//------------------------------// // [Prolouge] (Unedited) Looming Darkness // Story: Kingdom Hearts: Heart of Darkness // by X12 //------------------------------// Something was wrong... this was all wrong. Naminé knew this for a fact. No matter how hard she tried, it seemed like some kind of looming darkness was getting in her way. She couldn't explain it or understand why, but as frustrated as she was she did her best not to show it. Naminé had to press on... for Sora. This was his only hope of stringing his memories back together, but at this rate it was going to take forever if she couldn't deal with this... nuisance. She had stopped drawing for a while now. Sitting back in her chair, she could only stare at what she drew, or rather, what was somehow drawn onto the picture without her knowledge. This was the twelfth time this week this has happened. What was scarier was that her pictures not only somehow draw themselves anytime she looked away for even a moment, it was always the same picture. Here it was again, the picture that's been haunting her work day in and day out. A kiddish drawing of Sora surrounded by Heartless, but Donald or Goofy was nowhere in sight, nor did Sora have his Keyblade to defend himself. The entire white sheet of the paper was colored over with a black pencil that filled the entire background. Why? Why was it always this picture? It's almost like a premonition of Sora's fate... Her stainless room was getting a slight draft from the open window that was starting to give her the chills. The last thing she needed right now was more distractions. Naminé was going to close the window herself, but the draft in the room was suddenly gone. The window was closed, but there could only be one possibility as to how that happened. "I'm back." Naminé closed her eyes and sighed with a bit of relief, thankfully it wasn't DiZ that came to greet her this time. "Hello, Riku." Dressed in a black coat just like the nobodies of the Organization and a black blind fold over his eyes, Riku was by her side. "Hopefully you've been making some progress?" Riku shrugged at her question. "I'm doing what I can. How are things on your end?" Whatever comfort Naminé felt from the moment was gone now, she wished she had better news for him, but now was not the time to start lying and filling Riku with false hopes. If they were going to restore Sora's memories, they had to act now. "I... we have a problem. It's Sora's heart..." Riku's fist balled up just at the thought of what she was about to lay on him, he could only hope they didn't mess something up that affected his best friend. "Naminé.... what is it?" She hardly knew how to explain it to him, she barely knew what was going on herself. Naminé only had a hunch, but hunches are not whats going to help Sora. She needed to get to the bottom of this, but she couldn't do it by herself, and Riku was already busy as it is. "...I'm not entirely sure. First it was the memory leaks... but now... I'm not sure what I'm dealing with. Before this I was already having trouble piecing together Sora's memories, that's where I needed your help. But this... I fear Sora's heart might be at risk now. There are memories in his heart that aren't suppose to be there. Some type of darkness is making it difficult for me to put things back to the way they were." Riku stepped away from her for a moment. He had to keep his composure. As much as he wanted to express his worry for Sora, he knew loosing his cool was not going to fix things. "...Then what do I do? How do make I this darkness go away?" As much as Naminé wanted to give him the straight answer, he probably wouldn't be able to accept it. But in times like these there wasn't much of a choice now. "I'm not sure how much time we have, but we have to deal with this soon. But Riku... I don't think you're the one who can do this." Was this some sort of joke? If it was then it wasn't funny at all. At first, Riku kept his mouth shut, mainly to hide the fact he was grinding his teeth at this point. Staying calm was getting much harder all of a sudden, but he was going to keep it in check for however long he could still do so. "...Why?" Naminé flipped to the next page in her drawing book, she was so far behind at this point that she didn't have enough time to sit and chat with Riku. She picked up her pencil again and got back to work. "I need you out there, Riku. We both want to help Sora, but we can't do several things at once. We need help..." He didn't want to admit it, but Naminé was right. Between dealing with his own darkness and helping Sora with his "leaked memories", he didn't have enough time to deal with another problem. But where was Riku going to find help at a time like this? He rubbed his chin trying to figure out who was capable enough to deal with a problem like this. "...The King." That probably the only person he knew right now that would be able to help them out in a time like this. "No, wait..." Riku face palmed at even suggesting the idea. After he and Mickey parted ways, he didn't know where he went off to exactly. If Naminé said time was short then there was no time to go on a goose chase for Mickey. Sora needed help now. "If not King Mickey, then who? Do you know anyone else?" Naminé hasn't taken her eyes off the picture she was working on, least if the picture was to get ruined again. Admittedly, Riku has been avoiding the idea of one more person that could possibly help Sora. As much as he wanted to ask him he was still evasive to the idea. "He" might only make things much worse for Sora with the way "he" is now, but what other choice did he have? It was now or never. "...I'll be back soon." Riku opened a Corridor of Darkness behind him to where he believed his "help" was at the moment. There was no time to waste, he stepped in to the portal. "Don't be a stranger, Riku." Naminé giggled. If only she knew... Four Years Prior Princess Luna shot up out of her bed, tumbling to the floor while bringing her blanket down with her, struggling to get out of the tangled sheets. The bed sheets came off like untying a rope with a knot. She panted while looking around the room to see she was really back in the real world this time. For the one being in this world who was suppose to be the know it all when it came to dreams, it annoyed her to no end to know that she couldn't understand her more recent dreams. She was reminded that she was on the floor when a knock came to her door. "Luna? Are you alright in there?" She didn't make a good attempt at covering up her little mishap. Luna got herself off the ground and levitated the sheets on to the bed, making her bed nice and neat. "Yes sister, I am well..." It was then that Luna realized what time it was. It couldn't possibly be this late already was it? Even she would forget how much time flies when you're dreaming. Celestia took this as an invitation to come in and opened the door to let herself in. She peeked inside to see if her little sister was dong okay. The only thing she walked in on was Luna fixing up her sheets. "I was coming to wake you up before I heard something fall in here, are you sure everything is alright?" No. Everything was not alright. For the past few weeks she kept having the same dream over and over again. Though for her sake it wasn't truly a nightmare. Every night her dreams would play the same events again and again, but most of time they all happened in different order. Most of her dream usually consisted of pleasantries that warmed her heart to core, but sometimes she had a familiar feeling about her dreams. It was almost like these dreams were more like memories instead of just things conjured in her mind. The other parts of her dream... the nightmare parts, seemed to be what got to her the most. While she could vaguely remember the good parts of her dreams, most of the nightmares were a bit more clear in her mind. There were three specific beings that always came back to haunt her. One was Nightmare Moon, another was King Sombra.... but the third... she couldn't place her hoof on it. It was always at the tip of her tongue. The third pony in her nightmares seemed to always be the worst part of her dreams. Sombra and Nightmare were something else, but this third pony disturbed her like no other. The strangest part about it all was that this third pony was the fondest part of her happy dreams as well. Who was this pony? Did Celestia know who it was? It was best not to ask her sister any of this, at least not now. She had a duty to perform and perform it she will. "I told you, I'm quite alright." Once she finished fixing her sheets, Luna trotted past her sister, almost as if she didn't acknowledge her presence. "Was it a nightmare?", Celestia persisted. She always knew Luna was the type to hide her pain, and sometimes her hiding that pain would be her downfall.... quite literally. All the more reason for Celestia to see if she could try get to the bottom of this. Luna stopped at the door and sighed. She didn't want to do this right now. Her mind and her heart just wasn't in it. However, it was probably for the best if she got this off her chest. Things usually went better when she actually admitted when there was something wrong with her, something the ponies from Ponyville can vouch for. "Celly... can we talk about this once the night is over? I think there's something you should know." Finally, there was progress after all. Celestia smiled and nodded. "Of course Lulu... as soon as the night is over, I'll come and see you." Now that Luna was finally starting to open up her more it seemed like things might be smooth sailing from here on out, or at least Celestia hope it would stay that way. Luna definitely didn't need more problems coming back to haunt her... or Celestia for that matter. Luna returned the affirmative nod and left the room. It was time for the world to be put to slumber and watch over the dreams of her subjects. When she reached the highest balcony of the castle she saw that Celestia's work was already finished. The sun was already set and now it was time to get her shift started. Her horned emitted her signature glow as she put her talents to use. The moon would slowly rise as the sun's horizon shine was dimmed, casting its light away. Before she began the second part of her job she felt like doing a bit of sight seeing. She looked into the telescope in front of her and adjusted her sights on Ponyville. Luna wanted to visit there again sometime. They were some of the nicest ponies she had ever met. She'll have to also remember to say hello to her number one fan. Pipsqueak was just the sweetest kid to her, he's one of the ponies that she kept a special place in her heart for, just like she did for Twilight and her friends. It was always amusing to visit Pipsquak's dreams. Whether he was the captain of an infamous pirate crew, or.... he was drowning and had to go into his dream and give him CPR.... his dreams were always ones she looked forward to. The princess shifted her gaze right down to castle town itself. For as high and mighty Canterlot may present itself as, it was no stranger to midnight dangers. Luna always enjoyed it when she could get away from this place whenever she could, but it was still her duty to remain vigilant of the capital of Equestria. Right as she was about to shift her gaze again, out of the corner of her vision she spotted smoke. This wasn't smoke that one would see coming out of a chimney. This was the type of smoke you'd see when something was being burned down, and it was relatively close. Luna got a fix on where the smoke was coming from, apparently a building had caught on fire somehow, but wait... "That's no ordinary building.... that's the guard tower!" Another look around the area would show her that a bunch of guards were laying all over the ground, most of them were beat pretty badly. How could she have miss all of this? There was no sounds of fighting or even a scream. Did it happen all happen that quickly? The alarm wasn't raised? "What is this madness?! Are we under attack?" As if the situation wasn't already tense enough, Luna visibly flinched when she heard the piercing of a sword being shoved into the ground behind her. When she whipped around to see who was there she her heart started to race. No pony was there, only a weapon stuck into the ground. "No... that blade... no it couldn't be. Why here? Who did it come from?" Something told her this wasn't a good sign at all. The Keyblade would explain how that fire was started and all the beaten guards... but who did it belong to? Whoever its owner is, they didn't seem like they came for a social call. "Luna! Run!" Celestia voice echoed out from the stairway of the steps leading up to the balcony. Almost as soon as she yelled out, Celestia came up galloping up to the balcony with the Keyblade being the only thing in between them. "Sister! What is the meaning of all of this!? What's happening?!" "There isn't any time left to explain! You have to leave! Get as far away as you—" Celestia wasn't given a chance to finish her warning. A black magical aura appeared around her neck, gripped her throat and lifting her into the air. Celestia reached for her neck and used whatever magic she had to combat the magic suffocating her. "I don't think she's going anywhere." Coming up from behind the choking princess came a pony dressed in a black coat with a hood over his head to shroud his identity. The only way to identify him was by his silver tail and the edges of his silver mane sticking out. The oddest thing about him was that he was an earth pony. Who was using magic on Luna's sister then? It couldn't have been him could it? "You! Release my sister!" Luna prepared her magic in her horn, she didn't know who this fiend was or why he decided to attack her home, but this has gone on long enough. She was fully ready to fight, yet as soon as she was going to attack she let down her magic. Her angry expression turned to fear. "Wait... this isn't possible. You... you're the pony from my dreams..." Yes, it was clear as day. He fit the description perfectly. The Keyblade, his cloths... just like the third pony from her dreams. "Who are you?!" The pony dropped his grip on Celestia and let her hit the ground. She coughed and sputtered trying to get any air in her lungs. Calling out to Luna was almost impossible. "Well, at least you've been keeping me in your heart after all this time." The stallion let down his hood letting Luna soak in just who he really was. It was him, no doubt about it. The same exact pony from the nightmares and dreams, save for his amber eyes. His eyes weren't like this in any of her repeated dreams. His name however was still a blank. "I must admit, it's been too long, Mother."