Kingdom Hearts: The Alternative Paths

[Akans]

Sylfae stepped out of the dark portal, and looked around. So this was "man-hat-in". What a strange name. The city was in ruins, though. Heartless (those were the shadows-things that attacked Destiny Islands) swarmed everywhere.
She was not afraid of them now. Her master had taught her much. The heartless divided in fear and respect of her now unlocked power. Her master was merciless. His teachings were swift and to the point. But in the end, she became many times stronger.
Sylfae fingered a scar on her wrist, one of the many dealt by her master, as she walked down the empty streets. About the turn the corner on a dirty and forgotten lane, she felt something near her, and went forward to investigate.

"Are u a being of darkness?"...."No way" She heard.

This may be interesting. Sylfae slipped towards the group of people, and was surprised to find one of her old friends from the island, Tora, surrounded by people, all holding weapons which she recognized from watching Draco shoot coconuts.
Instantly, the men surrounding Tora turned, and in perfect unison, pointed at Sylfae.

"I come in peace. Tora and I are no harm. He is not of the darkness... you have nothing to fear."

[Shadows Fall]

"Men! Stand down!" shouted a man who staggered his way over to the group of soldiers as well as Tora and Sylfae. It was the Commander from earlier who was in the mist of the battle with the Darkside, now being left severely injured due to the explosion.

"Commander Ryman!" exclaimed several of the soldiers in unison, lowering their weapons in order to come to the Ryman's aid.

"Don't mind me. There's still a soldier several blocks that way." replied Ryman, motioning his hand over in the direction where he had referred where the "soldier's"(Who really turned out to be Derick) location was. "What the Hell are you waiting for? Get your asses moving already, no man gets left behind!"

"Sir!" all of the soldiers said once again in unison, all of them hopping aboard in one of the humvee like vehicles as Commander Ryman walked over to the two teenagers.

"You two. You're coming with us. It's not safe for you two to be out here in a place like this." he ordered, motioning over to them to follow into one of the vehicles.

---------------

The unconscious boy could feel his body being tugged away at, being nudged as well as he laid upon the concrete floor. He could hear a faint and distant voice, or at least it appeared that way seeing how his hearing had been greatly affected by the attack of his father.

"Hey, are you all right?" asked the voice.

"Huh. . . ?" Derick opened his eyes slowly, lifting his head up slightly as his vision was blurred. He could see the silhouette of the person who came to his side, the blur making it hard for him to see their facial features. At the same time the teen became rather delusional and believed it could have been a very close friend of his from the islands. "T. . . Tenshi. . . ? Is that you. . . ?" was all he could ask before slipping out of his consciousness, bowing his head as he now laid on the concrete, knocked out once again.

---------------

"He seems out of it, but at least he's still breathing."

"Get him into the humvee with the other two kids." Ryman ordered the soldier who nodded his head, lifting the boy from the ground and carried him over to the humvee where Sylfae and Tora were in. The Commander however limped over to the site of the destruction, seeing those he knew and led now laying sprawled about the street, dead. "May they rest in peace. . ." he muttered silently to himself before heading back into the humvee. "Take us back to Base."

[Roxas9001]

"Ok" Tora said

then walked over & got in the vehicle not before putting his keyblade away.

When he got in & got comfortable, He looked at his surroundings in utter confusion.

[Akans]

Sylfae sat in the backseat as the machine carried her, Tora, Derick, and the driver followed the rest of the vehicles down the road. Alert soldiers were noticeable in each vehicle, their rifles at the ready.
Sylfae picked up a spare in the compartment under her seat. Examining it, she was quite surprised to find basic Dispel spells around it. That was probably why it worked on the Heartless.

"Hey! What happened here? What are these things?" she asked their driver.

Without looking back their driver shouted over the noise: "If I knew, I would be promoted instantly. These damn monsters suddenly started appearing one day, and our top scientists still have not identified their source! Sure we know how to kill them and such, but they just keep coming! They're like freaking zombies - one of our men die, and the next thing we know, they've turned into these things and they're trying to kill us!
And where are you from anyways? Don't you know about these beasts?"
"Yes, of course." Sylfae replied.
"Then why don't you know about these things? And who are you anyways?"
"My name is Sylfae. And I come from some other area. And... is that one of those monsters?"

A neoshadow appeared suddenly on the edge of their vision. Before anyone could react, it tried tackling the humvee, but to no avail. It was mowed down immediately by the soldiers.
"Damn! They're everywhere! Guards and sentries are no use..."

Sylfae smiled to herself. The driver had forgotten about her now. Her summoned neoshadow had done the trick.
They continued down the road...

[sephiroth2]

--------------------------------------------------

A dark portal opened itself up, allowing Sleif to walk out into a world he had not been to before. It was quite similar to his own world, in the sense with the extremely large buildings and heartless. The difference was, that the night did not seem so eternal then his own.

As he walked down the concrete road, he began to think about what happened before.

----------------Destiny Islands (Flashback)------------------

Slicing heartless in every direction, Sleif had noticed that almost everyone was gone, from what he could tell. Suddenly the remains of the island, violently began shaking. Sleif knew what was happening. Raising his hand, he called upon a dark portal, to allow him passage from the island.
As soon as he stepped through, he turned around the last time to see the island collapse under its own mass.

Walking through the dark corridors once again, Sleif soon found himself in the main chamber of his master. Kneeling in front of him, Sleif began to explain what had happened before suddenly told to stop. "I know exactly what happened! It does not matter. The ones who had survived seemed to have appeared on a different world. I want you to go there!" Sleifs master said to him.

With that, Sleif turned around just as he called another dark portal. Right before he left, his master said one more thing "When you are on that world. You will notice a different aura to one of them, from the island. I trust you know what to do!" his master asked. "I do sir!" Sleif finally said as he stepped through the portal.

-------------------(End of flashback)------------------------

Sleif continued to walk down the road, the heartless obviously not taking any notice of him. After a few minutes, Sleif heard the sound of an engine coming from the direction he was heading. Soon, a vehicle, possible a humvee, was seen coming towards Sleif. Even from that distance, he knew the people from the island were in there.

[Roxas9001]

"What happened to all the people?" he asked

"They were killed by these hellish monsters but some are in hiding" The driver replied

"Oh" Tora then continued u look at the destruction.

[Skitty Cat]

OOC: This might be a long post, I'm recycling some of my old posts on this. So, yes, there will be a difference. Why is it that I'm thinking my spelling is off?

IC: "T. . . Tenshi. . . ? Is that you. . . ?"

Some how hearing the question, she looked around half-hoping it wasn't her thoughts. "Derick?" Snarling at the name, the leading Shadow bolted over and asked angrily,

"Fryd oiu cyo?!"

Growling in annoyance, she snapped back, "Taneg! Ra'c so vneaht!" Seeing that the creature was still mad, she looked around and demanded, "Frana yna fa yhofyo? Yhcfan sa!" Startled he looked down and replied bitterly,

"Rymmuf Pycdeuh (Hallow Bastion)."

The name seeming to ring a bell, she almost screamed as a strong surge of memory washed over her.

A seven year old girl looked at her freind, smiling she looked around she was wearing a long sleve shirt and jeans. "Ten...." She looked at him, smiling she had a soft glow of sadness in her eyes.

"Yes, what is it?" Her brother looked down at the ground, just then another voice called for the girl.

"Tenshi, come here right now! Your dad wants to speak with you!" She let out a sigh and got up looking at him, she whispered softly,

"I'll be back as soon as I can." She came back after a few mintues, it looked as if she had been crying a little.

Her brother looked at her smiling softly, he enjoyed it when she began singing. "Sis, will we all ways be this close?" Looking at him with confused eyes she sat down not to far form him.

"What do you mean by that?" She saw that worried look in her brother's eyes.

"Do you think we would ever drift apart? Chose to be on different sides so that way we would have to fight each other." She thought about this long and hard, looking at him she pulled him into a hug.

"Don't worry about that, we'll always be the same on the inside...come on I got a idea so that way we'll remember each other in case we end up away form each other." Her brother followed her, they found the picture area.

Two pictures were done, she took one and her brother took the other. Looking at him she whispered, "There, now we will always remember one another...but promise me one thing, don't ever lose yourself to the darkness." He nodded in reply saying that no matter what he promsied he wouldn't lose himself to the darkness.

It was a little later on that day that he walked into her room. Looking at him she waited to hear what he would say, she then looked out at the city once more. "What is it?" She whispered softly.

The scene changed......

A girl with smokey silver hair looked around, her blue-violet eyes of of innocence, she then looked around to see a man. Tenshi backed away as an evil grin came to their lips, backing into a wall she looked up with pleading eyes. The girl was at most seven years old, as she felt the rough grip of the man, he ground out, "Come here, I want to talk to you."

Struggling she looked up at the man and pleaded, "Please leave me alone, I beg of you!"

She was able to break free of his grasp, but not without bruises, running away from the person she knew that she could at least talk to Derick. She raced for the play island, hoping that he was there hanging out like he normally did. She found him sitting on the bent tree, racing up to him she whispered, "Derick?"

He looked at her already seeing the bruise on her wrist, biting his lower lip a little the boy jumped down and headed over to her. "Again, man Tenshi, what are you doing that's making him so mad?" She shrugged a little confused as well, what did she ever do to get that?

"I don't know, he just doesn't like me." He lead her over to the tree, she took up her place on it while he did the same.

She and Derick then began talking about alot of things, looking up to see the sun setting she shook her head and whispered, "No, I don't want to go home." Derick smiled at this, she was cute when she got lost in thought, he then looked out at the sunset along with her.

"Why don't you spend the night at my place Tenshi, my parents won't mind and you know it."

"Okay, I guess."

As the memory melted, she didn't realize she was standing in front of someone until an icy voice questioned, "What's your name my dear child?"

"I'm not telling you my name got that!"

This woman had green colored skin, she also had a black cloak on, black horns and a staff. Right off the back she decided that she couldn't be trusted. Horn head, I don't trust you one bit. As if reading her thoughts the woman replied softly, "Don't worry child, I will not bring you any harm. And as to where you are, you are at Hallow Bastion. My name is Maleficent. Now what is your's sweety? And I wouldn't trust those so called 'friends' of yours."

She stepped back a little, looking at Maleficent she snarled, "Leave me alone." Maleficent placed her hand on Midnight's shoulder. Rising up her own, she slapped it away and she snapped, "I said leave me alone!"

Whipping around she fled but skid to a halt as the woman drawled lazily, "I can help you get your memories back that you've lost, but in order for that to happen, I need you to agree that you will do as I tell you. Every single order I tell you, you will do it. I can also help you find your dear friend Derick, that's if you join me Tenshi Tamashii."

Glancing over her shoulder, she asked, "What?"

"You heard me, just sign this contract and we have a deal. All you deepest wishes will come true."

Walking back over, a dark look in her eyes, she knew it was her that did it, Tenshi could tell that something had possesed her and made her sign it. With each letter she wrote, she felt a strong burning sensation (sp?) on her right shoulder, shrugging it off she finished and held her tongue as Maleficent ordered, "Follow me back to the palace."

[Dragonstar1715]

Draco wandered the ruins of the once prosperous looking city, the windows were all cracked, the door were practically falling off thier hinges and the buildings seemed to be filled up with desert sand. "Wow, this place is deserted" Draco commented, "I wonder if there are others around here" Draco asked himself.
Draco wandered the city, looking for any signs of life, suddenly a strong wind picked up and what seemed to be playing cards from a nearby deserted casino drifted down.

Grabbing a card, he looked at it and it was the Ace of Hearts, not knowing what to do with it, he slipped it into one of his pockets. Almost immediately after slipping the card in his pocket, a group of shadows suddenly appeared. "Goddammit, there here too?" Draco complained. He pulled out his revolvers and killed several of them, then the remaining shadows looked at him and them seemd to multiply into around 2 dozen of them.

"Oh hell no!" Draco said as he took a few steps back. Draco managed to quickly think of a plan, he grabbed a few of his grenades for the launcher and pulled the rings before throwing them at the shadows. After seemingly killing all of them, Draco relaxed a bit and said "Man, how many of these things are there?". But Draco was oblivious to the heartless forming behind him (Invisible), Draco turned around to continue exploring when the invisible took a slash at him.

Draco managed to dodge the slash but not without receiving a brutal cut to the chest, "Ahhh! Bastard!" Draco exclaimed summoning his keyblade and shoving it through the heartless's skull. Draco withdrew the blade from the heartless's head before it fell over and disappeared. "Oh great, now I'm in the middle of nowhere with no means of first aid!" Draco complained.

Draco grabbed the end of his cape and ripped a strip of it off before wrapping it around the wound and tying it up. "I better find someone soon, or I might end up dying in this wasteland" Draco said as he continued searching the streets.

[Skitty Cat]

((Bumpbumpbumpbump! I'll either post again later or edit this post with something to do with the story))

[Akans]

OOC: Ah... how'd this thread die? I had such great hopes for this... Time for a plot twist!

Tora, Derick, and Sylfae arrived at the soldier's base. It was a clump of small, heavily fortified flat building, with machine guns poking out of the walls. A larger building could be seen in the middle, complete with a helicopter pad and garages for the humvees and even a few tanks. A few guards patrolled the heavily fenced border around it, but the whole area bristled with energy. It would be a hard place to take down.

Behind the electric/barb wire fencing, there were two entrances, both protected with two turrents and a sniper tower. Continuing on, they could see trenches dug into the ground, and Sylfae sensed Dispel spells embedded in the earth, probably in the form of mines.

Even farther behind them was yet another row of fences, one that encircled the main camp.
Tora, Derick, and Sylfae were taken a rather stumpy building at the foot of the main one.
"This here's the Central Intelligence Building. You two (pointing at Sylfae and Tora) seem rather intelligent, if you were to survive on the streets alone. Like it or not, the Colonel wants to see you. I'm going to drop this one (pointing at Derick) off at the Infirmary." yelled their driver from the front.

They were dropped off in front of the CIB, and made their way in. The moment Tora and Sylfae set foot into the building, a young woman took them and dragged them off, where they were led into a small room. It smelled faintly of cheese.
The man behind the desk was a 40-year old balding man, with a rather thick and bushy mustache. He looked up grimly from a report he was writing and glared at Tora and Sylfae.

"My name is Colonel Stalve, head of Intelligence in these dark days. Now... I've read the message the Commander sent ahead of time... It seems you two were found on the streets, lost, but alive. I would like to ask you..."

But at that moment, another man burst into the room, gasping. He was a young man, in his mid-twenties, with a rough military buzz-cut, his blond hair barely showing. His green camouflage was torn and tattered, a very little of it was not damp with sweat, dirt, or blood.

"S-s-sir! I've.... I'm...." the newcomer stuttered.
Colonel Stalve stood up. "Lieutenant! Report!"
"R-reconnaissance Team F reporting! We've... we've scouted the bay like you asked... but...we... monsters... attacked.... everywhere...no one survived.... except me..." He gasped out.
Stalve frowned. "How did you survive then?"
"The... Statue of Liberty... we were around that area.... and when the beasts attacked, I was forced onto the Statue itself, while the rest of the team was attacked near the water... but no monsters came near the statue! I...I think I fainted, but when I awoke, there was blood everywhere... my teamates were gone... with the beasts... but... there was this light. On the Statue. Shining..."

"It was a keyhole..."

[sephiroth2]

-----------------------------------------

Sleif walked further down the barren road, taking in the destroyed surroundings. After a couple of minutes, he soon found himself, at what appeared to have been a massacre.
Blood and parts of people, were littered all over the place. Taking a few steps forward, a group of neo shadows leaped from the ground onto Sleif.

In an instant he had already withdrawn his blade and had just decapitated have of the group. With another swing of his sword, he had defeated the remaining half. A slight grin on his face, he sheathed his sword before continuing towards the large structure.

Sensing some energy, Sleif turned around to gain a better perspective. "There coming, are they!" Sleif said as he realised it was some of the people from the island.

[Roxas9001]

"I'll help" Tora said then he summoned his Keyblade. "but how do we get there" Tora asked
Tora looked at the colonal who looked very angry then he walked out the door. Tora walked outside to where a bunch of solders were then he asked the commander of the Helicopter to take him into the city.

[Shadows Fall]

Derick awoke on what felt like a bed, his eyes opening slowly to see his surroundings. It appeared to be an Infirmary as he glanced over to the left and saw several other beds with soldiers laying on them. However he did noticed a few of the men with a white sheet placed over their face which the boy already knew that they didn't make it. "My God." was all the boy could come up with as he heard footsteps fill the room.

"Yeah, we lose a lot of young ones every single day."

"Huh?" questioned Derick as he turned his head to the other side of the room, only to see Commander Ryman approaching his beside. He grabbed and brought a chair over to the side of a bed so that he could take a seat.

"Ever since these creatures came to our city, people just keep losing their lives." said Ryman as he saw the blanket covered soldiers. He simply stared at them with emotionless eyes, almost as if he were holding back his true emotions from being released.

"Oh. . . it might be hard for you, huh?" asked Derick as he bowed his head, wondering if his friends even got off the island safely.

"You're not from around here are you?" asked Ryman, ignoring the question he had been asked. "And you don't have to lie. I know you're not apart of our batallion. The reason why I asked is because we found two other kids right after the attack and their okay too so you don't have to worry about safety, that is if you know them."

"Really?! Is one of their name Tenshi?!" asked the boy who was now ecstatic, swinging his feet around to the side of the bed and stood up quickly.

"I don't know yet. We haven't asked. Come, I'll take you to them."

[Akans]

Sylfae watched in bewilderment as Tora ran out of the room. Wouldn't he be shot down?
The colonel thought so also.

"That kid... so impulsive. I would have kicked him out of the army if he was in it! And what was that thing he was carrying? A giant key?" He sighed. "Nowadays, everything is so messed up. You two would never had been brought back if it wasn't for the... unusual circumstances..."
Sylfae gestured to the Lieutenant. "Shoudn't he get help?"
"Yes. I trust you'll take him to the Infirmary. You seem reliable enough. Third building on the right. With the big red cross."

Sylfae put the man's arm over her shoulder, and dragged him out of the building, towards the Infirmary.
In the distance, she saw a figure run out of the Infirmary. Someone... familiar.

"Derick!" she called out.

[Dragonstar1715]

Draco continued to walk the streets, he looked at his water supply, it was empty. "Goddammit..." Draco cursed, he started to phase out a bit when he tripped over something. "Ow!" Draco exclaimed when he looked behind him, it was a human but more a soldier, and he was barely alive. "Oh jesus! Are you okay? Where are you hurt?" Draco exclaimed rushing over to him.

"So...cold...can't...see" the soldier said, "Are you cold? I don't really know any first aid!" Draco said. "Shadows...ruthless...killed...everyone" the soldier went on. "Just stay there I'll try and call for help" Draco said as he began yelling for help. "Statue...liberty...something...there" the soldier said, his life was draining out of him fast. "What?" Draco said, "Statue...something...there...keyhole" the soldier said.

"What? A keyhole, what do you mean?" Draco asked, but the solider had finally died. "A keyhole? I think dad said something about those, like they are the doorway to the heart of a world" Draco thought to himself. He continued on and fianlly he found life, he stumbled on a army base of sorts. However by this time, he was severly dehydrated and fell to the ground. He vaguely saw another glimpse of the base before he fell unconcious.