Chapter 4: A Beginning Quest

Having escaped to the Royal Library, Donald was searching through a gigantic spell book, while examining Riku's hand. For the moment, it was only from the Way to Dawn Keyblade all the way down to his wrist. Riku, on the other hand (no pun intended), couldn't even move his fingers.

"Alright, from what I've read, there's some good news and some bad news, guys." Donald said, putting his feathery finger on the part he just found.

"Okay, what's the good news?" Sora asked.

Donald ran said feathery finger on part of a page of the book, marking where he read. "The GOOD news is that we CAN reverse this spell."

"And the BAD news?" Kairi asked, expecting the worst...

Donald looked at the paragraph he read, then relayed the bad news. "The bad news is that we need something called 'Pure Hearts'. And the problem is that they're scattered throughout the worlds."

Goofy brought one of his hands slamming into the other palm, as he usually did when he understood something important. "Well, looks like we've got some sorta new adventure on our hands."

Sakuzy and Joyex walked up and Sakuzy said, "We'll come too. I feel like it's my duty to protect you, Sora. I dunno why, it just seems that way."

Joyex nodded, then added, "Yeah, because he's your..."

Joyex never finished that sentence because Sakuzy started squeezing the locket. The heart appeared on his chest and he fell to the ground until Sakuzy stopped squeezing.

"Remember, Joyex, we are NOT allowed to reveal ANY secrets from the future." Sakuzy hissed to him. They had obviously been through this before.

"Excuse me?" Sora asked, in a manner eerily similar to when he first encountered Demyx in the Underworld.

Sakuzy took a deep breath, then exhaled softly. He had just blabbed, so he figured he might as well tell a FEW things. "Well, how do I explain this? Joyex and I are from the future, about a hundred years to be precise."

Sora thought this over, then it hit him "Oh, so that's what your earlier statement with that Chrysallis guy was about. Well, what happens in the future?"

"Well, you see, that's a problem." Sakuzy stated, then added, "You see, when you're time traveling, there are STRICT laws that we can't reveal certain things that will happen."

"Well, THAT stinks." Riku said, Donald still inspecting his crystal hand, "Tidus was wanting to know who would win the Blitzball championship."

Joyex moved Donald aside, inspected Riku's hand, then went off-topic from the future. "I'm no medical expert, but if you have that little problem, Diamond Fist, I think that you'll have to stay out of the action."

Riku gave the Nobody a slight glare. "DON'T call me Diamond Fist."

"Oh, come on!" Joyex begged, "It's a cool name!"

"No."

"Lighten up, buddy!"

Sora chuckled to himself. From what he could tell, Riku and Joyex were going to get along REAL well. He then brought something up with Donald. "Hey, Donald, what ARE these Pure Hearts?"

Donald quickly opened the book again and flipped through the pages.

"Lemme see…" Donald said as he ran his finger through the glossary of his spell book until he came to a part of the P section. He flipped through the pages again, then put his finger on "Pure Heart".

"Ah, here it is." Donald said, reading it aloud, "Pure Heart: the pure light of a world that takes the shape of a heart. It is often guarded by the person of the greatest light in that world and can take the shape of the most prized treasure in that world." Donald suddenly realized something and pointed it out. "Oh, that's sorta like those Princesses of Heart."

"Well, let's go!" Sora said, "They shouldn't be too hard to find, right?"

The whole group ran to the Gummi Ship factory without another word, Donald leaving so suddenly that he left the book on the floor. Upon arrival, the group immediately noticed that Chip and Dale were tiny, diamond statues.

Sakuzy groaned to himself at the sight of the crystal chipmunks. "You've gotta be kiddin' me!"

The group was about to take another step forward when several small balls of smoke appeared. When it cleared, a few Soldier Heartless materialized into existence.

"Huh? How'd they get in the castle?" Sora asked, "The cornerstone of light should keep them out!"

Kairi summoned the Flowering Strength; the Keyblade Riku gave her at The World That Never Was. "I don't know." She answered, "But if they're going to try and stop us, we'll have to fight."

Before any of them could make a move against the Heartless, the Soldiers jumped into the air and merged into the Guard Armor that Sora faced when he first arrived at Traverse Town. "Him again? How many times do I have to get rid of this thing?!" Sora asked.

Sakuzy summoned his Eagle Feather Keyblade and readied himself for what he hoped to be "I take it that you know this thing?" He asked.

Sora grinned and calmly said, "Yeah, but he's REALLY easy to take out!"

With just one flick of his wrist, Joyex whipped out his chain and took the blade-like front of the chain in his right hand. "'Really easy', huh?" He asked, "THAT sounds good."

Sakuzy and Joyex jumped at the Heartless, but The Guard Armor simply whacked them aside like an annoying fly. It sent them tumbling backward, but the pair quickly regained their plans.

"OK, usual plan for us--BAD." Sakuzy said as he got back to his full height again.

"This isn't gonna work..." Sora pointed out, "We're gonna need a plan for this."

Joyex didn't really share Sora's thoughts, especially from his answer to it. "Oh, plan shman. I'm just gonna go in and THRASH him!"

Joyex spun his chain whip over his head in a lasso fashion before whipping it around the Heartless' hands. The Heartless jerked its hands up, but Joyex wanted it to do just that. He gave his chain a good jerk and shot right on top of the Heartless' head. "That all you got, tin can?" He asked.

The Guard Armor made to grab at the nuisance on its back, but Joyex kicked the oncoming hand away. Sakuzy dashed forward with his Keyblade and slid between its legs. When he was behind it, he hacked at one of the Heartless' legs. It spun around in surprise as it turned around to try and bat at him. Sakuzy simply ran at the wall of the factory, got enough momentum, and actually dashed up the wall. He then kicked off and landed on one of the Guard Armor's arms. Then he rammed his Keyblade into its hand and the Guard Armor growled in surprise. Joyex jumped off its head and whipped the chain around the Guard Armor's legs just as Sakuzy shouted, "FIRA!"

A burst of fire erupted from the tip of Eagle Feather and blasted into the Guard Armor's chest. The impact caused the massive Heartless to topple over and it came down with a thunderous CRASH.

"O-kay, cancel the plan." Sora said, seeing the attack, "Kairi! Let's go!"

Sora summoned his Kingdom Key Keyblade and Kairi summoned her Flowering Strength Keyblade. Sakuzy gave Kairi a quick glance and nodded.

"So, she WAS a fighter back then..." He said to himself.

The three ran at the Heartless, ready for anything it would throw at them. The Guard Armor got back to its feet and threw a punch at Sora, who jumped onto its fist. When the fist came back to its owner, Sora jumped onto the armor's head and started to strike it repeatedly on the head. The Guard Armor thrashed around wildly, trying to get the Keyblader off its head, but when it got a hold of Sora around the collar, there was a piercing pain in its leg. Kairi had taken her Keyblade and stuck it into its leg right where the knee ligament would have been. It was enough for it to let go of Sora, who landed on his feet from the drop.

Sora and Kairi looked at each other and nodded. The two took their Keyblades and threw them in a boomerang fashion: The Strikeraid. The two Keyblades struck the Heartless across the head and it was stunned. Before it could even recollect itself, several beams of light shot from Sakuzy's Keyblade and shot right through its chest. The Heartless began to twitch violently as its helmeted head fell off its shoulders. Out of the chest armor's neck came a pink heart. As the heart floated out of sight, the entire armor vanished in a puff of black smoke.

Sakuzy, Sora, and Kairi's Keyblades all vanished in a sparkle of lights. Sakuzy let out a small chuckle before saying, "You were right, that WAS easy."

Sora shrugged, then said, "Well, I don't mean to brag, this isn't the first time that I've fought it. And since I've fought things bigger and badder than that, it was a piece of cake."

The group boarded the Gummi Ship and the instant they were all in, Sakuzy started giving out orders.

"Joyex, you make sure that the ship is working properly." Sakuzy ordered, earning himself a glare from Joyex.

"And if I don't?" The Nobody asked.

Sakuzy's answer was to take the locket out of his pocket and begin to move it around in his fingers. "Then I squeeze this." He added.

"You win." Joyex said as he SLOWLY walked into the control room.

Sora turned to Sakuzy and asked a question he immediately knew the answer to. "You weren't going to use that at all, were ya?"

Sakuzy laughed a short chuckle, then answered with just one word. "Nah."

The ship took off into space, traveling into the unknown. When Sora was in private, Jiminy Cricket hopped out from Sora's pocket and onto his shoulder. "Sora," He asked, "There's something…familiar about this Sakuzy guy."

"Yeah, he reminds me of Kairi." Sora said, his mind sort of wandering.

Jiminy's gave Sora a questioning look as he corrected him. "I was going to say that he reminds me of you."

Sora glanced, curiously, at Jiminy. "Why's that?"

The little cricket could only shrug. "I don't really know. He just…does."