Age SIX

Burning. Heat. Blood. Flames. Metal. Iron. Screaming. Pain.

Yeah. I remember my sixth birthday like it was yesterday. The sixth year of my whole life was accompanied by these things and more. The legal passing of me to start my training in protection and get my weapon, in my culture this is, was ruined by them. They ruined my right of half passage.

The day started off so easily too. Just a normal bright and sunny day. Not a lot of clouds were in the sky. A clear blue sky, much like my eyes—so my mom said. Only two people had their sixth birthday on this day. Me and my best friend, upon whom I really liked more than a friend should—although it is his fault. He's too nice for his own good—be allowed to, Sora.

He had the most beautiful oceanic blue eyes that were always smiling, chocolate hair, tanned skinned that was flawless, and the most dazzling smiles I had ever seen. Yes. I was in love with him. But I had to give him up.

He was in love with somebody else.

Let us back up a few days though.

Two Elite had walked into our village a few days before our birthdays claiming to be fallen Elites. Our elder, Yen Sid, didn't trust them. We were a village under the Hunter District anyways, so why would we? The Elite hunted us down and destroyed us.

The Elite are a bunch of Daemons who hunt down half breeds, like my village, and destroy them. Just so that the Earth and other Worlds will be "pure" in their eyes. They didn't just stop at half breeds though. Anybody who opposed the Elite were slaughtered mercilessly. Without a second thought, an Elite would destroy a whole village. They leave no survivors, no women or children ever get away.

The Hunters were those that opposed the Elite. They were a mix of full breeds, half breeds, humans, magicians, and so on. Those that wanted the world to stay as it is. To keep everybody safe they went out and set up districts. If an Elite is seen anywhere in that district controlled by a Hunter, the Elite will be sentenced to death, no trial. The only way out of the sentence is if the Elite is a fallen Elite—meaning they have the scars and marking to prove their ranks but don't follow the orders sent to them from higher up.

Nobody knows when this war started, we just know it did. The old texts were burned down by the second generation of Elite's. Nobody tried to stop them.

For the days that they were in town, Sora started to spend more and more time with one of the Elites. She was a tall maroon haired girl that had green eyes. She always wore red amour around her body. When she wasn't wearing the amour, which was a rare sight, she always had on a pink dress. Her name was Kairi.

I could see why Sora fell for her, even at the age of six I could tell that she was pretty. It still hurt to see Sora going all wide eyed at her fighting skills. I eventually gave up that fight, something I'll never do again.

The other Elite knew to stay away from the village to gain our trust, which is why he earned it. Kairi, however, never earned it. He was a tall redhead with dull green eyes and two markings under each of those dull green eyes. He was always smirking at something unknown. He was called Reno.

The day that I actually met Reno was the day that everything in my life would be ruined. The same day that I would forever hate the Elite and Hunters alike.

I was sitting at the very top of my favorite hill, Sunset Hill, near the edge of our village. It was the perfect spot to watch the sunset or, sitting on the opposite side, the sunrise. Most preferred the sunset to the sunrise, they didn't like to get up that early, which gave the hill its name. I did, however, because of the quiet.

I was just sitting there watching the sunrise that morning when Reno came up and startled me.

I had been singing a song that Mother would always sing to me in our native tongue. "May I sit here or is this part of the hill taken?"

I jumped and looked up at him with wide, blue eyes and nodded. He sat down beside me and stared out at the sunrise. We sat in silence for a long time, him staring out at the horizon and me just a staring at him, before he decided to look at me. We sat in silence like that for a few more minutes before he decided to talk.

"You know something? Staring is rude little one." He said as he poked my nose.

I wrinkled my nose while glaring at him. "My name is Roxas!" I spat out, as if the very words were poison to my system.

He stuck out his hand with a smirk. "Nice to meet you, Roxas. My name is Reno, yo."

I looked at his face and then his hand and back to his face before blurting out; "I ain't gunna shake your hand you dirty Elite! Keep it there any longer, though, and I will bite you!" I turned back to the sunrise with my nose slightly in the air.

He quickly took his hand back and laughed. He turned back to the sunrise and was quiet for a few minutes before he started to talk again. "So, what are you exactly? I mean, what type of Daemon are you?"

"A Shifter."

"What do you shift into?"

"A kitten at the moment. My Mother says that I'll be able to Shift into different animals one day soon."

"What color are you?"

"Black and white. All black over my back with white covering my chest and paws. A small black splotch on my back right leg."

He hummed in response before saying; "I really am a Fallen Elite. The love of my life was a Daemon, before she was killed protecting me when I had fallen by my fellow Elite. I did take revenge on them though. Killing off every last one of them."

I looked at him shocked before asking the only question on my mind. "Who was she?"

He looked sad for a minute before his smirk came back; "Not gunna tell. Just know that I have a kid out there that looks like her mother and she's in need of a parent. Although, I'm sure that her brother is taking care of her the best he can. Sadly though, he isn't mine."

"Why are you telling a six year old this?"

Reno shrugged. "No clue. I guess.... Never mind."

I grabbed his sleeve and gave him my puppy dog eyes. "Please?! I wanna know!"

He just simply laughed while ruffling my hair. "No can do kid. Maybe before I leave the village I'll tell you." He got up and started down the hill.

I quickly followed him. "So! What's you're weapon of choice? Have you ever killed any half-breeds? What did you do before you were an Elite? Why did you become an Elite?...." I go on and on asking questions, getting an answer from him here and there.

We spent the whole day together. I got closer to Reno and really looked up to him.

I guess you could say that I started to fall for the older redhead, even though he was like twenty years older than me.

I found myself noticing the smaller things about him that I never did with Sora. Like Reno loved our villages stir fry and how large our village was. How he was always smirking at everything and everybody passing by, but only really smiled at me.

Yeah. I was in love with Reno.

The day was spent with me following Reno around the village until I had to get ready for the bonfire, which is when all hell broke loose.

Everybody in the village was there to witness it. It only happened once every month, but they knew something was going to happen. It was like a sixth sense that my village had for emending doom. Animals could always tell when something was up, and my whole village consisted of animals in some shape or form.

Sora had just gotten his weapon, the famous Keyblade that only chose one other master this year.

I was next. People were hoping that I would get the Keyblade also, it would be a first time since the Great War started that two Keyblader's came from our village.

I stepped up to the bonfire and awaited my weapons. I looked over to see if Reno was there and saw him looking towards the forest with a worried and confused expression plastered on his face. I looked over and saw what he saw.

A whole squad of Elite were coming our way, with Kairi in her red amour leading their way.

Needless to say, nobody was really shocked. All of the Guardians took their stances, knowing full and well that they might end up dieing to keep the village safe.

Sora gasped from beside me and several cries and screams went out as Kairi's men and women launched arrows at us. My mom quickly ran up to me, seeing as how I still hadn't gotten my weapons, and carried me off. I kept my eyes on Reno the whole time.

I watched as he took out a rod and started to attack relentlessly at some Elite in white armor.

'Please be safe Reno....' I thought as my mother carried me off.

"Roxas! Roxas-baby!" My mother broke my thoughts with her screaming. She jumped over a fallen log and ducked a flaming spear that was coming towards us. "I need you to turn into a cat and run and hide until you get your weapons! You will know that you have your weapon because you will have a warm feeling of light over come you! Once you get your weapon, run. Get out of town and—" My mother screamed as she was impaled by multiple arrows in her back. Some of them were flaming.

"MOMMY!" I screamed as she fell to the ground, still holding onto me tightly, as if she when she let me go she would have died at that moment.

She smiled at me, her once vibrant blue-green eyes dulling as the Grim Reaper slowly took her from me. "Go Roxas." She whispered as she let me go.

I laid her on the ground gently and sobbed, people started to run past me. "Dunn go mommy! I love you! NO! I'll go get the Healers now! They'll help you mommy! Mommy? Mommy!"

I screamed in anger as her breath left her, all the while smiling at me. I tried to stay with her but somebody kicked me away.

"Filthy half-breed!" A man spat at me as he continued to kick me in my side until a guardian started to attack him.

I got up and ran for my home. I got there quickly, I looked for a place to transform. I dashed behind the house and instantly turned into my kitten form.

I was used to the pain that came with the reconstruction of my bones. It no longer affected me. Even as I changed I continued to run. I ran as fast as I could to find a small enough place to hide without being burned down by a building or trapped in one.

The next thing that I knew was that somebody had picked me up and was running faster than I was.

I looked up and started to pur slightly as I saw Reno had saved me from a multitude of arrows.

"Jeeze kid! What's up with you and transforming in plain sight, yo!? They saw you!" Reno grunted as he continued to run.

"RENO! HAULT YOU TRAITOR!" A female voice rang out. At that moment all time seemed to freeze.

Reno smirked. "Sargent Kairi! So good to see you!" He looked over his shoulder with a menacing glare. "This is Sector Seven Jurisdiction, yo! You are violating it with your filth! Get out now!"

Kairi just laughed at Reno. "You poor, simple minded, fool of a man! This is no longer Sector Seven! This is Ground Zero!"

Reno smirked and held up one of his hands. "Right. And I can fly through the great skies!" He said as he shot a fire ball at the cackling woman.

He hit her dead in her stomach, not killing her since her armor is made of the strongest metal known to all of the worlds. She was stunned that he actually shot at her.

Reno took that moment to run further from her.

We were almost out of the village when Reno stopped running. He gasped and fell to his knees. He looked down at me and mouthed a 'sorry' before tucking me further into his jacket.

I knew then that Reno had been shot with something. Blood started to stain my face and white fur.

I heard Kairi laughing over him. "You should have know Reno. You shouldn't have left us!"

At that moment Reno fell with me still in his jacket. I knew not to make a noise or a move until I knew the everything was OK.

I don't know when or how it happened, but I had fallen asleep and woken up to the smell of a lost fires smoke.

I squirmed my way out from under Reno's body. When I was fully from under Reno, I looked myself over as I transformed back.

I was covered from head to toe in blood from Reno, my mother, and the other villagers. I took a look around and noticed that the whole village was burned down and over half of the village was dead. I sniffled and screamed as something grabbed my foot.

I fell back and tried to scoot away from the thing.

"Stop kid." I heard Reno gasp out.

I looked down with wide eyes. I crawled over to him with tears forming. "R-Reno? Why?"

"Go to the Hundred Acre Woods and go to a large village called Wonder Land. Go and find Alice. Tell her that Reno sent you. She will give you things that you need. Once you have those things," Reno winced and took a deep breath before continuing, "go to a place called Twilight Town. There you will need to find a man by the name of Ven. He will raise you along with his daughter and help you to fight. You have to tell him your name and what has happened to you before he will help you."

I nodded as the tears slipped from my eyes and rolled down my cheeks. "O-OK Re-no! I will! B-but why did yo-ou help m-me?"

Reno smiled softly at me. "Heh.... I really.... like yo—" Reno stopped in mid-sentence.

I gasped. 'He really liked me?!' I thought as I stoop up and wiped the tears from my eyes. I started to walk towards my mothers body.

I wasn't surprised as I should have been. No. In fact I knew this was coming.

She was gone. My mother was gone. The only proof that she had ever been there was the necklace that she always wore.

I bent down and picked up the small, silver 'X' shape on a golden chain. I turned it over in my hand a few times before placing it around my neck.

It took me the whole day to bury my whole village. There weren't many left from the attack.

Once I had finished, I sat at the place that I had buried Reno and prayed. I prayed that he would find peace and happiness where he was. That he would find his lost loved one. That he knew what he was about to do to me was a good thing.

But.... I mostly prayed for my fallen village. For the poor villagers that had died. I prayed for Sora, prayed that he got out safely. That no harm would come to my best friend, cause, no matter what, I couldn't repress that tinge of like that I still had for him.

Once the sun had set fully and I was done praying and placing flowers over the graves, I cast a spell over the cemetery. One that took half of my energy, if not nearly all of it.

Once the spell was finished, I walked towards the forest.

I looked at the Imperial Forest.

This is where my journey starts.

This is where my vow began.

My vow to take down Ground Zero's murders. To destroy the one who killed my friends, family, village, people I grew up with, people that I cared about, people that I loved... I vow to never rest until the Hunters and Elite were brought down.

The Elite for doing this and the Hunters for not stepping in when they clearly should have from the very beginning.

I held out my hands and two Keyblades manifested in my them. One was black with a streaks of blue and purple here and there. The small key chain at the bottom was a black crown. The other, a white with a tint of blue. The tip of the white one had yellow and blue. The small key chain attacked to the end of this one was a small yellow star-shaped thing with a green leaf on it.

Oathkeeper and Oblivion. My oath to send the groups into oblivion.

I closed my eyes and felt the wind blow past my face. I took in a deep breath through my nose and exhaled slowly through my mouth as I opened my eyes.

My Oath that I had to Keep, to take protect the weak and take down the Hunters and Elite.

My Oblivion would come at an unexpected time from an unforeseen force.

OK! I know I'm late, but you already knew this and I already said that I was sorry to you Terra. I really am. I feel like I could have taken a break from studying history so that I could quickly post this. I'm really sorry, but.... yeah.

D-I-S-C-L-A-I-M-E-R~ I OWN NOTHING IN THIS! I shall kidnap Axel and Roxas from Square Enix and give Roxas to Terra and keep Axel and.... yeah. It's gunna be a while before that happens though. I still have to....

Uhm.... If this confused you, then I sorry. I can't explain anything at the moment but next week. Everything should be explained next week during the next chapter.-le gasp-Have I made plans for the next chapter?! Yes. Yes I...................... Sorry. The commercial for Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days came on and I had to temp. lose my voice from the high-pitched, short scream that I always do. Where was I before the commercial....? AH! That's it! Yes. Yes I have made set plans and I have a schedule too.-nods- Yes. Yes I do. No. No you're not seeing things and going crazy. It's the truth. I do.-holds up USB window- SEE?!?! I told you.... Oh wait.... You probably can't see this, can you?

lmao Next update: October 15
Date started: September 20? I'm not all to sure when I started.
Number of Words(without A/N): 3064
Number of Words(with A/M): 3500