Part 2 of 3! Ya miss me, everyone? Heh heh…

Anyhoo, yup, here it is. The New Organization: Minds Warfare. The sequel to Part 1 and a lot more actiony.

As usual disclaimer, I state that nothing from the Kingdom Hearts Universe belongs to yours truly. The gods of Square Enix own all. I own the characters and I own the plot. That's the long and short of it.

Here's chapter one. Enjoy.

Chapter One: The Journey Starts

He looked again out into the distance. Somewhere, out there, his destiny lie.

"Hang on, guys," he said softly, "I'm coming."

Keyblade in hand and perched on his shoulder, he rushed forward, suddenly eager to go on an adventure.

And with that, the greatest adventure of all time…

Had begun.

Three months later…

Ned fell to his knees, completely out of breath. So far, this hero business wasn't as rewarding as people made it out to be.

He looked up. The road kept going, onward and onward, as if it had no end and no planning on ever ending. It just stretched out, forevermore. One single, lone, dirt road, no wider than about a foot and a half, going through green pastures and windy hills and the likes.

The abnormally tall, really skinny boy of sixteen chugged down a gulp from his canteen that he had picked up from a lone store he had randomly come across about a month and a half back. He couldn't have been more grateful for it. It had kept him from death more than once on this 1,000,000,000 mile trek across the country.

He looked again out into the distance. He let out a big sigh. There was no way in Hell he was doing anymore today. He had burned all the daylight of the day. Night was soon coming on.

"Time to set up camp," he mumbled tiredly. Had he had someone else along, this wouldn't have been so bothersome. If his friends were with him, he'd probably be having the time of his life.

Of course, had his friends been with him, he wouldn't even need to be out here in the first place.

-----

As he lay down on his little mat, the fire next to him nice and warm, Ned thought back on the mysterious events that had led him to where he was now.

He hadn't always been this messed up…or at least, he never thought he had. Six months ago, he had been the most normal kid in the world; was a decent student, had two really awesome friends, a good, loving family- hell, he had had it made. Never would he ever imagine anything out-of-the-ordinary to ever occur to him.

Until the day he disappeared.

After that, things just got weird.

He was put into some sort of coma, lasting the better part of three months-two missing, one in the hospital. When he had woken up, he found he wasn't quite himself. For one thing, he had weird dreams. For another, he had a little white creature following him everywhere, telling him to go somewhere.

And for a third- he could summon a very powerful weapon.

He held his hand out from him and closed his eyes. In an instant, his Keyblade materialized out of light, and he grasped it firmly. Even with his eyes closed, he knew exactly what it was: a long, thin, gray blade with two small spikes sticking from the end, in the shape of a key. Its grip was yellow, its frame wide enough so he could fit his hand through and grab the grip easily. A thin key chain came from the frame, finishing its key-like appearance.

It was with this and the afore-mentioned creature that had spurred him and his two friends, Ren and Corey, to a large white castle in the middle of the forest. And it was here that he learned about the "Nobodies", a.k.a, the white creatures. But it was also here that he had found that creepy No. 1 guy- a man dressed entirely in black, topped with trench coat and dark glasses, with long black hair and two silver swords that he fought Ned with. The two had fought, and Ned had won, but it had been too late; Ren had been taken, and Corey had also disappeared. To find them, the stranger had told him to follow the path he had currently been wandering for the last three months. And here he was, right where he was supposed to be.

Though by the time he would finish walking the Yellow Brick Road, Ren would probably be dead.

There was a sudden rustling in the bushes near the road. In a flash, he stood up, his Keyblade posed, ready to strike. He hadn't had a chance to use it since his big fight three months prior, so he wasn't sure how rusty he was or how good he was going to be. He inched closer to the road, closer, closer, until he jumped out, and-

Nothing was there. Big surprise. He lowered his weapon. Just him being paranoid again.

"Hello, Ned."

He flinched. Someone was there. Directly behind him. Where he had come from, he didn't know, but one thing was for certain; this guy knew him, and it was doubted to be friendly. He gripped his Keyblade again, and turned around to face his opponent.

Instead, all he got, yet again, was thin air. He looked, puzzled, at the spot where he had heard the voice. Had he been away from society for so long that now he was hearing voices in his head to keep him company?

"Behind you."

Again, he turned around. And this time, he found his "company."

A man, tall and large, dressed entirely in black, from his boots, to his trench coat, to the dark glasses perched on his face to hide his eyes, stood before him, the wind whipping the hem of his coat sideways. He had on an evil smirk such as the one No. 1 had had three months ago, when Ned had met him. The appearance and the evil smile were so similar that Ned almost thought the villain had come back for a repeat performance, but he figured by the different size and hair length that this was an acquaintance.

"You work for that guy whose ass I kicked a while back?" he asked, trying to stir something up, though he wasn't sure what.

"And you are looking for that girl," the man responded, "the one we kidnapped."

Ren. His friend/love interest of sixteen years, who had been found just before his one-on-one, unconscious, and then was gone the next. "Where is she?" he demanded.

"Safe," was the answer he got, "That's all I am allowed to say for now."

Ned glared at him, which just prompted an upgraded evil smile.

"But if you want to see her," he said, "I can possibly make that possible. But you must be ready to take a very big step."

"Would that entitle me kicking your ass just as hard as I did your boss?"

"Amusing, but no," the man walked back and forth across the path, "You must proceed along this path until you come to a castle. And from there, your true journey will begin."

"'Keep walking the path'," Ned repeated with a resentful tone, "That's all you two have told me to do, follow the 'Path of 1,000,000,000,000,000 Miles'. That's all I've been doing, for three months, is walking your fucking path! What, do you want me sore, tired, dehydrated, so when I fight you, I won't stand a friggin' chance?"

The man laughed amusedly.

"The castle is not far," he pointed down the road, "Just another mile or two in that direction. And don't worry about your strength. It will return to you."

He stopped in the middle again, and turned his smirk back to the poor boy.

"A word of advice for you, my stubborn little adversary," he told him, a little eeriness in his voice, "Down this path is the item you seek. But to claim it, you must be willing to lose something that I'm sure is very dear to you. For you see, in my little arena, to lose is to find, and to find… is to lose."

"Sounds like something you took out of a video game," was all Ned said on the matter. The man laughed again.

"Not a video game…just re-teaching the lesson of my predecessor," he said, "Now, if you are ready, come and find me. I'll be waiting."

With that, he snapped his fingers and was overtaken by a portal of darkness. When it faded, he was gone.

Ned stood straight up, looking at the spot where the man had disappeared. Then he looked onwards down the road. Down there was the castle. Down there was where this man, and any others like him, were waiting for him to show up, so they could spring whatever trap they had at him.

Down there was Ren.

Needless to say, she was worth it.

Forgetting all his camping equipment, he perched his Keyblade on his shoulder, and ran harder than he had these last couple months. He ran, forgetting how tired he was, how hungry and thirsty he was. He ran, because he had newfound hope. Hope in that this nightmare would be close to ending, where he'd find Ren- and hopefully Corey as well- and get the hell back to a normal life.

He sprinted up a hill and stopped dead. His eyes went bug-eyed, and his mouth dropped open.

There it was. A lone castle, standing there, in the middle of a death-like canyon. He walked down, looking up at its creepy setting. Its towers were tall and crooked, the tallest one's neck going up, then jointing left, then back up. A light shown from the tallest window of the castle, signaling someone home. Ned looked up at this hellish building and thought only one thing.

He had made it.

"And so…it begins…"

Chapter One up. Chapter Two, probably out sometime tonight.

Hope you enjoy it. Old readers will hopefully tell which Organization member this is. Hopefully.

Review please.