Story of a Thief

## Chapter 1

It was midnight in Splendor Heights, and seemingly everyone was in their homes, sleeping. All was peaceful and still...

Well, besides the two teenagers running and jumping from roof to roof in one of the rich sections of Splendor Heights, that is.

The two of them eventually stopped on top of a roof that belonged to a house that looked fancier than the others, though the other houses were pretty fancy as well.

Anyway, the teenage boy arrived first, but just barely, as the teenage girl arrived just seconds later.

"Ha!" The teenage boy said, smirking. "See that? I was right! You're practically a newbie compared to me in parkouring skills! I mean, you could barely keep up with me during the entire race!"

"Actually, from what I remember, I was keeping up with you just fine," The teenage girl replied, also smirking.

"Well, you do seem to have selective memory from time to time," The teenage boy said.

"I have selective memory?" The teenage girl said. "What about you? Are we just going to ignore the time when-"

"Shhhhhhhh!" The teenage boy shushed, suddenly looking around frantically and blushing a bit. "No one needs to know that! Not now, not ever!"

The teenage girl giggled.

"So, are we going to do this or what?" The teenage boy asked.

The teenage girl adopted a serious expression on her face as she nodded. Both of them knew that stealing the key to Mayor Fred's office was extremely important, especially when it would both prevent Mayor Fred from getting into his office and signing The Court's Law #4. If that law was signed, then, according to one of the former judges of the rich court and who was also formerly in Mayor Fred's inner circle, it would be perfectly legal for the cops in the rich section to take anyone that was apprehended by them(criminal or not) to Mayor Fred instead of jail, who could do anything with them if he so pleased.

Using the key to get into Mayor Fred's office so they(the teenage girl and boy) could grab The Court's Law #4 was also very important, as Mayor Fred could find a way to get inside his office with the help of his inner circle. After they grabbed it, they would then get out of the office(and drop the key) as fast as they could, and then later tear up the law.

The plan, at its basis, was rather simple. It was the details, like actually going into Mayor Fred's house and stealing his key without being caught, that were going to be tricky.

"Follow my lead," The teenage girl ordered, carefully sliding over the roof to one of the windows of the house and then cautiously dropping onto its sill.

It was only when the teenage girl had opened the window just enough to go inside the house and had went inside when the teenage boy landed on the sill while balancing on one hand. Then he carefully went onto his feet and went inside by practically limboing underneath the window.

Once both teenagers had gone inside Mayor Fred's bedroom, they then started to search for the key, which basically just amounted to opening Mayor Fred's wardrobe and looking inside pants pockets when it turned out that the key wasn't in or on any of the usual places. They were also trying to be as sneaky and quiet as possible so they wouldn't wake Mayor Fred, who was currently sleeping in his bed, up.

After searching for a bit, the teenagers finally found Mayor Fred's key and were about to go when the teenage boy suddenly sneezed loudly, causing the teenage girl to hide the key in one of her pockets just before Mayor Fred opened his eyes and saw the two teenagers standing in his bedroom right where the window was. There was a short bit of silence, and then the teenage boy grabbed Mayor Fred's glasses from his desk which was nearby.

"Hey, Fred!" He exclaimed, waving the glasses in front of Mayor Fred's face. "Guess what I have?"

"My glasses!" Mayor Fred exclaimed, then snarled. "Give them back!"

"Make me!" The teenage boy said, then waited for the teenage girl to get onto the window sill again before quickly doing that and also joining her on getting back onto the roof again as well.

Once the two were on the roof, they were soon running and jumping from roof to roof, aiming to go back where they came from. Eventually, the cops showed up, though they were on the ground instead of any of the roofs.

"So, should we use the usual escape route?" The teenage boy used the teenage girl, looking at her after he saw the cops blocking off three of the roads to the poor section of town.

The teenage girl nodded, and the two of them, after hiding behind a chimney until the cops that were tracking them on the ground were out of sight, were soon diving into a conveniently place wheelbarrow full of straw that was in an alleyway. The teenage boy had somersaulted into the air and dived down into the wheelbarrow, and the teenage girl had used similar motions, but instead of a somersault, she'd used a half cartwheel.

"I'd definitely say that my landing was much better than yours," The teenage boy boasted smugly after he and the teenage girl had landed in the wheelbarrow.

"You always think that your landings are better than mine," The teenage girl said, rolling her eyes but still having a playful smile on her face.

"Well, yeah, but it's true!" The teenage boy said, climbing out of the wheelbarrow. After a little bit, the teenage girl joined him in doing so.

The two of them began to navigate the twisting and winding path in the alleyways to the poor section of town, arguing over who truly had the best landing along the way.

## Chapter 2

The two teenagers eventually got to one of the poor sections of the town, which looked much less well off than the rich section that the two teenagers had been in a few minutes ago. The buildings looked like they were in repair or desperately needed to be, the roads were unpaved and battered, and the clothing on the people there looked like it either had a slightly below average quality to it or had patches and frays everywhere. In some cases, like in more shoes than should be allowed, it looked like the clothing was about to fall apart.

Many of the people's clothing, faces, and hair were covered in smog, and their hands were callused from years of hard work. Some people even had more wrinkles on their face than what was expected for their age, and there was also this sense of maturity in many of the eyes of the children, like they knew more than they should have.

As the teenage boy and girl, who also wore clothing that had a slightly below average quality to it, walked down the road, they were greeted positively by the other people, frequently getting high fives from the younger residents and getting sincere thank yous for helping the poor sections of town be much better off than it was before by the older ones. The teenage girl made it look like this was a common occurrence for her and was very modest about all the attention she received, while the teenage boy practically absorbed the praise and boasted as he usually did.

Eventually, the two of them got to one large building in particular. It was an abandoned warehouse, and despite it being bigger than the buildings around it, it needed as much, if not more, repair as they did.

Just after the teenage girl opened the door to the warehouse, a small female scarecrow bolted toward both her and the teenage boy and hugged them before they could react.

"Roan! Aspen!" The scarecrow exclaimed cheerfully.

"Nice to see you too, Mica," Roan(the teenage girl) said, laughing.

"Hey, squirt!" Aspen(the teenage boy) exclaimed, ruffling Mica's long, yarn-like hair. "Are you ready to hear what we did tonight?"

"Yeah!" Mica exclaimed, already heading back inside the warehouse.

Roan and Aspen headed inside there as well, and soon Aspen was telling a wildly exaggerated version of how he and Roan had stolen Mayor Fred's key to an unimpressed Mica, with Roan cutting in sometimes to tell how things really went. Roan's retelling of events caught Mica's attention more than Aspen's did, but Roan sometimes cutting in led to Roan and Aspen arguing about which version of the story was better.

"At least my version is what really happened!" Roan said. "Your version is basically your usual boasting in the form of a story!"

"So?" Aspen said. "Who cares as long as it's interesting?"

"Um, I was asking for what you two did tonight," Mica cut in, looking unimpressed. "Not one of Aspen's over the top power fantasies. Then again, he usually tries to feel better about himself by making those, so why should I complain?"

Aspen glared at Mica, while Mica stuck her tongue out at Aspen. Mica then suddenly yawned.

"It's already very late," Roan observed. "I think it's time for bed."

"Aww, but I want to steal things from the rich with you guys!" Mica protested, crossing her arms and pouting.

"Well, you probably won't be able to do it very well if you don't get any sleep, now will you?" Roan gently teased, smiling.

"...Fine," Mica said begrudgingly, uncrossing her arms. "But only if you two go to sleep with me. I don't want to miss anything!"

Roan and Aspen both nodded, with Aspen rolling his eyes before he nodded, and soon all three of them had gone into their torn up sleeping bags and fallen asleep.

## Chapter 3

While Roan was making the plan on what to do about The Court's Law #4, she and Aspen both agreed that it would be better if, after either she or Aspen got the key, Roan would go to the Mayor's office alone. Roan had been inside Mayor Fred's office once before, after all, so even though she didn't know where The Court's Law #4 would be in there, she would still know the basic layout of the place.

Roan and Aspen also agreed that it would be best for Roan to go at the crack of dawn, when everyone was still asleep. Of course, they didn't count for when Mayor Fred caught them while they were stealing his key, but hopefully, Mayor Fred still thought that they just stole his glasses and not his key. Besides, Aspen had already put Mayor Fred's glasses on one of the roads to one of the poor sections of town unnoticed, so they seemed to be in the clear.

Anyway, Roan actually woke up a bit before dawn, but she thought that that only gave her more time, so she quietly tiptoed around Mica, silently slipped through the warehouse door, and began to run towards the rich section of town where Mayor Fred's office was.

When she got there, Roan darted from an alleyway to the office, looking around in both directions before she unlocked the door to the office, went inside, and locked the door. Unfortunately, she didn't notice a cop who was also hiding in the shadows...

Anyway, Roan quickly found The Court's Law #4 in the desk and was about to unlock the door again and get out of there when there was a sharp knock at the door.

"This is the police!" A voice that was from the other side of the door said. "We order you to open the door this instant! You're under arrest the moment you or someone else opens this door!"

Oh no.

Thinking quickly, Roan looked out the window for precisely a second and saw that the cops were mostly surrounding the door. That meant that, if she was quick enough...

Making her decision quickly, Roan opened the window and climbed onto the roof before the cops could capture her. Then she was off, jumping from roof to roof like what she was doing earlier with Aspen. Also like before, the cops followed Roan on the ground, though one of them seemed to be grabbing a flute of some sort.

While Roan eventually seemed to be losing the cops, one of them blew a dart out of his flute towards her when she was heading towards the alleyway where the wheelbarrow was. Roan suddenly felt her eyes grow heavy and her pace get sluggish as she barely stopped herself from falling off of the roof that was above the alleyway. She knew that she couldn't stop, however, especially when she heard the cops go up to the roof.

As such, she dived into the wheelbarrow, losing the key in the process but still keeping a tight grip on The Court's Law #4.

Her body hit and then sank into the wheelbarrow's straw...

And, after a few seconds, Roan's head did not pop up out of it.

## Chapter 4

When Roan woke up, she saw that she was lying on a giant mosaic with bright light coming from it. From where she was lying, she could see the face and body of a painted, ebony haired young woman who had put one of her hands over where her heart was and was holding a red apple that had bit into with the other. It seemed like Roan was lying on the young woman, actually.

There were also a lot of portraits surrounding the young woman, but an unfamiliar voice spoke up before Roan could take them in like she had for her.

"You are Roan, correct?" The voice said, sounding female.

"...Yes," Roan said cautiously, getting up. She didn't want to drop her guard until she knew who this voice belonged to. "Who are you?"

There was suddenly a bright flash of light, causing Roan to shield her eyes. When she put down her hand again, she now saw a silver and yellow key-like weapon that was as big as a sword floating above the young woman in the mosaic's head, surrounded by a white spotlight. It was now when Roan realized that besides the mosaic, the room she was in was completely dark.

"I don't have a name until you give it to me, mistress," The key-like weapon said. "I can tell you what I am, though. I am a keyblade, a weapon that has been used by their chosen for centuries. In that time, keyblades have been used to both fight against and help The Darkness grow, though there have been some chosen who have been able to intermingle with both The Light and The Darkness-"

"Stop," Roan said, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms. "Talking key-like weapons? Chosen? Light and darkness? This has got to be a dream of some sort. What's the thing that I have to do in order to wake up?"

"This is a dream, yes," The keyblade said. "However, I and the training you'll undertake in here is all too real."

"I doubt it," Roan said. "Do I wake up after I "train", though?"

"Well, yes, but you shouldn't think of it like that," The keyblade said. "Your training is very important. It will teach you how to handle and fight with me when you get into a battle."

"Suuuuuure," Roan said, rolling her eyes and starting to walk over to the keyblade. "Look, I don't mean to be rude, but I have something very important to take care of in reality and I don't want to spend too much time in this dream world. Can you make my "training" quick?"

"Do not worry, mistress," The keyblade said, teleporting inside one of Roan's closed hands in a flash of light. "Dream time works much differently than real time. Even if it seems like you've spent hours training, after you wake up, you will discover that you had only been asleep for a few minutes in real time."

"Woah," Roan said with wide eyes, almost dropping the keyblade when it teleported into her hand. "Well, that's good to hear. When does my training start?"

"Right now," The keyblade said, just as all of the giant mosaic underneath Roan's feet broke into pieces and fell to the darkness below. Roan barely had enough time to react before she, too, fell, screaming in terror. Thankfully, though, she fell onto another giant mosaic that wasn't really far from the first one, and she was a bit amazed as she got up that she wasn't harmed.

"A little warning next time!?" Roan asked the keyblade, more than a bit miffed.

The keyblade said nothing, and then, out of the corner of Roan's eye, she saw a small, black bug-like creature with glowing yellow eyes rising out of the mosaic.

"What's that?" She asked, pointing towards the creature and raising an eyebrow.

"That is a Heartless," The keyblade said, teleporting into Roan's closed hand in a flash of light again. "Some chosen have tamed those of its kind, but right now, I advise you to fight it. It seeks to do you harm."

"And how do I do that?" Roan asked with a bit of urgency as she saw the Heartless start to crawl towards her.

"Just follow the instructions I put into your head, and everything will be fine," The keyblade replied.

Roan was about to ask another question when the Heartless was about to swipe at Roan with its claws. Thankfully, Roan noticed it trying to do that in time and jumped out of the way. Barely aware of the keyblade's voice calmly saying instructions in her head, Roan thrusted the keyblade down on the heartless, then thrusted it up and to the right. After that, the Heartless disappeared.

"So, am I done now?" Roan asked the keyblade as another Heartless rose from out of the mosaic and began to sneak up behind her.

"Behind you," The keyblade said almost immediately afterward, causing Roan to spin around and attack the Heartless just as it was about to attack her.

A strange thing happened after she defeated it, however. As the Heartless fell to the ground and disappeared, a circle of light appeared next to where the Heartless was and went off of the mosaic entirely, reappearing as steps made of stained glass that led up to somewhere Roan couldn't see yet.

"Are you ready?" The keyblade asked. "Once you go up to the mosaic that those steps lead to, it will be time for you to learn how to fight a tougher enemy."

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Roan said, going over to the steps but stopping right after as she was about to put her foot on one. "Um, are you sure this is safe?"

"I am sure," The keyblade said, almost sounding like it was urging Roan to go on.

Roan hesitated for a bit more, but then just shrugged and stepped on the steps anyway, surprised to find out that they didn't buckle under her weight. She continued to go up the steps until she found herself on another giant mosiac with a different young woman pictured on it. Everything seemed normal at first.

"Mistress, you might want to look behind you," The keyblade said with no fear, only warning, in its voice.

When Roan looked behind her, she saw her shadow now turned into a terrifying monster and on the mosaic by itself, looking at her and smirking.

Roan's eyes widened and she began to run away from the monster, but she almost fell off the mosaic and discovered that it was a long way down if she jumped off of it.

"Why are you running?" The keyblade asked, seeming genuinely curious.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe it's because there's a giant shadow monster that's trying to kill me!" Roan exclaimed.

"So?" The keyblade asked. "This is the perfect time to learn how to fight a tougher enemy."

The keyblade either didn't notice or didn't understand Roan's incredulous look, because it sure didn't respond to it.

Anyway, before anything else could happen, the monster put one of its hands on the spot of the mosaic that was close to Roan, causing tangible darkness to pour out it and for Roan to jump to another spot on the mosaic and get out of the way just in time. It was then that Roan noticed that the monster's hand that was on the mosaic looked smaller and weaker than the other one.

"So, here's what we do-"

"Actually, is it okay if I take over?" Roan interrupted the keyblade, a plan already forming in her mind.

"Of course," The keyblade said, showing no sign of surprise at all.

Roan then rushed up to the monster's hand that was on the mosaic, jumped up onto it, and grabbed onto the hand with one of her own hands while using the other to slash at the monster's hand with all of her might. It wasn't the most subtle of plans, but Roan guessed that as long as it got the job done, it was alright.

Roan then held onto the monster's hand and kept slashing at it when the monster shot an attack from its stomach, with the monster not catching on to Roan's tactics, strangely enough. It was almost like this was a really basic test or something. Hmm...

Anyway, soon enough, the monster had been defeated. After it disappeared, Roan found herself alone with the keyblade once more, panting heavily.

"That was really impressive, mistress," The keyblade said.

"Thank...you," Roan said. "You know, you aren't...so bad for a...keyblade? Man, I should...really...name you something."

"What do you have in mind?" The keyblade asked.Roan thought for a moment.

"Kingdom Key?" She said. "I don't know, it just feels...right to me for some reason."

"If you want me to be Kingdom Key, mistress, then I am Kingdom Key," Kingdom Key(the keyblade) said. "Also, what are feelings?"

And then Roan woke up.

## Chapter 5

"Basil," One of the Heartless telepathically said to Mayor Fred, interrupting his angry monologue. "When will the rest of us be able to invade Splendor Heights?"

"Soon, Isaac," Mayor Fred responded, relieved that he was alone in his office for once. "Soon the rest of the Heartless, including you, shall be free to invade Splendor Heights and roam here to your liking. There has been a bit of a snag regarding The Court's Law #4, however. Maybe Nathair-"

"Why are you relying on something measly as a piece of paper in order to keep us prospering?" Another Heartless telepathically asked Mayor Fred. "Isn't it obvious that their hearts are corrupted enough that they would accept the rest of us with open arms if we only do your bidding?"

"Yes, but-"

Mayor Fred stopped himself, an evil smile growing on his face as he came up with an idea.

"You know what?" He said. "We don't even need their approval! We just need to be quick in disposing them."

Mayor Fred then started laughing evilly, with all of the Heartless he was in contact with following suit. The Heartless' laughter sounded more like chittering than Mayor Fred's deep throated laughter, however.

~

"Miss, you are under arrest for stealing a rather important legal document from the Mayor," A cop said, pulling Roan out of the wheelbarrow, tearing The Court's Law #4 from her hands, and putting handcuffs on her.

Roan, who was now suffering from sleep deprivation which came from both the dart and waking up before the crack of dawn, chuckled.

"Seriously?" She said. "That's all you're charging me for?"

"Well, we haven't figured out everything you've done against the law yet," The cop replied. "Rest assured, however, we will soon, and when we do, we will make sure you won't steal ever again."

Roan's eyes widened. She knew all too well what the cops could do in order to stop someone from stealing.

She started to look around wildly, trying to think of a way out of this dire situation. However, her sleep deprived brain couldn't think of anything at the moment, though she did see a Heartless peeking out from behind a building.

"Don't try to escape," The cop said, cutting off Roan's train of thought. "We will-"

The cop then suddenly screamed and fell over, revealing a Heartless behind him and long claw marks on his back. To the surprise of Roan and the other cops, the cop's heart went out of his chest and turned into another Heartless!

The other cops started to run away, while the two Heartless started to chase after an also fleeing(but in another direction) Roan. Just as they were ganging on her, however, Kingdom Key appeared in front of Roan's head, and Roan, thinking quickly, grabbed Kingdom Key with her mouth, unlocked her handcuffs with it, and made her now free right hand grab Kingdom Key and get it out of her mouth.

After that, Roan listened to Kingdom Key's calm instructions again as she defeated the Heartless individually, panting when she was done.

"Where were you!?" Roan said to Kingdom Key.

"In your head, mistress," Kingdom Key said to Roan telepathically and simply, as if that was the most obvious answer for that question.

Roan's eyes widened, but then she shook her head.

"This just keeps getting weirder and weirder," She muttered to herself.

Roan soon noticed even more Heartless peeking out from behind buildings, and saw that they were going in three different directions:towards the deeper parts of the rich section of town, towards the poor section of town, and towards her.

She got greatly alarmed when she saw that there were Heartless heading towards her and the poor section of town, and started to worry for Aspen and Mica more than she did for herself.

Still, she knew that she had to get away from the Heartless going towards her, and so started to parkour up a building, hoping to get the Heartless off her trail. When the Heartless started to climb up the building themselves when she got to the roof, Roan started to jump from roof, hoping to both get the Heartless off her trail that way and get to the poor section of town faster.

All the while, Roan's mind was in worry overdrive concerning Mica and Aspen.

Were they okay?

Were they being attacked by Heartless, too?

Please don't let them be attacked by Heartless, too!

~

Unfortunately for both Mica and Aspen, they were both being attacked by Heartless, too.

Or, at least, about to be attacked by them.

Right then, they were trying to barricade the door so no Heartless could get in. Initially, both of them had wanted to fight the Heartless, but soon, even they realized that there were too many.

"Ha!" Mica said, putting a wardrobe in front of one of the windows. "Let's see the Heartless get-"

Mica suddenly screamed as a stream of Heartless got into the warehouse through the same window, making the wardrobe and Mica fall in the process.

"Mica!" Aspen exclaimed, grabbing Mica and pulling her out of the way of the wardrobe.

Before Mica could say her thanks, however, a Heartless clawed her back, causing her to fall into Aspen's arms and for her heart to come out of her chest.

"NO!!" Aspen cried, trying to grab Mica's heart and force it back inside her chest. The heart, however, had other plans, and zoomed out of the warehouse and to somewhere that Aspen couldn't see.

And then Aspen got knocked out by something.

~

Meanwhile, a group of Heartless had managed to get on the roof that Roan was currently on and rushed forward, pushing Roan off of the building just as she was about to leap to another one.

As Roan was falling, Mica's heart zoomed into her, much to Roan's surprise.

"Hey!" What seemed to be Mica's voice said telepathically. "Where am I? This isn't the warehouse!"

"Mica!?" Roan exclaimed.

All of a sudden, a portal opened where Roan was falling, and when Roan went into it, she immediately passed out.

~

If one had peeked into the warehouse at that moment, they would've seen a man wearing green walking over to an unconscious Aspen and Mica.

"So this is the scarecrow with the powerful heart," He said, stroking his chin. "Interesting."

He then looked around, as if searching for something.

"Unfortunately, it seems that I was too late to catch it," He said, then looked at Aspen. "That might be a good thing, though. The missing heart could be a way to see the boy's determination."

He then placed his hand on Aspen's head, causing the man, Aspen, and Mica to disappear.

What was also interesting to note was that no trace of Heartless in the warehouse at that moment.