The Faded Gale

by NecroExplosion

A fan fiction that follows the life of Zephyrus, a Keyblade wielder of about Sora's age. The events of the story start towards the end of KH II and lead on an alternate timeline from there on. Each "chapter" is actually a kind of "part" to the story, and is over 50 pages. Part 3 is on its way soon.

1. Part 1

Kingdom Hearts: The Faded Gale Part I

Under each chapter heading there will be a link to music for atmosphere. Links mid-chapter are for music changes. Thanks to everyone who uploaded the videos! :) Quotes from the games are done from memory, so don't get annoyed at me if they aren't perfect! This website doesn't like the links, so I'll leave the watch ID, but you can't just click it. Don't worry- you're probably not missing out on much without the music.

Prelude: No Matter How Small

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Every story needs a hero, however great or small- whatever they might be. Even if something, or someone seems far more important elsewhere, even the smallest deeds, require their hero.

The hero of our story has lived a modest life, and given recent events, his story is often forgotten. Now it is time to learn of one young man, he who saved all of the worlds from plunging into an eternal darkness... His name, not Sora- or any of those who we'd call a hero. The hero of our story is a 15 year-old boy called Zephyrus, or "Zeph", as he prefers.

Zeph, on the outside seems like a very normal person- about average height and weight. He has short, brown hair, and, though striking, fairly normal blue eyes. He dresses and acts as normally as a person can, too. It is only when you look deeper inside that we can see that Zephyrus is no normal boy, not at all.

"Another one... Seriously, what are these dreams about?"

Zephyrus may seem like a normal boy, but his origins, still unknown show us that he's a whole lot more...

His adventure starts, not with some great feat of strength, but with a dream. Ideas are a powerful force, often overlooked, but they are just as powerful as any tool for creating a hero.

Most people's' dreams are from the the person's own perspective, but the most powerful of all, are not from there, but from somebody else. If one can sleep and live through somebody else in that fantasy, that shows a great strength in their heart- a connection that can never be broken.

The most powerful thoughts are those from multiple perspectives, those which repeat, come back and continue themselves until all of their secrets are revealed. These are the dreams which create the hero of our story.

"Who are those people? And why am I dreaming about them? I don't think most people dream through somebody else's perspective..." Zephyrus is questioning his recent visions- he thinks visions like this are meaningless, but the dreams he has been having recently are the most powerful kind of all...

Zeph's recent visions have all started with a boy, one who always sees the good before the bad. Zephyrus sees a great deal of this boy's great achievements. A boy who saved the worlds from darkness, all because he wanted to save his friends. Zephyrus then sees 3 different people, friends who are torn apart by some battle. The dreams always vary somewhat, but the rough formula, and what happens at the end is always the same. A person in a cloak tells the boy that "This world has been connected." and the boy's shadow grows into a monster and attacks the boy.

These visions, in the past, felt distant from Zephyrus- but recently, they have felt much more involved, but it is one specific night where our adventure starts... During his summer holidays, Zeph's dreams start to become a nightmare...

"This world has been connected..." Those words echo through Zeph's head, along with some others- names: "Sora", "Riku", "Donald", "Goofy", "Ansem", "Aqua" and "Ventus". Those names don't account for everyone in his mind, so Zeph remains confused.

Zeph is standing on one of the stained-glass portraits that the other boy was in his dreams, but this one depicts him.

"Where am I? What's going on?" Zeph asks the void.

"All light casts a shadow, this is a balance which must not be tipped. Light will always be tempered with darkness..." A strange voice says.

"Who's there?" Zeph shouts into the void.

"The balance must be restored- but which path will you choose?" The voice says again.

"What's going on? Who are you?" Zeph asks again.

"Strength comes from your heart- but is that strength born of light or darkness?" The voice says, seeming more distant, now.

"Wait- please! Tell me what these dreams mean! I'm begging you!" Zeph cries out, but he is too late.

Strange creatures made out of darkness appear out of the mural Zeph is standing on, they move in to attack him.

"What? Help! Please!" Zeph shouts into the void.

Nothing.

"You're just going to let me be killed? Well... I just need to wake up, right?" Zeph dejectedly asks, realising he's asleep.

The creatures move in and one jumps at him...

"The time for watching has passed- you must learn to fight!"

These words are all that remain in Zeph's mind, and just before the creature strikes, he wakes...

Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End

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"Gah! Ugh... What was that about?" Zeph asks, sitting bolt upright. He turns to look through his window, but could never expect what happened next... One of those creatures- the huge one which was that boy's shadow was looking right back at him. Zeph turns white with shock.

"Am I still dreaming? ...No... I'm awake... But how...?" Zeph is very confused. He looks back through his window and the creature seems to have disappeared.

"I'd better make sure that thing is gone..." Zeph thinks to himself as he gets dressed and hurries downstairs. It is very early in the morning, and the sun is just starting to rise above the horizon.

"Wow... The sunrise really does make Twilight town look pretty..." Zeph thinks as he half walks and half runs through his door, out through the back alley, and onto the Station Heights. Keeping a tight grip on his Struggle bat, Zeph goes around the corner and sure enough, the creature is standing there, waiting for him.

"Who... What are you?" Zeph shouts at this creature.

"Heartless" The word pierces into his mind.

The giant creature turns to face Zeph and looks at him. It brings back its giant hand, made completely out of darkness and begins to bring it down to punch, not Zephyrus, but the ground...

Where the creature's hand collides with the ground, a dark whirlpool-like mass appears and out of it, more, different creatures emerge from it- these ones much smaller. They move in to attack Zeph...

"Get back! All of you!" Zeph shouts at them, going into a fighting stance with his bat.

Holding his bat in both hands, Zeph waits for the creatures to come a little closer, before charging in for his own attack.

"Leave me alone!" Zeph shouts as he starts to attack one of the creatures.

"Huh? What's going on?" Zeph thinks to himself- no matter how hard he tries to hit the creature, his bat just goes straight through, leaving the creature completely unphased.

As all of the creatures move in for their attack, Zeph backs away, terrified.

"Courage is the key. If you can show your heart is strong, they will fall!" The voice from Zeph's dreams speaks to him- it seems old and very wise.

"Fine... If that how it's going to be... I should at least go down fighting!" Zeph thinks as he doubles back on running away and charges headlong into the creatures he is now sure are called "Heartless".

"Yah! Leave us all alone!" Zeph shouts as he goes all-out hitting one of the Heartless as hard as he can, just hoping something will happen.

As he jumps back to dodge an attack, Zeph drops his bat.

"No!" he exclaims, as it rolls away down the slope of the Station Heights, he turns towards his bat, then back to face the heartless and clenches his fists, flicking his wrists a little.

Zeph must shield his eyes as a blinding light comes from his hand and one word comes to his mind- "Keyblade". He looks to his hand, and sees a sword shaped into something resembling a key.

"What is going on?" Zeph thinks to himself, as he goes back into his fighting stance, holding the key in both hands, he charges back into the fray.

"Leave Twilight Town ALONE!" Zeph shouts, as he strikes one of the Heartless as hard as he can- he feels it force of the blow up his arms and hears the creature let out a slight sound, then it disappears into a black mist. Zeph smiles, weakly as he begins his attack on the rest of the smaller Heartless, defeating them one by one.

After vanquishing all of the smaller Heartless, Zeph turns to face the larger one, which has stood up fully again.

"I can fight you now! But if you leave, I won't need to destroy you!" Zeph calls out to the creature.

He can't tell whether or not it can even hear him, let alone understand him, but it doesn't seem to react to his words at all.

"Well... They can't seem to understand me, so... I guess actions speak louder than words!" Zeph thinks to himself and runs at the creature. The giant Heartless looks at him as he approaches, then it simply turns away from him, and disappears...

"I... did it... they're gone..." Zeph thinks, as he stops to catch his breath.

Suddenly he feels a pain in his back.

"Ouch!" Zeph can't help to let out a slight exclamation under his breath, as he turns to face his assailant...

There is nothing there...

"What? Where are you? Gah!" Zeph gets hit again, from his back.

He turns again, and looks down- one of the smaller Heartless has somehow fazed into the ground. He follows it with his eyes, as it moves around him, then comes out of the ground for another attack. Before it can hit him, he quickly delivers two hits to its head, and the creature is destroyed. Zeph turns to walk back home, but there is a huge pain in his chest. He drops his new weapon, which disappears in a flash of light and he collapses and sees a slight light leave his body. The light splits into many tiny triangular shards, and prisms out, into all the colours of the rainbow. Each shard is like a tiny mirror, reflecting, not what Zeph sees, but Zeph's memories back at him. Then, overcome by fatigue, Zephyrus can do nothing but fall into the realms of sleep...

Chapter 2: Loss

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Zeph is standing on that same glass mural he was on before, but part of it has broken off...

"I'm here again? Where exactly is here though? And why don't I feel like I'm asleep... This is, different..." Zeph think to himself.

"Your heart... It's like mine, isn't it?" A voice says- it is different from the other which has spoken to Zeph before- it is younger, but it seems hurt.

"What do you mean? Who are you?" Zeph asks.

"Oh, those are silly questions, aren't they? Look into yourself... Look around here- you can answer both of them". The voice says.

Suddenly a rush of pain shoots through Zeph's head and he remembers something, but it is not his own memory. He remembers the young woman from his dreams, one of the 3 friends who were torn apart, she is reaching out to the younger of her two friends- a boy who looks a little like Zeph. "Ven!" She shouts, and the vision stops.

"Your name... It's Ventus, isn't it? And this... Is this my heart?" Zeph asks.

"You're not bad, you know?" The voice says and continues, "Your heart has been shattered, just like mine has, but I can help you to wake up... Here..." The voice says, fading away somewhat.

Suddenly, the glass platform Zeph is standing on repairs itself in a huge flash of light.

"Looks like I owe you one, Ven..." Zeph says, as he starts to float upwards.

Zeph wakes up in his bed, but the atmosphere of Twilight Town seems different to before somehow... He gets up and is slightly nauseous for a moment, before regaining his composure, and hurrying downstairs- he knows what he has to do now.

"Ven... I'll get you your heart back..." Zeph says, holding his old good luck charm, which looks just like the "Wayfinders" that the 3 friends used.

Zeph hurries up to the Station, it is nighttime, and there is nobody around- Zeph is pleased that he doesn't have to explain himself, especially given he doesn't know how long he was asleep for. When he arrives, he sees something he had hoped he never would have to again...

"No... You're back?" Zeph mutters, as he sees the giant Heartless from before standing outside the Station... watching... waiting...

"What do you want with me?" Zeph asks the creature, but just as before, it doesn't even react to the sound of his voice.

"Fine." Zeph says, as it starts to walk towards him. Zeph tries what he did before to create that weapon- the Keyblade is its name, he thinks.

"Why isn't it working? Hello? Keyblade! I summon you! Abra-cadabra? Alakazam? Anything?" Zeph panics, as the weapon seems to elude him.

"Zephyrus- use the Keyblade! Now!" Zeph hears Ventus's voice again...

"I... Can't!" Zeph shouts.

"Hurry!" He hears Ventus's voice again.

The Creature is almost upon him now, and Zeph backs away, slowly.

"If you can't use your own right now... Then use mine, Zephyrus- but you need to learn" Ventus says, as a different Keyblade appears in Zeph's hands.

"There we go..." Zeph thinks, as he goes into his fighting stance again. He notices this new Keyblade is shorter than the one he used before, and the handguard is shaped almost as if it is supposed to be held backhand...

Zeph runs towards the giant Heartless, and hits its leg with all his might. He can't tell, but it doesn't look like the creature takes any damage. Slowly, the Heartless reaches down with its arm and swats Zeph away.

"Ouch!" Zeph exclaims as he is rolled over backwards on the hard brick floor.

Pulling himself upright, Zeph grabs the Keyblade again and looks at the Heartless.

It is on its knees, looking at the sky- the hole in its chest which is normally empty has a strange glow coming from it. Suddenly an orb of light shoots out of the Heartless's chest. Zeph manages to block it, but slides back from the force. The orb itself is reflected away and hits the Heartless's head, clearly dealing heavy damage. The creature gets up and reaches into the ground again- the dark whirlpool appears. Zeph rushes forwards and does his best to climb up the Heartless's arm. With great difficulty, Zeph manages to get up onto his enemy's shoulder, and smacks its head as hard as he can.

The Heartless staggers, and Zeph falls off. The beast is still standing, but looks hurt. The smaller Heartless which appeared move in and attack Zeph, who is able to fend them off, just about. The giant Heartless raises its arm to strike, and Zeph runs out of the way, dodging the huge punch. The blow creates a shockwave, which knocks Zeph to the floor, but as he falls, Zeph throws the Keyblade at the creature's hand.

The Heartless raises its arm, but its hand doesn't come back. A dark mist suddenly starts to rise from the creature's body, and it fades away.

The Keyblade disappears from the floor Ven's voice speaks again:

"Now, practice summoning your own."

Zeph reaches his arm forward, flicks his wrist up and closes his hand, and sure enough, his Keyblade appears this time. Zeph opens his hand to drop the key, and it falls to the ground, but then reappears in his hand shortly after.

"How do I?" Zeph asks.

"If you want it to disappear, you need to will it to leave. Just dropping it won't work" Ventus tells Zeph. Zeph closes his eyes and concentrates, opening his hand- the sword disappears in a flash of light.

"I did it!" Zeph thinks to himself, and tries both steps again a few times.

"It looks like you've got it Zephyrus. Now go!" Ventus speaks again.

Suddenly another rush of pain shoots through Zeph's head, and he remembers Ventus throwing his Keyblade, and it turning into some kind of hoverboard. Ventus then hits a button on his shoulder guard and becomes fully clad in armour, jumps onto the hoverboard and flies through a portal it creates. The vision ends, and Zeph knows what to do.

He throws his Keyblade, and sure enough, it boomerangs around and becomes some form of flat glider shaped like a B-2 bomber, but it careers forwards into Zeph, knocking him over, painfully.

"How do I get that armour?" Zeph asks as he pulls himself up, rubbing his head.

"Look into your heart... Only there can you find the key..." The old, wise voice speaks again.

Zeph closes his eyes and looks up, opening his heart. A flash of light appears around him and when he opens his eyes, he is clad in armour similar to what Ventus wore in the vision, but it feels somewhat spectral, as if it come from a different plane of existence.

"Okay... Let's give this a try..." Zeph thinks, as he climbs into his glider, lying forward to hold the handles and put his feet into the slots for them. He looks forward, and wills his Keyblade to create a portal. A beam of light emerges from the point in the centre of his Keyblade glider, and creates a portal. Zeph slowly flies forward, and through the portal into the unknown beyond...

Chapter 3: Progress

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On the other side of the portal, Zeph looks around, he is surrounded by vast amounts of nothingness, with some worlds scattered across it.

"Welcome to the Lanes Between, Zeph- I'm tired now, so I'm going to go back to deep sleep. Good luck remember- you can always pull through, so long as you believe in yourself." Ven's voice speaks once more, but Zeph now feel cut off from him.

"Oh!" Zeph winces as another sting of pain rushes through his head.

The vision he has this time is of Ventus moving towards and landing on one of the worlds- the Dwarf Woodlands. Suddenly, Zeph has his route through all of the worlds set out for him. He goes to the Dwarf Woodlands, too and prepares to land...

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Once he is on the ground, Zeph's armour disappears, but he notices... Something is missing...

"Wait... No? Why can't I... Remember... Anything? I fell asleep, but what happened before then? What was that light?" So many questions cross Zeph's mind, as he realises what he left behind. When his heart was broken to pieces, those shards of light he saw- were those his memories escaping from him?

"Well... I guess it could be worse- I still have the Keyblade..." Zeph thinks to himself, as he looks around him.

He has landed near a mine of some sort, and he can hear something from within.

"Is that... Fighting? I'd better go to investigate." Zeph runs towards the entrance of the mine, worried that the Heartless have spread here, too.

After going through a short tunnel, Zeph comes out into a fairly open space and looks around him.

"The fighting sounds close now" Zeph thinks. Then, surely enough, a young man comes around the corner being tailed by many Heartless. He shouts at the Heartless:

"Why are there so many of you? I can't... Leave me alone!"

"Sir! Are you okay?" Zeph shouts, summoning his Keyblade and charging into the fray.

"You aren't safe here, you need a weapon like mine to be able to fight them!" Zeph tells the man and looks around to see him holding a Keyblade, too.

"Well... That's a lucky find! Let's take these fools down together!" The man shouts.

The two of them work together and quickly defeat all of the Heartless nearby, getting a short breather to introduce one another.

"Hello, I'm Zephyrus- call me Zeph!"

"Mmm... My name is Lezalit- who taught you to fight?"

"Umm... I don't think anybody did- why do you ask?" Zeph replies, taken aback.

"You're talented, but clearly not experienced- no matter, right now there are more important matters." Lezalit reflects.

"So... What's going on? Why are you here, Laz? May I call you that?" Zeph asks.

"Hrm... I guess so... I am here to clear a foul darkness which has spread to these lands. I tracked it to this mine, but I can't pinpoint the source of it." Laz says, as if wanting to be rid of Zeph.

"You mind if I help you? I think I can feel something from over there... Besides, we make a great team, right?" Zeph is enthusiastic about meeting somebody who could help him.

"Are you sure? It is dangerous here... Should you not be learning with your master?" Laz asks Zeph.

"Master? What do you mean? I'm from Twilight Town- I've never seen anybody there with a Keyblade..." Zeph is a little confused- he doesn't know about traditional Keyblade wielder training.

"You're completely self-taught, then? I wonder why nobody noticed you had The Gift... No matter- if you can see where this darkness is coming from, I'll follow you for now. I'll explain everything once we're done taking it out." Laz says, gesturing for them to move on.

"Okay, I think it's coming from this direction" Zeph tells Laz, walking on.

After a little while of moving on, and some more fighting of Heartless, Laz and Zeph reach their destination.

"What is that?" Zeph asks Laz.

"It is a tear in the fabric of this world, connecting it to the Realms Of Darkness. Through it, Heartless can appear here with exceptional ease. If we're able to seal it, the Heartless will have a much harder time of coming to this world, meaning attacks will only be likely when a Keyblade wielder is present." Laz tells Zeph "It is my mission to seal these tears which have appeared in many of the worlds."

"How do we fix it?" Zeph wonders aloud.

"Simple- like you'd lock a door with your Keyblade- just point at it with your key. It knows what to do- it's one of the reasons they were made. A weapon capable of passing any threshold, so long as the wielder's will is strong enough." Laz tells Zeph, summoning his Keyblade and pointing it at the tear. Suddenly, a giant pickaxe appears from the tear, along with a human-shaped Heartless.

"Things can never be easy! Of course not!" Laz shouts, going into a fighting stance.

Zeph summons his Keyblade, too and readies himself for combat.

The Heartless starts by rushing at the two Keyblade wielders and delivering a wide slash with its pickaxe. Both Laz and Zeph manage to dodge the attack, and Laz feints in for a few strikes of his own.

The Heartless kicks him back, then smashes down with its pickaxe. Laz manages to dodge the actual attack, but the end of his trousers get caught on the pickaxe, which is stuck in the ground, rending him immobile.

Zeph charges in and attacks with as much vigour as he can. The Heartless kicks Zeph back after a few hits, then pulls its pickaxe up, freeing Laz, but also enabling itself to attack again. The Heartless brings its weapon up to strike Zeph, but Laz runs and jumps forward, slicing the creature through the middle. The beast is clearly weakened by this, so Zeph jumps up and strikes. The weakened Heartless falls to the floor and fades away, a heart rising up from it. Its pickaxe remains there on the ground.

"There we go... Would you like to do the honours, Zeph?" Laz asks Zeph.

"Nah- it's your mission, so you can." Zeph replies.

Laz stands square on, facing the tear, and points his Keyblade at it. The tip of the Keyblade starts to glow, and a beam of light is released, sealing the tear up.

"Laz!" Zeph shouts running to protect his friend. The pickaxe itself was a Heartless, too, and has started to float in order to attack them.

"Really? A living pickaxe? You have to be kidding me..." Zeph says, as Laz is turning around, to see what's going on.

"Thunder!" Laz shouts, and a bolt of lightning strikes the Heartless, causing it to fall to the ground.

"Woah! How did you do that?" Zeph asks, as he moves in for the finishing blows on the Heartless.

"Oh... You don't even know about magic yet? You really must not have been taught at all..." Laz is surprised at Zeph's ignorance.

The two of them quickly finish off the lone Heartless, and prepare to move on.

"I owe you some answers, don't I?" Laz asks Zeph.

"I wouldn't say 'owe', but I would like some info on everything..." Zeph tells Laz.

"Okay, then- this could take a little while... So, to start- the Heartless. Heartless are creatures made from pure darkness which follow one goal- to collect hearts. They are divided into two main types: Emblem Heartless and Pureblood Heartless. Pureblood Heartless, like the shadow, are usually weaker than the Emblem Heartless, as they do not contain a heart harvested by the Heartless. Pureblood Heartless are always dark in colour and often have abilities to do with phasing into and out of a solid form. Emblem Heartless are often more colourful and powerful that Pureblood Heartless, as they do contain a heart. The strength of an Emblem Heartless depends on the total power of the heart- or hearts put into it. Emblem Heartless have a wide variety of abilities, too.

Now, the Keyblade is a weapon created to try to keep the balance between light and darkness. They are capable of opening or closing any lock and will follow their master to the end. Keyblade wielders can all cast magic, but you don't have to be a keyblade wielder to use magic, assuming you're trained. Most hearts display a certain affinity for one particular element of magic, however- not all hearts do. My favoured element is lightning, but some people have an affinity for fire, ice, light, gravity and some, darkness...

My mission... Our mission as keyblade wielders of light is to prevent darkness from swallowing up the worlds. Right now, for me, that means finding and sealing up all of the tears in the worlds." Laz tells Zeph everything he needs to know.

"Do you want me to help you? With the tears, I mean- I can close up all of the ones on the path I'm already heading on, and a few more, if you like." Zeph says.

"You would do that for me? Okay, well- we have an even split if you deal with The Land Of Dragons, as well as all of the other worlds you wanted to visit." Laz tells Zeph.

"It's a deal! I'll do my best to help you out, Laz!" Zeph tells Laz.

"Thanks Zeph, I mean it. Remember, if you need to tell me something, just use your Wayfinder, okay?" Laz makes sure Zeph knows.

"I've got it. Let's go, then." Zeph says, and wishes his new friend goodbye.

"An unbreakable connection... I hope she was right..." Zeph mutters under his breath, looking at his wayfinder, just before he leaves the world, remembering one of his dreams about the three friends.

Zeph opens another portal and returns to the Lanes between, ready to head to the next world on his schedule- The Castle Of Dreams...

Chapter 4: An Unbreakable Connection

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When the flash of light from landing disappears, Zeph looks arounds his new environment, eager to continue his quest. He is in a room, but something doesn't seem right.

"Is this? No way..." Zeph thinks as he contemplates his surroundings. "Why am I so small? Oh well- I guess I'd better deal with it and move on".

Zeph focuses and attunes himself to the source of the darkness in this world, and sets off towards it.

He quickly realises a major issue with his plan- there is no way he could open the door at his current size.

"How do I get out of here?" Zeph questions as he continues to look around.

"Ah-ha!" Zeph notices a mouse hole in a corner of the room which leads into the wall.

"Hopefully I'll be able to get through here through there..." Zeph thinks as he runs towards the possible way forward.

When he reaches the entrance to the mouse hole, he notices a sound coming from inside it.

"Who's there?" Zeph shouts, summoning his Keyblade, ready to fight.

"Ven-ven? It has been long-long since I saw you!" A voice calls out from inside the area, which Zeph assumes must be the one who created the hole.

"Do you know Ventus? What's your name?" Zeph asks, as he enters the mouse hole.

"Ven-ven! Ven-ven? Who are you? I am Jacques, of course I know Ven-ven!" The mouse replies.

"My name's Zephyrus- call me Zeph-" Zeph starts to say.

"Where is Ven-ven? Do you want to meet Cinderellie? Why are you here, Zeph-zeph?" The mouse interrupts him.

"Cinder-ellie? You mean 'Cinderella', right? No, not really- right now I'm trying to find something... Although I'd be happy to meet Cinderella once I've found it." Zeph says, quickly, so that the mouse doesn't lose patience and interrupt him again.

"Find something? Jacques knows where everything in The Chateau is, so Zeph-zeph is sure to find it!" The mouse is clearly excited to be helping Zeph out.

"Okay then- Jacques... I'm looking for a tear- where the world itself seems to break open. Do you know where that is?"

"A tear...?-" The mouse starts to say...

"What was that?" Zeph asks, but he knows what it was really. He turns around, summoning his Keyblade.

"Heartless! Jacques- get back!" Zeph shouts, readying himself for a fight.

There aren't many Heartless to fight- it seems almost as if they are reluctant to appear at this size in this place.

"I think it-" Zeph starts to say.

"Let's go! Zeph-zeph is good!" Jacques interrupts again.

The mouse runs off, and Zeph has to run to keep up, asking Jacques to slow down, but is ignored.

The two of them make their way through a few rooms and some more mouse holes before reaching a larger one.

"The darkness is nearby here... I just hope nobody comes into this room before I close it off." Zeph thinks.

"Zeph-zeph! The tear is over there! You see?" Jacques tells Zeph, pointing at a small crack in the mirror on a dresser.

"He must not have known what I meant... Oh well." Zeph thinks.

"Thanks Jacques! It is dangerous here, so please, wait in the mouse hole until I come back." Zeph tells Jacques.

"Really?" The mouse looks disappointed.

"Really... I'm sorry, but I don't want to put you in danger." Zeph says, wondering whether or not Heartless would attack a mouse.

"Well... If you're sure- Zeph-zeph is strong! He will be able to stop the danger!" Jacques says, suddenly happy again.

"I'll be back soon- if those creatures from before attack you, don't try to fight- just run." Zeph is concerned , but quietly confident.

As Jacques runs off, Zeph turns into the room where they were standing.

"The tear is definitely here, but where is it in here?" Zeph thinks looking around the room.

"Maybe Jacques was right..." Zeph thinks, as he heads over to the dresser.

Suddenly some Heartless appear in his way.

"Looks like I'm heading in the right direction after all!" Zeph thinks, as he fights through the Heartless.

Once he reaches the mirror, a closer look at the crack shows something hidden behind it. There is that same, strange whirling darkness that the previous tear had in it.

"There you are!" Zeph thinks, summoning his keyblade to close the tear.

As if from nowhere, a huge mass of darkness rushes out of the tear, pushing Zeph back.

"Woah!" Zeph exclaims, as he is thrown over the edge of the dresser.

He manages to land on his feet, and, catching his breath, he looks up.

"Really? A giant one?" Zeph asks, annoyed "Wait... no- you're just making me fight a normal-sized, normal heartless at the size of a mouse... imaginative..." Zeph thinks.

The Heartless in question is a Shadow, incidentally one of the weakest Heartless there are- could it be that a tear so small cannot create beings as powerful as the larger ones?

Zeph struggles against his huge enemy, which doesn't seem to have any special abilities- it is just a normal shadow... Eventually manages to defeat it after a lot of shenanigans involving the Heartless disappearing into the floor. Almost as soon as the shadow falls, he is confronted by a second Heartless.

"Really?" He asks, readying himself to fight his new adversary, a Soldier this time. It does its best to kick Zeph, but clearly Heartless aren't designed to fight beings this small.

Once he finally defeats the normal-sized Heartless, Zeph hurries up to the tear and closes it.

"It's a shame I can't fix the mirror..." Zeph thinks, as he turns to go back to where he left Jacques.

"Wait- what was that?" Zeph wonders- he heard a very low-pitched sound almost like speaking from beyond the door. Shortly after, the handle starts to turn.

"That... Probably isn't good..." Zeph thinks, hurrying into cover, as a full-sized person comes through the door.

"What's this?" They say, running towards where Zeph is hiding. Zeph is able to get a closer look at the person now. She is a very ugly fairly young woman.

"That useless Cinderella! She's scratched this mirror as she was cleaning it!" The woman shouts.

Zeph assumes it would be a very bad idea to let himself be seen now, so he slips deeper into his hiding place- in between two books.

After a little wait, he sees the woman storm off in a huff, no doubt going to scold Cinderella.

Suddenly a rush of pain shoots through Zeph's head, as another vision enters his mind.

He remembers, first, Ven helping Jacques to make Cinderella a dress. The the other young man from the three friends... His name seems to have been etched away, replaced by hatred for somebody called "Xehanort". The young man sees Cinderella sitting, crying in a ruined version of the dress that Ven and Jacques made her. Next, Zeph sees Cinderella running away from some kind of party, wearing a completely different dress. One of her slippers falls off, but she doesn't go back to get it.

Finally, he remembers some men asking after a woman who wore a glass slipper from the perspective of the young woman from the three friends... "Aqua" was that her name?

When Zeph's vision ends, it feels more like waking up from a bad dream than coming back after recalling a memory. He is kneeling down, and was clearly clutching his head.

"These are getting worse... I guess they're useful, I just hope they don't get too bad..." Zeph thinks as he walks back towards the mouse hole.

"There we go, Jacques, I fixed it." Zeph says to the mouse, as he enters the mouse hole.

"Zeph-zeph do good-good! Now we go see Cinderellie?" Jacques replies.

"If she's open for visitors- sure!" Zeph hopes Cinderella might know more about Ventus or any of it, really.

"Then we will go!" Jacques says, as he turns around and dashes off.

"Never a chance to have a rest, huh?" Zeph asks, but the mouse has no ears for idle chatter, so Zeph hurries after Jacques.

Once they reach Cinderella's room, Zeph waits politely at the entrance.

"Why you stopping Zeph-zeph?" Jacques is surprised.

"I thought it would be rude to just go in there unannounced. This is her room and I don't know her..." Zeph says- the mouse clearly doesn't know about politeness or chivalry.

"I will tell Cinderellie you are coming, Zeph-zeph!" Jacques says, as he speeds out into Cinderella's room.

"Well I guess it was a bit much for a talking mouse to be polite, too... Oh well- who else would tell her?" Zeph thinks, sitting down for a quick rest.

"Zeph-zeph! I have told Cinderellie and now you come!" Jacques insists, grabbing Zeph's arm and trying to drag him up.

"Hey! I- Woah!" Zeph shouts, as the two of them topple out of the mouse hole and onto a wardrobe.

"Ouch! Jacques, seriously... I can get myself up..." Zeph says, rubbing his head, and pulling himself upright. "Jacques? Are you OK?" The mouse is still lying there, motionless.

"Don't you play games with me! Get up!" Zeph says, moving to help the mouse up.

"Boo!" Jacques shouts, just as Zeph reaches him. "Ha! I got you! Zeph-zeph is a scaredy mouse!".

"I'll show you what a not-so-scaredy cat looks like if you aren't careful, mister." Zeph says, giving the mouse a slight knock. The two of them head off into the room to see Cinderella.

Once they arrive, Cinderella is sitting on her bed, curled up. Zeph and Jacques down from the end table onto her bed.

"Cinderellie! I brought Zeph-zeph!" Jacques blurts out, excited for his two friends to meet.

"Oh, you did? Where is he?" She asks. Zeph touches her hand lightly, as if to ask for her to let him stand on it.

"Why hello there, little man... Why are you so small?" Cinderella asks, as she let's Zeph onto her hand and brings him up to her face.

"Hello Cinderella! My name's Zephyrus- call me Zeph! I have no idea why I'm so small, normally I'm about normal size..." Zeph introduces himself.

"Oh- well I always wondered what it would be like to be a mouse." She says.

"Well, being the size of a mouse is fairly similar to being normal size, it's just a bit more difficult to get around a house made for big people. Anyway I was wondering- you saw Ventus, didn't you?" Zeph asks, anxious to learn what he can, and then move on.

"Why yes, Ventus was a lot like you- small, at least. Why do you ask?" Cinderella doesn't know anything about the issues of the worlds, despite being one of the seven princesses of heart.

"It's just... I owe him something and I need to find him. Even if you don't know where he has gone, any information you have on people who wield a weapon like this" Zeph summons his keyblade, and continues, "would be much appreciated."

"Well... I saw 3 people a while ago... There was Ventus, another young man- older than him- called Terra. Let me think... Oh yes! There was a young woman called Aqua, too." Cinderella had seen all three of the friends.

"How long ago was this?" Zeph asks- he knows time is not consistent between worlds, he doesn't know how much time will vary.

"Let's see... Maybe a month or two ago?"Cinderella says

"Only a month? Wow..." Zeph thinks given how long it has been overall.

"Did you know where any of the 3 were headed?" Zeph asks.

"Ventus said he was looking for his friend... I'm not sure about the other two. Although Terra told me that dreams are a powerful force, and that I should never stop dreaming." Cinderella says, somewhat vacantly, clearly trying to remember more.

"Well... Thank you so much, Cinder-" Zeph starts to say, but is interrupted by a loud knock on the front door of the Chateau.

"Who could that be?"Cinderella asks, as Jacques dashes off to see who it is.

Suddenly, Zeph remembers the final part of his last vision.

"It's the prince again!" They can hear somebody shouting from downstairs.

"They're still looking for who that slipper fits, Cinderella..." Zeph says, somewhat accusingly.

"What do you mean?" Cinderella says.

"You... He's looking for you, that slipper is yours, is it not?" Zeph says.

"Why, yes, how do you know that?" Cinderella is shocked.

"I... I'm not sure, somehow I have the memories of other people as well as, agreeably not many of my own." Zeph tells her.

"I wish... I wish I could go down there to try on that slipper and show the Prince I'm who he's looking for." Cinderella says.

"You can. No matter how much your family tries to stop you, the prince won't. Remember what Terra said about dreaming. To dream is great, but what really sets a person out as amazing is if they can make those dreams a reality, Cinderella. There's no reason you shouldn't be allowed to at least try on that slipper, so go!" Zeph encourages her.

"Maybe you're right..." Cinderella is reluctant.

"Cinderella. Think for a moment- your life here is clearly a misery. This is probably your last chance, you'd be mad not to take it. It is up to you and only you to make your dreams an actuality. I'm no fairy godmother, but I think I can see what's right." Zeph continues to pry.

"Yes. You're right, thank you Zeph. I can bring you and Jacques with me, and we can have a happy life from now on." Cinderella says, getting up.

"That's the idea! Go!" Zeph shouts, as Cinderella puts him down and moves towards the door.

"I shan't be long." She says, leaving the room. By now Jacques is back.

"Zeph-zeph! You very good-good!" Jacques says.

"Thanks... I'm sorry Jacques..." Zeph says, failing to bring himself to look at the mouse.

"What do you mean you're sorry? Zeph-zeph do very good!" Jacques is very confused.

"I... I have to go from here- possibly forever and even if I do try to come back, I doubt I'll be able to find you or Cinderella again." Zeph says, still failing to look at Jacques.

"Well Zeph-zeph- you pursuing your dreams, right?" The mouse says, evidently a little disappointed, but not unhappy in any major way.

"Yeah... I'll be doing that. Because I'm the only one who can make them come true, right?" Zeph says, encouraged by the mouse's reaction.

"Right! Zeph-zeph can make all of his dreams come true!" Jacques says, cheerfully.

"You tell Cinderella she might not see me again, and that I hope she has a better life from now on, okay?" Zeph asks, as he puts his armour on, and readies his keyblade glider.

"Wow! Zeph-zeph changed a lot! Jacques will tell Cinderellie!" Jacques says, still cheerful.

"Goodbye Jacques, you're a great mouse, you know that? You enjoy yourself, too. I'll do my best to come see you again, but until then, just remember- so long as we remain in one another's heart, we can never be torn apart. You'll always be my friend- remember that." Zeph says, as he starts to move away on his glider, towards the open window.

"Zeph-zeph will always be my friend, too! Buh-bye Zeph-zeph! See you soon!" The mouse shouts after Zeph.

Once he is through the window, Zeph speeds up his glider and creates a portal just out of line of sight. Blinking tears out of his eyes, he goes forward, back into the Lanes Between, eager to continue his quest...

Chapter 5: An Unexpected Partnership

watch?v=wyAl7WOM8FQ&ab_channel=DanielA

Once Zeph lands in his next world- the Enchanted Dominion, he looks around him. He is in a dark and craggy area with a path which seems to lead somewhere.

"This is not at all like the memories I have of it... Oh well- it doesn't feel like I'm too far from the tear here." Zeph thinks, as he gets his bearings and starts to follow the path.

A slight tingle rushes through his mind, as he remembers, not through a vision, just a fact- he is going to Maleficent's castle.

"Maleficent... The dark fairy- I hope she isn't home, otherwise things could get complicated" Zeph thinks, as he hurries up to try to minimise the time he stays in this dangerous world.

Once he reaches the doors to the castle Zeph looks around.

"What do you think you're doing, little boy- Lady Maleficent is not takin' visitors right now!" A voice speaks from on top of the wall. Zeph looks up to see a strange bird-like creature with a bow looking down at him.

"Oh- I have urgent business, could I please come in?" Zeph asks the creature, hopefully.

"Well, no. I don't think so. You could try agin' later- I can put you on the audience list, if you like." The birdman replies.

"Pretty please? I could give you some munny or... Ask Maleficent about improving conditions for her workers. I mean... I'm coming through this door whether or not you let me." Zeph says, casually, not trying to seem hostile or intimidating.

"No, you aren't comin' through this door. It's locked up tight and completely indestructible."

"I'm not? Well that's news to me!" Zeph says, summoning his Keyblade and continues, threateningly, "Let me through the door."

"Ha! You think you can beat us with that... thing? We're the best soldiers in the kingdom!" The gatesman scoffs.

"Look, I don't want to hurt anybody. You're all in danger in that castle if I can't come in. There is something in there which only I can fix. If I can't fix it, then only disasters will unfold." Zeph says, doing his best to persuade the gatesman, continuing with "You don't want to be responsible for letting Maleficent be killed, do you?"

"Well... I guess not, I'll ask 'bout lettin' you in, but I don't think it's likely you'll be let in." The gatesman says, turning to walk away. "And don't you dare try to break in while I'm not here!"

"Don't worry! I won't!" Zeph shouts after the rather peculiar creature.

"If Heartless attack the castle from the inside they'll be done for... Please hurry, little crow thing..." Zeph thinks, sitting down.

After a reasonably short wait, the gatesman returns, holding some kind of crystal orb.

"Well, boy? What do you want here?" The orb speaks with an awe-inspiring female voice which Zeph assumes is that of Maleficent.

"Oh, Lady Maleficent- I come bearing a message with dire news about an impending disaster. Your castle, your life and your livelihood are all in danger!" Zeph says, trying to be as polite as possible.

"What is your name, boy?" Maleficent asks.

"My name is Zephyrus, your evilness. I request an audience with you as soon as possible." Zeph says.

Maleficent laughs- "Do you think this is some kind of game? Of course I'm in danger if I let some unknown boy into my castle. Fortunately for you, I have guards. Let him in, but keep at least four guards to his person and tie his hands whilst you're at it." Maleficent says.

"Thank you dearly, your evilness." Zeph says. He wait obediently four pig-like people come out, bind his hands with a rope, and take a hold of him to show him to Maleficent's throne room.

Once they arrive, they are joined by even more guards. Maleficent is currently facing away from the party.

"Lady Maleficent, ma'am the offender in question has be brought to audience." The largest of the pig-men, wearing the most decorated outfit says.

"Good, good." Maleficent says, turning around, "Ah, yes- Zephyrus, was it? Well? What is your message? Guards, leave us!" She continues.

Once the guards have left, the rope around Zeph's wrists burns away.

"You... Why did you free me like that?" Zeph asks.

"I think I know why you're here." Maleficent says, creating a circle of flames around Zeph.

"You do? Well, Maleficent. I'm not here to harm you in any way. Your actions in the past might have been evil, but you were deceived, so I forgive you." Zeph says.

"What, boy? How do you know of that?" Maleficent says.

Zeph summons his keyblade in a non-hostile way. "I just do- anyway, as it happens, I need your help."

"You- a Keyblade wielder need my help? Is this some cruel joke?" Maleficent is skeptical.

"Well, Maleficent, you are very experienced with darkness... and I think I might need to know how to protect myself against it. Also I need to learn how to wake up." Zeph says, somewhat unhappily.

"What do you mean 'wake up?'" Maleficent scoffs.

"Well- you sent Princess Aurora to sleep, right? Surely you must know how to wake people up from sleep like that, right?"

"I don't understand- you're clearly awake right now... In any case... I will help you." Maleficent says.

"You will?" Zeph is very surprised.

"'Tis as they always say- 'The enemy of your enemy is your friend' as of right now, I should help you. If I let Xehanort destroy all worlds, there won't be any left for me to conquer." Maleficent says.

"I'm sorry... If you do help me, I might use those very strategies you teach me against you in the future." Zeph says.

"Don't worry, boy, politics change with time, that is just a fact. However, I will not let you close the tear." Maleficent says.

"You won't? Why not? So long as-" Zeph starts to say.

"Do you have any idea the power that tear enables me to have? With it, after you defeat Xehanort, that power will be mine to use." Maleficent says.

"Maybe so, but you know I have to close that tear as a part of my mission, right?" Zeph says.

"Well, you can help me learn to control the power coming out of it. That will be the bargain for me helping you. You shall let me keep my tear and this world as mine, no matter what." Maleficent says.

"I guess I'll do my best to uphold that bargain, but how can you teach me resistance to darkness?" Zeph asks.

"I cannot- you must simply be exposed at a controlled level." Maleficent says.

"So you want to fight me? What do you think I am?" Zeph says, a little hostility in his voice.

"Watch your tone with me, boy- I could kill you any moment I wish. If you want me to help you, the only way would be a prac-" Maleficent starts to say, but is interrupted by a strange mass of darkness appearing in the room.

"Gah! The audacity these beasts have! Destroy them, boy, or face my wrath!" Maleficent commands Zeph.

"What do Heartless even want with my Keyblade?" Zeph thinks, as the dark flames around him clear, and he sets to work fighting back all the Heartless.

Once Zeph has defeated all of the Heartless, Maleficent gets up from her throne and beckons him to follow. They walk for a little while, before reaching a huge, empty room.

"This room would be perfect-" Zeph starts to say.

"Here is where our fight will be staged." Maleficent says, but Zeph has run off towards one end of the room.

"Here's the tear, how am I supposed to close it without her noticing?" Zeph thinks.

"If you even think about closing that tear, boy, I will make you wish you were never born." Maleficent says, in her normal tone.

"So we fight here? How do I know you won't kill me?" Zeph asks- he is still not entirely sure of Maleficent, given her actions in the past.

"You'll just have to trust me..." Maleficent laughs, slightly manically. Her body starts to emanate a faint blackness. "Behold! The po-" Suddenly a dark tendril appears from the tear, and grabs a hold of Maleficent. Her eyes glaze over, and darkness seeps out of her towards the tear.

"Maleficent!" Zeph shouts, as he jumps forward and slices the tendril clean in two with his keyblade. The fairy collapses, and Zeph quickly and carefully moves her to somewhere safe, and turns to face the tear.

"I know you're going to try and stop me..." He says to the tear, as he walks towards it, already in a fighting stance. Sure enough, as he approaches the tear, a huge amount of darkness seeps out and starts to condense into a solid form.

"You stole some of her power, didn't you? This could get complicated..." Zeph says under his breath.

The darkness finishes forming a giant husk which looks something between a dragon and a giant dog, then a slight light appears from the tear, and a glow envelopes the husk. The Heartless emblem appears on the chest of the beat, and it solidifies with a huge roar. The creature runs at Zeph and hits him with a massive paw, sending him flying across the room.

"Gah! How am I supposed to do this alone?" Zeph thinks, as he lands hard on his side, rolling along a little way.

"An unbreakable connection!" "We'll always be together, so long as we remember one another..." "Promises to keep!" Many different voices all rush through Zeph's head, and he remembers his Wayfinder.

"The Wayfinder!" Zeph thinks, remembering how it can draw on the strength of his friendship with others. He takes out his Wayfinder and clutches it to his chest.

"Laz... Lend me a little of your strength." Zeph thinks, as his Wayfinder glows.

Suddenly, Zeph feels revived and seems to know many abilities different to his own.

He quickly gets up, and armed with new abilities, moves to attack his foe.

"Thunder!" He shouts, holding his Keyblade to the sky, and a lightning bolt strikes the Heartless, stunning it for a couple of seconds- an opening long enough for Zeph to weaken it a bit.

The fight continues for a while, and after a few minutes, Zeph feels the power given to him by the Wayfinder ebbing away, his abilities returning to normal.

"No! How can I beat this thing without magic?" Zeph thinks, panicking a little, as he parries away a blow from the giant Heartless. He notices that although his powers are returning to normal, his injuries from before aren't returning.

"I guess it will have to do..." Zeph thinks, charging in to try to end the fight as soon as possible. The Heartless takes a swing at him, but he is able to predict where the paw will be, and jumps up off of it, catapulting high into the air. Swinging his Keyblade high, and using the momentum from his fall, Zeph brings his Keyblade down hard onto the monster's head. The force of the blow is strong enough that Keyblade cuts the Heartless's head clean in two, and the creature disappears in a puff of darkness, a heart emerging from the centre of it and floating into the sky.

Zeph notices that by now, Maleficent has woken up, and had watched some of Zeph's fight with the giant Heartless.

"Please, Maleficent, may I close the tear?" Zeph asks, worriedly.

"Yes! yes! Do it! The blasted things won't be stealing my power again! To think, that beast could have killed me!" Maleficent shouts, obviously incensed.

"Thank you, sorry I didn't help you sooner." Zeph says, as he goes to close the tear. He points at the rupture in the world's fabric with his Keyblade, wondering what created it. The beam of light shoots forth and seals the tear.

"You fool!" Zeph hears Maleficent shout, and turns around to see the darkness of a destroyed heartless fading away.

"Thanks... you saved me." Zeph says, clearly very surprised.

"Of course I did- I couldn't let you be killed by-" Maleficent starts to say.

"I knew it! There is some light in you after all! You do have some goodness in you heart!" Zeph joyfully says.

"No, boy it's just-" Maleficent starts to say.

"Well done Maleficent! I'm proud of you!" Zeph says, cheerfully.

"You foolish boy! I only saved you because I know you will be important to defeating Xehanort in the end! I care nothing for you! I don't how much of this you intended to happen, and it doesn't matter to me! Just get out of my castle and leave this world! I will not help you any more, but I have permitted you to carry out your mission. If you wish to complain at me, then you may force my hand, but I am giving you this chance to leave." Maleficent is very insistent that she is pure evil.

"Thank you so much, Maleficent. I might see you again, but until then, goodbye." Zeph says.

"Yes, yes, goodbye Zephyrus. Now, Begone!" Maleficent says, as dark flames envelope Zeph, casting him out into the Lanes Between, but keeping him protected for long enough for him to put his armour on and get on his Keyblade glider. Unphased by the sudden transition, Zeph heads off towards Radiant Garden, a world reported to have two tears in it...

Chapter 6: Old Enemies, New Friends

watch?v=L2gjL_jkl0s&ab_channel=Everglow

Once Zeph has landed, he looks around, getting his bearings in this huge city world. He seems to be a ways away from the city, on a huge cliff overlooking some strange castle. Zeph quickly pinpoints the darkness being released from one of the tears, and turns to leave. He walks towards the pass leading back towards the city, suddenly a light rises up from the floor, creating a wall blocking his path. Zeph turns around, summoning his keyblade, ready for a fight.

He is faced by some white, writhing humanoid figure.

"Heart... No- not Heartless. What are you?" Zeph asks the creature. It stands there facing him, making no move to attack. Suddenly a stab of pain shoots through Zeph's head, as another vision plays through his mind.

He remembers the first boy from his dreams, the visions are becoming clearer now, and many associations between people are starting to clear. Zeph now knows this boy's name is Sora- Zeph's damaged heart is starting to give true meaning to all the memories inside it.

The vision depicts Sora where Zeph is now, being confronted by a man with blue hair, wearing a black cloak. The man tells Sora that every Heartless he slays only helps Sora's enemies. The man then seems to summon many Heartless which all attack. The vision fades, and then changes to one of a different boy- one who looks almost the same as Ventus, but not quite. This boy is facing a being identical to the one Zeph saw. "Nobody" The word flashes into Zeph's mind, the only sound in the second part of his vision. The word sounds like it is "Nobody" with a capital "N". The vision fades, and Zeph is lying on the ground, his head still stinging.

"This is really starting to get out of hand..." Zeph thinks, as he drags himself up worn out.

The Nobody has disappeared and Zeph cannot see any other hostiles, but he doesn't feel like he's alone. He gets up, and immediately Heartless of various types appear. Zeph blows a sigh of irritation, and stands up to fight his enemies.

Zeph fights and fights, but there doesn't seem to be an end to the Heartless' assault.

"Why are there so many of you? Leave me alone!" Zeph shouts, getting increasingly tired and annoyed. He has started to slow down, his fatigue will soon make him unable to fight. Becoming really worried, Zeph fumbles around to find the point where his Wayfinder is strapped to his belt, but can't quite get a hold on it, and drops it off of its strap. The Heartless advance, creating a wall between him and his Wayfinder.

"Trying to cut me off, are you?" Zeph asks, "It isn't that simple, you monsters could never understand friendship!"

Zeph charges forward and cuts down most of the wall of Heartless, but each one he defeats is replaced by another two, at least. The burst of energy of his short counter attack has completely worn Zeph out, and he staggers back, the Heartless pushing him towards the cliff edge.

"If I can't do something soon, they'll take my heart for sure..." Zeph thinks, frantically searching his head for an idea as to what to do.

As Zeph is backed fully onto the edge, a few pebbles fall down from beneath his feet.

"I'm sorry Laz- it doesn't look like I can hold up my end of our promise..." Zeph whispers. Suddenly a pain stabs into Zeph's head, followed by a short vision.

He sees Sora with his silver-haired friend, Riku.

"Giving up already? C'mon, Sora! You're stronger than that!" Riku says.

Suddenly the vision starts to have a faded, different image layered on top of it. Zeph cannot see any detail in this vision, but the slight memory makes him feel sad beyond belief- is this one of his memories? Why does just the thought of it choke his heart to near death?

The vision clears with a flash, and Zeph is back in Radiant Garden. He summons his Keyblade, unable to fight back, Zeph focuses on blocking the Heartless' attacks.

"What's going on! Why are the Heartless back- and why here?" Zeph hears a male voice he doesn't recognise.

"I don't know, Leon, but what's important now is that we take them down." Another voice says.

"This is where Sora fought Sephiroth, isn't it, Cloud?" The first voice speaks again.

"That doesn't matter right now! These Heartless are clearly attacking somebody- we should help as quickly as we can." The second voice says.

Zeph has been pushed down to his knees, so can't see past the Heartless, but can hear the two men fighting their way through.

"Hello? Is anybody there?" One of the voices asks.

"I..." Zeph tries to speak, but is too weak, even for that.

"There! I think I see somebody!" Zeph can't distinguish the voices apart, he is hanging on by a thread, completely worn out.

Zeph sees a path cleared through the Heartless by the two men, and they see him.

"Can you reach? Give me your hand!" The brown-haired man says, reaching out to Zeph. A slight sting runs through Zeph's head, as he sees Riku holding his hand out to Sora. The pain wakes Zeph up enough for him to grab his saviour's hand.

"There! I've got him, Cloud! Let's get him someplace safe!"

"I'll hold them off! You need to hurry!" The other man says.

"I... My..." Zeph tries to speak, his throat is dry and he can't really speak.

"Don't worry, we're here to help you- can you stand?" The man asks. "My name's Leon. Are you hurt?"

"I... T- Yes." Zeph just about manages to speak up, trying to pull himself back up.

"Damn it! He's hurt! It doesn't look like he can stand up." Leon says.

"Leon- go and get Aerith, I'll keep him safe." The second man says, coming nearer.

"My name's Cloud, I'm Leon's friend. We're going to get you out of here. Don't worry about introducing yourself here, just try to recover your strength."

The Heartless still seem to be attacking near endlessly, but their numbers seem to be dwindling. Leon lets go of Zeph's hand and hurries away, taking down as many Heartless as possible as he leaves. Too tired to do anything else, Zeph lets sleep take over...

"Cloud! We're back!"

"Good! Hurry!"

"Can you help him?"

"I think so..."

"Quickly, I don't know how long we have!"

"Heal!"

A flash of light rushes through Zeph's eyes, and he gasps for breath.

"I think it's working!"

Zeph feels new energy rushing around his body, restoring his strength.

"Leave... Me... ALONE!" Zeph shouts, as he gets back up, light exploding out from his body, vanquishing all of the remaining Heartless.

"Woah! What the hell?"

Zeph is worn out again, but manages to inch forward enough to grab his wayfinder.

"We need to be quick, I'll carry him- Leon, you focus on stopping any more Heartless getting through. Aerith... Just be you."

Zeph feels something lifting him up and starting to carry him away, he manages to open his eyes.

"Th-thank you." Zeph says, and then promptly falls asleep.

"I think he's going to be okay now... Oh! He seems to be waking up!" Zeph hears a female voice saying. He opens his eyes and tries to sit up.

"Easy, there- you're not in good shape." The woman Zeph assumes to be Aerith is standing over him, and lightly presses him back down into the bed he's lying in.

"Thanks for saving me" Zeph says, his voice hoarse and weak.

"Could somebody bring me some water?" Aerith asks and goes back to speaking with Zeph, "No problem! You looked like you needed help, so we helped you."

Leon come over with a glass of water.

"Here you go. Have a drink, then you can tell us all about it." He says.

Zeph gratefully accepts the glass, and drains its entire contents very quickly.

"Ugh... That's better- thank you so much." Zephs says.

"No problem." Leon and Aerith both say.

"Right now you need to stay in bed, but if you're okay with it, could I ask you some questions?" Leon asks.

"Fire away..." Zeph says.

"Well, to start- what's your name?"

"Zephyrus, call me Zeph."

"What was going on back there? You're a Keyblade wielder, right?"

"Yes, and I don't know. There were just so many Heartless... I fought for hours and hours, but they never stopped appearing."

"Do you have any idea why there are so many?"

"Yes, this world, Radiant Garden contains two tears in its fabric... Through these tears, heartless can appear easily. It's just a hunch, but I think somebody is trying to get to the hearts of each world for some reason..."

"I think that will do for now. Anyway- I should introduce us properly. My name is Leon and this is Aerith. She's our best healer, and has been making sure you're okay since we brought you back. The other guy I was with is called Cloud, us two went to investigate where a light came out of the sky and found you."

"Thanks for helping me out, if you hadn't gotten there I would've been finished."

"No problem. What's this? You had it in your hand when I brought you back here." Leon holds out Zeph's Wayfinder.

"Oh, that's my Wayfinder. It lets me stay connected to my friends no matter where I am."

"Why do you need a trinket to do that?"

"It allows us to communicate and use the strength that connects our hearts together to grow more powerful."

"That sounds amazing, where did you get it?"

"I... Don't... Argh!"

"What's wrong?"

Zeph's head is in agony as his memories try to make themselves known, but fail.

"I... My head... I'm fine, don't worry."

"You don't seem it!" Aerith says. "Did you lose your memory or something?"

"Yes... Most of it, anyway. The strange thing is that it seems to have been replaced with other people's memories..."

"Do you need us to help you any more?" Leon asks.

"No, I think I'm alright now thanks again. I'm sure we'll see one another again, but I need to close the tear."

"I'll come with you- looks like you could use some help" Leon offers.

"I don't want to put you in danger, but if you really want to help, I'd be happy to have you along." Zeph says.

"I've had my share of fights in the past, I think I'll be able to hold my own."

"Well, I guess we should be going, then. Thanks again."

"You two come back safe, now, okay?" Aerith says.

"We'll be fine- he's a Keyblade wielder, remember?"

And with that, the two set off on their on their mission...

Chapter 7: New Enemies, Old Friends

watch?v=UtVWw7U3sFg&ab_channel=BrawlBRSTMs3

Zeph and Leon make their way up a staircase and around a turn.

"We're headed towards the bailey, the footing gets a little treacherous there, so be careful." Leon says.

"Thanks for the heads up... Look! Heartless!"

The two look over to the area below the staircase. There are little orbs appearing, moving towards the Heartless and exploding on contact.

"Don't worry about them- the town's defence system should take them out. Right now we need to stop the source, like you said." Leon tells Zeph.

"Right! Well, we'd better keep moving, then."

The two move on towards the Bailey and the tear...

They walk along a short way before reaching a plateau with a staircase on their right.

"Be careful with the stairs, keep to the blocks nearest a support. We keep meaning to repair the staircase, but we simply haven't had time." Leon cautions Zeph.

"Sure, no problem, thanks again." Zeph says, cheerfully.

Suddenly a small group of Heartless appears behind them. The two equip their weapons, and get ready for a fight.

The Heartless are no match for the combined might of Leon and Zeph, and the town's defence system helped out, too.

"Right, let's hurry, looks like the Heartless are even more tenacious now I'm here." Zeph says. The two hasten down the staircase and take a right at the bottom, leading towards a hill with an old castle at the top.

As they hurry up the hill, Zeph and Leon are attacked by increasing numbers of increasingly powerful Heartless. The two work well together, providing defence for one another whilst both striking out at the Heartless. It seems that trying to defeat all of the Heartless in one place right now would be close to impossible.

"You know, Leon- you're really good! I've never seen anybody fight quite like you do." Zeph says, as they move slowly up the hill, fighting back the Heartless.

"All that really shows is that I've been in a few too many fights in my time, thanks anyway. You're not bad either, but I think your technique needs just a spot of work before you'll be a Keyblade master."

"I'll take that as a compliment. I've not done too much fighting, so it makes sense I still have a lot to learn."

After a few more minutes' slow movement up the hill, they reach a platform made of metal where the Heartless don't seem to attack.

"Looks like we can have a rest here. Tell me when you're ready." Leon says.

"Sure. I- Argh!" Zeph starts to say, but is overcome by an intense pain in his head.

In his vision, Zeph remembers Ventus coming to this castle, but it is different. In the vision it is tidy and not falling down. Ventus follows his friend, a mouse, to the entrance where the guards stop Ventus from entering. Next he sees Aqua in the same place, she meets a little girl named "Kairi" who is with her grandmother. Aqua senses the this girl- Kairi has a heart of pure light. Zeph remembers his dreams- Kairi was one of the seven Princesses Of Heart who were kidnapped by Maleficent on Sora's first adventure. Zeph's knowledge is growing, but without context- he doesn't know what any of it means.

"Zeph! Are you okay?"

Zeph wakes up, he is on the floor, again, clutching his head.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. That... it just happens to me when the memories come out of my heart..."

"Your own ones or the ones of different people?"

"They're never my own, but they're always related to where I am..."

"Sounds like it could come in handy."

"It does, sometimes."

"Are you ready to move on?"

"I'd just like to sit down for a few minutes, get my brain back into gear."

"Sure, it'll be less time and risk resting here than if we got beaten and had to run away."

Zeph sits down for a few minutes, waiting for the pain in his head to subside. Once it is clear, he gets up and walks over to Leon, who is looking out over the rails.

"What happened to this place?" Zeph asks

"Bad things. Radiant Garden was called the world of light, for a time... Somebody tried to abuse the light, and the world fell into darkness. Sora was able to restore Hollow Bastion back to being the world it once was, but the town itself was in ruins. We were just starting repairs when the Heartless started showing up again."

"That sounds horrible- where did you go when the world fell into darkness?"

"Where everyone else goes- to Traverse Town."

The name triggers a sudden stab of pain in Zeph's head as he remembers Sora's various trips to Traverse Town and, for some reason, Zeph gets the feeling Sora is there right now...

"Traverse Town, huh? I guess you at least had somewhere to stay..."

"I'd rather not talk about it- I have enough on my mind already."

"Sure- let's go, I think I'm rested up now."

The two walk on, through the door leading inside the mountain, and into the castle.

Once inside, Zeph and Leon find themselves in a maze of corridors.

"This could get tricky..." Leon says.

"Why's that?"

"This corridors are falling apart, so the way could be blocked, and we can't really clear rubble."

"Really? Well, hopefully we'll be fine." Zeph says, distantly.

"What's on your mind?"

"I can only tell which direction the tear is in- it's like a maze in here. It could take ages before we manage to find the way..."

"We'll be- heads up!"

As Leon starts to speak, Heartless appear around them. Leon and Zeph each get ready to fight their assailants.

"Look! They seem to be appearing further back and moving normally to get here! If we follow them back, it might not be so hard after all!" Zeph notices, as the two advance slowly, back to back and surrounded.

The two follow the trail set out by the Heartless and eventually reach a small door in the wall.

"It's through here, Leon." Zeph says.

"Go on ahead, I'll make sure they don't flank you through here. Just come back alive, okay?"

"Really? Okay, then, Leon. I'll do my best- you don't die either."

"I'll be fine, now go!"

Zeph walks through the door and into a ransacked study. He looks around quickly, there are notes all over the walls. Zeph feels there isn't time to stop to read them, so moves on. He is now walking through corridors made of metal. He turns a few corners and reaches a room with a huge computer in it.

"What's this?" Zeph thinks, walking over, and checking the display.

It reads "Unknown error, please try again...".

"Try what again?" Zeph thinks- the computer doesn't seem to be doing anything.

Zeph moves on quickly when he starts to feel a slight twinge in his head- he doesn't want to let himself collapse into a vision while Leon is in danger.

After a little more walking, Zeph reaches a large balcony overlooking a huge block of computer hardware which expands as far as the eye can see. It looks like it all wires up to the display in the room Zeph was just in.

"There you are!" Zeph mutters, as he notices the tear and runs towards it.

Once he reaches the centre of the balcony, one of the same light walls blocks the exit and strange high-tech looking Heartless appear all around him.

As Zeph fights the Heartless, he notices they seem almost digital- could the proximity to the computers be affecting the tear and the Heartless it produces?

After defeating all of the Heartless surrounding him, Zeph walks towards the tear, ready to close it. Suddenly a giant, more high-tech looking Heartless appears in front of him, and takes flight just back from the edge of the balcony, rendering Zeph unable to attack it. He notices something starting to spin very quickly on the lower middle of the Heartless, and instinctively makes himself as small as possible, covering his head. He hears the Heartless open fire at a rate which seems like it could tear anything to shreds, and waits for the pain of his death.

Zeph stands there for a few more moments, then opens his eyes. He can't help but admire this creature's ability to hit everywhere except its target. Carefully, Zeph uncurls and summons his Keyblade, throwing it with all his might at his enemy. His keyblade tears through the Heartless, and it seems that whatever force the Heartless was using to fly has been impeded. Zeph re-summons his Keyblade back into his hands, and grips it tightly, waiting for the Heartless to come into striking range. Zeph continues to fight the Heartless for a few more minutes before, eventually the glowing lines covering it turn red and flicker. In a last-ditch attempt to defeat Zeph, the Heartless charges straight at him, and looks as if it's about to explode. Zeph quickly dodges underneath the Heartless's legs, and jumps onto his Keyblade glider, flying a short distance away. The Heartless explodes in a surprisingly pretty burst of light, then the tear is silent. Zeph quickly closes it and hurries back towards Leon.

Zeph hurries through the study and bursts through the door, and within a few moments, is back at Leon's side.

"Leon! I closed the tear, hopefully the Heartless will stop coming now."

"Just in time, too- good job, Zeph"

The two finish of the remaining Heartless, and then... Nothing...

"They've stopped..." Leon says.

"That means..."

"What is it, Zeph?"

"You know I said there were two of those tears in this world earlier? For the Heartless to have stopped completely, the other one must've been closed, too."

"You didn't close that one already?"

"No, I think my friend- another keyblade wielder is here, too."

"Really? Any idea where they are?"

"I could ask him."

Zeph gets his Wayfinder out and holds it to his chest.

"Laz, where are you?"

"Oh, Zeph- hello. I'm in Radiant Garden, I just closed one of the tears. I figured you could use a little help."

"Thanks, I'm in Radiant Garden, too. I just closed the other tear- could you come and meet us in town?"

"Sure, I might take a little bit to get there, but it'd be good to see you and have a bit of a catch up."

"Okay, well- see you later"

Zeph puts his Wayfinder away, and turns back to Leon.

"Any luck?" Leon asks.

"Yup, he's coming to town so that we can catch up about how we're getting on closing the tears, and stuff. I'm sure he'd be happy to meet you, too."

"Sure... Let's head back, then."

The two walk off through the blissfully empty corridors back to town.

Once they arrive, they see Laz standing in the square, waiting for Zeph to arrive.

"Laz!" Zeph shouts, running over to greet his friend.

"Hello Zeph, how have you been?" Laz says.

"I've been pretty much okay- nothing has gone majorly wrong yet, at least."

"That's good to hear- don't put yourself into too much danger, okay?"

"Of course, I would never-"

"I mean it, Zeph. You're important in so many more ways than you know. Running blindly into danger is foolish. Remember your Wayfinder and also- brute force is only going to get you so far. You should really learn magic- go to the Mysterious Tower near Twilight Town. Once you're there, tell Master Yen Sid I sent you."

"O...kay... Laz- what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm just a bit worried- the darkness feels closer everywhere, I think the tears are growing, so we need to hurry."

"Really?"

"Really. Anyway- who's your friend?" Laz asks, gesturing to Leon, who has been walking slowly over.

"I'm Leon, got Zeph out of a bad way earlier and helped him get to the tear. I live here, so there's no need to thank me- he helped me more than I helped him."

"Well, greetings, Leon. Still, thank you for keeping Zeph safe, you've kept me out of a lot of trouble."

"No problem- Laz, was it?"

"Lezalit- Zeph calls me Laz. Anyway, I had really better be going, so farewell. The Heartless should stop appearing once we've both left."

"Thanks, see you soon."

"Laz! Where are you going, what do you mean "trouble"?" Zeph shouts after Laz, who has gotten onto his Keyblade glider, and is moving away rapidly.

"I'm sure you'll find out soon if you're supposed to, but if you aren't supposed to know, you should just accept that, Zeph." Leon says when Laz doesn't respond.

"I guess so... I should probably be going, too. Take care, Leon- say thanks again to Cloud and Aerith to me. Thank you, too."

"No problem, if you ever need anything from us, feel free to stop by... and if you get another one of those Wayfinders, I'd like to have a proper look at one."

"I'll keep that in mind. Anyway, see you soon, I'm sure- bye and thanks again."

"See you." Leon says, turning away.

Zeph puts his armour back on, and get on his Keyblade glider, creating a portal. Leaving via this threshold, Zeph turns towards Twilight Town and heads to the Mysterious Tower...

Chapter 8: The Magic of Knowledge

watch?v=I2qUP2FKKgk&ab_channel=PoloDaReaper

Zeph lands at the foot of a rather tall and very mysterious tower. He walks towards the entrance and has a little look around. There doesn't seem to be anything here except the tower. Zeph reaches the large doors and knocks politely before going inside.

The inside of the tower doesn't seem very interesting, either- there is a spiral staircase on one of the sides, but that's about it. Zeph decides to take the stairs up higher. The staircase seems to go on for a very long time, but eventually, Zeph seems to reach an intermediate floor.

"Huh, this place seems a bit weird..." Zeph thinks, as he approaches the middle of the room. Suddenly Heartless appear around him, but something seems different about them- they seem slightly ethereal.

Zeph fights all of the creatures away after a short battle, wondering if it was some kind of test. A staircase appears in front of him, and Zeph continues his climb, up into the unknown.

After another long climb, Zeph reaches a small door made out of simple wood. He starts to knock, but before his hand touches the door a voice interrupts him.

"Come in, young one- you have much to learn."

Slightly taken aback, Zeph opens the door and walks through into the small room.

"Greetings, young man- my name is Yen Sid, what is yours?"

"Greetings, Master Yen Sid. My name is Zephyrus. I-"

"You come seeking knowledge, do you not? I can give much of the information you seek"

"Yes, sir, thank you, sir."

Yen Sid beckons Zeph over to his table in the centre of the room, and Zeph walks over.

"Well, Zephyrus, there is much to learn, so if you are supposed to meet anybody else soon, you should do so first."

"No, sir, I'm ready to learn just now."

"Okay then, boy. Firstly, as I'm sure Lezalit told you, the Heartless come in two base forms. The Purebloods focus on gathering hearts, whilst the Emblem ones are the more aspiring type. Now, I'm sure he didn't tell you what happens to the hearts once the Keyblade has destroyed the Heartless carrying them. Each and every heart will return to a realm known as Kingdom Hearts. Unfortunately we know very little about Kingdom Hearts, however I doubt it will be good if this power fell into Xehanort's hands."

"Sir, who exactly is Xehanort?"

"Ah, Xehanort is our enemy- he seeks to use the X-Blade to send all the worlds into darkness. I am at a loss for why, exactly. It is up to us- the guardians of the light to prevent that from happening, no matter the cost. The X-Blade can only be created if certain conditions are fulfilled, however. Currently Xehanort requires another heart of pure darkness before he has any chance. It is our current mission to prevent Xehanort spreading darkness into the worlds so that he may find a suitable heart. Up until now, the only enemies you have come across are the Heartless, however, there is another type you must be aware of- Nobodies. Nobodies- that is, with a capital "N"- are the husk left behind when a powerful heart leaves a body. Although similar to Heartless, they come in very different forms- often Nobodies have peculiar abilities, some of which are similar to those of Pureblood Heartless. Don't be fooled- most Nobodies are even more powerful than Emblem Heartless. The most important thing to note about Nobodies is that, provided the person whose Nobody they are is strong enough,sometimes they look almost exactly like the person they come from and have very similar abilities. It is these- the "True" Nobodies, if you like, which are the most dangerous, especially as they grow older, as the eventually regain a heart. I understand that you wish to learn the ways of magic from me, too?"

"Yes, please, sir- if you would permit me."

"Alas, I cannot teach you magic myself, but I can awaken your heart's ability to use it. You seem to have an innate affinity for wind magic, so you will likely be able to cast that by default. Now, give me your hand."

Zeph gives the old master his hand. After a short wait, Zeph feels a slight tingling sensation run up his arm.

"There, whatever barrier was stopping you from being able to use magic should be gone now."

"Thank you, master Yen Sid."

"My pleasure. Now- it seems you must hurry, as the tears seem to be growing as more darkness flows through them. Goodbye, Zephyrus. Remember what you have learnt here today, it may well prove invaluable at a later date."

"I'll do my best, thank you again, Master. I'm sure I'll see you again soon- farewell."

"Farewell Zephyrus. Oh, and before you go, you needn't worry about having a long climb back up here- the Tower has tested you and deems you worthy. Goodbye."

Zephyrus nods, waves, and heads back down the stairs, which now only seem to be the length of the ones in the entrance way. Once down the much shorter climb, Zeph heads outside, puts his armour on, and leaves this world on his Keyblade glider, wondering if it ever had a tear in it...

Chapter 9: Discomfort

watch?v=zTFCLPrzemU&ab_channel=BrawlBRSTMs3

Zeph's next target world is The Land of Dragons. Once he has landed, Zeph is confronted straight away by two soldier-looking men.

"They look like people now? No matter- begone, monster!" Says the shorter one.

Zeph looks around, trying to see what they're talking about, then when they charge at him, he realises who they meant. Quickly jumping out of the way, Zeph starts to speak,

"Hey! No, I'm not a Heartless- I'm a human, just like y-"

"They speak, too! Clearly it tries to trick us! No matter, we will outsmart it!" The short man seems to be extremely aggressive.

"You aren't list-" Zeph starts to say, but is interrupted by a swift slice from one of the men. Zeph just manages to dodge this attack, but makes no move to strike back.

"You know, I'm not sure he is one of them..." The other taller and fatter man says.

"No, I'm not a Heartless! I want to help you get rid of them!" Zeph says, trying to keep an even head.

"Don't fall for its trick! If we let it live, all will be lost." The first man speaks again.

"Fine then, I am one of them. Come on- kill me. You'll see that I bleed just like you do."

The hostile man looks confused, and is clearly thinking hard- has Zeph's bluff worked?

"There's no way one of them would just let you kill it! He's a person- I'm telling you!" The second man tries to convince the first. Zeph sits down and closes his eyes.

"But it just said it was one of them! Why would a person say that...? But only a person would say that... Okay- just this once, we'll let him live. Let's take him to Mulan- she'll know what to do." The aggressive man finally decides Zeph is not a threat, and the two pick Zeph up and drag him away towards a small village.

"Mulan! We have something important to show you!" The aggressive man shouts at a house.

"Hello? Who's there?" A female voice calls out.

"It's Yao! We've captured one of those monsters! It says it wants to help us!"

"You what?" The voice calls again, surprised. Zeph hears shuffling from the house and shortly afterwards, a young woman appears at the door.

"Where is the monster then?" The woman who must be Mulan says.

"Right here, if you're to believe them, ma'am." Zeph says.

"They thought you were one of them?" Mulan asks, surprised.

"Well, err... He did kind of appear... Umm... Come to think of it he really is nothing like them..." The aggressive man who Zeph assumes to be called Yao says.

"Yao- you should really learn to control your temper. Anyway- who is our prisoner?" Mulan asks.

"Zephyrus, guardian of light, Keyblade wielder and general nice guy at your service. Call me Zeph- everybody else does." Zeph cheerfully says, feeling a need to continue to show-up Yao.

"A Keyblade... wielder- like Sora?"

"Preciseley- I'm here to help put a stop to the Heartless' attack, but somebody tried to kill me, then kidnapped me."

"I fear I must apologise for the impudence of my colleagues, Zeph. The situation has gotten much worse recently, it has even been reported that Shan Yu has returned from the dead, but this has not been confirmed."

"Thanks for the apology, Mulan- you needn't take such a formal tone with me- I'm nobody special. N-Nobody special? Whatever..." Zeph feels a need to joke around to show that he isn't offended.

"Now, how do you propose we stop the Heartless?" Mulan asks.

"First, could I have some breathing room, please?" Zeph asks, and the men release him. "Well, this world contains a tear in its fabric- leading to a dark void in the fracture of the world's heart. Through tears like these, creatures of darkness appear quickly to spread that darkness. If I cannot close this tear, then all hope for this world is lost."

"That sounds... Important... Okay- I've decided I will come to help you- I know the layout of this area better than most." Mulan says.

"You don't have to- I'll be leading you into danger." Zeph says.

"Yes, but you have no responsibility to here, and I do- it'd be wrong to send you into danger alone, when it is up to me and the army to defend this land." Mulan explains.

"I would be honoured to have you along, Mulan. Now, we must hurry- the tear only grows larger as more darkness pushes through."

Mulan quickly goes to pick up her sword and tell everyone she's leaving on urgent business. Once she is back, the two leave, the other two soldiers conspicuously silent.

"Cowards..." Mulan says, as Zeph and Mulan travel.

"Do you know where we're going, Zeph?" She asks.

"Well... I know which way to go, not where we're going, as such."

"Right now we're heading towards the old palace, it was quick to fall, the monsters seemed to be appearing inside the palace in huge numbers."

"Thanks, Mulan- you've told me just what I needed to know. That means the tear has probably opened inside the palace. I'm sorry I couldn't get here sooner. Do you know how far we are from this palace?"

"Well, normally it would take a few hours on horseback, but on foot with all the enemies, I'd expect at least a day's walk. I don't want to risk riding on horseback, the horses don't deserve it."

"A whole day? This might call for a bit of... Inventive strategy..."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll see... Where's the armoury around here?" Zeph asks.

"The... armoury? Well, we store the firecracker launchers just around the corner."

"Perfect." Zeph says, the glint of a plan in his eyes.

After a few minutes, Zeph comes out of the shed, his Keyblade glider made quite a bit bigger by all of the firecracker launchers tied to it.

"What... is... that...?" Mulan asks, very confused.

"It's our one way ticket to the palace..."

"Why the firecrackers? And why are the rockets tied to the launchers? Are you trying to kill us?"

"No! It's simple- take out the explosives, tie the rocket on and then bam! You have a booster!"

"So this is to make that... Thing go faster? No, I won't ride that."

"Fine... I'll get a horse carriage and use that... Would you ride in that?"

"That seems like a much better idea that that... kite..."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever... In that case, we'll need more firecrackers and rope, please. I'll go and get a cart."

Zeph goes to the stables and retrieves Mulan's carriage.

"Right- here we go, let's get this puppy set up."

The two of the work together, tying up firecrackers, removing the explosives from them and attaching some to the cart, and storing the rest inside.

After a few minutes' more work, they are ready to go.

"Right, let's get moving." Zeph says, and they both get into the cart, and light the fuses on the launchers.

"Here it goes!"

With a loud noise, the firecrackers ignite, and the cart lurches into motion, rapidly picking up speed.

"This is going to be a bumpy ride!" Zeph shouts over the sound of the firecrackers.

"Zeph? How are we going to turn?" Mulan shouts after a few moments.

"Umm... That's a... Good point- no idea!" Zeph cheerfully says.

"You're going to get us both killed!" Mulan says

"I have an idea- magic!" Zeph says, as he climbs out on to the top of the cart.

"What the hell are you doing?" Mulan shouts at him out of the window.

Zeph ignores her, thinking "Don't fail me now..."

As a turn in the road comes up, Zeph casts his spell.

"Wind!" a gust of wind comes out of his hands, turning the cart just enough to get it around the bend.

"What was that?" Mulan asks.

"It doesn't matter- you just keep us moving! I'll keep us on the road as best I can!" Zeph shouts down to Mulan.

"Really? Now? You had to..." Zeph thinks, as flying Heartless appear around the cart.

Keeping a tight hold of the cart with one hand, Zeph summons his keyblade, ready to fend of the attackers.

"You okay up there, what's going on?" Mulan asks, she mustn't have noticed the monsters yet.

"I'm fine for now! The sooner we get there, the less I have to worry about!" Zeph shouts down as he lashes out at a nearby Heartless.

"We've got a hard right turn coming up, Zeph! Do your thing, please!"

"Got ya!"

"Wind!" Zeph shouts, casting another spell, this time the magical gust also takes out a few heartless.

"Zeph!" Mulan shouts, the pushing force from the spell wasn't enough

"Okay! Just getting that!" He shouts, moving over to the right of the cart, Keyblade in hand. He cuts off the firecrackers on this side, and sticks his keyblade into the ground. The cart quickly swings around, almost falling over the edge of the cliff they are driving down.

"That was close!" Mulan shouts up, setting fresh firecrackers up on the right side of the cart.

"There are a few more turns, but the road should straighten up a bit from here!" Mulan says.

Still pinned down by Heartless, Zeph makes no move to re-enter the cart.

"I'm alright up here, if you were offering for me to come back in, thanks!" Zeph says.

"Really? I don't bite..." Mulan says, slightly offended.

"No, it isn't about... Get off!... you! It's just... Ouch! ... I don't want to let these... Heartless in!" Zeph says, having trouble fending off the increasing numbers of small bird-like Heartless.

"You sure you don't want me to come up and help you?"

"No! You stay down there and keep us moving! Thanks for the offer, but it's not really an option right now!" Zeph says.

They continue in the cart like this for about an hour, and on the final straight road, Mulan uses the final few firecrackers to give them an extra boost, and as night falls, they arrive in the town which has been infested by Heartless...

Chapter 10: Honour or Foolishness?

watch?v=2Dtd5iQlUj8&ab_channel=BrawlBRSTMs3

"Zeph! We're here!" Mulan shouts.

"Yeah- I can try to stop the cart, if you want!" Zeph replies.

"Yes, please!"

"Wind!" Zeph casts a spell against the cart's direction of movement, but it doesn't seem to slow down much.

"Mulan! I can't stop the cart! You're going to have to jump out!" Zeph shouts, trying to keep calm.

"Okay, got it! What are you going to do? Zeph?" Mulan speaks, but to deaf ears- Zeph has collapsed into another vision on top of the cart, which is still moving.

In the vision, Zeph sees Sora fighting a very strong man with orange eyes and black hair. Was this Shan Yu? Next, he remembers something from a very long time ago- the memory is distorted and vague with age. In the memory, Aqua appears to be at the very beginning of her training, learning how to use magic. One spell in particular seems to stand out in Zeph's mind- Fire. Next, the vision depicts his own memories, of moving at speed towards the walls of a castle on a cart filled with explosives. There is something strange about this vision- the same, distorted, dark vision that he saw in Radiant Garden- one attached to sorrow beyond belief is layer on top again. He can make out a tiny bit more detail- the memory appears to be taking place somewhere the colour orange seems to be very prevalent. Zeph notices a nagging feeling tugging him back to consciousness- is he still on that cart?

"Yes, yes I am..." This one though echoes through Zeph's mind, pulling him back to consciousness.

"Zeph! What are you doing! Get off the cart! Now!" Mulan is shouting.

Pulled rapidly back to consciousness, head still spinning, Zeph jumps off the cart just as it hits the foot of a staircase, and is catapulted into the air.

"Fire!" Zeph shouts, casting a fireball at the cart. The explosives inside ignite, and quickly explode, destroying the door to the palace almost completely.

"Did we need to do that?" Mulan asks, slightly bemused.

"Oww... My head..." Zeph says, his head is still spinning from the vision.

"What happened- are you okay?"

"I... hope so. Sorry I did that without asking."

"No problem- they needed replacing anyway."

"Could we just have a quick breather here- my head is in agony."

"Why?"

"It just happens... Sometimes the memories of other people which seem to be in my heart force their way out, and when my brain tries to add meaning to them, it hurts."

"You should ask somebody about that..."

"Whatever, I'm fine. We need to close this tear, as soon as possible." Zeph says, suddenly restored to his usual vitality.

"Really? You don't want to rest anymore?" Mulan asks, shocked by Zeph's rapid change.

"Careful!" Zeph shouts, as he attacks a Heartless which was about to hit Mulan in the back. "It isn't safe here until we close the tear- quickly, let's go!" Zeph says.

The two hurry towards the castle, but are stopped at the entrance by the burning debris.

"Zeph! We can't get through! The cart is blocking the way!" Mulan says.

"Just figure something out, I'll stop these Heartless from attacking us!" Zeph replies.

Mulan looks around, then notices the snow piled up on the roof of the palace.

"I shouldn't be long, Zeph, hold them off for me!"

"Got you!"

Mulan quickly runs off to go and climb up to the snow, while Zeph fends off the Heartless, which are starting to become very powerful.

"Zeph! Heads up!" Mulan shouts down, as she starts to push the snow off of the roof.

Zeph jumps back, and as the snow falls, casts his strongest wind magic, blowing it into the flaming wood. With a huge hiss, the fire goes out.

"The fire's out! You can come down, Mulan- the Heartless seem to have stopped!"

"Okay I'm just- ugh..." Mulan starts to say, but seems to be overcome by tiredness, and looks like she's about to fall over the edge.

"Mulan!" Zeph shouts, as he runs as quickly as he can towards her. She slips over the edge, and it doesn't look like Zeph will make it in time.

"Stay away from my friends!" Zeph shouts, certain this is the work of a Heartless. Becoming cloaked in an aura of pale green light Zeph charges forward, now with blinding speed, and throws his Keyblade. It rockets forward, glowing with that same light, and changes into glider form, flying up to catch Mulan. It then floats slowly down, and carefully drops Mulan onto the ground.

Zeph slows down a little, but hurries over to his friend.

"Mulan, are you okay?"

"Z-Zeph? What happened?"

"I think you got hit by something, and you fell off the roof- I only just managed to save you."

"Oh? Thank you so much, in that case. I'm sorry- I should keep my wits about me more, shouldn't I?"

"It's my fault- I shouldn't have let you go up there alone. Anyway- can you stand?"

"Yes, I'm fine, actually... Strange- what could have made me so tired, but allow me to wake up so easily?" Mulan wonders.

"Magic?"

"Possibly... Anyway, we should hurry." Mulan says.

The two climb over the debris, and into the palace.

watch?v=JsZ5OZXDPFc&ab_channel=Everglow

Once inside, they seem to be in a large room. The is a man standing in the middle, completely motionless, facing away from Mulan and Zeph.

"There! It's the tear!" Zeph whispers.

"Is that...? How could this be possible? we killed him..." Mulan asks.

"What do you mean?"

"That man... It looks like Shan Yu, the leader of the Huns."

"Leave this place, now!" The man speaks in a deep voice which echoes throughout the room.

"Shan Yu! How have you returned? No matter- I will just kill you again!" Mulan shouts, charging in, and pushing Zeph back.

The man turns around, his breath condensing into black clouds in front of him.

"He must've been using the tear to grow stronger somehow- be careful, Mulan!"

Mulan hits Shan Yu like a lightning bolt, unleashing a flurry of blows that could have killed any man. Mulan jumps back and looks at Shan Yu, confused- her sword passed straight through him. Shan Yu looks at her with piercing green eyes, and draws his sword, he swings once, then again, leaving Mulan on the floor, unable to block any more attacks. Green eyes? Suddenly Zeph realises what's going on.

"Who are you?" Mulan asks, accepting her fate.

"Mulan! That's not Shan Yu!" Zeph shouts, charging forwards, Keyblade in hand.

"Zeph! This is not your matter! Do not interfere!"

"Don't be stupid! He isn't Shan Yu!" Zeph shouts, as he arrives, just in time to block the killing blow.

"Who is it?"

"Rrgh... Nobody! That is... A Nobody- his Nobody!" Zeph says, through gritted teeth, this creature is devastatingly powerful, and Zeph is already blocking from a bad angle.

"Mulan... Get to somewhere... Safe- in the nicest possible way, you're no use here!"

"Okay..." she says, but is too weak to move.

Zeph tries to swing his body around, but is stopped as the Nobody starts to press harder against Zeph's Keyblade, forcing Zeph to bend his arms.

"Zeph!" Mulan shouts- if his arms have to go much further, his left one won't be able to take it.

"Get off... Of... My... Friend... Nrgh..." Tears well up in Zeph's eyes, as pain shoots up from his arm. The Nobody shows no signs of stopping.

The pain in his arm is almost unbearable, and Zeph feels his arm start to give.

"M-Mulan... Please.. Get out of... Argh!" With a terribly audible crack, Zeph's arm breaks due to the incredible force the Nobody put on it. The sword cuts down with massive force, into the floor just next to Mulan. Zeph was not able to stop the blow, but he could deflect it.

"Zeph!" Mulan shouts, frantically trying to get up and help her friend.

Panting from the effort, and pain, Zeph lets his left arm hang by his side.

Still unable to get up, Mulan decides to help out the only way she can- the Nobody's sword is stuck in the wooden flooring, and the creature is having trouble pulling it out. Mulan grabs a hold of the sword, and does her best to keep it in the floor.

"Zeph! Hurry!" Mulan urges the wounded Keyblade wielder on.

Unable to attack directly, Zeph uses the other tool at his disposal.

"Fire! Freeze! Thunder! Gravity! Wind!" Knowledge of magic rushes through his head, and Zeph casts each of the spells which flow through his mind. They are all much more powerful than the ones he could cast normally. He ends with two more spells:

"Stop! Heal!" The spells Stopga and Curaga provide him the advantage he needs. Although the healing magic could not fix his arm, it at least stopped the pain, and will have healed Mulan, too. The Stop spell freezes the Nobody in place, allowing Zeph to walk past it and close the tear.

"You are weak... You must die..." The Nobody says, pushing Mulan off its sword, and wrenching it out of the ground.

Amazed that the creature could still be standing after the onslaught of spells, Zeph readies himself for a final battle.

Playing to his strengths, Zeph focuses on dodging, then following up with fast attacks the Nobody can't block.

watch?v=b9F0d5pd1Uk&ab_channel=BrawlBRSTMs3

Despite Zeph's huge handicap, after a painstakingly long fight, the Nobody seems to slow down. Zeph strikes it with all his might, and his Keyblade finally cleaves through the monster, dark tendrils extending from the wound. Soon, these tendrils start to appear all over the Nobody.

"You... Have done well... I die... With honour. I am pleased it was you who defeated me. Goodbye great Keyblade warrior thank you for giving me this great gift..." The Nobody speaks its last words, which are surprising to Zeph. Was this creature truly something of evil? Tears start to well up in Zeph's eyes.

"He... Was grateful... An existence of pure suffering- he was only doing what he knew, how could there be anything wrong with that? Nobody deserves to be treated as a monster right up to their death, but I just did that. I couldn't let him live, not with Xehanort..."

"Zeph... It wasn't your fault- you were just doing what you had to. You saved my life twice, and for that I cannot thank you enough. You cannot blame yourself, he died with honour and even thanked you. He was a great warrior in his time, and you got to be the one who defeated him. You should rejoice, not mourn."

"I will make him pay for all he's done... He's ruined too many lives, I had hoped there was a light in everything... That no matter who or what you are, there is still a good side to you... This is true, even for Nobodies, but not for him... Xehanort is unforgivable... Mulan- I'm sorry, but I'm not like you, or the warriors you know. For me, life is something to rejoice in, but death, no matter how honourable, is always a tragedy."

"I.. See... I'm sorry, Zeph- I should have been stronger..."

"It isn't your fault, Mulan- I was the only one here who could do that. As a Keyblade wielder, it is my responsibility to defend the light on all fronts. That Nobody was a threat to the light, so I had to destroy him. You are, although a great warrior, not a Keyblade wielder, so you couldn't fight your enemy."

"You're right... Anyway- let's leave this place. We need to get your arm seen to."

Zeph wants to move on as quickly as possible, but knows it would be foolish to continue without having his arm at least set to start healing properly.

"That would probably be best. Sorry about the cart, Mulan. Looks like we'll have to walk from here."

"Looks like it..."

Zeph helps Mulan up, and the two support one another through their wounds- Zeph helping Mulan stand with her limp, and Mulan holding Zeph's arm steady.

The Heartless might be gone, but the two still have a long journey ahead of them...

watch?v=zTFCLPrzemU&ab_channel=BrawlBRSTMs3

The two walk together for most of the night, getting increasingly tired, but forcing themselves to carry on. Finally, they arrive, completely worn out.

"Mulan!" A man Zeph doesn't know says, running over.

"Hello, Li... Sorry I snuck off like that, but I had something I needed to do. I know you would've stopped me." Mulan says.

"I'm just glad you're alive... What happened, and who is this?" The man asks.

"His name is Zephyrus, and he stopped the issues we've been having with the Heartless. I went with him and tried to help, but I wasn't much use."

"Heartless? You mean the monsters, right? What about Shan Yu?"

"That is why we were injured... He seemed to be back from the dead, even more powerful than before."

"It wasn't him... Shan Yu died when you killed him, but when a powerful heart leaves a body, the husk left behind can become what is known as a 'Nobody'. This was what we fought. Mulan was wounded because only a Keyblade or very specific other weapons can damage Nobodies." Zeph says.

"You're... a Keyblade wielder?"

"Sure am..."

"In any case, welcome to China, Zephyrus. Thank you so much for your help. My name is Li Shang, I am Mulan's husband, and the general of our armies. Now, would you like to come in and have your wounds seen to? You are welcome to stay as long as you need."

"It would be an honour, general Li Shang."

The general leads Zeph and Mulan inside, and calls the medic over.

"Tea?" a servant asks.

"Yes, please." all three respond.

They all sit down in a central lounge area with their tea, the Medic rushes about, examining Mulan and Zeph's wounds.

"It would appear that Zephyrus has a broken arm. I think the elbow joint must have tried to rotate, which pulled it out of position. Mulan appears to have sprained her ankle quite badly, but that seems to be it." The Medic says. "For now, I would recommend, especially for Zephyrus, that the two go to bed. In the morning, I will have medication ready for them."

"Thank you, doctor. We shall just finish our tea, first."

Mulan, Li Shang and Zeph speak in detail about what happened, and once he has finished his tea, Zeph decides to leave the husband and wife alone, thanking them for their help and wishing them a good night.

There is a quiet knock on the door. "Zeph? Are you okay in there."

"Ugh... I... Is it time for school already?" Zeph sits up and rubs his eyes, shaking the sleepiness out of his head. He realises that that has been his first sleep in a long time. Even though traveling through the lanes between in his armour restores his stamina, it is not the same as sleeping.

"Wake up, sleepy head! We thought you'd died!" Mulan calls through.

"M-Mulan? Oh! Yeah! I'm coming!" Zeph says, quickly getting up and changing out of the night clothes he was borrowing. He hurries through the door.

"There you are! Breakfast is ready, but you need to see the medic first."

"Thanks so much... Sorry, it's been ages since I last slept."

"You're injured, it's only natural to be tired, anyway, follow me."

Mulan follows Mulan back to the room he had his tea in the night before. Here, the medic and General Li Shang are waiting.

"Good morning everyone!" Zeph says, cheerfully.

"Good morning, Zephyrus." Li Shang replies.

"Good morning, sir. May I take a look at your arm?" The medic asks.

"Of course." Zeph stands stock still, wincing a little as the medic take his arm for further inspection.

"Okay, here we go..." The medic picks up a splint and a bandage. "Hold still for me."

"O...kay- what are you? Ouch! That hurts!" With another loud crack which makes everyone cringe, the medic relocates Zeph's forearm, applies a poultice and bandages it.

"That should heal reasonably quickly, keep it in this sling. I don't know how, but it seems that the bone is already fairly strong, so once it stops hurting to move it, you should be completely fine to use it as normal." The medic says, wrapping the sling over Zeph's neck, and helping his arm into it.

"Thank you again."

"Right, now that's done, breakfast anyone?"

Zeph weighs up his options, he doesn't know what to do.

"Zeph, what's wrong?" Mulan asks.

"I... Really do need to get going, but I would love to have some breakfast if I'm aloud to."

"Where do you have to go?" Li Shang asks

"I have to go to lots of places, none of them nearby. But having some food should speed me up, really. Besides, if I stay here for a little longer, it'll be longer that I can help out if we're attacked." Zeph decides to stay.

"It would be our pleasure for you to stay, Zeph, but we could pack you something up to have on the go..." The General says.

"No thank you, I'll not inconvenience you even more than I already have."

"Inconvenience? Zeph, you saved my life twice, and saved all of us from those monsters. We are indebted to you with our lives." Mulan pipes up.

"Well, I'd like to have breakfast here, please!"

"There, that wasn't too hard, was it?"

They go through to the dining room, and Zeph has the first meal in as long as he can remember. Once they are all finished, he gets up from the table.

"Well, I really should hurry. Thank you all so much for your help, and I'm sorry I have to leave so soon."

"You're very welcome, Zeph. If you ever need anything feel free to stop by." Mulan and her Husband say together.

"Goodbye then- I'll try to stop by again as soon as possible."

"Goodbye Zeph."

The two see him out of the door, but Zeph makes sure nobody sees he enter the Lanes Between. Once out of this world, with his new handicap, Zeph sets off to the next world on the list- Disney Town. How could somewhere as cheerful as this have a tear in it, and at what cost to its populace? Whatever the case, Zeph will find out soon enough...

Chapter 11: Light in All Things

watch?v=48MgwOm3MDo&ab_channel=BrawlBRSTMs3

As soon as Zeph lands, he is bowled over by the largest Heartless he has ever seen. Zeph couldn't make out any detail, but he quickly gets up and chases after the beast.

The creature leads Zeph across the main plaza, and down to some kind of race track.

It seems to stop and wait for him- does it want to race?

Upon a closer examination, Zeph notices that the Heartless is split up into different parts. Its legs seem like the wheels of a car, arms like racquets, its torso, a jukebox, and its head, a perfect orb.

"You want to race, do you?" Zeph asks, throwing out his Keyblade glider.

"Okay then- let's go! I'm faster than you think!"

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The Heartless moves off the line with a huge burst of speed, and Zeph pushes his Keyblade glider to keep up. Zeph is sure that, in a straight line, the Heartless would beat him, so Zeph does his best to exploit potential shortcuts, and lose as little time as possible in the turns.

At the end of the first lap, the Heartless is still ahead, but Zeph has closed the gap significantly. In one of the turns, Zeph notices a ramp leading up and across the hairpin, he uses this and gains a lead on the Heartless.

This seems to anger the beast, and it shouts at him, speeding up a little.

"You thought I'd let you win? Never!" Zeph shouts, cheerfully.

The Heartless accelerates full power and charges into Zeph, sending his spinning out of control.

"Oh, you did not just do that!" Zeph shouts after it- he had not intended to attack the creature, seeing as it wasn't fighting back. Zeph continues around the track, continuing to catch up to the Heartless in the turns.

"Take that!" Zeph shouts, as he shoots a ray of light at the Heartless.

The beam hits home, temporarily disabling the Heartless's driving force, allowing Zeph to cement a slight lead at the end of the third lap.

"Good, I just need to hold this for two more..." Zeph thinks as he crosses the line.

He hears the Heartless shout again, and its engine noises seem to get louder as it pushes itself to win the race.

By the beginning of the fifth lap, Zeph and the Heartless are neck and neck again.

Zeph continues to use every tool at his disposal to win the race without cheating. Suddenly there is a sound akin to an explosion the the Heartless's legs. Zeph looks back as he enters the final straight. The Heartless must have overworked itself, because its legs are smoking, and it has slowed significantly. Zeph crosses the line, and the Heartless grinds to a halt, accepting the defeat. Suddenly, with a loud bang, the Heartless's legs explode completely, and it rushes away from the track, levitating as it did before.

"This way now? Okay..." Zeph thinks. He knows that if he goes to close the tear now, the Heartless will attack him. He decides that it is worth trying to make the Heartless destroy itself trying to beat him at the games found around the town.

Next, the Heartless leads him to a kind of court with strange cannons at the side.

"What is this?" Zeph wonders, and with a stab of pain, but not a true vision, he remembers, thanks to Aqua, that this is a fruitball court.

"So you want to play fruitball now? Sure!" Zeph cheerfully says. His cheerfulness seems to have an effect on the Heartless. Perhaps because this world is so friendly, the Heartless here aren't as hostile as elsewhere.

The Heartless raises its arm which isn't a racquet high into the air, then swings it down to signify the start of the game. The cannons start firing huge fruit of various types and the Heartless hits them towards Zeph's half of the court.

Zeph does his best to send as much fruit back as possible, but when he hits a blackberry, it breaks up into its smaller parts, which scatter around. One of the cells falls outside the court, scoring the Heartless a point. The Heartless cheers, and Zeph notices it turns more blue.

This time, the cannons start by firing onto Zeph's side of the court. Zeph hits as many of the fruit as he can towards the Heartless, trying not to move his broken arm too much. The Heartless spins its arms around its body, deflecting fruit left right and centre, but it doesn't notice one that Zeph expertly curls around it, scoring a point. The Heartless looks a little disappointed, but not angry. Zeph notices the blue colour go back to being its normal purple. The cannons fire again, and the two have a long rally, but Zeph manages to score again by lunging as far as he could, delivering a shot that the Heartless couldn't catch up to. Again, that disappointed look- the purples seem to change to a colour favouring red. There are only a few minutes left of the game, and Zeph is in the lead, but the Heartless could still win.

They have another long rally, then the Heartless slams the a watermelon hard down, bouncing it too high for Zeph to hit it back, and it falls,scoring the Heartless another point. The game is very nearly over now, so it's next point wins. Zeph uses every trick he can think of which isn't cheating. The two continue to rally fruit back and forth for a long time, before, finally, Zeph hits a blackberry so hard that it explodes into a scatter too wide to hit back. The Heartless swings its arms around wildly, happy that Zeph played completely fair this time. Suddenly its arms come flying off and disappear in a mist of darkness. The Heartless looks at Zeph and he shrugs. It then turns and leads him back to the main plaza again.

The Heartless leads Zeph to a stage and indicates three different sections- Red, Green and Blue and then the ice cream machine. It starts playing music from its Jukebox torso, and the light in the middle flashes in time to the beat. Zeph guesses that he has to shoot the ice cream machine at each different section in time to the beat that he is given.

He watches and listens carefully when the Heartless plays again. He nods to the Heartless.

"I've got it!"

The Heartless play the tune again, but this time, the light on its chest is white. Zeph shoots in the order he remembers in time to the beat. The Heartless cheers, happy that Zeph got it right.

The Heartless plays the next part of the tune, and Zeph pay careful attention to the beat and colours. Next, it is his turn- the Heartless plays again, and Zeph shoots in the order he remembers, but the Heartless sighs with distaste and replays the melody with the colours. Zeph tries again, and gets it right this time. The Heartless continues to work through the tune, and, eventually, they reach the end. The Heartless seems delighted, and Zeph can't say he's not happy either, finally a world where he can have fun.

The Heartless indicated it wants to play again, but flashes all three colours and white, then does its little dance that it did when Zeph was playing himself.

"Wait- you want me to read as we go?" Zeph asks, and the Heartless does a backflip of joy. "Hard mode now... Got it!"

The Heartless starts to play, and the light goes from red to yellow to green with a slight ticking sound. Next, the light goes blue, and a white circle shrinks from the edges into the centre, when the circle closes, the beat plays, and Zeph shoots at the blue area.

The Heartless spins around, happily, and starts playing again, this time not stopping.

They work their way through the tune, and The Heartless does another backflip, playing clapping from its jukebox.

"Thanks" Zeph says, smiling at the creature, it would be such a shame to have to destroy it to get to the tear.

The Heartless bobbs up and down, then the jukebox stops levitating, and falls to the ground, disappearing in a black mist.

All that remains is the Heartless's head... It leads Zeph down underground, and into a large room filled with machinery. It flies up through a door which Zeph cannot reach.

Zeph looks around, and sees a green power cell like thing in the corner. He runs over to it and has a closer look. It seems to provide power to the machinery, but requires external electrical input to get started.

"Well... Umm... What now...?" Zeph wonders. He doesn't want to waste the power in his Wayfinder just to try to activate this thing on a whim. Zeph sits down, staring intently at the thunderbolt symbol on the generator, hoping to trigger some kind of realisation on how to cast thunder magic. After a little while, Zeph gets up and decides to hit the generator with his Keyblade, as soon as his Keyblade strikes, there is a terrible pain in his head, and he collapses.

He remembers Sora visiting an old wizard in Traverse Town. Sora goes into a room where the furniture seems to come alive. Sora casts some spells at the furnishings, and they disappear. Next, Zeph's mind's eye splits into three, and he sees Terra, Ventus and Aqua all standing in the place he is now. They all cast Thunder on the generator, and it switches on. Zeph sees Sora shoot a fireball at a door, and that opens. Suddenly, Zeph understands that magic is a tool as much as a weapon, and remembers his use of it on the cart in the Land of Dragons. The word "Thunder" echoes around his head, and it seems to become somehow more familiar to him.

Zeph wakes up, his head still hurting, and gets up. The Heartless is there and seems overjoyed that Zeph is okay. It bounces up and down, then floats back up to the door.

"I'm on my way!" Zeph shouts up at the Heartless, cheerfully. "Thunder!" Zeph shouts, and a bolt of lightning strikes the generator, kick-starting it. Suddenly all of the machines in the area re-activate and start moving again. Zeph jumps onto a platform which whisks him upwards, where he jumps across some hands which dangle from the ceiling and occasionally move to drop what they're holding. Next, Zeph makes his way across some rotating clockwork and some of the panels on the wall extend to try to push him off. Eventually, Zeph makes it over to the door and follows the Heartless inside.

Zeph walks through a corridor, and appears to come out in a room which has a giant pinball machine up one side. The Heartless bounces up and down, then jumps into the slot with the pinball launch mechanism. Zeph finds the controls for the pinball machine.

"You sure you want to use your own head as a pinball?" Zeph aks.

The creature cheers happily as if to say it is sure.

Zeph notices that there is a door in the centre of the pinball machine with some light bulbs above it. Beyond that door, Zeph can see the tear.

Zeph tries to get the pinball Heartless to bounce off of the brightly coloured pins. When he manages to hit one, one of the lights above the door switches on. Zeph continues to play pinball until eventually he manages to get the door open. The Heartless starts to levitate again, and looks down at Zephyrus, nodding. Then it turns around and melts into darkness, and is absorbed into the tear. Zeph uses the Pinball machine to get up to the tear, and closes it, surprised that the Heartless just let him close it.

Zeph heads back above ground, readying his Keyblade glider.

"Light in all things..." Zeph whispers to his Wayfinder as he gets onto his Keyblade glider. He opens a portal and heads back to the Lanes Between and then towards the next world- Olympus Colosseum...

Chapter 12: A Game, but Not a Toy

watch?v=w40MkHTV17o&ab_channel=Everglow

Upon landing, Zeph looks around himself. He appears to be in the entrance to a large colosseum. Half expecting to collapse into a vision, Zeph continues to look around, unsure of what to do.

"You seen a ghost? What's wrong?" Zeph hears a voice ask from behind him.

"Oh, I... Umm..."

"You don't look too well- what happened to your arm? Are you here to participate in the games? What's your name? Are you listening? Hello?"

Zeph looks at the man opposite him, eyes glazed over. Suddenly a pain tears through Zeph's head...

The vision depicts Ventus standing where Zeph is now. He sees the same man who is facing Zeph now, but he seems much younger.

The boy is chasing after somebody, the vision is eerily silent, however.

Something feels very wrong... Almost as if Zeph has been here before, at a different time.

"How is that possible?" The question echoes around his head.

"Who am I, really? Why do I have the Keyblade?" Zeph continues to wonder.

Suddenly, as if reacting to his thoughts, the vision changes. Zeph remembers Riku fighting somebody in a black cloak. Riku seems to be losing very badly.

"Why? Why do you wield the Keyblade?" Riku asks the mysterious figure.

"Shut up!" The cloaked boy says, striking, and sending Riku stumbling backwards.

"Fine... It seems I must release the darkness in my heart... Even if it changes me forever!" Riku shouts, taking his blindfold off. Suddenly a huge wave of darkness surges towards Zeph's viewpoint in the vision and he is forced out of it.

"Whose memories are these? Why are they in the third person?" Zeph wonders.

Next, Zeph remember Ventus fighting off huge numbers of small Heartless-like creatures in the town below he colosseum. Again, the dark vision appears, still elusive. The sorrow he feels now can be recognised as a loss, but what did he lose?

"Are you alright? Hey man!"

"Herc! What the hell are you doing? You're supposed to be a hero! Why are you attacking that boy?"

"Phil! Come and help, I don't know what's going on!"

"What did you do?"

"Nothing, I was just asking him why he was here and this happened."

"Maybe he's been possessed..."

"By whom?"

"No idea, right now let's put him in the vestibule."

Zeph feels himself being dragged through a doorway.

Once he's been put down, he tries to open his eyes.

"He's waking up!"

"Ugh... Zephyrus... Call me... Zeph..."

"Herc! Let me see! What's your name, boy?"

"He just said- Zephyrus."

"What happened out there?"

Zeph has fully opened his eyes by now, and looks at his two rescuers. One is definitely the boy he saw in the vision, all grown up, the other is half man-half goat.

"I... It just happens to me, don't worry about it." Zeph says.

"How can we help you if that's all you say? WHAT HAPPENED?" The goat-man shouts.

"I... Well, sometimes memories which aren't mine come out of my heart, when my brain tries to understand them, it puts me into agony." Zeph admits, reluctantly.

"You possessed by somebody? A god perhaps?" The goat man asks.

"What do you mean?"

"You know, big, tough-looking people... Usually incredibly awe-inspiring, with special powers? A GOD! You know, those people who keep the world working and all that?"

"I... Don't think so... I'm nothing particularly special, just an average Keyblade wielder..."

"Keyblade wielder, as in... Keyblade wielder...? You can use the Keyblade?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?"

"Do you know who I am? Take a politer tone with me, boy."

"Sorry, but I can't say I do, for one... And two, there's something I need to do, quickly. Sorry if I seem rude, but I don't think either of you understand how important my mission is."

"Did you just say that?"

"Please, could you just let me past? I'm no threat to either of you and I'm sure you're good people, but I'm in a hurry."

"Herc, could you teach this boy some manners?"

"Really Phil? That seems a bit much..."

"If he's a Keyblade wielder, then we need to see if he's ready for the Games. Go on, you two! Out into the arena!"

watch?v=JsZ5OZXDPFc&ab_channel=Everglow

The goat man throws them out into the arena and scowls at both.

"What are you waiting for? Fight!"

"I'm so sorry, Zeph..." The man he's supposed to fight says.

Zeph readies himself to dodge many attacks, remembering this man's name- Hercules. Zeph knows this won't be an easy fight.

Hercules charges at Zeph, sword in hand and swings hard, but Zeph expertly sidesteps the blow, spinning around and giving Hercules a smart tap on the back.

"Come on, Herc! You're better than that!" Phil shouts.

Hercules turns to face Zeph and slashes five times, which Zeph back steps past.

"You supposed to fight!" Hercules shouts at Zeph.

"Oh, am I? Well, I would, but you aren't my enemy." Zeph replies.

Hercules charges in with another heavy slash. Zeph jumps over Hercules's head, and then lightly pushes him.

"What are you doing?" Hercules is getting annoyed.

"What am I doing? Well, that'd be dodging every single attack you throw at me..." Zeph says.

"Why don't you fight back?" Hercules asks, spinning around with a slash that Zeph cartwheels back to dodge.

"Herc! He's running circles around you! If you're not careful, I might take him as my new apprentice!" The goat man shouts from the side.

"I see no reason to fight you, Hercules. Why do you let him control you? If he's your trainer, then you should look for a new one. I've not received any training, as long as I can remember, and I could've beaten you easily. Your problem is simple-"

"Shut up! Phil is the best trainer in the land!" Hercules shouts, getting more angry, and slams his sword into the ground where Zeph was.

"You're letting yourself get angry, you need to stay in control." Zeph says.

"I am in control!" Hercules says, striking down onto Zeph, who has summoned his Keyblade to block.

"Are you?" Zeph says, deflecting the blow.

"Who are you?" Hercules asks.

"Somebody who is in control..." Zeph says, parrying Hercules, and sending his sword flying over to Phil's feet.

Zeph hops back, putting his Keyblade away and beaming at Hercules.

"Herc, could you come here for a second?" Phil calls.

Hercules walks over.

"Okay, Herc... I need to tell you something... You... That's right- you, a demigod and champion... JUST GOT BEATEN BY A CHILD WITH A BROKEN ARM!" Phil scolds.

"Umm... Phil? I prefer the term 'young man' to 'child'. Sorry for interrupting you..." Zeph says.

"I'm... Sorry, Phil, I don't know what happened, I just..."

"You got cocky, that's what you did. You broke rule number one... Bump that, rule number ZERO! You broke rule number zero!"

"Phil, don't go so hard on him, he was only being nice."

"Being... Nice? Being 'Nice' isn't going to help you in the games, Herc! All this time rebuilding the colosseum must have made you go soft." Phil says, annoyed.

"Herc! Don't listen to him! If you want to be a hero, kindness is just as important as strength. It's all great being a fighter, but you can't be a true hero until you're a good person, too!" Zeph says.

"I've... Never heard truer words in my life, Zephyrus, was it? I don't know who you are, or where you're from, but it would be an honour to have you participate in the Games here." Phil says.

"Thanks, phil, but I'm not sure I have time for games..." Zeph says. Phil sighs, and goes back into the vestibule, gesturing for Zeph and Hercules to follow.

watch?v=w40MkHTV17o&ab_channel=Everglow

As Hercules and Phil leave, Zeph hears something behind him.

"Who's there?" Zeph asks.

"Very well done, you're very, very good." Zeph hears somebody say- they seem to be clapping, too. Zeph turns around to see a very grey man with a fire on his head.

"Who are you?" Zeph asks.

"Hades, god of the underworld, usher of souls, yadder, yadder- general nice guy. Keeps the dead dead and the living alive." The man says with a flourish.

"You're Hades? As in a God?" Zeph asks.

"Sure am, now what do you say about a little deal?" Hades asks.

"What is it?"

"I know why you're here, you want to close the tear in the fabric of the world... Darkness world's heart... Monster's... Ugh! It's so boring! Well, you know what I say? You let me keep the tear, that way the people here can have the Games be much more interesting..." Hades says.

"Don't be ridiculous! I've never heard anything so foolish in my life! You want to keep the tear open so that it can be used as a game?" Zeph asks.

"Not as a game... For a game. It creates perfect little monsters for warriors to fight and try to make their way up the ladder!" Hades says.

"No, this is stupid- if I don't close the tear, everything will go out of hand- this world will fall into darkness..."

"Well, you see, I kind of mismarketed this whole affair... You see, because I already have control of the tear, and I've closed it temporarily. You can't seal it when it's like that, so I win, ha! Anyway, I have a champion to find, so I'd better go! Tootle-oo!"

"Wait! Hades!" Zeph shouts, running after the god, who is suddenly on the other side of the arena.

"Sorry, no time for games, I have a tournament to arrange!" Hades says, holding his hand up and disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Annoyed with himself for letting Hades get away, Zeph walks back to the vestibule.

"Here he is! What was that about?" Phil asks.

"Just as the two of you left, Hades appeared out of nowhere and asked me to let this world come to ruin so that he can run some 'Games'" Zeph says.

"What do you mean?"

Zeph tells them about the tear and the consequences of its existence.

"Wait, so if you can't seal it properly, the entire world will be destroyed?" Hercules asks.

"As far as I know, yes..." Zeph says, knowing he shouldn't tell them that this is not technically true, as the entire world would include the Lanes Between and all of the smaller worlds found in them.

"So... what do we do?" Phil asks.

"Well, I assume Hades participates in the 'Hades Cup', right?" Zeph asks.

"He does, yes."

"If I could fight him and beat him, then he'd lose control over the tear temporarily, then I could seal it..." Zeph says.

"Well, I guess that would work, but there's a problem..." Phil says.

"What is it?"

"Not even Herc here could get that far into that tournament. It was made for Titans and Gods, not mortals like us. Although there was one person who managed to beat it..."

"Who?"

"Sora... He was a Keyblade wielder, too... Maybe you could do it."

"There, maybe it's worth a shot..."

"Well, Sora could do it, but only when he was in tip-top condition. You're not in great shape, Zeph..."

"Thanks"

"Oh... Sorry- didn't mean it like that... Your arm..."

"No problem, I knew what you meant. But it doesn't really look like there's any other option..."

"Wait, Zeph there might be another way..." Hercules pipes up.

"What is it, Herc?" Phil asks.

"Doesn't Hades need a new champion?"

"He did say he was looking for one, yes..."

"Well, that means Zeph could volunteer... That would put Zeph much higher up in the seedings, that way he could fight Hades straight away, right?"

"I guess, being somebody's champion does put you on the same seed as them... That would mean we could change the rules as the Games start to make it so that they have to fight." Phil says.

"Seem like a plan?" Zeph asks.

"Well, there is a hitch..." Phil says.

"What is it?"

"Well, you can't just drop out, and Hades is not even nearly at the top of his leaderboard. You could close the tear, or whatever, but you'd still have to fight everything above Hades until you get knocked out." Phil says.

"Why's that a problem?"

"Well, if you're championing for somebody in the Hades cup... It's a survival match to either coming out on top, or your death..."

"Death?"

"Well, that is, you are banished to the underworld for ever more until you can come out on top..."

"That... wouldn't affect me, so it seems like a plan."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, let's just say I'm good at leaving places, even when I shouldn't be able to..." Zeph says, again, not wanting to let them know about there being any more worlds than their own.

"Okay then, well, seems like you should take the gate down into the underworld and go to meet Hades, then!" Phil says.

"Right, I'll be back later." Zeph says, turning to leave.

"And Zeph, don't stay down there too long, being in the land of the dead does strange things to the living!" Phil calls after him.

Chapter 14: Purpose

watch?v=KIo51U4-vU0&ab_channel=Everglow

After walking through the portal to the underworld, Zeph looks around to find himself in a dark cave-like area.

"Hello? Is anybody here?" Zeph shouts, hoping that one of the souls of the Underworld will take notice of him. The sound bounces around the darkness, but with no response.

"Hrm, for somewhere the dead go, this place seems fairly empty." Zeph thinks.

Zeph walks forward a short way and stops just before a small pond of green water.

He crouches down and lifts some of the water in his hand.

"Why is this water green?" Zeph asks.

"Well, that's just the Underworld- it's very different to the land of the living!" A voice Zeph doesn't recognise calls out.

"Who, what, where?" Zeph asks, standing up.

"Well, that'll be the one and only lord of the dead and god of the underworld... HADES!"

"Really? And I'm the one who built the colosseum in the first place. Oh did I mention I was the one who created the gods, too?"

"You are? That's amazing!" The voice asks, confused.

"Well, I am just as much as you are Hades. I don't mean any harm, I just wish to speak to Hades."

Suddenly a tiny blue creature walks out from behind a rock.

"Well then, my name is Pain, I am the organiser of all of the Underworld's tournaments and one of Hades's chief staff members."

"Could you take me to him?" Zeph asks.

"I could, but I'm not going to."

"Could you at least tell me where to find him, please?"

"Ooh, you have manners, do you? Well, okay then. Go through the giant blue door over there, just follow the path, it isn't exactly straight, but it only goes two directions."

"Thanks, so I just go down there and follow the course of the road?"

"Sure do. Although, I must ask, why do you wish to speak to Hades?"

"I want to volunteer to be his champion in the Hades cup."

"Really? Well, good luck with that..."

"Thanks for your help, goodbye." Zeph says, turning away from the creature and walking towards the giant blue door.

On the other side of the door, there is a large cave which looks like it leads to a natural corridor. Zeph walks towards the entrance, but a flash of light stops him in his tracks. Something feels strange, somehow different, not only is he cut off from his friends down here, but time feels distorted.

Zeph hears something moving behind him and turns around.

There is a man in a black cloak with his hood up who seems wavery, and not quite real.

The man quickly becomes more solid-looking and raises an arm to point at Zeph.

"Who are you?" Zeph asks, going into stance, but not summoning his Keyblade.

"The final part... Your purpose is almost complete..." The man says. "Continue to fight, grow stronger."

"What? My purpose? What do you mean?" Zeph asks, but the man has turned away. He snaps his fingers, there is another flash of light and darkness rises up from the floor, taking him away. Zeph feels as if time has returned to normal now, but still feels cut off from his friends. Zeph guesses that it must have something to do with being in the Underworld itself. Next, he hears another, more familiar sound behind him- that of Heartless appearing.

Zeph turns around, summoning his Keyblade, faced by dog-like Heartless.

"Trying to make me feel bad about stopping you now? Not going to help!" Zeph says, casting a fireball at one of his enemies and charging in to fight to rest.

After destroying all of the Heartless, Zeph moves on into the next part of the Cave of the Dead- a name Zeph remembered whilst he was fighting the Heartless. The next part consists of a long, somewhat maze-like corridor which seems to extend out in the direction of Hades's castle. After a short while, Zeph notices the occasional crashing sound.

"What was that?" Zeph wonders. Suddenly a rock falls out of the ceiling next to him.

"Wait, is this cave collapsing?" Zeph wonders, looking up at where the rock fell from. There is no implication at all that a section of the roof fell down there.

"Things can never be that simple, huh?" Zeph mutters turning away and walking faster than he was before down the corridor.

After a little while trying to navigate the cave, and fighting a few more Heartless, Zeph is able to find another wider part. Zeph looks around, confirming this place is different to where he saw the man in the black cloak. He notices that the darkness seems slightly further away here. Where he would have expected to fight Heartless, instead, he has a chance to rest. Zeph sits down, leaning on the cave wall- being in the Underworld has drained his stamina considerably.

"W-why am I so tired?" Zeph asks.

Suddenly a stab of pain surges through his head.

"In the Underworld, heroes are zeroes!" Zeph remembers Hades saying to Sora. The vision moves on, now showing Terra and Aqua facing one another, looking like they're about to fight.

"There are no victories, only truths." Zeph hears a voice say in the vision.

Terra and Aqua fight, they are very evenly matched, but suddenly darkness surges momentarily out of Terra's hand, he manages to contain it and keep fighting.

Next, Zeph sees Xehanort and another man speaking to Terra and Aqua.

"However, only one of you has shown the Mark of Mastery. Terra- you failed to keep the darkness in your heart sufficiently in check..." The man who Zeph assumes is their master says. Why was Xehanort there?

The Mark of Mastery... The exam all Keyblade wielders must pass in order to become a Keyblade master. Somehow, it feels slightly familiar to Zeph, but there's no way- he grew up in Twilight Town, right? Suddenly many words flash through Zeph's mind as the distorted vision which makes Zeph feel sad plays again. "Blizzard-Freeze", "Gravity- drift, crush", "Cure- heal", "Magnet- gather". The words reverberate calmly around Zeph's mind and he grows to understand each one, learning the spells attached.

Zeph wakes up from the vision clutching his head, he sits there a little longer, wondering why the distorted vision had not become any clearer like it had the other times.

"Maybe it reacts to the hearts of the worlds..." Zeph thinks- he has to move on in order for more to be revealed. Zeph pulls himself back to a stand, feeling somewhat refreshed- the visions might be a strange form of rest, but they are rest nonetheless.

Zeph walks through to the next part of the road. He is standing on a natural platform above a huge valley. With Hades's castle at the top, this place reminds Zeph of Maleficent's castle in the Enchanted Dominion. Zeph hastens up the path, destroying any Heartless he comes across on the way.

After a short walk, Zeph arrives at Hades's castle and knocks on the door politely.

The door swings open ominously and Zeph walks in.

"Who goes there?" A thunderously loud and awe-inspiring voice asks.

"My name is Zephyrus, lord Hades, I wish to volunteer as your champion in the Games."

"Really? Well, come on in then!" Hades calls out in his normal voice.

Zeph walks into the throne room, slightly scared.

"Ah, it is you, back for more, eh? Couldn't resist my offer?" Hades asks.

"It's not that, I just heard that you were looking for a champion in the games. I thought I could volunteer, so that I could make sure nothing got out of hand, plus I get to see what these 'Games' are..."

"Oh, so you want to try before you buy?" Hades asks, making a clipboard and pencil appear in his hands. "Well, you know, I like you, so we'll see... Hrm, yes I think... Perfect. Right, Zephyrus, was it? Who am I kidding, I know your name. Reknown status... Nobody? Scratch that... Somebody seems about right. Hair colour, brown... Eye colour, blue... blah blah, okay! Your documents seem to be in order, but before I send them off, I just want to see if I really want you championing me."

"Thanks Hades. I'll do my best."

Suddenly Zeph feels himself being transferred to somewhere different.

watch?v=UJxP4GppBGo&ab_channel=Everglow

Once Zeph has caught his breath and regained his composure, he looks around to find himself in an arena of sorts.

"Right, simple test, really... Kill everything that moves other than yourself." Hades says, although Zeph cannot tell where from.

Suddenly Heartless appear all around him, and Zeph readies himself for a fight.

Zeph casts all of the attacking spells he knows at the Heartless, but soon finds he doesn't have metal energy to cast any more, so has to continue the fight the old fashioned way.

After a few minutes' fighting, the Heartless don't seem to be stopping and Zeph is getting increasingly tired.

"Feeling the burn yet? Yeah, the Underworld does that to living people... Still, keep fighting!" Hades says.

Zeph looks around again, trying to find Hades, but is hit in the side by one of the Heartless.

"Ouch! Ugh, all of you, just leave me alone! Wind!" Zeph says, casting a small tornado above his head.

Zeph, getting increasingly tired reaches for his Wayfinder and tries to contact his friends on it, but can't get through to any of them.

Zeph, now almost completely exhausted, curses his broken arm under his breath- he now can hardly even defeat weak Heartless with three strikes, sometimes even four.

"What's wrong, hero? Having trouble?" Hades taunts, "You want to be my champion, you need to prove you're worth hiring, so just fight!"

Starting to get angry, Zeph lashes out at each of the Heartless, taking them down one by one.

"Drift!" Zeph shouts, creating a small anti-gravity field, a variant of the gravity spell he learnt. Some of the Heartless are picked up by the field, and Zeph jumps at them, sending them whirling off into the walls of the arena. They land, confused by the spinning, and attack even fellow Heartless.

"Clever... Too tired to do the dirty work? Make them do it for you." Hades says, "You're almost done, come on! You can do it!"

Zeph manages to finish off the remaining Heartless, and looks around. Suddenly Hades appears in front of him, clapping.

"Very, very well done- you weren't supposed to be able to do that."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean that the challenge you just succeeded at was impossible."

"Impossible?"

"Yes, and evidently not. I made that challenge as something to put Hercules through once I got him here. He wouldn't have been able to do it."

"Well, I'm a Keyblade wielder, it makes Heartless much, much easier to kill for me."

"In any case, one more quick test, then you're definitely hired!"

Hades snaps his fingers and disappears.

watch?v=yQMcPxUsg3Q&ab_channel=Everglow

Suddenly Zeph feels his blood burn, it is a very strange sensation, but after it is over, he feels revived.

"Right, there you are... Wait- why aren't you full of darkness now? Oh well... I refuelled you, so now we're ready for the final exam. Not entirely sure what this thing is, or where it's from, but hey! Have fun, little man!"

Suddenly, a giant white creature with a blue scarf appears in front of Zeph. It definitely isn't a Heartless... This must be a type of Nobody.

Zeph feels a pain in his head, and can think of only Twilight Town and something, a name- 'Roxas'... Who could this Roxas be? Why is his name so similar to Sora's?

Zeph puts a hand on his head, and shakes the pain away, looking back up, right into the Nobody's face.

Zeph jumps back ready to fight this creature and end this once and for all.

With a flash of light, Zeph is floating high above the arena, his able hand and legs pinned in place by a strange light. Zeph tries with all his might to escape the snare his enemy has put him in.

The Nobody floats up towards Zeph and wheels back as if to attack. Zeph continues to try to break out of his bonds, then eventually, just as the Nobody is about to strike, he breaks out and plummets back towards the Arena floor. Zeph throws his Keyblade at the Nobody which seems to have tangled itself up due to swinging its arm too hard.

Landing hard down on both feet, Zeph quickly gets up and jumps onto the Nobody's tangled back, running up to the back of its neck, and striking with all the force he can muster.

The force of the blow sends the Nobody reeling away, rippling like water. Zeph can't hold on, so jumps off the creature's back and turns to face it.

The Nobody has turned itself into a ring, and is starting to spin around, with strange, jagged lines surging around it. Suddenly, some of these lines shoot out at Zeph, he quickly sidesteps them, and immediately more attack him. Zeph notices that for a moment after being shot, the lines are solid. Zeph waits, dodges another line, then jumps onto it, the next shoots out, and Zeph jumps onto that. Gradually, Zeph makes his way up to the Nobody itself. Zeph jumps up and slices the creature as much as he can. The centre of the ring flashes with light, then the creature gradually fades away.

As soon as Zeph lands, he turns around, hearing a clapping sound from behind him.

"Very, very well done. Whatever that thing was, it seemed pretty strong, but you could still take it down. I'll be happy to let you champion me, but if this is some plot to overthrow me or something, I'll show you hell." Hades says.

"Show me hell, huh? Looks like I've already seen it!" Zeph says, smiling at Hades, putting his hands behind his head. A sting of pain reminds Zeph that this is the pose Sora has pulled very often when with his friends.

"Ha, funny... Anyway, we have some games to get to and no time to lose." Hades says, disappearing in smoke. Suddenly Zeph feels himself being pulled out of the underworld, too.

watch?v=w40MkHTV17o

Zeph is back at the entrance of the colosseum, he can't see Hades, so he walks back to the vestibule.

"Oh, you're back- how'd it go?" Phil asks.

"I am now Hades's champion for the games." Zeph replies, trying to sound as heroic as possible.

"Good, well the games are due to start in a couple of hours. You should have a quick train, then rest until it's time."

"Okay, got it- Herc, you want to train with me?" Zeph asks.

"Sure, I'll be out in a minute."

The two go out into the arena and train for about an hour, before going back to the vestibule.

After another hour's rest, Phil rouses Zeph.

"Right, lazybones- time to go. Hades has formally entered you, but didn't read the contract saying you'd have to fight."

"W-w-w-w-wait!" Hades says, appearing in the vestibule. "So you're saying I have to fight my own champion now? What idiot made that rule? Don't they know the point of a champion?"

"Well, there's no point having a champion if he's no better than you, right?" Hercules says.

"Rrgh... Fine! I'll fight him, but when I find out who did this, they're in for a world of hurt!" Hades says, evidently extremely annoyed at the sudden rule change.

Zeph and the God go out into the colosseum and face one another.

"You'd better have nothing to do with this, pipsqueak. Don't think for a minute I'm going to go easy on you!" Hades says. Zeph summons his Keyblade, unphased.

watch?v=RSn23ReXfyQ

Hades flares up, his grey skin turning red.

"I'm on fire!" He shouts, becoming cloaked in flame.

"Hmph, Hades- I know you aren't very strong, don't tire yourself out now. You might as well forfeit." Zeph says, flourishing his Keyblade.

"How dare you-" Hades starts to say when suddenly the tear opens without warning and tendrils of darkness flow out of it into hades. The fire around him turns to a strange black colour, enveloped in darkness.

Shocked by the sudden change in affairs, Zeph jumps back readying himself for a tough fight.

Hades starts by throwing a huge fireball at Zeph, who tries to block it normally, but doesn't expect it to split up into many smaller ones just before impact.

Zeph feels the dark fire starting to catch on his jacket, which he quickly takes off and throws backwards. The dark blue article flies back, catching properly alight and shooting upwards into the sky.

"You're going to pay for that!" Zeph jokes. "Freeze!" He shouts, launching the largest orb of ice he can at Hades, who seems to simply absorb the magic.

"That all you've got?" Hades asks in a distorted voice, throwing another fireball.

Zeph dives to dodge the orb of flame, which impacts hard into a floor tile, sending pieces of rock scattering.

"Drift!" Zeph shouts, casting the Zero Gravity spell, causing all of the debris to float in the air.

"Wind!" Zeph follows up by casting a tornado which pulls the rubble and Hades in, delivering a staggering number of hits to the possessed God.

This attack seems to deal a tiny bit of damage to Hades, who seems to grow more angry as a result.

Zeph stands completely still, weighing up his enemy, ready to react to anything.

Hades holds both his arms out horizontally and a huge gout of fire comes out of both. Hades starts to slowly spin around, and Zeph walks around him at the same speed.

Suddenly Hades brings both his arms around to point in front of him, pointing the columns of flame straight at Zeph, who jumps backwards, landing hard on his back on the ground, just avoiding the attack. As Zeph is falling, he notices a dark figure levitating behind Hades. Hades stops shooting fire shortly after, expecting Zeph to be dead.

As soon as he is able, Zeph gets up and uses a burst of wind magic to catapult himself high into the air, doing a front flip and silhouetted in the sun, the light reflects off of Zeph's Keyblade before he brings it down in a crushing blow to the phantom which was possessing Hades. Zeph lands in a forward roll, spinning around at the end to face Hades.

"Ugh... What happened? Z-Zephyrus? Wait, I'm supposed to be fighting you!"

"If you want..." Zeph says through gritted teeth, performing a spinning uppercut which sends Hades flying across the arena.

"I just beat whatever Heartless was possessing you, and if I have to beat you too, so be it." Zeph says pointing his Keyblade at Hades.

"Y-you know that we could just talk this out? I let you close the tear and you leave me alone?" Hades says.

"You sure? I'd be happy to do that." Zeph says.

"Okay, I'll forfeit the match whilst you close the tear." Hades says.

Zeph expects something is amiss, but decides that this is his best bet. He puts on his armour and quickly closes the tear.

"Ha! You think I'd just forfeit? You're as stupid as you look!" Hades says.

"Sure am! Bye!" Zeph says before jumping, doing a graceful backflip to land behind Hades and strike the God with his Keyblade again.

Zeph throws his Keyblade, which arcs around Hades.

"Ha! You missed!" Hades taunts.

"Did I?" Zeph asks, armouring up, as his Keyblade glider rams through Hades's back.

Just then Hercules runs out.

"Hades! You said you'd forfeit the match! Stop fighting!" He shouts, drawing his sword and hurrying over to Zeph. "Don't worry, I'll take it from here, you do what you need to do!"

"Thanks, I have to be going- give Phil and Meg my best. See you around!" Zeph says, setting off on his glider.

Once Zeph is through the portal, he blows a sigh of relief. A little annoyed at the loss of his jacket, he turns and heads towards the next and penultimate world on the list- Neverland.

Chapter 15: Failure

watch?v=nhywgXDxZH0

As Zeph is traveling through the Lanes Between, suddenly a giant space ship cruises past.

"Woah!" Zeph can't help exclaiming. Suddenly a giant Heartless comes past him towards the ship.

"No you don't!" Zeph says, activating his boosters to catch up.

A few smaller Heartless try to stop Zeph, but he shoots them out of the way.

Zeph sees the giant Heartless fly into the ship, and pushes to catch up.

Suddenly he feels some force pulling him towards the ship.

"Wait, woah!" He exclaims as he is pulled off his Keyblade glider and up into the ship's cargo hold.

Zeph pulls himself upright and looks around. The Heartless seems to be heading down a corridor which leads deeper into the ship. Zeph quickly chases after it, but is blocked off when Heartless appear to surround him.

"Let me through!" Zeph shouts at the creatures, summoning his Keyblade. He is sure that if he can't stop the giant Heartless, something terrible will happen.

Quickly eliminating the smaller Heartless which are in his way, Zeph hurries after the giant one.

Suddenly an alarm starts to go off.

"Intruders detected! Alert! Alert!" A robotic voice calls out.

The sound of the alarm only encourages Zeph to hurry even more.

Slowed by his armour, Zeph is having trouble keeping up with his enemy. He decides to take the risk of there being no breathable air in the ship when the Heartless reaches a corner. Zeph takes off his armour and speeds up significantly in his pursuit. Zeph turns the corner, and sees a closing blast door. He throws his Keyblade, which jams the threshold open, so that he can continue to follow his adversary.

"Stop right there!" A voice calls from behind Zeph. "You're under arrest, surrender and we will be merciful!"

"I'm sorry, but I need to destroy that Heartless, we can talk afterwards." Zeph says, ignoring whomever is behind him.

Zeph quickly goes through the blast door, looking around himself to try to find the Heartless again. Zeph spots it going down a corridor marked "No unauthorised access, engine room ahead.

"Oh no." Zeph thinks, pushing himself harder to keep up with the Heartless.

After a little more chasing, Zeph comes out into a large space with tanks and all sorts of technology all over it. He can't see the Heartless, but knows it is in here.

Suddenly, the Heartless appears in front of Zeph. It is similar to the digital Heartless he fought before, however, it is more like an animal than a machine.

It looks like a cross between a chameleon, an angelfish and a space ship, Zeph has no idea what it will be capable of.

The creature had been levitating, but lands now, making a scraping sound as its claws grind against the metal of the ship. The Heartless blinks silently at Zeph, but this action carries as much weight as a roar. Zeph jumps back and summons his Keyblade, hearing the person who was behind him curse as the blast door fully closes.

Distracted by this sound, Zeph looks back, and when he turns back to face the Heartless, it has disappeared again.

"So now you turn invisible? Great, just great..." Zeph says, listening closely.

Zeph can hear the clattering sound the Heartless's feet make on the floor and walls.

Zeph sees a crack start to appear in one of the containers of liquid.

"Don't you dare!" Zeph shouts, throwing his Keyblade at where he thinks the Heartless must be. The weapon bounces off the wall and clatters down to the ground before reappearing in Zeph's hand.

Zeph watches on helplessly as the Heartless is able to break open the container. A different alarm starts.

"Warning, engine cooling tanks damaged, repair immediately or evacuate the ship!"

"What have you done?" Zeph asks the creature. "This is my fault, I should have been stronger..." He thinks. Zeph closes his eyes as takes a hold of his Wayfinder.

"Ven... You are strong enough, you just need to believe in yourself." A female voice says. "There's always hope, even in the face of defeat- you just need to see through your heart." it continues. Suddenly, through his closed eyes, Zeph sees the Heatless crawling around. Thanking whoever it was who saved him, Zeph throws his Keyblade again. This time it hits home, knocking the Heartless off of the wall. It disappears and Zeph opens its eyes. The Heartless is lying on its back, struggling to get on its feet. Zeph charges in and attacks it.

Zeph hears an explosion coming from the other end of the room, and the alarms intensify.

"Ship integrity compromised! Evacuate immediately! Estimated time until explosion... Five minutes..."

Knocked over by the shockwave caused by the explosion, Zeph is dazed for a moment. Zeph hears a terrifyingly loud scraping sound, and sees the Heartless starting to tear a hole in the wall of the ship. Zeph puts his armour on, before being pulled off his feet and out into the lanes between. He can still hear the alarms, which have recalculated to 10 seconds.

Zeph gets on his Keyblade glider, and looks around for the Heartless. He sees it moving away in the direction of Neverland, but turns away from it. Zeph sees a huge number of escape pods fire out from the ship, before it explodes in spectacular fashion. One of the pods seems to be a small, full-fledged ship, and that starts to cruise away towards a different beach word which Zeph doesn't recognise. It isn't the Destiny Islands.

"No time to check..." Zeph thinks.

Disappointed in himself for letting this happen, Zeph hurries after the Heartless, setting back off for Neverland...

Chapter 16: Forever a Child

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Upon landing in Neverland, Zeph looks around, keen to find the Heartless he failed to destroy in Deep Space. Zeph seems to be at the top of a set of giant waterfalls.

Zeph decides to try to find a way down and find somebody to ask about the Heartless.

Zeph quickly reaches a kind of Gully and looks around.

"Let's go on an expetition!" He hears a child say. Zeph quickly moves to hide behind a rock, worried he might shock the speaker.

"Yeah! Let's go! I love expetitions! Could we go, Peter? Pretty please?" A different voice asks.

"We'll see, but what I don't understand is why you two lost interest in that column of light..." A third voice says.

Zeph realises that these boys must have seen the light created by his landing.

Suddenly, Zeph hears the sound of claws against rock...

"You three! Get out of here! It isn't safe!" Zeph shouts, jumping out and managing to block the Heartless's attack from killing the three boys.

"Woah! What's that? Who are you?" One of the boys asks.

"Nnrgh... Please, get... away from here- you'll be killed if you don't." Zeph says through gritted teeth- his one arm is not strong enough to hold back the Heartless much longer.

"Right you two, we need to get out of here now- this guy can deal with that- we need to go and find Tinks as soon as we can." The oldest of the boys says, taking the two others' hands, and flying away, despite their protest.

Zeph releases a sigh of relief, as he spins out of the block. The Heartless's claws cut a deep gash into the rock where Zeph was standing just a moment before, and the creature looks at him and licks its eyes.

Zeph hops back, Keyblade in hand, ready to fight his enemy for real this time.

Evidently, the Heartless has other ideas, as it walks away.

"Is it... leading me somewhere?" Zeph wonders- the creature has not once actually attacked Zeph. What does it want?

Zeph hurries after the Heartless, hoping that next time it won't get away.

After a short trek down the mountains, Zeph reaches a wooded area with a small clearing. Peculiarly, there is a lone tree in the centre of the clearing.

Zeph walks up to the tree to investigate, and can hear scraping sounds coming from inside.

"There you are!" Zeph mutters under his breath, as he opens a small door in the base of the tree.

Zeph walks through the door and comes out into a relatively spacious home-like area.

The Heartless is on the other side of the room, and turns to face Zeph.

It climbs onto the ceiling and walks over Zeph's head, once again escaping him.

Fed up of this chase, Zeph decides to look for a clue in this house.

Zeph comes across a small chest filled with all kinds of things. Suddenly pain shoots through his head, and he collapses into another vision.

In his vision, Zeph sees Terra speaking with an elaborately dressed man with a hook for a hand. Terra is told to defend the light in the chest that Zeph is looking at now.

The older boy who could fly comes down and tries to steal the chest, Terra fights him, but soon realises he has been tricked- the "light" in the chest was in fact, just gold.

Next, Zeph sees the other two boys carrying the chest, it doesn't have gold in it anymore, but is instead full of the boys' own treasures, and a wooden model Keyblade.

"One day, I'm going to become a Keyblade master!" Zeph remembers Ventus saying this phrase so often, his one dream. This toy sword must have been from before he had his own actual Keyblade.

The vision moves on, to show a masked boy holding the wooden Keyblade and the distorted vision is layered over it. Zeph can make out much more detail now, he is walking along with somebody in a world made out of orange coloured bricks. Suddenly, dark forms appear all around him and his friend. The creatures jump at Zeph, and just as they are about to hit Zeph, in the main vision, the masked boy snaps the toy Keyblade in half with a resounding crack, sending the huge pain and sorrow through Zeph's head once again and the vision fades.

"Hey, are you okay?" Zeph hears a voice say.

Rubbing his stinging head, Zeph sits up.

"You're crying, what happened?" The green-clad flying boy is standing in front of him.

"I... I'm fine- don't worry about it." Zeph says.

"You're not- I would never cry for no reason! Anyway, my name's Peter- Peter Pan. What's yours?" He asks.

"Z...Zephyrus- pleased to meet you. Call me Zeph."

"That's a strange name... No offence, of course- do you know Sora? He had a weapon like yours." Peter asks.

"Not exactly... I know who he is, but I've never met him, or anything." Zeph has perked back up now.

"Oh, oh well. Welcome to Neverland! If you don't mind me asking- what brings you here?"

"It's a long story. To start, there's that Heartless that attacked you. Also, there's a tear in this world- one which reaches right into its heart, allowing darkness to seep in, causing even more Heartless to appear." Zeph says, and continues, "But something doesn't feel quite right- I can tell the tear is in this world, but it seems to be so far away..."

"Really...? I think I can help with that, but we'll need to find my friend Tinkerbell first." Peter Pan says.

"You'll help me? Thanks Peter- do you know where we'll have to go?" Zeph asks.

"I don't know, but I think I can make a good guess." Peter says. Zeph senses that mischief is brewing.

"Okay then, lead the way!" Zeph says, pleased to have somebody along to help him out.

The two of them continue to walk towards the coast and on the way, have to fight many Heartless.

In a slight gap between fights, Zeph decides to ask some questions.

"So, Peter- why can you fly?" He asks.

"Oh, I can fly because of my friend Tinkerbell- she's a pixie, if she gives you some pixie dust, you can fly!" Peter replies.

"So that's why we need to save her first? So that I can fly to the tear with you?"

"Sure is! Also, I'd like to get my friend back."

"Well, of course- that's a given! Anyway- how much further is it?"

"Not very far now, we're almost at the cove, where we can row over to Skull Rock, and that's where I'd bet Tinks is."

"Got it."

The two continue to walk, and have to fight a few more Heartless, but make short work of the creatures with their combined force.

After an hour or so, they reach a small cove which leads into the sea, where, a short ways out, there is an island shaped like a skull.

"There it is! Skull Rock... If there's anywhere I could bet on Tinks being held- it's there." Peter says.

"Okay then, so I guess we need to row across?" Zeph asks.

"Well, if you don't have a better way, probably..." Peter says.

The cove is too enclosed for Zeph to use his Keyblade glider, so Zeph has to row the small raft across to the island whilst Peter flies ahead.

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When Zeph arrives on the island, he hears a man screaming from inside, and hurries to help. Inside, The giant Heartless has Peter Pan and two other men pinned against a wall.

"Hey! You! Leave them alone!" Zeph shouts at the creature, running and jumping onto its back, and gripping tight with his legs, striking the beast with his Keyblade, wishing his arm would hurry up and get better.

The Heartless jumps back and shakes Zeph off, turning to face him. It licks its eyes like a chameleon before turning invisible.

"All of you! Get out of here, quickly!" Zeph shouts, and Peter grabs hold of the two men and flies away, despite their protest.

Zeph closes his eyes and attunes his senses in order to try to find his enemy. He can hear the creature walking around, and tries to triangulate its exact position.

Suddenly, he hears it moving much more quickly and opens his eyes, to see it lunging towards him. He manages to dive out of the way at just the right time, and the Heartless's claws get stuck in the stone floor. Zeph takes this opportunity to hit the Heartless with all of his force. "Fire!" "Freeze!" "Thunder!" The Heartless shrugs off the spells as if they were nothing. "Gravity!" Zeph casts one final spell, hoping this would yield a greater effect. The crushing force of the gravity spell clearly deals heavy damage to the Heartless, as it grows angrier, and pulls its claws out of the ground.

Zeph jumps back, ready for his enemy's next attack. He can see that his spell seems to have set some the Heartless's scales into place, and now, when it turns invisible, not all of its scales disappear. The creature circles him, and Zeph stands still, waiting for it to strike. It pounces, and Zeph is not quite able to jump out of the way in time. The creature pins Zeph to the floor and howls, raising a clawed arm up to strike the final blow. Zeph readies himself to die.

As Zeph closes his eyes, and the Heartless licks its lips, raising its arm even higher, Zeph can hear a twinkling sound coming from behind the Heartless. The Heartless's arm starts to move down, when suddenly, a tiny sparkling shape flies past, sprinkling Zeph with a glowing dust. Suddenly, he feels lighter and is able to slide out from under the Heartless's clawed hand.

Panting with the effort, Zeph jumps up and throws his Keyblade at the Heartless's face.

The weapon hits with devastating force, sending the creature wheeling backwards.

Zeph runs forward, and suddenly Peter Pan is there, too. The two of them strike together onto the Heartless's stunned head.

The creature is sent back another few paces, and Peter pan unleashes a blinding flurry of stabs and cuts to it. Finally, Zeph strikes with a powerful jumping attack, and the creature becomes enveloped in light, before the heart inside it breaks free, and floats slowly upwards.

watch?v=MSmC78sx8eU&ab_channel=BrawlBRSTMs3

"Well, that's that dealt with. Thanks for helping me out there." Zeph says.

"No problem- Tinks told me you were in danger, so I couldn't just let you stay in there with that thing." Peter replies cheerfully, "Now- we need to get you to fly so that we can see the tear, don't we?"

"Yes please!" Zeph says.

"Tinks, if you would, please?" Peter says to the pixie.

The sparkly fairy flies around Zeph a few times, and he starts to feel much lighter and somewhat stronger.

"There you go!"

"Thanks, both of you! Without your help I'd be in trouble for sure!"

"No problem, just happy to help!"

"Where to next?"

"Well, if it won't take too long, then I won't need to tell the rest that we're going. Anyway- we're headed to London in that case! Follow me, Zeph!"

Peter flies away, and Zeph jumps up to follow, but has trouble flying.

"Oh! Sorry, I forgot you haven't done this before- you just need to believe you can fly, and you'll be able to, simple as that!" Peter says, turning around.

Zeph closes his eyes and believes, sure enough, slowly at first, he feels himself rising off of the ground.

Zeph quickly floats up beside Peter Pan, and the two fly off towards London, the clock tower and the penultimate tear...

"We're almost there, just keep going in this direction. I should really make sure everyone else is okay in Neverland. Hope everything goes well for you Zeph."

"Really? Okay then, see you Peter. Thanks so much for your help. I don't know when I'll see you again, but I'll do my best to to see you as soon as I can!"

"Okay then, see you Zeph!" Peter says, flying off in the opposite direction.

Zeph takes a hold of his wayfinder.

"Soon, Ven, soon." He mutters to the trinket.

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Zeph feels the tear's proximity now, and knows he's almost there, but something is wrong...

Zeph looks beside him as he is flying along, and there is a giant, phantom Heartless next to him. Zeph banks hard away from the Heartless, summoning his Keyblade and readies himself for a fight.

A pain shoots through Zeph's head, as he suddenly understands the word "Time" in much more detail.

The Heartless casts some kind of spell on the clock tower, and Zeph somehow feels attached to the ticking of the clock. Zeph notices that the Heartless's heart is visible, but surrounded in a colourful energy field.

The clocks ticking continues, and Zeph starts to realise, he feels weaker.

"What did you do to me?" Zeph asks the Heartless, which is hanging in the air in front of the clock. It raises an arm to point at him, then an idea rushes into Zeph's mind.

"I have... a minute? Is that what you mean? In any case- better get to work, then!" Zeph says, and he flies as quickly as he can towards the Heartless and strikes its heart. Nothing. Confused as to how the Keyblade could not have been able to damage a Heartless, Zeph strikes again, his Keyblade bounces off the shield leaving it completely undamaged.

Very aware of the clock ticking behind him, Zeph turns away from the Heartless and tries to stop its motion.

Suddenly, the phantom's skeletal fingers are wrapping themselves around Zeph's waist, and he struggles to get free.

"Get off of me!" He shouts, panicking, as he realises that the Heartless has no intention of letting go for the remaining time Zeph has left.

"I... Need more... Time..." Zeph thinks, doing his best to calm down. "Yes! That's it! Stop!" Zeph casts his newest spell on the clock. It freezes in place, and Zeph feels his strength returning to him. Zeph hits the Heartless's wrist with his Keyblade, and suddenly the dark mass of its hand loses its solid form. Zeph quickly flies back and readies himself to fight for real.

The Heartless swoops forward, its hand glowing, and strikes Zeph, dealing heavy damage.

Zeph is sent flipping over backwards through the air, and is stunned by the force a phantom-like creature can put behind an attack.

Once he has righted himself, Zeph sees that the colour of the shield around the Heartless's heart has changed to a near-transparent white. Zeph quickly feints in and strikes the heart. This time, the Heartless is staggered backwards and clearly hurt. The heart fades away, and the creature flies over to in front of the clock, where it charges up a purple fireball. The creature sends the orb of flame at Zeph, who tries as hard as he can to dodge it, but cannot. The fireball starts to spin around Zeph, and hurts him periodically.

Now badly wounded, Zeph stays back from the Heartless and casts a healing spell.

Tired, but still able to fight, Zeph goes back in, closer to the Heartless, and notices the unmistakable sound of the clock starting to tick again.

Zeph diverts off his course, and after 5 more of his 20 remaining seconds, manages to stop the clock again.

Now very low on the mental energy required to cast spells, Zeph tries to attack the Heartless again. The heart disappears, and the Heartless hurries back to the clock face, casting another fireball. Zeph, knowing the attack is undodgeable, flies in and makes the fireball spin off of its trajectory and hit the phantom. Although it seems to do no damage to the creature, it does make the heart reappear, this time, however, it is red. Knowing basic attacks don't work, Zeph decides to try his magic- red means fire, he thinks, so he casts a fireball of his own at the Heartless. The spell hits home, and the Heartless clearly takes more damage. Angered, it moves closer to Zeph, both hands glowing, and its Heart currently invisible. The Heartless attacks thrice in a row- once with each hand, and finishes with a savage, two-handed blow. Zeph dodges the first two, and tries to block the last. The Heartless grabs a hold of Zeph's Keyblade and tries to wrench it from his hands. Zeph finds himself staring into the empty hood of the phantom, and feels a shudder go down his spine.

The Heartless is able to tear Zeph's Keyblade from his hands, and Zeph also notices that the clock has started again.

Zeph resummons his Keyblade quickly as he flies over to the clock. The Heartless is relentless in its pursuit, and manages to grab onto Zeph's leg. Zeph turns around and tries to cut the hand as he did before, but he cannot. Instead, Zeph looks at the heart, which is now blue. He casts a blizzard spell at the phantom, and it has to let go.

His heartbeat in his mouth, Zeph makes it back to the clock, as it reaches the "Eleven" mark.

"Stop!" Zeph shouts, as the clock's hand starts to move to the "Twelve" mark.

With the crisis averted, Zeph turns again to face the Heartless , which has shot another fireball. Zeph can't avoid it, and instead takes the blow, throwing his Keyblade at the Heartless, then, as it strikes, using its power in reverse in a way which he doesn't know, Zeph teleports up to the Heartless and delivers a decisive blow onto the creature's heart. The phantom staggers back and starts to lose its balance as its heart begins to float upwards. The black fabric of the cloak, now lifeless trails after the heart for a few moments, before fading away. Zeph flies over to the tear, still panting with the adrenaline, and closes it.

"Just one more..." He thinks as he throws out his Keyblade glider, armours up, and heads back into the Lanes Between. His next, and final target is located on an ancient battleground in a wasteland un-inhabited by all save thousands of lifeless forms...

Chapter 17: New Mysteries

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As soon as Zeph touches down in the Keyblade Graveyard, he is beset by dark creatures. Zeph fights them off as best he can- they don't seem to be Heartless- almost all of them carry an emblem which is different to that of the Heartless.

"What are these things?" Zeph wonders, as he strikes down an enemy which looks a lot like the pureblood Heartless, the shadow, but is blue, and its antennae are pointed away from its head.

After a bit more fighting, the creatures stop reappearing, and Zeph looks around. He is in the centre of a round rock formation with an exit just in front of him. Zeph walks forward and looks out over the badlands. There are rock spires as far as the eye can see- no signs of life at all. Zeph turns to his right and follows the path to find himself at the bottom of a large canyon with a few rock spires dotting it. Enthusiastic to finish his job, Zeph hastens in the direction of the tear, and starts to feel a strong, depressing connection to this world. What happened here? Usually the worlds are full of life, but this is simply a wasteland filled with nothing but rocks and some Not-Heartless.

More of the dark creatures appear around Zeph, and he is forced to fight, as a tornado appears around him and his enemies. Zeph fights them, some are distinctly coloured pot-shaped creatures which use magic corresponding to their colour. Some are hourglasses which can slow Zeph down. Others are full of a flammable gas, which, if Zeph trikes anything other than the valve on their back more than 3 times, explode.

Doing his best to learn as he fights, Zeph destroys the enemies, and eventually, the windstorm around him subsides, and he moves on.

The same process happens twice more, until Zeph is able to make his way through the Twister Trench, and arrive in some kind of Fissure. Zeph gets the feeling that this will be his last chance to rest for a long time, so he sits down, looking towards the tear, he can see it through a thin passage. Zeph feels that familiar pain shoot through his head as he notices that, beside the tear, are hundreds and hundreds of lifeless Keyblades.

In the vision, Zeph can see Aqua walking towards Terra.

"I heard... The master was struck down..." She says.

"That's right... I was stupid and helped Xehanort do it..." Terra says, Aqua is shocked. "The master... He tried to hurt Ven, I only fought because I wanted to protect him. But I was tricked- Xehanort set the whole thing up! All so he could awaken the darkness inside me... You were right Aqua, the master, too- I did need to be watched! I went astray, but no more!"

"What else is darkness but hate and rage? You'll go astray again..." Aqua says, but stops as she sees Ventus walking towards them.

"Xehanort wants me and Vanitas to fight, to forge some kind of Key-blade... But the master said we can't let that happen, and he tried to destroy me for it... I still don't know exactly what it is, but it scares me to death, just the thought of it..." He says.

"Relax, Ven- we're here, and we're going to take care of you." Terra says, putting his hand on Ven's shoulder.

"I may have to fight Vanitas after all- I want you to-"

"The three of us can never be torn apart, okay?" Terra says. Aqua puts her hand on Ven's cheek and smiles at him. Ven takes a hold of his friends hands, and takes them off of him.

"I'm asking you, as a friend, just... put an end to me..." Ventus says. The whole time through the vision, it has been flickering, and Ventus has been switching periodically back and forth between looking like Ventus, and looking like Zephyrus. The distorted vision now starts to play, this time on its own. Zeph is walking along- he is younger, much younger, still a child. He has somebody of the same age with him- a girl, who is his best friend. The vision doesn't have any sound yet, and Zeph cannot remember her name or any real detail about her.

They are walking through the tram common of Twilight Town towards the forest when Heartless appear to surround them. Zeph and his friend are shocked, and the Heartless attack, as they strike, the pain starts, but this time, Zeph sees his friend fade away, but he survives. The vision ends. That's what the pain was the whole time- his heart could still remember the loss of his friend, but his mind released the other memories stored in it and took the pain into itself in order to prevent Zeph's heart from truly realising what happened.

"This is why... I guess I get better so quickly because of my mind taking the pain... No escaping the truth now..." Zeph thinks, the pain is still in his head. "You're still going to keep the pain from my heart, though? Thanks." Zeph thinks, not really knowing what he's thanking.

Zeph gets up and starts to walk forward, remembering the name of the creatures he's been fighting- "the Unversed"... Zeph cannot remember anything about the creatures save what he learned whilst fighting them, but there's no way for him to learn anything now. With the previous vision still burning in his mind, Zeph walks out onto the battleground where the Keyblade war was fought all that time ago...

Zeph reaches the tear completely unaccosted and instantly thinks there must be something wrong. Zeph raises his Keyblade to close the tear and thinks- "Some kind of Key-blade..." What did Ventus mean? Xehanort already has a Keyblade, doesn't he?

The instant the tear is closed, Unversed appear to surround him and the masked boy from the Neverland vision appears.

"You thought you could get rid of me, didn't you? You are a fool, Ventus- it is our destiny to forge the Key-blade!" The boy says.

"T-the Unversed? How? Who are you?" Zeph says.

"You've forgotten already? A pity... The Unversed are creatures spawned from the neg... Who are you? You're not Ventus, so how did your proximity to the tear bring me back?" The boys who Zeph assumes must be Vanitas says.

"I won't tell you until you tell me what the Key-blade is!" Zeph says, a slight pain in his head showing him that Ventus was in a very similar situation just before he split his heart- being held down by Unversed and being confronted by Vanitas.

"You don't even know what the Key-blade is? Well, we've got a long way to go yet... Xye is an ancient symbol used to represent the word 'Key'. All Keyblades like yours and mine were created in its image, it is the ultimate weapon. Xehanort will have it, and it is by Ventus and I fighting that it will be forged! Well, you should do as a replacement- how do you have his heart?" Zeph remembers Master Yen Sid mentioning the X-Blade.

"Whatever this means... I'll play no part in it! FIRE!" Zeph shouts through gritted teeth, creating a fire vortex around himself which destroys all the Unversed.

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"You resist still? No matter! I will crush you so that we can unite!" Vanitas says.

"Never! Ventus was changed forever because of you! I won't let the same thing happen twice!" Zeph says, summoning his Keyblade, ready to fight.

Vanitas charges in straight away, delivering a powerful overhead slash with his Keyblade, Zeph blocks it easily, then attacks with a counter slash.

Vanitas jumps back as soon as Zeph blocks, so avoids Zeph's strike.

"Hrm... You will do just fine, Zephyrus..." Vanitas says.

"How do you know my name?" Zeph shouts at the boy.

"That's right, anger- let your rage turn to the strength! A beacon of unending light for my darkness to combine with!"

"Shut up! Fight if you're going to! I don't care about your X-Blade! If it has to be forged, I'll just destroy you both!"

With a giggle barely audible under his mask, Vanitas jumps up, then fazes into the ground. Zeph, unsure of what to do, does a diving roll in an attempt to dodge the attack. Vanitas comes out of the ground directly beneath Zeph, causing a shower of fireballs and also hitting Zeph with a spinning uppercut.

Zeph is sent rolling across the flat of the wasteland but the hit, and is heavily damaged.

"You can do better than that!" Vanitas taunts.

Zeph pulls himself up, taking hold of his Wayfinder.

"Everyone, please, lend me as much of your strength as you can..." Zeph thinks to his Wayfinder. Nothing.

"Not going to work- this has to be you fighting me." Vanitas says.

With a grimace, Zeph casts a cure spell and runs at Vanitas, attacking with a flurry of strikes. The first few stagger Vanitas back, but then, in an eerie manner, he simply stops moving.

"Too slow!" Vanitas says, appearing just behind Zeph and attacking with a powerful, ice cold slam which causes ice to spear up from the ground into Zeph.

Zeph jumps back, managing to stay on his feet, and again, runs in, and hits with all his might.

Vanitas blocks the strike, and their Keyblades lock together in a deadly clash.

With only one usable arm, Zeph quickly starts to get pushed back. His right arm gets pushed so close to his body, that it presses into his broken left, Zeph notices a lack of pain.

With a slight smile, Zeph shrugs his arm out of its sling and pushes against Vanitas's Keyblade with his full strength. Shocked by this surge in strength, Vanitas is easily overpowered, and Zeph is able to grab hold of Vanitas's Keyblade, and strike a few times using both weapons together.

It is only a momentary advantage, and Vanitas jumps back, re-summoning his Keyblade.

Vanitas shoots a slow moving fireball which is imbued with darkness at Zeph before jumping into the air, and lunging forward with the power of darkness. Zeph manages to block Vanitas's surging dash, but as the fireball hits, it splits into many smaller ones, which Zeph can't block.

Gritting his teeth, Zeph jumps, up and tries to fly. The fairy dust has had a lasting effect on him, and although he can't fly, Zeph can glide through the air. Zeph uses this new technique to space himself a little ways apart from Vanitas.

"Hmph, you're weak and a coward, I see." Vanitas taunts again.

"I... Might be weak, but-"

"Friends, blah blah- I get it. They're not here for you now. I even found a way to stop your little trinket working. Face it! You're insignificant."

"You... You could never understand. I don't need my Wayfinder to keep my friends. I might not be strong on my own, or when fighting for myself. But this isn't about me! It's about them... For that reason I have to fight, and I have to win." Zeph says, feeling a power rising inside him. In his mind, he can hear the voices of all of his friends encouraging him. "I won't ever be alone! My friends are always with me! They are my source of strength, and now I'm going to kill you once and for all!"

Zeph charges in and delivers a masterful combo- his broken arm wasn't a hindrance- it was a learning experience. Zeph switches between a one and two handed grip on his Keyblade, and Vanitas cannot hope to block the flurry of attack. Again, the masked boy pauses.

"Pathetic!"

"I don't think so!" Zeph says, predicting what will happen, and sliding around Vanitas, continuing his attack. After another couple of hits, Vanitas stops again.

"Too slow!"

"Again?"

"Pathetic!"

"Nope!"

"Suffer!"

"Not happening!"

The two repeatedly slide around behind one another, doing their best to strike the other. Eventually, Zeph is able to get a meaningful hit in on Vanitas.

Zeph's sudden increase in power, clearly shocks Vanitas, who can't seem to fight back effectively.

Then, as if from nowhere, a voice speaks.

"Vanitas! You are needed here! Stop fighting that boy. Remember your orders!" The voice says. It is that of an old man- could it be? Was that Xehanort?

"Looks like you got off easy this time, but it isn't going to be so long until we next meet. Then we will fight for real." Vanitas says, backing away from Zeph, and becoming enveloped in darkness.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Zeph shouts after Vanitas, but the masked boy has already disappeared.

Zeph throws out his Keyblade glider and quickly returns to the Lanes Between, heading in the direction of the Mysterious tower, where he will report his progress.

Chapter 18: Calm Before the Storm

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When Zeph arrives back at the Mysterious Tower, he quickly goes through the door and runs up the stairs.

Master Yen Sid is sitting in his chair looking solemn.

"Master? What happened?" Zeph asks.

The old wizard sighs. "Events have taken a bad turn, Zephyrus. I congratulate you on completing your mission, however, there is no time to celebrate..."

"Oh?"

"Through the stars, I watched your visit to the Keyblade Graveyard- if the masked boy Vanitas has returned, it cannot bode well... I don't think I ever told you about the X-Blade in detail?"

"You said we don't know much about it..."

"Hrm... Well, one of the conditions for the X-Blade being created is when a light and darkness of equal power clash. Vanitas was created for this reason- he is the darkness from Ventus's heart manifested into a physical form. A long time ago, Ventus, Terra and Aqua went to the Keyblade Graveyard and fought Xehanort and Vanitas there. Ventus did have to fight Vanitas, and the X-Blade was almost completed. By destroying both his and Vanitas's heart, Ventus was able to destroy the X-Blade. However, due to tears' link to darkness, if Ventus's heart were in close proximity to one of them for long enough, Vanitas could reform."

"So when I went through closing all the tears, the Heartless weren't defending them as such, but just making me have to stay close to one for as long as possible?"

"I fear that may be so... This, however, is not our only issue... I sent Sora and Riku into the sleeping worlds for their mark of mastery exam, but Sora's heart has somehow fallen into darkness... Riku has taken the plunge to try to save him, but I fear we may lose them both... Xehanort has truly outsmarted us this time..."

"What about Lezalit?"

"Your friend is on his way now, once Sora is awake again, him and Riku will go with you two to Castle Oblivion. That appears to be where Xehanort has gone."

"Castle... Oblivion...?" Zeph asks, and suddenly a piercing agony stabs into his head.

The vision shows Aqua holding her master's Keyblade- she is in a bright building, but through the windows, Zeph can see that this world has fallen into darkness.

"Aqua, should anything happen to me, use my Keyblade to seal this world from the others..." Zeph can hear Aqua's memories.

She is standing behind the central throne in the main room, and a keyhole appears. Aqua uses her master's Keyblade on the keyhole, and the castle changes from a white, bright, pleasant one to an awe-inspiring castle with strange shapes all over it.

Zeph notices that Aqua his been carrying Ventus this whole time, but the vision cuts out before Zeph can see where she put him. The distorted vision plays again, now it has sound coming from everything except Zeph. The Heartless appear around them to attack, and Zeph's friend calls his name as if he could have helped her. The world "Keyblade" echos through Zeph's head- surely he couldn't have used to back then? Was this his fault?

Again, beset by sorrow, Zeph feels his consciousness returning to him...

"How is he?" Zeph hears a voice asking from another room. He opens his eyes and looks around, he is on a bed in a small room at the top of the tower.

"His heart contains memories so dark and painful to him that his mind has to take the recollection into itself, causing him an intense headache. I do not know why this causes him to collapse, or why he sees the memories of others, but it feels like that fact has a meaning..." Yen Sid replies.

"Could we at least get to see him? What if he's recovered?" A different voice says- he recognises this one as Sora's.

"Sora, Zeph must have something pretty major going on in his head- meeting new people in the aftermath of that could make it worse..." A third voice- Riku's says.

"No, Sora may be right, I feel Zeph's energy returning to him." Yen Sid says.

Zeph decides to wait in his bed so that he doesn't shock anybody.

After a short wait, Zeph hears the door open and Laz walks in.

"Hey there buddy- good job with those tears, but you don't have time to take a nap yet..." He says.

"Hi Laz... I didn't mean it, no idea why this happens to me, it just does..."

"No problem! Hey, your arm- what happened?"

"It's better now, I just didn't have time to take the sling off. I'll tell you about it later, right now, I have some new people to meet, don't I? Just before we go- how long was I asleep for?"

"You were only asleep for a couple of days! Anyway- come on then, little guy!" Laz says. Zeph is worried- Laz has never been this jolly before- when serious people are jolly, that must mean something is wrong...

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Zeph follows Laz into the main room.

"Hello everyone! Sorry if I shocked you with that!" Zeph says cheerfully.

"Hey, it's not like these two were having sleeps of their own for a while..." A young man with red hair says from across the room.

"Lea! Shush about that!" Sora says. "Hi Zeph! It's great to meet you! I'm Sora!" He greets, putting his hands behind his head and beaming at Zeph.

"Hello Zeph- my name is Riku. I'm sorry Sora can be a bit over enthusiastic at times, but hey, that's why we like him!"

"Riku!" Sora complains.

"Gawrsh, it's great to meet another Keyblade wielder- I'm Goofy!"

"I'm Donald! The best mage in the kingdom!"

"Name's Lea, got it memorised?"

"It's so great to meet all of you! I'm Zephyrus- call me Zeph!"

Everyone laughs, happy to have finally met the newest addition to their team.

"Now, I am sure you are all glad to see our new friend, however, there is still work to be done. You all know your mission." Master Yen Sid says after the jollyness starts to recede.

"Can't Lea come along, too? He needs to learn as well!" Sora says.

"No, I cannot risk all of you- Lea will stay here training, and if he's needed, I will send him over to you."

"Okay then! Are we ready to go everyone?" Sora asks- Zeph is amazed by how quickly Sora can change his mind. Everyone agrees.

"Bring back Ventus for us..." Yen Sid says to Zeph as they leave.

Sora, Riku and Laz use Sora's Gummi ship, but Zeph volunteers to use his Keyblade glider instead so that the ship isn't overfilled.

Just before he sets off, he takes a hold of his Wayfinder.

"I'm nearly there, Ven- just give me a little longer."

And with that, Zeph leaves the world, too, heading off towards the End of the World. This is the only place which can be used to access Castle Oblivion given its cut-off state. Zeph gets a feeling that something terrible is about to happen, and wishes he could see the future rather than the past...

Chapter 13: Destiny's Union

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After a short trip, Zeph and all of his friends arrive at the place that links to their destination- the End of the World.

"Okay everyone, I've been here before, so I say we all follow me!" Sora says.

"Okay Sora- just be careful- there might be four of us, but we don't know what to expect." Riku says.

The four of them head off through the void. As they walk, Zeph looks around him. As far as the eye can see, there is virtually nothing. The ground they are walking along seems to be solid water, not ice- solid water.

"Whatever this place is, I don't like it..." Zeph thinks.

"So, anybody fancy playing some I-Spy?" Zeph jokes.

"Sure! I spy with my little eye... something beginning with... Umm... This isn't going to work, is it?" Sora says.

"You'd better have been joking there, Sora..." Laz says.

"Of course I was! Hey! Stop looking at me like that!"

They all laugh a little, still walking along towards their ultimate destination.

Zeph notices a distinct lack of Heartless given that they're in what is essentially the Realms of Darkness. They continue to walk forwards, and talk amongst themselves.

"I don't think it's too much further now..." Sora says after an hour or so more walking.

"Let's hope not... We could do with a ground plan as to what to do when we arrive... Riku, you're the Keyblade master here, you tell us what's best." Laz says.

"Okay, from the sounds of it, Xehanort will most likely be in the castle with Vanitas. I think it would be best if Sora and I go in first, that way we can keep Zeph from having to fight Vanitas. The two of you should stay outside in case Heartless attack to flank us. Seem reasonable?" Riku says.

"Yeah, but what should we do if I do have to fight Vanitas?" Zeph asks.

"You kill him. There's a good chance that the little bit of Ventus's heart in you doesn't create a completely equal amount of light to Vanitas's darkness, so if you can just destroy him before he has a chance to try to create the X-Blade, then hopefully we should be okay. But if Vanitas and Xehanort are outside, you call us with your Wayfinders straight away, and Laz, you keep Vanitas busy for as long as possible."

"This... Really doesn't seem like it's going to be easy..." Zeph says.

"Don't be like that! C'mon! You've never let yourself be beaten before, why start now?" Sora encourages.

"Sora is right, we need to be optimistic- if we go in thinking without hope, then we'll just give up early." Laz says.

They all continue to walk for a bit longer, and the ground changes from being the solid water to being a soil path with lush green fields to either side of it.

"This... Is about as far as I can remember, but I think it's along this way." Sora says.

"I've been here before, but I can't put a finger on the way anymore either..." Riku says.

Zeph stops and closes his eyes, opening his heart.

"Are you okay?" Laz asks.

"It's this way..." Zeph says and starts to walk off to the right, down a turn in the path.

Sora, Riku and Laz rush after Zeph, who has started to walk very quickly, as if possessed by some force.

"Zeph! Slow down!" Sora shouts after him, but Zeph's ears are closed to all around him.

With that familiar pain, Zeph feels his eye's vision being replaced by that of his mind...

Zeph sees Ventus being attacked by his master- Eraqus was his name.

Suddenly, Terra appears.

"Master! What's gotten into you?"

"Terra! Has the darkness taken you, too?" Eraqus says.

Terra kicks Ventus through a portal, and Eraqus summons his Keyblade. Suddenly a black aura appears around Terra, and Eraqus's eyes light up with sorrow.

The two fight, and eventually Terra wins. Eraqus realises that his vision had been clouded.

"What have I done? My heart is darkness..." He says, but is interrupted by something behind him, and falls over before fading away into light. It was true- Terra did play a part in his own master's death...

Next, the vision moves on to show Terra standing atop a huge rock spire with Xehanort.

"Xehanort... Was my master... No... My father not enough for you? LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE!" Terra shouts, with that same darkness surging all around him.

Xehanort's only response is a grimace which seems almost proud.

Next, the vision shows Ventus standing on one of the glass murals with Vanitas. Vanitas is holding a huge, very extravagant Keyblade, which Zeph assumes must be the X-Blade. Ven fights against Vanitas, and eventually wins, but the two seemed to be becoming closer and closer to being one entity. Vanitas drops the X-Blade and cannot reach it again, it shatters. With a smile, Ventus watches his own Keyblade, then his body do the same thing... That must have been what happened when Ventus split his heart...

The vision next shows Aqua in a white room with glowing chains all over the walls. Ventus is sat on a seat in the middle of the room, asleep.

"We'll be back to wake you up before you know it..." Aqua says, as she leaves the room.

The vision moves on to show her confronting Terra in Radiant Garden, but he has white hair and yellow eyes- something is wrong. Terra attacks Aqua using Xehanort's Keyblade. Aqua eventually defeats him, but Xehanort uses his Keyblade to try to split Terra's heart fully away from his body. This creates a portal to the realms of darkness, which Aqua jumps into. She manages to catch Terra and save him, but cannot escape in time herself.

"I'm sorry Ven, looks like we won't be there as soon as I thought..." She thinks.

The vision goes back to Ventus sitting in his chair.

"A mystery which none can solve... None, Aqua, except you..." Zeph hears Eraqus saying.

The vision starts to clear, but Zeph can see a very faded image of Aqua with her two friends, giving them their Wayfinders for the first time.

"An unbreakable connection!" That's what she said... An idea as to how to solve the "Unsolvable mystery" pops into Zeph's aching head...

"Zeph! Zeph? ZEPH? CAN YOU HEAR US?" The other three Keyblade wielders are trying to snap Zeph out of his vision.

"Don't you remember the plan? You let me and Sora go first..." Riku says.

"I... I'm sorry, I just had another vision whilst I was walking..." Zeph says.

"Don't worry about it, it isn't your fault, just lucky you didn't walk much further..."

Zeph leans on Laz in order to try to get his strength to return. Once they reach the entrance, and Sora and Riku both enter Castle Oblivion...

The doors slams shut behind them, and so Laz and Zeph turn around and make sure no Heartless are attacking.

"Zeph... I have a bad feeling about this... I don't just mean bad- I mean terrible..." Laz says.

"I... Know what you mean- something definitely doesn't seem right..."

Suddenly darkness surges towards Laz and Zeph. It stops a short way in front of them, then takes the form of Vanitas and a man with white hair and yellow eyes.

"You are here at last... Good... My name is Xehanort, and it looks like my predictions were perfect..." The old man says.

"Xehanort! You leave us alone!" Laz says.

Xehanort laughs, summoning his Keyblade. Laz pushes Zeph back and runs in to attack. Zeph tries to follow, but a wall of darkness blocks him from reaching his friend, and Vanitas steps out.

"I'm sorry, but we can't let you through- master Xehanort has important business with your friend." Vanitas says.

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"Vanitas... Let me past..." Zeph says in an angered tone.

"Never!"

"Fine then..." Zeph says, summoning his Keyblade. "I'll just kill you here and now! Begone!"

Zeph charges at Vanitas and strikes down hard, before dodging back, throwing his Keyblade, jumping at Vanitas and vaulting over his masked head.

"You're weak... What was that even supposed to be?" Vanitas says.

"It was supposed to be for my friend!" Zeph says, taking to opportunity to try to reach Laz, but cannot get through the dark barrier.

"It's always about friends, for all of you... It's really starting to annoy me."

"Yeah, it would, wouldn't it- must suck if NOBODY would want to be your friend ever! Now, are you just going to stand there and complain about being alone, or are you going to fight?" Zeph says, putting his armour on.

"If you're in such a rush to die, then so be it." Vanitas says. He jumps up into the air and disappears. Zeph whirls around and blocks the attack, but Vanitas has already hit him from behind before Zeph realises Vanitas had teleported a second time.

"See what I mean? I don't need friends, because darkness gives me the strength I need to beat all of you alone!"

Zeph ignores Vanitas, and tries to throw his Keyblade through the darkness at Xehanort, who is fighting Laz. Zeph's Keyblade clatters off of the dark wall and falls to the ground, disappearing. Zeph tries to re summon it, but some force is stopping him from doing so.

"Ha! You're even more stupid than you look!" Vanitas says, charging in himself to attack again. As Zeph watches Vanitas running at him, the word "reflect" flashes through his mind.

"Hah!" Vanitas swings his Keyblade to strike.

"Reflect!" Zeph casts a magical barrier around him, which Vanitas strikes hard. The Hexagons of the barrier shake, but do not shatter.

"You think that will help you?" Vanitas says, striking the barrier over and over again. Each time he hits the barrier, the sound of the strike echos more and more loudly into Zeph's head until the sound is almost unbearable and Zeph's mental energy is almost spent. Vanitas jumps up into the air, before bringing his Keyblade down on the barrier with devastating force- it shatters, and Zeph only just manages to dodge out of the way in time.

"You aren't really a Keyblade wielder, are you? Your Keyblade never felt real. You're just some fake!" Vanitas taunts.

As Vanitas brings down his next slash, Zeph grabs a hold of Vanitas's Keyblade with his armoured hand.

"You call me a joke? Say I'm not gifted... At least I'm a real person! You're just some darkness that a mad old man extracted from a weak Keyblade apprentice! You say I'm a joke, but if I'm a joke, at least I'd be one that could make somebody laugh..." Zeph says, before resummoning Vanitas's Keyblade into his own hands. "Maybe you should have remembered something about the Keyblade... It doesn't care who its wielder is, so long as they're strong enough!" Zeph says, before attacking Vanitas once again.

"You fool Vanitas!" Xehanort shouts through the barrier. "Come back here!"

"Master, you said you needed some time, didn't you?"

A huge chills passes down Zeph's spine as he realises what is about to happen. He takes his armour off to reduce his mass.

The dark barrier recedes, and Zeph runs as fast as he can.

"Laz!" He shouts reaching his arm forwards. Xehanort lifts Laz up by the scruff of his neck and runs him through.

"No!" Zeph shouts, tears welling up in his eyes.

Laz opens his eyes and points an arm at Zeph.

"Zeph... I'm sorry..." He says before Xehanort drops him onto the floor.

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Zeph reaches his friend before it's too late to say goodbye, and props the wounded Keyblade wielder up.

"Laz... Are you okay?" Zeph asks, tears appearing in his eyes- Zeph can see that Laz doesn't have long left to live. Healing magic won't help here, either.

"Yeah... Yeah... I'm... Fine- nothing to worry about anymore, right? I guess I was wrong to think I would be stronger than Xehanort..." Laz says.

"No! Don't say that! I... I'm sorry... is there anything I can do?"

"You could let me say what I want to, please? Thanks... I did say I had a bad feeling about this... Oh well- better me than any of the rest of you... I never did much like being a Keyblade wielder anyways..."

"L-Laz... I'm sorry... I should've been stronger..."

"It isn't your fault Zeph- better me than you. If it has to be this way, then I welcome it. Besides- y... you still have your Wayfinder... R-right?" Laz says weakly, tears starting to appear in the sides of his eyes.

"Right. We'll never be truly apart, so long as we remember each other."

"Yeah... I... think I need a rest now... Goodbye Zeph- thanks for being my friend... Say... Say goodbye to Sora and Riku from me- thank them, too."

"Of course, Laz- thank you, too..."

Laz smiles up at Zeph weakly. "Take care Zeph. G... Goodnight..."

"Goodnight Laz- I'll wake you up when this is all over."

"You promise?"

"I promise..."

"Good to know I can depend on you..." Laz winces. "See you later... then..."

"Goodnight, Laz..." Zeph says as Laz draws his final breath, before going limp, then splitting up into tiny triangles of light.

Zeph stands up, still not facing Xehanort.

"Y...You... Xehanort..." Zeph starts to say in a wavering voice. "I... Won't EVER forgive you!" Turning to face Xehanort, Zeph glares daggers into his enemy.

"Yes, boy! Let the rage build up inside you! Let it turn to darkness!" Xehanort says with a flourish.

"Never..." Zeph whispers under his breath. Summoning his Keyblade into his right hand whilst repeatedly clenching and unclenching his left hand.

"What, boy? Speak up!" Xehanort says, trying to annoy Zeph more.

"Forgive..." Zeph's left hand has a peculiar light inside it, and a windstorm kicks up around Zeph and Xehanort.

"Yes! With darkness you will crush all who oppose you!"

"No... Face the LIGHT!" Zeph screams at Xehanort, tears streaming down his face, as a huge lightning bolt strikes his left hand.

Surprised by what happened, and thinking this was a spell Zeph was casting, Xehanort begins to laugh.

The light from the bolt starts to fade, to reveal Zeph, most certainly still alive, standing holding, in his right hand, his Keyblade, and in his left, Laz's Keyblade.

"Xehanort!" Zeph shouts, rushing in, both Keyblades ready to strike.

Zeph jumps up and attacks with an overhead slash from both Keyblades at the same time.

"What? How could it be? Two keys?" Xehanort blurts out as he blocks Zeph's attack.

"This, Xehanort... This is why you won't ever beat us! Your darkness could never overcome the power of our combined light!" Zeph says, breaking out of the Keyblade lock and attacking with a spinning double uppercut. Xehanort manages to dodge the attack, but Zeph can see that he clearly has the advantage here.

Xehanort shoots a volley of dark projectiles, before attacking with six quick attacks, then 3 heavier ones. Zeph manages to parry the projectiles and dodge the attacks, but only just.

"Is that quite so?" Xehanort says. "Let's see about that..." He starts to build an aura of darkness around him, and Zeph readies himself for a difficult battle.

Xehanort floats a short distance up, then the ground begins to shake beneath Zeph. Huge sections of the floor start to levitate upwards, and turn to face Zeph.

Xehanort points both his arms at Zeph, and the rocks follow their direction, flying in at him. Zeph dodges two of the spires and cuts two more in half before jumping onto the last one and striking Xehanort from above.

Landing with a roll, Zeph turns around again to see that Xehanort has disappeared.

Suddenly a huge demonic hand reaches out of the ground, grabbing Zeph and slamming him into the ground. Xehanort comes back of the floor and walks up to Zeph.

"You friends are stronger than the darkness are they?" Xehanort says, grabbing Zeph by his neck.

Zeph takes a hold of his Wayfinder. "Terra... I know you're still in there, please... Do your best to resist him! You're not Xehanort!". Zeph says to the trinket, but also to the man who is holding him.

Xehanort frowns at Zeph "How do you know that name? What do you know of master Terra?"

"I know that you stole his body! Give it back! Terra! Please, you have to fight back!"

There is a flash in Xehanort's eyes, and he lets out a cry of agony, dropping Zeph and taking a hold of his head, just as Zeph does in the visions.

"N-No! I am Xehanort! N-not you! Why do you still resist?" Xehanort says to himself.

"Give him back!" Zeph shouts, rushing in and striking Xehanort with a blinding flurry of attacks. The silver haired man staggers back, he is starting to lose the direction he had before.

"Who... Are you...? Why am I... No! You! Get out of my... Ven! Is that... Argh!" Zeph cannot tell what is going on inside Xehanort, but stands his ground, just in case.

"Z...Zephyrus... You are clever... I admit that, but you still cannot hope to beat me!" Xehanort says, finally overcoming Terra once again.

The fight continues, but Xehanort's power seems to have diminished somewhat, while Zeph's has increased.

"Thank you, Terra- I'll do my best." Zeph whispers- Terra managed to reclaim a tiny portion of his heart with light, and is giving this light to Zeph.

Xehanort builds the dark aura around him again, and attacks savagely, but Zeph manages to parry the attacks, sending a huge wave of darkness created by Xehanort surging back at him. Shocked by being struck by his own element, Xehanort staggers back again, and Zeph throws both his Keyblades, before jumping forwards with a plunging attack.

As soon as he lands, Zeph continues his assault with more powerful attacks.

Suddenly, Zeph feels a huge shaking, and there is a flash of light.

"Time stop!" Xehanort shouts. Zeph finds himself unable to move, as Xehanort opens the dark corridor around himself and escapes along with the prospect of saving Terra.

Once Xehanort has gone, Zeph finds himself able to move again, and he heads over to the doors of Castle Oblivion, opening them up, and trying to stop himself from crying.

"Zeph! What happened out there? We heard a lot of fighting, but for some reason, we couldn't get through the door! Zeph...?" Sora says.

"Xehanort... He..." Zeph starts to say, but trails off.

"Laz is...?" Riku asks.

"Laz is gone... So are Xehanort and Vanitas... They must have predicted what we were going to do..."

"Oh... I'm so sorry, Zeph..." Sora says.

"Don't be- Laz wouldn't have wanted us to sit around here crying- we still have a mission to complete." Zeph says.

"Zeph is right, Sora. We need to help Ven- Laz's sacrifice can't be in vain..." Riku says.

Zeph takes a hold of his Wayfinder and tries to contact Aqua with it.

"V-Ven? Is that you?" Aqua says.

"No... My name is Zephyrus- I'm with Sora and Riku- we're trying to help Ven, but we need to find him..."

"Zephyrus...? Hrm... Okay then, please- help Ven. Don't worry about me, I think I've gotten used to it down here." Aqua was trapped in the Realms of Darkness so long ago she's lost hope.

"Aqua... I'm going to get you out of there... But I have to help Ven first."

"Don't put yourself in danger coming here... I can help you get to Ven, but it's too dangerous for you to be in the Dark Realms..." Aqua says.

Zeph feels a warm light creep out of his Wayfinder into his body, and suddenly he understands how to solve the puzzle and reach Ventus.

Once they reach the entrance to the room, Zeph stops.

"I haven't told you what's going to happen, have I?" Zeph says.

"No..." Sora says. "We're going to wake Ventus up, right?"

"Yeah... But his heart is the only thing holding mine together... if I wake him up, then I'll go to sleep just like he has."

"What?" Sora asks.

"Zeph... In that case, I can't let you through this door." Riku says, standing in Zeph's way.

"Riku..."

"No, we've already lost one today, I don't want to lose another on a whim..."

"Riku... let me past, please." Zeph says, tears starting to appear in his eyes again.

"Are you sure there's no there's way?" Sora asks.

"Zeph, you're a very skilled fighter. Even if Ventus is good, too, I'm not prepared to take that risk. You're not coming through here."

"Then... do you leave me no choice?" Zeph says, summoning his Keyblade, tears streaming down his face. "I don't want to have to fight my own friends, too..."

"Zeph!" Sora says.

"Why? Why do you do this, Zeph? I just want to keep you safe, but you still do this?" Riku says, standing aside. "This is a terrible idea, but I won't fight you if it really will come down to that."

Sora unleashes a huge sigh of relief as Riku says this.

"Thank you, Riku, Sora." Zeph says, nodding to the two of them and walking through the door.

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The three emerge into a white room with a throne in the middle. Sure enough, Ventus is sitting there, asleep.

"Ven... I'm finally here. Time to wake up, yeah?" Zeph says.

"Zeph, does it really have to be this way?" Sora asks.

"I... I think so. I'm so sorry you two. Thanks so much for everything. I'll do my best to wake up as soon as I can."

"Zeph... Sorry I stopped you out there... I see now. You'll manage to wake yourself up. If there's anybody I believe in, it's you." Riku says, patting Zeph on the back.

"Well, if this means goodbye for now, then I guess I'll just have to cope with that... Goodbye, Zeph. You'll always be our friend, remember that..."

"Thank you both so much... I'll wake up soon, I'm sure." Zeph says, summoning his Keyblade and raising it in front of his chest. A tiny beam of light shoots out of it, causing a glowing orb to appear. One also come out of Sora's chest, but Sora is not really affected.

"Goodbye Sora and Riku... I'll... Do my best not to let the darkness take me. You take good care of yourselves and of Ven... I... Goodnight, both of you..." Zeph says, tears starting to roll down his face once again.

"Goodnight, Zeph- we'll make sure both of you are okay. I'll try to help you wake up in whatever way I can." Riku says.

"Zeph... G...Goodnight..." Sora manages to speak through his tears.

Zeph lightly pushes the orb which was floating in front of him into Ventus, and suddenly feels incredibly tired. As his eyes close, he hears Ventus say one word:

"Thanks..."

With that, Zeph fell back to sleep as he had before, and the broken boy who gave his heart to save a friend, finally, once again, stirred.

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End of Part 1. Thanks for reading!

Part 2 Sneak Preview:

watch?v=pfjEKGKz_zg&ab_channel=BrawlBRSTMs3

"Has he woken up yet?"

"No, but he is on the right path."

"How do you know?"

"I can sense his heart is coming back together."

"Oh, but you don't want to know what happened out there, you want to know what happened in the Land of Darkness, don't you? How do I know what happened? Well, that would be telling, wouldn't it? I'm sure you'll work it out eventually."

"The story starts the moment Zeph's eyes close after returning Ven's heart. Zeph's slumber takes him to the Realms of Darkness. Here is where he can try to save himself, but he has no hope of doing so alone. Fortunately for him, there was somebody there to help him out the whole time..."

Zeph will return soon enough...