A/N: Been working on this for quite some time. Sorry it is so late! Now that school is out, I'm hoping to be able to update more often. I'm going to start back on my Balto fanfic really soon. Now, on to the story!

Our departure was graceful, but our landing…not so much. And by our, I meant mine.

Aqua landed perfectly; grace and elegance of a Keyblade master. I on the other hand…got my fall broken by wooden crates.

"…Damn, that hurt…" I moaned. I stood up and looked around as Aqua walked over towards me. The dust was starting to clear from where I had landed.

"So, where are we?" she asked, looking around. "This place seems kinda familiar."

I took a good look around my surroundings. "I think we're in…" But I drifted off as I walked down the alley. Once we reached the opening, I knew exactly where we were. "Transverse Town."

"Transverse Town?" Aqua asked.

I nodded. "It's more like a rest stop for travelers and a refuge for those whose worlds were taken by the darkness than an actual town. Though, there are some locals."

"I see," Aqua remarked. We walked to the middle of the plaza. "So, where is everyone?"

I looked around, noticing she was right. "I don't know. It's like a ghost town."

"You've got that right, bud," came a voice from nowhere.

Aqua and I stood back to back and summoned our Keyblades. From nowhere came a figure in jeans and a red hoodie, with the hood up. He was slightly taller than me, by about half an inch. "This place became abandoned about a year and a half ago."

"A year and a half ago…?" I asked. "What happened?"

"Over run by heartless," the mystery man said. "It was sealed away so no one could get to it. By who, no one knows."

I dismissed my blades. Aqua followed. Whoever this guy was, he didn't seem dangerous. "So, why are you here?" I asked.

"I'm waiting for something," was all he said. We waited to respond, thinking he'd add to his statement, but he didn't.

"How long have you been waiting?" Aqua then questioned.

"Just a few days," he answered.

Aqua and I nodded in acknowledgement. We looked at one another, then back to the guy. An awkward silence followed for a good two minutes. Then the guy turned around and headed towards a house up some stairs. "If you need anything, I live over here. Got it memorized?" he asked.

Memorized…? Why does that sound so familiar…? I asked myself.

We watched him open the door and then turn around. "By the way, my name's…Lea. Got it memorized?"

Lea? I asked to myself. I looked at Aqua, how had the strangest facial expression. "Do you know him?" I whispered as quietly as possible.

"…I recognize that name, but I don't know if it is the Lea I'm thinking of," she spoke just as quietly.

"Thank you, Lea," I said. "We've got it memorized."

Lea nodded, and then walked into his house. I turned to face Aqua, who was deep in thought. "Well?"

She shook her head. "I can't place him, sorry," she said. "But, I know I've heard his name somewhere. I just can't seem to remember…"

"It mustn't be that important then," I remarked. "Don't worry about it. We need to head off and find Sora anyway." I would later find out just how important out meeting with Lea was.

Aqua nodded. "Let's head off then," she said. I summoned Cosmos to my hand and opened a Corridor of Light for us to travel through. "This will take us to Sora?"

I shook my head. "I'm not entirely sure. I'm still getting use to the whole corridor system," I answered. I knew her next question and cut her off before she could ask. "However, I'm 100% sure it won't take us back to the Realm of Darkness."

She walked towards it, getting ready to jump in. "Then let's go." And with that, she jumped through the portal. I followed shortly after.

When we landed on the other end of the portal, I was holding my stomach. "I don't know if I'll ever get use to it…" I said, nauseated. I looked up to find that we were not on a beach, what I had been hoping for, but in a library. "This…isn't where we want to be…"

Aqua looked around. "I know where we are." I was just about to ask where, when a door opened and someone walked it. I was quite surprised at who I was looking at: Minnie Mouse. Aqua smiled. "It is good to see you again, Queen Minnie."

The queen returned her smile and nodded, "As it is to see you, Lady Aqua." She looked over at me. "Who might your friend be?"

"I'm Xander, your majesty," I responded. I couldn't believe I was standing in front of Minnie Mouse. It felt almost like a dream and at any moment I'd wake up. But, no avail.

She smiled. "The king warned me to be expecting visitors. Who knew you'd be one of them, Aqua?" The queen's voice was filled with excitement. It must have been a long time since they had seen each other.

Aqua returned her smile briefly, and then a look of seriousness took over. "Where is the king? We have very important information for him."

The queen was silent as she walked over to the desk, grabbed a sealed envelope, and handed it to Aqua. "This should answer your question," she said. "The king's been acting strange lately. He and I haven't spoken for about three days. Then, he just up and vanishes leaving only two notes: One to me and the other to 'the visitors'."

Aqua opened the letter and I stood next to her, reading:

To the visitor(s) of my castle, I wish I was there to greet you myself. However, dire circumstances call for me to leave my castle and in the capable hands of my dear queen. If this is who I think it is, then I'm going to retrieve the Sky. I ask for you to remain at the castle until I return. Best regards, Mickey.

"The 'Sky'" Aqua questioned the queen. The queen shrugged and shook her head. "What does he mean?" She handed the letter to the queen

"That's odd…" The queen said, after handing the letter back. We both looked at her, puzzled. "Why would the king use a code like that…?"

I walked over to the bookshelf. The Sky…? I kept asking myself. A code…? For some reason, I knew it, but I couldn't quite place its meaning.

"What do you mean, why, your majesty?" Aqua inquired.

The queen rested her right elbow on her left hand and raised her right hand to her face, kinda like the king did. Well, from what I saw in the games the king did it. "The castle is protected from all darkness by the power of the Cornerstone. It is true that Pete has been able to sneak in, but that was only once and we corrected that. So, who else could sneak into the castle that would cause the king to code part of his letter?"

I started looking at the different books the king and queen had, still trying to figure out what the king meant by "Sky" when I saw it. I reached up, pulled it off the bookshelf, and placed it on the desk. "Your majesty, why do you and the king have a multi-language dictionary?"

The queen looked at me in confusion. "Multi-language dictionary…? I didn't know we had one."

I opened it and went to the Ss. Once I reached there, I slowed down so I could find the word sky. Once I did, I was quite surprised. "Sora…?" Both Aqua and Queen Minnie gave me funny looks. "In Japanese, Sora means sky. The king went to get Sora!"

As I said those words, the room became cold. The book case behind me began to move, bringing forth a sense of evil. I jumped onto the desk, turned around, summoned my Keyblades, and jumped down so I was standing in front of Aqua and the queen.

The bookcase moved backwards, and then slid left to reveal a hidden room. Walking out of the room was…

"Vanitas!" Aqua and I shouted.

He laughed. "You don't seem too happy to see me. And here I thought we were friends."

"Go to Hell!" Aqua exclaimed. She pointed her Keyblade at him, her eyes filled with anger.

Vanitas just snickered, walked around the desk on the left side, away from the door to the hallway, and stopped about five feet from me. As his eyes and mine met, I could feel the evil within him. Evil…and something else…

"I can see why he has such an interest in you, key wielder," he said, an evil grin on his face. He summoned his Keyblade and pointed it towards the book case. "Too bad I won't allow him to have the data on you." A beam of light then shot out of Vanitas' Keyblade and the bookshelf-door shut followed by a keyhole pattern appearing and the sounds of a lockclicking.

Aqua watched in horror. "No…" She rushed Vanitas, but was too late. He summoned a Corridor of Darkness and jumped backwards into it.

Aqua's Keyblade struck the wall, leaving a thin scar about five feet long on the wall. "Damnit!" She struck the wall again, this time with her fists.

"What's the big deal?" I asked. I pointed Chaos at the keyhole. "I'll just unlock it." A beam of light began forming at the tip of Chaos.

"Wait!" Aqua shouted, two seconds too late. The beam of light already shot out and entered the keyhole. However, what it did surprised me. Instead of the strange barrier unlocking and disappearing, it absorbed the energy and began shooting the energy back like a machine gun. Aqua cast a reflection spell on herself and jumped in front of me. The queen used her magic and created a barrier. It lasted for only a minute.

When I looked up, the whole place was a disaster area. The magic bullets (that's what I was calling them, anyway) had did quite a number in the room. There were holes in the ceiling, walls, floor, desk, computer, and chair. Most of the king's notes on his desk were burnt and scattered. The walls, once white, were now black from where the holes were.

"…Sorry…" I murmured. "I didn't know that would happen."

The queen walked up to me and shook her head. "Do not worry about it. I'll have this place cleaned up in a bit. Are you two okay?" she said. We both nodded. "Good. Now, where do you suppose Vanitas has run off to?"

Aqua sighed as she released the spell. "He's probably after Sora," she said. From the sound of her voice, I could tell she was upset. "We need to go after him."

"You leave Vanitas to Mickey and the others," the queen said. "They'll be fine. Besides, there is something I need to show you two." She walked towards the exit, opened the door, took one last look at the bookcase and the room, and then motioned for us to follow.

We walked down a long hallway. It looked exactly like it had on the video game. On our right, you could see the courtyard. It looked exactly like it had in the game, also. It was a beautiful sight to see; not a blade of grass was out of place. It was definitely astounding.

We stopped at a large door, which was the entrance to the throne room. The queen knocked on the door and, as I expected, a small door opened.

Just like the game, I said to myself, as we walked into the throne room.

In the game, the throne room was huge. In person, it was astoundingly huge. It was twice the size of a football field, whit a huge red rug that leads straight to two chairs: the king and queen's thrones. My jaw dropped. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The three of us started walking towards the thrones. As we walked, I admired the astounding design. I had been many places before, but this place definitely took the cake.

The walk was silent. The queen seemed to be focused only on getting to the thrones and Aqua was focused on what had happened earlier.

"So, Aqua," I spoke up. She looked over her shoulder, then forward again. "Have you been here before?"

She nodded, "Yeah, a long time ago. I followed Terra here. That's when I met the queen."

The queen turned her head towards us and smiled. "I remember that day," she said, as got closer. "That was the day when…" but she trailed off, and looked down at the ground. Aqua put her hand on the queen's shoulder.

"The day what?" I asked, very curious. For some reason, I wanted to know. Strange… I'm not usually this nosy.

The queen and Aqua stopped abruptly. We had made it to the middle of the room where the thrones were, but I could tell from the way they both stopped I shouldn't have asked.

"That was the day," Aqua said sadly, "Terra lost himself."

I felt terrible for asking. "Sorry… I shouldn't have—"

"No need to apologize," Aqua said. I could still hear sadness in her voice. "You were bound to find out anyway."

I was about to say something, when the queen walked over to the king's throne and pressed a button under one of the chair's arms. Suddenly, the floor panel began to move, and a bright light began to radiate from underneath. The light was so bright, Aqua and I had to avert our eyes.

Once the light died down, an underground pathway was revealed. The queen led the way. Aqua was shocked when we entered the underground room. I was also, but I had also seen this place before…

"The Hall of the Cornerstone," the queen and I said together.

Both the queen and Aqua turned to face me. "How did you know?" The queen asked.

"Would you believe me if I said 'lucky guess'?" I asked, trying to get out of it. They both glared at me. I sighed, "Okay, I'll tell—"

Suddenly, I didn't feel so well. My gut instincts were telling me something was here, but I couldn't tell if it was a threat or not. Then, without warning, my Keyblades appeared in my hands.

"What are you doing?" Aqua asked.

"That's the thing, I'm not doing anything," I said. The Keyblades raised up, parallel, began pulling me towards the Cornerstone. When I was 10 feet from it, my hands flipped so the back of my hand was facing up.

The blades then crossed themselves and a spark of energy formed between them. As the energy ball grew, a beam of light shot out of it straight through the Cornerstone, and into the wall behind it. The wall began to glow several colors until it finally stopped at this strange greenish color.

My jaw dropped. "I'm really sorry!" I exclaimed. "Your majesty, I don't know what happened!"

The queen walked over to the Cornerstone, while Aqua walked over to the strange portal.

"There doesn't seem to be any damage," she said. She summoned a piece of paper to her hands and began reading. "I guess this is what the king meant." She walked over to me and handed me the piece of paper.

Dismissing my Keyblades, I took it and, before I started reading, a single sentence that was highlighted popped out at me. "'The keeper of two will open the path to save a friend'," I quoted. "Did the king...know about me?"

The queen shook her head. "I'm not sure Xander, but we'll find out when—"

"TERRA?"

The queen and I looked over at Aqua. She was running towards the portal at full speed.

"Aqua wait!" I shouted at her.

I was too late; she already jumped into the portal.

"I'm going after her," I told the queen.

She nodded. "Good luck!"

I nodded back, then went full speed ahead towards the portal.

A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed! Please Review; reviews are great motivators! So if you want sooner updates, REVIEW! :)