Chapter 7: Revisiting Demons

Luckily, Yuffie knew enough about the town to navigate through little known places. Riku's fan girl mob only managed to find them once. A quick Reflega spell from Donald took care of them. Soon, they came to the labyrinth of halls, in which lay Ansem's study and, more importantly, his computer, Tron.

"Couldn't Tron identify these guys for you?" asked Sora.

"Nope," Yuffie replied. "He and Cid worked on the vital systems for a while after you helped with our MCP problem. Once that was done, Leon gave Tron the okay to run a cleaning program to try to clean up all those corrupted files. Problem is, he's using up most of the free memory space to run it. What little memory is left is used by the vital systems."

"So, you guys are sitting ducks for now," said Riku, ignoring Donald's indignant squawk.

"I didn't say that," Yuffie said, grinning. The next thing Riku knew, he was pinned to the wall of the study, shuriken in his sleeve and pant legs.

Sora chuckled and went to help Riku down. His feet crunched on something as he bent to remove the shuriken from Riku's pants. Looking down, he saw a cracked picture frame with a picture of seven men. The only recognizable figure was Ansem the Wise. Shrugging, he finished freeing Riku and they followed Yuffie down a newly finished corridor to the dungeons.

Leon stalked out of a door, pinching the bridge of his nose. His breath hissed slowly out of his clenched teeth. "I can't deal with this anymore."

"Aren't you going to be happy when I tell you that you don't have to," Yuffie beamed at him. Leon looked up sharply, taking in the group of eight before him. He jerked his head toward the door.

"Good luck," he muttered.

Roxas was the first through the door, and almost the last. The sight of the prisoners stopped him cold in his tracks, right in the doorway.

"Impossible," he breathed.

"You're one to talk," snorted Riku.

Sora pushed past Roxas to see what had shocked him. What he saw was five faces, equally shocked at seeing first Roxas and then Sora push through the door to their room with five separate cells lining it. However, Sora was more intrigued by the familiar men occupying the cells.

Riku was the next to make it through the door, a sour expression on his face. "Numbers II through VI."

It was true that the five men looked much like the Organization members, but there were subtle differences, and not just in their clothes. Xigbar was dressed in a long-sleeve black shirt with a tan leather throw over on top, jeans, and ranch boots. It was actually surprising not to find a ranch hat over the long, black ponytail streaked with dirty blond stripes.

Next to him was Xaldin, his hair in a low ponytail at the base of his neck. A poofy, white cotton shirt and baggy blue pants, along with loose leather sandals, gave him the look of a Shakespearean actor.

Looking slightly out of place, Vexen wore a lab coat – testament to his ever curious nature – that was far too large, covering his hands and feet. His slightly-longer-than-shoulder-length dirty blond hair showed split ends in need of a good trim.

Lexaeus' hulking form dwarfed the cell he was in. His attire – a tight, white shirt; tight, black shorts; and sneakers – plus red-orange, spiked hair only enhanced the look of strength about him.

And last, Zexion in black jeans, a white shirt, and a black, zip-up hoodie. His face was obscured by his black hair, the part in front of his face died a deep blue.

Sora gasped as he remembered the faces he had hurriedly glanced at in the picture. "No," he breathed. "These are Ansem's apprentices."

"So you noticed," mumbled Xaldin...Dilan. Sora shuddered at his choice of words. Dilan peered at the assembled curiously. Indeed, all of them looked intrigued, now that the initial shock had worn off.

"How are you whole? How are you even alive?" Roxas exploded.

"You think we know?" snorted Braig. "As if."

Even responded while rummaging through the many pockets in his apron, "I suspect it was Ansem's encoder." He finally managed to find a strange glass through which he examined Roxas. "The explosion disrupted Kingdom Hearts. I can only assume that this disruption caused our hearts and our faded Nobodies to recombine." Looking like a delighted child, he stowed his glass back in his pockets and reached a finger towards Roxas.

Roxas slapped Even's had away. "Don't even think about it. And I didn't mean that as a pun, either."

Even huffed and pulled out another tool. "I just want to know how you and Sora can exist separately from each other while still being whole," he pouted.

Dilan chuckled, "Still as stubborn as ever. You and Naminé always were different, somehow, almost as if you were still connected to your hearts. It helped that you were around others with hearts, too."

Even leapt to his feet then with an excited sort of squeak and promptly tripped on the hem of his overly-long coat. Righting himself, he brushed off the dirt and continued as if nothing had happened. "Of course! I'm surprised you didn't see it, Naminé." He paused dramatically and Sora smirked, half-hoping he would say 'Kingdom Hearts.' Instead, he said, "Memories. A heart is formed mainly from learning from memories."

Sora pondered about this. "And it's overcome by stripping it of memories, removing them completely, not just unchaining them." Naminé looked sideways at him once he said that, smiling at some private recollection that Sora didn't know...at least, he thought he didn't.

"Yes. Memories stripped by the Heartless are discarded along with the body, but those memories already belong to a heart. It takes new memories to form new hearts, made around other hearts."

"So by joining with Xemnas and removing ourselves from the light, we actually doomed ourselves?" Ienzo deadpanned.

"Enough theories, they never did us any good," Dilan interjected. "Far more is at stake here."

Sora gasped, "Do you know what's going on?"

Slowly, Ienzo closed his eyes and slowed his breathing. "Darkness builds in the tower, the Grand Hall, if I'm not mistaken."

Grimacing, Sora said, "Well...that is where the Keyhole is..." He looked around. Everyone looked uncomfortable with the thought of going there, though it was clear they were all willing to go. "I have to go, but I'll understand if you guys don't want to."

Riku smirked and punched Sora playfully. "You're nuts if you think we'd let you go alone."

"Facing demons is often painful, but beneficial," came Eleaus' soft voice. Everyone blinked at his sudden entrance into the conversation. The Silent Hero, watching from the shadows until needed. "Perhaps it is time we face ours as well. That is, if you will permit it."

"No!" Roxas immediately exclaimed. "You never would have done something like this while you were still part of the Organization. Why should we think you'll do differently now? How do we know we can even trust what you've told us?"

"You don't. You will just have to have faith in us."

Sora shrugged. "I have no problems with that."

"Of course you don't!" retorted Roxas. "You were perfectly willing to give Xehanort's Heartless a second chance."

"I'm willing to give you one, too!"

Roxas flinched, as if struck. Everyone eyed them warily, not sure how to handle the situation. After all, Sora and Roxas were almost the same person. Neither moved, just stared at the other. Finally, Roxas looked away and stalked out of the room, Naminé trailing behind him concernedly.

Sora faced the apprentices, "What's next for you then?"

They shared a glance quickly before Eleaus replied, "We will stay here and help clean up the mess we helped create."

Leon, who had entered unnoticed as was his way, looked at the men with newfound interest. "You want to join the Restoration Committee?"

"If you agree to it..."

"Why didn't you say so in the first place?"

Braig smirked, "Because we knew you'd eventually call the Keyblade Master if we didn't. We couldn't pass up the chance to help him, especially with the trouble that's brewin'."

Quietly, Leon whispered aside to Sora, "What do you think?"

Sora gazed at the men before him. They didn't seem different, personality wise, from what he knew of their Nobodies. No emotions showed in their faces, although that could just be their scientific natures. But, somehow, he knew he could trust them. It didn't make sense in his mind, but when did that ever stop his heart?

"Give them a chance." With that, he went to each cell and unlocked it.

They had hardly moved, though, when Yuffie bounced in, new cards in hand. "I've got you...huh? What's going on here?"

"You're going to need to make five more cards because we just got five new members," said Leon. For once, Yuffie was speechless. Seizing the opportunity, Leon ushered Yuffie back through the door and motioned for the newest members of the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee to follow. They complied, filing out in numerical order, amusingly enough.

Ienzo, however, stopped before Sora. "Call on us when the final battle is at hand," he said before moving on.

The party left as well to find Roxas and Naminé before setting off towards the castle and the darkness waiting there.


New Characters:

Ansem the Wise/DiZ (deceased): Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Tron: Tron (1982)
Braig: Kingdom Hearts II...sort of
Dilan: Kingdom Hearts II...partly
Even: Kingdom Hearts II...kind of
Eleaus: Kingdom Hearts II...a bit
Ienzo: Kingdom Hearts II...in a sense