid just smiled, not insulted at all.

"You must be Sora, the keyblade wielder. His majesty, King Mickey, has said many a great thing about you." Sora's eyes widened.

"You've seen the king? Have you seen Riku, too, then?" Yen-Sid's smile disappeared.

"His majesty gave me instructions. He told me to provide you with information about your new enemy. He did not tell me anything about this Riku you speak of. I am sorry."

"Oh…" Sora frowned. I put my hand on his shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. He gave me a small smile and nodded.

"So… Tell me about the enemy." Yen-Sid nodded, and waved an arm, which conjured an image to the right of us. It was… Beings in black coats!

"This is the Organization XIII. Its members are very powerful, each with their own special abilities. We don't know what their motives or their plan is, only that they are not your allies. They will try to kill you."

Goofy gulped and Donald looked a little apprehensive. Sora scratched his head.

"So what are they, exactly? Are they a new breed of Heartless?"

"They are called Nobodies." My head shot up. What?

"Uh, what's a Nobody?" Goofy asked. "Kind of like a Heartless?" Yen-Sid shook his head.

"Nobodies are the result of a Heartless being created from a being with a strong heart and will. The shell that it leaves behind becomes a malevolent creature. They're more intelligent than Heartless, therefore posing a more serious threat."

He waved his arm again, and an image of the silver things appeared.

"This is called a Dusk. It is the lowest ranking Nobody. The Organization members are the highest ranked."

"But how come they look like us?" Donald tapped his chin.

"The best answer I can give you is because they are the highest ranked Nobodies. Their heart and will must have been very strong. However, even though they look like us, they are not.

Nobodies do not have hearts. They do not feel. They can only remember what it was like to feel."

I stood numbly, taking it what the magician just said. After I had called him heartless, he had replied, "Nobodies can't have hearts." I thought he was just being a jackass, but… He had meant it literally. Was he lying to me the whole time? He said that he couldn't feel, but wait… Hadn't he said that I made him warm, or something similar? Maybe he wasn't lying, then.

But then again… He hadn't told me he was part of the Organization. He probably knew that I would meet up with Sora, but he hadn't revealed that he was going to be my enemy. His boss, the leader of Organization XIII, had assigned him to "investigate me," so maybe that was all that I was to him. I'm a challenge, an investigation, a responsibility, and a mission. That's all that I was… I fought the tears that threatened to spill.

"You there. Girl." I shot my head up. Looking around the room, I saw that Sora, Donald, and Goofy weren't there. The only other person in the room with me was Wizard Yen-Sid.

"Where are the others?" I asked nervously.

"They're in the next room. You were too lost in thought to notice. Now, come here."

I slowly inched my way to his desk. I could have sworn that he rolled his eyes.

"I will not bite you, child, so you have nothing to fear. I only wish to talk." I relaxed slightly, and walked closer to his desk. The wizard nodded.

"Good. Now, his Majesty did not tell me of your arrival. Perhaps you can inform me?" I hesitated, the decided it was a good idea. I mean, he had taught Mickey Mouse, perhaps one of the greatest icons ever, so he couldn't be that bad. As I recited my story, minus a few details about Axel, he listened without interruption. Once I was finished and trying to catch my breath, he finally spoke.

"So you are saying that in your world, we are… Part of a game?" I nodded. "Hmmm… And you just woke up in our world?" I nodded a second time. "That is very odd indeed. I have never heard of anything like this."

Yen-Sid stroked his beard in a downward motion, as if he was thinking. I shifted my weight. Would he have an answer? He was a great wizard, and had probably been around for a while. Plus, wizards were always wise; they knew everything. Would he know why I was here, in the world of Kingdom Hearts II?

The end! Haha. J/k! Don't hurt me, please:ducks:

Finally, he broke the uncomfortable silence.

"I do not know why you are here, child, nor do I know how you came to be here." I lowered my gaze in disappointment.

"… I … was hoping that you might have some kind of idea." Yen-Sid smiled.

"Child, do not fret so. I plan on looking into it. Your situation perplexes me greatly. I intend to consult the king on this matter. Perhaps his Majesty will have an answer."

"Thank you," I whispered. Maybe King Mickey will know. There was only one way to find out.

"Ah, I see that the keyblade's chosen is finally ready." Yen-Sid smirked. Turning towards the door, I saw that Sora now wore new clothes that fit.

"Hey, you have three post-menopausal fairies try to make you an outfit, and we'll see how long it'll take you." I laughed. "Anyways, how do they look?" He rubbed the back of his head, smiling.

Instead of his normal clothes, his outfit was now mostly black, with some silver, gold, and red mixed in. (I'm not going into detail. You wanna see it? Go look it up.) I smiled and gave him the thumbs up sign.

"You look great! Now you're almost as cool as me." He scowled, while Donald and Goofy laughed.

"Whatever," he said, still scowling. "I'm 100 times cooler than you are."

"In your dreams." I rolled my eyes. Yen-Sid cleared his throat, glaring at the four of us. Sora and I laughed sheepishly.

"Now that all of you are ready, it is time for you to begin your journey and travel to other worlds." My eyes widened. Donald and Goofy shared a sideways glance.

"But Master Yen-Sid," Donald quacked. "How will we get there?"

Yen-Sid smirked, yes, actually smirked.

"With this." He pointed to a window, where a huge orange gummy ship was floating by.

"Wow!" Goofy said.

"The gummy ship!" Donald was jumping up and down. Sora grinned at me in excitement.

"C'mon, Astoria. Let's go fly." He took my hand and led me down the never-ending steps and into the gummy ship.

I pressed my face to the window and stared at the stars outside. I was awe-struck, and my face was flushed with excitement. It was so beautiful! The others smiled at my child-like wonder.

"So is this your first time in a gummy ship, Astoria?" Goofy asked me. I nodded, still staring outside. Donald chuckled.

"How do you like it?" I nodded again, but this time more vigorously. This time, they all laughed.

"I've never seen anything so beautiful! All of the stars… It's gorgeous." I turned away from the window, and saw Sora staring at me with an odd look. "You okay?" I asked. He blinked, shook his head as if to clear it, and then nodded. Suddenly, his eyes widened and his faced paled.

"What? What is it?" I turned back to the window, and felt my breath being taken away.

"What's happening to Twilight Town?" Donald asked. Goofy was staring out the window, his eyes huge.

"I think it's… Disappearing. Can it do that?" Sora shrugged.

"I don't think we'll be able to visit it any time soon." He looked at me out of the corner of his eye and frowned. "I'm sorry, Astoria. The good news is, though, I don't think it'll stay that way. So we will get to go back." I nodded, still out of it.

"So anyway… Just where are we going?" Donald, Goofy, and Sora looked at each other.

"Um…"

"You know…"

"That's a good question."

I rolled my eyes. Men. Sora clasped his fist in his hand, eyes shining.

"I got it!" He grinned at all of us while we waited.

"Well…?" Donald rolled his eyes.

"Oh yeah." Sora chuckled. "Why don't we go to Hollow Bastion? We could see Leon and the gang, check up on them, and clear out any Heartless around." Goofy nodded.

"We could try and find out information about Organization XIII, too."

"Alright, any objections?" Donald asked. We all shook our heads. "Then it's off to Hollow Bastion we go!"

Well, there you have it. I know there wasn't much action, but there will be soon, so don't worry! And if you're upset that Axel hasn't shown up lately, he will. Please be sure to review. I'll give you a cookie! If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll answer them on my profile.
-Teh SadPanda

Return to Top