Kingdom Hearts 1. Chapter 1: The start of a new journey

Chapter 1: The start of a new journey

A lone boy was standing in the middle of an old fashioned town. He was a teenager with spiky, brown hair and blue eyes. He wore a blue shirt under his black vest, black, baggy shorts with red pouches on the sides, black shoes, and had black fingerless gloves. He had a sliver crown necklace around his neck, and in his right hand was a giant silver key with a yellow handle and a crown keychain. This was Sora, the wielder of the Keyblade and vanquisher of the Heartless. He was training with the Dream Eaters in Traverse Town for a month and now he was about to head back to the Mysterious Tower to resume his training with Master Yen Sid.

"Guess it's time to go back home," he told the Meow Wow standing next to him. It looked up at Sora with its eyes and rubbed against his leg like a real cat. Sora smiled and pet it while saying,"Don't worry. I'll come back and visit some days." He then started to walk to the gate leading to the other worlds. He went outside and entered the Gummi Ship that King Mickey lent him. He set the coordinates for Yen Sid's tower and the Gummi Ship took off into the cosmos.

* * *

A small, red haired girl in a pink outfit with a white undershirt, and pink shoes raced across the grassy field towards a silver haired teen wearing a black shirt under a yellow and white vest, purple pants, and grey shoes. The girl swung at the boy with a Keyblade that looked like an arrangement of flowers. The boy parried the girl with his Keyblade, a dragon's wing with a small angel wing acting as the tooth. The handle was a dragon and angel wing, the keychain was a Heartless symbol. The boy locked blades with her and tripped her making her fall. When she tried to get back up she found the boy's blade pointed toward her neck.

"I win." The boy victoriously stated while stretching out his hand. The girl smiled, took his hand, lifted herself up and said,"But you have to admit, I am getting better." The boy nodded and said, "True, but you still have a long way to go, Kairi." Kairi smiled and said, "Don't worry Riku. One day you, Sora, and I will be even in terms of strength." Riku laughed and said, "The day that happens will also be the day you tell Sora that you lo-OW!" Riku was now tending to a bump on top of his head while Kairi pointed the Destiny's Embrace at him and said in an eerily sweet tone while smiling, "One-You and I know that I'll catch up to you two eventually, and Two-If you even think of telling anyone about 'that' then you and I will have a problem. OK?" Riku weakly looked at her wide eyed and replied, while slightly afraid, "Y-yeah. I got it."

* * *

-The World That Never Was-

In the dark city that was overshadowed by the Nobodies Castle there were several Pureblood Heartless crawling around the alleys searching for some form of food. A Neoshadow was napping under an awning while the other Heartless were wandering the city in their search.

A small orb of darkness slowly approached the Neoshadow and quickly entered it before the Heartless could sense its presence. The Neoshadow's eyes quickly opened and it squirmed around before it relaxed and its eyes changed from yellow to a sky blue. It looked around at everything and at itself as if noticing everything for the first time. It then looked towards the castle and started to race towards it.

The Neoshadow entered a small passage that led to an area underneath the castle. It ran through the corridor until it reached a small room. The room was dusty and falling apart, but surprisingly the seven pods that were inside were intact and only dusty. There were three pods on each side of the room with one pod resting in the back. The Neoshadow then approached a small control panel on the side of the room and pulled down a small lever. Almost immediately the pods opened up and a white smoke filled the room. The Neoshadow knelt down to the floor like it was bowing while it waited patiently for whatever was in the pods to come out.

"Ugh, how long were we asleep?" a gruff voice said. "To put it bluntly," a smooth voice replied,"a really long time." A deep voice went next saying,"Now's not the time for your sarcasm. We just woke up." "It's been 10,000 years since we went to sleep," a cybernetic voice stated. A snake-like voice complained saying,"That long? Man, I'm really out of shape." "Quiet," a dark voice commanded,"The Emperor has awoken." Immediately all the voices were silenced and the sound of moving feet was heard. From the back of the room purple eyes opened up and a figure with a voice darker than the first spoke "Arise my Dark Lords, it is time to take our revenge against the Realm of Light." Dark and malicious laughter echoed out of the passage and into the eternal night of the dark city.


	2. Chapter 2: Homecoming

Chapter 2: Homecoming

Master Yen Sid, mighty wizard and former master of the Keyblade, was in his chamber meditating. It was as if nothing could disturb him from his focus, nothing except the smell of something burning that just entered the room. Yen Sid opened his eyes and looked towards the Three Fairies' room just as smoke started to seep through the cracks. "Lea, did you burn something while practicing with your Keyblade again?" From out of the door came the red, spiky haired former, Nobody, who was chuckling nervously. "Well," he began,"Would you get mad if I said yes?"

Yen Sid just sighed and massaged his temples saying,"The next time you want to practice, tell me so I can make everything in the room fireproof." "You got it!" Lea replied happily. The door to Yen Sid's chamber opened up and everyone's favorite mouse, duck, and dog entered the room, faced his desk, and bowed out of respect. "Master Yen Sid," they said in unison. "What have you found, Mickey?" Yen Sid asked his former student. Mickey looked down at the floor and answered,"Well that's the problem. We didn't find anything." Yen Sid looked at the trio and stated,"I never expected Xehanort to leave any sort of clue as to where he and his organization disappeared to. We also must be wary of Maleficent. We've no idea where she has disappeared to or what she may be planning."

Just then the doors opened up and Riku entered followed by Kairi. "So, what's up?" Riku asked the room's occupants. Lea responded saying,"Oh nothing special, just there being no news on Xehanort, a warning about Maleficent, and Donald here almost burned the fairies' room down." "What?!" Donald said in his duck accent,"I believe that it was you who would try and do something like that!" Lea held his hands up defensively and said,"Alright, alright. Lighten up and get a sense of humor. You're always so serious." "A-hyuck! You really should calm down Donald," Goofy told the raging duck. Donald looked away and said, "Aw shaddup you big oaf." Mickey stepped in the middle of the trio and said, "Aw come on fellas. Let's not fight at times like these. We need to stay on good terms." The two hotheads quickly murmured an apology to each other.

Just then Master Yen Sid looked towards the window just as a star twinkled. He closed his eyes, gave a small chuckle, and said, "I do not believe that we will lose this battle against Xehanort's forces." Mickey looked at him and asked,"Why do you say that master?" "Because an old friend of ours has come home to resume his training," Yen Sid replied. Everyone looked at each other in confusion before coming to a realization. Then everyone ran for the doors to head to the base of the tower. After everyone, except Yen Sid, managed to get downstairs with some minor bruises, they ran outside to meet a familiar face. At this point Kairi was close to tears when she saw who was here. "Hey," Sora said,"How's it going?"


	3. Chapter 3: Reunion

Chapter 3: Reunion

It was only a minute after Sora arrived at the tower and already he had the welcoming committee out to meet him. "Hey," Sora said,"How's it going?" Almost immediately he was glomped by Kairi who was shedding tears of joy. "You're back!" she cried,"I was afraid you weren't going to come back!" Sora, who was shocked by the hug and slightly blushed, returned the gesture.

After the two separated, Riku came up to Sora and smacked him on the back saying,"It's about time you showed up. I was beginning to think that you forgot about us." Sora laughed and said,"Did you really think that I would forget about you guys? Man! Have some faith in me!" Riku laughed and said,"Good to have you back man." Master Yen Sid approached Sora and said to him,"It is good to have you back with us. I trust you have been improving your abilities while you were away?" Sora nodded and said,"Of course I have. In fact I think I could beat Riku without breaking a sweat." "Is that a challenge I hear?" Riku asked.

"This would be the perfect opportunity to see how strong Sora has gotten," Yen Sid said. Lea just laughed and said,"We'll also get to see him get his butt kicked! I mean come on! Riku's been training with Yen Sid and Mickey since he became a master. All Sora's done is train with those Dream Eaters back in Traverse Town." "Hey!" Sora shouted,"I could take on Riku and win!" "Well why don't we see how strong Sora's gotten," Mickey suggested. "Alright, but can we do it tomorrow? I had a long trip and my legs are sore from sitting in the Gummi Ship for so long," Sora complained. "You're still a lazy bum," Kairi said. "Very well," Yen Sid said,"The match between Riku and Sora shall be held tomorrow. Get some rest so you can resume training." Everyone went inside the tower after that and went to their rooms.


	4. Chapter 4: Riku vs Sora

Chapter 4: Riku vs. Sora!

Due to the fact that the Mysterious Tower was always under the stars, it was hard for anyone to know when it would be morning. However it seemed that almost everyone was up at the same time so it could be said that it was now morning. "I still don't get it," Lea said while pouring himself some hot coffee,"I've been here for almost a month and I don't know why I feel like it's morning." "It's just one of those things that you can't figure out," Kairi told the other red head.

Just then Sora walked into the kitchen half asleep. He mumbled something that sounded vaguely like "Good morning" to the occupants. He took a seat between Kairi and Goofy and laid his head down on the table. Kairi just shook her head and said,"Still a lazy bum." Sora then mumbled something into the table that couldn't be made out. "You'd think that the kid would've gotten enough sleep last night," Lea said. Sora then picked his head up and said,"I would have, but Riku kept me up with his snoring." "I do not snore!" an angry and wet Riku said upon entering the room. "Besides what was with the ice cold bucket you left waiting for me!?" Riku yelled while putting on a robe. Sora smirked and replied,"That was just some payback for keeping me up all night with your snoring." "For the last time I don't snore!" Sora just held up a small tape recorder and hit play. Immediately sounds of someone snoring filled the room. Riku was at a loss for words so he just grabbed a piece of toast and began eating it.

"I trust everyone had a good night's sleep," Master Yen Sid said as he walked towards the table with Mickey in tow. Everyone just mumbled a good morning to the wizard while Riku was trying to recover from his embarrassment. "I don't think I want to know what happened to Riku," Mickey said. Sora grinned and said,"He's just upset because he found out that-" "Don't even say it!" Riku yelled before Sora could finish. Sora grinned and said,"Well at least I've got some blackmail against you now." Riku looked like he wanted to melt into the floor right then and there.

Master Yen Sid then cleared his throat to get everyone's attention and said,"Now would be a good time for us to finish breakfast so we can witness the match between Riku and Sora." Everyone, except the master, then ran to find a seat at the table. "Let's eat!" everyone said. By the time everyone was done eating, the entire room was a mess.

Everyone had gathered at the arena to watch while the combatants took their places on the field. It was a regular dirt training field with several boulders sticking up in some places. Mickey stood at the referee's stand and announced,"The match between Riku and Sora will now commence! No magic can be used during this match. Only Keyblade skills can be used. Are you two ready?" Both teens got into their battle stances and declared,"Ready!" Mickey then said,"Then let the battle commence!"

(Battle theme music-Sinister Sundown-Kingdom Hearts II)

Both Keyblade wielders ran for each other and locked blades as they swung. Riku smirked and said to Sora,"Come on Sora, I thought you were training to get stronger than me. Not to get even." Riku began putting some force against his keyblade and slowly started to push Sora back. Sora began thinking of a way to escape the lock, _'I can't push back against Riku cause he's stronger. And if I try to flip him over me he might catch me off balance. Wait, I got it!'_ Sora quickly rolled to the side and Riku went flying by him, completely off guard. Sora took the opportunity to take a swing at Riku, but he dropped to the floor at the last second. Riku then went to trip Sora to catch him off guard, but Sora had already retreated back a few feet. Riku got up and readied his Keyblade again. Sora readied his before they ran at each other again.

They began to swing at one another, trading blows and blocking their opponent's attacks. Riku then slipped up as he went for a swing, but lost his balance in the process. Sora took the opportunity to swing at Riku, nailing him in the arm. Riku flinched for a moment but then hit Sora on the side with the blunt end of his Keyblade. Sora rolled away after the hit and ran toward Riku. They locked blades again and jumped away from each other.

They began to walk around each other in a circle. During this time Riku took the chance to speak,"If we battled like this back on the islands you would already be in the water." Sora gave off one of his trademark grins and replied,"Well what do you think I've been doing for the past month? Napping? I've been working hard to get stronger like you." "You may be my friend, but don't think that I'm going to go easy on you," Riku said. "Wouldn't dream of it," Sora replied. Both teens then stopped walking and looked at each other's eyes. The atmosphere grew tense as both teens prepared for what would be the final strike. They moved their Keyblades so that they rested on their right hips.  
Suddenly they both rushed at each other and used the same attack. They swung their Keyblades at each other and shouted, "Zantetsuken!" A flash of light later both teens rested on opposite sides of the field with their Keyblade arms stretched out. Cherry blossoms began to fall into the wind.

(Music End)

The spectators held their breath in anticipation of who would win. A thin white line crossed Riku and Sora's midsections and they both fell to the ground. Their Keyblades faded away in a flash of light. Mickey looked at both of them to see who was able to continue. When he saw that neither of them would get up any time soon he announced,"It's an tie! Both Riku and Sora are unable to continue!"

Everyone then went to see the two fighters. Master Yen Sid then declared,"Both of you are of equal strength at the moment, but in time you will grow stronger and we will see who will emerge victorious next time." Kairi then walked over to Sora with Donald and Goofy trailing behind her. "You gonna be okay?" Kairi asked him. He smiled and said,"Yeah, just let me sleep in a room that isn't occupied by Riku tonight and I'll be fine." Kairi giggled at Sora's attempt to joke. Lea and Mickey walked over to Riku who was able to get to a sitting position. "Dude," Lea began,"You tied him. What happened to all that power you had?" Riku smirked and said,"He's just getting strong. It's not my fault he got better." Riku then got up and walked over to Sora. He held out his hand to pick him up. Sora grinned and grabbed his hand to get up. After everyone gathered at the center of the field, Master Yen Sid cleared his throat and said,"Now that we know how strong you all are I believe it is time to make our move against Xehanort. Come, I shall give you your assignments." Everyone then left to Yen Sid's chamber.

* * *

(The Castle That Never Was)

The Seekers of Darkness, a group of beings that Master Xehanort had put pieces of his heart into, were seated at Where Nothing Gathers. Only six members had their hoods down. They were Master Xehanort, Xemnas, Ansem the Seeker of Darkness, Braig, Isa, and Young Xehanort. All the members sat in silence until a Portal of Darkness opened up in the center of the room. When it disappeared, all that was left was another person in an Organization XIII cloak. He was around Young Xehanort's size and looked like he was uninterested in what was going on. "My fellow selves," Xehanort began,"We have filled the void within our ranks so now we can fulfill our goal: Kingdom Hearts! Soon we shall move forward with our plans and receive unlimited power!" All that could be seen through the new members hood was a pair of yellow eyes that glowed through the darkness of the cloak.

* * *

"So they're after Kingdom Hearts? How predictable," the cyborg voice from before said. All seven figures were housed in a small building in the Dark City. They were wearing Organization XIII cloaks with silver flames went from the cuffs to the elbows to distinguish themselves from the Seekers. This figure was watching the Seekers on a small laptop after hacking into the castles security system.

The figure was drawn to the sound of laughter behind him. The smooth voiced figure was behind him laughing due to the news he just heard. "HAHAHA! Those morons can't come up with their own ideas?" A large figure stepped out of the shadows and spoke in a gruff voice saying,"It's the only source of power that they know about so of course they would want to control it." "Why are you two here?" The figure with the dark voice asked,"Shouldn't you be rebuilding your armies?" "That's the problem," the large figure said, "All the machines are powerless. We have to take a trip back to the other world and find the other soldiers." "So what happened to fish face?" The snake voiced figure asked as he entered the room. "He found his ships in working condition so he's getting them in order," the smooth voiced figure replied.

Just then the Emperor entered the room and everyone began to kneel to him before he stopped them. "The formalities can wait until after we take back our kingdom." The figures then rose and the snake voiced figure asked,"So how are we going to get rid of these Seekers of Darkness from ruling our world? Face them in battle, or an assassination attempt?" The Emperor shook his head saying,"Unfortunately, we can't directly interfere with the Keyblade War as it is a prophesied event." "Great! Just great!" the Snake voiced figure complained while banging his fist against the table,"Now what can we do?" The Emperor gave off a chuckle and said,"I said we can't DIRECTLY interfere. We can help the Guardians of Light to an extent." The figures seemed to lighten up after hearing that they could do something. "So," the dark voiced figure said,"What are we going to do?" "First off, you two," the Emperor pointed to the smooth and gruff voiced figures."Are going to rebuild our land and air forces?" He pointed to the cyborg and snaked voiced figures,"Then you two are going to continue spying on the Seekers. And you." He pointed to the dark voiced figure,"You are going to help the Guardians when they reach Radiant Garden by testing this one," he then gave the figure a picture which he took, glanced at, and then pocketed,"Understood?" "Yes Emperor," the figures said in unison. They then left to complete their jobs. "We will rise again," The Emperor said.


	5. Chapter 5: Preparations for the journey

Chapter 5: Preparations for the journey

Everyone had gathered in Master Yen Sid's chamber to figure out what they were going to do. Master Yen Sid then entered the room with a scroll in his hand and sat at his desk. "So what are we gonna do?" Lea asked the aged wizard. Everyone then gathered around his desk to hear what he had to say. "I have looked at all of the options of what to do,"Yen Sid said,"and I have three missions for all of you." "So what's first on the agenda?" Riku asked. Master Yen Sid looked at everyone and said,"Actually, there are assignments for several pairs of you. They are important missions that can't have any delay."

"So who's gonna be doing what?"Sora asked the master. Yen Sid opened the scroll and said,"First, Sora will search for the three missing Keyblade warriors. I will send you to the Dark Margin where the first one is." Sora nodded his head at Yen Sid. "Next,"he continued,"Riku and Mickey will go undercover in the Dark City to discover the Seekers' plans." Riku looked at Mickey and said,"Looks like we're working together again." Mickey looked up at him and said,"Sure looks like it pal."

"Finally and most importantly,"Yen Sid continued,"Kairi and Lea, you two will be going to recruit us some allies to fight Xehanort's armies." "So what worlds do you want us to go to?" Kairi asked. "Actually,"Yen Sid said,"you will not be recruiting anyone from the worlds in this side of the Realm." Everyone looked confused so Yen Sid explained,"These peculiar allies are in the Realm of Light, and yet they are not." "Could you explain it a little better?" Lea asked while trying to understand the complicated info.

"Very well," Master Yen Sid then sat down and explained,"In the distant past the Realms of Light and Darkness were ruled by two mighty kingdoms. I only know of the kingdom that ruled the Light, unfortunately." Yen Sid closed his eyes for a moment before resuming. "However, I know that both of the kingdom's rulers were twins who became gods. The kingdom of darkness faced a terrible tragedy and faded away. The kingdom of light was overthrown by people fearful of their powers and sealed away. The kingdom was full of kind and strong individuals." Yen Sid paused again to let the information sink in. "The six strongest ones created an elite group called the Dawn Knights. Each one controlled a part of the kingdom to make their positions even. They controlled the land, sky, sea, commanded a science division, special forces, and castle guard. They answered only to each other and the king. The stories say that the king was a strong ruler who made good decisions that lead to the prosperity of his kingdom. He controlled the powers of light, water, wind, and lightning." Yen Sid then looked at Kairi and Lea and told them,"I am trusting you two to awaken the kingdom so we can receive their aid." Kairi and Lea looked at each other with slightly nervous expressions."Well," Kairi began,"do you know how we can get to the kingdom and find these people?" Yen Sid nodded and said,"There is a hidden passage somewhere in Radiant Garden if my research is correct. Where it is I am unfortunately uncertain of."

Donald and Goofy looked at everyone nervously after hearing about their missions. Donald then opened his eyes wide in realization. "Hey!" he shouted,"What are we gonna do to help?" Yen Sid looked at the two and after a while said,"You two will gather allies from the worlds so we can battle the Seekers." Both of them looked relieved that they could help their friends in some way. "You will depart tomorrow morning for your missions," Yen Sid told the nervous heroes. After that he left the room to speak with the fairies and everyone began to head toward the living room downstairs.

* * *

(The Dark City)

Two cloaked figures ran through the alleys of the city to reach their destination. Upon closer examination, their cloaks bore the silver flames of the new and mysterious group. "Remind me...why can't we...just use...the Corridors of...Darkness...to get...there?" the smooth voiced figure asked while panting. The large figure looked back at him and replied,"Because we don't know if the worlds had shifted their positions and the Corridors have a set entrance and exit. So if we took the Corridors without knowing, we could end up in a different world or in space." "Oh."

Both of them then stopped running and walked towards a small, rundown building close towards the castle. They entered and went down the stairs to the basement and the smaller one opened a door. The door was connected to an underground navel hanger where many ships were docked. One of the smaller boats had its lights on and the sounds of mechanical work faintly filled the area. The figures then walked down a series of ramps to get to that specific boat. Upon entering the boat they saw another figure wearing their cloak; however, this figure had a serpentine body and was using several mechanical tentacles with claws attached at the ends to hold and use equipment to fix the ship.

"Hey! Fish face!" the small figure called out over the loud noise. The new figure heard them and powered down the equipment. "What?" he replied. "We need to go back to our other home to recruit some of our old troops," the large one said. "Well why didn't you use a Corridor to get there?" he asked the two. The large figure sighed and explained the problem again. "So how are we going to get there since taking the easy way is out?" "We'll use the Ancient Sea Routes since they always stay connected to the worlds that have a large body of water." The serpentine figure gave a hearty laugh at this before saying,"Well come on and help me fix the engine. It's the last part that needs fixing and the sooner it's fixed the sooner we can leave." "Wait!" the small figure cried out. "What?" the large figure asked. "What are we going to do about a crew?" The large figure gave off a small chuckle and answered,"We'll just use some of the Heartless that we're starting to bring back under our control." And with that the three allies went to work on the engine.

**I have realized that I have forgotten to welcome everyone to my first story. I am The Dark Dragon Emperor, and I'm a new writer on the fanfiction website. I joined this because I had so many ideas for the Kingdom Hearts world that I wanted to do this for a long time. I'd like to give a shout out to Kitty1872 for their first review. Also as a disclaimer I don't own anything Kingdom Hearts related. I do own the mysterious Emperor and the ruler of the ancient kingdom of light. I will post their profiles as they show their true identities. I'd also like to mention that this won't just be stuck in the Kingdom Hearts universe, I'm going to bring in characters from anime and other games as well. That's all for now, Adios!**


	6. Chapter 6: Promises

**Welcome back my loyal (and few) fans! I have a new chapter for you. I'm going to try my hand at a little romance here. I support SoraxKairi.**

Chapter 6: Promises

Sora, Kairi, Lea, and Riku were sitting in the living room of the tower. It was a simple room with two couches, an armchair, a bookshelf, a couple lamps that were floating, and a coffee table in the middle of the room. Sora and Kairi occupied one couch withSora flipping through his keychains and Kairi holding a mug of hot chocolate, Lea was in the armchair twirling around his Keyblade, and Riku was at the bookshelf looking for a book. The four Keyblade warriors didn't make any noise as they were focusing on their new missions that Yen Sid had told them about before.

The silence was then broken by Sora asking,"Do you think we can get through this?" Everyone then looked at him and he continued,"I mean, we're all going to be separated for a while and we won't know what happens to each other." "Well," Riku began,"I can give everyone some communicators so we can keep in touch and call for help." Lea gave off a small laugh and said,"If you need help just call me and I'll turn the problem to ashes." Kairi giggled at this and asked him,"So if the problem is a broken coffee machine you're going to burn it?" Lea scratched the back of his head and said,"Uh...well...you see...I...no comment." This caused the rooms occupants to erupt into laughter for a minute.

After the laughter died down Lea dismissed his Keyblade, stood up and said,"Well I'm going to hit the sack so my detective skills will be in prime condition. G'night." After he left the three friends looked at one another confused and Sora asked,"Since when did he have detective skills?" Riku just shrugged and told Kairi,"Better look at everything twice cause I'm positive that he'll just slack off." "Oh, I'm sure that I can make him do his share of the work," Kairi said with a mischievous smirk planted on her face. Riku shuddered at the thoughts of what Kairi would do to Lea. Riku put the book that was in his hand back on the shelf and told the two younger teens,"Well, I'm going to pack for my trip. You two kids have fun."

Then it was just Sora and Kairi alone in the room, on the same couch. Sora could feel his nervousness rise as he realized that he was in close proximity with his secret crush. The same thing was happening with Kairi. For several minutes the two teens sat in silence with the occasional slurping sound coming from Kairi as she drank from her mug.

Eventually, Sora finally worked up the courage to start a conversation. "So," he began,"things have changed a lot haven't they?" "Yeah," Kairi answered,"but you haven't. Which reminds me, you remember what I told you back to the islands about a year ago?" Sora looked confused for a moment before he remembered. "Yeah, you told me to never change, but I kinda did." Kairi giggled before telling him,"I wasn't talking about your appearance silly, I was talking about your personality." Sora laughed sheepishly before saying,"Then I guess I kept my promise after all."

Kairi glanced at Sora and then quickly turned away, her cheeks becoming a rosy color. After controlling herself she put down her mug, turned back to him and said,"Let's make another promise for this adventure." Sora looked at her and said,"Ok, let's do it. So what will it be this time?" Kairi then said,"At the end of this adventure we'll come back both safe and stronger. Also, to make sure you remember I made a little charm for you out of seashells."

Kairi handed Sora a star shaped charm made out of seashells. Two of the shells had faces on it, one resembled Sora's while the other looked like Kairi. Sora pocketed the charm before reaching over and hugging Kairi. She was caught off guard by this and stayed there with a massive blush on her face. "Thank you," was all that Sora said. Kairi regained her senses and returned the hug. The two stayed there for several minutes before slowly separating. The two then slowly left for their rooms after telling each other goodnight. And the tower was silent for the night.

**My first attempt at a little romance here. Don't worry all you SoraxKairi fans there will be a little more in the future. Adios!**


	7. Chapter 7: Departure and Rescuing

Chapter 7: Departure and Rescuing

Master Yen Sid was looking out of his crescent shaped moon observing the stars that decorated the skies. He was also looking at the four Gummi Ships that were docked at the edge of the floating land. He was thinking about what would have happened if Xehanort had not been consumed by his own greed. Would the universe have been at peace, or would an even worse evil have taken his place?

Yen Sid was pulled from his thoughts when he heard door to his chamber open. He turned and saw Mickey waiting for the chance to speak. When he saw that Yen Sid was waiting he said,"Everyone is waiting for you Master."

Yen Sid nodded and told the king,"I shall be there momentarily." Mickey then left the room and the Master went over to his desk and retrieved an item wrapped in cloth from one of the drawers.

Everyone was doing something to keep themselves occupied while waiting for the Master. Lea was leaning against the wall taking a little nap, Donald and Goofy were playing a simple card game with Goofy surprisingly winning, and the three islanders were sharing tales of what had happened throughout the past month. Mickey came downstairs and went over to the card playing animals and was shocked to see Goofy winning. Several minutes later, Yen Sid came downstairs and everyone stood at attention waiting for him to speak.

"It is time for you to begin your journey in the fight against the darkness," Yen Sid told the heroes.

Lea waved his hand at him and said,"Don't worry, I'm here to fix any mistakes that these kids might cause."

"By kids do mean the person you see when you look in the mirror?" Riku asked the former Nobody with a large grin planted on his face.

"Oh that was so funny I forgot to laugh," Lea replied in a sarcastic tone. At this most of the room erupted into laughter.

"Alright let's hear what else the Master has to say," Kairi said after the laughter had died down.

Yen Sid nodded and continued,"You may be tempted to do what may be the wrong thing many times during your adventure, but remember this, your hearts shall guide you to the right path."

Everyone bowed out of respect for the old master and went outside and went outside to to board their Gummi Ships. They then went around saying their goodbyes to each other except for their party members.

"So when am I gonna see you guys again?" Lea asked Riku and Mickey.

"Well that depends," Riku began,"if I have to give you guys information, help you guys out, or to help heal you from whatever injuries that Kairi might inflict on you," he finish smugly.

Lea gave him a look and asked him,"Do you doubt me that much?"

Riku shook his head and said,"It's not that I doubt you," he paused,"it's that I know what Kairi can do when she gets angry." he finished with a little fear in his voice.

While Lea was beginning to think about what might cause himself a world of pain, Mickey was beeing hugged to death by both Donald and Goofy. Both the duck and dog were upset that they were going to be separated from their king and didn't want to be away from him again. Ever see a blue faced mouse? This is what Mickey looked like right now.

While these five were busy with their goodbyes, Sora and Kairi had a difficult time saying goodbye to one another. Due to their secret crushes for each other they had a very hard time separating.

"So," Sora began,"I guess it's time to go."

"Yeah. I guess it is," Kairi said while trying not to look to upset.

"Hey cheer up," Sora told her,"we've got another promise that we can keep, and I think that this is our most important one yet."

Kairi looked a little happier at this and said,"Your right, as long as we keep this promise we'll be Ok." Kairi then remembered all of the little promises that the two would make when they were kids. It brought a warm feeling to her heart.

They were about to hug, but their moment was then interrupted by a grumpy and impatient Lea who was tiered of waiting for the two teens to finish when he took Kairi by her arm and dragged her to their Gummi Ship.

"Ok lovebirds, it's time to get moving. There will be plenty of time for you two to kiss and all that later," Lea said,"Got it memorized?"

Kairi then began to hit Lea with her Keyblade to release her, but Lea fought through the pain even though he knew he was gonna get it later. When they got in the ship there was a ear piercing scream of pain and it didn't take a genius to know what happened in there. However, Kairi didn't come out of the ship because the doors were locked. The Gummi Ship then took off for Radiant Garden.

Everyone was staring at the spot where the red heads were a moment ago with different thoughts running through their heads. Sora was amazed at how strong Kairi had gotten in the past month, Riku was scared for Lea's health, and the three animals were thinking the same thing,_'She's crazy!'_

Riku then went up to Sora and said to him,"Seems like we should get going. I'll see you at the finish line."

Sora smirked and replied,"Yeah, you'll see me waiting for you on the first place spot."

Riku laughed at this and held out his fist for a fist bumb which Sora gladly returned. Then he and Mickey, who had escaped from Donald and Goofy, waved back to everyone as they boarded their Gummi Ship which then took of for the stars.

After another heartfelt goodbye from Donald and Goofy, who were crying the whole time, the two animals then left to another world. Master Yen Sid then approached Sora with the cloth-wrapped item in his hand.

"Are you ready to begin your assignment?" he asked the boy.

"Yeah, I am," Sora said with confidence.

"This shall take you to the Dark Meridian where the Keyblade Master Aqua is located," Yen Sid gave Sora the item,"Once you find her this item will also take you back here where I shall speak with her."

Sora unwrapped the cloth to find that it was a Star Shard, only the inner star and the ring surrounding it was purple instead of green.

Sora ntoward his head at Yen Sid, held the shard in both of his hands, and was enveloped in a flash of light.

* * *

-Dark Meridian-

Sora opened his eyes and saw himself at a coastline with a dark sky, and black rocks on the beach. Some had become so distorted that they morphed to become strange arches. Sora looked around and saw a girl laying asleep against one of the rocks.

The girl was wearing a black and blue high-collared halter top with two pink intersecting belts over her chest, and black shorts. She had an odd silver badge on her chest. On her arms are white bell-sleeves and tan, fingerless gloves. She was also wearing what appeared to be black stockings or socks on her legs which reached to about halfway up her thighs, leaving a small area of bare skin on the upper thighs. She also bore two strips of blue cloth that drape over either side of the hips, along with a smaller, white strip of cloth tied around the waist, draped in the same manner. She wore pointed, armored, silver boots with a sharp hook on the outer side of each. She had short blue hair and moderate to large sized breasts which caused Sora's nose to bleed a little when he looked at them. When he noticed he quickly wiped it clean.

He approached the girl and shook her shoulder to wake her up. She opened her eyes which were revealed to also be blue **(She's either an oversized Smurf or member of the Blue Man Group)**. When she saw Sora she immedietly jumped back with fear written all over her face.

"Who are you?" she asked Sora.

"Hey, hey calm down," Sora said trying to get the girl to realize that he was a friend,"I'm not going to hurt you."

The girl then calmed down after a while and sat down ontop of one of the shorter rocks and faced the sea.

"Why are you here?" she asked him.

Sora sat down on the sand next to the rock and answered,"I came here to find someone that can help me and my friends in saving the worlds."

The girl looked saddened for some reason and told him,"All of the heroes are in the Realm of Light. The only people here are the Heartless, and the ones who have lost their way."

"Well I was told that a great Keyblade Master is here and that she can help us," Sora told her wondering if this was the person he was supposed to find.

"You have a good sense of light surrounding you," she said,"are you a Keyblade wielder?"

"Yeah I am. By the way, have we met? You seem familiar?" he asked her.

"No we haven't met, but you remind me of a boy I met some time ago. He and his friend were playing on an island."

"Huh, I live on an island. Maybe we did meet." Sora felt some sort of connection with this girl like they knew each other.

"Have you met any Keyblade wielders by the name of Ventus or Terra?" she asked him with some hope in her voice.

Sora shook his head and the girl lost all the hope she had before. Then Sora took out the charm Kairi made him and rubbed his thumb over it gently.

When the girl saw this she looked at him in disbelief and asked him,"Where did you get that charm!?"

Sora held the charm closer for her to see and told her,"A close friend of mine gave it to me. It's supposed to bring me good luck." She then took out a blue star shaped charm and he asked her,"Where did you get that charm?"

"I made this as a set of three for my friends. I made them out of Paopu Fruit skin that I was lucky to find. The fact that you have this..." she trailed off as her eyes lit up in realization.

"Are you the one who's been defending the worlds? Protecting them from the forces of darkness?" she asked him with hope returning to her voice.

"Well I've defeated a powerful Heartless and his Nobody from harming the worlds throughout my adventure," Sora told her.

"I knew it. You're the one I've been waiting for, you've been the one who I had hoped would find me. I knew you would come, Sora," she said, her voice overflowing with hope now.

Sora then realized something,"Are you Aqua, the Keyblade Master who was trapped here?"

The girl, now known as Aqua nodded her head as tears of joy flowed down her cheeks. Sora then grinned, stood up, and told her,"Come on, Master Yen Sid is waiting for you."

He held ouhere's hand for her to take. Aqua wiped her eyes and took his hand to stand up. Sora took the Star Shard into his hands and both of them were teleported back to Yen Sid's tower in a flash of light.


	8. Chapter 8: Catching up

Chapter 8: Catching up

Sora and Aqua appeared at the outside of the Mysterious Tower within a flash of light. Aqua, who couldn't believe that she was finally free from the Realm of Darkness, was dancing with joy upon seeing the familiar sight. Sora went towards the door and waited for her to finish.

"Hey!" Sora called out, gaining Aqua's attention,"I thought you wanted to see the Master!"

Aqua stopped dancing and ran over to where Sora was and told him, while still grinning,"Well lead the way."

'_Hopefully this happy phase weares off soon,_' Sora thought to himself as he lead Aqua up the stairs to Yen Sid's chamber.

Upon reaching the chamber door Sora went to knock, but before his fist could hit the wood he heard the wizard say,"Enter." So the Keyblade warrior and master entered the room. They both faced the desk said bowed before him out of respect.

When they were finished Aqua said to him,"It's so good to see you again Master! I've missed you and everyone so much."

"I too have missed you as well Aqua," Yen Sid said in his sagely tone. He then conjured up two chairs for the two to sit in.

"How long have I been gone Master? Everything feels so different." Aqua asked him as she and Sora took their seats.

"It has been eleven long years without you being in this world," he informed her after creating a cup of coffee for her.

Aqua almost dropped the cup out of shock,"ELEVEN YEARS!" she exclaimed,"But I've been in the Realm of Darkness for only a day or two!"

Yen Sid nodded his head in understanding,"Yes, I understand that it was only a day for you, but time moves differently between the two realms, so you were gone for much longer on this side."

Aqua stared at the ground in shock upon learning of this. Sora wanted to say something, but he didn't know what to say as he couldn't understand the feeling that was going through Aqua right now.

"Do not worry," Yen Sid began,"Many of the people that you know are still here in the worlds. You still have the friends that you made, even though they have grown."

Aqua was still troubled by the fact that she was gone for so many years. She looked up at the wizard and placed her drink back on the desk.

"Are Ven and Terra still Ok?" she asked him.

"Yes they are,"he answered,"however, we have been unable to locate Terra's location as there have been no leads on his whereabouts."

Aqua breathed a sigh of relief and said,"At least they are Ok. Oh, did you ever find out where Ven's heart went?"

Yen Sid nodded and said,"Yes we have, it has been located inside of Sora's own heart, resting and waiting for the time of awakening."

Sora completely froze at this new information and looked at Yen Sid with the 'You're kidding me, right?' look on his face. Aqua looked at Sora in bewilderment, not being able to believe that her friends heart was inside someone else's body.

Understanding that they were both confused, Yen Sid said,"If you look into Sora's heart, you can see for yourself."

Aqua then turned her chair and faced Sora. She began to look at him with an intense gaze. Sora was beginning to sweat from the awkward position that he was put into. Aqua then stopped staring and backed up in shock.

"It's true!," she exclaimed,"I can feel Ven's heart there!"

"Wait a minute," Sora said,"does that mean that the only reason I can wield a Keyblade is because of Ven's heart?" He looked at Yen Sid with worry written all over his face.

Yen Sid shook his head and said,"The Keyblade had chosen you to be its wielder due to your strong heart. Young Ventus had only shared his knowledge of controlling the Keyblade and a better understanding of magic."

Sora breathed out a sigh of relief, thankful for the fact that he wasn't relying on someone else's skills.

"Wait," Aqua said,"how are we going to awaken Ven's heart if it's still sleeping? Is there a magic spell that we can use?"

Yen Sid closed his eyes for a minute before answering,"The only way for Ventus' heart to awaken is for Sora to grow as a Keyblade wielder. To do that he must travel the worlds and grow in strength, and when Sora has become a true Keyblade Master, Ventus' heart will awake."

"So I've just gotta go around and kill Heartless like before?" Sora asked.

"Basicly," he answered.

"But what can I do?" Aqua asked him,"I don't have my Keyblade or Armor anymore."

"Your Keyblade and Keyblade Armor are where you left it, at Radiant Garden," Yen Sid said,"you may take the Gummi Ship there whenever you are ready."

"Thank you Master," the young teens said. They then got up, bowed, and left the room to head towards their Gummi Ship which was collecting dust at this point.

"So," Aqua began as they walked down the warping staircase,"what major events have happened in the past eleven years?"

Sora rubbed the back of his head and said,"You might have to wait until we get to Radiant Garden, because I'm going to need some help explaining everything."

By the time they finished talking they had already gotten to the Gummi Ship. Sora got into the pilots seat while Aqua sat down in a passenger seat, amazed at how advanced technology had gotten over the years.

"You might want to hold on to something," Sora said while hiding a mischievous grin.

"Why?" Aqua asked, obviously confused.

Sora said nothing as he moved the lever to a setting that said 'To Infinity and Beyond'. The Gummi Ship suddenly lurched forward at incredible speeds and Aqua was thrown out of her chair by the force of the launch. Sora looked over his shoulder at the poor girl as she tried to get up off of the floor.

"Things never went this fast back in my time period," Aqua said as she got up and wobbled back to her seat. She immediately collapsed into it and glared at the back of Sora's head while he was shaking from holding in his laughter.

"I did tell you to hold on," Sora said.

Aqua said nothing as she was trying to think of ways to get back at him. Sadly, due to her limited knowledge on him, she couldn't think of anything. But she vowed that she would get back at him someday.

* * *

-Radiant Garden-

Soar and Aqua appeared in the Marketplace in a flash of light. Aqua was looking around at the buildings and the castle that was still under construction with confusion written all over her face.

"Wait a minute. This isn't Radiant Garden, this is a completely different world!" Aqua said, trying to figure out where they were.

Sora shook his head and said,"No, this is Radiant Garden. It's just that a lot of things had happened over the past few years that caused it to look like this," Sora then had a trip down memory lane as he remembered all the adventures he had in this world. From temporarily losing his Keyblade to Riku, to his fight against Sephiroth.

Sora was shaken from his thoughts when Aqua asked,"So, where do we go?"

Sora turned to her and answered,"I'll take you to Merlin's house where everyone hangs out. They'll help me talk about my adventures."

"Wait," Aqua said,"Merlin the Wizard?"

"Yeah he helped me learn about magic."

"He helped me become a little stronger when I met him. But all I had to do was read a book."

Sora shrugged his shoulders and motioned for Aqua to follow him. They walked down the steps, leaving the Marketplace, and walking through the street to Merlin's house.

Sora knocked on the door and was immediately greeted with a grumpy, old voice shouting,"For the last time! I don't want any of your damn Girl Scout Cookies! GO AWAY!"

Aqua looked terrified at the violence that erupted from the house while Sora grinned and asked,"Will you accept giant keys instead?"

A crash was heard from inside and the door opened to reveal none other than Cid Highwind who said,"We always take giant keys." He then ushered them inside where they saw Leon leaning against the wall, and Yuffie who was sitting on top of the pile of books polishing her shuriken.

"Sora!" Yuffie yelled as she jumped off of the pile, threw her shuriken towards the wall, and went to hug Sora to death.

"Yuffie!...Can't...breath!" Sora managed to say while his face began to look like Aqua's hair.

Leon walked over and started to pry the hyperactive ninja off of the young teen. With great effort, Leon managed to release Sora from Yuffie's grasp and place her on Merlin's bed. He then went back over to Sora and stuck his hand out for a handshake.

"Good to see you again. How have things been?" Leon asked.

"Oh, things have become kind of crazy around here," Sora said."By the way, this is Aqua, a Keyblade Master from several years ago. I also need your help in explaining my adventure."

"Alright let's grab a chair and start story time," Cid said while lighting a cigarette.

Everyone grabbed a chair and sat down at the table while Sora said,"Well, it all started when me and my friends wanted to build a raft..."

* * *

-The Castle That Never Was-

Two of the Seekers of Darkness were walking down one of the many halls within the castle. They stopped at a door and one of them pressed a button on the side, opening the door. They entered what appeared to be a laboratory and went to different directions. One of them went to the computer that was on the side while the other went to look at the test tubes that we're filled with strange liquids.

"Most of this data is locked away, how unfortunate," the one at the computer said with a dark tone in his voice.

"It appears that it will take a while for us to begin any experiments then," the other one said with a sagely tone.

"So it seems. Perhaps there is another terminal that we could access the information from."

The one at the test tubes snapped his fingers in realization and said,"I believe I saw one on the floor above us."

The Seeker at the computer turned it off and started for the door before stopping and saying,"Come then, let's go and see what info we can salvage." They both then left the room.

Once they were gone a figure lowered himself from the ceiling from what appeared to be two brown cables coming from his arms. The figure was wearing a Organization XIII cloak with silver flames on the cuffs. Once he touched the floor a popping sound was heard and the cables began to retract what was connecting the cables to the ceiling was two big, blue claws with five long, red nails on each of them. **(A/N: If you recognize who this is don't tell)**

The figure then went up towards the computer and started to search for something.

"If those fools think that they can hack into my files and steal my information they've got another thing coming!" the figure spoke in the cyborg voice from before. He began to search the recent computer users and was greeted with a page that said the same thing over and over.

"Vexen, Vexen, Vexen, Vexen...Vexen...Vexen...Vexen...Did this guy live here all his life?" He then saw something which made him sweatdrop, a small bed with a dresser next to it and a sign hanging off of it that said 'Vexen's lab'.

The figure then shook his head and inserted a small disk into the computer and started downloading the information on the computer. While it was downloading he walked over to the test tubes to see what was inside. He saw that they were filled with complicated looking chemicals.

"So original," he said as he held up a vial with pink liquid,"they don't know how to make anything that isn't commonly used? How pathetic."

A small ding was heard, signaling that the download was completed. The figure extended his claw towards the computer, pressed the eject button, and retrieved the disk. When he was done he pocketed the disk, and shot his arms toward the ceiling to pull himself up. He crawled into the vents and went to leave the castle.


	9. Chapter 9: Regain the Power

Chapter 9: Regain the Power

Aqua had just finished her fourth cup of tea when Sora had finished telling his story about the the Mark of Mastery Exam. The others were shocked to hear about what happened inside of the Realm of Sleep.

"I'm not surprised to hear that Xehanort had done something like that," Aqua stated.

"It would have been scary if you became one of the bad guys Sora," Yuffie said while trying to get the frightening images out of her head.

"Don't worry guys," Sora said while putting his hands behind his head,"Riku, Mickey, and Lea all saved me before they could get me."

"It's still a little frightening," Leon began,"to know that Xehanort almost took one of our Keyblade wielders. We would have been in a lot of trouble."

Sora just rubbed the back of his head while sporting a nervous look on his face. Everyone began to clean up the table, putting the cups and dishes in a tray that said 'take to washer' because the Restoration Commitie had yet to invest in a dishwasher or sink.

"Hey," Cid said,"You never said what you two were here for anyway."

"Well we're here to find my Keyblade and armor," Aqua explained. "I lost it here when I rescued my friend from being swallowed by the darkness."

"Maybe you'll find something at Ansem's Castle," Leon suggested. "He most likely had it for his studies."

Aqua nodded and asked them,"So does anyone know their way around the castle? Because what if it's in a hidden vault?" Oh, Aqua has no idea how right she is.

"Well," Yuffie began,"You could get some help from Ansem's recently revived apprentices. They've known their way around."

Sora just looked at her confused and asked,"Ansem's what?"

"Yeah," Cid said,"those four weirdos that suddenly showed up along with that red head in the black cloak."

Leon then snapped his fingers in realization and told Sora,"By the way two people came through here. They said they were friends of yours, they both had red hair."

Sora grinned and said,"It must have been Kairi and Lea! Master Yen Sid sent both of them here for their mission. Do you know where they are?"

"They went to the castle," Cid said,"but you might not want to get on Kairi bad side. The larger red head didn't look to well and seemed to be afraid of her."

Sora just sighed and shook his head while motioning for Aqua to follow him. After saying goodbye to the present members of the Restoration Commitee, the two Keyblade wielders began to head for the under construction castle.

Sora and Aqua walked along the littered pathway that lead to the castle. Upon reaching the castle, Aqua looked at it in shock. It was so different than when she last saw it.

"I didn't think the castle was messed up this bad," Aqua said while still looking at the broken building.

"Yeah, but it's getting back to normal," Sora said.

The two then walked into the castle and tried to navigate their way through the confusing hallways. No matter how many times Sora came here, he still couldn't figure out which way he had to go. After several minutes of wandering they finally found the hallway that led to Ansem's study.

Sora and Aqua entered the study and saw a completely different sight. The room was cleaned up and orderly, all the test tubes were replaced and the bookshelves were fixed. The picture of Xehanort was still on the ground though. Aqua completely stopped when she saw the picture.

"Terra..." she whispered.

"What did you say?" Sora asked her.

"Who is that in the picture?" she asked, trying to hide her knowledge of it being her former friend.

Sora looked and saw that she was talking about the picture. "That's Xehanort," he began,"he was one of Ansem's apprentices before they all became Nobodies."

"But then we became people again," a rough voice said coming from the hallway leading to the computer room. Sora and Aqua looked and saw a large man with orange, and slightly spiky, hair. He was wearing a grey uniform with white cuffs and a red heart on the chest and blue hearts on the cuffs of his gloves.

Next to him was a teen wearing a white lab coat, grey vest, white colored shirt, and a purple ascot. He had dark blue hair with a long bang that covered the right side of his face. The two newcomers walked up to Aqua and Sora.

"Nice to finally meet you Sora," the teen said.

Soda looked at him in confusion and asked,"How do you know me?"

The teen then explained,"We are friends of Lea. He explained several things to us before he departed to help you."

"So who are you two?" Aqua asked the two newcomers.

"My name is Ienzo," the teen said.

"I'm Aeleus," the orange haired man said.

"Our Nobody names were Zexion and Lexaeus," Ienzo said,"we were members of the original Organization XIII."

"You mean the one that was run by Xemnas?" Sora asked.

Aeleus nodded and Ienzo asked,"So what can we help you two with?"

Aqua stepped forward and said,"We're looking for my Keyblade and armor. I lost it here eleven years ago when I sacrificed them to save a friend."

The two former apprentices looked at each other and Aeleus asked,"What do they look like?"

"Well the armor is a gray, blue color with a feminine appearance," Aqua began,"my Keyblade is also a blue color with a round hand guard, and the teeth look somewhat like a crown."

Ienzo's eyes widened upon hearing this and asked Aeleus,"Do you think she could be the one?"

"It appears to be highly possible," he answered.

Aqua looked at the two and asked,"What are you guys talking about?"

Aeleus motioned for the two to follow and led everyone to the computer terminal where they saw four figures. The first was a tall middle-aged man with platinum blond hair with two bangs that frame his face. He was wearing the same attire as Ienzo.

The second man was familiar to Sora, but he didn't know who he was. He was a tall man wearing the same uniform as Aeleus. He had black hair worn in long dreadlocks hanging in the back of his hair like a ponytail, but one dreadlock was dangling on the right side of his face. The other two were none other than Kairi and Lea who were looking through the computer files.

"Kairi! Lea!" Sora called out to his friends.

Everyone in the room, besides Ienzo, Aeleus, and Aqua, turned to see who was calling. Upon seeing that it was Sora, Kairi immediatly rushed over to her long time friend and enveloped him in a hug. Lea just watched in amusement while the other two shared a look of nervousness.

"Sora!" Kairi cried out while hugging him,"What are you doing here?"

After being released from Kairi, Sora began to explain their reason for being here.

"We came to find Aqua's Keyblade," he said gesturing to the blue haired teen standing to his right,"We think it might be here."

Aqua stepped forward and introduced herself,"Hello, I'm Keyblade Master Aqua. I was trapped in the Realm of Darkness for eleven years in this timeline, but was there for what seemed like several days."

Lea gave off a low whistle and said,"Well that's some story. Although you might not find anything here. This computer won't tell us anything."

In response to this a computerized voice spoke from the machine and said,"What you are looking for is not within my data banks."

Sora immediately recognized the voice and rushed over to the consol.

"Tron!" Sora called out,"Is that you?"

"Ah, User Sora, how nice to see that you still function." Tron responded.

"I still say the MCP worked better than this program," the bold man mumbled.

The black haired man chuckled and said,"True, but this one has more personality than the old one. Plus, it's more polite."

Sora looked at the black haired man and asked him,"Have we met before?"

The man looked nervous when he said this,"You may remember me as Xaldin."

Sora jumped back in surprise,"Xaldin!?" he exclaimed,"What are you doing here!?"

"Calm down Sora," the other man said, coming between him and Xaldin,"We're not with the Organization anymore. We became people again."

'Xaldin' nodded in agreement and said,"My real name is Dilan, and this is Even, formerly known as Vexen"

Sora dropped the tension that was building within him and walked back over to Lea and Kairi.

"So how's your mission been going?"

Both of the red heads looked down with the feeling of failure filling the room.

Lea was the first to speak,"We've found nothing so far..."

"Not even Tron can help us find anything," Kairi said.

"But enough about us," Lea said,"tell us what you guys are doing here?"

Aqua stepped forward and explained again,"I lost my Keyblade and armor here when I got trapped in the Realm of Darkness."

Both Dilan and Even's eyes widened and looked toward Ienzo and Aeleus who both nodded in silent agreement.

"I believe we know where your items are," Even said catching the Keyblade wielders attention.

"Where are they?" Aqua asked eagerly.

Ienzo stepped forward and approached the computer and said to Tron,"Please pull up any information regarding the Room of Sleep."

"Affirmative," Tron's voice replied. Immediately a screen appeared that required a password. Ienzo began to type in 'Another' and then six more password screens appeared and in a clockwise motion Ienzo began to type in the names Xehanort, Braig, Dilan, Even, Aeleus, and Ienzo.

After entering the passwords, Ienzo led everyone to the elevator that lead to the Heartless Manufactory. Upon reaching the ground floor, everyone was waiting at the small ascention for something.

"Uh, what are we doing?" Lea asked no one in particular.

"Just wait," Even told the impatient pyro.

Just then, the ground began to shake as the floor opened up and revealed a spiraling pathway that lead downwards into the depths of the castle.

"Follow me," Ienzo said as he began to lead everyone down the pathway.

"What is this place?" Kairi asked the blue haired teen.

"This is where we, the apprentices, conducted our research on hearts," Ienzo explained,"when we overthrew Ansem, we built another room where we stored a suit of armor." Aqua's eyes widened at this," Xehanort would always visit this room on a daily basis."

"Is it possible that her stuff could have been stolen?" Lea asked.

Even shook his head and said,"The room was made to be Heartless proof, and only the six founding members of Organization XIII knew about it."

By the time they were done talking they reached a small platform with a door. Even stepped forward and placed his hand on a small control panel and the door opened up. The opened door revealed a hallway with prison cells on each side.

"Uh, what's in the cages?" Sora asked nervously.

"This was where we experimented on the hearts of people and created Heartless," Aeleus explained.

Lea decided to test his luck and slowly walked up to one of the cells. He slowly began to look inside the bars and jumped back as a black, deformed arm reached out to grab him.

"Whoa!" he cried out as he summoned his Keyblade, the Burning Blaze. **(A/N Just came up with the name,)**

"Seems like some of them are still alive," Dilan muttered.

Ienzo stepped forward and began to lead the group down the hall,"Ignore them," he said,"the Room of Sleep is just ahead."

All of the people who weren't apprentices ran forward to get away from the cells. Even just sighed and rubbed his temples in annoyance. Dilan muttered something about cowards before they started moving on.

By the time they caught up with the others they were pressed up against each other in the middle of the hallway. Lea seemed to be enjoying the fact that he was pressed against Aqua, while she was trying to find a way away from the former Nobody. Sora and Kairi were both blushing from being in contact with each other. But they couldn't see it due to the fact that their backs were to each other.

"If you would kindly move, I can open the door," Ienzo told the Keyblade wielders.

Aqua and Kairi moved to one side while Sora and Lea moved to the other. Aqua was glaring daggers at Lea while he used Sora to shield him from the blue haired female.

Ienzo walked down between the two groups and placed his hand on the door. The door lit up into a violet color and opened up, revealing a circular room with a throne in the middle. There were chains on the floor that lead up to large Nobody emblems that lined the wall.

Aqua entered the room and looked around the room until her eyes landed on scattered pieces of blue armor with a Keyblade resting against the wall.

Everyone else walked in and Sora asked,"Is that your stuff?"

Aqua nodded and walked over to the armor. She knelt down and picked up the helmet which had two downward horns pointing to the back. The helmet glowed a soft blue color. The rest of the armor and the Keyblade began to glow the same color. A flash of light erupted blinding everyone.

When the light died down, everyone saw Aqua in the armor with the Keyblade in her hand. She swung her Keyblade around a few times before she was enveloped in a smaller light. When that one died down she was back in her former attire, but had a small piece of armor on both her upper arms.

"So you got your powers back?" Kairi asked.

"Yeah, I'm ready to fight anyone!" Aqua said enthusiastically.

"Well let's see what you can do with a little fight outside the castle," Sora said while smirking.

"Let's," Aqua replied.

Everyone began to leave the chambers, but as soon as they exited the spiraling pathway and the doors closed, a force pushed everyone except sora onto the small ascension. Lea tried to run back to him, but ran face first into a force field.

"What's going on?" Even asked looking around for a source of this. Immediately, a dark sphere appeared and a figure wearing a dark cloak with silver flames on the cuffs reaching up to the elbows appeared.

"Is that one of the Seekers?!" Lea yelled out.

The figure chuckled and spoke in a dark voice,"Don't even think that I would even ally myself with those ingrates."

"Then who do you work for?" Sora said summoning his Keyblade.

"I work for the great Emperor, the true master of darkness. I have been sent here to test your abilities in battle," he explained.

"And how are you going to test me?"

The figure held up a card and said,"I will have you fight the being in this card. If you succeed then you will be rewarded."

"Alright, but I want to know who you are first,"Sora said.

The figure chuckled and began to pull his hood back. His face was dark purple on the sides which then turned green. He had a big light purple stripe down the middle of his face. He had three horns on his forehead arranged in an upside down triangle position. His eyes were purely yellow and he had three teeth sticking out on each side of his face. But what caught everyone's attention were the large, ripped ears on his head.

"My name, is Cherubimon."

* * *

**I told you I was bringing in people and beings from other franchises!**


	10. Chapter 10: The test

Chapter 10: The test

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Sora said,"if I defeat whatever is in that card, you'll let me go?"

"Correct," Cherubimon replied. He then threw the card onto the ground and shouted,"Wendigomon! Prepare to battle!"

(Battle music-Desire for all that is lost-Kingdom Hearts II)

The card then began to glow in a white light as the sound of moaning, like someone waking up, was heard. When the light faded, a figure was seen.

It was a tall beast-man like figure that looked half asleep. It had brown fur on its forearms, while its hands were red and it had its left wrist bandaged up. It had red dinosaur feet, with brown fur going from up its large legs to its waist. The chest and back were covered in brown fur with two horns protruding from the back. It wore a hat that depicted a grinning face with horns coming out of that too. It had yellow fur hanging rom the side of its red face that looked like drooping ears.

Everyone looked at the creature in shock, having never seen anything like it before. Sora just gripped his Keyblade tighter waiting for the creature to make a move.

"Wendigomon," Cherubimon called out,"That boy with the giant key is your enemy."

Wendigomon looked over at Cherubimon and asked in a distorted voice,"Playtime?"

The dark being grinned and said,"Yes, playtime."

Wendigomon began to jump around happily before he set his sights on Sora and glared at him. The beast then jumped up and began to fall on Sora. Sora began to run away from the falling beast, but the mini earthquake caused him to fall down.

Sora got up just in time to duck down to avoid one of Wendigomon's giant arms that was trying to knock him aside. Sora then swung his Keyblade at the red part connecting Wendigomon's arms to the rest of its body. Wendigomon cried out in pain at this.

"All you've done is make him angry," Cherubimon said while smirking.

"Do you think he can win?" Kairi asked worryingly.

"That creature seems to have a low intelligence," Even analyzed,"If Sora can fight it with a plan he might have a chance."

"This is still going to be a tough fight," Lea said.

"Man! This thing doesn't stop!" Sora said while dodging Wendigomon's wild attacks.

Sors then jumped up and fired a Blizzaga spell at the beasts face. Wendigomon cried out in pain and grabbed its semi-frozen face. Sora landed on his feet and ran towards the beast and slashed at its chest. Wendigomon then broke the ice on its face and began to growl angrily.

"Playtime over!" Wendigomon cried out revealing hidden cannons on its chest. Sora stepped back in surprise upon seeing the hidden weapons.

"Koko Crusher!" Wendigomon yelled out. A stream of bullets erupted from the cannons which Sora blocked with a Reflect spell. Wendigomon didn't let up his assault until he ran out. He retracted the cannons and waited for Sora to come out from behind the shield.

_'Man this thing is tough!' _Sora thought,_' How in the world am I going to beat this thing? It didn't seem to like Ice magic to much so I should probably keep hitting it with that.'_

Sora dropped the shield and ran toward the beast. Wendigomon stretched its arms out and yelled,"Cable Crusher!" Wendigomon's arms extended and went to crush Sora. Sora jumped to the side to avoid the flailing arms. Sora jumped toward the creature, but was caught by one of the arms. Wendigomon brought Sora close to its face to examine then teen. Sora struggled but couldn't escape the beasts grasp.

"Sora!" Kairi cried.

"Come on man! You can't lose to this thing!" Lea yelled.

Sora then stopped struggling, closed his eyes and focused. He began to glow a white light. Wendigomon used his other hand to cover Sora before his hands were blown away by a bright light. When the light dissapeard Sora was in his Final Form with the Oblivion and Oathkeeper Keyblades floating behind him.

"Well this is an interesting development," Cherubimon said while observing the match.

"Here I go!" Sora cried as he began to fly towards Wendigomon. The beast threw his arms around to try and knock Sora out of the sky. The Keyblades began to fly toward Wendigomon and start slashing at him. The beast cried out in pain as the Keyblades began to cut him. While Wendigomon was distracted by the Keyblades, Sora flew up above him and began to gather Ice magic in his hands. The more he focused, the more intense the energy became.

Wendigomon finally knocked away the Keyblades and began to look around for Sora. Upon seeing some snow fall, he looked up and saw Sora with a large amount of Ice magicbin his hand. The beast began to jump up to him, but it was to late.

"Freeze!" Sora cried out throwing the energy at Wendigomon. Upon contact a bright blue light erupted and a chilling wind flew outward making everyone cold. Aqua and Kairi wished they had heavier clothes at the moment. When the light died down, everyone was shocked by what they saw. Sora was floating in the air with his Keyblades orbiting him, but underneath him Wendigomon was frozen in a mini glacier along with most of the floor.

(Music end)

Cherubimon looked at the frozen beast in surprise as he tried to register what happened in his mind. He lost his focus and the force field lowered, allowing the spectators to approach Sora. Sora reverted back to normal just in time to receive a hug from Kairi. When Kairi released him Lea walked up to him and patted him on the back.

"You had me worried there kid," Lea said.

"What? Don't you have any faith in me?" Sora asked.

"Very impressive," Cherubimon said as he used a pickax to try and free Wendigomon,"You're more powerful than the data says."

Everyone summoned their weapons upon remembering that the dark being was there, that included the apprentices summoning their old Nobody weapons.

"There is to much hostility here," Cherubimon commented as he began to swing again. As he swung again he still couldn't make a dent in the ice.

"Can I get a little help here?" he asked as he threw the pickax to the side.

"I got this," Aqua said as she stepped forward.

"Maybe I should handle this," Lea said,"after all, I control fire."

Aqua just looked at him, smiled at him, and continued walking toward the glacier. She pointed hre Keyblade at it and shouted,"Mega Flare!" Immediately, the room was filled with a blinding light that caused overwhelming heat. When everyone was able to look again they saw a thawed Wendigomon that was crying.

"No fun! No fun!" it cried out causing everyone a headache.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Cherubimon yelled causing the beast to stop crying.

"When we go back home I'll get you a new toy to play with, Ok?" Cherubimon told the sad beast.

"Yay!" Wendigomon cried as it claped its hands in joy before being engulfed by a white light. When the light faded, Cherubimon was pocketing a card.

"Why do I always get stuck with the crazy ones?" he muttered to himself before facing Sora.

"So now what?" Sora asked him.

"Now," Cherubimon began while pulling out a phone,"I make a call."

He dialed a number on his phone and put it up to his large ear. After several moments he began to speak.

"The boy passed my test, what do I give him?" he began,"Are you sure about that? Very well, I'll give it to him."

After he hung up he turned to Sora and told him,"Step forward so you may receive my gift. I shall not harm you in any way."

Sora reluctantly stepped forward standing between his group and Cherubimon. Cherubimon put his hands together and slowly brought them apart, dark energy forming between them. He began to chant a strange incantation beforehoming his hands so that they faced Sora.

"A separate being that can belong," he said as darkness began to gather around Sora.

"It accepts the fact that it can't live without you, however..." Darkness covered Sora as Cherubimon began to pull something away from the darkness.

"I shall give you another chance at existence!" the darkness left Sora and returned to Cherubimon as he held a shining orb in his hand.

"What happened?" Sora asked as he looked around.

"That mutant bunny covered you with darkness and just took something out of you," Dilan explained as he held his lances, Lindworm toward Cherubimon.

A tick mark appeared on Cherubimon's head as he said,"I'm going to ignore that comment. Anyway, this is a person that many people in this room know," he said as he held out the orb for Sora to take.

Once Sora took the orb Cherubimon said,"I'm afraid I must take my leave. See you next time." he turned to Sora and said,"Get stronger so I may test you myself one day."

Cherubimon then bowed and was enveloped by a Coridor of Darkness. Once he left, the orb in Sora's hand began to glow and float above the floor. Everyone except Lea who looked at the orb with a happy expression on his face.

"Lea what are you doing?" Sora asked.

Lea just grinned as the light grew brighter until it was to bright to look at. When the light died down everyone opened their eyes and saw someone they thought they wouldn't see.

Standing there was a teenage boy with spikey blond hair and bright blue eyes. He wore a black jacket with a X shaped zipper. Over that he wore an unzipped white jacket that had a black block designe. He wore dark green pants with beige attachments on the legs. He wore black shoes with red laces. On his left wrist he had a checkered band, and on his hand he had a black ring and white ring. Everyone stared in shock upon seeing the new arrival.

"Ven?" Aqua asked, stepping forward.

The teen looked at her confused and said,"Who's Ven? I'm Roxas."

* * *

-Memory Skyscraper-

A dark figure walked through the alleyways toward the tall building. He walked up the steps and stopped at the first landing. Lightning flashed through the sky, showing the figure to be a member of the new group.

"So much life has been drained from this place," the Emperor said to himself,"How long until things go back to how they were?"

He turned around to see a dark feather float down to the ground. He picked it up and saw it to be a black angel wing. The Emperor turned around again to see none other than the One Winged Angel, Sephiroth.

"Why is it that your darknesme makes me want to come here?" Sephiroth asked.

"You are the darkness of someone's heart. You are drawn to their darkness, like they are drawn to you. You felt my darkness and wanted to see if it was your other's," the Emperor explained.

"Absurd," Sephiroth said,"I am not drawn to anyone."

"You are," the Emperor replied,"You want to be a real existence, so you want to have your other become enveloped in darkness. You are just a small piece of you other's darkness and you want it all."

"Be silent!" Sephiroth said, becoming angry.

"Then prove me wrong. Show me that you are strong on your own," the Emperor challenged.

Sephiroth drew his Masamune and entered his battle stance. The Emperor stretched out his hand and waited. Darkness gathered around his hand as it began to form a blade. It looked like a standard sword, but with a large, black blade that was split down the middle. The hilt was housing a large red eye with a slit pupil, and the handle was curved like a "T" with the handles pointing towards the hilt. The Emperor then held the blade at his side in preparation.

The two combatants stood waiting for the time to charge at one another. Eventually a flash of lighting lit up the area again, and they both charged for each other and swung their swords.

* * *

**Ain't I a creative one? Well leave your review and tell me what you think. Ciao!**


	11. Chapter 11: New Faces, Same Job

Chapter 11: New Faces, Same Job

* * *

"Roxas!" Lea called out to the blond,"Is that really you buddy?"

Roxas smirked and asked him,"Well how many other blond Nobodies that can wield Keyblades do you know?"

Lea just smirked and patted him on the back saying,"Good to have you back pal."

"Nice to see you too, Axel," Roxas said as he looked up to his friend.

Lea laughed and asked,"Didn't anyone tell you? The names Lea, got it memorized?"

"Well, it's nice to see you again, Roxas," Ienzo said as he and the other apprentices walked up to the newly revived Nobody.

"Hey, Ienzo," Roxas said getting a confused look from Lea.

"I thought you didn't know our real names," Lea said

"I was just messing with you," Roxas said, lightly punching Lea in the shoulder.

Sora walked up to Roxas with Kairi by his side and said,"Good to see you again Roxas."

Roxas turned and saw the grinning boy and returned a grin of his own,"Nice to see you guys again."

"So how did you come back?" Kairi asked.

"Well I was in Sora's heart," Roxas began,"and then some voice asked me if I wanted to exist again. I said yes, and the next thing I know, I'm standing here."

"Guess that mutant bunny isn't so bad after all," Aeleus said.

"Mutant bunny?" Roxas asked.

"We'll tell you later," Lea said.

"Why do you look like Ven?" Aqua asked, confused as to why he looked like her friend.

"Must be because his heart is in me," Sora guessed."Ven's heart must have affected Roxas' appearance."

"It's possible," Ienzo muttered to himself.

"Well all I'm concerned about is that my good buddy Roxas is back," Lea said with a big grin on his face.

"Good to be back," Roxas said,"but when are we going to eat? I'm starving!"

Everyone sweat dropped at the teens antics, while Lea just laughed and began walking toward the elevator. Everyone else boarded, and went back up to the computer room. When they exited, they saw Leon waiting for them.

"Quite a crowd you got there Sora," Leon said, observing the company with him.

"Hey, Leon," Sora said,"What's up?"

"There have been flashes of light coming from the Great Maw," Leon said,"Yuffie and I couldn't get close enough. There's some knind of force field blocking us from getting there."

"So what can we do?" Aqua asked the swordsman.

"I thought that the Keyblade would be able to get rid of whatever barrier is blocking the path," Leon explained.

Sora grinned and said,"I'm sure that four-"

"Six!" Roxas interrupted.

"Six," Sora continued,"Keyblades will be enough to get rid of some barrier. After all, only two Keyblades were needed to close the Door to Darkness."

"Sounds like you've got a full set of them. I'll leave it to you," Leon said, he then walked out of the room after waving goodbye.

"Let's use the cameras to see what's going on in the canyon," Even suggested.

Ienzo moved toward the computer and asked Tron,"Can you bring up the castle cameras that point to the canyon."

"Affirmative," Tron's voice rang out. After several moments a screen popped up showing the Great Maw. There were flashes of light coming from the canyon just like Leon said.

"Zoom in," Ienzo said. Tron zoomed in the camera and you could make out a sea of dark colored beings which were undoubtly Heartless as soon as they saw the two Behemoth Heartless in back of the large group. There was a clearing where something on fire could be seen. The flashes were also coming from the clearing.

"I think I can see people there," Dilan said as he looked closer.

"Tron," Even said,"try to zoom in some more so we can see what's in that clearing."

Once again, the camera zoomed in to show two teens, a boy and a girl fighting off Heartless. The girl was using a wide array of magic and the boy was using a brightly glowing sword that appeared to be cloaked in magic. They were both fighting off wave after wave of Heartless. The thing on fire appeared to be the remains of a ship of some kind.

"Those two don't even look tired!" Lea said, seeing how effortless their attacks were.

"We still have to help them," Kairi said.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Sora said running out of the room.

All the Keyblade wielders followed him while the apprentices stayed in the castle. The Keyblade wielders exited the study to see Sora looking at each hallway in confusion.

"Anyone remember the way out?" he asked them. Everyone just slapped their heads in annoyance while Lea marched up to the front and lead everyone outside.

Once everyone got outside, Sora lead the charge to the Great Maw. Lea and Roxas kept up with him while the girls struggled to match Sora's stride. By the time the girls caught up, the guys were already at the barrier, it was the place where Sora fought Demyx. The guys were playing cards while waiting for the girls.

"Got any sixes?" Roxas asked, to which the guys shook their heads.

"Go fish," Lea said, to which Roxas reached to pick up a card from the pile.

Aqua and Kairi looked at the three in disbelief.

"Really?" Aqua asked,"At a time like this?"

"Oh! You're here," Sora said, beginning to pick up the cards and hand them to Lea.

"To bad," Lea said, pocketing the cards,"I was winning too."

"Well where is this wall anyways?" Roxas asked before walking right into it face first.

"Found it," he said, rubbing his aching nose.

"Let's get to work," Sora said, summoning the Kingdom Key.

Everyone else nodded and summoned their Keyblades, Roxas summoning both the Oathkeeper and Oblivion. They pointed their Keyblades at the force field and focused. A white light began to circle around each of their Keyblades before closing in on the tip, and a beam of light came out of each of them and hit the wall. The wall shone for a moment before it vanished.

"Is it gone?" Kairi asked.

"Care to show us if it's there or not again Roxas?" Lea asked with a large grin on his face.

"Actually," Roxas began walking up to the pyro,"Why don't you!" he then pushed Lea forward and towards where the wall originally was. Lea stumbled for a moment and tried to keep himself from hitting it, but he lost his balance and...went through the archway and hit the ground face first with a thud.

"Guess it's not there," Kairi said as she and everyone else tried to hold in their laughter.

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up," Lea said as he picked himself up.

Everyone just laughed at Lea's foolishness for a good minute before they started heading into the canyon. They could hear the sounds of fighting so they picked up their pace. By the time they got to the Great Maw, they could see the sea of Heartless, mainly composed of Soldiers, Armored Knights, and Neoshadows, completely focused on whoever was in the middle.

The Keyblade wielders began to cut their way through the Heartless, Roxas making it look easy with his two Keyblades. Aqua was getting back into the feel of wielding a Keyblade again. Kairi and Lea were doing a decent job of fighting the Heartless. Sora ran up to one of the Behemoths and climbed up its leg. He reached its back and jumped into the sky and fired a beam of light from his Keyblade that went through the Hartless' head. The beast cried out in pain before disappearing in a cloud of darkness and a large heart flew into the sky.

Eventually they hacked through enough Heartless to get to the clearing in the middle when they got there they saw two teens, a boy and a girl fighting off the Heartless without breaking a sweat.

The boy was wearing an unzipped black jacket over an equally black shirt underneath. The jacket had dragon-like patterns inscribed in gold trim and had a golden dragon's wing design on the back. The pants and the shoes were pretty normal when compared to the jacket. The pants also had a golden line trim stamped on the sides. The shoes were black with golden lining running over it. He had semi spikey brown hair and blue eyes. He was slashing his sword at the Heartless.

The girl was wearing a red sleeveless dress with floral patterns, two long red gloves that reached past her elbows, and several different sashes around her waist, and a pale pink cape hanging from her shoulders. She wore patterned white tights on her legs, and pointed red and gold high-heeled boots. She had blond hair tied in a ponytail, and blue eyes. She had a small rapier sheathed at her thigh, but she didn't need it as she blasted Heartless with magic.

"This is getting boring," the boy said. He turned to the girl and asked,"You want to finish this?"

"Gladly," she replied before flying up and gathering magic power into her hands.

"Uh, now might be a good time for a Reflect spell," Sora said as he prepared to cast the spell.

"Agreed," Roxas said as he also prepared to cast.

The girl had gathered green magic power into her tiny hands and the glow was intensifying. The boy had already taken cover under a dome of earth, and the Heartless were jumping up high to get to her, but it was to late. The Keyblade wielders put up their Reflect shield just in time.

"Ultima!" the girl cried. A green, blinding wave erupted outwards, eliminating the Heartless before they realized what had happened. The Reflect shield just barely held against the powerful spell. When they lowered the shield and opened their eyes, they saw the entire area cleared of Heartless, and the two teens observing the flaming wreck.

"I knew I should have been the one driving," the girl said while giving the boy a look.

"Well sorry," the boy said," but I didn't want a super fast, peel the skin off of me, flight. I wanted something nice and casual, where I don't have to hold onto the chair for dear life." When Aqua heard this she glared at Sora who laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head.

"If I was driving," the girl began," we wouldn't have been shot down, we would have escaped from them."

"If you were driving," the boy began,"we would have ran into something due to the high speeds making it nearly impossible to see, thus causing us to crash land onto a world anyway."

The girl crossed her arms and pouted childishly,"Why can't I ever stay mad at you?"

The boy grinned and tapped her on the nose lightly, saying,"Because you love me so much," he then scowled and shouted at the sky,"Shut up you dirty old lizard!" The girl giggled and went to hug him.

At this point Lea sneezed causing everyone to jump in surprise. The two teens separated and looked in the groups direction, while the girl's face grew a bright red and she hid behind the boy.

"We've got visitors," she said nervously.

"I'll handle this," he told her before facing the group and asking,"Can I help you?"

Sora stepped forward and said,"We saw the fighting, and decided to come and help, but it looks like we didn't need to."

The boy laughed sheepishly and looked back at the girl behind him before saying,"Yeah, I guess we handled that pretty well."

"So what's with blondie over there?" Lea asked.

The boy turned to glance at the girl before saying,"She's just a little shy around strangers, but don't worry, she'll open up to you all soon. It'd help if you introduced yourselves first."

"I'm Sora."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Kairi."

"My name's Aqua."

"The name's Lea. Got it memorized?"

"I'm Roxas."

The boy laughed and put a hand on his chest saying,"My name is Shin."

The girl stepped forward and said,"I'm Terra Branford. It's nice to meet you."

Aqua, who was luckily standing in the back, held her breath so she couldn't laugh and reveal something.

"So what were you two trying to do?" Roxas asked, eyeing what used to be a ship.

Shin rubbed the back of his head and said,"Well we were trying to find some group of black cloaked morons that call themselves the Seekers of Darkness or something and stop them."

Terra continued,"They tried to capture me and Shin so they could take our powers and use them for themselves."

"Well it looks like we've got something in common," Roxas said.

"Come again?" Shin asked.

"We're fighting against the Seekers to keep the worlds safe from them," Sora explained.

Shin turned back to Terra and whispered something in her ear. She grinned and nodded her head in the form of agreement.

Shin turned back to the group of Keyblade wielders and said,"Me and Terra would like to go with you."

Everyone looked at each other, then at them before Sora stepped forward and held out his hand.

"Glad to have you on board," Sora said.

Shin grinned, shook his hand and said,"Glad to be on board, but first, do you know where a restaurant is, I'm starving!"

Everyone except Terra and Roxas sweat dropped at his antics. Sora motioned for everyone to follow him. Everyone left the canyon and entered Radiant Garden again, Shin and Terra were observing the city while following Sora and Co. to Merlin's house.

"We're back!" Sora yelled out as he opened the door, leading his large group inside. Besides Leon, Yuffie and Cid, Aerith and Tifa were also there.

"Nice to see you again Sora," Aerith said as she approached the spikey haired teen.

"Aerith! When did you get back?" Sora asked as he made room for Kairi and the others to get in.

"Just a little while ago," Aerith said,"Me and Tifa came back from shopping for medicine. Can you introduce us to your new friends."

After all the introductions were made, everyone sat down and began to converse.

"By the way," Sora began,"where's Merlin?"

"He went out of town for a while," Tifa said,"something about meeting an old friend."

"Oh, did you ever find Cloud?"

Tifa sadly shook her head and said,"No, not yet. I decided to settle down here, I rented a building and turned it into a bar."

When Shin and Roxas heard this they ran up to her and said,"Take us there! We're starving!"

Tifa just laughed and said,"Alright, alright, just follow me. I'll see all of you later."

Tifa lead the two starving boys to her bar, Terra decided to tag along to get something to eat as well.

"So why don't you tell us what happened in the castle and the canyon, spikey?" Cid said, moving away from the computer.

Sora took a deep breath and said,"So we went into the castle..."

* * *

-Memory's Skyscraper-

The ground was full of sword cuts, craters, and small fires, but the skyscraper was untouched. Sephiroth and the Emperor stood on seperate sides of the field, neither of them showing any signs of exhaustion.

"It appears we are even," Sephiroth said.

"So it seems," the Emperor agreed,"This fight will go nowhere at this rate."

Sephiroth sheathed his sword and looked at the Emperor,"How is it that you could read my movements?" he asked.

The Emperor banished his sword and replied,"I could read your darkness, it was telling me what you were going to do before you did it, but you were able to counter my attacks well. You have a lot of training to go through before you can defeat your other half."

"What kind of training?" Sephiroth asked.

"One where you learn to control your own darkness on your own," he said,"You seem to have a better control when he's on the same world as you. You need to become your own being."

"And how do I do that?" Sephiroth asked again.

The Emperor thought for a moment before answering,"You must train yourself so that you can fight without relying on your others darkness. Also, find your goal, knowing what you are fighting for will help make you stronger."

"I see," Sephiroth said,"Until we meet again." he then vanished in a storm of black feathers.

The Emperor then turned to leave, walking away into the darkness of the city.

* * *

**I do not own Final Fantasy VI. If I did, there would be a remake for the PS3, a sequel, prequel, and a movie. Can't help it, I like FFVI. I do not own Shin either, he belongs to my friend, and writing mentor, The Unknowing Herald. I also support his Teryu shipping as it is the only relationship I can see working for Terra.**

**Will Sora and Co. start their training? Will Kairi and Lea find the ancient kingdom? What is the training the Emperor sent Sephiroth on? Will Roxas and Shin get their food?**

**Leave your thoughts and guesses in the box below! Ciao!**


	12. Chapter 12: Setting out to a new world

Chapter 12: Setting out to a new world

* * *

After Sora finished his explanation of what happened in the castle, everyone who wasn't there was surprised to hear that a new group of mysterious figures had emerged. Leon was leaning on the wall in thought, Yuffie and Aerith were sorting through the medicine, and Cid was finishing his new project on the computer.

"Where are Roxas and the others?" Lea asked,"They've been gone a while."

"They probably can't resist Tifa's cooking, and wanted more," Cid guessed.

"Is it that good?" Lea asked.

Cid nodded his head and closed the program he was working on.

He turned around and asked them,"How 'bout I take you all over there? You must be pretty hungry youselves."

His response was a growling noise coming from the back of the group. Everyone turned and saw Sora holding his stomach with a sheepish grin on his face.

"Sorry," he said,"but I haven't had anything to eat today."

Cid just laughed and signaled for everyone to follow him. He lead everyone down the street for a five minute walk to a two story building with a sign that said,"Tifa's Seventh Heaven" above the door.

"Seems like a nice place," Lea said while looking at the building.

Sora went to open the door, but before he could, a young male yelled out,"HOW THE HELL IS THAT POSSIBLE!?"

Sora yanked the door open and rushed in with everyone else following him, they all looked at the site which caused the screaming. Shin and Roxas had two plates each on their side of the table. What shocked everyone was Terra, the tiny girl had ten plates stacked up on her side, all of them completely cleaned of her food.

Everyone was looking at the girl as she cleaned her mouth with her napkin. They then looked Shin who didn't seem fazed at all. He looked at the group before shrugging his shoulders and turning to finish his drink.

Everyone turned to look at Tifa, who was enjoying a drink of her own. She noticed them and walked over to them.

"How did she eat so much?" Cid asked, pointing towards the small blonde.

Tifa just shrugged her shoulders and said,"I turn around for a minute, and when I looked back, she had a clean plate and was asking for more."

Lea just shook his head and sat down at the bar. Everyone else followed his example and took a seat somewhere. Cid joined Lea at the bar, Aqua and Sora sat at a table across from Roxas and his company, and Kairi sat beside Terra.

"So what are you going to do now?" Kairi asked Sora.

Sora looked at her and said,"I guess me and whoever else is coming with me will head to another world."

"What world are you going to next?" Shin asked.

Sora shook his head and said,"I just go to wherever I feel like I need to go."

"So you wing it most of the time, right?" Shin asked.

"More or less," Sora said. Shin just shook his head and got up to the bathroom.

Aqua turned toward Terra and asked,"So where are you and Shin from?"

Terra turned to look at her and said,"We're from a world called the World of Balance. It's a world consisting of three continents. We live in the kingdom of Figaro with all of our friends."

"We should go there some time," Kairi said.

"Sounds like a nice place," Roxas added. Shin then returned and sat down in his seat.

"So when are we going?" he asked.

Sora thought for a moment then said,"I guess we're leaving soon."

"Does your ship have rooms?" Shin asked.

"Uh...," Sora thought once again,"Yeah, there are several rooms.

Shin seemed relieved at this as Terra looked him, seeming to understand.

"I guess it's time to go," Sora said beginning to stand up.

Aqua, Shin, Terra, and Roxas also stood up and went to the door ahead of Sora. Sora went over by Kairi to say goodbye. They both sat on opposite sides of the table, unaware of Lea and Cid, who were watching.

"You really think they'll get together?" Cid asked the pyro.

"They look like a good pair," Lea said,"you'll see at the end of this adventure."

Cid just shook his head and looked back at the two teens. Tifa was also watching as she washed dishes.

"I'm leaving soon," Sora said. Kairi looked at him with a sad look in her eyes. Sora looked equally sad.

Kairi then put her hand ontop of Sora's and looked at him with affection.

"You'll come back to me, right? Like we promised?" Kairi asked him.

Sora grinned and nodded his head. He and Kairi then got up and hugged each other. Lea, Cid, and Tifa looked at the two teens with knowing smirks on their faces. The two then separated and went to go outside, Lea decided to follow them. When they stepped outside they saw the others waiting for them. Before they could leave, a Corridor of Darkness appeared before them and when it disappeared, Isa was standing before them.

"I thought I sensed something familiar here," he said looking at Roxas.

Everyone drew their weapons upon seeing the Luna Diviner. Lea was a little hesitant to battle his former friend.

"I must ask, how did you come back to existence?" Isa asked the blond Nobody.

"Isa," Lea said,"Why are you here?"

Isa turned toward Lea and gave him a cold look. He then snapped his fingers and six Berserker Nobodies appeared around the group. Everyone entered a battle stance, ready to defend themselves if necessary.

"Eliminating those who aren't one of the Seven Lights will benefit us greatly," Isa said as he prepared to give the signal to attack. Suddenly, all the Berserkers disappeared like they were defeated. Everyone looked around and saw three Samurai Nobodies with their swords drawn. The one in front of the other two had a scar running down the right side of his face.

"What are you doing?" Isa demanded from them summoning his claymore, Lunatic. The lead Samurai then rushed forward and swung its sword at him, which he blocked with his claymore. However, Isa was stronger and was able to push the Nobody back, but the Samurai was more flexible and twisted around the large weapon so it could point its blade at Isa's neck.

"Very well, I'll leave,"Isa said, backing away.

"But don't think this is over," he said glaring at Lea and Roxas. He entered a Corridor of Darkness and disappeared. Everyone then turned towards the Samurai trio as they sheathed their swords and looked toward Roxas.

"Why did these guys help us?" Sora asked, a little confused at the Samurais actions.

"I guess it's because I was their leader when I was still in the Organization," Roxas guessed.

"Do they talk?" Sora asked him.

Lea shook his head and said,"The lesser Nobodies did a type of sign language that only the Organization member in charge of them could understand."

The lead Samurai stepped forward and pointed towards Roxas. Roxas stepped forward and the three bowed to him, making it look like they wanted Roxas as their leader.

"You and the other Samurai Nobodies want to help me and my friends on our journey?" Roxas asked, seeming to understand them to which they nodded.

"Why do they want to help us?" Lea asked, confused.

Roxas shrugged his shoulders and said,"Maybe it's because I was their leader before."

One of the other Samurais stepped toward Kairi and held out in its hand, a Nobody emblem. Kairi took the emblem and turned towards Roxas.

"What's this?" she asked him. He took a look at it before handing it back to her.

"This will allow you to summon some Samurai Nobodies if you need to," Roxas said.

"Lucky you," Lea said,"You get to control your lesser Nobodies, but mine are still missing."

"Aw, don't be jealous Lea," Kairi said grinning at him.

"Can you ask them about my Assassins?" Lea asked Roxas. Roxas turned towards the Samurais who were making signs that only Roxas seemed to understand.

He turned back to Lea and said,"They are having trouble finding you because you aren't a Nobody anymore. Same thing with Dilan and his Dragoons. If you want, I can have some of the Samurais tell them where you are."

"Perfect," Lea said,"I need an army of my own."

Everyone except the Nobodies just shook their heads when Lea said this. The Samurais then bowed and vanished from sight. Everyone then followed Sora back to the Gummi Ship. Leon and everyone else, except Cid and Tifa, were there waiting for them.

"So it's time to go, huh?" Leon asked the spikey teen.

"Yeah, but we'll come back some time," Sora said. Leon smiled and held out his hand for him to shake. Sora flashed his trademark grin and shook his hand. Once they were done, the apprentices stepped forward to talk with Sora.

"As a form of apology for the problems we caused while in the Organization," Dilan began,"we uploaded a list of worlds that we discovered while working for the real Ansem."

"That'll definitely help me in my training, thanks!" Sora said.

"We want to do what we can to help you," Even said. Sora nodded and walked up to Dilan with his hand stretched out.

"I want to forgive you for what you did when you were working for the Organization," Sora said.

Dilan was able to recover from his shock and shake Sora's hand, making a new sign of friendship.

Aerith then walked up to Sora and asked him,"Can you keep an eye out for Cloud?"

"Sure, I'll look for him," he said. Sora then walked up to the Gummi Ship with all the people coming with him.

Sora turned around and waved bye to the Restoration Commitee, the apprentices, Kairi, and Lea. They waved back, Kairi trying to hold back some tears so Sora wouldn't get sad. Sora saw her and gave her a grin to cheer her up, which she did upon seeing his smile.

The hatch closed and the ship took off for the stars. Sora put the ship on autopilot and went to the small rec room where everyone else was. Aqua was forming a small sphere of ice in her hands, Roxas was looking out the window, and Shin and Terra were in a small conversation.

"So what world should we head to first?" Sora asked.

"How about we go to the Olympus Colosseum?" Roxas suggested.

Aqua looked at him and asked,"Why there?"

"So we can see how strong everyone is," Roxas replied,"plus Sora could get some training with you in."

"That sounds like a good idea," Shin said, Terra nodding in agreement.

"Alright, Olympus Colosseum it is," Sora said, going to put in the coordinates.

"Maybe we could join a tournament if we're there in time," Roxas said.

"A tournament sounds like fun," Shin said.

The Gummi Ship then turned and blasted off for the Olympus Colosseum, leaving Radiant Garden behind them.

* * *

(?)

The area was a large cave underground, three of the mysterious figures were directing strange beings into a large Corridor of Darkness. There was also a entrance to the sea where several aquatic beings were entering another Corridor. Several Heartless, both Pureblood and Emblem, were also moving supplies through the Corridor, they had sky blue eyes instead of the bright yellow like regular Heartless.

"At this rate, we'll have a good amount of troops in no time," the large figure said.

"Too bad we can't attack those Seekers right away," the smaller figure said,"Why do prophesied events have to be troublesome?"

The serpentine figure slithered out of the water and approached the other two, he rested by a column nearby.

"All my troops have gone over, are we done here?" he asked.

"Almost," the large figure replied,"We've got several more crates to move over and then we're done."

"Hey, have you heard," the small figure began,"the Keyblade kid passed Cherubimon's test."

"Sounds like he may be useful in eliminating the Seekers after all," the serpentine figure said.

"Well let's go, we have to report back to the Emperor about these developments," the large figure said, picking up a crate with one hand.

The others nodded and picked up a crate, leaving for the portal. Once they were through, the Corridor disappeared, leaving the cave empty.

* * *

**Sorry for being late, I had a lot to do this week, but the chapters up now, so don't complain. Like what I'm doing here? Then leave a review, what do you think the box below is for? See ya next time! Ciao!**


	13. Chapter 13: Let the games begin!

Chapter 13: Let the games begin!

**Sorry I'm late, I've had a lot of things to do lately, including vacation. Since school will be starting up soon, I won't be able to write as much. Sorry in advance.**

* * *

The Gummi Ship rocketed through space towards the Colosseum. The ship landed just outside the gates and everyone walked down the ramp and entered the area and saw the rebuilt colosseum.

"Wow! Herc rebuilt the whole thing!" Sora exclaimed.

"What do you mean rebuilt?" Aqua asked, confused.

Sora looked at her and said,"The last time I was here the whole place was destroyed by a giant monster, but I defeated it."

"And you're saying that one man rebuilt this entire arena?" Shin asked, not believing that fact.

"Well he is the son of a god and all," Sora said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Ok, now I believe it," Shin stated.

"Come on, let's go see what's inside," Roxas said, leading the others inside to the lobby. Upon entering, they saw a little satyr cleaning the trophys.

"Hey champ," Phil said, not turning around to see who he was talking to,"how was the trip to Athens?"

Sora grinned and motioned for the others to be quiet while he responded in the best Hercules voice he could muster,"It was fine, but I heard some things while I was there."

"Like what?" Phil asked, still not turning around.

"That you've been named as the third best trainer in the world. Pain and Panic are above you," Sora said, clamping a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing, the others also tried to keep from bursting out.

"WHAT?!" Phil yelled, finally turning around,"How in the world did those two even get a brain in the first place?!" When he was done ranting he finally saw who was in front of him.

"Hey, Sora!" Phil said walking up to the Keyblade wielder,"How's it going? Where are the other two clowns who are always with you?"

"Donald and Goofy had something important to do, but I've got some friends I'd like you to meet," Sora said.

"Oh don't worry, I've already met them before," Phil said.

"You have?" Sora asked.

"Yep," he then walked over to Roxas and said,"Roxas, the kid who came under my training when you disappeared," he then walked up to Aqua,"You're the girl who battled Hades' Ice Colossus, you came here along with those other two kids who I can't remember at the moment," then he looked at Shin,"You're the kid who almost won the tournament a few weeks ago," he then saw Terra and looked less then happy to see her,"And you're the girl who nearly scared away half my staff," Terra then blushed a bright red and hid behind Shin while everyone but him and Phil looked confused.

"What happened?" Aqua asked.

Phil turned to her and said,"Well, I hired these Moogles to pass out snacks to the people in the stands watching the matches, then we have this tournament a week later. Those two come in and the boy enters while the girl watches. While the fights are going on, I hear that theirs a commotion in the stands. I go and see the girl squeezing all of the Moogles to death! It took me, Herc, the kid, and Sora's pal Auron to pry her off of them!"

At this point, Terra was trying to make herself disappear. She slowly inched towards the doors and slipped outside. Shin noticed and went after her while everyone else just shook their heads.

Aqua walked up to Phil and asked,"Do you remember a boy with black, spikey hair who was here when I came?"

Phil thought for a moment before saying,"Zack?"

"Yeah, do you know where he is?"

"He went traveling up Mount Olympus to train with the God of War, Ares."

Sora walked up to Phil and asked,"Is there another tournament going on?"

"Yup, it's later today, you want to enter?" Phil asked.

"Yeah, I want to get some more training in," Sora said eagerly.

"Well we've got time before the preliminaries start so you can train," Phil said, he then went outside just as Shin and Terra returned.

The party then went outside to the arena, seeing nobody there. Aqua turned and faced Sora with an air of wisdom around her.

"Sora," she began,"what's that ability you used when fighting Wendigomon?"

"It's called a Drive Form," Sora replied,"It lets me take the power of my friends to make myself stronger. But I found a way that lets me activate it on my own."

"It sounds like a form of Command Styles that my master taught me when I was a student," Aqua said.

"Command Style?" Sora asked.

"It was a way of fighting while powered up by magic elements, or by sharing your powers with your friends," Aqua explained.

Sora immediately became interested by this subject,"So what else did you learn?" he asked.

"I also learned about Shotlocks, a technique where you fire energy at your enemy from your Keyblade, you can also cover yourself in energy and launch yourself at your opponents."

"Can you show me?" Sora asked enthusiastically. Aqua grinned and walked over to the arena where practice dummies were set up. She stood before them and aimed her Keyblade at them like she was aiming a gun. Suddenly, she jumped in the air and 16 rainbow colored orbs flew out of her Keyblade and hit some of the dummies. When she landed she gave a bow which caused her to receive a round of applause from her friends.

"Was that a Shotlock?" Roxas asked.

Aqua grinned and said,"Yes, that was my Shotlock, Prism Rain, it's one of my unique Shotlocks since only I can learn it."

"Maybe I'll give this a try too," Roxas said stepping forward along with Sora.

Aqua turned into teacher mode and instructed the two boys,"Just aim your Keyblade at your target and put some energy into it, and when you have enough just let it fly towards your opponent."

Sora did as instructed and watched as a orb of energy collected at the tip of his Keyblade, he then let it fly towards the dummies and watched as the energy took form. It looked like ten orbs of light that hit the dummies, Sora felt another build up of energy inside him but didn't know what to do, so he let it disappear.

Roxas went next, pointing his Keyblades at the dummies and gathering energy. When he released it, thirteen blades of light surrounded him before flying toward the targets. After they hit Roxas also felt another build up inside of him and let it disappear as well.

"Well done," Aqua congratulated as she walked up to them, Shin and Terra watching in awe.

"I felt a buildup of power after I fired the Shotlock, do you know what that was?" Roxas asked.

"Sometimes, if you get a maximum of 'lock on's', you can fire more energy at your opponent, and if you fire while at the peak of the buildup, you can continue to fire until you voluntarily stop, or the energy runs out," Aqua explained.

"So now that you've learned some new tricks, how about a spar?" Shin suggested as he and Terra walked up to them.

"With who?" Sora asked.

"I pick...you!" Shin said pointing at Sora.

Sora grinned and said,"Alright, let's go!" Both of them then walked onto the arena while the others went into the stands to watch.

Sora stood in his battle stance on the side leading to the lobby while Shin stood with his sword held like Cloud held his on the dungeon side of the arena. Both of them had a smirk on their faces as they sized each other up.

(Battle Music: Future Masters-Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep)

Sora and Shin ran towards each other. Shin made a horizontal slash and Sora ducked underneath. Sora then stuck out his Keyblade to trip Shin, but he jumped over and spun around and faced Sora as he stood up.

"You're pretty good," Sora said.

"Well I've had a lot of practice," Shin replied.

Sora just smirked and rushed forward, Shin held his sword at a angle to block what Sora was going to do next, what he didn't expect was for Sora to rush by him. When he turned around he raised his sword just in time to block the Fira spell that was sent his way. Shin then sent a Firagra spell towards Sora, who cast an Aero spell that reflected it back to Shin. Shin ducked under the flying inferno and looked up to see Sora flying around with help from the Aero spell.

"Trying to stay out of my reach, huh?" Shin said while smirking.

"I've got to keep up an advantage," Sora replied.

Shin just smiled and closed his eyes. Golden light began to come out of his back before golden dragon wings emerged. Shin opened his eyes which gained a slightly red color. Shin flew up and engaged Sora in a game of swordplay. After trading several blows, Shin flew back and sent out a wave of golden energy from his sword. Sora tried to block it, but the wave forced him back, hitting the wall hard. Sora fell down to the ground, hard. When he looked up he saw Shin with a smug look on his face.

"I thought you would be a bit tougher from what I've heard about you," he said.

"You haven't seen anything yet," Sora said, turning into Master Form, he had the Sleeping Lion and Fenrir Keyblades in his hands. He then flew towards Shin and unleashed an assault of double swordplay on the teen. Shin blocked most of the blows, but some managed to hit his arms and shoulders. Sora then executed an Ars Arcanum, using his two Keyblades to deliver powerful hits to Shin.

When the assault was over Shin jumped back and floated in the air, golden energy flowing through his blade. Sora thought he saw the ghostly image of a silver, serpentine dragon with a golden chest, golden wings, and a red mane behind its head. He was brought back to reality when Shin shouted.

"The heavens cry, CHAOTIC DELLUGE!" a beam of golden light shot towards Sora who could nothing as it spread towards him. As Sora watched, frozen in awe, he saw a red and pink blur race between him and the incoming energy. When it made contact, the explosion forced everyone back.

(Music end)

When Sora, who reverted to normal, opened his eyes, he saw a shocking sight. Terra was standing in front of him with the position saying that she blocked Shin's attack, but that wasn't the shocking part. What was shocking was that her forearms had transformed into pink arms that seemed to be colored with fur, her hands had transformed into claws with long nails on her fingers. She didn't seem to be hurt by the attack, but she was sending Shin a glare as he lowered himself to the ground.

"You were being reckless," she said, hands on her hips as they turned to normal.

Shin just rubbed the back of his head and said,"I got caught up in the action. Can you blame me?" Terra just gave him a look that made Shin cringe in fear. Everyone else just walked up to the two with looks of confusion all over their faces.

"What..." Aqua began.

"...was..." Sora continued.

"...that?" Roxas finished.

Shin and Terra then remembered they had a mini audience. They looked at each other and Terra slowly nodded her head at the unsaid question. Shin then prepared himself for the explanation he was about to give.

"Me and Terra...aren't fully human," after seeing their confused expressions he continued,"Terra is the child of a human, and a magical being called an Esper."

"What's an Esper?" Aqua asked.

"They're beings that knew the secret of magic from our world," Terra explained, "Me and my friends were able to use their powers to defeat our enemies. But, most of them vanished in the end of our adventure, and the ones that were able to survive vanished into their own world."

"That's so cool!" Sora said, shocking the blond girl.

Shin leaned over to her and said, while smirking,"And you thought they were going to act like the idiot villagers did, didn't you?"

"And what about you?" Roxas asked Shin with curiosity written on his face,"You said you weren't fully human, so what are you?"

Shin then faced them and said,"I am the creation of a god-like dragon named Shinryu. He created me so he could see the world through human eyes, thus causing me to have an annoying, and perverted, voice stuck in my head, but he does help when needed." he then paused, looked up, and said,"Yeah you heard me!"

"So we've got two human Keyblade wielders, a Nobody that can wield Keyblades, a human/Esper hybrid that experts in magic, and the creation of a dragon," Aqua observed.

"Quite the crowd," Roxas said.

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

"Easy," Shin said,"we train until the tournament starts."

And so, the five friends trained until the tournament preliminaries began, but that story is for another time.

* * *

(Radiant Garden)

Kairi and Lea were sitting in the computer room, still searching for any clues about the ancient Kingdom of Light, Even was by a control panel on the wall fixing some minor settings.

"What haven't we searched up yet?" Kairi asked the pyro.

"Well, we've searched up Kingdom of Light, God of Light, ancient kingdoms, God of Darkness, Kingdom of Darkness, and many other things. All equaling to nothing," Lea said.

Kairi sighed and asked,"Wasn't there something Master Yen Sid told us about the Kingdom of Light, something about knights?"

"Oh yeah, the Dawn Knights or something," Lea replied beginning to type. When Even heard this he straightened up slightly.

"Hey, here's something," Lea said before reading,"_I have found some ancient manuscripts that date back many, many years ago. All I was able to decipher was the talk about a group named the Dawn Knights. From their description I was able to figure out that there were six of them and they commanded a different position within their kingdom. From what I was able to make out, their leader, who answers to what appears to be a god, was a knight in black and gold armor and wielded holy powers and was able to summon a dragon that could become a sword. Unfortunately, I am unable to figure out what his name was at the moment. I hope to one day find out where these knights resided and see what technology and discoveries there could be._"

"I think I know where that portal you're looking for may be," Even said, surprising the two.

"Where?" Kairi asked.

"At the bottom of the staircase which leads to the Room of Sleep."

"By 'the bottom' do you mean the landing or the bottom of the pit?" Lea asked, slightly nervous about the latter being the answer.

"The bottom of the pit because when we made the experimentation rooms, we detected a strange energy coming from below, so we dug some more, and we then found those manuscripts," Even explained.

"Well can we explore tommorow?" Kairi asked,"I'm tired and I want some sleep."

"Yeah, let's go tommorow," Lea said getting up,"Aaaaaaand my lower body is asleep." And with that, he faceplanted against the metal floor.

* * *

(Dark City)

The mysterious group was set up in a bigger building this time with a floor for each member to do as they pleased, unless called upon by the Emperor. As such, the cyborg voiced figure was mixing several chemicals and checking over data on his computer, keeping himself busy. When a knock came at the door, he put his chemicals in tube holders and went to open it. Upon seeing the Emperor outside he moved away to let him in.

"Is there anything you need? Because if not, I have a finished weapon design I'd like to show you," the figure asked.

"Show me the weapon, then I'll tell you why I'm here," the Emperor said with a sign of interest.

The figure reached into a drawer in his desk and pulled out a purple spherical object with a yellow line running, indented, around the middle. Both purple sides had a swirl design and one side had a orange button the size of a regular thumb, while the other side had a blue button.

"This is the Black Hole Grenade," the figure explained,"It acts like a black hole, but on a much smaller scale. You press the orange button, throw it at the enemy and it'll draw everything within a 50 yard radius towards the black hole in the middle. It will stay open for roughly 10 seconds. All items drawn into it will be held within a pocket dimension, and when you want to release the things inside, you press the blue button to release."

"Very impressive, you've outdone yourself this time," the Emperor said observing the weapon.

"So what is it that you wanted to see me about?"

"You need to go and test one of the Lights."

"I can't, I have a lot of work that needs to be done."

"Which is why I've prepared a logical explanation that will change your mind."

"Very well then, explain."

"Let's see, Cherubimon has already tested one of them so he's done his job. Three of the Lights have an elemental attribute so it would fall to our three elemental masters to test them. Our resident assassin will be engaging the emo boy who bleached his hair if he runs into him during the mission I've sent him on. I will be testing the mouse king at some point. So that leaves you with the job I've just assigned you."

The figure put a clawed hand to his chin and said,"I might as well do it, I would like some data on how a Princess of Heart can wield a Keyblade even though they were not known to be the best fighters."

"Excellent, get to it," the Emperor said as he made his way to exit after putting the Black Hole Grenade back on the desk. He walked down to the underground harbor, connected by a newly made tunnel, which was teeming with activity from the newly acquired troops. He made his way to one of the finer looking ships, a classic Destroyer with high-tech weaponry. Upon entering he made his way to the navigation room where he saw the serpentine member looking over some navigation charts.

"Remembering where the currents go?" the Emperor asked, sitting down next him the figure.

"Just making sure I've got all of my maps," the figure replied with a chuckle.

"I've got two jobs for you, one of them is if you see one of the Lights there," the Emperor told him.

"I figured I'd have to do that one sooner or later, so what's the other one?"

"I need you to sail to the Lost City and retrieve some of their ancient power source so we can try to power our robot troops since I can't make the energy in my condition."

The figure gave a hearty laugh and said,"A grand mission like this on the seas will signal the great return of the Dark Lord of the Seas! I'll get a crew together ASAP."

"Good luck," the Emperor said while leaving. As he exited the underground levels he looked out the window and stared at the castle.

"Everything is falling into place."

* * *

**As I said before, I am deeply sorry for the long wait. It's not my fault that my schedule was filled a lot during this month. Plus, I couldn't write while I was on vacation. So to make up to you and spike your interest, I've put in a little preview of the next chapter.**

"Well, this might be a problem."

"Ladies and gentlemen, your favorite hero has returned!"

"We've found it! We've found it!"

"For a Keyblade wielder, the data I'm receiving isn't that great. Pitiful"

**Have I made up for my lateness? Leave your thoughts in the box below. Ciao!**


	14. Chapter 14: A Heroes Comeback

Chapter 14: A Heroes Comeback

* * *

**Like I said don't expect a lot of updates, cause I've got school. But, I will try to work whenever I can. So here it is, the long awaited chapter 14! Get ready cause another franchise I have set up is going to be revealed!**

* * *

It was two hours later after the five friends finished training that the preliminaries were about to begin. The rules were simple, the four people that eliminated the most Heartless within the time limit would advance to the brackets, the maximum of Heartless that can be slain is 100. So far, Sora, Roxas and Shin were entering, with Terra making sure Shin did not go overboard. The girls wanted some time to themselves so they didn't enter. Numerous gladiators and other characters did enter in the competition. Roxas and Shin had made it into the finals with Roxas defeating 87 with his double wielding, and Shin defeating 92 with his dragonic skills.

"So many people are here," Roxas said looking around at the people gathered.

Phil scoffed and said,"Please, I've seen more people gathered. More people come to take a shot at Herc, but with him not here, less people show up."

"So Hercules is the big man around here," Shin inquired.

"He is, if a god doesn't come down from Olympus to participate, which is very rare," Phil explained.

"Gods come here?!" Shin asked/yelled.

"Only if they get bored on Olympus and they want some excitement," Phil explained again.

Shin just shook his head and went to buy a drink. Roxas and Sora were playing a card game while waiting for Sora's match to start. Aqua and Terra were already in the stands watching the fights, Aqua was also making sure Terra didn't attack any Moogles this time. There were several good competitors in the competition, and one that might give their friends a little trouble since he defeated 91 Heartless.

"Hey Phil," Sora began while waiting to be revealed to the crowd,"what ever happened to Hades? Usually he'd be causing some kind of trouble by now."

Phil smirked and said,"His big brother, Zeus, sentenced him to a correction facility for gods, so you won't be seeing him for a while." Phil then went out side and onto the announcers stand.

"Up next, a famed hero that defeated Hades to help his friends, a real hero according to Hercules, Sora!" Phil announced to the crowd. Upon hearing this, the crowd erupted into cheers. Sora stepped into the arena and waved to the crowd. He walked into the battle square and entered his battle stance, waiting for his match to stop.

"And, begin!" Phil yelled.

Immediately, several Soldier, and Luna Bandit Heartless appeared and Sora raced to eliminate them. He swung his Keyblade and cut most of them them in half, the rest he took a while to defeat. His sixth sense kicked in and he ducked just in time to avoid a swipe from a Large Body that appeared behind him. He raced behind it while it was looking around stupidly and fired a Blizzaga spell at its back, effectively making it more vulnerable to a well placed strike, which is what Sora took advantage of, shattering the Heartless. He turned around and saw some Fiery Globes and Icy Cubes running around the stage, so Sora ran in and started swinging his Keyblade, defeating them in one swing each.

Sora took a glance at the scorekeeper and saw that he defeated 38 Heartless and he had almost two minutes left. He heard something slicing through the air and he ducked again to avoid a Air Pirate that wanted to knock his head off his shoulders, unfortunately it was able to knick his arm. Sora looked and saw a small group of them flying through the sky. Sora smirked and raised his Keyblade, shooting off a Thundaga blast and eliminating them. Sora then heard an annoying sound and looked to see two Crescendos energizing several Tornado Steps. One of the Tornado Steps started to spin towards Sora, but he just stood there waiting.

"What's he doing?" Shin asked Roxas,"He's going to get hit by that thing."

"Relax," Roxas assured him with a smirk,"just watch."

Sora waited until the Tornado Step got closer and grabbed it, using it to spin himself. He directed his captive Heartless to the rest of the group, spinning his Keyblade along with the motion. He easily sliced through the rest of the group before eliminating his ride. The next thing he knew, he was caught by a Bolt Towers snag lazer and levitated off the ground. He turned and saw five of them floating together before using the Bolt Reversal technique to eliminate them.

Sora's score now made him eligible for the finals with a 79, but he still had thirty seconds left so he wanted an impressive score to brag about. He got lucky when a large group of Rapid Thrusters warped into existence. Sora cast an Aeroga spell, mixed it with a Fiaga and flew into the group of Heartless. He attacked them with the Aero Blade technique, and if they got to close, they would be burned by the fiery shield that surrounded Sora. When the time finished Sora had a score of 99 Heartless slain! Apparently one Rapid Thruster was wise enough to stay away from Sora, when Sora looked at it, it stuck out its 'tounge' at Sora before warping out of the arena. Sora got a look at it and could swear its eyes were a sky blue and not the usual yellow.

"And we have our last finalist ladies and gentlemen!" Phil screamed to the cheering crowd. Once the crowd settled down, Phil explained the rules for the bracket section of the tournament.

"Each competitor will be randomly pit against one of the others for the semifinals. The winners of each side will then fight in the finals! We will have a half hour break before the first match. Start the hourglass!" that last part was yelled at to a timekeeper who ran over to a hourglass and turned it upside down starting the break.

Sora returned to the lobby and approached Shin and Roxas who were drinking some water by the refreshment stand. There was a figure in a brown cloak leaning by the wall, most likely the other finalist. The strange thing was that he was only a little taller than Mickey and Donald.

"Hey guys," Sora began,"so one of you two will be fighting me later, and maybe the other after."

"What?" Shin said with a grin on his face,"You think whoevers fighting mystery man over there is going to lose? I see the faith you have in me."

Sora laughed and said,"It's not that I don't have faith in you. It's just that, from my experience, people who wear cloaks, tend to be tough."

"Tell me about it," Roxas said, remembering how tough it was fighting Saïx when escaping the castle.

"Well what do you want to do while we wait?" Shin asked.

Roxas put a hand to his chin in thought and suggested,"Card game?"

* * *

(Radiant Garden)

Kairi, Lea and Dilan were walking down the spiraling walkway, heading for the bottom of the chasm. Dilan was going to make sure they got to where the portal was supposed to be. Unknown to them, a mysterious figure was walking down the walls on his hands and feet. The group reached the landing that lead to the experimentation rooms, Dilan punched in a code in the control panel and the landing began to move down the wall, towards the bottom.

Several minutes later the landing began to slow down and stopped at the bottom. The three got off and looked around. They looked around and saw what appeared to be an abandoned excavation site.

"I can feel something calling out to me," Kairi said surprising the two men looking around.

"Can you tell where it's coming from?" Lea asked.

Kairi nodded and turned to find where the feeling was coming from. She began to walk to the wall. Suddenly a calming tune was heard and a small rainbow coloredlight slowly came into existence from the wall Kairi was facing. The three searchers were shocked at seeing this before Kairi started cheering at their success.

"We found it! We found it!" she cried.

"We can finally get our mission started for real," Lea said.

"But can you really start? Without proving yourself worthy?" a cyborg voice said putting everyone on alert.

A noise of someone flying through air was heard before another noise of something sticking itself to a wall came after. **(You'll know how this sounds when you see the character)** The noises repeated for a while before Lea and Dilan were suddenly whacked back onto the platform and a barrier formed, separating Kairi from the portal and the lift. A figure in a black cloak with silver flames on the sleeves dropped down from the wall, his large hands with big, red claws coming out of his sleeves.

"Who are you?" Kairi asked, summoning her Keyblade.

"I am one of the Six who serve the Seventh. We oppose those fools known as the Seekers of Darkness. You have already met my good friend Cherubimon, so now you shall meet me," he said pulling back his hood.

He had a brown face covered by a blue helmet. His yellow eyes were slightly bulged and wandering the group. his mouth was slightly open, showing his sharp teeth. Red markings were over his eye holes giving the appearance of eyebrows. He had yellow hair falling down to his shoulders. Just now, two horns extended from the side of his head and pointed upwards.

"I am Diaboromon, and you shall be tested," he said.

"Are you going to send a lackey to fight me?" Kairi asked, tightening her grip.

Diaboromon didn't say anything and opened up a holographic computer in front of him and began to type. When he inserted a final command a light was spit out by the computer. Diaboromon grabbed the light and threw it to the ground and it began to grow and take shape.

The thing looked like a large insect with a curved body and three legs on each side of its body. It's body was white and red with spikes on the top and bottom. It's legs and neck were a tangle of wires connecting the body to its spiked feet and head. Its head was white with a red horn on the forehead. It stared at Kairi with its green eyes.

"Infermon at your service Lord Diaboromon," the thing said in its strange voice.

"Excelent, you will be testing this female to see if she is strong enough to be a Light," Diaboromon said, pointing at Kairi before returning to his computer.

(Battle theme: Final Fantasy VI battle theme-Disiddia version)

The being now know as Infermon scrambled towards Kairi in a rushed fashion. Kairi dodge rolled out of the way in time to see it crash into the barrier. It promptly turned around and began to swipe two of its sharp clawed feet at Kairi who deflected with her Keyblade. Sparks were flying from the metal scraping against each other and Kairi was being pushed back to the wall. With her back to the wall, literally, Kairi ducked under the next swipe and struck the wiring connecting the foot to the body resulting in an injury against the large computer virus. Infermon cried out in pain, it was like a mutant insects cry, hurting the ears of Kairi, Lea, and Dilan, but not Diaboromon.

"Spider Shooter!" Infermon cried when he recovered.

Kairi recovered just in time to see the creature's mouth open and glowing. Kairi realized what it was and cast Reflect just in time to block an energy blast that came from Infermon's mouth, but he wasn't done, he kept firing energy blast after energy blast in hopes of breaking the shield. Kairi was starting to lose focus on keeping the shield in existence due to the relentless assault. After another blast, the Reflect spell faded and Kairi was thrown against the wall, effectively hurting her. Kairi moaned in pain and began to heal herself with a Cura spell.

Diaboromon scoffed at the sight and said,"For a Keyblade wielder, the data I'm receiving isn't that great. Pitiful."

"Perhaps this is the wrong person I was supposed to test," Infermon said,"the man with the weird hair looks like he might be the one I was supposed to fight, he looks stronger."

"Hey!" Lea cried out, insulted.

Dilan looked at him and shouted,"Is now really a time to worry that!?

"I take great pride in my unique style," Lea said glaring at the insect that insulted his flaming hair.

"No, this weak little girl is the one, though, I can't see why she would be a Light besides her being a Princess of Heart. The data I have, no matter how much could I tweak it, wouldn't even make a satisfactory clone. Finish her off so we can get back to working with the chemicals," Diaboromon said ignoring the arguing pair.

"Yes my Lord, Network Grenade!" Infermon lowered its body to the ground and then leapt into the air. He sucked in his feet and head until he looked like a cocoon and began to plummet towards Kairi head first. Kairi got up and glared at the falling cocoon and hoisted her Keyblade up and winded up for a swing.

"I am not WEAK!" Kairi yelled as she swung her Keyblade at the same time Infermon fell into range. The resulting cracking sound was not Kairi's Keyblade, but Infermons's shell cracking before he was sent flying away towards Diaboromon, who was struck with surprise. He noticed the flying cocoon and jumped out of the way as Infermon crashed right through the barrier, eliminating it from existence.

(Music end)

Diaboromon looked back and saw the state Infermon was in. The front of his shell, but not his face, was cracked all over, three of his legs were dislodged from his body and dangling, and he was knocked unconscious. Diaboromon looked at his holographic computer and was surprised by the results. He quickly saved the results and directed a small device at Infermons's body, and he was sucked inside of the device. He then looked at Kairi who was being congratulated by Lea and Dilan for defeating Infermon.

"Wow, you're tougher than you look," Lea said.

"I don't want people to think that I'm just another pretty face," Kairi replied

"You might just give Aeleus a run for his money if you use that strength," Dilan told her while smirking.

Diaboromon clapped his hands to get their attention, and he got it. He got two Keyblades and six lances pointed at him, yet he didn't seem fazed in the slightest.

"Technicaly, all you guys have done was assault us, but Cherubimon was polite about it," Lea said.

"If you would be so kind as to drop your weapons, I can give the girl here her reward," Diaboromon said with some annoyance.

Kairi stepped forward and Diaboromon revealed his computer again, typing away before Kairi was enveloped by a data sphere and being scanned. On Diaboromon's screen, it showed Kairi's heart with a small black and white aura faintly emitting form it. Diaboromon took the aura away from Kairi's heart and released her and the aura from the sphere. Kairi stumbled on her feet and Lea held her to keep her steady.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, just a little light headed," Kairi replied, holding her head.

"Common side effect of a data scan, you'll be fine in just a few minutes," Diaboromon informed her, the aura having now become a sphere of light.

He handed the sphere to Kairi and jumped to the wall, his hands and feet making a suction sound. He stopped and looked back at them.

"Oh yes," he began,"good luck on coming back from the world on that side of the portal."

"You talk like you know what's there, tell us," Dilan demanded.

Diaboromon just laughed and said,"If I did that, it would spoil the surprise." He then jumped to the other side of the wall and back up the tunnel. The sphere in Kairi's hand began to glow brightly, forcing everyone to covor their eyes. When they opened their eyes again there was a figure in front of them.

It was a female obviously from her platinum blond hair that hung slightly over her right shoulder. She wore a plain white dress that reached her mid-thighs and light blue sandles. Her blue eyes reflected how kind she was, and everyone recognized her instantly.

"Naminè!" the three explorers cried out, shocking the girl.

"Kairi? Lea? Dilan? Where am I?" Naminè asked.

"What? Weren't you watching from Kairi's heart?" Dilan asked.

The girl twiddled her fingers and responded,"I was busy drawing at the time."

"Figures," Lea remarked,"Well you know about our situation, right?"

"Yeah," Naminè said," You have to go through that portal to find some God of Light."

"Well do you want to come with us?" Kairi asked.

"Uh, Kairi," Lea began,"all Naminè knows how to do is alter memories."

Naminè looked at him and said,"I have learned a little bit of magic, so I'm not defenseless if that is what you're implying."

Lea just looked at her before shouting,"Welcome aboard!"

Dilan just sighed and said,"I guess I'll go back and tell everyone what happened, good luck." He then got back on the platform and rose to the top.

"Shall we?" Lea said, gesturing to the portal.

"Let's," Kairi responded, walking towards it with the other two in tow. They vanished in a flash of light.

* * *

(Olympus Colosseum-30 minutes later)

It was time for the first match which was Sora versus Roxas. Shin was a little upset that he didn't get to finish his fight with Sora, but he knew he would when the finals came. Right now Sora and Roxas were standing in the arena waiting for the signal to start.

"It's almost like that time I fought you in The World That Never Was," Roxas said.

"Yeah, but this time I know who you are," Sora replied.

"True, but that won't help you."

Phil climbed up to the announcers stand and began the introductions.

"Ladies and gentlemen! The first semifinal match will be between Sora and Roxas! The winner will advance to finals and fight whoever wins the next match! Begin!"

(Battle music-Let the Battles begin!-Final Fantasy VII)

Sora and Roxas ran towards each other like their fight in the past. They had a flashback of that fight and they smirked, thinking of how it would be different now. Sora swung his blade and Roxas blocked it with both his Keyblades. They kept pushing each other to gain some advantage. Roxas had enough and used the momentum of his next push to flip over Sora. Roxas landed and turned to swing Oathkeeper at Sora, but he blocked it with the Kingdom Key. They both jumped back to gain some distance.

"We're fighting just like back then," Sora remarked.

"True, but back then I couldn't do this," Roxas said, confusing Sora.

Roxas crossed his Keyblades and levitated off the ground. The Nobody emblem appeared under him and he was surrounded by thirteen pillars of light with the Nobody emblem on top of each one. He spun his Keyblades in his hands and created to large orbs of light that began to shoot smaller orbs at Sora. Sora saw this and began to dodge them, hoping they would run out of ammo or something. Roxas eventually let up the assault and floated down to the ground. Sora ran towards Roxas in hopes of catching him off guard, but unfortunately, Roxas noticed him.

Roxas turned around and slashed upwards with the Oblivion, blocking Sora's horizontal slash before countering with his own. Sora jumped back and pointed his Keyblade at Roxas, preparing to use his Shotlock, Light Raid. Roxas also prepared his Shotlock, Thirteen Blades to counter Sora's attack. They released the energy at the same time and they collided with each other, the only problem was that Roxas had more projectiles than Sora did. While ten of the blades collided with the ten spheres of light, three of them continued on towards Sora, who could do nothing as they hit him, throwing him back to the other side of the arena.

Aqua was watching the match intensely to see what Sora needed to work on. There was a lot of work that needed to be done according to her observations. Shin was making his own observations, clearly confused about something.

_'Why isn't he fighting with the intensity he had before when I fought him?' _he wondered.

Sora got up to see Roxas in a crouched position with his arms crossed like he was ready to slice through something. Sora realized what he was going to do and raised his Keyblade. Roxas raced forward and made an attempt to slice through the air, but when he got to Sora he stopped short and dashed to the side, leaving an afterimage of himself. He did this several more times until there were six afterimages and Roxas surrounding Sora.

"Here we go!" Roxas said, darting forward along with his afterimaged. Sora couldn't tell which one was the real Roxas, so he picked one, cas an Aeroga spell, and waited to see it it was real. When the Roxas came close he swung his Keyblade at it and, missed! The fake Roxas' were obliterated by the winds but the real one got a good hit on Sora's arm. Roxas was then blown back by the Aeroga spell, but managed to stay on his feet.

Something was wrong with Sora because to him, every move he made seemed to be harder to do. It was like something was draining his energy every passing second. Sora was so weak that he dropped down on a knee to keep himself from falling completely down, he also couldn't hold onto his Keyblade as it vanished . Roxas saw this and ran over to Sora, hearing the deep breaths the spikey haired boy took to get air in his lungs. Roxas had dispelled his Keyblades by now seeing that Sora already forfeited, but the announcement Phil made was lost to them as Roxas tried to keep Sora awake to see what was wrong with him. That was when he noticed it, the small, almost unnoticeable black rod that was stuck in Sora's arm.

(Music end)

"Hey, where did you get this?" Roxas said, pointing at the small rod.

"I...don't...know," Sora struggled to say.

"That would be mine," a deep voice informed them from behind.

Before Roxas could turn and see who said that, he was knocked away by something hard. When he picked himself off the ground he saw Sora being held by a giant, blue, skeletal hand that was connected to half a blue ribcage. Within the ribcage was a person in an Organization coat with glowing red eyes hidden behind his hood. Shin, Aqua, and Terra already ran out to assist Roxas in fighting this guy.

"Any idea who this guy is, besides the fact he's a Seeker," Shin asked.

"Nope," Roxas replied.

"What did you do to Sora!?" Aqua yelled at him.

"Why, nothing permanent," the figure replied bringing Sora closer to him,"I just made sure he wouldn't fight back for a while," he then took the rod out of Sora's arm, making the boy wince slightly.

"I had one of the Heartless put this on him during the preliminaries, so I could bring him back and make him one of the Seekers," he explained, the rod having turned into dust.

"I thought you guys would have found another person by now," Roxas said.

"We did," the figure replied,"unfortunately, we received a failure. It doesn't matter how strong he gets, he has, and always will be, an hopeless failure."

The figure then made a Corridor of Darkness and was about to go through it when a black, blue, and silver blur sliced through the skeletal arm releasing Sora, and grabbing him to keep him away from the Seeker. The blur landed with Sora over his shoulder and everyone got a good look at it. It was a male, as one could tell from his figure, with spiky, black hair with a small strand hanging over the right side of his face. He wore a blue stripped shirt, and blue, baggy pants. He had a small magnet attached to his back by suspenders, which we're connected to a metal belt around his torso. In his hand was a medium sized sword with upside down 'U' shaped hilt.

"How many more annoyances will show up?" the figure said as he dispelled the skeleton parts.

"Laides and gentlemen, your favorite hero has returned! Give it up for Zack Fair!" Everyone just stared at the man, unsure of what to say. He looked around at the people, expecting them to react in a positive way.

"Gee, tough crowd," Zack remarked.

"Zack?!" Aqua cried out.

"Hey Aqua, how've you been?" he asked.

"Look out!" Terra cried.

Zack turned around and saw the mysterious figure racing towards him with a skeletal arm set to punch him and grab Sora. Zack threw Sora back to his friends and blocked the arm with his sword, which surprisingly didn't break from the force of the impact. The force did however, blow back the Seekers hood, revealing his face to the world.

He had long, spiky, black hair that reached to the middle of his back. The sclera of his eyes were black and not white, and his iris's had a unique design. They were red with three black circles connected in a ring around the pupil. The ring was connected to the end of the iris by three bar-like designs. What was interesting about his face was that there were cracks on his face, like he was made out of broken poetry. He looked at Zack with a bored expression which slightly creeped him out.

"So you're the zombie man I've heard about," Zack said.

"It would be wise to remember the names of your opponents," he told Zack.

Zack grinned and said,"How can I remember something I've never heard?"

"...Fair enough," With that they pushed off each other, heading to different ends of this arena. The man stood tall with an air of power surrounding him before introducing himself.

"I am Madara Uchiha, the greatest Shinobi in the entire universe. It would be wise to not oppose me," he told them, trying to install fear into their hearts.

"Yeah, well I don't think it'd be wise to fight the five of us, especially when a god could come here at any moment," Zack responded.

Madara looked at the group while examining his options. Fight them and attract the attention of a god, who could undo what was keeping him alive **(since we all know what state he's in)**, or retreat and look for a better opportunity to replace the failure. After a few moments, Madara glared at Zack before walking into the waiting Corridor.

"To be continued," he said before disappearing.

Zack turned to the others to see them checking on Sora, Terra was healing him with a Curaga spell. He walked over to them and Aqua noticed him and ran over to him. He just stood there while Aqua came forward. He looked at her and noticed that she didn't look any different than when he last saw her.

"Tell me your secret," he asked, surprising her.

"Excuse me?" she responded, clearly confused.

"How you stayed the same all these years, you gotta tell me!"

Aqua giggled and said,"Just stay in a realm where time moves differently for a week or two."

"Well that explains why I couldn't find you to take you out on that date," he said, making Aqua blush.

"Urgh," Sora groaned trying to get up.

"How are you feeling?" Shin asked him.

"Like I just fought over 3,000 Heartless at once," he said getting into a sitting position.

"So, are you the kid Aerith told me about once?" Zack asked leaning in to get a better look at Sora.

"That depends," he began,"what did she say?"

"Spiky haired kid, carries a giant key, can be oblivious to the obvious things."

"Hey!" Sora got up to get him, but he was still weak so he fell right back down.

"Be careful," Terra said,"you're still out of energy, so the easy stuff will be hard to do for a while."

Sora just huffed and was carried away by Shin and Roxas, everyone else just followed them back to the lobby to relax. There was going to be a 20 minute break to clean up the stage from the fight. The mysterious figure that Shin was supposed to fight next was observing the whole thing. He was mainly interested in the powers that Madara had shown when he was here.

"Special powers that come from the eyes, interesting," he said in a deep, robotic voice,"Yet, I can't copy them. I will need to install some upgrades later." he then walked away, his large, glowing red eyes focused in an eternal glare that could strike fear into the bravest of men. If one looked closely, they could see the metal, sharp fingers that were on his hand, and the red pointed shoes under his brown cloak.

* * *

**Well, what do you think? Sadly I'm only inserting Madara here from the Naruto series cause I can't find a way to fit Sora and the gang in during the war without revealing something that other people might not know. Anyways, any guesses on the mystery figures identity? If you're right I'll message you. If not I'll tell you to try again. Oh well, leave your review in the box below. Ciao!**


	15. Chapter 15: The True Light

Chapter 15: The True Light

* * *

**I thought it would be good to get to the intense part, Kairi and co. finding the Kingdom of Light! Also I feel like I've been focusing on Sora's group for a while and I need a little break from them (no offense to their fans). Don't worry Riku fans, I'll get to him at some point, most likely next chapter after the tournament or the chapter after it. Anyways, enjoy!**

* * *

(Unknown)

Kairi, Naminè, and Lea were wandering through a white void trying to find someway out.

"Anybody know where we are?" Kairi asked.

"No, but I think I see something up ahead," Lea answered.

True to his word, Kairi, Lea, and Naminè exited a tunnel of light and entered into a spectacular sight. They saw a large town with a medieval appearance, and a large castle with many towers. In comparison, it looked like a brighter version of the Castle That Never Was, except there were no emblems on the towers, just bright yellow flags that reflected in the bright sun, and it was attached to the ground like a normal building.

"This place is amazing!" Naminè said, taking in the sights.

"Yeah it's nice and all, but where are we supposed to go?" Lea asked.

"Let's just do what the people on TV do, wander around until something relevant happens," Kairi suggested. The three friends then started to wander into the town to see what they could find, but they weren't prepared for what they saw once they passed the gates. The streets were filled with a variety of people, but they were stuck in frozen animation. Each person looked like they were running away from something, which came from the castle. The trio looked around at the scene in shock, afraid that it might happen to them.

"What...is this?" Naminè asked, fear all over her voice.

"I don't know, but I don't like it," Lea said while walking up to a person and waving his hand over them.

"What do we do?" Kairi asked. She stared at the castle and started walking towards it, gaining the attention of the other two.

"Hey, where are you going?" Lea asked her.

Kairi turned around and said,"They were running away from the castle. I want to see what they were running from."

"Wait! We should think about this first!" Naminè cried, beginning to panic.

Kairi took her hand in her own and said,"Don't worry, we'll be fine. The worst thing that could happen is that we have to fight something."

Naminè calmed down a little, so the three went to the castle. The front gate was a little impressive in design. It was black with golden lining, and had a dragon head on both sides. With great effort, the three explorers were able to open the door and entered the castle. The main room was a small hallway leading to a small lobby. There were six doorways at the end of the hallways, three were at the top of a staircase with stairs on the sides. The two doors on the side were leading to different towers while the middle door lead deeper into the main building. The three doors on the ground level seemed to lead down to lower levels of the castle.

"Woah! This place is huge!" Lea said upon entering the castle.

"Hey Naminè," Kairi said, calling the girl over,"looks like you could learn from this."

Naminè went over to Kairi and saw what she was looking at. It was a painting of what could be described as a golden dragon. It was a bipedal creature with feet and a tail ending that looked like the claw on the end of the World of Nothingness' tail. Its body looked metallic and muscular, like it was made. Its hands had only three fingers on it, and it had a sword in each hand and two more in ethereal hands. One was curved and shaped like an angels wing, one was straight amd looked like it was made of water, the third looked like the first, but it had a mini tornado painted around it, and the fourth was curved, colored, and jagged like lightning. Its head had three horns on the top of the head that seemed to blend into the skin. In the middle of it's chest was a green orb and instead of dragon wings on its back, it had white angel wings.

"Very nice," Lea said, observing the painting.

"Who do you think it is?" Kairi asked.

"Someone important, but I don't know who it could be," Lea answered.

"Maybe it was a guardian of some kind," Naminè suggested.

"We'll we're not doing anything by standing around here, let's keep going," Kairi said.

So the three friends went deeper into the castle to see what was inside. They entered the main doors and entered a hallway and walked down it. They saw items ranging from ancient treasures, to high-tech weaponry, to small models of airships. They then approached a large door decorated with jewels, showing that it leads to somewhere important. With even more effort than before, they managed to push it open, and entered the room. Upon entering the room, they saw seven figures all in frozen animation, three were standing on each side while one was sitting on a throne at the end.

The first was a figure wearing black armor with golden lining. He had a cape that was white on the outside and blue on the inside. He had a red stone in the middle of his chest, and forehead, and strange emblems on his shoulder guards that looked like three triangles surrounding an upside down triangle. He also had two extensions coming out of his back.

The second figure was a knight clad in white armor and a tri horned helmet, but what was strange about him was his hands. His left hand was an orange three horned, metallic dinosaur head with a shield on his shoulder. His right hand was a blue, metallic wolfs head with a spiked shoulder guard. He had a white cape with a red inning hanging from his back.

The third figure was a serpentine figure with a golden metal body he had a large, gold jet attached to his back adorned with red . He had four metal arms, each with three fingers, two were normal sized and in front of his body, while the other two were large and attached to the jet on his back. He had a lightning shaped horn on his head.

The fourth figure was a red dragon figure with a white underside. He had large, silver wings with red insides, and a smaller pair of wings inside of the bigger pair. He had a very long tail that was coiled around its body. In his right hand was a twin pointed lance that also looked like a gun.

The fifth figure was a little smaller than the others and was wearing golden armor on his blue body. His armor covered his head, shoulders, forearms, waist, legs, and feet. He had three fingered claws coming out of the armor on his forearms that looked a little threatening.

The sixth figure looked like a knight from the medieval era, except his helmet had a dragons head on it. He wore red and white armor on his body and had a red cape on his back, and had a long extension on the back of his head. He had a lance on his right hand and a large shield on his left hand. The shield was silver with golden rings and a red upside down triangle in the middle surrounded by three triangles. He had the same triangle symbol on several parts of his body.

Lastly, the figure on the throne looked exactly like the figure that was in the painting in the lobby. The only difference was that he wore clothing that looked like something a king would wear and had a sad expression on his face, like he knew something terrible that happened. Kairi and the others looked at the figures in awe, having never seen figures as impressive as these.

"Whoa, these guys look tough," Lea said.

"Do you think these guys may be the Dawn Knights?" Kairi asked.

"Possibly," Lea said,"there are six of them, and that guy on the throne might be the person we were also supposed to look for."

"But how do we wake them up?" Naminè asked. When she said this, Kairi and Lea stopped and tried to think of some way to wake the figures.

"This could take a while," Kairi stated. And so, the three friends began to pool their ideas together to come up with a good plan.

* * *

(The Dark City)

In the building that the mysterious group was residing in, the Emperor was in his room, deep in thought. He heard a knock on his door and got up to see who was there. When he opened the door, he saw Cherubimon outside with a small stack of papers in his large hand.

"This is the latest report of the restocking, recruitment, and restoration of our troops, weapons, and vehicles," Cherubimon stated.

"Yes, thank you. Will you come in? I am in need of some company since everyone's busy," the Emperor asked.

"Why of course," Cherubimon then followed the Emperor into his room and sat down in a chair opposite of the Emperors. The Emperor placed the report on his desk and picked up a tray of iced tea. He placed it on the small table between the two chairs and sat down in his own seat.

"Do you remember what today is?" the Emperor asked, picking up a drink.

"...No I don't, what day is it?" Cherubimon asked, confused and also getting a drink.

"Today is the day that our enemies were frozen in time by the people they swore to protect," the Emperor stated.

"So it is. You know, we don't know if they have woken up either, we should check on them."

"You're right, I'll send someone to check it out now," the Emperor then proceeded to call someone on a cellphone he pulled out of his pocket.

"Hello, I need you to do something. I need you to go to visit our old enemies and see if they are still frozen in time. That's all, good luck." the Emperor then hung up and put the phone in one of his coat pockets. He then took a sip from his drink before turning back to Cherubimon.

"Have you heard? Diaboromon says the girl passed her test and gave one of his subordinates a cracked shell," Cherubimon informed the Emperor.

"Really? Well, that's an interesting development, maybe Xehanort will be defeated sooner than I thought."

"By the way," Cherubimon began,"have you seen our resident assassin? I haven't seen him in a while."

"Yes, I sent him on a very important mission that was of the utmost importance," the Emperor said. He then took out a paper from his coat and handed it to Cherubimon,"Here, this is the mission copy that I keep."

Cherubimon took the paper and began to read it, the more he read it, the more surprised he got. When he finished, he looked at the Emperor who nodded at the unasked question. He then handed the paper back to the Emperor who put it back in his pocket.

"I never would have imagined that those were the answers we were looking for this whole time..." Cherubimon said.

"Yes," the Emperor said,"The sooner he gets those items, the sooner I can join the fighting and tear Xehanort apart limb from limb."

Just then, some music could be heard, it sounded like Mephiles Phase 1 from Sonic 2006. Cherubimon dug through his pockets and flipped open his cellphone to talk to who was calling.

"Yes, this is Cherubimon. What's the problem? What do you mean you got the wrong shipment? The labels clearly state what crate goes where. Alright, I'll be there soon, just don't touch anything." he then hung up and turned back to the Emperor.

"I'm afraid I have to go, the construction crew in the air hanger got a crate of parts that were meant for the tank construction crew," Cherubimon said, looking annoyed.

"It's fine, I thank you for the company," the Emperor said, going to open the door.

"The pleasure was mine, it was just like how the old days were," Cherubimon said going outside.

"Don't talk like that, you're making me feel old," the Emperor said. Cherubimon just chucked and waved back while walking down the steps. The Emperor just shook his head and went to look at the report Cherubimon have him earlier.

* * *

(Unknown)

Kairi, Lea, and Naminè were still sitting in the middle of the seven figures, thinking of ways to unfreeze them. They tried all kinds of helpful magic, but nothing worked in the time they tried. Not even the Raise spell, which Kairi learned to revive people who were knocked out, had worked, however, when they all used the Curaga spell together, they could swear that one of the figures moved.

"Ugh, Why isnt anything working?" Kairi complained.

"What haven't we tried yet? Lea asked.

"I have no idea," Kairi replied.

"You know something," Naminè said,"these guys look like they've been hit with a Stop spell, so if we could reverse it, they might wake up."

Kairi and Lea then looked at her like she figured out how to permanently defeat the Heartless. They got up from the floor, ran over to her, and smushed her in between them upon hugging her, prompting a surprised squeak from the blond girl. After releasing the dazed girl from their hug, the three friends prepared to try and reverse the Stop spell.

"So how do we release these guys from the spell?" Lea asked.

"It's simple," Kairi began,"it all depends on your will. Master Yen Sid said that sometimes, magic can be changed by your willpower. He said that you can make a cold fire if you are able to generate enough willpower. So I think we can reverse the Stop spell if we have a large willpower."

"Okay then," Lea said. The two Keyblade wielders raised their Keyblades while Naminè held her hands together like she was praying. Once they began channeling the magic power, an image of a clock appeared over them, it had its hands stopped on twelve. With the more magic power they channeled into the spell, the hands on the clock began to slowly inch forward until it was moving forward like a normal clock. The clock then burst apart and sparkled over the frozen figures.

Everyone held their breath as they awaited the results. Suddenly, they heard a groaning sound and turned to see the small figure in golden armor straining to move. Once he popped his joints, he looked around and saw the three friends looking back at him.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" he asked.

Kairi was about to answer before Lea beat her to it saying,"We would answer you, but then we would have to repeat the story for the others when they wake up."

The figure nodded and raised his hands towards the other frozen figures who were very, very slowly regaining movement.

"The Radiance of Miracles!" The figures golden armor began to glow and a blinding light filled the room. When the light disappeared, everyone opened their eyes to see the other figures slowly moving around, popping their joints, and examining their surroundings. Eventually they focused their attention on Kairi and the others and approached them with curiosity, the figure on the throne just sat there and watched.

"Who are you?" the dragon with the lance asked.

"We are people from the Realm of Light who were tasked with finding the God of Light and getting his help in fighting the forces of Darkness," Kairi explained.

"Interesting, what is the name of this Darkness?" The knight with heads for hands asked them.

"His name is Xehanort, and he leads a group called the Seekers of Darkness," Lea explained.

The figures looked at each other before the knight in black stepped forward and said,"They are not our true enemies, we cannot help you in your fight."

"What?! Why?!" Kairi asked.

"We only fight the true forces of darkness, this Xehanort person is but a minor threat to the worlds," the serpentine figure explained.

"Minor threat?! That maniac split his heart into thirteen pieces and forced those pieces into people! All to create a X-Blade and get Kingdom Hearts! And you call that a minor threat?!" Lea ranted.

"Wait a moment," the figure on the throne said as he stepped down and approached the group. Immediately, the other figures knelt down as he came forward.

"This Xehanort person is creating the X-Blade?" he asked to which the three nodded.

"If they are indeed after the legendary blade, then we must intervene and prevent a calamity," the knight with the lance and shield stated.

"Before we continue, I believe introductions are needed in order to make this conversation a little more normal," the small being in golden armor said.

"Okay, well I'm Kairi."

"My name's Naminè, nice to meet you."

"The name's Lea, got it memorized?"

The knight in the black armor then stepped forward and said,"I am Alphamon, Dawn Knight of the Royal Guard."

"My name's Omnimon, the Dawn Knight of the Land," the knight with heads for hands said.

The serpentine figure slithered up and said,"The name's Aegisdramon, the Dawn Knight of the Sea, pleasure to meet you."

"I'm Examon, the Dawn Knight of the Sky," the red dragon said.

"I'm Magnamon, the Dawn Knight of the Science Division, thank you for freeing us," the small figure in gold said.

"I am Gallantmon, the Dawn Knight of the Special Ops Division," the knight with the lance and shield told them. The three then turned to look at the golden dragon who had yet to introduce himself. He looked at them before sighing and introducing himself.

"My name is Lighteron Ultima, ruler of the the Shining Kingdom, and the God of Light." When he said this, the three explorers looked at him with a shocked expression.

"You're the God of Light?" Kairi asked.

"Indeed I am young Princess," he said.

"How did you know that?" she asked, shocked that he knew.

"It was easy to feel the immense light coming from your heart, only a Princess of Heart or myself have a lot of light," he informed her.

"You know, I imagined you to be a bit taller," Lea said.

"Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not," he said with a smirk. He then looked at Naminè with an expression of curiosity.

"Why can't I sense any light from you?" he asked the blond.

"It's because I'm a Nobody," she told him while looking down at her feet.

"What is a Nobody?" Aegisdramon asked.

"I've never heard of such a being," Examon said.

"They're the empty shells of people who've had their hearts stolen by the Heartless. Nobodies with a strong will can keep their human appearance, but all Nobodies will keep their intelligence," Naminè explained.

"Interesting, I would like to meet more of them someday," Magnamon said.

"Hey, I just remembered something," Kairi said.

"And that would be?" Omnimon asked.

"The people outside. The castle are still frozen, we should do something," she explained.

"Yes, I shall reverse the spell immediately," Lighteron said, beginning to walk to the stairs.

"Wait, did you cast the spell?" Kairi asked.

"It was not the King, it was the people of other worlds who believed that we were the cause of many disasters," Gallantmon explained as they walked,"They used an ancient spell called 'Petrifying Light' to freeze the Shining Kingdom in time."

"Sounds rough," Lea said. Soon, they walked out onto a balcony overlooking the city. If you looked hard enough, you could see the civilians frozen in the street. Lighteron stretched out his hand and summoned the sword that looked like an angels wing. He held it in both hands and raised it up to the sky, light was beginning to be collected at the tip of the blade.

"Holy Restoration!" The light at the tip of the blade shot up into the sky, illuminating it for a moment before the whole sky lit up and beams of light rained down and hit the civilians. When the light hit them, they regained the ability to move around. Upon moving around, they began to cheer for they believed that they survived a huge calamity. Lighteron smiled at seeing his people happy.

However that moment of happiness was short lived as suddenly, the sky began to darken and the wind began to blow faster. The civilians ran inside their houses and the Dawn Knights looked towards the sky, Examon was growling as he realized what was happening. A small tornado appeared a small distance from the balcony.

Examon raised his lance and shouted,"Avalon's Gate!" a red energy bolt came out of his lance and hit the tornado, dispelling it, in its place was a figure in a black coat with silver flames on the sleeves. On the right side of his back was a single black wing.

"The minute I saw the people moving around I knew something was up, so I come down from my sky and what do I see? Two pretty girls and an ugly redheaded pyro waking up people they shouldn't be!" the figure ranted.

"How long are you going to hide behind your hood, you coward?" Examon shouted at the figure.

"Ah, Examon, how nice to see you again. I hope you remember to stay out of my sky," the figure said.

"Enough, what do you want?" Lighteron demanded.

"Well the Emperor decided that I should come and see if you guys were still frozen, but since you're not, I'll have to give him the bad news. But not before I do a little redecorating," with that, he snapped his fingers and summoned several tornados to ravage the kingdom.

"No! Magnamon cried upon seeing the impending doom.

"Have you forgotten who stands before you, Dark Lord?" Lighteron asked.

"No I haven't, you're still the same weakling the Emperor defeated," he replied

"Then surely you haven't forgotten what I control," Lighteron said, lifting up his hand and summoning a sword, it was curved and had the design of a tornado on the blade. It was colored green and had a handle guard on the hilt. If one looked closely they could see some wind orbiting the blade.

"I will defeat you here and now, Ravemon!" Lighteron cried, pointing his sword at the figure.

The figure just grabbed the side of his coat and threw it off, revealing his body underneath. He was the size of a normal man, and he wore a blue jumpsuit underneath silver armor that colored some parts of his body. His shoulder guards were spiked and looked like heads with eyes. His right arm was completely metal and his hand was a claw with three red fingers. He wore a helmet that had a red faceplate with the design of a bird, revealing his mouth only. He had a black wing on his right side and a white wing on his left arm. He carried a sword in a seath on his back. Overall, he looked somewhat like a ninja.

(Battle Music-Fight and Away-Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days)

"Come on!" Ravemon cried as he flew higher into the sky. Lighteron threw his unoccupied hand to the side and white angel wings erupted from his back. With a single flap he flew high into the air after the raven.

"Shouldn't we help him?" Naminè asked, worried for Lighteron.

"There's no need to worry about him," Gallantmon said as he knelt down to her level,"he can't be defeated by a mere Dark Lord."

Up in the sky Lighteron had followed Ravemon, but had lost sight of him once they entered a cloud. His sixth sense kicked in and he ducked under the swipe Ravemon took with his claw. Lighteron turned around and thrust forward with his sword, but Ravemon caught it with his claw. He unsheathed his sword and thrust it forward, but like what he did, Lighteron caught his sword in his hand. They struggled for a bit to get their swords out of each others grip.

Lighteron got fed up and smashed his head into Ravemons, causing him to release Lighteron's sword. Lighteron then let go of Ravemon's sword and grabbed his arm instead. Lighteron then threw Ravemon away from him. Ravemon regained his balance and whipped around to see Lighteron speeding towards him. He flipped over and slashed at Lighteron's back when he flew under him.

Lighteron cried out in pain as he flew under the Dark Lord. He faltered around a bit before turning upright and glancing at his back. It wasn't very deep, and it could heal in a coublue days, but it would bother him a little now. He turned to look at Ravemon and saw him raising his sword to the sky as dark lightning began to gather around it. Lighteron switched his sword to the one that looked like lightning and readied himself for what was to come.

"Celestial Blade!" A wave of dark lightning shot forward and Lighteron just held his sword towards the energy. The dark lightning was absorbed by the sword and seemed to charge it. Lighteron grinned as he felt the energy flowing through his body.

"Lightning Illusion!" In a flash, Lighteron shot away like a bolt of lightning, zapping around the sky, confusing Ravemon. The Dark Lord kept turning to try and find him, but at the speeds Lighteron was moving it was impossible. Ravemon turned and saw a bolt of lightning heading towards him, he moved away so that it didn't hit his body, but it clipped his black wing, causing him to lose his balance in the air. Lighteron appeared before him, switching his sword back to the other one.

"Ready to give up?" he asked.

"Far from it, I'll make you pay for what you did to the Emperor all those years ago!" Ravemon replied.

"How many times do I have to say it? It wasn't me!" Lighteron cried.

"Save your breath! Blast Wing!" Ravemon shot forward, his left arm stretched outwards and his white wing glowing slightly. Lighteron blocked with his sword and sparks flew everywhere like metal striking metal. Once Ravemon zoomed by, he turned around and ducked under a wave of wind that came his way. He looked at Lighteron and saw him swinging his sword, making another wave and launching it towards Ravemon. The raven flew around the wave and the ones that came after it. He flew towards Lighteron and swung his sword at him to which was blocked by Lighteron's sword. Lighteron then cocked his fist back and struck Ravemon in the nose. Ravemon flew back and held his face with his claw while glaring at Lighteron.

"I ask you again, do you surrender?" Lighteron asked.

"You already know the answer, I won't give up until you fall," Ravemon stubbornly said.

"Why do you fight a losing battle? You know I'm stronger than you," Lighteron asked.

"Because I know the workings of the legendary bird technique, you didn't see me use it before because I was still making it into my own useable version," Ravemon said, smirking.

Lighteron's eyes widened as he heard this,"You mean to tell me that you've learned that devastating technique?"

"Why don't you watch and see as I destroy your precious kingdom!" Ravemon cried as he flew higher into the clouds. Lighteron dived down and landed in the town, looking at the sky. Suddenly, the wind started to pick up, causing everyone on the balcony to grab onto something to keep from flying off. Lighteron began to gather energy to his sword, the energy was becoming a mini tornado that surrounded him.

Up in the clouds, Ravemon was gathering as much energy as possible and sending it to his left arm. He began to spin around, wrapping himself in the wind and becoming a tornado, but if one looked closely, they could see his red claw out of the top of the tornado. He began to spin more, gaining more power and speed. Finally, he launched himself downwards, parting the clouds and aiming at the town. Upon seeing the cyclone, Lighteron pointed his sword at it, jumped into the air, and began to spin, becoming a tornado like Ravemon, except while Ravemon's was flat ended, Lighteron's was pointed at the tip.

"Spiral Raven Claw!" "Tornado Drill!" the two forces of wind clashed and caused hurricane force winds to hit the city. Both of them kept putting more force into it to try and plow through the other. Lighteron was gaining more ground however, pushing Ravemon back inch by inch.

"This is crazy!" Lea said while wrapped around a post with Naminè clinging to him for dear life.

"This is what happens when two powerful forces of the wind clash!" Omnimon shouted over the wind.

"When is this going to end!?" Magnamon shouted while holding onto Aegisdramon's tail to prevent himself from flying away.

"It should be over soon!" Examon replied, trying to not be picked up by his large wings being hit by the strong winds.

Back in the struggle, Lighteron had nearly broken through Ravemon's Spiral Raven Claw technique. Ravemon was struggling to push forward and tear through Lighteron. Finally, Lighteron pierced through, and hit Ravemon, forcing him to fall down to the city.

(Music end)

Ravemon crashed into the town square, creating a small crater in the ground. Lighteron landed a few feet from the crater and stared at it. He turned and saw the Dawn Knights flying towards him with Kairi, Lea, and Naminè riding on Aegisdramon's jetpack.

Lea whistled and said,"You really messed him up."

"It will take a little more than that to defeat a Dark Lord," Alphamon said.

"Who are the Dark Lords?" Kairi asked.

"They are an order of powerful beings, like us, who serve the God of Darkness," Gallantmon explained,"they consist of six members who operate in a system like us."

A groaning sound was heard and everyone looked to see Ravemon pulling himself out of the crater. Looking around he saw everyone on the side looking at him. He jumped out of the hole and stood away from them, holding onto his right side.

"Don't think you've won," he said, slowly backing away.

"Don't make empty threats," Lighteron replied.

Ravemon chuckled and said,"If you didn't have two pretty ladies with you I might have used something worse to defeat you."

"Always the lecherous one aren't you?" Examon remarked.

"Heh, what can I say? It's in my character. Now I have to go and deliver the bad news to the Emperor, sayonara!" with that he jumped into a Corridor of Darkness he summoned and disappeared.

Lighteron then turned around and spoke to Kairi, Lea, and Naminè and said,"I invite you all to lunch so you can explain what has happened in the past."

"Well I guess we do need to explain a lot of things," Kairi said to which Lea and Naminè agreed. So the group then walked back to the castle.

* * *

(The Dark City)

The Emperor was sitting down in his chair, sharing another drink with Cherubimon. This time they seemed to be talking about something funny as the Emperor was laughing at what Cherubimon said.

"You can't be serious! That really happened?" the Emperor asked.

"Yes it did, Wendigomon actually squished that demon bear with a hug!" Cherubimon said.

"I would have paid to see that," the Emperor said, taking a sip from his drink.

"This really does seem like the old days," Cherubimon remarked.

"Hey! You keep talking like that and I'll start to feel like an old man!"

Just then, Ravemon ran into the room, startling the two who were inside. He ran over to the Emperor and knelt down before him.

"Ah, Ravemon, what's the news? They still frozen like statues?" the Emperor asked.

"I'm afraid that I bring bad news my Lord," Ravemon said.

"It can't be that bad," Cherubimon said,"if one of them got out it wouldn't matter that much, so long as Magnamon didn't revive."

"The entire kingdom was freed from the Petrifying Light spell!" Ravemon cried.

Both of them froze then. Cherubimon turned to the Emperor to see him shaking with rage. Immediately, they began to feel different effects.

"When did it get hot in here?" Cherubimon asked, beginning to sweat.

"Hot? It's f-f-freaking cold in h-h-h-here!" Ravemon said, shivering.

Suddenly the ground began to shake, throwing everything around. Ravemon looked around before asking,"What do we do!?"

The shadows in the room began to grow, which Cherubimon noticed before saying,"The only thing we can do, run!"

"Like a bat outta Hell?" Ravemon asked.

"Like a bat outta Hell!" Cherubimon replied, making his way to the door with Ravemon behind him.

As they, and everyone else who knew what the shaking was, ran to the underground hanger, back in the Emperor's room, he was shaking with the utmost rage. Darkness was seeping from his body and pooling around him. His purple eyes that glowed under his hood became pure white.

**"Curse you..."** he growled,**"Curse you and the very air you breath, and the ground you walk on..."**

He threw back his head and let out a primal roar.

**"LIGHTEROOOOOOOOOOOOON!"**

* * *

**Before you complain and say that I have not put in a large variety of characters, hear me out. When I was in the phase of thinking of this idea, I was in the phase of Digimon fandom, so I created the organizations with the members being Digimon. Now I tried to find other characters to replace some of them long before I decided to begin posting, but I couldn't find characters to replace them and the awesome ideas I have. I'm sorry if you were expecting other characters, but this is my idea. I do promise, that there will be other people from different franchises appearing in the story.**

**I proudly introduce to you one of my OCs, Lighteron Ultima! This is the second OC I've made in my imagination and I'm proud to have made him. He is available for you to put into your stories, provided that you ask me for permission first.**

**Anyways, please review and leave your thoughts in the box below. Ciao!**


	16. Chapter 16: The Tournament Continues!

Chapter 16: The Tournament Continues!

* * *

**I have decided to try and finish up the tournament, I think that Sora's group has stayed there long enough, sould be either this chapter or the next that they leave. But first, let's take a look at the Dark City to see how the Emperor is handling his rage. Enjoy!**

**Note: When the Emperor talks in bold, he's talking in a demonic voice**

* * *

(The Dark City)

It was complete chaos in the underground section of the building, many strange beings and Heartless were running around to avoid the Emperor who seemed to be yelling out orders to whoever he saw. Cherubimon, Ravemon, and Diaboromon were hiding in a storage shed because they knew better than to stay in plain sight.

"This is all your fault," Cherubimon told Ravemon.

"What!? Me?!" Ravemon complained, "I only did what he told me to do!"

"You were the one who decided to tell him that Lighteron was revived," Diaboromon pointed out.

"He wanted the truth!" Ravemon said.

"Quiet!" Cherubimon whispered. The other two shut their mouths to hear the Emperor right outside the wall they were hiding behind.

**"Why aren't you working!? Get back to work!" **The Emperor yelled at some poor soul who wasn't doing their job. When they heard him stomp away, the three Dark Lords released the breath they were holding simultaneously.

"It's still your fault," Diaboromon said.

"And what would you have done?" Ravemon asked with an annoyed tone.

"I'd just say that Examon was revived, nothing more, nothing less," Diaboromon answered.

"What would you do if he found out that the rest of them were revived?" Cherubimon asked.

Diaboromon scoffed and said, "I'd say that Examon was the only one I saw at the time."

"Oh sure, just keep lying to him, that'll get you far," Ravemon sarcastacly said.

"Shhh!" Cherubimon whispered again. Once again they shut up to hear the Emperor stomping around the shed. Suddenly, the wall they were hiding behind was ripped apart, and the Emperor stuck his head in. His white eyes were staring deep into the three Dark Lords souls through his hood.

**"What are you three doing lazing around?! Get to work or you're dead!" **When he yelled this, the three comrades scrambled away towards the walkway. When reaching the skinny walkway, Ravemon pushed Cherubimon to the side, into the water.

"Hey! What's the big idea!?" Cherubimon yelled after swimming back to the surface of the water.

"Every man for himself!" Ravemon yelled back, Diaboromon right behind him. Cherubimon then turned around to see the Emperor glaring at him through his hood.

**"Who said you could go on a swim break!? Get moving!" **The Emperor yelled.

"Wait for me!" Cherubimon swam for the nearest ladder to get back up onto the walkway. He then proceeded to run after the other two Dark Lords to escape the Emperor's wrath. The Emperor then kept walking down to the deeper decks of the harbor, looking for some more people to yell at.

* * *

(Olympus Colosseum)

Sora had joined Aqua and Terra in the stands, waiting for Shin's match to start. So far they were on edge, waiting to see if another Seeker of Darkness would appear. Shin was standing in the arena, facing down his opponent. Roxas was watching in the finalists box keeping watch for anything suspicious, and Zack had disappeared for the time being. Phil had once again climbed up to the announcers stand and addressed the crowd.

"Ladies and gentlemen! The time has come for the second match in the semifinals!" Phil said. "In this corner, we have the kid who almost beat Hercules, Shin!" Shin waved to the crowd when his name was called. "And in the other corner we have our mysterious challenger...wait, we never got his name?" The mysterious figure made no effort to move, only staring at Shin with his red eyes.

"Oh well, let the match begin!" Phil declared.

(Battle Music-Vs. Team Plasma-Pokemon Black/White)

The figure raced towards Shin at high speeds, determined to end the match quickly. He stabbed his claw like hand forward, aiming for Shin's stomach. Shin jumped to the side, allowing the figure to fly by him. He unsheathed his sword and jabbed it to the figures own stomach. But he jumped backwards to avoid the stab and kept moving until he was a fair distance away from Shin. Shin then darted forward with his sword at his side and began to channel magic into it.

"Spellblade: Firaga!" Shin's sword burst into flames and he swung it at the figure. He dodged the swings for a while until Shin left him no room to run. He caught the blade in his hands as it swung his way, but the fire had begun to spread to his cloak, slowly burning it. He directed the sword away from him and jumped back, throwing the burning cloak away before it could burn him, revealing his body underneath.

His body quickly became a silver liquid before reforming into a completed form. His whole body was complely made of metal and colored mainly blue. His main body was relatively small with a engine in the middle. His legs were thin and guarded by spiked knee guards. He had a spiked belt around his waist, with a black cape protruding out of his waist. His had had five spikes pointing out of his head in a star-like formation with a white stripe in the middle of each spike **(What can I say? I love the Neo form as much as his boss forms)**. He stared at Shin with his piercing red eyes.

"Since my disquise is destroyed, you may know my name, Metal Sonic, but you may call me Metal, the figure said.

"Well, you're the second robot I fought, this should be interesting," Shin siad while grinning.

"I assure you, I am nothing like whatever robot you fought in the past, I am far superior," Metal said, darting forward, and rearing his claw back in order to slice through Shin. Shin blocked the strike with his sword, which was still on fire. Metal jumped back and looked at Shin, analyzing the situation and deciding on what to do. Metal sent a surge of power to his right hand and pointed it at Shin, a blast of lightning erupting from his hand. Shin jumped to the side, but the blast grazed his sword, sending an electrical shock into Shin.

"YEEEEOW!" Shin cried, shaking violently from the electricity. He stabbed his sword into the ground in order to try and discharge whatever electricity was left in him.

"I don't believe that the other robot you fought was able to do that," Metal commented.

"You're right," Shin said, getting up, "he was, however, able to destroy dimensions, I don't think YOU can do that, can you?" Metal just narrowed his gaze and prepared for another lightning blast. He fired the blast at Shin once more, but he had a plan to counter this move. Shin raised his sword and channeled some magic into it.

"Spellblade: Thundaga!" The lightning blast was met by another blast, this one coming from Shin's sword. The two energies were pushing against each other for a while until they shot up into the sky, causing an explosion that blew away the clouds. Metal launched himself forward and went to punch Shin in the gut, Shin wasn't prepared for this and was hit hard by the metal fist. Shin doubled over in pain and gave Metal another opportunity to attack. He grabbed his head and threw him into a pillar, hard. Shin fell down to the ground and slowly got up, he looked into Metal's bright red eyes.

"I'll give you the chance to surrender," Metal said, the way he said it made you think he was smirking.

"Sorry, I don't know the meaning of the word," Shin said, picking himself up.

"It is to accept your defeat," Metal said.

Shin face faulted after he heard this, and stood up and yelled, "Haven't you heard of sarcasm!?"

"I have, but I wanted to see your response, which was amusing I must say," Metal replied.

Shin just smirked and said, "You are better than that other machine I fought, you want to know why?"

"Tell me," Metal demanded.

"It's because you have emotions, that other robot just talked through logic, which got very annoying," Shin said. Metal just made a motion that looked like he laughed and prepared to attack. Shin also got into a fighting position while giving Metal a grin. Metal then darted forward and jabbed his hand towards Shin in a stabbing motion. Shin turned to the side and kneed Metal in his stomach engine, causing him to then grab his knee in pain as he felt the effects of hitting metal with bone.

_"Not my best idea," _Shin thought to himself as he hopped around the arena, holding his knee. Metal was also stunned by the attack as it caused some damage to his armor. He looked down and saw that Shin had put a nice dent in his metal body.

"I grow tired of this foolishness, it's time to end this," Metal said as he crouched down low and gripped his left wrist as lightning began to form around it. Shin just held his blade to the side and began to fill it with magic and a black aura began to surround the blade. The two combatants looked into each others eyes for a moment before they darted forward towards each other.

"Lightning Shredder!" "Spellblade: Almagest!" The two energies met and the black aura on Shin's sword turned to white. They began to push against each other to see who would win the contest of power. This continued for a while until the opposing energies created an explosion that threw them both backwards. Shin and Metal both slowly got up and faced each other, a look of determination in both of their eyes. Metal launched himself at Shin once more and Shin raised his sword in defence. Metal then launched himself into the sky and Shin looked up only to be blinded by the bright sun. However, Shin knew better than to stand still while blinded, so he jumped to the side just in time to avoid a slamming attack from Metal.

"I thought you wanted to finish this?" Shin asked him with a grin on his face.

"I will admit, your skills are making this fight last longer, but that just makes it more interesting," Metal said.

Shin just gave him another grin and raced forward, his sword once again covered in flames. Metal just readied himself for whatever Shin was going to do. Shin swung his sword and Metal caught it in his hands, but Shin used the momentum of the swing to launch himself over the robot and stomp on his head. Metal lost his grip on the sword and stumbled forward, trying to fix the damage to his head. Shin spinned in the air and landed in a crouched position, giving Metal a smug look.

Metal just sent energy to both of his hands, and in a flash of light, whips of lightning appeared in his hands. He reared them back and lashed them forward, with the intent to hack away at Shin. Shin jumped to the side and looked to see the whips destroy the area he was previously standing on. Shin then jumped away once again to avoid another attack from Metal. Shin then had enough of running and stood his ground as Metal prepared to attack again.

"Spellblade: Thundaga!" Once again, Shin cloaked his sword in lightning and slashed at the whips. The opposing lightning caused an explosion upon contact and threw Shin back and causing Metal to have a mini overload. Once again they both got up and looked at each other.

"You know," Shin began, "this is the best fight I've had in a while."

"Don't think that you're going to win though," Metal said.

"It's not over til the fat lady sings," Shin said while giving him a smirk.

"Unfortunately, my sad excuse of a creator isn't here to sing," Metal said.

Shin just smirked and launched himself towards Metal once more, said robot just prepared his Lightning Shredder once more. As Shin came closer to him, he drew his claw back in an attempt to run it through Shin. When Shin was close enough, he darted his hand forward, but Shin spun around while swinging his sword in a circle, aiming at his stomach. Metal quickly raised his knee and blocked the sword with his spiked knee guard. The force of the swing forced Metal to move backwards so he wouldn't fall over. Metal then ran forward to punch Shin while he was regaining his balance, but Shin ducked down at the last second and tripped Metal. Metal, as he was falling, pushed his hands on to the ground and pushed upward, causing him to flip over again and land on his feet. Once again, the two combatants raced towards each other, claws and sword extended, ready to strike the opponent.

(Music end)

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck the area between the two, throwing them back to seperte corners. Everyone was looking around at where the lightning came from, but Sora and everyone else already figured it out. Floating down to the arena floor were two Seekers of Darkness, one was the size of a human, but the other seemed to be slightly bigger. When they reached the floor, the strange looking one floated in the air, like he didn't have a lower body.

"I can understand why Madara was unwilling to come here again, the gods of this world are somewhat threatening to him," the normal figure remarked.

"But we are not bound to this world by spells, so they hold nothing over us," the other figure said in a dark, echoing voice.

The other figure laughed and said, "How right you are my friend!" At this point Roxas, Sora, Terra, and Aqua had already joined Shin and Metal on the arena, Zack had come running out of the lobby when he heard the lightning strike. They stared down the two Seekers who were having a mild conversation.

"Terra," Shin began, "does that guy sound familiar?" he asked pointing at the human figure.

"I think he was the one who tried to capture us," Terra said. The figures then looked at the group and the human figure began to chuckle.

"To think that I would find you two here, just come with us and save us the trouble," he said.

"Do you really think they would go with you because you asked?" the other figure asked.

The other Seeker just shrugged his shoulders and said, "It wouldn't hurt to try." He turned around to see Shin running towards him with his sword poised to cleave him in two. The figure just summoned a two sided spear and deflected Shin's attack. He then thrusted his open hand at Shin's chest and pushed him back to the group with an unknown force. Roxas and Sora caught him as he flew backwards.

"You're losing your touch Shinryu," the man said.

"How do you know about that?" Shin asked, his eyes turning red.

The figure chuckled and reached for his hood, "I know all about you and the Esper girl behind you," he said, pulling his hood back. He had plain white skin, and a head of brown hair. He stared at Shin and Terra with his brown eyes behind his glasses.

"Lezard!" Shin cried.

"Ah, it's nice that you remembered me," Lezard said.

"Who is that guy?" Aqua asked.

"He's Lezard Valeth, a powerful mage that is constantly searching for the perfect magic," Terra explained, "he is powerful enough to wield four powerful weapons, so he's very dangerous."

"How nice to see you again, my dear Terra," Lezard said, bowing a little.

The other figure made a chuckling noise and said, "He might make for a good replacement."

Lezard shook his head and said, "Unfortunately, the dragon inside him would prevent Master Xehanort from gaining control over him."

"So you're being controlled?" Zack asked confused.

"Of course not," Lezard began, "we only had to put two figures under a mind control, just because they didn't want to join us even though they were the perfect players to have on our side."

"That's just sick!" Sora cried.

"In your opinion," the strange figure said, "I find it as a good way to control the fools who would be a nuisance."

Metal stepped forward and said, "I thought you were familiar, the way you talk, your appearance, I never thought you would have survived your fight with Shadow the Hedgehog, Black Doom."

The figure just reached for his hood and pulled it back, revealing his face. His skin was pure black and leathery. He had two horizontal horns with red tips coming from his head that just extended. He looked at the group with his three yellow eyes. Where his mouth was, was just a bunch of folded skin.

"Impressive that you know of me, but I don't believe we've met before," Black Doom said.

"I am Metal Sonic, the reason we never met before was because I was going through extensive repairs when you invaded my world, but I learned of you through the G.U.N database" Metal told the being.

"Ah, so you are the Doctor's 'Greatest Creation'. Truth be told, I never thought you would look like this," Black Doom said.

Metal glared at him and said, "I may be his greatest work, but I decide my own path, he holds nothing over me."

"Then let's see what your freedom can do for you," Black Doom said in a challenging tone.

"Gladly."

"Are you sure you should fight him now? You just fought Shin," asked a concerned Aqua.

"Don't worry about me, I'm stronger than I look," Metal said.

(Battle Music-Stardust Speedway Remix-Sonic Generations)

Metal used his super speed to race towards Black Doom, but the alien merely floated out of his path and backhanded him in the back of the head. Metal regained his balance and faced the alien again, but he just waved his hand, causing a vortex to appear bove his head. A meteor then flew out of it, heading straight towards Metal, who jumped out of the way just in time. Metal then used his electrical whips to try and hit Black Doom from a distance, but he just kept floating out of the way.

"Stop moving so I can fry you," Metal growled.

"Now why would I do thay?" Black Doom asked sarcastically.

Metal just kept whipping at the alien, and he kept dodging. Eventually Black Doom got fed up and launched himself at Metal at high speeds and caught the robot by the throat. Black Doom then lifted Metal up to his eyesight and prepared to punch him in the face, Metal struggled to get out of his grip.

"Pity, I expected more from you," Black Doom said in a bored tone.

"Don't think this is over yet!" Metal cried, sending an electrical shock into Black Doom, causing him to drop the robot as he spasmed due to the electricity in his body. Black Doom then formed a purple sword and held it in his hand, beconing Metal to come forward. Metal ran towards him while forming his Lightning Shredder, and clashed with Black Doom. The alien was able to push Metal back and take a swipe at him, cutting his torso. Metal jumped back and tried to heal his wound which was sparking. The slashed metal turned into a liquid before molding itself back together.

"That's an unusual ability you have," Lezard noted.

"I copied the powers of Chaos, God of Destruction, they come in handy at times," Metal said.

"It won't help you here," Black Doom said, forming multiple vortexes above him. Immediately, several meteors flew out of the portals and made a wide range attack, leaving little room to dodge. Metal just stood there as the meteors came closer, and when they were about to hit, a faint purple bubble surounded him. When the dust from the impacts cleared, Metal was standing there with his arms crossed and an energy shield protecting him. Metal then darted forward, catching Black Doom of guard, and punched him in the gut. As the alien was recovering, Metal vanished from sight, only to reappear behind Black Doom's head and give it a spinning kick, sending himto the ground. Metal then landed down on the floor and walked over to Black Doom, who was picking himself up.

"So this is the power of the leader of the Black Arms? I expected more of you," Metal said in a mocking tone.

"You're about to see a real terror!" Black Doom growled. He was then enveloped in a purple light and was about to float into the sky, but then in a flash of light, Black Doom fell to the ground with Lezard holding his hand out to him. The remains of a magic spell coming off of his skin.

(Music End)

"What...are you doing...Lezard?" Black Doom weakly asked.

"If you go all out in your condition, there's the chance that you wouldn't survive, I can't let you just disappear before the last battle," the mage answered.

"Very well," the alien said, beginning to float in the air, "I do suppose I was being annoyed to an extent that I acted rashly."

"We all have those moments," Lezard answered. He then turned to deflect a Flare spell from Terra, returning the same spell, only it was blue. Terra blocked the spell, but the resulting explosion threw her to the other side of the arena. Shin ran over to Lezard, but the mage just swung his sword and blocked Shin's strike. He then grabbed Shin's arm and swung him over to Terra, who just barely ducked under the flying boy as he crashed into the wall.

"It appears that we cannot accomplish what we came here to do," Black Doom noted as he launched meteors at Aqua who fired back with her Prism Rain Shotlock.

"Worry not my friend, there are plenty of opportunities that will reveal themselves in time," Lezard assured him as he blocked a tripple assault from Sora, Roxas, and Zack.

"Very true, shall we take our leave then?" the alien asked as he launched a torrent of fire at Aqua and Metal.

Lezard said nothing as he summoned a Corridor of Darkness and pushed back the three people assaulting him. Black Doom took note of this as he floated into the portal, Lezard then backed away and gave a mock bow to the heroes.

"Until we meet again, I'll be waiting," he said with a maniacal grin, vanishing into the darkness. The heroes then heard grunts of pain and saw Shin holding his left arm in pain, Terra was trying to heal it, but it didn't seem to be working.

"Hey man, what's wrong?" Zack asked as they approached him.

"I think I broke my arm when Lezard threw me into the wall," Shin answered through grit teeth.

"I don't think you can continue the tournament in that condition," Roxas said.

"I don't like this," Metal said, "I wanted to defeat you fair and square, not by having an intruder throw you into the wall."

"Wish I could finish our fight, tell you what, one day, let's see who's the better warrior," Shin suggested, holding out his right fist for a fist bump.

"Sound's like a good idea," Metal said, bumping his fist with Shin's.

"Now it's time for the finals," Roxas said, looking at Metal.

"Don't think that you'll win this fight, I'll be the victor," Metal said.

"Now now, let's not start fighting until the finals," Terra said. After that, everyone left for the lobby, eager to see the match between Roxas and Metal that was coming up later.

* * *

(Port Royal)

Deep within the pirate filled city, a large, obese cat was 'trying' to sneak around the allyways. The people that were in the streets were either too drunk to notice, or didn't want to deal with the idiot cat. Unknown to him he was being followed by three people, two seemed to be working together while one was working alone. The cat kept lurking around until he reached a small little clearing with crates and barrels all around.

"Hey, Maleficent," The cat whispered. From a dark allyway, came a green skinned, horned woman wearing dark robes. She had a staff with a green orb on top and a raven perched on her shoulder.

"What is it now you imbicle?" the witch demanded.

"Well i've got some news about those Keyblade brats that I'm sure Master Xehanort will love to hear," Pete said, looking like he hit the jackpot.

After a while Maleficent got angry and demanded, "Well spit it out you idiot!"

Pete cowered for a minute before saying, "I heard that the Sora kid is trainin' with some other Keyblade wielders to try and beat the big boss. I also heard that the Princess of Heart and that redhead Nobody are searching for some powerful guy."

"And what of my dear Riku?" Maleficent asked while petting Diablo.

"He and the mouse brat have dropped off the whole map, not even the Heartless can find them," Pete explained.

"That is unfortunate, but this will be some good news to deliver anyway. Come along, we must go," Maleficent then summoned a Corridor of Darkness and prepared to walk through it.

"Wait a second," Pete said, "something strange has been going on with the Heartless, they keep making these strange movements and keep whisperin' things like 'He's back', or 'The Great One has returned.'" **(I know from experience that if you hang out with people for a while, you can understand their hidden language. So it should work for the Heartless.)**

"That is unusual, I will mention this to him as well," Maleficent said. She then walked into the Corridor, Pete following her and it disappeared. The two figures that were working together walked into the clearing, the other figure jumping away to another building.

"We'll need to pass that information to the others," Riku said as he pulled back his hood, "we need to warn them that Xehanort's forces might go after them."

"Right," Mickey said, "we'll send when we get back to the Gummi Ship."

But I'm curious," Riku said, "what did Pete mean by the Heartless saying that somebody's back? Could it be someone dangerous?"

Mickey thought for a moment before saying, "We can't assume anything without solid evidence, for now we'll keep this between ourselves until we know more." Riku nodded before the two ran for their Gummi Ship, going to send what they learned to their friends.

Meanwhile, with the other figure, he was jumping from roof to roof, sometimes doing flips to show off a little. He kept leaping for several minutes until he reached a large building. He snuck inside and searched around until he reached a room that said, 'Colonel Beckett.' He snuck inside and began to search around.

"Damn it, where's the chest?" the figure asked himself. The moonlight shone through the room and lit up the silver flames on his sleeves, which reflected the light onto a small, almost unnoticeable doorhandel connected to a small secret panel. The figure noticed this and approached the panel, opening it to see a small treasure chest which was big enough to hold a small amount of gold.

"Davy Jones' chest holds not only his heart, but the Keyhole to this world as well," the figure then waved his hand over the keyhole and it began to glow a golden color. He was then sucked into the Keyhole and into a seperate dimension. He reappeared in a black void with a large heart floating in the middle. He reached into his cloak and pulled out an empty canister and kneeled before the heart.

"Oh, great World Heart of Anger, I beseech thee," the figure chanted, "I ask that you lend me your power so I may help my Emperor. I do not ask for all of your power, but for enough of it so that your power, along with the other World Hearts, may help the Emperor return to his true strength." When he finished, the heart began to glow and the canister began to glow a pink color. He picked up the canister and warped back to the office. He pulled out two similar canisters and placed all three of them on the desk.

"Let's see," the figure began, "I received powers of the Heart of Fear from Halloween Town, the Heart of Hope from Atlantica, and now the Heart of Anger, what's next?" he then pulled out a stone tablet and began to read it. "The Heart of Light from...damn, the text's all messed up, all I can make out is that it's in a castle. Better get to work." He then left the building through the window and fell into a Corridor of Darkness, disappearing.

* * *

**Well, what do you think, surprised, bored, imressed? Tell me! I can't work as fast as I should because I still have to go to school, play hockey with my team, and hang out with my friends, sorry.**

**Please review and leave your thoughts in the box below. Ciao!**


	17. Chapter 17: The Next Challenge

Chapter 17: The Next Challenge

* * *

**I've been sick for a while, so I have had a hard time trying to write lately, sorry. Here it is, the conclusion to the Olympus Colosseum tournament! I've worked long and hard to make this a good chapter so be prepared, watch in awe! Enjoy!**

**Also on a side note-time moves differently in some worlds, so a couple days have passed in the World That Never Was and the Shining Kingdom.**

* * *

The time has come! The final match between Roxas and Metal Sonic was about to begin! People were on the edge of their seats in anticipation of the fight. Sora and everyone else were in the stands waiting for the final match, Shin had his arm in a makeshift cast and was sitting between Sora and Terra.

"It's a little confusing," Sora began, "I always thought that the Cure spell would be able to heal anything."

"It can heal a lot of injuries," Terra answered, "but there are some things that can't be healed by a Cure spell all the time."

"Like what?" Aqua asked, turning around to listen to the conversation.

"Well, the Cure spell can heal many injuries, more if you are a powerful mage. But it can't fully heal large injuries, the body has to heal normally then," Terra explained, "When it comes to poison, the Cure spell can remove a good majority of the poison, but it will keep spreading so a Antidote spell should also be cast."

"But that doesn't explain why it can't heal broken bones," Zack pointed out.

"I was getting to that, the Cure spell can heal broken bones so it isn't so messed up a lot, but the bone needs to heal itself naturally after a certain amount of use. Use to much Cure magic, and you run the risk of the bone not setting in the right way and you'll need to get it seperated and put back in."

"Basically, it's like medicine, you take only what you need," Shin said, "take to much, and there will be more harm done to you."

"I never thought it worked like that," Sora said.

"Hey, you learn something new everyday," Zack joked.

"True, hey look the match is starting," Sora said. Metal and Roxas were on opposite ends of the arena and Phil was stepping up to the stand.

"And now, it's time for what you all have been waiting for! The final match of the tournament between Roxas and Metal!" the crowd cheered loudly at the annoucement and both competitors waved towards the crowd. "Let the match begin!"

(Battle Music-Big Arms-Sonic Generations-0:20 onwards)

Roxas and Metal launched towards each other with their Keyblades and claws drawn respectively. Roxas went for a scissor cut with the Oathkeeper and Oblivion, but Metal stopped both of them with his claws. He then began to send a surge of electricity through the weapons to paralyze Roxas, but to his surprise, Roxas banished both of the Keyblades, causing the electricity to spark in the air. Roxas then resummoned both of his Keyblades and attampted to run Metal through. The robot directed them away with his claws and took a swipe at Roxas, knicking his cheek and drawing some blood.

Roxas then kicked Metal in the abdomen, sending him back a few feet and giving Roxas some time to heal the cuts with a Cure spell. Metal then launched several bolts of lightning at the Nobody, forcing him to stay on the defensive to keep from getting shocked. After a while, Metal stopped his assault to recharge his energy and Roxas took this opportunity to strike at the robot. Metal put up his claws in defence as Roxas swung the Oblivion, but he couldn't stop the Oathkeeper as it hit his legs, knocking him down.

"You've gotten good," Metal remarked as he jumped backwards.

"What do you think I've been doing during the intermissions?" Roxas asked.

"So you've been training as well, this'll be good," Metal said as he prepared for his Lightning Shredder. He then rocketed towards Roxas, ready to slice him in half with his claw. Roxas rested his Keyblades on his hips and gathered Nobody energy towards them. As Metal drew closer, Roxas ran forward at high speeds, slashing his Keyblades as Metal threw his claw forward. They met in the middle and the opposing energies clashed, causing a force of wind to blow outwards, throwing loose items into the wind. Both of them were pushing against each other, each one looking like they were going to win before the other looked like he ws going to win. Eventually, the opposing energies caused an explosion, throwing both fighters back to seperate sides.

Roxas got up and raced towards Metal, who was slowly getting up. The robot looked up and ducked down just in time to avoid a swipe from Roxas. Metal kept dodging the attacks, waiting for an opening in Roxas' attack. Metal saw his chance when Roxas put too much force into one swing and stumbled. Metal cocked his fist back and punched Roxas right in the nose. Roxas fell back onto the ground due to the force of the punch and looked up just in time to roll out of the way of Metal's kick. Roxas used the momentum to land on his feet and stand up, he then had to block Metal's claw as it sliced the air, going to try and pierce his shoulder.

"Looks like we're even," Roxas said.

"But for how long?" Metal said.

"Let's find out!" Roxas then pushed Metal back and launched a Fira spell at the robot, who ducked under it and launched a lightning blast. Roxas quickly summoned a Thundaga spell to cancel out the attack. Metal then coated himself in lightning and flew towards Roxas at high speeds, Roxas had no time to dodge as Metal slammed his fist into Roxas' gut, throwing him to the other side of the arena and making an indentation in the wall. Roxas pulled himself out and fell down to the ground in a heap.

"Ugh...that's going to hurt in the morning..." Roxas groaned as he got up into a kneeling position. He looked over and saw Metal also kneeling down, but he was in exhaustion while Roxas was in pain.

"I really need to install a electricity filter one day," Metal complained as he looked up.

"So what's wrong with you?" Roxas asked as he weakly got up.

Metal stood up and explained, "Whenever I use that technique, my servos overload and cause me to have low energy for a while."

"So it's like a double bladed sword," Roxas said.

"It will be like that until I upgrade myself so that there is no drawback," Metal informed him.

"So, want to continue?" Roxas asked.

"Like you need to ask." Metal then reached into a compartment in his chest and pulled out a small capsule. He then pressed a small button on the side and threw it into the air. It then exploded and pieces of blue metal fell to the ground. Roxas watched in confusion as the robot sent a surge of electricity through the pieces and they begn to attatch to his right arm. The pieces then began to morph into a blue claw with several spikes on the shoulder. Metal snapped the claw a few times before setting his sights on Roxas.

Metal then ran towards Roxas and swung his claw at him. Roxas put both his Keyblades up in defence, but was pushed back by the force of the robots new arm. Metal pulled his arm back and smashed Roxas' defence again, and again, each blow weakening the blond Nobody. With the last hit, Roxas was thrown yet again into the wall, Metal followed up and prepared to hit him with his regular claw, but Roxas appeared and hit Metal in the face. When he looked up he saw a strange sight, Roxas had only the Oathkeeper in his hand, but it was held in a reverse grip and his eyes looked dull, like he was asleep. When Aqua saw this, her eyes widened and an image of a boy looking like Roxas, but with different clothes and a different Keyblade in his hand.

"It can't be...Ventus?" she quietly asked. Roxas then sped towards Metal at high speeds, kicking up a huge cloud of dust in his wake. Metal just barely put up his claw in time to stop Roxas attack, but to his surprise, nothing hit him. When Metal glanced around to look for Roxas, he felt a pain in his back, then in his stomach, and then in his left arm. He realized that Roxas was moving at fast speeds, speeds that could match Metal's rival when he was a little serious. Metal sent out a surge of electricity and Roxas wasblown away before he could strike Metal again, rolling along the ground before comming to a stop.

"Ugh...what happened?" Roxas asked as he got back up, looking at how he was holding his Keyblade in confusion.

"You were fighting while unconscious, a strange tactic I must say," Metal said as he fell down to one knee in exhaustion.

"I'll have to ask you about what I was doing later then," Roxas said as he also fell down to one knee.

"Looks like we're on our last legs," Metal notted.

"Guess...so," Roxas agreed as he took deep breaths.

Metal slowly stood up and said, "What do you say? One more run?"

Roxas also stood up and grinned, "Sounds good to me." Metal held out his large claw and began to gather energy and send it into the appendage. Roxas entered his unique Dual Stance, with him in a crouched position and holding his Keyblades in his hands with his arms crossed over his chest. Everyone could see the energy coming from both of them. Metal had lightning coming from his entire being, while Roxas was glowing with black and white energy with some Nobody thorns also coming out.

Then they both darted forward, Metal with his claw sparking with energy and Roxas with his Keyblades glowing black and white. Time seemed to slow down as they drew closer to each other and swung their weapons. Time then turned to normal as they struck each other.

"Plasma Smasher!"

"Dual Slicer!" They both met and a large burst of air erupted out of their contact, blowing away things from loose garbage to Moogles that were in the stands. Both of them kept pusing against each other, trying to gain an advantage, but they were at even strength the whole time. During the contest of strength, both of the fighters saw that both of their attacks were faultering. Metal's claw was beginning to crack, and Roxas' Keyblades were losing their power boost. With one last push, both of them flew past each other and resting on opposite sides.

(Music End)

Metal and Roxas stood in that position for a while before the effects happened. Metal's claw fell apart, he had a slash on his chest, and he fell down to one knee. Roxas turned around and smiled before he fainted, small electric charges could be seen on his body. Phil observed the two for a moment before announcing to the crowd.

"Our new champion is Metal Sonic!" The crowd erupted into cheers, appluading the robot who tried to gather what srength he had to stand up and acknowledge them. He then walked over to Roxas and picked him up, throwing his arm over his shoulder. He then walked over to Aqua, who had come down from the stands to retrieve him. He handed the Nobody over to the blue haired woman who proceeded to take him to the infirmary. Metal then walked up to Phil who presented him with a trophy. Metal took the trophy and held it up to the crowd who cheered as he did so.

Metal then left the arena, with the trophy in hand, and went to the fighters lobby, where he put the trophy small capsule, which somehow absorbed it, put it in a compartment, and plopped down onto a bench. Several minutes later, Sora, Shin, Terra, and Zack entered and saw the robot laying down on the bench.

"That was a good fight," Zack said. Metal lifted his head and nodded at him.

"I just barely won though, Roxas was a good opponent," Metal said.

"Yeah, he can be tough when he wants to be," Sora said.

"Seems like he's more of a Keyblade wielder than you are," Shin remarked, earning a glare from the spikey haired boy.

"Can you do me a favor?" Metal asked.

"What do you need?" Terra answered.

"I need one of you to go outside and find my car, it's a blue main body with blue wings on the side, and silver spheres acting as the wheels. Inside the glove compartment is a disk with 'Chaos' written on it. Can you get that for me?"

"I'll go," Zack said while heading outside.

"So how's that arm of yours?" Metal asked Shin.

"It's feeling better, should be useable in about a day or two," Shin answered.

"Good, cause the next time we meet, we need to finish our fight," Metal said with a hint of smugness in his voice.

Shin grinned and said, "Gladly,"

"As long as you don't hurt each other," Terra told them.

"Yeah yeah, what are you, my mother?" Shin said.

"No I'm not, I'm still a sane person," Terra said with a smile, making the teen shudder at the memory of his mother

"Sounds a lot like my creator," Metal mumbled.

Sora looked around before saying, "Shouldn't Zack be back by now?"

Metal looked up and said," I didn't think it would take him this long to-" he was cut off by the sound of an engine throttle.

"Oh no he didn't," Metal said, jumping up and running out of the room, everyone followed him as he headed outside. There they saw something that infuriated Metal. Zack was in Metal's car as it FLEW around the colosseum.

"I thought you said it was a car!" Sora exclaimed as he watched Zack terrorize the skies.

"That is a car. It's also a plane, and a boat," Metal explained as he thought of ways to kill Zack for touching his ride.

"Dude, that ride's sweet!" Shin cried out, sparkles in his eyes, "You've got to let me try-"

"Nobody touches the car!" Metal roared, sending Shin a death glare. He, and everyone else ducked down to avoid Zack as he flew over their heads.

"THIS IS AWESOME! WOOHOO!" Zack yelled as he flew through the air. He looked down to see Metal jumping up and down in rage. He waved to him, making the robot even more angrier.

"Oh what I'd give for a junkyard right now," Metal muttered.

"What's a junkyard going to do for you?" Sora asked, overhearing him.

"Easy, I'd use all the scrap metal to reconstruct my Overlord body and chase down that joyrider, and then crush him for trying to destroy my car," Metal explained.

"Overlord body?" Terra asked.

"That's a story for another time," Metal said as he activated his main engine and flew up, catching Zack as he flew over the group again.

"Pull over!" Metal yelled as he tried to pry Zack's hand from the steering wheel.

"Hey, how's it going?" Zack asked, ignorant of the robot's rage, "I was keeping the engine warm for you."

"Oh, excuse me, I didn't realize that you had to ride my car just to keep the engine warm," Metal said, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he finally ripped Zack's hands off the wheel and guided the vehicle down to earth. Once they got off, Metal kicked Zack in the knee and watched in amusement as he hopped around in pain.

"Dude! What gives?!" Zack asked as he jumped around.

"You could have hurt someone with your reckless stunt, or worse, scratch the paint!" Metal yelled as he inspected his car.

Everyone sweat dropped upon hearing that last part, but their attention was then sent towards the doors as they heard them close. They saw Aqua and a tired Roxas standing there watching the whole ordeal. Roxas walked up to Metal who had just inserted the disk he asked Zack to get.

"That was a good fight, Metal," Roxas said as he held his hand out for a handshake.

"You weren't so bad yourself," Metal said as he shook his hand, "That electric shook shoud wear off in about two hours." Roxas nodded at the information.

"So what are you going to do now that the tournament's over?" Sora asked.

Metal thought for a moment before saying, "I still want to travel around some more before I head home and try to get on the heroes good side."

"What do you mean?" Shin asked.

Metal looked down for a moment before saying, "I used to be a villain back on my world."

"You? A villain? That can't be true," Zack protested.

"Yes, I was created with the sole purpose of defeating my creator's archenemy, so I was given all of his emotions and a good amount of his abilities to try and defeat him. You see, if I didn't have his emotions, I wouldn't have developed my independance, thus making me a mindless slave that would never have turned into who I am today," Metal explained, "I am Metal Sonic, robotic copy of Sonic the Hedgehog, I want to create my own name in the world, I don't want to be known as the copy of the hero."

"Well, copy or not, you're still an awesome dude in my book," Zack said as he wrapped an arm around Metal's shoulders.

"I still need to make a name for myself so I'm not known as a copy back on my world," Metal said as he pushed Zack's arm off.

"Hey, if we go there one day, we'll put in a good word for you," Aqua said.

"At least I know I made a start with you guys," Metal said.

"Well we are friends aren't we?" Sora asked.

"Friends...yeah, I like the sound of that," Metal said as he got in his car.

"So I guess we'll see you around?" Roxas asked.

"Yeah, see ya." Metal's car then changed into its plane mode and took off into the cosmos. Everyone waved goodbye to the robot before turning back to each other.

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

"I guess we go to another world now, but the question is where," Roxas answered.

"I know where we can go, but it'll take us a day to get there," Shin said.

"Well let's get going then," Sora said.

"Hey wait a moment," Aqua said, "What do you want to do Zack?"

Zack rubbed the back of his head and said, "Well I still got some training left to do, but tell you what, when I'm done I'll call you guys and you can come pick me up."

"Sounds good, see ya then," Shin said as he and everyone else boarded the Gummi Ship and took off into the stars. Zack then began doing squats while waiting for his next teacher to show up.

* * *

(Shining Kingdom)

Kairi was wandering the halls of the massive castle that was home to the God of Light. After she and the others had explained what had happened to Lighteron and the Dawn Knights, they all dispersed to prepare for the coming war. As Kairi walked, she took note of the many paintings that showed Lighteron in heroic positions. There were pictures of him defeating an army, stopping a meteor, and one of him fighting a figure in a black cloak **(Guess who)**. As Kairi looked at these, she didn't notice someone come up behind her.

"They really worship me a lot," Kairi jumped into the air, startled by the sudden voice. When she landed, she turned to see Lighteron with a sad look in his eye.

"Well, you've done good things for them, so they want to thank you," Kairi said.

Lighteron looked at her for a moment before asking, "Do you ever wonder what life would be like if you weren't a Princess of Heart?"

"Not really, because if I wasn't a Princess of Heart, I wouldn't have met Sora and all my other friends," she answered.

"Seems like this Sora boy is someone precious to you," Lighteron teased, causing the girl to blush.

"W-w-well, I..." She stuttered, causing Lighteron to laugh.

"No need to be so embarassed! Everyone has that special someone," Lighteron said.

Kairi calmed down and faced the God of Light before saying, "Yes, Sora's someone very special to me. He always helped me when I needed him most."

"This just proves how heroic he is, after all, he gave up his own heart to free yours," Lighteron stated. Kairi nodded her head at this, silently agreeing with him.

After a while, Lighteron said, "There are times when I think that someone else would be better for the position of God of Light."

Kairi turned to him in disbelief and asked, "Why? From what I've seen, you look like the perfect person for the role."

"Exactly, what YOU'VE seen," he said, "There were times where I've had to make difficult choices, thinking that they would help everyone. But some of those choices made things worse, and eventually lead to the War of Light and Darkness. A terrible tragedy that befell the worlds."

"That sounds terrible," Kairi said, "I thought that the Keyblade War was the only war that happened."

"That is the third war that has befallen the wars, the first was in the beginning when people began to fight over the light. The second war was the the one I spoke of before, and the Keyblade War was the latest of them, sometimes I feel like they could have been avoided if I did something different," Lighteron explained.

"But none of those were your fault!" Kairi protested.

Lighteron looked at her and said, "I appreciate your concern, but what's done is done. I can't change the past no matter haw hard I try, I will have to live with the mistakes I made."

Kairi nodded and after a while asked, "By the way, what was Ravemon talking about before, making you pay for what you did?"

Lighteron froze up, and if one could look closely, see that he was slightly shaking, "I...am blamed for the death of someone close to the Dark Lords Emperor. But I did not cause their death...I was there when they were dying...and was instantly blamed."

Kairi's hands flew towards her mouth in shock, "But didn't you tell them that it wasn't your fault?"

Lighteron nodded his head and said, "They wouldn't listen, they saw me there and saw it as proof that I was guilty. I've been blamed ever since." He then saw that Kairi was saddened by this small revilation, "But why are we talking about the past, all we have to do is work towards the future."

Kairi looked up and nodded, "Yeah, we just have to make sure that we win this war."

"That's the spirit, now come, I would like to see how strong you are with magic spells," Lighteron said, beginning to walk away. Kairi followed him soon after, heading to a training field.

* * *

(Dark City)

The city had a feel of sadness sourounding it as the Dark Lords seemed to be in a depressed mood, even the Heartless seemed to be down today. Cherubimon and Ravemon were sitting in a small break room in their base, their expressions sad.

"It's been so long, yet the pain still hurts," Ravemon said.

"We can never forget what happened, Lighteron killed out of rage, he wanted to hurt the Emperor where he knew it would hurt most," Cherubimon said.

"Still..." Ravemon trailed off. Diaboromon then entered the room, a sad expression on his face. He sat in an empty chair by Cherubimon.

"I thought you would lock yourself away in your lab again," Cherubimon joked.

"I didn't feel like doing any experiments today," The virus said.

"I see..." Cherubimon said.

Ravemon then stood up and said, "Why are we just moping around when we could get some important work done? We're the Dark Lords, we have an image to uphold."

Diaboromon nodded and said, "I agree with you, but today we just have no will to do our jobs. Besides, the tragedy still hurts us."

Ravemon sat down and sighed, "Has the Emperor gone there yet?" he asked.

Cherubimon nodded and said, "Yes, he went a while ago."

"Once again, he goes to the grave," Diaboromon stated.

Meanwhile, the Emperor was walking down an allyway towards a dead end. While most people would avoid a dead end, the Emperor kept walking towards it like he was going towards a door. When he reached the wall he went through it like it wasn't real.

(Organization XIII theme or any sad theme you can think of)

The Emperor appeared in a small garden decorated with many different types of plants. In the middle of the garden was a statue of a angel above a grave. The Emperor walked up to the grave and placed his hand on the cool stone.

"It's been so long since I've seen you," he spoke to the grave, "I've missed you so much. How have you been?" The wind blew, causing the Emperor to chuckle, "You always did have a way with words."

"Lighteron came back," he angrily said, "every time I hear his name, I just see you in a pool of your own blood. It's his fault that we are seperated, we lived in peace, and he comes and shatters it. I often wonder, should I have stayed with you instead of going into the battle?" Again, the wind blew, but this time, the Emperor sighed, "I know you don't blame me, but I still blame myself for leaving you alone." The Emperor stayed at the grave for a long time before he began to get up.

"I'm sorry, but I have to leave now, I still have many things I need to finish. But I'll be back again later," he said as he was leaving. He looked at the grave and saw that the plaque was covored in dust. He brushed away the dust and began to leave. The plaque said:

Here lies our beloved Empress, who brought much joy to our lives.

Her kindness knew no bounds, and she was forgiving to all beings.

She was joined together in marraige with our great Emperor, and they loved each other very much.

While we may mourn for our loss, we must stay strong.

Our enemies struck her out of hatred, hatred for our Emperor.

But we will not be weakened by this loss, we will fight harder than ever before.

With heavy hearts we bid farewell to our Empress, our kind, gentle, beloved ruler: Empress Dawn.

"Until next time, my love," the Emperor quietly said as he left. If one looked closely, they could see a lone tear fall out of his hood and land on a leaf, not moving off of it. The Emperor left the tomb and walked out into the allyway, disappearing into the darkness.

* * *

**This last segment was a little hard for me to write as it was just saddening. Anyway, this chapter concludes the Olympus Colosseum, but that doesn't mean that we won't see our dear friend Metal again. I have the perfect world for Sora's team to go to. I, along with several others, wish that the next world will be in Kingdom Hearts III.**

**So review, and leave your thoughts in the box below. Come on people, the box is collecting dust because you're not reviewing. I don't care if you're a member of Fanfiction or not. Review! Ciao.**


	18. Chapter 18: The Power of Darkness

Chapter 18: The Power of Darkness

* * *

**I like the idea I came up with for this chapter. It's going to help with passing the time for Sora's group as they go to their next world. Anyways, hope you enjoy!**

* * *

The Highwind flew through the stars as it zoomed to the world that Shin suggested. Everyone was lounging around inside the ship **(I think that the Gummi Ship is one of those places where it's small on the outside, but big on the inside)**. Shin, whose arm had healed, and Roxas were playing a very intense card game, each showing signs of nervousness as the other made a move. Sora was with Aqua practicing on his magic, and Terra was assisting

"Argh!" Roxas cried as he threw his hands in the air, "How are you beating me?!"

Shin put his arms behind his head and said, "I had a lot of practice when I played against a friend back home, ah I miss those times."

"Well I still have some tricks up my sleeve," Roxas boldly said as he picked up a card from his deck. Shin just smirked and looked at the cards in his hand.

"I play the spell, Double Summon," Roxas said, "and summon Elemental Heroes: Avian and Burstinatrix. Then I play Polymerization and fuse them to summon, Elemental Hero: Flame Wingman."

"Impressive, but I'm not afraid, I've got 3500 Life Points, and you've only got 2000," Shin said confidently.

"You won't be winning for long, I now play Dark World Lightning, which allows me to destroy your face down card for the cost of one card in my hand," Shin grumbled as he put his Monster Card, Renge, Gatekeeper of Dark World in the Graveyard, while Roxas put Bubbleman in his, "and then I attack you directly," Roxas looked triumphant as he turned Shin's 3500 Life Points to 1400.

"HA! I'm in the lead now," Roxas said.

Shin smirked and said, "Nice attack, but I'm afraid you're going to lose,"

"Huh?" Roxas asked, confused.

"Since you attacked me while I had no cards on the field, I'm allowed to play an effect," Shin explained, picking a card from his hand, "I can special summon, Gorz, The Emissary of Darkness, and since I took battle damage, I can summon an Emissary of Darkness Token, with the same number of attack points that I lost."

Roxas paled at this, and to the fact that he forgot to place his trap card before he ended his turn. He had no way out, and nothing in his hand could help him. His monster would be destroyed by Gorz, and his Life Points would be taken out by the Token.

"Fine...you win," Roxas said as he began to clean up his cards, Shin doing the same, "I almost had you though."

"Yeah, that was a good game," Shin said as he put his deck in his pocket, "so what are we going to do now?"

Roxas thought for a moment before suggesting, "Video games?"

Meanwhile, with Sora and the others, Sora was holding a flame in his hand as Terra and Aqua observed his control.

"You're not relaxing," Terra said.

"I don't want to burn myself," Sora said as he held the flame.

"The idea is to control the flame, for that to happen, you need to be relaxed," Aqua explained.

"It's not relaxing when I could potentially burn my hands off," Sora protested.

"Alright, take a break," Aqua said. Sora allowed the flame to disappear and he relaxed.

"You're troubled by something," Terra said.

"What are you talking about?" Sora asked.

"There's something bothering you, and it isn't holding the flame," Terra explained.

"Well...I am worried about my other friends," Sora said, rubbing the back of his head.

Aqua grew a mischevious smirk on her face and said, "Could it be...you're worried about Kairi?"

Sora looked at her with the hints of a blush on his face, "W-what are you talking about?"

Terra saw what she was doing and joined in, "Well you're worried about Kairi so much that you're thinking about her even now."

Sora was blushing furiously now, "T-t-that's not-"

"I wonder how touched she'll be when we tell her this?" Aqua wondered.

Sora now looked like a tomato, "W-wait a moment! Let's not be drastic here!"

"But why not?" Terra asked in a teasing voice, "I bet she'll be so moved by your concern, that she'll kiss you."

Sora's brain just shut down there as he slumped to the floor, passed out from embarrassment. Both the girls looked at him with worry.

"I-I think we overdid it..." Terra nervously said.

"Yeah," Aqua said, rubbing the back of her head. Both of them then dragged Sora back to his room and laid him on the bed while he was dreaming about a certain redheaded female.

* * *

(Dark City)

The feel of the city had improved from the depression that was there before. The Dark Lords were back to work and were over their depression...for now. The Emperor and Cherubimon were over at Memory's Skyscraper, standing on top of the building and looking down at the city below.

"This world has changed so much," Cherubimon said.

"Yes, when the Seekers are defeated, I can return this world to its true form," the Emperor said.

"Hopefully by that time you will be back in your true form,"

The Emperor nodded and said, "Time will tell. Speaking of time, it's still taking a long time to find out how to bring the dead back."

"We've been looking through every document there is, but haven't found anything of the sorts," Cherubimon said.

"There is no need to rush, we're not dying anytime soon," the Emperor said.

"True, but I would like to see the Empress again," Cherubimon said, gazing at the sky.

Suddenly, the Emperor turned around and threw a blast of darkness behind him. Four figures darted out of the way of the blast as it hit the roof. They fell down to the base of the skyscraper, the Emperor and Cherubimon following them. Upon landing you could see that the figures were Lezard, Madara, Black Doom, and Young Xehanort.

"It's considered rude to spy on people," Cherubimon said.

"It is also considered rude to attack without warning," Lezard stated.

"Well, you are my enemies, so why shouldn't I attack?" the Emperor said.

"Because we could be allies," Black Doom said.

"Allies? With you? That's rich!" the Emperor laughed.

Xehanort frowned and said, "Why do you not want to be allies? We seek the same goal."

Cherubimon gave him a look and said, "Not true. You seek to cover the worlds in darkness with the power of Kingdom Hearts and the X-Blade, we are the ones who will control them through our power."

"Your power is small compared to ours," Madara arrogantly said, "your goal will never be reached."

"Arrogance will get you killed," Cherubimon said.

Lezard just laughed maniacally and said, "If you were all powerful, you would have eliminated the Seekers of Darkness by now."

"The time of your demise has not come yet," the Emperor said.

"In any case, we'll be eliminating you now," Black Doom said.

Cherubimon laughed and said, "A four on two? That's not fair, let me even the odds." He snapped his fingers and two Corridors appeared. From the Corridors came Ravemon and Diaboromon.

"So you summoned me for a fight? Good," Ravemon said.

"Normally I'd yell at you for interupting my experiments, but I'll make an exception this time," Diaboromon said.

"We're not fighting here, I have a better place in mind," the Emperor summoned a Corridor and walked through it, the four Dark Lords following, and the Seekers after them. When they exited, they appeared in a barren wasteland with towering mesas. In the far distance was a vast collection of rusted Keyblades.

"The Keyblade Graveyard? So you want everyone to go all out do you?" Xehanort asked.

"I just didn't want to damage the city," the Emperor said.

"Whatever, anyways, I'm taking silver head over there," Ravemon said.

"I'll be taking the overgrown insect," Diaboromon stated.

"The mage is mine," Cherubimon said.

The Emperor chuckled and said, "Then that leaves me with the zombie man."

"You sound so confident," Madara said as his eyes glowed red. Everyone stared down their opponents as they prepared to battle.

(Battle Music: J-E-N-O-V-A: Final Fantasy VII Advent Children)

The eight fighters stood there in battle position as they waited for someone to make the first move, each one of them ready to move. Everyone was looking at each other in anticipation, except you couldn't tell with the Emperor.

Suddenly, Madara threw an explosive kunai at the Dark Lords, causing them to scatter. Xehanort jumped after Ravemon, clashing blades with him. Diaboromon jumped in the air and tried to smash Black Doom under his claws, but the alien was able to escape from his range. Cherubimon jumped backwards as Lezard slashed at him with his sword, both of them moving away from the others. The Emperor raced towards Madara and swung at him with his sword, only to be met with resistance by the blue ribcage which just manifested.

With Ravemon and Xehanort, they were clashing their swords together in a dangerous game of swordplay. Eventually, Xehanort got fed up and fired several Dark Firaga blasts. Ravemon, using his supreme agility, easily evaded the flames while slowly making his way to the time traveler. Once he was close enough, he thrust his sword forward, only to be blocked by the Keyblade.

"You have good skills," Xehanort said, "a shame though, you would have made an excellent Seeker."

Ravemon smirked and said, "Sorry, but I didn't feel like having some old geezers heart in me."

Xehanort just turned his Keyblade into a whip and lashed out at Ravemon. The Dark Lord just blocked it with his sword, but he didn't expect the whip to move on its own and slash at his shoulder. Xehanort just kept lashing at Ravemon, slashing at him with force. When Xehanort slashed again, Ravemon caught the whip with his claw and yanked Xehanort towards him and punched him in the face, causing him to go flying away, and then pulled him back. Ravemon kept using Xehanort like a paddleball, punching him away and yanking him back. On the final punch he let go of the whip and let Xehanort fly over Black Doom, while Ravemon followed.

With the alien overlord, he was continuously dodging Diaboromon's claws as they kept trying to slam him into the ground. Eventually, he got caught by one of the claws and held in place as Diaboromon sent energy into his chest.

"Farewell insect, Web Wrecker!" Diaboromon fired a large energy blast from his chest orb. Black Doom finally broke free and raced out of the way as the blast hit the ground, causing a massive explosion. Black Doom batted away a piece of rubble that was headed his way and glared at the virus.

"The only insect I see, is you," Black Doom spat.

Diaboromon just laughed and said, "Brave words from one so weak."

"Don't judge a book by its cover," Black Doom launched several meteors at the virus, causing him to dodge. Black Doom just kept sending more meteors in hopes of hitting Diaboromon. Diaboromon just kept using his extendable limbs to dodge, while formulating a plan to counterattack. Once Black Doom launched another wave of meteors, Diaboromon raced towards him and used his claws to knock away the meteors and tackle the alien away. Diaboromon then grabbed Black Doom in his claw and slammed him into the ground, and then jumped back to see if he would get up.

"Swift Strike!" A energy boomerang flew out of the dust towards Diaboromon. The virus kept backflipping to avoid it with Black Doom following, both of them passing Cherubimon as he fired a barrage of lightning bolts at Lezard, who blocked them with his dual bladed spear. Unfortunately, Diaboromon was hit by one of the deflected spears and stunned long enough for the boomerang to hit, sending him away. Cherubimon cringed when seeing this.

"Accidents happen," Lezard said, launching a Flare spell at the bunny.

Cherubimon dodged and said, "That is an unfortunate part of battle though."

"Nothing anyone can do about that," Lezard said, leaping towards him and slashing at his arm. Cherubimon was too slow in dodging and his arm was slashed right off!

"Seems like I've got the advantage now," Lezard said with a maniacle grin on his face. Cherubimon said nothing and looked at his severed arm as it burst into thousands of dark orbs. Lezards watched in amazement as the orbs flew at Cherubimon and reformed his arm.

"You were saying?" Cherubimon asked as he flexed his reformed arm. He then fired a bolt of lightning from his hand at the mage. Lezard jumped out of the way and fired his own blast of lightning, which Cherubimon just shrugged off.

"That's an interesting ability you have there," Lezard commented, "Mind telling me what it is?"

Cherubimon just laughed and said, "Do you really think I'd tell you willingly?"

"Didn't hurt to ask," Lezard said as he sent out a stream of fire, in the shape of a dragon, at Cherubimon.

"Lightning Javelin!" Cherubimon fired a supercharged lightning bolt from his hands, splitting the dragon down the middle and heading straight for Lezard. Said mage just blocked it with his spear and ran towards Cherubimon. Cherubimon summoned a lightning bolt and held it like a sword, clashing with Lezard. Cherubimon summoned another lightning bolt in his other hand and swung it at the mage, but he summoned a sword and blocked it. Cherubimon was winning the contest of strength until he and Lezard caught eye of a giant fireball heading their way. Both of them jumped away to avoid the flames as it flew past them. That one and more fireballs were coming from Madara's battle with the Emperor.

"Seems you know how to dance," Madara said as he breathed more fireballs at the Emperor. The Emperor was moving around to avoid them while moving closer to Madara. Once he was close enough he swung a sword, with a handle made of molten rock and a blade made out of fire, at him. Madara blocked it with the ribcage once again and had two arms materialize to try and crush the Emperor between them. He jumped away and launched a Dark Firaga at Madara, who countered it with another fireball.

"Oh I can dance, but can you keep up with my moves?" The Emperor then darted at Madara at high speeds, kicking up a large cloud of dust in his wake. Madara summoned the blue ribcage just in time to block a supercharged punch that cracked it. The Emperor jumped away and fired several blasts of darkness, which were once again blocked. When the smoke cleared, the Emperor was nowhere to be found. Suddenly, Madara was hit in the chin by the Emperor, who just shot out of the ground. The surprising part was that Madara turned into wood before falling apart.

"Well well, you were able to defeat my Wood Clone," Madara said as he appeared behind the Emperor.

The Emperor jumped back to gain some distance and said, "Interesting, you're able to use wood related abilities."

"Just something I picked up along the way, like this, Wood Style: Deep Forest Emergence!" Madara clasped his hands together and many large roots erupted out of the ground and raced towards the Emperor. He jumped backwards to avoid the roots while throwing out large fireballs to burn them away, but where one root burned, another took its place. He jumped past Diaboromon who was once again dodging meteors and energy boomerangs.

"Why won't you stand still?!" Black Doom growled as he kept up his assault. Diaboromon kept dodging and started firing energy blasts from his chest.

"If I stood still, that would eliminate the point of my trying to win," Diaboromon said in a bored tone. Black Doom just growled and summoned a larger meteor to fire at Diaboromon. The virus just stood there and prepared to defend himself.

"Disappear!" Black Doom roared as he fired the meteor. Diaboromon jus waited for the right opportunity, his hands extended and raised in the air. When the meteor came close enough, he slamed his hands on the ground and flipped himself in the air, his horns just scraping the top of the rock.

"Paradise Lost!" A pure white spere of energy erupted from Diaboromon's chest with so much force that it sent Diaboromon flying backwards. Black Doom had no time to move as the blast hit the ground before him, causing an eruption and destroying the ground beneath it. When the light disappeared, Black Doom was at the bottom, groaning in pain. Diaboromon aproached the edge and stared at the alien.

"And so, the insect has been crushed," Diaboromon declared.

"I have not been defeated yet," Black Doom stated as he got into a sitting position.

"Then why are you still here?" Diaboromon asked.

"Hmp. You may have won the battle but not the war,"Black Doom said as he vanished.

"So you say," The virus said as he looked into the sky, seeing Ravemon flying away from Xehanort. The time traveler was on a clock with clock hands for wings, and firing blasts of light at the Dark Lord. Ravemon either dodged them or blocked them with his sword.

"You're persistant aren't you?" Ravemon asked, annoyed that he was running.

"I am merely working to achieve victory," Xehanort stated with his monotone voice as he fired a cluster shot at the raven. Ravemon fired several bolts of lightning from his sword, eliminating the blast. Ravemon then threw his hand to the side, summoning a gust of wind that threw Xehanort off balance. Ravemon then went to slash Xehanort, but was blocked by his Keyblade. Ravemon then tried to slash him with his Raven Claw, this time being able to get three small cuts on Xehanort's cheek. Xehanort directed his clock-glider away from Ravemon as he worked to heal the cuts on his face.

"Usually the younger version is tougher due to being in their prime, but it seems like the old geezer can put up a better fight than you," Ravemon mocked.

"With age comes more battle experience," Xehanort said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"What's with you? You're like a dead person," Ravemon said.

"My personality is none of your concern," Xehanort said as he launched himself at the raven. Ravemon swung his sword in retaliation, meeting Xehanort's Keyblade, causing the two to engage in another match of deadly swordplay. Ravemon and Xehanort clashed for a while, until Ravemon jumped away. He seathed his sword, rested his hand on it, and closed his eyes. Xehanort, thinkng that he was in some kind of pain, raced towards him, dead set on eliminating the Dark Lord. Suddenly Ravemon opened his eyes and appeared behind Xehanort, sword drawn and held out to his side.

"Dance of The Silent Crow," Ravemon said as he slowly seathed his sword. When it clicked into place, Xehanort cried out in pain and fell down to one knee.

"What did you do?" He weakly asked.

"Simple, I used my supreme speed to deal damage to you while being invisible to the naked eye," Ravemon explained.

Xehanort said nothing as he vanished from the world, teleporting back to The World That Never Was. Ravemon saw something in the distance and let out a cry of surprise as a barrage of lightning bolts passed over his head. He glared in the direction they came from and saw Cherubimon clashing with Lezard.

"Thousand Spears!" Cherubimon cried, waving his arms to his sides. Hundreds of lightning spears appeared in the sky, all aimed at Lezard. The mage merely cast a Reflect spell, thinking that the spears wouldn't be able to penetrate the shield. When the first one hit, his eyes widened in shock upon seeing the shield broke, and quickly teleported away from the target location. He reappeared behind Cherubimon and stabbed him through the stomach, but to his surprise, Cherubimon split in half and jumped away.

"That ability of yours is becoming irritating,"Lezard said as he watched Cherubimon fuse back together.

"Really? Cause it seems pretty useful to me," Cherubimon said as he wore a smug grin. Lezard said nothing as he fired several multicolored blasts from his hand. Cherubimon just waved his hand and fired lightning blasts from his hand, eliminating the energy blasts.

"Face it," Cherubimon said, "you can't beat me, just give up so you can walk away with your life."

Lezard thought about this for a moment before saying, "Unfortunately, that seems like the best choice for me right now." He then grew a maniacal grin and said, "But that doesn't mean that I won't win next time." He then disappeared with his maniacal laughter echoing throughout the wasteland. Ravemon and Diaboromon appeared besides him.

(Music end)

"Guess we just have to wait for the Emperor to finish," Ravemon said.

"Yes, but his opponent has a wide range of skills, it could take a while," Diaboromon stated.

"We still have to put our faith in him," Cherubimon said. Suddenly, the ground began to shake and pieces of the land began to rise into the sky. The three Dark Lords looked at the sky and saw a miniature black sphere gather the ground to become larger.

"I didn't know today's weather called for SCREWED UP GRAVITY!" Ravemon exclaimed.

Diaboromon saw something and squinted his eyes to see the Emperor at the center of the sphere.

"The Emperor's in trouble!" The virus exclaimed.

"What are we waiting for?!" Cherubimon cried, zooming away towards where Madara was, the other two following. By the time they got there, the object in the sky was the size of a small moon.**(The regular size of Planetary Devastation)**

"You're to late," Madara said, his gaze never leaving the moon, "I have defeated your Emperor." The Dark Lords noticed that his eyes became purple with several rings around the pupil.

"It'll take more than that to defeat him," Ravemon said.

Madara turned to them and said, "Well until he gets out, I'll just dance with you for a while." He began to walk towards them, until something made him stop. He returned his gaze to the moon and asked, "What is this power?"

"Is it him?" Ravemon asked.

"It feels just like his power," Diaboromon confirmed.

"This power...it truly is him, one of the seals has broken" Cherubimon said.

* * *

(Shining Kingdom)

Lighteron was in his office doing something so horrible, so rage filling, that it was worse than fighting an army of demons all by yourself. What was he doing you ask? Why the answer is simple.

Paperwork.

10,000 years can leave a huge pile of papers on your desk, and Lighteron was tackling this pile, figuratively speaking. Everytime he looked away, the pile would slowly get bigger, and the door would slowly close, making his eye twitch. After getting up and making sure that the door and windows were locked and sealed, he turned around and saw a second pile next to his desk. Only this pile was three feet taller than him.

"GO BACK TO HELL YOU CURSED THING!" he screamed at the cursed pile that was mocking him with its height. He prepared a flame to burn it before he calmed himself down and went back to work, his anger boiling.

Behind the door was a snickering Magnamon and a giggling Naminè. The mini knight took it upon himself to introduce the girl to an activity that was just as fun as drawing, pranking Lighteron by giving him more paperwork.

"This is fun," the blond said.

"The best part is that he never knows how it gets there," Magnamon said, "Someone's coming, let's run!" Both of them ran down the corridor to avoid whoever was coming from the other end. Alphamon was walking down the hallway to Lighteron's office. He entered the room to see that Lighteron bueried under a pile of papers, literally.

"Uh, what happened?" the Dawn Knight asked.

"I sneezed," a muffled voice answered him, "Can I burn this accursed thing?"

"It'll just come back to bother you later," Alphamon said, moving the papers to see Lighteron still writing on papers while buried.

"Who was the idiot that came up with the idea of paperwork in the first place?" Lighteron complained.

"How should I-" Alphamon said before he sensed something, "Do you feel that?"

"Take a squad and find out what it is," Lighteron ordered.

"At once," Alphamon then left to gather troops to investigate what they sensed. Lighteron looked out the window and thought,_ 'So you've returned after all.'_

* * *

(Highwind)

Shin was taking a nap in his room when he woke up and was in his version of the Station of Awakening. The glass floor had a picture of him, sleeping, opposite of a silver and gold dragon. Between them were pictures of Terra, Cloud, and several other people. In a chair across from Shin was an older version of him.

"What do you need, Shinryu?" Shin asked, sitting in a chair that appeared behind him.

"Do you sense something dark?" the changed dragon asked.

Shin rubbed his chin and said, "Well I feel something, but what is it?"

Shinryu sighed and said, "It's something that I thought I wouldn't sense for a long time. This feeling, signals the return of a powerful being."

"Who is it?" Shin asked, gaining a serious tone.

The dragon shook his head and said, "I can't say at the moment, no one can say his name until he reveals himself to the worlds once again."

"Will he be an enemy?"

"That depends on how things play out."

"What do you mean?"

"If he gets provoked enough to do something drastic."

Shin shook his head and said, "Well we don't have to worry about it now, this guys not an immediate threat."

"Fine," Shinryu said before gaining a sly grin on his face, "So when are you going to get some time alone with your girlfriend?"

Shin jumped out of his seat and yelled, "Will you stop it you dirty old lizard!? I'm not getting you a free show!" Shin huffed and left the area, leaving behind a snikering dragon.

* * *

(Ocean)

The misty waters were a dangerous place to be sailing, if you were a normal crew. However, when you sail with the Dark Lord of the Sea, you're anything but normal. This ship was large, heavily armoured, and ready to blast their enemies to pieces. The crew was an assortment of creatures and Heartless, however, our focus is in the captains cabin.

"So we should be reaching the diving point in an hour or two," A sea serpent with a golden helmet and lightning bolt shaped horn told the Dark Lord.

"Good, we're ahead of schedule," the Dark Lord said, "You're dismissed."

"Yes sir, but I'm curious, why did you bring large sea Digimon, like me, if this is a stealth mission?" the serpent asked.

"Because MegaSeadramon, there's a large being guarding the entrance and we need to eliminate it before I am able to call in the stealth squad."

"You mean that THING is still functioning?!"

"Unfortunately."

MegaSeadramon sighed and said, "I can't promise that I'll be able to defeat it, but I might be able to incapacitate it long enough for you to."

"Just don't throw your life away I don't-" the Dark Lord was cut off when he sensed something, "His power's grown."

"Is that-"

"Yes, it is," the Dark Lord confirmed."

* * *

(Traverse Town)

The town's local bar was somewhat lively tonight. People were drinking their worries away and several drunk people were passed out. Hired muscle was there to throw out people causing trouble. In the corner was a figure in a black cloak with silver flames on the cuffs, who was currently being bothered by some local thugs.

"Listen pal, you've gotta pay us if you want to be here," one of them said.

"How many times do I have to tell you? Go away before you make me angry," the figure said in a gruff voice.

"You got something in your ears bub? Pay up!" the man said, obviously ignoring the Dark Lords warning.

"All right, that's it!" the Dark Lord was fed up by now, and was about to release his anger. He grabbed the mans head with what appeared to be a claw**(Like those machines where you use a claw to grab a prize, except his is very thick)** and threw him across the room, threw the wall, and into a newly formed crater. The other thugs slowly backed up before running away. The Dark Lord grabbed his drink, downed it, and left the building, leving behind a stunned crowd.

"Heh, looks like he broke one of the seals," he said looking into the sky, "At this rate, he won't need the Seven World Hearts."

* * *

(Keyblade Graveyard)

The moon began to glow a purple aura, and a faint sound could be heard. It sounded like a mix of a roaring dragon and demon. Madara and the Dark Lords looked on in anticipation of what was going to happen.

(Battle Music-Primal Judgement-Final Fantasy XIV)

Suddenly, the moon began to crack apart, and the pieces of the land began to orbit the being in the center of them. The Emperor could be seen in the center, but he was different. He had gained a shadowy aura around him and he had dragon wings sprouting from his back. Madara jumped up and landed on one of the rocks, staring at the Emperor.

"I find it impressive that you have the Rinnegan, the eyes that the legendary Sage of the Six Paths once held," the Emperor said.

"I hold the power of a god, you cannot win," Madara declared.

"A bold statement from one so weak," The Emperor said, launching himself at Madara. The Uchiha just stood there and had the blue ribcage materialize before him. The Emperor just punched the shield and caused it to crack. Madara jumped back in surprise and went through a hand sign.

"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!" A large inferno covering a wide area erupted from Madara's mouth. The Emperor just summoned his flame sword and countered it with his own fire. Both of the infernos met and caused an eruption that blinded both of them. The Emperor scanned the fire for any sign of his opponent. He jumped to the side to avoid a large blue hand that crushed the rock he stood on. He looked to see Madara within a large blue creature with a horn and two pointed chins. It had two arms connected by the elbows with a blue sword in each hand.

"A Susano'o? I haven't seen one of those in ages," The Emperor said.

"And it will be the last one you will see," Madara said as he banished two of the swords and brought two of the hands together, a blue flame between them. The hands moved apart and four groups of three tomoe appeared between them.

"Yasaka Magatama!" The magatama began to spin and flew away, homing in on the Emperor. The Emperor flew away, the magatama following him. He weaved through rocks and made strange flight patterns to try and shake them. Three of them hit rocks while one kept folliwing him. He flew towards Madara, stopped in front of him, and flew up, revealing the remaining magatama as it hit the Susano'o, throwing it, and Madara, off the rock and onto another one.

"So easily tricked," the Emperor said while sitting on a rock.

"And you're so overconfident," Madara said as he glared at him, "I have a question."

"And I most likely have an answer, what is it?" The Emperor demanded.

"How was it that you were able to manipulate my Planetary Devastation?"

"Well when I realized that it was gravity manipulation, it was easy. After all, darkness is the origin of gravity manipulation."

"Interesting." Madara then fired another barrage of fireballs at the Emperor. The Emperor stood up and batted some of them away with his hand, and dodged the others. He then fired three streams of fire that turned into dragons. The dragons flew towards Madara, but the Susano'o just sliced them in half, causing the three to become six. Madara had the Susano'o jump back and launched several Yasaka Magatama's, destroying the fire dragons.

"You claim to have the power of a god, but you have yet to show it," The Emperor said, appaering behind Madara, in the Susano'o, with a sword to his neck.

"How did you get in here?" Madara demanded.

"You should watch your shadow more often," was all the Emperor said before decapitating Madara, only for his head to turn into wood. The Susano'o faded away

"Another Wood Clone," The Emperor jumped away to gain some distance. Madara appeared on another rock with his hands clasped together.

"Wood Style: Deep Forest Bloom!" Massive roots erupted from the surrounding rocks, some of them sprouting large flowers. They opened up and released a large amount of pollen. The Emperor jumped back onto a rock and summoned his fire sword.

"Scorching Blaze!" A large inferno of fire came out of the sword and raced towards Madara, burning the pollen and the roots to ashes. Madara jumped back and countered with a fire stream, causing another eruption. Madara jumped through the smoke and looked for the Emperor. He jumped to the side to avoid a large boulder that was thrown his way. The Emperor was using his dark powers to manipulate gravity and throw the large boulders at the Uchiha. Madara kept dodging until he felt someone grab him, holding him in place. He looked behind him to see the Emperor holding him, and looked ahead to see the Emperor preparing to throw another piece of land.

"What?" Madara questioned as he and the Emperor were smashed by the boulder. His body began to crack more and pieces of his body fell away like paper. When he landed on a floating rock, he stood up and the paper began to reform his body.

"So you're Reanimated," The Emperor said as he looked down at Madara from his place. The Uchiha snorted and glared at him with his Rinnegan.

"This only shows that I'm indestructible," he said.

"False, there are three ways to defeat you," The Emperor said.

"And those ways are?" Madara asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"First, you can be sealed away. Second, Someone could end the Reanimation technique, sending you're soul back to the Underworld. Finally, Someone could destroy your soul directly."

"There's a problem with those plans. Firstly, I'm to powerful to be sealed. Second, I disconnected my self from the Reanimation technique. And finally, no being in this world can destroy a soul."

The Emperor laughed and said, "You're so overconfident, it's hilarious! Well, the least that I can do now, is incapacitate you." The Emperor raised both his hands and summoned a flame in one, and darkness in the other. He brought them together and created a black flame.

"Amaterasu!" Black flames shot out of the orb in the Emperor's hand and sped towards Madara. He jumped away as the rock he was on was obliterated by the flames.

_'With the Black Flames of Hell at his side, I might not be able to take part in the plan. It would be better to retreat for now,'_ Madara thought.

"You may have won this time, but next time will be different," Madara spat as he summoned a Corridor and vanished. The Emperor stood up and fell down to the ground, landing by the Dark Lords.

(Music end)

"Are you all right my Lord?" Cherubimon asked.

"I'm fine, just a little annoyed that my prey escaped," he said.

"Don't worry, next time you'll finish the job," Ravemon said.

The Emperor chuckled and said, "Yes, and a bonus is that I was able to break one of the seals, boosting my power tremendously."

"So how many remain?" Diaboromon asked.

"Six more," the Emperor answered.

"At this rate, you won't need to wait for the Guardian to destroy the Seekers," Ravemon stated.

"Now then, let's head back to the Dark City, we still have work to do," Cherubimon said.

"Agreed, but first," The Emperor snapped his fingers and the gravity orb in the middle of the floating rocks disappeared, the thousands of rocks beginning to fall. The four of them ran through a Corridor as the rocks began to bombard the ground. The four beings appeared at Memory's Skyscraper.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to working on my experiments, for all I know, something could have exploded," Diaboromon said as he jumped to a building and then jumped to another.

"I've got to get back to training my air sniper squadrons, they've been out of practice for a few millennia," Ravemon then disappeared in a storm of black and white feathers.

"I need to return to my work, who knows how many things have gone wrong in the shipping bay, see you later," Cherubimon then turned into millions of dark spheres that disappeared into the darkness. The Emperor then turned and looked at the Castle That Never Was.

"We are slowly rising back into power, nothing can stop us now."

* * *

**This is the largest chapter I've written so far! Let's celebrate! I've been wanting to do this chapter when it popped into my head and I'm proud at how it turned out.**

**On a side note: Mega Tyranitar and Mega Aggron! Now all we need is Mega Metagross and Mega Hydreigon.**

**Please review! Ciao!**


	19. Chapter 19: The Lost Empire-Part 1

Chapter 19: The Lost Empire-Part 1

* * *

**This world should be in Kingdom Hearts III. The storyline was good, and think of how unique the Heartless can be in a place like this. I really like this Disney movie.**

* * *

(Washington D.C, U.S.A)

Sora and his friends landed in the courtyard of a large mansion surrounded by various plantlife. Shin led the others inside where they saw various paintings and treasures from everyplace imaginable. Over by an elevator was a blond haired woman wearing a black dress. She walked over to the group and approached them.

"Nice to see you again Mr. Versus, I see you brought a crew of your own" the woman said.

"Nice to see you too Ms. Sinclair," Shin said, extending his hand for a handshake, which she gave.

"Hello Ms. Sinclair," Terra greeted, giving the older woman a slight bow.

"Hello Terra, how have you been?" Ms. Sinclair asked.

"I've been doing alright," the small girl replied.

Aqua walked up and asked, "Who's this?"

"Ah, right, guys this is Helga Sinclair, an assistant of her boss, Mr. Whitmore," Shin explained.

"That doesn't explain how you know her," Roxas said.

Shin rubbed the back of his head and said, "Well me and Terra visited this world before we crashed in Radiant Garden. I met Helga and Mr. Whitmore, and after some small incident, he asked me to be a part of a expedition he was making. He gave me the date and we said we'd come back."

"I'll take you to see him after Mr. Whitmore's other guest returns from the bathroom," Helga said. Right on cue, a young man with glasses and light brown hair came from another hallway. He was wearing a white shirt with a green coat, a red bow, and blue pants.

"I'm, uh, ready to go now," he said with some nervousness.

"Before we go, this is Milo Thatch, a linguist that Mr. Whitmore wanted to speak to," Helga said.

"Uh, hello," the man said weakly.

"Hi, name's Shin."

"All right, we don't have all day, Mr. Whitmore's expecting us," Helga said, pushing everyone into the elevator. As it started to descend, Helga stepped up to Milo and began to fix his clothes.

"You will address him as Mr. Whitmore or Sir, you will stand unless asked to be seated, keep your sentences short and to the point are we clear?" Helga asked.

Milo just gulped and stepped towards the door as it opened. He and everyone else, save Helga, stepped out and began to move forward, until Helga voiced her next words.

"And relax, he doesn't bite, often," she said as she closed the elevator door. Everyone began to move forward until they reached the fireplace. Above it was a picture of three people, two of them were old men with white beards while the last was a familiar blond haired man with red robes.

"Grandpa?/Ansem?" Milo and Sora said at once.

"Finest explorer and researcher I've ever met, ahh," a white haired man, like the one in the painting, said as he did some odd form of yoga. He was wearing a blue robe and was twisted in an unusual way.

"Preston Whitmore, pleasure to meet you Milo, and nice to see you again Shin my boy," Mr. Whitmore said as he shook Milo's hand with one foot and cracked his neck with the other, "Care for a little yoga?"

"No thanks, I'm good," Shin said.

"How did you know my grandpa?" Milo asked.

"And Ansem?" Sora asked.

"Oh yeah, met old Thaddeus back in Georgetown, then the both of us met Ansem when he came on a research trip. The three of us stayed close friends til Ansem disappeared and Thaddeus kicked the bucket," Mr. Whitmore said, "The three of us went on all kinds of adventures, Thaddeus mentioned you often."

"Funny, he never mentioned you," Milo said.

"Course not," Mr. Whitmore said as he did a handstand, "he knew I liked my privacy." As he said this, his robe fell down, revealing everything from the waist down. Milo Sora and Roxas looked disturbed, Shin covered Terra's eyes while she covered his, and Aqua was red in the face.

"Uh, Mr. Whitmore, should I be wondering why I'm here?" Milo asked.

"Look on that table, it's for you," Whitmore said as he cracked his bones. Milo walked over and saw a package addressed to him.

"It's from my grandfather," Milo said with a confused face.

"He brought that package to me years ago," The old man said, "He said that if anything were to happen to him, I should give it to you when you were ready, whatever that means," Milo opened the package to see a book with a strange symbol on it.

"It can't be," Milo whispered as he looked at it, "It's the Shepherds Journal."

"The what now?" Roxas asked.

"An ancient book that can lead anyone to the Lost City of Atlantis," Milo said. Everyone gasped at that, Sora was about to say something until he caught Roxas' gaze and closed his mouth.

"To bad Atlantis is a myth," Whitmore said as he stepped behind a screen and began to change.

"But there are locations and coordinates here," Milo argued.

"Looks like gibberish to me," The geezer said while changing.

"That's because it's written in a lost language," Aqua said as she looked at the book.

"Then it's useless."

"No no, just difficult," Milo said, "I spent my whole life studying dead languages, it's not gibberish to me."

"It's probably a fake," Whitmore said as he stepped out, wearing a pristine white suit. Milo stopped and looked at him.

"Mr. Whitmore my grandfather would have known if this was a fake, I would know, I will stake everything I own to prove that this is the genuine book," Milo stated.

"All right, all right, so what do you want to do with it?" the old man asked as he sat at a desk in front of an aquarium.

Milo walked to the other side and said, "I'll get funding, the museum-"

"Will never believe you," Whitmore interrupted.

"I'll show them," Milo said with determination, "I will make them believe."

"Like you did today?" Whitmore asked.

"Uhh..." Milo trailed off, "I will find Atlantis on my own, even if I have to rent a rowboat."

Whitmore gained a smile on his face and said, "Congratulations Milo, this is exactly what I wanted to hear. But forget the rowboat son, we'll travel in style." Whitmore then pressed a button on his desk and revealed small models of various vehicles, subs, balloons, even a drill.

"Woah," Everyone was amazed at how advanced the machines looked

"Everything's been arranged, the whole ball of wax," Whitmore said as he drapped an arm over Milo's shoulders.

"How?" Was all Milo could ask.

"Your grandad bent my ears with stories about that book, I didn't buy it for a minute," Whitmore explained, "So finally I got fed up and made a bet with him, I said, "Thatch, if you ever actually find that so called journal, not only will I finance the whole expedition, but I'll kiss you full on the mouth," imagine my embarrassment when he found the darn thing." He showed everyone a picture of him and Thaddeus wiping their mouths. Sora and Roxas' faces turned blue from holding in their laughter.

"Now I know you're grandfather's gone Milo, God rest his soul," Whitmore said as he walked up to the picture of him, Thaddeus, and Ansem, "but Preston Whitmore is a man of his word. You hear that Thatch! I'm going to the afterlife, with a clear conscience by thunder!"

"Your grandfather was a gret man, you prpbably don't realise how great," Whitmore sadly said, "Those buffons at the mseum dragged him down, made a laughing stock of him. He died a broken man. If I could bring back one shred of proof, that would be enough for me."

Shin approached him and was about to say something when Whitmore turned around and exclaimed, "What are we standing around for? We've got work to do."

"But Mr. Whitmore," Shin began, "in order to do what you're proposing, you're gonna need a crew."

"Already taken care of."

"You're gonna need engineers and geologists," Milo said.

"Already got the best of the best," Whitmore said, "Gaetan Moliere, geology and excavation, man has a nose for dirt. Vincenzo Santorine, demolitions, busted him out of a Turkish prison. Audrey Ramirez, don't let her age fool you, she knows more about engines than you and I will ever know. This is the crew that got the journal."

"Where was it?" Sora asked.

"Iceland," Whitmore said, surprising Milo.

"I knew it, I knew it!"Milo cheered.

"All we need know, is an expert in gibberish," Whitmore said, "it's decision time, either build on the foundation your grandfather gave you, or go back to your boiler room."

Milo fell back into a chair and said, "This is for real."

"Now you're catching on."

"I need to quit my job."

"It's done, you resigned this afternoon."

"I did?"

"Yup, don't like to leave loose ends."

"Uh, my apartment, I'll have to give notice."

"Taken care of."

"My clothes?"

"Packed."

"My books."

"In storage."

"My cat?" a meow could be heard as a small white cat found its way onto Milo's shoulder, "My gosh..."

Whitmore stood up and said, "Your grandad had a saying, "Our lives are remembered by the gifts we leave our children", this journal is his gift to you Milo. Atlantis is waiting."

After he handed Milo the book he turned to Shin and the others, "Now then I need to tell you all your part in this adventure."

"Yeah, you left out a lot of details in our last meeting," Shin said.

"Well the answers simple, I know all about you and your secrets, Ansem told me all about you before he disappeared several months ago. He had a way of getting information without anyone knowing how. I want your help on this expedition" Whitmore said.

"I'm in, this could be fun," Roxas said.

"Me too!" Sora said.

"This will be good for training," Aqua said.

"I want to help everyone however I can," Terra said.

"I'm in, besides, Shinryu wants to see how the ancient city is doing," Shin said.

"Which reminds me," Roxas said," is there any way we can talk with that old dragon?"

Shin put his hand to hsi chin and thought, "Well maybe there's a way, okay, everyone stick out a hand."

Everyone, except Whitmore and Milo, put out thier right hand, Shin put his hand over them and closed his eyes, his hand began to glow a golden light. When the light faded, there was an ancient looking 'S' on everyone's right hand.

_'Can you hear me?'_ a voice called out, causing everyone, except Terra and Shin, to jump.

"Who was that?" Aqua asked.

_'I am Shinryu, pleased to meet you,'_ The dragon answered.

"Cool! I get to talk with a dragon!" Sora shouted.

"What about Mushu? He was a dragon," Roxas pointed out.

"He was more like a lizard with hot breath," Sora said.

"It's time to depart, we've got a schedule to keep," Whitmore said.

"Oh boy, I'm so excited, I-I-I-I can't even hold it in," Milo said.

* * *

(Atlantic Ocean)

Milo was currently throwing up his lunch over the railng of a large ship. Sora gave him a few pat on the back to make him feel a little better. Shin and the others were currently talking about what was going on.

"I'm excited," Roxas said, "it's not everyday you're asked to go on a grand expedition."

"True," Shin agreed, "this is the chance of a lifetime."

Aqua nodded her head and said, "We may also find the Keyhole of this world."

"Just look in places that might be unnoticeable," Roxas said, "after all, most of the Keyholes Sora found were in places you wouldn't think of them to be."

"It'll be that hard huh?" Shin asked.

"Maybe harder," Roxas confirmed.

"Carrots, why is it always carrots I don't even eat carrots, umph!" Milo muttered as he tried to settle his stomach. Everyone gave the young man a look, glad that they didn't get seasick.

"Attention," a voice said over a loudspeaker, "all hands to the launch bay," at this, everyone began to move towards the lower deck of the ship.

"To whoever took the L from the pool sign haha, we are all very ammused." Everyone had to hold in their laughter when they heard this.

"Excuse me, we need to report in," Roxas told a person who turned the corner.

"Yes Mr. Roxas," Helga said as she turned around.

"Helga?" Shin and Terra said as they saw the blond haired woman.

"Blondie!" an elderly man said as he and his cart were lowered to the floor, "I've got a bone to pick with you."

"Hold that thought," Helga said as she turned to the man, "What is it this time Cookie?"

"Ya done stuffed ma wagon with nonesentials," Cookie said as he lifted up a crate, "Look at all this, cinnamon, preginlol, cilantro, and what in tarnation is cilantro. What is this?" Cookie asked as he picked up a lettuce.

"That would be lettuce," Helga said.

"Lettuce?! Lettuce?!" Cookie exclaimed as he held the vegetable away from him like it was diseased.

"It's a vegetable Cookie," Helga said, grabbing the lettuce," the men need the four basic food groups."

"I got yer four basic food groups, beans bacon whiskey and lard," Cookie argued. EVeryone looked at each other, wondering if the old man was dropped on his head. Suddenly, an alarm blared, signaling everyone that it was time to leave.

As Helga yelled at Cookie to get moving, Shin and the group began to move towards the elevator along with the rest of the crew. The elevator moved them down to the lower levels, where a large submarine was being loaded with trucks and other kinds of vehicles, even the Highwind was loaded on board. As everyone began to move forward, Sora was bumped by an Italian man with a cart of explosives.

"Hey junior," the man said, "if you're looking for the pony rides, they're back there." The man began to move his cart forward.

"Excuse me," Aqua called out," you dropped your...dynamite." Aqua nervously picked up the explosive and handed it back to the man.

"So, what else is in there?" Roxas said, trying to make some small talk.

"Oh, uh, gunpowder, nitroglycerine, notepads, fuses, wicks, glue" the man said, "and paperclips. Big ones. You know, just office supplies. By the way, name's Vinnie." The man now identified as Vinnie moved his cart away, up the ramp.

"Milo, Shin, where ya been?" Whitmore said as he and an middle aged man approached the group, "I want you all to meet Commander Rourke, he led the Iceland team that brought the journal back."

"A pleasure to meet you Mr. Thatch, you too Mr. Versus," Rourke said as he shook everyone's hands, "The journal's an interesting book, but I perfer a nice western."

"Boy, when you settle a bet, you settle a bet," Roxas said as he looked around.

"Well old Thaddeus always believed that you couldn't put a price on the pursuit of knowledge," Whitmore explained.

"I can tell that this will be an interesting trip," Terra said.

"Yes, this trip will change the world in more ways than one," Rourke said.

"Attention, launch will commence in fifteen minutes," the announcer said.

"Mr. Whitmore," Rourke said as he stepped aboard the sub.

"See you later Sir!" Shin yelled as he and everyone else ran towards the sub. The submarine began to close its hatches as it prepared to dive.

"Lieutenant, take her down," Rourke told Helga as they stood on the bridge. Helga began telling the officers their orders as they relayed them throughout the ship. The submarine began to dive, and went underwater.

* * *

(Ulysses)

Terra and Shin stepped into their room and looked around. It was a regular room with a bunkbed, a desk, and a small library. There was a large lump on the top bed but they took no notice of it.

"When was the last time we went on a sub?" Shin asked.

"...We never went on a sub," Terra said.

"My point!" Shin cried out, "This is a once in a lifetime experience! Think about it, we are going to discover a lost civilization!" Shin was ecstatic at this point.

"It is very exciting," Terra agreed.

"And guess what's the best part?" Shin asked.

"What?" Terra was curious at what Shin was thinking.

"We get to have some time to ourselves," Terra gave a small squeek as Shin lifter her up and laid her on the bed, Shin crawling on top of her. She gave a small giggle as they began to deeply kiss. They were so into it that they were almost oblivious to the rest of the world, keyword: almost.

A small telescopic eye looked at them before another one joined it and a light was shone on them. Terra gave a short scream as Shin bolted upwards, banging his head on the bed above him.

"You have disturbed the dirt," an odd voice said.

"Uhh, come again?" Shin asked as he looked into the eye.

"You have disturbed the dirt!" a small, dirty man in a large coat crawled down from the top bunk, forcing Shin and Terra to jump off their bed.

"Dirt from around the globe spanning the centuries," the man threw their covers off and revealed piles of dirt with flags on them, "Ahh! What have you done!? England and France must never combine," he began to pile a...pile together, fixing it.

"What's it doing in our bed?!" Shin yelled.

"You ask too many questions who are you who sent you speak up!" Before either of them could reply, "Bah, I will know soon enough," he grabbed a pair of tweezers and then grapped Terra's hand.

"Hey! Let go" Shin yelled as he tried to free Terra from the strange man.

_"This guy's a nutjob!" _Shinryu said.

_'Ya think?!' _Shin yelled at him.

"Hold still!" the man said as he plucked a piece of dirt form Terra's nail, "There you are!"

He then extended his eyes and began to mumble to himself as Terra massaged her wrist. Shin was about to beat the man for harming her before he swung around and almost poked Shin's eyes out with his extended eyes.

"These are all the microscopic fingerprints of the mapmaker," the man said as he licked the dirt, "And, lizard." He said the last part with disgust.

"This is an outrage! You must leave at once! Out out out out out!" He then pushed the two to the door where they bumped into something. It was a large, bald man with tanned skin

"Uh, hello," Terra meekly said.

"Uh oh, sat in the dirt didn't you?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"Moliere! Now what have I told you about playing nice with other kids?" Before the short man could respond, the newcomer pulled out a bar of soap and held it to Moliere's face, "Get back, I've got soap and I'm not afraid to use it!" Moliere hissed and began to race towards his bed, with the tall man whipping him with his towel, "Back vile creature! Back to the pit from whence you came!"

"Thank you," Terra said to the newcomer.

"You're welcome, the name's Sweet, Joshua Sweet, medical officer," Sweet introduced himself.

"I'm Shin."

"My name's Terra."

"Hmm, you two are my 5:00," Sweet said as he took a saw from his bag, "Well, no time like the present."

"Uh...," Shin said as he saw the blade.

"Nice isn't it? Catalog says that this little beauty can saw through a femur in 28 seconds, I'm betting I can cut that time in half," Sweet put the saw away and took out two containers, "I'm gonna need you to fill these up."

"With what?!" Shin exclaimed as he looked at him, Terra was blushing a bright red as she realized what the doctor wanted.

"Will Shin Versus and Terra Branford please report to the bridge?" The announcer said over the loudspeaker.

"Move it!" Shin yelled as he grabbed Terra and sped out of the room, leaving a cloud of dust in his wake.

"I don't think I can deal with all this craziness," Shin said as they stopped.

"You had to deal with your mother," Terra pointed out.

"...True."

* * *

(Atlantic Ocean)

A heavy mist began to roll in from the distance. Luckily there were no ships in the area, but a strange sound could be heard. It sounded like singing.

_"Now we are ready to sail for the Horn,_  
_Way, ay, roll an' go!_  
_Our boots an' our clothes boys are all in the pawn,_  
_Timme rollickin' randy dandy O!"_

A large ship was sailing through the mist, parting it with its large figure. On the ship, were large cannons that were ready to destroy whatever was in its way.

_"Heave a pawl, oh, heave away,  
Way, ay, roll an' go!  
The anchor's on board an' the cable's all stored,  
Timme rollickin' randy dandy O!"_

On board the ship, was a large variety of creatures. Some were manning the guns, while others were cleaning the deck. All of them were moving to the song.

_"Soon we'll be warping her out through the locks,  
Way, ay, roll an' go!  
Where the pretty young gals all come down in their frocks,  
Timme rollickin' randy dandy O!"_

On the main deck was the Dark Lord manning the wheel. On his left was MegaSeadramon, and a darker version of him on the Dark Lords right. They were leading the song.

_"Heave a pawl, oh, heave away,  
Way, ay, roll an' go!  
The anchor's on board an' the cable's all stored,  
Timme rollickin' randy dandy O!"_

The Dark Lord looked around as all the men were working. He took a great intrest in a group of creatures that were checking their weapons, readying themselves for their dangerous task.

_"Come breast the bars, bullies, an' heave her away,  
__Way, ay, roll an' go!_  
_Soon we'll be rollin' her down through the Bay,  
Timmie rollickin' randy dandy O!"_

The Dark Lord grinned under his hood as he saw all the people on the crew working hard, trying to please him. He thought about how excited they would be when he and his team returned from the sea victorious.

_"Heave a pawl, oh, heave away,  
Way, ay, roll an' go!  
The anchor's on board an' the cable's all stored,  
Timme rollickin' randy dandy O!…"_

As the song ended, the Dark Lord handed the wheel to MegaSeadramon and began to slither down the stairs, the darker creature following him.

"We should reach the diving point in a few moments," the creature said as he slithered next to the Dark Lord.

"Good, we're right on schedule," the Dark Lord said as he looked at the open waters.

"But why do we have to engage the beast? Wouldn't it be better to avoid it?" the creature asked.

"Because WaruSeadramon, it would destroy this ship," the Dark Lord said, turning around, "and I will not let the good sailors here be destroyed. I would rather be destroyed than let my men meet their doom."

WaruSeadramon looked away and said, "I still think it's a foolish thing to do, but I'll follow you anyway."

"You may follow me, until I tell you to retreat," the Dark Lord said.

"...Do you really think you might have to resort to use that technique?" WaruSeadramon asked.

"I might."

"Oh!" WaruSeadramon then brought out a box with silver flames on it, "This package arrived for you a little while ago." The Dark Lord took the package and opened it, grinning at the contents inside.

"My Lord!" MegaSeadramon called out, "we've arrived at the destination!"

"Perfect! All right, Assault Squad, prepare to dive! Recon and Strike Squads, standby for further instructions!" the Dark Lord yelled out to the crew, causing many of them to scatter about.

* * *

(Ulysses)

The entire crew had listened to Milo's explanation of the underwater passage and the legend of the Leviathan. Sora and the others were conversing with each other. Currently, they were traveling through a ship graveyard.

"Do you think that legend's real?" Aqua asked.

"Could be," Shin said, "I saw a Leviathan back on my world, but he was a civilized man."

"...Come again?" Sora asked.

"Commander, I think you should hear this" an elderly woman called out

"It's a story for another time," Terra said.

"Commander."

Roxas just shook his head and asked, "But what do we do if it's real and it atacks us?"

"Commander."

"Simple," Rourke said as he walked over to them, "we blast it to pieces with our weapons."

"Commander."

"Yes Mrs. Packard what is it?" Rourke asked, finally taking notice of the woman.

"I'm picking up something on the hydrophone I think you should hear," the woman said.

"Put it on the speakers," Rourke said. Packard complied and a metallic, growling sound could be heard throughout the bridge.

"What is that?" Aqua asked.

"Sounds metallic," Helga said.

Shin put his hand to his chin and said, "Could be the sound of the sub moving bouncing off the canyon walls."

_"No,"_ Shinryu said, _"it's something else."_ The sound slowly died down.

"Do you want to do my job?" Packard asked, "Be my guest." Shin just gave her a look.

"I think the Leviathan's coming," Sora whispered to his friends.

"You want to head to the Gummi Ship?" Roxas asked as the sound died down.

Sora shook his head and said, "Not yet, let's wait and see what happens."

Suddenly the entire ship shook as it was struck by a large mechanical creature. It resembled a lobster with two large claws, and two smaller ones by its head. It had some wires by its mouth and looked at the ship with its glowing red eyes.

"Want to go to the ship now?!" Aqua asked with a hint of annoyance.

"Yes!" Sora yelled while moving to the hanger, Roxas and the others following him. The Leviathan struck the sub again, causing it to begin taking on water

"Tell Cookie to melt the butter and bring out the bibs, I want this lobster served on a silver platter!" Rourke told Helga.

"Load the torpedo bays, subpod crews, battlestations!" Helga yelled as she was knocked over as the Leviathan struck the ship again. Many crew members ran towards the mini subs, waiting for the command to launch. The Leviathan grabbed the sub with its smaller claws and brought it to its face, observing it. The subpods and the Highwind launched and raced towards the ancient creature. Inside the Highwind, Sora was driving, Shin and Roxas were working the Thundara-G guns, and Aqua and Terra were using the Meteor-G cannons.

"Shoot!" Sora yelled when he saw the rest of the subs fire their torpedoes. When the torpedoes and energy cannons hit the Leviathan, it released the Ulysses and began to follow the smaller ships. It began to strike the ships with its large claws, destroying them immediately, the Highwind was barely avoiding the strikes. Several torpedoes from the Ulysses struck the Leviathan, causing it to fire a blast of lightning at the ship.

"Do sea creatures do that?" Roxas asked.

"Only the metal ones," Shin said as he continued firing at the monster.

"What are you talking about?" Aqua asked.

_"The Leviathan was a mechanical creature created to guard the gateway to Atlantis," _Shinryu answered.

"And you tell us this now?!" Roxas yelled at him.

_"No one asked," _was the dragons reply causing everyone to face fault.

"Less talking, more shooting!" Sora yelled as he dodged yet another claw swipe. The Leviathan began to swim for the sinking sub and fired another blast of lightning. The cargo bay doors were blown open and several transport ships flew out. The Highwind and subpods began to follow them.

_"All craft, make your mark twenty degrees down angle," _Helgas voice called out over the radio. All the ships began to follow the lead transport down a crevice and into a tunnel. The Leviathan tried to follow them, but due to its large size, it was stuck trying to reach the subs with its claws, but couldn't reach. It began to fire several lightning blasts at the ships, causing a few to explode. The four remaining ships, two transports, one subpod, and the Highwind, were traveling through the tunnel while trying not to crash. They eventually reached a underwater cave full of fresh air.

"Is this it?" Aqua called out as she and everyone else climbed out of their ships.

"It looks like the gateway described in the journal," Milo called back. In front of the group was a caveway looking like a fish with several ancient markings on it.

* * *

(Above Water)

On board the Dark Lords ship, the creatures were preparing for their mission. The Dark Lord of the Seas, MegaSeadramon, and WaruSeadramon were observing the crew as they prepared to dive.

"Who are you leaving in charge of the ship while we're down there?" MegaSeadramon asked.

"I'm having MarineDevimon take charge," the Dark Lord answered.

"Sir, we're ready," a walrus with a green shell and a hammer in its hand said.

"Duly noted Zudomon," the Dark Lord said as he slithered up to a pedestal and faced the Assault Squad.

He took a deep breath before saying, "Men, this is one of our most dangerous tasks, victory here will lead us to where we can revive our empire. Defeating the Leviathan is just one small step that will advance us in the greater scheme. I don't command you to follow me into this battle, I ask you instead." He looked at the crew and saw that they were determined to help him however possible, "Are there any who would stay here?"

When he got no reply he then turned to the sea and said, "Then let's go!" With an eruption of cheers behind him, he dived underwater, MegaSeadramon, WaruSeadramon, and the Assault Squad following him underwater. The large group began to head deeper underwater until they reached the ground level.

"Any sign of it?" a Dragomon asked as he looked around.

"Nothing, it's gone," a Depthmon replied.

"The Leviathan hides itself from its prey and strikes when least expected, keep your guard up," the Dark Lord said.

(Battle Music-The Deep End-Kingdom Hearts)

Suddenly a large claw burst out from behind a pillar, aiming to crush the Assault Squad. However, a Pukumon saw it and stopped it from crushing them. The rest of the squad swam away from the target area. A Tylomon swam up to the claw that Pukumon was holding up and smashed it away with its hard head, allowing the two Digimon to escape.

"Hit it fast and hard!" MegaSeadramon yelled out to the squad. The crew began to race towards the Leviathan, launching attacks at the beast. The Leviathan struck back with its claws and smacked several of the Digimon and Heartless away. WaruSeadramon and MegaSeadramon swam into a higher area and faced the beast.

"Mega Ice Blast!/Evil Icicle!" Two blasts of ice, one of a darker coloration, hit one of the Leviathan's larger claws, freezing it. The Leviathan let out a cry and smacked the frozen claw on the ground, crushing a few Screwdiver Heartless and breaking the ice.

"Its armor is to tough!" MeagSeadramon cried out as he avoided being swiped by the Leviathan's flailing tail.

"Try to find an unarmored part and attack that!" The Dark Lord yelled back as he swam under a claw. Several of the Digimon began to swim under the Leviathan and tried attacking its underside, inflicting little damage on the beast, but only enough to get them noticed.

"Move!" A Seadramon cried out as the Leviathan tried to crush them, only a IceDevimon was unlucky. When the Leviathan moved, all that was left was a white and purple egg

"Gwappamon!" The Dark Lord called out, "I want you to retrieve any Digi Eggs that you see!"

"Got it boss!" The DJ turtle yelled back as he went and got the egg. Gwappamon then swam back to a safe distance where he could see any eggs and retrieve them.

"We need to defeat it fast!" MegaSeadramon yelled out as he avoided a lightning blast.

"Gee, ya think!?" WaruSeadramon yelled back as he headbutted the Leviathan in the back of the head.

"Will you two just shut up and fight!?" The Dark Lord yelled at them, momentarily forgetting about the Leviathan, and it cost him. The beast saw that he was not moving and whacked him away with its large claw.

"Sir!" both of the sea dragons cried.

"You'll pay for that, Vulcan's Hammer!" Zudomon then slammed his lightning charged hammer onto the Leviathan's head, causing it to smash into the ground below. Dragomon then threw his trident at the beast, striking it near the eye. A Jet Balloon Heartless began firing Screwdiver Heartless missles at the beast, all of them hitting the area around its mouth and damaging the wires around it. The Leviathan began to wildly flail its claws around, trying to hit any of the small flies that were trespassing on its home.

Suddenly the Leviathan was blasted from behind by a powerful energy attack, the source? A very pissed off Dark Lord who had blue smoke coming from his hood.

"My Lord!" Both of the sea dragons cried out again.

"I've had enough of this!" The Dark Lord said as he threw off his cloak, revealing his body as it began to grow. He was a large, mechanical, orange serpentine figure with a rectangular head. He had two turbines on the sides of his head, and had several glowing fins that ran along his body. His mouth was glowing as it radiated energy along with the blue smoke. Out of the back of his head was some spikey, blue hair. He glared at the Leviathan who in turn, growled at him.

"My Lord, nothing that we've done is working," WaruSeadramon said as he approached the Dark Lord.

"Don't worry, I have a backup plan if I can't cause any damage," The Dark Lord said. He then darted towards the Leviathan and gathered energy into the glowing parts of his fins.

"Sky Wave!" Coutnless energy shells shot out of the fins and made their way towards the Leviathan. It tried to shield itself with its claws, but that only resulted in some of the armor breaking off of them. The Dark Lord kept firing more energy blasts at the beast while moving around to find more openings. He then swam up high and began to gather energy into his mouth cannon.

"You're through! Giga Sea Destroyer!" A massive energy torpedo shot out of the Dark Lords mouth and sped towards the Leviathan. Said beast tried to escape, but it was too slow and was struck right in the back, a massive explosion caused everyone to fly back as the force of the blast was very large.

"Is it over?" Depthmon asked.

"I don't know," Pukumon responded.

Suddenly, a blast of lightning shot out of the smoke as it grazed MegaSeadramon, causing him to cry out in pain. Several more blasts came out of the smoke as the Assault Squad raced to hide behind the rock pillars. As the smoke cleared, a badly damaged Leviathan could be seen. It was missing one of its smaller claws, some of the armor on its back was missing, and part of its tail was blown off.

"This thing just won't die!" WaruSeadramon exclaimed.

"Guess I have no choice," The Dark Lord mumbled as he swam up on top of a pillar.

"Men!" he called out, "Give me your envy so I may defeat this beast!" The Digimon looked at him with confused expressions, so he continued, "Think of all the things you are jealous about and let those emotions rise to the surface, let your envious emotions rise and fill your being." All the Digimon began to do as the Dark Lord instructed and a dark blue aura began to surround them. Suddenly, the aura was sucked away from all the Digimon and began to be absorbed into the Dark Lord, or more specifically, the black box he received earlier. The Dark Lord then began to chant a strange incantation.

"I call upon the terror of the seas," The aura was then completely sucked into the box as a blue crest rose into the air while glowing with power.

"This mechanical being dares to take your title as the beast of the seas," The crest then began to grow and take the shape of a large being.

"I command you to show this being who the true terror of the waters is!" The aura then covored the entire area, eliminating all sight. A growling noise could be heard a two glowing eyes could be seen through the smoke. A loud roar caused the aura to fade away as a VERY lagre being could be seen. It was a VERY large, red, crocodile type monster with a long snout filled with very sharp teeth. It had two blue spines that went from the top of its head to the ends of its two long tails.

"Leviamon! Destroy that beast!" The Dark Lord cried. Leviamon then turned its attention to the Leviathan who was still firing blasts of lightning at the Heartless who didn't understand that they couldn't get to it.

**"Cauda!"** The beast cried as it flipped and slammed its tails onto the Leviathan, smashing its armor and causing it to cry out in pain. All the Digimon watched in amazement as the beast that they were trying to at least incapacitate, was being easily destroyed.

**"Rostrum!"** Leviamon then clamped his jaws on one of the Leviathan's large claws and teared it right off. The Leviathan tried to swim away, but Leviamon grabbed a hold of it with its tails as he opened his jaws wide.

**"Anima!"** Leviamon then fired a large energy blast at the Leviathan, causing yet another massive explosion that threatened to send everyone flying. When the smoke cleared, all that remained was a pile of scrap.

(Music End)

"He made it look so easy..." MegaSeadramon said as he looked at the scrap that was once the Leviathan.

"Of course he did, he's one of the Seven Great Demon Lords," The Dark Lord said as he swam down to the pile of scrap at a leisurely pace.

WaruSeadramon then looked at Leviamon as it spat out pieces of metal that were stuck in its mouth, "Was that what was in the box that I gave you earlier?"

"Yes, the Emperor sent me my Sin," the Dark Lord said.

"Sin?" MegaSeadramon asked.

"All of the Dark Lords have one of the Deadly Sins, it is a proof that we are who we claim to be," the Dark Lord explained.

**"It also gives them the final test to see if they are wothy of such a title," **Leviamon said as he looked at the three.

"What kind of test?" MegaSeadramon asked again.

"That's a story for another time, we need to get on with the mission," the Dark Lord said as he turned to Leviamon, "I thank you for your assistance, that beast was able to survive my Giga Sea Destroyer."

**"I merely proved that I am the true terror of the seas, nothing more,"** Leviamon said, **"Until next time GigaSeadramon." **Leviamon then shrunk back into the crest and went back into the box. The Dark Lord, now identified as GigaSeadramon, turned back to his two sea dragons.

"WaruSeadramon, head back to the ship and send a message to Diaboromon, telling him to prepare the incubator for some Digi eggs," GigaSeadramon said, "MegaSeadramon, bring the Assault Squad back to the ship and tell the Recon and Strike Squads to head down after WaruSeadramon joins you."

"Yes my Lord," both of them said as they began to head to the ship. GigaSeadramon then stared at the giant crevice that lead to Atlantis.

* * *

**This is the largest chapter that I've written yet! Surprised at the movie choice? I know that not many peope would use this movie because they can't find a way to make it work, but I have!**

**Another Dark Lord has been revealed! Will he succeed in his mission, or will he ultimately fail? Stay tuned for the next chapter**

**How many times do I have to say it? Please review! I welcome anything you have to say about this. I don't care if you don't have an account or not, just review!**

**Ciao!**


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Kingdom Hearts, Adventure, Friendship