Destiny Islands - One Year after the Defeat of Organization XIII

(Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald and Goofy, Yen Sid and Mickey etc. are treated as NPCS unless otherwise noted)

"Maaan! That quiz was rough!" Sora groaned as he walked side by side with his two best friends, Riku and Kairi. They were all walking home from the end of yet another school week, Sora had already undone his tie and draped it around his neck. The redhead giggled at her friend's childish nature, "I'm just glad you two are FINALLY caught up on your homework after you were gone for so long."

Riku's gaze was turned toward the sky, he was silent...at least until Sora nudged him. "What're ya thinkin' about?" Sora inquired.

The silver haired boy shook his head with a sigh, "Just...wondering if we'll ever see them again. His Majesty and the others..."

"Don't worry! I'm sure you'll all meet again someday." Kairi said, as if there was no doubt the grumpy duck and rather slow witted dog would come around the corner.

"You sound so sure.." Riku said doubtfully. "Of course I do! We're all connected, aren't we? There's no way, no matter how far away, they'll ever forget about us." Kairi said cheerfully, making Sora grin widely as he turned to Riku and said: "Race ya!"

Riku grinned, "You sure you want to challenge me?" Riku said cockily as he and Sora charged off...just like old times. "Hey guuys! Wait up!" Kairi laughed as she chased after them down to the beach.

The trio would notice what appeared to be a falling star headed straight for the ocean. The two boys skidded to a stop, Kairi coming up behind them. "Is...is that..?" Kairi shielded her eyes from the setting sun.

"A gummi ship!?" Sora blurted. The ship hit the ocean's surface, causing waves to erupt. "Donald! Goofy!" Sora shouted eagerly as he jumped into the ocean, Riku jumping after his excited friend.

The sound of something being inflated met their ears and a bright blue inner tube of sorts surrounded the gummi ship. The ship floated harmlessly on the surface of the waves.

The hatch was opened and a very angry Donald could be heard squawking at someone as a couple feathers floated up from within the ship.

"Could've killed us!! We're lucky Chip n' Dale installed this emergency flotation device!!"

"Gawrsh Donald, Daisy wouldn't be too happy if she found out you had a flirtation device!" Goofy's voice said.

"FLOTATION!" Donald and another unknown voice corrected. Strangely, a mop of red hair topped with a pair of fox ears poked out from the hatch first. This was followed by the face of a young man who couldn't be too much older than Sora or Riku.

"Oh...hey...are you two um...." The foxboy scratched his ears, "Sam and Ricky?"

The foxboy had had little time to utter the question before he was roughly pushed aside to make room for another stranger to crawl up through, looking frantic as his bulky frame hauled itself out and off of the ship. His face as dirty and weathered, making it hard to exactly determine his age, especially as he lurched over the side to vomit over the side of the gummi ship. The man wiped his mouth with a groan, spitting the remaining bile to follow the rest into the water.

"God Almighty, people fly in those things all the time?" He asked, looking back toward Donald and Goofy. Now that he was still, it was easier to get a look at him. His face was ruddy and dirty, probably in his mid-twenties by the look of him, his hair a messy mop of rust red and an impressive horseshoe mustache matching it. His clothing was just as worn as he was, the denim vest and jeans faded and somewhat tattered, and the red flannel shirt now looking more brown with age and dirt. He almost rolled off of the gummi ship into the sand, letting out an long sigh of relief as he felt ground underneath him again.

"Oh...oh my God if feels good to be on the ground again. I ain't never flyin' with those lunatics again..."

Kida

It seemed that the gummi ship had no end to passengers, and oddity as one would never have guessed that the small ship could gold so many members. From out of the ship popped another individual, this one female with dark tanned skin and electric blue eyes. She also had a small tattoo under her left eye, of the same color, and snow white hair that fell down to mid back.

Slowly pulling herself out of the ship, Kida stepped out onto the beach with a very confused expression. "What world is this? It looks sort of like Atlantis..." she said as she looked around, tailing off as her eyes locked onto the strange humans standing before them.

Kida was no stranger to strangers, she was traveling with a talking duck for crying out loud. But she wasn't that easy to trust those she didn't know either. Looking at Sora, Riku, and Kaori, Kida cocked an eyebrow and placed one hand on her hip, the tassels of her long skirt moving slightly with the movement. "Hello, I am Kidagakash Nedakh, but you may call me Kida. You must be the ones that the talking duck and this other tall one are looking for,"

"My name's Goofy," Goofy kindly reminded her with a polite smile, he really was too kind for his own good. Kida smiled at him kindly.

"Yes of course, Goofy, I apologize. But yes, they said we were to be looking for a Sora, Kairi, and Riku so I am assuming you are them, yes?"

Sora grinned and placed his hands behind his head, "Yup that's us! What're you all doing here? And who are all these people guys?" Sora asked, directing his attention to Donald and Goofy in curiousity.

Light came out of the gummy ship a little after the previous people had left, letting them make their introductions before she made her own. While Light was a creature of the void, her appearance would give people the impression she was some kind of aquatic thing or an imp ro something. Only the feeling she emanated and her eyes gave away her void disposition. "Yeah, what Kida said. These two just spoke volumes about you two, and word around the worlds is that you two did quite a bit of work." Light said, grinning a toothy smile, showing her teeth.

She looked at the man who looked like he came from a wasteland who had found a spot to recover after the gummy ship flight and laughed a bit. Unlike her, he'd have to use the gummy ship over and over, so his complaining was more of a joke to her than anything serious. Sora's question did leave Light curious as well. She had only been picked up very recently much to her surprise, did they not know or did they not care about where she came from? But since she had been only a recent addition, she didn't know why they had traveled to these people. She figured it was something to do with their previous adventures, but as to what that could be she didn't know.

"Huh? Oh...Henry Sullivan. Folk jus' call me Big Hank though." The giant young man said as he slowly stood back up, trying to reclaim his land legs. Gummi ship travel wasn't the most pleasant experience for someone who had never even seen a working plane in his life, or even set foot on a boat, let alone a ship capable of interstellar travel. He offered a short wave over toward the trio across from them. Riku raised an eyebrow at the barrel-chested, scruffy-looking stranger.

"Your first flight I'm guessing?" He asked, to which Henry nodded.

"That obvious? Yeah...this is...ah...an adjustment." He trailed off as he started to really look around at the land around him, his eyes going wide. It was the most beautiful scenery he'd ever seen. Intact buildings, water that shined blue instead of a sickly, deadly green, and...

"Is that...fruit? Like....fruit that ain't irradiated?" He asked, pointing at one of the star-shaped and colorful fruits hanging from a tree over Sora, Riku and Kairi. Again Riku raised an eyebrow, looking over toward Goofy and Donald.

"Where exactly have you two been?"

"Well, Kida here is from Atlantis...and Hank is from a sort of...post-apocalyptic planet." Ren explained. "Light here is...hard to explain." Ren said as he glanced over at Light.

"That sounds terrible..." Kairi said as she looked at Hank sympathetically.

"Wait...you're from ATLANTIS?! Like...THE Atlantis?!" Sora blurted to Kida.

"Yup! They've got keyblades too! That's part of why we brought em' along!" Goofy said cheerfully.

Kairi giggled as she turned to the others, "I'm not exactly as good with my keyblade as Sora and Riku are..but I guess we could learn together!" She said cheerfully to Hank and Kida.

"Anyway, a whole bunch of new worlds appeared...one is even an entire GALAXY. So Yen Sid wanted you two to check things out while the two newbies got some on the job experience!" Donald quacked to Sora and Riku.

"You still know more'n me." Hank said with a faint smile toward Kairi. "I jus' picked up mine...hell, a day ago? Still ain't sure how any of this works. Hell, I'm...still gettin' used to seein' water that ain't glowin'."

Riku had to wonder just what kind of hellscape that poor lug must have come from if fruit and clean water were as marvelous to him as Keyblades and magic. He chuckled at the taller young man, offering a hand to shake, which Hank quickly accepted with a firm grip.

"Riku. I suppose Sora and I will be helping train you both." He looked over to Kida then, offering her a bow and hanshake as well. "Its good to meet you both. From the way things have been I'll bet we can use all the help we can get."

"Well, my father always said to do my part for my fellow man. Figure this counts about as much as anything can. An' if it gets some help for home..." He shrugged his broad shoulders. He turned to Kairi then. "So..uh..those fruit, they're safe to eat, right?"

'Hard to explain' was an understatement to say the least. But considering Light didn't really know these two, she wasn't totally sure she should mention everything as of now. "Yeah, where I'm from is probably something most of you aren't familiar with, or would think isn't the best thing. My name is Light by the way. How ya doing?" Light said, seeing as how everyone else had made their introductions. Getting much less serious and more playful, Light looked at the fruits Hank was looking at. "Aw, c'mon Hank! They look fine to me!" Light said, slashing at the space in front of her and making a black looking hole where she had slashed. The hole itself didn't look evil nor looked like a gate of darkness, but looked like if darkness had darkness. A pure black portal that looked like it absorbed the light around it.

Of course this hole wasn't open long before Light jumped into it and appeared on top of the fruit tree Hank was pointing out. She picked whatever fruit she could get her hands on from her perch, stuffing them in her dress before leaping off the tree and landing near Hank. She offered him a fruit she had kept in her hand, reaching into her dress to grab another piece and biting into it. "But yeah, I'm not a keyblade user like these people... Why is he looking at me like that?" Light said casually, looking at Riku with one eye as his face seemed to not know what to make of Light, he himself having been a user of the darkness for quite some time.

"Was that darkness you were using?" Riku said, Sora still more interested in Hank at the moment. Light dismissed Riku's concerns, saying. "Nope, I'm the Void. I could explain further than that, but it takes awhile and I just wanna have fun with these guys." She said cheerily, grabbing Goofy into a short one armed hug with the arm that had the fruit she was eating.

Kairi blinked a few times at Hank before nodding, "Yes, feel free to take some with you!" She said, slightly weirded out but understanding that he was from an apparently apocalyptic world.

"Ah well, let's get goin'!" Ren cheerfully stated. Kairi giggled and turned to Sora and Riku, "I'm going with you guys, I need experience with my Keyblade."

"B-but-" Sora started to protest, only for Riku to elbow him and nod in agreement. "Sure, we'll show you some tricks." Riku said confidently.

"Ahyuk! Alright!" Goofy cheered, the ramp lowering from the Gummi Ship onto the beach. Soon another journey would begin!

Meanwhile...in a galaxy far, far away.
"You revealed the truth to the boy..." Zexion spoke from the shadows to the towering Sith known as Darth Vader. "You offered him a chance to 'destroy the Emperor' and rule at your side. Is the great Lord Vader growing soft?" The Cloaked Schemer chided.

Luke Skywalker had just been rescued by the Millennium Falcon after his duel with Vader where he learned the awful truth.

Vader stopped in his tracks as Zexion took on the appearance of Padme Amidala, "Oh Anakin! You're breaking my heart!" The illusion even sounded like her.

"You are bold to take that appearance before me....however..." Vader's modulated voice said, the Padme fake vanished as Zexion gripped his hand around his throat. "The line between boldness and foolishness is paper thin." The red blade of Darth's lightsaber sprung to life, taking a chunk out of Zexion's shoulder as he struggled to scream.

"Be careful you and your Organization do not choke on your ambitions. There are forces at work here far beyond your abilities." Vader released his telepathic grip on Zexion's throat, allowing him to fall to the floor and take in air as he clutched his wound.

Vader clipped his lightsaber hilt to his belt and strode off, "Should you ever DARE take that form in my presence again, I shall disregard your master's olive branch to the Empire...and destroy you." Vader took his leave after this was said.