This is embarrassingly overdue and for that I apologise. I haven't been much in the fanfiction spirit since my holidays started, which is part of the reason why I decided to keep this chapter a little bit short. I don't think it's exactly writer's block - it may be some form of writer's block, though - I just have these little imagination gaps: I know what I want to happen next, but I don't know how I get from where we are currently to what happens next.

Also, I've made a little bit of a map and I've decided to keep this rather short. It's not going to be a great adventure like Sora's in the real game. Excluding Twilight Town there are only six more worlds lined up, including one random cameo world, plus two random little mini-worlds. Otherwise it will take me absolutely forever. I also dread to write action scenes so I don't want to drag it out too long. I don't think I'll be making many of the other worlds as long as the Twilight Town arc either... at least I hope I don't but things always tend to take on a life of their own and get out of hand.

Enjoy this chapter: My Christmas resolution to upload this before Dec 25.


Amu leaned forward and put her arms around Kuukai, holding him in an embrace. He still wasn't responding to her touch. She leaned her forehead on his shoulder as tears started to gather on her eyelashes and she cried. Kuukai didn't move or say anything. The Shugo Chara didn't really know what to do. What could they do? Ran felt her throat tighten. There must have been something... there! The card. Anti-Kuukai dropped it when it disappeared. Ran floated down to pick it up and took it to her owner.

"Amu..." she said in a quiet voice so unlike her usual demeanour. She held the card to the pink-haired girl who just turned slightly to look at it disdainfully. On it was another picture of a sphere covered in pink and magenta chequers with a heart-shaped topiary arch in front of a shining white castle like the kind in a storybook.

"Why should I go there?" Amu snapped. "Axel's just gonna be there waiting to do more horrible things to me."

"But if you don't go, he'll do horrible things to other people instead," Miki said. "Like he just did to Kuukai..."

Amu sat up straight and pushed Kuukai to sit more upright by his shoulders. He pocketed his heart's egg and stood up. "I should go home. I have big brothers, don't I?"

Amu stood up to stop him before he could walk away. "You can't just walk home with injuries like that! What am I going to do? I don't have my phone..."

"Amu..."

She looked up. In the entrance of the alleyway was a tall, dark figure carrying what appeared to be a violin case and had a fairy-sized creature hovering beside its head. Her eyes widened. "Ikuto...?"

"We saw huge flames ~nya!" Yoru explained in a loud voice. "And it was so weird! Everything was standing still."

Amu and the charas looked at him as thought they didn't know what they were talking about. When Kuukai tried to move again, Amu snapped back to attention. "Ikuto! Call an ambulance!"


Axel strode into the dining room of the old mansion. Two small chandeliers hung from the ceiling and a series of tall windows on one side faced towards the town and the lovely, green garden in the backyard. The room was fixed with plush red carpet and had a large fireplace with a gold carving on the back plate. The mantelpiece was adorned with little, coloured orbs with various types of dragons wound around them and a clock with a small face that ticked quietly. On the long dining table that would seat twenty there were only two seated there. Both were wearing the same black cloaks but with the hoods drawn down. One was a fairly stocky man with blond hair and blue eyes and a short beard and moustache. He had five silver piercings in his ears, most of them helix piercings. The other man looked old, mainly due to the disfiguring effect of the scars running across his face. He had long hair in grey and black streaks that was tied in a ponytail and wore an eye patch over his left eye. While the blond shuffled a deck of cards and tried to coax the other into playing a game with him the other refused and chose to just sit idly and drink something that looked like one of every ingredient in the kitchen had been tossed into the blender. The grey-haired man looked up first.

"Welcome back, dude," he said in a casual tone with a voice sounding like a young surfer. "What happened? Fail?"

"I'm working on it," Axel gave as an explanation.

"You should have finished it," the blond said with a British accent. "Even with my time magic to make sure didn't run into any inconvenient disturbances you still couldn't manage to capture a weak little girl? Well, I guess that's just your luck. Care to play a game?"

"Yeah, I'll show you what my luck is really like," Axel challenged, sitting down across from the blond.

"You're an idiot," the grey-haired man said over the rim of his glass. "No one can beat the Gambler of Fate at a card game."

"Maybe you can't, Xigbar," Axel retorted as the blond began to deal out the cards. "But I'm feeling really lucky right now."

Xigbar laughed. "I'm going to enjoy watching Luxord take those words right out of your mouth, kiddo."

"Pick up your hand," Luxord said, pointing at the pile of cards in front of Axel. He picked them up, looked at them and mentally cursed. Luxord must cheat all the time; how else would Axel always end up with a bad hand every time he played against the guy?

The door slammed open sending vibrations through the room that rattled the windows and caused the decorative orbs on the mantelpiece to wobble. All three occupants looked up to find another dressed in a black robe with the hood drawn up. They could tell she was female by the curvaceous figure and the high-heeled boots that only she wore. Her lips could be seen in the lighter shadows on the bottom of her face: she was scowling.

"I have a bone to pick with you, Axel," she snarled.

"Larxene?" Axel said. His eyes widened and he was starting to sweat. "What's got you all up in a tizzy?"

"Your frank idiocy, that's what!" Larxene growled, summoning four kunai in one hand with a flash of lightning.

"You're just jealous because Maleficent chose to put me on the frontline and you're in back-up," Axel muttered, fanning himself with his cards, "so you gotta stand back and watch me have all the fun."

She threw a lightning fast kunai at him. Axel flinched, thinking that it was about to hit him in the face but it became wedged in the wooden edge of the chair he was sitting at. He gulped. Larxene wasn't scowling at him anymore so he guessed that seeing him squirm even just a little bit had cheered her up and calmed her down.

"How can you not realise something so obvious," she continued. "While chasing your prey Luxord's time magic should have caused all other activity in your vicinity to stop, right?"

"Don't say 'prey', it sounds so animalistic," Luxord suggested.

"Yeah, I call him my opponent, got it memorised?" Axel added. "And we already know that the fairy girl is special. So what if a simple, low-level time spell couldn't stop her?"

"Yeah? Then what about the other guy?"

Luxord, Xigbar and Axel all stared at her.

"There was another guy?" Axel asked. "You mean, another guy who didn't stop?"

"Yeah, that's right," Larxene confirmed, chucking another kunai at Axel, this time aimed closer. Axel cringed, thinking that this one was really going to hit but it was instead wedged into the upholstery millimetres off from the first one. "But if you didn't notice that it means you probably weren't on the ball, huh? I spoke to Maleficent about it, you know."

"You did, huh?" Xigbar responded. "And what does she think?"

"Aw crap..." Axel whined, slumping. "Thanks a lot, Larxene. I'm gonna be in deep shit now."

"Glad to hear it. Anyway, she's taking Axel off the roster. You're not going to be leaving this mansion at all until further notice, redhead."

"What?!" Axel exclaimed, slamming his cards face down.

Luxord chuckled. "I believe you were saying something earlier about feeling lucky?"

"Shut up, you! Why did she do that? Oh... wait, don't answer that, I think I already know why," Axel looked up with a look of dread. "And? Did she put you out there instead?"

Larxene growled and threw a third kunai. Axel yelped and snapped the hand resting on his cards away as the charged kunai stabbed the table through the cardboard where Axel's hand had once been.

"Oi! My cards!" Luxord exclaimed with an annoyed tone.

"No! She didn't recruit me! She recruited Demyx! Of all people!"

Xigbar chuckled. "Oh well, the only thing you can do is roll with it. I ain't the least bit surprised that she picked Demyx though. He may be a spineless, bumbling pacifist but unlike anyone else in this organisation, he follows orders and carries out tasks the way they're meant to be done."

"What are you saying?" Larxene snapped.

"Nuthin'," Xigbar drawled.

As Larxene and Xigbar continued to bicker while Luxord watched on amused Axel looked down at the kunai stabbed through one particular card in his hand. He grabbed the knife. It had lost its charge when it made impact and left a burnt out scar on the table. Axel pulled the knife out of the table, finding that the card it had pierced was stuck to it. He turned it over to see what it was: the two of hearts. He smirked, plucking the card off the blade and stowing it away in his coat while Luxord wasn't looking. Maybe when Maleficent had chosen Demyx to take up the fight instead she hadn't counted on he and Axel being good friends. Demyx would be on his side no matter what orders she gave.


There was the distinct disinfectant smell of the hospital everywhere, leaking into the waiting room from the wards and surgeries behind the closed swinging doors. It had been nearly two hours and Amu had heard nothing. Maybe in the dark she couldn't see the full extent of Kuukai's injuries and he was a lot more badly injured than she thought. The clock on the waiting room wall struck one in the morning. Amu sat on a waiting room chair against the wall with her heels up on the edge of the seat and her knees hugged close to her chest. What was she to do? Kuukai had lost his human reason and emotion – how was she supposed to tell other people that? Then there was Maleficent. If the sorceress Yen Sid referred to really was her new teacher... Amu shuddered. She dreaded having to go to school later that morning.

Something black was held in front of her face. She blinked and focused on it, recognising it as a mobile phone. She looked up to the person offering it. Ikuto wasn't looking at her.

"It's already really late," he said as an explanation. He turned his head slightly to stare at her. "Even if you snuck out of the house or something, you should call your parents and tell them you're here."

"Do you tell your parents when you go out at night?" Amu asked bitterly. He quickly looked away again and Amu knew that was a 'no'. She pushed his hand away. She didn't want to talk to anyone. So why was Ikuto still here?

Ikuto sat down on a chair two seats away from her. He didn't know what happened but he could tell that Amu would need space for now. It was probably best for him to just leave in that case. So why wasn't he leaving? He was watching her. She stared at the corner around which the nurses had wheeled Kuukai away on a stretcher for treatment. She lifted her head up when a blonde nurse with a short bob cut came back around the corner but slumped disappointedly when the nurse went to talk to a disabled man in a wheelchair.

She sighed and leaned her head against her knees, keeping her eyes on the corner. One arm let go of her legs and fell loosely to her side with her hand resting on the seat of the chair next to her. Ikuto stared at it. The fingers twitched unconsciously; grasping for something. Ikuto leaned over and put his hand over hers. Her hand grasped his fingers – probably a sub-conscious action on her part – and he could feel them trembling even though she was keeping a firm grip.

Amu blinked. She could feel something warm and turned around to find Ikuto holding her hand gently. She blushed and squeaked, snatching her hand back as though it had touched a hot stove. "Wh-what are you doing, you pervert!?" she exclaimed. "Holding my hand all lover-like..."

Ikuto smirked. "You're the one who reached out to me first. I thought you wanted to hold hands."

"If I wanted to hold your hand I would have told you!" Amu snapped. She crossed her arms and looked away with a pout.

"Well they say that actions speak louder than words," Ikuto continued to tease.

"I can't believe you! You're taking advantage of me at a difficult time," she whined. Ikuto glanced at her. At first he thought he had genuinely hurt her feelings but when he saw her face he could see some life returning to her eyes and cheeks. The slightly perverted but familiar bickering had cheered her up a bit. Ikuto sighed with relief. Yoru floated up next to him with a sly expression and meowed. Ikuto pinched his chara's cheek.

A male nurse with short black hair came around the corner but Amu had forgotten that she was supposed to be watching it until the nurse called her: "Hinamori-san?"

She jumped out of her seat and ran up to the nurse. Her hands were clasped at her chest praying for good news. "Is Kuukai okay?"

"Souma-san will be alright now. Some of his wounds were deep but most were superficial. He had a lot of them though. We've cleaned and stitched the wounds and treated him for infections but he's lost a lot of blood too so he'll need a lot of rest now. You'll understand that we're only letting family members see him at this time, yeah?"

"Yeah, okay," Amu nodded. "I'm just glad he's safe." She glanced at Ikuto. "I guess I'd better go home. There's nothing else that I can really do. Thanks for your help, though," she said to the nurse.

Ikuto stood up as she turned to leave and followed her out of the building. She stopped on the steps just before the car park, making Ikuto stand still and stare at her in surprise.

"Ikuto," she said quietly, clasping her hands behind her back. "Thank-you for staying." She jumped down the last two stairs and took off at a run until she got to the end of the car park. A chara change with Ran allowed her to jump from building to building to get home faster.

Ikuto had nothing better to do other than go home and sleep or resume his nightwalking. He was so worried about her. There was something suspicious about finding her in an alleyway with her friend in that state. Green flames were the only clue he had but it was evident enough to be a good starting point.


Amu could barely keep her eyes open the next day at school not even for the fear of Maleficent. That new teacher had a dark, fearsome aura following her everywhere she went. Tadase assured her that it was really nothing but when he looked so uneasy whenever Maleficent spoke to him or approached him there was no way Amu could believe him. That class pet also had people on edge. Everyone broke out into a cold sweat at the thought of having to take it home for the summer and the holidays were coming precariously close – next week, in fact. The classroom was suddenly a very depressing place to be.

When the bell tolled for the end of the school day Amu packed up as quickly as possible, wanting to get away from Maleficent as soon as possible. Everyone else seemed to have the same idea and the class was filing out of the room in record time. All of a sudden, Maleficent called out over the noise of several people moving at once: "Wait a minute, Hinamori-san. I need to speak to you."

Amu froze and turned around. Maleficent beckoned for her to return. She turned to Tadase, hoping he would help her somehow. He just smiled.

"I'll wait outside the classroom for you," he promised, following the rest of the class out the door. The other students looked back curiously, wondering what could possibly transpire between Amu and the new teacher. Once the classroom had been completely cleared Maleficent smiled and sat down, gesturing for Amu to pull up a chair and do the same but Amu stubbornly refused. She wished the charas were here to help her if she needed it; they were away playing in the Royal Garden... or at least she hoped they were just doing that. The air began to prickle as though some strange charge was surging through it. She stood rigid.

"What happened?" she hissed, knowing that something must have happened to cause that strange surge. Maleficent's eyes seemed to narrow and her smile grew.

"Oh, so you can feel it?" she observed. "You're more perceptive than I originally thought; I'm not dealing with some typical little girl here, am I? But you haven't seemed to notice that time has stopped."

Amu blinked and turned to the window. A bird flying past was frozen in mid-flap.

"We won't be disturbed."

"You're showing me your true colours already?" Amu asked, turning back to Maleficent, trying to use her tougher outer character. "That's bad form if you ask me."

"Well, I don't stand to gain or lose anything and I most certainly am not so afraid of mere children that I would hide my identity for preservation's sake."

Amu took a few steps back, knowing that she had an escape route; she could run if she wanted to. However, she had the gut feeling that Maleficent was not a person she could run from. If she was to prevail at all, she would stand her ground until the end.

"You're a very useful little girl," Maleficent continued. "And I need you for my plans to become successful. You've already met my subordinate Axel on a couple of occasions. Actually, he's what I want to talk to you about."

"So you're the boss, huh?" Amu snapped, edging towards the door. Maleficent waved her finger and the door slammed shut. "Axel takes orders from you."

"He's supposed to but he doesn't. It's been extremely frustrating for the short time that I've been here; he turns foolproof simple tasks into arduous missions. However, I've thought about it and I've decided that I quite like Axel's approach. What would make it perfect for my own purposes was if I took it several steps further than Axel ever planned to go. Hinamori-san, you are going to bring the Keyblade to me."

The witch pointed at Amu, snatching her book bag with magic and opening it while it was suspended in midair. The jagged-topped card floated out of the bag and tacked itself to the classroom door. Amu jumped up to grab her bag by the strap. She dug her heels in as the bag was dragged through the air towards the door. The door opened of its own accord, revealing a bright, shining light behind it. Amu gasped and let go of her bag as it hurtled into the light.

"I'm not going!" Amu yelled defiantly.

"Sweetheart, believe me, if you had a choice I would give you one."

A tingle emerged on Amu's wrists and waist. She tried with all of her might to keep her heels dug into the linoleum but her school slippers just slipped off. Amu tried to keep a grip with her toes. It was useless since her socks just slid over a smooth surface. She sobbed, almost unable to believe that she was being forced into an adventure by the enemy for their own cause and she was currently too weak to prevent it – an enemy with more power and more powers to use explicit force than Easter. She thought as she was thrown into the blinding portal and the light turned into a bright blue sky with fluffy, white clouds: "What can I do at a time like this when I can't fight back?"


Kiseki admired his work: the latest training obstacle course to keep his soldiers in shape for the fight against Easter. It started with a sprint, then went to hurdles, a maze made by rubber bands that had to be navigated whilst balancing on a ball, a tightrope that had to be crossed with a unicycle, then a trampoline to jump through a flaming hoop before running through tiny tyres taken from plastic trucks to get to the finish line. It was the ultimate test of strength, agility and endurance.

"You aren't seriously expecting us to do that, are you?" Musashi asked, staring at the course critically. "We're not circus animals."

"Ha! Of course you don't understand the true nature of this exercise. Since I am king I have to ensure my ranks are well-prepared for the fight ahead- hey!"

Pepe and Kusa-kusa had taken one of the balls from the course and were now using it to play catch. Kiseki growled and attempted to order them to return it to its rightful place but then the game of catch turned into a game of piggy-in-the-middle.

"Insolence!" Kiseki screamed. "I shall have you imprisoned for this!"

"Hey! You guys, help!" Sora shouted, flying towards the new obstacle course, knocking a flaming hoop into the dirt and bowling over two tightropes.

"What are you doing!? Have you no idea how much effort went into that outstanding course?"

"Ran, Miki and Su disappeared!" Sora exclaimed, panting as though he'd been running.

"Disappeared?" Pepe repeated.

"They were just showing me around the store room in the garden and then they suddenly disappeared into thin air all at the same time," Sora explained frantically.

"So suddenly?" Musashi asked. "This is certainly odd. But don't lose your head over it. There must be a valid explanation somewhere in all of this. I'm sure we'll find them eventually."

"How do you find something that just disappeared into thin air?" Sora cried, clearly losing his head over it.

"Nothing disappears into thin air ~dechu!" Pepe proclaimed, suddenly wearing a detective's coat and hat and smoking a bubble pipe. Kusa-kusa giggled. "We must investigate!"

"I agree," Kiseki declared, flinging his cape dramatically. "Ran, Miki and Su are invaluable members of my military force and their disappearance cannot go unsurveyed."

"Oh man, I wonder what could have happened to them," Sora moaned.

"I know you're worried," Musashi said, putting a hand on Sora's shoulder, "but this problem won't be solved by getting worked up and crying. Firstly, we should retrace your footsteps and see where they disappeared. It might just be that you lost each other."

"I hope so..."


Zexion examined the cage in the floor of the basement. The circular grate on top lay directly beneath a white lamp and six feet beneath it Roxas lay on his back with cuffs on his wrists and ankles. He hadn't said anything to Zexion, not even to ask where he was or what was going to be done with him. Zexion snorted quietly. If he wasn't interested in knowing, Zexion had no business telling him. He created himself a dark portal and left the dark underground room.

He reappeared in the foyer and put his hood up to hide his face. He sniffed and looked up to the stairs, catching the scent of someone familiar. Another member of their group was running down the stairs quickly clutching a piece of paper that Zexion knew (given that he knew who was coming) had written instructions on it. He tripped on the top of the main staircase and fell right down to the bottom. Zexion heard a pitiful moan.

"As graceless as ever, Demyx," Zexion commented for no reason other than the sake of making a statement.

"You don't have to say it like that," Demyx whined, getting up and letting the hood fall off his head. He had friendly cyan eyes and dirty blond hair styled into what Zexion thought was the most awful combination of two awful hairstyles: a Mohawk and a mullet.

"You're on a mission, I presume."

"Yeah! How'd you guess?"

Zexion looked pointedly at the piece of paper Demyx was holding. Demyx grinned sheepishly and stuffed it in his pocket – he seemed to be the only Nobody in the entire organisation who needed to carry his orders with him, else he'd forget what he was supposed to be doing. However, he mentally noted that Axel didn't seem to be very good at remembering his orders either... especially recently. He fingered the other piece of paper while his hand was still in his pocket, remembering Axel's favour. Demyx was only happy to do it, since other than Demyx himself Axel appeared to be the only person amiable enough to even pretend he had a heart. For that, Demyx was grateful.

"Uhm... I'd better be going," Demyx said quietly, realising that Zexion wasn't going to make conversation with him.

"Uhm?" Zexion repeated. He'd always thought it was a curious sound; something a bit subtle. Somewhere in the back of his memory, Zexion could swear that sound was familiar. Demyx stared at him strangely.

"O~kay... I'll just leave then. You keep up the good work too, Zex! Whatever it is you do..."

Demyx pulled his hood back up and conjured up a dark portal to step into.


So, that's the last chapter before Christmas. I'll do my best to write one before New Year's too. Actually, this took a bit of a twist that even I wasn't expecting - it just came out in the initial word vomit. I feel kinda sorry for Amu...

Also, I want to explain the significance of the two of hearts. Obviously, it's a heart card and because Kingdom Hearts is all about losing hearts to the darkness and the Nobodies want to regain hearts, well, put two and two together and the suit of hearts is pretty important. However, the two of hearts is a card that is usually low ranking but in one of my favourite card games, called 'Presents and Bastards', the two of hearts is actually the highest ranking card in the game, the lowest being the three of spades. The rules are up on my profile if you want to read them.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you all. =D