Kingdom Hearts is a joint Disney/Square venture, and
they own full copyrights. (Aside from Tarzan, which
hasn't QUITE slipped into public domain yet, which is
why Disney actually had to PAY for the rights to one
of their derivative, uncreative musicals... but I
digress.)



KINGDOM HEARTS EXTRA-

The Hall of Lost Heroes 
Part 1

by Aaron Bergman.


"Welcome to the Hall of Lost Heroes."

To be entirely honest, I was not at all shocked by
this young woman's rather simple statement. I smiled
up at her and sat up, wincing slightly at expectation
of pain in protest of my movement. 

My eyes widened a bit as I felt nothing, aside from a
slight soreness in my side. Considering what I
remembered of the crash, I surmised that someone had
cast a healing spell upon me in the recent past.

"Thaht's about what I thought. Garsh, what did you say
this world was called again?"

She blinked at me, looking a bit surprised at my
admittedly nonchalant attitude in being a stranger in
a strange land. "This is... the Hall of Lost Heroes.
My name is Rydia, newcomer. What is yours?"

"M'friends call me Goofy, and since almost everyone's
my friend, y'kin call me Goofy! Hyuk!" A wide grin
seemed to reassure her, and she smiled shyly. 

"Very well, then... Mr. Goofy." The young woman
brushed a strand of fine green hair from her face and
moved away from me, sitting on another bed nearby. 

As I looked around my new surroundings, it became
clear that I was in some sort of a semi-permanent
infirmary, with ten beds arranged in two lines along
the longer walls. A window in one end of the room was
open, as well as the door on the other end, thus
creating a fragrant breeze that reminded me most
pleasantly of our stay in Tarzan's jungle.

"Hey, where're Sora and Donald?"

She cleared her throat quietly. "Your companion, Mr.
Donald, left this morning in the company of Bart and
Darkwing. This area is dangerous for the uninitiated."
She arched one eyebrow delicately. "You two were the
only ones we found on the Proving Green."

I absorbed that for a moment. This young woman -
Rydia, had she named herself? Yes - seemed sincere in
her statement that only Donald and I had been found.
Sora, it would seem, was absent...

"Provin' Grounds? What about our gummi ship?" 

She blinked. "'Gummi ship'? I'm afraid I don't know
what you're talking about, Mr. Goofy."

I winced as I swung my legs out of the bed. "Shucks,
cool it with that mister stuff, Miss Rydia, I'm just
plain ol' Goofy."

She reached out and patted my knee. "Then I'm just
Rydia, Goofy." 

I stood up and offered one hand to Rydia. "Garsh,
d'you wanna show me around? I'm sure Sora'll show up
sometime. He always does!"


****

Sora knew pain as though it were an old friend. Ever
since he'd been sucked from his peaceful island home
and cast adrift, the quest for his friends the only
anchor he had to cling to, the young man had endured
incredible hardships coupled with frequent injuries,
and experience had lent him some ability to judge
those injuries.

Sora's entire body was numb, with only slight tingles
coming from his limbs as a reminder that they were
still there, and he knew what it meant: That he was
going to be in a great deal of agony very, very soon. 

"Are you awake?" A woman's musical voice intruded into
Sora's detached contemplation of his immediate future
with the smoothness of a razor. The woman speaking
sounded beautiful, her voice sliding up and down in a
way that made the simple sentence a lovely song that
mingled concern and hope in equal measure. 

Sora opened his eyes and nearly lost control of his
stomach as he found the entire world to be a sickening
blur that blurred together everything into a swirling
melange of colors. The young man closed his eyes again
and for the next few moments restrained the urge to
vomit all over himself. 

Once he felt ready to speak, Sora asked weakly, "Wh...
where am I?" The sound of his own voice told the tale
of how badly he'd been hurt.

A soft hand stroked his hair away from his forehead,
and for a second he imagined that it was Kairi
comforting him; just as she had a long time ago when
Sora had caught a disease which had left him bedridden
and weak for days. 

The illusion shattered when the mysterious woman spoke
again. "In a safe place, the only place that is safe
any more." This time, her song was of deep and abiding
sorrow, quavering at the edges with a knowledge of
grief that was beyond tears, and Sora felt a prickle
in his eyes at the sound of her voice. 

Resolutely, he continued questioning. "Where are my
friends?"

A long silence followed, and the woman's soft hand
stilled, resting gently just above Sora's brow.
Finally, when she spoke, the notes in her voice were
reluctant, the song muted. "...I'm afraid you were the
only one alive." 

"WHAT?!" Sora sat straight up, his eyes open and
searching for the face of his nursemaid, resolutely
ignoring the way that the world whirled and shook as
he moved. For the first time, he caught a glimpse of
the woman who was soothing him. 

She was nothing more than a blur of long hair mingled
with the pale colors of her dress and face, but the
impression of huge eyes that glimmered and shone
woefully impressed themselves upon his mind. Sora
closed his eyes again and felt a tight choking in his
throat that he fought back. _I won't cry, I won't!_

One smooth hand caressed his cheek, then rested
lightly on his shoulder. "I can't express how
sorrowful I am that I didn't get there in time to save
your friends, Mister-"

At her comforting song that offered surcease and
acceptance, Sora lost the battle against his tears.
They flooded forth from his eyes, and he bowed his
head away from her face. "My name... is Sor-r-raa..."

Gentle arms enfolded him and held him close as the
realization that he was once again alone, utterly and
completely alone, crushed him. Soothing scents of
medical herbs, a sweet perfume, and freshly washed
hair swept over him as he buried his face in her
shoulder and wept uncontrollably. "There, there, Sora.
It's all right to cry. Everyone does it, their first
night in this place."


****


There was something about the mood of the town as
Rydia showed me around, introducing me to the varied
tenants of the ramshackle buildings that had been
thrown together seemingly without care for anything
but a temporary shelter from the heat. 

The world was warm, almost tropical, without the true
oppressive heat I remembered so well from the jungles
(There had been moments in which I'd envied Sora for
lacking any fur save atop his head!) Rydia stepped out
onto a path that lead from the small clearing their
village was placed in. 

"This way is to the cove. Shall I show you it?" Her
smile faltered after just a moment's existence.
"It's... beautiful, I guess."

I nodded and laughed, trying to jolly her up a bit.
"Garsh, that sounds great!" Unfortunately, my attempt
failed to bring her spirits up even slightly, and she
turned away without another word. 

A darkly tanned man seated on a log looked up from the
block of wood he was listlessly whittling at our
approach. The tattered remains of a military uniform
covered his lanky frame, and he peered through a thick
mop of blonde hair as he nodded to my guide. "Hey,
Rydia." 

She half-turned and indicated me with a slight
gesture. "Hello, Mr. Fokker. This is Mr. Goofy, one of
the newcomers. Mr. Goofy, this is Mr. Fokker."

He waved one hand. "Just call me Roy, okay? Welcome to
the afterlife, Goofy. I was expecting somethin' a
little more entertaining from the brochures, weren't
you?"

My brow furrowed in confusion. "What're y'talkin'
about?"

A frown appeared on Rydia's face and she glared at
Roy. "Mr. Fokker, you know how confused we all were
when we first came here. Mr. Goofy probably hasn't
quite realized what's going on yet."

Roy nodded again, this time apologetically. "Got it.
Sorry, Goofy, I didn't realize how new you were. I've
been up on the mountain the last few days, just...
thinking." He fingered an old scar along the outside
of his arm with a thoughtful air, and Rydia moved on
without another word.

Indeed, her description of the cove as 'beautiful'
failed to do it justice. However, I didn't enjoy the
splendor of the beach, distracted as I was by mulling
upon the subject of the town's subdued mood. 

After perhaps fifteen minutes of wandering, the answer
occurred to me so suddenly that I accidentally spoke
my thoughts aloud. "Garsh, everyone's so sad!" 

Rydia looked over her shoulder at me, and armed with
my new knowledge of how everyone here felt I saw her
as if for the first time. The slight quaver of her
chin, the glistening of her eyes, the way that her
gaze shifted away from mine ever so subtly... all of
those bespoke the way that she was barely holding back
the tears.

Still, she kept a brave face as she nodded once and
said, "Yes. This is a graveyard, Purgatory for all of
us trapped here." Rydia sat down on a large rock that
had been sculpted into a crude bench, and I sat beside
her. She scanned the beach for several long moments,
letting silence hang between us.

When the young woman finally spoke, it was as if each
new word was a terrible burden, one that she regretted
having to share. "All of us here were once heroes,
defenders of our worlds. I..." 

She flashed a brilliant, though brief, smile. "I don't
have time to tell you my story, but don't get some of
the others started on theirs, they'll never stop
talking!" 

The smile vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
"Each of us were the first in line against a
mysterious, shadowy enemy that swarmed our world,
attacking without mercy, stealing the life from our
people. And..." 

Against Rydia's will, her mask began to crack, her
chin shaking as emotion besieged her. "And each of
us..." Tears began to well from her memory-darkened
eyes. "Each of us... were the last to die, swallowed
by the darkness." 

Her face went into her hands and she wept
uncontrollably, her next words barely interpertable.
"We f-f-fought to the last, and it wasn't good
enough..." She lifted her head and wailed to the pure
azure sky, "It WASN'T GOOD ENOUGH!!!" 

I put one arm around her and said comfortingly, "The
Heartless ain't easy to fight, Miss Rydia. They eat
hate... they eat fear... but most of all, they eat
doubt. Garsh, if you doubt, even for a second, even
for a teensy bit of a second, that you can beat 'em,
then they've won."

She put her head into my shoulder, and I stroked her
hair. She sobbed, "B-b-but I n-n-never doubted... and
I still lost..." Her hot tears soaked through my vest.
"All my friends... Leviathan, the Sylphs, Bahamut... I
can't hear them any more, I can't call them any
more... they're gone." She lifted her tear-soaked face
to me. "Why am I not with them? Why am I being
punished?"

I didn't answer. I couldn't answer. For long moments,
she looked at me. As she turned her head back into my
shoulders, a terrible, terrible theory spread dark
tendrils in my fertile imagination. 

It was a theory that I could never tell her. From what
I could see, the memories of those last moments still
haunted her too terribly to share the truth of why she
was here. It could destroy the poor girl to know why
her friends, whomever they were, were not trapped here
with her.

I could only hope that I was wrong.

"Ghoofhy!"

At the shout, Rydia turned away and her tears dried
up, as if she were closing away some part of herself
that, for some unknown reason, the young woman had let
me glimpse briefly. That begged the question of why
_me_, but sadly, as Donald was approaching rapidly
with two rather mismatched companions in tow, it seems
the answer would have to await a more opportune time.

One was a tall man with darkly tanned skin, who had an
eyepatch rakishly placed over one eye and a whip
coiled up upon his belt. The other was another duck
much like Goofy, but was dressed quite tastelessly in
a giant purple hat with matching purple cape and suit;
an outfit most unsuited for this weather. 

Before either of the newcomers could say a word,
Donald seized my arm and motioned with a jerk of his
head towards the forest. "I whant to talk to yhou!"

I graciously nodded to Rydia. "Shucks, if y'll excuse
me for a moment..." I stood slowly and followed my
avian companion to the edge of the jungle.

Once we stepped within its borders, he turned to me
and hissed urgently, "All these pheople here are
Summhon Ghems!"

I nodded once. "Yep, that's about what I thought!
Garsh, ain't it great that we-"

"Kheep it down!" Donald held one finger to his beak
and I followed his gaze to the threesome that we'd
left standing around. Rydia had stood up just after
I'd left and was talking quietly with the two
strangers. "They dhon't know what they are, and they
think that this place is punishment fhor-"

I interrupted. "Fer failin' to hold back the
Heartless." A dozen remembered comments from my
conversation with Rydia came back to me, and I gasped.
"Garsh, maybe they think that _we're_-"

"They do, Ghoofy." Donald leaned closer. "And there's
nho sign of Sora or the Ghummi Ship anywhere! We're
trapped here."

"We have to find Sora, Donald."

Donald nodded solemnly. "I know, Ghoofy, I know..."



-END Part 1



Author's quick rant

Bah, you know, the usual thing: Email me if you want
to see more, email me with C&C, if you think that you
might be able to change something you see wrong with
this, and email me if you think I'm a bleeding idiot.
It's all good.

This fic is, in part, an experiment. Do I have the
discipline to write one short chapter a week, admidst
my other projects? Can I keep an obligation like this
one?

Good practice for when I go professional, being able
to write on demand...

Oh, and if you want to read my other stuff, it's on 

http://www.rakhal.com/florestica/aaron-bergman/index.html

and my email address is either this one or
iamfanboy@hotmail.com; whichever you chose in replying
is fine by me.

Bah. That is, IF I get any replies. This is a pretty
strangely set-up fic... I mean, Goofy? What was I
thinking? :p

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