Chapter III: Windmill of Fling Hearts

'Roxas! Roxas! Wake up!' The voice seemed close yet far away at the same time. "Roxas, wake up! We gotta get moving." Roxas began to open his eyes however they were shut again by the blinding sun. "Is this… the other side?" Roxas asked himself. "Roxas get up!" The voice continued to persist. "Axel?!" Roxas exclaimed as he bolted upright.

There was no one there. Roxas stood taking in his surroundings; He was surrounded by trees except for his north side where a great stone wall with an iron bared gate stood. Beyond the gate was a big house. At that moment a cocoon of darkness appeared, a cloaked figure emerging from it. "Roxas," the cloaked figure stated. "Axel?" Roxas inquired. "Yah," Axel replied as he removed his hood to reveal his spiky red hair. "Is this real?" Roxas asked, excitement rising. The last thing Roxas remembered was he and Sora were in there secret place and then … that woman. Everything went plank after that.

"Come on, we gotta go," Axel advocated, urging Roxas into the portal. "Why?"

"I can't explain right now. He's coming!" Roxas was a bit freaked at Axel's attitude. If who ever it was has the potential to shake Axel up this much, then it wasn't good. Understanding, Roxas nodded and stepped into the portal closely followed by Axel.

Sora was falling; falling in the all too familiar dream. At last he opened his eyes as his feet landed on nothingness and the only light came from the pinnacle above. Almost instinctively Sora stepped forward and no more had his foot lifted from the ground was he startled by once non-existent doves and a blinding light below.

Once his vision returned he took in a mural. Within the center was a gold knight, bowed with a great keyblade within his grip. The background was a barren wasteland of red stone and sand. There were two other knights in the mural; both wore armor of silver however their helms had their own characteristic ."Terra… Tria… Tairi," Sora said to himself. It was all coming to him…….

The wind swept desert was utterly deserted. Nothing stood within the cross roads but three keyblades protruding from the ground. Days past into weeks, weeks past into months, months past into years yet the owners never returned. However, upon that day, the keyblades wait had ended. Upon the horizon strode three knights… Terra, the knight of the sky; Tria, the knight of the earth; Tairi, the knight of the sea. Terra walked up and released from the earth the middle keyblade, Soran, the keyblade of light. Next came Tairi who grasped the keyblade to Terra's right, Kiri, the keyblade of innocence. Last to come was the youngest of the three, Tria, whom claimed Riiku, the keyblade of twilight. However one was missing.

In the distance came a figure, and in his possession was Tyrant, the keyblade of darkness. A smirk crawled onto the bald man's face as he released his guardian from the darkest reaches of his heart. Rage pumped through Terra's veins as rushed forward to strike the villain down. The bald man had foreseen this. Just a Terra jumped to deliver his blow the earth shot up, slamming into him and leaving him to fumbling on the surface. He only looked fast enough to see another piece of land shooting up under the man's and his guard's feet, moving them from harm's way. However before the earth could finish its assent the guardian leapt from his perch, releasing a powerful thunder spell to rain upon Terra. Terra stumbled from the force of the spell but luckily (because of his armor) he was unharmed. 'Stupid', Terra thought to himself. Terra underestimated him… like before. Never again. Just as Tria and Tairi rushed forward another piece of land shot up from behind. Terra knew exactly what the man was doing. 'He's creating the field to work for his advantage.'

The man's smirk had not yet evaporated and as he twisted his hand a gust swirled upon the plain of lesser keyblades, creating a cyclone of keys. Tria dueled the guardian as Tairi began shooting blizzards at him. A roar sounded from behind and Tairi saw the cyclone coming towards her like a ravenous snake. She had only just escaped the blow of the twister as it charged through, giving the guard his chance to ride it. The guard now had the upper hand. He repaid the twosome by sending blizzards at them while they could only flee. The key-cyclone reared toward Tria and slamming into him as the guardian jumped from his seat. Tria tumbled forward however regained his footing just in time to dodge another spell. Tria leapt up and took on the guard once only to be shunned away with a smack of a keyblade. Seeing Tria's and Tairi's predicament, Terra cast a thunder toward the villain.

However the guardian leapt back onto the cyclone as it returned, just nearly missing the attack. Terra followed the guard, running as fast as he could, upon one of cliff. Seeing this, the guard veered toward Terra's direction, leaving him to roll off the edge. Terra jammed Soran's blade into the cliff face in a hope to lessen the impact of the fall. The bald man noticed this and with a flick of his wrist a section of the cliff face broke, making Terra continue this rough descent. As Tairi gazed up at the now blackened sky the man summoned another cyclone right under her, sending her fling, and continued upward, knocking into Terra. As Tairi landed the impact of the fall knocked off her helmet. Tria raced forward to help her, his heart beating. He was relived to find her still alive as she set up and sent a reflect spell up to Terra.

The spell finally made contact, creating a magical force field around Terra and breaking the cyclone. However the original twister shot upward, slamming into the force field and lifting him up with it. The reflect spell had run its course and with a blast of fire the original cyclone broke.

The man watched in amusement as Terra landed behind him with many other keyblades raining down. Terra, with half his helm blasted off, charged forward, Soran firmly in hand. Just as Terra's strike was an inch away from the villain's head the man turned to fight off the attack with Tyrant. When Terra was open the man released a blizzard spell sending Terra spiraling backwards, his arm frozen. Out of no where Tria leapt to attack the man from behind only to hit nothing but air. Horror struck through him as an ominous hand grabbed the back of Tria's helm, leaving him disabled of doing any action. Terra watched in terror as cracks began to form in Tria's helm as the man held him. As Tria squirmed for false hope of release Terra could have sworn he heard his companion whimpering. "That's no right," Terra thought. "Tria would never give him the satisfaction." The sound almost sounded like….WIND! Before Terra could take action a cyclone of wind hit him head on, forcing him off the edge with hundreds of lesser keyblades, as the bald man's guard hopped off. Tairi gazed up in terror as part of Tria's helm broke, revealing only one of his blue eyes staring back at her.

That was the last thing Tria saw before the man transformed him into an ice sculpture, released him, and allowing him to tumble off on the cliff face. Tria would not have traded his final image for nothing in all the worlds. Tria's lifeless corpse landed at Tairi's feet and all she could do was cradle him in her arms.

At last, this is what the man had been waiting for! The heart of a Chaser. As Tria's heart radiated in the man's cold palm the man was overjoyed. The heart shot from his hand, up to the heavens, and beyond the clouds. As the black clouds parted the thing the man wanted more than the worlds themselves was within his grasp. At long last he had it….Kingdom Hearts.

"Hey Sora, wake up." Sora woke up to greet a face he didn't expect to meet. "You O.K. Sora? You took a nasty bump."

"Yuffie…Leon, What are you doing on the islands?" Sora asked still groggy. "Huh?" Yuffie inquired. "This is Merlin's house. You landed from out of no where."

"What?" Sora asked confused. "Then where's the islands? Where are Riku and Kairi?" There was a moment of silence until Cid started yelling at the computer monitor on the other side of the room. "The Darn thing hasn't been workin' right for the last few days! I can't get into anything anymore!"

"To tell you the truth," Leon began. "The heartless have been taking worlds' hearts again. It's a possibility that yours was taken." The silence was deafening now until the door opened to reveal Merlin pushing against the door as dusks attempted to force their way in.

"Be gone you menacing vermin!" The old man exclaimed as he clonked one dusk that forcing his way into the room on the head with his wand. The creature retreated long enough to allow the door to be closed. Yet the nobodies were still relentless as they attempt to knock down the door. "Sora, I need your help my lad." Merlin advocated. Sora nodded and charged out the door with Leon at his side to rid them of the pressing dusks. "I was only going to ask him to lock the door." Merlin said as he closed the door behind them with a shrug.

Sora had never seen so many nobodies before. Between Leon and himself they must have killed 50 at the very least. The words in the king's letter rung back in Sora's mind, 'The nobodies are becomin organized again.' "Where are they all coming from?" Sora inquired as he cracked another dusk on the head with the keyblade. "There coming from the castle." Leon replied, engaging two nobodies. Sure enough when Sora gazed up towards the castle swarms of nobodies could be seen coming from it. "Go! I'll be alright," Leon said. "No I not leaving you with all these," Sora protested.

"Don't worry. I'll be fine. Besides you'll travel faster if you travel alone."

"Besides Squall has me on his side," A female stated from behind. "Yuffie!" Sora exclaimed. "You guys aren't going to have all the fun and leave me inside. Go, Squall and I can handle this."

"That's Leon," Leon stated as he fought off another dusk.

Sora traveled as fast as his strength would allow, not bothering with the nobodies unless they got in his way. Sora knew where to go, as if being called. The Keyhole. At last after fighting through what seemed like a thousand nobodies Sora finally broke through the large double doors to the room of the Keyhole. Surprisingly, the room was empty and free of sound. Sora walked forward and up the stairs to look at the Keyhole. However when Sora reached level with the heart shaped hole laughing came from the ledge up opposite Sora. Sora gazed up in amazement as ten portals of darkness opened upon the ledge above. When the portals vanished they left behind ten cloaked figures.

"At last, our honored guest has arrived." One of the figures spoke up. His voice was deep and emotionless. "Xemnas!" Sora exclaimed. "But how?"

"I suppose we should thank you, or rather your heart's memories. None of this could have been possible without you." Xemnas replied. "It seems four have not joined us," He said almost to himself. "Two traitors and two that just haven't arrived yet."

Wait, that's not right. Sora thought. He counted fourteen. There are only thirteen of them. "You're slipping Xemnas," Sora exclaimed. "You counted fourteen. There are only thirteen of you."

"All in good time." Xemnas would mealy replied before he and his followers vanished in darkness.

Sora stood slightly dumbstruck until he heard the swirling sound of one of their portals opening behind him. By the time Sora had spun around a cloaked figure stood in his presence. "At last we meet; Sora, the keyblade's chosen one. What an honor." The hooded man greeted in a voice Sora didn't recognize. The man's voice sounded young yet appeared wiser than most. "Who are you?" Sora exclaimed as his keyblade appeared within his grasp with a flare of light. "Oh! I'm sorry, how rude of me," The man replied as he lifted his hood. He appeared a couple years younger than Riku, three years at the most, and part of his white shoulder-length hair was swept backward. "The name is Atrix."

"So, you're the new lackey member Xemnas has recruited," Sora concluded. At this Atrix laughed a mocking laugh. "I am the heart of the organization, you may say," Atrix replied with that mocking tone still in his voice; a voice that Sora began to hate. "I was created long before Xemnas, but enough about me. What I want to learn about is you." After a moment of silence Sora replied, "Huh?"

"How is it that a mere child defeated the great Organization XIII single handedly?"

"The same way I'm going to defeat you!" Sora exclaimed. With a smirk Atrix replied, "I didn't want to resort to this…. But if you insist." Atrix's hand shot straight upward, releasing four hearts from his fingertips. They hovered in the air for only a moment, then began spinning rapidly, coming closer together. At last there was a blinding light, and when everything began to dim once again Sora saw it. Instead of the four hearts it was replaced by a four bladed sword that stood out in a cross where in the center was a cross bar protected by a small shield with the Organization symbol upon it.

"Drown in the heart torn world," Atrix stated as be grabbed his weapon from mid-air. "And let your heart become nothingness!" Sora has heard these words before, but by a different person. Mar-…Mar-… "Marluxia!" Sora exclaimed suddenly remembered. He remembered the pink haired member, the lord of Castle Oblivion, and remembering hating him…. For what Sora couldn't remember. "Yes," Atrix interjected. "You feel it don't you. It must feel good to be able to see memories that were forgotten. Come with me, Sora. I can help you recovered what you've lost; your memories…Riku and Kairi."

"You know where Riku and Kairi are? Tell me, please." Sora said excited. "Come with me," Atrix repeated, holding out his hand. Sora stepped forward then remembered something else. When the heartless had destroyed his home, he remembered Riku's outstretched hand and… He turning into Xehanort's heartless. "NO!" Sora exclaimed, regaining his stance. "Very well," Atrix replied. "I will scatter you heart to the empty winds!"