DISCLAIMER: I own nothing to do with this story save for plot lines or OCs and this holds for all of it, so don't ask me again.

Chapter 3

Welcome, Oblivion

Gentai wandered off to the Cove area of Destiny Islands. He had been here before while he was looking for the Keyhole but that was exploration and this was different. This time he had a sense of emptiness. He soon found himself climbing up a tower in order to overlook the ocean and hear the sound of the waves. He felt the breeze stir around him and lift him up slightly. He couldn't get over the bad feeling he had in his stomach at the moment. What was going to happen? He remembered that typically every time he had a feeling such as that, no matter the case, something happened. When the Nobodies attacked him at Twilight Town, when Zexion first showed up, and when he met his old friend Tom who had betrayed him. So what was it this time? He shook his head as he began to get a headache from thinking too hard until he felt a presence sidle next to him.

He opened his eyes and looked to the right of him. There he saw Demora sitting there herself in a plain black dress that he thought she looked beautiful in. Had she followed him here? She sat there next to him, a wry smile on her face. She twiddled with her black dress and sighed. He just looked at her and said nothing. After a few minutes of silence however, she turned to him.

"I told you I'd see you here!" she said, almost cheerfully and Gentai let a small chuckle escape his lips despite the sadness crushing him on the inside. She seemed to notice difference in action and feeling and so asked, "You okay?"

"Yeah…I just…don't know exactly what to do…I mean, I knew Riku and Kairi, kind of, but Sora I barely knew before he-" Gentai cut himself off and shook his head. "It doesn't really matter. You think what you do has purpose but…I don't know…" Demora looked at him, her brown hair flowing behind her in the wind as she had let it down for the funeral. "Who knows? Maybe one day, what I've done will have purpose. But right now…it doesn't even look like there's hope." Silence passed between them for many minutes after that statement but even as the sun began to sink neither of them spoke or moved. Then, as nightfall was imminent, Demora got up and brushed off her dress. She turned to go but quickly faced Gentai.

"That reminds me, Riku and Kairi said you can stay in Riku's house tonight but you guys are leaving in the morning for Radiant Garden." He simply nodded and she walked off, leaving Gentai to stare at the ominous dark clouds in the night, rolling onto the islands and all the worlds.

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There was a small burst of light as the large ship of white Gummi blocks entered the Radiant Garden airspace. The armored man was still staring out the glass partition but this time he knew that something was there: a world. He cracked a smile underneath his helmet though no one could tell. Soon he heard footsteps behind him.

"My Lord, we have arrived at Radiant Garden airspace. Shall I deploy the fleet my Lord?" the man asked, inquiring at his battle plans for this world. The man, dressed in a red shirt and a blue colored skirt-like-thing waited for the answer but the armored man was silent for a moment.

"No…do not deploy the fleet. We do not need something so excessive to silence these people, nor to draw the people we need here." he told the man and the man nodded. But he remained stationed there, still expecting orders from his lord and master. "Lock the main artillery cannon on Villain's Vale. Let's show them an example." The man turned to face his crew, flicking his cape around as those on the bridge scurried around, preparing for the first stage in their deadly operation.

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Down below in Radiant Garden, things were as peaceful as ever. The Restoration Committee had done a wonderful job of restoring the world, with thanks, of course, to Sora's efforts in the past. They of course knew that peace was still a long way off, but at least it was closer than it had seemed six years ago. The group still congregated in Merlin's house in the Borough to do all of their work, but everybody was currently in different places, doing things. Leon was off checking on Ansem's Study; Merlin was currently checking on things, patrolling the corridors with Tifa and Cloud (who had at last returned after defeating Sephiroth from inside of him) within the castle proper. Aerith was paying a visit to the town to "stimulate the economy" and get the committee some supplies. But Yuffie was stuck with Cid at Merlin's house, bored out of her mind at being stuck with him and in this stuffy old house. Cid was working on upgrading the claymores so that they could work optimally in all places throughout.

Or at least, that was what he was working on, until a small, simple reading came up on the computer screen. At first Cid ignored it to finish up his job but soon noticed something odd about it. He stopped working on the claymores and soon just looked at the reading.

"What the-" Cid blurted out, almost unable to contain himself. Yuffie's eyes snapped open, hungry for excitement, and she skipped over to Cid.

"What is it?" Yuffie asked him, wondering what could cause Cid's voice to sound so flustered.

"Gummi Ship reading, but its blocks are radiating waves the types of which I've never seen…or at least, don't remember seeing." Cid said as he put in a few keystrokes in on the computer. A small scale reading, and a radar appeared on the screen. "Well, it must be one big ship too; carrying heavy fire as well, to be sitting in airspace like that for a while."

"But why won't it land?" Yuffie asked Cid and he shrugged his shoulders indicating that he had no idea as to why this anomaly was occurring. Yuffie rolled her eyes, here she was thinking there was going to be some kind of excitement. But apparently Cid was excited.

"No idea. Yuffie, this may be more than just a passing Gummi Ship. Could you go get Leon for me?" Cid said and Yuffie just made a small mock salute and ran off to go get Leon. Cid turned back to the computer and started doing more work, trying to find out more about this ship. His fingers flew expertly across the keyboard until he was finally able to pull an actual look and layout of the ship up on the screen. When he finally saw what it looked like and its design he gasped just as Leon walked into the room.

"What's going on Cid?" Leon asked him as Yuffie followed him in, closing the door. Cid swiveled around quickly to face Leon. "Yuffie said there was a ship, but not much more."

"Yeah, it ain't just any ship!" Cid beckoned Leon over to the computer and Leon took a look at the screen, scrutinizing the ship there. He didn't see anything about it.

"What about it?" Leon said with a shrug and a look to Cid.

"That is a Class AWRG Gummi Ship!" Cid yelled out but both Leon and Yuffie gave him a befuddled look. Cid buried his face in his hands and sighed. "All right, a Gummi Ship model of that type hasn't been seen for almost sixteen years now!"

"If it was sixteen years, that would make you the only one old enough to remember it here Cid!" Yuffie perked up. "Because, we were all kids sixteen years ago, might I remind you?"

"That doesn't matter!" Cid said heatedly and Yuffie stepped back a bit, surprised at Cid's brusqueness. "All right, look here. Seventeen years ago, one year before this place became Hollow Bastion I was part of the engineering team that Ansem set up to design different Gummi Ships. Mark you, I never met Ansem personally, but still…we designed a whole host of Gummi Ships but most of them never even made it to the floor. There were only four designs that ever did make it to the floor: Highwind, Falcon, Invincible, and this kind: AWRG. That was the one designed for Ansem himself; I mean, it was abbreviated to be Ansem the Wise Radiant Garden Model. Anyway, problem was, they were so expensive we were only able to build three of them, and with very limited Gummi material it became even harder."

"Okay, so what about the ships?" Leon inquired.

"Weren't you listenin'?! There were only three! Ansem's own ship was destroyed in the Heartless attack sixteen years ago. The second one, exploded on lift off- our first and foremost failure. But the third one, that one still remained intact. Now of course, I wasn't able to keep tabs on it…but eleven years ago when I was watchin' space from Traverse Town, like usual, and I saw that ship take off to the sky and space beyond where we live now." The other two just stared blankly at him, still trying to comprehend what was to them, complete and utter gibberish. "Come on you pinheads! That style of ship hasn't been made for seventeen years; hasn't been seen in sixteen except for when I saw it! It got stolen!"

"I don't see how that affects us Cid…" Leon said nonchalantly. Cid hit himself on the head, his frustration reaching its peak.

"Okay, clearly you don't understand what an AWRG type ship is. Yes, it's a luxury ship with all the nice things and accoutrements for a king but it's more than that: it's a battle cruiser. That thing could hold about a thousand warriors or more, no sweat. That thing is loaded with more firepower than our whole fleet put together, and it can hold its own fleet in its bowels." Cid stared at them with fierce eyes for a few moments as it finally clicked in their brains.

"We have a battle cruiser floating right in our airspace! For what reason?" Leon yelled out and Cid threw his hands up in exasperation .

"That's what I'm trying to figure out!" Cid yelled loudly. Leon quickly turned to Yuffie.

"Yuffie, go get the others. We've got trouble on our hands. Cid, contact the King. Quickly!" Yuffie ran out as Cid gave his response to the situation.

"Already way ahead of ya!" Cid said as the communications line to King Mickey's personal Gummi Ship, the H.R.M.S. Mouse, were opened. Soon Mickey's face appeared on the screen.

"Hey Leon, Cid, what'cha doin'?" Mickey said cheerfully to the two of them as Donald and Goofy seemed to sidle in behind the king and sat there.

"We've got a problem Your Majesty." Leon said quickly, but calmly.

"Why? What's goin' on?"

"We just found a huge battle cruiser in Radiant Garden airspace and it's just hangin' around." Cid responded to Mickey. "Problem is, this kind of battle cruiser hasn't been seen in years and could wipe out the entire world if it had the whim to."

"Gosh, that sounds bad. Welp, what do you want me to do?" Mickey asked sincerely over the communications line.

"It might be helpful if your fleet could get over here as soon as possible." Leon said quickly. "I don't know why, but I feel like we may have a big battle on our hands."

"You got it! I'll get the Castle Fleet mobilized, and if I got time I'll gather some other forces from elsewhere but if they're there already I don't think I will. Still, I'll try fellas." Mickey said while smiling, always glad to help his friends out.

"Thanks Your Majesty, we really apprecia-" suddenly Leon stopped talking and was bucked forward. But it wasn't just Leon as Cid slammed his head accidentally against the keyboard and the whole house and town seemed to shake from an unknown tremor. Cid swore and they soon regained their bearings and went to look at the screen to continue the conversation with Mickey to find that the screen had gone completely blank with static. "What happened?"

"I don't know!" Cid snapped while frantically typing things on the computer, trying to restore the connection. Soon the door opened, and Leon, being on edge already, whipped out his Gunblade only to be faced with Merlin, Yuffie, Aerith, Tifa, and Cloud. He let out a relieved sigh, but it wasn't to last.

"What happened?!" Leon asked hurriedly and Yuffie was the first to respond, as per usual.

"I went to go find the others like you asked when all of a sudden there was a huge blast in the direction of Villain's Vale. We went to the Bailey and saw…it's gone, Leon. Villain's Vale is completely gone. There's barely even a trace that it was even ever there." Leon whipped around to face Cid.

"Have you gotten the King back up yet?!" he asked frantically, panic beginning to creep into his voice.

"I'm tryin'! But it seems like the whole entire communications system is shot! That or it's bein' blocked!" Cid yelled, his fingers still flying at an abnormal rate. Soon however, he just slammed his fists on the keyboard. "It's no use!" The Restoration Committee looked at each other, worried about this new and unfortunate outcome. Then a voice, clear as day, rang through Radiant Garden. It was not, as Cid had hoped, the King nor had it come from the computer but seemed to echo for everyone to hear.

"Residents of Radiant Garden, I hope you find this day rather pleasant!" said a gruff voice that seemed to come…from the sky…? "I am sure that you have all just felt the blast that affected your world. Yes, that was caused by we on the ship Unbirth." The Restoration Committee took yet another look at each other. "You are now, unfortunate to yourselves, at our mercy and must comply with our every terms or you shall be welcoming oblivion upon your world. For one, your communications system to any other world have been blocked by our own so any attempt to contact an off-worlder will fail. On another point, please make no point to prepare your fleet. To do so will be nothing short of humiliating. For one, we can easily destroy your fleet with our previously demonstrated cannon, and then your retaliation will have staggering consequences. You have already seen an example of our power, and that is what will happen to your entire world should you fail to comply with our demands.

"What are our demands? I am sure you are asking this. At this moment, there is a ship carrying three Keyblade wielders to this current location. We intend to intercept them and bring them aboard our ship. Any attempt to warn them of our plans by Gummi Ship or any other means, or stop them from entering the ship, in fact any attempt to impede our plans in any way will result in your total destruction. Therefore, I hope you have clear minds and good hearts to realize the gravity of your situation. Please follow our demands and you will ensure the safety of your people." It was then the voice abruptly ceased to speak. The air in Radiant Garden was now silent and grave, none more so exemplified than with the Restoration Committee. Aerith was the first to speak up.

"Three Keyblade wielders?" Aerith said to the stunned and silenced room. "If our thoughts about Sora's death were correct then why three?"

"Riku, Kairi…" Yuffie trailed off, trying to figure out the third one.

"Gentai." Leon said. They stared at him in shock and he briefly shared with the committee about Gentai's previous visit to Radiant Garden, the one where Zexion revealed himself. "This is a problem regardless, all systems are down and if we so much as lift a finger, good bye Radiant Garden."

"So what do we do?" Cloud asked the group at large, more determined than anything else. Leon turned to him.

"We wait." he said, knowing that patience was ultimately the best option.

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Unfortunately for Riku, Kairi, and Gentai, they knew nothing about the ship until they entered Radiant Garden airspace. There they saw the gleaming white ship.

"What is that?" Kairi asked Riku as he piloted towards it. Riku shook his head. But then his hands seized on the joystick that controlled the Gummi Ship and it seemed he was trying to do something but couldn't. "What's going on?"

"Tractor beam." Riku stated simply. And with horror the three of them realized they were being sucked into the giant ship where there may not be any return.

Author's Note: Well, there it is. Sorry for the choppy ending there but I didn't want to start the next chapter with that. Seems Mr. Bad Guy in Armor is unleashing his plan now. But what does he have in store for our heroes? Will Mickey be able to aid the members of Radiant Garden? Stay tuned for more information. And once more, please review and let me know what you think.