Hey there, everyone; BassDS back once more with a new update to the story for you all.

So last time, we did start to set things in motion, and here, we'll pretty much be doing the same thing; got to have a good build up, after all. But don't fret, things WILL be picking up soon in the action department, I promise. Even if I'm not very good at writing action sequences, so please bare with me there.

Funny, most of the series I've done stories for are all action-based games or anime...oh, the irony...

But anyway, I'm hoping you all enjoy this new story update, and I would like to say, I'm open to constructive criticism, so if you have some advice you want to throw my way, go for it; I'd love to hear your feedback, and the fact that you are are enjoying Future Connection means I'm at least doing SOMETHING right.

And before I leave you all to this next advancement for Future Connection, I do want to say, be on the lookout, because I WILL be dropping a new one-shot soon that will delve into the events that occur in Hikari's timeline before she's born...and well...to also go ahead and finally get a fluffy and emotional NSFW SoKai piece out there, since Pleasure And Darkness KINDA broke my trend of writing soft-hearted smut, so that is something I MUST amend, so I hope you all look forward to that one-shot soon.

The fun is just getting started!

Future Connection

Ch.4 Visitor

Riku rested up against the doorframe outside of his house; eyes closed as he listened to the crickets and waves before he began to hear footsteps and opened one of his eyes to see Sora and Kairi walking towards.

"Couldn't this wait until morning, Riku?" yawned Sora while stretching his arms out.

"I'm sure Riku has a perfectly good reason for having us come out here, Sora; otherwise, he wouldn't have asked." Kairi rebutted.

"I'm going to be honest; I'm not even sure if its a good reason or not, but..." hesitated Riku as he looked up to the balcony that led into his room. "Something tells me you're both connected to this." he added before moving his hand down and pulled Destiny's Sanctuary out from the corner of the house's entrance he leaned against.

"A Keyblade?" Sora wondered as he took it from Riku's hand and looked it over. "I don't get it, Riku. What's so special about it?"

"It looks beautiful..." Kairi exclaimed softly.

"I didn't call you over about the Keyblade itself...it's actually about its wielder. She's resting up in my room." Riku explained.

"There's another Keyblade wielder here? But, I thought me, you and Kairi were the only ones on the island." Sora looked puzzled. "Did they come from another world?"

Riku looked very composed as he tried to figure out the right words to explain the situation. "I was on the beach, and I looked up to see a shooting star passing by...at least I thought it was one. The next minute, I see it barreling down towards me and dodging it before it crashed into the sand. When the smoke cleared; that's when I saw the girl laying there, and that Keyblade clenched in her hand."

"So...they did come from another world; one that probably fell to darkness?" Kairi asked as she looked on at Riku's serious demeanor.

"No…" Riku responded as he looked down. "As strange as this is to say; I firmly believe she IS from the island."

Sora could only look on at Riku with his trademark confused face. "But, that doesn't make sense, Riku. Do you even realize what you're saying?"

"It sounds weird, and very improbable, I know...but there's something in my heart telling me that it's true. As it stands, she's the only one with the answers, but until she wakes up, we don't know for sure what's going on." Riku replied.

"So, why ARE we here, Riku?" Kairi asked as she looked to her friend.

"Come upstairs...you'll see." Riku moved and opened the door as the three of them walked in before he closed the door behind them.

The trio made their way up the stairs to his room, coming to the end of the hall as Riku moved his hand to the doorknob, but stopped when he gripped it while looking back and memorizing the faces of his two close friends. The resemblance they had to the young girl was uncanny, but there were other thoughts racing through his mind.

"Say I'm right on this hunch...if so, HOW is she even here...but more importantly, WHY? Is there something about to happen that we don't know about?" Riku thought to himself as his green eyes met up with their blue eyes.

"Riku?"

He snapped out of his train of thought as Kairi spoke. "Oh…sorry; got a lot on my mind right now."

He took a breath and opened the door as they all walked in; the breeze from the open balcony door making the curtains sway back and forth.

"She was pretty banged up when I found her, most likely from a fight against Heartless. Regardless; she put up a fight from the looks of it. I tended to her wounds best I could." Riku added as he moved closer to the bed and set the Keyblade down against the nightstand. "Look at her...tell me what you see."

Sora and Kairi looked each other in the eye, somewhat put off by how Riku was acting, they could just sense he was uneasy about the girl he found, until Kairi nodded to Sora and they approached the bed.

Kairi was the first to get a good look; eying the strange girl carefully; noting her beautiful hair, until she stood and looked very hard at the girl's face, leading Kairi to emit a small gasp. "She...she looks just like me..."

"Okay...this is getting freaky..." Sora added as he realized Kairi was right.

"Not just you..." Riku spoke out as he moved behind them.

Sora looked on at the girl; seeing that her auburn hair did match up with Kairi's red locks, he looked closer and could make out a few more features on her face; he could see traces of Kairi in the young girl, no doubt, but he also saw traces of himself, mostly around her nose, cheeks and ear lobes.

Sora felt goosebumps run all over his skin as the realization hit him that she looked similar to him.

"Ok...I have SO many questions right now..." Sora shook his head and sat down in the chair next to Riku's desk.

"Don't worry; you aren't the only one. This whole thing has me pretty uneasy." Riku confessed as he pondered to himself.

Kairi could only stare at the girl as she laid there resting; moving her hand down to move away the strands of hair that covered her face; taking in her features before softly placing her hand to the girl's cheek. "She looks...just like us, Sora."

"Then I take it you've come to the same conclusion I did then?" Riku added as he moved over to Sora and Kairi joined them. "I don't know how...but the similarities make it clear as day: this Keyblade wielder is your daughter."

Kairi felt her heart jump as Riku said those words before her eyes trailed to Sora's, they both became locked together as they tried to process the situation.

"My...daughter…?" Sora muttered as he looked across the room to the bed.

"That's why I'm on edge right now. If she really is yours and Kairi's, why and how is she here? It can't be time travel; because we know the rules that are in place from when we dealt with Xehanort; you have to leave your body behind, and you can only travel to a point in the past you exist in; yet she's here at a point where she doesn't exist, and her body is intact. Something isn't sitting right with me." Riku motioned as he looked over to Sora.

"So...what should we do?" Kairi asked.

"For now, you two stay here and keep an eye on her until she wakes up. As for me; I'm going to let Master Yen Sid know what's going on. I get the feeling something's happening, and it's not going to be good." Riku replied.

Sora only stared down at the floor, trying to process what was happening before a soft groan snapped him out of it.

"I think she's coming to." exclaimed Kairi as she saw Sora dash past her and make his way to the bed.

"Hey...can you hear me? Are you okay?" Sora asked softly as he placed his hand on her shoulder to nudge her lightly.

"Ngh...Un...Uncle R..Riku…?" she uttered back as her eyes slowly began to open up.

"Well, gee, Sora; thanks for giving me THAT distinction." Riku joked; hoping it would help lighten things up while his mind was troubled by the current situation's unknowns.

Sora just shot a small grin back at him before turning his attention back to the girl. "He's here, don't worry." He soon felt a lump in his throat as she tried to speak as he looked on at the pure blue eyes she had. "Do you...know who I am?"

Her vision was a bit hazy and she felt disoriented; but slowly, her vision began to return to her as she looked up at the young man that towered above her at her side. Soon, Hikari could see who it was talking to her; his face from the picture on her mother's nightstand overlayed with the face in front of her in her mind, and she felt herself being filled with rage. "You..."

"So, you DO know me, right?"

Sora didn't get the typical Yes or No response he was expecting.

Instead, he was knocked to the floor after her fist punched him hard in the face.

Hikari could feel her body throb and ache in pain, but she didn't care; after so long, she could finally vent her frustrations.

"Why!?" she cried out as she forced herself off the bed, landing atop Sora as she slapped him. "All these years, and you come back NOW!?" she growled and slapped him hard.

"Ugh...wait, what did I..." Sora tried to say as he felt another slap from her, followed by a harder punch.

"Do you know...the pain you put me through!? How you've made me feel alone my whole life!?" she cried as tears poured down her cheeks and move her arm back to land one more punch before she felt a hand on her clenched fist.

"Stop this!"

Hikari turned to look over her shoulder as her as her eyes landed on the young redhead behind her, feeling a strong grip on her arm. Hikari was instantly frozen with shock as she looked on at the face of the person who stopped her assault.

Looking straight on at her was her mother...but it was impossible; the thought ran through her mind. It couldn't be. Her mom was bedridden and in a coma.

"Just settle down, alright...you've been through a lot..." Riku took over and did his best to part the two, watching Hikari rest against the bed on the floor.

Hikari tried to make sense of everything. Her eyes darted back and forth between Sora and Kairi before they landed on her nearby Keyblade.

Hurting as much as she was, she panicked and grabbed her Keyblade, struggling to her feet as she used all the willpower she had to get away from them; seeing the door to the balcony open, she leaped out over the railing and into the sand below, tossing and turning as she rolled in it before rising to her feet; silently crying as she tried her best to get away.

"Stay here; I'll bring her back." Riku motioned to Kairi as she helped Sora get back up while he exited the same way Hikari did and gave chase.

"Sora...are you okay?" Kairi asked softly as she grabbed some tissue from the nightstand to wipe away a bit of blood coming from the side of his mouth.

"I've had plenty of beatings from Heartless and Nobodies over the years...but never from a girl..." he groaned as he rubbed his jaw.

Kairi tended to his wounds as they sat on Riku's bed, but her eyes gazed out at the starlit sky through the balcony door.

"She looked like she saw a ghost when she saw me the moment I stopped her from hurting Sora, and when she saw him...just what was that all about?" Kairi thought to herself with a worried look.

Hikari has since put her Keyblade away as she struggled down the beach. The pain she felt was agonizing, but she pushed on as she tried to make sense of what happened.

She soon turned a bend and found a small cave as she entered it, hobbling to a nearby flat rock to sit on as she felt the pain in her leg again from her battle with that Heartless.

"Why is HE back? After so long; why?" she muttered to herself, clutching the cloth around her waist. She then thought back to when she was ready to land another hit onto Sora, only to be stopped by her mom. "How is she even conscious...they said she was in a deep coma..."

"Listen, I know you're in there."

Hikari's train of thought was broken as Riku's voice echoed gently into the cave.

"How did you find me? Don't come in unless you want a Firaga to the face!"

"Alright...just take it easy. I'd rather not get barbequed. And as for how I found you...well, you did hobble away on the beach and left footprints for me to follow." he chuckled a bit. "Wasn't hard to put two and two together."

Silence permeated the moment between them.

"Mind if I come in? It's just me; I promise." Riku asked cautiously.

"...Fine..." she relented.

Riku sighed as he carefully made his way inside to see the young girl glaring at him with an angry look he knew all too well from his years of teasing Sora. If she really was his kid, the apple clearly didn't fall far from the tree in terms on mannerisms.

"First things first; mind telling me why you went all crazy and wailed on my best friend like that?"

"You KNOW what he's done! Don't act stupid!" Hikari barked back. "You know how much I can't stand him for leaving us….leaving ME!"

"Actually, no, I don't." Riku replied as he walked in a bit more as the moon's light glowed dimly through a crack in the top of the cave, allowing Hikari to make out his features.

"Wait..." Confusion crossed upon her face as she examined him more closely. He LOOKED like the Riku she knew; blue-green eyes and silver hair were the dead giveaway, but he was noticeably a bit shorter to her, and his face seemed much more youthful. "What's going on? What happened to you; and my mom..." Hikari groaned as she held her head; trying to make sense of everything. "Just what's going on around here!?"

"Well...that settles it then..." Riku responded, his theory about the girl's parentage confirmed to him now. "As for your question there; seems we're in the same boat in that regard. I was hoping you could fill me in."

"As if I could tell you what's going on! I haven't a clue where I'm at!"

"Well...you're on the Destiny Islands, but not the Destiny Islands I believe you're familiar with." He moved closer to her. "I need you to tell me everything you can remember; because by all accounts, you shouldn't even be here...and that has me worried." Riku asked; knowing full well it was impossible for the young girl to be here in this time period; yet the laws of time were defied, and here she was, sitting in front of him.

"Wh...what are you saying?" Hikari asked with a confused and worried look.

"Well...let's start things off small first; you know who I am, so what's your name?" Riku asked as he knelt down to her and smiled.

"Ouch...it's still sore there...did you REALLY have to use the rubbing alcohol? I always hated that stuff." complained Sora as he felt the stinging pain on his face from one of the few spots where he had been hit; band-aids now covering them after Kairi had help to clean him up.

"It wasn't that bad." retorted Kairi as they walked along the dirt path that lead down to the beach, heading to meet Riku after he got in touch with them. "Besides..." her tone got a bit softer.

"Something on your mind?"

"I don't know...I'm just thinking about what Riku said earlier about that girl. I mean, could she really be...well, you know..." she replied while her eyes gazed up at the stars. "It was like looking at myself in the mirror; she looks almost just like me, and I see so much of her in you, too."

Sora said nothing for the moment and pondered the situation himself. He knew Riku raised some valid points about the restrictions of moving through time, yet, somehow, this Keyblade wielder that shared similar traits to him and Kairi was here in the flesh. Oddly enough, Sora felt in his heart this was the truth; his heart never steered him wrong before, so why start now?

"I still don't know what to make of it all. It's a lot to take in." he responded as he held onto her hand tightly. "But we'll figure it out just like we always do. I promise."

Kairi smiled as he reassured her, but in her mind, she kept replaying the girl's words in her head over and over, casting doubt on her heart as she recalled how alone she said she felt when accusing Sora.

"Please...don't tell I'm going to lose him again." she thought to herself. "I...I don't know if I'll be able to take it again; not after last time..."

Eventually as they came to the fence leading down to the beach, they saw Riku propped up against it; the young girl sitting with her legs to her chest as she looked toward them before averting her gaze.

"Well, I see you cleaned up nice after all that." Riku said as he looked to Kairi. "The rubbing alcohol?"

"He hated every minute of it." she smiled.

"Yeah, well you'd think after all the times you got scratched up when we were kids, you'd learn not to be as reckless as you were, then your mom wouldn't have had to use it so many times." Riku shot back smugly with a smirk.

"That stuff stings and you know it." Sora muttered.

"Anyway..." Riku turned to look at the girl as she stood up and walked over to face them; her eyes darting down to the corners as she looked away from them.

Kairi looked over and saw the young girl standing before them quietly before she took a deep breath and looked them both in the eyes.

"This is Hikari." Riku spoke; being the one to once more break the silence. "Your daughter."