If you all haven't seen Dead Fantasy I or II, go to gametrailers and watch them. They are both made by MontyOum, the same guy who brought us Haloid, better known as Master Chief vs. Samus Aran. And after you've finished watching Dead Fantasy, watch the world premiere of Dead Fantasy II as shown at the 2008 Boston anime convention and listen to the audience's reaction when a certain character arrives in DFII.

Those videos are freaking amazing. I've downloaded them both and I never get tired of watching them.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Final Fantasy, or anything else that isn't mine. The deed that Roxas remembers committing is from Wyrmhero's 'Chaos from Order', and Mr. Fipp owns Tom. And I've already said numerous times that I don't own songs.

-A-D-

A Week of Troubles

Chapter III: Hospital Blues and Rulings

Roxas felt like he was in severe pain, even though his body felt relatively little pain at all. His face was cringing in disappointment at his left arm that still lay wrapped in the sling, but he was at least glad that the IV tube that had been inserted into him was out. However, because of the IV's removal, he no longer received nutrients from the bag that would simply flow into his body, which meant that he had to eat, explaining his pain.

It wasn't that he was hungry, and it wasn't that he was still sore from the beating he had taken from Nixion, and it wasn't even that his back hurt from lying conscious and unconscious in a bed for the better part of the time since he had woken up in the afternoon the previous day. What really caused his pain was the fact that he was in a hospital.

He felt fine; he really did apart from the inconvenience pain caused by the burns and almost healed cuts on his body. And his left arm felt completely normal. When he moved it the limb no longer caused any pain and he felt like he could use it to its full strength again. But, being in a hospital, they didn't really care how he felt that he felt.

So instead of what Roxas would have liked to eat, such as a nicely barbequed steak with a side of mashed potatoes or fries and smothered in gravy and a plate of coleslaw, he got the hospital special:

Horribly tasting soup broth of a flavour that was supposed to be chicken. The soup didn't taste a thing like chicken. He only felt worse when he had heard that Naminé, who he knew for a fact had been injured far worse than he had, had been given the ultimate girl comfort food of chocolate.

He suspected her being a princess had something to do with it, or someone evil must have smuggled it in. He swore that if that was the case he'd find whoever did that, threaten them, and then get them to bring him some chocolate. There was only so much food related torment he could take, given that it hadn't been very long that he'd actually been able to eat again. And he was a teenage boy, it was his own inherent nature to love food, especially considering that Sora had been his somebody and was now his twin brother. If food was a God, Roxas would worship it before eating it.

As long as it tasted good, which left Roxas as a non-believer in the soup that was steaming on a tray in his lap.

He frowned at the liquid and dipped his spoon into it again, wishing very much that it actually tasted like poultry and had some substance to it. He scowled as he brought his spoon up to his lips and tasted it again, trying desperately to ignore its taste while a song coincidentally played on the radio.

Just eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it;
Open up your mouth and feed it.
Have some more yogurt, have some more spam;
It doesn't matter if it's fresh or canned.
Just eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it;
Don't you make me repeat it.
Have a banana, have a whole bunch;
It doesn't matter what you have for lunch.
Just eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it
Eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it

Roxas groaned as he listened to the musical parody. Firstly: he hated the original song. Second: he did not like the present situation while that song is being played. Thirdly: did he mention he hated the original? He sighed as he came to terms with himself. He didn't hate the original song, and he couldn't say that he didn't like the parody either (they were actually both quite good in his opinion), it was just that he didn't like the situation he found himself in. Even when his arm had been broken the first time during the battle in the Castle that Never Was he'd still been able to play a part in the struggle against Maleficent. He admitted that it wasn't a very significant role, training with a ragtag group of teenage freedom fighters.

Then again, wasn't that exactly what their little band of keyblade wielding heroes and friends was? He racked it up in his head, also trying to class everyone into the roles they seemed to fall into. The main group that went around defeating evil twice had always been Sora, Donald, and Goofy: The paladin, the mage, and the warrior, who (despite getting along quite well) differed quite differently in their own personal tastes and had been prone to somewhat petty arguments, generally with the hot-headed Donald. Then there was Riku: a dark paladin, King Mickey: Roxas wasn't exactly sure what to class the King as apart from a paladin that wielded a keyblade from the realm of darkness, and Ansem the Wise: a scholar, all of whom acting independently of each other. And then there was Kairi, the damsel who always managed to get captured by the bad guys for Sora to come rushing to her rescue.

And now who all did they have Roxas wondered. There was still Sora, Donald, and Goofy (even if they were split up), and Riku and King Mickey, but now Kairi had actually entered the fight and so had he and Naminé as more paladins he could say. Yuffie, Max, Axel, and Mulan with Mushu had come in: ninja, warrior, Axel's exact classification escaped him but he wanted to say a warrior/fire mage, warrior, and dragon. And then there came the new group of youth that wanted to fight. Anar and Isil wanted to be warriors and showed aptitude with their heavy broadswords. Tidus, Hayner, and Selphie liked their swords as well, each of them holding them easily in one hand, and they were all pretty quick on their feet with Selphie surprising him as being the fastest, but Tidus seemed to be favouring a look towards magic while Hayner was trying to come up with 'killer special moves' as the boy put it and Selphie looked like she wanted some kind of offhand. Either way, the three of them were coming together to become fine warriors. Wakka, and Kia, were looking to be rangers with Wakka throwing his spiked blitzball around, Kia using her bow, and Yazoo as a gunner with his unique pistol, and then Olette, Pence, Jeffery, and Charlie were a group of mages, but what they were going to specialize in Roxas couldn't fathom just yet.

And Roxas couldn't count out the friends and allies that Sora, Donald, and Goofy made on their adventures. There was the crew from Radiant Garden of Leon, Aerith, Tifa, and Cid (taking out Yuffie), a warrior, white mage, fighter, and pilot; The Gullwings of Yuna, Rikku, and Pain as a gunner, thief, and warrior. Twilight Town's Disciplinary Committee of Seifer, Fuu, Rai, and Vivi as a warrior, fighter, brawler and mage. Agrabah had Aladdin as another thief/warrior, and from the Pride Lands came Simba the lion. Prince Alain's Castle brought the former Beast back as a fine prince and adept fencer. Hercules and Auron from Olympus Coliseum as a good brawler and exceptional warrior, the pirates of Port Royal, Tarzan was another warrior out of Deep Jungle. Merlin the wizard and Master Yen Sid as two insanely powerful mages. Cloud, wherever he was, as probably their best warrior. That Tom character (he was probably the one who smuggled in chocolate) as another thief. Aiwemon and Menelmon from the Digital World kept changing classes depending upon their current stage of digivolution, if he understood what Sora and Kairi had told them correctly. And Jack Skellington from Halloween Town as a, a…

Roxas scrunched his nose up and looked away from his soup again to gaze out of the window. What exactly was Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King? He was a dancer, an entertainer, and he liked to sing and frighten while also casting magic. So a bard maybe? A strange bard/mage mix? And then when he took into account the backgrounds of everyone… And then there would be more people that would come to their side and… he wondered who would be next. A psychopathic toddler bent on universal domination?

Roxas laughed at the absurdity of it all and at himself. Here he was, sitting in a hospital bed with horrendous soup steaming on his lap, not even a soggy cracker to eat, thinking about their truly ragtag group and classifying everyone into stereotypical classes from RPGs. He had way too much time on his hands to just sit around and think.

Roxas looked at his soup again, scowled, and shoved the tray away despite his hunger pains. There was no joy in what they called food. He'd had at least half of it so they'd be happy when they took it away. The PA system sounded a random announcement, a phone call for some doctor on line three, and Roxas looked away again to the wall-mounted television set in his room. It, apart from the radio, was the only source of entertainment he had apart from his mind and the window. He flipped on the TV, switching over to the Comedy Network since it was the only thing that had any shows of value at this time of day.

He probably would've been absorbed into it and laughed himself silly had his mind not been preoccupied with his earlier musings about the party. There were so many variables that the possibilities were mind-boggling. The summons that randomly appeared as worlds vanished, unknown people and creatures from other worlds that they could yet still meet. Politics. Anything could happen now.

Anything could happen, which infuriated Roxas. If anything could happen then that meant that anything horribly bad could happen as well as wonderfully good. Sora really could lose his arm like it showed on his platform. The prophecy could refer to either Kairi or Naminé, meaning that either he or Sora wouldn't get their princess, or that their children would be the ones to be forced to fight evil. Roxas laid his arm out and turned over in his bed underneath the sheets and the turquoise hospital clothes.

He'd never even considered a future before. He'd always been living in the here and now just like Hayner was most of the time. Even back in Organization XIII Roxas had lived for the moment and not for the future. He vividly remembered a prank that he and Axel had pulled on Marluxia. They had snuck into his room in the Castle that Never Was and painted all the walls a vibrant light pink. Naminé had been in on it as well, and painted The Graceful Assassin's spare scythe and all the flowers in his room pink. That scythe was so beautiful he was sure that someone would want to hang it up in an art gallery. Roxas was sure that Naminé enjoyed doing it too. The three had even gone so far as to place a large glob of pink paint into the nobody's shampoo bottle, turning his hair a dark pink. And then Xemnas had actually laughed at Marluxia.

Roxas let a laugh escape his lips that had nothing to do with the sketch on the TV and rolled over again, switching the set off with his uninjured hand. What did the future hold for him apart from combat? He knew that he wanted Naminé in it, and preferably every one of his friends as well, but after the heartless were gone and Maleficent defeated, what then? He supposed he'd go to school along with Sora, but, what would he do? His entirety of expertise lay in fighting. Even if he did find a job of some kind there was still the more distant future of him and Naminé, possibly together. Did he want to marry her? Yes, but not yet; but to have children with Naminé? The idea was ludicrous. He knew that even while the both of them teased Sora and Kairi often enough with Max about sex, he was absolutely terrified of the idea.

But then King Mickey had also made him a knight of Disney Castle and he had knelt before the monarch to accept, which meant that there would probably be obligations towards his King that he would have to fulfill. And Naminé was now a princess of Radiant Garden, so she had her own duties to fill. However, there was now a democratic government in place, Kairi and Naminé needed to be seen as no more than figureheads.

He envied Sora. Everything seemed to come so naturally to the boy that had formerly been his other. Even something as simple as giving his girlfriend a kiss Sora seemed to be able to perform so effortlessly. Roxas would never admit it to Sora, but when he had first kissed Naminé when she had barged into Sora's mind all those weeks ago, it had nearly ended in disaster. Their teeth had somehow managed to clash against one another and he had almost bitten Naminé's lip. It was an experience he and Naminé wouldn't be sharing with anyone for a long time.

Someone entered his room and Roxas broke up his thoughts again to look towards the kind Dr. Fraiser as she stood before his bed.

"Are you ready for us to take the sling off Sir Roxas?" she asked with a smile. Roxas looked at her in confusion for a second before glancing at his left arm.

"Finally," he muttered, letting a nurse unfasten the white cloth that kept his arm stuck to his side. He politely thanked the nurse as he moved away with the untied sling, and Dr. Fraiser came up to him. She took his arm in her hands and gingerly began moving it slowly in varying directions, asking Roxas constantly if he felt any pain while she moved it. He politely told her no each time and after a while Fraiser stopped and looked at him critically.

"Well, the arm checks out," she said, "but now it's time to change those bandages and apply more paste." Roxas sighed and pulled off the turquoise gown he'd been dressed in and sadly looked down at the white bandages wrapped around his chest. He distinctly remembered Sora when he had bandages wrapped around him, and he felt a pang of sympathy now that he could relate to what his brother had been going through.

"Hey Doc," Roxas wondered as another nurse took out what was left of his lunch while the doctor changed the wrappings, "do you think that I might be able to get some real food tonight?" Fraiser smiled at him and tightened the last knot, causing a small grunt to escape the teen's lips.

"I'll see what I can do," she said. There was a sudden crash from outside and both of them turned to look in intrigue as they heard a certain crimson haired former nobody and a small red dragon yelling.

-A-D-

"I'm bored, got it memorized?"

That was the statement Axel had been saying every fifteen minutes as he lay strapped to his bed in the hospital of Radiant Garden in another ward. Mushu and Tom were both inside keeping him company, or in better words, trying not to go crazy.

"Man I hear yah," Mushu said with his arms folded over his scaly yellow chest. "I don't know what I'd do if they strapped me to a bed with no entertainment."

"You'd annoy the 'ell out of everyone," Tom stated in his thick cockney accent. "Why do you think Mulan isn't in here with us?"

"It's because the beautiful woman hates me," Axel sighed. "That's why." Mushu waved it off.

"No way Axel," he comforted. "She doesn't hate you; Mulan just doesn't like you hitting on her all the time, especially with what happened to her world and Captain Manly." Tom raised an eyebrow.

"Who's Captain Manly?" he asked. Axel laughed.

"I think he meant Shang," he said. Mushu nodded his head and glared at Tom.

"It was supposed to be a joke! Captain Li Shang is a MAN. Captain MAN-LI, Manly!" Tom groaned and they heard the sudden chirping of another one groaning.

"Be quite Cricky," he muttered before whipping around and staring at the little purple and blue cricket on the floor. "Cricky!" Mushu bounded off of the bed and scooped the little bug into his arms, cuddling him up next to his cheek as the cricket placed four tiny legs against Mushu in a tiny hug. Cricky began chirping quietly.

"Ah, I missed you too you little lucky buddy," Mushu said. A glint appeared in Tom's mischievous eyes.

"Lucky eh?" he wondered aloud, his eyes straying to the wheelchair next to Axel's bed.

-A-D-

Roxas forced himself off of the bed in his room, careful to don the turquoise hospital gown so that whosoever happened to be in the hallway at the time wouldn't cause him unknown embarrassment. He didn't buckle up, he was only going into the hall for a peek after all, and swiftly followed behind Dr. Fraiser, who was looking at the scene with a stern frown. Roxas fought very hard for a moment not to laugh before he couldn't hold it in any longer. He laughed, but it caused him pain to do so.

Axel was sitting on the ground, sopping wet in the soup that used to belong to Roxas, fuming with a broken bowl spinning on two of the conical spikes that defined his hair and yelling his head off at Mushu, who was gingerly holding a small cricket in his hands. Tom was nearby them, holding his sides to prevent his ribs from cracking in laughter, standing beside a wheelchair and a fallen metal cart. There were burn marks on the floor and walls and one of Axel's chakrams was stuck in the wall, supporting half of what used to be a vase of carnations, and the other was embedded in the ceiling.

"You said that that cricket was lucky!" Axel roared at Mushu.

"Cricky never said that you could do that to him," the red dragon retorted. "Didn't you Cricky?" The tiny cricket chirped and shook his head. "All right now that's what I'm talking about. Come on Cricky, let's go show Mulan you're alright."

"Axel," Dr. Fraiser began sternly as Mushu walked past her and Roxas, giving the pained teenager a slap on the hand as he passed, earning a glare from the soggy pyromaniac. "How did you manage to get yourself free?" Tom stopped laughing and suddenly vanished as he teleported out of the area, earning the empty air another one of Axel's glares.

-A-D-

With all seriousness set into his face, King Mickey looked at the people sitting in front of him. The current Prime Minister of Radiant Garden Squall Leonhart, better known as Leon, and Urophi Magellan, the mayor of Twilight Town. The three of them were sitting at a long mahogany conference table in a secluded War Room in Disney Castle. The room itself had been hastily restored, having not been used for the better part of the last eighteen years, but its tiled white floors still gleamed a little after the pounding they had taken years ago.

"I'm sorry we have to hold this meeting fellas," King Mickey said. "But the threat has just gotten too great."

"I concur," Urophi said with a nod of his head, patting his balding ginger hair.

"So do I," Leon added. "But, I'm afraid that I won't be of much help here." King Mickey looked at him.

"Why's that Leon?" he asked.

"Because of parliament," Leon replied. "Ralph Manish, leader of the opposition, called for a vote of no confidence yesterday, and it passed. So, our government is dissolving and we won't be able to do anything of value."

"That's a pity," Urophi said. Leon shook his head.

"No, it isn't," he replied with a slight smile. "I told Manish to do it."

"What?" Mickey asked. "Why would you ask him to dissolve your government?"

"It's simple your majesty," Leon answered. "Ralph Manish is just about the only politician of the bunch that I trust to do what is right. Nobody in my own party wants to have this war, but the people are infuriated with them as their representatives. Most of them demand justice against Maleficent and the heartless, and are willing to exact it themselves. I'll retire myself from politics and let the others handle the politics."

"And then they can appoint you commander," Urophi said slyly. "How very clever Squall." Leon laughed dryly.

"Commander of what? We don't have any sizable army. The small air force that we have isn't even ours, despite whatever anyone says. They came from another world and call themselves Osean pilots. How they got to the Garden is beyond me."

"Where is Osea?" Urophi asked, looking between King Mickey and Leon. Mickey placed a hand to his chin in thought.

"Hm, I think I may know… yes I remember now. Osea is a principle country in that world. They were fortunate enough in the last war to avoid contact with the wielders and armies from the Realm of Darkness; they have enough troubles of their own."

"Well, it may be a good thing to send them back to their own world then," said Urophi.

"If we knew where it was," Leon muttered, "we would in a heartbeat." King Mickey sighed and both of his friends looked at him.

"Actually, we do know where their world is," he said grimly, "as well as a good many other worlds in our realm that were scouted years ago."

"How?" Leon asked.

"Star Command," King Mickey answered. "It was formed during the war as an effort to promote peace throughout the worlds and command our forces on a galactic scale."

"Ah yes," Urophi mused, stroking his chin. "I remember them now. I suppose that it was Star Command that took up a great portion of the excess war materiel after we won?" Mickey nodded.

"They did," he said. "And Star Command also moderated the peaceful resettlement of the homeless throughout the galaxy."

"Why didn't I know of this?" Leon asked. Mickey looked away for a second before meeting Leon's eyes.

"Soon after the war was over and all settlement was finished, people quickly began forgetting about the war and the unity all the worlds had shared. They chose to put the past behind them and politically isolate each world."

"We all adopted policies of isolationism," Urophi added quietly. "In those days, since most of the keybearers fell in battle, and then after the tragedy of master Xehanort, it made more sense that we should cut ties with the other worlds." He sighed and ran his head over his forehead. "How very wrong we were."

"And now none of us are prepared at all to wage a war against Maleficent and her heartless," Mickey finished solemnly. "The only defence we have at the moment are the few wielders we have and Star Command, and even it has become lax and is in a process of de-armament."

"Not quite your majesty," Urophi said. "In Twilight Town, we have managed to maintain an army of fifteen hundred soldiers; however we have no ships or pilots to fly them."

"We only have a standing military of less than fifty in Radiant Garden, not counting the AWACS and Osean squadron," said Leon, somewhat ashamedly. "Despite the attacks of the heartless, we placed more confidence in our security system and were busy focusing on reconstruction."

"It's alright Leon," Mickey said. "We know of the problems you fellas have faced just getting the Garden back to the way it was before, and more and more is being recovered and restored every day." Leon shook his head.

"It won't matter how far we've come if we aren't able to defend the Garden again," he sighed. "But, in few weeks or so, elections will be held, with luck Manish will win, and then he'll call for the creation of a true army of Radiant Garden. We won't need conscripts if public opinion is able to stay in its current mood."

"But there's still a problem we all seem to have missed," Urophi said. "Ships and pilots. Armies are all well and good, but if we don't have any ships to carry them in what good are they?"

"I've already ordered construction of a fleet," King Mickey said. "Star Command will provide the pilots and crew for the Capital ships." Urophi shook his head.

"That would just be too much of a drain on Star Command," he argued. They sat silent for a few moments, and Urophi looked at Leon, an idea forming in his mind.

"Squall," he said, attracting Leon's attention, "your world doesn't have much of a military force, but as you have said, it will soon have one, correct?" Leon nodded his head, the idea taking root in his own mind. Urophi ploughed forward, "Why don't we ask Radiant Garden to train the pilots and crew for the space fleet?"

"That is a good idea Urophi," Mickey said, "but we need to think collectively. If Twilight Town provided the army, Disney Castle and Star Command the fleet, and Radiant Garden the pilots, what would happen if one of our worlds was to be successfully defeated? The ramifications on the unity and strength of our collective forces would be disastrous."

"Fair point," Urophi said with a nod of his head.

Leon nodded. "Then what you're suggesting Mickey is that we each have a hand in each branch of our forces, we each need an army and navy to work with in order to support the others."

"But that's a problem as much as a solution," Mickey answered. "What we don't have is time. Time to build and time to train. Maleficent and her allies could strike at any time again, anywhere across the galaxy."

"Then we'll make time," Urophi said. Leon raised an eyebrow.

"How? We've all been caught off-guard."

"We can call Maleficent to a peace conference," Urophi said passionately. "While we tie her up in negotiations, we build up our forces to try for a counter-attack!"

"That won't work," Mickey said quietly. "She's already come to Disney Castle, offering terms of peace. She's already made it clear that she'll accept nothing less than total victory."

"And we'd be abandoning everything Sora, Donald, and Goofy have fought for," Leon added with a shake of his head. "I don't know about you your majesty, but I'm not willing to turn my back on the kid."

"Neither am I," Mickey said, turning his gaze towards Urophi. "Are you grateful for what Sora and his friends and new brother have done for Twilight Town, mayor?" Urophi's head flew backwards in shock at the question.

"Well, of course I'm grateful," he said in a flustered voice. "He rid the worlds of that Organization XIII and took out the nobodies infesting the tunnels. I don't know where we'd be without him."

"You wouldn't," Leon answered smugly. "And neither would we." Urophi shook his head quickly.

"But the boy has nothing to do with this," he argued, trying to get back on topic, "I have to think about the safety and security of my world."

"Master Sora has everything to do with this," King Mickey answered, smiling smugly at the smirk that had just appeared on Leon's face and at the thoughtful expression Urophi's own had taken. He was quite tickled himself, calling Sora by his rank and title of keyblade master when the boy was still just that, a teenage boy not even sixteen. "Your plan actually isn't very honorable on our part, despite the fact that it's Maleficent we're dealing with. But Sora and the other wielders are the ones we must think about right now if we're to survive."

"Sir Roxas and Princess Naminé are still in hospital in Radiant Garden from battling Nixion in Twilight Town," Leon said, sending a look at Urophi.

"Yes, quite," the mayor said, looking down ashamedly for his earlier comments.

"Riku is out with Max and Yuffie," King Mickey added, "Asterix from Gaul hasn't contacted anyone since the end of the last war, and Sora and Princess Kairi's location is still unknown, which is troubling."

"If Maleficent had them we would know it," Urophi said.

"I agree," Leon added. "If she had come across and beaten them, she would have immediately let us know."

"Then we have to agree that wherever they are that they're safe and hopefully together," Mickey said, to which the other two nodded.

"But that isn't of help to us at the moment," Urophi mentioned.

"Unfortunately no," Mickey conceded with drooping ears. "We're just too few and too strained. Maybe sometime soon Sora and Kairi will come by a means to contact us."

"But there's another problem concerning the princess," Leon sighed, rubbing his nose and closing his eyes.

"What's this now?" Urophi asked, getting rather tired with the number of problems they had to deal with at this meeting.

"We don't need to go into great detail right now," Leon said, "but it's something we should think about until all is said and done."

"What is it Leon?" Mickey asked, his ears perking up.

"It's about Kairi and Naminé," Leon said. "Since Naminé has become whole, both she and Kairi are the princesses of our world."

"And…?" Urophi asked, leading Leon onwards.

"Right now we have a democratic government, however, in the history of Radiant Garden we've been under autocratic leadership for years beyond count. There had been the Royal Family of Talerith for generations until King Raithen and Queen Keila were killed almost ten years ago, along with Crown Prince Raifeor. How Kairi survived that night, we may never know. Regardless though, after the sketchy deaths of the King, Queen, and Prince, and Ansem the Wise sent Kairi to live on Destiny Islands, Ansem himself took power to maintain the peace, and his rule was as just as the King's before him. Even after Xehanort, the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee was in charge as we tried to rebuild. Even now, the people of Radiant Garden are getting frustrated with the new democratic form of government."

"The point that I'm trying to get across is this," Leon said. "After this war is over, they are going to want one of the two princesses to become Queen of the Garden, just like in the old days."

"So either Sora or Roxas gets to become King," Urophi mused with a slight chuckle. "That'll make them happy." Leon smiled and shook his head.

"Neither of them will get to become king," he said. "Firstly, either princess will become the ruling queen, so they'd just become a prince. Secondly, the people will want the new queen to marry nice, with one of the new nobles or earls that will probably start showing up throughout society as the boundaries of the kingdom grow. We've even had twenty thousand leave the city already to form another two towns. And with the rate at which people are coming back from the darkness when Radiant Garden was Hollow Bastion and under Maleficent's direction, and those who are moving in from Traverse Town, there's going to be a lot more in the next two years alone."

"Whelp, I think that the people of Radiant Garden will just have to settle for two keyblade masters as spouses for their future queen and princess," Mickey said with a smile. "Because those two girls won't settle for anyone else." Leon smiled as well.

"I thought as much myself," he chuckled.

Urophi cleared his throat. "Well now that that's settled, for now, why don't we work out the details of a defensive plan for our three worlds?"

King Mickey and Leon agreed, and over the next two hours they debated how they were going to be able to defend just three worlds from the prospect of invasion. The first point agreed on was to send the AWACS Thunderhead and Wardog Squadron back to their home world. After that, Radiant Garden wasn't in much position to do anything, so Star Command would have priority in defending the space above that world. Disney Castle would immediately put into action a training program for pilots and those wishing to join the knights, as would Twilight Town for their military. Disney Castle would also send whatever pilots that it was able to spare aboard small ships to lay in orbit over Twilight Town to protect it, and since Disney Castle had the Cornerstone of Light, it was still safe from Maleficent, however, they agreed that it wouldn't stay that way for long.

"And there is one more thing," Mickey said at the end of it all. "Donald, Goofy, and I are leaving Disney Castle tomorrow."

"You can't leave now!" Urophi said, standing up angrily. "Has everything we've discussed here been meaningless if you're going to leave?"

"I assure you it isn't," Mickey answered coldly. "It's just that the world the three of us were going to travel to in order to seal its keyhole has come under attack by heartless. It wouldn't be if we hadn't turned back to return to Disney Castle."

"And if you hadn't turned back when you did the keyhole to darkness would still be open in the World That Never Was and Maleficent would have even greater power and a vastly larger army," reminded Leon. "But go and do what you have to, we'll hold until you return."

"We'd better hold," Urophi muttered grimly. "If she attacks again while you're gone we have no wielders to defend us."

-A-D-

Two of the said wielders sat side-by-side in wheelchairs in Shinra hospital on Radiant Garden. Both of them were smiling and joking with each other as two nurses wheeled them down the halls towards the cafeteria. Dr. Fraiser had pulled some strings and had been able to get them access to some 'real' food for their supper that night. Naminé was recovering from the extensive electrical burns she had received in the battle with Nixion, and was glad that Roxas' left arm was at last healed while he still recovered from his own burns and wounds from the Keeper of Storms.

"So how did you get chocolate?" Roxas asked Naminé. She smiled, both outwardly and inwardly.

"Princess," she answered with a slight giggle.

"Now, you see, that's not fair," Roxas argued, much to Naminé's delight. She only half listened to his complaining as to why he should get chocolate. Even though they had only been apart for a day or so, she had missed the sound of his voice, and his smile.

"-Axel?" Roxas finished, looking at Naminé. She blushed and shook her head, suddenly realizing that she was staring at him.

"Sorry, what was that?" Roxas laughed and Naminé stuck her tongue out at him.

"I was asking if you heard or saw what happened to Axel," Roxas repeated.

"Oh. No I didn't. What did he do?" Roxas placed his hands together as the two of them were wheeled to opposite sides of the same table in the cafeteria.

"Well apparently Tom cut Axel free of the bonds that restrained him to his bed so he wouldn't keep hitting on all the nurses, and Axel got into his wheelchair. Tom swiped Mushu's friend Cricky, who's apparently lucky, and placed him in Axel's hands while Axel juggled his flaming chakrams and four fireballs down the hospital corridor at high speed, without his seatbelt on. Then, Tom let go of the wheelchair and Axel crashed into a wheeled tray that had what was left of my soup on it. Axel flew off of the wheelchair and everything just went everywhere, my soup going straight into his face and hair. Sweet, steak!"

Roxas stopped talking as a look of ravenous hunger came over his face as a plate of steak, mashed potatoes, and peas was placed in front of him. Naminé didn't notice whatever food was given to her, she was too busy holding her sides with closed eyes as she almost silently laughed until she thought she'd die. She finally managed to control herself and looked down at her almost identical plate, except it had a pork chop instead of a piece of steak.

"Hey do you remember the time when you and Axel tried to wake up Saïx by tossing freezing cold water on him?" Naminé asked, just barely holding back another wave of laughter. Roxas swallowed his almost too much mouthful of food with some difficulty.

"Don't remind me," Roxas said, though he smiled when he said it. "I still have the scars. How about when Larxene electrified Demyx's sitar while he was playing it and then you painted a hole on the wall for her to run through?"

"And then he crashed into the wall after she ran through," Naminé finished, unable to drink anything because she had started to laugh again.

"Or how about the time when we painted Marluxia's room pink?" Roxas asked, starting to laugh as well.

"What about when we persuaded Xemnas to send Demy to that fire world?" Axel asked with a smirk and gleam in his teal eyes as he slid his wheelchair next to Naminé.

"How'd you get free to come here?" Roxas asked through the laughter of remembering what Demyx was like coming back from surveying that world.

"I was able to persuade them that it was mostly Tom's fault," Axel answered, trying to steal a piece of steak from Roxas, who instantly sobered up and smacked his hand away with his fork.

"Wait, wait, wait," Naminé said, tears of joy in her eyes. "What about the time we started barbequing with one of Xaldin's lances?"

"Remember when Xigbar switched Demyx's water with Vexen's sulphuric acid?" Axel asked. "Remember that?"

"That was good one," Roxas chuckled.

"How about the time when you placed a note on Zexion's back that said 'Sexy Zexy is watching you'?" Naminé asked Axel, who promptly roared in laughter.

"What about when you painted targets on all of Saïx's berserkers and then Xigbar's snipers started shooting them in the back?" Roxas asked, recovering from his bout of laughter. Naminé held her sides as she laughed hysterically.

"O-or when I pla-placed that, that note under Axel's door, signing it Larxene?"

"THAT WAS YOU!!"

Naminé shrieked and rolled her wheelchair out from the table and began speeding away across the cafeteria, Axel giving chase while Roxas simply laughed hysterically.

"Roxas save me!" Naminé yelled halfway through a shrieking laugh as Axel cut off her escape. The keyblade master wiped tears of mirth from his eyes as he barely watched the scene.

Maybe being stuck in a hospital wasn't so bad after all…

-A-D-

In closing, watch Dead Fantasy and leave a review if you so choose. Next chapter we will go through Riku, Roxas and Naminé, and King Mickey over the last few days before Sora and Kairi mysteriously arrive.

May the Grace of the Valar Protect You

Shire Folk