A/N: Here I am again! I am proud to present you with Chapter 2 of this epic masterpiece! It's been extended (and will remain as the format from now on) for your reading pleasure!

Chapter 2 - Meetings in Traverse Town

As I followed my new friends into the town, I wondered who they were all so excited to see. "Hey, Leon," I asked him. "When Yuffie said 'he's back', who's back, exactly?"

"Sora," he answered, and said no more. I was further confused as to who that was, but as we rounded another corner, the answer to my riddle had revealed itself, or rather himself.

I saw a young boy, only a year or so younger than me, with spiky brown hair and dressed in a black and white hoodie with baggy red shorts and large yellow shoes. Standing next to him, which was quite a strange sight to me, were what appeared to be a short duck in a magician's jacket and zipper-covered beret, a tall dog-faced guy in a green army-like uniform with a large shield and a fancy hat with goggles strapped to it. However, the most normal sight next to the boy was a girl about his age with scarlet red hair, a sleeveless white tank top, and a pinkish purple skirt with matching shoes.

"Hey, fellas!" the tall guy called out. "We all made it back in one piece!"

"I wasn't sure we'd get out unhurt with all those confounded Heartless chasing after us," the duck said, which startled me. He then turned to the boy. "No pun or offense intended, Sora."

"It's alright, Donald," the boy shrugged. "The whole thing kinda jumped on all of us."

"You nearly scared me half to death, you crazy idiot," the girl chided, shoving him aside. "Don't you ever do that again, do you hear me?"

"Kairi's right, Sora," the tall guy added. "We all were scared when you disappeared."

"Okay, Goofy," the boy who I reasoned was Sora said. He then turned to our company. "Hey, Leon! Yuffie! Aerith! I want you all to meet someone!"

"We do as well, Sora," Aerith replied, "but we'd better discuss this somewhere where we don't all get jumped by Heartless, okay?" She then motioned to me, and I followed her and the others back down the alleyways. A few minutes later, we all came to the building from where I came. Once we were all inside, Leon turned to the front to the group and Sora looked at me.

"Who's this guy?" he asked.

"I'm Jeremy," I said.

"My name's Sora," he said, pointing to himself. He then pointed to his company. "This is Donald, Goofy, and Kairi. Everyone here has already met Donald and Goofy, but Kairi is one of my friends from my home. I've been trying to find her and Riku for so long! Now she's here…but Riku's…" he trailed off, his happy demeanor falling into a sad frown as his head dipped down.

"Don't worry, Sora," Goofy put his hand on Sora's shoulder, "I'm sure we'll get him back soon enough."

"Yeah, you're right," he said, raising his head again.

"Besides, he did help us get out of that creepy castle," Kairi added. "Ansem couldn't stop him from doing that."

"That's true," Sora nodded.

"So the darkness hasn't taken hold of him just yet," Leon said. "But it doesn't sound like he can hold off Ansem's control for much long-" he stopped short when Aerith cleared her throat and shot him a stern glance, motioning to Sora. Leon looked annoyed, but he stopped talking.

"Well, did you seal the Final Keyhole?" Yuffie asked. "I hope we have some other good news."

Sora shook his head. "It wouldn't shut because it wasn't finished, and we had to escape when it was."

I stared at the whole group for a while, still confused as to what the heck was going on. "Uh, someone mind filling me in? I'm more than a little lost here."

Everyone looked at me in a weird way, but Aerith nodded. "We'd better tell him, guys. He needs to know since he's in the same boat as we are."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"Well, it's a bit of a long story," she started.

"But if you want to know what's going on," Leon added, "then you'd better listen carefully."

"Ok," I said, sitting down, "I'm all ears."

Aerith took a deep breath and began. "Did you know that there are many other worlds besides this town and the world you're from?"

"Wait," I replied, "what do you mean by 'world'?"

"Clearly that's a 'no', Aerith," Leon said.

"Well, there are other worlds," she continued, "by which I mean a world in of its own plane of existence, but linked to other worlds by a powerful force. That force is the darkness which threatens all worlds."

"Darkness?" I asked. "What do you mean by that?"

"It's a force of pure darkness," Leon said. "There's really no other way to describe it other than that."

"And from that darkness came the Heartless," Aerith added.

"Heartless?"

"Creatures without hearts," she replied. "They are born from the darkness in people's hearts, and there is darkness in almost all hearts."

"Almost?"

"One good example is right here," Leon said, motioning to Kairi. "That girl is one of the seven Princesses of Light. Her heart has no darkness at all inside of it, which is why her body did not fade when her heart left her body."

"Her heart did what?" I jumped.

"The darkness can gain a creepy hold on you," Yuffie said. "It can take you over little by little until it consumes your heart and destroys your body. But Kairi here gave her heart to someone to prevent its power from being misused."

"Who was it?" I asked.

"She gave it to me," Sora spoke up. "I don't know how, but when Riku faced me, his Keyblade resonated with Kairi's heart inside of me. But when I beat him, I freed her heart by using the Keyblade on me. I thought I was finished, but she brought me back."

"Whoa, you're going too fast for me, Sora," I held my hands up. "What's a Keyblade and where did we get to you and Kairi?"

Sora looked down, but Kairi took his hand in hers. "You can tell him, Sora," she said, and Sora nodded.

"You've heard about the worlds and the darkness," Kairi said, "now you'll hear about how we came into the picture."

"My friend, Riku, is under the control of the darkness," Sora said. "He opened the door to darkness in our world and sucked it and everyone but him, me, and Kairi into the darkness. I woke up here in Traverse Town, but Riku and Kairi were nowhere to be found. I met Leon, Aerith, Yuffie, Donald, and Goofy, and found that I had been chosen to be the wielder of the Keyblade." He held his hand out and a pillar of light sprouted from it, changing into a key-shaped sword-like weapon. "This weapon is the only hope we have against the Heartless. I then began my journey through the world to seal the Keyholes. These were the hearts of the worlds that had to be sealed with the Keyblade to stop the darkness from coming in. I've now sealed all of them except for two: the one in Olympus Coliseum and the Final Keyhole back in Hollow Bastion. Once I seal the Final Keyhole, all of the worlds should go back to the way they were."

"Okay," I said, trying to process this. Suddenly, I realized something and jumped to my feet. "Wait, then what about my world? My friends?"

"Who knows?" Yuffie shrugged. "Lost to other worlds, lost to the darkness, but either way, you won't be seeing them for a while."

"How can you say that so casually?" I shouted, lunging at her. She sidestepped and I fell flat on my face.

"That should teach you to mess with the great ninja Yuffie," she taunted as I got to my feet.

"I think your friends are just fine," Aerith said. "I can tell your friends have strong hearts. They won't go down that easily."

"How do you know all this?" I asked, completely bewildered.

"I have a sense about these things," she smiled.

"Okay then," I said, and then turned to Sora. "Now, you said Riku was controlled by this darkness, but is there someone behind all of this? It doesn't sound like this just randomly happened for no reason."

"You're right, actually," Aerith said. "The arrival of the darkness was the result of the work of a man named Ansem. He was a researcher from the world we came from, and he was studying the Heartless."

"But the darkness took hold of him," Leon added, "and he willingly gave his body and heart to it and became darkness itself."

"Well, that's unsettling," I said, holding my stomach. "What's so great about this darkness anyway?"

"Those who are attracted to darkness are those who are attracted to power," Leon replied, "and power is what darkness is. We all have weapons to fight the Heartless, but the Keyblade is the only weapon that can stop the darkness for good."

Suddenly, a knock on the door was heard. Leon was the first to move, silently but swiftly moving to the door, and leaning against it. He then motioned us to stand back, which we did.

"Who is it?" he called loudly.

"Please don't be alarmed," an old male voice called, rather amused. "It's only me!"

Leon sighed, and opened the door. The person who came in was a tall old man in a long light blue cloak with a tall pointed hat of the same color. He also had small spectacles resting loosely on the bridge of his nose, a slightly crooked stick in one hand, and a letter in his other hand. He looked at me and pushed his spectacles up and clapped his hands, rubbing them together.

"You are Jeremy, correct?" he asked.

"I am," I answered, surprised that he knew my name. "Who are you?"

"My name is Merlin," he said, "and I have something for you." He held the letter out to me. It had the words, "To Jeremy" written on it in fancy gold letters.

"Who sent this?" I asked.

"Sorry, but I haven't the slightest idea," Merlin sighed, "but it was sealed with a peculiar stamp and I can feel great magical energy pouring from its contents."

Curious, I opened the letter, and read it aloud for all to hear it:

The warrior boy can be found in the hall of heroes,
the fighter girl is in a garden of nonsense in a mad world,
the animal boy is in the jungle world of fellow animals,
and your princess is in the final castle of darkness.

Follow these riddles, and you will find your friends.

I stared at the letter and everyone stared at me, all of us confused by this strange message.

"What the heck does this mean?" Yuffie asked.

"It said 'follow these riddles and you will find your friends'," Aerith said, "and since it was addressed to Jeremy…"

"…then I have to do what the letter said," I finished. "Follow the riddles, and I'll find my friends! They're okay! I knew it!" I jumped up and down, thrusting my fists in a victory dance. However, something occurred to me. "How am I supposed follow these riddles? What do they mean?"

"Well, let's think about it," Leon said. "I'm guessing it mentioned your friends when it spoke of the warrior boy, fighter girl, animal boy, and princess, but the last part is a tricky subject."

"Not necessarily," Aerith said. "I think I've got it figured out."

"How's that so?" Yuffie asked.

"It spoke of worlds a few times," she said, "so maybe they're in other worlds, like you said, Yuffie."

"They are?" she raised her eyebrow. "I just said that to say it, I didn't think it was actually possible."

"Well, apparently, it is," Aerith said. "Sora, do any of those worlds sound familiar to you?"

"Let's see…" the boy said, putting his hands behind his head in a relaxed look. "A hall of heroes, a garden of nonsense in a mad world, a world of animals, and a castle of darkness…" He closed his eyes and hummed for a long time, but then suddenly his eye shot open. "I know where they are!"

"You do?!" I gasped.

"I know these worlds because I've been to them before!" he said. "The mad garden world sounds like Wonderland, the animal world is Deep Jungle, the hall of heroes is Olympus Coliseum, and the final castle is Hollow Bastion!"

"That's where the Final Keyhole is!" I said. "And the princess can only be Aelita! We're going now!" I ran to the door, but Leon grabbed my arm.

"Hold on, Jeremy," he said. "It's too dangerous to go there right away. The Heartless are at their very strongest in that world."

"And there are three others you can go find," Yuffie added, "not to mention one of them contains a Keyhole yet to be closed."

"They're right, Jeremy," Sora nodded. "We need to head to one of those worlds first before we even think about Hollow Bastion."

I looked at everyone for a while, but then slumped. "Fine, then, where do we start?"

"I would suggest going to Olympus Coliseum first," Merlin said. "I can tell the Heartless are fewer there than at the other worlds, so it will be much easier."

"Then it's settled," I said. "But, uh, how do we get there?"

"We have our ship," Goofy said.

"You'd be more than welcome aboard," Donald added.

"Thanks, guys," I smiled.

"That's our requirement!" Donald cheered.

"What is?" I asked.

"Keep smiling and don't frown!" Goofy replied.

"That's the rule!" Sora added, smiling himself.

"Okay," I said, "then let's go!"

"Follow us!" Goofy said, and he, Donald, and Sora went to the door. As Donald and Goofy left, Sora turned to Kairi. "I'll be back soon, Kairi!"

"Hold on, Sora," she called, and rushed up to him, placing a small item in his hand. "Take this; it's my lucky charm. It's very important, so be sure to bring it back to me!" she said, her hands on her hips.

"I will," Sora nodded, clutching the item tightly, "I promise."

With that, we all dashed out of the house and went down the alleyways to the large space we were when Sora arrived. I noticed a large set of doors near the end of the district, and Sora and the gang marched up to them, pushing them open. It was going through those doors, that I was met with something I had not expected.

I saw what looked like a spaceship, if it was built by a small child. It was a long red block with a long rectangular pyramid nose that had a yellow section near the end of it. There was a clear dome atop the main block, and there were also yellow twin cannons with two small white wings on each one.

"What is this?" I asked.

"It's our Gummi Ship," Donald said. "It's what we've been using to go to other worlds."

"Ready to go, Jeremy?" Sora asked, standing next to the large vessel.

"Okay, sure," I said, standing next to Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Suddenly, a white light encased us and the scene around us shifted to a cockpit of a spacecraft. There were five seats in a circle, and each one faced a control board. The chair in the front faced a control board that covered the whole front panel.

"That's my spot," Donald said, as if he were reading my mind. He plopped in the chair, Goofy sat behind him, and Sora sat next to Goofy. I chose to sit in between Sora and Donald.

"Blast off!" Donald shouted, and pressed a large green button on the control panel.

"Wait, that's it?" I gasped. "No countdown? No 'prepare for launch'?"

"Prepare for launch!" Sora smiled.

I sighed as we rose into the sky, and we shot forward as the lights sped past us, soaring to a new world.

"Hold on, guys," I said. "I'm coming for you."

A/N: There they go to new (to him) worlds! The next one is on the way!

UPDATE: 7/7/2013 - I originally meant to write Wonderland, but Olympus Coliseum became my new first choice after debating whether Ulrich or Yumi should be first. Ulrich it was, and Olympus Coliseum it is. It only took a spam review to get me off my ass and fix it.

-JeremyX signing off!