Once Upon A Destiny (A Kingdom Hearts, Destinies Intertwined Prequel)

Chapter three: A Star Goes Out

There, in the middle of an unnatural kind of storm, a small island was crumbling. Rachel didn't know how she knew, but one name came to mind.

Destiny Island. And there on another part of it, past the little shack and the wooden bridge, a silver-haired boy stood unmoving, his eyes closed. A boy in red rushed up behind him, looking frantic as he said, "Where's Kairi? I thought she was with you!" 

"The door has opened..." the silver-haired boy replied, not moving to look at the boy in red.

"What?" "The door has opened, Sora! Now we can go to the outside world!"

"What are you talking about? We've gotta find Kairi!"

"Kairi's coming with us!"

The boy in red— Sora— looked angered by the response as the other boy went on.

"Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back. But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!"

The silver-haired boy extended his hand, and darkness started wrapping itself around him. "Ri—..."The name Sora spoke was muffled, and he tried to grab his friend's hand, but couldn't reach.

Then the silver-haired boy disappeared.

Rachel sat up.

"Just another dream about him..." It was the middle of the night, she realized, and she'd had yet another dream about the silver-haired boy. She laid back down, and drifted off again.

Ryan went downstairs excitedly the next morning, and waited for his sister. She was already at school. The slow hours ticked by, and the young man stepped outside. The breeze softly blew his bright yellow hair, and he closed his eyes, feeling an overwhelming sense of calm.

As though nothing in the world could possibly go wrong.

Rachel walked home with a sense of unease. She felt as though something was about to go terribly wrong.

I've had this feeling all day. In my heart— and in the pit of my stomach. I can sense the darkness spreading towards our home. I should tell Ryan but...

No... I don't want him to worry. Besides, I'm probably just imagining it.

When she opened the door, her brother smiled, and they got caught up on everything that happened that day, at school and at home.

"Hey, you look distracted. Everything alright?" asked Ryan. 

"Huh? Oh, yeah just... I've been having these weird dreams lately. About a silver-haired boy. I can never really hear his name, whenever they say it, the sound gets all fuzzy."

Who is he? Rachel thought, Ri... 

Ri--

Suddenly, a migraine flared, and Rachel fell onto her knees, clutching both sides of her head. 

She could feel it. 

The darkness was inching ever closer.

Their world was about to fall. 

"It's... coming...."

"What's coming!? Rachel, what's going on!?"

"It's coming... The...." She trailed off, and everything faded to black. 

The silver-haired boy, the boy in red named Sora, and a girl were watching the sunset. The girl and Sora were sitting on a leaning palm tree that bore star-shaped fruit-- a Paopu fruit-- and the silver-haired boy was leaning on the tree with his arms folded.

"So, Kairi's home is out there somewhere, right?" Sora asked.

"Could be." The silver-haired boy replied. "We'll never know by staying here."

"But how far could a raft take us?" asked the boy in red.

"Who knows? If we have to, we'll think of something else."

"So suppose you get to another world." Said the girl named Kairi. "What would you do there?"

"Well, I haven't really thought about it. It's just... I've always wondered why we're here on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one? And suppose there are other worlds. Then ours is just a little piece of something much greater. So we could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?"

"I don't know." Sora replied, now lying longways on the palm tree.

"Exactly. That's why we need to go out there and find out. Just sitting here won't change a thing. It's the same old stuff. So let's go."

"You've been thinking a lot lately, haven't you?" Kairi asked the silver-haired boy.

"Thanks to you." He replied. "If you hadn't come here, I probably would've never thought of any of this. Kairi, thanks." 

"You're welcome."

"....Rachel!" She opened her eyes. Ryan was staring down at her, his face completely white. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Rachel mumbled, her head still aching a little. She sat up and looked around.

"Easy," Her brother said, "What happened?"

"Nothing, really. Sorry if I worried you."

"Anyway..." He pulled out a small box, that had been carefully wrapped, and handed it to her. "Happy birthday." 

Rachel was on her feet in an instant, as everything shook.

Ryan went outside to see that a storm had come out of nowhere.

"What are those things?" Rachel pointed. Black creatures with yellow eyes were rising out of the ground. Rachel flinched as her brother summoned his Keyblade and fought. She was powerless, forced to watch her childhood home crumble. 

The ground split in two, with her on one half and Ryan on the other. 

I'm not losing him! she thought as their eyes met. She dove to the other side as the chasm in the ground got bigger. 

Then something else came to mind. 

Their house.

Rachel whirled, sinking to her knees as the chasm grew and consumed her home. 

The creatures disappeared for a moment, but it didn't matter. Ryan pulled his sister close, as everything they knew disappeared into the dark.