Kingdom Hearts 1. Solitude: For the Girl Who Has Nothing

_Because I feel extremely happy this week what with me starting uni and FINALLY some news of FFXV, welcome back to the Dual Destinies trilogy, or To the Ends of the Earth trilogy as I like often alternate. It's great to be back and writing in this universe and hearing the news about FFXV only made me more eager to post this. Originally I had planned to debut this in October, but why torture you? You can have this chapter right now. _

_Just want to say thank you once more to every single reader and follower out there whose input in every way helped shape the first part of the trilogy and even what is to come. Will this be as long as Dual Destinies? Can't say but what I do know is that I hope to have fun writing every single chappie as much as I did the last one. I can say however that there are a lot of thoughts swirling in my mind as to where this is headed, and I consider Dual Destinies to often be a theme of summer heaving into fall, so you can imagine that this will be fall heading into winter. Yeah, we're gonna have fun with this, hehehe. Without further ado, I present a story that will single handedly put Shakespeare to shame (okay, that's impossible). _

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**Chapter 1**

**Solitude: For the Girl Who Has Nothing**

On a day much like any other where the good neighbor catered to their garden by watering their flowerbeds; where the mailman – his shirt off to keep cool from the hot summer weather – made it his mission to beat his personal best time in which he delivered his mail each day; where kids were running up and down the suburban neighborhood yelling at the top of their lungs as they participated in ball games or tag, an eight year old girl was staring absentmindedly out of her window. Her brown hair was braided and tied up in a ponytail and her clear blue eyes seemed to contain too much mystery behind them making it impossible to tell what the girl was really thinking most of the time.

For what they knew of this girl, boisterous was not one of the words they would use to describe her. Unlike most of the other children playing on the street, she was reserved, mostly keeping to herself and passing the time with books from the local library as well as helping her parents out when they required it. The people who really knew her though, knew her to be an energetic and playful young individual with a thirst for knowledge. Her father and mother (a fisherman and doctor respectively) were both kind-natured souls and had introduced her to the world of books through fairy tales. For what it was worth and she was extremely proud of this, she had the highest reading level for her age group at school. One of her favorite books had even been _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ which, although she had hardly understood, it had still somehow managed to leave a fluttery feeling inside that she couldn't quite explain. It was as if she felt... lighter. Little things like that made her feel special in a world that was all too normal for her taste.

There was something else that made her different from most others, and she wasn't sure whether she hated it or not because it made her feel unusual. She had always wondered about the stars ever since reading her first fairy tales. If she could reach the sky and touch what was beyond, what would she find? Was there something beyond this simple world? When she asked her mother whether this type of thinking was normal, she replied by saying that it was in her blood to curious and daring. She had heard stories from her father that her mom as a teenager had been much different than the woman he had eventually married. Personally, she wasn't sure whether to believe him or not. She couldn't imagine that her mom could be so different from today, but then again she was only eight so she was sure it was an age thing that would make sense over time.

The girl pressed her hands up against the cool window glass and watched as a couple of birds flew by. She wondered how they were able to do something like this when she could only so much as jump and even then she wouldn't be able to reach their h. In one of her books there had even been a snowman that had become real and had taken flight, but she knew the difference between fiction and reality. Even so, it didn't stop her from wishing that she would wake up the next to find herself in that fiction.

Scattered across her room were a bunch of toys that she had been playing with recently for what else could she do to live out her dreams of fantasy. She indulged in coming up with scenarios or simply re-enacting things she had seen in books and films. As long as her imagination could run wild, she didn't feel as restricted by her simple, ordinary life as she would've been without it.

The walls were a light blue, decorated in floral patterns with posters of some of her favorite cartoon characters on them. In between two of these posters was a wardrobe which did not serve as a gateway leading to some make believe land, as she often wanted imagine it. That hadn't prevented it from being useful however, having served as a successful hiding place several times during her hide and seek sessions with her mother, and of course she wasn't ignoring the reality of the fact that at the end of the day it was simply for storing clothes.

"Luna dear, are you coming down to eat?" A voice called from down below. That would have been her father, the playful jester of the family and of a caring and gentle disposition that had made the girl love him all the more.

"Coming dad." Luna yelled back and she tip toed out of the room, being careful not to step on the multiple toys scattered around the room like booby traps. She managed to safely leave the premises and started off in a normal walk down the stairs and to the small kitchen.

"Toddfield seemed to have booked the day off before I could. And to think, what a coincidence that we were planning on taking a vacation on the same day. And I was looking forward to some mountain hiking." Her father sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"You mean we can't go? That's not fair! Tell them to do it another day." Luna complained banging her fists on the table.

"Luna, what did I tell you about doing that? If you don't stop you'll end up breaking the table… and you'll have to pay for it." Said her mother, adding in the last few words jokingly.

"Oopsie, sorry." Luna scratched her head before saying, "But Auntie Kit hasn't given me my pocket money yet."

"Well she has, it's just that you keep spending it on more toys." Her mom chided.

"Oh come on Kay, like you weren't reckless with your allowance back in the day. I say let Luna spend it on whatever she wants. It's not like she's planning to build some kind of gigantic super laser, although that would be quite cool on second thought… actually Luna, definitely keep doing it-OW!" Her father was quickly cut off from his eager mood when her mother punched him on the shoulder lightly.

"Oh I'm so sorry, I just felt like doing that all of a sudden Ronan. You know how it is." Kay apologized with a hint of playfulness.

"Oh, I know it all too well." Ronan said and gulped. He was about to go back to eating his dinner went he noticed the rather absent expression on Luna's face. "Honey, I promise you that we'll go some other time. I know how much you've wanted to go hiking and I wouldn't let you down for the world."

"You promise, right?" Luna asked giving the most determined yet hopeful expression she could muster.

"Hey, in this family we never break our promises, didn't you know that?" Ronan grinned and offered his hand to Luna who cleared her throat professionally and shook his hand in a way that imitated a typical business person.

Dinner was lively as always, composing of Luna asking her dad multiple questions about what mountain hiking was like. He had told her that Alexander had been a city that had fallen to the trap of building on the synthetic and so as a result of this a certain beauty of nature had been lost. Where one could have once seen the mountains from the city centre a decade ago, such a view was now obstructed by large skyscrapers and apartment blocks. While some of these landmarks were quite spectacular to look at such as the recently refurbished royal palace, the Turm des Himmels, an amazing tower which seemed to stretch up into the heavens itself, and the opera house, some of the more modern buildings were gray and dull certainly containing no meaning to them and were mixed in with the more traditional romantic architecture of the city creating something that was completely sporadic. Even though night time provided a wonderful spectacle of lights reflecting its image in the canal, Luna much preferred something else, something that she had found on her own and had not told her parents about.

"Such is the horror felt by the traditional day artist," said her mother with a shrug, "If we let the architects do the talking from now on, the type of artists we used to know back in the day will be long gone."

"Uh huh." Luna said with a nod, having very little idea what she was talking about. Once again, she supposed it was just a thing of being too young to understand.

"I never cared much for museums. When you tried to drag me along every time to look at the paintings, I always made excuses that I was with some friends." Ronan remarked and he pulled a disgusted face at Luna who giggled in return.

"You probably hated them because they revealed your own lack of talent." Kay was quick on the attack and let out of smile of triumph.

"Oh snap." Luna mimicked something one of her friends at school said and eagerly yet unconsciously banged her fists on the table again.

"Luna, again?" Kay said and the eight year old quickly apologized before her mother could raise a storm over it.

"Oh yes, I almost forgot. Auntie Kit wanted some help with a few deliveries. May I be excused?" Luna asked after finishing her dinner.

"Doesn't she usually come to pick you up? I'm not sure it's a good idea letting a eight year old girl out by herself…"

"Oh come on mom, I know the neighbourhood well enough. I promise I won't take any detours. I'll go straight there, and come right back after the rounds." Luna pleaded putting on quivering lips and big eyes.

"Oh dear, you really are your father aren't you?" Kay let out a small laugh.

"And that's a bad thing?" Ronan replied however at Kay's threatening glance, returned to eating the food on his plate.

"Okay, but report back to the house at 1900 hours stat on the double missy, I don't want you wandering around places you shouldn't be. Straight to Kit's and back, understood?" Kay allowed resignedly. Luna nodded and shot forward out of her chair, out of the kitchen, around the corner and to the door. She put on her flat sandals and left the house quickly in a rush.

It was the hottest day of the year so far, according to the weather reports at least, and they certainly weren't wrong about that. Luna felt the effects of the scorching intense heat almost as soon as she had left the house. Usually green bushes, grass and hedges in front of her house and others were now dry and yellow, no doubt wishing they could be drenched in cool water. Of course a hose ban due to the current drought made that wish impossible at the moment. She tried to remember the last time it had rained. Possibly, it had almost been a month ago and considering that Alexander usually had its fair supply of rainfall, it had come as a surprise to most that this exhausting heat had come out of nowhere and was possibly here to stay for a while longer.

This did not stop the children in her neighbourhood from playing however, and even though she could hear complaints as she walked down the street, they were typically ignored for the most part. They, and some of the adults, had even stopped their activities to take the time to greet Luna as she passed them. She responded to them as politely as she could, though the beating sun certainly tempted her to hurry her efforts even more to Kit.

As far as Kit's Bakery goes, it was the go to place for any type of pastry or bread. Her parents were very close to Kit with them even allowing her to babysit Luna on certain nights when they were busy or wanted some alone time together. Luna had become swept away by her lavishness when it came to cooking. She had always been overly abundantly worried about the quality of her baked goods, having gone so far as to have Luna test taste them during her time as a babysitter. Though she was a little too concerned with her pride as a baker, she had always found time to play with Luna either way as well as renting books from the library just to read to her so it was only natural that Luna would have eventually taken to referring to her as an aunt even if they weren't related.

Much like its owner, the shop was lavishly decorated from head to toe with rows of recently made bread of all types on the left side of the shop and pastries on trays sorted into similar rows and placed behind the glass counter where Kit stood. Cupcakes and cookies among other assorted pastries one could think of were all here and had all been tried at some point by Luna who was surprised that she hadn't gotten fat off of eating them so much.

"Well if it isn't little Luna just in time. I was just about to come to your house actually. Don't tell me your parents let you come here by yourself now did they?" Kit asked. She was plump woman with rosy cheeks and the frizzy red hair and freckles to match. As with most people, she had abandoned the familiar cardigan that Luna usually saw her wearing due to the humidity.

"I'll grow and I won't be so little anymore, and they said it was okay as long as I come here and back right after." Luna answered feeling slightly annoyed at the mention of her h.

"Oh ho ho, well aren't you a little cutie. Well I can see that annoyed look on your face so let's not dwell on it and get to work shall we?" Kit said before moving over to the intricately weaved straw baskets that were next to the counter. For the next hour, Luna and Kat spent their time at the old retirement home which was situated in the middle of a block of apartments. From time to time, one of the errands that Kat asked of Luna was to assist her to said housing facility in order to deliver some baked goods to the elderly there. On more than one occasion, Luna had sat down with Kit to listen to stories of the old—an experience Kit claimed would become more satisfying than any fiction book Luna was to read. This had turned out to be half true. Luna hadn't really found heard anything fascinating though there were the occasional stories by certain people, her favourites belonging to an old man who used to be a police officer. Today however, she had to make an exception to hearing these tales feeling quite uncomfortable in the heat and as promised, returned to her house with Kit supervising her at least until Luna had arrived back on her street.

"Auntie Kit, do you think there's something out there?" Luna had suddenly asked as they turned onto another street.

"Like UFOs and aliens? Could be. Not that I think we should be busy having our heads high up in the clouds. We have enough to worry about on the ground, don't you think so?" Kit said. "You're only eight; you don't need to worry about those things right now. Just keep going to school and be a normal kid and before you know it you'll have more opportunities thrown at you than you can count your Chocobos, especially if you get good grades."

"But what if I don't want to be normal? Normal is boring, that's what I read in one of my books." Luna said. Once again she had to suffer from Kit ruffling her hair, a common trait that occurred whenever Luna acted older than her age.

"Normal is as normal does. If you honestly ask me, I don't think most people are as normal as they claim to be. But you should be careful what you wish for Luna, you don't know what you're missing until it's truly gone." Kit advised but Luna wasn't so sure she was willing to take those words to heart. She had always considered normal boring, even her own mother did, who had told her that the word normal, much like the word perfect, didn't have much meaning to her. It probably wasn't that Kit's analysis was wrong, it was just that Luna believed that her mother's analysis was right, and having taken after her mother's sense of adventure at a young age apparently, that was probably why she felt this way.

By the time Luna and Kit had arrived on the street, the day was slowly approaching its end and an orange glow bathed the sky which casted its shadows over the opaque objects on the ground. Even with this development, most of the kids were still out playing and some neighbours were even comfortably sunbathing on their lawns with towels underneath them.

"Well, I need to get back to the store now Luna. If you need help, don't forget that I'm always here for you." said Kat with a worried look on her face.

"I know. Thank you auntie Kit." Luna said and gave her the usual warm and appreciative hug. After saying their final goodbyes, Luna set off for the house and was about to knock on the door when she paused and held off. She looked down the end of the road to make sure that Kit was gone before taking off once again down the road. She was hoping that her parents wouldn't mind much, though that wasn't likely but as long as they believed that she was still with Aunt Kit then she figured it would be alright in the end. She hated lying to her parents of course but she really felt like going to her special place, a place where she felt as if she was closer to the stars than she could ever be.

She had been down this route so many times that it almost felt more natural than going to school for her. She honestly didn't know how she kept getting away with being away from home sometimes at night and she was sure by now that her parents were more or less suspicious of her actions. Without much trouble, she arrived at a green hill just on the outskirts of town and took her regular place, sitting down on the convenient log and closing her eyes as the heat tickled her face.

The stars soon appeared as the sun slowly disappeared beyond the horizon. She finally opened her eyes and looked up into the sky dreamily. Here were a billion bright treasures as if they had been tailored specifically for her. Here she knew nothing of reality or normal, only what was above and what she sought after. Was it simply too much to wish upon a star that she would one day fly up to meet one?

"Um, excuse me. Do you-" An unfamiliar voice shook her out her thoughts and her eyes soon met with the intruder. Something that had caught Luna's eye was that the boy had become quite dumbfounded after asking the question, his blue eyes searching for answers just as much as she had wanted to know the answer of how he had stumbled upon her secret place. Perhaps the most curious feature he possessed was his brown spiky hair…

Luna was to know no rest in the realm of darkness. She found it to be a miracle that she was still alive considering she had been running for what had felt like forever, and this had not been the only time. Many instances had she found herself overwhelmed by the army of darkness that had gathered here. Her clothes were torn and dirty, the result of having flung her own body out of harm's way several times or making a silly mistake concluding in a successful hit from the enemy. To her, this place, these creatures—they had become the very thing her nightmares came to represent and only added to her worries, if worrying about her troubled past was not enough of a problem.

The Heartless—creatures born from the darkness in people's hearts; predators relying purely on instinct; obeying the will of those strongest… all of this, truly meant nothing when it came to the Heartless in this realm. They reacted differently, more ruthlessly and constantly with an aggressive plan in mind. They preyed on Luna's heart sensing her vulnerability and they knew to give her no time to think like the ones on the other side. They still acted on instinct, but they were also very careful, something Luna had never seen before. As she ran through them, Luna flung her Dream Seeker Keyblade forward only for the Neo Shadows to jump out of the way. They were studying her… watching her every move. This was their territory and she was but an unwelcome trespasser stepping into a den of hungry lions (she soon excused this thought in remembrance of her lion friends at Pride Rock).

The sand underneath her feet slowed down her process and she could feel tiny grains of the stuff in her shoes and underneath the soles of her feet, making things even more uncomfortable. From the left, from the right, they all came with a vigorous desire for blood that Luna had never seen before. She barely looked either side before flicking her Keyblade both ways casting Aeroga which blew the chasers off course.

Seeing her destination in sight just up ahead, Luna jumped onto safe ground from the sand and took off in a full sprint towards the concealed passage hidden by broken twigs and bushes. Her body was in pain and she felt as if she could drop at any second but still she pressed on. Just as she thought she was going to make it safely, a neo shadow spun its body vertically forward and connected with Luna, its claws managing to scrape Luna arm. She yelped in pain and turned around before smashing her Keyblade down on the Heartless in anger. If that had been the end of her problems she would have took some time to come to terms with what had happened, but even that was impossible as the Heartless were still following her. She turned quickly and ran over to the obstruction, pulling apart the twigs and bush before stepping into the dark cave.

It was a small corridor filled with dirt and Luna had to lean her head forward to make sure she didn't hit the ceiling but she finally relaxed when she eventually emerged out at a much bigger and spacious room. Immediately she leaned up against a rock and pulled her sleeve up, revealing a gash where the claws had struck her. She winced at it before holding her Keyblade above her and casting Curaga. As the healing process occurred, she closed her eyes and remembered back to simpler times.

"Be careful what you wish for Luna, you don't know what you're missing until it's truly gone." She repeated words someone had told her long ago. All she had to live on her were memories, some of a distant past and some of a closer one. She had long since considered them to be the key to her survival here and they were only thing keeping her from giving up. The conversation she was thinking off had brought up the topic of 'normal', a word which had never really jived with Luna. The question now was did she regret missing out on this normal life? Had she not been so curious in stars in the first place, Alexander wouldn't have burned to the ground and her parents wouldn't have died by her hands.

The green glow around her body soon disappeared and she looked at her arm only to see the wound close up leaving a bright red mark in its place. Not for the first time, it had her that she was in _his _world. These Destiny Islands with their lush tropical trees, their golden sand, blue waters and the fabled Paopu tree she had heard so much about? These were only images she could imagine in her mind for the place she was in seldom resembled how it had been described.

It was then that Luna had come to understand why she had gone through all that trouble to be anything but normal. _He _had promised her that he would take her to see the stars and he had done so. She had never looked back even if her ultimate goal at the end was to recover her memories. She had them now but she had regretted it instantly when she had learned the horrific truth. But he had understood her; he had even still wanted to protect her regardless of the truth he knew. If normal meant never meeting friends like that in the first place then she didn't want any part of it.

A bright glow shook her out of her thoughts and turned her attention towards something like a wooden door at the back of the cave. There wasn't a handle with which to open this door with but there was something just as good. A large keyhole had appeared in the middle of the door with light peeking through the edges of its shape. Luna pointed the Dream Seeker at the keyhole and watched its beam of light radiate from the tip and strike its target. A click was soon heard followed by the keyhole disappearing, and then the door, and then the walls around her. The world itself dissolved in front of Luna's eyes until she was eventually left with a dark sky and a sinister path underneath which she would have to take for her next journey.

She had done this once already and had seen this exact same thing with another world and she could only guess what was happening. Her hope was that she was sending the worlds back to their original states, and if that theory was true then _he _and his friends would be extremely happy when they came across it next.

Luna looked up into the sky. There were too many stars to count but the thing to note was that they all seemed to share the same sky no matter how distant the realm of light and darkness seemed. She wondered if he looked up at these very same stars too at night, dreaming of a reunion and a heart-warming smile to go along with it. Here were a billion bright treasures as if they had been tailored specifically for her… no, for the both of them.

She smiled weakly. "Sora, pick a star… any star. That's where I'll be."

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_Yeah, she's still alive, just in case any of you wondering. Huh, I wonder how long it has been... oh well, expect the next chapter in a day or two and remember that feedback is very much welcome, negative or positive, whatever it takes to shape this trilogy into a great one. And whoever this Luna person is in FFXV, she better not be a Keyblade wielder, just saying. _


	2. La Vie en Rose

**So we're starting this off with a bang and as promised in Dual Destinies, you are going to be seeing a lot more of Riku and Kairi in this story. The latter is certainly the more interesting of the trio because... well, we have no idea what she's like since she ends up getting kidnapped a lot. So here you go, SRK in action and building on a supposed friendship which felt more empty than Roxas, Axel and Xion's, which is funny because they are in fact Nobodies. **

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**Chapter 2**

**La Vie en Rose**

A magnificent day was made even more so by the beautiful orange and red sky that draped itself over the city of Paris. In this large city, if one were to look up closely at the cathedral of Notre Dame and perhaps more specifically at one of the bell towers, they would have just been able to make out a boy if they were squint their eyes. A light wind swept through the air causing Sora to shudder slightly but nonetheless he kept his sights trained on something.

Finally he acted. He jumped off of the bell tower, his foot making contact with a line that was attached which he used to grind from the building he had jumped from to another building across the square. The line was itself barely even seemed to acknowledge his weight mostly due to the fact that he was using a gravity spell underneath that kept him light. This boosted his confidence all the more that it wouldn't snap in half.

He soon reached the roof of the other building and rolled to soften his landing only to spring forward not a moment sooner with his Keyblade and take out the flying Heartless in his path. He started running across the roof slicing and dicing his way through the Heartless in the process and jumping from one rooftop to the next as he did so. A longer jump required him to wall run and kick off the wall's surface using the momentum to transfer energy to his foot which allowed him to leap to the longer distanced roof. He landed just in time to see out of the corner of his eye as Blue Rhapsody casting a blizzard spell at him. He side flipped out of the way before sending fire magic it back at the vulnerable fiend taking it out.

He continued forward taking out the rest of the Heartless on the way. Down below on the streets were people going about their daily lives completely unaware that a battle was taking place on the rooftops. For people living in houses opposite the ones he was jumping on who were looking out their windows just to take in the view or to hang clothes to dry on their clothing line, their faces showed utter confusion and horror as they saw a strange boy running across the rooftops and taking out the strange creatures that had been attacking the town for months with some equally strange weapon resembling a key. As he passed a few of those clearly disturbed people, he looked at them and grinned before focusing back on his mission.

"Mon Dieu!" One of the residents exclaimed shutting his window before his son and daughter could wave in delight at the strange boy.

Sora took one final leap and landed on another rooftop a few feet away from his target. He was far away from the cathedral now having reached the inner walls of Paris, one of several that had been built throughout the city and had sectioned it off into smaller secluded chunks of land.

"That's enough Kefka, you have nowhere to run!" Sora yelled. He aimed his Keyblade at the hunched over clown and proceeded slowly towards him.

"Blah blah blah, I've heard it all before. I have a right to a lawyer don't I?" Kefka replied with a smile.

"W-what? No, you're coming with me." Sora said, "And you're not exactly in any position to be making jokes right now. I'm sure you and the people you're working with know who I am by now."

Kefka assumed the mantle of a clock placing his finger on his lips and looking left to right. "Name… name… oh, you're the person who lost his marble right? What was it again? Luna or something like that?"

"How did you-?" Sora was about to ask but Kefka interjected quickly.

"Who doesn't know by now? How you've raised an absolute party trying to find her even though you can't face the reality that she's long kicked the bucket." Kefka said.

Sora grinded his teeth together and kept his eyes and Keyblade trained on the clown. Eventually he relaxed and said, "As I said before, you're going to come with me and you're going to tell me the names of everyone you're associated with."

"And just how do you plan to get this information from me? You don't exactly look the type that would torture a poor innocent little clown like me." Kefka said.

"First of all, you're far from innocent. Second, I really hate clowns so I can make you the exception." Sora said.

"Oh, you must be a blast at parties." Kefka laughed before he swung the arm that had been concealed behind him forward in an overarching motion. A Minute Bomb Heartless flew out of Kefka's hands and soared forward at Sora who was taken aback by this development. Before he could even block, a third figure appeared leaping in and, like a tornado, cut through the Heartless with their Keyblade.

"You're late Kairi." Sora said with a grin as his friend landed on her feet next to Sora.

"Not late enough apparently. Maybe I should have waited a few more seconds." Kairi replied. The red head stood up straight and brandished Destiny's Embrace in her hand proudly.

"Yeah, just a few more, not that I've ever known you to be late before. Aren't you the one who's always pestering me to arrive at school early? And now it comes to my life and you couldn't possibly have picked a more dramatic time to come in and save me? All I'm asking is for a little consistency." Sora said.

"All you're asking for is a bonk on the head Porom style. Be glad I came not a moment later." Kairi said before finally looking at Kefka for the first time. "Is the clown giving you trouble Sora?"

"As if. I'm just trying not to remember really horrible memories of being turned into a clown in Disney Town. Who was that by again? Oh, that's right, it was you." Sora reminded her.

"Oh, did that happen? Can't really remember it, woopsie." Kairi brushed it off with an uncomfortable laugh.

"You remember winning an award but not the part where you made me, Donald and Goofy into clowns? You must have a really selective memory." Sora said sarcastically.

While the two friends were engaged in their own world of endless banter, an impatient Kefka was stamping his feet impatiently. Rather than approaching the rational thought of attempting to leave while his two seekers chatted with each other, his furiousness over being ignored took precedent. Eventually he could take no more and cut the two off, "This is just… UNACCEPTABLE. Oh yes, I'll just stand here and wait while the two of you blabber on like an old married couple. Do I look like a waiter?" Kefka jumped up and down frantically in disbelief.

"Well, you _are _waiting for us to capture you so…" Kairi pointed out the clown's lack of rationality.

"Ah." Kefka blinked before smiling nervously. "Well I'll just be on my way then. I'll be free on Saturdays, maybe Wednesda- no, can't make that, dentist appointment. Oh well." Kefka turned around only to have another Keyblade pointed at him, this one much closer.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Riku said pressing the Way to the Dawn into Kefka's chest. This forced the clown to step backwards.

"It's like you guys like coming in at the most convenient of times." Sora said shaking his head at Riku's sudden arrival on the scene. "So what happens now?"

"We take him back to Master Yen Sid and get him to tell us about the others he's working for." Riku explained. "It's going to be a pain having to listen to him on the Gummi Ship on our way back there though."

"Just duct tape his mouth shut or something. He can't be a clown if he can't talk." Kairi acknowledged as both her and Sora moved closer towards Riku and Kefka.

"Now wait just a moment. Three against one? I would hardly call this fair. You're all so mean. Whatever shall I do?" Kefka cried dramatically.

"Uh oh." Riku sensed the danger and jumped back just in time to see a wall of ice emerge from the ground between him and Kefka. Gasps left Sora and Kairi's mouths and they started off into a run but it was too late. Kefka jumped off of the rooftop only to appear to be flying a few seconds later, the most peculiar thing being that it was a wave of ice that was lifting him and one other, a girl with blonde hair and a blue dress that sparkled like diamonds in the evening sun. This wave of ice grew higher and distanced itself from Sora, Riku and Kairi until it was successfully over the inner walls and out of sight.

"I can't believe it, he got away!" Sora clutched the sides of his head in disappointment. The possibility of Kefka having an accomplice had not even crossed his mind. Worse yet, any information that they could have possibly obtained was now lost.

"Kairi and I scouted the area beforehand for any other suspicious characters but we didn't find any. It says a lot about the world that she was able to hide from us so easily. It's possible she even blended into the crowd or maybe she found a hiding place. This city has a lot of streets so it's not surprising that we could have missed one or not covered one as thoroughly as we could have." Riku considered furrowing his brows in annoyance.

"Even worse, they've certainly made a spectacle of their escape. Look at this." Sora brought Riku and Kairi's attention to the pillar of glistening ice that had extended up into the sky and over the wall. Below the house they were on they could see that the street was scarcely a looker of its former self, now being littered with shards of ice sticking out of the ground and pointing in various directions.

"That's sure to raise a few eyebrows." said Kairi. They all knew that it would raise more than just a few. People were already starting to gather in numbers due to their curiosity and it was only going to become a more controversial topic by the end of the day. It was an act of magic, a certain something that the town already feared with the attacks carried out by the Heartless. It was also something that one man in particular could use as leverage to further push his point. Judge Frollo was one of the people who had eventually arrived on the scene to witness the act of 'witchcraft' and in his mind cogs were already turning.

He pushed his way through the crowd until he reached the ice and he placed his hands on it before speaking loudly, "You see this? This is the act of gypsies, strange in their ways and conniving in their goals. They wish to destroy this great city and bring all we have worked for to chaos, for that is all the gypsy knows. Make no mistake, I am sure that this act is but one of many that will continue as long as the people of Paris do nothing. This coupled with those evil demons that have attacked us relentlessly day and night; this is no coincidence I assure you. We must prepare ourselves for the worst, or face the wrath of their evil magic."

There were cries of "Hear, hear" and other similar yells of agreement from the crowd listening. Frollo, who had been called crazy many a time by the townsfolk for his beliefs, seemed to be warming his way into their hearts. Sora looked away in disgust. His tactics echoed those used by the Reapers in Traverse Town to get the citizens to fear the selected Players. While that had been a supposed experiment, this was very real. This was fear incarnate taking place right in front of his eyes.

"This man really believes what he's saying is true doesn't he? It's sickening." Kairi said who unlike Sora, could not turn her eyes away from the scene and watched as even more people joined to hear the ranting of a mad man.

"He sees life differently than us. I suppose it's the opposite of seeing life through rose-tinted glasses." Riku said.

Kairi shook her head. "Or maybe he does see this incident through rose-tinted glasses. He looks at is as an opportunity where he can only see the things pleasant to him, his chance to convince people of his vision of the world." Finally she turned away and looked at the both of them. "We can't allow him to hurt anyone. He's already kept Quasimodo from the outside world by using fear and we can't allow him to use fear to control everyone here."

"I agree, but about the two that escaped. Do you think if we followed the ice we'd be able to find them?" Sora asked.

"I would've assumed that they were long gone by now, or at least far away. I certainly wouldn't want to be anywhere near the people who were chasing me if I were them." Riku said.

Sora nodded thoughtfully before trying to figure out their next course of action. "We shouldn't stay here any longer. Let's go back to the inn and plan out what we're going to do tomorrow. It's getting late and I don't know about you guys but I am hungry."

Kairi giggled. "A giant pillar of ice appears in the middle of the city attracting attention and Sora wants to eat. That's our Keyblade Master."

"Hey, think of the positives. At least it will be a great tourist attraction." Sora said giving a light-hearted shrug and a smile.

* * *

When Sora, Riku and Kairi arrived at the inn, they caught sight of an unexpected face that had been waiting for them by the stone steps.

"Esmeralda!" Sora exclaimed in surprise at her appearance. She was wearing a cloak but her emerald green eyes and long beautiful ebony hair could still be seen from the front. She placed her finger on her lips to silence them before pointing to the bakery that was next to the inn. The trio nodded in understanding and followed Esmeralda into the shop with Riku closing the door behind them. Other than the baker that was standing behind the counter and kneading dough with his hands there were no other people in the shop, most people would likely either be checking out the Ice spectacle on the other side of town or would be in their homes and off the streets by now.

"I'm sorry about that, I couldn't be seen out in the open talking to you. Judge Frollo has ordered a witch hunt on me and the other gypsies. If the guards saw me talking to you then they would have thought you with me." Esmeralda said.

"That's understandable… Esmeralda, was it?" Riku asked to make sure he had heard Sora correctly before. When she nodded, he continued. "How did you know we would be at the inn?"

"I met with Quasimodo back at the cathedral. He told me that you three had been staying here for about three days now trying to help Quasi out with his problem." Esmeralda answered him before looking at all three of them. "Have you found a cure or any information that could lead us to one?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah, there might be a way…" he said and paused before looking at Riku and Kairi. Helping Quasimodo hadn't been the only reason they had come here, but his problem certainly was a step in the right direction to answering one of their questions. Their main problem was trying to find Luna.

It had been three months since the fated battle against Abraxas and over those months Sora had worried himself to the point where Riku and Kairi were the ones who were looking after him. Though he smiled in front of them, his worries could not deceive his best friends who constantly asked him if he were alright. In all truth, it was annoying having to hear their worries about him while the question of Luna's fate was still hanging in an air of uncertainty. For all he knew she could have been dead, but he had chosen not to believe it. Even if she had somehow survived, for how long was she to survive after that? So here they were searching for any potential clues as to her whereabouts and they had not come across a single thing yet.

All Sora could do for now to honor her memory was to help the other Chimeras who were in possible trouble. Quasimodo had told them of how Esmeralda's constant visits since Sora, Luna, Donald and Goofy's last visit had helped him to maintain his human form, though he was certainly under a lot of pressure what with Frollo's new aggression against gypsies and his fear of the townsfolk scorning him for his deformity.

"Uh, are you sure it's okay talking here? I mean…" Riku nudged his head at the baker in the back but the man seemed to catch this nudge and looked up from his dough at the four of them.

"Heh, you didn't think I was listening in? Don't worry, Esmeralda's a good friend of mine, I'd never give her up to Judge Frollo and his goons. Of course if they heard me saying this right now, well, let's just say I would be in serious danger." The baker said and laughed heartily though the trio weren't too sure what was funny about the thought of facing possible execution. "By the way, wasn't there a girl by the name of Luna with you when you last came here? I remember her because she didn't really look like she was from around here, well, here and you three I should say. I was kind of hoping that I could have her opinion on some of my bread."

"Luna…" Try as he might, Sora could not find the words to tell the baker the painful truth.

Fortunately it was Riku who came to his rescue. "She was feeling under the weather so we couldn't really bring her. It's much more important that she stays in bed and recovers as soon as possible." He said without stutter making the lie itself much more painful to Sora. He almost wished that what Riku was saying was truly the case here.

"That's unfortunate. Well, maybe some other time." The baker said before returning to pounding the dough into shape.

"So what do you have on Quasi's condition?" Esmeralda asked returning them to the focus of the conversation.

"We've figured that retracing Abraxas', the guy that made Quasi like that into a Heartless, steps we can find some clues to helping him, or at least that's what we thought. But the problem is that the trail's gone cold." Sora started.

"So… you're saying that you have nothing." Esmeralda concluded slowly.

"No, well yes but there's still hope. There's one person I think that might be able to help him. That person is like Quasi, they're a Chimera which is what we call his type of Heartless. But unlike Quasi, this person was able to fight off that darkness on their own. So we think that they might be immune to it somehow, the problem is that we don't know where they are so we're searching." Sora told her with caution. They had already made an excuse that Luna was ill so outright telling them the person's name would have only added to the confusion.

"I see. Can you tell me the person's name?"

"Oh it wouldn't be… anyone you know so don't worry about it. They're probably not even in this world." Sora said quickly.

Esmeralda raised her eyebrows at Sora's mistake. "What do you mean world?"

"Oh, Sora's just a little tired right now. It's been a wild day after all." Kairi answered before Sora could embarrass himself. "But on a more important note, if you're being chased after by Frollo then I don't think you should be here. Even if the baker is helping you there's no guarantee that someone else couldn't recognize you at any point. Isn't there somewhere more secluded that you can be?"

"Yes, the court of miracles where all the other gypsies stay. But I need to be here or else who knows what will happen to Quasi. I can't just abandon him." Esmeralda said. The strength of her conviction echoed through her unshaken and determined voice. It would be difficult to convince her otherwise that she was putting her life in danger by going back and forth from outside the inner walls to the cathedral. "By the way, I heard there was a loud commotion by the gates leading to the older part of town. Was that you three?"

"Not exactly but… it was something, let's put it at that." said Riku. The sound of both Kairi and Sora's growling stomachs signalled their need to eat. As if on cue, the baker was at their assistance providing them with loafs of bread from them to eat back at the inn however Kairi doubted that bread alone would be able to satiate their appetites. Sora on the other hand having experienced the bread before knew better than anyone that it would be enough so he tried to eat as much as he possibly could.

"This is so delicious, I can't… stop eating." he said hyperactively in between bites.

"Hey Sora, stop hogging the bread. A girl's gotta eat when a girl's gotta eat to keep up her strength so make like the chump you are and move." A spirited Kairi said as if in an unspoken contest with Sora to see who could devour the most food.

"Oh, I'm fine, thanks for asking. I guess I can go eat the crumbs then?" Riku said to himself sarcastically. "And I didn't know you were so feisty Kairi. I am legitimately scared now."

"Well ain't nothin' gonna get in the way between this girl and her food. You know what I really could do with right about now though? MEAAAT! Delicious chicken curry, ooh I am so making some once I get back to Radiant Garden. Er, Sora? Why are you drooling over my shoulder?"

After an eventful meal, the three saw Esmeralda off down the street, and then headed to the room they were staying in. Sora immediately went to peer through the window and looked up into the night sky while Riku and Kairi engaged in small talk.

"Do you really think Luna will be able to help the other chimeras? Maybe Abraxas really did give her a test drug which wasn't as effective as the other ones." Kairi suggested.

"I don't even think Abraxas knew why she resisted it so easily." Sora finally spoke after a while with his eyes still trained on the darkness above him. "You know I keep looking into the sky hoping that the next world we visit will be the one she's in and every time I leave disappointed. And then I realize that there are billions of stars in the sky and she could be on any one of them. It's maddening." He yawned and jumped onto his bed.

"Don't think of it like that Sora, we'll definitely see her again. It's not just you. We're all in this together no matter what. We always have been and we always will be." Kairi assured him. In the three months that had passed, she had probably focused on training the most out of the trio having worked on her magic. Yen Sid had made Kairi his personal apprentice succeeding Mickey and had completely skipped the basics moving onto the more advanced magic like Curasa simply because he thought that Kairi had the potential to handle it. Even though Sora felt she had saved his life on more than one occasion, he could tell that she was still not satisfied with where she wanted to be.

"After all who's going to watch your back when you charge in all headstrong like you normally do?" Riku joked.

"Well you would know about that wouldn't you Riku?" Kairi retorted referring to Riku's jump into the darkness. It was enough to make Riku's face as a red as a tomato.

"Haha, she's got you there Riku. I think Kairi's about ready to bite anyone who gets in her way now. I suggest treading lightly." said an uncontrollable laughing Sora.

"I really don't need this." Riku buried his head in his hands as Sora and Kairi continued laughing. The night continued on in a lively spirit with the three glad to be with each other's company until they were ready to go to bed. In a time before this, they would have been separated by worlds, ideals, memories and the darkness, but none of that mattered anymore. It said a lot about their friendship when they could joke about things that would have seemed traumatising before. They were friends and their bond had never been stronger in a world that seemed so crazy.

* * *

Kefka disembarked from the icy ride and rotated his stiff neck before looking back at the girl in the blue dress. "Woo hoo, that was fun now wasn't it?" He cackled madly as he looked around the area. They seemed to be just outside of city next to a huge river which stretched on for miles.

"And you're laughing because…? You ruined my chance to purchase some éclairs while I was here. Well, that and you almost ruined the entire mission and had I not been there to save you, who knows what you would have said to get yourself out of their hands alive." The girl said coldly.

"Oh come on, do you honestly think _I _would give up all of you just for a chance to get away that might not even be offered to me in the first place Elsa?" Kefka asked. When Elsa remained silent, Kefka let out a howl of laughter. "Okay, maybe I would but that's all in the past now right? You saved me, we're still friends and a joyful gaiety of laughter awaits us."

"We are not friends." Elsa warned him with a glare before looking away at the river instead.

"Oh you're so cold Elsa, both figuratively and literally. Can I ask you a question? Why do you exist?"

"What?" Elsa looked back to him in confusion.

"Why are you here? I mean we all have purposes in life. Mine is to see the worlds cry and laugh in pain and watch the countless agonies of worlds burning in flames over and over again until there's nothing left. It's just who I am. But what about you? Let's be honest, you don't seem like you fit in and no one really knows you. You abandoned your own world and along with it any memory or bond you ever had. But if you don't fit anywhere can you say you truly know who you are?"

"I didn't abandon my world, it abandoned me. It wasn't as if I chose this power or anything, I was born with it. Even though my parents tried to support me and help me in keeping my powers in check, I could tell that from afar they were mortified and were afraid to be anywhere near me. I had nowhere to belong and so I left. When Maleficent came to me and told me of the other worlds I thought that I might be able to start anew somewhere else. I have no interest in destroying any worlds like you do—all I care about is finding a place to call home." Elsa muttered bitterly. She had been one of the people opposed to the coup against Maleficent having been eternally grateful to her for revealing to Elsa the existence of an outside world. Without her, Elsa would have been stranded—trapped in that prison of a world.

"But you could have left us at any time, so why didn't you?" Kefka asked.

"Because…" Elsa had to take time to consider this. Eventually she sighed and answered, "Because I knew that wherever I went I would be shunned, cast out because of my powers. Before he died, Kuja once told me that the world is a stage and that we are all merely players, so that we should play that part to the best of our ability. We can't run from it or hold it back. If everyone sees me as a monster then maybe I should play the role, maybe I should be a monster…"

"He he he, you're incredible you know that, and absolutely right. You are a monster, but even monsters can create works of art, and what a piece of art it will be." Kefka laughed before his eyes looked up into the sky. Emerging from the clouds above was a giant ship, slowly descending before it crashed into the river. Kefka cackled as Elsa, who was close to the river, was caught in the swell of water which completely drenched her. The ship soon stopped and the door to the cabin opened revealing Captain Hook.

Her twirled his moustache mischievously and walked over to the side of the ship looking down on Kefka and Elsa. "This silly fog is no match for Captain James Hook, HA! What happened to you?" He asked Elsa looking at her doused and irritated form.

"What do you think? Just take us out of here!" Elsa blasted in annoyance moving her wet hair out of her face before ascending the ladder of the ship.

* * *

**Putting Elsa in was an interesting decision, mainly because she's a parallel to Quasimodo in some ways. Oh yes, Cracks of the Past is full of parallels. Anyway, I hope I can update as much as I'd want to but if studies get in the way, at least you know why there's a delay between chapters. But until next time, thanks for reading and keep watching the skies!**


	3. Fear's Debauchery

_For some reason I cannot stop listening to Xenoblade Chronicles' OST, so good *Insert James Franco GIF here*. I don't own that either by the way, just like I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any of the other random references you'll find throughout this fan fic. Speaking of references..._

* * *

**Chapter 3**

**Fear's Debauchery**

Judge Frollo, a man devoted entirely to his work as a figurehead of justice, was having doubts in his mind that perverted what original beliefs he had ever had. He stood in his small room with books on multiple topics surrounding him. His lips were pursed shot and his cold piercing gaze stared out of the window contemplatively. If it were somehow possible, he looked older and paler than the day before this, and even more so a week ago. Whatever life and youth there had been in Frollo's character had been drained entirely over one single woman, a gypsy by the name of Esmeralda.

How he had spent so many times focusing on his studies in the past, only for his attention to be easily diverted to thoughts of her these days. His dreams were more like nightmares with teases of her and yet in reality they were not so close that he could easily touch her whenever he wanted to. It wasn't just him that noticed his own failing health. The whole city had taken notice and had burst out with a series of rumors regarding Frollo being potentially ill and even dying (a rumor heavily spurned on by his haters), the fact that Frollo turned away anyone who offered their assistance due to his increasing paranoia of those around him, made people even more wary of his ability to maintain law and order as a judge.

But he cared little for making friends. In a world such as this there was only one truth he adhered by: that the good must prevail and the evil be punished, and of course the accursed gypsy witch was of the latter species.

A knock was heard on Frollo's door and he grunted in disgust. No doubt the archbishop had come once again to his doors to convince him to stop what he considered _a great injustice_. Frollo was flipping the thought back and forth in his head of whether to open the door or not when a more playful knock was heard this time, much unlike the archbishop's. It came in a musical rhythm of six with the fifth and last taps each having their own brief pause. Was it another incessant drunkard come to mock him or worse yet throw food at him?

"And before you ask, it's not another incessant drunk come to throw food at you, hee-hee-hee." The muffled voice on the other side of the door said with startling accuracy to what Frollo was thinking. Frollo blinked as if he had just come upon some form of witchcraft and it wasn't until he heard the next set of knocks that disrupted his blank expression.

Frollo swept forward as smoothly as a broom and opened the door to see a strange man with face coated in white make-up and an abnormal costume of dysfunctional colors that resembled a clown. Besides him was a girl with blonde hair and a blue dress who seemed to be in a state of absent-mindedness.

"The name's Kefka though Supreme Overlord would also do, and I hear you have a teensy weeny tiny bit of a problem." Kefka emphasised with his hands although the space between his thumb and the rest of his fingers was a lot more than 'tiny'.

"And just where did you hear that?" Frollo questioned the strange man. He was sure that the man must have heard it from any number of available persons in town who knew of Frollo's dilemma. Even so, Frollo could say with certainty that he had never seen this man before amongst the troupe of jesters that usually frequented the square around festivals.

"A little blue bird told me. Not her, I know she's blue but that's because she's sad all the time." Kefka's vague words were lost on the tired judge who desired nothing more but to close the door on the two and return back to his grieving. "You look pale fine sir. Did you fall asleep in bleach by any chance?"

"I don't need this." Frollo mumbled under his breath before attempting to close the door but Kefka's next words caused him to leave it hanging.

"Don't you wanna know where the Heartless came from?" Kefka looked on with the glimmering eyes of a madman, no, of a man who had baited his prey in successfully with but a few words and had caught him.

"Heartless? Do you perhaps mean… those demons?"

"That's what I just said. Sheesh! Don't people listen anymore?" Kefka exclaimed as if offended. Frollo dismissed this with his anticipation rising by the second. Gone was the thought of casting these people from his door.

"Would you care to come in?" Frollo's voice became silky and inviting causing the woman next to Kefka to stiffen a little. The door opened wide to welcome the strange guests inside.

The room was dark and barely lit with the only source of light being from a few candles placed randomly about the room. The smell of leather, a product from the various books, scrolls and parchments in the room, was predominant causing Elsa to scrunch her nose. She didn't mind the books themselves. On the contrary, they had been the only thing keeping her from dying of boredom back in Arendelle however this putrid smell of book probably more than a century old was a bit too much for her to handle.

"Not expecting any guests are we?" Kefka asked as he buried through the mountains of books, throwing them aside as soon as he inspected them. Some of them landed beside Elsa's feet allowing her to examine them in closer detail. Several of the documents detailed various methods of something called the alchemical process, not that Elsa understood what that meant.

"Not one that I would care for. So, explain to me these creatures—you called them Heartless." Frollo reminded Kefka sensing that he had forgotten the reason he had been allowed in. Frollo took his seat on a wooden chair and waited patiently for information.

"Ooh, let's see, where do I start? Actually, how about you explain it to him your highness?" Kefka said to Elsa who dropped the document she was holding when Kefka looked at her. "You've barely spoken since we came here, how rude of you."

Elsa nodded before explaining. "The Heartless are more or less the darkness inside a person's heart. They'll usually follow the will of whoever's strongest. And this isn't the only world they go after. There are more worlds than one." She stopped as soon as Frollo's face lit up in confusion.

"Yes you heard that right. This world is only one of many and the Heartless aren't some manifestation of gypsy magic or whatever hoopla you usually spout." Kefka said.

"Sorry, what is this alchemical process?" Elsa inquired, unable to resist the urge of intrigue that came with seeing the word.

"That does not concern the likes of you." Although surprised that the young girl had taken interest in his studies, Frollo was swift in swiping the documents away from Elsa. He continued, "Then these other worlds… they must be where those three came from. They were wielding keys and have been much a nuisance since they stepped foot here. I was wondering from which hole the rats had scuttled out of."

"Interesting you should mention keys. As it so happens, those keys are used to defeat the Heartless and they can open any lock they like-"

"WHAT?!" Frollo darted out of his chair so quickly that the object fell over behind him. Had he heard correctly?

"Well they are keys, what did you expect? They aren't exactly monkeys." Kefka said snickering.

The joke aside, Frollo's smile had taken on a sardonic grin. For years, he had been trying to uncover the secrets of the world, of a science which very few but him believed in. If these keys really did what this stranger in front of him claimed to do, then such a possible pathway could be formed from which he could find the place where alchemy had started, the fabled lost city that every alchemist sought.

"And how do I obtain these keys?" Frollo asked after a long awkward pause.

"First, you need the power to defeat those who wield it. And what's the catch you ask? Well you didn't but there is none! All you need to do is give into the hatred in your heart." Kefka said.

"My hatred?" Before Frollo could ask more Kefka moved in and tapped his chest. A rush of power greater than anything Frollo could have imagined overwhelmed him and took him off guard causing him to trip over. This rush of power soon ended, and surprise turned to a grin and a grin turned into laughter. This was the power he had craved, a power which, unlike the law, had no boundaries or rules. With this, he would finally make Esmeralda his.

* * *

_Two Days Later_

"Sora? Sora, wake up!" A familiar red head's voice shook Sora out of his sleep and his eyes opened in panic. His pupils darted in multiple directions as he tried to ascertain his location. No, he wasn't back _there _like he thought he had been, instead he was starting at a rather old ceiling and he could feel Kairi's presence to his right. "That dream again?" she asked with a motherly concern.

"Yeah." He confirmed softly before sitting up and letting out a frustrated sigh. It had been on more than one occasion where he had experienced the exact the same dream. The tense and chilly feeling of the air, the sound of a perfect cut from back to front, the fear in her eyes and the small gasp that had escaped her mouth… the moving images came to haunt Sora every once in a while as if they were on a mission to torture him as much as possible. Each time he dreamed of Yeul's death, every moment and every sense felt real and he was compelled to act on this thinking that he could save her this time, only to find that what felt real was only an illusion and the reality was much worse.

"Yeul wouldn't blame you for what happened back then you know? You told me that you saw her when you fought Abraxas-"

Sora dismissed her with a sceptical look. "I told you I don't know whether that was real or not. Maybe… maybe it was all in my head and I just imagined her there because it gave me comfort. I was alone back then so my heart probably made a connection with another person I knew who had been lonely too. As much as I want to believe that I saw Yeul, I know that she couldn't really have come back."

"That's just you blaming yourself." Kairi reasoned but Sora's eyes flicked away to looking at his hands. "Look at me Sora. You can't keep holding everything inside like that. It's okay to scream every once in a while, get angry if you have to but what you're doing isn't healthy."

"Can we not talk about this Kairi? The sooner I forget about this the better. Plus I don't want to be a bother to you and Riku." Sora said playing his best smile possible. He truly wanted to smile and spend time with his two best friends and he knew moping about things would only make their time together feel exhausting and somber.

"It wouldn't be a bother, but you're right, we don't have time to talk about this now. Riku's already downstairs and waiting for us, no surprise there. Let's head down before he decides to leave us here." Kairi said letting out a snicker. Sora snorted before hopping out of bed to change.

A few minutes later, Sora and Kairi had reached the first floor landing to find Riku sitting by the table they had been at last night looking as if he were struggling to endure something of abhorred nature.

"Man, I guess Riku must really be disgusted that we're so late." Sora said making his and Kairi's arrival blatant to Riku.

"No, it's this oatmeal. It's disgusting, like snot." Riku groaned and made a blech sound in exaggeration. He pushed the bowl of what looked like a gooey abomination on mankind away from his as far as possible.

"So you've tasted snot before Riku? My, don't you have a refined palette." Kairi commented with a sly smile.

"The best around naturally. And I know enough to know that my palette disagrees with this awful stuff." Riku said almost a little too loudly attracting the attention of a few people nearby.

"I don't think the inn keeper will take too kindly to your words. Don't worry, I'll cover for you. OH YES, THIS OATMEAL IS C'EST MAGNIFIQUE." Sora yelled out loud stupidly only to receive the expected reactions of disbelief among the customers there and face palms from both Riku and Kairi. "I think it worked." He whispered and gave a wink.

With embarrassment plain on their faces, Riku and Kairi were quick to get them and Sora out of the inn and to their destination. The clatter produced by dense crowds only grew louder as they made their way to the Cathedral. Much like the first time Sora had come here the place was no stranger to multiple facets of life ranging from the wealthiest nobleman to the slurring drunk. The only difference now was that any specs of the festival of fools and its joys were now gone from the square allowing more space for people to walk. Of course the most formidable aspect of this scenery lay in the centre stage where people were burned at the stake for their atrocious crime, most of which Sora doubted were truly down to said criminal. It stood as a symbol of oppression showcasing the long reaching grasp of the law, and to an even bigger extent, the corruption within it and its ability to scaremonger.

But wanting to ignore anything related to death, Sora flirted with the cathedral itself. The antithesis of the stake with its grand and majestic walls offering solitude and sanctuary to those in need of it. It was the only place that couldn't be reached by the corruption of power. It had saved Esmeralda many times from the long reach of Judge Frollo and had even given Quasimodo some solace with its melodic bells. Unfortunately, as of recently the cathedral's interior had come under a number of attacks from the Heartless and any type of sanctuary was now being threatened.

Sora was the first into the bell tower and the first to see Quasimodo on the floor. He called out the hunchback's name in shock and rushed over to his side, helping him up from the floor. "Quasi, are you okay?" he asked as Riku ran forward to support him, helping Quasimodo up to stand.

"I- I- my sight, it faded for a few seconds and I felt a little dizzy then the next thing I knew I was here on the ground." Quasimodo's voice trembled as even he tried to make sense of what had happened.

"You don't think that the Heartless inside him has something to do with it, do you?" Kairi asked before holding up her right index finger. "Okay Quasi, I need you to follow the direction of my finger only using your left eye. Think you can do that?" Quasimodo nodded and covered his right eye allowing Kairi to proceed for the next minute witch a check-up that reminded Sora of his own eye tests back on the islands. She moved her finger left, right, up and down watching Quasimodo's pupil carefully as they moved in conjunction. She next did this with the other eye, Sora and Riku watching expectantly as Kairi took her time.

"So what's the analysis doc?" Sora asked once Kairi had finished and had pulled away.

"It's not looking good. His left eye seems to be fine but with his right eye I noticed a good delay between when my finger moved and the time it took for him to react. I mean his eye might have been like that beforehand, I don't have anything previous to tell me what it was like before but I don't think we should rule it out just yet." Kairi said but Quasimodo shook his head.

"That explains it then…"

"Sorry?" Riku asked for the group.

"I've been having migraines lately, usually by the right side of my head. I thought I could ignore them at first but they only became more frequent. So that's what they were." Quasimodo explained. He looked down at his trembling plump hands as if mesmerized by some fascinating horror in front of him.

"Did you tell Esmeralda about the headaches?" Riku enquired.

Quasimodo shook his head in shame. "I thought that it was nothing so I didn't bother telling her. I know I was wrong but I was afraid and…" he stopped and buried his head into his hands. Were it anyone else in the room, they would have found it impossible to believe that a creature like this would be wallowing in despair, but Sora and his friends knew better. They knew he was no creature but a human like anybody else and that he was in need of help.

"We're running out of time," Kairi stated giving Sora and Riku a solemn look. "Quasimodo's will is probably conflicting with the Heartless' for dominance. I don't know how long you can hold this up Quasi, oh I'm so sorry." Kairi moved in and hugged Quasi as tightly as she could for comfort though Sora and Riku remained on the spot. They both knew that pity wouldn't make things better for the poor bell ringer. It was only time before he fully lost his mind and became the beast that everyone who didn't know him viewed him to be.

Another person entered the designated room of hopelessness. Esmeralda threw the hood of the cloak off her head and seeing the scene in front of her, immediately regretted coming in with a smile. "Is something wrong?" she asked. Kairi let go off Quasimodo and explained as best she could about his condition. During this, Esmeralda's eyes never left Quasimodo. Maturely she nodded and appeared thoughtful as she heard about Quasimodo's migraines and Kairi's test. "And there's no way to help him without your friend?" she asked calmly once Kairi had finished.

"We don't know, but we know that you're definitely helping him Esmeralda. As long as Quasi doesn't let slip of any of the precious memories that the two of you have made then it should give us some time." Sora answered wanting to restore some form of hope in the room.

"If that is all we can do for now then it is what it is. We just need to make the best of our situation. We can do this Quasi." Esmeralda encouraged, to which Quasimodo returned with a weak smile.

"It's too late for me. I'm only stalling the inevitable as you said right? How long did it take the others? It truly feels like I'm cheating death." said Quasimodo wryly.

_So you're just going to give up after all Esmeralda has done to help you? _Sora wanted to say but he didn't have it in him to call his friend selfish for giving up so easily. He wondered if this was how Luna felt upon discovering that she was a Chimera too. How many times had she almost given up?

Before anyone could say anything, another person entered the room. Sora recognized this man as being by Judge Frollo's side most of the time and immediately summoned his Keyblade.

"Woah there kid, watch where you're pointing that thing or you'll poke an eye out with your giant metal key thing. Weird weapon if you ask me. Anyway I'm not here with Judge Frollo, I promise." Phoebus held his hands up in submission and slowly placed them behind his head.

"…How much did you hear?" Sora eventually asked keeping his Keyblade pointed at the captain.

Phoebus looked at Quasimodo and spoke with a lopsided smile plastered on his face. "Quite enough, none of which I can say I understood though but from the tone, I can guess that you're a pretty unlucky man my friend."

"I am NOT your friend." Quasimodo advanced formidably and grabbed Phoebus by the collar raising him up into the air even when against the calls of disapproval from the others. "Why did you come here?"

"Well I can't tell you anything if I'm up in the air like this." Phoebus grunted feeling the collar dig into the back of his neck. A hand comparative to that of a gentle wave reached out and touched Quasimodo's arm shaking him out of his anger. He looked into Esmeralda's eyes for a few seconds before letting go. Phoebus dropped to the ground and rubbed his buttocks in annoyance before standing back up. "Why thank you, I'm supposing you're the brawn of the operation and she's the brains."

"Get on with it before I set Djali on you. You'll come to find that she knows quite a lot of tricks." Esmeralda said although she couldn't hide her blush at the compliment.

"I've seen a lot to know what little Djali can do." Phoebus said before his smile was wiped away by a hardened expression on his face. "Anyway, I've come to tell you that Frollo has ordered a search of the cathedral for you. You need to go now."

"Excuse me captain but aren't you with Frollo? Why are you telling us this?" Sora asked.

"Because I am a captain no longer. I was dismissed by Frollo because of insubordination regarding the capture of a certain gypsy." Phoebus replied. "Frollo has no regard for the sanctity of the church and is determined to get his way. The cathedral isn't the only thing he's going after either. He's ordered a search of every home and shop in the city and those strange creatures are popping up a lot more frequently lately. He even set some of those creatures on me when I refused to burn down a house with a family still inside and I just barely managed to get away by jumping into the river. The man has gone insane."  
"Leaving the city is going to be a hard enough feat to accomplish if what you say is true." Riku said contemplatively.

"It's okay. If we gypsies are good at anything, it's knowing our way throughout the city. I'll find a way to slip by them." Esmeralda pulled her cloak over her head before asking, "Captain, do you think you could escort me out of the vicinity without arousing suspicion?"

Phoebus thought about this for a second with his eyes squeezed tight together. "I… think so. Most of the guards positioned around the cathedral still think that I'm a captain so I might be able to use that to my advantage. Plus the archdeacon isn't too pleased about this development and is causing a ruckus so that might help us out as well."

Esmeralda nodded and looked back at Quasimodo with a sad smile. "We're almost there Quasi. Just stand a little longer." With that she exited the room with Phoebus giving a nod to the group before following her.

"Do you really think we can trust him?" Riku asked.

"He seemed like a fairly good guy at heart. A little cocky and arrogant but I think she'll be alright around him." Kairi answered before turning to Quasimodo. "Do you know where Esmeralda actually lives?"

"The court of miracles, but I don't really know where it is. All she gave me was this." Quasimodo said. He pulled the talisman that was around his neck off and handed it to Kairi who examined it thoroughly. "I think she said at the time 'when you wear this woven band, you hold the city in your hand'. I'm still not sure what that means."

"Oho, this is some Indiana Jones stuff right here. I just hope there aren't any bad dates around here." Sora commented amusedly.

Kairi hummed both in thought and agreement as she twisted the memento in her hand. Like another certain object which Sora held dear to him for reasons unknown, this object held a mysterious secret behind it. It was an ill kind of addiction but it taunted him none the less, captivating him and drawing him to uncover its mysteries. He was of course referring to the puzzle box that was currently lying inside the Gummi Ship. It said a lot when not even Yen Sid could decipher its contents but he had mentioned something: that the design was of some thousand years old. If that was the case then they may as well have given up because tracing this box back that many years would only result in many dead ends. However, Joshua's keenness in ensuring that the puzzle box remained in Sora's hands was enough to keep him going. If there was a way to trace it back that many years then he would find it.

Sora smiled as he heard Kairi repeating what Esmeralda had told Quasimodo under her breath. She was already engaged in her own world thinking deeply about what everything could mean. If he were to be honest, he thought it quite cute though he wasn't willing to divulge that thought.

"Kairi, some fresh air might help you figure something out." Sora suggested. She nodded before leaving the bell tower.

"Do you think she'll be able to figure something out?" Quasimodo asked. "Maybe I should go out and help her."

"You should do that. I think you could use the fresh air as well, think things through because we're definitely not gonna let you give up just like that." Sora told him. "And don't worry about Kairi; she's smarter than I am. Don't tell her I said that though. I'd never hear the end of it."

"And she's special to you?" Quasimodo asked.

"Well I guess she's like what Esmeralda is to you. She wasn't originally from the place that Riku and I lived in but she arrived there when I was six and Riku was seven. I didn't know it right then but this journey that I'm on started that very day she arrived. Before that my world was so small and it was difficult to wrap my head around how truly big and insane everything was and that my small world was just one tiny snapshot that made an entire collage of art. Funny thing is that the grown-ups couldn't even grasp the idea that Kairi could have been from another world but Riku and I were so sure of it. She's helped me see things I would have otherwise been ignorant to so many times it's impossible to count. It's admirable really. Anyway, you better join her before she starts to get all lonely." Sora answered with a laugh.

"Having someone you care for can help open your mind then to new things. I see." Quasimodo said before leaving Riku and Sora alone inside the bell tower.

"Sometimes you have to be prepared to lose sight of the shore for a long time if you want to discover new land." Riku said all of sudden as Sora stared up at the bells above him, shining brightly as if they were brand new instruments, each one waiting with anticipation to be played.

"Sorry?" Sora asked.

"We were so used to what the islands had to offer us that taking the first step outside them was a difficult one, but in the end it was worth it because we learned so much more and made so many friends. Quasimodo is like what we once were, afraid to take that step forward. He's daunted by the possibility that he could never return to his safe haven, and it doesn't help that he's a Chimera." Riku explained.

"It is a big step." Sora agreed.

"But sometimes we just have to take risks, even if things don't always go the way we've planned it in our heads." Riku continued.

"And Esmeralda ultimately has to be the one who helps him take that step, as Kairi helped us." Sora finished for him.

Riku tipped his head downward and shook his head. "Yes, but that doesn't mean we can't lend a hand when we've been in a similar situation ourselves. And again, being a chimera makes it our responsibility to intervene now."

"You mean mine." Sora said with a sigh of resignation.

"What?"

"Abraxas was targeting me when he did all this. He was so set on destroying me from the inside out and considered anyone pawns in his game to get to me." Sora told him. "The worst part is that it could happen again. First it was Abraxas and now it's these people who used to work with him who are after me… am I that much of a threat Riku?"

"People fear what they don't understand. That fear leads to desperation which is probably what Abraxas felt when he thought of you. That's not to say that having people fear you is always a bad thing, I guess it must mean that you're just someone really worth going for if they have to panic like that. Way to leave me and Kairi in the dust, you've finally made it to the big leagues." Riku joked.

"If fear can lead to respect then I better be making more dimes than Scrooge McDuck by the end of this or it isn't worth it." Sora said with a sad smile although he knew that a respect bred out of fear was no respect at all. Not for the first time, he found himself repeatedly asking why it was always him, not that anyone else would have been any better on his conscience but just as he had thought his worries were over with Xehanort, he had been thrust into another gruelling conflict, one which this time seemed to have no end.

"So Sora, now that we're alone. Kairi or Luna? Which one's more your type?" Riku asked a question that Sora had not been expecting. The brunette spluttered about incredulously and before he could retort the door opened once again and Kairi burst through the room with a panicked expression on her face. "Guys, we need to leave now!"

"Kairi, what's happening?" Sora asked bewilderedly.

"It's Judge Frollo, he's taken control of the Heartless and… he's ordered a warrant on our arrest!"

* * *

**Yeah, I was watching the trilogy recently (because it is a trilogy in my heart) and I just couldn't help but do it. That and it is owned by Disney now so it works. More importantly, I wonder what this lost city Frollo is searching for is... And yes, I decided to make him interested in alchemy because I certainly missed that aspect of him from the book. More chapters coming soon!**


	4. By Acts of Absolute Power

_Oh September, you have been a glorious month to me. First Doctor Who coming back, then TGS and now the trailer for Legend of Korra Book Four? And I'm sure next month will be even better. Feel like watching Frozen again for some reason. Anyway, ignore my energetic self right now and here comes your next chapter. _

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**By Acts of Absolute Power**

Kairi's warning had given them very little time to act. Heartless rose up from the ground and attacked giving the surprised Riku and Sora no time to defend. It was Kairi who had been anticipating the attack, and quickly erected a powerful barrier after quick summoning her Keyblade. Various sparks of light flashed as the Heartless smacked against the barrier and were repelled. Kairi dispelled the shield with the resulting shockwave taking out the creatures.

"We need to move quickly, Quasi's waiting for us." Kairi said before leading them out of the bell tower.

"Do you have any idea where we should go? I mean the Gummi Ship can't really be found but we'd be leaving Quasi and Esmeralda in danger." Sora reminded them. The way he saw it, now that they were wanted for whatever reason, it would be impossible to back out of the situation now.

"The court of miracles. Have you figured anything out yet Kairi?" Riku asked. Just as Sora expected, his friend was always thinking one step ahead of the curb. After Xehanort's defeat he had become much more confident in his own abilities while still being able to be humble about. Surprising and not really known to many others, at least not on the islands, was that while Riku appeared to possess a cool and serious demeanour (and had certainly gained a reputation for it amongst his female fan base at school), he was often quite cheeky and mischievous when around Sora and Kairi. Sora figured that it must have been harder for Riku to act normally in front of others compared to the two people who had been with him through so much in their last journey.

"Yes actually. Well I thought of it from a different perspective but Quasimodo was the one who expanded on the idea. Anyway, this-" Kairi pulled out the talisman from her pocket and showed it to them proudly, "is a map. The cathedral is right here in the centre of the talisman, the centre of the city. And if you follow this pattern it goes past the inner ring or walls of the city and to somewhere north east."

"Somewhere near the old town. And here I thought X never, ever marks the spot. Well it's worth a shot, better than staying here." Sora said. With a unification of approval expressed by everyone, the trio quickly caught up with Quasimodo and together the four descended downwards into the interior of the cathedral. Being here only brought bad memories to Sora. This was the place where his and Luna's friendship had almost broken down. His forcefulness in telling her that he didn't want her to travel with him had done more harm than good and had set about a chain of events that had worked in Abraxas' favour and had almost destroyed Sora's spirit.

Sora could even recall which bench he had sat down at and what he had been doing before then. Thinking about this made his heart pound and thud more wildly with fear that he would never see her again, that she was truly lost to him.

Sora was stolen from his thoughts by a hand that had latched around his arm and had dragged him backwards. "What was that for?" he asked looking at the hand's owner.

"You're not paying attention are you? The guards over there." Riku replied nodding his head in the direction of a guard posted by the cathedral doors. Sora attempted to look their way but a quick warning by Riku told him not to stare at them directly.

"So what do we do now?" Kairi asked.

"It's a single guard. We can probably slip out if we had a distraction. Still, you'd think there would be more guards in the cathedral if they wanted to find someone." said Riku in an undertone. He had his chin resting on his hand and his eyebrows were furrowed making it quite easy to tell that he was deep in thought.

"Well it's not like they know we're here right? The Heartless found us but Kairi managed to get rid of them so unless Frollo know then we're safe for now." Sora said.

"I think the archdeacon can help. I'll see what I can do." Quasimodo told them and walked over to the archdeacon while Sora, Riku and Kairi concealed themselves by the stairwell where they watched the two exchange a few words. A few seconds later, Quasimodo rejoined them and guided them to the door, making sure to stay glued to the walls in the process and observing as the archdeacon made his way to the guard. The calmness of the subdued archdeacon made his words hard to decipher from where Sora was but whatever he said to the guard must have worked because the two men had soon parted from the door and had moved down the nave of the cathedral. Riku moved in and opened the door wide enough for the group to slip through before carefully closing it behind him.

The sound of a sword hitting against flesh brought the group's attention to Phoebus who was swatting away at a bunch of Hook Bat Heartless around the centre of the square. One of the Hook Bats evaded an attack from Phoebus by flying out of his sword's range before flapping its wings releasing ultrasonic waves that paralyzed Phoebus allowing the other Hook Bats to move in and attack. Phoebus was sent flying to the floor letting out a long groan soon afterwards.

Riku was the first to rush in and cut through three of the bats with Sora following up with blizzard magic. The shards of ice connected with the remaining Heartless taking them out and allowing Sora to proceed to Phoebus freely where he helped the ex-captain up.

"Those things really are too fast for their own good. I couldn't even get a single hit." Phoebus said drawing back in a tense yet subdued agony. To Sora's surprise, the man was still able to let out a laugh even after all of that, probably either due to his stubborn pride or because he had just come face to face with a life-threatening situation, probably both.

"I take it Esmeralda got out safely then?" Kairi asked.

"Out of the cathedral? Yes. Out of the city? I have no idea. She thought it best we parted ways here. Makes sense since as we were on our way out, one of the guards told me that they were also looking for three kids in weird looking clothes. Esmeralda was worried about you guys and had me warn you but I guess I didn't need to do that in the end." Phoebus explained before rubbing the back of his head. "It's kind of embarrassing to be honest. As a man sworn to protect this city, it's my duty to protect kids like you from danger and yet I find that the situation has been completely reversed. Thrusting my life into the hands of three kids, huh? It's just not right. I would tell you to stay in school but you clearly know a lot more about these creatures than anyone else here, that and you're more equipped to handle them apparently. You really aren't from around here are you?"

"We don't really have time for this. If Esmeralda is alone then she may be in danger. She's probably headed for the court of miracles so we need to head there immediately." Quasimodo said. It was impossible not to notice a change in attitude from his usual reserved and depressed self to a more confident and determined figure. His question to Sora about Kairi being a beacon of light for the brunette hadn't been lost on Quasimodo it had seemed. Now he too was fighting to protect something important to him.

"You alright Riku?" Sora asked noticing that his friend had appeared rather distant as of late.

"No but I need to confirm something first. It's just… something strange…" Riku fell back into his ponderings causing Sora to give up. With little more to say and with time quickly slipping away, the party departed from the square and headed towards the gates of the inner wall.

* * *

A combination of Quasimodo and Phoebus' knowledge and the map provided by Esmeralda had led to group to the graveyard, just outside the inner walls. Sora had to admit that transitioning from the clean, densely packed renaissance-style city to a dark, gloomy and morbid graveyard was somewhat hilarious, if not a little creepy.

"Trust the court of miracles to be hiding in a place like this, it's pretty clever. Who would ever think about staying in here long enough to find out? It's like our secret place on the islands when I think about it." Riku said. True, as Riku had said, the secret place had become renowned for its rumors involving monsters and ghosts among those who knew about it thus making sure that everyone had stayed far away from it as possible.

"Selphie would love a place like this huh?" Sora light-heartedly quipped only to receive a punch on the shoulder from Kairi. "Ow. So, do we start defiling coffins or something to look for a secret passageway? Well, it's nothing personal, the dead won't mind anyway right?"  
"Urgh, you are just unbelievable!" Kairi screamed in frustration only for Sora to laugh.

"Oh come on, it's just a joke Kairi." He patted her on the shoulder before walking past and looking around. "It could take us a while to find this entrance so we might as well get down to it."

"Actually, I think I've already found it!" Quasimodo declared pointing at one graves in the centre of the area. He pulled out the talisman and held it up matching it up with the symbol on the gravestone. "The symbols match." He soon confirmed to the others.

"Great. Now how do we get it open? A secret password or…" Phoebus' words were interrupted as Quasimodo places his hands on the side of the grave's lid and pushed. The lid gave in easily and fell to the ground revealing a staircase that descended deep underground, "or that." Phoebus finished with repeated blinks of surprise.

Sora followed after the rest down the stairs keeping his eyes on Riku. It was strange. The silver haired teen had been unusually quiet since they had left the square and it was starting to agitate Sora. He knew that Riku was usually the type who didn't express his thoughts but if something was troubling him, then surely it only made sense to tell him and Kairi about it before it was too late.

As soon as he stepped onto flat ground, Sora's analysis was cut short upon finding that he was ankle deep in what felt like water but it was too dark to make anything out for sure. Kairi intuitively solved this problem by lighting up her Keyblade but immediately screamed when the first thing she saw in the now luminous room was a skeleton.

"Haha, we must be in the old catacombs then I guess." Phoebus said. "And that weapon of yours can also light paths? Where can I buy one?"

"N- not for sssssale." Kairi stuttered standing frozen and aghast, not able to take her eyes away from the skeleton.

"Oh Kairi, don't tell me you're afraid of a little skeleton. He's dead Kairi, probably has been for years, he's not gonna hurt you." Sora said. He walked past her and grabbed the skeleton's hand, shaking it satirically. "See? Oh hello Mr. Skeleton, how's the weather down here? You know I know a skeleton just like you, maybe I'll take you to Halloween Town to see hi- AAAAH!" Suddenly Sora let out a scream as the skeleton's hand grasped around his hand and dragged the helpless teen towards its skeletal figure… or at least that's what Kairi thought. It had been enough to cause Kairi to scream again, and Sora laughed releasing the skeleton from his grasp. "Oh Kairi, you should see the look on your face right now. It's amazing!"

Kairi blushed furiously and stamped her food down, creating a splash in the water below them. "Sora, you are a complete and utter ass!" she yelled pointing her finger accusingly at Sora, in the end though Sora could see that Kairi was struggling to maintain her fake displeasure.

"Yes kids, please keep yelling, I think someone didn't quite hear you two by now." Phoebus said sarcastically before looking at Riku. "Be like this guy. He seems to understand the situation we're in."

"It's Riku, and 'understand the situation we're in'? Are you really sure we understand anything right now or do we only think we do?" Riku replied.

"Okay Riku, you've been holding something from us since we left the cathedral. Just tell us what's on your mind." Sora said.

"You didn't see them?" Riku asked vaguely.

"See what?"

"Exactly. On our way here we stumbled across barely any guards. Don't you think that's strange considering we have an arrest warrant on our heads? Even at the gate or while we were passing that crystal pillar on our way to it, there were no guards. There should have been more at the cathedral as well. Remember what Phoebus had said? On their way out, he and Esmeralda were told by one of the guards that they were looking for the three of us. The key phrase there is 'one of the guards' meaning that there was more than one and yet when we left there was only one guard." Riku explained before asking Phoebus, "Can you recall how many guards there were in the cathedral?"

"Exactly? No, I didn't bother to search every nook and cranny for one but there was definitely more than one. At least four if I recall correctly." Phoebus answered.

"Then what happened to the other guards? Do you think Frollo's found the court of miracles?" Sora asked.

"If that's the case then we need to hurry. Let's just hope we're not too late." Quasimodo said. The damp and flooded passageway, which Phoebus guessed to be the catacombs, twisted and turned often managing to confuse the group. Their only source of aid was through Kairi's illuminated Keyblade and the walls that connected the vast tunnel network. Something that could not be missed was that the catacombs played host to more than just one skeleton, with many scattered throughout the passageways. Sora couldn't see anything below his knees but had certainly felt as if he had heard the sound of crunching more than a few times, enough to send shivers down his entire body. What he was thankful for though, was that the level of water, or sewage as Sora had come to learn, that they were walking through gradually seemed to decrease until there was none left.

Just when it looked as if the catacombs would never end, a light could be seen up ahead. Sora and Kairi exchanged looks and grinned before running on ahead of the others. As Phoebus watched them, his eyes caught sight of human-shaped shadows given away by the braziers that lit up the passageway.

"You two, don't go any farther!" Phoebus' warning was too late. The human figures moved in when Sora and Kairi were just within reached and grabbed them, clutching the two to their own bodies tightly. Kairi watched as the Keyblade slipped from her hands and dropped to the ground with a heavy thud before disappearing.

"Now what's this trickery? Frollo must have really gone out of his way this time." said the man who was holding Kairi captive.

"Let go of them or you'll have to deal with us." Riku ordered them loudly. He summoned his Keyblade and raised it above his head, ready to attack quickly if necessary.

"Oh no, we're outnumbered. Whatever will we do?" Sora's captive remarked in the most annoyingly sarcastic voice that he could muster.

"Uh oh." Riku said. He lowered his Keyblade and made it vanish before raising his hands. The amount of guards or traps in the area had been rather lax so it was no surprise that they were being ambushed right now. Multiple eyes and weapons were trained on their bodies from various hiding places and they soon found their hands tied up and their mouths gagged with a soft cloth.

"Sorry, what's that?" One of the members of this group asked as Kairi yelled inaudibly into the cloth gagging her mouth. His gaiety was unrivalled by even the most eccentric comedian. He seemed to be the ringleader of the group, dressed in bright and colorful attire and yet even through this cheerful guise he seemed to display the most sadistic and sinister of intentions. "You wish to be executed quickly? Well, why didn't you speak louder?"

The mask-wearing crowd howled with animalistic laughter for Clopin Trouillefou knew exactly how to get them riled up. But the fun was only just beginning, and the real festivities would begin in the court of miracles.

"You think their Frollo's spies?" asked Sora's captive. Sora tried to move out of his grasp but found it impossible under the man's strong grip and in terms of size, the man also had him beat. Even if he were to somehow find a way free, summoning his Keyblade would only put the others in even more danger.

Clopin snickered before starting off in a sing-song voice:

"_Oh you came so far_

_Seeking myth among myths_

_And now you've seen bizarre_

_You'll not be leaving with gifts_

_The holiest place thou hast ever been_

_Said absolutely no one whatsoever_

_Filled with scoundrels and vandals and devils within_

_Yet you've found our hiding place, how clever… not."_

Throughout the song, the crowd clapped and cheered at Clopin and jeered at Sora and the others. The gypsies began to move towards the light now while Clopin continued his song:

"_Oh yes, we have a method for intruders like you_

_Close your eyes, we'll surprise, all you need do is count five_

_For here in the court of miracles there are very few_

_Who ever leave alive!" _

Sora rolled his eyes as the group cheered at Clopin's song. "It wasn't even that good!" was what he wanted to yell at them and would have done so were he not gagged. He simply wasn't in any comfortable position to speak without managing to upset or anger them any further. Of course that wouldn't matter anyway if the lyrics in the song were anything to go by.

The gypsies, surrounding the defenceless group like a hive, led them up the stairs and out of the oppressive atmosphere of the catacombs into a welcoming light which would have been much more so were they not in a dangerous position at the moment. The Court of Miracles was lively and full of many other gypsies and beggars who had gone into hiding because of their beliefs or the circumstances they were in.

Like the players in Traverse Town, Sora could see that fear was what had coveted the minds of certain people which had ultimately led to this segregation. Even if this was the case however, it didn't seem to stop the gypsies from going about their daily lives. They had found a way to adapt and were making the best of it.

He quickly attempted to scan the crowd for any sign of Esmeralda but it was too compacted for him to find her. Their eyes diverted from their daily processes and were all on the group as they were escorted up a stage where three nooses were already lying in wait. Sora made an audible gulp that's end product became slightly muffled.

"Good 'noose' everyone, it looks like Frollo's little spies couldn't help but poke their noses into our business. I don't know about you but I'd certainly enjoy it if they 'hung' around for a while." Clopin announced a little too ecstatically. The crowd cheered and yelled out in truculent contempt at the so-called spies saying things such as "String 'em up" and "Make it slow and painful". Clopin nodded as if taking these suggestions into consideration but it was clear that his mind was already made up. "So who should we start off with then? Ooh, I think the ugly one, the pretty one and the feminine yet muscular looking lad over there." Clopin said and pointed to Quasimodo, Phoebus and Riku.

"Mmph!" Riku let out a grunt of incomprehensible grievance upon hearing him be labelled as feminine looking. The long silver hair that he had kept after defeating Xehanort certainly didn't help his case.

Once again, Sora let out an annoyed sigh and scouted the court of miracles once more for Esmeralda. If they thought that Riku would allow them to take him that easily then they had another thing coming. As calm as always, Riku stepped onto the stage and grimaced as one of the gypsies took the cloth from his mouth.

"Any last words?" Clopin asked. "Because depending on what you say, you may die faster, or slower."

Ignoring the laughs of the excited and hungry mob, Riku wasted no time in explaining their situation. "We're not with Frollo. We've come to warn you actually, we think that he's coming here so you need to get out of here as fast as you can."

This seemed to have thrown a few people's expectations of guard and murmurs started to spread like wildfire amongst the residents of the court. Clopin however was not so convinced. "This coming from a spy of Frollo is not so convincing. Do you really expect us to believe that?"

"They're telling the truth!"

In truth, it had felt as if an angel had appeared to save them from an almost certain death. Sora supposed that in a way, that title he had bestowed to Esmeralda was almost true. The entire court of miracles suddenly became quiet and parted like a wave gradually vacating land and heading back into sea. It was clear that Esmeralda had the entire respect of the gypsies and Sora could even imagine them putting her on a pedestal.

"Esmeralda, do you know these- these-" Clopin struggled to find the right words for the sake of making sure that he did not offend Esmeralda.

"They are my friends. Let them go." Esmeralda confirmed placing her hand on her hip.

Clopin pursed his lips together tightly and cast his eyes downward as if weighing up something in his mind. Eventually he ordered for the group to be released. Both Sora and Kairi let out sighs of relief once their mouths had been freed and the thick rope binding their hands had been untied and rushed over to join Riku, Phoebus and Quasimodo on the stage.

"Well that was a little rough, but at least we're alright." Kairi said stretching out her arms towards the cloudy sky. She had no problem in expressing openly that she was very glad to be away from the person who had taken her captive.

It was Phoebus who Esmeralda first ran up to and had given a hug much to the sadness of Quasimodo. "You took a terrible risk coming here, even if it doesn't look like it shows amongst most of us but I'm just so glad you came!" she professed to the ex-Captain with a hint of need in her voice.

"Well, let's just say you should be thanking Quasimodo and Kairi. Without those two, we wouldn't have figured out a thing." Phoebus commended much to the illuminated faces of Kairi and Quasimodo.

"Sorry to interrupt but Esmeralda, you and the others have to get out of here now. Frollo may already know where this place is located and he's taken control of the Heartless. He definitely won't squander this chance." Sora told her after glancing at Riku. Esmeralda nodded and was about to call for the rest of the gypsies to start clearing up when she caught sight of the judge staring back with hawkish eyes and a victorious yet sick grin on his face, almost to the point of torture. Esmeralda's frozen appearance had caused everyone to turn to where she was looking but and anxious utterings in the court turned into screams of terror.

"Take them all! Allow none to escape." Judge Frollo ordered the guards behind him before walking up to the stage to meet with Esmeralda and the others. "Well boy, you must know me so well. You're right that I wouldn't squander a chance, especially not after you led me directly to the court of miracles."

"So you never knew where it was in the first place. And the lack of guards," Riku started.

"All a trap I'm afraid. You were the lure we used to reel in the fish and now all that is left for them is to be cooked." Frollo answered before looking at Quasimodo. "Good work Quasimodo. Once again, you find ways of proving yourself useful to me even when you try to disobey my orders. Hopefully this serves as a lesson to you."

Quasimodo's eyes moved downward, unable to meet his master in the eye. It was Kairi who stood up for him. "How dare you talk to Quasi like that! He's not some little henchman that you can just order around. He's a human being like you or me. You may have talked down him while you and he were alone but that's not the case anymore. He's not alone, and he doesn't have to put up with this because he has us to help him." Kairi proclaimed a passionate defence of the sullen looking bell ringer.

"Quasimodo's place is none of your concern. And friends? Let me ask you something. Did you walk through the cold on a dark night and happen across a baby on the street with deformed features that not even a mother could love? Did you take that baby into your arms when no one else would to save it from an otherwise sure death? Did you ignore the rumors and hisses of those who called you insane as you stuck to your principles, nurturing and feeding the child for so many years? No? Because _friends_ could never have helped him with that no matter how much you might think, especially when those friends come from a _world_ entirely different from the one he does." Frollo countered. He seemed to stare right through them as if they weren't even there, at least that was until he had mentioned the keyword where his gaze became fixed on Sora, Riku and Kairi as if studying them.

_So Frollo knows about the other worlds? So the reason Kefka was here then was to meet with him, _Sora concluded before asking, "Are you working with Kefka and the others?"

"So you know them too. Hm, their problems do not concern me. They wish to cause meaningless havoc across worlds and watch as despair takes mankind. No, I will fight with righteousness and justice on my side. And with these creatures serving my purpose I will set an example to those who dare defy the sanctity of Paris." Frollo replied. He raised his hands and as if to imitate his movements, a group of Neo Shadows rose up from the ground. Their movements were automated and unnatural with their heads twitching in the most horrific manner. The heaving of their bodies was unsettling much like their commander. Sora usually found it the case that the more darkness a person had in their heart, the stronger the type of Heartless they were able to control, and if a bunch of Neo Shadows were already under Frollo's control then his heart was probably reaching its limits and it was just about ready to overflow like water reaching its container's point.

"You have to stop this Frollo. You think what you're doing is right, and because of that you've become blind to the truth, that the very righteousness and justice you're promoting is being destroyed by you. You're allowing those thoughts to take hold of your heart and if you don't let go of that hate you're just going to turn into one of them." Sora reasoned.

"Forget it Sora, he can't be reasoned with anymore. What you're seeing now is a man who's desperate, and when you're desperate you do pretty crazy things. This is what happens when a person has made it to the top and there are no checks and balances to suppress that power and hold them in check. This is the madness of Judge Frollo. He's even become the rumors he's hated so much." Riku said.

"I am beyond your petty insults. No, what I need is of much more importance and that starts with those Keyblade currently in your possession." Frollo said.

"Why do you need it?" Sora asked. Frollo's answer baffled him.

"You possess the power to unlocking the secrets of the universe and you don't even know its potential… how ignorant. I suppose then the word Atlantis must have no meaning to you."

No, it wasn't that the word had no meaning to Sora; it was exactly because it did that Sora would have questioned Frollo's sanity. A city lost to the ocean's depths, a utopia brought down from the heavens possessing technology and magic more advanced than anyone could imagine allowing the sustenance of life for a very long time. That was the extent to which he knew about it, only because Kairi herself had told him about it once.

"But that's just a myth, right? A fairy tale." Kairi rejected. She was definitely having a hard time believing what she was hearing. And just how had Frollo come across the term anyway?

"Of a fictitious quality one might say. But how can we truly say it doesn't exist just because we cannot see it? My research into the roots of alchemy has taken me to one place and now all the pieces are falling together. I shall make this prompt, hand me these Keyblades and I shall spare your lives." Frollo said. He seemed to be driving for something that was a lot bigger than he could even imagine but the realities of the situation would be unkind to him. Sora wasn't sure whether this Atlantis existed or not, but he wasn't going to doom the gypsies and the other worlds to Frollo's selfishness. Not only that, but this was the key that would guide him to Luna.

"I guess he neglected to tell you that the Keyblade chooses its user. I once craved after power in order to find something as well, or someone I should say," Riku said looking at Kairi, "but all it did was lead me further away from my goal. I had lost sight of the light, and it took my friends to bring me back. But you're too caught up in your own hubris to see that, so we're just going have to do this the normal way." Riku's words probably reached Sora more than Frollo. He wondered how far he would go to rescue Luna. Given the circumstance, could he say he wouldn't have done what Riku did back then? No, the roles could have easily been switched, and while Sora wanted to become stronger he wasn't willing to trust himself on the lengths he would be willing to go to gain it, especially when he blamed himself for what had happened to her.

"Sora, watch out!" It was sudden and completely unexpected, but Kairi's voice snapped him out of his thoughts just in time to see one of the Neo Shadows fling itself at him. Riku's Keyblade came in between his body and the Heartless and cut through it in time.

"Are you okay?" Riku asked him while looking at the other Heartless.

"Yeah, sorry. Where's Frollo?"

"What do you mean where? He and the guards have gone off with Quasimodo, Phoebus and Esmeralda," Riku said before adding, "of course you were too busy spacing out to notice. Before we think of doing anything else we need to take these things out."

Sora nodded and breathed in deeply. More than anything he wished he could be rid of these thoughts that constantly invaded his mind, and yet wanting to not think about them only made him think about them more. Sometimes he had barely gotten any sleep because of them. He soon recovered from his pensive state and summoned his Keyblade before springing into action.

* * *

A bright light revealed the shape of a female figure having just reverted out of her armor. Her raven colored hair was tied up in a plaited bun; her warm honey brown eyes expressed fatigue as she shook off the annoyances associated with her armored form quickly.

Almost immediately she felt lighter and more flexible. While she admitted that her protective gear was good for cloaking her from the darkness and allowing her to travel from world to world, it wasn't very comfortable to wear. There was an extra pressure that was added to her torso and it sometimes felt completely hot under the helmet. The best way to describe it was like being in your own little universe, and in a way it almost made it seem like there was a veil separating the person from reality. All the sounds, the pain, the emotion, intensity and rhythm of the battle were suppressed and she hated that so she tried to wear the armor only when necessary. If it was a choice between safety and comfort with an added feel of gaining adrenaline on the side, she'd definitely choose comfort and adrenaline in this case.

She hadn't intended to come back to this place originally. Although the world was fast blooming and becoming the garden of beauty it once was (at least as seen in the photographs she had seen), in the bed of beauty sometimes lay the horrors of the beast. It was circumstances that had been beyond her or her friend's control that had separated them.

Of course, feelings tend to change when the circumstances align and the girl saw no reason to run away anymore. Her friends had given her the tools, the equipment and the training of a year and a half's worth in the short span of nine months and now all she needed to do was put them to use effectively. Putting on a brave face, Astra started walking, her mission of rescuing Luna in the forefront of her mind and the memories of that night in Radiant Garden, even closer.

* * *

_And here comes a new challenger! And yes, Frollo was talking about Atlantis though I have to give a special callout to Zetra Emblem and say that El Dorado was a good guess. It's just that we already know a certain Disney movie has Atlantis so it was the best choice to use. Please look forward to it, you know, if it's actually real in this universe anyway. _


	5. The Madness of Claude Frollo

_This is Halloween! This is Halloween! Yep, I'm treating this whole month like it's the October 31st. Which means I need to start watching my horror movies, anyway here is your long awaited chapter._

* * *

**Chapter 5**

**The Madness of Claude Frollo**

It was if the world had revealed itself in all its virtues to Quasimodo only for it to be swiped away moments later. He was subjected to the will of his master, and nothing could change that. Was this feeling a normal one? That of feeling like a dagger was pointed to the heart resulting in him not being able to move? After taking him back to his tower, Frollo had made sure that guards had been positioned in front of the doors to stop him from leaving. Any movements he could make were only further restricted by the chains that bound his wrists and ankles the wall effectively imprisoning him. Whatever freedom that Quasimodo had in this tower, he had taken for granted and had been selfish in trying to seek something more. He had been lucky enough that Frollo hadn't sent him to the stake like he was about to do with the other gypsies he had captured…

Esmeralda… He repeated the name over and over in his head like some kind of twisted obsession. Really, the name was anything but that, offering comfort and solace in its nature and beauty. It was everything that he wasn't, and he had condemned it in the end to the flames. His light was to be snuffed out in only a short while because, although unintentional, it had been he who had led Frollo to her.

Quasimodo shrivelled up in the corner and listened to the sound of silence. No, not quite. There was still the whispering wind that seemed only to be preparing itself for the ghostly wails of the executed that would soon fill the morning sky. There was also the occasional chirping of birds somewhere up above him on the third floor where the bells lay lonely and seeking company. It must have come as odd to the residents of the city that the bell had not been rung all day but Quasimodo didn't care, he didn't have the strength to care anymore.

It wasn't only Esmeralda and the gypsies whose lives he had put in danger. He wondered if Sora, Riku and Kairi were doing alright as well. His master had mentioned something about wanting to obtain their weapons but he had no idea as to what made them so useful to the judge. Had they survived those creatures that Frollo had sent to attack them?

"Come on Quasi, you gotta snap out of it!" The creaking of the floorboards alerted him to his friends' presence, however he kept his head downward and his eyes closed.

"Why? Why did it have to turn out like this?" Quasimodo wallowed in self-disgust.

Laverne shook her head and tugged at the chains only to no avail. "You have to get these chains off Quasi. Your friends need you!"

"It's my fault they're like that in the first place. I'd only bring more trouble. That's all I know how to do anyway." Quasimodo said completely devoid of any strength his voice had once possessed.

"So you're giving up? Just like that?" Hugo asked.

"Is it really the chains that are holding you back Quasi?" Victor added but Quasimodo showed no interest in moving from his spot. Their claims only made him want to stay under the soft duvet of despair that was blanketing him currently. It was something he was familiar with and offered a soothing and calm that he knew he would find if he discarded it. This was his natural habitat, something that had been conditioned into his mind from the moment Frollo had taken him in. He couldn't leave. No, it was more like he didn't want to leave.

As his self-loathing increased by the second, he soon felt his heart pound a lot harder than it should have. He doubled over in pain and clutched at his chest. _No, it couldn't be happening now. Not at a time like this! _Quasimodo noticed his sight becoming obscured by what seemed like invisible shapes of circles and rectangles to which he could only just make out their sides.

"Oh no, is it happening again? Quasi, snap out of it, quickly!" Laverne's warning soon turned to weird muffled sounds as the hunchback tried to make sense of his surroundings. By instinct, he roared out a vicious yell hoping that the guards outside— or anyone really, would come and put him out of his pain. A yell that could only be described as human soon became anything but that…

* * *

"Sora, wait up!"

Sora stopped, his feet sticking to the ground like glue while he turned around to see Riku and Kairi a few feet away from him trying to keep up. "We don't have time. We need to get to the square before Frollo executes Esmeralda and the others." He said forcefully before looking to turn back to the path in front of him. "What's taking you guys so long?"

"Hold up there Sora. Don't you think you're being a little to rash?"

"Rash?" Sora repeated in disbelief at Riku's claim. "Yeah, I would hope so considering a whole bunch of people are about to be put to the flames just for existing. Heck even if they had done something else, it's still barbaric."

"That's not what I'm disagreeing with here. You've been letting yourself act completely on your own impulses for a while now without even thinking. It's not the first time either. You're a Keyblade Master Sora, if you don't stop and look at a situation instead of charging right in you're going to find a lot of problems down the line." Riku replied.

"What's to look at? It's simple, we go and rescue them. What else is there to understand?" Sora shot back. Why Riku had decided to aggravate him at a time like this was something he couldn't understand. And what did being a Keyblade Master matter anyway if he wasn't able to save anyone because of a moment of hesitation? Sora breathed deeply and said calmly, "Riku, can we just leave this for later? I need to save them, or how can I be sure… that I can save…"

"Aha, so for you this is your chance to prove something to yourself then?"

"Maybe."

"Maybe?"

Sora smacked his lips together before responding, "OK, yes. Look, I know what I'm doing, and as long as I have you guys beside me then I won't make the same mistakes I did with her."

"Sometimes you give yourself way too little credit. Also keep in mind that Luna isn't the only person we need to find, there's Alice as well." Riku reminded him. Alice's disappearance had become such a concern that Yen Sid had even called on Roxas, Xion, Lea, Terra, Aqua and Ven to aid them (including Mickey, Donald and Goofy) in searching the worlds for if even one Princess of Heart was lost then the worlds would fall back into the darkness that had plagued it after the Keyblade War. Kefka had been their closest lead to anything but he had gotten away and so they were now back to square one. "Don't take this the wrong way when I say that you've been reckless over these past three months. I've been down that path before, and I almost lost myself because of it. That's why I can see it so easily with you. Just, take it easy… or you're no better than a Heartless." Riku finished.

The words stung but in some ways still reeked of truth. Sora hadn't been thinking clearly as of lately, he could admit that but in the end his heart had always remained intact and had set him on the right path. He knew right from wrong and that had always been good enough, but that didn't seem to be the case anymore. Things were becoming more complex and he didn't have that simplicity to rely on anymore.

"OK, I'll start with this then," Sora said on a warmer note, "What is this alchemy stuff Frollo's talking about? And Atlantis… it shouldn't exist, right Kairi?"

"That's what my grandma told me but who knows. Maybe she knew more than she was letting on." Kairi said.

"Right, that story with the children who rebuilt the lost world did seem pretty accurate to the events of the Keyblade War. Maybe it's the same thing here." Sora proposed.

"I understand that we've come so far that it's hard to just dismiss anything for baseless conjecture or a mere myth but how much did my grandma really know? For that matter, how much did Ansem the Wise know? I think he knew my grandma and my real parents but it's too late to ask him now." said a downtrodden Kairi.

_Oh great, now see what you've done Riku? _Sora thought before comforting her with a hand on her shoulder. Strangely enough, having very little recollection of her time spent in Radiant Garden had not seemed to faze Kairi in the slightest during their time on the islands. She had arrived, she had gotten to meet Sora and Riku, after a few times of Riku engaging in a multitude of questions about her world like he was interrogating a suspect in a crime he had eventually given up and the three of them had continued on like Kairi had always been on the islands. She had not even shown any interest in wanting to go back to her world until Riku had mentioned the possibility to them two years ago.

Another thing which Sora would have associated with leaving one's home was the feeling of being home sick however Kairi hadn't shown any of those symptoms now that he thought about it. He had only been four or five at the time so he obviously wouldn't have thought about things like that in much detail but now he had to wonder what exactly Xehanort had done at the time before sending Kairi off to the islands to find the Keyblade Master. It could have also been that since some people adapt more quickly to environments they're not used to as opposed to others then Kairi was simply able to come to terms with her new home at a faster rate. What Sora was definitely sure of was that having spent an increasingly longer amount of time in Radiant Garden had made Kairi more curious about her world.

"So, about alchemy…" Sora said, wanting to move as a far away from the topic of the past as possible.

"Yeah, I'm stumped as well. Do you have any idea Kairi?" Riku asked.

Kairi cheered up frighteningly quickly and cleared her throat before talking as if she were a living encyclopaedia. "Wow, you two are so clueless. Alchemy is the study of turning base metals into gold and silver. Of course there are other beliefs which associate it with creating an elixir of life which can grant immortality."

Sora almost choked. "Wait immortality? Pfft, what's this nonsense?"

"And turning base metals into gold and silver? With that kind of knowledge you'd be making more munny than Scrooge McDuck has in a lifetime." Riku supplemented.

"Yeah, I don't think he'd be too happy knowing that there was someone richer than him, he'd lose his marbles." Sora said letting out a laugh.

Kairi however was quite critical of their scepticism. "Does it really seem impossible to you? Something very similar is already underway though. Moogle synthesis? You've never wondered how it worked?"

Both Sora and Riku shook their heads. "Nope. Me, Donald and Goofy always just watched them do cool stuff and then paid them. That was it." Sora said.

"Well the process of transmuting base metals such as orichalcum into noble metals is pretty much the same as alchemy. Wanna know how it's done?" asked a way too excited Kairi.

Riku shook his head again. "Uh, no thank you-"

"They dig for orichalcum ore in the mines which heavily produce the metal. Since it's usually combined with impure metals to form compounds they have to extract the pure orichalcum by reacting it with carbon and then-"

Kairi was so busy chatting away absentmindedly that she became completely unaware of the two boys' boredom. Sora leaned over to Riku and whispered, "Whelp, that was a bad idea. Let's get to the cathedral before she notices that we're gone."

"Agreed, at this rate we'll be here all week if we stay here to listen to whatever she's talking about."

"-and then they heat the orichalcum to a state where it can be melded and- guys? Oh come on now, and I was just getting to the good part…" Kairi said after becoming aware that Sora and Riku were already half way down the road and had left her behind. She huffed in annoyance before following after them in a run.

It was a case of getting what you put in here and for the trio, they were quite surprised at the distance they had managed to cover by the time they had ran out of breath. Just up ahead was the archway that led towards the town square and just besides them the inn casting its shadow over their bodies. Sora looked up and saw a beautiful orange curtain stretching across the sky. The sun was rising, and they were running out of time.

"So what's the plan?" Kairi asked after a minute of rest and silence among the group.

"We go and put a stop to the execution, it's really as simple as that. Though make sure you're prepared to fight in case anything goes wrong." Sora paused before adding with concern, "You ready for this?"

"I'm not the same girl who was taken hostage by Axel and the Organization Sora. You don't have to worry about me. So let's do this." Kairi said confidently. Sora nodded at her and then Riku before advancing down the street.

Not even a few seconds had passed upon entering the town square that Sora had encountered a grave problem. "No… nononononoNO!"

"Uh, using words other than no please Sora?" Riku suggested not seeing the problem. Of course he couldn't since he had never encountered it before. Either way, it wouldn't have taken long for him to have figured it out judging from what not just Sora, but the whole crowd in the square were looking at. Atop the cathedral was a beast, its claws digging into one of the gargoyle statues on the rooftop to give it support while it held something else in its other hand. It was slightly difficult to make out from the angle the beast was holding her at but her long black hair seemed to indicate clearly that it was Esmeralda.

"Wait, you don't mean to tell me-"

"Yeah, that's Quasimodo's chimera." Sora finished for Kairi before making his way forward. Riku and Kairi followed him having to push through the gigantic crowd as best they could who were absolutely frozen stiff by the terror above. Sora amused himself by imagining that from a bird's eye view the scene must have resembled a still life painting, of course now wasn't the time to wonder about such things.

This shifting of the crowd was not lost of Judge Frollo whose eyes were torn away from the creature to find themselves set upon the three teenagers fast approaching the doors of the cathedral. As his anger intensified, a dark glow surrounded him with Heartless appearing near him. The common signs were showing and Frollo seemed unaware of its effects. It was just as Riku said then. Whatever traces of Frollo's mind had once existed were now replaced by a palpable loathing.

The strange entities' reappearance caused the crowd to disperse in fear filling the air with screams and cries. The Large Body craned its neck both sides before throwing its body towards the trio. Kairi cast Slow magic while it was still in the air giving the group an ample amount of time to get away before all moving into strike from the back.

"You guys take care of Frollo. I'll go see if I can help Quasi and Esmeralda." Sora said backing away slowly from the fight.

"Any ideas if you can't get Quasimodo to listen?" Riku asked. He stopped one of the Soldier's claws midway with his Keyblade before lunging diagonally downward to stab the Heartless and take it out.

"No." Sora acknowledged simply before smiling and heading on into the cathedral. His smile became a big grin after just managing to pick up Kairi's words as he entered through.

"He's so reassuring sometimes."

* * *

Sora wasted no time in immediately turning to his left and heading up the spiral staircase to confront the chimera. He soon emerged out in to the narrow gap path leading to the other side of the building where the bell tower was and looked down. He was powerless to control the utterance of interest that had escaped his mouth. While it seemed like things were out of control on the ground, from where Sora was standing the entire square was bathed in a beautiful orange light thanks to the fire that had been started on the podium. It appeared that Frollo had just been in the middle of setting Esmeralda alight when Quasimodo had rescued her. Looking further past where Riku and Kairi were fighting the Heartless, an angry mob was successfully pushing the guards that Frollo had posted back towards the direction of the cathedral. Notably among them was the gypsy leader Clopin Trouillefou and Phoebus.

_They must've found their way out of wherever Frollo was holding them, _Sora mused before continuing towards the bell tower but going past it to where he had spotted Quasimodo from below.

He turned the corner to find Esmeralda lying on the ground unconscious. Without thinking, Sora rushed forward and was about to bend down next to her when he saw _it _coming out of the corner of his eye. He threw himself into the wall and no matter how painful his shoulder felt at the moment, he knew it was but a bruise compared to what the chimera would have done to him had his head connected with Sora's chest.

_Of course it was a trap, why didn't I see that coming? _Well, he had a fairly good idea. Most Heartless weren't able to think and plan ahead in such a way so laying Esmeralda down as bait hadn't been expected. It would simply mean that he wouldn't just be able to charge in with Keyblade in hand and expect to win anymore.

Quasimodo's chimera turned quickly after it had attempted to spear Sora before flying towards him quickly. Sora raised his Keyblade to guard and felt the heavy impact of the chimera slamming against metal. With the force came an awesome nature that threw Sora's guard of causing him to stumble. The gargoyle shaped chimera moved in for another swipe and Sora raised his Keyblade again. _Big mistake, _Sora thought seeing the problem before it had even occurred. His hands' position around the guard of the Kingdom Key was off and not nearly strong enough to resist the second attack sending him to the floor.

"Gotta get Esmeralda away from here." He muttered to himself before raising his Keyblade and firing of three jets of Firaga quickly. The chimera roared in pain as it was caught in the flames and retreated back into the sky giving Sora a chance for a little breather before making his way towards Esmeralda again. A ball of fire smashing into the wall ahead of him stopped and forced him into a defensive stance once again. _Of course it shoots fire. They always shoot fire, _Sora thought in annoyance as he cancelled out a few more of the magic attacks with his own Blizzaga magic while he moved sideways towards Esmeralda's body.

Eventually he reached her side and erected a reflect barrier before lifting her up so that her arm was hanging around Sora's neck. Through much difficulty due to her height and the weight of her body being dragged across the ground, Sora made his way towards the door of the bell tower while trying to keep the barrier up to the best of his ability. He had attempted something like this while under strain so the fear of the barrier falling before he could make it was a prominent one in his head, and even after he had successfully gotten to the door and opened it, he still found it hard to believe that he had made it.

He rested Esmeralda carefully onto the floor and looked at her sleeping form with a smile. "I'll rescue Quasimodo. But in the end the only one who might be able to help him, is you." he told her before leaving the tower, pulling out a certain card from his pocket as he did so.

* * *

The arrival of Phoebus and the other gypsies offered some comfort to Kairi as they entered the town square by forcing their way through the guards Frollo had positioned around the area.

"How did you get out?" she asked Phoebus after he had rejoined up with her and Riku.

"Surprisingly my handsome charms managed to save the day. And I thought I was cursed for being so good looking. Maybe it's a gift after all." Phoebus answered.

_In other words you bribed the guard. _Kairi shook her head expressively in annoyance at Phoebus' self-inflated ego before continuing on with the fight. One of the Soldier Heartless spun and threw its body at Phoebus only for Kairi to quickly come in the way and hook onto the spin with the tip of the Keyblade. She spun her body and flung, redirecting the Soldier Heartless into the wall. "I guess you owe me one." she said with a bit of her own smugness.

"No I don't." Phoebus said quickly before dancing around her where he easily cut through on of the few remaining Soldiers who had been targeting Kairi's back. "Now we're even." Phoebus declared before moving off on the offensive.

It was only a few seconds of staring into an empty space thoughtfully that she quickly realized something and turned to look at the stage only to find that Judge Frollo was nowhere to be seen. "Riku, we have a problem!"

"Yeah, kinda busy with my own problems at the moment Kairi." Riku said. He kicked one of the Heartless that jumped at him before cutting through another to his side.

"Frollo is gone. I think he used this as a distraction while he slipped away to follow Sora." Kairi said. Riku paused and looked over to the stage, his mouth forming a perfect 'o' replicating Kairi's own shock at the time of discovery.

"I think Phoebus has everything in control here. Let's go after Frollo and fast." Riku said. The two charged through the doors of the cathedral with urgency being their only indicator of time.

_So this is what they have to go through all the time, _Kairi thought as she followed Riku up the stairs. The tension. The rush. The anxiety. All of it culminating into giant leaking pot of boiling water just ready to overflow. This was the meaning of an adventure. Where were they headed from here? Kairi didn't know, but neither did Sora or Riku on their own journeys. That confusion was part of the adventure and she couldn't believe that she was finally experiencing the thrill of the chase.

"Frollo, stay right where you are!" Riku yelled as they emerged from the claustrophobic stairway onto the rooftop of the cathedral. Even from here, the hisses, crackles and pops of ember intensity could be heard from below, a product of the ongoing battle between the gypsies, the guards and the Heartless. Up ahead, Frollo was about to wrap his hand around the doors to the bell tower, otherwise there was no sign of Quasimodo or Sora though a few roars from behind the tower indicated that they were somewhere on the other side of the cathedral.

Frollo pulled his hands away from the door rather abruptly and spun around to reveal a glint coming off a small object. He walked towards them with a mad gleam in his eyes and his hand pointing the object, now revealed to be a dagger, threateningly at them. "And who would have thought that dear Quasimodo had turned out to be one of those creatures in the end? You must have known, not that it makes any difference in the end. A creature who was born to be alone in the first place is simply aligning with the path fate has set for him."

"His fate?" Kairi repeated in outrage.

"We can't run from fate. All living things have their defined path. My own is far away from here, in the land of beginnings. I will uncover the secrets of our ancestors, and all I need do is follow the set of breadcrumbs that they laid out." Frollo declared.

"You sound like a guy I knew. I hated that guy and hate is such a strong word so trust me when I say I won't take lightly if you end up on that list too." Riku warned darkly.

Frollo cut his hand diagonally through the air like a sharp knife and cursed. "You foolish children. You could not even begin to understand how small and insignificant you are in the grand scheme of things. Yet here you stand before me painting yourselves as cherubs refusing to acknowledge the ignorance of your ways and the power that you hold. In the end you either live to seek the truth or you become lost in the forest of lies that the world wishes you to think as natural. If you must stand in my way, then I will have no choice. May he forgive me for what I am about to do, for I must find the truth hidden within the lies."

He was about to rush forward to attack Kairi and Riku when the door behind him flew open and Esmeralda jumped onto Frollo's back. Frollo desperately struggled to get her off of his back but she clung tightly grasping at his neck.

"They're gonna fall!" Kairi yelled noticing how dangerously close they were to the railing that separated them form the square. However she knew even as she was running forward that it was already too late. Within seconds, Esmeralda's weight sent both her and Frollo tipping over the railing. Kairi reacted quickly and reached the railing, extending the arm with which she was holding the Keyblade out. Frollo sacrificed the dagger in his hand for the chance to grab it and suddenly Kairi felt as if she was being sent of the edge herself.

"Gotcha." Riku said placing his hands around the handle of Destiny's Embrace and pulling with an impressive exertion of force. Esmeralda, who was clutching onto Frollo's legs, saw Phoebus on the pathway below her with his hands outstretched. She slowly moved around Frollo with the help of his cloak before throwing herself towards Phoebus who managed to catch her almost effortlessly. Riku congratulated Phoebus on the catch before focusing his attention back on Frollo.

"Frollo, it doesn't have to end this way. Just give me your hand and we'll go from there." Kairi bent over the railing and used her free hand to reach out to Frollo. It wasn't the idea of saving him that was appealing. It was that he knew about this Atlantis and had wanted the Keyblades to get there. Was it possible then that the Keyblades were the key to finding Atlantis if it really did exist? She had to know what else Frollo knew about the myth.

"Why would you risk helping me?" Frollo asked wearily as he felt his hands starting to slip from the amount of sweat that had built up on his palms.

"Because of a truth that you're too stubborn to see." Kairi replied waiting for him to take her hand. Slowly, Frollo made for her hand only to dig his nails into her flesh drawing blood. Kairi winced and pulled rapidly pulled her hand away.

"Bad idea." Riku said before letting go of the Keyblade. Frollo yelled as he fell and reached out to grab something, anything that could help him. His arms soon found themselves wrapped around one of the gargoyle architectures around the building, with Destiny's Embrace landing on a gargoyle statue adjacent to him.

With a smile plastered on his face, Frollo soon helped himself up and found his footing on what little space he had to stand on. All he had to do now was reach for the Keyblade and he would have solved half the problem of reaching the fabled land of beginnings. Kairi looked down at him in pity while clutching at her bleeding hand. If only Frollo knew that the Keyblade would not simply be his just because he had picked it up. No, even if he did know, it wouldn't have stopped a man like him who had completely lost his mind. He was much more concerned with getting that Keyblade than figuring out how he was going to get down safely afterwards.

Frollo urged his arms to go farther, but it was clear that they had reached their limits, and so too had the statue underneath him. He wobbled as the gargoyle underneath, unable to support him, cracked and gave way sending the person standing on it to the ground. Kairi turned away immediately, not wanting to see the results but her thoughts certainly weren't ashamed of their creativity.

"Are you alright?" Riku asked with his eyes on her hands.

"Heh, it's just a flesh wound." Kairi recited dramatically before calling Destiny's Embrace back to her. "I was kind of hoping that he would be able to tell us more about Atlantis though. Oh well, I guess some things just aren't meant to happen. More importantly we need to get to Sora."

* * *

"What did you just say?" Sora asked in shock. Was it the blowing of the wind or hisses of the flames that he had simply heard and misconstrued as words?

"So-RA…HElp… mE." No, that was definitely Quasimodo's voice he had heard. Sora wanted him to repeat it over and over again like a piece of beautiful music that was impossible to stop listening to.

"Yes... YES, that's right Quasi. I know you're still there. Okay, I'll do my part too. I _will _help you." Sora replied with a grin glad that showing his secret weapon, if one could really constitute a card as a weapon, had worked. With that, Sora brandished his Keyblade once more and charged forward.

It thrashed its arms about but Sora dodge rolled through an uncovered space to get behind him before activating _Ars Arcanum_. He hastily smashed the Kingdom Key against Quasimodo's hardened shell several times trying his best to ignore the cries from his opponent. It would be okay, because Sora knew that no matter how much Sora threw Quasi's way, he would be able to take it. All this suffering, this agony and pain… if Quasi could face it now then he was already taking the first steps to being free.

Sora jumped away and aimed, shooting multiple blizzards at Quasimodo who blocked each one by raising his arms before responding with balls of fire. Sora coated his Keyblade in fire and moved the Kingdom Key in line with each of the attacks absorbing the element before sending them back in waves of ripples. Quasimodo's chimera flung himself off the building and took flight before the waves could hit him.

Sora smiled and followed him, jumping off the cathedral. It was exactly what he had wanted, especially because he had realized that he stood no chance on the narrow pathway that was the roof. He cast Gravity on himself to make him lighter before switching the Kingdom Key's element from fire to blizzard. He glided forward and started attacking the chimera. Each time Quasimodo decided to take a swipe, Sora managed to perform and aerial recovery before continuing his slashes. One final aerial recovery sent Sora lower than Quasimodo where he was able to grab at the chimera's head with collision magnet before dragging both him and Quasi down towards the ground. As his body was lighter, he managed to stall his fall just in time to bring his Keyblade slamming downwards cutting the cable that the collision magnet provided.

With his falling speed and gravity against him, the chimera soon crashed into the execution stage sending pieces of wood flying in different directions. Sora landed neatly and cancelled the Gravity magic before running over to the massive pile containing chunks of wood in the middle of the square.

"Quasimodo!" Esmeralda exclaimed, arriving on the scene along with Phoebus only a few seconds after Sora had landed.

"Weren't you supposed to be in the bell tower?" Sora asked her once the three had joined up.

"I woke up, and not a moment too late it seems. Is he alright?" Esmeralda asked. She was about to step forward to search the debris when Sora cut off her approach with his hand. He waited, hoping that what emerged from that debris was something entirely different from the former. It was only when the familiar human arms reached out of the debris that Sora relaxed and allowed Esmeralda to run up to Quasimodo.

"You did good kid." Phoebus said giving Sora a slap on the back before heading over to help Esmeralda.

"No, it was all Quasi." Sora said. He heard the sound of running footsteps behind him and grinned as he turned to welcome Kairi and Riku. "Hey guys. Why are you coming from the cathedral? I missed something didn't I? And Frollo?" When Kairi shook her head, Sora showed no change of emotion but simply nodded. He understood that it couldn't have been any other way much like it had been the case for Cruella De Vil or Maleficent. He had to wonder if it was a case of too much exposure resulting in him being indifferent to it.

Together, all five of them managed to clear the destruction and help Quasimodo out of it. Initially he appeared to be dizzy but was soon in the firm grip of reality after a while of coming to distinguish each of his five senses. Around them were signs of victory from the gypsies and the other townsfolk that had involved themselves with the fight and the Heartless were nowhere to be seen.

"Sora… you saved me. Thank you so much!" He exclaimed throwing his arms around Sora in a crushing bear hug.

"Hey, easy there Quasimodo. You might end up breaking him." Phoebus said. Quasimodo soon realized that he was squeezing the life out of Sora and put him down apologising quickly.

"Hngh, don't worry about it Quasi," Sora wheezed before pulling out a familiar card in his pocket and showing him, "she wouldn't have wanted you to give up this easily."

Kairi peered around Sora to examine the tarot card. It was the sun, a card that Sora hadn't even known he was in possession of until the last possible moment. It had been stuck to the back of a different card with the mark of an _X _on it. It was also the one thing keeping Sora from doubting Luna's survival.

"You're right. I didn't realize it until then but I think it's time I took my own life in my own hands. My indecisiveness and being scared of the outside world was ambrosia for Frollo to exploit. I was his tool, a weapon, but no more. Now I'll think for myself and act without that fear. Though, I'm still a chimera right?" Quasimodo ended his speech on a sour note and once again the group were forced to embrace the cold harshness of the situation. Wanting to rectify this, Quasimodo quickly walked over to Esmeralda and Phoebus and placed their hands into each other. Sora's grim expression turned into a smile as he watched. "And finding independence, also means having to give up the things that are closest to home sometimes." He finished with a heart-warming smile as Esmeralda and Phoebus embraced each other.

* * *

An unusually positive and energetic morning soon continued on throughout the day with Quasimodo quickly becoming the talk of the townspeople. If there was a discussion about the bell ringer, there was not a single person who didn't have a smile on their faces while taking about him. He wasn't the only one being praised with Sora, Riku and Kairi also appearing as the unexpected heroes who had helped to save Notre Dame. Riku and especially Sora did their best to shy away from any public attention while it was Kairi who tried to milk it for all it was worth.

It soon reached noon and it was time to head back to the Gummi Ship. Riku and Kairi had already gone back to the Gummi Ship after saying their goodbyes while Sora had decided to face his own fear and look down the aisle at the group of benches where he and Luna had had their conversation. He forced himself to look at the exact spot they had sat before walking over to the bench and examining it. He didn't know what else to expect, some trace of evidence that had been left behind as to her whereabouts maybe but the only thing he found there was an empty seat. Just an empty seat.

Sora exited the cathedral and took one last look at the place before turning away and meeting Esmeralda (escorted by her goat Djali), Quasimodo and a surprise guest in the baker. In his hands was a loaf of freshly baked bread.

"Oh, you didn't need to." Sora said but before he could react, the baker had already forced the bread into his hands.

"It's not for you. Would you have Luna try some for me? Tell her it will put a smile on that sick face of hers," he said and twirled his thick moustache, "she'll be happy to know that I think it's my best one yet."

"I'm sure she won't be able to stop eating. I know I couldn't." Sora complimented though the topic of Luna really only made him sadder that he had to constantly lie to another person who seemed to care about her. The bowed before walking off leaving the three of them alone.

Esmeralda waited until the baker was far away before saying. "Don't worry, you'll definitely find her."

"Huh? W-wait, where did that come from?" Sora stuttered around and pretended as if he had no idea what she was talking about though his poker face spoke quite clearly for her.

"I had my suspicions but I wasn't too sure until you referred to _her _when you were talking to Quasi this morning. You don't have to hide anything. It's not your fault. I don't know what you have to go through each day but I do know that Luna believes in you three and she's fighting with everything she's got to be back with her friends. You are a hero Sora. I could see that she admired you when I first met her. Hopefully, she'll be able to help Quasi find a cure that will save him from this suffering."

Sora's smile turned into a frown and he looked off to the side. "Yes, hopefully but… you have one thing wrong. I'm not a hero."

* * *

_Yeah, Sora is pretty damaged after the events of DD, and sadly that's not going to be the only thing that shakes our hero's confidence. It's okay, you can curse me later. More chapters coming soon. _


	6. Worlds in Ruin

_I must apologise for the delay. This chapter would have come out sooner had my bloody mouse not malfunctioned. But now I have an all new and improved mouse and so the journey continues. _

* * *

**Chapter 6**

**Worlds in Ruin**

A simple sigh escaped Astra's mouth as she arrived in the residential district. Smoke poured from the chimneys of the houses rising up into the air until both elements became indistinguishable by themselves. An unusual yet interesting smell wafted her senses and led her to one house in particular. She couldn't help but feel like a stalker as she peered through one of the windows to uncover the source of this smell.

This would have certainly been a smell that Luna would have warmly welcomed into her nostrils. On most days after school, she would drag Astra all the way to Kit's Bakery where the owner would have appeared and assortment of delicious iced cakes and pastries. Said smell was so good and familiar that it almost made her forget about her mission… almost. It didn't change the fact that her world was gone and that her friend was missing too and when she remembered that, her chest felt like it was on fire and she found her goal to be a vigorously passionate one, and that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"You know, there's a word for people who look into other people's houses without their knowledge. Rude, was it?"

Astra turned upon hearing this voice to meet a man who certainly gave the feeling of wanting to appear cool. Her eyes fell to the sword attached to his waist and smiled before speaking, "So you're a fighter huh? Weird weapon. Why is the grip tilted in such an odd fashion?"

"It's a gunblade." The man ran his hands through his hair with a thoughtful look on his face. _Uh, is this guy saying something or is he thinking it? _Astra pulled a weird face expecting the man to say something. Eventually he did and Astra finally relaxed her muscles. "You didn't tell me why you were looking into the window. You never seen a house before?"

"You never developed manners?" Astra shot back ignoring the somewhat hypocritical nature of her counter before asking, "I suppose this is your house then?"

"Not exactly." said the gunblade wielder. Again, another moment of silence.

_This guy is seriously a downer. There IS something as taking a carefree attitude too far, _she thought before summoning a Keyblade. In reaction, the man fell out of his nonchalant state and allowed an exponential amount of emotion to flow from his face, of course Astra was exaggerating, she had really only thought of the man as a robot until now. "That's a… Keyblade. Where did you get that?" he asked after recovering. _Now we're getting somewhere. _

"So you know what it is. You must be a naughty boy… ooh, unless you happen to know another wielder. So how about this," A hungry grin took precedent on Astra's face as she spun her Keyblade around playfully. She continued, "How about we fight? If you win, I leave and you won't even have to acknowledge the existence of a girl who has never seen a house before, but if I win… then you have to answer each and every one of my questions. Is that a deal?"

"Is this really necessary?" The man asked a while after Astra had made her proposition.

"Are most things in our world necessary? I don't know. That's why I want to find out." she answered cryptically. The questions that were circulating her mind, she wanted this fight to decide whether she wanted to know or needed to know. Evaluating her own fighting technique in the process was an added bonus.

"I can't say I understand your reason, but how can I pass fighting a Keyblade wielder up? The name's Leon." he said unhooking the sword from its holster.

"Astra, and to clear something up, I have lived in a house before." Astra replied looking at her own weapon. Midnight Mauve, the name had popped into her head the moment she had received it. It was hardly her favorite time of day but it was light in her hands, it certainly wasn't hindered by its capable reach and she rather liked the predominating black mauve colors that formed the Keyblade. The teeth of the Keyblade looked like shards of broken purple glass that aimed off in different directions and the length going down was designed to be flat. Of course Astra knew that she would hardly be considering the aesthetics of the weapon while she was fighting.

"I've been itching for some practice anyway. Okay, don't hold back then." Leon said before running towards her. Astra quickly considered the way he held the gunblade before retaliating. As he ran, the placement of the blade was over his shoulders, in fact, it was his shoulder was supporting the weight of the blade. If that was the case then there was really only one way he could attack. Perceiving an oncoming overhead swing, Astra easily dodged the slash and moved behind him before angling her elbow correctly and smashing it into Leon's ribs. Leon spun on his feet but kept his balance before swinging wildly. Astra cartwheeled away in time before pivoting and using strike raid on Leon. The Gunblade wielder guarded quickly, the impacting clash of both metals containing enough force to push him back into the wall.

Midnight Mauve soon returned to Astra and she shook her head disappointedly. "Are you sure you aren't the one who's holding back. You know, all of a sudden I don't think I want these questions of mine answered anymore."

"Whatever. I'm just getting warmed up." Leon said before throwing a blast of fire at her. Astra ran straight for it with an insane grin and held Midnight Mauve out to absorb the spell's energy before directing it right back at its owner with a horizontal slash. Leon tried to block again but this attack was more powerful and sent him to the ground.

"HA-HA-HA. Unless you really enjoy getting your ass kicked, you'll stay on the ground. Or if you're a little daring maybe you can try again. I could do this all day so I don't mind." Astra said placing her hands on her hips and letting out a loud roar of laughter.

"Squall, what are you- Is that a Keyblade?" Astra could only stare on dumbfounded as a girl in blue ran up to her and bent down inspecting the Keyblade closely while nodding her head as if she was in the process of deciding something.

Leon, or was it Squall, extended his hand for the girl helplessly. "Uh, Rinoa? I'm not sure that's… forget it."

"Well this is certainly a colorful cast of characters." Astra said feeling uneasy by this Rinoa's strange approach. Of course if these people knew her friend, then it was to be expected. Astra could see Luna being the type to attract weirdos being one herself. "So… I take it I win?"

* * *

_She wraps herself underneath the covers hoping to fall into sleep's embrace. Her room is dark, though not so dark that she can't see anything around her. Her only source of light is the moon's light which couldn't help but peer into this little four year old girl's room. She tosses and turns trying to find some comfortable way of falling asleep. Maybe sideways… or perhaps on her back… or maybe on her stomach? Eventually she stops moving and her eyes open. Her only companion is her teddy so she clings to him tightly, unwilling to let go. Maybe he can help her get to sleep for he's been with her through thick and thin, and she sees no reason why it should be any different this time._

_That's when she hears it. Not loud and obvious, but faint and certainly there. It's the creaking of something, a door… and breathing to go along with it. When it breathes, she stops breathing. She listens, hoping that this isn't real, after all there are no such things as monsters in the closet or under the bed, right?_

_She keeps her eyes on teddy nonetheless. The girl doesn't want to scream if she doesn't have to. Maybe it's merely the wind blowing a gusty ruckus outside? Deciding upon this as the blind truth, she snuggles into her bed even more and tries to close her eyes… tries… no. She can't. The more she tries to ignore it, the more obvious it becomes that it's not the wind outside. It is in fact in her room._

_Once again her eyes open, and this time she sees it. A shadow in the moonlight. It doesn't belong to any of the toys scattered around her room. It's human in figure. She's curious. Frightened as anyone would be to find an unwanted shadow in their room, but curious. This curiosity wins over her capricious mind and slowly she turns her head, only enough so that she can tell from the corner of her left eye alone. _

_It's there, but it's not inside a closet peering at her and it's definitely not under her bed reaching out to grab her. Instead, it's just standing there in the corner of her room… watching. She knows not how to react. All she can do is turn her head all the way and look into the eyes of the monster who does nothing. And what a power it is. He needs only look at her for the girl to realize that she isn't in control of the situation, that this room is not her own, nor is her body. A fearful look descends upon the girl and she quickly tries to hide under the covers, but it's already too late. The effect is done. She knows he is watching. She can feel his gaze on her, can feel his breath against her ear even when he isn't near. This demon in the shape of man who can control her by merely observing… his name is-_

Luna screamed as she woke up with a start. Somewhere along the line she had forgotten to breathe and this realization quickly forced her to start coughing violently. Soon the coughs resided and her breathing returned to normal though this didn't stop her from shaking. What she had just seen, was a nightmare, right? But if that was the case, why had it felt so real? She searched her memories for anything pertaining to the incident but came up with nothing. She was sure she had retained all of her memories as well so she wasn't about to doubt them. There was also a most unnatural inconsistency in the nightmare. The monster standing in the corner of the room had been Abraxas but she had certainly not met him until just over nine months ago.

"This place is seriously getting to me, urgh." she croaked tiredly and let out a yawn before standing up lazily. The best possible way of explaining such a dream was that she had had a similar nightmare before and this time, had replaced the monster in that dream with a more horrifying one in her eyes. Well, unless Abraxas had really been in her room at the time then that seemed like the most plausible explanation. Dreams were funny things after all that could reflect the heart's wants and fears, she had come to learn over her journey.

Where she stood now was what she had found to be one of the Dark Realm's safe zones. They were scattered and scarce but when she found them, what usually followed were moments of great relief, at least until the fighting started again. In this particular safe zone there were multiple paths that she could take however she had already been down all of them except two. She figured that if she could keep a level head and explore one of the paths for a few hours before returning back to camp then she should be fine. So far, this tactic of steady pace had worked wonders on her psyche. She wasn't about to wander off into the middle of nowhere only to end up never finding the safe zone again. It was the equivalent of living out in the wild. It was adapt to strategy or die, the only difference being that she didn't think it was likely to be attacked every five seconds while being out in the wild as opposed to this place where she had no room for respite outside of the safe zones.

Without thinking, Luna took one of the available paths left that she hadn't explored. As long as these paths were available to her then she didn't want to rule out the possibility that one of these paths contained a way out. That didn't mean that what she had found in the other paths hadn't been intriguing. On the contrary she had discovered places that had confirmed her suspicion that she was in the realm of darkness.

What lied at the end of these paths? Nothing but worlds in ruin. They were like scattered remnants that had made it to this realm by taking on the form of stardust according to Jiminy's Journal. Here, the heart of the world resided and was made invisible by the fact that the realm of darkness couldn't be seen by the visible light spectrum. Because the heart reflected the state of the world itself, the world or star would blink out of existence in the realm of light. It wasn't that the world itself was gone, but that it would have been impossible to locate it given its immaterial state of existence.

Already had Luna been to five worlds which had fallen to darkness and she was no doubt about to head to another one. The last one had been of particular significance to her albeit in an indirect way. It definitely looked to be the world of her friends, the Destiny Islands and if that was the case, then they would be happy to hear that she had brought their world back into the realm of light. It was the only thing she could do to help the other side without being in it, though nothing was a certainty in this place and she didn't know where these worlds disappeared to each time she found these broken worlds' keyholes. For all she knew she was dooming these worlds into an even deeper darkness. It wouldn't have been the first time.

Quickly she dismissed the thought. For whatever reason, certain thoughts and feelings were intensified in the realm of darkness and were she to blame herself for even one second for destroying her own world and killing her parents then she'd be subjected to a torment that would be hard to recover from.

As soon as she stepped out of the safe zone, the Heartless appeared. Instead of fighting them she just ran passed the ones she could and took out the others that were in her way. Her heart pounded wildly as it had been doing so for the rest of the time that she had been here. Surely that couldn't be good for her heart? Was there such a thing as experiencing too much of one particular emotion?

She quick stepped out of the way of a Neo Shadow's attack before cutting through a thick horde of Heartless that were in her way. She found out during her time here that she could increase her swing speed by loosely gripping onto the handle of Dream Seeker, adding flexibility by using her wrist and finger movements to handle the Keyblade. Once she had cleared the way through, she advanced forward quickly.

The path that she dared tread appeared ugly and malformed in nature, or was it a twisted nature for nothing was of the beauty associated in nature here. There was hardly any consistency or logic, for example, in the chunks of rock that floated both sideways and upright. Multiple circular indentations were inscribed onto the ground like pot holes with Luna having to be careful in avoiding them.

Different layers of geo formation existed, some instances forming hexagonal prism slopes while others formed the shape of cones. Luna had learned to use the rocks to her advantage by using them to take out enemies or increase her momentum. They did serve another purpose however. Judging by their shapes, Luna had found a familiar pattern to the foreign rock formations she had encountered in the fog before she had fallen into the darkness. If the two places were connected then it only made sense that the rocks were similar types, but it didn't explain why they connected or how Abraxas' illusions could have even thrown her into this predicament. Whatever the cause was, it was bigger than Abraxas.

Eventually she came to a dead end with no more ground to walk on and no fork in the path to decide upon.

_Is this the end? This can't be right. _Luna walked to the edge of the road and bent down before throwing her hand downwards. There was no immediate secret invisible path to walk on but there were a column attached to the jagged edge of the path that extended all the way down into the darkness. She had come across yet another important decision that she had to carefully think about. She could either go down this vertical column to see where it led or she could go back the way she came from and pick the other path.

She couldn't help but let out a long exaggerated moan before an idea popped into her head. Luna placed her head next to the available ground, pointed her Keyblade downwards and let go off it watching it fly off into the darkness. A faint thud was soon heard after approximately eight seconds of counting and she relaxed a bit. So there was definitely another level down below that was surprisingly quite close considering how dark it appeared.

Carefully, she threw her legs over the black space and eased herself downward until she was hugging the rough column. She dared not look down or even above her as she descended slowly but surely towards the confirmed ground. The particular incident reminded her of a much simpler time. She had been 12 years old when she had first gone rock climbing with her family and Astra. The terrifying prospect of falling had been a horrifying one prior to the actual climbing but as with all things, the fear itself had been scarier than actually doing it. Their guide had certainly been careful in making sure that they were tightly secured to a cable and their safety gear was put on properly anyway. It still didn't take away from the fact that Luna hated heights. The only reason she had gone along with it was because her parents had gotten Astra to convince her. Her best friend had been the reason that Luna had even the confidence to do most of the things that she had done in her life.

If she ever did get out of here, finding Astra would be one of the first things that she would do. She remembered back to what Abraxas had told her, that Astra had a Keyblade. If so, then she was certain they would cross paths eventually. Ironically, out of the two, Astra had been the one grounded in realism. No matter how many times Luna brought up her theory of each star being a world in the sky, Astra would have dismissed it. So for her to end up on another world by means of magic must have come as quite a shock to a girl who was unwilling to believe in it. Not that that had always been the case, there had been a point when her and Astra had shared a common interest in sharing leaving their world and seeing the stars but at some point that had changed. It had been around the time that Astra's grandmother had passed away that notable differences had begun to show themselves in her friend. This had been over two years ago. Luna could even remember the conversation where Astra's optimistic attitude had done a complete 180.

* * *

_Luna watched through sunglasses as Astra emerged from the ocean waters and walked over to the sandy beach where she was currently lying. Luna brought the glass of lemonade to her mouth and positioned the straw between her lips before sipping._

"_You make the most adorable face when sipping, you know that?" Astra announced as she sat beside Luna._

"_I don't know where that came from but okay." she replied with raised brows. "Did you know the paper drinking straw was patented because previous forms of straw turned to mush when mixed with liquid? Talk about a health hazard huh?"_

"_Oh Lord Sea Salt, please tell me more of your useless trivia." Astra recited poetically causing Luna to puff like a blowfish. _

"_I'm not even eating Sea Salt right now. How would you like it if I nicknamed you tomboy and refused to use your name?" _

_Astra shrugged and replied, "Eh. Can't win against the truth. Oh, and here's some useless trivia about Sea Salt Ice Cream by the way Sea Salt, it does have the tendency to give you diabetes if you eat too much of it." _

"_Oh thanks, I didn't realize that," Luna said sarcastically before adding, "Good thing my mom is a doctor then." _

_Astra laughed before asking, "Have you done your English homework for tomorrow. I… kinda forgot about it."_

"_Of course you did. Yeah, it wasn't exactly hard, kind of boring actually. I wonder when we'll start poetry." Luna said._

"_Poetry? Blech. I mean I didn't exactly mind writing haikus but poetry is horrible. It's amazing how we have to take every single line as being some connotation or something. What, they can't just be literal? Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." Astra replied._

"_Reading Freud huh? I didn't know you were into that kind of stuff." Luna said._

"_Oh, so that was his name." Astra mumbled only to receive a look of shock on Luna's face. "What?"_

"_You quoted someone and you didn't even know who you were quoting from?" the sunglasses wearing girl asked. _

"_It was just a saying in one of the textbooks. I don't actually know the guy but I'm sure he's a great dude." Astra said. _

"_Oh dear." Luna facepalmed before withdrawing her hand and pointing it up to the sky. "I just want to forget all this and see the stars. The quicker the better." _

"_Luna… I've been thinking lately-"_

"_Oh that's new."_

"_Luna." Upon hearing Astra mention her actual name, Luna put her hand down and looked at Astra attentively like a little puppy. "I don't think there's any point to it anymore."_

"_Any point to what?" _

"_To believe in something greater than what we have here. We've been given so much here already, why risk throwing it away for a hopeless future?" Astra told her. Luna couldn't believe what she was hearing at the moment. Why had her friend, who had defended her ideas and had believed in them just as much as her, become so sour to the possibility?_

"_A hopeless future? What's that supposed to mean? And what do I have here really Astra? I wake up, I go to school, I come back from school, I spend my hours at home or at Kit's bakery then I go to sleep again. That's what a hopeless future is." Luna retorted taking her sunglasses off._

"_Yes, you do that. Just like any of us. Why should we fool ourselves into thinking we're more special than others when we know it's not true? We're only thirteen, who are we to say we won't be provided with more opportunities later on?" _

"_What's wrong Astra? You've been acting strangely for a while now." Luna said. _

"_What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? You say that you have nothing here. Then what do your parents mean to you? What does Kit mean to you? What do I mean to you?" Astra asked._

"_Of course you are. It's just. My mom told me when I was young to follow my dreams and that one day I wouldn't live with them anymore. It sounded cruel back then but now I know what she meant. This is my choice Astra. I thought you were with me on this. But maybe I was wrong." Luna said before getting up and heading off to the changing room. Even as Astra called to her, she didn't turn back. She didn't want to hear what Astra had to say._

* * *

Once again, a clear audible sigh was let out in relief as her feet came into contact with solid ground and she quickly made to retrieve her Keyblade. In comparison to the time the Keyblade took to reach the ground, Luna would guess that she had spent a minute and a few seconds added of climbing. She rubbed her sweaty hands on her jeans before proceeding onward. Of course the fact that she would have to climb back up later stayed in the front of her mind.

After a series of fights, Luna soon found herself in what appeared to be a rose garden. In the back of the garden was a majestic castle. What immediately caught Luna's attention was that this castle didn't seem to be vacant. Lights shone from within the castle indicating that there was some presence there though Luna knew that was impossible. Wasn't it?

She arrived at the semi-circular veranda of the back of the castle and made her way to the large glass doors. As she got closer she could definitely hear the unmistakable sound of ball music filling the large well-lit room inside. She opened the door and was immediately swept away by a change in atmosphere that made her forget where she even was. She recognized the piece playing as Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 D Major, one that had been pounded into her head during her ballet sessions.

What was even more surprising however, were the people in the ballroom dancing to this slow moving piece. She could not see their faces for they were covered by Venetian masks, but they were definitely people, and they were dancing. Luna stood silently and watched with a smile on her lips as one particular couple closer to her danced away with no ostensible worries on their faces. She was so intrigued by this couple that she almost failed to notice a man walking up to her with a smile on his face. When her eyes caught sight of him, she blushed and tried to shrink back hoping that he was merely passing her way but when he stopped in front of her she had to give up such a tactic and instead looked into his eyes.

_I suppose I could have a dance, but I'm hardly dressed for the occasion, _Luna thought. Surely one little dance couldn't hurt. She summoned Dream Seeker away before slowly accepting his hand and was guided towards the floor where he wasted no time in wrapping his gentle arms around her. Anxiously, Luna watched her feet carefully as she danced with this mysterious stranger. He seemed to be taking the initiative making all the right moves and she was probably embarrassing him by acting clumsy. Still, whatever she had been doing before this couldn't have been any better. Everything seemed right, like she was meant to be here all along. She had found her calling and now all that was left was to give into the music.

_It's going to okay as long as I stay here. I have no worries. Everything will be alright. Everything will be… Everything will… Everything? EVERYTHING? _Luna suddenly panicked and threw this 'man' off her, except that it wasn't a man, not anymore. His features had changed entirely, his kind blue eyes now yellow and menacing. Horns grew from its head and its tail waggled left and right on the floor. Most notably was the red sword in its hand. Suddenly she remembered what she was doing and where she was. Suddenly instead of humans surrounding her, there were Heartless of all shapes and sizes jumping back and forth to sinister music.

Luna clutched her head as a sharp pain smashed its way through like a bullet and let out a scream before shaking it off. She didn't have much time to recover as the Orcus that had danced with her flew forward and made a horizontal cut. Luna dropped to the floor to avoid the attack before summoning her Keyblade and blasting the Heartless away from her. She tried to get up from the floor only to have a Nova Shadow spin into her from behind. A painful gasp erupted from Luna's mouth as she felt her back bend and was sent flying forwards into one of the tables. She turned around just in time to see another Orcus flying towards her and rolled out of the way just as it stabbed its sword into the table.

_Have to get out of here. _Against her body's will, Luna reluctantly heaved herself up using the nearby wall as support before making her way along the edge of the room to the door in the back. Waves of Heartless moved in to which her only possible response was countering with Reflect magic. Sparks of light surrounded Luna as a result of the Heartless smacking against the barrier and rebounding.

Eventually she made it to the door and wasted no time in blowing it open with Aeroga before sprinting through. She was now in a long winding corridor with chandeliers on the ceiling throughout acting as her guide. Behind her was a horde of Heartless that had followed her out into the corridor. She turned behind her and sent casts of different elements in no particular direction. Some of the magic hit Heartless successfully while other smacked against paintings or the chandeliers on the ceiling which fell to the ground and took out the Heartless under them anyway.

Soon Luna noticed a door to her left and opposed to just turning into it, she kicked off the wall on the right using it as a boost to dive through the door. She turned and landed on her back before using another Aeroga to the blow the inward doors closed. Finally she pointed the Keyblade's tip at the keyhole of the door watching as the last remains of a beam of light disappeared before she could truly relax.

Luna let out a laugh, it was all she could do to hide her fear and frustration plus she wanted the illusion that she was in control of the situation even if that couldn't have been further from the truth. She lay on the ground like this for several minutes trying to assess what had just happened. Why had she seen people in the place of Heartless in the first place? Why had everything felt so natural to her? Was her Chimera finally coming out now that it had been exposed to the dark realm? The more she thought about it, the more it seemed frighteningly possible and the more she wanted to perish the thought. How long would her body and heart be able to endure this before they gave in to Abraxas' cruel experiment? How long would it be until she started going after Sora, Riku, Kairi and… Astra. She would rather remain here than have them suffer.

She got up however, even if she didn't have to. Sora had not showed her all those worlds and taught her how to use the Keyblade for nothing. He had braved the nightmares and fears of his own heart just to wake her from Abraxas' illusion and she'd be damned if she fell here without saying thank you.

Just then, something caught her eye. It was the large window at the back of the room, or rather what was outside the window. If it really was what she thought it was then in some strange way, fate was also telling her not to give up. Far away from here a tall tower extended upwards into the heavens themselves. She knew it as the Turm des Himmels, and she doubted there were that many towers that were similar to the one she knew. If she really was in Alexander, then she had a chance to make everything right.

* * *

_Absolutely loved writing this chapter. Even spent the time watching a compilation of Crisis Core cutscenes on youtube while I was working. Next time, we'll be back with Sora and co. and... well, you'll see... _


	7. Downpour

_So while Dual Destinies was about building a world and establishing rules, this... will also do that and will be more character focused in general. I'll try to provide a nice balance of action and character development though they're not necessarily mutually exclusive. Just know that Sora's a tiny part of a much grander scheme in this story. Anyway, back to the show! _

* * *

**Chapter 7**

**Downpour**

Almost lazily, Sora let the rucksack on his back slip down his shoulders and onto the floor waiting for the heavy thud of contact as proof of this. Sitting himself down, he stared at the white linen that coveted the table. On it laid a coaster for beverages and a few napkins folded neatly in a triangle with silver cutlery set on top of them with equal spacing. Around him were others enjoying their meals in delight or waiting for their own.

After a few more seconds of staring into space, Sora's attention turned to the rain that was lightly pattering against the window of the coffee shop. Ever since Sora, Riku and Kairi had returned to Radiant Garden, it had seemed to be to interchanging between on and off. If Sora could have shouted at the rain to make up its mind, he would have done so but nature wasn't quite so willing to listen. Compared to this, being back on the Gummi Ship was a surprisingly calm and enjoyable experience. Well, it certainly didn't rain in the sea between worlds—that much Sora knew though there were stranger things like giant whales in its place.

Sora leaned over the side of the chair and opened his bag before pulling out a book. About a few months ago, the concept of reading something like this would have seemed absurd to Sora. Nowadays, the word didn't seem so alien to him in concept especially after recent events and while the term non-fiction still bored and repulsed him he figured teeny steps were good enough. A part of the fun was seeing his friends react to his newfound interest.

"_The truth hidden within the lies huh? What bunch of nonsense was he spewing?" Sora asked after hearing Frollo's reasoning echoed in the form of Kairi. After leaving Quasimodo's world, the two of them and Riku couldn't help but discuss the city of Atlantis that Frollo had spoken so passionately about._

"_I'm not sure. I don't even know if he knew what he was talking about but I would think that someone who would go so far as to abandon his own world must have some understanding." Kairi replied._

"_Not necessarily. I had very little myself when I wanted to leave the islands. I think it's the fear of not knowing what was out there that drove me. It's probably the same with Frollo." Riku joined in after engaging in the autopilot. _

"_It doesn't matter though right? I mean we're not going to change what we're doing just because of some point brought up by a guy who was totally insane?" Sora asked. _

"_Of course it doesn't change anything. That said, wouldn't it be cool if we really did come across the lost city?" Kairi proposed chirpily. No one in that room could have denied their interest in a discovery like that. The thought of being the pioneers of their age was an attractive one but there were some things that were more important right now. _

_And so the discussion of a lost city and the ramblings of a mad man came to an unsatisfactory end, for Kairi at least who probably had it on her mind throughout the day. Instead, she turned her attention to a more peculiar fact that she could actually see._

"_Hey Sora, what're you up to?"_

_Sora looked up from the book he was engrossed in and smiled. "I'm reading. Have you heard of this book?"_

"_The Name Game? Nope, what's it about?" Kairi asked cocking her head to the side to look at the cover._

"_It's about a young girl who has trouble remembering her name. She wakes up in a town with no name and asks the townsfolk if any of them know her but to no avail. At this point she starts to question whether she even exists because if no one knows her it's just as equivalent as people seeing through her and not noticing her. The book deals with what faces mean to different people and asks the question of whether you have a face if other can't see you or recognise you by it. It's great so far." Sora answered to the surprise of Riku, Kairi and even Kupopo who was in the back of the cockpit._

"_Wow, you are really invested in this kupo. I've never figured Sora would be the one to become so accustomed to reading." Kupopo said._

"_Speaking about customs, the book talks about that too. It talks about what a 'character' is and how people see others. A character is really a conformed protocol that you assign to yourself making you who you are. There's no reason not to expand your horizons though and step out of that character every once in a while. It's healthy." Sora continued in a sagacious manner._

"_Okay, who are you and what have you done to Sora? Are you planning on a career change to philosopher Mr Keyblade Master?" Kairi asked. _

_Sora laughed and shook his head. "Hah, not likely. The librarian recommended it to me and what she said about the book just stuck with me. Let's just say that I guess ever since the fight with Abraxas I've felt like I need to step up my game and become stronger. That and… Luna liked books a lot. It's kind of my way of making her happy, even if she doesn't know it yet."_

"_That's really sweet. Okay, now you've got me pumped. I have to outdo you and make her even happier when we get her back." Kairi announced with a triumphant fist._

If something like reading could motivate them so much then that could only have meant good things for the future. Before Sora could even flip the page, he found himself looking past the book into the eyes of a woman who was standing at his table. She reminded Sora of a cosplayer, one of the gothic makeup wearing maids that were sometimes featured in some of the manga that Tidus had recommended him. Her pale complexion seemed to glow in contrast to the light because of this.

"Bonjour, how may I take your order?" the girl asked with a pleasant and broad smile. She even had a faint accent that made Sora wonder if he had stepped back into Quasimodo's world again on accident.

"Oh, I-"

"Oh my goodness, you are the Sora no? One of the Keyblade wielders who saved our world?" she asked in surprise.

"That's what they call me." Sora replied unenthusiastically as his fingers found their way to the menu. "I'd rather you just keep that between you and me though."

"Understood. I apologize for my eagerness. So, what will it be?" she asked in a cutesy manner.

"Oh, a cappuccino would be great thanks." Sora picked returning back to his cheerful self. The woman bowed and excused herself before making her way to the back behind the counter. Sora looked around him before returning to the book. He had some time before his old friends Terra, Ven and Aqua would be arriving so he had thought to go exploring. Sora had found himself doing a lot of that these days, not that he could ever say he had planned it on the day or even the day before. His legs usually carried him to wherever he needed to be at the time, not necessarily where he wanted to go and usually that was fine with him. He was just a follow wherever the wind takes him person anyway and so it had come to be that he had stumbled upon this café without even having planned to come here.

"Here you go. One cappuccino for you. I even poured my heart into it, see?" Sora put the book down as the woman returned with the drink. Sora laughed as he peered into the white foam to see a heart shaped pattern on the surface.

"Latte art… you sure must know your way around coffee." Sora complimented before taking the hot cup into his hands and sipping lightly. The foam and cream tickled Sora's taste buds and stayed there for a while before slipping down his throat. Sora put the cup down and gave the cosplay maid and thumbs up with a supporting grin. "Okay, now I know where to go when I need some coffee. You're working miracles here."

"Why merci beaucoup. I'm glad you enjoy it." The girl said. At this point, she stood at the table apparently waiting for something and Sora had no idea what that was. Sora was looking for something, anything, to strike a conversation. Eventually he timidly tried to refer to the book he was reading with unexpected results.

"Uh, have you-"

"Tomorrow at six."

"Wait, what?"

"That's when I'll be free."

Sora could only nod with a mouth halfway between a smile and puzzlement. He wasn't exactly sure what was going on but something seemed to be happening and it was better than the awkward nothingness that could have been the alternative. It was only after the girl had retreated behind the counter that Sora had realized what type of unwritten contract he had gotten himself into. Was he even equipped for a date with someone he had just met? How had he even gotten into it? He had only wanted to talk to her about a book. The worst part though was that he knew next to nothing about dates. Maybe he could consult Kairi on that later, not that he was sure she had ever been on one but she was a girl so she must have had some idea as to what other females liked.

Sora withdrew from these thoughts wanting nothing more than to get back to his drink, although he did his best to avoid eye contact with the maid from there on out. Before he knew it, Sora had downed his entire cup of coffee and placed the book back into his bag, put the munny on the table and quickly left the café to prevent the visible heat of his cheeks from being seen by anyone, least of all the maid.

Wet and miserable yet hopeful, was what Sora could only describe as he stepped out into the puddled streets opposing its blue sky counterpart. He set off towards Merlin's house while observing other people going by. Everyone had somewhere to be, and grounded in this world that only made sense. They didn't have the matters of worlds beside Radiant Garden on their mind, they weren't given a mysterious puzzle box to which its secrets remained unknown nor were they constantly fighting Heartless and saving worlds in their everyday life. Sora wished he could live in such a simple life, where there was only the straight line of A to B instead of a zigzag in between the two.

He almost had such a life as well. After beating Xemnas, Sora had returned to the islands hoping that he could live in peace with his two friends by his side, without any jealous or petty issues that had been the result of their journey in the first place. But the threat of Xehanort had not been over and there were people that were trapped in a cage of torment. Fair enough, they went out knowing they were needed and saved the day once again. This time there was no choice. Abraxas had destroyed Sora's island, Sora had met Luna, Sora had travelled with her to find her world and Sora had failed to save her and the last seeress, Yeul. The worst part was that he had still not made the jump from A to B but instead jumping to points that made no sense. He felt like he had absolutely no control over his own life at the moment and he had no idea when he would be able to get a good night's sleep without any worries.

Sora turned and took a shortcut through the soggy grass taking amusement in the spongy and moist sounds made from beneath his shoes until he returned to hard ground. The dreams were also something to contemplate, having not received any consolation from them either. In each dream he saw himself just watching as Yeul fell before him like he was forced to repeat the same day over and over again. The last dream however had been different. The same scene had played out exactly as it had done before but instead of seeing Yeul, it was Luna in her place, and as if by some strange out of body experience, he saw that it was himself that had plunged the Keyblade into her back. Sora had refused to go back to sleep for fear of dreaming again.

He soon reached the street that led to the residential district, but instead of going directly to Merlin's house, he changed his mind and found himself heading towards another that he hadn't been to in a while. It was a few more streets away from where Merlin's was but his quick pacing practically got him there in no time at all.

"Sora, you've come back. Did you find her?" Colette asked once she had opened the door upon hearing him knock. The answer was pretty obvious though because if he had found her then he wouldn't have come alone.

"I'm sorry." Sora said, not wanting to fully admit that he had no idea where to start.

"What for? I know you're trying your hardest and that's all that matters. Come in." Colette said in understanding. As far as Sora knew, that was all Colette ever had been: understanding. Or maybe she couldn't be anything else, not after her husband had died. In some ways Sora almost wanted to be criticised by her for not trying harder, because he felt like he wasn't.

"Where's Stephanie?" Sora asked looking around the comfy living room.

"School of course. She has to study you know?" Colette reminded him.

"Nah, she's a clever kid. Probably smarter than most of the people in her class. She doesn't need to study." Sora said jokingly.

"My daughter a prodigy. I like the sound of that." Colette replied. When offered a cup, Sora politely declined and pointed towards a photograph on the table.

"Is that Ansem the Wise?" he asked. The man in the photo scarcely resembled the Ansem he knew, fostering a more youthful appearance.

"Yes, and there's me and my husband Kohle right next to him. Here I was still studying for biomedical science and Stephanie wasn't born yet. So for my thesis I had decided to take on work experience at Ansem's lab. This was before he had become more secretive regarding his research. That's where I met Kohle." Colette explained sitting down next to Sora and taking the photograph into her hands.

"So what was he like when you met him?" Sora asked.

"He was the argumentative yet passionate type. The way it usually went was that we sat down sometimes to explain our theories on the workings of the heart and Gummi blocks though the latter isn't really my field. He absolutely believed that his own theories made sense as to their origin but I wasn't so sure and I still don't think so to this day if we're honest but I never bothered arguing the point too much. People like him are so set on their own beliefs that they'll fight for them, even if they are wrong." Colette continued with a thoughtful look on her face. "This may sound silly, but I don't quite know how I ended up with him. I suppose one thing led to another leading to Stephanie."

"That sounds familiar." Sora then added quickly, "N-not the having a baby part but the not knowing how you ended up in a situation part."

"Yeah, I was like 'what, you've gotten that far already? How old are you again?'" Colette quipped and the two let out a fit of laughs into what was probably once a quiet room. Soon enough, the inevitable question that Sora had expected would be knocking on his door and it wasn't a question of choosing whether to open it or not but how he was going to go about it. "So, how have you been since that day?"

"I don't know. I thought I had everything in control but I feel like I'm still in Abraxas' mind games. Sometimes I just want this all to be an illusion so I'll wake up and everything will be alright but I know that I'm living in reality." Sora bent forward and clasped his hands together before asking, "Do you have sleeping pills?"

Colette frowned upon hearing this. "Why do you ask?"

"Because I have nightmares, of the night Yeul died. I keep seeing it, that one moment where I couldn't do anything. I know there's no point thinking about it, she's gone and there's nothing I can do… but still, I can't stop feeling this guilt that's buried within my heart. It's like a ticking bomb and I feel like I'm going to explode any moment except I have no idea when that time will be." Sora told her in an almost whisper. "Riku and Kairi just tell me the same thing. 'You need to get over it Sora. There was nothing you could do. Yeul wouldn't want you to be despairing over her like this'. But they don't understand what it's like to see a friend die right in front of your eyes. That's why I don't feel like there's any point in telling them."

"I'm not your doctor Sora but even if I were I wouldn't recommend you sleeping pills. This may be tough to here but this is a problem you're going to have to face on your own. I would know because I've suffered something similar before in the past." Colette said.

"Oh, with Stephanie's dad… it must have been painful." Sora said.

"It wasn't easy. It never is but all I can tell you is to concentrate on looking for Luna for now. Usually I find that being preoccupied with the little things usually takes my mind off of the big ones. You have both Riku and Kairi and are free to choose how you spend your time with them." Colette advised with a smile.

"Yeah… I'll try that." Sora said before coughing. He must have been starting to develop a cold probably from the weather. "What about you then?"

"Oh, I almost forgot. I've finally found a job to help support Steph. I met with the man heading the company, David Xanatos… well it was more like he met me really. We discussed a few things and after hearing my plight and finding out that I studied biomed, he insisted that I take a job in the health department." Colette announced.

"See? I knew you'd get something eventually. Way to go! How did Stephanie react when you told her?" Sora asked now as gleeful as an energetic child.

"In much the same way you did, and she's only nine." Colette pointed out.

"I'm known for it." Sora justified adding the cherry on top with a cheeky grin.

* * *

Sora returned immediately to Merlin's place after a cheerful conversation with Colette to welcoming old faces.

"Ven! Terra! Aqua!"

"Well if it isn't the early bird." Kairi's patronizing tone caught Sora off guard and he turned to apologize.

"Don't worry about it, but boy do you look paler than usual Sora. Like you've seen a ghost." Terra said with a chuckle.

"Maybe I did see one." Sora responded in much the same tone. It had felt like it had been forever since he laid his eyes on the trio he had helped save many moons ago. They had all been affected in one way or another by the wounds of the past and while it was he that had played a part in their awakening, it had ultimately been by their hands that they had departed from their sleep.

The first thing the group had done after the final battle was the reparation of the Land of Departure, formally known as Castle Oblivion to Sora and the others. Even though they had sought its repair, they never truly stayed there but instead used it as a memorial for their deceased Master Eraqus. If one were to go there now, they would find a white pillar with a Keyblade lying on the ground next to it. Instead of this however, they had managed to pick up the pieces and had found themselves on a long vacation to see the world much in the same way Roxas, Xion and Lea were doing.

But like Sora, the three friends had been called back to action by Master Yen Sid who had been adamant about mobilizing everyone to combat the current threat, that being Alice who was found to be missing. Yen Sid had already explained that if even one Princess of Heart fell then the worlds would all fall into darkness, for it was the gift of light bestowed on the chosen seven in the past that had been responsible for saving the world from the darkness brought on by the Keyblade War. Apparently there were no second chances if a princess was lost but Yen Sid had not clarified when Sora had asked the question.

It was something that bugged him actually—that he had tried to set a personal goal of becoming more independent and knowledgeable of the worlds and yet he sometimes felt like he had no idea why he was fighting. Obviously Alice was his friend, and obviously Yen Sid felt that was enough of a reason for Sora to do it. No other explanation was needed, or in other words, the less he knew the easier he could do his job.

"I take it you didn't find anything then?" Sora asked the question that Riku and Kairi probably had asked before.

"No, but Riku just informed us that another Keyblade wielder appeared here… and she was asking for Luna?" Aqua tried to confirm.

"Apparently. She even fought Leon but she disappeared before we arrived here." Sora said before reciting Leon's story. "She said her name was Astra. That was the name of Luna's friend."

"Could it be a coincidence?" Ven asked but Riku shook his head.

"She has a Keyblade, I wouldn't consider that a coincidence. She even asked about her according to Leon." he answered before turning to Sora. "Luna didn't tell you anything about her, did she?"

Sora bit his lip thoughtfully. "I… think she mentioned something about Astra being her only friend. She also had a dream where she was here and was being chased by something, a rhinoceros I think. At that point she was with her friend in the dream." He then quickly looked up and his face seemed to be filled with a positive energy known only to Sora. "She's looking for Luna as well just like us. Maybe she's found out some information that can lead us to her. We need to find her!"

"Big problem." The voice of positivity was immediately opposed by the voice of negativity as Leon stepped into the room. "When Astra was fighting me, she seemed skilled. Unless she somehow taught herself then someone definitely taught her how to use the Keyblade."

"She even managed to beat Squall." Rinoa said coming in from behind.

"SHE DIDN'T BEAT ME!" Leon shot back in complete embarrassment.

'"Aw Leon, you're blushing again', is what Aerith would say if she were here right now." Kairi said grinning.

"Anyway… I just had a thought. You don't think that she encountered the same group who's after Sora, do you?" Riku asked. Sora hadn't even thought about it and from a similar look of surprise neither had the other six people in the room. He remembered back to the moment Abraxas had been killed when Alfonso and Salome had revealed themselves as being Keyblade wielders. It was a moment in time that felt like an anomaly, like it shouldn't have existed and yet it did. He had felt his heart beat so rapidly that he wasn't even sure it had fully settled yet. His thoughts regarding it certainly weren't and were all over the place. Had they chosen to kill him then and there, he would have been powerless and unable to act.

"Let's… try to stay positive alright. This is a big chance for us. We can't doubt this now." Sora eventually said though it was clear the doubt had already been securely placed. No, if they were working with the same goal in mind then it was possible that Astra would work with them for that alone. He had to stay positive. And a friend of Luna's couldn't possibly be that bad, right?

"Yeah, you're right." Kairi muttered before changing topic. "Aren't Roxas, Xion and Lea also supposed to be coming soon? We have to hold a party!"

"That'll be the wedding… after we get Luna back that is." Rinoa said resting her arm over Leon's shoulder. "Chip, Dale and Cid have already finished with the latest in Gummi Navigation technology, thanks to Xanatos Industries' help."

When Riku rolled his eyes, Sora managed to stifle a laugh. Riku had never really been trusting of David Xanatos since he met the man. As to what Sora thought, he really had no opinion of the man as of yet. It's not that he didn't trust Riku's instincts but he also couldn't deny that he had provided considerable help to the flourishing world.

And why was Sora beginning to feel so hot? Was a fever coming on that quickly? His eyes suddenly found humans in the shape of blurs and he struggled to focus on them. It was his swaying on the spot that was noted by everyone who asked worriedly if he was okay.

"Yeah, just a bit dizzy is all. I think I'm coming up with a cold. I'll just- I'll just- I'll…" Sora let out a multitude of coughs. Before he could place his hands to his mouth, he noticed blood on them… his own… blood? He turned around with the world seeming to turn with him and he stumbled forward hoping to get away as far as possible from his friends. He didn't know what was happening, he couldn't decipher voice from voice calling after him.

He was falling. It was a feeling he had felt before many times. When he sacrificed himself to save Kairi. When he had fallen into the river in Mulan's world eight months ago. In his dreams… Quickly, or was it slowly? He felt as if the speed at which his brain was able to process had slowed down exponentially… whatever speed it may have been, he looked to grab the closest thing to him in hopes of staying up. His hands found a wooden object, a table maybe? But then they found air… and then they hit the floor along with the rest of his immobilized body. All he could do now was look at the broken table he had just crashed through and watch as he was turned onto his back to meet the light, and shadows within the light… and then those shadows became darkness.

* * *

...


	8. On Clipped Wings

_Wanted to get this chapter out earlier but complications regarding studies arose so finally I was able to work on it a few days ago. Now where were we? Or yes, Sora died last chapter... right?_

* * *

**Chapter 8**

**On Clipped Wings**

The more Luna traversed through the Realm of Darkness the more she realized how little she knew of her world. In a way it could hardly have even been called her world. Firstly she had no right to call this world hers when she had sought to abandon it for so long resulting in the fiery inferno of its destruction. Secondly, it would have been better to say that anything which had previously had meaning was meaningless in this world. The rose garden she had been in when she had first come here a few hours ago was devoid of name, the ballroom she had danced in was a complete fallacy, the decayed and worn out buildings lacked any meaning beyond lacking the meaning they had in the past.

But Luna could fill in the blanks in the page more so than she could any other dilapidated world she had been to in this place. Her memory served as a color palette, filling in the beauty and with it the memory of the key buildings—the concert house with its magnificent lights filling the night sky; the river shining and reflecting the artificial city lights; the ice cream parlor with its introduction of several different flavors at the door including her favorite… Yes, it felt strange to say that she was an artist in the Realm of Darkness but it also made her feel more autonomous of its influences.

Luna held her Keyblade out in front of her and watched as it illuminated the surrounding area in an instant. Its intensity was such that it caused her to close her eyes for a second. When she opened them, she held it above her like a torch and waved it about to examine the area. The Keyblade had somehow guided her to this spot where she assumed the keyhole was hiding however it had taken her to a dead end.

It took a while for her to notice a hole in the wall next to her feet. Though she would never admit this up front, she praised her small petite frame for allowing her to squeeze through the hole easily. The hole soon became a tunnel that seemed to go on for quite a ways. Halfway through the insides of the tunnel walls became metallic adding comfort in what had been a claustrophobic environment with seemingly no end. She guessed that the metal probably was going to take her into the interior of a building.

Her guess was soon proved correct as she landed on familiar floors. She wanted to retreat back into the hole immediately upon seeing tables with scientific apparatus on them. Microscopes, flasks and beakers lined the shelves while wires were free and strewn across the floor. Experimental pods and glass containers attached themselves from ceiling to floor among various other pieces of equipment that she didn't recognize in the room.

She knew the room all too well though. Twice had she been here, one on an extended period of time unwillingly and the other much shorter and voluntarily. It was the room she had been in with Sora, Donald and Goofy where they had learned of the process Abraxas had used to convert normal people into Chimeras. It was also the room in which she had been experimented on.

Her body seemed heavy all of a sudden and she found that she was moving sideways as opposed to regularly. She did her best to avoid touching most of the things in the room though her eyes were much more unfortunate and came across the test pod she had been kept in several times. Luna tried her best to focus on her own thoughts instead of what was in front of her. The castle which Maleficent had occupied must have also been the same place Abraxas had taken her to when he had kidnapped her. If so, had Abraxas and Maleficent already been in cahoots when Luna had been experimented on? Well, it wasn't as if it mattered now. Maleficent was gone and she assumed that Sora had taken care of Abraxas. The more important question was about this tower's identity.

Eventually Luna left the room and walked down the long room with prison doors acting as her guide towards the stairs at the other end. Luna examined each room through its bars as she walked only to find the Chimeras that had been in there now missing. She supposed they had managed to escape and were in the realm of light, or had they fallen into the darkness along with this world and if so, what form had they taken?

Luna reached the first floor but instead of continuing up she decided to take the door and go outside. She took five steps and then turned around to look upwards at the tower. This confirmed her suspicions that the tower Maleficent had been in was the same as the Turm des Himmels tower except that the building's exterior looked completely different from Maleficent's makeover. Luna had never been inside the tower because it had mainly been used for administrative purposes—at least that was what she had thought up until now. She had been there before, locked away as test subject under Abraxas' hands.

"They had a laboratory hidden under the tower? And those rooms that looked like prison cells. Did Abraxas put them there or… were they already there?" Luna questioned. Surely Abraxas must have picked the tower for a reason and if he had known beforehand about the basement level then it would have been easy for him to conduct his experiments. She had too many questions floating around in her mind that it would be pointless to stay staring at the tower in stupefaction. She dreaded to go back in but if the keyhole was there then she had no choice.

As she went up floor by floor she was reminded of the painful memories that had affected not just her but Sora, Namine and Yeul as well. She stopped at the floor where she had fought Kuja and took in the room as if the damage left from the fight was still there. She supposed the various rooms that were in each corridor on each floor led to office rooms though the amount of Heartless patrolling these corridors had made her reluctant to investigate any of them thoroughly. She trusted the Keyblade to take her to wherever she needed to go instead.

A few Heartless that blocked her way to the top floor were disposed of, granting her access to a penthouse view with glass windows overseeing the city, or what would have been the city anyway. She could only imagine the view at night in the actual city. Instead with no power, the room was as dark and lonely as anywhere else in the realm. Not wanting to stay in this twisted version of a world she once knew any longer, Luna began to search for her objective, moving from inside the apartment to the balcony outside.

"Let's see…keyhole…keyhole…I spy with my little eye something beginning with…KEYHOLE!" Luna exclaimed upon finding it. It was directly above the door at first taking the shape of a heart only to soon take the form of a keyhole when the Dream Seeker was pointed at it. To Luna it was strange to think that her world came to exist simply because of one small keyhole and that at the end of it lied the heart of the world itself. She had been the one to put that balance in jeopardy and now it was time she did something about that.

But as usual the forces of darkness worked quickly to prevent that from happening. Before the Keyblade could work its magic she caught a quick glance of something that had crept into the room inside. Luna ran back in to confront the Heartless.

Another Darkside.

She had seen them too many times to count. The first time she had fought one of them she had been intimidated by its size. She had soon quickly learned not to get hit by them. With their threatening size came their earth crushing fists, with Luna having experienced the ground shake underneath her feet several times after avoiding their pummels. Of course what they had in size and power they lacked in speed, something Luna had learned to take advantage of not just for them but all the Heartless.

Glass from the door that she had just come through shattered from the impact of the Heartless' punch. Luna had jumped out of the way from this attack but she had failed to see the table she had backed into causing her to trip. She fell through the table, not because it had broken but because it was, like all other things in the realm immaterial and so was nothing but memory of what once was. So the sound of the shattered glass and its falling shards on the floor were also things that weren't real.

Luna stood up clumsily and allowed herself some time to recover before unleashing a flurry of Fission Firaga which exploded upon contact with its head. The Darkside raised its hand to block the rest of the attacks. From what Luna could tell, the arm was fully proofed against any attack so the only damage she was going to be able to inflict would have to come from the head or the hands.

She jumped back and held her Keyblade up releasing Chasing Thunder, an attack that unleashed a wave of lightning bolts that homed in on the Darkside targeting the top of its head with pinpoint accuracy.

The Darkside stumbled backwards but quickly recovered and sent him arm tunnelling downwards at Luna. She jumped out of the way in time and jumped onto its hand using it as a bridge to run up to the Heartless' head. Reaching the shoulder she kicked off its hardened body and cut through the head. The Darkside's physical form soon became nothing more than scattered dust that diffused throughout the room. Eventually these black particles soon too dissolved leaving Luna by her lonesome once more.

She clutched at her right arm feeling it ache from the fighting she had to do. She wasn't complaining, after all it would be useless to do so now but there was hardly ever any time to recover either. Instead she focused her attention on sealing the keyhole that was outside. Before she did so, she took one last view of the world around her. The Turm des Himmels, the Tower of Heaven, they had called it. From where she was standing she was in anything but. Never had she been so high up before to see what had been her home. No, that wasn't exactly true. She had been as high up as this tower in her dreams, floating in the infinite darkness of the night sky and inspecting the shining city with eagle eyes. But if she was an eagle then she had no wings with which to escape this prison and no matter how much she wished to become an artist or dreamer and fill in the gaps that should have been there, she couldn't. An artist required tools to paint with and a dreamer required vision in order to see beauty, but what beauty of any kind could be found here?

Luna soon resigned to the fact that she could not call this place her Alexander anymore, and with the sealing of the keyhole she decided it was time to let go.

* * *

Sora awoke to the sounds of hushed voices somewhere near him. He continuously stared at the fan on the ceiling above him watching as it rotated. As much as he wanted to move his head or any part of his body for that matter, his body refused to move as it once did, resulting only in slight contractions and relaxations of certain muscles such as his fingers and toes.

It came to him that maybe he shouldn't be trying to focus on moving his body all at once but rather one part at a time. He concentrated on his fingers and willed them to move one by one. When what he saw as requirements were fully satisfied he started working on his wrists. Slow wrist rotations seemed to be all he could do for if he tried it any other way, his wrists seemed not to respond. After finding out more limitations of his body, he gave up and looked back up at the ceiling.

"Guess I'll be missing my date." Sora managed to say with some difficulty. His words, however quiet they may have been had not been lost on the other two people in the room.

"Sora!" Kairi said running forward and giving him a hug that was very much appreciated by the receiver but wasn't really needed at the moment. Sora felt wet pellets hit his face from Kairi's own as she cried over him and he couldn't help but think that it was his fault that she was crying in the first place.

"Let him breathe Kairi. He's just woken up and is probably confused." Riku said. "And just what exactly did you mean by date?"

"Oh nothing. So how long was I out?" Sora asked trying to smile only to find it incredibly painful to do so. He wanted to use as little words as possible to spare what was left of his hoarse voice.

"A week."

"A WEEK? I-" Sora suddenly interrupted himself as he felt a sharp pain in his chest and was forced to cough.

"Hey there, take it easy. You were poisoned. Thankfully we had Master Yen Sid and Porom there to help extract it before it was too late. Because of that you fell into a coma. Oh, thank goodness it wasn't any longer than a week. Not even Yen Sid knew when you would awake." Kairi explained with clear relief on her face.

"I must have looked like sleeping beauty… except male of course." Sora said weakly. He remembered hearing from Aurora about the time she had fallen into a deep sleep due to Maleficent's curse. "Wait, did you say poison?"

"Yes. From what we gathered it was a slow-acting one. If you have any ideas like maybe something you ate or drank…"

"Drank? Yeah, I think I have an idea. I guess that date is definitely cancelled then." Sora murmured.

"Uh Sora, is there something you're not telling us?" Kairi asked with an accusing stare.

Sora nodded slowly and began his hypothesis. "Well, there was a woman at a café downtown. Dressed up like one of those gothic characters from Tidus' manga. I order coffee, she brings me it. Little do I know that it's laced with poison. Sounds good?"

"The coffee. That definitely sounds possible… did the woman tell you her name?" Riku asked. He nodded before questioning Sora again. "Can you tell us where the café is then?"

"It's near the library. Let me come with-" As Sora tried to force himself up, an intense force seemed to be pushing him back down at the same time pulling him into a stalemate where he wanted to move but his body wouldn't allow him.

"You need to rest Sora. You'll be feeling this way for a while so try to get some rest, doctor's orders. We'll check out the café." Kairi said putting a soft hand on his shoulder. If Sora could have taken it into his own and feel the reassuring warmth it accompanied, he would have.

"Here I am confined to my own death bed. I suppose 16 isn't a bad age to go out." Sora said with a chuckle. To his surprise, Riku's next words had sent him into a phase of bewilderment.

"Glad to know one of us is so cheerful at the moment." he said. No, it wasn't the words themselves, but the context they had been said in for depending on that Riku's words could have either been interpreted as mild sarcasm or annoyance. In this case it was the latter.

"I'm just making light of a serious situation. I can't do that?" Sora questioned with a raised brow.

"You were almost killed and I can guarantee that it was that Moira's Crescent group who were behind it." Riku rebutted with a grave look on his face much unlike anything Sora had ever seen from his friend. Moira's Crescent… that was the name they had come to be known as amongst their peers. While looking for information, Aerith had come across the name in a logging book in the library. The name had seemed unlike the others in the book and Yen Sid was the one to confirm it. The name had matched up with a matching name he had heard over ten years ago for an order of Keyblade Knights who had deserted their worlds to form a union. So Salome and Alfonso had left a parting gift for the group to go on, but the question was why such a weird name as Moira's Crescent? It didn't exactly sound threatening though that may not have been the intention… and over a decade? The more Sora thought about it, the less it made sense as always. Riku continued, "What would have happened if you hadn't been with us at the time?"

"Well I was so what's your point?" Sora wanted to shout out but it only ended in that hoarse tone that he was still not quite used to.

"I don't think you understand what situation you're in. This isn't where you use levity as a means of diffusing tense situations and as much as I'd like to think this never happened I can't let it go so easily." Riku said. Not wanting to deal with this right now, Sora shook his head in disbelief before looking back up at the ceiling.

"Please stop fighting you two. Riku, we just need to go to that café and investigate." Kairi urged. "Don't worry Sora, we'll be back soon. Oh, and some friends are waiting outside. I'll tell them you're awake." Sora looked back at her and smiled. She lifted her hand from his shoulder and turned to leave.

Riku watched as she exited the room before looking back. "I really am glad that you're alright." There was no anger behind his words anymore but the concern was still there both in voice and face. He soon left too leaving Sora to ponder on things before the next set of visitors came.

So that woman had been a member of Moira's Crescent all along, or maybe she had even been someone from Kefka's side, or was it an entirely different person all together? Riku seemed to think it was the first one and if that was true then that meant that she also had a Keyblade. They had done that twice now… just like Salome and Alfonso, she had played on the tactic of deception pretending to be a regular citizen of the world just to keep her eye on him. _How did the saying go? Fool me once, shame on you…_ Sora was distracted from his thoughts as a knock came followed by a group of familiar faces.

The first into the room was Donald erupting in a fit of squawks as he ran up to Sora's bed. Goofy ran into the room soon after and threw himself onto Sora in worry. "Goofy, please…" Sora wheezed thinking his diaphragm was about to be crushed at any moment.

"Get offa him ya big palooka." Donald said dragging Goofy away by the collar leaving him on the floor next to the third person in the room.

"Naminé." Sora uttered her name. The splitting image of Kairi and yet different in so many ways, she had been granted independence from her Nobody but was still the shy girl he had first met back in Castle Oblivion, or as Sora sometimes liked to imagine, back on the islands where he had met her in his fake memories.

It was for a moment, but it had been enough for Sora to feel a jolt of fear and a shiver down his spine. It was impossible of course, and Sora had to really wonder if he was going insane. After all, the person who was standing before him could not have been Yeul. It was Namine… and yet he had thought he had seen her in Namine's place for that brief flash.

"I'm so glad you're okay. I can't even begin to imagine what was must be going through your mind right now. I…" Namine began but stopped and looked away hesitantly. Sora wondered what she was about to say but seeing the King of Disney Castle by the doorway made his attention shift to him.

"Heya pal, how're ya copin'?" Mickey Mouse asked making his way to Sora's bedside.

"It could be better. Golden draped curtains, a glass of lemonade, maybe being able to actually move… all those would be nice but I'll take the cards I'm dealt." Sora answered.

"Yup, we've definitely got our Sora back!" Goofy exclaimed jovially, maybe a little too much because the next thing he knew Goofy was back on him and Donald had to tear him off again.

The next visitor was a most unexpected surprise. Sora had not even talked to David Xanatos in a while so to see him by his door raised both eyebrows.

"It's fortunate that your friends were near you when it happened. I'm sure you must be wondering where you are," he started with a relieved smile on his face. "You're currently residing in one of our investments in this town. A special ICU facility for dealing with cases like yours where a patient reaches critical conditioning. They're taken here where for the duration of their stay they are monitored extensively. Even after Yen Sid and Porom had successfully managed to extract the poison from your body, the doctors and chemists here were responsible for making sure you stayed in a stable condition."

"Thank you. Still, it's surprising to believe that little Porom could do something as big as that. I really have to thank her when I see her," Sora said slightly saddened that she wasn't here to see him awaken. "Do you know someone named Colette? She said you offered her a job."

"Yes. She's in a different facility but after hearing what happened to you, she insisted that she be one of the people who looked after you. She's a bright hope in a world so full of uncertainty, I'm sure you've noticed that too." Xanatos told him.

"Yeah, her and Stephanie. Uh, Stephanie wasn't here, was she?"

"Don't worry. Colette didn't want her to see you like this." Namine answered.

"You make it sound as if it's a bad thing," Sora replied. "On one hand I feel stronger than ever. I've been thinking, wouldn't life be simple if you could just tell who was lying to you at a glance? If that happened then you wouldn't need to doubt because that requires you not knowing whether the person is lying to you or not. Believing in people you should doubt, doubting in people you should believe. This sucks…" Sora muttered faintly and let out a soft chuckle as he let his head sink back onto the pillow, his self-pitying smile contrasting with the worried faces of the room. His eyes shifted to the window next to his bed where the most unusual bird lay perched. It was a beautiful green, and Sora only had a few seconds to stare at it before it took off.

* * *

Riku followed Kairi in an absentminded state for the eleven minutes it took to reach the café Sora had mentioned. Kairi, probably aware of Riku's tendency to overthink things, had uttered nary a sound during this time apart from the occasional one or two comments of relief over Sora's good luck. Luck was the problem in Riku's eyes. To rely on something as questionable and unreliable as luck was not usually a good thing and the alternate scenarios that could have taken place were not ones Riku wanted to think about.

A fear settled in the pits of Riku's stomach that he shouldn't have had to carry because it didn't feel like he was carrying it for him, but rather for his friend. The smile Riku had seen on Sora's face and his simple ability to make light out of complexities. If this had been any other time, Riku would have agreed. What Sora didn't seem to understand or at least take seriously was the fact that he had almost died and his friends had almost lost him.

Maybe time needed to pass before it fully kicked in, after all he just woken up after a week and was still trying to figure things out. Maybe that was the best way Sora could deal with the situation internally. The past week had been one of the most stressing for Riku so it was possible that he himself was still coming off an emotional distress.

He decided to pose a question to Kairi. "Am I right to be worrying over this the way I am? I feel like I'm burdening for two where I shouldn't have to."

"You care about Sora, that's what friends do. But, Sora never has been one to reveal his thoughts to everyone just like that. What he says isn't always entirely what he's thinking. You must have noticed it since you're the same." Kairi answered.

"I didn't know you were our psychologist." Riku said with a smirk before continuing, "I guess it must come as obvious to you. We all have thing we'd rather keep inside, I understand that. It's just that sometimes those are thoughts that are the most dangerous. It's not just here either. He's been reckless ever since we lost Luna. Sometimes I get the feeling that-"

"That what?" Kairi interjected abruptly in annoyance. "That he doesn't care? Riku, he lost someone dear to him who he promised he would protect. He saw her fall and he doesn't even know if she's alive. Things like that don't go without some sort of scar."

"But you pick up the pieces and realize that being impatient is not going to help things go by any quicker. Now that we've got this Moira's Crescent group on our tail we have to be more careful than ever. I don't like any of this one bit." Riku said. Their conversation was short as they entered through the double café doors. A circulation of cold air took hold of Riku as he located the source of this current to be coming from the air conditioning unit on one of the walls high enough to the point where it couldn't be reached.

Riku led the way to the counter where they encountered a boy probably in his late teens who was behind the cash register. The casual line of 'How may I take your order?' was soon to become an interrogation.

"Is there a woman working here who has a… how do I put this… an unusual fashion sense such as dressing up in gothic clothes?" he initiated ignoring the member of staff's question.

"We did have someone like that. She was working here for a while until as of about five days ago when she left. I'm not sure I understand why you want to know about her though." The man recalled with a face the color of a cherry.

_Is he… blushing about something? Do I even want to know? _Riku frowned and shook off these thoughts before asking the attendant about the woman's name.

"I want to know why you're so interested in her in the first place. I don't have to give you her name if I don't have to." He replied in a manner most highly suspicious. He had seemed very defensive for no reason whatsoever.

Riku shook his head and slammed his hand onto the table causing a loud enough ruckus for anyone nearby to hear it. "That isn't how this works. I ask the questions, you give me answers. Now what is her name?"

"Riku? Riku… I think it would be better if you just let me handle this?" Kairi suggested. Riku nodded feeling that he had overstepped his boundaries and eased away from the counter muttering an apology under his breath.

"Now you have to understand. Our friend was poisoned and we think it was because that girl put poison in his coffee. No, actually we _definitely_ know she put poison in his coffee." Kairi said.

"What? Delcia would never- OH CRAP!"

"And that's how you score a home run Riku. You may want to try taking your own advice sometime. You know, about being patient." Kairi stated in a posh voice.

"But how were you so sure that he would say it?" Riku asked in disbelief. Surely it couldn't have been that easy.

"The way he was talking, seems like our boy has a little crush on Miss Delcia, wouldn't you think?" Kairi asked.

Riku could admit that the possibility hadn't entered his head in the first place. _Trust Kairi to be more attentive on matters like this, _Riku thought giving a sign of admittance with a nod before turning back to the man.

"Right, so… um, Delcia, was it? You've completely thrown me of my rhythm you know that?" he mentioned in jest to Kairi who stuck her tongue out as a response. "Did she mention where she was going by any chance?"

"She's a one of a kind, I'll tell you that much. She had such a mysterious smile and-"

"Yeah, th- that's really great and all but please, it would really help us if you could try to remember if she told you where she was going." Riku said trying to remain calm as Kairi had suggested.

"No actually. She just left without saying a word. But my Delcia wouldn't do something as vile as poisoning someone. There's just no way!" The assistant clamored frantically.

_My Delcia? Just what is this guy on? _Riku cringed and exchanged brief glances with Kairi before stating what both of them were thinking. "Aaaaaaaand he's losing it. Well, thank you very much for your time. We'll just leave you to your… thoughts."

With all that said and done, both Riku and Kairi left the café quickly and exhaled deeply at the awkward scene they had just been in. Kairi leaned against the building and laughed joyfully.

"Well, that was fun," she mouthed sarcastically. "Looks like our suspect has charmed her way into the hearts of man as well. So, where do we begin looking for her?"

"We might not be able to. If she's a Keyblade wielder then she might be long gone along with Astra if they're both working together. Damn it! Why do we have to hit a dead end now of all times!" Riku attempted to drive his fist into the building but stopped short and only for it to drop to his side a second later. Kairi's hand slamming against the wall in his place scared him out of his grieving.

"Well I won't give up, and you won't either Riku. We'll protect Sora no matter what may come our way. And like any of us have ever let a dead end stop us before. It's how I met you guys. Question: What do you do when a brick wall stands in your way? You smash it down."

* * *

Astra felt out of place as she watched the others mourn over the loss of their friend for two reasons. The first was that she had never been good with sad events like funerals. It simply didn't suit her personality to come and see people mourn over their dead ones. It also felt like she was saying goodbye, something she had promised never to do to a certain someone in her life. The second reason was because she couldn't understand why they were mourning over this person in particle. After all, they had been hunting him down for six months after he had turned traitor. She had even posed the question to one of these nine people standing before her.

"Traitor? Traitor is… a harsh word wouldn't you say? I prefer to think that he was scared. We all have that moment when we crack and unfortunately for him it happened at the worst possible moment." was Rhea's response. Currently the age of 28, she had had no choice but to watch over the period of her life as her eyesight slowly grew worse until the day came when she knew only black. Astra could only begin to imagine what she must have gone through during this time, so she would probably have known more about cracks than anyone here. Still, she possessed an unusual trait that Astra admired. She had trained herself to use her other senses as her vision deteriorated so that when the time came, they greater, almost supernatural, to that of anyone else's in the underground cavern they were in now.

Astra moved in closer until she reached Salome's side. "What's that?" she pointed to the small object that had been set down next to the newer grave in a field of others much older. It had taken them some time to track down this cavern in Radiant Garden. It had apparently been the sight of Moogles a long time ago who had mined for orichalcum as seen by the various tracks made by cart wheels in the earthy ground throughout the huge area. The graves however belonged to humans so Astra imagined that a society must have at least lived here away from the eyes of those above for some reason.

"A locket that Abraxa- that Kyle always used to carry around. It had a picture of his sister in it. She died a few years before we went under the chronostasis so whenever he went on missions he would always carry it around. It's why we're here... see that grave next to his?" Salome responded sorrowfully. Astra looked to the tombstone on the right to see the name _Sabara _engraved on it. "Through wind, snow, mud, rain… Kyle and that locket were inseparable. Which is why I can't believe that this happened… Abraxas and Kyle, they're so different but one was fun to be with and the other… killed Yeul."

"Oh grow up." Alfonso shook his head in disgust with his eyes still closed as they had been this entire time. "Abraxas, yes because he would prefer to be called that, knew exactly what he was doing. Experimenting on people and turning them into freaks of nature is not what I would describe as a rational human being. From the moment we're born we all enter an unwritten social contract which establishes the rules of what we can and cannot do. Many times in the past, those rules have been challenged and they still are being challenged to this day. But it's simple. Those who don't play by the rules get punished. Xehanort was punished and so was Abraxas. He was long gone and practically begged to be put out of his misery with the way he acted."

"Have respect for the dead please, or why are you even here in the first place?" Rhea's soft and gentle voice broke through what seemed to be the starting of an argument between the two. "Though you won't admit it, I'm sure you realize that Kyle was family to us. Otherwise you wouldn't have bothered coming, right?"

"Tch. Like you know me! He became way too interested in Sora and less on trying to keep himself sane. That's the sort of thing that gets you killed." Alfonso said.

"With all due respect, you are not exactly a team player Alfonso." Another woman in the room said with a faux French accent, or at that was what it felt like to Astra. "Nevertheless from here on out Desiree Elegia Skye can confirm that Sora is no more."

"You mean to say you killed him with a ridiculously cheap ass tactic?" Vyce scoffed running one hand through his unruly brown hair before pulling a smug grin. Despite his disposition of keeping to himself, he was quick to pull off sudden quips and jokes when least expected, something that Astra found relatable to herself and so many of the conversations that had taken place between the two had been competitions trying to one up the other person. He had on more than one occasion saved Astra many times than she could count so she considered him alright even if he was annoying at times.

"Cheap ass?" Desiree repeated with huff of annoyance. "Why be so picky over a method? Poison or no, what difference does it make? I got rid of the problem, now we can rest easy."

"Not according to my little birdy you didn't." A girl with blonde locks sneered underneath her red hood. On her shoulder was perched a green parakeet which she moved to stroke gently. "Jack's told me that Sora is alive and well. Paralyzed… but alive nonetheless. Looks like you failed."

"Dang, said straight from the creepy chick who likes talking to animals. You fail. Any words 'Delcia'?" Vyce said eagerly as if he had just won an extraordinary prize.

"W-well, I can do it again."

"Again you say? With the same exact method? He would have to be really stupid to fall for that twice you know?" Vyce replied with gritted teeth.

"It's okay." The man in front of Abraxas' grave said with a thoughtful glance. This was the man who had been responsible for putting this group together in the first place: their leader, although he much preferred to be called a friend. "Even if that didn't work, he now will have to deal with the knowledge that we'll be keeping tabs on him every step of the way. I don't prefer to do this but we'll use fear to keep him on his toes if we have to."

"Kohle, do you hate Sora?" Astra decided to ask.

"Hate? How can I hate someone I don't know? Besides, Salome's right. Hate is too strong a word which many often use in the wrong context. No, we're just doing what needs to be done in order to protect the worlds." he answered before turning around and looking at her. "I know he didn't mean much to you but for us he was family, even if some of us aren't as forgiving. He simply fell to the misfortune known as destiny, just like Sora-"

"Sora has no excuse. Luna is missing because of him… I don't even know if she's alive!" Astra threw her hands up in the air before starting to pace back and forth.

"She's alive. If she's like you then she won't have given up yet."

"How can you be so sure?"

Kohle smiled before buttoning up his beige trench coat before beginning his anecdote. "Because I've seen things happen that I would never have expected. I was out in the grassy plains of a world… Morgana I think it was called. It's this absolutely beautiful world with a magnificent forest that stretches out as far as the eye can see and… Anyway, while I was on these plains you wouldn't believe what I had come across. It was a chocobo, not just an ordinary one but one of multicolored feathers, vivid and energetic both in appearance and personality. A rainbow Chocobo, can you believe that? It seemed too good to be true. I thought I was dreaming but there it was. Slowly I moved forwards to approach it. I wanted to touch its feathers, confirm its authenticity. But before I could do so it noticed me and ran away. After that I became completely obsessed with finding that Chocobo. Whenever I could I would go back to Morgana, stand on those very same planes and hope to catch sight of the magnificent rare bird but I never was able to find it again."

"Huh, so what happened?" Rhea asked. She seemed to take keen interest in Kohle's stories. Astra couldn't even begin to figure out whether he were just making them up as he went along or actually telling the truth. The fact that he didn't stumble however seemed to suggest that he either was telling the truth, or was just a masterful storyteller.

"I gave up. It's something any rational person would do. After all why chase something so unobtainable? So dream like? A few years later, I was lost in thick woods. This was a different world where there wasn't a town within miles. It was winter and I was starving. I know I seem like the kind of guy who is usually so composed but believe me when I say I was frightened as all hell. I passed out eventually. The next thing I know, I wake up and find myself in a clearing with this shimmering crystal river in front of me and icy trees surrounding it covered in snow. And there it was, the Chocobo with rainbow feathers. It had found me and carried me to this source of nutrition.

"So the moral of the story is that sometimes things will find you when you least expect them to. It's not a question of whether you will or won't find your friend, but a matter of how far you'll go to find her, and once you do that, how far you'll go to protect her."


	9. Pursuit of Happiness

_Went to the MCM London Expo on saturday. Probably one of those defining moments when you've made so many fond memories that you don't want to go back to your normal boring life. That place was like another world entirely- one filled with Kiritos left and right. OK, not just Kirito but I certainly won't exaggerate when I say I saw a lot of Kiritos. _

_Anyway, it's time for another chapter of Cracks of the Past, and we're about to have some development for Namine. _

* * *

**Chapter 9**

**Pursuit of Happiness**

Namine watched as the refreshments she had bought were loaded into the paper brown bag, paid the cashier up front and then left the store. A chilly wind ran through the street that was welcomed by the blonde. Back in Twilight Town, she had never been able to feel this wind. Her stay in the mansion had made any acquisition of nature almost foreign to her. For Namine, it had been the equivalent of an eclipse, a rare opportunity in Twilight Town but all too common in blustery Radiant Garden as of late.

Winter was definitely hitting home, that was for sure. She clasped the handle of the bag tightly and wrapped her hands around her jacket covered body. She didn't know much about the process, but she would have given anything to become a cocoon if it meant dealing with the bitterness and cold.

It had been three days since Sora had awakened from the poisoning and much to his annoyance the medics had prohibited him from leaving the hospital. Looking at Sora's current condition, Namine couldn't exactly disagree with them. He looked just as weak as he had been when he had woken up and he could hardly move his body. She couldn't begin to imagine how painful it was for Sora to just lie and watch as the rest of the world moved around him.

With nothing else to do, Namine had offered to watch over Sora as the others carefully planned their next move. If there was one thing that anyone had gotten out of this, it was that as things stood regarding their conduct of operations, something would have to change. As to what that was—well, everyone was scared of that as well.

Namine re-entered the hospital and was met with a rush of hot air from the contrast of inside and out. She took the usual path up the stairs to the second floor and down the maze of corridors to reach Sora's room. As she had remembered Xanatos saying, the hospital was divided into different wards with each unit specializing over that particular condition. One of the conversations she had had with Sora over the past three days had been about how much Radiant Garden had changed from the Hollow Bastion that had been controlled by Maleficent.

If Namine could take a positive out of the current events, this would be it. Beforehand, she had only known Sora through sharing a connection with him. She had created false memories, ones that had almost led to Sora becoming a puppet for the Organization's plans. To think that Sora could forgive her after all that she had done was not something she would have expected, and yet he had. That was the first time Namine had gotten to know Sora. It wasn't until now however that she was able to speak with him like normal friends would. She could tell that when they were conversing, he was happy to have her as company and that in turn filled her with a happiness that had rarely been found.

Namine reached the ward in which Sora was contained and knocked on the door before entering. "Sora, I bought some sandwiches from the store that we can ea-SORA?!" The bag dropped from Namine's hands and she ran over to the bed hoping her eyes were playing tricks on her. Alas, she had to deal with the fact that her mind wasn't playing tricks. Sora was gone leaving a vacant bed behind. What was more troubling however was that next to the bed, the window was opened wide.

_Did something happen to him while I was gone? What if they've gotten to him? _Namine was sure she had the right room as well so that only left one possibility as much as she didn't want to think about it. Namine turned to leave however before she could a wave of dizziness overcame her. Namine moved to the side of the room and tried to steady herself by leaning against the wall.

A blurred room soon became a clear one after a while. Carefully, Namine shakily made her way out of the room and set off down the corridor. It was happening again. The random visions in her head that ceased to quit, but they gave her a good idea as to where Sora went. She shook off the terrible feeling she felt in her stomach and walked over to the elevator. Namine waited for the door to open before stepping inside and pressing the button which led to the top floor.

After walking from one part of the floor to another and taking some stairs, she arrived on the roof of the hospital. The orange sunset poured through the wired fences covering the rooftop for safety. While she could have spent time admiring its beauty, there was something much more important that needed her immediate attention. On her right and grasping onto the fence while looking through its quadrilateral holes was…

"Sora?"

Sora turned around a bit too quickly after hearing her voice, sending a sharp jolt of pain through his spine. He winced and slumped to the ground with gritted teeth. She immediately rushed to his side and offered to help him up but he refused.

"Namine? Why are you here?" he asked languidly.

"I could ask you the same thing." Namine replied with a look of expectation on her face.

"You saw the window. I climbed." he said after a while in a matter-of-factly voice.

"You climbed all the way from the second floor to the roof?" Namine asked. Sora let out a laugh. The look on her face was more one of amazement than confusion.

"What? Don't be silly… there's a fence blocking the way to the roof. No, I climbed up to the last floor and then took the stairs to the roof." Sora explained.

"You make it sound like that's any better." Namine said before sitting next to him. "I thought you couldn't move your body."

"I thought I couldn't either. It still hurts badly if that's what you're asking but I can't stay here anymore. The more time I waste lying in a bed staring at the ceiling, the less time there'll be to rescue Luna and Alice." Sora said.

"You're not wasting time. You're recovering so you can find them faster. You still look worse for wear." Namine told him but Sora simply laughed again, his face contorting into a wry grin afterwards.

"Compared to what those two are probably going through, this is nothing. I know my limits and this is not it. I just… don't want to feel so powerless while everyone else is doing something. Even you… you do more things for me than I could ever ask for. I'm thankful, but I won't let myself be intimidated by a bunch of people who want me dead." Sora said before helping himself back up by grabbing at the fence. "I want them to know that I'm still standing. That I'm still Sora."

Namine stayed sitting down not sure what to say. Both of them knew that once Sora set out to accomplish something there was no stopping him. Namine didn't want to think of it as being selfish even if she knew others wouldn't be too entirely happy at the idea. What she was seeing here was pure unadulterated Sora at his best—the fourteen year old boy that had rescued her in a Castle filled with twisted traps now turned sixteen. How time had flown by…

"I need to know you're with me on this Namine. I'm not saying it'll be easy, I might not even be back to full strength for a while but… you have to trust me on this." he coaxed with pleading eyes. Him holding out his hand with his pinky finger extended was what had really done Namine in. Their promise. Namine got up and used her own little finger to make contact.

"I trust you."

* * *

"I feel like a criminal doing this." Namine said to Sora as they reached the first floor. Sora appreciated her doing her best to support him by having an arm around her shoulder but still felt sorry that she had to do this for him.

"Which is weird because I couldn't even picture you stealing out of the cookie jar." said Sora. He made sure to keep his head down as he passed through the reception desk just in case but if anything he was sure the spiky hair would have given it away.

"Have you ever stolen from the cookie jar?" Namine asked half-jokingly.

"Why are you asking me? You can see through my memories." Sora answered though Namine's distant look at this made him want to immediately retract this statement. It was clear that she still wasn't happy with having such an unexplainable power and Sora's mention of it had only brought painful memories to the surface. He moved quickly to answer her question. "I've had my moments. There was this one time when my mom hid our cookie jar away because I kept eating too much sweets. A few days after that my friend Selphie had been invited over since my mom and hers are also good friends. While we were playing hide and seek around the house we just happened to come across it by coincidence and you can guess what happened after that."

"Well that's a far cry from the other things that you've done. Just kidding." said Namine with a smile. Now it was Sora's turn to feel unsettled. Had she just said that because she really was kidding or did she know more than she was letting on? He was probably overthinking it but either way a problem wouldn't arise if Sora didn't show a reaction. For that, he was grateful that he was hanging his head low as he exited the hospital.

The sliding doors gave way allowing the two the leave the hospital. Sora finally raised his head and gave a nod of appreciation before detaching himself from Namine. A rush of wind made his weak bones feel brittle and buckled over, falling to the ground.

"Sora, are you alright? Maybe we should go back-"

"No… no, I'll be fine. Just not used to walking after so long." Sora told her and was about to try and get up when he came across the look of worry in her eyes. "On second thought, it's better if you support me." This seemed to please Namine, and with Sora back up on his feet and in Namine's care, the two set off once more towards Merlin's house.

As they were walking down the cold damp streets, Sora began to consider how he could possibly make it up to his helper. She had risked so much just helping him and he couldn't even begin to think of a proper gift for her in return. In his own absorption of thoughts, he somehow became lost and wondered back to a previous time. He had been in Christmas Town, having successfully taken down the Dr. Finkelstein's experiment with Donald, Goofy and Jack. In the end, all the experiment had wanted was not so much the presents it had stolen as it had been the feelings associated with having the present.

Similarly here, Namine had never been seen to want anything more than to spend time with Sora—at least that was how he felt whenever he had been with her back in the hospital. In a way, Sora had already given her a present, something he had been unable to do any time before that. He had promised himself once that on their next meeting he would thank her. It had not been until now that those words had obtained any sort of weight to them. That was at least one promise he was able to keep.

_Time to face the music, _Sora thought with a pensive stare as they neared Merlin's door. Namine's knock came followed by a few seconds of silence except for a blustery wind. How many times had he arrived here in a condition that hadn't been satisfactory? Twice now? He became amused at the thought of this becoming a frequent thing.

"Can't an old man get some peace and quiet around here? Honestly, sometimes I wish I hadn't allowed them to use my home as their base of operations. Now what do you want?" muttered the bemoaning of a grumpy old man, of course Sora really knew that Merlin past this was kind and very easy to warm to. Many a time had he enlightened the room with a warmth and joy that only someone of his grandfatherly calibre could achieve.

The door opened and Merlin's tired and acerbic face twisted into one full of surprise. "Sora m'boy! I'm glad you're okay. I suppose you were making excellent recovery so they decided to let you out then. Only to be expected really." he stuttered trying to cover for his previous words.

"Is it that bad Merlin?" Sora said cheekily.

"Urgh, I'd hate to place my troubles on you lad but those pixies have been driving me absolutely of my rockers for a while now. They misplace things in places they shouldn't, argue constantly… I don't know how much more I can take."

Sora nodded thoughtfully before answering. "I'll talk to them. They'll definitely listen then."

"I don't know how Leon puts up with them sometimes." Merlin said shaking his head unenthusiastically.

"Maybe he sees that they have the potential to be good." Sora suggested. Merlin stared vacantly for a second before letting out an incredulous laugh that could have rang out to the heavens. Sora had to admit it was pretty impressive anyway though he was unsure of what he had said exactly to warrant such laughter.

Merlin soon allowed them in after his laughter subsided and Namine quickly helped Sora over to a seat that was next to the warm fireplace. Sora imagined that much like Yen Sid's tower, Merlin's place consisted of things that moved around from time to time because not one thing was in the same place as it had been when he had first come here over a year ago.

Before Sora could sink into the chair and become fully comfortable, four faces popped into the room. As expected two of them were ecstatic at the sight of their friend while the other two were appeared suspicious or curious.

"Sora, I thought they said that you needed more time to recover. Why are you here?" Riku asked slowly.

Before Namine could respond for him Sora quickly cut in with a lie. "What, am I too good for your hospitality Riku? Don't worry. They said I was recovering much faster than they expected so they let me go." He figured that if he were to tell the truth right now it would cause more problems that he didn't need, especially when considering the look on Riku's face. Much to his own awe, he had been able to muster enough strength to speak in his normal tone without appearing weak.

"Well that's a good thing… ain't it?" Goofy asked taking note of Riku's and Donald's expressions.

"Of course it is! Good to have you back Sora." Donald said quickly, probably not wanting to sound doubtful of his friend's words.

"I think we oughta throw a welcome back party for Sora, don't you?" Kairi added. "I mean it's a little unexpected with the timing, but I think we can prepare by night time even if for just a small dinner with everyone. Maybe something like takeaway will be fine if that's okay."

"That sounds great Kairi. I'm looking forward to if it means that Aerith doesn't burn any more food." Sora said before standing up slowly and with a pained expression. "Do you mind if I use the bathtub Merlin? My body feels kinda tense right now."  
"Of course, anything to make you feel more at home." Merlin answered. Sora smiled and grabbed onto several objects around the room to keep him upright as he made his way into the hallway. He imagined that this act must have appeared strange to those behind him considering what he had just said but he didn't care right now. Just one moment of relaxation where he didn't have to think much would have been appreciated. He could deal with the rest later.

Somehow Sora managed to find his way into the bathroom albeit terribly slowly. On the shelves hosted several glass bottles and vials filled with what he assumed to be different potions that Merlin had made. He reached over and turned on both of the taps allowing both hot and cold water to flow from their source before turning to the potions on the shelf. He took one of them and twisted it around in his hand to inspect it. Finding no label to be on the bottle, he pulled off the cork and didn't even need to sniff it before a strong odor entered his nostrils. It had the fond smell of burning candle wax which Sora took amusement in. After a while he added the purple contents into the bath.

The next few minutes, Sora experimented with the different potions, adding them into the bubble bath mixture as he saw fit and watching as the foam built up and became denser. Each potion was off a distinct smell ranging from fruit flavors to the smell of sandalwood. By the time had finished and had turned the taps off, the bathtub was filled with an endearing white icy foam that seemed to sparkle here and there like the individual stars in the sky.

Sora could feel the soreness and resistance of his own body as he stripped down from head to toe with some difficulty before slipping into the tub.

A great sigh escaped from his lips as he settled into its warmth. He allowed his head to fall backwards as he felt the properties of the water and the various potions already doing their work on his body—or maybe it was the relaxation of his mind that made the pain he felt in his body almost non-existent. He closed his eyes and let out another loud sigh as he started stretch his various muscles.

"Sora, are you OK? AHHH!"

Sora spluttered after almost swallowing some of the foamy water. He quickly looked over to the door where Namine stood in covering her eyes. He made sure he had enough foam gathered to cover his body before whispering sharply.

"Namine, what are you doing here?"

"I am so sorry. The door was open and I thought I heard moaning behind the door and when I went to look-OH! I'm so sorry." she repeated feeling chagrined.

"What did you think I was doing?" Sora said in outrage before breathing deeply. "Look, it's not your fault. I was the one who forgot to close the door. Just, uh-"

"I'll be going then." Namine finished for him with a deep blush of scarlet on her face. She retreated from the room quickly but not before closing the door.

Sora waited for a few seconds before sinking into the comforts that the water provided letting out another exaggerated sigh as he did so. "Well that was awkward, he says putting it lightly."

* * *

After getting out of the bath and putting on some fresh clothes, Sora stepped into the backyard of Merlin's garden to see a long table with oyster pails set out down the table and chopsticks stacked on top each food box neatly. Excluding a certain few, pretty much everyone was there waiting for him.

"Well if it isn't the guest of honor." Lea said breaking off his conversation with Ventus upon noticing Sora. Next to them were Roxas and Xion who were chatting animatedly with Namine and Kairi. Sora and Namine briefly exchanged glances before the two both looked away in embarrassment. Kairi must have noticed because she kept shifting her eyes back and forth suspiciously.

"When'd you guys arrive?" Sora asked the Twilight Town trio.

"About five days ago. You alright buddy?" Roxas asked his once other half.

"Never felt better." Sora lied. It had definitely been some sort of placebo effect back in that bathtub because no sooner had he left it than the pain had shot back up and returned to his body. It was less than before, but still present. It would have felt odd lying to Roxas if he had been his other half like before, but the two were no long joined and Roxas was his own person. Even if he didn't want to do it, it certainly made things easier.

"Welcome back Sora, we all missed you." Rinoa said prancing and pouncing from behind Sora to wrap her arms around him.

"Aren't you engaged?" Kairi asked with a tinge of jealousy. Feeling the weight of Rinoa's arms against his shoulders almost made him want to collapse but Sora continued to hold his ground and waited for Rinoa to untangle herself.

"Where's Riku and Cloud?" Sora asked.

"I'm not sure 'bout Cloud but Riku said he needed to check somethin' out quickly and that he'd be back soon." Goofy informed him.

"Oh forget those two. Hurry up and dig in before the food gets cold," Yuffie said pointing to the boxes. "Or before I eat them all. Whichever one comes first."

"I didn't know you were such a glutton Yuffie." Tifa said with a chuckle.

"Hey! The great ninja needs energy if she's going to be great, dontcha think Sora?"

"Why are you asking me?" Sora asked. A sudden growl of the stomach had the Keyblade wielder challenge Yuffie to who would be the first to get to the table. Unfortunately, a combination of Yuffie's hunger and agility as a proclaimed ninja got her there faster.

In all honesty, Sora didn't feel it was right to describe this as a party. Not because the mood wasn't right but because it didn't feel right to celebrate anything without accomplishing anything. He had gotten out the hospital thanks to Namine but only because he didn't want to waste time tracking down Luna. He could really only feel in a celebratory mood once this happened, and then they could set off and rescue Alice.

Over the next half an hour, Sora was distracted by the takeaway he was eating as well as the various conversations going on around the table. It was one of those moments when everything felt unified and no long separated by boundaries or worries. Jokes were cracked, small stories were exchanged and the idea that Sora had been poisoned over a week ago seemed like a long distant memory. It was just the way he wanted it. But no matter how much he smiled or talked as if he had no worries in the world, he was broken clockwork on the inside. He still felt as if the world was moving around him while he was somewhere in limbo.

As if sense this doubt within him, Colette (who had been sitting next to him with Stephanie) had placed her hand on Sora's and gave it a tight reassuring squeeze. "This may not be my place to say this, but your journey's not over yet. Don't doubt yourself. You're just as good as anyone else on this table."

_Good… _Sora wondered about that. Three months ago he would have been ready to strike down Abraxas purely out of revenge. He hadn't gone through with it but he felt as if that one decision had been enough to change something within him.

"Sora. Kairi. You two mind if you come with me for a sec?"

Sora looked away from the table to see Riku who was standing by the door waiting with a look on his face that didn't seem too pleased about something. Colette let go of Sora's hand and gave him a smile that actually seemed to hurt Sora more than comfort him. He got up from the bench and waited for Kairi to join his side before the two headed back into the house along with Riku.

When they arrived in the empty living room, Kairi finally asked what had been on both her and Sora's minds. "Okay, just what is going on Riku and where have you been this whole time?"

Unlike Kairi, Sora could actually guess where the conversation was heading. He hadn't expected it to be so soon but he knew someone as meticulous as Riku would not have left such a gaping hole unquestioned. Therefore, Sora didn't bother to conceal the stolid look on his face as Riku explained to them how he had checked at the hospital only to find that Sora had not been scheduled for release for a while and that he had broken out.

"Not only that but you asked Namine to help you. I don't know what you're playing at but this, in case you haven't noticed it yet, is serious. Do you know how much trouble she could have been in had you been caught?" Riku finished with a raised voice.

"Yes, and trust me, had it been any other way I would have taken it. Look, I just couldn't stay in bed all day while Luna is who knows where-"

"So this is about Luna then?" Riku asked impatiently.

"Yes, it's about Luna!" Sora yelled somehow managing to raise his voice to be equal to that of Riku's. With his voice feeling slightly hoarse, Sora placed his hand against the back of his throat to rub it.

"OK, let me put it to you this way. You've been so focused on rescuing her that you haven't given so much a thought as to your own well being. Did you ever stop to think that by being so careless, you're actually being a hindrance to finding her?" Riku shot back.

"A hindrance? So it's my fault I was poisoned then?"

"You know that's not what I mean. What I'm saying is that you aren't being patient and that you're stalling your own recovery by acting on what you think is right instead of what's right for everyone."

"It doesn't matter what I think is right. I just want to set things right, the things that I screwed up." Sora said. His eyes moved other to the fireplace where the stayed transfixed by the ember flames.

"So you aren't worried about the fact that a group of people are out to kill you by any means necessary?" Riku questioned.

"Y'know, that's not exactly the newest thing on my agenda. I'm not saying I'm not worried… of course I am, but I won't let them throw me off my path. I'm not afraid, at least not of them. I can barely sleep at night. I have nightmares… sometimes of Yeul dying… sometimes of Luna falling. Each time, I reach out thinking I can save them… but the scenes both play out the same. Nothing changes. I made promises to each of them… and I've managed to break them both. How else does that describe me if not weak? The things that matter, I can't protect!" Sora yelled at him before looking at the ground. "That kills me more than they ever could. That's why I can't sit around and wait—because I die a little bit inside every time I do and that pain won't stop hurting until I know for sure that she's alright. If I could have at least kept one promise… then that will have been enough to ease my conscience."

"Even at the expense of your own life?" Riku asked before sitting down on one of the chairs with his hands clasped together. "What about our pain and sorrow Sora? If you die, what happens to me and Kairi? I almost lost you both once, when I became entrapped in my own and Ansem's darkness. If it hadn't been for you, I don't know who I would be right now. I lost my mother when I was young as well, and I'll be honest… I don't know how I managed to get through that. So don't make me think of how I'll be able to get through this, because I know I won't be able to. I will not let you throw your life away. I won't lose someone else important to me. Please, I'm just asking you to reconsider."

"I'm not backing down. This is something I have to do. As Lea so often likes to say, why do I always get stuck with the icky jobs? I guess it's because I'm willing and able to do it if it's for my friends. If it helps, I feel stronger now than I ever could have back in that hospital." Sora said looking back at Riku with a bold gaze. He stopped himself before he could further say anything else because the small fire inside him could have potentially become a raging inferno were he to have said the wrong thing.

"And we'll protect Sora like we always do, right Riku?" Kairi asked with a cheerful look on her face. She had done well to stay out of the conversation until now but also saw the need to be the one who brought about the peaceful resolution to the heated argument.

Riku still looked sceptical even with this promise made by Kairi. Sora wasn't surprised about this either. He didn't expect to change Riku's mind overnight. He may not be able to work miracles but he certainly wasn't incapable either. It was only a question of how much time he would need to prove that to Riku.

"Why don't you come outside and eat with us while the night is still young. Hopefully the great ninja hasn't devoured the food we've left for you yet." Sora proposed, wanting to lay off the topic of his condition just as much as Kairi. He couldn't afford to stop and hesitate now, not even for one moment.

"I'm not hungry." Riku said swallowing the thick air between them before bidding them goodnight and heading out through the front door. Sora waited for the door to close before burying his face into his hands in anger.

"I suppose this is what happens when an unstoppable force meets and immovable object." Kairi observed.

"He's being so thick headed about this. If he's worried about me he doesn't need to be." Sora muttered.

"It's been a stressful week, for all of us. Don't worry, tomorrow we'll all be heading to another world and we'll act like this conversation has never happened. But promise me one thing…" Kairi said before digging into her pocket and pulling out of her wayfinder. Enchantment or no enchantment on it, Kairi's lucky charm had safely guided Sora through his previous journeys. It was the memories that were attached to the charm that were the magic. Sora always felt as if he was carrying a little piece of Kairi along with him whenever he had it. "Don't push yourself too hard, even if you think you're nearing the end. There are so many who become so obsessed with chasing after the goal of making others happy that it comes at the cost of them being unhappy themselves. Don't end up as one of them."

Sora's eyes flicked back and forth between the wayfinder and Kairi's ocean blue eyes before accepting the object in her hands.

"I promise. Let's head back before they start to wonder where their _recovered patient_ has disappeared off to." Sora said. He placed considerable force on the armchair as he helped himself up. Before Kairi could leave the room, Sora called out to her. "And Kairi? You're wrong about one thing. I never once thought I wasn't doing this for myself."

Kairi gave a lopsided smile at this.

"I know."

* * *

_So we have a conflict of interest between our boys so we'll see where that goes. It also won't be the only conflict as we'll see in the next chapter. With Sora being pressured on all sides, just how will he cope? Will he be able to for that matter? Only one way to find out. _


	10. A Series of Unexpected Events

**Chapter 10**

**A Series of Unexpected Events**

"What is he thinking?!" Sora cried out absolutely disgusted by what had just happened in Merlin's backyard. Not even twenty four hours had passed since the party had finished and Sora already found his blood boiling. He looked around the living room with his eyes glaring threateningly like daggers wanting nothing more than to start throwing and smashing things around the room.

"Sora, you need to calm down. You're acting exactly as Master Yen Sid described." Riku said.

"Oh I'd certainly hope so." Sora scoffed let out a harsh laugh that hurt more than he had expected. "I can't see why we can't focus on rescuing both Alice AND Luna instead of prioritizing one over the other."

"According to the old man, it's because of lack of human resources. At the end of the day they're both suicide missions so pick your poison." Lea said. Contrary to what he had just said, Lea had surprisingly shown the most reluctance when they had all heard Yen Sid criticise Sora for showing a reckless attitude as a Keyblade Master. It wasn't like the thought of defying orders was second nature to Lea. He had even gone through the trouble of learning to wield a Keyblade just so he could rescue Roxas and Xion. Therefore, it stood to reason that he would have been highly sympathetic to Sora's dilemma.

"As positive as ever I see." Xion said with a frown.

"What? It's true. That and it would be so convenient if they were both in the same place but I think you'll find that the worlds aren't so kind. And when you consider that we don't even know if Luna's—well, you know—then our best bet is with the one who is important to maintaining the balance of our worlds. Not necessarily my opinion but I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here." Lea replied.

"So at the end of the day it comes down to survival for the one who's more important?" Sora surmised if not just to point out how cruel that had just sounded.

"Well if you put it that way-"

"There's no other way to put it Lea. I care as much as anyone here about Alice but I'm not going to abandon Luna either. We can save both. That's why I'm so annoyed. It's like Yen Sid's just given up on her—like he thinks there's only one way to do things." Sora said clenching his fists so tightly that they began to feel hot and sweaty.

"I'm sure he hasn't given up on- okay, even if I tell you that, that's not gonna change your mind is it?" Lea asked only for Sora to shake his head and reply with a "Nope".

"I think need some coffee to calm you down Sora. We're definitely not giving up on Luna." Aerith said entering the room with a tray carrying a couple of mugs. She handed one to Sora before setting the rest down on the table.

"Wait a second, isn't caffeine a stimulant?" Kairi asked slowly. If only that were the problem, but Sora wasn't too concerned with that. The real problem was that he was now wary of any type of coffee that was given to him after last time. He didn't want to give the wrong impression to Aerith but that didn't stop him from peering into the mug as if he was suspicious of it.

"So let's go over our main objectives." Aqua said after taking a sip of her coffee. "We need to visit each of the princesses' worlds and make sure that we bring them here. We already know that one princess is safe so we have five more to go. In meantime we dig up clues for anything relating to Alice's whereabouts..." She looked wistfully over in Sora's direction but he didn't bother saying anything. He could only stare at the swirling brown liquid in front of him as he rotated it. He didn't know if it was just him or if it was the coffee that really tasted bitter.

Thus their meeting ended on a sour note as they all scrambled to gather their own thoughts over the next few hours before they each left for the world they had been assigned to. Sora, Riku and Kairi had been assigned to bring back their friend Belle who would be living comfortably with Prince Adam (formally known as the Beast). Having to separate the two for an unknown period of time after all they had been through would no doubt be crushing not just for them but for the trio who had fought against Xehanort just to see them stay together.

Those hours soon passed by quickly and the trio soon set off for the Gummi Hangar that had been built just outside of the town as of recent. Riku and Kairi were in the middle of their discussion while Sora was trailing behind with very much the same vacant look on his face that had been there since morning. The sudden feeling of a chill running down his spine grabbed his attention. He spun around, his eyes darting left to right and back as he tried to locate something or someone.

"Is something wrong Sora?" Kairi's concerned voice caused Sora to turn back again.

"Nothing, at least I don't think so. I'm probably just tired." Sora replied scratching his head. For a brief moment he had felt some presence behind him, like something had been following them and watching but in the end he had come across nothing. He didn't want to alert Riku and Kairi to something that could have just been his imagination especially when his own condition was in question at the moment. For now, it was safer to keep his mouth shut until something more conclusive happened. The walk to their destination continued.

"I don't know how many times we've said this but do you think we'll ever get one peaceful moment where we can just settle down in one place?" Kairi asked giving a hearty laugh once they had arrived at the hangar. The unusual sounds of clanging and pumping coupled with the turning of cogs and the smell of fuel made the three feel nauseous. Other than the entrance, there was a much larger exit on the opposite side of the hanger through which the Gummi Ship would leave through as soon as it left the ramp it was currently stationed on.

"I would hazard a guess and say no." Riku said. He seemed a lot more cheerful and accessible to the idea of Sora coming along with them after a night's sleep as Kairi had predicted but he hadn't expressly mentioned this to Sora. If anything, Riku seemed content with forgetting about it and putting it behind him. It was like a silent pact had been formed between the two to not speak of their argument again—or maybe it was simply an 'agree to disagree' situation.

"So, that's it then. We're heading for Belle…" Kairi reiterated what had been agreed on in the meeting.

"Yeah, though not necessarily right now." Riku's words surprised both Sora and Kairi who let out an undignified sound that was drowned out by the machines nearby. "Well, our mission is to take Belle back here. We didn't discuss _when _we had to do that."

Sora stared blankly for a second as if he had just misheard something, but seeing Riku's slight smirk confirmed that what he had heard was correct. Eventually Sora's deadpan expression changed into that of a little child who had been told that he had received presents from Santa Claus on Christmas. A glistening twinkle returned in his eye that hadn't been there for so long and he could feel the anger flowing out of him like water out of a broken dam.

"RIIIIIKUUUU, I LOVE YOU BUDDY!" he cried moving into hug the frozen silver haired recipient.

"Uh Sora, please not here. This is just…" Riku said struggling to find the right words, and struggling to take Sora off him while doing so.

"Oh it's OK. You can get all sentimental with me and stuff. I promise I won't bite." Sora said continuing to keep hold off his friend.

"Much." Kairi added with a flirty wink.

"Kairi, you aren't helping here!" Riku pointed out with his voice managing to break halfway.

"Sorry to interrupt your little moment here, but this baby's all ready and itchin' to go." Cid said having just emerged from the Highwind with a toolbox in one hand. Sora detached himself from Riku and gave a thumbs up to the Gummi mechanic. "I made some quick changes to the Heat Sink which should prevent your weapons from overheatin' too quickly. I also improved on the rocket propulsion system so that you can enter warp drive a hell of a lot faster. Should get yeh outta some tight spots I'd imagine."

"Where would we ever be without you Cid?" Sora asked with a simpering grin.

"Dead prob'ly." Cid answered a little too quickly for the three to take seriously.

"You don't even want to know how many times that has come close to being true." Sora supplemented knowing fully well the trauma that crashing into a jungle, being swallowed by a whale and being rammed by a ship could cause. Sora, Donald and Goofy had miraculously survived each of these counters and then some but there was always the possibility that his luck would run out sooner or later.

"Kairi!"

The four of them turned to see Aqua running up to them from the hangar's entrance doors. Sora was just barely able to catch the object that she holding at her side as she ran. She stopped just short of them and held out the wayfinder in front of her.

"It's… for communication… in case… we need to… update each other." Aqua panted bending over to catch her breath.

"Seriously, you do too much for us Aqua. If I ever wrong you in any way… please feel free to slap Sora." Kairi said.

"What's my contribution then? Chopped liver?" Cid grunted before placing a toothpick in his mouth.

"Hey I don't need two people after me thank you very much." Sora defended with raised hands.

"I could never do that to Sora. Kairi, I'll leave up to you to discipline these two when the going gets tough. Think you can handle that responsibility?" Aqua asked. Like Colette, she seemed to possess a motherly charm to her that you wouldn't believe simply by judging her on her youthful appearance. This partly stemmed from her sworn devotion to look after Kairi after she had found out that she had been responsible for performing the rite of succession on the red head at a young age by accident.

_The rite of succession… _an act by which the inheritor of a Keyblade has the authority to pass down the ability to wield one to another person. He used the word 'authority' because it couldn't just be passed down to anyone. It was more of the Keyblade's choice as to whether that person was suitable or not rather than the person. The Keyblade was picky about things like that. Unlike Riku and Kairi, Sora had never had such a contract of sorts. He was under the label of a reserve wielder but had eventually earned the right to wield one.

The whole thing made him think of Luna though. How had she gotten her Keyblade? If she was like Riku and Kairi, then she would have had to have obtained it from someone. While he had thought of Abraxas as a possible suspect at first, it made no sense as to why he would have given her the Keyblade only to then try and turn her into a chimera so she couldn't use it.

Then there was Astra. Was it a coincidence that two close friends were both able to wield a Keyblade? His own personal history had told Sora no. If a Keyblade somehow found its way to one of them first then it would have explained how the other had obtained it but Luna hadn't mentioned anything about her friend having a Keyblade after she had regained her memories.

That left the possibility of her situation being more like Sora's, except that it wasn't. Sora had gotten the Keyblade because Riku had given into the darkness at the time. Abraxas had seen the potential in her before Traverse Town which was why he had chosen her as his first experiment. How had he even known in the first place that she had the potential? A mystery having its own mysteries was nothing new in the daily life of Sora, but it didn't mean that he had become any less engrossed by them.

"I'll try. I can't promise I'll be as effective as you though." Kairi admitted humbly. Much like Yen Sid, Kairi had been strengthening and learning new types of magic from Aqua as well, thus considering her to be a mentor figure.

"Well, it was nice seeing you three again. We'll be leaving later but if you want to contact us just think of the person you want to talk to while holding the wayfinder. I'm also handing one to Roxas and Mickey so you'll be able to contact them as well. Good luck." Aqua said before pulling each of them into a hug. After she had withdrawn from Riku, she gave them a final goodbye before leaving the hangar in much the same way she came in, by running.

It was their soon turn to say their final goodbyes to Cid and before Sora knew it, he was already on the Gummi Ship watching as the Radiant Garden grew farther and farther away from him.

Sora took great pleasure in commandeering the Highwind once again, pulling up on the joystick as the ship ascended higher and higher through the clouds until it emerged among a sea of blue among swirls and gas clouds of many colors spanning different directions across who knew how many distances. Farther than that you would have the semi-occasional vortex, galaxy clusters and stunning nebulae. While in his sickbed, the thought of returning to the Gummi Ship and travelling among the sea between worlds was often a comforting one.

What wasn't a comforting thought was the inevitable sea of Heartless ships that they would have to battle their way through. They would have no choice but to cut their way through using their awesome supply of firepower when the time came. However, Sora did find one good improvement on the ship to take enjoyment in much to his sheer pleasure.

"At least Cid installed that cup holder I was asking for. Like, it's such a basic function but every time I asked for one he was all like 'Oh what're ya gonna do with a cup holder? Brag at the Heartless that ya have one?' And now does he finally see reason. Now if only there was a space diner somewhere around here…"

"I guess you should have asked for a percolator and some ground coffee along with it." Kairi replied. She was sitting on the seat to the right of him with her arms resting behind her head.

"I don't think that far ahead, I improvise. Take right now for example, no idea where we're going. There has to be something out there, I just know there has to be." Sora murmured. His hands moved up and settled on his neck as if trying to feel something. He had given his necklace to Luna, something he had never really done before. It was an invaluable item. A lucky charm of sorts to him and Luna knew that, so if she was still out there somewhere then he hoped that the necklace was doing a better job than he was at keeping her safe.

* * *

Desiree Elegia Skye quietly nibbled on the croissant she was eating so as to savor its buttery and flaky texture while watching as Vyce walked up to and sat down opposite her. Regardless of whether they had a mission to complete or not, Desiree had always found time to come to one of her favorite bakeries when possible. Having come here on multiple occasions, she could proudly say that she adored it all. The Parisian cuisine, the Parisian architecture, the Parisian festivals—she enjoyed Parisian life in general.

Her colleague on the other hand was not as nearly obsessed. Vyce tapped on the table with his fingers in a repeated rhythm as he watched Desiree eat in the slowest possible way.

"You know they say you are what you eat. Considering how much of those things you eat, I'm surprised you still look like that. Plus all that butter can't be good for you." Vyce pointed out.

"I simply have to catch up after wasting thirteen years of my life sleeping, non?" Desiree replied before setting the half eaten croissant down and leaning her chin on both her hands. "If you're worried about my fit and unbearably cute body, you don't have to worry. I know more about my body's needs than you do."

"I don't know where you get off calling yourself cute darling." Vyce mumbled.

Desiree giggled and shook her head. "You don't appreciate the beauty of most things. And besides, I know Sora definitely thought I was cute." she said.

"Would you actually have gone on a date with him? Come on, I won't tell." Vyce egged on.

"If he were willing to treat me like a princess, why not?" Desiree replied with a smile on her face that feigned to be innocent.

"I don't even know why I asked. You're spoilt to a fault. Hardly my idea of cute." Vyce said.

Desiree smirked and, finding a topic of interest, decided to exploit it because that was what she liked to do best. "And what is? Astra?"

"You are full of it sometimes. I have no interest in her or you. Besides, she's not going to be with us for long anyway. As soon as she finds her friend, she's out of here." Vyce said showing a lack of interest. In reality, Desiree knew Vyce long enough to know that he usually concealed most of his emotions very well. This was with the exception of his snarky and wolfish nature whenever he felt like displaying them of course. "Where is she right now anyway? She didn't come back with us…"

"Oui. She told Salome that she needed some time alone to think things through. I wouldn't be surprised if she was trying to look for her friend by herself. She's always seemed the lone wolf type." Desiree highlighted.

"Does she even have any ideas as to where her friend is?" Vyce asked.

"She may or may not have told me." Desiree said playfully wagging her right index finger. "But we've been trying to help gather Intel. All I shall say is that any trail leading to Luna would amount to a dead end. It's not her we should be thinking about."

It seemed however that her fun was ruined as Vyce immediately knew the answer to what she was talking about. "It's the background radiation right? Find the source of the fog and you find Luna. Yeah I've done my research, or at least as much as I could on something that doesn't make sense. The biggest report of the radiation I could find was in the Pride Lands. I doubt you've ever been there because you're you but there have been reports of the inhabitants of that place turning insane and attacking their own kind. Unlike any other world, it's taken on a physical manifestation there. It's become a literal physical and breathing fog. Kohle sees that world as a priority for us to focus on."

Desiree shrugged. "Oh did he? I must have missed that."

"Only because you were lazy and didn't bother to come to the meeting. Expecting other people to drag you away from your makeup desk isn't the exactly the sign of a productive person you know? But yeah, the fog in that world is less like fog and more like a virus of sorts. I dread to think of what would happen if it spread to other worlds. It looks to be containing itself for now though but that doesn't exactly help those stuck inside," Vyce said. Desiree considered this carefully before picking up her croissant and biting into it again. So thirteen years later, she had woken up to a World that was tearing itself apart through a series of unexpected events. But at the end of the day, she supposed that was what being a Keyblade Wielder was about and especially a member of Moira's Crescent. It was about protecting the things that mattered and striving to preserve the balance between light and dark.

"Do you believe that Astra could convince Luna to come and live with us?" asked Desiree suddenly.

"My, I didn't know you cared." Vyce said with a toothy grin.

Desiree realized what she had said and how she had said it and immediately scoffed to cover it up. "I don't. It's time for us get back to the cathedral and continue with our mission. Allons-y!" she said, wolfing down the remaining piece of croissant with an endearing smile that held more secrets and falsehoods than it let on.

* * *

Red lasers reigned down upon the Heartless ships taking them out one by one as the Gummi Ship drove through the swarm with amazing speed and resistance. Even though the weapons on the ship were powerful, there were simply too many ships in the way to attack and so Sora couldn't help it if some of them hit against the Gummi Ship. It was hard-shelled shield for the Highwind that was the difference between victory and defeat. Sora wouldn't have exactly called it impenetrable because with enough force anything could bypass it, but it wasn't exactly feeble either.

"We're right in the eye of the storm. It's insane how many of them there are!" Kairi yelled as Sora swerved to the left to avoid a Driller Heartless' punch. On another part of the ship would have been the turret compartment that Riku was currently using. Sora could make out a flash of light in the form of a sword cut that knocked the Driller aside causing it to explode.

"You know, your words of 'encouragement' aren't exactly helping." Sora said irritably as he straightened the ship out before flicking a few controls on the panel before him. "We're gonna have to go into warp drive."

"Sounds good to me-" Kairi was thrown off her footing and fell forward only to be caught by Sora in time. Another rock of the ship resulted in a crack on the window appearing. "What is going on?"

"Beats me, I thought the shields were up unless…" Letting Kairi go, Sora punched at and banged on a few buttons on the console but something was incredibly amiss. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get the shield generator to start working again.

"You do know what each button does right?" Kairi asked.

"Please Kairi, you're insulting my intelligence. I think I've flown this thing enough times to know where each thing is." Sora said when in fact he had only flown it so many times that he had become accustomed to the basic buttons. He had never dared touch most of the buttons on the panel except for the ones Donald had taught him to use. Having the Gummi Ship on autopilot most times had not really helped.

"What's going on up there? The engine keeps making this weird noise from down here, I don't know if you can hear it. Is everything alright or should I be worried?" Riku's voice sounded from the intercom speaker.

"I'd say it's a cause for concern, yeah. Sora, just take us into warp drive." Kairi urged not seeming to realize that her breathing was getting incredibly louder by the minute. Sora couldn't fault her but it did help in covering up his own breathing.

"Yeah… about that. It's not working for some reason. It's like the system is locking up or something. Riku, stay where you are and keep shooting. Kairi, can you go down into the engine room and check it out because if this is any indication we are suffering from an engine malfunction." Sora ordered. The Highwind was rocked again, this time not from a Heartless but definitely from somewhere below the cockpit which just so happened to be where the engine was located.

"On it boss." Kairi said. With the Highwind starting to shake violently, Kairi somehow managed to float her way over to the back of the room and down the hallway before arriving at the door all the way in the back.

She opened it to see a ladder going down into the Highwind's interior. Kairi bent down and descended to the level below her attaching to the ladder like glue as the ship made several unexpected jolts. The amount of strange Gummi blocks and equipment in the room allowed Kairi grasp just how naïve she was when it came to the technology.

_And here Sora thought it was a good idea to send me. I am so getting him back for this, _Kairi promised to herself before looking around. She just hoped that the problem was obvious and incredibly overt otherwise she didn't know what chance she stood of finding it. It probably would have also helped to have asked what exactly she was looking for.

She started whistling to herself as she walked through and analyzed the various components of the ship. If she were Chip or Dale she would automatically assume that it was the biggest looking Gummi piece that was responsible for the operations of the ship.

Faint, but certain, Kairi managed to pick up on a scuttling sound from somewhere above her but when she looked up at the ceiling she found nothing of importance. The idea of believing the sound just to be in her head flew out of the window when she heard the scuttling again, much louder this time and then slowly dissipating off into an echo somewhere behind her. Had a Heartless somehow found its way onto the ship?

Kairi summoned her Keyblade and grasped onto the railing (in case the ship rocked again) while making her way around the room.

"Hello?" Kairi asked before shaking her head vigorously. She couldn't believe she was trying to make a horror cliché out of this. If it was a Heartless, it wouldn't have responded anyway—not that she expected the killer to respond to such a call in a horror movie either.

More scuttling. Kairi could tell she was getting close as the sounds became louder and more pronounced. The lights in the room flickered on and off several times with its longer moments sending Kairi into a state of sharp erratic breathing. It was near the back of the room that she got her first clear glimpse of the creature—enough to know that it wasn't a Heartless.

"Stitch wasn't it?" That was what Sora had referred to it by when he and Terra, Ven and Aqua had shared stories about the blue alien. More formally known as Experiment 626, the creature had been chewing on some cables as if they were edible only to spit them out a second later in disgust.

"Iky!" Stitch yelled. He made a throwing up sound before scuttling over to what Kairi assumed was the engine if her theory about the biggest Gummi block being it was true. From the looks of it, it already seemed quite damaged with the plating having been completely torn off leaving a strange green glow to emanate from the inside. He reached out for it and stopped short before turning to Kairi.

"Stitch, or Experiment 626… whatever you want to be called… whatever you do, just please do not touch that." Kairi said pointing to the green glow.

"Touch… that?" For a moment Stitch looked as if he were seriously mulling those words over in his head. Kairi wondered if she had actually managed to get through to him but his next actions proved otherwise. He pulled a face and started laughing maniacally before digging his claws into the green light.

For the next few seconds, or maybe even minutes, Kairi could not tell one thing from another. The easiest things to distinguish would have been what had happened at the start. The green light had vanished and along with it the lights illuminating the engine room covering her sight in a blanket of thick darkness. The vibration and humming of the ship soon stopped underneath her feet afterwards. Suddenly the ship was dropping in altitude rapidly and she along with it. She tripped over a bunch of wires and hit her head on something hard causing her to slump to the metallic floor through loss of consciousness.

* * *

Sora's eyes fluttered open to see the rays of strong sunlight stare directly back at him through the cracked windshield. An identifiable feature of the setting in front of him was palm trees, something which he knew grew only in warm temperate climates. Seeing this filled him with hope even if he knew that this was impossible. It was gone, and yet here were some trees that he could only familiarise with the Destiny Islands.

In any case he was in no condition to move. The impact of the crash was such that it had thrown Sora's head forward into the console panel. The intense headache was met with an equally intense heat from the sun that dazed him. He wanted to close his eyes again and feel the warmth tickle his face. He had almost done it too if not for Riku's arrival on the scene.

"You alright? I found Kairi in the engine room along with this thing," Riku announced holding up a sleeping Stitch in his hands. "I had to put him to sleep since he kept trying to get away and trust me, it wasn't easy. Looks like the Gummi responsible for the engine was damaged by our little blue friend here."

"Stitch? You're kidding me. How did he even get on the ship?" Sora murmured keeping his head down on the console panel out of laziness.

"How did he get into the engine room is the question. I'd say he came in around the time Cid was making changes to the ship." Riku guessed. It made sense given that the only time the door to the engine room would have been opened was when Cid was using it. In other words, Stitch had already been on the ship when Sora, Riku and Kairi had embarked on it.

Sora finally lifted his head from its resting place and swivelled the chair around to see Kairi holding a bag of ice to her head looking none too pleased. "You need some help there?" he asked.

"No, it's okay. I just didn't think one little creature would be capable of so much havoc. I underestimated him and boy did I feel the effects of it," Kairi admitted. "When Aqua and the others mentioned that Experiment 626 was a highly intelligible creature created by a mad scientist, I found that hard to believe. So… unless he sabotaged the Highwind on purpose…"  
"He may have also been looking for food. Probably thought the energy provided in the Engine Gummi was a good source of sustenance." Riku suggested.

"What a drag." Sora stated. He turned back to the console and pressed a few buttons hoping to hear the usual gargle of the engine and the lighting up of various buttons and display units. Instead he was met with an unyielding dead circuit board. "The engine's gone bust. Unless we find some other Gummi out there then we're stuck."

_Out there… _As the words left Sora's mouth he found them immediately stupid. To chances of happening across a spare Gummi engine in whatever world they were currently in was unlikely. Even if they did find one, Sora had no idea how to install it onto the Gummi Ship.

He needed to calm down and think carefully. It was better to take things in smaller steps right now than big ones. The first thing that needed to be done was to gather information on the world they were in.

He was about to tell Riku and Kairi as much when a knock on the emergency exit door was heard. Silence filled a room with already uneasy faces. No one was willing to make a move, at least until a second set of knocks were heard.

"Hello, is anyone in there?" A young girl's voice called loudly from the other side.

"Lilo! Ooh, I swear if you get me into trouble…" said a much deeper voice this time indicating that an older woman was there along with the girl.

"Admit it, you're just scared."

"Scared? What, of the gigantic spaceship that just came out of nowhere and almost destroyed our house? Of course I am!"

Riku frowned and watched as Sora stood up. "You think we should open it?"

"We can't stay in here forever. Look, it'll be fine." Sora replied and proceeded over to the door where he grabbed at the edges before sliding the door aside. He was immediately met with a punch to the face. It had been quick and completely unexpected giving the Keyblade wielder no time to dodge at all. He stumbled over and fell while holding his nose which felt like it was on fire.

"Oh, you look human. I am so sorry." The older woman apologized with a flustered smile. She seemed to resemble the younger girl in looks so Sora assumed that they were related in some way.

"Could be aliens in disguise." The girl which had been called Lilo earlier said.

"Lilo, that is just impossible!" The woman snapped before looking at Sora, Riku and Kairi suspiciously. "Though now that I think about it, that doesn't explain what you're doing here in this… thing."

"Doesn't explain why you had to punch me either but then again I guess I'm used to my face being a magnet by now." Sora complained.

"Maybe it would help if we introduced each other first. I'm Riku, she's Kairi and the guy you punched would be Sora." Riku introduced.

"I'm Nani and this is Lilo, my little sister though I suppose since I'm the sole carer for her now and since she acts like a baby sometimes, I kinda feel more like a mother at times. With any luck, I won't start to look old before my time." Nani joked.

"Do you happen to know where we are?" Kairi asked.

"See? No normal person would ask that kind of question." Lilo pointed out sanguinely.

"Trust me—we're as normal as they come, and then maybe a little extra." Kairi said. "This is just a… um, an experiment that we are doing by… er…"

"Oh no, it's the secret services isn't it?" Nani said with a frightened expression on her face.

"Ye- I mean… well it wouldn't be a secret if we told you now, would it?" Kairi replied happy that Nani had accepted something though judging from her expression, this secret service didn't seem to be a good thing.

"But you three just look like a bunch of kids. Do you have identification?" Nani asked. Sora wanted to laugh. No one would have believed such a flimsy explanation as that in the first place.

_Uh oh, and commencing yet another punch in three, two, one… _

"It's a new recruitment programme for highly skilled people from a young age. We've been chosen to look after a highly sensitive subject though I can understand that you wouldn't believe us so here it is." Riku said before presenting Stitch to her. "I can't really divulge anything since it's classified but let's just say the experiment went awry and we'd appreciate it if you could give us any information that might be helpful."

_Smooth._

Nani reflected on these words but it was ultimately her eyes that favored Sora and the others. They rested on the blue creature, looking almost fearful at its strange appearance.

She ran the tip of her tongue against her bottom lip thoughtfully before speaking. "You're in Kauai, one of the Hawaiian Islands. We're right outside our house but I suppose you can't move this thing somewhere else?"

"Engine's dead. You're going to have to bear with us just a while longer I'm afraid." Riku answered with a painful smile. He probably couldn't even believe that he was going this far with a lie, but what else could they do? The story of having come from another world would have seemed convincing to a young girl like Lilo, but Nani was surely not going to believe it. If Lilo could keep a secret then perhaps Sora would think about telling her the truth later on.

"We'll be happy to help you in any way we can… of course I'm not sure how much help I can provide to the secret services but-"

"Oh, he's waking up!" Lilo proclaimed. They all watched as Stitch's ears twitched becoming more fervent by the second. Eventually its eyes opened and started stretching in Riku's palms. Then, noticing that it was being heavily watched it changed personality instantly. Stitch let out a low growl reminiscent of an angry puppy before attempting to gnaw on Riku's hand. Its handler withdrew their hand just in time but at the expense of letting him.

"Hey, you're not going anywhere!" Sora shouted. His hands parted from his nose and instead focused on catching Stitch who was trying to make a break for the door. Once again, Sora's head became the target of abuse and Stitch easily jumped through Sora's grasp at the last possible second and onto his head. He stomped on Sora's head for a second in triumph before jumping off and exiting the ship.

"This is really getting old!" Sora exclaimed in annoyance as Riku, Kairi, Nani and Lilo watched the alien creature disappear into the local and yet strangely comparable flora.

* * *

_You may or may not wish to have a Tantalog translator with you, or you can hope to high heavens that Stitch learns some 'Murican soon. _


	11. The Garden Isle

_Well after a week (I think it's been that anyway) of nothing but doing an essay, it's time to return to what I call fun writing. Now we're talking, so without further ado, let's return to the world of Kingdom Hearts._

* * *

**Chapter 11**

**The Garden Isle**

The ship slowed to a crawl just outside the world's orbit. For the amount of time Pete was there, he simply watched with a bored and the occasional yawn as ex-Captain Gantu (for he liked to often remind Pete that he had once been a captain) ranted and raved about some obsession he had for capturing the experiment that had nearly ruined his life.

Pete gave a nod every so often to give the appearance of listening but his mind was elsewhere. It had been ever since Maleficent had been taken down by the Keyblade Master. That was not to say he had been entirely fond of Maleficent's derision of him as an incompetent oaf but at least then he had a title he could be proud of, one to identify him by. He wasn't just an incompetent oaf, he was her incompetent oaf and that drastically changed whenever he performed well. For example, it had been he who had come across Abraxas in the first place as well as having assisted in the capture of the King and he had been greatly praised by Maleficent for doing so.

This was not the case with David Xanatos. The new leader of the syndicate now renamed as KRONOS was meticulous in every way, leaving absolutely nothing to chance. If, for some reason, there was even a degree of likelihood that a plan could fail, then that plan would be redrafted over and over until that degree of probability was lessened. Unfortunately for Pete, he was one of those degrees of probability. 'The weakest link' he had overheard them call him in a meeting that he had not attended because he had so conveniently been chosen for a mission in Radiant Garden at the time.

It was clear that Xanatos and pretty much everyone else in the room saw Pete as a liability and it was impossible to blame them. Apart from screwing up on multiple accounts, everyone knew the proximity of the relationship between Pete and Maleficent had been close and so allegiance wasn't likely to be gained overnight.

"Now is finally the chance I have been waiting for. You are stranded you little abomination and there is no way out for you now!" Gantu declared in a mighty roar.

"Hold it bub. Shouldn't we be more concerned about the three people on the ship instead? Y'know… the Keyblade wielders?" Pete pointed out after Gantu had finally stopped shouting. Their sensor had managed to pick up four lifeforms on the Gummi Ship ahead of them that had just blown its engine and was plummeting into the atmosphere below. One of these lifeforms, the scanner detected, showed signs of an artificially created yet destructive life form with an incredible level of intelligence and the ability to process information.

"Do you forget who you're speaking to? Bah, as if a bunch of pubescent hormone driven humans could ever stand a chance against me." Gantu replied. He flipped a few switches on the console as the ship steadily hovered over the world before becoming stationary once again. He dug into his pocket and pullet out to devices, throwing one of them to Pete. "Xanatos tech. We get in. We capture 626. We get out. These instant teleportation devices will beam down and back up in no time."

"Trust Xanatos to think one step ahead of the ole curb." Pete humored himself with covert sarcasm.

"And trust you not to mess this up. I know of your track record and if you even think about getting in my way-"

"Wouldn't dream of it. He's all yours." Pete replied resisting the urge to yawn.

"Oh, um… very good then. Yes, he's all mine and I WILL make him pay for what he has done!" Gantu repeated with just as equivocal a demeanor as before. After what had felt like hundredth session of laughter that day. Gantu finally gave the call to teleport down towards the strange new world. Gantu received nothing but an ambiguous smirk from Pete. After all, who was Pete to tell Gantu that he had another thing coming if he really believed taking on those three kids would be a walk in the park? No, Pete would absolutely just hate to spoil the surprise.

* * *

It wasn't strange to Sora that tracking a small destructive alien would have proved difficult. The clump of trees in the area made for an easy hiding spot and if he wasn't there then there was still the dirt road that Stitch could have taken. If Riku's theory was correct about Stitch needing energy then it was likely that he would have headed for the next possible source of food. This thinking combined with the direction Stitch had been seen heading in helped to narrow down their search perimeter somewhat.

As the single path continued, the dense palm trees became more spacious and eventually gave way to a beautiful sandy beach. It shouldn't have also come as a surprise that once again he was reminded of the islands, what with the shimmering waters and its accompanying waves rushing backwards and forwards along the shoreline. There were no doubt clear differences such as the beach seeming to extend around the island's huge circumference, or at least the side which he was on. Emerald green and dense forests draped over the island like a curtain with tall and pointy mountain spires in the background. It would be hard to argue that it was anything like the much smaller Destiny Islands if one were to purely look at it from appearance but it was the near identical atmosphere that hit home.

On his previous journey with Luna, he honestly had not put much thought into finding his islands. He had thought it a selfish wish at the time to mention in front of someone who had lost both their memory and home. Standing here now though made him wonder if such a wish was truly selfish at all. His desire to see his home had never been stronger and a part of him found it humorous that he had barely given much thought to look for his own world beforehand.

Riku soon joined him in staring at the ocean waters. "Something on your mind?" he asked digging his hands into his pockets.

"A lot of things, for example this place reminds me of our home a lot." Sora answered while keeping a fixed gaze on the horizon.

"I can understand that. I'm feeling the same. Sparring against each other with our wooden swords, playing Blitzball with Tidus and Wakka..."Riku tried to list with a thoughtful expression.

"School? Don't you dare say school." Sora warned letting out a chuckle in the process.

"It was the farthest thing from my mind, trust me." Riku replied allowing his own heartfelt laugh to escape from his lips. Even with the list Riku had mentioned, Sora found a strange feeling, or rather a lack of feeling when hearing these activities. It wasn't that he missed his friends but he couldn't deny that there was definitely a feeling of reluctance dwelling deep within as well. He wondered if there was something wrong with him.

Sora only had to glance Riku's way to catch sight of their target in the background sneaking his way over to the hotdog stand. He summoned the Kingdom Key and flicked his wrist launching a gravity blast at the creature. The small purple orb entrapped Stitch before expanding around him. However the creature seemed to show nothing indicating that he had been affected by this, jumping out from inside the blast and continuing on his rampage.

"Well that didn't slow him down. I guess he can withstand the increase in gravity." Riku gathered before rushing forward past the dazed few who had probably just witnessed their first act of magic. Sora attempted to follow but, feeling slightly heavier than usual, could only jog over with gritted teeth. Unfortunately his body was still recovering from the after effects of the poison. He felt weak but he tried not to show it in front of them as usual.

Stitch jumped onto the stand to the surprise of the vendor and snatched the buns out of his hands before throwing them at Riku. He sidestepped the incoming buns easily before throwing his Keyblade forward. Stitch jumped over the Way to the Dawn only to land closer to his catcher than he had been before. With a final push, Riku threw himself forward and tackled the creature, clutching him towards his chest as if he were an invaluable object.

"How are we going to contain that thing? I suppose we could just put it to sleep again but there's no guarantee it won't run away again the second we take our eyes off it." Sora said arriving at Riku's side. He knelt down and nodded at Riku. The silver haired teen seemed to understand what Sora was about to do and slowly unwrapped his around Stitch exposing him to Sora. "Hey Stitch. Terra, Ventus and Aqua told us about you. Remember them?"

Stitch's huge eyes rose up to meet Sora's, his face contorting into one of thought. "Terra… Ven… Aqua… friends…?" he questioned slowly.

"Right, they're our friends too. They told us that they helped you learn the meaning of that word, friendship. Well, other than just having people to talk to and have fun with them, a big part of that is also about seeing things from their eyes. So for example, if you were to put yourself in mine or Riku's shoes right now, not that you would need shoes but that's beside the point… anyway, if you did have feet and put yourself in our shoes, would you appreciate it with we did something you didn't like? We want to be your friends Stitch. We want to help you and have fun together, but we can't do that if you won't let us."

Stitch's ears twitched flexibly for a good while, a reflection of his inner pondering Sora and Riku would think. "Sorry." he eventually apologised as he lowered his head with a look of shame on his face. Sora turned his head to Riku enquiringly when he heard his friend let out a light chuckle.

"Looks like you have a way with words." he lauded with amusement.

"I do seem to recall a certain someone mentioning that my speeches were very cheesy." Sora pointed out to him with a teasing smile.

"They're not mutually exclusive." Riku admitted. Now this was what Sora called a natural conversation. It was the exchange of dialogue between him and Riku that didn't feel as stifling as it had done so back in Radiant Garden, one that didn't feel boorish or full of bitter feelings of intolerance and selfishness. Though the two had managed to evade returning to the conversation, Sora felt that the emotions were still there and their attempt to hide the fact that the conversation took place proved it.

Kairi calling to them broke Sora away from a recollection of tensions. She along with Lilo and Nani soon arrived at the hotdog stand. Nani in particular looked as if she had just seen a ghost. Her eyes were watching Stitch with weariness.

"I just contacted Aqua and told her about our problem. She says that she's on her way. I didn't ask but I guess she's going to stop by Radiant Garden for an engine before coming here." Kairi notified them. Other than that, there really wasn't anything else Aqua could contribute by coming here. In the meantime, Sora figured it would be best if they scavenged the island for any other objects pertaining to Gummi blocks.

"Kairi, I think you've confused our friends here." Riku said glancing back and forth between Kairi and the frightened Nani.

"Yeah… I think I slipped up halfway. Well that and seeing Keyblades in both you guys' hands probably didn't help." Kairi said feigning an innocent and yet at the same time completely guilty smile.

"It didn't really sound that convincing anyway. I guess we should explain what really is happening, though I don't think that explanation is totally convincing either." Sora said with nervous laughter.

"Hey, are you planning on paying for your pet?" the vendor alerted them to his presence. Suffice to say he looked absolutely furious at what had just happened. Fortunately since no damage had been caused to the cart itself, Nani (who had opted to pay in their stead) did not have to pay much. Once he was satisfied, Nani led Lilo, Stitch and the three strangers from the beach and back into the trees.

* * *

The door closed behind them with a loud bang. Sora, Riku, Kairi and Lilo stared onward with startled faces as they watched Nani sneak around the room as if it wasn't her own, checking to make sure no visible light could come through from outside. The room went darker by the drawing of curtains until Nani felt there was no other possible source of light but that coming from the hallway.

"Will someone PLEASE explain to me what is going on here? You are not secret agents!" Nani accused with a pointed finger. "And that's not any regular dog I've seen. I mean look at it! It's blue and-"

"Hey, don't discriminate against my friend here." Sora said thinking a jovial approach would help to lighten the mood. The crazy look in Nani's eyes proved that to be a failure however. He quickly re-treaded on his words. "I'm not sure you're going to believe but what the hey—we're not from this world but another one and this little thing, we call him Stitch, came down with us except that we didn't intend for him to come along with us, he kinda just sneaked on board. As for what he is, well he's an alien or I guess an experiment that was created by someone, I don't know all the details, you'd have to ask my friend Aqua when she gets here."

By the time the out of breath Sora had finished, both Nani and Lilo looked frozen rigid in their expressions and their movements like two perfectly crafted statues. Eventually they unfroze and gave way to reactions that challenged the trio's determination to keep straight faces.

"So you're still going to lie to us then?" Nani asked.

"Wait, what? No, he really is telling the truth. I mean it is kind of, no, I take that back… it is REALLY hard to believe but there are other worlds out there. I'll prove it to you. Have you ever seen any creatures that look really odd and weren't there before?" Kairi asked with an expectant glance switching between the two pairs of eyes staring at her. The change to a more uneasy demeanour spoke for their silence. Kairi continued, "Well those are what we call Heartless. Our job is to take care of them."

"Right, hence this…" Riku held out his hand to summon the evidence.

"Wow… that is so awesome!" Lilo screamed in delight. The reaction stupefied Riku and caused Sora and Kairi to chuckle. Her older sister however, didn't seem too impressed by this though it was clear that she was starting to believe them. Nani nodded her head and leaned against the wall with her hand over her mouth.

"You won't cause any trouble while you're here will you? You'll fix your ship and then you're out?" she asked struggling to quell any agitation in her voice.

"If that's what you want. We're looking for a friend so unless we find some reason to believe that she's here, then we'll be coming and going." Riku answered.

"Hey, if you are leaving do you think you can take me along with you?" Lilo asked.

"LILO, I-"

"I don't think your sister would be happy with that." Riku finished for Nani without shouting.

"It doesn't matter what she thinks. She's nothing but a big joykill!" Lilo remarked.

"It's killjoy, and I _so_ can be fun." Nani said parting from the wall. She grabbed the smaller girl and proceeded to give her a noogie, though this seemed to annoy Lilo more.

"Hey, stop that! You are so annoying sis." Lilo grunted. She managed to find her way out of her sister's grasp before leaving the room and running upstairs despite calls to come back from Nani.

"I see we've stepped in on a happy family." Kairi commented with cheerful sarcasm.

"Happy… that's a word you don't hear too much around here these, at least not since our parents died. I've been trying to make it… trying to look after her but she drives me absolutely nuts sometimes. She refuses to grow up." Nani explained. Sora needed only look at her appearance to see that what she was saying was true. Her face articulated the words fatigued and stressed clearly. How difficult it must have been to look after such a rambunctious sister all by herself especially after the death of their parents, Sora had no idea but surely that deserved an achievement in itself.

"Well she is just a kid so I'm sure she trying to deal with it in her own little way. I'm sorry to hear about your parents though. I lost my mom when I was young and Kairi lost her parents. For me, things were never the… forget it. I'm bothering you with my own problems. You have enough on your plate as it is." Riku said posing in a very Leon-like manner.

Sora watched in silence as Kairi, Riku and Nani consoled each other over their own losses. He couldn't say he had ever lost a parent and knowing that each of them had made him feel somewhat out of the picture. He had experienced a personal lost though in Yeul's death but he was trying to take Colette's advice about not thinking about it. He was losing.

Out of the corner of his eye, he managed to pick up on Stitch once again sneaking away from them and heading up the stairs. Making the excuse that he wanted to check up on Lilo, her sister gave approval allowing Sora to quickly leave the room and follow Stitch. As he slowly made his way up the stairs, he chose not to call after Stitch. He didn't think that Stitch would try to leave them again but Sora also couldn't help but be curious as to where he was going.

He reached the second floor landing and made sure he left as little sound as possible as he made his way to the one room near the back of the hallway that was slightly ajar. The closer he got to the door, the more he began to ruminate over the past. He felt like the child he had once been who would sneak back into his room after violating a curfew just to hang out on the other island for a while. It had felt as if the whole of the Destiny Islands had been a backyard or a garden for him to play in. He also supposed he had never been freer, for that was a time when all this weight that plunged him into a world of nightmares now had not been hanging on his shoulders. Now he'd be lucky if he could ever live a normal life, whatever that meant.

Sora peered through the door to see a most unexpected sight. Perched on her window and looking down at the water below (for the house was located right next to a cliff overlooking the sparkling sea) was Lilo chatting away amicably to Stitch who seemed to be listening to her every word. Sora watched with a smile as the creature nodded his head up and down while Lilo talked about topics that he probably didn't even understand.

Sora was about to retreat for downstairs when he made a wrong step, triggering a creak on the wooden floorboards. It was loud enough to cause Lilo to turn away from the window and Stitch to look at the direction the noise had come from.

"Sora?" she asked more in a way that indicated she wanted to make sure she got his name right.

"Busted. You got me." Sora replied pushing open the door and raising his hands with a guilty smile. He walked over to the window and looked outside in curiosity.

"Did my sister send you?" Lilo asked, an irritation stirring just underneath the surface of her voice.

"No, I came for Stitch but it doesn't look like he's bothering you or anything," Sora noted. "You know my room looks just like this, with the window overlooking the sea and lots of toys and comic books stacked around. It's also rather messy… my clothes were all over the floor…" Sora remembered back to the time when he had fallen into a deep sleep in order to recover his memories. At that time, everyone had forgotten who he was. This included his parents so the image of them cleaning their son's room without knowing who was occupying the room was a hilarious one. Even during that period of forgetting him, they had never once thought to clear the room of its possessions. While his existence had been forgotten, it certainly hadn't disappeared for good. It had been like they were waiting for someone, or knew that the room had a special reason for being as it was.

"What is your home like? Uh, you're from another… world you said?" Lilo questioned. There was no surprise that she was confused by the whole concept, and it probably wasn't just because she was a child.

"Right, worlds. Kinda confusing huh? I mean my world wa- is pretty similar to this one actually. It's an island with a beach, and a sea and… stuff." Sora said.

"Stuff?" Lilo repeated inquisitively.

"Well, we had this game back on the island called Blitzball. I played it occasionally along with my friends Tidus and Wakka. And then we often had sparring matches between me and Riku over silly things like dares." Sora explained scratching at his cheek lightly. Most of the dares he had fought over then now seemed hard to believe, especially when they related to Kairi. "There were two islands so I would take a boat from my actual home to the other where it was like a giant playground, or, if you excuse the pun, a giant sandbox."

"Sounds like heaven compared to here. Hey, if you are going if you can't take me then can you take someone else? Her name is Mertle. She's in my classes and she's nothing but a bully to me. Can you make her disappear with that key thing of yours?" Lilo inquired.

"Disappear? I'm not a magician, no," Sora said before leaning in and whispering in her ear, "though if you want revenge, that's another thing entirely."

Lilo giggled before running over to her bed and grabbing a really… ugly doll that was lying on her pillow. "This is Scrump, my friend… my only friend really, until I met you guys anyway." Lilo said holding him up.

"He looks… nice." Sora almost squeaked. "Where did you buy him?"

"Buy him? I made him!"

_Don't sound so proud about that! _Sora wanted to yell out. Instead he faked a smile and complimented Lilo on her handy stitching. His mind was elsewhere however. Lilo had just admitted that she had no friends except for the inanimate object in her grasp. Had this been before her parents' deaths or after the fact? Either way, Sora knew that having no friends was probably the worst possible thing in the world. He felt the need to leave his islands just because he feared Riku and Kairi leaving him behind.

"Sora! We're heading out to look for spare Gummi parts!" Riku's voice bellowed from downstairs.

"Be right there!" Sora yelled back before looking at Stitch thoughtfully.

"Don't worry, I can look after him. We'd just started talking about things when you came in." Lilo assured him.

"Okay, I'll leave him up to you. But don't be afraid to give him a good talking if he gets a little too rowdy." Sora said. When Lilo nodded, he smiled and turned to walk out of the room. He stopped just outside of the door and was about to close it when he heard Stitch repeat the word Lilo had just taught him. "Ohana, huh?" Sora repeated with a whisper before leaving them.

* * *

It was to be expected, but finding Gummi pieces proved a lot more difficult than it usually did. Every now and then, scattered space junk would be subject to the world's gravity when it got to close and would fall down. According to the King, that gravity was held in place by the keyhole, and if the Heartless were to find and take the keyhole, then the gravity of the world would "go all funny pal." This was how Sora had come across them on his previous journeys along with Donald and Goofy, but on those journeys it was usually that the Gummi pieces found them and not the other way around.

Right now not only was it them trying to search for the pieces but a problem also arose in the type of terrain they were on. They were on an island with trees surrounding them for miles. Taking that into consideration, it would be almost next to impossible to find a Gummi piece conveniently lying around.

Riku proposed starting with the beach as it was the most exposed area. In Sora's head he was playing around with the idea that if gravity was what attracted the blocks, then it was probably somewhere near the keyhole that was the most likely place to find them. Of course that entailed finding the keyhole in the first place so that immediately put a stopper on that theory for the time being.

Riku watched as Sora called out Yuna, Rikku and Paine to help them before saying, "Let's all split up and search around the beach. We'll meet back at this spot in the next hour with our results."

This sounded reasonable to Sora, after all they hadn't even covered a tenth of the beach that extended around the island. The six explorers split up in different directions and set off. Sora took enjoyment in the familiar soft yet crunchy sounds of sand underneath his feet as he walked down the beach. He almost half expected to see another small island somewhere where there was a tree containing Paopu fruit. In front of him, a group of people were playing a game of volleyball. He had played a few matches himself back on the island and his sparring matches with Riku had certainly paid off when it came to increasing his reaction time.

_Hmm, kind of wish I could play right now. Maybe I can! Thirty minutes is all I need, then I'll start looking for that Gummi block, _Sora promised himself (albeit very painfully) before making an effort to raise his hand eagerly. He was about to call out to them when human flesh grabbed at his wrist and pulled him into the trees next to him. Sora fell backwards into the foliage with a startled look on his face, and maintained that expression as he looked up into the eyes of his mystery attacker.

"What the h-"

"Hey, no questions from you. Just sit down like a good little boy and then maybe I'll let you go." The girl said. She spent the next few seconds inspecting Sora closely giving nods and murmurs of approval here and there.

Regardless of the girl's words, Sora felt the need to speak. "Who are you?"

The girl smirked and shook her head. "What, did Sea Salt never tell you about me? I'm the one who has the answer to your biggest question."

* * *

_*Insert Doctor Who theme here* No really, that was actually how I imagined that last line playing out in my head. Darn you Steven Moffat. Anyway, until next time folks keep up with the likes and reviews, they are greatly appreciated!_


	12. Parting Waves

_What time is it? It's Aqua time... and insert some Saturday Night Live sketch somewhere here._

* * *

**Chapter 12**

**Parting Waves**

Stormfall whizzed upwards in a blaze of purple and struck the Heartless across the face causing it to yelp and retreat further into the mines. It showed all the characteristics of what Sora had described a Chimera to be but Aqua wasn't so sure that she was going to be able to contain this one. It seemed too far gone, having acted ferociously upon first seeing her and it had proved so far that it was too unyielding and stubborn to hear her words, if it could hear them at all.

It had been three months since she had learned of the existence of these new breed of Heartless, and the shocking revelation still proved to be very much that today. It was hard to believe that someone would have kidnapped people at random only to experiment on them and turn them into monsters. It was outright barbaric, and yet Aqua as a Keyblade Master had been unable to assist Sora and the others in capturing him. Had she been there with them at the time, she might have been able to have prevented the loss of their friend.

Aqua ran through the network of tunnels that connected to each other in a very confusing way. The Chimera could have been anywhere, and this one in particular had an act for running away. A few Neo Shadows sprang out from behind her and attacked, knocking her into a wall. She raised her Keyblade sending out a Shockwave Pulsar. Two orbs shot forward and engulfed the Neo Shadows before exploding and wiping them out. She pressed on.

She was halfway through another tunnel when a bright light erupted from her pocket. Had something gone wrong already? Aqua reached into her pocket and pulled out her Wayfinder giving it a good stare for a second before a voice came out of it.

"Aqua, are you there?" Kairi's voice came out as a strange echo that reverberated down the tunnel walls.

"I'm here though you've kind of caught me at bad time. It's not your fault of course. What's your situation Kairi?" Aqua asked.

"I'm still single."

"Excuse me?" Aqua replied in confusion at Kairi's answer.

"Oh, I'm just joking. It was just the way you said it, you reminded me of… anyway, that's not the point. We kind of have a serious problem on our hands over here. Our engine's dead and we're stranded in a world called Kauai. We're probably to see if we can find any spare parts but that might not be possible." Kairi summarized.

Aqua considered her words carefully before nodding her head even though Kairi wouldn't have been able to have seen it. "Alright, I'll try to find you three. Just keep the wayfinder activated until I get there, okay?" she assured Kairi.

"OK, we'll see you… oh crap. Uh, it isn't what it looks like, ha ha ha. I need to go now, bye." The sudden abrupt stop to the conversation surprised Aqua and coupled along with the awkward laughter near the end, it didn't seem too good on Kairi's end.

To make matters worse, as soon as Kairi's voice faded off, another sound took its place, a humanely set of yells coming from farther down the tunnel. Aqua set off once more down the earthy underpass at a much faster pace. The tunnels seemed to climb downwards like a hill at a steady yet certain pace until she emerged out in another huge area to see the Chimera's back turned to her.

"Why are you here?" She asked in irritation. She was able to just barely identify seven dwarfs that were cowering away in the corner as the creature slowly approached them. She had met them previously before coming here and had expressly told them not to go wandering in after they heard wails coming from inside.

"No need to blow a gasket over it! We just couldn't help ourselves!" Grumpy bleated.

"Now if y- you'd b-b-be so kind as to h-help us…" Bashful stammered tripping over his own words as usual.

Aqua sighed before raising her Keyblade and casting Triple Firaga. The heated blasts connected in three different areas, striking first in the Chimera's back, the next its neck and finally the right temple leaving the creature growling. Another Triple Firaga. This time, the Chimera expected it, knocking all three shots back at Aqua with his hand. Aqua only just had time to raise her barrier but the surprise deflection had still been enough to knock her backwards into a wall.

Aqua placed her hands against the wall, waited and watched as the Chimera moved in to attack her. "Seeker Mine!" she yelled just before it could make contact with her and then cartwheeled out of the way. A glowing glyph formed on the wall that immediately exploded when it made contact with the Chimera's head blowing it off. The body remained in place for a while before eventually withering away and turning into dust particles. These black flickers of dust surrounded the area like suspended snowflakes before disappearing soon after the heart had disappeared into thin air.

"HA-HA! Now that oughta sow 'em- I mean show 'em, yessiree." Doc corrected himself quickly.

"You know, I've always had a talent for blowing minds when they least expect it." Aqua said revelling in her own pun for a second before remembering Kairi's situation. "Oh, I have to go. Please, whatever you do, do not go wandering of into danger again. I won't except that you couldn't help it as an answer. I'll be taking Snow White with me and I may not know when she'll return but I promise you that I'll keep her safe until then."

"But what about those mysterious objects and that log- er, fog?" Doc asked.

"Fog?" Aqua repeated not knowing what they were talking about. While it was true that she had come across very strange objects throughout the mine that almost seemed as if they didn't belong to this world, she had seen nothing resembling fog.

_Wait a minute. Didn't Riku mention something about this? _Aqua remembered back to a brief and confusing conversation back in Radiant Garden. After Yen Sid had announced who each Princess of Heart had been assigned to, Riku had pulled her aside and had mentioned something about mysterious objects appearing out of nowhere here. She mentally slapped herself for having completely forgotten about the conversation until now.

"Okay, show me where this fog is."

* * *

Aqua uttered an audible sigh of relief as she set foot on unknown land. As the usual, the ride to and from worlds certainly didn't seem to be getting any easier. In fact, she could swear it was becoming the opposite.

This had been from the Dwarf Woodlands to Radiant Garden, which thankfully hadn't been that long a journey. The journey to this world had been easier. All she had to do was ask Master Yen Sid to use the Wayfinder as a bridge to teleport her to the world, though it hadn't exactly put her near Kairi as far as she could see.

As much as she was reluctant to say this, she longed for the days when she was fighting the Unversed. Though they had been the start of much trouble in her and her other two friends' lives, they were at least simplistic. They reflected and were attracted to negative thoughts, something which you couldn't really find in the lanes between and so her journeys to other worlds were often a tranquil experience.

This wasn't to say things weren't complicated back then. Xehanort and Vanitas had made sure of that not to mention the sudden feud that had made a mountain out of a molehill almost tearing Terra, Ven and her apart. Of course their friendship wasn't so weak as to destroy their bonds completely but by then it was too late.

Even then, she could still attribute blame partly for her motherly concern. At times she felt that it had even taken precedent over the equality of their friendship. These past few months had been her trying to repackage herself in a new light that made her seem more carefree, hence the knee length camo pants and waistcoat over a plain white tank top. Of course it had been Kairi who had picked the outfit for her, though she wasn't entirely sure how she felt about it herself. Maybe it was too much…

She wondered what she could have been doing were it not for both Alice and Luna's disappearances. Not that she considered it a nuisance but she had drafted an entire list of thing she and everyone else could have done as a kind of reunion. The Sea Salt Ice Cream had definitely been up there—and yes, it had been one of the first things she had done after Xehanort had been defeated but only with Terra and Ven. She had heard from Kairi that she and the others had made Sea Salt Ice Cream as a part of a competition with hilarious results. She wanted to do another one but with current circumstances, such an event was unforeseeable for the future.

There was also the wedding. Astra had never really been good with weddings, mainly because she had never been to one but she had always pictured as a little girl what one would be like. Those were fairy tale weddings. When it came to reality that was something very different, and when Rinoa had brought up the topic of her dress, Aqua could only cease up like someone who had just been asked to answer an impossible question.

_We'll get there when we get there, _were Aqua's thoughts on the matter. That was a mission entirely in itself. Right now she had a Gummi engine she needed to deliver to her friends. The only way she could have ever carried such a thing from one world to another was to use the third dimension spell.

She figure it would be best if she contacted Kairi from here to ask where she was, though even that wouldn't matter if she didn't know where she was herself. She pulled out the still glowing Wayfinder and was about to speak into it when two voices somewhere nearby caught her attention.

Both voices sounded familiar, though one more so than the other. Over ten years ago, she had heard this voice having belonged to what was questionably someone suffering from a case of multiple personality. Just less than a year ago, she had met him when he was working for Maleficent. There was simply no way she could forget Pete, or Captain Justice, or Captain Dark, or… whatever he called himself these days.

"And just where do ya think we're gonna find that pipsqueak of yours in a place like this?" Pete boomed as he usually did.

"Well the little Trog is programmed to destroy cities according to the reports by his maker. If there's one nearby, that's where we'll find him and settle the score for good." The other voice was deeper in contrast. Confident and smug. Aqua felt as if she had come across such a voice before but she couldn't remember whose it belonged to.

The only way to find out of course was to get closer. Aqua set off in the direction of the voices and began to hide behind the trees as they grew closer. Somewhere nearby she could hear the sound of waves in the distance, possibly indicating a coastline nearby. The type of trees she was using as cover were also reminiscent of Kairi, Sora and Riku's home but the area surrounding certainly wasn't the same. Was it possible she was on an island then?

_This is Kauai, huh?_

Her immediate thought was that this would be a nice vacation spot to hang out in the group's free time. The tropical climate was considerably warm enough to make for some fun memories. The appearance of the two suspicious characters quickly made her remember that there was a time and a place for indulging in joyful leisure and this was not one of them.

Aqua immediately identified the second individual leading Pete as Gantu, an extra-terrestrial being who Aqua had fought once along with Experiment 626.

_Experiment 626…_

The epiphany hit her like a ton of bricks, though she didn't care much for the phrase because that would have been extremely painful. All of sudden it made sense who it was by which Gantu referred to as 'Trog' and maybe, just maybe, why Kairi's and the group's Gummi Ship had crashed.

So she had a choice then. She could either find Kairi and the others before they did or…

Before she even knew what she was doing, Aqua had stepped out of her cover. "Hey boneheads. If you've got a score to settle with someone, you've found them!"

* * *

"You're Astra, right?" Sora realized looking up into the eyes of Luna's best friend. It really couldn't have been anyone else, especially when considering what Luna had told him back at Radiant Garden's library: "_But Astra really was my best friend… she was my only friend, she meant a lot to me_."

"So she did tell you after all." Astra remarked.

"Well, yeah." Sora said noticing a frown on the girl's face. One of the things that caught his eye was the armor pad on her shoulder similar to Terra, Ven and Aqua's. If this girl was working with someone else then Sora had to be wary of the validity of whatever information she was about to give. "You said you had the answer to my biggest question, and if my question is the same as your question I'm guessing your answer has to relate to where Luna is. Please tell me, where is she?"

Astra snorted and stared cold icy daggers straight at Sora as she spoke. "Whoa, you can beg all you want _hero_ but I don't just give answers for free, or at least not this one. After all why would I immediately trust the person who doomed Luna to said place in the first place?"

Sora couldn't believe it. If she wasn't willing to give him answers in the first place then why drag him into the trees only to tease him about it? Well he supposed he had just answered his own question but it didn't explain why she had come all this way for it. Surely she couldn't be that cruel.

His answer was in her words though, or at least a part of it. They contained a bitter hatred behind them combined with blatant sarcasm. It was clear that she held a grudge against him, and Sora couldn't blame her. He very much blamed himself for what happened to Luna, but that didn't mean he was going to stand by and let Astra demoralise him from saving her either.

"If you don't give answers for free, then what do you want in exchange?" Sora asked.

"I want you to fight me." Astra said summoning her Keyblade and pointing it straight at Sora's chest. An ambiguity took over that made it hard to guess what she was possibly thinking or how she felt.

Sora had to admit, he had expected anything but this. _She can't be serious can she? When it comes to experience I'd mop the floor with her, _Sora thought. Or was there more to this than she was letting on, like some secret underhanded tactic? Judging by her poker face, Sora couldn't be sure that she hadn't revealed her full hand yet. If Riku were here, he would allow the situation to play out and assess it before making any rash decisions. Sora figured it was best to take that approach here.

"I accept, if you answer one thing for me. What's in it for you?" Sora asked.

"You'll find out once we fight." Astra replied. "But know that I won't hold back. Sound good? Or is the Keyblade Master too chicken to handle a weak girl like me?"

_Oh she is definitely egging me on. Like I'm going to fall for that! _Sora thought before standing up and summoning the Kingdom Key. "Luna told me you're supposed to be pretty athletic. I'd hardly see that as weak. Even then, I don't care much for you egging me on so I think I'll allow experience to do the talking for me," he answered with a smug grin.

A replicating grin appeared on Astra's face before motioning for Sora to follow her farther into the trees. Sora was followed meanwhile being mindful of his surroundings and wary of Astra. Eventually the two reached a clearing that was perfect for their duel. The sounds of people having fun on the beach were still fairly audible in the distance so they hadn't gone that far. What was annoying was that he had promised the others that he would also assist them in finding Gummi blocks, and then he thought it would have been a good idea to play volleyball and now he was entangled in something much more complicated because of that.

The two entered their battle stances, each one trying to read their opponent before the battle had even started. Sora knew that the best way to deal with her would be to finish her off fast and quick before she could reveal any tricks up her sleeve.

Astra eventually started by swinging the Keyblade upwards and letting go. The vertical strike raid flew forward and was predictably easy enough for Sora to dodge. Once again Sora waited as it came back round to turn his back and dodge it again. That's what Astra had been counting on. Sora turned around to see Astra right in front of him. She drove her fist into his stomach.

Sora doubled over in pain and was left grasping for air. The gnawing feeling produced by the punch resided there as he tried to contemplate what had fully happened. As he had expected, she did have more than enough tricks up her sleeve and he still hadn't been prepared for it. He forced himself back up off the ground and kept his Keyblade trained on her.

_What the- no… Not now! _Sora yelled inwardly as he watched his hand tremble in front of him, and the Keyblade along with it. There was a sudden weight on his body causing him to exert pressure on it just to keep standing. It was the same stiffness in his body that had been affecting him since he drank the poison, and what I time it had picked to start acting up again. No, perhaps he should have been mindful of his condition from the start when he had accepted Astra's proposal. _No, I can still fight. I just have to be quick about this_. He gripped the Keyblade with both hands to steady it before running forward.

Astra avoided the next set of reckless swings from Sora before attempting to stab downwards at his exposed thigh. Sora twisted around the Keyblade before it could make contact, dropped the Kingdom Key and grabbed the Midnight Mauve's length before tugging. Astra was sent flying forwards having held onto the guard but she quickly rebalanced, pivoted and guarded against an oncoming vertical slash.

Sora's eyes widened as he caught Astra's hand glowing a bright orange. He relaxed the Keyblade off of Astra's and jumped to the side just to see a blast of fire whiz past him and hit the tree parallel to its user's location.

_She's using magic with her free hand? Is she crazy? _Sora commented as Aqua walked forward keeping her unarmed hand raised and shooting spits of fire. Despite being in awe, Sora managed to knock away each shot with the Kingdom Key as he moved in. Once near her, he lunged forward with a strike only for her to dodge roll under it and out of harm's way.

"You're pretty good for a newbie. Most people I know wouldn't use magic with their free hand. It's pretty dangerous." Sora told her.

"Well I'm not most people," Astra said before allowing Midnight Mauve to disappear in her hands, "and neither are you. I think that's all I need to see, at least for now. Looks like we have some company anyway."

Sora followed Astra's glare past him to where Yuna had just emerged from the trees followed by Riku. Yuna looked quite triumphant and smug. "See? I told you that I saw them heading this way!" she bragged.

"Uh, I don't recall saying I doubted you." Riku said before summoning his Keyblade. "And who are you supposed to be?"

"Why hello to you too sexy." Astra mockingly flirted. It had been enough to send Riku into a stupor. Seeing this, she shook her head sagaciously. "Of course, so this is the woman's charm that makes you guys all fall like dominoes. You men are all the same. Oh sorry, was that sexist?"

"Riku, it's okay. She's Luna's friend." Sora informed him taking great pleasure in trying to ignore Astra's witty banter for the time being.

Riku looked from Sora towards the stranger suspiciously before lowering his Keyblade but still keeping it at his waist in the instance she tried something. "Astra? Then why were you fighting with Sora?"

"They say you can tell a lot about a person when you're in the midst of battle." Astra said. It was a strange sensation to Sora but he could understand where she was coming from. While they were fighting, Sora could see the passion and determination in her eyes to find her friend. At that point, it didn't seem to matter why she wanted to fight with him in the first place because in a way he could already tell why. She wanted to know who he truly was, and when one was fighting, it was impossible to hide behind any false pretence.

"So are you going to tell us where Luna is?" Sora asked eagerly.

"Whoa hold on there cowboy, my answer might not even be right. It's just a theory as of now but I won't know until I get there." Astra said, her vivid green eyes flickering between the three people in front of her. "I think she might be in the realm of darkness."

Sora and Riku gave each other looks before the latter decided to ask, "And what makes you think that's the case?"

"The fog, or should I say background radiation? I don't know much about it but what I do know is that the Heartless are attracted to areas with that radiation. Not just the artificial ones, but pureblood Heartless as well. I've been rolling the idea around in my head that maybe the conditions between the radiation and the realm of darkness are the same, hence it being favorable to the Heartless. I've never been to the realm of darkness so I couldn't tell you that much but-"

"No, you'd be right about that," Riku agreed. "Having been there myself and also having been in that fog now that you mention it, they definitely felt familiar, like they were connected somehow."

Having never been to the Dark Realm before aside from being near the edge of it once, Sora couldn't have made the connection. Riku was different because he had journeyed its depths along with the King in order to find Aqua. Therefore with the surprising confirmation by Riku, there wasn't exactly any reason to doubt Astra's theory but…

Seeing the thoughtful look on Riku's face, Sora intervened in an attempt to change his mind. "Look, we have nothing to lose right? If there's a chance that she's there then I'll take it." he said.

"Absolutely beautiful. The voice of reason!" Astra said gesturing to Sora. "All I ask is that you take me there along with you when you go. As much as I hate to admit it, I can't go in alone and expect to come out alive."

"What about your friends at Moira's Crescent? Surely they'd be willing to help you." Riku addressed the topic that was on both his and Sora's minds though the latter was much more reluctant to bring it up.

"So you know the name of their group huh? Pretty silly name in my opinion. But they can't help me with this, not like the person who befriended her and then made her suffer can." Astra gibed. The growl of annoyance that escaped Sora's mouth at that moment was not lost on Aqua, who smiled sweetly at her successful scorn. Once she had gotten over her own satisfaction she added, "That doesn't mean I'm switching sides or anything. I couldn't give a hornet's nest about either you or Moira's Crescent. I just want my friend back. So will you help me?"

* * *

_I didn't realize this until now but Aqua and Astra sound really similar. Some strange oversight I'm sure... speaking of Astra, fun fact: Her character is somewhat based on the criticisms of Kingdom Hearts II, what with it's turn for the convoluted. So Astra is basically what the first Kingdom Hearts game is, simplistic, charming and witty. She's also part Hugh Laurie, but that's another thing entirely ;)  
_


	13. A Single Word

_Time for summary of the story so we don't have to go through a recap chapter sometime in the future (screw you nickelodeon -_-). This story and the one before it follow all the Kingdom Hearts games except for DDD (because I don't care for that game- actually no, it just came out after I started on Dual Destinies) with the exception of Lea getting a Keyblade. It's also set after a possible KH3 where Xehanort has lost and was unable to restart the Keyblade War. Just getting that out of the way in case anyone is wondering how this could possibly be after KH3 (yes, I have gotten those reviews). _

_Luna after recovering her memories and discovering the truth about the destruction of her world in Dual Destinies, is now stuck in the Realm of Darkness. On top of that, we have a mysterious puzzle box that needs solving and a group of Keyblade wielders who want Sora dead for some reason. That's the basic gist of it, so without further ado let's continue the story._

* * *

**Chapter 13**

**A Single Word**

"Wait a second… you! Don't I know you from somewhere?" Gantu accused pointing his fat stubby finger at Aqua. She simply reached out and summoned her Keyblade in an attempt to jog his memory. If they thought they were going to capture Stitch, they had another thing coming.

"Hey, you're one of the Keyblade wielders who ruined my chances at getting the Million Dreams Award!" Pete yelled angrily.

"Uh, are you still upset about that…Captain Justice?" Aqua said remembering the alter ego's name he used to refer to himself as.

Gantu turned to Pete. "Captain Justice?" he repeated with a questioning glance.

"Heeeey, weren't you busy catchin' an alien or somethin'?" Pete slammed wanting to move away from the embarrassing subject.

"That's it, after I taken care of this runt and have secured the little Trog, you and I are going to have a drink and dare say by the time I'm finished with you you'll have told me all about this embarrassing secret of yours. They say Balrog's Hard Nine is a truth serum of the liar. I've personally never had some so I'm interested to see the results with someone as incompetent as you." Gantu snickered as he took something out of his pocket.

"Heh, guess I'm gonna have to miss out then 'cause there's no way you're gonna be able to beat a Keyblade wielder like her." Pete said confidently.

"I'd listen to him if I were you." Aqua said hesitantly. She was surprised that Pete was so sure of an outcome not in their favor.

"Now I remember you. You were the one who got in the way of me capturing the fugitive and his little experiment. You got me demoted and now you are going to get in my way again!" Gantu realized before shaking his head and laughing. "Oh, Lady Luck is too kind to me! Well, thanks to Yzma I have a little trick up my sleeve this time."

"Yzma?" Aqua was about to enquire further into the name when liquid travelled through the air and landed on her face. A stinging sensation similar to multiple bee stings on contact caused her to scream out loud. Quickly she attempted to swipe the moisture away from her face. Her eyes opened and she looked at Gantu in shock, or rather she looked up at Gantu for the scenery around her had changed considerably and so had he and Pete. The two stood like giants towering over the tiny Aqua who only measured the size of Pete's shoes. Had she become smaller or had the world just grown around her? When she phrased the question it automatically made more sense for the former to be the correct answer.

"Fee-fi-fo-fum, you're so tiny I could crush you with my thumb." Gantu roared stomping his foot hard on the ground. The earth shook and Aqua fell forward unable to keep her balance.

"Didn't think you would have a plan in advance. This'll be interesting." Pete said.

"Stay out of this. She's mine." Gantu said before pulling out his blaster from its holster.

"Like an old spaghetti western. How cliché." Aqua said having seen a few of them along with Terra back in the early days of her training. They had grown to be her favorite type of genre aside from romance films much to the surprise of Terra and her former master. "The bigger they are the harder they fall."

Aqua knew that she couldn't let this disadvantage scare her. She had to make the most out of the situation no matter how limited her resources. No, that wasn't necessarily true. What she had first thought to be a disadvantage could easily turn out to be a pretty big advantage for her depending on whether she realized it. Her training sessions with Master, Terra and Ventus had taught her as much.

_-Flashback-_

Ventus collapsed to the ground for the fifth time. Aqua heard him grunt in frustration as watched as he tried to stand back up.

"Come on Ven, is that the best you can do?" his opponent, Terra asked, also watching as Ven struggled and failed to get back up.

"I… can't do it. I'm sorry but, it's too much." Ven submitted. Aqua could see tears forming and welling up in his eyelids. That was when she decided to intervene.

"Terra, stop! You're taking this too far!" she yelled standing up on the steps she had been sitting on.

"Aqua, how else is he going to get better if he doesn't face his fears? He's scared of something, and I want to help him to figure out what that is. It's what Master would do." Terra said. It had been two months since Ven had been sent to the Land of Departure by Master Xehanort and he had shown considerable growth in the short amount of time that he had been here. No longer was he the unresponsive shell he was until up to a month ago, but being with Aqua and Terra had helped him to come out of that shell. In just that month he had managed to gain a best friend in Terra and Aqua could even see them as brothers with the way they always were protective of one another and pushing the other to their fullest.

This time though, it had gone too far. Ven clearly wasn't able to handle the stress induced by Terra's training and it was clear that he hadn't gotten over what demons haunted his heart. She could understand Terra's enthusiasm to crack the mask that Ven used to shield away his nightmares but she felt it was too soon.

"Terra, I know you look up to Master but doing this isn't a way to please him." Aqua accused. She immediately regretted said accusation.

"You think I'm doing this out of some benefit that I'll be seen as some golden light to the Master? I'm doing it because I'm Ven's friend and that's all the reason I'll ever need to do it." Terra said.

"Please, stop fighting. I hate it when you do that." Ven cut in before Aqua could reply. It was true that Terra and Aqua had different ideas on how to help Ven and that in turn had led to an increase in arguments between the two but it was hard to say they were ever angry at each other. The fact was that sometimes Terra was slightly disappointed in his ability to please his father-like figure and especially once Aqua had arrived as a new pupil. Sometimes it even felt like a competition, but the two believed it to be a healthy one. They wanted to push each other towards their goals.

Likewise though, Aqua had her own desires. She perhaps saw a special link between Terra and the Master that she, no matter how hard she tried, couldn't get in between. Terra felt for both the Master and Ven in a way that Aqua never could. For Ven at best she found herself in a motherly role, a relationship a lot different than the one between two close brothers. For that, she was jealous but it wasn't like she was going to let trivial things like that ruin her friendship with her best friend. Terra and Aqua had practically grown up together and even if they didn't agree over some things, they still respected each other's opinions and worked amazingly well together.

"Don't worry Ven, we weren't fighting," Aqua assured him and nodded at Terra before reaching to help Ven up. "Is it too hard for you Ven? Maybe you should rest up and try again later."

Ven however shook his head unsurely. "I don't think that's it. I'm trying my hardest, I really am but… I don't think that I could ever catch up to you guys. You two are always pushing forward and trying your hardest, and you get somewhere with that. I can see you two making Masters in no time at all. But me… I feel like I'm at a disadvantage whenever I try. You two have so much experience and I feel like I'm just being dragged behind and slowing you down… I think that's what's holding me back." he said sadly.

Terra and Aqua exchanged looks with each other before laughing. Ven hated it when they did that. Aqua knew it made him seem like he was a child being looked down upon. Even so, his concerns were such that there was no way they couldn't laugh, not to spite him, but to encourage him that his worries were misplaced.

It was the unexpected arrival of Master Eraqus however, that truly quelled Ven's fears. "Do not worry Ventus, for you have something that neither Terra nor Aqua have."

"What's that master?" Terra asked in his usual studious tone whenever near the master.

"Innocence. It may sound ridiculous at first but it is rather important. While an experienced person such as you Terra may see the world in one way, a greenhorn such as Ventus may see the world in another. In one of the worlds I've visited during my life as a Keyblade wielder, they believed that new-born hearts were born into this world innocent and filled with pure light. It is only when that heart comes into contact with outside interference from other hearts that the darkness begins to manifest. Now I cannot claim to believe in such a tale but there is some merit in dissecting it and comparing it to the world around us." Master Eraqus said placing his hand on Ven's shoulder.

"So you're saying that what Ven considers a disadvantage may actually be an advantage? That if we were living that tale, he would be the one less tainted by darkness because he's seen less of the world?" Aqua said.

"Yes, and as with all myths, fairy tales and fables, there are always lessons to be learned. What will become self-evident in time Ventus is that power is born within the heart. You only need look inside you to know that you are not alone, and that all the strength you'll ever need will come from those who have formed a bond with that heart." Eraqus answered.

_-End Flashback-_

Aqua raced forward dodging green blasts as soon as Gantu started firing them off. As each one imploded on the ground they created several rippling sparks which veered off in different directions making it harder for Aqua to get to her opponent. As blast from her right signalled her to stop and redirect the attack by putting up her barrier. The blast hit Gantu square in the face causing him to double back.

"Urgh, just stay still why don't you." Gantu snarled.

"And let you catch me? That doesn't sound very feasible to me." replied Aqua. Gantu attempted to swat furiously at her but she evaded the long arm easily by using doubleflight to jump onto his arm.

"Gah- Pete, help me get this human off me!" Gantu asked swatting helplessly and failing to shake off the glued on Aqua.

"I thought I remember you telling me to 'stay out of this' or somethin' to that effect." Pete said with a shrug as if to say it wasn't his problem.

"Well, permission granted to help now!" roared Gantu furiously. Pete shook his head and sighed before moving in to grab Aqua. She would personally have preferred if he had just walked away but two certainly wasn't anything to fret over either. She had handled more than enough gigantic opponents when she had been in the Realm of Darkness. This was child's play in comparison. She jumped onto Gantu's shoulder and aimed her Keyblade at Pete casting a Fission Firaga. The attack connected with Pete's head causing him to yelp in pain and squirm about with thrashing arms.

"Hey, watch it- OW!" Gantu was interrupted as he was punched in the face by a blinded Pete. Aqua took this proximity as her chance to jump onto Pete arms throwing a Triple Blizzaga at Gantu. Icy crystals smacked Gantu in different areas of his body, sending him off his feet and onto the ground.

* * *

Sora had managed to convince Riku to change his mind in the past and vice versa. Not this time it seemed, as neither one seemed to budge from their attitudes regarding Astra travelling with them. It was humorous that Astra was simply tapping her feet away rhythmically why Sora and Riku were whispering aggressively at each other like they were trying to see who could get the last word in.

"She's with Moira's Crescent. We can't trust her!"

"If she wanted to lure me into a trap she would have done so by now."

"She's only using you to find Luna. Once she's found her, who knows what she's going to do. She's too unpredictable to keep around," Riku said giving her a glance before looking back at Sora. "Hers is the kind that is only interested in her own personal interests. When the time comes I doubt she'll hesitate to stab you in the back if she sees the opportunity. We have a guess to Luna's location—that's enough. We don't need the extra drama being carried around in the group."

"Drama that will only be created if we keep distrusting each other, as you're doing right now," Sora pointed out before adding, "and when the time comes I will take personal responsibility for her actions. What's the harm with at least trying to reason with her?"

"This is a bad idea…" Riku disapproved with a frown.

"I'm not going to abandon Luna's friend," Sora said. It was all he needed or had to say on the matter. Turning away from Riku, he walked over to Astra and gave her a confirmed nod. "We'll let you come along as long as you promise to do every single thing we tell you. Sound good?"

"On a scout's honor sir." Astra promised holding up three fingers.

Not caring much for her sarcastic humor, Sora felt it best that they return to the beach to meet with Kairi, Rikku and Paine. Knowing that they must have been worried sick about him, that worry made him remember how he had come to be here in the first place. Indeed, it was very strange how wanting to play a game of volleyball had turned into something much more.

Riku seeming to have similar thoughts, voiced this concern out loud and the three of them, now accompanied by the mysterious Astra headed back through the trees towards the sandy and clear landscape that reminded him so much of his islands.

As the emerged onto the beach they came across their first encounter of Heartless. It certainly explained the unusual silence that had preceded them arriving on the sandy shore. Sora immediately sprang to action, taking out a group of Shadows nearby while Riku and Astra took on the more menacing Large Bodies that only seemed vulnerable from the back. During this time both Sora and Riku were observing Astra and her movements. She seemed like a ninja, quick paced and ready to bounce back and forth between one Heartless and another. Her fighting style was surprisingly fluid, even more so than it had been during her fight with Sora. Even Riku was momentarily stunned as Astra used her free hand, thrusting it downwards to send a chunk of ice onto a Large Bodies' head before doing the same to another.

"You just gonna stand there or am I going to have to take these things out by myself?" Astra's question brought Riku back into the realm of reality and he was soon throwing his own free hand Dark Aura projectiles at the Heartless.

Sora could spot Kairi fighting away at her own group of Heartless some ways off and rushed towards her meanwhile cutting through the Heartless in his path. Sora used Sonic Blade to push through the last remaining Heartless before arriving at Kairi's side.

"You okay here?" Sora asked as Kairi ducked low enough for Sora to jump over her and take out an airborne Aerial Knocker Heartless before it could swoop down and attack.

Kairi nodded and looked in Astra and Riku's direction briefly before Judgement Raiding repeatedly to take out the remaining Heartless surrounding them. "Want to introduce me to your new friend?"

"Astra. She's the friend of Luna's that I was talking about," Sora was about to say more when he caught sight of Stitch growling at an approaching Heartless while Lilo was cowering behind him. He sprinted towards them only to feel the familiar sensation of his body locking up. "No, not now!"

"You're pushing yourself too hard Sora. Let me handle this," Kairi said. Sora was about to protest when Kairi gave him a dangerous glare and repeated more imperatively, "Let me handle this."

The determined strength behind Kairi's eyes was all Sora needed to oblige by her command. She was right. If he wanted to save Luna he would need to save up all his strength, especially if it was the Dark Realm they were heading to. Kairi recognized that to get through to his stubbornness, she had to be forceful. Sora wasn't surprised. It was Kairi—she knew him well enough to know that only she could change his mind like that.

Sora sat down as if he had just been defeated and watched as Kairi confronted the unusual Heartless. Turning around Sora could see that it was another Chimera. The humanely turquoise eyes would be enough to drive a person crazy if they weren't so used to fighting Heartless. It was easy enough for them to just not look at the eyes and see the creature as a Heartless instead of a human in a Heartless' body. It was easy… except for the fact that he had to lie to himself to believe that. He didn't want to look away from the unfortunate truth, that these Chimera had been the result of cruel experiments on humans with lives of their own so easily taken away from them.

Kairi threw out another Judgement Raid from the side of the Chimera. The lightning fast flash of light connected with the closest thing to what would be a hip and knocked it away from Lilo and Stitch. Figuring the least he could do was get the both of them out of harm's way, Sora forced himself up off the ground and called for them to come over to him. The Chimera had heard him though and teleported quickly in between to prevent them from crossing the beach. Its movements reminded Sora very much of the Dragoon Nobodies he had fought on previous adventures. If it had a higher capability of thinking then it would prove to be a dangerous foe for Kairi to handle alone.

"Kairi, redirect!" Sora advised loudly enough for her to hear. She nodded promptly and charged her Keyblade before unleashing a wave of light at the Chimera. The creature saw it coming and easily teleported out of the way leaving the wave to carry on. Sora jumped forward quickly to catch it in time before casting Reflect at angle that would redirect the wave back at the Heartless. The light hit the back of the Chimera causing it to arch backwards in a painful shape to where Kairi could use another Judgement Raid at the same time. The two opposing forces were equal enough in power to cut clean through the Chimera's body severing it into two before both halves vanished.

"We sure do make a good team, huh?" Kairi commended watching as the heart swirled higher and higher up into the sky.

"As if there was any doubt," Sora grinned before a sad smile took over. "You know, this isn't getting any easier. We helped Quasi and maybe we can help a few more but… I'm not sure we can help all of them. I hate playing this game of pick and choose. It's like…" Sora's eyes widened and his clicked his fingers upon realizing it. "Like we're still in the middle of Abraxas' game. His goal was that he wanted to break me, make me suffer. I know that we can't save them all and that's what Abraxas was counting on, or still is I guess… that feeling of knowing that you're powerless to save everyone."

"I don't think either of you are powerless. You both seem pretty powerful to me." Lilo said unexpectedly.

"You think so?" Kairi asked blushing slightly.

"Like superheroes out of a comic book! I wish I had the kind of power that you did. Then Mertle wouldn't dare try-"

"Lilo, having the power to do something doesn't mean you can exploit that power. Besides, you already have a power that Mertle doesn't have," Kairi said before pointing at Lilo's chest. "You have a kind and accepting heart. The fact that you were able to befriend Stitch so easily is something that Mertle could never do. The first step to getting people to accept you is accepting yourself. As long as that happens, the only opinion of yourself you'll ever need is your own."

Now it was Lilo's turn to say, "You think so?"

"I know so," Sora said. He looked at Stitch before continuing, "Buuuut if you are still looking to get equal, I know the perfect thing you can do it. How about you look after Stitch for now?"

"I can? Really?" Lilo's eyes grew as big as her smile at this.

"Really. Whether you've noticed it or not by now, you two have something in common. You both want friends and I think that wish brought us here to you. Also, you can even introduce him to a certain someone, if you catch my drift." whispered Sora in a furtive manner. His wink sealed the deal. Lilo beamed and nodded before hugging him and Kairi.

"Lilo, so that's where you've been. Urgh, do you know how worried I've been? You just up and vanished from your room and you didn't even tell me. I thought that maybe _it _had done something to you." Nani said arriving on the scene in deep huffs of relief. Her emphasis on _it _to refer to Stitch made Sora cringe.

"Hey, Stitch isn't an it. He's my best friend now!" Lilo defended.

"That does beg the question though. Why did you leave your room?" Kairi asked. Sora could see Riku, Astra and Yuna approaching them after having finished their own wave of Heartless.

"Stitch said that he wanted to help you find those thingy pieces so we left to find you but we ran into those things on the way." Lilo explained.

"Stitch said that, huh?" Sora looked at the strangely calm and sullen alien who walked over to him and Kairi slowly.

"Sora… Kairi… Riku… friends… Stitch, help friends because… friends help Stitch." he said slowly and clearly. It really was incredible how someone like Stitch could latch onto a single word and use it to become motivated. The word was not simply just a word to the man-made experiment, but a philosophy, one that he could over-analyse and apply to his own life. He was learning to sympathize and become calmer and that was enough for Sora to know that he had been influenced and had developed so much over one day just from that single word.

Sora knew the power that certain words or phrases possessed having used them before but somewhere along the line he felt he had lost that message. Now it was time for Sora to make that same word count for him.

_Friends. They help each other. Wherever you are Luna… I'll definitely find you. _

Two figures running out of the trees disrupted his thoughts. The first person was unmistakably Pete which meant that whoever the second person was couldn't be good news either.

"Looks like we have more unwelcomed guests." Sora said before summoning his Keyblade along with Kairi again. Riku and Astra, who had kept their Keyblades out, went into their battle stances as they joined up with the group.

Pete's jaw dropped at the sight of several key shaped weapons ready to attack at any moment. "Oh, talk 'bout a heap load of bad luck. Now there's four more of you key-wielding brats? I don't know 'bout you but I am so outta here!" he yelled before opening up a corridor of darkness behind him. He backed into it leaving the stupefied and disoriented Gantu alone.

"Looks like he's learning. You might want to follow his example." Sora suggested.

Gantu's eyes fell on Stitch. He was trying to look for some opportunity, any opportunity, to snatch the creature and get out, but no matter how hard he tried, Stitch was too well protected.

He snarled and was about to pull out his blaster when he was crushed under the weight of a re-sized Aqua.

"Get of me! Do you understand who I am? I am Gantu and I will-"

"Oh be quiet," Aqua said casting silence on the loud-mouthed alien. She rolled off him, stood up and checked to make sure she was her normal height. "Seems like whatever he used on me wore off. Thank goodness."

"Aqua! I was wondering what Pete meant by there being more of us. When did you get here?" asked Riku.

"About an hour ago. I received your message and brought this along from Cid's but I'm not exactly sure how to install it." Aqua said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a purple Gummi Block.

"That'll do. I've never done it myself but I think me and Riku can hook it up. It seemed simple enough when I was watching Chip and Dale do it." Sora replied.

Gantu stood back up and shouted at them, or at least tried to but no words were able to come out of his mouth. He shook his fist at them menacingly (or humorously when considering he was still trying to talk) and clicked his fingers before he disappeared in a white light.

"What a bunch of losers." Lilo stated crossing her arms.

Aqua laughed at this before noticing Stitch for the first time since she had joined up with them. "Remember me?" she asked bending down. It hadn't felt like over ten years, with her being in the Realm of Darkness which ran on a much shorter time span, but to Stitch it must have been that long.

"Ak-oo, wa. Aqua!" Stitch said. Aqua nodded and pulled out her wayfinder before showing it to him.

Sora watched as the two reunited with each other after so long, a cheesy smile playing on his face. Kairi must have noticed because she immediately pushed in his cheek closest to her with her index finger.

"What was that about?" Sora enquired looking quite flustered.

"You're doing it again." Kairi told him.

Sora gave an exaggerated exhale before looking divulging his thoughts. "Well, I'm just thinking. Maybe if a creation like Stitch can learn to change and become his own person, maybe a Chimera can do the same. What do you think?"

"I think anything is possible, so let's hope you're right about that," Kairi said. "I think we should hurry back to the Gummi Ship and install the new engine while these two catch up and rekindle their friendship."

"Agreed. I guess we're heading off." Sora announced nodding at Yuna, Rikku and Paine before dismissing them with the Keyblade.

"Will you be back soon?" Lilo asked.

"Of course, huh?" The appearance of a keyhole in the sky cut Sora off from saying more. Having done this process many times now, he aimed his Keyblade at the lock without much thought and watched as the beam of light pierced the lock.

"Another one bites the dust… so where are we heading next then?" Kairi asked.

"The most dangerous place yet. We're going to find a pathway in to the Realm of Darkness." Sora said. The answer shocked Kairi and even Aqua, who had taken to chuckling at the playful Stitch's tendency to show off, had frozen instantly at the mention of the name. That in turn made him uneasy, but he couldn't afford to doubt Astra's guess now. No matter how terrifying the idea seemed that Luna was all alone there, it was as good a shot as any.


	14. Astra

_Had an amazing dream about fighting and beating the lingering will in KH2 except that it was on the world map for some reason. Since I have 2.5 I guess it's time to make that dream come true. Hope it's the same for everyone else. Anyway, shall we continue? _

* * *

**Chapter 14**

**Astra**

The humming of the Highwind brought Sora's mind at peace, especially during such a crucial time. His could feel a knot being tied in his stomach as the prospect of nearing the place that would get them into the Realm of Darkness became a nerve-wracking one the closer they came to it.

The question that had been on their minds very shortly after leaving Stitch's new home was where they could find somewhere to get into the Dark Realm. Sora had remembered something in Ansem the Wise's Secret Reports mentioning that Dark Corridors opened up at random times throughout the realm between, thus a place like Twilight Town, Traverse Town or even The World That Never Was naturally would have been the best place to look. That said, they were random so there was no telling where or even when they would pop up.

Aqua turned out to have an answer to this, or at least a guess. Sora didn't like having to rely on guesses but the idea that Luna was in the other realm was a guess in itself so once again he had nothing to lose. Her answer came in the form of a mysterious fog she had seen in Snow White's world. Although she hadn't dared go deep into the fog, she had sensed a familiar darkness coming from it that could only have come from the experience of actually being in a place with that familiar stench.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to his left to see Kairi giving him a reassuring nod with her soft, comforting yet confident eyes. Right, Luna wasn't just his friend. He wasn't the only one going through this uncomfortable feeling of an unknowable pressure squeezing his torso. If he was bad he could only imagine how Astra felt. He placed a hand on Kairi's and gaze it a squeeze.

_Oh right, Astra. _

After arriving on the Gummi Ship, she had done little to communicate with the other four on the ship with her. She had located her temporary quarters and had locked herself in. Starting to feel worried he gently moved Kairi's hand away from his shoulder before getting up from his seat.

"I'll see how Astra's doing." Sora said to her and the other occupant in the room, Riku. Kairi nodded with a smile but Riku simply looked his way, his features expressing disapproval.

"_Yeah, I think we get it Riku. Now stop acting all moody."_ was what Sora wanted to say to him but figured that it was Astra's actions that would inevitably make up the silver-haired teen's mind. Sora made for the hallway but not before stopping to grab some food from the fridge.

He soon arrived at two doors adjacent to each other near the end of the hallway, both closed. One of them was the room Kairi shared with Aqua, who was resting up for the journey ahead. He knocked instead on the other door.

There was a painful silence for the next few seconds and Sora was about to leave when the lock clicked and the door opened revealing an incredibly peeved Aqua.

"Whaddya want?" she asked.

"Um, nothing, just, uh- I was just wondering if you wanted anything to eat." Sora babbled foolishly. How she had managed to end up making him feel like an idiot even when tired, he had no idea.

"You woke me up just so you could ask me that?" Astra eyed him almost in a way that made her seem as if she was trying to dehumanize him from a stare alone. Whatever she thought of him wasn't much—that was for sure.

"Oh, you were sleeping. Well, I could just leave it on the desk and then go if you want." Sora said. Inside, he was mentally slapping himself. He felt like he was being overly submissive here, as if he was on a leash being made to do different tricks as his master instructed him to. She was certainly looking for something as a weapon to criticize him with and Sora knew that he couldn't give her that advantage. He just wished he was back with Riku and Kairi.

_Urgh, why do I have to be so kind sometimes? Darn you oh kind Sora. _

"No, please… come in." Astra said before widening the gap between Sora and the door allowing for him to enter. Now that was a surprise coming from Miss Sarcastic. Her voice had portrayed a genuine sincerity and, if Sora wasn't a mistake, a need to it. No, it was probably just her still being drowsy.

Sora laid the plate containing the sandwich he had brought on the desk before propping himself against the wall. He tried to think of something to say. He couldn't begin to guess how she would react when he mentioned certain things. He had usually always found it easy to talk and make friends with someone but Astra was a wild card.

"Sorry I interrupted your sleep. Had any good dreams?" he started, hoping he was going on the right track with this.

"The best." Astra replied.

_Okaaaay that conversation went everywhere and nowhere at the same time, _Sora thought closing his eyes before continuing, "Luna told me she was a dreamer. Was she like that with you?"

"All the time. Her eyes always shone so brightly like the stars when she talked about that stuff, going to other worlds I mean. At some point I… no, maybe some other time. But I was certainly captivated by her otherworldly ambitions… that much was for certain," Astra said heading over to the desk. "Ooh, a cheese and pickle sandwich, my favorite. Looks like you chose wisely Keyblade Master."

"Uh huh, I could tell after you secretly raided our fridge a couple of times over these past few days. Always the same type of sandwich. It wasn't hard to figure out who it was." Sora said.

"There are only five of us on here after all. Well, eight if you count those three pixies that hang out with you guys." Astra said whilst munching into her sandwich.

"I haven't summoned them once since we left Kauai though I'm planning to let them help us once we get into the Realm of Darkness. The more help the better I would say." Sora decided. He really had to get on fulfilling his promise to make them human. The problem was he had no idea where to start with that.

"Just as long as they don't slow me down. I can't afford to screw this up." Astra insisted.

"_We _can't afford to screw this up," Sora corrected before another question crossed his mind. "How exactly did you and Luna become best friends anyway?"

"She didn't tell you- Oh, right… lost memories and all," Astra reminded herself. Sora had made sure to inform Astra on what had happened with Luna the moment they had taken off, even Alexander being lost to the darkness. She had appeared on the surface to take it with nonchalance but he had to assume that she had confined herself to her room because of that news. "Well I suppose it wouldn't hurt to tell you. Since you woke me up and I doubt I'll be able to go back to sleep 'cause of it." She flashed him a cold stare causing Sora to make an audible gulp. Maybe he shouldn't have given her that sandwich after all. She set down the half eaten sandwich and sprang straight into her tale:

_They were like secret lovers passing notes Ping-Pong style under the desk in the classroom. Except they were only friends. The best of friends._

_But this was somewhere in the middle. It had more accurately started on a rainy lunchtime in the school cafeteria. 7__th__ grade in junior high. Astra having picked out her lunch, set off for her regular table with the regular sports track team she always hung out with. She wasn't a picky eater, and had never really fussed over any organized schedule of eating unlike the rest of her friends. Well, that was with the exception of the gruel they served. And the tapioca. And the fruit, she avoided most of that stuff like the plague… okay—maybe she was a bit picky after all._

"_I'm so jealous of you guys. I mean I refuse to eat this food since I'm on a diet at the moment but it looks so delicious." Tabitha groaned attempting to shy her face away from the food on the table but failing on purpose._

"_Uh, why exactly?" Momo replied in a fashion that implied she was offended. In reality, it seemed that such an expression was permanently glued on her face. Astra would never admit it out loud but she didn't like the girl. Not only was her face annoying with her mouth always parted like a blowfish but her incredibly emphasized valley girl accent and chatty nature could leave even the most positive person drained without any effort._

"_Well I have to keep my figure in shape if I want to join the cheerleading squad next year. I can't be slacking off." Tabitha fumbled with her hair as she spoke. She certainly was going to be a looker in the future when it came to attracting boys, anyone could tell that much. Even she knew it and she certainly didn't hide that awareness. Compared to her, Astra had more of a tomboyish personality—something that she doubted was considered an attractive trait._

"_Well considering you already look like a toothpick, maybe it would help to put on a few pounds." Astra jested resulting in a fit of giggles and oohs along the table._

"_Hey, toothpicks don't look this good when I'm through with them usually." Tabitha declared pointing to herself (or more precisely her developing bust) proudly._

"_I don't think we want to know what you do with your toothpicks in your spare time." said Astra before attempting to coax Tabitha into giving up her diet with the spaghetti and meatballs that were on her plate. The others laughed as Astra slid the tray slowly over to Tabitha taking enjoyment in her wincing. _

_A strange silence covered the table. Astra followed the cold stares of her friends to the person they were looking at. Like a puzzle piece that had somehow found its way into the presence of another, the girl clearly didn't fit in the overall picture. She looked at them awkwardly, her mouth trembling as if wanting to say something. Perhaps she wanted to join them. Before Astra could ask if that was what she wanted, one of her friends to her left, Sonata, was quick to jump on the girl's hesitation._

"_I'm sorry, you're blocking our view so could you leave now?" The girl tensed up on the spot at Sonata's snide tone and swallowed. Eventually she turned around and walked over towards one of the only empty tables to sit at it. "She's such a weird one. I feel sorry for her parents." _

"_That girl's name is Luna, right?" Astra recalled keeping her eyes on the girl as she set her head on the table._

"_Certainly fits her the way she stares off into space all day and talks crap about seeing the stars, whatever that's supposed to mean." Momo said. Astra didn't pay much attention in class herself so she couldn't exactly blame this Luna. _

"_Maybe all she needs is a friend." Astra suggested feeling some sympathy. It was starting to come back to her, moments in class where the teacher had called out on the girl's name only for her to spout incredible randomness. Just a few weeks ago when they had been told to give a presentation on what they wanted to be when they were older, said girl had started rambling, albeit dreamily, about wanting to leave Alexander and visit the stars. Actually now that Astra thought about it, her presentation was the one that Astra could remember the most out of the entire class. That had to count for something._

"_Oh she has a friend, her stupid fantasies and the clouds. Other than that, no one would want to be her friend." Tabitha said. She pulled a compact mirror out from her pocket and flipped it open to apply a thick supply of lip balm to what were already moisturized lips._

_Astra pulled her meal back towards her and returned to eating her food. Were it not for the next few critical minutes, she would still be sitting around the same table talking to the same friends about things they usually talked about. She would also have found school life much easier to get through._

_Astra's eyes veered off the food on her tray again to where the girl was sitting. Two boys, both fairly popular in her class and in the year in general, were approaching the girl while whispering and sniggering to each other. Astra had some hope that they would walk past the poor girl but her hopes were dashed when they stopped right behind her. Biggs slammed his tray on the table causing the girl to jump at the unexpected invasion of space. Over the incredibly loud voices filling the cafeteria, it was hard to decipher what he and his friend Wedge were saying to her but Astra was sure it couldn't have been anything good. _

"_One moment." Astra said excusing herself from the table. She got up from the table and walked slowly over to the girl's table. Biggs and Wedge were sitting down on either side of her now undressing her with various questions to which they most definitely didn't care about. They were definitely teasing her, but why hadn't the girl called them out on it? She was a shy one so it only made sense that she was too scared to talk out. _

_Only, the following words she heard from the two boys set alight a fire of fury in her eyes and answered her question at the same time._

"_Come on, hand it over." _

"_I-I told you, I left it at home... I d-don't have it." _

"_Stop lying to us. Just hand over the lunch munny and we'll be on our way."_

"_I don't have it." The girl's voice was almost at an unbearable squeak now, and yet the two boys seemed unrelenting in their conquest to destroy whatever little confidence she had in herself._

"_You're so useless you know that? But I guess we should expect that from Luna the lunatic. This is such a pain." Wedge scoffed._

_With Astra's fists curled up into a ball, she strode over to the table and tapped Wedge on the shoulder. "You two think you can just come in here like you own the place and order someone to do whatever you want? I suppose you'll be able to do that if you end up owning a business in the future and goodness knows how many times I've wanted to order people around but this certainly isn't the place to do it, and certainly not by bullying." _

_Biggs' face turned a bright tomato red before replying, "Hey Astra, just butt out of this alright? This is between us and her." _

_Astra shook her head. "No no no, it's between you and me friends. Just wondering though, what would you have done to her if I hadn't come here to stop you?" she asked darkly._

"_What does it matter to you? No one cares about her anyway. You know something's wrong when not even those dorks in the library will make friends with her." said Biggs loudly allowing for the two to let out a volcanic eruption of laughter. _

_Or she's too afraid to talk to them. _

_Astra looked at the downtrodden girl, a sudden passion arising within her. She didn't know what happened in the next few seconds. She had snapped and lost control. Acted on impulse. Before she knew it, both her hands were reaching out for the two glasses of orange juice that were on each of their respective trays, then she threw both drinks right in their faces. _

_By the time she had recovered Astra was facing the painful silence of the entire cafeteria and two completely drenched boys who, like her, could hardly comprehend what had just happened. Luna's almost tired demeanour had completely gone, now replaced by shock and yet wonder and curiosity at the same time. _

_There was really only one thing that fit Astra's situation right now. "Oh son of a-"_

* * *

"_ASTRA! Do not swear in front of the Principal!"_

"_I wasn't swearing, I was just about to say I had an itch. I might even be allergic to something in this room," said Astra with a shrug before sniffing. "Are you wearing perfume today Miss Cranberry? I think it smells simply delightful, don't you sir?" _

_Principal Crawley was taken aback by the question for a moment before responding in his usually cool manner. "Oh yes, it's… quite an interesting smell."_

"_Sir!"_

"_B-but that has nothing to do with why you're hear Astra. Not for the first time you are in very serious trouble." Crawley warned with waning attention throwing down her student report file onto the table._

_Astra let out a small smile. She had certainly been in here enough times to know both the Principal and the school secretary inside and out. For example, she knew that even bordering on the age of 50, the man still seemed to turn heads wherever he walked. Even some of the cheerleaders in the upper years would lick his boots if he allowed them to but none more so than Miss Cranberry. She was practically waiting for the day when Crawley asked her to do it. The expensive perfume, the slightly buttoned down shirt… as much as Astra was disgusted by it, she almost felt it within her prerogative to act as the Cupid in getting them together. This in turn benefited her because it would get them to relax on her a little, or at least she hoped._

"_Look, can we just get this over with? We know the standard procedure by now, you list all the horrible things I've done since the beginning of the year and I nod my head pretending to sound interested except that I'm not. Then you warn me that if I cause further disruption to the class you will be forced to bring my grandmother in and I nod and say that I understand and will never do it again. Huh, if there was an exam on my life I think I'd get an A in it without much effort." Astra summarised sarcastically. _

"_I'm sure you would, in fact you did pretty well on your English test so I know you can do well if you put your mind to it but the fact is you don't seem bothered. And now this incident-"_

"_Okay, this time it wasn't me. Well, it was kind of me but it kind of wasn't. Two boys in my class, Biggs and Wedge, they were bullying another girl in my class, Luna, and I decided to step in and teach them a thing or two. Actually now that I think about it, wouldn't it be your fault? Aren't you supposed to be checking to make sure incidents like that don't happen? I mean, I'm not telling you how to do your jobs or anything but, well yeah, I telling you how to do your jobs. Maybe you should check up on your priorities. Yep."_

_So Astra stepped out of the principal's office with another warning and feeling quite powerful. She had managed to convince the principal to investigate into her claims though she didn't expect any immediacy to the whole thing given her tendency to tell fibs in the past._

"_Um, your name is Astra, right?" _

_Astra turned to see the girl she had been defending trying to form a smile on her face. She clutched to her chest a book, a thick one at that which no ordinary 12 year old girl would dare consider reading, or at least not Astra._

"_That's right." said Astra. Well, this conversation is off to a great start._

_Luna stared at the ground for a while, her mouth opening slightly and closing. Astra figured that she had to be the one to move the conversation along._

"_Listen…" They both said at the same time. They looked at each other before letting out a fit of giggles._

"_You first." Astra prodded. _

"_No, go ahead please."_

"_I'm not talkin' if you're not talkin' sista." Astra joked._

_Luna nodded with an adorable smile that Astra had never seen from the girl before, not that she had been paying much attention until today anyway. "Well, I wanted to just say thank you for helping me. Why did you help me anyway?" she asked. _

"_So I should've left you instead? No way am I gonna stand back and watch someone get bullied around by the whole school. It's kind of pathetic." Astra answered._

"_I am kind of pathetic huh?" mumbled Luna with a sad smile._

"_I- I didn't say you were, I said-"_

"_It's okay," Luna said with a giggle. "I am pathetic. I try to fit in but no one seems to want to be around me. I can understand if you're the same. You have friends and probably think I'm weird." _

"_I don't… think you're weird," Astra refuted. OK, maybe you are weird but… "But I suppose I helped you because I was intrigued? I don't know. Even if you are weird, that's not really a bad thing. If anything it means you're less boring that all the other people here. I admire that. You're a dreamer." _

"_Yeah, a dreamer grounded in a little girl's body," Luna replied before asking, "So does that mean you believe me? About seeing the stars I mean?"_

"_Sure. Who's to say one day we might not be able to go out there. It'd certainly be more enjoyable than this place. I'm counting on you little trooper." Astra said. _

"_Thanks, but… you don't want to be seen talking with me. I've already caused enough trouble for you as it is. Sorry, I'll be going now." Luna said. She was about to walk off down the corridor when Astra made a quick decision._

"_Wait!" she called after the girl. Luna stopped short and looked back at Astra. "You hang out at the library usually, don't you? I guess it's time for a crash course in reading books."_

* * *

Astra had never forgotten the warm and appreciative smile Luna had given her after she had said that. In hindsight, if she had to question whether she had made the right choice on that day, it would be impossible to say she hadn't for the days with Luna then and thereafter were the best of her life. Additionally, she had come to gain a respected (or feared she supposed) reputation for defending Luna. From that moment onwards Astra's life really had dramatically changed to passing notes under the desk and having lunch under the oak tree in the school field. Luna had shown Astra that having even one true friend was enough to repair the cracks that had been in her heart that however many fake friends couldn't repair.

It's also why Astra couldn't forgive Sora if they were too late to save her.

"We're here." Kairi told them. Astra felt something churn in the pit of her stomach. It felt like these last nine months of searching were culminating and were about to explode and bring about some amazing conclusion. She was nervous. Who wouldn't be after not seeing their best friend in so long?

Her feet seemed foreign as she stood up. Her heart was beating rapidly. One concerned look from Sora told her to stop this foolishness. It was only Luna and she couldn't be seen to be acting weak now in front of them. She inhaled and exhaled deeply before following Sora and Kairi out of the room.

* * *

Astra's story was still on Sora's mind as he arrived at the entrance to the mine. It was really until she had mentioned those things about Luna's past that he had begun to see some of her actions in a different light, and even his own inability to prevent it. Luna had felt insecure and unsure of herself, and while she had become an amnesiac after her world had been destroyed, the feelings from her memories had remained. She had thought the Keyblade a way to prove that she wasn't those things, that she could be confident in herself. In the end, he was the one who tried to take that confidence away by telling her that he didn't want her travelling with him anymore. Even though he had meant it as a way of protecting her, it had done more harm than good.

"Sora, are you listening?"

"Huh, sorry what?" Sora asked snapping out of his deep thinking. He amused himself by thinking that he could have put Pooh Bear to shame with the many things on his mind at the moment.

"We're almost there Sora. Just a little longer," Aqua said seeing the pain in his eyes. "I was asking if you were prepared because once we step in there there's no going back."

"Yeah, I've stocked up on potions and ethers. I'm as ready as I'll ever be." Sora replied. It was thanks to the Beginners Level Synthesis Kit that Kupopo had supplied to them that they were able to have as much supplies as they did. It wasn't just him. Everyone was stocked up on items just in case something went wrong.

"Sora, you don't have to do this. What if you're paralysis starts acting up again. I'm not sure we can take that risk." Riku reasoned.

"You're right Riku, things haven't exactly gone my way lately, but we've been through this before back at Radiant Garden, remember? If I didn't think I could do this I wouldn't be here, but I am. Either way, I made a promise that I would rescue Luna and I'm going to meet her with a smile." Sora said. Riku's stare had Sora fear that he was about to strike down Sora's counter with his own thus erupting into another argument. Instead he smiled and chuckled giving him a nod.

"We'll all go in with smiles. As long as we share that one hope, that will be what drives us and keeps us going," Aqua agreed before chuckling. "You really do remind me of Ven sometimes. I guess he rubbed off on you."

"Sora has a lot of people rubbing off on him, but it also works the other way around." Kairi said.

"Oh dear, this is gonna be one of those moments isn't it?" Sora asked in a monotone voice.

"I'm afraid that's one danger you'll have to face on your own," Riku said with a hearty laugh. "But maybe we should save the teasing for after we've rescued our friend. I think someone's getting a bit impatient over us messing around." He looked at Astra who was in the process of checking her fingernails.

"Oh, don't mind me. I was just comparing my nails with Kairi's. Are we done yet or do we all want to go to the dwarves' house and have a tea party while we're at it?" she complained.

"She's right, there's no time to waste. Let's go." Riku said.

Sora could feel a change in atmosphere as they stepped into the mine. Or maybe it was an internal fear that was creeping up his body slowly and dramatically. He only hoped they weren't too late.


	15. Light at the End of the Tunnel

_Almost at the end of the Luna Rescue Arc. Just one more chapter to go before I get to do my favourite part: the Disney world selections. We already seen Hunchback's return, some Lilo and Stitch and hint of another world, so what's next I wonder? Well how about a world that I've wished to appear in the series for a while? Also, if there are any requests for FF characters to be added in the story, please feel free to tell and I'll try to see how I can fit them in. It will actually become pretty easy to do that after a certain point in the story anyway. _

* * *

**Chapter 15**

**Light at the End of the Tunnel**

_Falling asleep was not the easiest thing for the giddy four year old Luna to accomplish. Her eyes darted around the room aimlessly searching for something to take interest in. Eventually her eye movement came to settle on her teddy bear lying on the bed next to her. She placed it on her stomach and started dancing with it uses its hands and legs. _

"_Luna, are you still up?" her mother's voice called out from the landing. The bedside lamp that lit up Luna's room kind of gave away that she was still awake._

"_Yes mom. I'm trying to get to sleep but I can't," Luna replied before sitting up. "Buuuut, it might just help if you were to read me a story." _

"_Oh you are such a sneaky little one, aren't you?" Kaylah said slipping through the door eliciting a giggle from Luna. Her mother sat on the bed and ran her hand through Luna's hair affectionately._

"_And what story would you like me to tell you today I wonder?" she asked. "Swashbuckling pirates charting through unknown waters in search of the ultimate treasure? Of a thieves who dedicated their life to stealing from the rich to give to the poor? Or maybe you're a follower of breadcrumbs in a creepy forest?" _

"_Something new please!" Luna said leaning her Teddy on her pillow next to her so he could also enjoy and hear._

"_Well, that's certainly gonna be a toughie to crack. Let's see... Oh, you remember those shadows that you were certain came out at night?" Kaylah asked. Of course Luna remembered, in fact, despite her mom and dad's dismissal of her claims, she was sure that she saw strange shadows pop up in her bedroom at night every once and a while. It was why she couldn't get to sleep now._

"_Well you don't believe me so-"_

"_I saw them too, when I was your age." Kay confided. _

"_You did?" Luna asked. Why had her mother chosen to leave this out in their previous conversations about this? For a girl her age this seemed like so much of a crucial detail that she had to get down to the bottom of it as soon as possible._

"_It's not just me either. Everyone has at one point or another seen something that they've chosen to dismiss and forget. There's never at time that one hasn't imagined something to be hiding under their bed or in their closet. But you know what? What people don't really take the time to understand is that it's those shadows which are actually afraid of us." Kay said. Luna didn't really understand._

"_They're scared… of us? But why?"_

"_Because we have something they don't, and knowing that frightens them. It's because of the light in our hearts Luna. It's something only they can really see and we can only guess as to what it looks like but we just know it's there." Kay answered. _

"_And what happens if they get that light?" _

"_They can't, that's the thing. Their hope only extends to the darkness from which they come out from. As long as that shadow's limit is its own shadow, then they can never reach you. It's only when you let them reach you by fearing them that they finally can move out of their prison._

"_There was once a child who loved to look out and see the moon. Every night she'd stare out of the window and watch, the full ones in particular were the best as you might guess. Minutes passed, and she felt as if she could never tire of its beauty. One day however, a large shadow appeared over the moon blocking it from view. The girl feared that the moon would never be seen again and so she went out in search of a way to bring the moon's light back. No matter how hard she tried though, she could not find the moon again but instead… she herself had become lost in the process of trying to find it. She couldn't find her light, or so she thought. _

"_But then she felt it—the smallest of warmth but a warmth none the less. It provided a comfort and guarantee that she had thought only came from the moon. Her first thought was that the moon had come back, but it turned out to be the light from her heart telling her that she had nothing to worry about. She chose to believe in it instead of running away and, coincidentally, or maybe not, the moon returned in all its beautiful glory the next night." Kay finished. By the time she had, Luna had sunk comfortably into her pillow more than she had ever done so before._

"_So I shouldn't worry then. But it's just a story right? Right?" Luna asked. _

_Her mother simply smiled before kissing her on the forehead. "There's a truth to every story. We just have to look hard to find the truth within the lies sometimes. Or maybe I really am making it up." she said shrugging. _

"_Oh go to bed mom." Luna said leaning forward to throw a pillow at her mother._

_Kaylah dodged the pillow expertly before slipping off the bed. "You first. Goodnight." Kaylah said chirpily before leaving the room. Luna smiled and quickly went to retrieve her pillow before wrapping herself under the warm covers of her bed. She reached forward for the lamp and switched it off, immediately surrounding herself in darkness._

Surrounded by darkness… right now, Luna's favorite place to be certainly wasn't that. The camp she had set up as her new safe zone had been enough to provide her with a night's (or whatever felt like one) shelter. It would not last long however, for she could feel the Heartless on the move and ever nearing her location. She watched the ball of flame that she had used to warm herself a few minutes before go out completely before getting up on her feet and pushing on.

She had finished traversing the seven paths and locking the keyholes in each one. She felt she had at least deserved some compensation for her hard and life-threatening work but she was only humouring herself in this place of isolation. She didn't even know what purposes locking these keyholes served except for her guess that they returned them to the realm of light. Her guess could easily be confirmed if she returned to where Alexander was supposed to be but she was stuck here on the other side.

She clutched Sora's crown necklace while thinking of the memories she had shared with him and everyone else. She had been doing that a lot lately as if she was struggling to maintain whatever hope was left in a heart that was drowning in the blackness of despair. Even if she were to leave this place, would everything be the same again? Somehow she doubted that. And if not, what remnants of her past self would be in that light? To know that, she would have to know what this realm had taken from her and there was only one way to find that out.

"No. I have to believe that everything will be the same. Of course it won't if I don't at least try to make it that way. It will only be scary if I think it so. Right, mom?"

* * *

The group of five stood in front of the dense fog that had been found not too far from the mines entrance. According to Aqua, that fog had the tendency to move about from place to place so he was thankful that they didn't have to travel far to find it. If he didn't know any better about the place he was about to head into, he would have considered luck to be on their side.

He had been in this fog twice already. Once in the Pride Lands, and it had almost turned a pride of peaceful lions into vicious and impatient carnivores indulging in their hatred. It certainly hadn't made the already existing feud between the Pride Landers and the outsiders any easier. The second time had been the last time he had seen Luna. He had heard strange whispers in the fog though deciphering any of it was impossible, because that's all it was to his ears.

Aside him he could hear the others discussing the nature of the fog. "Where did it come from I wonder? Is this why we've been unable to see worlds on the scanner that we otherwise would have?" Riku questioned.

"So is this the same fog as the other ones then? I mean you mentioned it appearing in the Pride Lands right?" Kairi said referring to Sora.

"Yeah but… it changed the lions' personalities there. Also I was in it when I was fighting Abraxas. I heard something at the time but I'm not sure what it was. I'm guessing that either it wasn't the same fog…"

"Or maybe it has different properties in different areas. If only there was some way to analyze it." Riku said.

"How can we be sure that it leads into the realm of darkness though? What if it leads to another world which has nothing to do with it? I mean look at the objects around us." Kairi pointed out. As she had said, there were various objects misplaced around the mine and farther in that didn't seem as if they had come from this world. They were sure enough the fog had brought them here but to which world or even worlds they belonged remained to be seen.

Questions, questions, questions. Growing impatient, Sora threw his arms up. "Well none of that matters now! Standing here won't help a thing. If Riku and Aqua say that the fog is familiar to them then that's good enough for me. From here on out, we just have to trust our gut feelings and do this. No regrets." he avowed.

"Okay, let's do it," Riku agreed. He had only gone three steps when he stopped and looked at Kairi. "Oh, um, I just remembered. There's no easy wait to put this but… I don't think Kairi can come along with us this time."

"Huh, why? She's proven that's she just as capable as us at handling the Heartless." Sora defended.

"I don't doubt that but she's a Princess of Heart, remember? Her safety comes first. Also her light will be strong enough to attract any of the Heartless in the area. What we need to do is move quickly, find Luna, and get out." Riku explained.

"Oh yeah," Sora mumbled and watched Kairi's expression carefully. He could tell from her lack of one rather that she was having some difficulty trying to accept this. When Riku glanced at him, he knew his word would be the swing vote. "Kairi, let's be honest here. Excluding Aqua, you're probably the best out of us when it comes to magic and if this were anywhere else I'd definitely have you with us but it's not just somewhere, it's the realm of darkness. There pretty much already a one in a million shot of success and if Luna isn't there then we'll have just ended up putting you in danger for nothing."

"No, it's okay. I understand," Kairi said not looking at Sora directly. She sniffled and cleared her throat before pulling a familiar star shaped charm out of her pocket. "It's my-"

"Lucky charm. Be sure to bring it back to you. Gotcha," Sora said opening his palm for Kairi to place it there. He couldn't even begin to imagine how Kairi must have felt knowing that she had been left out simply because she was different from them but he would have to make it up to her later. He looked at it and smiled before putting it in his pocket. "We'll be back as soon as we can. I promise."

"Time's a wasting, let's get a move on." Astra said. Sora nodded to Kairi and backed away before twisting around and facing the strange fog. It was weird how contained it seemed to be, like it was hitting against a wall except that when Sora outstretched his hand, he found nothing solid there.

Stepping through this fog was perhaps the hardest thing had done in a while. Not because there was some external force preventing him from entering, but because he was afraid of whatever he might find on the other side. When he had ran through this same fog while trying to rescue Luna from Abraxas it had been on sheer impulse and without thinking of the consequences. He figured he should try to approach it like that, looking forward to what was at the end of his journey, not what was in between.

The fog grew thicker and thicker until he could only see misty white around him. He could just barely see the others walking beside him. He was about to question whether they were still in the mines when they emerged out on the other side.

"So this is the realm of darkness? You wouldn't think it was connected to the realm of light just by looking at it, but the stars…" Astra said tensing her fists upon the immediate difference in atmosphere. Darkness took the place of misty white which the various purple and red swirls and orbs lighting the sky. But about the stars… There were stars as well but they didn't seem to twinkle and shine as bright as they usually did. That wasn't the problem though. It was the fact that there were any stars in the Realm of Darkness at all, a place where no light usually shone. Sora had only been here for a short time once and even he could tell that much. "Just how big is this place anyway?"

"It's called the realm of darkness, you figure it out." Riku countered rudely.

"Though I do know she means. We could be here for days and we still wouldn't find her." Aqua said.

"Well we don't have that long, Kairi's on the other side waiting for us!" Sora exclaimed. He was ashamed to admit out loud that he was almost expecting to a solution to present itself to their problems but something like that seemed unlikely. Just then a binding flash of light and a sudden weight in his hands alerted him to the Keyblade's presence. It wouldn't have been weird if not for the fact that he hadn't summoned it. "What's going- agh?" Sora marvelled as the Keyblade jolted forward on its own as if it had wanted to rip its owner's socket off. A bright glow lit up the weapon as it pointed down one of the paths that they had the potential of walking.

"I think your Keyblade wants us to follow it, Sora." Riku stated with a wry smile.

* * *

Luna dodged to the side as the third Darkside of the trio that had decided to tag team her threw a punch. She recovered on footing and stepped back a bit before using a Wind Raid to attack all three at once.

"No good." Luna muttered to herself as she watched the Keyblade have little effect on hurting the Darksides. Had they gotten stronger somehow?

This time two of them attacked at once, burying their fists deep into the ground and releasing Neo Shadows from the pools of darkness that they had formed. Luna used their arms as walls, alternating between one and the other by kicking off them and ascending until she reached the height of their heads. She twisted her entire body and cut through both heads taking them both out.

Before she could land on her feet however, the final Darkside caught her mid-air. Luna tried to scream but all that came out were light gasps as she felt her body constrict and her bones on the verge of breaking. Eventually, the Darkside smashed her into the ground along with his fist. Luna couldn't move. She was in too much pain to do anything let alone think. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw more Darksides appearing and moving in.

_This is it. This is it. I won't see them again, _she kept repeating over and over in her head. She only hoped the end would be a quick one. She gave up on moving her individual muscles and watched as a gigantic fist floated above her head ready to put her out of her misery. But just before it reached her, light erupted from the crown necklace on her neck. She closed her eyes to prevent the sudden and close entity from blinding her. Even limiting her senses of sight, the warmth provided from that light was welcoming and, more importantly, familiar.

When she next opened her eyes, she found herself alone and her vision slowly fading. Sora's necklace was still faintly glowing and even though she felt as if her body was entirely devoid of energy, the comfort provided by the necklace was all she needed.

_This light… it feels… good. Maybe I'll sleep, just for a while…_

* * *

The group cut through the countless spawning Pureblood Heartless as they made their way to wherever it was the Kingdom Key wanted to take them. He had an idea though, or at least wanted to believe, that it was guiding them to Luna.

"Sora, duck!" Riku yelled quickly. Sora bent forward and felt Riku use his back as a support to launch a couple of well-aimed Dark Aura blasts to clear the path. Having specialised in magic, Aqua stayed at the back and cleared away any incoming enemies with her magic.

Sora had also summoned Yuna, Rikku and Paine who were doing their best to distract certain Heartless so that the others could take them out without having to face much pressure.

This left Astra who, along with Riku and Sora, was more physical and up front in her attacks. Her speed and strikes were what surprised them most as they continued through the infinite abyss. She couldn't have been doing this for more than a year and yet she was already on equal terms with her acquaintances.

"Astra, how did you learn to fight like that?" Sora asked once they had taken out the Heartless in the area. He kept his eyes on his independently pointed Keyblade as he talked. "And you were using magic with your free hand like it was nothing. I can understand if you were a powerful magician or maybe you've been close to the darkness… unless you are-"

"Don't be ridiculous. If I were even slightly interested in the darkness, I wouldn't have needed your help," Astra refuted. "I've heard tales of people who were able to cloak themselves in darkness and fully hide in the shadows. They were never seen unless they wanted to be seen and they also used those shadows to travel. Your friend Kairi is a Princess of Heart so I'm wondering if those with pure light could do the same but with the light."

"Now that's a scary thought. Fighting an enemy that's entirely emerged in shadows. How would you even fight such a thing I wonder?" Yuna enquired moving her index finger to her lips thoughtfully.

"Simple. You turn off the light," Astra said. "Sometimes no matter how hard you try you just can't fight shadows with light because those shadows are made from it."

"And you heard this from… Moira's Crescent?" Riku asked Astra with scepticism.

"And you got your attitude from…?" Astra responded just as snidely. "I don't have time for this. Let's just hurry up and rescue my friend, I can't stand another second in this place."

"Here's to the unanimous agreement. I've been here once before and never did I think I'd ever come back. But you know, if it means helping my friends then I'm glad that I could be of any help." Aqua said smiling.

"Looks like you'll be helping a whole lot more. Here they come!" Paine shouted pointing to the alarming numbers of Heartless approaching them. Aqua pulled in front and quickly used Magnet to draw in some of the Heartless before taking them out with Fission Firaga. To Sora, the many sounds of appearing and vanquished Heartless were a constant reminder that they were on borrowed time. Surely Luna could not have taken this many Heartless on her own, especially considering the state she had been in beforehand. No, he was underestimating her. When it was time to run, he believed Luna would do what was best, and if she thought she could handle it then he would believe in her all the same. That's all that needed to be said.

Their road took them past upside down and sideways rock pillars all the while dealing with the unwavering determination of the Heartless to interfere at every single step. He started to doubt that they were getting anywhere. After all, the same repeating landscape as they walked seemed to tell him that they were going in circles.

They soon passed another set of cliffs blocking the way to see a line of light shooting up into the sky up ahead. Now they knew they weren't going in circles.

"That light…" Astra was first to speak, a smile forming on her face unlike any others Sora had ever seen. There was no sarcasm behind it but instead a true happiness and relief that Sora had known when he had arrived back on the islands with Riku and Kairi. "She has to be up ahead."

"Astra, wait up!" Sora yelled but she had already set off and was leaving them behind. Before he could call out to her again, he felt the ground shake underneath his feet. He ended up falling only for Riku to be there to catch him by the arm. "What's going on?"

"I can feel the darkness approaching," Aqua said looking left and right before letting out a startled gasp. She turned to face Sora, Riku and the pixies and looked above them. "Get down!"

Aqua's warning was too slow to stop the tornado of thick dark wind that hit them. Sora felt himself immobilised and unable to hear anything else except for the tempestuous howling of the wind. Occasionally he saw glimpses of small yellow lights moving throughout, and came to the conclusion that the Heartless were also riding this storm and looking for opportunities to attack.

He felt an arm grab him and yank him up. He hadn't even realized that he had fallen down. A barrier wrapped itself around him formed and suddenly he could see Riku, Aqua and the Gullwings clearly by his side.

"We need to get to Astra!" Sora yelled against the ongoing storm.

"We have to wait until this storm lifts. It's not safe!" Riku said just as loudly.

_And she is? Who's to say this storm will ever let up? _

Making up his mind, he apologised quietly to them before breaking away from the barrier. He could hear Aqua and Riku shouting his name in worry but he ignored them and walked slowly into the heart of the storm. Though his walking speed was severely impaired, he was nowhere near as unable to move as he had been a minute ago. He silently praised himself on whatever willpower he had just discovered, but even that was slowly being drained by this intense rush of darkness the inhibited his senses.

A Dark Ball came from Sora's right and attempted to chomp away at him only to bite at Sora's Keyblade. The glowing light that illuminated the weapon vanquished the Heartless instantly. Sora activated _Ars Arcanum _and used it to increase his speed by cutting through the thick black wind. Eventually he emerged from the storm and dropped the Keyblade in fatigue.

"Might wanna consider using an ether, no?"

Sora looked up to see Astra's sardonic grin looking down on him, possibly trying to make herself look bigger than him. Sora guessed that she either had a superiority complex, was sadistic, just enjoyed specifically watching Sora hurt, or all three of them. Sora let out a mild grunt and drank down an ether before using the Keyblade to pull himself up. He spun around hoping that at any moment Riku and Aqua would emerge from the wind. The sound of three pops by his ears caused his to jump.

"Did we scare ya? Huh, did we, did we?" Rikku asked hyperactively with a cheesy grin.

"How did you three get out of there? What about Riku and Aqua?" Sora grilled.

"Well you did summon us so I guess we're able to teleport to wherever you are. Man, it really is poopy though that we have to come to your aid whenever you tell us to. I mean, what if I'm in the bathroom and you suddenly call me?" Yuna asked.

"Too much information." Astra muttered shaking her head at the inappropriate comment. Sora could agree with her on that one.

"If you're worried about your friends, don't. They're taking care of the situation. They told us to go on ahead and help you guys out." Paine answered Sora's second question. He wondered at first if it was truly okay to be separated from the others but Astra wasn't the least bit interested in debating this.

"If that's how it is, there's nothing we can do except head towards that light now." she appeared to concede, though it was obvious from her uncaring expression that she had shown no interest in waiting anyway.

* * *

They were nearing the strange light now and with this, the road had opened up to become wider. The dread and nerves that had taken hold of Sora's stomach from the moment he had stepped off the Gummi Ship increased ten-fold. Either the Keyblade was trembling in his hands, or it was his hands that were doing the trembling. He should have thought about this sooner, but he had no idea as to what the first words he would utter from his mouth to her would be. It had finally hit him that three months was a long time, and his last memory had been of her letting go off his hand and falling into the darkness.

Sora brought his right sleeve to his eyes and rubbed at them. They were stinging for some reason. He couldn't let her see him like this, though he imagined that when he saw her again, convincing himself not to cry would go straight out of the window.

"Luna!"

Sora removed his sleeve from his face. Astra had already left his side and ran towards the unconscious Luna, kneeling once reaching her and cuddling her. Sora caught up with Astra and was immediately captivated by the peaceful smile playing on Luna's face. Her rising and falling chest at least indicated that she was still alive and that was more than enough to comfort him.

Astra was not as easily accepting of her current state. "She looks so pale. C'mon Sea Salt, wake up. Tell me you're okay." she urged while putting the back of her hand against Luna's forehead.

What was he to do here? Sora simply stood there and watched as Astra offered her words of encouragement, and while he wanted to say or do anything, he found that no words would come out of his mouth. Seeing her here like this, pale and out like a light, forced Sora to once again acknowledge that he had been partially to blame for her ending up like this. He was sure if he tried to say anything, Astra would say the same.

For a moment, his eyes briefly fell upon the glowing crown necklace around Luna's neck. Maybe, just maybe, he was partially responsible for keeping her safe as well then. She's hadn't been alone at all. She had carried a piece of him too when she had ended up here.

Before he could start pondering why the necklace had even glowed in the first place, he was launched to the side by a powerful force. Astra looked up but was unable to prevent herself from being launched as well.

Sora felt as though he were suspended in the air for more than a few seconds before finally coming back down and almost rolling off the edge of the path. He rolled over onto his back and looked around from that position only to find nothing there.

"Astra, you okay?" He yelled out while trying to search for the mysterious creature.

"Well I think I broke something." Astra grunted before getting up. She summoned her Keyblade and walked slowly over to Luna while glancing left and right. She began dragging her Keyblade across the ground and occasionally tapping it.

Sora was baffled by her reaction to this invisible Heartless but the vulnerable Luna lying in the middle of the road dispelled whatever questions he would have posed to her. He stood up and rushed towards Luna again only to be knocked away just as he reached her.

"You idiot. Don't you see the Heartless is using her as bait to lure us in?" Astra scolded.

"What? How would you know that?" Sora asked. He hurriedly took out a potion from his pocket and drank it, the heavy and painful feeling on his chest left by the impact of the attack slowly reverting back to normal.

"I didn't. It was just a theory, until you proved it for me anyway. Nice job genius." Astra said offering a slow and annoying clap.

Sora let out a snarky laugh in reply before looking back at Luna. The Heartless was using her as bait? That almost seemed to imply that the Heartless was thinking, biding its time for the opportune moment. Was it another Chimera?

_But there's no way I can fight like this. Not with Luna in the middle like that. Damn it! _Sora lowered his head and pounded his fist into the ground angrily. If it could strategize, then it knew that both Sora and Astra were at a disadvantage.

"You're giving up already after coming this far? And what makes you think you deserve to see Luna again? Maybe she would better off without you."

Sora gave Astra a dirty look possibly for the hundredth time since he had first met her before shaking his head and standing up. "I don't know what thoughts you've conjured up in your head about me or what Moira's Crescent told you, but I'll tell you now that you don't know the first thing about me. I may be down, but I'm by no means out."

Astra grinned and raised her Keyblade above her. "Then prove it."

* * *

_In case I don't update this before Christmas, I'd just like to say have a Merry Christmas. Of course, if I do update (which since I'm in the mood to finish this arc of I guess that will happen) then this automatically becomes obsolete and goes onto the next chapter. And now for some more Adventure Time- seriously this show is so addicting!_


	16. Escape From the Realm of Darkness

_And as if by some miracle, I managed to crank out this chapter in a day. Well, I am so taking a break from this for the rest of the week. Goodbye writing... er, until next week anyway. And then we come back with more CotP, and yes, that other fan fic you've been waiting for. _

* * *

**Chapter 16**

**Escape From the Realm of Darkness**

He had nothing to prove to Astra, only himself. Whether she hated his guts or not was inconsequential right now. Sora only had to prove that he still had the power to protect those he cared about.

His untameable passion came out in the weirdest way: a battle cry that would have made him feel embarrassed and stupid had he not been so angry. He held the Kingdom Key tightly and ran forward to Luna before casting Reflect the exact moment he reached her body. A flash of light smacked against the shield and rebounded, turning into black smoke and eventually turning into black smoke and then gaining a physical body once it hit the ground.

The end product was a large chunky beast that reminded him of an enlarged Darkball. Actually there was something much more similar to it. Sora recalled fighting a similar enemy in Beast's Castle at one point—except this one was much faster and as Astra had pointed out, smarter. At least he could take comfort in knowing that it showed no signs of being a Chimera.

"Well how do you like that Astra? Come on, gotta give me style points for that one." Sora remarked with a cheesy grin.

"I'll give you a five. I think I can do better." Astra replied before cloaking her Keyblade in thunder magic. A strange light surrounded her as she moved forward with incredible speed to make quick slashes on the Heartless boss, pushing him back a fair ways from the unconscious Luna and Sora. Her style was directly reflective of the style changes he knew Riku, Aqua, Terra and Ven used.

Yuna, Rikku and Paine flew in and though Yuna and Rikku provided as much help as they could by distracting the Heartless, it was really Paine's Gravity magic that helped to stagger the Heartless and keep it in position while Astra smacked on it.

Meanwhile, Sora looked back at Luna and gently shook her. "Come on, you couldn't have picked a better time to have a nap sleepyhead? Well, at least you're not alone now. Well, I suppose you were never alone, but you knew that." he said taking in her warm smile as she slept. It was so inviting that he almost wished he could… wait… what?

"Urgh, would you stop ogling my friend for a sec? I could use some help here." Astra muttered as she tried to pull her Keyblade out of the Heartless' mouth. The Gullwings had moved into to help but were immediately met with a spinning attacking that not only knocked them away, but also sent the tacked on Astra dancing through the air. She landed back on her feet completely dazed but had surprisingly managed to keep hold of the Keyblade's handle.

_How did she lose an advantage like that? Guess she isn't as smart as she thinks she is. _Sora almost wanted to grin at this little victory but the time was hardly appropriate. Just like that he forgot about (and rather conveniently at that) whatever he had just been thinking about and fired off a couple of Firaga spells. The first of these spells hit the giant Darkball and caused it to release Astra's Keyblade from her mouth. The rest knocked it farther back to where Astra could feel safe in continuing her physical attacking.

This started the repeated cycle of the lightning-imbued physical attacks administered by Astra, and the cast of Ice magic produced by Sora. Whenever the Heartless tried to back away, it constantly found its back against a wall of ice preventing it from escaping.

In retaliation it turned invisible once more, Astra's Keyblade flying through the air and hitting nothing. Maybe then it wasn't turning invisible, but was rather too fast for the eye to see. Whatever the case, as Astra had mentioned in her little story earlier on, this being was a dweller of darkness and had made the shadows its home. It was perfectly in tune with its environment in contrast to the out of place Sora and Astra.

Astra backed away to the point where her back hit against Sora's. The two looked around closely with but ultimately their gazes were always lingering on the unconscious girl in the middle the longest.

On first sighting of the Heartless, Sora bent rotated and shot a Thundaga bolt under Astra's waist. The spell came into contact with the charging beast but deflected off it instead. Astra disappeared from Sora's side and warped into the air to knock the bolt back at the creature from the side. This time the lightning spell hit the Heartless at an odd angle sending it out of its charge just before it could hit Sora and knocking it into a spinning motion instead.

The Gullwings were back in the game to finish the fight off with Paine sending another Gravity spell at the large Darkball. This temporarily flattened it before returning it to its 3D shape and stunning it once more. Sora quickly moved in and performed a Zantetsuken, swiftly cutting the Heartless in half.

"Hmph, show off," Astra said as they watched the large Darkball wither away. Sora scratched his head before walking back over to Luna. "We'll carry her together."

"Don't trust me to do it on my own?" Sora asked, aiding in helping Luna up and putting one of his arms around his shoulders while Astra had the other.

"With your twig arms? No, no I think I'm making the right choice here." Astra replied transitioning to a hushed tone at the end.

"Ouch. I can tell someone's been preparing that one all week." Sora said cringing, though now he couldn't help but look at his free arm every now and then as they walked back to Riku and Aqua. He just hoped their way in, and out, was still there.

* * *

"Just looking at this place, you wouldn't think it to be so bad," Aqua said listening to nothing but complete silence after the storm. It had been ten minutes or so since Sora and the Gullwings had left them and the Heartless-filled tornado had since then dissipated. Riku could certainly understand what she meant. His first time here was as quiet as it was now, filled with longing and the thoughts of his friends. "But we've both been here. We know the solitude it provides only exists in its madness."

"Yeah. Now I know what they mean when they say that no one ever comes out of the Realm of Darkness. We both did, but we came out two completely different people. Leaving this place was the start of the journeys that would change us. We both accepted that you can't have light without darkness and vice versa." Riku agreed.

"So I suppose the question now is… what will Luna learn? This may be the start of her journey, and in her current state I've no doubt that it'll be a difficult one. Just what could drive a man to experiment on an innocent girl like that?" Aqua asked cuddling her knees together.

"There are some things in this world I suppose we'll never understand. Why do people like Sora and you choose to live a simple existence while others like me and Xehanort seek so much more than what we need? If there is a right choice then why do we ignore it and pick the wrong ones? Why are we even able to pick the wrong ones in the first place?"

"It's what makes us human I suppose. We're able to define who we are and can choose whether to act out our hearts' wishes or not." Aqua theorized.

"Hearts are… independent of us?" Riku asked, unsure of how to phrase the question.

"Well, Ven's heart was taken in by Sora's right? I doubt Sora was conscious of the fact. I think a reason he was able to save us was that he's so in sync with his own heart. There are only so many who are able to listen so well to what their heart has to say. While Sora's talent came naturally to him that's not to say it can't be learned. You're proof of that Riku, and I'm so proud of you two." Aqua said attempting to ruffle Riku's hair.

"Hey hey hey, you can keep that stuff exclusive to Ven thank you very much." Riku slid away slightly blushing while Aqua let out a snort of laughter.

"Well at least we came in with each other this time. And we're leaving with an additional person. But you know why I'm saying all this right? From the moment we see her, Luna's going to need all the moral support and encouragement we can give her. I dread to think of what damage this place has done to her," Aqua said. Both pairs of eyes looked away from each other at the sound of slow and pronounced footsteps. Astra stood up from her spot and was at Sora and Astra's side in a heartbeat. "Is she alright?"

"Unconscious I think. She's not waking up but I think we can look into that more once we get out of here and back on the Gummi Ship." Sora said.

"Yeah. Any trouble getting her?" Riku asked while looking at Astra suspiciously.

"Oh, like you wouldn't believe, but me, Astra and the Gullwings handled it pretty comfortably." Sora said raising his free hand and possibly expecting Astra to high five him back with hers. It was clear she was just going to leave him hanging however, but before he could put it down Aqua reached in to do it instead.

"Er-"

Looking at the perplexed expression on Sora's face, Aqua quickly raised her hands and tried to justify her action. "Wasn't that meant for me? I mean I was a bit late in responding but I think I made up for it. Oh, th- that wasn't for me… was it?"

"Well… it could be…?" Sora said with a similar level of stunted dialogue.

"Talk about awk-ward! Can we please get out of here now? I think this place is messing with my tan." Rikku complained.

"She worked so hard to get one back in Kauai, you know?" Yuna said pinching Rikku's cheeks much to the latter's disapproval.

"Are you sure you're not just saying that because you're scared?" Riku teased.

"We are NOT scared!" Rikku countered brashly.

"They're scared."

"Oh, way to have our backs Paine," Yuna huffed in response to the stoic Paine before turning to Sora and pleading with both hands clasped. "But seriously, don't you think it's time to go home? Pleeeeaaaaassssseeeee?"

Aqua nodded and flashed a smile at the three pixies. "You're right. Let's go home," she said before looking at Luna. "All of us."

* * *

Kairi waved her hand backwards and forwards through the fog, feeling her hand immediately become denser and slightly numb as it sifted in and out. She felt that her actions were mainly motivated by boredom rather than intrigue. It had been half an hour or so since the others had left her by her lonesome. Right now she would have taken even the Dwarves as company.

Taking her hand out one final time, she summoned Destiny's Embrace and started practicing with it. She swung it up and down, slowly increasing the speed of her swings and occasionally jumping backwards to perform a thrusting motion.

_I can't believe I'm doing this. What if they're in danger? I wouldn't know because I'm… being left out to dry here. _Kairi stopped swinging ferociously and took a deep breath thinking of her training with Yen Sid. While she had been learning Curasa magic, she had been taught to associate different elements with different emotions. As the image of still water entered her mind, she felt her body relax and a smile form on her face.

She opened her eyes to see someone in front of her. It was a woman in a familiar looking blue dress. Kairi had only gotten a few brief seconds to look at her back in Quasi and Esmeralda's world but now she was able to take in a more accurate picture. With long, platinum blonde hair sported in a French braid, light freckles among rosy cheeks and icy blue eyes, Kairi had to admit that she was beautiful.

"You're the one that helped Kefka escape. Tell me, who are you?" Kairi asked. She watched carefully as the woman moved closer to her while admiring the encrusted golden walls covered in beautiful, sparkling jewels of all kinds. Such a thing could easily make on rich, Kairi imagined. Perhaps that was why she was here?

"They call me the Queen of Winter or the Snow Queen. As for what I call myself? Elsa." she eventually said. While her eyes stared coldly back into Kairi's, the redhead could sense something completely different coming from her heart. _This feeling coming from her heart is unmistakably… sadness. _

"You don't look like the type who would hang out with people like Kefka." Kairi pointed out.

Elsa opened her mouth to respond but ended up closing it. Kairi could see the muscles of Elsa's mouth twitching as if she was formulating carefully her next words. "Well appearances can be deceiving." Elsa said eventually.

"Oh come on, you don't really believe that. If there's anything worse than lying to other people, it's lying to your own heart. You're uncertain and scared about something aren't you?" Kairi pressed.

"As if you would know about what my own heart wanted? I don't need someone like you to tell me who I am." Elsa yelled. Her voice bounced and echoed off the walls causing it to have a lingering presence.

"Ooh, insecure are we? Yours is the heart that just keeps on giving. It's like a Tempest of different emotions. Hm, isn't that a play?" Kairi mocked playfully. As she had expected, Elsa hadn't taken it lightly. She didn't need to read a heart's feelings to know that the Snow Queen was determined to prove that Kairi was wrong.

"My orders were to capture Snow White but since another Princess of Heart is here, why waste my time on a disappearing act?" Elsa reached out and slammed both her hands on the ground. A slew of icy shards formed from the ground making their way over to Kairi who rolled to the side before throwing off fire projectiles.

Elsa jumped and formed an ice path underneath her which she used to dodge the projectiles and travel around the room. She disabled her ice power temporarily and landed on the floor before firing another set of shards at Kairi.

_She can't fight in such a small area like this. She's only closing the distance between the both of us, _Kairi thought noticing the ice filling the room and enclosing them both. The more Elsa tried to use it in an indoor space, the more she would become limited by it like an adverse effect. The only problem was that those rules also applied to Kairi, so she would have to be careful about where she stepped.

Kairi side flipped over the projectiles before flinging her Keyblade. Before she could pull off another attack, the Keyblade struck Elsa's wrists causing her to yell and clutch it with her other hand.

Kairi held up her hand to claim Destiny's Embrace once more before pointing it at Elsa. "I don't want to hurt you. I can tell that you're not a bad person regardless of what you'd like to make yourself out to be. Just tell me what you know. Why are you searching for the Princesses? Because of Kingdom Hearts? And Alice, did you take her?" she inquired.

"Why are you asking me? Aren't you hiding her?" Elsa asked. _So, they don't have Alice? That can't be right. Then who does? Moira's Crescent maybe? _As Kairi became entrenched in her own thoughts, Elsa twisted her wrist around to inspect it before clenching her fist and dropping it to the side. "As for your first question, why don't you read my heart? I'm sure it knows better than I."

Elsa started to back away. "Stay where you ar-AGH!" Kairi tried to yell but an abrupt blizzard came out of nowhere forcing her to close her eyes and shield her face. When it stopped, Kairi opened her eyes to see Elsa gone and light sparkles of snow filling the room. The temperature in the room had also dropped forcing Kairi to rub her arms.

"Hey Kairi, we're baAaAawha?" Sora trailed off and blinked rapidly. "What… happened?"

"Yeah, you had one job Kairi. ONE JOB!" Yuna criticised. She turned around to see pairs of eyes all staring her way. She tilted her head while pretending to shrink away. "Uh, too soon?"

Kairi looked away from Yuna and expressed the same worry both Riku and Aqua had upon seeing Luna. After finding out from Sora that she was alright, Kairi relayed what little information she had gathered from Elsa to the others.

"She could be lying. I think we should treat someone who's out to collect the Princesses' words lightly." Riku suggested.

"That's the thing. I think she was also confused, and besides why would she have any reason to lie? She knows we know that they're after them so it would naturally make sense to think that they had Alice in the first place," Kairi said. "And if they aren't behind her disappearance. There's only one other group I can think of, Astra?"

"Oh, I love a good conspiracy theory," Astra said jumping around and clapping ecstatically like a giddy schoolgirl. "Of course they always let me down because they never turn out to be real, just like this one. Kairi, sweetheart, there are things in this world that simply cannot be explained. This is not your Saturday morning cartoon show where the group suddenly and conveniently have an idea to catch the bad guy just before the show ends. I don't know what kind of game you, those guys, or Moira's Crescent are playing here and I personally don't care but what I do know is that truths aren't always so in your face as you might like to think. It may be easy to explain something away by pretending it's one and the same with a current problem, but most of the time, what is easy isn't always right."

"You know, you could have just said they weren't behind it either instead of wasting our time with a monologue." Sora said.

"Coulda. Woulda. Buuuuutttt didn't feel like being lazy just then. I guess being with you guys just broke a habit." Astra replied.

"But why so defensive then? You say you don't care for Moira's Crescent and yet you're convinced they didn't do it. So you should have no problem with us investigating then?" Paine said. When all eyes fell on her she gave an exaggerated sigh. "Forget I said anything."

"By all means, feel free to investigate. I'm just telling you not to make a judgement simply based on what you want to believe. I've seen enough of that before," Astra said briefly glancing at Luna before hoisting her up slightly higher. "Let's just get moving before this 'Snow Witch' calls for backup."

* * *

Sora had only felt truly comfortable when he had taken the place of the front seat of the Highwind. He slouched into the pilot seat and watched his fingers crawl up and down the armrests like two spiders.

They were in the sea between worlds now and Sora could only think of that unique twinkle that would take over Luna's eyes when she woke up to see the colorful great sea that surrounded the worlds. When he had been back on the islands, he could only have ever seen such a thing from a rainbow. Now, he was free to see those seven colors and more whenever he wanted to. He let out a yawn. Today had certainly not been a bad day for an adventure.

The spiders stopped crawling up the armrests before jumping over to the drawer and opened it, pulling out a journal. Inside contained pages of entries Luna had written on her last trip in the Gummi Ship. Sora had taken the liberty of filling it in after her last entry, providing as much detail as he could on the worlds he, Riku and Kairi had travelled and what they had found, which is to say not much until they had found Astra in Lilo's world.

He went backwards this time, admiring Luna's slightly messy handwriting and his even worse. He paused somewhere near the middle of the journal to look at Luna's drawing. Her, Sora, Donald, Goofy, Kupopo and Jiminy were all there, and above them, a title: MAY THESE BE THE MEMORIES THAT LAST. When Luna had last shown it to him, she couldn't explain why she had chosen this title or why she had capitalised all the letters. In the end, he felt that it was because she had been afraid of becoming a different person if she regained her memories but that fortunately hadn't come to pass. Sora drew a single finger across the words several times. Oh how he wanted these words to be true.

He was so absorbed by the picture that he failed to notice Kairi's head swooping down from above. He screamed and let the journal escape his grasp and fall onto his lap.

"You know, even Namine's a bit more composed than you when I usually do this, and that's saying something," Kairi said before frowning. "We can't get her to wake up. She might be in a coma in which case all we can do is wait for her to wake up. But I'm no expert, I mean Master Yen Sid might be able to help her more than I can." she added quickly.

"I trust you Kairi." Sora comforted, knowing that Kairi had done the best she could and that her judgement on Luna's condition was a sound one. He placed the journal back in the drawer and got up before walking down the hallway. He stopped at the already opened door to the left and went in.

Luna was lying on the bed as peacefully as she had been in the realm of darkness. Next to her, Astra had pulled up a chair and had taken Luna's left hand into her own hands, caressing it gently. Aqua stood staring at the two thoughtfully while Riku leaned against the wall with his eyes on the metal floor.

Sora wanted to tell them how everything was going to be alright and that she would eventually awake, but he chose not to risk being blamed by Astra for this happening in the first place.

_No, I don't care about whatever Astra says. Luna's my friend too and I know she'll awake because… there's no way she'll let those memories end. _

With that Sora deliberately walked over to other side of the bed where Astra could see him and gently took hold of Luna's other hand. "Take all the time you need to figure things out Luna. We'll be right here, fighting alongside you."

* * *

Pots and pans clattered and clanged in almost every possible direction, a result of the desperate Palom attempt to clean Merlin's cookware quickly. Porom heard the sound of metals hitting against the floor several times from the bathroom and raced into the living room to see the colossal mess that Palom had made.

"You complete dunderhead. How did this happen? Actually, I don't have to even ask. You thought you could use teleport magic as a shortcut to save time on cleaning. Of course you would." Porom snapped.

"Well you could always help and make this easier. I'd appreciate that." Palom argued back.

"I'm sure you would, but why would I neglect my duties just to help you? I think I know why the elder back home referred to you as a… troublemaker. Incompetent. Arrogant. A fool."

"Huh? Who called me that?" Palom asked.

"Oh, the last one was me. But I'm not far off. It was just used by them in an indirect way," Porom said pompously before looking around and hanging her head lowly. "But I suppose I'll have to help you just this once since you'll probably somehow find a way to make this worse if I leave it to you. I don't need a powerful wizard such as Merlin ranking us on par with the Gullwings thank you very much."

"I ever mention you were best little sister one could ever have?"

"First, we're twins, with me being a few seconds older than you at that. Second, flattery will get you nowhere _little _brother." Porom laughed at the scowl that had manifested on Palom's face. She was about to head over to the sink when she heard a knock on the door.

"Uh oh, I didn't think he'd be back so soon. We're screwed!" Palom exclaimed clutching his head in fear.

"You have a brain Palom and no matter how little it may be I expect you to use it. Merlin wouldn't even have to knock. He could just pop in with teleport magic. It's probably just Cid or Yuffie." Porom said rolling her eyes. She approached the door and opened it however the person on the other side was neither of the people Porom had mentioned.

"Ah, hello. I suppose the kid over there is Sora? A bit young to be wielding the Keyblade but if the old bat says he's special then…" The woman bent down and offered her hand. "The name's Neuge… and that's not Sora, is it?"

* * *

_So I'd advise going back to Dual Destinies here and looking at the secret ending if you haven't for the backstory on this new character and hope you look forward to her and Luna's recovery (let's be honest, there's no way she won't wake up unless I'm feeling incredibly sadistic while writing). For now I wish you a very happy holidays be prepared for a wedding! _


	17. Enter Neuge-Light Living in the Shadows-

_A new year and with it a new chapter of Cracks of the Past. Huh, I was expect hoverboards and a holographic Jaws to magically appear in front of my eyes... oh well. Hope you're looking forward to this year as much as I am. On with the show._

* * *

**Chapter 17**

**Enter Neuge –Light Living in the Shadows-**

_Welcome to the Radiant Garden Operating System. Please follow the procedural steps as shown on screen. _

_Retinal Scan Required_

_Retinal Pattern Confirmed_

_For further verification, a password is needed in order for you to fully access this system's functions_

_Sora._

_Donald._

_Goofy._

_Checking Password… _

_Access Approved_

_Welcome, User Even _

Even scowled and shook his head in disapproval. "Must I be forever burdened to remember the name of that infernal Keybearer and his annoying companions?"

"Face it Even, you're a remnant of the past now. It's only natural the new generation steps up to take the place of the old." Even gave an incoherent grumble as yet another person he would rather have not remembered entered the room with a childish grin on his face.

"Ah Axel, as ignorant as always I see. Why don't you make yourself useful and help me in my research." Even ordered rather than requested. He kept his eyes trained on the computer screen as he typed a few commands onto the keyboard.

"It's Lea… but you're not gonna get it memorized, are you?" Lea asked.

"Would you respect the man responsible for killing you? I think not." Even replied.

"Your Nobody? Oh come on, you wouldn't be here if I hadn't. Don't you think it's time to let bygones be bygones? I truly do respect my elders, it's just I had to do what I had to do." Lea reasoned.

"Oh I believe me when I say I understand all too well. Survival of the fittest after all. When you strip down all the complexities defining one individual from another, we are left with one of our most primal needs: survival. Even Heartless possess this proverbial instinct." Even explained.

"Are you comparing me to a Heartless? Oh come on, it wasn't that bad. Anyway I thought that was kind of obvious, no? When we were Nobodies we each sought a heart because we believed it was necessary for survival. A Nobody is eventually fated to fade away because the body can't live without the heart for long."

Rubbing his chin, Vexen faced and acknowledged Lea for the first time since the fiery red head had walked into the room. "Indeed, or in some cases the body may just cease to function and succumb to a vegetative state. But that is of no consequence to me. Right now, my primary interest lies in those Chimera Heartless. Now if only I could run some tests on that girl…" he began but Lea cut him off.

"Don't even think about it. As if that Keybearer you can't stand and his friends will even let a creepy old fart like you near Luna. Oh, and one of those friends include me, got it memorized?" Lea gestured by wagging his finger up and down.

"Duly noted, though I thought I recalled you saying that you truly respected your elders. That's a contradiction." Vexen pointed out.

"Well, allow me to amend that. What I mean to say is that I truly respect my elders who have the common curtesy to remember my name." Lea shot back.

"Fair enough," Even let out a chuckle before returning his attention to the monitor. After a few more keystrokes, the metallic door to the right of the room opened with a quick hiss. He scurried past Lea and soon returned from the main room with a transportable whiteboard and a marker. "Now, what is the difference between normal Heartless and these Chimeras?"

Lea hadn't recalled saying he was going to assist him but if it would help in curing the remaining Chimera then he was willing to put up with anyone let alone Even. "Let's see… Heartless are created from the darkness in people's hearts and consist of a heart and mind. Chimera are artificially merged humans and Heartless so… they have a heart, mind and body? Then that means a Nobody couldn't be created, right?"

"It's possible, which means I wouldn't classify them as Heartless. If they have all three then I would think that they are closer to a complete being," Even said noting a few words down on the board. "What else?"

Lea sighed and rubbed his temples before uttering out the next thing that came to mind. "It seems like they have a conscience and emotions. I imagine the human is able to control both in the early stages until… well, maybe the Heartless corrupts the mind gradually?"

Vexen nodded and summarized it into brief words on the board before turning to Lea. "That's a good enough foundation to start on I would think. Ah yes, but we must not forget the most important thing." he twirled the pen around in his hand for a second before adding something else on the board:

_**Heartless instinct: To Survive/Chimera instinct: To die**_

"I…see. So that's why you were talking about survival of the fittest then? And to think… the pain they must be going through… But Luna somehow maintained her form so does that make her different somehow?" Lea attempted to speculate.

"Well at least you're thinking. That's more than I've ever seen you use that organ of yours before," Even said, a creepy smile crawling onto his face. "Yes, the mystery of that girl… she may be the key or a false lead. Either way, until she wakes up we won't know for sure. Still, I haven't been this excited since the start of the Replica project."

"And we all know how that turned out for you, right?" Lea said.

"Please, I'm a scientist. It's only natural to expect some failures along the way," Even said. He was about to leave for the room he had just opened up using the computer when he was stopped by yet another person entering the room. "What a pleasant surprise. I didn't know I would be expecting so many unexpected guests. Is it my birthday?"

"If it is I forgot to bring you your gift. No, I'm the sourpuss they dragged out here to help some kid. The name's Neuge," she introduced before placing a piece of paper on the workstation. "And if you're as wise as I am told, you'll probably find this easy to accomplish. Maybe it is your birthday after all."

Even grabbed the paper and bored holes into it, his eyes gauging and taking in every word as the more he read. By the time he had finished digesting everything, a huge grin appeared on Even's face that would continue throughout the day.

* * *

_Five Days after the Rescue _

Sora listened to the unfriendly, violent sounds of heavy rain pounding against Merlin's roof while he held onto Luna's hand. Would there be a moment when the rain would cease and allow for the sun to take its place, he wondered? Luna deserved nothing less when she awoke. What he was sure about was that there were more dark days ahead.

Sora formed an invisible checklist in his head counting the number of mysteries that were yet to be solved. Yen Sid had asked them to gather the Princess of Hearts to which they had all except for Belle who Sora, Riku and Kairi had yet to visit. This had been in response to Alice's mysterious disappearance. Then they had Moira's Crescent to deal with who wanted him dead for some strange inexplicable reason. After that there was the background radiation or fog affecting the worlds which had some connection to the Realm of Darkness, the solution to curing the Chimeras, and finally the mysterious puzzle box, currently in Even and Ienzo's possession, which couldn't be opened. Yeah, he definitely had his work cut out for him for the foreseeable future.

Feeling someone's presence staring at the back of his head, Sora's eyes left Luna and set their sights upon the unexpected David Xanatos. Aside from talking to him at the dinner party the Radiant Garden Honorary Committee had held, Sora realized that he had never been alone with the man until now.

"May I come in?" Xanatos asked. Not knowing how to reply, Sora gave a brief nod and watched as Xanatos approached the bed with a sad smile. Riku had been untrusting of him going as far as to avoiding eye contact whenever he met him. As for Sora… well, he wasn't sure what he thought of Xanatos. While he trusted Riku, he felt making premature assumptions about someone they barely even knew wasn't the right way to approach things.

"I'm sorry to hear about your friend. I would have come sooner had I known beforehand that you'd succeeded in rescuing her," Xanatos continued. Sora remained silent and went back to looking at Luna. "It probably doesn't feel like you've done that but if it's any consolation I believe there are some instances when a person can hear the voices of those talking to them even when they're in a coma."

"Really?" Sora piped up upon hearing this.

"Really. Her body may not be responsive but that doesn't mean her heart isn't listening. Now I don't claim to generalize and say that always happens but the best thing you can do for your friend now is comfort her and express your belief in her." Xanatos replied. His words reflected that of Aqua's. She had seen others in much the same position as Luna: Snow White, Princess Aurora, and Ven. There was no reason not to believe that Luna wouldn't be able to wake up, and yet he still couldn't keep himself from worry, possibly because he knew Luna more so than the other three. Though Ven's heart had been in his own for a long time, he had never personally known Ven to be worried in such a way that he would have if it were Luna, Riku or Kairi.

"How do you know so much about hearts?" Sora asked.

"Psychology," Xanatos answered with toothy grin. "I studied it back in my own world. I don't think you can ever truly understand the heart but that shouldn't stop us from trying to learn as much as we can. The psychology of the heart… it's a fascinating subject."

"How'd that make you into a guy owning a large corporation though? That, I don't understand." Sora said.

"You'd be surprised how much things can be connected. That said, it was not originally my intention to create the company you see here. I took psychology because I was interested in the evolution, not of our physical selves, but of our characters, the things that make us who we are and cause us to develop into the people we want to be. Other things that got me into it were interesting facts such as the idea that we have six basic emotions: anger, happiness… well, why don't you guess the rest." Xanatos said chuckling.

"Oh you're enjoying this aren't you?" Sora laughed heartily before putting his hands behind his head. "Let's see… happiness, anger… sadness, surprise… er-"

"Fear and disgust. Of course there are much more than these when you get down to the nitty gritty, there are plenty more but anything else is simply a deviation of those six." Xanatos explained.

Sora nodded. "Fair enough, but I still don't get how that leads into you doing business." Xanatos' gaze darted away from Sora to the window where rain pelted against the glass inconsistently. He soon turned back to Sora and began what was to inevitably stick in Sora's mind.

"Economically, my world was suffering through bad times while I was a teenager. When I walked down the street I could see people suffering and when I asked them how they had ended up where they were they simply told me their true feelings: 'I need the world but it looks as if the world doesn't need me'.

"You're considered to have charisma if you express uniqueness and diligence and that is how people will take you on. But here's the catch. How can you show off these talents or even know you have them if the world doesn't give you a chance to prove yourself? I saw injustice in the world and so I started my own company. I wanted people to know that no matter what, they were unique and individual in every single way and that the system shouldn't have a place in advantaging one person over another.

"The idea of having different sectors for different things came from my psychological studies. If people are surrounded by positive activities and attributes, not sitting at a boring office job for example but instead… gardening let's say, then they have more of a chance to show off their own talents.

"Coming here, I saw very much the same thing. People unable to do much because of Maleficent's reign of terror having much of a negative effect on the world. The building blocks of Radiant Garden had stagnated, and much like my own world I took it upon myself to seek Leon and help him show the people that the world had not turned its back on them and that they weren't alone. I think most of all though, the person that has helped the most has been you."

By the time Xanatos had finished with his long speech, Sora had been left completely dumbfounded and at a loss for words. Were he to be told these were the words of a man not to be trusted, he wouldn't have believed it for a second. But if Sora had wanted to find some form of a lie behind these words, he couldn't. He slowly opened his mouth to respond.

"Me?" was the only word able to come from his mouth.

"The people look to your charisma in their time of need. It's given them hope and the strength to keep moving. Colette certainly thought so when I talked to her about you," Xanatos said. "That's why I believe it will also help Luna."

"Thank you." Sora said beaming.

Xanatos stood up and held out his hand. Sora took it and reciprocated the firm handshake. "I think I'll leave you to it. It was nice meeting you. Oh and… when she wakes up, she'll need as much support as she can get after all she's been through. Stand by her." he said before leaving the room.

Sora stared at the space between the bed and the door for some time before letting out a dignified "huh". Never in a million years would have expected the likes of David Xanatos to be the one to cheer him up.

* * *

"I can't believe I'm doing this." Cloud buried his hand through his spiky hair and closed his eyes. If he could have, he would have even closed his ears to drown out the chatter produced by the two females in front of him. How he had been dragged into a shopping spree was a complete mystery to him. He didn't think he had even agreed to it, only that Aerith had wanted to drag away from his 'solitary confinement' as she had described it.

Personally he thought he was doing much better now that he had accepted the darkness in his heart and had gotten rid of Sephiroth but every now and then he could still see the concern in both Aerith's and Tifa's eyes. On many occasions he had tried to quell their fears but he supposed it would take some time for him to get over what had happened.

"You're not the only one they dragged along. Don't you go abandoning me now." Riku said hearing Cloud mutter. Cloud opened his eyes and gave him a smug smile. Riku… the other person who, like Cloud, had once struggled to battle the darkness in his heart, had been a source of inspiration for Cloud in terms of dealing with his own darkness. When he had first met the Keyblade wielder, Cloud had felt a strange connection to him. Riku had been quick to relate Cloud's problems with his own and had told Cloud that the darkness goes hand in hand with light. Cloud was not going to let some 17 year old show him off. It was that challenged which had encouraged Cloud's 'rehabilitation'.

"At least I'll be entertained," Cloud said. He pulled out his PHS and flipped it open, pressing the buttons to move down the list before finally arriving at an app. "Up for a game of Tetris?"

"You two are unbelievable. You do know why we're here don't you?" Kairi asked.

"Some more gel for Cloud's hair?" Riku asked feigning innocence.

"I have enough of that actually. If you and Sora ever are in need of some, feel free to ask." Cloud said.

"Does the word wedding mean nothing to you?" Kairi was about to throw a fit when Aerith intervened.

"Kairi, allow me to handle this. Cloud, put away your phone and help us this instant… or else," Aerith's death glare was enough to make both boys back down. At her victory, she turned to Kairi with a sweet smile. "See Kairi? You just have to know how to talk to them. They're like pets."

"Well that was a scary comparison but if it works I'll try it." Kairi said slowly.

"Please… for our sakes… don't." Riku monotoned with a sweat drop.

Reluctantly, Cloud put away his phone and folded his arms. "I'm counting on you to make this memorable." he said in his usual cool tone to Riku. For the next hour, Cloud and Riku suffered from the excruciating torture of what was window shopping. While Kairi and Aerith happily discussed among themselves the list of decorations, food ingredients, and presents, Riku and Cloud were put in charge of carrying pretty much whatever they picked up for the soon-to-be-newlyweds Leon and Rinoa.

"You ever thought as a Keyblade Master you'd be subjected to being a carrier boy?" Cloud asked watching Riku mess around with his shopping bags.

Riku set them down and started stretching. "To tell you the truth… no," he answered before adding, "But I have learned that you have to take the good with the bad. So many unexpected things have happened where I've had no control, or at least have felt like I've had no control. In reality, I was only holding myself back from taking control because I was afraid of what would happen if I did. I suppose the best thing I've learned from having a Keyblade is that if an end goal is within your reach that is worth fighting for, then it's also worth bearing all that pain to get to it."

"The thrill of being a Keyblade wielder huh." Cloud said.

"I wouldn't call it anything as exciting as that but we've certainly had our fun… and it's brought me, Sora and Kairi closer than we've ever been before. I'm thankful for that," Riku answered. "That said I'd designate that label to Sora. He's had to clean up more messes than most." He grasped the handles of the bags again and hurried on along with Cloud to catch up to Kairi and Aerith.

"I can see that. He's sure helped me more than enough times," Cloud agreed. "But he's going through a rough patch right now."

Riku nodded though he didn't feel like saying much else to Cloud. He had noticed Sora slowly distancing himself from both him and Kairi even though they had spent a lot more time together over the past three months than usual. On the surface, Sora seemed his usual chirpy self and Riku had no doubt that he was trying to forget about his worries, but he was also aware that Sora was trying to conceal things from them as well—him talking in his sleep made that much clear.

The idea that they had to shop in the pouring rain was ridiculous to begin with but they had insisted that they wanted to make sure the wedding was ready as soon as Luna was awake. It wasn't just a special occasion for Leon and Rinoa, but a celebration for Luna as well.

As they continued shopping, the pelting rain slowly began to subside until only puddles were left underneath a cloudy sky. By the time Kairi and Aerith had declared that they had bought enough, Cloud and Riku were at the point where they had been competing with each other to see how many bags they could each carry. Riku was under gruelling pressure and looked on the verge of collapsing but Cloud maintained his cool composure and carried on like it was nothing.

"What- how are you doing that?" Riku clenched his teeth admiring the lack of any effort from his competitor.

"Squats. You should probably try them." Cloud smirked. Riku was about to make a retort when someone passing by the window of the shop caught his eye. He prided himself on remembering faces well, but even if he were bad at it, he doubted he could forget this one. Though her hair was a different color from the last time he'd seen her, the aura that exuberated was both familiar and powerful unlike most in Radiant Garden. Her style of fighting was so irregular, so foreign, so deceptive like that of a trickster. She wielded a blade of uncertainty—no, it wasn't the weapon itself but its owner, for she was like no other Keyblade wielder Riku had ever seen.

Before Cloud could even say anything, Riku dropped the shopping bags and raced out of the shop.

* * *

Sora waited impatiently in Merlin's living room for the 'strange individual' he was to be meeting with. That's what Yen Sid had described them as, and Sora had to stiffen his entire body to prevent himself from laughing then and there.

There were a lot of things he considered strange. His meeting with David Xanatos a few hours ago had certainly been strange and unexpected. That said, if Yen Sid of all people considered this person to be strange then they were probably worth the wait.

He stood up and started walking backwards and forwards across the lonely room taking in whatever his eyes saw. A recently installed bookshelf on the wall with thick spines supporting one another. Among them was the book that Luna had borrowed from the wizard, _The Sword in the Stone_. As much as he had promised Luna that he would finish it, he had never gotten past the first few chapters and had completely forgotten about the book after losing Luna. He also promised himself he would go back to it, but there was only so much that could entertain him in a book as opposed to already living an adventure in real life.

As one might expect in a wizard's home, things were usually never in the same place. Sora supposed that was the advantage to being a bored wizard, though back on the islands Sora didn't have to even have to try and use fancy magic to misplace things around his room. After a while, Sora's eyes became glued to Pooh's storybook. Now if there was any adventure inside a book he didn't mind, it was that one. He felt ashamed of generalizing all books as boring in the first place, because this one certainly wasn't.

He picked the book up and brought it to his chest and started cooing, "Oh I'm sorry guys. You know you're the best. Oh yes you are, oh yes you are-"

"Sora, we're ba… what are you doing?"

Sora jumped and set the book down on the table quickly, his eyes darting towards the suddenly open door where Riku and Kairi were standing. He could only offer them a trademark smile to get them to forget what had just happened but the woman behind both of them seemed determined to make that impossible.

"So this is the powerful Sora who defeated Xehanort, prevented a war from breaking out and rescued his sleeping friends… my, it looks like Yen Sid hates me more than I thought," she said. "I just want a bar where I can get drunk and call it a day. Is that too much to ask?"

"This is… Neuge. She's a Keyblade wielder-"

"Ex-Keyblade wielder," Neuge corrected Riku. "Do you intend to invite me in or am I just supposed to stand here while you two block the way. Because th- that's totally fine, really!"

Against her wishes however, Riku and Kairi entered the house leaving her no choice but to enter as well… or she could have just left anyway, Sora had no idea what she wanted at the moment. Strange certainly fit her, that was for sure. She had beige skin and somewhat fairly visible freckles from her nose spread out to her cheeks. Her ebony hair with blonde streaks was tied in a neat bun with two strands of hair being left out to fall on either temple. Sora offered her a seat but she declined and instead stood in the middle of the room.

"So you're a- I mean, you were a Keyblade Master?" Sora asked.

"Correct and yes, the past tense is pretty important there. As soon as I thought I was out of reach, I realize that I'm living in an ever expansive sphere. It seems I can't get rid of the Keyblade that easily." Neuge answered.

"I'm sorry if I don't understand but, why would you want to get rid of it?" Kairi asked.

"Because I've already done all I can with him, I reckon." Neuge said although Sora had the feeling she wasn't telling the entire truth if any at all. What was with the "already done all I can with him" bit supposed to mean anyway?

It was Riku who was the most daring enough to challenge her assertion. "Let me get this straight. You relinquish your position of Keyblade Master and retire to Snow White's world where you live out your days as the town drunk. Then you get called over here by Yen Sid even though you had the choice to decline his offer, and then you tell us that you think you've done all you can with _it_. I'm sorry but I can't believe that. I think you very well came here on your own free will. Plus you talk as if the Keyblade has some personal benefit to you, like it's meant to serve you or something."

"And why would I come here out of my own free will?" Neuge questioned with a strict unemotional face.

Riku shrugged. "Who knows but you? Maybe you're bored, or maybe you're curious about something. I hear that gets the best of all of us."

For an incredibly awkward period of time, Neuge gave a blank expression in return. It was like she was boring holes into Riku's soul and trying to figure something out. Sora was about add on something in defence of his friend when-

"Snrk, HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Laughter burst out seeming to descend from the heavens and managed to fill the entire room with ease. It was laughter so incredible that Sora, Riku and Kairi began to wonder if they could get out of the room in time before she noticed. "Very good, you're a smart cookie Riku. Curiosity is the keyword. And no, my Keyblade doesn't owe me anything exactly…" she put her hand to her forehead and sighed. "Why am I explaining this to you? It's best not to lose track."

"Hold on, one more thing. What did you meant by "him"? You referred to the Keyblade as a he, right?" Riku asked.

"I did… wait, you don't know?" Neuge asked almost on the verge of uncontrollable laughter again.

"Know what?" Kairi asked.

"You mean to tell me you've been living under the assumption that Keyblades are merely objects of magical power that just decide to pass themselves on to a successor for absolutely no reason whatsoever? That's like the old bat to hide things. Look, this may be hard to believe but your Keyblades are their own individual existence. We know so little about them but I can for sure tell you that they have genders. They probably even have memories of all their previous wielders for all I know."

Sora, Riku and Kairi all exchanged looks with each other before gawking in unison, "WHAT?"

It was Kairi this time who spoke for all of them. "Wait a minute. You talk as if Keyblades-"

"Have hearts? You'll find it's not exactly hard for something to grow a heart if it shares a bond with another thing. Don't tell me you've never felt it. That tingling feeling that wraps around your fingertips as you call out your Keyblade, your partner in crime. How it just seems to comfort you and give you a feeling of warmth when you let it. No?" Neuge said before winking. "Don't worry. I was just as ignorant as you when I was your age. But let's just say I was forced for a good while to think about life."

Sora avoided Neuge's piercing gaze and focused on the door behind her. He knew all the things she mentioned to be true, and in a way, Sora had had his assumptions for a while but it had not hit home until Neuge had finally confirmed it.

"So why are you here?" Kairi asked breaking the silence.

"Yen Sid believes that I can be of some use to your friend. He's told me of this problem of yours you're facing, Moira's Crescent, was it? I'm supposed to instruct you in the art of wielding the Keyblade." Neuge said looking at Sora.

"Really, that's it? Well thanks for the offer but I can handle whatever comes my way just fine." Sora said hopping off his seat and starting for Luna's room where Astra had taken his place after a while. He wasn't going to let these people scare him and control his life. That was what he had decided when he had first woken up in the hospital and he was sticking with it.

"May I remind you not half a minute ago you were surprised to learn that there was more to your Keyblade than you first thought? I shouldn't have to tell you that those wielders are probably more experienced than you in using the Keyblade." Neuge said.

"So was Xehanort and look where he ended up," Sora answered with a tight-lipped smile. "I've got my friends beside me. That's all I'll ever need and if they or whoever thinks they can take us down, they've got another thing coming."

"Interesting. Well it is your choice, that's the important thing. A bunch of kids like you shouldn't have to put up with so much stress on a daily basis. It really is best you just let your worries gloss over. Take a vacation if you have to. Be who you're meant to be, kids." Neuge said. She was about to leave when Astra came almost flying out of the hallway. The grin on Astra's face told him what she was going to say before she said.

"It's Luna. She's awake!"

* * *

_That didn't take long now did it? Unfortunately, things get a bit more complicated from here on out. Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Kingdom Hearts. _


	18. Tears

_Back again with another exciting chapter and if anything I suppose this would be a Part 2 of the last chapter. Also I take pleasure in saying: LEAVE GOOFY ALONE! A cookie if you get the reference. _

* * *

**Chapter 18**

**Tears**

_Luna's eyes opened to a familiar room coated in pure white. It took a brief transitional period for her vision to adjust to the intensity of the bright room. Across the wall were many colorful sketches, and when she moved around the just as familiar white looking table to examine these, it became clear what they all featured. A picture of Shiki and the gang in Traverse Town, her Reaper Chess game match with Joshua in another; the Dalmatians, Roger and Anita; Alice, the Queen of Hearts and the White Rabbit; Mulan and the three Princesses, and so on and so forth with her in every one of them. They were pictures from her own memories of her adventure._

"_Why am I here?"_

"_**It's your heart, and you're asking that question?"**_

_Luna spun around to confront a stranger dressed in a black coat. "If this is my heart, then what are you doing here? Who are you for that matter?" she asked warily. _

"_**That's something you'll have to ask yourself. That and why your heart is showing you this place in particular. Maybe something resonated with you here."**__ the black coat figure answered. The pitch and softness of her voice identified her as a female and yet if she was then she was a child at best who tried to act more mysterious by guising her voice under a low tone._

"_Is that possible? I've only ever been here briefly…" Luna returned to staring at the pictures. These were the type of sketches that she only knew one person could make. _

"_**Have you noticed the similarity between those drawings? It may not be obvious at first but you only need look harder to find the answer." **_

"_What is this, a 'Where's Faldo?' picture book?" Luna joked before examining each of the drawings. The problem was an inherent one within the drawings where a certain character's facial features were missing in comparison to the other characters in the drawings. But she had gotten all of her memories back, hadn't she? "I don't understand. When Namine showed me her drawing I didn't have a face, but that was because of my memories, right? So why then do I still…"_

"_**Do you honestly believe that your memories are the answer to that question? Or is that an answer you fashioned for yourself because it was what you wanted to believe? Even now I'm sure it must feel good to place all your worries on an external force completely out of your control. Not that I would know." **_

"_I don't-"_

"_**Understand? No one ever does when it's convenient for them. Ignorance truly is bliss." **__The covered figure proceeded to also move around the table while admiring the drawings as she passed them. Soon enough she arrived at Luna's side, the bridge of her nose and her lips just barely being visible to the latter. __**"So which would you rather live I wonder? Would you prefer a life of disregard for the world around you for simplicity's sake? Or maybe you prefer the cold harsh truth? Keep in mind why you left your world in the first place."**_

"_Well when you put it that way, why would I ever pick the second option?" Luna asked._

"_**You see? You're afraid to take risks. There's a glass ceiling in your life, but you're too afraid to look up and see it. That's why you'll never know yourself. That's why all you'll ever be is a blank face." **_

_Luna stared at the girl in anger before shaking her head. "I am scared. Is that what you want me to say? That I'm afraid of who I am? What I am? But you would already know that, wouldn't you? You are me after all. The person I'm scared of the most." she said. She was about to lean against the wall when out of nowhere, the girl reached for Luna's arm and held onto it. _

"_**But we'll get through it together. Won't we, Sea Salt?"**_

* * *

Luna's eyes flickered open, first moving in different directions in confusion but finally settling on the ceiling after a while. She barely had time to register her surroundings before she was attacked by a body with a familiar scent.

"SEA SALT, you're awake! You're really awake!" Her best friend cried while clinging on tightly as if it were a matter of life and death. To her fairness, Luna had probably kept her worried having been in this state.

"Am I still dreaming? Astra?" Luna asked only let out a squeak as Astra pinched her arm. "What was that for?"

"I pinched you. Still wondering if you're dreaming?" Astra said with a playful grin.

"No, it felt pretty real to me. You're gonna crush me Astra," Luna somehow managed to roll the taller girl off her before giving a matching grin. "Where are we anyway?"

"The afterlife."

"And they stuck me here with you of all people…"

"Most would consider that a compliment," Astra replied and snapped her fingers jazzily. "C'mon toots, ya know ya missed me."

Luna sat up leaving the softness of the pillows behind and outstretched her arms. Without hesitation, Astra went into her arms as easy as a puzzle piece that fit correctly with another. Even with their closeness, nothing felt real. In a yesterday gone by, Luna would have had no idea who Astra was. She had completely forgotten about her best friend for a good few months… that fact was something she hadn't and doubted she ever would be able to fully comprehend. So when Astra had said that, Luna knew that it couldn't have been true and it pained her inside to think of it. She felt undeserving of their friendship because of this.

"Of course I missed you," she eventually replied. It felt like a lie but Luna wouldn't dare ruin the moment. When the two separated again, Luna took some time to examine her surroundings. She could just about see out of the window while lying down and was able to discern where she was from the familiar style of buildings. "We're in Radiant Garden? Wait... are Sora and the others here? Oh right, you don't know him-"

"I do," Astra said. For whatever reason she seemed a little disappointed but before Luna could raise the question of how she knew him, Astra got off the bed. "I'll go get them."

Luna smiled at her friend and watched her leave the room before lying back down. Even though she didn't have all the answers, she could at least guess a few things. Astra knew Sora. Luna knew, according to Abraxas anyway, that Astra had a Keyblade, so maybe they had worked together to rescue her from the Realm of Darkness. The thought of her two dear friends from completely different lives coming together to help her was emotionally uplifting for her. Even more so when she set her eyes upon the both of them stepping through the door with smiles.

That widespread grin, the unique spiky hair, blue eyes as clear as the sky and, for those who knew him, a heart of pure gold. The last time she had seen him was on that dreadful day which truly didn't seem all that long ago. She just hoped that he hadn't beaten himself up over it.

It was Luna who was rushing out of bed and closing the distance in order to embrace him. It was faint, but she could just about make out sounds of sniffling from Sora as they hugged. He didn't want to let go for fear of being separated again, and neither did she.

"Sora, please don't tell me you're about to cry. That's not like you." Luna whispered into his ear. _You don't get to cry Sora. I should be the one crying… for the both of us._

"I'm not crying. I'm just happy." Sora replied. Suddenly he pulled away almost too quickly leaving for a slightly unsatisfying hug.

"Is there something on me?" Luna asked. She didn't know how long this translated into Realm of Light time, but she had spent what felt like ages in the Dark Realm. Her clothes were also torn but that didn't seem to be what Sora was worrying about.

"What? Oh- no, nothing like that." Sora said, glancing every now and then at Astra as if he was giving Luna cues without having to say it out loud.

"Fair enough. Kairi! Riku!" Luna said as they both took their turns to hug her. Although she hadn't hung out with either as nearly as much as Sora, Donald, Goofy, Jiminy or Kupopo for that matter, they had been incredibly welcoming the first time they had met her. "You all rescued me?" she asked after hugging Riku.

"Well we couldn't leave you. You're our friend. Heh, you should have seen how determined Sora was to save you. A total one man army! He couldn't keep his mind off of you for one second." Kairi said in a sing-song voice.

"I was worried, can you blame a guy?" he protested at Kairi's eagerness to tease him. He turned to look at Luna and pointed at her chest. "You kept it safe."

Luna looked down and clutched Sora's necklace before nodding and flashing a smile. "You were always there with me, even when I was alone. I don't think I could have faced most of things I did in there without it. Thank you."

"Hey, no need to act so formal like we're strangers. We have each other's backs, always have and always will. Besides… I felt like you were pushing me every step of the way too." Sora told her while scratching at his cheek. Luna's timid smile grew more confident and became a beam. How long had it been since she had last smiled like this? She could feel her cheeks straining to make an effort, but she persevered nonetheless. Luna hoisted the necklace chain above her head before placing it in Sora's hands. He gripped the necklace tightly and returned her beaming smile with his own before putting it over his neck.

"How long has it been since I was here? I know I was in the Realm of Darkness and then I passed out…"

"Overall, it's been just over three months since we lost you and it's been five days since we rescued you. We got back to Radiant Garden in one thanks to the warp drive system though," Kairi explained. "You haven't really talked much but you remember Aqua? She was there along with us when we rescued you as well, her _and_ the Gullwings."

"Are they here now? Then I'll be sure to thank them when I see them," Luna said. _Three months… _Time had felt immeasurable when she had wandered in the darkness so alone for so long. She supposed then that it was possible for it to have been that long but it was still shocking to hear. How much had she even missed? "So what's happened since I was gone?" she was almost afraid to ask the question but it was one that desperately needed answering.

"Maybe we should save that for after you get something to eat." Riku said. The rumbling of Luna stomach came shortly after the fact. She flushed a deep shade of crimson and awkwardly laughed it off.

"Yeah, that might be best. Oh dear…"

* * *

During a much needed meal, Luna received the answers that she wanted to know. They explained how they had searched the many worlds for any trace of her whereabouts, their idea about Luna having some kind of immunization against the Chimera and how it could help in the long run, and finally…

"Alice is missing? No…" Luna said after they had finished. Alice had been one of the first friends Luna had made and one she could entirely empathize with. Alice too had been under the watchful eye of Abraxas, or Dr. Zager as he had called himself in not just hers but Quasimodo's presence as well. As a result, she too had lost her memories of Wonderland.

"Abraxas mentioned that Alice had the power to create an entire world because her dreams and heart were so powerful. I imagine any Princess of Heart could do the same," Sora said glancing at Kairi before looking back at his empty plate where a sandwich had once been. "You don't think that's what Kefka, Pete and the others are after, do you? If they had the power to create worlds-"

"Why stop there? We don't really know how much power the Princesses of Heart have. They could after the door to darkness, they could choose to create a new world or who knows what else." Riku said.

"I'm… not really sure how much I can help but I'll do my best to help you find her. I won't forgive them if they've harmed her." Luna said frowning. Even as she said this, she was doubtful as to whether she had the strength to fight for Alice. She was tired, and she wasn't sure whether it had to do with being in the Realm of Darkness for so long or something else. Or maybe it was just an excuse to hide her growing lack of confidence.

"Do you mind if I borrow Luna for a second?" Astra said, appearing from the hallway. She hadn't joined them for the sandwiches, saying that she wanted to collect her thoughts for a while. Luna knew Astra well enough to know when she said something that Astra would never say and this was one of those moments. Her best friend simply wasn't the one to think things through so thoroughly, preferring to leap before she looked. It wasn't a bad quality to have by any means, and many a time Luna had wished that she could live life so simply like Astra.

Luna excused herself and followed Astra out of the house into the street. It was the first time in months that she had felt the chilly breeze, or had smelt the au naturel air. She extended her fingers out and let the cold air wrap around each digit. Her body even felt lighter than the atmospheric nightmare it had been in the dark realm. She felt free.

"So, I hadn't had the chance to say this when we left Alexander but… you were right, we did it, we really did it! We've made it to other worlds." Astra said.

"Not under the circumstances I would have wanted though," Luna regrettably acknowledged. She looked down at her feet while talking. "But I'm going to keep walking. I don't know exactly where I'm headed, but as long as you and the others are by my side I know I'll find the answer to that."

"Sora told me that Alexander is gone. I'm not quite sure if I believe him." Astra said.

"He's right, or was. I think I might have saved it, maybe, well I'm not sure but it just might still be there," Luna said recollecting with Astra how she had found Alexander in the Realm of Darkness and had done something with the keyhole there. When she had finished, Astra had put on a funny combination of surprise and happiness. Luna continued, "I haven't told Sora yet but I just know he'll be happy to hear it. I think I may have just saved something of his too if my theory's correct."

"Sea Salt, I…" Astra paused and looked away unsurely before looking back. "I don't think we should interfere with this. Maybe we should just go back to Alexander where we'll be safe."

Luna looked up to meet Astra's green eyes. "What? I don't understand. We've spent so much time dreaming of other worlds, and now you want to go back?" she asked in surprise.

"Things have become… complicated. The World is changing, and I don't want you to get dragged into a mess you didn't even create." Astra said.

"I can't- I can't just abandon my friends like that in their time of need. You say the World is changing, but that's all the more reason to be with them. Besides, even if it were there, I don't think I could go back. I don't deserve to go back." Luna retorted.

"What are you talking about? Don't you want to see Kit again?" Astra asked.

"Of course I do but… I've done terrible things and I can't-" Luna cut herself off. The lump that had formed in her throat made it hard to entertain the thought of telling Astra. She clenched her fists tightly and tried again. "You remember when we left Alexander, right?"

"Of course, you were standing in the middle of your street. I was wondering where your parents were so I went into the house to check and… I didn't see any light in your eyes, and your body was swaying from side to side kind of like a puppet. And you were mumbling something under your breath repeatedly. I couldn't get through to you." Astra said.

"Do you remember exactly what I was saying?"

"No… only that it was the scariest moment of my life, and I can't imagine that will change. I kind of had to carry you. What's this all about Luna?"

Luna gave a pained smile at Astra before focusing on her shoes again. "I don't exactly remember much from it either. I know I saw the ember flames fly past me like a blur, and I could feel the heat of the flames tickling my face as it happened. What I do remember and what _is _clear is the worst part of that night however. My parents… I was the one who killed them."

Astra gave a look of confusion though Luna was adamant about keeping her eyes on the ground. "What?" she finally said after a while.

"I wanted to forget about it, so I must have somehow supressed those memories, but in the end I suppressed them too much and I lost more than just that one memory. But these things always have a way of catching up to you no matter how far you run from them. I remember it now. I killed them. Whatever happened next, seeing the town burning… that must have come from me as well, or I suppose it would be the Chimera inside me." Luna said.

"Luna…? No, I know you. You wouldn't do something like that." Astra said.

"Wouldn't I? Then what am I feeling right now? This lump in my throat… is guilt… and the truth. Maybe I couldn't kill them, but I couldn't prevent the thing inside me from doing it either. I'm just worthless." Luna said. She was crying now. She didn't even care to show it to her friend.

SLAP.

The impact left Luna momentarily stunned. She placed one hand on the stinging cheek before looking up at Astra.

"Care to prove that? Luna, I know who my friends are and worthless isn't what I would describe any of them as being." she said grabbing Luna's slumped shoulders.

"I'm your only friend." Luna said. Astra had given up most if not all of her friends in the past just to be Luna's. To her it was the ultimate sacrifice, and she knew of no way to repay such a thing. Then again, she supposed that being the greatest friend she could possibly be in return was enough.

"Exactly. I'd like to think that if I'm wise about anything, it's picking my friends wisely so if I've ended up with you, I know I've made the right choice," Astra said. "I'm not going to pretend that I know what these Chimeras are but you know I'll do anything to help you so I'll be damned if I don't try my hardest here. Now let's see what we can do about those tears of yours, you're not allowed to cry and if anyone makes you…"

Luna allowed Astra to wipe away the tears from her face before smiling. "Thanks Astra but try to keep the violence to a minimum for me, kay?"

"You know that's a promise I can't keep," Astra grinned. "But if we're going to start somewhere we may as well by leaving this place and going back to Alexander. Heck, screw Alexander, we can go and live anywhere we want. Just the two of us. You don't need to live this life Luna. It'll only bring you more pain and misery."

"I don't know about this. I've only just woken up and there are so many things I have to think about. Just give me a little more time." Luna promised. Could she really leave the others after they had saved her life? Did she even want to?

"You're right. There's no need to rush things. Take all the time you need." Astra said, "So… how was Christmas in the Realm of Darkness?"

Luna let out an exaggerated gasp with her mouth hanging open. "Wait, you're telling me I missed Christmas? Oh dear…"

"No worries, I think I might know a world that will make you happy. Fluffy Snow covering the land as far as the eye can see." Astra hinted.

"Looking forward to it," Luna replied knowing it was merely an attempt by Astra to convince her into leaving. "You don't mind if I have some time alone? Not that I mind your company but I haven't felt like this in a while."

Astra nodded and gave Luna another hug before going back into Merlin's house. Astra certainly had a way of making her feel as if she knew herself, even if it were to only last for a short time, but she supposed that's what best friends were for. With a newfound sense of wanting to find some kind of self-appreciation, Luna started off down the street to get the one thing that would most definitely put a smile on her face.

_Here I come, Sea Salt Ice Cream!_

* * *

"And that would make the last of them, excluding Alice and Kairi of course." King Mickey confirmed looking around the room. Ansem's study had never seemed more packed than it had now. On his visits to the wise leader in the past, it usually had only been him and Ansem the Wise. Sometimes he had even encountered the other six apprentices walking to and fro in the corridors who would soon later have cast aside Ansem's teachings. But now, Ansem the Wise was gone, choosing to sacrifice himself according to Sora in order to protect him and Luna.

The apprentices standing before him however had been revived. They had regained their full form after Sora and Riku had defeated both their Heartless and Nobodies and had been given a second chance by Ansem the Wise when he had been rescued from the Realm of Darkness along with Aqua. Aside from Even and Ienzo being in the room, there was also Master Yen Sid taking the seat where the departed once sat, and five of the Princesses of Hearts.

"It's true I've been sensing a darkness most horrible but… are you sure the worlds are in danger once again?" Cinderella asked. She had been brought back to Radiant Garden by Ven.

"I'm afraid so. The Heartless are gathering, eager to make their claim to the worlds known. All we can do for now is keep sealing the keyholes." Yen Sid answered with closed eyes.

"But it's not the Heartless I feel. It's something much different, much sinister. Is it truly the work of darkness at hand?" Princess Aurora asked. Terra had picked without a moment's hesitation to save Aurora, mentioning that he had something to atone for.

"What exactly do you mean Princess?" Mickey asked in confusion.

"I cannot describe it. Only that it feels… familiar." Aurora said.

"Like you've never experienced it before, but at the same time it feels like you have? Then I'm sure I've felt it too," Princess Jasmine supported. She was the one that Mickey, Donald and Goofy had rescued. The rest of the Princesses nodded in tow. "And if Alice is missing then maybe it might be linked to that."

"For all our sakes I should hope not," Yen Sid said. His eyes opened and he scanned the room taking in each of the occupants before speaking again. "At this point we must look to the worst possible scenario. We Keyblade Wielders swore by an ancient creed that we would protect the hearts of pure light at all costs. We have failed this task. Mickey, I ask of you not as my pupil, but as a dear friend, to remember one of our first conversations regarding this topic. And more importantly I ask you not to fault me for what are for now, only thoughts."

"Master Yen Sid?" Mickey asked. He didn't understand what his former teacher was getting at. He had had many conversations over the years with Master Yen Sid on the topic of darkness and all sorts besides, but Master Yen Sid wanted him to go back all the way to the start? Had he said something then about the creed of Keybearers or the Princesses of Heart? "Wait! But, Master Yen Sid, you don't mean- that's too dangerous!"

Yen Sid nodded, possibly unsure of where he was taking this line of thought himself, which would have been a first. "As I said before, it was only a thought, and no has dared attempt it before so the consequences on its bearer could be disastrous. Nonetheless, in times of crisis such as this, it is possible that a Princess of Heart can be replaced with another by means of purification of that person's heart."

Mickey had either become deaf or the whole room had been shocked into silence by Yen Sid's proposal. Everyone seemed to freeze in their place, unable to move or comprehend what was going on.

Ienzo was first to shake this wave of terror that had descended on them. "No, I cannot allow it. I will not allow it. Not only would you be messing with the forces of nature, you'd be-"

"Circumventing the precepts that govern Keyblade wielders and by doing so, intervene in the affairs of the worlds. Yes, you have been doing your homework Ienzo. It is indeed a very fine line we are crossing though I do believe that where the worlds have been interfered with by an outside force in the first place, we do have the ability to intervene. Such is the case with the Heartless, and may also apply to Alice as well." Yen Sid answered.

"But even so, Ienzo's right. It's not up to us to decide something as important as this. And like you said, it's never been done before. We could be putting that person's life in danger." Mickey argued.

"That isn't exactly correct. There has been one instance where a pure heart has been formed. Xehanort once extracted the darkness from Ventus' heart…" Yen Sid said. His face was growing more confident as he provided his argument, though Mickey hoped he could convince him otherwise.

"But Ven's heart was broken after that. His body would've remained unresponsive if Sora's heart hadn't helped him!" Mickey almost yelled pounding his fists on the table. He wanted to get across, somehow, that this idea wasn't the correct one.

"True, and yet it is something under a different circumstance. I wonder how a more willing heart would respond."

"Why would anyone risk their heart being permanently damaged?"

Yen Sid stroked his beard thoughtfully, a feature Mickey secretly wished he could possess to do the same. Sometimes Mickey wondered whether the sorcerer even realized his own habitual act.

"I suppose it is something that will have to stay at the back of our minds for now. A last resort. But let us turn our attention to the safety of the Princesses for now." Yen Sid said.

"Um, yeah…" Mickey agreed. But any sort of the flow that their interaction had prior was stifled by what had been brought up. Purification. The word hung above the room for the rest of the conversation like a dread. It was a fear greater than the darkness itself.

* * *

_You know you can always count on friendship to cheer you up... and Sea Salt Ice Cream- that works too. Watch out next time for goodness knows when this wedding is happening. Could be next chapter, or the next one, or a hundred from now... okay, maybe that last one was a bit of stretch. _


	19. Wedding Day

_The longer the chapter, the shorter the A/N. That said, I kinda have to split this up since it exceeded my expectations on the word count. Also 1,000 words to go before I hit 100,000 words with this story!_

* * *

**Chapter 19**

**Wedding Day**

Sora watched from afar as Luna threw yet another smooth pebble across the lake. The pebble hit the water and bounced gracefully across the lake before sinking. He held fondly the memory of when they had first come here. Luna's stone skipping had been terrible, but like her Strike Raid, she had learned little by little how to improve it. Now neither task seemed difficult for her to tackle.

Feeling a sudden urge to play around, Sora tiptoed over to her location until he was within reach of her. He leaned forward and whispered into her ear, "Hello."

"AAAAHHH!" Luna screamed spinning around to find Sora mere inches away from her. She frowned and punched him in the shoulder hard.

"Ow, what was that for?" Sora asked.

"You sneak up to a girl, scare her into next Tuesday and don't expect some comeuppance in return? You have a lot to learn about, Keyblade Master." Luna said.

"So I keep hearing. Someone who was a friend of Yen Sid's came to us just before you woke up saying that she wanted to train me. I really don't need it though. I kind of wonder where she disappeared of to," Sora said picking up a rock of his own before swinging. The pebble skipped again and again creating ripples on the water's surface, eventually hitting the water one final time at a much farther distance than Luna's throw. "I can tell you've been practicing."

"It's good for allowing me to think about things…" Luna admitted. She sat on the ground and kept her eyes on the lake, taking in everything. Sora soon followed. "They're still not done running tests on me. I don't know how I feel about it. I'm happy if they do discover some way to help Quasi and the other Chimera, but it still feels… weird I suppose is the simplest way of putting it. I was being tested on to become a Chimera and now I'm being tested on to find a cure."

"It'll be over soon, I promise. Me, Riku, Kairi and definitely Astra won't let Even do anything to you that you don't want," Sora said before frowning. "You know, that kinda came out wrong now that I think about it."

Luna giggled and lay on the grass looking up to the sky. Two days had passed since Luna had woken up and the wedding drew ever closer with the committee rushing to make sure things were ready in time for Leon and Rinoa's big day. Leon had even somehow managed to evade the others by pulling a disappearing act, though Sora couldn't understand why he seemed so embarrassed. In that same time Luna had eaten her favorite type of Ice Cream, made a visit to Pooh's world and visited Stephanie and Colette, but she also had to put up with the terrifying aspect of Even and Ienzo running tests on her to try and gather more information on the Chimeras. Sora, Kairi and especially Astra had been against the idea of this but Luna persisted they go along with it if it helped save a single life.

"What if it can't be cured? I don't think I'm immune to it. While I was in the Realm of Darkness, I felt something stirring within me, something dark. I don't think it was nerves either. I felt like it was going to burst out of my chest at any second. I even felt like I was losing my mind at times. What if… this Heartless is slowly turning me into something I'm not?" she asked.

"You really shouldn't learn to think like that. It's not healthy. Thinking positive can do wonders sometimes, you know? Otherwise, maybe it really will happen, and I'm sure that's not something you want." Sora said.

"Wouldn't keeping expectations low be better? I might end up disappointing you guys…"

"Just as long as you don't end up disappointing yourself, then we'll be happy with whatever choice you make. Are you disappointed?" Sora asked.

"No, well, I don't think so. I feel like I'm doing the right thing, it's just that I'm scared of what I'm going to find out, or won't find out." Luna said.

Sora nodded while continuing to stare up at the different shaped clouds scrolling slowly above him. Xanatos' words entered his head: "She'll need as much support as she can get after all she's been through. Stand by her". If there any time to make those words count, it was right now.

"Say, why don't we go on a vacation? After the wedding I mean." Sora proposed.

"Vacation?"

"Yeah, I mean you've been stuck on the other side for a while so it wouldn't hurt to see some sunshine after all of that. We'll go together, just the two of us, oh, and Astra of course so that makes three. If it allows you to relax, then I think it'll be worth it. We'll just hang out and be a bunch of doofuses having fun." By the time Sora had finished, he had spoken so fast out of excitement he was out of breath. He shook that off and grinned. Luna wasn't the only one who needed a break. After stressing out over whether Luna was alive or not for three and a half months, he was ready to relax for what would hopefully be a good while. He was sure Kairi or Riku wouldn't have a problem either.

"I think I'd like that. The rain isn't exactly what I had in mind for my return anyway." Luna said. Contrary to her words, today looked to be a normal clear, if not an irregularly chilly day.

"And I'm not the only one that protected you. Your ribbon," he looked at the red ribbon in Luna's hair given to her by Princess Mei as a sign of their friendship. "Think of it as holding all the memories of each world you've visited and all the friends you've made. It's also how far you've come since you started. As long as you have it, you can always look back at those times no matter how hard it gets."

"Yeah, you're right. And we have a wedding in two days so that's something else to add to the list of memories. I've never really been to a wedding but I hear they're just absolutely magical!" Luna beamed.

"I've never been to one either but… Leon decided to make me the best man." notified Sora.

Luna let out a snort and sat up and looked at him. "Really?"

"Uh huh. I mean I clearly am the best anyway so that's just being obvious right there. Leon says that he owes me for saving the town and that Cloud would just kill the party but… what's a best man supposed to do anyway? I know I'm supposed to give the ring to him but I doubt it's as simple as that. At least tell a guy what you want him to do… preferably in detail." Sora ranted.

"Can't help you there, but good luck champ." Luna said taking on an impersonation of Phil, albeit not exactly a great one.

"That was horrible," Sora snickered. "Of course that doesn't mean you're out of the loop either. If my theory's correct, you'll be picked for something as well. Kairi's already the Maid of Honor and Stephanie's the flower girl…" He counted each role off on his finger as he listed them.

"I'll be the honeymoon chooser! I think I can find a good place." Luna chipped in gleefully.

"I think that might have been one of the first things they chose… not that I can imagine Leon and the word honeymoon in the same sentence," Sora said. He paused to let the topic die down before moving onto something more serious. "Astra told me how the two of you became friends. I've always had Riku and Kairi, but I do know what it's like to fear being left behind and all alone. It's why I decided to go to other worlds with them after all."

"Yeah, Astra's always been there for me in one way or another. I've always been seen as different from everyone else in school. I suppose you could say I'm a romanticist. I've always been fascinated with the stars and travelling to far off places probably ever since I'd heard my first fairy tale. I just found Alexander boring and nothing ever seemed to happen. Astra believed in my dreams and she encouraged me to not give up on them, even if it made me an outsider. 'We'll both be outsiders then—screw the rest of the world!' she'd say. She's…" Luna stopped there. She hadn't meant to but Astra wanting to take of just like that had left her completely confused. "Sora… is there something you and Astra aren't telling me?" she decided to ask.

"What? What gave you that-"

"Sora…"

Sora ceased up, his eyes wandering the lake from left to right. "I think it's up to Astra whether she wants to tell you or not but let's just say there are a lot of crazy things happening right now that I just want to forget. There's another group, other than the one Pete is in… and they want… to kill me… specifically me," Sora paused for a second to check Luna's reaction before continuing. "I guess I really must be the best man. It's not like I'm not used to people wanting me dead, I'm sure Maleficent and Xehanort have wanted me out of the way but… it's never felt so… literal, as it has now… I was poisoned."

"But why– why do they want you…" she was afraid to even utter the word.

"I don't know, but I won't let them stop me from living either. We'll deal with the problem as it comes." Sora stated artlessly. For the many months Luna had known him, his simplistic attitude to life was probably the first trait she had come to know him by. Luna so wanted to believe that everything was simple, she really did.

"Well, I'll do what I can to help." Luna offered. She must have noticed it, Sora was sure of it. He wasn't usually one to sweep his problems under the rug so if something as 'simple' as a group hell-bent on killing him was being avoided, then Sora's true feelings were no doubt going to be called into the question.

As Sora stood up, the chance to apologize in full had never seemed better. He felt this matter was much more important than his other problem, though they may be more life-threatening.

"I suppose now's the time to say this. Luna, I'm sorry about everything that's happened. You, Donald and Goofy were always there for me, and I was supposed to be there for you, but I wasn't. I thought it would be better to keep you safe by pushing you away but all I did was make it easier for Abraxas to get to you. I can understand if you're- huh!?" Luna was hugging him before he could finish. He hadn't even begun insulting himself yet.

"Our hug… you never did it properly." Luna mumbled into his clothes. The cold winter weather seemed non-existent with her in his arms. There was no warning shot from an incredibly spiteful Astra to ruin the moment this time. Sora took this precious moment in time to feel her warmth against his own; to take in the smell of fruity shampoo in her hair. She was definitely back and this time he wasn't dreaming.

"I'm sorry-"

"The only person who should feel sorry is Abraxas for allowing me to meet you." Luna said easing away from him. She was right about Abraxas. As much as he hated the idea of thanking him, if Abraxas hadn't brought both him and Luna to Traverse Town, none of their adventures would have happened. Luna had been his pawn or blank slate who had been used as a measure to test Sora's influence on others. In the end though he failed to see that Luna's strength came from her own light, and had only grown stronger not just because of Sora but everyone else she had met on her journey.

"Let's go grab a bite to eat. I don't know about you but I could do with some ramen right about now." Sora said.

"Just as long as you're paying for the both of us." Luna replied getting up herself.

"I... I never agreed to that."

"Yes you did."

"When?"

"Just now."

* * *

The elegant word 'wedding' never ceased from the minds of the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee for the next two days. Luna found herself constantly separated from Sora, Kairi and Riku during that period. As Sora had guessed correctly, Rinoa had soon come to Luna and had given her gratuitous honor of making her a bridesmaid to which she accepted (though she had an idea that Rinoa wouldn't have taken any other answer).

The first of the two days saw Luna helping Stephanie with her homework. Of course an as of recent nine-year-old's homework was a simple task for a fifteen year old so it would have been very strange if that had been her whole day. After that she had spent some time chatting with Colette about "how they grow up so fast". Luna had heard the line before in reference to her own childhood but in a slightly more annoying away.

"'Ain't she still such a little trooper' is what someone I knew used to call me. I loved her dearly but she always reminded me how short I was for my age. This started around when I was twelve though. I've noticed I've grown this year but compared to my best friend Astra…" Luna cheeks puffed up as if she were a kid whose parents had just them that they would understand when they were older. That had been another one – she'd just never realized how fast 'older' had meant.

"You're not THAT sho-"

"That's another one," Luna pointed out Colette's need to try and cushion Luna's words. "Don't worry. I'm used to it by now. What will be weird is when Stephanie shoots past me. A few more years and I'll be looking up at you Steph." Luna said cuddling the girl in her arms.

Luna had found it surprising how easy it was to talk about her parents and her life in Alexander. Colette had also lost her husband and Stephanie a father so maybe being in the company of people with similar experiences of loss made it easier for them to talk about those times, like they were still alive. Really, Luna knew that her own experience was not the same as theirs, not by a long shot, but she'd dare not say that in front of Stephanie and Colette.

The evening was taken up with more tests being run on Luna. It was a pain. The tests were extensive, from blood tests to psychiatric assessments. Even and Ienzo had discussed at one point observing her in REM sleep for any irregular patterns but she wasn't sure she was so comfortable with them going that far. Was she merely some test subject for their curiosity just like Abraxas? She tried not to think of it that way but sitting still in one place for hours didn't seem to help.

As soon as the tests had finished she headed back to the hotel to change before going back out for a run. She didn't think of much as she ran, only that she knew she was running. Through the residential district, up the stairs, into the Bailey and eventually arriving at the scar of Radiant Garden, the Great Maw. She hadn't intended to come here. She had been afraid of coming here because this was where everything had happened. As far as she could tell however, the fog that had been there was now gone and Abraxas along with it.

Deciding not to ruin the cathartic experience of her jogging, she turned back and returned to the hotel. Back into the Bailey, down the stairs, through the residential district, all the while overlooking the splendid view of Radiant Garden as evening slowly shifted to night. She was going to commit the route to memory and do this as much as she could in hopes that it distracted her from the sad thoughts that entered her mind. It may have been a false and short-lived freedom, but that was good enough for her.

On her way past a few houses, she ran into Roxas, Xion and Namine, all three holding half eaten Sea Salt Ice Cream in their hands. The tempting thought of running to the store before it closed to get some crossed her mind, but she pushed it away.

"Hey Luna, how's everything-"

"GREAT… it's… going… great!" Luna exclaimed slightly exasperated that they were interrupting her jog and holding Sea Salt Ice Cream in front of her, not that that was their fault. "Listen… I'm running… can't stop… maybe… later?"

"Oh, of course, just make sure you don't stay out too late. Wouldn't want the Heartless boogeymen after you." Roxas grinned only for Xion to punch him on the shoulder.

"Ignore him. Have a good run Luna and see you at wedding if we don't see each other before it." Xion said before dragging Roxas off. Namine waved at Luna shyly before also following after them. Luna had no time to see them off. She had to keep running, so she took off almost immediately after they turned her back.

Just before she could get back to her own room, Rinoa called her into hers to give her a step by step of what she needed to do for the big day. Luna also got to see a preview of what Rinoa would be wearing, and she knew it would look absolutely perfect on her.

The next morning, she woke up feeling incredibly happy and cheerful. She doubted she was the only one either. It was wedding day after all. The actual ceremony would take place in the Gardens, a beautiful and wide open area covered with more green than the rest of the town combined. The Restoration Committee eventually hoped to extend that to other areas through Xanatos Enterprise's research into plant cloning but for now one area was enough to witness how beautiful Radiant Garden could and would become.

"Sea Salt in pink... is this what your ballet outfit was like?" Astra asked from the bed as Luna stepped out of the bathroom dressed in her bridesmaid dress.

"It was white, pure as the driven snow I'll have you know. And why aren't you changing? Don't tell me Rinoa didn't ask you?"

"I'll have _you_ know that I'm highly evasive, like a caninja."

"A caninja?" Luna repeated completely perplexed.

"Yeah, it's like a cat crossed with a ninja, duh!" Astra explained. She purred while at the same to striking a pose as to enunciate this point but all it did was drive Luna even more bewildered. "But really, I don't do weddings. In fact I'd much rather spend time with the Heartless thank you very much. Have fun though."

"You don't do a lot of things." Luna called attention to the several times she could remember when Astra had just not felt like doing something.

"Thank you for summarizing my life in a nutshell," Astra said looking at the ribbon in Luna's hair. "I noticed you were wearing that when we rescued you in the Realm of Darkness, but I've never seen you wear it before. A gift from a special someone maybe?"

"It's from a friend… what are you looking at me like that for? It's true! It was one of the first worlds I visited. There-"

"I didn't ask for your life story. And I'm just kidding about the whole special someone thing, at least I think I am." Astra grinned.

Luna walked in front of the mirror and looked at herself. "How do I look?"

"You're acting as if this your own wedding. You look beautiful. Just don't stumble over anything and you'll do fine." Astra said.

"Now I'm definitely going to trip." Luna said but smiled on anyway and hugged Astra before putting on her jacket. Together the two stepped out of the room, took the elevator down to the lobby and left the building.

The cold weather immediately made Luna wish she could just crawl back under the bed covers where she would be warm but otherwise there wasn't a single gray cloud in the sky. The first stop was Merlin's place, where Kairi, Yuffie, Aerith and Tifa were all waiting in their matching dresses.

"Now this is just cruel. Who in their right mind takes a great ninja in pink seriously?" Yuffie complained. She had not only worn with her the pink satin dress, but a look of dissatisfaction to go along with it. "I mean at least if I'm on the other end of things I can get a few embarrassing shots in before I steal whatever it is I'm going to steal."

"It's looks beautiful, I have no idea what you're talking about," dismissed Aerith, who had been the prime selector for the dresses anyway. "I wish the other Princesses of Heart could come as well, but Master Yen Sid says it's too dangerous to have them all gather in one place for even the shortest time. I understand why it has to be that way and I think we're lucky enough that we were able to keep Kairi."

Kairi remained silent but smiled at Aerith's mention of her. Luna wondered if something was troubling her. Actually, she could probably guess without having to ask.

"Even so, it REALLY is pink," Tifa agreed before smiling. "You think Cloud will like it?"

A fierce look in Aerith's eyes flashed for a second, only a second because Rinoa soon entered the room to steal the attention away.

"You look absolutely gorgeous Rinoa. I knew you'd be able to pull it off. It's just so… you!" Luna complimented. Rinoa's wedding dress was a simple but elegant white dress that seemed all but simple when put on its wearer. Rinoa was the splitting image of an angel.

"Aw, thank you so much Luna. I'm so excited and so nervous at the same time." Rinoa watched as Kairi and Aerith walked over and examined her close up.

"You're gonna knock this outta the park. Just remember to smile and show Leonhart how it's done. You can't let the man show the bride up," Yuffie said before pumping her fist into the air. "LET'S DO THIS!"

* * *

"Stop touching it, you'll do fine." Sora promised the groom as he pulled at his bow tie frequently.

"I've never even worn something like this before. I feel like an idiot." Leon said. The two were standing underneath the stone archway in the inner gardens where Leon and Rinoa were to be wedded. Supposedly the stone archway had a fascinating history behind it once belonging to a famous monument until it was destroyed along with most other things by Maleficent when she took over. Sora couldn't remember the exact details since he had become incredibly bored and had decided not to listen. He didn't feel like he was losing out.

"Nothing wrong with that. I've never had to dress like this either but I feel like a spy or something," Sora said examining the surgeon cuffs on the jacket of his own attire. "I can't believe you got Cid to conduct the ceremony though. Now this is something I've gotta see."

"You and Merlin share the same sentiment it would seem," Leon chuckled indicating the old wizard in the third row of white plastic garden chairs conversing with Palom and Porom next to him. "Why they could be even be scheming right now as we speak."

"The good old frog in the throat trick eh?" Sora nudged Leon on the arm but Leon's annoyed look caused him to take him arm away and turn to speak to two dear friends. "Donald! Goofy! How are things at the castle?"

"Repairs are going fine but we still have a long way to go." Donald explained. Both he and Goofy had been eager to help Sora, Riku and Kairi in finding Luna especially since they had known her for a longer period of time than either Riku or Kairi. In the end, the reconstruction of Disney Castle and the safety of Queen Minnie (who refused to leave the world to protect her citizens) took precedence.

"Why that's a snazzy lookin' getup ya got there Sora. I wonder if we're goin' to be seeing more of this side from ya." Goofy said.

"Heh thanks, and I wouldn't get used to it if I were you," Sora replied with a grin. "Uh oh, I think it's starting. Better take your seats. We'll speak some more after this. Time to pull a Sora."

"Is that really a thing?" Donald asked.

"I guess it is now Donald. Good luck Leon!" Goofy said and with that the two returned to their seats. Cid soon positioned himself behind Sora and Leon choosing not to go with anything particularly fancy for the occasion although one look could tell that he had least tried. It didn't seem possible to entirely get rid of Cid's scruffy appearance but his hair was unnaturally combed back—something that Sora wasn't used to.

The crowd soon finally settled and Sora could make out a few familiar faces amongst the good couple of unfamiliar ones. Merlin, Porom and Palom sitting in the third row as mentioned with Colette being near the end of that row. Donald, Goofy and his son Max were just behind her in the fourth row. The first row was taken up by the groomsmen picked by Leon: Ven, Riku and Cloud who was apparently trying to shrink himself in size but failing miserably. The left hand side of the aisle was occupied by David Xanatos, Xion, Roxas and Namine in the third row and Terra, Aqua and Mickey in the fourth row among others.

Gasps filled the air and the crowd turned their heads as the bridesmaids walked down the aisle with a bouquet of flowers in each of their hands. Aerith, Yuffie, Tifa, Luna. Sora couldn't help but smile at how nervous Luna looked as she walked down the aisle. She kept her eyes fixed forward while putting on her best smile but her own awareness of people's gazes on her gave away her anxiousness. She arrived at the front and smiled at Sora. This smile was different from the one she had put on while walking down the aisle. It was the smile Sora knew her best by.

The bridesmaids all sat down in the front row on Sora's right turning their heads also to see an adorable Stephanie wearing a straw hat with a sunflower attached and Kairi with a confident smile as she escorted Rinoa down the aisle slowly. There were a couple of wolf whistles in the small crowd and Sora half expected Leon to shout "That's my wife!" back at them but he was so smitten by Rinoa's beauty that he could only smile… and that was pretty rare from Leon.

Rinoa arrived by Leon's side with Kairi giving Sora a flirtatious wink as she joined him by the side. Cid flicked the underside of his nose with his thumb and began the ceremony. Having had no idea what to expect from this, Sora was half bored by the time Cid had asked for the rings to be brought down and wished he could just sit down instead of standing on the spot feeling like an idiot. And Leon thought he looked bad.

"Leon and Rinoa, do you promise to protect each other and be each other's hope in the other's time of need?" Cid asked.

"I do. My word is my bond." Both Rinoa and Leon said in unison seeming completely lost in each other's eyes.

_My word is my bond... _Sora was reminded of Yeul once again. If she were still alive, she would be here at the wedding smiling along with everyone else. She would be gasping in awe at Rinoa's wedding dress. She'd be tearing up at the scene unfolding in front of him. She'd be… no, he couldn't let his own guilt ruin this moment. This wasn't about him or Yeul. It was about the future of one of the first people he had met after leaving his islands, and his betrothed.

"Now if there's any reason that these two may not be wed, speak now or forever hold your peace. I suppose that means in other words that if this ain't a cheesy soap opera someone won't object at this point." Cid said. He allowed the silence of the garden to be confirmation of this before asking for the rings to be presented.

Sora pulled out a small box from his pocket and opened it to see a silver ring with a lion engraved on its surface. He handed it to Leon who carefully placed the ring on Rinoa's finger. Kairi followed up by giving the identical ring in her possession to Rinoa who followed the same motion on Leon.

"Well with that all said and done. I imagine we'll all be expecting great things from this couple in the future and hey, if you're ever in need a babysitting service, I might even know a guy or two." Cid continued.

"Oh please let's not go that far." Leon grunted while facepalming.

"Without further ado, I now present to you your newly wedded couple, Squall and Rinoa… and yeah, I finally get to say your first name. You may now kiss the bride."

"Go on and give her a big kiss Squall. Smooooooch! WOOHOO!" Yuffie yelled out from her seat.

"Yuffie, please don't tell me you're somehow already drunk when you haven't drunk a single thing yet." Leon replied but he was taken aback when it was Rinoa who initiated the kiss. The crowd gave a whopping applause for the couple while Merlin pulled out his wand and shot jets of light into the air which exploded into fireworks.

"Gather up everyone, time for pictures." Colette pressed a few buttons on her camera before holding it up to her face. The next few minutes were photographs taken not only from her but several of the other guests as well. Sora indulged in the moment helping to bring other people into the photos while also acting as jubilant as a little kid.

"If I didn't know any better I would say you were taking notes for your own wedding." Donald teased him after they had finished taking photos. They were now on their way to Merlin's place where the feast was to take place in the garden.

"Me? No, don't be silly. I'm trying to make the most of it. Say, how was yours and Daisy's wedding Donald?" Sora asked.

"Donald didn't get married." Goofy answered.

"It's too much commitment. Apart from Daisy pushing for an all-out expensive wedding and honeymoon, my life after that is pretty much over." Donald said appearing as if frightened by something that only he could see.

"Oh I'm sure you're exaggerating." Sora replied as they crossed into the residential district.

"You'll understand when you're older Sora. You'll understand." Donald warned in sympathy. Sora shrugged. Whatever he would eventually understand would hopefully be far away from now.

In front of him, Sora could see Xanatos talking with Luna about something which caused her to laugh. Sora wouldn't have guessed Xanatos as the type to be a comedian judging from his appearance but then again he hardly knew the guy.

In Merlin's backyard, a long table extended all the way around the yard's perimeter hosting food and refreshments. Sora had to step aside as three animated broomsticks walked past him and headed back into the house probably to attend to the kitchen. He watched them disappear down the hallway before attempting to take a seat next to Donald and Goofy only to be stopped yet again by Aerith.

"And where do you think you're going?" she asked. What did she mean by that? He was going to sit down with everyone else… "Have you forgotten? You're supposed to make a speech."

"Wait, what?" Sora asked. A speech? No one told him he had to do a speech.

"You are the best man, right? Well now's the time to do your thing."

"My thing? I don't have a-" Sora squeaked before pausing. Leon must have set him up— he could see no other possibility. Unless he had just forgotten to mention it to Sora by accident, he must have known about the various duties of the best man. Fine, if Leon wanted it that way then he would have no one but himself to blame for what Sora had to say. Aerith squeezed his shoulder as a sign of good luck before heading to her own seat. Sora waited for voices to die down before walking over to Leon and Rinoa's table. "So as you all know my name is Sora and I've actually spent most my life researching a fascinating topic. Why me? Out of all the people Leon- Squall- whatever your name is, could choose, why a lucky guy like me. What did I do to deserve this slightly anti-social fellow's trust that I would not in any way try to embarrass him during this speech?

"Well, I suppose I'd have to go back to when we'd first met to find that answer. I was in a fancy little world called Traverse Town, and Leon the romantic that he was just couldn't help but become swept away by my charms. Seriously though, our first meeting was a fight and that's pretty out there. You never usually think for a second—oh, I think I'll make friends with this lovely guy that managed to knock me out a few seconds ago, but it happened and it was pretty out there. Leon had told me about his world, this world, being lost to the darkness. When I first heard that I couldn't help but think that I was in some kind of fairy tale. Leon had just asked me to help bring peace to the worlds. I don't think anyone knows how to reply to those words when they first here them. It's a big responsibility carrying people's hopes on your shoulders.

"But we saved this world in the end as well as countless others. Me, Donald, Goofy, Riku and the King. When I was to next come to "Hollow Bastion" the town had completely changed. There was still that trace of darkness that had been left there by Maleficent, but the town was recovering. There was hope. Leon was determined to restore this world back to the way it was before the disaster, so much so in fact, that he told himself he wouldn't go back to the name Squall until he did that. Talk about being committed. Rinoa, you might have some problems getting him to notice you every once in a while but keep at it, you'll get to him eventually.

"Pardon me for the pun, but Leon knew that the squall that falls over Radiant Garden wasn't over, it still isn't. There's a lot of work to be done, but Leon knows he'll reach his dream one day, and I'm going to help him do it. I'd like to think of myself as everyone's best friend, and their best man if they'll allow me. I'd like to think that no matter how distant we are from each other I'll always be there for them if they need me to be. Well, enough of this cheesiness. Here's to Leon and Rinoa!" Sora picked up a glass and raised it above his head, with everyone else doing the same. Finally a resounding group of claps and cheers came to congratulate him on his speech. Finally able to sit down, he breathed a sigh of relief and smiled as both Donald and Goofy patted him on the back.


	20. Stargazing

**Chapter 20**

**Stargazing**

"Would you care to dance Sora? Oh, is this a bad time?"

Before Sora could answer Colette's question on the type of food his mother used to make, he was interrupted by Kairi who had just asked a seemingly baffling question.

"Uh, kinda-"

"Of course not. You two enjoy yourselves. I'd probably be doing the same if I didn't have Stephanie criticizing my every move." Colette laughed.

"I can imagine it must be hard moving on when your daughter's still clinging on to her father." Kairi understandably acknowledged.

"She's not the only one, but sometimes you really have to let loose and I have a little fun. Besides, I don't think he'd want us moping about the past," Colette said. "But Stephanie's against the idea as you can imagine. She'd rather I not move forward if it meant I ended up forgetting about her father, but that's just impossible, I couldn't forget. She's all the proof that he ever existed… anyway, I digress. Go and be free unlike me."

"Thanks Colette," Kairi said before dragging Sora on to the dancefloor. "You do know it's customary for the maid of honor and the best man to dance, don't you?"

_I'll get you back for this Leon_, Sora thought as he became increasingly intimidated at the thought of having to dance in front of everyone. He couldn't even dance to begin with, especially with slow moving songs such as what was blearing out of the instruments that more of the broomsticks were playing at the front. At least with a fast paced song, there was some room for silliness involved so it didn't seem like you had to follow any particular rhythm.

Sora placed one hand on Kairi's waist and the other in her hand. His hands felt as if they weren't his own, and he was worried that he was going to do something to mess this up.

"You're not a robot Sora, you're a Keyblade Master. This should come naturally to you. On second thought, just follow what I do." Kairi whispered.

"I'm not exactly sure how it should come naturally to me Kairi." Sora said in the same tone as he looked down to follow Kairi's feet but Kairi didn't seem to like this and used her finger to lift Sora's chin back up to meet her face.

"Well they use the same kind of principle, don't you think? Dancing and fighting, you have to learn to let your body move you in both of them. If you didn't know that, how in the world you defeated Xehanort, the Organization and Maleficent again I'll never know." Kairi said.

"Adrenaline and lots of it." Sora said sarcastically.

"That's some pretty lucky adrenaline then." Kairi leaned into him so that their bodies were pressing against each other at this point.

_Okay, this is getting weird. I know this is a slow song but… _Sora almost laughed. Kairi was his best friend, he had known her since she first arrived on the islands and that was a long time ago. So why was he acting so awkwardly in front of her right now? Was it the dancing or being so close to her or even the look she was giving him, and what was up with that look anyway? If Sora could run into a corner and cry he would have.

"You smell great today Kairi… uh, not that you don't always smell great. I mean- er-" Sora immediately regretted saying that. He wanted to compliment her in order to make up for his bad dancing but after it had come out of his mouth he had wondered if it was too candid. It had also come out completely wrong.

"Aw, you're so cute when you're all embarrassed. Just relax, you're doing fine." Kairi said.

Sora's face turned a bright red color but he tried his best to ignore the compliment. "Well I suppose now's the time to practice as any." he said letting Kairi lead the dance by twirling both herself and him around before continuing their sidestepping.

The song soon came to an end and Sora and Kairi uncoupled with Sora letting out a laugh. Kairi was surprised at this. "Is something funny?" she asked.

"It wasn't so much funny as it was fun. That was great! You know, I just might have a knack for this sort thing." Sora bragged.

"You still have a long way to go my friend, but you started to get the hang of it at the end. I guess I can give you points for that." Kairi said.

"Because who knows what I'd do without them," Sora chuckled before looking at the house. "You don't mind if I get some fresh air for a while, do you? All the action here is kind of making me dizzy."

"Sure. I kind of want to talk to Colette about something anyway. You'll be coming back to dance, right?" Kairi asked. Sora was sure his dancing had been awful so he had no idea why Kairi would ever have wanted to dance with him again.

"Sure, oh and speaking of which I'll just grab some of this…" Sora walked over to the plate containing the shish kebabs and took the whole dish. He smiled and put his finger to his lips silently asking her to keep quiet before rushing into the house. The real reason he had left was much different. He made his way through the hallway, past the empty living room and out the front door.

"Sora!" Luna yelled in surprise as the spiky haired teen held out the dish of kebabs. Sora watched Luna's contorted face as she seemed to struggle between accepting it or not. Finally she reached out and picked one up giving him her thanks. "Oh this is yummy!" she commented after taking a bite.

"Not your kind of party?" Sora asked.

Luna shook her head. "I just needed some time to think. It really is amazing. I've met so many new people today. Guess what? I had such an amazing discussion with the librarian about a list of recommended books I could read. She's a big fan of the mystery novel genre just like I am! We both love a good whodunnit! It's amazing how two people from different walks of life can share the same passion in a single thing."

"Yeah, it is. Our worlds aren't as separated as we think they are. Actually, have you heard of Atlantis?" Sora decided to ask. That the tale of the forgotten city was known by both Kairi and Judge Frollo, two different people from two different worlds, seemed to warrant some consideration. It wasn't unheard of fairy tales spreading, especially when the worlds had once been connected. If Atlantis was that wide known among the residents of both worlds then maybe it, like the fairy tale about the Keyblade War, was a remnant of the old World.

"Atlantis? Yeah, I've heard of it. My mom told me about it once. A floating island in the sky with technology more advanced than anywhere else. It was eventually deemed unworthy by the gods and was eternally damned to the ocean's depths." Luna described before taking another bite out of the kebab. "Why'd you bring it up?"

"No reason. Just some nut who thinks the place exists." Sora said.

"Even if it did exist, it's unlikely you could find it. But I wouldn't say impossible. I was able to see the stars after all." Luna said.

"Was? You still are Luna. Unless… Astra?"

Luna confirmed Sora's guess with a single nod. "She says it's too dangerous for me. She thinks that I don't you owe you or the others anything but the fact is I do. Until now I was undecided about it. Do I deserve all this you've given me? Do I deserve to be free when so many others who have done nothing wrong are confined to their own worlds? Who am I really? I have so many questions, and I don't know how I'd feel if I left them unanswered. That would be a worse crime in my opinion. And then I heard your speech and I thought to myself, how could I abandon Leon and the others when they've done so much for me? So I think I'm going to decline Astra's offer. I can't walk away from this after everything I've seen, I just can't."

There was a brief pause, if only to admire the sound of lively folk dance music playing behind them. Sora soon grinned. "You think too much."

Luna's jaw dropped for a second. "Oh, wow, thanks for the support."

"No problem. Seriously though, if you continue on you're going to put Pooh to shame." Sora pointed out.

"Hahaha! I must think… think… think…" Luna tapped her index finger against her right temple. "But I'm not sure I can stop my thoughts."

"True, you can't stop thoughts— that's impossible. But you can stop thinking about thoughts." Sora started walking across an invisible tightrope, spreading out his arms and interchanging his left foot and right foot with each step.

"Stop thinking about thoughts?" Luna repeated.

"Right! Thoughts are like memories. They're all connected so one thought leads to another and another and another like a chain. That chain is the thinking part. The trick is to break that chain before it goes too far."

"And how do I do that?" Luna asked.

"Just stop thinking. Don't bother thinking about the how or why, just do it! It's that simple." Sora exclaimed. _It's really not! _Something inside his head wanted to scream.

"And I suppose this is your philosophy Sora?" Luna asked with a prying stare.

"I find it works for me."

_In the past maybe… I can only hope it works for you._

"Okay. If you can do it then so can I. Thank Sora," Luna said before continuing in a sort of sing-song voice. "_Stop thinking 'bout the little things and your worries will seem so far away_. Well I have started running again, not like I hadn't gotten enough of that in the Realm of Darkness."

"Then you're already well on your way then. You coming back in soon? I seriously have to get Riku on the dancefloor… and I kinda wasn't supposed to bring this away." Sora gestured to the plate in his hands.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a second. Mmm, might as well take a second while I try to stop thinking. Actually I think I'm starting to think about food now." Luna said snatching a second shish kebab from the plate.

"Fatty."

"At least's it's a one up from shorty," Luna rebutted. Her smile lasted from the moment Sora turned his back and started walking to the moment he re-entered. Her smile faded and she looked at her left. "I know you heard everything. You can come out Astra."

* * *

A second pillar crumbled to the floor with Lea escaping almost certain death once again. He should have known the gods of Olympus certainly would not have messed around, especially one as bloodthirsty as the God of War. The man (if he could even be described as such) oozed the hubris equivalent to a thousand burning suns and usually in most cases hubris led to downfall, but not this one. Ares, though his appearance may have led one to believe otherwise, was highly cunning and quick on his feet.

"Look, I told you that I came in through the wrong entrance. Okay, maybe I shouldn't have used a corridor of darkness here but there was no way I could have possibly predicted my skull being bashed in by a hammer just because I made a flashy entrance." Lea complained.

"You know I've always wanted to fight a Keyblade Wielder but I must say this isn't what I had in mind. You are boring!" Ares boomed.

"THANK YOU, you finally see that. I am boring. So why waste your time on me again? Surely your efforts would be much better suited to doing whatever a God of War usually does." Lea offered. It would be like Even to put him in such a position. If he didn't know any better he'd have guessed that the scientist wanted him dead.

"Have my annoying sister preach her wisdom and meddle in my affairs constantly?"

"Oh, well- siblings… gotta love 'em." Lea shrugged uneasily only to throw himself out of the way to avoid a spiralling battle-axe heading his way. He landed back on the ground and summoned his chakram to throw them at Ares. The battle-axe flew up into the air and raced back to Ares who spun it around like a windmill. The two chakram hit against the axe and were easily deflected away at different angles and distances in the circular room.

"Was that a declaration of war boy?" Ares egged on. The axe slowly stopped spinning until it came to a complete halt allowing him to grasp it with both hands again.

"Well I had to try, otherwise what kind of Keyblade Wielder would I be?" Lea said putting on a different tone entirely. He liked to think he had two completely different personalities for these situations. His days in the Organization had demanded he keep a cool, calculating demeanour with an unreadable personality impossible to discern from voice or facial expression. In truth, he had never really found a personality he could be proud of until he had met Roxas and Xion. Before that, it was just easier for him to do his job when he acted out the idea of having no heart.

"Now we're talking. Throw everything you've got at me!" Ares roared with mighty grin.

"I WILL HAVE NO SUCH THING!"

The sudden third voice boomed like thunder causing the floor underneath Lea's feet to shake. It was a voice that could shake fear into the hearts of many men, worse so than Ares. Nine pillars of light shot down from the ceiling to nine of the twelve chairs around the room before disappearing and soon being replaced by the gods of Olympus. They exuded an aura that made Lea pale in comparison. Though he felt somewhat inferior under their might, he held his ground and looked on with a smirk.

"Sit down brother. You make a fool of yourself, not that it would be the first time." Athena said chuckling. Ares growled at her before letting out a frustrated growl, allowing his weapon to disappear from his hand, and teleporting onto his seat.

"I'm sorry about that. My son has quite the truculent attitude as you can see. Sometimes he can't help but act on impulse. I'm afraid you had quite the bad luck in meeting him. At least we arrived on time." Zeus laughed. Was this supposed to be funny to Lea? As if he could just wave away with a magic wand the fact that only seconds ago he had and almost certainly would have faced an imminent death?

"Hey, there was no rush, I only almost died," Lea said before getting down to business. He produced the puzzle box that had frustrated so many who had touched it in his hands. "Since I don't think I'm wanted here by some, I'll get down to business. You gave this Sora didn't you?"

Zeus leaned into his chair and rubbed his chin. "You're not going to tell us your name first young man?"

"Oh, er- it's Lea," _Way to be cool Lea, way to be cool. _He was so used to acting things out as he had planned them that if anything in reality intervened in the scenario he had played out in his head he would immediately be thrown off track. "So, about the box…"

"Yes, if I recall correctly the man who brought this here seemed rather fascinated by it. He told me nothing else other than to give it to the Keyblade Master, Sora. He believed that if there was anyone who could solve it, it would be him. As for what's inside or how to open it, that I do not know. I would suggest thinking outside of the box however." Zeus said.

"Thinking outside the box?" Lea repeated, ignoring the obvious pun.

Zeus nodded. "Rather than asking how to open it, the better question to ask would be how it came into existence. Once you've answered that question, you may be able to figure out the intent of its creator which will serve as a clue in opening the box. Unfortunately my knowledge of such objects is limited at best, however I do remember myself giving a box at one point to a girl for her wedding. Hers wasn't entirely a natural existence having been created from Hephaestus' hands. But that's a story best heard with some hot coco in my opinion."

"But how am I supposed to know where to start? This thing could be ancient for all I know." Lea said with gritted teeth. Zeus' laughter was annoying at best, and it sounded phony to his ears for some reason, even if it really was authentic.

"My son Hephaestus is the god of such crafts. He may carry the answer you seek. He is usually busy in his forge but I shall take you to see him." Hera said. True to her word, within seconds Lea had been teleported from the council of gods and had reappeared in a room worthy of the flurry of dancing flames. The hot air blasting from the furnace in front of him and the slightly tilted cauldrons suspended in the air breathing magma into the stream below told him he was in Hephaestus' dominion.

Hephaestus himself watched over these devices like a lighthouse. Quite muscular in size, Lea could imagine the man easily breaking him apart like a toothpick. It really must have been intimidating being a lowly mortal in the presence of gods for him to start thinking about the many ways his life could be ended. He looked down in surprise at said mortal before raising a questioning brow at Hera.

"Don't you think it's a bit too hot in here? How can you even stand this heat? At least tell me the salary is good?" Lea asked.

"The enjoyment of creating something new each time is a reward within itself though it is true I probably have no need for sunbathing after this… Athena, how is it this mortal has scaled the mighty Olympus?"

"My guess is that the rules of this world do not apply to him. He is outside our world's system and so he is exempt from its rules." Hera guessed.

"Correctamundo, and now you're thinking with portals. Got it memorized?" Lea asked before brandishing the puzzle box. "The old guy with the majestic beard told me you might have the answers to my prayers. You wouldn't have any idea how this came into existence, would you?"

Hephaestus lifted his hand and took the small shape from Lea's hand with the tips of his fingernails, holding it towards him and inspecting it closely. "Ah yes…" he said after a while, "I'm afraid it's an item of over worldly material. Certainly not from here but I have seen its likes before. It's the same metal normally used for Keyblades."

"What? Are you sure?" Lea asked.

"I'd never forget it. When my eyes were first drawn to the Keyblade it had piqued my interested. I even tried to recreate the thing myself many times, all of them ending in failure. A weapon that not even I could create… it shocked me to the core it did. That was a long time ago but a fine weapon like that never escapes your mind while working. I doubt I would even be able to recreate this let alone a Keyblade. In fact…" Hephaestus without any warning tossed the puzzle box into the fiery inferno of the furnace.

"Hey hey hey, I kinda needed that!" Lea exclaimed completely dumbfounded.

"If there is anyone who knows what they are doing in this regard, it would be Hephaestus." Hera said just as curious to see where this was going as Lea was judging from her expression. Hephaestus picked up a pair of tongs from one of the tools next to him and reached into the fire, slowly drawing the glowing red box out from the fire before setting it down. It set the instrument in his hand down and picked another, this time a mallet. He swung downwards hard and fast onto the box. There was an instantaneous clang as the two objects made contact, with the mallet consequently being repelled away from the box.

"Just as I thought. It's not malleable. I used a considerable amount of force as well, but it seems there's some magic in use here that caused my mallet to be knocked back like that. Whatever it is, it doesn't want me touching it," He said watching as the box returned to its normal dull color. He picked it up again, and then set it down. "It's also cool, like it hasn't been heated recently."

"Just what are we messing with here?" Axel mumbled under his breath. How could one little box contain so much mystery?

* * *

Luna avoided Astra's eyes as she walked towards her, almost as if she was scared to look into her eyes and tell her best friend what she had clearly overheard anyway. A part of her felt like she had betrayed Astra somehow. But how could she have? It wasn't as if the world was centred around Astra after all, and Luna had her own voice, she just had to prove it to her best friend now.

"You know it's rude to spy on other people's conversations." That's how she would start this off, by highlighting this sacred breach of trust. She would make Astra feel the guilty one here and from there it would be easier for Luna to explain her reasoning… hopefully.

That's how she remembered her mother winning arguments against her father—guilt tripping him and forcing him to play on the defensive from there on out. It was often hilarious to Luna at a young age to see her dad stumbling about looking for explanations while her mother's wry features came out at their fullest, a smug smile knowing it was going to win. She closed her eyes and held that memory dear to her heart. It was more important than ever now to never let go of these memories, though whether she deserved to hang onto them in the first place was debatable.

"The key to good eavesdropping is not getting caught so I guess I'm just not good at it, or maybe I don't try to be. Your friend didn't notice though so maybe I'm at least partly good… or it's just Sora." Astra said.

_Ouch! You can't expect me to defend us both Sora._

"Shish Kebab? It's delicious." Luna held up the second one she had received from Sora in hopes that it would be able to butter Astra up.

"Nah, I've already eaten. There's this pretty good restaurant down by the gardens which served some damn good stake." Astra said licking her lips. Luna nodded and held it to her side. The next question was going to be difficult to ask.

"Astra… do you have something against Sora?" Luna probably didn't want to hear the answer to this question, but knowing now would eventually save her the trouble of finding out later.

"Oh, we've finally arrived at the moment of truth. Of course I do Luna. How many times has he put you in danger or made you suffer?" Astra asked. She had hooked her right hand around Luna's arm gently but there was a look of urgency in her eyes that juxtaposed the action.

"I suffered long before Sora. I knew what the dangers were, the moment I saw my first Heartless. Of course it was going to be dangerous, but that's a danger I chose to put myself in, not because he forced me. I've… I've never felt more alive in Alexander than I do now." Luna asserted. Perhaps it had been too wild of an assertion. She certainly felt alive when she had arrived home from school every day to her parents or when she had visited Aunt Kit and helped her in her deliveries. But she had always wanted more. Even now, that thirst hadn't been satisfied. It was insatiable. Did that make her ungrateful and selfish in the long run? Was she only to be satisfied completely by the things she had?

"You don't mean that… Alexander is our home." Astra said.

"Not mine. You know, I've always felt losing my memory was a bad thing. I'd wake in the Gummi Ship at night after having some abstract dream and I'd wonder what I had done to deserve all of it. The fact that had no memories to even make sense of these dreams was painful. But now, I'm starting to wonder if it was better my memories had stayed gone, because this feeling in my chest is a lot more painful than it ever has been. At least when I had no memory, I had pieces I could pick up and gaps I could fill in. I thought I could grow and become the person I was supposed to be. Now… there are no gaps for me to fill… and I don't know who I am, or don't want to know," Luna raised her head up to look at the sky. "The only thing I have now is this. The sky, the stars… my dreams…" Alice had created her own world, her own adventure. She had fallen into it, been swept away by it. Why couldn't Luna do the same?

"But not me." Astra nodded as if it was a statement, not a question.

Well, the guilt tripping tactic had just completely backfired.

"Astra, if you're asking me to choose between my best friend and my life, please don't. Aren't you at least happy for me? You of all people should know how I feel." Luna protested. Her arguments with Astra were few and far between but when they did come into play, the looming presence of Astra's overprotectiveness became annoying at times. Of course, she had not always thought this way, especially not at the start of their friendship. She was eternally grateful for Astra, and now that she thought about all Astra did for her, she was having doubts again as to whether she should just go with Astra. How could she reject her best friend's offer and still have the decency to act the role of the good friend.

"I… fine. It's okay." Astra finally said after some hesitation.

"Astra, come with us. Sora wanted the three of us to go on a vacation to see other worlds. Just the three of us. That's what you wanted anyway, isn't it?" Luna pleaded.

"It's not that simple. I told you that you were about to be thrown in the middle of something you shouldn't be involved in." Astra said.

"But you're involved in it? You know about the people who poisoned Sora…" Luna didn't want to jump to conclusions, but from what Sora had told her and how Astra's dislike for Sora, she couldn't help but entertain a certain line of thought in her head.

"I don't want to be involved. But I can see that your dead set on staying and if I know you well enough I probably can't change your mind about that. I am going to keep you safe though." Astra said.

"Likewise. So does that mean you'll come with us then?" Luna asked sanguinely.

"I can't. I just can't. I've already given you the simplest explanation I could manage. Just teach yourself to jump in and out Sea Salt, so that when the time comes, you jump out before it's too late." Astra advised. Within seconds, an armor-clad figure had appeared in front of her. Luna gawked in amazement at her friend's new appearance and walked around her slowly, taking in each detail in awe.

"Wow, that's awesome. How'd you get it?" she asked.

"At a yard sale. Oh come on, it's not _that _good. It's pretty uncomfortable at the end of the day but I use it to travel to other worlds so I don't really have much of a choice." Astra replied.

"Should have bought a Gummi Ship at that yard sale instead," Luna joked. Astra laughed, let out a soft but audible sigh and summoned her Keyblade only to have Luna put her hands around Astra's wrist. "Please don't go. We've barely spent any time with each other."

Luna could sense Astra staring deeply back into her eyes for a second or two before replying, "I'm heading off to Alexander. Head there if you want to see me. You know where I'll be Sea Salt." Astra gave Luna another hug from inside her armor and before Luna knew it a corridor of light had opened up and Astra had disappeared through it. For a moment, Luna had seriously considered following her but her hesitation lasted a moment too late. The light was gone, and her friend along with it. Alexander… there was more waiting for her than Astra there. Aside from Aunt Kit and her parent's house, one particular building stood out in her mind that probably had the answers to her questions. But now wasn't the time to think about that. She took another bite out of her second shish kebab before heading back in.

* * *

_So that's our wedding wrapped up and next chapter we'll... well, you'll see. I'll say that I've started some inner competition to see how far I can get into this trilogy before KH3 comes out. I think I have a pretty good chance of finishing it all if I keep this pace up. Till next time, ciao. _


	21. Homecoming

_Didn't actually intend to work on this chapter until I had finished both my assignments but eh, I got bored and you know what happens when your mind starts to wander. Also I hear they're making a live adaption Beauty and the Beast with Emma Watson. While I'm sure she'd be a great Belle is there nothing sacred in this world. What's next, Cindere- okay, how about Sleeping Beau-, okay how about Alice... yeah, I'm not gonna bother anymore. I'm sure they're already planning a live-action Frozen movie._

* * *

**Chapter 21**

**Homecoming**

Sora awoke with a start. Tiny beads of sweat poured down his face, and it took some for him to notice that the irregular panting in the room was his own breathing. None of this had been a first instance either. Maybe it had been too easy to hope that the cause of these nightmares had been his guilt over losing Luna. _Clearly not… _

This time it had been something different than the usual dreams. He was in some place he couldn't even recognise, in a sea of bright red, like blood, except that it wasn't. They were flowers, poppies, and he was only in a field of them at that. He kept walking, looking for anyone that he could call a friend and seek help from, but he found his only company to be the raucous wind. That's when he saw her… she was there with what he presumed was her mother. They were talking whilst admiring the flowers. She looked on with an innocent smile, one Sora had never seen before. He had only seen pain and suffering from her face, and yet here it was just a simple action as talking with her mother that made her happy. It only made him realize just how little he knew about Yeul.

So he tried to call out to her, to alert her to his presence, but no words left his mouth. In the distance he could see a darkness approaching. It was the Heartless. He called again—same result.

"_Why can't you hear me?" _Sora had yelled before running towards her. Of course the funny thing about dreams were that they were often deceptive, and a common trait of one that Sora had come to know them by was running somewhere without actually running anywhere at all.

He felt a hand grasp his shoulder. He turned around and looked up in horror at the intruder of the dream. He had such a perfect answer for Sora as well. _"Don't act like you don't know. It's because you are a phantom hiding behind a mask."_

Those chilling words, and the person they came from, were how Sora had woken up. Abraxas… the name never left his mind, it couldn't leave it. To Sora, he had been more a poison than the one that had been given to him by that strangely dressed woman. Of course he should have known that this Abraxas was merely a figment of his imagination, and his temptations. Even then he couldn't get over how real it had seemed. Like he was actually still alive breathing down Sora's neck.

A knock at the door pushed these thoughts away, and felt for his shirt only to realize how damp it was. "I'm coming!" he yelled before throwing off his shirt. He hurriedly scrambled over to the bathroom where he put on a spare white polo shirt before heading back to the door and opening it.

"Astra is gone." Riku said looking none too pleased.

"Well I at least expected a good morning, if it is that. What time is it anyway?" Sora looked back to the clock in the room only to see that it was past 11 in the morning. "What do you mean she's gone?"

"As in she left. I'm not quite sure how else I can possibly put it." Riku said.

"Okay… and?"

Riku dragged his hands slowly down his face in frustration. "I warned you about this. I told you she couldn't be trusted and you said that you would keep an eye on her. Now she's probably on her way back to Moira Crescent just running her mouth about us… about you."

"We were at a wedding yesterday, you can't really blame me for this." Sora said calmly. He was simply too tired to be having this conversation right now.

"I can't, but it's still problematic." Riku said.

"Problematic? Riku, in case you haven't noticed, Alice is missing. That's problematic. Stars twinkling in the Realm of Darkness, that's probably a problem too. This, we can handle. We always have. Don't tell me this is how you acted while we were taking down the Organization?" Sora said.

"And Moira's Crescent is the same is what you want to say, except we don't know their agenda other than going after you. That's good enough for me to worry."

"Luna says she wants to go with me to Alexander." Sora said flattening himself against the door to allow Riku access into the room. As usual he tried to delve away from the topic of Moira's Crescent since it never seemed to end on a positive note. He didn't know why Riku kept bringing it up either.

"But, didn't you say Alexander was swallowed up by the darkness?"

"It surprised me too when she said it but Luna thinks she might have been able to bring it back." Sora said.

"And you'll also be taking your vacation along with it? Good for you. You deserve it, but are you sure you don't want me and Kairi along? At least take Donald and Goofy with you." Riku suggested.

"You know that Mickey wants Donald and Goofy to keep Queen Minnie safe. We'll be fine. Look, we'll call for reinforcements if the Heartless become too much for us to handle, okay?" Sora said half in jest. He was sure that Luna didn't want to waste any more time and they was prepared to leave just as soon as she had finished her last set of tests with Even and Ienzo.

"Well I know Master Yen Sid's got us on standby just in case. He seemed pretty troubled when I last saw him. Same with Mickey actually." Riku said.

"Who knows what he's thinking. I wish he would just tell us these things sometimes instead of being so secretive. Then again maybe it's better that way. I just want to find a way back to the islands at this point." Sora walked over to the nightstand and picked up Kairi's good luck charm to admire it. He wondered if that was the right thing to do. Would it be right for him to go back to his home while such strange occurrences were happening elsewhere? Did he even have a home to return to for that matter? Would there ever be an end to his journey?

"Don't tell me you're giving up already. I thought you were better than that, oh mighty hero of the Keyblade." Riku grinned upon seeing Sora's tired expression.

"Yeah… hero… you know it wasn't so long ago that I was seen as a junior hero. How time flies." Sora revelled with a grin.

* * *

"Can we stop this now?"

"We've barely just started. Besides, I thought you men liked being on bottom." Desiree replied sinking into the armchair with a book in her hands while placing her feet on her footstool, or rather, human footstool to be more exact.

"No, you just like being on top, as usual. I'm surprised I haven't learned yet. Urgh, why am I even talking about this?" Lysander cringed as he felt Desiree apply pressure on his back. He was lucky enough that she hadn't dug her stiletto heels into his back.

"You lost our bet so you don't get to complain." Desiree replied in a sultry tone before returning to read her book: _The Wonders of Parisian Cuisine_, it was called. They were currently in the study room of their headquarters, surrounded by plenty of books all gathered from different worlds. Usually it was the bookworm Alfonso who spent most of the day in the room 'studying', but this was one of the rare moments when he must have realized that he had a life outside of this room allowing Desiree to do some reading of her own.

"My body already felt unresponsive after having slept for fourteen years and now you're trying to break my back. Man this sucks. I could be improving my high score right about now on _Deadly Crawlers_." Lysander complained. He started drumming on the carpet with his fingers.

"That's all you think about, games. Mon dieu, I swear it's so easy to take advantage of you that it's almost becoming boring… almost." Desiree said from behind her book.

"Which is why I'm asking myself why I keep getting roped into this stuff? It's like you say jump, and I say how high… but I just can't stoooooop. Why do I have to be so competitive all the time?"

"I wonder that myself. It hardly helps that I hear you late at night still playing that infernal thing in your room while I'm trying to get a good night's sleep. You, mon ami, fit the title of an insufferable nocturnal idiot."

"Heh, say that five times fast." Lysander said only to receive another strict application of pressure on his back.

"Now that's strange. I didn't know stools could talk," Desiree stated simply. She flicked to the next page and smiled. "Have you ever tried escargot?"

"You mean those cooked snails? Not really, the idea of it never seemed edible to me in any way. I think they add garlic butter to it to give it taste but…"

"They're hardly edible? Non, the idea is that they are fed on a strict diet to release the mucus from their bodies. Add in a loaf of baguette and… ooh! You must simply try it." Desiree said finding it hard to suppress her passion, if she was even trying to do so anyway.

"Well maybe I'll try it eventually. I've been looking to expand my food palette for a while now."

"Good, there's one less ignorant commoner in the world." Desiree proclaimed to herself proudly as if she had just successfully converted someone to her way of thinking. A knock on the door came and Desiree reluctantly looked up from her book to see Rhea with her hand on the door for support. Despite her visual disability, she navigated the halls of her own home like a professional. When asked how she was able to do so, Rhea said that she had created a visual representation in her mind of the place and she only needed to use her other extraordinary senses to place the other members in their respective rooms. Desiree wasn't even going to pretend to understand that.

"Lysander? Desiree? It's unusual to see the two of you together, especially in the study room-"

"Don't get any ideas. I'm just currently using him as my personal footstool for reading. Is there something wrong?"

"It looks like you were wrong Desiree. Astra's come back. She's in the meeting room with the others right now." Rhea announced with a carefree smile.

Before Desiree could inquire further, she found herself without a footstool. "Haha that's amazing! I knew she wouldn't leave us just like that. Race you there!" Lysander said eagerly.

"Race yourself. I'll take as much time as I want to, _merci bien_!"

The three soon, at Desiree's pace, made their way to the meeting or conference room and took the freed up seats closest to the room's entrance. It wasn't a particularly big room, but it didn't need to be. It fit the nine of them just fine. The Knights of the Keyblade all sitting around a round table where none would be able to look up or down at another. There were no lies and deceptions as the precepts commanded, but only truths. Desiree shuffled in her seat uncomfortably. She had the great displeasure of being next to the incredibly creepy Jill who always seemed to wear a red cloak and a matching hood over her head that covered her eyes. All that was visible then was the golden hair and the twisted grin she always left behind in her wake. She was an anomaly, and if the table did well it exchange truths, it did not exchange hers. Desiree was disturbed.

"Now that we're all here, were you able to find your friend?" Kohle asked Astra. She looked as if she wanted to be anywhere else, and everyone looking her way probably hadn't helped things.

"I found Sora and his friends and they helped me save her. She was in the Realm of Darkness like I thought," Astra replied. Placing both fists on the table, she interlocked them and looked at them thoughtfully. "I wanted to bring her with me since she didn't want to return to our home but... she cares for him."

"Well I'm sure she cares for you too Asty. You could have just stayed with them—it would have been fine by us, right?" Salome, the shortest of the nine, asked while playing with one of her pigtails.

"I can't. If you're going after Sora then I can't be involved in this, and I don't want Luna involved in it either. The best I can do right now is at least try and convince her. I thought I might stay here for a while though while that happens… not because I care about you guys or anything, I just want you to know that right now before you get any ideas of recruiting me into your little club," Astra added quickly as a justification. "It's just that I don't really have much to go back to in Alexander either so…"

"Whatever tsundere girl, you totally missed us!" Salome exclaimed with joy and an obnoxious giggle.

"She probably thinks it's more akin to Stockholm syndrome. I remember you thinking we'd kidnapped you when we rescued you from that Heartless and brought you here." Vyce said with a light chuckle. He was careful enough not to show too much emotion.

"Oh, that was the tiny Shadow Heartless. I remember now." Salome snickered.

"I don't remember that at all," Astra coughed. "And it's not like I really know what a tsundere girl is anyway. I'll have to look that one up in the dictionary."

"I don't think you'll find it there. I'll explain it to you later." Salome replied.

"O-kay, I guess I'll hold you to that then," Astra looked up to meet the other eight faces around her. "Do you… really have to go after Sora? Isn't there another way?"

"It's either we get rid of him, or we hope he stops travelling. Which one seems more likely to you now that you've met him?" Alfonso asked while taking off his glasses to clean them with cloth. He always liked to draw things out instead of getting to the point, asking about probabilities and whys and why nots.

"He wouldn't. As much as I dislike him for what he did to Sea Sa- Luna, he'd probably go to the ends of the earth for her and his other friends. It certainly looked like he hadn't had a good sleep for a while when I first met him. My guess is that he probably feels he owes it to her for what he did so he's willing to stand by her and vice versa." Astra described.

"Surely my poison had some sort of effect on him?" Desiree asked in hope that she could somehow still take credit for giving them an advantage.

"I don't think so. It certainly didn't stop him from rescuing Luna. If anything, it's made him stronger." Astra replied.

"Reckless abandon does not mean stronger. And there's little point arguing the matter now. Sora has to go." Desiree said.

Kohle pressed his index finger to his forehead. "I truly wish it were any other way but as much as I don't like it, a seer's prophecies are always correct and Yeul's was no exception. The thing is that if it had been any of you that her vision had referred to I don't know what I'd do. With a stranger, it's easier I guess. It's hypocritical, and it's painful to admit that, but I think that's what it is. It wasn't easy for me to decide this at first and I suppose it still isn't, but Yeul's death drove forward some impetus to do this. It was one or many, and I picked one. I don't know if I'm doing the right thing but we have a duty to protect the worlds no matter the cost."

"Regret is heavy burden to carry. It is best that you do away with such a silly thing or, as the French like to say, _qui n'avance pas recule_." Desiree smiled.

"What wonderful advice. A shame though that a grand total of zero of us have no idea what you just said." Vyce said.

"I think I get the gist. She basically wanted to show off." Lysander said only to let out a gasp of pain when Desiree kicked him underneath the table.

"Just give me some time to convince Luna. I don't care what you do after that, just as long as she's out of harm's way." Astra said.

"With all due respect, we don't have time. It could happen today, or tomorrow. A week from now, or maybe even a month, but I'm not waiting for our worlds to die because your friend can't decide where her loyalties lie. I failed the first time, so allow me to show Sora the reality of the situation." Desiree said but Kohle shook his head.

"If Astra believes she'll be able to get her friend away in reasonable time, give her a chance to do so."

Desiree looked bewildered at this decision. "You're not serious… we have an advantage and you want to loosen the grip now? A cat does not catch a mouse with its paws only to set it free seconds later. It is unreasonable."

"When it comes to reducing collateral damage, I don't think it is unreasonable. Also technically the term 'cat-and-mouse game' refers to the fact that cats tend to play with their prey as an instinctive impulse. Just putting that out there." Kohle said.

"Urgh, who cares? And how is it collateral when she's fighting with him?"

"Someone who has nothing to do with this then if that's better. I think we should at least try to make her understand where we're coming from. Astra's the best person to do that."

"This is nonsensical. Foolish. Ridiculous." Desiree slumped into her chair and folded her arms like a whiny child who couldn't have her way.

"A walking talking thesaurus… I need one of these around." Alfonso quipped.

"A thesaurus? Like a dinosaur? Where?!" Salome asked giggling.

"I know you're pretending to be an idiot but, that truly is an idiotic thing to say at this time." Alfonso commented.

"No more so than yours Fonnie."

"IT'S ALFONSO. And at least mine was funny, hmph!" he defended so snobbishly that his voice cracked. Astra let out a quick snicker but then covered it just as quickly by looking away.

"I… think it's time we brought this meeting to an end. Anyway, glad to have you back Astra, even if it's only for a short while, also if you don't mind stopping by Rhea's room later on so she can debrief you. Will that be fine Rhea?" Kohle asked. When she nodded he looked around the room with a smile. "Okay then. Dismissed."

Everyone got up from their seats and exclaimed their happiness for Astra's return before leaving the room. All but one that is. She tapped her perfectly done Goth nails on the table while in fume. How could they not see the perfect opportunity and take it. Well she wouldn't stand by and wait like some cheap furniture at a yard sale while the worlds were suffering. It wasn't the Parisian way to sit back and do nothing after all.

* * *

"Alright. I think that's everything." Luna clasped her hand together watching Sora emerge from the Gummi Ship after putting in all the shopping they had done an hour before.

"Are you sure? You sure you're not forgetting something?" Sora asked sarcastically with slumped shoulders.

"Well I can check if you want-"

"Nonono, I think this'll be just fine." Sora answered quickly.

"Really, I'm not the shopping type. It's just that I thought we might be gone for a while so it's better to keep our stock running." Luna tried to justify but Sora put his hand up to stop her.

"The way I see it, you deserve it anyway after being away from this stuff for so long. Also it's not like I used my own munny. You can thank David Xanatos for that," Sora remarked. "What were you two talking about back at the wedding by the way?"

"He was just expressing his relief over my safety. Made a few bad jokes in the process as well which I don't think he even realized but otherwise he was pretty humble. He also said if I ever needed help with something, that I should feel free to ask him." Luna summarized.

"Yeah, he studied psychology. What about the tests?" Sora asked cautiously. When he had met up with her after she had left the castle, the smile of escapism on her face was enough that Sora was content with not bringing it up, or at least not wanting to ruin the mood.

"Well, they think they might have found something that Abraxas may have used on me but there's no guarantee that it'll be anything and even if it is it may not work on other Chimeras," Luna said. "I'm kind of nervous but I guess all we can do now is wait and see. I hate waiting."

"Who doesn't? Speaking of which, are you ready to go? I mean we don't even know if we'll find Alexander after all but, it's worth giving it a shot."

"Right, and if it's back there then there's also a chance that there might be something else. I don't really know what I'll find there and the thought of it scares me but… I know you'll be there with me when I really need you so it doesn't seem as bad when I think of it like that." Luna explained.

Sora nodded and nudged his head in the direction of the Gummi Ship. Luna clenched her fists tightly and very nervously stepped into the Highwind for the first time in three and a half months. She thought that something might have changed, that it would be different somehow because of all she had experienced in between the last time she had stepped off the ship and now, but it was all the same just like she remembered. The console panel, the small dongle thingamabob inserted into the console which she had no idea what for or what it did, the monitor installed on that panel, the fridge next to the wall…

"I love this." she marveled breathlessly.

"And we're not even at the best past yet." Sora said moving around her and walking towards the panel.

"Seeing the stars?"

"What? No! A cup holder silly," Sora grinned. He pressed a button and watched as separate compartment opened up suitable enough to perform its desired function. "This is totally essential and pretty efficient. I told him it was a safety risk not to have one but he wouldn't listen, not until now."

"Of course, clearly this was a matter of the utmost importance. You tell him Sora," Luna said sitting down on the seat to the left of him. "May I do the honor?"

"Be my guest." Sora gestured at the panel. Luna quickly flicked a few switches before starting the engine, the initial yet familiar gurgling sound of the Highwind turning on was music to her ears before it disappeared and became a soft hum. She pressed another button with the label 'intercom' under it.

"This is Captain Luna of the Royal Highwind R.T.K. speaking. Well, we might actually need a different name now that we've rescued the King but I digress. Prepare to open the hatches so we can set sail!" Luna exclaimed adventurously.

"Aye aye Cap'n!" Dale answered back in much the same tone. The rooftop of the Gummi Hangar opened up to reveal a clear blue sky. It was at that moment that Luna knew there was no going back. She would have to go to Alexander, not just because Astra was there waiting for her, and not just because she believed there was more the Turm des Himmels than she had previously thought, but because it was her home, and what kind of daughter would she be if she didn't at least say goodbye to her parents?

* * *

_And now back to my assignments *shivers*. By the way, if you're looking forward to the next Disney world... that may not happen for a while yet. Don't worry though, I'll be sure to keep you all entertained in the meantime *does handstand*. _


	22. Future Shock

_With my assignments out of the way, I can now write and actually enjoy it. WOOH! That said, enjoy this latest chapter :D_

* * *

**Chapter 22**

**Future Shock**

Standing tall and proud above all other buildings, the Turm des Himmels was a magnificent yet unusual presence to those that lived in the city of Alexander. It had the exterior of architecture that predated the more modern buildings of the city with an interior that was much the opposite. Of course to know this one would have had to have entered into the tower and unless you were an official for the royal palace, a scientist or a construction worker, it was very unlikely a public member would ever get to see the inside walls of the building.

As for what went on in the building, that was anyone's guess. One theory had to do with it being a research facility which would have made sense with scientists working there. Another was that it was where the rich usually went to relax and have fun, as there had been several reports of opera singer Celes Chere entering the building among other well notified people.

Regardless of its ambiguity however and the lack of transparency among the officials who resided within, the tower was merely a relic of the past and was usually of little insignificance to those who walked by it on a day to day basis. It was known to be the oldest building in the city and the idea that it was in the centre seemed to indicate the city having been built around the tower afterwards. As for how old it was, that too was anyone's guess.

But with all things, there was always a minority. There were some who believed that it was important to know these things no matter how insignificant they may have initially seemed. Although everyone else was crossing the city square where the building was and only seldom glancing at the building in admiration if at all, there was one person in particular who eyed the building with hawkish eyes, a notepad and pen in her hands.

She wasn't a conspiracy theorist by any means, but her profession (or her desired one anyway) required her to question everything, and certainly the tower was the most questionable thing in all of Alexander. On most days she would come here and sit down on the opposite side of the square just watching and taking notes of who entered the building and how long they were there for. She was sure that something was going on in there, not that she had anything on paper to prove it with, but she was sure her eyes didn't lie.

It was on that night when those strange creatures had attacked the city. She, like most of the city had been trying to escape the threat, but the density of the crowd swallowed some and caused them to stumble and fall along the way. She was one of those people, her glasses being knocked off by someone's elbow and subsequently being stepped on by someone else.

At that point the only thing she could do was curl up into a ball and hope that no one stepped on her or the strange creatures didn't notice her. It was some time before she looked back up to see that nobody was around her. Silence permeated the streets, almost like nothing had ever happened. Just then a strange green light emanated from one of the tower's windows. It almost seemed bright enough to fill the entire sky. This light soon faded and then… she didn't remember anything after that. She had fallen unconscious as if some drought had befallen her and put her to sleep.

Had it really all just been a dream? Maybe the others were right to ridicule her for her silly claims. It wasn't as if she by her lonesome was going to be able to convince people that something much bigger in scope was happening than they could possibly imagine. It also wasn't as if a vivid green light that filled the skies like lightning was much to go by either, especially when she had only seen it once.

She scratched something off her notepad having decided to rewrite a sentence. No, she refused to believe that she was wrong on this matter, and no matter how many times she had been called stubborn by her peers, she would prove them right in the end and she would laugh. Just imagining her paper being published and read by the masses gave her goose bumps, or she would if she had gotten anything interesting so far. For whatever miniscule work she had in the field, being patient certainly wasn't one of her strong points and was something she needed to work on as an amateur. She eventually sighed and decided to call it a day. She may not have made any gains today, or the day before that, or even before that but she was of the belief that her luck had to change one day—she just didn't anticipate how soon that day would be.

* * *

After an annoying battle against the Heartless in what Luna had jokingly described as a "space opera", the two finally reached Alexander for the first time in three and a half months. For Sora, it was his first time seeing this Alexander, no longer desolate, dark and melancholic teeming with Heartless everywhere. For Luna, it was a place she had been reluctant to return to ever since she had learned of the damning truth from Abraxas. Here was the city she had destroyed. Her eyes saw fire engulfing the city and she backed away a few steps only for Sora to reach out and grab her hand.

"I didn't expect everything to be so… normal. There was a fire through the whole city. I remember Astra holding me up as we walked past the flames but everything seems fine now, like there wasn't a fire. What's going on?" she asked with wandering eyes. She scanned the city from the plateau they were on searching for some sign of falseness about the place, but it really did seem to be her home.

"Don't take this as fact but if I had to guess maybe when you brought back the world from the Realm of Darkness it chose the closest memory of the world before it was taken over by the Heartless. It's kinda like choosing from save data in a video game I suppose." Sora chuckled at his own analogy but upon seeing Luna's face he replaced his smiling face with a straight one.

"If that's the case, do you suppose my parents might still be… no, let's get closer." Luna said. She'd rather not think about such an unlikely scenario as that happening. As they trudged down the downwards slope, they felt the wind carry them closer to their destination more so than their feet. The ground they tread was rough and bumpy, at least until they hit smooth ground upon officially entering the city.

The first thing that Luna took notice of was there were people. It may have seemed an insignificant detail to anyone else but to her, that was all she needed to know she was back in Alexander. The ambient noise of people going about their daily business, the density of the populace, it was all too much for Luna to handle.

"Earth to Luna, you still in there?" she had almost failed to hear Sora's question the second time he uttered it.

"None of this seems real. It really is like nothing ever happened." Luna shook her head trying to absorb everything in. Meanwhile, Sora was gasping at the amount of people, the tall buildings, and the trees that lined themselves in equal spacing down the road. He had never seen anything like it before.

"Well unless you're also imagining me here then I'd say it's pretty real, and something else at that," Sora said. "On my islands we never had anything as fancy as this. I guess we didn't really need to either. What we had was enough. But still, this really is amazing! I'm overwhelmed right now."

"That's one thing I like about the place I guess. It's pretty big, but it's just not for me. Oh dear, why am I talking about the negatives so much? You don't mind if we check out the bakery do you?" Luna asked.

"Oh right, your Aunt Kit, right?"

"She isn't really my aunt but she's close enough to the family that she pretty much became that for me." Luna corrected. The two started walking down the cobblestone paved street while taking in everything. Even Luna, who had seen all this before, had found a new perspective after seeing other worlds and was starting to make note of similarities and differences between Alexander and other worlds she had been to. Sora ran over to the waterway which Luna described as a route that ran throughout the city and looked down to see numerous canoes and passenger boats travelling up and down the river.

"Heeeeey!" Sora called with waving hands hoping to gain the passengers' attention.

"Sora please, you're embarrassing us both." Luna said.

"Huh, how? I was just saying hello to them. Oh, hi!" He greeted having seen two passers-by looking at him strangely.

"Someone had too much coffee this morning I'm guessing. Well, I'm sure Aunt Kit can't wait to see your enthusiasm." Luna said half signalling that she wanted to hurry on before more people started staring. Sora smiled and the two continued on down the street with Luna informing him about the different places in more detail than she had before she had regained her memories.

"And you see that place behind all the trees?" Luna directed pointing across the river where they could make out a grand building in the distance. "That's the city hall which… get this, has an ice skating rink at the front."

"No way… you're kidding me right?" Sora asked in disbelief.

"I wish, and there's an observation tower there where you can see the whole of the city. I've been there for my birthday a few times with my parents and I went once with Astra. It's wonderful." Luna said.

"Then we should go after this. We have to make every moment of this vacation count," Sora looked up to the blue sky and sighed. "I really wish I could have taken her to see these other places. She would have liked it I think, after being chained to what she was born with her whole life. She even knew when she'd die. Just what kind of power is that? Well, whatever it is, no one should have to bear that kind of pain."

"When you put it that way I kind of feel bad about wanting to leave this place, knowing that there was someone out there who wasn't able to have the same opportunities as me. But, in a weird way, she was free of that pain in the end, wasn't she? Yeul smiled at us. Oh, we're here already?"

Sora looked away from Luna to see that they had stopped in front of the shop to find its doors completely boarded up. Luna moved closer to the windows and moved her fingers along the glass where any baked goods that were usually on display were no longer there.

"It's closed." Luna may have stated the obvious but to her it meant everything. This was the place she had mostly come to during her childhood if she wasn't at home or school.

"Well… since it means so much to you…" Sora summoned his Keyblade and severed the boards in half causing them to drop to the ground.

"Sora!" Luna screeched watching in shock as Sora quickly dismissed the weapon.

"I won't tell if you won't." Sora replied winking furtively.

"Except there's nothing to tell about me so… oh forget it." Luna said uncomfortably. She pressed her hand against the door, told herself inwardly once more that everything would be alright, and pushed. The familiar sound of a jingling bell came as the door opened to notify the shopkeeper of a potential customer. Luna looked down to notice different floorboards from the wooden ones that were usually there. Other than that, Luna's focus was on locating the currently vacant owner of the shop.

"Aunt Kit, are you here?" she yelled.

"I don't think she was expecting customers. Oh, that reminds me, you remember that baker in Quasi's world that you were at? He was disappointed you couldn't make it the last time me, Riku and Kairi went there. No doubt you are now his favorite customer." Sora notified.

"Well it was some pretty amazing bread. I guess I just have an affinity for these sorts of places." Luna replied. She called out to Kit once more hoping to salvage some sort of response, but no one replied. She was about to suggest that they leave when she barely managed to pick up muffled footsteps from the floor above.

"Aunt Kit?" Luna repeated sanguinely.

A woman who could only be described as a tired out mother soon appeared from the soon revealed herself on the second floor landing. Her usually well-kept red hair was now dishevelled and the dark circles underneath her eyelids told quite well that she hadn't gotten any sleep for a while.

Even her reactions were delayed, though perhaps that may have been because she hadn't believed her eyes. She didn't dare to. But the more she stared at the familiar looking girl the more she began to see that she wasn't going insane.

"Luna?" she asked tiredly.

"I'm here Aunt Kit." Luna affirmed. She hadn't realized until witnessing the distraught look on Kit's face that she was going to feel very badly about leaving her once again. She had never seen the shop owner like this before, and the more she thought of what that could mean, the less she wanted to know.

Kit scurried down the stairs and was at Luna's side at an instant. She was pale, very pale, Luna noticed as Kit reached forward to touch Luna's cheeks. "Luna… Luna… Oh thank the Chocobos! Luna, thank goodness you're safe!" Luna was immediately pulled into a hug which she wouldn't try to resist. She buried her head into Kit's neck lovingly and patted her on the back as if she were a child. After a while they soon pulled away with Kit holding onto Luna's shoulders and staring her up and down. "You look different somehow. It's the way you carry yourself I think…"

"So do you. What happened?" Luna enquired.

"That's a question I could ask you. Your parents told me that they couldn't find you anywhere. We searched the whole city for you for weeks, we even asked the neighbours to help and put it in the newspapers. But we still couldn't find you. And then the fire happened and your parents…" By the drop in Kit's tone of voice, Luna could tell that her parents had not escaped their fate.

"How long has it been since Luna went missing ma'am?" Sora offered to move the conversation along.

Kit inspected him inquisitively as if she had just noticed him for the first time. "Is this a new friend Luna? Now I'm really curious to know what happened. I've only ever seen you hang out with Astra. Oh, where are my manners? My name is Katreen but everyone calls me Kit, excuse my appearance right now. I was a bit… yeah."

"Oh, no bother ma'am. I'm Sora. So, how long has it been exactly?"

"Would be four months now. You're parents… oh I'm so sorry Luna, I don't know how to tell you this." Kit had started sobbing and Luna brought her closer to give her another hug.

"I know Aunt Kit. I know." How hard was it to tell someone who was grieving that you were responsible for that person's grief and so many others'? It was not a question that Luna would have answered now, not when she needed comfort the most. This brought up another question. Was she concealing the truth because she didn't want them to fall into a worse grief, or because she herself didn't want them to think badly of her, and if it was the latter, then did that make her selfish?

"So someone else has already told you then. I even promised them I would look after you and just look at what's gone and happened. I just know I'd be a terrible mother." Now she was fully letting her tears flow.

"I'm sure you did the best you could. I may have only seen it briefly but a promise is only as good as the action behind it and I can tell you care deeply for Luna. Even if you weren't with her, the fact that you care for her is probably the reason she's here with you right now." Sora said. His own words pricked him like a needle. Had he just not cared enough to prevent her death? But then he remembered Luna's words. She smiled.

"Thank you dear but it really is unfortunate that things had to end up like this. It's just one tragedy after another nowadays. Those strange creatures have started popping up every now and then to terrorize the city. There's not one place you can go without people fearing for their lives now. Nothing makes sense anymore." Kit informed them.

"The story of my life." Sora muttered transitioning into a lax pose.

"But what about the bakery?" Luna asked.

"A consequence of my failure to protect you. I told myself that as long as Luna wasn't here with me to bake this wonderful bread, the shop would remain closed. It just didn't seem right to continue the business when my right hand girl was missing." Kit said.

"But you're going to continue the business aren't you? There are so many people who love your stuff. I know I'd certainly pay a lot of munny for it and so would Sora." Luna said, Sora coming in to support her with a firm nod.

"Ha, bless your heart sweeties. I do suppose I have an audience that I simply can't let down and with your help I think we can make this shop flourish. Why there's not a person in Alexander who won't think Kit's Bakery when they feel like having some freshly baked delights." Kit laughed. She seemed almost the opposite of the person she had just been a few seconds ago. Ostensibly, Luna was smiling, but mentally she wanted to hit her head against a streetlamp. Of course Kit was going to want her partner in baking crime back to help her, it was only natural. But she was also travelling.

"Yeah…" was all Luna could muster out and weakly at that.

"Before that we have a lot of catching up to do. Where were you all these months? Did you find her young man?"

"Me? Oh, no. Well I guess you could say it's more like she found me." Sora laughed while placing a hand on his head. He still remembered exactly how they had first met, mainly because it had been a dead on replication of a similar event when he had met Donald and Goofy.

"It really is a long story. Do you think I could go and explore the rest of the city first? I want to show Sora around and I also want to check out my house." Luna said.

"What do you mean show Sora around? Doesn't he live here?" Kit asked suspiciously.

"I'm a hermit. Just can't stand the outside y'know?" Sora lied. She wasn't convinced—that much was clear.

"Well, maybe I should come along with-"

"No! Sorry, I mean, that will be fine. Really! I'll have Sora along with me anyway and I'll be back before evening." It almost seemed like Luna was begging. If it made her seem as if she didn't want to spend time with Kit after such a long time, she didn't intend it to be that way but she also didn't need to be pestered with countless questions just yet.

"Alright… I've been tending to the house these past months as a favor to your parents. You'll need the keys. Just be back before night. Oh, and don't go down any alleyways… and make sure to stay near crowds-" she was cut off when Luna hugged her again and kissed her on the cheek.

"Gotcha covered. Love you! Let's go Sora." Luna said somewhat feistily before moving to open the front door again.

"Yes your highness," Sora expressed dully resulting in Luna having to march back and drag him by the sleeve along with her. "Well that was awkward." he said normally once they were outside.

Luna took a few steps away from the door before pivoting around on her foot and looking at it. "What am I going to do Sora? I want to keep travelling but I can't leave her alone like this. There's no way!"

"Honestly, I'm not really sure. This really sucks. I guess I can only tell you what so many people say in this situation even though it might not be helpful. You have to do what _you_ think is right." Sora advised.

"You're right… that isn't helpful, especially when everything feels so wrong. Like, I keep thinking that I shouldn't be here. That I've lied to her and I can only imagine it'll eventually backfire like so many things do. I'm a horrible person. Oh dear, maybe I shouldn't have come back." Luna fretted.

"So you regret seeing her?"

"Of course not, I guess I'm just pretty indecisive at the moment," Luna said. "But it's really been four months since I've been here? I know time is different in each world but that's still pretty crazy. It's like Maleficent hasn't even been here. But there are still Heartless around which I don't think were around before…" Luna's eyes soon settled on the newspaper stand across the street. She quickly ran over, paid for a newspaper and returned to Sora's side. "If nothing makes sense, always look to the news for information." She proceeded to open the paper flicked through each page scanning their contents for interesting information. They soon found what they were looking for a quarter of the way in.

"Sweeping new measures taken to tackle shadowy threats. A curfew is to be put in place starting next week to stamp down on the recent number of attacks by strange creatures that infamously made their first appearance only three months ago during the fire of Alexander. The curfew is to start at 9:00PM sharp and will continue on until 6:00AM the following day. The curfew had previously been intended to take immediate effect but concern among businesses has resulted in postponing the rule to allow for business adjustments. Many have warmly welcomed the new approach, although there are some who believe that the curfew is just one part of many regulations within the next few months that will stifle the basic Alexandrian tenets of freedom." Luna read before closing the paper and shaking her head disapprovingly. "Freedom… if that's something that exists here I've never really felt it."

"Compared to my islands? I'd probably say yes. Well at least we have something to go on, though I'm not really sure that having a curfew at night will do much. The Heartless don't care about the time of day. It's not like they have a concept of time or anything." Sora commented.

"I guess they must have found a correlation between the time of day and the incidents. It makes sense I guess. It's not as crowded at night so you'd assume it would be easier to pick people out. But yeah, I doubt it would prevent them completely." Luna replied.

"I guess that's why we're on the job. Oh, chocobos!" Sora exclaimed, his eyes twinkling at the yellow feathered wonders as they made their way down the street. The two watched as the group waved their wings up and down and hopped from one foot to the other rhythmically as if they were performing a dance. Even everyday passers stopped to look on in admiration as the dancing chocobos fluttered like a soft breeze down the street.

"I think they're heading to the theatre or opera house. I wonder how long it takes to train them to do that stuff." Luna said before taking off after them.

It was some time before they diverted from the chocobos' course into a suburban street of houses all attached to one another and each having neatly trimmed hedges and perfectly cut grass. Luna and Sora reached the end of this street and turned left into another one with Luna freezing on the spot after seeing something catch her eye.

"Something wrong?" Sora asked.

"My house…" Luna pointed to one of the houses on the left which as Kit had said, seemed to have been kept in pristine condition or at least from the outside anyway. "Sora, you don't mind if I go in first by myself do you? I'm not sure what I'm trying to prove to myself here but whatever it is I think it's something that I have to do alone."

"Okay, feel free to call though if you need something." Sora said. Luna nodded stiffly before starting her approach to her house. She never took her eyes off it. It almost seemed entrancing, and Luna would even dare to compare it to a criminal going back to the scene of the crime.

_It's going to be okay Luna. You have Sora with you and… Astra?_

There she was sitting on the front steps of Luna's house looking bored. Seeing Luna's trainers, Astra looked up to meet her eyes. "Yo Sea Salt! About time, I was beginning to think you weren't going to come."

"I had no idea you'd be here, or waiting for me for that matter. How long?" Luna asked.

"An hour. I've been staying at my gran's house for a few days and I guess I just happened to see a beam of light from my window. I figured I could intercept you before you came here and voila!" Astra said jumping up to show how tall she was compared to her friend. Luna wondered if there would be a moment when she would stop growing.

"Nice to know I have my guardian angel looking out for me. I kind of want to go in first on my own. I hope you don't mind." Luna said.

"I do actually. I know what it's like to lose someone you loved Sea Salt. I lost my gran remember? It wasn't easy going back into her house with every single thing reminding me of the time we spent together. We're both alone now so we may as well stick together." Astra said. It wasn't entirely true, she still had her father but they weren't exactly on the best of terms for her to even consider him as such. For most of their friendship, Luna had spent her time sympathizing for Astra and her lack of familial ties. She had never once considered that one day she would end up in the same boat.

"You're not gonna give up, are you?" Luna asked.

"You know I don't do giving up, except in most of my classes but that's beside the point." Astra said.

"You're a model citizen. Okay, we'll both go. And promise me something. You'll stay by my side?" Luna asked. She walked up to the door and shakily put the key in that Kit had given her. The key stubbornly missed the mark the first few times before finally finding its way in. Now she had to twist it...

Astra smiled and nodded her head. "Always."

It was all Luna needed. The word had a special meaning to them after all. Astra took hold of her hand to steady it and exchanging a nod of affirmation with each other they both pushed, opening the door to Luna's past.

* * *

_So I've been thinking as to what music Astra would like since you can supposedly tell a lot about a person from the music they listen to. It came down to mainly punk and hard metal. As for Luna, find out on the next chapter of Cracks of the Past. Yep, that's the real cliffhanger right there. _


	23. A Journalistic Revolution

_So many good things happened in the space of a week and a half. Persona 5 trailer, Spider-Man coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and many other things I can't quite remember at the moment. As for the revelation of Luna's favourite type of song, the first thing that came to my mind when writing her story was Florence and the Machine. I actually think it came on my phone while I wrote on of the early chapters of Dual Destinies. Anyways, enjoy the chapter while I get down to playing some Majora's Mask 3D :)_

* * *

**Chapter 23**

**A Journalistic Revolution**

At first, the house no longer seemed her own. It was too quiet, with objects being the only trace of anyone having lived there. The interior of the house was also well kept, and that brief spark of hope did occur to Luna that her parents weren't dead and were just away. These hopes of course died very quickly.

She stepped into the living room where echoes inhabited its space like ghosts. She walked over to the sofa and placed her hand on the armchair. She closed her eyes and imagined her parents sitting and talking. She didn't know what they were talking about, she was perhaps too little to understand at the time, either that or too needy. A younger Luna walked into the room and tugged at her father's sleeve, hoping to get him to tell her a story before she went to bed. She usually wouldn't sleep otherwise.

"Oh, your father's horrible at these sorts of things. Now me on the other hand, that's a completely different story." her mother would say. They would eventually both take her upstairs anyway. Luna opened her eyes and walked over to the cabinet where all the pictures of the family were displayed.

Luna watched as Astra, who had been watching quietly in respect, walked next to her and picked up one of the picture frames. "You as a wee one. You look cute Sea Salt," she said showing Luna the photo. Luna let out a silent laugh as she took in the toddler version of her with some cake icing smeared on her left cheek. It had been taken on her third birthday, when things had been incredibly simple compared to what they were now almost thirteen years later. Her parents were beside her, with her mom prodding Luna's cheek with her index finger and her dad winking. "Well you were an interesting family, that's for sure."

"Interesting is an understatement. We were completely crazy." Luna said with a smile.

"And your crazy somehow infected me. Now it all makes sense, I'm seeing the connection here." Astra said.

"Oh please, you were crazy even before I became your friend." Luna replied.

"And you weren't so outspoken, but here you are now." Astra pointed out seeming quite impressed.

"Around you, yeah."

"You haven't had much trouble in other worlds?"

"Amnesiac, remember? That and it's pretty hard to be shy when you're around Sora anyway." Luna admitted.

"Yeah yeah, no need to start fantasizing." Astra rolled her eyes.

Luna set one of the picture frames down and looked at Astra with a lopsided grin. "You're jealous aren't you?"

Luna could see the cogs inside Astra's head turning as she tried to process the question. "Jealous? Over what?" she finally asked.

"That Sora's been with me for a good few months and you haven't." Luna said inching ever closer to her friend.

"You sound pretty proud of that fact." Astra noted.

"It's wrong to assume things. What I'm wondering is what my best friend is doing with the same group of people who tried to poison Sora." She had finally reached the point of contention and honestly, she wanted Astra to lie to her and tell her that she was not involved. It would have made things much easier.

"I suppose this was inevitable. Look, I'm not with them Sea Salt. The first time we came to Radiant Garden after everything happened in Alexander and that Heartless attacked us, we were separated. They rescued me and took me in. They taught me how to use the Keyblade and in return I helped them defeat the Heartless, but that's it. I don't care about any of this. I just wanted to find you again and I have. That's all there is to it." Astra answered.

"If that's it then you won't mind telling me why exactly they're after Sora." Luna said.

"I've never really enquired into it. All I know is that it has something to do with the seer that Sora let die and some prophecy." Astra said.

"Yeul? But that wasn't Sora's fault." Luna countered vehemently.

"Don't take it out on me, I got nothing to do with this. That's something he'll have to bring up with _them_. Him, not you."

"Well now I know that someone's after him, I'm not just going to up and leave him to face this problem by himself. Like they saved you, he saved me and you want me to abandon him?" Luna asked.

"Whatever, it's not like we came here to argue about this." Astra dismissed before moving over to the window to look outside.

"Yeah. I dropped by Aunt Kit's by the way, just before I came here. She looks like she's been through a lot and… I'm not sure what to do. Maybe I should just stay here and help her out? I don't know." Luna said.

"Changed your mind about not wanting to live here then eh?" Astra asked looking back at the brunette once again.

"I want to go but I can't leave Aunt Kit alone. I just think about what I saw in there and I don't want her to feel like that again, especially because of me. I've caused her, and this whole town, enough pain." Luna admitted.

"Listen, I'll tell you what my gran told me. You're never gonna be able to please everyone in life, and that's okay. But the one person you have to please if anyone is yourself, otherwise you're just living someone else's life, not yours," Astra said. "It's either freedom, or subjugation."

"Freedom… you know I only truly felt free when I left this place. I couldn't understand how anyone could just sit there and be content with their lives if somewhere out there, there was the possibility of something more. But maybe the belief that there is nothing out there is what gives everyone here freedom." Luna concluded.

"Ignorance is bliss and all that jazz yeah?" Astra asked. Luna looked at the words for a few seconds before shaking it off and signalling that she was ready to leave the room. Those words were the very same that she had told herself in her dream just before she had woken up in Radiant Garden, or so she assumed it was herself, the details were pretty foggy especially when it was a dream. Why had she even dreamed up being in the Twilight Town mansion anyway? Was her heart trying to tell her something about that place?

She ascended each step of the stairs mechanically until she reached the second floor landing. A hand on her shoulder further forced her to keep moving and eventually she found herself at the first room on the left—her room.

She soon pushed open the door and stepped through. Everything was pretty much the same: the pink drapes that created the unusual effect of filling the room in similar shading; her closet which held her old toys; a few posters around her room of her literary icons and movie posters; the stars scattered across her ceiling that glowed in the dark; her teddy bear which she had been through so much with laying on a pillow against her bed…

"While other girls have posters of crappy boy bands and ugly sparkling vampires, here you are living the fairy tale life. Now I know why you never let me into your room." Astra laughed.

"I figured that you'd probably make fun of me for it. Heck, my dad was still using vinyl. Not exactly the best first impression to make to a friend." Luna said.

"Really, I think that's pretty cool actually. In no way would I make fun of that. That's exactly what I hated so much about Tabitha and her posse, shooting everyone down who were different than them. Urgh, just thinking that they're still around somewhere in this world just pisses me off." Astra growled.

"While I'm not exactly fond of them I wouldn't wish the Heartless on them." Luna said.

"Yeah, I'd feel sorry for them… the Heartless that is." Astra joked. Luna guffawed at this but soon maintained her composure and landed on her bed spreading her arms up and down. She relaxed into the softness of her bed sheets and stared up at the ceiling. She could scarcely remember the very last good night's sleep she had had in this bed. Back then she would have never imagined that it could have been her last.

"The nights all seem to merge, don't they? I can't even remember the last dream I had or if I even had a dream on the last night I was here, but I remember that it was a weekend. It was after my mom and dad had caught me with you going to see the _Night of the Werewolf_. I was grounded but I had heard that there was a meteor shower that night and I couldn't miss it for the world. My mom had told me that the last time there had been one was the day I was born so it felt like it was destiny that I should be there to see one. I snuck out of the house and went to my favorite spot to look up at the night sky. I saw them: those whizzing streaks of blue racing across the sky while I was grounded here, but then Abraxas… I'm not even sure what happened then, I blacked out and the next time I woke up I was in some container being experimented on like an animal. I wavered in and out of consciousness but every once in a while ever since I arrived in the Realm of Darkness I've had dreams of being tortured and it feels so real. I don't think I had any sense of time while I was there. The next thing I know, I have a dagger and there's blood on my hands and my parents…"  
"Sea Salt, I didn't know. I'm sorry." Astra apologized.

"For what? You did nothing wrong."

"But I did. I wasn't as good a friend as I could have been and I know it. When my gran died I just gave up on our dream. We were born here, and we were fated to die here—that's what I came to when I was trying to get over her death. I thought we were fools for even trying to think that we were more special than anyone else here. I'm still not saying we are now, but we certainly made it." Astra chuckled.

"Uh huh, we did," Luna agreed. "So why can't we go farther?"

"Because we were lucky enough to come this far. Don't lay all your eggs in one basket or whatever the saying is. That and, I feel that in a way you're becoming addicted to it Luna. In some small way you might even like when things go wrong and if you're not careful, that kind of thing can get you killed. I've already lost my gran, and you're the only one left who I… no, forget it." Astra had possibly been hoping that Luna would ask her to continue but Luna remained silent mainly because she did not know what to think. It was true, Luna enjoyed the travelling, and maybe there was some part of her that liked the trouble that she, Sora, Donald and Goofy had gotten into during their journey. It certainly wasn't a minor aspect of the journey. Astra continued, "Aaah enough of this sappy crap though. We're living. We're still here. We should at least go catch a movie while we're here… and yes, Sora can come."

"You're the best Astra." Luna gave her a thumbs up from the bed.

"Was there ever any doubt?" Astra bowed. Luna jumped off the bed and gave her room a final inspection before leaving and closing the door behind her.

"Well I think we're about done here. I kinda left Sora by his lonesome so I don't want to keep him waiting." she told Astra before attempting to head back downstairs.

"Wait, don't you want to check out your parents' room?" Astra asked. Luna stopped and turned to notice for the first time the second door farther down the hallway on the left. She had pushed the existence of said door from her mind and silently cursed Astra for bringing it up. Behind that door lied one of Luna's repeating nightmares. All of a sudden the normal hallway seemed like an abstract painting that had become longer and narrower as if leading to some pivotal moment in her life. Her body moved without her permission, and she soon found her hands wrapped around the door's handle.

* * *

Sora had assumed a seat on the curb and rested his face against his knuckle trying not to fall asleep. He had been so excited to visit Luna's world that he hadn't gotten an ounce of sleep, and it had worked to his favor as well because the dreams that usually occurred during his sleep were very much unneeded anyway. He dug into his pocket and pulled out Kairi's wayfinder, taking it in as if he had never done so before. The object immediately reminded him of the beach back on the islands. It was a calm in the storm of thoughts that flooded Sora's mind and he started to rock it gently as the waves that hit and withdrew from the shoreline.

An unexpected scream brought his attention not to the house Luna had just entered, but in the direction of the street he had just come from. Up ahead he could see a girl with mousy brown hair and thick-rimmed glasses trying to outrun the group of Neoshadows chasing her and failing miserably. Sora sprang up from the pavement and set off back down the street without a moment's hesitation.

Once he was near the girl and her predators he summoned the Kingdom Key in his hand and shot a _Fire_ spell at one of the Neo Shadows taking them out. The remaining four Neoshadows shot a look at one another before turning and sinking into the ground, reappearing and circling around Sora seconds later. He moved forward to strike but the targeted Heartless dodged, moved behind him and flicked its arm quickly at Sora's calf muscle sending him to the ground. Sora had to roll away quickly to avoid a jump attack from another of the Neoshadows.

"Okay, there is no way you should be this good." Sora said. Had he still not fully recovered from the damage inflicted by the poisoning? He got back up and fired off another _Fire_ spell only for the Neoshadow to jump away quickly before throwing itself at Sora. He attempted to guard with the Keyblade but didn't expect two other Neoshadows to grab onto his feet. With his guard lowered in surprise, the other two Neoshadow team up to latch onto his upper body, preventing him from moving. Sora tried to wrestle them off but it was as if some invisible force was draining away his energy to move. He soon found his eyes being unable to focus and the weight of the Keyblade gone from his hands further signalled by a thud.

He was able to barely make out the figure of the young woman as she swung her handbag hitting both Neoshadows attached to his upper body. They jumped off and Sora soon felt his vision returning. He summoned his Keyblade back to him and used _Salvation_ with pillars of light forming around him before spreading outwards, taking out the Heartless attached to his legs and those approaching the girl.

"Oh man, thanks for saving my skin out there. And here I thought I'd be the one doing the saving." Sora said in relief.

"Are you kidding me? You're a total lifesaver. Holy moley, what is that thing?" The girl asked frantically pointing at the key shaped weapon in Sora's hand.

"This? It's a Keyblade. My name's Sora." He answered offering his hand. The girl walked up and shook it.

"Eleftheria Hollenbeck— ace journalist… if I can ever get a decent scoop. Do you know what those things are?" she asked.

"I suppose you're planning on using that as your scoop? Those things are called Heartless and that's really all you need to know. It's weird though. What I don't get is why those ones were so tough. They seemed too… perfect. I don't know, maybe I'm just getting worse at handling them." Sora chuckled before dismissing the Kingdom Key, watching the already wide eyed expression of Eleftheria increase tenfold. "Oh, I'd prefer you don't mention that by the way. People might not believe you if you mention something about a giant key."

"Duly noted," she replied but all the same kept her eye on Sora's hand. "Say… you dress differently from everyone else around here. There's something about you…"

"You have an active imagination but I guess that's a quality of journalists," Sora dismissed quickly before addressing her profession. "So are you just starting off?"

"Sort of if you count trying to make it big for two years now and failing miserably. I've been put on minor things, too far into the newspaper for you to even care since everyone's only into the main headlines anyway. They say something's always happening in this city and yet I can't find a single thing that others haven't already to make it big. Hmm, I might as well tell you since you saved my life. I'm working on something big… maybe. You know the Turm des Himmels?"

"Excuse me?"

Eleftheria eyed him suspiciously while adjusting her handbag over her shoulder. "You're actually being serious right now? The tower? Are you sure you're from around here? Now that I think about it, you seem to know a lot about those things. The Heartless, you called them?" Sora flashed an awkward smile but said nothing to confirm or deny her suspicions.

Suddenly remembering that he had left Luna behind, he looked around to see Astra coming his way and on her back what was undoubtedly a passed out Luna.

"Oh no… Luna! What happened?" He ran up to them only to have Astra push him away forcefully.

"And where were you supposed to be? Don't you dare touch her," she warned pushing past him.

"Wait a minute, what's going on? At least tell me that." Sora said.

"She went to her parents' bedroom and then all of a sudden she started clutching her head and repeating 'I'm sorry' over and over again. She screamed and passed out. I called for you from the window! I called… and you weren't there. You really can't do anything right." Astra stressed disdainfully.

"But I…" Sora stopped upon seeing the fury in Astra's eyes and lowered his head disappointed not just because he had failed Luna once again, but because Astra couldn't or wouldn't place her faith in him no matter what. She seemed the type who was couldn't be persuaded once her mind was made up and that no matter how trivial something was, if it seemed detrimental she would make the most out of it. But he couldn't fault her.

Eleftheria looked between the two and quickly ran in between them. "It's not his fault. He saved my life. Those things, Heartless, they were chasing me and he saved me," she asserted. Astra looked at Sora for confirmation but he remained silent and remorseful.

Feeling the stirring motions of Luna on her back, she set her down quickly and grasped her hand affectionately stroking it with her thumb.

Luna opened her eyes, her pupils whizzing around in confusion before finally settling on Astra. "Astra? What happened?"

Astra nodded and summarized what had happened just before and after she fell unconscious. "You scared me silly, and I don't get scared easy."

"Well maybe I'll treat you to some Sea Salt Ice Cream afterwards," Luna sat up and quickly caught sight of him offering a smile. "Sora, there's nothing to worry about. I'm fine, and I'll even treat you to some too."

"I left you again. If Astra hadn't been there I don't know what would have happened. I just feel like I can't do anything right at the moment." Sora mumbled.

"Well you helped me. If I'm still alive then I guess you just did something right," Eleftheria pointed out with a smug smile before wincing as if she had just been hit on the head. "Oh right, I forgot to introduce myself to the two of you. I tend to do that sometimes…"

After Eleftheria reintroduced herself to both Luna and Astra, the four of them made what was a short trip to the street crossing where they found themselves lost in attempting to measure the height of the Turm des Himmels. It was impossible. Eleftheria had told them that they were on the verge of a huge scoop, if she could prove it to be true. A bright flash of green had erupted from the tower on the night of the fire that had covered the sky like a great aurora. When Sora had asked about the history of the tower, this was what she had to say:

"I don't know too much about it actually. No one does which is what annoys me the most, that there's a part of our history that we don't know about and we simply don't care to question it. A pretty common rumor is that the tower was built to commemorate the unity of those living in the old world or something like that. Because of that unity there was no place, the earth or the heavens that humanity could not one day reach. The tower was said to be a symbol of those who created it, those who could see into the future, but that's just nonsense!"

Both Sora and Luna were not as quick to dismiss this however and exchanged raised brows at this information. Those who could see into the future… who else could fit such a description if not the seers? If it were coincidence that Maleficent had taken over the very same tower and had even brought Yeul there then it was a very strange coincidence indeed.

"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbably, must be the truth. There may be some truth to those rumors." Luna provided.

"Those _rumors _are actually stories that were apparently passed down over the generations. I'd imagine they got lost in translation at one point or another though, if they were ever true to begin with," Eleftheria clarified.

"Well as journalist shouldn't it be your job to question everything? To leave no stone unturned?" asked Luna.

Eleftheria shook her head and smiled. "Yes if you want to get fired or tracked. There are some things that not even a journalist can or will want to find out because of interests and secrets. Even so, I'd like to think I can change this place. I don't have a fancy weapon like yours but they do say the pen is mightier than the sword. They also say sticks and stone may break my bones but words can never hurt me but those people haven't lived to know that's all too wrong."

"I guess I can say I've lived then," Luna mused.

"But I'm not like that. A photographer can capture life through a single image, a painter can do it with a painting, and I can do it with words. I've always been seen as clumsy and out of place compared to my peers and I want to prove them wrong, but I'm also doing it because it's my passion. I have to prove to myself that I deserve to do something like this first and if I can do that, then I won't have much trouble proving it to them." Eleftheria tipped her glasses up and down and gave a confident grin.

"That's pretty admirable. You're fighting with words, not violence. You might become an inspiration to those who feel the need to speak out," Sora said.

"That's what I'm hoping. Somewhere where everyone is free to speak and write to their heart's content. I don't want our past covered up in deceit and mistrust. Of course I really need that scoop first," replied Eleftheria.

"Well, is there any way we can get inside?" Sora asked.

"Huh? Nonononono, you aren't planning on doing what I think you're doing are you?" Eleftheria's calm composure left her and a shade of anxiety and panic took its place.

"That depends on what you're thinking." Sora gave a wry smile.

"This is serious. You really can't do that, you'll get me in trouble," she took another look at the tower before looking back with a furrowed brow. "I understand it's tempting, and I myself would love to check it out but that's just not going to happen. It's restricted to certain people for a reason. I mean, this absolutely insane!"

"I agree. This is crazy, and I usually love crazy so if I'm against this, then you know it's really bad," Astra said.

"We're not going to get you into trouble, we promise. Besides it's not like we're planning to go do this right away, but there is something that we're curious about that we need to find out and as far as we know this is the only place that has the answers we're looking for," Sora told her.

Eleftheria was sceptical. Sora could only imagine that she was lulling through her head how her day had possibly gone from a typical normal everyday scenario to anything but that. Eventually the wrinkles on her forehead disappeared and the smug smile that they had seen before took over once more.

"Alright, I might know a way in. I'm not daring enough to try it but if you think you can without getting caught go on right ahead. But first you're going to have to tell me who you guys _really_ are. I'm not stupid you know, you carry yourselves differently from everyone else," Eleftheria said.

"Fair enough. I'm from another world and I journey to each one to defeat the Heartless and seal the keyholes in order to make sure the Heartless don't destroy said worlds," Sora explained quickly before Astra could get a word out to stop him.

"No seriously, who are you?" Eleftheria repeated cynically after a while.

"I'd like to point out that you're the only person who's completely paranoid about that tower so I don't really think you can call us crazy here," said Luna.

"You're right… maybe I'm crazy too!"

"That's not the conclusion I'd have liked you to come to," Luna shook her head and buried it into her hands. "Well, we told you what you wanted to know. Whether you want to believe it or not is up to you but at least tell us what we want to know."

Eleftheria rubbed the bridge of her nose no doubt dwelling over whether she was going to make the biggest mistake of her life. After some time she dug into her bag and pulled out a notebook.

"I spent some time taking note of all the people who entered in and out of the building as well as the guards and their different positions around the clock. I guess I just didn't have the nerve to go ahead with it. I might not be able to, but you might. From what I can tell, whenever someone has to enter the building they have to show something to the guards. Papers, an ID card… I've never gotten close enough to check it out so I can't be sure what kind of proof you need. Maybe if you can intercept one of those people you'll be able to find out and use them as a way to get in. Good luck with that though," she said handing the book to Luna. Sora and Astra leaned in and took in what could only be described as anything but notes, at best they were long sentences and at worst, paragraphs. The notebook was so incredibly detailed that both of them, not exactly avid readers, were just as glad to take their eyes away from the pages and allow Luna to peruse them by herself.

"Thanks. Wait, Celes Chere?" Luna stared at the name pensively for a few seconds before looking up. "_The_ Celes Chere? The opera singer was here?"

"I know, I was surprised too but there you go. So just in case this thing goes south, I want to know where you're going with this. What's your next step?"  
"It seems like we'll have to pay Miss Chere a visit," Luna told her. "Do you know when the next performance she'll be in is?"

"No but I think you can usually find pamphlets on the performance times and who's in them outside of the opera house though."

"Wait a minute. Wouldn't it make more sense to try and go for someone else who will attract less attention?" Sora felt the need to bring up.

"Sora, please don't deprive of me my one chance to meet someone famous," Luna answered in what could only be described as an overly wistful defence.

"And she's not even trying to hide it. Now I'm really beginning to think she gets some sort of euphoria out of this," Astra said with a grimace. "Okay Sea Salt, say we do go along with this crazy plan and find out when her performance is. That's all hunky-dory, out of the window. But so what? That doesn't mean a thing if we can't get her by herself and how exactly will you convince her to co-operate?"

Luna gave a reply with a lopsided smile and a tap on the nose. "Just leave that to me."


	24. The Songstress' Secret

**Chapter 24**

**The Songstress' Secret**

Yen Sid closed his eyes in fatigue as his old associate slammed her hands against the table for what had to have been the umpteenth time. When her name had first entered his mind as a possible candidate to hone Sora's mind and prepare him against incoming threats he had expected that she wouldn't have taken kindly to seeing him again. He had done things that he was not proud of, of that he could admit. He just didn't expect the amount of severity to which Neuge would have held a grudge against him this whole time. It wasn't just a dislike. It was utter hatred.

"You can't seriously be thinking about going through with this. It is not up to us to decide whether a new Princess of Heart should be selected or not." Neuge blasted. She had been staring daggers into Yen Sid's eyes, and even though he had closed them, he could still feel that intense gaze trying to pierce his defences.

"And what would you have me do? I'm assuming you have a better idea?" Yen Sid asked ever so calmly as if the raging tempest herself wasn't in the room. He knew Neuge hated it when he did that.

"No," she admitted. "But whatever could be the alternative would be safer than what you're considering. I don't even care about the stupid precepts. In general it's just outright ethically wrong. Oh but I'm sorry, you don't care about that do you? It's not like you're too worried about sending kids out to do your dirty work after all."

"You speak as if I do not care for their wellbeing. You couldn't be any further from the truth and believe me when I say I wish it were any other way," Yen Sid said.

"Is that why you want to break Sora then? There's no other way? You only know how to do things your way and most of the time that doesn't suit anyone's interest but yourself!" Neuge exclaimed slamming her hand on the table once again.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. You'll hurt your hands," Yen Sid finally said covering his mouth with his hands to hide a slight smile.

"As if you give a crap," Neuge snapped before turning away and began pacing back and forth with her body language indicating a lack of care.

"You're still holding it against me, after all these years…"

"You're surprised?" Neuge let out a harsh laugh and turned to him. "You, Eraqus, and Xehanort were all running about playing Keyblade Master while you left me for death. I lived in it. I felt its hold over me as I wandered across its arm, and only after wandering its plains for so long had I finally accepted the truth, that you had given up on trying to find me. It was a light that saved me. It was so painful to look at but I had to take a risk, didn't I? When I emerged on the other side, I was back in the Realm of the living. And you're surprised? No, I'm the one who is surprised that you had the nerve to call me to your side once more and pretend as if nothing had ever happened. I'm even more surprised that I haven't killed you yet!"

Yen Sid opened his eyes and moved them to look in between his hands and the desk. "To which I deeply regret to this day and have sincerely apologized so many times, but it seems you do not care to hear my apology."

"Finally he gets it. If you truly understand the human heart you'll know that it isn't so as easy to repair as it is to destroy. And just leaving your stupid tower and observing, not just looking at stars for guidance, but actually observing the world, would tell you something as basic as that. But that's fine. Keep living in your fairy tale world behind your books and your old man schtick. You may fool everyone else, but only I know your true face," Neuge's voice fell into a whisper as she walked up to him initiating a direct confrontation that gave Yen Sid no choice but to look back into her eyes. She had always been one to changer her hair, always alternating on a weekly basis to keep it "fresh". He was glad that that at least, had not changed about her of the many things that had.

"I assure you, we looked everywhere for a way to rescue you, but complications made it impossible. First I found an apprentice in a mischievous little mouse who reminded me much of yourself, then Xehanort's renouncing of his and Eraqus' Master's path subsequently followed by Eraqus' death and then Maleficent. And I really did get old, that was no excuse," Yen Sid clarified.

"And yet you can barely even look at me to say this. You may not be telling the truth Yen Sid, but your heart is. It's telling me all I need to know," Neuge said.

Yen Sid cast his eyes downwards back to his desk and gave a sad smile before deciding to change the topic. "When it comes to interfering with other worlds, the precepts would-"

"Again with the precepts…" Neuge interrupted shaking her head. "They are archaic, from the Keyblade's darker days. If anything, it's more important than ever now that we have a say in the worlds' affairs, especially with the Heartless interfering. Very soon the lines will become incredibly blurred where our jurisdiction begins and ends and it will become a burden, if it hasn't already. You'd be better off discarding those precedents you like to talk about oh so much while you're still ahead."

"You were never really one for rules Neuge but unlike you I understand the importance of them, not just in them being our only piece of evidence linking back to the past, but because regardless of Heartless or not they still do apply if we wish to keep law and order in balance," Yen Sid replied.

"And yet you're all too quick to forget them when talking about purifying a poor soul's heart. How convenient. Well, it's clear that I won't change your mind so do whatever you want. I found a nice bar here courtesy of Leon so I'm all set," Neuge said. She was about to leave the room when she suddenly turned. "Have you found a way to protect the remaining Princesses yet?"

Yen Sid's lips curled into smile and he opened his mouth to speak, "I'm well ahead of you when it comes to interfering with worlds I'm afraid. Along with the three fairies protection, I may have found a suitable candidate to keep them guarded. She may not have a Keyblade like you and I but I assure you when it comes to protecting Princesses, she is no stranger." He nodded at the door and, as if on cue, the door opened and in walked a woman with shoulder length black hair and a sword at her waist. "I hope your journey fared you well, Fa Mulan."

* * *

The sun soon set over the high mountain peaks that surrounded Alexander, casting an orange glow straight across the horizon and contrasted beautifully against the blue sky and the swirls of light blue noctilucent clouds that accompanied it. Sora had never seen a type of cloud like it. It was almost like ocean waves were being reflected in the sky. His eyes were taken off the sky when the door to Kit's Bakery opened and out came Luna with a sullen expression on her face.

After making an unusually strange trip back to the Gummi Ship on Luna's request, it had also been her decision to go back to Kit and reveal to her about their travels and how she wanted to continue travelling with Sora, but by the look on her face it seemed to Sora that it didn't go as she'd planned it to.

Luna's answer came before Sora's question could. "I couldn't tell her. I just couldn't. I tried to tell her but then she started talking again about how she couldn't wait to get back into business with me and how great it would be and I just couldn't-"

"Whoa, chill out and breathe Luna. I think I can get the gist from there," Sora said. "Maybe I should explain it to her?"

"No, it has to be me otherwise what would be the point?" Luna leaned against the wall and smiled. "I should at least help her get the store back up and running before anything else. Maybe I can convince her in the meantime."

Sora nodded and didn't push the matter further though he had his reservations as to whether Kit would even believe such a tale, and if she did then just how would she react. However, as both of them made their way to Astra's house, Luna did not seem too concerned. If anything, she looked stronger and more determined than before. Ever since she had left her house she had appeared noticeably shaken by what had happened but she was also trying to keep herself optimistic. Sora could not have guessed what was going on in Luna's mind and he didn't know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

The two friends moved into a completely new street that Sora had never been to before but looked somewhat similar to Luna's street. Eventually Luna stopped at a particular house and knocked on the door. They didn't have to wait long before Astra opened the door to let them in.

The house was nicely decorated with flowery wallpaper plastered along the walls but apart from that it was quite simple. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing considering only two people had lived here until some two years ago. Even so, Sora was able to acquire a sense of Astra's tastes such as the bright red acoustic guitar leaning against the wall in the corner of her living room.

Catching a glimpse of Sora looking at the instrument, Astra said, "A gift from my gran on my thirteenth birthday. It was originally hers but you can imagine she had little use for it."

"I've heard her play, she's amazing!" Luna praised.

"That's really not something you need to tell him Luna," Astra said with gritted teeth though her smile indicated that she was not nearly as annoyed as she appeared. "Anyway, I managed to get a leaflet from the opera house on the way back. It looks like lady luck's with you Sea Salt, you get your wish. The next production is scheduled for tonight at eight. Now about that plan of yours…"

"It's pretty simple actually. We just pay a visit to her dressing room!" Luna announced simply.

Sora and Astra's eyes met with looks of scepticism, one of those rare instances where they had found common ground. "_Just_? Sea Salt, I'm not sure if you've realized this in your eagerness but… mushrooms?"

Luna had presented them with two mushrooms she had taken out from both of her pockets. It was such a strange moment and completely out of nowhere that it had taken him a good while to register what she was showing them and would have taken longer had Astra not mentioned them, but even then he still did not believe it.

"You remember when we went to Wonderland and saw these?" Luna asked him.

"They can make you bigger and smaller, right? Oh, I get it! So you're going to get into the dressing room using those pieces and then confront her there… and you've had those ever since we left Wonderland? That's impressive!" Sora commended.

"I thought there might be a need for them one day so I've been keeping them in my luggage hoping for a chance to use them again. At least they don't stink up the place so that's a plus. In fact, they don't actually smell at all strangely enough," Luna said.

"But are those really going to work outside of Wonderland, and if I remember correctly there were mushrooms that made you bigger and ones that made you smaller. Do you have both because I rather not have to deal with Lunazilla rampaging through the city."

"Or mini Luna either, though I can't deny that I'd have my fun with that one," added Astra.

"Don't worry, I put them into packets and labelled them. I'm a pretty careful person you'll find," Luna said proudly.

"Except when you jump out of a moving vehicle," Sora was quick to remind.

"Wait, you jumped from a moving vehicle?" Astra repeated with a snort.

"Okay, I'm mostly careful. Now let's get back to the plan please," Luna said waving the mushrooms in the air partly to cover up her embarrassment. "As for if they'll still work, we're about to find out…"

Her two friends watched in hopefulness as Luna took a nibble out of the mushroom in her left hand. Soon Luna began to shrink in size and stopped at half the height she was before.

"Aw, she's even cuter now!" Astra teased.

Luna chuckled before nibbling on the mushroom in her right hand soon returning to her original height. "That feels really weird. Kind of ticklish actually," she explained with a chuckle before pocketing both mushrooms in the pockets they had once been in. "But at least it still works, I'm just going to have to be a bit more careful that I don't pop out of existence since I'll need to have a bit more than what I just ate. Unfortunately I only have these two with me so the both of you will just have to make sure no one else comes into the room while Celes and I are there."

"Unfortunately? Yeah, I'm sure you're not happy about in the slightest, right?" Sora asked grinning.

"Of course not," she replied with a dreamy expression on her face.

* * *

The hours passed quickly and before they knew it, it was time to enact their plan. Golden lights illuminated from buildings and filled the Alexandrian skyline masking any hopes of what was sure to be the beautiful stars coming out. For Luna, it was a desecration of natural beauty and though she knew of the exact place she could go to remedy the problem, the fear of Abraxas kidnapping her, though he was long gone now, was still like a seed planted in her head.

Meanwhile on the outskirts of the city and right next to what Luna would have seen as much more interesting (that being the Grand Library that she had been to so frequently over the years) was the opera house. To the rich and nobles it was a golden temple, a basic requisite of enjoyment and a way of life. Most others though could usually take fascination in just the theatre productions and movie theatres located around the city.

Sora, Luna and Astra entered the royal and majestic looking building to see many fashionably overdressed couples making their way from the lobby into the main theatre hall to take their seats for the show.

"Stop gawking Sora and focus on the task at hand. Now it shouldn't be too hard for us to find her dressing room. We really stick out like a sore thumb though," Luna commented suddenly aware of the pairs of eyes looking at the trio condescendingly.

"Then we better get this over with and fast," Astra said who, unlike Sora and Luna, never tore her eyes away whenever someone examined her even if the urge was a great one. Confident, collected and many more things that Luna wasn't was what Astra was. Luna had read in the library next door that having a best friend didn't always have to mean the same set of shared interests. Sometimes even the differences were enough to make up for the other's weakness, which was what their friendship was. Where Astra was Luna's carefree and confident attitude to life, Luna was Astra's sentimentality and capriciousness.

The trio deserted the crowd of nobles and sneaked off into the opposite direction hoping they were heading in the right direction. After arriving in a corridor and making sure there was no one else around, Luna took out one of the mushrooms.

"I'm going small now. One of you make sure to pick me up," she said before taking a bigger bite than before. Soon she was the pocket size of Jiminy Cricket allowing Astra to pick her up and place her on her shoulder. "The world looks so strange from this size. So this is what it's like for Jiminy," she said playfully poking Astra's cheek with her finger.

"Hey, you better stop with that or I'll drop ya!"

"You wouldn't dare."

Astra smiled in response before continuing on down the hallway along with Sora whilst keeping check of where they were on the building layout provided by the leaflet Astra had taken. After heading north east for quite some time, they arrived in a more promising corridor which had a gold star assigned to each door and underneath a name for the respective person. Celes being the main star made her door in particular easy to find being one of the very first.

"It's locked. Well, you should be able to slip in under the door. After that, you're on your own but we'll knock if someone's coming. You know this is completely illegal right? Are you really sure you want to go ahead with this?" It was clear Astra had been against the idea. She had been against the idea from the beginning. She had been against helping Sora help get Luna into possible trouble. And yet despite all this she was still there. Luna knew she wouldn't leave regardless of what was said.

"Astra, you remember when we snuck into Mr Bartle's room because I was worried I'd failed my test? I was joking about wanting to do it but you really went ahead, snuck into the staff room and took his key from right under his nose. When you told me what you did I was completely shocked and I might have even appeared annoyed at what you did, but I wasn't, not really. Inside I was really happy that you did that for me, and I am even now. I'd be even happier if you stayed with us…" Luna said.

"Stay with you…? Here, just do what you need to do," Astra said pensively. She lowered Luna carefully to the ground who stepped off before flattening herself against the floor. She slipped underneath the door and stood back up on the other side. Instantly she could see what a life of glamour and fame could get one in a dressing room. It was like the inside of a doll house with a makeup table and mirror on one side of the room and a wardrobe opposite.

Her first instinct told her to look in her belongings for anything pertinent. She crossed the room over to the chair and hugged its leg tightly as she tried to make her way up onto the seat. Having had to climb down and up columns in the Realm of Darkness, she found it quite simple to do especially seeing as the legs of the chair were much shorter. From the seat she jumped onto the dressing table and pushed the handbag over before checking out its contents.

The few seconds she had to search had given her very little except for sunglasses and some lotion. Before she could dig deeper to find anything of relevance, the knock on the door promised by Astra came a lot sooner than expected. She scrambled out of the bag and hid behind the jewellery box to her left.

There was a momentary pause before the door opened and in came a woman with hair akin to maize and calm blue eyes matching a similar composure. She also wore a beautiful white gown as required by her role. Celes Chere took a seat on the chair and stared at herself in the mirror for a good while before, and startling so to Luna, began to tear up. Luna was suddenly compelled to come out of hiding and ask what was wrong when two strange red and blue costumed jesters entered the room seconds later to answer all her questions for her.

"Poor Miss Chere, this is quite unfortunate," said the red.

"Quite unfortunate this is," blue agreed.

"Your contract states to do all that was told of you, does it not?" continued red clicking his tongue patronisingly.

"I'm sick of this. I won't have you use me as some sort of tool for your own ends, whatever they may be," Celes replied while keeping her eyes on her reflection. "Consider it void."

"But that is exactly what you are, a tool," claimed red.

"A tool is what you are exactly," agreed blue.

"Nice to know that a person's word is as good as ever in Alexander," Celes muttered sarcastically. She looked at her handbag briefly before positioning it upright again.

"Now look here. We made you when otherwise you would simply not be. Surely that warrants eternal gratitude," red said.

"Eternal gratitude, that surely warrants!" blue agreed with a nod.

"If my life is a carefully constructed lie by external forces outside my control, then maybe I don't want it…" Celes said distantly.

The twin jesters shared a synchronized look of annoyance with each other before both stretching out their hands. All of a sudden Luna's body shivered and went numb letting out a gasp almost exactly the same time Celes did. She looked downwards and looked as the darkness wrapped around her fingertips. It wasn't just her body either, her mind had gone completely numb and her vision started fading in and out. She was seeing things other than what was right in front of her. Visions of a sneering rhinoceros filled her mind, its hot and ragged breath like that of chains being unevenly dragged across the floor next to her ear. She had seen this creature before. It had been in her dreams before she had woken up with no memory in Traverse Town… it was very much real.

_Make it stop, please make it stop! _Luna begged squeezing her eyes shut and gritting her teeth. Then, as if a magic genie had just heard her wish, everything really did stop. Her eyes opened and the world as she had previously known it had returned to normal. After checking to make sure she could move her body and feel again, she looked at her hands to find whatever darkness that had been there now gone. Her own movements were mirrored by Celes' who appeared as white as a sheet even with all her makeup on. Had she experienced something similar to Luna?

"Just stop. I'll do… whatever you ask, so just stop…" Celes submitted dejectedly. She made several attempts to rub away the tears from her cheek only for new ones to replace them.

"Then you understand now Miss Chere. You haven't lived in your own world for a very long time indeed, if you've ever had a world to live in," the red jester told her.

"Indeed, a very long time you've lived in a world not of your making but ours," blue agreed once again. He seemed to have very little opinion about anything, Luna noted.

"We'll be looking forward to our next visit but until then, don't you still have an opera to perform? Now we shall be on our way. Let us depart Thorn," red beckoned. He and his companion soon left the room, and just as the closed the door did Celes break down into a fit of tears resting her head against the table. Had she not done this, she wouldn't have seen a miniature humanoid looking at her from behind her jewellery box, and she wouldn't have fallen backwards in her seat in surprise.

Luna winced but having been spotted decided to come out. "Are you alright down there?" she asked in concern.

"Absolutely marvellous," Celes replied sitting back up. "Who exactly are you? Better question, why am I talking to a tadpole that looks human and can talk back to me?"

"That's… a good question. One moment…" Luna said taking out a mushroom and biting on it before jumping off the table. She landed on the floor with her body back to normal size. Celes grew open-eyed at this transformation watching as Luna picked the chair up and put it back in its rightful position. "I'm Luna. It's an honor to meet you Celes but now is not the time for that is it? What was that all about? Actually, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Celes stood up and sat back on the chair, taking out a tissue from the box and using it to wipe her face. "Don't I at least have a right to know what you were doing here and why you were like that? You're not a stalker, are you?"

"Huh? No, I just… the Turm des Himmels. You've been there a few times, haven't you?" Luna asked.

Celes froze for a temporary second before continuing to wipe her face. "You have an interest in the place?"

"I suppose you can say I've had a bit of a bad history with the place. Now it's your turn." Luna walked over to the wall and leaned against it, turning as she did so in time to notice Celes looking at her hands again. So she had definitely experienced something, if not exactly like Luna, then very similar, and whatever it had been had been enough for her to become so easily influenced by the two jesters.

"Zorn and Thorn. The two are literally a thorn in my behind. They… just wanted to collect some money." She finished in an unusual tone. It seemed obviously forced to Luna, and a complete lie.

"Are you sure that's all it was?" Luna interrogated tilting her head. "Because from what I saw and the way you are now, it seemed to be something more troubling."

"I don't know, is it? Do you need to pry into my personal business?" Celes snapped before putting the tissue down. "Sorry. I just, would rather you not get involved."

"Try me." Luna left the wall and put both her hands on the table looking directly into Celes' eyes. "I'm already involved."

Celes bit her lip pondering something for a while before looking back at Luna. "Can you keep a secret?" When Luna nodded, Celes nodded back (although clearly unsure as to whether she was doing the right thing) and said, "It's as they say. I sold my soul to the devil. My whole career, what I am today, what people know me by… it's all just a fancy cover for a person who used to feel non-existent. They gave me a life, an identity, and I play out my part remarkably like the actress that I am. It's easy to hide behind a mask when you're not proud of the person behind it. I just keep on doing things for them in the background and in return, I get to smile and keep up this deception.

"When I talk about them I don't mean Zorn and Thorn of course. They're just a small part of something much larger. Alexander used to be different. It's known as the city of dreams for a reason. Nowadays they give you dreams but can take them away just as easily leaving you in a debt that can never be paid. They own you until the day you die, but they've killed you long before that. And you've co-conspired to it." Celes appeared thoughtful after this before shaking her head. "I'm not sure why I told you that? There's just something about you, like I could trust you."

"And you can," Luna promised. "I feel the same way. Maybe because we're in a similar situation. We're both struggling to find out who we are. Tell me, is there any way into the tower? I feel like whatever answer it is I need to find is in there but I need your help."

"You need a pass to access the building otherwise the guards won't let you in. Not sure what you'll find though. I've only ever been in there for an errand or two,"

"Such as?"

"Packages mostly. I've never looked in them to find out what they were. One of the more recent things I delivered though was extremely weird."

"Weird? In what way?" Luna asked.

"It was a mirror. Zorn and Thorn specifically came to me and asked me to deliver it, which is something they never usually do," Celes explained.

"A mirror? What's so important about a mirror that they'd have you- Oh…" Luna turned around and let out a silent "What?" before turning back. The only mirror she could think of that would be worth anything was the magic mirror that she, Sora, Donald and Goofy had come across while trying to save Yeul. It had also been the one Maleficent had used to trap the King in.

"Do you know something?" Celes enquired eccentrically.

"Maybe, I'm not sure yet," Luna answered slowly.

Celes nodded and lowered whatever hopes she may have had. Her eyes fell on the clock for the first time since coming into the room and she jumped up from her seat. "Oh no, I need to hurry or I'll be late for my performance. How do I look?"

"Like an absolute mess," said Luna honestly.

Celes smiled at this. "Well, what they'll see is what they'll get. I'm sorry about this, maybe we can talk later? You still have yet to tell me how you became so small," she said digging into her handbag and retrieving a scrap piece of paper and a pen. She scribbled her address quickly on the paper before handing it to Luna.

"The world's a pretty big place. It's only natural to feel small in it," Luna offered with a mischievous grin. Celes laughed before giving a final nod, opening the door and hurrying outside. Luna made her own way out and closed the door before searching around for Sora and Astra. A whistle from her left soon found her heading in that direction and meeting up with the two around the corner.

"I'm afraid to even ask so just go on right ahead," Astra said.

"No need to worry, I got something. It's not exactly what I was after but I think I've made a new friend," Luna said while keeping an eye on the corridor to make sure it was clear. She quickly relayed what she had overheard between the Celes, Zorn and Thorn as well as her own conversation. By the end of it Astra seemed absolutely baffled by the whole thing and Sora had a look of worry etched on his face, his lips slightly parted in thought. She ended off by showing them the address Celes had given her. "Don't tell me you guys don't have anything to say. How about a 'well done Luna' or a 'you're the best' though maybe the latter is overdoing it a tad."

"You know what I want to say to you. I thought your obsession with this tower was enough and then you tell me that even the most famous people in Alexander are involved somehow? How far does it go? Do I even want to know? How far are you willing to go for that matter?" Astra complained.

"Until I find out what I want to know."

"And what is that exactly?"

"I… don't know yet," Luna admitted. "But that's what I'm trying to find out. Eleftheria is right. There is something about that tower that I haven't figured out yet, both Sora and I know it. That story she told us about people who could see into the future and Yeul dying within it, it can't be a coincidence."

"Why can't it be a coincidence Sea Salt? Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, you remember that?" Astra asked.

"In any case," Sora interrupted loudly before a full argument could break out. "I think we should get some rest for today. We've gathered a decent amount of information and we can think about it tomorrow."

"I agree," Luna said glad that Sora had intervened. She was also hoping Astra could cool her head overnight. "You don't mind us staying at your house, do you?"

"Be my guest. It's pretty lonely being the only one in the house anyway," Astra answered although her eyes continued to avoid Luna's from then until the moment they reached the front lawn of her house.


	25. Era of Renaissance

_**Long chapter so want to keep this A/N short but I'd just like to say that it's unfortunate that Leonard Nimoy passed away this week. A good Master Xehanort and an amazing Mr. Spock. LLAP. Weirdly enough, Master Xehanort's JP VA also passed away back in January... **_

* * *

**Chapter 25**

**Era of Renaissance**

The World was changing and so too should those who interfere in it. Those were the words from Neuge that stirred in Riku's mind as he slammed his Keyblade against Max's shield. It was akin to drastic times call for drastic measures, or at least if felt that way. After spending so much time trying to stop Xehanort and his multiple others, who dabbled in other worlds' affairs, Riku felt it seemed almost hypocritical to be accepting the very thing they had been fighting against.

"Riku, you seem distracted by something. You okay? We can stop if you want…" Max checked noticing Riku's strikes had been a lot weaker. He had personally asked for the training himself. He had taken on a change of heart as to whether he should follow in his father's footsteps it seemed. Gone was the indecisive teenager who wished to have a normal life like all the others his age and in that person's place was now a determined young Knight intrigued to discover exactly what such a title meant. That's what seeing other worlds did to you. After some time it was impossible to think as one once did, and it felt like a more focused person had emerged from the fog that previously covered their heart. Riku knew the feeling all too well.

"No, I can keep going. Let's continue," Riku affirmed before striking harder. Max raised his shield and the Keyblade hit against the metal and deflected of its surface. Even then the impact was so powerful that Max lost his balance and fell onto his bottom. "You can't seriously think you'll stand a chance against the Heartless if a simple blow like that will send you to the ground."

"You really hit hard that time," Max protested.

"And the Heartless will hit even harder," Riku said before helping Max up. "Look, no one ever said this would be easy. It's not easy getting back up when you fall, and it may even get annoying to constantly hear it, but it's how I learned."

Max sighed, a frown appearing on his face. "Maybe I'm not ready for this then. I thought I was but…"

"It's all in your head," Riku offered pointing at his own forehead. "You remind me of Sora actually. We were kids back on the islands, sparring with each other every chance we could. We were really competitive and most of the time I always won. One day Sora seemed pretty down in particular about a loss and told me that there was no point if he was never going to beat me. So here's what I told him: "Sora, each time you fight you get just a little bit stronger. You learn bit by bit and soon, maybe, just maybe, but unlikely, you might be able to beat me." What I didn't tell him was that I learned from him as well. You're never perfect no matter how hard you try, but the best thing you can be is ready."

"Did Sora eventually beat you?" Max asked.

"Let's just say it wasn't pretty," Riku answered.

Max nodded at this with a renewed smile of confidence before readying his shield again. The next few minutes saw Riku attempting to strike from different angles and Max blocking or at least attempting to block accordingly. Every once in a while, the Knight in training was knocked back onto the ground and Riku would have to give him a boost of encouragement. Other than that though, he was free to go back to his previous thoughts.

He had to wonder what Master Yen Sid was thinking, no, what everyone was thinking. This wasn't just a threat that worried him. Everyone was worried that if even just one wrong decision was made, it could put the worlds in jeopardy. To that end, it was slightly aggravating not knowing what Yen Sid in particular thought was the right course of action, even more so with Moira's Crescent breathing down their necks.

The next intrusion in his pondering happened much sooner than expected. He looked over his shoulder to see Namine watching, looking as lonely as ever. Her eyes held an undeterminable sadness and her body was rigid and timid. While not something uncommon for the blonde, for some reason she seemed lonelier than ever today. Had something happened he wondered?

"I think that's enough for today. Get some rest, you deserve it," Riku congratulated Max with a pat on the shoulder. Without waiting for a response or to see Max off, he turned and made his way to Namine. "Something wrong?" he asked.

Namine smiled weakly and clutched her arm. "Not really. I guess I just don't really feel all too good today. That, and no one's really around."  
"Isn't Kairi available? Come to think of it, I haven't seen her much recently. Training with Yen Sid?"

Namine shook her head. "She's at the library most of the time. When I asked her why, all she said was that she was interested in something and needed to confirm it. I guess she couldn't trust her own Nobody."

"I'm sure that's not the case. She probably trusts you more than anyone else actually—that and you're technically not a Nobody anymore. When the time is right I'm sure you'll be the first to know," Riku told her. It did seem weird to him however that Kairi would choose not to be so open to a person who had once been herself.

"Everyone has a secret nowadays," Namine said as if reading Riku's mind. "I draw and draw, thinking I can capture what a person is thinking, but I'll never really know. The heart is an unknowable thing. It has its secrets and falsehoods. No matter how deep I were to dive into Sora's heart, I can only see what's on the surface."

"You're talking about the feelings attached to the memories, right? I wonder… Yeul, have you drawn her before?" Riku asked. She was right about everyone having secrets, but he felt Sora's were doing more harm than good. What better a place to start than with the person who had control over his memories?

Namine looked startled at the mention of the name before recovering and answering. "I've drawn her several times. Not just for Sora but for me too. Even though I usually can't sense emotions behind memories, Yeul was the exception. Maybe it's because I was also there or maybe the memory holds a special and powerful resonance within Sora's heart."  
"And what do you feel?"

"Sadness… and supressed anger as well. It's a hurt unlike any I've ever felt before," Namine described.

"It's definitely not your feelings, I can tell you that much." Riku closed his eyes and felt the warm glow of the sun heating his face. It reminded him of the home he missed so much. At least there he, Sora and Kairi were always together, always smiling and laughing with their worries far behind them. Kairi's belief that both Sora and Riku were on a different wavelength to her when it came to using the Keyblade was only a half truth. All three of them were on different wavelengths and it wasn't just when it came to fighting either.

Riku figured that today would have been a normal day like any other. Aside from Goofy asking him to help train his son, he had assumed his day would have been the usual taking out Heartless mission. Not today however, because it seemed fate had other plans in store for him.

One look at Namine told him he wasn't going to get a chance to ask another question, and if he was, it was going to be something completely different from what he'd intended. Namine's eyes glazed over and whatever expression had once been in her face was now gone.

"Riku… no, please… close your eyes… don't listen… please!" Namine urged in a voice that was unlike her own.

"Namine? What's happening? Namine!"

"I…" Namine froze as if imitating a still life painting before becoming animated once more, but her next words were not something the Namine he knew would say: "_The hero of light falls. His heart cracks and falls like shards of glass raining from the heavens. It cuts deeply and the World shall cry tears of blood in his name, a name that has touched so many hearts and worlds alike, before drowning in those tears._"

The words would not leave Riku's mouth, even after Namine had returned to her normal self. He could not lie to himself here. He was genuinely frightened by what had just happened, and that was something that seldom happened. Namine's expression took on one of confusion in response to Riku's horrified one, as if she had no idea what had just taken place herself. But Riku supposed staring at her like she was something from a different universe had probably helped her to realise it soon enough.

"No… don't tell me I…" She took Riku's silence as her confirmation. With that she slumped onto the ground and covered her eyes to mask her tears.

* * *

"I need to talk to you for a minute," Sora insisted after Astra opened her bedroom door in response to his knocking.

Astra chuckled before letting him in. "I'm sensing some Déjà vu here. Okay, you want a minute, I'll give you ten."

When Sora entered, he found himself overwhelmed with a room that was messier than his own. His justification was that his was a smaller room in comparison, and yet Astra's was littered with posters of different bands, a mini fridge, a desk with sweet paper wrappers littered all over and on the floor several assorted items such as a hockey stick, a soccer ball among other things that made the room seem like a complete death trap.

He took care in stepping over these objects while making his way to the desk and took a seat. "I kind of expected your room to be… tidier. Not that mine is any better really," Sora remarked.

"Is that why you knocked on my door?" Astra asked apathetically.

"Uh, no, of course not. I just wanted to know why you hate you me so much," Sora admitted. "I haven't really gotten a clear answer from you and if we both really do care for Luna I think it's best we settle whatever differences we have right now. That way when she comes back from Kit's Bakery, she can see that we're willing to work together."

Astra jumped backwards and sunk into her bed. "Huh, trying to warm your way into my heart are you? I'll make this clear since you clearly didn't get it before and you don't seem to even now. You're a danger to Luna. Heck, you're a danger to most of the things you touch. Now granted I've been told that you've saved the worlds before and for that, I obviously don't hate you, but look at Luna…"

"What about Luna?" Sora asked. "I know I haven't done as well I could be doing to protect her, but I'm trying."

"Trying means very little to me. You either do or you don't. Besides, that wasn't what I was talking about. She's obsessed, with you, with seeing other worlds, to the point where she'd jump off a cliff if you asked her to."

"Oh don't be ridiculous. Are you insinuating I'd ask her to do something like that?"

"No, but she may just do it for you anyway," Astra said. "I've said my piece. Don't you dare toy with her like you did that Seer."

At the mention of his deceased friend, Sora sprang from the seat with his fists clutched and teeth gritted. "Her name was Yeul. And don't you dare bring her into this."

"Or what? Does the truth hurt that much? That you failed to protect her and did the same thing to Luna?" Astra asked sitting up and confronting him directly.

Sora's eyes soon relented and shifted away from her though. It was like her to try and intimidate him but he wasn't about to play her games. Instead he just smiled. "Nothing. Nothing at all."

And Sora really would do nothing. He would retreat to his bedroom where he would spend some of the time looking outside at the empty street below him and awaiting Luna's return. A few houses up the street, Sora became entranced by the garden sprinklers automatically turning on creating a slight rainbow effect as it watered the grass. This gave to the belief that there was some life on the street, but had a rock not just smacked against the window he was viewing these things from, he would have described the street as otherwise inactive.

He jumped back with quick reaction time but the glass in between prevented the rock from fully hitting his face. Curiosity lit up Sora's bored features and he stepped towards the window once more, scanning the area from left to right, down and strangely enough, even up. No sign of the stone thrower remained.

"Maybe it was just a random bird throwing stones, or a sneaky little kid... Now that I think about it the latter makes a lot more sense," Sora told himself and shook his head. He needed to sleep in any case since he was completely drained from being out and about all day.

He turned his back and was about to leave when the same CLANK sound of the hard material hitting against the glass. He spun around again and looked back outside. There was no way this person was not deliberately targeting this window in particular, and choosing to hide after the fact made him more suspect. Sora felt like an old man having to shout to some rascally kid to leave him in peace, but it had to be done. He slipped into his shoes before leaving the room. Mainly out of bitterness but also out of need not to worry her, he walked straight past Astra's room and tiptoed down the stairs slowly. Reaching the landing, he took one last look upstairs to make sure he hadn't alerted Astra's attention, before opening the door and heading outside.

Sora slipped out of the house without closing the door behind him and walked out into the street to search it more thoroughly. A simple projectile of ice whizzed past him and hit a lamppost creating some frost on its vertical surface. It had been an intentional miss unless the person's aim was incredibly bad.

Sora turned quickly in the location of the shot and immediately spotted someone in the distance with what Sora had to guess was a Keyblade in their hands. They were too far away so he couldn't be sure at first. The next attack left him doubtful however. The blade of the weapon suddenly extended forward at such an incredibly fast speed that he failed to notice the cut on his cheek until after the blade was just past him. Feeling the sting, he placed his hand on his face and withdrew it to find a smear of blood on his fingers.

"That speed was… incredible!" Sora uttered in shock. He looked up in time to see the blade retract in length and to return to its owner's side. The person who Sora was just able to make out was female, raised her hand and gestured him to follow before taking off. Sora had no choice but to follow. He felt he had a pretty good idea who it was and if those suspicions were true, he had to find out the answers to the many questions he had.

* * *

Luna twirled the broomstick in her hand before dancing it backwards in a zigzag pattern across the floor. She was determined to get every last inch of dust. Of course, while she wasn't able to get all of it, what she had gotten was enough to make the shop look spotless, as it once had. She flipped the broomstick upside down and tapped twice on the wooden floorboards to let Aunt Kit know that she was done.

"You've done a mighty impressive job Luna!" Aunt Kit praised as she finished lining empty but beautifully weaved straw baskets on the window display. Tomorrow these would be filled with an array of freshly baked doughy treats and the shop too would be open for the public once again. "I'm guessing you were the one who kept the place tidy while you were away?"

"Not exactly," Luna laughed and proceeded to grab the rug from the wall and lay it down on the floor. She stood back up and clapped her hands in proudness at her work. The shop, once looking rundown and abandoned, now had a sense of life breathed into it. It had been given a second chance, and Aunt Kit was determined not to let it slide away.

"So are you gonna tell me where you've been this whole time? I'm not sure what it is that would make it not worth telling me." Aunt Kit watched as Luna walked over to the counter and picked up the cat shaped clock to wind it.

"_Time's purrrecious! It's 8 o'clock. Meow!_" Luna imitated the voice as it spoke before winding it to its real time. She used the stool behind the counter to place it on the wall. "I guess it's time I told you, but you have to promise me something. No matter what, you won't allow it to change your mind on keeping the shop open."  
"Luna, what's this about-"

"Promise me," Luna repeated turning to meet Aunt Kit's sunken and tired eyes. When Aunt Kit eventually nodded, her eyes eventually wandered off to the empty shelves. "You remember how I always told you that I wasn't satisfied with Alexander? How I've wondered if there was something more out there? I've found them. Other worlds with their own identity and beauty."

"Luna… what are you talking about?"

"I'm not lying, Aunt Kit. I've helped protect three Princesses from imminent danger and prevented a forced political marriage, I've saved a bunch of Dalmatians from a kidnapping plot, I even saw to the end of a rivalry between clans. From desert to the data world, I've seen things, and there's a lot more for me to discover."

"Luna, please-"

"I saw the stars, Aunt Kit. Just like I said I would," Luna concluded her fiery speech with a satisfied smile.

"Luna, you're not making any sense."

"Ask Sora then, or even Astra, she's been outside this world too. Here, I'll even show you." Luna raised her hand and with a flash of light the Keyblade was in her hands. Aunt Kit stared on in bafflement. No doubt it was all too much for her to handle and Luna quickly dismissed Dream Seeker and ran to the older woman's side in support. She led her into the kitchen and carefully lowered her down onto a chair before taking a seat beside her. She reached forwards and placed her right hand on Aunt Kit's thigh.

"Luna, what in the world was that?" Kit asked with a slight tremor of fear in her voice.

"A Keyblade. It's how I save worlds and how me and Sora have been fighting the Heartless."

"The Heartless?"

"Those creatures that have been attacking people lately. You have to believe me Aunt Kit. I know it's hard to take in but every single word of it is true."

Aunt Kit blinked multiple times looking down at the hand on her lap before moving upwards to look at its owner's eyes. "I know you wouldn't make these things up Luna. I believe you. So… how was it?"

"Amazing! Out of this world, quite literally! I wish you could see them," Luna answered ecstatically. She was happy that the bakery owner could take so quickly to the concept.

"Well maybe I still can. I'll have you know I'm still pretty youthful and hip with the kids these days," Kit said with a courageous grin.

"I don't doubt it," Luna chuckled. "But I really need you to stay here and keep the business going, especially with what I'm going to tell you next. I-"

"You want to keep seeing other worlds, don't you?"  
"-want to keep seeing other… yeah." Luna rubbed the back of her neck suddenly overcome with a strange sensation she couldn't quite place. "I'm sorry I can't stay with you to work the shop but I've seen and learned so much and I'd like to continue, but I can understand if you don't want me to."

Kit nodded and smiled. "If you're mother were still with us, I know she'd definitely tell you to follow your dreams and never let anything or anyone else stop you. It's your life, and if I were in your place even I'd want to go," she said in an understanding tone.

Luna took her hand away from Kit's lap and instead wrapped both her arms around the baker to give her a tight hug and followed up with a kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you thank you thank you sooooo much!" Luna exclaimed in joy.

"Oh, you might have broken something dear. I guess I'm not as young as I thought I was after all," Kit said giggling.

"Oh dear. Sorry," Luna apologized, easing up a little.

"So why don't you tell me about the rest of your adventures then?" Kit asked. Luna smiled broadly and engaged to tell her all the intricate details of her adventures and the friends she'd made. She even pulled the crimson ribbon from her hair and showed it to her as proof. By the time she was done, Aunt Kit looked as if she had been struck by some earth-shattering revelation, which Luna supposed it really was.

"And Sora? What do you think of him?" Kit asked.

"What do you mean? He's a great guy. Always protective of those around him and tries his best to keep smiling even when everything seems lost."

"That's all?" Kit raised her eyebrows in curiosity. When Luna imitated the action in response, Kit laughed and stood up. "I remember your mother when she was working at the bakery as a part time job. I was just young and starting out, your mother was even younger. One day some boy came in along with his friends and from then on, your mother and his relationship took fruit. Just before they officially started going out, I remember her coming to me and talking nonstop about him and I went "Is that all?"'

"Are you asking if I have…" Luna's voice trailed off and her eyes grew big before backing away and shaking her hands in protest. "No. That's just… ridiculous! I don't think about Sora like tha-" Luna's mouth closed as she noticed a rising heat coming from her cheeks. She attempted to cover them but it was too late. Kit had already seen her blushing cheeks and didn't hesitate in exploiting the situation.

"I knew it. _Luna's got a cru-ush!_" she sang childishly.

"Hey, I didn't help you set the shop back up just to hear this," Luna said but smiling all the same.

"So you're not denying it then?"

Luna had no idea what to say to this. She must have hoped that someone would bring the topic up because she couldn't stop smiling no matter how hard she tried. It would have been impossible not to have at least thought about it for the many months she had spent with him, but now being confronted with the idea, what did she think of him? Well, she certainly could see him as being more as a friend but-

"Earth to Luna. You still with me here or were you fantasizing about your special someone?" Kit interrupted her thoughts.

"Even if I did like him _that _way, there's someone else who's also a really good friend of mine. I'm sure she has feelings for him and he probably feels the same," Luna explained.

Kit placed a hand over her mouth and looked down at Luna's ribbon. "In other words, they're not together yet? You know there are some things in this world that are worth fighting for, or I suppose it would be out of this world?"

"Are you saying I should steal him away from her?" Luna asked in surprise.

"No, of course not. Stealing is wrong… provided that he belonged to her in the first place."

* * *

Sora's chase had taken him into the woods, only a couple of ways from Astra's street. High trees surrounded him and the mystery female as she finally stopped and turned to meet him face to face. He recognized her face instantly. The excessive amount of pale makeup that would even Selphie recoil in horror, the cute smile on her face that had more intentions than what would first be thought obvious, and the very same, or at least an identical, French maid outfit that she had worn at the café.

"You're the one who poisoned my coffee. Delcia, wasn't it?" he asked summoning the Kingdom Key.

"That is what some call me, though I'm better known by my actual name," Desiree replied.

"Which is…?"

"Desiree Elegia Skye, at your pleasure," she curtsied before pointing at him. "You look angry monsieur. Do you hate me? Is your time really better spent bearing a vendetta against- Say, answer this question for me. If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Sora asked puzzled.

"Just that we both stand tall like trees and if one of us were to fall here, no one would ever know that that person fell. Things only ever become material when they are made so by others and we right now stand on the border of the material and immaterial. I say border because really only one of us could ever come out alive and know the other's fall as having existed."

"And let me guess. That'll be you, right?"

"How did you know? With that kind of knowledge, you must be a Seer," Desiree applauded sarcastically.

"Is that what this is all about? Yeul? You're with Moira's Crescent, right? Tell me, who are they?"

"All these questions, and I'm sure you'd find satisfaction if I told you. But what's the point? Even if I told you the answers, you would not remember them because you would be dead," Desiree held up her hand and summoned her Keyblade. She moved it up to eye level and inspected it carefully before lowering it. "They were against my coming here, but they'll understand that it's better to deal with a problem now rather than later. Wouldn't you agree?"

"I'm… a problem. I don't understand. How?" Sora cried out in anger. "I thought I could just go on and live a normal life after Abraxas. I was going to find Luna and then try and find my own islands, but then you people came into my life and you've tried your hardest to make it a complete and utter hell. I deserve to at least know why you're doing this."

Desiree appeared to ponder this for a while however it was clear that she had already made up her mind. "I suppose I can tell you," she said finally. "Shall I quote? 'A boy of light who defied plight thrice, where he hath saved the world, he will also bring it to ruin for he knows not that the biggest plight yet lies in his humanity. And so the halcyon peace worked hard for may shatter all too easily, and the ancient door of the past will open to greet the beating drums'. Do you understand now?"

"What? I don't…"

"Oh you can't honestly be this stupid. Fine, I'll spell it out for you mon cher. Yeul was an absolute flower to Moira's Crescent. The first person she came into contact with after her world was destroyed by Maleficent was the man you know as Abraxas, that's what he went with after Xehanort's heart took over him. His real name is Kyle. He took her to us and we cared for her like she had been with us all her life. Our leader knew who she was immediately after we had experienced her first vision. She was a Seeress, the last one alive and we had a duty to protect her. We obviously failed that, you don't need to tell me that.

"Anyway, one of her many visions included one about a boy bringing destruction to the worlds, the one I just told you. I've heard it so many times that I can recite it word to word now since we save each prophecy recorded. Do we even have to go over it? A boy who saved the worlds three times, in other words, you having saved the world that many times against Xehanort. I think you get the idea. It did not exactly take that long to find someone fitting that description. Any questions?" Desiree finished sagaciously as if she were teaching a student.

"This is… insane. There's no way," Sora muttered shaking his head.

"You can choose to believe it or not but when you're a Keyblade wielder you'll find not all truths are pretty. Actually I don't believe you need to be a Keyblade wielder to know that," Desiree said. "You are the destroyer of worlds. The prophecies never lie."

These haunting words weren't connecting with Sora. He couldn't comprehend it, no, it was more like he refused to comprehend it. His mind was trying to connect dots and constantly failing and he couldn't get anything out. He wanted to call her a liar or say anything to counter what she had said, and yet he knew he would just have been deluding himself. An invisible heavy anchor that had been on his chest suddenly became much more painful and obvious. He was paralyzed with something that he shouldn't be visibly showing to the enemy and yet he was. It was the anchor of fear that would no doubt crush him if he didn't overcome the obstacle presented right then and there.

"This is the way it has to be. But I hope you provide me with some fun while we are here so I can at least say to the others that you went down in a blaze of glory," Desire said before flying in at full speed towards him. Sora could barely compose himself in time to dodge the multiple slashed of her Keyblade. She quickly thrust her hand forward, pushing Sora back and off his balance so that she could attack again, managing to cut into his arm as he tried to guard with it.

Sora jumped backwards and tensed his arm to ignore the pain. Desiree jumped back before sending out a barrage of Firaga and Thundaga Shots_._ Sora ran towards the trees and used them as cover to dodge each blast.

* * *

Luna arrived at Astra's house shortly after her rather embarrassing conversation with Aunt Kit and a heap load of stories about her parents to find the door ajar. A growing worry soon took hold and she rushed in calling both Sora and Astra's names.

"I'm in my room Sea Salt. There really isn't any need to shout your head off," replied Astra just as loudly from upstairs. Luna ran upstairs and past Astra's room, heading to Sora's first.

"Sora?" she called out but no reply came. She opened the door and looked around but to no avail.

"Luna, what's going on?" Astra asked having come out of her room to check on her.

"Have you seen Sora?"

"Shouldn't he be in the room?"

"I wouldn't have asked if he was. That, and when I came in the front door was already opened," Luna told her. All fatigue was lost from Astra's face and she hurried towards Luna's side to check that Sora was in fact missing from his room.

"Astra, I don't want to jump to conclusions too quickly but I have a bad feeling about this. We need to go and find him," Luna insisted and took off back down the stairs without waiting for Astra's reply. She wanted to believe that Sora had just gone out of the house for some fresh air or something, but he surely wouldn't have needed to go that far away from the street for that. If he wanted to take a walk, he would have told Astra. An unpleasant queasy feeling began to form in Luna's stomach, and no matter how much she tried to shake it off as she ran down the street in search of Sora, it latched on, unwavering and resilient.

* * *

"Are you trying to burn down the entire forest?" Sora muttered to himself before using Blizzard projectiles to deflect and counter her magic. He aimed to close the gap between by quickly moving in between attacks and flinging out his arm for a horizontal slash. The Kingdom Key locked against Desiree's Keyblade but seeing a ball of fire forming in her free hand, he had to cut it short and danced around her in time to avoid the attack.

"You're too predictable." Desiree sighed and turned to meet him before swinging her Keyblade up and down. The blade itself suddenly became limber like a whip, and its metal hit down on Sora's right shoulder blade hard. Sora gasped in pain and gripped his shoulder with his left hand while backing away and raising his right hand to guard.

The whip transformed Keyblade slammed against his own repeatedly with Sora being unable to switch out of a defensive position. He could feel his arm beginning to give in to something that seemingly had no end to its steadfastness. The worst part however was that Desiree didn't seem to be trying at all. That alone annoyed Sora more than the fact that he couldn't retaliate.

"Please tell me you're holding back because this is just sad if you're not," Desiree said as she continued her onslaught. Sora gritted his teeth and let go of his shoulder to hold onto the guard with both hands before activating _Ars Arcanum_. A gold light formed around his body and he lowered the Keyblade quickly before swinging it upwards to counter the whip.

The deflection left Desiree vulnerable, something that he took full advantage of by immediately surging forward with Sonic Blade. Just before he could land a hit however, a raised barrier appeared in front of her. Sora couldn't pull back the attack in time and the attack hit the barrier and knocked Sora away and into a nearby tree.

He grasped at the dirt almost pathetically as he tried to bring himself back up but his legs always gave in before he could even make it halfway. Finally after several attempts, he stopped trying and gave in. The earthiness of the terrain entered his nostrils and he even felt some of the soil roll onto his lips which he had to constantly spit away as he lay there awaiting his death. It wasn't exactly the place he would have chosen to go, nor was he ready to go at all, but he had nothing in him left.

Desiree frowned and shook her head. "_Non non non_, this is all wrong. Heal!" She raised her Keyblade in the air and a green light appeared above Sora's body. The pain that had once been there started to decline until it had been completely rescinded. Sora blinked and pulled himself back up quickly staring at Desiree as if she were mad.

"I'm not interested in taking out a little boy who does not fight back. I told you before that I want you to come at me with your full strength!" she exclaimed in frustration before pointing her Keyblade once again at Sora.

There was only thought that was constantly swirling in Sora's mind at the moment. That this woman was going to kill him.


	26. An Unwanted Wish

**Let's get rid of the annoying italics in the disclaimer shall we, only to put them as the opening of this chapter. Great job Aura -_-. I like having just bold much better anyway. So I'm sure you're all excited to know what will happen to Sora so without further ado let's jump right in. Thanks for reading, feel free to subscribe and provide any feedback!**

* * *

**Chapter 26**

**An Unwanted Wish**

_Astra kneeled by her bedside and wept into the sheets. Its softness, like a mother she had never had, was the only comfort in a time of grieving for the raven haired girl. Outside her window, the sound of pigeons cooing their sorrowful tune disappeared as they took off into the sky. Well, Astra thought it was sorrowful anyway. Maybe they were laughing at her instead._

_On her bed in a shoebox lay her dead tabby cat. She supposed it had been inevitable given his slightly overweight appearance, but it had still served as a shock especially considering the cause. When she and her grandmother had gone to the animal shelter downtown for her fourth birthday, this cat had immediately captured her attention and she had named it Sky in reference to its unusual clear blue eyes in comparison to the other tabby cats. That had been the start of a great relationship between the two although her father did not personally approve of an animal being in the house and had even voiced his denunciation many times to that effect. Even then, it seemed that they were inseparable and that not even a hurricane could split them apart. _

_It had been yesterday, the day of the great chocobo parade when her feline friend had met his end. The chocobos danced and made their way across the street with street performers and dancers following in tow. The heavy beat of drums and woodwind instruments filled the air, and a massive crowd lined itself up and down the street clapping, cheering and dancing along too. Astra was among this crowd, Sky in her arms to keep her from being trampled on. She tapped her foot rhythmically to the beat and waved about Sky's paw wondering if he knew anything about what was happening._

_Her eyes shifted from left to right and back and she took in the wondrous sight and they eventually settled on a young girl who looked to be about the same age as her. She, like many other children (except Astra of course) had come along with their parents to see the show._

"_Mom, can I touch them? Pleaaaaseee!" The young girl exclaimed jumping up and down._

"_Now you know we'd get in trouble if you did Luna. Shouldn't looking be enough?" her father said with a loving smile on his face. Loving… that was something Astra wished her father would show her once in a while._

"_Aw but I want to touch them dad. I promise I won't do anything bad," Luna pleaded but her mother shook her head._

"_You might get lost like last time hon. We wouldn't want that to happen now would we?" she reminded her._

"_Well I did find my own way back home…" Luna huffed and folded her arms puffing up her cheeks. "Could we at least get some Sea Salt Ice Cream on our way back?"_

"_Aren't you tired of that flavor by now?" her mom asked._

_Luna shook her head defiantly. "Nuh-uh. Never." _

_Astra couldn't help but let out a laugh and her grip loosened on Sky. When Luna heard the laughter she took in Astra and smiled before giving her a wave. Astra's grip loosened even more and that was when it happened. The cat, which she hadn't been paying attention to in her state of daydreaming, slipped out of her hands and he really did confirm his fascination with the parade, by walking (lazily might Astra add—he always took after her) right into the middle of the road._

_It need not be said what happened next. The world had seemed to flip on its side for Astra yesterday and she hadn't gotten even been able to get sleep. The worst part had been when she had told her father the news after returning from the parade._

"_Good riddance," he replied. Oh how she hated that man. She eventually wiped the remaining tears from her face and clutched the box to her chest before heading downwards. Maybe Sky had been too good for this world, too good for her. She made her way downstairs and out into the back garden. In the shed were an assortment of tools, many of which Astra would not have known about if she didn't tend to the garden as she usually did. If the neighbours saw her they would say it was all too much for a nine year old girl. _

_She grabbed the shovel and started digging into the earth. When the hole was deep enough she gave one final look at the shoebox._

"_You were too good for this world Sky. I guess I'm just not good enough to follow you," she said and with that placed the box in the ground and began covering it up. After finishing, she re-entered the house to come across the last person she wanted to meet at the moment._

"_What do you want?" she asked coldly._

"_Don't speak to me in that type of tone… I just wanted to know how it went," he said. He was doing a great job of pretending to care, Astra had to admit._

"_Like you give a crap-" Astra said before re-treading on these words. She had no energy to be angry at the moment. "I was wondering if I could have another pet. Maybe next year, when I think I'm ready to get over Sky. I don't think he'd want me grieving over him forever." _

"_You've got to be kidding me. Another one of those runts running about the house? I don't think so, not while this is still my house," he answered. _

"_Don't call him that. He's more decent a creature than you ever were or ever will be!" Astra spat. That was when her father moved forward and backhanded her in the face. The blow was so instantaneous and surprising that she became dizzy and fell backwards. Instinctively she grabbed at the kitchen chair will also fell over. She stayed on the floor in shock and placed her hand on her stinging cheek. She slowly looked up at her father in disgust._

_He had just confirmed it. He had thrown verbal abuse her way and had even ignored her, at least then she had felt invisible but that was a good thing because she went about her own life and he his. Never before had he hit her though. He had never outright come out and stated that he hated her but she was sure of it now._

_The anger on his face did not stay however, and a look of remorse soon took over. "Astra… I'm sorry, but I'm trying my darn best to look after you, all by myself. I can't do that if you keep pushing me over the edge."_

"_I've just realized something. You've never once asked me if I wanted Ice Cream…" Astra said._

"_What the hell are you on about?" _

"_I'm saying that you fell off the edge a long time ago," Astra muttered never taking her eyes of him. He could look sorry all he wanted but it didn't mean a thing if he never truly meant it. Her father appeared stiff for a moment as if wanting to say something else but instead turned around and left._

* * *

A flock of birds taking off rather aberrantly brought Luna to a full stop at the request of Astra. Her friend pointed in their direction of origin but Luna seemed at a loss to what Astra was on about.

"Well I'm no… ornithologist, was it? But usually when you see birds act erratically like that it usually means that something's disturbed them," Astra explained. "It looks like it's coming from the forest."  
"Oh, I didn't think of that. Looking for a career in studying birds then?" Luna asked with a grin.

"Hardly the time to be cracking jokes, wouldn't you say? Let's hurry up and save your friend." Astra's encouragement, though it was clear she still did not regard Sora as a friend, was a good enough motivator for Luna. The two friends turned back down the street and passed the street they had just come from keeping straight until they reached the park.

There only source of light was to be the moonlight as a great number of dots pasted themselves across the navy blue sky. Unfortunately, they gave little comfort to the two as Shadows emerged from the ground to attack them.

Luna and Astra summoned their Keyblades and both paused briefly to glance at the other's having never seen the opposing weapon before. A Shadow lunging forward to attack Luna forced Astra to look away, moving quickly to take it out with a Fire projectile. Likewise, Luna noticed two Shadows crawling up behind Astra and used a Circle Raid to defeat them.

"We have to keep moving," Luna told Astra waiting for a nod before taking off again for the back of the park. The Heartless seemed to pop up everywhere they went and were shortly taken care off by the two wielders. They soon reached the end of the park, jumped over the fence and headed into the trees.

"It's a bit dark in here. I hope we're not too late," Luna said holding Dream Seeker in front of her to light the blade up. "Or that we've found the right place…"

She started her jog through the dense woods while calling Sora's name hoping to get some response. The unpleasant sounds of little twigs breaking underneath her feet perhaps added to the disturbing atmosphere of the dark setting. They did not have to go far into the forest before she heard the first signs of a possible conflict. The unmistakable sound of thunder, frost blasts and flames soon grabbed their attention and they hurried quickly in the direction of the sounds. When Luna did eventually find Sora, she had stumbled across a horrific sight.

Sora was on the ground lying against the tree and breathing heavily. His clothes were torn and he himself was, to faithfully put it, a bloody mess. His face was completely bruised and streaks of crimson covered his hands and dripped like raindrops onto the soil underneath. Watching him from only a few inches was a woman strangely dressed in a maid's outfit and with a look of the utmost boredom on her face. Luna quickly ran in between them and pointed her Keyblade at the woman.

"Luna… don't… just run… leave… me."

"Sora, shush," Luna said to him while staring daggers at the woman. "You're Moira's Crescent?"

"Who is to say? Actually, why don't you tell her who I am Astra? Don't be shy now, that's not like you." She gestured towards the girl who was looking like the uncomfortable third wheel in the situation.

"Desiree. That's her name, and yes, she's a part of Moira's Crescent," Astra confirmed. "What the hell are you doing here Desiree? Wait, did you follow me here?"

"Well how else was I going to get to Sora silly? I already failed once and I was going to make sure I didn't fail this time," she replied.

"_Was_?" Astra repeated.

"I've had a change of heart, if you want to call it that. I am simply not satisfied with this. If this is all he has under his sleeve then killing him now would be incredibly dishonorable to my own beliefs. Congratulations, Luna, was it? Your friend gets to cherish life just a little longer," Desiree said before summoning her armor.

"Don't you dare think you can get away with this!" Luna yelled running forward to attack only to be stopped in her tracks by Astra getting in the way. "Astra, what are you doing?"

"She's too strong Sea Salt. She had much more experience than you when it comes to fighting. You can't beat her," Astra told her.

"You don't get to decide that!" Luna yelled trying to push past Astra even though she knew that doing such a thing was equivalent to trying to go through a brick wall. Astra's height and strength was enough to overpower the fidgety Luna, and yet she still persisted.

"Luna, calm down and think! This is only going to end up much worse if you get yourself involved… you have to help Sora, remember? Going after Desiree is not going to help," Astra reasoned.

"Or is it because you're all buddy-buddy with her that you want me to let her go?" Luna shouted before finally stepping back upon seeing Astra's pained expression. Though she was still angry at Astra's need to play both sides, she was right that going after Desiree now wouldn't help Sora.

"You're very lucky to have a friend like Astra, or else you'd be in much the same position as him by now," Desiree said through her helmet before opening up a corridor of light and walking through. Luna clenched her fists tightly and watched reluctantly as the white light closed behind Desiree signalling that she was gone. Luna had to close her eyes to quell her anger before turning to Sora to find that he had passed out.

"Help me get him back to the house," Luna said. She tried to pick him up and immediately felt something sticky and slippery as she held his waist to support him.

"Don't strain yourself. I'll carry him on my back," Astra offered.

"Are you sure?" Luna asked.

"After tons of garden work, I wouldn't underestimate my strength if I were you. Besides, it'll be much faster like this," Astra said. Luna nodded before slowly shifting Sora over to Astra who pulled him in closer and held up his legs to allow him to lie on her back. Sora's head leaned on her shoulder and she gave a nod to Luna that she had secured him properly before following Luna out of the forest.

* * *

Kairi surreptitiously glanced at Namine every now and then in pity for the poor girl. The final confirmation had been received from Yen Sid who had told them all that Namine was in fact a seer. The room had been shocked into silence though none dared to directly look into Namine's eyes for the sake of making her not feel awkward and alienated. Riku looked down at the ground and avoided eye contact making it impossible to judge what he was thinking, but it was probably the same as everyone else's thoughts. Neuge was leaning against the wall and shaking her head in disgust while Mickey looked all too saddened by this revelation.

Eventually Donald and Goofy, who were sharing a look of dismay with one another, were the first to comfort Namine.

"We're sorry Namine," Goofy told her.

"It will be okay Goofy. To be honest, ever since I started having the dreams, I've felt more alone than ever so I'm kind of glad someone found out," Namine said.

"But you still don't deserve this Namine," Donald said. "Do you remember when you first started having the dreams?"

"It was after Yeul died, I think. You don't think there's some type of connection between her and me, do you?" Namine turned uneasily to Yen Sid for his opinion.

"The only ones who know the power of a Seer are the Seers themselves. What brief knowledge of the old World we have has told us that they secluded themselves from the rest of society to the point where no one outside their circle understood their customs or powers. I suppose it's possible that they may also carry the ability to transfer their powers to others though I cannot be entirely sure," Yen Sid said.

"But why would Yeul do that though?" Goofy asked digging at his head in confusion.

"An accident, maybe? Or maybe she wanted the line to continue?" Riku spoke for the first time in a while.

"I wonder… in any case what we must think about now is the contents of the prophecy you heard Riku. Could you tell me again?" Yen Sid asked. Riku nodded and repeated it again to the best his memory would allow him. Once he had finished, he inwardly congratulated himself on his accurate word to word recitation. Then again, it was one of those things that never really left you even if you tried to forget it.

The sorcerer hummed profusely before replying. "It's clear that the prophecy refers to Sora then," he said slowly.

"Then… Sora will…" Kairi couldn't go through with the rest of the words. Yen Sid was quite unwilling either it seemed.

"I think it best we do not divulge this information to Sora at the moment. He has enough worries on his mind as it is. What we should be doing is trying our best to deter this threat," he said before turning to Namine. "I'm sorry but it also means that he can't be near you. We can't risk him finding out about your powers. I'm sure you understand why."

Namine bored her eyes downwards at the floor and seemed to be considering objecting to this. Kairi moved to speak for her but Namine eventually nodded. "I understand."

"We'll work on tracking down Moira's Crescent then, and Kefka and the others. The sooner we get rid of both, the safer it'll be for Sora," Riku proposed. "And it's not like the future is set in stone, right? It can be changed… right?"

No one wanted to answer this question however, save Neuge who rubbed at the bridge of her nose while speaking. "I don't think you want the answer to that question, but are you sure you don't want to tell him? Wouldn't it be best for him to be prepared in the worst case scenario?"

"If you knew Sora you would know why I'm suggesting this," Yen Sid told her before turning suddenly as if something had caught his attention. Kairi soon felt all eyes on her for some reason.

"Kairi, your pocket…" Riku pointed out. She looked down to see a bright glow coming from her skirt. She took out her Wayfarer and stared at it as if possessed. "Kairi? What's happening?"

The glow in her hand soon faded and Kairi looked back at Riku with fear in her eyes. "Sora's in danger!"

* * *

Three days passed with little to no activity as Kairi sat in the hospital room never taking her eyes off the unconscious Sora. He seemed to be sleeping like a log, although Luna who had stayed with him for far longer (and had gotten very little sleep as a result), had mentioned the moments when he had drifted in and out of consciousness at night, having panics in between before falling unconscious again.

He had no idea that he had been brought back to Radiant Garden, or that he had been confined within the same ward within the same hospital he had been in only weeks ago. When he woke up, Kairi doubted it would be with a smile like it had been last time. There was only so much one could take before they reached the boiling point, so she would be here for him when he did.

Opposite her was Luna, beside his bed and massaging his hands delicately. In a way, she was jealous. Jealous that Luna had spent so much time with him, jealous that she had seen his happiness, his sadness, and his anger, jealous that Kairi's and his time together was usually so short, and jealous of the way he had carried himself out of his way to rescue her from the Realm of Darkness. Kairi didn't doubt that Sora had felt the same for her when she had been in trouble, but it took being in his presence to really understand him, and she had spent that time all too little.

"He'll be with us soon. He's always there for us when we need him," Kairi promised Luna from the other side of the bed. She saw Luna give her a smile before looking back down at Sora. "But if I know Sora well, he wouldn't want us moping over him right now. You need sleep Luna. We both do I think."

Luna hummed an affirmative before looking back up at Kairi. "When he told me about Moira's Crescent, he seemed so nonchalant about it that it even managed to calm me down. I just… I didn't expect this to happen!" Tears began to roll down Luna's cheeks and landed on the white sheets of Sora's bed. Kairi got up from her chair and walked over to Luna's side to pull her into a hug.

"None of us did. I think he just didn't want to make you worry after you'd just come back. He's right though. We can't be scared because the moment we are, they win. We'll figure something out," Kairi soothed in a gentle whisper.

Two more days had passed before Sora had fully woken again. The feeling of déjà vu would have made him laugh if it didn't hurt so much. He was about to question why he was back here but then flashes of Desiree Elegia Skye flooded his mind all too quickly at once. He clenched his right hand before driving it into his bed repeatedly.

Noticing a mirror next on the table next to his bed, he picked it up and saw a pale and strange kid staring back at him with a brown bruise on his cheek and a cut lip. He put the mirror down in disgust and sank his head back onto the pillow. He wanted to think about something other than that evening in the forest, but his seething anger made that impossible.

The door opened and Kairi, Riku and Luna stepped in to see their friend awake. Though he appreciated their being with him, he couldn't force a smile no matter how hard he tried.

"You look like crap… again," Kairi said after being the first to hug him.

Sora scoffed. "Yeah, that's been a trend lately, hasn't it?" He caught the bitterness in his own voice and tried to tone it down from there on out. It wasn't like it was their fault for what had happened anyway. "How long has it been this time?" he asked calmly.

"Five days, a personal best for you. We're not sure how it happened, but Kairi's wayfarer glowed and it told us you were in danger. Luna mentioned that the wayfarer Kairi gave you also had a similar effect back in Alexander," Riku explained. "Luck is on your side."

"If I'm lucky while do I feel like I just fell out of the wrong side of the bed?" Sora groggily buried his head into his hands and ran his fingertips through the front of his hair.

"Better than what could have happened," Kairi replied. "I'm glad I made the right call about putting the same magic that was used on the wayfinders on my lucky charm, otherwise it would have been disasterific as the three pixies would say."

"Thanks Kairi, you really were there for me even if you weren't actually there. And Luna, I'm glad you weren't hurt. I know that you think you could have done something different, but Astra kept you safe and I'm grateful. Where is she anyway?" Sora asked.

Luna blushed. "I'm not sure actually. I was so worried about you that I stayed here most of the time watching over you."

Sora and Luna were to find out the answer to this question sooner than they'd thought when Colette came into the room and announced her delight upon seeing Sora's recovery. She had explained how she had asked to be transferred over to his ward after hearing about his injuries. Seeing as how he had no broken bones or anything of a serious nature, he was able to be let go by her, though he felt it also partly had to do with her knowing that lying around was not his thing as illustrated by his previous breakout.

Finding out his clothes had been damaged so badly that the magic on them had dissipated served as another crushing blow to Sora. Having received them from the three fairies, it had basically become his trademark outfit when in battle so to learn that the clothes were beyond repair was saddening. Sora resorted instead to wearing a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt that Riku had brought with him to the hospital.

After this Riku had asked him, Luna and Kairi to follow him where he took them all the way to the castle. Previous to what the weather had been when he had last been here, the sun was out in its full splendor and a cloudless blue encompassed the entire sky signalling that the end of winter was on its way. But even that could not do to cure Sora's moodiness at the moment.

"_Do not tell that is the extent of your full power. What have you learned these past three years?" Desiree had said as she knocked down Sora again for the third time. He could not keep up with her no matter how hard she tried. Her Keyblade was fast and unusual, being able to become malleable at will. It cut sharp inflicting several wounds across Sora's skin. The pain was unbearable. Tears wanted to fall from his eyes not just at that pain, but how fruitless his efforts seemed, how useless she had made him feel. He spat out another round of blood that had formed in his mouth and leaned against the tree._

"_Just… ki… me…" He breathed heavily._

"_Sorry, can't hear you I'm afraid," Desiree said bending down and looking at him with a facetious expression. _

"_Kill… me… DAMN IT JUST KILL ME!" He yelled into the heavens as loudly as he could. He may as well since he'd be going there soon anyway._

"_You'd gladly just wait for death to come for you? You would have me kill you right now? I wonder, are you really the one the prophecy speaks of? If I am to believe I must kill an innocent do I not at least deserve to look him in the eye as an equal?" Desiree pondered before looking up at the sound of Sora's name being spoken._

A moment of weakness, of surrender. That was what it had been on Sora's part, and he couldn't let it go. She had made him wish he were dead and he hated her for it.

They had arrived at the castle postern to find it swarming with tourists. That's what the castle had become, a public building where the citizens could give their respects to their late leader. They entered the study and from there travelled deep down into the castle's depths where they knew Xehanort to have performed his experiments in secret.

"Riku, don't tell me you…" Sora was about to say but her appearance there all but made it clear. In one of the cells and sitting in the one chair in the back of the room was Astra. Her eyes were cast downward and her hair was crazily dishevelled.

"What? Riku, you can't-"

"Hold up Luna, let me explain first-"

"No. There is no explanation. There's no explanation in the world that can possible justify this. As far as I know, you locked her up," Sora said with a rising temper.

"You may not like it, but Master Yen Sid and I agree it's necessary. She was with Moira's Crescent and they've attacked you not once, but twice now and she still refuses to give out any information on them. What does that tell you?"

"But it still isn't right Riku. Let her go, we'll figure things out," Kairi urged. Sora was thankful that she at least had no part in it.

"Figure things out and what? Wait for another attempt on Sora's life?" Riku replied before looking at Sora. "I can't help but think at night that I'm about to lose you. I feel like I have to check up on you but then I tell myself that I'm worrying over nothing, that he'll be alright, that everything will be alright. But it won't. The moment they attacked you they declared war, not just on you but on all of us. They're moving forward, we're a reactionary force. It shouldn't be that way. I won't allow her to just wander off again, who knows what she's already told them about us. You see now why I can't let her go?"

"No, Sora and Kairi don't, and neither do I," Luna said. She looked into Astra's cell once more before turning to Riku. "Astra may not be perfect, but neither are you. She's my best friend so don't expect me not to stand by her side. You aren't some beacon of justice that was chosen to speak on behalf of everyone and even if you were this is anything but justice. You must hate hearing this but when you fight fire with fire there's no doubt someone is going to get caught in the crossfire eventually."

Throughout her speech, Astra looked up at her friend and smiled. A dangerous glare from Riku quickly saw her returning to looking at the ground.

"And you have a better idea at how we handle this?" Riku asked impatiently.

"Er no, not exactly but whatever it is, this isn't it," Luna replied.

"Besides that, you also did this without asking us first for our opinions. Unless you're saying yours mean more-"

"And have you thought about what would happen if she left before you woke up? Look, we're not going to hurt her. We're just holding her here so we can interrogate and get more information from her. Until she gives me a satisfactory answer, she's not leaving," Riku said. "Don't you want to find out about the people who want you dead too?"

Sora looked away from Riku and started taking interest in the wall next to him. He did want to know, probably even more than Riku. But was it worth taking away another person's freedom in the process? But surely Astra had no reason to hide anything if she wanted to be let out so why wasn't she saying anything? Why was she protecting them? The image of Desiree, burned long into his mind, flashed once more and a sudden anger overtook him.

"Sora? Sora, are you listening?" Riku asked.

"Of course he isn't. You've thrown all of this on him just as he's come out of hospital. And I can't stand to listen to another second of this either," Luna snapped before turning and briskly walking back down the hallway they had just come from.

"Luna, wait up!" Kairi called and ran to catch up with her. This left just Sora, Riku and a despondent Astra. Though cold, the air still seemed stuffy and choking.

"I don't know what I'm doing right now Sora. I'm trying to listen to my heart as best I can but sometimes not even that's enough, so if I'm making a big mistake right now I'd like to hear it from you. Maybe it'll set me on the right path, whatever that is," Riku said.

Sora looked at Riku for a good few seconds before following after Kairi and Luna.


	27. The New Apprentices

**Chapter 27**

**The New Apprentices**

Luna was drowning. She clutched at her neck and thrashed about in panic as the darkness of the cold water overtook her. Her vision was fading and she was no doubt soon to leave this world. This had happened before. She recalled falling into the lake while fishing, and something pulling her down into the deep depths. Her father had been the one to save her there but she was all alone now, or so she thought.

Just when she was about to completely give up hope, a hand grabbed her own. Was it her father? No, he was gone of course, she had killed him. Luna let out a gasp for air as she reached the water's surface and watched her body be carried to solid ground. She coughed out some water that she had initially taken in and looked up at her savior.

"Luna, are you alright? You just fell into the lake all of a sudden. What happened?" Sora asked worriedly. Of course it would be him.

"I don't know. I- I thought… in the water… I saw my parents' reflections a-and I don't know what happened after that. The next thing I know I'm in the water and- oh, Sora!" Luna let out a cry and Sora placed his arms around her to comfort her. They stayed like that for a while and Luna had to forbid herself from sinking into his chest at the reminder that they were in fact, just friends. More importantly she questioned whether she was going crazy. Hearing her own words as she said them, they no doubt sounded strange to Sora. But she had seen them, and she had felt a loss of control over her body when she did, like she had been possessed or something.

"You know… you feel really cold right now," Sora said eventually.

"You certainly know how to kill the mood don't you?" Luna chuckled albeit rather shakenly.

"I'm usually the one livening it up. I guess we all need to swap roles every now and then." He grinned and took his jacket off to give to her. "Let's get you warmed up."

Wanting to find somewhere as close as possible for Luna to sit eventually took them to Stephanie and Colette's house. After making up something about how Luna accidently slipped and fell into the lake, Colette took her over to the fireplace to warm up.

"You're lucky Sora was there to save you. Looks like you may have a guardian angel," Colette told her after providing both of them with some fresh blankets.

"I wouldn't exactly call myself that but yeah, I'm glad I was there," Sora replied sitting down next to the still shivering Luna. Colette smiled before heading upstairs.

"Why were you there anyway? Were you stalking me?" Luna asked with a mischievous smile.

"What? No! I mean, I was wondering where you'd went after the whole thing with Astra. Kairi told me you said you wanted to spend some time alone to think and I guess the first place I thought of that you'd be was our spot," Sora explained. He gazed into the flickering flames and admired their beauty for a while. Luna followed.

"I'm scared," she began. "Because it seems like our futures are so uncertain. I don't know what's happening to me Sora. I feel like there's something changing inside me, like sometimes my body isn't my own. I knew my parents weren't there, I knew… but I wanted to believe it. I can't believe I'm saying this but, I don't know who I am, and I'm afraid."

"You've been through a lot Luna, yet you've always managed to pick up the pieces and continue living. That's who you are…" Sora paused and looked at Luna with a pained expression. He wanted to tell her about what Desiree told him, about Yeul's prophecy, but he couldn't. He wouldn't risk her worrying over him even more than needed and personally he did not quite believe it. The idea that he would be responsible for the worlds' destruction seemed hilarious… but what if it was true? "I think there's something inside me changing too. When we've seen the things we've seen, it's hard to stay the same, but I think this time I've seen too much."

"What do you mean?" Luna asked.

"I've never looked at a problem and said that it couldn't be handled before. I've always made it seem like it was easy to just get back up and continue on with life. Maybe it's because those problems were never really my problems but others', and now that I've come across my own problem I don't know how to face it. I thought I could do the same thing I usually do, just go on living my own life. I wanted to show them that I wasn't going to let them threaten me and keep me from doing what I do, but I was lying to myself," Here he stopped to let out a defeated laugh before continuing. "I didn't want to admit it but the truth is I am scared. While I was fighting Desiree, if you can even call it that, I felt hopeless and impotent. I could only see my worst nightmares ahead and I hoped she would end the torture and kill me. I hoped, Luna. I never want to feel that way again."

"I'm so sorry…" Luna looked downwards apologetically.

"It's not your fault, but mine for not taking this seriously enough. All I know is that what I have now, it isn't enough. I need to be stronger. I need something… more," Sora said.

"You are the strongest person I know Sora. Not just physically but you have a good heart as well. Shouldn't that be enough?" Luna asked.

"I wish it were, and it should be, but it isn't, not when you want to survive," he replied turning his eyes to the flames once again. If they had declared war on him, he would fight back.

* * *

As rain splattered against the roof of The Poison Apple creating the sounds of soothing pitter-patter inside its walls, Neuge took another swig of her sake and set the glass down. She traced her index finger around the clear glass while looking at the bartender.

"Back where I'm from, they had goblets that you drank from instead of clear glass like this. Believe it or not, it actually interferes with the taste of the liquor. I much prefer this any day of the week. You have some nice glasses, of that I applaud this place," she said winking.

"I'd be interested in seeing these goblets of yours. I guess you're from another world then, huh?" the Bartender replied. At Neuge's raised brows as to how he knew about the other worlds, he went on to explain. "The whole town knows. No one would have believed that such a thing was possible and then Leon up and tells us out of nowhere. Came as quite a shock it did but it explains all the weird stuff happening. He said he wanted a town with no more secrets unlike what we had in the old days. I respect that."

"Believe it or not, you need to have secrets. Some things are really best left unsaid," Neuge finished her drink. "And I really need to ask, does this bar have to have such bad lighting. I'm thinking it-" Here she leaned in and whispered, "tends to invite more of your… shady patrons."

"Some things are best left unsaid, that rule applies to you too," the bartender said.

"Of course, by no means am I telling you how to run your bar…" Neuge trailed off and smiled innocently.

"But… you want a job here right?"

"Oh yes please. I can be your bouncer if you'd like," Neuge said in a flirty tone.

Before the bartender could respond, the door opened again and two kids rushed in and quickly closed the door behind them. Neuge looked behind her and immediately turned away in regret.

"I'm guessing you know them. They yours?" The bartender asked in jest.

"Me and kids? I'd first rather be the hellspawn of a bunch of baboons," Neuge said and finished the rest of her sake just as Sora and Luna took seats next to her.

"How old are you two? I'm not so sure you should be here," the bartender said while Neuge continued to ignore the two.

"Don't worry, we'll only be here for a while… this place could use better lighting, don't you think?" Luna asked.

"Told you," Neuge enunciated articulately. The bartender shook his head before taking Neuge's empty glass and walking off into the back. "I'm sorry to hear about what happened to you."

"It happened," Sora admitted. "The question is what happens now? I can't just keep moving ahead like nothing happened. I need to become stronger."

"All the more power to you brother," Neuge said watching as the rain beat down on the window next to her. Why did she have a feeling she knew where this was going?

"And you offered to train me before, so will you do it, and Luna too?" Sora asked.

Neuge rolled her eyes and met Sora's eyes. "Nope," she said quickly before looking up at the menu.

"Huh? But isn't that why you're here? You even said-"

"Yes, about that. Do you happen to remember when I said it?" Neuge asked.

"Before Luna woke up."

"Riiiight and you rejected my offer. Now at that point I was pretty reluctant to help but I put aside my need to find a good bar for your sake. Now, I've found a good bar, albeit one with pretty bad lighting but a bar nonetheless. I'm still reluctant about teaching a bunch of kids who shouldn't even be fighting in the first place and I don't think I'm in the best position to help you. Why don't you help me pick a drink? I really can't decide what to have next."

Sora shook his head and slammed both hands on the table loudly causing those nearby to stop what they were doing and look at him, but he didn't care. "Why are you being like this? I know I refused your help… I know, but I can't let these people hold a pendulum above my head for the rest of my life. I need to be able to protect myself… we both need to be able to protect ourselves," he swiftly corrected looking at Luna. "And if I just happen to be discovered missing or even worse it will be on your conscience."

"Are you threatening me? Know your place Keyblade Master. If you want to win a person's heart, threatening them is not exactly the best way to achieve that aim."

Sora nodded at this and looked at Luna thoughtfully. When she shook her head he turned back to Neuge. "I'm sorry and I really didn't mean for it to come off as a threat. It's just… I want to live and I want to be able to smile again. It's like you say. I have problems too that I shouldn't be having and they're ones that I've only been able to tackle because I've had my friends beside me. Alone, I'm no one and when Moira's Crescent realizes that, they'll take advantage of it. I want to be able to live a normal life but I can't, not when I have the sword of Damocles hanging above my head."

Sora kept his expectations down as he tried to figure out Neuge. Ironically, Sora had known Nobodies that had shown more emotion on their sleeve than her. She looked physically drained and pale. Her hair had changed from when he had last seen her to black hair with blue streaks here and there. Her mouth soon crawled into a smile and she turned to look at them both.

"We start after breakfast, both of you."

Sora and Luna exchanged gleeful looks with one another. "Thank you so much, you won't regret it," Sora said.

"Now we wouldn't mind a 'Congratulations, you won my heart', or something like that," Luna added.

"Hey, I told you I'd train you, don't push it. You haven't won anything yet until you prove to me you deserve it. And you can start by going to sleep right now and leaving me to driiii- I mean, make some preparations," Neuge said drumming her fingers on the counter.

"Yes ma'am. Also, I'd try the Jack Frost. Sounds like fun," Luna suggested looking up at the menu before leaving along with Sora. Neuge let out a dismissive snort and followed up on Luna's pick with the bartender. A boy that had once been a Heartless and a girl who had part of one inside her… it was a train wreck in waiting that not even Neuge could look away from.

* * *

A heavenly ray shone down from the three small circular stained glass windows above and shone down on Sora as if today were his lucky day and it was he who had been chosen to undertake some glorious quest. Of course he wasn't the only one. He had his friend Luna right beside him, who was just as eager to begin training as he was.

Over the course of the night, his sight had not been haunted by nightmares of death as they had previously, but of the possibilities of what Neuge would teach them. He realized that he had never been this excited and determined to learn something and become stronger before. He had just barely taken his Mark of Mastery test seriously.

Merlin and the three good fairies had taken them to a large training hall in an unknown location for Neuge to train them. Neuge had told them of how the place reminded her of her old home but as per her coldness only short waves of her inner thoughts reached the shore that Sora and Luna stood on.

Neuge paced back and forth before stopping short and summoning her Keyblade. She held it up in front of her and gave it a thorough yet uninterested look.

"I don't think you'll disagree with me saying that this weapon is your life. We were entrusted them, whether by some twist of fate or by rite of passage. To me it's just a memory, and to you, the future unfortunately. If you think you're automatically going to be able to take on the world singlehandedly after I've taught you then you need to discard such thoughts immediately. I can only give you the tools you need to survive. It's up to you as to whether and how you want to use them. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Master!" The two both exclaimed in unison.

"Throughout most of your training you'll be separated. I think it helps if we work at your own individual strengths, but that's not to say I won't pair you up from time to time. After I'm through with the both of you, you might be able to handle more than one enemy at once on your own, but teamwork is still essential to a seamless victory," Neuge explained. She dismissed her Keyblade and looked from Sora to Luna before continuing. "We're going to start with something that's quite important albeit unorthodox in Keyblade training. In order to survive you must fight with a clear mind, unclouded by trivial thoughts and reacting rationally to the situation before you. That's why for the first few days you'll be practicing meditation with me along with some basic sparring techniques individually."

"Meditation? I'm not really sure that's me," Sora put forward uneasily. "Also, isn't it natural to let your heart lead you in battle? Trivial thoughts or none, they're a part of who I am and what I'm feeling at the moment. It's always worked for me when I was fighting."

"Oh, is that why you lost then?" Neuge asked. "Because it's your heart, you think it will eventually lead you down the right path? Think like that and you really don't stand a chance. Hearts don't win fights, common sense does."

"But they do make us who we are, right? That's something we can't fight against," Luna mentioned in disagreement. Sora flashed a smile her way watching as she seemed briefly pleased with herself before quickly reminding herself that she was in the presence of a glaring Behemoth.

"Well I'm not here to debate philosophy and I certainly wouldn't be going to a bunch of kids to talk about it. You can think whatever you want but my own experience has taught me how fragile the heart is."

It was hard trying to place Neuge. Luna would have described it as something out of one of her mystery novels and Sora was quite inclined to agree. He sensed some animosity in regards to the Keyblade and was unable to fully trust anyone. Heck, from what Riku had told him about her when they had first met, he had basically come across her in a pub. Naturally, it was the first place Sora thought of to find and ask her to train them so when he entered The Poison Apple he rolled his eyes at how easy it had been to track her down. He would have a lot of time while he was under her wing to find out about her, but the question was how much she would let him know about her.

"If there are no more interruptions, we'll start with some simple breathing exercises…"

* * *

Salome leaned over the railing of the balcony and stared up at the full moon. Her small stature had her jumping up and balancing her arms on the railing to get a good look. The door suddenly opened behind her startling her. She lost her balance and was sent backwards onto the balcony floor.

"Oh, I didn't think you'd be here Ma chérie. My apologies, I just needed some fresh air," Desiree said helping the girl up before leaning against the railing herself. "I'm surrounded by imbeciles, I swear. Now they all hound on me like I am some rabbit in a fox den. I do not need Jill of all people telling me how to do my job."

"You did kind of go against Kohle's orders and to boot even when you had him in your grasp you kinda let him go. Weren't you the one who said 'a cat does not catch a mouse with its paws only to set it free seconds later' or something like that? Sounds a bit hypocritical if you ask me," Salome reminded her.

"Urgh, forget what I said. I do think I was justified in my actions. I do not think he is the one who will bring ruin to the worlds. I do not see how the boy I fought could even scratch Xehanort or Kyle let alone defeat them. I do not believe it for one second!" Desiree folded her arms in reaction to the chilly weather and started swerving from side to side gently.

"He does seem like a nice boy but there's little doubt it's him. He has his friends by his side, that's what makes him strong, though I'd be lying if I didn't think some of that power wasn't also his own. I just think that he's fought so much for his friends that he hasn't found a reason to fight for himself. Either way, we should focus on our other problem for now," Salome said. "The moon's rather beautiful tonight isn't it? I see good things coming our way."

"What are you, a seer?" Desiree joked with a simple smile. Despite her somewhat hardened exterior to most of the members, she did not hide her vulnerable side to Salome or the unearthly kind Rhea. To those who really knew her, Desiree was more often quiet and thinking than harsh and sadistic as she may have often acted. Salome often imagined a Desiree that came out of her shell and acted as she did right now to the others, but that's why it was only in her imagination.

"Okey-dokey, have a goodnight Dessie," Salome wished before skipping off back inside and down the marble hallway. Expensive drapes descended on either side covering the windows that looked out into the courtyard below. She hadn't enquired much into it, but she had remembered Kohle telling her when he had brought her in that the place had once been an academy for Keyblade wielders. Now that she knew more about the old world and the Keyblade War, she wondered how he had come across the academy in the first place, or how had even known who had previously lived here. It was when she asked these questions that she became aware of how little, past the always calm and smiling exterior and anecdotes, she knew about the creator of Moira's Crescent.

She was not even halfway to her bedroom when she came across Alfonso talking to the red riding hood of the family, otherwise known as Jill. Their voices echoed down the long hallway so that Salome did not even have to be close to pick up on what they were saying.

"Must we sit by and watch as Sora continues to desecrate the creed we Keyblade wielders have preserved for generations? The wielders who came before sought to protect the already established borders of the greater world by any means. I don't know about you but I won't allow years of work to go down the drain because of one child. He'll be the very death of our worlds if we do not act soon!" Jill spat from underneath her hood.

"But he's able to make the impossible possible, or so they say. Why, it wasn't so long ago that he defied the odds and defeated Xehanort-"

"With the help of his friends," Jill reminded Alfonso.

Salome grimaced at this and decided to intrude on their conversation at that moment. "As if we've never called on the strength of each other before Jilly. And where were we when all this was happening? We picked the wrong time to fall asleep. If anything you should be thankful there was someone else there to save the worlds when we couldn't."

Jill shook her head. "That was never in doubt. And you can't blame Kohle's decision as none of us could have known that the boy the prophecy spoke of would have appeared so soon. We saw a peace that would last for some time and we were no longer needed so we locked ourselves in a different dimension. We were wrong what with the arrival of the Heartless."

"And luckily enough, the seal on the dimension withered away just in time too. A shame I couldn't give old baldy a piece of my mind though," Salome huffed childishly.

"I'd like to take the moment to remind the two of you that I never agreed with the idea in the first place. You should never turn your eyes away from the world or it shall turn its back on you when you need it most," Alfonso uttered sagaciously.

"Must you always ruin the fun? I do honestly anticipate the day you wake up to find a terrible ache throughout your entire body. Isn't that right, Jack?" Jill grinned creepily. She looked to her left shoulder where her pet parrot was perched and stroked its head with her index finger softly. "So how goes the search for Alice?"

Alfonso ignored the usual threat issued by Jill and scoffed. "Terribly as usual. I was on my way to Kohle to report when I overheard you and Desiree arguing."

"You mean you were spying Fonnie?" Salome concluded with a big grin.

"Even if I was, and I wasn't, it was more of a shouting match making it impossible for my inquisitive mind to steer clear. That said when will you cease with those pet names? It's nice to know that not only has your body not aged but your mind neither during the time we were asleep." Though Alfonso appeared stern and annoyed at this, Salome could read faces well, enough to know how abashed he felt at the moment.

"Well I like them soooo I think I'll stick with them," Salome replied sticking her tongue out.

Alfonso furrowed his brows and cleared his throat to move onto a different topic. "I'd have you both get your minds off Sora for the moment. He's truly the least of our worries and I'm not saying that because I underestimate him."

"KRONOS?" Jill asked and both Salome and Alfonso nodded.

"They seek to capture the Princesses of Heart for some reason. That much was confirmed by Astra when she told us about that Ice witch but until we can find out more, I won't be able to write a full report," Alfonso said.

"What else, if not for Kingdom Hearts?" Jill asked.

"There are many things one can do with a Princess of Hearts, and we're only talking about a single one here. If just one of them loses their light, the worlds will lose their own soon enough with it," Alfonso replied.

"But Asty also said that the girl acted as if she hadn't captured Alice. Even if she's telling a lie, the fact that the worlds haven't started losing their light is a good indicator that she's fine, right?" Salome asked with a faint yet hopeful smile. Alfonso squinted as if trying to see something that wasn't there before replying.

"The condition of the worlds is yet to be foreseen. Desiree and myself discussed this much back on our mission at Notre Dame. We know as much as the fog is having an adverse effect on the health of those residing in the world it affects. Astra also used it to travel to the Realm of Darkness in order to save her friend. Ergo, we can surmise that the fog has different properties at any given time. None of these, as you might imagine, can be perceived to be positive. The question is when the fog started appearing and when Alice was kidnapped. If both of these were around the same time then we must assume the worst case scenario."

"Then it's quite simple what we must do. Block KRONOS at every possible path they choose to take. Gather enough information about their members. Finally, and this is my favorite part, we eliminate them," Jill hissed excitedly.

"Today KRONOS, tomorrow, the world! You know you're sounding more and more like a supervillain out of a comic, sheesh…" Salome complained with rolling eyes before letting out a yawn. "Well I think I'm pooped for the day. I'm guessing Kohle will be having a meeting early tomorrow so best get some sleep while I still can... do you guys ever get the feeling, and it may just be me, that Kohle isn't telling us everything?"

"Do you not trust him?" Alfonso asked and Salome shook her head.

"It's not that, just that… you know what? I'm kind of tired anyway so maybe I'm just thinking too much. Well, g'night!" she bid before leaving their presence.

* * *

**Since I was unable to update last week, I think it only appropriate to give you guys a double update today so have fun reading. I particularly enjoyed writing the next chapter so I hope you'll enjoy it!**


	28. The Road to a Smile

**Somewhat more of a Sora-centric chapter this one (with the exclusion of one scene) but it was fun to write so let's get down to the nitty gritty and see what terrifying things Neuge has in store for our hero.**

* * *

**Chapter 28**

**The Road to a Smile**

Days seemed more like hours to Sora and Luna as they concentrated on their training with Neuge. They had fallen into a consistent scheduled regimen with starting breakfast early in the morning at Radiant Garden before being transported back to the training hall by Merlin. Breakfast proved to be Sora's favorite moment as it was really the only time he ever got to see Riku and Kairi. Later on in the evening when his session ended, he was too wiped out to even motion the thought of spending time with them. Luna had it slightly easier, as her separate sessions with Neuge were earlier than his. The gap between breakfast and when his session began was taken up by meditation and practicing his magic with Aqua, Ventus and Terra who had both volunteered to assist in any way possible. It was because of this that he got to see a lot more of the three and even began to learn more about them.

The trio told him stories about how they had bonded over their years of training. Their chemistry with each other easily mimicked his own with Riku and Kairi and only made him mourn for the old days when he could have spent the day with his two best friends without the fear of someone going after him.

Meditation proved a necessary calm for him in order to get his mind off of certain things. It wasn't that he had gotten it down exactly, but it proved a fitting distraction that took his mind off other things. Luna on the other hand, found it much more difficult to meditate but it was anything but her own fault. During one of their meditation sessions, Luna had let out a sudden scream before curling into a ball and crying. Neuge had to end the session and Sora helped to take her back to her hotel room.

"I saw a rhino. It was the rhino from one of my first dreams," Luna had said as she clutched her head and looked down at her sheets. Her face was a ghostly pale complexion and she was trembling. Sora acted on instinct and moved in to hug her. Her shivering stopped immediately and she had relaxed but the event had still left a fear in her mind that was to manifest as an obstacle whenever she tried to meditate afterwards.

When it came to fighting, Sora felt that he had vastly improved and only a week had passed since he had started. Neuge's style was completely different from his and Luna's own and she had taken great pride in implying that they were amateurs every moment she could. Her style was that of a samurai. He was instantly reminded of Auron's fighting style when she had first sparred with him and had consequently let his guard down sending him to the floor, not that he hadn't done so several times before then.

"My style wasn't so much as taught by my Master as it was something that I learned through my own experience. I became interested in samurai teachings and incorporated them into my own style. The code of Bushidō is pretty much equivalent to the virtues a Keyblade wielder, or any fighter for that matter, should have. You can't go from one teaching to another without hearing the same principles. You can't escape them. They are the tenets that a hero should live by."

Sora shied away from the word 'hero'. Even with everyone constantly telling him that he shouldn't beat himself up for Yeul's death, he couldn't forgive himself for what had happened, or what could have possibly happened to Luna. There was no way for him to be truly happy until he was strong enough, he felt. His friends were right about one thing though. He didn't need to beat himself up—Moira's Crescent was already doing that for him.

By the end of his last training session, a definite improvement was starting to show. Neuge had taught him to parry attacks rather than blocking them with the Keyblade (with the exception of last resorts). Sora felt that she had instilled a certain fear of always guarding attacks in him after swatting at his leg each time he did so with her training bamboo sword. It was a painful experience that Sora had certainly learned from, though he would keep secret that at one point Neuge had struck him on the leg so hard that he had started tearing up. He was worried Neuge would hold it as some sort of blackmail though.

"You know your body is made out of 60 per cent of water?" Neuge had said as she moved her arm horizontally to attack Sora's side.

Sora guarded quickly against the incoming attack, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Don't guard, parry!" She yelled swinging his Keyblade in an upward ark. Sora held up his Keyblade up and was knocked back by the impact of metal hitting against metal, "When you drink water, you take it into your system. Oppositely when you get stabbed," She pulled a blindingly quick jab with her Keyblade. Sora shut his eyes quickly and waited but the pain never came. Opening one eye he saw that the Keyblade had stopped just short of his abdomen. "That water leaks from your body."

Sora opened his other eye and blinked, "How did you do that? I didn't even see you go in for the attack."

"Will you be asking that question when you fight your opponents? The only thing you need to know is that I was faster than you in that situation. Those Keyblade wielders may be even faster and they certainly will not give you a hint as to when they'll attack." Neuge retracted the blade from Sora and brought it to the side of her body.

"This is not a weapon. This is an extension of one's self. You may not feel it but the Keyblade can feel you. It can anticipate your every movement from the way you hold the tip of the handle to how you swing the blade and at what direction and what speed you do so and it will act accordingly to that," Neuge slashed her Keyblade downwards before pointing at Sora with her unarmed hand, "But make no mistake, your opponent will do so as well if you make your moves too predictable. That is why I am easily able to dodge your attacks. Make your arms flow like water. At times your attacks may be small but noticeable as a trickle of water moving down the mountain side and at others your attacks will be like a tsunami, hard to manipulate. If you can adapt the ability to change styles when appropriate you will soon become a master of your Keyblade. Your Keyblade is an embodiment of your heart. It's only when you both truly understand one another that you can truly work in sync. If you can't and your enemy can, then you're not using your body effectively. Remember the Keyblade is an extension of yourself, if you get disarmed it's the same as losing the water in your body."

Sora looked down at the Kingdom Key. "The Keyblade senses my feelings," he clarified for himself.

Neuge nodded, "Depending on how you feel at the moment, the Keyblade will either work with you or against you. You must not allow your feelings to overcloud your judgement when it comes to facing someone in battle. That's when you start to make mistakes. That said, I am certainly not saying that you can't carry emotions into battle. But make the Keyblade understand why you are fighting. If its emotions match yours you may find the strength you need."

Sora nodded, "But isn't that relying on luck anyway? I mean for the Keyblade to understand what I'm feeling exactly… am I supposed to talk to it and go 'Hey Keyblade, I'm really in a spot of trouble right now, you wouldn't mind helping me out', or something?"

"Don't be ridiculous. As I've said before if your Keyblade is truly an embodiment of your heart it will recognise your desires, sometimes even before you recognise them yourself." Neuge said.

"That's kinda creepy but I think I get your point," Sora said before lunging forward to strike again.

The key to any victory, Neuge continued, was to throw the opponent off their balance and from there never let them recover by keeping on the offensive. It involved a lot of footwork and moving around, never staying in one particular place. In order to make sure Sora and Luna got that through their heads, Neuge threw books their way for them to study up on the theory behind each technique she taught them. For Luna, she seemed quite engaged in a good read but for Sora, it was a gruelling and demanding chore. It didn't help that the words on the page just seemed like pieces of ink messing with his eyes and mocking him. He was more of a visual learner he found. But when he kept reminding himself what he wanted to be, he was able to endure. He knew it would all be worth it in the end, and he was starting to show results after only a week. He just needed to keep reminding himself of his need to become stronger.

But not everything was improvement for the Keyblade Master. Some things stayed the same such as the dark thoughts in his mind regarding Yeul's death or wanting to deal Desiree the same amount of pain she dealt him. The meditation certainly helped but he couldn't be expected not to think of these things once in a while. While he could distract himself by meditating while he was awake, he was prisoner to his nightmares at night.

Some things were even worse. He didn't know what it was but whenever he tried to greet Namine or even looked at her she would avoid eye contact or would have escaped the room before he could better delve into a conversation with her. At first he wondered if there was something on him, but surely someone else would have told him as much. In the end he concluded she was avoiding him on purpose for whatever reason. It was frustrating because he had no time other than the morning and dinner to trap her and enquire into her sudden change of disposition towards him. She even avoided coming to breakfast and dinner making the job of tracking her down a particularly hard one.

"Do you know what happened to Namine? I feel like she's avoiding me for some reason," Sora asked Riku one morning after taking a bite out of his toast.

Riku stabbed his fork into one of the eggs on his plate and ran the knife's blade down the piece of food before lifting it up and putting it into his mouth. "I'm sure it's in your head. Why would she be avoiding you? OW!"

Riku grimaced in pain while Kairi glared at him. Now that Sora thought about it, Kairi had been acting somewhat differently as well although not to the extent of Namine's actions. Kairi had been giving dangerous looks Riku's way every once in a while and though she tried to hide it, as she was doing now, there was little doubt in Sora's mind that there was something going on that he was not privy to.

"Kairi… is there something wrong with Namine?" Sora asked meeting her eyes directly.

"I… wouldn't know. I can ask her if you want-"

"No, don't bother. I'll ask her myself," he said never looking away from her face. Her eyes and the quick and worried glimpse she had given Riku as soon as Sora had pretended to look back at his plate had told him everything he needed to know anyway. They were definitely in on it.

* * *

Lea brought his arms back to his side after taking out the last wave of Heartless and gave his Chakram one final spin before dismissing both. Quickly he rushed over to the woman's side and offered to help her up. She looked at his hand for a second as if it were some alien object before refusing it and helping herself up. Lea looked at his hands in confusion and the woman laughed.

"Don't worry too much about it, I'm sure you're a nice guy but I'm the kind of stubborn girl that would fall a thousand times and still not ask a man to help her," she said. She had an erotic beauty about her and Lea felt his heart skip a beat. That was certainly one thing missing in his time as a Nobody.

"Stubborn? How about admirable. There's certainly nothing wrong with wanting to do everything yourself, why I'm pretty much doing just that right now anyway," Lea said and she laughed. It was a beautiful laugh of course. Lea was sure that if he kept this up, he would be able to score a date and later be able to brag to Roxas about having a girlfriend. He could just imagine the look on Roxas' face now…

"I'm Esmeralda. I was looking for my husband Phoebus when I was suddenly attacked by those creatures. Heartless, if I remember their names," she explained but there was really only one thing Lea had heard.

Husband...

Lea let out a defeated high-pitched "Huh" before slumping forward and along with his upper body his hopes. "Well I guess there's always next time…"

"What's always next time?"

"Nothing, so what was that problem you had? About your… husband?" Lea asked feeling an utter fool as he stood back up properly.

"Phoebus suddenly took off from our home. Didn't leave a letter or anything indicating where he might have gone, so I came to the cathedral to ask the archdeacon if he'd seen Phoebus recently and I was attacked by the Heartless," Esmeralda told him.

"Maybe he went to buy some milk or something."

"He would have told me as such then. But enough about my troubles. You aren't from around here, are you?" Esmeralda asked.

"Huh, what gives you that impression?" Lea tried to deny with a barely functioning shake but Esmeralda laughed again and held up her hand. She started walking around and analyzing him.

"With those weapons? Please. That and there have been a lot of strange folks around the city lately. As a gypsy, you see things. For example three kids with keys and even more people here and there with similar looking weapons. The prominent one is a strange woman with a lot of make up on her face. Now compared to her, you're not so strange, but you're a stranger nonetheless."

"Masterful deduction," Lea said. "The name's Lea. Say I help you find your husband, can you help me in return?"

"Depends on what you need help with," Esmeralda returned eventually stopping in front of Lea again.

"Claude Frollo's place. Do you happen to know where it is?" Lea asked. This immediately had the adverse effect of causing the playful smile on Esmeralda's face to vanish and he wondered if it was too late to take back the question.

"He's dead. But I'm curious. Why did you want to see him?"

"Not him, his house. It's difficult to understand so I need you to trust me on this one. I just want to see if I can find something," Lea said.

Esmeralda pouted slightly and placed one hand on her hip. "You've found it actually." She gestured over to one of the houses by the far corner of the square. Its defiled door and smashed windows spoke harsh tales of its late owner's reputation in the area.

"I'm hoping someone else didn't get to what I was looking for, of course when I don't even know exactly what I'm looking for, that makes me slightly more hopeful," Lea murmured sarcastically.

The gods up on Olympus had done their best to aid him in his quest to gather information on the puzzle box despite their petty sibling nuisances. The box was incredibly ancient and though the gods could not put a precise date on when it was made, they arrived at the conclusion that it was not made by any magic, but alchemy. Having no idea what alchemy was, Lea had reluctantly returned to the person he wanted to see least. As expected, Even had taken great pleasure in mocking him first and rambling of his superior intellect before telling him what he needed to know.

Riku, who had emerged from the computer room after interrogating Astra, stopped and listened to Even's explanation before making his presence known to them.

"It's funny you bring that up actually. Kairi's been obsessed with the topic lately, that and some other place called Atlantis," he had said to them.

"Atlantis? Impossible! Inconceivable! That simply cannot be!" Even yelled. He strutted back and forth furiously across the room.

"I'm sorry if I should know about this too, but can anyone clue me in on what this Atlantis is?" Lea asked.

"A withered relic lost to the ocean's depths long ago, or so the fairy tales say. A most brilliant and unusual city advanced far beyond its years. Even I was once swept away by its beauty and tried my hand at finding it, but it was all for naught because it's just fiction."

"Maybe, but someone I know didn't seem to think so," Riku said before revealing the name that had brought Lea to the city of lights.

"I'm coming with you, you know? There's no way I can pass up this chance to find out what's going on," Esmeralda said hooking her hand around his arm. Lea coughed with his other hand to hide his embarrassment.

"I didn't have any intention of leaving you behind," he lied. He would have preferred to examine the room in quiet and not with a beautiful woman who happened to be married staring at him or asking questions but he would just have to be quick about his business.

Arriving at an unhinged door was a relief for Lea. It meant that he didn't have to break it in himself since someone had already done for him. Regardless, he kept his hopes down about what he would find as he and Esmeralda entered the dusty residence. The place was unkempt and devoid of life. Ashes permeated through the rotten wood of what would likely have been a constantly lit fireplace. Thick dust coated the room and its objects and immediately any idea of him searching the place in some record time left his thoughts.

"I don't know about you but I'd rather not be here any longer than I have to. You say you don't know exactly what you're looking for but you must have some idea. I'll try to help you," Esmeralda offered.

"Well, you might not have heard of it but if you're sure you want to get involved, I'm looking for anything to do with alchemy. From what someone told me it seemed this guy dabbled in that stuff so if you're able to find anything around here, that would be helpful," Lea told her.

"Alchemy? I've never heard of it but I'll see what I can find." Before Lea could even begin to thank her, she was already smacking away the dust and opening up her first book. He smiled at this and followed her efforts by starting with the pile of books and papers scattered across the floor.

Claude Frollo was one lulled into the most odd of fascinations, Lea soon found. Various texts lay strewn on the floor, some dated much older than others. Some had various illustrations of unknowable symbols that had been annotated by its owner but even they were useless to a novice's eyes who found little worth in the terminology.

"Lea, I think I might have found something," Esmeralda called and he looked up just in time to see the book thrust into his face. "He really was nuts. He marked this page down in particular out of anything else in the book."

"An elixir of life," Lea read. "With the ability to provide longevity and youth, in other words, immortality? Can't say I've never dreamt of it but that's why dreams are dreams and reality is reality."

"He also wrote something at the bottom. _Atlantis_. What do you think it could mean?" Esmeralda asked.

"It means we're on the right track. I'm going to hazard a guess here and say that he believes that this elixir of life is found in Atlantis," Lea said before laughing out loud.

"Something funny I should know about?" Esmeralda asked.

"It's just that when I was a kid I would never have dreamt of going on wild goose chases like this, and yet right now I feel as if this I'm more a kid than I ever was growing up. When I was a kid I'd pretend I was going on these sorts of adventures and now I'm actually doing it," he answered.

"I'm a bit different in that regard I suppose. I've known adventure my whole life primarily because of who I am. We gypsies seldom like to stay cooped up in pens. This city is our adventure from the depraved alleys to the bells of Notre Dame, there's always something to be found," Esmeralda said.

"I can see that. You seem pretty free-spirited compared to most of the folks around here," Lea complimented before compiling a few of the books including the one Esmeralda had given him neatly on top of each other. "Even's gonna have a field day with this, that's for sure."

* * *

Sora couldn't concentrate enough to meditate. Not when Neuge had asserted herself as the domineering hound over the obviously tired and stressed Luna. Each time Neuge ordered her to do this or that, Sora felt himself growing impatient at Neuge's lack of care. She hadn't even wanted to take them in initially and she probably still didn't now. What was it to her if she continued to hurt Luna's feelings without regard as long as the day was over and she could have herself a nice drink at the bar?

"Concentrate, it really isn't that hard."

"I'm trying."

"Not enough clearly."

In frustration Sora was out of his sitting pose and standing up in no time flat. "Can't you see that she's tired? Give her a break!" he shouted at her. Neuge's attention switched from Luna to Sora and she walked up slowly to him. It was her silence that spoke more than words than words ever could as usual.

"Luna is not what you should be focusing on. Concentrate on your task at hand Sora," Neuge said. Ignoring the fact that that was probably the first time she had ever said his name, at least in his presence, he planted his feet firmly on the ground and never averted his gaze.

"How can I when you keep demanding so much from her? I get it. You're perfect. You must have pinned it down so easily when you first started. But unlike you, most people aren't. We make mistakes, we get tired, we find it harder to concentrate when there's something on our mind. It's why we're human, and you're not."

It seemed he had gone a bit too far with the last comment because Neuge's face seemed to all at once display a plethora of human emotions that he had thought she wouldn't have been capable of. There was anger, sadness and worse, one that Sora had come to synonymize himself with other the last few months, suffering.

"Listen, I don't give a damn about what you want to call me. You want human? Then recognize your own mortality and wait patiently for your death. I may not be most people, but I am myself and I know what it's like to bear your humanity on the brink of an inhumane world and I'm sure you know what it's like too by now. So call me human, call me a Heartless if you want, but at least I survived the hell I was put in because of it."

But Sora refused to listen to anymore. It was as if some rebellious streak had taken over him that had finally allowed him to see reason, or maybe it was guiding him to irrationality. He had no idea which, all he knew was that he was angry. "What works for you does not work for us. You want to give up on humanity, that's fine. But we're not like you." Having said his piece and realizing shortly thereafter that he had messed up any possible chance of her wanting to train him, he turned and left through the large double doors.

It became clear as he traversed its halls that Sora did not really know the place at all. He had only been using the one room with Neuge and Luna to train so it wasn't that surprising that he found himself easily lost most of the time. He soon encountered what he had first thought was a broom closet only to find as he peered into the corner of this not very spacious room that there were stairs ascending upwards.

The tinge of curiosity outweighed his feelings of being lost and he soon found his feet carrying him upwards to the apex of the building he was in. He pushed open the door at the end of the very long flight of stairs and was greeted by a grand landscape of green stretching out beyond the horizon.

He was in a castle, it seemed, as he looked down at the white limestone that kept the infrastructure together. It was certainly a long way to fall. He leaned against the balcony and took in the full beauty of the scenery.

"I just knew you'd be here."

Sora looked behind in surprise to see Luna eyeing him with a lopsided smile. "How?" he asked.

"This probably might surprise you Sora but I've explored this place a fair more than you have. This was where I stayed the longest too, just admiring everything," she replied leaning on the balcony too.

"It is beautiful," Sora remarked sadly. He looked down at his hands.

"What you did for me back there? I appreciate it, I really do but it's nothing to make enemies out of. In all honesty I haven't been feeling like myself ever since I left the Realm of Darkness. I feel… well, I'm not sure and that's what's worrying me," Luna began.

"And can't she see that? She has some sort of grudge against Keyblade wielders and she's taking it out on you for no reason," he responded bitterly.

"Do you think she's a bad teacher?" Luna asked.

"I don't know. I find it weird that Yen Sid picked her to train us instead of himself. I guess she has a rather… interesting view of the world that you wouldn't find anywhere else," Sora said. "But a good teacher wouldn't allow their views to come in the way of their teaching in the first place, right?"

"I'm not a teacher," Luna pointed out.

"Yeah, I guess you wouldn't know," Sora chuckled. "You should get some rest though. Take a few days off so you'll be good as sunshine when you come back."

"And let you surpass me? I don't think so," Luna said. The smile from her face faded and she watched as a flock of birds flew over them. She soon looked back at Sora. "This place is fake you know?"  
"Huh? Whaddya mean?" Sora blinked wildly at this sudden drop of information.

"According to Merryweather, we're in a… bubble outside of the real world. This entire place is a recreated construct of Aurora's world from the three fairies' memories. The interior is a bit different though since they only imagined the exterior," Luna explained.

"Neuge must have something to do with it. She did mention how this place resembled her own home… wait, does this mean we're inside the three fairies' mind right now? That's kinda creepy," Sora said.

"If we are then it just shows how amazing magic is. Everything here from the sights and sound to the touch isn't real," Luna said before gawking. "Are we even standing on solid ground?"

"Oh please don't go there, you're gonna make me sick." Sora laughed despite his words and Luna quickly joined in.

"You're right, we've had enough illusions for one lifetime," Luna said referring to Abraxas.

Sora nodded. "She told me his name before all this was Kyle. Desiree, I mean. Not that I care. I only knew him as a twisted and horrible person and that's all he'll ever be. He's hardly defined by his name," he said. Luna was about to reply when she noticed Neuge standing behind them still inside the tower.

"Luna, you don't mind if talk to him for a second do you?" Neuge asked. Luna shook her head in response and returned downstairs leaving Neuge and a lukewarm Sora. He kept his eyes on the greenery as she moved closer to him.

"I'm not going to apologize. I'm not very good at words and I hate it when a person apologizes only to never mean it. It's happened too much to me in the past for me to let it go. It's too late for me," Neuge said.

"It's never too late. You just won't try," Sora responded drearily.

"Maybe you're right, or maybe you aren't. Either way I've come here to tell you that you give Luna too little credit. I was tough on her, maybe more than I should have been, but I won't take it back either. I wouldn't have pushed her the way I did if I didn't believe she could overcome it. Her fear is one that sits there eating away like a parasite through her light until there's nothing left. It's a fear I know all too well," Neuge told him.

"What happened?" Sora asked. When Neuge looked away, Sora moved around and trapped her. "Oh come on, you can't just leave it like that now. Don't you think we deserve to hear it?"

Neuge smiled at him, a genuine first. "Good things come to those who wait," she said. Taking it as a promise, Sora smiled back before bowing respectfully.

"I… I'm sorry Master. My anger got the better of me and… it's just that I've been so frustrated lately, with everything. I just want to be able to smile again, no deceiving myself. I'm sorry, and I really do mean it," he admitted. He was thankful he could easily look past his pride in matters like these or he would have gotten himself in a lot more trouble by now.

"I believe you, enough with the formalities already, I'm not deserving of that kind of respect." Neuge laughed and watched as Sora straightened back up before continuing. "But it would be best to compartmentalize your thoughts of anguish and joy. If you let them manifest as one then it will end up manipulating your actions, and then it will destroy you, like it almost did me," she said. For a moment, Sora thought she was going to say something else. Then he realized it was Neuge.

* * *

Sora watched from afar as Namine came out of Merlin's bookshop. In her hand was her sketchpad, her handy utility that could never be separated from its owner, or at least that was the impression Sora got from the way she clung to it.

Namine turned and began walking his way. Sora quickly slipped over to the nearby building to hide, waiting until she had passed him before he began following her. It hurt him to have to spy on one of his friends like this, but he was past the point where he could just sit on his hands and do nothing. It wasn't a question of wanting to know, but of needing to know.

They eventually arrived at the park just outside of the hotel. Making sure there was no one else around, Sora finally chose to jog up to her and give her a light tap on the shoulder. The frightened Namine flinched at the sudden touch and spun around to look at him.

"Sora! I almost jumped out of my own skin. Stop laughing, it's not funny," Namine implored as Sora let out a round of laughter at her response.

"I've heard of a snake shedding their skin, but a Namine too? Now that would be interesting," Sora joked. All this banter made it easier to catch her off guard with his next question anyway. As he spoke to her for the first time in what felt like a lifetime, he tried to ignore the overwhelming feeling that was stirring in his stomach. He thought he was done with this by now but the feeling would not subside for whenever he had looked Namine's way, he couldn't help but see Yeul in her place. It drove him to question his own sanity on more than a few occasions.

Namine soon seemed to remember her commitment to avoid him and looked away. "I- I sh- should get going n-now," she stuttered clearly uncomfortable being with him. She was about to leave but Sora refused it by grabbing her wrist.

"Wait a minute Namine. I don't understand. Why have you been avoiding me so much lately?" he asked.

"I'm not. I've just… been thinking a lot lately. I need some time alone," Namine responded but it wasn't a satisfactory answer to Sora as he still held onto her.

"You know that's not true and you know I know that's not true. If it were that simple you wouldn't be avoiding eye contact with me right now," he indicated. "If it was something I said or did just tell me, I won't get mad at you if that's what you think."

"I know that, but everything really is fine," Namine falsely promised.

"You're a lot of things Namine, but a liar is not one of them. Why can't you tell me what's wrong? It hurts when you avoid me like this. It's like… you don't trust me." Sora's grip loosened on Namine's wrist allowing her to slip free, but she stayed frozen in her spot looking at Sora.

"I do trust you but I can't tell you because if you knew, I'm afraid it would break you," she told him.

"You know whatever you throw my way I can handle it, right? You saw through as much in Castle Oblivion. I'd love to say right now that we don't need to talk about it and I just want talk to you like normal again, but I can't. It would probably hurt me more not knowing than it would knowing at all so throw everything you got at me. You'll find me to be quite absorbent," Sora said.

"I'm not sure-"

"Tell him Namine."  
A shiver seemed to run down Sora's spine as Kairi walked up to them, she wasn't looking at Sora though but Namine. There was a serious expression on her face resulting in Sora having to second guess his wants and needs.

"Are you sure Kairi?" Namine asked.

"You shouldn't have to do this. None of us should," Kairi answered. Namine nodded thoughtfully before slowly looking up to meet Sora's eyes. He was at the point of no return, he knew that, and he may as well see it through to the end anyway.

"I'm… a seer, and I had a vision that... you're going to die."


	29. Catalyst for Change

**Chapter 29**

**Catalyst for Change**

Astra's head tilted almost unconsciously as she staved off the urge to sleep. She had been counting the days since she had been treated like some prisoner and had been placed in this cell. It was day seven now. A full week. She had of course been well fed by her captors, mainly some way of justifying their humanity she supposed. She wasn't a fool to act the tough girl and deny the food either.

She could at least take appreciation in the fact that she was not alone. Luna came to visit her every day, talking to her about her training with Neuge and the adventures she had been on. It wasn't so much that she was hearing Luna talk that was interesting, but rather just hearing the joy that came from her voice as she spoke that made Astra's day.

"You know what I could really do with right now? Kit's pie. Oh my Kingdom Hearts, I haven't had some in like forever," Astra drooled.

"She always used to send some pumpkin pie to us for Halloween. Absolutely magnificent and it was like it only got tastier each year," Luna replied.

"Oh just make me more hungrier why don't you," Astra said. She fell in the most exaggerated way possible to the floor and let out a big sigh.

"Oh sure, well one Christmas, Aunt Kit made this exquisite strawberry and rhubarb pie and I was like WOW so-"

"It was sarcasm genius." Astra rolled her eyes and sought to stare up at the ceiling.

"I know… Aerith makes some great pies herself though so maybe I can convince her to make some for you. Despite what it looks like, you do have people who are worried for you here. We're just more of a silent majority," Luna informed.

"That may be true, but a silent majority may as well be nothing for what it's worth," Astra dismissed with little enthusiasm in her voice. Luna however seemed determined that she would be able to get something to work.

"We're working on it, or pulling a few strings to make it sound cooler. How are you enjoying your new room by the way?" she asked.

"Oh, it's perfect. At least they gave me a bed to sleep on, that's something. Of course I'm a bit disappointed there's no bucket. We can always swap if you like," Astra proposed and her friend let out a howl of laughter.

"Nice try. Hey, what are you smirking at?" Luna asked as Astra sat up with a massive grin on her face.

"No, I just remembered something. You remember when you thought horoscopes were a real thing? You'd always be looking in the paper just to read both of ours… you don't still believe them, do you?" she asked.

"No, I'd like to think that I've had some choice in all things I've seen, even if I only saw them because of someone else in the first place. It did lead to some pretty philosophical debates between us though like what if we each have a star in the sky and that star is connected to another star, like a soul mate," Luna said.

"Oh, don't remind me. I felt shivers down my neck for days when you told me my star was compatible with Biggs and Wedge's. Those two dunderheads were like creepy twins who followed each other everywhere the other went. And to think they were popular!" Astra complained.

"They reminded me of those two jester looking creeps that I saw when I was in Celes' room. One barely seeming to function without the other," Luna said. "I swear they're like parallels. Using intimidation to threaten and belittle others… I know this might seem like some childish fantasy, but I'd like to think I was given the Keyblade to help others stand up to people like them. I would never want anyone in my situation again. Biggs and Wedge, Abraxas, Maleficent, the Reapers… they all try to use intimidation and fear to control others."

"Do you see yourself in others then? Those you want to protect?" Astra asked.

"I wouldn't say that, I'm just a big loser but I do know what it's like to be alone and think no one is there for you or cares," Luna answered. When looking back on her life so far, she could be proud to say that at least she had Astra when she had no one else at school. At first she had thought their friendship some cunning trick to make fun with her, and she had been rather distant with Astra even though she was nothing but engaging and enthusiastic in getting to know Luna. But she had been wrong. Astra had never once turned her back even when it meant losing in an instant the friendships that had probably taken years for her to build. Sometime Luna wondered if Astra even regretted it but she could never outright ask the question. Even if it was only one person that was there for her, that one person was all she had needed, and now she had so much more than one.

"Here we are talking so normally as if there isn't a bar and door in between us. How long do you think they can keep me in here?"

"Don't worry. I'm already hatching a plan to bust you out in the worst case scenario," Luna joked.

"I'm looking forward to your oh so grand and excellent plan then," Astra snorted in response. She stood back up and lay down on her low bed cupping her hands together and placing them on her slowly rising and sinking chest. Luna couldn't understand why they were so adamant about locking Astra up. She was sure Astra knew that they couldn't keep her there forever and they probably knew that too.

"I have class soon. Professor Neuge sets out her own homework if you can believe it. Who has time to study when there are people to help and worlds to save?" Luna asked with much smugness in her voice.

"You're not usually the one to complain about homework." Astra raised her eyebrows.

"I'm not usually one to complain about reading. It's when I don't have any choice in what I'm reading that I get bored, as they made us do so much back in school," Luna corrected.

"Anyway, I should be off or Neuge is gonna have my head faster than the Queen of Hearts ever could."  
"Wha-?"

"It's a long story," Luna answered while stretching.

"Don't worry, it's not like I have the time for it or anything in here," Astra said sarcastically.

Luna laughed and gave a firm nod. "Touché," she accepted. She waved at Astra before hurrying off down the long corridor. As impatient as Astra was, untrusting she was not especially when it came to her best friend. Astra had been quite patient in searching for her friend and it had eventually paid off, she had told Luna all about it. Now it was Luna's turn to make sure that Astra was safe.

* * *

Sora was despondent for the remainder of the day, an unusual action for the usually talkative teen. Despite reassurances from Kairi and Namine that his fate was not yet set in stone, it already felt as if the world had completely abandoned him for some reason. Any noise that would have been in the foreground seemed to melt away until it became insignificant ambient noise. He felt like a new-born baby learning how to walk for the first time as he became conscious of his own feet and where he was walking. He was so used to being a carefree individual that it was as if for the first time, he had been put in shoes completely foreign to him and was able to see the world in a way he would never have considered otherwise.

But how couldn't they expect him to act differently after dropping a bombshell like that? Well, two actually. The first being that Namine had somehow discovered she was a Seer, to which Sora was baffled by and yet somehow, it wasn't as surprising as it should have been. He had seen Yeul in Namine so many times that this revelation only added to the problem.

It was the news of impending death that had shocked him to the core. He had asked for it so it wasn't like he blamed Namine for telling him, in fact, his own curiosity was certainly to blame, though he had a feeling he would have found out eventually.

His unusual stiffness did not go unnoticed at the start of his joint training session either. At first he wished that Luna would've stopped glancing at him worryingly, so much so that he tried to avoid looking at her before realizing that he was doing the same thing Namine did to him.

"You have to tell me what's wrong later. That's definitely not a face I would expect from you," she whispered as Neuge walked into the room. Of all the things he could talk to Luna about, he wasn't sure this was one thing she needed to here right now.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it," he assured her with a smile that filled him more with guilt than resolution.

Neuge stood in her normal spot and observed them silently making the atmosphere even more uneasy. Had she known about it as well, he wondered?

"I've brought the two of you together again for a lesson that will require both of you to give your all. I'm sure you'll understand once you've accomplished it and as they say it's better to show, not tell. Today, the two of you will be learning how to dance!"

Neuge smirked as Luna and Sora exchanged looks of confusion with one another before both gawking simultaneously.

"Sorry?"

"WHAT?"

"I'm not so sure what you're surprised about. Surely you knew that fighting and dancing are often said to be synonymous with one another. It's all in the timing, the rhythm, the beat of the battle," Neuge explained.

"Th- that's beside the point. I'm not… dancing!" Luna protested.

"Speaking of which, didn't you use to do ballet?" Sora brought up intentionally.

"Even better! You have a starting point and we can all learn from each other!" Neuge grinned like a cheeky kid as a furious blush appeared on Luna's face.

"Well you didn't have to mention it out loud, did you?" Luna mumbled. "Listen, I'm not really sure I can-"

"Don't shut yourself out before you've even tried. You'll understand very quickly that a big part of fighting comes from the teamwork involved. Masterful synchronization… that's what it's all about," Neuge told them.

"Oh dear. I'm still not sure about this…"

"Sounds like fun. Let's give it a try!" Sora exclaimed. Right now, he'd take just about anything that could lift up his spirits. Plus after training so hard for the past few weeks, he was more than ready for a little break.

"That's the spirit Sora. You know, you could learn a lot from him Luna," Neuge said only to receive a mocking scowl in return. The next few hours had both the apprentices finding out how difficult the task was than expected. Sora expecting to joke around and have fun soon came to find out that Neuge expected the same level of dedication for this as all the other training sessions.

He took Luna's fingers into his and paused noticing how warm they were, but at the sight of Neuge watching him, he looked up to meet Luna's eyes and began waltzing to the music, trying to match her movements. It goes without saying that Sora somewhat made the task harder than it had to be given the ginormous shoes he was wearing. Neuge found herself looking down at their feet most of the time and letting out a loud sigh.

"Have you ever considered getting shoes your size?" Neuge asked.

"Hey! They're pretty comfy-"

"Ouch! Sora, watch where you're stepping!"  
"Sorry," he apologized clumsily slightly retracting away from Luna before realizing he was too far to make anything work. He moved closer back in and so set the repeated motion of him having to judge his distance. They both came away from their first session far more exhausted than they thought they'd have been. A beautiful red glow permeated the glass windows of the training hall indicating that it was evening. Time was the one thing that seemed to be the same in this world.

"Wasn't as easier as you'd thought it would have been, huh?" Neuge sympathized, or pretended to anyway.

"Not exactly but I think we're getting there," Sora assured her and Luna nodded in confirmation.

Noticing they both seemed completely winded by their training, Neuge nudged her head. "We're done for today. Go and refresh yourselves for tomorrow."  
"Master, I've been wondering about the strange things that have been happening for a while now and well… I was wondering what you thought about it?" Luna asked before Sora could take a single step. It seemed his relief would have to wait. "I mean I don't think the events are separate, they're occurring too close to another to think that, right?"

Neuge nodded. "It's only natural to come to that conclusion. We as Keyblade wielders choose to separate ourselves from the world and by doing so we disconnected ourselves from our home worlds and from any type of organization. We've served the people to atone for the sins committed by Keyblade users before in us in what I'd say would be our darkest hour. Whereas we are guardians tasked with the protection of the world order, they were warriors steeped in the blood of innocents. Of course in order to break away from the shells of the past we had to step out of the hourglass that is the world. We observe the individual grains of sand from the outside, and while they fall separately, they begin from the same point of origin and end at the same point of destination. A Keyblade wielder should learn that events are effects never without cause. There are no coincidences in fate, and just as it has brought you and Sora together has it connected the chain of events that currently unfolding."  
"Everything is connected…" Sora uttered remembering a particular event that had happened back on the islands before he had begun his first journey. At first he would have said that his going into that cave and meeting that brown cloaked figure had set about what was to happen. Having learned that Xehanort had originally been from the Destiny Islands however had changed his opinion somewhat. Maybe those events had been set in motion even before he had entered that cave. It wasn't like he was the center of the universe.

"But isn't it difficult to remain impartial like that? You're distancing yourself from the problems others face. That can't be a good thing. When others have problems, you need to be there for them in their time of need. You can't just abandon them," Luna countered.

"I never said those were my opinions. They're simply what someone has told me, and what I have passed on to you. It's up to you to read between the lines of those words and that's different for everyone. But you're right, and perhaps that's what compelled others to do the things they did. Because they were unsatisfied with the way we were doing things," Neuge said.

"You mean like Xehanort and Abraxas?" Sora asked.

"Not that they were right, but they weren't wrong either otherwise they'd have never come to their conclusions in the first place," Neuge said. "But you also have to realize that sometimes interfering in others' affairs makes them worse off than they were before you intervened. It's a question of picking and choosing, but I… I swear if you tell Yen Sid about this I will kill you both, but I've had a change of heart. I do think that you two are different somehow. I know you'll come to the right decision when it counts and… maybe you two will be the catalyst for the change we need."

At this Sora and Luna grinned at each other, not because of what she had said but because it seemed like Neuge was warming up to them.

"Couldn't resist our charms after all, huh?"

Neuge rolled her eyes at Sora's comment. "Hey, you're this close to being on the receiving end of a Neuge noogie."

"What in the world is a… on second thought, I don't even want to know," Sora dismissed with waving hands.

* * *

Arriving back in Radiant Garden, Sora and Luna both came across Donald lecturing Kairi on advance forms of magic.

"If you're fighting a Fat Bandit, what magic would be most effective?"

"Fire?" Kairi replied to Donald's question noticing the other two behind Donald.

"_Quack_?! NO! Ice. It's a fire elemental. I don't even understand how you could get that wrong. Even Goofy could get that right," assessed a flabbergasted Donald.

"Well, how else are you supposed to burn all that fat silly?" Kairi said with a playful grin.

"…I can't tell if you're joking or not, and I thought Sora was bad. Did he pick it up from you or vice versa?"

"No, I'm being totally serious. I really did think that fire spewing Fat Bandits would be weak to fire."

"Uh huh… and I'm done here. _Ach! _Sora, Luna!" Donald exclaimed upon turning to leave.

"And a duck's weakness? Well, the magic of sarcasm works pretty well I'd say," Luna said.

"Hey guys. He's just advising me on a few things for my training but he seems to think I've never used magic before in my life," Kairi told them.

"He must want you to be his esteemed protégé Kairi," Sora said. Kairi's eyes stayed on Sora's with a worrying look. And here he thought he could forget so easily. Except that he did, because the next person, or people, that the four encountered turned out to be a complete shocker.

"Mulan? What are you doing here?" Donald called, alerting the others to their old friend along with five other girls that Sora had never seen before.

"Hello everyone. I was chosen by Yen Sid to protect these five here. I would've have tried to find you sooner but he told me that it would look too suspicious if we were to hang out," Mulan explained. "I'm kind of undercover at the moment no less so I'm sure you'll understand."

"That explain why you look so different Mulan," Donald said. She was wearing similar matching everyday attire to what most in people in Radiant Garden wore. "But who are they?"

Mulan watched as the five girls giggled behind her. "You can't tell? I guess the magic really must be effective. Then again, you and Sora weren't exactly the best when it came to seeing others for who they really are so… what do you think Luna?"

"Hmm? Why would I know…?" After squinting though, Luna came up with a very different answer. "Jasmine? Is that you?"

"We're looking pretty different, aren't we?" Jasmine's use of the description 'pretty' didn't exactly paint a full picture. Jasmine and the other Princesses had gone through radical transfigurations to hide their appearances. Other than facial structure, skin tone, the color of their pupils and voice, they would have otherwise been unrecognizable.

"We were told it was for our own protection. The worlds are in danger once again and Alice has gone missing," Belle said.

"So Yen Sid brought you here to make it easier to guarantee your safety. Well I have to say, the disguises certainly are working. You had me fooled for a second there. I probably wouldn't have even made the connection if you hadn't asked me to," Luna said.

"We do our best to surprise, not that we've revealed anything to anyone else. That would be bad, oh! Except for Riku of course," Snow White said.

"Riku knew? When?" Sora asked.

"Why, it was about a week ago. Didn't he tell you?" she asked.

Sora froze up at Snow's question before grinding his teeth together. "No. He didn't say a single thing."

"So how are you enjoying your stay in the garden then?" Kairi asked Mulan.

"It was quite the… culture shock. I knew that you guys weren't from around where we lived but to think you travelled all over and saw places like this…wow!"

Luna laughed. "That was my reaction too, and then some. How's Mushu by the way?"

"He actually came with me. I told him that it would be weird for people to see a talking lizard walking about and then after promptly reminding me he was a dragon he followed me anyway. I imagine he's sleeping next to a warm fireplace right about now," Mulan said.

"Sounds like Mushu. Listen, hate to dash on you but I just remembered I promised to help Colette with something. Was nice seeing you all again," Sora said before taking off in a hurry.

Luna watched him run off, surprised at the sudden commitment and hurry before turning to Kairi.

"Hey Kairi… did Sora seem a little distracted today to you?" she tilted her head thoughtfully.

"He didn't- um, I mean, I didn't notice anything," Kairi said. It was as if she had suddenly changed her answer on the fly by her switch of tone. "But I'm sure whatever it is, he needs some time alone to figure things out. The last few months have been hard on him."

But Luna wanted to know. She couldn't stand to see pain on the face of someone who was an inspiration for her. She wanted to follow, but by the time she had decided to do so, Sora was long gone.

* * *

Sora arrived at the computer room in Ansem's study and searched the desks in the room until he had found the thing he was looking for. He was not going to Colette's house to help, and he hadn't even promised to help her with anything. It had all been a lie to cover up the fact that he was coming here.

"Greetings Sora. How are you doing today?" The one person he was afraid of coming across spoke to him.

"Hey Tron. How many times do I have to tell you? No need to be so formal, it sounds all wrong. Just say hey or howdy!" Sora told him while looking at the door that led down into the dungeons.

"Howdy? I've not quite heard that one I'm afraid," Tron said with an added laugh.

"You get the point. I'm sure you have plenty of time to go through a thesaurus and find a few words that'll make you sound more hip."

"Hm, I think I'll try that," Tron agreed.

"Say Tron, you think you can open up the door to the castle basement? I need to talk with Astra," Sora said.

A buzz was heard followed by a clicking sound leading to the door on his right sliding open with a calm hiss. He gave Tron his thanks before descending down the stairs. When he eventually reached the bottom of the long flight of stairs, Sora's shaky and unhinged thoughts became steadfast and clear as they were when he had first made his decision.

He made his way down the long white corridor and stopped just outside Astra's cell, simply watching her. Eventually she noticed him and sat up from her bed looking back.

"When I look at you, why do I always feel so angry?" Sora asked. "I think it's because you'd go so far as to defend Moira's Crescent. Do they mean so much to you that you don't value your own freedom?"

"What's it to you?" she eventually replied.

"And there's that too. You hate me and I'm not sure why. I feel like I should know more about you since your Luna's friend but you don't seem to want that."

"Disappointment most of your life will do that to you, you'll find."

"Disappointment? Such as…?"

"Nice try detective," Astra said with a small smile.

"Had to try," Sora said. "So the reasons you don't like me, I at least deserve to hear that. You've said before that you didn't trust me to protect Luna, and you were right. I don't trust myself either, but I'm getting stronger. But I don't think that's everything… Desiree told me about the vision Yeul had."

"Then you know why they're coming for you."

"Do the visions… do they always come true?" Sora found it particularly hard to ask this question.

"I'm not sure. I guess you'll find out eventually… or not." Astra kept her eyes fixated on him with a blank stare as she spoke.

"How do I find them?"

"That's not how it works. If anyone will be doing the finding, it's them. But you know that already of course," Astra said in a low voice.

Sora growled before rushing forward and giving the door a swift kick causing Astra to jump at the sudden action in surprise. He grabbed onto the bars and gave her an intense stare. "I'm not here to play games with you and right now I really couldn't give a- I don't care what you think of me. I won't live my life out of fear, and I won't be a slave to a silly prophecy. Give me a straight answer NOW!" Sora ended in a furious roar that echoed throughout the hall.

"So this is person who wants to protect my friend. Now I know. You'd go so far as to lead her to her death through your silly crusade," Astra said albeit shakily. "I think you're the one who needs to think about who exactly is playing games here."

Sora looked down at the floor before resting his forehead on their nearby wall. How far would he have been willing to go, he wondered, if she hadn't brought up Luna? Why did he feel so constantly angry and stressed nowadays? Despite the meditation he took during the mornings and just before bed, it did little to improve his mood especially when things like this happened.

He dug into his pocket and pulled out the object he had retrieved from the desk earlier. He guided the key towards the door's keyhole and twisted, hearing the responding click to indicate the door was open. He gave the door a push and walked into the cell.

Astra gave him a puzzled look. "What are you doing?"

"Getting you out of here," he said looking anywhere but directly at her. "Or would you prefer to stay here?"

"What are you playing at?"

"Nothing."

"Then why are you doing this?"

"I don't really know myself. Maybe because you shouldn't be here. Moira's Crescent must really mean something to you if you're willing to remain silent like this. I don't understand it but you do, and that's enough for me. I know what it's like to put others before myself first. That's what you do for friends so… I can't stop you. I don't have the right when I've been such a bad friend myself," he answered.

Astra frowned at this before standing tall and stretching. "How did you open the door anyway? Riku told me Keyblades wouldn't work."

Sora showed her the small key in his hand before pocketing it again. "I'm sure I'm going to wake up to a list of endless questions tomorrow since all the security cameras are going to spot us. I've been quite the troublemaker today, all for you."

"Well I'd be lying if I said I didn't appreciate it. Let's get going then!" With that said Astra followed Sora all the way back up the stairs and into the computer room.

"Sora, is everything okay? What is Astra doing with you?" Tron asked from the computer speakers.

"The computer knows my name?" Astra whispered at Sora.

"It's one of those new-fangled technical thingies, you know what security is like these days," Sora said. He hushed Tron before continuing onward with Astra. Soon they reached the castle postern and Astra blinked rapidly at the first sight of natural light in a while. She breathed inward and slowly whistled out in joy.

"Well, you're free now. Nothing like the smell of fresh air in the evening to wake you up, huh?" Sora folded his arms and watched as Astra ran over to the walls to check out the town.

"You know Sora you are not bad at all. I suppose I owe you now."

Sora laughed. "First Neuge and now you? What am I doing right this week? Well, just go be with your friends, you don't really owe me anything."

"But I need to tell Luna-"

"You can't. If you're caught they'll send you straight back to the cell. If you want you can give me a message and I'll pass it on to her though," Sora said.

Astra considered this before turning to meet him. "Okay. Tell her that she needs to stop eating Sea Salt Ice Cream. Seriously, it will make her fat and she needs to keep that ass in perfect shape if she's gonna keep fighting-"

Sora interrupted with a shaking head. "I am so not telling her that."

Astra laughed and winked. "Fair enough. Then tell her that I haven't given up on her yet, but she's made a wonderful friend either way."

Sora raised his eyebrows in amazement and pointed at himself only for Astra to nod in return. He gave a broad grin and nodded. "Gotcha."

"You're not the only one who needs to become stronger. I'm sure we'll be meeting each other again quite soon. Then we'll see who Luna prefers but until that time comes, take care of her."

Astra summoned her Keyblade and cut through the air to summon a corridor of light. She gave Sora a final smile before walking in. The portal closed quickly behind her leaving Sora to his own thoughts. He was sure he made the right choice here, but the repercussions here seemed obvious. He had reconciled with a hard-headed girl but his friendship with one of his friends was about to suffer as a result.

* * *

_Sora's going through his rebellious streak right now apparently. So, if you're wondering when the next Disney world is (GOD, what is this a Kingdom Hearts story or something?), you won't have to wait for long, and to make it better it'll be a world I've wanted in the series for a long time and hope is in KH3. _


	30. Artful Mastery

_So after a good amount of consideration, I decided to change the genre to Adventure/Fantasy keeping it in line with Dual Destinies. There are two reasons for this: 1. There's not exactly enough romance to even warrant it being called romance. I'd say that there's a lot more ties to fantasy and I'd even add mystery, but not romance. Of course, there's implied shipping such as what you're going to get in this chapter and the obvious Disney romance that were in the movies but I'm going to be a tease and leave things to your imagination and just maybe I'll eventually confirm something. 2. I want to focus on story first and any type of romance second. Not that they can't be interconnected but this isn't Twilight. Anyway, without further ado have fun with the final chapter for this part of Radiant Garden._

* * *

**Chapter 30**

**Artful Mastery**

News of Astra's disappearance spread quickly among the restoration committee and it did not take too long to figure out the cause for her breakout. The camp was divided. Luna, who had been campaigning for Astra's release since she had found out, was relatively surprised to hear that Sora had been responsible for busting her out, but chose to stand by him regardless. Kairi, Namine and most of the restoration committee soon followed with Sora receiving praise and teasing entitlements such as "Sora's entered his bad boy phase" from Yuffie and Rinoa.

And then there were those who weren't happy with the recent development. Riku shifted uncomfortably in his seat eyeing Sora who was across the table opposite him. Neither one wanted to talk first as usual for fear of what would come of it. But someone had to start somewhere and there was not really much Sora could do in this situation but justify his actions.

"So? I hardly need to remind you of what you did yesterday. Go on, I'm listening," Riku said.

"Well since you already know what I did, I'm not sure why I need to tell you," Sora replied feigning innocence.

"Don't play coy with me. You knew exactly what you were doing. Where do I even start?"

"Well you can start by preferably not starting at all thanks," Sora said in an uninterested tone.

"No, let's. Kairi and Luna told me that they went to Colette's house to find you, except that you weren't there. You hadn't even been to Colette's in a week apparently," Riku began.

"A lie I admit, that one seems pretty obvious. Trust me, it wasn't easy having to lie to them but they seemed to understand… unlike you."

"And then you also lied to Tron."

"Oh that was even harder to do. I would have deleted the camera footage and shut off the computer if I had any idea how."

"You took the key and let Astra escape."

"What am I, on trial or something?"

"What in the world are you talking about?" Riku asked who, like Sora, had lived on the islands all his life, but unlike Sora had no idea what a trial was and had never seen one played out. He shuddered at the memory of the brutally corrupt Queen of Hearts asserting her supreme authority and how it had basically come down to a game of luck in proving Alice's innocence. It felt somewhat strange to know something that Riku didn't.

"It's a kind of meeting where they decide if you should be punished or not," He recalled Donald's explanation.

Riku shook his head. "I don't care, just stop changing the subject. The question is why?"

"Why? Well how about we ask another question then. You knew about Namine being a seer didn't you? You knew what she predicted about me. And you didn't tell me."

Riku was left completely at a loss at the fact that Sora knew. Eventually he found his voice. "Sora, when did you-"

"Find out? Oh, you mean you weren't planning on telling me Riku? Now that's funny, I guess it works both ways," Sora retorted with a smug smile.

"It was all just to get back at me then…" Riku looked down at the table in guilt but Sora didn't care to back down now.

"Who can say? There were many things floating around my head when I did what I did."

"There's something you have to understand. Master Yen Sid was worried that you would be consumed by certain thoughts that would otherwise distract you and make you even more vulnerable. Put simply, you're better off following your heart when it's not clouded in uncertainty," Riku explained.

"All I'm hearing is ignorance is bliss," Sora concluded. "And of course Yen Sid was the one who suggested it. He's been doing that a lot recently."

"And I agree with him. You shouldn't have to care about some stupid vision that won't come true."

"And how do you know that?"

"Because I won't let it come true." Riku slammed his fist onto the table hard causing it to rock slightly.

Sora looked at where Riku had placed his hand and tutted. "Riku… what did the table ever do to you?"

"This isn't funny."

"Clearly we don't have the same mindset here because I find this incredibly funny," Sora said. "Look, Riku, you and Yen Sid locked Astra up without telling anyone else. If we had voted on it then no one would have agreed with it and you knew that."

"When I saw Namine go into that trance-like state and say the prophecy in a voice entirely different from her own, I panicked. And then you came back completely injured along with Luna and Astra and I knew I had to do something before things got out of hand. She _was_ with Moira's Crescent, so it only made sense to keep her from leaving until I could get answers out of her, but now she _is _with Moira's Crescent and any valuable information that I could have extracted from her to help you is now gone," Riku said in a frustrated tone.

"Tell me something. What else have you been hiding for my safety? Would you even tell me? And what happens after all this? Do you just go back to keeping secrets that I deserve to know? This isn't what friends do to each other!" Sora yelled. He spotted Yuffie and Cid glancing at them from the hallway. He closed his eyes and breathed slowly to calm himself.

"But friends also protect and keep each other safe. Maybe what I did was rash in hindsight but I'd do it a million times over if it means keeping you, Kairi… any of you, safe. The world can hate me all it wants but if I save even one life then I'll bear it," Riku said.

"You keep telling yourself that. Thanks for the straight answer by the way." Sora stood up from his chair and left immediately without even so much as looking Riku's way.

* * *

Colette smiled at her reflection before looking to Stephanie. "How do I look?" she asked.

"You look the same as you always do," Stephanie replied with a yawn.

Colette rolled her eyes. "Well, you could at least act excited. I'm finally getting out of the house and going somewhere other than work. I think I've needed this ever since your father… well, you know. I never would've though David Xanatos of all people would ask me out to dinner. A man like that must be incredibly busy, plus he's kind of my boss and-"

"Mom, you're doing it again."

"Oh, sorry dear. But my hair's alright at least? Give me something to work with here Steph."

But Stephanie rested her cheek on her hand and remained silent and irritated so Colette bent down and placed her hands on Stephanie's shoulders, shaking her playfully. "Come on, I'm not going to abandon you Stephanie, you know that!"

"But you'll abandon dad?" Stephanie asked.

Colette shook her head. "Of course not, I loved… love your father, and I'm not going to replace him. It's just that sometimes, even an adult needs to have some fun. Well, not too much fun, we do still have responsibilities like looking after annoying little pests."  
"Hey!" Stephanie said pretending to be offended. The two laughed for a while. "You promise, right mom?"

Colette moved one hand to ruffle Stephanie's hair. "It's just you and me kiddo. I'd never leave you for the world."

Several knocks, both gentle and polite in nature, were heard from the front door downstairs as they smiled at each other.

"Well, that would be Kairi. She'll take care of you while I'm gone. Wish me luck!" With a kiss on the cheek, Colette made her way downstairs and quickly opened the door to let Kairi in.

"Wow, I like it! Simple, but elegant. I'm sure that's the kind of think Xanatos likes," Kairi complimented immediately upon seeing Colette.

"Well I'm glad to hear someone thinks so!" Colette deliberately yelled so that Stephanie could hear it.

"I take it Stephanie's not too happy with it then?" Kairi mused.

"I think she understands, but you know how kids are. I'm not really trying to get back into the dating scene or anything like that but David invited me to dinner and we've both lost people we loved so I think if there's anyone who understand my pain, it would be him," Colette explained.

"You don't have to explain that to me. Just go out and have fun. I'll be right here when you get back waiting for all the juicy details," Kairi teased.

"It's not that kind of dinner date," Colette shot back before leaving.

David Xanatos' apartment suite from the outside seemed so simple it was almost impossible to believe that it belonged to the wealthiest man in Radiant Garden. It was only after being let into the apartment that she saw how unique and out there it was from any other residence she had ever been to, including her own home.

The most impressive thing was what Colette noticed quite instantly. Without being too eccentric, the suite seemed to strike the right balance of geometry and shapes from the curves to the finishing on certain things. Everything seemed stylish and elegant from the royal red drapes to the matching red carpets. The luxurious furniture gave the room a nice cosy and warm feeling as if Colette had known the place all her life. Not even some, but all of the furniture seemed completely new.

"David Xanatos. The room reflects the man. I completely stunned." Colette could barely get the words out of her mouth let alone breath. Xanatos guided her to the sofa and sat down with her.

"Well I have good helpers. Be honest with me, a bit too much isn't it?" he asked.

"No no, not at all. It's just… different, really different. But different is good, I like it," Colette said feeling as if she had just made a fool out of herself.

"You're anxious. Is there anything I can do to keep your mind at peace?"

"Oh don't worry about it. It just feels like I'm a teen again. I'm not sure that's something you can remedy."

Xanatos scratched his chin and smiled. "Actually, at the moment we're currently developing Maturity Lotion. Just a few dabs of that and you'll be back to your old self."

"Wait, you're serious?"

"No."

The two exchanged laughter before making their way over to the dining table to eat. Colette fiddled with her knife and fork as Xanatos filled both their glasses with red wine.

"I hope you don't mind that I went for the most expensive brand that I could find but I'm not exactly running low on munny," he said.

"My my, David, are you trying to impress me?" Colette swirled her glass around before setting down. She moved onto cutting the stake on her plate.

"Just a fitting selection for a wonderful mother. You must tell me how you're able to do it all day and keep smiling," Xanatos said.

"With Stephanie? To be honest I sometimes wonder that myself. How do I find the strength to keep getting up every day? I'd say it's Stephanie that gives me strength. What about you David? You lost both your wife and son. Now what compels you to keep getting up every morning?"

Xanatos picked up the handkerchief and cleaned the few crumpets that had fallen around his mouth. "Why does anyone want to get up when they've lost someone they've loved? Because they have to move on. Before she died, my wife and I were working to make our world a better place. Fear gripped our world by the throat and saw to tear apart the very foundation upon which it was built on. Things like equality, hope and freedom, they didn't exist anymore. We wanted to change that. Then they died and I'd lost all hope myself. The thing I had been trying to fight against was threatening to drown me in my sorrows…" he paused here as if struggling to remember some painful memory.

"I'm sorry. What happened next?"

"The exciting part I suppose. I was wandering about in the park next to where I live. It was around midnight. I looked up just in time to see something falling out of the sky and landed a few ways off. I soon later found out it was a Gummi block. After having several tests done on it, the idea of there being more out there seemed a realistic possibility. The hope that seemed long dead now fuelled my goals. I focused most of the money on interstellar travel. You can only imagine how hard it was convincing shareholders that this was the right direction for the company."

"But you're here right now. You must have been very convincing," Colette said after she finished swallowing.

"I'd like to tell you that's exactly how it went down but it'd be a lie. It was a bunch of technical business mumbo jumbo that I'm sure you wouldn't understand but smooth sailing it was not. The point is that when I found this world, in a way I felt as if my family were telling me not to give up. If I could make even one world better off and make them proud, it was worth getting up every day," Xanatos finished. He looked down at his plate pensively before reaching for a sip of wine.

"Well I can tell you. You're definitely making them proud. The town's even better than it was a decade ago and it doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. It's strange to think how secretive Radiant Garden was and now we know all about other worlds, Heartless and Keyblades and… well, it's quite a lot to take in but I think everyone's assimilating to this new chapter in our lives fairly well," Colette said.

"Well as a psychologist I know all about assimilation and it's not usually something you can stop. Speaking of Keyblades, how's Sora and Luna lately. They've had it pretty tough recently, especially Sora," Xanatos asked.

"He was pretty down in the dumps the last time I saw him. He told me he was tired of being weak and seeing everyone suffer around him. He felt as if it was his entire fault but I told him that he was kicking himself too hard. I told him what worked for me: If you have time to complain, then you have time to get up and do something about it and he seems to be taking those words quite well at the moment. Those two along with Riku and Kairi come to visit Stephanie when they can. I think she's popular," Colette leaned in and whispered before giggling uncontrollably.

"Don't tell me you're already-"

"Drunk? Please, one sip of red wine is hardly going to faze me. It actually takes a good few before I become inebriated," Colette replied proudly.

"Would you care to test that then?" Xanatos asked slowly moving his hand to the wine bottle.

"Maybe some other time, I kind of have the role of being a responsible mother to keep and if Stephanie saw me… yeah, it wouldn't be pretty." There was a guffaw of laughter among the two which carried on throughout the night as they moved onto to different topics without pause. Xanatos filled their glasses a second time after they had both finished their first and raised his wine glass to Colette.

"To the future," he said.

"The future." Colette raised her glass back at him before taking a sip.

* * *

_Jump. Spin and kick. Duck and parry. _

Sora repeated the words in his head again and again as he worked to fend of Neuge's attacks. Something was changing inside him, not that he was sure he could even explain what it was. All he knew was that he felt stronger than he had ever been before. Moves that were once obvious telegraphs became even harder to predict. He had finally found a strategy that worked for him.

His battle style involved the keychains that he had collected on his journeys. When both he and Neuge realized that some of Neuge's teachings were not getting through to his head, she advised him to think outside the box. For three days he lamented during his meditation sessions on a way to keep his offensive while being unpredictable and spontaneous and the answer he found lied in the keychains. He would use two keychains alongside his default Kingdom Keychain: Oblivion's and Oathkeeper's.

It was like Neuge said. He hadn't noticed it until now, but it was like the Keyblade took on a completely different personality when it changed form. Oathkeeper was agile allowing him to pull off quick attacks while Oblivion was stronger and allowed for heavy attacks that caught the opponent off guard. The Kingdom Key would then be for his defensive moves such as counters and parrying.

The technique he had created involved having to switch keychains constantly mid-fight, something that he wasn't used to. For the past week he had been trying to perfect the technique by challenging himself to see how quickly he could switch, but there was always noticeable room for improvement and he knew even the slightest delay could mean the end for him. It was risky and involved a lot of awareness but if he pulled it off successfully then his attacks would be almost impossible to predict.

His movement and speed had also improved considerably especially thanks to working with Palom and Porom on his magic. The spell _Warp _was the key here. After training for so long to conserve his mana, he was able to teleport short distances for an indefinite amount of time.

Blue wisps akin to the ember sparks of fire appeared as he warped right through an incoming attack from Neuge and appeared on the other side. He quickly swapped from Oathkeeper to Oblivion and swung upwards only for Neuge to quickly jump out of the way. She lunged forward to strike but Sora kicked off the nearby wall to gain higher ground and twisted his body as he sailed over her. He landed perfectly on her unguarded side, swapped Oblivion back to Oathkeeper quickly and held the blade under her chin.

"Finally!" Sora gasped slightly out of breath. To him the act of finally catching Neuge off-guard was the true victory here.

"You finally found your footing. If only your mind was as sharp and on point as your body," Neuge said.

"You just can't compliment me, can you? I guess it's hard to accept the fact that you've finally lost," the winded Sora gloated.

"So this was a competition to you this whole time then? I'm sure you know this by now but when you get too close to the sun you burn."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That hubris is not something you want to try with me," Neuge said. She quickly grabbed Oathkeeper by its blade before Sora could react and twisted. Sora, who held onto the Keyblade, was flipped in the air and landed on his stomach. "Nor Moira's Crescent for that matter."

"I think you taught me well enough for me to know that pride and fear go hand in hand. I was just joking of course," Sora managed to groan out. Neuge offered a hand to help Sora back up but fearing some sort of follow up trick, Sora decided to help himself up.

"Of course you were," Neuge said before looking up at the stained-glass windows that shone a spectrum of colors into the room. "I think it's time. We're done."

"Then when I'm back here tomorrow I'll show you it wasn't a one trick miracle," Sora said confidently.

"There won't be a tomorrow. This is the last session, at least for now," Neuge said. "I set out to teach you how to survive, and I've taught you everything that you need to know. I have nothing left to give."

"What? But… that can't be everything. I still feel as if there's so much to learn and-"

"If there is something, then it's not something that I can simply teach you. It also wouldn't be something in a book. Your final lesson is called experience. You've done a Mark of Mastery before haven't you? Luna's never done one, but both of you have never done _my _Mark of Mastery. It's not something I can bestow on you or Luna since I'm not a Master myself but if you two think you're up to the challenge then I have something for you two to do."

Sora frowned at this. "Do I really have a choice?" he asked.

"No, you don't, because when the time comes you'll have to be prepared for it no matter what. It may come when you're awake, or sleeping. It may come when you're near a source of protection, or far away from it, but the moment will come," Neuge said.

"And when that time comes, I'll be ready for it," Sora assured her. It wasn't as if he had any choice but to be ready, even if he didn't think he was. "What do you need us to do?"

"Not so much what I request of you as it is what Yen Sid wants you to do. There's a figure that hides in the darkness and stirs up chaos in each world. We think he might have some idea as Alice's disappearance as well as the fog that's been filling up each world. Kefka is his name."

"Kefka?" The madman's name that Sora, Riku and Kairi had been chasing for three months reared its ugly head once again and Sora became immediately interested.

"Terra and Aqua brought us interesting information. During their travels the word 'Kronos' came up," Neuge informed him.

"Kronos…" Sora repeated.

Neuge nodded before continuing. "Those that pride themselves on walking in darkness do so because they fear what the light may reveal. More importantly they know those who live in the light will fear losing their way in the dark. But you two aren't like other people. Find Kefka, draw him out of the darkness, and bring him into the light. Even then you'll be fighting a shadow, but that's far better than fighting what you can't see."

"I understand… Master, I've been wondering. Did you know about Namine's prophecy?" He couldn't help but ask. He wasn't sure it would change anything at all though.

"I did, but I felt it wasn't my place to say. We don't live in the past or the future, we live here and now. Anything that happens will happen on its own accord. Whether I told you about it or not wouldn't have changed the fact that you'd come here every day and train with me, and it wouldn't change me pushing you to your limits and even beyond," Neuge answered. "When I was learning to meditate, my sensei, I had about two masters in my lifetime. The latter master told me this: we have no reason to be, we simply are."

"What does that mean?"

"It's something you'll have to find the answer to yourself, like I did," Neuge answered.

Sora chuckled. "That sounds familiar. I'm no good at riddles but I'll give it a try."

"One other thing. I heard about your clothes," Neuge added.

"Yeah, the fairies said the clothes were so damaged that the magic on it had worn off. They can't fix it." Sora relaxed the back on his head on his hands. "It sucks actually. I was fond of that outfit but… stuff happens."

"Indeed it does, but I think we can do better," Neuge replied before asking him to follow her.

* * *

The final few days neared when not only Sora and Luna would leave Radiant Garden for their mission to find Kefka, but Riku and Kairi too but for a different reason. Luna had spent most of her last few days in the library with Kairi looking to find anything they could about the lost city of Atlantis at the behest of Lea who had returned the same day Sora and Luna had had their last lesson with Neuge.

He had brought good and bad news with him in the form of a whole stack of research papers from Claude Frollo's house. Even and Ienzo did not take long to collate these long detailed pages into a short summary. The bad news was that the papers did not give them any clues on whether Atlantis really existed or not. They seemed the ravings of a lunatic, that's what Even had said at least. They offered little other than hopes and even those were delusional at best offering no evidence. Frollo had been under the assumption there was some secret to the cathedral, a key of some sort that would reveal the road to Atlantis. Other than that there was nothing else worth of note other than the typical descriptions of Atlantis that he had come across in his reading and his criticisms of several of these descriptions and those who wrote them.

But Kairi was not so ready to give up and absorbed herself in book after book in hopes of finding something.

"Not that I'm doubting or anything, I want it to be true more than anything but… why are you sure we'll find something, Kairi? Let's argue hypotheticals for the moment. Suppose it did exist, it's been how long since Atlantis sank? Don't you think any trace, excuse the pun I'm about to make here, would be washed away over time?" Luna asked. She set another book aside and moved on to the next one she had taken called _Materia Medica: An essential guide for beginners_.

"I guess it's because of the fairy tales my grandma always used to tell me. They were really lovely to listen to and they inspired me. If I don't find anything then that's fine but I don't really think there's any harm in trying either. That and I don't think it's a coincidence that the story has been heard across so many different worlds. It had to have been something that was around when all these worlds were still connected," Kairi replied.

"Of course, I understand completely. My mom always used to tell me bedtimes stories. I remember in one that the moon disappeared and the girl in the story left her home to try and find it. She was lost and couldn't find her way and that's when the moon revealed itself to her. She was able to find her home again," Luna said. "Though I'd honestly dread to think what would happen if the moon really disappeared. I guess the moral of that story is never to take what you have for granted."

"Your mom sounds really cool," Kairi adulated.

"She was, but I don't deserve her or dad." Luna masked her saddened face from Kairi's sight by holding the book up in front her.

Kairi quickly decided to change topic. "Riku and I are planning on going to Quasimodo's world while you guys are off finding Kefka. Even gave us a vial he thinks might help cure the Chimera. If it works with Quasi then they'll start mass production… the remedy, it uses your blood as a sample."

Luna looked away from her book at this. "Oh."

"Oh? Just oh?"

"Well it's as you say. I don't think there's any harm in trying what we can, right?" Luna said. "And if it doesn't work that just eliminates one possibility. Makes things simpler actually."

Kairi smiled and was about to return to looking at her own book before remembering something she wanted to bring up. "When you're out there with Sora, if it's not too much trouble could I ask you to do something? Try and patch things up between him and Riku."

"I guess it's not always been like this then?" Luna asked jokingly.

"They've always been competitive with one another but that's just how they are. Not that I'm blaming you Luna but it's almost as if we've been going our separate ways ever since you disappeared into the Realm of Darkness. There's a strain on our friendship and I want to resolve this before it gets any worse," Kairi said.

"Yeah, my own friendship with Astra hasn't been too great lately either." Luna could easily understand where Kairi was coming from. The girl she had hung out with everyday who she had depended on for her own happiness was now a million miles away and she had no idea when she would see her again. Her worst fear was losing that bond with Astra, a bond she would have thought unbreakable before the current events.

"So I'm going to try and convince Riku to lighten up. If you could do the same with Sora-"

"Of course, Kairi, I don't want to see two best friends become ex-friends. I know Riku was suspicious of me at first what with the black coat and all, but I think he's really come to accept me as part of the group since then. I didn't think it was possible, but he can actually be pretty shy when you know how to tease him," Luna said snickering.

"Hehe, he can be pretty cute when you break past his cool exterior," Kairi agreed. "Luna, do you… have a crush on anyone?"

Luna coughed blinked rapidly. "Where did that come from? I thought we were supposed to be looking for information on Atlantis."

"We are… but we can do both anyway, so don't hold back. Come on, I promise I won't tell," Kairi whispered as if to prove her point.

"I don't know. Well, do you have one?" Luna asked not wanting to go first.

"I think so. I'm not really sure how he feels about me though," Kairi answered.

"You're beautiful, Kairi. I'm sure he'd be willing to go out with you if you asked," Luna comforted her. She certainly had a clear idea in her mind of who this crush was and whatever her own hopes were had just been dashed. She was fooling herself if she thought she could compete with someone like Kairi. She was also already in danger of losing Astra, she wouldn't risk losing another over something as petty as romance.

"Thanks, Luna," Kairi said. "Now back to who you have a crush on."

The days passed by quickly and before they knew it, it was already time to leave. The morning of his departure, Sora set the puzzle box he had received back from Lea down on the dressing table after playing with it and took off his shirt. He walked over to the mirror and stared at his body. There were scars, wounds that were healed but still visible all over his body and he had Desiree to thank for them. He traced one of the patterns on his right shoulder downwards and paused after reaching the end of the line before withdrawing his finger.

"Just give me a reason and I'll show you how strong I can be. I won't lose again. I won't…" Sora watched his fist close into a tight ball through the mirror before letting go and looking at the new outfit that Neuge had given him. "Out with the old…"

After dressing into the new clothes, Sora stood in front of the mirror again and admired his new look. He was wearing a red and silver buttoned up vest with an attached hood on the back over a white wing tip shirt. He also wore short red cargo pants with silver and black thorns tangling their way around that red. In general the clothes were not nearly as baggy as his previous outfit and he also found it a lot lighter.

"…and in with the new. Not looking too bad there, Sora, though it does look a bit old-timey. Suave but old-timey. I think it might just work." Sora put on his fingerless gloves and a pair of trainers, pocketed the puzzle box, gave himself a confident smile and left for the Gummi Hangar.

"You're looking quite snazzy today, Sora," Kairi complimented as he joined up with her, Riku, Donald, Goofy and Max. "Me and Riku have our own new outfits waiting on our Gummi Ship. There's no way I'll be fighting in these clothes."

"And guess what? Max'll be travelling along with 'em!" Goofy placed his hands firmly on Max's shoulders and shook him clearly exuberant about the fact.

"Well, we said we'd help him and that's what we'll do. Have to make sure the next generation is as good as the last… or even better!" Riku chimed in with a cheeky grin.

"Aw gawrsh, you're makin' me feel pretty old now, Riku," Goofy said before turning to Sora. "And I guess that means we're comin' along with you guys!"

And here Sora thought he and Luna would have undertaken their mission by themselves. In truth, he was really happy that he had Donald and Goofy along with him once again for the ride. "But aren't you taking care of the queen right now? What about the repairs to Disney Castle?"

"I wouldn't underestimate the power of magic if I were you. The castle's coming along just fine, and more importantly the queen told us that we should do what we felt was right and that just happened to be standing beside our friend," Donald said a little too contemptuously.

"All for one, and one for all, right?" Goofy added in. Sora smiled at this but before he could say anything else, received a tap on the shoulder.

He turned around and looked at Luna, who was in her own new attire that consisted of a red polka dot rockabilly top and a matching mini skirt under a black bolero jacket. In addition, black stockings covered her legs up to her skirt and flat ankle boots with fur at the top. Standing beside her was Neuge looking rather pleased with her choice of selection of the two's outfits.

"Wow, you look great!" Sora, who hadn't seen her outfit just as she had never seen his, was absolutely smitten by her appearance, even more so by her smile that could thaw any cold heart. Of course he wasn't about to get all sappy in front of his friends.

"Thanks. Oh, have you talked to Stephanie lately? She was asking me if she could come along and I told her it was too dangerous. She looked really disappointed after I kept telling her that and she just… ran off, in front of her mother as well. I'm worried," Luna said looking rather subdued.

"Well, we can look for her if you want?" Sora scratched his head. He was sure that Stephanie wouldn't run off and do anything dangerous, but at the same time the threat of the Heartless made things incredibly uncertain.

"Don't worry, we'll look for her. You guys go ahead," Riku told them.

"You sure? Maybe we should look together," Sora proposed. He noticed the forcefulness in his voice, perhaps from his rather dysfunctional friendship with the silver haired teen at the moment.

"It's no worries, really. There are only so many places an eight year old can go," Riku said.

"Depends on the eight year old, but we'll track her down," Kairi promised with a thumbs up.

"Okay, take care of yourselves, alright?" Sora asked before receiving a warm and affectionate hug from Kairi. Riku was about to follow up with something but hesitated, gave a simple nod to Sora and quickly walked off.

"Uh, is something happening between you and Riku, Sora?" Goofy asked after exchanging looks with Donald but Sora showed no sign of having heard him. His was staring at the spot where Riku had just been, almost as if his mind itself had been carried away by him when he left.

Neuge's slap on the back sent Sora jumping and put his head back into reality. She drew both him and Luna in closer. "Remember everything I've taught you and you'll be fine. Take a deep breath before heading straight in. Assess the situation and then figure out the best strategy from there. Use the environment to your advantage and whatever you do, make sure you have each other's back at all times. I know things have been hard for the two of you but you can't give in to basic instincts. We are shields, not swords. We don't start the fight, we fight back. Got it?"

"Yes, master!" Sora and Luna both said in synch.

"Good. Now go and do me proud," Neuge said letting go of them.

* * *

The group set foot inside to find Kupopo and Jiminy already waiting for them.

"Hey Kupopo, I haven't seen you in a while," Goofy addressed with a smile. "Are you coming along with?"

"Of course, because Sora and Luna needs their trusty assistant by their side, kupo," Kupopo answered cheerfully.

"And what are we, chopped liver?" Donald asked narrow eyed.

"Do you really want to know the answer to that, kupo?" Kupopo asked watching Sora take his place in the pilot seat once more.

"Huh, I guess Cid, Chip and Dale added some new things. They even have a manual which I am so not reading," Sora said.

"But wouldn't it help, Sora?" Jiminy asked.

"Who has time to read manuals these days? Though if you think it's necessary, why don't you help yourself to reading it?" Sora asked.

"Well, of course I wi- oh! I do it so you don't have to, _of course_…" Jiminy mumbled something else incoherently resulting in a laughing Sora.

The Gummi Ship soon took off and before they knew it they were already in the vast and seemingly endless sky of the sea between worlds. He made sure the Gummi Ship had locked onto whatever world they were headed to before shutting his eyes and resting his head on his cupped hands.

This would be his hardest journey yet. He knew it was something that was said every time he ventured to save the worlds, but this time it would be more personal. On one side was Moira's Crescent who wanted him out of the picture, and on the other side was Kefka and all the others associated him. If he turned his back on one for even a second to focus on the other, then he risked being stabbed in the back.

Just as he was thinking of taking a hot shower to think about things, a loud thud was heard from down the hall. Luna, who was standing behind his chair, looked behind her in confusion.

"What was that?" she asked. Donald and Goofy, in the co-pilot seats either side of Sora, shook their heads not knowing themselves.

"I'll go check," Sora told her. The last time something bad had happened, Stitch had been on the Gummi Ship messing with the engine, but he couldn't possibly have been here now, could he?

He got up from his seat and made his way down the hall, checking each of the bedrooms. It was the second room on the left that he found something, or rather someone, and it wasn't Stitch.

"Ow, my butt hurts!" Stephanie complained as she looked up at the bunk bed which she had just fallen from. It was only after a few more seconds of doing it that Sora realized he was screaming.

* * *

_A long chapter, and I promise the next one won't be as long. As for where Sora and the gang will be heading to next, well we're heading to a world that I very much hope is in KH3. See you next time in Nottinghamshire! _


	31. Watchers in the Forest

_Going into a bit more detail for Sora's outfit here. I'd say it was mainly victorian/edwardian inspired with a modern day touch to it. In a way, I think part of it had to do with parodying Steven Moffat's love for the victorian era in Doctor Who. With that said, time to head into the wonderful world of Robin Hood, something that was also in a recent Doctor Who episode._

* * *

**Chapter 31**

**Watchers in the Forest**

The unexpected and creepily innocent presence of Stephanie aboard the Highwind was enough to change the atmosphere of the cockpit considerably. Asking how Stephanie had even gotten on the Gummi Ship in the first place without anyone noticing, she simply told them that she had snuck aboard before anyone reached the hangar. There was no mistake, she was smart.

"We have to turn back!" Donald yelled. As always he was the one completely against the idea, and this time Sora wasn't so sure he wanted to disagree with him.

"All the way back?" Goofy asked.

"Yes! It's not safe bringing her with us!" Donald reasoned.

"But… all the way back?"

"Goofy!"

"Sorry."

"Goofy does raise a good point though. We've come a pretty long way… maybe she can stay on the Gummi Ship with me and Kupopo while you four are off exploring," Jiminy suggested.

"Well I could but that's really boring," Stephanie chided with a wagging finger.

"You weren't supposed to be here anyway!" Donald shot back.

"Well, let's say it is too late to go back. Would it really be fair to keep her locked up here? When I think about how Astra must have felt when she was locked up, I don't think I'd want Stephanie to feel the same way. Of course it's not exactly the same but you get the point," Sora put forth. While she was in constant danger of the Heartless, it wasn't a full justification for keeping her from seeing other worlds.

"But the Heartless-"

"Darkness will always be around. I think we have to accept that fact. Murphy's law," he reiterated something Shiki Misaki had once told him.

"Excuse me?"

"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Once we do accept that all we have to realize is that as long as we do our jobs properly, Stephanie won't come to harm," Sora said feeling his voice was a lot stronger this time.

"It will make our jobs harder though," Donald said.

"Who doesn't like a challenge?" Luna chipped in. "For all of us it's a chance to prove to ourselves that we can all keep each other safe. I'd like to think having Stephanie on board means that we just have to go the extra mile to make this work. Of course, before we do anything at all we should make sure Colette knows her daughter is here."

After a few tries of trying to get in contact with someone from Radiant Garden, they finally managed to get Chip and Dale on the speakerphone. After telling them that they wanted to talk to Colette, they had to wait a few more minutes before they heard the incredibly worried and angry mother's voice.

"Stephanie, is that you?"

"Yes mom. I'm-"

"HOW DARE YOU JUST RUN OFF LIKE THAT? DO YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED I WAS? I LOOKED ALL OVER THE TOWN TRYING TO FIND YOU AND NOTHING. INSTEAD I FIND YOU'VE COMPLETELY LEFT THE WORLD. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"

Had it not been for the amount of static on the receiving end, Sora and Luna determined they would have suffered the wrath of Colette's fury far worse. They knew she was only shouting at Stephanie, but it still felt as if she was shouting at all of them too.

"Mom, please please _please _can I go with them? I promise I'll be good," Stephanie pleaded.

"For the sake of our ears mainly, we will look after Stephanie, if you're okay with it that is. I mean it's not every day that you get to see other worlds and I think it could do a lot for her," Sora helped.

"I… how far are you from here?" Colette asked a lot more calmly.

"Pretty far."

They could almost see Colette nodding through the speakerphone. "Then I guess I can't stop you. I know you'll look after her. Stephanie, I'm not done with you. Do try to enjoy yourself while you can young lady because you'll be getting a scolding as soon as you come back, understood?"

"Yes ma'am." Stephanie saluted playfully.

"We'll make sure she returns safe and sound just in time for you to scold her," Donald said only to receive dangerous glares from Sora and Luna.

"Thank you so much all of you. Well I have to go now. I have a patient that needs my attention but do keep in touch when you can. Have fun kids," Colette said. The communication link soon closed and with that Stephanie was officially a member of the group, for the time being at least.

"That was a close one, eh? Oh look, we're here!" Sora exclaimed glad to finally be off the ship that had caused too much drama for one day.

* * *

The leaves of Nottinghamshire crunched underneath the large party's feet as they walked through the Sherwood Forest. Sora couldn't imagine why Kefka of all people would have chosen to come to this place, or as far as he was able to put himself in a villain's shoes, there seemed to be no benefit to coming here.

They soon arrived on a path completely devoid of leaves on the ground and hope filled their hearts that they may yet still find some kind of life not considering the chirping noises above them.

"I think we should head this way," Donald announced once they came upon a split path. He was pointing to the left route of the two choices available.

"Eeeh, no way! I say we go right!" Stephanie exclaimed with a jump.

"What? No way! That way looks incredibly shady," Donald protested.

"The way I see it. The grass is greener down that path, so we go right!" Salome insisted.

"LEFT!"

"RIGHT!"

"Donald, are you really arguing with an eight year old girl here?" Sora asked in disbelief. "We go right."  
Donald scowled at this but nevertheless sucked up his disagreement and followed Sora and the others down the 'shady' path. It wasn't too long before they came across their first person in the form of an elderly beggar woman. She seemed to have the face of a fox, but that was hardly unusual next to the multitude of strange things that they had seen over many worlds. Of course for Stephanie who had never been to another world before this, Luna had to quickly control her before she could blurt out the fact.

"Say hello there ma'am. Should you really be wonderin' about the forest by yourself at an hour like this?" Goofy asked kindly.

"Oh, I'm so sorry dears. I seem to have lost my way. Oh how tiring it is for a poor old woman like me to have to stress out over such miniscule things, but there you have it," the woman said. Sora wasn't sure what it was but there was something unusual about the woman and it wasn't just because she was a fox. He just couldn't put his finger on it at the moment.

"Well we'd help you but we're rather lost ourselves actually. Maybe if we travel together, things won't seem so bad?" Luna offered.

"Why that sounds like a wonderful idea lass, you truly know how to warm your way into an old woman's heart," she said batting her eyelids. "Oh dearie me, what are they?"

The group followed the woman's confused expression and pointing finger to the group of Heartless that had popped up.

"Uh, stay behind u- huh?" Sora turned back to look at the beggar woman only to find that she was already running away, her and someone else in much the same clothing. Had someone else been nearby? He also felt like he was missing something for some reason. Why did he feel that way? Quickly, he dug into his pockets only to find nothing there. "The puzzle box! It's gone!"

"What do you mean it's gone?" Donald shouted at him.

"What people usually mean by 'gone', as in not there."

"Well it can't have just jumped out of your pocket. Maybe you left it back in the Gummi Ship."

"Don't insult my- Wait a sec… that woman! I bet she was the one who took it!" Sora drove his fist into his open hand at the revelation. "I thought there was something weird about her."

"Sorry to interrupt but we kinda have a few Heartless to take care off. Goofy, you think you can keep Stephanie safe?" Luna asked.

"Ahyuck, of course, they don't call me the Captain of the Royal Knights for nothing!" Goofy walked in front of Stephanie and raised his shield so it aligned just under his nose.

One Heartless, a wyvern, tunnelled forward but Sora sidestepped and ran past it allowing Donald to take it out with Blizzard magic. He warped in front of the remaining Heartless in a wisp of blue smoke before using Lethal Frame. Their movements stopped as if they were frozen in time allowing him to take them all out with multiple quick and seamless blows. But more soon popped out of the ground.

After Sora, Donald and Luna worked to take out this group of Heartless, it became clear that this was an unwinnable battle.

"They just keep coming! Let's make a break for it!" Donald shouted. His webbed feet smacked against the ground as he led the group away from the Heartless. After finding a safe place to stop, they took pleasure in catching their breaths.

"Wow… you are guys were amazing! It's like you were superheroes… no, you ARE superheroes!" Stephanie exclaimed jumping up and down giddily.

"Well, at least someone's a buncha excited, huh?" Goofy chuckled.

"I'm not surprised. It's her first time seeing a completely different world. How is it so far Stephanie? I bet you never would've imagined anything like this back home."  
Stephanie nodded at Luna's question exchanging a big smile. "The best!"

"Right, so we need to track down that old lady and her partner. I'm sure I had it in my pocket before they ran off. They can't have gone too far either…" Sora said.

"This might help." Luna pulled out the device that Chip and Dale had given her and held the button while speaking into it. "Jiminy, you there?"

A static noise was heard over the receiving end and eventually it faded away replaced by Jiminy Cricket's voice. "Why hello there Luna. Didn't know we had this function. Took me a while to find the button. Hey, put that down!"

"Kupopo, are you behaving in there?" Luna spoke into the radio with a raised brow.

"Of course kupo. Just doing a bit of spring cleaning." Kupopo's voice seemed to fly farther away as he talked, probably because he was constantly moving.

"Well, you don't have to throw away my journals because of it. Anyway, is there something I can do for you?"

"I hope you've been training up on your Highwind knowledge Jiminy. I need you to perform a scan of the area for any moving signs of life. I think Chip said that I could use my radio as a relay whatever that means," Luna said.

"Hmm, let's see… this? No. This? Nuh-uh. This? AH, DEFINITELY NOT THIS! Ah, here we go! Well… I think it's doing something."

"Thanks genius," Donald muttered sarcastically.

After a few more seconds, Jiminy spoke again. "Oh, it's finished! Let's see, you guys must be the bright red blinking dot and I'm guessing all these other yellow ones are signs of movement around you. Then… gotcha! I see two dots travelling north east of where you currently are."

"Thanks Jiminy. Keep us informed if anything changes," Luna said releasing the button but addressing the group. "Looks like we should cut through the forest if we want to catch them."

With a uniform nod, the party began making their way into green land territory once again. Soon enough they came across what looked like a campsite. In the middle of this clearing were the charred remains of a campfire that had been recently lit if the smell was anything to go by.

"Uh fellas, dontcha you think it's a bit suspicious that no one's here?" Goofy asked after reviewing the evidence however his words were ignored by Stephanie and Donald.

"Is that what I think it is?" Stephanie asked drooling. Also nearby the campfire was a table and on it a plate full of cookies.

"Oh now this is the oldest trick in the book. Who would fall for… that." Sora's mouth was left hanging wide open after Stephanie and Donald raced towards the table and started chowing down.

"Spoke too soon," Luna whispered at him. It was thus inevitable that they would find a bunch of bows and arrows peering out of trees around them and pointing directly at them.

"Now we don't want any trouble here. We just want back what's ours, right everyone?" Goofy preached as they all raised their hands.

"Yeah, we don't mean any trouble," Sora backed up.

"That's not the way we see it. A couple of rich looking folk wondering through the woods usually are trouble," one of them said.

"Rich? You think we're rich? Now I've heard it all. We are anything but that. We're just a bunch of goofballs, hardly worth your time," Sora protested.

"Well it's true that I didn't find much on you, except for this fancy lookin' box here," said the one that looked like a bear. "But maybe it'll sell for a decent price on the market."  
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Just give it back you no good thieves!" Luna pointed her finger accusingly at them before pausing and then lowering it. "Alright. How about an exchange?"

"Luna, I don't exactly think we're in a position to bargain," Sora said.

"Hmm, okay we're listening," said the fox, who had now discarded his female disguise to reveal himself as a male. They were con artists it seemed.

"In exchange for that box I'll give you this." The Keyblade appeared in Luna's hand and she spun it around a few times in her hand. All bows and arrows quickly fell on Luna in fear of the weapon. She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Calm down. Anyway, it is certainly a lot more valuable than that box. Sounds fair no?"

"Well ain't that a thing of beauty. But if it's more valuable than the box then why would you want to exchange it in the first place?" the fox asked. He had gotten her there.

"Well… I-"

"It's subjective value. The thing she has there is objectively more valuable but that box is worth something to me and it's not something you could ever find of any worth," Sora covered for her quickly.

"I see. In that case…" the fox jumped down from the tree and walked towards them while playing with the puzzle box in his hand. He stopped in front of them and inspected it quickly before stretching out his free hand. "Yours first chaps."

Luna gave him her Keyblade before taking the puzzle box from his other hand and passing it onto Sora. "I glad we could sort out this little property dispute. Well, we'll just be going now," she said beckoning Stephanie and Donald back to their side.

"Oh, and to clear something up. We're not thieves darling, or have you never heard the name Robin Hood before?" The fox seemed quite proud of this fact as he held his hand to his chest.

"Clearly not," Sora replied disinterested as they left. As soon as they were within a good distance away from the campsite, Luna let out a loud sigh.

"That was really close. For a second there I thought we wouldn't get out of that one," she said.

"But don't you need your weapon to fight?" Stephanie asked.

"I wouldn't worry about that too much if I were you." Sora gave a knowing and confident expression watching as Luna produced her Keyblade in her hands.

"Huh? How did you do that?"

"Magic," Luna answered. Sora had taught her that little trick so it was little wonder that he hadn't been surprised when she had brought it up in the exchange. "Of course once they realize they were swindled they'll probably come after us so we better hurry on."

* * *

Luna gave a relieved laugh as they came across a small town on the outskirts of the forest. There was hope that she could finally rest her feet after all that walking and possibly even gather some information on Kefka's whereabouts, though that was more of an afterthought to her right now. She turned and looked down at Stephanie.

"You must be pretty tired, huh Steph?" she asked.

But the clearly eager child shook her head quite vehemently. "No way! This is the best! My mom always told me that she used to go camping in the mountains with dad. That was before the Heartless made everything dangerous."

"Of course it was…" Luna said looking off in the distance. She remembered how she had begged her parents to take her hiking in the mountains of Alexander.

"But now I can tell my mom that I've done better than that. Please can we go to more worlds after this?" Stephanie asked.

"Of course Stephanie."

But Donald was not so willing to have a fifth travelling companion. "_Waaak! _I thought we only agreed to one world. She can't come with us, it's too dangerous!"

"That's not fair. I want to go!"

"You can't!"

"Uh, I don't think we should be having this conversation in the middle of the road. People are starting to stare," Sora said through gritted teeth. In fact, the people of this town were probably staring more so because of how odd these strangers looked and not Donald and Stephanie arguing.

Luna led the way forward not without a sense of wanting to make herself smaller to hide from the stares of the townspeople. They quickly found out exactly where they were. Nottingham, a town brought to its knees in a non-existing everlasting debt thanks to the monarch that ruled the land.

"Prince John's that meanie's name. Didn't do nothing good for us," said Friar Tuck, someone they had the fortunate opportunity of coming across. He greeted them kindly and without suspicion. "Taxes, that's how they get you… and heavy ones at that."

"Taxes?" Sora repeated not quite sure what he meant. He hadn't come across the word before so he assumed it was another one of those things that weren't on his island.

"They're like financial charges paid by the townsfolk to help fund public facilities," Donald explained. "We have them back in our world. But looking at this town I don't think the taxes here do the same thing."

"That's what they should do, but instead they go straight to that slimeball Prince John. He's quite the despicable man," Friar Tuck said with a hint of sadness in his eyes.

Stephanie folded her arms. "I don't get it. If you aren't happy, you should tell it straight to his face."

Friar Tuck looked at her and laughed heartily. "Oh hoh hoh little one, if only it worked like that. Of course some just aren't willing to be reasoned with. I have an example for you," he gestured to the window. Luna and Sora walked closer to it and peered out to see what looked like an incredibly happy individual judging by his dancing down the street. "That's the sheriff of this town. The tax collector. He does not discriminate and as you can probably tell he loves what he does. The poor, the disabled, the homeless, children, you name it, he'll take from it. _Take take take_ and never give, and the worst part? They'll never feel any remorse."

"Even children? That's horrible. But what happens if you're unable to pay the taxes?" Luna asked.

"They lock you up," Friar Tuck answered as if it were obvious.

"Even the children?"

"They don't discriminate."

Luna all of a sudden felt uncomfortable. She was angry. Just like with Celes it was yet again another example of someone taking advantage of someone in a weaker position. To intervene in another world's affairs would be a dangerous thing to do, especially if it involved the rulers of the land, but still, it wasn't as if she hadn't interfered before. She knew there was really only one way she could be justified in interfering anyway.

"You haven't noticed them being in cahoots with someone named Kefka, have you?" Luna asked somewhat hopefully. "I'm sorry, I don't know what he looks like…"  
"He kind of looks like a clown. Where's paint on his face," Sora provided.

Friar Tuck scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Well I have seen some strange folk wandering about recently. I never really got a good look at them though. Of course, if you want someone who has most likely seen stuff like that, you'd need to talk to the town's very famous Robin Hood."

At the name the group all looked at each other in shock before turning to the friar. "WHAT?"

"That name? What did you just say?" Sora asked in disbelief but the convenient opening of the front door answered his question.

"Did someone call for me?" Robin Hood walked through and closed the door behind him, stretched, and it was only then that he saw Sora and co. and jumped in surprise. "You? Well this is rather convenient actually. You gave me quite the run for my money back in the forest. A true trickster, made me look like an utter fool. But I must ask, how did you do it?"

"Magic!" Stephanie repeated what Luna had told her before anyone else could say anything.

"Aw, well aren't you a little scamp." Robin, immediately swept away by little Stephanie's charms, proceeded to ruff her hair up.

"My name's Stephanie."

"Well Stephanie, you're quite the unusual one, but I'm sure the other kids in town won't mind. In fact, another kid is having his birthday today and I just handed him my bow and arrow. The kids love that stuff so I'm sure you'll love it too," Robin told her.

"Hold up. Did we skip a step or something? Aren't you angry at us for conning you?" Sora asked.

"Oh please, I'm not one to let such petty trifles keep me down. I can admit when I've been had and I'll give credit where credit is due. In fact, if you really aren't with Prince John then how about joining my crew?"

"Join a bunch of thieves? I don't think so," Donald said.

Robin leaned away as if taken aback. "How many times must I tell you? We're not thieves. Well… maybe if you want to get technical but-"

"I think I probably should explain this," Friar Tuck suggested before Robin could dig a hole any deeper for himself.

"Ah, why yes. That would be a good idea."

The friar cleared his throat before talking. He informed them of how Robin and his merry band of men helped the poor citizens of the town by stealing from the undeserving and giving back to the poor to make their lives happier.

"I prefer the word 'repossession' rather than stealing myself," Robin said inspecting his fingernails.

Luna was surprised and admittedly confused. There was nothing but bad connotations that entered her mind where theft or stealing was involved, at least that's what she thought. Morally it was wrong and it was even one of the things she learned very quickly at school, she had experienced it herself quite a few times to resent it. And yet here was the raging tempest to shake her sturdy morals. The idea of a thief actually stealing not for themselves but for those who needed it seemed unlikely, but here was living proof of it.

"You really help the poor?" Luna asked slowly.

"If not us, then who will?" Robin asked back.

Goofy clicked his fingers. "Oh, I get it! You're talking about having good… vi-visuals? Vendue?"

"Virtues!" Donald corrected for him.

"Yeah, that's right! I guess you're a pretty good guy after all!"

Robin smiled proudly before glancing at Stephanie. "So, would you like to see some of the other kids little Stephanie?"

Stephanie nodded at once. After asking Friar Tuck to escort Stephanie there, Robin turned and began inspecting the group as if he were looking for something.

"So, what do you say to becoming a part of my crew? It can be quite exciting at times actually, you'll probably have never experienced anything like it," Robin said.

"We might just have to. Have you seen anyone suspicious lately, apart from us?" Sora asked. "Say, a guy who looks like a clown, or anyone else that looks suspicious."

"Hm, just maybe… what I do know is that the good Prince has been acting quite strange as of late. It's probably better to show than tell in this case actually but ever since this mysterious fog-"

"Wait, fog?" Sora confirmed to make sure he heard correctly.

"Yes, ever since the fog he's been acting quite unusually. Somewhat more aggressively if that were possible," Robin explained.

"Like he's acting completely out of character…" Luna looked at Sora, Donald and Goofy who all nodded in recognition. Similarities were already beginning to pop up between this world and the Pride Lands. If it were true, then that was connection enough to intervene, but how far that intervention would go was another thing entirely.

"And how would we get to him?" Sora asked.

"I'm glad you asked. An archery tournament is being held tomorrow at noon with the prize being a kiss from my childhood sweetheart Maid Marian. Though that need not concern you. What does concern you however, is who will be there."

"The prince," Sora answered.

"Precisely, and maybe even some of those suspicious characters you were asking about. So, what say you join me on what is sure to be a grand journey into the unknown?" Robin asked holding out his hand for Sora to shake.

"Well it's not like we have anything to lose," Sora said accepting the handshake.

With that set aside, the only thing that needed to be done for now was rest. While Sora, Donald and Goofy immediately set off for bed, Luna was rather keen to explore. She set off down the road and scanned the town. Every corner she turned, some sign of poverty awaited her. One particular moment stopped her in her tracks. She peered through a window and watched as a child on crutches walked over to who Luna presumed was his mother and placed a wet cloth on her forehead. She seemed to have come down with a fever.

Luna knocked on their door and waited for the small child to open it up. "Hello, my name is Luna. I was walking by your window and I couldn't help but notice… I'm so sorry. Where's your father?"

"He wasn't able to pay his taxes. We went into debt and he could barely feed us and- and-" The child couldn't finish his sentence. Tears were beginning to leak from his eyes.

"It's okay. You don't have to say anymore if it's too hard for you. What's your name?" Luna asked.

"Tim," he replied.

"Well Tim, how about I come in and help? I'm not sure if I'll be able to help much but it's better than having to do it just by yourself, right? And also I make some mean bread, not as good as my aunt but pretty close. So what do you say?"

Tim looked back at his mother before nodding at Luna and allowing her in.

* * *

_If you're connecting the dots about said boy on crutches and another character with the same name in a Charles Dickens' story, you'd be absolutely correct to do so. He was based on that boy and it does the same thing that it does for Scrooge there as it does for Luna here. Next chapter will be the archery tournament and more so stay tuned and please review and like. _


	32. All's Fair in Love and War

_So while I've been studying for my exams (which I'm actually in the middle of at the moment), I've been writing (albeit quite slowly) to my own pace so I could upload this whenever. I didn't want to keep you in the dark for that much longer, so here it is for you to enjoy! We're going to focus a bit more on Riku, Kairi and Max in this chapter for some of that character development so have fun!_

* * *

**Chapter 32**

**All's Fair in Love and War**

If anyone were to be informed that a tornado would soon hit the archery contest and leave nothing but ruin in its wake, they would have simply dismissed this information as nonsense. It was the perfect day. With a cloudless blue sky and rather warm weather it was almost like nature could see nothing going wrong. There was also very little wind to the fortune of the archer's participating.

Of course for an expert archer like Robin Hood, wind was hardly a factor that was going to stop him from winning this contest and Maid Marian's heart. He studied each of his arrows carefully, placing them in his quiver after nodding at them. It was as if her was judging them and approving them accordingly, Sora noted as he watched Robin, who was currently in disguise as a stork knowing full well that if there was ever a peaceful day as this, then a hungry evil would not be too far behind.

"Robin, what are you doing? An arrow's an arrow, isn't it?" Sora cocked his head to the side as Robin shook his head at one of the arrows and dismissed it to the side.

"Now, Sora, a good archer knows where his best shots lie. I have certain arrows for certain days and the ones I've selected, well, let's just say I have a good feeling about them," Robin replied somewhat condescendingly.

"If you say so," Sora said nonchalantly. He was fiddling with the Oblivion and Oathkeeper keychains in his left hand almost unconsciously now.

"I do. Well, it's time, wish me luck," Robin said.

"I thought you said you already knew where your best shots lay?"

"Touché." Robin curtsied before stepping fully from the shade into the eyes of all who would be attending the tournament. Some of the members of the town had even come to witness the spectacle about to take place.

On one side of the open field, Stephanie was happily talking with the new friends she had made. They were taking a big risk by bringing her along to something that could easily go wrong but it was much better than leaving her by herself.

"You enjoying everything so far, Stephanie?" Sora asked after making his way to her.

Stephanie nodded eagerly. "You guys should've come with us to Skippy's birthday, it was really fun!"

"I haven't been to a birthday in a good while. Guess what though, Luna's birthday is coming up pretty soon so how about we have a party in the you-know-what when the time comes?" Sora asked being careful not to mention the Gummi Ship in front of Stephanie's friends.

"Yay! As long as I'm in charge of the decorations. You, Donald and Goofy can make the cake!" Stephanie said.

"I'm… not quite sure how that'll work out but I guess it can't be that hard to make a cake. Alright, you're on. You get the decorations, we get the cake but you have to keep it a secret," Sora said raising an index finger.

"I'm good at keeping secrets." Stephanie nodded at the finger with a smile.

"What secrets?" Her rabbit friend, Tagalong, asked.

"Shhh, we're holding our own birthday party for our friend, but don't tell anybody. It's a secret," Stephanie whispered. Sora would have laughed at this, except the competition was about to begin.

Luna sat down next to him and whispered into his ear. "I just came back from scanning the area. No mad clown in sight, or anything that's suspicious really."

"Well, let's keep our eyes peeled for now. Where were you last night by the way?" he asked.

"I met someone."

"Already? A bit too soon for that, don't you thi-"

"Not like that." Luna rolled her eyes at Sora's jest. "It was a child. His name is Tim and he and his mother aren't exactly in the best position right now. They're suffering, Sora. I can't believe the nerve of this guy sitting on his throne completely disregarding the needs of his own subjects."

Within the confines of his own safety and shade, Prince John was currently welcoming the competitors and blabbering on about how it was such a momentous occasion. Sora wasn't really paying attention. Like Luna had rightly described, the guy seemed to be going on and on in love with the sound of his own voice and hardly seemed aware of his unpopularity, that or he was and didn't care.

"Well at least someone cared, and that can make all the difference," Sora said.

"Thanks, but I wonder, what happens after we leave? Can we really just let everyone suffer like this?" Luna asked.

Sora looked at her as if she were crazy. "Oh no, please don't tell me you're thinking of doing what I think you're doing."

"Well that would depend on what I was thinking," Luna said acting innocently.

"Luna, an arranged marriage is one thing-"

"It was forced, not arranged, there's a difference."

"Whatever. There's a difference between… _forced _marriages and dethroning kings-"

"He's technically a prince."  
"I'm sure he is," Sora said through gritted teeth. "BUT that doesn't change the fact that we might end up making matters worse if we do interfere. We're protectors, not revolutionaries."

"So you wouldn't change your mind even if something really bad happened that you couldn't look away from?" Luna asked.

Sora diverted his eyes away from the contest and smiled at her. "One thing at a time, Luna," he said.  
"I'll take that as a yes then." Luna smiled back at him and she left it at that returning to watching as one after the other, the challengers stepped up to win a maiden's heart.

The most interesting thing about the tournament was the difference in personality between each person. It seemed the more smug and overly confident they were the less accurate their shot, or at least that's what it seemed like. Finally it was Robin's turn. Where there were murmurs and whispers here and there for the other competitors, a complete silence washed over the townsfolk as if magic had been cast upon them. They all knew who this 'stork' was and how he was one step ahead of any other challenger on the field.

As if to prove this point, he lazily lined up his arrow with his bow, pulled back and released. Just as he did so, the Sheriff, who had also been competing in the tournament, gave Robin a slight nudge. It was enough to change the direction of the arrow as it was being released sending it higher than was required to hit the target.

"You rotten cheater!" Sora called out among many others protesting the Sheriff's action. Robin quickly recovered however and fired off a second arrow. This one hit the first arrow, redirecting its course and sending it straight for the target. The arrow hit dead center and the audience applauded and whistled loudly in praise.

"Good luck next time ole' chap. Oh, I suppose there won't be a next time," Robin said to the Sheriff, masking his voice in a different accent. He gave the fuming wolf a wink before presenting himself to Prince John.

"That was awesome! He just redirected his shot like it was nothing? Maybe we should bring him along with us and leave Donald here," Luna quipped looking behind her where Donald and Goofy were sitting.

"That wasn't funny," Donald replied.

"Well I don't think she said anything about it being a joke, Donald," Goofy joined in with a chuckle.

"We'll even hold a vote. All in favor of Donald staying?" Sora was about to raise his hand when a beeping sound started emanating from Luna's pocket. It was sound they would probably have to become familiar with quickly.

Luna pulled the communicator out of her pocket and held down the button. "Jiminy? What is it?"

"I… do-… everyth-… fuzzy… fog in your…-atch out!"

"Jiminy? Jiminy!" Luna called but the voice had completely dissolved into nothing but crackling noise. "Should we head back?"

"Yeah, it sounded pretty serious. We should make sure they're safe just in case," Sora said. He was about to stand up when one of the guards in particular caught his attention. It had been so well hidden amongst the other guards that Sora hadn't noticed earlier; after all he would not have dared to stare into the intimidating eyes of the rhino guards nor would he have expected it. He alerted the others to his findings quickly.

"_Waaak! _A Chimera?"

"Shhh, not so loud!" Sora whispered while taking in the number of people there. "What do we do?"

"We need to evacuate everyone from the premises before we even think of engaging that thing, right? Then again it's not going to be an easy feat, we'll just end up drawing attention to ourselves," Luna replied.

"Well we have to start somewhere. Stephanie," Sora called tapping her on the shoulder. "You need get your friends far away from here as possible. Find the friar and ask him to evacuate everyone else, and make sure you stay with him, okay?"

Stephanie nodded and was about to pass on the message to her Skippy and the others when they overheard an unexpected commotion from Prince John and the winner of the archery tournament. Turning back, they watched the undisguised Robin Hood holding onto Maid Marian's hands and Prince John demanding his capture.

_Of course this would happen now of all times, _Sora thought. He produced his Keyblade and aimed for one of the nearby tents. Fire shot out of the Kingdom Key and ignited the cloth sparking the initial chaos that would encourage everyone to evacuate.

Noticing the confusion, a confused gaping mouth formed on his face. It didn't take him long to find the culprits responsible.

"Guards, after them!" He yelled pointing at Sora and the others. Sora, somewhat fuelled by a sense of heroism perhaps, jumped in front of his friends and parried an overhead swing from one of the rhino guards. Luna swept in under Sora's arm and knocked the vulnerable guard back with a powerful swing of her own but two more came in to take his place.

Giving them a quick warning, Sora and Luna stepped aside to allow Goofy to spin into both of the guards with his shield taking them out. A third guard who appeared was quickly taken out of the equation by Donald's Ice magic.

A final few more guards came after them at the same time. Sensing it was time to try a new trick, Sora imbued his Keyblade with Aeroga magic. He could feel the wind against his hand, lapping back and forth violently like a raging storm at sea. He drew back his hand before flinging it forward with a circle raid. At first the Keyblade only circled them like an annoying wasp buzzing around its prey. All too soon this changed. A huge tornado was created from the spinning object, lifting the 700 kg guards into the air. They spun around and around until a bright light from the Keyblade dispersed the wind, and sent the guards flying off in different directions and distances along with it.

"Show off!" Donald said as the Kingdom Key reappeared in Sora's hands, although he could not hide the clearly visible smirk on his face no matter how hard he tried.

"Well before you can say that, we still have one more thing to deal with." Sora spun around pretending to aim his Keyblade at Prince John. If he could have, the prince would have retrieved back into his chair but with hardly any space left and Robin Hood right near him, he curled up into a little ball and started… sucking his thumb?

"Uh, well I… I just… that's just sad." Sora shook his head before aiming it instead at the correct target, the shrouded figure that stood alone where the rest of the rhinos would otherwise have shielded it.

The tall cloaked figure stood, simply watching. Its blue eyes, though shining, were also inhuman and beastly at the same type. They bulged around in the most frightening of manners, so much so that Sora could see red veins that looked like wiry hands caressing both irises. Its hands were cupped and resting where its stomach would be like a priest.

"It's just… staring. Guys, be careful. I have a bad feeling about this," Sora warned keeping his Keyblade trained on the Chimera. Asb'el, the watcher, suddenly switched targets with a quick flick of its strange eyes. Its and Luna's eyes met and suddenly she felt her heart beat faster. She could hear it, the pounding of drums in her ears. She felt strangely tipsy.

"Luna!" Sora yelled and caught her before she fell to ground. "Luna, are you alright?"

"Sorry, I don't know what came over me. I'll be fine, really," she promised him. In fact she was anything but fine. For some reason her chest was hurting, as if her heart was ready to burst out at any second. But she could ignore the pain for now. If the problem was the Chimera side of her own heart coming into contact with another Chimera's heart, then she couldn't allow that to prevent her from fighting.

"You can fight?" Sora asked as Luna used his shoulders as support to stand up.

"Oh yes I can," Luna replied confidently. Sora nodded at her before nudging his head at Donald. The duck began firing off its own multiple arsenal of magic. Strangely enough Asb'el did little to dodge these attacks. In fact, it didn't do anything at all. All of the spells connected successfully with an ensuing shriek from the creature. Even with this, it stood in its place and did not retaliate. Its eyes were still on Luna. Her heart beat yet faster.

Luna panicked and before she knew it she was rushing at the Chimera despite the cries from Sora, Donald and Goofy.

_Why do you keep looking at me? Stop looking at me! _

Luna made powerful but slow slices, slashing vertically and horizontally in a fury. It was as if it had been staring into her very soul… judging her. It had made her realize how much she hated it. As for why she hated it, well, there was probably no reason other than the fact that she hated that she was one of them. So when it had looked at her, it didn't need words to tell her that she was on the wrong side.

She felt arms close around her and pull her away from the Chimera but she tried to wrestle and break free. It didn't work, Sora's grip on her was too strong and only after remembering that she was with Sora, Donald and Goofy did she stop struggling.

Luna and Sora watched as Asb'el writhed in pain before quieting once again and appearing as if nothing had happened.

"I don't know what came over me. I was just so… angry," Luna tried to explain after reading the lines on Sora's face to know that expected answers. Sora could tell that she was choking on the words but before he could tell her that she didn't need to explain, she was already trying to force the words out. "It just kept looking at me and… no… it's still…" Luna backed away from Sora as the watcher's eyes fell on her once again. She felt the first signs of water welling up in her eyes and before Sora could see them, she took off in the opposite direction, running into the forest as quickly as her legs could carry her.

"Luna, come back!" Sora yelled. He was about to follow her when an arrow landed at his feet. He turned in the direction the shot originated from to see Robin with bow aimed at the Chimera. "What are you doing?"

"No need to be so imprudent. You still have much to learn about a young woman's heart it seems," Robin replied.

"Well yeah, I'm only sixteen."

"Hardly an excuse. The heart needs time to accept and move on. Whatever demons she may have, you can be sure she won't give in to them, that is unless you don't trust Luna."

"Of course I do!" shouted Sora quickly.

"Then come. We deal with this troublesome thing first," Robin said before firing off a rapid succession of arrows. They came down upon Asb'el like rain and stabbed themselves into various parts of its body. It was at this moment that the Watcher finally decided to act.

It glided towards Sora slowly at first, for it had no feet. Sora was hesitant to attack. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was unusually weird with this Heartless. It had taken most of their attacks without doing a thing, and while it had appeared hurt, he had the sneaking suspicion that it had been deceiving them from the very beginning.

Suddenly a scythe materialized in its hands and Sora found out quickly how right he had been. Asb'el lunged forward at him though Sora was ready for it and parried. He tried to apply force and push back but the Chimera stood unmoving.

"Sora, back away!" Upon hearing Donald's voice, Sora jumped away from the Chimera just in time to see a mixture of Ice and Fire hit it, but this time it didn't seem to hurt the Heartless. It had done the exact opposite.

"It absorbed them?! But how?" Sora asked in disbelief. A frustrated Donald blinked before throwing another barrage of spells, all of them being taken in by Asb'el as if they were nothing.

The cloaked figure breathed in deeply, Sora could see its chest rising to indicate as much, before firing off shots of the spells Donald had used. Sora dived behind a nearby log and listened as the magic bullets smacked against his cover. A flying arrow soaring towards the Chimera halted the attack only for it to be caught with unusual speed and snapped like a twig. It was still enough for Sora to warp out of his cover and by Donald, Goofy and Robin's side.

"What is this thing? My magic doesn't work!" Donald shouted.

"Maybe it absorbs magic?" Goofy tried to provide a reason while scratching his head.

"Maybe, but that's doesn't explain why it didn't do it before."  
"Because it was just watching then," Sora said thoughtfully. "I think it was just studying us before. The Chimera act differently from regular Heartless so…"

"You think it mighta been gatherin' information on us?" Goofy asked.

"It seems like it. I just thought it was weird how it didn't try to attack us until just now, and then he was able to catch Robin's arrow without looking at it so it's not just magic. Let's just end this quickly," Sora replied. He activated _Ars Arcanum _before landing several hits with a warping Sonic Blade attack.

Asb'el was knocked back by the repeating blue ember wisps before stabbing its scythe into the ground into the ground. A red circle with a diameter of half a meter surrounded the Heartless. As soon as Sora crossed this red circle to attack again, he felt the sensation of knives stabbing into his body. He yelled out at this pain and quickly used Aeroga to throw himself away from the circle landing some distance away.

"Sora, are you okay?" Goofy asked moving in front of his friends to cover him from any incoming attacks. Donald propped up his staff and cast a healing spell on him. The feeling of being stabbed in multiple directions soon subsided, and Sora let out a relieved sigh.

"This thing isn't playing around, that's for sure," he admitted with a frustrated chuckle.

* * *

Riku smirked as the slack-jawed Max looked around the city of Paris for the first time. He had not been near him unfortunately when they had left their home, but it was a face that Riku very much imagined Sora having when he had stepped foot in another world.

He put his hand on Max's shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "And to think, you'll be able to tell your friends all about this once you get back."

"Huh? Oh… yeah, I… guess so," Max said stiffening somewhat.

_That was weird, _Riku thought before dismissing it. He was probably just nervous. Instead, Riku looked towards his other companion. Kairi had just come out of the Baker's shop after informing him that they had found Luna. Settled on her wrist was a basket full of bread which Riku was surprised to find out was given to her for free.

"We must officially be his favorite customers," Riku said grinning at the bread.

"That and he may just get the feeling that we're not from around here. He mentioned something else that was quite interesting. He's seen others like us that don't look like they're from around here," Kairi informed him.

Riku stopped walking and frowned. "Moira's Crescent or Kefka and that Ice witch?"

"Either way, we oughta keep an eye for them. Just thinking about what they did to Sora… Kairi, if it comes to a fight, I'll make sure you're safe," Riku promised.

"I'll keep you safe too, and you as well Max. I'm sorry you had to get caught up in our mess but I promise that you've made the right choice. Riku and I both no how to party hard," Kairi said.

"Well I wouldn't know about that but it's better than studying," Riku said.

"So where exactly are we going?" Max asked.

"There." Riku pointed diagonally upwards towards the great looming beast known as Notre Dame Cathedral. It was usually the thing anyone would probably look at as soon as they left their houses in the morning, or at least it still would have been if a great Ice pillar rising up had not taken its place as the most fascinating thing there. To think that they had been there to see its creation was, well, it was like making history itself, though it certainly had not come to pass by choice.

Riku led the way into the town square, through the cathedral doors and up the stairs on the immediate left after entering. The closer they got to Quasimodo, the more anxious they began to feel. What if the antidote failed to work? Quasimodo's hope or what little left of it there was, depended on one small vial in Kairi's pocket and hadn't even been tested. And then… another dreaded thought! What if it was too late? This thought encouraged Riku to move faster, heading up two steps at a time as opposed to one. Max, the amateur on their journey, surely must have been wondering what the hurry was, but neither Riku nor Kairi had the time to explain.

They soon reached the bell tower and Kairi knocked gently on the door.

"GO AWAY!"

Kairi and Riku exchanged worried looks. The former leaned in closer. "Quasimodo, it's us, Kairi and Riku!"

"Please, just… stay away from me," Quasimodo pleaded. "It's for your own good."

"Well, we can't do that," Riku muttered before giving the door a push. It gave way and allowed the three to see what horror awaited them. There sat a kneeling Quasimodo, his head lowered but still visible, enough so that they could see his face. Half of it was gray and cracked like clay, while the other half was as it had always been, but signs of stress of frustration were showing. This was telling by the dark circle under his eye and the sweat protruding down his face.

Beside him was Esmeralda, with a wet cloth and bowl of water lying next to her. She attempted to clean Quasimodo's face but he instead swatted her away stubbornly. Esmeralda gave him a look before setting the cloth in the bowl.

"It wasn't working anyway." She sighed and turned to Riku, Kairi and Max. "It started yesterday in the evening, he told me. I don't think there's much time left. You said that I could be his light and help him but I don't think I'm enough. It was foolish to think that."

"A fool would have given up at first instance, you didn't," Riku told her. "So I'm hoping you don't give up now, for the both of you."

"Why should she have to hope for me when mine has probably faded by now?" Quasimodo murmured darkly. "You see me now, don't you? This is what I am, what I've always been. I tried so hard to make up for lost time, I really did. I thought that with ma- Frollo gone I could be free of my shackles, but I was wrong. I can't go out there now, not like this. You've been looking after a monster Esmeralda, a demon, something that shouldn't even be. You should leave me. I wouldn't blame you… it's okay."  
To everyone else surprise however, Riku rolled his eyes and pretended to yawn. "Are you done yet?"

"You weren't listening to a word I was saying, were you?" Quasi asked.

"After spending a lot of time doing it myself, you kind of get bored of it," Riku said.

"You have to trust him on that one," Kairi added as she reached into her pocket. She produced the vial in her hand. It was the one hope Quasimodo had left. "No matter how deep the darkness, a light shines within. That's why we have to keep hoping Quasi, and even if we fail this time, I'd rather suffer a thousand failures to find the answer than give up. Being brave means knowing that you won't always be successful and having the courage to get back up despite that."  
Esmeralda smiled appreciatively before looking at Quasi. "So, are you ready to give life another shot Quasi?"

"Well… I'm sensing you're not going to accept a no so I'll do it!" Quasimodo said. He was a little more confident than he had been previously. This in turn inspired confidence in the rest of them, though they reminded themselves to keep a ceiling on their expectations.

Treating it almost as if it were the most precious item in all the worlds, Kairi carefully and gently handed the vial over to Quasimodo. Likewise, the receiver took great care in pulling open the cork and cautiously lifting it up into his open mouth. The liquid at first looked as if it wanted to retain its container form, struggling to stay in to drag on the excruciating moment. Finally, natural forces took their course and the liquid fell into Quasimodo's mouth and disappeared. Riku couldn't help but stare at the empty vial in his hands instead of the actual drinker.

"Well? I don't see anything different," Esmeralda noted after some time of observation.

"I don't exactly feel any different either," Quasi said, his disappointment clearly rising.

"Hold up guys, we have to give it time. Maybe it just has a slow effect. I say we wait and see what happens overnight," Riku said. He refused to say there was no rush, because that would have been a lie.

"He's right. Get some rest Quasi, I'll stay with you." Esmeralda smiled gently as Quasimodo settled his head on her lap. It was a peaceful moment that Riku would not have disturbed had the question not been important.

"Esmeralda, you met a guy with spiky red hair called Lea, right? He's the one you helped to search Frollo's house," he reminded her.

"Ahah! I knew there was a connection. He was rather hesitant to confirm one but I think this settles it. Yes, it was something about an Atlantis. As a gypsy I've travelled around, probably more so than the average Parisian but, I've never quite heard a story like that before," Esmeralda told them.

"It's what we're here for aside from Quasi. Lea mentioned that Frollo had some interest in this cathedral. Do you know much about him?" Riku asked.

"Not really and I don't want to know," Esmeralda replied with a lack of enthusiasm. Having been treated as some object for his desires, Riku wasn't surprised she didn't want to talk much about him. With that in mind he skipped past Frollo's past.

"You mentioned that you travel around more than the average Parisi- pari- er- person so have you heard any rumors about the cathedral, like a secret passageway or anything like that?"

Esmeralda shook her head. "That would be an even weirder story. I can't say I've heard of it, I hardly ever came inside here before Quasi. Your best chance would be the archdeacon but I doubt even he knows much."

"Wait… you mentioned a secret passageway?" Quasimodo asked shifting his head while on Esmeralda's lap to look at Riku and Kairi.

"Yeah, do you know anything? I mean a secret passageway is a little farfetched mind you but…"

But Kairi's assumption of a secret passageway being an absurdity was not so much the case in Quasimodo's eyes.

"No, it may actually be closer than you think. Before I had the courage to step outside the cathedral, while I thought that I was forever indebted to Frollo… I used to walk around the cathedral and watch things happen… just watch. It was an innocent enough act, at least that's what I thought, but one day while I was walking around the upper level I saw him by the altar. He was pacing back and forth and he looked very frustrated, probably the most frustrated I'd ever seen him. He also said something out loud at the time. I remember it because it was very out of character for someone like him," he said.

"What did he say?"

"I really didn't want to listen but what he said was too interesting not to look away. He said: "Damn it! It has to be here!"' Quasimodo glanced up again after he had told them to find a pensive Kairi and an incredibly confused Max.

Finally Riku relayed his own thoughts. "Well that's better than anything, where he was more so. Alright, thanks Quasi, we'll check it out."

It was Kairi who led the way downwards this time, filled with a buzzing energy that hadn't been there before. Riku was considering telling her to lower her expectations when he also realized that poor Max had come the entire way without a single explanation given to him. He quickly explained to Goofy's son about Kairi's fascination with the mythical city, to which even Riku still hardly understood himself. Furthermore, he filled Max in on the group of Keyblade wielders who were going after Sora and how they were trying to intercept their plans.

His long explanation had taken them all the way to their destination, at the back of the main cathedral where the altar was that Quasimodo had mentioned. Maybe it had been too high an expectation, but Riku had almost wished that upon arriving there the answer would automatically reveal itself. Clearly they would have to work a bit harder than that.

"Sorry to point out the obvious but someone had to. Considering this Frollo guy wasn't able to find it, what makes you think we will?" Max asked.

"Max, you're being too pessimistic about this. You have to think of the bigger picture here. Maybe there are things that we'll be able to see that Frollo couldn't, and seeing as we're not from this world, I don't see why that can't happen," Kairi said.

"Let's pull our heads together and think about this one step at a time. If we find nothing, then that's the end of it, but it's a bit too early to be giving up just yet," Riku agreed. "Now if I were a secret, where would I be hiding?"

Kairi's eyes wandered across the area she was in before finally resting on the stained glass window at the very back of the cathedral. Within each colorful arcature was its own represented person but the image that drew Kairi's attention in particular was the only woman among them, frozen tears on her pallid face.

"Noticed something?" Riku asked following Kairi's gaze.

"It's… sad. Why do you think she's crying?" Kairi asked.

Surprised at this question, Riku shrugged. "No idea. That's just the way the artist pictured her, I guess?"

But now Riku was wondering it too. Surely there was no reason for her to be crying in particular unless it was the artist's relative or beloved. Maybe he had captured her in an emotional moment. In any case, Riku failed to see how this was all important.

In any case, Riku found himself drifting downwards to her hands, or more precisely the object that was in her hands. It was a gold chalice, but rather than holding it upwards like one would naturally expect, it was pointed downwards. If he was hoping that this was all one big "Look down there" sign, it wasn't exactly obvious.

Still, it was curious… like it was daring him to hope even further. He quickly pointed the irregularity out to Kairi and Max.

"Good point, yeah, that is weird. What do you think it means?" Kairi asked.

"Well if we take it literally, it's probably just a reversed cup. The only way it would ever make sense to do something like that is if the cup was already empty," Riku provided.

"Or maybe she was emptying it? If we take it literally anyway like you said," Kairi replied.

"Or maybe she's mad that someone spilled her drink? That's even more literal since she's crying," Max quipped.

"Hey, no use crying over spilt milk, right?" Riku couldn't help but join in. The moment was too perfect. The two exchanged laughter while Kairi rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, well if you guys are done you might want to look thataway." Kairi's finger directed them to an erected stone sculpture of a figure right behind the altar itself. Inspecting it from the front revealed that it was undeniably the same woman and though the tears were not as pronounced on her face, the similar clothing and cup in her hands was enough to match them.

"Well it's certainly a match, there's no doubt about that. If it does anything is something else entirely," Riku said while tracing his finger around the sculpture. "Just one little discrepancy. The cup itself is right side up."

"That's more like a big discrepancy to me," Max said. Riku nodded and wrapped his hands around the cup before pulling. There was quite a bit of resistance at first as if he and the sculpture were wrestling to gain control but soon the chalice was in Riku's hands. "If you just broke it, I'm so not with you guys."  
"Too late, Max," Riku said. He flipped the cup and placed it back in her hands. Once again, they were left disappointed. "Nothing. What was I even thinking?"

"I suppose this is what they call vandalism," Max said.

"Well it popped out easily enough. That can't just be it," Riku replied. He refused to believe that he wasn't on the right track here. There had to be a connection otherwise why the same woman?

"Yeah, popped out… that's not the way I saw it," Max said. Riku winced and instead turned to Kairi for a spark of confidence. The auburn haired girl had pulled the chalice away from the stony hands and was now examining it closely. Riku dared not disturb her, for he could tell she was deeply in thought about something.

Kairi blinked. _Once. Twice. Way too many times. _Water welled up in her eyes and soon she was, crying? Tears trickled down her face and dropped, settling within the confines of the chalice.

This time, something did happen. The stone chalice glowed brightly for a second before turning into a chalice made of complete gold. Riku and Max exchanged uncomfortable looks with each other. Their bafflement only partly stemmed from the fact that Kairi had been able to figure something like that out. It also arose from fear for what this even meant. The probability of some secret had just become all too much of a certainty.

"Kairi, how did you…"

"One moment Riku. Let me just try one more thing…" Kairi proceeded to flip the cup upside down again and placed it back in the sculpture's hands. As she had probably expected, the gold on the chalice had spread, almost like an infection. The stone figure soon turned to gold but it was not the only thing that changed in the area. The floor underneath Riku and Max glowed brightly as well and Riku had to quickly drag Max away with him to the duller area so who wouldn't fall into the path that had just opened.

When Riku looked back, both altar and respective part of the floor that had glowed was gone. In its place was a bunch of stairs descending deeper and deeper into a pitch blackness of uncertainty. Feeling some liquid in his mouth, he forced himself to swallow down before turning to Kairi.

"Kairi, if I have ever doubted you before, now's a pretty good time for me to repent I guess."

* * *

_Next time we'll be seeing where this passageway goes, whether Sora and the others can defeat this Chimera, and finally a bit more on Astra's return to Moira's Crescent. Stay tuned and be sure to leave a like and review if you're enjoying things!_


	33. Eyes That Know Only Darkness

_Yep, almost done with these exams. Then it will be that other fanfic's turn. You know the one. For now, let us head straight back into Riku and Kairi's perspective, shall we?_

* * *

**Chapter 33**

**Eyes That Know Only Darkness**

In an incredibly small way, Kairi wasted no time at all in blasting off about how she had made the strange connection that it was tears that made the difference. Riku suspected that it was just a lucky guess and had even questioned her confidence after she had finished explaining but she dismissed it all too quickly.

"Well that just makes it even more suspicious!" Max pointed out. His mouth had been hanging open from the moment the cup had turned to gold.

"Oh, you guys are just a bunch of pessimists. Can't I at least take the credit for once?" Kairi asked grinning.

"You can have it." Riku smiled before looking at stairs carrying on into the darkness. "Where do you think this leads?"

"Well, I might have some idea. It's how I figured out what to do," Kairi said. She went on to relate the idea of the chalice turning gold to that of alchemical transmutation of base metals into gold. She had read up on it during her time in Radiant Garden's library while looking for something on Atlantis. Therefore her conclusion was that the secret passageway had to be connected in some way to the alchemy that Frollo had been seeking. With the evidence piling up by the second, Riku and Max found it hard to dismiss as coincidental.

"So anyone want to take the first step?" Max regretted saying these words immediately when Riku and Kairi looked at him. He soon found himself in front leading the three of them down and down into who knew where.

When at last their feet found straight horizontal ground, they were completely surrounded in darkness. They must have come down a long way, in fact Kairi estimated that it had taken them three minutes give or take a few to finally reach the bottom.

"I can't even see anything. Maybe there's a switch around here of a torch… huh? What's this? It feels… squidgy?"

"Riku! Those are my-"

"Oh god, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean-"

But it was apparently too late for him to talk his way out of it. Max heard the sound of a sharp smack and moments later a glowing light from Kairi's Keyblade illuminated the area to reveal a totally humiliated Riku on the ground.

"Hey Riku, it's not all that bad. You've gotten closer than I ever have," Max tried to console him only to receive a dangerous glare from Kairi. He gulped and distracted himself from her stare by helping Riku up.

"Well it wasn't intentional." Riku brushed himself up and tried his best to hide his blush before looking around. "Wait a second… are these the catacombs?"

"Cata- what now?" Max asked.

"The catacombs. They're like a network of tunnels that run throughout the city. There must be hundreds of tunnels that probably haven't been discovered yet like this one. One of the tunnels took us to a place called the court of miracles. If that took us there, then where does this one lead?" Kairi asked.

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Riku said, although he was somewhat hesitant to given what had just happened.

Onwards they travelled with seemingly no end in sight. Several times over just like its counterpart in the graveyard, they'd felt as if they had stepped over something rather… crunchy. The best case scenario was that it was the snapping of a twig or something as equally irrelevant but that was incredibly unlikely given how deep they were under ground. They knew exactly what it was, and it took a well compacted mind to ensure that they didn't freak out over it too much.

After a good long while filled up by conversing to lighten up the mood, they arrived at a door at the end of the passage.

Riku grabbed the handle and turned to Max and Kairi. "You ready for what's up ahead?"

Kairi nodded but Max seemed slightly more afraid if his quivering was anything to go by. Kairi put a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. Max looked back into her eyes, perhaps searching for the origin of her confidence, before eventually nodding back.

"Y-yeah, I'm ready," he said.

"Okay, on three then. _One. Two. Three_!" Riku pulled down the handle and pushed.

They were in a laboratory it seemed. Dusty and cobwebbed but clearly a secret lab. Shelves on the room were lined with dusty books as well as various supplies for chemical experiments. What really grabbed the trio's attention however was the table in the middle of the small room. On it laid a beast, its char black body sprawled out and limp, its arms and legs hanging off the table almost lazily. It was dead but still as frightening as it probably would have been if alive.

"It looks like a humanoid Neo Shadow, but its eyes are blue?" Riku pointed out observing the dilated pupils. "It looks as if it was afraid of something. Is it a chimera?" He quickly made to lift up the arms.

"Are you actually touching it?" Max squirmed uncomfortably.

"No, I was just considering what kind of pedicure I'd give it," Riku replied sarcastically. He retracted his hands as soon as he had touched the arms and looked down at his palms to see some kind of black ink-like substance oozing from his hands. "Urgh! What is this stuff?"

"You better not touch me with that stuff!" Kairi warned.

"Again, I told you it was a mistake, alright?" Riku said while rubbing the strange substance onto his jeans.

"I'm sure it was. Hey, there's something else on the table!" Kairi walked closer to the table trying her best not to look at the weird creature. She swiped her hand back and forth across the table until the barely noticeable inscription became more legible. After reading the words to herself several times over she couldn't help but look at the creature. Her heart was beating much faster than it should have and her hands had started shaking. Surely it was a coincidence… yes, that's right, it had to be…

"Riku." She could only just bare to call out his name. It came out as more of a whisper.

Riku peered over her shoulder and remained expressionless for a good while. He was no doubt thinking the exact same things as Kairi, and it was only until he read the words out loud that the nature of what they were dealing with became all too clear.

"_Her final resting place. May her dreams be free of neither walls nor ceiling. Alice._"

* * *

Astra parted her lips slightly and gently tipped the cup of hot coco into her mouth. She closed her eyes and grinned briefly as the sweet liquid ran down her throat before opening her eyes again.

"You make some mean hot chocolate, and you're blind," she complimented Rhea who had sat down next to her on the sofa.

They were currently in the lounge room, a kitchen in the adjoining room where Rhea had just been. Also in the lounge was a bar with a wide variety of alcohol behind the counter, a few magazines, books and tabletop games spread out on the table in front of them, and a pinball machine near the exit. To anyone on the outside it would look as if this were a life of luxury. It couldn't have been any farther from the case. Their missions kept them on their toes and left Moira's Crescent very little time to do much of anything.

"Are you insinuating that blind people can't make a mean hot chocolate?"

Caught off guard at Rhea's question, Astra blushed and buried her head into her free hand. "That… wasn't exactly what I meant."

Rhea chuckled at this and felt around a bit before finally finding Astra's shoulder. "Don't worry, I understand what you meant. As with everything in life, it takes a little bit of practice but eventually you get the hang of it. It just so happens that I have to work a little bit harder than the rest though."  
"You must view the world in a completely different way from the rest of us, right? I couldn't begin to even imagine…"

Rhea smiled gently. There was a graceful innocence about the way she did everything, no doubt shaped by her disability. "I don't think I'm any different from anyone else really. We all have our perceptions of the world. There are borders that we draw up to suit our interests, paths we ignore and turn away from… I don't think anyone's quite the same when it comes to how we see the world or it would get quite boring."  
"You can say that again? But I'm interested in your perception nonetheless. Were you born…?"

"Blind? Not exactly, more like I was fated to lose my eyesight from the beginning. I found my eyesight gradually getting worse. I was scared and everything was happening all too fast for me to comprehend it. I can easily remember the day when I looked up at my parents and saw nothing but swirls and patterns instead of their faces. It was Christmas Eve, I was seven. By the next Christmas my eyesight had completely gone. I was jealous of those around me. I could hear them from my bedroom, children my age playing outside by the park near my house. They could see… they knew what their friends looked like and they'd probably never given it a moment's thought as to what their life would be like if one day they were to wake up and never see their friends' or family's faces again."

Astra nodded throughout Rhea's story and took another sip from the cup before setting it down on table. "I'm so sorry. My own dad and me, well we never got on. I would have been glad to step outside my house and never see his face again. My mother… well, I never knew her. The only thing I have of her to go by is the photo album that my grandmother gave me. I've always tried to picture who she was, who my father _was_, by looking at the photographs. I had my gran's description of her to help me obviously but it never was enough. I felt that any type of depiction I had of her was a fake. It's kind of like having a copy of a famous painting. It's not quite close to the real thing," she said.

Rhea smiled. "Why I do believe that's the first time you've ever really told any of us about yourself, Astra. Is this a change of the seasons?"

Astra furrowed her brow and turned an amusing shade of red. It was true, the only person she had ever really been open to had been Luna. "Whatever, I was just empathizing. Just continue with your own story."

"No need to be so embarrassed. Anyway, I think the worst part was that I could never read expressions. My parents told me that they loved me no matter what but I couldn't see that love. Then one day, when I was sixteen years old, I met Kohle and you know what the first thing he did was? He bought me Sea Salt Ice Cream."

"Not this again," Astra groaned. "You and Luna would make the best of friends, really."

"I look forward to it," Rhea replied delightedly. "But there was a meaning behind it. When I took a bite, the first thing he asked me was how it tasted, so I told him it was salty but sweet. 'So you know what it tastes like', he said to me. He then brought me somewhere else and asked about what I could smell and hear. I could hear birds singing and flying off somewhere. The smell was… flowery and green. I asked if he had taken me to the meadow nearby and he answered yes. 'So you can hear, smell, taste and I'm sure you can feel', he told me as he took hold of my hands. 'I'd say you're pretty lucky, wouldn't you? As long as you stay true to those things and believe in them, your heart will do the seeing for you.' That he'd gone out of his way to fill a person he'd never met with more confidence than she'd ever hoped to have gave me a joy I hadn't felt in a long time. I was lucky. These senses were my own and I'd make the most I could out of them. So I dedicated myself to learning to listen to them. Gradually, my senses became enhanced, and I could do so much more than the average human could even though I was one sense short."

"That's amazing. And your Keyblade?"

"Kohle and I met several times in between my training. I was training independently by the way and it was during one of my sessions that the Keyblade suddenly came into my hands. I didn't know what was happening at the time. In retrospect though I think I know what awakened it. I could feel the hurt of others, their joy, their fears and frustrations. Their burdens became my burdens. One day I couldn't take it and I fell unconscious. Some point during that was when I received the Keyblade. When we met the… fifth time, Kohle told me about my power. Feeling as if I were indebted to him, I asked if I could join him to help keep the world safe."

"And that power you have. Feeling others' emotions… do you…?"

"Oh no, I can't control it now thankfully. It does come in handy but I'd never be so curious as to look into another person's heart and see their secrets," Rhea assured her. "And if I ever were to open my heart out to others as much as I did when I was unable to control it, it would probably kill me."  
"Whoa whoa whoa wait a minute. Going back to Kohle, was he travelling alone at the time?" Astra asked.

"Yes, I was the first person to join Moira's Crescent. That was also part of the reason. I didn't need to look into his heart to see how lonely he was. I could tell from his voice. Everyone needs a companion, right?"

"That they do. Makes sense as well seeing as you're second in command. So in a way, I guess you probably know him better than the rest of us do, huh? He also carries himself pretty well for a guy who's been wondering around by himself for a good while."

Rhea shook her head. "We're close, but he still hides things. Perhaps it's too hard for him to remember those things. You've probably wondered why the name of our group is called Moira's Crescent."

"I just assumed it was named after a former girlfriend or something. Not sure I'd want to remember that kind of stuff personally," Astra said.

"Well, that's what I assumed. He told me when he first came up with the name that it was based on someone he had known. I found it quite odd that he used the past tense as opposed to present so I figured that it was someone he had lost. He never told me anything else though. At one point I tried to… no, it's nothing."

"Okay, well now you have to tell me. At one point you tried to…? Come on, spill the details girl!" Astra begged.

Rhea hesitated before smiling. "Did you know that the name Moira means fate or destiny? That's what I found out during my research in the study. So it's almost more like Fate's Crescent or Destiny's Crescent."

"Well that's… interesting, I guess?" It wasn't really, but Astra had just felt as if Rhea had tried to change the subject.

"Right now, I'm sure half of Moira's Crescent don't know how they feel," Rhea continued. "After we heard from you that Sora freed you, I think we're having second thoughts about how we want to approach this. Do you trust him Astra?"

"It's not about whether I trust him or not. It's the fact that Luna does. I can't go against her. I won't." Astra shook her head defiantly.

"Then don't. If it comes to where we have to take this boy's life, then you shouldn't have to walk through hell like the rest of us. Just continue to do the missions and don't bother yourself about Sora. It's our burden to bear, not yours. And don't worry, I promise we'll do everything in our power to keep Luna safe."

At first, Astra had no idea how to address Rhea's advice. Yes, she could take the risk and allow them to go after Sora, in which case she was sure that Luna would fight to the death to protect him. There was no possible way they could guarantee her safety. The more she thought about it, the less of a choice it seemed. She had promised to be there for Luna and the best way to make sure she was safe was to be close to her whenever possible.

She took another sip and stared into the swirling muddy brown. "That's not something you can promise."

* * *

Sora breathed heavily as he watched the Chimera lift its weightless form into the air before flying off. He along with Donald, Goofy and Robin had thrown everything they had at it and it still wasn't enough.

He turned to look at the others. "Are… you guys… okay?"

"Ugh, he got away!" Donald replied in frustration.

"Then we're… just gonna… have to track it down again… before it can harm anyone," Sora breathily responded before waiting to recover his breath. After doing so he gave a nod that spoke quickly about his worry for Luna to the others before setting off down the path that she had taken.

He was soon to find out that she had not wandered that far off. Hearing the muffled sound of crying only a minute after going into the forest, he spun around and saw her underneath a tree. She was curled up into a ball and rocking back and forwards slowly while burying her head into her knees.

Sora sat down next to her, brought his arm around her shoulder and drew her in closer. As far as he could recall, he had never really been in a situation where he had to comfort someone like this before. He didn't even know what to say. Should he wait and allow her to cry until she felt better or was it better to try and console her now?

But thankfully it was Luna that talked first. "When that _thing _looked at me, it was as if it was telling that we were the same. I thought I could overcome things like this if I trained with Neuge, but apparently not."

"You've been through a lot. These things take a while to get over and no amount of training can prepare you for what's really out there. I think that's why Neuge gave us this test. In a way, you have more to prove than anyone," Sora said.

"I want to be ready. I have to be with Moira's Crescent and Kefka right around the corner. I want to be stronger, but I… it's so hard, and it doesn't get any easier," Luna said from in between her knees.

"I know. No one said it would be easy, but we have the tools to overcome it. Neuge made sure of that. But I can't do this by myself. I need you alongside me if we're both going to prove her efforts weren't wasted. Just keep telling yourself that you can do this, and you'll be fine."

Luna looked up at him, wiped her tears away and nodded up and down while repeating the words. "I can do this… I can do this… yeah, that's easy to remember. I'll keep my eyes forward and my heart open. Alright, let's do it then."

* * *

_Luna cleared the table quickly of its various objects and watched as Astra assisted Kit in laying Sora down on the table. She gently took hold of his hand and gave it a squeeze while Kit quickly parted Sora's eyelids to check something. _

"_We need to remove his clothing so I can disinfect and clean up these wounds. They look pretty deep from the look of things so we have to act quickly," Kit told them. Luna pushed the fact that she was pretty much undressing her male friend out of her mind and nodded quickly before getting to work on helping Astra take of Sora's shirt. In a way, she was fortunate that Desiree had apparently only done damage to Sora's upper body. She either hadn't cared where she hit, or she had targeted certain parts of his body very calculatedly. _

_Aunt Kit set off to clean Sora's wounds immediately. Luna offered to help and when Kit gave a silent affirmative, Luna raced into the kitchen and returned with a clean cloth. _

"_Be glad you arrived when you did. Any later and I don't think he would have made it. You see these?" Kit showed her some faint cuts on his body. "They're resealed wounds. I'm not sure how that happens-"_

"_Magic," Astra answered for them. Kit paused hearing the word at first, clearly not yet attuned to the prospect of other worlds that Luna had mentioned to her, before continuing to clean the deeper wounds again. "She probably cut him and cured his wounds before doing it again. Doing something like that probably isn't good for the mind. The body itself is healed, but the scar is still there like a ghost or something. It's something that you can probably feel even if it's not there." _

"_And yet you're still protecting a sadistic person like that?" Luna yelled. A glare from Kit stopped her from going any further and she left it at that. _

"_So what happens now?" Astra asked after a while._

"_We bring him back to Radiant Garden. They have one of the best medical facilities- well at least better than they have here, plus I'm sure he'd want to be around familiar faces. One of the people we've met works at that hospital so I'm sure she'll take great care of him," Luna said. _

_Another silence followed which saw Luna and Kit concentrating on Sora. After a few more minutes, the last cloth hit the water basin and a sigh escaped from Luna's mouth. She remembered something that she needed to do and carefully reached into Sora's pocket to retrieve Kairi's wayfinder. She thought of Kairi for a good while before speaking into the object._

_When Kairi's voice responded back, Luna quickly brought her up to scratch on what had happened. She didn't even need to tell Kairi to come over since the auburn haired girl had already decided what she was going to do from the moment she heard the words "Sora" and "danger". _

"_Well, all we can do is play the waiting game then," Luna announced after ending the transmission. _

"_Maybe you two should get some sleep. I'm sure it's been a stressing day for the both of you," Kit advised but Luna shook her head._

"_Don't worry, I'll be fine. Do you want some coffee aunty? Astra?" Luna asked them both._

"_It's okay, I'll put it on," Astra said somewhat absentmindedly. She was trying her best to warm her way back into Luna's heart but Luna was still angry with her. Thinking back on it now, Luna knew that she couldn't fault Astra for what she did. It was wrong for Luna to expect Astra to do every single thing that Luna asked of her, controlling even. _

_Luna returned to holding onto Sora's hand and looked at his crown necklace that Kit had set next to his head. _

"_I suppose there's no way to make you stay, is there?" Kit asked suddenly._

"_Huh?"_

"_I just don't want to see you hurt Luna. Looking at your friend here, whoever you three are dealing with probably isn't a very good person-"_

"_It's more than one."_

"_Even more of a reason to stop whatever it is that you're doing. That whole time we were cleaning your friend's body, I couldn't help but wonder what I would do if it was you in his position, and once I started thinking about it I couldn't stop. You know I want what's best for you dear but I value your safety just as much," Kit said._

"_I'm sorry," Luna started sadly. "More than anything, I want us to be a family. I want to help you around the shop like I used to and I want us to go to retirement homes and help the elderly and I want to go to the Ice Cream parlor with you and I want… well I want so many things but… I can't give this up now, not when I'm finally happy."_

_Kit looked at her for a while. "You're just like your mother, you know that?"_

"_So I've been told a million times, by you and dad," Luna said with a slight smile._

"_Well it's true. She was incredibly courageous and bold, just like you… and a bit clumsy, just like-"_

"_Okay, I get the point."_

"_Well, if there's any mantra that your mother had when she was "Keep your eyes forward, and your heart open". Sounds simple enough, right? Well you'll be surprised at how effective mantras are. You define yourself by a word or a phrase and it becomes your key for motivation. All of a sudden the impossible seems possible and the glass ceiling above you becomes the ground underneath you. Since you're quite stubborn, which is more your dad's trait, then I hope you at least take what I'm saying to heart when you do go."_

"_Then, you don't mind me going?" Luna asked._

"_Of course I do, but it's not really my life either. I'd just hope that can hear from you every now and then so I know how you're getting on," Kit grinned and for a moment Luna saw a flash of her own mother's smile in Kit's._

"_Thank you. I'll make sure to write a ton about my travels and I won't leave anything out. I'm not sure how I'll get them sent yet but I'll figure something out," Luna said, finishing just in time as Astra came in carrying two cups._

* * *

After meeting back up with Donald, Goofy and Robin, the latter suggested going back to his campsite where everyone else would be waiting. He didn't exactly go into detail about who everyone was, but they were soon to find out that everyone pretty much meant all of Robin's friends and more people that Luna had never seen before.

"Oh, Stephanie, over here!" Luna waved having spotted the girl among Skippy and his sisters.

The eight year old grinned at them and made her way to their side. "I was helping Lady Kluck evacuate everyone. Boy am I tired."  
"She was a great help, quite a bundle of energy, that one. She's with you then?" Lady Cluck asked after having heard her name mentioned from nearby.

"She is. We're Sora, Luna, Donald and Goofy," Goofy introduced pointing to each of them in turn.

"Ah, well you two are wonderful parents then," Lady Cluck addressed Sora and Luna. The two looked at each other in complete bewilderment for a few seconds.

Eventually Luna asked, "What?"

"You are her parents, yes? You look the same."  
There was a dismal silence and awkwardness that followed this inaccurate assumption in which Luna and Sora were both slow to register what she had just said. They gave each other another look again before simultaneously jumping away from each other.

"Oh no no no, you're mistaken about that. I mean, we're not… like that," A furiously blushing Sora stumbled over his words.

"Right, and besides Stephanie's not our daughter, she's someone else's. Does she really look like me?" Luna raised one eyebrow and started eyeing Stephanie up close.

"Well you can be the next best thing then. I've always wanted a sister!" Stephanie proclaimed with a suggestive wink.

"Ah, then it's settled. I am officially Stephanie's big sis. Well, maybe unofficially until your mother accepts me into the family," Luna said ruffling Stephanie's hair.

"Yay!" Stephanie exalted jumping around ecstatically. Luna was also incredibly happy. Stephanie wasn't the only one who wished for an extension of familial ties. It wasn't even a wish for Luna, but more of a craving. She couldn't explain it but it was almost like there was a desire to protect this girl, something that had been buoyed by what she had done to her parents. Was she hoping for redemption by keeping Stephanie safe or did she just desperately need someone to call family so she didn't have to feel so alone?

Robin was to interrupt her thoughts when he returned to them with Maid Marian at his side.

"So you're the brave heroes who fought along with my Robin. I would award you with a medal if I could but-"

"No need. We're not that kind of hero, and I'm not exactly…" Sora paused and cleared his throat. Luna noted the slight frown on his face that disappeared _almost _instantly but was enough for her to catch it. She would have to talk to him about it later, she reminded herself. "We were just doing what anybody else would do."

"Is that so? You see, if I had a coin for every time someone dared to step up to the Sheriff and Prince John, well… let's just say I wouldn't be very rich," Marian said with an exuberant laugh.

"Well even if you don't want to admit it, at least celebrate along with us. I see they're already starting." Robin laughed as Little John started to entertain his audience with a satirising song about the prince. "Go ahead, enjoy the night while it's still young. Meanwhile the fair maiden and I have some catching up to do."

Robin gave a flirty growl before he dashingly scooped Marian up into his arms and headed off for the nearest tent available. Luna and Donald exchanged knowing looks before following Sora, Goofy and Stephanie over to the campfire. Luna sat down next to Stephanie and smiled as the eight year old leaned her head against Luna's shoulder and let out a yawn.

"It's been a long day, hasn't it?" Luna asked while playing with her hair.

"Is it always like this for you guys?" Stephanie asked.

"Pretty much," Luna said. She watched as Sora, Donald and Goofy started singing and bobbing their heads along to Little John's song.

"Good. I don't want it to end," Stephanie said letting out another yawn.

"Me neither," Luna agreed letting out a yawn of her own. "Now look what you're making me do? I guess they really are contagious."  
Stephanie giggled. The night drew on with their unsuspecting minds oblivious to the gloom and despair that was about to beset them the next day.

* * *

_So now Luna's got a little sis as well as aunt to add to her family collection, but will that be enough to replace the hole that's been left in her heart? Well as always you'll have to stay tuned. Please feel free to leave a review and/or favorite and I'll see you for the end of Robin Hood's world in the next chapter. Also Kingdom Hearts Unchained Keys... I might finally have a game to play on my smartphone :D_


	34. The Fortress Stormed

_Did not expect the chapter to be as long as it turned out to be but here you go! A good chunk to make up for weeks of studying. _

* * *

**Chapter 34**

**The Fortress Stormed**

The heavy rain and dark sky signalled what was to be a dismal day in the lives of Sora, Luna, Donald and Goofy as well as the residents who would be hit hardest. The announcement of a heavy taxation swept across the town like wildfire following Prince John's embarrassment. It was his way of getting revenge and it seemed like the Sheriff was all too happy to assist him.

Luna watched all of this from the window of the house belonging to the boy named Tim and his mother. She could see very clearly people being rushed out of their houses and lined up where they would face imprisonment for failing to pay their unfair taxes.

"I beg ye Sheriff, please spare me, at least for the meanwhile. I had it hard enough as it is with the normal levy. Just give me a few more days-"

"Sorry? All I'm hearing is an empty pocket. Time to go soldier, move it!" commanded the Sheriff who seemed to be enjoying his authority way too much. With nothing to bargain with, the middle aged individual, or a badger to be more precise, gave a final goodbye to his wife and kids before joining the increasingly longer line of the newly imprisoned.

"This is ridiculous," Luna muttered turning to Tim and his mother. "It's like the world's gone crazy all of a sudden."

"It's always been crazy. It just took a bump in people's pockets for everyone to realize it," said the mother.

Luna was about to reply when a rhythmic tap was heard on the door, the very same that she knew was specific of the oncoming storm himself.

"You don't have to answer the door," Luna whispered as Tim's mother tried to stand up, albeit rather weakly. As things stood, she definitely would not survive a week in wherever they would be taking her with her illness.

"Well I don't expect them to leave either," she replied. She started walking when Luna blocked her path to the door.

"You have Tim, you can't leave him alone. I'll handle this," Luna decided. She didn't know exactly what she would do. It certainly wasn't like she was planning on going to jail in her place either but what choice did she have but to intervene? She took a deep breath before opening the door.

"Why hello there little one. I'd certainly have recalled someone of your… description living here, and trust me when I say I don't remember many faces." The gaudily dressed Sheriff was quick to show off a deceptive grin, one that alerted Luna to the fact that he was even more dangerous than she had first thought.

"You don't remember, or you don't care to remember?" Luna asked.

"Is there a difference? I don't care much for those either," The Sheriff addressed before quickly squeezing past her before she could so much as stop him. She had held up her hand only to have it be left hanging in the air as the Sheriff knocked her aside with his obese form.

"Well if it isn't the _honorable _Sheriff. What brings you to my doorstep on this fine day?" Tim's mother had decided to engage in casual banter, perhaps hoping to mitigate the blow that about to come or divert the Sheriff's attention elsewhere that he might just give her a pass.

"Well I wouldn't say fine. It is raining after all but you know what they say, money doesn't wait for the rain to stop," replied the Sheriff letting out a howl of laughter.

"I- I don't think they say that," Luna mentioned quietly.

"Would you like me to boil some tea for you, Sheriff? I'm sure it must be quite taxing for a man such yourself to be doing this all day long," Tim's mother said.

"Oh that's quite the offer there but I feel it's just better to get my work out of the way so I can have a nice cuppa after and relax, not that I don't enjoy my work," replied the Sheriff batting his eyelids and holding out his hand expectantly.

"Oh, surely you know that we're a poor family. You already took my husband when he was unable to pay. Surely you can ease up slightly on us this time around. I have a child to take care off after all."

But the Sheriff shook his head. "Sorry, no exceptions I'm afraid. If you live under a roof, you can afford to pay, them's the rules."

"You can't! Don't you have a heart? What do you think happens to Tim when she's gone?" Luna asked.

"Oh, is that the problem? Well in that case, he can join her!"

"No!" Luna yelled and summoned her Keyblade, pointing it at the Sheriff. "You can try that all you like but you won't get anywhere, not with me around. Leave. Now!"

"Are you threatening me?" The Sheriff asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, I guess I am." Inside Luna couldn't help but smile broadly at the thought of having just shot down the massive grin on the Sheriff's face. "Turn around and head back out."

"Now I remember you. You were with that Robin Hood back at the competition yesterday. You're making a big mistake missy," the Sheriff warned but did as he was told nonetheless. The moment he brought his second foot over the door's threshold, Luna grabbed the door and slammed it in his face.

"Well, guess there's a new Sheriff in town. I've always wanted to say that!" Luna squeaked overjoyed at her victory.

"Thank you, Luna, but won't he be after you now?" Tim asked weakly.

"Don't worry. I'm used to people being after me, not that that's something I'm proud off," Luna said. "I'm more worried about you guys. If he comes back then there won't be anything to stop him from taking you away."

"We'll head to Friar Tuck's then. He might be able to keep us safe," Tim's mother suggested.

"Yeah, my other friends are over there right now. Just… make sure you stay behind me, alright?" Luna waited for them to nod in approval at the plan before opening the door slightly. She looked left and right and only when she was sure that it was safe did she open it all the way and step through. Her hand opened up and invited the light rain onto her palms. The ringing of a bell nearby brought her eyes away from her hands and to the church down the road where the others would be waiting.

"Is there something wrong?" Tim asked noticing the look on Luna's face.

"It's nothing. It's just… familiar," Luna said. The last time she had heard a bell like it was in Traverse Town when Sora had rung one after the end of the Reapers' Game. Comparing the two atmospheres added some humor to this gloomy day. This proved to be short-lived however when Luna, Tim and his mother arrived at the church.

"Sora? What's going on?" Luna asked as the guards that had been at the Sheriff's side locked their hands around the friar's arm like a vise.

"Get off me. Let me go this instance," Friar Tuck yelled but the guards failed to take notice of his cries.

"Well you see. He tried to do the same exact thing you tried. The only difference between you and him though ya see is that he's easy pickings. He'll be tried for obstruction of justice, threatening and attacking an officer of the king, and treason. When, not if, those charges stick, well, let's just say he'll be hung out to dry." The Sheriff laughed so hard that Luna thought he would fall over. He didn't though, much to her dismay.

"You can't do this!" Luna shouted furiously.

"You'll find that I can, and I am!" the Sheriff said. "Unless you'd rather take his place?"

"Now hold it right there. That won't be necessary. I'll go," Friar Tuck jumped in before Luna could reply. Luna wanted to protest again but something else stopped her. Before she could utter a single word, Stephanie rushed past her and pounced, grabbing onto the Sheriff's arms and biting into it with her teeth.

"YEOOOWEEE!" The wolf howled in pain before trying to shake her off. Stephanie tried to hold on for dear life but she eventually lost her grasp and was flung onto the ground.

"Stephanie, are you okay?" Luna asked, rushing to her side.

"Yep! That was fun, hehehehe!" Stephanie giggled.

"Why I oughta-"

"You don't want to finish that sentence," Sora said standing in front of Stephanie protectively along with Donald and Goofy.

The Sheriff scowled and threw his hand to the side. "I guess the Friar's enough for now. Do make sure to tell Robin Hood. I'm sure he'll be glad to know a friend of his is soon to lose his head."

He clicked his fingers and issued the guards to follow him. Friar Tuck gave one last meaningful look at Luna and the others before being carried away. The rain had stopped but the dark skies hanging above their heads were unchanging. For a while, no one knew quite what to say. The shock had probably gotten to them more than they had previously thought.

Then Luna looked at her friends. "I feel like I failed. I couldn't protect him or anyone else."

"That's not true! You kept me and my son safe. It's just that sometimes you realize that no matter how hard you try you can't save everyone," Tim's mother acknowledged.

"Thank you, but it really doesn't make me feel any better. I mean, things can't go on like this." Luna then paused for a moment and sighed. They probably weren't going to like what she had to say next, but still… she had to say it. "Look, guys, I know we're not supposed to interfere with world affairs and everything but there are some things you just can't help. When people's lives are in danger are we just supposed to sit back? No, it's not the Heartless or the forces of darkness, but it honestly feels just like that. I can't sit and just watch this."

Sora nodded his head and started pacing back and forth forcing everyone to wait with anticipatory breaths. Finally he stopped. "You're right. Didn't Robin say that Prince John wasn't the rightful ruler of the land?"

"That's right. It's King Richard, the prince's old brother, who should be ruling but he's away on important matters," the mother clarified for him. "If only he were here now, we wouldn't be in this mess."

Sora nodded. There was something different with Sora, a calmness and collectiveness that Luna had never seen before. "That explains the 'false king' thing then. It's been happening all over town today. Then if it comes to it, we'll fight him, but that's not the priority. Our priority should be getting everyone out of those prisons. Okay… I think I have a plan but we'll need Robin and the others for this."

"So we're breaking into a probably highly guarded facility and might even rebel against an established authority…" Luna counted them off with her fingers.

Sora folded his arms and grinned. "Should be easy for you, Luna. You've already done both of those before."

* * *

Sora finished scanning the fortress from the hills and returned to Robin and Little John.

"So what exactly was this plan you had in mind?" Little John asked.

"It's pretty simple actually. Me, Luna, Donald and Goofy'll distract the guards and lure them away from the cells allowing you two to rescue all the prisoners. They don't really seem that smart so I think luring them to the moat to trap them will help," Sora said.

"Yes, I can see how that would work… but the question stands as to how we infiltrate the premises in the first place," Robin pointed out.

"Well that… let's see…" Sora thanked Neuge for helping him to think calmly as he looked around for some sort of epiphany. The meditation he had been doing for weeks had pretty much prepared him for situations like these. He finally found what he was looking for in a nearby tree that was bent at a sort of odd angle. "I've got it! We'll use that tree over there as a catapult to launch us forward. Don't worry about how we'll do it either. I've got just the thing!"

Despite their uneasiness to this plan, Sora remained confident. He forwarded his plan to Luna, Donald and Goofy back once back at the camp and received much praise from Goofy and Luna and scepticism from Donald.

"Are we really sure about this? I dunno… what if we end up making it worse than it already is?" Donald asked.

"What do you mean worse? There's no possible way it could get any worse. If we let this drag on, then this prince will pretty much have locked up the entire town," Sora said. "All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. I don't care if we're breaking rules and meddling in affairs we shouldn't be, because there's a lot more at stake than a bunch of stupid rules."

"Sorry, I couldn't help but listen. What exactly do you mean by 'breaking rules'? You talk as if you don't belong here, which I suppose makes sense judging from your appearance. Are you perhaps from the continent per chance?" Maid Marian asked.

"Continent? Uh- yeah, something like that?" Sora wasn't sure if his reply was a statement or a question. He had no idea what a continent was after all.

"You've really been on the top of things, Sora. Did Neuge push that brain of yours into overload?" Luna teased.

"Hey, I'm always thinking. But I guess you could say that she's helped me to see things from a different perspective, yeah… oh, one more thing. In case we fail, we should make sure that they don't find Maid Marian, right?" Sora asked.

"Well I have high hopes that you'll succeed and I doubt Robin will let anything happen otherwise since he did promise to consummate our marriage. I'd rather not think of the worst case scenario at the moment," Marian replied.

"Fair enough, and we're pretty confident in our abilities. On second thought you needn't worry madam. You shall see your marriage through by our capable hands." Sora bowed playfully.

Donald shook his head. "Sora and whatever that accent is totally should stay as far apart from each other as possible. He can't pull it off at all."

"And you can?" Sora shot back.

Luna laughed and pulled both Donald and Sora in against their will. "Ahahaha, aren't they a bundle of laughs. Can't live without 'em! Well, I guess we should be preparing."

Before long, night came and it was time to enact the plan. Sora held his Keyblade in the air like a fishing rod before throwing it forwards. A long ghostly elastic hand extended forward from the tip of the Keyblade and latched onto one of the branches of the bent tree.

"Are you sure you can hold it? It looks like you're having a tough time," Luna said noticing bullets of sweat starting to form on the brunette's face.

"I'll be fine. Just need to… there!" Sora managed to activate _Ars Arcanum _and felt the pain from the tension on his arms lessen considerably. He pulled back even further until even the branches farthest away made contact with the ground behind them. "Alright. Luna. Donald. Goofy. You first."

Luna nodded and followed Donald and Goofy to the tree. She wrapped her legs around the branches and squeezed her eyes shut. Considering how much she hated heights, it was safe to say that this was going to suck for her.

"Okay… on three then. One. Two. Three!" The aura from _Ars Arcanum _died off around his body and the plasma hand dispersed into speckles of light as the tree was launched forward with incredible force. Luna screamed as loud as she could as she was propelled forward into the air. It was too late when she realized that she had to open her eyes eventually in order to land, but fortunately Donald and Goofy had created a soft landing for her and she crashed into them.

_Great start Luna, you definitely have the smooth criminal thing going on, _Luna applauded herself mentally before rolling off of Donald and Goofy.

"I wanna do that again," Goofy said.

"No retakes! We have people to save!" Donald yelled while brushing himself off.

"Hey, did you here that?"

"Go check it out then, why don't you?"

Luna spun around in the direction of the new sources of noise and grinned. "It looks like our plan is proceeding according to plan. We just need to cause a bit of ruckus and then lead them away from the jail cells. You two ready?"

"A bit too late to not be prepared," Donald said as the watcher (a crow) rounded to the corner and spotted them.

"Er, boss, I think we have some trouble," he shouted upon seeing them.

"You think or you know?" The Sheriff of Nottingham's voice called back just as loudly. "If it's the latter then blow the bloody whistle already!"

"Oh right, so that's what this thing is for…" The watcher looked at the object around his neck before grabbing it and blowing hard. A combined group of rhino guards and crow watchers moved quickly in on the trio. Luna got into a battle stance and cloaked her fists in flames before punching forward with both of them. The flames transferred from her firsts into ripples that surged forward and knocked down the guards that were in their way.

"How in the world did you do that?" An amazed Donald asked.

"Hardly the time to ask, is it? Run!" Luna set off down the path she'd created and with her mind in full gear trying to remember the path she had planned from before on the hilltop. While she was figuring this out, a barrage of arrows were being shot their way from behind. The majority of them landed and deflected against Goofy's shield but a few of them were still close calls.

They soon reached the portcullis and Luna quickly noted the lever used for operating the gate before heading out onto the drawbridge. When the last guard stepped out onto the drawbridge to meet them, Luna used Aeroga to launch herself past them like a rocket. She landed back in the fortress and quickly threw her Keyblade at the lever to bring down the portcullis. Donald and Goofy were just able to squeeze their way through while making sure that none of the guards were able to follow them before the gate closed.

"You know, sometimes I'm glad our enemies have a less than average IQ," Luna said before pulling a face at the guards. She turned her head to look at Donald and Goofy victoriously but instead found her eyes meeting the Sheriff.

Donald followed Luna's eyes and turned around. He readied his staff. "Then again, it would be pretty boring if they were all the same, right?"

The Sheriff leaned forward and tapped his left foot while scanning the area. "Hey, where'd those buffoons go? Confound it! Do I gotta do everything around here?"

"I guess you do. Might be some good exercise for you as well," Luna jeered. "Do you really not feel anything when you do this? You just take and take and punish those who don't have? That's called being a dictator!"

"In fact, King Mickey could probably do a better job than this!" Goofy added in.

"Not probably. Definitely!" Donald corrected just as passionately.

"Well we're about to put an end to it. How about you ask the prince to stop all this? If you do then we promise you won't get hurt," Luna said.

"Ha! The only one who'll be in a world of hurt will be you three once I clobber ya!" The Sheriff charged forward to prove his words, his fist raised high in the air and his sights focused on Luna first.

"Fine, but don't say we didn't ask," Luna said before running forward to meet him. Before his punch could connect, Luna put jumped and put her hand on his shoulder to flip behind him. She landed without trouble and hastily swung Dream Seeker into the Sheriff's left side. The Sheriff tumbled forward only for Goofy to smash into him with his shield sending him into the air momentarily. Donald threw an Aeroga spell resulting in the Sheriff spinning around and around before landing back on the ground.

When Luna neared him again, the Sheriff put up his hands in submission. "Alright, alright, ya got me! Just let me go and I promise I'll tell you what ya want to know."

"Nice to know you see things our way then. But why would we need you to tell us anything?" Donald asked.

"Oh come on, who doesn't like juicy info?" asked the Sheriff, or more accurately, it was more like he was begging, and why wouldn't he with a Key-shaped weapon pointing at his head.

"We're listening…" Donald said after Goofy and Luna both gave him a quick look.

"Well there's some other guy who checks in with Prince John from time to time. All I know about him is that half of the money from the taxpayers' fund goes directly into his pocket while the prince and us nobles keep the other. He also mentioned something like being from some group called… uh… KRONOS! That was the name."

Luna's eyes darted over to Donald and Goofy quickly to see they both had the same reaction. So the KRONOS that Master Neuge had asked for Sora and her to find out about was actually a group.

"Did the man give his name?" Luna questioned.

"No… I swear I don't know nothin' beyond that! He was wearing some kind of armor so I couldn't see his face.

"Do you know why he wanted the money?"

"No, he wouldn't tell us anything and besides, I certainly wouldn't want to know anyway. I have a pretty good intuition and it tells me that he is certainly not one to mess with. Heck, I bet he could even make the prince bow to him at the click of a finger."

Luna slowly brought Dream Seeker away from the Sheriff's head and lowered it at her side. "Alright. _Bind!"_ Three rings appeared around the Sheriff and glued him to the ground.

"Hey! What's the big idea? I told you everything I knew!" The Sheriff snarled in protest. He tried to move his arms but both were held down firmly in place.

"And you did. I said you wouldn't get hurt, not that we would let you go," Luna replied. "You can stare there and have a nice long think about what you've done."

The Sheriff growled at her like the wolf he was but there was little he could do now. He could hate her all he wanted but by the time Luna and her two companions rounded the corner, it wouldn't matter. He was stuck there and there was nothing he could do until Luna chose to release him.

Luna's eyes travelled up one of the towers in front of her. "So what do you guys think? Some person in armor from KRONOS is using the munny that the Prince collected from the townspeople for something?"

"Doesn't sound like Kefka with the way he described him," Donald considered thoughtfully. "Goofy and I encountered him once along with the King. We were in Wonderland searching for clues to her disappearance when we met him. That's when the name KRONOS first came up."

"Ah, I see. But I still don't understand their plan. Why the munny?"

"Well, there is only one world currency and that's munny, has been for a long time. It was the moogles that chose to do so to make it easier to trade. It's a lot easier to trade if you have one uniformed currency after all so I guess it wouldn't matter if our mystery person took the munny from here to another world," Donald explained.

"Wait. Trade? Are you implying that moogles can travel to different worlds even with the barrier?" Luna asked.

"Moogles are on a completely different playing field. I'm sure Kupopo would be able to tell you more," Donald said. "But let's focus on the problem! What do we do now?"

"Well Sora, Robin and Little John should have entered by now. Should we meet up with them?" Goofy asked.

"Sounds like a good idea. Let's hurry," Luna said.

* * *

Sora put his hand on Robin's shoulder to stop him from attempting to unlock the door to the jail cell. Something wasn't right. A sudden fog had engulfed the area and though he could still see in front of him, there was certainly no mistaking the weird and instantaneous aberration in the weather.

"What in the world is going on?" Little John asked. Before Sora could answer, something swooped down from the fog and attacked him. He felt the impact on his chest and his launched backward but quickly aerial recovered and landed back on his feet.

The mysterious fog cleared and an image of his attacker became a lot more pronounced. It was the same Chimera that he had fought against yesterday. Sparks flew off from the bottom of Asb'el's staff as it slammed the weapon repeatedly into the ground. It's creepy human and yet monstrous eyes stayed fixated on Sora during this period in which the Keyblade Master soon began to understand why Luna had reacted the way she did.

"That's strange. I must say I've never quite seen fog that appears and then disappears as quickly as that before," Robin observed.

"That's because it's not normal fog. Robin, I'm gonna need your help with this one." Sora sprung forward, keeping his heels off the ground and kicking off the ground with his toes to sprint. He swung forward initially pretending to strike Asb'el only to pull back and slide behind the Chimera's body, this time striking downwards for real.

Robin quickly pulled out an arrow and shot took a shot as Asb'el grabbed for Sora's Keyblade in time. The arrow accurately pierced the right eye and partially blinded the Chimera. When it moved to pull the arrow out of its eye, Sora quickly switched to the Oblivion keychain and jumped before bringing the Keyblade down on the Chimera's head with a Fire Strike.

Asb'el doubled over and let out a furious yell. Still, that was not enough to halt its aggression. It moved one hand over to its remaining eye while peeking in between its bony middle and ring fingers. It threw its scythe straight at Robin only for Sora to jump in the way and clash with the Kingdom Key. The scythe was adamant in trying to hit something, and Sora found himself pushed backwards slightly by the continuously spinning object. Sparks flew off both weapons as they connected and for a moment Sora thought that it was never going to end.

A second Keyblade soon proved these thoughts wrong as it was hurled forwards from its owner's hand and smashed into the scythe, knocking it to the ground.

"Looks like we arrived just in the nick of time?" Luna brought her hand up to catch her Keyblade and pointed it at the creature.

"Who's Nick and why haven't I met him?" Sora joked, relieved at having the heavy weight of the scythe taken off him.

"You're a funny guy, Sora," Luna responded with little emotion in her voice.

"I try," Sora said. He turned behind him and gave Robin and Little John a nod. "You guys get to work on freeing the townspeople. We'll handle this thing."  
The two gallant thieves wasted no time in starting to pick the lock off the door behind them. Sora cloaked the Kingdom Key on fire and then cut through the air, the ripples of fire surging forward and hitting the Chimera.

Luna was about to attack herself when the single blue eye remaining turned to look at her. Once again, she was frozen in her spot just like yesterday. Her body was shaking and a look of terror formed on her face. The images were coming back, ones which had haunted her dreams ever since she had learned of her accursed past. The Chimera's eye spoke more than words ever could. It knew.

_**We are the same…**_

Luna was about to back away when a firm hand took hold of hers. She looked left and found Sora giving her a reassuring smile. That was when she realized that she couldn't run away. Sora had put his trust in her, no, not just Sora, but she felt the entire town had put their trust in her, and to run away now would be to lose that trust.

"It's okay. I won't let you guys down this time. Let's just finish this quickly," Luna told him. Sora's smile turned into a sad one for a brief second before looking at Asb'el instead.

"What do you say to trying the one-two combo that we came up with?" Sora asked her.

Luna seemed surprised that Sora had even brought that up. "We haven't even tested that yet… but I guess there's no time like the present."

Sora slashed upward as soon as he heard Luna's approval. A shard of ice appeared behind Asb'el, preventing it from retreating any farther. Luna repeated Sora's emotion, instead unleashing fire magic that aimed for the Chimera. While it blocked with both of its arms, Sora took advantage of this and warped over to it in time to deliver a powerful slash at its lower body. Sora backed away slightly as Luna leapt over him and Blitzed into Asb'el, knocking it to the ground.

Hearing Donald's warning to step back, the two of them jumped either side and watched as the duck launched of Salvo of fiery magic at their target. Explosions akin to fireworks ruptured off Asb'el's body, spitting flames in every direction.

"We're going to have to finish it off," Sora said. It would usually be a strange thing to say, because normally there wouldn't have even been a second thought about it, but he sensed the hesitation from Luna. Being or having been a Chimera herself, it wasn't a surprise that she'd think there was something they could do. He made his point clearer. "It's hurting. The best thing we can do, not just for it, but for all of them, is put them out of their misery. It's not pretty, but it's the right thing to do."

"Maybe… but if it were Quasimodo, would you do the same thing? Or… me?"

"Luna!" Sora glared at her. "I know this may sound selfish, but you're not them, neither is Quasi. Don't ask me to think of what I'd do if either of you were…"

"I understand. It wasn't fair of me to ask that," Luna admitted. "It's just I can't help but wonder what would have happened if Abraxas had gotten his way, if he'd been successful in turning me like the others."

"You need to have more confidence in yourself!" It was Goofy who was the one to say it. "Whether you think it or not, getting to meet me, Donald and Sora, and travelling together… I don't think all that stuff and the stuff to come was a coincidence. I think we were meant to be friends from the very beginning."  
"Goofy… thank you." Luna smiled at him after considering these words. From the very beginning… It was a nice few words, enough for her to believe that she was the missing piece to complete a magnificent puzzle. "Okay, but let me do it."

Sora wasn't so sure about and was about to ask for opt for doing it instead but Luna already had her Keyblade charged. She gripped the glowing Keyblade tightly with both hands and ran forward before stabbing into the Chimera's chest. The next moments were unaccountable to her as she had closed her eyes instead of watching for the result, but for the others, they saw a bright erupt from the back of the Chimera's chest, travelling farther onwards still. Asb'el slowly began to wither away until there was nothing left, the heart being the last thing to go.

Luna gradually opened her eyes to look at what was only the glass shard Sora had erected earlier in front of her. "I saw him. The person behind the Chimera, just like the others… I feel like I'm killing normal people…"

"Then you don't have to do it, Luna. If it's too much for you to bear, that's why you have your friends," Donald uttered sagaciously.

"Yeah, we're a team so we share the responsibility," Sora added. The sound of metal swinging open and excited and relieved voices from behind them interrupted the team's motivational speech. Many people, most of which they had never seen before, all seemed to share a similar emotion, happiness, as they poured out of the building and went straight to praising the four heroes. As modest as they tried to be in the situation, they couldn't help but feel a sense of pride from having helped, Sora especially. It was as if whatever walls he had surrounded himself with over the past few months to keep himself away from the title of hero that had been designated to him had just come tumbling down. For the first time in a while he felt as if he could do anything, and he knew that wasn't a good thing.

The last two to leave the cells were Robin, Little John and Friar Tuck, with his arms comforting a tired Skippy. So they even had no qualms putting in little kids… Sora shook his head in disgust.

"Are you two alright?" he enquired.

"Well it could have been much worse. _Far worse _actually." Friar Tuck rubbed at his neck partly to illustrate his point. "Besides, I think we've made our point clear to Prince John. His tyranny and oppression of his subjects will not be allowed. He's pretty much outnumbered at this point."

"We're not done with him yet." Luna continued to explain how the prince had been giving the taxes he had taken from the townspeople to a third party.

"Then we have to find out who that mystery person is," Robin said. With their next goal set, Luna led them all to the tower where she believed Prince John to be, the tower that she had been looking up at earlier. A light shone from the very top floor window of the tower though other than that, there seemed to be very little evidence indicate that anyone inside knew of the chaos happening on the other side of the fortress.

"I'm hoping for the element of surprise here, but even if we don't have it, there shouldn't be too much of a problem," Luna said while Sora used the Keyblade to unlock the door.

"I really need that. I suppose asking for it wouldn't work, would it?" Robin eyed the weapon hungrily as it fell to Sora's side.

"How did you guess?" Sora replied mockingly before pushing the door open. He put his arm up quickly before any of them could enter before summoning Yuna, Rikku and Paine. "Can you three check out this tower to make sure the coast is clear?"

"Good thinking," Donald commended.

Yuna nodded and was about to fly in when she was tugged back by Paine. "Hold it. We have a question that needs answering," the silver haired pixie started.

Sora let out a sigh. "About getting your human bodies? Look, Merlin told me that he was working with the three fairies to create a temporary solution. These things take time."  
"He is? He never mentioned anything about it to us," Rikku said with a pout.

"Well they wanted it to be a surprise. I shouldn't have even told you." Sora clamped his hand over his mouth. In truth, neither Merlin nor the fairies had told him any of this. He wasn't even sure it was possible for them to create something to give the Gullwings human bodies and if they could, he doubted Merlin would help given the pranks they liked to play on the wizard from time to time and their laziness at doing chores.

"We're counting on you." Paine gave him piercing glare that made Sora consider retracting his lie. The Gullwings disappeared into the tower and they didn't have to wait long either before they returned. Confirming the way up was clear, Sora thanked and dismissed them before following the group up the stairs.

The only exit that awaited them at the top of the stairs was a single door. Luna pressed her ear against the door before backing off.

"Whoever's behind that door is a really loud snorer," Luna whispered.

"Louder than Goofy?"

"Hey! No one ever told me it was loud…" Goofy replied sadly to Sora's comment. Robin opened the door slowly and let the others into the room before joining them. It was a room fit for king, with a purple drapes covering both window and hanging from the bed. With this also came a kingly bed of matching purple, the sleeper covered under the purple sheets. Despite the fact that the room was so disgustingly purple that Sora wouldn't have thought it possible for any room to be like this, there was something even more so. The person under the sheets, Prince John, was snoring loudly while… sucking his thumb at the same time.

"Oh dear, anyone have a camera cause I am so not gonna let this guy live down this moment," Luna managed to giggle out.

"What's a… camera?" Robin asked. He didn't receive his answer because Sir Hiss, the snake who had been pretending to sleep (or actually couldn't because of his master's snoring) hissed into Prince John's ear, sending him up into the air and awake.

"What did I tell you Sir Hiss, you know I'm ticklish. Now let me get some sleep so I can rejoice at Robin Hood's defeat tomorrow."

"B-but Master, there are- there's-"

"Now now, that's quite enough out of you. We have a big day tomorrow, now go to sleep."  
Robin smiled slyly while inspecting his fingernails. "I doubt he can, given how you sleep."

For the second time, Prince John bolted forward from his pillow, his eyes completely open this time.

"R-r-r-robin Hood! What are you doing in my bedroom?" Prince John's arm wavered unsteadily in all directions as he pointed at Robin and his companions.

"I can already tell where this is going," Luna said unable to stop her incessant giggling.

"Luna, I don't think this is going where you think it's going… Good thing Stephanie isn't here, you're turning out to be a bad influence, big sis," Sora said slightly taken aback.

"You're the ones from the before. What are you doing here?" Prince John yelled, but any action to reassert his superiority was now lost on the group.

"Quiet, we're the one asking questions here!" Donald shot back. "Who's the guy taking money from the townspeople?"

"How did you kn-" Prince John quickly covered his mouth upon realizing what he had just said but it was too late.

"No use hiding that now. We learned all about it from the Sheriff. Someone from KRONOS came here and is using the tax money that you took from the town to do something with it. So…? Tell us everything about him or else…" Luna's summoned Keyblade pointed straight at the Prince and he backed up hard against the wall and started sucking his thumb again.

Donald shook his head disappointingly. "And this guy is the ruler of the land?"

"I'd advise you answer the question quickly lest you wish the lady here set fire to these elegant drapes," Robin said.

"Alright, I'll tell you, just leave me and the drapes alone!"

"What about me sire?" Sir Hiss asked.

"Well they can take you."

"WHAT?"

"We don't have all night. Hurry up!" Sora ordered.

"Well I don't know the man's name but what he was saying was completely crazy talk. He was talking about other worlds and how he was going to build the greatest project in humanity's history and- well I honestly couldn't be bothered to listen to it all. All I know is that he promised me long term wealth for short term loss."

"And you believed him?" Luna asked.

"Well he can be very convincing. I'm sure if you met him you'd feel the same way. Of course I've never seen his face, not even once. He was clad in an armor of which I'd never seen before, certainly not from around here." The prince dug a finger into his ear and moved it around for a bit before pulling out a bit of earwax. He looked at it casually before flicking it away.

"That's it?" Sora asked, not completely satisfied.

"Yes, that's all I know. Even Sir Hiss can vouch for me!"

But Sir Hiss looked away as if he had never even heard the request, understandable after what Prince John had said about him.

Luna's face grew dark and tense. Her Keyblade lowered before disappearing. "You're a despicable person, you know that? The weak and vulnerable aren't yours to take advantage of as you wish. They have feelings, and if you can't understand that, if you can't listen to what they're saying, then all you'll ever be is ruler in name only. They won't accept you because they will never see you as someone they can look up to. That's also why Robin Hood will always be one step ahead of you."

Robin gave Luna a look of surprise that soon manifested as a grin.

* * *

"So what happens now, Robin?" Sora asked. Night had transitioned into day and with it, Sora and the others were about to take their leave. Sora watched Stephanie from afar playing with Skippy, Tagalong and Maid Marian. It felt wrong to separate her from her new friends now but it was something she would have to get used to.

"With King Richard coming back, the people of Nottingham should be able to sleep well in their beds tonight and many onward. Prince John and the Sheriff will answer for their crimes, and peace will return, or at least I hope so," Robin answered. His eyes were observing Maid Marian the entire time.

"I meant for you," Sora said.

"Well what else is there? It's just that I've made so many others happy and changed so many lives. I think it's about time I've found my own happiness, don't you think?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, you deserve it. You and Maid Marian can finally be together now. I'm happy for you…" Sora's eyes dropped to the ground lost in thought.

Robin noticed this and placed his hand on Sora's shoulder. "And what about you? What's next for you? Have you found your happiness?"

"Well, our journey continues. We need to find out who this mystery person is who received the munny from the Prince and track them down. As for my happiness, I… don't know. All I know is that I'll have to keep fighting as long as I have the Keyblade."

"Ooh, kind of glad I didn't steal it away from you now," Robin said wincing. "Are you sure about that?"

"It's not a question of do or don't. I suppose in a way, the only thing I really know how to do is fight. It's the only way I know how to protect people and even then, sometimes it does more harm than good," Sora explained his thoughts. He didn't know why he was so willing to confide his feelings to Robin but none of his closer friends. He supposed he just needed to get it off his chest and Robin was the closest person to him at the moment.

"Are you sure it's not a question? Do you really not have a choice, or do you just believe you don't?" Robin asked. When Sora failed to answer, Robin continued on, "When the time comes, I know you'll make the right decision. What I would tell you is that when a chance for happiness presents itself, it wouldn't be a bad idea to take it. You never know when you'll find it again."

"Thanks, Robin. Well…" Sora felt like he wanted to say more and that if he didn't he was going to burst or something equally as painful, but he couldn't. He didn't want to ruin the day by offloading his burdens on Robin. They weren't his to worry about after all. He instead put his fingers into his mouth and whistled loudly to alert the others. "It's about time to be heading off."

"You'll come see us again, won't you? It would be delightful to talk and have some tea," Marian asked.

"Now how could we turn that down?" Luna said. She looked back to Tim who she had been talking to beforehand, knelt down and hugged him. "You're going to be fine taking care of your mother?"

"Lady Kluck and Friar Tuck said they could help us, so we'll be fine. I'll miss you," Tim answered.

"You too." Luna soon let go off Tim and stood up, gave him one final smile and rejoined the others. As they reached the woods, Stephanie's hand found its way into her own. Luna held onto it firmly. She had only visited one world since returning to Alexander and she already had a lot to write about to Aunt Kit.


	35. To Uncharted Lands

_So while you wait for an update for that other fic I'm currently writing, I might as well bring you this one. Also with E3 two weeks away, I wonder if we'll be getting anything KH related... anything at all... please senpai, notice us!_

* * *

**Chapter 35**

**To Uncharted Lands**

Despite the fact that it may have even been a coincidence, that surely there were many Alices and that this could simply refer to one from this world, the seed of doubt had already been planted in Kairi's mind. She didn't want to even engage the possibility, but Alice being experimented on and becoming… whatever that was lingered in the forefront of her mind no matter how much she tried to push it out.

"Kairi, there's still a chance. If Alice was… you know, do you really think something wouldn't have happened to the worlds already? If even one pure light goes out, then the worlds would already have been in danger. That there not is our best bet to believe that she's still out there somewhere," Riku tried to convince her. It was working.

She was breathing more normally and she could feel her heart rate slowing down. Riku was right. Of course he was. There was no strong evidence to suggest Alice was that creature. She knew somewhere deep down that Alice was alive, almost as if they were connected with each other, and yet… why did she feel so uneasy? Perhaps she would have been able pass it off as nerves at such a terrifying sight if only she didn't get the strange sense of déjà vu, only that she was sure she had never seen such a scene before either.

The trio had just exited the secret passageway after a long period of investigation to find themselves confronted with a baffled Archdeacon. No one moved for what felt like forever. Finally, having just noticed a thick tome Kairi was hugging to her chest, the archdeacon spoke.

"What have you done? What is going on?" he asked, seeming unsure of what else to say.

No one gave a reply. It was a strange circumstance they found themselves in and they weren't even sure themselves what they had just found. The book in Kairi's hand was a clue that they had taken from the laboratory and was probably the only means of clarification that they had.

"Can it close?" Max asked looking back at the secret passageway. Riku shrugged and casually walked over to the sculpture and detached the chalice from the woman's hands. The floor glowed again and Riku quickly jumped out of its zone. The floor soon stopped glowing and the passageway disappeared, replaced by the flooring that had been there previously.

"I don't believe you answered my question," the Archdeacon pressed for further information.

"Well, you know how Frollo was always obsessed about alchemy?" Kairi waited for his nod to confirm that he had known about Frollo's obsession. "Well I don't think he was wrong."

"You realize no one can know about this? Well I'm sure I don't have to tell you that," Riku said.

The archdeacon nodded. "I saw nothing. I don't even think I want to be involved…" With that he turned and walked away. A lasting impression must still have been left on him because he was walking rather stiffly and looked pale from the side.

"Well that wasn't awkward at all," Max muttered. "So what's that book about?"

"Not here. Let's head back to Quasimodo and Esmeralda. I think they deserve to see this as well," Kairi suggested. With unanimous approval, the three headed back higher into the cathedral. As soon as they opened the door to the bell tower, they witness a most horrific sight. Quasimodo was writhing in pain and letting out a blood curdling scream. Esmeralda tried to calm only to find herself shoved away by the hunchback.

"Quasimodo, get a hold of yourself!" Riku yelled. He ran over to Quasimodo and quickly cast a Bind spell with his Keyblade to keep him down.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? LET ME GO! This… pain… I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! JUST LET ME DIE!" Quasimodo roared trying to thrash violently, but the magic held its dominance over him and prevented any movement. The only other way he could let out his frustration and pain was by resorting to grunting out animal-like noises.

"What's happened to him?" Esmeralda asked. "Wasn't the treatment supposed to work?"

"It hasn't been tested yet. There's no way to know what's happening," Kairi said. She rushed over to Quasimodo and placed her hand on his back. "Quasi, can you hear me? Just nod or blink if you can."

Quasimodo continued to grunt but managed to wink noticeably enough for Kairi to tell that he was listening. "Just keep listening to the sound of my voice. Okay, I want to inhale and exhale every four seconds. Here, just copy me."

Quasimodo watched albeit with a pained expression as Kairi gave an example and then tried to follow. His breathing at first was ragged and sharp, at least until he was able to find a certain tempo where after his breathing seemed to return to an almost normal level.

"See. Everything will turn out okay. You just need to keep fighting. We're here with you," Kairi said. She stood up and looked at Riku. "Now we just need to wait and see if the antidote will have any effect. Everything else will be up to Quasi."

"That's the thing. We won't even know if it's the antidote counteracting the Heartless side or Quasimodo himself. Maybe they both have an effect, maybe they don't, but he certainly wasn't acting like this before we gave the antidote to him, was he, Esmeralda?" Riku asked.

"He wasn't. So the effects might have worsened?" Esmeralda hypothesized but Max shook his head.

"I'm not so sure. When I get sick, it usually always gets worse before it gets better. Maybe that's what's happening here."

"We'll just have to wait a bit longer then," Kairi said before setting the thick tome down on the floor along with herself. She pried at the book cover with her index and middle finger and flipped it open all the way.

"So you found something then?" Esmeralda asked, temporarily forgetting her worry for Quasi at the introduction of the book.

"Yeah, a secret passageway hidden under the cathedral. It was like you said, one of the tunnels of the catacombs that took us to a laboratory, a really ancient one at that," Kairi summarised. She left out the creature they had found. In her mind that was the one thing there that didn't make any sense and she wasn't sure she could answer any of Esmeralda's questions about it if she brought it up. "This book has a really dry and musty smell. It must have been lying in there for ages."

Their hopes however were diminished as they scanned page after page. The text was undecipherable, not due to worn out ink but because it was in a language that none of them understood. Strange symbols littered each page, some recognizable like a bird for instance, while others they have never seen in their lives. Probably the only thing that they could infer from was the illustrations on random pages of the book, too spread out for them to connect anything coherent.

"Well this was pointless. What's the point if we can't read it?" Max asked.

"I think I get the gist… here! It looks like some kind of chalice in this picture, right?" Kairi pointed out.

"Like the one downstairs," Riku said.

"Yeah. I remember reading up on something to do with alchemy with Luna in the library and we I remember this symbol." Kairi guided them to a circle with a dot in the middle with her finger. "That's the alchemical symbol for the Sun. Gold is categorized as being linked to the Sun so I think this is describing the properties of the chalice. Makes sense since we know that it's actually gold."

"Nice work detective. Anything else you can tell from this?" Riku asked.

"Well, I remember the planetary symbols and the four basic elements so I could identify them if I found them. Silver would be the same as the moon's symbol for example. The problem lies with these other symbols that I've never seen before," Kairi said as she continued going from page to page. "Yeah, they're definitely not alchemical symbols. A different language maybe?"

"Wouldn't it be funny if it was, like, Atlantean, or something?" Max's joke was not seen as such by Riku and Kairi. In fact, they looked quite impressed. When Max looked at them again after his round of laughter, he raised his hands. "Wait, was I onto something there? I mean I was just joking."

"That's a pretty flattering joke then," Riku said. "Now we just need to find someone who can read Atlantean, or find a dictionary."

"So it's real… It's really real!" Kairi's mouth opened up slowly before letting out a laugh filled with disbelief. "We did it, Riku!"

"You mean you did it. I'm still not even sure if I even contributed anything," Riku said.

"Of course you did. You were there to look good and be moral support as I figured things out," Kairi said playfully.

"And I'm just cannon fodder," Max added.

"See? You both get it!" Kairi grinned and looked back at the book. "Well one clue is better than no clue… Riku, take a look at this."

Riku peered over Kairi's shoulder and looked down where he finger was pointed. His eyes shot wide open and he stepped back almost tripping over one of the floorboards. "That can't be… but why would it be in this of all things?"

"So then is this where it comes from?" Kairi said. Both their eyes were glued to the χ on the page, unable to escape its bold lettering because they knew that its purpose for being there couldn't have been a good one.

* * *

"_Luna. Luna! _Luna!"

Luna finally snapped out of her dazed state upon hearing her name and looked around wildly before finally calmly setting her eyes on Sora. She had no idea how to explain what had just occurred to her other than that a possible spell of dizziness had overtaken her. It was as if all her senses had just been dulled and consequently her slow to react.

"Oh, sorry. I guess I'm just a little tired," was her chalked up explanation.

"Just a little?" Sora grinned and sat down next to her. Luna grabbed the journal from her desk and showed the recently written pages to Sora. "Heh, saying that's a lot would be an understatement. Your aunt's going to have a lot of fun reading that."

"Goofy told me it was like a book. I might even sell it and become an author someday," Luna said.

"As long as I get royalties for using my name."

Luna winked at him. "Don't worry. I'll be changing your name for the finalized version."

"Aw, you're no fun," Sora said with a grin. He had come to realize how much he valued their playful banter after what had happened between them after Traverse Town. After losing her to the Realm of Darkness, he wanted ever single moment with her to be one filled with laughter. Luna had agreed with him, wanting to push away the moments that had put pressure on their friendship.

"Seriously though. If you ever were having a problem with something, you'd tell me, right?" Sora asked.

There was something about Luna that intrigued him, something special that he couldn't quite place. It wasn't anything to do with her appearance or her character, no, it lay in their meeting. Sora had been surrounded by special people all his life with mysteries that were worth solving. Kairi was a Princess of Heart that had been sent to his own world through Aqua's magic; Namine was a special existence that had come to be through strange circumstances and had power over his memory; Yeul had been a Seer, one who had the power to see all of time and now Namine had that power, and so on and so forth. But Luna… hers was a strange mystery. How had she gotten the Keyblade? Why had Abraxas chosen her of all people? Why had she retained her human form when becoming a Chimera? Was she immune, or was it something entirely different? She was a treasure trove of mysteries that Sora wanted, or desired rather, to unlock.

Luna looked thoughtfully at him for a moment. "Sora… are you flirting with me?"

"WHA-" Sora jumped out his chair and began waving his arms about in denial. His face turned an embarrassing shade of red that went up to his ears. "Of course not! Nuh uh, no way! W-why would I be f-f-flirting… with you?"

"I knew you took things too directly. See, it was a joke. You know what those are, right?" Of course, Luna didn't deny to herself that she wouldn't have minded if he had flirted with her. She had even kind of been hoping that he would have said yes.

"So you're teasing me then. You know, I haven't forgotten that you're ticklish," Sora reminded her in a matter-of-factly tone.

"Was that a threat?"

"I wouldn't know about that. Do I look like the kind of guy who threatens someone else?"

Luna defensively covered her sides just in case. "I certainly can't see it. You're more like a fluffy puppy."

"Well this fluffy puppy has some mean claws." Acting to prove this, Sora reached for Luna's hand, was easily able to free her hand from her side and began tickling her. Luna let out scream after scream in between uncontrollable fits of laughter as she struggled to get out of her seat only to fall back down due to her weak jelly-like knees. Sora in the meantime was having the time of his life judging by his cheeky grin at getting to torment his friend.

Luna soon noticed that Sora's fingers had stopped moving and when she opened her eyes and looked behind her where Sora was looking, she saw Stephanie watching from the hallway, half tired.

"Stephanie! It- it isn't w-what it looks like!" Now it was Luna's turn to trip over her words.

But it seemed Stephanie had no interest in that. She put an index finger over her mouth. "Shhh." She gave them one last stare before heading back into her room.

Sora and Luna exchanged glances for a while before the former whispered, "You think she noticed?"

"There was nothing to notice, plus she was dead tired. She'll have forgotten about it by tomorrow," Luna said.

"You underestimate the power of kids' memories," Sora said. "But you gotta admit I did get you good there. You and Kairi are both the same when it comes to that."  
Luna froze for a moment before getting up from her seat. She knew Sora wasn't exactly the smartest tool in the shed when it came to flattering girls, but surely he couldn't have been that naïve.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, pretty much confirming Luna's suspicions.

"You know, because it's you, I'm going to get some sleep and hopefully forget what you just said in the morning," she said.

"Huh? What did I say?" Sora asked, baffled by Luna's sudden change in behavior. Before Luna could reply, the ship rocked fiercely sending them to the floor. Sora tried to stand up quickly but another hit from the side jolted the ship to the right and sent him crashing into and over one of the swivel chairs.

"Sora, are you okay?" Luna asked from the wall.

"I think we've experience some minor turbulence," Sora managed to groan while upside down. He detached himself from the back of the chair and sat upright, his eyes looking upwards at the window, searching, until it finally found the problem. Outside the Gummi Ship, circling them was an armored figure on a Keyblade glider.

"Moira's Crescent?" Luna asked, watching the small but still identifiable figure shift from the left side of the Highwind to the right.

"Maybe…" Sora scurried to his seat and attached his seatbelt as Donald and Stephanie dragged themselves into the room.

Donald rubbed his eyes and looked from Sora to Luna. "What's going on? Luna, if you're messing around with the ship again without asking me or Sora, I'll-"

"For once, it's not me," Luna interjected quickly before pointing at the window.

Sora ignored Donald's quack of shock as he noticed the figure and looked behind him. "Where's Goofy?" he asked.

"Probably still sleeping. You think this kind of stuff wakes him up? I'm kind of jealous actually," Donald replied.

"You and me both… Donald, take hold off the controls." Sora tried to ram the Gummi Ship into the attacker who dropped below the height of the Gummi Ship, disappearing below Sora's line of sight.

"Where are you going?" Donald asked. Sora took off his seatbelt and waited for the duck to take hold of the stick before letting go and standing up.

"Well, we need someone on the guns, or would you rather they bring us down? Luna, take the other gun!" Sora was about to leave the cockpit when he felt Stephanie's hands tug his sleeve.

"How can I help?" she asked.

Sora smiled at her. "Let's see… can you wake Goofy up for me? Tell him it's important."

Stephanie grinned and headed off. Sora gave one last quick look at Luna before opening up a hatch on the side of the room and dropping into the ventral of the Highwind. He sat down in the single seat and took hold of the Thundaga turret with both hands. Sora felt the Gummi Ship lower to meet the figure and Sora lined up the crosshair quickly before pulling the trigger.

A great number of yellow bolts surged forward and tried to hit their target, with the opponent dodging each one skilfully before pulling upwards on their glider. They shot upwards above the ship. The figure jumped and dismounted from their glider, their bike transforming back into a familiar looking Keyblade.

"It's her!" Sora grunted out just as the ship suffered another hit. Their opponent had just launched herself at ship heading towards her in the most confident of manners and had managed to slam the front of her blade into the windshield. Of course, she probably hadn't even gotten that close anyway. Her Keyblade had the ability to change both length and tenseness. Her Keyblade design was also the most unusual one Sora had ever seen, with the blade itself acting as the joints of a skeleton and being able to detach and reattach at will. There was certainly no way he could mistake the likeness of Desiree Elegia Skye.

He watched as she fell below them and then rose back up on her transformed again bike. Sora failed to notice his grip tighten and his palms start to sweat as anger he had thought he had left behind back in Radiant Garden rose within him. Neuge's words when they were training came back to his head in that instant.

"_But it would be best to compartmentalize your thoughts of anguish and joy. If you let them manifest as one then it will end up manipulating your actions, and then it will destroy you, like it almost did me."_

Sora shook and dismissed the thought before shooting again, holding down the trigger a lot harder this time. He couldn't let her get away with it, not like last time. If she wanted him dead, he was going to put up a hell of fight before she could succeed.

A blast of light that erupted in front of him caused him to close his eyes and look away. He recognized the blast as one of the Ultima cannons that were currently in Luna's part of the ship. When he looked back, the power of the blast was such that it had blown Desiree off her Keyblade and into the world nearby.

"Great job, Luna! Let's go after her," Sora said after a while.

"Huh? Are you sure? We could just continue on our course-"

"Because she's-" But Sora paused. He wasn't sure he wanted to reveal his ulterior motive to them yet. "We don't exactly have anywhere to go so we might as well check this world out as well. Maybe we'll find something out."

"Sora…" Luna could sense the desperation and irritation that Sora tried hard to conceal. She knew it couldn't be easy for him, coming into contact with another of Moira's Crescent's members, and she knew that if she couldn't convince him to not go then she could at least protect him. "Alright. Donald, you know what to do."

* * *

Luna knelt down and picked the soil they were standing on, watching as it slowly returned back to the earth from her hands. They were in an unusual place, not one that any of them had been to before. They were in jungle-type or terrain, or something akin to a tropical rainforest. Trees of various heights and bends surrounded them completely, and the temperature was sweltering and stifling.

"This soil is really rich. They say that having a lot of worms in your soil is a good sign of a healthy ecosystem so I just counted. Yeah, there are a lot of them," Luna said. She reached into her pocket for her hand sanitizer and applied it to her hands.

"That's impressive! How did you know about that? Don't tell me you actually stayed awake in geography class?" Sora asked.

"No, I pretty much day dreamed through my classes. It's just that me and my mom used to plant flowers in our garden, and she told me about it once…"

Her hands had stopped moving and her eyes were stuck on the soil, her mouth twisting to form a painful smile. Sora quickly changed the topic.

"Desiree should be somewhere around here. I think we should have Jiminy help us track her down," he said. This seemed to snap Luna out of her thoughts. She took out the communicator and pressed the button, holding it to her mouth.

"Jiminy?"

Instead of the expected, it was Kupopo who raced to their needs this time. "Ready and waiting for orders, kupo!"

Then there was some strange commotion going on, and Luna could hear Jiminy's voice shouting over Kupopo's.

"Sorry about that. I thought I was usually the one on the communicator," said the cricket.

"She's only used it once. Besides kupo, why can't I do it every once in a while?"

Luna shook her head. "You guys really need to figure something out. Why don't you just alternate after the other one does it?"

"Then it's my turn!" Luna could have sworn she heard the sound of a moogle's squeaky body pushing a cricket out of the way. "How may I help Luna, kupo?"

"I need a scan of the area to see if there's anyone nearby. You do know how to do that, right?"

"You can count on me, kupo!" Kupopo exclaimed. Luna counted thirty two seconds before she heard a reply. "Sorry, kupo! There's something in that area jamming our signal. It's making things all fuzzy. We also might not be able to beam you up into the Gummi Ship properly because of it."  
"That's strange… alright, tell us if anything changes," Luna said before returning the device to her pocket. "So what do we do now?"

"Well standing around here isn't going to do us any good. Let's just start walking and who knows, maybe we'll run into someone eventually," Donald suggested.

He had been half right. Had they not started walking, they probably would not have encountered anyone. But walking certainly hadn't made them encounter anyone either, or at least anyone good. They were lost in a thick green, the sun was beating down and they were all tired from not enough sleep. They set their sights on hoping to find a cave or something that could equally give them shelter and cool them. Their venture took them into a less open area but they found little else other than trees on either side of them. After what seemed like an hour of walking, Stephanie dropped to the ground and started nodding her head from side to side.

"I'm really tired…"

Luna sat next to her and cuddled her. "I know. It's just too hot. There being no wind doesn't help things much either."

"Well, I guess we can jus- GOOFY, BEHIND YOU!" Even as Sora yelled this, he was already running to Goofy. He managed to shove him out of the way just in time as a metallic claw reached forward at incredible speeds and slammed into his chest. Sora was thrown backward by the impact, his back hitting a tree behind him causing him to slump.

He could hear Luna scream his name but all he could really focus on was the burning sensation in his chest and the pain in his back. He placed a hand behind him on the tree's trunk, using it as a support to stand up.

Meanwhile, Luna had managed to evade each of the robot's legs by keeping on her toes. She struck with Dream Seeker at one of the legs and clashed with it. The automaton used this to its advantage, using another leg to sweep under and slam into Luna's legs, making her flip a perfect three sixty into the air and land back on the soil.

The automaton tried to finish her off by stamping on her only to be blocked by Goofy's shield. The claws which slammed themselves repeatedly into Goofy's shield but failed to bypass them, withdrew and for a second the knight thought that he would have a moment of reprieve. That was before the grappling claws turned into buzz saws and pierced through his shield, splitting it in half. Sora didn't even want to think of what would have happened to Goofy and Luna had Donald not deflected the buzz saws away with fire magic.

Finally managing to push himself off of the tree, Sora summoned the Kingdom Key with one hand while still holding his burning chest. The automaton's red visor noticed this and instead struck out at him. Sora's eyes switched from leg to leg as he warped through each of them. He switched to Oblivion quickly and activated _Ars Arcanum _before starting to clash with the legs. There was some resistance at first, but Oblivion was soon able to cut through the leg and detach it from the robot.

Sora continuously warped and cut when he saw it appropriate, keeping one hand on his chest the entire time. From Luna's perspective, she could already see traces of Neuge in him. She scrambled for her own Keyblade before and teleported in front of the automaton and slammed the Dream Seeker into its visor.

The robot caught her by the leg before she reach the ground and was about to throw her but Sora interrupted this, jumping backwards and using the plasma arm from the Keyblade to grab onto the robot's head. He pulled backwards and tore the head of the weapon's body. Luna took advantage of the robot's confusion and held her Keyblade up.

"_Thundaga!" _A stray bolt that had appeared above where the head would have been came down and was swallowed by the robot's exposed interior. The claw loosened, releasing Luna from its grasp. The weapon jittered up and down and for a moment they thought that it was done for. It did have one more surprise for them however. Compartments opened up on various parts of its body. Sora barely had time to move before waves of missiles were unleashed from the robot.

Sora threw himself to the ground and cast reflect, the explosions slamming and testing the shield's surface. Once the explosions stopped, he looked up to see a bunch of trees that had fallen in the near vicinity and had completely blocked him off from the others.

Sora brought down the shield and ran up to the closed off path. "Guys! Are you there?"

"Oh thank goodness, you're alive! Sora, we can't get through!" Luna yelled from the other side.

"Yeah, I guessed that… but you're all alright?"

"We are, thankfully. And you?"

"Same here. Just what was that thing anyway?" Sora asked.

"No idea. Some kind of robot, I guess? It's in a bunch of pieces now anyway but there could be more around here. What do we do?"

Sora considered his options carefully but stopped when realizing that there really was only one option. "We're just going to have to split up for now, see if there's another way to meet up. I'll keep going down this path and you guys go back the way you came from. If we're lucky, we'll be able to find each other again but as it stands…"

Luna closed her eyes and lowered her head onto one of the fallen trees. "Then be careful, Sora. If there's another one of those things up ahead, or Moira's Crescent, I want you to promise me something… just run, please… just run."

"Luna-"

"Please, Sora. Just promise me. If the danger's too great, don't risk facing it alone."

Hearing the stress in Luna's words, Sora nodded even though she couldn't see it. "I promise. You guys be careful too. Keep Stephanie safe."

Luna made a sound of affirmation and Sora bobbed his head up and down, knowing that the next time he would see her or hear her voice would probably be a while.

"Okay… see you on the other side," he finally said, and with that he set off at a jogging pace.

"I'm counting on it," Luna whispered before returning to Stephanie, Donald and Goofy.

* * *

_I'd imagine most people know what this world is. Get your capes in gear folks, or don't..._


	36. No Man, No Mystery

**Chapter 36**

**No Man, No Mystery**

The intense heat was more than a pain for Desiree as she swiped away plant after plant with her Keyblade. Torture— yes, that was the best word to describe it. She had never asked for this. If she could be anywhere right now, it would be somewhere in Paris drinking cool refreshing milk and indulging in meat pies and other incredible pastries. Instead, she was here with no food of the sort in sight, sweat rolling down her normally perfect and pale skin, sticky and unkempt hair, and a stinging body ache from having fallen from the sky. She was incredibly lucky she had been wearing her armor at the time or else she would have become another one of her favorite foods.

She could hear a bunch of flies whizzing about near her ear and she let out a scream and swiped at them with her hand. This type of world was certainly not for her, she had decided pretty quickly. It had probably been a mistake to go against Kohle's orders and go after Sora on her own, and now she was stuck here for it. She had tried willing her Keyblade to transform every now and again but it simply wouldn't. If her Keyblade had thought her stubborn and agreed with the other members, she wouldn't be surprised. Additionally, her armor was also damaged badly so she probably wouldn't be able to survive the change in atmosphere anyway.

She let out a scream of frustration after a while and rested against a large boulder that she had come across. She had just barely let out her breath when a group of Heartless popped out of the ground and surrounded her.

"I am really not in the mood for this right now," she whispered to herself before slamming her Keyblade into the ground. Streaks of lightning surged forth in all directions and took out all the Heartless without effort. Desiree wiped some sweat off her forehead and, having started to notice some of her make up coming off, scowled.

So she was stuck here for a while at least. Her armor would repair itself over time so she wasn't too worried about that. That meant that she could either stay where she was and wait for it to repair, or go out and search the place for any food and safer shelter. From what she could recall, Alfonso had said that it took 36 hours for the armor to repair which meant that the first option was automatically ruled out.

That left the second option, find either some sign of life or a possible food source to last her three days. The only problem was that she wasn't too enthusiastic about this option either. In an ideal world, she would have a bunch of servants carry her throughout this jungle on a deck chair while fanning her. Of course she would be sipping a glass of lemonade too. And then she opened her eyes… and was forced to confront reality once more.

There was no point complaining, she told herself, and forced herself to continue walking. She attempted to cover her nose as she trenched through the hot weather. The temperature had intensified the stinking moss and rotten plants and detritus that she faced. More times than one had she heard the sound of buzzing nearby and consequently quickened her pace.

It had not been something she had ever let anyone know, but if there was one thing she had a fear of in the world, it was bugs. It was somewhat ironic in a way, considering some of the Heartless she had fought certainly resembled bugs, but there was something about them that was different to the standard bug. Maybe it was that she had defeated so many of them that they seemed a second nature to her, but she still thought it funny that she wasn't scared of the things that could actually harm her.

She must have been walking for about an hour and a half now. Her legs were now struggling to even go farther, but there was nowhere for her to rest, or at least nowhere she considered appropriate.

She took some time to consider again how she had gotten herself into this sticky situation. She had wanted to chase Sora because she didn't believe Moira's Crescent were taking advantage of the opportunity she had given them. She had thought she could take them on their Gummi Ship there and then but she had gravely miscalculated the extent of her glider's capabilities and she paid for it.

Well none of that mattered now. She was here and she would have to make up for her tactical error. If Alfonso was here, he would have probably suggested looking for a river and then following it to downstream to its mouth where it would lead out to the sea. The river would also most likely carry fresh water, suitable enough for drinking. Yes, that gave her some hope, now all she needed was the mentality to stick to her plan. Surely there had to be a river nearby.

But evening soon came, and her hopes of finding any water source were diminishing quickly. She threw her hands up in the air, a declaration of defeat. She kicked at a bunch of dead leaves on the grounds before putting her hand to her forehead. What was she doing? That had been so ill-suited of her. Desiree Elegia Skye was not one to give in, especially not to a disgusting place like this. Whatever reluctance she felt to press on, it was all in the mind. She had to keep going no matter what. It helped to think about all the things she would do after she managed to escape.

"Hey, stop right there!"

Desiree barely turned before she was shot in the back with something. A high voltage of electricity ran throughout her body and sent her straight to the ground. It was an electroshock ranged weapon of some sort, Desiree had deduced from the range of the shot. Her body hugged involuntarily to the ground and her eyes were struggling to stay open. Cumbersomely, she shifted her eyes to the left to see two soldier-like figures, one with an electric baton in his hands and the other a stun gun.

"What's that?" one of them asked as he picked up Desiree's Keyblade. She tried to talk but no words came out of her mouth. She could hardly even move it for that matter.

"You think she's some kind of government spy? Let's just take her in for questioning. We might even get a promotion from the boss if we're lucky," answered the other man. He reinserted his gun into his utility belt and took hold of Desiree's hand with the baton man taking hold of the other. As Desiree was dragged, she looked left slowly. She could see it, small, behind the trees and very blurry but still a glimmer… a river, sparkling under the sunset. And then she was out cold.

* * *

Sora took off into a run and leapt over the rather wide gap, just making it to the other side. The path had taken him to a bunch of cliffs that faced opposite a bright sparkling ocean. So he was on the edge of the island then. Even with this revelation, it did little to quell Sora's nerves that he was getting farther and farther away from where Luna and the others were.

The other side of the cliff that Sora was now on had taken him to a dead end, or at least that was what he had thought before noticing the ledge that seemed to circle around the cliff.

"If the guys were here, I'd be able to make a joke about this being a cliff hanger as to whether we survive or not." Sora immediately rolled his eyes at his pun. He pressed his back against the cliff face and began moving to the right. He would just have to hope that the ledge was stable enough to not give way.

His feet finally found solid ground again after a while. Sora took relief in the fact that he had escaped an incredibly close call before continuing onwards. The significant decrease in the number of birds he could hear told him that nightfall was coming. A minute passed, then a few, then several, and by the hour, he was enclosed in darkness.

He extended his hand forward and felt around caringly. The transition to a cooler air had been refreshing. It was a reminder to him that he needed to keep a cool mind if he was going to find his friends again. It was still quite warm but to a climate he could actually stand.

He had walked for a good while when the first signs of life revealed themselves to him. His ears managed to pick up a sound. It was an unearthly sound, more belonging to a machine than a human or any force of nature. For a second, Sora thought that he had encountered another automaton and lowered himself to the ground, using the tall grass as camouflage.

After a few seconds he finally caught sight of his foe. It appeared to be a guard on some kind of aerial hovercraft. He stopped near Sora and flashed the light emitting from the vehicle around as if searching for something. Sora buried his head to the ground hoping that the guard wouldn't be able to notice. Soon enough Sora heard the hovercraft fly away and he looked up to see it already past him. Curiosity rising, he decided to follow the guard.

What appeared to be a base soon revealed itself as Sora continued to follow the guard. What gave him that impression was the shape of the roof, a circular dome, and the fact that it seemed to be the only building he had encountered so far. The decisive factor of course lay in the number of similar looking guards that patrolled the perimeter and beyond. If he wanted to know what was in there, he would have to find a way around them, or otherwise go right through them.

Sora emerged out of the bushes he had been hiding in and travelled down the mountain, first at the pace of a tip toe before slowly transitioning into a slide the farther he descended, his feet soon touching the trail that led to the entrance of the base.

He hid in the shadows created by the trees and aimed his Keyblade like a sniper rifle. Once his first target was in sight, he launched a fire projectile at one of the guards posted at the entrance. The shot found its target and hit the guard square in the chest. While the guard posted next to him took his time to investigate his fallen comrade, Sora took advantage of this and leapt out of the shadows, sprinting towards the remaining henchman and sending him to the floor with a strike raid.

Spotting the closest cover of darkness to him, Sora entered the compound and made his way to the left to hide. In front of him was a door that led inside and it was very unlikely that a knock on the door would suffice for admission. It was then fortunate that help came in the form of an unlikely factor in the equation.

Sora could only watch in surprise as a second intruder made his way through the gates. He was slightly overweight and yet he still possessed a muscular physique. It wasn't this Sora was interested in however. The most intriguing part of the man was whatever he was wearing. It was some kind of costume, red spandex and all and to make matters even more hilarious, he was wearing a mask. Afraid to laugh, Sora could only pull a face.

_Does this guy think he's some kind of superhero or something? What an idiot._

But Sora couldn't help but keep his eyes on the man. He watched as the 'superhero' looked around carefully, bent down and picked up a rock from the ground and then threw it at the roof where a henchman was on patrol, effectively taking him out…

Effectively taking him out…

_Taking him out…_

Sora frowned upon realizing what he had just witnessed, and then this frown turned into an indecipherable face as he tried to process what had just happened… and failed. Had he really just seen a grown man dressed like a superhero with apparently extraordinary strength throw a small rock from afar at incredible speeds and succeed at knocking the guard off the roof? Why yes. Yes he had.

For a moment, Sora considered revealing himself to the suspicious individual. Judging from his actions he certainly didn't seem like he was on the henchmen's side. Still that didn't necessarily mean he would be welcome to allying with Sora either, especially if he had some kind of contrasting motive to Sora's. He eventually concluded that it would be best to just follow the man for now.

So Sora's next actions were determined by the strange guy in the mask. The costumed man ran over to inspect the locked door that Sora had been looking at. After what appeared to be quick consideration, he bent down and pried his fingers under the door in an attempt to lift it up. He probably would have succeeded too if the door hadn't chosen to open up automatically at that moment. The door swung open with a mechanical his, sending the momentarily stunned costumed man into the compound that he was just about to enter. In exchange, a vehicle consisting of two men left the base and headed away in the direction of the entrance. They would no doubt eventually notice the unconscious guards on their patrol so Sora took his chances and hastily made for the door before it could close. He managed to just make it by sliding under in time.

One thing he immediately noticed upon entering was the introduction of a cool breeze circulating around the base which he welcomed gladly after the heat from outside prickled his skin. He got up after an exasperated sigh only to see the masked super already running off down the corridor. Sora followed after him quickly meanwhile taking the time to muffle his footsteps.

After both being contentious of their surroundings in different ways, they soon arrived at a door that was much different than the rest they had encountered. This took them to an empty but spacious room with a single dining table in the middle and an incredibly strange wall in the background which seemed to be replicating a waterfall of lava.

Sora stepped into the dark room after the costumed man had disappeared into it sometime before to find the room completely empty. Before Sora could question where the costumed man could have possibly gone, he was tackled from the side.

"Didn't think I'd notice you following me, huh?" said the man in the mask with a toothy grin. Sora just barely managed to wiggle out of his grasp and rolled away.

"How perceptive coming from a guy dressed up like he's out of a comic book," Sora shot back wittily.

"Well, those are usually the best kind you'll find, well except for the ones with capes, according to my friend anyway. But you're not with them are you? You're… a kid."

"_Very _perceptive. You know, you really are good at this," continued Sora's smarmy remarks.

"You don't need to insult me so can it with the remarks kid-"

"It's Sora."

"Mr. Incredible, but how did you even get on the island?"

Sora's face became uneven. "Island? So that's where we ended up. Gives me a bit more confidence that I'll run into them again then… eventually."

'"We'? As in, there are more of you?" Mr. Incredible seemed perplexed at this sudden turn of events but Sora took no notice of it, still deep in thought of finding his friends.

He looked Mr. Incredible up and down, taking in his costume fully for the first time before asking, "So you're not joking, right? You're an actual superhero? With flying and super strength and all that?"

"In the flesh, well, except for the flying part, we all have different powers. So, how exactly did you get onto the island in the first place? You shouldn't be here…"

Before Sora could reply, a loud hissing sound cut their conversation short followed by the parting of the lava that Sora had originally thought was a wall. Mr. Incredible grabbed Sora without warning and dragged him quickly towards one of the only hiding spots in the room, a totem pole wide enough to conceal both their bodies. Sora tried to slip out of Mr. Incredible's grasp but he wasn't so lucky this time, with the super holding on tightly as if Sora were a beloved possession.

Eventually the brunette gave up squirming and watched as a slender and attractive woman stepped out of the lava waterfall. She took a quick scan of the area before heading out the way Sora and Mr. Incredible came in.

"Okay, can you put me down no-OW!"

Mr. Incredible shushed him quickly and took off along with his 'luggage' into the lava entrance the woman had come out of. The gap of parting lava began to close forcing Mr. Incredible to move sideways halfway through the path. With their path narrowing even more and Mr. Incredible not wanting to know what would happen if the two sides of lava became one again, he threw Sora towards the exit before lunging forward himself and escaping the claws of possible death.

"You could have at least thrown me a little more gently," Sora said while rubbing the arm he had landed on but Mr. Incredible wasn't listening. Instead, he was staring at a large bright screen in the back of the dark room they were currently in. This was probably connected to the keyboard at the end of the bridge they were on.

Sora followed Mr. Incredible down the bridge until they were standing before the keyboard. The word PASSWORD flashed on the screen continuously. It was a word that excited Sora and yet unless they had some kind of idea as to the code needed then the secrets behind the metaphorical lock would be kept secret.

Sora was about to turn away when he heard Mr. Incredible inputting keystrokes. "Well I wish Cid was here. He'd know how to get past this in a heartbeat but as for us? Well, there's probably millions of combinations, there's no way we can brute force this in one tr- oh, you got it."

When the words that Mr. Incredible entered appeared on the screen however, Sora let out an audible gasp. The word Kronos was displayed on the screen, a word that the Keyblade Master never would have thought he would have heard here. It was pretty convenient then that deciding to go after Desiree had also taken them to one of their mysteries.

"Hey, how do you know about KRONOS?" Sora asked.

"How do you know about it?"

"I asked first."

Mr. Incredible gave a simple smile and looked back to the screen. "I saw it on the island at one point. One of my kind that I used to know back in the day was apparently here on the island. He left that message for someone to find I'm guessing. And you?"

"Well there's this group by the same name who are causing trouble all over the place. I guess I can't exactly say it's a coincidence now, can I?"

Sora watched as the screen flickered to life with multiple files stacked upon files. Selecting a file at random, the file opened and enlarged, revealing its contents. They were diagrams of the same robot that Sora had fought before, well, not exactly the same. They seemed to evolve in shape and design from one iteration to the next. It looked as if they (designated the Omnidroid at the top of the screen) were metamorphosing in a similar way to a butterfly evolving from a caterpillar.

Furthermore next to the blueprints of each Omnidroid were faces of people Sora had never seen before, but they clearly left enough of an impression on Mr. Incredible as he was gawking wide-eyed at the screen. He supposed that would make sense though considering they were also wearing masks like him. The screen went onto further detail the status of each superhero at the hands of these robots. They had either defeated or went on to be defeated by the improving Omnidroid.

"This is… horrible. I'm so sorry," Sora couldn't help but feel the need to apologize.

"You have nothing to apologize for. The only one who needs to is the guy who's running this operation, Syndrome," Mr. Incredible replied, his voice strained.

"Syndrome? Does he also have superpowers by any chance?"

Mr. Incredible shook his head. "No. I knew him once as Buddy. He was just a normal kid who, like others, was inspired by me and unlike others, was _really _inspired by me, so much so that he even got in the way and put himself in danger. He had talent though. He could have put that brain of his to use and helped the world in a way we Supers couldn't but I guess building a weapon to come after me and others like me was more appealing."

"Talk about wasted talent…" Sora said. He walked up to the keyboard and started repeatedly pressing the right arrow key, moving from file to file. He hoped he would be able to find something more on KRONOS. He very much soon wished he hadn't.

"No… what is this?" Sora felt his knees wobble and knock against each other violently. On the screen was a photograph of a discernible person and even a discernible location. It was Kairi.

As his finger held down the down arrow key, Sora witnessed the extent of the information they had collected on her. Her fighting style, her past of living in Radiant Garden before moving to the islands, the fact that she was a Princess of Heart, it was all there.

"Is something wrong, Sora? Do you know her?"

But Sora ignored Mr. Incredible and pressed the right arrow key. And again. And again. It wasn't just Kairi. Riku, Aqua, Terra, Ven, Roxas, Xion, Namine, Lea, Mickey… they were all there as well as their details. Sora already knew what he was going to find on the next page but he pressed on the arrow key again.

Next up was Luna. The picture taken of her was the same location that all the previous photos had been taken, which was Radiant Garden, just outside the hotel this time. Three things in her report struck Sora as odd. The first being they knew about Luna having been in the Realm of Darkness, the second was that they knew about her parents' deaths and the cause for it which led to the final thing, the report had referred to her as a 'special' chimera. He couldn't begin to think of how they had gotten hold of all of this information, especially when the only people who should have known about those things were his friends, Yen Sid and Neuge. Actually, not even his friends knew the true cause of Luna's parents' deaths. It certainly didn't feel right revealing something as personal as that. The only other person who knew was Astra and he doubted she was writing these or had taken photos of all his friends.

It needn't be said whose profile the next page brought. A chill trickled down Sora's spine as he stared back at himself. His picture wasn't taken at Radiant Garden but rather Traverse Town. It deeply disturbed him to find out how much they knew about him as well though fortunately it seemed the report hadn't yet taken into account his new fighting style. At least he could take comfort in having one secret.

But just what exactly did this all mean? They were all be spied on? A blinding light interrupted his thoughts followed by a blaring alarm. Sora looked at Mr. Incredible to see a red light beeping on the emblem of his costume. Before they could say anything a barrage of black orbs shot out from turrets positioned all around the room and attacked them. Sora was unable to react and after the orbs had attached themselves to him and dragged him to the floor under their heavy weight, he was incapable of using his Keyblade or any type of magic. The last thing he saw before the orbs engulfed his vision was the legs of the woman before walking towards them.

When Sora woke up, he found himself bound to some kind of machine. He sought to wrestle against his restraints but it was no use. He looked to his right to see two people, the first being a still unconscious Mr. Incredible. It was the other person farther down that caused a previously supressed anger to rise within him again. It was Desiree, also unconscious and looking a complete mess, far from what she would probably approve of if she were awake. He quickly glanced back at Mr. Incredible and was about to call out to him when the door opened. The sound of exaggerated, pronounced steps rang throughout the room. For a moment, Sora even thought that their owner would take forever to arrive in front of him. When the footsteps stopped, Sora raised his head slowly and looked his captor in the eye.

"Oh, aren't you scary giving me that look. But, you're lucky you're you, because if you were anyone else, I would have had you killed by now," Syndrome said with a crazy grin. He seemed incredibly energetic and celebratory over the moment.

"What are you talking about?" Sora asked.

"You… are special!" Syndrome pulled out some sort of tablet device, cleared his throat and began reading from it. "Sora. One of the a few Keyblade wielders left in the world. A kid who possesses the only weapon capable of vanquishing the Heartless and even though the Keyblade was not originally his, shows the same talent a natural wielder would show when wielding it. Well isn't that just great!"

Never mind his incredibly ostentatious presentation as he read from the device, it was that he really did know so much that got Sora riled up.

Syndrome continued. "You know, I feel like I'm looking at my own past reading this. Surrounded by others more special than me, being told that you could never possibly achieve what they have… and then you exceed everyone's expectations. You can finally say that you stand on equal ground with everyone else. Tell me, does it feel good? Jumping from world to world and saving folks? Does it give you a sense of euphoria? Does it make you feel like you're important to someone? It's only natural. Everyone wants to feel special to someone, it's only human nature."

"If you know about me and the other worlds then you must be a part of KRONOS. What are you guys up to?" Sora changed the topic, not caring for what Syndrome had to say.

"And tell you our plan? Would world domination suffice? Or maybe wealth? Or just the destroy the world entirely? The point I'm getting at is does it really matter what the motive is? That kind of factor is pretty trivial in the long run you'll find. But shall I say that you're impression of us as being the bad guys in this is completely off. We want what you want."

"I highly doubt that," Sora said.

"You wanted hear the motive. I'm telling you, or at least a part of it."

"Then let's pretend we do have the same goals for a second. What exactly would that be?" Sora asked.

"The eradication of the Heartless."

Sora looked at him as if he was about to make a funny joke but then forgot the punch line. "Eradicating the Heartless? You must be crazy if you think I'm going to fall for that one. You use them to hurt other people!"

"A necessary means to an end. You think we like using them? They don't care who they attack, they're unpredictable. My men are constantly being attacked by them on this island. They can't even go one night without the fear of being attacked. They're powerful, but you never know when they might stab you in the back, so we'll stab them first. We'll use the Heartless to end the Heartless."

Sora searched Syndrome's features for a speck, a trace, of a lie but it was completely useless. He couldn't tell. "Then why do you have pictures of me and my-"

"Well that's enough talking. If I say anymore then I'd have to kill you and we can't have that now, can we?" Syndrome tutted patronisingly.

"Then you can at least tell _me _why you were hunting down Supers. If this is just some revenge scheme for how I treated you, why not go after me instead?"

Syndrome looked Mr. Incredible's way to see him staring daggers into his eyes. "Oh come on, what's with the looks today, you'd think someone took both of your favorite toys away or something." He walked over to Mr. Incredible just as slowly as it took for him to come into the room. "Aren't you something. You were listening in on that entire conversation, pretending to be unconscious, weren't you? And not long ago I remember you pretending to be dead and to think you used the old hide behind a dead body trick. Man, you really have a knack for this stuff… of course it would have been better if you had stayed dead but this works too... why, you ask? Because you get to see me save your beautiful city from the oncoming threat that's going to attack it."

"Wait, you don't mean that robot, do you?" Sora asked. "You're going to kill innocent people just because of revenge?"  
"Revenge? Where do you two get off saying that word? Whoever said this was about revenge? Okay, well it partly is but it's also my chance to become what you are to so many others. A beacon of hope."

Sora shook his head in disbelief. "You're forgetting the part where you're the one that caused the danger in the first place."

"It's all relative. If you're worried about the citizens, don't be. I won't let them come to harm, which is the least I could say for what you would be able to do if you were in my stead. And once I've saved this city, I'll sell my technology in order to allow everyone else to become a super. And when everyone's super… no one will be!" Syndrome's words came out as a spiteful hiss. He then smiled and pointed at Sora as if he had been selected as a contestant. "The World is about to change. Operation KRONOS is well on its way to success. Be afraid, Keyblade Master, be very afraid and… do rejoice while you have the chance because your days are numbered. In fact, I told your friend the very same thing."

Syndrome nudged his head at Desiree before leaving the room. Sora craned his head to the side and pondered what he had just been told. The Omnidroid that Syndrome had used to hunt down the Supers was now being deployed to attack a city, except that it was being staged and he would use it in order to sell his own technology. While it seemed simple, that was also the problem. There was just something that didn't fit right with Sora. For one thing, he failed to see how building so many of these robots only for this one moment was worth it. Did KRONOS' plans include them somehow? If Sora took his words for truth, and they really wanted to get rid of the Heartless, then would the Omnidroid help them in achieving this?

Meanwhile, a dreary Desiree slowly opened her eyes, waiting for them to adjust to the light of the room. Sora noticed a couple of grunts coming from her and looked her way.

"Been sleeping well I take it?" he asked in a slightly resentful tone.

Desiree let out a chuckle and shook her head. "You know, I think you've just been relegated to a numéro deux on my revenge list."

* * *

**After witnessing one of the greatest E3s ever, I am pumped to continue this fic and Through Smoke and Flames. I actually think I'm starting to into Nomura with how many projects I'm starting up. Apart from these two fics, I'm also working on three more (one of which is hinted at in my profile pic). They probably won't be revealed until I've finished Through Smoke and Flames but please do know I'm working as hard as I can on all of them. Well that's all for now folks, see you next time for Luna's part of this world. **


	37. An Incredible Encounter

_So I'll be on vacation starting sunday for two weeks. Hopefully once I'm back I'll be able to find the fervor necessary to start writing a bit more quickly for both fics. For now though, we'll see how much I can squeeze out until sunday._

* * *

**Chapter 37**

**An Incredible Encounter**

Luna dropped down from the canopy and wiped the sweat from her forehead. Having scouted the area from above the trees had told her two things. The first being that they were near the shore, a pretty good place to make camp before nightfall and also the only area it seemed where they could transport back to the Gummi Ship, of course without Sora that would be useless. The second thing was that right in the middle of the area was a volcano. It certainly explained then why the soil that Luna had examined beforehand had been so rich. Coupled with the tropical climate and she would guess that they were on an island.

She reported these assessments to Donald, Goofy and Stephanie who were glad that they did not have to travel far before having to rest. On their way to the beach, they encountered a few Heartless, new ones as far as Luna knew, who used the environment to camouflage themselves and then attacking when the time was right. Luna was forced into a defensive role in order to protect Stephanie while Goofy and Donald were mainly on the offensive, mixing magic and physical in order to defeat the Heartless.

They soon arrived at the beach to find a cave somewhat concealed behind of a few overhanging trees. Luna pushed aside the foliage and allowed the others through first before going in herself. With not much to see inside a dark tunnel, Luna illuminated her Keyblade and held it up into the air to transmit its effects to their surroundings.

"I hope Sora finds somewhere to rest for the night. I would not want to be out here at dark alone," Goofy said as Luna set her glowing Keyblade on the ground. They sat next to each other, knowing their friend could not share in their warmth.

"He won't go down without a fight. I'm not worried," replied Donald proudly.

"But still... that thing we were fighting was tough. We were just about able to do well with the four of us and if he encounters that thing by himself... and there's also Desiree and maybe even a Chimera-"

"Luna..." Stephanie drew closer to her and playfully poked her forehead.

"Ow! What was that about?"

"You have to believe in Sora, or else, he really won't come back. Please?"

"Steph..." Luna looked at the girl for what seemed like the longest time. It was only natural that she would think this, after all she had probably spent so much time hoping for her father to come back to her and Colette. Maybe in some way, Stephanie had even blamed herself. Maybe she had thought that she simply hadn't believed enough. It was then that Luna once again remembered. This girl was her new younger sister. They had both lost people they had loved and to not show hope now would be unbecoming of a role model sister. With this in mind, Luna gave her a wry smile.

"You're right, you too, Donald. Sora's probably the strongest person I've ever met. After seeing all the miracles he can pull, it would be silly not to put our hopes in him this time. We should worry about ourselves instead right now, Goofy."

Goofy nodded with a warm grin. "So then what do _we _do then?"

"Isn't it obvious? Get some sleep. That's pretty much all we can do," Donald answered.

"Aw, you're boring, Donald. I was hoping we could sing some songs around a campfire- ooh, or maybe even tell ghost stories. Would you like that, Stephanie?" Luna asked giddily.

"Yeah! Yeah! Stop being boring, Donald!" Stephanie repeated exuberantly.

Luna heard Donald mumble something like "make me look like the villain will ya" under his breath before sitting down next to Goofy and putting his hands on his face in boredom. Commemorating the small victory over the duck, Luna cheerfully skipped over to Goofy and Donald and plopped herself down next to them with Stephanie following in tow.

The next hour or so was spent with the group telling scary stories and quipping jokes until they were ready to sleep. Surprisingly, it was Goofy who told the scariest and most convincing story, so much so that Stephanie had asked to cuddle with Luna for night in hopes of forgetting the whole thing. Luna was fine with that. She was more than willing because she had also been creeped out by the story, though she tried to put on a brave face to indicate otherwise.

_As usual, her sleep was not without its troubles. This time she was in a dark room. There were no other objects available in this room except for the two figures standing in front of her, but then they were hardly figures. They were her parents—Luna could recognize them from behind easily what with her mother's familiar platinum blonde ponytail and her father's chestnut brown (identical to her own) and slightly messy hair. _

_She had seen this scene multiple times outside of this dream. When she was young she would sneak up behind her parents like a predator and pounce on their backs, probably to their annoyance, she could admit in hindsight. Even so, they never showed that they were annoyed. They would always greet her with a smile on their faces or spend time playing with her. It was what she expected now. _

_She approached them from behind and tugged at their sleeves, beaming at them as she did so. Instead of the welcomed smiles she was expecting to be returned, what she was met with was the swatting of her hands away from their own like she were some housefly. She backed away in both fear and confusion as her parents turned to her. Their faces were pale and scarred, their pupils dilated. _

_Her mother's hands reached out slowly and even though Luna could easily guess where they were going, she stayed in place nonetheless. _

"_Why? Why did you kill us, Luna?" her mother asked as her hands grasped firmly around Luna's neck. _

"_I… I'm sorry!" Luna wheezed out. She felt as if her windpipe was being crushed._

"_Because of you, all our hopes, our dreams… they all died because of you," her father continued the onslaught._

"_I'm sorry…" Luna repeated, water forming in her eyes._

"_If you had just listened to us in the first place, none of this would have ever happened. Even worse, you sent an entire world to the flames. What about everyone else who has died because of you?" her mother asked, lifting her daughter into the air. Luna's feet dangled and kicked for escape, but deep down she knew her parents were right, and resistance was slowly crumbling._

"_You're right. I'm sorry!" _

"_It's too late for apologies. What you've done to us can never be undone." Her mother's hands wrapped more tightly around Luna's neck and the latter felt as if she was soon to pass out. Her eyes flickered in and out of focus and when she looked back, it was no longer her mother grasping her. In fact, both her parents had disappeared._

"_And they were such nice people too. Maybe you really don't belong with them then. I guess I'll have you live just a little bit longer then," Abraxas said with a grin._

Luna awoke with a start, just in time to hear voices coming from outside. They echoed their way throughout the hollow cave allowing Luna to pick up on what they were saying.

"This cave looks pretty spacey. It might be a good place for the two of you to get some shut-eye," a woman's voice rang out from the dark.

"What do you mean the two of us? You mean you're not sleeping?" a second female voice asked. This one seemed younger like a teenager.

"I have to find your father and give him a good lecturing while I'm at it. Don't worry, we should be back before dawn."

"Aw, why can't you let us come with you?" asked an annoyed voice belonging to a boy.

"Because, Dash, this island is dangerous. Whoever these men are, they will not hesitate to kill you if they get the chance. They're not like those cartoons you watch on Saturday morning where the bad guys slip up and let the hero go. That doesn't mean you'll be completely safe here but it's better than what you'll probably experience with me. Plus, you kids will kind of be in my way."

"What every child wants to hear from their mother, thanks…" the female teen commented sarcastically.

From their conversation they certainly didn't seem hostile, in fact they seemed like they were in a similar situation to Luna and her friends. Either way, Luna summoned Dream Seeker, illuminated the room slightly and slowly moved around the cave to wake the others. She held her finger to her mouth to silence them, the echoing footsteps approaching telling them all they needed to know as to why Luna had woken them up.

They waited with bated breaths, and it did not take long before the three voices took form as human figures in the light. Their eyes met, with everyone unsure of what to say or do—everyone except for Luna that is.

"You're looking for someone on the island, right? I'm sorry, I couldn't help but overhear you from in here. My name's Luna, she's Stephanie, Donald and Goofy," she introduced each of her friends. At the warm welcome, the family's expressions softened.

"Elastigirl, nice to meet you. These are my children, Dash and Violet. So you're not from around here either then I take it?"

"We're pretty much in the same position, I think. We were separated from my friend and maybe there's a possibility that he came across your husband? Then again, this island seems pretty big," Luna said.

"There was one place I noticed on our way down here. I think it might be a good idea to start there. Don't worry, I'll find your friend for you," Elastigirl promised.

"Wait, I want to go too. Don't worry about me, I can fight with this." Holding up the Keyblade in front of her, Luna couldn't help but chuckled as Elastigirl marvelled and oohed at the weapon.

After half a minute of examination, Elastigirl's conclusion was: "It's a key?"

"Not just any key. A _giant _key," Luna denoted rhythmically. "And it doesn't just unlock and lock doors. Have you encountered any creatures in black or with strange symbols on their chests?"

Elastigirl exchanged looks with both Dash and Violet before replying. "Yeah… now that you mention it, there was something… really strange that attacked our plane as it was coming down to land. I had to make a parachute to save me and the kids in time before the plane blew up."

"You had to make a parachute? You mean you didn't have one?" Donald asked.

"It's complicated. Best way to show you is by example." With that, Elastigirl stretched out her arm, and by stretch, the action itself truly took the word to exaggerated and yet literal lengths. Luna's eyes grew big in surprise, watching as Elastigirl formed all sorts of shapes and lengths with her arms. At the end of the day, the sky really did seem the limit for the super, or was it?

"Oh dear… and here I thought you were wearing a mask and calling yourself Elastigirl because you didn't want to let me know who you were… that was AWESOME!" Luna jumped up and down giddily after the display. Elastigirl retracted her arm back to its normal state, looking quite pleased.

"Well, I technically shouldn't be telling you guys but I feel as if I can trust you. Can you keep this a secret?"

"Scout's honor, ma'am!" Luna, Donald and Goofy recited in unison. Elastigirl laughed and began to explain. She told them that her name was Helen Parr and, along with her husband, Bob, they had been living a quiet life with their two kids, or at least as quiet as one could live while trying to hide the fact that they were Supers. She also didn't hesitate in telling them how Bob had lost his job and had lied to her about it, instead choosing to pick up the remnants of his glory days and don the outfit once more. This had led him and consequently Helen and her children to this island where she believed that husband was in grave danger. When Goofy informed her about the strange robot weapon they had encountered, that thought became all too real.

"Then we need to move quickly. Donald, Goofy, do you think you two could take care of Dash and Violet for me?" Helen asked.

"We don't need to be looked after. If anything, it's more like we'll be looking after them," Dash said throwing a snarky look Donald's way.

Before the irritable Donald could blow a fuse, Helen quickly took advantage of the situation. "You know what, Dash? You are absolutely right. That's why I need you and Violet to take care of Luna's friends. I'm placing my full trust in you so don't let me down, okay Dash?"

"Of course I'll protect them." Dash thumped his chest proudly while his sister looked on with a mixture of smugness and contempt for the boy.

"Wait a second, I understand them but why can't we go?" Donald asked.

Luna nudged her head towards Stephanie before whispering to Donald. "We'll be back soon. Just do this for Helen, Donald."

The duck looked to consider this but there wasn't much choice. Even if he had said no, Luna probably would have forced him to stay. Though Donald was reluctant about babysitting children, Goofy was the opposite. Luna could almost see the cogs in his head spinning as if he were deciding which embarrassing stories to tell about his son, Max.

Luna turned to Stephanie and gave her a hug. "We'll be back soon. I promise," Luna soothed in her ear.

"I know you will, sis." The last word in particular pulled at Luna's heartstrings and she had to fight the urge to just stay in the cave and keep her new sister company. "Um, did you sleep well?"

Luna frowned. "Why do you ask?"

"You were whispering in your sleep. You were apologizing to someone and it sounded like you were crying."

So to make matters worse, she had said it out loud and Stephanie, who should have been sleeping, had heard her. Luna shook of surfacing thoughts and put on a warm smile. "I cried? Well if I did I'm the happiest person in the world now to have such a wonderful sister."

"Aw, you're making me blush," Stephanie cooed, placing her hands on her cheeks.

"Hey, that's enough cheekiness out of you!" Luna pressed her index finger playfully against Stephanie's forehead and then stood up, joining Helen who had been admiring the two from afar.

"Listen, if by some chance they do find you, run. Run as fast as you can. I know that won't be too hard for you, Dash, but try not to leave your sister or Stephanie, Donald and Goofy behind. Violet, don't be afraid of who you are. You have a power, and I know I've told you not to use it your whole life but if you show any weakness for a single second… then you've already lost."  
Helen's motivation did little to calm Violet Parr's nerves it seemed, but she nodded anyway, albeit rather shaken by the whole affair. Luna walked up to her and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, I was scared too when I first started. I still am, and I'm not entirely sure why I have this power yet or whether I even deserve it. What I do know is that I have friends to protect just like you have your brother and at that point it becomes instinct. If you're worried that you won't be able to meet expectations when it really counts, then don't be. You _will _be ready."

Violet's quivering lips slowly turned into a gentle smile, and she muttered a weak "thanks" before joining her brother, Donald, Goofy and Stephanie.

Saying their final farewells, Luna and Helen left the cave in search for Sora and Bob.

It was during this time, out in the jungle at night, which allowed Luna to fill in the gaps to the multiple questions she had regarding Supers and the Parr family. She learned about the Supers 'fall' from grace in the public's eyes and how Helen and her husband had been trying to live a life akin to a regular human being ever since.

"I just don't think that it's down to altruism or some plain sense of justice that Bob is involved in this. He just really gets some kind of… rush out of it. He's been deprived of it for a while now so I can kind of understand, I mean, even I miss those days, I won't deny it but… there a certain duties and responsibilities that we have to carry out now, and that means leaving that all in the past. It's when I'm looking forward and Bob is looking back that it just creates an entire rift in the family. We can't be a normal family, who am I kidding?"

After listening to Helen's self-analysis of her family, Luna chuckled. "Well, you've got me there. You guys are in a strange predicament. I think I'm like Bob in that situation. Right now I'm struggling to figure out who exactly I am as well. I want to move on with my life and focus on the present but the past isn't exactly kind to me. I've done terrible things."

"How so? Wait, do I even want to know?" Helen's voice turned into that of a mother about to scold her child for something naughty.

"That depends if you're willing to hear me lecture myself for a good hour or so. I promise it will probably be longer than your own by a wee good margin," Luna said.

Helen seemed to consider this. "Well we're stuck in the middle of a jungle for who knows how long, but when I find I'm short on time I usually skip to my conclusion and work my way backwards from there."

Luna nodded hesitantly. "Right, well… my parents are dead because of me," was what she wanted to say but, as she imagined when she was forming what to say in her head, there was no simple way to tell a person such a thing and still manage to maintain a normal conversation and atmosphere afterwards.

Instead she said, "I'm sorry. It's not something I've come to terms with yet and it's quite a painful memory. You won't think badly of me for not telling you, will you? I mean you've told me everything about you and I haven't-"

"It's okay. We all have our secrets. I'm the one wearing a mask here," Helen pointed out.

"True, though I still feel bad about it," Luna said.

"Well, if you want you can tell me what you're doing out here then. How did you even end up here?"

That, Luna could answer. She explained how they had been chasing after someone which had inevitably led them to the island where they had been separated from Sora soon afterwards. She also told Helen about the Highwind and how they travelled from world to world as a way to make up for not being able to tell her about her past, though she could tell that Helen had a hard time understanding the whole thing.

"So what you're telling me is that there are whole other_ worlds _beside this one, with lots and people and different customs? How do you even keep track of that sort of thing? I can barely keep track of my own life as it is," Helen mused.

"It is disheartening having to make friends only to leave them behind soon after. You' always have to look forward and never back, that's what my master told me. It's why I probably never could be a Keyblade Master. I don't know how Sora does it sometimes," Luna said.

"Then why are you travelling? I mean there's the obvious answer of making new friends…"

"I don't know. I guess I keep going because I'm afraid… afraid of looking back while everyone else is moving forward."

"Aren't we all," Helen replied. It was something that caused Luna to stop in her tracks. _Of course! _How could she be so selfish as to think that she was the only person afraid of moving forward? It must have been some kind of universal truth that a person's greatest fear was being left behind. If that was the case then why did she feel as if her circumstances were so different from anyone else?

"Is there a problem?" Helen stopped after noticing that Luna had been strangely quiet and turned to see her a few metres away.

"No. I've just come to the realization that I'm probably not gonna get any sleep tonight is all. Let's continue," answered Luna, her mind in an otherworldly plane from the one her feet were grounded on.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the cold and hollow cave that Luna and Helen had left, Dash, Violet and Stephanie watched in both amusement and fascination as magic flew and circled around their heads. Waves and sparks of red, yellow and blue erupted from Donald's staff as he reluctantly put on a magic show for the three children. After making the mistake of starting a fire to warm them, there was no way he was getting away with it without consequences. It just so happened that these consequences came in the form of annoying children demanding he waste his energy to please them.

"Can I stop now?" Donald repeated. It had come to down to where Donald had stopped counting how many times he had asked.

"I think you've tortured him enough, Dash. Just go to sleep," said Violet, rolling her eyes at her childish brother. Despite her words, her voice conveyed some sadness now that the magic display had finished.

Dash, who had been giggling and clapping in delight at Donald's tricks, gave a resigned sigh before he stood up and started wandering around the room.

"Dash, sit down before you get _me _into even more trouble with mom," Violet shouted as the boy got farther.

"It's always about you, isn't it? Hey, this cave is pretty spacious. Maybe there's treasure down here, or Tony Rydinger," Dash teased.

"Will you shut up already?" Violet hissed threateningly, her words sharp like venom.

"HEY, TONY! I THINK VIOLET LIKES YOU!" Dash's loud voice travelled down the tunnel, ricocheting off the walls and creating an even louder echo. For Violet, it was obvious torment.

"You are seriously asking for it!" Violet yelled. She moved fast and tackled Dash from behind. Dash kicked and flung his arms left and right as he tried to get out of Violet's grasp, but her forcefield repelled Dash's uncalculated strikes and sent his arms to the ground.

Donald lay down and lazily balanced his hand on the side of his face while watching the two children go at it. Goofy scratched his head and looked at him.

"Shouldn't we do something about them before it gets out of hand, Donald?" he asked.

"Huh? Oh, oh yeah. Now, now, stop fighting," Donald said disinterestedly. He let out a yawn and his eyes wandered downwards, focusing on some pebbles jumping up and down nearby instead. Wait a minute… jumping up and down? Donald cocked his head to the side curiously as he stared at the moving pebbles. They were… vibrating?

It was only when Donald placed his hands and ears on the ground below him that he realized that the cave they had stepped into was not in fact a cave at all. He looked up just in time to see a light from up ahead. With little time to break Dash and Violet away from each other, Donald picked up his staff and pointed upwards. A sphere of water formed and hung above their heads for a second or two before losing its perfect shape and falling onto their heads.

"Get up! We need to leave, now!" Donald yelled at them.

"Huh, why? And what did I do to deserve getting drenched? I mean for Violet's it's not anything she's not used to-"

"If you say ONE more word, I will-"

"If you don't want to be burnt to a crisp I'd advise moving," Donald pointed quickly at the roaring fire that was engulfing the darkness of the tunnel and fast approaching them. Dash and Violet looked behind them, and were already off the ground and running along with Donald, Goofy and Stephanie (however the panicking Dash was outpacing them even when the trio had gotten a headstart).

They reached the exit of the cave and dove to the left just in time as flames roared and gargled out of the cave's mouth. Almost coincidentally, or maybe not so, they looked up to see a burning star being launched into the night sky from a volcano somewhere near the middle of the island.

"That's no star. That's a rocket," Violet said when Donald asked whether it was in fact a shooting star. "So then maybe this whole entire island has a network of underground tunnels. I can't imagine this cave was the only one."

"So what do we do now?" Stephanie asked with an annoyed frown. Now that Donald thought about it, kids shouldn't usually be up this late at night but here were three of them who probably weren't going to get much rest tonight.

"We have no choice but to sleep in the jungle. We'll look for your parents and Sora and Luna tomorrow if they're not back yet since they won't know we moved." The best thing Donald could do right now would be leading them out of danger and somewhere safe, he figured.

Donald had never been a fan of kids, what with his own experience of taking care of his nephews. It had been the primary reason that he had been reluctant to take Stephanie with them and while he was still not thrilled with bringing her along, being outnumbered certainly didn't help either. He just had to approach this in the same way he had been approaching it with Stephanie so far. The only thing that was different now was that he was stuck with three of them instead of one. Well, two he hoped. He assumed Violet could be dependable enough given she stopped fighting with her brother.

The group left the beach and made their way into the jungle in hopes of finding somewhere decent to rest. They were careful to make sure that they chose somewhere close to the beach for obvious reasons and it was decided that Donald and Goofy would take turns keeping watch while the kids slept.

"Well, we've always been asking for a vacation. A little school time off never hurt anybody," said a smiling Violet as they settled down in their camp for the night. She turned to Stephanie. "Have you been travelling with Goofy and the others for a while then? Must beat going to school, huh?"

"They're all going to be so jealous when I go back, hehe. But I wish I didn't have to," answered Stephanie sadly.

"I know the feeling, but you want to see your parents again, right?" Violet asked.

"My dad's gone. My mom told me that he's a star up above looking down on me. If he is, I wonder if he's proud of me for helping him."

"Helping him?" Violet asked.

Stephanie nodded with a hum. "Mom told me that dad wanted to find out what was out there. He helped someone called Ansem with the research. Together they were looking into space travel."

"Oh, I get it. So by travelling with your friends, you're hoping that you'll be able to understand your dad more, right? That's touching. Uh, sorry to hear about your dad though. My parents can be pretty annoying at times but I can't imagine what it would be like without them." Violet lay down on the leaf-covered ground and looked to Stephanie. "I'm sure your dad's proud of you but I'm sure he also wants you to be safe."

"I know," Stephanie answered after mirroring Violet's pose. Her eyes wandered up to the sky where countless stars seemed frozen as if part of a beautiful still life painting. She wondered from which tiny light her dad was looking down on her from.


	38. The Great Escape

**Chapter 38**

**The Great Escape**

If silence was torture, then Sora being alone in the same room with Desiree Elegia Skye was torture in its purest form. There was no telling how long they had been in the room since Mr. Incredible had been escorted out at the request of Syndrome. An hour, a couple hours maybe… either way, Sora was sure that Desiree was eyeing him right now. Sora didn't look her way of course. He wouldn't play her game.

The door suddenly opened with a hiss and both of them watched as Syndrome walked into the room with an incredibly smug smile on his face. He looked like a kid who had just been given the greatest birthday present ever.

"What did you do with Mr. Incredible?" Sora asked.

"Oh don't worry about your friend. I wouldn't kill him, not yet anyway." Syndrome then turned to meet Desiree. He walked over to her and patronizingly lifted up her chin to see her snarl. "I hope you two have had fun while I was gone, you're both Keyblade wielders after all so I'm sure you got along well. You know you look cute when you're angry."

Desiree smiled at him lovingly before spitting in his face. Syndrome backed away looking completely startled and stupid for a few seconds. Sora was honestly surprised that he hadn't expected it to happen.

"A compliment from you is the worst form of flattery. I have nothing to say to you and I do not intend to listen to you either." Desiree adopted her scowl once more but kept her eyes on Syndrome.

"Ooh, aren't you scary? Unfortunately, it looks like you're failing to comprehend the situation you're in. You must think just because you're a Keyblade wielder, you've got some sort of upper hand here."

"Non, monsieur. I'm actually thinking of the many ways in which I may be able to kill you once I am free. I've counted 16,032 so far," Desiree said, playfully shaking her head from side to side.

"Well if you need that many you must be pretty desperate, but I'll leave how that goes to your imagination," Syndrome replied before walking over to Sora. "Let's leave her to imagine how many ways she can try the same thing and fail and let's talk about something you and I have in common, Sora. Let's talk about the Heartless."

"And have you keep lying about how you want to get rid of them? Yeah, I don't think so," Sora said. But not even he could say he wasn't interested in what Syndrome had to say. The chance of it being a lie was high, but there was also the likelihood of truths being hidden in the lie. If there was any type of clue as to what KRONOS wanted, he'd take it. "Why the sudden change of heart anyway? I thought you didn't want to reveal anything else about your group."

"This isn't so much to with KRONOS as it has to do with the Heartless. It's just that I'm bored right now, and I figured that talking to someone who'd understand me would make the time fly by." There was something so condescending about Syndrome's tone. Sora didn't know how to explain it, but it was as if some sense of being threatened had left Syndrome no choice but to go on the offensive to prove, both to Sora and himself, that he was superior.

"Then go ahead, I'm listening."

Upon Sora's approval, Syndrome went on to explain something that Sora had not been expecting. "Do you know what I mean by a collective consciousness, Keyblade Master?"

"No, but I'm pretty sure you're going to tell me anyway."

Syndrome laughed. "Exactly right. It's a set of shared beliefs or ideas which are formed among a single unit of species. Take us humans for example. At our most fundamental, our basic instincts fall into this collective consciousness. We naturally want to fit in and be with a group, whether it be family or friends. I can also very much tell you that water is wet and if I drop an object, it will fall to the floor. Why is that?"

"Because that's just plain obvious," answered Sora, apathetic and not yet sure of where this was going.

"Exactly my point! We've been taught these things and they have become a part of our collective consciousness. We don't give a second thought to them because we know them to be true, and yet those who came before us probably were wondering this stuff all the time."

"Those who came before…? What are you talking about?"

However Syndrome ignored Sora's interruption and continued as if he were talking to himself. "It's like a river. We're all connected to it, and so it only makes sense that we'd have these same instincts and beliefs, but that river isn't contained. You do have many different branches and paths, those are the things that make us individuals and unique. So even if we may start from the same origin point, we quickly leave the main river for fear of losing our individuality. And what if there were no branches, you ask, but just a straight line from beginning to end? Well I'm sure Xehanort would have had an answer to that."

"How do you know so much? About Xehanort… and not just him, me and my friends as well? I swear if you people do anything to hurt them, I will not rest until every single one of you are-"

Syndrome pouted mockingly. "Aw, I think I'm about to spring a leak. It doesn't matter how we know these things. But let's get back to our discussion on individuality, shall we? So we know this applies to humans. The more obvious and stronger example though is bees and their gathering of nectar, or even ants working together to gather food and build a colony. This, we call a hive mind but it and collective consciousness are pretty interchangeable anyway. Now, question. Taking what I've said and applying it to the Heartless, what does this mean for them?"

It took a few seconds for Syndrome to hear Sora's response, not because he was slow at piecing it together, but because there was a pretty big question on his mind. "You're saying the Heartless have a hive mind. That they communicate and work with each other and have some sort of shared principles. You know, you're starting to remind me of a girl who was in my class. She was crazy obsessed with ants, even to the point of collecting them."

"I wouldn't go as far as to say I'm obsessed, but when you think about it, it is kind of beautiful. It's something that applies to all Heartless, like they're linked together by some invisible force we can't see. You've heard of telepathy, yes? Well this is that on a universal scale."

"And?"

Syndrome blinked in confusion at Sora's question. "And?"

"And so what? Is that supposed to change something for me? The Heartless are my enemy. They always have been and always will. What difference does knowing about some collective mind make?"

"Wow, you really are naïve and foolish, just as Abraxas said-"

"Abraxas?"

Sora and Desiree looked at each other having realized that they had repeated the name in synchronicity.

Syndrome pointed and laughed at this. "Hahaha, see? Now that's what I mean by a collective consciousness. Two minds on the same wavelength, that's just brilliant how you were probably thinking the same thing at the exact same time. Also seems like I've finally gauged your interest," Syndrome grinned victoriously at Desiree before turning his attention back to Sora. "You know, he told me that you fail to see the bigger picture and that is why you would lose in the end. That is why he felt that it was his mission to guide you down the right path. He referred to it as his will."

"Abraxas' will…" The words seemed strange to Sora. They lingered like smoke that refused to leave the room. His will… it didn't quite fit right with Sora. It was as if… no, surely it couldn't be…

"What a great guy, huh? Of course he never really liked showing his face off around us. I wonder why. Anyway, allow me to spark your imagination then. If an individual is unique because of the branches that verge out in a river, then what would adding branches do for the Heartless?"

"Huh?"

Syndrome laughed yet again. He seemed to be enjoying this quite a lot. "It's an interesting question, isn't it? Hypothetically, would the Heartless still be Heartless if they became unique? Would a ship still be the same ship if you replaced all its parts? When not even the 'heroes' have time to think about those questions, that is why _we _exist, so you don't slack off and forget them."

"Aw, so you're my personal diary then? I appreciate the kindness but I don't think I need your help," Sora replied sarcastically.

"Who was asking? Besides, the only thing I hate more than supers are you Keyblade wielders. So self-righteous… you think you're both above the rules of this world while we inferiors suffer because of your actions. You say you serve and protect people but is that really the truth?"

It was Desiree that spoke before Sora could, voicing his exact thoughts once again. "What do you mean?"

"Well, despite that you claim yourselves to make the lives of people better, the only reason they need to rely on you in the first place is because you keep them oppressed. In reality, if you Keyblade wielders didn't exist then there would be no glass ceiling. The sky would cease to be the limit. People would be able to fly. But of course, you wouldn't want that now, would you?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Desiree said. Before Syndrome could reply, the sound of an alarm blurted out and rang inside the entire base drowning out his subsequent sighs.

The door opened again and one of the guards came in. "Sir, intruders on the island spotted. They appear to be more Supers."

"A whole bundle of them? They just keep on rolling in, don't they? Aren't I lucky?" Syndrome backed away from Sora and addressed both of his captives with outspread arms. "Well, I'm afraid we're going to have to cut this little chat short. I pretty much said all that needed to be said anyway. I'll just let you two have some alone time, shall I?"

With that said, Syndrome left the room and the door to possible escape closed, leaving Sora alone with the person responsible for poisoning him once more. At least this time, the sound of a blaring alarm was enough to eliminate whatever tense atmosphere the silence had brought.

"Why?" Sora asked despite the continuous noise. The downside to the alarm was that he now knew what he wanted to say to break the silence. "Why are you after me? I understand the prophecy, I do but even so… it can't be true. I would never do that… do I look like the type of person who would destroy the World?"

"It does not matter whether you look the part or not. I have seen people you would not believe were capable of inflicting the damage that they did during my time in Moira's Crescent. It is not a good feeling to put your full trust in someone only to have them betray you in the end."

"You're talking about Abraxas?"

Desiree did not respond. She didn't have the chance to. The door opened once again. Sora expecting Syndrome to return almost gave him a heart attack when his and Luna's eyes connected.

"I think there's something memorable about this moment. The gallant hero in trouble while the beautiful and clever heroine must rescue him from the claws of evil. Yep, I'll definitely remember this moment," she said as she was walking over to a control panel that was in the room.

"You need to stop reading so much of your subversive feminist literature, Luna. You are way too happy about this," Sora replied with a grin.

"You're pushing it, hero!" Luna smashed her hand down on the big red button and Sora felt the metal clasps gripping at his wrists open up, sending him to the ground.

"How did you even get here? Was that alarm you just now?" Sora asked after Luna had helped him up.

"Sora, please, if it were me I wouldn't be here right now. It might have been Donald and the others on the island in which case we need to hurry." Luna followed Sora's gaze to see that he was instead looking at Desiree who was making her way out of the room.

"Hey, what will you do now? I'm not done with you, y'know!" Sora called out to her before she could leave the room.

Desiree stopped in her tracks but kept her eyes in front. "Do not mistake my letting you go for kindness, Keyblade Master. You are just the lesser of my priorities at the moment."

After watching her run off, Sora shook his head. "She just won't let it go. 16,032, huh?"

* * *

A projectile of fire from Donald's staff shot one of the velocipods that had been after them off course, sending it spiralling into a nearby tree. The explosion threw Donald off his feet, but he got back up quickly. He had no choice but to get up when there were countless more of these manned disk-shaped vehicles were coming after them.

"What's goin' on?!" Goofy yelped as one of the vehicles flew right towards him. His only option was to duck and cover his head since his shield had been rendered practically useless by the robot that had attacked them yesterday.

Dash winced and let out an awkward chuckle. "Um, well I may or may not have found a talking parrot while I was looking around that alerted the entire island."

"Or in other words you totally did," Violet translated. She surveyed her surroundings quickly before resting her eyes on Stephanie. "How about we split up? I think that will help take some of the heat off us. I'll take Stephanie. Dash, run!"

"Wait a minute. Where are you going to take Steph-" But when Donald turned to address Violet, both her and Stephanie had completely disappeared. The duck had barely any time to register what had just taken place when shots rang out from behind, hitting the ground and missing him and Goofy by just a few inches. Donald pivoted on his left webbed foot and parted his arms to erect a square shield. More shots rang out and smacked against the shield, ricocheting off in the process. The majority of velocipods managed to avoid the counter-fire except for one who had been going too fast to see the oncoming bullets.

"Dash, we need to mo- he's gone too, isn't he?" Donald looked over to where Dash had been to see that he too had disappeared. "Right. Just leave us behind. Yep, that's great."

Some ways ahead, a grinning Stephanie was being carried by Violet as they made their way through the dense jungle shrubbery with no destination in particular. The only thing on Violet's mind at the moment was getting the both of them as far away as possible from the aerial vehicles that were after them.

"Once we've lost them, we'll need to circle back and meet up with the others. I hope they're alright."

"Don't worry. Goofy told me he's been hit plenty of times and he's still okay and Uncle Donald, he might just annoy them and leave them running away in tears," was Stephanie's giddy response.

"The duck is your uncle?" Violet asked.

"Yep, yep. The uncle is my duck. Oops, I tongue-tied my tongue." Stephanie playfully let her tongue hang out her mouth to cover up her mistake.

"Oh, now you're just mocking me." Violet was about to chuckle when a group of Shadows popped up from the ground and surrounded them.

"Can they see us?" Stephanie asked shifting around uncomfortably in her arms. Indeed, it seemed that despite the fact that they were invisible, the Heartless were able to sense them. Their antennae twitched erratically, swinging from side to side before finding its mark, their invisible prey. Violet was almost sure now that they knew. She lifted up a foot to start walking. All the Heartless leapt forward at once. It was as if time was moving in stop motion. One moment they were panicking and fearing for their lives with Violet throwing up a barely sustainable forcefield around them, the next moment, Dash had swept in out of nowhere and began running around in circles. The result was the creation of a tornado that attracted all the Shadows into the windy vortex. The forcefield produced, although weak, was enough to keep Violet and Stephanie on the ground.

The dust and wind formed by the tornado soon cleared to leave a dizzy Dash spinning around in circles. An obstinately over-joyous Stephanie was set down by Violet who ran over to check whether her brother was okay.

"Oho, that was too awesome!" Dash yelled with Stephanie repeating his words right after.

"I'm just glad you're all right, Dash," Violet said ruffling Dash's hair.

"Hey, stop with that, okay? It's not like I was trying to save you or anything. Just Stephanie, yep, just her," Dash said swiping her hand away.

Unexpectedly, it was Stephanie who called him out on his lie while managing to keep a straight face. "You're a bad liar."

* * *

Sora used his warp ability to pass through the trees, although he technically wasn't passing through trees, he preferred to think he was at the speed he was going. It was also beneficial in that he didn't have to stop and lose momentum. The Heartless were appearing in droves but he cut through them quickly and almost without looking.

Luna spotted a guard or two coming for them out of the corner of her eye. She stopped abruptly and looked to Mr. Incredible, who was chasing along behind them along with Helen.

"I have an idea. Throw me!" Luna yelled. She had gotten a taste of Bob's power when she and Sora had watched him bust down one of the metal doors in the base as if it had been cheap cardboard. Adhering to her wishes, Bob watched as Luna kicked off of a tree and flew towards him before grabbing her wrist and throwing her towards the enemy. She was positioned in exactly the right place to strike both of the velocipods and destroy them.

After kicking away and taking out a few Heartless, she managed to join up with the others. It did not take long before they came across Donald and Goofy who were being swamped by more velocipods.

"Where's Dash and Violet?" Helen asked as she stretched out an extended leg to kick one of the vehicles into another.

"They ran off. Violet took Stephanie along with her. I think Violet turned invisible or something. I'm still not sure how to process that," Donald answered.

"Looks like she took your advice to heart then," Bob whispered to Helen.

"That's my girl," Helen declared proudly. She quickly changed shape to avoid a Velociraptor who found itself on receiving end of a belly smash from her husband. "Now we just need a way to find them, and a way out of this mess."

"There's too many of them!" As soon as Donald yelled this, hope came in an unexpected surprise. Heartless in the form of Powerwilds and Bouncywilds popped into existence and began jumping and scratching wildly at the guards inside the vehicles.

"Haven't seen those guys in a while. I'm not quite sure whether to feel happy or not about this," Goofy said.

"It's nostalgia. We'll let them have their moment while it lasts. Let's just hurry and find Steph and the others," Sora said. They quickly rushed past the frightened cries of the guards and headed deeper into the jungle.

The others had not gone very far, Sora and the others soon found out, probably because it would have been near impossible to regroup if they had travelled farther. The two parents greeted their children with hugs and a smile, but they didn't have long to chat either. Two blue beams of light hit the group and froze them all completely. After a test, Sora found that the only things he could move were his eyes.

"Well lookey here, we got a family of supers, two Keyblade wielders, a duck, a dog… thing, a bit unconventional but okay… oh, and a little girl!" Syndrome made his way over and stroked Stephanie's chin. "You even brought a little girl with you? Wow! I mean, I knew you Keyblade wielders liked to put others in danger but I didn't think you were that crazy. Speaking of which, I'm disappointed the other one's not here. I guess she was too busy thinking of ways to kill me to join you guys. No matter, I'm sure she's on this island somewhere. It's just a matter of tracking her down."

If Sora could move, his fists would have curled up into a ball and he would have already been aiming it at Syndrome just for being anywhere close to Stephanie.

"As for you guys," Syndrome continued with a wider smile. He took away his hand from Stephanie and looked behind him at the group of guards that had come with him. "Escort them back to the prison cell. There they'll witness the end of an era, and the beginning of a much brighter one."

* * *

"Sora, I've been thinking… about how Syndrome was able to build all this stuff I mean, and not just that, but hiring all the guards, building that robot… maybe he amassed all those funds through the taxes that Prince John gave to our mystery individual," Luna deduced as they dangled in the air bound by the same magnetic force that had held Sora, Bob and Desiree captive earlier. "That guy and Syndrome are both from KRONOS, right? So it makes sense when you think about it."

"Yeah, I didn't think about that. But what does this all have to do with their goal? That's what I can't figure out, can you?" Sora asked. During the time Luna had come to her conclusion, he had been admiring the humor of escaping a jail cell just to end up back in one anyway. Of course instead of just him, it was all of them. And the worst part was he knew Syndrome was right. He had put Stephanie in danger by bringing her here and if anything were to happen to her, he knew her mother would never forgive him. Heck, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself.

"No, but I don't we need to think that far ahead either. We just need to take this one step at a time and piece this all together once we have enough to go on, right?"

"Yeah. Right now we have to put a stop to Syndrome's plans. He's about to attack the city with that Omnidroid, and we're stuck here with no way out!"

"I wouldn't quite say that!"

Sora looked up from his wallowing in despair to see Violet in front of the console panel. He blinked repeatedly, completely baffled by how she had managed to get out of her confines. Well, no, the gadget which Sora assumed was connected to the electromagnets that kept them bound was still on her hands. He let the thoughts and confusion wither away however when she pressed the red button, freeing his hands for the second time that day.

Without further delay, the group made their way over to the launch hangar where both Luna and Helen had claimed to see a rocket as they were infiltrating to rescue Sora and Bob so it was naturally the safest bet. When they arrived however, a small problem presented itself.

"Let's see. We've got a caravan, a few jets…" Helen observed the vehicles available in the room.

"Jets aren't fast enough to get us there in time," Bob interjected.

"Hey, then maybe we can use this rocket to get there fast enough!" Dash pointed to the towering structure on one side of the hangar.

"Great. Anyone know how to fly a rocket then? Because I certainly don't," Helen stated.

"I've piloted a rocket before, but not this kind. It looks completely different to what we're used to," Donald chipped in.

"Well you shouldn't necessarily need to be able to pilot it to use it. Theoretically, you could just enter in the previous launch data if you have the password."

At this astute level of wisdom, everyone turned their heads to look at Violet in surprise. She smiled back quickly before averting her eyes elsewhere in embarrassment.

"KRONOS, then?" Sora asked in reference to the password.

"Yeah, but I can't imagine that Syndrome wouldn't have changed it. He must have had some intuition that we'd go after him if we managed to break out somehow. If only there was a way to know…"

"Say please!"

The speakers in the room came to life upon hearing a woman's voice. Sora and the others searched around the room until their eyes finally settled on a room on the upper floor shielded by glass. Sora had seen her before in the room he had first met Mr. Incredible. It wasn't until after he and Luna had met up that Bob and Helen had filled them in on everything that had been going on, including the woman's name.

Mirage. It was a name Sora would not be forgetting anytime soon.

* * *

_A pretty short chapter but still rather action packed and full of information for you to digest. It obviously won't tide you over for the two weeks that I'm away and I do wish that I could work on it more while I'm gone but I'm not going to be able to. I just want to say thank you to everyone who has supported me whether it was by leaving a lovely or constructive review, following and favoriting or simply just reading. You don't know how much it means to me and there aren't enough words that can possibly describe that feeling. With that said, I'll see you all in just over two weeks hopefully._


	39. Battle in the Metropolis

_B-B-B-Back from my little vacation and completely rejuvenated. I actually couldn't wait to start writing again so during downtime that I had I began writing for at least two more chapters of this story. This is one of them and you won't have to wait long to read the other either. Both of them are pretty action packed as well so enjoy!_

* * *

**Chapter 39**

**Battle in the Metropolis**

It was another one of those strange bust wonderful times. They had gone completely from being stupefied at how they would escape the island to now travelling through the air in a caravan strapped to a rocket they were using to get to the city faster.

Uh huh, try thinking that again with a straight face, Luna.

It was creative and witty and utterly amazing and-

"Luna, earth to Luna, you still there?"

Luna drew her eyes away from the fluffy white cottons that were floating just below her. It was Donald who had interrupted her thoughts.

"We're almost there! Get ready," he announced. Their journey had only taken an hour in all. She was surprised it had been that quick. Indeed, judging by the uncomfortable feeling in her stomach, they were descending slowly but surely and the rocket was beginning to slow down in speed.

They were most likely going to fight that robot again, the Omnidroid, Sora had called it. They had barely any time to devise a strategy to beat it. Luna hoped then, that having more assistance this time in the form of a family of supers would be enough to take it on effortlessly. It was only Goofy that couldn't help them. Noticing that he had been unusually absent and depressed during their trip for this very reason, Luna had sat with him to provide comfort.

"Y'know, that shield was special," the sulking Goofy begun as Luna patted his back gently. "The king gave it to me as a present for serving under him for so long, or at least that was the official reason he had to give at the ceremony. When were alone he said the real reason was because we were the best of pals. It really warmed my heart when he said that, and I've tried to keep it well maintained ever since. I feel like I've let him."

Luna shook her head vigorously, wanting to offer her own opinion quickly. "You haven't, Goofy. You haven't let him down. That bond that you guys share is stronger than any material thing that you can be given, I think. Mickey probably thought the same thing as well which is why he called you his best friend. I don't think any object, broken or not, can replace that."

Goofy slowly looked up, his eyes watery in a way that Luna had never seen before. They weren't the tears of joy she was used to from him, that was for sure.

"You're right. Thanks Luna, you're a real pal, y'know that? But even then, I know the shield couldn't replace our friendship but… Max…"

Luna's mouth formed a perfect "o" upon realizing what Goofy had meant. "I see. You wanted to pass on your shield to Max."  
"I was thinking that after I finished this journey with you and Sora, I might resign as captain of the knights and ask if Max could take my place. All I know is that I'm getting a bit too old for this," he explained with a chuckle.

"Oh, don't be like that. I'd say you're still pretty spry," Luna commented tilting her head coquettishly.

"If I was then I wouldn't be getting hit on the noggin by heavy objects all the time." Goofy chuckled at this before continuing, "But even I don't know how long I'll be able to get away with that. If Max is up to it after he gets back with Riku and Kairi, then I'll ask the King. If not, then I guess I'll have to remain as captain until I find a suitable candidate."

"Out of interest, what would you do after retiring then?" Luna asked. Goofy wiped the still tears from his face and rubbed his chin while pondering this. The answer seemed to soon come to him like a lightbulb had switched on in his head. Luna thought that she could see it too.

"Hmm, you know I've always wanted to be a fisherman. Max and me used to go out to sea when he was young, not that we caught a lot of fish but it was a fun experience anyway."

"That's great, Goofy! My dad was a fisherman. I remember all the times that I've went fishing with him. It's really fun, or at least the parts where I didn't fall into the water were anyway."

Goofy snapped his fingers at this. "Then maybe we should go fishing together sometime. Ahyuck, yep! You, me, Sora and Max, we should definitely go after this is all done!"

Luna couldn't help but let out a big grin at this suggestion. Goofy certainly seemed a lot more like his usual self now. Chirpy and absolutely overwhelming with positive energy, he was the prime motivational influence within the group. It simply wouldn't do to have him be the opposite of that.

"I'd love to Goofy, but that's all a while from now, right?" she asked somewhat hopefully.

"Of course! No need to worry. I'm gonna make sure that I protect the both of you from whoever these Moira's Crescent and KRONOS folks are. That'll be my final mission, or it would be if I had my shield." Goofy let out a huge sigh and looked down again in sadness.

_Uh oh, think of something quick Luna_.

"Well you're still helping by just being here, Goofy. If you could keep Stephanie safe for us, that'd be enough, because sometimes we may not be there for her."

So it had been decided that Goofy and Stephanie would stay in the caravan while the others fought. The words had felt like something Luna had to say and yet something she didn't want to admit. The fact that, try as she might, she couldn't always be there for her new little sister was a painful admittance. She only had two eyes in front, and the only thing she could do was be there for her when she wasn't fighting, but what about when she was?

A heavy thud threw her off her footing only to be caught by Sora who must have been expecting it. After thanking him, she peered through the window to see that they had hit a freeway, with Helen driving them hastily through the heavy traffic.

"This is going to take forever at this rate, we'll never make it!" Bob burrowed his face into his hands in annoyance.

"Don't give up now. We'll just take a detour then," Helen replied.

"A detour? What do you me-AAAH!" Sora was lifted off his feet and was thrown into one of the side windows as Helen drove the car off the freeway and onto a similar looking one below it.

"I see it!" Donald pointed at the window next to him. Luna quickly made her way over to him before Helen could do something else crazy. She heard sirens and multiple shots ringing out, hitting against metal. The shots were ineffective. The Omnidroid didn't even seem so much as budge in response. It lifted on of its robotic arms up, clearly poised to attack and-

Her view was obstructed as the vehicle entered a tunnel.

"This tunnel should take us directly to the robot. Hold on everyone, I'm breaking a few rules of the road here."

Sora managed to pull his face away from the window he had come in contact with and frowned at Helen. "I only wish you had told us that before."

The artificial lights that illuminated the long tunnel eventually gave way to natural light and buildings as tall as the ones in Alexander, but more modern and consistent in design.

"And to think that just an hour ago we were somewhere completely different… the world sure can be a scary thing, huh, Stephanie?" Luna looked to the eight year old who was sitting on Violet's lap and was being held tight by her.

"Haha, it is crazy. Isn't it?" Stephanie nodded in agreement.

The caravan soon came to a stop and all of its members save Stephanie and Goofy quickly got out only to watch as Syndrome 'battled' against the Omnidroid. He flew around the Omnidroid like an annoying fly on what appeared to be some kind of jet boots that allowed him to stay up in the air. At the end of the day however, it was just theatrics.

Luna watched with nothing but disgust in her eyes as Syndrome pretended to put up a fight against the robot when in reality he was only dismantling its parts through a remote that was attached to his wrist. She guessed it really was true that you tended to notice more imperfections about a person you disliked. That was probably how she had noticed the remote in the first place.

He had managed to gather a considerable crowd as well, who watched in amazement as Syndrome felled one arm after another. Before he could finish this, something that he hadn't predicted and Luna and the others easily could have, had happened. As Syndrome was working on the taking off the third leg, the robot seemed to become self-aware of the situation.

It refused to let itself be taken apart anymore.

Another tentacle was raised from behind Syndrome which moved forward swiftly and slammed into his back. Syndrome flew up, but the Omnidroid was quicker. It grabbed Syndrome by the leg and lifted him up into the air, grabbed the remote device from his wrist and threw it away. Finally its claws squeezed at one of Syndrome's jet boots and crushed them before flinging him away.

Syndrome spiralled off with the remaining jet boot into the lake and landed in the water with a small splash. Luna stifled a small laugh. She had the feeling she wasn't the only one.

"Time to spring into action, we're the only ones who can do this. We can't allow that thing to escape," Helen said. She was about to move when Bob grabbed onto her arm. This the short-sided effect of not actually stopping her but extending her elastic arm instead.

"Wait a second. You all need to stay in the caravan. I can handle this," he said though not directly looking at her.

Luna frowned. "I'm sorry, I thought we were doing this together."

"Yes, Bob. Was all that about never lying again just some attempt to woo me on to your good side again?" Helen asked in an annoyed tone.

"No, it's not like that. I just-"

"Sometimes I just don't understand what's going on in your head and it's not like you'll let me in-"

"I'm telling you now, it's just that-"

"And I worry about you constantly but you always seem to push me away and-"

"I CAN'T LOSE YOU AGAIN!"

Silence followed after Bob had yelled these words, other than the rampaging robot that was ahead of them of course. For the few seconds it was worth though, that robot didn't really seem to matter. It was just muffled background noise. Luna and the others with her were merely observers to Helen and Bob's pain—the pain of losing each other.

"Not again," he continued more softly. "I'm weak. I almost lost you last time and I'm not sure… if I can protect you this time."

Helen looked up at her husband with a sad smile and allowed her arm to drag her body towards him. When she was within close distance, she put up a loving hand and caressed the side of his face.

"You won't lose me. You'll never be alone, Bob. Besides, we're heroes! What's the worst that could happen, right?"

Luna looked Sora's way and then back again. She could have sworn she had heard Sora mumble the word 'hero' after Helen had finished.

"Hey hey hey, enough with the lovey dovey. Let's go be heroes then!" Dash yelled ecstatically.

"Watch out!" Sora yelled, quickly summoning his Keyblade. The Omnidroid had grabbed a car from a selection parked on next to each other and threw it at them. Sora timed his jump and sliced through the car quickly. Helen ran past the two cleanly cut pieces and used the two street lamps opposite each other as a rubber band. She was propelled forward and landed just a few feet away from Omnidroid. She proceeded to further extend herself from one building to another across the road.

The Omnidroid soon crossed the human wire that Helen had created and tripped over it. Sora, Luna and Donald soon joined in, unloading an impressive display of Ice magic in order to glue its arms to the ground. They followed up with a variation of spells on the main body, all of which refused to put a single dent on it.

Donald scowled at the fact that his magic would be ineffective. "The body is resistant to magic? Aww, more great news to brighten up my day. Just how far did this Syndrome guy plan ahead?"

"Syndrome used the Omnidroids to record the data from previous Supers which each subsequent version then took into account. If the last model recorded your data, it's not too much of a surprise," Bob explained.

"And not just that. He and the rest of KRONOS have a whole heap of information on us so I wouldn't be surprised if he developed them based on our data as well," added Sora.

"But it's not entirely resistant to our magic though. The tentacles apparently aren't so you can focus on that, Donald," Luna pointed out.

"I might be able to take it out, but I need to charge up my _Ars Arcanum_," Sora said though Luna could tell he was already beginning whatever he was talking about because his Keyblade and body were glowing.

"Charge? Sora, what do you mean?" Luna asked. "Actually, forget that. I trust you. We just need to stall for time, right? How long?"

Sora quickly shrugged with a strained face. "No idea actually. This is my first time trying this method. It's something me and Neuge came up with. Outside of training, I have no idea how it will work. I might even mess up."

"Sora, that's not like you." Luna did her best to assure him. "You're not gonna fail. We're going to give you the time you need so hang in there… I can't believe it's me that's giving you the pep talk and not the other way around."

"It's just one of those days, I guess," Sora said somewhat tiredly. Whatever it was that he was doing was weighing on him significantly.

"Yeah, one of those days…" Luna repeated with a nod. For a brief moment, they stared into each other's eyes only to both look away with a slight blush. Luna cleared her throat and looked to the others. "Right, let's do our best while Sora does his- uh, thing."

Everyone nodded and split up in order to limit whatever available options the Omnidroid had. The Omnidroid went into attack Helen only for its claw to be intercepted and deflected by Violet's forcefield. Donald raised his staff and conjured tall icicles from underneath the Omnidroid. This knocked the robot off his balance allowing Bob to knock it flat off its feet with what could be called a truly incredible punch.

As for Luna, she had spotted immediately what her next move was going to be.

"Dash, I need you to get that remote, pronto!" she called to him from afar.

"Don't need to tell me twice!" Dash yelled, already running for the device that Luna had pointed to. She could only hope that it wasn't broken.

"Luna, get out of the way!" Sora yelled to her suddenly. Luna looked back at the Omnidroid and just barely cartwheeled away in time as a red beam of light struck where she had previously been.

The smell of scorching concrete wafted its way into Luna's nostrils, a powerful smell that caused her to step back and trip over a hump in the road. The heat was almost unbearable even from where she was sitting and she could feel the smoke tickle her tongue.

From its sideways position, the Omnidroid's visor grew a bright red once more before firing off another beam of light at Luna, and a second, and a third.

_Get up, Luna. You have two legs for a reason. Move! _

A silly motivation or not, Luna listened to the little voice in her head and forced herself onto her feet quickly before dodging the first beam. There was no time to rest after her first move, and with little room to manoeuvre, she trusted both her instincts and skills from her time in ballet. She bent her knees and arched her body backward. The beam sailed right above her stomach and hit the building behind her. The impact however, since she was close enough, blew her forwards and onto the ground once more.

The final attack was then almost impossible to dodge because Luna wouldn't be able to get out of the way in time. She wanted to believe it was _almost _impossible because if there was anything this journey had taught her, it was that nothing was impossible. Of course that usually applied to things within her control and this was not really one of those times… but there was always hope.

This "hope" came in the form of a small but incredibly fast delivery from certain death.

Dash had taken hold of her hand and had dragged her away before she could even process what had happened. She felt light, both in body and mind. Objects and buildings flashed by in a blur and by the time everything became still and normal, Luna still had no idea what was going on.

"Wow, that was… wow… oh dear, I don't know what even happened there but thanks, Dash," Luna complimented. She was still just getting over seeing her life flash before her eyes.

"That's what happens when you try to show off," replied Dash smugly.

"And you weren't?" Luna shot back. Dash grinned and opened the opposite hand of the one he had taken hold of her with. In his hand was the device Syndrome had dropped, there was no mistake about it.

"A two-for-one special. Nice going, bud." Luna accepted the remote into her hands and turned her attention to the Omnidroid. The robot had already gotten up but Bob, Helen, Violet and Donald were doing their best to contain the threat. Now all she had to do was make sure she didn't mess up.

But she had absolutely no idea how to use the device. In front of her was a remote that had several buttons, none of which she knew was responsible for what.

"Where's the manual when you need one?" Luna muttered to herself as she struggled between which button to press. Well in any case, she supposed that in this kind of situation there really was only one thing she could do.

Before she could attempt to press all of the buttons at once, the Omnidroid had spotted the remote in her possession and retracted its arms, smoothly transforming into a giant sphere. Luna took off into a run as the ball came rolling down the street after her. It was very easily like something out of a wacky cartoon she used to watch on Saturday mornings.

If there was anything else that linked her situation to a cartoon, it was her losing her footing and tripping. Her hand had lost its grip in that moment and the device flew out of her hands into the middle of the road. With little else aside from a lake next to her, Luna held her breath and rolled into the water before the Omnidroid could flatten her.

Like Syndrome, she fell in with a simple splash but her mind was anything but simple at the moment. She could feel herself being dragged deeper and deeper into the lake's depths. When she looked below her, she saw them. The ghostly and pale, yet clear features of her parents. Their hands were gripped firmly around Luna's like prison cuffs and she was being dragged down by them.

Upon seeing them, Luna was immediately taken by fear. She had completely forgotten to hold her breath and by the time she realized that her parents weren't really there and it was only her that was gripping her hands tightly, she grasped at her neck and fought desperately to get back to the surface in order to regain air.

She was failing. She was once again feeling lightheaded and her arms and legs were getting tired. She was about to give up, but she had forgotten her own thoughts of how nothing was impossible. A hand grabbed onto hers and was pulling her up and out. The incident was nostalgic, reminiscent of when she had almost drowned in Radiant Garden, and the time when her dad had saved her during their fishing trip one time. But it was Sora, just like before, who had pulled her out once again and lay her on the ground.

"You have a knack for falling into water, huh?" Sora joked as Luna coughed and hacked up water she had been swallowing. Beside him was a brightly blue glowing Kingdom Key.

"And I'm starting to think you have sixth sense for knowing when I'm in danger," Luna stuttered jokingly, slightly shivering from the cold. She tried to sound humorous but deep down she was afraid. It had happened again. There was something wrong with her, she knew it. Why was this happening? No, the answer was pretty obvious when she thought about it. Instead she should have been asking, why her?

"Ah, it's nothing. You would have done the same thing, I'm sure." Sora ran his hands through his wet now slightly less spiky hair.

"So what exactly are you planning? Did you finish it or did my little swimming trip interrupt things?" Luna asked. Her clothes clung to her frame all wet and cold. She feared that if she stayed in them longer, she might catch a cold.

"Don't worry. I-I have ev-everythi… under c-contro…" Sora let out a loud yawn and fell forward.

"Sora!" Luna cried out and quickly bent down to check on him. He was struggling to keep his eyes open. But what had even happened? One moment, Sora had dived into cold water just to save her, the next he was nearly out cold.

An audible ringing sound next to her ear shifted her gaze to the Keyblade that remained unattended to. Her hand invited its way around the handle and a familiar warmth wrapped its way around her arms.

"This… this is Sora's warmth… and someone else's? Why does it feel so familiar?" Luna looked away from the Kingdom Key in time to see Dash flip forward and fall onto his back, his speed unable to outrun the missiles that the Omnidroid was equipped with. She looked back at the Keyblade. She felt it spreading though her entire body. With this power, with Sora's strength, and her own, she could do this. She had to do this. She was the only one who could.

Luna brazenly ignored her cold body and made to advance forward when she felt a hand brush against her arm only to slide off it soon after. Luna looked down in surprise to see Sora trying to stand up.

"I'm fine… I can… handle this…" Sora held onto Luna's arms for support as she slowly stood back up and weakly extended his hand forward for the Kingdom Key. "Trust me…"

The entire time, Sora's gaze never left her. He was practically forcing his eyes open to show his conviction, despite the toll that had been taken on his body. She had no right to take that away from him.

She nodded and handed the Keyblade back to him. Suddenly it was as if Sora had become a stronger person and Luna had become weaker once more. The warmth had left her body and she was cold once more.

"That was your mana, wasn't it? You somehow poured it into the Keyblade which is why you were like that," Luna realized. How had he and Neuge even developed such a technique anyway? She had taught Luna different things from Sora as a way of getting them to adapt to their strengths and weaknesses.

"Yeah. It's like how we direct our mana into our hands to use magic, except I'm transferring it into my Keyblade. If I'm not careful and overdo it, it could- well… I feel really great right now!" Sora seemed to be back to his old self, as if he hadn't just dropped right in front of her beforehand.

"So what can I do to help then?" Luna asked.

"You, Donald and the others just need to keep that thing distracted so I can get to it. Don't worry, I'll be quick," Sora said. Luna nodded and brought Dream Seeker back into her hand before running past him.

Sora watched carefully as Luna started casting Blizzard magic along with Donald to freeze the robotic tentacles in place. He winced and began walking. The mana that had been absorbed into his Keyblade had drained his energy completely. His body was not his own. It was as if a ton of bricks had been bestowed on his back for him to carry. His legs were not his own. They shook and knocked against each other violently protesting his use of them. He ignored their cries though. He didn't care, not anymore. What he was focused on now was one thing and one thing only.

_I can't falter. Not now. Have to save my friends…_

As long as he had legs, he would use them. As long as he had arms, he would fight. As long as he had a head on his shoulders, he would stare into the face of death not with a whimper, but with courage and boldness. In his mind it was already decided—he would save his friends or die trying.

He took off into a full speed run, warping to move greater distances. Some of the Omnidroid's claws broke away from the ice they were contained in and worked their way to Sora. Rather than dodging these tentacles, he met them head on, parrying them with the glowing Kingdom Key and knocking them away. Before the Omnidroid could bring its leg down on Sora again, the tentacle in question separated from its body and fell to the ground. Sora stopped in his tracks briefly and turned to see Violet with the remote that Luna had dropped earlier.

"Thanks," he uttered quickly before continuing on. The Omnidroid turned its head toward Violet and fired a laser her way but she projected a small forcefield and repelled the beam before pressing another button, another tentacle detaching from the Omnidroid in response.

The Omnidroid brought its arms into its body and transformed once again into its spherical form. It started its roll to Violet but something got in its way that halted its tracks. Sora had jumped in the way and held the Keyblade by the chain, twirling it around and clashing with the still rolling sphere. Theoretically this shouldn't have stopped the Omnidroid in its tracks but the power of the Keyblade seemed to be more than a match to counter the Omnidroid's speed and weight.

Sparks and smoke littered the street as the two objects clashed. Sora only expressed his surprise that this had actually worked for a few seconds before putting all his strength into push back against the Omnidroid.

_CHING!_

He had done it. He had won. The Keyblade found its mark and slowed down to cut through the Omnidroid's thick armor. Sora put whatever remaining strength he had into completely tearing through the Omnidroid's body. Whatever resistance the armor had made for the Keyblade had soon disappeared when the blade reappeared out of the other side of the body.

The Keyblade disappeared from Sora's hands and he breathed heavily as the Omnidroid went completely limp. Its circuitry was fried and electricity was starting to crackle around its body. Luna quickly ran up to him and dragged him away before the Omnidroid could explode but instead, it simply collapsed and shut down.

"Sora, promise me something? Don't ever use that again. If you overdid it and something bad happened, I don't know what I'd do," she said, pulling him into a needy hug. The dampness of their clothes made things somewhat uncomfortable but they tried their best to ignore it.

"Yeah, I can't believe that happened myself." Sora looked below Luna's shoulders to see pale hands barely resembling his own trembling violently and uncontrollably. That couldn't be a good sign.

Luna pulled away as the Parr family and Donald came to join them.

"That was… pretty impressive," Bob complimented giving Sora a slap on the back. Sora gritted his teeth at the sharpness of the slap. He would be keeping this to himself but the guy really needed to learn how to control his strength.

"I don't think now is the time for celebrating. Look at them, they're drenched," Helen pointed out to Bob before turning back to him. "How about coming to our house then? It's not too far and you can warm up there and have dinner with us. Oh, that and you haven't met the baby of the family yet. Jack Jack is his name. He doesn't really have any superpowers like we do but that doesn't make him any less important. I hope the babysitter isn't having any problems. I laid out the clothes on the bed and his diapers, told her where the food is and-"

"Honey, you're rambling again," Bob said, using the opportunity to summarise. "We'd be honored to have you guys stay for the day."  
"Deal," Luna said quickly. Even if she wasn't a part of the family, she would give anything to sit in a house and eat a family dinner again. It had dawned on her that she had taken so many things with her own family for granted and had never really appreciated them. She wanted to feel that way again, that and she wasn't exactly ready to head back to the Gummi Ship yet.

As they made their way back to the caravan however, both Luna and Sora couldn't help but think that they had forgotten something. It was that something that would inevitably ruin any chance of having the normal family dinner Luna wanted to experience again.


	40. The Gothic Maiden

_A long action packed chapter here just like the last one. I actually had more to add to the end of this chapter but seeing as how long this already was, I'll just be adding that to the next chapter. __Without further ado, let's get on with it!_

* * *

**Chapter 40**

**The Gothic Maiden **

"Welcome to our humble abode," Helen introduced proudly as she pulled into the driveway of the Parr house. Luna, Sora and Stephanie (Donald had gone back along with Goofy to the Gummi Ship to see whether Kupopo could make a new shield for the latter) who were completely squashed in the back along with Dash and Violet, struggled to crane their necks to check the window and saw a group of beautiful suburban houses lined up next to each other.

Helen continued, "You can imagine how hard it's been to settle down what with the superpowers and everything. We've had to relocate so many times, but I think now we're finally-"

"Wait a second, something's not right. Honey, you didn't leave the door open on the way out, did you?" Bob asked.

"I'm not an idiot, Bob. Besides if I had, Kari would have made sure to close it," Helen answered. But as she drove closer, a terrified look in her eyes began to form. "What if… Jack Jack!"

As if in sync with each other, Bob and Helen got out of the car at the same time and ran into the house. The kids all followed quickly behind, arrived inside and turned into the kitchen to see Syndrome with the baby in his hands.

"Shh, you'll wake the baby," he whispered only for it to turn into mocking laughter by the end.

"Let him go! This is low, even for you," Luna said. She didn't want to summon her Keyblade in case Syndrome retaliated and did something to Jack Jack.

"Now, come on. Did you really have any expectations for me in the first place?" Syndrome tutted and shook his head. "Don't worry, I'm a caring person. I'm only going to take your child and raise him as my own. I won't leave him alone, not like you left me all those years ago."

Before anyone could somehow hope to convince Syndrome to think otherwise, he blew open the ceiling above them and took off into the blue and orange sky. Sora and the others left the house and looked up to see Syndrome flying towards a jet high up in the sky, clearly waiting for his arrival.

"We won't be able to make it in time, he's too high," Violet shouted. Before anyone could reply or do anything about it, a blade with diamond edges extended into the air like at an incredible speed and cut through the side of one of Syndrome's jet boots.

Syndrome screamed frantically as he was launched into the air against his will, and just managed to grab onto the door of the plane. He let out an awkward laugh and looked down at Jack Jack, still in his arms.

"Ohohoh, almost had me there. But I won't go down that easy- huh?" Before Sora could turn and look at the mystery attacker, another surprise awaited them. The baby in Syndrome's arms suddenly ignited on fire causing Syndrome to bounce him up and down. After catching him a fourth time, the baby's flesh turned instead into complete steel. Under the influence of Jack Jack's changing weight, Syndrome let go off the plane and had to quickly gain back altitude with his remaining boot meanwhile struggling to keep possession of the baby. As he tried to bring Jack Jack tightly to his chest, sharp spikes popped up all around the metallic baby forcing Syndrome to let go.

Helen stretched up and successfully caught the baby. Sora breathed a sigh of relief only to find it unable to escape his mouth upon turning to see Desiree launch her Keyblade upwards once more. This time the blade hit one of the aircraft's engines. The plane veered to the right which just so happened to be where Syndrome was floating. He tried desperately to get out the way but his cape was too close to the engine. The cape snagged onto the propeller and was naturally swallowed in, along with its wearer.

Sora flinched uncomfortably at this and looked to Stephanie to see that Luna had fortunately been covering the young girl's eyes. The sound of a thunderous rupture made Sora look back up to see debris of the plane falling from the sky. The plane had been right above the house so it was obvious where the pieces were going to fall.

Distracted, he failed to notice that a hand had reeled him into a blue field of energy. He looked away from the sky to see Violet holding her hands out in front of herand pieces of junk ricocheting off the barrier she had constructed. Furthermore, the plot of land which had once been a house was now nothing more than a smoking crater.

Violet dropped her hands once she was sure that they were safe and the forcefield disappeared. Sora could just about make out a keyhole that was lying in the newly made crater. Of course it would be there of all places.

"Oops, sorry about the house," Desiree apologized, bowing as low as she could. "I admit, this is not one of the 16,032 ideas I had in mind but as they say, improvisation is best."

"Desiree!" Sora called her name out angrily although it seemed she was pretending not to know who he even was at the moment.

Desiree mustered up her cutest smile to address. "Do not worry. I will pay for the house. If you must know, my family is quite rich. With that said, ta-ta for now!"

With that she turned and took off down the street. Sora wanted to follow her. He really, so much so that he had to look to Luna as a voice of disapproval. As expected, Luna was shaking her head and mouthing "Please, don't" repeatedly. If he was hoping that she could convince him, his heart wasn't listening.

"Sorry… I'll be right back," he assured all of them before disappearing down the road after her. It was revenge and anger that clouded his judgement, and though neither was good, the emotion that took precedent over both of them was confusion. Why him? Why hadn't Yeul mentioned Moira's Crescent to them if she had been living with them before?

_Why?_

_Why?_

_Why?_

If he were to let her run now, he felt there would never be another chance to answer these questions. He soon came to stop at an old building that would have easily portrayed the state of being unoccupied if it hadn't been for the fact that Desiree had entered only a few seconds ago. It was obvious she was baiting him and he was choosing to play right into her hands. He would just have to be careful from here on out.

He went through the front door which had been conveniently left open and walked through the hallway. To his left was a staircase and to his right was a door though closer inspection revealed that this door was locked. Instead, he went straight down the hallway to a second room dead ahead. The room was spacious and yet drearily empty and boring if you ignored the only other person there. Looking down, Sora took in the patterned linoleum floor and was somewhat reminded of the hall he, Luna and Neuge had trained in countless times.

Desiree stood by the room's windows casually inspecting her fingernails with a secretive smile playing on her ruby red lips. The color deeply contrasted with the amount of pale foundation makeup she had on.

Time seemed to stand still as did the two figures with the evening light coming in from the windows to enlarge their shadows. It was like something out of an old spaghetti western that his dad liked to watch, though Sora had never really been able to measure any kind of tension or purpose to have been fully invested in them. This time was different. He was living one of those scenes, and he imagined that those characters on the screen would be feeling the exact same things that he was feeling right now.

"So you really did come. You are either incredibly brave or utterly foolish. Either way, I applause you for taking the initiative, monsieur," Desiree said. She flashed him a quick curtsy and Sora scowled.

"Are you making fun of me?" he asked.

"Non, non, I would not dare!" Desiree's sarcastic tone grated on Sora's nerves, but he remained composed as she continued on. "But of course, you did come for a reason, am I correct?"

"You should know. You've tried to kill me, what was it… three times now?" Sora paused for effect but when he looked at Desiree again her face was unchanging. "Well here I am, you're fourth shot. You can take it, but I want to know a few things first."

"There is nothing to be said," Desiree replied a bit more seriously. "Allow me to recap. I believe I told you that Yeul had told us a prophecy regarding your involvement in the destruction of the world, did I not? That is why you must be taken care off before that havoc can come to pass. While the past is unchanging and fixed, the future remains uncertain."

"That's what I don't get. How do you know killing me will solve the problem? If Yeul's visions are always right then that's the same as saying that the future also can't change."

Desiree looked past Sora as if she were looking into the future herself. "It is true that there is no way to know if the path we take is the correct one, or even whether it will have the desired effect. It is a question that has troubled most of our members for a while. Let me be frank. Half of our members believe it may not be necessary to kill you so much as restrict your movements somehow, monitor you. That, I know you would not like. If there is anything more dangerous than a man who has freedom, it is a man who has lost it for he will desperately try to gain it back at all costs. That was the conclusion I came to. The only option that seemed to have little risk therefore was your death.

"As for why I am pursuing it if it is unlikely to change anything? Because why not? Indeed, the outcome may not change, it may even be worse, but would I be able to live with myself if I did not at least try? A risk may be a scary thing to take but I believe the fear of not doing anything because you were more scared to take the risk is worse. It is a moral dilemma and it is all dependent on what you believe. Obviously we will never see eye to eye because we have different beliefs. I can see things that you cannot and vice versa. And that brings us to today."

Despite the helpful reminder however, Sora still didn't get it. He probably never would. Who could ever possibly understand something so fatuous, something so incoherent, something so outrageous, he just couldn't. Ultimately he couldn't understand because he didn't want to. It was as Desiree had said. He would turn a blind eye from it because the idea seemed unbelievable to him—he was the supposed destroyed of all worlds, it was about the life he would live and the death that could prevent it. There was just no way he could accept it.

Desiree adopted a pitying smile. "Do not worry. It will be over in… a flash, as they say."

But Sora's mind was too distracted, too numb, to comprehend what she was saying and his heart was too brittle. There was a taste in his mouth that he hadn't experienced in a while, not since Abraxas. It was the bitter taste of a despair he was not sure he could climb out of.

Suddenly he felt his hand tingle and a second later the Keyblade appeared in his hands. He hadn't called it so it must have come out on its own. Had it sensed his hesitation? Neuge had told him that their Keyblade were of their own sentient existence, which is to say they had personalities, feeling and even a gender. However, even with the test that Neuge had designed for them to get to know their Keyblade better, he and Luna had both failed to gather any information on their Keyblades.

Riku and Kairi, however, had been different. Riku's current personality meshed with his Keyblade pretty well. The Way to the Dawn Keyblade was calm and cautious, keenly aware of its surroundings. Sora could somehow imagine that if he had used that Keyblade during his 'angsty' period, the clash in personality may have resulted in more disastrous consequences for him.

As for Kairi, her Keyblade seemed to be of the shy and reserved variety. It was the type who preferred the supporting role, something that annoyed Kairi because she preferred to be on the front lines. In addition, Riku and Kairi's genders were the same as their Keyblade's, unlike Neuge's. But now Sora's Keyblade, which had failed to react in any way during his test, was now trying to help him. He wondered if his Keyblade had a stubborn personality.

"You don't want me to give up, huh?" Sora muttered to it. It wasn't like the Kingdom Key was whispering words to him, but he doubted his belief was that far from the truth either.

"Alright then," he said and pointed his Keyblade at Desiree. "Fine, give it your best shot but I don't intend on dying just yet."

"After all that would be an insult. It seems you are not a lost hope after all," Desiree said. She acted without a moment's hesitation and started spinning her Keyblade around in the air, the blade flailing about like a lasso. Her blade had become flimsy and was alternating in length just like before. "You may have figured this out already but my Keyblade is different from yours. The molecules that hold my Keyblade together can break up and form together at will. But let us skip the science, shall we?"

The blade extended forward at rapid speed, but it wasn't quick enough for Sora, who warped to the side of the attack. There was a big difference from the last time they fought (if it could have even been called a fight). Desiree's attacks no longer felt scary. They didn't have that intimidation behind them that had been there before and Sora could strangely enough sense where each attack was going to land before it did. He was making the best of the survival techniques Neuge had taught him. He'd have to find a nice present for her or something when he returned. Desiree launched attack after attack, changing things up each time with the motion of her wrists but Sora jumped over, dodged or parried each attack.

Luna arrived on the scene after sealing the keyhole in the crater, having heard nearby sounds of conflict while searching for Sora's whereabouts. She stepped into the room to see a bunch of blue flashes and whirls from both Desiree's and Sora's Keyblades. Desiree's Keyblade was flung in every single direction at awesome speeds while Sora disappeared and reappeared like a blur through each strike, with the occasional spark going off to tell Luna that Sora had met Desiree's blade with his own.

To give Sora a quick breather and also to announce her presence, Luna put extended her hand and cast a simple Thunder spell on Desiree. The French maid noticed a bolt forming above her head and stopped her offensive to jump away from the attack.

"Luna?" Sora called out to her but Luna maintained her displeased look and started tapping her right foot.

"Sora, that was kind of rude, you know? Running off after our invitees' house was just blown to smithereens and leaving me to seal the keyhole."

Sora looked down and said in an apologetic tone, "You're right."

Luna seemed quite humored by this however and gave a lopsided smile. "You're right, huh? Is that really all you have to say?"

"Sorry, but it was now or never. If I hadn't gone after her now then whe-"

"It's not that," Luna cut him off. "I just figured that after all this time you'd be more open to the idea of doing things together."

"Oh!" Sora suddenly shouted as if he had just been hit by a ton of bricks.

Luna's smile became even and she walked up to him. "We're a team, you and I, and between you and me, I'd say we could take on Bob and Helen any day of the week, don't tell them I said that. So what do you say we give this teamwork thing a try?"

But even with her saying that, as sincere and heart-warming as it truly was, Sora was still not too sure about getting her involved.

"Luna, I don't think I'm treating this like other fights. This one's personal and I might just cross a threshold that I'll never be able to come back from if I do. I don't want you to get involved and cross that threshold too just because of me."

"I knew what this was about the moment you wanted to land in this world," Luna told him. "You think I didn't notice? Of course I did, because I was worried about you, but I also trust you. I believe the Sora I know will do the right thing when it really matters, which is why we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, I'm going to fight by your side and I won't take no for an answer."

"You know I'd never say no after that. Thank you," Sora said and returned her honest smile. So she trusted him to make the right decision… why did that hurt more than any despair the thought of dying could have given him?

"Two against one, huh? Excusez-moi but here I thought you meant to fight me fair and square," Desiree said.

Luna stepped in front of Sora and summoned Dream Seeker. "Well if you're tough enough to pick on Sora when he's alone then two people shouldn't change things much. As they say, don't dish it out if you can't handle it."

Luna kicked off the ground and dashed forward. She took a more direct approach, firing off magic in between her parries. Desiree brought her arms back each time Luna used her magic and managed to absorb most of the spells (primarily the ones that had been aimed accurately) with some sort of drain ability that she had on her Keyblade. Each time Luna pushed forward and tried to get in close, the flail, as if it sensed her movements, reacted in a way that forced her to step back. It was an eternal loop.

"Hey, Sora, this reminds me of something. You remember those thorns that made a wall around Maleficent's tower, right?" Luna asked, moving her hands quickly to parry an attack coming from her right side.

"Yeah… they always grew back so I had to… oh!" Sora grinned at Luna's helpful hint and activated the weakest version of _Ars Arcanum _that he could pull off in order to conserve energy. He zoomed in like a blue streak and cut through Desiree's blade cleanly, severing a piece from the rest of the Keyblade.

Desiree retracted her Keyblade in surprise and frowned. "How did you-"

"I guess you shouldn't have mentioned that little fact about molecules. It seemed pretty logical to me that distancing the molecules within your Keyblade to change its length and shape would mean you would have to weaken the molecules to do it," Sora explained with a smug grin.

"Oh yeah, or rather I guess it's the forces in between the molecules that would have to weaken," Luna corrected. "I guess I did learn something from science class after all."

"Not your best subject?" Sora said jokingly.

"Not that, just not enough magic," she replied with a quick wink before turning back to Desiree. "I guess all that speed and flashiness was all just to hide your Keyblade's weakness, huh? Well done Sora, I'm impressed."

"Hey, you were the one who gave me the idea in the first place," Sora replied.

"I just wondered what would happen if you used Ars Arcanum. I said nothing about any bonds or molecules," Luna said. "Although if I had gotten a bit more experience fighting her, I would naturally have come to the same conclusion."

"Of course," Sora said in a "sure-you-would-have" tone and Luna repeated his words in much the same way.

"No, not 'of course'." Desiree had begun snickering, and before long it turned into full on maniacal laughter. It was the kind of laughter a person who was trying to convince themselves that they had not yet lost would make. "I am truly sorry, but you thought we were done? Mes amours, Desiree Elegia Skye has not even gotten started. Montmartre, retract!"

It was too fast to have predicted it. Out of nowhere, like a shard of glass, the blade piece that Sora had cut off the rest of the Keyblade flew through the air at the speed of a bullet and sliced open a part of Luna's cheek on its way its owner. There was a second's delay before Luna had registered what had cut her or that she had even been cut in the first place. The blade's broken edge perfectly aligned and reattached with Desiree's Keyblade and she took satisfaction in holding it up and showing it to them.

"Oh, by the way, when I said the molecules could break apart, I did mean completely, which, oops, I guess that means that they can also reattach. I mean, why would I use a weapon that could be broken so easily? If you think Keyblades are that flimsy then you have no right to call yourself a master."

"And here I thought we'd won," said Sora in a monotone voice.

"Then we just need to keep fighting until we've found the weakest weak point." Luna wiped away the blood crawling down her cheek and looked at it in amusement. Even if their victory had been a short one, it had obviously gotten to Desiree and it was still progress. That was good enough.

Desiree lifted her hand up and mixed in physical attacks a barrage of high level magic. Luna and Sora did their best to assist each other in defending and attacking. As Luna jumped over one of the spells, Sora used Aeroga to send her flying forward towards Desiree who parried her away in time. As she made to extend her blade toward Luna, Sora slammed his hands onto the floor and brought up a rock formation in between Luna and the blade.

"Switch!" he told her quickly. Luna nodded and backed away as Sora jumped forward and used Fission Firaga to send the rock flying towards Desiree.

"_Flare_!" Desiree yelled with her free hand extended. Sora and Luna weren't able to see the blast being fired but the rock was blown in to many tiny pieces which were then scattered across the floor. That the rock hadn't hit its target didn't matter. Sora had used it as a distraction to warp directly in front of Desiree. His opponent raised her Keyblade to block but Sora vaulted over to her other side before swinging. Desiree reacted quickly, swinging the Keyblade (now reverted to its normal size) from under her arms and twisting her body to meet Sora as she did so.

Their Keyblades clashed each time they made to swing, making sharp metallic sounds that echoed throughout the empty room. While she was distracted, Luna leapt forward and began attacking from her exposed side. Desiree gritted her teeth and held up her free hand, creating a shield-shaped barrier to fend of Luna's attacks. The Dream Seeker smashed against the shield repeatedly and was repelled off each time, but cracks were starting to form and Luna doubted Desiree would be able to concentrate on both invasions from either side for much longer.

Desiree must have realized this as well because she soon retaliated with a sudden blast of air that knocked the wind out of Sora and Luna and swept them off their feet. Desiree watched as her two opponents landed on their backs and let out a cry of frustration.

"I refuse to just stand by and allow you to make some sort of mockery out of me. Know that I am no so easily overwhelmed. We Parisians hardly ever are."

"Oh come on, that is such a lie and you know-mmph!" Sora's mouth was covered by Luna's hand before he could finish.

"It is not ours to question, somethings just are, right, Sora?" Luna interrupted quickly.

As soon as Luna dropped her hand, Sora followed up with a quip. "Yeah, if you want to set civilization back a couple hundred years or so."

Desiree, who was clearly getting frustrated that her opponents weren't taking things seriously, blasted an arc of electricity their way. Sora quickly tried to bring up another rock formation to cover them but at the speed the lightning was travelling, it was clear he wouldn't have time. Luna quickly cast a reflect shield around them before the attack could hit. The lightning bounced off with a loud whoosh and smashed through the window glass. Desiree refused to stop at just one and continued to fire off one discharge of electricity after another.

"Luna, you think you can hold that barrier up while moving?" Sora yelled over the whimsical and admittedly pleasant sounds coming from dangerous magic.

"I can try!" The tone of her voice was unsure but she didn't hesitate in moving as soon as she said it.

Lightning flew off in different directions in its attempt to strike through the barrier, managing to bring down some parts of the ceiling. Sora waited until the barrier was halfway to Desiree before sprinting through the barrier at full speed. Desiree directed her blasts towards him but he warped through them quickly, moved in and grabbed her wrist just as she was about to fire off another.

"Au revoir!" Sora bid her playfully before casting Reflect.

Desiree could only watch in horror as her own magic went off and blew up in her hand. A huge explosion occurred, forcing Sora to jump away quickly and watch as smoke engulfed half the room.

"Did we do it?" Luna asked. Before Sora could say anything, a blade extended out of the smoke aimed straight at Sora.

Sora switched the keychain of his Keyblade quickly to Oblivion for its flatter surface and guarded with both hands just in time for the blade to slam into Oblivion with such force that it pushed him back. Sora kept his feet planted firmly on the ground and held onto his Keyblade for dear life.

"You? Beat me? That will not happen! I will win. I _have_ to win!" Desiree yelled. The smoke had cleared to reveal a charred black hand that Desiree was using on top of her dominant hand to hold her Keyblade.

"I can't… hold on much longer…" Sora wheezed out as his back slammed into the wall with a loud thud, and blade seemed keen on going even farther.

"You won't have to."

Sora could barely look up to see Luna jump onto the blade in front of him and run straight up its length like an experienced acrobat travelling a tightrope. Desiree's mouth hung open as Luna drew closer to her. Her mouth soon closed and she began reeling in her blade away from Sora in an effort to stop Luna from using her Keyblade as a bridge, but it was too late.

Luna reached the handle, jumped into the air and then performed an uppercut. The back of her blade slammed into Desiree's chin and lifted her into the air.

_Right where I want you, _Luna thought with a smirk. She kept the both of them hovered in the air using Aeroga and slammed Dream Seeker into Desiree's sides multiple times before rotating her body and delivering a spinning kick that sent Desiree to the ground.

"Thanks. You saved my skin there," Sora said, still quite shaken by what had happened. Even though the weight had been taken off them, his arms and back were still sore.

Luna smiled and nodded. "I actually didn't think that would work, so… you know… that just happened moment."

But there was someone who was in even more pain than Sora. Desiree lay on the ground hissing and groaning. She placed her uncharred hand over her forehead and rolled about, trying to get up. Sora's smile disappeared and he walked over to her.

Sensing the hatred that had haunted Sora before the fight, Luna moved to hopefully convince him otherwise. "Sora… just leave her. You don't need to bother anymore."

"Just leave her?" Sora spun around to face her. "She's trying to kill me, Luna. She's already tried to poison me and then she deliberately took satisfaction in cutting me up and then healing me just to cut me up again! If I let her go now, who knows what else she'll do. Given the chance she might even try to come after you and the others."

"My… struggle is not with them. I would never go after someone else… someone innocent… just to get at another person. It is why I despise people like Syndrome," said Desiree slowly.

"And why I should believe you?" Sora hissed venomously.

"If you think I'm trying to weasel my way out of this, do not. You are right, I have lost. It is also only natural for you to want revenge so go ahead. I will not fight back. I would rather die with a guilty conscience than live with one."

She had recognized his need. His Keyblade was already over her head, prepared to come down on her like a guillotine… so why was he hesitating?

"Sora, I know you don't want this. Think about it. There's more like her out there. You kill her and what happens then? I know you're not like that."

Sora looked to Luna and took in her worried glance and the cut on her cheek. He wasn't like that? But how could she know when not even he knew?

His hands were quivering, he soon noticed. Shaking violently at that but this time it wasn't because he had expended too much mana. Desiree would have probably also noticed by now. It was now or never then. He would have to act fast before she took advantage. He held his Keyblade tightly with both hands to steady both it and his hands.

He felt someone's soft hands on his own. When he looked their way, he was so surprised to see Stephanie looking up at him that he dropped his Keyblade. The key hit the ground right next to where Desiree was lying, but Sora had hardly heard a sound.

"Please don't do it, Sora. I don't want you to be sad or angry," Stephanie pled with innocent eyes. "Sis and I just want you to be happy. We'll look after you, won't we sis?"

Luna seemed just as smitten by Stephanie's words as Sora and took a while to respond. "Of course we will. Yeah, Stephanie and I will do our best to keep you safe. Remember, our ship-"

"-runs on happy faces… yeah," finished Sora while still looking at Stephanie. It was both funny and amazing how quickly a small girl could make him forget about all the pain and sadness he was feeling. Big things often come in small packages… he guessed whoever said that was right. For that moment he had forgotten all the rage that had taken him and he was happy. Just happy. If he could have it his way he wanted to stay that way until the end, whatever that meant.

His Keyblade must have sensed his feelings because it disappeared on its own. Sora ruffled Stephanie's hair playfully and offered a weak smile to Luna before turning to Desiree.

"You've done a lot of things to me. It's shattered my confidence, made me feel like that person in Yeul's vision. But I'm not. That's not me and I don't want it to be. I just want to be happy and… that might not be possible all the time but if it is possible I'd like to start now so…" Sora proceeded to hold his hand out for her. "I forgive you."

But Desiree gave no sign of taking his hand or even acknowledging that it was there. She stared at him like he was some freak of nature. And continued to stare…

"Oh come on, do I need to explain things in detail? You're free. You can go. I'm offering you a hand up. How many ways can I word it?"

It was not a hand that Desiree moved but rather her mouth. "Why?"

"Why? Does there need to be a reason? I don't know, I guess… I just have some good friends who are there to help me make the right choice. A path paved with gold as they might say. That and, well, I'd say we're even now. You spared me when you could have finished it so I guess I'm doing the same thing. To be fair, I've escaped death twice from you so I figure you must really want me alive despite what you say, or that's what I'd like to believe anyway."

"What are you talking about?" Desiree cried out, getting on her knees and bowing. "There is no point. I'm a sham. I can't go back now after all I've said. I've been shamed. Disgraced. Please just end it and end it quickly!"

"Huh, what are you talking about?" Sora asked in a high-pitched voice. Desiree had taken hold of his hand and was pleading with him over and over to kill her. Her actions honestly made no sense to him and probably would not have to any other sane person.

"Get a hold of yourself!" Sora had managed to wrestle her hand of him and threw her off, watching as she slumped to the ground. Was this the person he had been afraid of this whole time?

"I can't even live up to her name," he heard her whisper. Sora and Luna exchanged quick glances before Sora extended his hand again.

"Desiree, stand up. You haven't shamed anyone, not even yourself. You even gave us a run for our money quite a few times. It was a pretty heated battle, which is why one day, I wouldn't mind fighting you again, no animosity included of course."

Desiree slowly looked up at him with fearful eyes before using her own two hands to stand up rather than accepting Sora's own.

"Though I'll have to let you off with a warning," Sora continued. "I want you to give your friends a message. If any more of you try to come after me again, I can't promise I'll hold back like this time. I will be ready. Got that?"

Desiree brushed off the dust that had settled on her dress and walked over to the shattered window. "You really are a strange person, Keyblade Master. Not like others I have encountered before," she said. She tapped the armor pad on her shoulder and was soon clad fully in armor.

"Uh, that's a good thing, right?" Sora asked.

"Only time will tell." With that, she jumped out of the window and checked to make sure no one was around before transforming her vehicle. She stepped onto the glider and rode upwards into the sky, soon disappearing into a swirling black vortex shape.


	41. Dancing in Allegro

_Who doesn't love backstory? I could really do with some Naruto fillers right about now mmmph. All jokes aside, this chapter has absolutely no SLDG in it (I'm not sure if that's a first for this story) but instead we'll focus on a few other characters who have totally not been forgotten. Let's wrap up the Hunchback of Notre Dame storyline, shall we?_

* * *

**Chapter 41**

**Dancing in Allegro**

For three days, Desiree had managed to avoid the questions of her fellow teammates. At first, she had locked herself in her room and refused to come out when someone called for her. This changed on the second day when she had apparently only allowed Rhea into her room. The faithful girl that she was, Rhea had adopted a silent approach whenever she was asked what they discussed.

Astra had heard rumors though they were completely baseless. She had been in the lounge watching Salome and Lysander play competitively against each other at some dancing game when she had decided to bring the topic up. It was scary how good Lysander was at dancing, and Astra had been under the impression that this wasn't his type of game but she was clearly mistaken. When he had said he was good at all types of games, he meant it.

"You trying to impress someone with them moves of yours, sailor?" Astra flirted after taking a sip of her lemonade.

"Do you count?" Lysander asked with a cheeky grin.

"Sorry, not interested. I'm not exactly looking right now."

"But you'd consider later?"

Astra closed her eyes and gave a small smile. "Don't push your luck."

"Hey, at least I tried," Lysander replied before bending down to select another song on the dance mat.

"You know, we really need to make some time for going to the beach soon. Between searching for those new breed of Heartless and doing charity work, we barely have any time for ourselves… not that I'm complaining, I like helping people out in other worlds and listening to their problems," Salome said.

"No I know what you mean. This is such a different life from the one I used to live. There's a beach in Alexander, it's not too far from my house. Luna and I always used to go there and we'd just watch the sun go down and the waves crash against the sand while eating Ice Cream. It may seem repetitive, but it never got boring because it was Luna." As Astra fell into a dreamlike state while reminiscing, her audience had been attentive throughout. Salome beamed at her friend and nodded her head every once in a while and even Lysander had stopped playing with the mat to listen.

"Well I guess we know what beach we're going to then. Luna sounds like a great friend. I wish we could meet her," Salome said with a sad smile. Astra didn't want to say more in that regard. She knew that as long as this feud existed, the only place they would be meeting was on a battlefield. It just made her personal mission of protecting Luna while she was here all the more necessary.

"Do you know what's up with Desiree? Ever since she came back she hasn't been acting like herself at all. She's been locked up in her room for two days now," Astra asked instead.

"I couldn't say. It's pretty unusual that she ever acts like this. Usually she wouldn't pass up the opportunity to use me as a footstool," Lysander answered.

"Well, just before she left she seemed pretty displeased about Kohle wanting her to let Sora go for now. She was all like 'If not now, then when? Hurr hurr hurr, I need a croissant', okay maybe without the hurr hurr hurring but she was pretty angry that we weren't 'taking it seriously' as she put it. She took off without letting any of us know after that and I'm willing to guess she encountered Sora and something happened," Salome explained in the most energetic and cartoonish way possible.

"Yep, it's as Salome the Hedgehog says," Lysander remarked. "If it's that bad that she's become a recluse, she must have gotten beat pretty bad."

So on the third day, Astra knocked on Desiree's door with this theory prevalent in her mind. As expected, Desiree didn't respond at first but Astra persisted in continuing to knock until it annoyed Desiree so much that she threw the door open.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF LOUIS XII DO YOU WANT- Oh, Astra. Pardonnez-moi, I thought you were someone else. Can I help you with something?"

"I was just wondering if I could talk to you about something," Astra said putting her hand against the doorframe intentionally.

Desiree looked slightly uncomfortable about the suggestion, reflected through her words. "I am sorry but now may not be the best time. Maybe some other time?"

"It's urgent. I'm worried about you. We all are. That and I want to know if Luna's okay. Did you meet her?"

"I do not know what you are talking abou-"

"Did you meet her? Please, I need to know," Astra insisted. At first, Desiree avoided her gaze and looked at the doorframe where Astra's fingers were placed. Her pained eyes soon found Astra's for the first time since she had opened the door. Immediately Astra could tell she had been crying, a lot. The tears had stained the pale makeup on her face and a permanent scowl played on her lips.

"I hate feeling like this. It is simply not me." Desiree could barely even chuckle. Had things really been that bad? She stepped aside and nudged her head for Astra to follow. Astra gave a small smile and stepped inside Desiree's room, stopping just a few steps after entering to take in everything.

Desiree's room was perhaps the strangest room that Astra had been in since she had come here. There was a clear recurring theme of purple and black. It was a room typically fit for a royal but smaller in order to incorporate the other bedrooms in the hallway. The wall was decorated with purple wallpaper with swirling black patterns running across like art. Her bed covers were of a soft purple fabric compared to Astra's rather bland one and she had matching pillows to boot. To her left was a bookcase with several interesting books that tickled Astra's fancy. Though she wasn't a fan of reading, the fact that Desiree's genre mainly consisted of horror and gothic literature spread a wide grin across her face.

_This compared to Luna's love of mystery novels… I wonder how she'd feel about this, _Astra thought before turning to look at the desk next to Desiree's wardrobe. On it was the makeup that she no doubt applied on a daily basis as well as a diary, a box of tissues and a stereo system with a few of her CDs on top of it.

"Hey, sit down, you look a mess," Astra said. She walked over to the desk and took some tissues out of the box before making her way over to Desiree's bed. She sat down next to Desiree and delicately began wiping at the wetness on her cheek. "See, this is why I don't bother with makeup. 100% au naturel right here."

"I like my makeup. It makes me feel… unique," Desiree replied absently. A silence followed which wasn't awkward as it could have been. Astra had been so focused on cleaning up the water stains that Desiree didn't want to distract her. When she was finished, Astra chucked the wet tissue in the trash can in the corner of the room before returning to Desiree.

"What's wrong, Desiree? This isn't like you," Astra asked.

"I… have something to tell you, but you need to promise me that you will not tell anyone," Desiree said, averting her gaze and looking down at her hands as if horrified.

"Desiree, what's this about? Was this what you told Rhea?" Astra asked.

Desiree shook her head. "No, she already knew. She has known it for a long time and is probably the only one who does. I just told her about what transpired with Sora. You must promise me that you will not tell anyone else about this."

"I won't. I'll play therapist for a while so feel free to lay out your feelings," Astra said after a moment's hesitation. Salome had asked her beforehand to keep her informed about what was going on with Desiree but it seemed that she wouldn't be able to do that now.

"Alright, it's about a secret. One that I am ashamed to admit but… I feel like I can trust you and that sounds completely weird, I know… trust a person I barely know over people who have basically become my family… It's hilarious, is it not?"

Astra furrowed her eyebrows. "It's a bit odd but I don't think that means you don't trust them any less. Maybe it's just easier to talk to me because you barely know me."

"Oui, I am sure that is it. Alright, my secret then. It's about who I am. Who I _really _am."

* * *

It was five in the morning when Kairi returned from the secret basement that they had discovered the other day. It was impossible to sleep with the thought on her mind.

A secret passageway…

A secret passageway!

Even the words seemed too good not to repeat.

Kairi made quickly blew out the candle and then headed up into the tower. Her efforts to decipher something from the book had proven useless. The thing is she was sure that there was something staring her right in the eye, something that was incredibly obvious. The only problem—she had no idea what any of it meant. She would stay on one page for an hour trying to figure out what a symbol meant only for her to have wasted her time. If only she knew someone who knew Atlantean. Maybe even the crazy Frollo could have deciphered the text's meaning, but that was once upon a time.

She opened the door to the bell tower to be greeted by a nice surprise early in the morning, one that she had hardly anticipated.

"Riku, where did Quasimodo go?"

The bell ringer was missing from his bed, strange because he had felt incredibly sick only a few hours ago. Riku and Max, who Kairi had left to look after him, had both fallen asleep, tired from the long day of investigating that they had done. They had scouted town out for information on Claude Frollo—his hobbies, where he went and what he did there. It turned out that very few people _knew _Judge Frollo. The archdeacon who had known him since Frollo had started his tenure as judge had told them that Frollo had professed to have knowledge to great and world-changing secrets, none of which the archdeacon had been privy to though.

The only clue that they had found lied in one of the homeless people in the town square who had made their home opposite Frollo's house. When Riku asked him whether Frollo had gotten any visitors, he confirmed that the house had received two visitors about a month ago. He wouldn't have thought anything unusual of these strangers except for the fact that they didn't look like the sort of company that Frollo would keep. One was a blonde woman dressed in a sparkling blue gown while the other dressed in the most flamboyant of colors and wore makeup that made him deeply resemble a jester. It was clear then that Frollo had some kind of a connection with the two people that they were after, one of them being Kefka. The name KRONOS tied everything together in a knot and gave to the idea that Frollo was perhaps working with them. It was the question—could KRONOS also know about Atlantis and if so, were they seeking it?

A sound from the upper level of the belfry caught her attention and she ascended the ladders quickly. She reached the top level and peered up while still on the ladder to see Quasimodo walking around with a smile on his face, his hands feeling and admiring the golden bells.

"Quasi, you shouldn't be out of bed. What if something bad happens?" Kairi called out to him.

Quasimodo jumped in surprise and spun around quickly before relaxing. "Oh, Kairi, I wasn't expecting you to be up so early. I was just cleaning all the bells since I haven't been able to do it in a while. I hope it wasn't too much of a problem for you guys, having to ring the bell in my stead and all."

"No, not at all, I enjoyed waking up the entire city," Kairi said with a grin. She hoisted herself up and onto the floor, stood up and glanced at each of the bells along with him. "Are you sure it's okay for you to be up like this?"

"I'm feeling okay, actually no, better than okay. I feel free, like some heavy burden has been lifted off my shoulders. I feel lighter. Normal… I think that remedy of yours worked!"

Kairi's tired eyes lit up at the sound of this. "Really? That great! I mean we have to make extra sure that everything really is fine and all but if this is true… you saved him, Luna, and you won't even know it for a while. Thank you."

"You should get some sleep. You seem pretty tired," Quasimodo said upon noticing that her eyelids were fluttering uncontrollably.

"I should be saying that," Kairi said amusedly before nodding. "Alright, see you later."

When Kairi next opened her eyes, they were looking at a joyful Riku, Max and Esmeralda who had no doubt discovered the great news. It was a day different from the usually gloomy one that had come to haunt the walls of Notre Dame. A high level of elation hung in the air as Esmeralda danced merrily in a circle with a blushing Riku. Kairi, Max and Quasimodo laughed and started clapping to Esmeralda's beautiful humming, enjoying the uncharacteristic shyness that Riku was displaying.

After a few more minutes of this, the humiliation had ended but the light cheerful ambience remained. Wanting to get a good view overlooking the town, Kairi brought them out onto the rooftop in order to talk. The wind softly lapped against her face and she smiled at this before turning to look at them.

"We need to start thinking about our next course of action. If Quasi's condition continues as it is then there's no need for us to stay. I think it's safe to say we've found all we can from here, right?"

Riku nodded. "I would say so. We know that Frollo met up with Kefka at one point and we have a book with strange symbols on it on top of finding a secret laboratory built into the cathedral."

"And don't forget that strange creature," Max added.

"Yes… _Alice_," Kairi referred to it with a sigh. She had also checked around that table while she was there, hoping to find something about the name. She had (it had been under the monster's arm) but it seemed that the previous owner or someone else had scratched whatever it was out. "Our only leads now are this book, that Heartless and Atlantis and since we have no idea where Atlantis might be that leaves the book and that monster. Which should we pursue first?"

"The monster, I think. I'm curious to find out who Alice is and I think I know a certain scientist who can help us figure it out," Riku said.

"Then I guess we should make sure to collect a sample before we leave then. So we're heading back to Radiant Garden then. And the book?" Kairi asked.

"We would need to figure out who owned the lab and I'm willing to bet that it was built a long time ago. Obviously Atlantean isn't a practiced language anymore so I don't expect anything to come out of it. Is there even a way to find out how old the book is?"

"Not sure. Don't they usually analyze individual pages to figure that kind of thing out?" Kairi held up the book in her hand and flipped it open to somewhere near the middle. "The pages are yellow and stained. The book is giving of a pretty musty smell and it looks like parchment paper was used. Obviously it's old but I can't tell by how much."

"We'll see if Even and Ienzo can figure that out as well. Looks like we have a plan though," Riku said.

"Well the worst thing that can happen is that we're flung forwards and backwards over and over and end up going nowhere in the end," Max said.

"No, I have a feeling about this one, like we can't go wrong here, as long as we keep our expectations in check anyway," Riku replied.

"So then you finally believe me that Atlantis is real, huh?" Kairi rubbed the bridge of her nose with her index finger and auspiciously grinned at him.

"_Might be_, yeah. I could easily argue that the secret lab was created by some mad guy who thought it existed just like Frollo," Riku said.

Kairi shrugged. Even if that were a possibility it didn't explain the symbols in the book but she would let it slide for now.

"Well a might is good enough. I'll get you around to my way of thinking eventually," she said.

Esmeralda stepped forward, clutching her hand to her chest. "Thank you, for all you've done for Quasi. I don't think there's even a way to completely repay you, but I think this might help."

She held her hands down to show them what was resting on her palms. They looked like jawbreakers but actually holding one in her hands revealed to Kairi that they were much softer.

"They're smoke pellets," continued Esmeralda. "I've used them in the past to get away from Frollo and his men but I won't need them anymore. Whenever you're in a pinch, these little things will come in handy. Make sure you use them sparingly."

"Thank you, Esmeralda. And don't think you're indebted to us or anything, it's just what we do," Kairi told her. She accepted the rest of the smoke pellets and divided them amongst her, Riku and Max.

"But you still saved my life, and I can't forget that. Is there any way we can help while you're gone?" Quasimodo asked.

Riku stroked his chin thoughtfully. "If you can dig up any information about the owner of that laboratory and the cathedral, that would be helpful, but don't stress over it. I don't really expect you to find anything since it's been so long but-"

"We'll do our best!" Quasimodo gave his affirmation confidently.

Kairi grinned at them before turning to look at the city landscape. It would most likely be the last day they would spend here. Residents of the town were either setting up their stalls for work, collecting their laundry from the lines hanging along each house or just starting to wake up. At the edge of the town stood a giant sparkling crystal pillar of ice, a symbol of what lay ahead for them. It would melt in time but the memory would stay and with it her resolve. She refused to be known only as a Princess of Heart, a piece among six others that were the key to the preservation of peace. No, she would become strong—strong enough to take on KRONOS and protect her friends.

* * *

Astra guarded and attack from Rhea and quickly spun around her, pressing her palm into her back and throwing her off her guard.

"You've got it!" Rhea said with a gentle smile. "Again now but faster."

"Okay boss!" Astra said playfully before sweeping in to attack again. Her Keyblade was met with tough resistance, and Rhea's guard was unyielding. This wasn't too surprising because she had heard things of how good Rhea was with her Keyblade, perhaps even more so than the other members. It was also somewhat disappointing then because she knew Rhea was holding back. When Rhea attacked her she knew it could be much worse, but no matter how many times Astra asked her to use her full strength, Rhea refused. Rhea's green hair swayed gracefully (for she did everything that way) to the side as she applied her own weight against Astra. This forced Astra backwards and allowed Rhea to swing her Keyblade at her. Astra parried against the attack more quickly this time and spun around Rhea to use her palm again.

"Perfect, you're doing better every day. I don't really enjoy fighting but even I can't deny that a quick spar every now and then gets my blood circulating," Rhea said.

Astra craned her neck to the side. "Does anyone here really enjoy fighting? I imagine we're all trying to make ends meet just so we can get home and enjoy the rest of the day as soon as possible."

Rhea laughed. "I suppose that's a part of it, but there are always exceptions. Take Desiree and Jill for example."

"Desiree…" Astra's voice trailed off.

"She told you."

"Huh?" Astra looked up in surprise and Rhea smiled sweetly back at her.

"Your heartbeat increased when you mentioned her name. I do have pretty good hearing," she explained.

"I know, that's the creepy part," Astra said. "You can also read other people's hearts, can't you? I remember you telling me that."

"I… try not to. What is in a person's heart is their own private matter. I have no right to interfere."

"But you knew about Desiree? You knew that wasn't her real name," Astra said looking up at a certain window just across the garden that they had been practicing in.

* * *

"My name… my past… it's all a lie." Astra could tell Desiree was having a hard time breathing as she talked, as if trying to accept the fabrication she was about to confront.

"I'm sorry?"

"It was all a construction for my own benefit. My name isn't Desiree Elegia Skye and I'm not rich. Truth be told, I'm not even sure I'm French," Desiree looked outside the window next to her bed to see the garden down below. "I don't really remember it but I was found as a baby on the coast, the edge of the world. I was adopted by a man and his wife living in the countryside. They were peasants but they had the kindest of hearts. They loved me as if I had been their own from the very beginning. I had later found out that the reason they had taken me in was because they had been unable to conceive a child themselves. Because we were poor, they could not afford to send me to school so they did their best to teach me themselves. During those times, bandits, poor and destitute, used to invade the countryside and did whatever they felt like. We were quite lucky they did not come to our door, at least, not until I was twelve."

She stopped here and gritted her teeth hard. Astra placed a reassuring hand on her back and gave her a warm smile. Desiree looked at her for a moment before whispering, "They slaughtered them. Like animals, they took enjoyment in murdering them. My adopted parents had refused to give them what they wanted. They chose to stand up and be brave, and they paid for it. I think something snapped in my head at that point. I realized that there was no justice in the world, no light that the shadows couldn't reach. My parents had hid me under the dining table at the time. Had they bothered to look, I would be dead too. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something glistening in the candle lit room. Back then I saw it as revenge. I slowly reached for the knife that had fallen along with a few other items as a result of my father struggling with one of the bandits. I grabbed hold of the handle firmly and… I killed them. I killed the two that were there. The first hadn't expected to be stabbed in the back of the leg and by the time the second man had come into the room, I had already killed the first. I showed him no mercy. I remember plunging the knife into him over and over. By the time I was done I was covered in blood, four corpses surrounding me."

"I… I'm so sorry. I would think seeing your parents murdered would drive anyone mad," Astra said. Now that she said it, she could only imagine how Luna felt.

"It did. I refused to talk for a week when they found me lying on that pool of blood. I also refused to eat but they forced it down my throat regardless of my refusals. I remember the taste of the food even now. They gave me normal things like bread and cheese but it all tasted like iron in my mouth. The week passed by and I had started to accept my fate. I wanted to be brave like my parents had been in those last few moments of their lives. I was soon taken to an orphanage which I spent a year in. I didn't really care much about mixing in with the other kids that were there.

"It was a year before I was taken in again by another family. The head of that family, Charles Jean Stefan Skye, was a wealthy man, a complete contrast to my previous life. He took me to Paris, and I immediately fell in love. It was a city walled off from the rest of the world like my own heart but the culture and architecture was dazzling, a love letter to my soul. Every street I turned, there was something surprising waiting, something telling me to not give up. But it was not all paradise. My status as a daughter had been relegated to that of a maid as I was made to serve the Skye family. It seemed the parents of the household had no interest in having a daughter, why would they when they already had one? Her name was Desiree Elegia Skye, eleven years old and spoilt to the brim. Her parents gave her almost anything, while we maids and servants were given whatever they didn't eat. I didn't complain though. It was a nice comfortable room they gave me and a roof above my head. In addition, to serve one of the wealthiest houses, one who was quite close to the king might I add, was one of the greatest honors one could ask for.

"But I digress. The story is no longer my own but hers. I am merely the observant. Desiree, the real Desiree, she was not like her parents. She was thankful for the things she had in her life but not greedy. An innate unnatural kindness lived in her that I had not seen since my parents. She would come down to the basement level where we servants lived whenever she had the chance to and sneak in food she had brought from the kitchens for us. Most importantly, she had developed a special affinity to me and loved me as if I were her actual sister. I snuck out of my room many times and went with her at night to a beautiful bridge where the moonlight reflected on the water's surface. For that reason it was called Moonlit Bridge or, more informally, Lovers' Bridge. Desiree and I would just watch the moon from afar and talk. We talked about our lives and one night we even ended up dancing. It was a strange and happy jig to a usually romantic bridge but it was so inappropriate that it just worked. We called it dancing in allegro. I somehow ended up telling her how my parents died. The pain was too much to bear by myself and I wanted to let it out. I felt that I could trust her but as I was talking, I felt like she would back away frightened or call me a monster or something like that. I tried to walk away first but she grabbed onto me and hugged me. I felt her arms wrap around me and her head lean against my back. It was the most memorable moment of my life. It also happened to be the last night me and Desiree saw each other."

"What do you mean?" Astra felt she wasn't contributing much by asking the same question repeatedly but she was too intrigued by Desiree's story to think of something else to say.

"A series of events happened, none of which I think the household expected. Charles and his wife had been suspected of treason against the royal family. The one who claimed to have this evidence was one Claude Frollo. He was a man that the King trusted above all. Apparently the Skye family had conspired with gypsies, using the underground tunnels underneath the manor to sneak them into the city. The king's men soon performed a search of the house…"

"Did Frollo falsify evidence?" Astra asked.

"He didn't need to. He found exactly what he was looking for. It turned out that Frollo had been right, although I have no idea how he came to find out. My guess is that he hadn't known. It was pretty well known that there had been disputes between Charles and Frollo over something. I had even heard that they used to be good friends but something happened that turned them into the most bitter of enemies.

"But they found the evidence they were looking for, not in an underground tunnel but rather a person. Charles hid the evidence on his own daughter's person while she was unaware." Desiree could hear the audible gasp emit from Astra's mouth.

"But why? I don't understand."

"What reason would they have to search an eleven year old girl? That is what he thought, but he underestimated how thorough Frollo could be. As they say, he left no stone unturned. When he finally found what he was looking for, he took the entire family into custody. At the trial we attended, the judge presiding overheard several testimonies from people who had claimed to have witnessed Charles declaring his hatred for the king among other such things. Frollo had even managed to get some of the servants to testify to the same effect, though I have little doubt in my mind that he bribed them. What is funny however is that not once during that trial did he produce the evidence that they had found on Desiree. Almost like he was trying to hide something that may have proved detrimental to the prosecution."

"You think there was something incriminating about Frollo in that evidence?" Astra asked.

"I have my theories," Desiree avoided the question skilfully. "But the testimony alone was enough to find the Skyes guilty of treason and conspiracy against the king. They were to be treated like traitors, hung at dawn in a public execution with their names disgraced. Of course the only one I really felt for was Desiree. She had been abandoned and set up by her father, though I can't even be sure that Frollo would have spared her even if she hadn't been set up. As she was escorted out of the courtroom by guards, she looked at me. Out of everyone there, she looked at me and mouthed 'I love you'. I broke down then and there… I wanted to be there for her in her final moments, but in the end I… I couldn't do it. I couldn't attend that execution and watch my sister be hanged. I couldn't be brave and stare into death's morbid face. Even now I wonder what she was thinking in those final moments."

"Not that you were abandoning her. I know what you're thinking. No one's expecting you to be brave at a moment like that, especially not her. I don't even think superman could do that." Astra watched as hot fresh tears strolled down Desiree's cheeks.

"I know. I know she would have wanted me to be happy, but back then all I felt was anger and hate. Hate for the servants who had betrayed her, hate for Charles and his wife for using their own daughter, though they were dead so I could do nothing to them, and hate for Claude Frollo who took her away from me. A thirteen year old girl should not feel that much hate but I did. After the manor closed down, the servants who had no family were left homeless. That included me. At first I thought of banding with them but I had too much hatred for the ones who had sold Desiree out even if it wasn't all of them. I won't lie. I wanted to kill them all and get revenge. No, it was worse. I wanted to torture them until they confessed that what they had done was wrong and then I'd kill them. I would fashion myself as a phantom, the remnant of what was left of Desiree Elegia Skye and I would make them suffer. But the longer I dressed in Desiree's clothes, learned her habits… the more I became her. It wasn't just that, I wanted to become her. My old self was nobody. She was damaged and had suffered too much pain to ever function properly. I wanted to start a new life but more importantly, I wanted to keep her alive. If the old me were the one who was dead, like she should have been when those bandits had killed her parents, and Desiree was still alive, I could live my life for her. We would always be together. Two souls intertwined in allegro."

"And that's when you seriously thought about becoming Desiree," Astra said nodding her head. "But you said you wanted to take revenge. What became of that?"

"The Keyblade and Moira's Crescent found me. I can't say I ever deserved thing but I think it originally belonged to Desiree. She passed it onto me without even knowing it. That's our bond right there. Whenever I look at Montmartre I can't help but think that it could have been her here instead of me. It hasn't been easy being her either. My hatred and sadistic nature mixed with her kindness and created something in between. It was when I fought Sora that I that I finally came to the realization that I wasn't doing a very good job being her. I was disgracing her name and memory."

"Well, just between you and me… you are actually the most fun person to be around with here, you know, when you're not psychotic. If that was how Desiree was too then I think you're doing a pretty good job," Astra said. "You really need to tell me how to tame Lysander. He's a bit too wild sometimes."

Desiree chuckled. "Thank you, Astra. You know, I do feel better having talked to you about this. I hope you didn't have anywhere to be."

"Not really, but you do. There's a whole world out there for you to discover yourself and you have a family to help you do it. You couldn't be brave back then, that's fine, but be brave now. Take that step outside this room and confront your fears… or you risk losing both Desiree and yourself."

"Astra… that was pretty cool coming from you," Desiree said giving her a smile. It was a real one, not the sarcastic sickeningly sweet ones she used to give. If anything it showed that she was already taking that first step.

"Hey, I'm always acting pretty cool and don't you forget it. Oh, you don't need to leave immediately if you want to. Take your time," Astra insisted as Desiree tried to get up.

"I'm being put to bed by a newbie, how shameful of me," Desiree said, nevertheless allowing Astra to lay her onto her bed.

"You know, you still haven't told me your real name, Miss. Skye," Astra said, managing to slip the bed covers over Desiree's body.

* * *

_I know I just acted like a complete troll there and cut you off from knowing her name. Ah, it's probably not important anyway. So next time we'll be joining Sora and Luna again as they head to a new world. Oh and Big Hero 6 got announced for KH3! Looks like I made the right choice to use The Incredibles instead (few!). Anyway, until next time folks, see you then. _


	42. We Scare Because We Care

**Chapter 42**

**We Scare Because We Care**

The entire lounge fell silent as Desiree came into the room, or to be more precise, was dragged into the room by Astra. There was a delayed pop of bubble-gum from Jill and Lysander accidently tripped over the wires of his games console in an effort to join the rest of the group.

"You can do it. I promise you they won't think any different of you," Astra whispered in her ear and let go of her.

Desiree placed her arms on her dress nervously and looked from left to right before bowing as low as she possibly could.

"I am deeply sorry for worrying you all but there is something I must confess. Over the time we've spent together, you've been under the assumption that the Desiree you were talking to was the real one. I'm afraid I've led you astray in that regard. My name is not Desiree and I've lied to you about my past." Here she turned to Kohle specifically. "I'm sorry, Kohle. You put your trust in me and I let you down. So allow me to reintroduce myself. My name, or at least the one my adopted parents found on my tag, is-"

"Hold up." Kohle put his hand forward to stop her before resting it on his armchair. "Did you think we'd really accept that apology?"

"I- that is to say…"

"What exactly do you need to apologize for?" Desiree let out a small gasp of surprise as Kohle smiled at her. "The way I see it, we all have secrets that we'd rather keep to ourselves. Having personal space to ourselves is a basic necessity even when you're amongst family. Besides, even if I heard your real name I'd probably end up calling you Desiree anyway through force of habit."

"Yeah, Dessie's a pretty cool name anyway and I'd have to think of a different nickname," Salome said supportively.

"Because you haven't ruined enough names in the universe," Alfonso murmured sarcastically.

"Aw, there's always a place for you in my heart Fonnie," Salome teased with her finger only for Alfonso to swipe it away with his hand.

Rhea hugged her arms and stood up. "I think when we all entered Moira's Crescent we knew fully well that would mean leaving behind our past lives. I don't think any of us are the same now as we were back then. Because of that, I don't think we can ever say we have a definitive self. So if you're conflicted, that's only to be expected. None of us know who we really are, but we know what we are. We're family which means we stick together."

"Aw, that made me feel all warm and cuddly inside. Couldn't have said it better myself, Ray-Ray," Salome replied.

"Well I guess that settles it. Looks like you're officially Desiree for the foreseeable future. Looking forward to working with you, partner," Vyce said with a small smile.

"Everyone… thank you. I promise you I- Desiree Elegia Skye will do her best to keep you from worrying about her," Desiree said with a polite curtsy.

"Well now that we've settled that, I've decided to go ahead and hold a conference meeting for the end of the week. I think we should do this democratically so I've decided to hold a vote, one to decide whether we should pursue Sora or not," Kohle said.

The response to this was varied. Astra for example had put on a confident look at the mention of Sora's name while the girl next to her, Desiree, seemed troubled by this. She could already tell there would be no unanimous decision.

It was for this reason that Kohle continued on quickly. "But there's no need to think about that now. Instead, I have a mission of the utmost priority. As such I've designated it a level four."

Excitement soon replaced the conflicted looks around the room. Astra, not sure what Kohle had meant, whispered her confusion to Desiree.

"Each assignment is designated by a rank or level to indicate its importance. In this case, a level four is the second highest level a mission can achieve. It's not something we've gotten in a while," Desiree explained.

"Rhea has already elected to be one of the two people I'm sending on this mission and I'll need another. Astra, you seem to have taken to Rhea as your sparring partner, would you be willing to go?"

"If it's thrilling, heck yeah I'll go!" Astra answered, punching her fist into her palm. "To… where now?"

"Intelligence gathered by Alfonso has revealed that there is a world out there that acts as a crossroad, a link between that world and others," Kohle started.

"Sounds like a weird world. Wait, can it go to any world?" Salome asked, leaning out of her chair.

"The links in that world are represented by doors. From what I've seen there are thousands of them alike," Alfonso said.

"Wow, now I'm kinda jealous. Never thought I'd find doors so interesting," Salome said.

"Pretty solid evidence has revealed to us that KRONOS has infiltrated that world and is using it to send Heartless into other worlds. That probably includes worlds that the Heartless would not normally be able to get into, ones that are too far for the darkness to reach. It's certainly possible that our world is among those doors and if they were to find it, it would be a big problem for us. Your mission is to infiltrate the factory where these doors are and do whatever you can to eliminate whatever presence KRONOS has in that world. If we succeed, not just our world but many others will be saved and the Heartless will have very few places to hide."

"In other words, failure isn't an option. Understood!" Astra said. Her mind wasn't fully on the mission though but what Rhea had said.

They were family…

She had never thought of herself as part of the family. She was afraid to think of it because she feared it meant losing Luna. If there ever was a time when she had to decide whether to stand by Luna or Moira's Crescent she would have picked Luna, or so she thought at first. Now, she wasn't so sure. She had enjoyed her time here and they had treated her as if they'd known her their whole lives. It was the family she wished she had unlike her own dad who hadn't even cared.

"I'll do my best to support you on the field, Astra. But I'm afraid I'll need you to be constantly talking to me or guiding me since… well, you know…" Rhea said.

"Right, are you really sure it's okay to come? I mean, don't feel like you _have _to do it," Astra asked out of concern. A blind person navigating a place they were familiar with was one thing, but a completely new environment was another thing entirely.

"I need to spread my legs a little every now and then. Also I'm very curious about these doors and why such a world exists in the first place," Rhea explained her thoughts. "Will you be okay, Desiree?"

"Well let's just say I've decided to have Kohle treat me to some amazing French delicacies. Let's see, I haven't had Foie gras in a while, oh, and my mother always did make the best crème brûlée, I simply must have that too!"

"Wait as second, I didn't agree to that!" Kohle protested in a high pitched voice.

"Which is why I clearly said _I've decided_, so that you did not have to. Now come along Kohle, I simply must see your reaction once you've tasted our delicious delicacies, or I suppose I can just go back to my room sullen and-"

"No, no, no, that will be fine."

"And… you will be paying of course?"

"Huh? I figured that you would have the munny since you asked for it-"

"The room, then…"

"Of course I'll pay! Let me just get the munny from my room."

Astra stood completely startled by this strange conversation and by the time it was finished, looked to Salome. "Daaaaamn, this chick managed to put the boss on a leash? Are you sure she isn't the leader here?"

Salome laughed. "If Dessie were in charge I don't think any of us would be here right now."

* * *

Sora rested his chin on the console panel and stared at the puzzle box in front of him for what must have been the hundredth time, but now it was with more meaning. Before, he had nothing he could associate the puzzle box with except mystery. It was a mystery that he hadn't been able to solve since he had received it from the gods on Olympus roughly eight months ago. Eight months… had it really been that long? It had been nine months since he had first met Luna. In those nine months he had experienced so much that it seemed almost impossible for one person to experience that much in a year let alone a lifetime.

He had received one more surprise just before he, Luna and Stephanie had entered the Gummi Ship in the form of the woman who had helped them and the Parr family escape Nomanisan Island.

"You two are very interesting indeed. Now I see why KRONOS picked you," Mirage said, a strange way to introduce one's self but it served to bring out Sora and Luna's Keyblades at the mention of KRONOS which was probably what she wanted.

"Mirage… wasn't it? What are you doing here? Don't tell me you were snooping?" Sora asked.

"I couldn't help it. As I was watching you fight with that other Keyblade wielder, you just had me wrapped around your little finger the entire time, powerless to resist," Mirage said. "Much like my former boss, I'm drawn to power, or at least I was anyway."  
"_Was_?"

Mirage's seductive smile relaxed into a gentler one. "I've come to learn that there are more powerful things in the world than power in its raw form. The virtues associated with having family and friends, for one."

"And power is what attracted you to KRONOS in the first place?" Luna asked.

"I've only heard what I have about them from Syndrome. I'm not among KRONOS' inner circle, but he was and he told me a lot of things that you might be interested to know," she replied.

"Why are you helping us? Not that we don't appreciate it if you do but… you were with our enemy so I guess what am I saying is I need proof I can trust you," Sora said.

"Then you'll be happy to hear what I have to say next. KRONOS is seeking a particular world, one they think contains the oldest known secret in the universe."

"Atlantis?" Luna asked suddenly, shocking both Mirage and Sora.

"So you know about it then?" Mirage confirmed for her.

Luna shook her head. "We've been hearing about it a lot quite recently. I just had a feeling it would come up sooner or later again."  
"But the oldest known secret in the universe? What's that even supposed to mean?" Sora asked.

"I'm not sure. My Master only told me that in order for the world to be revealed, a special kind of key is needed. It's not like your Keyblades— they won't be able to reveal the pathway to it. It's an ancient puzzle box of some kind."

That was when both Sora and Luna had realized that what they held in their hands was more than some mystical box that couldn't open. Its purpose probably wasn't that it was supposed to open up but rather open a way to a fabled lost world.

There was only one thing that didn't quite make sense to him though and it had been bugging him ever since he had gotten on the Gummi Ship. When Sora had asked Mirage to explain what KRONOS was in more detail, she told him that they took up the name after Maleficent had been defeated in the Alexander she had taken over. They had been planning a coup to overthrow her for some time but Sora and Luna had indirectly helped them speed up the process. So they were the same group, Sora got that part. But Abraxas had also been in that group and he had supposedly been the one who had given the box to the gods. If he, and by further extension KRONOS, already had the key then why had he just given it up to Sora instead. Had he not known the key's secret at the time or was it that he hadn't cared about KRONOS at all? That he had been working only for himself and sabotaging them from the inside? When thinking about Abraxas' actions throughout, that definitely seemed the most plausible scenario.

Sora leaned his head back against the chair's headrest and spun the chair around to see Kupopo floating into the room.

"Were you able to finish Goofy's shield?" Sora asked.

Kupopo bopped his head up and down. "It's new and improved! I'd say it could withstand almost any attack, kupo. Compared to the last shield, this one is made out of sixty five percent orichalcum amongst other hardened materials which are pretty resistant to most attacks. I have to say flying with you guys is pretty swag, kupo. Some of the junk we find in the sea between worlds contain some pretty rare materials. I don't think I'd be able to make this kind of shield without them."

"Then it's a good thing we brought you. Wait a second, did you just say swag?" Sora asked slightly disgruntled.

"I'm trying to sound all hip and cool with the kids these days, kupo. Am I doing a good job?" Kupopo asked.

Sora blinked repeatedly and formed multiple expressions on his face before finally settling on one. "If you're trying to appease an idiot maybe, yeah."

Just as he finished saying this, Luna and Stephanie ran into the room followed by Goofy and a tired Donald. Luna seated herself next to Sora and began spinning around with a grin.

"And what's got the eager beaver excited?" Sora asked.

"I had a great dream last night, but I'm not telling what it was about," Luna teased in a sing-song voice.

"So better than mine then. I don't even feel like sleeping half the time because I know that my dreams aren't going to be pleasant," Sora said with a smile. Despite his contrary words, he wasn't going to let his nightmares get him down or ruin the current mood. He told himself that he was going to try and be happy from now on and he wanted his actions to reflect his words.

"Sora, you need to stop thinking too much. Isn't that what you told me?" Luna reminded him.

"I try not to. Hopefully sticking around the positive energy that you guys have will help get my mind of certain things though," Sora said. He let out a yawn and looked at the window to see a world becoming increasingly bigger as they got closer to it.

"This world seems new, but according to the scanner it's… special," Donald said before giving an alarming quack that caused everyone to jump in shock.

"Holy mother of Kingdom Hearts, Donald, what was that for?" Sora asked, letting his voice crack halfway through.

"Er, you'll see once we get there, heh… heh heh," Donald replied with shifty eyes.

Their latest predicament had sent Sora howling with laughter like a hyena. Adversely, Luna let out a scream and was on the verge of tears. This all combined with Stephanie's shrill giggles and clapping made for quite a nuisance for those heading into the giant building right next to them. Indeed, a few heads were already starting to turn their way, but this only had the paradoxical effect of causing Sora and Stephanie to laugh more and Luna to scream more.

"Ah! I'm surrounded by furries! Forget that, I am one. AGAIN! Donald, what did you do?" Luna cried out in a panic.

"Hey, don't have a go at me! I told you this world was special. Plus, it's the magic that decides what we change into when we enter a world, I have no control over it," he defended himself promptly before getting a good look at himself, clearly not pleased with his own form.

They had all somehow turned into monsters. Luna had grown a lot of hair all over their body, not that she hadn't experienced something similar before with the Pride Lands but at least back then she had taken the form of an animal so it had been a pretty cool experience. This was something else entirely however. She had kept her human body but now resembled some kind of hairy beast with two triangular shaped ears on the top of her head as opposed to the side. She was not amused… at all.

Sora and Stephanie on the other hand had come out looking much better. Stephanie looked like a cute little lizard with purple scales covering her body while Sora was merely painted blue, had a unicorn horn poking out of his forehead and a tail waggling behind him. Adding in Donald being an octopus and Goofy looking like a werewolf and Luna felt stupid.

"W-well can we at least keep moving then? People are staring," Luna pointed out. She could at least count on her new fur to hide her blush if anything. "Though I have to say, this reminds me of a series I read once when I was in elementary school. It was about a group of friends who were able to transform into any animal by touching them. At night, I would spend time thinking about what kind of animal I would be if I could pick only one. In the end though it was my mom who picked for me. She gave me two choices to pick between, a realistic one and a mythical one. The realistic one was a cat."

"Hmm, I can see that. As in, right now, you literally look like a cat lady," Sora said before giggling along with Stephanie.

"And it gets even better! Now I really need a mirror. Or maybe I don't even want to know." Luna looked down at her hands and saw that they had indeed been turned into paws with. If she had whiskers under her nose then that would pretty much confirm it. Her eyes wandered downward as far as they could manage to make out some fine strands of long hair sticking out from the rest… okay, she was done.

"What was the mythical animal, sis?" Stephanie asked.

"A phoenix. I can't really see myself as that kind of mythical creature though so I think my mom was wrong on that one. I've always wanted to be some kind of bird though if I could pick any animal," Luna answered.

"Well I'm sure your mom must have seen something in you that would suggest otherwise. I think you've done a pretty good job coming out of this considering what's happened to you," Sora said.

"What kind of animal would you want to be, Sora? I'd want to be a butterfly," Stephanie said.

"A lion, no question about it. Though that's probably a boring answer since I've already been one," Sora said. "Hey Donald, what animal would you want to- oh wait!"

"Ha ha, very funny. And at least you didn't pick a shark," Donald said. "Anyway, let's hurry on and find out what this place is exactly. It looks like some kind of factory."  
As Donald had pointed, up ahead was a giant looming factory that seemed to take up a considerable plot of land. The only thing on the building that hinted at what took place in the factory was the giant emblem above the entrance depicting a blue 'M' and an eye in the middle. It wasn't exactly much to go on so they continued on inside to the lobby, a clean yet busy room seeming to veer off into different directions.

They reached the front desk and waited for a… a purple one-eyed monster with long thick hair that looked like snakes, except they didn't look like snakes, they actually were snakes.

"This is just too weird for my poor brain to comprehend," said Goofy.

"Monster's incorporated, we scare because we care. How may I help you?" asked the female receptionist.

"Oh- um, this place is called Monster's incorporated?" Sora asked a little baffled. He had just witnessed a strange creature with spikes coming out of its back walking past.

"That is what I just said. Did you really come here without knowing where you were?" Miss Hiss (Sora had just picked the name after being unable to look away from the receptionist's living hair) asked.

"We're kind of new here. We were just looking around town and um- heard this was a popular tourist attraction," Luna made up on the fly.

"I see. To be honest, you guys aren't the first who've come here today and have acted like you have no idea where you were. I guess it must be one of those strange days. Well we usually do tours for visitors in the afternoon. It's about an hour and a half from now so you've arrived a bit early I'm afraid…"

"Oh, schmoopsie-poo, it's no problem at all. You weren't planning to send them away, were you?"

The introduction of two more strange creatures made Sora cough loudly in order to cover what would be giggles struggling to let rampant. The one who had spoken was a small and round green alien also with one eye and two small gray horns on its head. Next to him was perhaps his exact opposite. Despite its big and muscular countenance, his gentle smile seemed to provide warmness and sincerity. He was blue and furry with purple spots on all but the front of his body. It was strange to Sora that despite looking anything but human, these creatures seemed to have the most human of traits about them, not from their appearances but personalities. He could very easily guess that the green one was the suave and wise cracking one while the blue one was quite laidback and calmer.

"Of course not, googley bear. But I can't exactly take them on a tour to see the factory either during scaring hours," Miss Hiss replied in much the same loving tone this googley bear had shown her. Sora couldn't really say he looked like a bear but then again, it was possible that bears looked like this in this world so he wouldn't say anything about it just yet.

"Don't worry, we'll take full responsibility for them, won't we, Sully?" Googley Bear nudged his blue friend in the waist.

"Uh, don't you think we have enough on our hands already, Mike? You know, what with the ixnay on the id kay?" Sully mumbled.

"Sully, please, I have no idea what you just said," Googley Bear, or Mike said before greeting the newcomers. He quickly explained that he would be taking care of them despite his supposed girlfriend not having agreed to it yet. Before they could leave however, Luna placed her hands on the table.

"Sorry, do you have a pamphlet for this place?" Luna asked. She figured the first thing to do in any new world was to gather as much information as they could about it. They needed to be prepared for any and all potential problems, unlike the last world they'd been to.

Miss Hiss moved her squid-like hands under the desk before presenting her with a very detailed pamphlet with information on both sides. It was in this pamphlet that she learned a little bit more about what they did at this factory, and what it was shocked her to core. The pamphlet started off rather simply by stating that the factor was the major energy provider to the nearly 15,000 homes and facilities in the city of Monstropolis. In other words, if something bad happened to the factory then a lot of people—or rather monsters— would lose their supply of energy. It seemed weird to Luna that they would rely on one source of energy for the entire city. In her own world, people sometimes did things called strikes where they would stop coming to work if they didn't agree with how their profession was being run and it was well within their rights to do so. She didn't know if that applied here but she kept it in mind and continued on reading.

When she reached the rather unconventional method of extracting the energy to supply to the city, her eyes froze on two words. It didn't even make sense to her. The concept seemed impossible and yet here she was reading it like it seemed perfectly normal.

"Excuse me. You supply energy to the city through… uhm, the screams of children?" she asked with some difficulty.

"Not just any children. Human children!" Mike exclaimed proudly as if this revelation would somehow have made the idea sound any less insane. "Don't worry, Sully's been the top scarer here ever since we first came here. You're looking at employee of the month material right here, and of course personal trainer to employee of the month. Let's see… yep, we have a bit longer till lunch so why don't we head to the scare floor and have Sully give you a demonstration?"

"Mike, I really don't think we have time for this. We need to find-"

"I'll handle it," Mike said through gritted teeth to his friend before gesturing for the group to follow them. They were all entirely hesitant at first for the same reason. Using children's scares to supply energy seemed incredibly stupid and even if, in some strange way that they couldn't imagine, it made sense then it still sounded completely unethical. But it was that danger that naturally invited curiosity anyway and so they followed without a further word.

They soon learned the full name of the creatures who had taken them under their care. The supposedly green bear who looked nothing like one had introduced himself as Mike Wazowski (or as Stephanie had taken to calling him after he had said it, "Just call me Mike") while his friend, James P. Sullivan, simply referred to himself as Sully for short.

They soon encountered a lengthy security check which involved being sprayed with some weird chemical by the security team. Even Mike and Sully had to be doused after failing to argue that they were on a busy schedule.

"What was that about? They were treating us like we were criminals or something," Sora said after deeming what was a safe distance to bring up the topic.

"Uh, no idea, right, Sully?" Mike awkwardly eyed the bigger creature, not seeming to realize that he just made it look all the more suspicious. Of course Sully was just as eager to play along, confirming that they were indeed hiding something.

"Are you sure? They said they were from the… Child Detection Agency? Who're they?"

"You don't need what the CDA is? What kind of hole have you been living in? No offence but I don't think I've ever come across a monster who hasn't heard of them," Mike said.

"So you do know something?" Luna skilfully eluded the question and turned it back on them.

Mike and Sully flashed each other a quick look, possibly hoping that their guests wouldn't have noticed. Before they could say anything, a hand was placed against Sully's back which sent him jumping in fright.

"Oh, got you good there, huh? I guess I've still got some scare in me," said the creature with a chuckle. He was a gray and blue crab-like figure with six legs and three smaller eyes above his two main ones. Sora was about to curiously peek around him more to get a better observation but Luna held him back from possibly doing he would regret.

"Mr. Waternoose, sir. Yeah, yeah you got me pretty good there, ha ha," Sully answered nervously.

"Why so stiff? You need to relax those muscles if you want to really let that side of yours out. To tell you the truth though, I can sympathize with you there. Oh, it's been a mess today what with security being ramped up due to that intruder," said Waternoose.

"Intruder, sir?" Luna enquired curiously. Waternoose paused on her for a moment and then the rest of them before smiling.

"The CDA believe that a human may be in the facility which is why you were searched before you could come through. It's a very dangerous affair having a human, especially a child, in the facility. They're toxic and can contaminate the factory. If the CDA were indeed to discover a child here, then the factory would have no choice but to close down. The hundreds of people here would lose their jobs and the city would lose its source of energy. It's why I can't let the existence of a child be made public less it causes a panic," he explained.

"But you thought you could tell us?" Sora asked.

"Well when it comes to visitors, I don't really expect them to gab about it in public. As for my fellow employees, if there's anyone I trust more here, it's Mr. Sullivan here. He's a fine example of a dedicated worker who puts his all into his work."

"That's rather kind of you, sir. I'll be sure to make you proud," Sully said with a sad smile.

"Well, I should get back to doing some paperwork. Lots to do and so little time. Do enjoy yourselves here at Monster's incorporated. You're under the care of the best," Waternoose told them, albeit tiredly. He gave Sully one final pat on the back before disappearing off down the hallway.

"Children are… toxic?" Stephanie asked out loud.

* * *

_The pixar love is real right now. Anyway, time for one of my favorite pixar movies and a perfect fit for Kingdom Hearts and this story in particular I've decided. As always, do provide feedback where necessary and have fun reading!_


	43. Boo

**Chapter 43**

**Boo**

A small ding signalled that the elevator had reached the Scare Floor. After going past a couple of room in which they could only just see the odd angle or so, they arrived at one which said Scare Floor F. As they entered, they were swept away by how many doors there were in one room. The door had nothing to be attached to except for the metal bindings that were holding them upright by their sides, and ostensibly it didn't seem like the doors led anywhere at all and yet monsters of all kinds were visibly walking through them and not reappearing on the other side.

"Uh, sorry to walk out on you guys like this but I have some er- business, to take care of. Sulley, can you show them all the ropes while I'm gone?" Mike asked. He quickly handed Sulley something small.

"Of course, Mike, do feel free to er- do your… business," Sulley replied with a smile. It all felt incredibly fake and orchestrated but Luna said nothing. She had a pretty rough idea anyway about what they were hiding, and if she was right then she didn't want to say it out loud.

As per his word, Mike went back out the same way he came leaving Sulley with his guests. He led them towards his station meanwhile responding to everyone who walked past and greeted him.

"You're very popular, aren't ya? Then again you've been the top scarer ever since you first came here? That's pretty impressive!" Goofy said.

Sulley shrugged it off however with a simple smile. "It's all in day's work. Here, let me show you how it's done."

He held up a card-key to show them and slid the part with the magnetic strip down the slot on the panel. It did not take long before a door came down from the rail above and placed itself within the confines of the safety bindings.

"So you won't be able to see it so much, but just keep your eyes on that." Sulley pointed to a yellow canister on the side of the door that was labelled 'Scream Extractor'. "The energy that I collect from scaring the kid is converted into energy and goes straight into that canister which then gets shipped and supplied to whole city. It's a pretty convenient way of gathering energy, and it's renewable. Can't beat that!"

"Convenient, huh? Is it really?" Luna's voice was dripping with sarcasm but she hardly seemed to notice it. "So these doors lead to…"  
"Children's bedrooms. When they're sleeping at night, they best be prepared for a fright as they say."

"I don't think anyone in the history of forever has said that," Luna said, clearly not impressed. Sulley seemed flustered at this, possibly wondering why her harsh tone. It took Sora to break up the tension.

"W-why don't you give us that demonstration? I'm really excited to see it!" he exclaimed a little too over joyously. It didn't matter how he had said it because it had done its job. Sulley was all too happy to step away from Luna's piercing glare.

"Well… wish me luck," Sulley said although if his credibility was really as authentic as it was claimed to be, he wouldn't exactly need it. He stepped into the door and closed it behind him, leaving the group by themselves for the short while.

"I must say, even though we end up having to break the rules because of it, I quite enjoy this Luna who rarely pops up," Sora said.

"Well I don't care much for scaring children just to make your own life more secure, no matter how many people benefit from it. Don't tell me you've never had the feeling that something was under your bed or watching from your closet before when you were a kid?"

"Well I proud myself on having a pretty active imagination, and I've had dreams of running away from giant teachers- oh, and a giant spider was in my room at one point and attacked me but those were just dreams. I can't say I thought of them as being real," Sora informed them.

"Don't worry, sis. I was afraid of the dark for a while but mom eventually told me I had nothing to fear," said Stephanie in an effort to cheer Luna up.

"Yeah, my mom used to tell me that too. She said that it was actually the monsters that were afraid of us because we had something that they didn't, something they couldn't understand… do you think that's why the Heartless go after people?" Luna asked.

"Because they're afraid? That's a bit farfetched, don't you thi-" But something stopped Sora in his tracks. He remembered a conversation that had taken place during his last visit to Traverse Town. "Actually, you could be right about that. Mitsuki Konishi, one of the Reapers in that dumb _game _of theirs, made me think of it. The Heartless can sense the true capabilities of the human heart and because of it they fear their lack of it or lack of knowledge anyway. It's weird to think that the Heartless actually fear us from the way they act but if they do then I was thinking that was something we could strive for. We can't always be there for everyone, we can't be in two places at once so why not make it our mission to teach people to not be afraid of them? It's the most powerful weapon we can give them, I think."

"Yeah, it was because of fear that those things in Traverse Town happened. The Reapers wanted to control human thought and emotions through fear and they would have succeeded if we hadn't stopped them. I never want to see something like that happening again," Luna agreed. "You must have been thinking of our conversation about the Notre Dame cathedral and how it must have taken so many people to build it."

"It was their legacy. So spreading hope will be ours," Sora said.

"Then if that's the case, you know that means starting here and now. How can we even condone something like this? I don't care if it makes this city happy, it's wrong!" Luna said.

"Luna, I don't think we know this world to the point where we can claim it's wrong. They might have no choice in the matter. Not that I'm defending it but we're in their world so we abide by their rules, even if we may not like everything they do," Sora said.

"I guess. It's true that I get a little riled up about it sometimes. It's just that when I see something that seems wrong to me, I want to change it for the better. I guess I've read too many books where the protagonists can simply change the outcome of whatever they want," Luna admitted.

"Hey, it's no worry. We're all like that. It's just that the world needs to breathe in order for it to change and the only way that can happen is if it occurs naturally. You can't force it otherwise you might as well be admitting that you give the people who live in this world too little credit. We have to have faith that they can change things themselves."

"Wow, you've suddenly become some sort of philosopher, huh, Sora?" Goofy said with a grin. Sora smirked before looking at the yellow canister. A hissing sound had escaped from the canister and they could see a red light filling up the scale on the canister all the way to the top within mere seconds.

Sully soon stepped out of the room, and they only heard the loud scream of a child for a second before the door was closed behind him shutting out the sound entirely. For a while, no one knew how to react. Luna was clearly appalled at this while Stephanie moved to hide behind Goofy. It would be very easy to lose it and start ranting at Sulley, drawing the entire attention of the room in the process, which is exactly why Sora had to put on a little show as quickly as possible.

He recovered from his stupor and started clapping. "That was great. I'm assuming that thermometer looking thing on the canister is the how much energy you've collected then?"

"Yup. While most employees can only manage to fill theirs about halfway on their first door, I don't usually need a second," Sulley answered.

"You haven't seen anything out of the ordinary lately, have ya?" Goofy asked. "Like strange creatures that you haven't seen before for example."

"Huh? Yeah… yeah, those have been popping up a lot for a while. They generally don't do anything though. It's kind of like they just come and go. Not sure what the deal is there," Sulley said.

"They don't attack? That's weird…" voiced Donald.

"I'm sorry to cut our tour short, but I need to find Mike and ask him about something. You're more than welcome to watch the other scarers at work until we're back," Sulley said.

Luna stepped forward and gave an innocent smile. "That wouldn't have anything to do with the intruder here, would it?"

The expression on Sulley's face froze in a most dramatic way. He blinked for a few seconds and then smiled falsely.

"What are you talking about? I don't anything about any intruder?"

Luna put a finger to her lips to quieten him before whispering. "It's okay. We can keep a secret. We can help if you'd like."

"Help? No, I couldn't ask that of you guys. You're just visitors," Sulley refused politely.

"We do more than visit usually. Trust us, it's no big deal," Sora said.

"It's kind of what we do even though we're not supposed to do it," Donald said, frowning at Sora.

Sulley seemed apprehensive at first but soon bent down and approached them with a low voice. "There's a kid, a human called Boo and she's somewhere in here. We didn't mean for it to happen, she just clung to my back as I was leaving her room without me noticing. Now she's somewhere in the factory and Mike's gone off to find her."

Sora crossed his arms and stared up at the ceiling. "Boo? Her parents can't be _that_ cruel?"

"No, that's what _we_ call her. Anyway, if Mr. Waternoose or the DNA find out about it, our gooses are cooked."  
"She couldn't have gotten too far. She's only a child after all. Then again, because she's so small it might be harder to find her…" Luna pondered before turning to Stephanie. "It's okay Steph, you can come out. I have a question for you. It's pretty strange but if you were in a factory or a similar building and we were playing hide and seek, where would you hide?"

Stephanie stepped to the side of Goofy and gave a curious hum. "Well, when my friends and I played hide and seek at school, I would always hide in the boys' toilets."

"Uh… what?!" Sora, Donald, Goofy and Luna exclaimed in unison.

Stephanie giggled at them. "Hehe, just kidding. It was the girls' toilets. The stalls were always a good place to hide. Wow, you should see the look on all your faces right now."

"Uh huh… well, ignoring that weird joke you do have a point. Since we don't really know the layout of the factory, I think it's best if we stick together. Let's head to the toilets," suggested Luna.

* * *

The announcement that it was lunch time soon rang throughout the building. It was also the signal for Astra and Rhea's mission to begin. Having successfully located the doors in the early morning, all that was left was to check the doors out while the scare floor was vacant of employees and then somehow shut them down.

Astra looked down at her own hands. To her, they were her own, human and fleshy and all the other bits and pieces that made her as such. Supposedly to the eyes of the monsters native to this world however, she looked completely different. She couldn't begin to even imagine how they saw her or Rhea as, but the magic had been incredibly effective because no one had turned a suspicious glance their way since they had entered. Rhea's magic was definitely something else.

Once the last hint of life had left the room, Astra took hold of Rhea's hand and led her into the room.

"Are all the doors still there?" Rhea asked with her eyes closed.

"Yeah. Who knows for how long they'll all be gone so we have to act quickly," Astra said.

"You're the only one who can check them. Tell me what you see," Rhea said. Astra nodded and went over to the first door. She opened it up and described it exactly as she saw it.

It was a child's bedroom, smaller than Astra's own but that was to be expected, she had taken her grandmother's room after she had passed away and her previous room was not much bigger than this, in fact it was probably a little smaller. There were a lot of toys on the ground and posters of some famous celebrity that Astra's didn't recognize on their wall. There was a window nearby from which she could hear the crashing of waves.

Astra put one step in and stood on the tip of her toes to look at the child sleeping in the bed. What luck it was for Astra to recognize her as well, and the blue alien thing that was sleeping next to her. She wanted to laugh at the strange coincidence that this had been the first door she had opened but she remained silent, stepped back out quickly and closed the door for fear of waking them both up.

"So then they do lead to other worlds? The report was right," Rhea said after Astra had recounted what she'd seen. "Could you check the next… two I'd say, please? I need to confirm something."

Astra nodded having forgotten Rhea's blindness momentarily before checking up on the two doors following the one she had first picked and then reporting to Rhea.

"I see. So they're all children's rooms, or at least the ones in this room are," Rhea said.

Astra seemed confused by Rhea's hinting of something more. "What do you mean? It's a factory where they supply energy by using children's screams, right?"

"Ostensibly, yes. But things aren't always as they seem. The original report that Alfonso gave stated that there were hundreds, possibly even thousands of doors. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the doors led to places other than bedrooms."

"So we just need to find the place where all the doors are then. If it's even accessible from here anyway," Astra said.

"If we had some schematics of the building we would be better placed to act but since we don't…"

"Argh, Alfonso could have mapped down the building while he was investigating. It's a high ranking mission! Give us as little info as possible to go on, why don't you?" Astra ranted to herself.

"Astra, I hear something. Someone's coming," Rhea said. Her impressive range of hearing once again astounded Astra who hadn't even heard anything until after she had mentioned it. Then again, she had been too busy fuming to even acknowledge anything outside her field of vision.

Astra took Rhea's hand once again and led her behind one of the doors seeing as there weren't many other places they could hide. They soon heard at least the sound of three voices as they came into the room. Astra peered out from her hiding spot and took in the three figures. She recognized all three of them.

"Do not forget that this is my company! Do you have the slightest idea how many skeletons in the closet I've had to bury in order to maintain this company's reputation, the one that my father built with his own two hands?" hissed Waternoose, who Astra had seen a picture of next to his father early on while searching with Astra. "I will not let it all go to ruin just to ensure your silly plan goes through!"

"Did you not choose to sign up for KRONOS of your own volition? Oh do be sure that you will face a lot more than a reputation or two being ruined if you betray us now," warned Gantu with a finger pointing upwards. Astra had met him when she had encountered Sora on the beach in Kauai. It confirmed that the place had been infiltrated by KRONOS as well.

Waternoose scowled and looked away for a second before looking straight at the door Astra was hiding behind. Astra quickly tucked her head back in before he could spot her.

"Tough luck there pal, looks like you're stuck with us!" The other person who had been in Kauai, Pete, let out a laugh that lacked any sympathy.

"As long as you abide by your word, KRONOS will allow you to hold onto your factory," Gantu continued. "And you of course will naturally benefit without having to do a single thing. Just keep making sure that the doors are here at night and the Heartless will do the rest."

"No, you're not listening. There's only so much I can do right now. I'm being constantly monitored by the CDA and if they discover even a scrap of evidence linking me to this, they will shut this place down. That and the funds I've been getting from KRONOS have suddenly stopped."

"There have been some complications in that regard. The source where we got the original funds from has been… crippled, no doubt due to those cursed Keybearers," Gantu explained. "When I find them, they'll pay for what they did to me last time!"

"Just so long as you don't bring it here," Waternoose dismissed with a shaking head. He turned and made to scuttle back out of the room but paused and looked back at them. "I suppose you'll be making yourselves comfortable then until further notice?"

"But of course. Don't worry, we won't impede on your work. Just ignore us and it will be as if were never there to begin with," Gantu told him. Waternoose seemed sceptical as would probably any person but he kept his mouth shut and took Gantu's advice, walking out of the room as if he didn't even notice the two baddies following in his wake.

Astra waited for a few more seconds in case they came back and then guided Rhea out from behind the door once she was sure they were in the clear.

"So that's our confirmation right there. Well that was easy," said Astra.

"They mentioned that as long as the doors were here at night, the Heartless could do the rest. So that's when and how they get in," Rhea said. She had her eyes open again but the only thing she probably would be able to see is nothingness. When Astra had asked her about it while they were training, she had used an example of a person without blindness trying to see behind the back of their head. Whereas Astra had previously thought that Rhea saw only black, that wasn't exactly the case. She described it instead as being nothing rather than being black. In the same way that Astra could see nothing behind her if she didn't turn her head, Rhea could not see anything in any direction. Her brain could not process what black was and so she saw only nothingness. If Astra tried to close her own eyes however, she would see black because she was consciously aware of its existence. It was all incredibly strange to Astra and yet incredibly fascinating at the same time. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't imagine what it would be like to know not a world of blackness, but one of nothingness instead.

"So what's our next step?" Astra eventually asked.

"Well I was thinking… if we destroy these doors then we'll have cut the entire power to this city. A lot of people will have suffered and that's something we want to avoid at all costs. There might be something we can do but I'm not sure how it will pan out in the end. You remember one of them saying that if a scrap of evidence was found linking him to corruption then this CDA of theirs would remove him."

"So we try to find evidence then? But he also said that it might close down the factory, right? Isn't that the same as destroying the doors then if there's no one to supply the energy?" Astra asked.

"While that is a possibility I highly doubt the CDA would immediately shut down the city's top energy supplier. My guess is they would instate an interim person in charge of affairs while they launch a full scale investigation into possible deeper corruptions within in the factory. That's usually what happens in these circumstances anyway," Rhea said.

"You the type who likes to get involved in corporate scandals or something like that?" Astra asked while grinning.

"Involved? No, no, it just seemed obvious is all," Rhea replied, returning Astra's smile.

Astra feigned a wince. "Ooh, madam, you may have just wounded me."

"I hope it's not fatal. I'm not exactly the best when it comes to stitching up wounds for obvious reasons." Rhea stuck out her tongue playfully. "We don't usually do spying missions at Moira's Crescent so I guess this is a first. Let's take this slowly and look for a window of opportunity to gather evidence."

"And then we shove it in their faces and call it day. Sounds good to me," Astra said.

"Also, if we can find out more about KRONOS' location that will be incredibly good progress made," Rhea added.

With their plan set, all they had to do now was supposedly dig up these skeletons Waternoose was burying. Astra was sure it wouldn't be easy but they didn't really have a choice in the matter. She very much despised the Heartless. She had watched Alexander go to the flames while the Heartless had taken the opportunity to attack and kill innocent people. If there was any way she could help in getting rid of them, she would take it.

* * *

Sora peered under the toilet stall and, having seen very hairy legs, immediately regretted his decision. He mouthed a silent apology and backed away from the stall before leaving the bathroom. Donald was waiting outside with an annoyed look on his face. He didn't really see much point in being here especially when they could be looking for Kefka as they had been asked to do so. Though Sora suggested that they might find clues to his whereabouts while being here, Donald was apprehensive to believe that, stating that the only thing that could arise out of a situation like this was Luna "doing something silly" to get the factory shut down because of her disagreements with how it was run. Sora was sure that he knew Luna well enough to know that she had learned to choose her fights carefully and quoted something she had said to him once in reference to her rashness of mind: "Thought is free". He had to say that Luna's thoughts were certainly as free as a bird and free was probably the safest place for them to be.

They left the bathrooms and regrouped with Luna, Goofy and Stephanie who had been looking in the women's toilets. Their search had also proved unsuccessful, or at least that's what they thought at first. They had only taken a few steps when they heard a giggling from behind them, or more specifically from behind Luna. Having not adjusted to her new furriness, she had probably not even realized that a human child had been clinging to her back until she had been alerted to the child's presence by the others.

"Now how did you even get behind me without me noticing?" Luna asked her after Boo jumped off her back. The girl seemed to be wearing some kind of costume, no doubt to disguise her true nature from the other monsters in the factory. "I'm guessing Mike and Sulley put that on you?"

"Makes me wonder… what do you think they dress up as Halloween?" Sora pondered. "Because they already… they already are monsters so that kind of eliminates the point so do they dress up as… other monsters?"

"That is… not important right now. Let's just hand the kid back over to Sulley and get out of here," Donald said.

"Donald, you need to let loose and have fun once in a while. It's not fun if we're not all enjoying the moment," Luna replied. Donald issued a scowl in response and looked away. Luna ignored him and watched as Stephanie made her way over to Boo and introduced herself.

"I think that concept is lost on Donald. Trust me, Goofy and I have been trying to teach him it since we first started travelling together… though he does have his moments," Sora said. "But he's right that we can't stay here or we might look a bit suspicious. Let's head back to the Scare Floor. That's where Sulley told us to wait for them after our search, right?"

Luna gave a humming nod and with that they made their way down the empty corridor, retracing their steps back to where Sulley last left them.

They turned a corner just in time to see a Neo Shadow pop out of the ground and aggressively spin and knock a familiar looking face to the ground.

"Astra!" Luna reached forward and summoned her Keyblade but the girl next to Astra had already taken care of the problem. Her fine and delicately crafted silver Keyblade glistened under the fluorescent tubes on the ceiling. Her eyes were also closed strangely enough, even after she had taken the enemy out.

Boo had started laughing and clapping, and they weren't so sure it was just a coincidence that the lights on the ceiling started flickering wildly at the same exact time while also stopping the moment Boo ceased laughing.

"Who just called your name, Astra? Maybe my magic isn't as good as I thought it was," Rhea said sadly.

"No, that's not it. You said people from this world could only see us like them so..." Astra said, her eyes looking from the weird cat girl to her Keyblade. "Luna? Luna… what happened to your face?"

Now it was Astra's turn to release a howl of laughter. Luna pursed her lips tightly and crossed her arms while nodding. "Yeah, yeah, let it all out why don't you."

"I'm sorry. I'm so… snrk… okay, let me compose myself for bit." Astra breathed in and out deeply and then froze for a second before letting out more laughter. "Okay, I just can't. Now all we need is for you to do some cat puns."

"Oh, you've got to be kitten me," Luna said with a feisty grin.

"Oh dear, me thinks I'm a very bad influence on you," Astra said.

"A bad influence indeed. And that's my catchphrase by the way, so you can go pick a different one," Luna said.

"I didn't know 'oh dear' could be patented, my dear Luna. Who would have thought we'd have run into each other in a place like this?"

"Yeah, it's crazy. Um…" Luna looked at the girl next to Astra with a curious look on her face.

"Oh, I should probably introduce us. Luna, this is Rhea, another Keyblade wielder. Rhea, this is my best friend, Luna… and her other friends, um…"

"We're Sora, Donald and Goofy. Nice to meet ya!" Goofy said. Astra flinched and looked to Rhea quickly but the girl hadn't moved even a muscle at the mention of _his _name. In fact, she was still smiling.

"It's nice to meet you, Sora, Donald, Goofy. Luna, I've heard so many things about you from Astra here. She can't stop talking about you," Rhea said.

"That's Astra for you. She's the kind that can usually go on and on about something. The complete opposite of me really," Luna said.

"That's not true. She's a lot more talkative than me actually," Astra interjected.

"Only when I'm with you and my friends here," Luna said.

"So why are you here then?" Sora asked them with a searching gaze.

Before Astra could talk, Rhea walked past her with her arms extended out. They soon found themselves around Sora's face and she started moving them around, much to the discomfort and uncertainty of the spiky haired youth.

"You don't see this everyday now, huh?" Goofy asked, snickering along with Donald while Sora could only blush and make incoherent noises as Rhea fondled his face.

Eventually her hand dropped to her sides and Sora breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, sorry. You must think that extremely weird of me. I'm blind you see."

"Oh, sorry to hear that," Sora said.

"Don't worry. There's more to a person than their sight. I've learned to appreciate my other senses even more because of it," Rhea said. "Anyway, the reason Astra and I are here is because we think that the Heartless might be using the doors here to infiltrate other worlds. It turns out we were right. I suppose you could see this world as a conduit, one that allows many channels or paths into different worlds. This is certainly a world to keep an eye on, wouldn't you say?"

"I… guess?" Sora said. He was sure he knew who this person was and if so, why she was so interested in him specifically. If she wanted to gauge a reaction from him then the only way he could play it safely was to play dumb.

"Right. So we were wondering if you wouldn't mind helping us uncover the mystery of this factory. That wouldn't be a problem for you, right?"

Sora was sure of it then. She was definitely asking questions in order to learn as much as she could about him while sounding as innocent as possible. She wanted to know what kind of person he was, which she could judge from how he spoke and reacted to certain things. She had let slip the fact that because she was blind she had to hone her other senses. It was enough of a flag to make Sora realize what she was doing.

"Of course not, whatever we can do to help. So how exactly will we be helping then?" Sora asked.

"The head that runs this facility, Waternoose? He's apparently accomplices with KRONOS, or he very well may be part of their inner circle though nothing from the conversation Astra and I heard just a few minutes ago seems to indicate that. What we need is irrefutable proof that he's colluding with external forces. If we can somehow catch him in the act of doing something, then we'll be able to work more efficiently to stop those doors from being misused in the way they currently are."

"Aha! I knew there was _purrobably_ something fishy about this place," Luna said.

"You were just hoping that, weren't you? And you can stop with the puns now. We don't need a repeat of what happened back in Wonderland, do we?" Sora said.

"Aw, you got me." Luna grinned before stepping aside and bringing their attention to the girl next to Stephanie. "We have a problem of our own. This cute little munchkin here is Boo, uh, that's what the guys who found her are calling her, and she somehow found her way into the factory. She probably escaped from one of those doors so before we do anything risky, I want to make sure she's found her way back."

"We can do that. The scare floor is empty right now so you won't have a better opportunity than now," Rhea said. "Why hello there, Boo. How are you?"

"Er, Rhea, you're talking to a wall," Astra pointed out. Rhea let out an awkward laugh and turned to face Luna, who she assumed was somewhere near Boo since she had made reference to her. Boo ran up to her and gave Rhea a firm handshake with both her tiny hands.

"Ooh, she's very energetic as well. You might even end up braking off my arm," Rhea said. Sora had been watching her throughout this, analyzing her actions, her smile, everything he possibly could about her. She was such a stark contrast to Desiree and even Astra that it seemed hard to believe she could be a member of that group. He knew he was generalizing, which wasn't a good thing, but after finding out they wanted him out of the picture, how could he not be?

After Boo finally let go of Rhea's hand, both Astra and Luna led the way back to the Scare Floors meanwhile conversing and updating one another on the things they had seen across multiple worlds. It seemed that neither wanted to bring up anything that could possibly cause tension in the group hence not talking about their individual experiences with Moira's Crescent. To that end, the conversation was also very self-aware and somewhat forced while still sounding natural.

"Sora-"

"I know," Sora whispered back to Donald. They were both trailing behind everyone else and Sora had caught the suspicious glances that Donald had given Rhea earlier on. "She's one of them. Just… keep an eye on her… and Astra too, for now."

"You boys are taking your sweet time. Sheesh, I swear my grandmother could walk faster than you, and she needed a walking stick," Astra said having noticed them a considerable distance apart from the rest of the group.

Sora apologized quickly and increased the speed at which he was walking. It was Rhea this time, who slowed down in order to wait for Sora to reach her. When he had, she continued walking alongside him.

"You met Kyle, sorry, you knew him as Abraxas, right? How was he before he died?" Rhea asked.

"I don't really want to talk about it," Sora answered after a short pause. He didn't even so much as want to think of him. The only thing he could associate with that man was nothing but painful memories that were hard to stomach.

"I'm sorry. If we had known where he was sooner, we would have stopped him. It was only after we realized that he took a particular interest in you that we thought that if we kept an eye on you we would find him eventually," Rhea said.

"And then your people just killed him like it was nothing?" Sora whispered angrily. "I wanted answers from him. I deserved them, and what I ended up getting was more questions instead."

"You might not want to hear this but he was like family to us. Even now, he still is. The truth is that Kyle had died even before Salome and Alfonso took him out. He had fought with every bit of strength he had but in the end, the fires that Xehanort left behind had consumed him and he became Abraxas. His pain became our burden to shoulder, not yours," Rhea said.

"You're right. I didn't want to hear it," Sora said. "You telling me about some tragic backstory doesn't change the fact that the man I knew was a monster. Go after me, fine. But he's the reason Yeul's dead. He's the reason Ansem the Wise is dead and he's the reason Luna had to suffer in the Realm of Darkness for months. If you want sympathy, you won't get it from me."

"I'm not asking for sympathy. I'm asking you to understand, but I shouldn't have brought it up either way. Apologies," Rhea said.

"No, it's not your fault," Sora lied. He honestly just wanted to keep his emotions in check so as not to create any potential strains between him and Moira's Crescent if it were possible. They didn't seem to have any hostile intentions and it wasn't fair to place the actions of one man on someone who didn't have anything to do with it.

Instead he put on a smile and changed the topic. "Astra hasn't been that much trouble for you, has she?"

"Why would she be trouble? Well, I suppose she did find it hard to integrate at first, or it would probably be more accurate to say that she didn't want to. I think there's a part of her that still doesn't want to fully assimilate either. In her eyes, the way she can remain impartial and faithful to both us and Luna is to stand outside the hourglass," Rhea said.

"Hourglass? Someone I know mentioned something about that," Sora said.

"It's a pretty simple concept to understand. Its origins date back to sometime after the war when the idea of Keyblade wielders was finally repurposed as a force of maintaining balance. As you know there are two sides of an Hourglass. The side with which time has started and the side where that time ends up. But like everything, anything can be interpreted differently when given a context. In our terms, the two sides of the Hourglass represent light and dark and each individual grain of sand an individual heart. It's not within our right to manipulate that hourglass because when you do, the balance of light and dark is sent array."

"You're right, but why are you telling me this? You're a part of Moira's Crescent, aren't you?" Sora finally decided to get to the heart of the matter.

"Right now I'm not. I'm simply me and you're you. Neither of us are part of an organization at this moment in time but belong to ourselves with our own individual wills driving us forward," Rhea answered.

"That's an interesting way of seeing it. Hold on a sec," Sora took hold of her hand and turned left to follow the others, guiding her along with him.

"Thank you," Rhea said with a gentle smile. It pained him to think that if they ever met each other as enemies, that smile would have to vanish from the face of the earth, or perhaps even his own. That thought kept him believing in her words, even if they were a lie.


	44. The Other Way

_Another day (or night in my case), another addition to CotP. After playing MGSV for a while, I can finally take a break from that and do some writing. Hope you like the chapter and feel free to leave a review or follow for more from this and other stories._

* * *

**Chapter 44**

**The Other Way**

Luna, Astra and the others soon ran into Sulley and Mike, who looked absolutely mortified at the thought that some random monster might have found Boo, causing a panic.

"Absolutely no one, no one at all, saw her on your way here? You're sure?" Mike checked after they announced their presence and showed off Boo as proof of their success.

"I don't think so. Anything that happened before we found her though, I'm not sure," Luna said. She turned her head to look at Sora for a second before looking back at Mike and Sulley. "You… is this really the only way?"

"What do you mean? The kid?"

"No, not just her, I mean… all of… this." Luna pointed at the doors lining up down the room. For some reason, it immediately brought to her an unsettling image of tombstones in a graveyard. "Is there really no other option to get your energy? You have to use the doors?"

Mike's eyes narrowed in confusion. "You wouldn't happen to be an alien or something?"

"Excuse me, I'm not an alien, I'm a-"

"What my friend is asking here is have you explored any possible alternatives aside from just frightening little kids?" Astra interrupted. "I mean, look at Boo. What, she's… three years old now?"

"I don't see the problem in it. A whole lot of people rely on us to supply energy to them constantly and children's screams are pretty effective when it comes to that. I mean it's true that kids are becoming harder to scare and because of that we have a scare shortage on our hands and a bunch of perfectly good doors that are decommissioned. I'm sure it's just a short passing period. It happens every now and then," Mike explained. The way he talked and appeared, it really did seem that he had no idea why it was such a bad thing. Maybe he actually didn't. This world was just like any other out there, Luna had begun to realize. Ignorant, though not of their own fault, to the thoughts and feelings of others. Monsters they may be to Luna and her friends but they were only that by name to themselves. In their own standards, there was seemingly nothing wrong with what they were doing and she was the abnormal one for thinking differently.

"You keep using that excuse as if trying to justify your actions but that doesn't change anything for me. Just because it's good in your eyes doesn't mean that it's right. Anyway, let's just… send Boo home first before anything else. You do know her door, right?" Luna asked with a sigh of resignation.

"Of course we do." Mike flashed a giddy smile that said he was more than glad to be rid of Boo. Her door in particular turned out to be one of the doors that stood out amongst the others. This was due to the five floral shapes that had been painted on the bottom half of her door, one of them a lighter shade of violet than the rest.

"Well, it's been fun kid but you really need to be going back now. Chop chop!" Mike tried to usher Boo forward but she let out a whimper, shook her head and ran behind Rhea. Now that Luna thought about it, Boo could probably see her and Astra in human form too.

"Is there something wrong, Boo?" Rhea asked. She bent down to wrap her arm around the small girl in support. Boo put up her hands and started roaring and walking around in circles mechanically, one foot in front of the other each time.

Donald frowned and shook his head. "We're wasting our time here."

"You said it," Mike agreed. "Who cares what the sultana needs now? We're at the home stretch now, baby. We really need to do this now otherwise Randall will have our heads and-"

"Wait, Randall? What about Randall?" Sulley asked.

"Who's Randall?" Sora asked.

"Judging by Sulley's reaction and how Mike talked about him, not a very good person I'd presume?" Rhea theorized.

"The worst," Sulley confirmed. "And what did you mean by that Mike?"

"Sulley, are we going to do this or not?" Mike grabbed and gave the door knob a twist before pushing it open. "Because we might never get another chance at this if we don't do it now."

"Might wanna listen to him, big guy. Hohoho!"

The group didn't even need to turn around to recognize the rather gruff voice as Pete's. Next to him was a strange purple chameleon-like monster sporting a sly grin. He extended his hand towards them as if expecting something.

"Randall, what are you up to?" Sulley asked.

"You know, it's a pretty good thing I took this idiot's advice and came back here to make sure you actually delivered. We'll be taking the kid now, Wazowski," Randall declared in a way that very much reminded Luna of a cowboy. Even the way his jaw grinded from left to right was incredibly reflective of that.

Pete laughed. "Heh heh, yeah… wait, who's the idiot?"

"If you're working with Pete, that's definitely not a good thing. What do you want with Boo?" Sora asked.

"Who? Oh, so that's her name, eh? Well that's of no concern to you. Just hand her over and scram!" Pete yelled. He blinked as he curiously scanned the face of the person who had just spoken to him. "Say, do I know you from somewhere?"

Sora gave an exasperated sigh and rolled his eyes. "Really, Pete? I mean I know I look different but even you should be able to tell."

"Sorrrrrry, don't recognize ya!" Pete exclaimed after a while. His eyes settled on Astra for the first time and his eyes widened in horror. "Wait a tickin' sec, you are… then you guys must be-"

"This is just sad…" Luna said. "Anyway, you can't have her so you can forget it. Instead you can answer to us. How long have you been using this place to spread the Heartless?"

"A pretty nifty idea, ain't it? Maleficent and I discovered this place around the time that old crone Xehanort was defeated. All of a sudden we were opened to so many possibilities. Heartless could travel to more worlds than ever before and Maleficent's power extended because of it."

"And how did that work out for her, Pete?" Sora asked. He couldn't help but gloat about this even though he had to admit it was rather unbecoming of him. "You know what she said me just before she died? 'Help me'. That's what she said. She put on such a tough act until the very end but in those last few seconds, I saw her for what she really was. That was her true nature, Pete. She was a scared little fairy, lying to herself and others and pretending her will was the only will anyone ever needed. In the end, she couldn't even believe in herself, she had to believe in someone else and in that moment she lost."

Pete's constant grumbling and flaring of the nostrils was exactly the opening they had been looking for. Luna and Astra took the initiative, summoning their Keyblades and launching a double Firaga at both targets. Randall's lithe body was easily able to evade Astra's magic but the fire from Luna's Keyblade sent Pete tumbling over.

"Run!" Donald ordered. Sora instinctively grabbed Rhea's hand and followed after the others who all rushed past Randall and his rolling overweight counterpart. They turned left and hurried down the corridor until Sulley brought them to a halt.

"Hey, I have an idea. Take Boo's costume off."

"Boo's costume? I see, you're planning on deceiving them. So we take Boo and after you guys have gotten far away and tricked them, we circle around and get back to her door," Luna laid out.

"Exactly!" Sulley confirmed. Luna helped get Boo out of her faux leather costume and handed her over to Sora at his request. Luna wasn't done however. She had something extra in mind.

"If we want to make sure we get away with it, maybe we should add a little something extra. Let's see… mmph, yep, you'll do great, Donald. We'll have to tuck your little tentacles in but it should be fine otherwise."

"Wait. W-w-w-w-wait just a minute. What are you talking about?" Donald asked.

"The bait we need to make sure they think someone is in this suit. And we're looking at him," Sora helped clarify.

"Oh no you don't!"

But Donald's protests were in vain. Sulley quickly grabbed him and squeezed him into the purple costume. Considering he was roughly the same height as Boo, it was an almost perfect fit, with the exception of Donald's beak sticking out slightly but that would be fine if all Pete and Randall saw was the back of the costume anyway.

"Right, we need to head in the opposite direction then. Goofy, think you can go with them as extra protection?" Sora said loudly over Donald's complaints. "Donald, shush. They'll know if you keep yammering like that."

"This is not going to work. This is really not going to work!"

"Yeah, I heard you the first time. Well, we'll meet up back on the Scare Floor in… thirty minutes, sounds good?" Sora asked. A unanimous approval (with the exception of Donald of course) was heard among the group and they soon split ways with Mike, Sulley, Goofy and Boo's decoy turning back to make sure they would eventually cross paths with their two pursuers while Sora, Luna, Astra, Rhea and Stephanie continued on ahead with the real Boo.

"I don't think we should wander too far. This place is like a maze," Astra said.

"It's no Wonderland, that's for sure," Luna said with a cheerful laugh. "I can't believe we're doing this. It's like we're in school again."

"This place is bigger. I certainly wouldn't want to play hide and seek here," Astra replied. For that while that they were running, Luna and Astra were in a completely different world to the rest, and in different forms as well.

They were kids, two years younger than they were right now. Astra's shorter hair and height stood out as the only definable difference of her appearance right now. She liked to pride herself on the fact that she had hit puberty earlier than most of the girls in their year. Luna was different too. Her hair was down, not tied up with a crimson ribbon and she had been undergoing puberty then in contrast—a late bloomer to those in her class. Light poured through the windows of the school as they stormed down the empty hallways like they owned the place. It was usually around 5:00PM that they did this and it would usually end with them on the school roof (for Astra had somehow been able to acquire the keys for this though she never told Luna how) and watching the spectrum-varied noctilucent clouds that were unique to their home.

A light touch on her shoulder shook Luna out of her deep revelries and she gave a questioning glance to Sora.

"Welcome back from La La Land. Rhea was saying we should make our way back now. We should have given them enough time, I think."

Luna was about to agree when she saw someone holding a strange weapon out of the corner of her eye and it was well aimed at Astra's back. Luna called out her name and without a second thought, tackled her friend to the ground just as a blast of green light shot out of the weapon. What used to be an oil painting of Waternoose, or probably someone in his family, hanging on the wall at the opposite end of the hallway was now nothing but a scorching black mark thanks to the blast.

"You're uhm… Gantu?" Sora identified.

"That is _Captain _Gantu to you and why do you even know my name? Oh, I see… yes the resemblance is uncanny. You're that brat with the Keyblade, aren't you? Well, I must say I didn't expect to find you here but since you are, now is the perfect time to have my revenge!"

"Well, at least you know who I am. I guess not everyone in KRONOS are morons," Sora said with a disregarding shrug at the rest of Gantu's comment.

"We don't have time for this. You guys go on ahead, I can handle this one," Astra said, summoning her Keyblade. The others made to acknowledge her request, all except Luna that is. She appeared hesitant and indecisive, torn between seeing Boo back safely and leaving her friend to fend on her own.

Sensing this, Sora gave a wry smile. "Don't worry about it. Stephanie, Rhea and I can handle it."

Luna gave an appreciative smile in response to his thoughtful and joined up with Astra, making her own Keyblade appear. She looked back quickly to see the trio and Boo disappear around the corner before turning her attention back on Gantu. He was bigger than most and certainly intimidating but by no means did he seem impossible to beat. When she thought of how much more she feared the chimera, he seemed a minor threat in comparison.

"Now that I think about it, I haven't seen you fight, Sea Salt. I'm looking forward to it," Astra said with a smug smile.

"Then I'll be sure to crush your expectations… and then some," Luna replied. She purred like a cat as a joke before launching forward quickly. Gantu tried to focus his aim on her but she moved in too quickly for him to do anything. Within seconds, Gantu was on the floor with his blaster a few metres away from him.

"Well, that was quick," Astra said. "And here I was hoping for a little fun as well."

"I guess I don't know my own strength. Either that, or that was way too easy," Luna said. Unfortunately, it was the latter that was proven right. Unbeknownst to Luna and Astra, Gantu had been silently snuck something out of his utility belt and thrown it when they weren't looking. The small canister hit the ground right in between the two friends forcing them to look at it. This was immediately followed up by a bright light that wiped out their vision completely. Luna could feel vibrations in the inner tunnels of her eardrums ricocheting wildly, the result of which was an annoying high frequency sound that did even more than her lack of vision to make her light headed. It didn't surprise her then, to find her head hitting the ground.

Her eyes wandered upwards, watery and confused. She could only make out a blur walking towards her. It was a girl in a hooded cloak who looked much like herself. Exactly like herself, she corrected herself. She was indeed staring at the mirror image of herself, the same girl who had greeted her in that white room in her dreams.

"Am I… dreaming again?" Luna asked.

"Would it make you happier to believe that?" Her younger self asked back. "As long as there's no more sadness, no more pain, it doesn't matter if it's a dream or reality, right? We can stay here as long as you like. If we have each other, nothing else matters. The pain goes away."

"No… no, it doesn't. The pain, it never goes away and even if it did, it would just be replaced by something worse. Loneliness. The worst pain."

"Interesting, isn't it? You're sad because you're constantly comparing yourself to others but if there was no one to compare yourself to, you would be sad anyway. Where does it begin, and where does it end?"

"You don't know me," Luna muttered. "Don't you dare act as if you know what I'm feeling. I am happy. I am. I have friends-"

"Who fill the large hole in your empty heart. You allow them to define who you are because you don't have the qualifications necessary to define who you are. To put it simply, you're using them. But we don't need them. Just give me a chance and together we can work together to fill that empty hole."

The girl's words and voice seemed promising, tempting even, but Luna refused to give the voice any credence. She wasn't using anyone. She could never do that.

"Of course it would be unconscious. These thing hardly ever are the opposite," said the girl as if sensing Luna's thoughts. "But the sooner you accept it, the easier it will be to help you."

"No… I don't need your help." That's right! Luna had finally decided that she wasn't going to take any more slander from this person. "Get out of my head, whoever you are. Whatever this pain is, I'll find out and get rid of it… with the friends who love and care for me. I don't need you to solve my problems."

"You're making a big mistake here-"

"Then it's a mistake that I will gladly make. Now I'll say it again." Luna walked up to her until the tips of their noses were almost touching. "Leave. Me. Alone."

"Luna!"

Astra's voice pulled Luna out of the recesses of her mind. Astra placed one hand around Luna's waist and another under her arm in support as she helped her to stand up. Luna looked around, her head spinning but her vision clearing up bit by bit.

"Astra, where's Gantu?" she asked.

"He got away. Used some sort of flashbang to do it. You were right. It was too easy," Astra replied. "Dammit, who would have expected him to pull something so cowardly? When I find him again, I'll never let him live that one down. Hey, you okay?"

"Just dizzy is all. Just give me a sec," Luna said. She gently pushed Astra away and leaned her back against the wall, focusing on the fluorescent light fittings above her. She let out a sudden round of laughter that probably made Astra think she was mad and watched as the lights flickered slightly. It hadn't been as much as Boo's but already ideas were churning in Luna's head. As they churned, her vision soon cleared. "Astra, I think I've found the other way."

* * *

Sora let out a rather loud yawn that voiced his frustrations. They had been waiting for what he was sure was more than half an hour and Sulley, Mike, Goofy and Donald had not yet returned. He was getting increasingly worried the more he walked around in circles, so he had stopped doing so only to find himself doing it again after a short while.

"I hope your friend Donald didn't take it too personally. I feel sorry for him," Rhea said, watching as Stephanie and Boo held each other's hands and danced around in a circle merrily.

"Don't be. We all make sacrifices in the group from time to time. It's just that we usually have Donald make the most," Sora joked. He didn't think he would be able to converse this naturally with a member of Moira's Crescent, but here he was and so quickly too. It had even come to the point where he wondered what she really thought of him.

Rhea snorted and gave a cute laugh. "It's funny. You remind me of Kohle, our founder. It's the way you both speak, I think. You both have a way of making even the worst of things sound better than they actually are."  
Sora blushed and looked away. "Really? I'm not sure about that. That sounds more like you actually. That calm way of speaking… I think it could make even the angriest person smile."  
"Aw, thank you. I know you may not like this but if you could just think about it, that would be great. I was wondering if you would like to come and join Moira's Crescent. It would be great to have you and Luna around," Rhea proposed.

Sora chuckled. "You sure you didn't just come here to recruit me?"

"Are you implying that I'm spying on you?" Rhea shot back with a grin. Of course with Moira's Crescent, he wouldn't have been surprised either if that were the case. She had after all, admitted that they had two of their members follow him just so they could get to Abraxas.

"I don't know," was what Sora finally settled on. "I work better playing by my own rules."

"I understand if you don't trust us and I don't expect that to change overnight. I'm working hard to change the opinions of those in the group that want… you know. It's just that from what I can tell, Astra seems a lot happier and more active with Luna around and I don't want Luna to have to choose between two of her best friends if it comes to that. Plus, being by our side is probably the safest way for me to protect you and we do have the same goal. I know we can work this out."

"I don't need protection but thanks anyway. But if it's for Luna, I'll think about it," Sora said. There wasn't anything more he could say on the issue. She could see it just as well as him, even without sight. Luna and Astra were like completely different people when they were with each other. Astra had managed to bring out an incredibly rambunctious disposition in Luna while Astra, at least in Sora's experience, was more likely to be kind to him with Luna around. If it wasn't for Luna, he probably wouldn't be considering joining up with Moira's Crescent as much as he was now.

"Feel free to take your time. I wouldn't want you to rush your decision," Rhea said before changing topic. "The others haven't returned yet? Something must be wrong."

"I'd like to have a bit more faith that they're alright, but it is worrying me. Oh! Luna and Astra are back!" Sora alerted them before calling them over with a loud voice. "Heeeeey! Gantu wasn't much of a problem, I'm guessing?"

"I would like to report that we took care of him no problem, but he had one last dirty trick under his sleeve and got away!" Luna yelled back as she neared them.

"My poor ears. What in the world happened to indoor voices?" Astra complained under her breath. "Goofy and the others aren't back yet?"

"Appears not. Maybe we should split up again. Some of us stay here in case the come back and the rest go look for them?" Sora suggested.

"I don't mind. You wouldn't mind if Sora and I were the searching party, would you?" Luna asked.

"That's fine. We'll make sure Stephanie and Boo are safe then. Be careful out there you two," Rhea said. Sora gave a final farewell and headed back out of the large hall with Luna. Corridor after corridor they turned, with no end in sight and most of them looking the same as the ones previous. They soon started to fear that they were going the wrong way, and even worse, that they would be unable to find their way back after turning so many times. Their hopes however, were soon ignited once again when they reached what would most likely be called a secret passageway. Leaning against the pipes to the side of the hole was a large metal holder supporting many tools like spanners, cordless drills and screwdrivers.

"This… used to be mounted onto the wall and someone with a lot of strength ripped it out. It's pretty heavy," Sora said while trying to lift up the holder. He quickly gave up and stood back up. "The only person I can think of who'd be capable of this…"

"Sulley," Luna finished. "Then they went through here?"

"Only one way to find out," Sora said. He summoned his Keyblade and took the lead in slowly making their way down the narrow and somewhat claustrophobic passageway. The metal pipes under their feet created dull clunking sounds that echoed throughout the passage but these were drowned out by the voices that they were hearing down the path.

"I should never have trusted you. Sullivan was twice the man you ever were," said one of the voices. If his ears didn't deceive him, Sora was right in matching that voice to Mr. Waternoose, whom he had heard earlier on talking to Sulley.

"I'll ignore that. Besides, once we've tested this scream extractor out and it works, which it will, you won't have any more need for Sullivan, or any kind of monster power for that matter," came the voice of Randall.

"Let me out of this thing! Let me out!" yelled Donald. So they had captured at least him meaning the ruse had worked. That only left Goofy, Sulley and Mike's location unknown, but they had to have come through here.

"Quit your yapping, bird brain," Pete addressed the quacking protestor. Sora could almost visualize Pete's grin through his own voice. "Looks like your lil' pals have all abandoned ya! Now this here scream extractor doesn't exactly work against folks like you, but I am pretty curious if it will do anything nonetheless. Looks like your luck's run out. Oh wait! You never had any to begin with, hoo heh heh heh!"

"Let's hurry before it's too late," Luna whispered behind him. Sora nodded and increased his walking speed. When he could finally see a light at the end of the tunnel, his tip toeing turned more into a run as if at the behest of Donald's increasing cries. The sounds of their footsteps had attracted the room's attention but that didn't matter now.

Sora emerged out of the passageway and immediately flung the Oblivion Keyblade at the machine that was sucking on Donald's bill. The Keyblade slammed against the metal with incredible force and eventually cut right through the vacuum part of the machine, severing it from the rest of its body.

Donald let out a tremendous sigh as the vacuum fell away from his face and relaxed in the chair. "You know, sometimes I think you actually enjoy giving me a heart attack, Sora."

"That's what you get for travelling with me," Sora half joked. He found that he even gave himself heart attacks sometimes with the things he did so he could only imagine how bad it was for his friends.

"What are you doing? Don't just stand there, after them!" Waternoose ordered once he had recovered from shock.

Sora was about to raise his Keyblade when a door to his left that he hadn't even noticed swung open and Goofy came sliding out of it with his body planted on top of his shield. Sora quickly sidestepped out of the way and Goofy and his shield rammed into Pete who was advancing in on Sora.

"Goofy? Wh-where did you even-?" Sora couldn't even finish his sentence. He was simply too dumbfounded at the moment to comprehend what was going on.

"Oh, heya Sora! Just got done sleighing down a mountain. Yep, it was nothing much," Goofy said. Contrary to his words, he seemed quite dazed by the experience.

"Err, sleighing...? Wait wait wait, forget about that! Where are Sulley and Mike?" Sora asked.

"On their way, I think? They might have gone through different doors. I did end up taking a different path down the mountain now that I think about it. Let's see, was it the third exit… maybe the second one? Or maybe-"

"That's great, let's go!" Luna interrupted quickly, yanking Donald out of the seat and carrying him in her arms back out of the room. Sora helped Goofy up and hastened to join up with Luna.

"Well, now what do we do?" Donald asked.

"Get back to Astra and the others. They're waiting at the Scare Floor," Sora said. Before anyone could say anything else, Sora felt his foot leave the comfort of a surface sending his body forward. He would have classified it as having just tripped, except that his body was now being dragged away from his friends. He could even feel a pair of hands wrapped around both his legs.

Luna pointed her Keyblade just above Sora's feet and cast _Blizzard_. The spell definitely hit something that had been invisible because it stopped just behind Sora and connected. This knocked the invisible creature backwards and made them visible.

Sora looked at the blue colored Randall for a second before turning his head. "Keep going. Go!" he yelled to the others.

They soon reached the exit and once again tried to navigate the maze of corridors that they had once treaded, or at least they thought they had treaded these corridors before but it was incredibly hard to tell. The more they walked, the less they wanted to go down the same path because they were beginning to question if it had really taken this long on their way here.

"Argh, I think I'm going to tear my hair out over this place. What were they thinking? Why couldn't they just have a perfectly linear factory? I bet they kicked the one rational person who thought to do that right out of the meeting room for mentioning such a silly thing," Luna ranted.

"Luna ranting. Now I've seen it all," Sora said, letting out a laugh at the end.

"Oh, you ain't seen nothing yet. In fact, I'll have you know I'm just full of surprises," Luna replied sweetly. The expression on her face changed to one of shock just as Sora's also changed from a grin to a serious expression.

They ended up both pointing each other's way and shouting synchronously. "Duck! Huh?"

The group backed up against each other and watched as their enemy approached on either side, Gantu to their left and Pete to their right.


	45. Linked Worlds -The Dream-

_So alas, we come to the "end" of the Monster's Inc. story and set up an entirely new one. I'd say we're halfway through the story judging from the number of chapters but I can't even trust myself to tell you with certainty. Anyways, enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

**Chapter 45**

**Linked Worlds -The Dream-**

"You're actually considering it? Bringing Sora along with us? Right, the destroyer of worlds at Moira's Crescent. Why do I have the feeling some of the others won't like that, especially Desiree?" Astra pointed out before confessing. "Okay, I admit that I don't mind the guy. I could probably even get along with him if it meant having Luna there. But the-" Here she lowered her voice so Stephanie wouldn't here. "_Sorasceptics_ certainly won't think that it'll be enough to stop that prophecy from coming true."

"I know. I know that," Rhea accepted. "Jill, Jack, Desiree, Vyce and Alfonso. With the vote coming up, that's five against me, you, Kohle, Salome and Lysander. There'll be a tie. If I can convince at least one person to vote against going after him then that will be enough."

"I… didn't say anything about voting against, or for. This is your problem and I don't want to be a part of it," Astra said.

"Right. I suppose you aren't an official member yet," Rhea said sadly. "Then we're outnumbered."

"I didn't finish yet," Astra interrupted. "But if it's the only way to protect Luna, then I guess I have no choice but to join… officially."

Intentional or not, Rhea had just held a gun to Astra's head when she had brought up the vote. It really gave her no choice in the matter. She had to protect Luna by protecting Sora. Indeed, Rhea could hold the physical manifestation of power in her hands and she probably wouldn't even realize it.

"That's great, Luna. I- There's someone coming. One pair of footsteps by the sound of it," Rhea said. Astra frowned and looked to the entrance only to find no one there.

"Er, are you sure? Maybe your hearings going a little off because I can't see or hear anything," Astra said.

"You don't hear it?" Rhea asked before putting an index finger to her lips to silence everyone. Astra remained as still as she could and closed her eyes, trying to imitate Rhea. She strained her ears as much as she possibly could to pick up on something but all she could really notice was the temperature of her earlobes rising.

"Astra, swing behind you!" Rhea said quickly. Doubting she would be able to summon her Keyblade in time, Astra extended her arms out and slammed them backwards as hard as she could. It was the back of her fist that caught something invisible and knocked it to the ground.

Astra spun around and looked down to see Randall rubbing his head in irritation. "You piece of scum. You enjoy frightening little kids?"

"Enjoy? Hmph, what are you talking about?"

"Going after Boo. Why did you want her so badly?" Astra interrogated. She pinned Randall to the ground to make sure he couldn't escape.

"I don't need to tell you anything? How 'bout you mind your own business," Randall replied. When Astra applied even more force however, Randall soon gave in. "Okay okay! We were planning on testing out a scream extractor on the kid. If it worked, I would be rich and we wouldn't need pathetic losers like Sullivan stealing the spotlight, but one of your friends used some stupid key to destroy the machine."

Astra couldn't believe what she had just heard. It seemed so comical and yet they were probably the oldest motives in the book. She adopted a strained twisted smile on her face and clenched her fist tightly.

"You… you went out of your way to try and kidnap a child for riches and to settle some stupid rivalry?" she struggled to say.

"Kidnap? Don't be ridiculous, like it matters what their kind think. Why do you even care so much anyway? It's not like you're one of them," Randall said. Astra was about to respond when instead Stephanie walked up to Randall and smacked him in the face.

"You're talking to one of them, and you've been a very bad monster. Guess what? Boo's not afraid of you and neither am I!" Stephanie proclaimed proudly. Walking up beside her, Boo grinned and roared at Randall to prove Stephanie's point.

"You heard the girls. You're not scary to anyone I'm afraid. In other words, it looks like you've just been made redundant," Astra said. "And since your services are no longer required… Boo, I think I've found a new toy you can play with."

Randall's eyes almost popped out of their sockets and he tried to wriggle out of Astra's grasp as Boo came closer with a wide smile. "No, anything but that! No. NOOOOOOO!"

Astra watched completely amused and immersed in the scene playing out in front her eyes. Boo had wasted no time in grabbing Randall as soon as Astra had let go and started to 'tinker' with him, pulling and stretching anywhere she could. Astra almost felt sorry for him, but then again, he had probably never felt sorry in what he was doing so the sympathy and pity ended rather quickly.

"Well, now that's a sight."

Astra turned to see both Sulley and Mike standing in front of a door on the right side of the floor. They were both staring completely dumbfound as their arch rival was subjected to the harshest of tortures inflicted by a three year old child. Astra didn't know if there were many other ways to exacerbate that fact but she took amusement in trying all the same.

* * *

Sora slammed through the door up ahead with his shoulder and froze only for a few seconds. The place he had arrived in was unlike anything he had ever seen before, and he thought that he had seen so many doors on the Scare Floor. Here, wherever here was, was what appeared to be an infinite amount of doors hanging from rails, moving left, right, up, down, anywhere and everywhere.

"Do you think half of these doors have even been used?" Luna asked from behind him.

"Somehow, I really doubt it," Sora said. Footsteps behind them alerted them to the fact that Pete was nearing their location. After being trapped by Gantu and Pete on both sides, Sora and Luna had split from Donald and Goofy who were keeping the former occupied while Sora and Luna lured Pete away from them. After ascending a flight of stairs they soon arrived at the door that took them into this room.

"Looks like you're trapped now ya little pipsqueaks," Pete said. He had the hungry look of a predator in his eyes, probably because he knew that there really was nowhere for them to run now.

"Not too much trouble climbing those stairs, I hope?" Luna asked while looking around for a way out. They were standing on a small balcony overlooking the cascade of doors and judging from their setting, they weren't in any optimal location to fight and if they were to fall all the way down from here… well, there certainly would be no coming back up.

"Luna, you trust me right?" Sora asked.

"That's a weird question to ask. Of course I do," Luna answered.

"Then, when I tell you to, jump of the balcony," Sora said. He had said it so composedly that Luna hadn't been sure that the voice had even come from him at first.

"And you say I'm crazy," Luna said eventually after having processed who and what the voice had said.

"You trusted me," Sora reminded her.

"I know, I know. I really oughta stop saying things like that," Luna said before turning to him. "Are you out of your mind? Sora, you're like one of my besties and all but even I have to call you out on this. You remember when I jumped out of a moving vehicle to save you and injured my leg? Yeah, well this is something else entirely and I'm not quite sure you've thought this through properly."

"Something like fall from high height equals pancake, no? But Luna, we won't be falling that far. We do have plenty of objects that can help us after all," Sora said.

"I'm sure I've mentioned before that I hate heights," Luna said. "But it's not like I have a choice. Pete would probably end up pushing me off anyway so if I'm going to fall it might as well be of my own accord."

"Don't worry, just do your best. No pressure or anything," Sora said before addressing the big cat. "Pete, you know you can turn back anytime, right? Don't do this to yourself."

"I bet you'd like that, wouldn't ya? I'll make you pay for what you did to Maleficent," Pete asked.

"Mommy issues much?" Sora teased. Pete's eye twitched and he burst into a full run. "Luna, now!"

"Geronimo!" Luna yelled before vaulting over the balcony rail. Blurry doors whizzed past her on her way down, causing her to feel nauseous. Her hands, possibly of their own free will, soon found comfort on the head jamb of one of the doors quite a ways down from the area she had jumped from. She looked upwards to see Sora two levels of doors above her heading in the same direction. He gave a quick grin as if to say "See, I told you it would be all right" before looking up.

Above them, Pete was having a hard time getting down to them as expected by Sora. He had taken the bait in following after them and consequently the doors were unable to support his large body leading to them shifting wildly left and right under his weight. Pete, rather than trying to regain his balance, took a leap of faith and let go, knocking three doors off their rails on his way down to Sora. The Keyblade Master leapt to the left just before Pete could crush him and grabbed the door just above Luna.

"Heartless! Come on out!" Pete called out loudly. A group of Wizards and Wyverns flew out of the orbs of darkness and swarmed Sora and Luna. They both took out their Keyblades and began shooting off magic in every direction. Chaos became the name of the game in their eyes as their magic flew and hit the objects occupying the room. Doors fell off rails that had been damaged and smashed into doors below them or just plain fell all the way to the ground where they shattered into many pieces of wood. From where they were, the doors seemed as easily breakable as glass, but they didn't even have time to take in the damage they were doing.

Luna screamed as a door from above smashed into her door. The pain of her fingers being slammed into by a door caused her to let go of her own door and fall headfirst towards the ground. Sora quickly pointed his Keyblade at her, casting _Collision Magnet _quickly. The plasma hand that he had used to launch her and everyone else into Prince John's fortress extended out from the tip of his Keyblade and wrapped itself around Luna's right leg.

"Gotcha!" Sora said through gritted teeth. He wasn't going to let her fall this time. This time, he had the strength to do something. But still, he remarked inwardly, it had been incredibly close. Too close for his liking. They also weren't out of the woods just yet.

Pete had also noticed his predicament because he let out a howl of laughter. With Sora practically tearing his arms over holding up Luna with one hand and gripping onto the door's jamb with his other, he was completely defenceless against the Heartless.

"Sora, swing me over!" Luna yelled. If she thought she was nauseous before, the blood was rushing to her head as she dangled upside down. Sora complied tensed his bicep before swinging his Keyblade forward. Luna stretched her arms out, keeping the tips of her fingers pointed and her body as straight as she could. It was at this point that she was fortunate that her mother had forced her to take ballet lessons because she could otherwise imagine a panicking Luna screaming for her life in her place. As she was swung upwards, she grabbed onto one of the doors, making use of her cat claws to dig into the door.

Sora was about to release the collision magnet when a Wizard swooped in and cast a bolt of lightning straight at him. What came next was something that not even Sora could describe. The yellow bolt struck the unicorn horn on Sora's head and absorbed it, causing the horn to glow yellow before eventually returning to its normal self.

Sora let out a mighty laugh and looked at Luna. "Did you see that?"

"Now that's called using your head," Luna joked. She was about to look away from him and focus on climbing up, but something caught her attention. It during that brief moment that Sora had laughed that the light at the top of the door had lit up a bright red.

"Of course… Sora, you're door activated just then. The doors here activate through laughter," Luna explained. She also assumed the laughter had to be genuine. She let out one as an example and a group of doors surrounding her lit up in response. Luna grasped the doorknob and twisted it before pushing. The door opened easily and she smiled before stepping in and closing the door behind her.

"Luna!" Sora called after her but she was already gone. Sora sighed and tried his best to laugh before opening the door but it refused to budge.

_Oh come on, my laugh not good enough for you? _

Sora tried to laugh once again but the door still wouldn't light up to let him through. He doubted there was anything wrong with the doors because Luna was able to get them to open so the only conclusion he could come to was that the problem lay with him. He knew that his laughter was forced. How had he even managed to pull it off before then if Luna had seen him do it? Was there something wrong with him?

"Heh heh heh, what's wrong, chump? Can't laugh to save your hide?" Pete said. If the doors could work with just anyone then Pete's laughter would be enough to light up the entire room. Like most of the energy supplied throughout this world, it required children to make it work.

_Or maybe even human with hearts pure like children's? I guess Luna has one, but my heart…_

He had seen too many things to even bring up a happy memory that would make him laugh. He tried to think of how Luna had done it so carefree, like she could do it a million times over without any effort. Pete however was already on the move and he felt more pressured and strapped for time. He had no choice but to fight.

Sora kicked away from the door he was holding onto and glided over to a door parallel to where he was. Two of the three Wyverns followed him but he disposed quickly of them with a _Fire Raid _before leaping towards a door on the right. A Wizard shot forth fire magic out of its staff which Sora absorbed with the horn again before kicking off and gliding towards it, slicing the Wizard in half.

Pete was about move to another door next to him when his vision became blinded by the person who had jumped on him from above.

"Luna, you're back!" Sora exclaimed excitedly. Luna did a handstand on Pete's shoulder, twisted around to face him and scratched upwards with her claws at his face. Pete howled in pain and lost his grip, Luna jumping away to safety before she could be dragged down along with him.

_I am gonna hate myself for this, _Sora thought with a shake of his head. He aimed the Kingdom Key at the falling Pete and used _Collision Magnet _to catch him. Luna quickly dispatched of the remaining Heartless before making her way to Sora's door.

"Pete, we're going to play a little game. You tell us what we need to know and i don't drop you. Sounds fair?" Sora said.

"You can forget it. I'm not tellin' ya nothin'," he responded, rather bravely at that to Sora's surprise. Well, Sora knew that words were one thing and actions were another.

"Okay then." Sora released the _Collision Magnet _and Pete dropped even further with a high pitched scream that he or Luna wouldn't have thought was possible for the big guy. Sora sent out the arm again and caught Pete before he could slam into one of the doors.

"Okay, okay, you got me. I'll tell ya what ya need to know. Just please don't do that again!" Pete demanded rather quickly. He was frightened which was exactly the way Sora wanted him.

"Good. Where is Kefka?"

"Kefka, that dried up fruitcake? Why, I'm sure he's busy prancing around the worlds and making sure they're under they're tightly under our control," Pete answered while trying not to look at the ground.

"You didn't answer my question-"

"Well what else did ya think I was gonna say. How am I supposed to know where he is right now?"

_Not good enough. _Sora shook his head and released Pete again, allowing him to slam through the door before catching him again a few more doors down.

"Uh, Professor Rattigan is his name. Yeah, that's right. Not exactly sure what he's a professor off exactly but Kefka said he was helping with a grand experiment of some kind," Pete answered.

Sora exchanged a look of intrigue with Luna before pressing for more information. "A grand experiment? Elaborate, Pete…"

"KRONOS are continuing the work Abraxas left behind, I don't know much about it since I'm not a part of the inner crowd but it has something to do with those Chimera," Pete said. "That's all I know, I swear, now let me down! Wait- _nonono_, I mean up, take me up!"

"An experiment to do with Chimera… they couldn't be thinking of making more of those things, could they?" Luna asked, watching as Sora reeled in Pete.

"We can't let that happen. We need to find this professor and fast. Luna, could you open the door below us?" Sora asked. Luna nodded and closed her eyes. Her lips curled into a smile and she let out a laugh to activate the door. "What are you thinking about to get that to happen? Because, I- I can't find something to make me genuinely laugh like that."

"Um, you remember when I told you just before leaving the Gummi Ship about that dream I had? It ties into that I suppose," Luna said, looking away for some reason. Sora could only surmise that it must have been a pretty embarrassing dream for her to be acting the way she did.

"Wait, what are you doing? I won't fit through that!" Pete yelled as Sora started swinging him back and forth at the door that Luna had opened.

"Just believe, Pete. Believe in me, like Maleficent did." Sora couldn't resist the offer to taunt his foe one last time and with that, he released the _Collision Magnet _and watched as Pete soared into the door. As he had said, he was a bit too big to fit in entirely at first but Luna managed to squeeze him in before closing the door and cracking the red light by pressing on it firmly with her claws.

* * *

Donald continued to fling projectile after projectile of _Fire _at Gantu who was quick in countering them with his accurately aimed blaster shots.

"Stop- stop running! Curses, degrading me to chasing two anthropomorphic lifeforms who aren't even worth my time," Gantu yelled to himself before shooting again. Goofy knocked these away with his shield and threw it like a discus, knocking the blaster out of Gantu's hand.

"Jus' how far do we have to go?" Goofy asked.

"Who knows? Just keep running!" Donald shouted at him. Being an octopus, he trying to make use of his many legs to spring himself forward, albeit clumsily. He turned a corner and immediately came into contact with someone's knee, knocking him onto the ground.

"Ah! Watch where you're going, will ya?" Astra snapped at him.

"Watch where I'm going? How about you watch where you're going?" Donald shot back angrily. Goofy and Rhea watched with absent stares as Astra and Donald continued to throw words of deprecation at each other. It would probably have been entertaining to watch if not for the fact that Gantu was closing in on them.

"Now, now, could you please stop arguing like an old married couple and deal with the bad guy coming at us?" Stephanie asked in a sophisticated and adult-like manner.

"Old married couple?" Astra questioned before backing away and making a face. "Eww, no, like no way! Urgh, the thought of… why are you torturing me like that, Stephanie?"

"And they say I'm overdramatic," Donald muttered with a roll of his eyes. Astra was about to respond but closed her mouth immediately upon seeing Gantu and smiled.

"You brought me a present, Donald? I take back everything I said about you," she said instead.

"Hold your eagerness for the moment, Astra. We've got much bigger problems on our hands," Rhea said before turning to look at Mike and Sulley who had been trailing behind them next to Stephanie. "Where's Boo?"

"Boo? She's right here of co-" The color seemed to drain from Sulley's fur as he spun around in a frantic panic. Boo, who had been with them the entire time before they had come across Donald and Goofy, had suddenly disappeared.

"Rhea, when did you notice?" Astra asked.

Rhea took hold of her arm and gently swayed from side to side. "Just now actually. I was so busy focusing on your argument that I wasn't listening to anything else. Boo could have easily slipped away in that time, or worse… it's my fault, I apologize."

"Don't, really. I'm her guardian, I should have noticed she was gone," Sulley admitted solemnly. "And I can't ask you guys to help this time. I need to prove to myself that I can keep her safe."

"Whoa, aren't you forgetting someone?" Mike interjected. "I mean I was the one who almost sent her into Randall's clutches. While I was up on that mountain, I was doing some thinking about what it really means to be a good friend and… well, I'm still not sure what that is but maybe if we find Boo together, that can give me the clue I need. What do you say, pal?"

"Mike… you're already are a good friend, you know that? You don't have to try and figure it out. What we have, it can't be described by words. But you're right. I'll need your help if I'm going to find her."

"Oh, this is incredibly bromantic and all but Boo needs you," Astra reminded them. Mike and Sulley nodded and without a word, rushed off back down where they had come from. It was clear that whatever had taken place on that mountain between them before meeting up with Astra and Rhea had cemented their trust in each other even more.

Mike and Sulley had told them about how Waternoose had been collaborating with Randall and Pete to test a more efficient method of obtaining energy. They had ended up snatching away Donald from under their noses under the pretence that the figure in the costume was Boo and when they had found out that their boss was also involved, it had served as quite shock, one that had allowed the villains to take advantage of the situation and exile the two monsters to a mountain somewhere. That meant that they had to consider the possibility that Boo hadn't run away, but was in fact surreptitiously kidnapped by Waternoose, but that was Mike and Sulley's responsibility now.

Rhea waited until the footsteps of Mike and Sulley disappeared before summoning her Keyblade and pointing it at Gantu.

"I would stand down if I were you. We're standing in a hallway that's pretty small, correct? That means you won't have much space to manoeuvre. I can't be held responsible if something happens in that case," she said. It was the first time that Astra had ever seen Rhea frown now that she thought about it.

"As if I'm supposed to be scared of some human. What's wrong? Having trouble seeing? That's a shame," Gantu said mockingly.

"Yes, it is, for you," Rhea replied.

Astra blinked. She had no idea what had just happened. One moment, Gantu outright seemed confident that he would be able to win, the next, he was on the floor out cold completely with Rhea standing over him. She hadn't even struck him and she definitely hadn't moved at any point, Astra was sure about that. It was as if the bridge of her memory that had linked A to B had just gone kaput. Rhea and Gantu's status may have very well started from point B and it would have made no difference.

"Wow! That was amazing Rhea, how did you even do that? I didn't even see you move," Goofy asked soon enough, confirming that it had not just been Astra going crazy.

"It's a secret that has the power alone to destroy the universe and bend your perception of reality forever. Are you sure you want to hear it?" Rhea said in a very serious stone, certainly uncharacteristic for her. Donald and Goofy looked at each other before leaning in and nodding with huge curious eyes as if they were zombies.

"Well I for one would like to keep my universe intact, thank you very much," Astra said.

"Don't worry, I was just pulling a Desiree. I didn't think I'd be too good at it but judging from your reactions, I might try it more often," Rhea said with chuckle. "Plus I'm not sure I could handle the burden of such a secret in the first place. I suppose you could say my Keyblade knows no causation, only effect."

"That's a… strange weapon," Astra said. "How can you have an effect without a cause?"

"To be honest I've never really understood my Keyblade, or my ability to hear others' hearts for that matter. I probably never will. Then again, how was the World created? Why was it split? We don't really over think these things, we just move on with our own lives. It's the same with my Keyblade," Rhea explained. It wasn't the explanation Astra had hoped for and she could have done without the philosophical babble but Rhea was right about one thing: Astra had abandoned any concept of sense a long time ago. It was a big mistake to think that anything involving magic had to make some sort of sense.

"Let's catch up with Sulley and Mike. I should have been watching her as well… I want to help Boo too!" Stephanie jumped up and down, more than hopeful to see her new friend safe.

Despite their fight with Gantu having lasted only a few seconds (if even that), it took them longer to regroup with Mike and Sulley due to what Astra had gladly dubbed "this accursed hell of a factory". The scare floor was starting to fill up, with monsters returning from their lunch, another detrimental factor which added to the search. It was only through Goofy's suddenly acute observation of one of Boo's white socks on the floor of one of the hallways that they eventually found them.

Astra opened the door to what had been labelled as going into the simulation room. Inside was a dark room with the only lighting available being the stage lights at the far end of the room. The room was very much resembled a studio from one of those sketch comedies that Astra used to watch on television. All that was missing was the live audience to laugh at every non-funny thing that was going.

"This has gone far enough, James," the voice of an angry Waternoose bled out of the speakers that behind them.

"She's home now! Just leave her alone!" Sulley demanded.

_Oh, this is going to be good, _Astra thought as they made their way down the aisle. The stage was obscured to them by curtains but it was all part of a plan, she was sure of it.

"I can't do that! She's soon too much. You both have."

"Mr. Waternoose, it doesn't have to be that way."

"I have no choice! Times have changed. Scaring isn't enough anymore."

"But kidnapping children?"

"I'll kidnap a thousand children before I let this company die, and I'll silence anyone who gets in my way!"

There was some rustling from behind the curtains. A tug on the sleeve from Stephanie made her turn in the direction that the eight year old was pointing at to see Mike inside a control booth with a group of guys in hazmat suits, the CDA or something like that, if Astra remembered correctly. A mechanical voice belonging to a female soon announced the end of the simulation and the curtain drew open.

"Now, I don't know about you guys, but I for one spotted several mistakes here. My favorite one being this," Mike said. He followed up by pressing a button, the speaker blasting the damning evidence in response: _"I'll kidnap a thousand children before I let this company die, and I'll silence anyone who gets in my way!"_

* * *

Sora peered out of the window along with some of the other monsters, watching as Waternoose was escorted out of the building and into a black van by members of the Child Detection Agency. The definitive evidence along with supplementary testimonies from Mike, Sulley, Astra and Rhea had been enough to arrest him. The status of the company however, remained unknown.

"What's going to happen to the company now? How am I going to pay of my debt?"

"I have a wife and child to feed. How am I supposed to provide for them now?"

"I guess this is the end of Monster's Inc. You can say goodbye to a nice salary and hello to some dull retail job that doesn't pay."

Any type of fuel that these monsters had consumed through their food and were prepared to exert in their work had probably now been completely drained as a cloud of negativity blanketed the factory.

"They'll be alright, I know they will. The factory won't close," Luna said from next to him. She sported a determined look on her face.

"What makes you so sure?" Sora asked. "This is just the icing on the cake. They'll go deeper. If they find anything else, an affiliation with KRONOS for example, then they'll shut the factory down."

"Then they won't find out about KRONOS. The name means nothing to them anyway, they're called the Child Detection Agency, they're not interested in what we are," Luna said. "But it's a shame we couldn't interrogate Waternoose. Maybe he could have told us more about KRONOS' plan and maybe even where they were located."

"Heh, well I doubt he would have given it up and even if he did, it'd be too easy. I like doing things the hard way," Sora said. "Let's head back and say goodbye to Boo."

The CDA, even with their knowledge of a human child having been in the factory, had been kind enough to look the other way. This was in exchange for shredding Boo's door to eliminate any evidence that she had ever been there. For Mike and Sulley, they would be unable to see her again but Sora could tell that she had changed them. Their outlooks, their feelings for humans had dramatically changed in the course of one day. It showed that the heart was easily and quickly capable of opening up to things foreign to it.

Sora and Luna had to rush all the way to the Simulation Room where Boo's door currently was. They had little time left until Boo was behind her door and her door was subsequently destroyed. They burst through the door and charged down the aisle at full speed, stopping to breathe only after they had arrived at their destination.

"Hey, there they are. What did I say? Told you they'd make it in time!" Mike slapped one of the CDA agents on the back, but withdrew instantly when they stared back at him. "Jeez, pal, it was just a bet. Don't need to be so wound up about it."

"How much did you win?" Sora asked.

"Just a free date to the Proscemium Movie Theatre with schmoopsie-poo, Celia," Mike said.

"Oh, Mike you old charmer. That'll definitely win her back after last night," said Sulley.

"What happened last night? Did he fail in bed or something?" Astra enquired a little too gleefully.

"In front of the children… really?" Rhea questioned.

"Huh? What do you mean by... fail in bed?" Stephanie asked curiously.

"IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT SHE MEANS_._ Le- let's just say our goodbyes to Boo before the uptight man gets impatient," Mike said with gritted teeth while nodding his head at the CDA member.

"You be a good girl, Boo. Go to bed at a regular time, brush your teeth, don't eat too many sweets-"

"Donald… how boring _are_ you?" Sora asked before taking Boo into his arms. "Don't listen to him. Have as much fun as you can, alright?"

"Though I'd include the listening to your parents thing. Spend every day with them like it's your last," Luna said. She moved in to hug Boo after Sora only to be stopped by the little girl. Boo placed her finger near Luna's eye and withdrew the watery substance from her face before grinning.

"Luna…" Sora heard Astra say the name under her breath. She must have also realized then why Luna had just made that comment about parents. Luna had told Sora how her last conversation with her parents had been an argument that had ended up with her grounded. In the end, she had disobeyed her parents and went to the hill she always went to in order to see the stars. That was when Abraxas found her and the rest was history. He couldn't even imagine how many times Luna had replayed the event in her head, wishing that she had stayed in her room like her parents had told her to.

Boo was the one to pull Luna into a hug this time. Perhaps Boo sensed the pain and sorrow in Luna's heart and attempted in her own way to rectify it, which is why it probably seemed like they had spent longer hugging than anyone else so far. They soon parted, and after a hasty reminder from the CDA agent that their time was up, Boo was escorted back into her room for a final goodbye with Sulley.

"This is horrible. They'll never be able to see each other again," Goofy sounded the thought on everyone's mind.

"Don't say that. Where there's a will, there's a way," Luna said before turning to Astra. "There has to be a way to link the worlds together, right? Sora and I went into this room with hundreds, possibly thousands of doors. They all lead to a different world, to a different person. If this world can do that, then why can't the others?"

The unexpected intrusion from Rhea came as a bit of a shock to Luna. "Luna, I value your boldness when it comes to dreams, I really do. I once dreamed about a unified world myself. But with the way the worlds are now, there is a reason why their splintered nature is justified. It's just not possible."

"Rhea, what exactly do you mean by 'the way the worlds are now'?" Goofy asked.

"The Heartless obviously," answered Donald but Rhea shook her head.

"There is that, but that wasn't what I meant. The sins of Xehanort, they still live on. Even after he was defeated, he left behind his will. That will continued with the man you call Abraxas but even though he was defeated, he was and is only the first in what I fear will be a series of incidents that will get worse and worse. It would seem that Abraxas passed Xehanort's will on to KRONOS," Rhea explained.

"Xehanort's will… and here I thought I was done with this," Sora muttered, looking off into the distance.

"I suppose Xehanort's will wouldn't exactly be accurate either. I have the feeling that this grudge of hatred has long since stirred even before Xehanort. It's why it wouldn't be suitable to try and change the world now when we don't know when this will end, if it ever will. The only thing we can do is try to leave the World the way it is. We make sure that the balance of light and dark never overlap the other."

"You don't know that? Leave the World the way it is? Or are you too afraid to try?" Luna said. Sora tried to stop her but it was too late. "You know what leaving the world the way it is means? It means letting Waternoose continue to run the company and cover up secrets. It means letting a clearly insane judge continue to abuse someone he's taken in. It means letting rich and greedy men continue to take and take from the poor when they have no right to do so. I could list a lot more examples from the places I've been to. In each of those places, we did something about it and things got better. That world changed, and I did too. So no, I don't believe just waiting for things to happen will make things better, and I won't let some stupid will decide how I feel or what I do with those feelings either."

Sora couldn't help but chuckle. Luna spoke her mind more often than not even though she had told him that she hadn't been very outspoken when it came to class. Sora found it very hard to believe, but when he looked back on how Luna was when he first met her, she almost seemed like a different person. He felt proud of her that she could stand up for what she believed in, and Sora wasn't too far from believing in her dream either. He had seen the things they could do, so why could they go further?  
"You're passionate. I can see that there's no point in saying anything further. By the way, Sora, have you decided if you would like to join us?" Rhea asked.

"Join us? You mean Moira's Crescent?" Luna asked.

"Yeah, they want the both of us to join. Luna, I think I should leave this one to you. If you join, you can be with Astra again. I know you'd like that," Sora said.

"And what about you? You'd join too?" Luna asked.

"I… I'm not sure. I don't exactly trust them but if you want me to, I'll do it," Sora said to the cries of objection from Donald and Goofy.

Luna cocked her head slightly to the left and looked at the ground. Before she could say anything else, Sulley popped out of Boo's room looking more depressed than before. No one said anything and remained still as the CDA team got to work, placing the door in a machine and pressing a switch. The door was slowly swallowed whole, with the machine making gurgling and spewing noises until everything was silent once more. The door that used to be there was now reduced to small pieces of wood on the floor.

"Oh come on guys, lighten up would ya? You'd think the way we're all mourning that someone just died. We had fun, didn't we? Isn't that what counts, a good laugh every now and then?" Astra tried to raise the spirits of everyone though her voice was quite unsure herself. It was Luna who was first to catch on and put on her famous beam.

"A good laugh… yeah. Rhea, I'm going to prove to you that change can be a wonderful thing and I think I know where to start. Sulley, I have an idea."

* * *

_So lots of development here. Sora is stubborn, Luna has a god complex and Donald is in fact the father. Of course if you believe any of what I just said, this story is probably not for you. There's a lot more to be seen from these characters... well, one of things I said anyway was an outright lie. Can you tell which one? _


	46. The Toymaker's Daughter

_So I'm thinking of a new format which involves waiting until I finish each world's chapters before posting them and in the meanwhile focusing on Through Smoke and Flames in between. It would obviously mean that you'd have to wait longer for these chapters but you get them all at once as opposed to once every week and you have the other fan fic to read in between anyway. Do be sure to tell me if you think this would be a good way to go forward. I personally think it is because Through Smoke and Flames is being neglected right now and I admit that's unfortunate. But nuff said, let's get on with the show!_

* * *

**Chapter 46**

**The Toy Maker's Daughter**

Riku remained on the edge of his seat the entire time as he impatiently awaited the end of Even and Ienzo's tests. It was unbecoming of him, he supposed, to be this anxious in a situation like this. Usually he was the voice of reason, cool and composed even at the worst of times. This time was the exception. It had nothing to do with fighting or figuring a way out of things. It was simply waiting for the result of an incredibly weird test that would decide what would happen next.

It wasn't only him that was anxious. He had explained what they had found to Yen Sid and the King as soon as he, Kairi and Max had reached Radiant Garden. The secret basement, the book full of symbols all possibly of Atlantean origin, the strange dead creature in that basement and Frollo's obsession with Atlantis. Yen Sid coolly swept aside the issue of the existence of the lost world and instead ordered Even and Ienzo to perform tests on the sample of black goo that they had brought back with them. They had long come to term that the creature had probably been designated ALICE by its owner but there was still hope that it was something different from what they were all thinking. The only clue they had to the creature's age was the lab itself in that it seemed that no one had touched it in a long time. Surely then it couldn't be _their_ Alice.

"You're done?" Kairi's voice shook Riku out of his thoughts and he jumped out of his seat.

"Er, well, yes, of sorts. While the tests were not too conclusive, the subject matter is of a foreign substance not identical to a mere Heartless. The closest thing I can compare the substance to is your common household adhesives."

"Adhesives?" Kairi repeated.

"He means glue," Riku answered quickly, only because he knew Even was the type to get frustrated quickly.

"Oh, of course… I knew that." Kairi put on an innocent smile and changed the topic quickly. "So it's not a Heartless then. Then what exactly is it?"

"Isn't that the question? You said the place you found this body in was a secret laboratory set up by someone who was probably practicing alchemy, correct?" Ienzo checked. When Kairi nodded, Ienzo smirked and looked at Even. "Then this body of yours may in fact be an attempt at creating a human being."

"I'm sorry? What did you say? Create a human being?" Riku soon found that the words would not easily come out of his mouth. He was flustered by the idea and he could almost feel the color drain from his face. "No, that's impossible. That-"

"Impossible? And why is that? You must think that cloning is something that can only happen in science fiction or something. Do you not recall that both my Riku and Xion were man made constructs, empty husks in other words, through which Xehanort both wanted to use in his plans?" Even interjected.

"I'm going to ignore the fact that you just said 'my Riku' and say that those were different cases. Even Xion wasn't fully like us until Sora gave her a heart," Riku argued.

"You're right, this isn't like the replica project. I don't think we ever said it was," Ienzo said. "But there is logic in my reasoning that this creature, regardless of whether the project was successful or not, was supposed to be human. Take the name for example. You said that its name was Alice. Now why would this alchemist think to give a creature a name if not for that they had some sort of personal attachment to it. Alice is hardly a pet name either and I can think of hundreds of those if it were just a pet. Secondly, when you came across the body, did it appear to have any features similar to a human?"

"Any features? It… it was the shape of a human and… blue eyes, it had normal blue eyes," Riku said. It sounded like he may as well be admitting defeat of some kind.

"And there was something else on the inscription. 'Her final resting place', or something to that effect. Yeah, it's definitely painting a picture and I'm not sure I want to see the finished product," Kairi said.

"There's no use averting your gaze from the truth or you may as well not have a Keyblade in the first place. Was there anything else?" Even asked. It was always a horrible feeling when Even was right.

"After that 'Her final resting place' thing, it continued to say 'may her dreams have no walls or ceiling'," Riku added.

"Then we can infer that the subject was definitely someone the owner of the lab cared about. After all, there would be no need to introduce such a trivial comment if he did not. In fact, that he even bothered to leave an inscription in the first place would show that she was important to him," Ienzo analyzed.

"Well this is just making me depressed, just as I thought," Kairi said with a shrug before looking at the table. "What about the book? Were you able to find something out?"

"That will take a little more time. Forensics isn't exactly our strong suits and the request was rather sudden. Make no mistake, it can be done. The essential goal is to create dating markers by taking advantage of the wood fibres, paper additives and surface treatment of a single page. That one page should be enough to give us an estimation of the book's age," Ienzo said.

"Only an estimation? I was hoping for something a bit more definite," Kairi said.

"Nothing is ever definite in science, that's why it's so exciting unlike that boring droll you known as magic!" Even declared.

"Wow, I feel like you and Cid would get along just fine," Riku said before looking at Kairi. "Then I guess we should lay low for now. I've been concerned with Namine for quite some time anyway. Kairi, we need to keep an eye on her. If she is a seer now like Yeul was, then if anyone, Moira's Crescent, Kefka, whoever, find that out then we're in big trouble."  
"Such a shame you won't let me run some tests on her. The last of the seers passing down her powers to a nobody… it will be interesting to see how this plays out," Even said with crazy wide eyes.

"If you so much as even breathe next to her, I won't show you mercy," Riku warned.

"And Namine isn't a Nobody anymore so that completely invalidates what you were saying," Kairi added.

Even tutted. "You misunderstand. I did not mean that kind of Nobody, but the actual definition of the word. Nevertheless, I will refrain from satiating my curiosity. Watching from afar is good enough for me as it is anyway."

* * *

_A Week Later_

Sora had no idea how they had ended up playing a game of hide and seek in a space as small as the Gummi Ship, but he was doing it anyway and having fun. Despite its size, there were more than enough objects to hide behind outside of the cockpit. There were six bedrooms in total, three on either side down the hallway and certainly more than enough beds for Luna, Donald and Goofy to hide under. In addition, there was also the shower at the back of the ship and the engine room below which was full of machinery and was no doubt the most suitable place to hide.

Sora eliminated Goofy's hiding spot very quickly as well, mainly because, well, he always hid in the same spot for some reason. Sora compared it to throwing the same move in rock, paper, scissors in that Goofy must have assumed that there would be less of a chance that Sora would look in that same spot the next time.

The second easiest to find was Donald. Not exactly being the creative type and not particularly known for being fun on, especially on the Gummi Ship, Sora and anyone else who played the role of seeker, usually found him in one of the bedrooms.

"Lemme go! _Geroff_!" Donald mumbled into Sora's arms as the Keyblade Master adopted a wrestling grip position around Donald's neck and dragged him out of Sora's bedroom.

"Heh heh, Donald, you need to try more!" Sora said while giving the duck a noogie. He soon let up and quickly examined the other bedrooms before heading to the back of the ship.

The shower itself used the engine's by-product of heat in order to run the hot water according to Cid. With that, nothing was wasted and everything was used with the Highwind's ecosystem. Even though Luna or Kupopo weren't there, Sora stopped quickly to let the cold rushing water from the sink's tap fall into his hands. He brought it towards his face and let it run down his face before looking up at his reflection in the mirror.

It was about a week ago that he had left the factory and along with it a proposition to join Moira's Crescent. After managing to find the keyhole together with Rhea and Astra, the two set off only asking Sora and Luna to keep the offer in mind. Even disregarding the fact that they tried to kill him, Sora had his own way of doing things. Yes, he was guaranteed security if he worked from within Moira's Crescent but it would also limit his freedom. There he would have the people who were distrustful of him because of some prophecy breathing down his neck constantly and that wasn't something he wanted.

He turned off the tap quickly and dried his face with the hand towel on the rack before heading down the hatch outside the room into the engine room.

"Well, I know you're in here somewhere. Luna, Stephanie, Kupopo… you might as well just give it up and come out now," Sora yelled, enjoying the reverberations of his voice echoing throughout the room.

The sound of metal hitting a pipe followed quickly which caused Sora to jump slightly. He soon shook it off and chuckled. They were trying to scare him then. An engine room with big machinery, half of them of which Sora had no clue about was indeed the perfect setting for a hide and seek game. But this game also had a big (or small) weakness.

"Huh, looks like no one's here. Maybe they're back upstairs? Oh well. Since there's no one here, I might as well lock the hatch when I leave. It would be horrible if anyone accidently fell down here!" Sora announced aloud, pretending to turn back to the ladder.

"NOOOOO! Kupo, don't leave me in the dark!" Kupopo yelled. Sora heard an "OW!" sound, no doubt from Kupopo bursting out of Luna's arms causing the girl to fall backward followed by a child-like giggle in response to her falling.

"Kupopo, you really have no idea how to play hide and seek, do you?" Luna asked, appearing from behind a machine to Sora's right and rubbing the back of her head. Stephanie soon appeared behind her with a broad grin on her face.

"Shield your ears, Kupopo. She knows not what she speaks. You're playing the game perfectly," Sora encouraged frivolously only to receive a flick on the forehead by Luna afterwards.

"You took advantage of his fear of the dark. That's cheating," Luna pointed out.

"In whose rule book? Besides, he was the one of who chose to believe it. Ow! That was… ow." Sora blinked as Luna flicked his forehead much harder this time.

"Oops, sorry, that was harder than I thought it would be," Luna apologized profusely. This had the effect of letting her guard down which allowed for Sora to respond by flicking her forehead. Luna ended up making a pouting face that was rather cute. Sora was sure that there wasn't a problem in admitting that a friend was cute… right? "Ow! You're so mean, Sora."

Sora simply flashed a grin before heading up the ladder. Once they were all up, Sora closed the hatch behind him and made to follow Luna. An energetic Stephanie skipped in front of him and opened her mouth, pointing at something or rather a lack of something.

"Look, Sora. A tooth came out yesterday. Sis told me that what my mom said was true and that a tooth fairy will come and give me munny if I put it under a pillow. Is it true? Is there really a tooth fairy?" Stephanie asked.

"Huh, that's weird. Why would Luna lie about that?" Sora asked. The smile immediately dropped off Stephanie's face and he could see Luna in front of him glaring at him dangerously. "Uh, that is to say, there's no way Luna would possibly lie about that. Of course the tooth fairy exists."

An hour went by incredibly quickly with the group having a mini picnic of sorts on the Highwind. Sora handed out the sandwiches that Kupopo had made while the group exchanged stories and reminisced about their previous adventures. Both Luna and Stephanie listened as intently as they could as Sora retold his first experience in a jungle and how he and Donald's friendship gradually got better. He could have talked forever about his feelings during that journey. They were after all, more innocent times when he didn't understand the power of the Keyblade, when he didn't have everyone after his head, when he was simply only interested in finding his friends. It was sometimes simpler to live in the past and yearn for those days of innocence again. He was cut short by a beeping red light from the console panel however and was once again forced to confront the present. It seemed that they had found the world they were looking for.

* * *

A thick fog covered the yellow-lit streets of the world they had landed on. As usual they didn't know anything about the world they had landed in but unlike usual they did have at least something to go on. Professor Ratigan, the person Pete had mentioned when they had interrogated him, was somewhere in this world. The Keyblade had opened the pathway to the world as if it had sensed Sora's desires. He was sure this was what Master Neuge meant by the Keyblade having a mind of its own.

"Hey, is it just me or did the world get bigger?" Goofy was the first to point out. When Sora looked up, he saw that Goofy was indeed correct. The buildings, the street lamps, everything, was bigger than they should be. Even the curb of the sidewalk next to him was half his height.

"I think we're just smaller," Luna said after taking a look around. "Great. Not like I wasn't already short. Thanks Donald."

"I'm not falling for this bait anymore," Donald said before jumping up and down. "I can't see anything in this fog!"

"Yeah, and it doesn't look like there's anyone around either. It's kinda creepy," Goofy commented. The farther the group travelled, the more hope they seemed to lose because they knew they were still on the same street. Nevertheless, it was interesting seeing the world from a different perspective, even if there wasn't much to see because of the fog.

A sudden shiver ran down Sora's spine and he spun around quickly, searching for any signs of danger. It wasn't exactly that, but he was glad he had gotten the shiver because he was just able to catch a glimpse of a shadowy figure about their height moving deeper into the fog.

After telling the others, they decided it was best to catch up with the figure for now. There was really no reason for a person to be wandering the fog all alone at night so it could have been a Heartless but it also didn't hurt to take a look either.

They actually caught up with the person a lot more quickly than expected, primarily because it turned out that she was both a child and a mouse. The mouse seemed strangely aplomb despite being in the middle of nowhere, though Sora could imagine that she thought she had to be.

"Um, excuse me. Are you all alone by yourself? Can we help with anything?" Luna offered, though being newcomers of this strange world, Sora couldn't think of much that they could do to help.

"Oh, if you could that would be great. I'm looking for Basil, Basil of Baker Street. You wouldn't happen to know him, would you? It's very important. My father, he's a toy maker, I was with him and then someone broke into our house. Dad did his best to hide me and I heard something like fighting. When the sound stopped, I left the cupboard where he'd hid me but h-h-he wasn't there! I think he was kidnapped!" the girl cried out, struggling to hold back her tears.

"You poor thing." Luna bent down and used an index finger to brush aside the tears that were continuing to fall. "I'm sorry, we don't know this Basil but we'll help, we'll definitely help. We can't leave you on your own."

"Yep, nothing worse than not helping a child in need. We're Sora, Donald, Goofy, Luna and Stephanie. Nice to meet ya!" Goofy introduced with a big smile, hoping to do own part in cheering her up.

"My name is Olivia. Olivia Flaversham," the mouse returned. It seemed that Luna and Goofy had helped because she was now trying to put on the best of smiles.

"So, just who is this Basil of Baker Street anyway?" Sora asked.

"He's a detective who solves a lot of mysteries. I've only heard about him from the newspapers that my dad read, but there was a case last year with a jewel thief and Basil was the one who assisted the police in catching the thief. There was one clue that only he noticed so I'm sure he could find my father," Olivia explained.

"He's a… detective?" Luna repeated with a dreamy expression on her face.

"Uh oh, yeah, she happens to be a big fan of mystery and crime novels by the way. For her it must be like the stars aligning to meet a famous detective," Sora said.

"Wouldn't the stars aligning be a bad thing?" Stephanie enquired.

Sora winked at her before looking around. "This fog, has it been here long?"

"That's the strange thing. The fog started last night and it still isn't gone. No one knows what's going on," Olivia answered. If the fog really had lasted for a day then there was definitely a supernatural element afoot. Sora could really only think of the background radiation being responsible for it.

"So we're heading to Baker Street then?" Sora confirmed. "Hopefully, we're not too far from it. Let's go."

Along the way they got to find out a little bit more about Olivia. Today was her eighth birthday, making her the same age as Stephanie. It was little wonder then that the two got on so well. It was as if they'd known each other their entire lives.

They also got to know a little about Olivia's, as well as most of this world's, obsession with Basil. Rumors blew this way and that about him like the wind. It was said that Basil knew everything about a person's past just from looking at their appearance. Their clothes, their finely combed moustache, their whiskers even. Because of that, even Sora was more interested to meet him than before. Of course, it was always the case that the person was far less interesting than the legend itself, as he would soon find out.

* * *

Ember flames flickered strongly and brightly, illuminating the clustered room. On tables were jars, beakers, measuring cylinders, Bunsen burners, anything that would aid their owner in his scientific venture. But these were not the concern of the owner at the moment. The mouse sat in the room's only armchair, brandishing his violin and resting it under his chin in one hand and running the bow up and down the strings delicately as if it were a lover. It was especially ironic considering the mouse's nature to think of love as a trivial thing that would only last a definite amount of time.

"It's not possible no matter how you look at it. But that can't be right, can it? Anything can be explained, even that _thing_. Truly it is the greatest mystery I've ever encountered and possibly ever will. Still, no mystery is unsolvable," the mouse murmured to himself. His mind was more preoccupied with his thoughts rather than the instrument he was playing.

"Basil, surely you aren't thinking of keeping that thing in the bathtub the entire time?" enquired a rather plump but seemingly kind-hearted mouse after walking in. His disposition showed on his sleeves as Basil had so miraculously pointed out when they had first met over a month ago. The detective had instantly been able to tell that the plump mouse, Dawson, had been a doctor or more specifically a surgeon who had previously served abroad during the war just by the individual threads of his clothes. Basil's powers of observation were astounding, and because of this, the police often requested his services in cases they couldn't solve by themselves. According to Basil though, there was apparently someone who was even more astute and better than him, which Dawson found hard to believe.

"Not the entire time. Surely you can go a day or two without a bath?" Basil cringed as a most imperfect sound came out of the violin. He shook his head and resumed running the bow across the strings slowly.

"I'd prefer not. I don't know what you done either but the bathroom is absolutely protruding with the smell of chemicals. It's right next to poor Mrs. Judson's room no less," Dawson told him. A loud rap on the door interrupted their conversation soon followed by Mrs. Judson opening the door and her voice conversing with a couple of others. Basil closed his eyes and silently mouthed the number of voices he had managed to pick up, sinking lower into his arm chair as the number increased. Six in total. It definitely wasn't anything interesting then.

"Ahoy, a fireplace! What dazzling light that captures the imaginative eye!" Olivia Flaversham skipped into the room and surveyed the fire with a magnifying glass that she had taken out of her pocket.

"Oh, you poor dear, you must be absolutely cold. I wouldn't want to be out at night with all that fog. I'll make you and your friends some tea and crumpets," Mrs. Judson said before scurrying out of the room.

Olivia wasn't the only one who was acting energetically in the room. Luna was buzzing with energy, looking at something only to disappear quickly and reappear at the next point of interest.

"Well, hello, I'm Dr. David Dawson and my friend with violin here is Basil. Is there some sort of problem?"

Olivia nodded and moved to the middle of the room to present her case. "You see, my father's gone-"

But Basil interrupted before she could say any more. "I'm sure he is, darling. There comes a time when a young woman like yourself must leave the comfort of her home, take a leap forward and journey out to the great unknown. That is the peculiar vastness known as life itself. Now hurry along, I'm quite busy."

"But Mr. Basil, I'm only eight."

Basil peered around from his armchair and took a good look at his guests before relaxing.

"Oh. Well yes, I knew that. Well surely your mother must know where he's gone? Ask her," he replied after returning to his music.

"I… don't have a mother. She passed away when I was young," Olivia said, casting her eyes downward. The violin's sound came to a sudden screeching halt that caused everyone to flinch uncomfortably.

_How can a 'great mouse detective' get things so wrong? _Sora thought with a look of disillusionment on his face.

"I'm incredibly sorry to hear that. Basil, I think you very well owe it to the young lass to listen to what she has to say, don't you think?" Dawson remarked, looking rather red faced at the fact that Basil wasn't taking this a seriously as he should have been doing.

Basil let out a loud sigh before getting out of his armchair. He adjusted his bathrobe to make it tighter before heading over to the window to stare into the endless fog. Mrs. Dawson soon came back with a tray carrying crumpets and six cups of hot tea. Sora drifted his cup left to right slowly as he and the others listened to Olivia explain her plight to Basil.

"You said a bat kidnapped your father? No, it couldn't be… did that bat happen to have a crippled wing per chance?" Basil said after processing the information. It seemed that the detail about the bat was really the only thing that got through however.

Olivia shook her head. "I'm not sure, but it did have a peg leg."

Basil grinned before letting out a laugh. "Dawson, I think we've finally got our work set out for us."

"It seems like you know this bat?" Dawson asked.

"Know him? That rascal known as Fidget is only a smaller part of a much larger picture. I ask you to think bigger. The Napoleon of crime, a criminal mastermind the likes of which could only ever be possibly conceived in your nightmares. But he's anything but a nightmare. He's very much real and he's eluded my capture each and every time, like a phantom. He's truly the only capable of being my arch nemesis, that is to say, the nefarious Professor Ratigan."

"Ratigan?" Sora repeated and exchanged a smile with Luna. It seemed almost non-coincidental that they had been taken to the exact street where a young mouse happened to be whose father had been kidnapped, possibly by Ratigan. It had led them directly to the one person who could probably assist them in tracking the Professor down.

"Ooh, please let us investigate with you. We won't get in your way, oh, and I've read a lot of mystery literature so I have some ideas about crime scene investigation," Luna announced eagerly.

"I… suppose it's alright if you don't get in the way. Then we'll head off to your place to pick up on any clues and while we walk you can tell me more about your father," Basil said. He paused momentarily to look at Luna before his view expanded to include Sora and the others. "You're peculiar mice. I must say I haven't heard of your kind before. Are you from off the continent?"

_The greatest detective indeed_.

"Who can say? I'll let you be the judge of that," Sora said with a mysterious smile.

"Well this going to bug me for quite a while. Nevertheless, a challenge is a challenge. Anyway, after you finish your tea, we'll be off post haste. Ratigan cannot be allowed to get away this time," Basil said as made his way over to his coat rack.

* * *

Hiram Flaversham wiped the sweat of his concentrated brow as he carefully attached two of his recently made well-crafted pieces together. His eyes diverted from his project as he heard the sound of footsteps coming ever closer towards his cell. He stepped aside as the door opened slowly and in stepped Ratigan with his usually oily, raspy voice.

"As you can see Kefka, Flaversham here is working extra diligently to get the device ready in time. Once that happens, KRONOS will have their weapon and the final stages of our plan will begin!" Ratigan exclaimed delightedly. He playfully rustled Flaversham's bushy eyebrows, much to the annoyance of the toy maker.

"That's good and well but don't forget the real purpose of this experiment. Sora, if he isn't here already, will be soon thanks to the little tip the fat cat gave him. It looks like Xanatos was right in trusting him with that information since he was the most likely to spill the beans. Now he'll be on his way to stop you and when he comes, he won't be very pleased with what he finds," Kefka's said, adding on a childish giggle at the end.

"But we can't kill him? That's a shame. Talk about wasting an opportunity," Ratigan said.

"It's more fun this way. Xanatos recognises it too which is why he's the boss and you aren't. This isn't just about Sora either. It's about pitting Moira's Crescent and him against each other. Then once we're done with our plan we can blow them both up. KABOOOM!" Kefka yelled suddenly causing both Hiram and Ratigan to jump. He let out a laugh and started dancing around in joy. Hiram did not yet know what to think of the strange clown. Through all the light-heartedness he seemed to portray, there loomed a choking atmosphere surrounding him that sent shivers down Flaversham's spine. It was so joyous and carefree that it almost seemed inhuman, maybe even demonic.

"You're both monsters. All this for a boy? Stop this madness now! I refuse to be a part of it any longer!" Flaversham yelled and swatted the parts he was working on to the side of the room with ferocity.

"Flaversham. Flaversham, Flaversham, Flaversham, more like what a sham!" Kefka exclaimed with another giggle before putting on a straight face. "Do you really think you have any choice in matter? You may say no but I can tell you now, you will definitely complete this project. Let me tell you a little story. Once upon a time momma mouse sent three little mice off since she was unable to care for them on her own. What a terrible papa mouse, I know… anyway, the three mice split up and built separate houses-"

"Wait a second. Isn't this-" Flaversham tried to say but Kefka continued on.

"One made of straw, one made of sticks and one made of bricks. Clearly the one with the bricks wasn't _grounded_ in reality. Haha, see what I did there? Anyway, the wolf came and huffed and puffed and blew down the sticks and straws that two of the three mice had built. That wasn't the end of the mice though. They scurried all the way to the third mouse's house made of brick. Unfortunately this little mouse made the mistake of including windows in his house and so the wolf really only had to smash through it before gobbling all the mice up. The point of the story? I forget but I am basically the big bad wolf and this is certainly no brick house you're standing in right now, nor is it a straw house or a stick house. You're in our house now."

"Aw, keep your bloomers on Kefka. I think all the poor lad needs is a little motivation, which is why I am taking the personal duty of bringing your daughter here too. I'm sure she could benefit from the… treatment," Ratigan said.

"No, not Olivia! Leave her alone! I'll- I'll do as you say. I'll keep working so just please don't harm my Olivia." Flaversham, as if to show he was retreating from his previously adamant nature, crawled over to the parts quickly and brought them back to the workstation at the back of his cell.

"THEN GET BACK TO WORK!" Ratigan yelled. His growl slowly transitioned into a big, creepy smile and he took a puff of his cigar before locking the cell door once more. Rather than looking at Kefka, Ratigan turned instead to the person behind him who had been waiting so silently with her arms folded the entire time. "Oh do try to be a little chirpy once in a while will you? It's not too hard for him. I took you off the street and offered you a home when no one else would. The least you could is smile for me."

But the female rat continued to stand motionless and deaf to his words. She clutched her lance tightly and slowly looked at Ratigan.

"I'm just a hired assassin. I'm not paid to smile nor am I indebted to you," she said. "But you said you don't want him killed? Then where does that leave me?"

"With those closest to him of course. I need you to do me a favor. There's a target Xanatos is interested in, but she's not in this world," Kefka explained. It seemed that he couldn't help but control his giggles. "She also seems to have taken a particular interest in Atlantis. Radiant Garden was where she was last seen. Find her and kill kill KILL her!"

"Whatever, as long as I'm paid. What's her name anyway?" The lancer asked.

"Kai- Kai- Ooh, Kairi! I knew I'd remember it eventually!" Kefka said. When he said this, Professor Ratigan turned to him with a flustered look on his face.

"One of the Princesses of Heart? Are you sure it was Xanatos who ordered that? That doesn't seem like something he would do."

"Are you questioning me, Ratigan?" Kefka said, nearing closer and closer to him. Ratigan backed away until he was against a wall and could back away no more. Kefka pressed his body against Ratigan's and glared at him dangerously and then… he kissed him on the mouth. He drew away after a few seconds leaving Ratigan coughing and spitting in disgust.

"Good. If you weren't that kind I'd have to consider cutting that tail off. The worlds drowned in chaos, and in the center is meeeeeee!" Kefka's laugh rang through the halls and anyone within its range once again had to consider how deeply disturbed an individual he was.


	47. Crime Scene Investigators

_A dark chapter up ahead but lots of development. The tonal shift of this chapter was actually one of the most jarring to write. Hopefully there are better days ahead for the gang._

* * *

**Chapter 47**

**Crime Scene Investigators**

Luna let out a shiver as they walked into the cold foggy night once more. She was already starting to miss the warm fireplace and the cup of tea that she had been invited to by Mrs. Judson already. The Flaversham household wasn't exactly nearby either, so it was a wonder that Olivia had come so close to finding it by herself. That reminded her…

"Say Olivia, you were using a magnifying glass on that fireplace earlier, weren't you? Do you always carry that around?" Luna asked the young mouse.

"It's quite neat, isn't it? My dad bought it for me when he realized that I had an interest in solving things. I've always wanted to be a detective myself, so I picking up on stuff from watching Basil secretly. Don't tell him I said that," she whispered back.

Basil let out a sneeze and looked around. "Huh? Was someone talking about me? Pfft, as if anyone would believe something as ridiculous as that. Hmm? What's that?"

Luna followed his finger to the black flat cap that had been left on the ground outside the house. Basil picked it up and examined every side of the hat.

"Do you know who left it?" Stephanie asked. "I don't think it was here when we arrived."  
"If what you say is the case, then that's a huge problem. This hat belongs to that peg-legged bat with the broken wing that I mentioned earlier, Fidget," Basil said.

"Then… he was spying on us?" Luna asked. "But why? Unless he knew…"

"You've caught on too it seems. Fidget was probably following young Olivia around. I imagine he had intended to intercept her before she came to me but it was fortunate that she met up with you before he could act. Not quite sure why he didn't try to capture her sooner, but then again, he has always been rather slow on the uptake," Basil said.

"The way you talk about the Ratigan guy, it doesn't seem like he'd be the kind to accept someone as incompetent as that," Sora said.

"Well let's just be thankful that he was or we would never have met Olivia," Donald helpfully pointed out the optimistic side of the situation. Still, it was unnerving to know that they had been followed and were possibly even being watched from outside 221 ½ Baker Street.

"Is there any way we can track down Fidget using the hat? Oh, I know! You say he's incompetent, right? Then maybe it's his favorite hat or something. He's that kind of killer that has to come back to the crime scene because he has no choice!" Luna suggested with a big grin.

"Luna, what did Kupopo sneak into your breakfast this morning?" Sora asked.

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" Luna retorted with a tilted head.

"Well, what your friend says is true. There are instances where the perpetrator is compelled to return to the scene of the crime because of evidence that may incriminate them, but that is usually only in cases of immediate danger. In this case, there was no such immediate danger and so even if it is Fidget's favorite hat, he has no reason to come back here," Basil explained.

"Also, if we take the chance of waiting, we risk letting Fidget get away, right, Mr. Basil?" Olivia added.

"Er, yes, I… was about to say that." From the way he was reacting, Luna could tell that Basil probably wasn't used to other people stealing his thunder, especially not an eight year old girl. Basil put two fingers in his mouth a whistled loudly before continuing to speak. "Then I suppose that just leaves your other suggestion, Moona. We'll have to track Fidget down using the hat's scent!"  
"Moona? It's Luna!" she corrected. Was her name really that forgettable? "Also, how are we going to track him based on the hat's scent? Well, that is unless you have a super sensitive nose or something."  
"I don't. He does," Basil said, pointing behind her. Luna's head turned just in time to see something big and brown knocked her to the ground and started lapping away at her with its tongue.

"Toby, boy, I'm over here," Basil called out. The dog lifted its head and looked at Basil before looking down at the saliva-induced Luna. It stepped away and offered and apologetic smile before heading over to its owner.

"Sora… how many showers does it take to wash my sorrows away?" Luna asked.

* * *

Five minutes before, she had sworn a solemn vote to hate this dog. Five minutes later, she was loving every second of it. How had her opinion of Toby the dog changed so quickly? By riding it, of course.

"YEEEE-HAWWW! Shoot for the stars, doggy!" Stephanie yelled joyously from behind her as Luna held onto Toby's collar for dear life. Even though she was the front passenger on the ride and she could have fallen off at any moment, it was still incredibly exciting, like a roller coaster ride. Behind her, Stephanie was pressed up against her back and hugging her tightly and holding onto her was Olivia. Essentially, in order to get everyone on the dog they had to squash up against each other. It had been uncomfortable at first but they easily forgot about this as soon as they took off.

"Look, Dawson! It's that creature from before, and there are more of them this time. Why, this is quite exciting!" Basil exclaimed.

"I'm not sure you'd say that if one came up close and personal to you," Sora said before flinging out his right arm to summon the Keyblade. The Neoshadows moved quickly in a way that could be described as galloping. They learned in a zigzag pattern and when they were close to Toby, leapt out of the dense fog and attacked with its razor sharp claws. Luna kicked one away as it was nearing Stephanie before summoning her own Keyblade and taking out the ones which neared them with magic.

Toby turned into another street and was beginning to slow down. The Neo Shadows kept attacking in droves but Sora, Luna and Donald's magic was enough to fend the rest of them off. A loud howl caused Luna to look at the place Toby had finally stopped at.

They had arrived at a toy shop, similar to all the other buildings in the area in its exterior but seeming like a completely different world from inside. From the window display alone, Luna could make out wooden puppets with noses of various shapes and sizes, dolls with incredibly varied and colorful hair reminiscent of the rainbow, and small robot moving their arms about mechanically or clapping their hands together in a musical rhythm. On the higher shelf were several toy vehicles from sailboats to model cars.

It all quickly reminded Luna of the toy sailboat that her dad had given her on her fourth birthday. That day, the two of them both went out to the pond near the park and watched as the miniature sailboat glided alongside the ducks and created ripples in the water. The toy store in Alexander had definitely been one of Luna's favorite places to visit when she was young so the fact that Toby had stopped in front of one now seemed almost non-coincidental.

"A toy shop? Why would this Fidget come here?" Sora asked.

"Hm, a toy shop and a toy shop's owner being kidnapped. Ooh, maybe he's creating an army of toy robots and evil dolls?" Luna suggested with a beam.

"Yeeeaaah, no," Sora dismissed. "Well I guess there's only one way to find out. Into the lion's den we go."

The moment the group stepped into the toy shop, they were confronted with a more comforting environment than the foggy, unknowable outside. The room was dark but the amount of toys in the room made the place feel more than alive and welcome. Even better was that the scale of these toys were equal to their own heights. This made the train on the tracks on one side of the room similar to a real one's height even though it was actually smaller, for example, and there were many other wonders like it.

"It's a big teddy! Why hello, kind sir, would you like some tea?" Olivia took hold of the bear's hand and shook it frantically with a grin.

"Hey, do you think we can get the train to move? I wanna ride on it!" Stephanie exclaimed, looking around eagerly for whatever controlled the train.

"You do all remember that we're here on strict business, yes?" Basil said before turning to Sora and Dawson. "Do be sure to keep your eye on those two. I can't be held responsible for what happens to them and there are much more pressing issues at stake here than getting a toy train to move."

"Aw, I kinda wanted to ride the train too," Sora said but upon seeing Basil's frown, immediately changed his tone. "Of course, finding Olivia's father is a lot more important right now… Maybe later?"

Luna also couldn't deny that she felt an insatiable urge to ride the train but knowing that Fidget could be anywhere kept her more focused on the mission. The group continued to make their way across the room eventually finding themselves on a giant chessboard that had been placed on the floor. Immediately, Luna wanted to run right through it without looking at a single chess piece. Her first and last experience with chess hadn't exactly been a joyful one and it had stressed her out completely.

She wouldn't get her wish. The moment she crossed the middle of the chessboard, the carefully crafted pieces in front of her came to life. The pawns remained in their place but the special pieces behind them advanced forward. The black piece king approached them with its sword dragging behind and the bishops in support. Meanwhile, the knight chess pieces hopped towards either side of the Queen and faced the group, pointing their jousting lances forward. Luna turned around to see the white chess pieces also replicating the same moves.

"Heartless?" Luna asked.

"No doubt. Probably Possessor Heartless taking possession of each of the chess pieces," Donald answered. "There's probably two ways to go about doing this. The first is to destroy the pieces completely though I'd think that they'd just go into another piece. But if we keep on destroying pieces then they'll have nowhere else to go."

"Sounds easy enough, if not a little repetitive. What's the second option?" Sora asked.

"You have a Keyblade, don't you? Use your head!" Donald ordered, lightly hitting the back of Sora's head with his staff.

"Ow! Yeah, yeah, I get the point. Don't need to pound it into my head," Sora muttered before adopting his _Ars Arcanum _stance. Luna only had time to briefly admire how Sora's style reflected Neuge's own samurai stance before the chess piece behind her swung at her head with its sword. She ducked underneath and quickly parried the attack from her position, forcing the chess piece onto its back by exerting some extra force.

As she resumed a standing posture, she looked to see Olivia and Stephanie being escorted away by Dawson around the chessboard to avoid the attacks. Basil, on the other hand, was incredibly fascinated by the moving chess pieces in front of him as well as the weapons in Sora, Luna, Donald and Goofy's hands and so continued to marvel while occasionally evading attacks almost unconsciously.

"Basil, now's not the time! Get away from here!" Luna yelled.

"And miss the chess match of a lifetime? Never! Don't worry about me, I've been in far worse situations," Basil responded in an excited tone. Luna somehow doubted that but nevertheless heeded his wishes and continued to fend off the Possessor chess pieces while keeping an eye on him.

A glowing Sora quickly cut through the white bishop pieces and watched as dark orbs floated out of their hiding place and moved around the room. Sora aimed his Keyblade up at one of them, a beam of light coming out and striking it, causing it to vanish.

"Busting never felt so good," Sora joked before aiming his Keyblade at the next possessor. The beam of light shot out but the possessor skilfully evaded the beam. Luna watched patiently as it tried to enter another chess piece, one of the black pawns, before shooting her own beam of light. Too focused on trying to merge with the object, the possessor failed to notice the beam and was struck with it, taking it out.

The battle dragged on with the group doing their best to exorcise the possessors before they could find another chess piece to attach themselves to. It hadn't been an easy fight and the group had let their guard down more than a few times to the point where they had received several blows.

Luna looked around before her eyes fell on the toy train. She pointed her Keyblade at it and used _Magnega _to drag it towards her. The train flew off its rails and Luna quickly gave a warning yell for everyone to get down. The train clipped over the edge of the chessboard and flipped over their heads, rolling and knocking off the remaining pieces before finally settling on its side. The last few possessors flew out of their knocked over pieces and soon disappeared out of sight with no other suitable object near them to take over. The group stood up once more with looks of complete relief on their faces. Sora panted heavily, his legs giving way, sending him back to the ground. Luna propped her Keyblade up and used it as support while trying to catch her own breath. Her eyes scanned the room before finally settling on Dawson.

"Where are Stephanie and Olivia?"

* * *

Stephanie heard the sound of rushing water from inside her confinement. There was also the sound of footsteps, more notably a dull clunking that always followed a normal footstep. Aside from that, all she knew was darkness and the girl that was hugged up against her. Olivia had been crying out for Basil and the others ever since the both of them had been swiped and stashed in the sack without anyone knowing. Stephanie had cried out too of course, but had stopped before Olivia had and tried her best to calm her down. It was what her big sis would have tried to do in those situations, she imagined.

Stephanie held onto Olivia's hand gently and kept hold of it until the sound of footsteps resided.

"Heh, heh! Ratigan, got the girl! Got the girl!" The voice of their kidnapper presented enthusiastically.

"Well done, Fidget. I just knew you'd come through for me. Now let her out so we can give her a proper greeting."

A moment later, Stephanie was rolling out of the sack and landed on her back with Olivia following in tow. She blinked and looked upwards to see a ginormous rat looking down at her with a cigar in his mouth. The smoke was unbearable to her and caused her to cough more than once.

"And who would you be, m'dear? You don't look like Flaversham's," said the rat. He took the cigar out of his mouth and pointed it at Olivia. "Now her? That's definitely a Flaversham. I can see it all over her. Fidget, what's the meaning of this?"

"Really dark. Couldn't see. Heartless! Friends were fighting! Just grabbed at first chance. Err, yeah, yeah, that's it!" Fidget answered with a nod.

"Fighting you say? Then _he_ must be here…" Ratigan said. He took another puff of his cigar before grinning. "Well done, Fidget. Not only did you bring me the main course but you've also brought me dessert. Now what do you say to letting old man Flaversham reunite with his daughter?"

Stephanie stood up and looked into Ratigan's eyes. "You've just made a big mistake by kidnapping us. You better let us go right now or my friends won't be happy when they find you. I wouldn't underestimate them."

"Why, aren't you a cute one. Trying to act big and tough in front of your friend even though you're probably scared half to death right now."

But Stephanie laughed at this and folded her arms. "As if I would be afraid of a stupid poopy head looking rat like you."

Ratigan's eyes twitched and he opened his mouth as if wanting to say something but soon caught himself and reconsidered. He eventually gave her a smile before leading her and Olivia down a dimly lit tunnel. They soon arrived at the workstation and upon seeing him, Olivia left Stephanie's side and ran into her father's arms.

"Aren't I a nice guy, Flaversham? I was so kind as to bring your daughter over here. Don't worry, Fidget will be taking good care of her and her friend here so long as you keep your end of the bargain, of course," Ratigan said.

"I will. I'll do it, just don't harm my daughter," Flaversham said before retreating from Olivia's arms to return to his work. "Don't worry, Olivia, we'll be with each other again soon."

Stephanie turned to follow Fidget and Olivia but Ratigan held her by the shoulder.

"Not you, dear. I have plans for you. How about we make you some new friends while you're here?" Ratigan turned her around like a doll and led her down a different hallway. Stephanie turned her head to the side and gave a small nod at Olivia who replied with her own.

* * *

Toby came to a halt near the riverfront at the center of the city with Sora, Luna, Donald, Goofy, Basil and Dawson getting off. Luna ruffled the dog's head and issued a smile before turning to look at the sewerage entrance. She exchanged a quick nod with Sora before cutting through the metal grates of the entrance with her Keyblade.

Dawson had explained at the toy shop how he had tripped just before Luna had told them all to get down. In the short time that had lost sight of Stephanie and Olivia, Fidget must have quickly captured them. Sora and Luna had begun to frantically panic at that moment. Not only had they failed to keep Olivia safe but they had failed to keep their promise to Stephanie's mother and if something were to happen to her then they would never be able live with themselves. Even now as Sora followed the others down the tunnel, his heart was racing and a fog of fear had made his body less than responsive to what was going on around him.

Fortunately, Fidget, perhaps in the heat of the moment, had dropped a list containing the things that Ratigan probably needed for his plan such as cogs, costumes resembling the royal guard, and of course Olivia. Back at Basil's house with a little forensic work and a good nose, Basil was able to discern the origin of the paper as being near a sewerage treatment facility. The alcoholic smell of the paper also further narrowed down the search to a sewer underneath a certain pub by the river, which is where they were now.

"Can't say I've really gone through many tunnels before. Where do you think this leads?" Sora asked.

"To a secret underground facility ruled by mole people," Luna guessed.

"Mole people? Really?"

"Well, have you ever come across mole people? Most people who find them are never found themselves."

"But seriously, mole people? That was the best you could come up with?"

"Like you have something better. And besides, how do you know mole people aren't real?"

"Uh, could you two be any louder? I don't think the whole sewer quite heard you," Donald muttered.

Goofy took his finger away from his mouth and looked at Basil with a smile. "Say, you've really gone out of your way to help Olivia. You really care for her, dontcha?"

Basil spluttered about before recovering and furrowing his brows. "And what would give you that impression? She's a child who was in my duty of care when she was kidnapped. It's any gentleman's duty to rescue a young lady in distress. You would do the same for Stephanie, no?"

"I don't think that's quite what he means, Basil," Dawson said with his own smile. "I don't believe you're purely doing this out of a sense of duty. If I'm not mistaken, it appears you've formed some kind of bond with Olivia. A first, at least in my experience."

"Does Basil have many friends?" Goofy asked.

"I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to say it in front of the person." Basil let out a sigh but continued nonetheless. "I can't say I have much need for friends. I've never really seen much use in them."

"Use?"

"My experiences with friendship have told me that friends really only use each other to get what they want. Scientifically speaking, things like friendship and love act as a drug that gives us pleasure. We seek thrills and having others around us as conduits allow us to fully indulge and satisfy our desires. I have no need for that. You could say solving mysteries is my drug, one that I get enough of as it is already. I don't need the factor of friendship complicating things," Basil explained.

"Friendship complicates things? Well, have you tried viewing it out of a scientific scope then?" Luna enquired. "I'm not sure I care much for the word 'use' here. It's true that friends and family fill a hole in our heart and we can't live without them but I would hardly call it using them. We help each other, not just through the medial everyday tasks but also seeing their perspectives on life and coming to understand and even possibly change our own. It's part of our development, and why we're so adaptable. Did that come off as cheesy?"

"No, no, you did great! Ten out of ten, would listen again," Sora said with a thumbs up. "I mean, you and Dawson have been together for how long? Wouldn't you say you're friends?"

"Friends?" Basil glanced briefly at Dawson before responding. "I don't know. I've never really thought about it. I suppose it's just easier for me to distance myself from others."

"Well, I'm sure Dawson sees you as a friend and I'm pretty sure you do too otherwise you wouldn't have kept him around," Sora said. Basil said nothing and simply continued on but there were signs of a small smile forming on his face if even for the few seconds that it was there before the detective had become aware of it. Luna would have loved more than anything to be able to believe that her words had helped. So why couldn't she?

"_You allow them to define who you are because you don't have the qualifications necessary to define who you are. To put it simply, you're using them."_

The words of her younger self back at the factory flashed briefly in her mind. She stopped and shook her head dismissively. No, she couldn't afford to think about that right now. Instead she clenched her fists tightly and used her anger at even remembering the words to keep her on determination burning strong. With a solemn nod to herself, she pressed on.

The sewers were teeming with Heartless of different kinds, some Luna and even Sora had never encountered before. Whenever they got tired of fighting the tenth Hook Bat in a row, a Cannon Gun or Driller Mole would opt to take its place, just to 'renew' interest. Of course it wasn't renewing anything and they were starting to become worn out with not just fighting the Heartless, but also going down the narrow pathways and climbing up ladders.

Their patience soon rewarded them however, or at least that's what they thought at first. Sora used his Keyblade to unlock the door that they had arrived at and they opened it to see a much wider space and a much appreciated face.

"Stephanie!" Luna cried out and ran up to the smaller girl.

"Hold off a bit, Luna. Let the girl breathe," Sora said with a chuckle. He walked over and hugged Stephanie as well soon after Luna let go.

"I'm sorry, it's just… I was so worried, but now I'm so happy. You're okay, aren't you? They didn't do anything bad to you? You're not hurt?" Luna asked.

"Hey, you're starting to sound like my mom. I'm alright." Stephanie giggled before turning to look at five other mice all cuddled up against the wall. "I don't think they are though."

"Who are they? They're... children?" Dawson asked. Basil moved nearer to them to inspect them before ushering Dawson over with urgency in his voice.

"Is there somethin' wrong?" Goofy asked, hurrying over to them.

"See for yourself. These children, they've been starved. Their eyes are dilated and saliva is running down their mouths," Dawson stated as he cocked one of the mice's head gently to the side.

"Is this truly the work of Ratigan? He's devious but to go out of his way to starve children… that's going too far, even for him," said Basil with a troubled stare.

"What about a connection? Do you think there might be a connection between the victims?" Luna asked.

"Those two, Jewels and Avery. They're brother and sister. The other three, Cherryl, Archie and Arthur, they're orphans from an orphanage somewhere in the city. They were kidnapped about a week ago and rat face did something to them but they don't know what. That's what they told me earlier," Stephanie explained, pointing to each mouse as she named them.

"But why would Ratigan show any interest in-" Sora paused for a moment before his eyes widened, probably at the same time as Luna, Donald and Goofy's. It was only then that the group all realized how cruel the World could truly be. The dam had broken merely through the opening of a door, and the cold, hard-hitting, rushing flow of gloom overpowered their smiles. No one among the four fighters wanted to say anything. They couldn't say anything. They all hoped deep down inside that this was some terrible nightmare and that they would eventually wake up, but seeing the reactions on everyone else's faces confirmed that they wouldn't be waking up. How could all four of them be having the same dream after all?

"Sora, what do we do?" Luna finally managed to wheeze out. Sora hadn't heard her. He wasn't listening to anything at the moment. He just kept his eyes trained at the ground, afraid to look up. There was only one conclusion he could arrive at and maybe it was selfish to think it, but there was no reason to believe it wasn't the truth either.

The kids had been kidnapped a week ago, around the time Sora and Luna had overheard Pete give the tip that Ratigan and Kefka were performing an experiment here. And he did something to the children, according to Stephanie. It was obvious, now that Sora thought about it. Abraxas had been the first to come up with the experiment. Abraxas was with KRONOS. Abraxas gave them the knowledge to perform the experiments. This chain of logic soon arrived at its horrific conclusion: KRONOS' experiment had involved turning people into Chimera, and these kids had been test subjects in that experiment.

"_The sins of Xehanort, they still live on. Even after he was defeated, he left behind his will. That will continued with the man you call Abraxas but even though he was defeated, he was and is only the first in what I fear will be a series of incidents that will get worse and worse. It would seem that Abraxas passed Xehanort's will on to KRONOS."_

That's what Rhea had told him, and until now he had been inclined not to believe her but now the proof was staring him right in the face. It had been a trap from the start. He had been wooed by Luna's devotion to changing the world. Now he was being tested on how devoted he could stay to such a cause.

"Stephanie, where's Olivia?" Donald asked in hopes of breaking up the tension. Stephanie explained that Ratigan had separated her and Olivia, placing the latter under Fidget's care. She had also met up with Olivia's father who seemed to be close by. Donald gave a nod before looking concernedly at Sora. "Sora…"

"It's my fault," Sora whispered. It probably hadn't been a coincidence that Ratigan had separated Stephanie and Olivia either. As far as they knew, Stephanie hadn't been experimented on, after all Ratigan hadn't had enough time to do it. But she could have been and that made things even worse.

"Sora, if you need time to let things sink in, then it's okay. You don't need to push yourself. You too, Luna. Goofy and I can save Olivia and her father on our own."

"No, it's alright. I still have a job to do." Sora slowly stood up and stilled his face in a way so consciously that it made it seem like he had turned to stone. "We need to make sure Olivia and her father are safe before anything else. Dawson, do you think you can stay here with the kids while we're gone?"

"I think that would be best," Dawson agreed. With that, the group split off from Dawson though there were still concerns, though silent, about Luna and particularly Sora's state of being able to perform well at the moment. Sora could certainly admit that his mind was currently in two places at once and because of that his mind had become numb to certain things around him. He almost hadn't even noticed the others stopping in front of yet another door and accidently bumped in Goofy.

"Sorry," he muttered a quick apology and returned to looking at the ground.

"Sora, are you sure you don't wanna-"

"I said I'm fine, Goofy," the annoyed Sora responded a little too loudly. No, he was must certainly not fine, was probably what the others were thinking, be he didn't really care about that right now. Instead, he gave another quick apology and looked at the prison cell door mainly in an attempt to ignored the worried looks everyone was going him.

"You're Mr. Flaversham I presume? Olivia's father?" Basil asked once Luna had opened the door with her Keyblade.

"Yes, yes, you know Olivia? Wait, a minute, is one of you named Sora?" the toy maker asked.

"Yeah. How did you know?" Sora asked with renewed curiosity.

"Ratigan and another person were talking about luring you here. Kefka was his name. Oh, Ratigan's bad but Kefka? He's ten times, no, a hundred times worse. I could almost feel the temperature in the room drop when he entered. He's no man. He's something far worse than that."

"Do you know why they kidnapped you?" Donald asked.

"They've been forcing me to work on something. Two things actually. My first instruction entailed I design a toy robot disguised to mimic her majesty perfectly. I'm not sure what Ratigan's intention is here but I'm assuming he intends to hijack Buckingham palace and assert his own rule through the queen," Hiram explained. "You're too late in that regard. It's already completed. Ratigan is probably on his way to the palace as we speak."

"That explains the cogs and the need for royal guard uniforms on that list then. What was the second thing?" Basil asked.

"This one was conceptually trickier. He wanted a machine that could convert large amounts of liquid into gaseous particles. As a toy maker that is a little beyond me but he insisted I do so otherwise Olivia would be fed to his cat."

"Turning a liquid into gas? Well, you'd either have to boil it or store it in… liquid nitrogen! It has a boiling point of -195 degrees Celsius and is easily compact and transportable since it doesn't require pressurization," Basil explained.

"And the liquid itself would be dispersed through the air?" Luna checked to make sure she was following along correctly. "And this would fit into his plan how exactly?"

"You're not thinking big enough, Luna. Not just him, but KRONOS as well. They've been experimenting on children here, right? Whatever they gave them, it was in liquid form, I'm sure of it," Sora said. He could easily make that guess because he had seen Abraxas and Megumi Kitaniji both inject needles into their arms as well. "Imagine if they had something like that in every home, or even in the food or water. Until now, we've only had to worry about the individual case of someone turning into a Chimera. Now, KRONOS are taking it one step further."

"They want to turn an entire population into Chimeras? Oh my-" Luna covered her mouth and looked away. Sora couldn't tell if she was hiding her tears, and he couldn't bring himself to comfort her because he too was paralyzed with fear. He feared KRONOS. The time in which that thought finally sunk was as long as the time it took for the lump in his throat to go away.

"I- I'm sorry, what's a Chimera?" Basil asked.

"It would take too long to explain. We need to hurry up and find Olivia and then we have to make sure the queen is safe. But if they succeed with this weapon here, they'll be using it in other worlds too. It has the potential to end entire worlds, in spades."

"The worlds would never be able to recover," Donald agreed.

"I'm sorry, other worlds? What are you talking about?" Basil asked again but the entire room dismissed his comments upon hearing another voice.

"Uncle Basil, help me!" Olivia yelled, running towards them at full speed from the other end of the corridor. Behind her, an obese beige cat seemed to be chasing after her, though not successfully because Olivia was clearly faster. Before anyone could react, Toby jumped over them and barked at wildly at the cat. The cat seized up for a moment before running off in a panic.

Olivia let out a sigh of relief and shook Toby's extended paw. "Good boy, Toby! Thank you so much!"

After a reunion between father and daughter as well as Olivia and Stephanie that could at least put a smile on their faces for the time being, the group made their way back to the room with Dawson and the five children. The children seemed to be out of their previous dazed state now, but they still reported that they were experiencing pains that were shooting up through their entire bodies. Simply put, they couldn't be moved from this room.

They all sat cuddled together, shivering from the cold. Sora's eyes scanned each of them with a longing sadness, a longing for wondering what their lives could have been, and now never would be. They had suffered for so long with only each other to comfort and quell their loneliness. Today would mark just another day in their suffering, their inevitable path towards a terrible fate.

"We can't just leave them here," Luna said. Stephanie and Olivia were behind her, looking on in worry.

"You're right but…" No matter how much he tried to think of a way to help them, he couldn't. The symptoms were becoming more apparent and they were clearly hurting from whatever physical, mental and chemical changes were taking place to them. No, there was one thing he could do. The only thing…

"Maybe we can bring them back to Radiant Garden and get them treated-"

"It's too late. They wouldn't be able to make it in time," Sora said. Tears were beginning to roll down his cheeks but he turned and wiped them away quickly. "Everyone, I'm sorry for what you're about to hear but you need to understand. They're suffering. They're already dying and… I don't want them to go through that."

"Sora? What are you-?"

"You need to take Stephanie and Olivia and leave. I don't want you to have to do this and I don't want you or them to watch. This sin is mine alone to bear," Sora said.

"You- you can't… Sora, they're just kids!" Luna cried out.

"And they won't be soon! You think this is easy for me? No, it's anything but. It's absolutely crazy, the world is absolutely crazy right now and I don't know what to think. I keep trying to think of some other way to save them but the more I do, the more obvious it becomes that this is the only way to save them. I don't want to see them turn into Chimera and I know you don't want that too. As I said, I'll bear the consequences of my actions."

"I… don't want to see them turn either but even so, this is just too much. I… don't want you to face this alone so… so I-" Luna tried to finish but her head was hurting. It really was too much even consider, and she didn't want Sora to face this alone but she couldn't… couldn't just kill children and pretend like everything was going to be fine.

"I'll handle it, Luna. You're brave, but not that brave. Neither am I, but one of us has to do it and care too much to see you suffer over this. Also, the closest place Stephanie and Olivia can be right now is by your side. Take them and head back to Donald and Goofy," Sora said. He couldn't stand to see what type of emotion was displayed in not just Luna's, but everyone else's eyes and so he looked instead at the peeling off paint coating the walls.

Luna hesitantly nodded and then turned to Stephanie and Olivia in an effort to encourage them to start moving. Sora drowned out their voices and soon enough they were gone, leaving only him and the other five children in the small room. He summoned the Kingdom Key and held it up, pressing the back against his forehead hard.

"You'll be free soon. I won't make you suffer. Whenever I look up at the stars, I'll think of you. As long as I remember you, you'll never die," Sora said. But his words seemed like fancy illusions in the end. It didn't change the fact that he was committing a crime that he could never take back. It was undeniable, irrefutable, absolute… it was death.

"Thank you…" Jewels, the older sister of the mouse she was holding to her chest, managed to wheeze out weakly.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Sora said through gritted teeth. He pointed the Keyblade towards them but looked into their eyes. He wouldn't look away. They deserved that much for the sin he was about to commit.


	48. A Winning Smile

_The final chapter of the Great Mouse Detective saga is upon us and also part II of the story... well it is at least in my notes. I can't tell you have many part there are or how long they are but so far we've had Part I (Rescuing Luna) and Part II (KRONOS). So with that said, enjoy the final part of this arc!_

* * *

**Chapter 48**

**A Winning Smile**

The Queen of mousedom sat up in her bed, a book in her hand. Supposedly it was incredibly popular among women, and she could see why. A literature work expunging the male role in favor of a group of empowered females during wartime and their struggles. It was absolute fantasy of course. Complete tosh, but it was well written nonetheless. As she flipped a page, the sudden blaring sound of trumpets flaring to a rather jazzy version of 'Rule Britannia' from outside her room caused her to flinch.

"What the blast is going on? Guards, what in the world is that awful racket?" The Queen had to yell over the loud music. Her door soon flew open and two of her guards walked into her room.

"His Majesty requests your audience ma'am," said the guard above the music. Upon further inspection, the Queen realized that the guard was not a mouse but was in fact, a bat with a pegged leg.

"His Majesty? What in the world are you talking about? I am Your Majesty," replied the Queen.

"Not anymore. Now up with ya. Don't want to keep the supreme ruler of all mousedom waitin' now do we?" said the cockney sounding mouse next to the other guard. The Queen chose to remain composed and set the book on her bedside table before following after the two 'guards'. The number of guards playing trumpets on either side of the hallway was such that it was impossible for her to escape. They acted as a wall that restricted her movements and sent her down a linear path. The path, she soon found, led to the throne room where a strange sight greeted her.

"And who are you supposed to be? I don't recall ordering any clowns for entertainment," the Queen remarked.

Kefka smirked and wiggled his bottom in the royal chair for a bit before sinking in. "Pretty comfy, I must say. The whole palace is. Tell me something. During the entire time you've sat on this throne, were you ever once thinking about the world outside these walls?"

"What are you implying?"

"You've been living here with all the food and luxuries that anyone could possibly dream off. You've never lived on the streets or had to kill for warmth or food. You've never had to live in unsanitary conditions or cramped spaces, sometimes with more than one family. The world is diseased and all the while you're just stuffing your face with cake and treating yourself to your warm bed at night without a worry in the world. In a way, you've locked yourself out to the worries of your subjects. This isn't a palace, it's a prison and a really fancy one at that," Kefka said before resting his chin on the back of his hand lazily. "I imagine I could run this place better than you ever could. And that's precisely what I'm going to do. From now on you can call me Lord Kefka of Kefkatown. My first order of business as supreme overlord, a gift to my elder."

One of the faux guards walked up to her, a gift wrapped box in his hands. The Queen was at first reluctant to open the gift but when it was clear that she wouldn't be leaving without doing so, she pulled the cover off only to be knocked onto the ground by a springing red boxer glove.

"Hehehe! For a moment there I thought you wouldn't get the punchline!" Kefka let out a loud cackle and fell off the seat.

"You won't get away with this! The people will never allow you to rule over them. The sun never sets over the-"

"Yeah, yeah, keep your red and white spotted pantaloons on," Kefka said while digging into one ear with his finger. Recovering some ear wax, he flicked it aside carelessly.

"Wh-wha- How did you know I wear- um, I mean, just what exactly do you think gives the right to rule in the first place? I'm telling you, no one will listen to you!"

"You see, that is where you are wrong. I will have all the authority to rule and you're the one who's going to give it to me."

"The only thing you'll ever receive from me is a smile when I see you hanged!"

"Not you. The her that will be you," Kefka said. He pointed behind her and when the Queen followed his gaze she could only gawk in surprise, for nothing could have prepared her for seeing the mirror image of herself staring back at her.

"I the Queen, do hereby relinquish my title and my position as the sovereign head of this kingdom to someone much more suitable for the job," mimicked the copy in a voice much like her own. She eventually took her eyes away from herself and looked to the robot's right to see an overly grinning mouse.

"Professor Ratigan! You're working with him?"

"I'm back to settle the score, Your Majesty! Do you like it? A robot created in your own likeness. Life should often imitate art and not the other way around, don't you think? I have created a queen that is even better than the real one. A model example that will remind you of your failures. It's quite poetic." Ratigan pretended to wipe a fake tear from his eye before continuing, "You're no longer needed, Queenie. Take her away!"

* * *

Luna's eyes never once left Sora during their ride to Buckingham Palace. Ultimately, she blamed herself for his despondent nature. He had protected her from whatever horrors he had faced in that room shortly after their leaving but she should have stood strong. She should have said no, that she would leave him to do it all by himself. She had been under the impression that she had wanted to get Stephanie and Olivia away from it all, but now she wasn't so sure. She'd used it as an excuse because she couldn't bear to watch or even help. She was the coward, but she wasn't suffering, it was Sora.

Doing things like that… it changed people. Luna noticed a difference between the Sora before they entered the sewer and the Sora after leaving that sewer. There was no way one could take a look at him and say they were the same person. His warm, cheerful and optimistic smile that had encouraged hope in so many people's hearts was now hidden away by someone pale and exhausted, not even able to crack a smile. The sooner they left this world and returned to the Gummi Ship, the better it would be and yet there was still a fear in Luna's mind that he would never quite be able to recover from this experience.

She wanted to hug him, tell him everything was going to be alright and be whatever he needed her to be. She wanted him to smile again but she knew that if there ever was a day when she would see his true smile again, it would be quite a ways off from now. The feeling of letting someone down was a terrible one with guilt as its proprietor. She wanted to cry. She wanted to justify that these tears were for him but she couldn't be sure of even that. Maybe she was selfish.

"Oh, do cheer up everyone. We can't continue on like this if we're going to save the Queen. Where's your sense of adventure?" Dawson tried encouraging, though without much success.

"In any case, the game is afoot! We're here," Basil announced. Toby raised his head upwards at the ledge next to the closed gate, allowing the group (with the exception of Olivia and her father who were to keep Toby company) to climb up his nose onto the ledge and over the palace walls. Luna landed on the ground and immediately felt a strange presence, as if someone or something was watching them in the fog. She turned to ask Sora if he felt the same but he didn't seem to be paying attention at the moment. Donald and Goofy also seemed to share the same sentiments of worry when she looked their way.

"There's a mouse hole over there! We can use that to get in," Basil located, pointing to a hole not too far away from them, but still hard to see in the midst of all the fog. Luna would have been surprised that he had seen it but she supposed being a great detective also meant having a good eye.

The hole led them into a gigantic hallway with a majestic carpet leading all the way to a double door room which seemed important. On the walls hung paintings of what they presumed had once been of the royal family but were now desecrated with graffiti of smiley faces.

"How tasteful," Donald commented in an unimpressed tone. They followed the carpet on the ground to the door and opened it to see a large throne room, quite empty except for the person sitting on the throne. "It's the queen!"  
"Hold on there, Donald. Something's not right. You would surely expect that we would have at least met a few of the royal guards on our way here. There were none at the front gate, none in the hallway and now none in this room," Basil said.

"Maybe they're on vacation," Goofy suggested. Somewhere in her mind, Luna wanted to think that Goofy didn't actually believe what he had just said but this thought was pushed out of her mind as soon as she heard a scream from behind her.

"Stephanie!" Luna called out. None of them had even noticed that Ratigan had come in from behind them and had grabbed hold of Stephanie.

"Drop your weapons or the girl dies!" demanded Ratigan. A thunderous clapping and laughter coming from behind them caused them to turn back to the throne to see Kefka appearing from behind the chair.

"You're Kefka. You were behind this whole thing, weren't you? You turned those children into Chimera and you were going to do the same to this entire world. You'll pay for what you've done, you monster!" Luna yelled, digging into levels of anger that she never even knew she had.

"Ah ah ah. I'd do as the good professor says, that is unless you're like me. Maybe you also want to see what it's like to see a little girl be fed to a cat. How do you think she tastes?" Kefka replied with a mocking tut. In the end the group had no choice but to drop all their weapons. Luna hated being at the mercy of the enemy but she had no choice but to play along for now if she wanted to keep Stephanie safe. It wasn't going to be as easy as doing whatever Ratigan and Kefka said unfortunately. Ratigan swept Stephanie into his arms and was off down the hallway before anyone could do anything about it.

"Stephanie, I won't let him harm you," Luna promised to herself before turning to the others. "We've got to hurry up and catch him!"

"You guys go ahead," said Sora for the first time in a while. His voice was weak and hoarse, but it was definitely his voice. "I'll deal with Kefka."

"Sora-"

"Luna, you said it yourself. You need to keep Stephanie safe. She's waiting. Be careful though."

Luna wanted to argue that she didn't want to leave him like last time, but this time he was also right. Stephanie was in danger but they couldn't let Kefka get away with what he'd done either. Luna wasn't sure what compelled her to make this next move, but she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. Sora was completely taken aback by this and seemed to be growing a light shade of red. Not sure what she had done herself and also blushing furiously, she was out of the room before Sora could even say anything else to her.

Sora ended up receiving a sympathetic pat on the back from Dawson as well as being treated to hearing a passionate recite of "All for one and one for all!" from Donald and Goofy. Finally, Basil tapped his own right temple with his index finger twice before leaving the room. Even if it wasn't words, Sora had gotten the message. Brains not brawn were the best way to outsmart any opponent. That didn't exclude Kefka.

He heard the door close behind him and he followed up on Basil's advice by taking the time to analyze his opponent. It wasn't very conclusive. Kefka was wholly unreadable, something that didn't seem possible. Neuge had told him that the best way of matching an opponent's skill set was to predict their moves beforehand, but Kefka seemed so laidback, so lazy and uncaring that any type of speculation was useless.

Sora's eyes darted downwards to his Keyblade on the ground in front of him. Rather than picking it up, he stepped over it and started the long walk down the throne room towards Kefka.

* * *

Luna felt herself being slowly lifted in the air as the hot air balloon she and the others were on, ascended high above the city metropolis. Even through the fog, Luna could see her target dead ahead. A dirigible, and on it was presumably Stephanie as well as Ratigan. Her mind was also on something else. The kiss on the cheek she gave to Sora. In hindsight, it had most certainly been in hopes of cheering him up, but her running off like that in embarrassment probably hadn't fared well when it came to interpretation.

A loud screech pierced the air and interrupted her thoughts. She walked over to the side and leaned slightly over the edge, only to fall backwards as a giant insect flew above her before disappearing into the fog. The creature resembled a fly except with two antennae on its head and pincers on either side of its mouth. The creature was akin to something Luna had seen in a book she had read on mythological creatures. Beelzebub, it was called.

"A Chimera? Now of all times? Maybe it's behind the fog in this world," Luna said.

"You know after all this is over that you'll have to explain all this, don't you?" Basil said.

"I suppose it's the least we can do. Okay, we will. But let's deal with this thing first," Luna replied before taking aim with her Keyblade. Beelzebub soon appeared from the fog and zoomed over their heads at incredible speed, such that it blew the balloons in the opposite direction of the dirigible. Luna quickly grabbed hold of Olivia's hand as she flew up into the air from the force of the wind and held onto the basket with her other hand. She had chosen to come along with them after hearing that Stephanie was taken while Basil had made the request of asking Hiram and Toby to head to the nearest police station.

"That was a close one. You alright?" she asked the young mouse.

Olivia nodded. "More than Stephanie anyway. We need to get to her quickly!"

Luna nodded and walked over to the side of the basket where Beelzebub had passed them by. She steadied her Keyblade on the basket's edge like a turret and waited patiently. Beelzebub emerged out of the fog once more and Luna launched a barrage of _Thundaga Shots_ along with Donald's own magic.

Beelzebub zigzagged from left to right, rightfully claiming the title of annoying fly in Luna's mind before moving in and cutting away one of the strings with its pincers, severing one of the balloons from the rest. Luna watched as it dived under the descending hot air balloon and started circling it like a hungry shark. Luna looked at Donald and Goofy and smiled mischievously before jumping out of the basket. She supposed, like jumping out of a moving vehicle, this idea had seemed quite good at the time.

The good thing was that she had calculated when she would need to jump in order to land on the fly. The bad thing—now she was screaming like crazy while riding it. Her fear of heights didn't help things and Beelzebub was constantly buzzing left and right in an attempt to fling her off. Being on a fly wasn't exactly the most appealing experience either so she without trying to think too much about how she came to even considering this insane plan sane, she plunged her Keyblade into the Chimera's neck and pulled upwards as hard as she could.

The Chimera was sent jerking upwards, a little resistant to Luna's control at first but soon submitting. There was some strange feeling that she had managed to connect with the person behind the Heartless. The other side, as it were. Luna could feel something human there, something that she probably wouldn't have if not for having been a Chimera herself. Maybe the creature also felt some connection, a way to tap into its human side as well as having someone who understood it. Either way, Luna pushed on and drove Beelzebub straight into Ratigan's blimp.

Luna leapt of the Chimera as its pincers pierced the rubber fabric of the balloon, releasing hydrogen gas. She landed next to Ratigan and pointed upwards, at the tear in the rubber balloon before casting _Fire. _The spell quickly set the balloon on fire due to the hydrogen and spread, engulfing the Chimera that was grabbing onto the balloon in flames as well. Beelzebub released its grip from the balloon and screamed in intense pain before dropping to the streets below.

"Luna!" Stephanie called only to have her mouth blocked off by Ratigan who was holding on tightly to her. She wiggled her head a bit to free it from Ratigan's clutches and bit down on his hand hard, causing him to yell and release her. Luna ran up to her and grabbed her before jumping off the blimp and landing on a clock tower that they had been flying past. They both looked up in time to see the blimp blow up completely. The explosion lit up the night sky briefly and pieces of debris fell to the ground in front of them. Any traces of Ratigan or Fidget, who had been with them on the blimp, were nowhere to be seen. Luna was certain they couldn't have survived.

"Steph, I'm so sorry. This is twice now I've let you down. I should have been looking out for you. I should have been looking out for Sora. I couldn't do either. I'm a lousy sister and a terrible friend," Luna insisted in a depressed tone.

"Sis, that's not true at all! You've made me happy. I've always wanted another family member other than mom. Ever since dad went away, I've been lonely, though I don't really show it," Stephanie said. She walked over to the edge of the clock tower and sat down, looking at the landscape. The fog was slowly becoming less dense allowing them to see more of the city. They could even see the river that laid home to Ratigan's lair. It was a long river that seemed to go on and on for miles, shimmering under the moonlight and possessing many boats.

"I'm lonely too. Stephanie, I may not always be there for you. Whenever I can, I will. But things are happening at such a fast pace that those moments will be few and far between. You'd love to live this life along with me, I know that… but you can't. You have to go back to Radiant Garden," Luna said.

"What? No, I don't want to go back! I- I'm having so much fun and-"

"It's fun, but it's also dangerous. There have been two times today where I thought I could have lost you. I know this might make me sound like an old woman but my heart can't take it." Luna let out a chuckle to lighten the mood but Stephanie wasn't playing along. "Also, you're not the only one who's lonely. Your mother is too. Can you imagine how sad she must feel right now, without you by her side for company? The two of you aren't just mother and daughter. You're friends. I- I don't have a mother or a father. As much as I want to pretend that we're real sisters, the bond between a mother and her daughter is stronger. I don't really have a home anymore, you do. Don't waste it."

Stephanie looked downwards and watched as he legs dangled over the edge. "I guess mom does miss me a lot. What would she do without me after all."

Luna chuckled. "There you go! Sometimes what you need is right in front of you and we tend to often overlook that. There's plenty of adventures to be had in your own backyard. You just need to go out and find them."

Stephanie puffed up her cheeks and feigned an annoyed look. "Fine, I submit. But few and far visits are unacceptable. At least every two worlds so you can tell me about them."  
"Two? Err, that's a bit unreasonable don't you think?"

"No it isn't. It's perfect, sis. I mean, I'd say one world but be glad I'm gen-gene-generous, ooh, I bit my tongue."

"Just by saying generous? Wow, you're easy. Try saying she sells sea shells by the sea shore."

"Hah, easy. She sells sea shells by the she- I mean- ooh, now you're making fun of me! What kind of big sis are you?"

Luna and Stephanie laughed and laughed until they could hardly breathe anymore. The fog had now cleared completely revealing a city in darkness but beautiful all the same. A bunch of joyous yells soon turned their attention to the sky itself.

"Ahoy there!" Yelled a happy Olivia, waving at them as the hot air balloon neared their location.

After a much shorter trip this time than it took to chase down Ratigan, their mode of transportation soon touched ground outside of Buckingham Palace, where Sora had been waiting for them. There was an unexpected addition to the group however. Completely bound by magic rings constricting his body and in a sulky mood was Kefka.

"Believe it or not but this clown was all talk and no action. Just like most of them," Sora said. "We'll keep him locked up down in the engine room until we get to Radiant Garden. Though I'm not sure I like the idea of sleeping in a closed space knowing there's a lunatic on board with us but at least we don't have to see his face."

"But we'll have to feed him, won't we? What if he starves? Better yet, why am I even worried about that?" Luna asked.

"Don't worry about it. I'll take care of that so-"

"No!" Luna interrupted before she could even formulate what she wanted to say. "You're not going to do this alone. Not this time. We'll take turns and I won't accept no for an answer."

"Uh, yes, I guess? Stop fidgeting!" Sora warned, increasing the tightness of his grip on Kefka's arm.

"Ow! Not into foreplay, eh? I think you need to take things just a little less seriously," replied a wincing Kefka.

"Are we really going to have this guy on the Gummi Ship? I've never had a thing for comedians," Donald said.

"And what about the Queen? Is she alright?" Basil asked.

Sora nodded with a small smile. "Don't worry, I got Kefka to tell me where she was. I don't know, I think it's suspicious that he gave so much away so easily. He didn't even seem to care that we'd ruined his plans other than throwing a childish fit and even then it didn't seem real."

"Well at least we've caught him, that's a good enough start," Donald answered.

"The keyhole!" Luna exclaimed suddenly, pointing to the closed gate behind them that lead to Buckingham Palace. Indeed, a keyhole had formed there, which Luna promptly took care of with her before turning to a stunned Basil and Dawson.

"Oh, I did say I owed you an explanation, didn't I? You don't mind if we lock this guy up quickly before coming back, do you? I don't know about you guys but I'm looking forward to some more tea and crumpets again."

In the end, the great mouse detective himself had never been able to uncover the mystery of the strange aliens that had entered his home of 221 ½ Baker Street, at least not by himself. Luna prided herself on the achievement that they had created an unsolvable mystery that not even the ultimate detective could solve, but with her pride too also came loss. The Sora she had known would never be the same again.

* * *

As far as it pained Kairi to think it, she was ultimately forced to confront the reality laid bare to her. She had been coerced into spying on Namine. Well, maybe spying was too heavy of a word. It was more that she had to keep an eye on her at all times, but not to the point of stalking. Honestly, she didn't know what to define it as anymore.

The worst part was that she was sure Namine had some idea of what was going on. She was sure, but like always, if Namine knew something, she would rather say nothing about it. Through the entire time she spent with Kairi or anyone else, she just smiled. There was no doubt in Kairi's mind that Namine wanted to forget about the whole thing. Forget about this recent discovery of new powers, or the first prophecy she had made being one that had to do with a friend's death. She was sure Namine was thinking that because she also would've liked nothing more than to forget about it. But it had happened and there was no point denying it.

Now she was sitting on the ledge of the castle postern overseeing the majority of the town with Namine next to her, drawing in her sketchbook. When Kairi tried to peer at it, Namine leaned away from her and told her to wait patiently with a small smile on her face. It made Kairi even more intrigued, but she would do as Namine said and wait like a good little girl.

"Namine, do you regret meeting Yeul?" The words had slipped out before Kairi could even stop them. They had been in her mind for some time but she hadn't actually meant to say them.

Namine's right hand stopped moving and stayed hovered above the paper for a while before she decided to put it down.

"Don't worry, Kairi, I'm not angry. I couldn't ever regret meeting her. When I first met her, we were both lonely. I always felt different from you guys, even after gaining my own body. When I was with Xion and the others, I observed her and I always found it weird how easily despite a replica, she was able to assimilate into a normal life like she had been doing it her entire life. It was something I couldn't do. So when I met Yeul, I saw her in myself. We were like mirror images of each other, which is why it was probably so easy for us to relate to each other. I had found a true friend in her. That was something I've never been able to do before, Kairi! I went out and found a friend. And that experience made me grow. I… I want to meet more people, make more friends. But I've come to realize that it was only because I saw Yeul in myself that I was able to befriend her so easily. With others, I'm not so sure I can do the same thing."

"Namine… I see. You wanted to go out and prove you could form connections independent of myself. It wasn't just enough to make friends with Sora and everyone else associated with me. You wanted evidence to prove you truly could exist on your own, right?" Kairi said with a click of her fingers.

"Er, was that it?" Namine asked.

"You don't know?"

Namine shrugged and gave a smile before picking her pencil back up. "I wonder… am I trying to assert my own autonomy?"

"I know you want to figure this out on your own Namine, but that shouldn't stop you from asking for help when you need it. In a way, I feel that we're more than best friends. More like sisters, and I've never really had a sister so… it's a nice feeling," Kairi said. She was hoping that there was the slightest chance that Namine shared her exact feelings and that if it were possible, they could do more sisterly stuff together. It had made her realize how much she had neglected Namine after their split and she wanted that to change.

"It is, isn't it?" Namine whispered with her eyes still glued to her sketchbook. There was still something Kairi wanted, no, _had_ to tell Namine. She had to let her know how bad she felt about watching over her like a hawk the entire time and that she would have no choice but to do it more now. If Namine wanted her autonomy then there was no way she would have it now with her own friends breathing down her neck every day.

Before Kairi could open her mouth, a dark corridor appeared from behind her and a figure came out, the lance in their hand poised to strike. Kairi grabbed Namine by the shoulders and threw the both of them to the ground. The figure soared over them having missed and instead landed on her feet.

"Who are you?" Kairi asked, summoning her Keyblade.

"That is of no concern to you. I was simply hired to perform a hit and that's what I intend to do. I'm sure you are well aware of the target by now. It's you," said the strange creature. She was an anthropomorphic rat, wearing a fancy red coat and hat, the latter item being decorated with metallic wings on both sides.

"You want me? Were you sent by Moira's Crescent? Or Kefka?" Kairi asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" the lancer said unconcernedly before moving in again to attack. She thrust forward with her lance three times, each jab being countered by the Keyblade. Kairi jumped in an arc-like motion and attempted to strike downwards but her opponent met her attack head on and guarded without even a flinch. Kairi lifted the Keyblade off of the lancer's weapon and twister her body at an angle before delivering several quick but powerful strikes in an attempt to knock the lancer off guard.

"Kairi?" Namine called out to her in an uncertain tone.

"Namine, get help! Aeleus and Dilan are nearby. Go!" Kairi yelled. She didn't even have time to turn around and see whether Namine had obeyed her instructions. The lancer dodged to the side after a delay in Kairi's swinging speed and jumped into the air. When she next came back down, it with her spear pointed straight for Kairi. The redhead quickly shot out her hands at the ground in front of her and cast _Aeroga. _The surge of wind hit against the ground, rebounded and knocked Kairi backwards as well, just in time for her to avoid the attack. Kairi had also hoped that the rat would have been caught in that same burst of wind once she'd landed, but it looked as if the spear's tip had pierced through the wind shield and had broken it.

Kairi landed back on her feet and chuckled. "You're pretty tough, you know that?"

"I was trained by the best after all. I've had to endure the harshest winters, the perilous deserts, and because of that I grew stronger not just in body but mind," the lancer explained. "But you've also put up more of a fight than I expected. For that, the least I can do is honor you with my name. It is Freya."

"I see… Freya. I also want to become stronger, so I don't want you to hold back. I won't either," Kairi said. She could have sworn she had caught a glimpse of a small smile escape Freya's mouth, but that was soon discarded from her mind when Freya came at her again.

The two met each other's attacks with equal force, not shying away from being offensive for a second. Kairi felt the awesome power behind Freya's hits knocking her back, and her hands were starting to give in, but she willed them to take more of the pain. Even through that pain, she was learning. Freya was well guarded in all areas. She was incredibly aware of her surroundings and was definitely trying to make sure that Kairi couldn't even think rationally for more than a few seconds. The battle was definitely in Freya's favor at the moment, something Kairi needed to change quickly.

Kairi eventually backed away and kept backing away. She wasn't going to win by playing the way Freya wanted to. Feeling something dribbling down her mouth, Kairi swiped the liquid away with the side of her hand to see red. The lance must have cut her at some point and she hadn't even noticed it.

She looked back at Freya to see her moving in quickly, not giving Kairi the chance to breathe. Kairi sidestepped out of the way and continued backing away, at least until she saw three figures appear as they ascended the steps to the castle roof. As Freya attempted to throw her lance like a javelin at Kairi, Dilan countered by throwing his own spear. The spear connected with the middle of Freya's lance and sent into spinning off in a completely different direction from its intended target.

"You will not harm the princess, cease and desist at once!" Dilan yelled at Freya. "You'll be arrested and taken into custody. Once in the dungeons, you will be read your rights, do you understand?"

Freya closed her eyes and bowed her head. "It seems that I have failed. Very well, I'll heed your words, though I'd prefer if I kept possession of my lance. She would be lonely without me."

"Not a chance. We cannot afford to take any risks with you," Aeleus said. Faster than his large size would have led someone to believe, Aeleus' hand was already clamped tightly around Freya's arm before she could even think of moving.

"I would appreciate it if you could ease up. You're hurting my arm," Freya told him stoically.

"Not a chance," Aeleus repeated before dragging her off back down the stairs to Ansem's study. Dilan walked over to the two weapons lying on the ground and picked them both up before turning to Kairi.

"Are you hurt?"

"Huh? Oh, um, not really, just a bit flustered still. Thank you," Kairi said with a weak smile and polite bow. Probably not knowing how to express himself properly probably played a part in Dilan responding with a grunt before following after Aeleus and Freya. That left Kairi and Namine alone. Namine was about to run up and hug her friend but ended up having to catch her instead. Kairi had fallen unconscious.


	49. Stay Close to Me

_Consider this the bridge chapter into the next arc. Also I've been a thinking about Dream Drop Distance a lot lately and I'm not sure why. I think it might have gone up in my rankings of favourite Kingdom Hearts game, not through gameplay (BBS still trumps it) and certainly not story but in writing and characters (which is very easily trumps BBS in that regard). I might just end up rating it over BBS someday. Anyway, enough of my ramblings and back to the story. _

* * *

**Chapter 49**

**Stay Close to Me**

The tension on the Gummi Ship during the majority of their journey back to Radiant Garden was riddled with such palpable tensions that it seemed almost hostile in nature. As Sora had said previously, having a maniac on the Highwind certainly didn't help matters. Once a day, Sora and Luna would alternate going down into the engine room in order to deliver Kefka his food. As usual, Kefka tried his best to goad them into reacting and the best they could do was ignore him. At one point however, Sora had almost cracked when Kefka had brought up a certain topic.

"How did it feel?"

"What?"

Kefka tilted his head to the side and smiled. "How did it feel to take the lives of children? Must have been exhilarating. I wish I'd been there to see it." Sora clenched his fists tightly but did nothing, which in hindsight had probably been worse. He should have left, but because he didn't, Kefka continued. "You know, there's something intriguing about children. They're so pure. Untainted by the world. So when I thought to myself, oh let's just turn them into Chimera, I didn't do it for no reason like I do with most other things. This one was special. It had a purpose. When a child is left with no choice but to confront the evils of the world, he is no longer a child. So in a way, they were already adults when you killed them, if that helps to soothe your conscience."

At that point, Sora snapped and walked over to Kefka, knocking the tray of food out of the way in the process and slamming Kefka into the nearby machinery. He couldn't deny how much he hated what was in front of him.

"Oh, maybe you took the foreplay advice to heart then. Is there something wrong? You seem sullen. Did your puppy die or something?" Kefka asked.

"Is there nothing you care about? Is there nothing that you deem precious in this world? Is there no limit to how low you'll stoop just to hurt me?" Sora asked through gritted teeth.

"You you you, it's all about you, isn't it? Oh boo hoo, why don't you go and grow a pair? You take life far too seriously. Have a little fun-"

"DON'T YOU DARE TALK TO ME AND PRETEND YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!" Sora spat out venomously. "First Abraxas, then Moira's Crescent and now KRONOS. To hell with you all! What kind of people experiment on children and act like you do at the end of the day? What gives you the right to play with those children's lives? You're all psychopaths."

Kefka laughed and an increasingly frustrated Sora threw him on the ground before summoning his Keyblade but nevertheless Kefka continued to act as if it were all a joke. Did Kefka really feel no fear at the moment? Was he actually enjoying this?

"You're right, I'm a psychopath. I indulge in seeing the masses trampled on by the elephants in the room. I enjoy a world being set aflame and being slowly burnt to ashes and I could watch the same scene unfold again and again and I'll never be satisfied, but at least I admit it. You know the thrills of jumping from world to world, fighting the darkness and helping others in need. It's the only road you know, the only thing you know. All you know is how to fight and if the worlds are set ablaze hundreds of times over? Well, at least you have a job. At least you have a reason to exist. Without that fighting, you're nothing. I'm simply the oxygen fanning your flames, Keyblade Master, and oxygen is not something that can be so easily caught."

Sora gave Kefka a long hard stare before looking over to the broken tray with food all over the floor that he had kicked out of the way earlier. When he next looked back at Kefka, his words were weighty and filled with fatigue. "You can starve for all I care. I'm done with this."

Whether Sora had actually meant what he had said back then, he hadn't actually been able to confirm his true feelings until the moment he wrapped himself under his bedsheets. He knew there wasn't any way he could not feed Kefka. Firstly, it just wasn't in him to let someone starve like that, even if it was the worst person in the universe. Secondly, he would be allowing Luna to potentially send him the food all by herself and he didn't have the heart to tell her not to bother feeding him. The final reason was that he was likely to have crucial information on him to the whereabouts of other members and so they needed him alive, at least for the time being.

Sora himself was also partly responsible for the quiet atmosphere among the Gummi Ship. He avoided the cockpit most of the time and usually stayed in his room, his hood up and staring at the pale blue wall next to him. One thing he had particularly noted was that he looked a lot paler than usual. He wasn't usually to get much sleep and dark circles were starting to form under his eyes. If it wasn't the children he was thinking of then it was Yeul or some strange form of Abraxas who had come to haunt him in his dreams.

Now on the third day of his self-seclusion from the rest of the group, Sora had buried his face into his pillow in order to hide the tears that were running down his face. He had pretty much given up trying to stop them and was now just waiting for it to be over. Even hearing the knocking on his door and its inevitable opening, he did chose not to lift his head from his pillow.

"Sora?" Luna called out. He heard her footsteps getting closer until they stopped just within arm's reach of him. Sora could feel a new indent on the bed where Luna had sat down before reaching out to touch his shoulder. She called out his name again, a little more urgently this time.

Sora turned his body to the side and looked up at her this time, revealing his red puffy eyes and pale face.

"I can't do this anymore, Luna. I can't. I've tried so hard to help others and I feel like I'm being punished for it. I keep dreaming of them, their faces, the moment I held my Keyblade up to them… the piercing light coming out of its tip… I want to forget. I want to move on. I know there was no other choice but… I feel as if I'll have erased their memories if I just move on and act like it never happened. I couldn't do that. Their pain is now my pain, and if I have to live with it for the rest of my life then so be it."

Luna closed her eyes for a brief moment before opening them again and getting up. She walked over to Sora's dressing room table and was about to retrieve a box of tissues before stopping. A frame on the table caught her attention with a photo of Sora being held in tight grasp by Riku while a grinning Kairi was positioned in between them. Her right hand hanging over Riku's shoulders and her left was resting on Sora's hair. In the background were balloons and a colorful banner which said 'HAPPY 16th BIRTHDAY'. Luna was quickly reminded that it was her own sixteenth birthday soon but the thought went out of her mind when her eyes settled on Sora. His blue eyes were clear and innocent and pure, his grin a charming and whimsical one. It sent Luna's heart aflutter, and she had to release a grin for a few seconds before returning to Sora with the tissues.

"That photo, whose birthday was it? Yours?" Luna asked. She worked the tissue gently and carefully underneath his eyes.

Sora shook his head lightly, enough to allow Luna to continue her work uninterrupted. "Kairi's. That was back on the islands, before I met you. The world seemed much saner then, or my world at least."

"Yeah, they did, but we have to make the best of what we've got now, right? You're not the only one living with guilt. I've let you down," Luna said.

"What are you talking about?"

"Even you have your limits, you know? Even sponges leak when they've absorbed all they can. That's why sometimes you need more than one. I should have been there with you, back then. I know you wanted to protect me but even so, I felt like I was running from everything. I was a coward. That's why I've decided, I won't run anymore. I won't let you protect me from sadness, otherwise I'll never learn to overcome it by myself. I will stand by you and I'll see things with my own eyes for what they really are. After we took on Desiree you said you always wanted to be happy, right? Then I'll do whatever I need to do, be whatever I need to be, in order to make your wish come true. That's my promise to you."

"Luna…" Sora whispered. He was about to say something else when Stephanie burst into the room with a grin on her face.

"Luna, Sora, guess what? Guess what?"

"Um, okay… what?" Luna asked.

"My tooth disappeared and there was munny under my pillow! The tooth fairy really came, just like you guys said!" Stephanie answered, showing them a green note.

Sora's eyebrows lifted up and he looked at Luna. "Did you…?"

"No. It wasn't you?" Luna asked. When Sora shook his head, Stephanie grinned and left the room calling out Donald, Goofy and Kupopo's name and leaving the two utterly confused teens alone once more.

* * *

Astra began drumming her fingers against the mahogany table in boredom as she waited for the meeting to begin. Having already been delayed once due to Rhea wanting more time to let everyone weigh up the pros and cons of the vote. In that period of delay, Astra couldn't really say that her mind had changed all too much. The supposed forthcoming destruction of worlds hadn't even really been one of the reasons for her decision. It was clear to her that being on Luna's good side was the only way to convince her to join Moira's Crescent, something that wouldn't happen if they voted to go after Sora. That was all there was to it.

Instead of thinking, she spent most of the delay period advocating as suggested by Rhea. She primarily focused on Desiree, the one who had the most experience with Sora and was probably also more likely to listen to Astra. She explained her worries and concerns about Luna and how she needed more time to convince her. Whether that message got through or not in the end to Desiree however, Astra would have to see.

The room soon filled up and all nine members were seated around the table, though with the inclusion of the parrot, Jack, perched on Jill's shoulders it was technically ten. With that, Kohle had begun speaking.

"Last weekend, our deputy leader was able to convince me that I had been rather hasty in my calling of a vote to decide where we go from here. I myself had been on the border of what to vote and I'm sure most of you were too. I thank Rhea for recognizing this and helping to reschedule," Kohle said. It was probably conscious, but Rhea probably could feel everyone's smile of appreciation on her and so avoided their gaze, a small smile on her lips.

"Aw, Rey-rey's embarrassed. How cute!" Salome cheered happily.

"Since I'm sure she wants us to continue, I will," said Kohle. "Before voting, if there is anyone who would like to put forward their argument in a last ditch attempt to convince the opposing side. You'll only have one minute each as always."

"I'll start then," Alfonso said before standing up. "We have a sworn duty to protect the people at any cost. Where danger arises, we take care of it. How does that differ in this scenario? That our enemy is no Heartless or great evil but a teenage boy who has saved the world multiple times and now poses a very serious risk to the worlds. In a sense, we may very well be committing an unspeakable act by dealing with him, but that would be a far cry from the guilt we would feel if we did nothing and allowed the world to be torn asunder. I would never forgive myself for that. I am sure we are all aware of the trolley problem. Ultimately, this is a vote based on your own morals but the stakes are much higher than those claimed in that dilemma. We're looking at an unprecedented mass of people compared to one boy. The question is can you look the other way knowing that many may suffer because of your inaction. This is also no Schrodinger's cat where the event will and will not have happened until our observations define it under one path. We're not talking about invisible particles, we're talking about the people we see on a day to day basis and I would rather not leave it up to luck to determine their fate."

"That was exactly one minute, but I suppose that's to be expected of you. Thank you, Alfonso. Any opposing comments?" Kohle asked.

Salome was the one to stand, or more like jump, up from her seat. "Well, what Fonnie is saying here is pretty accurate if you're completely ignorant of the wider narrative. Say we do go after Sora, we even manage to neutralize him and let's just say that judging from our sweet Parisienne's little performance, it's not gonna be that easy." Here she received an annoyed grunt from Desiree but smiled and continued, "Even if you do all that, guess what happens? Sora has friends and those friends won't be happy with what we've done. They'll come after us and it'll spark something like a civil war among Keyblade wielders. Us versus them. Now I want you guys to think _really _carefully about this. Do we want to risk making this conflict bigger than one person? Because that's what will happen if we pursue Sora. We're already going after KRONOS. We don't need to fight a battle on two fronts. That's what I think anyway."

"I remember you telling me your father was a military general. You must be pretty knowledgeable about this sort of stuff," Astra said, rather impressed. Salome and Astra had both once been to her world on a mission. It had been one of Astra's first in which they had been made to clear a blockade to allow an alternative route through spices, herbs and other trades could come through as the original path had been swarming with Heartless. There she had learned that Salome's father was a general in the Chinese imperial army. Other than that little fact, she had left it at that, never to mention her father or any part of her family again.

"It has nothing to do with that. It is just logical that fighting two enemies at once by yourself usually isn't a good idea. Though things such as environment certainly do turn the tide for the minority but we're not in a war," Desiree replied.

Salome nodded and continued, "And I also have a second reason. Regarding Fonnie's trolley problem thing, I have a question for you. You say you could sacrifice someone to save all of them, but that's only because it's impersonal to you. What if it was someone you knew though? Could you still go up to them and tell them they have to be sacrificed? It's hypocritical that we would do such things when we wouldn't dare envision what we would do if one of our loved ones were put in a similar situation. So I just want you guys to really consider your own values before making your choice."

"Thank you, Salome. Are there anymore arguments that anyone would like to make or should we move onto voting?"

After waiting a few seconds, Kohle was satisfied enough at the silence of the room to start the vote. The vote was done by ballot, where they were given slips of paper to anonymously write 'Yes' in favor of going after Sora and 'No' against taking action. Astra quickly wrote down the latter option before folding her paper twice and placing it in the box. She wasn't even sure what the point of anonymity really was. There were only nine members, ten with the parrot included, and it wouldn't have been hard to find out who voted what. All of the members were incredibly honest anyway and didn't seem to mind spilling the beans as soon as they left the meeting room.

"Well with the votes counted, I can officially announce the result," Kohle said after having taken a minute to count each vote. "The total number of those in favor is five, which means that the number of those against is also five."

"A stalemate? What happens now?" Astra asked. Having a draw wasn't exactly the best outcome but it also wasn't exactly bad either. She had set out to stall for time and she had managed to get it.

"It's left up to the leader in these cases to make the decision," Rhea said before looking at Kohle.

"Well my reason for the following decision is simply this. The question brought before us was whether to label Sora as a genuine threat and if such, the course of action would be obvious. If we had been in a different mindset, then the question would otherwise be posed as whether we should cease considering Sora as our enemy. They're two different questions because one already assumes that going after Sora was already a policy and the other assumes that we're still considering it. As it was the former question in contemplation here, it would naturally be for a majority of those in favor to convince our policy to change. As no such majority was gained, I cannot see any reason to treat Sora as a hostile target. That said, because there was no majority on the other side either, this may change if any new evidence is presented to me which is sufficient enough to change my mind."

"And what exactly would entail as… sufficient?" Alfonso asked a little annoyed. His vote was obvious.

"In my terms? Something that leaves no room for doubt. That gives me no choice but to make me see the facts differently as I see them now," Kohle answered.

"That's some high level of proof then," Lysander said with a grin. "Have fun finding that, Alfonso."  
"Let's try not to antagonize each other, please," Kohle intervened before Alfonso could make a retort. "I'm sure you'll have plenty of opportunities to discuss this, but not in this room. I've also prepared a list of missions in the lounge for you so do have a look when you have the time. With that said, you're all dismissed."

Rhea immediately leaned in and whispered into Astra's ear that she was going to talk to Kohle for a bit and then meet up with her for training. Astra sat in her seat for a few seconds, watching as Rhea walked past the other members. Her eyes were taken away from Rhea when Desiree passed her.

"Hey, Desiree-"

"I voted yes if that is what you're about to ask," Desiree said without even looking at her.

"Huh? You told me that you'd-"

"I did tell you I'd vote no but I also owe no obligation to anyone else but my own feelings once inside the meeting room. I simply reconsidered within the last few seconds is all," Desiree answered. She placed a comforting hand on Astra's shoulder who shrugged it off immediately upon contact.

"Or you weren't planning on voting no from the beginning."

"Believe what you want. You should be satisfied either way since you got the result that you wanted, _non_? I don't particularly mind either way. We need to go after KRONOS first anyway. Erecting a _cordon sanitaire _around the worlds they deem the most influential is the first step to finding them. That means we're going to have to keep our eyes on places like that factory you and Rhea went to for the foreseeable future."

"A cordon sani-what now?"

Desiree shook her head disappointedly. "A barrier to prevent the spread of diseases, in this case, an ideological one. You really need to brush up on your French."

"No thanks, I think Moira's Crescent has enough of those, by which I mean one is plenty," Astra said. "But if what you say is true, that you changed your mind at the last second, then what was reason, if you don't mind me asking?"

Desiree motioned for Astra to follow her. They made their way outside of the meeting room and down the hallway. Eventually, Desiree turned to meet her once they reached a secluded spot and began speaking.

"I was considering what Salome said and applied it to my own scenario. If the real Desiree had to be sacrificed in order to save countless others, would I still do it? The answer is yes, albeit quite reluctantly. I've dreamed so many times of changing the past that it seems absurd to suddenly consider letting her go. But I've sworn my duty to protecting the worlds now. We all have. It doesn't make sense for us to consider that now seeing as how we had no choice but to eliminate one of our own members. I found it strange that Salome could say that without seeing the hypocrisy in her own words given how she and Alfonso were the ones selected to go after Kyle. You can't have your cake and eat it too."

"Well she once told me that Abraxas and Kyle were different people. Maybe that's how she got through carrying out her mission. Convincing herself that the person she knew was long gone," Astra proposed. Rhea had also said something similar now that she thought about it.

"If it helps her to sleep at night, then sure. We all have our coping mechanisms," Desiree said before changing her tune. "I'm sorry if I am coming across as being cold, but I'm sure that Desiree would understand. In fact, she would probably be the kind of person to force me into doing it if it meant it benefited others. She was very selfless. Do you think you would be able to do that if Luna was in that position?"

"Do you even have to ask? No. I've never been one to follow rules anyway so I'm sorry if you think I'm going to give my soul away to your cause," Astra said, somewhat annoyed that Desiree had tried to throw the question back by using her friend.

"Then if you truly do believe that, keep your convictions close to you. In this line of work, it's not rare to question who you truly are or what you believe." With that, Desiree gave a warm smile and left Astra to ponder what they had discussed.

* * *

_Three Days Later _

It took careful planning by Donald in order to dock the Highwind into Radiant Garden's new port. This took the shape of a tube underneath the world that extended through a tunnel into the center of the world itself. After escaping the large tunnel and emerging out into the hangar, the Gummi Ship slowed down until it came to a complete halt. Two mechanical hands from either side moved in and attached themselves to the Highwind, moving it to the designated landing pad.

"Hooray! You're back!" Chip and Dale yelled excitedly as the doors opened. Luna stuck her head out and quickly searched for Colette, who had said she would be meeting up with them in their audio call a few hours before. Luna grinned at her and pulled her head back in the Highwind before looking at Stephanie.

"How mad do you think my mom will be?" Stephanie asked.

"Judging from her face, I'm pretty sure she was waiting to play whack-a-mole so… yeah, not too happy but don't worry, I'll make sure you receive as light a punishment as possible," Luna replied. She brought Stephanie close to her and looked Sora's way before stepping out.

As expected, Colette did not take lightly to Stephanie running off on her own in the first place but her overall worry took over and she was soon hugging her tightly, tears forming in her eyes. It was definitely a testament to how much Colette needed Stephanie, Luna thought with a small smile. In that one moment, it really did feel as if Colette had completely forgotten about the incident and that she wouldn't ground Stephanie for at least a while. Of course she would probably move on to do this anyway but there was always hope that Colette would become entranced by Stephanie's stories of visits to other worlds.

Donald and Goofy soon left the Gummi Ship followed by Sora dragging a Kefka who was not completely there. He seemed to be mumbling something to himself and giggling every now and then.

"Who the heck is that?" Dale asked.

"The embodiment of trouble. Do you know where Yen Sid is?" Sora asked.

"Hmm, he should be in Ansem's study as usual."

"Thanks, Dale. Colette, you don't mind if we come over later, right? I don't really feel like we can casually talk with him around," Sora said, nudging his head at Kefka.

"Of course. Sora, is there something wrong? You look really tired," Colette noticed. He had been hoping that she wouldn't have.

"I'll… I'll explain everything when we get back," Sora said. He wondered how Colette would judge him when he told her what had happened. Not just her, but Riku and Kairi as well. As much as it was something he wanted to keep inside, Luna had been right. He had to confront it and he couldn't do it alone.

The group's journey to Ansem's study certainly wasn't a comfortable one. Kefka was enough to make sure of that. Luna humored herself that it was a miracle that they had even made it there in one state of mind.

"You're all back! Thank goodness you're all right!" Kairi announced as soon as they stepped into the room. She moved in to hug Sora but stopped when she noticed the same thing that Colette had.

"I'm glad you're alright too, Kairi," Sora said before she could press the issue. "Did you find any leads on that Atlantis thing?"

"Surprisingly." Riku was the one who answered. He was near the diagram on the wall of the door to darkness with a group of papers clutched in his hand that were to hanging to his side. His eyes were trained on Kefka the entire time like a hawk eyeing its prey. "We'll have to talk more about it later. Hope everything was great on your end too."

"It was… and then it wasn't," Luna answered. When Riku raised a brow, Luna repeated his words. "We'll talk more about it later."

Sora turned to the last person in the room who had not yet spoken. Yen Sid had been busy writing away at his desk. Sora watched as his hands slowly and carefully wrote the last word like he was crafting art itself. The handwriting was so neat and slanted in contrast to Sora's messy own that it was almost painful to look at.

Yen Sid soon set his pen aside and looked up at Kefka. "I see you've carried out your mission. No doubt Neuge will be pleased with this development, well, as soon as she's sober anyway. Riku, have our guest taken to the dungeon so we can interrogate him along with our other prisoner."

"Other prisoner? Did you find someone else?" Donald asked.

"Not exactly. It's more like they find us, or rather, me," Kairi said uneasily. She went onto explain how she and her assassin, Freya, had fought and that if it hadn't been for Namine, Dilan and Aeleus' help, she would have suffered a much worse fate. A sudden giggles brought Sora, Luna, Donald and Goofy out of processing this recent event.

"That is strange. I was wondering why you were still alive, Kairi," Kefka said in between these giggles. "I guess she didn't do her job. Never leave it to the rats. Why did I leave it to rats?"

No sooner had he confirmed what Sora had already been thinking than Sora had driven his fist as hard as he could into Kefka's nose. Sora thought he had heard the sound of a sickening crack, but his anger had far abated most of his senses. He could really only be fortunate that his friends had been there to restrain him, for in that single moment, Sora really did feel as if he had the power to destroy the world.


	50. Do Programs Dream of Electric Sheep?

_Also known as Mr. Oblivion, will you please stop reading so many science fiction novels. On a more serious note, it's time to explore a bit more of Abraxas' motivations. But he's dead so why bother, you ask? Because-_

* * *

**Chapter 50**

**Do Programs Dream of Electric Sheep?**

The peace and rest Sora had wished to attain had been a short-lived one, only lasting three days. Sora had always told himself that there was no time to rest, that if the world were to keep spinning and he stand still then it would be a valuable waste of time better suited to other ventures. But now, he was more convinced than ever that standing still was exactly what he needed.

He wanted to meditate. He needed to meditate. As he sat on his bed in the hotel, squeezing his eyes shut, he tried to clear out his mind only to fail in the end. Where there was an end, it was with Kefka. No matter how hard Sora tried, he could get that laugh, that make up, that lack of complete empathy and a disregard for human values, out of his head.

"Got anything out of him yet?" Sora had asked Riku yesterday when he had gone to see how his interrogation was going. Sora turned his head and look in through the bars of the door to see Kefka staring back at him, seeming to mime his own facial expression.

"Only what he's been saying ever since I locked him in there. He won't answer my questions. He's just mumbling something under his breath over and over again," Riku said. "Even said he was making some kind of truth serum for the interrogation procedures but it's not for sure that it'll work. This guy is… unhinged. Just from looking at him I can tell he's the kind of person who can fool even his own thoughts and emotions."

"What about a large dose then?" Sora asked.

"Too risky. Our efforts I think are better concentrated on her." Riku walked over to the room next to Kefka and looked inside. Sora gladly looked away from Kefka and joined Riku to see Kairi's attacker lying on her bed and staring up at the ceiling. "She's just as quiet but at least she doesn't seem weird. She's probably a lot more susceptible to the serum than he would be."

Sora nodded and stepped back. "Well, if you think that's the right course of action then I'll leave you to it. Do what you need to."

"Sora," Riku called out to him before Sora could leave. "You shouldn't have had to have gone through that. Now it's just as I feared. They're using us to get to you. I _will _make them pay."

"I shouldn't have had to, but I did," Sora said before leaving.

The Sora of present shook the memory out of his head and tried to concentrate once again, but it was no good. He let out a loud sigh and fell backwards onto his pillow with his eyes closed. He was pretty much done trying to look at his own life objectively. Why couldn't he ever be happy? He had no idea. Why, whenever there was some semblance of happiness, was he not allowed to keep it? He didn't have a clue. What could he do to regain the control that he felt was slipping away all too quickly? If he had figured that out, he wouldn't be lying here.

Sora rolled over until he was facing his pillow and then he yelled into it. He yelled with all his might until he could yell no more. When he was finally out of breath, he tore away from the bed and started pacing his room back and forth. He needed something to distract him, anything…

A knock on his door soon answered his silent call. Neuge let herself in quickly before Sora could even tell her it was okay, causing him to jump.

"Jiminy Crickets! What if I was naked in here?" Sora asked as she sat herself down on his bed.

"I've seen my fair share. Certainly wouldn't bother me."

"Oh, don't tell me that…"

"But you're not so stop complaining," Neuge said. "You are going back to training, aren't you? Luna's a lot more inquisitive compared to you. She was the one who came up to me and asked if we could start training again. You might want to take a page from her book."

"I thought you said that you had taught us everything you possibly could?" Sora reminded her.

"And that should stop from training, why? In terms of technique, yes, I did pass down my knowledge to you but that doesn't mean you've learned to perfect it either. What I wanted to teach you in my last lesson is that experience is everything. Anyone can read something from a book, but that doesn't mean they can apply that knowledge to real life. Sight, sound, smell, touch, even taste… all those things can mean the difference between life and death and if you've only heard of them, if you've never experienced them for yourself, then your chances of survival are low."

"I know," Sora said with a firm nod. "I did learn things like you said. I learned that the more I seem to care, the more harm I bring to others. That's what I learned."

"You're bringing harm to others?" Neuge let out a loud laugh. "The world does not revolve around you. It's not like when you smile, the hold world stands still or something. You're only a cog in collection of many. You work, you rust, you get replaced."

"Well that's… a positive thought," Sora said sarcastically. "And Yen Sid would seem to think differently anyway. I'm apparently the key that connects everything."  
"Oh, who cares about what that old fool says," Neuge dismissed. "Stuffing nonsense into your head. Have you ever thought about seeing the world through your own heart and not the hearts of others? It's a refreshing experience."

"Look, I know you're all trying to help me and I wish there were enough words in the world to express how grateful I am to all of you but… this is something I have to figure out on my own," Sora said.

"You know what? You're right. I was just like you. Still am, I suppose. After my dear old 'friends' betrayed me and left for dead, I too was searching for an answer. I wanted to survive but I didn't know how."

"Wait, I'm sorry, you're friends? Drinking buddies, I presume?" Sora asked.

"No, idiot, Yen Sid and someone else, his name was Eraqus. Have I not told you this story before?"

"Not that I know off. I figured you could never stand to be in the same room as him though. What even happened between you two?"

Neuge shook her head. "Maybe another time. It'll have to be over drinks since I don't really care to tell the story while I'm level-headed. We have more pressing matters on our hands, your next mission."

"Already? You can't even give me a week?"

"It won't wait a week, and don't worry, you won't be travelling far either."

The last time Sora had been in the computer room, he had been there to see the originally programmed Tron restored in all his glory, or at least his memories anyway. The last time he had seen him in person, he had been fighting him as Rinzler, a modified version of the original source code that CLU had manipulated. Now he was being told once again that his friend was missing.

"It could be nothing but it's certainly been awhile since Tron last contacted us. Both Aerith and I are starting to get worried," Yuffie told him once he arrived with Neuge.

On her clothes was an ID badge that Sora had never seen before. In fact, he had only started seeing it recently around town on certain individuals. When he asked what they were, Yuffie explained that they were now making membership badges for Restoration Committee members. Their recent campaign had seen an influx of new members flocking in from around town in order to contribute to rebuilding of the garden. Specifically, the original members were assigned certain roles. Yuffie's was 'Director of Operations' as she was in charge of carrying out various missions to do with the Heartless. Aerith, on the other hand, was 'Planning and Finance Director', in charge of the various infrastructures that they were building around town. It struck him as impressive how far they had come since he had first met them in Traverse Town. They were working towards a common goal, moving forwards and creating. Sora felt as if he were the opposite right now.

Other than Yuffie and Aerith, Luna had also been waiting for them in the room. Her eyes flashed Sora a worried look as he entered the room and Sora tried to put forth the best of smiles in order to assure her that he would be fine. Judging from her deepening frown, he didn't think he quite succeeded.

"That's not the only problem. The system requires check-in every twenty four hours for security purposes. Tron's usually the one who authenticates that password. If the password isn't inputted every day then the system locks down and all the town's defence systems are shut off," Aerith continued to explain. "This is in case there's ever a threat from inside the garden who might try to use our own defences against us. Cid implemented this security measure after we found out that Abraxas was the one who hacked in and shut down our systems last year. Of course the problem is as you see it now. Tron has to be there in order to authenticate the password."

"And if Tron's not there then the security system will shut off," Luna confirmed.

"So you see why this is such a big deal? Sorry to put this all on you guys but Neuge told me you could handle it, plus you know Tron better than anyone else, Sora," Yuffie said before moving over to type something on the keyboard. "We only have a few hours left before the verification process is required. If you can't find Tron in that time then we'll have to wait twenty four more hours until the next verification begins, and in that time, anything could happen. Good luck!"

"You are okay with this though, aren't you, Sora? If you're not up for it, we could always send Kairi instead," Aerith proposed.

"No, I'll be fine," Sora answered. He had been looking for a diversion to escape his grim thoughts and getting back into action was probably exactly what he needed.

"Alright, let's do this. Beam us up, Scotty!" Luna yelled with a big smile.  
"I'm sorry, who's Scotty and why haven't we met him?" Aerith asked.

"It's… it's a reference my dad used to… forget it, it's embarrassing. Just do the thing."

The last thing he heard in the room was the sound of a key being pressed down hard. When he next opened his eyes he found himself in the data world. He recognized the setting almost immediately. It was the city where he had met up with Ansem the Wise and had chased Abraxas through the streets. Just up ahead he could see the remnants of the End of Line Club, a presumed safe haven where the rules didn't apply. Perhaps this was why Ansem had been hiding within the club when Sora had found him. Either way, the club was now destroyed due to attack that had happened when Sora and Luna were there. Occasionally, the neon lights of the sign flickered every once in a while for varied periods of time.

"So, where do we start?" Luna asked, walking a few steps ahead to look around. Her new outfit had been digitized and so had his, giving off a new slick feel to them.

Sora placed an index finger on his left temple and stared at the ground. "This world is completely different from the original one, so I'm not sure how much luck we'll have asking other programs where the original Tron is. But since we have nothing to go on either, it couldn't hurt to ask, right?"

"Yeah, but doesn't this city feel rather… empty now?" Luna pointed out. Sora looked up and searched the area but as with Luna, was unable to hear or see anything to indicate life.

"It's weird alright, but we can't give up now. There has to be someone here," Sora said. They set off down the dark streets in hopes that they were to soon come across someone. Sora was instantly reminded of The World That Never Was, not only in the way the city was designed but the uncomfortable atmosphere, the eternal night, the lack of people around and the silence because of it, pretty much everything. He didn't like it one bit and yet he couldn't help but be impressed by how vastly technological and futuristic these buildings were in comparison to any he had ever seen.

"Sora, I just saw someone! It was a shadowy figure so I couldn't tell whether it was a program or something else but what do we have to lose?" Luna pointed to the one of the buildings on the left side of the street that they had just entered. As Sora attempted to follow alongside her, he found his body sagging like a bag of potatoes. While his body wasn't all in it and wanted to follow its procedure of the last three days, it was his concern for Tron that kept him pushing forward. He couldn't afford to allow any sluggish movements where he needed to fight.

"Are they running from us or something?" Sora asked, spotting his first glimpse of the shadow for only a second before it disappeared behind another building. "Luna, keep following them. I'll see if I can cut them off from ahead."

Luna confirmed his plan with a nod before breaking off into a full run down the street. Instead of following her, Sora went into the alleyway on his left that was in between two buildings and set off on his own sprint. The ground beneath him was neither of concrete, metal or any other material that he knew to be used for making roads. It was instead a road composed of small individual hexagons that lit up briefly and created a strange thunk sound when he walked on them.

He soon arrived on the other side of the alley to see the figure running towards him. Sora leapt out into the street in front of him, causing the person to come to an immediate halt. He turned to head in the other direction but Luna had managed to stay behind him and trapped him.

"I don't know why you were running but how did you not think that was suspicious? Show yourself!" Sora ordered, craning his neck to get a good look at the face under the hood.

"Woah, woah, calm down there, Sora. It's me." The figure pulled off his hood and smiled at him. All of a sudden, all of the complaining that Sora had done these past few days seemed non-existent. He had of course known that the program was still alive, that he had reverted back from Rinzler and he had even talked to him on more than a few occasions since, but there was something about actually being by his side for the first time in a long while that gave him a fluttering feeling in his chest.

"Tron? It's really you? TRON!" Sora ran up to program and tackled him in what he had meant to be a hug but instead had sent them both to the ground due to a loss of balance. "It's really you! You're here, right in front of me."

"I'd certainly hope so. Not that I mind this or anything but you're kind of depriving me of air."

"Oopsie, sorry." Sora retreated from Tron's body quickly and helped him up. Luna, who was completely mesmerised by the return of Sora's playful nature, began chuckling and smiling sweetly at the sight of them being reunited.

"It's good to see you so cheerful again, Sora. You don't know how happy that makes me feel," she said before looking at Tron. "Oh, it's our first time meeting, isn't it? I'm Luna. It's nice to finally meet you, Tron."

"It's nice to meet you too, Luna. Sora told me about you from the user's world a while ago. It's good that he managed to rescue you in the end," Tron said.

"Hmm, what else did Sora tell you about me?"

"Er, we don't need to talk about that now, do we?" Sora dismissed it rather quickly with a laugh. "The more important question is where've you been, Tron? We've been trying to get into contact with you from outside but you weren't there."

"Ah, so that's why you're here now. My apologies for making you all worry," said Tron.

Sora exchanged a raising of eyebrows with Luna when what followed from Tron was an unexpected silence. Truly, they had expected something more but Tron appeared as if leaving them only on an apology and not a full explanation was satisfactory enough.

"That's… it? It'd be great if you could tell us what you were doing, or why you were running in the first place. Is there something wrong?"

Tron stiffened for a moment before relaxing. "That would be a good place to start, wouldn't it? The truth is I'd tell you but I'm honestly not sure myself what I'm doing. Does this happen to users to, where an idea or a spark just pops into your head?"

"Of course, all the time. So you got that?" Luna answered.

Tron nodded. "It's weird. It wasn't exactly an idea, more like… instructions. They just suddenly entered my mind at that exact moment. I had what you users would describe as a dream."

"A dream? Can programs dream?" Sora asked.

"That's the problem. I've never had one of them before. It shouldn't be possible, I would think. I don't even remember what it was about because there was no context. It was incredibly irrational and yet I felt compelled to seek out the place that was in my dreams for some reason. I almost feel like there might be something wrong with me."

"Tron, even if you are a program, you still have a heart. Your thoughts and desires are your own and I guess that's only now emerging as a goal… or something like that," Sora proposed with an unsure look.

"Well, they say dreams are the repressed desires of the heart so maybe if you can try and remember anything in the dream, that might help us figure something out," Luna offered. She could believe more than anyone in the power of dreams, having dreamed constantly about seeing the stars. Her dreams had come true but that wasn't exactly the case for others. The least she could do was help them make their own come true, not that she was pretentious enough to dub herself as the fairy godmother or anything like that.

"I can't say much was happening. I was standing on a cliff somewhere watching a sea of endless data. There was something so calming and warm about it that I've never really felt before. It was a light… that's right! In the middle of that vast darkness I spotted a single light rising to the surface. That's where the dream ended. It was like the dream was trying to tell me something, like the light itself was calling out to me. At that moment, those instructions seemed to override and take precedent over all over directives I had been issued. I have to find that cliff to see if it really was a dream. From what I understand, you users' goal is to find your purpose in life. I feel like this is mine. It was what I was created to do."

"What you were created to do? Woah there, I wouldn't go that far. Your creator isn't here Tron and that means you get to decide your own purpose, not Ansem," Sora said.

"Then, why is it that I feel so powerless this time around? When we defeated the MCP together, I felt as if I had the power to change the system for good, or maybe it was that my user wanted to give me the power to choose." Tron brought his hands forward and looked down at them in thought.

"I don't know but if you want to wax philosophical, you're talking to the wrong person. We'll help you, Tron. Why were you running by the way? Oh, and the cloak. Why the need to make yourself look so suspicious?" Sora asked.

"Didn't Aerith and Leon tell you? I left a message behind for them before I took off," Tron said.

"You left a message? Not one we got," Sora said checking with Luna who shook her head.

"Weird, though maybe _it _has something to do with it. I'll fill you in while we walk," Tron pulled the hood back over his head and led them back onto the main road. "Find it strange that there's no one about? No less than what would be eighteen hours ago in your world, I received a distress signal from somewhere within this city. Further analysis told me that a type of malicious software had found its way into the system. That software soon manifested itself in this city as a familiar face. Our good old friend, the MCP."

Sora stopped in his tracks and stared wide-eyed at Tron. "You're kidding me? But we defeated it, didn't we?"

Tron nodded. "Which is why it can't be _the_ MCP. I can only imagine it's taking its form though I'm not sure how. In any case, this mysterious entity has hijacked the city with viruses. From what I can tell, the viruses can corrupt a program by rewrite its code. Only recently did he come out with his demands. He wants me."

"So not only do we have to find this place of yours but we need to find the source of this malicious software and defeat it. Seems easy," Luna said trying her best to be positive. "Maybe our perpetrator is the one who stopped your message from getting through on our end, because there's no way Aerith and Yuffie would forget to tell us something as important as that."

"That would be my guess, so we need to be careful as we make our way out of the city." Tron suddenly pressed himself against the closest building and peered around to see if there was anything down the street. He looked back at Sora and Luna and motioned them to look with a finger. Peering past his arm, they could see just what Tron had meant by viruses. Up ahead were two Programs that looked to be completely withdrawn from the world around them, they heads slowly turned as they searched the area like zombies before moving further down the road.

"The safest gamble would be not to directly engage with them unless we absolutely have to. Let's find another way around," Tron said before turning and heading back the way they had come. As Sora followed along with Luna, truth be told, he was glad his mind was on the impending threat of the MCP's mysterious return and not the events of the past. It wasn't exactly what he would have chosen but he wouldn't exactly have chosen to remember that fateful night either. In a way, he could see it as being a necessary evil. With that thought in mind, he corrected his posture and started to walk more confidently, a smile forming on his face that had not been there for days.

* * *

Riku pulled a seat away from the small rectangle table that had been set up and sat in it slowly before dragging both him and the chair back towards the table. The entire time, he never let his eyes wander from Freya. Behind him was Kairi who leaned against the wall and was chewing on her lip nervously.

The rat didn't seem to register the teen that had sat in front her and was eyeing her in a demoralizing fashion. Her eyes were cast downwards on the wooden table in front of her, with its various imperfect scratches and dentures. Riku knew that he was going to have a tough time cracking her will and getting her to talk. The only other person he had interrogated before this was Astra and she hadn't exactly been easy to break either. This time however, he had a weapon at his disposal which he hopefully wouldn't have to use, but wouldn't hesitate to do so if she gave him any trouble.

"You know, I'm not exactly experienced in this interrogation business. This isn't what I'm supposed to do as a Keyblade Master. My duty is to protect the worlds from whatever harm befalls them. This really is only the second time I've had to do this. Right now you must be wondering why I told you that. Now that you know I'm an amateur, you have no reason to fear me. Interrogation I suppose is like a composition. You need to hit all the notes and if you don't then the piece loses its effectiveness. Therefore, because I'm inexperienced, I'm likely to miss notes from time to time. But me being inexperienced also works against you, because I'm afraid I don't quite know when to stop. I can be reckless and keep going, and we'll both suffer for it but that's fine. Sometimes it's not the professionals that are the most dangerous, but the amateurs."

"Riku…" Kairi's warning came out as a whisper and Riku smiled.

"Did you know who she was when you went after her?" he asked.

"I don't pry into my client's affairs. I'm told only the basics about the target such as her appearance and then I do my job. No questions asked," Freya answered quickly. "Listen, I'm not sure what you think you're going to get from me. I'm just a hired killer."

"I'll be the one to decide whether you have anything to hide or not," Riku said leaning forward a bit before relaxing back in his seat. "I want the name of your clients. Of the members within KRONOS. We have Kefka but that's not enough."

"And what makes you think I know the members of KRONOS?"

"Let's use that as a question, why don't we? Why wouldn't you know the members of KRONOS?"

Freya let out a stifled laugh and looked at Kairi for a second before looking back into Riku's eyes. "I don't ever recall saying I received them directly. My orders come from proxy. They have no reason to trust me with the members of their inner circle and as I've stated before and will continue to do so, I do not question my orders."

"Alright then, we'll try this. How many requests have you received from KRONOS? Can't be just the one." Riku took his left hand off the table but rather than resting it at his side, he was reaching for something in his pocket.

Freya shrugged quite casually, as if she were talking to a friend. "I'm not sure you need to know that."

"And you clearly don't use your ears. I said I'll be the one to decide if what you have to say is important or not," Riku said before raising the object he had taken out of his pocket. It was a small vial containing green liquid. He shook its contents up and down while keeping an eye on Freya.

Freya propped her elbow up on the table and rested one side of her face on her hand. "Food dye?"

"Truth serum. Truth be told, I didn't want to use this on you. I still don't want to use this on you. Even, one of the scientists working here, insisted that he be the one to develop this. The thing about Even is that he's unpredictable. I don't know what he put in this, and I'm sure you don't want to know either."

"Wonderful. You really are no different from the evil you claim to fight, are you?" Freya said with a chuckle.

"You went after my friends. I have no forgiveness for people like you who indulge in killing others for no reason other than money. I have no forgiveness for KRONOS or anyone that tries to harm my friends. By the way, unlike my interrogation, it's the first time this serum is being used. It's in its experimental phase. You can take the risk, get injected and hope nothing happens, or you can answer my question now and play it safe." Riku took hold of the vial with both hands and rotated it around before setting it on the table in front of him. She could see it but with her hands bound, she wouldn't be able to take it.

Freya looked at the vial in unreadable thought before looking back at Riku. "I have names. I'll give you what you want to know on one condition."

"Oh, I thought you didn't know any names? What happened to receiving your orders by proxy?" Riku asked.

"They come up every now and then. I just about remember a few of them that have been brought up. I'm not sure all of them are related to KRONOS but it's a better start than any, no? In return though, I want protection."

"From KRONOS?"

Freya nodded. "They don't work in the shadows, they are the shadows. For every bright corner of a world, there are shadows. The shadows live alongside the light. They co-exist while at the same time opposing one another. If you hope to destroy the shadows, you must put out the light. If you intend to go after them and you cannot make that compromise, I'm afraid it will be an endless battle which will only result in innocent lives being snuffed out."

"I- we," Riku corrected, looking at Kairi quickly before continuing, "don't intend to let that happen. You say they're shadows? I say they're just people who can make mistakes, just like they made the mistake of trusting you."

"But we'll protect you, right, Riku?" Kairi asked.

Riku was rather taken aback at Kairi's defense of Freya at first, only to remember how pure and kind Kairi's heart was. In all honesty, he had found it strange from the start that Kairi had been so insistent on coming along with him to interrogate her assassin. He had expected apprehension or perhaps a trickle of fear from her but instead she had surprised him with a look of strength and commitment on her face. Whether she realized it or not, she was acting a lot braver than he felt he was at the moment.

"You say that so easily. I did try to kill you," Freya said, also surprised by Kairi's outburst.

"You did, but I'm also interested in learning why exactly it is that you do what you do. I don't meet many assassins, but you seem different somehow. You also applauded me on my fighting skills so I thought I should return the favor," Kairi replied.

"Is that all? What silly reasons," Freya said and let out a laugh. "But I suppose I can't deny that I'm not exactly your typical assassin."

"Then tell what you know. Everything you know," Riku said. He retrieved the green vial from the table before stowing it back in his pocket.


	51. IO

_So as most writers probably know, this month is NaNoWriMo and so I've taken it upon myself to working a little bit harder to get a lot of content out to you for this story. Do look forward to it throughout the month and do feel free to leave any feedback or ways to improve my interaction with you, the readers. Also hype for D23 Expo. Trailer comes out tomorrow so we'll see what's added. No new worlds though :( _

* * *

**Chapter 51**

**I/O **

In this world there was no such thing as a moon. Luna pondered this as they made their way out of the city. It was the first time she had even looked up into the sky since coming here, she realized. Even the first time coming here, she had been more preoccupied with running from Clu and Abraxas to have even noticed the little things. Above her was a cold night sky reflective of the ground itself. The clouds in the sky seemed still like a painting and a moonlit glow show down through whatever cracks were in these clouds, but there was no moon. It was artificial, much like the ground she walked on, the buildings she was running past, even the program she was running with. At the end of the day, they were all ones and zeroes.

Even though that were the case, even though she knew that she was in a digital world, her mind did not see it that way. In fact, in her eyes this world was just as real, just as natural, as any other world. It didn't matter how it came about, why it came about or who was even responsible for it. She could ask just the same question for about any of the worlds out there. This one was no different and so the artificial moonlight was real, the frozen clouds were real, the buildings and ground were all real, Tron was real.

"We're almost out of the city," Tron said, stopping just short of the city limits. Up ahead were a range of mountains in the distance, dark and ominous yet probably much more appealing and calming to the tense atmosphere of the abandoned city. Tron knelt down on a knee and with a hiss, broke his Identity disk away from his back. He smoothly moved his finger around the outer blue light of the disk causing a hologram of city and its surrounding mountains from a bird's eye view.

In the meantime, another thing had come to Luna's mind that she felt would make Sora happy, though he seemed to be keeping up his spirits quite well already. She turned to him and put her interlocked hands behind her while swaying from side to side.

"Sora, I was thinking… we need a vacation away from all this. So I was thinking that after we help Tron, maybe you, me, Riku, Kairi, everyone, we can all go to the beach. You said you island had a beach, right? And since Alexander came back, I'm sure your islands came back too. Let's all go there. I'd like to meet your parents."

"Oh hoh, no you wouldn't," Sora said with a little chuckle.

"Oh come on, I bet they're great."

"They're embarrassing… well, mom is at least. I think the two of you'd get along well pretty well though. Listen, I appreciate everything you're doing for me but… right now I just want to forget about it. All that's on my mind now is helping Tron and then afterwards, we'll think about what comes next," Sora said.

"You're right. Just keep it in the back of your mind for now," Luna said before asking. "What do your parents do for a living?"

"My mom's a tennis instructor for the local club."

"Ooh, now I know where you get your powerful backhand from," Luna joked. "And your dad?"

"My old man owns a boat shop. It's pretty profitable since all the kids will usually want to head to the other island at one point or another," Sora answered.

"Well look at Mr. Popular! You must be pretty well known around town, huh?"

"Not really. You could attribute that description to Kairi or Riku. Kairi since her adoptive parents run the town and Riku because, well, he's Riku, that and what happened to his mom a long time ago," Sora said. He opened his mouth as if about to say something more but shook his head and closed it before looking at Tron with an absent expression on his face.

"It seems that nearest terminal is to the north east. If we can contact the user's world, we might be able to have them hack into the system and tell us where this MCP of ours is hiding," Tron said, making the hologram disappear and attaching the disc back into its slot.

"And then we flush him out! Good plan," Luna said.

Tron nodded. "We could also potentially just get captured, though I don't much like the idea of leaving our chances to a low statistical probability of survival."

Luna took a look at the last few buildings ahead. Once they crossed them, they would be officially out of the city. This was all child's play compared to the task that lay ahead of them. They needed to find the exact spot from Tron's dream, and they weren't even sure that spot was or if it had been real in the first place. When it came to it, Tron was probably the only one who would be able to spot it.

"Tron, did you think you could escape my hold?" A pitch-altered deep voice reverberated in the air like the vibration of acoustics, sending a chill down all their spines.

"You can hear us?" Tron asked looking up into the sky.

"Of course. I am always watching, Tron. Always listening. I just hoped you would be a bit less selfish given my holding of the town hostage and turn yourself in. Still, it was amusing watching you and your friends scurry all over the place, like rats. But like all rats, give them a sense of hope and they'll be sure to fall for it. I let you get this far Tron, but only to tell you how futile your actions are in the end. I have control over all terminals on the Grid. If you attempt to access them, a security measure will lock onto your location and the viruses that I have deployed within the system will be onto you in seconds."

"That's enough. Who do you think you are? You can't be the MCP, we destroyed it!" Sora yelled.

"And so we come to the heart of the matter, don't we, Sora?"

"You- you know my name?" Sora asked. He supposed he could have just been listening in when they had met up with Tron but the way the MCP had paused before saying his name had seemed deliberate, like he had known well beforehand, but that couldn't be.

"You're not the only one I know about. Hello Luna, or perhaps… Chimera, would be a more fitting name?"

Luna looked on in astonishment. She eventually opened her mouth to speak but no words would come out. She reflected on her first memory experiencing this sensation, which had been a rather recent one. The innocent, more inexperienced Luna who had been wandering through Traverse Town for the first time still trying to figure out the bits and pieces that were left of her memory, had come across Megumi Kitaniji who had inducted her into the Reapers' Game. That same stiffened feeling, the paralysis and fear of the unknown all came crashing in on her once again. What had she learned on this journey if she still could be so easily staggered by things like this?

"How do you know that? I'll give you knowing our names. That'd be easy to find out, but that one detail? You can't have known that unless someone told you," Sora said.

"Or is it that someone has data records of you and your friends stored on the system?" The MCP proposed.

"No… you couldn't be…" Briefs images of the database that he and Bob Parr had found on Nomanisan Island flashed briefly in Sora's mind. "KRONOS? Were you made by them?"

"Irrelevant question," the MCP quickly dismissed. Sora frowned and took a step forward.

"How is that an irrelevant question? It's a simple yes or no. You're building up this entire mystery as to who you are and you won't even answer me?" Sora asked. "That's even more suspicious."

There was a brief pause, not too long but one that made Sora question whether the MCP was even still there or not. A few seconds later however, his voice returned with his answer.

"Believe what you like. I was not created to appease a user such as yourself, though I imagine you will eventually find out who I am, if you and Tron choose to surrender that is."

"That won't happen," Sora muttered darkly, his fists clenched. "If you really are KRONOS' creation. If KRONOS really did resurrect you… then that gives me all the more reason to destroy you. If you've taken control of all the terminals then you've trapped us in here, right? We can't get out. A shame… for you. You've just trapped yourself in with me, your worst nightmare. I've had enough of people playing games with me, so I won't need your invite. We'll find you first and we'll destroy you just like we did the first time."

Another brief pause. Sora counted the seconds with a frozen breath before the response finally came. "I look forward to it. Tron, let us take this game of ours to the next evolution."

Another silence followed, and this time the MCP really was gone. Tron let out a wry smile before slamming his fist against the building in a surprise move that caused Sora to jump.

"I apologize, that was unbecoming of me, but I just don't understand what's happening at the moment. First this dream that I've had and now the return of the MCP? Nothing seems real, well, as real as this world can be."

"Tron, angry? That's a new one, but I can understand what you mean. We need to keep moving though. I don't like the idea of being constantly watched and as long as we avoid the terminals, they won't be able to find us," Sora said.

"But you won't be able to get back to the real world. If something were to happen I'd at least like to secure you an escape so you two don't have to stay here. Luna, are you alright?" Tron asked, having noticed that Luna had been completely quiet and motionless for a while.

Luna snapped out of her confusion and looked up from the ground. "Huh? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

"Luna, you're not one of them," Sora said. "It's just trying to get into your head. If this thing really is a part of KRONOS then this is just a test for what's to come. We need to steel ourselves for things like this."

"I know. I just didn't expect it," Luna said. Sensing a familiar pattern, Sora gently placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

"Hey, remember back on the Gummi Ship you said you'd be the one to look after me. I'm still counting on you," he reminded. He gave her a lopsided smile, one that held wisdom beyond even his age for that short moment. This smile, as well as her promise, renewed the confidence that had been taken away from her only a few minutes ago. There was no way she could afford to let him down or what had her promise been for otherwise? She also knew of Sora's reluctance to make promises. He had heavily blamed himself from promising Yeul that he would take her to see other worlds and that hadn't exactly come to fruition. More than anything, Sora wanted to believe in the power of making promises once again. He wanted to be proven wrong, or at least that's what Luna chose to believe.

Feeling a sense of pride to be recognized as Sora's temporary carer, Luna relaxed her body and shot them an inquisitive smile.

"You're right. I won't let you down, boss. Soooo who exactly is this MCP anyway?"

* * *

Luna's passion for adventure could not be more infectious. That was what Tron and Sora, the latter who had been traveling with her for about a year now, soon found out. Tron had described her as an excitable little puppy when she had engaged him in bullet after bullet of quick questions about the digital world. Her whimsical and curious disposition seemed to be too much for even the program to process. In contrast an unusually silent Sora gave a light chuckle that very soon turned into a laugh once he had found himself phased into the conversation.

There were far away from the city now though not far enough to not see its vivid neon blue glow. More importantly, they were also away from the watchful eyes of the MCP, at least for now. Sora knew that they would have to encounter it eventually if he and Luna wanted to get out of the Grid. When that time came he wouldn't hold back but that was the least of Sora's worries at the moment. Right now his priority was helping Tron and they were already struggling with that.

Strange yet beautiful and unique basalt columns were what encapsulated the city and the sea of simulation extended for what seemed to be hundreds of miles in either direction past them. More than once, Sora and Luna had to stop in order to admire beauty in its full splendor.

"The unknown can be fascinating," Sora remarked to Luna after Tron announced they could take a break after walking for about an hour. "Scary, but fascinating."

"Yeah," Luna agreed, bending down to trace the edge of one of the columns with her finger. "We have mountains in Alexander, but not rocks like these. They're so strange, like a town. See? Each one of them is like its own individual building. Nature would be boring if it were just symmetrical."

"The same could be said of users," Tron interjected having returned just in the nick of time from scouting the area to hear her say it. "I think the most interesting thing about you users is that that no single one of you is the same. You're asymmetrical and it's what keeps you alive. I compare this to my own situation. The programs both here in the Grid and in its older model were designated roles to complete since birth. During the MCP's reign, there was no need for emotion, no need for uniqueness. Our code was symmetrical, our life expectancy only as proportional as to how effectively we were able to carry out our functions."

"But you freed them all, didn't you? You, Sora, Donald and Goofy," Luna said.

"So we assumed, but apparently not. We did gain identities, personalities. After you left Sora, there was still work that needed to be done. There were remnants of the MCP's code that he had left throughout the system, bits and pieces that I couldn't find myself and whilst they remained the programs could never be truly free. I realized that the only one who could eliminate that code was my creator so I left in search of him."

"Ansem? You still tried to search for him, even after you mentioned that he was your enemy?" Sora asked.

"I suppose… I wanted to meet him, if not at least once to ask why he made me the way I am. Like him or not, he was my father in a way. He was the father of all programs here in general. I didn't tell you this but in the records I dug up about your town's true nature, I noticed a discrepancy between some of data. After a certain point, the encryption method used to hide the files had changed. It was as if two different people had left two completely different digital signatures in the system."

"Ansem the Wise and the Xehanort calling himself Ansem," Sora clarified.

"Then there were two. Either way, before I could encrypt the majority of the second person's files, someone rewrote the majority of the system's code, or should I say, replaced it with the original code manufactured by ENCOM, I believe I mentioned it to you when you when first came here but for Luna, it's the corporation that made the original system and from that OS came a copy of which was taken by Ansem the Wise to further pursue his research. The change was so drastic that it was no longer compatible with the OS security system used in Radiant Garden. That's not all. Not only did the world change to the one you see now, but the memories of the original Tron blended into my own. Suddenly I had two memories. I could remember everything the Tron made by Kevin Flynn did. He had assimilated himself into my own coding."

"Two different Trons? That's crazy! That's like something out of a- a parallel world or something," came Sora's doubting response.

"It is something like that, isn't it? The most interesting part I found was that both I and the other Tron defeated the MCP and Sark, but whereas I had you, Donald and Goofy for help, the other Tron had the help of Kevin Flynn and another program. My priorities changed. I figured that instead of seeking Ansem the Wise out, I would seek my original creator, Kevin Flynn. When I found him, I wasted no time in explaining to him my predicament. What I found, or at least what both I and Flynn thought at the time, was that the other Tron didn't exist. My own presence had rewritten that Tron's code and placed me in his place. But I don't quite think that's it now. I think it would be more accurate to say that I am both myself and the other Tron at the same time, or at least that's what it feels like. That there was some form of harmonization within myself.

"But after I found Flynn, I thought I could try to at least connect both Grids in Radiant Garden and the one in his world through a network. Flynn shared the same goal and he created a Codified Likeness Utility or CLU, a type of hacker program who, like his maker, sought to create perfection. This came in the form of Isomorphic Algorithms, perfect creations that were not created by users like I and many other programs, but were an evolution that sprung seemingly from nowhere. Flynn and I were baffled when we found them. I wish you guys could have been there to see them because they weren't to last, not if CLU had anything to say about it. In short, he purged them from the mainframe and you know the rest. He corrupted my code and turned me into Rinzler and took over the system."

"The one who rewrote the code by the way was Abraxas. Even now I'm still not really sure what he was playing at," Sora told him.

"I suppose it doesn't matter now. We live in the world we live in. I've done much since turning back into myself to weave the Radiant Garden OS back into the current mainframe but it looks like evil never rests. When it's not the MCP, it's CLU and when it's not CLU the MCP rears its ugly head once again, or someone pretending to be it at least." Tron looked out into the bluish hue that was the landscape in front of him, his eyes stuck on nothing in particular.

"Yeah. It's what Luna and I are facing now too," Sora answered softly. "First it was Xehanort, then it was Abraxas who was just another form of Xehanort, and now KRONOS who are carrying on Abraxas' work with the Chimeras and possibly even Moira's Crescent… I don't know what to think anymore. I just need things like this. Distractions, to keep my mind off what's going on around me."

"Distractions can help, but I find them only to be a temporary remedy. After the distraction is gone, it's gone. You can't run from your problems forever," Tron said. "That comes from my own observation of users, you particularly. When we fought the MCP together, you showed me what it was to have strength. I couldn't ever imagine you having any problems."

"I wish…" _I wish I could still say that I'm that person, _Sora finished in his head. Instead he turned towards Tron and said, "We better keep moving before the MCP finds us."

The terrain was becoming a lot narrower now and soon enough the trio had to stay behind each other in order to proceed onward. Sora, or anyone sane of that matter, tried not to look down below but if they did they would see waves upon waves of water crashing into each other. They were _that _close to the edge and Sora was starting to get a little lightheaded trying to keep his eyes focused on the horizon in front of him.

Soon enough they came across even ground where they could all stand side by side. A relieved sigh escaped Sora's mouth and he flashed a quick grin at the just as relieved Luna. There was always an exception however and in this case it was Tron. He had shown no fear or hesitation in plunging in head first and this had remained fixed even after emerging from the narrow incline. Sora was about to make a joke asking how he could possibly obtain this steadfast approach when out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a strange object floating near them.

Asking what it was and point at it to Tron, the program slowly opened his mouth to talk. "We all need to stay absolutely still. It's a motion sensor, one that's used for checking foreign intrusions in the system such as viruses. The MCP must have taken over its utility functions. Do not move an inch."

What followed was one of the most painful and excruciating moments of Sora's sixteen year old life. Most people who had ever met Sora knew that he wasn't usually the type to keep still about something. It also just so happened that one of his legs were in front of the other in a mid-walk at the time of noticing the sensor, so it was incredibly difficult for him to resist the urge to at least put the foot in line with the other one.

The sensor whizzed left and right in jerky motions, using a red light to scan a particular area before moving to the next square inch of interest. The sensor soon stopped in between Luna and Sora and began scanning from right to left. Sora tensed himself even more than he already had been and closed his eyes, waiting for the painstaking process to be over.

He heard the sound of a blast incredibly close by.

Sora's eyes shot open and he turned his head left without thinking. Luna hadn't been harmed. She had one eye closed and the other opened, also checking to make sure Sora hadn't been the victim of the sound. But then where had it come from? Sora found his answer on a rock that was nearby. Lying flat on its back and completely lifeless was a lizard. Sora immediately froze in place once again as the red light went past him, settling just to his right before the sensor gave up and moved to a different location.

To be sure that the sensor had completely gone, they had to wait two more minutes. Tron, who had been facing Sora and Luna, was in the better position to observe its actions, and announced when it had finally disappeared.

"Yeah, I'm not cut out for this. Man, that was intense," Sora said with a laugh that had clearly been held in for way too long.

"Oh dear, I don't think that was good for my heart," Luna agreed, joining in on the laughter. "If any more of those things show up, I don't know how long I'll be able to hold my breath."

"I only said to stay still. You can still breathe," Tron said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"It was a figure of speech but… yeah, anyways I also agree with Sora that I don't want to stick around to find out if it comes back," Luna said before looking at the rock on the ground. "Still, poor Mr. lizard. I hope you find peace."

"Lizard?" Tron repeated. He followed her gaze to the dead lizard and cocked his head slightly to the right. "That's strange. I've never seen these here before."

Closer examination by Tron soon proved beneficial. Sora watched as Tron disappeared around the corner and soon returned with a huge smile on his face.

"Sora, Luna, the place in my dream—we've found it!"


	52. Hybrid

_Can't say I expected this chapter to be so long but that can happen I suppose when you skip out on days of writing and feel the need to catch up. You start writing and then you get carried away and can't stop writing. Because of that, this isn't even the end of Tron's world. It's that long. Fancy that. Anyway, I'll just let you get right to the chapter and expect the next one quite quickly since it will certainly be a lot shorter._

* * *

**Chapter 52**

**Hybrid**

"Er, Tron?"

"Yes?"

"It looks just like any other place we've been. How do you know it's the one?"

Sora was question was a legitimate one. Of all the cliffs they had encountered on their way, this one had no definable characteristic whatsoever to cause it to stand out as superior or unique. Even with his limited knowledge of geography—because he had wasted no time in falling straight asleep in that class—there was no way he could imagine that any level of geography would be able to help him here. He looked at Luna, wondering if she was luckier in this regard. Luna gave him a baffled look in response that spelled out "_Don't look at_ _me_!"

"It's this warm feeling in my chest. I'm not quite sure how to explain it, but it feels… familiar somehow. Does that make sense?" Tron tried to put across.

"Yeah, like my mom's home cooking or the feeling you get at Christmas. It's coming from the heart," Luna said, seeming to understand Tron's position much better now.

"Er, yes… something like that, maybe?" Tron scratched his temple in confusion before walking to the brink of the cliff. Sora and Luna followed his lead and their mouths fell agape at what they saw there.

A dazzling display lit up the water below them like fireworks. A gargling whirlpool, something usually considered disastrous, was met in stark contrast with bright sparks popping and flaying from side to side in tandem with the current. It was like a magic cauldron out of a fairy tale, churning and spitting yet illuminated with lights akin to fireflies. Sora's eyes wandered downwards where tiny lizards were waddling past his feet and down the cliff path to a beach directly below them.

"Sora, if I ever forget this moment, feel free to flick my forehead again," Luna said breathlessly.

"Right back here," Sora agreed. This time there was not motion sensor nearby but they still dared not move even a muscle. They didn't know what they were looking at and yet for some reason it still felt warm and familiar to them.

"Tron, what is it?" Luna eventually asked.

"No idea, I've never seen anything like it before. Hm?" Tron raised a questioning hum and looked downwards to his chest before turning to show Sora and Luna. For the second time in a minute, they were surprised at the bright shining light protruding from Tron's chest.

"Well that's certainly not something you see every day," Sora stated slowly. "You think that it's okay to touch it?"

"Well it has to be connected to this place somehow, right? Otherwise why would it reveal itself now of all times and places?" Luna said though it seemed that she didn't have too much faith in her own words before she took a few steps back and grabbed Sora's sleeve just as Tron made to reach for the light.

"Well, like you users say—if we don't take risks, where would we be right now," Tron said. Sora wanted to object to this because touching things that he had no idea what they were for usually hadn't boded well for him in the past, but it was too late. The light from Tron's chest had now transitioned into a ball of light in Tron's hand. He rolled the ball from hand to hand before allowing it to finally settle in his left hand, and using his right hand, retrieved his identity disk from his back before merging the ball with some effort into the disk itself. The black and blue disk glowed briefly for a moment as if registering the light's presence before the whole disc illuminated with a bright light.

"Okay, now you're just showing off!" Sora accused with a big grin.

"That may very well be, but then who taught me about the joys of showing off?" Tron shot back.

"Ooh, got me there." Sora feigned a painful wince before looking back at the whirlpool. "So I'm guessing that light has something to do with that?"

"I think so. If we throw my disk into that, I think something will happen. We need to get in closer," Tron told them. They only needed to make their way down the cliff and from there Tron would be able to throw the disc in and something… well, magical, Sora hoped, would happen.

That's what should have happened.

The first step Sora took was also the last that he knew off before he fell unconscious. A sharp electric surge ran down his body, seeming to cut off any of his motor functions. As with a stiff object, he was sent plummeting straight to the ground. From somewhere above him he could hear Luna and Tron's voice calling out to him but surely they didn't have any time left either. With an unexpected amount of energy he managed to keep his fluttering eyes open and turned his heavy head to Luna.

"Run!" Is what he wished to say, but the words would not come out of his mouth, and it would have been too late anyway even if he had said them. Luna fell to ground and a thud, muffled though it may have sounded, told him Tron had shortly followed suit. Before he could turn his head to see from where their attacker came from, the sudden burst of energy he had managed to gain had slipped away.

* * *

Luna woke up to feeling a stinging pain in the back of her neck. She sluggishly sat up and rubbed the back of her neck slowly while looking around. There wasn't exactly much to see. She was in a small prison cell that made an admittedly rather attractive nose when she stood up and tapped her foot against the ground.

She made for the door and noticed something incredibly wrong. She grabbed at the bars and shook with all her might, hoping that perhaps one of the bars were loose enough that she would be able to pop it out.

_This can't be right. Why am I back in Alexander? _

Luna finally surrendered and backed away from the door before running up to it again and yelling at the top of her lungs for Sora and Tron. She knew exactly where she was and it was pretty much impossible for her to be here. The hallway that she had just looked down through the barred doors couldn't belong to anywhere else but the basement level of the Turm des Himmels.

"Someone? Anyone? Where are you? Please, help me!" Luna cried out but her screaming seemed all for nought. She pressed her head against the cold metal bars and closed her eyes, half in fatigue and half in defeat.

"So only now do you fully understand the truth?"

Luna shot up attentively at the sound of her saviour and then quickly recoiled in horror and found herself backed against the far wall of the room. Never had she found hope so quickly and lost it at the same speed. She was definitely in a nightmare—there was no other explanation for why Abraxas was standing in front of her once again.

"This isn't real. This isn't real. This is a dream," Luna repeated, squeezing her eyes shut tightly.

"Now that isn't very nice, is it? Here I am, glad to see you again after so long and you shut me out. I think I might cry," Abraxas said.

"Shut up and leave me alone! You're not real. You're dead!" Luna shouted angrily with her eyes open again. She summoned Dream Seeker and pointed it at him.

"Not inside you I'm not. As long as you remember me, I'm very much alive. I am the progenitor of your suffering after all and if there's no suffering, there's no room for you to grow either. And about this being a dream—are you sure it's not the other way around? Have you ever considered that you never escaped from this place? That you've made this entire journey up in your head?"

"That's absurd. I almost feel like I'm insulting myself by listening to this," Luna muttered.

"It is, isn't it? But you've never really been the one for normality, have you? Tell you what, since you've been a good little Chimera I'll let you out and you can have a look at how your other friends are doing."

As if on cue, the door swung inward with such force that it slammed into the wall and sent Luna jumping into the air. She carefully made her way out of the room, meanwhile keeping both eyes on Abraxas and gripping her Keyblade tightly. Even if she still believed this to be a dream, it was certainly a strange one, so much so that it actually felt real.

She mentally slapped this thought from her head. _Don't be silly, Luna. You're still dreaming. You'll wake up soon for sure!_

"Do have a look for yourself. I'm sure you can… relate," Abraxas said pointing to the door opposite her own cell. Rather than following his orders and walking up to the door however, Luna remained in the same spot with her eyes still on her enemy. Abraxas rolled his eyes and nodded his head back and forth in a way that reminded her of the cursive writing she had been forced to do in school. "This _dream _of yours will not progress if you just stand there, you know?"

Seeing some truth in this claim, Luna took her time and walked over to the door before peering through the bars. Piercing yellow eyes stared back at her, cold yet fierce. Behind them lay such anger that Luna felt that she could not stay looking at them for long. Aside from its eyes, the heaving gray lump of mass and its duel horns, one shorter than the other above its sealed lip. Here lay the very effigy of her fears. The monster in the closet that she had tried to keep locked up in part by sacrificing her own memories. Now that her memories were back, it was no wonder why it had returned.

"Beautiful, isn't it? And yet it longs for freedom, just like you once did. I've never really been a fan of zoos, too miserable. What do you say we let it out?"

"No. Abraxas, please don't-"

"Begging now are you? That's new. Don't worry, I'll give you a headstart of five seconds," Abraxas said with his eyes hungrily anticipating what was to come. If this really were a dream, then Luna had no control over the events that were about to happen. She would take dreaming about ponies or something equally as arbitrary right about now over this.

Luna wasted no time in pushing past Abraxas and making her way down the hallway.

This place being important to her, she felt it unfortunate that she remembered the place so well. The air on the basement level was different from the normal air of the outside. It had probably been kept intentionally chilly and filtered so as to preserve the experiments that had taken place here. While she couldn't say what the building had been for before Abraxas had infiltrated it, it couldn't have been any different if the actual floor didn't exist on the building's schematics in the first place.

The sound of a heavy breathing and snarling came from behind her. It had been released. She didn't look back to see where it was, the only thing she could do now was keep running. She pulled herself up the stairs using the railing and soon enough the heavy breathing she was hearing became her own. Surely though there was no way her Chimera would be able to get up those stairs… _surely_…

Luna finally reached the top and barged through the double doors to find herself in yet another familiar place, not Alexander but one of the first worlds she had ever been to.

"No, no, no! Why is this happening? This is a really cruddy dream!" Luna shouted. She turned around—a big mistake! The Chimera wasted no time in charging for her, its heavy feet shaking the ground like a set of mini earthquakes. Luna whipped out her Keyblade quickly and fired off three _Thundaga shots_ before breaking off into a run in the opposite direction. She didn't even stop to look to check whether her magic had made any sort of impact. Her ears were good enough. They hadn't.

Luna kept running down each twist and turn of the Wonderland maze. It was mirror to mirror of what had happened last time, her running from the Bandersnatch and now it was a rhinoceros. Luna turned another corner only to meet a dead end. A dead end and potentially a dead Luna to go along with it.

But she wasn't ready to give up hope yet.

If this dream of hers was this indulgent in nostalgia, then Sora would probably swoop in on a Jabberwocky any moment now and save her from the rhino's clutches. Now that she thought about it, she had never died in a dream before. Most of her dreams kind of just ended, or were left hanging like an unfinished sentence. She wondered if it were possible, though preferably she would never want to find out.

Luna sat down and crawled up into a ball, deciding to practice her breathing. That was what Master Neuge would recommend in this given situation. She counted in her head breathing both in and out in increments of five seconds.

_Come on girl, you have nothing to fear but fear itself… well, that and a rhino that might eat you. Not helping here, stupid!_

Luna's inward attempt at humor did not do well to deceive the fear in her heart and soon she found herself thinking of her parents again. How she wished they could be beside her once more so she could feel their warmth and have her mother soothe softly into her ear her favorite lullaby even if she were getting a little old to be having her mother do that, as Astra would say.

That hadn't exactly been one of the easiest things to confide in with her best friend, who rather than choosing to rely on her abusive father had instead been made to grow up faster than most children her age. In the time they had become friends, it was easy to see how pampered and childish Luna was in comparison to her friend. Astra had even designated herself as an adult on more than a few occasions and Luna had certainly had no qualms in playing the role of the little kid and seeking comfort in Astra. To be fair though, the more Astra and Luna grew closer, the more Astra seemed to open up and act like less of an adult to the point where it seemed they were finally on equal footing. Luna remembered the exact day when Astra had told her that Luna had given her the childhood she had never had. It had been on Luna's fourteenth birthday.

_Birthday… _

That was right! Her sixteenth birthday was coming up in just a week. It would be strange having a birthday without Astra or her parents or even Aunt Kit around. Aunt Kit would always come around with this wonderful cake and other pastries that she had baked herself. They would all gather around the table and watch as she blew out the candles before she was given her presents. Last year from her mom and dad, she had gotten one of those beautiful "psychedelic" lava lamps that she had been marvelling about for quite a while. Aunt Kit, on the other hand, went with something more traditional—a book on cooking recipes that she had admittedly not gotten that far into. Now that she thought about it, when she next went to Alexander she would have to take it along with her.

The final present, which came from Astra, was not a physical object. Astra had never really been good with gifts and her own sort of punkish style didn't really compliment Luna's own. With that in mind, Astra had instead decided to take her ice skating near the palace. After all the tension that had risen between them over Luna's wishes to see the stars and Astra's backtracking, asking Luna to start living in reality, it was a much needed break. That night, neither of them said anything about any of that. All they did was skate and dance underneath the stars. She wondered how her birthday would turn out this time—if she even managed to get out alive.

It was during this train of thought that had diverged completely off track that Luna realized something. Surely she shouldn't be thinking this much in a dream. At least that wasn't how it usually went. Was it possible then that she truly wasn't dreaming? But then that didn't explain Abraxas or being in Alexander or Wonderland either. So she was dreaming but… not dreaming?

She could hear the bringer of her death drawing closer and closer, its ragged breathing within short distance and what sounded like chains being dragged along the floor as it search for its prey. Luna looked down at Dream Seeker and stroked the blade gently with her index and middle finger.

"I know you probably weren't listening all those other times, but I really do need your help now," Luna whispered to it. The Keyblade lit up in a display of brilliant golden for a brief second before diminishing, much to Luna's surprise. Even though nothing followed, it was enough to tell her that her Keyblade was in sync with her own heart. It was probably feeling the same emotions she was and knowing that she had a companion willing to listen, even if just an inanimate object, made all the difference in the world. At least she wasn't alone.

Luna helped herself off the ground and kept her Keyblade pointed forward. She wasn't exactly ready for what was about to come but moping about it certainly wasn't going to do her any good either. She admired the weight in her hand as she waited. The Keyblade had never felt this weightless to her before, like it was an extension of her arm.

Finally the rhino arrived in front of her. Immediately she flung magic after magic at the creature, all of which seemed to ricochet off its body. Despite all this, she kept going with the thought in mind that the creature must have some sort of weak point. If there was one however, she never got the chance to hit it. The rhino charged at her and she had no choice but to shield her body with both arms no matter useless the action may have been.

"Still don't think you need my help?"

The soft voice quite literally emerged out of her chest. It was the girl that she had first met in a white room and then back in the factory, the one who looked like a younger version of her. The young Luna held up her arm and a bright light overtook Luna's vision. When she could finally see once more, she was no longer in Wonderland or even Alexander. It was electronic-y vibe that told her she was back in The Grid.

* * *

Sora lay on the floor of his confined cell staring up at the ceiling and silently cursing his own incompetence. Had he been just a little bit more perceptive and watchful, he, Luna and Tron wouldn't be in this situation right now. Of course, he realized that there was probably nothing he could have done anyway but it in his mind he had already filed this under a series of failures that could have been successes if he had only done this or that. It was a negative mentality that had started with Auron, Ansem and Yeul and had been exacerbated by what he had done in Ratigan's lair.

It felt horrible to blame himself for things out of control and he could feel all the sadness that had built up trying to eat away at anything positive. He couldn't bear to live like this anymore. He couldn't bear to pour his heart out and burden people with his silly problems for that matter. He needed to move on and fast or else he would cease to be the person Tron once knew, or that anyone of his friends knew for that matter.

Footsteps stopped outside of his cell and he sat up to see an unexpected sight.

"Luna? How did you get out?"

"I… I'm not sure. Why are you in a cell?"

Sora blinked in confusion. "You weren't?"

"Was I? I don't… know. I actually don't know what just happened," Luna then proceeded to tell Sora about her little adventure of which she wasn't even sure was real or not. "Did any of that make sense? Please tell me you believe me."

"That sounds completely crazy. I mean, Abraxas? It must have been a hallucination or something. But you did get out somehow." Sora seemed to be commenting on Luna's strange predicament as he recited her story in his head.

"Sora, how can I be hallucinating? Why am I hallucinating? I feel like I'm going crazy!" Luna pressed her head against the door and closed her eyes, her way of holding back the tears. "I don't want these dreams or whatever they are. I don't want Abraxas in my head. I don't want to see that Heartless ever again."

Seeing Luna try to hold in everything like that just for sake of appearing strong for him made him forget all the self-deprecation he had thrown at himself since he had woken up.

"Luna-"

"Don't worry about it, really. I'm sure I'm just acting silly right now," Luna said with what seemed to be a completely different personality than just a few seconds ago. She said that she would gladly share the pain with Sora back on the Gummi Ship, but if the result was that they would be both unhappy then Sora would prefer to eliminate the direct source of the pain so that neither of them could feel it. In his mind, he was already scheming bigger things, things that were bigger than any of them. She checked the door quickly and nodded to herself before summoning her Keyblade. "Now let's see if we can unlock this…"

"You can try but I already used my Keyblade and it didn't wo- hey, it worked," Sora said with a wry smile and nod. "Probably only works from the outside then? Still doesn't explain how you got out though."

"That doesn't really matter. Right now we need to find Tron and then put a stop to this," Luna said. Sora wasn't really sure if he could classify hallucinating as not being important, but he ignored this for now and headed out with Luna.

Their footsteps rang out like the sound of a drum being pounded but they paid no mind to it. They intended to cause as much ruckus as possible. The virus programs guarded the hallways of the building but they rushed and sliced through each one. Sora slid underneath one of the viruses and used the teeth of the Kingdom Key to hook onto them and flip them over before continuing past. One of the programs pulled out an identity disk and attempted to throw it at Sora only to be disarmed by Luna's strike raid. As she moved closer in, the program made to roundhouse kick her but she stayed low and swiped one of the light grenades from his utility belt. Blowing the program out of the way with a blast of Aeroga using her hands, she quickly turned, pressed the button on top of the light grenade and threw it at the three remaining programs.

The small disk-like object hit the ground and a light illuminated the room. The next thing Sora and Luna saw were a group of pixels in the form of small cubes hitting the floor before disappearing.

"That was… unexpected. Sorry, I know it's not your fault," Luna apologized with a pained expression. She supposed her apologies wouldn't make any difference now but she had more so expected to neutralize them as opposed to derezzing them.

"C'mon, we have to keep moving," Sora said. Luna nodded and took a look at the unconscious program that she had knocked away before following after Sora.

With no success of finding Tron on the same floor as them, they went downwards using the elevator. Sora could feel the familiar experience of having his molecules deconstructed and then reconstructed in a completely different place. It was like his stomach was being churned in a meat factory.

"Yeah… I'll never quite get used to that," Luna told him as they exited the strange teleportation device.

"Then let's hope that's the last one we see, other than the one getting home of course. Let's just make a run for it since they probably already know we're here," Sora said. Luna nodded and together they made their way down the neon blue corridor, meanwhile taking care of the viruses they encountered along the way.

They soon found Tron backed up into the corner of his room with his hands on his face. When Sora made aware his and Luna's presence, Tron took his hands away and was on his feet instantly like an excited puppy. Sora pointed the Kingdom Key at the door and watched as it parted from its lock, allowing Tron free.

"What happened to your identity disk?" Sora asked, noticing that the object in question was gone from Tron's back.

"Just before they took us, I was able to throw it in the direction of that whirlpool," Tron explained.

"From _THAT _far?" Sora asked in disbelief. If he had managed to land it in there then he had to commend Tron for having some seriously impressive strength in his upper body and arms.

"But without my disk, I won't be able to fight the MCP," Tron said.

"You won't need to. Luna and I can handle it," Sora said. Tron probably hadn't been very convinced by this answer but there was little time for complaints. Tron instead pointed out that the MCP was most likely to be in a room quite similar to the last time he and Sora fought him.

Coming to another door, Sora looked at Luna and Tron to check if they were both ready before twisting the handle and pushing. Immediately he was caught off guard and had to dodge to the right to avoid a laser blast by one of the motion sensors. Sora went out of his cover and flicked his Keyblade, throwing a Fission Firaga at the sensor. The sensor spiralled downwards from the connected hit until it crashed onto the ground and exploded. Sora looked around completely perplexed.

"This room… it can't be… this is Hollow Bastion!" Sora exclaimed.

"Hollow Bastion? You mean the name the town was called before?" Luna asked but Sora shook his head.

"It was the castle Maleficent used to rule over the world from. It's all the way on the other side of the main town so I'm not surprised you don't know about it. This was where we first defeated her but she came back. This room is the Grand Hall… the Princesses of Heart were all lined up here," Sora pointed to the vertical pods on either side of the room that used to house the sleeping Princesses. "All of them except Kairi. She was farther up and it was where I fought Riku who was being possessed by Xehanort's Heartless."

"But what's it doing inside The Grid? Wait, does that mean that my hallucination wasn't just a hallucination. I mean, if we're both seeing something we shouldn't be seeing then we can't both be hallucinating the same thing, can we? Tron, do you know what's going on?" Luna asked.

"It's worse than I feared. It looks like the MCP has so deeply ingrained itself within the system that it can alter the code easily. In short, I don't think you're hallucinating, because I would be too. This seems like some sort digital recreation of locations that you're familiar with. The MCP is messing with us."

"Well I've had enough of being messed with, thank you very much. MCP, come out you coward! Are you too afraid to face us?" Sora shouted.

"I suppose the user contagion known as laughter would be best fit here," the MCP boomed, making them aware that he was listening. "It is true that I have done a little digging not only of the town's data but of the data given to me by my creator. But you couldn't be far from the truth by calling me a coward. I was simply having a little fun. This is the evolution of the game that I told you about before. Illusive control. The ultimate control."

"Illusive control? Your creator… I'm afraid to even ask… that wouldn't be Abraxas, would it?" Luna asked.

"As perceptive as ever, I see. Very well, I will bestow onto you the right to face me. Head into these dark depths and see the truth with your very own eyes," the MCP replied.

"I don't believe this. I thought we were done with him," Sora said. "But I suppose he wouldn't be a Xehanort if he didn't have something up his sleeve."

Luna expressed her confidence that everything was going to be alright and took hold of his hand, squeezing it tightly. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Tron grinning like a child but when asked by Sora what he was so happy about he simply said that it was nothing and that they should head to the MCP.

They quickly ascended the steps, taking out the sensor bots with their magic on their way to the top. With minimal effort, they soon arrived at the exact spot that Riku and Sora had once fought. Even if the place wasn't real, it still felt somewhat nostalgic and nerve-wracking for Sora, having last been here around two years ago. He stopped to quickly take it all in—the forlorn gothic scenery coated in purple and red, the chipped walls, the pipes blowing the occasional steam…

"Sora, are you coming?" Tron asked. He was already at the Heartless symbol-shaped portal that was currently reeking of darkness. He had ventured into this portal once before in order to seal the world's keyhole. Somehow he got the idea that it wouldn't be taking him to the same place this time and he certainly wouldn't be fighting a giant Behemoth either.

"Yeah, let's go," Sora said before following after them post haste. When they emerged out of the portal, they found themselves on the mountains facing the whirlpool once more—or rather, where the whirlpool should have been.

"This is the right place, isn't it? Or are we still in the MCP's trap?" Luna asked with searching eyes. They finally settled on something to her left and she turned around and summoned her Keyblade. "Sora, you see him, don't you?"

Sora followed her gaze and when his eyes met his, he imitated Luna's actions. Abraxas walked straight past them, taking no particular notice of their weapons and looking to the sea. He slowly extended his arm forward and pointed to where the whirlpool used to be.

"Tron, you've done it. Look at what you've created," he said. The trio inched closer until their toes just about touched the edge of the cliff and from there they saw it, tiny on their own but noticeable as a collective. Shadowy humanoid created seemed to be washing up onto shore in droves. As they came closer, their faces became more distinguishable. They were in fact humans.

"Not humans," said Abraxas as if he had been reading their minds. "ISOs, born from the same point of origin as their previous generation— the sea of simulation. All this time you thought that your original user had planted some sort of code in you. A code that would allow you to see dreams. I'm afraid that isn't the case. It was I, or rather, my creator that performed this task."

"Your creator? So then you're the MCP, not Abraxas," Sora said.

"I was created in his likeness, to carry out the mission in case he should fail. That I have been awakened seems to suggest that has come to pass, and I no doubt presume that you were responsible, Sora, as my Master had expected," the MCP said.

"He expected me to kill him?" Sora asked.

"He planted in me his beliefs, his ideals. He found strips of code once belonging to the old MCP. I was pieced back together and tuned to suit his goals. In that sense, I suppose you could consider me a hybrid of human and code, just like you are of human and Heartless." He paused to look at Luna who uncomfortably shifted her gaze downwards. He then continued, "When Abraxas first came here, he sought inspiration from the ISOs. He admired their strange birth and their perfection. He used CLU and traced back their genocide to the origin of their birth—this very place you see before you. It's impossible to say what makes this place in particular special, though while I was digging through the system I noticed that there was a black hole of data missing. Sure enough, this black hole is tied to this place."

"A black hole of data? A bug or maybe something the original developers overlooked?" Tron theorized more so to himself.

"If that is the case then it could be said that the ISOs birth in this world was purely by accident. They were not supposed to exist yet came to be. Obviously, Abraxas sought to give them a second breath of life into this world," the MCP answered. Sora had heard of one other case of being that was not supposed to exist and they had the capability to grow hearts. While Tron's progress showed that even programs could grow hearts, he wondered if the process was faster for ISOs. It would certainly explain Quorra.

"So that's it? Tron was being used this entire time?" Sora asked, quite conscious to the fact that he enunciating his consonants a lot more forcefully.

"Not just Tron. I believe he also wanted the both of you to understand what he was trying to do-"

"I DON'T CARE," Sora yelled before lowering his voice. "I don't care what he was trying to do. It was wrong. What he did to Luna and all those other people were wrong. I get it. He wanted perfection. He thought he could evolve human beings into something more by merging them with a Heartless. He also did it under the guise of a scientist, making experiments and hypotheses and whatever else you do. Yeah, he might be right. ISOs are beautiful. Life in general is beautiful. But there's one major thing he got wrong and by extension, you too. He's not a scientist. I knew a scientist. His name was Ansem the Wise and Abraxas could only wish he was half the man Ansem ever was."

"Interesting. Your definition of perfection seems to differ as opposed to Abraxas'. Then let us make this our final battle, users and Tron," the MCP pulled a disk from its back and threw it to Tron who swiped his hand forward and caught it. "I've been waiting for this day for a long time, Tron. For Abraxas, it was purely about trying to understand the hand he had been dealt. For me, it really is revenge. That, I have decided, is the perfection I will strive for, not Abraxas' or any user's. My perfect world ends with you and your 'dreams' wiped from the system completely. Prepare for deresolution!"


	53. The War Begins

_So while this isn't the definitive introduction of this arc, it is a definitive moment in our favorite characters' lives, for better or worse as they will probably find out. With that said, I'm pretty pleased with this chapter so have fun reading._

* * *

**Chapter 53**

**The War Begins**

In his mind Sora had, for some reason or another, imagined this fight to be incredibly easy. Putting aside the fact that the man in question they were fighting looked like Abraxas which should have been enough to spark fear into his heart, the man clearly wasn't Abraxas. Abraxas was long gone. This person they were fighting now was some imposter, a cheap imitation. Not only that, but he hadn't exactly been scared of the MCP the first time around. It was hard to find a giant head without a body terrifying no matter how hard he tried. So Sora had gone into this fight expecting it to be a breeze.

Sora was knocked into the air by the MCP's faux-replica of Abraxas' Keyblade and fell straight to the ground. The MCP had slammed the Keyblade into Sora's side and tossed him into the air like he were a pancake. He then quickly deflected Tron's disc at Luna whose quick attempt at a guard broke, sending her to the ground too.

The MCP plunged the Keyblade downwards at Luna's body. She rolled out of the way and pressed her hands on the ground, erecting jagged rocks that enclosed around his legs, locking him in position.

"Got you. Now be a good little program and give up," she said whilst getting up on her feet.

"Is that the user way? Giving up. My results suggest otherwise." the MCP smiled and walked right through the rocks, or perhaps phased through them would be more accurate, for he had done so as easily as a ghost could walk through walls.

"But how?" Sora asked in shock.

"The moment you entered this world, you chose to submit to this world's rules. All your magic is now nothing but code, you yourselves are nothing but code and seeing as I now have the administrative privileges of this system, that means you are subject to my rules," the MCP answered. "So you see, you cannot possibly hope to win."

"Well like you said. It's not the user way to give up," Sora said. He rushed in and met blow for blow as his and the MCP's Keyblade clashed several times. Luna soon joined in and together they managed to counter the aggressive swings of the MCP.

The MCP dived to Sora's left to get out of their range and swung vertically downwards at Sora's head. Sora quickly adopted a tortoise position, grabbing onto the part of the blade closest to the teeth with his other hand and arching it over his head. The fake Keyblade slammed into Sora's own, enough to make Sora buckle but allowing the Keyblade to absorb most of the damage. Seeing an advantage the MCP had left exposed, Luna jumped onto the MCP's back and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Get off me, you pest!" He yelled as he tried to fight off Luna's sturdy grasp.

"Wish you had your old body back now, don't you?" Luna yelled at him. "Tron, now's your chance!"

"Are you insane? You'd risk putting yourself in danger just to get me? Tron, your duty is to protect the users, is it not? Don't do something you'll regret. Would Sora ever be able to forgive you?"

Tron's mouth parted slightly, seemingly at a loss for what to do. The more apprehensive he was, the looser Luna's grasp would get. That was what the MCP was counting on. With the MCP backing his way slowly towards the edge of the cliff, Sora looked quickly at Tron.

"Tron, do it."

"What, but Luna-"

"Tron, do you trust me?"

Tron gave a slight unsure nod. "Of course I do, but I-"

"Then trust me, and trust her too," Sora said.

"Tron, you will regret your decision," the MCP tried to warn but Tron ignored his remark and readied his disc.

"I don't listen to you." With that said, Tron threw the disc without hesitation. Luna's attempt to jump off in time failed as the MCP turned his back against the edge of the cliff. The disc struck the MCP's chin and he fell backwards, Luna letting go and screaming as she fell backwards.

"Sora!" Tron yelled at him desperately who was already well on his way to the edge. He threw himself forward quickly and caught one of her hands.

"Like hell I'm letting you go this time," Sora said. He tensed his muscles and gritted his teeth, pulling up with all his might. This allowed Tron enough time to run over and take hold of Luna's other hand. Through their concentrated efforts, they managed to pull her over the edge and onto safe ground.

"Ha, ha-ha-ha. Caught ya this time," Sora said letting out a relieved giggle.

"I guess for every down there's an up. Maybe our luck's changing," Luna replied with much the same alleviation in her voice as his.

"I'm glad you're alright, Luna. I hope you didn't think too badly of me for hesitating to help you there. I was conflicted between risk and safety. I don't think it's something I've ever had to deal with before," Tron said. He wasn't breathing as heavily as Sora or Luna but he still seemed quite relieved and perhaps even slightly guilty.

"Tron, you hesitating shows that you care for Luna. If I were in your position I probably would have hesitated too. You're looking more a user every day," Sora told him.

"Huh. Really?"

"Yep, I agree with him. I don't think hesitating is something programs usually do. That was of your own choice. Not Abraxas' or anyone else's," Luna said. "I could never think badly of you. Thank you, Tron. That said, it was a rather close one. Let's try and avoid any type of cliff or mountainous region for a while, shall we?"

"And here I thought you liked falling off cliffs," Sora said with a chuckle before looking around. "Where's the MCP?"

"Down there." Tron peered over the edge of the cliff and looked down. Sora and Luna stood up and followed his gaze to see the body of Abraxas sprawled on the beach below, his hands outstretched and the ISOs that had been wandering out from the sea forming a ring around his body. After suggesting that they should go down so they could more closely confirm the MCP's status, Tron, Sora and Luna travelled down the mountains path which didn't take them too long.

Arriving on the beach, Tron looked on in surprised as flocks of ISOs made their way to him. They seemed confused and lost, like they weren't even in the same place, Sora noted.

"Right now they don't know where they are. I imagine they'll become more environmentally and situationally aware of the things around them in due time. It's similar to the last generation of ISOs," Tron explained seeing Sora and Luna's worried looks. "I'll make sure they're alright. You two go check up on the MCP."

Doing as they were told, the two users soon found themselves standing over the MCP's mangled human body. The MCP was still conscious, but was certainly in no condition to move and seemed to be struggling to keep his eyes open.

"Why did you do all of it?" Luna asked.

"Isn't that obvious?"

Luna shook her head. "No, I mean letting me out of my cell. You captured us only to let me out so I could rescue Sora and Tron. So what was the point of capturing us in the first place if you would eventually bring us back here?"

"Strange. I don't recall letting you out," the MCP said.

"What? No… but it must have been you. You took the form of Abraxas, and opened my cell and then released that rhino. We were in Alexander."

"I may have taken advantage of the data given to me by Abraxas to create a suitable locale in order to convince you. But I don't recall ever having come to you in this form any time before we met here or releasing whatever this rhino is," the MCP answered disinterestedly.

"What? How can that-" Luna cut herself off and stared at the ground instead.

"In any case, it appears you have bested me twice now. When I evaluated our last battle in order to find how a simple-minded user such as yourself was able to overpower me. When Abraxas brought me back and endowed me with his knowledge, I thought I could use the answers he gave me to exact my revenge," the MCP whispered.

"Your revenge, huh? And you still think you're superior to users?" Sora asked. When the MCP refused to answer, Sora continued. "What exactly is your definition of revenge?"

"Revenge is revenge," the MCP answered simply.

"Oh come on, you're a program, be a bit more creative, why don't you? Search your… para-whatever you call them and tell me what revenge is," Sora said.

"Revenge—the desire or act of retaliation for a previous wrongdoing caused to the self or others," the MCP defined after a while.

Sora's mouth formed a perfect circle. "Oh. The desire, or longing, to cause the pain that you were caused. You must have suffered, right? You must have felt angry and dreamed about the day you would be able to take revenge, right? Well, guess what, those aren't any different from the things we users feel. They're called emotions."

"I do not have emotions."  
"Yes, you do! You feel sadness, you feel anger-"

"I do not feel emotions!"  
"-and all that thrown into a cooking pot as well as the joy you thought you would obtain when you finally defeated us is what you call a user. In trying to destroy us, you let yourself get too attached to us. Oh, try all you might to destroy us, but don't forget yourself because you are just like any of us."

"Argh!" the MCP yelled out in frustration before looking away.

"Denial. Also a common user trait by the way," Sora added. "I think you took more from Abraxas than you might've wanted."

The MCP soon turned back to meet them, but when he did, it was not the serious and deadpan expression his face usually contained. Instead he let out a single chuckle, and then one more, and then one become many.

"What are you laughing at?" Luna asked.

"It's just… the definition Abraxas gave me on perfection. He did not see it the way you interpreted his definition, as an evolution. Instead he saw it as freedom."

"Freedom?" Before Sora could quiz the laughing program further, a large tremor threw him and Luna off their balance, as well as most of the ISOs and Tron. Sora pressed his hands into the sand and looked at the MCP who clearly seemed to be enjoying it. "What was that? What did you just do?"

"The fail-safe for the town. Not this world, mind you. In the case that the system were to ever go rogue, the inhabitants of the user world installed a fail-safe that would terminate the system to keep them safe. Everything inside the mainframe would be deleted. You didn't think I was going to go by myself now, did you? Not this time. The truth is I would rather die a program than become a user anyway. At least I'll die happily knowing you will all be following just behind me. Don't worry; the other users will rot too, in time. It is inevitable as long as they are shackled to the past. In Abraxas' words, to survive they must be… free."

"Shackled to the past? What does that mean? Hey, answer me!" Sora yelled. He grabbed the MCP's coat and pulled him up to meet Sora's face but it was too late. Any trace of life had left Abraxas' body for good.

"We need to get moving and reach a terminal before you two are stuck in here permanently," Tron said, having pushed past the other ISOs to meet them.

"But what about you and the rest of The Grid? We can't leave you," Luna said.

"Don't worry. If you want to help, you'll have to do it from the outside anyway. I'll fill you in once we reach the terminal. We only have ten minutes left, we need to hurry!"

Ten minutes did not seem like a lot of time especially since the city was a lot farther away than ten minutes, and not to mention the task Tron would ask of them once they got back to Radiant Garden. It seemed almost an impossible task, so it was quite fortunate that Tron had been keeping his eye out for one of their journey. After making their way back down the narrow path that overlooked the now stormy sea, Tron pointed towards something that looked completely out of place in The Grid.

"An arcade machine?" Luna asked.

"You were expecting a vending machine perhaps? Sorry, that was a terrible joke," Tron said.

"I actually wouldn't mind a vending machine right now but anyway, what do you want us to do once we get outside?" Luna asked.

"Seeing as how my administrative privileges have been revoked, I need them back. Once you get back you need to open up a command prompt on the computer there and access my command-line interface," Tron began as he rigorously typed something into the keyboard.

"English, Tron, English," Sora said, rolling his eyes.

"Uh, let's see. You hit the menu button, you type command prompt into the search bar, you click on what it gives you, then you go to my name and then go to where it says 'permissions' and change it to administrator. You understand that?" Tron asked.

Sora was about to say no but Luna quickly interjected, "Yeah, we can handle it, no problem."

"We can? Ow!" Sora yelled as Luna stamped on his foot. "I mean, we can! Of course we can… _maybe_."

"I've set it up. It's all up to you two. No pressure or anything, but you only have three minutes left. See you on the other side," Tron said before pressing a button. There was yet again a familiar sensation of being completely deconstructed and then reconstructed. Sora hadn't even stopped to check that he was all back in one piece before heading over to the computer.

"You're back! Oh thank goodness," Aerith said. "This countdown just appeared on the screen a few minutes ago. Do you know what it's about? Did you find Tron? What happened to him?"

"Too many questions, Aerith. I don't mean to ignore you but I'm trying to do something right now and I only have two and a half minutes left. Let's see…" Sora tried his best to follow Tron's commands, but with Luna, Aerith, Yuffie and Neuge peering over his shoulder, he found it hard to concentrate. "Um, I'd appreciate it if you could ease off a little. Thanks."

"Aw, you should relish in it. It's not every day you get four beautiful girls over your shoulder," Yuffie said.

"Uh huh, and where do you get off calling yourself beautiful?" Sora shot back. Yuffie's mouth dropped open and she was probably about to engage in fisticuffs had Luna not intervened to stop her.

"Let's just… let Sora do his thing, okay? And Sora, that was uncalled for. Yuffie's a great gal, if not a little… ADHD at times," she said.

"You're right. Yuffie, I'm sorry. You're beautiful, you know that?" Sora said in a most sarcastic tone that even Riku would be proud of.

"Aww, I wish I recorded that. Then I'd be able to fall asleep to it at night," Yuffie squealed.

"Okay, now you're just being ridiculous," Sora said. During this time, he had somehow managed to find his way into Tron's _thing_ as he had called it in his mind. Seeing the words 'Set Privileges to Administrator', he awkwardly scrolled down and clicked on it. "Um, it's not working."

"You're supposed to double click on it… really, Sora?" Aerith tutted.

"Hey, excuse me if I'm not tech savvy. I'm sorry for living on an island for most of my life."

"Sora, click it!" Luna ordered.

"Feisty," Sora said and proceeded to double click the words before setting the permission to on. "Did that do it?"

They waited for what seemed like forever. With the countdown at a minute and counting down, they were afraid that they were too late or that maybe the MCP had somehow restricted Tron's privileges. Then the entire screen turned green and a voice could be heard coming out from the speakers.

"Tron here. All is well and good over here. You guys did it!"

"Tron!" Sora and Luna both jumped in joy simultaneously. Sora wiped invisible sweat off his forehead and relaxed.

"And here I thought I screwed up somewhere. Man, that was intense," he said.

"I never once thought you wouldn't come through, because… I trust you both. I trust all the users out there," Tron said. Sora smiled at this. He could even picture Tron blushing and scratching the back of his neck behind the screen. "Go get some rest you two. You've earned it."

"Thanks. What happened to the ISOs by the way? Are they alright?" Luna enquired.

"I helped them back to the city so we can only wait until they've become more aware. And the remaining programs that were taken over by the viruses have also been 'cleansed'. With any luck, the city, and the system as well, should be up and running within twenty four hours."

"We'll leave you to it then. It's nice to have you back, Tron," Aerith said.

"Understood. I'll report back once I'm done," Tron said and with that, a click was heard and the screen went black.

"So, just what exactly happened in there anyway?" Yuffie asked, but Neuge stepped in between them.

"I'm sure they're probably tired, Yuffie. Maybe you can ask Tron when he's back," Neuge offered. "Come along, you two."

Neuge's rather sudden forcefulness and urgency to push Sora and Luna out of the room, but questioning looks, however she chose not to address them until they were a far enough distance from the computer room. It was only once they were walking down the entryway on their way to the roof that she made clear what her reasons were.

"While you two were away, Riku and Kairi have been interrogating the assassin that went after her. She gave us some names of KRONOS members in exchange for her security. They're waiting up top for you two."

* * *

Riku and Kairi were quietly talking to each other when Sora, Luna and Neuge arrived on the roof. Neuge gave Riku a nod before setting off on the path back to the town. Sora watched as the last traces of her disappeared from his sight before looking up at Riku.

"You have names?" Sora asked.

"She gave us two names to go on. She also mentioned Ratigan but you two got rid of him so that strikes him off the guest list," Riku said. He turned around, his back facing them, and gazed at the town in the distance. "We have Kefka. We need Pete, Gantu and Hook. Apart from Ratigan, Freya mentioned two more people involved in the Chimera project—a Dr. Drakken and someone named Yzma. As far as we know, they're the only ones they have working on the project. If something were to happen to them, then the project would at least be delayed."

"Good. That's a start," Sora said. "But it's not enough. KRONOS… they've shown that they don't care how many they hurt to get to their goal. Those children suffered because they wanted to get at me. They tried to hurt you, Kairi, because they wanted to get at me. It was their way of saying, don't interfere in our plans or you'll regret it. We've become too involved. Made ourselves too conspicuous… and others are paying because of it."

"Rather than going after us, they're going after the people we're trying to protect in order to scare us away? Then what do we do?" Kairi asked.

"We fight. We hunt KRONOS down before they hunt us. They'll harm people either way if we allow them to continue with what they're doing. If KRONOS want to start a war, we have no choice but to face them head on. Where there's a fire, we'll make it rain," he answered her.

"War, huh? I was hoping I'd never have to hear that word," Kairi replied.

"But he's right, you know. Not just them either. Moira's Crescent as well. They have done anything in a while but if they try to go after Sora one more time, that's all the reason to take them out with KRONOS," Riku said.

"Woah, woah there!" Luna held her hands out in protest. "KRONOS is one thing but if we keep labelling people as enemies, this 'war' is never going to end. Let's just ignore Moira's Crescent for now."

"Ignore them? Or give them a free pass because your friend is with them?" Riku asked.

"How can you say that?" Kairi asked but Luna put her hands up.

"Don't worry, Kairi, I can handle this. Listen Riku, don't you dare bring Astra into this. You know perfectly well what I meant. If we keep being paranoid all the time about when and where something will happen we'll be giving into fear and it will tear us apart," Luna shot back angrily.

"Just tell me this. In the scenario that they continue to target him, would you be able to fight your friend?"

"Riku, stop this. She's right. We focus on KRONOS. Don't forget that they might have Alice. Now they've targeted Kairi. It may not just be me that they're after. The problem here is that we put all the Princesses of Heart in one area where they can be easily reached. Mulan can't protect them on her own," Sora said.

"But it's also too dangerous to send them back to their own worlds," Kairi added.

"We'll figure something out. Mickey asked Donald and Goofy if they could assist Mulan in keeping them safe so at least that's a temporary improvement," Riku said. "And… sorry, Luna. I know you have Sora's best interests at heart, but that also means preparing for the worst case scenario."

"It's alright. I understand. Thank you," Luna said nodding up and down before looking away. Sora could tell that she was still hurt by what Riku had said to her. In fact, this topic in general had brought a rather moody atmosphere among the group, one that Sora didn't quite like.

"You know, me and Luna are starving. Have you guys had something to eat yet?" Sora asked.

"We ate before interrogating Freya. Something tells me though that Neuge just happens to be waiting near a certain grilled steak restaurant ready to treat you guys for your hard work," Kairi teased.

"And she says she doesn't care about us. Really," Luna said exchanging wry smiles with Sora.

"She doesn't see it that way. She prefers to see it as a teacher giving their students a reward for their hard work," Riku said.

"Still a pretty expensive reward though," Luna said gleefully. "Let's hurry, Sora, or else I'll just be nothing but a sack of bones and my ghost'll blame it all on you."  
"I really doubt that, but I'll race you there!" Sora yelled before pushing forward for a head start.

"Hey, that's not fair, you cheater!" Luna yelled and followed after him.

* * *

The rest of the week passed peacefully for Sora and his friends, notwithstanding the occasional Heartless that found itself at the mercy of the Radiant Garden committee or the operating system's security program. From a town on its knees it had spiralled off into a direction no one could have expected. It had become a fortress in all but looks. Xanatos' funding had of course been a big contributor to this.

Walls and buildings, once decrepit and destroyed, had now been mostly replaced or were in the process of being replaced to provide for more in the way of research centres and gardens befitting of the world's name. On his morning jog through the town, Sora had counted at least six buildings that he had never seen before. One in particular that he had found captivating was a massive dome-shaped greenhouse with plants of various types and sizes, some even being almost encumbered by the glass dome that covered them.

During the evenings, the committee were responsible for holding weekly events like festivals or concerts in hopes of raising money to better the infrastructure of the town. From what Colette had told Sora, Xanatos Enterprises was responsible for putting out high paying job offers to citizens. After being paid, this money was fed back into the economy by encouraging the public to become active and take part in these events, thus allowing the restoration committee to build more projects. Sora and the others had taken part in the previous night's festivities, for example, which had involved a tennis tournament, Colette and Tifa being among those that had participated.

It was a chilly night and Sora had been walking through the streets, not really thinking of anything. That was what Xanatos had recommended to him last night when they had crossed each other's paths at the tournament. He had even offered to be Sora's psychiatrist if he ever needed one. While Sora hadn't taken him up on his offer immediately, it was no secret to anyone that a lack of confidence coupled with recent events starting with Yeul had severely inhibited his happiness. Yen Sid would no doubt recommend that he take Xanatos up on his offer and Neuge hadn't stated this explicitly yet, but he believed that she was trying to help him in her own way.

The shrill shriek of a cat sent his head turning an immediate 90 degrees clockwise. A cat leapt out of the pub quickly and ran past Sora as quick a mouse. A middle aged man with an unkempt beard and steely gaze leaned out of the door and looked down the street before looking at Sora.

"And what ye be lookin' at?"

"Nothing, sir. Absolutely nothing," Sora said quickly before getting an idea. "Do you know if Neuge is in there?"  
"Aye, she be there, lad," the man jerked his head inside and Sora made to follow him. He had only been in the pub once before but the dim lights that had occupied it when he last went there had yet to be fixed. He supposed this would be the one place to resist any change in Radiant Garden.

The man pointed at the front of the front of the bar where Sora had seen her last time. He quickly thanked the drunken man, then walked over and sat on the empty seat next to her.

"I'm guessing this is your favorite seat?" Sora asked with a grin. Neuge looked at him for a second and then looked back at her drink, swirling the contents of the bronze chalice around in her hand.

"It's the closest place to the bartender. That way I can my drinks more quickly," Neuge said.

"So what happens if there's someone already in this spot?"

"Hell happens," Neuge responded simply. She was slurring her words a bit so Sora could tell that she had at least been drinking for a while. Neuge when she was fully drunk was much worse.

"She's right you know. She doesn't take kindly to people in her seat," the bartender backed up her words while cleaning out a beer glass in his hand with a piece of cloth.

"And you just let her?"

The bartender shrugged. "She pays."

"Of course," Sora said in a half sigh before looking at Neuge. "Isn't there anything productive you do besides sit here every night?"

"I train you and Luna, don't I?"

"I mean for yourself. You haven't ever thought about joining up with the restoration committee?" Sora asked.

"They seem rather *hic* fine from what I can see. As was only brought here to be your teacher and I think I'll stick to that," Neuge said. She looked around all shifty-eyed before saying in a low voice, "And I prefer to be alone anyway. The only friend I'll ever need is this." She held up her chalice to him before taking a sip.

"So you're a miserable old woman," Sora said, earning a dangerous glare from Neuge that immediately made him regret trying to lighten the mood. This look was soon rescinded with a more gentle expression.

"I'll give you miserable *hic* but I ain't old. Forty-five is not that old," Neuge told him. "When you become that age, you'll realize that none of your elders are impressed with you turning that age. It's the age where you can say you're not young anymore but not old enough to complain about it."

"Well, how about I be your friend? Friendship doesn't exactly have any boundaries, especially not with age," Sora said.

Neuge snickered for a second in an attempt to stifle her laugh before giving in and letting it out. She shakily set the chalice down and laughed into her sleeve before holding up her hand.

"Okay, okay, I'm done. That was a good one," Neuge said. "You ever thought of being a comedian?"

"I'm a bit too tied up at the moment to think about stuff like that. That said, that wasn't a joke," Sora said.

"Of course it wasn't," Neuge replied with a sweet smile before picking up her chalice again. "Kid, you're already down in the dumps. If you were my friend, I'd probably end up giving you depression. Do yourself a favor and save yourself the trouble."

"I'm not going to leave you if you feel that way. You said that before I left for Tron's world that you'd tell me what was going on with you and Yen Sid, didn't you? You even said it would be easier when you were drunk."

"Dammit, I did say that, didn't I?" Neuge cursed under her breath and took a big swig from her chalice before slamming it down on the table. "I really don't want to tell this story, but I promised. Alright, settle in well, kid. This is gonna be a long one."


	54. Brick and Mortar

_An entire chapter of flashback. Whodathunkit? I'd actually intended to more than just this chapter but school work once again gets in the way. Don't worry, you can expect the next chapter by at least wednesday. _

* * *

**Chapter 54**

**Brick and Mortar**

The floating fortress stood proud and towering in the centre of its world, surrounded by mountains, waterfalls and lakes that stretched out into the landscape. Legends passed down by each generation of the townspeople on the ground below suggested that this floating fortress used to play host to a King that ruled the land. Others had instead tied it directly to a war council for the wars that had scarred and shaped the land past. Whatever the case, it was now home to a nineteen-year-old Neuge—the home of any Keyblade trainee hoping to one day become a master, for that matter.

Neuge's eyes fell on one of the golden chains that ran from the building to one of the large mountains in front of her. Her friend, Eraqus, who was also an apprentice learning the ways of the Keyblade had once told her that if the chains that bound their home ever became disconnected, the building would float up into the sky never to be seen again. Neuge hadn't really believed it. It seemed much more likely that the island would fall to the ground like a meteor, destroying the town below. She chuckled to herself, remembering how after reading an entire book on gravity she had spent an entire day boring Eraqus and her other two friends, Yen Sid and Xehanort, about the theory behind it.

"You should be studying instead of daydreaming, you know?"

The sudden voice caused her to turn her head with the rest of her body following after. Yen Sid was standing behind her with a small, curious smile that greatly stood out against his otherwise mature-for-his-age complexion and piercing stare.

Neuge laughed dryly. "I have been studying, quite hard at that."

"Is that so?" Yen looked down at her in mock curiosity. For those who didn't know him, they were easily intimidated by his presence. Even at the age of twenty-nine, ten years older than Neuge, he held a presence as powerful and dominant as their individual elder Masters did.

When Neuge had first met him when she was fourteen and had just been accepted to study under her Master, she had certainly felt uncomfortable around him. He was a giant of a man, standing in at an impressive six feet and seven inches. In contrast, Eraqus, who had been slightly shorter than Neuge for a while, had shot past her around her seventeenth birthday. He was now six inches trailing behind Yen Sid. And with Xehanort at five feet and ten inches and her at five-seven, she often felt as if she was staring up at a monolith of a man. But she was glad she had taken the time to know this intimidating man because otherwise she wouldn't have been able to see the heart of gold that lay underneath the exterior.

"I've finished another painting by the way. I was hoping you'd be able to give me some feedback," he continued on to say in a softer tone.

"You probably don't need my feedback. You make the best paintings. Oh, the last one made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside," Neuge said.

"Well, you have a talent for describing paintings. I love hearing your opinions," Yen Sid said.

"Yeah, my opinions are pretty great, aren't they?" Neuge thumped her chest proudly with her thumb and Yen Sid chuckled.

"Don't get too full of yourself. You know one of the first precepts we have is to have humility as well as-" Yen Sid began only for Neuge to cut him off.

"Yeah, yeah. Humility, integrity and generosity among others. I've studied the philosophy, though it's not like we ever need it. Those things should come as obvious to anyone," Neuge said.

"It's tradition," Yen Sid said simply.

"Bah, screw tradition. If I had my own pupils, I'd be rid of it all. I'd revolutionize the system. Make it a hell a lot more modern," Neuge said.

"You'd forsake a thousand years of tradition just to be remembered as a revolutionary? Interesting," Yen Sid said.

"I never said I wanted to be remembered. Legends tend to get misconstrued anyway as time passes by. I'd hope no one begins to think of me as a saint or anything like that because I'm not. It's just that I've always thought about passing on something to others that no one else could pass on. If I could bring something to the table in my own way, then that's enough I should think. Sure, it might not change with me but it's like this building here." Neuge pointed at her home with a smile. "A solid foundation to get it started, and then slowly, piece by piece, filled in with bricks and mortar until it becomes something great."

"And what exactly is it that you would be passing on to them?" Yen Sid asked.

"The freedom to think for ourselves. Something that is limited when we rely on tradition to govern our actions," Neuge said.

"Tradition doesn't necessarily mean being limited in thinking. You're thinking too simply here."

"There's no reason for it. It's purely for cosmetic reasons and forcing standardization. When you look past the front and back cover, there are still so many issues inherent within the system that we're just choosing to ignore. But we'll be here all day if I have to go down the list. How about we see this fancy painting of yours?"

That was how their conversations seemed to go usually. Compared to Yen Sid's and Eraqus' opinions of doing their best to keep the current system in place, Neuge and Xehanort's views tended to take a more extreme view. They had gained the reputation of not being afraid to speak their minds, though Xehanort was a lot more subtle with preaching his beliefs than Neuge was. One would think that given these opposing views, there would often be tensions within the group, and to be fair there were some from time to time, but they never allowed that to distract them from the fact that they were friends who held different opinions just about as much as any other friendship circle did.

Neuge and Yen Sid soon stopped at the latter's bedroom. As they entered, the distinguishable solvent smell of paint thinner and other oils wafted their way into Neuge's nostrils. It had taken a lot of training by means of observing a lot of Yen Sid's paintings over the years to even stop complaining about the smell. Neuge had asked him when she was younger if had ever thought about switching to acrylic, but Yen Sid's love of tradition had won him over yet again, big surprise there.

"So what do you think?" Yen Sid asked, gesturing towards the canvas. On this portraiture, Neuge saw whirls and wisps of the different primary colors all scattered across the night sky. Below this was a yellow field of what Neuge suspected was maize. Green paths mixed with brown split across this field in three different directions—a crossroad, of sorts. Neuge mentioned all these attributes out loud as she analyzed the painting. Furthermore, in true Yen Sid fashion, he had maintained the pattern of surrealism that had been consisted with so many of his other paintings. Neuge could see that he had used a simple but effective method of using a thick brush to pull the colors down so the maize and paths looked like they were melting under the night sky and stars.

"It gives me this really warm yet lonely feeling. Like time is slipping away but the stars continue to shine as if they're unaware of the plight below. Beauty mixed with ruin…. It reminds me of the hourglass theory, now that I think about it. We stand outside and observe the other worlds, but we can never interfere. You've managed to capture the whole universe on this canvas, I think."

"Really? The universe is a rather big place. I'd hardly think my paintings represent the be all and end all of the universe," Yen Sid said, nervously scratching at his naked chin.

"So you've captured the universe from one point of view. How many different perspectives can there really be though? We're down here, like most other people in any other world. You've painted the universe as you've come to know it. As any of us have. That's why I said the whole universe," Neuge said.

"How have you still not been named a Master?" Yen Sid enquired. "You often seem to procure wisdom far beyond even my sights."

"Eww, if you're insinuating that I may as well be older than you, no please. Also you know I don't like the title. I even asked Master several times not to select me for the Mark of Mastery. Eraqus was completely baffled when I told him. Couldn't understand why I'd refused," Neuge said.

"Because you're stubborn, I imagine," Yen Sid answered for her.

"You know me well," Neuge said. Before she could further comment on her uniqueness, Eraqus burst in through door breathing quite heavily.

"The Master! He-he-he-he-"

"Woah there! Calm down, dude. What's going on?" Neuge asked as Yen Sid went over to his study desk to fetch a bottle of water before throwing it to the panting teen. Eraqus caught it, took off the cap and gulped down a large amount of water before handing it back to Yen Sid.

"The Master… he's dead."

* * *

Seeing is believing, or so they often said. When Neuge had first heard Eraqus say these words to her, they had come translated to her as garbled nonsense. She had needed him to repeat the words again before she could fully register what he had said, and even then she still wasn't sure what he meant. Now she was standing in an abnormally stifling Examination Chamber along with Yen Sid, Eraqus, Xehanort, and the body lying before them and she still couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Her Master's grizzled mane that would usually catch the occasional crumpet on the way down while he was eating would now be completely bereft of the tiny things. His brown eyes, thoughtful and calm, would now forever remain closed. He had often talked of always striving for peace—now he had found his own eternal peace in some strange poetic sense.

"Who did it?" Neuge asked on instinct. It was a silly question to ask because if any of them knew, they wouldn't be here at the moment. One thing that she had noticed however was that she had not hesitated in calling it murder. Master had always been as fit as a perfectly tuned fiddle. Neuge could in no way imagine a scenario where the Master's death had been accidental or of his own design. Satisfied with her line of reasoning, she repeated her question more confidently this time.

"We don't know. It's best we don't let our emotions run rampant though. The last thing we need to be doing is accusing innocent people of something they haven't done," Xehanort said. He bent down beside next to the Master and tilted his face so they could see it. Neuge could only wish that she had the calmness and professionalism that Xehanort was displaying at the moment. One would think that he had examined dead bodies plenty of times before.

"You're right. I just… I need a moment, I'm sorry," Neuge said before turning around and walking out of the hall. The others didn't even try to stop her, probably lost in their own sorrows. For Neuge though it was different. There had only ever been one time in her life when she had ever needed to cry. She had gotten into a fight with a kid her age when she was five and consequently had one of her teeth knocked out because of it. Ever since that day and the subsequent fights that followed, Neuge had promised never to cry again.

She was about to break that promise, she realized, as she closed the door to the chambers behind her, sat against the wall and began weeping into her hands.

It was strange. Out of all the things their Master had taught them, the pain of loss had not been one. Now that she was face to face with the unusual circumstance, she didn't know how to handle it. She heard the door open up next to her but she didn't so much as look their way—that was until they gave her no choice but to do so anyway.

"You need to snap out of it. The Master wouldn't want you acting this way," Xehanort said.

Neuge looked up at him with streaks of wetness crawling slowly down her face. "What do I do? How am I supposed to just act like everything will be fine after this?"

"Do you believe in the Master's words? He believed that for every person, there is a trial that he or she must overcome. Their darkest hour. It may be too early to say this, but this may be _our _darkest hour. If we cannot overcome it, we will drown among those that have failed their own trials. You need to take all that sadness, that pain, and turn into strength. That strength will be the fuel for which you carry out your purpose."

"But the Master always said to not let those feelings become who you are. I couldn't…"

"Human emotions are what make us who we are. We can't fight them otherwise we'll give up what makes us who we are in the end. The Master would say I was wrong but I don't believe there is any right or wrong in the principles the Masters of old gave us. There are only interpretations," Xehanort said.

"Let my pain become my strength… okay. I'll figure out who did this then, for Master. I won't cry anymore," Neuge said, wiping away the tears.

"Good. Those tears are reserved for the perpetrator when we find them," Xehanort said. He offered his hand and Neuge used it to help herself up. The next thing she knew, she was staring at Xehanort's back as she followed him into the chamber once more. Seeing a dead body had taken a lot of energy out of her and she suddenly felt tired, but persevered nonetheless and looked down at her fallen teacher.

Next to her, Yen Sid and Eraqus were discussing something in soft voices, but she drowned them out and focused on the body. There didn't seem to be anything irregular about the corpse, not at first sight anyway. There was no apparent stab wound that had been inflicted, but then again the Master's tunic made this somewhat difficult to see. That any blood were to come seeping through his clothes would also be hard to see as he was wearing black.

"No blood loss, at least, not from there," Xehanort confirmed as Neuge attempted to turn her Master around. "Look at his mouth instead."

Neuge did as she was told and soon found something that she hadn't noticed before. There was a trickle of liquid dribbling down his chin.

"Saliva…?"

"Mixed with blood. My guess is something happened and he accidently bit down a bit too hard on his own tongue in the process. The question is what caused him to bite down in the first place," Xehanort said.

Neuge soon found the answer to their question lying on the floor next to the Master's chair at the end of the room. She walked over and examined the spilled chalice in her hand before showing it to the three males in the room.

"Poison? That can't be," Eraqus said. Xehanort walked over, took the cup from Neuge and held it to his nose, inhaling from it. Neuge was about to ask whether that was a safe thing to do but Xehanort was quick and pulled away to report his findings.

"It's been laced. Seems like your first thought was right, Eraqus."

"I wish I hadn't said anything," Eraqus replied sadly.

"Not like his cause of death would be determined by what you said anyway. We have no choice but to accept it and keep going," Neuge said.

"I know… still doesn't make it any easier to swallow. The Master was always careful type, so I don't see how the perp expected him to drink it," Eraqus said.

"It's simple then. If the Master let his guard down, then that means it must have been someone he knew," Neuge stated before scanning the room. It wasn't that she wanted to begin suspecting her friends, in fact that was the last thing she wanted to do, but then why else was there an unsettling feeling bubbling up in the pit of her stomach. "Did anyone come to visit the Master earlier today?"

"I came here with my Master but… no, you don't think…" Yen Sid said before shaking his head. "No, no, he wouldn't do something like this. You know that. He grew up with Master Kokan, he'd never-"

"Calm down, no one said he was behind it. It's still too early to tell anyway," Neuge said. "But there's no harm in asking him about it. Is he still here?"

* * *

Rain had started smacking against the windows of the pub now in large streaks and Neuge watched as her chalice was filled with more wine from the bartender before showing it to Sora.

"This… this is that chalice. I kept it with me when I was investigating into the Master's death, and it was also with *hic* me when I was abandoned in the Realm of the Dead," Neuge said. "Of course any traces of poison from this cup have long since disappeared. But I carry it around with me because I wanted to keep a piece of the Master with me. His death was what drove my anger, my hatred, and it was what kept me going. It's all I saw this chalice as, until a few years back anyway."

"Did you ever find out who was responsible for his death?" Sora asked. "Your main suspect was Yen Sid's master at the time, right? That's where you left off."

"So I thought initially. In fact, the evidence kept piling up, though Yen Sid refused to see it. Not only had he gotten close enough to Master Kokan to fool him into drinking poison, but he had also mysteriously disappeared off the face of the earth at that time. We searched and searched *hic* but could never find him. In my eyes, he was starting to seem less and less innocent every day, but Yen Sid continued to defend him. He was right in the end. Kokan wasn't poisoned by Yen Sid's Master, and I and one other were the only ones who knew that until recently."

"Who?"

"Who was the killer or who was the other person who knew? Because they're both the same person," Neuge said and raised her eyebrows, a silly smile playing on her lips.

"Let me take a guess at what you're going to say. That it was Xehanort all along, right?"

Neuge nodded. "You're good."

"You're kidding me. Really? He offed his own Master? Why would he- what reason would he-"

"I'm not sure, but I think that he wasn't entirely sure if he could completely leave his old life behind. He saw emotional attachment as a weakness and I suppose cared for the master in the same way I did. He must have felt that if he were going to jump into the darkness, he needed to strip away the emotions that would hold him back."

"Was there ever a point when you started to become suspicious of him? When you first noticed that something was different?" Sora asked.

"I'm not *hic* sure if there ever was a moment. Xehanort was a thinker and so any resentment that stirred, any extreme opinions… they were all hidden out of sight. If someone did notice something, then they ignored it for the sake of our friendship probably. We were all *hic* so emotional at the time of the Master's passing, and he took advantage of that. I hated him for it. I wanted to kill him for it."

"Then what stopped you?" Sora found himself asking. He needed to know because he could very well imagine what Neuge had been feeling at the time. "You wanted revenge. What stopped you from going after him?"

Neuge tucked a few loose curly bangs of hair behind her ear and proceeded to rub the bridge of her nose before extending her fingers outwards to under her eyelids.

"Maybe we should go in order. I'll just skip to when we finally found Yen Sid's Master," Neuge said.

"You found him?"

"Of a sorts…"

* * *

Yen Sid dropped to his knees and floated a hand above his now former teacher's body. Whatever Neuge had expected when she had arrived at the Keyblade Graveyard, which had been the location Master Penn had last been heard from, it certainly wasn't this. It had been a month since her own Master's death and now she was staring death in the face once again. This time though, she wasn't crying. She couldn't cry, not because the death didn't mean anything to her, but because she was too confused to cry.

"What is going on? First our Master and now yours?" Eraqus asked before yelling upwards at the sky, "WHAT'S GOING ON?"

"We shouldn't even be here. This place is forbidden for a reason. You know, they say the souls of the dead who fought in the Keyblade War reside here. The Keyblades," Neuge pointed her head at the fissure to the right of them, leading to a mass grave of the weapons. "Supposedly a curse was put on this land. The dead will rise when the cracks of the past open whole."  
"Don't tell me you actually believe that, do you?" Xehanort asked. "Where did such a ridiculous tale even come from?"

"Where do most ridiculous tales even come from? Like most, they derive from a certain truth," Neuge was keen to say in a sagacious-like manner.

"No need to get all philosophical on me. Fair point," Xehanort said with a small chuckle (if it could be even classed as such because it was more the release of a sound). "But we need to investigate the body. I don't see any chalices around this time so I'm not sure the cause of death will be the same. Yen Sid, you need to let me do this."

But Yen Sid shook his head and used his body to shield Master Penn from Xehanort's investigation. "Enough! It's too much. It's too much."

"Would you rather we never find out the truth? Even if it hurts, we have to face it," Neuge tried to convince.

But Yen Sid refuted her words and kept shouting. "But the Master never killed Master Kokan. There's something strange going on here. You see it too, don't you?"

"You want to defend your Master, fair enough. But if he's truly innocent then that will show through our investigation. Don't you see? If you really have faith in Master Penn, then you'll stop being an obstacle and pull your weight," Neuge said. She couldn't believe that she had to do something like this. It was as if they had been struck by some kind of role reversal—that she was the wise one attempting to convince and lecture the child who refused to listen to any rational arguments put forth.

She had made the necessary but reluctant decision to throw all ideas of being sympathetic out of head seeing as Yen Sid continued to give her no choice but to throw him aside, but something stopped Neuge. It was an unexpected and immediate chill that ran down her spin like a jolt of lightning. She began to quiver in fright for no perfectly good reason that she could explain. It was as if the world had suddenly come crashing down on her. As if a tidal wave of emotions she had been trying to supress had burst free.

Was it then strange that the first thing that had come to her mind was the curse that she had mentioned to them just a minute before? It couldn't possibly be true, could it? No, she was definitely overthinking things. She didn't know what was happening at the moment but she was sure there was definitely a reasonable, perfectly logical explanation for the dread she was feeling.

But there had been no reasonable explanation for her Master's death, or any of the events that had subsequently followed. Her life had almost taken a turn for the dramatic, so was it really possible to find logic in the abnormal? Neuge didn't think so, and therefore she was back to the fear of the unknown which she once again tried to rationalize only to fail miserably. A vicious circle with no end.

"Neuge, get away from there!" The firm grasp of Eraqus pulled her out of her perpetual prison and placed her against his body. Neuge looked around but she could see much in way of the thick fog that had suddenly descended upon the area.

"Xehanort? Yen Sid?" Neuge called out into the fog. She could barely even see the tip of nose when she looked downward so she wasn't sure of what hopes she had finding her other two friends.

"I'm here!" Yen Sid announced, though it seemed he was struggling with something judging from the strain on his voice. Neuge soon came to find out why.

"What are you doing?" Neuge asked, watching as Yen Sid put one step in front of the other with some difficulty. Leaning on his back was Master Penn.

"I can't leave him here… wherever here is. He deserves to rest alongside Master Kokan," Yen Sid said.

"Are you serious?" Neuge let out a sigh and summoned her Keyblade. "Fine, but if you slow us down in anyway, we're leaving you behind. Where's Xehanort?"

"Not sure. That's weird," Yen Sid said. "How did this fog even appear?" And then he looked at Neuge with wide eyes and so did Eraqus. For a while, Neuge thought that there was something on her, but when she saw that they were actually looking behind her, she turned around and screamed, tripping backwards.

A ghostly figure in the shape of a human had been standing next to her until she had noticed it. Though it had the face of a human, it had not distinguishable human features about it—no nose, no eyes, no mouth, no face.

"G-g-g-g-g-GHOST!" Neuge yelled, getting up and running behind Eraqus. "Dammit! I knew it. The curse was real!"

"Listen, I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation for this. Maybe it's some prank Xehanort set up?" Eraqus suggested.

"Well it's a pretty inappropriate prank. Let's just… keep moving for now, okay? Maybe we'll meet up with Xehanort eventually, y'know, if he isn't trying to scare us," Neuge said. When Yen Sid and Eraqus agreed to this, they set off into the fog, keeping near each other as closely as possible.

On their way through the unidentifiable world that they were not sure was even the Badlands anymore, they came across a number of these apparitions similar to the first one. They were seemed wholly unconcerned about the three strangers and the dead body making their way past them—in fact, it was as if they didn't notice them at all. Neuge soon confirmed this when she carefully walked in front of one of the ghosts intentionally. It had stopped for a second, as if sensing something was in its way, but without directly looking at her, moved around her and continued on its way.

Commenting on this strange phenomenon to her two friends, they decided it be best to hurry along quickly and hurry they did. With no signs of Xehanort anywhere, their worries were intensifying, especially when they finally found their way out of the fog and into an even stranger place, if that were possible.

"This place… it's completely made of crystal!" Neuge proclaimed in an excitement that she could barely contain. The scenery before her was simply breathtaking. The white crystal trees bore no leaves and stood tall with their shapes calmly reflected on the frozen lake's surface just up ahead. A visible cold wind blew through the air with icy snowflakes settling on Neuge's cheeks before quickly evaporating into water.

"Boy, this place is chilly. Beautiful, but if we stay here any longer we might just catch a cold. Let's keep moving," Neuge said. She pulled the hood of her parka over her head in order to warm her ears before following after Eraqus and Yen Sid.

"Is that a… door? On the other side of the lake," Eraqus told them, pointing to a door that seemed to stand perfectly well by itself, placed in between two trees on the other side of the lake. "You think that could be our way out?"

"Maybe, but shouldn't we be looking for Xehanort?" Yen Sid asked.

"Not that I don't care about him, but I'm not too fond of staying here for long either. Trust him. Xehanort will be okay. He's always been strong," Neuge said.

"Yeah… maybe he's already out anyway," Eraqus said albeit unconfidently. Neuge wasn't thinking about that, but rather Yen Sid's situation. She looked at him and shook her head.

"Alright. We've come this far, but now you have to see reason. You can't cross this ice with him on your back. It doesn't even look remotely stable and if it gives way…"

"Just worry about yourself, okay? I won't leave him behind. I've never told you this but when I started out, I could barely cast a single spell. No matter how hard I tried, I always failed. How could I even be deserving of a Keyblade when I couldn't perform such a simple task? That was what I wondered to myself every night. It all led up to a certain day when I decided to give up my Keyblade and leave my Master, but he wouldn't let me. 'I will not leave you behind', he told me. No matter how many times I kept repeating out loud that I wanted to quit, he kept saying that, and I eventually gave in and started crying. The reason I paint now, it's because of him. He mentioned how his former Master had used paintings in order to feel colors. It's those feelings that allowed me to channel the most wondrous of magics. He never left me behind, and neither will I."

"And he'd want you to die over his dead body? Your sentimentalism is going to get us killed!" Neuge shouted at him.

"Then you two can go across before me. Will that work?" Yen Sid asked.

"_No_," Neuge enunciated through her clenched teeth. "No, just let go off him. He's gone as far as he can. Why are you being so unreasonable?"

"Neuge, just go ahead. The Master and I, we'll catch up," Yen Sid said adamantly, too adamantly for Neuge's liking, but in the end she could only nod her head. She was done caring, or so she thought. Eraqus and Neuge made their way slowly across the frozen lake, and Neuge had been determined to keep her eyes forward and sighted on the goal, but she couldn't help and look back. That had been her mistake.

"Yen Sid… you need to come across… NOW!" Neuge yelled, putting more pressure on thin layer of ice beneath her feet than she had intended to. She lifted her left foot up slowly to see a web-shaped crack where her shoe had once been. She set her foot down in front of the crack and twisted her body to fire off several spells with her hand at the creatures that had nested themselves within the crystal trees to reveal a congress of rather large and deformed ravens.

Neuge, in all her years of training, had never quite seen anything like them before. They were beings of darkness, indicated by black fumes that seemed to be rising and sinking across their bodies like waves. They shared the common characteristic of their right eye being blinded or just closed while their left were beady and yellow. The ravens flew in a circle cawing out loud into the sky before heading downwards to attack Yen Sid.

Neuge and Eraqus did their best to support their friend as he slowly made his way across the lake along with Master Penn. Their magic some of the ravens and disposed of them, but the ones that were more aware, seemed to dodge each attack before targeting their attackers instead. Neuge did her best to push them away with _Aeroga _while Eraqus drew them in with _Magnega _before using _Exo Spark_, the bolt of lightning hitting one of the ravens before discharging and shocking the other ravens too in a blinding display of light.

The remaining ravens soon dispersed, but they had taken a victim along with them. The ice underneath Yen Sid's feet had cracked significantly and any step forward would spell certain doom. A slight shifting of his weight confirmed that it wouldn't have taken even movement. The ice broke apart and Yen Sid fell through along with his Master. Neuge swore and before she knew it, she was already running for the small puddle of water despite Eraqus warning her not to. As she neared it, the ice broke apart under her feet and she was sent down into the water's icy depths too.

Ignoring the sharp pains of her body being stabbed in all directions from the cold, she searched around frantically for any sign of her friend but all she could see was pitch blackness. She doubled her efforts and sunk even lower into the dark abyss in hopes of finding Yen Sid...

* * *

Neuge suddenly stopped talking. Her lips were spread apart until she placed them around her chalice and began drinking once again.

"Wait, you're just going to stop there? What happened?" Sora asked.

"In those next few seconds… I can't really remember. I know I found him but my mind was completely blank by the time I helped him reach the surface. I think I just fell unconscious and sunk into the icy depths," Neuge said.

"And you didn't die?" Sora asked.

"I'm not sure how it happened, but I woke up on land soon after, completely separate from the others. They had no doubt made it back to the other side, but I was still stuck in the realm of the dead. I mean, I have my theories. I don't think it's actually possible to die there, or maybe as long as I was in that world, I was dead just like those ghosts. Either way, I spent a year hoping that they would come back for me and fifteen more looking for a way out after having given up hope. My mind slowly withered and deteriorated until it left me nothing but an unemotional husk. When I finally left, I found that I couldn't even talk. I was so alone and all I could do was blame Eraqus and Yen Sid for leaving me. It was as if they'd forgotten about me. Just went on with their lives as if nothing happened I suppose, though I'm sure Xehanort was also a problem. If Yen Sid hadn't been so damn stubborn about bringing his Master along, we would have gotten out much faster. I would have still been with them. I wouldn't have had hatred and contempt in my heart for so many years.

"Anyway, the way I found my way out was the same as my way in. I found the same type of fog and took my chances. When I came out, I found myself at some strange castle where my home used to be."

"Castle Oblivion," Sora named.

"Yeah, well needless to say Eraqus and Xehanort were long gone. To think I'd skipped so many occasions. When I came here, it was my first time meeting Master Eraqus' pupils. They reminded me so much of him that I felt disgusted even looking at them. Of course, you should never judge a book by its cover and I came to respect them as their own people in time. I can't say I ever really felt much anger towards Eraqus anyway, especially after hearing of his death from Yen Sid.

"But to answer your question about revenge, not just against Xehanort, but in a way, against those two as well, I was set on finding them… that was until I met my second teacher. He was not a Keyblade wielder like Kokan, but he possessed a wisdom and kindness that I so desperately needed. My first words for more than *hic* sixteen words were heard by him. He taught me the idea of meditation and making your weapon the extension of yourself. In time, I came to not rely on the Keyblade at all. In my eyes it had become a *hic* weapon of my pain that I had relied on too much. I learned instead to wield a knife or a tantō and the martial art of aikido. It's why I don't spend much time teaching you and Luna Keyblade techniques. I've always said they were the techniques of the samurai."

"Bushidō, right? Maybe we could go see your teacher? If he can give me a few extra pointers, then maybe-"

"I've already taught you everything my Master taught me. The big difference of course is that we haven't had nearly as much time as I did back then. I spent *hic* four years training with my teacher whereas we've only had a month in total. I've tried to make up for that by pushing you *hic* but it's not nearly *hic* enough time. Man, I need to lay off this stuff."  
"Only now you realize that?" Sora chuckled before getting up and stretching. "Oh, Luna's birthday is coming up in three days. I'm expecting you to be there, Master."

"Neuge, it's Neuge. And I'll think about it," she replied.

"Hopefully you'll do more than think. Luna won't be very pleased if you don't come," Sora said before leaving. Neuge shook her head before looking up at the bartender with a smile.

"Want another drink?" he asked.

"Nah, I'm done for tonight. I have some preparations *hic* to take care of. I kind of missed about twenty odd years of a normal life. Best I don't miss someone else's," Neuge said, letting out a yawn shortly afterwards.


	55. Birthday Bash

_So I promised that you'd get this chapter by at least wednesday, and I've delivered it exactly on wednesday. So at least I get this chapter out by the end of November. So since this story has been delving into the depressing whenever it can, I felt that we needed to lighten the mood a little. As famous painter Bob Ross said (you can tell I've been watching him on Twitch), you need the darkness in order to show the light. Our characters are still waiting on the good times, but there's no reason they can't make some themselves while they're at it. _

* * *

**Chapter 55**

**Birthday Bash**

A blindfolded Luna quickly worked her way through each spell thrown at her by Neuge, with the whooshing of each spell being her only indication of where to dodge. She heard two spells cast in quick succession and arched backwards. The feeling of hot and cold soared over her and she wasted no time at all in returning to a running position.

"That's enough for today. I have to say, you and Sora are really impressing me. Ever since you came back, you've been taking this a lot more seriously," she heard Neuge's voice say. Luna undid her blindfold and swung it around with her finger a few times before throwing it to Neuge.

"We have to be ready for whatever comes, right? Besides, never in my wildest dreams did I think I would find using a blindfold to be so natural," Luna said.

"You get used to it, just like a great many things in life. They say change can be scary but I find it beautiful. Nothing like analyzing stock market trends in the newspaper every morning… that was a joke, that's incredibly boring," Neuge said.

"Hey, my dad used to do that all the time!" Luna defended.

"Really?"

"No, he would agree with you, but my principle doesn't think so. Whenever I got in detention with Astra for skipping school, we served it by doing desk jobs. I think he owned shares in a company and was always checking them in the newspaper to see if he could sell them for more munny. My dad told me that owning shares is a riskier gamble than winning the lottery, not that I've done either."  
"Let's hope it stays that way. My advice? If you ever find yourself in a casino on the other side of the universe, never use the slot machines. They suck you in and don't let you out," Neuge said.

"Then how are you here?"

"How am I-" Neuge sighed as Luna began laughing. "That was a horrible joke. Get out of here."

"Yes ma'am," Luna said with a grin, only to be stopped after taking a mere four steps.

"You don't happen to know a good hairdresser in town, do you?" Neuge asked.

Luna sighed. For a second, she thought Neuge would have stopped her to tell her happy birthday, but maybe she had to forgotten. She was sure that she had told Neuge that last week so it couldn't have just been the case of Neuge having not known.

"Well, Tifa does mine and Kairi's hair so you can ask her," Luna answered.

"Thanks. Okay, you can go now," was all Neuge said. Once again, Luna had been expecting something more but all she got was Neuge hurrying out of the room before Luna could bring up anything.

_My sixteenth__birthday, huh?_

Luna had got out of bed earlier than usual this morning expecting cuddles and wishes. Instead, she had failed to see Sora, Riku and Kairi at all and the entire restoration committee were treating her as they normally would. She didn't know if she was just being spoilt and expecting too much but even Neuge had rushed them straight into their training and had stopped Luna from asking any questions, stating that she was in a hurry to go somewhere after. Knowing Neuge, that either involved drinking or, at least from what she had hinted at by her question, getting her hair done.

Using her detective instincts, Luna would have suggested the latter. There wouldn't have been a reason for Neuge to have asked her about a hairdresser if not for the fact that there was some kind of special occasion. Neuge probably didn't know it, but her words had given away her intentions. Luna had a pretty good idea why she was acting so strange and why Sora, Riku and Kairi hadn't been at breakfast that morning, and she would do her best to act surprised when the time came.

But first, she had somewhere else to go. From the heart-throbbing excitement of dodging magic to delving into the inner recesses of her mind to confront the questions that she had been afraid to ask of herself.

Stepping up to David Xanatos' door had never been easy for her. This was her third time now and the thought of talking about her personal life so freely hadn't seemed any weirder the third time than it had the first. She knew that she would probably become more comfortable with opening up as her sessions went by but having to go through what she was thinking when not even she understood what she was thinking half the time was probably something that she would never find ordinary.

"Good afternoon, Luna. Happy birthday," Xanatos said with a smile as soon as he opened the door.

"Oh, thank goodness. I was starting to think that everyone had forgotten it was my birthday or something. I was training with Neuge just before I came here and she didn't even mention it. I have a feeling I know why but I have to pretend to act surprised when it happens," Luna said.

"I'm sure you'll be able to pull of something convincing. Come in, it's rather cold out there, isn't it?" Xanatos said.

"That's February for you, though it seems weird to think that it might not even be my birthday in Alexander," Luna said. She accepted his kind gesture and walked in, taking a look around the house as they made their way to his office.

When Colette had told Luna and Kairi of how impressive Xanatos' house was to her own when she had been there on her date, Luna hadn't quite believed it. Colette's home was what Luna considered the model example of a home, with everything in it that needed to be there and not much else. When she had first come to Xanatos' home and saw the luxury high-end furniture he had purchased, it seemed excessive but at the same time just about right for a man who owned a huge enterprise and had been primarily responsible for the rebirthing of Radiant Garden as it was today.

There was a glass divide separating the overall living room from the office in a corner of the room. Luna took her seat in the same spot she always did on the couch and rested one of her arms on the armrest next to her.

"So how has your week been?" Xanatos started their conversation of casually, as they always did.

"I mean, I'm feeling better than I felt two weeks ago, so my mood's definitely improving, though that may just be because my birthday had been coming up. I've tried to stay positive, I really have. For Sora. I've been doing some meditation a lot recently, and I can think a lot more clearly… but Sora probably needs it more," Luna answered.

"I've noticed something during our talks, Luna. We're talking right now, you and me, yet you always find a way of bringing Sora into the conversation," Xanatos said.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No, not at all. You care for him, it's only natural. Still, you do seem more… apprehensive about talking about yourself as opposed to others," Xanatos said.

"I'm… kind of bad about talking about myself, I suppose? I don't know. I guess it's the case where the lives of others are more interesting than my own. It's why I look reading so much. I've always found it easier to put myself into the shoes of those I'm reading about than my own," Luna explained.

"Well, you're definitely talking about yourself now. The more you talked about it, the bigger the smile on your face got. Perhaps we should stick with books then for this session. Tell me, what components do you think make a good story?"

"Oh, there definitely has to be emotion in there. It has to make me feel something. Horror, surprise, sadness, happiness, everything. My friend Astra has told me that I'm an emotional person anyway so I think it's easy for me to do that. I'm also a big fan of plot twists, but they need to make sense and not come out of nowhere. Like, you don't even know how many crime novels I've read where it turns out that the detective on the case was the one who did it. That's just lazy and insulting. I know some authors who love to abuse the unreliable narrator device. Sure it works in some cases but in crime novels, then they're just trying to play clever. I really don't think it has any place."

"Then I suppose you've considered writing your own crime novels? If so, I want to be the first to read them," Xanatos offered with a light-hearted chuckle.

"You know, I've never really thought about what I'd have liked to if I was still living my life in Alexander. If none of this had ever happened then I probably would become an author. Who knows, maybe during my travels I can start writing about something, like chronicling my adventures or maybe even the restoration of this town—of course, I'd have to use different names but I don't think it would feel fake. The people reading it who are here now would understand that it's about them, no doubt."

"Indeed, it's hard not to read something and not think 'oh, it's me'. Even so, I don't take displeasure in it at all, even when it's something not particularly nice about me. Back on my world, my corporation had a lot of people opposing it purely because they didn't like the idea of big businesses. What they did then was go to one of the newspapers and ask to write a column, sometimes being so obvious as to use my name and sometimes making up another name entirely but with a lot of similarities to my likeness. I couldn't help but smile either way because at least I was troubling someone so much that they felt the need to write about it."

"And then you proceeded to sue them and smile even more?" Luna asked with a smile.

"I'm not a ruthless dictator, Luna. The columns were usually put on the opinion section, you know, the section no one really reads. There would be no reason to sue them."

"Right, those things wouldn't really put much of a dent in your reputation, would they?" Luna nodded before moving on to something in regards to herself. It was her therapy session after all and she was sure Xanatos didn't want to talk too much about his own personal history at the moment. "In all honest, I'm scared. When I was in Tron's world, there was this moment when nothing made sense. I couldn't tell reality and fiction apart. Now, that's obviously not normal, but what I really worry about is when it starts to become a detriment to Sora and the others. There was one point when… I don't know exactly how it happened but one moment I was throwing stones into the lake and the next I was drowning in that lake without any recollection of how I got in there. There was also a moment in another world, where I fell into the river of my own volition that time, but I saw my parents… they were ghostly and pale but it was definitely them. Whatever is happening to me right now… what if it's slowly destroying me. I mean… seeing things that aren't really there and random gaps in my memory? That can't be good."

Xanatos scratched his chin before looking around on his table. Eventually he found what he was looking for—a small flashlight hiding behind a recently unwrapped present box. Now that she thought about it, Luna had remembered Colette telling her that she had brought him a present of some kind after their third date. That date had, according to Colette, coincided with the death of Xanatos' wife and son.

"I'm going to be honest here, I'm not quite sure what's wrong with you but as you say, those things can't really be a good sign. Back in my world we had the technology for scanning a person's brain. CT and MRI equipment. If we had them here, I would have instantly recommended that you be scanned. However since we don't have the technology in place yet, I'm going to at least try something else. You don't mind if I shine this light into your eyes for a minute, do you?"

"Sure, go ahead," Luna said. She was told to close her left eye and immediately felt the annoying sensation of the light's warmth in her eye. She obeyed Xanatos' instructions and followed the direction in which the light moved before alternating with her other eye. She eased back into her seat as soon as Xanatos told her that they were done and asked, "So, did you find anything out?"

"Your eyesight... it's peculiar. Do you know how we see light?" Xanatos asked.

"Er, sorry, I wasn't very good at physics…" Luna admitted. "But what's peculiar?"

"Maybe it was just my imagination, but I'll say it anyway. We have something called persistence of vision. Generally, the average eye can only respond to moving light at a maximum speed of about a twenty-fourth or so of a second. Anything above that and the light starts to blur. In other words, the eyes can only detect light at relatively slow speeds. Now when I moved my flashlight, your eye movement seemed to follow it incredibly easily. Did you notice when I started moving the flashlight in a quick zig zag pattern?"

"You did? I mean, sure I followed it up and down but by quickly you mean…"

"Like this." Xanatos made a sharp and quick invisible Z in the air with his index finger to demonstrate his point.

"I… I don't think so…? I don't know, I'm sorry," Luna said quickly. She was frightened to even hear what Xanatos was going to say about her eyesight and while he had stressed that it could have possibly been his imagination, Luna was more than willing to guess that the Heartless side of her had something to do with it. "All I really want to do now is go on some fun simple adventures with everyone. I just want to forget about everything. Abraxas, Moira's Crescent, KRONOS, all of it. All it's done is caused nothing but pain to everyone, especially Sora. He used the word 'war' to describe what is happening now but I'm not so sure. In wars, people die on both sides. I'm not so much worried about them as I am keeping my friends safe."

"I admire your resilience in the situation, Luna. It's important you remain that beacon of light in these dark times for you and your friends. When I see Sora, I can't help but think that he looks like he's already been defeated. I'm sure if there's anyone to keep his flame flickering, it will be you," Xanatos said.

"Thank you, Mr. Xanatos. I really don't know what I would do right now if I didn't have someone to talk to about this. That's the truth," Luna said with a small smile of appreciation.

"Enough of the formalities, Luna. It's David and I won't have it any other way," David extended his arm out for a handshake.

"Alright… thank you, David," Luna said, shaking his hand before looking at the clock on the wall. She hadn't even realized it, but twenty minutes had gone by in a flash. "You know, Kairi's always said she's had it rough trying to keep up with Sora and Riku in her training. I'm having a rough job just trying to keep the group together. Sora and Riku, they don't always agree with each other, not since I fell into the Realm of Darkness anyway. Kairi told me that she could see the cracks starting to form between them but it's still solid as far as she knows. They have different ways of doing things but I think Sora might be starting to think Riku is right."

"And what do you think?" David asked.

"I think it reeks of paranoia. If we keep thinking that there's no one we can trust then how are we supposed to keep the worlds safe? There's a shadow around every corner and I don't think that's something we can change, but I don't think we should be making up shadows either where there are none. I want to help Sora in any way I can, but I'm afraid of his and Riku's friendship worsening as a result of that, unless I could convince Riku but if Kairi couldn't do it, I don't know what hopes I have." Luna said.

"Well, this may sound cliché but time heals all wounds or so they say. Spend some time together. I'm sure you and Kairi will be able to figure something out to help them," David advised. Luna nodded at the sound advice and burst out a smile full of confidence.

"I'd certainly like more time but we never seem to have enough. I'll figure something out anyway. I mean, we'll figure something out," Luna corrected before standing up. "And with that said, I think it's about time I get going. After that training, I feel like I burned off all those breakfast calories and now I'm just famished again."

"It is about that time, isn't it? Tell you what. How about I make some lunch for the both of us? It'll save you some munny and I can make some mean sandwiches. I believe that's the lingo you kids use nowadays," David suggested with a chuckle at the end.

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to-"

"Be a burden? Of course not. This house is way too big for me to live alone in it anyway," Xanatos said. He moved quickly and opened the office door to let Luna out from the tense atmosphere of what felt almost like interrogation and into something more warm and domestic. It was as if she had just crossed the boundaries between two different worlds.

"Then please go ahead and make them as kind as humanly possible, sir," Luna said and added in a bow before laughing at her own joke.

* * *

It was approaching evening when Luna finally encountered Kairi and Riku. Before she could say anything to them, she was ushered onward to Merlin's house by them all the while unable to keep the smiles of their face. Having a good guess at what was happening, Luna simply allowed herself to be dragged along for the ride. Of course, even when knowing that a surprise was coming, it still hadn't prepared her for how much effort had been put in the surprise and so her gasp and the grin and tears that followed was entirely genuine as soon as Merlin's dark living room sprang to life as soon as they entered.

"TA-DA!" Sora yelled with his arms stretched out followed by a loud exclamation of "Happy Birthday, Luna!" from everyone there. Aerith, Yuffie, Tifa, Cloud, Leon, Rinoa, Cid, Merlin, Palom and Porom, Chip and Dale, Donald, Goofy, Max and Mickey, Terra, Aqua, Ven, Xion, Roxas, Lea, Namine, Colette and Stephanie… yep, they were all there, Luna counted with a big smile on her face. She was honestly surprised that they were all even able to fit in this room.

Above them was a sparkling birthday banner with the number sixteen glowing brightly. Candles floated in the air without, as far as she knew, any invisible wires or contraptions behind them and there were tables that were piled with food and a red and white polka dot patterned cake similar to dress she was wearing right now.

"I figured this was why I couldn't find anyone today but I never expected this. I love every single one of you!" Luna cried though it slowly withered into a gasp.

"Luna, don't cry, today's not the day for that," Aqua said, walking up to her and placing a hand around her, pulling her in closely for a hug while holding onto the balloon (for all of them had one) in her hand.

"I know but… it's just that I've never had anything like this before. It always used to be my family and Astra. This is just so big," Luna tried to put into words. She allowed Aqua to wipe away the tears from her face and smiled as Stephanie also walked up to her and hugged her waist.

"Even though you may not have your parents anymore, you're not alone, Luna. Me, Aqua, everyone here, we're all behind you. I guess in a way, we're basically family now," Mickey said with a warm smile.

"We're… family?" Luna asked.

"He's right. A little sappy, sure, but we each have our own wacky personalities that complement one another. Sure we may disagree with each other from time to time but what family doesn't?" Terra agreed.

"You guys… if you're trying to stop sis from crying, you're not helping," Stephanie said, holding onto Luna even more tightly than before. It was true—Luna felt like she was about to drop to the floor and cry her heart out.

"Thanks everyone, you're awesome," Luna said before changing her tone completely. "Now let's have ourselves a PAR-TAY!"

And so the evening festivities commenced, with Luna getting her party girl personality on, which was rather awkward seeing as how she hadn't been very in tune with it to begin with. It didn't matter though. She just wanted to let loose and have fun. At one point she had run up to Rinoa and had whispered something into her ear, only for them to both snicker upon their agreed idea. As the party music—provided skilfully, it may be added, by the magical mops that were playing with musical instruments—continued on, Luna had made an attempt to drag Sora into dancing with her.

"Luna, I'm not too good at-"

"Neither am I, now dance with me!" Luna yelled atop the music. Even so, Sora continued to resist her advances, at least until she told him that it was the greatest birthday present he could give her anyway.

"I- you know what, fine. But if I embarrass you, don't say I didn't tell you so," Sora eventually caved in with a sly smile. Luna returned it before intertwining his warm hands in hers. She felt her heart beat increase rapidly for some reason, but pushed it off as nerves and took him to where Rinoa and Leon were already dancing.

The way Luna pictured it in her mind, she and Sora must have been dancing like a bunch of happy elves without a care in the world to those around them. Luna lead the dance by hopping from left to right and tapping her feet with her hands placed on her hips. Sora, rather followed her movements, albeit awkwardly at first, and tried to keep up with the rather energetic Luna. Seeing though that he was failing to keep up, Luna jumped back to him and placed her hands on his shoulders. She was about to spin them both around, but Sora did something that took her completely by surprise. He put his hands on her waist and lifted her up, spinning her around before setting on her back on the ground.

"Sora!" Luna exclaimed rather breathlessly.

"I'm just full of surprises, aren't I?" Sora said. Later, Luna would eventually find out that Sora had just seen Leon pick Rinoa up and imitated that, but even then, he was surprised he had even dared to try it. For now, Sora focused on interlocking their fingers together before hopping from left to right.

"Oh dear, you're making me dizzy!" Luna said as he added in rotating spins into their hops. Sora laughed but ignored her pleas and continued on anyway. It wasn't as if Luna really wanted him to stop anyway. She wouldn't tell him but she would choose to do it all day if she could.

The instruments soon stopped playing and Luna found herself laughing into Sora's shoulder. Her heart was still racing and she was breathing heavily as if she had just run a marathon. When she looked up, Sora also seemed to be in a similar condition.

"I told you to stop. I ate just before this. What if I threw up on you?" Luna said though the intonation of her words betrayed to Sora that she definitely hadn't wanted to stop.

"Well, if you did warn me that you were about to throw up, I suppose I could always have just given you to Leon. I'm sure he wouldn't mind the switch," Sora said with a cheeky grin and wink. "Good thing you haven't eaten the cake yet. What are you looking at Cid?"

"Heh. Well, in any case, Sora's about right," Cid said, managing to avoid Sora's question altogether. "Les' get everyone gathered around."

Luna reluctantly parted from Sora and made her way over to the table where she was met with another surprise when Riku sneaked a party hat onto her head.

"You've got to do these things in style, birthday girl," he said to her with a smile.

"Thanks, which reminds me, I think I need a new adventure look. I've always wanted to fight Heartless with a Stetson on my head. They shall fear the almighty Stetson! What do you think, Riku?" Luna asked.

"Well that was sudden. Err, sure, I guess it might look good on you," Riku said.

"What about me, Riku? Would you buy one for me?" Xion asked in a rather flirtatious tone. Riku blushed and looked the other way, evoking a quiet shared giggle among Xion, Kairi and Namine.

"Aw, you guys leave Riku alone. It's not his fault he's just starting to go through puberty," Yuffie said.

"Can we please not talk about this?" Sora said before saying, "Besides Riku reached puberty when he was twelve. Remember Malie Haukea in our-"

"Let's… not make this worse for ourselves, Sora," Riku intervened through gritted teeth. "We don't want to talk about your crushes now, do we?"

"Crushes? On who?" Kairi enquired with a slightly jealous tone in her voice that she had failed to conceal.

"I plead the fifth. Cake. Luna, please save us all now!" Sora said. Luna nodded and was about to happily cut into the cake to spare hearing any other 'crushes' that she didn't need to hear about when yet another intervention happened. This time it came from the front door.

"So sorry I'm late. I didn't know what to wear so I just decided to go with this," Neuge said, inducing a silence within the group who could only look on in shock. "What? Is there something wrong with it? It's ugly, isn't it? Darn it, I knew I should have gone with the softer one."

"No, it's just… wow!" was all Luna could say. Neuge had completely overdressed for the occasion, but not in a bad way. She wore a green sequin dress that seemed to shimmer and reflect light along with the candles in the room. Even more unusual of her, she had a hair completely done in up in a beehive style with two chopsticks sticking out and pointing in opposite directions.

"Wow is right. You look amazing Neuge. I knew that hairstyle would great on you. And that dress. Now I think I'm underdressed," Aerith said gazing in amazement at this new creature in front of them. Luna couldn't fault her for dressing as if she were on a date either. From what Sora had told her, Neuge's social awkwardness was well justified given what had happened to her over the years.

"Neuge, you look beautiful," Luna complimented. It felt strange to be encouraging someone who had stressed when they first started that their relationship was strictly a teacher-student one, but it still felt like the right course of action.

"I feel stupid. But this night isn't about me, it's about you. Happy Birthday, Luna," Neuge said before hurrying towards her. She placed something rather cold and firm into Luna's hands and stepped back, seeming to struggle between a smile and apprehension which only managed to combine and form a lopsided smile. Looking down, Luna eyes grew wide at the sight of the knife that Neuge had given her.

Recognising the weapon, Sora looked up at Neuge. "But that's your-"

"My tantō, yes. My second master wielded it before me, and now I'm giving it to you. It's for self-defence only. It's what you will only ever be. Use it to protect yourself like it once protected me. Protect yourself… and your friends," Neuge said.

"I will. Thank you," Luna said before placing the short blade on the table. She turned around and gave Neuge a hug. Neuge either had no idea what a hug was or her years in isolation had left her in complete survivalist mode because she had attempted to push Luna away as a reaction, but seeing that the girl possessed no threat, relaxed and awkward patted Luna's head as if she were a pet. Luna eventually let go and looked at the cake before looking back at Neuge. "Here. You can blow out the candles along with me."

"I- I couldn't. This is your-"

"Oh phooey, come over here." Luna guided Neuge to the front of the crowd and kept hold of her hand while looking at the lit candles on the cake.

"Be sure to make your wish, not that I really believe that stuff works," Lea said. Before her dance with Sora, Luna had seen him making not so subtle moves towards Aqua with Roxas and Xion watching in the background and trying hard not to laugh. Judging from his moodiness, his attempts had failed… badly.

"Mine will," Luna answered him before looking around her. "Not that I need to make it. I already have it. A family."

"Not me, sista. You're all on your own," Neuge said.

"Aw, come on, Neuge. Don't exclude yourself from our Stetson wearing family. Now on the count of three, we blow. _One. Two. Three_!"


	56. The New Approach

_I honestly thought it would have taken me at least another week to finish this chapter due to all my school work. I was wrong. Before I even knew it, I was looking at 5000 words. Not bad. Anyway, next chapter we actually get more worlds, but let me give you a hint as to what they'll be in this chapter._

* * *

**Chapter 56**

**The New Approach **

The positive and cheerful mood that had manifested at the birthday party was to be short-lived. Sora adopted an emotionless face as he, Riku, Kairi and Luna stood opposite Yen Sid though inwardly he disdained the sorcerer for smashing what peace he and the others had had over the last few weeks. He knew that peace couldn't have lasted forever, but even so, to spend if only a full month without having to worry about the Heartless or any other threat…

Standing next to the sorcerer was Neuge looking as normal as she did at any point before yesterday's party. The awkward and shy teenage girl that they had witnessed had now been replaced by a serious and rather peeved woman. Sora wasn't exactly sure what had caused her to have such an expression on her face but he was sure he was about to find out judging also from Yen Sid's grave look.

"We Keyblade wielders are said to be the guardians of the space in-between the worlds, not interfering with events within the worlds but those from the outside who would dare to threaten those events. With this said, there is no easy decision to make here. Our search for Alice so far has been fruitless, and I fear that time may be running out. The fog that has spread throughout some of the worlds has been increasing and the scope of which I am able to see the stars has consequently decreased because of this. Furthermore, Riku has told me that interrogating Kefka has given us no clues to go on whatsoever even with the truth serum."

"To be fair, it still is in its experimental stages. We should give Even and Ienzo some time to make it more potent," Riku said.

"And how long will that take?" When Riku could provide no answer, Yen Sid continued. "While I do not doubt a scientist's expertise in his given field, I feel it is time that we start preparing for the worst case scenario."

"The worst case scenario? So what, give up on Alice because she's already-"

"Sora," Neuge cut him off. "Just listen."

Yen Sid watched as Sora opened his mouth to respond, but then closed it and looked to the floor instead. He then continued.

"I will take full responsibility for what is to occur here. Sora and Luna… this is a mission of the utmost importance, one that Neuge has asked me to leave to you. I'll start with the background. There is an ancient ritual once known among Keyblade wielders that was eventually lost to time itself. It was forbidden by all, only to be used when the world faced its greatest perils. Our mission down the generations has always been to protect the hearts of pure light, but if even one was to be extinguished, we would most likely be looking at the end of all the worlds. It is my belief that when a person with a pure heart dies naturally, that heart, rather than going to Kingdom Hearts, is instead reincarnated as a newborn heart, and takes on its next host." Yen Sid paused to look at Kairi here who seemed to be putting on her bravest face, perhaps one that was too brave and possibly even fake. "If the natural cycle is disturbed, that is, if that heart is somehow corrupted or even that its host's death is unnatural in some way, then that light is extinguished for good. Now that is just a theory. It is unprovable because it hasn't happened yet, but the conduct of many Keyblade wielders down the line most certainly proves that there is a reason to continue to keep the Princesses of Heart safe."

"Get to the point," Neuge said. Sora silently thanked her for saying something that he desperately wanted to say.

"Yes, well, in situations such as these, there is something called the purification process. As the name itself suggests, it is used to separate the darkness and light in a person's heart. Xehanort used it to split Ventus' heart in two in hopes that he would be able to have his light and dark clash with one another."

"Wait a second. This isn't going where I think it's going, is it? Are you… are you suggesting that we perform this purification process on someone?" Kairi asked. Sora didn't even need to look up to somehow feel Yen Sid's nod.

"So that's it then? Let's play Xehanort now, why don't we? And while we're at it, why don't we try to create the χ-blade while we're at it? Are you serious? I can't believe you're even suggesting we do something like this. No. I'm not doing it," Sora refused. He turned to leave and was almost to the door when he was stopped yet again by Neuge.

"I am telling you, Sora, listen. This isn't any easier for me either, in fact, I'm flat out against the idea-"

"Then you won't mind me leaving. How can anyone listen to this, it's ridiculous!" Sora said.

"It is. I'm sorry, I can't agree with this either and this is coming from a Princess of Heart," Kairi said. "I wouldn't want anyone to have this. Shouldn't we have all discussed this before coming to a decision?"

"Why? He knew we would have all said no," Sora said before looking at Yen Sid directly. "And we can't have that now, can we?"

"Did you know this was going to happen?" Luna asked Neuge.

"I only found out today that he'd decided this but… he has brought it up before," Neuge replied quite absently. She seemed have taken an interest in the window behind Yen Sid's chair from which a decent view of the castle could be seen. Sora was under the plausible assumption that Neuge was looking out of the window in order to hide her guilt of having not mentioned this to them. While it wasn't entirely her fault, he could help but be a little angry with her.

"Yes, the decision was made without Neuge's input, and without any of yours for that matter and for that I deeply apologize. However, all we can do now is move forward and that means not being afraid to take risks. Luna and Sora, your next mission will be to track down a suitable candidate and bring her to me. I trust you both to make the best decision when it comes to picking them."

"But not enough to not just spring this on us all of a sudden," Sora murmured under his breath.

"Right, you can't just ask us to do this so suddenly. And what about Alice? It's as Sora said. I feel like we're just abandoning her by doing this. Why concentrate on finding someone else when we could be looking for her?" Luna said.

"We aren't necessarily giving up on her. This is where Riku, Kairi and the others come in. We're pooling in the rest of our resources to find her. That includes me," Neuge said.

"You too, Neuge?"

Neuge nodded. "Well, it's not necessarily going to be as focused on finding Alice as the rest are but King Mickey and I have decided to go after KRONOS in order to hopefully give you guys some room to breathe. If anything, we can at least stall them with the list of names that the assassin gave us. Moira's Crescent too, if we can figure out where they are."

"I want to know something. You haven't told us this, and I think I know why. What happens if the purification process is unsuccessful?"

Yen Sid nodded and kept his mouth closed for a few good seconds, probably because there was no easy way to say it. If the sorcerer was supposed to be bringing forward a convincing case, he was failing, and it wasn't even that. There was no case to bring forward because he had decided of his own accord to do this.

"It is a risk, I admit that, but it is a far lesser one than doing nothing at all and allowing KRONOS to get their way. I promise you that this is only a precaution. We will not actually carry out the process unless I am entirely sure about Alice's situation, but we must be prepared and that means not leaving it until the last minute," he eventually said, though choosing the avoid eye contact with the group, looking down instead at his table.

"So, in other words, we shouldn't lose priority over finding Alice then? If we find her first then this whole thing is off the table?" Riku asked to make certain of what he was hearing.

"As I said, Sora and Luna will attempt to search for a suitable candidate while the others are to concentrate on finding Alice," Yen Sid answered.

Sora relaxed slightly at this and a small smile formed. The idea of potentially sacrificing someone just to keep the world safe didn't sit right with Sora, but Yen Sid had given them an extended window of time. Despite their mission, they had plenty of opportunity to look for Alice instead. If that was the case then he would go under Yen Sid and Neuge's belief that he was setting out to look for Alice's successor. It would have been a conniving plan if he wasn't also sure that at least Neuge was betting on the same thing.

"Fine, we'll do it. Can I leave now?" Sora asked mustering as much a tranquil voice as he possibly could. Yen Sid had only half nodded before Sora had averted his gaze and left the room. He waited for the door to close behind him and then leaned against the wall and closed his eyes, practicing his regular breathing exercises. No matter how crazy his life was right now, he had to approach it rationally and with a calm, cool and collected mind. If he wanted Neuge's training to start meaning something, he had to start by suppressing whatever instinctive impulses arose within him when faced with situations such as what had happened in that room.

The soft clicking followed by screeching of the door opening again caused him to open his eyes and look in its direction to see Luna, a frown on her face as their eyes met.

"It'll be okay, Luna. We need to believe in Alice," Sora said.

"That's not it. It's something that's been on my mind but… I can't say it here. Do you mind coming with me?"

"Er, okay," Sora said. If it wasn't their new mission that had Luna concerned, then he had no idea what could be worse. He followed her into the living room, which had been thoroughly cleaned out earlier in the morning, and out into the borough. She seemed at first to be leading him to the hotel but suddenly stopped near the park just outside it and cupped her hands.

"Promise you won't be mad at me when I say this?" she asked of him.

If Sora was to hold onto his earlier commitment than all he really could say was, "Of course I won't."

"Right, well, I've been doing my best lately to think of some way to keep you safe and I- I- there's no easy way to say this so I'll just come out with it. I think we should accept Moira's Crescent's offer," Luna said, closing her eyes shut while she had uttered the sentence.

Rather than being angry like she had probably suspected, Sora was in fact rather impressed if not a little amused. It forced him to consider the possibility of working with Moira's Crescent once again. It was one that he hadn't really considered all too much but had left it open on the table in case Luna had wanted it. While he didn't have a favourable opinion of them, even ignoring that, it was pretty much impossible now.

"Luna, I'm not sure that's a good idea. You know they would never let me out of their sights if I decided to join them. I probably wouldn't even be able to go to the bathroom without them looking my way. They don't trust me and now I'm being told I have to find a suitable candidate to become a Princess of Heart? Do you really think they'll let me or you do something like that? If I were them, I wouldn't let it happen, I'm completely against doing anything that Xehanort's done and there's absolutely no guarantee it will work. Terra and Aqua could probably tell you more but when they met Ven, he could barely speak a word. His mind was shattered because Xehanort had taken the darkness from him. That's what might happen if we go through with this, or not. It might be even worse than that."

"Yeah I know, this purification thing complicates everything which is why I'm hoping we can find Alice first. Are you sure there isn't any way for this to work?" Luna asked.

"It's as you said. There's no point in making a truce with them unless Alice is safe. We also have to keep the other princesses safe and they'll also probably want to know where we're keeping them which I'm not so sure is a good idea. The less people know the better. Kefka being kept here is also a pretty big risk we're taking. I don't think there's any information we'll be able to get out of him, truth serum or not," Sora said.

"Then keeping the Princesses of Heart here can't be safe. We're keeping them where all of us Keyblade wielders are stationed but by doing that, we're making it incredibly obvious where they are as well," Luna said.

"Right. If only there was a way we could keep them safe without having them near us…" Sora trailed off as soon as a sudden inspiration struck him. The idea hit him as hard as the newspaper did by accident when Sora was eleven and the paper boy was doing his rounds one morning. The idea was so ingenious, so shrewd, so simple even, that he couldn't help but grin broadly at this plan of his.

"Oh dear, what's going on in that head of yours now?" Luna asked. No doubt she must have thought that he had gone completely mad for he started chuckling.

"Oh, nothing. Say, do you know where Mulan is?" he asked. As much as he wanted to tell her this plan, he couldn't. If he told her then she would know and if something bad were to go wrong then she would be implicated as his accomplice or would know doubt testify to also having come up with the plan in order to reduce Sora's punishment. He was taking a big risk with this and he would rather not get her in trouble for his actions. This was something he had to do alone, and there was really only one other person he could ask for help here.

"Well, she should be around the hotel somewhere with the other princesses. I think Donald, Goofy and Max were also asked to help protect them along with her. Why?" Luna answered.

_So that makes four people then. Hopefully, they'll go along with this, _Sora thought before stretching.

"Luna, whatever happens next, you trust me, right?" Sora asked.

"Of course I do," Luna said.

"Then don't ask what I'm about to do. If my theory is right, you'll probably find out sooner or later anyway. Anyway, I need to head back to Merlin's, I forgot something there," Sora said. He didn't exactly forget anything but there was something he needed.

"Alright, I won't ask. Not that I don't have something up my sleeve either," Luna insinuated with roguish smile.

"Really, like what?" Sora asked.

"Sora, you trust me, right?"

"I… fair enough," Sora said with a grin.

* * *

Astra wondered to herself what could be so possibly important enough that it warranted waking her up at five in the morning. She couldn't stop rubbing her eyes and she had only just noticed that she was walking down the hall in her pajamas. This had led to her panicking for a few seconds but fortunately upon arriving at the meeting room, she found that some of her peers were not any less scantily clad with the exception of Alfonso who seemed strangely alert and energetic for some reason.

"Do you know what's going on?" Astra asked the closest person to her, who was Jill.

"Your guess is as good as mine. All I know is that Alfonso called for a meeting. If this turns out to be a waste of time I'll have Jack peck his eyes out," Jill answered, clearly unamused by having been woken up so early.

"Yeah, I hope I'll be there to watch," Astra agreed, letting out a yawn. They soon entered the room and took seats around the room. The last one in the room was Kohle, who walked to the front of the room with such a taxing and painful effort that it seemed like he had aged significantly from Astra's point of view. He wearily took his place at the top of the table and glanced at Alfonso before nodding.

"A change in circumstances has arisen, a significant one that warranted taking you out of your beds this early in the morning," Alfonso began with a small smile.

"I'd certainly hope so otherwise I would hunt you to the far reaches of the universe just to gut you like a fish," Desiree said.

"Not today, I'm afraid. During my investigation yesterday into the doors at the factory, I came across a box wrapped in a red bow next to one of them. On it was also a tag addressed to Moira's Crescent."  
"Wait, so there just happened to be a suspicious package just lying on the ground with our group's name on it?" Lysander asked. "Alfonso, man, I thought you were better than that."

"Are you going to keep mouthing off or will you let me finish?"

"He's right though. I mean, it could have been a bomb or something. KA-BOOM!" Salome yelled suddenly, causing everyone in the room to jump up from their seat.

"I admit my curiosity got the better of me, though it could have just as easily been a bomb. No, it's something else. Decisive, non-rebuttable proof. Behold with your own eyes," Alfonso said. He slid a holographic disc across the table and relaxed in his seat as it reached the middle of the table and burst to life. A dull leaden-blue image flickered and illuminated the dimly lit room. Despite the image's color making it somewhat difficult to point out the details, they weren't particularly needed. It was clear as day what the video depicted, and it shocked everyone to the core.

The video ended and Astra rubbed her eyes in disbelief. She would probably have painted it as her just being tired if she hadn't recognized that spiky hair and that Keyblade being distinctive traits of a certain someone she knew. However, the most surprising thing was what he had done—something she would never have expected him to do.

"Did he just… those children… No, this has to be a mistake," Astra was the first to express, and even more surprised that she was defending him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see any of that though I have the feeling that whatever was shown wasn't particularly good?" Rhea asked.

"Well, unless you consider killing children to be a good thing, then no, no it wasn't," Alfonso answered.

"That's awful. Who would do such a thing?" Rhea asked.

"You must have some idea. You've been defending him this whole time after all. Your white knight."

"Sora? That can't be right. Check it again." Rhea suddenly seemed a lot more alert than most in the room and was leaning out of her chair.

"We can check it as many times as you want us to but that doesn't change the fact that these eyes won't see anything else but the truth. Kohle, the evidence stands for itself, I say we hold a new vote as soon as possible," Alfonso suggested with more energy than Astra had given the bookworm credit for.

"It would be incredibly premature to do something like that. All new evidence submitted should be given its due evaluation, need I point that out to you," Rhea countered. "Also, Lysander and Salome raise a good point. I'd be incredibly weary of the source of this 'present'. Someone wanted us to find this. It stands to reason then that the person who left this for us has an ulterior motive. Rather than rushing into a new vote, I'd like to call for an investigation into the origins of this video."

"You're joking, right? If you were able to see this video, you would know that the footage could not be faked," Alfonso said.

"If I could see the footage, I bet I would be able to find more wrong in it than you," Rhea said.

"Yeah, me and the other seven of us here," Alfonso said with a shake of his head.

"You don't speak for all of us though, Fonnie, especially when you picked up a suspicious package like a kid accepting gifts from strangers. Your judgment isn't exactly the most trustworthy at the moment," Salome pointed out. She then smiled at Alfonso's scowl before continuing, "I think we should do as Rhea suggested here. I mean, the proof looks definitive to me but Ray-Ray's seen things before that I haven't so who's to say she won't find something wrong with it?"

As much as Salome was probably right about this, and Astra could vouch for her that Rhea was very perceptive which made her a highly valuable asset in intelligence gathering, there was just one big problem. No amount of perceptiveness would allow Rhea to be able to evaluate a silent video.

Apparently having recognized this problem, Rhea sat back in her seat. "It's true that that the burden would fall on the accuser to disprove the evidence. I don't believe it's not rebuttable but I have no way of being able to look at the evidence, so I choose to have Astra do it in my stead."

"I'm sorry, say whaaaa…" Astra could feel her words trail off. If Rhea had been serious then Astra didn't know what to say. Like Salome, she also hadn't seen anything to suggest that there was anything wrong in what she saw.

"Don't worry. I'll help you, of course. I'm sure we'll be able to figure it out together," Rhea told her with a smile full of determination. Could she truly be so sure that they would be able to find something? Maybe it was as Alfonso said. Maybe Rhea just really wanted to believe that there was a solution to this other than fighting, even if it meant going against the odds.

"Alright, I'll help," Astra said, deciding to go against her brain on this issue.

"Then we'll abide by our normal rules of giving evidence its due consideration. It really should only take a day anyway. We'll report back here after breakfast tomorrow with Astra and Rhea's conclusion. You can all go back to your beds now. Sorry for waking you all up at an hour you're not used to but I'm sure you understand," Kohle said before nodding his head.

Everyone except for Rhea, Astra and Alfonso stood up from their seats and left the room. When the murmurs that echoed down the hall had finally subsided, Alfonso slowly rose from his chair and walked past Rhea without even looking at her. He stopped at the door and finally looked at them.

"You know, I'm not so foolish as to have woken you out of bed simply because of sheer excitement. I did do my research and nothing came up that would suggest to me that the footage was fake. So, you can try-"

"Oh, you bet we will," Astra challenged him with a wanton smug smile that it must have felt to Alfonso as if she were mocking him. Really, she had just wanted to portray her and Rhea in a position of confidence, one that she felt she was sorely lacking. Alfonso did his trademark adjustment of his glasses before leaving the room.

"Do you really think we can do this? Alfonso's a meticulous guy. He would have checked every individual frame for something wrong," Astra said, taking up the holographic disc from the table. She moved her finger around its smooth shape and held it up to look at Rhea through the donut hole in the center.

"Not this time. Usually Alfonso is rather objective but this time he's on a side and he's going to try and prove that by any means. It also means he's likely to overlook certain things because of it. We'll find those points and blow them up if we have to," Rhea said, before yawning.

Astra chuckled. "Not right now we won't. Come on, I'll help you up."

* * *

Of all the places he had to visit before leaving for his new mission, Sora hated himself for even thinking to the visit Kefka one more time. Still, it was a necessary pain to endure if he wanted to find something out from Kefka. The clown had thick skin, there was no doubt about that, but Sora had come prepared with something up his sleeve. He only really needed one answer anyway.

He soon arrived at Kefka's door and slammed the back of his hand against it. The sound created an echo that reverberated down the halls, but the only people who could hear it were Sora and Kefka. Kefka snapped out of his trance like state and looked at Sora. The pale makeup on his face was peeling away to reveal color behind it but otherwise he looked as demented as ever if not even more so.

"Why, if it isn't Sora. Did you miss me? Oh, I get it! You want me to go after another one of your friends, don't you? I'll give you the choice of picking. Riku? Luna? Or maybe I should stick with Kairi until I've finished the job. What do you say?"

"I say you need to shut up and answer my questions. Tell me where KRONOS is," Sora said.

"Was that a question or an order? It's like day and night with you people, not that I can tell the difference. I've been stuck in for goodness knows how long. Can I at least get a window?"

"You probably don't know since you were blindfolded before you were brought here but you're pretty far down below street level. There are no windows," Sora said. Seeing as how he could stand to be within distance of Kefka, he decided it was best to hurry up his questions. "What is Atlantis?"

"Oho, oho, oho, oho… you don't get to ask that question. You've been doing your investigation work though, poking your nose into other people's business where it doesn't belong. I admire that in a man."

"You can thank Riku and Kairi actually. Anyway, since you're probably not going to answer any of questions I'm just here to tell you that you and your band of criminals have no chance of winning, not while I'm around. As long as Radiant Garden and the princesses are under my protection, you can try all you like but I will always be one step ahead of you. Is that clear?"

"You know, I don't usually take well to being threatened. It makes me angry, and you wouldn't like me when I'm angry," Kefka said.

"Or what? You'll turn into a big green guy?" Sora asked. He looked angrily at Kefka for a second, and then that expression turned into a small smile.

"What are you smiling about?" Kefka asked.

"What, I thought you liked jokes? Anyway, I just couldn't help but notice that you didn't even react when I told you that the princesses were here. It's almost like you already knew," Sora answered. Seeing the uncomfortable look on Kefka's face, Sora knew he had him right where he wanted him.

"Oh. The princesses are here?"

"You can drop the act… or maybe I'm just overlooking things. You know what? I have an overactive imagination. Well, nice seeing you," Sora said and with a wave of his hand he took off back down the long hallway. He could hear his name being called after again and again to come back but Sora ignored him and closed the door of the dungeons with a smile on his face.

So then Sora had been able to pick up on something that Kefka's interrogators hadn't. Kefka had probably already known that they had gathered the Princesses of Heart in one location, either because he and KRONOS had deduced this or even worse and it was something Sora didn't want to think about.

_A spy? Is it possible? I don't want to start suspecting everyone but can I really let this go? _Sora thought, leaning his head against the door. He couldn't dismiss the idea from his head no matter how hard he tried. It would have explained how Freya had known that Kairi was in Radiant Garden again to go after her and it seemed like something KRONOS would do, just like Moira's Crescent had once done with the two who had killed Abraxas and Desiree trying to poison him. He didn't want to doubt. He shouldn't have to.

"I hate this," Sora murmured into his arm. A hand tapped his right shoulder and he turned to meet the figure before grabbing her arms. "Yeul? Is that you?"

"Sora, you're hurting me!"

It was only when she said that that Sora could see that it was not in fact Yeul who had somehow risen from the dead, but Namine he was grasping so tightly. He let go quickly and looked down to check if her arms were alright. After assessing and being satisfied with their condition, Sora looked up to meet her eyes.

"Sorry, I thought you were-"

"Yeul, I know. Do you always see her when you look at me?" Namine asked.

"I… for a while now. You have to understand that it's not like I choose to do this. It's always you and I'm not sure why. Probably because of your seer powers but it's… still so messed up. If I call you Yeul ever again, feel free to slap me."

"I couldn't do that," Namine said but let out a giggle regardless.

"So, why are you here? You came all the way down here just to follow me?" Sora asked.

"I was wondering where you were going. I assume you talked to Kefka? Did you find anything out?" Namine asked.

Sora considered answering truthfully for a moment. Were he to do so then Namine would no doubt want to help. He supposed he could have her keeping tabs on anyone suspicious but it would also put her in a grave amount of danger, something he wouldn't dare risk. Considering she could also see the future, were his enemies to get word or even the slightest hint to her nature, then that alone would make her a target. He hadn't even dared to try and test Kefka on whether he knew about Namine either.

"Nope. As quiet as always," Sora lied, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Are you sure? You know you can always tell me if there's something wrong," Namine said.

"Not this time. Namine, I want you to do something for me. It's not safe for you here. I don't trust Kefka and if KRONOS knew he was here and knew that you inherited Yeul's powers… I can't risk that. You need to go back to Twilight Town-"

"I can't!" Namine cried out with an urgency that stunned Sora. Then she said more calmly, "I can't be alone again. All I ever did was sit in that white room, drawing every day. I'm trying to make friends here. I can't stop now and I can't leave all of you when there's such an imminent danger ahead."

"But you can make friends in Twilight Town. What about Hayner, Pence and Olette? You can even go to school with them if you want," Sora said.

"I'll be alright. Besides, Yen Sid needs to know when I have my visions so he can act accordingly," Namine said but Sora shook his head.

"Oh, screw him!" He said it with such anger that it surprised even himself, let alone Namine. He blamed it on feelings of frustration piling up but there was also something else. "Sorry. It's just… he's asked us to do something that is rather immoral, and I don't know how to approach it exactly. I've been so angry with him lately. He prioritized finding Alice over Luna when she was still stuck in the Realm of Darkness and now he's telling me to prioritize something else over Alice."

"Do you hate him?" Namine asked.

"That… is a rather strong word. I certainly detest him at the moment. I just don't want to do this for the rest of my life, Namine. I don't want this to be who I am. It's just something I've been thinking about, but I can see a point of no return where once I cross it, I'll never be able to turn back," Sora said. "I want to ask you something. If I ever stopped using the Keyblade… if I ever stopped saving the worlds, would you hate me for it?"

"Nothing lasts forever, right? Why would I hate you?"

"Because it would be a purely selfish reason," Sora said. "I know that's not something you're used to."

"No, it wouldn't be. But that doesn't make it wrong either. I'm trying to change too. It's those speckles of happiness that you have to reach out for, otherwise you never know when you'll get the opportunity to catch them again," Namine said with a smile that reminded him very much of Kairi for that instant, but only the instant, because he didn't want to compare Namine to anyone. She was her own person, and Sora could only hope to find that strength she possessed and become his own person too.


	57. Around the Riverbend

_So my first time watching the KH II.8 trailer, I thought that Yen Sid had said it was time to summon Hitler. Of course, now it all makes sense. Hitler is one of the 7 guardians of light! I'm onto you Mr. Nomura. In all fairness, it was like 3 in the morning when the trailer came out and I was tired. And now for something completely different, the return of this fic after two weeks of coursework writing. Enjoy!_

* * *

**Chapter 57**

**Around the Riverbend**

For the next few hours of the day, Astra found herself trapped in Rhea's room, working her way through the video device that Alfonso had presented to them earlier that morning. Well, perhaps trapped wasn't exactly the best word, though it certainly felt as if she had no say in the matter, not that she had ever asked if she did. Rhea did her best to lighten the mood and help in her own way, mainly through giving Astra a basic rundown of what to do and analyzing her words.

"You've never really seen us do investigation on evidence before, have you? It isn't really something we do all that often but it's not really much different from doing reconnaissance in other worlds," Rhea said, after having Astra watch the footage with Sora one too many times for her liking.

"Alright, I'm looking forward to learning… I can't believe I just said that," Astra replied meekly.

"Well, when checking a video there are always a few things to keep in mind that you should be paying attention to—lighting, the camera angle, the background, and the editing. Since its holographic footage, we won't have much luck in the lighting department. No doubt they used a lower quality method of recording to throw us off as to their location. For that reason I can imagine the background wouldn't help much either, but because holographic images are usually low quality, that's our best bet to go on right now that Alfonso's prized evidence isn't all that definitive as he would like it to be."

"So then that leaves the editing and the camera angle then? Alright, just have to watch this video a hundred more times. Should be a piece of cake," Astra said sarcastically before cracking her knuckle and tracing her finger around the smooth face of the disc once more. It was taking into account the thing Rhea had mentioned that she had discovered one obvious weakness in the footage and it was to do with the camera angle. The footage had been filmed from an overhead view and while she could see the face of the children clearly, it was Sora that was closest to the camera. Not once was Sora's face ever shown, and Astra realized that she had only really judged it to be him judging from the hair. Even the material of his clothing was too blurred to recognize. She told Rhea what she was thinking as she watched it through a second time, but even so…

"Even so, it's still him, I think. His clothes might not be detailed enough and you can't see his face the entire video but that's his hair, and that's definitely his Keyblade in his hand, what was it, the… Kingdom Key? I'm not sure how far we can go with this at the end of the day. Let's suppose someone's just pretending to be him. They wear a wig and all that. You can't replicate the Keyblade… right?"

"Well, most Keyblades are man-made, but have powerful magic put on them that passes them on to successors. There are only a few natural Keyblades in the world and I'm pretty sure neither of us will ever see one in our lifetime, but to answer your question, it certainly is possible. I remember Kohle telling me a story about having to go after a group of people claiming to wield Keyblades back when he was training with his Master. It turned out that they were all just a bunch a group trying to sell fake Keyblades under the pretence that they were real," Rhea explained.

"And people believed that?" Astra asked.

"Some did, some didn't. The Keyblade is an age old fairy tale just like the supposed battle between light and darkness. That's how most would see it. Of course, we know better. We know that there are truths behind fairy tales and folklore. We're not the only ones. Those con artists took advantage of those who believe that. KRONOS, though we don't have much information on them, would believe the same thing, as did Maleficent once upon a time, I suppose," Rhea said.

"Well if you had asked me before I gained mine, I wouldn't have believed it. I'm still not sure how or why it happened. For me or for Luna," Astra said.

"Well, have you ever experienced anything strange before you received it?"

"Strange?"

"It could have happened at any point in your life. That's how it starts. As something small and then like a spark, it ignites and comes into existence. Usually someone has to pass it down to you, but there are other ways, for example, if you've share a special relationship with someone who has one then sometimes it might just be enough to rub off on you. Of course it doesn't really matter how you received the power to begin with. All that matters is what you do with it now. For me, I've decided to dedicate my life to saving people. I will not take a life unless it's absolutely necessary. That's why I'm willing to go against the odds to save Sora," Rhea said.

"I see…" Astra nodded and looked at the holographic disc again. Now that she thought about it, it would definitely be within Rhea's personality to advocate peace as opposed to war. It wasn't just that she believed in Sora but rather that her belief that life itself was a valuable thing. Astra then asked, "Why do you think Sora would kill children, assuming that this video is actually him. Maybe figuring out why he did it might help."

"The Sora I met back at the factory seemed to have a kind heart, though troubled it may have been. I did feel sadness and anger in his heart that he was trying to supress, but that isn't something that would motivate him to do this. There's no doubt in my mind that this is a trap of some sort, and KRONOS really are the only one who could benefit against pitting us against Sora and his friends. Let's not even contemplate the possibility of a mysterious fourth party," Rhea said.

"Yeah, let's not make this more complex than it has to be. My head already hurts enough as it is," Astra said. "I mean, even if we prove it's not decisively Sora, why do I have the feeling that Alfonso and some of the others still won't accept it as an answer. I don't even know what Desiree's position on it is anymore. She's eased up a bit but I still think she has a grudge against him. That 'Parisian pride' as she calls it. What's Kohle's position on this? I know he has to act objectively but he must have some opinion."

"His is the same as mine. He would rather just focus on KRONOS while making sure we keep an eye on Sora. If we can convince him to join Moira's Crescent, that would be even better. But Moira's Crescent isn't just some hive mind of collective thoughts. We're individuals and because of that, we don't always think alike. Kohle can't just say 'don't do this!' and expect everyone to follow it except in really special circumstances. When Desiree went after Sora, that was of her own accord, not an order. I have a feeling she won't be the last either. If that ever happens, or if this evidence really is enough to convince the others that he's a threat, I… wouldn't mind if you left Moira's Crescent to protect Luna." Rhea appeared to choose her words carefully at the end but shook her head quickly and amended them. "Or rather, I'd understand."

"Rhea…" Astra said in a worried tone, to which was countered by Rhea's blatantly deceptive smile.

"It would be fine. You more than anyone else here would have something to lose if you didn't, and I'll do my best to keep you out of harm's way."

"Say, why don't we go out and get some lunch? I'm starving!" Astra said rather forcefully. Even so, the truth was beginning to dawn upon her and in her heart was a fear worse than any Heartless could instil. She didn't want to choose.

* * *

_Three Days Later…_

"Is this really all you girls do every day? I'll never understand women, kupo," Kupopo said, watching as Kairi clamped down on the last few undone sections of Luna's hair with a curling iron and curled outwards.

"Kupopo, that's offensive. They're girls, not women," Riku joked, only to back down after receiving a death glare from Kairi.

"Well, the curls definitely suit you, Luna. Not sure if you couldn't have done it at a better time though. We're almost at our destination," Sora said, swivelling around in the pilot seat to check Kairi's work before spinning around again. After somehow managing to convince Yen Sid and Neuge to bring Riku and Kairi with them, of which Sora assumed was Luna's grand plan that she had mentioned in response to his own, the group had left Radiant Garden not just in search of a new candidate to succeed Alice, but something else as well. Sora looked to his right as the others were talking and set his eyes upon the strange puzzle box given to him by the gods on Olympus.

It had pretty much been with him since the start of his journey with Luna and he hadn't really paid too much attention to it, until now that is. Of course he wondered—he spent a good amount of time doing that—but it had taken his feisty redhead of a friend to finally get him to pursue the object's true purpose. With what Mirage had told him about KRONOS going after Atlantis and the puzzle box being the key, they had the clues to take them all the way.

He reluctantly considered the possibility that Abraxas had wanted to help them. As farfetched as it may have sounded before he and Luna had entered the Grid to find Tron, if the discovery of Atlantis was anything like the rebirth of the ISOs then Abraxas would most likely want them to see something from his point of view. Abraxas had planted breadcrumbs and wanted Sora to follow them. Perhaps Abraxas had even already stumbled across Atlantis.

"Sora, you ever thought about getting your hair cut? Make it look a bit like Roxas'?" Kairi asked. She sneaked up from behind and grabbed hold of a piece of his hair.

"Hey-hey-hey, no one's touching the hair, okay? As far as I'm concerned, Roxas can keep his and I can keep mine," Sora answered, successfully managing to push her away from him. He sighed as his eyes finally set sight on a green world steadily approaching them. The world surely couldn't be the kind of place that a candidate for the Princess of Heart would live, assuming the greenery was a jungle or forest. It also didn't look like the kind of place KRONOS would come to, though he supposed if they were to have a hideout, it would also be in the most inconspicuous of places, such as this.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Riku asked, popping back in the co-pilot seat next to him.

"Why not? Let's give it a shot," Sora said grinning. He pushed forward on the acceleration and the booster engines came to life.

* * *

The young girl hopped from one branch to the next, alternating feet. It almost seemed as if she were floating from the way she landed so gracefully. The many tall trees in the area provided a quick shortcut to her, one that she had known almost her entire life much to her advantage. She usually went exploring on most days, venturing off to a greater distance than her father, the chief, or her best friend, Nakoma, would have reasonably expected of her. As far as they knew, after working in the fields, the young girl would go off to watch Kocoum hunt the beast prowling the land for what would be their source of food. She had no interest in something like that. She had no interest in Kocoum, for that matter.

"Pocahontas! There you are, I've been looking all over for you. Kocoum said he hadn't see you at all today," Nakoma yelled from down below. Pocahontas winced. She had been hoping to at least have some more time to herself.

"I'll have you know that I was just on my way back to the village. You worry about me too much, Nakoma," Pocahontas replied. She jumped onto a lower branch first before making a final leap and landing on the ground on all fours.

"Only because you don't worry about yourself enough. I feel sorry for Kocoum. He told me he feels as if you're trying to ignore him lately."

"Well if you care so much about him, you can have him," Pocahontas said. The two friends started on their walk back to the village settlement, choosing to take their time as always.

"Oh? Can I?"

"Nakoma!"

"What? He is rather cute. Come on, what do you think about him? And be honest," Nakoma interrogated.

"What do I think of him? I don't. He's okay, I suppose," Pocahontas said.

"Just 'okay'? Well, if that's how you feel, maybe I _should _marry him," Nakoma said.

"Feel free. He's far too serious for me. Suppose, for instance, that he was more in touch with his emotional side, then possibly…" Pocahontas said. "You should have seen him with the children. There they were, asking him to play with them, but he just ignored them. I don't think he intentionally meant it but he's just very awkward around people who aren't his hunting group. He only knows war and not joy. I'm sure if you wanted tried to initiate a conversation with him it would last all of about twenty seconds, and that's if you're lucky."

"Well, you'll find I have a way with words. I'll charm him within half the twenty," Nakoma humored them both, though Pocahontas had the feeling that Nakoma really believed it, if not partially. "On a more serious topic. You really shouldn't be out by yourself. It's way too dangerous, especially with the strange things that are going on. You know your father wouldn't like it if he found you wandering around by yourself especially with some of our hunters going missing."

"He would probably put me under Kocoum's protection," Pocahontas joked, but her friend didn't find it so funny.

"He would probably just make sure you head straight back to the village after working. Those strange demons that have been seen around the village recently are no doubt behind it, but I feel that Chief Powhatan doesn't want to cause a panic just yet. Even so, he can't have you running around and out of sight."

"I'll be fine. You might say I know these forests inside and out," Pocahontas said. Perhaps it was a cruel curse that no sooner had the words left her mouth that a group of demons popped out from the ground and circled them. They were tall and imposing, carrying swords in their hands. Worse yet, it was as if their yellow eyes could stare deep into Pocahontas' soul.

"Stay away from us! Go! We're not afraid of you," her friend yelled out at them, though her quivering voice told the opposite. Pocahontas took hold off her hand and waited for an opening or chance to escape. She, for a second or so, pictured herself and Nakoma ducking under two of these creatures as they approached, but the more she waited for such a chance, the more she began to fear that her vivid imagination was just that and the less she was willing to take such a risk. In the end, all she could do was hold onto Nakoma and close her eyes.

"You'll want to keep your eyes open if you want to survive."  
Pocahontas obeyed the unfamiliar voice's suggestion and looked to see a boy with spiky brown hair suddenly next to her. He was not one of them— that much was clear from the color of his skin— and she slowly backed away from him.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, it's okay. I won't hurt you, I promise. I'm Sora. I'm gonna get you two to safety, okay?" Sora introduced before extending his hand at and flicking his wrist. A ball of fire shot out of his hand only for the creature he was targeting to fly out of the way of the attack. Even so, it had made an opening and Sora ushered them to follow him.

"Pocahontas, are you sure we should follow him? Did you see what he just did?"

"You'd rather die? Come on, Nakoma," Pocahontas said before dragging the girl along with her.

Sora motioned for them to go ahead of him before pulling out a strange weapon. He threw attack after attack at the demons, who cut through or dodged them easily enough. Sora frowned and stopped in his tracks before looking back at Pocahontas and Nakoma.

"Keep going! My friends are just up ahead," he said.

_Are your friends just as weird? _Was what Pocahontas thought to ask but considering it was rude to ask such a question, she instead asked, "Will you be alright here? You should run too. You can't beat them."

"Yeah, well I can certainly try," Sora said before giving them an expectant look. "Go!"

"You don't need to tell us twice. Let's go Pocahontas," Nakoma said, now taking the leadership role of the two. Pocahontas nodded absently but was transfixed by what was going on in front of her. Her saviour displayed impressive feats with his technique, not staying in one place for too long and flicking his weapon in fast strokes at the demons. Even then, from what little she saw before she heard Nakoma call her name again, it was still not enough to defeat them.

Wishing that she could help him out somehow, but realizing the only way to help was to not be in his way, Pocahontas turned and left with her friend. After running a good amount, the two girls stopped to catch their breath, Nakoma leaning against a tree and looking back at where they had come from.

"Are you worried about him?" Pocahontas asked.

"More so wondering where he came from. He's different. Then again, he did save us so I suppose he has good intentions. But that strange magic he was wielding. It was… scary," Nakoma debated with herself.

"He created fire from his hand only and then there was that weapon that just appeared in his hands. I remember my father spoke of a story once of a demon trickster who possessed the gift of all the elements of nature. Looking at him, it just reminded me of that story," Pocahontas said.

"You don't think he's a reincarnation or something, do you?" Nakoma asked.

"It's just a story. I really don't think he's a trickster. He said he had friends so maybe they're the same," Pocahontas said. The mention of these friends soon heralded three figures who, like Sora, she had never seen before and certainly were not a part of their tribe.

"You three… are you friends of Sora?" Pocahontas came out of the shadow of the tree before Nakoma could stop her.

"Yes. Is there something wrong? Why isn't he with you?" the auburn-haired girl asked.

"Those demons surrounded us. He kept them at bay so we could get to safety. He told us that we would find you up ahead," Nakoma explained.

"That's Sora for you. Well, I'm Riku. This is Kairi and Luna," the silver-haired one of the group introduced.

"Nice to meet you," the brown-haired girl with the curls, Luna, said with a warm smile. "He's in that direction? Okay, I'll make sure he's okay and meet up with you guys back at the village."

"Wait, you've been to our village?" Nakoma enquired in shock.

"Right. The chief asked us to bring back his daughter and her friend. One of the villagers was just attacked by those creatures you saw. That's about all we've heard so far. When we get back, the chief can explain the rest," Luna replied. She nodded at Riku and Kairi and gave Pocahontas and Nakoma another smile before heading off in the direction they had come from.

The frost that covered the dead leaves on the ground definitely signalled that it was also winter in this world just like in Radiant Garden. The forest she was in was unlike any she had ever been in however. It was beautiful and serene yet seemed to possess a mysterious and unsettling force, almost like the forest was actually alive. Slightly agitated by this juxtaposition, Luna's jog became more of a run as she hurried to find Sora.

When she did find him, Sora was warping and slamming into the Invisibles like a pinball of blue light. Having spotted Luna, two of the Invisibles left Sora's side and flew forward. Luna ducked as one swung its sword. She flicked her wrist, a sphere of wind forming around her hand, and punched forward with her fist at its side. Her hand cut through the Invisible cleaning, severing its torso from its legs and taking it out. The remaining Invisible stabbed its sword into the ground and disappeared. Luna looked down to see a purple ring revolving around her. When she tried to move, the ring did also, staying around her and causing her to panic.

"Er… Sora?" Luna yelled out, keeping her eyes on the ring.

Sora went out of his warping phase and gave a quick look her way. He quickly judged the amount of the time before the ring closed in on her waist and sprinted forward, grabbing her hand and guiding her out of the ring before it could hit. When the Invisible appeared once again in physical form, Luna ran forward, jumped and cut from the Heartless' head downwards before it could take the sword out of the ground.

"It's a last second thing. Just roll or jump out of the way before it can-" Sora found himself abruptly cut off when an Invisible from the three left rose into the air and spun around, creating a bunch of dark orbs which were sent at them. He and Luna raised their Keyblades and deflected the shots quickly. After cutting through one of the orbs, Sora warped into the air and cast _Reflect_. The orb bounced off against his shield and slammed into the spinning Invisible. Sora turned his attention to the last two Invisibles and shot of an instant _Ragnorok_, the yellow lights spiralling from the tip of his Keyblade and raining down on the Heartless like arrows.

"Well that was more trouble than it was worth. They're getting harder," Sora said.

"Didn't seem like you had much trouble to me. In fact, I'd say you were waiting for me to arrive so you could show off," Luna complimented with an amused smile.

"Why would I need to show off now? Besides, I've never had to use this much of my strength on these things before," Sora said.

"You clearly haven't spent too much time in the Realm of Darkness, I see. Every fight in there had my life pretty much flashing before my eyes. This is nothing in comparison. But I've had that feeling too, not for those things, but for Shadows. After you ran off and left us-"

"Oh, about that… sorry, but the chief's daughter and his friend were in trouble. The more time we wasted standing around, the more likely they were in danger," Sora said.

"And I applaud your rashness, but that's not what I'm getting at. The Heartless. We encountered a bunch of Shadows on our way here, you know, the small fry. We fought them but, maybe it's just me, but there was something different about the way they were acting. They were playing a lot more defensively than they usually do. Yeah, I'm sure about it! They were consciously trying to evade our attacks and help each other out as opposed to just going in."

"Conscious...? If the Heartless are getting stronger, then we're in big trouble. We don't need the Heartless in the Realm of Light acting like they do in the Realm of Darkness."

"Agreed. Anyway, let's head back to village. With any luck, bringing back Pocahontas and Nakoma will stop the villagers from giving us those strange stares," Luna said.

"We're not exactly around from here. I think it'll take some time for them to get used to us," Sora said.

"It still makes me feel like we're not welcome here. It almost makes me wish I was smaller than I already am. Hey, we really need to go back to Wonderland sometime to get more of those mushrooms," Luna said and Sora laughed cheerfully at her timidity. With that, together the two made their way back through the forest trees, though not without stopping to admire some of the scenery along the way.

* * *

The village of the Powhatan tribe was a fortified settlement, as if it were a completely different world within a world, bordered off by the wood gathered from the trees that were once there no doubt. Within its walls were huts made of straw, and Sora and Luna, not having had much time to check out the village before they were assigned their mission by the chief, they became mesmerized the different style of housing to what they were used to.

This was much to the annoyance of the villagers however. Luna's fears were justified in that most of the villagers gave them strange looks, some showed fear and others curiosity. It wouldn't have even bothered them so much if they weren't stopping what they were doing just to look at the two outsiders. Luna seemed to want to shrink into non-existence and stayed close behind Sora, who found it all rather funny and cute but understandable. With that in mind, Sora took his sight away from the hut he was checking and made his and by extension Luna's way to the chief's hut, located in the centre of the village.

"There they are. Nice to see you two slowpokes finally show up," Riku said as they entered.

"Were we too slow, or were you just too fast?" Sora asked.

"Too slow. Definitely, too slow," Kairi said.

"Well, that joke fell about as flat as Kairi trying to make bread," Sora replied, only to receive a smack on the back of the head from Luna. "Ow!"

"For you, Kairi," Luna said.

"Thank you, Luna." Kairi threw a devilishly sweet smile Sora's way before turning to the chief. "Sorry about that. Since we weren't properly introduced before, here's Sora and Luna."

"Sora, Luna, I thank you for helping my daughter and her friend." Chief Powhatan bowed as deeply as he could, earning an uncomfortable look from Sora and a smile from Luna.

"It was really all because of Sora. The eager beaver of our team," Luna said.

"Oh, no, it's nothing really. How are you two doing?" Sora asked looking at Pocahontas and Nakoma who were in the back of the room.

"We're fine, thank you," Nakoma said. Seeing a waiting gaze from the chief, her mouth soon formed an 'oh' and she ran past them and out of the hut. It wasn't too long before she returned with a basket full of corn. "These are from our fields. Please accept them as a token of our appreciation."

"Thanks. Oh, this looks great!" Kairi exclaimed, accepting the basket excitedly.

"But are you sure you don't need it? We wouldn't want to take food away from you or anything," Riku said.

"We have plenty. I should… um, be off now. I'll be around if you need me." Nakoma fumbled around with her hands awkwardly almost as if she were avoiding eye contact with Riku. She eventually looked up at Pocahontas and nodded her head before running back out.

Sora walked behind Riku and gave him a light punch on the shoulder. "She's totally into you, man!" he whispered with a grin.

"Uh huh. Her and the other thirty four girls you've decided to add to my list," Riku replied.

"Wait, there's a list? A list for what?" Sora asked. When Riku ignored his question, Sora made a quick mental note of having to ask him later.

"Hey, do you mind telling us what's been happening as of late in this village? You said earlier briefly that the attack on that villager hasn't been the first. There've been more like this one?" Riku asked the chief.

"Like this… and worse. I have never seen anything like it in all my years. I keep wondering to myself if I have angered the spirits somehow, and if so, why my tribe has to pay the price. We hold no grudge or harm against mother earth and all her creatures. I will tell you of our predicament, though I know of no way that you may be able to help."


	58. The Trickster

_So I hope you've all had a happy holidays so far, be it whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or just, you know, a happy weekend in general. That said, here's my own little present and I go into full gear with getting this story done._

* * *

**Chapter 58**

**The Trickster**

The tribes' current troubles started roughly three months ago, the group learned from Chief Powhatan. As soon as he had mentioned a strange fog that came and left every few days, Sora had a good idea of where the story was going.

"Within the fog, our hunters, those who provide for their families, they were picked off one by one. As time went on, the demons that attacked grew in number and strength. You did not have to be in the fog to be attacked. The women in the fields, the children playing outside… they all became vulnerable. Despite this, the demons do not go within the walls of this village. It is our only sanctuary, our only protection. We considered migration, moving to another part of the land and settling there, but this winter has been particularly harsh."

"And with all the women and children, it wouldn't exactly be the best thing to do right now," Riku said. The Chief nodded and walked to the entrance of the hut, Sora and the others following behind.

Chief Powhatan continued, "They're so comfortable with their lives here. To take that away from them now would be the greatest tragedy. Yet I can't help but wonder- Is it worth keeping them locked within these walls to protect them? What if the time comes when food can no longer be gathered in safety?"

"This fog will disappear if we seal the keyhole to this world, I think. That's what happened in the Pride Lands. So, that's all we need to do, right?" Luna said.

"Even if that were true, that's easier said than done. Finding a keyhole is no easy feat and it doesn't just show up for anyone. Only people like us can find them and it could be anywhere. I'd rather not search an entire forest just to find one," Riku replied.

"But there's no point complaining about it either. If we want everyone here to keep living their lives here in peace then we have no choice," Kairi said.

"What is this about keyholes?" Chief Powhatan asked slowly.

Luna's eyes grew big and she gave an exaggerated clearing of the throat. "Oh, it's nothing you have to worry about. Listen, those creatures… you mustn't be afraid of them. The worst thing you can do now is falter when your people need you most. I'm not sure how much we can do to help but what you _can_ do is lead. Whew, that came out way better than it sounded in my head."

"Thank you, but I'd rather not put all our burdens on strangers who we've only just met."

"Oh, no need to be so considerate. Helping people is Luna's speciality," Sora told him, patting Luna on the head mockingly.

"Hey, don't think I'm doing it alone!" Luna said, pushing Sora's forehead and his body away with a finger.

"You don't mind if we stay for the night at least, do you? It's starting to get dark outside," Kairi said.

"Of course. We would be honored to have you as our guests. Do make yourselves at home. Explore the village to your hearts' content. We'll call you when tonight's feast is ready. They shall be in your honor," Chief Powhatan said cheerfully. He held the cloth hanging to the hut entrance to the side allowing the group and Pocahontas to exit.

Sora, who was the last one to leave, stopped just outside, turned around and asked, "There hasn't been anyone suspicious wandering about or near the village, has there? We're looking for a group of people who are nothing but bad news."

"Not as far as I can recall. I would immediately know of any people looking to make trouble if they had come to the village," the chief answered after some consideration.

"That's a good thing then. At least I won't have them breathing down my neck here," Sora mumbled the last sentence to himself before leaving with the others.

The nature-surrounding smell of the trees and dirt outside of the village walls wafted their way inside, hitting Sora's nostrils in strong bursts whenever he got too close to the edge of the village. He could admit that he wasn't much of a nature admirer, but he couldn't help but also be fascinated when Luna occasionally pointed something out. He had remembered how she had dug up the soil back on Nomanisan Island and when she did so in front of him, he grinned and eagerly pointed out that she was testing for the richness of the soil.

Kairi soon met up with them after the two went to the centre of the village to wash Luna's hands. Sora's expression became glum when he saw that Kairi's face was paler than usual.

"Hey, guys. Luna, you remember when you told Yen Sid and Neuge that I'd be useful in detecting other candidates?" she reminded Luna.

"She did?" Sora asked, looking from one of them to the other.

"That's how I convinced the Master to let them come along with us. I didn't really have much of a convincing argument for Riku but I guess she may have just made an exception because of my birthday," Luna explained. Her hands found their way down to the tantō Neuge had given her which was strapped to her waist. Sora had come across her trying to practice with it and had he even tried using it but neither of the two could ever get close to the way Neuge had used it during their training. It wasn't as if wielding a short blade was the same as wielding a Keyblade so that only made sense, but being able to experience actually wielding one and noticing all the differences made them appreciate Neuge more than ever.

"Well, I felt it. It was as if my heart started beating faster all of a sudden. I noticed it when we were in the hut with the chief and Pocahontas and I wanted to confirm it, so I went to talk to Pocahontas alone and… I definitely felt it. She has potential," Kairi said.

"Well that was quick," Sora said, none too pleased with this revelation. "Are we really going ahead with this? We're just going to ask a girl to leave her home, especially when the people of her village are being attacked daily by the Heartless."

"We can search somewhere else. The last thing we want her to think is that we're befriending her out of some ulterior motive to ease her into leaving. I feel like we'd be sending their hospitality right down the drain," Luna said.

"And that's how we'll feel about the next world, and the one after that. We're kidding ourselves if we think this is going to be easy. We're taking someone away from their home, their family. There's no point hiding it from her if we're considering it. Let's… let's just deal with the fog first if we can," said an irritated Sora.

Luna nodded and bit her lip. "I think if we question all the hunters in the village, we're bound to gather some information. That should take up the rest of the time until dinner."

"Good idea. Where's Riku?" Sora asked.

Kairi laughed. "Where else? Getting a head start on you, Sora."

* * *

After interrogating hunters in different portions of the camp, Sora and the others regrouped at the feast to discuss what they had learned, which was really only little but interesting nonetheless. A few of the hunters had each claimed to have witnessed seeing something in the fog while they were hunting.

The most important piece of information however came from the injured man who had just woken up. Riku had been waiting for a chance to speak to him and learned that the man had encountered the monster first hand and had barely escaped with his life. That much was obvious, given that his injuries had resulted in his leg having to be amputated. Though he had been unable to make note of the finer details due to the thickness of the fog, he had described his attacker as having the firm hind legs of a lion with the head, talons and wings of an eagle.

"A griffon! Oh my, never in all my years did I think I would be meeting one so soon. They're legendary creatures with rumoured to move at fantastic speeds of up to one-hundred-forty miles per hour," Jiminy popped out of Sora's breast pocket to say.

"ONE-HUNDRED AND- How are we supposed to take down something like that?" Sora asked stunned.

"Oh, that's the least of your worries. It would rip you to shreds with its talons before it would even need to achieve that speed. It's a miracle that guy even came out alive," Jiminy replied.

"Not exactly inspiring confidence here, Jiminy," Luna said.

"The guy said he was right at the edge of the fog when the creature attacked so he was able to escape. I guess it doesn't wander out of the fog then. If we ever do fight that thing, we better hope we're right at edge," Riku said.

Kairi nodded and pulled out a syringe from her pocket. She set it down on the ground and Riku, guessing what she was getting at, reached into his pocket and pulled out the other half of the puzzle, a case containing five hypodermic needles.

"So then Even's finished with his trial runs?" Luna asked.

"No, since he didn't exactly have any subjects to test it on. We'll be doing that for him. If this thing is a Chimera then hopefully we won't need to fight it so much as sneak up behind it and inject this into it when it's not looking," Riku answered.

Luna looked at him grimly. "I'm not too sure this'll work out. You said it worked on Quasimodo, but he was still human, or he might have even shared a similar blood type to mine. Second, trying to sneak up on one of these things is insane! It's a massive risk and it could all end horribly if it goes wrong. Third, even if it does work, we won't know how long it'll take to change them back. You said Quasimodo got worse before he got better, right? Do we really want to know what worse means in the context of a fully turned Chimera?"

The expression on Riku's face was inscrutable, and Luna had the feeling he was conflicted himself though he an expert at not showing it.

"It's the best chance we've got," he said simply, though their situation was anything but. It was fortunate that the commencement of the feast served as a healthy distraction for the group, who ate and talked amongst their hosts as if they were naturally part of them. After finishing the food on their trays, which included the corn Nakoma had given them earlier that day, they went their separate ways, not to gather information but for casual interaction.

"There's an island that exists deep in the minds of children that they visit when they dream. It's a luscious island with sparkling blue waters and is inhabited by fairies, mermaids and most especially children like yourselves," Sora said softly and pointed to the group of children gathered around him. "Those children, they believed in the island's innocence and purity so much that they never grew up. The children saw they could build a tropical paradise, where the kids, fairies, mermaids and all the other creatures on the land could co-exist. It was how the island came to be named Never-Never Land. But there were some who did not wish for such a peaceful co-existence. Those who were tainted by greed and fed off the land for profit, namely one Captain Hook. He sailed the Jolly Roger across the sea, feeling no one could rival him—that was until someone proved him wrong. One day, Hook looked to his flag high above the ship's mast to see it cut cleanly through in the shape of a boy. He was a boy no different than any of you, but he was pure of heart and indulged in the sense of adventure along with his crew, The Lost Boys-"

Sora stopped and turned around to see Kairi listening from behind. He got up and stepped backwards.

"Kairi! Nice to see you here!"

"Were you gonna tell the part where I was unconscious too and you had to rescue me?" she asked with a wry smile.

"Actually, I was just talking about when Donald, Goofy and I went to Neverland this one time. I kind of fairy-tailed it in a few parts but it's still pretty faithful," Sora said.

"Well go ahead then. I'm listening," Kairi said and sat down with the same gleeful expression as the children. Sora nodded and continued on with his story. He described what in his mind he felt was an epic tale of pirates and Lost Boys doing battle and ending with the conclusion of Peter Pan pricking Hook in the rear with his sword sending him into the ocean.

"Ever since his first encounter with Pan, Hook had been subjected to torturous sounds of a ticking clock. This time was no exception. He scanned the area until he saw it, the source of his discomfort. The crocodile who had taken his hand. Hook screamed and swam for dear life, the Crocodile following closely behind. The Lost Boys and Peter Pan, on the other hand, emerged victorious and celebrated throughout the night and not once did the fireflies that occupied the lamps in their treehouses go out. The end."

Sora's story was met with an ecstatic applause from his audience, with Kairi joining in and whistling. The children dispersed as it neared their bedtimes, leaving only the two friends together. The two leaned against the tall wooden logs that made the fortification of the settlement and watched as people passed by.

"How did that happen?" Kairi eventually asked in wonderment.

"They were all playing with my hair and I told them that I'd tell them a story if they settled down," Sora said.

"I told you a haircut would help," Kairi said proudly.

Sora mumbled something incoherent under his breath and then said. "I am really full right now. That was some feast, huh?"

"You ate like a pig. Is that really how you eat corn?"

"Is there any other way?" Sora asked with a playful wink. Kairi chuckled and closed her eyes for a moment.

"Sora, have you ever liked someone?"

"What do you mean? As in like someone? Or like _like_ someone," Sora said uncomfortably.

"The second option, of course," Kairi replied.

"This… this question isn't… I mean, I don't really have time to think about that kind of stuff. I have enough love anyway since the Heartless have a unique way of showing it," Sora lied. It was more a lie he told himself than it was to Kairi but it was one that was necessary. He had no time to be bogged down in anything like that even if he wanted to. Just having to imagine the ways in which something like that could be used against him was terrifying alone. He looked down before asking, "Er, what about you? Is there someone you like?"

"I think so. But we're usually always so far apart and even when we're close he doesn't seem to really notice, probably because of everything else that's going on in his life," Kairi said.

"Well, once we're done with all this I'm sure you two can be together again. You just need to have courage, take the griffon by the reins and show him you're the boss," Sora said.

"Take the griffon by the reins? Did you just say that?" Kairi said while laughing.

"Would you prefer a chocobo?" Sora asked. He watched as she threw her head forward to meet her arms where she continued to laugh.

"Hey!"

Sora and Kairi looked up to see Luna running over to them while waving. She stopped in front of them and looked behind her.

"The village Shaman asked me to gather us all around the fire. He wants to tell us something," she said.

"Village shaman?" Sora asked. Put together, the words sounded incredibly strange to him and he stifled a laugh. "Shaman? You mean to do with the occult and stuff?"

"That's what he told me. Maybe he can speak to ghosts or something! That'd be cool. Wouldn't you like to talk to ghosts?" Luna asked eagerly.

"Not really, but I can't deny that I'm interested to see what happens. Let's go," Sora said.

Luna led them to the centre of the village where families gathered around the flickering flames, their embers floating off and disappearing under the starry sky. The trio joined up with Riku who was situated in between Nakoma and Pocahontas. Nakoma seemed engaged in a non-stop round of questions to the silver-haired youth who looked as if he really didn't want to be there. Sora grinned, sneaked in, puckered his lips and made kissing noises in Riku's ear. Riku tried to grab at him but Sora was quicker and managed to evade his arm's reach.

"Immature as always..." Kairi shrugged her shoulders at this and Luna snickered.

"Boys will be boys," she replied, sitting down cross-legged next to Pocahontas along with Kairi. Sora soon joined them, making sure to sit on Luna's side rather than Kairi's who was next to Riku.

"I thank you all for attending today and I would to once more give a warm welcome to our guests. I do admit, I had my doubts when you first arrived, but we know better than to judge others for all brothers and sisters were born from the same soil and must one day also return to it," Chief Powhatan started once the crowd had quietened down. There murmurs here and there of approval and Luna in particular found herself particularly embarrassed by having pairs of eyes stare at her yet again. However, they were different eyes from the ones that had stared at her so strangely when she had first come here. Warm and enthusiastic. She wasn't good at being the center of attention but she was appreciative nonetheless of being in the company of new friends.

The chief continued, "I would like to share with our guests a tradition that has long since brought us together. After special feasts such as this, we always gather around the fire and share the stories that have been passed down by our forebears."

"And we thank _you_ for being willing to share some of your culture and history with us. I'm really looking forwards to hearing about it," Luna said, her eyes shining in the same way that they had many times when Sora had told her about his previous adventures.

"I'm glad to hear it. Then without further ado, let us begin!" the chief declared. He allowed way to an old man with silvery hair who stepped forward, a warm smile plastered on his face. He had in his hand what appeared to be spices of some sort, but the group only had a brief chance to see them before they were cast into the fire.

"That's the shaman?" Sora whispered across Luna to Pocahontas, if only because he had realized that he hadn't really talked with the chief's daughter since they had first met.

"His name is Kekata. He also works with medicine and healing the wounded such as the warrior you met earlier," Pocahontas whispered back. Sora's eyes widened, not at what Pocahontas had just said but at the fire suddenly coming to life. Smoke rose up from this fire and drifted around in the air for a while. It gave off not the scent of what Sora would normally expect from a fire but a rather sweet and plant-like smell instead. The smoke soon began to swirl and became as thick as gray clouds before separating and forming different shapes.

"Many moons ago," began the shaman. "Those who came before us had scrambled out of the darkness of the world underneath our feet and into the light of day. They saw the land before them and the many possibilities that were available to them and so the age of light began. The sun was not to forever shine on these inexperienced hearts though, for with such inexperience comes impatience. Those who came before knew not how to divide the land amongst themselves and they could not live together for their opinions and beliefs differed greatly amongst them. Even so, they still worked together despite these differences to explore the rest of the land, for more than their beliefs, they were adventurers first and foremost and it was this passion that kept them together. Then one day, as each of the forefathers travelled through a forest individually on their way to meet up with each other, they came across a man, but not just any ordinary man for he was an individual who possessed the power of the many elements. Fire. Water. Earth. Air. After showing them his power, he said onto each of them: 'That I have shown you the powerful magic I possess is no coincidence. You are destined to bring true light to the world and I shall give you the tools to do so.' The man then further added: 'You must keep this new power of yours a secret for your peers scheme to take your piece of land away from you. If you intend to see the true light return then you must not give into the darkness of your allies.' Of course, none of the forefathers had intended any such thing from the start. The man was no human but rather a demon in the shape of man. No one has seen this demon in its true form, though tales have spread of a monster cloaked in smokeless fire. The fire burns so brightly that it blinds for life anyone who sets their sights on it."

"The trickster," Sora heard Nakoma say under her breath.

"The trickster's words had been the final straw for our forefathers. The damage had already been done. From that day onwards, the brothers could no longer trust each other. Their relationship had been splintered and they only served to take care of their own factions with the powers that had been given to them. In the eyes of the flying eagle, he sees no difference in land, no cut-offs, only a single world. In this single world, the eagle would see what would appear to be small ants who all looked the same. In the eyes of those on the ground however, they could see not what the eagle could and they certainly did not believe they were all the same. The land fell into conflict and those who were once friends became enemies. It no longer became about protecting their own but taking from the others, all to bring about the true light that they had so desired even if that meant sacrificing their own to do it. The trickster watched from afar as the land and air that had once been pure became corrupted with greed and hatred. As the world became weaker, he became more powerful. As fire raged across the world destroying everything in its path, it seemed as if all hope had been lost, but one of the forebears saw through the deception and treachery before it was too late. He went back to the forest where they had first seen the trickster and confronted him. In the end it was his light that was enough to seal the trickster away and restore the land to its previous state. It is said that even to this day, the wrath of the trickster is only dormant, ready to be awakened at any moment. The next time he appears, he may take the form of man or perhaps even something else. But the lesson our forebear taught his descendants and those after is never lost. Even when the sun goes out, when the crops die and the wind stops, we must not give up hope. When those things die, we must take their place. We must become the sun, try to grow the crops, be as free as the wind. As long as we have courage and hope in our hearts, the light will never truly die out."

As Kekata finished, the fire also went out leaving a small mountain of charred twice. Sora would have thought it a pretty funny coincidence, if not for something in his mind telling him that it had been intentional.

The crowd including their guests burst into a round of applause. Sora could tell that everyone had been enthralled in the story even if hearing it before, and he suspected that it was partly due to Kekata skills as an orator and also partly due to the respect the village had for him. As the crowd dispersed, Sora heard Kairi call to Kekata and watched as she ran up to him.

"That was an amazing story. My grandmother used to tell me stories like this and yours was pretty similar. I was wondering about the true light that you mentioned," she said.

Kekata smiled and gave a nod to Powhatan assumedly to tell him that he would be with him in a minute before looking back to Kairi.

"I'm glad you asked about that. I myself would like to know what it is meant by a 'true light'. These stories were passed down from our ancestors and yet the meanings behind them have been lost. What was literal to one generation becomes metaphorical to our own. I suppose the true light could really be something that needs to be sought but is there really an objective definition of a 'true light'? Surely what one expects the light to be differs from person to person, after all the brothers in the story are said to be different in all ways but their love of exploration. Another theory is that this was another trick set up by the demon to get those who came before to fight. It does fit with the context after all. In that case, maybe there never was a true light to begin with or maybe there is but it was lost as soon as the conflict started. The story puts emphasis on how the conflict corrupted the pure land and air. In that case, it may be the true light was right under their noses the entire time, but they chose to ignore it in the belief that they could find something better."

"The true light was the world itself, which became contaminated by humans' greed for more?" Luna asked, showing that she too was paying attention.

"That would be a good guess. In any case, I would probably not worry too much over the details. It is just a story after all. Hopefully that answers your question. Is there anything else?" Kekata asked.

"No, but if there's any others that I have I'll be sure to ask you. Thanks again," Kairi said flashing a smile. The shaman returned this before walking off at a brisk pace to catch up to the chief.

"You don't actually think that story's true, do you?" Sora asked her as she came back.

"What, that it's related to the Keyblade War? Why couldn't it be?" Kairi asked. "Not that it really matters how it started. Obviously wasn't exactly like that just like the stories from my grandma don't exactly depict the full picture. It's like Kekata said. It's just a story."

"Just like Atlantis then?" Riku asked.

"But we know that's real. All the evidence we have so far points to it, or does the book we find in the catacombs with Atlantean symbols mean nothing?" Kairi defended.

"There are plenty of crazy fanatics out there devoting their lives to all sorts of things. Frollo wasn't exactly right in the head either," Riku said.

"Frollo? Atlantis?"

Sora snickered. Riku and Kairi had been so absorbed in defending their points of view that they had failed to remember that Pocahontas and Nakoma were watching them with confused expressions.

"It's nothing," Sora answered Pocahontas question before his something else caught his eye. "Luna, is everything alright? You look pale."

The others, alerted by Sora's assessment of the situation, turned to look at Luna who was covering one side of her face with her hand.

"I feel kind of sick actually. Weird, I didn't feel this way before," Luna said with a voice full of fatigue.

"Food poisoning, maybe?" Sora asked.

"What? No. We're all fine. One moment." Kairi walked over to Luna and put the back of her hand against her forehead, withdrawing it almost immediately. "Wow! You're burning up. We need to get you to bed immediately."

"But she said she didn't feel this way before, right? Is it normal for her temperature to go up so quickly?" Nakoma asked.

"Let's… try not to make her worry even more," Sora said before asking Kairi, "Do you want some help?"

"No, no. I'll need to get her changed and well… you know."

"Oh, yeah, right," Sora said, blushing a little. He looked up into the night sky and said, "Well in any case. I think it's about time we all get some rest. We'll sleep on the whole fog problem and maybe we'll get an epiphany or something. Hope you feel better tomorrow, Luna."

"I hope so too. G'night," Luna mumbled to them before being escorted away by Kairi.

* * *

Neuge looked down at the New Orleans River as it glowed and reflected the bright lights of a bustling and jazzy city home to what seemed to be a large community of people from the few locations she had visited so far. A week ago, she wouldn't have even imagined that she would be here let alone anywhere else other than in a bar in Radiant Garden.

She ran over her targets again in her mind. There was Dr. Drakken and Yzma, both of who they knew were KRONOS' main researchers on the weapon to turn an entire population into Chimera in one go. It was truly a weapon deserved to be called world ending and while Neuge couldn't say she wanted to get involved, there was still a part of her left from her days of being a Keyblade wielder that told her that couldn't just stand by. Seeing as how they were targeting Sora and his friends as well, she figured she was effectively killing two birds with one stone anyway so she might as well do something.

"Out of curiosity, why exactly did you pick this world to go to, Neuge? Maybe I'm wrong, but it felt like you really wanted to come here," Mickey asked. The mouse had to jump and hang onto the railing in order to peer across the river as well, leaving his feet and tail to wiggle about.

"I've been here before actually. The shadowy corners of the city are perfect for gathering information on anyone at any time of the day moving through this city and doing shady deals. I'm not saying KRONOS might be here but if you want information this is one of the first places you come to," Neuge explained. "Aside from that, if you want swinging and dancing and boats along the river then you've also come to the right place. They call this place 'The City That Care Forgot', just because of the city's gentle and easy-going way of life. Let loose and have fun, Mickey, because that's what this place is all about."

"That sounds wonderful! The river here kinda reminds me of the one I used to sail down. You wouldn't mind if I suddenly had the urge to sail one of these things, would ya?"

"Planning a change of profession to crime now, your majesty? I suppose it must be tiring having to rule over your subjects, but then again, you usually leave that to the queen nowadays, don't you?" Neuge threw a sly joke at him.

"Well, I suppose it's true that I haven't exactly been the most kingly of kings, although Minnie's family is technically the one in line to the throne. I don't think I would have picked sailing down the waterway as a job if I was born into royalty," Mickey answered.

"And they allowed royalty to marry someone with barely any status? That's interesting. Isn't it usually through inbreeding?"

Mickey almost fell over the railing at this but Neuge caught him by his shirt and set him down on the ground. "Er, you certainly don't pull your punches, do ya?"

"I didn't survive all these years by pulling my punches, no," Neuge replied dryly.

"Well, at least I know I'll be in capable hands. Should we get going?"

"So you're not taking one of the boats then?" Neuge enquired.

Mickey looked at the boats longingly for a few seconds before shrugging. "Maybe later, but we have an investigation to do first. Let's get going, shall we?"


	59. Follow The Wind

_So Disney's Pocahontas, despite its rather controversial nature in terms of historical inaccuracies (and if you can't get over that then don't watch something like Braveheart) was one of the first Disney movies I saw (my first being Pinocchio) and so it kind of holds a special place in my heart. Heck, over several rewatches I've actually come to appreciate it a lot more like many other Disney movies. Of course in this particular story we're not following the story in the movie and you'll notice that we aren't exactly either with the Princess and the Frog world (at least not yet). That said, if you want to leave a review I'd be interested to know whether you enjoyed this movie or not. Also don't be afraid to offer world suggestions. Brave seems like a pretty popular choice at the moment but as to whether it'll appear, I'll leave that as a secret._

* * *

**Chapter 59**

**Follow The Wind**

As Neuge had described, the dark corners of the city that they had come to was like the difference of night and day. The king soon very much wished they were back in the raucous and teeming streets that they had come through on their way to get here. He scanned the area curiously, walking more slowly than the woman in front of him. In the narrow alleys they travelled sat a beggar next to every wall, figures who passed them concealed by their cloaks. Out of the corner of his eye, Mickey saw one of the figures glance his way. He hurried along to join Neuge's side.

"You don't usually feel weird coming here?" Mickey whispered to her.

"No, why? And why are you whispering?"

"You're actually serious? I guess this place does suit you in a way. Um, not that I'm calling you depressing or anything-" Mickey tried to correct but Neuge laughed the mouse's bumbling off.

"It's fine. We've reached our destination, see?" Neuge pointed upwards with a lopsided smile. Mickey followed her pointing finger before letting out a long sigh.

"Of course. A tavern. I should have guessed."

"Oh cheer up, your majesty. We won't be too long." She looked down at Mickey's expression of scepticism before rolling her eyes. "I promise. I would never take you down here of all places if I wanted to get you drunk. These are the kind of guys who can slip something into your drink if you're not careful. The only reason we're here is to collect information. There, does that perk those dishes of yours up?"

"Dishes? You mean my ears?"

"I'm sorry, they just look like they'd be good to eat ice cream from," Neuge said. She flashed him a smile that Mickey could not possibly discern between sarcastic and flirtatious coming from its owner who headed into the tavern before Mickey could say anything more.

_Did she just say she'd eat my ears? _Mickey asked himself, stroking the edge of his 'dishes' protectively before letting go and heading in to _The Red Apple _as the tavern had been named. The smell of tobacco and alcohol served to make Mickey lightheaded and remind him once again that this would usually be the kind of place he wouldn't want Minnie catching him in. Mickey's attention suddenly became drawn to a man in the corner of the room sporting a fedora playing a sombre song on the piano, a cigar hanging lazily his mouth.

"Woah!" Mickey yelped as he felt Neuge take hold of his hand and drag him to the counter.

"Nice night, isn't it? Tell me. You wouldn't happen to have seen anything strange lately or oversaw any course of dealings between any of your patrons at any point within, let's say, the last few months, would you?" Neuge asked the bartender.

"What's it to you? Even if such a thing did happen in this place, why would I spy on them and why would I report that to you?" the bartender asked.

"For the first question? Because bartenders like you aren't exactly the kind to have regards to the concept of client confidentiality. For your second? Because my wrist tends to flop every now and then and I just happen to have something pointing under the table at you that's probably not a good thing. Let's just say if the wrist were to suddenly fall asleep, you would find yourself out of business."

Mickey leaned sideways to confirm his suspicions. Indeed, under the table Neuge had her Keyblade pointing straight at the man. And here he thought the circumstances could not have been worse. He could only hope that Neuge was bluffing.

"Are you threatening me?" The bartender asked, making the ostentatious effort to crack his knuckles. Mickey buried his head into the table. When he next lifted his head to look it was because of the sudden laughter that had ensued between the two of them.

"Neuge, how're ya doin'? Haven't seen you in a long time," asked the bartender through his roaring laughter.

"I've been travelling a lot lately, Miguel, you know how it is. How're the kids?" Neuge asked.

"The little one you used to know is nine now. She's learning how to play piano. Samuel's working in one of the factories just outside of town now. In between his work I'm training him to take over the tavern once I retire. Jenny's also got a good job in textiles so all in all I'd say we're living pretty comfortably," Miguel answered. "Would you like a drink?"

"Oh, I'm afraid me and my friend are just passing by." Neuge paused deliberately to indulge in the relieved sound that escaped Mickey's mouth before continuing. "This is Mickey by the way. He's a mouse if you couldn't tell so now you don't have to look at him so strangely. Mickey, this is Miguel, owner of 'The Red Apple'."

"Good to meet you. I suppose Neuge hasn't told you how she's broke several of my glasses and windows every time she's been here," Miguel said to him with a toothy grin.

"Hence my warning about the guys around here slipping things into people's drinks," Neuge said. "I'm sorry I can't stay long. I'll visit the family again sometime and I don't mean to be forward but right now we need that information. You haven't heard of anything coming into the city lately?"

"Hmm, not really anything that I can recall. People just come for a warm ale, discuss things and go. I hear stories, but none that would be of interest to you I would think," Miguel said.

Another man who had been sitting at a table and had apparently overheard their conversation left his seat and tapped Neuge on the shoulder. "If information's the thing you seek then I have just the juicy info. I reckon I happened to be sitting near a two weirdos last week. I didn't pay too much attention, at least not at first, and then they mentioned the Shadow Man."

"The Shadow Man?" Mickey repeated, exchanging glances with Neuge.

"Yeah. It was weird to address someone in that way so it kinda caught my attention, really. I inched my seat closer so I could listen in while pretending to sip my beer. They were talking softly so I was only able to catch a few words here and there but they mentioned that a shipment was set to arrive at the port by the end of the week. I'm guessin' it's been there for at least a few days now. Then the courier, the man who seemed to be leading the conversation, would be at the port to take something off the ship and deliver it to the Shadow Man. I didn't hear nothin' 'bout what it was he was supposed to retrieve."

"Huh, well there you go," Miguel said with raised brows after listening in.

"That was actually more than I was expecting to get here. I suppose we might be too late to find this courier but maybe he left a few clues at the port. Let's head there at once," Neuge said to Mickey. She then turned to look at the stranger who seemed to want something from her in return, as expected of any person who frequented a tavern. She dug into her pocket and pulled out a few coins before handing them to Miguel. "I think this man here deserves a free drink or two, don't you?"  
"Oh bless your kind heart," said the stranger before replacing the seat Neuge had once been in. She and Mickey gave another farewell to him and Miguel before leaving the tavern.

"_Kind_, he says. Now that's a word I haven't heard used to describe me in quite a while," Neuge said with an absent stare.

"Does it feel nice?" Mickey asked.

"Don't get your hopes up." And there was scornful Neuge he knew, thought Mickey. His shoulders slumped but he gave a small smile nonetheless. It was progress, even if she refused to see it, and he had a good feeling that Neuge didn't exactly want to resist it anyway.

* * *

Some potentially thousands of miles away from Mickey and Neuge's location, Luna awoke after a horrifying dream. She wiped the sweat away from her forehead and then proceeded to search the room frantically with darting eyes, as to confirm where she was. A smell of cinnamon and herbs drifted into the room, giving her some solace as to where she was. Her parents not lying on the floor in front of her was an even bigger one.

She looked down at her sweaty palms and crunched them both into balls. The dream had felt incredibly real, and her hands were perfect proof. They were warm, as if they had been holding onto the same knife in her dream, the same one she had plunged into her parents' bodies. After some consideration, she opened her hands up again and reached down for the knife Neuge gave her only to find it missing. She was left panicking for a few seconds before she realized that she wasn't even in her field clothes but her pajamas. Her clothes, she soon found, were lying in a tidy pile on the floor. Not wanting to head back to sleep anytime soon, she changed into the adventure gear and headed out of the hut.

The cool breeze and nocturnal silence greeted her as soon as she stepped out, and as she began walking in a direction she found that the sudden flu that had overtaken her only hours before was now gone. It must have probably been her fastest recovery from being sick yet, and she would have praised it if not for the fact that the origin of the cold had been so sudden and unusual.

It was in these instances when she started thinking too much that she looked up into the sky and tried to guess where Alexander would be. Somewhere up there, Aunt Kit was all alone and having to manage the shop by herself. When Luna returned she imagined an entire day when they would bake away their worries and Luna would describe her adventures in detail. It was only a matter of when. She also wondered about the new friends she had made in Eleftheria, the trainee journalist, and Celes, in particularly the latter who had been blackmailed all throughout her career as an opera singer by the two strange jesters whose names she had forgotten.

Time passed for which Luna could not account for due to her dream-like observation of the stars when something touched her shoulder sending her jumping into the air. She would have let out a loud noise too had a hand not covered her mouth before she could. The person behind Luna gave a soft shush before presenting themselves in front of her.

"Pocahontas? What are you doing outside?" Luna whispered.

"I could ask you the same question," Pocahontas replied with a lingering look on her face for Luna's confession.

"Okay. I had a bad dream and just needed some fresh air. You?"

"I like to wander is all," Pocahontas answered.

"Outside? You know that's dangerous. What about the fog?" Luna asked.

"I know, but the first sign of trouble and I run. Either way, I hadn't really encountered this fog or any of those creatures before today and your friend came to save me. Do… do you have that thing too, like he does? The power of nature?"

"You mean magic?" Luna extended her arm out and, following a bright light, the Dream Seeker appeared in her hand. Pocahontas gasped and started fidgeting about like an ecstatic child who had just opened up her Christmas gifts. Luna knew the feeling way.

Even she froze in a most comedic fashion before looking at the weapon again. "I've never seen a weapon like that before. We use spears crafted from wood to hunt. Do you go hunting with that thing as well? Is it effective?"

"I wouldn't say it's for hunting, more like protecting but to even explain that would mean…" Luna paused. She wondered at first whether Kairi had brought up Pocahontas' potential to her yet. Then she wondered whether it was truly the right thing to even tell her if she had no idea. She was conflicted between her mission and her beliefs, and what was she to do when that occurred? She tried to remember back to any helpful advice from Neuge or Sora about what she was supposed to do in this situation but the only thing that came up was the usual pep talks about believing in one's self. So then the question stood: what did she believe in?

"It's okay, you can tell me. Wait, maybe it'd be better if we talked elsewhere, outside the village. Follow me," Pocahontas said. As much as Luna wanted to object and explain why she felt it was naturally a bad idea, she also couldn't deny that she wanted someone to talk to, to keep her from having a reason to go back to sleep so soon. It was with a huge dread of the consequences that she made her decision and decided to go with her heart and not her brain.

She followed Pocahontas all the way to the back of the village. For a moment, Luna thought Pocahontas had come to her senses and was only going to lead them to a secluded area within the village but upon seeing that a part of the wooden stockade was slightly dislodged—and from which Luna could see was partly due to the mud underneath caused by rain—she very quickly lost all hope once again. Luna squeezed through the narrow gap as Pocahontas did and grinned.

"I feel like such a criminal," she said.

"Just picture how I do it all the time," Pocahontas said with a laugh. "By the way, you're definitely not from around here, right? You speak our language perfectly."

"Of course I do. Are we not speaking English?" Luna asked.

"English, what's that?" Pocahontas asked back. Luna's grin turned into a small smile.

"You're pulling my leg, right?" she asked.

"I would certainly hope not. That would be painful," Pocahontas answered after a moment's hesitation of trying to decipher Luna's strange sentence.

"It's an expression. So, you're not joking then? It could be the Gummi Ship. Yeah, now that I remember I think Sora mentioned something about it to me once way early on. We've been travelling to so many worlds I didn't think that we might be talking a completely different language to those there. Then maybe I really am talking your language and I'm just hearing English, or maybe it's that the Gummi Ship is somehow translating both our languages into something which we can both understand so even though I'm speaking English you hear something different then I'm hearing and I'm rambling now, aren't I?"

Pocahontas nodded slowly as if trying to agree while saying at the same time that she had no idea what Luna was talking about. Before she could say anything, two animals popped out of the bushes nearby. One of them, which looked like a racoon, trapped the second animal with its hands just as it stopped short upon seeing Pocahontas, and shoved it into its mouth before running up to the two girls instead.

"Oh, there you are. I've been looking all over the place for you guys today. Look, a new friend! Luna, this greedy little one here is Meeko." Pocahontas pointed to the racoon that she had lifted to her shoulder. "And this… Meeko, don't be stubborn, let him out. This is Flint." The racoon eventually complied with Pocahontas and spit out a hummingbird, who hastily sought to dry itself off.

"Hello Flint and Meeko. It's nice to meet you," Luna said, holding her hand out for the racoon to take.

Pocahontas observed Meeko's reluctance to look at Luna for a second before saying, "Don't worry. If you give food to him, he'll very quickly change his mind about you."

"Okay, let's see…" Luna looked around for a bit before spotting a number of small berries hanging off a branch. She plucked a handful of them off and showed them to Pocahontas. "Will these do?"

"I would say so. Meeko, Luna wants to give you a present," Pocahontas hinted to the racoon. Meeko looked at Luna briefly, and then his eyes travelled down to her hands. Luna guessed it was at that point when she could finally write down in her diary that she was adored by a racoon.

"I think he loves me!" Luna declared in a victorious tone after Meeko had finished eating all of the berries in her hand.

"Well that can be either a good thing or a bad thing. Good because he likes you, bad because now he'll want more from you in the future. Good luck with that," Pocahontas said.

"Well, they often say that love is blind and greed insatiable. Heh heh heh…" Luna gave an awkward laugh before saying, "Maybe you should handle him from now on."  
Pocahontas let out a chuckle before taking Meeko back into her arms. "So what were you going to say about your weapon before I interrupted? Back in village, I mean."

"Well… I need to tell you something but… promise you won't freak out," Luna said, having finally come to her decision. Even if Luna didn't like it, she had her duty to inform Pocahontas about what she and her friends were talking about.

"I won't," Pocahontas promised, now more interested than Luna really wanted to see. Well at least the first part would be easy to tell her, she figured.

"Alright. Um, well you're right that my friends and I aren't from around here. We came all the way from a place really far away, like, up there far away." Luna pointed upwards to the sky. "You see those stars? They aren't all just balls of gas burning brightly. There are worlds other than just this one out there. Worlds, constellations, galaxies— a whole universe of things I haven't even discovered yet! We get to worlds like yours on our Gummi Ship, the Highwind."

"Gummi Ship. Highwind," Pocahontas repeated, as if going through the names several times in her head. Eventually she looked back into Luna's eyes and nodded. "It's weird. The things you're saying to me make no sense at all, but somehow, I know they're true. Then again, if you can use magic, I guess it would have to be true."

"Well, that was easier than I thought it'd be. Maybe Kairi was right then…"

"Right? About what?" Pocahontas asked. Luna sighed at her own inability to keep her thoughts as just that and proceeded to pace back and forth for a while before stopping.

"This will be harder to say. You might say that there are certain people or pillars you could call them who are meant to keep the light and darkness in each world in balance. Those seven people are known as the Princesses of Heart. Kairi's one of them."

"I see… so what you're saying is that every world including mine is the way it is because of these princesses?" Pocahontas asked.

"Right, but no one's really sure what will happen when one or more of the Princesses are taken out of the equation. The general presumption would be that the worlds will be consumed by darkness and, well… we failed to protect one of them. Alice is her name. She's being held who knows where and we don't even know her condition. We have to assume that she's alive but I won't be satisfied until I find even the tiniest of hints that she's alive and I won't really be comfortable until I know she's safe with us," said Luna.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sure you'll find her safe and sound. You mustn't give up hope. Sometimes the answers you're looking for are all around you, but you can't see them just by looking. Listening, not just with your ears but with your heart, that's what will allow you to see the truth hidden behind the lies," Pocahontas advised.

"The truth hidden behind the lies? I'm not really sure I get it," Luna admitted. It seemed that Pocahontas was teaching her something new as opposed to the other way around. Even the idea of completely different worlds hadn't seemed to come as much of a surprise to the girl.

"All around us are things which have more than one meaning. It takes quite a bit of courage to not judge by first appearance and consider that there is something more. Your mind may tell you that it is what it is, but your heart may tell you that not everything is as it seems. Not that I'm suggesting you blindly choose one over the other, but recognizing that both options are valid and also not being afraid to use them both."

"Oh, you mean seeing the world from an abstract point of view? That's how I actually learned magic. When you're casting Fire magic for example, you have to really focus on that feeling of warmth in order to get it to work. It's also why Ice spells are really hard to do. That's focusing on cold emotions. But anyway, we're getting off track here so I should just come out and say it. We've been sent on a mission by two Masters who I'm sure know what they're doing, especially one called Yen Sid— he's this really powerful sorcerer. They wanted us to seek out a suitable candidate to become the new Princess of Heart if the worst case scenario happens to our friend. Kairi, being one of them, can sense the potential of suitable candidates and… she's found it in you."

In the end, Luna couldn't find the strength to look at Pocahontas when she finally revealed everything. Even as silence passed over them afterwards, Luna still refused not to check the expression on Pocahontas' face. A fist soon found itself under Luna's chin and lifted it up for her to see Pocahontas' smile.

"I'm glad you told me. There's no need to avoid looking at me."

"I'm sorry if it came off as rude," Luna tried to explain but Pocahontas cut her off.

"You were afraid of how I'd react, it's understandable. Still, I'm not really sure how to react at the moment, probably because this has all happened so suddenly. So… if I were to decide to become one of these Princesses would I have to leave my home?" she asked.

"I'm guessing so. You wouldn't be made one immediately since we're waiting for confirmation on Alice but you'd have to be there so they can get the process done as soon as possible. There's also something else you should know, about the process. Yen Sid called it purification. What it does is extract the darkness from a person's heart leaving only the light, or at least that's the basics of it, I'm sure it's a lot more complicated. The thing is though that the heart isn't made to go through something like that. If they extract the darkness from your heart there's a chance that you might be unable to cope with it and…" Once again Luna could not finish her sentence. Something she had not expected was that telling her had seemed to have taken a harsher toll on her than it had Pocahontas. Surely it should have been the other way around, and yet Pocahontas remained headstrong, showing far more strength than Luna could possibly hope to muster at the moment.

"I see. Maybe you should stop for now. This seems to be getting harder for you," Pocahontas recognized.

"Thanks. I mean, the chances are that if what Kairi says is true then the light in your heart should be able to fill in the sudden gaps left over. That's what Yen Sid believes anyway. But at the end of the day, no one else can make this decision except you. It's a big risk and I'd understand if you didn't want to take it," Luna explained in order to give a little more hope and comfort to the both of them. In truth, while there was a bigger part of her that wanted Pocahontas to refuse, she couldn't deny something smaller that urged Pocahontas to accept so she and her friends didn't have to bear through the pain of explaining it to the next person they found.

"I'd have to sleep on it, but even if I wanted to go, I'm not so sure it will be easy convincing my father to let me leave. He's rather overprotective of me," Pocahontas said.

"The signs of a good father then. I'd wished I listen to mine before…" Luna closed her eyes shut tightly. She had wandered outside in hopes of forgetting about the dream she had and had failed. "Pocahontas… first appearances can be deceiving, right? I wonder then. Am I a good person?"

"What do you mean?" questioned Pocahontas with a quizzical look.

"I'd like to think that I'm a good person at heart, I really do. But I've had dreams and in them, I've done terrible things. The dreams are all based on a memory I have of something I once did. There's also something else. I feel like there's something inside trying to take over my heart. I lost my memories at one point and when I got them back I thought I'd be able figure out who I am. Even now that I have them back, I still don't know," Luna told her dolefully. The recurring thought that she felt more unfettered when she had lost her memories than having them was not a healthy one to her. She knew she should be appreciative of the opportunities she had, particularly when she was one of the rare few who even had the opportunity to begin with, but the burden was a heavy one and there had been several times when she had wished that she could return to how things were before she had been kidnapped.

"Well, I can't say I'm in the best position to tell you that. In my opinion even the best of people can have bad intentions and the worst person can have good intentions. That just shows how human you really are. I'll tell you what, come with me. I want you to meet someone. I think she'll have the answers that you need," Pocahontas said, offering her hand.

"Well it is kind of getting cold out here. Alright, let's head back in," Luna said.

"The village? She doesn't live in the village," Pocahontas said.

"Um, we wouldn't happen to be going even farther from the village, would we? I really don't think that's a good idea," Luna objected but Pocahontas laughed it off.

"Where's your sense of adventure? Besides, if we keep to the river I'm sure we'll be fine and if we aren't, well you can use that weapon of yours to protect me," she said.

"I… I probably am going to regret this but even I can't deny a girl's night out once in a while," Luna said, trying her best to make light of the situation. If this woman, as Pocahontas claimed, was wise enough to have answers for Luna then maybe she would also have an idea of where the keyhole was. It was certainly worth a try.

* * *

Neuge and Mickey wasted no time in making haste to the port, so it came to no surprise that they were completely out of breath by the time they arrived. Aside from a straight path down toward the Mississippi river, containers filled the area, covering their view of most of what the port had to offer, though they had very little doubt there was much more than the materials to be loaded and unloaded off the ships.

"You know, I haven't… had a run like that in a good… while. It's gonna take a while… for me… to get back in the swing of things," Neuge wheezed out.

"Ha, just so long as… you don't get in my way…" Mickey quipped in between his own breaths.

"Ooh, you're getting better at this, aren't you? Maybe now… you won't look like someone just shot your dog every time I joke around with you," Neuge said.

"How do you know I have a dog?" Mickey asked.

"I didn't. Now let's cut the flirting and get down to business." Neuge moved on before Mickey could deny that he was 'flirting' and was given no choice but to trail behind. The two soon arrived at the wharf and Mickey looked down the river at the boats on the water.

"So this whole city was built surrounding this river? How long exactly does it go?" he asked.

"No idea, but it definitely is a long river. Anyway, I see someone over there. Let's check with him if the container ship we're looking for is still here." Neuge pointed to a man who was sitting inside a booth by the terminal next to them. When they approached him and asked about a ship that had come in at the beginning of the week, the man pointed them to a ship two terminals down from where they were standing.

At first glance, the ship seemed like every other lined up along either side of it. There would be no reason to suspect any suspicious packages being taken on or off board. The ship seemed mostly unmaintained and the two Keyblade wielders were able to get closer to it without much trouble. Its auspicious features only became noticeable once they were actually boarded the ship.

"There are still containers on board. Looks like they haven't finished fully unloading the cargo yet," Mickey said.

"Or they're in the process of loading them onto the ship. I guess we'll just have to check each and every one of these containers until we find something of interest. Keep your ears on the lookout though. I'm not too fond of the lack of anyone on this ship," Neuge said.

"You just said ears because you wanted to make another dish joke, didn't you?" Mickey enquired with a knowing look.

"Hey, you said it, not me," Neuge said. She began her search near the starboard side of the ship while Mickey headed for the bow. The stacked containers were protected by straps, keeping them strapped to the ground and behind that, a chain and padlock for each one to keep people out. Neuge cut through the straps and chain quickly with her Keyblade before pulling open one of the heavy doors to look inside. After quickly searching to reveal several packages worth of content, she stepped out of the container, shaking her head at the near insurmountable task ahead of them. Unless what they were looking for was so obvious that it went without saying then they would have to search every package. The problem with that, ignoring how many there were on the ship, was that they had no idea what they were looking for specifically or if it was even there anymore. The perfect scenario was a huge of quantity of the object in question that couldn't be unloaded all in one go, though that was wishful thinking and there was certainly no way that it could so conveniently happen exactly as Neuge wante-

"Neuge, I found something. A whole lot of something actually!" Mickey yelled from far away.

Neuge blinked. "Oh… that was quick."


	60. The Tree That Surpassed Time

_So the penultimate chapter of the Pocahontas world and we get some interesting interactions between our characters here. From where we are, I believe I have a pretty good idea of when this fic will end. With that, I hope you enjoy the new chapter and I'll do my best to put out the next one as soon as possible. _

* * *

**Chapter 60**

**The Tree That Surpassed Time**

Neuge approached the container Mickey had pointed out and went inside with him to look. The various metal canisters of different sizes within were wrapped in bubble wrap material, which Neuge did not hesitate tearing through mercilessly with her hands. She placed her hand against one of the canisters and withdrew them before looking at Mickey.

"These canisters are heat-resistant but I have a feeling I know what's in them anyway. You remember the report Sora and Luna submitted to us when they came back? They reported that KRONOS were researching ways to maximize the effect of the Chimera drug which involved spreading it by gas. There was something mentioned about the method of transportation being liquid nitrogen," Neuge said.

"So then inside these canisters have the Chimera formula in them then? But then, the logo on these canisters… it couldn't be, could it?"

Neuge looked at familiar image inscribed on the logo, and though a grin spread across her face, the ramifications of what this meant were deeply present in her mind prompting mostly confusion.

"Xanatos Enterprises. There's really only one corporation I know by that name and I really don't think it exists in this world. Yep, I'd say it's definitely suspicious which raises the question. Is Xanatos involved with KRONOS?"

"Then he's a spy for them? Oh boy! Radiant Garden could be in real danger then. This is gonna break the restoration committee's hearts, especially Leon's," Mickey said.

"Well they're going to have to find out sooner or later. It better be sooner so we can have the authority to investigate them. For now though I think- HEY!" Neuge yelled out as the door to the container closed behind them, sealing them within the complete darkness of the small space. Mickey and Neuge ran towards the door and pushed before pounding on the door.

"Hey, who did this? Let us out! LET US OUT!" Mickey yelled. They both jumped away however as soon as they heard the gravelly laughter of someone Mickey knew quite well.

"HA-HA-HA-HAHAHAHA! Got you now, mousey. I guess you could say I set a nice… mouse trap for ya! Oh, hoh hoh, that was a good one, you gotta admit!"

"Pete, you're here? Then that confirms it. You _are_ delivering these under KRONOS' orders. Tell me, are you working for the Shadow Man?" Mickey asked.

"Now why would I tell you somethin' like that, huh? Think I'm an idiot?"

"So in other words you are working for him, otherwise that name would have raised questions which I'm not hearing. Also yes, I suppose that means you are an idiot," Neuge said.

"D'oh! Well it doesn't matter anyway! Hope you like swimming with the fishes, because you're about to join 'em." Pete's laughter gradually became distant and Mickey called after him to enquire what he meant but to no avail. It did not take long for either of them to find out either. A sudden jolt shook the container and sent Mickey rolling all the way to the back while Neuge quickly recovered by shifting her weight.

"What's happening?" Mickey enquired as he scrambled to get up.

"We're being lifted up, probably by one of the cranes outside. I think I know what he meant by swimming with the fishes," Neuge said. After a few seconds the movement of the container had stopped and Neuge quickly made to summon her Keyblade. She was about to stab through the metal doors when a sudden drop threw her backwards into the wall. A huge splash could be heard outside followed by water seeping in through the gaps of the door and settling underneath their feet.

"Oh no! We're gonna drown! I don't think I've ever told you this but I can't swim!" A panicked Mickey yelled out.

"Oh, shut it, will you? We're not sinking. Containers which are full of cargo like these rarely sink for days on end. That said, if we lose all the air that doesn't really matter. What we need to do is remain calm and get out of here," Neuge said.

"Okay, remain calm…" Mickey said to himself before asking, "Just wondering here but the canisters are safe, right? We don't have to worry about the Chimera drug spreading through the water along with the liquid nitrogen, right?"

Neuge eyed the canisters scattered all across the floor before looking back at Mickey with a nervous smile and saying in a tone completely different from her own, "Alright, let's panic."

With nothing but darkness surrounding them, Mickey carefully felt around, using his feet to detect and step over any canisters before summoning his Keyblade. He was about to use Pearl to blast upon the doors when Neuge quickly stopped him.

"Huh, what is it, Neuge?"

"The canisters. We can't leave them behind. What happens if the drug gets into the water? It could affect the entire water supply for the city," Neuge answered.

"But we can't carry all of these canisters out of here. We're only two people," Mickey replied bleakly.

"A dilemma for sure. It appears Pete isn't as idiotic as I thought. Well if our only choices are to leave without the canisters and risk turning an entire population into Chimera and staying in this container to contain the threat at the expense of our own lives, I know which option I'd rather go for," Neuge said.

"Oh no. You wouldn't…"

"Huh? Way to have faith in me. I was about to say we take the third option. We carry the entire container with us. That's my little lesson for you, your majesty. Whenever you're only presented with two options there is usually always a third," Neuge said. She summoned her Keyblade and pointed it upwards at the top of the container. "Help me in getting the top off, would you? Don't worry, I'm pretty sure water won't come flooding in. Not much anyway."

Mickey nodded and pointed upwards. After agreeing to a spell together, a merged _Firaga _was enough to blow a large enough hole in the top for Neuge to climb out off. Halfway out of the container, she stopped for a moment to smile. There was something rather refreshing and safe about being in the light of day even though they had only been in the darkness for a few minutes.

"Neuge, hurry up! The canisters are starting to go off!" Mickey yelled below her. Neuge looked down to see white smoke starting to leak out of one of the canisters. Neuge stretched her hand out for Mickey who jumped as high as he could and grabbed onto it with both hands. She pulled him out quickly, something relatively easy to do given his weight being proportional to his height, and with that done tried to figure out where they were. It seemed that they were slowly heading downstream due to the current. Making a snap decision in her mind, she turned to Mickey.

"We have to act quickly. Sorry about this." Neuge grabbed Mickey by the waist quickly and threw struggling mouse onto the riverbank as the container neared it. Neuge jumped soon after and propelled herself forward with an Air Dash, landing only a few feet away from Mickey. She quickly turned and dropped her Keyblade before holding out her hands.

"_Magnega_!" Neuge yelled out. She instantly felt a sudden invisible weight on her arms and it took all her concentration to keep her arms straight and her legs standing. From afar she could hear Mickey guffaw in delight as the container rose into the sky. Realizing that she had forgotten to breathe in the past few seconds, she inhaled and exhaled out of her nose a few times before beginning to draw the container towards the bank. The magnetic vortex holding the container to it, hovered slowly to Neuge's position, and she didn't need to see it with her eyes to know that the magic was starting to falter. Fortunately, she didn't have to hold onto it any longer as the container safely crossed the threshold that divided the bank and the river. With the last of her strength she made a final push to get the rest of the container onto land and lowered it slowly. When the container touched the ground, Neuge's arms fell limply to the side and she gave into wobbly knees.

Mickey approached her quickly and threw out his arms. "Wow! That was amazing, Neuge. I've never seen anything like that before. You okay?"

"Yeah, just tired is all. Haven't done something like this since my training at the temple," Neuge answered back, rubbing the sweat away from her forehead.

"Y'know, you could have told me about your plan before you did it. Then I might have been able to help, no matter how little it might've been," Mickey said but Neuge dismissed this with a wave of her hand.

"I've was taught from previous experiences to rely only on myself. It's why I usually train Sora and Luna separately, because I know that when it comes down to the most crucial of moments you can only rely on your own strength. In other words, I appreciate the offer but I don't really need your help. Call it a self-inflated ego or whatever you might like but I've long since stopped caring."

"Well, the teamwork thing could use a little improvement but at least I've found something beneath that cold hard exterior of yours. You really do care about helping others," Mickey said.

"Or maybe I just didn't want to find Chimera in drink when I go back to Miguel's bar," Neuge challenged with raised eyebrows. Mickey had seen through her deceptive stare however and smiled.

"If that's what you think. So we oughta head back to Radiant Garden now, dontcha think? They need to know about Xanatos," Mickey said.

Neuge shook her head. "There's no hurry. We have more pressing matters here actually. Don't you want to see who this Shadow Man is?"

"Right, then we should head back to the port," Mickey said.

"It'll likely be heavily guarded now. That's a good thing. If they're about to double the speed at which they unload all the cargo since they know we're here, they'll have to lead us to the Shadow Man at some point. I hope you like stake outs, because we're going all in," Neuge said. Her eyes glazed over the container for a moment before looking up to the sky. "I can't deny that I didn't feel a little my old self back. The adventure and the thrill that comes with it… I've kind of missed it. Maybe I still have some work to do yet."

"What kind of work?" Mickey enquired.

"Something I started working on when I was a teenager. It was a dream that I wanted to make reality until I saw how resistant reality is to change. I wanted to make the world whole again."

* * *

As she sat in Pocahontas' boat sailing down the river, Luna was reminded of her own trips out on the Alexandrian Lake with her father. She recounted to Pocahontas how she used to go on fishing trips with him and how on one occasion she almost drowned. She also related the smoother experience provided by Pocahontas' expertise in navigating the calm waters to her experience in Wonderland, when she had rode down the river in a giant teacup. Pocahontas' laugh was soon hearty and genuine that it enticed Luna to tell even more of her wacky stories, and before they knew it they had reached their destination.

The boat entered underneath what was a very large and possibly old willow tree. Luna gently pushed a few of the limply hanging leaves out of her face and popped her head out of the boat to look at the unusual ripples spreading out with consistency of a beating pulse and disturbing the tranquil waters that their journey had previously seen.

'"Just as ripples spread out when a single pebble is dropped into water, the actions of individuals can have far-reaching effects,'" Luna quoted, sitting back in the boat properly. "My friend Astra once went out of her way to read a book just so she could tell me that quote and she doesn't usually like reading. It just made me feel inspired. It made me feel as if my life was actually in my control and that it had an impact on others. I lacked self-confidence, and Astra made me realize how much I had changed her and her me. See? The ripple effect in all its glory."

"You have good friends. I haven't met Astra but I can hardly imagine you lacking confidence. You're incredibly enthusiastic and lively," Pocahontas said.

"Aw, you're making me blush. Say, why are there ripples in the water anyway and why are they so big? There shouldn't really be anything around here-"

"We've arrived!" Pocahontas' announcement cut through Luna's assessment as if it had been an intentional evasion, or perhaps the timing had been a coincidence. The boat hit the shore and Pocahontas stepped onto the soil and offered a hand for Luna to take. The water was not the only thing that seemed alive tonight, as Luna could hear the energetic sounds of chirping and the occasional whisper of soothing wind.

Luna stopped and looked around. "Did you just hear something?"

"Did you?" Pocahontas asked back.

"Um, no, I guess I must have been imagining things," Luna said. Pocahontas flashed Luna a strange smile that she could have interpreted as knowing more than she was letting on. Pocahontas turned before Luna could make out whether she was seeing things leaving her to abandon her thoughts and follow alongside Pocahontas once more.

Arriving at a stump facing the trunk of the umbrella-like tree, Pocahontas invited Luna to sit down with her. At first Luna seemed rather apprehensive and sceptical of this and it showed in her face, but Pocahontas' own facial features showed no signs of consultation to relieve these doubts and so she sat down anyway.

"So this woman lives all the way out here by herself? It must be lonely. Did she get kicked out of the village or something? Does she have a family? Either way, if I were her I wouldn't want to live all the way out here, that's for sure," Luna said, hoping to find some justification in having just broken a strict curfew made by Pocahontas' father.

"And what exactly is wrong with living here?"

Luna jumped up at the sudden third party's voice and looked around in a panic. It had been the same voice she had thought she had heard in heard in her head only a minute ago. Her eyes darted around until they landed upon the tree and stayed there. For a split second, she had thought she had seen a face on the tree, but it must surely have been her imagination acting up. She needed to focus on finding the source of the voice.

"No, you were right to look there. Remember what I told you? Don't look at the tree with just your eyes. Look deeper than that," Pocahontas said. She stood up and placed her hands on Luna's shoulders, looking fixatedly at the tree. Luna nodded nervously and closed her eyes to slow her breathing. She heard something—echoing and distant at first but becoming more focused and within range by the second. When she opened her eyes, she was met with a giant wooden face beaming at her.

"Hello."

"Aiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Luna screamed and backed away, forgetting that she was on a tree stump. Her foot found nothing for a surface and she couldn't recover in time, ensuring her fall into the water.

"A graceful one, isn't she?" the tree commented sarcastically as Pocahontas helped Luna out of the water.

"It's okay, I'm fine!" The drench Luna affirmed quickly. Not knowing how else to address the tree, she bowed deeply. "I'm sorry for that. You just startled me. It's just that I've never really seen a tree talk before, you understand, so I-"

"Oh, no need to be so formal, child. Relax." And as the tree said this, one of her many branches lifted up Luna's chin and her body before returning to its previous state.

"Luna, this is Grandmother Willow, the woman I was talking about who might be able to help. Grandmother Willow, I'd like you to meet Luna. She's told me a lot of interesting things. Things I did not believe even possible and yet I have dreamed them all the same. She told me about the stars in the sky being worlds completely different from our own and she even wields magic," Pocahontas explained. She then asked, "Grandmother Willow, you've been telling me to follow my dreams for a while. Tell me. Did you know about these other worlds?"

Grandmother Willow regarded Pocahontas with a thoughtful frown. It didn't take long before she conceded to Pocahontas' longing stare for answers.

"Yes, I did. What your friend says is true and she's living proof of it. Luna, let me see your face," Grandmother Willow instructed calmly.

"Yes, ma'am." Luna obeyed and nervously kept her eyes on Grandmother Willow's face as she inspected her with the occasional "hmm" and "I see…" here and there.

"I haven't seen you before, have I?" she asked once she had finished her examination.

"No, ma'am, I wouldn't think so," Luna responded. Grandmother Willow however, continued to stare at her suspiciously, making Luna feel as if jumping back into the water was a viable option.

Eventually the tree's expression relaxed. "My memory must be acting up again. This old noggin' ain't like it used to be, though you can't fault me. People come and go every now and then to visit though they stopped coming a long time ago. The only one that usually comes now is Pocahontas. She's a special child."  
"She is. When do you think your last visitor came that wasn't her?" Luna asked.

"Oh, I'd say about a good thousand years ago or so. I've lost count."

"A thousand years? You're that old? I'm pretty sure no tree lives that long, including talking trees, no offence."

"None taken, oh, and I'm probably even older than just a thousand. I honestly couldn't tell you. The good ole' tree that time forgot is what I am," Grandmother Willow said with a chuckle.

"Well, I'm glad you have Pocahontas here to keep you company. I know what it's like to be alone and have no one to talk to and I wouldn't want that for anyone, let alone someone that has lived thousands of years," Luna said.

"You're a good kid," Grandmother Willow praised but looked curious when Luna dropped her smile.

"I'm not sure about that. I'm afraid of myself," Luna said before repeating to the willow tree what she had told Pocahontas behind the village. "Pocahontas told me that you could provide answers, so I thought I could come here and see if you could tell me."

"I am sorry but I cannot tell you who you are. No one really can except for you. There is a saying that goes something like this: 'you're only half the person you were yesterday'. Do you know what that means?" When Luna shook her head, Grandmother Willow smiled and continued. "It means that we can never truly know ourselves. You're by no means a finished product, even once you've become an adult. You're always changing through your experiences and interactions with the world around you. I'm very much sure that the person you were before you met me will be slightly different from the person you'll be when you leave. Now while I can't tell you who you are, I can propose a reason for why you feel like you don't know who you are. It's possible you've seen so many things that you haven't stopped for a moment to take it all in. Do you often find yourself spending your free time worrying about things?"

"Yes. One of my friends, for example. He's in danger at the moment and on top of that, he and his best friend who is also here have been arguing a lot lately over how to handle things. I brought them both and another friend along with me hoping to strengthen their friendship again and it seems to be working so far but that still leaves the people who are after him," Luna said.

"Ah, that explains things then. You spend so much time worrying about others that you forget to look after yourself," Grandmother Willow assessed with a firm nod.

"But isn't looking after my friends a good thing?" Luna asked.

"How can you look after them if you can't look after yourself? Trust me, dear, you'll find the answers you seek in due time. The only things you need to be are as steady as river you just came from and the courage to be strong in the harshest of times, not just for your friends, but yourself. From what I've ascertained of you, you admire your dreams greatly and they've taken you to many places. Just between you, me and Pocahontas, dreams are the stuff reality is made of. Keep following your dreams and you will find yourself."

"Thank you, Grandmother Willow. I'll try," Luna said, before posing her next question more confidently. "There was another thing I wanted to ask. We're looking for a keyhole that leads to the heart of this world. There's this fog or background radiation which has been affecting other worlds lately and it looks this one isn't an exception. We think that the keyholes have something to do with it but we're not sure. Have you seen a keyhole around or heard of one?"

"Now that's a word I haven't heard in a long time," Grandmother Willow said with a fond and nostalgic smile.

"So you know where it is?" Luna asked.

"Know where it is? You're looking at it." Luna's eyes widened as the tree's face disappeared and was replaced by a keyhole of the same size. Luna summoned her Keyblade and was about to direct it at the keyhole when a worried Grandmother Willow's face once again replaced the keyhole.

"Is something wrong?" Pocahontas asked.

"Hmm, there was something in the back of my mind when you mentioned the keyhole but I wasn't sure until just now. I think I was told once by someone that the keyholes must never be sealed," Grandmother Willow answered.

"The keyholes must never be sealed? But the Heartless are after the keyholes, aren't they? So shouldn't we be sealing them?" Luna asked.

"All I can say is that I remember hearing someone saying that. They told me something else too but I can't remember what it was specifically or who mentioned it, just that something terrible would happen if they were sealed."

"Grandmother Willow, you have to try and remember. This is important. If there's something about the keyholes then I need to know about it," Luna said.

Luna could see Grandmother Willow furrowing her wooden brows in thought and then softening as she looked back at Luna. "I'm trying, child, but I just can't remember. It's been so long. Who knows, maybe those words have no weight anymore and I'm worrying over nothing. So what are you going to do?"

"Well I… maybe I should talk with my friends about this and make the decision together. I think it's about time we should be heading back before someone realizes we're missing," Luna said.

"We should, but I have one more thing to ask," Pocahontas said. She proceeded to explain what Luna told her about the Princesses of Heart and her eligibility to become one. She had conveniently left out the part about the risk involved, Luna had noticed. "You once told me that I was destined for great things. Well, now I feel your guidance will be more important than ever. I'm not sure I can decide."

"It is an interesting predicament indeed, and a sudden one. Tell me, Luna, what do you think Pocahontas should do?" Grandmother Willow asked.

"Er, I'm not sure I'm the best person to ask that-"

"Oh, don't be so modest. Go ahead and answer what's in your heart."

"Okay. If I could I would tell her to not get involved but then I can't keep saying that to every person we meet who might fit the criteria. In the end though, I would say you should just pick what's best for you, Pocahontas," Luna answered carefully. She didn't want to persuade or dissuade Pocahontas from whatever her current choice was. It was in these matters that she needed to stay impartial no matter how much she wanted to interfere.

"I'll be sure to sleep and ponder on it then. I have a lot of thinking to do so-"

"Of course. We'll give you as much time as you need," Luna promised. Pocahontas nodded with an appreciate smile and was about to look at Grandmother Willow when a shrill cry pierced the skies. Meeko ran up and cowered behind Luna's leg and Flint quickly covered his ears with his wings, closing his eyes shut tight.

"And what exactly is that awful racket?" Grandmother Willow groaned out.

"The Heartless, maybe? We need to get back to the village, quickly!" Luna said, grabbing hold of Pocahontas' hand.

* * *

Sora's attempt at trying to get sleep after staying up for two hours pondering things was rendered meaningless exactly twenty-two seconds after he closed his eyes. He knew the number to be correct because had started counting sheep in his head.

"Sora, wake up! Luna's missing," Kairi said, shaking his shoulders.

"I'm up, I'm up! Ehh, can't even rest for a minute," Sora mumbled, turning over as if he wanted to fall out of his bed on the Gummi Ship to wake himself up properly.

"There's no time for that. Were you listening to what I just said? Luna's gone from her hut!" Kairi said.

"Luna? Maybe she went out for a walk or something," Sora suggested with a yawn.

"I've already searched the village except for the other huts and I couldn't find her. She also changed out of her clothes," Kairi said. This seemed enough to wake Sora fully and he sprung up from the floor, grabbed his jacket from the side of the room and followed Kairi out of the room into the cold night.

"You didn't tell Riku?" Sora asked.

"Er, no. I was kind of hoping we could keep this a small operation…"

Sora nodded. "Uh huh. And the real reason?"

"He was snoring pretty loudly, I couldn't disturb him. Have you ever noticed that he makes a cute frown when he's asleep?" Kairi asked.

"Why no, Kairi. No I haven't and that probably has to do with the fact that I'm a guy. We don't tend to notice those things about other guys," Sora replied a little annoyed.

"So what you mean to say is that if I were the one making a cute face while sleeping, you'd notice?"

Sora appeared slack-jawed for a few seconds, unsure of how to approach Kairi's comment. "Well, now you're just playing games with me."

Kairi giggled and would have made a witty reply had they not arrived at the front gates where two guards were present.

"Is there something wrong?" One of the guards asked. He and his partner were both holding spears in their hands.

"Our friend is missing. You haven't seen her around, have you?" Sora asked. The two men looked at each other with a synchronized questioning raise of the brow before returning their report by way of shaking heads. Sora thanked them before putting his arm around Kairi, turning her around with him and whispering, "Kairi, are you sure you looked everywhere? Maybe she's in one of the huts."  
"Why would she be? There's no reason for her to have gone in any of them. Plus, I'm not willing to wake up the entire village just to find her," Kairi whispered back.

"Then how did she get out of the village?" Sora asked. He and Kairi glanced over their shoulders to see the guards staring at them suspiciously. Sora pulled a cheesy grin and motioned for Kairi to follow him.

Kairi made sure they were in far out of the earshot of the guards before returning to normal volume.

"Maybe she got out some other way?"

"Yeah, maybe she flew out, that or… maybe she's in another hut," Sora suggested as if he were pronouncing words to a child. Before Kairi could snap at him, the two spun around upon hearing a piercing scream in the night sky. The scream could not have been human, for it seemed that of a frequency unreachable to anything a human could accomplish.

"Our Heartless?" Kairi asked and Sora gave nod. Despite the guards' warnings to stop, the two hurried past them and set off down the forest trail in the direction of the sound.

They walked deeper and deeper into the woods, until any sight of the village had disappeared. In the forest there was only darkness, the moon now covered by thick and ghostly looking branches, and so Sora and Kairi had to light up there Keyblades in order to see where they were going.

It was when they had started to slow down that Sora had spotted a shadowy figure hiding within the trees, but he was too late to dodge. An arrow, glowing silver and bright, struck Sora in his leg sending him to the ground.

"Sora!" Kairi yelled. She was about to head for him when a silk web hit her from the side and glued her to a tree nearby. Sora looked at Kairi quickly before quickly crawling behind the tree she was attached to. "Sora, are you okay? I can't move."

"Ahh, that was careless of me. Really careless…" Sora hissed as looked down to his left leg's injury. On closer inspection, it became clear that the arrow wasn't really a normal one constructed what Sora would naturally expect an arrow to be made out of. The arrow seemed to be purely made from Light elemental magic instead. Bearing in mind what he was about to experience, Sora gritted his teeth and pulled at the arrow hard and quick. It came out as fast as a screaming Sora could possibly want, and looking back after he had recomposed himself he could see a horrible gash where the arrow had once been.

"Sora, you're not doing a very convincing job of hiding now, are you?" The mysterious person said. Sora laid his head against the back of the tree and frowned. He had heard that voice before somewhere, a long time ago. It was of masculine origin and contained shades of haughtiness and pride behind its calm exterior. Fortunately, the man seemed to want to spare Sora of having to dig up memories for a voice to match. "I won't stand around and watch as the rest of Moira's Crescent make the mistake of turning a blind eye to your constant meddling in other worlds' affairs. I'm not Desiree. I don't play with my food, not that I consider you befitting of said description. Food is generally harmless—you're not."

"Moira's Crescent? You won't get away with this! Sora, run! I'll figure something out to stall for time," Kairi said.

"I'm not leaving you, Kairi. Besides, on this busted leg I wouldn't be able to get far," Sora replied.

Kairi closed her eyes a screwed up her face in concentration. "_Curasa_."

The familiar green light and sound of chimes caused Sora to look down to his leg to see the wound had been sealed. Along with the familiar effects that he knew restorative magic to possess, there was also something else that was different from any other iteration of cure that he knew. There was something rejuvenating about it, something that made him feel more alert than ever.

"Thanks, that feels great," Sora whispered before shouting. "How did you even find us anyway? I doubt it was by coincidence that you just happened to be in this world when we were."

"Why couldn't it be? Not that it matters," the man said. Sora stood up, summoned his Keyblade and cut through the web from the back of the tree, releasing Kairi on the other side. Sora stayed hugged to the back of the tree however with his eyes in search of any sign of movement.

"Kairi, go and find Luna-"

"I'm not leaving _you_. We're in this together," Kairi shouted, cutting him short.

"If Luna's out there she could be in danger."

"And you're not?"

"I'll be alright, you know me. I'll think of something," Sora said, flashing a grin that Kairi couldn't see from the other side but could probably still tell from the sound of his voice, he hoped. He then said more seriously, "Kairi, trust me on this, 'kay? I need you to find Luna and make sure she's safe."

"You owe me for this," Kairi said after a while.

"I owe you for this," Sora confirmed. He watched as Kairi ran past him and waited until she was lost in the rows and columns of brown before focusing on the task at hand. He was not going to get another free heal from Kairi and his magic wasn't as nearly as good to heal a wound completely like that. In other words, he was done for if just one arrow hit him.

"Good, now I don't have to hold back. Your mistake, I suppose. I suppose I should introduce myself, for it would be premature of me. The name's Alfonso." As he said his name, he released an arrow from his Keyblade transformed bow which hit the tree covering Sora. Completely unexpected, Sora was suddenly blown out of cover by a powerful explosion. Sora let out a gasp as his body was thrown backwards and he hit the forest floor. When he forced himself to look up, he could see no evidence of the explosion having even happened.

"What the…" Sora grimaced and quickly rolled to take cover behind another tree, trying to catch his breath.

"One shot," Alfonso said, creating an arrow of light from his hands and lining it up with the bow. "You understand, Sora? I get just one shot in, and it's over for you. You may have survived the first shot, but trust me— luck runs out fast."


	61. Piercing Through The Dark

_I wouldn't usually upload on a saturday but since I missed my weekly upload then I guess I'll have to push it out before next week. Anyway, on with show!_

* * *

**Chapter 61**

**Piercing Through The Dark**

"Tell me. How does one such as yourself even manage to smile when you wake up in the morning, knowing what you've done? Then again, maybe it's easier than you like to make your friends think it is. Was it easy for you then? Pointing your Keyblade, a weapon that should be used to protect, at children and taking their lives away? I'd like to think any smile you show must be bittersweet otherwise you're hardly even human."

The words uttered by the faux-librarian sent a chill down Sora's spine, or maybe it had just been the wind. Sora stopped moving for a moment. How had Alfonso come to know of what happened back in Basil's world? If he knew then it could be safely concluded that the rest of Moira's Crescent also knew. If that was the case, then any prospect of working with them as had been proposed by their other member, Rhea, had just been thrown out of the window. Still, he wanted to plead his case. He wanted to tell them all that had happened on that world in its entirety and truth, but to do so now would expose him and that was exactly what Alfonso wanted.

_One shot._

Remembering this, Sora began moving slowly again. He kept low to the ground and snaked his way forward, keeping his ears alert where his eyes were useless. This was probably the only time he could comfortably say that the darkness brought by night and trees coveting the moonlight was his ally. As long as he stayed in the shadows and kept as quiet as possible, he couldn't be spotted, or so the theory went anyway. Though he wasn't adept at sneaking, in fact the entire situation of having to play on the defensive seemed odd to him, there was something comforting about being trained by someone who seemed to know the first thing about scouting. If there was any time to take Neuge's skills to heart, it was definitely now.

"Is this what you usually do when you don't want to face the truth? You run? Why don't you face me, Sora?" Alfonso shouted from somewhere near Sora's right. He had picked up on the fact that the direction of the voice had changed while he was crawling.

_Maybe because I'm not an idiot, _Sora countered inwardly. He inched towards the right with his entire body and propped his Oblivion Keyblade up like a sniper. As much as he didn't want to admit it, Alfonso was right. Sora's patience would inevitably be tested and Sora was anything but patient. Alfonso was counting on that weakness to manifest itself. Sora could only imagine that Moira's Crescent had one big file on him just like KRONOS seemed to have on him and his friends.

That was when out of the corner of his eye he saw movement. It had only been due to the moonlight being able to pass through a certain exposed area. In fact, it was the only area anywhere near Sora where the light could pass through, and in that split second he saw a human's shadow. It was at that moment that an idea sprouted in Sora's mind, and dangerous though it could be, he could see no other way to reach Alfonso without making his presence known. He lifted his Keyblade up slightly and fired off a flare far off into the distance. The red light hit a tree and a loud spitting sound akin to fireworks could be heard from his location.

Within the short window of opportunity he had, he made to go ahead with his original plan of summoning the Gullwings when something stopped him. Was it perhaps a self-inflated ego? No, it was more like it just felt wrong to do it. That it would discredit Sora in his hunter's eyes. Now why he even cared about the words of someone who was trying to kill him was beyond him, but just hiding and waiting for the Gullwings to do the work seemed to be exactly what Alfonso had described him to be doing—running away. Maybe then it was out of some need to prove that Alfonso was wrong then that Sora let the Keyblade disappear in his hands. He crawled quickly until he was behind another tree before and counted the time left until the flare would run out.

_Three…_

_Two…_

_One…_

The hunt was back on.

In the time that he sat underneath the giant sequoia tree, Sora saw things that he would not usually have been able to if he were just, as Alfonso put it, running. He saw life. He had always been passing through worlds, and while he indeed could see them in their plainest form, he had never really taken the time to feel or smell or listen.

He placed a hand against the tree and moved it up and down to feel the rough and uneven layers tickling his hand. There were splinters, cracks and indents from which each of the tree's branches spawned out in multiple directions. He moved his hand from the tree to the air in front of him, feeling the wind wrap itself around his fingers as if it were just for him. Well… if he was really as powerful as he felt at this moment then his life would be much different than it was now.

If Neuge was here now, she would be instructing him to keep his eyes closed and his ears open. Now in this place of green covered by darkness, her words had never been so befitting. He only had one shot at this and he certainly didn't intend to go back to sneaking on the forest floor. With his lessons of meditation at the forefront of his mind, Sora closed his eyes, slowed his breathing and listened to everything around him. He was looking for something unusual, be it the way the air seemed or even the tiniest rustling of leaves. Though this task seemed impossible at first, no one, careful though they may be, could completely cover their tracks.

Sora had always admired bats' ability to sense things through echolocation. It had been the one thing that had stuck with him when he had studied biology at school. It wasn't just animals who had the ability though. He realized only now how grateful he was that he came across Rhea. Though he had never asked her, he had a strong feeling that she used a similar ability to fight others. Sora's hearing or any of his other senses weren't as honed as hers, but he could still hear something. It was a weird sensation, as if time itself had stopped and the only thing he could hear at first was his own heartbeat, but as the range of his hearing slowly spread out he could also pick up on something else. The landing of feet on branches some few trees to the left of him and the slight snap of a twig that had then landed in the grass. A satisfied smile appeared on Sora's face that he didn't even know he had made until he opened his eyes. He began running in the direction of the sound, paying no heed to the obviousness of his own footsteps and their weight against the ground.

Up ahead, he could just about make Alfonso out. The blue haired adult had turned in a hurry and was readying his bow. He quickly took the shot but Sora had predicted where Alfonso would aim and tilted his head sideways. Sora could hear a frightening whoosh of a sound from a close call but he didn't let that stop him and continued on his assault.

Sora summoned his Keyblade again and shot a Firaga at Alfonso. Alfonso jumped onto another tree and out of the way of the attack before firing again. His hands were sharp and quick using magic to create arrows and fire them one after another but for Sora, time seemed no longer relevant. His life was on the line and he was pushing his adrenaline for all it was worth. Sora's hand moved like a blur, and rather than dodging the arrows this time, he confidently deflected the arrows coming at him with the Keyblade.

"What? How is that possible?" Alfonso yelled out. He withdrew his bow from sight and transformed it into a Keyblade before jumping off the branch and landing on the ground. Before he could do anything, blue wisps of ember appeared right in front of him, and Sora appeared out of the wisps swinging upwards with Oblivion. The tip connected with Alfonso's chin and lifted him up into the air. Sora continued his onslaught by firing off _Aeroga _after _Aeroga _from his hand, keeping Alfonso juggled in the air. After a while, he dropped his hand and spun, batting straight into Alfonso's side and sending him on the ground.

Alfonso backed himself into the tree he had jumped from and clutched his ribs while staring at Sora with a look of outrage.

"Impossible! Tell me, how were you able to deflect my arrows so easily? And that speed!" Alfonso yelled.

"I have a good teacher," Sora responded proudly. He then squatted down to meet Alfonso at eye level. "Listen. I don't know who told you about it or showed you it but they're wrong. Those children, they were infected with the Chimera virus. There was no way of saving them. That's why I did what I did. Do I regret it? Of course. There's not a day that goes by where I don't blame myself. I can't forget such a horrible thing. It's etched into my mind and heart. A permanent scar that will never fade and I'll carry it with me for the rest of my life and even to the grave if it comes to it. Did I have a choice? If it meant letting them turn into Chimera then no."

"Chimera, huh… And why would I trust a single word you say?" Alfonso asked.

"You're a Keyblade wielder. Aren't you supposed to be objective? Figure it out," Sora said. A disappointed sigh escaped his mouth and he looked down at his Keyblade. "You know, I thought once that we could at least try and work together. That since we were all Keyblade wielders we could do better to keep the worlds safe. But we can't even agree on that. The problem's not on my end, it's with you people and I would be willing to work with you if you accepted that but if you don't, then I will keep fighting and I will keep winning."

"And you'll bring the whole world to ruin just to prove that point?" Alfonso asked.

"That prophecy of yours won't come true."

"It always does. I don't blame you for not believing it though. You only knew Yeul for such a short time before you let her die," Alfonso said, a hint of bitterness in his voice.

Sora's eyes lit up at this and a frown appeared on his face. "Don't tell me that's what this is all about? You're trying to satisfy your revenge under the guise of some vision?"

"Believe whatever you want. It doesn't change the fact though that you fail to protect anyone you touch. Yeul, those children… who else? I probably wouldn't want you joining Moira's Crescent anyway. We'd probably all be next." Alfonso attempted to laugh but after the slashing of _Aeroga_ against his chest, all he could manage was a painful cough.

A disdainful look befell Sora's features, but he couldn't exactly deny the truth of the matter either. He could not yet shake off the guilt he felt for failing to protect them and it was one thing to blame himself but hearing it from someone else hit a lot harder. After so many words of encouragement from his friends, could they so easily be shattered like a sheet of ice with words of guilt?

A foggy smoke clouded Sora's vision. He tried rubbing his eyes at first, thinking that the night's events coupled with not having gotten any rest must have worn him out, but the fog failed to disappear. It was Alfonso's "What in spoony bard's name…" that caused him to look up and see that it was not his vision but rather the entire forest that was barely visible.

"The fog… this isn't good. We need to go!" Sora said before extending his hand out for Alfonso.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"What do you think? I'm saving your life. Can you walk?"

Alfonso gave a questionable stare to Sora as if he were crazy. In all truth, Sora thought he was pretty crazy to be helping someone who tried to kill him as well. But then again, it was just the kind of person he was and Alfonso could come to whatever conclusions he wanted to even if it was one blinded by revenge. He didn't know Moira's Crescent's relationship to Yeul all that well but he could at least tell from the way Alfonso talked about her that they probably had known her better than he had.

"I can walk just fine," Alfonso finally said after a submission of stubbornness. He pulled himself up by using the tree as a support and picked up his Keyblade. A screech and ragged breathing very close by sent them spinning around and raising their Keyblades.

* * *

The boat gently touched the shore. Lunda did not wait for it to fully settle and jumped out of the boat. As she ran, she looked behind her to see Pocahontas, Meeko and Flint following behind.

"Luna, wait!" Pocahontas called behind her. Luna slowed down but kept jogging at a steady pace. "There's a shortcut through the fields."

"Oh. I just realized that I have no idea where I'm going anyway. Take the lead," Luna said, letting out an awkward laugh. Pocahontas smiled and sped past Luna. She was going at a pace even faster than Luna could manage and she had to call several times for Pocahontas to slow down so she could catch up.

After swerving in and out of a bundle of trees, they arrived at a field with tall crops of maize in neat and tidy rows. Here, Pocahontas slowed down to tell Luna that this was where she worked and that the corn they had gifted Luna and her friends had come from these fields.

"How long do you usually work out here for?"

"A few hours a week. Don't worry, it's not nearly bad as you might think it is though it can be a bit tedious especially with the sun beating down on you. I spend so much time here I can pretty much tell when the maize is ready to be harvested. It has to do with the silk at the top of the corn, you see. Once it's shrivelled up, that means the corn has pollinated and you can harvest it," Pocahontas said.

"I… have learned things! I will definitely take that into consideration the next time I decide to grow crops," Luna joked. For just a moment though, the idea of living on farmland and living off what was purely on the land was one that appeared in her head. Well, the factory that was her mind conjured many insane fantasies anyway. This certainly wouldn't be the first and it wouldn't the last either.

The two and their animal companions moved quickly through the maize field and onto dirt road. Just up ahead was the village and even closer, Luna soon found as she ran head first into her was-

"Ow! Kairi, sorry about that. What are you doing out here?" Luna asked, rubbing her forehead.

"I can ask you the same thing. At least Pocahontas was with you. Where did you two go?" Kairi asked, mirroring Luna's own reaction. She shook her head immediately after. "Actually, no. That doesn't matter right now. Sora's in danger."  
"Where is he? Is it the Chimera?" Luna asked.

"Not exactly. We set out hoping to find you after we saw that you were missing from your bed and then we heard this high pitched scream. We thought it was the Chimera too and that it had found you so we set out into the forest. We got pretty deep in when a member of Moira's Crescent attacked us," Kairi summarized in a hasty manner.

"If you're friend is out there by himself then we need to hurry. The night is not favourable to those who wander out by themselves," Pocahontas said.

"Why did you leave him though? If it was a Moira's Crescent member, wouldn't it have been dangerous seeing as they're after him?" quizzed Luna.

"Sora asked me to find you. He didn't want my help. He's stubborn like that. Anyway, we need to hurry!"

"I see. I'm sorry if it seemed like I was accusing you of leaving him. I'm sure you wanted to help him," Luna apologized, feeling quite guilty.

"If anything it's my fault. I shouldn't have pressured Luna into coming along with me. I could have waited until tomorrow instead. I was just so excited when she mentioned the other worlds and I wanted to confirm something," Pocahontas said.

"Don't worry about it. As far as I'm concerned, it's all water under the bridge at this point. Let's just get to Sora," said Kairi. She turned heel and led the way into the forest.

* * *

Arrows rained down from the sky and slammed down on the griffon. The creature shook off the arrows and flapped its wings wildly. A strong current of wind blew throughout the forest, disturbing the locale within the area. Sora attempted to hold his ground by stabbing his Keyblade into the ground and holding on for dear life, but the ground eventually broke apart and Sora was flung backwards by a powerful force. It was a sudden jerk of force that stopped him from crashing into a tree, and when he looked down, he could see a rope thrown around like a lasso around his waist and keeping him suspended in the air. As the wind died down, gravity took effect and Sora hit the ground on his back.

"Leaving so soon, Keyblade Master? Stand your ground," Alfonso mocked, releasing the rope from Sora's waist.

"You're a funny guy," Sora muttered. "But if you have time to make jokes, then you have to time to fight instead of just standing there, right?"

"Unlike you, I actually think about my next moves. You may not know this Sora, but every fight is like a chess match and on a looser basis, like poker. Both involve reading your opponents moves before they happen and visualizing the best possible strategy to overcome those moves. The Heartless may appear illogical but even they have patterns," Alfonso said.

"Well, I don't really get poker but I get the chess one. So you're reading the opponents moves then?" Sora asked.

"Hmph. Simpleton, a game of poker or two would do you well. Many lessons from poker can be applied to real life and it can often mean the difference between life and death," Alfonso said.

"I have the feeling you're greatly exaggerating there but okay. One thing though. We can't kill it. If there's any chance we can save it, I want to take it. Kairi has the injection needle for the antidote," Sora said.

"And you sent her away if I recall correctly," Alfonso said.

"Which is why we should try and capture it for now."

"And you're so sure this antidote will work?"

Sora shrugged. "I haven't seen its effects for myself yet but it helped someone I knew out. We have to try."

Alfonso seemed to weigh this in his mind for a moment before his eyes fell back on the Chimera which was currently charging at him. Sora wondered for a moment if Alfonso was so simply stumped that he couldn't move and was about to move when he saw something wondrous. At the last possible moment, Alfonso leapt around artfully to the side of the Chimera and brought his Keyblade down on to its body.

The Griffon extended its long neck around and tried to chip away at Alfonso's head. Alfonso moved his head out of the way of two of the lunges before wrapping his arm around the Griffon's neck. He conjured a yellow arrow out of nowhere and stabbed it into the Griffon's neck.

"Electrocute!" He yelled. Sora turned away as the dark forest lit up to a blinding display of light. The light soon died down as far as Sora could tell from his covered eyes and when he looked back, he saw a Chimera lying on the ground unmoving and Alfonso standing above him, coolly brushing off the soot that had stained his clothes.

"Wow… that was awesome!" Sora yelled with the giddy grin of a newly made fanboy.

"Please, it was nothing. Don't worry, it's still breathing. I hope you and your friends know what you're doing. By the way, this still doesn't make us allies so don't get the wrong idea. We are enemies, as far as I'm concerned," Alfonso said.

"Sora! Sora, where are you?"

Picking up on Luna's voice from somewhere behind him, Sora spun around in its direction. He could see what looked like three shadowy figures in the foggy distance. A grin on his face, Sora jumped up and down waving his hands. "HEY! OVER HERE!" He checked to make sure that they were coming in his direction before turning to speak to Alfonso. "Well if we do still consider me an enemy then- huh?"

As he looked around he could find no sign of Alfonso, only the slowly breathing creature whom he had just stood over.

Sora shook his head. "The oldest trick in the book. And he says I run. Don't worry. I'll be even stronger the next time we face each other, though I'd rather we could understand each other instead."

Footsteps coming closer made him turn again to see Luna, Kairi and Pocahontas emerge out of the fog with distinctive worried looks on their faces.

"No broken bones, right? Cuts? Bruises?" Kairi asked in between breaths.

"I said I had a plan. Gotta have more faith in me, Kairi. You seem more out of breath than I am," Sora said.

"Oh, shut up," Kairi replied. She looked past him along with Luna and Pocahontas and then looked back. "Sora, is that…"

"I'd like to tell you that I beat that thing all by myself but I kinda did nothing. It was that member of Moira's Crescent, Alfonso is his name. Kairi, do you have the antidote with you?" Sora asked.

"Yeah. Where is he?" Kairi asked while walking up to the Griffon.

"Alfonso? He just left, I think. He must be shy," Sora said. Kairi took the needle out of her pocket and injected the Chimera's neck quickly before backing away.

"And he let you go? Maybe there's hope yet then. If he was hesitant to kill you then surely the rest of Moira's Crescent must have some doubts about going after you," Luna said.

"I wouldn't be too sure of that. There doesn't seem to be any unanimous agreement among them. Some of them are hella convinced that I'm some sort of evil entity while others don't see me as a threat. Because of that, it's basically luck of the draw as to who we encounter and since we can't tell who is on what side I'd just rather avoid them all personally," Sora said.

"While I do question your use of the word 'hella', I guess you're right that the safest approach would be to avoid them. Still, I feel like if we could just convince one of them to argue our case for us, that would be enough, you know? Like we'd still have a fighting chance," Luna replied.

"Astra, right? You want to talk to her," Sora confirmed and Luna nodded.

"Mmph. She's the only one of the members that I actually know and I think she would listen. I know she was rather cold to you at first but if you got the chance to know her and her you then I think it would be different," she said, kneading her thumbs together.

"You also said you met someone else in their group who could help, right? Rhea, was it?" Kairi joined in with her eyes still on the heaving mass.

"Yeah, but who knows if she hasn't changed her mind by now. She said she was going to give me time to consider whether I should join Moira's Crescent but I don't know how she'd be able to get back to me. We're constantly moving worlds, after all," Sora said. Well… maybe he had an idea or two. That Alfonso had been able to find him had been no coincidence, that he was sure of. He was being tracked. If that were the case, then it was possible Rhea had also used the same technology to track them. Just thinking about it sent shivers down his spine. He could only wonder how living under the same roof with them would be with nothing but suspicion and distrust on both sides.

"And you'd be willing to accept her offer?" Kairi asked after what seemed like a long period of silence. "Just so you know, Riku and I would be supportive of whichever path you choose."

"Oh don't be ridiculous, Kairi. I'm not going to abandon you and Riku," Sora said.

"But it's not ridiculous, is it? This is your life we're talking about. Besides, I'm sure they would allow us in two if we asked," Kairi said.

"No, I'm not getting you involved in this. You've done a lot for me, but this is something I have to figure out on my own," Sora dismissed in a low voice.

"Why do you have to be so stubborn sometimes? This isn't just your fight. We all have something to lose here if we don't plan things out carefully," Kairi said. She was about to add something further but the inhumane groan of the Chimera rang out. Sora, Luna and Kairi reacted instantly by summoning their Keyblades but as the scream gradually morphed into a completely different cry, or whimper as such, they halted in their advance.

"It's… a puppy," Sora announced, more to himself in surprise than to anyone else. They could obviously see it anyway, but as to whether they believed it was something else entirely. Sora recognized the small puppy as being a Shiba Inu, a type which he knew mainly because Selphie owned one back on the islands.

"Well ain't that a thing?" Luna said. She crouched down and motioned with her hands for the puppy to come to her. When it did, Luna patted its head. "Good boy. He's so cute!"

"Yeah, I think I'm starting to notice a pattern between you and dogs here," Sora said to her. Worry soon displaced the grin on his face. "But turning a puppy into a Chimera? So then it wasn't just humans that Abraxas experimented on? Even from the grave he's making my blood boil."

"I've never seen something like this before. What kind of animal is it?" Pocahontas enquired.

"You've never seen one before? It's a dog. They're pets you keep in the house, or at least they are where we're from," Kairi said.

Pocahontas let out a small gasp. "Pets you keep in the house? That sounds horrible. Surely they should be free? I would never keep Meeko and Flint within the village."

"Huh? Oh no no. They actually like being in the house. They're domesticated animals. We consider them like family really. Now whose family do you belong to, little one?" Kairi asked.

"There's no tag or identification on him. He could be from anywhere. I mean, Abraxas had a laboratory back in Alexander so maybe the puppy could have come from there but that's assuming all the test subjects came from the same world and that that's his only laboratory," Luna said.

"So we have a puppy on board then for the foreseeable future," Sora said. A frown appeared on Luna's face which then soon became a look of fear as she took the puppy into her arms. "Is something wrong?"

"He just collapsed all of a sudden. The shaman... We have to get him to the shaman, quickly!" Luna yelled. She did not wait for the others to reply. Instead she took off running in the direction they had come from. Her shape soon disappeared into the fog and Sora had to rely on Kairi and Pocahontas' guidance to follow her.

* * *

For all he tried, Sora could not find the essential comfort known as sleep. Though his eyes were closed, there was one worry on his mind and that worry was what kept him awake. Upon returning to the village, they found that they did not have to wake the village shaman for he already stood waiting for them on arrival. The guards had most likely alerted him and Chief Powhatan, Sora deduced, after he and Kairi had pushed past them.

A short burst of anger followed in which Powhatan chided his daughter for leaving the village. It took the combined efforts of Sora, Kairi and Luna to quell the village leader and divert blame from Pocahontas. The wounded puppy in Luna's arms also accelerated this process. As Kekata led Luna to the hut where the hunters that had been attacked by the Chimera were, Luna refused to leave the pup's side. Her explanation—because she felt as if a thread tied the two together, that thread being that they had both been Chimera. She gave them her utmost assurance that she would be fine and that they both get some rest for the night. Pocahontas, feeling somewhat guilty for putting Luna in danger, decided to stay with her.

Sora twisted and turned throughout the remainder of the night however. He really only fell asleep after hearing the loud call of the wild turkey signalling sunrise. So it was only three hours, he estimated, of sleep before he exited the tent to a busy village. He let out a long yawn and immediately made his way to the hut. He didn't even need to enter to see that something was incredibly wrong.

"Sora…" Kairi said with a face much paler than usual. Besides her was Riku, using his shoulder as support for Kairi's head. Kairi had probably informed him about everything sometime beforehand. Sora absently shook his head and with his legs suddenly feeling weak, he gave into them completely and fell to the ground.

"No. No no no no NO! It's not fair. It's not… It's not…" Sora slammed his fist into ground, attracting the attention of villagers passing by. He didn't care.

"The overabundance of darkness in his heart was probably too much for the poor fella to handle. If your heart can't handle the imbalance, it shatters. I know because I faced the same hardships once before," Riku explained. But he had survived, Sora wanted to shout back at him. Riku at least had the choice of fighting back. The puppy and those like it, animal or human, they never had the choice. Abraxas had taken advantage of their weaknesses and exploited them in an effort to create a travesty. Worst of all, for all the despair and sadness he felt at the moment, Sora knew that none of it must have compared to what Luna was feeling at the moment. Did he dare even look at her after this? If he did, what would he find?

The knotted feeling in his stomach soon meant nothing to him and gave way to anger, directed at no one but himself. After Alfonso had put his trust in Sora's words and had even been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and let him go based on that trust. He had betrayed him. There hadn't exactly been anything he could have done, true, but he still felt as if he alone were to blame for not being able to save it.

"_It doesn't change the fact though that you fail to protect anyone you touch. Yeul, those children… who else? I probably wouldn't want you joining Moira's Crescent anyway. We'd probably all be next."_

The words stung him like the sharpest of needles. Suddenly, Sora began to feel very uncomfortable. His eyes fell on Riku and Kairi for a moment; he looked away.


	62. Man of Shadows

_You know a chapter feels good to write when you can't stop writing until you've finished it, and so I give you the next chapter of this story. Nothing else much to say for now I think. As always, reviews and favourites are always appreciated._

* * *

**Chapter 62**

**Man of Shadows **

Luna stood approximately two metres away from Sora, silent as she had been since the morning. Even meeting a talking tree at Pocahontas' suggestion had not deterred his mind from worrying about her. Not only did she seem visibly shaken, but Sora had noticed several occasions when she had patted the knife strapped to her waist. It was an unconscious touch, from what Sora could see, but that was even more worrying.

"Pocahontas and Luna told us that you said we shouldn't seal the keyholes? I'm not sure if you know much about what is going on in the other worlds but maybe if you hear it from our perspective, it might clarify things a bit?" Riku suggested to Grandmother Willow. "The Heartless seek the heart of the worlds which can be found through these keyholes. If they aren't sealed then the worlds will crumble and fall into darkness. The fog that has been appearing throughout these worlds isn't good either. A lot of random things have happened because of it. We're talking people turning crazy, leading into different worlds or even different realms, and now Heartless that stay in the fog and use it to target people. Who knows what else? As far as we know, sealing the keyholes is our only option right now. We can't risk the Heartless gaining more ground."

"And if the fog isn't gone after this. You can contact us through this." Kairi took a star-shaped object out of her pocket and handed it over to Pocahontas. Sora was sure she hadn't had it on her beforehand so she must have retrieved it from the Gummi Ship at some point in the morning before they set out to meet Grandmother Willow. "It's a wayfinder or a connection charm. All you have to do is have me in your head when talking into it and it'll react with my own."

Pocahontas accepted the objected and played with it in her hands for a few seconds. The material of the wayfinder was translucent and allowed for some of the sun's rays to pass through it when she held it up to the sky.

"Thank you. I'll keep it safe."

Grandmother Willow, judging from her expression, was still not fully convinced. It made Sora uneasy. If she knew something she claimed not to remember it, but it was still enough to make her hesitant. What had caused this?

The tree eventually let out a sigh that was most like a gentle breeze. "I suppose you're right. I trust you will all make the right decision. Is something the matter, Luna?"

"The… we were trying to save someone and they… they didn't make it. Luna and I stayed up with him all night," Pocahontas answered. Before the tree could respond, Luna spoke up, albeit quietly.

"I held him in my arms. I could see his little paws moving. I thought it was going well. Then… he suddenly stopped moving. I didn't know what was happening. No… I didn't want to believe what I was seeing. Then my hands suddenly felt devoid of weight. He'd disappeared in front of my eyes. There wasn't anything I could do." Luna squeezed her eyes shut tight to prevent any tears from leaking out and clenched her fists. She was trying to hold all the pain in, similar to Sora himself.

"You must keep your light burning strong, child. There will be many times when you blame and doubt yourself for being unable to do something, but to let guilt hang over your head is like picking up a magnifying glass rather than a mirror. One makes things seem much worse than they really are. Learn to look past the short term storm and anticipate the long term wind," Grandmother Willow advised.

"I suppose in a way, his death was a comfort. He was in pain, and if there was no way to help him then at least he's at peace now, and you were there for him, Luna. There are so many who wish they could die with someone at their side. You granted him that wish," Riku added, having nodded every now and then to Grandmother Willow's words.

"I guess," Luna drawled with a sigh. It was clear she had not been fully convinced but Sora had no doubt that she would get out her slumps. She always did.

"Then I guess it's time we seal the keyhole… oh, Pocahontas, have you made a decision yet? I know it's kind of sudden with everything going on but…" Sora said.

Pocahontas gave a firm nod. "I have. I'm sorry about this but I can't go with you. It's not that I don't want to. If it came to it I'd do anything I could to help you all. The problem is... I'm not ready. I was so ecstatic at the thought of seeing these other worlds that I forgot about Luna's safety and my own. I rushed into the night knowing full well that there was something out there that could attack us and I even selfishly thrust the burden on Luna to protect me. I was reckless and for that, I apologize. I still have a lot to learn, clearly, and that starts here I think. You've also showed me that there's more to this world than meets the eye. If these demo- Heartless, if they ever attack the village, I need to stand with my father to protect everyone. I want to become strong like how my father described my mother. I want to be someone deserving of the chance you've given me rather than a person who rushes out into the unknown only to regret it soon after."

"We understand. And there's no need to apologize. We still have some growing to do of our own," Sora said.

"By 'we', I think you mean you," Riku said, playfully punching Sora on the shoulder.

"Hey, this is a team exercise here! Oh, Pocahontas, tell Nakoma that Riku won't forget here. He'll definitely be back to see how she's doing. He has her on his _list _after all," Sora said quickly. He tried to dodge Riku's hand like last time but this time he was too late. Riku wrapped his arm around Sora's neck and locked him in position. He then proceeded to drive his knuckles into Sora's scalp. "Ow, that hurts! What is this, third grade?"

From the corner of his eyes, Sora could just about make out Luna peaking up from her previous downward position and chuckling brightly at his misfortune. Seeing this, Sora grinned and, rather than fighting back against Riku, allowed him to noogie Sora until he was fully satisfied.

"Okay, let's… let's just seal the keyhole, shall we?" Sora said after he was let go by Riku. He stroked his hair gently as if it were the love of his life, and then summoned the Kingdom Key.

"But you really will come back sometime, yes? You're always welcome to. I can teach you all how to climb trees and other things like growing maize and listening to more of Kekata's stories," Pocahontas said, watching as a giant keyhole replaced Grandmother Willow's face just like the night before. The familiar beam of light shot out of the Keyblade's tip and hit dead center. A light followed, and the Willow tree's face reappeared in front of them.

Sora turned and flashed his trademark grin at Pocahontas. "With an offer like that, how can we refuse?"

* * *

"Yes… That's right. Whatever you do you need to detain David Xanatos until we return… Listen, Squall… Leon, whatever, you're assuming I care. Anyway, we found evidence linking him to KRONOS. We don't know if he's directly connected or someone is abusing their position within Xanatos Enterprises to sell KRONOS the stuff but he has to explain why containers with his logo on them are being shipped to different worlds, are being stored in liquid nitrogen, and possibly have the Chimera drug inside them… Then have him stand before the committee, I don't know how the darn system works now, do I? Just cease all production in the necessary department and have someone investigate them... Yes, it would be a disaster if there was a scandal which is why I'm sure you'll figure something out. Keep it out of the public eye if you have to… Yeah, talk to me once you've taken him in."

Neuge withdrew the Wayfinder from her mouth and rested her eyes for a moment. For Leon who had put in so much work to build the world into something greater, it could all just so easily come tumbling down any moment. She had probably stressed him out more than he needed to be but she knew it had the potential to hurt a lot more later on if not dealt with now. He and his friends would have to figure out what to do from now on. She was just the messenger of the ugly truth.

"You told him?" Mickey asked, popping around the corner to see if she was done.

"Yes. He didn't take well to it, as expected. I told him the public couldn't find out about the investigation. Of course if someone leaks it, then it can't be prevented, but I'm sure they'll figure something out. He knows more so than anyone the risks involved if he chooses to do nothing. He'll risk the people being put in danger and I'm sure faster restoration is not worth putting lives at risk."

"You mean to say that Radiant Garden would be the perfect trial run for a test of the Chimera virus?" Mickey said. "In terms of where it's situated, Radiant Garden is within the center of a whole bunch of worlds. It would be easy for the Chimera and Heartless to use it as a way of getting to other worlds."

"And not too far from it in a certain quadrant is that factory with all the doors and monsters. That's another key location KRONOS have shown interest in. They could attack there as well and that would be even worse," Neuge said. "But forget all that. For now, we need to gather some information on the Shadow Man. Anything interesting happen while I was gone?"

"They're definitely hurrying up on unloading the cargo. Pete's still there as well," Mickey informed her.

"Good. Then we wait and follow," Neuge decided. They were currently standing on a high vantage point not too far from where the ship was. After making their way back along the bank, Neuge had prided herself in finding a pretty decent spot if she were to say so herself from which they could observe Pete and his henchman. Not only that, but the tall grass that covered the area made for excellent cover and a low chance of being spotted.

Rather used to playing the waiting game, Neuge got as low as she could and observed with hawkish eyes. Her days of meditation and training at the temple had not gone to waste, it seemed. More and more she was feeling like less of an addicted drunkard and more the woman she used to be. It was okay, she mused silently to herself. She always had a place in her heart for a good whiskey or two. That would not change.

Beside her she could hear Mickey occasionally yawning and switching positions, unable to bear the wait. His impatient mannerisms reminded her of herself when she was a teenager— fidgety, constantly argumentative and somewhat lazy. Seeing an almost near reflection of herself in the mouse had suddenly made her realize why she had never passed her Mark of Mastery.

They must have been waiting for about fifteen minutes when the sound of a metal shutters being brought down and the gurgling of the engine made Neuge raise up to a kneeling position.

"Hope you can keep up, your majesty because I'm not waiting for you," Neuge said. True to her word, without checking to make sure Mickey was following behind her, she jumped off from the high vantage point and landed on the ground before taking off after the moving vehicle. Her extensive knowledge of the city allowed her to adjust for the truck's dodging and weaving in and out of streets. She knew which shortcuts to take and when faced with no alternative path to take, she began climbing the small protrusions of the building to reach the rooftops. She could hear Mickey squeaking at her from street level to stop but she really didn't have any time to. She was not about to let the truck get away after how long she had spent staking out their operations. He would simply have to figure out another way to catch up.

Neuge leapt and soared from rooftop to rooftop like she were an athlete. This couldn't be any farther from the truth. She couldn't begin to guess where all the energy had come from. As she vaulted from one building to another, she soaked in the view of a smog-covered skyline. While it wasn't the most appealing view, that the problem had been intensified by the introduction of steamboats sailing down the river made her wonder how the city would fare were it not for them. She could only come to the conclusion that the city would be much worse overall. It had been built around the river for a reason. The world was a fine example of taking the bad with the good.

She wall kicked in between a narrow space with two close buildings whose rooftops' were higher than she could reach before emerging out of the closed space and landing back on a more levelled rooftop.

A few more leaps and she soon arrived at the truck's destination. On the opposite side of the road was a warehouse seemingly aged and decrepit. The metal shutters of the van flew up and Pete stepped out of the vehicle, his eyes scanning the area. The area they had arrived out was devoid of sound or any bystander presence. Neuge wouldn't have to worry then if she had to cause a ruckus.

"Hey-hey! No stallin', get movin' ya here!" Pete ordered. Out of the truck came three more passengers, carrying the canisters in their hands. The objects seemed too heavy for them to carry, judging by their waddling about as they tried to head for the warehouse door. This seemed in part to do with their stature. They appeared to be beagles, each one being taller than the other. Despite this, their body postures were all over the place so it was no surprise that they found it hard to carry the multiple canisters. Another henchman stepped outside of the truck's cab and hurried to the back to unload some of the canisters himself.

Neuge waited until they had all entered the warehouse and made her way back down onto street level. She made a quick check down the road for any sign of Mickey but soon gave up and started jogging to the warehouse. Of course it was unlikely that Mickey could have arrived so quickly and very unlikely that he would arrive at all. He wouldn't have been able to keep up with the truck on the ground. Neuge let out a chuckle. She felt sorry for his short legs and big hands, she truly did.

Rather than opening the front door which was an almost sure means of failure, she ran over to the side of the building and looked for a window she could hopefully use to get in. It was a small window that she discovered, but it was still a window and the only one open. She backed away a few feet before running to the right of the window. With her left trainer's surface kicking against the wall, she quickly twisted her body to the left and her ankle to right, using the momentum provided to leap up the window. She grabbed onto the ledge and forced herself up and into the window.

Her pear-shaped figure got her through the small window with little difficulty and when she dropped down into the warehouse, she found herself on a metal catwalk on what would be the floor's second level. She tiptoed quietly so as not to make noise and made her way over to where she had been able to immediately pick up voice upon breaking in.

"…care of the problem?"

As the voices became more audible, their owners too became visible. The four beagles were standing closest to Neuge, but the voices did not come from them. In front of them was an uneasy looking Pete and opposite him was… Neuge couldn't see well. The man was well hidden in the shadows of the warehouse created by the setting sun. Even so, Neuge's stomach felt queasy. There was something about this person that was different to anyone Neuge had ever met. Was he the so-called Shadow Man that she and Mickey had been chasing down?

"I told you, those freaks are history! They're most likely drownin' halfway done the Mississippi river by now. The mouse in particular. I know the guy and he can't exactly swim," Pete said.

"So you didn't check. You just left them?" The deep and husky voice was as calm as it possibly could have been and yet in true juxtaposition to its front, its subtext hinted heavily at deception.

"Well… I er- needed to get these off the ship and bring them here. I couldn't very well keep my eye on a coupla morons while I had work to do now, could I?" Pete answered, looking anywhere but at the man in front of him.

"My point stands. You didn't check to see if they were dead?"

"Er- I… no." Pete backed away slowly. It seemed as if he was about to turn and make a retreat but then he tripped. Neuge blinked. Maybe it had just been her imagination but she could have sworn that she had seen something on the ground just before Pete had fallen over. Pete's shadow? No, it looked too thin and snake-like to be his. None of the beagles had moved either so it couldn't be them. Had she just imagined another shadow?

"Pete, do you know why they keep laughing at you? The peeps in KRONOS I mean. They do it behind your back." The Shadow Man waited for an answer. When Pete failed to reply, the man stepped out of the shadows and into the light for Neuge to see. He was very lanky and slender with dark skin and a thinly combed moustache that reminded Neuge of her younger days when she would use her long hair to copy her Master's moustache. On his head was a top hat and in his hand a cane with a strange purple glass ball on top. The man continued, "It's cause you keep failing. Failing and failing and… failing. Constantly. Now, me? I'm not gonna hold it to you. I've been there before. I know what it's like for people to hold you down. They won't let you play at their level because you're not the same as them. There's only one reason I still choose to stay in this world after hearing about all the others. You know what that reason is, Pete?"

"Have no idea," Pete said, scrambling to get up only for him to be brought back down by the same shadow Neuge had seen earlier. So it hadn't just been in her head then.

"Because they all share something in common. They're rich. They sit up on their thrones all day long blissfully unaware at people like you and me at the bottom. We try to become one of them by normal means and we just get eaten up. They don't care about us. You… me… we're trailer trash in their eyes. That's something I doubt doesn't exist in other worlds. Those Keyblade wielders are an example. People with power that keep the status quo in their favor for fear of losing it. They're all the same. Well, we're gonna put them in their place. We're gonna show them all who is really in power. Once that happens we won't have to stay in the shadows any longer. They'll have no choice but to notice us. You, me, my…" the Shadow Man cleared his throat. "Friends on the other side, and KRONOS. Heh, heh, the worlds will fear us all. That's why I need you to keep your head in the game, Pete. I need you."

Pete's ears perked up at this. "What did you just say?"

"I _need _you." The Shadow Man walked over to him and placed his free hand on Pete's shoulder. He then brought him up by the chin, Pete obeying as if under a spell. "I see great things in the future for you. I of all people should know." He raised the cane up to show it to Pete before freezing. His cane soon found itself pointed directly in the direction of Neuge.

"Seems like we have a little guest. No need to be shy… come on out, stranger," the Shadow Man called.

For the next fifteen seconds, Neuge did not react. She hoped deep down that the Shadow Man had only coincidently been pointing the cane at her and that he had actually been referring to someone else. Time passed though and that started to seem incredibly unlikely, especially as he slowly turned to look her way himself. There was also something else. Something… crawling up her… back. Neuge spun around instantly only to find nothing behind her. The side-effect of her footsteps echoing across the warehouse by turning left her with no choice but to leave her hiding spot and reveal herself. Even though she had been careless with that last step, it probably wouldn't have mattered. Someway, somehow, the Shadow Man had known she was there.

Neuge jumped off the catwalk and landed on the ground. She made sure there were indeed only six enemies surrounding her. With her confirmation set, she felt her way down to her waist only to find fabric. She inwardly cursed. Of course, she had given her knife away to Luna for her birthday. Now would have been one of those perfect times when it would have been the most useful. She wouldn't summon her Keyblade just yet, she decided. Instead she parted her legs with one slightly in front and brought her arms up to her face in a fighting stance.

* * *

Within an hour of receiving Neuge's call, Leon had felt the most stressed he had ever been in his entire adult life. He felt that was no exaggeration either. There were responsibilities involved in leading the project to restore one's home. Leon had understood that from day one and with that he carried a heavy burden on his shoulders, that being the happiness of the entire town resting on him. He knew he couldn't make everyone happy, that was impossible. From day one of the project he had set out with the ideal of restoring the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. He had expected the project to take a long time so he and the rest of the restoration committee were lucky to be granted a respite with the arrival of David Xanatos and his business.

When he had first met the man, there was nothing to hint that he was someone who the restoration committee should not do business with. There was naturally no way to tell whether Xanatos had performed any shady dealings in his own world, after all spying was not one of the roles the committee were keen on. There was genuine concern in his voice for the garden when he talked however and no matter how many times Leon had ran over their conversations in his head, he could not find a single ounce of duplicity in his voice. Then again, it was not like Xanatos had to reveal his clients to Leon. He was a businessman who probably honored the rule of client-company confidentiality and where KRONOS' interests and Radiant Garden's interests didn't conflict, he would be happy to assist both. That was what Leon hoped for at least.

Behind him stood Rinoa, placing firm hands on his shoulders and massaging them gently. Her touch was just what he needed right now. These were the moments when he felt least like the leader he had to be and more like a person whose destiny wasn't any different than that of the lay person in the garden. It was these moments of normality in which he was grateful for having Rinoa by his side.

"I spoke to Aerith and Cid. Just like you they didn't take happily to the news. It's just so sudden. We'll work something out," Rinoa said.

"We don't have time to work something out. There will never be a better time to do this. There's nothing to decide. We just have to bring him in for questioning," Leon replied. His eyes were focused on the wayfarer that Aqua had gifted him before leaving. They each had one so they could connect with each other where the background radiation that had affected the worlds would not allow them to. It was an easy workaround and Leon couldn't help but admire its simplicity even with Cid continuing to insist that he could find a way to increase the signal between Radiant Garden and the Gummi Ships.

"I was thinking we could install a straw owner, someone who already knows the business in and out and can run it effectively as if it were Xanatos still running it. If we do find that he's working with KRONOS then I think that's the best bet to stop the public from getting suspicious about what's going on. The person we put in will just run the company under the name of David Xanatos," Rinoa suggested. Leon turned his neck to look at her with a questioning glance. Rinoa continued, "It would have to be someone who is business smart and they would have to be willing to agree to do whatever you tell them. They would be quite attractive and the sweetest person in the world-"

"Since when were you 'business smart'?" Leon asked with a sly smile, catching onto who she was talking about fairly quickly.

"Ugh, how rude! There are these things called books, y'know. I can study," Rinoa said feigning being offended. The sad part is that she had probably had tried her very best to sound sincere. Leon had found out pretty early on that Rinoa was two things—not the most subtle person in the world and not the best actor by any means. Rinoa sighed. "Okay, so maybe I'm not the best person to entrust with a company. I'd definitely screw up big time anyway. But… someone else you trust."

Leon realigned his head with the rest of his body so as to feel more comfortable. "It still strikes me as odd that you're so willing to agree now. Half an hour ago, you were completely against covering this up."

"And I still don't think it's a good idea. I'm just providing an option that you can choose to take if you want. You remember Ansem, don't you? Not that I'm blaming him and he did try to rectify his mistakes but he kept secrets from the citizens too. You remember when you were just that common person? How would you feel knowing that the guy you admired had been hiding things and performing secret experiments in his basement with people's hearts? If we had known about it then, there would have been chaos on the streets." Rinoa paused and took the pen that Leon was playing with on his desk away from him. "People look up to you, Squall. They admire you like you admired Ansem. The virtue they like most about you is that you're honest. If you cover this up, it'll be even worse when they find out. They've grown to love Xanatos and he's done a lot for them. There may be some denial when you tell them the truth, but it'll be a far cry from what will happen if you mislead them and lie to them."

Leon still couldn't say he was fully convinced. Of course there was a part of him who wanted to just come out with the truth of things but it wasn't as straightforward as that. Rinoa hadn't been there with him at the time so she wouldn't know but there had been a different in the smiles and eyes of the citizens before and after Xanatos had arrived. It was hope. Previously, Leon could make as much promises as he wanted to but the people of Radiant Garden simply hadn't been seeing the result of those promises, or the result if there was one had been too unsatisfactory. Maleficent and the Heartless had opened up a deep wound in Radiant Garden that could not have been healed had they not accepted Xanatos' help.

After a few months he started to see something he had not noticed before. A glimmer in everyone's eyes. He could see the future, something that had been shrouded in mystery before. Xanatos had even given Leon hope. In a way, David Xanatos had become more than a person for the people to look up to. He was inspiration. He was the future. He was hope. No matter who he tried to find to replace him, he knew no one would be able to run the business, and give that same kind of hope to the people as Xanatos had.

"Squall, why don't you look at me?" Rinoa asked. It was not in a harsh, chiding tone but rather one of curiosity mixed with a hint of loneliness. It was a strange question to ask suddenly and it had nothing to do with the topic at hand.

"What do you mean? I look at you all the time," Leon said, turning to face her.

"Not now. I mean in public. You never look at me. It's like you're ashamed of other people seeing us," Rinoa replied. "And it's not just that. You won't hold my hand, or hold me or kiss me on the cheek or anything that couples normally do."

"Rinoa, I really don't think this is the time for this. We need to meet up with-"

"And there you go? Dodging the question."

"It's not that I'm ashamed, it's just…" Leon paused for a moment, trying to find the right words. "It's just I feel like these kind of things should be private. Little moments just between us. That's the kind of person I am."

"But not even looking at me? Trust me, I know what kind of person you are, that's why I married you, but even now I feel like you're holding back. Like you're putting on some kind of mask and you don't want the world let alone me to see what's behind it," Rinoa said.

"So you want me to tell you everything I'm thinking even when there's no reason to? Rinoa, you're worrying about nothing. There are some things you just don't talk about, not even between couples."

"I'm not asking you to tell me everything. But you hide more about yourself than the average person does. Take right now. You're clearly frustrated, I can see that on your face, but you still won't let the mask slip. You're trying your best to cover it up by pretending that you're some leader who will always come to the right decision. Well, you can be wrong too, you know? And that's still fine. Don't be afraid of making mistakes," Rinoa said but Leon quickly spoke before she could say anymore.

"Great, I've got the message, now can we please stop talking about this?"

Rinoa hands froze on Leon's shoulders for a moment and the realization dawned upon Leon that he had made a big mistake. Before he could apologize, Rinoa removed her hands and let them fall to her sides, her face looking at the picture frame on the desk. It was a photograph of him looking away from the camera and Rinoa with a rather impish grin on her face, her chin resting on his right shoulder and her arms around his neck.

"The people don't really know you, Squall. That's the difference between you and Xanatos. It's not because he's helped out a lot since coming here or anything else to do with him. It's because you won't let them see the real you." With that she bent down and pressed her lips against Leon's forehead. Leon closed his eyes and made to reach for her hand but instead he found air. The sound of the door creaking to a close opened his eyes.


	63. Atop the Castle Walls

_So I watched the live-action Jungle Book trailer shown at the superbowl and wow do the visuals look fantastic but I'm more than a little apprehensive with some of the voices. They just don't seem to fit like they did back in the animated movie. Still won't detract me from seeing it though, unless it gets bad reviews that is but I'm holding out hope since The Jungle Book is one of my favourite Disney movies. Anyway, making some big changes to my schedule that will hopefully benefit everyone so look for to it. On with the show!_

* * *

**Chapter 63**

**Atop the Castle Walls**

Every day, Mulan woke up expecting to see tall reeds by her window and the sound of children playing in the fields. It was when she peered out of the glass window of her hotel room however that the realization hit her that she wasn't at home anymore. In fact, she was nowhere near it. She was in another world.

It was not unusual to wake up each day and wonder how it came to all this. If she had to finger a specific moment, it must have been the scream of her mother in the morning when an 'old bearded loony' as she had described him had accidently popped into existence right in front of her. Before he could explain himself, her mother had not hesitated to label him as an intruder and proceeded to whack him with the broom that had been in her hand at the time in an attempt to force him out. As Mulan wandered out of her room rubbing her eyes, she came across this strange sight and immediately thought she was still dreaming.

"Out! Out, you thief! You crook, you pilferer! We have nothing to offer you. Get out!" Her mother cried as she continued whacking him.

"Ow! Look, if you just- OW! If you just allow me to explain, I'll… oh, now that's enough!" Merlin managed to put his hands forward. Mulan let out a gasp as one of the chairs raced forward without any sort of human contact to aid it. The chair met with the back of her mother's legs, causing her to fall backwards onto it. "There. Maybe now you'll listen, ma'am. Oh, I suppose we should get more comfortable. Would you like a cup of tea? The both of you?"

Her mother looked in the direction of Merlin's warm gaze, noticing Mulan in the room for the first time. Neither of them nodded at the wizard but he proceeded to make the tea anyway, pulling cups and a teapot out of a bag that really didn't seem capable of fitting them. Her mother's eyes grew larger and Mulan thought that she was almost certainly going to faint, so she went over to her mother and held her hand as to provide comfort.

"May I use your fire?" Merlin asked. Mulan's mother only gave a single nod. He did not wait for any further confirmation. He took out a brown stick from his bag and pointed it at the stove in the kitchen before flicking. Both Mulan and her mother felt their hearts jump along with their bodies, as they saw a small fire come to life in the room next to them. Merlin then proceeded to dance around the room, waving his hands about with the result being cups lining up on the table in front of them and the teapot floating off into the kitchen.

"You… haven't introduced yourself," Mulan said, hoping to reduce to awkward atmosphere that had been created by the man's arrival. The more pertinent question in her and her mother's minds of how in the world he was doing these magical things could wait.

"Ah, yes. The name's Merlin. As you probably have surmised by now, I'm not exactly the most average person on the street. I study in the art of magic, or in other words, I'm a highly accomplished wizard."

"Huh," was all her mother could muster. There was no raise of voice to indicate that she had been surprised or thought him insane in anyway. In fact, her voice was exactly the opposite. Monotone and unimpressed, as if spell of her initial encounter with the wizard had run its course and had worn the poor woman out.

"Hmm, they usually react a lot more different when I tell them that. Anyway, I'm afraid teleporting is a rather fastidious affair. Teleporting to other worlds, especially ones you've never been to can be rather dangerous so when I popped up right in front of you I'm afraid that was a mistake. It should have been outside. I hope that clears up the misunderstanding. Oh, looks like tea's ready."

The teapot flew from the now unlit stove back into the room and poured its contents into the three teacups that had been placed on the table. After setting the teapot down, Merlin picked up his teacup and took a sip before letting out a satisfied sigh.

"So, what welcomes you to our home?" Mulan asked. She used the word 'welcome' in its loosest definition.

"Well, I was wondering if you knew someone by the name of Fa Mulan? No idea if I've got the address right," Merlin said.

"Um, that would be me actually," Mulan said. "But who told you about me? Wait a second… Sora! Do you know a Sora?"

"I do indeed, my dear, but it isn't Sora that brought me here. Rather, I've come on a very urgent business from a friend of mine, one adept in magic like myself. Now whether you choose to accept or not is up to you but I do feel it will be better if you have some of the tea while listening," Merlin said. More so because she had a feeling the wizard wouldn't continue unless she did it, Mulan picked up the cup and took a sip. She immediately arched her eyebrows and gave a small nod of approval to herself. The tea tasted differently than what she was used to but it was still really good. Her mother followed suit.

Merlin took another sip and set the tea on the table before speaking. "I'm sure you are already aware of this and even if it hasn't been explicitly mentioned, you should have caught on by Sora and his friends' appearance. Yours is not the only world out there. There exist many worlds. As many as the number of stars you see in the sky and then some."

"Yes, I figured as much," Mulan said.

"You figured as much? Well I still have no clue. What are these worlds you talk about and what does that have to do with my daughter?" Her mother asked impatiently.

"Well the story would take at least a day to explain-"

"Well I don't have time to sit around all day so we'll take the short version if you please," her mother cut off abruptly.

"Mama, I'm sure he's about to get to that. Maybe you should have some more of the tea. Isn't it delicious?" Mulan said before signalling Merlin to go ahead with a nod.

"Well to put simply, the worlds are in danger."

"Aren't they always? I don't think Sora has ever popped by without having some important reason as to why he does. He's done a lot for everyone he meets I suspect, and at such a young age too. I hope you're giving him breaks," Mulan said.

"It's true a lot of things have been affecting him recently but he has good friends and he knows that. As long as he has them by his side, the lad can get through the day with his head held high. But this time, the problem is too big for him alone to handle. We have a good amount of people with the same power as Sora but they've been spread out across other worlds. Now in the time that you and Sora last met I'm afraid to say that two other key players have popped up. One of them seems to have taken a liking for going after Sora and the other we don't know nearly as much about but we currently have Sora and Luna going after their leader and the rest gathering as much intel as we possibly can about these groups."

Mulan took another sip of her tea before asking, "They aren't like Organization XIII, was it? I seem to recall them giving Sora a lot of trouble about two years ago."

"No, they aren't like them, at least as far as their motives are concerned. It really is hard to say with so little information to go on at the moment but we do know that the group whose leader Sora is chasing at the moment may be after the Princesses of Heart, and that's why I've come to you today," Merlin said. He continued to explain briefly what exactly the Princesses of Heart were and their function. Even though it was brief, it still felt as if information had just been thrown at her like a pile of jigsaw pieces that she was then asked to put together quickly.

"So if I understand this correctly, all the worlds in the realm of light, which we're in, hinge on the fate of these seven princesses?" Mulan asked. She had long since adopted a silent vow to stop looking at her mother for fear of seeing what emotions were on her face.

"Exactly, you've got it. However, more recently, one of them was taken from her world. As such we've felt the best way to keep the rest of them safe is to keep them together in one world, where we can keep an eye on them. This doesn't come without its complications obviously. As I've previously mentioned, because Sora and the others are spread out then it means we'll need someone else to protect them, a bodyguard in other words."

"You… you want me?" Mulan asked in surprise. "I- If this task is as important as you say, I don't think I would be a good fit for it. Those are some pretty big shoes to fill."

"And not even just that," her mother said. "This is her home. Suddenly you bring up all these other worlds and you want her to go off who knows where. Protecting the emperor of your homeland is one thing, but looking after a bunch of nobodies however many miles away is something else entirely."

"And you are happily entitled to your own opinion though I'd argue that those nobodies happen to be more important, but I'm not here to discuss that," Merlin said before looking at Mulan. "It is a very huge responsibility but you won't be alone. There are others who will make sure you are well taken care of. As for the reasons we decided on asking you, there are two. The first is that as your mother has mentioned, you've been a bodyguard to the emperor for quite some time. You're even among his inner circle, is that correct?"

"Yes, that's true," Mulan confirmed slowly. "But who mentioned that? Sora?"

"No, actually. It was the emperor himself. It was another of Sora's friends, Riku, who mentioned a land of the most excellent warriors to my other wizard friend, Yen Sid. With that knowledge, he sent me to talk to the emperor and he referred me to you. You were selected precisely for your ability to handle a situation as complex as protecting the emperor. You've shown exceptional capabilities, so the emperor tells me, and if you have no trouble protecting him and three princesses I also hear, you would most definitely be suited towards this task."

"The emperor himself recommended me? I would have thought he would pick Shang. He's more adept at this sort of thing than me," Mulan admitted.

Merlin chuckled. "Well clearly the emperor didn't think so. The second reason we thought you were the best for this job is because… well, the existence of the other worlds and Keyblades and the princesses really should be kept as much a secret as possible. If people suddenly found out about these things you can imagine the chaos that would ensue. Until recently we thought it best not to meddle in the affairs of other worlds, but our enemies are going out of their way to threaten that peace. We've come to the realization that we'll need all the help we can get to combat this threat, even if it means breaking down the borders we've worked so hard to keep intact all this time. We've felt the need to start off with one person for now, just to see how things go and coupled with the first reason we ended up picking you. Think of this as a trial run of sorts. The plan is that you'll only be gone from here for a few months by which time hopefully we'll have defeated these groups and you'll be able to return to your world. So what do you say?"

What else could Mulan say except that she needed time to think about it? When Merlin gave her the go ahead, she and her mother immediately went outside where her grandmother and father were talking and discussed it with them. Her mother had been vehemently against the idea and her father had sought to agree, at least until Mulan brought up the fact that the emperor himself had recommended it. Once it had been clear that she was a fighting a losing battle, her mother submitted and told her the best person she could listen to was ultimately herself.

Now she was in Radiant Garden and living a completely different life to the one she had been previously even if it was the same job. Her assimilation into a new culture had to come quickly, that much she learned when the restoration committee had gone out of their way to take her shopping for clothes, something that seemed natural for them and not so much for her. The buildings were unlike any she had ever seen, some even made completely of glass much to her surprise. She had thought she was in a completely different world to her home when she had visited the Imperial City for the first time, what with its magnificent and stunning double-eaved buildings in contrast to the ones in the countryside. If that had been a different world then this must have been a whole other universe.

It was still dark out when Mulan had woken up. The clock mounted on the wall of her room told her it was five in the morning. She had woken up a lot earlier than usual then. Mulan stretched and tilted her head from side to side before sliding out of bed. She had a feeling that she would not be able to get back to sleep so easily, although her sleep had been quite comfortable.

She walked over to the window instead and peered out of the window. She was on the fifth floor of a seven floor building, covering a wide area of land just outside of the residential district. The Zero District was what they called this place, Mulan had learned. The reason why had to do with the number zero and its shape. As the district was right in the middle of the Garden with all other districts circling it like a ring, it was only fitting for it to be called as such.

Other than the park on the opposite side of the street, there wasn't really much to see at this time in the morning, and Mulan did not expect to see anything. After all, who in the world would be going out at five in the morning for no reason at all? From what she understood, the majority of jobs in Radiant Garden usually started around nine in the morning lasting until sometime before midnight. It was true that back in her world, farmers would usually start quite early in the morning but she knew nothing similar to be happening here.

She was about to turn away from her window when she caught sight of something underneath the streetlights. She turned her head and pressed her forehead against the cool glass. This something was not actually just something but two somethings. Two people. That was all she could make out, for their figures too small away to see. From what she could tell, they appeared to be talking to each other before starting on their way again. These actions in themselves would not have constituted as unusual to Mulan if they had not been looking around cautiously as they walked. As she mulled over whether to let them be or investigate she realized that even if she were barking up the wrong tree, it certainly wouldn't hurt to at least tail them.

She grabbed her leather jacket from chair and as she crossed the room she looked down at the carpet on the floor next to her bed where a small red dragon lay snoring. She smiled at this, and not wanting to disturb his slumber hastily left her room.

* * *

As Neuge raised her fist, the Shadow Man raised his hands defensively. "Woah, hold it there! Surely we can settle this like good upstanding adults. Do we need to take this to playground brawling?"

Neuge smirked. "Well I can't say I know much about playground brawling but I've had plenty of bar fights, the difference being unlike those that this is a pretty justified beating I would say. I'd certainly like to talk but I know I'd get nowhere with you KRONOS scum. Actually there are three things in this universe that I would consider scummy. Pedophiles, people who don't clean the toilet seat after they're done with it, and hipsters. Now I may not be able to solve those problems but you are not them. You're not scum. You're worse than it. So you understand why I prefer to settle things with my fists, don't you? Your kind can't be reasoned with. The only word you seem to respond to is suffering. Well I know true suffering so let me show you my interpretation of the word."

The Shadow Man laughed and lowered his hands to start clapping. "Now this is just excellent. So it's your conviction against ours, is it? You hate us and want to see us erased from the face of humanity and we hate the current establishment and wish to destroy it. I look forward to seeing whose hatred prevails then. Beagle Boys, do your thing!"

Behind her Neuge could hear four separate snickers as they advanced in on their prey. Neuge spun around to meet them and curtsied before adopting her stance. The second smallest of the four moved first. Neuge sidestepped out of the way as the beagle charged in and hand chopped where she knew to be the pressure point in the neck. With that beagle down, she ducked quickly to avoid the left hook of the third largest beagle and delivered a powerful fist to her attacker's ribs.

_Two down, two more to go_. Neuge stood back up and jumped away to get a fuller view of her next opponent. He was the largest of the four, built like a mountain that towered over her. Neuge doubted she had anything to worry about. If intimidation by increasing size was the only thing they could threaten her with, they never had much to threaten her to begin with.

"Now let me make this easy for ya. Don't worry, I promise it'll be quick," said the giant in a cockney accent, something that was most definitely not native to this world. As the Mountain attempted to punch her, Neuge leaned back, avoiding the swing of his fist and extended her legs out, the heel of her right shoe making contact with his kneecap. This knocked the Mountain back and stopped him from swinging again. Neuge took advantage and rushed in delivering several punches to the gut and ending with a stretched backwards flip while throwing out an axe-like kick. Her shoes connected with the Mountain's chin and launched him into the air, sending him into a box of crates nearby.

As she landed back on the ground, she realized she didn't have time to be satisfied with her perfect moon flip and pivoted around to meet the smallest of the group, raising her fists once again. The small beagle gulped and shrugged before swinging his arm… and then he delivered a strong blow to his own face.

_Well that… just happened. _Neuge blinked in confusion. She dropped her stance and tucked a strand of black hair that had fallen out of place and tucked it behind her ear.

"Well, that was all rather fun and exciting but if that's all you have then I- huh?" Neuge turned to look at the Shadow Man to find only Pete standing there, cowardly as usual. She opened her mouth to ask him where he had gone but felt her body suddenly slammed against the wall by an invisible force. Neuge squirmed and writhed in an attempt to wriggle her way out of the hold of… whatever it was that was pinning her down, but her attempts were completely unsuccessful. "Huh… what is this?"

"You can fight. I'll give you that, but your hatred's just not strong enough. Not against ours anyway," Neuge could hear the Shadow Man say in her ear. She was sure he hadn't been anywhere near her until just now. Maybe he could disappear and reappear at will? "Oh, you must be wondering how I got so close to you," he continued as if reading her mind. "It's nothing too big, you see. We all have demons, shadows that follow us wherever we go. Some of us are just more in tune with our demons than others. My friends on the other side helped me realize that. What I'm getting at I suppose is that it isn't me that is holding you to the wall like that. It's you. Your own shadow."

"Hmph, you must be a fool if you think I'll believe that. True, I have memories I'd rather forget, but I haven't. I've learned to embrace them, to let them make me stronger. My shadow doesn't trail behind me. I've learned to walk alongside it. And you? Where does your shadow stand? Oh, is that fear in your eyes I see? I'm assuming it's not me you fear, so it must be your-"

"_ARGH_!" With his cane held in both hands, he let out a frustrated roar and thrust the end with purple globe forward, straight into Neuge's stomach. Neuge grimaced and her face contorted in pain but she held in her breath and refused to let out a gasp. The Shadow Man lowered the cane and stepped back, shaking his head. "Woah, cool it, Facilier. You're better than this and you know it."

"So your name's Facilier?" Neuge murmured.

"Doctor… Facilier, if you would. I'm sure it's the last name you'll ever remember." The witchdoctor pointed his cane towards the metal canisters that were in the back of the room. "Now, I can only imagine it would be a waste to kill you without finding out how much you and your friends know about us first. You know what are in these?"

"No idea. Cow's milk?" Neuge pretended to guess with an innocent voice.

"Heh-heh, not exactly. Since you so willingly threw yourself in harm's way by coming here, foolishly alone, might I add, then I don't see why you can't be the first participant to try our new… product. It's easy to say one thing when you think differently. 'I've learned to walk alongside it', huh? We'll see about that. What do you think, Pete?"

"Well it's a good thing she's not alone then! _Pearl_!"

Before Dr. Facilier could fully turn to look at the new intruder, the light elemental spell struck him and threw him into the wall. Neuge felt the invisible restrains on her disappear and she landed on all fours. She looked up to see two familiar looking round ears.

"Satellite Dish, you're here!" Neuge exclaimed in mock excitement.

"Err, it's Mickey. Was this you?" Mickey asked, nodding his head at the four unconscious Beagle Boys lying on the ground.

"Naturellement, well, three of them anyway. We'll say the last of them reached a… period of enlightenment," Neuge said. "You know I could have handled it by myself."

"Didn't look that way to me." Mickey gave a shrug but had a cheerful smile plastered on his face. "Still, aren't you glad I came anyway?"

"How did you find us?" Neuge asked, curious to know how Mickey could have possibly found his way to the warehouse without any guidance.

"Well, it was kinda a guess. When I couldn't figure out where you and the truck had gone off to, I was about to give up and wait for you to come back by the docks when another truck drove past me. I figured that I may as well take my chances and follow it, and it led me right here," Mickey explained.

"Nice adapting there. I guess we should finish this the- Oh you've got to be kidding!" Neuge slammed her fist into the wall, causing Mickey to jump. The cause of her frustration? At some point in their conversation, both Dr. Facilier and Pete had disappeared. The only ones left were the four Beagle Boys who Neuge and Mickey had been watching over while talking.

* * *

Once Mulan had reached the castle it had become clear that the two figures she had seen were not citizens of Radiant Garden. From the back, Mulan could make out one with blonde hair and a shimmering blue dress. Female, certainly. The other was also female. Wavy raven hair down to her slender waist. There was not much Mulan could see though from the back other than that she seemed to be wearing a green and black outfit.

Mulan waited until they were on the postern rooftop before choosing to make herself known. Her calling out to them signalled them to turn around so she could see their faces. Their appearances could not have differed so strikingly. One was more confident, a smirk playing on her pale-green face. Her eyes were a piercing green and she wore lipstick as black as midnight. The other girl seemed regal but solitary in her own thoughts. She did not look at Mulan but instead her eyes were cast downward.

"Unless you two are planning on attending an early morning fancy dress party, I don't think you two are from around here, are you?" Mulan questioned.

"Oh, aren't you the little genius? I guess you must be with the restoration committee then?" The pale skinned one replied. She looked at the other girl. "Elsa, go on ahead. I thought this would be too boring to take on but it looks like I might just be able to have some fun after all."

Elsa nodded and continued on down the stairs towards the entrance of Ansem's room. Mulan ran forward to stop her but her opponent jumped in the way to block her off. She held up an index finger and tutted, wagging it from side to side.

"Uh-uh-uh. Didn't they teach you not to go for desserts before you were done with the main course?"

"And just what will I be having for the '_main course_', or who?" Mulan asked. She kept her hand wrapped around her sword, her father's sword rather, still placed in its orange sheath attached to her waist. Her father had told her when gifting it to her for her journey that he had only used the sword in defense. She would honor that rule and would not draw first. Besides, if someone attacked first, Mulan was confident in her ability to unsheathe quickly.

"The name's Shego," the woman answered.

"Shego… I see. I'm Mulan. I should let you know beforehand I'm rather quick when eating so your first mistake was referring to yourself as a culinary dish."

"I can't wait to see you choke on those words. HYAAH!" Shego leapt forward athletically, her hands imbued with visibly green colored energy. She was quicker than Mulan had expected. Despite having a picture in her mind beforehand of how Shego would move based on her athletic body type and height, she had to immediately throw these presumptions out of the window upon seeing how aggressively she fought.

Mulan drew her sword but refrained from attacking. She had a feeling that the green glow that was radiating from Shego's hands spelt bad news and she wanted to avoid contact with them if possible. Their dance continued with neither side being able to get a hit in on the other. Shego tried to claw at Mulan fiercely but the latter continued to sidestep and evade her. Mulan would try to get a hit in from the side but Shego was good at predicting where Mulan would be and would swing in that direction quickly, forcing Mulan to back away.

"Is this really all you've got up your sleeve? I'm disappointed. And here I thought you would provide me with entertainment. If boring me to death is your tactic, it's working," Shego said, never leaving a single moment for Mulan to attack. In all fairness, Mulan's intentions could easily be telegraphed after she had tried to do the same thing on several occasions, but she couldn't help but feel that a chance would present itself soon for her to take. It was only a matter of spotting and acting upon it within the brief second she had before Shego noticed it herself.

"Hey, it _is _still a tactic," Mulan pointed out. She brought her arm forwards and cut through the air diagonally with her blade, narrowly missing Shego by a few centimetres. Instead of pulling her sword back to her, she realigned her body instead with her blade in order to cover up the weakness that she had just left herself exposed to. At that same moment, Shego chose to act on the weakness Mulan had intentionally showed her and drove a punch forward but missed as Mulan shifted her position. Seeing a part of Shego's lower torso, Mulan lunged forward and slashed. Shego's evasion was quick but not quick enough. She twisted her body in an attempt to dodge Mulan's attack, and the attack did miss her torso, only to find its way to her now exposed thigh. The tip of the blade cut into Shego and left as swiftly as it entered.

Shego jumped back and looked at the cut fabric from which she could see some of her own blood. She smirked and smeared some on her thumb before holding it up for Mulan to see.

"You finally got me. I'll admit, I'm impressed. And here I thought you were holding out on me. It's an interesting thing… fighting someone other than _her_," Shego said.

"Her? Who are you talking about?" Mulan enquired, but her question was seemingly lost to the wind and Shego paid them no mind. She had a great excuse as well when Elsa reappeared in front of them with Kefka following behind.

"Well I hate to split and just when it looked like you were finally getting into it but it looks like my job's complete." The green glow faded from Shego's hands and she backed away from Mulan. "Not too much trouble, I presume?"

Elsa shook her head. "The password worked, as you could probably tell."

Kefka looked up to the sky and began spinning around on the spot with his arms stretched out. "_AAAAAAaaaaauggh! _Fresh air… Do you know how long they kept me locked up in there? Look here, my makeup is cracking! What barbarians! And here I was beginning to fear that I wouldn't be beautiful anymore."

"Keep living in your delusions, as long as I don't have to hear them," Shego muttered, looking away in disgust.

"Oh, how mean! You should know what it's like. Just look at how much you put on every day!" Kefka snapped as if he were about to have a temper tantrum.

"A lot less than you. This is my natural complexion. You put so much effort in it's kind of- no, definitely sad… and you're a guy so it's pretty darn disturbing as well."

"Oh, so you're saying that guys can't wear makeup? Sexist! I'm sure you must be fun at rock concerts!"  
"Not that I've been to one but they probably have more style than a creep like you!"

Mulan stood watching this back and forth in complete bemusement. Suddenly it felt as she wasn't quite facing off against intruders but rather a bunch of children having a shouting match at each other, or her alternative theory was that maybe they simply did not consider her a threat to be worth keeping an eye on. She wanted to do something but she was outnumbered. If she had so much trouble with just Shego she could only imagine what this Elsa and Kefka had in store. But no matter how daunting and unlikely the task seemed, Mulan felt it would be even worse if she didn't at least try and do something.

"I- I won't let you get away! I- um- I-" But it was no use. Even though Kefka and Shego had stopped to listen, the words wouldn't come out or she was drawing a complete blank in her mind. She was being frightened into silence. She took a gulp and swallowed down her nerves before trying again. "You've tried to hurt Sora and you've kidnapped one of the Princesses. I won't let you walk away without getting some answers."

"Oh yes, about those Princesses. I'm sure you've had a great time playing with them, now cough them up," Kefka said.

"Huh? I have no idea what you're talking about," Mulan lied. She knew exactly where the Princesses were, and she thanked Sora for trusting her with the tip in the first place. They had both worked hard to conceal their whereabouts and no one else knew but herself and Sora.

Kefka tutted and shook his head before pointing at her with an accusatory finger. "Oh don't play dumb. We know that you're hiding them somewhere around here. Come ooooon, don't be selfish. Don't they teach you Radiant Garden folks the common courtesy of sharing?"

"Sounds like something a bully would say. You shouldn't expect me to give you something just because you want it. That comes with hard work and earning my respect. You've done neither. You want the world but it just doesn't work like that. As far as I'm concerned, the world doesn't want you," Mulan said.

"Ooh, the girl's got you there. Not that I really care whether we find the Princesses or not. I just get a nice little vacation out of this. The one good thing I get for working with Dr. D," Shego said.

"I have a question. You seem pretty sure that I know about these Princesses of Hearts and where they're being kept. You also seemed to know where Kefka was being held and you even had a password I'm guessing for the computer room that you shouldn't have known about. The only way I can imagine you knew any of those things is if you had someone working with you from inside the garden. Am I correct?" Mulan asked. If that was the case and at the moment it seemed highly likely, then Sora's reasons to be sceptical of the safety of the Princesses had been a reasonable one, not that she had ever doubted him.

"Do we get the Princesses if I tell you what you want to hear?" Kefka asked.

"Nice try but the only thing you're getting is more jail time. At least you'll have additional company this time," Mulan answered. Her eyes shifted eastward to the landscape view of the town. It was daybreak and the rising sun had cast a beautiful orange glow in the horizon.

"Hmm, let me see… HOW ABOUT NO!" Kefka screamed impetuously. He then fell back and adopted the smile of someone who knew more than anyone else. "Hey, just between you and me, I'll fill you in on a little secret, just for being so inept at your job. You don't think I would be so stupid as to be caught by Sora, do you? I suppose when I didn't resist when he found me he must have thought it was incredibly easy too but he didn't say anything."

"What are you talking about?" Mulan asked. That was when she heard it. A raucous explosion—not one that she could see but still one she felt was very close by—thundered from down below and violently shook the ground underneath her feet like an earthquake causing her to stumble over. Though it had been powerful, it did not last long and Mulan was able to regain her balance before looking to see Kefka, Elsa and Shego had disappeared from her sight.

_What in the world? No, no time to think. That came from somewhere inside. I should investigate and warn anyone inside,_ Mulan decided. She took off quickly, heading down the stairs and toward the entrance leading to Ansem's castle. It was times like these that she wished she had Mushu by her side. Even if he had been asleep, facing what was to come was much scarier alone than with a friend.


	64. Enemies Within The Walls

_So as a dark cloud looms over Radiant Garden, we head back there for a while to see how it has affected the characters who act as Sora's building blocks of courage throughout the series. But first, a little detour for our actual characters. Until next time, stay breezy readers and keep up the follows and reviews not just for this but Dual Destinies and Through Smoke and Flames as well._

* * *

**Chapter 64**

**Enemies Within the Walls**

Luna's favorite place to go to in all of the school was the pergola just outside of the gym department building. It was a beautiful garden, home to the famous red pitaya or the dragon fruit flower to call it by its other name, something that was incredibly rare to find in Alexander and as far as anyone knew, only grew on the school grounds. Rumor had it that the school's founder had been the first to discover the plants on one of his excursions and so had the middle school built around them because they had become his favorite. Luna would have done the same thing too.

She set the book she was reading down next to her on the bench, closed her eyes and leaned back to soak in the sun's warmth. She had wondered before what it would be like to be photosynthetic. When Astra had asked her sometime two months ago what kind of superpower she would like to have, that was what she had told her. Her first reason had been that it was a "pretty original power compared to other things like laser vision and invisibility" and her second was that she would never have to eat but could simply absorb the nutrients into her body. Of course, the power had its drawbacks, the first being that it wasn't very effective if there was no sunlight and the second being that she wasn't a plant. Staying under the sun all day would more than likely be more detrimental for her than it would be for a plant even with photosynthesis.

This arguing for and against was usually the state of Luna's laden mind—at least it had been until she had found her first friend in Astra. The nice thing about having a friend was that when Luna wanted to hear a different opinion, she didn't have to make up a person in her mind to give her one… okay, well maybe she did still have inward arguments with herself from time to time. As they say, old habits die hard.

"Well if it isn't Luna the Lunatic. I'm sad. It's almost like you've been avoiding us lately."

The familiar voice of Wedge knocked her out of her happiness. She opened her eyes to see three boys towering over her like imposing Moai statues. Along with Wedge tagged Biggs as always, for it seemed they were conjoined twins for every time Luna saw them. Everett and Alfie were on either side of the two. They just seemed to tag along usually to be cool. The Everett kid in particular wasn't too bad, or at least he wasn't in the past. He lived on the same street as her and he hadn't treated her in elementary school like he had here. She wouldn't say that they had been really good friends but he had helped her on more than one occasion with her math homework. That he treated her completely different now that he wanted to fit in proved to Luna only how easily people could change. It was a fear whenever she met up with Astra that one day she too would desert her. That Luna would again be sitting on a bench alone wishing she had friends.

"What do you want, Biggs?" Luna asked.

"Oh, just the usual," he replied, the usual being her lunch money. Perhaps she would have given him if it had been two months ago but this time it was different.

"I'm not giving it to you," Luna said with a low voice.

"What did you just say?" Wedge asked.

"I… I said I'm not giving it to you!" Luna repeated a little louder than she had meant to. She wasn't sure whether it was her refusal or loudness that had stunned them into silence, but it had worked.

"Well look here boys. The little fish has grown some big gills," Biggs said, waiting as usual for his posse to laugh at his jokes.

"Say whatever you want about me. I'm not afraid of you anymore. Now can you please leave me alone? I don't want any more trouble," Luna recited, using the words Astra had taught her. The truth was she was still scared but if she made that clear to them then her words would mean nothing.

"Not afraid, huh? Yeah, we'll see about that. Oh, look at this." Before Luna could react, Biggs swiped her book from right under her nose and held it to his face.

"Hey, give that back! That's mine!" Luna yelled. She tried to get up but Biggs pushed her back down and went onto reading the title.

"The mira- mirac- miracule-?"

"_The Miraculous Eight_, man. I don't wanna be here all day," Everett said.

"Come on, I was just having some fun," Biggs said. He tapped Luna's shoulder. "Where'd you get this book from, Loony?"

"From my friend. Will you please give it back now?" Luna pleaded. Wedge was the first to laugh.

"Yeah, like _you_ have any friends. Anyone who says they are probably just pities you," he said.

"No. No, you're wrong," Luna said, though her voice didn't seem to hold as much conviction as it had previously. She didn't even realize that she had been clenching her knuckles hard until she had focused on anything but the bullies in front of her.

"Nuh uh, he's right. In fact, we'd probably be doing you a favor if we got rid of this," Biggs said.

"No, don't!" Luna once again tried to get up but it was too late. Biggs quickly grabbed at handful of pages and pulled hard. The loud tearing sound broke Luna's heart and she fell back in her seat, any resistance having been ripped out along with the pages. The sound of laughter echoed in her ears and she closed her eyes to keep the water in them from leaking out. In between the laughter, she could hear Astra's present hitting the ground with a thud.

Biggs broke up the laughter and roughly ruffled Luna's hair. "That'll teach you think you're superior to us. I expect my money tomorrow."

"Like hell she will! You'll have to deal with me first."

Luna looked up and smiled, allowing the tears to finally fall from her eyes. "Astra!"

Astra smiled at her before addressing the others. "You have a reason to be here?"

"Astra, oh, uh, we were just-"

"Just bullying my friend, is that right?" Astra cut in harshly.

"Why hang out with this loser, Astra? You used to be cool with us. What happened?" Alfie asked.

"I grew a conscience, that's what happened. There's nothing cool about bullying someone. You think you can just push her around and get away with it? Not while I'm around," Astra replied. Her eyes then looked to the ground and caught sight of the scattered pages and the book it came from. When Luna saw her look back up, livid was the word that came to her mind. "You've gone too far this time."

"What are you gonna do about it? As if I'm afraid of a girl-" As Biggs turned from his laughing friends to look back at Astra, he instead saw an approaching fist. Luna's mouth fell open as Astra's fist connected with Biggs' nose, causing him to stumble and fall onto the ground.

"WHAT THE HELL? OW! SHE HIT ME! SHE HIT ME!" Biggs yelled, sprawling back and forth on the floor while clutching his face.

"Woah, man, calm down. Let me see… oh, yeah, I don't- I don't think that looks right," Everett said. "Come on, let's get him to the nurse."

The other three dragged Biggs away who seemed as if he was on the verge of crying. He certain made sure his displeasure was known as loud as possible by ranting and raving about how he was going to get back at Astra.

"Yeah, we'll see about that. Keep coming back for more and I'll keep giving you more! Assholes," Astra muttered the last word just so she and Luna could hear it.

Luna giggled and wiped away the tears from her eyes. "You didn't have to break his nose, you know. You're going to be suspended again."  
"And that's all they can do. They can't really do much to a girl who's had an abusive father, you know?" Astra asked.

"You're really exploiting that, aren't you?" Luna asked.

"You work with the cards you're dealt, Luna m'dear," Astra said. She sat down next to Luna and pulled out a tissue from her pocket before using it to dab at the wetness on Luna's cheeks. "Gosh, that hurt a lot. I've never really punched someone before but I won't lie, it felt good. Enough about me though. Are you okay? I'm sorry about the book. Don't worry, I'll get you another."

"Oh, that's okay. I wouldn't want to be a burden to you especially when you've been saving up for your grandmother's birthday," Luna said.

"You're not a burden. You're my friend," Astra said.

"And you aren't spending time with me just because you pity me?" Luna asked.

Astra's eyebrows raised quizzically before lowering again. "Is that what they told you? Luna, I did feel sorry for you, but I would never talk down to you and go 'oh, you poor thing'. I felt sorry because no one should have to be in the position that you're in. You need to stop doubting yourself. You're the kindest friend anyone could ask for and if the rest of the school don't see that well tough luck to them. You enjoy our conversations, right? You've never felt like I was talking to you just because I felt sorry for you?"

"No, I love our conversations. You genuinely seem interested in what I have to say," Luna said. Astra lowered the tissue from her face once she was satisfied with the patch up and crumpled it in her hand. Of course Astra wanted to spend time with her because they were actually friends. How could she think so otherwise? Luna knew Astra was also right about needing to have more self-confidence. When Biggs and the others could make her doubt so easily the strength of her bond with Astra, there was a problem. "Thank you, Astra. I feel like I'm being supported by you right now but that'll change, I promise. I want to become stronger so I don't have to rely on you when Biggs, Wedge and the others try to ruin my day. I won't let them."

"Honestly, sometimes I think I rely on you more. We'll get stronger together, Luna, but we'll still be there for each other. Now what do you say to cheering you up? We'll stop by the parlor to get some ice cream," Astra suggested.

"Yay! I can finally get you to try my favorite flavor!" Luna exclaimed.

"You don't mean that Sea Salt flavor you keep mentioning? Doesn't it get kind of tiring, just having one thing all the time?" Astra asked.

"Sure. That's why you have Sea Salt Gelato and Sea Salt Sorbet too, silly!" Luna answered gleefully.

"I- That's not what I… you know, I've thought of a pretty good nickname for you," Astra said.

"Please don't tell me it's 'loony' or 'Luna the Lunatic'. Those are so not original anymore."

"Oh hell no! How about 'Sea Salt' instead?"

* * *

As Luna stared at the stars in front of her, she thought back to that day and how it had been the defining moment of her and Astra's friendship. They had promised each other that they would get stronger. There was a reason she had been thinking about it too. She felt that promise had been one of the reasons they were so far apart now.

No, it wasn't the promise she could blame exactly, and blame didn't lie with Astra either. The fault lay entirely with Luna. She had changed. There was nothing wrong with that in itself; that came with growing up after all. The problem was that maybe she had changed just a bit too much. Travelling to other worlds did that. There was no one person who could go to so many of them and come out the same person as they were before—child or adult. Luna had kept on walking, but she had forgotten to walk alongside Astra and because of that they walked at different paces. She couldn't blame her amnesia either because as of right now she was still walking a great distance from her best friend.

_Some best friend I am. Maybe she's found someone else at Moira's Crescent? Rhea seemed quite nice to her… argh! I want to talk to you again, Astra! _Luna buried her head into the console panel and let out a zombie-like groan.

"What's wrong, Luna?" Kairi, who had been raiding the fridge for something to eat, asked after hearing the loud noise.

"I'm just thinking about Astra. I just had this feeling in the pit of my stomach that when we next meet, we won't see eye to eye like we usually do. I just… I want her to know how I feel right now," Luna explained.

"You feel like you want to scream, right? I know the feeling. I once waited a really long time for Sora and Riku to return to the islands. I knew they were off fighting and I couldn't do anything to help them. I kind of wanted them to sense my frustration and come and pick me up. I got my wish but it wasn't exactly how I imagined it to be." Kairi sat down next to her and held up a bar of milk chocolate. "I'll tell you what. Holding that stuff in isn't usually good so if you let it out and scream right now I'll give this to you."

Luna looked up from the console and at Kairi with a look of surprise. "You want me to wake everyone up?"

"They'll understand. Hey, I'll even do it with you," Kairi said. She began slowly waving the bar of chocolate in Luna's face. "Come on, you know you want to."

"Oh, you're such a tease. Fine. Whenever you're ready," Luna said, rubbing her hands together. She was about to make an absolute fool of herself but it didn't matter. This was the kind of things she and Astra used to do too.

"Oh, I'm ready. We're going to blow the boys' eardrums out. Okay. One… two… three-"

What followed was the shrillest combined scream of two girls ringing out through the ship. They could only last a few seconds before bursting out in a fit of laughter. Riku, having come into the room just before they had screamed, was taken aback by his encounter with the strange phenomenon and quickly stuck his fingers in his ears.

When they finally stopped laughing and looked at him, he put his hands up. "Don't. I don't want to know. I just want to forget this ever happened."

"Aw, Riku, come on, don't be like that! Do you want to share some of this chocolate with us?" Luna asked.

"Is it the kind of chocolate that turns people in chimpanzees? If so, you can keep it," Riku said.

"It wasn't that bad, was it?" Kairi asked.

"Well, let's just say I wouldn't compare it to the Muses of Mount Olympus," Riku said. "Anyway, that's not why I'm here. Are you doing better, Luna? After what happened back in Pocahontas' world?"

"Oh yeah, that's water under the bridge at this point-" Luna swept the air with her hand, pretending to be dismissive of it. "-is what I wish I could say. I do wish I could have done something more to help him but I know that in the end there really was nothing I could have done. His fate was set even before we saved him. So I'm going to move on and make sure the next Chimera we help, be it animal or person, doesn't suffer that same fate. So I'm positive for the future. What I'm worried about is Sora."

"Yeah, he's taken it a lot harder surprisingly. When I asked if he were willing to talk about it, he just put on a smile and said there was nothing to worry about. He should know by now that that just makes me worry even more," Kairi told them. She split the bar of chocolate down the middle and handed the other half to Luna.

"Well, he did mention to me that he'd made a promise to the guy from Moira's Crescent he fought that he would be able to save him. That guy let him go on that condition. It's no wonder he feels down at the moment," Luna said.

"He… he told you that? He didn't mention anything to me," Kairi said, looking down at her lap.

Noticing that Kairi's mood had changed, Luna quickly added, "Oh, I'm sure he just didn't want you to worry about him is all. I kind of cornered him on it. I'm sure he wouldn't have told me otherwise."

"Don't worry about him. If I know Sora, he'll be back to his chipper self by the time we get to the next world," Riku said. As if on cue, Sora appeared from his room appearing a little more dishevelled than usual. Behind him was Kupopo who looked as equally as annoyed.

"What is going on in here, kupo? Have you guys finally turned crazy?" he asked.

"What do you mean finally? We always were," Kairi said, sticking out her tongue.

"Don't rope me in with you two," Riku said. "That said, I was just about to discuss our mission with them. You want to join in, Sora?"

"Depends on what you have to say," Sora replied.

"Well can we think of anyone that might be suitable? I feel like we're wandering aimlessly with no actual goal in sight."

Sora could agree with Riku on that, but he didn't want to offer a solution either. He put his index finger against his left temple and began messaging it as he talked it out with Riku and the others.

There were only a few potentials on his mind that could be capable of withstanding whatever the procedure was that Yen Sid had in mind. There was Ariel who was no longer a mermaid but the last time Sora had seen her, she had announced to them that she was expecting a baby soon. Sora made a quick note to go back to check on her and the new addition to the family before moving on to the next person.

The next person that came to mind was Wendy, who had given him a similar impression to Alice when he had first met her. She would have made the most sense if it wasn't for the fact that Neverland was in completely the opposite direction of where they were going. Then there was Sally in Halloween Town who… wasn't created through the most natural of means so Sora wasn't sure if it would work. Mulan was busy protecting the princesses, and Esmeralda as she had explained many times loved her freedom and had Quasimodo to look after in case he started acting up again.

"Look, I can't think of anyone or they're too far away to even consider. It's not like we're in any hurry anyway. If we can find KRONOS' base and take them out before we find someone then it won't even matter," Sora said.

"Easier said than done. How do you even suppose we do that?" Riku asked.

"I… I'm still thinking about," Sora admitted, moving his left hand to the back of his head.

That was when Luna had an idea. She spun around in her chair to face them. "Sora, didn't you say that Syndrome had a computer in his base that had our files on it?"

"Yeah, I could never forget that. It really freaked me out," Sora replied.

"Maybe there's something else on there then. About KRONOS. If we could send the data on that computer over to Cid, he could figure out whatever is on there."

"Great idea, Luna! That could work. It's not like we have anything to lose and Syndrome wouldn't have been able to get back to the base to do anything to the data. So do we just turn around and head back to Nomanisan Island?" Sora asked.

"We're too close to the next world to just turn around. Maybe we can ask Mickey and Neuge or any of the others to go if they're not busy," Riku proposed. In truth, Sora had been looking for any excuse to delay his mission further but Riku had just taken away his excuse. He tried to think of another reason for them to do it but when none came to mind, he let out a resigned sigh and nodded.

"Yeah, just… just do it," Sora approved reluctantly.

* * *

"Why? Why now?"

Leon slammed his fists onto the table unexpectedly, prompting all the people in the room along with him to jump in surprise. It was a rare occurrence to see him this angry, in fact, they weren't even sure rare was the right word. The only time Rinoa could remember him being in this state was when they were kids—when Maleficent had invaded their home.

"I'm sorry. I should have made more of an effort to stop them but my silly warrior pride got the best of me," Mulan said, bowing as low as she could.

"Hey, it's not your fault. You were facing three against one. Those cowards! That's hardly fair. Anyway, that warrior's pride of yours stopped much worse from probably happening. It's like my ninja's pride. Always in the right place at just the right time," Yuffie said.

Mulan stood upright once more and her expression softened, a smile soon taking over. "Thank you, Yuffie."

"Aw shucks, you're making me blush," Yuffie said. Cloud, who Rinoa usually found hanging out by himself most of the time, leaned against the wall and smirked at the two.

"If you're done flirting then we have a problem. As far as we know, we have three KRONOS members potentially still in the town. They might have gone by now but if they were able to get in so easily then there could easily be more of them that we don't know about," he said.

"Paranoia is the name of the game. They know we want to control what gets out to the people and they're taking advantage of it. We don't know who or where their members are. That's their ultimate weapon," Rinoa replied. "So I suggest we don't do anything, otherwise we'll be giving them what they want."

"And if they actually go after the citizens? What then? Do we do nothing?" Leon questioned. His words rang out cold, alien and with traces of fear present in them. They forced Rinoa to retreat, but only slightly. "They targeted somewhere that was uninhabited. The next time they attack it might not be so random. I won't allow anyone in this town to come to harm."

"Neither will we, but at least we know where to start. The enquiry is starting soon, isn't it?" Tifa asked.

"Yeah. Leon, Aerith, Rinoa and I are chairing the commission. If we want to get any answers about KRONOS, then finding out how or if David Xanatos is connected to them is a good start," Yuffie replied.

"Out of curiosity, what exactly did Kefka blow up in the castle? I haven't been there yet," Tifa said.

"Nothing of importance except for caving in the basement level. A declaration of freedom from him, I'd think. 'You can't keep someone like me in no matter how hard you try' or something to that effect," Aerith said.

"Did he really let himself get captured just to make that point? Somehow I really doubt that," Cid said as he typed away furiously on his keyboard.

"I don't think he's the kind of person that has a method to his madness. Oh, it's starting! Leon, we need to get going," Aerith said. Leon nodded slowly and stood up. Despite this he still seemed aimless, without purpose or a direction to follow. As he made his way around the table with a hand on its satin finish to concealing his trembling, Rinoa went to his side and held his other hand. Leon turned to her and gazed into his eyes with the same look of mystery that had attracted her to him in the first place.

"We'll be okay. Whatever happens after this, whatever we find out, I believe in the Restoration Committee's ability to set things right and more importantly I believe in the citizens of Radiant Garden. No matter how hard KRONOS try to destroy us, they'll never be able to shake our faith as a community and the dreams we've rebuilt this town on. They didn't die with Maleficent, and they won't die with Kefka or anyone else," Rinoa assured him.

"Community, huh? Thanks, Rinoa. It's still muddy but I'm starting to see what I need to do," Leon said. That was when he did something that Rinoa or anyone could not have expected. He leaned and met her lips in a chaste but appreciative kiss. When he pulled back, Rinoa had her mouth hanging open for a while in surprise. Then her mouth closed and she returned her husband's smile.

"O' such sweet elations! Now let's get a move on, you lovebirds. We don't have all day now, do we," Yuffie said.

The location where the inquiry was to be held was within the only building in the town suitable of hosting it—the Garden Community Centre. Here, the townsfolk would come to apply for jobs in the different sectors that needed it. It was also where the majority of social activities took place. The town as a result was slowly but surely flourishing because of it, even better than it had been before, some might say. Still, there was a long way to go and Leon had a much bigger plan in mind, something that he planned to talk to Mickey about when he returned from his journey.

For today only however, the building was closed off to visitors for private purposes. Rinoa took her place alongside Yuffie, Leon and Aerith at the rectangular table at the very back of the small hall the inquiry was scheduled to take place. Sitting in front of them behind a smaller table that looked very much like it was fit for a courtroom was David Xanatos, cupping his hands and placing them on the table. He appeared confused and he had every right to be, after all, they had decided to bring him in without telling him of what he was being brought in for. They made sure to word it in a way that did not imply an arrest of any sort, though having to stay in a hotel room for a day would probably have made it feel like one anyway.

Leon waited until the minute hand hit thirty on the dot before beginning. "Could you please state your name and occupation into the microphone. It's for reference purposes, you understand."

"My name is David Xanatos. I am the current CEO of Xanatos Enterprises," he answered exactly as he had been instructed to, leaning over the table to do so.

Leon nodded and continued. "Thank you, Mr. Xanatos. Now you've been brought here today based on damning accusations that, if proven true, could spell disastrous for you and your company."

"I wasn't made aware of these accusations or anything to do with why I was placed in a hotel room for an entire day. I was actually in the middle of preparing for a date with Colette when a strange fellow with spiky blonde hair rang my doorbell and insisted I come with him. You understand my confusion."

"Cloud is Cloud," Rinoa heard Aerith murmur to herself to her immediate right.

"That's fine," Rinoa said. "We'll tell you the accusation now. It was brought to our attention just yesterday morning that canisters with your company's logo containing what we suspect to be liquid nitrogen were found in a completely different world. What's more, we also have reason to believe that the canisters contain a powerful virus engineered by a group named KRONOS. One of their members being there confirmed that connection."

"I see…"

"I see? Is that all you have to say for yourself?" Leon asked upon hearing Xanatos' reaction. He appeared stiff and apprehensive. Furthermore, Rinoa could see his clenched knuckles visibly whitening on the table.

"I'm just shocked. Our company, as far as I know, does not sponsor terrorism or any other group than the Radiant Garden Restoration Project at the moment," Xanatos explained.

"As far as you know? No offence but you really should know all about your company's operations if you're the CEO," pointed out Yuffie.

"Thank you, Yuffie," Aerith said before looking back at Xanatos. "Continuing on, we launched an investigation into your company throughout the day. We specifically focused on the bio lab facilities. I hate to say this but we found canisters of the same type in the other world. They were filled with liquid nitrogen and had traces of other compounds also. Mr. Xanatos, I would like more than anyone to believe that this isn't true but the evidence speaks otherwise."

"That would seem the case, yes, and I can attest for the liquid nitrogen. It's a useful way of storing and transporting certain materials around the town. What I can't give an explanation for are those other compounds you found. I don't know how they ended up in those canisters much less in the lab but I would be happy to co-operate in any way I can," Xanatos said.

"While that's all well and good, as far as your involvement in KRONOS is concerned, that's still to be decided. Simply put, how can we trust that you aren't involved with them? We've given you our evidence. Now you need to give us yours," said Leon.

There was a brief pause before Xanatos spoke. "I can give you the name of the person in charge of the science department. There are so many facilities that not even I know everything that is going on. I don't oversee development, I only approve projects. It would be the head of each department that knows every single thing that goes on in their division."

"And who would that be, Mr. Xanatos?" Rinoa asked.

"It would be a Doctor Drew Lipsky. It's funny. The boys in the department I hear have a nickname for him. Dr. Drakken or something like that. I think it's based on some of his theories being rather cuckoo. Generally a smart lad though when he stays within the realm of reality."

The room was shocked into silence by the revelation of the name. Rinoa looked uncomfortably from left to right to see everyone's reaction only to find that they were all doing the same.

"Is there a problem?" Xanatos asked, breaking the eerie silence.

"No, not at all," Aerith dismissed quickly. "Thank you, Mr. Xanatos. You've been quite helpful. For now I think it would be best if we keep the bio lab facility shut until we're thoroughly done searching. Secondly, it's not that we don't trust you but we've decided to place you under a supervisor for the time being. The guy who came for you yesterday will be keeping an eye on you for the time being."

"Even in the men's room?" Xanatos joked but Aerith either didn't seem to find it funny or hadn't realized it was a joke.

"If that's what it takes," she replied sharply.

"Heh. Oh," was Xanatos' response.

Yuffie chuckled. "Hey, ease up there. You have nothing to worry about if you're innocent. Besides, don't think of yourself as being watched over. If it makes you feel better, you can order him around and stuff, kind of like a personal chauffeur. He's used to it."

"I feel better already," Xanatos said with a small smile.

"Then you're free to go. Thank you for your co-operation," Rinoa said. Xanatos gave a prompt nod before pushing away from the table and standing up. His freedom proved to be short-lived for he had only taken a few steps when Cloud, who had been standing in the back along with Cid, appeared in front of him.

"Do lead the way," Xanatos said to him.

"Just pretend I'm not here and go where you would normally. That is, unless I have a problem with where you go normally," Cloud replied. Xanatos flashed a smile and placed a hand on his shoulder as he walked past him.

The two soon left the room, leaving Cid to join up with the group at the table. Aerith sunk back into her seat and let out a sigh.

"Dr. Drakken. And to think one of the people Freya mentioned involved in the Chimera project would be working here. Am I dreaming, Rinoa?"

"Well unless we're all having the same dream then no. The enemy within the walls, huh… sounds like a book I've read," Rinoa said. "But at least this confirms our suspicions. KRONOS could be anywhere. It's best then that we take this one step at a time. The last thing I want to do is cast suspicion against the people in this town. It hurts too much to do so."

"I'm not Ansem the Wise." Leon's sudden comment saw heads turning in his direction. He ignored this and continued, looking at his now unhooked hands. "I could never lead with the same passion and commitment. But I also couldn't do what he did. In the end, he betrayed his people. His research into hearts, using his own subjects in experiments… The Heartless, the Nobodies, they all came from his research. He betrayed us and even when he realized it, it was too late. He's gone now, but the shadows of his research still exist even today and were they to get into the wrong hands… I won't make the same mistakes as he did. I won't betray the townsfolk. Where we've been divided before, this town now and forever will stand united. That's why the first step we take is… from now on, call me Squall."

* * *

_A/N: Oh, what's this? The return of these little footnotes at the bottom? Yay! *Insert jumping Clover from 999 here*. __So starting next chapter a familiar world that has appeared in recent Kingdom Hearts III trailers. That should get you hyped. It certainly does for me since it's one of my favourite Disney movies in recent years. Just let it go, Frozen, your time isn't here yet. _


	65. The Tower With No Door

_So enter one of my favourite Disney movies from the recent era. This, along with the Monster's Inc. world, were the first worlds I definitely knew would be in this story. Unlike Pocahontas and the Princess and the Frog, this world follows the movie for a good portion of it. I figured that I'd make this world the kind of calm before the storm. Light hearted with a nice theme of adventure. So, without further ado, here we go._

* * *

**Chapter 65**

**The Tower With No Door**

After communicating with Neuge and Mickey, asking them to retrieve the data from Syndrome's computer on Nomanisan Island when it was possible for them to, Sora and his friends went on to contact Cid and it was there, after explaining what they needed from him, that the tech wiz revealed to them that Kefka had escaped. He gritted his teeth as Cid gave them a summary on what had happened, and before he himself even knew what he was doing, he took off in the direction of his room and slammed the door behind him.

It was hard for him to admit to his friends that he just wanted to be alone nowadays, in fact, this change was even strange to him no matter how logical it may seem with recent events. He could only imagine all the enemies he had made over the past few years laughing at him as the very boy who championed friendship above all else was now pushing that very power away, albeit almost unconsciously.

Alfonso's words rung in his head as clear as they day he spoke them to Sora. That he couldn't save anyone. Whenever he meditated, images of Yeul's lifeless body entered his mind. As much as he wanted to drive the still frame out of his head, he also felt as if it would be a disservice were he to do so. The idea that he could be holding Riku or Kairi or Luna in his arms next disturbed him. All this encapsulated by the sound of Kefka's delirious laughter mocking him and it only served fuel Sora's anguish.

Sora looked at his desk and saw the small orange translucent bottle with pills inside. He hands took hold of the bottle and held it up at eye level with just the tips of his thumb and index finger.

"I'm sorry, Colette, but I'm not as strong as you think I am," Sora said. He unscrewed the bottle and tipped it, allowing one of the pills to fall out into his hand. He opened his mouth and prepared to pop the pill into his mouth.

"Sora!"

"Ah, Luna!" Sora yelled. Her presence at his doorway sent him jumping, the pill bottle and pill in his hand falling onto the ground. "I was- uh, that is to say-"

"Anti-depressants?" Luna asked when he had stopped bumbling.

"Yes…" he answered slowly.

Luna nodded and walked over to help pick the pills up. Sora tried to decline her help but Luna insisted and ended up picking up everything while Sora stood there feeling quite idiotic.

"Don't worry, I won't tell Riku and Kairi. I know what it's like to feel sad. But is it really that bad, Sora? Who prescribed them to you?" Luna asked.

"Just some random doctor. It's not like I'm addicted to them or anything but they do make me feel better. I don't know. Maybe it's part placebo effect as well but I feel better after taking them so it works. Colette doesn't think I need them and when she found out, well, let's just say she wasn't too happy. I tried listening to her advice and I was doing really well until recently."

"Until Kefka escaped?" Luna asked.

"Until Kefka escaped. Until half of Moira's Crescent who want me dead, maybe even all of them at this point. Who knows? Maybe I don't really need them. Maybe I'm just running away from my problems, but fighting only seems to make them bigger," Sora explained.

"I don't find them to be mutually exclusive, you know. I… actually I'd rather not talk about it. We're almost at another world and you're gonna make me depressed before we even get there. You suck, Sora," Luna said. She grabbed a pillow from his bed and swung at Sora's head.

"Hey!" Sora yelled. He raised his arms in defence and felt the impact of the pillow hitting against them. He grabbed the leftover pillow and raised it up. "You asked for it. I assure you, this is a fight you will surely lose if you dare tread there."

"Oh I do tread there, good sir. Now let us do battle with the mighty pillows!" Luna said. The two laughed more than they ever had in some time as they exchanged hit for hit. All of their last pillow fights had ended in Luna submitting in the end and this time was no exception, but Sora was given the impression that Luna had never intended to win anyway.

Luna giggled and let herself fall onto his bed. As she did, Sora was hit with something else other than a pillow. He wasn't sure exactly what it was, but something about her right here and now put him at peace. He suddenly couldn't remember why he was so sad to begin with. But it wasn't even just the here and now. Maybe being with her had always made him feel this way. When he thought of it like that, it occurred to him that the idea of her being a protective cloak that shielded him from sadness did not suddenly seem so out there.

"Sora, you still in there. Heeeelllloooooo!"

Luna's perky face snapped Sora out of his thoughts and he flashed her a silly looking grin before sitting on the edge of the bed.

"You, me, Riku, and Kairi. We're all going to the beach after this. Back to Destiny Islands. We deserve that much. Screw whatever Yen Sid wants to say about that or anyone else. I'm going to live my life the way I want to," Sora said.

Luna giggled. "Yeah, and then we can go Ice skating in Alexander after that. Oh, since you live on an island, do you do fishing?"

"I'm pretty proud of my record. Caught a bunch of fish with my bare hands. I'm so good they called me the Non-Angler Master," Sora said.

"No they didn't."  
"Okay, maybe they didn't," Sora admitted causing Luna to laugh. "But come on, fishing with your hands is still pretty impressive, you've got to admit."

"Impressive but once you've got an actual hook and line in your hands, you already feel like you can take on the entire ocean. Oh, we should be landing at our next destination anytime soon. You ready?" Luna asked, raising an arm for him to take.

"Let's hope it's a good one," Sora said, helping her up from his pillow.

* * *

Tomorrow would be a special day for Rapunzel. It seemed that every year on the same day during night on a day that so coincidently happened to be her birthday, when she looked out of her window, she would see the stars fixated in their regular positions. This, she had no problem with. She had spent most of her time from an early age learning where each star was and had even painted the constellations in her room as a result. No, it was something else that grabbed her attention on this special day. She did not believe that she could possibly be the centre of the universe, but the floating lights that ascended the sky on her birthday only seemed to suggest to her that there had to be something special occurring on this day.

Rapunzel was a bright girl at the age of seventeen. She would have to be, having been cooped up in a tower for as long as she could remember anyway. Her only companions—the same few books that she had read over and over again, her paint brush and colors, her sewing needle and thread, and finally her good friend Pascal. The last one was especially important because this one wasn't an object. In fact, the only downside to Pascal was he couldn't verbally communicate and respond to Rapunzel's thoughts and worries, though she could somehow tell that he understood what she was saying. To put into perspective, Rapunzel even found it at times easier to confide in Pascal than her own mother.

"Rapunzel, oh, Rapunzel! I'm not getting any younger, you know? Let down your hair!"

"Speaking of mother. Okay, here goes, I'm going to ask her, Pascal. I'm want to go see the floating lights. You can do this, girl." Rapunzel gave a quick thumbs up to her lizard friend who returned it with a quick wave of one of his feet. Any longer and he would have toppled over. Rapunzel chuckled at the thought before running to the window and opening it up. "Coming, mother!"

There was no door to the tower, presumably to stop anyone from coming in, although Rapunzel wouldn't have been surprised if it was to keep her from getting out as well. Thus, the only way into the tower was by a rather strange method that was only made possible by one of the strangest things about Rapunzel. She grabbed the most accessible piece of her long golden hair and threw it over a hook that was embedded above her window before allowing seventy-feet worth of hair to drop down the tower. When Rapunzel had asked why her hair was so long, her mother had answered it was because she was a special girl. It was an answer that hadn't really satisfied Rapunzel then and still didn't now. All she knew was that she had to protect it at all costs and that meant staying away from the outside world.

When her mother was safely attached to her hair, Rapunzel began hoisting her hair back up and along the artificial pulley system, stopping once her mother had reached and entered her window.

"Oh mother, I'm so glad that you're here. I have something to-"

"Oh, Rapunzel, can't it wait? I'm absolutely exhausted right now. Just the trip alone is so tiring but to sit there gather these? Ugh. But they are your favourite, I suppose," her mother said. She lay the basket by the floor, Rapunzel bending down to pick one of the strange looking star-shaped fruits. Despite their weird shape in contrast to most other fruit Rapunzel had tried, these had tasted the best of the bunch.

"Thank you, mother. Oh, I can see what you mean. Your hair! You really need to take better care of yourself out there, mother." Rapunzel led her mother over to a stool in the middle of the room and allowed her to take hold of her hair.

"What a mother wouldn't do for her child. I suppose all the years are just coming to haunt me at last," her mother said.

Rapunzel nodded before letting out her voice in song. She did not know where the lyrics came from exactly or why she even had to learn them as a child, but her mother had felt that this song in particular was most crucial to her development and that she should always remember them. The song meant more to Rapunzel than just something to remember however. It had been the start of her singing career inside the walls of the tower. To an audience? Not quite except for her mother and Pascal, though she could only hope for the possibility someday.

"_Flower, gleam and glow. Let your power shine. Make the clock reverse. Bring back what once was mine_."

Rapunzel's hair reacted to the song with a warm golden glow akin to that of sunlight. When she next looked up, the greys in her mother's hair were gone and replaced by lustrous dark hair.

"You look wonderful, mother. Now, I have something to ask of you. It's a little out there, like, _literally _out there but you know, tomorrow is my birthday and all so…"

"What? That can't be right. I'm pretty sure your birthday was last year," her mother replied.

"Um, it was. Actually. Yeah, but the thing about birthdays is that they usually happen every year, on the same day and tomorrow just happens to be my eighteenth and I was wondering… could I go out to see the lights in the sky?" Rapunzel asked. She was nervous and giddy like a little child but she thought she put across the question quite well. She had been preparing the question for over half the day after all.

"You mean the stars? Surely you can look at them outside your window."  
"Stars? Oh no, no, no, you misunderstand. Stars are still, I've been mapping them out for a few years now so I'd know. I mean the other floating lights that suspiciously appear in the sky on my birthday every time. I was wondering if I could go see them?"

Rapunzel wasn't sure what she had expected from her mother but the look of half surprise and half disgust on her face was not what she had in mind.

"Oh, darling. I've shown you so much kindness over the years and this is how you repay me? I'm disappointed," her mother chided, turning around so her face could not be seen.

"No, I'm appreciative of your kindness. How could I not be? You're my mother. It's just that I was thinking really hard about this and-"

"Then those thoughts are best forgotten. Rapunzel, you know about the outside world and how dangerous it is. There are shadows lurking in every corner. Strange creatures roam the lands and they attack anyone on sight. I told you about the humans but these creatures are even worse. They are after this." Her mother let her hand run down some of Rapunzel's hair lovingly before dropping her hand to her side. "They'll do anything in their power to take this from you, even if it means your life. I care for you too much to allow that to happen, Rapunzel. As long as you're here, you're safe. And that does more to make me happy than you could ever imagine."

"You're- you're right. I'm sorry." Rapunzel backed down and looked down at Pascal with an apologetic look as if to say "_I tried_."

"Now I must be off again. Trust me, tomorrow we'll have all sorts of fun together. I think I'll even have a surprise that I just know you'll love. You'll see, Rapunzel. I'm the only one who can protect you from the despair awaiting for you outside."  
Despair wasn't quite the word Rapunzel would have used to describe what she had seen. Then again, stepping on the ground was a lot more different than seeing it from high up. She implored her mother for being so courageous as to dare venture the grassy unknowns.

Her mother placed a hand on Rapunzel's hair again and looked at her lovingly. "I love you very much, dear."

"I love you more."

"I love you most."

Still, she thought as she aided her mother down the tower once again, she had the feeling that it was only a short while she would have to wait until her life really began.

* * *

"Are you sure we're going the right way, kupo?" Kupopo asked. After touching ground, the group had found their way deep within the woods with no end in sight to the greenery that they saw. The flora was truly something to behold, home to the most exotic flowers and plant wildlife that Sora had ever seen.

"Look, I don't pick where we land, okay? I didn't even know we had a certain direction we were going in," Sora replied.

"Well the first thing to do once getting to any world is gathering information. Of course if this world is entirely just leaves then that makes this a little harder to do," said Kairi.

"The Gummi Ship scan showed that this world was densely populated so it couldn't just be a forest. It's just a case of searching harder. Luna, do you think you can ask Jiminy to do a search from aboard the Gummi Ship?" Riku asked sharply.

"Yeah, let's see." Luna pulled out the radio transceiver and pressed the button. After a few words with Jiminy and a thirty second wait, Jiminy returned his analysis of the area. There seemed to be very little movement in sight near them, this being as opposed to no movement because he had managed to detect a heat signature somewhere to the west of their current position belonging to a single individual. As Sora and his friends continued in this direction however, it became clear to them that there was no possible way there could be anyone in that direction. Shrubbery rose up to the skies like a giant wall of plants which concealed only bent branches and rock when explored.

"Are you sure about this, Jiminy? Maybe it's just not working properly at the moment," Sora said, his face hovering over Luna's hand so Jiminy could hear him properly.

"That's what is says. It's never failed before though so I have no idea why it's not working right this time. Maybe there's some secret passageway that's hiding there or something," Jiminy suggested.

Sora snorted and leaned his shoulder against a part of the plant wall. "Are you kidding me? A secret passageway? Yeah, I'm sure that's likely- WOAH!"

The lack of resistance on this particular part of the wall surprised Sora, and it gave way, sending him tumbling through the vines and onto the ground of a small cave with light at the end of it.

"Nice job, Sora. I knew you could find it," Kairi said, stepping through the vines and looking around in wonder.

"Yeah. Totally knew that was gonna happen." Sora grimaced and stood up as Riku, Luna and Kupopo joined them. "You hear that sound? Isn't that rushing water?"

Kairi nodded and led the way down the small tunnel, emerging out into a vast meadow. To one side was a river than ran outside of the area, though its source lay within—a small waterfall in the back, running down from the high cliffs that were placed on either side of it. Vastly more interesting however, was that they path they were standing on lead all the way to a lone tall tower in the middle of the grassy area. Sora could come to no conclusion as to what this tower was doing here by itself or how it had even come to be, and it intrigued him all the more because of this.

They started towards the tower and once reached discovered upon further inspection that there was no door to go in to.

"Is it just supposed to be some kind of decorative piece then? It's not a really good tourist attraction if it's hidden," Sora commented curiously.

"I'm not so sure that it's meant to be that. There's a window up there. See?" Riku pointed at the single closed window all the way high up.

"Oh, this is great then. Reminds me of those fairy tales I used to read with the princess at the top of the tower who waits for her charming prince to rescue her," Luna remarked.

"Yeah, always hated those," Kairi said brusquely. "The sun looks really good from here by the way. It almost looks like fire. I've never seen it like this before."  
"Makes sense actually. Jiminy did say it was the Kingdom of Eternal Sunlight. An eternal summer. Can you imagine that? Sora, a little quiz for you. What controls the climate or weather that a certain world experiences?" Riku asked.

"What? Why me? I was totally unprepared for this and you know it!" Sora exclaimed.

"Exactly, but it wouldn't hurt to be a little more aware of why certain things are the way they are now, would it. There are actually quite a few factors but the main idea behind it is gravitational waves, you know, the thing that causes Gummi blocks to fall out of the sky randomly. Those waves are rather finicky and within those waves contain many little different particles that vibrate in all directions. I emphasize the point that no one particle is the same because they do different things and depending on the position of a world and its rotation, that can have an effect on the climate in any part of the universe."

"I don't see how you could have possibly expected me to know that, you show off. Please tell me the rest of you also had no idea," Sora said to Kairi, Luna and Kupopo.

"_Maaaybeee_. Okay, maybe not but that's still really interesting, Riku. I've always been curious about worlds like Twilight Town and Traverse Town. Thanks," Luna complimented.

"Yeah. Way to go, Professor Riku. How did you find out about this?" Kairi asked.

"When I was with Ansem the Wise for a year, I had a lot of access to his reports. That was one of the ones that came up," Riku said. "And speaking of the sun, a long time ago there were people who used to worship the sun deity, Sol. Now if this place has an eternal summer climate then I'm thinking this would be the perfect place to worship the sun. It's as you say, Kairi. It does seem different here."

"Hey, I don't suppose those reports can find a way up to that window, can they?" Sora asked sarcastically.

"Someone's here, right? Then we just have to call to them and be as polite as possible," Kairi said. She backed away and called out as loud as she could. "HELLO? ANYONE IN THERE?"

After a moment of absolutely nothing, Sora was about to propose leaving when the window flew open. What happened next, none of them could have expected. A thick rope of golden hair trailed down the wall of the tower and landed on the ground right next to them.

"What… is this, I don't even…" Sora tried to sort out his jumbled mess of thoughts but ultimately came to the conclusion that it was useless.

"Yeah… you think they want us to climb up?" Luna asked.

"On hair? Is that a thing in this world? And here I thought we solved the standing out problem by wearing context-transformative clothing and now we've found a world where we need to make our hair longer too?"

"Well, you know what they say. We won't know until we climb," Luna answered him.

Sora turned to her. "You really want to climb this hair, don't you?"

"Oh so very much." Luna grinned. "But since I'm not particularly fond of heights, why don't you go first? You know, for inspiration."

"Inspiration? Right," Sora croaked. He rubbed his hands together before starting his ascension up the long flow of hair. When he finally reached the top, he stepped in through to what appeared to be an empty room but before he had the chance to really take in the room. He was hit by an incredibly swift and solid object. This object, which he promptly identified as a frying pan before he fell to the ground like a cardboard cut-out, had been slammed straight into his nose with the flat side. It's owner, after the two of her he was seeing had become one, was a rather beautiful girl with golden blonde hair and green eyes. Her rosy cheeks and light freckles stood out in the sunlight that shone through the open window.

"Who are you? Don't think you can try anything with me. I have a frying pan and I'm not afraid to use it," she said, holding onto the pan with shaky hands.

_Oh thanks, Luna. She just knew that after Donald, I'd be next in line for this sort of stuff_, thought Sora as he held up his hands.

"It's okay. I won't hurt you. Me and my friends were just passing by-"

"A likely story. Friends, huh? Just admit it. You're after this, aren't you?" The girl grabbed at her hair and showed it to Sora, and that was when it became apparent to Sora how long this hair really was. It started with the girl, lapped around Sora in circles, went across the room and then out of the window. Seeing Sora staring at her hair's length in disbelief, she poked him in his chest with the frying pan. "Hey, are you even listening to me?"

"I don't understand. After your hair. W-why would- why would I even- HOW IS IT THAT LONG?"

"Eeeek!" Sora's sudden outburst must have scared her because no less than three second later, Sora found himself on the ground again and rubbing his face.

"Okay, this is getting a bit out of hand. This is not what a frying pan is for!" He snapped.

"Yeah? Well you're making it what the frying pan is for. I wouldn't be surprised if it was patented to include allowing me to hit you in the face," the girl snapped back.

"That doesn't even make any sense and you know it," Sora said.

"So? It doesn't have to make sense. A lot of things in this world don't make a lot of sense," the girl said. She was definitely nervous from how fast she was speaking at the moment. Sora could just barely catch some of it.

"How deep. Okay, try starting off from the beginning then. I'm Sora and you are…"

Before the girl could reply, Riku came in through the window followed by Luna, Kairi and finally Kupopo. They all clearly seemed puzzled by the scene in front of them of a begging Sora on the ground hold up his arms at a girl with long hair threatening him with a frying pan.

"Wow, how is your hair so-"

"Luna, no, don't say it! She won't spare you either!" Sora tried to stop her but Luna frowned.

"Huh? What do you mean? I was just going to ask how her hair is so pretty. It's really beautiful, isn't it, Kairi?"

"Definitely. I'm so jealous!" Kairi exclaimed.

The girl slowly retracted the frying pan and smiled. "Oh, you're making me blush. I like both of your hairstyles too. Oh, I'm sorry for attacking you, Sora. Maybe I did get a little carried away."

"A little, she says. You know what? I was kind of tired before coming here so I'm definitely feeling more alert now, I'll give you that," Sora said, laughing it off. The girl helped him off the ground before looking at them all.

"I'm Rapunzel, oh, and this is my best friend here. His name is Pascal." Rapunzel pointed to the lizard on her shoulder who, until called out, had camouflaged himself to match Rapunzel's pink dress.

"Nice to meet you, Pascal. Wait, go back a few. Did you say he was your best friend?" Kairi asked after each of the group with the exception of Sora took the time to introduce themselves.

"Other than mother, he's the only one I can really talk to here after all. Speaking of which, you're from… you know, the outside?" Rapunzel asked.

"Yeah… that's the opposite of inside, alright," Sora said heavily. He had a feeling that behind the quirky and daring girl he saw now was a history more sinister and sorrowful. "Your tower doesn't have a door. Do you usually go outside often?"

"My mother was quite persistent in stopping me from going outside. There are thieves and evil creatures prowling about who are after my hair. That's what she said. Not that you guys are thieves or anything. I'm sure you're all nice people. Oh, wow. I just realized something. I am having actual human interaction with someone other than mother. This is it! This is the sign, Pascal!"

As an energetic Rapunzel bounced about the room happily, the other exchanged not so happy looks with one another. Luna was the one who came forth and finally asked.

"Rapunzel, you've really never been outside? I mean sure, there are lot of bad things in the world and those creatures, the Heartless, we've fought a few on our way here but you can't let that stop you."

Rapunzel nodded. "If I could even leave for just two days. Two days. That's all I need. It's my birthday tomorrow, actually. My eighteenth. Do you know what these are?" Rapunzel asked. She pointed to the art she had painted across the walls of the tiny room. Sora found himself circling the room in amazement at the myriad of colors that covered the walls. His pupils ended right back where they began—at a beautiful night sky of glowing orange rectangles.

"Those? I can't say I do. We're not exactly from around here," he answered eventually.

"Well, each year on my birthday I see these floating lights in the sky at night. You might think me a bit silly for this but um, well… I dream about going out to see these lights sometimes."

"That's not silly at all, and coming from your perspective, it makes a lot of sense actually," Riku said. "Rapunzel, you only have one chance at this life so the way I see it, why not take it? In the end, no one can decide what you really want to do but you. Some dreams don't have to be just that. They can be reality, but the first step you need to take is having the courage to make that first step."

"Then, would you take me to see them? You could keep me safe, right?" Rapunzel asked.

"In a heartbeat. The way you're so excited about these things makes me want to see them to. We can't turn this opportunity down," Luna said. Everyone else nodded except for Kairi who had been preoccupied by something else.

"Rapunzel, the fruits in that basket over there. Those are… but how?"

"Oh, do you want some? They're really delicious," Rapunzel said.

"No, I mean those are Paopu fruit, aren't they?" Kairi asked, pointing the others to the gathering of star-shaped fruit in the basket. "As far as I know, they're native only to the Destiny Islands. How did you find them?"

"I didn't. Mother is the one that usually does the gathering, you'd have to ask her," Rapunzel said.

"But we really can't afford to do that right now, otherwise I'm sure she won't let you go with us. So we'll ask her after," Riku said.

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you _soooooo_ much. This means a lot to me and I have nothing to repay you with unfortunately," Rapunzel said.

"As long as we get to see a smile on your face when we get there then that's all that matters," Sora assured her with a smile of his own. It had then completely escaped his mind of the mission that he and his friends were on, and not once did he consider the possibility that she could be a candidate.

The group were soon disturbed by the arrival of someone else who had come through the window. On impulse, Rapunzel grabbed the frying pan again and before anyone could tell her to stop, slammed the flat side right into the new arrival's face.


	66. Behind the Mask

_So when exactly is Unchained X coming out in North America and Europe, Square Enix? I don't mind you guys holding out on KH3. Take as long as you want if you need it but for Unchained, is there really an excuse? At least an update would suffice. I suppose there's always E3, I guess... Anyway, let's continue our tale full of heart-pounding excitement!_

* * *

**Chapter 66**

**Behind the Mask**

Flynn Rider was a man who had built his entire reputation around being a dashing and daring thief. This was the conclusion Sora had come to after hearing his story. His arrogant and haughty nature seemed more an exaggerated caricature than he would have thought possible from any normal person and even Riku seemed to agree with this after a round of exchanging whispers.

More importantly, what grated him more than anything else was that he couldn't stop flirting. Rapunzel was more cautious but Kairi and Luna were definitely warming up to him. He wasn't jealous or anything like that—at least he didn't think so, but it still got on his nerves nonetheless.

"You know, you've been awfully silent about what you were doing. Assuming your story hold true, if you're being chased by someone, you at least owe us the truth for saving your life," Riku told him after they had finished listening to his tale describing how he had ended up here. It had all been rather vague and the only thing they had to go on was the diamond diadem that lay halfway out of the bag it had been in.

"Yeah, save by what the definition? You mean the one where I get hit on the face with a frying pan?" Flynn asked.

"Don't take it personally. Same thing happened to me too," Sora said.

"Wow, you guys really love to lay it on thick, don't you?" Rapunzel groaned. "Anyway, _Flynn Rider_, if that is your real name, my friends and I wish to see the floating lights in the sky. Do you know them?"

Sora wasn't sure why, but he couldn't help but smile a little at this. It hadn't even been an hour and the girl who had been kept locked up in this tower for so many years already thought of them as friends. Then again, maybe that was why she thought of them as such.

Flynn followed Rapunzel's finger to her effulgent depiction of the objects in question. He raised his brows for a moment before shaking his head.

"You mean the lanterns? Yeah, the Kingdom of Corona lifts thousands of them into the sky every year to mourn the loss of the king and queen's daughter. I think it would be… tomorrow, wouldn't it? Oh…" Flynn's lips puckered, a look of trepidation on his features. "Let me guess. Out of some sort of strange fantasy, you want me to take you and your friends to see these lights and if I don't you won't give that diadem back, right?"

"Huh? Oh. I actually just wanted you to take us. I didn't really think of this as being a bargaining chip," Rapunzel said, scratching her head.

"Oh, so you'll hand it back then?"

"Not after just sealing your own fate, Flynn Rider. I've decided to be generous and give you this back in exchange for guiding us to the kingdom."  
"And what part of that was more generous than the offer before?" Flynn mumbled. "Fine, you get your wish. Never mind the spooky monsters that prowl the lands, the carnivorous thieves and the like, but hey, who cares, right? I'll get you there and once we get to the kingdom, I'm expecting full payment. We part ways and you guys can take her back leaving us all happy little campers," Flynn stated.

"Wait, spooky monsters? Carnivorous thieves? They eat-"

"No, he's just trying to scare you, Rapunzel. But once we start, I don't think there's any turning back. It's up to you. What do you want to do?" Kairi asked.

Rapunzel glanced upwards once again to look at her painting. "Seeing it isn't enough sometimes. I want to be there when it happens. It's like Riku says—you only get one shot at life, so I won't turn back now. Pascal, we're going."

"That's just what I expected. Okay then, let's make your dream come true," Kairi said, beaming.

As it was her hair that everyone depended upon to reach the ground, Rapunzel was left for last in the soon to be lonely tower. Well she was completely alone, she thought and massaged Pascal's head with her index finger. She looked down below where the grass was as well as the chorus of encouragement she was receiving from her new friends.

"Here goes nothing," she muttered to herself anxiously. Her arms clung to her own hair and with her eyes closed, she jumped from the window sill.

When she felt her bare feet land on something soft, she opened her eyes and looked down at the wavy green grass as a soft gentle breeze blew through the area.

"I'm on the ground. I'm still alive! I can't believe it. I DID IT!" Rapunzel squealed and grabbed onto Kairi and Luna's hands, jumping up and down with them in celebration.

"One giant leap for one girl. Trust me, it can only get smoother from here," Sora said. What he had said hadn't exactly proven necessarily true. As they emerged out of the cave and into the woods they had been in previously, a mob of Heartless intercepted and stopped them in their tracks.

"Stay back, Rapunzel. We can handle this," Luna said, summoning her Keyblade. She was about to run forward when a lump of golden locks shot past her and wrapped itself around one of the watermelon looking bomb Heartless. Rapunzel tugged at her hair, the Heartless flying forward and head first into her frying pan. With the Heartless dazed and right next to him, Riku fired off a Dark Aura with his hands to finish it.

"Stay back, you say? You'll find that this girl's got more tricks under her sleeve than a magician. Sora and Flynn here can attest to that," Rapunzel said. She was clearly in her own little world, just admiring the look of shock and awe on everyone's face.

Sora snapped out of it the fastest and shrugged. "I guess you've got a mean right hook. Alright, let's get rid of these guys."

No one seemed left out as they worked together to take out the Heartless. More than once did Sora find a bundle of hair flying past him to slap the Heartless back and forth and keep them stunned long enough for the others to finish them off.

"Sora!" Luna yelled his way. She raised her Keyblade skyward and shot out a miniature Firaga Burst. Sora jumped high to meet it and caught the fire with his Keyblade before bringing it and himself down with a Blitz that wiped out the remaining Heartless.

"You don't think Neuge would let me into your training, do you? It's like you two know what the other wants without having to say much," said an impressed Kairi.

Luna grinned and cocked her head sideways. "Yeah, Neuge drummed the teamwork thing into our head. It's all about being creative and making up for each other's weaknesses. That said, I'm not sure she'll accept someone else. She already considers the two of us to be a giant pain."

"Err, not to rush you or anything but it might not be best idea to stay in one area for too long. You know, in case those things come back?" Flynn asked.

"Are you sure that's the reason? Or is it something else?" Riku asked, glaring at him suspiciously.

"No idea what you mean. Hey, it's not too late to turn back, you know? I can totally understand if you'd want to after all this," Flynn suggested, reaching for the brown bag in Rapunzel's other hand. "So I'll just take care of that thing in your hands and we'll call it a day."

But Rapunzel was not so kind to his whims and swiped the bag away before Flynn could reach it. She reached into the bag and took out the diadem before dangling it in front of him like she was teasing a puppy.

"You want this? Then keep on moving, Mister. I am _not _changing my mind now," she ordered with an intensity that reminded Sora of one of his former physical education teachers.

"Ooh, now we're using 'Mister'. Boy, are you in trouble, kupo. I think you ought to listen to what the lady says," Kupopo said.

"And I suppose I'm going to listen to what some marshmallow says, huh?" Flynn asked.

"Hey, he's a cute little marshmallow. You leave him alone," Rapunzel countered. Well, it hadn't been much of a rebuttal. 'Marshmallow' had been what Rapunzel had immediately designated Kupopo as upon meeting him even after introducing himself. Flynn had no doubt adopted the name from that. In all honesty, Sora could never see Kupopo as being a marshmallow. He had more of a rubbery texture than an edible one for starters.

The forest soon split off into two paths—one that seemed to lead into an even deeper part of the forest and the other led to a small pub by the roadside. Riku was the first to walk up to the sign to read it.

"The Snuggly Duckling? I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm incredibly embarrassed to read that," Riku said. Even Sora had just barely managed to stifle a laugh.

"Hey, what's wrong with that? I think it's cute. You know, I think there should be more of these kind of places in the world. People who aren't afraid to be in touch with themselves and… okay no, even for me that's just a bit too much," Luna said before launching into a fit of giggles.

"And here I thought we were all mature. Really, Luna? Et tu, Riku?" Kairi asked.

"What? It _is_ funny," Riku admitted, covering his mouth while snickering.

"It's funny you should say cute though, Luna." Flynn addressed with a cunning smile. "These really are the cutest people you'll ever meet. In fact, let's stop by and say hi, why don't we?"

"Oh, we get to meet more people. Yay!" Rapunzel exclaimed eagerly.

"Yay, indeed," Flynn agreed coolly. Sora could not even begin to make a decent guess as to why Flynn had put on such a conniving smile, at least not until he had taken his very first step into the Snuggly Duckling anyway. He had been to one of these places already, he didn't know why he had expected it to be different. One of drunk Neuge's lessons entered his head at this point:

"_Once you've been to one damn tavern, you've been to all the damn taverns._"

Sora exchanged looks of dread and terror with Luna. There was only so much they could stand with Neuge so an entire pub full of drunkards and the smell of ale hanging heavy in the atmosphere was a complete nightmare scenario.

"Well this is… interesting," Rapunzel stated with a mixture of emotions, none of them positive despite her limp smile.

"I know, right? Very quaint place, it's perfect for you, really. I mean, we wouldn't want you scaring and giving up on this little endeavour now, would we?" Flynn replied. He put an arm around Rapunzel, drew her closer and outstretched his other hand while raising his voice dramatically. "Can you smell it? Just take a good long sniff. Now that… is a manly smell, am I right, Sora? Riku?"

"What are you playing at?" Riku asked.

Flynn feigned innocent and put his hands up defensively. "Nothing. Nothing at all. Hey, good sir, is that blood I see on your beard? My, that certainly is a lot of blood, don't you think, Goldilocks?"

"OI!" The door to the pub blew up and a burly man who Sora could only describe as a lumberjack stormed in and held his hand up, pointing to the piece of paper. Clutched tightly as if it were a precious commodity was a wanted poster with a rather strange looking picture of Flynn on it. Despite the nose not looking quite right, there was no mistaking it. "Is this you?"

Flynn stood to the side of the lumberjack's finger and murmured glumly at the strange depiction. "They really aren't flattering me, are they?"

"Wait, so that diadem you had wasn't yours? You stole it?" Sora asked, quite miffed more so that he had found out about this now in a place of seemingly bloodthirsty thugs.

"I figured as much. Something like that doesn't just find its way into a shabby looking bag. I was hoping you'd eventually tell us yourself but it looks like you were more interested in messing around with us and putting Rapunzel in harm's way," Riku said.

"Now hold it there. I explicitly remember telling her that she could go back. I was not trying to endanger her," Flynn said.

"Of course not. It was all entirely in her interests, right?" Riku asked. When Flynn didn't respond, Riku let a sigh escape his mouth. "You keep telling yourself that if it helps."

"Stop this. NOW!" Rapunzel's rather loud but strong condemnation shocked the entire room into silence and prevented the rest of the men from advancing on Flynn. Rapunzel pushed past a few of the men uttering her apologies and stood on a table nearby. "I really don't care what that man did. He made a promise to me that he would guide me and my friends to see the floating lights and darn it I am going to see that dream come true. I'm sure you can all understand. Surely you all have dreams of your own."

It was then that Sora realized even without Kairi's input that Rapunzel had a unique gift. He had probably even noticed it the very first moment he had laid eyes on her, but he had looked away for fear of what it meant. Now as he stood rooted on the spot listening as tale after tale was passed round of the tavern of dreams from overly emotional sea shanty-like men, it became impossible for Sora to look away from the pure innocence of Rapunzel's heart.

The congregation of dreams was about to reach Luna when the someone silenced them and pointed at the window.

"Guards! They're here!"

As Flynn looked around frantically for a place to hide, he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see the bartender motioning with his hands for him to follow. Sora peered curiously over the counter to see him open up one of the wine barrels to reveal a secret passageway hidden inside.

"That is… pretty creative, I have to say," Riku said beside him.

"Yeah, I'm willing to take it," Sora agreed. The two of them joined up with the others and waved their goodbyes to their new friends before crawling into the barrel. Darkness surrounded them for a while, with Sora having to rely on his senses to make sure he was not crawling into someone. The small dark tunnel soon opened out into a wider cave with lit torches guiding the way down the path.

"Well this is kind of spooky, don't you think?" Kairi said. She adopted an evil grin and sneaked a glance at Kupopo who was shivering next to her. "You don't seem all that great, Kupopo. You're not scared, are you?"

"Of course not, kupo. I don't know why you'd think tha- AAIIEEEE!" Kupopo sprung upward like a rocket and hit his head against the ceiling after being tapped lightly on the shoulder by Sora from behind.

"Got him good," Kairi commended, giving Sora a high five.

Luna chuckled. "And you say we're immature, Kairi? You alright, Kupopo?"

Kupopo placed his little hands on on his head. "My head hurts, kupo. But many if Luna was to give me a nice message, I'd feel good for sure."

"Hey, can you guys can it for a moment. Do you hear that?" Flynn asked.

"Huh?" Luna asked, turning her body to meet him. Kupopo, who had been flying towards her possibly with the intention of groping her, flew past her instead and crashed into the ground.

The group remained silent for a few seconds. Sora could hear the cold air from what could only be an exit making soft soothing sounds. There was a dampness in the air however that mixed cold with warm resulting in moisture on the walls. Were they to walk now, they would hear the echoes of their own footsteps. Were they to stand silent, as they did now, they would hear their own breathing, but not much else save the sound of quiet flickering flames.

After Sora voiced what he felt was shared confusion, Flynn nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, maybe it was nothing. Let's just keep moving."

"Wow, thanks for trying to scare me," Rapunzel said. "You really want me to go back that badly?"

"I think it's a bit too late for that," Flynn replied. He didn't get a chance to continue. Sora felt his voice get caught in his throat as he looked around. He was enveloped in complete darkness. The torches had all gone out at the same time.

"Kupo, why are you doing this?" Kupopo screamed.

"It's not me this time, I swear. Look, one moment, let me handle this," Sora said, he backed away for a moment and-

"_Ow_! That was my foot!" Luna whispered.

"Sorry," he apologized. He stepped over to her left and felt his body bump into someone else. He summoned his Keyblade and illuminated it to check who it was. It was not every day that Sora could get so easily frightened as he did now, staring into the immediate face of an Invisible. Before he could even react, something else hit from behind, throwing him forward into Luna.

"You okay?" Sora asked, his arms unintentionally pinning her to the ground. Feeling Dream Seeker's weight in her hands, Luna angled her Keyblade under Sora's arms and shot off two Firaga spells, taking out the Neoshadow that had crept up on Sora along with the Invisible.

"Could be better," Luna finally answered. "All I know is that we can't fight them like this. We have to run."

Sora eventually realized he was holding Luna to the ground and felt his cheeks heat up. He cleared his throat and helped her up before looking around. Kairi and Riku's Keyblades were both illuminated through which he could see their faint outlines as well as Rapunzel and Flynn who were keeping close to them.

"Sora! Luna!" Riku called over to them. The two aforementioned kept the backs against one another, countering the attacks from the Heartless as they made their way over to the rest of the group. Once by their side, Riku spoke out while continuing to deflect the Heartless' attacks. "We need to stay in the light. As long as we huddle up and keep going, we should be fine."

Magic flew in every direction, as did the clang of metal. Their yellow eyes were the only thing giving them an idea as to where the Heartless were and even then the Heartless shifted about so much that it was hard to target them. Pieces of rock flew off the walls and chipped off of what was probably already very dilapidated walls.

"I see it! We're almost there!" He heard Rapunzel shout over the whizzing and bangs of various of attacks. Sora turned quickly behind him to see a glint of light up ahead. He turned back just in time to see Kairi point her Keyblade past him.

"_HOLY!" _She yelled. A bright white light erupted from her Keyblade rather violently, the recoil knocking her into Rapunzel. The blast of light travelled through the cave and instantly evaporated any of the Heartless behind them.

"Wow," was what escaped Sora's mouth. Somewhere along the way he had forgotten how to breathe as he drew witness to the awesome power and it seemed like he wasn't the only one from a quick look around him. They had all stopped in their tracks, even the Heartless in front of them. He swallowed down the saliva that had built up in his mouth before turning to Kairi and saying in a shaky voice, "You've been saving that one, huh?"

Kairi smiled at him and the cave began shaking. While there was no direct correlation between the two, he could hazard a safe guess that Kairi's magic had something to do with it.

"Come on, let's go," Sora said, before turning and running as fast as he could. Just like that, the formation they had split apart as they all made for the exit. They could hear the roof caving in behind them, rocks spilling forth onto the ground to block the path they had come from. One of the Heartless, unaware of the danger it seemed, took their chance to attack but Luna's strike raid interrupted one of the Invisible's attack. The Invisible blocked with its sword but was ultimately unable to evade the falling rocks.

They soon broke out into daylight and Sora turned back to see Kupopo trying to evade rock after rock as he flew towards them.

"Come on, Kupopo," Sora whispered. Against his hopes, the rocks piled up faster at the cave's exit than Kupopo was able to fly. That was when Rapunzel once again surprised him for what he felt was the umpteenth time by now. Her hair flew past him and wrapped around Kupopo's body. She then yanked him through the exit just before the last rock fell and entirely closed the cave.

"Oh dear, I almost had heart attack," Luna cried out. She ran up to hug Rapunzel. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Yeah, that was quick thinking and acting on your part," Sora praised. "But boy, was that close or what?"

The hair hadn't even unfurled fully when Kupopo emerged out of it, clinging to Rapunzel's face. "Thank you, kupo!"  
"Aw, he's _soooooo_ soft," Rapunzel said, nuzzling up against the moogle's face. Sora grinned at them before looking around to check where they were. They had emerged on a cliff side, with a bridge just ahead leading to the other side. Underneath was rushing waters propelled by a current that… well, Sora really didn't want think about what would happen if they fell in. As his eyes began to traverse the length of the bridge he caught sight of something crawling on the ground near Rapunzel and Luna—or in the ground, would be more appropriate to say.

"Luna, move!"

"Rapunzel, move!"

Sora turned his head to see Flynn, who had also noticed the problem in time. Luna looked took Rapunzel's arms and pulled them away just as the Neoshadow popped up from the ground. Flynn, who was closer to them, rushed in with dirk in hand and thrust forward. The Neoshadow caught the blade of the knife in between it's fingers before jumping and spinning. Flynn fell backwards on purpose, just barely avoiding the spin attack and regaining his knife back. As the Heartless landed back on the ground, Flynn stabbed it straight in the foot and before falling back.

"That Neoshadow is… it's... in pain?" Sora asked. He rubbed his eyes. No, his sight was definitely not deceiving him. The Neoshadow in front of him was hunched over in pain and clutching at the dagger, trying to pull it out. Sora drew back his Keyblade and ran towards the Heartless, leaping and bringing his Keyblade down on it's head.

"You saw it too then?" Riku said, appearing next to him. "There's something changing in the Heartless' biology. Their dispositions, their actions… I can't say if these are the same enemies we've been fighting all this time or not."

"It reminded me of the Chimera. I'd just rather be quick and erase them. The last thing I want to do is start sympathizing with the Heartless," Sora said. He felt it had come out a little colder than he had meant to but it remained the truth.

"You were a Heartless too, once upon a time," Riku reminded him.

"And what's that supposed to mean?"  
"It means that we're not just getting rid of Heartless because they threaten the worlds. They were once human too, you know? The artificial ones anyway. Their hearts were stolen and they became the very darkness we're fighting against. The way I've been seeing it from some time now is that in a way, we're saving them. Setting the hearts free from their prison. Some of the Heartless are just wandering hearts, looking to find their way home."

"Yes, Riku, some of them. And the other Heartless? You know, like the ones we just fought?"

"My point is that sympathy is a normal trait to have. It's what differentiates us from them. If you're conflicted, that's probably a good thing," Riku said.

"Well it certainly doesn't make things easier," Sora replied. He didn't think it was wrong to believe the most quintessential element of a Heartless was its be all and end all. It was merely simpler for him to take that stance even if he knew it not to be entirely true. He instead turned his attention to Flynn. "You alright? Thanks for saving them. You really do care, even if you pretend not to."

"Well, I'm not going to sit by and watch as two innocent girls' lives are stolen away from them. I may be a thief, but I never said I was a callous one," Flynn said. "And speaking of being careless, the sun's setting. I think we should find a place to camp out for the night."

As Sora and the others crossed the bridge, they looked to their west to see a brilliantly bewitching sun encompassing the landscape. Sora was reminded of his days on the island watching the sun set alongside his friends. It made him long for those days of normality even more. They weren't heading in that direction but north east as Flynn had pointed around. _Still_, Sora thought as he made his way across the sturdy bridge, _it feels as if I would be able to touch it if I went in that direction_.

After finally reaching the other side, the group travelled for roughly another half hour before finally finding a clearing in the woods where they could settle.

"Ah, it's so dark now. Gathering wood and tinder for a fire is gonna be a pain," Flynn said. "I don't suppose you guys have anything to burn, do you?"

"If I had Jiminy's Journal with me-"

"Sora!"

"I was just being facetious," Sora responded to Luna's outrage. "I don't think we have anything on us."

"Oh, I have an idea!" Rapunzel exclaimed. She put her hands to her chest before singing: "_Flower gleam and glow,_

_Let your power shine,_

_Make the clock reverse,_

_Bring back what once was mine"_

A golden light suddenly illuminated the dark clearing. Sora tried to wrap his mind around the concept of Rapunzel's golden hair glowing brightly but it was no use. He had heard the saying that truth is often stranger than fiction and here was living proof in front of his eyes.

"Okay, this is a very strange day. First a bunch of kids with keys and now a girl who fights with a frying pan and her hair which, by the way, also glows. Question—you don't happen to have a sandwich in there also, do you? I'm starved," Flynn said.

* * *

With the aid of Rapunzel's glowing hair, the group were quickly able to gather the twigs and sticks and start the fire before the first signs of chirping crickets in the darkness. Having also stumbled across a river running nearby, they had decided to divide a short amount of time between each of them to wash of the day's sweat and dirt, the latter having been a result of their time in the cave.

When it was Sora's turn, he parted with the others and made his way to the secluded spot. On his way, he passed Riku who had been before him.

"I'd advise you to do whatever you need to do and leave. Water's pretty cold," he said. Sora nodded at this warning and continued on his way. To tell the truth, he could do with a splash of cold water anyway. Arriving at the river in question, he wondered if following it would take them back to the tower. They certainly wouldn't be able to go back the way they had come, so it was probably important to keep this place in mind in case they needed to make it back.

Sora stripped down to his waist and knelt down, cupping his hands and scooping up the water from the river before bringing his face down to it.

_Oh yeah, this is cold alright_, Sora thought. With a smile on his face, he continued washing the rest of his upper body. By the time he was finished, he felt pleasantly revived and full of life. He stood up and let out a yawn, turning around to see Rapunzel staring at him.

"Oh, crap! Sorry, I guess I took longer than I'd thought. Er—can you turn around for a moment?" Sora motioned with his hand.

But Rapunzel seemed to ignore his request. "What happened to you? Your body, it's…"

Sora looked down briefly at the scars on his chest before responding. "Let's just say someone wanted to send me a message but they cut a little too deep. I've tried everything I can think of but nothing gets rid of them completely. I might have to, you know, live with them for the rest of my life."  
"That's horrible."

"Comes with the job. I suppose if you're being hated on then that means you're doing something right? I don't know. I really don't know anymore," Sora told her. He turned away from her and proceeded to kneel and collect his shirt and jacket when he felt her hand on his shoulder. "Rapunzel?"

"My hair doesn't just glow. Let me try something," Rapunzel said. With a wave of her hand, she threw some of her hair over Sora, cloaking him and limiting his vision to long strands of hair. Sora's confusion remained even as Rapunzel recited the same song he had heard earlier on. Somewhere along the line it may have even crossed Sora's mind for some silly reason that Flynn was right. That Rapunzel did have a sandwich hiding somewhere under all that hair. It was silly but given how long her hair was, it didn't seem that impossible.

The hair soon left Sora's face and returned to its owner's side. Rapunzel circled around him like a shark, returning in front of him with her hands clasped together.

"There you go. As good as new."

When Sora looked down, he felt so faint and lightheaded that he had to sit down for a moment. It was seconds before he started to feel around his body again. He could see nor feel any trace of the scars Desiree had inflicted on him. Sora's hands flew up to his mouth. He could feel his eyes watering.

"Rapunzel, I don't… I don't know what to say."

"Hmm, let's see… there's the obvious 'thank you' and then the 'you're so beautiful Rapunzel and I'll do whatever you say for a day'. Sora, it's okay, really. I'm just glad I could help," she said. "_Buuuuut _I do also need that river before Kairi comes so…"

"Oh, yeah." Sora grabbed his shirt and threw it on. Putting his jacket over his arm, he began walking off but then stopped and turned to look at her. "You're one step closer to your dream. How does it feel?"

"Scary, I admit, but that's what life is about, isn't it? Sometimes you have to do what's best for you, even if other may not agree with it. My mother's going to be angry and it's not going to be pretty when I get back."

"We'll be there for you, I promise. And you're right about taking risks. Is there anything you want to do after tomorrow? Any other dream you might have?"

Rapunzel seemed to consider this for a moment before shaking her head. "I haven't really thought about it that much. I guess I've been so preoccupied with this one thing that I haven't really thought ahead."

"One step at a time, I suppose…" Sora agreed. Something inside told him not to continue but he swallowed down this queasy feeling. "You may have guessed this by now but we don't really come from around here. I was wondering, and you don't have to answer this right now but… you can come with us. You don't have to go back to that tower. There are whole other worlds out there with completely different experiences to this one."

"I can? I can really go with you?" Rapunzel asked.

"To be honest, I'd love it if you did. I mean, it's up to you in the end and I can understand if you don't want to but-"

"Yes!"

"Really? You're okay with it?" Sora asked with a big child-like grin on his face.

"Should I not be? This has been the best thing I've ever done. After what we've been through and even though we fought all those shadows, I don't want to stop. Is that strange?" Rapunzel asked.

"Definitely not, it's how I feel too," Sora said. "This is great. I'll go tell the others!"

"You do that. You tell them that Rapunzel is coming along with them too!" Rapunzel yelled at him cheerfully as he turned to run. Sora could barely contain his excitement at the thought of the jumpy teen tagging along with them on adventures. It was only a shame that he could not find it in his heart to tell her that her life was at risk in doing so.


	67. The Lost Princess

_Long chapter requires split so we'll witness the conclusion of the Corona storyline very soon. As in, probably a day after this chapter's uploaded soon. With that said, I hope you enjoy this penultimate chapter. _

* * *

**Chapter 67**

**The**** Lost Princess **

Peering through the branches, Gothel's eyes glared daggers at the strange group of people who had stolen away her precious Rapunzel. Four of them she did not know, but watching them had proved to be enjoyable. Shadow after shadow had bounced off them just as easily as they had been thrown. They were no normal children—that much was obvious, but unless they were able to restore her with the youth and vitality provided to her by the sunlight flower then Rapunzel's safety by her side remained the key goal.

Then there was Flynn Rider. From the moment she saw him in the Snuggly Duckling with Rapunzel and realized that he and the person on the wanted poster she had seen were on and the same, she knew that he would be the key to this. If not even the shadows could discourage Rapunzel from going any farther then Gothel would have to do the next best thing—she would break her heart.

Gothel's eyes landed on the brown sack that was resting near the fireplace, a cunning planning growing ever surer in the back of her mind. She need not do anything at the moment. Rider was leading Rapunzel into the very heart of the place he was running from, and the perfect opportunity would present itself there.

Her lips parted thoughtfully and she brought a handful of her own hair from the side in front of her. The ageing process was already beginning to show. She could see strands of her hair graying here and there. In between that process came the wrinkles and she would rather kill than let that happen.

Gothel backed farther into the shadows and hastily made her way around the edge of the clearing. The truth was that she would rather not become a murderer, and she wouldn't need to if Rapunzel decided to come back peacefully. She soon emerged on the other side of the clearing near the river. In front of her was the girl she was looking for, seemingly content and unaware that her mother had been watching her and her 'friends' all this time. Gothel reached out for her and slowly started walking forward. She was so close and yet so far that it was almost unbearable. For some reason, her long hair seemed more alluring in the moonlight. If only she could just touch it…

"Mother!"

Gothel's head snapped upwards from Rapunzel's hair to her face. With the outstanding ease of an actress, her expression changed from one of desire to one of a mother's worry.

"Oh, Rapunzel, I've been looking everywhere for you, child. You've worried your poor mother to death."

"I'd hope not, you're still alive," Rapunzel wittily responded. "Um, how did you know where I was?"

"Oh, it was nothing, really. I just listened to the sound of complete and utter betrayal and followed that. The ears of mine are surprisingly accurate, you know. Now chop chop, Rapunzel. Let's go."

"Mother, I can't go-"

"What do you mean? Now that's not very reasonable, is it?" Gothel reached for Rapunzel's wrist and seized it. Gothel tried to drag her but Rapunzel threw off her mother with such strength that it surprised the both of them.

Rapunzel breathed heavily and looked away for a second before forcing eye contact with her mother. Gothel was rendered completely perplexed by Rapunzel's stare. She could see something in them that was not there before. A fire burning brightly. Whoever this girl was that Gothel wanted to bring back home, it was not the same as the one she had raised for eighteen years.

"You don't understand!" Rapunzel said after a while. "I've been on such an incredible journey and I've met these wonderful friends. If you met them, you would know how kind and selfless they are. They've even… they've even asked me if they wanted me to travel with them. Imagine that! Me going to different places and meeting new people with different ways of seeing the world."

"Now I've heard it all. I don't know what silly romanticisms you've conjured up in your head, but they are all demented. In this universe, no one really cares about anyone not inside their group. The only reason people interact and promise things to other people is if they stand to also gain from it. Nothing in this world is free. Everything and everyone exists merely to be consumed and dragged through the mud by something or someone else. If you can't see that, then you really have learned nothing in this little journey of yours."

"You're wrong, mother," Rapunzel said boldly. "I believe in others. I believe in my judgement. Most importantly, I believe in my friends."

"Wrong?" Gothel's reply consisted of half a wheeze and the other half a chuckle. "Yes, I'm wrong. Rapunzel is right. She's always right, after all, she's grown up now—the big eighteen. Now that she's an adult, Rapunzel knows best. Fine, then. I'll leave for now, but don't say I didn't warn you. Rapunzel, dear, you may have stabbed me in the back whether you realize it or not, but at least that can heal. For your sake, I just hope they don't stab you in the heart."

Rapunzel put out her hands to stop her but it was too late. Gothel sank back into the trees as if she were exiting a stage. Her warning left Rapunzel terrified, so much so that she jumped when she heard Kairi's voice.

"Is everything okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I was just lost in thought, I guess," Rapunzel replied somewhat absently.

"Don't think too much, alright? It's your big day tomorrow. Anyway, Flynn's hilarious. We were just sitting around the fire listening to his adventures. Guess what? I managed to force a confession out of him. His real name isn't Flynn Rider, just like we thought. It's Eugene Fitzherbert!"

"Oh, that's nice," Rapunzel said. She had started chewing on her lip, she found, and ceased the act. "Um, Kairi, you really will take me with you, right? You won't abandon me?"

"Rapunzel…" Kairi looked painfully at the girl. Try as she might, it was too hard to say, so instead she said, "Of course we won't abandon you."

"Thanks. I know I must have sounded silly there for a moment, right?" Rapunzel said, with a small smile. There was no way what her mother was saying would ever come to pass. "Eugene, huh? That's a rather cute name."

* * *

Surrounded by sea, the Kingdom of Corona would have made an excellent spot for fishing, Luna had decided as they cross the bridge into the marketplace. As she soon found out, the town generally did its best to promote the industry. It would have made her father proud. The position of the town also made for easy porting and trade from other places. There was no doubt that the kingdom was incredibly well-off and that was reflected in the snug little homes on the sides of the island that they could see.

The architectural style of the buildings the deeper in they walked became more renaissance in style, with round onion domes for some buildings and semi-detached low-rise buildings for others, mainly those in the marketplace. At the very top of this spiral of resident houses, the chapel and the shops was a beautiful castle. It wouldn't have been hard to have been drawn completely to the castle first considering its lofty towers with green domes and their spires standing out above all else.

"That right there is where the king and queen live. It would be best if we avoid there. You know, I'm not exactly welcomed here after all," Flynn explained as they entered the marketplace. The streets, as Flynn continued to explain, were a labyrinth filled with kids playing on the streets and men and women going about their daily business.

Luna must have counted at least two street performers or musicians on every street they turned. It was Rapunzel however, who eventually acted upon it. Seeing a group of children jumping around to the music, Rapunzel left the group's side and began dancing in front of the street musicians. The children, captivated by her performance, soon joined her.

"Her hair really looks good from the back when she's dancing like that. We did a good job with a ton of hair, don't you think?" Luna said proudly. She and Kairi had spent the morning braiding up Rapunzel's hair before they left so it would be more easily transportable. Given how much hair they started with, they really had no idea how they would complete their task until they had actually completed it. Even now, Luna was still completely bemused as to how they had done it.

"Darn right we did. I think we owe ourselves a little fun. Let's join in!" Kairi exclaimed. She and Luna wasted no time in rushing, not stopping to see whether Sora, Riku, Flynn and Kupopo had followed. Luna linked hands with one of the children and began jumping up and down with him in a circle. Her mind wandered to her birthday where she had danced with Sora in front of everyone. She looked to her left to see him dancing with a woman who had also jumped in. Their eyes met briefly and they flashed each other a smile before returning to their respective partners.

The number of people dancing on the street increased from a few to many over the next minute or so, as passers by were roped into the heat of the moment with their loved ones, or even complete strangers. Luna couldn't help but think to herself—such was the power of Rapunzel's heart that it brought an entire town together. Couples who had partnered had becomes pairs of three then four and all the way up until a large circle had gathered around a chalk drawing of a sun on the ground.

When she had heard from Kairi the night before about how Rapunzel was a suitable candidate, Luna didn't know what to say. She, probably like everyone else there, had thought it obvious so she wasn't surprised but neither was she happy. As with Pocahontas, Rapunzel deserved to live her own life but was instead at risk of losing hers if they couldn't find Alice in time. All she could promise to herself was that she would protect Rapunzel with every fiber of her being so she could continue to live her dreams.

The music soon came to a stop with Rapunzel in the center of the human-made circle. Hands parted and everyone clapped and cheered at her stunning tap dancing skills. Luna had only remembered as well that Rapunzel had come here completely on bare foot. She would have to change that.

"It was nice dancing with you. Goodbye," Luna said to the little girl she had been dancing with. She made to see her off before looking around to locate Sora and the others. Her eyes found something else. In between the hustle and bustle of departing townsfolk, her eyes did not leave those of Abraxas for a single second. He stared back at her, a smirk playing on his lips.

"Hey, Luna, did you see that? Everyone was dancing all because of what we did! Luna?"

Rapunzel's face suddenly obstructed Luna's view of Abraxas. Luna blinked and looked at her confused.

"Sorry, what did you say?"

"Is there something wrong, Luna?" Rapunzel asked as Luna stood on her tiptoes to look over Rapunzel's shoulder.

_Very wrong. Where is he? _Luna thought as she searched for him. The man who had been there had definitely been Abraxas and he had also definitely disappeared. She must have been imagining it then. There was no way Abraxas could have come back from the dead. He was gone. Sora had beaten him. Hadn't he?

"It… must have just been my imagination," Luna finally said. "Maybe I need to sit down. I was spinning around like crazy back there, after all."

"It was definitely crazy," Rapunzel said. Before Luna could propose getting new shoes for Rapunzel, an elderly man walked up to them and greeted them warmly.

"It's just… I can't help but admire your hair, dear. It's very pretty. It reminds me somewhat of the king and queen's daughter actually."

"Daughter?" Luna enquired.

"The one on that mosaic, over there." The man pointed at the castle wall farther down the street. This portion of the walls looked different from the others that Luna had seen.

"What happened to her, if I may ask?" Luna asked.

"You can, but the truth is nobody knows. Most people believe she's long since passed on. It even has the king starting to believe it. The mother on the other hand? Well you can bet her maternal instincts come into play. She believes her daughter is still out there somewhere, or maybe she just wants to believe. A lot of people come forward saying they've found the princess. Of course, they're just fakes looking to claim the bounty. Trust me, I've seen some pretty convincing doubles these past few years. A mother can always tell though, so they say."

Luna nodded. She had read articles in the Alexandrian newspaper about mothers having lifted up heavy objects in separate incidents, just to save their child. Luna was not a betting girl, but she had seen some extraordinary things on her journey and she wouldn't put it out of possibility that a mother did have the perceived senses to know about her child's fate. Luna ultimately looked the positive side of things however so this could have just been her hoping for the best outcome.

"Hmm, what do you think, Rapunzel? Rapunzel?" Luna looked to her side but Rapunzel had left her… quite a while ago, it seemed since the missing girl was already standing at the mural. She thanked the elderly man quickly and ran to Rapunzel's side. Rapunzel appeared transfixed at the mosaic, as if bewitched. When Luna looked from Rapunzel to the picture, she understood why.

Small ceramic tiles that Luna realized must have taken ages to make made up a larger picture of the royal visage. King, Queen, and daughter. Their smiling faces were oblivious to what would soon happen. Behind them, rays from a golden sun broke off into slivers of light that surrounded the family. The daughter—she was like the sun to them. Luna focused her attention on the bundle of joy in front of her. Her face was much like her mother's with the same rosy cheeks and emerald green eyes, but her hair was unlike mother or father. It was a beautiful golden blonde and had, Luna felt, been the main focus of the artist when they had created the tiles. The man was right. There was definitely an uncanny resemblance.

"Rapunzel, are you okay? You don't look so good," Luna said, seeing the girl's uncomfortable glance.

"I don't know. There's something about this image… something… something… it's very powerful, isn't it? I feel for them," Rapunzel eventually said with her eyes still glued to the tiles.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. They're very beautiful. Say, I know you've talked about your mother before but what happened to your father?" Luna asked.

Rapunzel finally looked away and at Luna. "I can't really remember him actually. Mother told me that he died when I was really young."

"Luna! Rapunzel!"

Hearing Sora yell from down the street, the two turned to see him running up to them. He stopped short of them and pointed behind his shoulder.

"We're just going to get some crepes. Care to join us?" he asked.

"Ooh, what's that?" Rapunzel asked eagerly.

"They're like thin pancakes. You have to try them. They're really popular back on Alexander, that's my home by the way. You have to try them!" Luna encouraged. Rapunzel linked arms with her and asked her to lead the way. As they passed Sora, his eyes found themselves attached to the mosaic they had been looking at for the first time.

His head tilted to the right slightly. "Huh? But isn't that-"

"Sora, are you coming?"

It had been enough to snap Sora out of his reverie.

* * *

Rapunzel's birthday came to its abnormal conclusion just outside of the town at the dead of night, near a giant lake west of the town. On the lake was a single boat that floated on the still water. From the fringe of land that bordered the woods and lake, Luna could see two figures in the dark sitting on the boat. They were Flynn and Rapunzel. As there was only room for two in the boat and because she knew Flynn the least of the group, that had been Rapunzel's official reason as for requesting it. Undoubtedly though, she had become quite accustomed to calling him Eugene throughout the day and had probably wanted to tease him more. Not one to ruin a romantic moment, Luna and Kairi had opted for the rest of them to find a different spot to watch from. This was Rapunzel's moment, the one she had been waiting eighteen years for, and they wanted her to take it all in without any distractions.

"I think you chose a really nice spot," Sora said next to her.

"Well I am a great spot picker," Luna said with a chuckle. She looked back at the boat. "There was this… really great place inside my middle school. It was this beautiful garden pergola and it was full of these exotic flowers called Pitaya. Astra and I would sit down there and just chill out. We would either do homework together or I was reading and she would show me some of the comic book panels she would draw."

"Astra draws comics?" Sora asked enthusiastically.

"Drew, yes," Luna corrected. "She stopped when her grandmother died. You would have loved to see her. She was so passionate about it before that it was her dream to become a comic book artist when she grew up. And then she just… stopped. In the drawings, she drew this girl who was bullied at school. One day, the girl brought home a stray cat that gifted her with magical powers. She became a superhero. Normal school girl by day and vigilante by night, she protected the people of Penumbra City from those that would try to demolish the law and order of the city."

"And it wasn't finished? That's a shame. I'd have paid for that," Sora said.

"One guess who she based the girl on," Luna said.

"You must have really inspired her," Sora replied.

"We inspired each other. Until recently, I only really thought that she had given up so much for me and that I could give her very little in return. Now I know that I was wrong. I've helped her so much and I didn't even realize it. Now that we're farther apart than we've ever been though… I'm scared."

Luna turned her head to look at Sora to see him looking back. He had actually been looking at her for a while and Luna had felt herself blushing because of it. Now as his compassionate blue eyes stared back into hers, she felt herself sinking into an ocean. Without even realizing it, she was leaning forward. Her breathing was short and it felt as if her heart was trying to beat its way out of her chest.

"It's starting," Riku said out loud. He, Kairi and Kupopo had been standing aside from them to their left. Both Luna and Sora froze in her advances and looked out to the lake.

"I'll tell you one thing, Luna," Sora said as they saw the first two orange lanterns rise into the sky. They would have been the King and Queen's. "You're my hero."

"Sora, that sounded incredibly corny," Luna commented. "I like it."

Soon enough, hundreds of other orange lanterns followed the two, rising higher and higher into the sky until suspended in motion as if they were in a beautiful still frame. Luna didn't see just lanterns though. Those lanterns represented hundreds of hearts beating as one. They were her dream. It was true that the worlds were all divided. They were as far apart as a parent and their missing child could possibly be. But it was in moments of darkness like this that the light really shined. She had been successful in leaving her own world and she wanted others to have that same chance too. Mulan and now Rapunzel… they were start of something bigger that she could not entirely see yet but like a mosaic, she was slowly starting to see the tiles come together to form the bigger picture.

Her fingers found themselves intertwined in between Sora's. He looked at her in surprise but she smiled at him and looked back up at the orange sky. _That's right_, she thought with a dreamy expression on her face, _we'll be the ones to lay down the pieces. That's my dream._

"And yet one should never start another puzzle without first finishing the one they are on."

Luna's body tensed. Her eyes fell to what was in front of her and then shifted uncomfortably. _He _was touching her shoulder. She looked to Sora but he seemed rather content and unworried, still holding onto her hand firmly. Had Sora not heard him?

Abraxas continued, whispering into her ear. "Your love for him is undeniable, and yet, even if he were to return it, he would never be able to penetrate your heart like I quite have. Just as you live inside his heart, I live inside yours and you haven't quite figured out why... or perhaps you don't want to."

_Stop doing this to me. Just leave me alone_, Luna thought, closing her eyes. When no response came, she re-opened them and looked behind her.

"Is something wrong?" Sora asked, noticing her fidgeting.

"No, it's just a bit cold out tonight, is all," Luna made up on the spot. It was actually pretty cold now that she thought about it.

"That's because you're not wearing a jacket, silly. Want to use mine?" Sora asked. He had a valid point. Luna had stupidly come to this world with only her polka dot dress after finding out about the world's warm climate from Jiminy.

"It's alright. Oh, they're landing on the water!" Luna pointed out. One of the lanterns in particular crossed the water and came close to them. Luna bent down and picked it up to show to Sora and the others.

"May there be many more happy memories waiting in store for us. All of us," she declared. With a returning nod of approval from everyone, they watched as Luna lifted the lantern back into the air.

* * *

The boat landed back on shore just to the west of where Sora and his friends were. Flynn had requested it personally for some reason. After presenting Flynn with the crown she had been using as a bargaining chip, Flynn's behavior suddenly changed. He looked distracted when Rapunzel questioned him as to why this was but instead of replying, he played evasive and told her that he needed to go somewhere for a while.

"I'll be back real soon. I promise," Flynn had said to her. But as Rapunzel watched him head farther into the woods, a pang of doubt began to settle on the surface. It wasn't that she didn't trust him, but her mother's words came back to haunt her.

"No, I have to believe. He'll be back. Don't look at me like that, Pascal. He'll definitely come back. You'll see," Rapunzel said to the chameleon on her shoulder. But as time passed, her worries became increasingly intensified. It took seeing a lone boat setting out for sail with a figure in the shape of Flynn Rider to confirm her worst fears. "No… no, it can't be. Flynn! Flynn! Eugene?"

"Rider's gone, I'm afraid."

Rapunzel turned to see two thuggish looking brutes standing there, devilish grins etched upon their faces. The one on the right had an eye patch on his left eye but otherwise the both of them appeared completely identical, leading her to conclude that they had to be brothers. Her eyes dropped from their faces to the one on the right's hand in shock. He was holding the same diadem Rapunzel had given to Flynn. But how had they gotten it? Rapunzel posed this question to them.

"Looks like Rider sold you out. Don't worry. That's just the kind of person he is," said the thug on the left.

"Sold me out? What do you mean?"

"I guess he didn't tell you, huh? We were business partners before you two met, and like you, he sold us out and took that crown all for himself. But we're understand gentleman, so we negotiated a… settlement in exchange for his release. He agreed without hesitation."

"And guess what the terms were," the eye patch-less brother croaked with joy. "Hair that can reverse time, huh? Now who would we be to say no to that prize."

Rapunzel backed away in fear. She swiftly considered all her options. She could fight, that was always an option, but her frying pan was currently in Kairi's possession and while her hair had been enough to stop the Heartless in their tracks, the ones she had fought were so slow that they could basically be considered immobile. The men in front of her were no doubt fast and when Rapunzel spotted their weapons placed in easily reachable spots on their bodies, that was enough to deter her from trying anything crazy. That left her other option, the one that had been screaming in her head since the very moment she saw them—Run.

Before she could figure out a way to move around them though, the problem took a turn for the surprising. The sound of wood breaking against the back of their heads forced Rapunzel to look up at them once again. The frozen look of stupefaction on their faces made way for the prideful expression of her mother as the two brothers fell to the ground unconscious.

"Mother?"

"Oh, sweetheart, I just had this feeling that you were in danger and I'm glad I listened to it. Call it a mother's intuition," Gothel said. Rapunzel wiped away the tears that had built up into her eyes and wasted no time in running and hugging her mother.

"You were right, mother. You were right about everything," Rapunzel struggled to say through her loud sobs.

"I know, dear. I know," Gothel said, patting her on the back. "That's all humans do. Use for their own gain and then throw away. Let me be the shroud that protect you against the darkness of the human heart. Come back with me, Rapunzel."

Rapunzel nodded absently and allowed her mother to guide her into the woods. Had either of them looked to their left at least once, they would have no doubt spotted a Moogle staring at them in confusion.

"Kupo?"

* * *

"What do you mean, he's gone?" Sora asked, dumbfounded at Kairi's comment. After the glowing lanterns had gone out, Kairi had made the shock announcement to them that Kupopo was missing from their side. Racked with worry, Kairi paced about the shore, looking up and down for any sign of him.

"He's gone! He's gone, I- I don't know how. He was with us when we came here, I'm sure of it and now he's not here," Kairi cried out in a panicked tone.

"But how could have left without us noticing? Why would he without even telling us, for that matter?" Luna asked.

"We can talk about that later. Is that a boat?" Riku pointed in the direction of the lake. As he had said, sailing away from them in the direction of the town was a boat, or more appropriately a small sailing yacht. Luna squinted her eyes. There was only one person on that boat, and while the dark figure could have easily passed for Flynn's height and build from the back, she saw no sign of Rapunzel with him. She called out his name, hoping to catch his attention, but either her voice hadn't reached far enough for him to hear or perhaps something else had happened?

"Something's wrong," Sora said, thinking along the same lines as Luna. What she hadn't thought about however, was also jumping into the lake and swimming all the way out to the boat.

"Sora, what the hell?" Riku yelled after him, but the brunette was already gone and he wasn't stopping to reply. Luna, Riku and Kairi were rendered completely speechless for the minute and a half that Sora was out in the lake and back, an unconscious Flynn just barely being kept above the water's surface. Riku ran out as Sora reached shallow waters and helped him bring the body back over onto dry land. "You're crazy, you know that?"

"Takes one to know one," Sora replied. "_Brrrr_, that water sure is cold."

"What did you expect, a hot spring?" Kairi asked.

"Hey, hey, he's waking up," Riku alerted them. Luna looked down to see Flynn's eyes fluttering open. His pupils darted from left to right for a moment in confusion before landing on Luna.

"What a way to wake up. With a beautiful girl hovering over you," he said. He leaned forward and sat upright, looking around. "What happened?"

"We could ask you the same thing. I found you on that boat over there. Your hands were tied to the wheel," Sora explained. "I doubt you did that by yourself. Also, where's Rapunzel?"

"Rapunzel!" Flynn yelled and jumped up from the ground with such deftness that it startled Luna and the others. "She's in danger. You remember when I told you how I used to go around with two other people? They're brothers, the Stabbingtons. I wanted them to forgive and forget and I was prepared to give them crown in exchange for letting me go. They said they knew about Rapunzel's hair and they wanted it. Well, I refused and you can see the result of that. I don't care about riches or a free life anymore. I need to save Rapunzel, and then if I have to pay for my crimes then so be it. Huh, this very well may be Flynn Rider's last ride."

"Well that's nice and all, but you can worry about that after _we _save Rapunzel. Together," Riku said with a small smile. "Take us there. Take us to where you last saw Rapunzel."

Flynn nodded and led the party of joggers into and through a dense and considerable portion of trees that took them to a clear patch of land. They soon reached the boat that Flynn had left Rapunzel by only to find two unconscious men lying on the ground.

"These are the Stabbington brothers? And here I thought they just wanted to sound edgy," Kairi said. After discussing what to do with them, Flynn and Riku placed the two bodies up against a tree. Riku summoned his Keyblade and used magic to bind them to the tree. Luna held up her own Keyblade and used water magic, spraying them both to wake them up.

"What the- AGH! Stop that!" the eye-patched brother spluttered as water went into his mouth. Flynn held his hand up and Luna cancelled the spell.

"I'm only going to ask you this once so don't even think about playing games with us. Where's Rapunzel and how did you know about her hair?"

"Some old lady told us. She told us about the magic hair and that you had her!" he replied.

"She was the very same one that attacked us just now. I picked up on her voice just before I passed out," the other brother added.

"Old lady?" Flynn asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Riku asked. When Flynn, Sora, Kairi and Luna shook their heads, he sighed. "It's her mother. Rapunzel said that no one else but us knew about her hair. She had never even left her tower in the eighteen years that she's been there. The only other person who's been in and out of her tower, as she's told us, is her mother."

"Gothel, was her name, wasn't it?" Kairi recalled. "Wait. So her mother engineered this whole fake kidnapping plot with the Stabbingtons in order to bring Rapunzel back home? I guess that makes sense. If her mother didn't want her to leave that tower, then I suppose she would be angry about this, but to the point of putting her own daughter in danger just to prove a point?"

"You really think it's that simple?" Riku asked.

"Isn't it?" Sora asked slowly. Knowing Riku, the answer was obvious.

"You'd like that. So would I, but no. There's more to this than just teaching a lesson. The question we need to answer is why did Gothel feel it was necessary to keep her in a tower for practically the rest of her life. That's not healthy, for anyone. Gothel spent her time building lie upon carefully constructed lie, feeding misinformation about the outside world to her own daughter. Why would she do that?"

"Riku, I'm sure you know the answer already. We get it, you're smart. No need to shove it in our faces," Sora said.

"But Sora, you were the one who gave me the answer. Don't you remember?" Riku asked.

"Remember?"

"The mural on the wall. You were the one who showed it to me."

Sora stared at him for a while, seemingly lost. Luna was too, and having seen the mural, she tried to think back on it and use it as a clue to help figure things out. She and Sora realized at the same time.

"No way… no way… I can't believe it! Well I can, but..."

"Yeah, that's definitely it. I didn't think much of it at first but I'm sure of it now," Luna agreed with the laughing Sora.

A perplexed Kairi looked back and forth from Sora to Luna. "Okay, now explain without being really vague to someone who hasn't seen this mural."


	68. To Truly Live

_So with Tangled finally finished, we're getting closer to the end of this story. Anyway, I hear they're making a Big Hero 6 show on Disney XD. Already, its chances of success are limited. Sorry, Tron Uprising has me all salty. _

* * *

**Chapter 68**

**To Truly Live**

Kupopo let out a purr as Rapunzel inattentively stroked his head. She had made a big mistake. That was what she had been telling herself ever since she had returned to this tower with her mother. It was easy to say one thing to her mother and actually feel something else about the same issue. Her journey may have ended in betrayal but the adventure she had taken had been an unforgettable one. Kupopo following after her just to tell her how kind Sora and his friends really were was the one thing that tore her heart in two. They had not betrayed her. No, it was she who had betrayed them in the end.

"What do I do, Kupopo?" Rapunzel whispered. "I let them down. I don't want to stay here. Even if what my mother says is true, even if all there is out there is nothing but pain… I don't mind it. I don't mind the pain because the truth is that there are a lot of happy memories in between. I want to make more of those."

"That's the spirit, kupo. It's why I want to stay with you. I just know that Sora and the others will come back for you. That's what friends do for each other. They always come back. But until that time comes, I want to make you as happy as possible," Kupopo said. He flew out of her hand and picked up the crown from the bag with his tiny hands. With a lot of exertion which made the act in itself seem kind of cute to Rapunzel, Kupopo was able to place the diadem on Rapunzel's head. "There we go, kupo. Maybe you can be the princess in the tower and me your noble knight!"

"Princess?" Rapunzel repeated. The word resonated with her for some reason. She stood up and paced up and down the room before freezing at the mirror. In front of her, she saw a girl with long golden hair and emerald green eyes… "Princess?"

"Is something wrong, kupo?" Kupopo asked, cocking his head to the right as he watched Rapunzel clutch her head. He had to fly out of the way as the girl backed away and looked up at the painted sunburst above the mirror.

"Is… is that why I painted it?" Rapunzel asked herself. It had been the very first painting she had done at the age of five. At the time she had thought that she had wanted to paint the sun as she saw it from her window, but what if that had not been the actual reason? Had her heart been subconsciously trying to send her a message using something that she could recognize?

"I'm the lost princess," Rapunzel said, backing away even farther only to hit the dressing table causing some of its contents to fall on the floor in a deafening crash.

"Um, yes, kupo, that's what I said," Kupopo said.

"No, Kupopo! I'm-"

"Rapunzel, what's going on? Are you alright?" Her 'mother' walked into her room, curious as to the source of the noise.

"I'm the lost princess, aren't I?" Rapunzel gasped out.

"Sorry, what was that? Oh, you know how I hate the mumbling. You really need to stop with that, dear," Gothel said.

Rapunzel looked at Gothel properly for the first time since she had appeared to save her the night before, but this time it was in a completely new light. For the first time, she was staring into the eyes of a stranger.

"I said I am the lost princess, aren't I?" She waited for a response, but when none came, Rapunzel continued. "I'm sorry, did I mumble, mother? Or should I even call you that?"

"Rapunzel, do you even hear yourself? Why would you ask such a ridiculous question?" Gothel asked, trying to make light of the situation with a chuckle. She stopped when she looked back to see Rapunzel's cold stare.

"It was you! You stole me away from my parents. You kept me in this tower all these years," Rapunzel said. "You fed me lies about how evil the world was and how people can use each other only to betray them after they've served their purpose."

"And you think that was a lie? Everything I've done, I've done to protect… you." Gothel reached out for her but Rapunzel pushed her away.

"If it is the truth, then would that include you too?" Rapunzel asked.

"Fine. Let's suppose you leave. Where would you go? Where can you go where the shadows won't be able to reach you? Where they won't try to break your heart?"

"I've already decided. I'll bear the pain if it means being free. With freedom comes opening your eyes to a whole other world. You can't take the good without the bad and to shut my eyes to that would be inconsiderate knowing the pain others face every day," Rapunzel said. She walked over to the mirror and looked at her own reflection once more. Gothel apprehended her hand once more but with a tighter grip. Still, Rapunzel pulled with all her strength, uncoupling from Gothel and sending her into the mirror. The mirror toppled over and shattered, glass pieces scattering on the floor. Rapunzel looked back after her mother, breathing heavily. "You were wrong about this world. You were wrong about me, and I will never let you use my hair again."

"And I'll be there to make sure of it, kupo!" Kupopo exclaimed, flying in front of Rapunzel and stretching out his arms.

"And what exactly are you supposed to be?" An annoyed Gothel asked.

"Rapunzel! Let down your hair!"

Hearing his voice, Rapunzel looked to the window. "That's Eugene's voice! He didn't leave after all." She turned to Gothel with a grin on her face. That's she had intended anyway. But she found herself looking on in fear instead. A dark aura had surrounded her.

* * *

"I just thought of something. What if she's not here? I mean, if I were Gothel I would find somewhere else to hide Rapunzel since her friends could just come back here," Sora said. Calling the Gummi Ship back at the clearing, they were able to get back to the tower in faster time than they would have if they had followed the stream back down. Introducing Flynn to the Highwind was both a complete thrill and a nightmare packed into one. It was thrilling to see someone so excited about flying in the air but having to answer the barrage of questions of the function of each button served only to annoy Sora and Riku to the point where they started ignoring him.

"Isn't that assuming she knows about us though?" Kairi asked. "Flynn, she wouldn't have to worry about. She was trying to send him to the gallows anyway, but what about us?"

"If she was following Rapunzel and knew she was with Flynn, then she could have also seen us, right?" he answered back.

"Oh, Sora? I'm thinking this answers your question," Luna said, summoning Dream Seeker. The ground broke apart in front of them, a wooden hand and arm like intertwined tree branches emerging out of the ground. A short circumference of ground around the hand soon broke up, and the creature with nothing to restrict it came free at last. The tree monster stood up, towering impressively over them all in height. It could just as easily have matched all their heights combined.

"This thing… it looks like a Mandragora. No, it definitely is one!" Luna said.

"A what now?" Riku asked.

"Ooh, something not even the mighty Riku knows," Sora said with a chortle.

"Am I supposed to know everything? I'm not an encyclopedia. Go ahead, Luna," Riku said.

"Well I read a book on mythical monsters and plants when I was in my first year of high school. The Mandragora illustration I saw in the book was smaller but there's no mistake about it. This must be some kind of Heartless version of it," Luna told them.

"So it's just a really big tree? I'm okay with that. We just have to chop this thing down to size then," Sora said, pointing the Kingdom Key at the Heartless. "Rapunzel, wait just a little longer, okay? We're almost there."

The Mandragora reached with both arms and swiped at the closest person, who happened to be Sora. Sora twisted his body and flipped over the long arms, landing on the right. His eyes focused on the Mandragora's exposed side, he air dashed forward and slammed the back of his Keyblade into the Heartless' side, hurling it to the side. Luna ran in and cloaked her Keyblade in fire, performing a spinning attack quickly afterwards. The long length of her Keyblade connected with the Heartless a few times as her Keyblade travelled upwards in a spiral.

"It's weak against fire. I figured as much. Makes this a whole lot easier then," Luna said, after jumping away a safe distance. This wasn't entirely true, because the Mandragora was incredibly fast with flailing its arms around. The arms seemed to extend and retract in a way that reminded Sora of Desiree's Keyblade, but its opponents were also nimble and kept on their toes, moving about so that the Heartless became apprehensive about who to target next.

"Over here!" Riku yelled. He had slid around to the Mandragora's side and performed Icebreaker, unleashing an icy attack with a full clockwise spin of the Way to the Dawn before going counterclockwise with his blade on fire. Sora ran in quickly and performed an overhead jump attack, cutting through one of the boss' branches.

He parried an attack as the Mandragora tried to slam its arm down on Sora and jumped away. Looking up, he could see a by-product of Riku's Icebreaker attack being that it had inflicted a temporary burn effect on the Mandragora.

"Way to go, Riku! We keep this up and we're bound to win," Sora said. Then the Mandragora did something that none of them could have expected. It dug its branchy arms or roots into the ground. For a moment, nothing happened. Maybe the boss was trying to heal through the ground, was Sora's line of thinking.

"AGH!"

Sora spun around and stared in horror at the scene before him. One of the roots had come out of the ground from behind Flynn and had pierced through the lower part of his back, the tip leaving the upper portion of his body and sticking out.

"FLYNN!" Kairi yelled. Before she could run to him, more sharp branches appeared out the ground forcing them all to predict and evade the sneak attacks as best they could. The branch that had pierced Flynn's body soon retracted back into the ground, sending Flynn to the floor in a bloody mess. Likewise, all other branches slithered back into the holes they came from. The Mandragora pulled its arms out of the ground, the burn infliction now gone from its body.

"You'll pay for that," Sora muttered. He glanced at the injured Flynn before placing his left hand over the Kingdom Key's length. "_Ars Arcanum_!"

Channeling half of his mana pool into his Keyblade, he rushed in and delivered several strikes to the Heartless. Kairi ran in as well and told Sora to back away quickly. Doing as he was told, he watched as she jumped into the air and used _Faith_. Seven pillars of light that looked more like swords surrounded Kairi and the Mandragora. The boss tried to swing his arms at her but Luna intercepted the attack with a _Fire Raid_, allowing Kairi to glide over to the swords. One by one, she picked them up and glided back over to the boss to unleash the attack with a slash of her Keyblade. Horizontal lights like waves struck the tree one after the other, and after she was done, she, Sora, Riku and Luna all ran in from different direction to deliver the final blow to a weakened enemy.

The Mandragora vanished, no doubt leaving the heart to fly up and disappear in the sky, but no one was focusing on that. Luna reached Flynn first and lifted his head onto her arms.

"Flynn? Stay with me here. You okay?" she asked.

"It doesn't matter about me. Rapunzel. We can't let Gothel take away her future," Flynn managed to wheeze out but not without great pain it seemed.

"Don't be stupid, you matter too, you know? Kairi, can't you do something?" Luna asked.

"I don't know. I can try Curasa but these kind of wounds are usually… well, let me try anyway," Kairi said. She took Luna's place, her hands hovering over Flynn's body before muttering the incantation. As the green aura coupled with the sound of chimes surrounded Flynn and Kairi, Sora looked at Riku and Luna realizing there was not much else they could do. In fact, they were more likely to be a distraction than a beneficial asset here.

"Luna, can you stay with Kairi, just in case she needs you? Riku and I will go and get Rapunzel back."

Luna nodded and went to Kairi's side without a word. Sora followed Riku to the side of the tower and stared up at the window. The window was open, but if Rapunzel was up there, she had not made any attempt to ease their fears by announcing he presence.

"How do we even get up there if we can't use Rapunzel's hair?" Sora asked. Riku motioned for Sora to follow him. As they walked around the perimeter of the tower, they finally stopped near the back of the tower. Riku, whose eyes had been on the ground the whole time, bent down at pointed at the grass.

"Aha, this grass had been disturbed recently. See how some of the grass here looks trampled? The soil's pretty uneven too."

"Okay. So what you're saying is because this is the only part around the tower that looks like it's been disturbed, that makes it unusual? Makes sense, but I can't see why that would be important, unless…" Sora trailed off as he looked up from the grass to the bush that was right in front of them. Intrigue got the better of him and he made his way around Riku, being careful to avoid slipping down the steep incline that led to the stream below. He grabbed at the ivy roots on the wall and tore it down in one go to reveal a door blocked completely by stones. "Eureka!"

"Great work, Sora. I would never have guessed there'd be a hidden door here," Riku said.

Sora laughed. "Let's be truthful now. Are you expecting me to believe that you started talking about trampled grass for no reason? You wanted me to realize that for myself, didn't you?"

"And it worked, didn't it, my apprentice?" Riku joked. He placed his hands against one of the stones and pulled. "It's sliding out easily enough. Here, come help me."  
Sora grabbed at what seemed to be the loosest stone on his side and started from there. Soon enough, the entire wall crumbled under no support leaving an exposed entryway. The two travelled down the small dark passageway where up ahead was a trap door waiting at the end. Riku slowly and quietly lifted the door open before climbing out, with Sora following behind. They seemed to be on the lowest level of the tower as denoted by the lack of window as well as stairs on the side leading up. Above them they could hear screams from two different sources. One they did not know but the other they knew quite well.

"That's Kupopo!" Sora whispered. He proceeded slowly with Riku up the stairs, the sound of loud sobs becoming more apparent as they went up.

Reaching a slightly ajar door, they stood on either side of it. Sora held up three fingers, dropping one each second. As soon as the third one was down, Riku pushed it open and they both ran in. To the side, they could see Rapunzel tied down to a chair by her own hair. She looked up at them and began screaming through her hair.

"Rapunzel!" Sora yelled and made a run for her. Despite this, she kept shaking her head, almost as if she didn't want to be saved. Sora soon found out why, as something hit him from the side and launched him into the wall.

"Sora!" Riku yelled. He summoned his Keyblade, looking at the woman who had stood by the side of the door. On the floor was Kupopo, rolling about and clutching at his stomach. "You're Gothel, aren't you? I suppose it was only a matter of time then. You've given into the darkness in your heart. Rapunzel, I'm guessing you found out?" He waited for Rapunzel's nod before continuing. "You should be happy to know then that Flynn didn't betray you. He wanted to be with you and give up his mask as Flynn Rider. The bad thing is that he's outside right now, but he's seriously injured, all because of this woman and her greed."

Rapunzel's eyes widened in horror and she shifted even more aggressively in her seat. Sora stood up and continued on his way over to Rapunzel.

"When will you learn? Stay away from her!" Gothel yelled. Her hands flew out and Sora was once again, launched onto the ground by a bolt of darkness.

"Gothel, let Rapunzel go! She's not your property," Riku said. He turned as Rapunzel's chair fell to the floor in a thud, unravelling the hair around her body. She stood up quickly and backed away to help Sora up.

"Rapunzel, you are making a big mistake here. Even if they don't, there are others who will use your hair for granted. The will of the minute minority is very different from that of the majority and you'll wish you were by your mother's side once you find that out," Gothel yelled.

"I am going back to my mother. She's not you," Rapunzel said.

"You really think people are that disloyal to one another? Do I even want to know how bad your life was?" Sora said. "Rapunzel, your hair… can it grow back if it's cut?"

"No. Gothel said that someone tried to do it when I was a baby and this happened." She tucked some of her hair behind her ear to reveal a patch of brown in her hair.

"I wouldn't be surprised if that was Gothel either. Rapunzel, do you trust me?" Sora asked.

"Yes, but what are you…"

"I look forward to the new you," Sora said with a smile. He summoned his Keyblade, and before anyone could react, took a handful's width of Rapunzel's hair in hand and cut through it quickly.

"NO! What have you done?" Gothel screamed out as piles of hair sank to the ground leaving much shorter hair on the owner, stopping short of her shoulder. Gothel dived for the hair trying to hug it tightly, but the spell had worn off. Golden hair turned dark brown along it's entire length, seeming to travel through the air in order to turn the hair still on her head the same color.

Gothel kept screaming, and when she felt the wrinkles on her face and grabbed at her hair to see only white, she screamed even more. She backed away, and without realizing that the window was behind her, accidently lost her balance and fell out. Rapunzel stretched her hand out as if wanting to run and stop her but it was too late. Sora looked out of the window to see Gothel turn into dust just before she hit the ground.

"Not even her heart was spared. It lived far beyond what a natural life span should," Riku said next to him. Luna strode over to the black dust on the ground and looked up to them curiously. "I think she just took the long way down. Don't worry, Rapunzel's safe. We'll be with you in a moment."

"Did the thought of dying really frighten her that much?" Sora asked.

"People deal with things in different ways. She saw an opportunity and took it. But you can't run from your fate forever. Sooner or later, it will catch up with you no matter how much you try to fight it," Riku answered. Sora didn't answer. He couldn't, he wouldn't believe that. His fate hung on a vision of the future after all. He would be the destroyer of worlds and he would at some point "fall" and his heart be "shattered like glass". Riku probably hadn't realized it, but he had chosen his words poorly. Maybe they would have made sense to Sora if he wasn't experiencing the same thing, but he was determined to ensure those prophecies never came to pass. He would not die and he would never dare bring ruin to the worlds.

Sora turned his attention instead to Rapunzel who was cradling Kupopo in her arms. "He followed me all the way here because he… he wanted to give me hope. He ended up doing his best to protect me from her. You should have seen him, pouncing on moth- Gothel's face and holding on for dear life as she tried to shake him off. He was really brave."

"Kupopo…" Sora walked up to them and looked down. Kupopo looked up at him wearily and reached out.

"Kupo, I did the best I could. I'm sorry I left without saying anything."

"I'm glad you did. You kept Rapunzel safe. Thank you," Sora replied. He looked up at Rapunzel and scratched the back of his head. "Oh, about the hair and all, I-"

"Thank you. I understand why you did it. It's not hair that makes a person, but who they are inside. I really only thought I was special because of my hair until we went on our journey, but you taught me that there's more to me than what others tell me to be or think. It's about what you touch, smell, hear, taste, see. What I feel right now is unique to myself and that's what makes me special," Rapunzel said.

"I'm glad you've found your way," Sora replied.

"Er, I hate to ruin the moment but something's wrong. I don't think Kairi's magic is working," Riku said to them, still near the window. "Let's get going."

As they reached Flynn, Kairi and Luna, Sora and Riku slowed down but Rapunzel sped up. Kairi looked behind her at the sound of breathing and moved away so that Rapunzel could fall to Flynn's side.

Kairi looked away, tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry. I tried, I really did but I couldn't…"

Sora walked over to her side and let her rest her head on his shoulder. "You did the best you could, Kairi. Never forget that," he told her through held back tears. Even though he wanted to be a pillar of support for her, he felt like he wanted to collapse himself.

_When would it end_, he asked himself. It was as Alfonso had said. There was a cycle of death around him constantly and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't break it. He wondered what the result would be in the end for him. Would these continue to the point where in the end there would be no grief, no sadness, no anger, when the next person fell? Would there just be a black hole of indifference eventually? Surely, already acknowledging that someone else would eventually die with him failing to save them was a sign of things to come. He looked to his right to see Luna on her knees next to Rapunzel and curled up into a ball. It was probably all too much for her to take. He knew it was wrong to assume but after staying with the puppy and watching it pass away, surely she must have felt hopeless too. She would cry her heart out until there was no sadness left, only frustration.

"I didn't even get to say goodbye," Rapunzel said, crying over Flynn. Her tears dropped down from her cheeks and landed on his face, creating wet patches all around.

Something happened then that Sora doubted he would ever understand, but he didn't care. Rapunzel pulled back and the others watched in astonishment as Flynn's body glowed a bright gold. When the light faded, Flynn Rider opened his eyes and looked up directly into Rapunzel's.

"Did I ever tell you I've got a thing for brunettes?"

"Eugene!" Rapunzel gasped out before throwing her arms around him. Luna looked up having heard the voice, and then she covered her mouth, letting out a overjoyed scream.

"But how?" Kairi asked, taking her head of Sora's shoulder.

"Maybe there was still a bit of magic left in Rapunzel," Sora replied. He smiled and threw his hands behind his head. Kairi looked up at him and smiled.

"Sora, are you crying?"

Sora's eyes darted away from the inquisitive Kairi and he promptly turned away, wiping the streak of wetness from his face.

He turned back to face her with a smile. "Well, I'm just glad we could save one life. Who doesn't love happy endings?"

"Sora… we've been saving people every world we go to. We can't save everyone all the time, but we did it this time. It's a miracle!" Kairi exclaimed.

_Then why doesn't it feel that way? _Sora wanted to ask but he realized the thought was best kept in his head. He guessed in the end it was only too easy to exacerbate loss over success when he could become so easily attached to those who he had failed to save.

"Well, I guess we should go and tell your parents the good news. Your _real_ parents," Luna said, having brightened up considerably from just a while ago.

"We have to walk all the way back? Oh, my poor feet," Rapunzel said, wrinkling her nose.

"You can do that if you want, but I think I like our way better," Riku said. Rapunzel glanced at him questioningly. This changed from confusion to wonder as she looked up upon hearing the sound of an engine above her.


	69. Calm before the Storm

_So we made it to the big 6-9 and... I got nothing. I'm sure you can think of something fitting by yourselves. Anyway, feel free to catch up on whatever you've missed since I'm probably going to be busy with Through Smoke and Flames for at least a week. Happy reading! _

* * *

**Chapter 69  
Calm before the Storm**

The apartment supposedly belonging to Dr. Drew Lipsky was located a few blocks away from the bio lab research facility where he worked. It was strange though. This Lipsky hadn't been on the resident list that hosted every registered home owner in the town. Squall had instead received this information from the neighbor who lived next to him. That all the people who had arrived on Xanatos' ship along with him had also registered meant that Drew could not have been among them. In other words, the man officially didn't exist. Squall supposed that was what KRONOS were good at doing anyway.

"A rather poorly ventilated building, wouldn't you say?" Cloud said, as he and Squall entered the rather stuffy, hot apartment.

"Just another thing to improve on our list then. Public approval has been satisfactory so far but there's always room for improvement," Squall replied. After going up two flights of stairs and halfway down the hallway, they finally arrived at room 206. The both brandished their weapons and stood on either side of the door.

"I like this part a lot," Cloud said. He pulled away from the walls and kicked hard against the door, throwing it open. Squall and Cloud walked in to observe a completely empty room. There was nothing to give the impression that someone had ever lived there. Had the neighbor been wrong about Drakken having lived here before? No, someone had definitely been here before. The state of the room gave that much away. That there were no dust or cobwebs proved that someone had used the room if only a few days ago.

"We're too late," Squall said. He kicked the wall in frustration before looking back at Cloud. "He may have already left."

"Did someone warn him?"

"I don't see how that's possible. You're sure you never left Xanatos alone for a single moment?" Squall asked.

"Positive. I waited for Tifa to take my place before meeting up with you. He couldn't have communicated with him at any point. Maybe it was Kefka and the other two that Mulan saw," Cloud suggested.

"That would make sense. They're the ones we can't account for at the moment. The question is whether they're still here in Radiant Garden or not," Leon said. Cloud pulled out his PHS and began texting the results to Tifa. After his thumb landed on the send button, he closed the handheld device and pocketed it again.

"I was thinking…" Cloud started with his arms folded. "What if we were to give Xanatos the illusion of freedom instead? Say we're going to ease off on monitoring him but I still keep following him without him noticing. If he is with KRONOS, he may just slip up. If KRONOS need him, they may already be keeping an eye on him and us by extension. We pretend to let him go, and they might just bite the bait."  
"And we'd also have actual evidence of Xanatos' involvement. What's shadier than direct interaction, after all?" Squall nodded his head in agreement with Cloud's idea. There was no doubt in Leon's mind that the awareness of being watched was probably affecting Xanatos' behavior. Ironically, Xanatos must have understood that more than anyone having a degree in psychology. If they wanted to observe Xanatos' behavior in a natural context, then Cloud's method would ensure that. Still, Squall could see a big problem with it. "But we can't watch him all the time. During the night… in rooms… it's impossible to keep track of him without being in the same place as him."

"Don't worry about the night. I don't really get much sleep anyway. But for rooms, we don't have to necessarily be in the same room to listen in to what he's saying though," Cloud answered.

"Bugging? You've got to be kidding me," Squall said.

"Drastic times call for drastic measures," Cloud said. "But it's your choice. If you do decide to do it then I'll support your decision. Same if you decide not to. I keep following Xanatos wherever he goes and someone sneaks in and installs the audio surveillance devices. I'm sure Yuffie will have no problems with that. The difficult one though will be getting to his PHS."

"Can we… not talk about this? You're asking me to desert my ethics, my promise to the people of this town over-"

"A security risk?" Cloud finished for him. Squall sighed and looked out of the window in the room he supposed had once been the bedroom. They had been hoping to catch Drakken off guard so they had left just before dawn. Now, the sun was beginning to rise over the peaceful town. "Look. The people won't judge you for keeping them safe. They'll only judge you if you knew that a threat was imminent and didn't at least try to stop it. The way I see it is that this is a one-time thing. We're not going to start monitoring the entire town. That way, you keep your promise of as little interference as much from the committee in the townsfolk's lives. Look, if things go down south then I can take the blame and you can fire me from the committee."

"That won't work. I need you by my side," Squall admitted. He let out another sigh before submitting. "Do it. You think you can handle his PHS?"

"I might have an idea. Xanatos told me he has a date this Saturday with Colette. They'll be going to see a show and when they come back, they'll have dinner. That's when I make my move," Cloud said.

"Then I need him away if Yuffie's going to get into his apartment. I also want his office in Xanatos enterprises bugged," Squall said. Once again, Cloud could only be right. The only reason KRONOS kept getting away with things was because he allowed them to. Rolling back on his ethics slightly didn't completely mean that he was abandoning what the committee stood for. Such as the town constantly adapted, the committee's policies would also have to adapt to reflect that change. Squall left the room feeling more confident than he had when arriving.

* * *

The door slid open with a hiss and Rhea walked in to the atmospherically different and futuristic room. Monitors were the only thing to light up the dark room and despite being blind, Rhea could still somewhat tell the contrast between light and dark around the room, or at least the photoreceptive cells in her retina were able to pick up the light reflecting of the screens.

"How's she holding up?" Rhea asked. On the right side of the wall was a window which looked into the simulation room on the other side. Rhea couldn't see it, but she knew that in the middle of the room would be an armored Keyblade wielder swinging her Keyblade at thin air.

Kohle turned in his chair and looked at her. "Outstanding. She's a one of the kind. I've never seen someone adapt as quickly to the Knight's Soul as she has. Her performance levels are more than satisfactory and the compatibility with the armor we gave her was already high right off the bat, almost as if she was born to wear it. There's just one area I'm concerned with and I think it has more to do with hard-headedness. You know, I remember when I gave you yours. You were flailing your arms about screaming '_Ah! Kohle, help me!_' You were so scared it was rather cute, I admit."

"Oh, you're horrible!" Regardless of this, Rhea doubled over and guffawed at his poor imitation of her. Her first time in VR training had certainly not been the greatest moment of her Keyblade wielding life—that was for sure. The simulation was good at being able to virtually construct the appropriate training scenario for the participant. From simulating Heartless under a new firmware update from Alfonso to learning to handle a Gummi Ship under extreme situations, the simulation room was effective training for Moira's Crescent. Of course it was nothing compared to real experience.

"Oh, I do hate how you reserve that cute laugh just for me. You need to be less modest in front of the others. Just be yourself. I like this you," Kohle said. He got of his seat and held her arms. Rhea ran her hands through his short straight hair and smiled. As Kohle leaned in to kiss her, Rhea's hand moved from his hair and she placed a finger on his lips.

"Oh, sure. You know I'd prefer the whole package but a finger will do as well," Kohle quipped and lightly kissed her finger. Rhea honestly had no idea how they had managed to keep their relationship a secret for so long or even why. It had been approximately six months since her boss had asked her out and they had chosen to keep it quiet for no reason other than because "it felt exciting to be naughty" once in a while as she had put it to him. Outside of their time alone together, they remained on a professional level with each other in front of the others.

Rhea backed away and dropped her finger. "How was your first time? You've never really told me about when you first became a wielder. In fact, you've never really told me much about yourself to begin with."

"Hey, how about we all go to the beach next week?"

"Kohle!"

"I'm kidding, kidding. I mean… there's not much to tell really… okay, you can see into my heart anyway so you know that's a lie," Kohle said.

"I can see the emotions in your heart, not the context behind them. You don't have to tell me if you don't-"

"No, no, it's fine." Kohle sat back on the chair and checked the monitors quickly before continuing. "I went to this academy with all these other Keyblade wielders where we all studied to become knights. We were sworn to protect the light and serve the people in their time of need."

"So, exactly what we do now."

Kohle nodded. "I suppose you can consider what I learned there as my inspiration for starting Moira's Crescent, yes, but… things happened and the academy was… destroyed. Most of the students… their lives ended there. All of them, save one, me. I've carried their hopes and dreams with me ever since."

"I'm so sorry. That must have been tough for you to bring back up," Rhea said. Kohle said nothing for a while and when he did, it was about something else entirely.

"I'm sorry about the vote. I know it meant a lot to you but there's only so much I can do in a majority rule vote. I do think there's some merit to it though. If there's even a one per cent chance that Sora can destroy everything that we've fought to keep safe, then I can't just let him sit by. Desiree made a point, about men having earth-shaking power in their hands without knowing it. I know, from experience, that she's right, and while I don't dare condone murder, because that's what it is, and that's what I don't want any of you to become, I will not let this world end. If you can get to him first before the others, Sora might be saved assuming he accepts our offer to join us. If he doesn't though, or someone else gets to him first… then there's inevitably going to be blood on either ours or Sora's hands."

"But isn't there a one percent chance that any of us could destroy the world? Could is not enough. I understand why they're doing this, because they're scared but there's more to this situation than just black and white," Rhea reasoned. She realized soon after that she was reasoning with the wrong person, but then again, that was probably because Kohle was a good listener.

"You try telling that to Alfonso, Desiree and Jill. The reason you can't reach them is because they're emotionally charged and when you're emotionally charged you tend to let fear do the talking rather than logic. Imagine waking up to the end of the world and finding all your friends gone, all your family gone, everyone you knew and cared about just gone. It's a real and very imaginable fear alright, and it inhibits our decision making. We all have something to lose if Yeul's vision comes to pass, and that's why we can't let it."

"I see… I knew it would be difficult to convince Alfonso and even Jill but I was hoping Desiree…"

Kohle stood up again and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You know, you shouldn't give up hope. I know you. You're not one to give up. That and, well, when I see you hope, it feels like I can have hope too. In fact, I'd say your belief is probably the most massive contribution anyone has given to the team."

"Oh, you're being silly," Rhea said. She giggled and gave him a playful punch on the shoulder.

"Ow! But I didn't bring that weird dance of yours up this time. And you say I'm the mean one," Kohle teased. "But that's why I'm giving you a special mission. I shouldn't really be doing this seeing as I'm supposed to remain impartial to all members but I'm going to break this little rule of mine just this once. Find Sora before the others do. I'll keep distracting them with other missions to keep them from searching but keep in mind if they really want to then there's nothing stopping them from looking for him. Take Astra as well. I imagine she'll be happy to see her friend again, and Luna might be the key to convincing Sora to come along."

"Thank you. I won't let you down, I promise," Rhea said, bowing politely.

"Let me down? Heh, just don't let yourself down," Kohle said. He turned back to see a green text flashing on one of the monitors: TRAINING COMPLETE.

"Hey, Kohle, how'd I do? Kicking ass and taking names, right?" Astra called from the other room.

"Excellent as always. I think you should take the rest of the day off. You've earned it," Kohle said.

"Awesome! You wanna play two-on-two later on? Lysander and I are partners and Salome kind of needs someone. Don't know how she's planning on playing since she's such a shorty but you can make up for her."

"Oh, I wouldn't underestimate Salome if I were you. She's more than capable of taking the two of you on by herself," Rhea said, alerting Astra to her presence.

"Oh, Rhea, you're in there too? Well, I'm not sure what you mean but I'm sure I can handle a little girl. I played a fair amount of b-ball back in school, I'll have you know," Astra said.

"I've got to see this then. Alright, you're on," Kohle accepted her challenge, hiding a smirk with his hand.

* * *

Astra took a sip from her water bottle and set it down on the bench before heading onto the basketball court. While it wasn't technically apart of their headquarters, it was only a five minute walk to and from. They had decided on their roles just before leaving headquarters. From a winning coin flip between her and Lysander, Astra would be the one to start the game off. Another coin toss decided Kohle would start the game at the mid-court line instead of Salome.

"You ready for this?" Lysander asked as Astra joined up with him on their side of the court.

"Come on, with your competitive streak and my skills, they don't stand a chance. Actually…"

"Uh oh, what's that look on your face and why don't I think this is a good idea?" Lysander mumbled wearily.

"Oh, Lysander, old chum, have a little faith in me. Hey, you two, why don't we make this a little more interesting?" Astra asked, turning to look at Kohle and Salome.

"Okay, let's hear it," Salome said after looking Kohle's way.

"How about… if we win, you two do anything we say for a day. That includes, by the way, making me boss if I want," Astra said with a smug smile.

"Sounds good to me. Of course, you realize that also works in reverse too, right? Good, I'll have you file my taxes then," Kohle said.

"You have taxes?" Astra asked with narrow eyes.

"Is that a surprise? Our base doesn't run all by itself, you know," Kohle replied. Astra wanted to object and propose anything but doing taxes, but realizing she had trapped herself in by saying the loser would do anything that was asked of them, she didn't really have a choice.

"Fine, I guess we have all the more incentive to beat you then. Rhea, let's do this," Astra said, walking towards the midcourt line and taking position. Rhea, who was the referee and standing in between Astra and Kohle, held the ball out in front of her and threw it into the air. Kohle, who was taller than Astra, had no problem reaching for the it before she could, forcing Astra to back off quickly. Kohle dribbled the ball for a moment and waited for Salome to advance before passing to her. Astra, placed her left foot forward and pivoted her heel deliberately, forcing Salome to keep to the sideline, or at least that was what she'd hoped. Instead, Salome whizzed past her with such speed that it threw Astra off balance and sent her butt onto the ground. The small girl jumped high into the air, over Lysander's shoulder and dunked the ball into the hoop.

"Huh? Wait a minute. That's cheating!" Astra called out.

"Oh, I'm sorry, what's that I hear? Is that the sound of you doing Kohle's taxes?" Salome taunted.

"Nice one. I even felt that and I'm on your side," Kohle said, giving her a high five.

"Fine. Lysander, it appears we've gravely underestimated our opponents. Who knew behind their deceitful smiles lay such a sinister stratagem," Astra said.

"Err, I did. I have played Salome before, you know," Lysander answered.

Astra rolled her eyes and turned to him. "Could you at least go along with it? I thought it was really cool. Anyway, like hell am I going to be sitting in a small room playing accountant. They want to play like that. Let's fight fire with fire."

The opposing side scoring meant that Astra and Lysander were now in control of the ball for a while. It was a while that they had to make count. Lysander passed the ball over to her and she dribbled it on the spot for a while. As Kohle came in for the defense, Astra passed the ball under her leg from one arm to the other before passing to Lysander. Salome shot through the air like a bullet using Aeroga and caught the ball before it could reach Lysander. Astra ran backwards and placed her hands on the ground just as Salome tried to pass for Kohle to score. An ice column rose up from the ground and the ball rebounded off it, soaring high above Salome's head and allowing Lysander to catch it.

They were on the offence now and making their way back out of their side of the court. Lysander passed back to Astra who tried to make her way down but was blocked off by Kohle who had warped in front of her. If he had expected her to run into him, he was soon to be proven wrong. Astra executed a sliding dash, bending backwards and skidding right underneath Kohle's arm. She corrected her posture quickly and threw the ball not at Lysander but in the direction of the sideline. The ball hit the invisible reflect screen that she had quickly cast before and flew past her and Salome who had been expecting a direct pass to Lysander. The blonde teen caught it from just behind the three point line and took the shot.

"Oh, yeah! That's our fighting spirit right there!" Lysander yelled out as the ball landed in cleanly.

"Yep, you wanted war, you got it. And that was just a sneak peak, losers!" Astra stuck her tongue out and high fived with her own teammate.

"We still have eight minutes of time left. Anything can happen," Salome said, taking hold of the ball. In those eight minutes, anything and everything really did happen. Astra left the court wiping droplets of sweat from her forehead after what had been an intense game and certainly the strangest that she had ever played.

"It was a good game. It's unfortunate you lost," Kohle said. He took up his own water bottle that had been sitting next to hers and held it to his mouth.

"Would have come on top if Lysander hadn't accidently knocked me off my balance," Astra muttered.

"Easy there, you can't blame your partner. You both work together to realize your full potential. If it was Lysander's mistake, then it was also yours. Don't get me wrong, Astra. You played with skill, but not with heart. Just like with your Keyblade, it takes two to tango. You need to synchronize with your partner better."

"I… suppose you're right. It was foolish of me to blame him. Maybe if I had been a little quicker… I'll work on it," Astra said.

"Don't beat yourself up over it too much. We have a lot of time to work with and I know you can do it. You have a lot of good friends to help you… but not for the rest of the day, I'm afraid. I'm expecting you in my office right after you finish taking a shower. Those taxes won't do themselves now, will they?" Kohle patted her on the shoulder and walked away with a cheeky smile.

* * *

Sora was suddenly awoken when he felt a sudden force pull his legs down. He looked up to see Kairi looking down at him. She flicked her auburn hair to the side and pulled back a bit.

"Don't put your feet on the console panel. Do you know what could have happened if you had accidently pressed a button?"

"Well let's see, the only thing on the right side of the panel is the coffee maker and I honestly didn't want to fall asleep anyway so thank you for waking me up. Want some coffee?" Sora asked as he got out of the seat and went to the fridge.

"Sure, thanks," Kairi said. She looked down at her feet where the basket of fruit was that they had collected from Rapunzel's tower before leaving.

After returning from Corona and meeting Rapunzel's mother and father, both of who were delighted to see their daughter again even to the point of presenting Flynn, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Luna and Kupopo with meddles, it had taken enormous strength to ask of them to let their daughter go once again even if for a little while. It was a decision that required the full details and so they held nothing back in telling them about the other worlds and the looming danger ahead. After an hour of putting forth their argument, the King and Queen finally submitted. They would never forget what the Queen had said then and there as they left the room:

"_We've waited eighteen years for this moment. I suppose we can wait a little longer._"

They had left with hope in their hearts through those words but now as they travelled through the vast reaches of the unknown on their Gummi Ship, their hopes faded and became less clear. No one really wanted to discuss what would happen once they reached Radiant Garden so they chose not to, much like it was an unspoken rule.

Sora returned with a packet of ground coffee and threw some into the percolator before starting it.

"How do you think Flynn's doing?" Sora asked her.

"Probably busy bonding with his future mommy and daddy," Kairi jested with a chuckle. "I can understand why he didn't want to come with us though. He's on his own personal journey. A transformation. From Flynn Rider to Eugene Fitzherbert. It's hard enough re-evaluating who you are. When Rapunzel next meets him, she'll find that either nothing has changed, or quite a bit."

"Well whoever he'll end up being, I'm sure Rapunzel will accept him for who he is. The worst that can happen is that he's the same old thief he was when we left him, but he even managed to change drastically in the short time we spent together so I'm sure he'll be okay," Sora agreed.

"Yeah. Hey, about these Paopu fruit. Do you think it was the fog that brought them into Rapunzel's world? I mean, they could also originate from her world too but it's worth thinking about," Kairi said.

"You can't shake the feeling, right? To be honest, I've been thinking about it too. Maybe we are on the wrong track but it's worth investigating. If the radiation was in Rapunzel's world, then there's a good chance it could have been on the islands at some point." Sora reached for the percolator and poured the brewed coffee into the two polystyrene cups on the holder.

"How about we go back to the islands instead then? I'm sure Rapunzel, Luna and Kupopo would love to see it and we can check in with our parents and friends and find out if they've seen anything suspicious," Kairi suggested after taking a sip from her cup.

"I did promise Luna that I'd take her… alright. Riku's not gonna like this but whatever, we're changing course," Sora said. He swapped seats with Kairi and entered in the coordinates of the Destiny Islands before switching back to auto mode. "Time for a well-deserved break, wouldn't you say?"

Kairi laughed and swiveled around in her chair to meet him. "You remember what I told you before this all began, Sora? I asked you not to change."

"That seems so long ago now. We were sitting out on the dock and watching the sunset. You were such a tomboy back then. Well, you still are I guess," Sora said.

"Hey, don't mistake feistiness for being a tomboy. That's the power of redheads everywhere and don't you forget it, mister," Kairi said.

Sora burst out laughing. "Well you're probably one of the only redheads I actually know other than Ariel and Meg but going off her alone, I'd say there's some congruity there."

"But you know, now that I'm here, I realize it was childish of me to ask you not to change. We've changed so much over the course of our journey, and all for the better. I've feared losing you and couldn't bare the possibility that you and Riku were walking ahead of me as equals and I was trailing behind. I felt like a lost voice, but I no longer feel that way. For the first time, I'm proud that I can say I'm your equal. I've always been that way. Our friendship would never have survived without the three of us all putting in equal effort into making it into what it is today. We proved that even the harshest of changes can never destroy the SoRiKai combination."

"SoRiKai? You've been thinking a lot about that one, haven't you?" Sora asked.

"I thought it sounded pretty cool," Kairi said. The two exchanged laughter and took a sip of their coffee. Despite all this change Kairi had referred to, in this very moment and time he felt like he was fourteen again, sitting on the docks with her next to him. Realizing he was visualizing a younger Kairi next to him, Sora snorted into his drink.

"Is something wrong?" Kairi asked through giggles. Before Sora could respond, the Highwind was jerked to the right by a sudden force that threw them him into Kairi. He apologized and pulled away from her to see spilled coffee pooling around their feet.

"Well at least none got on you. What in Jiminy Cricket's name was that?" Sora asked. He found his answer by checking the windshield. Tiny rock particles like sand coveted the screen and obscured their view completely. Furthermore, what Sora assumed were incredibly frequent lightning flashes happening at least every second or two lit the sky up brightly.

"A dust storm? But there was no warning!" Kairi said. Sora got back in his seat and shifted the gear back into manual as Riku, Luna, Rapunzel and Kupopo arrived in the room. Sora drowned out the sounds of Kairi explaining their predicament and concentrated instead on trying to get them out of it.

The Gummi Ship lashed back and forth against a seemingly angry storm that wanted to destroy them. Sora pulled back as hard as he could on the control yoke and pulled to the side, performing a Dutch roll continuously. After a few seconds, they all heard an explosion and Sora had to quickly steady the Highwind. When they all looked at him inquisitively, Sora returned the glance and looked back in front of him.

"I think we lost something," he said glumly. He tried to yaw to the right but the controls fought against him. He slammed his fist on the yoke in annoyance. Sitting back in the seat, he folded his arms. "Yeah, I don't know how to put this…"

"We're screwed?" Riku said for him.

"To put it bluntly… huh?" Sora was interrupted as a bright light suddenly filled the room. Something was glowing and it was coming directly from Kairi's lap. Kairi held up what had once been the puzzle box to show them all. A beam shot out of the cube of light, heading straight out of the windshield and expanding in front of the ship to reveal a keyhole. The last thing Sora remembered before passing out was a flash of images entering his mind.


	70. Out of Time

_So I got the flu last week, but having to go on trains a lot will do that. So since I didn't feel like writing Through Smoke and Flames while I was sick, you're going to get world building instead. Now this world takes place in between the first movie and its sequel. I don't usually acknowledge the sequel's existence anyway outside of a few things so I have some flexibility in that regard. This is basically the KH1 Neverland of this story so hope you all enjoy._

* * *

**Chapter 70**

**Out of Time**

Luna woke up, her eyes battered wildly as if they were blinking lights for a moment before finally staying fixated on the ceiling. The first thing she did was place her thumb on her face to wipe away the streak of water that had originated from her eyes. She had been dreaming but the dream felt so real, almost as if she had really been there. The only things she could really remember from it was brief images of keys clashing against one another in some wasteland, and pieces of armor she was wearing falling away to reveal her face, or someone who looked much like her. There were similarities but the lookalike differed in the color of her eyes. They were a chocolate brown in contrast to Luna's blue. Even if it hadn't been her, the person she had been in her dream still felt incredibly familiar.

She sat upright and examined her surroundings. She was in a square room with a bed and a glassless window. She stood on the bed and looked out to see strange looking monoliths or pillars on the water. They were man-made as far as she could tell, crafted in a specific way probably to reflect traditions or something like that.

Jumping off the bed, she walked over to the door and put her hand on the handle. The door gave way easily as she twisted it and she let out a sigh, glad that her worries about the door being locked hadn't come to pass.

Awaiting her on the other side of the door were the backs of Sora, Riku, Kairi, Rapunzel and Kupopo. At the sound of the door closing they all turned to greet her.

"Took you long enough, sleepy head. We were waiting for you before checking this place out," Sora said.

"But… where is here?" Luna asked. She placed a hand on her head and tried to recall what had happened. Their Gummi Ship had been whipped back and forth in the confusion of the dust storm. The last thing she remembered was a bright light somewhere near her and then nothing.

"Atlantis? Could this be Atlantis?" Kairi asked suddenly.

"Now what in the world would possess you to say something like that?" Riku asked back, looking unimpressed.

"Just this feeling I had. That, and well… you didn't see it but this thing was glowing in my pocket during the storm." Kairi took out the puzzle box from her pocket and showed it to them.

Luna let out a gasp. "It's open!"

The top of the box had sprung open, splitting into four triangles that flipped outwards according to which edge they belonged to. Luna peered inside the box to see a folded up piece of paper inside. "Have you looked at it yet?"

"Nope. Don't you just love suspense?" Kairi asked.

"But how did it even open? Did the dust storm having something to do with it?" Sora asked.

"Maybe. We could have also been close to Atlantis which is why it unlocked. Maybe it was the key to bringing us here," Kairi replied.

"We could have been close… or very far. Who knows how far away we are from where we were? We could be on the other side of the realm of light for all we know," Riku said.

"But your ship's alright, isn't it?" Rapunzel asked.

"Well, we haven't been able to find it yet. Hopefully it's nearby. Anyway, let's see what that piece of paper says," Riku said. The group gathered around Kairi as she took out the piece of paper and unfolded it to read its contents.

"You have been brought here to this holy ark to seek out the truth hidden beneath the surface of truth, that which has been lost to time immemorial. Here outside the hourglass, where all of time can be viewed if you so choose, you need only see not with your eyes, but with your heart and you will find the way. When you find this truth, what you do with it, I leave in your capable hands." After she finished reading it, Kairi scrolled through it again quickly with her eyes before looking up.

"Well if the truth is going to be as confusing as this piece of paper, I don't think I want to find it," Sora said. "I mean, really? The truth hidden beneath the surface of truth? Riddles are not really my thing."

"I can't disagree. My mom was really good with riddles but I'm not her. There are a few things I'm familiar with though. I think during one of my first sessions with Neuge, she mentioned how we Keyblade wielders exist outside an hourglass so… maybe I'm wrong but do you think this place is special somehow? Maybe we're not even in the realm of light right now," Luna suggested.

"I don't want to rule anything out as impossible but how was a box even able to do something like that?" Riku asked.

"I'm sure it's some kind of magic that only works when the time is right. Hmm, let's see… 'holy ark'… does that mean anything to anyone?" Kairi asked.

"Well, holy is another word for blessed so something that is held in high esteem or is sacred," Luna said.

"In other words, it's a very important place. I guess part of the mystery is finding out why it's so important," Riku said.

Luna nodded and continued, "And an ark is like a chest and in chests you tend to find all sorts of precious items. So put together, this place is a valued treasure."

"And you say you're not good at riddles. That was amazing!" Rapunzel praised with a beaming smile.

"Well, I can exchange words for others if I know them, and that's about the gist of it. I have no idea about the more cryptic stuff like what Sora mentioned. The truth hidden beneath the surface of truth? Sounds like a bunch of gibberish to me."

"So, this place is a chest and we're been brought here to look for the treasure, whatever this truth is, and it's something that has been lost for a really long time. Is that right?" Sora summarized.

"Yeah, but we can't see it with our eyes. In other words, it shouldn't be plainly visible," Luna said. Seeing the looks of scepticism on Sora and Riku's faces, she tried to ease their fears. "Come on guys. It's just like a treasure hunt. We can do this AND find out about this place a bit more. It'll be great fun!"

"Well this place looks different from anything we've seen before so I'm all for a little adventure," Sora said. He surveyed the twinkle in Rapunzel's eyes with a smile. "So how's your first experience with a new world going? Everything you'd hoped it would be?"

"All that and more! I can't believe this. I'm really in another world!" Rapunzel squealed, bouncing up and down.

"That's enough energy for all of us." Riku chuckled before addressing all of them. "Alright, I think we should split up and gather as much information as possible. Let's meet back here in an hour."

"Alright, how about we partner up then? I'll go with Luna and Rapunzel. Is that fine?" Kairi asked.

"Why those two specifically?" Sora asked with a raised brow.

"Why not those two specifically? Now shoo! Go on your boy band adventures and leave us girls to ourselves," Kairi said.

"Wait, I don't get it. What does it matter who-"

"Sora, don't question it. This is one fight you won't win," Riku said, dragging Sora along with him. After seeing Kupopo off as well, Luna, Kairi and Rapunzel made for the opposite direction to see what wonders awaited them.

Atlantis, as Luna knew it from her mother's stories, somehow proved just as accurate as she had told them. The city was a mixture of old air and new. Ancient architecture and technology. They stopped for a moment to watch as a child raised a giant sphere of water out of a bowl. As the child moved his hands like he, the shape of the water changed as if he were moulding clay. The now transformed water bird flew over their heads causing them to gasp in wonder. It flew circles around them a few more times before flying straight into the bowl where it attained its natural form once again.

"That was amazing! How did you do that, if you don't mind me asking?" Rapunzel asked the boy while kneeling next to him.

"You can't? Everyone I know can. You're supposed to start learning hidden arts from the moment you start school. You must have a bad teacher," said the boy. He smiled at her and at the behest of his mother, who had been standing by the doorway of their house, ran to her side.

"Everyone can perform magic here? That's pretty neat," Luna said. She looked to the woman and called for her attention. "Excuse me? You're this child's mother? I was wondering if you could tell us about this place. We're kind of new here."

"Yes, I can certainly tell that much. How did you get here if you don't mind me asking?" the woman asked.

"We don't really know. That's also something we're looking into," Kairi said. "This place… are we really in Atlantis?"

"We are. You wouldn't happen to be with Milo Thatch, would you?" the woman asked.

"Milo Thatch…? Never heard of them," Luna answered after checking with Kairi.

"He appeared a few years ago from another world. He alone amongst his crew decided to stay to aid our Queen, Kida, in rediscovering our ancient roots."

"Ancient roots?" Luna repeated.

The mother nodded and placed her hands on the boy's shoulders. "The art you just witness my son perform… it's one of many that we've been able to rediscover thanks to Milo. Before Atlantis was restored to its former glory, we had lost most of our culture and history to the fragile thing known as human memory. Just when we thought all hope was lost, Queen Kida with the help of Milo and our late King were able to resurrect and raise the heart of Atlantis."

"The heart of Atlantis? I'm sorry for asking so many questions but this is all completely new to us," Luna explained.

"Oh, don't worry. It's not every day you see new faces around here so I'm just as excited as you are. Anyway, the heart of Atlantis is the means by which we're able to perform arts. We've learned to draw energy from it and channel it into something else. More specifically, that energy is transferred into the crystals around our necks." The mother held up the pendant around her neck so they could see the tiny glowing crystal that was attached. Her son proudly followed in showing off his own matching pendant.

"Wow! So it's not magic like we know it then. Rather than coming from within you, you draw yours from an external source," Kairi said, holding the crystal gently in between her index finger and thumb. After twirling it about for a few seconds, she let it drop and asked, "Where is this heart of Atlantis?"

"It hovers high in the middle of the city. I'd suggest going to the palace if you want to check it out. That's also where Queen Kida and Milo are so I'd advise visiting them to find out more."

Luna nodded and clasped her hands together. "Alright, we should get going then. I'm sure you must be very busy. Thank you."

"Don't worry, I'm glad I could be of help. Just feel free to come back if you need anything else. My name is Nizhoni and this is my son, Wayra," the woman said.

"It was nice to meet the two of you. My name's Luna and this is Rapunzel and Kairi," Luna replied. Nizhoni's smile faded and her face turned a sickly white. Her eyes rested on Kairi for a moment before looking away. Luna exchanged looks with Kairi before asking, "Is something wrong?"

"Um, no, nothing, I-" Nizhoni's glanced sideways before looking back at them. "I'm sorry, I have something I need to do. It might even take me the whole day. Have a fun time at the palace." With that, she closed the door quickly, leaving them glued to their spots in confusion.

"What just… happened?" Rapunzel asked.

"I don't know but… she looked at me after hearing my name as if she was afraid of me. Maybe she really was, but why?" Kairi asked.

"Oh, you have something on your face," Luna said, pointing at Kairi's mouth. Kairi quickly moved to wipe whatever it was away but upon realizing that Luna was just joking, she folded her arms and turned her gaze elsewhere. "Oh, come on, Kairi, I was just playing around. You know, it just occurred to me—we're standing in history! I mean, this is Atlantis, one of the most advanced cities possibly from the Old World. That would have been around the time the Keyblade War started, right? Maybe that's the truth we're looking for—the thing that's been forgotten. Maybe we'll find out what happened all those years ago."

"Well I certainly can't think of a truth as big as this," Kairi said. It seemed she had already dismissed Luna's lame attempt at a joke, or maybe she was just really good at acting, Luna couldn't tell. "And what we do with it will be up to us. I feel kind of powerful having such a responsibility."

"Excuse me for being the third wheel and all but what exactly is this Old World? Oh, and the Keyblade War? Since it's a war I can imagine it must have been horrible," Rapunzel said.

"Well the Old World is… okay, before the worlds were all divided like they are today, they were all together. At least that's how Sora told it to me. I don't really know anything else except that the Keyblade War was the thing that split one world into many," Luna explained to her.

Kairi nodded and took over for her. "No one really knows about what happened during that war so I couldn't tell you much about it. Like Atlantis, it was so long ago that no one is even sure it really happened. But we're standing here in Atlantis now so… anyway, let's keep moving."

Moss-covered walls and buildings were their reward every corner they continued to turn and the street itself was at times uneven and cracked as if an earthquake had struck at one point. Assuming this were outside of the unit of measurement known as time, the world had clearly been battered by it like a raging storm over the ages. Whether the gods mentioned in the story had really been responsible for this or not was debatable but it clear that the Atlanteans were trying to salvage whatever was left to rebuild their broken world.

Rapunzel was the first to point out the palace as Luna and Kairi were talking. The land mass that inhabited the palace was separated by bridge and water. Looking around, Luna could guess that the structure of Atlantis was spider-like, with the palace in the middle and the rest of the city surrounding it as individual islets.

"That thing up there must be the heart of Atlantis, right? I wonder what those things are surrounding it…" Luna said, tilting her head back to get a better look.

"Not sure. They look like stone? I count… ten. Well, I don't think we should go farther without Sora and Riku. Let's head back and tell them what we've learned," Kairi said.

Though budding anticipation had its grip on Luna's heart like a vice, she resisted its urges and nodded. She found the experience much like waiting for Christmas. Just because it was close, being impatient would only make the experience less sweet. She had learned that present when she had sneaked downstairs to open one of her presents on Christmas Eve when she was six. She had tried wrapping back the present after opening but when the actual day arrived and she reopened the present in front of her parents, her mother could tell instantly that Luna was faking her reaction. Probably had she waited just another day, she would have felt the warmth of her parents' proud smiles instead of them chiding her.

"A bit obtuse to compare Atlantis to your Christmas presents of all things, no?" Abraxas' voice said into her ear. He pulled back and Luna anxiously turned her head to see him place a hand on her shoulder forcing her to swat away at what she was sure was nothing to Kairi and Rapunzel. Abraxas sighed and shook his head. "You may shun me but I am a part of you, Luna, remember that. You're pretty much just shunning yourself."

"SHUT UP!" Luna yelled at him. She found herself looking at Rapunzel. "Oh dear. Rapunzel, I'm so sorry, that wasn't meant for you. I was just… I'm just a bit tired, I guess."

Rapunzel and Kairi looked at each other worriedly. They must have thought her insane, she imagined. Then again, she had to be if she were seeing a dead man pop up every now and then.

* * *

"Hey, you guys find anything out?" Sora asked as Kairi, Luna and Rapunzel joined back up with him, Riku and Kupopo. Kairi wasted no time in telling them about Nizhoni and Wayra. What they learned led to them paying more attention to the residents of the city as they made their way to the palace. It seemed that everyone in the city had a similar looking pendant that allowed them to perform magic.

"Yeah, we saw it too," Sora replied after Kairi finished talking about the Heart of Atlantis. "Those stone effigies that surround the crystal? Those are apparently based on the past kings of Atlantis. They kind of act as guardians for the crystal and the city in general. Funnily enough, Kupopo was the first one to bring up an interesting point."

"What do you mean 'funnily enough', kupo?" Kupopo eyed him with narrow eyes.

"Kupopo, do you want me to touch that pom-pom on your head?" Sora asked with a sly grin.

"Not if you want to suffer greatly, kupo, then I would advise against it," Kupopo said. He flew out of Sora's reach and by Rapunzel's side. "Well I was wondering, could the Heart of Atlantis be the same as the heart of this world, and if so, would that mean that this world doesn't have a keyhole?"

"Huh? Good thinking, we never thought of it like that. But how can the heart of the world not be locked behind a keyhole? So it's just floating there, accessible to absolutely anyone?" Luna asked.

"We know too little about this world to say anything concrete but I wouldn't be surprised if the rules of other worlds don't apply to this one. For one, this world might exist outside of time, then there's also the fact that people can use this heart to perform magic, something that only a few people should be able to do."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go to the palace," Kairi said eagerly, only to be stopped by Riku's hand.

"Hang on there. We haven't finished reporting yet. We found the Gummi Ship. It was in a rather… precarious position until we got it down," he told them.

"Oh, that's great! Actually, I need to get that alchemy book from my room-"

"Already have it. I thought we would need it," Riku held up his other hand concealed behind his back to show them the book they had gotten from the laboratory under the cathedral.

"You really do think of everything, don't you?" Kairi said while taking the book into her hands.

"I try," Riku said, placing his hands in his pockets and shrugging. The group started on their way back down the path the girls had taken earlier and soon reached the bridge that separated the islands once again. They crossed over to the other side and were stopped at the palace by the Atlantean guards.

Luna observed that they were each holding a spear though this was not so much important as the material the head of the spear was made out of. Kupopo must have realized it too because she had learned all about synthesis materials from him. The spearhead itself was made of obsidian judging from its shiny black color. That kind of material was extremely rare to find and originated mainly in regions with volcanic activity. Luna looked down at the ground underneath her and gulped.

She looked back up just in time to see the doors open in front of her. Kairi thanked them and the group headed in. Though she had been thinking a lot about the possibility of being near a potential lava pool, she had picked up that they were supposed to be heading to the throne room.

After making their way through a weathered room with debris and fallen pillars, they stopped short at large double doors. Sora looked at everyone for the go ahead. When they nodded, he wrapped each hand around one handle and pulled. The door gave way more easily than they had expected, given the size of the doors. Finding out he didn't have to exert as much of an effort as he had expected, Sora let out a light chuckle to himself before continuing to pull. The doors gave way almost immediately allowing for them the view of an entire room.

The throne room in comparison to the others in the palace had a pleasant warmth that was both relaxing and homely. They made their way down the aisle to the far end of the room where two figures were waiting. The first, much like the rest of her people, was copper-skinned with poreless and youthful skin. Also like other Atlanteans, she carried blue-colored tattoos on the right side of her face. The man next to her however was not unlike any of the other Atlanteans they had encountered. He must have been the other person Nizhoni had mentioned, the one who had come from another world.

"Milo Thatch?" Luna called out as they reached the two. Despite being in a supposed throne room, the room seemed more a strategy room if anything. The two were standing around a table looking down at something when Luna and the group had arrived.

"Yeah, that's me… you guys are definitely not from around here. How did you get here?" Milo asked.

"How did you get here?" Riku asked back.

Milo chuckled and nodded. "Fair point. Um, how did you know about me, if you don't mind me asking?"

"One of the Atlanteans we met told us about you. You're from another world, right? I- uh…" Luna lost her train of thought as her eyes fell downward at Kida's legs. Milling around on the floor was a strange purple reptilian with an elongated snout and long tongue that she had never seen before.

"Oh, don't worry about him, he's just my lovely snuggly Obby. He's an obidalbedsugs," Kida replied.

"An ugly-whatnow? Ow!" Sora rubbed his arms after being hit on the arm by Kairi. "I- I mean, he's very… unique."

"Unique is right. He's so cute! Obby is a great name!" Rapunzel said, running up to the reptile before anyone could stop her. As she reached out for it, Obby recoiled and tried to bite her hand, sending Rapunzel screaming and running back to their side.

"Oh, right, I forgot to tell you. He's usually like that with strangers unless I tame him. One moment." Kida knelt down and placed a hand on Obby's snout. Luna tilted her head to the right to see her take the crystal around her neck in her other hand and muttered a few words. There was a faint blue glow and when it disappeared, Obby was running towards them.

"Ah!" Rapunzel yelled and put up her hands to defend herself, but Obby tackled her and began licking her on the face. Her cries soon turned into giggles as she rolled about on the floor with a grin on her face.

"Well that was a quick turnaround. She already loves it considering it was just about to bite her hand off a few seconds ago," Riku said.

"It? It is not an it. Obby is a he. I am quite against the objectification of my friend. Did I use that word correctly?" Kida asked, looking to Milo.

"Err, that's not really what he meant by 'it'," Milo replied with an awkward laugh.

"Either way, it looks like you have a bit of competition on your hands, eh, Kupopo?" Sora asked with a grin.

"Touch the pom-pom, kupo. I dare you!" Kupopo shot back. Kida looked at him and her eyes began sparkling. Before Kupopo could fly away, Kida had taken hold of him and started squeezing the moogle's cheeks.

"What a strange toy. The texture seems rather rubbery and his wings… they are quite aerodynamic, I believe the word is. Never have I seen such an advanced piece of technology before."

"Well, as much as I would love to let this continue, there is a reason most Moogles we come across are holographic nowadays. Never mind the kids, apparently playing with them also makes adults feel like they're children. It's just a thing that happens but we kinda need him intact," Sora told her.

"Oops, sorry." Realizing she had been holding onto Kupopo a bit too tightly, Kida released him from her grasp and called for Obby to return to her side. Rapunzel let out a sound of disappointment and the other reptilian in the room seemed to let out very much the opposite reaction, probably because more so than trying to appease Rapunzel, Obby had been eyeing Pascal with hungry eyes for quite some time. "Anyway, I suppose introductions are in order. You know doubt already know about my husband, Milo. I am Queen Kidagakash Nedakh, but call me Kida for short."

"It's nice to meet you. So I suppose then if you're married then that makes you the King of Atlantis?" Luna asked.

"Heh, just Milo will do, really," Milo said, scratching the back of his head.

"I'm Luna, and this is Kairi, Rapunzel, Sora, Riku and the 'toy' is Kupopo," Luna introduced the group in a clockwise manner. "So the rumors were really true. We're standing in Atlantis!"

"It's amazing, isn't it? Sorry, but you're Kairi?" Milo asked, turning his head towards the redhead.

"Yeah. Speaking of which, the person who told us about you… this might just be me overthinking things but it almost seemed like she giving me a strange look," Kairi said.

"I imagine so. That name would garner a lot of attention around here, what with a Kairi once having lived here a long time ago," Milo said.

"Huh?" The group gasped out in surprise. Kairi, feeling more than a little uneasy, backed away slightly.

"What do you mean?" She asked apprehensively.

"Well, maybe we should start with the whole story. After I settled here and helped Kida take over from her dad, we set out on a mission to rediscover Atlantis. All the history, all the culture, most of what the Atlanteans identified to be their own was destroyed in a single night by Kida's father after a great flood that destroyed Atlantis. Now to lose cultural identity is a horrible thing. I mean we're talking about language, spirituality, aesthetics and an entire history in general. Books and other cultural symbols were completely destroyed leaving only the clothes on the Atlanteans' backs to give them any sense of cultural identity."

"But wouldn't the people living then have remembered and passed the information down to future generations?" Riku asked.

"Memories are not an eternal thing. I've lived for thousands of years. The memories you don't need are soon lost to make way for new ones. When it came to preservation of our people, my father deemed our culture as being detrimental to our survival."

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense… wait, what? Did you just say you've lived for over a thousand years?" Riku checked with the others to make sure he had heard what he had actually heard. When everyone nodded, Riku placed a hand on his forehead. "I should have just pretended I hadn't heard that."  
"I was waiting to see your reaction to that," Milo said chuckling. "That's thanks to the Heart of Atlantis that I'm sure you guys saw as you came here. All the Atlanteans here have incredibly long life spans. Despite looking like she's twenty, Kida's around 8,500 years old."

"Wow. That is… wow," Luna said. If Kida and other Atlanteans had lived for that long, then they were definitely going to lose a lot of memories along the way. Milo followed on from Kida's explanation, telling them of how the previous king had hid the Heart of Atlantis underneath his chambers. This in turn had an effect on the people of Atlantis, who began to lose their memories of the crystal and its powers. It was only until they had rediscovered as of a few years ago that the Atlanteans slowly but surely started to regain the knowledge that had been taken from them, including performing arts.

"So Atlantis wasn't destroyed by gods or anything like that, right?" Luna asked.

"Well not as far as we know. It was destroyed by a King's lust for power. King Nedakh tried to conquer and assimilate other pieces of land into Atlantis' culture using the Heart of Atlantis as a weapon. One day though, the weapon accidentally backfired and caused the flood. We don't know why it happened though it might have been out of sheer arrogance," Milo explained.

"Okay, so what was this about a Kairi living here though?" Sora asked.

"Ah, well, we've happened to find several other possible tombs hidden throughout Atlantis where King Nedakh had hidden records of Atlantis' past. In one of them, we found a record of a list of people who had been declared either deceased or missing at the time. The list seems to go down from earliest to most recent as well. A person named Kairi was one of the first names on that list. We later found other documents in another tomb with correspondence between King Nedakh and the general of the Atlantean army at the time. In the letter, King Nedakh expressed his sentiments to the general for losing his daughter, Kairi, who had been kidnapped by outsiders at some point before the letter was written. That's reflected in the words: 'They shall see justice and we will bring your daughter back safe and sound.' The letter then ended with words to the effect of, 'To boldly trespass on our land shows nothing but enmity among their kind. If they wish to fuel flames, then we shall extinguish them before they extinguish us.'"

"That's a bit chilling," Sora said. "But there are probably plenty of Kairis out there, right? I mean, you've only ever lived in Radiant Garden and the Destiny Islands. Right?"

"Of course I have. I only remember the past I actually have. Plus, I'm not thousands of years old either. Or at least, I don't think I am," Kairi said, but the downward gaze to the floor told Luna that she was not quite convinced by her own explanation.

"Well, it most definitely is a coincidence. Atlanteans have different skin tones after all. That said, whoever this Kairi was, was at least partly responsible, if not the trigger, that forced King Nedakh's hand and was what convinced him to use the Heart of Atlantis as a weapon. That's as much as I've gotten from reading the correspondence. At first, he attempted to use the Heart of Atlantis as a security measure—to protect his land from the enemies outside. Security turned to aggression and tempted by the power of the crystal, he sent warriors out to far away lands and dominated the battlefield with powerful Atlantean arts that no one had seen before."

"Seduced by power… It's funny how good intentions can so easily become twisted and warped. Once you've tasted the fruit of power, it's hard to stop eating it," Riku said.

"That's an apt comparison," replied Milo.

"But just what is this Heart of Atlantis anyway? How did it come about?" Sora asked. "I mean, you know about other worlds, right?"

"That's right. My grandfather was the first one to look into the truth behind Atlantis. He also found out about these things called Gummi blocks that would allow him to travel to other worlds. He spent his whole life collecting them, and when he finally had all the pieces, he couldn't use them. He'd passed away. On his death bed, I promised him I'd continue on his legacy and here we are," Milo explained to them. "As for the Heart of Atlantis. I honestly have no clue. If there's anything about its origins, we haven't found it yet."

"Actually, we were just preparing an expetition to another one of the tombs that we found. It would be wonderful if you could join us," Kida offered.

"Err, you mean expedition? And we'd love to join you," Luna answered gleefully.

"Wonderful. Then we'll leave from here shortly," Kida replied.

"One thing," Kairi said. Her shoulders were tensed and her fists curled into two tiny balls. "What happened to her? To Kairi? Is there anything else in the letters?"

Milo scratched his cheek and sighed. "When they found her, it was too late. She was… sacrificed."


	71. Seven Deadly Branches

_Pure on action chapter powers activate! Also I've been watching Steven Universe since the weekend and... why did I not watch this sooner? _

* * *

**Chapter 71**

**Seven Deadly Branches**

Sora had been keeping a concerned eye on Kairi for some time now. She had been troublingly quiet ever since she had found out about the fate of the other person named Kairi. Surely she must have known that it couldn't have anything to do with her. Admittedly, it was a bit of a coincidence but as Sora had mentioned back at the palace, the amount of people who shared the same name was not so uncommon. He gently nudged Kairi as they were walking and raised an eyebrow.

"You okay?" Sora whispered.

"It's nothing," Kairi replied dejectedly. She must have been pretty sure Sora wasn't going to believe because she hadn't even tried to sound upbeat.

"You know, the only Kairi I know and see every day is you. You're one of a kind and-"

"You don't get it, Sora!" Kairi lambasted. Her words were as sharp as a razor's edge. "Sorry. It's not like I get it either. It's just a feeling I have deep down. A feeling buried underneath the surface..."

Sora gave her a small smile and squeezed her shoulder. "Well, if you want to talk to us about it, we're here. For now, let's just focus on exploring this tomb. If you're still feeling this way after we're through then we can discuss it afterwards as long as you want."

"I know. Thank you, Sora," Kairi said, returning his smile. Sora saw Luna look his and Kairi's way out of the corner of his eye and he looked at her, giving her a reassuring smile that everything was fine.

"We're here. Let's see… the tomb should be somewhere around here," Milo said, dropping the map he had been reading from his face. Sora scanned the area along the rest of them but there was nary of hint of anything that could resemble a tomb.

"To be expected, I guess. It wouldn't be a hidden tomb if it was visible," Riku said. He knelt down and placed his hand on the ground. "_Scan_!"

A small circle of faint light that had formed around Riku's hands, eventually expanded outwards to the remaining area. This light soon disappeared, leaving one small rectangular area on the ground in front of them to glow brightly.

"Incredible! Do you have a crystal too?" Kida walked up to Riku and began examining him up and down in a surprise move that caused Riku to back away.

"No, our type of magic is a bit different from yours," Sora said, chuckling awkwardly. He watched as Riku slid around Kida and pressed his hand into the ground to cast _Quake_. The ground covered by the glow broke in, revealing a staircase descending into pitch blackness.

"Another one? I'm starting to get a sense of Déjà vu here," Kairi said. She lifted the Alchemist's book up to show them. "We found this in a similar underground passageway in the catacombs of another world."

"I'll have to look at that later. I don't know if the book originated from Atlantis but it definitely uses Atlantean symbols to represent certain ingredients. We can talk more as we head down," Milo said. Taking his advice and eager to hear what he had to say, they started on their way down, lighting up their Keyblades to help them see. Milo soon continued, "I've heard of stuff like elixirs of life and other objects that could increase longevity of life or make you outright immortal. I'm willing to guess that people knew about the Atlanteans and their abnormally long lifespans. In an effort to recreate that, they buried themselves in research hoping to crack the code of immortality. The results as you can see are in that book and probably many others like it."

"Interesting. Riku, do you think Frollo-"

"I don't doubt it. Even if it were impossible to extend your life, the thrill of pursuing knowledge like that must drive a man like him to do the things he did. Why do people seek power? To prove something to themselves and others—that they really are who they claim to be. That's how my replica felt anyway," Riku answered Kairi's question while his eyes followed the steps down.

"I can kind of understand that," Kairi agreed, biting her lip. When the large party of eight—or even ten if one were to include Jiminy and Pascal—finally arrived at the bottom, they gazed in wonder at what beheld them. Building structures, some much like scones and others quite as imposing as the palace in the center of the island, greeted them in every direction. Probably most the most impressive thing to Sora was the streams of lava that ran down the walls, illuminating the city in an orange glow.

"Whoa! An underground city? This is awesome!" He declared with an exuberant joyfulness. "Oh, I really wish Donald and Goofy were here to see this too."

"This is probably a portion of the city was lost in the great flood. I can't believe this place has survived this long relatively unscathed," Kida said, mainly to herself. To the others, she turned and said, "I wonder if there is any way we could bring this part of the city back to the surface."

"I don't suppose that Heart of Atlantis has a land raising art, does it?" Luna asked half in jest. Kida opened her mouth to respond but the room shook violently before a single word could come out.

"What's going on?" Sora questioned, watching as dirt fluttered to the ground like little snowflakes.

"Whatever it is, it's happening back upstairs. Rapunzel, can you stay down here with Kida and Milo-"

"I'm coming too," Kida cut Riku off. She held up her spear to show them. "Whatever dangers threaten my people, I must be there for them in their time of need."

"Alright, will you guys be okay down here by yourselves?" Sora asked, indicating Rapunzel, Kupopo and Milo.

"I might not have long hair anymore but I'm still vicious. If someone comes at us, I'll come right at them," Rapunzel said smiling confidently.

Sora laughed. "There was never any doubt. Alright, see you guys in a while. Oh, Kairi, you should give the book to Milo just in case."

"Good idea. Maybe you can also start working on it while we're gone," Kairi said, handing the book over.

Ascending back up the long flight of stairs after having just come down them proved more than exhausting for Sora and the others but they pushed their minor complaints outside and kept moving. Finally emerging on surface level, Sora surveyed the surrounding area for the cause of the disruption. His eyes finally darted upwards, beholding a gold armor clad figure with metallic bat wings of a crimson polish to them. As the armored figure flew over their heads, Sora looked up to see two mini jet engines attached to their back.

"Who are you?" Sora asked. His eyes left the figure and found themselves on Luna as she ran forward.

"Wait, Sora! I think I know who he is. He's the one the Sheriff of Nottingham and Prince John were talking about—the man in the armor who helped them steal from the townspeople. You're a member of KRONOS, aren't you?" Luna yelled.

"Excellent deduction." The armor's voice was mechanical and soulless. He had probably used a voice modifier of some kind to mask his real voice. "So this is Atlantis. The sacred continent with its vast forbidden knowledge and you've been keeping it all to yourselves. How heartless can you be?"

"Says the guy who's working to destroy all the worlds. You've got a lot of nerve saying that!" Sora yelled back at him.

"Destroying the worlds? Now why would I want to do that? If anything, it's you Keyblade wielders that are destroying the worlds. The realm of light is in a state of atrophy, eating itself inside out until there is nothing but darkness left. You've seen it too, haven't you?"

"You mean the background radiation?" Kairi asked.

"My, you catch on quick," praised the armored figure sarcastically. "This world is already rotten. It cannot be saved. Or maybe it can… but that all depends on the Atlanteans really."

"The Heart of Atlantis. Wait, how did you even find this place anyway?" Kida asked.

"That doesn't concern you. Well as much as I would like to stay and chat, I have a heart to collect. But I'm a considerate guy. I'll let these three keep your company in my place." His hands rose into the air and with a flick of his wrist, a trio of Heartless spawned in front of him. The first was a cat-human hybrid like creature sitting on the ground, its legs crossed and eyes closed in what looked like a meditative pose. The creature next to her was a werewolf, standing on two legs and snarling ferociously at them. The last creature seemed to be half snake and half woman—a Lamia, according to Luna's knowledge of mythical creatures. The armored man continued, "Aren't they beautiful? Of course there are only three of them left from Abraxas original experiment. Well… four if you include a certain person among your group. Have fun now."

"No!" Sora yelled. He hastily summoned his Keyblade and shot the plasma hand out of its tip before the armored figure could fly higher. The hand wrapped around the man's leg and Sora felt his feet leave the ground and take to the air as he held onto the Keyblade for dear life. The armored man looked behind him to see Sora swinging left and right from hanging on.

"Up for a bit of flying, Sora? You only had to ask," the man's voice echoed through the skies. He quickly executed a couple of inside loops before zig zagging through the air. Through it all, even though he wanted to throw up, Sora on with both hands and closed his eyes shut. The speed at which they were going forced Sora to shut his eyes tightly as the wind slapped against his face. His eyes stung but he gritted his teeth and opened them. He had no choice but to if he wanted to see where this unidentified person was taking him.

The man flew low with the intent of sending Sora into the buildings of Atlantis. Sora regained his balanced and swerved to the left as he flew in between two buildings. Sora planted his feet on the building walls and ran across them quickly to gain momentum before he and the armored man emerged on the other side of the buildings.

With the last few inches of ground he had, he kicked off the wall and swung upwards using the plasma hand and arm as a vine. As he flew up into the air and in front of the armored man. He summoned his Kingdom Key that was left dangling off the armored man's left, twisted and attempted to slam the Keyblade into the man's helmet. The armored man held up his arms and crossed them, deflecting the Keyblade and knocked Sora away from him. When he looked back up however, it was too late. He crashed straight into a clothes line, knocking him out of his flight mode and sending him to the ground.

The armored man stood on his two legs, a little dazed from the crash landing. Sora didn't give him a chance to recover. He sprinted forward quickly and swung his Keyblade forward. The armored man quickly grabbed the Kingdom Key's blade and hurled his arm forward. Sora's hand parted from the Keyblade's handle with this sudden jerk of force, and he soon found himself lying sprawled on his back. He shot up from the ground and summoned his Keyblade back into his hands.

"I won't let you take the heart. I won't let you take this people of this city's hope. I don't know who you guys think you are but if the realm of light really is decaying as you say it is, you guys can only make it worse," Sora said.

"Think what you want of me. You and I are but smaller cogs in what is about to happen next. It is merely both our jobs to play our parts and facilitate."

"What do you mean?"

"Sora, you've already lost. You do not yet know how far you've fallen and by the time you realize it, it will have already been too late." The armored man reached for something behind his back and drew out a unique looking long iron sword with glowing red markings engraved from length to tip. Aside from the tip were six other protrusions along the blade's length curving upwards. "This is the Seven-Branched Sword, a most ancient weapon passed down through generations. Its name speaks for itself as you can see. Here's what you can't see. This sword can break any weapon."

Sora stood up out of his battle phase and stifled a laugh. "Okay, aren't you just being a little bit overdramatic now. Any weapon? Do you expect me to swallow crock like that up?"

"I assure you, I'm quite serious. All I need is seven hits to make contact with that weapon and it'll be destroyed. Do I make myself clear, Keyblade Master? If our blades clash seven times, it's over, for you."

"You're full of it," Sora dismissed, trying to glare daggers through the man's helmet. There was no way the Keyblade of all things could break just like that and anyone who claimed to be able to do as such was most certainly lying.

The man laughed. "You can assume I'm bluffing, but can you really take the chance?" The man observed Sora's expression to see a mixture of confusion and anger on his face. He laughed again and continued, "Know that this sword can cut through any weapon—any metal for that matter. Now what will my Seven-Branched Sword be cutting through when it hits your Keyblade? Obsidian? Orichalcum?"

"Nothing because I'll have cut through you before you can even land seven hits." With that, Sora charged straight for the armored man, jumped and swung his Keyblade downward. The man parried the attack easily with sword and shook his head.

"My, aren't we being reckless. Six hits left."

* * *

Splitting off into different directions had proved effective but also lonesome and dangerous. Luna and Kida had split off from Riku and Kairi and the Werewolf chimera—or Weremera as Luna had condensed it in to— was following close behind. It was fast, weaving in between columns and buildings with ease. Had they been intending to run away from it, they would have found that it would have taken a great amount of effort and conniving to outrun something with such speed.

The Weremera pounced forward with powerful hind legs that sent it flying over their heads. Kida reacted quickly, pointing her spear upwards and catching the creature before hurling it into a nearby pillar. The Heartless smashed through the pillar, knocking it off its support and sending it crumbling to the ground.

"What in the world are these things?" Kida asked Luna as the Weremera stood back up on two feet.

"They're a special type of Heartless," Luna answered, but when it occurred to her that Kida probably didn't know what a Heartless was, she laughed awkwardly at herself. "You know what? It's something really bad; we'll just leave it at that."

"I suppose that's an explanation," Kida said with raised brows. She looked back to the Chimera and held her spear at her side, its tip pointed straight at the creature. "Here it comes again!"

"One moment. Let me try something," Luna said. She lowered her Keyblade to her side and walked up to the Weremera as slowly and non-threateningly as she could. "Hey there. I hope you're in there somewhere, listening to this. I'm not here to harm you. I want to save you and the others like you. You've feel wronged, left to battle the loneliness and pain you feel right now. I know because I'm the same. Right now, you're wondering 'why me of all people? What did I do to deserve this?' Abraxas stripped you of who you once were and you're angry. That's understandable. But we can find a way to fix this. All I'm asking is that you fight just a little bit longer. We already have a possible cure and if you come with-"

"And why would I want to do that?"

Luna froze and became pale. Had she just heard the creature speak or had it just been her mind playing tricks on her?

"It can talk?" Kida's acknowledgment of this development proved the former was true.

"Are you surprised? Or might you have preferred I kept my mouth shut? You wouldn't be the first," came a reply spliced in between laughter. "They once laughed at me back at the temple, y'know. Then I found KRONOS and opted to be a part of Abraxas' experiments. I didn't know what he was going to do with me or how or for what purpose. The moment he promised that I would obtain power the likes of which I had never known—the likes of which I had long since been seeking—I sprung on the opportunity the first chance I had. And behold— such awesome power I command in so nimble a body. When I returned to the temple, I was the only one laughing."

"What did you do? You didn't…"

"Oh, but I did and it was glorious!" The Weremera spread out his arms to emphasize his point. Luna's eyes could only briefly glance at the sharp teeth protruding from the Chimera's gums before looking elsewhere in disgust.

"You're sick. Just who are you to do something so horrible," Luna snapped.

"I'd hoped you'd ask. Heh-heh-heh." The Weremera craned his neck from side to side before letting out a howl. Luna watched as the Chimera's body slowly morphed into that of a human shape. When his shapeshift had finished, Luna saw a man decked head to toe in samurai armor with a red cape attached to his back. "Burn the name into your soon to lost memory. Let no name but mine have hold over your fragile soul. For I am Gilgamesh!"

"Huh? You think you could get that shortened because I've already forgotten," Kida said to Luna who nodded in agreement.

"Oof!" Gilgamesh recoiled as if he had just been delivered a mighty blow. "We'll see if you've forgotten once I'm through with you both. You should know that I'm quite the eccentric collector of weapons. Your spear is of no use to my collection, woman, but as for the Keyblade… oh how can I overlook such a wonderful gift? It shall be mine once I pry it from your cold dead hands."

"Even if you did manage to do so, and that's a big if, the Keyblade won't just work for anyone, especially not for someone like you," Luna said.

"You'll find I have a way with art, just like I have a way with women," Gilgamesh said.

Luna snorted. "Not likely."

"How dare you, I'm a genteel man! Not like you'll live long enough to see any well-bred manners from me. Come, enough of talk. Now we talk as warriors do, with the crossing of blades!" Gilgamesh roared. He summoned a Zweihander in one hand and a Lowlander Claymore in the other. He twirled the both of them around before lowering them to his waist and outwards, pointing at Luna and Kida.

"I couldn't agree more. Kida, cover me," Luna said. Kida nodded and stepped backwards a bit before raising her spear. She was facing off against someone who, unlike previous Chimera, apparently was able to change into and out of form at will. Regardless of his intentions, she guessed he must have had a strong enough conviction to be able to retain his human form. She would need to be careful in her approach.

Gilgamesh charged in first and Luna guarded against the Zweihander blade. With his other hand, Gilgamesh swung the Claymore horizontally at Luna who ducked under the blade. She quickly flipped and landed on both hands, kicking into the air. A blast of wind escaped her foot and hit Gilgamesh, knocking him backwards. She cartwheeled back on to her feet before flying in and slashing thrice. Each hit clashed with the quick alignment of Gilgamesh's blades. Luna let her Keyblade vanish and revealed her palms to Gilgamesh, casting Aeroga. Gilgamesh was thrown backwards a bit but otherwise landed perfectly fine. However, it was the knockback effect of the spell that Luna had been looking for, as she was also blown back thus distancing herself from him.

Kida placed a hand on the ground and chanted something under her breath. Rock spires shot out of the ground, heading straight towards Gilgamesh's location. As the spires attempted to ensnare him in its oncoming onslaught, Gilgamesh showed no fear in cutting through the rocks and dancing through them on his way to Luna and Kida. Luna placed her hands on Kida's shoulders. As a result, she dropped her concentration and the homing spires along with it.

Gilgamesh laughed maniacally and pointed at Luna with the Claymore. "You're the same as me, aren't you? You hold the power of the Heartless at your disposal and yet you refuse to use it. It's wonderful, you know that? I can control the will of the Heartless, wherever and whenever I want. A Heartless General, can you believe that?"

"You can control the Heartless?" Luna asked.

"It's unlike how they were controlled by Maleficent. They must sense my thirst, my- no, _our _bloodlust, and because they share our rage, we can send them out in droves across the worlds so that they may pillage and plunder," Gilgamesh said, ending off with a laugh.

"So then you're the reason for the increase in Heartless?" Luna asked.

"Not just me, you know. It took all of us Chimera acting as a conduit to send the message, be it whether they knew it consciously or not. Now there are only four of us left and the signal's been weakened significantly. Not that I care. As long as I get to keep this strength, the rest is KRONOS' problem."

"Four? The fourth person…" Luna said, remembering what the armored man had told them not so long ago. Had she been sending messages to the Heartless without even knowing it? No, she didn't have to even think about it. It was impossible. She wanted a world where there would be no more Heartless, not the complete opposite. She looked back at Gilgamesh and spoke sharply. "Don't you dare include me in with one of you. I never asked for this. A lot of the people Abraxas chose never asked but he did it all the same. And you want so much power than you ever should need or want—it's not normal. You're different from those of us who were experimented on against our will. You were already a monster to begin with."

Gilgamesh roared with laughter again and shook his head. "So what if I am? Unlike you, unlike most… at least I indulge in what I truly am!"

* * *

Sora jumped over a horizontal swipe from the armored man's sword and warped behind him to attack. His opponent held up his arm, the Keyblade deflecting against the armor's metal. The man turned swiftly and elbowed Sora in the cheek, causing him to spin in the air for a brief second before falling to the ground.

"Is this the master swordsman I've been hearing about? I'm unimpressed." Ignoring his goading, Sora pulled himself back up and threw his Keyblade at him. The figure raised his sword and deflected the spinning attack. "Four hits left."

_Careless, _Sora thought in his head. The problem was that the more desperate he became, the more he started to believe the guy's tale about the Seven-Branched Sword. That, in a roundabout way, led to Sora being even more desperate to end this as soon as possible. He had already made two silly mistakes, both by getting too close to his opponent. He couldn't help it either. It was just his style to get in close ranged. He imagined someone like Aqua or Kairi wouldn't be having such a problem if they were in his place.

Sora held up his free arm and fired one _Blizzard _after the next. The figure shot up into the air and flew through each spell aimed at him on his way to Sora. Just as he flew over Sora's head, the brunette ducked and cast _Tornado_. A cyclone of wind bursted out from his Keyblade and knocked the man out of his flying pattern. Sora jumped to meet him and delivered several blows, knocking him out of the tornado and to the ground.

"Beautiful. Just beautiful. It looks like you've finally turned up," the figure said while standing up. Sora disagreed. He had long since been done with talking. He ran up to the man and warped again behind him. Pretending to strike again, he waited for his opened to raise his arm before warping and pressing his hand against the exposed side. The armored man twister clockwise before Sora could cast his magic and lightly tapped the Kingdom Key in Sora's other hand with his sword.

"Really? That was just too easy. Three to go."

Sneering at him, Sora stabbed his Keyblade into the ground and ran straight for him. Sora threw his right fist forward followed by his left, his hands feeling quite breezy from the aero spell his cast on them. Coolly, his attacks were blocked. Once. Twice. On his second jab, he found himself unable to move his hand back. It was caught in the clutches of the armored man's hand. Sora jumped and delivered a spinning wheel kick, connecting with the man's helmet. Landing back on his feet, he watched as the man stumbled backwards.

Sora warped forward and punched forward. It had been a risky move, exposing most of his body like that and he hoped that his enemy was dazed enough for it to work. It didn't. The man evaded to the side, grabbed Sora's arm and drew him. A hard knee to the stomach and a gasp escaped his mouth, the contents in the area hit feeling as if they had been churned. Sora danced from left to right, unaware of his surrounding for a few seconds. He did not get a chance to recover as the man lifted his chin up, delivering several jabs to his abdomen. Pain coursed through Sora's body. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the Kingdom Key standing lonely in the spot he had left it. He reached out for it, and received only a punch to the face instead, knocking him flat to the ground.

"You shouldn't try things you see on television, Sora. I don't know what went into your head at that point but it wasn't very sensible now, was it? Now, I'll have you know I'm well trained in a variety of martial arts. I don't think you are. Not to brag or anything."

Sora reached out and summoned his Keyblade, but he may as well have spat in the face of death for all the good it did. He lifted his arms to attack the armored man but with a simple swipe, he found the Kingdom Key once again gone from his hands and lying on the ground next to him.

"That's two, isn't it? Oops." The man walked over to the Kingdom Key and tapped it again. Sora felt something in his heart try to jump out. "Oh well, looks like I miscalculated. One more then."

"Don't. Don't do it," Sora said. He watched hopelessly as he saw the Seven-Branched Sword descend down towards his Keyblade one more time. "NOOOOO!"

The man froze for a moment. He then lifted the sword away from Sora's Keyblade and turned to him. "You know. I'm going to tell you the truth, Keyblade Master. I'm bored, of you, I mean. See, this hasn't nearly been as exciting as what I had pictured in my head and don't get me wrong… I very much like to be surprised, but not like this. _He_ surprised me a lot—our going back and forth at each other. In the end, though we were enemies I think I ended up respecting him more than he respected me."

"What are you-"

"But I can't respect this. It's too easy. You had none of his fight. None of his passion. Even I can tell that much from what you tried to pull in this fight. The Heart of Atlantis could have potentially granted me a power I've long since been seeking. But I can wait. I am a patient man, after all."

Without warning there was a flash of light. Sora soon dropped his hand from his face and looked around him. The armored man had disappeared along with the flash. Sora summoned his Keyblade back to him and tried to get up. He tripped a few times before finally managing to stand. He held the Kingdom Key in both hands and looked down. It didn't look any different from what he could tell. Could the seventh attack really have shattered something as special as the Keyblade? Now he would never know, not that he had wanted to.

"I'm boring, huh?" he said, letting his Keyblade disappear into specks of light. "No surprises there."

* * *

Gilgamesh body adopted a stance on all fours as he galloped towards Luna and Kida. Human became beast once more as the Weremera lunged forward at Luna. Kida stepped in front of Luna and opened her palm. Luna couldn't really tell what had happened next. She saw the crystal pendant around Kida's necklace light up and then a sound, as if glass were breaking. The Weremera was thrown back by whatever it was that Kida had done. She stepped forward, appearing taller to Luna than she actually was.

"As the ruler of this city, you and your ilk are not welcome here. Leave. Now!"

The Weremera snarled at her before chuckling. He transformed back into his human form and grinned. "Fair enough, looks like my time's up anyway. I've had my fun. I withdraw back into the shadows, for now. But don't be so exclusionary, especially when the girl right next to you is of that same ilk." With that, Gilgamesh threw his fluttering red cape in over himself and vanished as if performing a magic trick.

Kida looked quizzically at the uncomfortable Luna. "What did he mean by that, Luna?"

"It's… a long story. Shall we head back? I'll tell you along the way," Luna said. True to her word, she went into the detail as much as she could about her kidnapping and being experimented on along with the Heartless being the manifestation of darkness in a person's heart. This lengthy explanation took them all the way back to the ruins where they had first separated with Riku and Kairi.

"Well, while I don't quite understand everything yet, what I do know is that you most certainly aren't like that person we just fought. What was his name again? Giggly- Giruga-"

"Gorgonzola? Ooh, now I'm hungry," Luna said. The two laughed and stopped a few seconds later when they saw Riku and Kairi approaching them in the distance.

"How'd it go for you guys? Ours got away unfortunately," Luna said.

"Same on our end. Don't worry, we'll get them next time," Riku replied seeming rather frustrated in spite of his words.

"Er, they didn't talk or anything, did they?" Luna asked.

Kairi exchanged a wondering look with Riku before looking back. "No. I don't think so anyway. Did it for you two?"

"Yeah. The one we fought. He actually wanted to be turned into a Chimera. He was an original member of KRONOS back when Maleficent was around, or so he says," Luna said. Hearing the sounds of soft footsteps she turned around to see Sora walking up to them. Her mouth parted and she frowned. "Sora, you're bleeding… on the lip."

"Huh? Oh." Sora wiped off the trail of blood hanging off the side of his mouth and smiled. "All gone?"

Luna nodded and returned his smile. It seemed her frown had somehow transitioned onto Riku. "Did you get him?"

"No," Sora answered with a sigh.

"No?"

"No means no. I didn't get him. What more do you want to hear?" Sora snapped at him impatiently.

"Whoa, man. I was just asking. Are you okay?" Riku asked.

"I'm perfectly fine," Sora said gritting his teeth.

"You don't seem that way."

"If you can tell that then why did you ask?" Sora asked in such a brazen way that it shocked everyone else.

"Sora..." Kairi attempted to say but Sora cut her off.

"Look, let's just check and see if Rapunzel, Milo and Kupopo are alright. I don't want to talk about it," Sora said. Without waiting for their responses, Sora started off down the stairs in a mood that Luna had never seen from him before.


	72. Those Who Came Before

_A/N: Time for a heavy hitting chapter of Cracks of the Past and probably the most important one. This chapter pretty much establishes the lore moving forward and answers a lot of questions for our heroes. Also, I saw Batman v Superman during the weekend and... oh dear, as Luna would say. I mean, the good scenes are really good and the bad scenes just drag and are unnecessary. Couple that with a bad script, not understanding certain characters and obvious studio interference by putting in Justice League references and it just feels like it wants to tell too much in the little time that it has. But enough of my ranting, enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

**Chapter 72**

**Those Who Came Before**

Breathing in the smell of musty old books, Luna spun to take in the circular room and gave a satisfied grinned before returning to earth. It wasn't exactly her idea of heaven, but she had spent most of her days in school in the library so there was definitely a nostalgic value about the place. It even looked to be roughly the same size as the one in her elementary school.

"I can kind of do without the smell, but…" Noticing two chandeliers on the ceiling, Luna summoned her Keyblade and flicked her wrist. The candles attached soon came to life in glorious flame and lit up the room. "It feels like I'm a kid again."

"Nice find, you guys," Kairi said to Milo, Rapunzel and Kupopo. In the time that everyone else had been gone, the trio had taken to exploring the underground city. It was the big building in the center that they had found this library. "There are definitely quite a few books here. I don't think we can carry all this."

"Let's get to work then. I'm not sure what we're looking for exactly, but mountains upon mountains of history all in one location... how can anyone say no to that," Milo said.

"The truth hidden beneath the surface of truth… that's it! Truth, I suppose, can be substituted with fact. Fact. History. This library is it! I'm sure that's what the puzzle box meant," Luna said, barely able to contain her excitement.

"Alright. Let's get to work then. Best we take different parts of the room," Riku said. All eager to find out more about the lost continent, the group split off into the different sections of the room. When Kairi noticed Luna's apprehension and that she was still standing in the same spot, she placed her hand on Luna's shoulder concernedly.

"I'm just worried about Sora. Something must have happened," she relayed her fears.

"I've seen it before. He's frustrated, and understandably so. There are times when he won't tell you what he's thinking. He'd much rather keep it locked up inside and smile instead. It happened a lot while you were in the Realm of Darkness. Sometimes, I really wonder how he feels about all this. It feels like he's trying to be happy just for the sake of not worrying us," Kairi replied, looking at the aisle Sora had just disappeared down.

"Well, he can't do it all by himself. He has to know that. I'm going to go talk to him," Luna said.

"Yeah, it might be best if you do it," Kairi said.

"What does that mean?" Luna asked. It wasn't so much what she had said as it was the saddened tone she had voiced it in.

"Nothing. Nothing," Kairi dismissed. She smiled at Luna before turning and leaving in the opposite direction. Luna blinked, momentarily confused for a second. Then she shrugged and headed in pursuit of Sora. She soon found him absently staring at a book's cover as if he wasn't aware that he was even holding it. Clearing her throat, Sora looked up quickly and accidently dropped the book.

"Oh, sorry," Luna said, watching as Sora bent down to pick the book back up.

"No, no, it's… uhm, listen, about what happened, I-"

"It's okay. It's just that we're worried about you. You don't have to tell us everything on your mind if you don't want to but overcoming problems together is much easier than doing it alone," Luna said.

Sora chuckled and looked down at the book cover. "If only it were that easy. Whatever it is that's wrong with me, I don't think it's something I can quite understand and because of that, I can't put it into words. That guy, he had this weapon on him that apparently can break any weapon in seven hits."

Luna gasped and covered her mouth before letting it fall. "Against the Keyblade?"

"I don't know whether it really did have that power, or if it could even break the Keyblade. More than likely, he probably didn't know either. There was no way he could have unless he's broken a Keyblade before. Maybe he has but… I don't know, I panicked and he got in six hits because of it. He could have gotten seven too but he stopped just before that. He was messing with me, I can tell, and it's working."

"Sora, I'm sorry. You shouldn't have had to face him alone," Luna said.

"That's my own fault, really. I kind of just took off without telling you guys," Sora said, scratching the back of neck.

"I'd be surprised if you hadn't," Luna said.

Sora twisted his hand and looked at the back cover for a moment before sliding it back into a gap between two books. He turned to Luna and gave her a small smile.

"I don't know how to tell you this but… depending on how I'm feeling, by the time we make it back to Radiant Garden, this might be where my story ends."

"I don't understand. What are you-?"

"I can't do this anymore, Luna. It's just… I'm tired," Sora finally settled with after a pause.

"No, no… you can't be serious. Sora, that's something old people say when they've completely exhausted themselves from working. I don't want to hear that from you. You were the one who told me that this wasn't a job," Luna said. Her voice was quivering but her breath unsteady but she couldn't help but find herself angry and confused that Sora had suddenly brought something like this up.

"But-"

"But nothing. One lost fight doesn't mean you should give up. You're still alive. You're standing in front of me, right now. I'm sorry, these words might be harsh but you need to hear them. Unless you plan on dying on me any time soon, don't tell me that you're tired. I- We need you here by our side," Luna said.

Sora smiled at her and inserted his hands into his pockets. "You're probably right. Maybe I'm just overreacting."

"I know I'm right. Trust me, soon enough you're gonna be looking back on this day and wondering what you were even thinking. Admit it, you love this too much to give it up," Luna said with a confident smirk.

"That's what I'm afraid of," Sora said under his breath.

"Huh, what was that?" Luna asked, having heard only mumbling coming from him.

"Hey, what's that?"

"Whoa, Sora, don't change the subject now. What did you-"

"No, I mean what's that?" Sora pointed behind her and turning to look, Luna screamed and jumped out of the way as a book flew out of its spot on the book case. Sora caught the flying book and pulled it towards his chest before looking down. Luna walked over and peered down over his shoulder at the book along with him. On the front cover, the words _In_ _Memoria Temporis _were printed in bold, gold letters. The book itself was of hard leather, the material feeling bumpy as Sora traced his index finger downwards.

"Err, Sora?" Luna asked watching as Sora's finger fell off the cover.

"Yeah?"

"Books don't fly."

"I know, Luna. I know."

"So, uhm, do we open it or…"

"You know what they say—these books are made for opening," Sora said. His thumb and index finger found rest above and beneath the front cover respectively. He looked up to see Luna boring holes into the book, her mouth open and barely moving. "Luna, breathe."

"Oh, sorry," Luna apologized. Her mouth closed but the glimmer in her eyes never left. He smiled at this and looked back down, flipping the book open as he did so. The first few words alone were enough for Sora to look away from the book.

"What the hell is this?" he whispered.

_**Before its arrival, the world lived in ignorance, oblivious to the power already in their hands. They knew not that they could change the world if they wished, only that they sought to make it so. The average ego saw only things in terms of one or the other, unable to understand the light that was within their own hearts. And so it was the emergence of Kingdom Hearts, first seen in the city of Atlantis, which would pave the way for first steps of humanity.**_

_**Compared to most other civilisations at the time, the Atlanteans were already very forward thinking people. I profess to believe that it was because of this sagacity that Kingdom Hearts chose to make its mark on humanity and reveal itself to the Atlanteans. First from the sky came many small objects, all elastic and rubber-like in nature in what is deemed to be the first ever recording of a meteor shower. Looking up into the ever expansive night sky, I admit to being personally overwhelmed by many feelings as I observed the meteors fall into the atmosphere. Warmth. Comfort. Hope. I and many Atlanteans alike saw something that night for the first time that we had never seen before. We saw the universe and what it could truly become.**_

_**The seventh day after the meteor shower. Kingdom Hearts awoke from its slumber and hovered above our city. Here we saw paradise. A utopia free of struggles and where man could unite and overcome anything. No fear. No despair. Even now as I write this in my old age, I cannot entirely give understanding as to why Kingdom Hearts revealed itself to us. We had not even known of its existence until its appearance. Though unable to communicate to us through oral means, we could somehow still understand what it was telling us, as if it were gently strumming the strings of our hearts. It spoke of its loneliness and dream to live among our kind. Most importantly, it was curious and wished to better study us. In exchange, it offered to share its power with us lesser beings.**_

_**In hindsight, maybe it had all been a test—to ascertain whether human beings could prove trustworthy when given power and autonomy over our own lives. If this is so, then we had failed miserably. Still, there are some questions that pervade my keen mind. Can a monolith, something that possesses an amalgamation of hearts that all work in unity—something incredibly unlike human nature—ever be truly lonely? Hearts by their own can dream but what about a massive collection of hearts? Can a great entity such as Kingdom Hearts dream, and if so, of what? Finally, for a place where all hearts are born, surely it must understand our hearts better than us, and yet it desired to understand us. To this, I have a theory. I believe that hearts do not reach their true potential until they are within the vessel alongside the soul. Hearts are not born with most of the things that make a person unique but are instead born with the capacity to change and develop, both of which allow for a person's individuality to be moulded. That is what Kingdom Hearts tried to understand.**_

_**The offer came to us in the form of the crystallization of a part Kingdom Hearts that it had split off from itself. This would be the first of many hearts that Kingdom Hearts would later designate to the newly created worlds after a certain incident—but I speak too soon. We Atlanteans were quick to utilize the power of the light bestowed by Kingdom Hearts. This led to a process of a great reformation for the city. We were aided by the help of future tellers who would soon play a great role in the formation of the modern world. Now it should only make sense that the light in the heart of some is greater than others. Exposure to the newly gifted Heart of Atlantis gave way to unlocking their powers and from this a lineage of what are known as the Farseers were born. These special Atlanteans had such power that it was not just the future that the seer could see but all of history. Thus, the importation of ideas from the future became the technology of the past. Medicine became more readily available allowing people to live out longer lives, machinery increased production of goods and commodities thus increasing their value and making Atlantis a wealthy nation among its neighbouring borders. Soon enough came the first instances of magic known as Arcana Arts, which were used to aid in the building a new world. The city as a whole flourished and everyone lived happier lives, blessing the light for its kindness to them. A new Atlantis was born, a city that was incredibly advanced for its own time, perhaps too advanced.**_

_**It would have been extremely difficult for an outsider not to have noticed this sudden leap in technology. Frustrations grew as villagers and townsfolk who had to make do with their stagnant development, watched as Atlantis' grew even faster. And so with the arrival of humanity also came the first battles of what would gradually transition into something worse. Time and again, Atlantis defended itself from the attacks with its superior artillery and so Kingdom Hearts saw it fit to bestow us with an extraordinary gift. It was a key, a necessary prerequisite that had the power to open the gate to the unseen realm, or in other words, paradise. This was symbolized by its name. Two paths crossing that would never normally otherwise. Life and death. The comprehensible and incomprehensible. The χ-Blade contained a power which allowed us to visit the afterlife (or realm of the dead to use the correct term, though we never liked to think of it as such) to reunite with our departed loved ones. I on the few occasions I could was able to see and talk to my wife. You can understand then that this was a power that no mortal should ever have, and yet, we did. We had earned Kingdom Hearts' trust.**_

_**This blade however, proved to be a most insufferable curse. Those who came in contact with its power were enticed by that power. Consequently, an internal conflict had begun among the people of Atlantis. Some tried to claim the blade for themselves by using the seers to predict in whose possession the key was and where it would be at any given time. Street fights broke out over the right to possess the weapon and some were even killed in their sleep by those who believed— as paranoid as they may have been— that their victim had been planning to steal the key. Because of this, the key had humorously come to be known as 'The Hidden Shame' among the Atlantean people, or at least the ones still resistant to its power. Kingdom Hearts had misjudged the people it had trusted to be able to handle with χ-Blade with the same unity as we had to overcome those who had threatened our land but by then it was too late. The Farseers who had felt mistreated and used by their own people left for newer lands. It is with great remorse that I strongly condemn the likes of those who drove our own kind out of Atlantis. The city was built on the philosophy of fairness and equality for all and the final product turned out to be anything but.**_

_**It should also be mentioned that before Kingdom Hearts could recall the χ-Blade to its side, a war broke out between a neighbouring army and Atlantis. With its walls breached, the King of Atlantis sought to use the χ-Blade in a way it was not intended to be used. Atlantis' invaders were left to tremble in fear, broken and battered, as the χ-Blade lay havoc and ruin on the forces. In wielding its awesome power, the King sought for a new strategy. Tired of constant sieges on his homeland, the King sought to push forward and conquer neighbouring lands. With the power of Arts and the χ-Blade in the hands of his most trusted general, King Nedakh became obsessed with destroying those who refused to swear their loyalty to him.**_

_**Then, on X day, X month, X Year, tragedy struck. The power cables supplying energy to all of Atlantis suddenly overloaded. An earthquake followed by a tsunami completely devastated Atlantis, sinking it to the depths. When King Nedakh pled for mercy and protection from Kingdom Hearts, the entity simply disappeared from the sky without a word and the χ-blade along with it. King Nedakh's wife was forced to merge with the Heart of Atlantis to protect what remained of the city. This was the first time that Kingdom Hearts appeared.**_

_**What is a world without hope? Perhaps the Keyblade War may provide answers to such a question for it reflected everything that was wrong in the world. Also known as the Dark Ages, the war was foreshadowed by the emergence of Kingdom Hearts, its second visit to the world. Seeing the chaotic nature of the world, my belief is that Kingdom Hearts resurfaced not to test humanity this time, but to purposely trigger a conflict. The great entity had plans and they began with letting the world believe that darkness had prevailed. This time, it did not stay in one place like it had for Atlantis but constantly moved from location to location, the χ-Blade along with it. Having already seen the power that possessing the χ-blade could give, it was not long before the world was to fall on the brink of all-out war.**_

_**There were several incidents which were to precede this. The first is the sudden disappearances of people with seemingly nothing in common, or at least superficially. These were children, students and many others whose disappearances could not be explained. Of course the truth was much more terrifying. These subjects were to be used in a series of experiments to replicate the power of the original χ-Blade. These keys drew their power from the hearts and souls of the subjects and converted it into energy, unleashing the heart's power in physical form. Despite the time and effort put into creating these keys, nothing created could ever equal that of the original.**_

Feeling his hands trembling, Sora ceased reading. When Luna looked up at him, she saw scarcely a boy she knew. Pale and confused. He had every reason to be. She was the same too.

"The Keyblade...?" Luna started, unable to come to terms with what Sora had read aloud.

"I… I don't think I want to read this," Sora said. "This can't be true. It can't be."

"It is a lot of information to take in all at once. Uhm, the Farseers… th- they come from Atlantis?" Luna went back to the previous page and looked it up before nodding. "So this is where Yeul's people originated from."

"Let's just… keep reading," Sora choked out, turning over to the next page and continuing. All of a sudden, the air had become incredibly stifling. Luna wanted to make a joke about not having any windows but she felt it was a bit inappropriate for the moment.

_**Thus, it was by these experiments that the Keyblades gained minds of their own allowing them to choose who would wield them. Some of the Keyblades found their way to family members and friends while others, who found no meaning to life fell into the hands of those who sought to cause chaos and destruction. Of this, a clash was sure to arise between those who wished to protect the light, those who wished to make the light their own, and those who wished simply to destroy the light.**_

_**Four factions, all under different disciples of teaching, were to soon clash against one another for the fate of the world. The first who sought to extinguish the light under the belief that it had become too powerful—Horus; the second worked in direct opposition then to protect the light— the Lunarians; and the third who sought to make the light theirs. They would later split off into two due to a conflict of interest—Cephadalus, which then separated into itself and Oberian.**_

"Horus…" Sora repeated the name, and then a few more times after that.

"Ring a bell?" Luna asked.

"Yeah, I think so… where have I heard that name before? Oh! It was Abraxas, or Xehanort, I guess, whichever one it was. They mentioned Horus at one point. I don't exactly remember what they said though. That battle feels like such a long time ago now."

"I don't know about that. Sometimes, it really feels like I joined the group just yesterday," Luna said. "Anyway, enough nostalgia for a day, I'd think. Horus, Lunarians, Ceph- Cephadalus? And Oberian."

"Quick learner. I guess I don't need to ask if you've 'Got it memorized'," Sora congratulated with a grin before returning to the book.

_**Soon realizing that the keys were unable to track the position of Kingdom Hearts and the χ-Blade, one of the factions decided to proceed with a radical experiment. Believing that only a heart of pure light could sense other pure lights, Horus kidnapped several subjects after finding a number of meteor fragments scattered across the world. These fragments had come from the shower that had predated Kingdom Hearts' first appearance. The experiment, though I know little detail, involved amplifying the light in the subject's heart using the fragments. By the end of the experiment, only seven candidates had survived, all young girls. One of them in particular I knew to have resided in Atlantis. She was the general's daughter, though I cannot begin to guess as to how she found her way out of the submerged city and into the hands of Horus. The subjects that survived all had something in common, the strength and innocence of their hearts. Maybe it is then possible that the girl in question found her way to the surface by simply believing. Sometimes that can be enough to pull off even the most miraculous of things, but I digress.**_

"I guess that answers _that_ question. The Kairi who used to live here wasn't kidnapped, at least not here anyway. She found a way out," Sora said.

"Is that even possible?" Luna asked.

"Sure. I remember a corridor of light opening up for me and Riku when we trapped on the shores of the Realm of Darkness this one time. There was also this other guy, the Beast, or I guess he's a prince now, but he also used one and travelled all the way to Maleficent's castle in Hollow Bastion in order to find Belle. It's probably rare but it happens."

"Right… so these subjects were going to be stripped of their darkness? Funny, I've always had the impression that the Princesses of Heart just sort of… happened," Luna said.

_**Despite the survival of these candidates, their hearts, unable to sustain themselves without the proper balance, shortly collapsed and the subjects passed away. The experiment had ultimately proved to be a failure. Perhaps even uncharacteristically, Horus respected these bodies and buried them in their respective lands. Note that at the time of this, no one could find Atlantis. It came to be that the vessel of this world was buried elsewhere. This knowledge soon reached the ears of the other factions before Horus could act quickly to erase their footsteps.**_

_**The final piece of the puzzle to understanding the Keyblade War lies in the future tellers' hands. To further elaborate on the Farseers' journey, I feel it is appropriate to more concisely detail the power they hold. Their power stemmed not merely from within, for such ability to view all of time would no doubt destroy a person's mind if such was the case, but worked in conjunction with an invisible presence. The seers had the power to see rips or holes in time and space. To whoever may be reading this, these would come to be known as keyholes. From what I understand, little unseen pockets were intentionally left scattered among the world as a safety measure were darkness to spread over the land. These pockets would later be used by Kingdom Hearts to store pieces of itself that would become the hearts of each world.**_

_**After leaving Atlantis, the group would migrate in amongst others. Despite initial fears of being found out as seers, when this did happen, the townsfolk were quite welcoming and sympathetic to the Farseers' plight. It was mountain town of Alexander in which they would settle, mingling with the non-Atlanteans and spawning multiple generations of children.**_

"Alexander…" Luna said. "Though I guess it was more of a town back then than a city. Oh, fun fact, Sora-"

"Oh, boy."

"What do you mean 'oh, boy'? You will listen to my little fun fact and you will like it," Luna ordered. A bright-eyed expression immediately took over as she continued to speak. "You know the saying 'Don't count your chickens before they hatch'? Well, the more predominant saying in Alexander is actually 'Don't count your fish before they're on dry land'. The reason for that is that there was this guy who once caught a huge fish that was about 11 feet long and weighed roughly 740 pounds. So this guy gets a really huge ego and starts bragging about it aloud to absolutely no one in particular. Before he can reel the fish in, it slaps him in the face and jumps back into the water, never to be seen again. To this very day, some fishermen still believe he's out there, just waiting to meet his true match."

"That was a great story, Luna. I'm so…" Sora let out a yawn, something that he didn't even have to fake. "…enthralled, I really am. Okay, I really want to get through this so how about we just power through the rest of this, kay?"

_**Construction on the Turm Des Himmels, or Heaven's Tower, would mark a significant landmark in the relations of the Atlanteans and those who originated from Alexander. The tower was to show that there was nothing human beings could not accomplish when working together—they could even reach paradise itself. Construction of the tower took an astounding five years to complete, mainly due to the crystals which the Seers still possessed.**_

_**With belief that the worst was behind them, the Seers attempted to settle down. And so they did, until the devil came knocking on heaven's door. The newly found Keyblade wielders, seeking the power to see into the future, threatened to destroy Alexander if they refused to give up the seers. Mere threats turned to fear and then anger as the need to protect their families became more prevalent among the Alexandrians. The beginning of infighting and the possibility of a civil war breaking out forced the Seers to make a painful decision. They would leave Alexander and seek a new home.**_

_**The Atlanteans travelled from one place to the next, seeking refuge. None would accept out of fear that they would eventually become a target. They could never truly settle, for they were the prey and they had no one they could truly trust. This soon led to a split within the group. While some sought to fight against those who were after them, others refused to fight fire with fire and were more diplomatic with their approach. Finally, there were also those who wanted to run as far as possible where no one could trouble those— pacifists, in other words. These Seers split off into clans of their own which would serve as the basis for their demise. Those who fought gave further reason for Keyblade wielders and normal people alike to hate them. Because of this, the diplomats found it incredibly difficult to get others to sympathize for their cause. Finally, the pacifists were pushed farther and farther into conditions of limited survivability. Miraculously, it was this group of seers who found a new home in the town of Eden.**_

_**In the midst of all these battles, some more personal than others, the light of the world began to weaken. A strange fog began to envelop the land, washing over everything in its path like a great flood. Some of the fog managed to be contained by the invisible holes in time and space but it was not able to contain everything. Land which came into its path rotted and died away and living beings who came into contact found themselves contracting strange symptoms days later. People reacted to this fog differently but in the end they all became the same— Beings of darkness who fed off the light. The end of the world was nigh, and people were too busy fighting to notice it.**_

_**People fought. Others suffered. Pain and chaos spread throughout the land. A great many battles were fought but they were to all culminate in one final decisive battle. Kingdom Hearts made its nesting grounds in a place now known as The Badlands, or the Keyblade Graveyard. Keys clashed and fell to ground as lifeless as their owners. The exact account of the battle remains unknown to me but by the end of this long gruelling battle, a single-**_

"Huh? That's strange…" Sora flipped the page twice, as if doing so would change the contents of the book but everything remained the same. There was no doubt that this was where the book ended. The only thing telling him that the book had continued on and the writer had not simply died or something like that was that it looked as if pages had been torn right out of the book.

"So that's it? Well it gave us enough anyway. I guess someone was here before us," Luna said. After receiving no reply, Luna looked at Sora to see a downtrodden expression written all over his face. He seemed… defeated, and perhaps even more than he had been when they had arrived.

Jiminy popped out of Sora's hood and rubbed his chin. "_Hmm_. I was listening to the whole thing and… it's convenient. Almost as if this book popped out to give us all our answers. Like it was written with us in mind."

"Maybe it was the person who left the puzzle box? They wanted us to find the truth and I guess this would be it. This is far greater than just Atlantis though. This wasn't what I was expecting," Luna said.

"Sora, chin up. I know it's hard but we have to give it consideration all the same as opposed to turning a blind eye," Jiminy advised, placing his hand on Sora's cheek.

"Even if I wanted, it's impossible now that I've seen this. Why is this happening? Why is what's happening now so similar to what was happening back then?" Sora asked.

"What's happening now?" Luna questioned.

"The fog. I'm willing to bet it's the same one as the one we're facing now. But I don't get it. Is the realm of light weakening? If it is, then was that guy from KRONOS right after all?" Sora asked, his voice sounding brittle.

"But would the Heartless really be enough to cause all of that? When did the fog start leaking into the worlds anyway?" Luna asked.

"We'd need to ask around but it definitely wasn't any time before we defeated Xehanort. I had figured it started with the Chimera but now I'm not so sure," Sora replied, running his hands through his hair. "Urgh! Why is this so frustrating?"

"Wait a second. Sora, go back a few," Jiminy instructed. Sora obeyed without question and kept turning back pages until Jiminy told him to stop. Jiminy nodded his head and gave hums of approval as he read the selected passage before looking up at Sora and Luna. "Well, I'll be… it's just as I thought."

"Well? Don't keep us in the dark. What did you find out?" Luna questioned.

"A few paragraphs up it mentions tears or pockets in time and space. They would later be known as keyholes once the world split off into many. Later on, it mentions that some of the fog was contained by these pockets. Now what would happen if that fog never left? It would interfere with the hearts of each world."

"So, you're saying that the background radiation that's affecting the worlds, the realms even… it's coming from the… past?" Luna asked.

Jiminy nodded. "Yes, but even more importantly, it's leaking out from the keyholes!"

"_HUH?"_

"_WHAT?"_

Sora and Luna stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, the silence in between them so palpable that it could have been sliced with the dullest of knives. For the first time, Luna focused on the particles of dust she could see under the room's light. The floated in the air gently, blissfully unaware of what was going on below them. Luna closed her eyes and remembered to a recent conversation. Grandmother Willow had told her that the keyholes were dangerous, that it was dangerous to interfere with them even. Why had Grandmother Willow told her that? Luna opened her eyes again after a wild theory finally popped into her head and spoke.

"Do you think then that the keyholes act like a filter? I mean, if fog comes out of them then it makes sense that they can go into them as well, right? So if we seal the keyholes then-"

"The fog can't go back in. In that case, it might build up in the world and even spread to ones nearby," Jiminy finished for her. He sighed and took off his top hat. "You can't be suggesting that we've been doing something that we shouldn't have been doing this entire time?"

"Well, I keep wondering back to what Grandmother Willow told me, that the keyholes must not be sealed. I couldn't think of any reason for them not to be until now. Maybe they've always been affecting the worlds but we haven't noticed it until we started sealing too many of them."

Throughout this, Sora remained mostly unresponsive, occasionally glancing up with eyes of fatigued cerulean as Luna and Jiminy made their points. It was disconcerting, Luna pondered as the group once fell again into silence. Not just about what they had found out, but that she could not find ground on which to convince her friend to keep travelling with them anymore. If the armored man's words, depression and Yeul's death hadn't convinced him fully, this most certainly would.

* * *

_A/N: So this chapter technically ends Atlantis, or at least as far as this chapter of the trilogy goes anyway. More than likely I'll be releasing the next chapter on the day on the FFXV Uncovered event so please look forward to it. _


	73. Falsetto Smile

_A/N: So by the time this chapter comes out, there will be three hours left until Uncovered: Final Fantasy XV begins. Extremely hyped right now, and I have to wait until 3 in the morning over here! Anyway, after a rather disturbing shift in gears for our heroes, let's see what they make of the situation. _

* * *

**Chapter 73**

**Falsetto Smile**

Sora had long since felt the pain of being stabbed with the knife. It was aching hot but instantaneous which at least made it bearable. What he was feeling now, as she sat back on the Gummi Ship, the world of Radiant Garden within his sights, was something else entirely. This was the part where fate mercilessly twisted the blade in a most slow and agonizing way.

After finding out about the shocking history behind the Keyblade War, Sora, Luna and Jiminy moved to gather the others quickly and relay the information. After dissecting the information, Riku and Kairi arrived at the same conclusions. There was no way they couldn't. No matter how many times Sora heard the words, they were essentially clear cut with no room for interpretation—they had been saving the worlds while also potentially destroying them at the same time.

The whole thing had left the gang with a better taste in their mouths, but for Sora it felt like something he would never be able to wash out. Sora faked a smile and waved at Milo, Kida and Obby after they had all promised to come back and visit again soon. Being outside of time, the only way they could ever get to Atlantis was through the puzzle box and it was by chance then that it had been Kida who had figured out a little trick concerning the box's operations. The artefact had been made in Atlantis and each Atlantean object had a signature that gave away the date that it had been made. Using her crystal had revealed a rather weird number however that seemed more like co-ordinates than an actual date. She surmised that this was what would allow them to travel back to Atlantis on their 'spaceship'. Thinking back now, Sora only wished he had had the energy to give them a proper farewell because the truth was that he wasn't even sure if he would be coming back.

Drumming his fingers against the console panel fashioned quite the dull noise to his ears, not that he was really paying attention. His mind fell back to the library and what he had learned there. The Kairi who went missing from Atlantis was sacrificed in an experiment by Keyblade Wielders along with six others. Of course there had been many others involved in those experiments but those seven had been the survivors, at least for a while. Kairi… seven… it could not have been a coincidence, but the Kairi he knew was here with him right now.

_The torn pages, _Sora realized. Someone had taken those pages specifically for a reason. They had been to that library before them, had been to Atlantis. The only person Sora could think of was the person who had left the note behind. In that case though, it was rather strange that they wanted them to know the truth only to proceed in ripping out the pages that would explain things.

"We're here." Hearing Riku's voice behind him, Sora turned in his chair to see Riku walking up to him, his eyes focused on the windshield. Sora turned back around and cuddled his hand in between his chin and chest.

"Riku… what do we do now? I feel… like I have dirt on my hands. There's this taste in my mouth, that I can't get rid of no matter how had I try," he murmured.

"Then we may as well dig deeper. There's still KRONOS and Moira's Crescent to take care of," Riku said, putting a reassuring hand on Sora's shoulder. The problem was that Sora didn't feel the least bit reassured of anything at the moment.

* * *

Closing the door behind him, Sora stayed to the back of the group as they approached Yen Sid. He felt the sorcerer's gaze try to pierce him, to make sense of him, but Sora averted his own gaze and looked elsewhere. In truth, he would rather be anywhere but in the same room as him at the moment.

"I trust you all retuned without any problems?" Yen Sid finally asked. After leaving Atlantis, they had contacted Radiant Garden to announce their return only to find out that they had been trying to contact the group for quite some time only to receive static in their place. Mentioning that they had been to Atlantis, Sora had imagined the surprised reaction that had emerged from Yen Sid as he vehemently pushed past Cid to ask them in his head. When Yen Sid had asked if they had found anything and Kairi proceeded to talk about the book, there was a long pause, at least until Cid had regained control of the microphone.

"We brought you a candidate. This is Rapunzel," Riku introduced. Rapunzel stepped forward and placed a hand on her chest.

"It's nice to meet you, sir. This is quite a beautiful town. I can see why it's called Radiant Garden," Rapunzel said.

"It's not mine, but I'm sure Leo- excuse me, Squall, will be glad to hear that from a delightful young lady such as yourself," Yen Sid replied with a warm smile.

_Squall? That's going to be hard to get used to_, Sora thought. He guessed then that Leon must have finally reached a point where he was comfortable enough in using his real name again.

"Are Roxas, Aqua and the others back yet?" Kairi asked.

"Terra, Ventus and Aqua, yes. Right now, I have Lea on a mission to confirm the validity of the data we received from Neuge and the King. As for Roxas and Xion… unfortunately, I have heard nothing from them as of yet," Yen Sid said.

"Huh? That's weird… I mean, I'm not concerned. They can handle themselves just fine but still… it's strange that they haven't contacted you yet," Riku said. Despite his words, Sora was sure Riku was just as worried as the rest of them at this piece of news.

Yen Sid nodded. "I will give it a few more days before I consider sending a search party. Very well, you're all dismissed for now. Rapunzel, would you care to stay here for a moment? Oh, and Sora as well for that matter. I have something I need to ask you."

"I'd love to, but I'd prefer if whatever you have to say is also said in front of the others too," Sora said, making contact with him for the first time. He had a feeling he knew what Yen Sid was going to ask and even if he didn't, Sora had an agenda of his own anyway. He felt the others' confused looks upon him but he ignored them and continued staring into Yen Sid's eyes.

"Is something wrong, Sora?" Yen Sid asked.

"You want to ask me about what I did with the Princesses of Hearts, don't you?" Sora asked. "They're fine. I hid them somewhere only I knew about," Sora then turned to his friends and gave an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry I kept this from you guys. I'm sure Luna had some idea of what I was doing but I didn't tell her either."

"What's going on? Sora, what happened?" Kairi asked.

"Before leaving Radiant Garden, I feared that the princesses weren't safe enough even with Mulan's help. I talked a bit with Kefka while he was still locked away in the castle basement and it confirmed something to me. There was the possibility of a spy somewhere here working for KRONOS. The only other person who knew that other than me and Mulan was Namine. So, I went behind your backs and I hid the Princesses in Pooh's storybook."

"Pooh's storybook? But the book wasn't there when we went to Merlin's place," Luna said.

"I moved it. Gave it to someone to protect—Colette," Sora said.

"You did what?" Yen Sid was surprisingly quick to react, springing up from his chair with great speed for a man his age and slamming his hands on the table. "Do you understand how much danger Colette and her daughter could have been in if KRONOS had found out?"

"It was a risk, but it was better than nothing. Mulan, Donald, Goofy, Max and Mickey can't keep an eye on five princesses all the time. They need their rest and the princesses don't want to be cooped up all the time either," Sora explained. He needed to keep on this line of attack now. There was no going back. He pointed an accusatory finger at Yen Sid. "You're the one who thought it would be a good idea to group all the princesses together where KRONOS could easily get them. If I hadn't done what I'd done, they would probably be in Kefka's hands by now."

"Still, couldn't you have at least told us about your plans before you went through with them?" Riku asked. Sora had the feeling his best friend wasn't going to like what he had to say either.

"No, because of two reasons. The first is that when it comes to things like this, we just argue and nothing gets done because of it. Ultimately, Yen Sid gets the final say anyway so we'd have wasted a lot of time arguing over a decision that was completely out of our hands. Secondly, the less people who knew about this, the easier it would be to keep under wraps. It's not that I don't trust any of you, but KRONOS had all our information on their computer. I just couldn't take the risk."

"Despite your intentions, you still managed to cause quite a panic amongst us until Mulan soothed our fears. You didn't even tell Mulan where you had hid them. Not even she could ascertain their security even if you knew where they were," Yen Sid said.

"Well I'll apologize," Sora said. "Just not to you. I have stood here and listened to you make bad decisions consistently. Telling us to focus on Alice instead of finding Luna, finding a new candidate instead of focusing on Alice, putting the princesses all in one location… I've had enough of it-"

"Sora-" Kairi attempted to say but Sora held up his hand.

"No, Kairi. He needs to know. He needs to know now or he'll keep thinking he can get away with it." He then dropped his hand and turned back to hawkishly glare at Yen Sid. "Answer me this. Did you know whether Atlantis existed or not? Be straight with me." When Yen Sid refused to answer, Sora smiled beguilingly. He had thought Yen Sid's reaction back on the Gummi Ship had been weird. "I guess Neuge was right after all. I believe her words were something to the effect of 'you're an ignorant old fart'. Fine—if you're going to hide things from us then I'm done playing games. Consider this my resignation."

Sora summoned the Kingdom Key into his hands and looked at it for a while. This was the hardest part for Sora. He and his Keyblade had been together for so long now that it was hard to picture a life without it. That was almost like any addiction though. Having the willpower to resist was important in learning not to be dependent on something. An addiction… it was strange to consider the Keyblade in this way but even now he was having second thoughts about doing this. It was because of that that he had to go through with it. Mustering enough courage within himself, Sora placed the Kingdom Key on the table and stepped away.

"Sora, what are you…" Riku's voice fell off the face of the earth, no doubt too baffled to continue speaking.

"I'm not a Keyblade Master anymore and I won't wield the Keyblade anymore. I quit," Sora said the last part more quietly than he would have liked so he repeated it. "I quit."

The various voices around him calling out his name were all drowned out by the man at the front. "I suggest you sit down and reconsider, Sora. You're right. If you have a problem with how we're doing things then you should definitely feel free to voice your opinions."

"No, you're not listening. You're doing it again and you don't even realize it. You want me to sit down and reconsider and yet you wonder why I'm angry," Sora said.

"Sora," Yen Sid tried again, sitting down this time. "Please, calm down and we can talk-"

"Calm down? You want me to calm down and yet you continue to hide things from us and would do so anyway. It's easy for you to tell me to calm down. Here you are sitting in your chair all day long doing who knows what and we're out there. We're fighting, we're bleeding, we're hurting, and for what? Apparently for nothing since I've been sealing keyholes the entire time without knowing that I've just doomed the worlds and am about to ruin so many others' lives." Sora started pacing back and forth, feeling what he guessed must have been testosterone. He eventually stopped and turned back to Yen Sid. "You want to talk? Alright, I want my life back. I want to feel happy again. I don't want to feel like I'm a pawn in some game for you to use. Could you give me that? Could you look into my eyes and tell me that I wasn't just some pawn? That you tried at every single step to be honest with me?"

Silence was his reply. Taking it as a victory, Sora nodded and picked his Keyblade back up before making for the door. Riku grasped at Sora's shoulder to stop him but when Yen Sid raised his hand, Riku let go allowing Sora to leave. He was halfway down the corridor when he heard Luna's voice call out to him from behind. He stopped and turned to look at her.

"So you're really quitting? That's it?" she asked him once she was closer.

"Yes, I am," Sora said huskily.

Luna bobbed her head fervently. "Well, I know you haven't exactly been exactly happy for a while now so… even if it's just a little break, if it makes you happy, I'm behind you all the way. I always have and always will."

"I don't think it will be a little break but thanks," Sora said. A time of complete silence passed in which Sora found himself drowning in the blue pool of her eyes. When he eventually realized what he was doing, he blushed and looked down to her left hand. "Stay with me."

"Huh?"

"We don't have to do this anymore. Aren't you tired of it all too? I don't want you or Kairi or Riku to get hurt. There are so many other things we can do to have fun. Other people don't have the novelty we have of travelling to other worlds and yet they can still be happy with what they have," Sora said.

"Other people also don't have a Keyblade, Sora," Luna pointed out. "Let's face it. I'm not normal. I'm not even sure what I am or who I am-"

"What do you mean? Who else could you be but Luna," Sora said.

"And it sounds simple to say that but… who is Luna? I don't even know who I am. I feel like I'm taking bits and pieces of what others have told me to construct this character. I don't even know if she's real. The only thing I know is that when I'm out there, fighting, I don't have to think too much about it. It's an escape, or maybe that's who I really am and I don't know it. Maybe I even enjoy it," Luna said, laughing it off.

"What did I tell you about thinking, Luna?" Sora asked her.

"I know, but I still can't give this up. I'm going to keep fighting and when we next meet, I'll definitely have an answer to give you," Luna said.

"I know you will. I don't think you know it yet but you've grown since I first met you," Sora said. Luna blinked frantically and her head whizzed about as she looked down at her own body. Sora laughed and poked her forehead affectionately with his finger. "I'm not talking about that, you little munchkin. Anywhere, where will go now?"

"What else is there? I'm going after KRONOS… and I'm going to find Astra," Luna replied. Sora bit his lip and looked back up at her with some mirth. He was looking into a mirror, seeing a reflection of a Sora that had been more confident than the real thing at the moment. Luna had come a long way since he had met that timid girl with nothing but her name to go by all those months ago in Traverse Town. She was now very much a different person and yet at her core the one he knew back then at the same time. Her fears of changing when she got her memories back were unfounded. It wasn't the memories that had changed her but the journey. Maybe it was he who had changed too much.

"Well, we still have a few days before you leave again, right? Let's enjoy it for all it's worth," Sora said. The sound of a click from behind them sent a silent sigh escaping from his mouth. Not quite prepared, Sora turned around to face Riku and Kairi.

* * *

The next few days passed by in Luna's remaining time in Radiant Garden may not have been the best but she tried to make them as comfortable as possible for Sora, Riku and Kairi. Sora and Riku in particular had not gotten on well ever since Sora had made his announcement in front of them and Yen Sid. The two would generally avoid each other whenever possible but spending time with each of them on separate occasions at least gave her an idea of what they were thinking about.

For Riku who wanted nothing more than to keep his friend safe, his intentions seemed cloudy to Luna at best. The way he talked about taking out Moira's Crescent and KRONOS, it seemed like he was more outright concerned with taking revenge on them than actually protecting Sora. He kept referring back to the Sora's poisoning, him being battered and bruised to a point of near death by Desiree and Kairi's attempted assassination in his reasoning for why they had to move quickly to "stifle whatever options they both have left" as Riku put it. In the end, he may as well have just said to her eliminate every single one of them, though she supposed if he had then he wouldn't be allaying her fears that that would include Astra too.

As for Sora, Luna was sure to spend time with him in their secret place, the lake near the back of the school shrouded by tall plants. Asking what Sora was planning to do now, his reply was a simple one.

"Whatever it is that normal people do, I guess," he said as he threw a smooth pebble across the water. The pebble skipped thrice across the water's surface before losing its momentum.

Luna picked up her own pebble. "You're going to find that to be a lot of things. Come on, be more specific."

Sora nodded as Luna's pebble skipped four times before sinking. "Well, I don't know, I've never really… thought about it. I mean, if I could still make people happy without actually going to other worlds to make others happy then that would be wonderful. I'm sure I can work with Leon and the others for a while. Help with the town and all that."

Luna smiled and cupped her hands together, swaying gently. "Weeeelllllll," Luna adopted a sing song voice as she said this. "Since, you know, I obviously knew you were going to be lonely while I was away, I looked around for a job for you. I found one. Congratulations, you get to be Even's lab assistant!"

Sora stared at her with an emotionless expression for a while before asking, "What?"

Luna's smile turned into a broad grin and then roaring laughter. "Oh, you should see the look on your face! Gotcha!"

Sora rolled his eyes and gave her a lopsided smile. "You could have been the cause of a serious heart attack there. Me and Vexen, working together? I'd sooner rather have Donald shouting in my ear an entire day."

"Well, I wasn't joking about the looking for a job thing for you. Scrooge came back from Disney Town along with Huey, Dewey and Louie. He told me that he was looking to start a brand new invention that would make him millions— well he cut off before he could say that last part but I could tell he was getting there. Anyway, he asked me to ask you if you wanted to enter into a partnership with him," Luna said.

"Well, he's got a lovable accent so why not?" Sora replied with a laugh. The two of them spent the rest of the day with Stephanie and Colette playing a long game of _Monopoly _that was more frustrating for Luna than it was for the rest of them. She had an incredibly good time overall though and once she was out of money she found herself supporting Stephanie to beat Colette and Sora.

Now as she sat in Even's laboratory for another one of her tests, she had no choice but to mull over the previous days' events out of boredom. Looking up, she saw Even sitting next to rather expensive equipment, the very same as those used in the hospital, though that was to be expected. All technology was the very latest and developed by Xanatos Enterprises.

"So tell me something. Have you found out anything else about the Chimera?" Luna asked. The tips of her digits were digging into the arm rests harder than she'd realized so she relaxed them. "There was this guy back in Atlantis. He was a Chimera who could change back into his human form at will. He said… that he and all other Chimera are able to control the Heartless, kind of like a- a conduit, was how he described it. Do you think that's true?"

Even rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I suppose that's possible, yes. You know, the greatest gift Abraxas gave us was the ability to understand what he was trying to do."

"I'm sorry?"

"The ISOs, Isomorphic lifeforms perfect in every way possible, at least of those that can be measured. Not even my data replicas hold a candle to them as difficult as that it to admit. By studying these ISOs that have recently appeared in the system, you can get a good idea of how the Chimera project was supposed to work. You are of course familiar with the Isopteran and Hymenopteran orders, yes?"

Luna opened her mouth to speak. "No."

Even hissed. "Simpletons. I refer to the termites of the Isopteran order with the other order, the third largest rank in the insect kingdom might I add, being reserved for ants, bees and wasps."

_Well why didn't you just say that then? _Luna breathed a sigh of annoyance through her nostrils before replying, "Okay, let's pretend I know nothing about ants or termites and just explain this to me in layman's terms."

Even was clearly not pleased with her dripping obvious sarcasm but continued anyway. "These insects all have something in common in that they're eusocial beings. They collaborate together to build their colonies and make their eco systems work as they should. They tend to have a hive mind of sorts where they share information and decisions with each other without having to directly communicate, unlike humans who are individualistic at our most fundamental. Now in, let's say a colony of ants, you have the queen ant and the workers and soldiers. Tasks are spread out amongst the workers and egg-layers also known as division of labor, then you have the overlapping of generations by the mother and adult offspring and finally you have the cooperative care of their younglings. With me so far?"

Luna nodded her head slowly. She hadn't really absorbed everything but she understood the basics and had an idea of where he was going with the analogy.

Even continued, "So it naturally came to my brilliant mind one day to check the synchronization rates between two ISOs. I had Tron find two ISOs who had never met before and ran tests on them. They would both be in separate debug rooms that I had made where they would have to help each other to get out of their own rooms. Would you believe it? A perfect sync rate between the two. It was as if they didn't need to even communicate with one another to know what the other was telling them. It was beautiful, it was… inhuman."

"Okay…" Luna said, starting to feel more than creeped out by Even's clear obsession and excitement.

"Of course I ran a few more tests for concrete validity. The groups that performed were the ISO-ISO pair, the ISO-Program pair and the Program-Program pair. In each of these groups it was always the ISO-ISO pair that performed on a perfect synchronization rate. That was when I realized. The hive mind, that idea of eusociality that is often found in the insects, was also to be found in the ISOs. The Chimera program probably aimed to replicate that effort. In that case, you and the other Chimeras would be the queens and kings and the lesser Heartless, your workers and soldiers. Put simply, if you really wanted to, you would be able to control the Heartless. If you aren't already."

"I'm sure you'd like that, you creep," Luna muttered under her breath but it seemed that it hadn't been quiet enough for Even not to hear.

"I would, actually, but alas, beggars can't be choosers," Even said. He walked up to her and then did something most unusual. He took a whiff of her.

"Okay, what the hay? I knew you were a creep but a pervert too? First the monopoly game and now this. Just my luck," Luna said, recoiling in shock.

"Don't be foolish." Even pulled away before turning his back. For a second, Luna thought of grabbing the nearest object and giving the scientist a good bump on the head to wake up to. "Did you know that a single honey bee can cause entire physical and behavioural changes in the other bees in a hive? They call it pheromones. Now, Heartless by their nature are not eusocial. They're quite selfish and live in their own little bubble, thus they tend to be quite competitive amongst themselves. I've seen quite a few Heartless around the garden acting strange recently, quite different from their normal behaviour patterns. Now I wonder why that could be. Incapable of change yet change they do. Would you have any idea?" Even riddled.

"Are you saying it's because the Chimera's pheromones are affecting the physiology of the Heartless or something like that?"

"You're quicker than you lead one to believe," Even replied.

"Hey, what's that even mean?"

"Yes, indeed. I believe that it's because of you that the relationship between Heartless has become mutualistic rather than parasitic. Heartless benefit each other without the risk of harming the other and the same can be applied to Heartless and Chimera. Well, I suppose you would be the exception since you go after Heartless. I have a feeling though that soon enough they will not be able to distinguish their scent from yours. It depends on how quickly they evolve, of course. Mimicry, a similarity between two species that protects one or both of them, tends to allow for faster evolution. If that happens, then we may be witnessing the eradication of the Heartless, but in a completely different way than I ever could have imagined. Evolutionary assimilation, if you will."

As Even laughed, Luna could feel the shackles around her body tightening. Even no doubt found it interesting, perhaps he even wanted to observe and see what happened next, but she was not some play thing for his fascination and studies. If Even's theory was right then she was affecting the growth and change of the Heartless without even knowing it. She remembered back to what Sora had told her about Syndrome's motivations. He had also referred to something about a hive mind and how he wanted to use the Heartless to get rid of the Heartless. So this was how KRONOS would accomplish that. They needn't do a thing but sit back and watch as the Chimera changed the behavioural processes of the Heartless to make them anything but what they originally were. She suspected then that they would try to protect the remaining Chimeras at all cost, but even if they didn't, they were still fine. KRONOS still had her.

* * *

"How is everyone taking it?" Kairi asked Sora. The two were standing on the rooftop of the castle overlooking the orange sky and town underneath. They had promised to wait for Luna here while she went off to finish her examination with Even.

"They were all pretty surprised when I told them but I think they understood things when I fully explained to them. You can always count on Donald and Goofy for getting behind your back when you need it so I felt a little more confident afterwards. Neuge… well, on the surface she seemed glad that I had made the choice but I think somewhere deep down she was sad that I wouldn't be training with her anymore. Well, she still has Luna so that's something," Sora told her.

"At least you'll be there to keep her company while Luna's gone then. Get ready for her to invite you to a bar ever single night from now on," Kairi touted.

"Crap, didn't think about that." Sora chuckled, his mouth turning upside down. "Hmm, well she's gonna have to find someone else. You know— underage and all that. By the way, did they find anything on Roxas and Xion yet?"

Kairi groaned a negative. "I'm worried. Something definitely happened to them. There's no other reason they would take this long to communicate with us otherwise. If KRONOS has them or something then-"

"Then we need to finish them quickly. I'm eighty five per cent sure there's a spy hiding somewhere here. The least I can do for you guys while you're gone is find them," Sora said. "But hold onto hope. If I know Roxas and Xion, wherever they are, they won't go down that easy."

"You're right. Lea should be back by tomorrow anyway with whatever he's got, and then we'll proceed from there. We just have to keep our calm and proceed normally," Kairi tried to convince herself more so than Sora. He admired her level-headedness and tact at the most dire of times such as these. Her ability to quickly switch and maintain her cool was a strength that could make even the most hardened of opponents think twice. He pitied the enemy who came in to contact with this one.

"Sora… I've always been dancing around this, but I need to know…" Kairi said something after this so quietly that Sora hadn't picked up on it.

"Sorry? I didn't quite hear that," Sora told her.

"I… want you to… kiss me," Kairi said, averting her eyes. A breath escaped both their mouths at a similar time. Sora wasn't quite sure he heard correctly what Kairi had said.

"Excuse me?"

"I need to know something, so I want you to kiss me… or maybe I should kiss you," Kairi said clumsily.

So he was unmistaken. He had heard correctly the first time then.

"Ah." Sora bit his lower lip and suddenly began to feel really uncomfortable. It was true that there had been numerous evenings and nights where he had spent time alone with Kairi watching the sunset or underneath the beautiful stars respectively. He had felt at peace with her as he did now, looking upon the town in front of him. Now was the moment of truth. Sora had been running away from it and Kairi had trapped him in a corner. He wouldn't dare make an excuse at the expense of hurting her feelings. More than anything, this would be his first actual kiss with a girl.

"Kairi, I-" But the redhead held her finger to his lips to silence him. There was definitely no running away now. Kairi leaned in. He could smell a nice flowery fragrance emanating from her as she did. Sora was paralyzed. He felt like a lost little kid completely out of his element, like coming in for the first day of school. Sora's eyes only briefly wandered down to Kairi's rosy lips before they became obscured by her snub shaped nose. Their lips met, Sora tasting cherry on his lips. The kiss lasted for a few more seconds before he found himself putting his hands on Kairi's shoulders, separating them both.

"Is something wrong?" Kairi asked.

_Yes_, is what Sora wanted to say. It wasn't that he hadn't liked it exactly, but at the same time he felt like he was doing something incredibly guilty. Images of _her _had flashed in his mind like lightning as he had kissed Kairi. He just couldn't do it.

"I'm sorry, Kairi, I can't. I love you, I really do, as a friend and I'll protect you at whatever the cost but I can't…"

_Can't let you be consumed by my darkness._

Whatever he was facing right now, the pain, the suffering he felt. He would never want anyone to share that with him. Even the girl he had been thinking of, whom he had fallen for over the past weeks, or maybe even more… he could not make her suffer his torment. This fight was his and his alone. He knew something was wrong with him, ever since the moment he had Desiree submitting to him in their second battle, where he had wanted so much to inflict on her the pain she had inflicted on him, or maybe even before then when he had so mercilessly sent Maleficent to her death. There was a demon living inside him and until he could defeat it, destroy it, then he could not trust himself. He couldn't trust that he wouldn't fulfil the Seer's vision and be responsible for the destruction of the worlds. He couldn't trust himself to be anywhere close to his friends or even start a relationship with one of them.

"I understand. It was wrong of me in the first place to force that on you. I just… needed to know how you felt," Kairi said. Sora was surprised to see that she didn't seem hurt by this rejection. If anything, it almost seemed like she was expecting it. "I just want you to know that we'll always be here for you when you need us. I always will. I love you too, as a friend."


	74. The Dead Man's Chest

_So that Uncovered event for FFXV was quite the thing. A movie, anime, Florence + The Machine and a flying car to boot. Who could ask for more? Well, I certainly wouldn't blame you for asking for more CotP chapters, that's what. So seeing as we've been to Notre Dame, Hawaii, Dwarf Woodlands (kind of), Monster's Inc., Nottingham, Victorian London, Nomanisan Island, The Grid, Virginia, New Orleans, Corona and Atlantis, what could possibly be next? Oh, I see we're missing our obligatory pirates world._

* * *

**Chapter 74**

**The Dead Man's Chest**

Two more days passed with no word for Roxas and Xion. There was little time to waste. The group would split up again after what seemed like such a short time together. Sora found himself standing while the others walked ahead of him. They would all be leaving without him this time. It felt strange to think that when they come back, he might barely even recognize them at all. No, that was simply stupid to think such a thing. It would only be a short time and the others were so accustomed to travelling to other worlds that Sora doubted much could change them.

Still, he wondered as he entered the Gummi Hangar, if this was how people confined to their own worlds felt when they met him again after so long. It was certainly how his parents had felt. They could not believe that the boy that was standing in front of them was the same as the one who had departed their home over a year ago.

"This is it then," Sora declared with a sigh as they arrived at the departure gates that separated them from the Gummi Ships. They would usually have to travel through a long tunnel that took them out of the city before emerging out on the other side of the world.

"This is it," Kairi replied in agreement. She looked from Riku to Sora and back to Riku again in worry. "Okay, I'm not letting us leave until you resolve this petty issue between the two of you."

Riku looked at Sora before turning his and walking off to the Gummi Ship, shouting back at him. "Look after Rapunzel!"

"You know I'm not going to let Yen Sid perform that purification process on her right? I'll oppose him if I have to," Sora said. Riku stopped and eventually turned around, a smile on his face.

"I'm counting on it," Riku said. With that he placed his hands back in his pockets and entered the Gummi Ship.

"Well that was rather rude. Talk about spitting at an olive branch!" Donald criticized from Sora's side. He, Goofy and Jiminy would be going along with Luna at her personal request along with Yuna, Rikku and Paine via a transferring spell Merlin had performed, moving the ability to summon them over to Luna. Meanwhile, Max would once again be tagging along with Kairi and Riku.

"Riku is Riku," Sora said. He cocked his head to the left and smiled. He liked to think that this was a small but important step forward in reconciling their friendship. Riku, of course, would play stubborn and insist that he was correct but that was fine. Sora would play stubborn too. This was nothing unusual for them.

"You'll be okay, Kairi? You're stuck with a real piece of work, y'know," Luna asked her with a chuckle.

"All the more satisfaction when I make a nice piece of art then. I'll have Max with me as well so I'll be fine," Kairi said. "Okay, time to go. Don't worry, wherever Roxas and Xion are, we'll definitely bring them back. Luna, good luck with Astra. I hope everything goes well for you. You deserve it."

"Thank you. Good luck to you too," Luna said. Kairi gave each of them a farewell hug—much to Donald's reluctance— finishing off with Sora, before gesturing for Max to follow with her head.

"Max," Goofy called out to him. "Be sure to brush your teeth, and don't forget to go to bed early. You don't want to drag Riku and Kairi down now, do ya?"

"Got it, I got it, dad. See you when I see you," Max said, following after Kairi.

"And not a moment later," Goofy added with a chuckle. The two soon disappeared into the stomach of the Gummi Ship and the doors closed soon afterwards. This left Sora, Luna, Donald and Goofy to walk over to the next gate for where the other Gummi Ship was being prepared.

"Just a few more minutes, guys. Almost done refuelling," Chip said to them, popping out and back in the Gummi Ship as if he were a part of a whac-a-mole game.

"I guess we should say our goodbyes then, Sora," Luna said. One hand was locked by the other behind her back and she looked as if she were about to cry at any moment. "I don't want to think that I'll never be able to go anywhere with you ever again. I know it's selfish of me, but please don't leave me alone."

Sora smiled and put his hand on Luna's shoulder. "Take care of her like you did me, guys," Sora addressed Donald and Goofy.

"Luna, as lonely as it might seem without Sora, he's never left your side and he never will. We'll always be together, even when we're apart," Goofy comforted her.

"That's right. All for one and one for all!" Donald exclaimed.

"You see, Luna? We're all connected. The bonds that make our friendship, can't be so easily broken, even when we take different roads from each other," Sora said before pulling her into a hug.

"Sora, when I get back, I need to tell you something," Luna said as they parted.

"You can't tell me now?"

"It's not the right time. I promise, when I want you to know, you'll definitely know," Luna said.

"Oh, that doesn't sound ominous or anything," Sora said sarcastically.

Luna laughed. "It's a good thing, really. Well, it's good if you want it to be."

"I should have you know that I'm not a very patient person when it comes to riddles, unlike some people," Sora said. "So you better return soon so I can hear the answer to that."

"Alright. We're good to go. You're prepped and ready." It was Dale this time who announced the update even though both chipmunks had come out at the same time.

Luna gave a nod at them and looked back to Sora. "I will or you might just cry your eyes out from missing me so much."

"Oh, I'm sure I won't," Sora said with a mischievous smile. Luna smiled and gave him another hug before entering the Gummi Ship. This was a different one from the Highwind that Riku, Kairi and Max were riding in. In fact, it was the very same ship that Cid and the group had travelled in when they had come to the town from Traverse Town, or in Cid's words, "consider it a goddam honor."

After saying his goodbyes to Donald and Goofy, he was left to stand by himself and watch as the two Gummi Ships set off through the tunnel, one after the other. After another minute of feeling suddenly lonely, he came to realize that it wasn't that they were walking ahead of him. He turned his back and began walking, a hopeful smile on his face. He was simply choosing to walk a different path now.

* * *

Salome's skipping down the hallway was interrupted by the cries of a wailing pirate behind bars. As he continued to beg for her to come back, Salome smiled and skipped backwards, stopping just outside of Captain James Hook's cell. He hadn't been easy to find, but tracking the Jolly Roger's position had allowed Jill and Desiree to capture it, Hook's crew and even the captain himself.

"Ahoy! Have you decided to talk now?" Salome asked sweetly.

"Come on, just let me out! I don't know fiddlesticks about what goes on in KRONOS!" Hook yelled, jumping up and down as one would expect a petulant child to do so.

"I don't think you understand the position you're in, Hooky. You've been a very naughty man, haven't you? Lying can only make things worse, though I suppose that's what you pirates pride yourself on best." Salome wrapped her hands around the bars and rested her forehead up against the cold metal. "Pride can be a beautiful thing—when it's not in the hands of the arrogant, at least. Though I didn't know him much, my father served in the Emperor's imperial army for a while. I could be proud of him and especially proud of my mother who worked all day in the paddy fields. I was a single child who only had my friends in the village to play with. One evening when I was returning from the village, I opened the door of my house to find my fallen mother and a man standing above her with a steel sword in his hand. Back in the day, the Mongols were feared among many villagers. They pillaged and destroyed in their attempts to take the Imperial City. My mother fell to them, as soon did my entire village. As for me, I ran. I ran as far as my feet could carry, all the way to the mountains. And when my feet hurt, I forced them to walk some more. I was angry at my father for not being there for my mother. The honor of the family name meant nothing if the person I had looked up to for most of my life was unable to take pride in it with me.

"I found out just recently actually that my father was felled by the Heartless when the world was destroyed. I can't even confront him about it now, not that I would want to. I've found a new beginning here, and a new family. The funny thing is, I'm not angry at him anymore. I'm sure he had his regrets, I'm sure he even died thinking I was dead as well, but he died doing his duty. I'm sure it's what my mother would have wanted. I have a duty similar to his so in a way I'm carrying on my family's legacy, even as we speak. So where's your honor, Hooky?"

"It probably slipped away while I had to sit through that boring story of yours, I'd imagine," Hook said, letting out an exaggerated yawn. Salome silently snickered, attempting to cover her mouth in the process. As Hook raised his brow, Salome dropped her hand and burst out into a fit of giggles.

"Oh, that's… funny. You know, you'd make… a great comedian," Salome said in between her laughter. She shut her eyes and mouth tight and placed her hand back on her hand for a few seconds, trying to regain her composure. "Okay, okay, I'm done. I really am. Well, I should go before I start up- hehehe- uhm, again. In the meantime, you know what you need to do if you want to get out of here."

Salome made to turn again, but Hook called out again to stop her. "Wait! A true gentleman never surrenders without a little negotiation first."

"Well, I don't know if you can call yourself a gentleman given that you spend your time chasing little kids but okeydokey, I'm up for listening," Salome said.

A few minutes later, Salome knocked on the study room door with a satisfied smirk on her face. Receiving the okay from her boss, Salome opened the door and walked into a room she had admittedly spent little time in. Books were just not her thing. What little time she spent to herself was practicing her violin in garden.

"Kohle, look who got a confession out of the mean old pirate!" Salome announced with a grin fitting of her child-like features.

"Excellent work, Salome. How did you get him to talk?" Kohle asked. He quickly inserted a bookmark in between the pages and closed the book shut.

"I guess he just realized the risk wasn't worth it. I mean, he wanted full immunity… and I may or may not have offered him a job here as our bartender. Anyway, here's the list of people he gave me," Salome said, producing a notebook in front of her.

"Well who said rehabilitation can't work? But do keep an eye on him all the same," Kohle said with a laugh. He accepted and ran through the names with a hum of approval. "Some of these I can't say I know but we were definitely right about a few of them. Well, that's if the good Captain is telling the truth. You know, despite me telling her to go along with Rhea, she insisted that she wanted to verify the Intel she gathered. Looking at this list, I guess she was right," he replied with a smirk on his lips. "This will be her first solo mission. It's an important step for her."

"Asty's sure got eyes of fire. I think she just wants to make it up to us as much as possible. Where is she going anyway?" Salome asked.

* * *

"More of these things? You can't be serious. They're like zits or something. You pop one of them only more to come back," yelled a blue-coated soldier, almost tripping backwards as he tried to back away from the creatures. An Air Pirate Heartless swooned into attack, but the man evaded and aimed his rifle at it before pulling the trigger. Smoke poured out from the gun's barrel as the shot just about made connection with the Heartless, clipping its wings.

"Stand your ground, men. If we don't stop them here we won't be able to stop them anywhere," said one Lord Cutler Beckett. "It is our duty to protect the people of this town. Give them no reason to be intrepid of you."

"I'll handle it from here!"

Beckett turned in surprise at the female newcomer. In all his time at Port Royal he had never seen a girl like her before. He jumped in surprise as the girl ran fearlessly up to the clipped Heartless and struck it, an oversized key of some kind appearing in her hands. The girl jumped back after taking out the creature and looked at him.

"The name's Astra, you can thank me later. Right now though, you're kind of getting in my way," she said. Beckett was shaken out of his stupor not by her gesturing head telling him to leave but his right-hand man instead.

"M'lord, I don't know who she is but I suggest we do what the young lady says. It's not worth risking our men," Ian Mercer advised, placing a hand on his superior's shoulder.

"Yes… yes, you're quite right. Then we'll leave it to you," Beckett said. He looked at the rest of the men and motioned for them to follow.

When the area cleared out, Astra sprung straight into action. She bounced through the Heartless like a pinball, clearing them all in a single hit. The last remaining ground Pirate Heartless, seeing the others disappear at the drop of a hat, attempted to run away only to be taken out by Astra throwing the Keyblade.

"Hmm, I think I'm getting as good as Desiree." Astra vanished her Keyblade and looked at her hands. She dropped them as the group of soldiers led by Beckett and Mercer returned to the area.

"That was quite impressive. I've never seen such skill before outside of the East India Company. You wouldn't happen to be a pirate, would you?" Beckett asked.

"A pirate? Wait, there are pirates here?" Astra asked. Quickly realizing that asking such a question would be seen as a strange response from someone native of the world, she cleared her throat. As she searched around quickly, her eyes settled on a port in the distance and she smiled. "I mean, I'm kind of new around here. I just happened to arrive by ship so I don't really know the place that well."

"Well, I thank you all the same for coming to our aid. Welcome to Port Royal. I'm Lord Beckett and this is my assistant, Ian Mercer." The man held up his hand and Astra shook it. Judging from the title and obvious white wig, she figured he must have been a very important and prestigious person.

"Astra. You mentioned the East India Company? You run it?"

"I'm the Governor. More precisely the name is called the East India Trading Company but we exercise our influence through more than just trading, as you can see," Beckett said, looking at the soldiers behind him.

"So you enforce the law around here then," Astra said. Beckett nodded. He was about to say something else when Mercer leaned in and whispered something into his ear. Astra could only guess at what Mercer was saying based on the smirk playing on Beckett's face but it probably wasn't good. Mercer soon leaned away and Beckett turned his attention back to Astra with the look of someone who had suddenly seen value in something originally thought to be worth very little.

"Astra, as skilled a person in combat as you are, I believe you would be of some help to us. You see, we have a problem, one that threatens to disrupt both order and progress. The world is changing but there are those who would refuse to change along with it. One such an individual has time and again chosen to mark himself as the quintessential contour of the bunch. Jack Sparrow."

"And you want me too…?"

"There is something in that pirate's possession that I wish to possess—a compass," Beckett answered.

"What's so important about a compass? You can't get one from any old store?" Astra asked.

"Ah, but it is not any old compass that I desire. This particular compass is special. Tell me, Astra, what is it that you desire most?"

"Huh?" Astra wasn't sure whether he was trying to win her over or whether there actually was a point to asking that. Looking at his attire, she could tell that he probably afford a luxurious lifestyle in comparison to most of the townsfolk she had seen on her way here, but she certainly didn't need any of it.

"It was rhetorical. Please, do join me in my quarters. We can discuss more over some tea and scones," Beckett said.

Astra folded her arms and looked away thoughtfully for a moment. A policy of Moira's Crescent was not to get directly involved in other worlds. Even if she cared to help them, and she didn't, she would only risk playing sides in something that seemed heavily political.

"I'm sorry, but I can't. I'm looking for someone and I need to be one my way. I'm not even sure where they are actually. Do you know someone named Davy Jones?" she asked instead. Beckett's smile faded from his face and he exchanged questioning looks with Mercer before returning his gaze back to Astra. Had she said something funny?

"It appears you and I have more in common than I first thought. Where interests align, it only makes sense to help each other out then, no?"

"Wait, so you mean you're also looking for him?" Astra asked.

Beckett seemed to consider his answer for a moment before answering. "In a way, but to do so we both need something first."

"The compass," Astra answered, filling in the questioning hole previously left.

"Precisely. So will you reconsider?"

Astra nodded. "Since I have no clues to go on, I'll be happy to join you. I'm pretty hungry anyway."

Beckett smiled and dismissed the other soldiers before leading Mercer and Astra through the town. On their way to Beckett's mansion, Astra filled them in on the creatures and that the weapon she held was the only way of permanently discarding them. She mentioned that specifically on purpose because it was usually a good measure of checking to see who had and had not heard of the Keyblade. If they had then there was probably a need for Astra to be cautious around them. Beckett expressed some curiosity, as anyone usually would, but nothing of his or Mercer's behaviour would have suggested that they knew about it in some capacity. There was also the fact that they didn't know about the Heartless in the first place, of course.

Passing through a plantation, they soon arrived at a cliff where the mansion was situated. Just before she entered, she looked in the opposite direction to see the brilliant sparkling ocean. She was sure plenty would have killed for such a view so Beckett could count himself as very lucky man. As expected, the interior of the mansion was rich and extravagant in a way befitting a governor. She found herself following a ruby red carpet all the way up the stairs, observing some of the whitest pottery she had ever seen. They soon arrived in a room in the back with a balcony that overlooked the port. Beckett turned to Mercer and asked of him to wait outside. The door soon closed behind them, leaving Astra and Beckett alone.

"So this compass… are you telling me it's a magic compass that shows you what you desire most?" she finally asked, watching as he poured tea from a teapot into two separate cups.

"Yes, and Davy Jones is who you want to find?" Beckett asked. Within seconds he had a bunch of what Astra assumed were the scones he had mentioned earlier on two separate plates. Having never tasted one before, Astra immediately went for the scones rather than the tea like Beckett. What was a mixture between jam and a creamy mesh melted in her mouth and she smiled. This added with the sugar and butter she also tasted caused her to shake her head in approval. Having been to Luna's Aunt Kit's Bakery a lot of times, she had acquired a certain palette expectation when it came to sweets and the thing she was eating now certainly matched that expectation.

"Mmph, I mean yes. Well, maybe someone else as well," Astra said, going right after another scone. If this compass Beckett so desperately wanted could lead them to Davy Jones, then perhaps it could work outside of the world as well.

"You'll have to have the most stalwart of desires. From what I understand, if you desire something more than the thing you want it to point to, it will still only point to the most desirable thing," Beckett said, as if reading Astra's mind.

_Then I might be able to find Luna with it_, Astra realized. It was certainly worth a shot anyway.

"If I help you, once you've finished with whatever it is you need for the compass, I can have it?" Astra asked.

"If that is what you wish, I can't see why not," Beckett replied with a smile.

Astra took a sip of her tea and kept the cup held in her hands. "You said 'in a way' back in town when I asked whether you were looking for Davy Jones. What did you mean by that?"

"I'm glad you asked. You see, finding Jones and hoping to come out unscathed is quite the optimistic outcome. He's the ruler of the seas and a fisher of souls. His ship, the Flying Dutchman serves as a morbid coffin of servitude for those on the cusp of life and death. At least, that's what the legends say. I've obviously never met him otherwise I wouldn't be here. If you want to see Jones and even better, return alive, you'll need something, an unbeatable hand that turns the game completely in your favor—The Dead Man's Chest."

"Dead Man's Chest?" Astra repeated.

"It is said that whoever has control of the chest has control of Davy Jones," answered Beckett. He reached over the table and picked up a red apple, turning it with his hand.

"And what's in the chest?" Astra asked.

Beckett stopped rotating the apple, his eyes flickering over to Astra. "The heart of Davy Jones."

Tea spluttered in every direction from Astra's mouth. "You've got to be kidding, right? You don't mean like a possession he values dearly or something, you mean his actual heart? Do you expect me to believe that?"

"Choose to believe it or not, once you deliver the compass to us, your beliefs will hardly matter. But to answer your question, I do very much mean his actual heart," Beckett said, clearly enjoying the bemused expression on Astra's face.

"But how is he still…" Astra was starting to get the feeling that she had taken on more than she could chew. Her first solo mission and she had already gotten tangled up in complex political affairs and a guy whose heart wasn't even in his own body.

"He's more beast than man. Anyway, I'd already arranged for someone else to find Sparrow but I think you can catch up with him if you leave soon. His name is Will Turner, an associate of Sparrow who I believe is my best chance of obtaining the compass," Beckett said.

"If he's an associate, how can you be sure he'll even help you?" Astra asked.

"Because he and his betrothed who is currently being held at Fort Charles are officially charged under the Crown with aiding the escape of said pirate who was to be executed some time ago. If he wants a full acquittal for both of their crimes then he won't hesitate betray Sparrow. Of course, you being with him will also ensure that the compass reaches my hands."

"I see." Astra finished off the last scone and set the cup down before nodding. "Alright, I'll do it."

"Excellent. Now word has it that Mr. Turner was recently seen in Tortuga. A ship is set to leave there soon and you'll be on it. Once you reach there you are on your own. We cannot help you, understand?" Beckett asked. Having written something while they were talking, he finished stamping down on it and held it up for Astra to take. "Hand this over the captain. It's a letter of request that should get you on board."

"Alright, I'll be on my way then. Just so long as you keep your end of the bargain," Astra said with a small smile. Ultimately, she didn't care whether he kept his promise or not. Astra certainly didn't plan on keeping hers.

* * *

_Two Days Later…_

Luna waded her way through the water in annoyance as she, Donald and Goofy tried to reach dry land. It seemed that the Gummi Ship had teleported them just off the fringe of beach that they could see ahead of them by quite some ways away. It wasn't anything that a little swim couldn't handle but it had left Luna's clothes wet. In fairness, it was because of her poor calculation that they had materialized in the water in the first place.

"This is the last time I let you drive the Gummi Ship," Donald moaned.

"Hey, it could be worse. We could be in the belly of a whale by now, hyuck!" Goofy humored them.

"Ugh, don't remind me. Just thinking about how warm it was inside that thing just makes me wanna throw up!" Donald snapped.

"You were inside a whale? You must have had a whale of a time. Haha, get it? Because you're in a whale and… oh dear," Luna said, seeing her joke fall as flat as Donald's expressionless gaze.

"I'm just gonna pretend you never said that," Donald said.

"I thought it was funny," Goofy chipped in.

"Hey, what's that over there?" Luna asked. She pointed to a strange looking ship with black sails stranded on the beach to the left of them.

"Y'know, I can't help but think that that ship looks awfully familiar somehow," Goofy said, scratching at his head.

"You've been here then?" Luna asked.

"Hmm, not here especially but the ship… WAK! That's the Black Pearl!" Donald exclaimed.

"It kinda does look like it, but what's it doing all the way out here? This isn't Port Royal," Goofy said.

Luna waved her hands about dramatically. "Er, guys? Clueless newbie here!"

"Oops, sorry. Sora, Goofy and I last came to this world a long time ago. We helped one of the pirates here take down another pirate named Barbossa who had control of the Black Pearl. Now Jack has it. I wonder if he's here," Donald said.

"Pirates? You said pirates, right? WOO HOO! Argh, me mateys, it's time to scavenge the land in search of some booty," Luna imitated excitedly.

"Nah, you're mistaken. These are a different kind of pirates," Donald said. "As in the greedy, scary kind."

"Well I'm sure they can't all be that bad," Luna said, reassuring mainly herself that her dreams weren't about to be shattered into a thousand pieces. She had loved playing pirate in the school playground with Astra and she wasn't about to let Donald influence her opinion in any way.

Once they all reached land, Donald quickly performed a spell which quickly dry cleaned their clothes. As this was happening, Luna looked around and scanned their surrounding area. They were on a tropical island with plenty of trees ascending up in a slope. Their terrain was a mountainous one and seemed unlikely to have anyone living there, though the presence of the Black Pearl would at least hint at some form of life being on the island. The other possibility was that the ship had just washed up onto shore after some terrible incident but Luna chose to hope that its crewmembers were alright.

Tilting her head slightly, she smiled, glad that the latter seemed more possible. She had just noticed that the ship was anchored down to the beach with thick rope, something that definitely could not have been accomplished without human hands. So there were people on the island, and considering the number of people it would take to maintain such a ship, there probably wasn't just one person.

"Alright, I think if we head up the mountain we're bound to come across something. If your friend is here then he and his crew might need help," Luna said once the wind cast from Donald's staff had subsided. All that was left in its wake was a natural nice breeze and salty air that Luna wouldn't have minded just standing around and letting it take her were it any other circumstance.

"You might be right. Why, look there," Jiminy said from Goofy's shoulder, pointing at the top of the mountain. Smoke could be seen from their location as it danced up into the otherwise cloudless sky.

"A fire? Hmm, the smoke's not thick enough for it to be a big one. I guess someone must have started it. Okay, let's hurry then," Donald ordered.

Luna took the lead as they started their way through the trees and up the steep climb to the source of the smoke. A few minutes later, they emerged out to see a small village full of huts. Perhaps even stranger was that it was suspiciously quiet, resulting from the lack of presence in the village.

"Where is everyone?" Luna asked, looking around. The trio entered the first hut they came across to see what was expensive silver cutlery and other items that meshed incompatibly with hut they were in. Investigating the other huts as well, they found similar looking silverware. Luna picked up one of the forks near her and inspected it closely, furrowing her brow as she read what was on the back. "EITC? Must be an abbreviation for something. You guys have any idea?"

"Never heard of it before," Donald replied and Goofy nodded his head. "Maybe Jack brought these with him on to the island."

"Wouldn't that imply that he was planning on settling here though? I mean, it makes no sense that he'd come here of all places, right? Then the fire… I don't know, maybe they're just cooking something," Luna said, trying to make sense out of it all.

"Yeah, it's pretty unusual. Anyway, let's keep moving. We're close to the smoke," Donald suggested. Luna smiled and put the fork back down. As she made to leave the hut she froze in place, Donald walking into her back." Hey, what's the big idea?"

In front of them was a strange looking boy. Other than being shirtless, he wore material that Luna could only imagine was gathered from the environment around them. War paint covered his face and upper body, and last but not least he held a spear in his hand.

"Uh, hey, it's nice to meet you. Are you with Jack?" Luna asked him, trying to flash her best smile despite the creepiness she felt exuding from the boy. The boy only continued to stare at her though something changed— something she felt uncomfortable about. His still expression suddenly changed to a hungry grin, something that caused her to shrink back. She laughed awkwardly. "Ha, ha, ha, well, you know… for some moments in life, there are _really_ no words. This is one of them so… we'll just be running along now, right, guys?"

"Err, yeah… but we'll be sure to send you a postcard," Donald gulped out. Both of them and Goofy eased their way around the boy before setting off into a run. They cut through a thicket of trees and arrived in a clearing only to be stopped short once again by the group of similar looking warrior-like individuals with spears.

"Oh boy, we're surrounded!" Goofy yelled. Luna turned around to see more of the warriors popping out from the trees they had come from.

"Oh! Wait a moment. Um, um, er, barley!" Goofy yelled, raising his hands into the air as if he were in a classroom. This only served to confuse the entire warrior tribe, who exchanged questioning looks with one another. Luna didn't blame them.

"Excuse me?" she asked.

"I think he means parley," Donald corrected. "Pirate talk for a truce and peaceful negotiation if I remember correctly, but I don't think these guys are the pirate types."

"Well, you tried, Goof," Luna said, raising both her hands. She forced a friendly smile which must have come across as anything but. "We surrender?"


	75. Black Sails

_So KH X has been released and I've been playing that like crazy. So addicting. Anyway, now we return to Luna's story as our heroes last found themselves in quite the predicament. _

* * *

**Chapter 75**

**Black Sails**

On their way to wherever it was that they were being taken, Luna kept an eye out for any landmarks or structures in land distinct enough that they could provide as a guide in escape. Her ears were much useless in this situation, as though she tried to listen in to what the indigenous tribe who had taken them hostage were talking about, she found herself unable to understand them. It was only then that she remembered that they were using a completely different Gummi Ship, an inferior version to the Highwind that couldn't translate speech in different languages.

She looked to her right, noticing that had passed at least five incredibly well-crafted totem poles by now. Studying the position of each totem and the direction they faced would probably serve her well in the long run.

They reached yet another camp, as well as the origin of the smoke they had seen earlier. So they had been making a fire, but for what purpose? As far as Luna could tell, there was no trace of food anywhere. Considering also that the tribe seemed to live on an island completely lacking in animal wildlife, they had to be herbivores.

Goofy's assertion made her turn in his direction. "Hey, isn't that Jack?"

Donald squinted, looking at the only person in the area that was sitting down on a chair. "Jack? What's going on here?"

Jack blinked at them as if startled. He had similar looking tattoos as all the other tribal members with a key difference being three creepy looking eyes on either side of Jack's face. The only feature about him putting her mind at ease was that he definitely didn't look like a native of the island, tattoos aside.

"Jack, what is this place?" Donald tried again. It seemed like Jack was either a mute or unable to say what he wanted to, perhaps because he too was being held hostage. That was when Luna decided to make a stand. She only hoped it was the right one to make.

"Okay, listen here!" Luna summoned her Keyblade and pointed it at them. Gasps followed from all around her with their captors backing off slightly. "Yeah, that's right, it's a key."

"Really, did you have to be so dramatic about it?" Donald asked. "Don't tell me Sora's rubbing off on you."

"Well, what else are we going to do? We don't have time for this," Luna said. She raised her Keyblade into the air and cast _Blizzaga_. A giant block of Ice appeared over the fire and slammed down upon the gathered sticks and twigs, putting the fire out in the process. That would certainly cause them to run for it.

"Now, if you folks don't mind, we'll be takin' Jack with us now," Goofy said amicably.

"You read my mind," Jack finally spoke for the first time. He reached for his hand and took off the unusual looking hat on his head and chucked to one of the tribesmen nearby. "A leaving present for you. Let it be the reminder of the man you almost tried to eat, but never could. Captain-"

"Yeah, that's great, no time for introductions, run!" Luna hurried him. The four of them took off in the direction they had come from and it was not long before they heard the warrior cries of the tribe following closely behind them.

"Jack, what have you gotten yourself into this time?" Donald yelled at him as they passed the totems that Luna had seen before.

"You're on Pelegostos Island, not exactly a resort for those looking for fun and relaxation. The Pelegostos are… well, for the sake of keeping it short, they believe a god is caged in human form and want to free it," Jack said.

"So that explains the fire! They were about to sacrifice you?" Luna asked.

"Yes, but they may have just changed their target."

"What does that mean?" Luna asked. Jack looked at her briefly before focusing back on the direction they were heading in. Realization dawned on Luna's face. "Oh."

Their escape from the island took them across a bridge and back into the small village they had been captured in. Not stopping to check whether anyone was waiting for them there, Luna picked up her pace and took the lead, racing through the camp in a zig-zag pattern before heading down the slope that led straight to the beach.

Luna came to a halt as she touched sand and tried to catch her breath but the yells behind her warned her that she had no time to take a breather.

"Who are those guys?" Donald asked ahead of her. Luna looked up to see a group of men at the far end of the beach attempting to unmoor the ship, a second mob of natives right on their tail.

"Ah, it's Mr. Gibbs and the crew," Jack identified, running off without looking to check if Luna, Donald and Goofy were following. Luna took a deep breath before hurrying after Donald and Goofy.

They were halfway to the Pearl but the Pelegostos were getting closer, and unless they could get the ship onto water in time then they would be swallowed by the oncoming swarm. Luna spun around and summoned her Keyblade before stabbing it into the sound. Tall spikes of rocks shot up in front of her and divided her and the others from the mob. It was easier to perform than usual, given that the environment she was standing on allowed for easy formation of what were tiny grains of rock already.

Luna's chest rose to reflect her pride at the situation but someone grabbed her hand and tugged on it, snapping her out of her little moment.

"That was awesome, Luna, but we really need to be going now," remarked an incredibly familiar voice. Luna could only briefly turn her head in surprise before was dragged along by her best friend.

"Astra?"

The girl she had not seen in more than three months was in front of her again; what with her shoulder length raven hair and a smile confessing she knew more than she was letting on even when she didn't. Luna's first thought? She must have been in a wonderful and yet utterly frightening dream.

Luna and Astra reached the ship and climbed on board just as it hit the water. As the Black Pearl set off, Luna and Astra looked back at the islanders and waved at them with grins.

"Goodbye. It was nice meeting you," Astra yelled out.

"I'm sorry we were off to a rocky start," Luna added, cringing soon after at her own pun.

"Oh, don't worry. I think they got the point," Astra commented. The two looked at each other for a second before laughing. Luna soon found herself pulled into a hug. It seemed that Astra had managed to get a hold of a different type of shampoo from the one Luna remembered her using, but that was alright. It felt nice to be resting against her friend's warmth again after so long. "How're you doing, Sea Salt? Miss me?"

"Pfft, I think it's the other way round. You just couldn't wait to see me again," Luna rebutted with a smile. She leaned off Astra and took a few steps back to take in her friend as a whole.

"True." Astra looked around quickly before settling on Luna once again. "Where's Sora?"

"He's… occupied with other matters at the moment," Luna decided to say with some consideration. If Astra was with Moira's Crescent then she didn't want to give away anything about Sora just yet. "Oh, you've met these guys before, I think, but I should probably introduce you."

Luna led Astra over to Donald, Goofy and Jiminy and proceeded to introduce them to each other. There was something quite humorous and charming about seeing two groups of friends from separate parts of her life coming together. Goofy and Jiminy, as she expected, were the most welcoming and jovial of the four, with Goofy in particular wasting no time in offering his hand for Astra to shake. Donald, again as expected, was the most wary, and though he offered a nod when Luna introduced him, he said nothing in contrast to the other two. Astra just outright seemed awkward meeting both of them, which was incredibly weird because she was not usually the type to hold back when meeting new people.

"So are you still with Moira's Crescent?" Luna asked. The question had to come up some time and it was better to ask sooner than later.

"Luna…"

"Where have you been? What have you been doing? Why are you here? If I were to have asked that a year ago, I would probably know all the answers without having to wonder about it. It's been so long. I have missed you," Luna admitted, biting on her lower lip.

"It has been a while, hasn't it? I may not have been deserving of your friendship when I left you back in Radiant Garden. It was selfish of me. Well I'm going to rectify that now. Yes, I'm still in Moira's Crescent. No, I'm not going to abandon them for you, but I can't just leave them either. Not after what they've done for me," Astra told her.

"What's the story between you and Moira's Crescent anyway?" Goofy asked, prodding at his head. "Now that I think about it, we don't really know much about them anyway."

"They want to kill Sora, what else do you need to know?" Donald snapped but a glare from Luna silenced him.

"No, he's right. Some of them do want Sora out of the picture. I'm sure you know about the seer's prophecy though, that a Keyblade Wielder who saved the worlds will be the one to bring them to ruin. That and… we received a video from someone. Rhea thinks it might have been KRONOS. In that video we saw a boy that looked like Sora… well there were children and-"

"Wait, did you say children? You don't mean what happened back in Ratigan's lair, do you?" Luna asked. "No, Astra, that wasn't Sora's fault. That did happen but those children were turning into Chimera and at the time, there was no way to save them. Sora asked me to leave him. I offered to share the burden but he didn't want me to. He sacrificed his own well-being in order to protect me and stop them from turning. He's still suffering because of that and much more, but he chooses to keep it inside," Luna said, moving her hand to her own heart. The more she thought about it, the more she wondered what she was doing here. She should be by his side, helping him through that pain, but she had succumbed to her own selfishness. True, she didn't know herself, and she hoped by fighting and seeing other worlds she could find that missing yet most important piece that connected everything, but she felt like she knew herself even better when Sora was with her. Maybe then it wasn't all that selfish. If she were leeching of Sora purely to fill a hole in her heart then that could only be the most selfish act of all.

"I see... well, that certainly changes things. It was definitely a trap set by KRONOS then. Actually, that's why I'm here. I'm looking for one of their members but let's just say things have become a little complicated," Astra said.

"Complicated? That word so does not fit you. This can only be a bad thing," Luna said.

"Give me a little credit, Sea Salt. I don't like dealing with complicated things but I will if I have to. It's why I'm still your friend," Astra said.

"Hey, I'm not _that_ complicated!" Luna called out in an offended tone. "So who exactly is this person we're looking for?"

"His name is Davy Jones-" Astra cut herself off as she heard the sound of spluttering and coughing behind her. Passing by them was a rather scruffy looking sailor with baby blue eyes and a lot of gray in hair that was smoothed back and ended in a short ponytail. In his hands was a bottle of rum.

"Ah, I see you've met my first mate, the amazing Mr. Gibbs," Jack said, appearing in between them. "Mr. Gibbs, this is Donald, Goofy, and… where's the other one?"

"You mean Sora?" Donald asked, watching as Jack searched behind Donald and Goofy for the missing third person. He seemed not to have notice Luna and Astra yet.

"Something like that," Jack replied indifferently.

"Not something like that. That is his name. I'm sure he'll be happy to know you forgot his name," Donald said, looking quite irritated.

"Ah, but what's in a name, savvy? For example, people tend to leave out the Captain part in Captain Jack Sparrow. Now that part is just as important as the other two," Jack replied. He finally looked to Luna and Astra and eyed them both up and down. "I trust you won't be forgetting at least, misses-"

"Luna. Just Luna. And this is my friend Astra. So, you guys are pirates? That's awesome! I've always dreamt of being a swashbuckling buccaneer on the high seas," Luna said, seeming to have lost control over her level of excitement. Now that she had time to take it in, she really couldn't believe. She was sailing on a ship. A Gummi Ship was one thing but the idea of being on a pirate ship caused her to squirm inwardly with delight.

"Oh, we're nothing like your fairy tale pirates, I assure you. Still, it's a life worth live, I'll give ye that," Gibbs said.

"Would you care to join us?" Jack asked. Gibbs looked at him quickly and cut in before Luna could respond.

"But Jack, they're… you know." Gibbs then mouthed a certain single syllable word that Luna was unable to understand before returning to normal volume. "I don't think they're the best company to have on a ship. Anamaria was one thing but two of them?"

Luna leaned in and murmured lowly in Astra's ear. "What do you think they're talking about?"

"Some stuff worth a beat down or two, I'd reckon," Astra said.

"Oh you. Ever the confrontational," Luna sang in reply.

"Donald? Goofy?"

Jack and Gibbs' argument was cut short as a rather dashing and slightly tan young man walked towards them. There was something about him that didn't exactly scream pirate like Jack and Gibbs had.

"Will! It's nice seeing ya again. Where's Elizabeth?" Goofy asked.

"Will? Will Turner?" Astra said aloud, surprised by the name.

"Yes… so you've heard of me. Are you an acquaintance of Jack's?" Will asked.

"No, it's something else. I need to talk to you for a moment. Alone," Astra said, trying hard to ignore the suspicious glances coming from everyone, even her best friend. Will nodded and told her to follow him. Jack watched as the two walked off before detaching something from his waste and opening it. It was a compass, a standard instrument that Luna actually had little idea how to read.

"Have a date with a lovely lady, captain?" Luna asked in banter.

"Yes actually, how did you know?" Jack asked back.

Luna frowned. "Wait, you're serious?"

"Would I lie to you? Ah, don't answer that. Aye, we're going to meet a woman but as for lovely, that's such a… how would you describe it, Mr. Gibbs?" Jack asked.

"Hmm, best ye see her with your own eyes," Gibbs said to them. He shuddered and took a swig from the bottle before leaving for the bottom deck.

"So, Jack," Luna called, turning her attention to the dreadlocked pirate. "Who exactly is Davy Jones?"

* * *

"Mom, don't you think Kermit's acting a bit strangely?"

"What do you mean, Steph?"

"I don't know. He just seems a bit different from usual. It's okay though, it's really funny!"

"Shh!"

"Sorry about that. Hush, Steph."

A vibration from his PHS suddenly shook David Xanatos out of his absorbed state. He quickly fished into his pocket and pulled out the device, staring at the lit up screen for a second. He deleted the message before putting the phone back in his pocket. His date, Colette, looked away from the Muppets performance that they were watching with a worried glance.

"Is everything okay?" she asked.

"Business trouble, you know how it is. Say, you don't mind being alone for a while, do you? I have to use the men's room," he replied.

"Aww, you're going to miss Kermit's confession to Miss Piggy. You're going to miss it!" Colette pouted as if she were a child. Looking at Stephanie, who was also with them, it was remarkable to him how much they looked alike, especially when Colette did that.

He placed his hand on her cheek and leaned in. Their lips brushed against one another, and Xanatos pulled back with a smile. He knew Stephanie would be doing her best to ignore them both, having not warmed up to him. It didn't take a major in psychology to understand that Stephanie feared him replacing her father. Well, she had no reason to fear in that case. Other than romantic teasing and a few of the things couples were known to do, Xanatos had no drive for pursuing a relationship further than what it currently was. His kind of profession wouldn't allow for that even if he wanted to.

"It'll be just a moment. You'll tell me everything that happened, won't you, Stephanie?" Xanatos asked her. Hearing an "mmph" in reply, he chuckled. At least their conversations were getting better. He excused himself from the table and made his way to the back of the hall, turning left as soon as he passed the glass divider.

As he reached the men's room, he turned and sighed. "Are you going to watch me take a dump too?"

Cloud, who Xanatos swore had his arms folded every time he saw him, was leaning against the wall with the same cold, piercing gaze in his eyes that seemed permanently frozen on his face.

"Your phone," Cloud said, holding out his hand.

"Well if you just wanted to play a game of snake, all you had to do was ask," Xanatos said. He pulled the PHS back out of his pocket and handed it over before opening the bathroom door and closing it behind him. Heading for the second stall to the left, he went inside and slid the latch to the right before sitting on the seat.

His brow furrowed. "Couldn't have chosen a more comfortable place, I suppose? You have my itinerary down to a tee, it seems."

He heard his assistant, Owen Burnett, reply almost immediately from the stall next to him. "I sincerely apologize for interrupting your lovely evening, sir, but this is an urgent matter we need to discuss."

"No, it's fine. Any less persistent and I would have fired you by now. What is it?" Xanatos asked.

"Mr. Xanatos, we need to discuss Kefka."  
"Ah," was all Xanatos said. Burnett wouldn't have been able to see it but he was slowly nodding head.

"He's become a liability and threatens to destroy everything we've worked for up to this point," continued Burnett, as cool and professional as always.

"A problem with one small cog won't keep this clock from turning. Yes, he's a mad man, but for now, he's more useful than detrimental to our cause. We've only been able to stay in the shadows for so long because of him," Xanatos replied.

"To be honest, I don't think even the definition of mad fits him. He's something completely different. Unhinged. Unpredictable. I think he actually believes at this point that he really is in charge of KRONOS at the moment."

"Let him believe what he wants. Loose ends often find a way of tying themselves up. The more pressing issue we have to attend to right now is Sora. He's given up using the Keyblade completely," Xanatos told him.

"Strange," Burnett murmured back.

"Maybe I applied just a little more pressure on him than I intended back in Atlantis," Xanatos said.

"Don't tell me you used that weapon?" Burnett asked. "An artefact dug up from over three thousand years ago and you use it to almost ruin your own plan. You may very well be as reckless as Kefka."

"Come now, Owen, you don't think a sword like that can really destroy something as amazing as the Keyblade, do you? Or I would hope not, at least. Six hits. I left the seventh on purpose so that the next time we met, I would know for sure," Xanatos replied.

"You'd torture yourself over something like that? You would do something like that, wouldn't you?"

"Anyway, I need to get back or my bodyguard will start to miss me. Just keep in contact with KRONOS as much as you can and do your best to run the corporation in my stead. I have a feeling I won't have much flexibility for at least a month," Xanatos said.

"You don't have a plan for Sora? Or will you use someone else?" Burnett asked.

"No, it has to be Sora, otherwise what else has our playing him and Moira's Crescent against each other been for all time? I know just the thing that will spur him on to act. Just make sure Project Rebirth is ready in time."

* * *

Luna would learn very little about the fisher of souls until the dead of night. Even in his answer, Jack had been incredibly vague, only referring to Jones as being the exception in the chain of life and death, whatever that meant. When she, Donald and Goofy pursued Astra about the question, she stated only that she knew he had cut out his own heart and placed it in a chest. It was something that had left her incredibly baffled, especially because Astra could offer no explanation.

Goofy had been the one to explore the possibility that Davy Jones was some kind of Nobody, though because Luna had never seen one before she couldn't really contribute and could only listen as Donald, Goofy and Jiminy threw theories at one another. From what she understood, the process wasn't exactly the same because a Nobody was a by-product that occurred when someone lost their heart, in turn becoming a Heartless. Unless Davy Jones was one, and from the little Jack told her about him she didn't think so, then this was a different case entirely.

Night soon fell and the ship slowed until it stopped dead in its tracks. A smaller boat was slowly lowered into the water with Luna, Astra, Donald, Goofy, Will and Jack all squeezing in to accommodate what small space they had. In addition to them, Jack was also carrying a monkey in a cage. When Donald asked what it was, Jack answered that it was the pesky little animal of a recently departed person he, Goofy and Will knew very well.

After crossing into a small inlet, they travelled down an illuminated archway of trees. Luna turned her head from left to right to see people holding lanterns. Her eyes widened, reminded of that night at the lake in Corona. Though she had a group of people alongside her, she suddenly felt very lonely.

They boat soon reached its destination—a small shack at the end of the river. The group made sure the boat was tied securely to the dock's support before stepping through the doorless entrance. The room they were in was absolutely crowded with eccentric looking items, dully revealed by the light of flickering candles around them. The proprietor of these objects was a mysterious woman sitting at a table in front of them, looking as if she had been expecting their company.

"Well if it isn't witty Jack Sparrow," she purred. "Are you hiding from me, handsome?"

Luna looked to her side to see Jack ducking cowering behind Astra. Annoyed, the raven haired girl grabbed Jack by the collar and dragged him out of his cover.

Jack faked a smile. "Why, aren't you looking as lovely as always, darling."

"Huh? You seemed quite hesitant to call her lovely earlier today, Jack," Luna said with an innocent smile. The woman's smile froze on Luna for a moment before looking back to Jack with an expectant look.

"You just gonna stand there sucking your thumb or are you going to introduce us?" she asked.

"Er, these are my crewmates— Luna, Donald, Goofy, Astra and last but not least, Will Turner. Everyone, this is… Tia Dalma." He muttered the name quickly and looked away.

Tia Dalma rose from her seat and strode over to Will, swaying like the ocean waves. "William Turner? You have a touch of destiny here!"

"You know me?" Will asked.

Tia smiled and leaned in before purring. "Mmm, you want to know me."

"I think I'm going to puke," Astra said, looking quite unsettled.

"Be sure to pass the bag once you're finished," Donald agreed.

"Oh can't a girl have her fun? I don't bite," Tia replied in a flirty tone but Will eased away from her.

"We came here because Jack needed help with something," he explained.

"Jack needing help with something? Doesn't sound like the Jack I know."

"It's not so much for me, as for young William so he can earn a favor from me. Of course, I know you love your strange little antiques so I have just the thing. Look, it's even alive! Sort of…" Jack took the caged monkey that Goofy had been holding in his hands and presented it to her. Tia Dalma took possession of the cage and set it on the table before unlocking it and setting the monkey free. It buzzed about the room for a moment before disappearing farther in.

"It'll have to do. So what services do you require?"

"This key… it goes to a chest, doesn't it? Where is the key and where is the chest?" Will asked, showing her a piece of fabric with a drawing of a key on it.

"The compass you bartered off me. It can't help you find what you're looking for?" she enquired, looking at Jack.

"Doesn't work-"

"Don't be foolish, of course it works," Tia cut in quickly before smiling. "But maybe it is you that don't work, hmm? Desire can be a cruel mistress. Speaking of which, the key you seek leads straight to the chest of Davy Jones, but of course you know this."

A look of puzzlement captured Luna's face as she saw Tia Dalma gaze briefly at Astra before returning to Will. It was something that she had considered the moment she had met Tia Dalma but she definitely seemed the person who knew more than they were letting on. Next to her, she could feel Astra uneasiness somehow wrapping itself around Luna, causing her to shiver.

"Excuse me for interrupting but who is Davy Jones?" Luna asked. Donald and Goofy nodded in unison, wanting to hear the full story as well. "I mean, I heard that his heart isn't even in his body. Is that true?"

"He was a man of the sea, a great sailor. His proclaimed love for the sea soon came into conflict with that which vexes all men. A woman. He fell in love," Dalma explained.

"With the sea," Jack said. Everyone turned to him and he looked elsewhere. "That's the way I heard it."

"Different versions, same story. It was a woman tame and yet violent as the sea. But she betrayed him, or so he felt, and the fleeting joys were all too much for him to bear but not enough for him to die. Loneliness would be his savior and so to prevent himself from ever hurting again he cut out his own heart and stored it in a chest. The curse laid on him by his lover would prevent him from dying from such a thing as ripping out his own heart. His life was and is now bound by his duty to serve the Flying Dutchman. The key to the chest, he keeps with him at all times."

"But if you have control of the heart you have control of Davy Jones, so he must still need the heart," Astra said.

"If you destroy the heart, the body naturally must go with it. Davy Jones is no exception. To that end, he is still mortal," Tia Dalma confirmed.

"Then our course is charted. We board the Flying Dutchman, swipe that key, find the chest and reunite you with your bonnie sweetheart," Jack said, pointing at Will.

"Yes, you need a key, but do you need _the_ key?" Tia asked. Jack turned back to look at her with a puzzled expression. "What? Expecting an answer?"

"Not from you," Jack answered quickly. "Alright, no time to waste. We have a ship to catch."

As he and the others turned and left the shack, Luna was about to follow when she felt something wrap around her shoulder, trapping her in its clutches. She and Astra turned around to see Tia Dalma directly behind her. Luna hadn't even heard her get out of her seat.

"You two are not from this world, am I correct?" she asked with a slight smile.

"We have no idea what you're talking about," Astra said before Luna could say anything.

"You don't have to go out of your way to conceal from me. I understand what you can and cannot do and say. You know you're not to interfere with the affairs of other worlds?" Dalma's hand fell off Luna's shoulder and she nudged her head in the direction of the hut's entrance. Luna looked in that direction to see the others waiting for them by the boat. "Jack Sparrow has a debt with Davy Jones, one that needs repaying. His is not your debt to manage, but I trust you know that."

"If it comes to it, we won't interfere," Astra answered. "But if it just so happens to get in the way of what we're here for then I won't say sorry either."

* * *

"So when you said that things have become complicated, that's what you meant? That his heart wasn't in his body?" Luna questioned Astra after they had arrived back on the Black Pearl. The ocean carried on endlessly under the moonlight as far as she could see. Everyone else was getting their rest on the lower deck, or everyone save for Luna, Astra and Jack who had been at the wheel for a while. "How did you know that?"

"Er, Moira's Crescent information," Astra made up. Luna had spent so much time around her that it was incredibly easy to tell when Astra was holding something back. Most conveniently she used this developed power of hers on her birthdays usually. That reminded Luna—this last birthday had been the first one since they had become friends where they hadn't spent it together.

"Come on, Astra. You really can't tell me?" Luna asked.

"Okay. There's this guy I met in Port Royal. He's so sweet and sensitive and-"

"Astra."

"And he was totally none of those things. Dude was kinda creepy actually. Anyway, he was a part of some company, the… East India Trading Company, I think it was called?" Astra ended her sentence on a high note as if she were questioning her own memory. "Oh, yeah, that was totally it! So he told me that he wanted the chest and that whoever had the chest controlled the seas. Don't ask me what he intends to do with the darn thing, I have no clue."

"The East India Trading Company?" Luna asked. Something seemed to click in her head for a split second and vanished just as quickly. There was something about the name that she couldn't put her finger on.

"Yeah, but they're anything but just a trading group. They have a lot of power and influence it seems. A private military firm under the guise of your humble traders of goods," Astra explained.

"What kind of stuff do they trade?"

"Hey, I'm not an expert at these things. I really didn't ask, mainly because I didn't want to look any more suspicious than I already was. I was on their ship while I was heading to this place called Tortuga and I saw a few crates but I couldn't get close enough to check what was in them. But if they have a monopoly in the business then I'm sure they trade all sorts of things that importers need."

"That's it!" Luna hammered her fist into her palm in realization. "Back on the Pelegostos' island, we were in these little huts and there was silverware there that didn't look like it belonged. They had the abbreviation EITC on them. East India Trading Company?"

"Okay but how did they get onto the island? I can't imagine them trading with those guys," Astra asked.

"Not sure, we don't have much information to go on. Hey… it's like we're detectives again!" Luna remarked joyfully.

"Can't really say any of the mysteries we solved back at school were anything like this though. I still can't believe you made me stay at school for an entire night just to find out whether there was a ghost in the bathroom. You made me stay in a place I hate for an entire night. If it were anyone else, I wouldn't have gone through with it," Astra said.

"We had fun though, didn't we? We brought a bunch of snacks and drinks with us like we were having a stakeout. You kept hogging all the potato chips, you pig," Luna groaned.

"Hey, I was trying to save your butt from all that starch. I'll take a thank you now," Astra said.

"Oh glorious Astra, my butt thanks you," Luna replied with a cheeky grin. She looked past Astra to see Jack walking up to them. "Hey Jack, just how do we go about finding the Dutchman anyway? And finding is one thing but boarding it without any problems? I just don't see that happening."

"And yet it is the only solution available to us. As the Captain of the Dutchman, Jones isn't allowed to step foot on dry land. I wonder… is that a gift or a curse?" Jack questioned perhaps more to himself.

"What do you mean? That's obviously a curse. Who would want to be confined to a ship for the rest of eternity?" Astra asked.

"Well, put it this way. Have you never loved something so much that you wish you could to do it forever if you could? Whether it was fair maiden's heart that ultimately betrayed him or not, Jones can at least live comfortably knowing that he's at sea," Jack said. Luna said nothing. It would be hypocrisy for her to disagree when she herself had given up everything else to live the life she was currently living. This was now the life that defined her. It was all she wanted to be.

Astra was not so keen to agree however. "It doesn't change the fact that the guy was cursed into this life. There's a difference between doing something of your own volition and being forced into it. Even so, his involvement with KRONOS is something he did choose and I don't forgive bullies."

"Astra…" Luna murmured. It became clear to her then that defeating KRONOS meant something different to Astra than it did to Luna. Luna wanted to do it because naturally they were a threat and because they had done things that were completely inexcusable, the least of which involved kidnapping children and turning them into Chimera all for the purpose of, considering Astra's recent information, turning Sora and Moira's Crescent against one another as well as trying to break Sora's heart. For Astra, Luna figured out her reason as soon as she called them bullies.

"And just what is this KRONOS exactly?" Jack asked.

"Not your problem. Hey, what's that on your hand?" Astra asked back. Luna looked at Jack's free hand to see something weird on it. It looked like a black circle but it didn't seem drawn on with a marker or anything like that.

"Not your problem," Jack repeated Astra's words.

"Good. I hate complications," Astra replied with a smile. Luna's eyes averted from the two, having noticed something farther off in the distance.

"What's that? It looks like a ship was wrecked by something," Luna notified the two.

"That… would be our destination. Time to wake everyone up," Jack said, snapping the compass shut in his hand.


	76. Death's Gaze

**Chapter 76**

**Death's Gaze**

Silhouettes became distinguished figures as the Black Pearl stopped dead some ways off from the ship wreckage. When Luna asked why they had stopped so far away, Jack handed her a telescope to get a closer a look at the ship.

"That would be the Flying Dutchman," Jack answered. "Not exactly something I want to get in contact with."

"You're kidding, right? I expected… worse," Luna said, before handing the scope to Astra. Peering into the small hole, Astra could only see a scuttled ship, with its hull mostly flooded with water. This had the effect of splintering and sinking half the ship in water.

"Appearances can be deceiving," Jack replied.

_Yeah… no, that's a complete lie_, Astra thought. It didn't take a genius to realize a ship like that couldn't possibly be the Flying Dutchman.

"So what's the plan, William?" Jack asked, turning to Will who was situated in between Donald and Goofy.

"Honestly? Go in, cut down anyone in my path, find your bloody key and get out," Will said, resting his hand on the hilt of his sword.

"I like it already," Jack said.

"I'll be going with him," Astra announced, stunning everyone with her voluntary contribution. "If there are Heartless on that ship, then having someone who's fought them before means an increased chance of survival."

"Even better!" Jack approved, not that she would have changed her mind based on his approval or not. She wanted to meet Davy Jones face to face and this was the best chance to do it.

"Then I'll come too." Luna stepped forward but Astra held her off with a hand.

"Not this time, Sea Salt. We don't know what we're up against here. If we want to beat someone like this we can't put all our eggs in one basket," Astra reasoned.

"But I- it's only been one day. What if something happens to you? I don't want to lose you again," Luna said, her eyes flickering downwards.

"Luna, I don't think there's any way I _can't _make you worry, but I guess that just means I'm doing something right. You're the first true friend I've ever really had. That's something worth staying alive for," Astra said. She raised her hand and crunched her hand into a fist. Luna looked up at it and smiled before returning her fist bump, but Astra took quick advantage and pulled her into a hug. She didn't intend for it to feel like a farewell hug but at the same time, she wasn't nearly as confident as she painted herself to be. Astra looked up at Donald and Goofy. "I'm trusting you two to look after her."

"Yes, ma'am!" Donald and Goofy answered in unison. Astra stopped herself from rolling her eyes and let go off Luna. As she was about to turn and head off towards the longboat with Will, Luna grasped her arm.

"I need to tell you something about the Keyblade. I'll use that as incentive to make sure you come back," Luna said, letting go of her arm shortly after.

"Oh? Well now how can I possibly desert you after you tell me something like that? I'm looking forward to it," Astra replied with a wink. She climbed into the boat and had her eyes on Luna even as she and Will were being lowered down into the water.

"How long have you known them?" Will asked while propelling the boat forward with the oars.

"Luna? It's been four years now. Those other two? Much less. I hardly know them actually," Astra answered. She looked past him to see the lights of the Black Pearl going out one by the one, making it look invisible in the night.

"I noticed that a boy who was with them the first time we met isn't with them now. His name is Sora. What happened to him?"

"No idea," Astra replied disinterestedly. She didn't know why but she felt kind of disappointed and angry at the same time. Sora had abandoned her friend and that should have been a good thing for Astra, but she had also entrusted Sora to protect her before leaving Radiant Garden as well. If this was his way of showing it, it had been pretty foolish for Astra to rely on him. She gritted her teeth and shook what seemed to her like nonsensical thoughts out of her hand, choosing to concentrate instead on the task at hand.

"Well, I just hope he's alright," Will said. "You still need Jack's compass?"

"That Beckett guy won't have any use for it once he has the chest. If it really works then I'll use it to find what I'm looking for," Astra replied. "Anyway, I've been thinking about what Tia Dalma said. That we need a key but do we need _that_ key? I don't think we do. Behold the answer to your prayers."

Astra held up her hand and produced her Keyblade to show off to Will. His hands reached out to touch the Keyblade but it disappeared from her hands before he could.

"That weapon… Sora had one just like it!" Will stated.

"What did he do when he was here?" Astra asked. She figured she might as well dispel any awkwardness on their way to the ship, even if she could care less about what Sora did.

"He, Donald and Goofy were looking into the whereabouts of a group called Organization XIII. Even though they didn't have to, they helped me and Jack save Elizabeth from pirates led by one named Barbossa. He had the Black Pearl until Sora and Jack defeated him and took it back. I can't thank him enough, which is why I was a bit disappointed when I didn't see him with you."

"I don't know much about the guy really. He's helped Luna out though so I guess he's okay," Astra said. She wouldn't reveal to him that the group she was with had basically placed a bounty on Sora's head. Saying something like that was certainly a way to lose trust quickly.

The boat finally reached the wrecked ship. Astra and Will climbed out and brought out their weapons just in case.

"So you're sure that we can use that key to open the chest?" Will asked as they walked slowly through the suspiciously quiet ship.

"No, which is why we need Davy Jones' key anyway. I can't be sure that the Keyblade opens up every little thing, though it should, but I also don't want us to find the chest only to find out that we can't open it either," Astra said.

"Hmm, still seems like so much trouble to go through just for one key. Of course, Jack is probably cosying up with a bottle of rum right now while we're doing his dirty work," Will replied.

"Hey, as long as we get the locket and chest by the end of this, he can drink himself all the way to Davy Jones' locker for all I care," Astra replied, with a following chuckle from Will. They soon came across some form of life, or not. Astra knelt down as pressed a thumb against one of the five shivering men's forehead, withdrawing it instantly. She did the same with the others before frowning. "What the hell? They're like ice."

"Astra?" Will called for her. Astra followed his voice and found him watching a man who was desperately pulling a rope attached to a pulley system in hopes of raising a sail. For each time the sail was raised a few inches above ground, it sank back to the ground. Nevertheless, the man persisted in his futile attempts.

"Sailor. Sailor! Give it up, you've run aground!" Will reasoned, but the man continued to pull as if he hadn't heard him.

"Hey, buddy, the ship's sunk. It's no u-AAAAAHHHH!" Astra screamed as she grabbed ahold of his shoulder and spun him around. The man was faceless— his eyes, nose and mouth were gone like they were sucked off his face leaving only twisted human clay in its place. It was like the faceless man had suddenly given up on life due to his purpose being taken from it because the body crumpled to the floor soon after that.

Astra and Will exchanged worried looks but before they could present their thoughts in voice, a sudden chill distracted them. At the sound of gurgling, the looked towards the sea to see it churning. What happened next, Astra could not possibly have come to terms with so easily.

A giant ship rose out from the water, blotting out any view of the night sky. The ship was deathly pale, bringing with it an assortment of seaweed, shells and coral. Its movement was like that of a giant whale as it rose up from the water only to slam down on the surface with a mighty splash moments later with a great creak.

"Yeah, I figured this wasn't the Dutchman," Astra said looking at the rotted wood of the ship she and Will were on. Her eyes widened in horror as a group of strange looking monsters jumped straight off the Dutchman's bow and landed on the wrecked ship. Astra leapt forward and deflected a blow from the axe of one of the crew. Looking up, she saw a creature that seemed to be made of bits and pieces from the sea, just like the adornments on the ship. It wasn't just him though, but the other crewmembers that were jumping off as well. Jack and Gibbs had told them about the crewmembers once being sailors who tinkered on the edge between life and death. It was Davy Jones who collected their souls in exchange for a complete life of servitude on his ship.

Astra backed off before unleashing a flurry of Ice waves with her Keyblade. The waves cut through two of them, but they weren't truly taken care off. Astra was surprised when she felt something grab onto her ankle. Looking down she saw the upper body of one of the crewmen she had cut in half still moving. She looked at the other one she had cut down to see that it was the same of him.

"Stay back! I'm warning you!" She could hear Will to the left of her, accompanied by the swooshing of blade through air. She didn't need to look his way to tell his efforts were going to waste much like her own. She ran over to the nearest piece of wood she could find and kicked over and over until the moving upper body came off before returning to Will's side.

"We're outnumbered. Not good," Astra said to him as they kept their eyes and weapons trained on the creatures. This wouldn't be her end. She had made a promise to Luna and she was going to keep it.

Suddenly they stopped approaching her and Will. Astra glanced at each of them in confusion before looking up. The only creature looking was the one who had just appeared and was also the most unusual of them all. Astra found herself unable to stop looking at the strange moving tentacles that were his beard.

It took him a while to get down and onto the ship, but when he did he appeared even more menacing. Astra stomached up enough courage to push the want to avert her eyes and instead stared at him as he walked back and forth. He lifted a smoking pipe and inhaled for a second before letting it out in their faces. Astra coughed and looked away. When you were staring into the face of death, courage really didn't mean much in such a situation anyway.

"Look what we have here. A bunch of brave sailors who fought with all their might. Bravery in the face of death… a foolish thing to do," Davy Jones said, as if reading Astra's mind. "But then again, you two are neither dead nor dying, are you? You're not from here. State your purpose."

"Jack Sparrow… sent us to settle his debt," Will said almost immediately. This sparked a look of interest from tentacle's face.

"What now? Repeat what you just said."

"Jack Sparrow has a debt with you, yes? He sent us to settle his debt," Will repeated more insistently.

"Did he now? A young man I can understand but a girl? Now that's just-" Davy Jones' eyes fell downward, staring at Astra's Keyblade. Oh, right, she probably should have gotten rid of that. Jones finished his sentence with a smile. "So like him."

* * *

Luna and other jumped back in surprise as Davy Jones appeared in front of them out of nowhere in what was a completely disconcerting manner. Jack flashed a smile at him but when Jones failed to react, the smile faded as quickly as it came.

"You have a debt to pay. You've been captain of the Black Pearl for thirteen years ever since I rose it up from the ocean depths. Those thirteen years I gave you are now up," Jones said.

"Well, technically I've only been captain for two years. I had it stolen from me by good ole' Hector and was left on an island," Jack said.

"Then you are a poor captain, but a captain nonetheless. It doesn't help you're case that you go around telling everyone that you're Captain Jack Sparrow," Jones pointed out.

Jack held up his hands defensively. "No I don't."

"You do," Donald intervened.

"Yup, definitely!" Goofy added in.

"You did say it was important," a wincing Luna agreed.

"Well aren't you the faithful crewmates," Jack sarcastically responded to them before looking back at Jones. "Okay then, you already have my payment. The young chap who I sent to you. One soul, ready and waiting to serve on your ship."

Luna stared at Jack incredulously but Jones spoke before she could. "Are you making a fool of me, Jack Sparrow? One soul is not worth your deal!"

"Alright then, take the other one. Two souls," Jack said.

"Jack, just don't," Luna warned with a dangerous glare. She immediately regretted saying anything. Davy Jones looked her way, astounded at first. He soon laughed and walked up to her. She shivered intensely, feeling his breath descend upon her small frame.

"And you would be Abraxas' pet project—Luna. Tell me, do you fear death? Do you fear that dark abyss?" Jones asked, looking directly into her eyes. In those cold yet entirely blue human eyes, she saw something that made her unable to respond. She found herself paralyzed in fear, her mind unable to form a coherent thought. She saw her parents lying on the floor and her standing above them, a knife in her hand and her face spattered with flecks of blood. The worst thing about it was that she had been smiling before she had realized what she had done. That smile, she had tried to forget and she been successful in doing so until this very moment. All that ran through her head was why. Why now? Why here of all places did she have to remember?

"Don't even think about going near her!" Donald said, promptly summoning his staff and casting thunder. Jones raised one of his tentacles and flicked at the spell, bouncing it right back to Donald. Goofy jumped in the way and raised his staff, the thunder spell hitting the shield at an angle and deflecting into the sky with a slight push of effort.

"You fight me and see how long you both live. Besides, I'm not interested in harming your friend. To be honest, I'm not sure she was perfectly all there to begin with," Jones said with a laugh. He turned to look at Jack again. "I've had a change of heart. I'll accept the two souls. One of them even has something interesting on them that I want, but that doesn't clear you off your debt either. Let's see… a Keyblade is worth quite a few souls in itself, plus the two you've so graciously given me so… seventy five. Seventy five souls in three days. You think you can do that?"

Jack seemed to consider this, but only very briefly. "Yep."

"Really? You'd condemn two innocent people to what is basically hell on the high seas, all in the name of freedom?" Jones asked.

"Consider it writ in blood, er, ink," Jack corrected.

"You're a cruel man, Jack Sparrow," Jones said, extending his hand. Jack shook it, seemingly unfazed by this apt description.

"Uh huh, that's me. I'd embrace you, mate, but I fear it might stick," he said. He looked to his hand after letting go to see that the mark had disappeared. When he looked up, Davy Jones had disappeared along with it.

"You're not actually going to search for these souls, are you, Jack?" Goofy asked.

"Well, if William and Astra find the key and escape before the three days are up, then that won't have to happen," Jack said.

"But you're going to break your promise. Again," Donald pointed out annoyed. "Do promises mean nothing to you? What happens if Will and Astra can't get off the ship?"

"You just need to think with a half full bottle of rum instead of a half empty one, eh, savvy?" Jack answered. "Mr. Gibbs, what would be the best place to find seventy five souls in three days?"

Gibbs raised his hand to his chin thoughtfully for a moment. "If I had to say, Tortuga would be the best place."

"Ah, of course, we set sail for Tortuga then," Jack said. He was about to leave when something caught his eye. It was not only him but Donald and Goofy's too. Luna had been unusually unresponsive since Davy Jones had talked to her, and looking at her closer revealed why. She had a blank expression on a face that was completely drained of life.

"Luna! Luna!" Donald pleaded, but Luna continued to stare blankly with something akin to a dreamy smile on her face.

* * *

The first thing Luna saw when she woke up was Goofy's nose hovering over her. It wasn't the first thing she had been expecting to wake up to but it was far better than what she had expected. In her mind, she feared waking up to realize that everything so far had been a dream—that she was back in her bed in Alexander. The gentle rocking of the ship she was on however told her that this was far from the truth.

"What happened?" She asked. She sat up on the hammock she was on and looked around. Other than her, Goofy and Jiminy, who was standing on Goofy's open palm, no one else could be seen or heard.

"You looked like you were all spacey since we saw Davy Jones. Then you collapsed soon after that and we took you down to the lower deck to rest," Goofy explained.

"Oh," Luna uttered in a low voice. Now she remembered. She had seen death in those cold, cruel eyes. She had seen her own guilt, her sin, and it had overwhelmed her immensely. She raised a hand and placed it on her face. She had been crying while she was asleep. "Where's Donald?"

"He's up on the deck waitin' for us. We're at Tortuga now! Jack and his crew went on ahead but he told Donald where they were going," Goofy replied.

"Alright… what's a Tortuga? A restaurant?" Luna asked.

"Huh?"

"Actually, don't answer. That was a stupid question. Astra brought it up now that I think about it… Astra… oh no…" Luna's words faded as she remembered what Jack had said to Jones. Surely Jack wasn't as selfish as he had led Luna to believe in that moment. Maybe he was concocting some plan that would blow Luna's mind or perhaps he was buying time to figure something out. Maybe she just wanted to believe that every person she travelled with happened to be an example to look up to, to learn from. Had she finally hit a dead end then? No, the answer seemed much obvious when she stopped trying to pretend she didn't know. "We need to find Jack. I'm not sitting around when Astra and Will could be in danger. We're getting them off that ship."

Jiminy jumped off of Goofy's hand and with his umbrella open, glided onto Luna's hammock. "We're going to go after the Flying Dutchman? Luna, I'm seeing two major problems with this here. The first is the Dutchman is probably swarming with monsters just like Davy Jones. We'd be deep in enemy territory. The second is that we have no idea where the Dutchman even is!"

"And Jack's alternative is better?" Luna asked. "The way I see it, we have two options. We go after the chest and make Davy Jones come to us or we find the Dutchman, sneak on board and rescue Astra and Will."

"But how would we go about doing the second one? It's like Jiminy said, we don't know how to find it," Goofy said.

"I… I'll think of something. Anything. I just need time to think. But I'm definitely not going to let Jack have his way," Luna said.

"That's the spirit! Let's put those brains of ours to some thinkin'," Goofy hollered. Luna's feet found wood as she jumped off the hammock and picked Jiminy up. She guided him onto her shoulder before following Goofy to the top deck where Donald was waiting for them.

"You okay, Luna?" Donald asked as soon as she emerged. Luna smiled at him and nodded before looking at the town the Black Pearl had docked out. Street lamps, flaming torches and the lights inside buildings encompassed what seemed to be a pretty small town in the dark. The trio disembarked and made their way down the streets, quite uneasily at that. The streets were dank and dirty, littered with drunkards and suspicious looking individuals everywhere they looked.

"Jack said that this was a 'pirate haven'," Donald told them as they made their way to the _Faithful Bride_, the tavern Jack had told him they would be headed.

"Well it certainly looks like it, I guess. Urgh, all this smoke is giving me a headache," Luna complained, waving her hands about in an attempt to redirect the smell of smoke and tobacco that was hitting her nostrils.

"This doesn't exactly look like a place we'd be welcome in either. Maybe we should head back to the Pearl and wait for Jack," Jiminy suggested.

"Oh don't be silly, Jiminy. I'm sure we have nothing to worry abou-" Luna was cut off as a man was kicked out of a building by someone else. The man, who was staggering about and clearly not in the most stable of conditions, ran straight back at the door. His opponent grabbed a wine bottle and brought it down on the drunkard's head with such force that it smashed the bottle's body into tiny pieces that landed alongside the unconscious man. Luna blinked and exchanged looks with Donald and Goofy on either side. "Yeah, maybe we should get back to the Pearl. I'm sure Jack's fine with whatever it is he's doing."

Luna backed away and turned only to bump into something, sending her to the floor. She rubbed the back of her head and looked up to see two figures glowing underneath the orange flames.

"And you call yourself a gentleman," the woman said, rolling her eyes. She had possibly the oddest feature Luna had ever seen, something that would make Luna question whether she was entirely human. She was also quite tall for the average woman, seeming to tower above Luna and was also slightly taller than her male companion.

"Fran, please. Even a gentleman can make mistakes from time to time. I apologize, my dear," the man addressed Luna with a lending hand. She accepted it and he lifted her up from the ground.

"No, it was my fault, really. I wasn't looking where I was going," Luna apologized, though her eyes were more drawn to the woman's strange looking rabbit ears than the person she had bumped into.

"Yes, they are indeed real," the woman answered with an annoyed look suggesting that she had been asked the question many times before.

"As real as the clothes on your back, and what strange clothes at that. Tell me, you're not from this world, are you?" asked the man.

Luna, Donald and Goofy looked at one another in awe before their mouths dropped. "HUH?"

* * *

The lights in the Laugh Floor went out at its usual time for the night. After yet another busy day and a drastic improvement in profits to what the company had seen under Waternoose, James P. Sullivan had managed to overwhelm the expectations of all of the factory's investors. Though he was now CEO however, that didn't exactly mean he was complete privy to everything that was going on at any time. It was this that KRONOS had managed to take advantage of.

They may have lost their advantage in Waternoose as the key to accessing the doors, but they didn't exactly need him either. A certain Master Key that Waternoose had crafted for their use allowed them to access whatever door they needed at each station. After that it was only a matter of flooding the Heartless into each world through the doors. The Keyblade wielders had taken down their benefactor but were unable to keep an eye on the factory at all times, especially when KRONOS had found a way around them by making irregular trips to mitigate their chances of being found out.

"Hook's gone," Gantu said to Elsa as she slid the Master Key Card down their first card reader slot.

"What do you mean 'gone'?" Elsa asked with a frown.

"Captured, I suspect. We haven't received contact from him in a while. I think it's safe to say he's out of the picture now," Gantu replied.

So that was another one down then, along with Maleficent, Syndrome, Rattigan and Freya. Elsa looked downwards. She suddenly began to feel very vulnerable. She hadn't joined KRONOS because she believed in what they stood for specifically. She had joined up with Maleficent originally because she felt like she had no purpose, that she needed someone to guide her after what had happened to her sister.

It had started off like everything in her life of course—as an accident. She had closed herself off from her sister for fear of hurting her with her powers and tended to her regal duties as the soon to be Queen. No matter how much she begged, Elsa would never give Ana the time of day. It was on her twenty first birthday, also to be the day of her coronation, that her sister had finally been able to confront her in the courtyard. Ana fired question after question at her, with Elsa unable to answer because she knew the consequences if she were to do so. That obviously didn't satisfy Ana, and in the end when Ana grabbed onto Elsa's hand, it brought back memories of when she had been merely eight years old. What happened then had now happened again.

Elsa was knocked out of her thoughts by a foreign voice. She turned to see three people walking towards them. She squeezed her eyes shut. Right now she would have preferred to be anywhere but here. She knew she was undeserving of this silent request with all that she had done, but she would give anything to see Ana at least one more time. Once would be enough for the wicked Snow Queen that had frozen her sister's heart.

"I figured you guys would come back here, in the dead of night no less," Riku said with a small smirk on his face. "A world that links to other worlds. Not even KRONOS can resist that temptation for long."

"Nice one, Riku. Guess you were right to suggest coming here after all," Kairi said.

"Ah, well glad I can at least be right on one occasion in Kairi's playbook, I suppose," Riku replied.

"Aw, you're cute when you complain about me complaining. Why don't you complain some more," Kairi shot back. She hadn't hesitated in chiding him over the way he and Sora had been treating each other ever since they had left Radiant Garden. Riku had labelled Kairi's complaints as constant nagging and one thing led to another, making the ride incredibly exhausting and terrifying for the third occupant.

"Guys, um, hate to burst your bubble but we kind of have a job to do," Max reminded them.

"You're right," Riku said, summoning his Way to the Dawn Keyblade. "I'll only give you one chance to answer our questions. Where is Alice?"

Gantu growled and pulled out his blaster. "I'll admit that you Keyblade wielders can be quite the formidable opponents, certainly none the likes of which I have ever seen in all my time at the Galactic Federation, however, that does not mean I will bow to the likes of you. You should know that my loyalty is unquestioning and never wavers. Arrogance can only get you so far and don't expect me to show mercy once I'm through with-"

Gantu was cut off mid-sentence as he was struck in the head by a flying Chakram and was lifted off his feet, staying suspended in the air for a good second before landing back on the floor in an unconscious state.

"Yap, yap, yap, he just keeps going, doesn't he?" The red headed flurry of flames said, winking at Elsa as he walked past her. Elsa quickly raised her hand and shot a blast of Ice out of her palm but Lea arched backwards, the shard soaring over his body. From that position, he grinned at her and thrust his arms out, two balls of fire shooting out. Elsa managed to block the first by using a forming a separate Ice crystal to take the hit but she was unable to erect a second crystal in time and was hit square in the chest. Lea regained his normal posture and sighed. "And here I thought we were starting to connect. Fire and Ice… opposites attract, or so goes the song. Do you think we have something here, Kairi?"

"Lea? What are you doing here?" Kairi asked, choosing to ignore his question. Lea chucked something their way and Riku caught it. Kairi and Max leaned in to see that Lea had given Riku a black and white checkerboard patterned wristband. They couldn't shake the feeling that it looked incredibly familiar.

"I need your help," Lea said.

* * *

Blurry shapes and patterns came into clearer view as Roxas opened his eyes. He shook off his fatigue and looked around. He was in a large room he had never been to and yet for some reason, it still felt awfully familiar to him. It was the theme of the place, Roxas decided. The walls were warm in color like the sunset. Looking down Roxas, could see a familiar grid like pattern of squares underneath a stained and likely old red carpet. He looked behind him on either side to see two matching statues of an animal—an Alicorn, if he had to use the designated portmanteau. He knew exactly where he was.

_This is… the Old Mansion in Twilight Town? But how did I get here? And where's Xion?_

Roxas tried to get up from the chair he was in but found he couldn't. He looked down to see that his wrists and ankles were cuffed to the rests and legs of the chair with iron restraints. He tried shaking them off, his attempts becoming increasingly desperate until he was left with no choice but to give up.

"Xion! Xion, where are you?" Roxas yelled out. His voice carried across the mostly empty room but Xion's voice failed to respond. Instead, it was someone else. The sound of slow laughter and claps came closer and closer until the door in front of him opened and a person he hadn't been expecting came into the room.

"Kefka? What's going on?" Roxas yelled.

"I wonder that myself sometimes. Now just look at what you and your friends have had me do. You keep interfering and now we have to teach them a lesson." Kefka made his way across the room and ruffled Roxas' hair violently. "Now I would have chosen something more to your disliking like your old home but unfortunately it's been destroyed. This'll have to do. Twilight Town, the place of your birth and her 'death'. Oh come on, don't be all sulky on me. What better place than this for a grand finale? I even went to the trouble of digging a grave. Aren't I just the nicest guy?"

"Why would you dig your own grave?" Roxas muttered.

"Oh, that is just… that warms the frostiest part of my heart. The quips! Now I know why you're Sora's Nobody," Kefka squirmed in delight.

"_Was _Sora's Nobody. What have you done to Xion?" Roxas asked.

"Was is, same thing. Just because you have a body of your own now doesn't mean you're any more your own person. All it means to me for example is that you're a part of him that I can now physically and emotionally torture," Kefka said, moving his hand down to smack Roxas' cheek with the back of his hand. "What of you can you say is truly yours and what is borrowed from someone else? Was it not others who allowed you to be who you are sitting in front of me right now? Let's face it, Roxas. Even when you were free you were still controlled by the will of others. You exist today because of them, not your own will. In other words, you and her exist as walking breathing plot devices which serve only to make the main characters even greater. In that way, I'm the same as you. But unlike you, I'm not satisfied that they've given me free reign over my leash. After all, the leash is still there."

"What is this? Do you want me to agree with you or something? I'm not interested in what you have to say, got it memorized?"

"Good, this would be incredibly boring if you did. As for your friend, she is here… somewhere in this mansion. I've taken it upon myself to redecorate. I was going to replace all the busts here with ones of my beautiful self but then I realized that it represents the motif of the little game we're going to play," Kefka said. "You could say that it is a game of miracles and inspiration-"

"Forget it, I'm not playing your game," Roxas said, closing his eyes.

Kefka blinked. "What? No, no, no, no, NO! You have to play the game. Look how long it took for me to set up and everything? You think you can walk away without playing the game? It just won't work that way!"

"You can find someone else then, and get these things off me while you're at it so I can give you a taste of your own medicine," Roxas said.

"Oh, but you will be a part of the game, even if you don't want to, or would you rather leave here with the death of a friend on your conscience?" Kefka asked, pointing up at the corner of the room. Roxas followed his arm to find a speaker attached that he hadn't noticed before. Suddenly it came to life with the sound of sharp breaths.

"Xion? Xion, is that you?" Roxas called out.

"Roxas? Where are you?" Xion asked.

"Somewhere in the Old Mansion. How about you?"

"Yeah… yeah, it looks like it. I don't know what's happening, why are we even here?" Xion fired at him quickly.

"I don't know," Roxas replied. He tried to remember back to what had happened. They had found two of Moira's Crescent's members while they had been on Captain Hook's ship with the intention of bringing him in. One of them in particular, Roxas remembered Sora having spoken of as the girl who had tried to kill him on three occasions. Roxas and Xion fought their hardest against them but were ultimately no match for the two women. Roxas could probably piece together that they had both been knocked out cold at some point but whatever had happened after was a mystery. "Listen Xion, I'm gonna figure out a way to get you out of here, okay? Wherever you are, I'll find you!"

"Not if I find you first," Xion said with a chuckle. It was amazing how she could find a way to crack a joke in such a tense situation.

"Oh, that's enough out of you two." Kefka rolled his eyes, looking incredibly bored. He extended his arm out and a burst of fire shot out, blowing the speaker up.

"Who the hell do you think you are? Let Xion go! Let her go right now!" Roxas tried once again to get out of the chair but his arms and legs only dug painfully into their restraints.

"Oh, this angst is ambrosia to me right now. That's very good… you keep at it, Roxas. Throw away everything they've ever given you. Hate me. By the end of this the only thing you'll be able to see is you. I can give you purpose," Kefka said. Roxas' eyes widened, the image of his former Superior appearing in his mind for a second. Kefka turned and slowly headed toward the door. "O' Twilight Town, how long you've waited for night to come. Let me be the overture that will lead you into sweet slumber."


	77. Overture to the Long Symphony

_A/N: So I've watched a few episodes of the new PowerPuff Girls series... Yeah... Am- am I seeing Bubbles and Blossom twerking? And Blossom and Buttercup fistbumping? I don't think they understand what made the show so great in the first place. Not telling the original VA's that you weren't bringing them back for the roles is one thing (a huge disrespect imo) but dating the episodes by using internet memes is something else entirely. At least Steven Universe and Adventure Time actually understand conveying humour without having to- okay, that's enough ranting or this'll be longer than the actual chapter. Tl;dr: Steven Universe and Adventure Time are awesome and you should totally watch them. There, I'm done selling out for the day._

* * *

**Chapter 77**

**Overture to the Long Symphony **

The tavern Luna entered was dark and dusty, with the smell of alcohol pervading the air. It was a tavern after all. Luna had been to the one in Radiant Garden quite a few times just to talk to Neuge, but this was very much unlike that place. Luna had gathered that the tavern back there was very much filled with a sense of community spirit. It was a calm and peaceful place where even a child could be taken with their parents for the occasional meal as it had a non-drinking section to allow for that. In the tavern she stood in now however, she understood one very basic thing. There were no rules. This is what she imagined a place to be if anarchy was the pre-dominant system in place, or maybe she was just thinking about it too much. Either way, Luna probably didn't need to visit every other tavern to say that the _Faithful Bride _was… special.

The man that had introduced himself as Balthier on their way to the tavern brought them over to a small round wooden table in the corner of the room where his companion, Fran, was sitting in wait for them.

"Best to take the corner so as not to be disturbed," Balthier explained as they sat down. Unfortunately, no more than five seconds after, another staggering drunk approached them and pointed at Balthier.

"You're sittin' in my seat," he slurred, producing specks of spit on his pronunciation of every syllable. Luna didn't even know that was possible.

"Now listen here, chap. If you value whatever your worthless life has left of its existence, you'll do us favor and leave within the next three seconds," Balthier said. He brought up a double barrelled shotgun and rested it on top of the table, keeping it pointed at the man. Luna wanted to object but the drunkard reacted too quickly for her to say anything.

"Are you threatening me? Why I oughta-"

"You've wasted three seconds of my time," Balthier cut him off and aimed the weapon not at the man but above him. The shotgun went off and hit the chandelier that was above him. The bullet struck the support, cutting off the chandelier from the chain and sending it crashing into the man.

Balthier blew the smoke away from his pistol and slipped it back under the table. "Don't worry. They tend to clean up quick here."

"I see…" Donald muttered.

"So let me get this right. You guys travel to other worlds too?" Luna asked. She figured it was okay if she ignored the unconscious man lying next to them and she had hardly been able to contain her curiosity ever since she had met them anyway.

Balthier tilted his head from side to side. "More or less, that is the general idea. If you want a more accurate description, it would be fairer to say we're pirates of sorts. Not those of the sea but of the sky."

"Wow! What do you guys do?" Goofy asked.

"Look for invaluable antiques and treasures, the same as a normal pirate but even better I'd wager. I presume then that you must be Keyblade wielders?" Balthier asked.

"Only one of us," Donald said, pointing to Luna. "How do you know about the Keyblade?"

"How do I not know is the better question. Believe me or not when I say that my ears are quite sensitive and when I hear a lot of noise, I can't help but follow the sound," Balthier explained.

"He's right. I can't even begin to count the number of times we've ran into trouble due to his… honed instincts," Fran said.

"That would be fourteen so far and you know you've loved every single minute of it. And lo' and behold, my sensitive ears also lead me to you. You Keyblade wielders do tend to make a lot of noise, an idiosyncrasy which I'm not too sure was by your design," Balthier said.

"It wasn't. So basically you've been following a trail?" Luna asked.

"A trail of breadcrumbs… not that it's led us anywhere until now. We've encountered more than one dead end so I have to give you credit for that. You may leave crumbs unintentionally, but they always eventually stop, bringing us back to square one," Balthier said. "Can't say it isn't frustrating, but we do see new things along the way. How does the old saying go? It's not the destination that matters but the journey?"

Luna looked elsewhere for a moment. She had just noticed Jack and Gibbs on the other side of the room but they had yet to make their presence known to them. A sudden idea popped in her head then and there. Was it possible to accomplish? Even more ponderous, there was really no question that it was crazy, after all she would have to be crazy to think of it in the first place, but was she really that desperate?

She turned back to Balthier, her eyes full of determination. "Have you ever taken a ship before?"

Balthier raised a brow. "I've infiltrated a few places before, ships included both air and sea. Why do you ask?"

"I need to get on a ship, the Flying Dutchman. Two of my friends are on that ship but the person we're sailing with looks like he'd rather leave them behind to save himself. What I guess I'm getting at is… can you help me take the Black Pearl?" Luna asked.

"LUNA?" Donald, Goofy and even Jiminy on her shoulder yelled her name in surprise. Luna quickly put a finger to her mouth before retracting it.

"I know it's crazy but I'm scared. I can't help but think that I won't see Astra again. I should have gone with her," Luna said.

"You'd only have become another slave to the Dutchman, and what would that accomplish?" Jiminy asked. "Like it or not, Astra made the right decision in not taking you. More importantly, Luna, do you believe in Astra and Will?"

"Of course I do, but belief doesn't mean anything when…" Luna looked down at the table, her eyes showing a glint of fear. "Davy Jones. When you stare into his eyes, you feel suddenly feel cold and hopeless. It's like you can't breathe."

"I don't mean to pry but I would agree with the tiny one here. Trying to find the Dutchman alone is a difficult task. Boarding it is suicidal. Usually I'd tell you to grab the bull by the horns when you get the chance but in this case, belief is your best option," Fran told her.

"I guess…" Luna said dejectedly. She felt an arm around her and looked up to see a worried Goofy. "It's alright, Goofy. You're right, I was rushing into things. I need to think this one step at a time. Then we'll do this the safest way. We'll look for the chest."

"Chest?" Balthier enquired with sparkling eyes.

"Uhm, it's a chest Davy Jones left after he was cursed. He took out his own heart and placed it in there. If we get rid of the heart, maybe we can free Astra and Will," Luna said. For some reason it sounded stupid in her head when she said it. Then again, the idea of someone cutting out their heart wasn't exactly one she could imagine in the first place. She had watched cheesy dramas before where the protagonist would metaphorically give their heart to their lover but this took the concept to a whole new level.

"Now this… I have to see for myself," Balthier said. "You don't mind us tagging along for the ride, do you? Who's the captain of this ship?"

* * *

Astra dabbed the mop into the bucket of what she had given and went to work quickly on the floorboards. She had to be careful to watch where she was going since she didn't feel like running into any of the creatures on the ship. Needless to say, it inevitably happened anyway.

"Why's a woman on this ship?" she heard one of the sailors say from behind her. She ignored them and continued mopping.

"Who knows... maybe we should throw her overboard. She'll bring bad luck," another spat in reply.

"Better yet. She's pretty young. It would be a bit of a waste, don't you think? How about we have our way with her _then _throw her overboard," the first sailor said. Astra gripped the mop's handle a little too tightly. She looked down to see her knuckles whitening under the drops of rain that were staring to fall from the sky. She loosened her grip and continued mopping. She had to wait until the time was right to make her move. That would be tonight. All she needed to do was have a little patience until then.

"Ah, forget it! We already have work and I don't want to get in trouble with the captain," said the second creature. They soon withdrew back to their work leaving Astra to sigh. She rested her forehead against the mop and closed her eyes. She had been separated from Will almost as soon as they had taken them both on board. That wasn't good. She first needed to locate Will and then she had to get them alone so she could discuss her plan with him.

The first objective, she had an excuse for now that they had given her the job of cleaning the ship. If he were here now, Alfonso would tell her that it was crucial to take in even the tiniest of details. That meant time shifts, breaks, anything that would allow her a window of opportunity to see Will. She would use cleaning duty as a way of observing the crewmembers of the deck and from that she would be able to find a way to make the second objective come to fruition.

A day passed and Astra had not yet seen sight of Will, but she did see something else. She was cleaning at the stern of the ship when the sound of an excited crowd was suddenly heard near the front. She abandoned her duties and quickly climbed the shrouds on the port side of the boat. Reaching the mast, she jumped from one to the next, landing above where the commotion was happening.

"Let us cross blades! I've been looking forward to some new blood for quite a while now," the man facing his opponent said. He was wearing body armor that seemed to put a lot of pressure on his torso and a red cape attached to his collar. He was also wearing an oni mask, obscuring the entirety of his face, but Astra had no doubt that he wasn't like the creatures surrounding him. Opposite him was… Will! He was to be the masked man's opponent then.

"I don't want to fight you," Will shouted, but it seemed his protests were lost on his bloodthirsty combatant who summoned a Long Sword and supported it on his shoulders.

"You run from battle like the spineless coward you are? Have you no shame, or does bravery mean nothing to you?" the man said. "Valor… in the face of death. You do dishonor to your father."

_Father? Do they know each other? _Astra questioned. She had no time to think about it now however. Whatever was to come off what she did next, she would meet head on with a stalwart attitude. With that in mind, Astra jumped from the mast and landed in the middle between Will and the masked man.

"That's enough. If you want new blood, try me," Astra said.

"Ah, you must be the Keyblade wielder Jones was talking about. How convenient. You know, once I set my sights on my prey, they don't leave until my prey is within my grasp. That was my philosophy, until now. I was after another's Keyblade but I think yours'll do just fine in its place. I would like to add it to my growing collection," said the masked man.

"Oh, I bet you would. Let's dance," Astra said with a small smile. She was about to raise her arm when the arrival of the captain and one another forced her to lower her hand.

"That'll be enough of that, Gilgamesh. I will not have you causing disorder on my ship. They will serve on my ship under my command. As such, the Keyblade will also remain under my jurisdiction," Jones said. Astra saw the remnants of something lying within the curls of his tentacles. If it was what she thought it was, then her job had become easier and harder at the same time. Jones looked away from Gilgamesh to his crew. "What are you standing around for? Get back to work!"

The crew dispersed immediately, leaving only Jones, Astra, Will and one other. Jones eyed him suspiciously.

"Didn't you hear what I said? Get back to work."

"He's my son," said the man. He was not fully a creature compared to the others on the ship but bits and pieces of gravel and a starfish were attached to his ghostly pale face. He was very much in the process of becoming one of them.

Davy Jones looked from the sailor to Will and back before smiling. "Turner… what fortuitous circumstances we find ourselves in. A good old father and son reunion."

"May I speak with him for a moment?" Will's father asked.

"Do what you will," Davy Jones said before leaving for his quarters. Astra must have been mistaken because when the sailor told him Will was his son, she could have sworn for a split second that his disposition had changed to one of discomfort.

"Astra, this is my father, Bootstrap," Will introduced them.

"Nice to meet you, sir. How long have you been on this ship?" Astra asked.

"On this ship? How long?" Bootstrap seemed to question this, as if he didn't even know himself.

"Almost a year, presumably. You were under the power of the cursed medallions. Captain Barbossa left you to live forever at the bottom of the ocean," Will said.

"Barbossa? Who's that?"

Will looked puzzled. "The man who led the mutiny aboard the Black Pearl?"

"Oh." Bootstrap seemed to remember and smiled wryly. "You tend to remember the things others have done to you. This ship leaves you only with what you have. What you've done. That guilt, it feeds on us, stripping us of all we ever were until all we can see is the monster within. Yes, guilt is a powerful thing indeed."

"It's not easy to overcome either," Astra added with a nod. She wondered sometimes whether her old man felt guilty when he- no… they weren't memories Astra was particularly fond of remembering. The best memories she ever had came from her grandmother, Luna and her family and that was all she wanted to think about.

"It will do its best to make you remember, but I don't think it should be forgotten either. We should use it to make us stronger, so we don't make the same mistake the next time. Either way, it's too late for me. What are you two doing here?" Bootstrap asked.

"We looking for a key that will lead to a chest," Will said.

"The Dead Man's Chest…" Bootstrap nodded before lifting up a finger shakily. "What are you planning to do with the heart?"

"To get rid of it, of course. Wait, what happens to the entire crew if we do destroy it?" Astra asked.

"You stab the heart, the crewmen will be freed. So too will Davy Jones of his eternal chains. But the ship, and the person who stabs the heart? Not so. The Dutchman needs a living heart or it has no captain. If it has no captain, there is no key," Bootstrap explained.

"Err, does it need a key?" Astra asked, incredibly confused.

"The chest must always exist. The key must always exist. The Dutchman must always exist. The captain must always exist. These conditions exist so that the Dutchman can ferry souls across to the afterlife without interruption," Bootstrap replied.

"And if that cycle was interrupted?"

"Death would cease to exist."

"Oh," Astra said. The prior plan had in fact been to screw the Cutler Beckett guy over and take care of the heart as soon as she found it but if the heart of the person who stabbed the heart would have to replace it then what was she to do about it now? She couldn't just kill Davy Jones and become the captain of the Flying Dutchman. As tempting as the idea of having a powerful crew of sailors at her command seemed, she quite liked having her heart in her body.

"We still need that key, at least. As long as Jones has that leverage against us, he's pretty much invincible. We take away the key and he'll feel vulnerable," Will said.

"How will you do that?" Bootstrap asked.

"I've got it covered. I'll sneak into his cabin at night and get the keys from him. All you guys need to do is cover me and make sure the coast is clear," Astra said.

"Are you sure you can handle it?" Will asked. "It's no problem if I go inste-"

"No, I'm the best chance we've got," Astra said. "But we have to be prepared to escape immediately after I get the key."

"We have longboats. I can prepare one for you both," Bootstrap said.

"But won't you get in trouble if we do and they find out it was you that helped us?" Will asked.

Bootstrap chuckled and flung his arms out. "What more can they do to me?"

"Thank you," Astra said to him. She genuinely wished she could help him out but it wasn't any of her business. From what she gathered, he was supposed to be on this ship and there was little she could do about it at the moment. "I guess I better return to mopping. We'll meet back here in the middle of the night."

Astra quickly returned to her duties and tried her best to focus on nothing else. Time passed by quickly, partly in the due to the storm that had rendered the entire process of cleaning useless anyway, not that she had been proud enough of her work to care much anyway. She retreated to the lower deck for the rest of the evening and found herself a nice corner in which to take a small nap, or at least that was what she had promised herself until she drifted into slumber.

She had a dream then. She was standing by her school building, watching as two people walked down the pathway to the main building. The first was Luna and the other… why in the world was she dreaming about him of all people? She called out to Luna, but it seemed that she didn't hear her voice. She probably would have if Astra just plucked up the courage to walk up to her. She had to. Astra pursed her lips shut and walked forward, only to stop a few steps later. Luna was leaning on his shoulder and clinging to his arm now. The guy turned around then, his eyes meeting with Astra's and… he gave a cocky grin.

"DAMN YOU!" Astra yelled. She looked around to see that she wasn't anywhere near her school but on a gloomy ship. The boat swayed gently underneath her, a soothing but strange experience for someone who had never really been on a boat of this proportion before. Fortunately, other than the creaking of the floorboards and the sound of snores, no sound came in response to her yelling. Apparently, the shipmates were all either heavy sleepers or they just didn't care.

Astra quickly discarded all thoughts about the dream in her mind and stood up. Making sure as not to alert the other sleeping resident of the Dutchman, Astra tiptoed over to the stairs and quickly ascended them. She was relieved to know that she hadn't overslept, having spotted Will near Jones' cabin door.

"Where's Bootstrap?" Astra asked.

"He's getting the boat out. Should be with us shortly," Will answered. He gave the cabin door another look before turning to Astra. "Just remember to keep a cool head in there. If things turn out badly, get out quick. We might not have another chance if we fail now though…"

"Hey, hey, hey, no pressure or anything," Astra warned. She looked down when Will presented a piece of parchment with a drawing of a key on it. "What are you showing that for?"

"So he still has his 'key'," Will said with a suggestive smile. Astra's look of confusion soon transformed into something that matched Will's own.

"You know, you may not look like a pirate, but you sure do act like one," Astra said, taking the parchment and rolling it up. She gave him a nod before grabbing hold of the doorknob and slowly giving it a twist, inviting herself into the chamber of the beast.

Davy Jones was not sleeping on his bunk like Astra had expected him to, but instead it seemed he had fallen asleep while playing on what was a giant organ. She also heard music playing somewhere by him, something coming not from any live instrument but a music box. It was probably because he looked inhuman but it was hard to picture Davy Jones of all people falling asleep to a music box, and with such a sad song at that.

Astra walked around to the side of the chair and leaned in. She could just about make out the key hidden in between the slimy animated octopus beard. She cringed in disgust. She was really going to have to go through… this? She stilled her breathing and reach out, taking hold of the tentacle with the key in it with her thumb and index finger and gently lifting it up. With her other hand she tugged at and pulled with key away from the grip of the tentacle before quickly substituting it with the rolled up parchment. Seeming satisfied with this, the tentacle soon left her hand and retreated back to be with its own kind.

Astra let out a relieved sigh only to immediately regret it because Jones stirred about as if he were going to wake. She froze. Will had told her to get out if she met any trouble but in practice, she found it an incredibly difficult thing to do. Fortunately, Jones' body soon relaxed once more, returning to its content state.

Astra glanced at the music box and nodded at it, recognizing it as playing some part in the easiness of her mission, before leaving and slipping out of the door to join up with Will. She closed the door slowly and looked around to see Will and Bootstrap by a prepared longboat.

"Boom! Got your key," Astra announced, showing it to them before slipping it into her pocket.

"Then it's time to go," Bootstrap said, gesturing to the boat.

"I'll find a way to save you. To free you from the Jones's control. I promise, I won't rest until this finds a way into his heart," Will said, holding up a dagger that Astra had never seen before. Astra wondered just how exactly Will planned to go about freeing his father without becoming the captain. The two seemed inextricably tied. Was it really possible? For Astra, the question was something else. As a member of KRONOS, how could she get rid of him?

* * *

It must have been an hour or perhaps many, Roxas felt, when the restraints on his arms and legs separated, freeing him from their grasp. Time seemed to matter very little either way. All he knew was that it was unlikely it had been a full day. What Roxas was more concerned about was how long they had been in this mansion, including the time he was unconscious. If they wanted him to wake at a certain time then it was possible he could have been drugged.

_Xion…_

He felt rather weak, his muscles just barely responding to his command. How was Xion? Were they feeding her? Kefka wanted Roxas to play some sort of game so he was sure that they would keep her alive as long as he complied but her voice had also seemed rather weak and croaky when he had talked with her on the speaker system. They were keeping her alive, but they weren't treating her right.

Roxas stumbled over to the door and opened it slightly, cocking his head to the side to peer through. He was staring at a long hallway, a part of the mansion he had never been to before. He wondered just how big this mansion was, but right now he didn't really care to find out. He just wanted to find Xion and leave.

Roxas started down the hallway, a door at the end. This led into another hallway, very much identical to the one he had been in. He soon reached another door, opening it to find himself in a blindingly white square room. In the middle of the room was a single monitor attached to a pedestal. He walked up to it slowly and looked around the room before focusing on the glowing blue screen.

Lifting his hand, he pressed a finger against the screen. Suddenly it came to life, showing strange pixel versions of him and Xion like something out of a video game. A female yet mechanical voice soon came out of the monitor afterward, startling Roxas.

"In order to rescue your friend, you must first play a game. Would you like to play?"

"Where's Xion?" Roxas asked the voice.

"Sorry, your answer is not accepted within the current parameters. Please answer with a yes or no only," the voice replied.

"Yes," Roxas grunted in frustration. He really did have no choice but to play right into Kefka's hands. Well, he did but the end result of that was not something he wanted to think about.

"Welcome, user. You have been elected to participate in 'The Great Escape', a game that will ultimately test your strength and commitment. The current difficulty is set at—Insane. The first trial will test your strength." The voice cut off from a moment and the screen cut to something that made Roxas' blood boil. An uneasy Xion was bending forward, her head placed in the guillotine's frame. Above her was a giant blade, ready to fly down at a moment's notice to sever the head of the victim from their body. Roxas was so angry that he had almost failed to see some kind of column rise out of a tile in the ground. There was a thick piece of rope in a slot in the column.

"You've gone too far, Kefka!" Roxas yelled. The second he saw Kefka, he would spare him no mercy.

"Your objective will be a game of tug-of-war. You must prevent the blade from falling on the second participant by controlling the rope provided. You will bring back the rope with you to the opposite end of the room, after which the column will attempt to recall the rope following a five second interval. This test is designed in such a way that the effort exerted by the column will increase over time. If the rope does not reach the column before the three minutes are up, the player will win. Please take the rope with you to the red line when you are ready to begin."

"Why? Why are you doing this to us?" Roxas whispered. It was crazy. It was asinine. It was just plain outright nonsensical. And yet this wasn't a dream. He would have to do this here and now. It was no use averting his eyes and pretending that he wasn't here. All that mattered right now was saving. It wasn't a question of whether he could or couldn't. He had to rely on his own strength.

Roxas approached the rope when he was ready and dragged with him to the red line that had been glowing on the floor just in front of the door he had come from. He finally reached the red line after what seemed to him like his body purposely stalling and waited. He was in no real condition to do this at the moment, but complaining meant defeat and he was not about to give Kefka what he wanted.

A buzzer sound in the room alerted him that the test had begun. Roxas grounded his feet and kept steady as he pulled at the rope, stopping it from retreating. So far so good, but he was sure that, like the voice had stated, it would get increasingly difficult. What he had underestimated then was the increments by which the difficulty increased. At around the thirty second mark, the speed at which the column pulled the rope in increased dramatically. Roxas flew forward from the sudden jolt but quickly regained his footing. He looked up to see that the blade above Xion's head had descended even lower.

Roxas gripped the rope tightly with both hands and started moving backwards slowly. It was still bearable but the sudden speed had really thrown him off balance. By the time he reached back to where he originally was, he was being thrown forward again by another increase in speed. Roxas suddenly found the rope incredibly difficult to grip in his hands and his palms were sweating. He twisted around and lifted the rope over his shoulder, trying to go against the incredible force that was pulling him back.

It felt as if he were trying to pull a tram along. His face became strained, sweat drops starting to form on his forehead. The taut rope dug into his hands. It burnt. It hurt like hell. But Roxas was going to save Xion. He would put all he had into stopping this rope if needed be. Even then, his all didn't seem to be enough. The energy was draining out of Roxas' body. He found himself being pulled backwards, slowly sealing Xion's fate. His hands wanted to give in so badly. Seeing that he was so far away from where he had started and getting even farther was incredibly discouraging. It came to him then that he was about to fail Xion. He would never see his friend again.

"You have successfully completed the level. Nice work! Please verify by touching the screen," the computer voice suddenly said. It was strangely cheerful and yet in that laid its creepiness as it still possessed a robotic tone behind it. Roxas looked behind him to see that the blade seemed completely independent of the rope, having returned to its original position. Roxas sunk onto the floor and let go of the rope. For a victory, it didn't seem like one to him. It had been way too close. Roxas looked down at his palms to see a bunch of blisters and bruises.

Roxas walked over to the monitor. His legs didn't quite feel his own, but he ignored the strangeness behind him. He reached out shakily and touched the screen again. Xion's relieved face disappeared and he was treated to a screen of the pixel him and Xion jumping up and down in celebration.

"You may now proceed to the second level. You may opt at any time to stop playing the game at the second participant's peril. Please proceed through the door to the second trial when you're ready," the voice said. Roxas swooned from side to side as he made his way to the door on the other side. Just what would remain of him once this was done?

* * *

_A/N: So the next chapter will be the end of Pirates and perhaps even the conclusion of Twilight Town. I'd say next chapter is the last you'll see of a Disney world in this story so we're certainly heading into climax territory. Look forward to it!_


	78. Battle of the Beasts

_A/N: So said chapter may or may not have been overly ambitious which led to me having to cut a few things down. This is still probably one of the longest chapters in this story though. Pretty much a pure action chapter here. Hope you enjoy!_

* * *

**Chapter 78**

**Battle of the Beasts **

After being surrounded by nothing but white caps and ocean waves the entire night, a shivering Will and Astra were found in the safe hands of another ship. Climbing on board, they were led into the ship's cabin where they were set down and were both given a warm blanket and a cup of tea. The warm liquid ran through Astra's chest, warming her up.

"Strange to find a longboat out in open sea," the captain stated. He had introduced himself as Bellamy.

"What time is it? Where are we?" Will questioned.

"You're on the Edinburgh Trader. Time is…" Bellamy looked to the clock mounted on the wall. "12:38 PM."

"A full twelve hours then," Astra said before lifting the cup to her mouth again. Jones most definitely would have known about their escape by now.

Will's eyes scanned the room before settling on something. "Where did you get that dress?"

"Funny, that dress. We found it aboard the ship. The crew thought it to be some omen of ill-fate. Gave them quite a stir," Bellamy answered. Astra looked up to see a golden wedding dress lifted up by a hanger in the corner. With all its layers and beads, the word excessive came immediately to Astra's mind.

"That's foolish," Will replied. He stood up and walked over to the dress, taking the sleeve into his hand.

"Aye, well, the saying goes that bad luck happens when a woman is on board. The woman's wrath it's called." Bellamy eyed Astra as if he had been speaking mainly to her.

"Sorry, I forgot to bring mine with me," Astra joked. She was honestly too cold to be angry right now and after sleeping on uncomfortable wood and in such a small space for hours, she was just about ready to fall asleep in a place more comfortable.

"Aye, on the contrary, it brought rather good luck. The spirit led us to Tortuga where we made quite a bit of profit there… off the books," Bellamy whispered the last part.

Before Astra could reply, a man burst into the cabin, breathing heavily. "Captain, a ship's been spotted. She's not flying any colors, sir."

"Speak of the devil. Pirates!" Bellamy looked from Astra to Will before exiting the cabin along with the sailor.

Will looked at Astra with worry etched on his features. "You don't think…"

"We've put them in danger," Astra realized. She threw the blanket off and stormed through the door with Will following in tow. Astra went around the other sailors and climbed up onto the yardarm to get a better look. The Flying Dutchman was off in the distance, slowly approaching them. How had it even managed to catch up with them though? How did it know where they were? As much as Astra wanted to believe it was some coincidence that it was heading this way, she knew it wasn't.

The ship suddenly jolted to a complete stop, throwing Astra of her balance. She slipped from the beam she was on but held on with both hands and lifted herself back up. She carefully made her way back down onto the deck and found Will.

"What just happened?" she asked him.

"No idea."

"We may have just hit a reef," Bellamy said. He peered over the rail and looked into the ocean. The ocean's calm blue was the last thing he ever saw. Mayhem emerged out of the water in the form of a tentacle, wrapping itself Bellamy before pulling him into the water along with it.

There was bedlam among the ship crew, who scattered, trying to escape as the army of tentacles rose from the ocean and cut off their escapes before taking hold of them. Legs, arms, torso, neck, nothing was off limits to the creature as it thrashed about with its many tentacles.

Astra felt her body being spun around as someone grabbed her shoulders. "RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE. IT'S THE KRAKEN!"

Astra didn't even have a chance to fully absorb what he was telling her. No sooner had the sailor taken his hands of her had a tentacle swooped in and lifted him into the air. The tentacle let go and the man flew into the air before falling once more. His head smacked against the railing right in front of her as he bounced of the ship and landed in the water. A glimmer of crimson on the railing was the only sign he had even been in front of her just a second ago.

Astra's hands were placed in front of her, unresponsive to her wants and needs. She had to get away, she knew that but… she had never seen _this _before. All her Keyblade training had prepared her fighting Heartless, fighting the darkness. Even worse, training with a Keyblade didn't prepare you for the grief involved when you failed. In the face of death, none of that training mattered. It all seemed to fly out of the window of her mind all at once and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't recall it. What she was feeling right now, this lack of control over her body, the feeling of her body becoming heavier… this was fear. She had failed in her responsibilities to protect the people in this world, and the guilt was crushing her.

_Maybe… maybe I'm not prepared to go solo just yet_, Astra thought. It was almost like she was seeing everything play out in slow motion, seeing the tentacle rise up from the sea in front of her, its tip aiming straight for her. _Move. Move, you idiot. Luna, help me. _

A hand took her and dragged her over just as the tentacles smashed into the ships' cabin, tearing into it. She looked up to see Will fending off a tentacle with the swing of his sword. She had never realized it until now but Will was actually a rather good sword fighter.

"You alright?" Will asked, after the tentacle retreated back into the water.

"It was just a bit of a shock. I'm fine now," Astra said, summoning her Keyblade. She held onto it tightly, afraid that she may drop it at any second. The tentacle that tore through the cabin emerged on their side and attempted to attack them but Astra aimed her Keyblade and cast _Fire_. The tentacle caught a flame before shrivelling up and dying in front of her. That at least gave her some confidence that she could make it out of this alive. The tentacle sloppily slithered back over the railing and into the sea and so did the other tentacles it seemed, leaving the ship in complete silence.

"Are they gone?" Astra asked, perhaps too hopefully.

"I wouldn't count on it," Will said. He soon proved to be right, as two giant tentacles cast shadows over the ship as it rose in the sky, blocking out the sun in the process.

"Oh crap," Astra mouthed as the tentacles came down on the ship. The Edinburgh Trader split in two from the impact, wood and splinters flying in every direction. Astra and Will felt themselves being thrown backwards and over the railing, landing in the cold water below. Other than Will floating next to her, an entirety of blue surrounded her. A huge silhouette over her head caused her to look upwards. The Flying Dutchman had arrived to assess the condition of its prey.

* * *

On their way to their destination, Luna, Donald and Goofy came across another person who claimed to be connected to Will. Jack was the one to introduce her to them—Elizabeth Swann, a daughter of the governor of Port Royal and was also engaged to Will before she and Will were arrested by the East India Company. It was through this that they came to a conclusion about Will's ulterior motive. He had been on board the Black Pearl in order to retrieve the compass and probably also Jones' chest for Beckett. This was in exchange for his and Elizabeth's pardoning.

"Luna, didn't you say that Astra met with one those guys in that group? You don't think she knew about it, do you?" Donald asked.

"What are you saying, Donald? Astra wouldn't keep that a secret. She wouldn't…" Luna looked off in the distance, unsure of how confident she was about them. The first time they met here, Astra went off with Will to talk about something in private. When Luna had asked her about it, she simply evaded the question and moved onto something else. Astra's hidden agenda… was she really planning on giving the chest to Beckett?

Luna approached Elizabeth with a look of worry. "You know Will, right? What would he do in this situation? Would he really hand the chest over?"

"Will is no Jack so I'm sure he'd do the right thing," Elizabeth replied, making quite sure that Jack heard her.

"I'm flattered, truly," Jack told her. Elizabeth looked down at the compass Jack had given her soon after they had boarded the Pearl in Tortuga and snapped it shut almost like she were angry with it for some reason.

She looked up at him questioningly. "Why doesn't your compass work?"

Astounded by this question, Jack raised a brow. "What do you mean? Of course it works. Look just there." He pointed at a small shape in the distance that looked like hills. "Isla Cruces. Just a little more and we'll be there."

"You know the place?" Luna asked.

Gibbs stepped in here. "Aye, most pirates do from stories. No one's ever dared travel on the island though. It's known as a plague island. You see, the Church once came to this island bringing along what it claimed to be salvation for the inhabitants. Real missionary stuff. Instead what it brought with it was disease and death. The entire island fell to the plague and the priest, unable to bear the guilt and loneliness that came with their deaths, hung himself in his despair."

"That's dark..." Luna replied, suddenly feeling quite uneasy. She could understand now why Davy Jones would choose this place of all places to hide his most sacred treasure. Who would dare attempt to trespass on such a location with a terrible history attached to it, much less anyone who believed in curses?

"Better lonely than dead, mate," Jack muttered with a slightly saddened expression, causing the whole group to look at him. Luna was not entirely sure she agreed with him but wasn't really sure she had it in her to oppose him either.

Instead she asked him, "Why do you think that?"

"Because dead men tell no tales," Jack replied.

The ship eventually came to a dead stop just outside the outer reef of the lagoon. Luna, Donald, Goofy, Elizabeth and Jack took to the longboat, also accompanied by Balthier and Fran who were carrying shovels for digging. Once again like the last time with the monkey, Jack had brought along something strange with him, this time a glass jar. It was anyone's guess what he intended to do with it, but they silently decided to not pursue the matter.

The boat soon hit the sandy beaches of Isla Cruces. Elizabeth immediately went to work, using the compass to locate where the treasure would be. Balthier spotted the church in the distance and pointed it out to Luna and Fran.

"For an island once plagued, at least the weather's nice," he commented. "Tell me, Luna, what do you plan to do with this chest after you find it?"

"I don't really need it. Plus, it's not like we can open the chest without the key anyway," Luna answered.

"Oh, come now, you can be a little more creative than that. You've been wielding a giant key all this time and you've never once thought to yourself that your Keyblade might work on the chest? Are you sure that Keyblade is yours?" Balthier teased.

"Oh! Hey, you're right. Maybe we don't need the other key," Luna said.

"That is what I said. And just maybe a certain hungry pirate who happens to be a few ways off from us also suspects this, yes?"

Luna sneaked a quick glance at Jack who also searching the beach although Luna couldn't really tell what he was thinking. She had enough on her mind wandering about Astra and now she had to think about the possibility of Jack bringing her along just to have her use the Keyblade for him. So was she supposed to be angry? She wasn't. It may have seemed like something to be angry about but for her it didn't matter. Even if she had been used, she was still getting to see more of the world. She had seen neither hide nor hair of the Heartless since she had first arrived in this world, so in some strange sense, being used didn't seem as bad to her if she still got to tag along anyway.

"If that's all he wants then so be it. I'm enjoying my time out here. Like you said, the weather's lovely," Luna replied, flashing them a smile.

"Just so long as you are made aware of the reason you might be here. It's best not to turn a blind eye to these things. You never know when someone might stab you in the back," Balthier said. She guessed he must have been speaking from past experience.

"As long as I'm here, I don't need a reason," Luna said with an absent minded smile playing on her lips. That was right. She didn't need a reason so long as someone gave her one. Because of this, she was fine with being used. In fact, she enjoyed it…

_I… enjoy it? _

Her eyes widened in horror as the thought crossed her mind. Why had she thought that? No, she was NOT fine with being used. Her existence wasn't defined purely by other people. What had caused her to think like that? No, what she had meant by her words to Balthier was- What she had meant to say was- What she had meant was- WHATSHEHADMEANTWHATSHEHADMEANTWHATSHEHADMEANTWHATSHEHADMEANTWHATSHEHADMEANTWHATSHEHADMEANTWHATSHEHADME-

"Luna, are you alright?" Fran asked, shaking her shoulder over and over again. Luna snapped out of it and looked at them in confusion. She didn't know how to describe what had happened. It was like her brain had just completely fried for… she didn't know how long.

"W-what happened?" Luna asked, feeling a slight headache coming on.

"You looked like a zombie for a moment there. It was quite the performance, had I not known it was real," Balthier explained. "Best for you to sit on the boat and wait for us if you're not feeling well. Or treat it as a vacation and enjoy a nice relaxing bathe in the sun. The choice is yours."

"Thanks but I'm fine. It won't happen again, I promise," Luna assured them. Neither looked all too convinced but before they could object and push further for Luna to rest, they heard Jack call to them, waving his arms up and down like a child.

"Found it! Time to start digging, you two."

"Yes, sir," Balthier mumbled under his breath. He gave a knowing look to Luna before leaving with Fran to dig in the spot Jack was pointing at. Luna actually took their advice and sat down next to Donald and Goofy, closing her eyes but sitting upright so as not to get sand in her hair.

It was another few minutes before she opened her eyes, the sound of metal hitting against iron unmistakable to her ears. She stood up and observed as Jack and Balthier lifted about a foot high chest from its pit and onto the sand. So this was the Dead Man's Chest, decorated with a pearl the shape of a heart on its surface but otherwise giving off every bit the vibe Luna expected from a chest belonging to Davy Jones.

"May this be the one treasure to eclipse them all?" Balthier asked.

"Hey, do you hear that?" Goofy asked. He pressed his ear against the box, withdrawing it soon after. "Yup! Everyone, come close!"

Luna leaned in and listened, her eyes widening the second she heard the thumping and beating known only to a heart. There was no irregular rhythm or anything like that. It beat just like any human's.

"So it's true then. It's really true…" Donald said, completely astounded. Luna could understand Donald's reaction. Even when told about it, there had been a part of her who hadn't really believed it to be true.

"Of course it is. Did you think we'd come all this way just to chase daisies?" Jack asked.

"With you, Jack, that wouldn't be much of a surprise."

Luna looked up at the surprise voice to see Will walking up to them from the shore, his clothes wet and heavy resulting in his bigger strides than normal. Along with him, and much to Luna's elation, was Astra whose sights never left Luna even as she and Elizabeth ran up to the two waterlogged newcomers.

"Thank you, thank you so much," Luna said into Astra's chest as they hugged.

"You know at this point I'd tease you by calling you Sea Salt but I think that description fits me more this time," Astra said with a chuckle. "Don't tell me you're crying, Luna."

"It's just… I thought that I would never see you again. I was so desperate that I almost tried to cause a mutiny on Jack's ship just to find the Flying Dutchman," Luna told her.

"Well, look who's got a little naughty side to them? I mean, I can't say I wouldn't do the same for you. Still, I'm glad you didn't go through with it. I told you I'd be fine, though we did run into a few complications," Astra said.

"What kind of complications?" Luna asked, adopting the look of a worrying mother.

"Oh, you know, a tentacle here, a tentacle there. It's a long story full of tentacles," Astra said, quickly moving to tickle Luna's vulnerable sides.

"Oh, no, stop!" A squirming Luna wheezed out in between laughs. Astra soon dropped her attack, leaving Luna to breathe for a few seconds. Elizabeth looked at her and smiled. Luna returned it with a grin sporting embarrassment.

The loud clearing of the throat made them all look Jack's way. "As much as I welcome a nice little reunion, I'd be interested to know how you two got here."

"The turtles, mate. Strapped a few to our feet to get us all the way here," Will said in a mocking tone.

"Ah, not very easy now, is it?" Jack said, he was about to turn back to the chest when Will continued.

"You know, I must say that even you sent Astra and I to the Dutchman purely to settle your own debt with Jones, I have to thank you nonetheless," Will said.

"You what?" Elizabeth left Will's side and walked up to Jack. "You told me he was captured."

"He's not wrong technically. We were captured… because of Jack," Astra said. "But at least Will got to meet his father because of it."

"Oh. You're welcome," Jack said with a warm smile. Astra summoned her Keyblade and walked past Luna, aiming it at the chest only for Jack to get in the way. "What are you doing?"

"This chest is now property of Moira's Crescent. I'm taking it with me," Astra said.

"Huh? Astra?" Luna called out in surprise.

Astra looked back at her and smiled. "Luna, you have to trust me on this. KRONOS… they need to pay and I'm going to use Davy Jones to do it. I'll have them destroy themselves from the inside."

"But how do you know Jones will listen?" Jiminy asked from Goofy's shoulder.

"He'll have to, if he wants to keep his position as captain of the Flying Dutchman. Don't you see? I've been thinking of a way to kill him all this time, but we don't need to. We just have to make him feel fear."

The chain of events that followed seemed almost humorous to Luna but instead just left her mouth hanging open in disbelief. Jack drew his sword and pointed it at Astra.

"I can't let you do that, Astra. You see the only way of calling off Jones' little pet beastie is if I have something to bargain with," he said. "William, hand me the key."

"I would but there's just one problem, Jack," Will said before drawing his own sword, keeping it trained on the pirate. "Astra made the better deal."

"I promised him I'd give him back the chest once I was done with it. If it means saving lives, I'm done playing the nice girl. I won't let anyone else get hurt," Astra said.

"Anyone else?" Luna repeated softly, but her voice was drowned out by the clangs of blades hitting one another. The sound of a gunshot seemed to bring everyone back to reality. They all turned to see Balthier pointing a flintlock pistol at them.

"All come back down to earth, have we?" Balthier asked.

_Finally, a voice of reason,_ Luna thought.

"Now see here, that chest must surely be worth more than a pretty penny. Therefore, it's only fitting I acquire it instead. What's the old adage? Once a space pirate, always a space pirate?" Balthier finished.

_Or not. _

In this time, Jack fished the chest into his arms when no one was looking and took off for the jungle. His actions were enough to stun Astra, Will and Balthier for only a short while before they soon gave chase after him.

"Oh, that's just mature. Yes, just go and leave us here while you haul out your swords and start banging away at each other, because that will solve everything! Oh, but don't bother listening to my opinion!" Elizabeth screamed at the top of her lungs, kicking at the sand in front of her.

"Boys and their toys," Fran said.

"You're not wrong. Astra's basically a tomboy," Luna replied. "You're not going after him?"

Fran smiled. "Let them fight. I'll take this opportunity for a nice break. It annoys me less that way."

Luna grinned at her and turned to Donald and Goofy. Her smile faded instantly, not at Donald and Goofy obviously but at the person behind them.

"Donald, Goofy, get away!" Luna yelled. The two peered behind them and jumped in surprise before summoning their weapons. Fran also took out her bow. "It's you… Gigglymesh."

"GILGAMESH! How hard is it to remember a name?" the man yelled back in annoyance. He summoned two swords, not like the ones he had been using when they had last fought. "I've been waiting for this. After all these years of searching, the Keyblade will finally be mine. I don't care how many of your friends I have to cut through to get to you. Your weapon is mine!"

"Luna, you know this person?" Fran asked.

"Unfortunately," Luna said. Her hands found her pocket where two small syringe needles were placed. She had two chances to take him out, though she would rather only do it on the first try in case there was another Chimera nearby. She summoned the Dream Seeker instead and looked at Elizabeth. "Make sure Will and the others are alright. If you can somehow get the chest back to get them to stop fighting, even better."

"Okay, be careful," Elizabeth said to all four of them before following after the others. Gilgamesh wasted no time in sprinting forward. His arms and legs became more hind-like and furry as he went on all fours before pouncing at Luna.

* * *

"They're just up ahead!" Lea yelled. He switched between his chakrams and Keyblade as he, Riku, Kairi and Max cut through the Heartless that had ambushed them in the woods. Kairi flew forward and jumped from one enemy to another striking them with one hit and clearing the rest of the way to the Mansion.

They advanced forward to the Mansion entrance, only to stop just short of the gates. Pete was standing in front of them, a smug look on his face.

Riku stepped forward almost casually and countered Pete's grin with his own. "KRONOS is finished, Pete. We know every single member in your group thanks to the data from Syndrome's computer. Once we're done with you, we're going after whoever else is in that mansion."

"And we'll get back what you took from us," Lea added. "Or you can spare yourself the pain and hand over Roxas and Xion right now."

"Sorry, but I'm under strict orders from Kefka not to let nobody into this here mansion. If you want through here you're gonna have to go through my buddies here. Oh come out, Heartless!" Pete yelled, backing away as he did so. Kairi looked up as a pair of Heartless jumped off the mansion's roof and landed in front of Pete. She recognized them as the two Chimera she and Riku had fought back in Atlantis, the Lamia and the Nekomata. They were fairy tale creatures if Kairi had ever seen one, but they were not out of some picture book. She had vivid memories of her grandmother reading to her tales about such creatures of darkness being driven away by powerful lights. She would confront them now not through imagination, but through battle.

"We have to thank you, Pete. And here I thought we'd be looking everywhere for these two," she said. She pulled out one of the three syringes and showed them to Lea. "I need to get close enough to use them on those two."

"Ah, you get the easy job, I see," Lea said, pretending to feel hurt.

"I wouldn't call trying to get close 'easy'. Just keep them distracted long enough and I'll see what I can do," Kairi replied.

The Lamia slithered in, a group of Heartless appearing behind her. Max knocked the Heartless back while Riku and Lea split off, the former handling the Lamia while the other handled the Nekomata. The Lamia spit out what looked like venomous gobs of spit at her opponent. Riku quickly evaded the attacks but the green grass was not so lucky, drying up upon impact.

"Kairi, any time now!" Riku begged as the Lamia's mouth enclosed around the Way to the Dawn. Riku moved around and pushed back with both hands, releasing his Keyblade from the Chimera's grip in the process.

"Well maybe if you kept it still for a moment, I'd be able to do it," Kairi said through gritted teeth. She switched focus and watched as Lea had abandoned his Keyblade and, in its place, had begun wrestling with the Nekomata. He pulled his weight and lifted it into the air before throwing both him and it to the ground. The Nekomata reached out and dug its nails into Lea's back. He winced and closed his eyes for a moment but otherwise looked to Kairi to tell her he was ready.

Kairi hurried forward and danced through the wave of Heartless that were standing between her and Lea. She took out a final trio of Neoshadows in her way with _Thundaga _magic before quickly taking out the syringe needle and jabbing it into the Nekomata's neck underneath Lea's arm. The cat-like human's tail moved in a way that seemed like it was acting completely of its own will and struck Kairi's chest, sending her back a few feet. It retracted its claws from Lea's back and began clutching its own head.

Lea backed away and eventually found himself under Kairi. She gave him a firm nod and proceeded to heal his back with _Curasa_. The long slashes, a deep red in color, quickly closed up, as if they had never happened in the first place. And to think, if she had been in Alexander with Sora when he had been attacked by the Moira's Crescent member, she could have at least erased some of the scars that had formed on his body. The benefit of such high level magic was that it worked best when the wound inflicted was more recent. Of course, that meant that the magic could also be weak the longer the period between the wound and the casting. She was glad that Rapunzel's hair had been able to reverse Sora's wounds where she was unable to.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed? If you die here, you won't get a chance to rescue Roxas and Xion," Kairi told him as she lifted her hands off his back.

"Good point. Maybe I was being a just a little hasty back there but it worked didn't it?" Lea asked.

"Just a little, huh? How complacent," Kairi said. She turned away from him and watched with stilled breath as the Nekomata screamed out in pain. She felt sorry for it, but there was no known way that she could possibly ease its suffering. The lesser Heartless stopped attacking and looked at one another in a panicked state. Kairi had also learned from Luna about Even's current theory on the link between the Heartless and Chimera. Applying his analogy here, the Heartless, or soldier ants, were currently witnessing their mother, the queen ant, in pain. They were learning empathy, learning to evolve into something more, and Kairi had no idea nor did she want to know what the final outcome of that would be.

The Nekomata's tail soon shrunk out of existence and the claws soon followed. The skin became less and less blue until what remained was a fair skinned girl with strawberry blonde hair.

"Lea, get her to safety. I'll help Riku," Kairi said. Lea wasted no time in picking up the unconscious girl and carrying her into the woods. Pete, who had been giving them a scathing look the entire time, attempted to stop them but Max threw a shield at him. The spinning weapon struck Pete in the head and he immediately went stiff, falling backwards after a delay.

"No offence, Pete, but I've always wanted to do that. That one's for dad," Max said.

"Eyes to the front, junior," Riku stopped to remind him.

"Oh. Sorry," Max apologized nervously before focusing on taking out the remaining Heartless. Riku spun around and reflected the Lamia's venomous spit right back at it with a dark shield. This seemed to stun the Lamia for a moment.

"You know, you really have to stop and wonder when your opponent isn't resistant against its own attacks," Riku said. The chimera seemed to soon shake out of its paralysis and moved in when Riku was looking at Kairi. It wrapped itself around Riku and constricted, trying to crush its prey.

Kairi summoned the Keyblade and cut through the Heartless on her way to the screaming Riku. She quickly pulled out the syringe and was about to bring it down when the Lamia spun and released Riku, sending him crashing into Kairi.

"What happened to 'eyes to the front'?" Kairi groaned underneath Riku.

"Oh, shut it," Riku said, rolling off of her. Kairi tried to get back up and was only just barely on her feet when the Lamia slithered over to her within seconds and spit out another tract of fluid.

It all happened so instantaneously that Kairi, or any normal person for that matter, would have been incapable of reacting for a good while. Riku moved quickly and pushed Kairi aside just as the fluid was ejected, soaking him in the green liquid. His features began to turn pale and he looked over to Kairi, fear in his eyes. He opened his mouth but nothing came out. Nothing could come out. Before she knew it, Kairi was staring at a stone version of her previously living friend.

"Riku!" Kairi yelled. She extended her hand out even though she knew it wouldn't do a single worth of good. She called his name out again, but the statue remained unresponsive. How had this happened? They were doing so well and now this? The worst part was that she didn't even have time to grieve. The Lamia was fast approaching her. She raised her hand in front of her face to block though she knew it would do no good.

Max lunged forward and smashed his shield into the Lamia's body, knocking the creature away. He reached out and helped Kairi up before turning his back.

"I know it's difficult but we have to see this through to the very end, Kairi. Now's not the time to falter," Max said.

"I know I shouldn't but… we only got as far as we did because of Riku. I've said some pretty inconsiderate things to him over the past few days. We argued… a lot. But he was the strongest of us," Kairi said tearfully. "It's only when I'm standing here without those two that I realize I don't know what to do."

"Are you sure about that? I know... I could never be as strong as you guys, but that's okay. What's important isn't that I am strong but that I feel strong. Meet your own expectations first, then work even harder rather than trying to meet others' expectations. That's what dad told me the night before we left. So you can cry if you have to, but let it make you more determined. We have friends to rescue," Max said. Kairi felt pretty silly next to him. Wasn't she meant to be mentoring him and not the other way around?

Kairi wiped a tear from her cheeks and nodded. "Yes. I'll do what I can. Thank you, Max."

Max nodded before turning his attention back on the remaining Heartless. He performed a hurricane spin, taking out the four Neoshadows that were approaching them. Kairi smiled and ran forward. The Lamia lunged at her at the same time but she sidestepped to the left and lifted it into the air with an uppercut. Kairi backflipped away and flicked her wrist back and forth, keeping the Lamia suspended in the air with Thundaga. Waves of built up heat and energy fostered through the air like ripples. She jumped up quickly and brought her Keyblade down on her stunned opponent, knocking back to the ground.

Kairi pulled out the syringe needle and jabbed it in quickly, making sure the liquid had completely left the glass before pulling it out.

She backed away and smiled at Max. "You know, I do feel pretty strong right now."

"That's the spirit," Max said. With all of the lesser Heartless taken care of, he was left to watch over Pete who had yet to gain consciousness. Kairi supposed that was another KRONOS member successfully captured, though at the cost of losing Riku. She looked at the statue for a moment, wondering if Riku was still somewhere in there. She couldn't lose hope just yet. Perhaps Yen Sid knew of some way to bring him back to normal.

The sound of a human's groan sent Kairi looking in the direction of the Chimera. She anxiously waited for the Lamia to transform into whatever it had once been. The Chimera's reptilian tail began to take the shape of two separate legs and the body shrunk in general until it became that of a child's. It discomforted Kairi somewhat, knowing that she had just attacked a child, though she may not have been one at the time. She knelt down beside the young girl and rested her hair on her arms.

* * *

Luna shuffled backwards as Gilgamesh swung his swords wildly at her. His moves were rather reckless in nature, not that it mattered since Luna was unable to find any opportunity to attack by herself. Fran fired off several quick rounds of arrows from her bow but Gilgamesh turned to cut through them. Goofy threw his shield at the same time, but in a motion unparalleled by most humans, Gilgamesh's arms moved in a swift blur and knocked the shield away.

Luna slashed downwards but Gilgamesh guarded it with his other hand. She quickly ducked underneath their weapons and held crunched her hand up. She concentrated her mana into her fist and drove it forward into Gilgamesh's body armor. Gilgamesh tried to bring his elbow onto her head but him arms went up instead after Donald's well-timed _Magnet _magic. Luna's fist pushed forward until cracks in the armor started to appear. After a few more seconds, the punch broke through, shattering the armor. Luna jumped back with a victorious grin on her face and gave a thumbs up to Donald.

"Heh, heh, you are every bit the warrior I anticipated. I have to commend you on your skills… and for freeing me of my restraints," Gilgamesh said.

"Freeing you?" Donald repeated with a sceptical look. Gilgamesh parted his feet and tensed up before roaring out loud. Two more pairs of arms appeared underneath his first two, both wielding different swords.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me," Luna said.

"Luna!" Fran called to her, gesturing her over with her head. Luna walked around Gilgamesh while keeping her eyes on him and stopped near Fran. She whispered, "I have a plan. We lure him into the jungle and deal with him there."

"Good idea, the beach might be too open. We need to slow down his movements somehow, right?" Luna whispered back.

Fran nodded aimed her bow. "I'll follow your lead. He is after you, after all."

"Thanks for reminding me," Luna said sarcastically, before taking off into a run. She could hear growls and snarls coming from behind her, meaning that Gilgamesh must have transformed into his wolf form to chase after her. Luna glanced behind her and threw a _Blizzaga _at the ground, creating a wall of Ice. Gilgamesh stopped just short of the wall only to be hit by an arrow from Fran. He snarled at her and ran around the ice wall, continuing on his way to Luna.

By this point, Luna had made enough distance between them to focus on where she was going. The church that they had seen from the beach was her destination though she wasn't sure how much help it would do. She would figure that much out when she got there as she did with any other plan.

She weaved in between trees, listening to the sounds of Donald's magic and Fran's arrows flying through the air. She finally arrived at a green open field where the church was, or where it used to be, at least. Only a ramshackle building remained with most of its roofing broken in and moss growing in between the bricks. To the right of where the entrance had once been was a watermill. Luna couldn't see any water nearby so she assumed it must have dried up a while ago.

"And here I thought you would give me a challenge." Hearing his voice, Luna spun around to see Gilgamesh in his human form. He reached for his side and pulled the arrow out, disposing of it after. He raised his arms up and looked up to the sky. "_Aaaahhhh_, now that's the stuff. You have to feel pain every now and then, don't you think? Makes you feel alive. It's just unfortunate it lasts so short due to the Chimera's healing properties. Of course, you've been running from the pain for a while now, haven't you?"

"None of your concern," Luna answered. She turned her back and ran towards the church. If he wanted to believe that she was running, she would let him. She ran over to the watermill and climbed up to the top before jumping for the church entrance's roof. As soon as one of her feet touched the ground, the roof broke in and her leg fell in.

Gilgamesh laughed and ran one of his swords against the other in the adjacent arm. "We can take as long as we need too. I'm in no hurry."

Luna lifted her trapped leg up and down for a moment before watching as Gilgamesh climbed up the watermill. The support connecting the mill to the church suddenly broke, the wheel beginning to turn as it rolled away from the building. Determined to catch Luna, Gilgamesh leapt off the departing watermill. Just before his feet touched the roof, Luna pulled her leg out and jumped down. The roof, unable to support the force Gilgamesh had exerted on it, gave in entirely, taking him down with it. Luna wasted no time in pulling out the syringe she had and stabbed it into his chest.

"Argh!" Gilgamesh gave a mighty roar. He violently swung his arm, catching Luna in the face and knocking her away. He pulled the syringe out and looked at it before crying out, "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME?"

"You're human. You're on the same playing field as the rest of us. Just try and play holier than thou now," Luna said. From what Even had told her and the others, the new drug he had created was different from the previous in that the first used antibodies to target viruses within the body. The problem with that was that the Heartless coding and human coding were so well intertwined that it could potentially take out more than just the Heartless side. The new drug, still using Luna's blood, was an inhibitor which prevented the Heartless 'gene' from taking dominance. The host was technically still part Heartless but Even suggested further that because the body saw the Heartless 'gene' as having no use, it would eventually stop working and die out completely. Luna had to admit, for an incredibly creepy guy, Even was pretty smart.

Gilgamesh pushed the rubble off him and stood up albeit clumsily. He lunged forward at her only to stop and look down at his feet. The syringe had done its job.

Gilgamesh growled. "You'll pay for that!"

He advanced forward and swung forward again and again, alternating with each of his six swords. Luna backed away from each swing and deflected the occasional thrust before trying to swing upward. She stopped and looked on in confusion. Gilgamesh's expression was not normal. He seemed to be moving really slowly as if time had suddenly become distorted for him.

"_For him, or you?" _Abraxas' voice prickled in her ears. She closed her eyes and shook her head. "_I think it's time you woke up_."

Luna opened her eyes. She was sprawled out on a cold marble floor. Her eyes followed the trail of blood that ran across the floor and underneath the bodies of people in white lab coats, or what used to be pure white. They were tainted in crimson now. Luna lifted herself up and caught sight of her hands in the process. They were coated a deep red. Her heart started to beat faster as a wave of anxiety flooded her mind. She was soon gasping for air as if she couldn't breathe. When she finally managed to get something else out, it was an ear piercing scream.

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_A/N: And I'm sure you want to find out what happens next, right? Well you will... two chapters down the line from now. For the next chapter and the one after that, we return to Radiant Garden to see how Sora's doing. This is his story after all... isn't it? _


	79. An Ordinary World

_So after a bit of a sour ending last chapter, we return to Radiant Garden, partly to tease you and make you wait for the resolution of what is happening on Luna's side and in Twilight Town. As the chapter implies, we're going to see for a bit how Sora deals with his new ordinary life. Yes, the chapter is inspired by a Duran Duran song. Also, please favorite and feel free to leave a review if you like. Don't be shy, I don't bite._

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**Chapter 79**

**An Ordinary World**

Sora spent the first days of his new life moving about so much that it was hard for anyone to keep track of him, not even him. As soon as Riku and the others left, Sora retreated to the only other friend left in town that could provide some comfort for him. He found Namine drawing in the Epcot Gardens, something that she had been doing on a daily occurrence ever since she had arrived in Radiant Garden. It was either at the postern watching the town and doing her best to sketch the details and colors she saw or it was the gardens, where she felt completely at peace. Sitting down and watching as she sketched, Sora realized that it was hard not to be calm in such a beautiful landscape.

"You're moving your head," Namine warned suddenly. Sora looked at her in surprise and peered over to see what she was drawing. "Sora!"

"Sorry. Err, I wasn't aware that you were drawing me," Sora said, resuming his previous position. "You're not… mad at me for giving up the Keyblade, are you?"

"How many people have you asked that question?" Namine asked.

"Let's see… Colette, Aerith, Neuge… yeah, quite a few people," Sora said, as if counting of the top of his head.

"Then I'm no different. I'm happy for you, as long as it's what you want. I've always felt it was your choice. You had one at Castle Oblivion, remember? Roxas had one too when he chose to find you. The world is full of choices and we won't always be sure as to how they'll turn out until we see them through. What matters most is that we have the strength to do so. It's so easy to make a choice but not stick with it, don't you think?" she asked.

"You're right. But I'm not strong. Everyone else, they could accept the things we'd learned back in Atlantis. The Keyblade… I've always wondered why it felt like it could understand me. Like it was protecting me. I guess it was because all this time, it's been the product of experimenting on other people's hearts. Just knowing that someone's existence is trapped inside my Keyblade makes me sick. But that's where I and the others differ. They can still face forward, because they see a light at the end of the tunnel. All I can see is the darkness that follows when I try to make things better. Whatever this is, it's not being strong," Sora said.

"Maybe it doesn't have to be. Not the kind you've experienced. You stood up to Yen Sid and told him about how you felt, didn't you? It takes a lot of guts to do something like that," Namine said. Her pencil left the page and she laid it on her lap before showing the sketchbook to Sora. In the depiction was a side shot of him as well as the surrounding greenery that accompanied Namine's side view. It was simple and yet incredibly effective, and what warmed Sora's heart most of all was his own smile. "You're smiling. You always are. That takes a lot of strength in itself."

With that knowledge, Namine and Sora spent the rest of the day having a picnic in the gardens. More mischievously than he ought to have been, Sora snuck into the hotel's cafeteria during lunch and sneaked out some of the food they had been serving. Truth be told, he was surprised it had been that easy. While they were eating and even after they discussed things such their lives and hobbies, though obviously Sora had more to talk about in both departments. By the end of the day, Sora felt he knew Namine more than ever, enough to feel confident that he wouldn't see Yeul in her anymore.

A topic that inevitably did come up even though Sora tried hard not to mention it was Namine being a seer. Namine was the one to bring it up. Having not told her about what they found out in Atlantis yet, Sora gave her as much information as he could on the Farseers' origins.

"The book didn't mention anything about passing on powers to someone else?" Namine asked.

"If it was there then it was in one of the pages that were torn out. Yen Sid should have the book right now and I would go and get it for you except for that I really don't want to talk to him," Sora said.

Namine chuckled. "It's fine, I can ask him. Maybe we can go over it and grab something to eat. You know, there is somewhere I'd like to go, outside of this world."

"Really? Where, Namine?" Sora asked in surprise. Namine had never really shown interest in travelling with them. She was content enough to stay in one place usually.

"Yeul's hometown. If Yeul gave these powers to me intentionally, then there must be a purpose to them, something she wants me to do. At first, I thought the power to see all of time was a curse. Something like that couldn't possibly be any good. But the more I though about it, the more I realize that there is a reason for everything. I think there's a pattern, like multiple dots that you have to connect and when you do, something is revealed. A truth behind truth… Sora?"

Sora appeared stunned momentarily, unable to speak. Had he just misheard? The truth behind truth? The words from the note in the puzzle box briefly crossed his mind. They were similar but surely it must have been a coincidence. Either way, Sora had had enough of truths.

"Namine, I know you want to find out more. I understand that feeling but… I can't be a part of that," Sora said.

"You don't want to find out more about Yeul?" Namine asked.

"If I did, my choice would mean nothing. It's selfish, I know… and I'm sorry," Sora said, looking away. He couldn't bear to see whatever expression was on Namine's face. He really should have left it at that and faced whatever Namine would say next head on but guilt was a powerful thing and it ultimately crushed Sora's resolve. "But… I can help you learn more about Yeul's world. I can't go with you but I'll go as far as anything before that."

"Oh, Sora, thank you!" Namine said, throwing her slender arms around him. Sora really didn't feel proud, only the sensation that he had been somehow guilt tripped. He made sure to set another picnic with her in a few days' time before seeing her back to her room and returning to his own.

The next day would prove to be even busier. Handed a list of groceries by Aerith, Sora made his way over to the shop that she had recommended, one that had been to on plenty of occasions with Kairi at that. On his way there, he stopped and looked at one place in particular, one he had not been to in a long time. It was the café he had been in when he had met Desiree or Delcia as she had called herself when working there. He had been avoiding this place ever since, purely out of fear and bad memories. Something in his mind screamed at him to turn around and walk off. Instead, he clenched his fists, took a deep breath, and entered.

Everything was as he remembered. Of course it was. It wasn't like his poisoning would have altered the way the café would direct its daily business. He located the table he had been sitting at quite instantly, or perhaps it was more that his eyes were magnetized to it. His body followed them without much thought and soon he found himself sitting in the exact same chair with a good view of the bustling shopping district outside. He hadn't been looking at the pleasant view but rather down at a book when Desiree appeared in front of him.

That's right, he remembered with a smile. He was trying to get into reading because at the time he had wanted to impress Luna once they found and rescued her. It seemed so silly in retrospect because little came off it. After setting of to find her, Sora barely had any time to read and even after rescuing her, his mind had been preoccupied with Squall and Rinoa's wedding and just a lack of enthusiasm in general. Maybe now he could actually get back into reading. This time he would work on impressing not someone else, but himself.

"Excuse me… um, Sora?"

Seeing a familiar outfit in front of him, the startled Sora tried to back away. In the process, his knee hit the table causing it to shake and the flower vase that was on the table lost its balance and tipped forward. Sora reflexing stuck his hand out and caught the vase before it could smash to pieces.

"Sorry about that. I thought you were… someone else," Sora said, looking at the girl as he set the vase down on the table. He looked around quickly to check the other customers. It appeared that they had briefly made notice of the commotion before averting their gazes and returning to whatever they were previously doing.

"No, I shouldn't have startled you by saying your name outright. It's just… you've done so much for this town and you're right here in front of me," the platinum blonde said with a quivering voice. She couldn't have been any older than twenty—not that it mattered. Sora was pretty much done with flirting with strangers after what had happened last time, although in his defence, 'Delcia' had completely misinterpreted what he had meant to ask as him asking her on a date.

"I'm glad I could help," Sora said wearily. He was mostly sure that Moira's Crescent wouldn't try the same trick on him twice with a different person, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

"So do you-"

"No. I mean, I just want something on the menu this time. No dates," Sora told her with a glum smile.

"That's… what I was about to ask you," said the girl with a raised brow.

"Oh. Then an espresso will do," Sora ordered. His eyes found the name tag attached to her clothing. So something had changed then. The last time he had come here, the employees weren't usually required wear name tags or anything like that. "Jayne?"

"Hmm?" She hummed curiously.

"Thanks. It's glad to know I'm appreciated," Sora said with a smile. Jayne returned it before heading off behind the counter.

By the time Sora had left the café, he was feeling incredibly giddy, no doubt thanks to the caffeine. He set off down the street again and soon arrived at the grocery store with time to spare.

"Why good morning there, Sora. You seem more excited than usual today," said the store's owner, an old man with his back arched slightly forward. His name was Cato, but Sora had come to know him by something else.

"I have no idea what you mean, gramps. Anyway, today's not the usual. Aerith asked me to get something specific this time," Sora said, handing him the list. Cato adjusted his glasses and peered down at the piece of paper, nodding every now and then.

"Alright, let's see…" The old man ducked down behind the counter and after half a minute, sprang back up with one of each item. Aerith must have reserved them to be picked up later, Sora guessed. "That'll be 2,600 munny. Kairi's not with you?"

"No. No, she, Luna and the others are gone. They're still fighting," Sora said.

"You aren't?" Cato asked.

"No, I'm retired. In the end it was all just too much for me," Sora explained.

"That's a shame. My grandkids were looks forward to another story about the legendary Keyblade wielder," he replied, his smile fading from his face.

Sora's hand paused just as he reached the money in his wallet. He looked up. "You told your grandkids stories?"

"About you, yes. They look up to you, you see? They actually get more excited when I tell them stories about you rather than stories about me and their dad. Stamp collecting isn't exactly the most fun thing to talk about, after all. This town has a lot of nicknames to refer it by. The City of Light. The Town of Stories. As I'm sure you'll come to see, everyone here has a story to tell, be they boring or not. Though they may have stories, some are heard and others are not. Yours is the one people are probably most familiar with."

"Gramps, I think you give my name more credit than it's worth. I'm just Sora. Still, it's funny. I just left the café on the other block and I met someone who really appreciated what I'd done. It was heart-warming…" He didn't want to say it outright, but it had also been sad at the same time. It was the same guilt that had washed over him the day before with Namine. He knew it was naturally a part of the process but it really did hurt to go against his better judgment and ignore that guilt. It was as if he were involved in a game of tug of war with his conscience pulling him to one side and his desires pulling him in the other.

"Well, I'll just have you know that you're always welcome here, Sora. You're a great adventurer but even greater customer," Cato said. Realizing that he was still paying, Sora took the money out and laid it on the counter, taking the paper bag with both hands afterward.

"I feel like I'm being exploited, but I'll take that as a compliment," Sora replied with a laugh. "Alright, I'm sure Aerith's wondering where I am right now."

"My regards to her. You know, I knew her ever since she was a wee child. I even held her in my lap once. That was only seventeen years ago if I recall. And to think that young girl would be a prominent figure in restoring our Radiant Garden and going beyond even that. There's no way I can't feel proud of that, even if she ain't my own flesh and blood. Anyway, do drop by soon Sora. Don't be a stranger."

"You either, old timer," Sora called back to him as he left the store. He started to make his way back to the residential district when the corner of his eyes caught something by the alleyway. Turning his head left, he watched as the Soldier Heartless ran about while clutching its head, as if it were confused. It just kept running in circles, not even noticing Sora who was too close in proximity for it not to have mattered. For a split second he considered summoning the Keyblade, but then he thought otherwise. He shook his head, turned and left, the sound of town's defence system kicking into gear playing like beautiful music to his ears.

The following hours after that were spent helping Aerith prepare her steak fillet dish. Having never cooked before, he was glad to have her guide him in chopping up the leeks, ginger and mushrooms.

"Alright, now we need the sake," Aerith said, clasping her hands together.

"Err, I didn't know you liked this stuff, Aerith. You don't seem the type," Sora said, grabbing hold of the bottle's neck and carrying it over.

Aerith giggled. "No, it's not for me. This is just to bring out the umami in the meat."

"The what now?" Sora asked fish-eyed. His head was spinning from all these food terms that he had to grasp. It was almost like he was back in school. The thought sent a shiver down his spine.

"It helps to draw out a certain taste in the food that you otherwise wouldn't get. Naturally, meat tends to be very gamey so you lose that taste and bring out the meat's flavor when you soak it. The more specific explanation has to do with breaking down protease but I'd rather not have you sit through a chemistry lesson," Aerith explained while adding the alcohol into the sauce pan. She put the bottle back down and grabbed the thyme, plucking the leaves from their stem and dropping them in. "Soy sauce would also have been acceptable, but Cid asked for some sake so I figured I might as well kill two birds with one stone."

"And that's called umami? I have learned things today!" Sora exclaimed with a prideful grin. "You should be a food critic. I think you may know more about this stuff than most people."

"Oh, I know a lot less compared to the experts, but I do tend to experiment from time to time. That way, things aren't always the same. If you're not happy with the way something is, then even the slightest alteration can make it fun. For example, I plant flowers in the garden every now and then. My favorite flower is the hydrangea, but it would be incredibly boring if I planted only those. So I take it upon myself to make art out of my flowers. Peonies, orchids, you name them. I have a lot of fun just deciding where to arrange them," Aerith said.

"It sounds fun. I'd like to help. I know Rapunzel would definitely be interested as well," Sora offered.

"Really? Oh, you'll love it, I'm sure of it. Actually, we can go after this if you'd like. You don't know how many times I've tried to bring Cloud with me but he's always refused," Aerith said. Was it really that confusing? Cloud had never struck Sora as the type of person to want to plant flowers. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen the guy in quite a while. He directed this question to Aerith. "He's on a mission with Leon. They're both quite busy these days. Ah, I think it's ready to grill now."

By the time the steak had finished cooking the steak and rice, an orange glow poured through the windows signalling that it was becoming evening. The dish wasn't really for either of them as it was for the people at the retirement home that Aerith volunteered for. Even so, Aerith did allow Sora to have a slice to see how he felt about it.

"Mmm, it tastes really soft. Delicious!" Sora judged with a broad grin. There was the obvious hint of garlic and ginger that they had put in earlier but other than that, they blended in with meat's juices quite well. There was also a buttery texture that left him disappointed when its residue eventually disappeared down his throat. He described this taste to her as best he could, ending by saying, "She wouldn't like hearing it, but you certainly put my mom's cooking to shame."

"Aw, that's sweet of you. Alrighty then, let's get this quickly to the home and then we'll pick up Rapunzel," Aerith said.

They quickly set off and only had to turn a couple of streets before arriving at a large building just before the hospital. Sora politely declined Aerith's offer to come in with her and chose to wait outside instead. It was the beginning of summer and Sora couldn't contemplate the thought of leaving the warmth of what had been a warm day. Along with his Keyblade, he had also abandoned the outfit Neuge had given him, something that had been even harder to do. He now wore a simple navy blue summer jacket over a white shirt and jeans. They had no special properties whatsoever like his previous wear but they were comfy and that was all he needed from them.

After a few minutes alone, he was taken out of his thoughts by Aerith's return. Together they set off for what was an even longer distance, though one of which they greatly benefited from in terms of checking out the town. Their journey's end arrived at the Bailey where they found Rapunzel watching in awe as Palom and Porom tried to both impress her with their magic.

"You wish your white magic could be as good as my black magic. Just give it up, Porom. Rapunzel's not interested," Palom said.

"It's not a contest! Besides, do I sense that my dear brother has a little crush?" Porom teased.

"Ah, shut it! You are sensing no such thing. Not that your weak little magic would be able to sense something like that anyway," Palom retorted, blushing nonetheless.

"These two aren't giving you a hard time, I hope?" Sora asked, alerting them to his and Aerith's presence.

"Oh no, they're quite the joy. Say, I was just asking them, do you think I could perform magic too, Sora?" Rapunzel asked with gleeful hope in her eyes.

"Hmm, I don't see why not. Mind you not everyone can just use it but I think it just might work for you," Sora answered. There was probably a chance that her mana energy had been somehow altered or had increased because of the magic properties of her hair at the time. Though she didn't have the hair anymore, there was still a chance she could fill something in its place. "You really want to?"

"If I could," replied Rapunzel instantly.

"Alright, we'll talk with Merlin on our way back. Say, do you want to come with us to the flower garden? Aerith and I are going out to plant some flowers and we thought you might like to come with," Sora said. It would be a lie for him to say that it was his only motive for having her come with him though. He also wanted to hear her honest opinions on being fast tracked for a new position as a Princess of Heart as well as wanting to find out what Yen Sid was up to.

"Definitely. I'd love to help," Rapunzel answered. "And to think I've been missing out on all this stuff. I can't believe how crazy my life is right now!"

"Eighteen years in a tower to this in only a week of arriving here. Yep, it's a definite improvement," Aerith said. She had met Rapunzel on the day that, she, Sora and the others had come back from Atlantis, just before they met with Yen Sid. Sora remembered back to what Cato had told him earlier today. Everyone in Radiant Garden had a story to tell but only some were heard. He guessed that was most certainly applicable of the rare few coming into the world from others.

"Oh, do you think I could come along too, Miss Aerith? I love flowers," pleaded Porom.

"You know you don't have to call me that Porom, Aerith will do just fine. And of course you can come along. How about you Palom?" Aerith asked.

The young boy folded his arms and looked away in disgust. "As if I'd want to spend time looking at a bunch of flowers. That stuff is for girls anyway."

"Gee, Palom. I didn't know I was a girl. Guess my birth certificate was wrong all this time," Sora said sarcastically to the giggles of Rapunzel and Porom.

Rapunzel knelt down and looked at Palom. "But you know, some day when you're a big strong man and you have a girlfriend, she'll probably want you to show her that you care for her. I hear flowers are a really nice way to do that."

"Ah, stop confusing my brain! You're not changing my mind," A blushing Palom said before running farther off into the bailey and disappearing from their sights.

"Well, I tried." Rapunzel shrugged and turned back to the others. "Is something wrong, Sora?"

"Huh? Oh. Rapunzel, was it true about what you just said?" Sora asked.

"Well, it's usually a sign of affection for the other person, yeah," Aerith answered for Rapunzel. She stepped forward towards him and leaned in on purpose, making Sora feel uncomfortable. "Are you thinking of showing your affection to someone, Sora?"

"Huh? Wait, where did this come from all of a sudden?" Sora waved his hand about frantically, flushing a deep scarlet. Aerith lifted a finger and buzzed it around in front of his face before gently touching his nose. Sora suddenly began to feel the blood pouring into his face.

"Sorry, didn't mean to make you feel awkward. Alright then, let's go everyone," Aerith said, with a drooping Sora letting out a relieved sigh as a result. She had totally meant to make him feel awkward.

The group spent the rest of the evening in the garden caring for the growing flowers and listening as Aerith told them story after story of her experiences with each one. Her mother had been a part time flower seller as well as a teacher, a huge inspiration for Aerith. She had been in the garden along with her mother when the Heartless had invaded the town. They were accompanied by Namine, who Sora found on the bench drawing like she did yesterday. With a little convincing Sora was able to get her to tag along. He found it really cute how shy she got when she was around others. He would even tease her about it from time to time.

"My memory's kind of hazy. Bits and pieces come up every now and then, that's true for all of us. I've tried not to remember much but… losing my parents is something I could never forget. Oh, here's the hydrangea I was telling you about, Sora," Aerith said as they walked through the garden. She pointed to a bush with a bouquet of blue and purple flowers. "They come in two arrangements with many varieties in between. The ones you're looking at here are mophead flowers, as you can see, their heads kind of resemble mops. The other ones are on the opposite side of the garden. They're lacecaps."

"Wow, they sure are beautiful. I can see why they're your favourite. They kind of look like butterflies," Sora examined, unable to hold in his glee.

"That's an understatement. Everything here is beautiful. I could live here forever!" Rapunzel said, taking hold of Sora's hand and dancing with him. She stopped when she spotted Namine drawing something with her sketchbook.

Namine glanced up from her sketchbook and upon seeing Rapunzel's curious gaze, she looked around demurely. "Oh, don't stop. I was just so happy that I wanted to capture this moment."

Rapunzel nodded. "It's okay, but you're joining in. You have to be in this moment too. You too Porom, Aerith."

"But how am I supposed to draw and be with you at the same time?" Namine asked.

"Ah, playing coy, are we? Well there's more to experiencing something than just jotting it down. Come on, it'll be fun," Aerith added, extending her hand. Namine looked down at her sketchbook for a moment and then back up. Seeming to make up her mind she set her sketchbook down on the path and took Aerith's hand with a smile.

When night came, the trio saw Porom and Rapunzel off before separating. Namine retreated for the hotel and Sora helped Aerith do a little spring cleaning in her home before leaving. He was headed back for the hotel but when he realized that he wasn't really ready to return to his room, he decided to go to the bar instead where Neuge was probably hanging out.

He entered the shopping district. The bar would be at the very end of the long street, leading into the industrial district. As he continued walking down the street, he heard a cry coming from behind the general store. He looked around quickly before setting his sights on the back alley behind the café. He took off into a run down the dark and narrow path and turned left to come across someone in the dark lying on the ground, a group of Soldier Heartless surrounding her.

Sora looked down to see a pebble in front of him. Picking it up, he weighed it in his hand before flinging it at one of the Soldiers.

"Over here!" Sora commanded their attention. The Soldiers turned away from the figure and ran for him instead. Sora walked towards them, completely unfazed by the fact that he was walking right into danger. As he neared them he began gaining speed. He waited until just the right moment before kicking off the wall and flying forward. He jumped over the Heartless in a perfect arc and landed on the other side.

He didn't have time to celebrate his own impressive feat because the Heartless were moving fast. He sprinted over to the figure who he soon saw was a woman, and a familiar one at that. It was the waitress that worked at the café, Jayne was her name, he recalled. She was still wearing her uniform, though it was slightly torn at the front. She was beginning to stir, much to his relief. Her brown eyes opened and took in her savior.

"No way… you?"

"Gee, thanks for that," Sora said. "Can you stand?"

"Yeah, I think so," Jayne answered. She stood up to prove her point, but ended up wobbling a bit. Sora quickly supported her until she regained balance.

"Come on, stay close to me," Sora said. Looking around for anything to defend them both with, his eyes caught finally caught sight of something. With a grin, he bent down and picked it up.

"Um, why did you just pick up a stick?" Jayne asked. "Oh, wait, wait, don't tell me. This is like a diversion tactic or something, right?"

"Huh? What have you been reading?" Sora asked.

"Classical Literature. Guess what a bachelor in liberal arts gets ya? A job as a café maid," Jayne said.

"I shouldn't have asked," Sora said to himself.

"Well, you did," Jayne pointed out. Sora shook his head before assuming his battle stance. One of the Soldiers jumped and spin kicked towards them but Sora parried the attack with the stick, stunning the Soldier. Jayne looked on impressed. "That… is some stick-WHOA!"

Sora took hold off Jayne's hand and started running back down the alley. The other Soldiers attempted to block their way by lining up one after the other. Sora pulled Jayne to the side and sidestepped past them, knocking away the Heartless that attempted to jump attack them.

He let go of Jayne and looked to her. "Go on ahead. I'll keep them from following."

"Oh no you don't. It's your turn to follow me," Jayne said, dragging Sora along with her. The two emerged out of the alleyway with the Soldiers right on their heel. They backed away into the main street while keeping their eyes on the Heartless. "Don't you have that weapon of yours or something? The Keyblade?"

"I…" Sora trailed off. He couldn't tell her that he didn't trust himself to use the Keyblade anymore. He had managed to get her out of that situation without it so he was sure there was something else he could do besides giving in and using it. Then again, was his reluctance really worth putting someone in danger? He was about to extend his arm when fire flew over his shoulder and hit one of the Soldiers. The fire split off as soon as it hit the Soldier and rained down on the remaining Heartless, taking them out.

"Heya there, Sora!" The small girl called with a grin. She looked very familiar but her Keyblade made him more cautious of her.

"You're a member of Moira's Crescent," Sora said.

"Yep, yep, I'm Salome. Remember me?" the girl asked. Now that she had introduced herself, Sora did remember. The faux assistant librarian who had been with Alfonso and had been watching over Sora during their time in Radiant Garden.

"Don't tell me you guys are still watching me? I guess that explains how you found us near the Powhatan village," Sora said, referring to his fight with Alfonso.

"No, you've got it wrong. Alfonso's just a really good tracker. He picks up on breadcrumbs wherever he sees them. As for why I'm here, I just happened to have a mission here when I came across you guys," Salome said.

Sora let out a sigh. He supposed he had to give credit where credit was due. "Well, thanks."

"So… have you been considering Rhea's offer?" Salome asked. She looked down and started drawing and invisible line with the tips of her toes. "Technically under popular vote we're opposed to you, but I'm not Moira's Crescent right now. I'm Salome so... it would be great to have another Keyblade wielder by our side."

"Thanks for the offer but no thanks. I'm not a Keyblade wielder anymore. I'm done with that life so you don't have to worry about me," Sora said.

"Huh? But why?" Salome asked confused.

"Because I left too many breadcrumbs," Sora answered. He looked over to Jayne and smiled. "Do you want me to walk you home?"

"Hmph? Oh, yes, thank you," Jayne said. She seemed distracted by the Keyblade in Salome's hand.

"Sora, wait!" Salome called as he turned his back on her. "Those kids. Did you really…"

Sora turned to meet her again. "Even if I told you, would you… no. Would _they_ even listen?"

Silence followed. Sora turned again and placed a hand on Jayne's back, motioning for her to lead the way.


	80. Fata Morgana

**Chapter 80**

**Fata Morgana**

As Sora woke up to a new day, his mind immediately went to the events that had transpired yesterday, as it had before he had fallen asleep. He had made a new friend in Jayne, having talked with her about various things on their way to her home. Among those mentioned was inevitably his reluctance to use the Keyblade. Confirming that he was retired, Jayne expressed her dismay at this, but was appreciative that he came to her rescue and even more so that he had found such a 'cool' way of defending her from the Heartless.

His mind also wandered to Salome's appearance. Right now, he wasn't sure what to think of her. She looked and behaved less hostile than her peers but he what he kept telling himself was that they were Keyblade wielders and professional ones at that. Unlike him, they were trained in espionage and blending in to other worlds. He took what she said to him with a grain of salt. Then again, if he was this paranoid, was he really free of the chains that had bound his life until now?

Changing clothes, Sora set out first for Huey, Dewey and Louie's item shop where Scrooge would be waiting. Luna had mentioned before leaving that she had spoken to the business tycoon about work for Sora. He had been happy to invite Sora over to his workshop, located in the shop's attic.

He quickly made his presence known to the ducklings, who opened up a hole in the ceiling from under the counter. Sora climbed up the revealed ladder towards the attic but stopped with half of his head poking around the room. He couldn't help but grin. Little gadgets that he had never seen before and had no idea what they were for were laid out on a long table that went all the way around the room like something out of a buffet. Machines were also strewn across the room, performing many different functions, some of which he knew from Mickey to be involved in the production of Gummi Blocks.

"Wow, Scrooge, you've got yourself something here, that's for sure," Sora made himself known to the duck who had his back turned.

Scrooge turned around and let out a chuckle. "Ah, you're here, lad! Just in time, as well. Come see this."

Sora climbed out fully and walked over to Scrooge, looking down at the table. On it was a small green Gummi Block and something that looked like a sewing machine towering over it, its fine needle pointing downwards at the small object.

"What's this?" Sora asked.

"You, my spiky haired friend, are looking at the very first machine that can cut through a Gummi Block. Despite its elasticity, until now it has been physically impossible to cut through a Gummi Block. A knife, a saw, a power drill, nothing works. They all just slide right off like butter as soon as they make contact," Scrooge explained. "This machine I've invented has a powerful laser that I'm sure will be able to cut through the Gummi Block's material."

"Well, that's cool I guess but… what's the point?" Sora was hesitant to ask. He knew how prideful Scrooge was of his inventions and he didn't mean to sound disinterested but he honestly didn't understand the significance of cutting a Gummi Block or what that would accomplish in the long run.

"Oh, don't be such a dafty. Understanding the Gummi Block's composition is the key to knowing what we can and can't do with it. Think of how many fields in everyday life we could improve if we applied Gummi technology to them. Right now, we've only scratched the surface with what we can accomplish such as travelling to other worlds for instance. Now imagine this stuff being used to aid in medical research and the like. The possibilities are endless but none of them out of reach. This kind of advancement can make me a lot of money."

"Ah, there we go, I was waiting for that," Sora said, nodding his head. "Always with the money. Do you even spend that stuff?"

"Eh? If you spend it, it leaves your pocket. Pretty silly to me," Scrooge said.

"And here I thought money was meant for spending. Nice to know I've been doing it wrong all these years," Sora said, his tone dripping with sarcasm. And here he had told himself he needed all those Hi-Potions.

"You laugh now but we'll see how you feel when you have nothing on a rainy day. Alright, let's see what sweet Lassie can do, shall we?" Scrooge said, fumbling with the controls on the machine.

"Ah, so you even named the laser?" Sora asked. He watched as Scrooge twisted a final dial before flicking the switch at the top of the device. A red line shot out of the needle and hit the Gummi Block. A moment later, Sora looked up. The lightbulb hanging from the ceiling had started flickering on and off. The sounds of various machines snorting and gurgling as they turned on and off also made him feel uneasy.

_SNAP!_

Sora looked upwards to see that the lightbulb had shattered, its pieces falling onto the floor. He looked back at the laser to see it faltering for a few seconds before completely stopping. The Gummi Block remained as it had been before the experiment, completely unmarred and in one piece.

"Ach, phooey! Another failure," Scrooge said.

"Yep. Looks like old Lassie was no match for the power of the Gummi Block," Sora said, reaching upwards to stretch in a faux lazy manner.

"Ah, but at the very least, it's not a complete failure. It did tell us something," Scrooge said with a finger pointed upwards.

Sora's hands converted to folded arms and cocked his head to the left. "It did?"

"Of course it did! There's some kind of force acting upon the Gummi Block, repelling thing that may threaten its stability. It's almost like it has a mind of its own, or maybe it's programmed in such a way to absorb energy and then unleashing that stored energy right back as if it's recoiling," Scrooge theorized. He quickly grabbed a notebook and pen that were set aside and began writing furiously on the page. Sora looked over the duck's shoulder to see many notes and diagrams over just two pages. He visibly shivered at the thought that this book contained hundreds of pages dedicated to everything that went on in Scrooge's wacky yet creative mind.

"I was kind of looking forward to seeing the inside of a Gummi Block. So nothing can cut through it then?" Sora asked.

"Who can say? I have perseverance and patients, the two key components of eventual success," Scrooge said, thumping his own chest proudly. "I'm sure I'll find a way."

"That's pretty admirable," Sora praised before remembering why he had come here in the first place. "Er, Luna said you had a job for me?"

"Aye, maybe you can help me with something. See, I have a rather secret project underway which I think will change the way we communicate forever," Scrooge said.

"You mean, other than the laser?" Sora asked. Curiously, he put his hands up to touch the machine but Scrooge quickly slapped his hand away.

"Because lasers are good for communicating with," Scrooge said, rolling his eyes. "No, what I'm talking about is more like a kind of satellite, one that renders the walls between worlds useless. I see a future where everyone, regardless of where they are, knows about the existence of other worlds. Interworld communication, I call it. We'll be able to contact other worlds and vice versa and who knows? It may even pave the way for space travel." Scrooge painted the future he saw on an invisible canvas in front of him with his hands.

"So then everyone really can be connected? And you're sure this 'satellite' can help?" Sora asked with a grin. The idea of worlds finally communicating with one another was a tempting one that he wanted to see come to fruition.

"Sure as the lucky dime in my pocket," Scrooge said.

"Then I'll help. Of course I'll help! What do you want me to do?" Sora asked.

By the time the clock struck twelve, Sora had seriously considered crawling back into bed and remaining there for the rest of the day. Over the course of three hours, Sora had been dragging himself back and forth across the town, delivering packages specifically from the science department of Xanatos Enterprises. The packages varied in size and weight, some wrapped, some not so. From the ones which were unwrapped, Sora could tell that he was handling very advanced and sensitive equipment.

Having listened to Scrooge's plan in detail, he knew that their first obstacle would be getting the satellite into orbit. The first satellite would be able to connect directly to one somewhere near Disney Town. Of course, launching them into orbit was their first priority, something that would be made easier by David Xanatos' funding.

"Alright, that's all for today. The real work begins tomorrow so make sure you're on time," Scrooge announced to Sora's relief.

"You mean that _wasn't _the real stuff?" Sora groaned with the appearance of a zombie. He grabbed his jacket and said goodbye to Scrooge and the ducklings before leaving hastily for the shopping district. Arriving a few minutes early outside of the café, Sora leaned against the side of the building next to it and began whistling to himself.

Her shift over, Jayne left the café to receive a shock as Sora sneaked in from behind and whispered, "Boo!" in her ear.

"Oh, you are just childish. Did you want to put me in hospital?" Jayne breathed out shakily, still recovering from Sora's scare.

Sora laughed. "I was in hospital for a few weeks myself actually. The food's not all too bad."

"Because you were in there just for the food," Jayne said, leading the way. She had told him yesterday that she had successfully auditioned for a role in a theatre production called _The Muppets_. Apparently it was a really big thing to kids back in the day. She had invited him over to watch a rehearsal performance of the show, the actual performance taking place this Saturday evening. If he remembered correctly, Stephanie and Colette had also gotten tickets for the first performance.

"How do you know I wasn't? Free food? Yeah, I'm not complaining," Sora said.

"Of course you wouldn't, you glutton. Speaking of which, do you want to go get something to eat? You're looking roughly at a one hour performance here," Jayne said.

"I'll grab a sandwich set from the convenience store. That should tide me over," Sora answered. "How about you? Did you get anything to eat?"

"I had coffee. Does that count, mom?" Jayne asked.

"Not in the slightest. Well, it's just a rehearsal like you said. Still, it's your big chance to break away from the life of a café maid. You must be feeling pretty anxious," Sora said.

"Actually, that's the thing. I'm feeling pretty calm at the moment. I'm sure that'll change when there's a whole audience in front of me. Then again, when you get into your role you just get lost, you know? You drown out all the eyes, all the stage lights… you concentrate on making your own performance the best it can be," Jayne told him as they reached the theatre building. "And if you're not satisfied, learn from your mistakes. Accept failure and allow it to make you stronger."

"Heh, right…" Sora said, his eyes suddenly finding the ground attractive. He and Jayne proceeded into a furnished oak reception room with a set of grand stairs leading to a second land to the right of the reception desk.

"This was apparently Ansem the Wise's favorite place… well, the old building anyway. They rebuilt this place on the same plot of land, the same size, same aesthetics and atmosphere. Anyway, I hear he always came here to watch the plays. It's amazing to think there's so much history to this place. I want to carry on that legacy, even pass on the torch if I can," Jayne said.

"Look at you. Have your entire future set. I'm jealous," Sora said.

"Oh, you wish. I'm still putting one foot in front of the other. Besides, I'm twenty two. You're sixteen. You have another six years before you can start complaining," Jayne said, flicking at the top most spike of his hair. As the two neared the desk, the receptionist ushered Jayne over.

"Hey, Derek, what's up?" she asked him.

"It's a nightmare, Jayne, an absolute disaster! Erin twisted his ankle in the morning," Derek explained in a frenzied tone.

"You're twisting my panties. You can't be serious!" Jayne asked. Sora raised a brow at her questionable phrasing. "What happens now then?"

"Er, sorry, who is Erin?" Sora asked, completely lost.

"Who's Erin? WHO'S ERIN? He's only the main character of the show. He plays alongside Miss Piggy as Kermit," Derek screamed at him as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh, then what happens to the production?" Sora asked, choosing to ignore the obnoxious screaming receptionist and focus on Jayne instead.

"Not sure. Let's head to the dressing room," Jayne said. Sora could see a worrying frown start to appear on her face so he took hold of her hand and gave it a squeeze as she guided him up the staircase and to a room on their immediate right as opposed to the double doors that most likely led to the main hall.

They went down the long corridor before arriving at a door on the left side. Entering, Sora was greeted to the sight of the other cast members. There were eight people gathered around the couch, and at the sound of the door opening, they all turned their heads and got up.

"Oh, Jayne, it's horrible!" said one of the cast members, an older woman probably in her thirties.

"Yeah, I just heard from Derek. So what do we do?" Jayne asked.

"I… don't know. The other guy we had as a replacement isn't able to make it either. It's a shame, really. And we put everything into this tenth anniversary," replied the man farthest from them.

"You can't mean…"

"Oh, I do. We might have to cancel the production, or at least push it back a month," he replied with a sigh. "I know you all worked so hard to make this happen and I'm sorry. I know some of your children were looking forward to watching you up on stage but there's not much we can do under the circumstances," he said. He placed his hand on the nearest person's shoulder for support before looking at Jayne. "I'm sorry, Jayne. This was supposed to be your breakthrough role. I'm sure you must have been anticipating this moment."

"It's okay, I guess. I just have to wait a little bit longer, right?" Jayne said. There was clear disappointment in her voice despite her obvious attempts to hide it and put on a smile. Sora was reminded of himself for a bit just then. That's when he came to a decision.

"Jayne, it's okay. You'll get your chance. This production isn't ending here," Sora said, before turning to the others. "I can take Erin's place."

Everyone turned their heads, looking at each other for a few seconds. Then, to Sora's confusion, they burst out laughing.

"I'm sorry, er, Sora? Can I call you that?" asked the man.

"That's my name, last time I checked," Sora said.

"Well, Sora, I'm thankful for what you've done for us and all but… learning a script takes a while. We only have three days left. Also, do you have any acting experience?"

Sora scratched the back of his head. "Not exactly. I was in a musical once if that counts."

The man seemed to consider this. At this point Sora assumed that he wasn't actually a cast member so much as the director of the production.

"He's capable. I'll help him as much as I can," Jayne suddenly said, knocking the director out of his rumination. "I pretty much have all my lines down anyway so I'm free to help him out. Please give Sora a chance. I don't want to let everyone who was looking forward to this down."

The director thoughtful concentration melted into a small smile and he nodded. "Okay, Sora, you're in but you're going to have to learn quick."

"Thank you, thank you. I won't let you down, I promise!" Sora yelled ecstatically. The director walked over to the couch and picked up a binder with a thick stack of white in between. He handed it over to Sora who opened it quickly and flicked through the pages. He looked back up and gave a silly smile which he felt could fall off his face any second. "Oh my… that's…."

"Yeah…" The director agreed with a sly smile and a nod.

* * *

Over the next three days, Sora practiced as hard as he could with Jayne and the other members of the group. Not experienced with _The Muppets _in any way, Jayne proposed that he stay over hers for the three nights to watch as many videos as possible of previous episodes and performances so he could try and emulate it.

His Kermit impression ended up coming off as slightly fake but he had managed to get most of the mannerisms down. He had also received recommendations from the other actors in the play, mainly that he shouldn't try to remember every line but try to condense it to make it easier to digest. Either way, as Sora read through his lines several times over, he found that it wasn't as bad as originally thought. Within the one hour that was the total run-through of the play and despite Kermit being a main character (and the protagonist being Jayne, the only human character in the show), the lines were evenly spread and he had enough time off stage to look back on his script for the next scene.

The day before the show, Sora went over to Stephanie's house to play with her at lunch. They ended up playing Hide and Seek around the house at first, with Sora searching for both the young girl and Colette. The latter, it turned out, was horrible at finding good hiding places. The first time he had found her was in the closet near her bedroom and the second time he was chosen to be seeker, she was found hiding in the bathtub, shower curtains concealing her that hadn't been closed when he had looked in the bathroom their first time.

Stephanie was sneakier. The first time he had found her was underneath her mother's bed but Stephanie was actually nowhere in the house when Sora's second turn came around. He spent a while looking around for her after finding Colette, but even through his double checks, he came up with nothing.

He was about to leave Stephanie's room the second time when he noticed something. Pooh's storybook was lying on the floor, a complete exception from Stephanie's otherwise well-kept room. Mulan had probably brought the Princesses of Heart back from the book world on Yen Sid's orders but it seemed that she had let the book stay with Colette and Stephanie.

_She wouldn't have… that little cheater_. A smile escaped Sora's mouth and he went over to the book and opened it up. He felt the familiar sensation as his vision melted like ink dribbling down a page and eventually he was sucked in. Sora found Stephanie peering over a lone log in the middle of the green meadow.

"Huh? How did you find me?" Stephanie asked with a pretend pout.

"Well I realized your room was looking more unscrupulous than usual and I just couldn't help but satisfy my curiosity," Sora said grinning.

"Unscroopy- don't use your big words on me!" Stephanie attacked with an accusatory finger.

Sora laughed. "Sorry. I was being a bit disingenuous with what I meant. There was really only one thing that was lying on the floor anyway."

"Disin- Stop it!"

"He he he, okay, okay. Let's head back. Your mom might get worried if she realizes your missing," Sora said.

"Can we go together and meet Pooh and everyone else sometime soon?" Stephanie asked.

"Of course. Next week sound good?"

"It's a date," Stephanie agreed. The two continued to walk until they reached the edge of the scenery, where they stepped into the white light ahead of them. They soon found themselves back in Stephanie's bedroom.

Sora picked up the book from the ground and placed it on the bed before heading downstairs with Stephanie. The nine year old retreated to the kitchen table to do her homework while Colette brewed some tea for Sora and herself.

"Are you still on those pills?" Colette asked, setting the two steaming mugs on the table.

"No, I stopped since coming here. I'd like to think that ever since choosing this life, I've felt happier and I don't need them because of it. That's the thing, I guess. It feels like I had a choice," Sora said.

"You mean that you've never felt like you've had one?" Colette asked.

"It's not that, it's… I don't know how to put it. This might sound silly but… there's this boy, and he goes out and helps people and saves worlds. Somewhere along the line, that boy becomes more than just a person. He becomes a story, an icon. When you think of his name, it is the very example of hope. At the same time, the boy starts to buy into these stories about him. He's such an inspiration for others that he can't let them down no matter what. There's this… disparity that starts to grow between him and the person everyone expects him to be. I can't say I'm Sora anymore, because I'm not. Sora wouldn't run away. Sora wouldn't abandon his friends just to make himself happy. Sora wouldn't constantly be so angry and depressed all the time. I'm the things he isn't, and he's what I'm not," Sora finished, choosing to look anywhere else but Colette. He went for the mug and took a sip.

"I know what you mean," Colette soon replied to Sora's surprise.

"You do?"

"Well it's not anything like your struggle obviously. Mine is a smaller scale. But at one point in my life there was a disconnect between my role as a mother and what I actually wanted to do at the time which was just lay in bed all day and cry. You see, here's what I believe. Destiny is a funny thing. We can all say that it's written… as predetermined as an author who tells his or her story. We can all say it's something we write for ourselves. I don't know about any of that, but what I do know is that in the end we do what we have to with no regrets and for you Sora, I believe that's helping your friends. I know it's hard, painful even to get back up after all you've seen and felt and I'm not telling you to just forget it. It's unfortunate, but life isn't without its hardships and sometimes in order to gain something you'll have to lose something first. That pain stays with us, but you know what? We use it to make us stronger. Even if the world hates you, even if it's you alone, even if you've lost someone you've loved, we do what we have to do and we don't let that pain keep us down.

"I don't think it's any coincidence that you received the Keyblade just as I don't think it a coincidence that Ansem the Wise chose my husband and I won't lie, I hated him for it. I remember pressing my face against my bedroom window and looking down below every single day, hoping I would see him again. Then one day, the rain fell hitting against the window and I finally let my tears out along with it. I couldn't handle it. But I soon realised that instead of forcing myself into depression I had something far more important to protect— my daughter. I couldn't let her suffer through my own weakness so I stood up and from that day onward I smiled. Even when I didn't feel happy, I smiled if not for my sake, then for Stephanie's. Maybe that's why the Keyblade chose you, because it believed you could overcome any pain you faced."

Sora's eyes didn't leave the murky brown in his cup as he spoke. "Well… believe it or not, the Keyblade didn't really choose me. It was supposed to go to Riku but-"

"It stayed with you. My point stands," Colette said, chuckling as Sora looked up at her. "You may feel like you're powerless but Stephanie and I can prove you wrong. It's true that people with great power and ambitions have sometimes led the world to the brink of ruin. As much as I don't like to admit it, Ansem the Wise did give rise to Maleficent and the Heartless. But then the opposite must also be true. People with great power have changed the world for the better. You've fought with everything you had to preserve the world as it is today. There's no reason you can't make it better either. No one can tell you what to do with your own power except you. And this may just be my opinion but any future you create is one that I know Stephanie and I wouldn't mind living in at all."

Sora focused in on the table in front of him. His vision was beginning to blur. Even after he left their house and began practicing again with the others, his mind was elsewhere, pondering what he needed to do. The problem was that he feared if he decided to go off again, he would never be able to come back from it.

"Sora, are you okay?" Jayne asked, noticing Sora's absent-mindedness.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, it's just… just a lot on my mind right now," Sora answered.

"Hmm? Wanna talk? I am a good listener. We don't have a lot of those these days," Jayne said.

"That we don't. No, don't worry about it, it's silly really. Let's concentrate on knocking this out of the park first, yeah?" Sora assured her with a grin.

Jayne chuckled. "Couldn't have said it better myself."

The evening of the big show soon came and Sora found himself at his dressing room table, looking into the mirror. He had long since donned his Kermit costume and all that was left to put on was the head. He had tried the costume out in the final run-through yesterday and knew from the hour he had spent in it in that it could get hot and stuffy after a while. Still, the few times he was off stage would give him some much needed cool air.

"Okay, breathing exercises, just like Jayne said," Sora whispered to himself. He closed his eyes and inhaled and exhaled a few times, just like he did in his meditation. He opened his eyes again and grinned. "Time to make a fool out of myself."

Over the next hour, Sora moved on and off stage in front of the large audience. It was the first Muppet show performance since before the Heartless took consumed Radiant Garden and so there was a massive amount of pressure, not just for him but everyone else involved in the production to do justice to the revived franchise. The story was an interesting one and, strangely enough for Sora who had never seen a single show of the series before this, a rollercoaster of emotions.

Disbanded after seeing their ratings slowly go down the drain, the play time skips to ten years later where the Muppets are forgotten to the rest of the world. As they attempt to live normal lives, Gonzo runs into the one girl (Jayne) who seems to remember them. Together, they work to convince the rather pessimistic and depressed Kermit and from there on the other Muppets to regroup and perform another show.

The show ended off with a song, though Sora couldn't pull off his Kermit voice as convincingly while singing. Sora looked around him one final time in appreciation before nodding back at the audience.

"I guess friends really our irreplaceable. Well, they're more like family to me now," he said through Kermit's voice.

"Hey, Kermit, get over here!" Sarah, played by Jayne, called over. She had a big camera in her hands.

"Coming!" Sora yelled and ran over to the other Muppets, taking Miss Piggy's hand with his left and Rizzo's with his right.

"Say 'cheese'!" Jayne exclaimed, she lifted the camera up and the Muppets repeated her words with smiles on their faces. The red curtains fell signalling the end of the show and Sora heard a massive round of applause and cheers from the audience.

He walked over to Jayne who was bent over in disbelief and put his hand on her shoulder. "So how does it feel to be a star?"

Jayne looked up at him, her eyes struggling to hold back tears. "Thank you."

"Ah, you give yourself too little credit. You've worked so hard for this that you deserve it. If anyone should be thanking someone, it's me," Sora said. Jayne was about to ask what he meant when a third voice interrupted their conversation.

"Hey you two, we still have to do the curtain call," the director whispered at them from around the corner. That was right, Sora had almost forgotten about that. He wasn't home free yet and neither was Jayne.

The curtains soon opened again for the curtain call and Jayne, Sora and the other Muppets held hands and gave their final bows to a standing audience. The cheers and whistles affected Sora more than he had expected them too. It was an incredible standing ovation unworthy of him, he felt. He felt a euphoria that he had never felt before, not because they were congratulating him, but because he had been able to make them smile.

He eventually caught sight of Stephanie and Colette along with David Xanatos at one table. He felt right then and there that his heart was about to stop from seeing their elation. When he waved back at the crowd, he was waving at them specifically.

The curtain soon fell one final time and Sora returned to his dressing room, taking the head mask off and setting it down on the chair. His hands gripped the table as he thought back to the exhilarating performance. What was this he was feeling deep in his chest? Remorse? Sora suddenly couldn't help but think that it was a mistake to give up using the Keyblade. To him, their smiles, every single smile that had just been thrown his way, were precious. He wanted to protect those smiles more than anything else. The way he had been fighting before, he had no reason to really do so.

"I don't want their smiles to disappear, so I should fight, but with if those smiles disappear because of me choosing to fight? What if they disappear because I don't fight?" Sora muttered to himself. The way he saw it, he was truly sitting on a double edged sword. Sora looked to look at his own reflect, but he gave a jump instead and spun around. "You? How can you be here? This is impossible."

"You're a boy who accomplishes the impossible. Is it truly that hard to believe?" Mirage asked. She tucked a strand of her moonlight blonde hair behind her ear. "That was quite the performance. Do you do this often?"

"You were watching?" Sora asked. Of course she was. How else could she possibly have known where he would be? "How long has it been since we last met? You were working with KRONOS then. Are you still working with them?"

"I do recall saying that I was not privy to the inner circle of KRONOS. I was simply connected to Syndrome. Anyway, let's just say you showed me light I had once lost," Mirage said. "I worked with Syndrome because I thirsted for power. I considered it to be an interesting thing. Very few of us have it but either don't know it or misuse it in the most unfitting of ways. Once every blue moon comes an exception, the deviation that uses it as it was meant to be. The most curious thing isn't the person so much as the form this power takes. It's different every single time. That's what I had thought anyway until I met you and Mr. Incredible. You both are truly exceptional, and there are others like you. You opened my eyes to a whole new world, seeing that the person behind the power is just as important as the power itself, maybe even more so."  
"Well… glad I could help," Sora said, not sure of how to really respond. He was more taken aback by the surprise spiel. "But if you've come here to tell me something else, you're talking to the wrong person. I'm not a Keyblade Master anymore, or a wielder for that matter."

"Did something happen?" Mirage asked.

"A lot of things. What, you weren't watching my every move?" Sora asked. He had said that a little ruder than he had actually meant to. He quickly followed up with a question, "So the question is how did you get here, Mirage?"

"Not my real name," Mirage corrected.

"Then what is it?"

"Not important."

"Okay, 'not important'. At least answer my question," Sora said. Mirage chuckled and showed off her wrist. There was a device as small as a watch strapped around it.

"An easy question. This device is called a Warpinator. A rather silly name, I know, but Syndrome was never one for creativity when it came to names. I'm pretty sure most of KRONOS have this device in their possession. It allows them to get around, provided that they have the co-ordinates to do so."

"So that's why that armored guy and the Chimera were there in Atlantis…" Sora mumbled. Mirage picked up on it.

"I take it you found Atlantis then?" Mirage asked. "Then that puzzle box fulfilled its purpose. I'm glad. You saw the note inside, yes?"

"Yeah, I did but-" Sora cut himself off and glanced at her inquisitively. "How did you know there was a note inside?"

Mirage smiled at him and Sora's mouth fell open. There was no way… surely she couldn't have…

"How did you like my riddle?" Mirage eventually asked once she had been fully satisfied by Sora's dropping jaw.

Sora shook his head. "I don't believe this. You've had the puzzle box all this time. You knew how to open it. You knew it would take whoever opened it to Atlantis."

"Not 'whoever'. The box opens only for the purest of hearts. When they seek refuge, the box gives it to them in the form of Atlantis," Mirage said.

"The purest of hearts… Kairi!" Sora realized. Back on the Gummi Ship, Kairi had been in possession of the puzzle box when the dust storm had happened. It had probably recognized Kairi as a Princess of Heart and opened having perceived that she was in danger.

"After learning that she was friends with two Keyblade Masters, I wanted to bring her specifically to Atlantis. You've seen the 'truth' mentioned in the riddle, yes? I imagine it played some part in your apprehensiveness to use the Keyblade. Do you know then why I specifically wanted Kairi to see Atlantis?" Mirage asked.

"Because of the Kairi from Atlantis. Are they really the same person?" Sora asked.

"Not precisely. More like a reincarnation. Her and the other Princesses' hearts have been born and cleansed again and again, finding their way to a new host every time. Their hearts are some of the oldest in existence, probably exceeded only by the Atlanteans," Mirage explained.

"I see… and just how old are you exactly?" Sora asked. He was finally beginning to piece things together.

"So you've caught on. I'm Atlantean, born and raised," Mirage said.

"Not just that. You were also the one who wrote that book, right?" Sora guessed. He didn't necessarily think that was a leap in logic to assume. After all, the woman in front of him seemed indulgent in showing him things only leaps and bounds.

"Yes. I thought by joining KRONOS I could find the power to bring back the Seers. To that end, I suppose you could say I had a grudge against the Keyblade and its wielders. Who knows? I might still have one," Mirage said, looking away uncomfortably.

"That book, some of the pages were missing near the end, like they were torn out," Sora told her.

"That's strange. Maybe someone else came across it before you?" Mirage asked.

"Is that even possible? Without the box, I mean," Sora enquired.

"All the box does is transport you to the co-ordinates inscribed. It's possible someone found it, although incredibly unlikely. Atlantis exists outside the conventions of time," Mirage said. "That said, it's not important right now. We can talk about it after. I came here to tell you that Luna is in danger."

"Luna? What's wrong with Luna?" Sora asked desperately.

"She's being held at Alexander Police Station, waiting to be interrogated. She was linked with the deaths of all the scientists at the Turm des Himmels. They found her at the crime scene, the only one unconscious. Not only that, but her prints and copious amounts of blood have been found on the weapon that carried out the act. A short blade or a tantō, I believe it's called. The evidence is… decisive," Mirage concluded while keeping her eyes on Sora. Sora looked up in horror. That was the same knife that Neuge had given Luna for her birthday.

He shook his head. "She didn't do it."

"I agree. I'm pretty sure it's a trap set by KRONOS. They might be trying to get rid of her. They might be using her to lure you in," Mirage agreed.

"Then I'll have to take the bait," Sora decided, guilt wracking his face. He should have been there. Because he wasn't there, she was all alone. How could he be so selfish and stupid? As long as people like KRONOS existed, they would do whatever they could to ruin other people's lives. His self-centered attitude had resulted in Luna being put in danger where she might not have.

"It'll be dangerous. KRONOS' objective stems mainly from their dislike of you. To that effect, they'll stop at nothing to destroy you."

"That's the understatement of the year. I could very well be walking into a trap. I could very well make things worse somehow. But if I don't try, I'll never know. I'm going to prove Luna's innocence," Sora said, flashing Mirage a smile. "Thank you for telling me."

"Then I'll be waiting for you _both _to return. That's when I'll tell you everything." Mirage showed the wrist with her Warpinator attached. "I'll take you there as soon as you're ready. Just one problem."

"There's always a problem," Sora muttered.

"I can't bring you and Luna back once you've resolved your situation. I'm a busy woman," Mirage explained.

"Then I'll need to figure a way back to Radiant Garden on my own…" Sora said. An idea suddenly flashed in his head. Two, even. "I'll need an hour. Do you think you can wait for me by Merlin's house?"

"Sure, but what do you need the hour for?" Mirage asked.

Sora smiled. "Over preparing."

* * *

_So at the most, there's about ten chapters left. I say at the most because depending on how much is in each chapter, anything could change. Also for those wanting to know Mirage's name, the chapter name might provide some hints if you know what it means. Anyway, leave a favorite and a review if you'd like and I'll be getting on with those final chapters in the meanwhile. _


	81. Burning Anxiety

**Chapter 81**

**Burning Anxiety **

Roxas entered yet another room in the mansion, exactly the same as the last one—completely white. He wondered if this had been a part of the mansion's original design and, if not, then how had Kefka even amassed the necessary funds to construct such elaborate rooms?

The door closed behind him once again, barring re-entry. Roxas saw six pods, three on each side of the room. They resembled the pods that Roxas had once seen Sora, Donald and Goofy in. He walked up to one of them and looked in but they were too cloudy white to see through. Roxas placed a hand on the cool glass, wondering if it was possible to open the pods somehow. Before he decided on pulling away, a hand, most certainly not human, smashed out of the glass and snapped shut around his hand like a Venus Flytrap. It was a bony hand with long, slimy fingers that wrapped around his scarred ones, and its tight grip refused to let go.

Roxas wasted little time in summoning his Keyblade and severed the hand from its limb. The organ fell to the floor before withering away into dust seconds later. Roxas looked at his own hand for a moment before backing away from the glass.

"What the hell is that?" he asked aloud.

"Don't recognize them?" Kefka's voice sounded out from the ceiling. "Ah, you probably wouldn't. They've been having a nice nap for about a thousand years now."

"A thousand…. What?" Roxas whispered.

"You're so close, Roxas. Two more levels of our little game and I'll let you have access to Xion. For now though, it's time for your penultimate test. Defeat the Wraiths!"

"The Wraiths?" Roxas repeated. The shattering of each glass pod forced him to forget the number of question marks going through his head at the moment. The monsters in front of him were skeletons in slimy flesh, their backs hunched over and bony like a reptile, their sockets eyeless. The most surprising feature to Roxas however was not what they were but what they possessed. In their hands, each wielded a rusted Keyblade, all different in appearance.

"Kefka, what are these?" Roxas yelled, but he received no answer. The Wraiths marched towards him, eventually picking up speed. Roxas held up his Keyblade as the rusted Keys slammed down on his own. He ducked underneath them and ran to the opposite end of the room, creating some space between him and them. They ran in once again, their hulky forms towering over Roxas.

Roxas found his cut hands stinging from holding onto the Keyblade so tightly. The first Wraith brought it's Keyblade down on Roxas, who dodged out of the way and slashed at its side. A second Wraith came in from his side and lifted Roxas up with tremendous strength, slamming him into the nearby wall. It leaned it, with Roxas unable to do anything but punch its head repeatedly with his free hand. The Wraith moved its Keyblade's handle up and drove it into Roxas' face, bursting his lip open. The Wraith attempted to do this again but Roxas grabbed hold of the handle before it could come down on him again and threw his head forward, slamming it into the Wraith's own.

Roxas was dropped from his pinned position on the wall and he quickly rolled to the left as the other Wraiths slammed their blades down at where they had once been. The second Wraith recovered from the headbutt and ran over to Roxas, swinging its blade viciously. Roxas backed away quickly before jumping and cutting through the Wraith's neck, lopping its head off. The head dropped to the ground before withering away, with the rest of the body following shortly after.

Another Wraith marched in, slicing at Roxas who guarded against the attack. The Wraith raised one of its legs and kicked at Roxas' stomach, knocking him into a wall. It attempted to stab Roxas but he leaned to the side and plunged his own Keyblade into its stomach instead. The Wraith and its Keyblade soon vanished into dust.

Roxas suddenly felt a bony fist digging into his jaw. He was launched off his feet and hit his head against the wall again. He felt a throbbing pain in the back of his head and looked up to see bright lights above the shadowy approaching figures.

"Oh, I am so sick and tired of this crap," Roxas muttered. He put his hands up and smiled at the creatures. "Okay, one minute, guys. I just need to catch my breath."

He obviously hadn't expected his words to get through to them, but when he thought about what Lea would do, he would probably try to stay cool and unfazed through such an intense situation. Roxas leapt up from the ground and wrapped his arms around the Wraith's waist, attempting to tackle it to the ground, but the monster elbowed him in his back, sending him flopping on the ground.

_Roxas, don't give up!_

"Xion?" Roxas called, having heard Xion's voice from somewhere. When he looked around, he realized that it had just been in his head. He chuckled and stood up slowly only to be punched in the face by one of the Wraiths. He stumbled backwards but otherwise kept standing. His face felt swollen up and it stung, but he didn't care.

The same Wraith leaned in to swing his Keyblade but Roxas dodged under and cut diagonally through its torso. The Wraith with the hand he had taken off earlier approached him but could only get so far before a _Blizzaga _that Roxas casted rose from the ground, its pointed Ice shards stabbing into the Wraith's body.

The last two Wraiths came in from different sides, and Roxas swung his Keyblade as quickly as he could, meeting the blows from both creatures. He soon found an opening and stabbed into the Wraith on his right, retreating with him all the way to the opposite wall. He pulled his Keyblade out and drove it back in again and again until the Wraith withered away. His anger had dulled his senses to the Wraith behind him, which sliced its Keyblade right down his back.

Roxas yelled out as pain engulfed his body. He turned to the Wraith and rush forward, using every bit of strength he had left to knock the rusted Keyblade away from the creature before impaling it. Even as the last Wraith withered away, Roxas began swinging violently at thin air, using it as a sort of catharsis to fight off the pain. Eventually he regained some sort of sense of his surroundings and cast _Cure _on himself.

"Checking status of room," the mechanical female voice rang out. There were a few seconds of peace and quiet before he heard the voice again. "You have successfully completed the level. Nice work! Please verify by touching the screen."

Roxas watched as a similar monitor to the one in the last room rose out of the ground. He stumbled over to it and slid his thumb over the screen, a smear of crimson tracing across the screen as he did so.

"You may now proceed to the final level. You may opt at any time to stop playing the-"

"Shut up." Roxas ignored the repeating line from the last room and walked over to the door. If after all of this, he found Xion only to find that she had been harmed in any way, there would be no place that Kefka would be able to hide. Roxas would chase him down if he had to. Heck, he'd probably chase him regardless, just for putting him and Xion in this awful situation.

He staggered back and forth as he left the room and went down another corridor. When he opened the next door, he found himself in another room but with one big difference. The room wasn't completely white. He was in a place that resembled a dining room and a rather extravagant and expensive one at that. There were beautiful red curtains covering the large windows, casting red light into the room. In the middle of the room was a medium-length rectangular table facing a fireplace that Roxas couldn't imagine anyone had used in years.

Roxas looked to the table where a small syringe was place in the middle next to a vase of flowers.

"Welcome to the final level. If completed, you will gain access to the second player," said the female voice. "The final level requires that you inject yourself with the liquid from the syringe. No liquid must be left in the syringe in order for the player to clear the level."

"Of course he'd do this," Roxas said with a pained smile. He had been pretty aware from the start that Kefka wouldn't have let both him and Xion out unharmed. Still, he had thought he had suffered enough for Xion's freedom. He supposed with Kefka, there were no limits.

He walked over to the table and took the syringe into his hand. He didn't want to think too much about it. All he wanted to do now was see Xion to safety, even if it meant having to never see her or Lea or any of the others again.

"Here goes nothing," Roxas said. He rolled up his sleeves all the way to his arm and jabbed the needle in. He gritted his teeth and pushed down on the syringe's handle until its golden contents were completely drained. He had a feeling he knew what the liquid did, but he wasn't sure when he would begin to feel its effects.

"You have successfully completed the level. Nice work! Please verify by touching the screen to receive your reward," the computer said. The monitor appeared closer to the door this time. He authenticated with the touch screen and waited a moment. "Congratulations. You have successfully beaten the game. All doors in the mansion are now unlocked. Please follow the arrows provided to reach the second player."

Roxas heard the clicking sound of the door open up next to him, but his eyes were not focused on it. Instead, they had found intrigue with the fireplace near the table. The stonework behind the fireplace gave a slow growl as it turned to the side, revealing a secret passageway behind it.

"How far are you going to drag this out?" Roxas whispered. He walked over to the fireplace and crouched under the mantelpiece, stepping into a dark cavern that seemed to stretch on for quite a while. He called out Xion's name, but he could only hear his own echo bouncing off the walls. "How long has this been here? Just what is this place?"

Roxas continued farther into the cavern, with torch light on the walls serving as his guide. The tunnel split off into several other paths, but only one contained the torches that he was using to help him. For someone as insane as Kefka, not even he would have had this much patience to dig out this entire cavern, though he certainly didn't put it past the clown to have explored the entire area either. That begged the question, who had built these caverns and for what purpose? The only reason Roxas could imagine was if its builders wanted to either hide something or hide from something or someone, like a quick getaway in times of emergency. If that was the case, then he was looking at something that could very possibly take him all the way to the other side of Twilight Town.

Fortunately, he didn't have to travel too far before finally reaching a metal door. Roxas grasped the valve with both hands and twisted. The valve didn't give in easily, partly because Roxas' hands felt incredibly deprived of any strength. Roxas only tried harder. He kept pulling until the valve finally started moving, by which time his hands were covered in blood and sweat. He pulled it the rest of the way and gave a tug, opening the door.

He was in a square room that looked more like a prison. The only light that came into the room was from the torch at the back.

"Xion!" Roxas yelled, running to the girl who was tied to the chair in the middle by thick ropes. Roxas went around to her front and carefully tore the duct tape off her mouth.

"Roxas, it's you! You look better than usual," Xion said with a chuckle.

"Huh. Really?"

"No, you look like crap," Xion said, a small smile on her lips.

"Ow! You don't hold back, do you? Well, you're right anyway. It has been a crap day for me so far," Roxas said, surprised that he was still able to laugh and smile after everything that he had been through.

"I could gather as much. Anyway, I don't know about you but I certainly can't wait to get out of here. I could do with some fresh air," Xion said. She could only provide small talk as she waited for Roxas to untie the ropes.

"They didn't do anything to you, did they?" Roxas asked.

"Oh, other than having a guillotine about t come down on my head and being blindfolded and locked in this room after, not really. I don't really remember anything before I woke up though so I'm not sure. I think they woke us up at roughly the same time, or me slightly before you," Xion said. Roxas successfully managed to undo the ropes and Xion freed herself from her chair.

"I'm glad you're okay, Roxas. What did they do to you?" Xion asked. Now that she was free, she pulled him into a hug.

"I'll explain when we get out of here. I really don't want to stay in this place any longer than I need to," Roxas said. "Kefka will pay for what he's done, but your safety comes first."

"Alright. Let's get out of here… wherever here is," Xion said, looking around.

"I came through a fireplace in the dining room on my way here-"

"Whoa-whoa-whoa, a fireplace?" Xion asked.

"Did I misspeak? I guess you could say I'm Santa Claus. Ho Ho Ho!" Roxas roared merrily.

"Alright, that's enough out of you. Let's get moving," Xion said. Roxas took the lead as he led her back down the candle lit path. On their way back, Roxas listened to Xion assessment of the cavern without saying much in return. His mind was more concerned with figuring out how to tell Xion that he couldn't go back to Radiant Garden with her. It was simply too dangerous now and he had no idea how much time he had left.

"Roxas, are you listening to me?"

"Hold on a second," Roxas held out his hand in front of her and sniffed the air. His eyes widened.

"What's that smell? Smoke?" Xion asked. She had realized it too.

"No, he can't be…" Roxas grabbed Xion by the hand quickly. "We need to get out of here now!"

* * *

Kairi and Max watched over both Riku's statue, Pete and the young girl as they waited for Lea to return. At some point, the girl opened her eyes and looked up at Kairi.

"Where… am I?" asked the child.

"Twilight Town, not that it matters. You're probably a long way from home, aren't you? Do you remember your name?" Kairi asked.

"Penny. Where are my parents? I have to find them!" Penny asked. She sat up and looked around frantically.

"You need rest. Don't worry, you'll be in a nice comfy bed soon enough. It's a bit cold but… it's the best we have," Kairi said to her. "We'll look for your world after we've gotten you away from here."

"My… world?"

"Don't worry. We'll talk about it back on the Gummi Ship," Kairi said. She looked up to see Lea having returned and examining the scene in front of him.

"She's-?"

"Yeah," Kairi answered.

"Poor thing. The other girl woke up. Her name's Anna. Says the last thing she remembers was arguing with her sister and then it's all a blank from there. But guess who her sister is," Lea said.

Kairi shrugged. "Are you gonna leave us in the dark or what?"

"Oh, come on. You won't even entertain me with a guess? Say, what happened to Riku?" Lea asked.

"You're looking at him," Kairi said, nudging her head in the direction of the statue.

Lea alternated between the stoned Riku and Kairi, plain disbelief in his eyes. "You're kidding me, right? Well, is there any way to help him?"

"I'm not sure yet, but I need the both of you to take Penny and Pete back to the Gummi Ship. Once you've done that, come back for Riku. I'll find Roxas and Xion," Kairi said.

"By yourself? Are you crazy? You know what Kefka is capable of!" Lea blasted. "I'm coming with you."

"No, I can't risk having Pete waking up and getting away or even having Penny and Riku stay here alone. Lea, you have to trust me here, I will bring Roxas and Xion back," Kairi said. "We roped you into this. You, Roxas and Xion were just supposed to hang out and have fun like normal people. Instead, we whisked you back off into the hurricane that is our world. We shouldn't have done that. We put you in danger."

"Yeah, well, it wasn't like we were forced. We did it of our own accord because we wanted to help Sora. That and we kind of missed this anyway, especially Xion. You shouldn't blame yourself, Kairi," Lea said.

Kairi nodded and smiled. "I know. Don't worry, I'll be in and out before you know it."

"Yeah, I know you're confident about this, but be careful in there. I have no idea what Kefka has in store in there but he's certainly going to try to make sure you have a hard time reaching them," Max said before looking to Lea. "Alright, I'll take Penny and you can take Pete."

"Why do I have to take the big guy?"

"Do I look like a guy who can carry Pete?" Max asked.

"Oh, don't be a baby. Fine, let's get to work but you owe me one, got it memorized?" Lea checked, visibly shivering in exaggeration.

"Oh, I'm sure it's something you'll remind me about every single day until the day I die," Max said.

"Well, you got THAT memorized," Lea laughed and walked over to the giant unconscious cat. As she arrived at the front door of the mansion, she gave a final look at Lea and exchanged nods before opening the door and stepping inside.

The moment the door closed behind her, Kairi heard a snap to her left and the sound of something like a rope being pulled. Her eyes widened and instinctively she rolled to her right just before the wardrobe could come crashing down on her head. There was a deafening crash that rang out throughout the foyer as the piece of furniture broke off into different pieces as it made impact with the ground.

Soon, all Kairi could hear in the room was her own breathing. She made to move again, but something stopped her. When she looked down, she saw what looked like trails of 'water' going in different directions. They seemed to split off in to three separate trails with two going to both rooms on her left and right and the third heading up the stairs.

"Uh oh. I've seen enough movies to know where this is going," Kairi said. At the sound of sharp claps, Kairi looked up at the second floor landing to see Kefka with a huge sadistic grin on his face. Kairi stepped forward. "Where are you hiding them?"

"Them? Them who? I have no idea who you're talking about," Kefka said, playing dumb.

"Play dumb if you want. You're not escaping like last time," Kairi said, summoning her Keyblade.

"Oh, you kids and your toys, waving them around like matchsticks wherever and whenever you can. The thing with matches and kids is, sometimes a kid needs to get burned in order to learn from their mistakes," Kefka said. He raised a hand to reveal a flaming matchstick and cast it down with a flick of his wrist. As soon as the matchstick hit the gasoline below, bright flames rose up from the ground and travelled quickly across the room.

"So you're gonna burn the entire place down? Is that it?" Kairi yelled from across the room. Her response was a booming howl of malicious laughter. Kairi ran over to the door to her right and quickly opened it, heading inside. There were already bright mixtures of orange and red hissing and spitting in the room, singing pieces of wood around the room and scorching the few tapestries around the room.

Kairi made her way over to the next room and put her hand on the doorknob only to withdraw it instantly from the heat.

"Okay, okay, let's see…" Kairi backed away quickly and pointed Destiny's Embrace at the handle before casting _Blizzard_. After freezing the handle, she smashed through it with her Keyblade, taking the handle off. She kicked the door open to see an entire room engulfed in an ocean of flames, even worse than the one she was currently in. "Roxas! Xion! Oh, come on, don't make me kill myself just to find you guys."

Kairi began hopping from one clear spot to the other, her skin prickling from the intense heat as she did so. She looked around and spotted a wardrobe untainted by the otherwise engulfed room and carefully moved over to it. Once there, she grabbed it by its edges and pulled, bring the entire thing down and creating a path for her. She jumped onto the back of the wardrobe and leapt across to the other side. Again, she cast Blizzard on the door knob and cut through before kicking it open.

As she made her way into the hallway and skidded around the corner, Kairi ran into a duo of Neoshadows that flew immediately for her. She barely had time to crouch as they soared over her head.

"I don't have time for you," Kairi yelled and set off in a sprint again. Before she could ascend up the stairs in front of her, a part of the ceiling caved in over her head. Kairi threw herself backwards just as the Neoshadows tried to jump at her again only for them to be crushed by the falling debris of the upper floor. Kairi got back up and climbed up the rubble, jumping high and catching the edge of the exposed floor. She pulled herself up slightly so that she could see around her. Despite all the flames around her, she found some joy in the scenery. "There you two are!"

Roxas and Xion turned around to see the redhead poking out from the floor. They both looked pale and Roxas in particular seemed heavily bruised, his lip bleeding and nose looking rather out of place from normal.

"Kairi, you found us!" Xion yelled over the flames.

"Not sure now is the time for reunions. We need to get out of here," Roxas said. Kairi lifted herself completely up into the new room and ran over to the door where Xion and Roxas were. "Here, give me a hand with this. It's stuck."

"Right," Kairi said, replacing Xion and heaving her weight onto the door. It took a few slams with their shoulders before she and Roxas were able to get the door to open. As soon as they reached the room, more Heartless popped up, this time Minute Bombs. As they threw themselves at the trio in preparation for self-destruction, the Keyblade wielders worked together to bat away the tiny Heartless. They exploded in different parts of the room, though not in any beneficial way to Kairi and the others as it caused them to rethink their steps multiple times.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me! It's blocked," Xion called to their attention the double door in the room that had been obstructed by wooden beams and rubble.

"No getting out that way then. Are we trapped?" Kairi asked, looking around for anything they could use.

"Then we'll use the window," Roxas said through coughs. Smoke was beginning to pour into the room and Kairi felt like her lungs were on fire. Oxygen was being deprived from the room fast and she was finding it harder to breathe.

"You're serious? We're high up. We won't make it down," Xion said.

"You'd rather the fire get you? I know which way I'd rather go out," Roxas said. He was about to head around to the window when he suddenly turned and called out, "Xion!"

Xion frowned in confusion. Kairi looked up to see what Roxas was focused on. A lone Minute Bomb, its fuse prepped, was falling from above right towards Xion. Before Kairi could summon her Keyblade, Roxas pushed Xion out of the way as a flashing white light blinded Kairi's sight. She could feel herself being thrown of her feet, her back hitting the ground.

There was a ringing in her ears as her eyes opened once again. Her blurry vision soon came into clearer focus and the ringing lessoned until it came to a complete stop at which point her hearing returned. What she saw in front of her made her wish that her vision hadn't cleared.

"ROXAS!" Xion cried out. She ran over to the pile of rubble that had crushed Roxas' body and tried to move some out of the way, but it was too heavy for her. "Kairi, help me!"

Kairi nodded and tried to lift up some of the rubble. "I- I- don't understand. I thought we had gotten rid of all of them a-and then that one popped out and-"

"Don't…"

Kairi and Xion paused and looked down to see Roxas whispering to them.

"Roxas, it's okay. It's going to be alright. We'll get you out of there. Come on, Kairi, we're almost there," Xion said, attempting to double her efforts.

"Stop, Xion. It's useless. If you stay here any longer, the building'll come down on you. You need to go," Roxas urged.

"I'M NOT LEAVING YOU!" Xion yelled. Tears were forming in her eyes and dropping down on the pieces and concrete over Roxas' body. "Don't you give up on me. Don't you dare…"

Roxas chuckled. "It's funny how we've changed positions. Last time, I recall crying over you. I wouldn't have made it out anyway."

"What do you mean?" Kairi asked.

"One of the games Kefka had me play. I had to jab myself with a syringe. You know what it was," Roxas said.

"No…" Kairi looked away for a moment in disbelief.

"So you see? It would never have turned out well for me. I was just doing what I had to do in order… to get Xion out," Roxas said. He looked directly at Kairi. "I pass that… to you. You know what to do. Consider it my final selfish act."

"No… Kairi, you can't. We need to save him. I won't leave him!" Xion yelled, she looked up at her with pleading eyes. "Help me!"

"Kairi, you know you can't do anything. Also, tell Lea I'm sorry I couldn't make it to the beach after all. He might have to awhile," Roxas said.

"Kairi will do no such thing because we're getting you out of here," Xion said.

"Xion-"

"Shut up, Roxas. Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

Xion stopped muttering to herself and looked up as Kairi stood tall. She shook her head but Kairi didn't care. Xion could very well hate her for the rest of her life for this, but it was better than her being dead. She grabbed Xion's hand and hauled her up, much to Xion's reluctance. Xion just kept screaming and kicking for Roxas, making it hard for Kairi to move her. The redhead soon realized that she was either going to have to convince Xion or force her to comply. They honestly seemed to be one and the same thing.

"Xion, look at me," Kairi said, taking hold of Xion's wet face and turning it towards her. "We can't save him. He did this to save you, don't be an idiot and let it go to waste."

Kairi dropped her hand and looked away, partly because she felt looking any longer at Xion would give away how she truly felt. Kairi pointed her Keyblade at the window opposite her and blew it open before taking Xion's hand again. "You go first."

Xion looked past Kairi one last time at the pile of rubble before climbing out of the window and jumping. Kairi quickly followed her, unable to look back at Roxas. She found herself falling for only a second before she hit the truncated rooftop. Tiles broke off from the roof and slid down along with her as she neared the edge of the slope. She was about to look below her to check on Xion but an explosion from behind threw her off the roof and onto the ground.  
"Ugh… that hurt. I am feeling that in the morning," Kairi mumbled, rolling about the grass. She eventually sat up and looked to her right to see Xion crying into the grass next to her. Kairi crawled over and put her hand on her back, rubbing up and down. She wasn't really sure what to say to comfort her or whether saying anything was the right thing to do at the moment. She could only stay silent and wait for her friend to regain her composure. Kairi wanted to cry, but for all her attempts nothing came. There was only simmering anger and at the center of it, the laughing echoes of the mad man who had started it all.

* * *

_A/N: Going to need some tissues after this. I swear I'm not George R. R. Martin in disguise. Anyway, next time on Cracks of the Past, Sora returns to Alexander and to meet up with Luna and seek the help of two key players previously introduced in the story. Until then, please review and *puts up flame shield* I'm ready for ya, Roxas fans. _


	82. Celes Chere

_A/N: So it was last week I believe that the voice of Scrooge McDuck, Alan Young, passed away. RIP to a great talent and some of my favorite childhood memories. Now, for this chapter, it would probably be helpful if you re-read chapter 24, because that was such a long time ago now and I can't believe I've spent this long on this story. Anyway, as always, reviews are appreciated. Thanks for reading. _

* * *

**Chapter 82**

**Celes Chere**

Astra deflected several attacks from Jack's sword before ducking under a swing and coming out behind him. She quickly switched places with Will who advanced forward his blade, quickly parrying each of Jack's attacks. Astra instead focused on Balthier, who was in current possession of Davy Jones' chest. As Astra made to chase after him, she stopped immediately as an arrow flew and landed in front of her.

"Hey, what the heck is your problem?" Astra yelled, turning to Fran. She was standing with her bow slightly lowered and a strange mix between sorrow and thoughtfulness etched on her face. Balthier stopped and turned to look at her, as did Will and Jack.

"We have a problem, something a lot more important than that box of yours," Fran said.

"Well I doubt that-"

"Shut up, Jack," Will said before addressing Fran. "What's the problem?"

"Luna's gone missing," Fran said. A sharp breath escaped Astra's mouth. Before she knew it, her legs were carrying her through the jungle in the direction of the beach. On the way she passed by the giant water wheel she, Jack, Balthier and Will had rode on comically down the island while fighting. At the time, she hadn't thought much of the random wheel that had been chasing them but now she began to worry that it had some connection to Luna.

All Astra could think of on her way was how stupid she had been. She had told herself that she would keep Luna safe this time and yet again, through her own brazen attitude, had she failed to do something that should have been a simple task.

She soon arrived at the beach where Donald, Goofy and Elizabeth were talking to each other.

"What happened?" Astra quickly asked.

"Some guy appeared in front of us who was after Luna's Keyblade. Now what was his name again? Guile- Girly-"

"Gilgamesh!" Donald corrected Goofy.

"That's right. So we chased them all the way over to that church over there but when we caught up to them, Luna and that Gilgamesh fella vanished in front us," Goofy explained.

"Don't scare her, Goofy. They have to be somewhere on the island. Let's keep looking," Donald suggested.

"But you saw her disappear. She was in front of you and then she wasn't. That doesn't sound normal to me," Astra yelled. She felt her nails dig hard into her palms. "I should have been there for her. I'm such an idiot. Such an… idiot."

"Um, not to ruin the moment, but it looks like we have guests," Elizabeth alerted, pointing towards the sea. Astra turned her head slowly, her eyes widening as they gazed upon the Dutchman's sailors rise up from the ocean as they made their way onto land.

"What are we going to do?" Elizabeth asked. Behind them, Astra heard the footsteps of the others catching up. She looked behind her to see Will, Fran and Balthier, their weapons already drawn. Where Jack had gone to was anyone's guess but she didn't really care at the moment. Right now, she only felt like taking her frustrations out on something. She summoned her Keyblade and pointed it at the sailors.

"We fight."

* * *

Sora was escorted to a small room with a glass divider separating one side of the room from the other. Two folding chairs were prepped on either side of the glass divider, one ready for the visitor and the other for the suspect. Sora scoffed at the label. Luna was certainly no suspect and though all the evidence pointed to her, were he to even take an impartial standing, it was clear that the evidence was just too perfect. KRONOS had sent footage to Moira's Crescent of Sora and the children back in the sewer just to paint this picture of him as hostile. He wouldn't be surprised if they were behind this as well.

"The suspect will be with you in a moment," said the detective who had brought him to the room. Lenoux was his name, a broad shouldered man with a cold piercing gaze that towered over Sora. The teen found it difficult to think that the man had ever not taken anything seriously.

"Her name's Luna and she's innocent," Sora growled at him. He merely smirked and shook his head.

"Believe what you want. I get paid for bringing criminals in, not listening to the biased opinions of her friend. That's what separates the boys from the men, kid. Unlike you, I don't let my personal feelings conflict with my work," Lenoux said. He had a habit of folding his arms and tapping his index finger on his left arm for whatever reason. Sora had tried to ignore it on his way to the room but he simply couldn't. He found It incredibly grating actually.

"Feelings, hmph. That's a good one," Sora mumbled. Lenoux grunted, no doubt having caught what Sora had said and left the room, closing the door behind him. Sora walked over to the chair and sat down. He grinned and slipped his hand into his track top and pulled out a bar of chocolate from the bottom pocket. "Should have searched me more thoroughly. Apparently you're not that good at your job as you think you are, detective."

The sound of the door on the other side of the door soon opened and Sora quickly hid the chocolate bar underneath the counter and looked up with his mouth slightly parted. As Luna's eyes fell on Sora's upon entering the room, she tried to break out into a run but the guard tugged at her shoulder and brought her back, reminding her of where she was. It angered Sora, the way they were treating her but he let it slide for now. It would be better not to cause a commotion while he was here.

"You have fifteen minutes," the guard said. He sat Luna down on the folding chair and unlocked her handcuffs, taking them with him as he left the room. As soon as the door finally closed, both the room's occupants jumped up from their seats.

"Luna!"

"Sora!"

"Err, you first," Sora offered with a grin.

"You came! I'm so glad you're here. When they told me I had a visitor, I thought it was Aunt Kit and I freaked out. How did you get here?"

"You remember Mirage, the woman who was working with Syndrome? She brought me here with this watch, a Warpinator or something like that. Yeah, stupid name, I know," Sora said. He held up the hand under the counter to show her the bar of chocolate. "Got something for ya. I did my best to smuggle it through, including hiding it in my shoe."

"It is a big shoe," Luna said with a chuckle.

"That it is. Uh, I'm not sure I can fit it through that hole. I'm gonna push it through piece by piece, alright?" Sora peeled off the wrapper and broke of a piece of chocolate before sliding it through the small round hole in the divider.

"Thanks," Luna said, accepting it and taking a bite. "You know, it's crazy how close you are right now and yet at the same time, I can't reach you. It hurts."

"Are they at least treating you right?" Sora asked.

"Hmm, well, I wake up early in the morning and they take me to this interrogation room, it's in another building across the street. I get asked a lot of questions and they try to do the usual stuff they do, the good cop bad cop routine, they try to get into your head and mess with you, that sort of stuff. I tell them that I can't remember anything but they're not buying it as an excuse. Apparently the evidence is pretty much against my favor," Luna said. She held up the piece of chocolate and nodded. "This is really good. Where did you get this?"

"Brought it back from Radiant Garden. It's Aerith's own homemade chocolate," Sora said. "She actually wanted to make some cookies to go along with it but I wanted to come as soon as possible. She believes in you, Luna, and not just her either. Namine, Rapunzel and Mulan too. They're all rooting for you to come back safely."

"Sora, that's lovely and all but-"

"But? What's there to 'but' about? It's going to be fine. We're going to clear all of this up and we'll go and have tea at Kit's place or something," Sora said.

Luna looked around nervously for a moment before leaning in and whispering, "But what if it was me?"

"It wasn't," Sora countered.

"But you can only say that because you believe in me, right? When it comes to facts, belief means nothing," Luna said.

"And you know for a fact that you did it?" Sora asked. "Look, this is exactly what they want you to think. KRONOS or whoever set you up."

"I know that very well could be it but… I still can't help but feel like I did something bad. I mean, my parents died at my hands so who's to say that I did kill those people as well. That and… I've been seeing things and having these thoughts that I shouldn't. It feels like something's changed within me and I can't tell if what I'm experiencing is me or something else," Luna said.

"I can understand where you're coming from," Sora said. He broke off a piece of chocolate and took a bite from it.

"You do?" Luna asked wide-eyed.

"Sure. I dream about Abraxas from time to time and I used to see Yeul from time to time. David called it an extreme case of PTSD," Sora said.

"David? You mean David Xanatos?"

"Yeah. I mean, I felt so angry that I even became afraid of myself. For everything I've said about why I wanted to stop using the Keyblade, I left out something important. I was afraid that I'd reach a point where I wouldn't be able to stop doing this. That I loved it too much to let it go. I was lying to myself and it was selfish of me. I'm sorry. I let you down," Sora said, bowing his head apologetically.

"No, Sora, don't do that. You were just doing what you thought was right, and maybe it was. But what I have, I don't think it's PTSD. There is something really wrong with me and if I did lose myself and I really did-"

"Don't… say anything more. You have no idea how much it hurts seeing my friend lose faith in herself," Sora said.

Luna threw him a smile that lacked energy. "I should be the one who's sorry. I'm ruining the mood, aren't I? Fifteen minutes and I can't quite say it all."

"So much to say, so little time," Sora agreed. He sat upright, his smile fading. "Well, consider this a selfish act but I've done so many now that I can't honestly say I care. I don't care what the evidence says. I think it's wrong. I think you're being set up and I'm going to prove your innocence."

"Sora… why? Why believe in me so much?" Luna asked.

"Because when you're all alone in the world, you need someone to be there for you. I look at you and I don't see a murder. I see someone with so much ahead of them. I won't let your life end here. If you don't have the strength at the moment to believe in you for yourself then believe in you for me and Kit and everyone else," Sora said.

Luna looked at him and wiped at her eyes before looking down. "Okay."

"Then that's all I need to hear," Sora broke off another piece and fed it through the small hole to Luna. "What's the last thing you remember? Maybe we can piece something together."

Luna nodded and began to describe to him how she had met Jack Sparrow and the others. She rushed through parts because of time but Sora was able to get the gist of things. After telling him of how she injected Gilgamesh with the syringe, she took a bite from the chocolate and looked to the side.

"That's it? You don't remember anything after that?" Sora asked. When Luna shook her head, Sora sighed and placed his hands on the counter. "Yeah, I'll admit. It's not much to go on but it is something. Unless you used a corridor of darkness or something, I don't know how you found your way to another world. There's a gap in your memory between when you were in Jack's world and when you woke up here, right? That's what I'll have to investigate then."

Luna opened her mouth to speak but the heavy knock came from the metallic door behind her. She stuffed the rest of the chocolate into her mouth and devoured it quickly.

"Time's up!" the guard soon yelled before opening the door.

"Please, just give us a few more minutes," Luna pleaded.

"No can do. Fifteen minutes is fifteen minutes. Stand," ordered the guard.

"I promise, Luna. I will get you out of here. The next time we meet, it will be on the same side," Sora said. She gave him another smile before disappearing from the room with the guard, the door closing behind them.

He was slightly tired from the performance two hours ago but he disregarded his fatigue and left the room. He had little time to waste. What he really wanted to do was visit the tower where Luna was found. The laboratory in the basement, Sora doubted, had been built by Abraxas alone so the scientists there must have built it for something.

There were also the others floors in the tower that he wanted to investigate. The only question was figuring out how to get in. As he had passed the tower on his way to the Station, he noticed yellow barricade tape surrounding the tower and preventing access. The only ones who were able to access the crime scene were naturally the people involved in the investigation.

"There's nothing you can do to help her, you know."

Sora stopped on his way down the hall and turned in the direction of Lenoux. He had his back against the wall and his arms folded with that same rhythm of tapping he had done before.

"What?" Sora asked.

"Belief isn't how justice works. It works on objectivity. The slaughter of eighteen hard-working people doesn't just go unpunished. When your friend is found guilty of her crimes, she'll face the full force of the justice system, namely, execution," Lenoux said.

"Were you listening in on our conversation?" Sora asked.

Lenoux dropped his arms and began walking past him. "You really do have big shoes."

* * *

Sora arrived at the Turm des Himmels shortly before evening and went on to immediately ask the people passing by (and making sure to avoid the police around the area) about whether they had seen anyone or anything suspicious around the tower at the time of the crime. As time passed, he began to feel only frustration. No one he had talked to had seen a whisker of suspicious activity on that day. Well he supposed there were some positives to take from that, he thought as he read through the newspaper he'd picked up. There were no witnesses who had seen Luna enter the tower so that was something.

Reading the newspaper proved useless, only mounting to his frustration. It looked like they were being tight-lipped about the whole thing, keeping much of the information out of the papers. Sora left the paper on the bench next to him and closed his eyes for a moment. He felt like he had exhausted all the possible options available to him, at least for today. He didn't want to think that Luna actually did those things but it was as the detective had said. All he had to go on was blind belief which was nothing compared to hard evidence. He was fighting a battle that wasn't in his favor as much as he didn't want to admit it.

He opened his eyes again and stood up to stretch. As he dropped his arms, he caught sight of something definitely suspicious. A figure concealed in a brown cloak was standing a few feet away from him, looking up at the tower.

"Hey!" Sora yelled at them. The figure looked his way for a moment before grabbing onto their hood and breaking off into a run. "Yeah, that's not suspicious at all."

Sora chased after them, slipping through a group of people on the way. The figure cut across the street and continued on down past the crowd of people on the other side. Sora chose a more insane route. He ran straight down the middle of the road, ducking and weaving carriages as he kept his eyes on the cloaked figure. He quickly grabbed onto a carriage and rode it past her before jumping off and running onto the pavement.

The figure stopped in their tracks as Sora appeared in front of them, allowing Sora to get enough of a look under their hood to tell it was a woman with blonde hair. He was about to tell her it was alright when she took off again in the other direction. Sora followed after her again, something that took them both into a deserted street full of parked carriages.

"Stop! I'm not after you!" Sora tried when he was sure she could hear him.

"Then why are you chasing me?" The woman yelled back.

"Okay, maybe I am after you but not for the reason you might think. I just want to know why you were looking at the tower," Sora said. She stopped and turned around to face him before relaxing.

"I'm not allowed to look at a tower now?" the woman asked.

"Of course you can, assuming you're not a regular Alexandrian who passes the tower on a daily basis. You were staring at it for quite a while though, almost like you'd never seen it before," Sora said.

"There was a crime, no? I was merely curious," she countered.

"Okay, even ignoring the fact that you were running away after I called to you, you were definitely not looking at guards or the yellow tape. Also, you're really the only person who stands out with that shady looking getup," Sora pointed out.

"Fair point," the woman conceded and lifted her hood as if rewarding him. Sora wasn't sure if he had seen her from somewhere before but she definitely seemed familiar. "My name is Celes."

Sora's mouth dropped. "Celes? Celes Chere? Oh, wow. Um, this is awkward. You're that opera singer, right?"

"Not the reaction I would have expected. Not to brag but it's pretty hard to believe that someone from around here would ask that question, even those who aren't big fans of opera," Celes said. "So then the question would be, who are you?"

"Sora."

"Oh, you're Luna's friend. We met a few months ago," Celes said.

"Yeah, a friend of hers and I were outside your dressing room. I'm surprised you remember us," Sora said.

"Luna left quite an impression on me. It's hard not to when you shrink and grow to normal size just by eating a mushroom. Talk about a magic mushroom," Celes said with a chuckle.

"So why IS Celes Chere dressed in a brown cloak and looking at a tower anyway?" Sora asked.

"Believe it or not, what Luna said to me back in that room gave me a lot of confidence. She said we were the same, both of us not knowing who we are. I don't know if she still feels that way but it got me thinking a lot about my own position. I still didn't have the strength to break away entirely from my blackmailers until recently when I overheard something. Well, it wasn't so much overhearing actually. Zorn and Thorn didn't seem to mind saying it directly in front of me. They must have thought that it wouldn't bother me because to their knowledge, I've never come in contact with or even know who Luna was."

"Zorn and Thorn?"

"They're the conduits through which I receive my orders. They come from a higher authority. Zorn and Thorn are too stupid to carry out the majority of operations by themselves and they certainly have never struck me as the leader type," Celes explained. "Anyway, I heard them talking about her, but I didn't know why until the incident happened. So I happen to be walking by the Turm des Himmels on my way home from the store and I hear this large commotion. When I ask one of the police nearby, they told me that they had apprehended a girl who they believed had killed eighteen scientists. That's when I saw her come out of the tower, being escorted by a couple of guards. She looked so confused and her eyes were wide in horror, as if she wasn't really all there. That's when I knew that the incident and what Zorn and Thorn had said were linked."

"So she WAS set up?" Sora said ecstatically. Celes put her finger to her mouth and shushed him.

"Maybe we shouldn't speak so out in the open like this, but yes, that's what I think. So I wanted to investigate the tower myself. Find something proving that there was someone more sinister lurking in the shadows, orchestrating the whole thing. I've never refused to do anything they've told me, but I would gladly do so now and never look back after what they've done, regardless of the consequences," Celes said with a maturity uncommon of her seemingly young age.

Sora scratched the back of his head before smiling. "Luna means a lot to me too, which is why I'll need all the help I can get. That said, I'm not sure I can involve a civilian in something this dangerous but… I have a feeling you won't take no for an answer. I'll do my best to keep you safe but if it starts to look dangerous, then I want you to run."

"Well I may not look like it but I know my way around with a sword. If you need steel, then I can provide a helping hand." Celes pulled up her cloak slightly to reveal a sharp silver blade. Sora was more concerned by what Celes had been planning on doing with a sword, carrying it in public, in the first place rather than whether she could help him or not. Had saving Luna really meant so much to Celes that she had been ready to give up her life for it? Sora shared a common goal with her but he wasn't about to exchange an innocent life for an innocent life.

"Let's just get some rest for today. We can figure out a plan of action for tomorrow and go from there. To be honest, I'd rather avoid any altercation with the guards and police if possible," Sora said. "Do you have anywhere we can stay?"

"I do but I don't think my apartment's suitable. They might be listening in there. I suppose I could ask a friend of mine if we could stay over…" Celes said but Sora shook his head.

"Actually, you know what? Luna's aunt has a shop near here if I remember correctly. Let's head over to her place," Sora said. It looked like Celes was more than a little paranoid of the privacy of her home but she was probably right and he didn't want to take any chances.

Celes pulled the hood back over her head and followed Sora out back into the busy street. It was a couple of blocks before Sora finally found Kit's Bakery, by which time the street lamps had all lit up under the jewelled cerulean sky.

"Hello, Miss Kit. It's nice to see you again," Sora said, walking in with Celes.

"Oh my goodness, Sora! Just a sec," Kit said. She finished packing the pastries into a bag before handing them over to her customer. He thanked her before walking past Sora and Celes and leaving through the door. "How are you? Where's Luna?"

"Uh, she's… fine. Yeah, she er- was sent somewhere else with a few other friends of mine," Sora lied. He imagined that Kit would absolutely freak out if he were to tell her the truth. He would probably be the first to suffer her wrath if he failed to save Luna. "I've just come here to… help her."

Celes pulled off the hood and smiled. She was about to introduce herself but Kit screamed and began fanning her face wildly.

"To think that Celes Chere would be standing only metres away from me. I'm a big fan of yours," Kit said, much to Celes' shying embarrassment.

"Um, thanks," Celes said, flashing a bashful smile.

"You know, you don't really seem like the kind of person who's into opera," Sora said to Kit.

"Well you'd be right. I saw my first opera with Luna's mother and I thought it was nothing short of sentimental trash. But even the person who least likes opera can feel smitten by the story of the opera singer who became famous at the young age of twelve," Kit said.

"Hmm? And what would this story be?" Sora asked, only because Celes was getting redder by the second.

"It's really not all as romantic as the story leads you to believe," Celes said but Kit threw up her hand.

"Oh, don't be so modest, dear. It really is unfortunate what happened to your father though. I'm so sorry," Kit said.

"No, it's okay. Really." Seeing the curious look on Sora's face, Celes explained. "My dad didn't take the necessary measures to save his company. They were failing and he could have downsized but he didn't want to let any of the people working there go. The company soon went bankrupt and he couldn't take it anymore so he… Anyway, the royal crown repossessed our house and me and my mother were thrown out of our home. We were homeless for months when the owner of the Opera House heard me singing to myself in an alleyway. They took me in and trained me to be an opera singer."

"Wow, that's certainly a tale. I guess you were lucky they found you when they did, huh?" Sora asked. He remembered Riku telling him once that he tended to attract the most interesting and peculiar of characters. After meeting both Jayne and Celes who had similar professions, he found it hard to counteract his point.

"Oh, you don't even know the half of it," Celes said. She glanced over to Kit, clearly reluctant to delve further into her past for the moment. "Sora suggested that we stay here for the night. Do you think that would be okay?"

"Of course it's fine but don't you have your own place?" Kit asked her.

"My neighbor's making a lot of noise tonight. I think they're having a party or something in there," Celes made up without the slightest inclination of sloppiness. She was probably better at lying than he was, or at the very least she had had the excuse planned for quite some time now.

"Oh, noisy neighbors. Gotta love them, right?" Kit laughed out. "Oh, there is a slight problem though. I only have two bedrooms. I hope you don't mind sharing a room with-"

"I'll share one with Sora," Celes said quickly. A confused Sora was about to object to this until he realized the reason they had come to Kit in the first place.

"Oh, yeah, I- I don't mind at all," Sora said, bobbing his head up and down assuredly. Kit looked slightly disappointed at first but fell back into her motherly disposition almost immediately.

Kit led them up the stairs to the second floor landing and stopped at the first door. "It's a small room but that's what happens when you live at the place you work in."

"It'll do," Celes said. She took it upon herself to open the door and walked into the room. She looked about for a moment before turning back to Kit with a smile. "Thank you."

"Ah, it's alright, dear. Would the both of you like some hot cocoa? I was about to make some for myself," Kit offered.

"That would be wonderful, thank you," Celes said, Sora nodding along with her. Kit left the room and Celes went over to sit on the bed.

"Right, you can take the bed, and I'll take the floor," Sora said.

"You know, I did choose to sleep with you just because we needed to discuss our plan," Celes said.

"S-sleep with me…? Oh! Oh, yeah." Sora realized quickly what she meant and looked away to cover up his embarrassment. "So what was the other reason?"

"I kind of didn't want to sleep with her. No offence to her or anything but I would rather get some actual sleep tonight instead of being bombarded with questions from a fan," Celes said.

"I'm sure she would have respected your wishes if you'd told her that," Sora said. "What did you mean, by the way? When you told her that the story wasn't all that romantic?"

"It's a tale of inspiration for many. You know, like the hardworking aspirant who eventually gets what they want through hard work and determination. In my case was, if you believe hard enough, you can make anything happen no matter where you are in life. Alexander is known as the city of dreams. I guess they needed a poster child for that."

"What do you mean by poster child?" Sora asked.

"The group who were blackmailing me, they own the opera. I guess when my benefactor found me in an alley, they saw something they could exploit. In exchange for making me into who I am today, I sold my life away to them. I've done some… pretty terrible things as per their orders. I don't think I just kept following their orders because of blackmail though. Somewhere in me, I probably felt a sense of gratitude to them for saving my mother and I. As long as I stayed in their good graces and got a warm bed at night and food on our table, I would do anything they told me to. I wouldn't even question it. In exchange, I became the poster child of Alexander. No blemishes, no stains… exactly how they want me to be," Celes explained.

"Well, no one can blame you for something like that. In your case, it's understandable. I can kind of relate actually, not with the blackmail thing but trying to separate who you are from what others expect of you," Sora said.

"Which is why after we rescue Luna, I've decided to come out with everything. I don't care what they do anymore. Alexander is going to see me for who I truly am and admittedly, I'm kind of scared," Celes said as she playfully kicked her legs up in the air. "And kind of excited at the same time. There's something about having everyone know I'm not Alexander's pretty little princess that just makes me excited. Is that weird?"

Sora was about to respond but jerked his head in the direction of the door as Kit came into the room with two mugs.

"Here you go, dears—two cups of relaxing hot chocolate. That'll be 600 munny please," Kit said, handing one to each.

Sora frowned in confusion. "Uh, sorry. I'm kind of out. I thought this was for-"

The red-headed shop owner guffawed at this and slapped him on the back, almost causing him to spill in his mug. "Oh, it was just a joke, Sora. It's obviously on the house."

Sora gave a mirthless laugh in reply. "Yeah… a joke."

"By the way, Sora, Luna's doing alright, isn't she? Oh, I do worry for her a lot. There's not a single day that goes by where I don't wonder where she is or if she's happy. I suppose I have to what with her mother gone," Kit said.

"Her mother? What happened to her mother?" Celes asked.

"Her parents were found dead at their bedroom, stabbed with a blade about 8.5 centimetres. I remember reading into the police report when I was told about their deaths. It seems that to this day, they still haven't managed to find the person responsible. Coincidentally it was around the time those creatures started appearing." Kit looked down and sighed. "It's not fair. Two innocent people's lives taken like that and their young daughter who will never get to see them again. A person like that doesn't deserve to be free."

Sora gulped and found something more comfortable to look at in the vase on the window sill. He'd rather avoid saying anything if possible. Both Celes and Kit would get the wrong idea, of course, but he didn't think the truth was his to tell.

"Anyway, if you need anything else, I'll be in my room. Goodnight, dears," Kit said.

As soon as she closed the door behind her, Sora heard Celes ask, "What really happened to them?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Sora pretended to not know what she was referring to.

"It's obvious you know something. You aren't very good at hiding it either," Celes told him.

"Oh come on, that's- that's- was it really that obvious?" Sora asked. When Celes gave a single nod, Sora walked over to the bed and helped himself to one of the pillows before throwing it on the floor. "When we get Luna out, you can ask her."

"The waiting game then… oh, how I despise that," Celes said.

Sora smirked and laid his head down. "Welcome to my world."


	83. Eleftheria Hollenbeck

_A/N: So I'm interested to know how you guys read this story. Desktop? Laptop? Mobile? Do feel free to share. Anyway, time for another chapter that sets things up but don't worry. From here on out, there's going to be a lot of action. Also, I suppose you can think of this chapter as a part 2 to the Journalistic Revolution chapter along with The Songstress' Secret. With that said, hope you enjoy and be sure to favorite and review and all that good jazz. _

* * *

**Chapter 83**

**Eleftheria Hollenbeck**

For the past two years, the sound of photocopiers squawking and beeping had become a daily part of Eleftheria Hollenbeck's life. She found herself, more often than she felt necessary, staying in the printing room after lights out, to work on her articles. Strict deadlines made her job quite stressful and didn't allow her to have as much time to herself as she usually did. That, and her boss for the newspaper was usually pretty demanding when it came to the content he wanted from her.

Eleftheria began playing with her pen, rolling it from side to side as she tried to think of what she wanted to convey next. She had, of course, thought of going freelance. That had the advantage of doing the articles that she wanted and without the gaze of a higher authority constantly looking over her. The only problem was that she didn't have much money, and she felt like she needed to gain experience in an actual work atmosphere so as to know how to engage with clients and the like. She only had to work at the newspaper to the point where she could get her name out and attract work for herself. The problem was that with the articles the boss was having her write, she would never get anywhere with them.

"Maybe I should just give up and go home. Marty's probably hungry," Eleftheria said, thinking of her Scottish Fold. She had named him after the main character of one of her favorite sci-fi movies. It had occurred to her that she hadn't fed him since the morning and she was probably incredibly undeserving of his love. She groaned and buried her head into her arms that were rested on the table. "Ugh, I quit. Just dump me in a lake already."

After another hour, satisfied with what she had accomplished, Eleftheria left the building with a smile on her face. She had finished the article off but hadn't bothered to re-read over it for any errors. That was the thing she loved about leaving school—she now had an editor to correct her work for her, not that she didn't look over her work. She was incredibly fussy about stuff like that. She was usually fine with editing her own work… when they were about things she cared about. The local hockey game at the high school was not one of them.

She reached her apartment around midnight. She didn't usually like coming home at this time of night but the fear of her red-faced boss possibly going even redder as he shouted down at her was probably more frightening on her scale.

"I'm home!" Eleftheria groaned tiredly, announcing to no one in particular. Other than her cat, she lived by herself. She kicked her shoes off and lined them up carefully, for she could not rest until they were aligned with her other shoes, and walked into the living room.

She found Marty pawing away at the couch. She scooped him up into her arms and held him up to the light.

"Are you hungry? I bet you are. I certainly am," Eleftheria said, before nuzzling him with the bridge of her nose. "You will not believe my day. I'm so glad I got that article out of the way and done with for the morning edition tomorrow… and you don't care, do you?"

"Mew!" Marty purred, looking elsewhere.

Eleftheria nodded with a tight-lipped smile. "Then I'm just talking to myself. The first step towards insanity, or so they say."

"Nyaa~" Marty leapt out of her arms and landed on the couch seat.

Eleftheria sighed. "Great. Even the cat agrees. Eleftheria, what are you doing with your life?"

She went over to the fridge and took out a bottle of milk, unscrewing the cap and pouring some of the milk into Marty's bowl. She drank the rest and wiped her mouth, wholly satisfied. As she set the empty bottle down on the counter, her eyes caught sight of a photo framed on her fridge. It had been over twenty-five years ago when that photograph had been taken, and by her mother no less. There had been a large protest outside of the royal palace where the protesters had been campaigning for more proportional pay in exchange for the hours they worked. Her excellent coverage of the protests throughout that year had earned her the Gold Award, a rare but not the rarest award that a journalist could be given for their excellent work. Eleftheria could only dream of earning that same award one day. Competition in the market had increased enormously since those days.

Eleftheria watched for a moment as Marty lapped away at his milk. "I take it you're not interested in helping me pay the rent."

"Meow." The cat looked up from his bowl at her for a second before returning to its supper.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Eleftheria said. She walked into the living room and turned the television on with the remote. The news came on immediately, and Eleftheria sat down on the couch and watched as the scenes unfolded in front of her.

There was really only one story that anyone who was anyone had been talking about for the last two days and it didn't involve a hockey game. "MURDER AT THE TURM DES HIMMELS- 18 PRONOUNCED DEAD" scanned the headline from right to left on the bottom of the screen. It seemed that the police were not yet ready to announce something significant, but they did have a suspect in custody and were ready to make an announcement at any given time.

The screen soon showed the pictures of the deceased, along with their names. Eleftheria shook her head as the newscaster went down the list of names. In all her lifetime and even the generation before, such a case was truly unprecedented.

"What is happening to this place? This is crazy," she remarked in a mixture of horror and fascination. She turned the television off and clambered to her bedroom, falling into the silky smooth duvet below.

The next time she moved was the moment her alarm rang out about five hours later. Eleftheria grumpily stood up and walked off to her bathroom with the occasional yawn every now and then. After a refreshing shower and breakfast, Eleftheria made sure to leave some food in the bowl for Marty before setting off again.

It seemed not three minutes of walking had passed before she had come across a familiar sight. Though she could not see the front of him, the spiky brown of the back of his head rang bells for her.

"That's… yeah, that kid with the giant key," Eleftheria said. It was hard to forget the person who had saved her life some months back. She had hoped these last months that she might see him again but it was almost like he had disappeared, like he hadn't even been real in the first place. And now when she had just about convinced herself she had been dreaming that entire day, he appeared again in front of her, teasing her curiosities. She raised her hand up slowly and called out to him. "HEEEEEEEYYYYY!"

* * *

Sora tensed up at the sudden scream and turned around to meet her. "Could you, like, not do that so close, please?"

"I have a bone to pick with you, walking out of my life and making me think I was crazy. You've gotta lot of nerve!" The girl yelled at her.

"You might just very well still be," Sora muttered. His eyes narrowed and he raised a brow. "Hey, you're that girl I rescued last time, aren't you?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you! And the name's Eleftheria Hollenbeck, by the way," the girl said.

"Oh, yeah… ace journalist who isn't really an ace journalist. Now I remember," Sora said.

"Why'd you have to remember that part? Anyway, I've been looking for you for a while now, Sora."

"You remember my name? I'm impressed," Sora said.

"I have a really good memory, you'll find. So what are you doing here by yourself?" Eleftheria asked.

Sora glanced at her with a blank expression for a second before looking away. "I'm waiting for someone."

"Aren't we all?" Eleftheria put both her index fingers on her temples and began rubbing them. "Okay, I'm going to take a free guess for why you're really here. You have to tell me everything if I get it right, deal?"

"Huh? Wait, I didn't agree to that-"

"Too late! Let's see… hmm. Judging from the fact that you just happened to appear when the biggest event in the history of Alexander is taking place, I guess I can't chalk that up as a coincidence?" Eleftheria asked.

"Eleftheria, stop. You don't want to know why I'm here," Sora said.

"Ooh, now I'm really excited. Come on, I was right, wasn't I?" Eleftheria said, smugly adjusting her glasses.

"Sorry for taking so long. I got held up filing some of the papers and-"

Sora and Eleftheria turned to see Celes walking up to them. She stopped and threw an enquiring glance at Sora.

"Hey, Celes, this is Eleftheria Hollenbeck. Eleftheria, this-" Sora turned abruptly at the sound of a thud next to him to see that Eleftheria had fainted. "I guess you already know."

Sora and Celes didn't have to wait long before Eleftheria opened her eyes again.

"Hi again, it's me," Sora said with a satisfied smirk. "Yeah, do you usually do that often?"

"Oh yeah, I just love to do it every time I get invited to parties… if I ever were invited to parties," Eleftheria said.

"Probably a good thing you're not then," Celes joked. Eleftheria looked at Celes again and her eyes grew big. This time, she was about to let out a scream when Celes pushed Eleftheria's jaw back up with her hand. "Please don't scream. I'd rather not attract any unnecessary attention."

"Holy moly, you are… you-" Eleftheria said, chewing on her bottom lip to stop herself from screaming. She looked to Sora. "You REALLY get around, don't you?"

"What's that even mean? We just found each other by coincidence-"

"Oh yeah, I'm supposed to believe that some guy who just up and disappears has now reappeared and is friends with an opera singer… you are just friend, right?"

"Of course. Look, it's a long story but it's not one you need to get yourself involved in. It was nice meeting you again and all but now isn't really the best time for you to be here," Sora told her.

"Because of the Turm des Himmels incident?" Eleftheria asked.

"You told her?" Celes asked him.

"No, no I didn't tell her. She pretty much figured it out on her own," Sora said, letting out a stifled laughed.

"Ah, so you _do_ admit it!" Eleftheria exclaimed in an excited tone. A massive grin exploded on her face, revealing her pearly white teeth.

"I don't know why you're grinning like you've just discovered the Hand of Midas or something, and boy is that a tale for another time, but it really isn't anything that big," Sora said. His look of confusion soon faded and became a more thoughtful one. "Say, Eleftheria… are you still looking for that big scoop these days?"

"Considering they've been putting me on the columns people don't actually read, I'd have to say so, yes," Eleftheria replied.

"Alright. You have to promise you won't tell anyone else what I'm about to say. No yapping to friends or anything like that. This is just between us," Sora said.

Celes flashed a warning glare. "Sora, what are you doing?"

"Improvising," Sora said simply. "Do you understand, Eleftheria?"

Eleftheria seemed to want to smile but it came out more as a twitch. "Friends… hah, that's a good one. Anyway, I understand."

"Okay. Let's say we need a way into the Turm des Himmels because we think the investigation is being orchestrated," Sora said.

"What do you mean?" Eleftheria asked.

"The person being implicated for the murder, a friend of mine, you've met her before, is being set up. I need to get in and confirm my suspicions," Sora said.

"Wait a moment, slow down. Your friend? Your friend killed those people?"

"NO! Please listen to what I'm saying. She didn't kill them, she was framed. Frankly, the entire thing stinks and I want to get to the bottom of it, though I have a pretty good idea who's behind it anyway," Sora said.

"So this entire thing is some conspiracy to get rid of your friend? What's she done that was that bad?" Eleftheria asked.

"Well they may have wanted to lure me here as well. You wouldn't happen to know any way into the tower, would you?"

Eleftheria scratched her head and looked away uneasily. "Oh. I don't really know if I want to be a part of this now. Um-"

"Please, if you have anything, it would be of great help. I know it's not easy-" Celes began but Eleftheria cut her off.

"Not easy? I never would have guessed. You're only asking me to break the law, to help two people break into a highly secure, closed off from the public, building. Do you know what could happen to me if they found out I was helping you? Goodbye my career. Hello job as a sanitation worker," Eleftheria said, gesturing wildly with her hands.

"You're right. It was silly of me to ask in the first place. Just forget about everything I've said here. Anyway, Celes, we should be heading off," Sora said.

"Wait- wait- wait." Eleftheria stopped them with an open palm. "I know you're gonna have me staying up late at night wondering 'what if?' if I don't do this now. I hate myself sometimes. Okay, I do know of a way in but I've never personally used it and no matter how much I may speak to myself, I'm not so insane that I'd ever try it."

"Thank you so much, Eleftheria. I know I'm asking a lot of you considering we've only just met again a few minutes ago," Sora said.

"Yeah, well don't think it comes cheap. Anyway, the Alexandrian Library's archive room has a lot of schematics on different buildings, even ones that never went past planning stage. The Turm des Himmels is one of them—there's a sewer that runs right underneath it. Said sewer also is a secret passageway from which you can gain access to the basement level of the Turm des Himmels. Funnily enough, in the official floor plan for the building, no such basement exists. While the inconsistency was a bit fishy, I never thought much of it. They may never have finished the basement past the initial planning or for whatever reason it's just not accessible anymore."

"No, it definitely exists. I've been down there before," Sora said.

"You have? Then why do you need my help?" Eleftheria shouted.

"Different circumstances. Hey, how would we access this sewer anyway?"

"Um, there should be a gate that goes underground. I'll have to show it to you since there's no particular landmark near it. Anyway, it's unlikely you'd be able to get in anyway. It's usually locked and requires a key to get in."

Sora grinned and exchanged a knowing look with Celes. "I think we'll be just fine. Alright, lead the way."

As Eleftheria guided Sora and Celes through the streets of Alexander, Celes handed the tantō knife she had gotten out of the evidence room of the precinct to Sora. Apparently, one of Celes' jobs more recently, conveniently starting around the time KRONOS had appeared, had involved delivering packages from the precinct to the Turm des Himmels and back. Sometimes, it was just random evidence for forensic purposes but she was sure some of the packages she received were more than just evidence. Either way, they trusted her with evidence enough for them not to question when she asked for it, making it easy for her to obtain the knife without raising suspicion.

"Well, it's definitely Luna's knife, but that doesn't mean she was the one who used it," Sora said.

"See, I asked one of the detectives about it. The only fingerprints on it are Luna's. They were found all over the knife," Celes said.

"Seems pretty conclusive to me," Eleftheria mentioned in passing.

"Actually, I'd say it's the opposite," Sora said with a hopeful smile dawning on his face. "It's weird that there are _only_ her prints on it. I've touched that knife a few times and so has the knife's original owner. There should be at least three prints on there."

"What if your prints just became faded over time?" Celes suggested.

"Well for the first one, that would depend on the surface area. The reason prints are created are because of the oils that are secreted from the pores of your fingers. They last a pretty long time. Take it from someone who went through a criminology phase," Eleftheria interjected. "If anything, it's even more suspicious that your friend's prints are all over the knife as opposed to just the handle."

Sora looked on in surprise at first before sporting a victorious grin. "Well, I'm not gonna say I understood most of that but you believe me at least?"

"Not really belief. I'm just looking at facts and coming to my own conclusion," Eleftheria explained.

"Then does that mean someone probably wiped it clean before?" asked Celes.

"That's my guess. Its old owner has never used that blade for anything but self-defense. If I know Luna, then she would never use it for anything but that either," Sora said.

The three turned down an empty path and soon arrived at a dead end, a gate barring the way and stairs descending past it. Sora summoned his Keyblade and Eleftheria jumped in surprise.

"What? What did I do now?" Sora asked in a baffled tone.

"Don't just do something like that. You gave me a scare," Eleftheria shouted.

"You've already seen me do it before, remember? Besides, how else am I supposed to do it?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe announce it first!"

"Hey, you two, we don't have all day so if you could hurry it up, please," Celes interrupted in an annoyed fashion.

"Right, sorry," Sora apologized. He held up the Kingdom Key and shot out a beam of light. There was a clicking sound followed by the padlock falling off the gate.

"Wowsers! Don't suppose you know where I can get one of those, do you? Would be nice not to have to worry about finding my keys every now and then," marvelled an impressed Eleftheria.

"How many times was that?" Sora asked while pulling the gate open.

"What, in a week? Hmm, well last Tuesday they somehow found their way under my couch and then the day after that I left them at work by accident and I had to go back and-"

"Okay, that- that's enough," Sora assured her quickly. "Okay, so this will take us straight under the tower, right?"

"It should if the schematics are anything to go by. The sewers are like a network of tunnels but as long as you keep going north and ignoring the other paths, you should find yourself there," Eleftheria answered. "And in exchange for this, I expect to be the first one you contact to cover whatever you find in there. Agreed?"

"If there's anything juicy to find in the first place," Sora said. He looked at Celes with worry. "Celes, last chance, you don't have to do this. I don't want you to get roped up in something you're going to regret later on," Sora said.

"I've been doing things I've regretted for seven years now. What's one more to add on to the pile?" Celes said, flashing him a smile.

"Alright, let's do this. Uh, where should we meet up once we're done?" Sora asked.

"Probably where we last met, right outside the park," Eleftheria suggested.

"Gotcha, okay, see in a while then," Sora said. Celes also bid her farewells before following him down into the dark passage.

* * *

After clearing enough distance from Twilight Town, Kairi set the ship on autopilot and rose from the chair, looking around. To her left was Riku's statue, his eyes frozen with fear and his arms outstretched. To the right of her was Max who had chosen not to say anything more after Kairi had returned with Xion.

Kairi left the cockpit and walked down the hallway, made only calming by the humming of the engines and the shaking of the floor beneath her feet. In the first room on her left, she faintly saw Xion sobbing into her pillow while being comforted by Lea. When she had told him what had happened, he had a good shout at Kairi for being foolish and prideful as to go into the mansion alone. Kairi hadn't even felt like correcting him on some of the things he had said. She just stood there, letting his verbal attacks hit her. His bitter words had stung, probably more than anything Kairi had ever experienced before. Whether choosing to bring Lea and Max would have made any difference, better, worse or same, she would never know but it didn't matter now.

Unable to look at them, Kairi moved on to the next room. The two Chimera that she had treated were here—Anna and Penny. Along with them was one other, the apparent sister of Anna and the woman they had encountered alongside Gantu back at the factory, Elsa.

"How are you all doing?" Kairi asked.

"Great, thank you. I'm just glad I get to see my sister again after so long," Anna said.

"Well, I don't deserve to see you, Anna. I hurt you, physically and emotionally. What kind of sister am I?" Elsa asked. She looked down at her hands and waved them slightly, letting little snowflakes drift down from them. "I was just so frustrated, all the time. When I froze you, I knew what I had done could never be taken back. I was a monster. I _am _a monster. That's why I left Arendelle. A witch named Maleficent told me that I shouldn't try to suppress my powers but embrace them instead. She made a pretty convincing argument about how it was important to have a purpose in life. How I could leave a legacy that would last outside of time itself with what we were trying to accomplish."

"You've had to face your powers by yourself?" Kairi asked.

Elsa nodded. "I don't know how I came by these powers, but my parents didn't want me telling anyone about them. When we were kids, Anna and I were playing in the castle and I accidentally hit Anna while it happened."

"You did?" Anna asked, furrowing her brow as if trying to remember. "I think I recall something like that happening, but it always felt more like a dream until you just mentioned it. I guess I can't pass it off as that anymore."

"In order to save you, our parents had your memory erased. Your hair had this blonde streak similar to my own. I don't see it anymore though," Elsa said, while checking. Anna quickly grabbed at her braided hair and brought it in front of her to look.

"Huh, that's weird… I wonder why it's gone," Anna said.

"According to the guy who made the Chimera drug, he was trying to create the perfect race of humans, regenerative healing and all. I'm guessing the Chimera fixed the things that were wrong with you. Now that I think about it, I remember my friend, Luna, telling me that she jumped out of a van once. She's a Chimera like you. She broke her ankle doing so but it didn't take long for her to heal at all," Kairi theorized.

"Hmm, I wonder if I still have that regenerative healing. Alright, Elsa, freeze me again!" Anna exclaimed, throwing her arms out.

Elsa looked at her as if she were crazy. "Seriously? Don't say things like that, Anna. Even if you are joking."

"Elsa, you don't have to be so distant anymore. I don't care what you have to say. You're my sister and always will be," Anna said. She looked to Kairi. "So, what's going to happen to my sister now?"

"Nothing. If I were harsher, I probably wouldn't let you get away with what you've done. You did assist a criminal organization, but I can see why you did it, and I think Anna's been through enough suffering for one lifetime. I suppose your punishment can be… that you have to listen to your sister from now on," Kairi said.

"Alright. I can do that. We've got a lot of catching up to do," Elsa said, smiling at Anna.

Kairi checked down the hallway quickly before looking back. "In the meantime, I need to know everything you have on KRONOS. Is that okay?"

"Yes, I can do that, but… what will you do with Kefka?" Elsa asked.

"He left a clue for his next location. I found it at the front gate when I was leaving the mansion with Xion. I don't doubt that it was put there intentionally though so it might be a trap," Kairi said. She pulled a piece of necklace out of her pocket and showed it to them. She pointed to the symbols on the necklace as she explained them. "I know where this comes from. It's actually a map, see? Here's the cathedral in Notre Dame and this is the Court of Miracles."

"So Kefka's gone back there?" Elsa asked.

"Right, you were there too, weren't you? You made that ice pillar. I remember being pretty speechless when I saw it."

"Let me come with you then. Please," Elsa postulated, standing up tall with the bearing of a queen.

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea."

"I won't get in your way. I just… I need to make it up to you for everything I've done. I may not agree with KRONOS' plan but I did agree with what Maleficent said. Everyone needs a purpose, a goal in life. Let this be mine."

Kairi looked past her to Anna for a moment before finally deciding. "Okay. But remember, you have a sister to return to."

"I know," Elsa said, her eyes not leaving Kairi's.

Kairi soon submitted in their unannounced stare contest. "Well, I've already managed to contact a friend of mine so hopefully they'll also be able to make it in time." She then looked at Penny and affectionately ruffled her hair. "You okay there?"

"I'm fine. Anna and Elsa are so nice. They said I could take a long around their castle when we get there," Penny said.

"Er, I don't recall saying that," Elsa said with a raised brow.

"Ha-ha-ha, oh, that was me. I kind of promised her she could wear that nice diadem of yours. She'd look great in it, don't you think?" Anna explained with awkward laugh.

Kairi chuckled before speaking out. "I'll just leave you three to each other for now. I need as much rest as possible if I'm going to see this through to the end."

"Have a good nap, Kairi," Penny said cheerfully. Kairi waved at her before setting off once more down the corridor. She had no idea what was in store for her back at the cathedral but Kefka had thrown out an invitation, in other words, he had something up his sleeve. With that thought in mind, Kairi fell onto her bed and closed her eyes. With all that had happened in just a day, she doubted she would be getting much sleep anyway.


	84. Something Worth Fighting For

_A/N: FFXII remaster coming 2017, you say? Why yes, please. With E3 drawing near, let's hope for some juicy KH3 news, though the 2.8 trailer will be coming out the day after this is published so we'll see what that has in store (Aqua Gameplay in UE4 please!). Anyway, last time we were here, Sora and Celes were about to break into the Turm des Himmels. Let's get right back into the action, shall we? _

* * *

**Chapter 84**

**Something Worth Fighting For **

Following Eleftheria's directions, Sora and Celes navigated their way through the sewers with little difficulty. It was a straight north path, as the journalist had described, when they finally came to a ladder leading up to a square access panel that would probably take them straight into the basement level.

"You know, I think this was a bit too easy," Sora said.

"Oh, don't jinx us. We were doing so well," Celes replied with a sigh.

"Can't help it. When you've been out there fighting as long as I have, you kind of expect things to go wrong," Sora said. He pointed at Celes' hand, with which she was holding her sword. "You seem rather tense yourself. You've been gripping the handle of your sword a bit too tightly."

"You can tell that much? I'm impressed," Celes said.

"Because I've done that before. It's nerves. My master, well I don't really treat her like one, but she taught me these techniques to help calm myself in battle. It's all in the breathing. You can't rely on fight-or-flight response to kick in, is how she worded it. You need to control your breathing throughout the fight because sometimes your breathing can give away your intention," Sora said. "Not that I want you to fight, but if we're going to have to then here—do as I do."

For the next few minutes, Sora laid down the basics of the breathing techniques he had learned from Neuge. Celes listened in attentively, practicing for a bit and relaxing her muscles. By the time she had finished, Celes was much calmer than before and looked pleased with herself.

"I feel better. Thank you," she said.

"Where did you get that sword anyway? Is there a weapon shop in Alexander?" Sora asked.

"Not exactly. It's military issue, awarded only to those of high ranking status. It was my father's before he retired," Celes said.

"Your father was in the army?" Sora asked.

"He was a general and a pretty young one at that. They call this sword in the military 'Save the Queen' after the birth right Queen of the throne, Queen Rosa," Celes said. "Before the bank could repossess our house, I took this sword and buried it in our back garden."

"I'm really sorry to hear about your father. He must have done a lot to deserve a sword like that," Sora said.

"It's no problem. I'm only hoping it can give me the strength to do this," Celes said.

"Alright, I'll go first," Sora said. He waited for Celes' affirmation before beginning to climb up the sewer ladder's rungs. At the top, Sora pressed his right hand up against the panel and pushed. As the panel swung open, the first thing he saw was an incoming leg in front of him. Unable to dodge, the shoe connected with his face, causing him to fall backwards. Celes, who was climbing behind him, was caught by the fall and crashed onto the ground with Sora on top of her.

"Alright, I was not expecting that," Sora groaned as he rolled off Celes.

"Says the guy who said this was too easy," Celes replied as Sora's assaulter dropped down into the sewers and landed next to them. He was a tall man, built as wide and as burly as an impenetrable brick wall. His armor and mask made him seem like something out of a completely different time, like a samurai.

Celes was the first to stand. She quickly helped Sora up before dragging him away until they were some distance from the strange man.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"No, no, no. The question is, who are you? I'm not interested in you. There's only one person I'm after and he's standing right behind you," the man said. Brandishing one of the swords on his back, he pointed it at Sora. "Heh. I've got a bone to pick with your little girlfriend."

"Girlfriend? What are you talking about?" Sora asked.

"Does the name Gilgamesh ring a bell?" the obsolescent warrior asked.

"Gilgamesh? Luna mentioned him… wait, are you him?" Sora asked.

"Bingo. First she denies me an honorable fight to the death and then she strips me of my Chimera powers. Try as I might, I can't transform anymore," Gilgamesh said. "So the way I see it, is that if I kill you, she might seriously begin to regret not having killed me. I'll lop of your head, put it on a pike and force her to look at it. Sounds good to you?"

"Doesn't matter what I say. You shouldn't have shown yourself in front of me," Sora said, his expression darkening. "I'll take you out and any other KRONOS goon that gets in my way."

"Now that's what I'm talking about. The mother of all battles awaits. Master swordsman versus master swordsman!" Gilgamesh yelled and laughed aloud. He pulled another sword out and got into his battle stance, one foot in front of the other and one sword held in front of him with the other behind his head.

Sora grinned and summoned Oathkeeper. "Oh, you give me too much credit. I usually find just beating them with the blunt end works pretty well."

"I'll help too-"

"Celes, don't," Sora said, much to her surprise.

"Sora, I though we were in this together. Besides, this guy is clearly not all there to begin with. I don't trust him to not pull a fast one," Celes reasoned.

"We are, just not for this fight. Also, don't take this the wrong way but I kind of believe him— that he just wants a good fight, and I kind of want to give it to him. I don't think he'd like it much if it were two on one. That and I want to test something out," Sora said. Before he had left Radiant Garden, one of the preparations he had made was asking Namine for something. Because she had control over his memories, he needed something specifically from her. He just felt that it would help out in the long run, and now he would see whether he could still pull it off.

"Sora, what are you planning to do- HUH?" Before Celes could finish her sentence, a bright light erupted, seeming to come from within Sora. When the light disappeared, she looked back in surprise to see him holding Oathkeeper in his left hand and Oblivion in his right.

"Two Keyblades, huh? Now we're talking. Give me a good fight, SORA!" Gilgamesh yelled, flying forwards in a spiralling attack. Sora backed away a bit, parrying the blades in the process. Gilgamesh swung wildly, aggressive but quick allowing him to press Sora back farther away from Celes. Sora blocked each attack with his own before dodging under a swing and travelling behind Gilgamesh. He pivoted on one foot and swung both his arms in a spin, meeting Gilgamesh's swords again.

"Ha, you're every piece the warrior I was told about. This'll be interesting," Gilgamesh said. He lifted his sword closest to the teeth of Sora's Keyblade and performed a vertical slice. Sora saw it coming a mile away and leaned his body to the left, throwing his left hand up and using Oathkeeper to block Gilgamesh's second sword, giving him a chance to distance himself from Gilgamesh.

_Alright, time to go on the offensive_, Sora thought while looking over at Celes. He preferred to end this quick, just in case Celes were to get caught up in their fighting. He sprinted towards Gilgamesh and unleashed a flurry of blows, Gilgamesh being just as quickly to meet them with his own. As Gilgamesh swung his right hand low to catch Sora's legs, the teen jumped over his sword and continued his onslaught. He pushed back, swinging both Keyblades and slamming them against metal. He combined these with his teleport technique, disappearing and appearing around Gilgamesh in a whirl of blue to attack.

"Now THIS is living!" Gilgamesh roared. He crossed swords before swinging them down. A gust of wind knocked Sora out of his warping and was knocked back to the wall. Sora flipped in the air before he landed and kicked against the wall, using it as a spring to launch himself forward. Before he reached Gilgamesh, he twisted and slammed the back of foot downwards on Gilgamesh's head, sending the warrior staggering backwards into the wall on the opposite side. Gilgamesh flung his swords at Sora who knocked them aside with his Keyblade as he ran towards Gilgamesh. Before he could move out of the way, Sora warped in front of him and plunged both Keyblades into his stomach.

"Heh, heh, heh, that was exciting, wasn't it?" Gilgamesh coughed out.

"More for you than for me, I suppose. Fighting isn't something that should be done just for fun. Killing others for fun is even worse," Sora said.

"You really think so? Open your eyes. This world was built on conflict and enforcing supremacy on others. We create clans and groups merely for the purpose of highlighting our differences and warring with each other. Don't deny it. You felt it too, while we were fighting, didn't you? The adrenaline, the excitement. We're animals, no better than the lion who hunts the wildebeest merely for fun. No, maybe we're even worse. For all our superior intellect and independence, we still use it to benefit from others' pain. That is why I do what I do with no regrets. Collecting others' weapons is merely an excuse for me to sink my blade into them as many times as I can… just for… the excitement of it all. Isn't that why you fight too?"

Sora shook his head and pulled the Keyblades out. "No. What you say is somewhat true. The world is built on struggle and pain, but I won't embrace it and let it consume me. I don't know if you've realized this, but a girl is about to be locked up for something she didn't do. She's suffering and her belief is wavering. I don't fight for me. I fight for those who are afraid to face whatever's hurting them inside. I fight because I want to see them smile. Right now, I fighting for her and I won't stop until I see her smile again. That's just who I am."

"And he doesn't have to do it alone, either."

Sora turned his head to see Celes walking up to him. She offered him a smile before looking back at Gilgamesh. The warrior sunk to the ground, clutching at his inflicted wounds. He chuckled, a soft sound that soon became a reverberating laugh that travelled down the sewer passage.

"The only time your fight is truly over, is when you win," Gilgamesh said.

"However long that may be," Sora added with a nod.

"Then be prepared to face an entire existence of conflict. Your fight will never be over if your goal is that simple."

"But yours will be," Sora said.

"Indeed. You were every bit the warrior I anticipated. Anyway, I digress. You should go. Climb to the top of this tower where yonder maiden lies, and you shall find quite a surprise," Gilgamesh said.

"The top?" Celes asked. "What's at the top?"

"I'll let you find out for yourselves. Let's just say it's gonna be a blast," Gilgamesh said.

"Gilgamesh, what is it? Gilgamesh!" Sora yelled but it was too late. Gilgamesh took his last breath before disappearing into shards of light that rose into the sky before disappearing.

"Forget it, Sora. I have a pretty good idea what he means. It's a bomb," Celes deciphered for him.

"A bomb? What are they doing with a bomb?" Sora asked.

"No idea, but we need to hurry up," Celes said.

"Yeah…" Sora let the Keyblades vanish and made to follow Celes, but something stopped him. He looked back at where Gilgamesh had once been. It was like the whole affair hadn't even happened. The sewer was just as quiet as it had once been, devoid of its brutal clangs in quick succession. Something about this whole thing was worrying him, he just didn't know what it was yet. Because he didn't want to delay, he did the only thing he could—he pushed it in the back of his mind and began walking again.

* * *

Footsteps rang out in the empty hallway as Sora and Celes made their way down through the basement level of the tower. There was a slight chill in the air, perhaps coming for an air conditioner somewhere nearby. Sora checked each of the doors as he had done so the last time he had come here, when the tower had been under Maleficent's control. Behind the doors remained no sign of any of the presences that had once been there. The Chimera behind the bars had all but disappeared.

At the end of the hallway, next to a set of stairs they found an elevator. Celes pressed the chevron and looked up to see a red light slowly moving down the cue of numbers corresponding to the floors of the tower.

"Elevators are funny things, aren't they?" Sora said as they waited. "We didn't have any elevators back where I come from. All the buildings aren't nearly as big as the ones here."

"No elevators? They just seem natural to me, really. It looks like I've been taking them for granted," Celes answered with a soft smile. "Where do you come from?"

"Oh, just an island in the middle of nowhere. I'm not exactly a city boy, let's put it that way," Sora said. "That said, if you're looking to catch a nice sunset, it's a great place to be. You should see the water when it's evening. It's almost like a sea of fire."

"Sounds like a beautiful and quiet place. It would be nice to get away from the fame every now and then. Go somewhere secluded where I can enjoy a good book in the sun without prying eyes," Celes said.

"Yeah, and to think, I once thought about leaving that place for good," Sora said. "I mean, I like what I have now, you know? If it was always just that life, I probably would have grown bored of it eventually. I only ever left because I didn't want to be alone. My other two friends were going and I was afraid of being left behind. Now that I've seen all these places, I think I'm a better person for it though. People should be able to experience different ways of living so that they can make their own even better, you know?"

"You sound wiser than me and I'm the older one," Celes said.

"Heh, don't worry. I think you still have a few more on me. Trust me when I say I have a long still to go," Sora said. A dinging sound caused them to turn and look at the elevator in anticipation. The metal doors eventually slid open and the two stepped inside. Among the buttons on the panel in front of them, Sora noted that they went up from the first floor to ninety-nine. Because ninety-nine buttons would be too many to fit on the panel however, the buttons went up in tens instead. As flabbergasted as he was at the number of floors to this building and that he had managed to climb so many of these floors without an elevator the last time he came here, what was more interesting was that there was no basement button.

"I'm guessing this keyhole here probably leads down here. We'd need a key to come back here," Celes said, pointing at the keyhole at the bottom of the panel as if she had read his mind.

"One might say the keyhole is the 'key'. He he, get it? The- the key, it's the only way- I'll stop now," Sora said.

"Yes, that would be best," Celes replied frowning. Without delay, she moved her finger up top and pushed the highest button: 90-99F. The door closed in front of them and the floor began to move under their feet.

"Up the tower we will go. Where we'll stop, no one knows," Sora sang. When Celes looked at him questioningly, he shrugged. "Just trying to lighten the mood. Hey, why don't you sing for me?"

"Pardon? I'm afraid I misheard you," Celes said.

"Oh no you don't. You heard exactly what I said. How about it, Miss Opera. Hit me with your best shot," Sora said with a sly grin.

"In an elevator? I'm not sure that's the best idea. Maybe, when we get Luna back?" Celes dodged.

"Then I'll just have to prove her innocence extra quick. It's gonna kill me if I have to wait too long for this," Sora said. The floor underneath suddenly jerked to a halt and the elevator remained still for a while, the doors unopened. "We haven't gotten to the top yet, have we?"

"No, it stopped somewhere on or past floor sixty," Celes said. She jabbed at the '90-99F' a couple of times with her finger but nothing happened. She then moved down and pressed a switching showing two triangles pointing in opposite directions of each other. Once again, nothing happened. With a resigned sigh, she fell back and leaned against the wall. "This is just a lovely day for unfortunate things to crawl out of the woodwork."

"I hate to say this, Celes, but I don't think me and technology mix," Sora said, summoning his Keyblade. He aimed it at the door and cast _Fission Firaga_, blowing a hole completely through.

"Well I was about to say that it could have just been a power outage, but I would think the backup generator would have come on by now. I suppose now it doesn't really matter either way," Celes said. Looking outside, they could see they were stuck in between two floors. Sora crawled out of the space first and stood up to look around. Aesthetically, the room he was in looked completely different to the basement. Opposite the elevator was a door and glass partition walls leading into what looked like a cafeteria.

"A cafeteria all the way here on the sixtieth floor? Is that normal?" Sora asked.

"They probably have multiple cafeterias on different floors for convenience. I would be annoying to have so many people crowding out in the hallways waiting to use the elevator," Celes said.

"I suppose that makes-" Sora was cut off as the glass shattered next to him. He felt himself being lifted off the ground and smashed into the wall behind him, the Invisible grasping onto his neck.

"SORA!" Celes yelled. She ran forward and jumped before bringing her sword down on the Invisible's head. The blade cut all the way down, coming out at the Invisible's side. Sora fell back to the ground and landed on his feet and hands.

"Thanks for that," Sora gasped out. His mind was muddled by what had just happened to him.

"Our work's not done," Celes said. Sora walked up to her side and looked into the cafeteria through the now glassless window. The Heartless were popping both out of the floor and out of thin air: Neoshadows, Shadows, Invisibles, Darkballs, Angel Stars…

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Sora threw his hands up in the air and looked at Celes. "Okay, if we're going to have to fight, then we'll fight. Just… stay behind me- CELES!"

The opera singer rushed past him and down the hallway, smacking away the Heartless that got in her path. Instead of following her, Sora jumped through the window and cut across the room, taking out the Heartless on the way with Oathkeeper and Oblivion. He quickly raised his Keyblades and fired off two rounds of fire at the window in front of him before jumping through the cracked glass and landing in front of Celes.

"Yeah, maybe you should listen just a bit longer next time?"

"No time for next time. I'm worried about what's at the top. We need to hurry," Celes said.

"Yeah, well our 'friends' from the dark don't seem too happy with that," Sora said, watching as more Heartless appeared in front of them. Sora widened his stance a bit and looked to Celes to see if she were ready for the long fight ahead. With a single nod, Sora and Celes bolted forwards, their enemies in their sights.

* * *

The next twenty some floors seemed to go by in a blur for Sora. He had been taking out Heartless in every single one of them so far after all. It had occurred to him that he had never thought so many Heartless before; at least, not ones this aggressive. He had given it everything he had that by the time he had reached the ninety-eighth floor, he was surprised he was still standing. _Sonic Blade, Ars Arcanum, Ragnarok, Strike Raid…_ rinse and repeat, over and over until he and Celes were the only ones left standing.

As another Angel Star flew straight at an extremely fatigued Celes, Sora stepped in the way and growled, batting it into the wall with what little strength in his arms was left. His two Keyblades had long since reverted to its regular Kingdom Key, unable to retain its separate forms for long. He had expended too much mana and found himself to be sweating profusely. When he looked up, he saw a slightly blurry Celes. He waited a bit for his breathing to regulate before putting a hand on Celes' shoulder.

"We're… almost there, yeah?" he tried to encourage, both to her and himself.

"Yeah, just one more," Celes said, barely pulling off a smile. Sora looked down the hallway to see a few more Heartless, only Shadows and Neoshadows this time though. That was better than the previous floors. He didn't want to think someone was watching them right now and had decided to giver them a breather or something. He didn't even know how that could possibly work and if someone was strong enough to even control the Heartless.

Sora looked at his Keyblade and pressed it slightly against his forehead. He didn't know why it had taken him this long but he could feel something. It was a beating heart, most surely not his own. He could feel the coolness of the Keyblade calm his nerves. It was almost as if it were whispering to him, instilling confidence in him once more.

Sora paced himself, walking forward a bit at a time. The Neoshadows bounced left and right as if trying to confuse Sora. His tightened his grip and slowly raised his Keyblade. The Neoshadows all suddenly pounced at him from different directions in unison. He ducked under the first one and caught the second with his Keyblade, driving it into the nearby wall. He quickly warped past a third Neo Shadow and used a _Strike Raid_, taking out the two other Neoshadows. Once he was finished with them, he checked to see that all that was left were the weaker Shadows.

"I'll do the honors," Celes said, walking past him. The Shadows advanced and circled her by sinking into the ground. She drove Save the Queen down onto one of them before lifting it back up and started spinning on the ball of a single foot like a tornado. Her sword caught all of the Heartless and cut through them cleanly, leaving only a dizzy Celes in the aftermath. Sora grabbed her by the arms and steadied her, grinning as he watched her eyes wander about.

"That was fun," Celes laughed.

"I didn't actually think that would work but then again, this day is just full of surprises," Sora said. "Anyway, let's keep going."

Taking hold of her hand, Sora guided her up the stairs at the end of the hallways and soon reached the last room—a penthouse with an amazing view of the evening sky, is what would have immediately come to Sora's mind if not for the strange device that was placed in the middle of the room.

"Oh no, we're too late!" Celes yelled, running over to the device. On the front was a timer that was counting down. Ten seconds left.

"We need to go," Sora said. As he turned however, the appearance of more Heartless in the room sent his slightly uplifted mood crumbling under an already weak infrastructure.

"No way. We're done for. I can't do more," Celes said in a defeated tone.

"Whatever you do, stay close to me. _Reflect_!" Sora cast. The shield came up just as the timer reached zero seconds. Sora closed his eyes and waited for the sounds of an explosion or something similarly associated with bombs but none reached his ears. He opened his eyes and looked around, dumbfounded at what he was seeing.

The Heartless in the room were all acting strangely. Some were running about wildly while clutching their head while others were slamming their head repeatedly on the floor, wall or any nearby object they could find. One Neoshadow ran towards Sora's shield and tried to jump into it but was knocked back. Very soon, Sora found himself watching as the Heartless in the room all started fighting one another. The barrier around Sora and Celes fell and they were left to wonder what was even going on.

"Um, Sora? What's happening?" Celes asked. The creatures of darkness were tearing into one another, slashing and squashing until nothing was left of the other. Had they all lost it or something?

"I… don't know. More importantly, shouldn't this place have blown up by now or something?" Sora asked.

"Either the bomb was a dud, or it's not that kind of bomb. I mean, those Heartless started acting like that when the bomb went off," Celes said.

"Well, whatever it is that's happening, as long as they aren't after us, I guess I can count this as a blessing in disguise? Let's just… look around the room for a bit but keep your guard up," Sora said. He had to remind himself that they had in fact originally come here for a reason other than the bomb. If there was proof of Luna's innocence, he hoped to find it somewhere in this room, otherwise climbing thirty floors had been a complete waste of his time.

Sora and Celes moved around the fight until they got to the desk on the other side of the room.

"Who owns such a fancy place anyway?" Sora asked.

"Director Casel Harbor. He's been noted for doing a lot of research into extending life, though I have no idea where he is right now." Celes paraded through the stacks of paper on the desk as she explained to him. "That's top secret though. I learned about it through my daily trips. I'm sure Zorn and Thorn are connected to it too."

"Extending life?"

"You know? Immortality. Instant self-repair of damaged tissues and the like," Celes answered.

"I know what it means, I'm just scoffing. Immortality doesn't strike me as being something anyone would do better with. It's a waste of time," Sora said.

"You really think so?" Celes stopped rummaging through the papers to look at Sora. Suddenly, Sora realized the room was awfully quiet. He turned around to see that none of the Heartless were left. "You've never seen someone die before their time and wished that they could have had the chance to live out the rest of their life?"

"That's different, that-" Sora stopped and looked down.

"You lost someone," Celes concluded from his expression.

"I don't want to talk about it. All I know right now is that I can't lose Luna," Sora said. "What's done is done, and I can't change that. So all this talk about immortality and extending lives means nothing to me."

"Sora, I'm so-"

"Hey, look in here. It's a letter," Sora said. He took out a piece of paper from the drawer he had been looking in and smoothed it out on the table before reading it:

_My dear friend,_

_As preparations near their completion for this project, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to you and your team. You have persevered against all odds and, despite a few minor setbacks, have managed to hold up your end of the bargain. _

_As a new dawn approaches, we must be wary as ever of those who would oppose our plans. At the heart of this opposition lies one particular group of peoples that has me concerned. As such, I have taken the necessary steps to eliminate the threat. Your instructions for the next week are as follows: You are ordered to immediately clear out any instruments and projects that may be deemed as revealing of Project Rebirth within seven days of having received this letter. Finally, with exception of the basement floor, all other floors must be evacuated on said seventh day._

_With any luck, after a short period of time following that day, you will receive further instructions from his majesty. I remind you that it is imperative we must not fail for the burdens of the people of Alexander rest heavily on our shoulders. You knew this task would not be easy and that it would carry heavy responsibility. We must execute without fail, regardless of the sacrifices that must be made along the way. _

_By yours most honorable, King Cecil_

"So we follow the trail and it leads us to the highest authority in the land? I was afraid of this," Celes said.

"We need to meet with him then. This…" Sora held up the letter again. "Proves there was something going on three days ago. Not witnesses at all that saw Luna? No one from this building and there were only eighteen people here on that day? She was definitely set up."

"And the people who they mention are a threat?"

"It would have to be Luna, I and all of our other friends. What I don't understand is why your king would want us taken out… unless…" Sora's eyes widened and he shook his head. "No way. But how? Since when?"

"Sora?"

"Celes, I know who Zorn and Thorn are working for, and who you've been taking orders from," Sora said.

"Wait a second. There's something else." Celes picked up another piece of paper with a table on it and turned it sideways. "It's a cargo manifest for all the packages that have come in and out of the Turm des Himmels this month. If you look here at the first column, there's an ID list that corresponds to different companies around Alexander. I've done my fair share of deliveries so I know a few of the IDs but there are recurring ones here that aren't familiar to me. XE-78, XE-79…"

"You know, I'd prefer if we don't make this more complicated than it already is. Why don't you take it with you and we'll hand it to Eleftheria, see what she's able to dig up," Sora said. "And as much as I don't like keeping this bomb here, I don't want to touch it. Who knows what will happen if we do."

"Alright." Celes handed the manifest over to Sora who folded it and put it in his pocket along with the letter. "If we can have the detectives investigate this room too then that will be enough. Let's get back to the elevator. Maybe it's working again."

"Uh, maybe we shouldn't. I prefer taking the faster way actually," Sora said. He walked over to the sliding glass door and slid it to the left, exposing them directly to the terrace outside.

"I'm sorry, I fail to see your point," Celes said.

Sora held out his hand. Celes slowly took it and he flashed a grin at her. "Trust me. This is more fun."

Celes screamed as she found herself falling some 1,400 feet in the air.

* * *

Luna had started playing a game. She noted all the times that a certain Inspector Lenoux had come into the interrogation room and all the times the temperature seemed to drop in the room. She wasn't sure whether his presence actually did cause the temperature in the room to drop or whether he had done something to the circulation in the room to make that happen. Either way, it was definitely a tactic that was aimed at messing with her.

"It doesn't have to be this way, you know? All it takes is a confession. The evidence is as decisive as it could possibly be and you were in a place you had no right to be at the time," Lenoux said.

"I can't tell you what I don't know. What do you want from me?" Luna asked.

"The truth." Lenoux walked behind Luna and rested his hands on her shoulder, leaning in so that their heads were next to one another. "I don't know what thoughts your friend conjured inside that head of yours but see reason. You can't deny it. Were you there at the scene?"

"Yes," Luna acknowledged meekly.

"Did you have a knife with you?" Lenoux asked.

"Yes, but I didn't kill-"

"Now do you really believe that? Or is that a lie you told yourself to help you sleep at night. Let me tell you this, if that's what you think, then you should stop right now. An act such as this is one you should never try to forget. Innocent lives were taken three days ago. Their friends, families, they'll never see those people again. Do you know what it's like to come home from work or school thinking you'll get to spend time with a loved one only to find that they still haven't come back from work. And then they watch the news and find out the ugly truth. When not even they can run from the truth, do you really think you deserve to?"

Lenoux expected Luna's silence and sneered before drifting away and back in front of her. He folded his arms and started tapping away rhythmically. "Shall I help piece things together for you? You entered the Turm des Himmels sometime before before 11:20 PM. You had murder on the mind from the start, making this premeditated. That is also evidenced by the knife in your possession. The scientists, startled at your appearance, had no reason to believe you to be a threat, at least at first. Then you took your first victim's life, and the next, and the one after that. I'm sure some of them tried to ask you to spare their lives but you didn't listen. Is that ringing any bells for you?"

Luna glared at him and leaned out of her chair. "And let me guess. Little old me with such a petite frame was able to overpower eighteen scientists? With one short knife, no less? I'm afraid you're going to have to try harder, detective."

Lenoux's cold eyes met with her piercing stare but soon relented. He walked over to the door and put his hand on the doorknob, only to look back.

"About what happened to your parents? I'm sorry. I'm still looking for that truth even to this day," he said with such remorse that Luna could have perceived it as another deceptive tactic. "I remember when I first met your mother. Kaylah came into the station one day with no idea where she was. Amnesia."

"What?" Luna asked, surprised by this piece of information. She had never heard from her mother before that she had once had amnesia. Maybe the story hadn't been worth telling if it was a hit on the head or something but still… it was a funny coincidence.

"She never told you? I suppose she didn't think it was necessary then. Anyway, I'll be back in half an hour," Lenoux said.

_Take your time, please, _Luna thought as the door closed behind him, leaving her in isolation once again.

"He has a point, you know."

Luna's eyes looked up from the desk to see Abraxas standing next to the door. She looked away but his voice pervaded her senses without regard.

"You try to be innocent, but you know you're not. You knew as soon as that detective mentioned that he was looking into the truth of your parents. You know you can't escape who you are. What I've made you. My masterpiece."

"Not now. Not now. You're not real. You're not real…" Luna repeated in a whisper, closing her eyes shut.

"I'm sure you'd know all about what's real, after all it's not like you're smack dab in the middle of an existential crisis right now, right? Luna, open your eyes. You're completely right. This isn't me doing this to you right now. This is you doing this to you." Abraxas walked over to the table and placed both hands down. "How about I give you some incentive? Unbeknownst to him, Sora is walking right into a trap. He's giving his all fighting for you right now. But I'm afraid as things stand, he might not make it. Also, you just know he's one of those types that, if he has to, is ready and willing to sacrifice himself just to save you. Of course, if you're fine with that, well, nothing on my conscience I can't handle, if I had such a conscience to speak of anyway. So, what's it going to be? Should you stay or should you go? As the song says, if you go there'll be trouble but if you stay it'll be double. Ah, great song. Classic."

"Sora's in danger?" Luna asked. She gritted her teeth and placed her hand on her head. She felt incredibly lightheaded and her body felt alien to her, like she suddenly had no weight.

"That's right, and guess who's the only one that can save him? All you need to do…" Abraxas took hold off the doorknob and twisted it, pushing it open. "Is go through the door."

Somewhere outside of her perception, she could barely hear the voices of three others in the room. They almost sounded like Yuna, Rikku and Paine. Maybe at some point she could even feel one of them touch her cheeks and stare into her empty eyes with their hands. She didn't know if any of it were real or not, nor did she really care. All she knew was what she had to do. Abraxas disappeared from her view as she stepped out of the room.


	85. The King and All His Men

_A/N: 2.8 trailer looking glorious. Aqua's stuff in the Realm of Darkness is looking amazing, as is the Back Cover movie. And a worldwide release date for the first time in the series! E3 is surely starting off with a bang. Anyway, I'd intended to upload this yesterday but apparently my word documents don't upload anymore for some reason. Had to switch to WordPad. Now that that trouble's out of the way, look forward to the next chapter pretty soon. It's gonna be a doozy. _

* * *

**Chapter 85**

**The King and All His Men**

"Sir! Sir!" Eleftheria called, waving to her boss from the entrance. The other journalists in the room looked, either surprised at her outburst or annoyed. She ignored them and waited for her boss to come over to her.

"What is it, Hollenbeck?" her boss asked. Kevin Crescent was a middle aged man in the process of balding. He wasn't exactly the fittest of people but then again, that wasn't exactly what he was known for. He had been one of the people along with his mother covering the protests a quarter of a decade back. He had rose high up the ranks to become a senior content producer at the Alexander Times.

"I know it's my day off but I got a really good story lined up and it needs to make the paper by this evening," Eleftheria insisted.

"You know how close to the deadline you are? There's not enough time to write anything let alone delay the paper just to publish your little story," Crescent said.

"Little? You haven't even seen it yet. It's big, I assure you. Headline, certainly. See for yourself." Eleftheria took out the two pieces of paper that Sora had handed her and gave them over to him.

He swapped between them every few seconds before lowering them so he could see her gaze. "Office."

Eleftheria eagerly nodded and followed him past the desks of her colleagues to the room in the back. Kevin saw her in before closing the door.

"What is this?" he asked, showing her the papers again.

"Okay, so the first is a manifesto of all the cargo coming in and out of the Turm des Himmels. You'll notice that there's a company on there that isn't officially registered among the list of companies recognized in Alexander, meaning legally they're not allowed to operate or trade in any way. The fact that the Turm des Himmels is doing business with an illegal company is pretty big news. Then there's the letter. I didn't believe it either at first but that comes directly from the royal palace. It's a letter expressing interest in something called Project Rebirth. Not only that, but suspiciously enough, on the day that the murder of those eighteen scientists happened, no one else was present at the Turm des Himmels that day. In fact, one of the demands in that letter states that anyone who wasn't a scientist working in the basement that day shouldn't be working. That brings up two major points. One of them, we were led to believe that all of the bodies were found immediately upon entering the building, but this suggests that the bodies may not have originally been there-"

"Eleftheria, Eleftheria. Deep breaths. Slow down," Crescent offered.

Eleftheria nodded and relaxed a bit before continuing. "Okay, so a basement was mentioned in the letter, but that's something that technically doesn't exist on the official floor plan. It's a secret. So, here's my theory. The scientists were killed, not on the first floor, but in the basement, and then were moved up one floor to the entrance. That was obviously done to cover up the fact that the basement exists as well as to make sure the bodies were found. Secondly, it implicates the King as being suspect in this thing. There was no reason for him to expressly demand that everyone else in the tower not be there on that day. This could be the biggest scandal in the history of Alexander."

"Uh huh. And, where did you find these from?" Crescent asked.

"Er, that's…" Eleftheria had nothing to say. She couldn't tell him that she had gotten the information from two random people who had broken into the tower.

Crescent sighed and shook his head. "Really? Eleftheria, what are the tenets of journalism?"

"A tenant?" Eleftheria joked, but at Crescent's glare, she backed down and recited, "Truth and accuracy, humility, independence, impartiality, accountability-"

"Ah, right there— accountability. What you've just done?" Crescent whistled and threw the papers on his desk. "Right out the window. Did it occur to you while you were on your crusade to score a big hit that maybe, just maybe, you might be breaking the law in doing so?"

"Uh, I don't think you're seeing the bigger picture here."

"No, you're not seeing it. You come in at office hours and you start screaming down the place calling for me, then you produce evidence which you've just taken from a currently active crime scene. I- I can't publish these," Crescent said.

"But this is serious!"

"It doesn't matter what you think it is. What matters is whether the newspaper gets investigated for breaking into a building and obstructing justice."

"Obstructing justice? By not publishing this, you're obstructing justice. The people deserve to know the truth and the police aren't telling them the full story, heck, the royal palace has something to do with this and unless we break the story, they won't be investigated," Eleftheria said.

"So my understanding is that you'd see law and order crumble just to cover your story? Because that's what will happen. Mass hysteria among the public."

"You can't be serious. So because the truth will hurt, we should keep it away from them?"

"If you want to keep your job, yes," Crescent said. "Listen, Eleftheria, I don't want to lose you. I really don't. You're one of the best we have on the team-"

"If I'm one of the best then why do you keep giving me small articles to write?" Eleftheria yelled. "I want to go out there and make a difference. When a person's life is in danger from miscarriages of justice, I want to help them. I want them to be able to have a voice. Why am I stuck covering crap like hockey and tea parties?"

"Because you still have a lot to learn. I put you in that area because there's more to life than big headlines and gloomy moments. There are small and happy moments that are just as important. Now, with all the recent attacks by those creatures in black, that's more important than ever now," Crescent said.

"Oh, you know very well that those columns don't get many views," Eleftheria said.

"Not many, it's true. But if even one person were to find your story interesting, don't you think that would matter?" Crescent asked.

Eleftheria looked past him and up at the wall where several of the breaking news stories he had covered were pinned on the wall in frames. It only seemed the fuel her passionate drive more than before.

"I don't understand. I don't understand the point of being a journalist if the truth we seek is unable to be shared with others? The people have to know. They have a right to know and you don't have the right to hide that from them. If you won't help me, then I'll do it myself," she said. She turned her back on him and left the room without a further word. As she strutted out of the office to the looks of curious faces, she sighed inwardly. She may have just pulled the plug on her career.

* * *

The royal palace of Alexander stood golden and proud in a secluded portion of Alexander. Sora and Celes had traversed some ways from the main city just to get there. Its walls, usually white and made of plaster, were now lit up, giving a faint golden glow in contrast to the evening sky. At the very top of the palace on its highest tower was a magnificent spire different the smaller ones surrounding it. According to Celes, that was the old belfry, where a single solitary bell that had once been used every single day now remained forever stationary.

"I can't believe we're doing this. I mean, the king of Alexander? Involved in this?" Celes asked as they made their way across the bridge to the outer perimeter gates.

"You can still walk away. I'd hate for you to be implicated as a criminal," Sora said.

"I already told you, I made up my mind long ago. I'll see this through to the end with you," Celes replied. Sora nodded and retreated to his own thoughts for the remainder of their walk. He had been wondering for a while whether Luna was doing okay but there was something that was deeply concerning him. Why would the King even know about Luna in the first place, assuming he was behind all this? If he was in some way working with KRONOS then what had they offered him that was so worth him doing all this? If he wasn't, then there was another possibility, being that someone was using the King's name to cover for their own identity.

Sora stopped at the gate and looked uneasily at the tall men in fully clad armor.

"State your business, citizens," the guard on the left said.

"We want an audience with His Highness," Celes stated, more forwardly than Sora would have preferred.

"His highness isn't seeing anyone at the moment. I'll have to ask you to come back another time," the guard said.

"We don't have another time. It's very important. We… we have reason to believe that someone is conspiring against his highness," Celes tried the first thing she could think of.

"Wait a second…" The second guard walked over to Celes and inspected her closely before withdrawing. "You're Celes Chere! Wow, I… can't believe this. Can I have your autograph? My daughter's a big fan."

"Sure, I guess," Celes said, shifting her eyes over to Sora and then back at the guard. "But if I can get an audience with the king in return, that would be wonderful."  
"Of course! That's fine, right?" The guard asked his other.

"You know we were given express permission by King Cecil to not allow anyone in this week."

"Oh, come on. Do this for me, buddy. I'll make it up to you."

The first guard sighed and relented, pushing open his side of the gate. The other guard grinned at this and helped with his own side. When he was done, he looked back at Celes.

"I'll take you to the audience chamber. Just keep in mind that King Cecil has been acting rather… strangely as of late."

"Strange? How so?" Celes asked.

"Can't say. He just seems… colder nowadays. There's no happiness in his voice anymore. I think the queen's worried too."

"That's enough out of you, Rand. Just take them to the audience chamber and don't make me regret this," said the first guard. Rand smiled at him and headed inwards with Sora and Celes.

Celes waited until they were far off from the first guard before asking, "So when did you first notice a change in his behavior?"

"His Highness's? I honestly can't say. I think at one point I remember him being struck with a strange illness. He was bedridden and Queen Rosa had to take on all of his duties. When he came back, he seemed alright at first but it was like he started to get more and more frustrated at something by the day. I can't remember how far back that was though. Almost a year, I'd reckon," Rand answered. "But I really only know what I've heard. I shouldn't speculate."

"It's alright, we don't want to get you into any trouble," Celes assured him. They cut across the courtyard and entered into the main the building. The main hall's interior was as intricately designed as its exterior. Ruby red carpets with flowery patterns ran across the room and up the stairs to their left and right. Priceless antiques, statues carved out of marble and other extravagant ornaments were a part of the room's décor. Sora felt like he was completely out of his league in this place. He had been to palaces and castles before but this seemed incredibly different from the simple yet elegant nature of, say, the Imperial Palace in Mulan's world.

"His majesty is just through these doors," Rand said, pointing to the big white doors ahead with handles of golden brass. "I'll be here when you get back. I have a photo of me and my daughter that I'll go and get in the meantime."

"Thank you," Celes said. She watched as he hurried off before turning to Sora. "So how are we going to go about this? If he really is related to this, we can't just waltz on in and demand that he gives us answers."

"I'm still thinking about that. Let's just go in and see where it takes us," Sora suggested.

"Does that usually work for you?" Celes asked.

"Mostly," Sora said. Wrapping his hands around the door, he pulled open the door to find a long hallway with paintings of what he assumed were previous rulers of the throne. "Talk about gaudy."

"Really? I think it's quite nice. Offers a taste of history," Celes said.

"Well I've never been a fan of history so that makes sense," Sora replied. He didn't really think was anything exciting in the history of the Destiny Islands that was really that worth talking about. He was sure that wasn't true though for bigger cities like this one. Learning about Atlantis in Mirage's book had been pretty interesting to him.

"There's the father of Queen Rosa and the last king. Cidolphus the third. He passed away five years ago so the monarchs now are pretty new," Celes explained, stopping at the last painting in the room for a moment.

"Handsome guy. Hey, what if they run out of space in this room for paintings. That would sure suck for the person next in line, huh?" Sora asked in jest.

"I really don't think the line of succession will get that far along. Change is happening at all too fast a pace now and I imagine in a few years the monarchy will become irrelevant. Rumors say that King Cecil and Queen Rosa are preparing the transition into a more efficient system of rule," Celes said. "But I don't want to think that whatever they've been doing in the Turm des Himmels ties into that plan."

Sora and Celes stopped in front of another door at the end of the hallway. This time, the door led to a large audience chamber with a red carpet leading them straight towards two chairs. Other than King Cecil and Queen Rosa, there were only two other people in the room—two who Celes recognized very well.

Zorn and Thorn turned as they heard the door close behind Sora and Celes, as did Cecil and Rosa who looked up interestedly.

"Zorn and Thorn. Well, that confirms it," Celes whispered to Sora as they continued their walk down the aisle.

"Uh, who's who?" Sora questioned, unable to tell which jester was which.

"Zorn is the one in blue with the spade and club on his arms. Thorn is red," Celes replied. The sounds of bells jingling as they swayed from left to right grew louder as they approached the four in the room. Zorn and Thorn split apart, taking either side of the raised steps that led to the throne chairs. Though they were out of Sora and Celes' way, they could still feel their glares being directed at them, mainly at Celes.

"I'm afraid this is a surprise. I can't say I was expecting any visitors," Cecil said, his cheek resting lazily on the back of his hand.

"Your majesty, we've come to you with a message," Sora was first to say. "I have reason to believe that the girl you have in interrogation at the moment, the one who was purportedly responsible for those murders at the Turm des Himmels, is actually innocent. As such, we've come to ask you if you can grant her freedom."

Cecil gazed down at Thorn before looking back at them with intrigue in his eyes. "And what evidence do you have to suggest that she be exempt from her crime?"

"We've found evidence of a setup," Sora chose his words carefully. He could feel the weight of the king's stare on him as if challenging him. "We believe that Luna was placed after the fact. After the murder, I mean."

"A setup? This is a very grave matter, if you are right. Who then is responsible for this? Do you have any leads?" Cecil asked.

"A group that has been infiltrating different worlds. Their name is KRONOS," Sora said. "They're as criminal as they come, your majesty."

"I… can't say I've ever heard of this KRONOS, but I'll have an alert sent to my general immediately to be on the lookout," Celes said.

"As you should, your majesty. And Luna?"

"I can't promise anything, but I'll see what I can do. You do have the evidence with you, don't you?" Cecil asked.

"Oh, I can't at moment. It's in the hands of someone else. A journalist friend of mine," Sora revealed. It would soon be safe to put his plan into motion.

"A journalist, you say? I'm not sure that was the best idea. Papers these days can take even the straightest of information and exaggerate them just for sales," Cecil said. "You don't think you could bring them back for me, could you?"

"Well there's no rush. And you know what, you're right. What was I thinking having a journalist take the evidence? Shouldn't the evidence go to the police first? They're the ones on the case after all," Sora rambled, pretending to go off in his own little world.

"If you give the evidence to his majesty, we will handle it," Zorn said to his right.

"Handle it, we will!" Thorn agreed with an eager nod of his head.

"And who are you two supposed to be?" Sora asked, looking unimpressed.

"We are-"

"They are my advisors. They assist with daily matters and policy," Cecil interrupted before either of the two could speak. "I must say, I can help if you would just let me. It is as they say, I can look into KRONOS but the evidence will make things easier. "

"You know what? On second thought, I'd hate to take time off from your busy schedule. We'll just be going now," Sora said. He turned as if about to leave but stopped and turned back. It was time to spring his trap. "You know, it's strange…"

"Strange? What exactly is strange?" Cecil asked impatiently.

"No, it's just… I don't recall you raising any objection to what I mentioned, about there being other worlds?" Sora reminded him. A voice in his head was screaming at him to celebrate his little victory but he knew better than that. He wasn't out of the woods just yet.

"Oh!" was all Cecil could muster.

"And your evidence that you seem to desperately want all so much, probably to burn it, I reckon but don't quote me on that… it just happens to be a certain letter that was sent to Casel Harbor seven days before the murder took place in the Turm des Himmels. I don't think I need to tell you what was in the letter or who wrote it, do I?"

"I can't say I know about any letter," Cecil replied. "If you've come here to accuse me of something, do say it out loud and clear."

_Darn, he's fast_, Sora thought. He had to double up on his attack and fast.

"What he's saying, Your Highness, is that you are in collusion with KRONOS," Celes announced in his place.

"Celes, watch yourself," Zorn warned with narrow eyes.

"Watch yourself, you should," Thorn said, copying his twin in all but color.

"No, I've had it with you two controlling me. I don't care what you have on me, I won't let you bully me anymore. I want you out of my life," Celes said. She looked up at Cecil. "These two have been blackmailing me since the start of my career. Was it you who was giving them orders?"

"Cecil… is this true?" Rosa asked, speaking up for the first time. Her calm and soothing voice was a great contrast to the cold and harsh tone of her husband.

"My dear, Rosa, of course it isn't. Would you believe the word of those who only wish to sully the crown's name over mine? Those who, by the way, can seem to produce no evidence at the moment," Cecil said.

"What we speak is nothing but the truth, Queen Rosa. If you've noticed any sort of change of your husband as of late, it's important for us to know," Celes said.

"Are you trying to turn my wife against me? You are already stepping on thin ice, Miss Chere. Don't make it any thinner," Cecil warned darkly.

"Then I'll step on it for her," Sora said, taking a step forward. "I killed those people."

"Sora!" Celes yelled in protest, but Sora held up a hand.

"Well? What do you think? I killed all eighteen. Come on, think about it. Luna's a small fish compared to the ultimate prize. If KRONOS wants me out of the picture, here I am. Arrest me and set her free. Please," Sora begged.

The line of Cecil's mouth curved upwards and he leaned forward. "Let's see… interesting proposition, but I'll have to say no. Luna will be tried for her crimes and you will be tried for yours, namely conspiracy against the monarch and obstruction of justice. Oh, we can also add theft to that little list considering the evidence you've managed to supposedly pluck out."

"What else do you want? Aren't I enough? Let Luna go! She didn't do it," Sora yelled.

"And you did? Do you expect me to believe that? The murder weapon used doesn't bare your fingerprints, unless you're telling me you wiped it clean and then put your own friend's prints on it after," Cecil said. He looked down at Thorn. "Fetch the guards for me."

"Stop."

Thorn was about to leave his place when the foreign intervention halted him in his bouncing. Everyone looked up to see Rosa standing in a guarded stance with a staff in her hands. Her body and eyes were focused on Cecil's.

"Rosa? What are you doing?" Cecil asked slowly.

"They're right, Cecil. You've changed. I've had this feeling for a while now. One day I woke up, and it was as if the man I knew had become someone else. There was no rhyme or reason for it either. The Cecil I knew was kind, warm and loving of his people. It only took until now for me to confirm my suspicions. You are not the Cecil I fell in love with," Rosa said.

"Rosa, how could I be anyone else?" Cecil reached out for her but, to his dismay, Rosa backed away slightly at his touch. His eyes flickered over to Sora and Celes with an anger that had not been there before. "So you'd even turn Rosa against me? The Keyblade Master really does stoop low."

"They are not at fault, Cecil. You've only yourself to blame," Rosa said. "Give me back my Cecil!"

"Besides, you are really not helping your case here. Keyblade Master? Really?" Sora asked.

"Hmph. I've had enough of the clownery. And I had such high expectations for you, Celes. To see you wash it down the drain makes me truly disheartened," Cecil said, standing up.

"I don't need your admiration," Celes replied. She pulled Save the Queen out from under her cloak and readied it.

"So you'd strike down your own king?" Cecil's chuckle slowly transitioned into mad laughter. He soon stopped and clicked his fingers. "Zorn. Thorn. Take care of them."

"You're gonna bring in the jester brigade? And here I thought you said you had enough of clownery," Sora said.

Zorn and Thorn looked at each other, snickering in response. They met back up at the front of the steps and leaned into one another. A green aura surrounded them, lighting up the entire room. Sora summoned the Kingdom Key and got into his stance, watching as two bodies merged into one. The product that stood in front of them now was a strange fusion of Zorn and Thorn that looked entirely different at the same time. Two purple heads emerged out of one body. Their faces were no longer human, but ghoulish and deformed, as if they were about to melt at any moment.

"Er, is it too late to take back my sassy comment?" Sora asked. The strange deformation ran forward and slugged him in the face, throwing him into the air and sending him onto the ground a few feet away from the throne.

"Sora!" Celes called after him. She quickly turned just as Zorn and Thorn approached her and ducked under their aiming arm before bringing her sword upwards. Her attack seemed to inflict little more than a wound and she had to quickly dodge out of the way as they took a swipe at her again.

"Not good," Sora said, as he stood back up. His journey up the Turm des Himmels had taken its toll even more than he had expected. He made to run towards Zorn and Thorn's back and slashed at them. As the combined duo turned to meet him, they received another blow from behind, this time by Celes. Sora and Celes took turns, alternating sides every once in a while, in beating down the hulking figure bit by bit.

Zorn and Thorn soon threw their arms up, a massive chunk of ice appearing in the air. Sora rolled out of the way quickly as the ice hit the spot where he had once been and split off into differences sizes and shapes. He held the Keyblade up quickly and knocked one of the shards back at Zorn and Thorn. The shard flew forward and lodged itself deep inside the monster's throat. The monster staggered about as it tried to get the piece out of its neck. Sora quickly ran and jumped towards it, hooking one of the heads in his arms before throwing himself forward, sending him and the monster down on the ground.

"Get back!" Sora heard Rosa yell from the throne. He scrambled away from Zorn and Thorn and got back up on his feet as the queen raised her staff.

"_Let your light shine on that which is impure. Holy!" _Rosa chanted. A white ball of light flew out of her staff and hit Zorn and Thorn, blinding the room in white light. When it disappeared, Zorn and Thorn had separated and were unmoving on the floor.

Sora attempted to stand up properly when Cecil moved swiftly behind Rosa and grabbed her by the waist.

"Cecil!"

"Queen Rosa! Let her go!" Celes yelled.

"And lose my only bargaining chip? I don't think so," Cecil said.

"This darkness… you're not… Cecil…" Rosa quivered out in fright.

"Tell me something. What is Project Rebirth?" Sora asked. He could only think of stalling for time at the moment as he tried to figure out a way to get Rosa away safely.

"I'm not really interested in discussing such matters with someone who won't be there to see it come to fruition," Cecil said. He looked past them upon hearing the sound of the door opening once more. "Ah, the guards are here and I didn't even have to call for them. Guards, please arrest- huh?"

Sora furrowed his brow and looked around with his head before spinning his entire body with it. Luna moved down the aisle slowly, her eyes jaded at first though as she got closer, Sora could tell that they were completely glossed over. Her mouth was also moving but she was speaking so inaudibly that he couldn't tell what she was trying to say.

"Luna? Why are you here?" Sora asked. She stopped and summoned Dream Seeker, aiming it up at Rosa and Cecil.

"No, stop. Sora, stop her right now!" Cecil commanded. Sora moved to stop her, not for the benefit of Cecil but for fear of her hurting Rosa, but it was too late. Two bolts of dark emerged soared out from the tip of her Keyblade and hurtled past Sora. At the last moment, Cecil did something that no one had expected. He pushed Rosa away and took the bolts full force, collapsing to the ground.

Sora ran up to Luna and placed his hands on her cheeks. "Luna? Luna, look at me."

She did. The light was slowly returning to her eyes. "Sora…? Did I save you?"

"Luna!" Sora yelled as her eyes closed, falling unconscious into his arms. He looked up to see Yuna, Rikku and Paine flying into the room towards them. "What happened to her?"

"We have no idea. It was like she was possessed or something. She left the room and knocked out the guard who was standing outside," Yuna started.

"We tried talking to her, you know, but she wouldn't listen," Rikku continued.

"After a while, we just decided on following her. We had to take out the guards around here with sleep magic quickly so that she wouldn't harm them," Paine finished.

Sora nodded and turned his attention back to Luna. Ostensibly, nothing particular was worthy of being worried over—in fact, she looked more peaceful now than she had when Sora had last seen her. It would have been a great comfort to him if he hadn't just witnessed the last minute or so.

Over at the throne, he could see Cecil beginning to get up. He slowly lay Luna down and told the Gullwings to look after her. Standing up, he proceeded to walk over to him when Cecil's voice made him pause.

"Urgh, where am I?"

"Cecil? Cecil, is that you?" Rosa asked.

"I'd certainly hope so. I have quite the headache at the moment. Rosa, what are you doing over there? And… who are you? Wait, Celes Chere, right?" Cecil asked, acknowledging the girl who was holding Rosa up by the arm.

"Yes, sir. Your Highness, you do remember what happened a short while ago, don't you?" Celes asked.

Cecil narrowed his eyes as if trying to remember, only to let out a sigh at the end. "I can't. It's like there's this… gap. The last thing I remember, truth be told, is being ill in bed. The nurse came in and handed me a drink… I thought it was strange at the time. I had never seen that particular nurse before but… she said you hired her, Rosa."

"I don't recall hiring a new nurse for you," Rosa said.

"I think I can guess what happened," Sora said. "KRONOS somehow got in and slipped you something. At that point, they took over your actions."

"Kronos? Who's that?" Cecil asked with genuine confusion on his face.

"Yep, that's what I thought," Sora confirmed. "You were being brainwashed or something similar. How long ago was that? Can you remember?"

"I don't know. Must have been… nine months back?" Cecil recalled.

"But wait, I don't get it. Celes, you said Zorn and Thorn have been blackmailing you for a while now, right?" Sora asked.

"Yes. I was fourteen when I first met them," Celes answered.

"Then, it couldn't be His Highness who was ordering them to do it. KRONOS also didn't exist around that time, I don't think. Did they?" Sora muttered mainly to himself. There was still something he didn't understand here. There was someone else working behind the scenes, and he bet anything it tied to the mysterious 'XE' company on the Turm des Himmel's manifesto. He wanted to think about it, but he just remembered he had an unconscious girl in his arms. "Oh, Your Highness. You probably didn't realize this, but my friend here was falsely imprisoned for the murder of eighteen scientists at the Turm des Himmels. I'm pretty sure KRONOS had you set up the whole thing to frame her."

"I'm afraid you have me confused about this entire thing. It's a lot to take in and I feel like, while your words make sense to me, they don't at the same time. It's like my mind's playing tricks on me," Cecil said. "But if what you say is true, then I am at fault here. That I would do something like that to your friend is truly incomprehensible to me, and I deeply apologize. Myself or not, I should not so easily have succumbed," Cecil said. He attempted to bow but winced and fell back onto the ground, hunched up and clutching his sides.

Rosa rushed over to his side and allowed him to lean on her shoulder. "You need to rest."

"I need to rectify… the mistakes I've made," Cecil said.

"Don't be foolish. That wasn't you. I'm just glad I have the real Cecil back now," Rosa whispered, planting a light kiss on his forehead.

"Not to interrupt the lovey dovey moment or anything but, what are we going to do now?" Rikku asked Sora. "Luna kinda played a get out of jail free card."

"Right, they'll be looking for her," Celes said, walking over to them.

"It's not a worry. I'll have the police stand down and will explain everything to them," Rosa said. "Right now however, you may not wish to be seen in the public eye with her. We'll put her and Cecil in the infirmary for now. Celes, is it alright if I ask you to help me with Cecil?"

"Sure, ma'am," Celes said.

"Alright then, I've got Luna," Sora said. He walked back over to her and wrapped her arm around his neck as he tried to get her into a standing position. He waited for Celes and Rosa to get a good grip of Cecil before starting down the aisle back to the door.

"He's ready to see you now." The group turned around and looked to see Zorn and Thorn looking up at them. Despite now being separate, their voices acted in unison as they talked. "He wants the Keyblade wielders to go to the basement of the Turm des Himmels. Just the two of you, alone. There, you will find _paradise_."

Sora exchanged looks with Celes and Rosa before looking back. "And if I say no?"

"If you want to see a friend once lost, you will," the duo said. They soon fell silent and unconscious once again. It was like they had just been possessed.

"Let's just… keep going," Sora said to the others.

* * *

Kairi arrived in the cockpit of the Highwind only moments after she had been woken up by Max. She looked out the windshield to see a large city down below. They had arrived at Notre Dame with no time to spare thanks to the Warp speed Gummi installed on their ship. She couldn't even begin to imagine how frustrating it would be to find this world or Twilight Town again, especially with all the background radiation interfering with their signals.

"How long was I asleep?" Kairi asked.

"Six hours, give or take," Max said, watching as Kairi pressed a few buttons on the touchscreen in front of them.

"Weather conditions: Unreadable? That's strange," Kairi said.

"So Kefka's definitely down there?"

Kairi turned around to see Elsa standing just outside the room looking nervous. She smiled at her in an effort to reassure the both of them.

"I think so. Once we take down him, it's finally over," Kairi said. "Don't worry, we'll put KRONOS' plan to a stop together."

"That's the thing I wanted to talk to you about. I should have told you this before but I was spending so much time getting reacquainted with my sister that it kind of slipped my mind," Elsa said.

"It's okay. What's wrong?" Kairi asked.

"Well, you've been led to believe for a while now that Kefka was the leader of KRONOS, but that's not true. When we went to break Kefka out back in Radiant Garden, one of the other people with me, Shego, was supposed to make contact with David Xanatos. He's the one who took over the organization after Maleficent passed away."

Kairi stared dumbfounded at Elsa for a while. Her eyes soon travelled over to Max and then fell upon Riku's statue before returning to Elsa once again. It seemed Riku had been right to be suspicious of Xanatos and his ever growing closeness to Sora. She honestly hadn't thought much of his interactions together, after all, why would she ever think much of a conversation between a therapist and his patient? If Riku were here, this is where he would say "I told you so," with a massive cocky grin on his face.

"I… kind of got the impression someone as insane as Kefka wouldn't be able to run something like KRONOS so efficiently. I really should have listened to Riku…" she said, putting her hand on her forehead.

"His and KRONOS' plan was to get you guys and Moira's Crescent to fight with each other. With you both destroying one another, KRONOS could enact a plan, Project Rebirth, it's called," Elsa explained.

"Project Rebirth…" Kairi repeated.

"I don't really know much about it. Xanatos has been pretty secretive. All I can tell you is that it's a plan to rebuild the world. To create paradise," Elsa said. "It sounds crazy, doesn't it?"

"Crazy? That's an understatement," Kairi said. She took her Wayfinder out of her pocket. "But I need to get in contact with someone at Radiant Garden then if Xanatos really is the threat you say he is."

She was about to speak into the Wayfinder when Lea burst out into the room at full speed.

"Lea? What's wrong?" Kairi asked.

Lea gritted his teeth and slammed his hand into the wall behind him. "Xion's nowhere on the ship. She's gone!"

* * *

_A/N: So for the purposes of this story, Eleftheria's arc is pretty much done. Yep, it's incomplete, but we'll see her again... eventually. As for the reveal of KRONOS leader, let's just say I pretty much told you who it was at the start because there was no way you wouldn't be able to see him as anything but a villain if you've watched Gargoyles. Since it's kind of obvious, please have fun watching as the characters themselves figure it out. You won't have to wait long for that either. _


	86. Where Good Men Come to Die

_A/N: So we finally reach the world changing chapter of this story and, you know, it's sad to know that I'm almost finished with this story. I honestly can't say how many chapters I have left. I know I said this would end within 10 chapters around chapter 80 but if I don't want to rush this then there are probably five or six more chapters left. Either way, it's been a long ride but after this, I'll be taking a bit of a break and start working again on Through Smoke and Flames. Anyway, let's get the beginning of the end started. _

* * *

**Chapter 86**

**Where Good Men Come to Die**

Night time approached Alexander and Luna had awoken roughly an hour after she had fallen unconscious. Sora, who had been watching over her and Cecil along with Cecil, Rosa and the Gullwings, was quick to summarize everything that had happened since he had last seen her in detention. Celes, staying at Kit's, raiding the Turm des Himmels as well as finding out the conspirators behind her being set up… it helped that he was able to relay the information to Luna as well as Rosa who had just as much idea about what was going on as her, while at the same time allowing himself to take in the day's events.

"So that's all I have. KRONOS is planning something big but I just don't know what. Argh! It's so frustrating. I can literally see everything when I close my eyes but I just can't piece it together," Sora complained.

"I really did all that?" Luna asked, touching her chest. She looked over to Rosa. "Your Highness, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to harm your husband. Maybe it really would be better if I was locked up."

"What are you saying? Like hell it would," Sora shouted angrily. Suddenly aware that everyone's eyes were on him, he shrank back in his seat. "Sorry. But it wasn't your fault, Luna. You couldn't help it."

"Exactly, I couldn't help it and because I couldn't, I nearly killed someone. I can't control whatever this thing is inside me. I'm a ticking time bomb. If I can't trust my own body, how can I trust being near anyone else?" Luna asked.

"So you'd rather your Aunt Kit never see you again? Or Astra or Stephanie?" Sora asked back.

"If it meant hurting them…" Luna trailed off and looked downward.

"You'd be hurting them by not seeing them. As much as we don't want to admit it, there will always come a time when we may unintentionally hurt someone. Sometimes, it's just unavoidable. But that's life, and a good friend understands that," Rosa said.

"She's right. Don't beat on yourself too hard, Luna. I'm glad to see you again," Celes agreed, walking over to give her a hug.

Rosa turned to Sora in the meanwhile. "Are you going to do what Zorn and Thorn said? The basement in the Turm des Himmels, was it?"

"Yeah. They said I had to bring Luna with me but… I can't do that. I have no idea what they have up their sleeves," Sora said.

"Which is why I should go with you," Luna suddenly announced from her bed. She assured Celes that she was okay before adopting a sitting position, planting her feet on the ground. "I'm not going to abandon you now."

"I really don't think it's a good idea, Luna. It's not that I don't think you couldn't handle yourself, but you've been through a lot. You must be exhausted."

"And you aren't? Sora, we're in this together, or not at all," Luna insisted.

Sora sighed and closed his eyes. "Stubborn as a mule, don't you think?"

"Oh dear. Don't go all Riku on me now," Luna commented with a grin.

Sora opened his eyes and smiled. "Was it that obvious?"

When Rosa giggled in between them, Sora and Luna looked at her questioningly. "Oh, don't worry about me. I'm just reminded a bit of Cecil and myself."

"That's a compliment, I take it?" Sora asked.

"You should. Don't worry, Your Highness. I understood what you meant," Luna said with a wink.

"Oh, just call me Rosa. We're all friends here." Rosa shook off the formalities and stood up. "That said, if you are going then I insist you at least stay for dinner. You must all be hungry by now."

"Oh, that's fine, Your High- I mean, Rosa. We wouldn't want to intrude or anything." As Sora finished talking however, a noisy gurgling sound filled the room. He laughed it off awkwardly. "I guess I am a bit hungrier than I thought."

After a filling dinner consisting of smoked salmon, boiled potatoes and steamed vegetables, Rosa saw Sora, Luna and Celes off by the gate. Before leaving, Celes had made sure to find the guard that had helped them get in earlier. Sure enough, he was found to be still knocked out just outside the throne room by the Gullwings' sleep spell, the picture of him with his wife and daughter lying next to him.

"You're going to want to keep out of sight as you make your way through the city," Rosa told them outside of the gate. The other guard who had been standing outside was also knocked out cold. According to Yuna, they would awake within the next hour.

"We haven't entirely cleared Luna's name, after all," Celes said.

Rosa nodded. "The matter should be cleared up by tomorrow, but just in case you are unable to come back for whatever reason, I was glad I could meet you all. Your journey certainly hasn't been easy, but walk before you run and you'll surely see a path ahead you otherwise wouldn't. That said, I am sure we will meet again, and until then, farewell."

"I'm looking forward to it," Sora said.

"Thanks again for the food! It was delish!" Luna exclaimed while waving.

"I'll come back after I've seen that they make it safely. Is that alright?" Celes asked.

"Of course. I'm looking forward to some company," Rosa replied, seeming quite elated by this. "Safe travels, everyone."

Getting back to the sewers proved surprisingly easy. They were able to avoid going downtown side once they reached the city and they only came across two policemen on their way, both of whom Celes were able to distract, allowing Sora and Luna to sneak past by.

The trio soon entered the sewers and made it all the way back to the back where the ladder was. Climbing up, they were soon in the white hallways of multiple empty cells. It was pretty easy to tell that something had changed. What could be considered ostentatious was swirling portal at the end of the room, blocking the door that led into the laboratory where Abraxas had once worked. The portal seemed to be coming out of a strange box shaped machine that was hiding behind the vortex's transparency.

"Well that's not inconspicuous at all," Sora said.

"So this is going to take us… where exactly?" Luna asked. "I don't like this at all."

"Yeah, I can tell we're still playing to their tune. But we don't have a choice, right? If one of our friends really is in danger, what else can we do but… jump in?" Sora asked.

"That doesn't exactly strike me as a safe plan but I suppose we don't have any other option," Celes said. "It's just a shame I can't come with you."

"Don't worry, we can handle anything they throw at us," Luna promised. She walked up to Celes and gave her a hug. "So what's going to happen with your singing career now? You're free now…"

"I'll probably continue with opera, actually. I think there's more I can convey to my fans through it. Opera's all about emotion and… well, I've never really been that good at talking about myself so I figure why not sing about myself instead," Celes said.

"That's wonderful. I think more people definitely need to be open about expressing themselves in creative ways. Don't let anything hold you back from conveying how you feel to everyone," Luna told her.

"Yeah, we'll definitely have to come see your performance sometime," Sora said. Celes nodded and extended her arms to a confused Sora. When he finally realized what she wanted from him, he blushed. "Uh, no, that- that's quite alright."

"Oh, don't be like that," Celes said. She walked up to Sora and pulled him in. Not wanting to appear as an idiot, Sora eventually responded by placing a hand on her back. Celes was the first to let go and stepped away from him and Luna. "Good luck."

"You too," Luna and Sora said in unison before hurrying through the strange portal. When they arrived on the other side, they found themselves in a completely different world, and one Sora knew all too well.

"Where are we? This certainly isn't Alexander," Luna said as she scanned the vast wasteland in wonder.

"You're right. I know this place," Sora told her. He took a few steps and surveyed the lay of the land. The sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soil of the earth had long since been heavily weathered by gale force winds, torrential rain and most importantly, magic. The environment consisted of no vegetation and only canyons, waterless ravines, scarred buttes and other such geological formations. To his right, he saw unnatural tornados moving about and crackling with electricity. If there was ever an apocolypse, Sora imagined this is what it would look like. He turned back to Luna with a grave look on his face. "We need to leave. Now."

"Sora, what's wrong?" Luna asked. As Sora walked up to her, he stopped upon seeing the vortex disappear into thin air. The machine that was projecting the vortex on this side suddenly burst into flames.

Sora bit his lower lip and looked up at Luna. "I guess we're not going back that way."

"Sora, what is this place?" Luna persisted.

"The Keyblade Graveyard," Sora answered.

"Huh? You mean the one mentioned in Jiminy's Journal?" Luna asked.

Sora nodded. "This is the place where me and the others fought Xehanort. I can't believe we're here. Why? Why would KRONOS know about this place? How would they even find it?"

"Well, since we're already here and we can't turn back. Why don't we just… you know, keep going," Luna suggested. "Maybe we'll find a way out some other way."

"That's a bit too optimistic even for me but sure. Why not?" Sora replied. He summoned the Kingdom Key and led the way down the cliff side they were on.

* * *

As they emerged out of the fissure, they were greeted by the sight of flat barren land. Ugly scars littered its surface in every direction and the wind howled violently as if thousands of souls were screaming out in agony. They were standing on history. Once a great many years ago, hundreds if not thousands of people had fought on the same spot they were standing, giving up their humanity just to open a gateway to the unseen realm.

They wanted to turn back. They wished they still could, but the presence of another kept them there on that haunted ground.

There were two figures just up ahead, both human in shape. Sora took hold of Luna's hand and squeezed it tightly as a warning to keep her guard up. She nodded and they proceeded onward slowly. The length of the battleground as well as the time it took to get to the two figures seemed to increase, though Sora was sure it was his mind playing games on him. Even so, why did he have this unsettling feeling rising in the pit of his stomach?

This feeling was proved justified when he finally arrived just a few metres away from the two figures. Their backs were turned but Sora instantly knew who they both were. The shorter of the two was female with medium-length blonde hair and was wearing a blue dress and white stockings from what he could make out from the back. The other person however, was much more surprising. He couldn't mistake the man's ponytail, his bulky frame or his suit. He wanted to be wrong. He _really _wanted to be wrong on this but…

"No, it can't be… why… how…"  
David Xanatos turned to look at him and returned his confusion with a sly smile. Sora dropped to the floor and buried his head into his hands.

"This can't be real. This just can't…" Sora put his hand flat on the ground and slowly looked with a pained expression. "Please tell me there's some other reason you're here."  
"With Alice right next to me? Come now, Sora, you're better than that. This isn't a dream. You're not going to wake up because you _are _awake. This is reality as you see it with your very eyes," Xanatos said. His grip tightened around Alice's arm causing the girl to wince.

"Sora, help me!" she cried out to them. She tried to wrestle out of Xanatos' grasp but he pulled her in close to him and pulled something out from the side of his belt. It was a dagger, glistening and sharp and already being held to Alice's neck. He waved up and down lazily, as if to make clear the point that he was the one in control.

"Xanatos, why?" Luna gritted her teeth, struggling to hold back tears. "I trusted you. We trusted you. And to think, we told you everything about us. Our problems, our feelings, everything… and you were toying with us the entire time, using what we told you to your advantage. And what about everything you've told us? Was it all a lie? What about Colette? Was your relationship with her a lie too?"

"I can't say that everything was a lie. It's true that, at least initially, dating Colette at first was merely a ploy to gather information about you, but it did become something more… I suppose that can't happen anymore," he admitted in a regretful tone.

"Don't you dare… don't you dare act like you care because… because I… you wouldn't be holding Alice now like you are if you did," Luna yelled. "Let go off her, please."

Xanatos seemed to consider this for a moment. Sora doubted it would be that easy though.

"Okay, here you go."

"Huh?" Sora looked up in time to see Alice being shoved forward by Xanatos. Alice was also surprised by this sudden turn of events and stood their frozen in time, unsure if this was a trick. It was only Luna who seemed more concerned with Alice's wellbeing and rushed into hug her.

"Are you alright? You look pale. What did he do to you?" Luna asked after separating, looking up and down Alice's body for any sign that she may have been hurt.

"They did feed me but I didn't see the light of day until just today. It could have been worse. I knew you would come," Alice said with tears in her eyes.

Sora looked away from the touching reunion and stood up slowly. He raised the Kingdom Key Keyblade in his hand and ran straight towards Xanatos, yelling out an angry battle cry. He jumped and put all the power he had into striking the man he thought a friend down. He remembered how Riku had been sceptical of Xanatos when he had first met him. While Sora had been the same at first, he had slowly warmed up to him the past few months when he had found someone who could listen to his worries, but that person had been listening for the wrong reasons and Sora felt used. He should have trusted Riku's judgement and been more wary.

Sora was sent flying as Xanatos raised his arm and deflected the attack. Sora landed on the ground and slid across the dusty earth with a groan. Where Xanatos' arm had once been was now a piece of armor covering it.

"That armor… you were the one I fought in Atlantis!" Sora grunted out. Alice ran over to help him up, who he thanked promptly before looking back at Xanatos. She latched onto his arm and Luna soon joined them. "One of the latest and greatest power suits currently in development at Xanatos Enterprises. Unlike any other armor before it, this is completely decked from head to toe in orichalcum, making it quite resistant to materials similar to it. Pretty neat, huh?"

Sora scowled before asking something else. "Tell me something. You're the head of KRONOS, right? Then Kefka…"

"Was just a diversion. I imagine he's catching up with Riku and Kairi right about now who are blissfully unaware that they're after the wrong person," Xanatos answered. "It's amazing how a single word is able to strike so much fear in the human heart. On its own, a name means nothing, but you and your associates were the ones who gave it purpose. With purpose, you began to fear it, and because you feared it, you made the mistakes that lead you to the finality of today."

"But why? You've told me before about how much you've wanted to help the world," Sora said. "When you told me those words, they seemed real to me like they came from the heart. That's why I'm having a hard time believing any of this."

Xanatos looked up into the dusky sky. Rain was starting to fall. "Do you want to know the truth about this World? I'll tell you though I'm afraid it might break your poor little hearts. There never was a balance between light and dark and there never will be. What you think should happen and will eventually happen simply isn't going to. Before the Keyblade War, there was an illusion of peace. Then war broke out and they saw how fragile and chaotic our hearts truly were. Each participant in that war strove to change the world to how they thought it should be and thus succumbed to selfish desires in order to meet those ends. No matter how much they tried to avert the inevitable collision, their hearts steered them straight back on its path. There was truly no saving them, those pitiful souls. I can only surmise that Kingdom Hearts attempted to give this world a fresh start, one more akin to its image. And thus the second illusion of peace began—the one we live in now.

"When I lost my wife and son to the Heartless I saw the world for what it truly was—a parasite slowly feeding on its plentiful hosts until there's nothing of us left. In time, we will consume each other once again. The fires of greed and hatred will stir and all that will be left us are bloodied corpses. So yes, I am going to help the world, Sora. I am going to sever the chains that our ancestors have bound us by and I am going to free us all from their will and from the will of Kingdom Hearts. And you're going to help me."

"And what exactly would I be helping you with, if I cared at all for what you were saying?" Sora growled.

"KRONOS' true objective, of course. That is to say, the eradication of all Keyblade wielders!" Xanatos declared with arms extended. "Those came before us certainly weren't going to let their hopes and dreams die out. They would pass the Keyblade on down the line and spread their concepts and ideologies through them. Abraxas is the perfect example of this. He told me how he and Xehanort used to talk before he realized something was not right about him. Xehanort believed that his own actions and curiosities were being governed by an unseen will, one that he could not explain. Abraxas, having a piece of Xehanort inside him, was bound to those same rules and tried to free himself from those chains by studying you."

"Studying me?" Sora asked.

"He saw how free you were to follow your own heart whereas he felt as if he was never in control. I sympathized with him for obvious reasons. There's another reason why your Keyblades have no place in the new world. When people find power they will cling to it by any means necessary. The Keyblade can only serve to create more imbalances in the world. In other words, as long as the Keyblade exists there will never be true peace."

"You don't know that for sure," Luna said suddenly, causing the both of them to turn to her. "You're right when you say that there may never be an eternal calm of any sort but when I save people and see the smiles on their faces, that's no illusion of peace. They are genuine smiles and even if they don't last forever, the memory and the feelings associated with it can last an eternity."

"If you think I'm wrong then feel free to give up your Keyblades right now then. If people need Keyblades in order to smile then there's a serious problem, so prove me wrong then. Drop your Keyblades now and swear that you'll never use them."

When neither of them did as he asked, Xanatos smiled. "You see? You can't give it up. You're too afraid to let go. It's an addiction now. You're both fighters and you can't stop because it's the only thing that seems normal to you now. Without it, you're nothing and you know it!"

"That's not true!" Alice defended, letting go of Sora's arm.

"And they can't speak for themselves? Why else did you come back to this life, when you had the chance to throw it away?" He looked at Sora and chuckled. "It wasn't just out of some sanctimonious act of saving your friends. You missed it, the thrill of danger and the adrenaline that comes with it. You've been moulded, shaped into a warrior and you can't look away, no matter what excuse you may try to throw at me. The Keyblade is a warrior's weapon, and don't tell me you're a saint. None of us are."

"Don't listen to him, he's just trying to get into your head," Alice said. She put her hands around Sora's face and turned his head to meet her. "When I look into your eyes I don't see someone who is driven by fighting. They're peaceful and soothing. Those aren't just the eyes of a warrior. They're the eyes of a knight, and you've proven so many times that you are one to so many people, including me."

"Sora, you may choose to lie to me but you cannot lie to your own heart. The Keyblade is a shadow of the past that binds the new world to the old. Unless we are free of that past, we will never be able to move forward and a true light will never exist. Anyway, I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut our conversation short. It's starting," Xanatos said, pointing past them. Sora, Luna and Alice reluctantly turned their heads followed by the rest of their bodies. A dense fog was moving slowly towards them, and soon enough it overtook them. The entire area was blanketed in the familiar fog, but what was more surprising was the door that had appeared right behind Xanatos.

He had seen this door before many times. It had always been in his dreams and he had always come so close to opening it when he had heard a girl's voice that sounded like Yeul warning him not to open it. There were many doors in the world but only one as unique in design as this, or at least that was what he assumed. He was sure that it couldn't be a coincidence.

"What's going on? Xanatos, what is that?" Sora asked. He felt chills running down his spine and could only just barely see what was in front of him but he had the strangest feeling that Xanatos was excited by the development.

"Freedom for those who have none and death for those who have chained them down for so long. It was only when I discovered the door to this world in that factory that I came across this door. Of course the conditions needed to be right. This background radiation that has been infecting the worlds has made all sorts of strange things happen where it has appeared. Each time I came here when there was fog, this door was here along with it. Now, I'm sure you're just as curious as I to know what is beyond this door."

"You don't know?" Sora asked.

"I have my theories, and you're going to help me open it and see whether I'm right," Xanatos said.

"What? What makes you think I'll consider doing that for even one second?" Sora asked.

"Let's just say you won't really have much of a choice. Well, you will but that's if you're incredibly heartless. I'd like you to look next to you at your poor friend. I don't think she's feeling quite well at the moment," Xanatos addressed.

When Sora turned to Luna, he realized it—why Xanatos had so easily let go of his hostage. If he had held onto her and forced Sora to comply, then his demand would have seemed reasonable, only he didn't need Alice. He had no idea how but he must have somehow expected this to happen. Luna was kneeling next to him, clutching her head and squeezing her eyes shut.

"Luna? Luna, are you alright? Alice, what's happening?" Sora asked, kneeling next to the both of them.

"I- I don't know, all of a sudden she was clutching her head and crying. Luna, what's going on?"

"My head… it hurts. Voices… in my head… make them stop… make them stop!" Luna cried out. She opened her eyes slowly and looked in front of her in horror. She could seem them in the white smoke. They were ghosts or human figures without faces or any discernible features. They were all blank but the voices no doubt came from them and there were too many to distinguish one voice from another. They were filling her head like rushing water trying to break through a dam and because of this, she felt as if her were about to split open any second.

"Xanatos, what did you to her?" Sora yelled.

"Am I now supposed to be the human outlet through which you place all your misfortunes on? Well, in this case, I suppose I can take some credit. You remember that bomb in the Turm des Himmels? It contains similar chemicals to the fog around us now. We've been trying to weaponize it for a while, as you know when Ratigan kidnapped that toy maker. We've had several tests performed and with the help of one Dr. Drakken, the results have finally proven conclusive… on the Heartless. We never planned to use this toxin on humans. I'm not that cruel. No. I've finally succeeded where you Keyblade wielders haven't, yet more proof of your futile existences. I've wiped out the Heartless."

"What? That can't be-"

"But it can, and it is. Unfortunately for you, it also just so happens that Luna is part human part Heartless. I guess that Heartless really wants out," Xanatos said. "Let me make this easy for you. Let Luna die here and now, the door remains closed and the world is safe… or, open the door, save your friend and potentially destroy billions of other lives in the process. Oh, and you might want to make your choice quickly. One person can only handle so many voices in their head before they start to get loopy… or worse. So the crux of the matter, Keyblade Master—whose hero are you going to be? The hero of the few or the hero of many?"

"That's not… that's not a choice. Damn you, Xanatos! That isn't a choice!" Sora cried.

"Then you know you can't abandon her. You can't fail her like you failed Yeul," Xanatos said.

When Xanatos had brought Yeul into the conversation, Sora had felt as if his heart had momentarily paused before starting again. Xanatos was right. He had won. He knew everything about Sora—his fears, his weaknesses… What was worse, Sora had given him that information himself. Xanatos had majored in psychology, studying emotions and the telltale signs associated with them. He could probably even mask his own emotions, an important part in his deception. No matter how much he tried to imagine one, there was no conceivable scenario in which Sora could come out on top of this. Someone would have to suffer: Luna, or everyone else.

"Please, help me! I can't take it anymore! I can't taaaa-" Luna's screaming intensified tenfold and if there was any doubt in his mind before, it was now gone and replaced by the burning desire to help her.

_Riku… Kairi… whatever happens next, I'm sorry._

He quickly aimed the Keyblade up towards the door. He was playing right into Xanatos' hands and there was little he could do about it. He hadn't gone through so much trouble of saving her in Alexander just to let her die in the end. He cared too much about her to let that happen. No, who was he kidding? Even if he didn't know her as well as he did now, he would still save her or anyone else for that matter. That was just who he was.

"SORA, DON'T DO IT!"

Somewhere up above him, he heard a masculine voice but it was too late. The beam of light had shot out of his Keyblade and hit the lock on the door. At first nothing happened. There was a part of Sora that hoped that what he had done had been ineffective, that he was not some chosen one destined to bring the world to ruin… and then the door opened.

A light burst forth so bright that it blinded everyone there and when it was gone, they saw that fog and the door had completely disappeared and only beautiful speckles of light suspended in the air like snowflakes remained instead.

A few feet away from Sora, Kohle looked around as if he was expecting something while Rhea had a frown on her face.

"Did we not make it in time?" she asked, unable to see anything that was going on around her.

"I'm not sure. I couldn't stop him in time but…" Kohle trailed off and watched as Sora ran over to an unconscious Luna and cradled her in his arms.

"Luna? Luna! Come on, open your eyes! Don't tell me I was too late. You can't be gone… you can't be because… I haven't told you yet how I feel. Don't do this to me, please!"

"Sora, she's still alive. I know that much. I can sense her light, but what little of it is left is being slowly eroded by the darkness inside her. I think she's just unconscious- AH!" Alice was thrown onto her back as the ground shook violently beneath them.

Sora looked around him to see multiple pillars of light shooting up from the ground into the sky. Sora could only hold onto Luna for dear life with one arm and Alice with his other hand as the earth jolted left and right. This proved fruitless when one of the pillars suddenly erupted from the right underneath them. The force was so powerful that the three of them were launched into the air, Sora unable to hold onto either of them. He felt as the back of his head was slammed onto one of the rock formations in the area and quickly blacked out.

"Sora! Sora!" He heard his name repeatedly being called. It was a sweet sounding tone that awfully reminded him of Alice.

Alice!

That's when everything started to come back to him. He vision became more focused until he could clearly see Alice's back and golden blonde hair facing him, her arms outstretched.

"I beg of you, Miss Alice. Don't make me say it again. Get out of the way!" Kohle said, his Keyblade pointed forward but not at Alice. Rather it was pointing underneath her arm at the person she was protecting, him, he soon realized.

"I won't let you harm him. He did nothing wrong!" Alice insisted.

"Nothing wrong? He's brought the end of the world upon us! I should have been there in time to stop him but now it's too late. It's happening again. Every single person is going to suffer now because of what he's done."

Kohle pushed Alice out of the way as gently as he could manage and grabbed Sora by his shirt collar, lifting him up against the rock. Sora just bowed his head in defeat however. He found it hard to care anymore. He thought he could do this again and now he just felt like giving up again. If he ruined someone's life before, now was a completely different story.

Alice however was not yet ready to give up. She took Sora's Keyblade that had been lying on the ground into her hands and pointed it at Kohle.

"Let go of him or I'll- I'll-"

Kohle looked at her quickly and then back at Sora. The scowl on his face lessened and his hands loosened his grip. Sora dropped to the floor but did little to get back up. Everything had all come down on him so quickly at once that he simply felt nothing but emptiness inside. Because of his own sorrow, he could hear nothing that Alice and Kohle were currently saying to each other. There was some kind of disconnect between his mind and body.

He brought his knees closer and cuddled them, rocking forward and backwards slowly. After abandoning his use of the Keyblade for only a week, he had decided to take up the mantle again only to make even more of mess than he had ever done before. Why could he not do a single thing right? Why did it seem like fate was blocking him at every turn?

Worst of all, he had allowed Yeul's prophecy to come true. He had done what Xehanort had been unable to do. Whatever came next was because of him. All the pain and anger, he could no longer shy away from because he was guilty of causing it. If Yeul's vision really had been unavoidable then he wondered about Namine's. Was the only thing waiting for him at the end of the tunnel his inevitable death?

"_Don't tell me you're giving up already! Come on Sora, I thought you were better than that,"_ he heard Riku's voice pop up in his mind. He had certainly tried to be better but it hadn't worked out in the end. In his pursuit of the strength needed to protect the people he cared about, he had managed to lose it all in an hour.

"_Don't worry. You're all still you," _replied Riku's voice.

_Still me…? Then why do I feel so… empty? _

The ground shook once again, throwing Alice and Kohle off their balance, but Sora remained motionless and silent. Even if all the pieces that were him were there, he had no way of fishing them out of the vast ocean to the surface. How could he continue to act like everything was going to be alright? It was just impossible. He wasn't that confident in himself.

"_I don't know about that, but what I do know is that in the end we do what we have to with no regrets and for you Sora, I believe that's helping your friends. I know it's hard, painful even to get back up after all you've seen and felt and I'm not telling you to just forget it, it's unfortunate but life isn't without its hardships and sometimes in order to gain something you'll have to lose something first. That pain stays with us, but you know what? We use it to make us stronger. Even if the world hates you, even if it's you alone, even if you've lost someone you've loved, we do what we have to do and we don't let that pain keep us down." _

"Colette…" Sora whispered after hearing her voice. She was right. He had completely forgotten what she had told him, the words that had convinced him to keep on going. When he thought of Colette and Stephanie… and Riku, Kairi, Neuge, Jayne and everyone else, he realized that they would suffer much worse if he gave up now.

Sora placed his hand against the rock and slowly lifted himself up. He felt his senses returning to him, as if a battery was quickly recharging within him. In the time that he had been lost in his own world, Kohle had moved away and was currently battling against someone clad in armor along with Rhea. Sora recognized the armor clad man instantly as the one he had fought in Atlantis. It could only have been Xanatos then.

"Alice, are you alright?" Sora asked, helping the girl on the ground in front of him.

"I am. Thank you, Sora," Alice said before holding up the Keyblade to him. "To be honest, I think you're more suited to this than I am."

"You know, I think I just had a revelation. We've finally found you. Somewhere in all the confusion, that one positive thing was lost… but we found you in the end. It made me realize how easily we overlook the little things in life. Even if we're about to face the darkest moment of our lives, there's always those tiny glimmers of light in between that we need to cherish. If I have to walk the road to hell alone just to keep them smiling, then so be it. A life not lived for others isn't a life worth living for me. I've accepted that."

"You really are a white knight in every sense of the word," Alice said with a heart-warming smile. If he wanted to live up to that, then he needed to start right here and now by getting Luna's body to safety.

Sora quickly managed to search and locate Luna before turning to Alice. "Alice, I need you do something for me and I need you to do it quick. Go get Luna over there and hide. I'm going to try and figure out a way to get you both out of here."

Alice nodded and without a word set off for Luna. Sora looked at the Keyblade in his hand and held onto it firmly. He breathed in and out slowly, making sure that he was the one in control of his breathing and not the other way around. He began hopping up and down, alternating from one foot to another to motivate himself. He soon took off and jogged over to where Xanatos, Rhea and Kohle were fighting. If he was going to make things better then he would start at the root problem: he would make David Xanatos pay for what he had done.

Sora quickly warped forward and blocked an attack from Kohle that was aiming for Xanatos. He pushed forward and sent Kohle stumbling backwards. "Let me handle him. This is between him and me."

"You stay out of this! I won't have you make this problem any worse than it already is. Don't worry though. I'll deal with you later!" Kohle replied angrily. Sora noticed Rhea's concerned frown as she looked at Kohle, but the leader of Moira's Crescent barely seemed to register her worry.

Xanatos took off his helmet and smiled. "Ah, and so all the players have assembled at last!"

"Not all of them."

Xanatos frowned and turned around only to be sent to the ground by a fast punch to the face. Sora couldn't help but sport a massive grin on his face at the sight of Neuge and Mickey.

* * *

_A/N: So there you have it. What are the ramifications of what happened in this chapter, you ask? You'll find out soon enough. For now, we have some battles to look forward to next chapter: Sora, Neuge, Mickey, Xanatos, Kohle and Rhea on one side and Kairi and Kefka in another. Please look forward to it and be sure to leave a like and review in the meanwhile._


	87. Cave of the Night Sky

_A/N: So another chapter of Cracks of the Past is here for you to peruse in your free time. On another note, I finally got the chance to see Zootopia (or Zootropolis over here) and oh mah gawd, that was spectacular! It's safe to say that this movie has now cemented itself as one of my favorite Disney movies and I encourage anyone who hasn't to see it too. Also Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde are now two of my favorite protagonists in a Disney movie, I can safely say. I kind of want to watch it again now. Anyway, enough Zootopia and more Keyblade Graveyard. Be sure to spread the word about this and Dual Destinies and, as always, reviews and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. _

* * *

**Chapter 87**

**Cave of the Night Sky**

"Neuge? Mickey? How did you find us?" Sora asked.

"Tifa told us that she couldn't find Xanatos anywhere. It was Xanatos' assistant that coughed it up, after a little convincing," Neuge said with a sly smile.

"Neuge, really?" Sora asked.

"What? It was mainly Tifa," Neuge said.

"Oh, yeah, I guess 'mainly' is alright then," Sora said sarcastically.

Xanatos slowly stood up and looked at her, wiping the trickle of blood from his lip. "Owen told you? Huh. What do you know? He really does get bored easily."

"You're done for, Xanatos. As much as it breaks my heart to how the Restoration Committee will feel about this, Radiant Garden is more in danger with you than it is without," Mickey said. He had his Starseeker Keyblade pointed straight at Xanatos. "It'll be painful, but the people will learn to adapt. They always have."

"Then I take it I'm leaving my company in good hands. I can't go back after all," Xanatos said.

"Your majesty," Kohle interrupted. "Moira's Crescent will be taking him in. I hope you don't mind."

"Well, I don't…" Mickey said.

"But it's not just him you're after, right? That's where we draw the line," Neuge said.

"So you're proposing I let him get away with what he just did?" Kohle asked. "Your student there just unlocked the seal."

"The seal? No…" Neuge murmured. "Then we're too late."

"The seal? What's the seal?" Mickey enquired.

"Another thing Yen Sid hasn't told you about? Go on, Neuge, tell them," Kohle encouraged.

"The seal, from what my master told me, brings about a disastrous omen on this world. Though I don't know what it does," Neuge said.

"I wouldn't expect you to. It's a well-guarded secret. I'll put it in simple terms—the Keyblade War never ended," Kohle said.

Sora, Neuge and Mickey frowned in confusion. "What?"

"What do you mean it never ended?" Neuge asked.

"You've heard of the third dimension spell, haven't you? It's similar to that. In order to save the remaining Keyblade Wielders, Kingdom Hearts pulled a trump card. It would place them in another realm where they would succumb to an eternal sleep. That realm has only ever existed inside Kingdom Hearts itself. The door you just unlocked is one that leads inside it," Kohle said.

"No way…" Sora murmured with a shaking head.

"Wait, but what about all the Keyblades around here? Aren't they supposed to be the keys of those owners?" Mickey asked.

"The keys didn't go along with their owners. With no one to wield them, they've pretty much been lifeless. Now that their owners have been released, I'm sure those Keyblades too will soon awaken from their long slumber. We're heading back to the Dark Ages, and you have your little student to thank for that," Kohle said, pointing a finger at Sora.

"How do you even know this stuff? The Keyblade War was a long time ago," Neuge said.

"It doesn't matter. All that matters is that the damage is contained before it can get out of hand," Kohle said.

"Well sorry, but I'm not ready to go yet. I have a friend to help," Sora said before turning to Neuge. "Luna's knocked out cold. Alice is with her right now."

"Not good. Then you need to help her." Neuge took something out of her pocket and placed it in Sora's hand. When he turned his hand, he found himself looking down at a Star Shard. "Take it and get Luna and Alice out of here. Just think about getting to Radiant Garden and the Shard will do all the work."

"But what about you two?"

"We can handle ourselves just fine, or have you forgotten I'm your senior?" Neuge asked.

"So you finally admit that you're old?" Sora asked with a cheeky grin.

"I'm guessing you want a punch too?" challenged Neuge.

"Ha-ha-ha, no I'm fine, thanks. Oh, before I forget…" Sora pulled something of his own and showed it to Neuge. "For luck?"

Neuge shook her head and lowered Sora's hand. "I gave it to Luna as a present. It's hers now, remember?"

"Right… okay," Sora said. He turned heel and set off in the direction of Alice and Luna. Kohle tried to move to stop him but a plasma claw came out of Neuge's Keyblade and locked down on his shoulders. She pulled her Keyblade backwards and Kohle was sent flying in the same direction.

Sora soon made it over to the rock formation where Alice and Luna were hiding and knelt down next to Alice.

"Is she doing okay?"

"Her light's fading. I can keep her light burning for a while longer but something is eating away at her heart. I'm not sure what else I can do to help. Maybe if you say something, your voice might reach her," Alice suggested.

Sora placed his left hand on Luna's cheek and stared down into blue pupil-less eyes. "Luna? Luna, it's me, Sora. Please say something. We've finally found Alice and Neuge is here as well. Don't do this to me now. I need you."

He pressed his forehead against hers and lifted it back up. No change. Luna hadn't even slightly responded in any way that was noticeable. He looked up at Alice and showed her the Star Shard in his hand.

Alice stared at it for a moment, not sure what to make of the object. "Sora, what is that?"

"A Star Shard, it's made of the same materials as Gummi Block. Alice, I need you to do something for me. I want you to take Luna to Radiant Garden and find a wizard named Merlin. Yuna, Rikku, Paine!" Sora called. The three Gullwings popped into existence and looked around them.

"Where are we?" Rikku asked.

"No time to explain. Put your hands on this and once you get back to Radiant Garden, take Alice to Merlin," Sora explained.

"But what about you?" Alice asked.

"My fight's not over yet," Sora told her. He placed the star shaped item in Alice's hand and smiled. "Get something to eat when you're back, alright?"

Alice nodded and Sora stood up. He took a few steps and turned back just in time to see a whizzing light fly up into the air. He replaced the Kingdom Key in his hands with both Oblivion and Oathkeeper and sprinted off towards the others.

To his right, he could see Rhea and Mickey fending off attacks from Xanatos, who had summoned the same sword that he had used against Sora back in Atlantis. He looked to his left to see Neuge fighting with Kohle. Their Keyblades slammed against each other over and over again with neither seeming to be entirely at an advantage.

Sora took off into a run again and warped forward. His momentum increased and he slammed into Kohle. Sora watched as the other Keyblade Wielder stumbled backwards from the blow before looking at Neuge. She had an air of surprise about her.

"Didn't I tell you to get out of here?" she asked.

"I'm not about to leave you guys behind. I told Alice and Luna to go on ahead," Sora said.

"Hmph, idiot," Neuge mumbled. She looked down at his Keyblades. "I didn't know you had two. Where'd you get this power from?"

"Thank Namine for that. Anyway, let's take him down together," Sora said. He frowned momentarily when Neuge banished her Keyblade. "Uhm…"

Neuge adopted a fighting stance with two hands. "I'll follow your lead. Let's see if all those techniques I taught you actually stuck."

"Yes, ma'am," Sora replied sardonically. He took off for Kohle and clashed blades before jumping back. The two began swinging at each other, both light and agile on their feet. As beautiful of a dance it was, Sora was more concerned with ending it as quickly as possible.

He ducked to the right as Neuge unleashed a wave of Ice magic with her hands. Kohle jumped out of the way and threw his Keyblade at Neuge. Sora quickly jumped and threw Oblivion, knocking Kohle's Keyblade off course.

Neuge rushed forward and sent forward a hurling kick that connected with his side. She threw an additional punch but he blasted her away with _Aeroga _before it could connect. With his arm exposed, Sora used his own Plasma Hand and jerked Kohle forward. Neuge's hand ignited in a ball of flame as she ran forward and jumped. Kohle craned his neck as far as he could and Neuge's hand hurtled past him, hitting the ground and creating a mini crater.

As Kohle looked on in surprise at Neuge's impressive strength, Sora saw his chance. He warped forward quickly and plunged both Oathkeeper and Oblivion into Kohle's stomach. Kohle's eyes widened and his lips parted. His eyes flickered over to Sora's and in a rush of anger, moved his left arm and knocked Sora to the ground. Sora watched as Kohle dropped his Keyblade to the ground… and proceeded to pull both Keyblades out of his body.

"What…?" Sora whispered in disbelief.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Neuge yelled out loud. This caught the attention of Rhea and Mickey a short distance away, who stopped their advances on Xanatos to look. They all watched with looks of utter consternation as the bloody wounds Sora had inflicted healed up incredibly quickly to the point where there was nothing there, like he hadn't been hurt to begin with.

Surprisingly, it was Xanatos who first showed his frustrations. "How did you do that? Are you a Chimera?"

"No," Kohle replied after throwing Oathkeeper and Oblivion onto the ground.

Rhea left Mickey's side and walked up to him. "Kohle? How…"

He looked her way and gave a pained smile. "I'm sorry, Rhea. I was afraid to tell this to you and the others. I was scared you'd think of me as being a freak. Maybe that is what I am. I've lived longer than you might think."

"Longer? Wait, I don't understand. What do you mean?" Rhea asked.

"Like a thousand years longer," Kohle admitted. Rhea's face sunk and she opened her mouth, but no words came out. "Rhea, I'm still the same person I was before. This doesn't change anything. I'm still me."

"So, let me get this straight. You're basically immortal," Neuge clarified.

"Basically? It's not so basic to me. I've had to live with this curse for a thousand years. You tell me how basic it is," Kohle said. "This is why I created Moira's Crescent. I wanted to stop something like this from happening. When Yeul made her prophecy talking about a boy who would bring the worlds to ruin, I suggested something. I had our bodies put in cryosleep until the time we were needed. Maybe if we had awoken sooner we could have come in contact with you a lot sooner. But I've messed up, and I don't know how to fix it."

"Then we'll fix it together. We don't have to fight," Sora said.

As he knelt down to pick up his Keyblade, Kohle looked at Sora. "You're a good kid, Sora. But you're oh so naïve as well. I wish I could afford to be like that."

* * *

Kairi slipped through the doors of Notre Dame Cathedral and began walking down the dark nave. Considering the door had already been slightly ajar in the first place, she concluded that the only person who could have come in at this time of night was Xion. She stopped halfway and looked to her left before turning to the three people behind her.

"Maybe we should split up. I'm not even sure if we'll find Kefka here, but Xion probably is. Lea, Max, you two search the bell tower and see if Quasimodo's there. Elsa and I'll check near the back. Lea? Lea!"

Lea snapped out of his deep thoughts and scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry, I wasn't listening. What were you saying?"

"What's on your mind?" Kairi asked. She had an idea but it was probably for the best that she allow him to voice his frustrations ahead of time.

"Just Xion. Roxas as well but there isn't anything I can do about that now. Why the heck does she have to be so reckless? I've already lost Roxas. I'm not going to lose her either," Lea said. "I have a lot of anger in me, you know? And don't tell me that being angry isn't going to help or some crap like that. It's all I've got to keep me moving forward right now, got it memorized?"

"I won't tell you that. To be honest, I'm angry too—with Kefka, and most of all, myself. We dragged you three into this and because of that, we put you in danger. I'm sorry," Kairi apologized.

"Kairi, keep your head in the game. I know I was hard on you back in Twilight Town, and I bit emotional there. The only one who has a right to be sorry about something is Kefka for messing with us," Axel said. "And I'm not even sure I can grant him mercy even if he does that."

"Wait a second. Who's the one giving the pep talk here?" Kairi asked. At least she could keep walking knowing that a friend didn't hate her guts. Xion was still an air of mystery however and there was no telling what she would do.

Kairi quickly reiterated what she had asked Lea and Max to do and set off with Elsa down the aisle. She kept checking back on the front entrance but she saw no peep or sound so far of Aqua, who she had contacted to help her. She could only hope Aqua would eventually make it on time.

Kairi and Elsa soon reached the statue of the woman with the cup in her hands. Both had long turned back into stone, probably in an effort to keep the secret behind the statue safe from outsiders. Kairi grabbed the cup from the sorrowful woman's hands and tried to think of something sad. The statue easily reminded her of Riku's own state and that allowed a tear to fall from her eye. She sighed and watched as her own regrets became gold in her hands.

"Whoa! How did you do that?" Elsa asked with eyes that looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets.

"There's an alchemist's lab underneath within the catacombs. I imagine Frollo spent a long time searching for it but he could never quite find it," Kairi said.

"I did go to his house once, along with Kefka. He struck me as a very odd man. Now that I think about it, he and Kefka are quite alike. Twisted by obsession. I imagine that played a part in Frollo's downfall. That's why I know Kefka will follow," Elsa said.

"Let's hope you're right. Uh, you might want to stand back," Kairi said. She placed the cup upside in the woman's hand, and quickly retreated along with Elsa. The statue turned gold once again and the ground opened up like it had the last time she had come here.

"Alright, let's keep going," Kairi said to her slightly dazed companion. She lit up her Keyblade and, along with Elsa, the two started their descent into the darkness.

Soon enough they arrived in front of the door that led to the alchemist's laboratory. The creature known as Alice was just behind these doors, and having been to Atlantis now and knowing what she did from the book Sora had found, this was very likely an Alice who had been part of experiments to make a person of pure light. The idea that there was possibly a girl by the name of Kairi who looked very much like the Alice here made her shudder violently.

"Kairi, you okay?" Elsa asked, noticing her behavior.

"Not really. I just have a bad feeling about this," Kairi said. Nevertheless, she placed her hand on the door and gave a mighty push. The door soon opened and Kairi was greeted to a strange sight. The room looked entirely different to when she had last been in there. The floor had completely sunken in and instead, stairs led even downward into the unknown.

"More stairs… urgh, enough!" Elsa complained.

"This wasn't here last time. So Kefka must definitely be down here then. Glad I trusted my gut," Kairi said.

"Shouldn't we wait for Riku, Max and your other friend though?" Elsa asked.

"A peek won't hurt," Kairi told her. That said, much like Elsa, she was not very eager to have to go down another bunch of stairs.

"I think I have an idea. I used to do this with my sister all the time," Elsa stated suddenly. She held out her hand and a sheet of ice covered the stairs. At the same time, with her other hand, she crafted a beautiful ice sleigh in front of them.

"I… approve of this!" Kairi remarked in surprise. "I just feel sorry for the other guys. If this ice doesn't melt then they'll be sliding all the way down on their butts and if it does melt in time, they'll have to walk all the way down."

"Sucks to be them, right?" Elsa held out her and Kairi graciously accepted it. Together, the two climbed onto the sleigh and leaned forward. The sleigh tipped over the edge of the stairs and began to move smoothly along the newly created ice.

* * *

Sora flew forward and ricocheted off Kohle's Keyblade, landing a few feet away from him. He quickly turned on his heel and rushed forward again. He lowered his Keyblade and swung upwards, unleashing a trail of Ice spikes that rose up from the ground. Kohle continuously jumped backwards, cutting the fine shards in a cool and collected manner. Sora looked past him to see Neuge jumping from a raised rock formation that she had created a while ago. She jumped off the edge and tried once again to hit Kohle with her fist. Kohle ducked and shot out bolts of lightning. Sora warped forward past Neuge and cast reflect, the bolts deflecting off the barrier and into the air.

Neuge rejoined Sora and massaged her arms. "This is a waste of time. We're fighting and getting nowhere which, in my opinion, is the worst kind of fight."

"Well supposedly he's immortal. What exactly are we supposed to do about that?" Sora asked.

"We keep hitting him is what we do. Harder and faster. He may heal wounds but at the end of the day he's still human. At least, I think he is," Neuge said. Sora was about to move when he noticed something. He looked down at his feet to see the small pebbles and rocks vibrating slightly. Surveying the area, it seemed that Rhea and Mickey had stopped fighting with Xanatos as well.

"Looks like the cavalry's here. I've been looking forward to showing you this," Xanatos said. As if on cue, two very familiar looking mechanic weapons tumbled down from the cliff nearby and landed in a deafening crash. Their heads popped out of their bodies and their six tentacle legs also came out, raising their bodies in the process.

"Those weapons… Omnidroids?" Sora managed to identify.

"The latest version designed by Syndrome and received full funding from Xanatos Enterprises. They weren't just built to take out 'Supers', you know. They Omnidroids are designed to annihilate anyone or thing that would oppose the new world we intend to create. In other words, they're pretty good at what they do—eliminating Keyblade Wielders."

"Xanatos-"

"Ah-ah-ah, your majesty. It's too late. Allow me to personally demonstrate the power of these mighty behemoths," Xanatos said. As one of the Omnidroids reached them, Xanatos slipped past Rhea and Mickey and entered the Omnidroid's cockpit after it opened its stomach up. The door soon closed and the screen that was its sight sensors turned a light blue.

"What do you say to a temporary truce?" Kohle said, turning back to Sora and Neuge.

"Fine by me," Sora replied. He took off with Kohle and Neuge in tow. Two mounted yet small canons rose out of the Omnidroid's head and fired off several missiles at once. The trio plus Mickey and Rhea dodged each of the shots and ignored the explosions behind them as they continued on their way without faltering.

Neuge was the first to reach Xanatos' Omnidroid and jumped, delivering a flying kick. The robot stumbled backwards from the impact, taking a moment to recover. Rhea sprinted in and slid underneath the Omnidroid before it could attack her. She quickly got back on her feet and continued onto the second Omnidroid.

"Sora!" Mickey yelled for him. Realizing what he was trying to do, Sora ran towards him and grabbed his hand. He used Aeroga to keep them afloat as they performed _Holy Burst_, shooting out balls of light. Xanatos' Omnidroid retracted its legs and went into a ball position before rolling out of the way. Reaching a few rock formations to their right, it changed back into its offensive form and grabbed at the rocks with its arms, throwing them at the Keyblade wielders.

Sora separated from Mickey quickly and warped out of the way of one of the rocks. Kohle had a different idea. More daring, Kohle jumped onto the first flat surface of rock and proceeded to hop from one to the other. He reached the final rock and flipped as a laser shot out of the Omnidroid's visor. Sora had to dive out of the way as the laser cut into and scorched the ground in his immediate path. Looking behind him, he could see the result of the destruction. Hoodoos that had once been standing had now crumbled under insufficient support. Furthermore, pieces of rock seemed to be falling off the face of the cliffs farther past them like an artistic controlled demolition.

"Definitely don't want to get in the way of that," Sora muttered to himself. He turned his head and looked on in surprise. Kohle was on the ground and next to him was the head of the Omnidroid. Somehow, he had managed to avoid that laser and had taken the head with him to the ground.

Letting his guard down however had proved fatal. One of the Omnidroid's arms moved when he was looking in Rhea's direction and grabbed him by the neck, lifting him up.

"Maybe you should actually finish the job next time, Mr. Immortal. If you really can't die then choking the life out of you shouldn't do much, right?" Xanatos said from in the cockpit.

"Kohle!" Rhea yelled. She tried to run forward but the Omnidroid she was fighting grabbed her ankle and threw her into one of the giant rocks.

"Let's go. They need our help!" Mickey said. Sora nodded and set off for Rhea, using the rocks Xanatos had thrown as cover to avoid being detected. He waited for Neuge and Mickey to come in contact with Xanatos before moving over to the next rock. The body of the Omnidroid Xanatos was in rotated until a head that Sora hadn't noticed at the bottom was now at the top.

"Mickey, let's flank him," Neuge strategized. Mickey ran to the left of the Omnidroid and jumped, spinning forward to attack. The Keyblade bounced off the body's armor and sent him falling to the ground. Neuge used Xanatos' preoccupation with Mickey to sneak in under the Omnidroid's body. Cloaking her fist in rock, she punched upwards, launching the giant robot into the air. The arm's grip loosened, freeing Kohle and sending him falling onto the ground, gasping and coughing for air.

Sora finally reached Rhea and looked down to see that her legs were trapped underneath a massive chunk of rock.

"Don't worry, I'll get you out!" Sora yelled. He stood up and pointed his Keyblade at the rocks. As he tried to lift the piece of debris up, he failed to notice that saw blades had sprung out of the autonomous Omnidroid's arms and were heading straight at Sora.

"Look out!" Rhea quickly summoned her own Keyblade and pointed it while upside down, expertly taking out the flying blades with magic.

"How could you tell where they were?" Sora asked in surprise.

"I may not see but my ears are pretty sensitive," Rhea answered with a smile. Sora returned her smile, not because of her words but because of the emotions associated with them. She seemed to harbor no ill will against Sora for what he had done. Though they knew each other very little, Sora felt that, in a way, she considered him a friend. With that thought in mind, Sora pointed his Keyblade at the rock again and cast _Fire_. The flat surface debris broke inward, with Rhea starting to move some of the fractured pieces off of her body.

Sora looked behind him to see the Omnidroid had begun rolling towards them. Quickly he pointed Oblivion at the ground and rose the ground up slightly to form a slope. The Omnidroid rolled up the slope and bounced over his and Rhea's heads, crashing just ahead of them as they quickly worked together to remove the remaining pieces of rock.

"You okay?" Sora checked after helping her up. Rhea nodded and turned her head in the direction of the Omnidroid. Its visor glowed brightly before firing off another laser at them. Sora grabbed Rhea's hand and was about to move but stopped. He didn't have to do anything.

"Sora, what's happening?" Rhea asked. Sora looked on in awe as the laser's energy smacked and crackled against the shield wall that the arriving newcomer had conjured up.

"It's Yen Sid…" Sora answered, finding his voice after a while.

* * *

The sleigh soon reached the bottom and Kairi let out a moan of dissatisfaction when she realized it was all over.

"We had to get off eventually, Kairi," Elsa told her, taking pleasure in her companion's saddened expression.

"It's like a metaphor for life or something, except not at all," Kairi mused. She stood up and stretched before turning her attention to the tunnel up ahead. "This is… different."

What she and Elsa were looking at now was simply breathtaking. The entire cave was covered in selenite crystals sprouting off in different directions and lengths like unruly weed. Their shimmer and radiance were like twinkling stars in the night. Kairi also noted that the temperature in the cave was rather warm compared to above ground. The moisture in the air made it slightly difficult to breathe, and she could already feel the first beads of sweat forming on her forehead.

"Elsa, do you think you could do something about this humidity? I think I might melt if I stay here any longer," Kairi said, fanning her face with her hand.

"I might have something. I just hope I don't freeze you into an ice pop instead," Elsa said.

She lifted up her hands but Kairi quickly stopped her. "Wait, what are the chances of that happening, exactly?"

"Around… forty percent?" Elsa answered with a cringe.

"That confident, huh?" Kairi replied sarcastically. "Well, if you do fail, at least be sure to make me look pretty."

Elsa chuckled and lifted her hands up again. Her clawed hands opened up and breath of ice dust shot out of her hands. Kairi felt a chilly breeze sweeping through the air that calmed her once more. It was akin to taking a cold shower after an extremely hot day—surprising at first but relaxing the more she got used to it. Her eyes gazed upon fluffs of white as they travelled down the tunnel path.

Kairi and Elsa followed the mini blizzard, stepping over and inching their way through the large crystals in their path. At the end of the tunnel, they encountered a split in the path with an additional tunnel going on for who knew how long to their left. They chose instead to continue straight. If they had to, they would explore that path later but for now, what was in front of them was more interesting.

They arrived in a wide open room with a wall of stone veneer at the end and a door in the middle of ancient make. It looked similar to doors used for tomb entrances. What Kairi was more worried about however, was the person standing in front of the door.

"Kefka!" Kairi summoned Destiny's Embrace and pointed it at the red cape. He slowly turned, greeting them with a wide grin. He stepped aside to reveal Esmeralda, bound in chains. She tried to scream for help but only muffled sounds came out of her duct taped mouth. "Kefka. You've gone too far!"

"Oh, distance is all relative, dear. In my mind's eye, I haven't gone far enough," Kefka said.

"I know you're not the leader of KRONOS. You've just gone around pulling the veil over everyone's eyes. David Xanatos is the actual leader, isn't he?" Kairi continued to relay what Elsa had told her about their operation. By the time she was finished, Kefka did not look amused. The grin on his face had slowly faded over time as she talked.

"Oh, I can't believe how boring it was listening to that. This is why no one likes exposition," Kefka complained, his eyes wandering to the ceiling.

"Are you going to take this seriously?" Kairi asked.

"Ooh, seriously… what a disgusting word. Keep it away! In all seriousness though, heh, see what I did there? If you're going to get frustrated over this then I'd like to point out that I'm doing my job quite well," Kefka said. "And speaking of well, how are you doing, Elsa?"

"Good," Elsa replied.

"Just good. Is there a reason why I'm seeing you standing behind the enemy?" Kefka asked.

"The only enemy I see in front of me is the one holding an innocent woman captive," Elsa replied, aiming her hand at Kefka.

"I knew it. You could never quite assimilate into KRONOS well. What Maleficent saw in you, I'll never know. Then again, she never made the best of jobs. Her demise is all the proof you need of her indecisiveness," Kefka said.

"Like you can talk. You'll be joining her soon," Kairi said. She took a step forward to attack but Kefka wiggled his finger at them.

"Ah, ah, ah! You might want to think about your next move carefully. You wouldn't want anything to happen to dear sweet Esmeralda, would you?" Kefka asked. He reached out and delicately stroked Esmeralda's chin. "What do you think, Esmeralda? Should Kairi move?"

"That's enough, Kefka. I get it," Kairi said. She held her Keyblade out and dropped it to the ground. She gave Elsa a quickly look, who slowly lowered her hand. "How did you even find this place anyway?"

"There are supposedly six other tombs just like this, all of them based on the Princess of Hearts. Who knows, there might even be one for you. Wouldn't you like to know what's behind it?" Kefka asked.

"Not with you around," Kairi replied. Hearing something behind her, she quickly ducked as a familiar Keyblade Glider soared past her and slammed straight into Kefka. The jester flipped on his side and landed away from Esmeralda, who ran towards Kairi. Kairi picked up her Keyblade and cut through the chains binding the dancer together, allowing her to peel the duct tape off her mouth.

"Looks like we made it on time," Aqua said. She moved her hand up to her shoulder and pressed against it, freeing herself of her armor. Following behind her was Lea, Max and also Quasimodo.

"That was a pretty shaky ride though. I thought I was gonna fall off for a second there," Max said.

"You did. I had to save you, remember?" Lea reminded him.

Max gave a nervous laugh. "Heh, oh right…"

"Just in time. Nice going, Aqua!" Kairi said to the Keyblade Master.

"I'm sorry about what happened with Roxas. It must have been difficult for you. You can let me take it from here if you need some time off," Aqua suggested.

"Oh, don't worry about me. I'm just worried for Xion. Speaking of which, where is she?" Kairi asked. A sudden violent shake brought their conversation to an end. Kairi fell forward and hit the ground. She quickly curled up into a ball and waited. Was it an earthquake? No, it was something else. Kairi could feel her eardrums pounding. When she focused, she could hear, or at least imagine, the shifting of the earth underneath her. It was a tremor, both physical and emotional, that struck at her core. Was this the light crying out in fear?

The unique sensation soon ebbed away and Kairi found that she could stand on her feet. Looking around, it looked as if everyone else in the room had also been taken aback by the massive earthquake. Kairi then looked downwards to see her hands trembling. She backed up and placed her hands on the wall to stop them.

"I've never felt anything like that before," Esmeralda said. She was visibly shaken from the experience, her eyes wandering about nervously.

"Earthquakes aren't very common in this city, and certainly not at that scale," Quasimodo added. "Maybe it was something else?"

Aqua turned to Kefka who just starting to get back up. "Well, Kefka? Is he right?"

"It's always my fault, isn't it? Something happens and the first thing you place the blame on is the thing you're currently opposing because it's easier for you to wrap your little minds around," Kefka said.

"That's enough, Kefka. You can either come quietly or-"

A second surprise yet awaited them, this time in the form of a shot that flew out past Kairi and hit Kefka square in the chest. She turned around just in time to see Xion walking past her, her Keyblade trained on Kefka. She flicked her Keyblade again and a _Blizzard _projectile shot out, hitting Kefka again.

"Xion-"

"Don't stop me, Kairi!" Xion yelled while facing Kefka. "I'm doing what you should have done a long time ago."

"But-" Kairi reached out for Xion again only to find Lea gripping hold of her arm instead. He simply shook his head and left it at that. Kairi didn't think it was all that simple. Maybe Xion was right. Maybe Kairi should have acted sooner, but the way Xion was going about it wasn't too rational either. In the end, it probably didn't matter what Kairi thought. She had failed Xion, and now she was witnessing the hatred that had followed in its wake.

* * *

It was as if Sora was watching a live symphony unfold. Magic moved along to the rhythm of Yen Sid's fingers as basalt columns rose up from the ground and, like organ pipes, began rising and falling, pummelling the Omnidroid as it did so.

Yen Sid backed away slowly and glanced over at Sora and Rhea. "Sora, you need to leave. You've done all you can here."

"But I can help!" Sora insisted.

"I don't deny that, but there's someone else who needs you more," Yen Sid paused as the Omnidroid managed to get into its defensive stance and roll out of the quake attack.

As Rhea stretched out her hand, Sora began to feel a slight chill in the air. A breezy blizzard flowed in from behind him and attacked the Omnidroid at full force. Ice formed on its body as it rolled towards them and its speed seemed to diminish as a result of the rough shards on its body hampering its performance. This was soon followed by a torrent of fire from Yen Sid. The towering flames rose up from the ground and engulfed the Omnidroid in a dazzling display of amber. Rhea abandoned her Ice magic and instead threw out an _Aeroga_, controlling and confining the flames in a sphere along with the Omnidroid.

As Sora stood there watching Rhea and Yen Sid, he couldn't help but feel overwhelmed, perhaps even out of his league. This was the world he had jumped back in to and he could only dream of one day performing the feats these two, especially Yen Sid, were accomplishing right now.

The flames and wind sphere soon dissipated into nothing, leaving only a malfunctioning Omnidroid. From where he was standing, Sora could smell the burnt residue of fried components and motors.

"Severe damage detected. Activating cooling function," an automatic voice came out of the Omnidroid. Its body lowered before exposing its pilot seat to them, steam pouring out of it. Yen Sid aimed a hand at the Omnidroid before releasing a bolt of electricity. The robot exploded from the overcharge, its pieces flying everywhere, including landing at Sora's feet.

"That was fun," Yen Sid stated.

Rhea gave a jovial laugh and a small nod. "Indeed."

Yen Sid looked towards the other Omnidroid controlled by Xanatos. Neuge, Mickey and Kohle were doing their best to fend off Xanatos while being unaware of Yen Sid's arrival.

"Can I trust you to do something for me?" he asked Rhea.

"You want me to take Sora back, don't you?" Rhea guessed.

"Would that be a problem?"

"No, it would be for the best, I think. I'm sure Kohle will try to go after him once we beat Xanatos. Keeping Sora at a distance will give him some time to calm down," Rhea said. Sora wanted to let them know that he was still there and that his own opinion mattered too, but he just couldn't bring himself to care at the moment. If he didn't know that Luna was suffering at the moment, he might have tried to fight back, but in the face of several discouraging factors, he could no longer fool himself. Right now, he just wanted to leave this place.

"Sora, are you okay with this?" Rhea asked. Sora and Yen Sid's eyes met for a brief moment, only for Sora to look away. As much as he didn't like the sorcerer, he harbored no hatred towards him at this moment. If anything, he was confused, thrust on a border between retaining his dislike and yet there was also a slight admiration.

"Yeah, let's go," Sora submitted. Rhea raised her eyebrows for a moment in surprise. She probably hadn't expected him to say it so quickly nor in the tone of resignation he had used.

"Okay. I'll see him back to Radiant Garden. I promise," Rhea told Yen Sid. He nodded without looking at her and walked off towards the other three Keyblade wielders.

Rhea cut her Keyblade diagonally through the air, creating a corridor of light in the process. There probably could have been a better time, but Sora felt he had to speak out at this point.

"I'm sorry. Maybe you guys were right. I thought I could prove you wrong, but I just ended up proving you right instead," Sora said. "Maybe I can't be trusted with protecting the world. But there's still someone I need to protect."

"You didn't know. None of us did. To be honest, even I didn't want to believe Yeul's prophecy was real. But this is on KRONOS, not you. I hope Kohle realizes that," Rhea said.

"But I'm the one who opened that door. Xanatos couldn't have done that without me. Ugh, I can't believe I trusted him," Sora said.

"If you have frustrations, then use them to get rid of your insecurities and move forward. As long as you keep moving, no matter what obstacles life throws at you, you'll never truly be impeded by them," Rhea said with a warm smile. She was right, of course. Beating himself down wouldn't help at all. More importantly, there was a girl back in Radiant Garden struggling to believe in herself. If he could muster the strength to get through even his darkest day, then maybe he could show that to her. Maybe that would be enough to wake her up.

"Alright, let's go help a friend," Sora said. He crunched his hand into a fist and looked down at it. This time, he would not let go. With that conviction in mind, he disappeared into the bright light along with Rhea.


	88. The Wrath

_A/N: So, I'd intended to put this chapter out by friday but because of some... complications *COUGH*BREXIT*COUGH*, I felt kind of low on energy for a bit. Well, I'm back now and ain't no political discord's gonna stop me. So let's delve back into the wonderful world of Disney where no one has to worry about possible recessions!_

* * *

**Chapter 88**

**The Wrath **

In holding Luna's hand, Sora found the warmth and support he needed. Though she was still sleeping, he still felt as if she were with him, giving him strength and courage. He would need it after Merlin explained to him what he needed to do.

"Her heart is in a state of disrepair, I'm afraid," Merlin had told him and Rhea once they had arrived at Merlin's. The Gullwings, Alice, Namine and Rapunzel were also all there. "If we don't act quickly, her heart will be lost forever."

"Then what do we do? I'll do anything to help," Sora said.

"The problem is I'm not sure there IS anything you can do, m'boy. Her heart is covered in what I call Wrath, that being extreme cases of darkness that reside within a person's heart that threatens to devour any light it comes across. Think of it as this—there's only so much the heart can take and when it's exposed to such extreme conditions, be it light or darkness, the heart cracks under pressure, like if you apply too much force to an egg. My point is that Luna may not be the same again," Merlin explained.

"I don't want to hear what will happen if the darkness takes her. I want to know how I can save her," Sora said.

"I'm afraid you don't understand. That darkness will devour any light in its path. That includes yours. I can send you into Luna's heart but with the level of Wrath I and Alice are sensing, you will almost surely be devoured by it," Merlin said.

"I don't care. If there's a chance, I have to take it. What else am I going to do? Sit down and watch her die?"

_Slap!_

Sora looked on in surprise as Rikku whipped out a tiny hand and smacked him across the face. He put his hand on the area of contact and looked up at Rikku. He could see the others behind him, just as surprised.

"Don't be such a big meanie. We're all trying to help. It's not like we want Luna to die, you know," Rikku squeaked at him. "And don't say you don't care. You should care what happens to you. A lot of people are counting on you, you know. They all want to see you again, including Luna and you're just going to show apathy at a time like this?"

"While I do think you could have said that without slapping him…" Alice started with a smile. "…you are right. Sora, you need to be there with a smile on your face when Luna wakes up. It simply wouldn't do anyone any good if you were to sacrifice yourself just to save her. It's not selfish to want both. More importantly, it's not impossible to gain both either."

"But it's as Merlin says. We don't have enough time to think of something else," Rhea said. "Which is why I'll go with him. Two lights are better than one. Two should be enough for Luna to notice us."

"It'll be three. Luna will be fighting too," Sora corrected before addressing Rikku. "Thank you. You're right, I shouldn't have said that. I do want to come back, and I will. Speaking of caring, you three really do care about my wellbeing, don't you?"

Rikku scoffed. "Wha- no! You just made a promise to us, is all. We can't have you cheating your way out on a death clause or anything."

"Right, your bodies. Well, I'll just pretend then that you did actually care instead, even though you totally do," Sora said. Rikku turned away from him but he had a feeling that it was only to hide the blush on her face.

"Merlin, do you want to tell them about that thing?" Namine reminded the old wizard in between the silence.

"Ah, yes. I dear say something strange happened a while back. I was a reading a book on the sofa when a large earthquake struck. I've never experienced something like this in all my years, and trust me when I say that I've been to many places so you know it comes from experience," Merlin said.

"And Kairi came in contact with Leon a while ago. They felt one too. Not only them, but Terra and Ven contacted Yen Sid a while back and said they experienced it too. It can't just be that three worlds experienced the same thing," Namine told him. "That's also not the full story. The Heartless have suddenly begun fighting with each other. Leon and the others are making sure everyone returns to their homes safely."

"We also felt that earthquake back in the Keyblade Graveyard. I don't know what it is yet but I think Kohle would know," Rhea said. "As for the Heartless fighting one another…"

"That's Xanatos' doing. The chemicals we thought they were using to turn everyone into Chimera didn't actually do that, it seems. Whatever it was caused the Heartless to turn against one another," Sora answered. "I don't think the Heartless will attack anyone but themselves, at least not directly. Then again, it's probably too soon to say that."

"Right, let's focus on saving Luna first," Rapunzel said. "I wish I could go with you Sora. I want to help too!"

"It's alright, Rapunzel. Your moral support is more than enough," Sora assured her. He remembered using that line with Kairi sometimes. It didn't help things for her then so he was sure Rapunzel's feelings wouldn't be entirely quashed now. That was probably for the best anyway. Kairi had accomplished great things in such a short time with her fervor and he was sure Rapunzel could do similar things given the opportunity. "You think I see Luna for a bit? I'll let you know when I'm ready."

"Go ahead. I'd say take all the time you need, but both of us know we don't have time on our side right now," Merlin said.

"Five minutes then," Sora said. The rest of the story pretty much went without saying. He had spent those brief five minutes holding Luna's hands and talking to her. He wasn't even sure if she was listening. Things were probably too chaotic right now for her to be doing such a thing. Or maybe she was. Maybe, at least Sora hoped, she was searching for that one voice she knew all too well to tell her that everything was going to be alright. That's what he liked to think anyway.

"See you on the other side," Sora finished with these words before letting go off her hand. He stood up and left the room, returning back to the living room where he found Rhea chatting with the group as comfortably as if they were all long-time friends.

Namine, being in the corner of the room by herself, was the first to spot Sora and announced his presence. Merlin clasped his hands together.

"Right then, let's get too. We'll all go to Luna's room then," he said. They all nodded and transferred over to the room Sora had been in. He realized as he went back in that it was the same room he had once found himself lying in while poisoned months ago. Merlin had them all gathered around him before speaking again. "Now there's only one small matter to clear up. Once in your heart, you'll more than likely be overwhelmed by that darkness. I very much doubt you'll be able to stay there for long."

"I have my Keyblade armor, so I'll be safe for a while, but you…" Rhea trailed off for a moment. She soon reached for the pauldron on her right shoulder and unstrapped it before holding it out. "Please take it."

"Huh? Why?" Sora asked.

"It'll keep you safe. It might not be fully compatible with you, but I'm sure it senses my feelings enough to keep you safe," Rhea answered.

"But what about you, Rhea? Won't you be affected by the darkness?" Rapunzel asked.

"I already live in it," Rhea said to her.

"No need to be so cool," Sora said, causing her to chuckle. He accepted her gift and attached it to his own shoulder. He was about to press his hand against it when he stopped and looked up at Rhea. "Hey, you sure about this?"

Rhea leaned in and tapped the pauldron for him. His vision was blinded for just a moment and when the light was gone, he could see the world in a tinted orange.

"Oh, now this is cool. Ha, ha, come with me if you want to live," Sora joked while looking around.

"Serious time, Sora," Rhea told him.

"Oh, sorry," Sora said. "Still, it's strange to think it fits me so well."

"That's because the armor can change to accommodate its wearer. This is my first time seeing it though and yes, it's pretty impressive," Rhea said.

"Alright then. Let's get to work. Ready when you are, Merlin," Sora declared. Merlin gave a nod and began waving his wand about. Sora suddenly began to feel a queasy sensation in his stomach, though he wasn't sure if it was because he was nervous or because of Merlin's magic. Either way, the transition into a completely new location he had never been to before was as seamless as it was confusing.

He was standing in front of the gates of what looked like a school. Looking up, Sora's eyes widened in horror. The clouds in the night sky were moving faster than he had ever seen before. It was unnatural and terrifying. Was this really Luna's heart?

"Where are we?" Rhea asked.

"Um, Luna's school, I think? The gate's over here." Sora ran his nails over the gate so she could hear the sound of grated metal.

"Then she's here?" Rhea asked.

"Could be. Let's start looking around," Sora said. It didn't need to be said aloud that they needed to be careful so he left it at that and summoned the Kingdom Key, pointing it the gate's lock.

"How's the view?" Rhea suddenly asked.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Your view. It should be back to normal by now," Rhea pointed out.

"Oh, yeah! Didn't even realize," Sora chuckled. The orange tint of his vision had slowly faded over time to the point where he hadn't even realized it. There was still the conscious awareness of the fact he was wearing a helmet on his head to get used to but at least his vision was clear again.

The gate unlocked and Sora pushed it open. Taking Rhea's hand, he began guiding her into the empty school grounds. As they walked farther into the school, an uneasy silence and eeriness waited for them. They eventually found their way inside the school, where only the sound of their footsteps travelled down the halls. Down the hall were a number of doors that led into classrooms. Sora eased of the glass pane of the first one he had peered into and pressed down on the door's handle, exposing him to a full view of the room.

What should have been the room at night however, was instead a classroom with the sun pouring in through the windows and its inhabitants either sitting down at their tables or talking with their friends. If he had to guess, then he'd say that he was experiencing one of Luna's memories. He conveyed that much to Rhea.

"I do hear the hustle and bustle of classroom life. Oh, to be young again," Rhea said in a fanciful tone.

"What was your school like?" Sora asked.

"I was put in a special school because of my disability. You learn something called Braille there. It's what helps me to read," Rhea explained. "It was a private school though with really good education and assistance. You?"

"Eh, what can I say? School is school. Homeroom, break and lunch times were the best times and by the last lesson I was just counting the minutes until it ended," Sora told her. He quickly located the one person he was looking for among the herd. Luna sat by her desk next to the only open window in the classroom, glancing outside every now and then with a bored expression on her face.

"There she is. Luna!" Sora put his hand up and waved, trying to call her over, but it seemed that she hadn't yet noticed him.

"Sora, stop. I don't think that's the actual Luna," Rhea told him. "When we're here, no one can see us. It's just a memory after all, and you can't interfere with memories."

Sora looked away from Rhea and back at the class. When he did, he could see only shadows in the shape of humans. They were chatting, like they had been before, but their voices were drowned out and inaudible. The only person who wasn't a shadow was Luna. Now that Sora thought about it, Luna did seem different. Her face was slightly more childlike and rounder and her hair wasn't done up as it usually was.

"Luna was all alone at school. She couldn't fit in with the others no matter how much she tried," Sora paused and watched two silhouettes in the shape of girls glancing at Luna every few seconds and giggling amongst themselves before walking up to her. They stopped in front of Luna's desk and one of the girls leaned forward and pressed her hands down on its surface.

"What do you want, Tabitha?" Luna asked, keeping her eyes on the green hills and mountains in the distance.

"Oh, do I not exist then?" the girl who wasn't Tabitha asked.

"I… no. Of course you do," Luna murmured. She jumped when Tabitha lifted her hands and slammed it back on the table.

"You have a lot of nerve, Loony—stealing the lunch money in my desk. What, too poor to afford your own lunch?"

"I didn't steal your money," Luna said.

"So you're saying Momo's lying then?"

"Yes. Momo lies about a lot of things," Luna replied.

"Don't you try to turn her against me, I know what I saw you little snot," Momo snapped.

"The only thing you're good at seeing is your own delusions of grandeur," Luna remarked with a small smile hidden behind her hand.

"What's that even supposed to mean?" Momo questioned, but Tabitha cut her off.

"If you were at least honest about it, maybe I'd actually respect you more. But since we're playing games, I guess you won't mind if we borrow this." Tabitha swiped the sketchbook in front of Luna before she could react and opened it up. "What the heck is this?"

"Ooh, ooh, let me see, Tab!" Momo tiptoed on her feet and leaned in to get a better look. Her face slowly transitioned into one of disgust. "What the hell are you on, Loony? And here I thought my old man hit the hard stuff."

"That's not for you. Give it back!" Luna reached out for the book but Tabitha held it just out of her reach, not something worth of accomplishment given Luna's shorter arm span.

"What are you? Five? Oh, this is hilarious. We have to show this to Wedge," Tabitha said.

"Oh, look at the little fairy with wings. Oh, is that supposed to be you, Loony? Can't be a good fairy then," Momo commented with a sneer.

"I said give it back! Please!" Luna yelled. She rose from her chair and desperately made for the silhouetted Tabitha who handed the book to Momo.

"Personally I think you need to be more grounded in the reality. Would Loony like a prescription?" Momo chanted before throwing the sketchbook out the window.

"No… my mom gave that to me. Why? What did I ever do to you?" Tears streamed from Luna's face. Sora heard the faint muffling of Luna's classmates in the room deaden at this point. When he looked at them, they all seemed to be focused on the crying Luna. Tabitha chose this time to show off in a way that made Sora's blood boil entirely. Moreover, he could feel a lump forming in his throat that was hard to swallow down and his teeth had begun grinding against one another.

Standing on Luna's table, Tabitha adopted the pose of a queen. "Oh dear. Everyone, it would seem that our dear little pampered princess dreams on a daily basis of stars, fairies and other magical creatures."

The classroom erupted into booming laughter like thunder. Momo, eager to capitalize off of the attention her friend had garnered, could only add to the humiliation.

"Now, now, everyone, it's okay. We should all be supporting and encouraging of our friend as she journeys into the land of sugar plum fairies."

That was enough for Luna. With tears in her eyes, she walked towards the classroom door where Sora and Rhea were standing. She could have very easily run out, but he imagined somewhere that Luna didn't want to give them that satisfaction. As she came up to him, he reached out for her. She walked through him instead.

Sora suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. He doubled over and gritted his teeth in annoyance.

"Sora, you can't exert yourself that much," Rhea told him.

"What do you mean?"

"The darkness here is probably attracted to intense spikes of emotion like what you just displayed. Don't give it the chance to consume you. I know that probably wasn't very easy for you to see. It certainly wasn't easy on my ears." Rhea waited until he stood up before continuing. "You know, maybe we should avoid these memories. It feels intrusive."

"Yeah… they'll probably just end up making me angrier anyway," Sora said. He stepped out of the room with Rhea and closed the door behind him. He was about to take his hand off the handle when Rhea placed a hand on his and stopped him.

"Wait," Rhea said. The two of them remained in silence with Rhea eyeing their hands a bit too intensely for Sora's liking and Sora completely clueless as to what was happening. "We need to move. Something's chasing us."

"Excuse me?"

Rhea's hands left Sora's, freeing his own from being sandwiched in between hers and the handle. "The darkness. Let's keep moving!"

Sora wasn't about to object to that. He took hold of Rhea's hand again and set off down the hallway. It didn't take long to witness visually what Rhea had heard from far away. A swarm of dark liquid burst through the hallway door they had come from like a flood. As it reached the other doors in the hallway, it smashed through them with tremendous force, swallowing each room whole.

Sora and Rhea kept running as fast as they could. They barged through the door ahead, arriving in a square room that connected the hallway they had come from to another as well as having a few classrooms in between and stairs to his left that went up to the second floor of the school. Hearing a lack of forthcoming darkness like the sound of rushing water behind him, Sora let out a sigh of relief and let go of Rhea's hand. He approached one of the doors and tried to open them, only to find that the door wouldn't budge.

"Why won't this door open? Is it locked?" Sora asked, stepping back after his efforts proved fruitless. He was doubtful of that however. Even handles on locked doors moved if even the slightest when looked. This one felt like it was frozen stiff in place however.

"That or… I may be wrong here, but since this is a memory, maybe Luna's never interacted with this room before. It's not a part of her memory so we can't go in. It's kind of like the concept of Schrödinger's Cat, when I think about it. The place doesn't exist in her memories because its state wasn't observed by her," Rhea said.

"Okay, Rhea, that's just silly. Who is Schrödinger and why is their cat so important?" Sora asked. Before Rhea could explain, her eyes flickered to the stairs behind them. Hastily, she grabbed Sora and pulled him with her towards the wall just the swarm of darkness came rushing down the stairs.

"Come on, we've got to go!" Sora told her. He spotted a weak point within all the darkness that they could break through and get to the other side. He approached the wave cautiously at first, keeping his eye on the room. Objects slowly melted around the room as they walked—the notice board with all its leaflets and messages, the trophy cabinet, even the classroom doors themselves. Everything this darkness touched melted away before his eyes and yet, even knowing this, he knew even more that he had to be calm, as Rhea had said. That was a hard thing to do, of course, but somehow he was managing just fine. He had this idea in his head that it had something to do with Rhea as well.

The wave had made an arch as it bounced of the stairs into the room, meaning that Sora and Rhea could slip underneath that arch to access the other corridor. As soon as that was accomplished, the two of them broke off into a run again, Sora using his shoulder as a battering ram to push through the doors.

He was… falling? It took him a moment for his brain to comprehend what was happening. He had, after all, just been running through a school, so for him to find himself falling out of said school that was apparently more than two thousand feet in the air was a strange experience.

"AAAAHHH! WHAT'S HAPPENING?" He heard Rhea scream through the wind from above him. He looked towards her to see that she was absolutely terrified, not that he would have blamed her but it was still surprising to see her like this given her usual calm demeanour.

"Uh, I don't know how to put this in a way that makes sense but we just dropped out of school… quite literally," Sora yelled back to her.

"I don't know if a joke at this time is really appropriate!" Rhea screamed.

"Well, at least I can entertain you while we plunge to our deaths," Sora replied. "Like for example, when Luna was being framed in her home world by KRONOS, I decided to take the _fall _for her."

"Okay, you and I both know that joke just fell flat," Rhea said.

"Well lookey here, I'm being out punned," Sora said. It seemed weird that in a time of such crisis, they could still crack a joke or two but in his defense, they had been falling for quite a while now. He didn't think it was possible, but he had somehow gotten used to it after a while.

Sora was about to use the Kingdom Key to slow them down when he saw the dark wave burst out of the school above. As the swarm came rushing down towards them, Sora fired a couple of shots past Rhea. Explosions lit up the sky, as the _Firaga_ shots smacked against the swarm, but other than slowing it down slightly, it seemed to have little effect.

Rhea summoned her Keyblade and cast _Thundaga_. A light seemed to come down from the clouds and struck the horde. This seemed to cause the swarm to split apart, but only for a few seconds before reforming and continuing its pursuit. That didn't seem to stop Rhea either however, who continuously cast lightning magic at her foe. Sora quickly joined in with his Homing Firagas. Red and purple mixed and rippled across the sky, splitting the swarm several times. In the end however, the magic never quite seemed to get rid of swarm completely. It always regrouped and came back after each hit, like disturbed liquid finding its way back to form in the container which it was held.

Writing their attacks off as a futile endeavour, Sora turned around and spotted a door floating in the air directly below him. As he neared it, he recognized the red light at the top of the door. It was similar to the ones found in the Monster's Inc. factory. He forced himself upwards by casting Aeroga and caught Rhea before heading towards the door.

"What are we doing?" Rhea asked.

"Just trust me," Sora said. It wasn't much of an answer but he needed to concentrate on not missing the door. He closed his right eye and focused on the door before launching the plasma hand from his Keyblade. The hand latched onto the doorknob, allowing to Sora to pull it clean off. His Keyblade disappeared from his hand, and he twisted his body slightly so that his back was the first thing to meet contact with door as he and Rhea crashed through it.

"Oh, my back… I'm gonna need a chiropractor when this is over," Sora groaned as Rhea rolled off him.

"Oh, we're on the ground. We're not… dead?" Rhea asked.

"Feels pretty narrow in here though. Is this a closet?" Sora sat and looked around to see pieces of clothing up on their hangers. Behind them were a collection of shoe boxes all stacked up neatly.

Rhea pressed her index finger to her lips though Sora could only just barely make this out in the dark. She lowered her finger slightly then pointed over to the door. Sora nodded and gave the closet door a slight push, exposing them to the view outside. Even from the limited view he had, he could tell that it was a young girl's bedroom. Considering whose heart he was in, he had a pretty good idea of who it belonged to without even having to look at the person in the bed.

* * *

The four-year-old Luna sat up, staring at her closet in fear. Had she just imagined it or had she heard something coming from her closet? She was sure it wasn't the wind, she had her window closed. Even more worrying, her closet door had just opened slightly for no reason.

"Mom?" Luna called out loud. She dragged the covers over her closer to her chin, not wanting to move from the bed just in case something happened.

"What is it, Luna?" Her mother came through the door, a look of concern on her face. "Is something wrong?"

"I think there's a- a monster in my closet," Luna said, pointing at the closet door.

"Again? Luna, there's nothing there, I promise. Get some sleep, you have school tomorrow," Kaylah said. When her daughter shook her head however, Kaylah smiled and walked over to her. Sitting down on the edge of Luna's bed, she reached out and stroked Luna's hair affectionately. "Okay, should I tell you a story?"

"Yes, please," Luna answered with a smile. These were always her favorite moments with her mother. Her stories were always wonderful to hear.

"Okay, let's see... A long time ago, there was a village that was ruled by children, for children. The children would stay up until late at night and play to their hearts' content until they were ready to sleep. Then, they would wake up at any time they wanted to in the morning, maybe even afternoon if they pleased. For them it was a utopia, free of all the rules and restrictions that bound the world outside of theirs. However, it was not to last forever. One night, while the children were dancing around their annual Halloween bonfire, a monster approached their little village, its movements encouraged by the red flame it had seen from its mountain home. Upon seeing the monster for the first time, the children of the village all scattered, leaving the monster confused. It could not understand why anyone had run from it. The following night it returned, wanting to learn more about these children and their ways. They were like aliens to him, so it was only natural curiosity that led him to try and learn more about them. The children spotted him again and ran yet again, but he still couldn't figure out why they were running."

"It's because he looked different, right?" Luna asked.

"Exactly. In their minds, maybe even in the stories told to them when they were young, they had been brought up to believe that monsters like him were always bad news. I suppose in a way, the children weren't completely free from the world outside. There was one child however, who didn't carry her prejudices with her. She was the youngest of the children. The monster refused to come back to the village after the second time. His feelings had been hurt. She waited day by day, hoping to meet him and show him that not everyone was afraid of him. The other children of course, thought she was crazy. 'You want to be gobbled up by that monster?', 'We're all going to die!', 'I want my mommy!' and so on and so forth, they cried. So the little girl decided on something all by herself. She would go to him. Slipping out at early dawn, the girl set off through the woods and up into the mountains. To any other person, it would seem foolish for such a young girl to leave the comforts of her home for the unknown. For her, foolish wasn't something she would use to describe herself, but neither was brave, daring or heroic. She simply wished to help someone, and that was that. She was on a narrow path heading toward the cave in the mountains when she slipped. She was about to fall off when something grabbed hold of her hand. When she looked up, she saw the monster, except that he was no monster in her eyes. In that moment, their hearts touched. There was little that needed to be said between them. Starting from that moment, they had become friends. So Luna, you need to understand that even if there is a monster inside your closet, he's just as much afraid of you as you are of it, probably even more so. And speaking of which…"

Kaylah stood up and walked over to the closet. Luna brought her covers up again slightly. Her mother opened the door and peered in before backing out and showing her the closet.

"See? Hopefully that clears everything up for you. You've nothing to fear," Kay announced proudly. "If the darkness ever tries to scare you, you plant both feet down firmly and show it who's boss."

"Mom?"

"Yes, hon?"

"You always use a little girl in your stories. Are they the same person?" Luna asked.

Kay's eyes looked up at the ceiling for a moment as if she was mulling over something. "Who can say? I imagine in my mind, at least, that this girl can travel to other stories and has an active role to play in each story. What do you think?"

"I think I want to be like her!" Luna exclaimed with a beam. "Does she have a name?"

Her mother ponderously let her eyes wander. "A name… hmm, let's see. How about… Moira?"

"That's a great name. If I ever had a little sister, would you call her that?" Luna asked.

Kay laughed. "Not likely. Moira was actually supposed to be your name but your father didn't really like it. 'Too old-fashioned', he said. In the end, we decided with Luna, which I'm pretty happy about honestly."

"Ah, dad's an old fart anyway," Luna commented.

"Hey, thirty-three's not all that old. Or are you calling your mother an old fart too? Huh? Huh?" Kay pounced on Luna's bed like a child and began tickling her daughter.

"No, mom, stop! I- I ha- that!" Luna squirmed out. Her mother soon ceased her aimless targeting of Luna's sides and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"Night, sweetie. Love you," Kay said.

* * *

Sora watched as Kay left the room and turned back to see that Luna was lying back on her pillow. He had heard about Luna's relationship with her parents many times from Luna, but seeing it was entirely different. Like Rhea had said, he felt nosy for happening upon such a private moment between mother and daughter, but he couldn't help but feel warm inside all the same.

"Moira is a nice name," he heard Rhea whisper behind him. She looked straight at him. "Funny coincidence, huh?"

"I suppose, but maybe it's a pretty common name around Alexander. I know two people back on the islands by the name of Lara, not the least of which is my mom," Sora said. "What I'm more concerned about is why Luna noticed us in the first place. That was us opening the door, right? I thought we couldn't interact with memories?" Sora asked.

"I can't say for sure. Maybe the closer we get to her actual self, the more she becomes aware of us. It's just a theory anyway. Best not to dwell on it too much. Let's keep going," Rhea replied. Sora slowly pushed open the door halfway and crept his way around slowly while guiding Rhea.

Opening the door, Sora found himself stepping into yet another area that familiar and yet unfamiliar at the same time. Behind him was Luna's house, undisturbed and peaceful. In front of him, however, was Radiant Garden. He recognized where they were immediately, being just outside where Merlin's house used to be. It was an unsettling environment, empty, dark and quiet where it truly felt to Sora as if anything could jump out at any time to attack them. Perhaps most disturbing, however, was that the rest of the architecture did not entirely look like the town he knew, but some pseudo amalgamation of architecture from other worlds mixed in between the parts he knew to be of Radiant Garden.

"We're in some weird mix of Alexander and Radiant Garden now. Boy am I gonna give Luna a piece of my mind when we find her," Sora said.

"Then we'll have to move even faster. Luna might not be able to take much more now," Rhea said.

Sora guided Rhea up the familiar streets of the Residential District and beyond. He noticed several changes as he walked, including the Turm des Himmels leaning on its hinges. These all seemed to be places from Luna's past that she held dear to her heart, Sora realized as he counted the number of familiar buildings—Kit's Bakery, Pride Rock off in the distance, Roger and Anita's house—Sora turned here into the next street. He could feel the darkness around him almost intensifying, as if telling him not to go on any farther. He pushed on, even more confident now that he was going the right way.

The two soon arrived at the lake where he and Luna had frequented many times in Radiant Garden—their 'secret place'. Admittedly, it was his gut feelings that had led him here, not his brain. He was right to have trusted it. Luna lay on the ground just by the water in a state of unconsciousness.

Sora let Rhea's hand fall and ran over to Luna's side. "Luna! Luna! I'm here. It's me, Sora. Come on, wake up. Please wake up!"

* * *

"_Look what we have here for the birthday girl!" _

_Luna's face grew brighter as she sat in the room with her parents and Astra. On the table, a pink icing cake with a lacy white ribbon over the words 'Happy Birthday 16' lay half eaten. Luna had made it through yet another year of her life, and probably one of the most important ones as well. She was in high school now. _

_Streams from party poppers were strewn across the floor and a celebratory banner hung high above them. Luna set down the party blower that was in her mouth and looked at the small case in her mother's hands. It was the type of velvet casing one would hold jewellery in. Accepting her mother's gift, she opened the case to see a pendant with a silver crown attached to the chain. It was quite simple and yet there was something about it, something familiar…_

"_Luna, are you okay?" Astra asked worriedly. There was a tear rolling down Luna's cheek. It wasn't happiness—that much Luna was sure about. For some reason, she couldn't shake off the feeling that she had seen this pendant before. Was she sad that she couldn't remember where she had seen it? Maybe it had just been at a jewellery shop? No… something like this probably wouldn't have left such an impression on her…_

"_Luna, if something's wrong, don't leave us in the dark," Kaylah fretted. "Is there something wrong with it?"_

"_No. It's beautiful," Luna said. She walked over and pressed herself into her mother. Perhaps by hugging her mother as if her own life depended on it, she felt she could throw off these unnecessary feelings that were beginning to settle in the pit of her stomach. Right now, she didn't want to think. It hurt too much to think. But why? Why did it hurt too much? _

_Kay grinned and stroked the back of her daughter's head. "He-he, now I know there's a problem. You haven't hugged me like this since you were thirteen."_

"_I'm fine, really. I've just realized how much I've taken the three of you and Aunt Kit for granted. I love all of you, I really do," Luna said while backing away. "I'm just afraid that one day I might wake up and not have any of this. Is that normal?" _

"_Hmm, you really are your mother's child, aren't you?" Her father, Ronan, said while scratching the back of his neck. "Kay's always managed to surprise me with the occasional philosophical question every once in a while that just grinds the gears in my brain to a halt."_

"_It's not my fault that you only use about eighty percent of that noggin of yours for catching fish," Kay wittily retorted. _

_**Luna. Luna.**_

_Luna spun around in a panic and looked about frantically as if searching for something. She supposed she was, but she wasn't quite sure what she was searching for. It felt like there was a gentle breeze that had swept through the room, calling out for her. Something definitely wasn't right here. _

_Astra, as always, was the first to point this out. "Are you sure there isn't something else on your mind, Sea Salt? You look a bit spooked. Come on, it's your sixteenth birthday. Lighten up a bit."_

"_My sixteenth… right," Luna replied, or had it been a confirmation to herself? It was most definitely her sixteenth…_

_Sixteen?_

_No, she had already had a sixteenth birthday, hadn't she? There was something… in her memory, like a faint image or an idea that she had done something like this before. It wasn't quite déjà vu either. That was the experience of feeling like you had already done or seen something before. What happened here however was quite different. It was akin to doing something but realizing that there was another memory of the same event having taken place in her head, in a different room with different people surrounding her._

_**Luna, wake up! Please, wake up!**_

_She looked down at the crown pendant in her hand again. "This is right, isn't it? It looks right but it feels… no! Today is my birthday and I'm spending it with my family and Astra. I have to be!"_

* * *

Sora was so focused on trying to wake Luna up that he failed to notice the figure in black creeping up to him. The thing with darkness however, was that it could come from anywhere at any time, without warning. To that end, not even Rhea was able to pick up on the figure for its feet made no noise.

Feeling a cold metal pressing against the back of his neck, Sora froze in place, his hand left hovering over Luna's face.

"You two have been messing with my host's head. This isn't your home. Leave," the calm voice of Abraxas greeted him. Sora's eyes widened and he summoned the Kingdom Key, deflecting Abraxas' own Keyblade and getting out of the way quickly.

"Abraxas? No… you're different. You're the darkness that's taken over Luna's heart," Rhea surmised.

"It is? You mean the thing that's been chasing us? But then, why does it look like Abraxas?" Sora asked.

"My guess is that the Heartless in Luna's heart managed to latch on to a certain memory, one just as dark in its nature and intentions as it. For Luna, the memory she fears the most is probably of Abraxas," Rhea said. She summoned her Keyblade and pointed it at the fake. "And if I really am right about that then you're the one who doesn't belong, here _or _in that body. I may not have known Abraxas. My only memories of him were when he was still Kyle, and in my mind, he still is. Get out of his body right now," Rhea said with a piercing glare that broke through her glazed over eyes.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," Abraxas replied.

"I'm sorry, maybe I can make this clearer for you," Sora said, walking up to him. "You don't have a choice in the matter. Leave. Luna. Alone."

It was as if Abraxas had not heard him. He instead lifted his arms to his face and twisted them, seeming to marvel at the way they moved. He soon paused and looked up at Sora.

"These joints… so flexible… so… responsive. As a Heartless, I do not have these things. Muscle memory, your species call it? Compared to you, we act purely on instinct. If a heart is nearby, we cannot help ourselves but to devour it whole. It is in our very nature, as I understand it. But now, thanks to this man here, I have a mind of my own. I grew inside this girl's heart, developing and responding to changes within Luna's own mind and physiology via the process of adaptation. The Heartless around us were no different, connected by invisible string. We would, in time, evolve and who knows? We may not have even needed other people's hearts by the time we were able to fully comprehend our own existences. But that won't happen now. I've felt it. The cries of my own species as they slaughtered each other, spurred on by insanity. All that development, all that evolution, wiped out in only a few hours. Even I feel it. A regression into madness. I am… afraid."

"Afraid?" Rhea asked.

"Of myself… of you and your ilk… Ever since my conception, I've only ever known my current vessel's body to be my home. I believe by your species' rules, when an individual or group finds themselves being endangered, it is only natural that they will do anything to protect the remainder of their own or at least act to mitigate the damage. Surely then, you must understand why I have no choice. I may very well by now be the last of my kind. I need Luna to survive. Surely you can respect that."

"I might have, if you hadn't tried to kill us several times now," Sora said. "You've rested here this entire time poisoning Luna from the inside. You've manipulated her several times now which shows me that if you cared for her at all, you wouldn't have done what you did. Also, you ask me to understand and respect your right to survival when you can't even respect Luna's? You're a real hypocrite, you know that?"

"No different from you then, 'protector of the realm of light'," Abraxas challenged.

Sora smiled. His endorphins were beginning to kick in, making him feel more daring and reckless. "You have a point there, but then again, I've made my bed. I'll gladly lie in it. I'll be whatever I need to be to protect Luna, to protect my friends. Call me whatever you want, but by the end, your words will mean nothing to me if I've accomplished what I set out to do. You want Luna as your vessel? You're going to have to fight for it and I'm afraid that's a fight you won't win."

The Heartless gave a creepy chuckle which turned into a full on laugh. Sora looked over at the lake to see strands of darkness moving forward across the water's surface. The darkness soon wrapped around Abraxas' body until his form became indecipherable. When the giant orb of darkness finally disappeared, Sora found himself looking at the very thing from Luna's nightmares that she had confided to him. Digging its feet into the dirt, the rhinoceros began its charge forward.


	89. Comfort: For The Girl Who Has Everything

_A/N: Spoilers. Some of you may or may not get what you want in this chapter *wink*. Also, if you like what you're reading, please feel free to like and/or review. There's only one or two more chapters left!_

* * *

**Chapter 89**

**Comfort: For the Girl Who Has Everything**

The two Keyblade wielders ducked and weaved as they flung attack after attack at the unstoppable Rhino-shaped Heartless. Jets of red, purple and blue raced forward and smacked against the Heartless' armor, which just seemed to shake off the onslaught of magic.

"_FREEZE!" _Rhea yelled, pivoting on one foot. She spun around and aimed her Keyblade at the ground. A frosty blue coating sprayed out on the ground as the rhino charged, sending it into a hysteric rampage as it slid across the ground, trying to regain its footing. Sora took advantage of the rhino's instability and emerged from the bushed, swinging his Keyblade in a diagonal swing. The tip of his Keyblade just missed the mark however and he found himself slipping on Rhea's Ice instead.

"Oh, shiitake mushrooms! I didn't accidently get you instead, did I Sora? I'm so sorry," Rhea apologized in a panic. The way she was pleading with him made it seem like she was in more a state of panic than the rhinoceros or Sora was.

"No, it's not your fault. Don't worry!" Sora assured her as he tried to stand back up. He received a little bit of a push when the Heartless slid into him on purpose. The force off the blow was something similar to a punch in the stomach, like his lungs were collapsing in on themselves. Sora was knocked off his feet and sent flying into the grass.

"_THUNDAGA!_" Rhea cast. The bright purple bolt soared forward, just as the rhino swerved around to meet her. It had mastered the Ice ring and now it was using Rhea's magic against them both. The thunderbolt hit the Heartless' horn before being ejected back out. The sensation of a fine knife cutting across her cheek was felt as tried to leap out of the way of the attack. The magic travelling faster than the sound was what had caused the delay for her, but aside from the sting, she was otherwise uninjured.

Sora somehow found himself back on his feet and looked over to where Luna was, by the lake. His only guarantee was that the Heartless wouldn't dare harm the vessel it depended upon to survive. He took a few deep breaths before heading back into the fray. The first thing he needed to do was break up the Ice Rhea had laid on the ground.

"_Fire!_" Sora yelled. A chunk of ice broke off and flew up into the air, allowing Sora to bat it at the rhinoceros as it advanced towards Rhea. It's center of balance already sensitive, the additional force sent the rhino spiralling on all fours across the last remnants of Ice.

"_Zantetsuken_!" Rhea slashed her Keyblade through the air. For the moment, it seemed as if nothing had happened. After all, Rhea had just swung randomly in the air. But then again, that was all she had to do. The rhino's horn soon came clean off and Sora was reminded of something Donald and Goofy had once told him about Rhea's powers. Apparently, a special feature of her Keyblade allowed for her to 'negate' causation, whatever that meant. Sora didn't all understand how that was possible, but if that was what he just witnessed then he was incredibly impressed.

"Sora!" Rhea addressed him suddenly. "Go help Luna. I can hold this thing off but I don't think we can beat it while Luna's heart is like this. It's a stretch, but I think restoring her heart back to the way it was will weaken it."

"But she's not waking up. I don't know what else I can do," Sora replied.

"You'll think of something. Right now, I'm sure Luna's looking for someone to guide her. Speak to her, Sora. Let her hear your voice," Rhea said. The rhino, having recovered from its split horn, made to turn for Sora, possibly after hearing what Rhea had said. Rhea cast _Barrier_, the rhino's head rebounding off the invisible wall. "Sora, GO!"

Sora nodded, turned heel and sprinted off for Luna. In his short run, he explored the possible ways in his head that he could reach Luna. Once he had finally reached her however, he could come up with nothing that he hadn't tried before. He was stumbling and bumbling his way through as always with no plan and it hurt that he just had to hope something connected with her.

His first thought was one that wasn't without risk. He tapped his hand against his shoulder where Rhea's pauldron had been and deactivated the suit of armor. Already he could feel the darkness gripping into his flesh like thick vines, but he gritted his teeth and still his nerves. He looked down at Luna, opened his mouth, and began to speak.

* * *

Luna had never been so nervous in her life. She had made it through her final year of school, passed her exams with flying colors and now she was graduating. Her heart beat faster and faster until it practically felt like it was about to rip out of her chest. Her class was currently being called up to the stage to receive their certificates and she of all people was supposed to be the one making the speech. The speech that many would look back on when they were older and reflect on the years of their lives when things were easy.

"And now a few words from our student council president before she receives her award, I hardly think she needs any introduction but I'm required to say it anyway. Give it up for Luna from Class 7B!"

Luna stiffened like a plank board. Around her were applauses and whistles, but they only served to frighten her even more. She felt a comforting hand on her lap. She looked up to see Astra smiling at her. Luna nodded and she slowly rose from her feet. She could feel the many eyes on her as she travelled across the front of the auditorium and ascended the steps onto the stage. Parents, friends, teachers… the pressure was mounting, but she had to remain calm.

Finally reaching the podium where the microphone was located, she quickly located her parents in the back and waved to them. "Thank you. My fellow students. We've made it! It's been a tough year, and a lot of you have worked incredibly hard to get where you are today. It wasn't easy either, our teachers certainly made sure of that." There were chuckles around the room. Glad that her joke had landed, she relaxed a little and continued. "But I think more than anything, they push us hard because they know we can take it. We're not brittle. We don't bend easily and we don't tear. We're Alexandrians, not only that but the next generation of the bunch. We'll be the ones taking charge of this country eventually, and we need to leave it in the best possible condition as our parents and teachers have left it for us. But, you know, we won't just keep it the same. That would be boring, so let's give it everything we've got and strive to make it even better. Yes, you can take that as an official challenge, adults. Insert drop mic here and stuff."

_Another round of laughter. We're doing it girl. Let's finish 'em off! _

"So, let me just talk a bit about my experience first, not that yours aren't just as important. Everyone has a story to tell and… well, mine begins a little differently from most of yours. It was a rough patch at first. I was an introvert, I usually studied by myself and I didn't really have any friends. It's hard just thinking about it. Then, I met Astra. She was and is to this very day, my best friend. She made me realize that there really was nothing that I couldn't do if I put my mind to it.

"One friend became two, two became ten and soon I came to be accepted by most of my classmates. I grew out of my shell, and now I'm truly happy… truly… happy…" When Luna looked away from her hands, up to the audience, she found herself looking at an empty auditorium. Her eyes scanned the room, first with mounting confusion. Then, fear. Where had everyone gone? Her parents, the other parents, her fellow graduates, Astra… they were all gone.

Luna made to turn around but froze in sight of someone very similar. The younger Luna reached out to touch her but Luna backed away apprehensively.

"Luna, this isn't where you're supposed to be and you know it," her younger self told her.

"No, you're wrong! I-"

"You never had a graduation. You were never the president of the student council. You're only friend out of all those people was and still is Astra to this day, Need I say more? Your parents-"

"SHUT UP! I HATE YOU!" Luna cried. She dropped to her knees and lay on her side, curling up into a ball. "I hate this feeling. I don't know who I am anymore or what I want. I'm so confused. Please don't make it worse."

"Luna, confronting the past is difficult, but it has to be done so we can move on to the future. You've had it bad, worse than any girl your age deserves, yes, but you're not alone. There are so many people waiting for you on the outside." The young Luna walked over to her older self and sat down beside her.

"I'm sorry. I've been trying to keep the darkness inside you at bay for so long, but it seems in the end I failed. As someone who's supposed to be your light, I've done a pretty poor job of protecting you, don't you think?" Young Luna rested her head against Luna's shoulder and closed her eyes. "I've wanted to do this for such a long time. When you hug someone, it suddenly feels like all your worries are so far away."

There was a long pause, not because Luna was afraid of saying anything, but because she was trying to ascertain as to how she felt. Collating her feelings and thoughts proved more difficult than she expected given how chaotic they were, but Luna's young self was ultimately right. With the girl's warmth by her side, things began to feel more relaxing and soothing. The storm that was her mind had subsided and what was left was a tranquil feeling similar to looking out at a lake.

"It does," Luna finally responded. The scenery around her had changed. She was in her bedroom, sinking into the softness of her bed covers. "I kept fighting, because I didn't want to face the past. When my parents died, I died too. Me? I'm not her. All I know I am is a girl who keeps fighting and going to other worlds, leaving out something that feels like a dream. I suppose it's weird. What most would consider a normal reality, I'm dreaming about, and what some could only dream about, I'm living out in reality."

"Do you feel like—" The young Luna paused for a moment as she considered her question. "—Like you don't deserve the reality you've been given?"

"I don't know. I don't feel like I worked for it. It just sort of… happened," Luna answered. "And besides, I killed my parents. It doesn't matter whether it was some Heartless controlling me at the time or not, it was still my body. I don't deserve this."

"Luna, reality isn't something anyone deserves. It really does just happen. It never really works the way you want it to and there are so many things that are impossible to control. I guess you can say reality is the biggest illusion of all." The young Luna leaned off of Luna's arms and played with her hair affectionately. It was strange. The way her fingers moved and even the slow strokes were identical to her mother's. "So even if you think you don't deserve this reality, it is what it is. What you can control however is how you express that reality. We're all artists in our own sort of way. You've made the most of what you've been given, no matter how strange or unfair it may have seemed. I think your mom and dad would have wanted this for you."

"Mom and dad?" Luna repeated.

The young Luna hummed in confirmation. "They love you a lot, even if they can't express it to you directly. All you have to do though is listen closely, not with your ears but your heart. You'll understand what I mean."

"Listening with my heart, just like Pocahontas said," Luna said. Her eyes closed and she focused, drowning out the room around her. She needed to see past the lies to find whatever truth lay ahead, even if it was ultimately herself that was creating the lie.

She felt a two warm hand on both her shoulders—one tender, one firm. She looked on either side to see her mom and dad looking at her with smiles on their faces.

"Luna, your mother an I are so proud of you," her father said.

"Dad… I let you down. You told me to stay in my room but I- I didn't listen. I thought my opinions were more important than yours and… you were just trying to protect me but I didn't listen. I'm so sorry," Luna choked out in between tears. "Because of me, you'll never be able to fish again or go hiking in the mountains, and mom, you'll never see Kit again-"

"Luna," her mother interjected with a peaceful smile. "Things happen. Even if our last moments with each other weren't exactly the happiest of moments, we're never truly gone. We will always live as long as you remember. As long as you remember, we'll never die. You've never fought because you wanted to forget your past, you've fought because you wanted to make the future one you, I and your father could be proud of."

"Fighting to make the future something we can be proud off…" Luna repeated. "But how can you be so sure that that's really what I've wanted this entire time?"

"How can I know? That's easy. Because you're my daughter," Kay said with a sanguine smile.

Luna smiled back at her and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Okay, I won't run. Not anymore. Even if I don't quite know the destination just yet, it never has been about the destination for me. I'll keep dreaming. That's just who I am, and I'm perfectly fine with that."

"That's my girl. Now hurry along, your friends need you right now," Kay said. Luna had to remind herself that the people talking to her now were not corporeal beings. They were in fact, her heart cobbling up various memories and feelings to recreate them as they were in Luna's mind. Even knowing that, she still felt there was scarcely any difference. They lived inside her and she was their living legacy. Her coming to fruition with this was what mattered at this very moment.

"I love you both," Luna said, as she saw her parents beginning to fade in front of her.

"We love you too, Luna," Ronan said with a smile that showed how impressed he was with her.

"Remember, Luna. You will always have someone by your side," Kay said to her.

Their forms soon vanished, but Luna smiled nonetheless. She could still feel them and all they had given her in her chest. "You're right, mom. I'm not alone, because I have him. The boy I love. His name is—"

* * *

Sora's eyes grew big in surprise as Luna's own fluttered open. His complexion softened for a moment, then became a mixture of what Luna could only imagine must have been every single emotion and experience from today hitting him all at once.

Sora shook it off and forced a smile. "Luna, you're-"

Luna smiled at him and pulled him towards her. Their lips met and with them a mixture of passions and reverie. There had only been ever one instance where she had kissed someone, and to this day she still had no idea why she had done so. It was probably loneliness if anything, and the fact that the person next to her was her only friend in the world at the time, that had led her to kissing Astra.

This was much different though. Everything around them was drowned out and in those few seconds where longing met bliss, nothing else seemed to matter in the world. Neither of them could truly imagine what a bad world could possibly be like, because right now reality seemed so far away. She felt like she was dreaming, but she knew she wasn't.

Luna pulled away for air and felt her cheeks increase in temperature. "I'm back."

"Wow! Uh, I mean… I… can't say I was expecting that, but I'll take it," Sora said with a kooky yet adorable grin on his face. "You… didn't hear anything I said, did you? Is that why you woke up?"

"You said something? What was it?" Luna asked.

"Oh, nothing. It doesn't really matter now anyway, I suppose." Sora let out a whistle and looked to his right. "Luna, as pleasant as that was, I have to acknowledge that we're not exactly in the best of situations at the moment. We need to help Rhea fight against the Heartless in your heart."  
"Rhea's here?" Luna asked.

"Up there." Sora pointed in Rhea's direction. Nodding at him, Luna stood up and smirked. Sora looked at her in surprise. "Something funny?"

"I feel lighter," Luna said. She darted forward before Sora could stop her—before even she could stop herself—and before she knew it, she was in the fray, guarding against a charging rhino's attack. Two forces collided against one another, striving for dominance as Luna pushed back with all her might. She felt a hand on her own and looked rightward to see her younger self with her. The two exchanged nods before helping to push back.

"I'm... NOT… afraid of you… anymore. Leave my… memories… ALONE!" Luna yelled. A blade of light emerged from her Keyblade that was long in length and a width extending from the back of her blade of the tip of her Dream Seeker's teeth. She leaned into the guard at and angle and slashed diagonally upwards. The ephemeral blade of light cut through as smoothly as a knife through butter before fading and retaining the Dream Seeker's original form.

The Heartless, now in the form of Abraxas once more, turned in surprise, a tinge of horror on his face. "No… but why? Why can't I… feel fear from you anymore? No, that's not— that's not right. I feel fear. Is it… my own?"

"You thought fear could control her—keep her in line so her body wouldn't reject you. Looks like in trying to spread fear, you succumbed to it," Sora said.

"Ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. So this is irony." Abraxas looked down to see shaking hands.

"I'm sorry it has to be like this. If there was any other way…" Luna stepped back and looked at Rhea. "Is there a way he can stay here?"

"Luna, you'd let him live with you? After everything he's done?" Sora asked.

"A Heartless that's searching for the meaning behind its feelings… I just think it's…"

"Luna, I'm sorry, but even if you allowed him to stay, there's no guarantee its darkness wouldn't eventually make your heart unstable again, intentionally or otherwise. It may be harsh, but he has to go," Rhea answered.

"Luna, you are truly a strange person indeed." The Heartless shook its head and looked up at her with a small smile. His face was starting to crack like clay, pieces breaking off and turning into tiny grains like sand. Before he completely withered away into dust that rose into the sky like petals in the wind, Luna was left with these last words: "Don't be sad. We had fun, didn't we?"

Sora's eyes left the sky above and wandered back down to where Rhea was. She was still on the ground, wincing in pain. "Rhea, you okay?"

"Sora… it's no worry. Just a graze on the shoulder is all. The darkness was beginning to get to me, I think, but I can feel it withdrawing," she answered.

"Yeah, me too. It's like a pressure of my chest is being lifted," Sora described.

"Will my heart be alright?" Luna asked with a tone of worry. Rhea and Sora looked towards her, the latter glancing questioningly at the former shortly after, also curious to know what would happen in the current state Luna's heart was in.

"Hearts always mend, in time," Rhea answered smiling. "I'm glad we have you back, Luna. The realm of light misses you most dearly."

"Oh, I'm not that important," Luna dismissed, though she blushed at the compliment.

"Are you sure about that?" Rhea asked. If she was going to add anything more to that, it wasn't going to be here and now. Luna figured it was a rhetorical question but she couldn't possibly begin to comprehend what Rhea meant by it.

"_Thank you, Luna. You had the courage to do a difficult thing. I'll always remember that courage_." The young Luna appeared next to her. Luna looked for Rhea to Sora. It seemed they couldn't exactly see her.

"_I should be thanking you. Besides, I've realized something. When you said you were my light, you didn't mean from within me, did you?"_

"_How did you figure it out?"_

"_Listening to my heart has its benefits, Dream Seeker, or I suppose I should call you Artemis,_" Luna said.

The girl next to her smiled and extended her hand. _"I saw something of me in you ever since our first meeting. We were both lonely. We just wanted someone to need us. We needed each other. I'm glad what started as needed has grown into a whole lot more."_

"_I am too. Um, will I ever see what you really look like?"_ Luna asked, as she reached out for Artemis' hand.

"_In the near future, I'm sure. Knowing I am by your side is good enough for now, don't you think?" _

"_Not really. Now I'm just going to wonder about it even more,"_ Luna groaned.

"_Well you do like your mystery novels…"_ Their hands finally touched, and soon even Artemis was gone. Out of sight, but not out of mind. She would carry with her now not just her own, but Artemis' dreams into the future.

"Luna! Anyone in that head of yours?"

"Ow! That hurt!" Luna cried out. Sora withdrew his fingers from her forehead and grinned.

"Maybe if you were paying attention and not dazing off into la-la land, you might have seen it coming," Sora said.

"Touché. So… how did you get into my heart in the first place anyway?" Luna asked.

"Um, that's…" Sora was about to explain when something else caught his attention. As he moved to scratch the back of his head, he saw his arm looking more transparent than usual. He was fading.

"Sora?" Luna reached for him only to find her hands passing through his chest.

"I think you're starting to wake up, Luna. Your heart's trying to eject all the things that shouldn't be here, which I suppose includes us," Rhea explained. "We'll see you on the other side."

A bright light engulfed Sora's vision once again, resulting in a familiar feeling of floating. He blinked a few times and looked around. He was on the floor of the room Luna had been in. Before he could attempt to sit up, he was pressed back down on the floor again by a clinging Luna. He laughed and lowered his head back to the ground again. He found that he wasn't exactly in any hurry to get up anyway.

* * *

The night following Astra's return from a world teeming with pirates had not been the most pleasant. After filing her mission report, Astra gladly sank into her bed and let sleep take her. Her dreams were unpleasant, revisiting the Edinburgh Trader and the wanton destruction that had ensued, resulting in the lives of innocent sailors before being washed away in an instant. She also dreamt of Jack and how she could only watch as he and the Black Pearl were taken away by the Kraken in the ocean's depths.

Astra's eyes shot open and she gritted her teeth in frustration. She had been utterly powerless against the Kraken in both the instances she had fought it. She felt weak. None of those people had to die and yet she was unable to save them. What was being a wielder of the Keyblade if it meant helplessly standing by as things like this happened?

Astra moved her hands up to her face and rubbed her eyes. There was a knock of three on her door. She moved her hands away and slowly got out of her bed before walking over to the door. Her hands stopped just a ways off from the latch before continuing onward a few seconds later.

Jill stood at her doorway, looking strangely anxious, quite different from her usual apathetic and creepy disposition. It still struck Astra as strange that, for how long she had been here, she still knew very little about the woman except that she loved having a red hood over her head. She seemed to keep to herself most of the time, or more specifically with her parrot (that was currently on her shoulder) called Jack, who she claimed to not actually be a parrot but her younger brother put under some sort of potion. As a result, she had been going off in her spare time, trying to find a counteractant. If anything she was extremely dedicated to her cause—that much Astra had learned about her.

"Jill, this is a surprise. This must be the… first time you've come to me directly?"

"Are- are you doing okay?" Jill asked, avoiding eye contact.

"Are you doing okay, is that the question, I think. You hit your head?" Astra asked back.

"Forget it then, I could care less," Jill retorted.

"Couldn't care less," Astra corrected. "Luna beat that one into my head too many times for it to not stick. No, I'm doing alright… actually, no, I just lied. I just had a pretty bad dream. Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Shoot," Jill allowed.

"How do you deal with failure? Like, knowing there should have been something you could have done, but you didn't know what, and in that moment of hesitation, you allow that thing to happen," Astra said.

"Well, I've never much cared for pep talks, but if I had to give advice, I'd say if you want to continue this line of work, be prepared to suffer a thousand failures before you reach success. Things happen. If you couldn't think of a way to save them then, and you can now, it hurts, and understandably so, but what's done is done and you can only move on from that," Jill advised.

"_Move on! Move on!_" Her parrot squawked in addition.

"Well, I'm not even sure I can get used to something like that. It's not even just that, but the inconsistency of it all. I'm not saying it has to be perfect, but when people die in front of you, it just hurts. I just can't help but think now that I'm not cut out for this," Astra said. "I just wanted to find my friend. I don't know where she is now, but once I find her, I'm sorry but I can't… I can't stay here. You're all like family to me and I love all of you but… seeing death up close made me reassess my priorities on the things I value most to me. This… isn't worth it."

"As long as you've thought your decision through carefully then I'm sure you made the right choice," Jill said. "I can't deny that I won't notice your lack of presence. You've provided quite a level-headed atmosphere in contrast to some of the more annoying people around here. That said, we need you over in the lounge."

Astra frowned. "Is something wrong? You've kind of been on edge from the moment I opened the door."

"I… just come," Jill beckoned. Astra stepped out into the corridor and closed the room behind her before following Jill towards the lounge. An uneasy silence followed where even the usually talkative Astra found it difficult to find anything to say. Yet again, to her surprise it was Jill who continued to the conversation.

"How was your mission? Not good I take it."

"Hmm? Oh." At least this would clear the air of silence prevailing at the moment. Glad that Jill had been the one to bite first, Astra happily followed, divulging her adventure on the high seas.

"So for now he's immortal until we can find a way to take him down without stabbing the heart? I guess we have a lot of thinking to do over the coming days. We'll have to put that matter aside for now though. Something potentially disastrous may have just put a dent in our plans," Jill told her.

"And you're not gonna explain it? You tease."

"Did you not feel the tremor that occurred at 0100 hours last night?" Jill asked.

"What, you mean like an earthquake? Can't say I did. I sleep through a lot of things when I'm really tired," Astra said.

"It was a pretty big earthquake," Jill pointed out. "And even if you did have a bad dream, I don't think that's an excuse. I had a bad dream too and I felt it just fine. I was kind of glad it woke me out of it, to be honest. Anyway, apparently it was felt in other worlds aside from ours as well."

"That's… not normal, I'm assuming?"

"Oh, you think?" replied Jill in a sarcastic tone. Her tone quickly reverted to normal. "We currently have Lysander assessing the damage in other worlds. Things seem fine over here apart from howling cats and dogs in the town. That lasted for quite some time before their owners were able to get them to calm down. I'm amazed you managed to sleep through all that. Anyway, I have a bad feeling about this. Kohle and Rhea haven't come back from wherever they are either."

"Well, if it's affecting all the worlds, surely they must have felt it too?" Astra said. Jill shrugged and continued on her way without saying anything else.

The two soon arrived in the lounge room where everyone else—that being Salome, Alfonso, Desiree and Vyce—were all seated around the bar. Behind the counter, and try as she might, she just couldn't get her head around it, was a Captain Hook decked out in a fashionable bar apparel. She could not believe it when Salome had told her that in exchange for the information Hook had given them, he was granted immunity from his involvement with KRONOS and had even been given a job by Kohle, though she supposed it wasn't much of a job, considering he wasn't paid anything for it. To that extent, it was probably better to refer to it as community service.

"You doing okay, Asty?" Salome asked. There was something always warm and jovial about Salome that could make even the most resilient of people like Astra melt in an instant.

"For now. Thanks for asking, Salome," Astra replied with a small smile.

"Let's hurry this along, shall we? I have a very good idea what that earthquake was about. Unfortunately, it does not spell well for any of us," Alfonso said.

"Let me guess. Something like…'all the worlds have become one again', _non_?" Desiree said.

"Uh, yes, I was about to say-"

But Desiree interjected again. "You were about to gloat and waste our time. Let us actually hurry this along, or as we French would say, _revenons à nos moutons_**."**

"What's that about mutton?" Salome asked.

"_Anyway_, sorry but I don't understand… what's this about the worlds becoming one?" Astra asked.

"Before the end of the Keyblade War. The worlds as we know them today were instead a single entity. There were no walls between them, and if there were then they were borders made by man. What they're talking about is reverting to that state," Vyce explained in his usual calm tone.

"You know, I'm kind of glad that earthquake happened when it did. I was having a really bad dream until it woke me up," Salome said.

Astra looked at her in surprise. "Really? It's funny… Jill was just telling me how she was glad the earthquake woke her up to."

"Did you have a bad dream, Jillers?" Salome asked while Jill shot Astra a look of annoyance.

"I guess you could say that, but I can't exactly remember what it was about. It felt like… I was drowning in an ocean. What a pain," Jill said, rubbing tha back of her neck.

"You can't be serious? Wait, did any one of us NOT have bad dreams last night?" Desiree asked.

"I think I even remember Lysander saying something to the effect that he hadn't slept well at all, just before he left. For me, it was like I felt a weight crushing down on my ribcage. In the dream I couldn't breathe. When I woke up, I was panicking in a sweat. Like you though Jill, I can't remember the exact details of the dream. Only how I felt about it," Vyce said.

"All of us experiencing nightmares? I doubt it's a coincidence. What else could this be, if not an omen?" Alfonso guessed.

"What the hell? But… why is this happening?" Astra asked.

"I think it's obvious. Sora. Rhea mentioned something to me before he left," Desiree said. "When I asked her where she and Kohle were going, her reply was that a trap had been set for Sora and Luna. That was the last I heard of them."

"Luna? Oh, no. No, no, no. I have to go!" Astra announced. She turned to leave only to stop upon confronting the man at the entrance of the lounge. The look he gave her and the others was not one she had ever expected from him of all the people. It was the look of a man utterly defeated. "Kohle?"

* * *

Sora closed the door behind him and turned to face the person who saved his life. Sora still wasn't sure how he felt about Yen Sid. A part of him wanted to yell and attack the sorcerer in front of him right now, but the other side of him still felt appreciative, even surprised, that Yen Sid had come to his rescue. Also in the room was Luna, who played a part in his decision to remain calm, as well as Neuge, Mickey, Rhea and most importantly, Mirage. She had been conversing with the sorcerer when Sora and company had entered the study room.

"So what happens now?" Neuge was first to ask.

"It seems we were too late to put a stop to Xanatos' plans. The Heartless going wild, the earthquake, even the stars that are now invisible to me, all accomplished by one man," Yen Sid said.

"But it wasn't just one man, was it? We all had a part to play in this. We should have seen it coming, but we played by the damn rule book and look where it got us!" Neuge slammed her hand into the wall and looked with fiery eyes at Yen Sid.

"Neuge, surely you can't be suggesting that the reason we lost is 'cause we did things normally?" came Mickey's voice from the back of the room. "Having rules and regulations is what separates us from groups like KRONOS. It was just an unfortunate circumstance, is all. One in which he just happened to play all the cards at exactly the right time."

"Cards which we gave him. He manipulated my pupils and he tries to bring about the end of the world? And then, to make matters even worse, he gets off hook free!"

"He escaped?" Sora asked, his anger seeping through into his voice.

"When we took down his Omnidroid, there was a self-destruct mechanism put in place to stop us from opening the cockpit," Mickey explained.

"I doubt he offed himself so the only other option is that he got away safely," said Neuge.

"All agents of KRONOS carry warp devices like this one. It's not impossible that he got away. In fact, I'd say it's highly likely." Mirage lifted her left arm up to show them the watch on her wrist.

"We should forget about Xanatos for now. If the Moira's Crescent leader is right, and I don't have any reason to believe he's lying, then that seal that Sora unlocked just unleased a whole new problem," Neuge said.

Yen Sid gave a single nod. "Xanatos has accomplished that which Xehanort failed to do. Whereas the latter underestimated Sora and his friends, I believe the former learned from the latter's mistakes. That was in no doubt also thanks to Abraxas."

Rhea frowned. "Wait. What are you saying?"

"Never in all my years did I think this would happen under my watch. Very soon, the Second Keyblade War will begin," Yen Sid said. "Or, if Kohle is correct, then it would be more accurate to say it will continue."

This most certainly caught the attention of everyone in the room, who looked at Yen Sid as if he had just spiked their drink. Sora, Luna and Rhea exchanged quick looks with one another. Everyone seemed at a loss for words, but for Sora was not them. He could only speak for himself and he was absolutely devastated. He didn't regret his choice, even now. He would gladly have saved Luna no matter the price to pay, but the price was certainly nothing to laugh about either. He had possibly just doomed all of humanity to war. Even thinking the word sent a chill down his spine.

"So, you mean to say that it's impossible to stop it now or maybe even lessen the damage?" Mickey asked.

"I'm afraid it is too late to prevent it, Mickey. As for mitigating the damage, there are hardly enough of us, even with Terra, Ventus and Aqua's help."

"I can try and convince Moira's Crescent. Right now, the last thing we need to be doing is squabbling amongst each other," Rhea said.

"I'm glad to have you here, Rhea," Yen Sid said with a warm smile.

"Oh yeah, what happened to Kohle," Sora asked.

"He left soon after. He was quite frustrated over the whole thing, understandably so," Neuge said.

"Then I must be on my way," Rhea said, before turning to Sora and Luna. "I'm so glad the both of you are okay. Don't worry, I'll do everything in my power to convince the others. Sora, don't feel too bad about this. It wasn't your fault. No one can ask of a person to choose between the people closest to him and the entire world and manage to come out absolved from blame."

"I don't know… it might take a while before I come to accept things as you see them. The way I see it now though, I certainly contributed," Sora said. The ray of sunshine he could see at the moment currently stood next to him. She was the only thing giving Sora any sort of justification as to his actions. If he started another war and failed to save her then he could only imagine what state of mind he would be in.

"Look after him, Luna," Rhea said.

"I will," Luna replied, flashing a smile.

"I'll escort ya out," Mickey offered. He walked over and stretched his right arm up to open the door.

"Thank you, your majesty," Rhea said. The two left and the door closed behind them, leaving Sora, Luna, Mirage, Neuge and Yen Sid in the room.

"Neuge, could I ask you to leave for a moment. Luna and you too, Mirage? I have something I want to discuss with Sora," Yen Sid said.

Neuge seemed reluctant at first but upon a nod from Sora, she obeyed and motioned for the other two to follow her.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Sora shot a look at Yen Sid. "What?"

"You were right."

"Excuse me?"

"You were right not to trust me. For all the knowledge I claim to possess, the wisdom to back that up is lacking. Not only have I let you down, I've let everyone down. I try to do what I think is best not just for one person, but for everyone. I've frustrated you and myself in doing so. But you're right. I've also withheld things from you, things I never thought you needed to know. Don't mistake my intentions though, it was not because I didn't trust you with that information. I have never seen you as a pawn in some game to be played with. I did it because I care for you. The life of a chosen wielder of the Keyblade is a complicated one, callous and disregarding of morals, riddled with mysteries and truths that were far too ugly to carry into the present day. Not even I know of most of them, and that is truth. But it was in you that I first saw something innocent and precious, something our past is not. I didn't want to expose you to those dark chapters. You're too good for something like this. When Yeul died and Luna fell into the Realm of Darkness, I could tell that something wasn't right when I next met you. It was as if something inside you had died. Riku and Kairi expressed similar concerns. That's when I'd made my choice. The way you were then, I knew it was only a matter of time before someone tried to exploit those feelings of frustration buried deep down inside, and so after Riku told me that he had met a fellow Keyblade Wielder in Snow White's world, I contacted her immediately, asking for her to train you."

"Neuge…" Sora said in a low voice.

Yen Sid nodded. "I asked her to break you down and build you back up in a way that would make you resistant to those pressures. She would of course have Luna to also contend with, but her main focus has always been on you. I remember her asking me if I wanted to turn a child into a weapon. I did not refute her claim then if only because I imagine Neuge came to her own conclusions based on her hatred for me. It's interesting. At first, she seemed to care very little for you. In fact, I suspect she had motives of her own."

"What do you mean?" Sora asked.

"I imagine she originally accepted my offer because she planned to turn you against me. It turns out she didn't need to do that because I was doing a fine job myself." Yen Sid chuckled at this but Sora's expression remained neutral. "It seems however, that has changed. You and Luna have found a place in her heart. I would say it is akin to a mother's love for her children."

Sora cast his eyes downwards for a moment in thought. Through his own obstinacy, he was unwilling to show even the slightest glimmer of forgiveness, but he couldn't help but be happy inside with what Yen Sid had said about Neuge. "So this whole thing was just an ignorance is bliss thing, then?"

"That's what I had thought, in your case. In fact, when you came to me last week, and told me that you wanted to quit as Keyblade Master, a small part of me existed that was strangely relieved. Decisions like the one I had to make, risking a life to create a new Princess of Heart whilst one of them was unaccounted for, and the one you had to make, choosing a dear friend over all of humanity, was the reason I didn't want to get you involved," Yen Sid answered.

"When you say 'That's what I had thought', you mean—" Sora started, calmer than he had expected.

"My mind has somewhat changed in light of recent events. While I still do believe that you and your friends shouldn't have been involved in this, I understand that my actions certainly did play a part in steering you further into Xanatos' hands. I should have listened to you more, but instead I alienated you from a process that I had involved you in without your input. I can see how that would make you angry, and I apologize."

Sora remained silent. Whatever animosity he had felt previous was simply not there anymore. Maybe he was drained and exhausted or maybe it was because he knew that ultimately, Yen Sid could not take all the blame for what had happened. Still, he said nothing.

"I don't expect you to ever forgive me for my actions. Neuge never did either. I just wanted you see things the way my eyes see them for once," Yen Sid said. He placed both hands on the table, allowing Sora a clear view of a gold signet ring on the ring finger of his right hand.

"I- uh, need some time to think things through, but… I'd be a hypocrite if I dismissed your apology. We both made wrong turns somewhere along the way. I just… I let my anger get to me a lot over the last year and piling all of it on you? Well, it wasn't fair," Sora said. "But don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily accepting your apology. I would never be for making Rapunzel or anyone else a Princess of Heart, especially when it could mean their deaths if their heart isn't strong enough. But you insisted we go ahead with it instead of searching for Alice."

"I can admit when I'm wrong, but likewise, I don't regret thinking ahead in the worst case scenario. In my mind, at least it gave you the extra incentive to search more thoroughly for Alice," Yen Sid said.

"I guess we're both stubborn then," Sora said. The façade dropped and he let out a small smile.

"Have you thought about taking up your old mantle as a Keyblade Master again? We can sweep the last week or so under the rug," Yen Sid said.

Sora shook his head however. "No, I can't. I just don't know about all of this yet. That and… I'm not ready. My heart's just not in it and I can think of others who would… can I make a recommendation to take my place?"

"You may," Yen Sid allowed.

"Then I'd choose Kairi. She's dedicated—maybe even more so than me. She's worked hard for it as well. I know she'd do better than I ever could," Sora said.

"I agree with you. It has been a long time coming. With a possible war on its way as well, I think we can bypass the Mark of Mastery as well," Yen Sid said.

"Right. Er… thanks for listening," Sora said. He was about to turn and leave, only to shoot another glance at Yen Sid.

"Is something wrong?" the sorcerer asked.

"No… nothing," Sora replied. He turned around again and walked towards the door. For a moment, he thought he had seen a tear roll down Yen Sid's cheek. Maybe he was just tired.


	90. Finale: The World Only We Know

_A/N: TFW something that's been a part of your life for two years comes to an end :'( It's been a long journey for our heroes but their tale is **finally** at an end. Yep, we've reached the final chapter for Cracks of the Past. It's been a fun ride but it's time to look to the future. Who knows though, maybe I may add on a special episode eventually detailing the lives of the characters in Radiant Garden at some point, but for now, I want to thank all of you for enjoying this little rump with me. Stay tuned for more to come in the future! _

* * *

**Chapter 90**

**The World Only We Know**

Sora woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of knocking on his hotel room door. He let out a loud yawn slipped out of bed with a grunt. Who was possibly knocking on his door at this time of night? Whoever it was had a blatant disregard for the other people along the hallway trying to get to sleep. The knocks did seem desperate however, judging by the rapidity at which the knocks occurred. He only hoped it was something worth waking him up for.

"Is there something wr-_MMPH_!"

The last thing Sora saw before a fist was driven into his stomach was the look of lethargy on Kohle's face. Sora dropped to his knees and curled into a ball. He looked up in time to see another door fly open somewhere further down the corridor. He could actually tell how far away they were as his vision seemed to be failing him. Darkness took him as the person ran towards them.

When Sora next woke up, he could hear the crashing of waves against one another. The material he was also lying on was not the soft bed that he had been in previous, but grainy and fluffy instead. His hands were the first to move against the smooth texture, clenching and reopening his hands to feel the sand and watching as it slowly fell out of his hands.

"Sora!"

An eclipse blocked his view of the orange sky. He blinked and allowed his eyes to adjust. When they did they finally came upon a consternated Luna. She helped him sit and he looked around to get a better idea of where he was. He hadn't needed to look either. They were on the Destiny Islands. A pleasant cool breeze drifted in like it was personally welcoming Sora back home.

"This is your home, right? I remember coming here in the Realm of Darkness," Luna said. "You know, except this is obviously better."

"But… why are we here?" Sora asked. How could they have possibly been in Radiant Garden one moment and the islands the next? He searched his memories for an answer, and the moment he came up with an answer was the very same that he caught sight of the man who had put him here.

Kohle leaned against the railing on the wooden pathway leading towards the treehouse. Suddenly, he leapt off from the second level and landed on the ground before starting his walk towards them.

"You brought us here? Why?" Sora asked.

"Not her, just you. She followed," Kohle said. He jumped down from the raised platform onto the beach and stared straight at Sora. "I could have decided to kill you, you know? For all the trouble you've caused. Do you even have any idea what is happening right now?"

A brief pause followed before Sora answered. "A Keyblade War."

Kohle raised his brows. "That's it? You've brought about the end of the world, not that you would even know it. There are no worlds anymore, there are no realms of light and dark… there's only suffering and what waits beyond it. Instead of just acting outside of the hourglass that we're supposed to protect, you shattered it."

"David Xanatos shattered it!" Luna defended Sora.

"David Xanatos wouldn't have been able to do what he had done if it were not for your impulsive and reckless nature. You seem to enjoy jumping from place to place without thinking of how your actions affect those worlds. Getting involved in political affairs, going around and telling everyone about the Keyblade… you've gotten too big for your boots."

Sora looked at Luna for a moment before turning to back to Kohle. "So what, you're just going to kill me then?"

"Were you not listening? I said I could have decided to kill you. But I understand it wasn't fully your fault. Because of that, I'm willing to grant you amnesty," Kohle said.

"Amnesty? What are you talking about?" Sora asked.

"I'm saying that blood doesn't need to be needlessly spilt tonight. I won't come after you, but in return, I only ask that you never use that Keyblade of yours again. Since you seem to have a hard time keeping your own promises, I even helped. You'll stay here, where you belong. You'll never interfere with the other worlds again, not that there are other worlds to interfere with anymore," Kohle said.

Sora's eyes widened in shock before crying out. "You can't do that! I have a right to be there, along with my friends. I know I messed up, okay? I had a decision to make between saving Luna and letting her die. That was how I saw the choice at that point. What did you think I would do? Wouldn't you do the same for anyone you cared about? I saved Luna, and regardless of the results, I'm glad I did."

"You're only human. To human is to err, right? Maybe, you'd be right. Maybe I would choose to save someone I care about. I suppose most would. But most people aren't like you, Sora. We're Keyblade Wielders. We're supposed to protect humanity. Even if our own happiness is sacrificed to do so, that is the burden we must bear." Kohle looked from his hands up at Luna. "Tell me something, Luna. If your life meant billions of others could be saved, would you give it up?"

But Sora stepped in. "How dare you? Don't you dare bring her into this! You're talking about putting value on a person's life. You have no right to say one person's life is less important than a billion others. I may not ever be the Keyblade Wielder you people want me to be, whatever that is, but I do know that I will only ever be me. I'll only ever follow through with what's in my heart."

"If I recall correctly, it was you who brought Luna up in the first place. My point being that if your heart is volatile as it proved when you made that decision, then you lack the necessary qualifications to make a rational decision. I don't even know if you've fulfilled all of Yeul's prophecy yet. For all I know, this could be the beginning of something much worse down the line and until that's resolved, it would be idiotic to let you continue as is. Don't make this worse for yourself. Go home, Sora. I'm sure your parents miss you dearly."

Kohle turned his back to them and summoned his Keyblade, slashing it through the air and opening up a corridor of light. He then turned to them again and extended his hand. "Luna, you can't stay here."

"Who are you to tell me that?" Luna shot back with an unyielding look of coldness.

"A friend… of someone you know very well." Kohle raised a placating hand. He nudged his head to his left and Luna and Sora looked over in the direction of the shack.

"Astra…" Luna whispered as her friend walked over to her.

Arriving in front of her, Astra drew her into a hug. "I'm glad you're alright, Sea Salt. When I couldn't find you on Isla Cruces, I was completely distraught and wracked with guilt. I should have protected you, but I left you alone. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. The problem wasn't you. It was within me. My Heartless. I couldn't control it, but I'm free now. Um, gee, this is a first," Luna noted. It had always been she who had come to Astra for comfort. Luna gently patted Astra on the back, glad to feel the warmth of her friend again.

"I still couldn't help you though. I'm a horrible friend. That's why I've decided, Luna. I'm done with Moira's Crescent. Let's go back to Alexander and just… live. Heck, we don't even need to stay in Alexander if you don't want to. The world is our oyster, as they say," Astra said.

"Astra, I-"

"Is there something wrong?" Astra asked.

"I can't go with you," Luna shouted out with her eyes closed. It hurt to even say the words, let alone face her friend with her eyes open.

"Luna…"

"I'm not going to abandon Sora. It's not right," Luna said. She looked past Astra to Kohle and repeated, "It isn't right! I'm not going to say whether I'd sacrifice myself for the rest of humanity because frankly, it doesn't matter what I say. Sora picked what he picked and I'm not going to berate him for it. What's done is done, you can't change the past. Every day I wish that my parents were with me, that I hadn't- hadn't killed them, but I did. I regret it every day, and sometimes I've even wondered whether I deserve to live this life in their place. I would know now that they would want what's best for me. I want to realize their wish. Make this world a better place, one that they would be proud of. Sora's the same. If the darkness truly is coming in full force, then we need all the light we can get. Don't take that hope away from people, or you're just as bad as that darkness. Sora comes with us, or I'm not coming at all. That's my decision."

Sora glanced at Luna out of the corner of his eye with a small smile. Maybe somewhere deep down, it had also been a purely selfish decision, spurred on by seeing Yeul, Auron and Ansem lose their lives in front of them. Two of them had even been motivated out of their beliefs of wanting to keep him safe. He couldn't deny that maybe just this once, he wanted to something to go his way for once. Heck, he had been willing to dethrone the monarchy in Alexander if it had meant rescuing Luna. Even if his own actions were selfish though, he couldn't let that keep him down. He would not allow Xanatos to win by showing defeat.

"You're being unreasonable, Luna. If you're worried about him, then at least he'll be safer here. Just-"

"Astra, what happened to you?" Luna suddenly asked. Astra seemed momentarily stunned by this question. Sora was as well.

"What do you mean-"

"You want to leave Moira's Crescent and run away with me. The Astra I knew… she would always face up to her responsibilities. She would never run away like you're doing now. How can I be the one who understands that and not you? There is nowhere to run. We have to fight. I could never forgive myself if I lived in a dream while the rest of the world suffered the harshness of reality."

"It's not running away!" Astra refuted. "Trying to find a better life for you isn't running away. Trying to keep you safe isn't running away. When you disappeared in Isla Cruces, I realized how every single second is precious. You never know when something tragic will happen."

Sora looked briefly down at the sandy ground before looking at Luna. "Luna, maybe she's right. Maybe-"

"Sora, shut up," Luna interrupted. "You don't get to decide. This time, it's my decision and I'm sticking with you."

Astra looked from Luna to Sora and back again. Her eyes searched for something, but it looked like she had come up with nothing in the end. Instead, Sora had found something in her eyes. It was fear. Sora had a bad feeling about this.

"Luna, please think about this. This isn't where you belong," Kohle began.

"And who are you to decide that?" Sora asked. As soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted them instantly. Astra lashed out, her Keyblade only inches away from Sora's face as he leaned backwards.

"Stay out of this! Luna's not safe with you. It was because you decided to stop travelling with her that she almost died in the first place!" Astra strained out through held back tears.

"So out of some bizarre case of Stockholm syndrome, I've charmed my way into her heart to the point where she doesn't want to leave me? Is that what you're saying?" An increasingly annoyed Sora asked. He summoned the Kingdom Key and pointed it at Astra. "You really hate me, don't you? You think I took Luna away from you, and you're angry. Or are you jealous? Either way, I don't care. Attack me if you want but I won't hesitate to fight back. I'm not staying on this island no matter how much you want-"

It wasn't Astra that moved forward however, but Kohle. The corridor of light disappeared behind him as he and Sora locked blades. Astra swooped in to assist Kohle but Luna blew her back with _Aeroga_. Astra was sent spiralling in a forty-five degree angle that sent her into the waterfall near the secret cave.

Kohle backed off and looked over to Astra, who had stood back up and slowly made her way over to them, wet and miserable.

Luna towards Sora and whispered, "I know we need to get back to Radiant Garden, but there's no other way other than that portal he opened. Maybe all this arguing is pointless."

"It's not. Even if I have to force him, I will make him take us back," Sora replied. Even if Kohle was doing what he thought was the right thing, Sora had every right fight back when it was something that involved him. That and he suspected that Kohle's motives weren't all entirely with the safety of the world in mind. The only problem, and it was a difficult problem to confront, was that Kohle was immortal, or at least that seemed the case. His wounds seemed to heal instantly. He was sure a direct confrontation would end badly but he had to try all the same. He didn't believe that anyone, the least of all being Kohle, was invulnerable to damage. He couldn't believe that. As long as Kohle was human, it stood that he had a weakness.

Sora charged forward and cut upwards. Kohle sidestepped the attack and slashed through the air. _Blizzard _projectiles flew out, hitting against Sora and knocking him down.

"Stand down, Sora. This isn't a fight you're going to win," Kohle said.

"Maybe not alone he won't," Luna said. Dream Seeker appeared in her hands and she swung in an upside arc. The tip of her Keyblade caught the sand and launched it into Kohle's face.

"_GAH_!" Kohle put a hand to his face and stumbled backwards. Luna cloaked her foot in fire and kicked forward. Kohle managed to hook his Keyblade around Luna's ankle however and pulled, sending her spinning forward. Before he could do anything more, Sora warped in front of him and threw a right punch. His fist connected with the side of Kohle's mouth and knocked him backwards. Luna moved in to strike only to find out her Keyblade knocked out of her hands from Astra's ice magic.

"Damn you, Sora!" Astra yelled, running straight for him. Luna moved in between them, leaving Astra with no choice but to stop in her tracks. "Fine. I see how it is. You're not going to leave me with any choice, are you, Lu?"

"There is nothing to see. I'm your friend and I always will be, but if you can't even respect my choice then I'm going to have to show you my conviction," Luna said.

"Fine then. I'll show you mine too. Luna, this is for your own good," Astra said.

* * *

Kairi held her cupped hands towards her mouth and waited in silence along with the rest of her friends as Riku's statue was sunk into the crystal blue Atlantean waters. It was a gamble, of course, choosing Atlantis in the first place as opposed to directly going to Yen Sid, but stories of their advanced technology had her believing that it was a chance worth taking. While the heart fragment piece resided above Atlantis, many great things could happen, some that had helped to sustain and prolong Atlantean lives for thousands of years.

Riku's statue was currently submerged in water, with the only other person in the water along with it being Kida. She was confident that Atlantean technology could work wonders as it always did, though she had never come across a case of petrification before. While that may have been a cause for concern, Kairi trusted Kida's wisdom in these matters.

Kida's pendant lit up as she murmured some kind of chant under her breath. The water around her began to glow a spring green which resonated across the entire lake.

_Please work. Please work. Please work_, urged Kairi inwardly. Losing Riku now would be like adding insult to injury after losing Roxas and, indirectly it seemed, Xion, who currently back on the Highwind being consoled by Lea. She still couldn't believe that the same Xion she knew had so brutally executed Kefka. Execution… the word left a bitter taste in her mouth, but it had also been just as bitter to watch.

Then, Riku's statue began to glow, dulling and lighting up slowly at first, but with less of an interval in between by the passing second. Kairi had to remind herself to breathe once again out of sheer excitement.

The water returned to its usual bluish hue. It was only undisturbed by the silver haired teen as he emerged from the water, gasping for air. His head buzzed about mechanically in confusion.

"Riku!" Kairi gleefully yelled.

"Kairi? I… I can't see right now. Where are we?" Riku asked.

"Relax. You're back in Atlantis. The light will soon reach your eyes again," Kida said.

"Kida? But, how did I even get here? Weren't we in Twilight Town?"

"You don't remember? You saved me." Kairi waited for Kida to help him onto dry land before summarizing everything in between when he was paralyzed by the Chimera to now.

"That's quite the riveting tale to tell someone who just woke up from being a statue. I can't believe it though. Roxas… does Sora know?" Riku asked.

"No, I haven't been able to get into contact with him and even if I were, I'm not sure I would be able to tell him," Kairi said.

"I can understand that feeling. Roxas was once a part of him. Still, we'll have to tell him and the others sooner or later. It might as well be sooner," Riku reasoned.

"I know," Kairi said. She tensed up suddenly and then relaxed. She couldn't keep it in anymore. "Riku, I'm sorry. When we last left off, it wasn't exactly in the best of circumstances. I nagged and complained and I shouldn't have. When I was in that mansion, trying to rescue Xion and Roxas, I realized how much I depend on you and Sora. I felt like a little kid who was lost in a huge town. No hard feelings?"

Riku gave a small laugh and reached out, accidently touching her head at first but soon finding her right shoulder. "Kairi, you don't need to apologize over something like that. If it helps you feel better, we were both assholes to each other."

Kairi chuckled. "That sounds about right. Hey, Riku?"

"Hmm?"

"I've decided to stay here, for the time being," Kairi announced. Not only Riku but Kida, Milo and Max turned to look at her in surprise. She continued, "I want to find out more about my past. Not mine exactly, but the Kairis before me. That starts with this one here. Call it intuition, or maybe it's my heart speaking out to me, but I can sense the storm that's coming, the electricity that's cracking through the air. It's tumultuous and terrifying and it feels like the ground beneath my feet will break apart at any second. Something is telling me that I have to do this. If I can trace the Princesses of Hearts' paths, maybe I'll find some clue to stop whatever it is that's happening."

With his eyes still closed, Riku only had his smile to convey his approval. "If that's what your heart's decided, then you should listen to it. It's never led you down a wrong path before so there's no reason to doubt it now."

"Thanks, Riku," Kairi said. She looked toward Max and held out her hand. "It's been fun, Max. You've done a lot for me. Say hi to Goofy for me when you see him again."

"I learned a lot from you," Max said. He took her hand but opposed to shaking it, he pulled her into a hug. Kairi giggled and returned the hug before pulling away.

"Maybe I should stay with you-" Riku started but Kairi raised a hand in objection.

"The world needs you right now. More than ever. I can't hold you back. You need to do what you can and I need to do what I can," Kairi told him. The line of Riku's mouth became lopsided but he nodded in understanding nonetheless. Kairi moved in and hugged him. She put all her being into it as well. For some reason she couldn't shake the feeling that she had to make this one count.

* * *

A torrent of water rose up from the ocean and travelled forward, smashing into Sora. The pressure slammed him into the ground and rendered him immobile. It was like a thousand knives were puncturing his body repeatedly, and it was all he could do to hold his breath and last for as long as he could.

His reprieve came in the form of a lightning bolt that cut through the air and struck Kohle in the side, causing him to lose control of the water. Sora closed his eyes and waited for the rest of the bombarding flood to fall on him. He rolled about like a fish, coughing and spluttering up some of the water that had found its way inside his mouth. His nostrils also seemed to burn, with water having entered them as well.

"Sora, you okay?" Luna asked as she shielded him from the front.

"You know the taste of sea water? Yeah, I don't think I _just_ tasted it," Sora said in a gruff tone. As he stood up however, he found his knees shaking violently. He darted forward quickly and slashed back and forth. He was determined to cut off any space in between Kohle and himself so as to prevent him from using any more magic.

On the other side of things, Luna was doing her best to parry her friend's attacks. As much as she wanted to put on a brave face, the thought of actually harming her friend was impossible. That's why she found herself holding back.

Astra transformed her Keyblade into a halberd and lunged forward without hesitation. She at least seemed to be perfectly fine. Luna dodged and ducked left and right, avoiding the combination of swings and thrusts from Astra's weapon, only to be knocked to the ground from a wave of light that Astra had created with an upwards swing.

"Where's this conviction of yours, huh, Sea Salt? If you really wanted what you said you wanted, you would have come at me in full force by now," Astra said. Luna couldn't understand it. Why was Astra egging her on? Did she want Luna to keep fighting her?

"Astra, did something happen when I was kidnapped in Isla Cruces?" Luna asked.

"Before or after? Either way, I saw death," Astra hissed.

"I see. Donald, Goofy, and the others… are they alright?"

"Everyone except Jack."

"Jack? What happened to Jack?" Luna asked.

"Oh, it was nothing, really. I just had to sit by on a boat and watched as he and the rest of the Black Pearl were swallowed up by a giant monster. You know, the normal stuff you expect to see when you're travelling from world to world. Does that scare you, Luna?" Astra spat venomously. Rather than taking it as a sign of disgust, Luna understood the true meaning behind Astra's words. Astra had never been one to express her feeling directly. She always gave little hints as to how she felt. This time was no different.

"I see… then I won't hold back," Luna said. She looked down at her Keyblade, at Artemis, and gripped it tighter. Her Dream Seeker glowed a bright blue before transforming into a bow. Quickly she leapt to the left and created an arrow of light with her right hand, pulling it into the bow string. Astra attempted to catch her off guard with a swing at her legs but Luna jumped over and fired the arrow. Instead of aiming straight however, the arrow simply flopped in a pathetic arc and fell to the ground.

"Wow, Sea Salt… You sure got me," Astra said in disbelief.

"It's a work in progress," Luna snapped sharply. Even she had to eventually admit though that she was glad Robin Hood hadn't seen that one. Her Keyblade reverted to its original form and she thrusted forward. Astra guarded with the halberd and attempted to force Luna back. Her overall size and strength was her advantage as the smaller Luna started to feel her arms giving in. With it looking incredibly likely that she was going to lose this confrontation, Luna ran the flat face of Dream Seeker along the halberd and escaped to Astra's left. Without the sudden resistance, Astra was sent running forward. Luna dropped low and pressed her hands against the sand. A fist formed from sand shot out of the ground and slammed into Astra's as she was about to turn to face Luna. Her friend was launched off her feet and towards the shoreline.

Kohle backed away and threw an _Ice Raid _attack at Sora who countered and knocked the Keyblade away with a _Fire _projectile. Kohle changed his footing slightly and rushed forward instead, much to Sora's surprise. He tackled Sora to ground and raised his fist. Sora could only go into a defensive positon from here and constantly turn his head underneath his hands as Kohle mercilessly tried to beat him into submission.

"I'm… telling… you… to… stay… DOWN!" Kohle yelled in between his punches. "Don't… make… this… harder… for… me… AGH!"

Kohle winced and turned to see Luna stepping away, horror in her eyes. Sora couldn't see why he had stopped, but he would take the opportunity. Sora reached towards Kohle's face and cast _Firaga. _Kohle was blown backwards by the powerful force and it was through that separation that he could see Luna's Dream Seeker sticking out of Kohle's back.

He was soon once again on his feet, slowly pulling the Keyblade out of his back until it was completely out. Like the last time too, it almost seemed like a dream. A terrifying surrealism that conflicted with reality as Sora knew it. As he watched Kohle's face heal off the burns that had scarred him as a result of Sora's magic, he finally accepted that which seemed to conform to the stages of grief.

"Who are you?" Sora asked.

"A little too late for that, don't you think?" Kohle muttered.

"Then tell me something. Are you only doing this because to stop me from helping? I know you and the rest of Moira's Crescent knew Yeul-"

"Don't… say her name," Kohle warned with a dangerous glare. "I searched for her. A long time ago, I once had a younger sister, blood related. Yeul reminded me of her. One day Yeul was with us and the next, she and Kyle had disappeared without a trace. When Alfonso told me one day that he suspected that Kyle had kidnapped her, I couldn't believe him. But the more clues I found, the more I couldn't turn away from the ugly truth. Someone who had been like a brother to me had betrayed me and my family. He was working with the enemy. He was referring to himself as Abraxas. It made no sense to me. Even now it still doesn't but I made the call to take down someone who had been close to me to keep the worlds safe. If I had to give up my life to keep the worlds safe, I would gladly do it… but I can't. This is my curse. And I've had to live with it for a long time now. I didn't even tell the others that I had this curse because I couldn't bear to face them."

Sora bit the lower corner of his lip thoughtfully before responding, "I'm not going to stay down. Even if this is pointless. Even if I get beaten to near death, it will never stop me from getting back up. I'll keep coming back, because I believe that I can fix the mess I've created."

Sora looked over at Astra who was clutching her sides as she tried to get up. They switched over to Luna, a pained expression on her face. When his eyes arrived on Kohle again, he breathed deeply.

"I'm sorry about this," Sora said. He raised his Keyblade before Luna could react and cast sleep. Her body became heavy, and her eyelids grew heavy and unresponsive to her control.

"Sora… no, why—?" Luna slurred. Her body soon shut down and she fell forward, only to be caught by Sora.

"Luna!" Astra yelled. Sora carefully laid her on the ground and walked left so that he was out of her way. He then stabbed the Kingdom Key into the ground and stepped away before looking up at Kohle.

"I won't fight back, so give it all you've got. You'll never break my spirit though," Sora said.

* * *

Luna awoke to the sound of soothing waves. Remembering where she was, she sat upwards and looked to the shore to see a lone figure sitting and watching the water. It was night now, but while the person was shrouded in shadow, their outline was one Luna knew all too well. Unfortunately, the events preceding her awakening had surfaced in her mind, causing her to feel annoyed with him.

She headed over to him and cleared her throat as loud as she could once behind him. Sora jumped in surprise and shot straight up, looking at Luna in surprise. Luna returned the expression. Bruises and bumps covered Sora's face and his right eye was a dark shade of purple.

"Are you alright?" Luna asked, sitting down next to him.

"Er, so there's this movie where a boxer just keeps taking punches in order to break the other guy's spirit. Yeah, it's safe to say I'm not him," Sora said.

"You didn't have to do that, you know? And why put me to sleep. I could have helped," Luna said.

"Would you have let me do something like this if you were awake? I think it worked in the end anyway. His punches hurt less as time went on… that, or it was the numbness kicking in," Sora said. "He gave up eventually either way. I think he just wanted to take his frustrations out on something and I was the easiest to blame. Is it weird that I understood a lot more about him while he was punching me than I did when I fought back?"

"Did you and Riku do this stuff a lot, when you were kids?" Luna asked.

"You mean beat on each other? Why stop when we were kids? Heh, I mean, I took most of the beatings, but that's how I learned, you know? A lot of times I just felt like giving up but Riku always encouraged me," Sora replied. "I hope he and Kairi are doing alright, wherever they are."

"Astra was the same. I couldn't make any friends but her. I was always clumsy, not really confident in myself. She even once called me the odd swan that stood out above the ugly ducklings," Luna said with a light chuckle.

"Why're you laughing at that? You are quite the swan," Sora said. Luna could imagine that she would see him blushing were it not for all the bruises on his face right now.

"Hehe, that's kind of you to say." Luna rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. "Where did Astra go, by the way?"

"She went back with Kohle. I don't know if she forgot you or came to some kind of realization. I mean, I certainly wouldn't have been able to stop her if she had decided to take you so…" Sora said.

"Would you have wanted her to take me?" Luna opened her eyes again and looked into his blue ones. They seemed to contain no anger behind them or sorrow, but affection and innocence.

"Are you sure you want to hear the truth?" Sora answered with a question of his own.

Luna seemed to consider this for a moment before closing her eyes again. "I'll meet her again. She just had a lot on her mind this time. She's not used to complicated things. So how are we getting off this island of yours exactly?"

"Let's… not think about that right now. I just want to enjoy this moment. Just the two of us," Sora whispered. At the sound of whooshes, Luna looked up to the night sky. Up there, billions of stars seemed perfectly aligned, something she had never seen before. If they were not worlds anymore, then what were they now? More importantly, Luna's attention was drawn to the shooting stars that raced across the sky. If it was some glaring omen to the dangers they would face ahead, Luna did not see it as such. Dreamers like her hardly ever saw the bad in such things.

"A table for two at the end of the world… sounds romantic."

* * *

_A/N: So, while I can't say when I will start the next story (don't worry, it won't take three months or anything like that), I'll say that in the meantime, I'd love to hear your suggestions on what worlds you'd like to see... well, I suppose they wouldn't be worlds per say, but they'll take on a new formula of sorts. I can confirm already that you'll definitely see Shibuya by the way so look forward to that. So once again, I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for all your support and I hope to see you all again in the near future. _


	91. Bonus Chapter: Dawn

**A/N: So while the story of CotP is complete, there's still the question of the aftermath of Sora's disappearance in Radiant Garden. To not ruin the pacing of Paved With Gold, this chapter here acts as an epilogue to CotP/Prologue to the sixth chapter of PwG. If you haven't yet, be sure to check out the first five chapters of the final installment in the trilogy and expect chapter 6 in the coming days. Just for reference, the beginning of this chapter takes place within chapter 80 of this story, right after Sora performs in _The Muppets_ performance. **

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**Disclaimer: An actual disclaimer not for Kingdom Hearts, because you already know I don't own that or make money in any way but for Simon &amp; Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water which is owned by Universal Music Publishing Group. I don't own that either. **

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As the curtains divided to reveal the flashing stage lights and the tables of people pooling around the room, a rapturous applause made Jayne's heart melt. Her body sunk slightly and a grin appeared on her face. She had finally made it. After months of doing several part time jobs and trying to network with various partners in the industry, she had finally accomplished her life-long dream of becoming an actress. Well, she had still had some ways to go, but this was a good start.

As the audience's standing ovation continued, Jayne quickly straightened out of her blue dress equipped with cute adornments and frills and held the hands of both Sora who was dressed up as Kermit, and Miss Piggy. Jayne's jaw set. The jubilation was too much for her to handle. The water in her eyes combined with the lighting served to blur her vision. As much as she wanted to wipe away her tears of joy, she couldn't imagine using the costumes of Miss Piggy or Kermit to do so would have been a good idea.

The curtain call came and went, the red curtains soon veiling her clear view of the audience once more. Even as she let go of Kermit and Miss Piggy's hands, her heart was still racing. It took Sora's soft voice to snap her out of her reverie.

"Hey, I'm going to get out this costume. It is hot in here."

Finally able to wipe her eyes, Jayne did so before turning to Sora. "Wasn't that bad, was it?"

"Oh, well I was just imagining everyone in the audience in their underwear, just like you told me," Sora said.

Jayne chuckled. "Sora, there are children in the audience! Shame on you."

"Yeah, don't remind me," Sora said.

"Well, I'll see you in a while, alright? We're all going out to celebrate," Jayne told him.

"Of course, how could I miss that?" Sora answered. Jayne waved him off as he left for the backstage dressing rooms. As far as Jayne was concerned at that point, she arrive at Sora's dressing room a few minutes later and, along with their performance group, they would all go to a nice restaurant shortly before heading to her house to party. That, she soon found out, would happen only in her head.

**Bonus Chapter: Dawn**

Two months had passed since Sora's mysterious disappearance from that theatre and Jayne had felt that ever since, there had been a gaping hole in her life that had yet to be filled. At first, she tried forgetting about him. As the days went by however, she found the memories of the spiky brunette slowly creeping back into her mind. She couldn't help but be worried about him. She doubted that he would just up and leave without saying a word either so something had to be wrong.

Jayne sat upright on her couch dressed in nothing but a red tank top and boxers. She stared with tired eyes at the beer cans on her table. For whatever reason, she and her friend had decided to watch the entire _High School Musical_ trilogy on TV the previous night. Needless to say, Jayne had required many beers to even get through them all. When she had woken up, she had found herself sporting a massive headache.

She stood up and was about to gather her jeans that had somehow found their way onto the floor when her PHS vibrated on the table, alerting her that she had received a new message. She scooped up the portable device and flicked through the touch sensitive display with a finger, her eyes growing big as she scrolled down the page.

She quickly put her jeans on and slid her PHS into her pocket before racing out of the house.

It wasn't long before she saw smoke on the horizon. The same black smoke poured up into the sky, a dark cloud hovering high above, distilling the otherwise blue and cloudless sky that permeated the hot summer's day.

As Jayne ran for her destination, she recalled the days following Sora's disappearance. A number of strange things had happened that had incited the start of a potential quarrel among the people of the town. When news of David Xanatos' betrayal and incongruous activities within Radiant Garden were revealed—or more like leaked due to an unknown party within Xanatos Enterprises—rumors and gossip broke out in waves. First about how Xanatos had been playing the entire town for fools, the next about just how deep the rabbit hole went. It soon became an accepted fact given the Restoration Committee's indirectness to answer any questions that they had to be involved too.

Protests soon broke out, all humble and peaceful. The protesters brought to attention the lack of transparency when it came to all the goings-on and deals made by the committee with Xanatos Enterprises. It seemed however that the committee still believed it could salvage whatever was left off the controversial company but this just seemed to take the appearance of the committee trying to grasp for more power within the company. Soon a division formed with one type of citizen that trusted the committee and the other that didn't. The committee's attempts to quell the situation were lost on that second school of individuals, who called for immediate democratic elections.

Jayne had only been to one of the protests and only at the behest of her friend who had been curious to see what they were about. She had been goaded into carrying a placard and though her heart was not exactly in the rebellious attitude, neither could she leave her friend by herself. That said, she could certainly understand where the anger was coming from. She had only been a child but the days that had preceded Maleficent's takeover of Radiant Garden were ones that she and especially the older generations remembered. Their previous ruler had experimented on human hearts and had, even if unknowingly, set in motion the events for the downfall of the town. The townsfolk could no longer afford to be ignorant of these things and even the smallest chance of corruption could act as a seed that would eventually grow into the disastrous events that had last destroyed the town.

Jayne finally arrived at the scene of the commotion that her friend had informed her about. A huge crowd was gathered near the main headquarters of Xanatos Enterprises, sealed off only to a barrier of yellow tape. Her eyes travelled upwards to see thick black smoke pouring out of the top of the building.

"Jayne!"

Jayne's eyes dropped from the glass building and looked to her friend who was running up to her. Jayne knew her as a sport girl, having originally met her in their tennis club in high school. She had short brown hair with some swept to the side and olive eyes. On any other day, her sheepish smile would be her most attractive feature. Today was different however. Today, Naomi wasn't smiling.

"Naomi, I came as fast as I could. What's going on?"

"A hostage situation. Everyone's being held captive inside the building. The explosion happened about an hour ago. Anyone a few blocks off could feel it. I thought it was an earthquake," Naomi explained. Jayne raised a brow. She must have slept through it, not a surprise considering how much she had drank last night.

"Who's behind it?" Jayne asked.

Naomi shrugged. "I did a little listening around and a lot of people are hatching a guess that they're protesters who want to make some sort of point."

"Protesters? You're kidding me! They wouldn't take it this far, would they?" Jayne asked.

"No idea, but they must be pretty well-armed. Security won't risk trying to make any moves that might instigate aggression on the hostage-takers part."

Jayne looked away from her friend and back at the building. "There are probably a lot of them then if security thinks it's too risky to do anything. On the other hand, great job making your cause look sympathetic now, guys. No one's going to take you seriously now that you've gone and done this. Have they demanded anything?"

"No, actually," Naomi answered.

"Huh. That's strange. Why take hostages if you don't plan to bargain in the first place?" Jayne couldn't see the logic behind their hostage-takers actions. Was their disgust of the current system so much that they would be willing to potentially sabotage their own protests and be labelled as extremists? Their actions were inconsistent with what Jayne knew about them. Something in general just didn't sit well with her about this.

She wasn't sure how many minutes had passed before something eventful happened but the minutes felt like hours and the anxiety never faltered, even when that certain something finally happened.

Jayne was about to discuss something with her friend when three explosions went off, all in different directions, one after the other. The screams of the crowd was not enough to drown out the second and third. Bodies ran in this direction and that while Jayne found herself tugged back by a hand around her wrist.

"What the hell is happening?" Naomi screamed, anxiously putting shaking hands on top of her head. "We're all going to die, aren't we? I haven't tried pistachio-flavored Ice Cream yet!"

"Ice Cream's on your mind? At a time like this? Still… this is really scary," Jayne replied. She cupped her hands together and looked down in thought. Where were the Keyblade wielders when everyone needed them the most? Where was Sora?

Naomi tapped her on the shoulder and she looked up to see Squall Leonhart—or Leon as he had once been known—leaving the building accompanied by a group of people that Jayne had never seen before. What caught her attention about them though was that a lot of them appeared to be wielding keys. Jayne guessed that they must have been Keyblade Wielders but she hadn't known there would be so many of them. Squall avoided the gaze of the dysfunctional crowd as if he couldn't bear to look upon their worried faces and continued down the street with the Keyblade wielders escorting him. The small army of key-holders soon thinned out until those who looked like actual employees of the company were left, some running straight into the arms of loved ones and for those with no relation available to them, leaning on their co-workers for support.

"Is anyone trained in medical aide? We have someone!" cried a woman as she and group of other co-workers looked about anxiously. The man in front of them was bleeding from the right side of his head. Where there should have been a whole ear, it seemed that most of it was gone.

"I am!" There was a response and within seconds, another woman was by their side. She knelt down and slid on latex gloves. "My name's Colette. We're going to have to work quickly and get your friend to the hospital."

Jayne's eyes soon met with Colette's and before she knew it her body was already moving towards the group of people.

"Is there any way I can be of help?" Jayne asked. Colette smiled at her and then Naomi as she appeared next to Jayne.

"Yes, there's some disinfectant in my bag. Pass that over and the rag as well," Colette instructed. Over the next hour, Jayne found herself supporting Colette in not just one but several incidents. Apparently, the bomb that had gone off near the top of the building had injured several people. Fortunately, only one had been close enough to lose an ear.

Jayne finished applying ointment to the burns on the side of an employee's abdomen and saw him safely onto a stretcher before turning her attention to Colette.

"I think that's all of them."

Colette beamed at both her and Naomi. "I'm so glad you two were here. Thank you for everything."

"It's no problem. But… do you have any idea what's happening? Is it an insurgency from the people who want the restoration committee out?" Jayne asked.

Colette shook her head. "You saw their Keyblades, right? I'm fairly certain it's something different. Listen, it's not safe out here. The best thing you two can do is go back home and-"

Colette looked the other way as if deliberating something over before turning to them again. "Actually, I have a daughter, she's only nine. I probably will be at the hospital all day. I know I'm asking a lot but if you could take care of Stephanie for me until I get back, that would be wonderful."

"Of course we can," Jayne answered instantly.

"Thank you so much. Do you have a PHS?"

Jayne dug into her pocket and pulled out her device before handing it over to Colette who inputted the address into the system and handed it back over. After saying goodbye to Colette, Jayne and Naomi started on their way to Colette's house.

"Urgh, this is totally ruining my day! I had everything planned out as well," Naomi said on the way.

"You? Having things planned out? HA! Don't make me laugh. When was the last time you ever planned anything, Naomi?" Jayne questioned.

"Just this morning, in fact. I did plan to come over here so…"

Jayne snorted. "Go home, Naomi, you're drunk."

"Says the girl who drank way more than me last night."

"Because unlike a certain someone, I can actually hold my drinks."

The two exchanged laughs before Naomi continued. "Seriously though. I was going to help Derryn with the tennis club today. I'm supposed to help whip the newbs into good shape."

"Like you whipped me? No thanks. Spare the youngins the pain and suffering. You'll only serve to discourage them," Jayne said. She had not yet once been able to win a match against her friend. Jayne had been able to handle her friend's power shots to an extent, only to fall to them after exhausting every muscle simply trying to reach each rebound.

"Maybe if you stopped being stubborn and started practicing your backhand, you'd actually have a point," Naomi shot back.

"I doubt that's it. I'm pretty much able to hold my own against most. It's just you that I keep losing to for some reason. Don't worry, I'll beat you one day," Jayne said.

"So when you're old and wrinkly then?"

"Harsh, but probably true," Jayne admitted. Her prospects were incredibly slim given that she had even less free time now than she used to.

The murmurs of a crowd began to reach their ears and they turned promptly in its direction. There was a large commotion over in the Central Square nearby and from the cadence of their voices, Jayne could tell that the crowd seemed to be in a very aggressive and hostile mood.

"What is even happening? Hmm… want to check it out?" Jayne asked.

"Um, I'm not entirely sure that's a good idea. Shouldn't we see that Stephanie's okay first?" replied Naomi apprehensively.

"If it's just for a minute or two, it won't be a big deal. We'll stay just outside of the action so we don't get involved. Come on, aren't you the tiniest bit curious?"

Naomi screwed up her face as if thinking before letting out a resigned sigh. "That's the same thing you said before you spent 800 munny on that crane game but… I guess if it's only a little while."

Hurrying along, the two found themselves in the square in no time at all. Jayne's mouth fell open as she marvelled at the rather large crowd, some of their fists raised in anger and protest at something.

"Crud! I can't see a thing," Jayne muttered. Naomi looked behind them before tapping Jayne on the shoulder. She pointed towards the statue of Ansem the Wise that had been constructed in honor of his reign.

"We'll have a better view from up there."

Jayne nodded and followed Naomi over to the statue. The two friends climbed up onto the statue where two other people were also standing, apparently having thought of the same idea. Now with a height advantage, Jayne looked to the opposite side of the square to see a group of armor-clad figures with Keyblades facing off against the crowd.

Bottles and any piece of trash that anyone could get their hands on were thrown by the angry protesters at the armored figures. At any point, they could have retaliated but it seemed like they were trying to maintain a level head. This lack of action on their part left a negative impression on the protesters, who only intensified in their furor.

"How dare you just stand there and play the holier than thou card when you people are the reason we're in this mess. Screw all of you!" A man yelled into a megaphone to the glee of the passionate audience.

"Yeah, go back where you came from. This is our town!" added a woman close enough to the man to shout into his megaphone. There were cheers of approval and an increased burst of sudden energy from the crowd. Still, the armored figures refused to be overwhelmed by this and stood their ground.

"Please, we do not wish harm upon you. We merely seek a peaceful coexistence. All will be explained soon," implored one of the armored figures. It was a young woman's voice, made even clearer through her desperation.

"We don't want 'coexistence'. We want you to leave!" Yelled another man in the crowd.

Someone else agreed with him. "Yeah! If bombing our town is your idea of winning us over, you've got another thing coming."

The same man threw a can at the young woman in armor when she wasn't looking, successfully making contact with her helmet. Another of the armored figures stepped forward and raised a Keyblade that had a phoenix's wing along its blade's edge up into the air. A shot rang out and the crowd drew back in horror as a bright red jet of light flew up into the air before exploding like fireworks. The red jet split off into three and zoomed across the sky in different directions. Jayne wouldn't have believed it but right now she was staring at a crowd that had been completely shocked into silence.

The figure's Keyblade disappeared into thin air and he stepped forward. He reached for his helmet and lifted it off, placing it as his side. He was a man who looked to be in his thirties. His black hair was short and curly and his five o'clock shadow gave him the appearance of being quite rugged. His steely-eyed gaze seemed to bore into Jayne's soul, even when she was sure he wasn't looking at her.

"Fellow citizens of Radiant Garden," the man began as if addressing a ceremony. "We join you on such an auspicious day to offer you something the current administration cannot give nor guarantee. A promise. You no doubt look down on us in disgust. Your hatred for us is as clear as the ground we stand on. Speaking of ground, my parents once taught me a valuable lesson. That no matter how successful you become, no matter where you end up, never forget where you started. The voices of the dissatisfied can only be ignored for so long before it comes back to haunt you. Ansem the Wise-"

"Don't you dare talk about our ruler!" shouted someone in the crowd. There were murmurs of agreement among the crowd but the man held up his hand.

"I understand fully well that I could never replace Ansem the Wise. From the research I've done, I can tell he loved his people with all his heart. Even now, his passion lives in each and every one of you. That, I could never take away and would never try to take away. That said, you mentioned the bombings. There is a reason we targeted the buildings we did. Each of those buildings represents a lie. A falsehood. You put your trust in a Squall Leonhart, and he had nought the courage to tell you the truth about David Xanatos. You were misled, you tried to protest, and tell me—what were the fruits of those labors? Did they heed your cry for help?"

There was an uneasy silence among the crowd, with people looking around at each other in disbelief.

"Demons have prowled this land since Maleficent took over your world, but they are not the Heartless. These demons are hidden in plain sight. I say unto you, treat us with respect as we will treat you. I do not expect you to like us over night. After all, bridges take time to build. Allow us the chance to at least earn that respect however and we will gladly be the sponge for your hatred. Let us usher in together a Radiant Garden the likes of which has never been seen, one that even Ansem the Wise can be proud of. We will build our garden not on lies, but on a promise. A promise of truth. A garden that can truly be called radiant. To that end, I put my faith, my very being, in you, the people."

As the man and the other armored figures bowed to them, the air was one of uncertainty. Then the armor-clad woman who had been talking earlier stepped forward and began to sing:

_When you're weary, feeling small,  
When tears are in your eyes  
I will dry them all  
I'm on your side  
When times get rough  
And friends just can't be found  
Like a bridge over troubled water  
I will lay me down  
Like a bridge over troubled water  
I will lay me down_

Her powerful yet silvery voice emanated across the waves of people in the town square. All eyes were on her as she walked across the higher ground while continuing to sing, her head motioning from left to right like gentle waves. _  
_

_When you're down and out  
When you're on the street  
When evening falls so hard  
I will comfort you  
I'll take your part  
When darkness comes  
And pain is all around  
Like a bridge over troubled water  
I will lay me down  
Like a bridge over troubled water  
I will lay me down_

The girl's honey-sweet voice soon became silent and she stopped moving. When she took off her helmet, a small smile was on her face and Jayne could see just how old she was, or young, she should say, because the girl couldn't have been any older than in her teens. When the other armored figures took off their own helmets, the claps started to come from the audience. They were spread out and porous at first, but as the seconds passed more and more joined in until the audience was unified in their elation.

Jayne didn't clap. It was almost like everyone had been taken over by some enchanted spell. Everyone except her. Had they all forgotten that these people had bombed not just four areas but had also taken innocent people hostage? Whether they had intended to harm those hostages was debatable but the fact was that they should have known that their actions would cause injuries and even possibly deaths.

"Naomi, you aren't seriously giving them a chance, are you?" Jayne snapped at her friend, seeing her clapping along with everyone else.

"What? She was pretty good and that guy's speech was something else, don't you think?"

"Uh huh."

"…and he's kind of hot."

"There we are. The shallowness surfaces," Jayne said, rubbing her hands together as if she had extracted some juicy tidbit.

"At least I'm not fawning over a guy I haven't seen in over two months," Naomi teased.

"You know it's not that. It's just… where is he? He disappears and this happens? It doesn't make any sense," Jayne told her.

"I'm sure it's just a coincidence. He's Sora, the Keyblade wielding hero. Of course he's fine. Anyway, we've spent more than just a minute or two over here. Let's get to Colette's place," Naomi reminded her.

"He's a lot more than just a hero. Anyway, I just hope you're right, Naomi," Jayne said. Naomi dropped down to the ground below but Jayne stayed where she was for a moment. Her eyes were drawn to the Keyblade wielding figures. It would be funny to her, if it wasn't so sad, that they had won over the hearts of the citizens so easily. While there were still a few who voiced their dissatisfaction, a sense of neutrality prevailed where Jayne could tell that everyone was cautiously optimistic. Was the question as to whereabouts of the Restoration Committee even on their minds at the moment, she wondered?

Well, there was one thing she was sure about, she thought as she finally climbed down to join her friend. The dawn of a new era was approaching and it was anyone's guess what form it would take. She just hoped she wouldn't have to pick sides.


End file.

Kingdom Hearts, Adventure, Fantasy