Author's Note: Welcome back. In case you're a veteran reader who's gone through the original Kingdom Ed fanfic, I'll remind you that I'm changing a metric ton of stuff in this. This current arc (Let's call it the TTPA arc, just to keep it short) won't follow Traverse Town's plot for a while. All of this will be brand new material with better pacing, characterization, and fighting. Now, I threw in a (huge) hint back in chapter 2 for a crossover arc I'm going to add in later. I'm challenging you guys to find it and determine what the series getting added into this story is. Submit the answers via PM only. The first winner will get... A printed out copy of this fic mailed to them, I guess. Or not. I'm trying to think of a good prize. Who in their right mind would want a copy of a fanfic?

Chapter 3: The Traverse Town Protection Agency

Nazz couldn't register anything as she got up. There was a blurry blob of light somewhere in her field of view, though no matter how much she blinked, her eyes wouldn't focus.

"… -wake. Squall, Squall, she's awake!"

Nazz could hear two sets of footsteps heading her way. She wanted to turn her head to see, but somehow felt like something impossibly heavy was holding her head down. A blurry figure with black hair looked down on her and waved its hand.

"Squall, I think she really hit her head hard when she passed out back there."

The other person stood quiet for a moment before annoyingly replying, "Leon. My name is Leon."

"Fine, whatever," the other voice let out with a sigh. "Should I give her another ether?"

Nazz was confused. Who were those people? What where they going to give her? An ether? Were they poisoning her? She wanted to scream. She didn't know where she was and who those people were. All she wanted was to go back home. What about her father? How long had she been missing? Was he worried about her?

Nazz let out a soft mumble, apparently getting the attention of the other two.

"See, I told you," the girl exclaimed. Nazz heard the sound of glass clinking against something, and then the sound of a liquid being poured. Before she could gain the energy to shout, she felt something like a cup press against her lips, then she felt a liquid slowly being poured down her throat.

Almost instantly, her eyesight cleared up. It still wasn't perfect, but it was definitely better than the blurry mess she had dealt with just a moment ago. She jumped up, putting her arms in front of her face in case the other two figured suddenly attacked.

"Whoa there, calm down." The man who had impaled the Large Body heartless earlier slowly walked towards her. He had long hair that messily fell to his shoulders. Nazz took special notice that his sword was all the way in the corner of the room.

Okay, so it looked like he wasn't trying to kill or threaten her.

"W-who are you," was all that Nazz managed to choke out. Even if he didn't have that sword, that other girl next to him could still have her weapons on her. Nazz tried to look as confident as possible. She didn't want any of those two thinking that they could push her around.

"I'm Leon."

"Yuffie," the other girl cheerfully sang out. She put her hands on her hips and smiled from ear to ear. She brought a hand out, to shake, and Nazz couldn't help but bring out a slight smile as they made contact. That girl didn't look much older than her, and she had an air about her that made it seem like she would get along smashingly with Eddy. In fact, she looked more mischievous than him.

"Are you alright?" The man, Leon, tenderly put his hand on her shoulder. Nazz hadn't noticed it before, but he had a scar running diagonally down his face. Nazz's father had a scar too, as she recalled, though he got his from a work accident. Nazz secretly wondered how Leon had gotten his.

"Yeah, I feel a lot better now." Though it pained her to even look at them, she brought her arms up. How badly scarred were they now? She had taken a massive beating before, was she still bleeding?

They weren't. In fact, there was nothing left there to indicate that she had practically skinned them against the floor outside except for a few smudges of blood and some residual dust. She looked over at the glass container right by her bed and pointed. "Is that…"

"Yeah," Yuffie said. "Ethers and potions are really good at healing stuff. You don't have them where you live?"

Nazz hadn't heard of either of those things before, except in video games, though she tried to keep her gaming habits to herself. She shook her head to answer the girl's question.

There was a short pause. The other two looked like they had something they wanted to say but stood quiet. If they wouldn't talk, she would.

"Where am I," she asked. "I mean, I know what this town is called, but where on Earth am I?"

"That's the problem." The man named Leon said as he leaned against a wall. "It's gonna be a long story. You're not on Earth. In fact, I doubt your world even exists as you know it anymore."

Nazz couldn't believe what she had just heard. Still, she wasn't about to argue that they were crazy. Within the past 24 hours, she had fought a lady who somehow called down lightning on her, and then ran into monsters that sprung from dark, shadowy portals. Clearly, everything wasn't as it seemed.

She listened as Leon and Yuffie explained to her exactly what had happened. Somehow, her world had been swallowed by darkness. Yuffie explained to her that that had happened to countless worlds already. Earth wasn't the first and it definitely wasn't going to be the last. They explained to her that, sometimes, ordinary people who resided on the worlds when they were engulfed would sometimes be transported to other worlds. They told her they weren't sure why it happened, but she didn't question it. She only hoped her father and the rest of the neighborhood made it out alright.

But then Leon explained to her that most people weren't transported elsewhere, and that she was incredibly lucky she wasn't swallowed.

Yuffie handed her a napkin, almost as if she could tell what Nazz wanted to do. Still, the girl wasn't going to break out in tears.

Leon and Yuffie remained silent, almost as if they knew Nazz needed a moment to let everything sink in. Her father was gone. So was Kevin, and Rolf and Sarah and Jimmy. Even the Eds. She bit her lip as a mixture of emotions swirled inside of her. She was incredibly sad that everyone, everything, she knew and loved was gone. She was angry that the woman from before probably caused all the mayhem. She was terrified that it would happen again. She gulped. No. It wasn't going to happen again. She held back the flood of tears welling up in her eyes and turned to Leon, wordlessly cueing him to continue his explanation.

He went on to tell her about the monsters she ran into earlier. They were called Heartless, monsters that came from the darkness in people's hearts. Leon told her that they also feasted on hearts as well, and that it was their fault that her world had disappeared. Worlds themselves had hearts, and if the Heartless got to them, they would disappear.

Still, that left a single question burning through her skull. What if the Heartless managed to devour Traverse Town. Would she be lucky enough to survive?

She balled her fist. She wanted to make sure that didn't happen. She wasn't strong enough to beat that woman back at Peach Creek, and that infuriated her. "What can I do to help?" She pulled the covers off her body and finally moved her legs so she could sit upright on the bed.

Leon smiled. "That's what I wanted to hear."

"We're part of the Traverse Town Protection Agency," Yuffie cheerfully said. "Our job is to make sure everyone here is safe."

"So… do we just beat up Heartless," Nazz asked.

"Yeah, and we do other stuff too. Think of us as an exclusive…" She held out the last syllable of the word, seemingly thinking of something to describe the group as. "A Guild, that's pretty much exactly what we're like. We take jobs in exchange for money."

"Meanwhile, we try to find ways to get rid of the heartless." He stood back up. "Are you in?"

"Of course!"

"Alright." Leon picked his sword back up and attached it to a sheath on his belt. "I think it's time you meet the rest of the crew then.

Nazz dizzily landed on her feet. Her wounds were fully healed, but it seemed like she had hit her head harder than she thought. She followed Leon and Yuffie to the next room, where she heard a hoard of voices chattering.

"Guys," Yuffie shouted as she kicked the door open. "Meet our newest member!"

Nazz finally got a view of all the people in the room. Sitting by a desk in the center were three people. One of them wore a pink, sleeveless dress held up by two slightly darker straps. She had long, auburn hair that was tied up by a ribbon similar in color to her dress. She seemed nice, Nazz thought.

Next to her was a woman of similar age. She had long black hair that went all the way down to her waist. Nazz liked her too, that woman seemed like she'd be a cool big sister.

Next to them was the only man on the table. He didn't make eye contact with Nazz, instead, he passively waved at her while furiously typing into his computer. An ashtray nearby was filled to the brim with cigarette butts, though it didn't seem to stop the man from flicking a burnt out cigarette stub on top of the pile.

In back was a darker skinned girl. She too had long black hair, though it seemed to be longer than the woman at the table. Her hair was held back by a blue ribbon with a sparkling blue gem sewn into it. She laughed at something the boy next to her said.

Nazz's eyes shot open.

The last boy was her age. She would've recognized the boy's yellow skin and green jacket anywhere. Wordlessly, Nazz stared. He was sitting on top of a shelf, his legs dangling by it whimsically. It seemed he hadn't noticed her.

It was Ed.