Greeting, my fellow Kingdom Hearts fans.

I'm BassDS, and I've been on this site for well over 15 years, and I've actually worked on several other stories for some of my favorite series...but never for Kingdom Hearts; there WAS bit of a crossover story I started two years back, but I don't count that seeing as how 0.2 and eventually III derailed my plans for that...so yeah. I mainly hang around in the Mega Man side of things, but I figured it was time to throw my hat in the ring and write up a Kingdom Hearts story, and for me, what better way to do that than with a story involving my series OTP for Sora and Kairi. (Please, Nomura, stop messing with us and make this happen; you've been dropping these hints EVERYWHERE the past couple of years...as if Don't Think Twice isn't a big enough hint,)

But generally...my stories are usually all, oh what's the word; too cheerful or perfect, when it comes to ships. But this time...we're throwing a little dose of angst into the mix to start things off while at the same time, taking the concept of time travel in the KH series and turning it on its head and shattering it to a million pieces; because I'm breaking the rules and making my own here, before slowly reaching up to my usual form of storytelling where everything ends on a good note, while also bringing my Sokai offspring OC into the mix.

Initially, this just started as an alternate headcanon for an angsty SoKai involved plot, but I had quite a few people warm up to the idea and generally like it when I posted my thoughts on tumblr; so I figured, what the hell; let's run with it.

And with that...I give you all the beginning of Future Connection.

(Pardon the shortness of this chapter, my time is currently limited, and I really wanted to get this out here.)

Future Connection

Prologue: Bitterness

15 years.

That's how long the young girl had gone through life without either of her parents. As she sat atop the large tree on the play islands of Destiny Islands, she gazed out at the sea, her legs up to her chest as her blue eyes glistened in the sunset, her auburn hair grown down to her shoulders and upper back; she wore a simple white tank top and shorts; a violet cloth hung from the side and was wrapped around her waist, a red band adorned her right arm while a silver bracelet was snugly around her left wrist.

Her life was fine, for the most part. She had grandparents who loved her and took care of her since she was a baby…since her mother was physically unable to.

Her mother; the one who gave her life spent the past 15 years in a coma, she didn't understand why when she was younger, they just told her that mommy was sleeping, but she knew the truth now; her mother was troubled with stress during the time she was pregnant, and not long after she was born, it finally got the better of her and her emotions, and she had been silent ever since; resting in her bed as her grandparents tended to her mother; never being held or consoled by her whenever she had a bad day. She had never truly felt a mother's love for her child.

And her father….

She had seen pictures of him when he and her mother were younger, she had wanted forever to meet him when she was little...her grandfather didn't exactly think highly of him; blaming him for the state that his daughter was in now; and in time, she grew to not wanting to meet him at all, hating him as much as her grandfather did instead.

Then there was the Keyblade. She had been able to call hers forth when she was just the tender age of 6, to say she was highly confused of the mysterious object appearing out of nowhere was an understatement, but she at least learned about the Keyblade from her uncle Riku, coming to know both of her parents were wielders. She never understood why though...why her Keyblade had appeared before her, why she was even meant to wield one anyway.

Her uncle Riku told her of stories of her father and his adventures with the Keyblade...or as much as he knew, anyway. She wanted to be just like her father in the stories, but as she grew older, the bitterness of his absence had finally begun to set in. Hearing her grandfather speak lowly of him, and seeing the current state of her life due to him not being around; she began to believe it. Her father abandoned her mother. He abandoned her.

And she hated him for it.

"Mind telling me why you did that?" a voice called from behind her.

"Why did I do, what exactly, uncle Riku? You gotta be more specific than vague." she shot back nonchalantly.

"Hikari, why did you scratch up that drawing in the small cave?"

"Because I hated seeing it every time I sat there when I wanted to be alone."

"You know that drawing is special to your mother..." Riku replied, remembering when a younger Hikari asked about it one day many years ago.

"Yeah, well, not like she can say anything about it." Hikari said as she jumped off the tree. "And to be fair, I only scratched HIS part of it off."

"This again..." Riku thought for a moment. "That still doesn't give you..."

"Why does it matter? He's NEVER coming back here! No one is going to care one bit!" Hikari shouted.

"I care, and so does your mother; even more to her than you know." Riku replied.

"Well I don't, and that's that." Hikari replied as she tried to storm off past him.

"Listen, Hikari, you don't know everything." Riku said as he grabbed hold of her wrist to try and stop her.

"I know enough!" she shot back once more. "Fact is, he left mom, he left me! What else is there to know besides that he just ups and vanishes one day, leaving the girl he knocked up behind."

"Watch it...you're treading in the far end of the ocean there." Riku said. He was worried it would come to this; being exposed to her grandfather's hatred for his best friend was finally starting to get to his apprentice.

"Just let me go!" Hikari said, breaking her wrist free from Riku's grip. "I need to get home; I have school tomorrow..."

Riku watched as the young teen made her way over to the boat dock and jumped in; grabbing the oars and proceed to row back home to the main islands.

Sighing, Riku moved over to the large tree and leaned his back against like he did in the old days, wishing he had Sora and Kairi here to watch the sunset with him again.

"I should have went with him..." Riku muttered, staring at his hand and clenched it tightly, feeling a strong feeling of remorse and regret in his heart.

There was so much Hikari didn't know...she was led to believe things that weren't true; but Riku could see he could put this off no longer.

Hikari needed to know the truth.