Chapter 3

In a flash we were suddenly in a new but familiar place.
Sara and I had turned into very young adults while Annie had grown a few years to become looking 15.
“This is definitely not Disney Land anymore…” murmured Sara.
“Nah, Sara. But instead of talking about where we’re not, let’s talk about where the heck we are.” I said while shuddering.
There was a path. And we were standing right in the middle of it. One way led to a house almost like a castle, but it was blocked by a tall steel gate. The other way led to a gloomy forest. At the far side of the forest, you can barely see an entrance to a town.
“Well, I think we should head in the castle’s direction.” Annie said calmly, “Who knows? It migh-“
Her sentence was interrupted by a loud rustle in the trees.
‘Omigosh!” Annie shrieked and tightened her grip on her sword.
We were all shivering with pure fear and formed a circle with our weapons drawn outwards. We took one step to the castle and another rustle could be heard followed by clicking noises.
The creature suddenly jumped through the trees and landed loudly on the ground in front of us. There was just one problem…
“It’s freaking invisible!” Sara panicked.
We could see its lizard-like foot prints engraved in the grass.
“What is that?” I shivered.
“Never mind what it is, attack!” Annie yelled and charged. She swung her sword skilfully and quickly.
“Uhh… Annie…” Sara said sarcastically, “The creature’s over there.”
Clicking noised could be heard from the creature. It was almost like laughter.
We all quickly turned to the noise to see its eyes glow and shot out a beam.
“I remember now! This is a veil lizard!” I shouted, “A heartless!”
And then, as if the word ‘heartless’ was a word for summoning, a blindfolded stranger appeared out of nowhere and attacked the creature.
The beam faded and we backed away until we were against the gate. We were all too afraid to fight, despite being armed with powerful weapons.
The stranger continued to attack and unbelievably, I knew this guy. And Annie did too.
“Riku?” Annie gasped.
The veil lizard disappeared and Riku came to join us.
“Stay by me.” Riku said sternly, “It could appear anywhere!” While Riku shielded us another man, with a cape red as blood, ran and sliced the invisible heartless. It was as if he knew where it was.
The veil lizard appeared as a huge chameleon and gave a roar of surrender. It collapsed and a pink sparkling heart floated towards the sky.
“Thought you could use a little help.” said the caped man.
Riku ignored him and asked us if we were harmed.
“I’m fine.” Sara said peering at the blonde caped man.
“Me too. A-OK!” I smiled thankful.
Annie looked dazed like she was in a dream. “Hi. I’m Annie…” she giggled uncontrollably.
Riku smiled at her. “I’m Riku. And who might your friends be?”
“I’m ---!” I began but Annie rudely interrupted.
“Those are Jade and Sara, but who cares.” Annie smiled.
Riku felt uncomfortable but somewhat happy.
“Who ya’ calling those?!” Sara argued. She was going to spit out insults but the caped man silenced her.
“Heh. You’re probably wondering who I am, since we’re on the whole introducing thing.” He said winking at Sara. And to Sara, his big bandaged sword had already given away his identity. “My name’s Cloud. Cloud Strife.”
Sara hung her mouth open and started staring deeply into his eyes.
I glared annoyed at my love-struck friends. “Well anyway. Thankyou, Riku and Cloud.” I said, “We better get going.”
Whines of disappointment could be heard from Sara and Annie. “Where are we gonna go anyway Jade?” Annie whispered.
“Actually.” Riku said eyeing my crown pendant that was identical to Sora’s. “Would you like to stay-.”
“YES!” interrupted Annie and Sara.

Oh God. This is going to be one long day…


Chapter 4

“Pleasure to meet you. Annie, Sara, Jade. My name is Naminè.”
We were in a pure white room. Very detailed drawings were all over the walls. I glanced at all the drawing and one particular piece caught my eye. It was a picture of me, Sara and Annie sitting on a clock tower and staring off into the sunset. The thing was, we weren’t sitting by ourselves, Sara was with Cloud, Annie was with Riku and I was sitting next to a man with bright red and spiky hair.
My mind jumped to conclusions. How did we get there? Why are we sitting with them and that man, could it be..?

We’ve just been introduced to a girl named Naminè, a blonde girl wearing a white dress.
“Please, sit.” She said kindly and we sat on the white chairs that were next to the long white table.
Cloud, Riku and another older man named DiZ were standing nearby. DiZ never spoke to us, yet. So far, he’s been acting mysteriously as if he’s hiding something.
“This must be so sudden for all of you.” Naminè smiled, “But we need all the help we can get. Especially your help, Riku and Cloud said you girls were trustworthy.”
Sara and Annie were too busy looking at Cloud and Riku to pay even the sightless bit of attention.
“Beyond that room, is a boy named Sora.” Naminè said sadly, “He has been put to sleep so we can piece together his memory. Once we’ve completed he’ll finally wake.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“He is the wielder of the keyblade. The keyblade’s chosen master. Sora will save the world from darkness, heartless and… Ansem.” Naminè closed her eyes to bottle her sadness.
“Ansem?” I murmured to myself.
“Yes. He was once a researcher who studied the heartless. He wrote very detailed reports, which were scattered in different worlds. Then eventually, the darkness over powered him and he was consumed by it. He seeks the door to everlasting darkness and once took over Riku’s mind.”
Riku, hearing this, hung his head low feeling ashamed.
“But, enough about him. Can you help us, please?” Naminè begged.
“We’ll help.” I said feeling sorry for her.
“Oh thankyou!” she smiled “Come. I think you should at least see who we’re fighting for.” Naminè stood up and lead us to another white room. DiZ shut the door behind us, leaving Riku and Cloud behind.
My friends awoke from their ‘spell of love’ and were red-faced from blushing.
We stood in front of a white pod.
“Woah…” Sara said stunned, “But… What are we doing here now?”
“Pfft. If you were listening you would know.” I whispered, “But who were you two looking at instead?”
They both blushed and Naminè began talking: “You see, I’m a witch powered over Sora’s memories and those connected to him. He needs to wake up. He just needs to… Thanks Annie, Sara, Jade. For your help.” She started speaking in broken down sentences because of her sadness. “I’ll escort you. To, your room. Tomorrow… You have training.”
Naminè led us to our room. Unlike the pure white rooms, this one was normal and had beige walls and coloured furniture. The room had four neat beds, books stacked to the ceiling and a desk with notes about Ansem.
“Sorry. About the mess. But please, make yourself at home.” Naminè said quietly and shut the door.
It was silent for a while, until Sara and Annie started to build up annoyed looks with small growls.
“What a lovely room!” I smiled innocently, trying to change the subject.
“Jade…” the growled at once, “What the HELL did you get us into?!”
“We’re going to save the keyblade master.” I boasted.
“How does it help us?” Annie and Sara whined.
“Umm…” I tried to think of a good excuse and conveniently, one came to my mind. “It’ll make Riku and Cloud happy!”
“Ok! When do we start?!” the both chanted.

The next day was training. Riku had set up decoy heartless, that looked like shadows, up. But, it was already as if we were born with the skill of fighting despite that we’d never fought with our weapons before.
It must be Genie. I thought, Or maybe, we’re just naturals.
I had an excellent grip and swiftness. DiZ had said that I would be extremely powerful at magic if I learnt spells. He also said judging by my movements he said that dawn and dusk will be when my powers will be at it’s peak. Annie’s terrific strength was adored by Riku along with her speed and agility. And Sara had amazing accuracy and defence which really impressed Cloud, she had never missed a target.
“YAH!” I shouted and sliced the last decoy into two. The feathers and cotton inside acted as blood and showered us, even though heartless probably didn’t bleed.
“Good.” clapped Riku, “You’re all naturals.”
Cloud walked and peered to see how we were doing. Sara immediately went into ‘Sara’s happy land.’ Cloud laughed and smiled when he saw Sara’s pathetic reaction to him. He opened his mouth but couldn’t say a word. For a heartless had appeared. When we were training against the decoys I was fully confident, but now that there’s a real heartless everything changed. I shivered with fear and tightened the grip on my flame-berges.
The heartless was fairly small but it was very fast.
Riku summoned his sword, Soul Eater, and it appeared in his hands.
Cloud swung his over-sized sword ready to fight.
Sara trembled as she pulled back an arrow and fired. It missed, but I wouldn’t blame her. The small heartless was just too quick!
It ran for Annie and panicking she swung her sword and also failed to hit it.
It ran in between Cloud and Riku and was even too fast for them even to lift up their weapons.
Then it ran to me and I was totally unprepared. I shrieked and held up my flame-berges hoping it would protect me. But it wasn’t enough.
The heartless broke though my shield and shoved his claws into my chest. Amazingly, it didn’t hurt. I actually couldn’t feel a thing. But then, I could feel the talons inside me grabbing something. It tugged and the pain was unbearable. I wailed and fell on my back almost paralysed. My swords had disappeared in an orange light. My friends looked horrified. “Quick!” Riku warned and ran to me. He quickly exterminated it with one slash of his sword.
I could feel the heartless broke off what it got and vanished. And I only realised what it stole when it disappeared. Floating up to the sky was glimmering and bright red. It shattered into a thousand pieces and faded in the sunlight. It was half of a heart. Half of MY heart!


Chapter 5

“Jade! Are you alright?” said a faded voice. It was Sara. She knelt beside me and I moaned painfully.
“Please say you’re alright…” Annie said sadly.
I heard footsteps. I hoped it was Cloud or Riku or even DiZ but it wasn’t. I could feel the ground vibrate as the stranger took steps closer.
Everybody armed themselves against the hooded man. He wore the same cloak as Riku but he had more sophistication.
“Superior was right!” he said with a smile in his voice, “It only was a matter of time… And lucky for me, I had all the time in the world.” Cards shot out of the ground and shielded the stranger as he walked towards me.
Annie and Sara dashed to him with their weapons leaving me unguarded. Riku and Cloud also ran to him ready to attack.
“This is just too easy…” I heard a voice murmur.
I still regained a slight consciousness and felt myself being lifted up and carried. I felt useless, I didn’t even have the energy to speak. I was too weak to do anything.
Boned… I thought to myself.
I peered at my kidnapper but his face was hooded. And he also wore the same black cloak. And for some reason there was something about him that I admired.
In my head my voice was shouting hoping he could hear me, ‘Who are you?’
The stranger in the middle of the fight summoned a black and purple portal and the two hooded men fled through with me.


“No.” Sara breathed heavily as if she was about to cry.
“GEEZ! We suck in this world!” Annie yelled angrily but sadly, “This is only our second day here and we’ve already lost Jade!”
“She’s lost half her heart. Is that even possible?” Cloud frowned.
Everybody gasped except for Riku. “She’s lost half of everything.” Riku said, “Probably… Even half of her memories.”


“Where am I? Who are you?” I managed to say. My voice almost seemed like it echoed.
“You are at The Castle that Never Was.” My kidnapper said, “Well, at least that’s what everyone calls it.”
We were inside a white room and he laid me on a white bed.
The man shoved back his hood. He had awesome red spikey hair, sparkling jade eyes and an amazing smile.
“My name’s Axel. Commit to memory.” He grinned.
I smiled back feeling odd and giddy.
“Welcome to Organization XIII. You might want to rest. Big day tomorrow.” He said and left.
Everything in my mind seemed like a jumble.
What had happened? Well… Maybe, everything will start to make sense tomorrow. I yawned loudly and slept.

I woke up refreshed and my pain was gone.
I was startled to find myself in different clothes. I wore the same black cloak Axel was wearing. I suddenly panicked and felt around my neck. Good. My crown pendant was still there.
I walked out of my white room into a corridor.
“Finally, you’re awake.” said a voice. It was Axel. “But, then again, I can’t argue. I would have slept in if I had a chance.”
I giggled quietly.
“C’mon, we gotta get you to the Round Room.” He said and took my arm. He dragged me into another purple and black portal and suddenly I found myself standing alone in the middle of a white round room.
“Rejoice fellow comrades, there has been yet another chosen to wear the cloak.” Boomed a loud voice, “Let her join Organization XIII in our quest for Kingdom Hearts. We believe her powers will help us dearly.” The voice went on and I realised that there were tall chairs built into the walls.
The man who was speaking I assumed was their leader. All around him were other members. They all wore the same black cloak. It almost seemed now like it was some kind of uniform. Some of the chairs were empty which confused me. I counted the members which made me even more confused.
Why are they called Organization XIII if they only have nine members? Well, not including me.
“So we welcome Jaedx. For now, you will be known as ‘Member X’ until further notice…”
I looked up to see a man with tan skin, long shining silver hair and menacing orange eyes. I glanced at all the other members and who I seemed to like the most was the eight member, Axel. He was though, the only one I knew and probably the only one I’ll trust in Organization XIII. This place didn’t feel safe. It seemed eerie, mysterious and cold.
But hey, it’s home now.