A/N: Hey guys, another day another chapter. Send in any thoughts you have on this, I want to know what you think, it helps me.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning when Sora pulled his boat at the island's dock. The sun was just coming up over the horizon and the sea was calm with the wave quietly lapping at the sands barely making a sound while the birds began making their morning calls. Hopping onto the deck, Sora took a deep breath and stretched his arms high into air, prepping himself for the day of practice. Riku wasn't joining him today because he had decided to help his father with some work, and Kairi was going to do something with Selphie, so he was left to do things on his own for the day.

Today was what Sora had been waiting for all week since school had started and his week had been filled with work. For one he could wear his usual clothes, which were way better than his school outfit, and secondly he could practice using his Keyblade with Roxas out. Walking to the center of the beach, he took in a deep breath and summoned the Kingdom Key.

"Going old school?" Roxas said as his apparition appeared.

"Can't go wrong with a classic." Sora said spinning the blade around in a fanciful fashion.

"What's the schedule for today?" Roxas said taking a seat on the ground.

"Just the basics to keep me from getting rusty, nothing too fancy." Sora said taking a couple vertical swings.

"You practiced all week with a wooden sword, how is this going to keep you from getting rusty?"

"Well you know." Sora said pausing mid swing, "I guess I just feel a little better with it in my hand. I've had it with me for so long now it's kind of odd not having to pull it out every couple minutes."

"Phrasing."

"Shut up you know what I mean."

"Yeah I'm just messing with ya." Roxas laughed, "But you know man that you don't need it anymore, or at least you shouldn't."

"What do you mean?" Sora said stopping entirely and looking back to Roxas.

"I mean you saved the Worlds twice! Something that nobody else will be able to do."

"Until the darkness comes back, or another wack job comes for Kingdom Hearts." Sora said defensively, "I need to be ready for when the time comes to use my life for the better of the worlds and the people."

"And that will just add to our awesomeness, but man right now you are home!" Roxas said getting up and walking to Sora, "Right now you have a home with parents keeping a bed warm and a meal ready for you, friends that have your back, a school to learn from, a future for a life you didn't think you could have half a year ago, hell there's a girl here that would love it if you would ask her out."

"Hey-"

"Live YOUR life." Roxas said getting in Sora's face, "You have something that I will never have again, but I'm not complaining, so instead of preparing yourself for something that may or may not come, live your life for you. Not the worlds, not the Keyblade, just live for you."

". . . Yeah I guess, but-"

"Nope, no buts allowed."

". . . Phrasing?"

"That doesn't even work there."

"I tried at least."

"Yeah, but do you get what I'm saying man? You've helped so many people save their homes and their lives that it seems that like you don't remember how to live your own. I'm a part of you so I know this."

"I didn't ask to become a Keyblade wielder!" Sora yelled, "All I wanted to do was travel the worlds with my friends peacefully, and then we got sucked into this whole mess and I had to be the one to save everyone."

"And you did a great job."

"Did I!? There are probably thousands of people still trapped by the Heartless and Nobodies, bound to roam until the darkness wins, or their bodies fade into nothing. You and I have been in that abyss, I have dreamt of that time in the darkness and it still feels as bad as the day I was in it, even if it's just a dream. Those people are still living in that hell."

"And we will do what we can when we are able to! Don't think you are the only one that remembers that time in the void. I was born in it!" Roxas screamed back.

"So why can't I be ready to help them!"

"Because how can you help them if you can't even help yourself. We can't save them all, but you know what, we did our best. Ansem gave his life to help us, so don't forget that others have paid a much higher price than we have to get us where we are now."

"Don't think I don't remember what he did for us!"

"Then why do you keep fighting yourself?"

"I don't know!" Sora yelled throwing his Keyblade into the sand, "I just want everyone to be safe and happy like I am right now, and it bothers me that there are those still out there suffering while I go to school and hang out with friends."

"You can't save them all." Roxas said looking at the Keyblade, "So instead of moping about what you could've done, how about you go and hang out with your friends and family."

". . . . Fine you're right." Sora said finally giving in. As those words left his mouth, he felt a bit of the weight that had been nagging him for so long finally lift slightly. It wasn't gone, but at least he knew what he could do now.

"Thank you." Roxas sighed happily, "Whatever weighs down on you gets me to, so don't ever be afraid about talking about this stuff. We're brothers you and I, so remember that I aways have your back. Get it?"

"Got it."

"Good."

"Alright." Sora said, "What's the plan then, I got up early to do this and now I have no purpose."

"Well how about you go back to the main island and find somebody hang out with when it's actually a reasonable time for a human being to be awake."

"Sounds like a plan, wish we had this talk before I got out here though."

"Yeah sorry I was asleep."

Finally reaching the main Island, Sora stowed his boat where everyone else did and began his trek back towards his house. While Roxas couldn't make himself known on the main Island, he could still make himself heard by anyone even if it was only meant for Sora, and it was because of this reason that Sora was stopped in the middle of his argument with Roxas.

"I'm telling you that it's an overrated series that deserves nothing." Roxas could be heard saying.

"And I'm saying you are only looking at the plot not the great action sequences that it has. Sometimes a good show only needs explosions."

"That's a load o-"

"Who ya talkin to?" a voice asked from behind Sora.

Jumping in surprise, Sora sprang forward almost knocking himself off balance when he landed and only just caught the landing. Standing behind smirking was Cole, dressed in what looked like a tourist's dream outfit, wearing an open Hawaiian shirt and baggy cargo shorts.

"You ok?" he laughed.

"You scared the crap out of me, where'd you come from?" Sora said wondering if Cole had heard him arguing with Roxas.

"You talking to yourself?"

"Yes, I was practicing what I was going to say to a friend of mine over the quality of a movie." Sora said quickly.

Good save! Roxas said happily.

That was close Sora sighed.

"Well I wish you luck on that, but is there any reason you're practicing this argument this early in the day?"

"Oh no! I had planned on practicing with my sword this morning, but I ended up changing my mind. So now I don't know what to do with my life right now."

"That good then." Cole said coming up and patting Sora on the back, motioning for him to follow, "I just finished my morning walk, so how about you join me for a drink at my place?"

"Uh, sure I guess."

Coming up to walk beside Cole, they talked about how their first weeks of class had been and what they felt about their training and whatever else came to mind. After the first days battle, the rest of the week had been a lot more simple, mostly sticking to checking the skills of everyone and getting everyone used to their weapons. Cole had ended up taking a two handed wooden long sword as his weapon of choice, though it was already obvious that he didn't need it, and had ended up practicing with Riku and him for the week.

"And here we are." Cole said waving his hands in a dramatic arc to showcase his home. While not being in the greatest shape, the house had a homely look to it and had a wonderful view of the ocean, and it sat farther away from the rest of the houses along the beach giving the occupants only peaceful silence.

"Take a seat here." Cole said pointing to one of the old rocking chairs that sat on the front porch, "I'll be back in a sec."

"Okay." Sora said carefully taking a seat in the creaky chair as Cole ran inside.

Nice guy Roxas said to Sora internally

Yeah he seems nice, but kinda pushy

You're one to talk

I'm not pushy

"Here we are." Cole said coming out with two steaming glasses of some brown liquid and handing one to Sora.

"Tea?" Sora wondered taking a whiff.

"Nothing better than a glass of tea to get your morning started."

"What about coffee?"

"Overrated and unless it's black, I'm not ordering a Mocha Choco Bullshit from a store." Cole said taking a sip of his tea, while Sora choked on his trying not to laugh at the comment.

"Never heard it called that before."

"Yeah because a frappe Lato or whatever it's called makes so much more sense." Cole laughed, "But enough of that, I'm just happy the week is over so I can enjoy this."

"What?"

"The tea, the view, the sounds of the waves, a drink with a comrade in arms, what could be better."

And for a while they just sat there, watching the sea brighten as the sun rose of the horizon while sipping their tea. It was something that Sora had failed to appreciate till this moment, when he realized that he was feeling at peace. But it was destined to end as all peace does.

"Where did you learn to fight?" Cole asked Sora turning to him.

"Hmmm, my dad showed me some, but most of it came from fighting Riku, and hanging out with the pirates. What about you, you seem skilled."

"Same as you, friends and family." Cole said quietly, "My family believed in a more Spartan type training, but I can't imagine what it must have been like for you. Two years away from home, lost at sea and then taken in by pirates, must have been rough."

"Yeah, it wasn't the best time in the world, but it did make some friends and you got used to living like that after some time." Sora said thinking about what he'd been told to say in situations where he had to talk about what he'd been doing for the past two years, "I have to say I grew from it and it made me a better person."

"Good on ya, it's best to not wallow in that type dreg. But now you've got me curious, and I know that I'm not supposed to ask you, but how'd you guys escape from those pirates after being with them for two years."

Sora wasn't sure what he should do, he knew that he should just tell Cole that he didn't feel like telling him, but he was sure it wouldn't hurt to lie to the guy. And he knew the story they had made up so it wouldn't be an issue to talk about a little of it.

"Well . . . We were docked at this Island the pirates used as their base of operations, an Island that nobody could find unless with the right equipment. And Riku and I happened to be at the beach taking a rest when a bottle washes up on the shore; we open it and found a message from Kairi in it. After that we did our best to mark where we were based on what we knew on a map, and the next time we got into a port, we bribed a guy to send the map to the Islands and we just had to wait for help."

"But if you were in a port, why didn't you just bribe the guy to take you?"

"The only ports we ever went into were run by pirates and most were loyal to our captain and wouldn't even dare to betray him. Which as it turned out, the guy we bribed ended up just tossing our message into the sea and went about his business, it was a miracle that it even reached the Destiny Islands, and even more so in Kairi's hands and not some kids."

"Technically still a kid."

"Young adult, but besides that, she got her father's boat and sailed to save us. Yada yada yada, she came and got us in the middle of the night while everyone was asleep and we slipped away safe and sound."

"Just like that?" Cole asked raising an eyebrow.

"Just like that." Sora said.

Cole looked skeptical, it was unsettling having him stare into him with his dark eyes, and so Sora looked away sipping his tea.

"Well that was quite the heroic tale of escape." Cole finally said with slight sarcasm, but he didn't push any further and they went back to silence.

?

"Let's have some fun shall we."

"I think I'm gonna go now." Sora said finally putting down his empty cup and standing up.

"Alright then, it was good hanging with ya." Cole said getting up as well and shaking Sora's hand, "the day is still young so we might run into each other later.

"Yeah I'll pro-"

Clank Clank

The hair on Sora's neck rose at the noise that came from the tree line foliage by the deck, the unmistakable sound of a soldier clanking about, a Heartless. He was just about to jump into action and summon his Keyblade when he remembered that Cole was there with him; he couldn't risk Cole finding out about his Keyblade, but he also couldn't risk danger coming to the Island. The foliage ruffled more as the heartless moved about in it coming closer to the house and the porch. What to do!?

Roxas Distraction!

Got it.

"Hey over here!" Roxas yelled from the other end of the porch, a projection of himself running around the corner making Cole look to see who yelled.

Making most of the moment, Sora hopped over the porch side and dove into the foliage to end the soldier. Once he was sure he was out of sight, Sora summoned Oathkeeper, and ran after the clanking noise of the soldier that was heading deeper into the trees. Dashing passed trees, Sora expertly dodged and weaved trees getting ever closer to his target who was slowly running out of area to run. If it didn't stop soon the soldier would run into the ocean and it would be . . .

As he reached the edge of the trees, he was blinded by the light of the rising sun, but soon found himself being flung back into a tree as something hit him hard.

Over

Standing at the edge of the trees stood a Guard Armor, between its legs stood the soldier that Sora had been chasing which promptly disappeared now that its job was over. It had drawn him here, weren't Heartless too stupid for that? Sora didn't have much time to think about it as the Guard Armor was winding up for another punch.

"Not this time!" Sora yelled and dodge rolled at the last second as his enemies fist came crashing in, knocking down the tree Sora was just at.

Hopping up, Sora assessed the situation. They were currently in a small clearing by the ocean, far away from the rest of civilization which was good, unfortunately the clearing wasn't that big and Sora didn't know what would happen if the Guard Armor went into the water. There was also the issue of not having any back up for this battle, Riku was in the middle of the ocean with his dad and Kairi would probably just be waking up now and wouldn't be fast enough to help. Hopefully Roxas was still keeping Cole distracted as to keep him from following him, but just in case he might want to finish this quickly if Cole ever did come in search for him.

"Let's finish this quick then!" Sora yelled jumping forward and slicing at the legs of the Armor.

The Guard Armor is a rather slow opponent that can be defeated easily if you know when to back away and attack, the only problem being that it's floating body and arms could suddenly attack out of nowhere if not careful, and if it jumped, it could cause damage to the surrounding area. But Sora wasn't worried about that, in fact he was hoping for it. It was a slow battle with Sora running in and attacking and then retreating when the armor came in close, he had battled these by himself before in the colosseum, but it had been a while since he'd fought one of these and the small area left him limited to where he could retreat to if the Armor attacked. As the battle ensued, Sora kept waiting for the one attack that he knew would turn the tide, but he needed to get the armor angry enough to actually do it, which require him to attack multiple times without getting to hurt himself. Just as he was about to run in for another attack, he saw what he'd been waiting for.

"Stupid."

The Guard Armor jumped up in down in a fit of rage, which in most cases would cause damage to the surrounding area and enemies, but that was on solid ground, sand would be a different story. The Armors feet slammed into the ground and sunk in deep, trapping the foe where he stood leaving only the upper body and arms free, making it an easy target for Sora. Running in, Sora began attacking the main body nonstop all while avoiding the flailing arms that tried to defend the main body.

"Fire!" Sora yelled as he jumped back to avoid an oncoming hit from one of the Armor's fists. The fireball that had grown from Sora's Keyblade rocketed off and destroyed the fist that would have hit Sora on his landing, on arm down, one to go.

Just as Sora was about to come in again for another strike, he noticed the Armor begin to quiver and shake in the ground while the surrounding ground also began to shake as well. The Armor was trying to escape in the only way it knew how, and that was to damage the way out by doing an underground spin move. Slowly but surely the Armor began to spin in a circle, the ground alongside it began to churn with it making a giant whirlpool of destruction sucking in the dirt and trees in the clearing, along with Sora as well. This turned out to be the game changer as Sora was tripped up and was unable to get back on his feet with the ground moving beneath him, slowly drawing closer to the epicenter of the swirling chaos.

"Damnit!" Sora cried out digging his Keyblade into the swirling ground. This managed to slow his closing in, but the Armor was spinning faster, sucking in things faster than before and gaining speed each second. To make matters worse, the hands were also spinning and were cutting trees like nothing when they came into a certain range.

Alright calm down and focus

Just as he was thinking of what he might do, the ocean began to leak into the swirling pit of destruction, soaking Sora and making everything into a dirty soup. But this opened up the best opportunity for Sora.

"BLIZZAGA!" He called out casting the spell. His Keyblade, still embedded in the ground, became icy cold and steamed in the warm air as underneath the ground the ice spell froze everything. All around the water in the sand froze and the whirlpool jerked to a halt along with the spinning Guard Armor, leaving it to twitch and struggle as a thick ice layer formed all around it.

"Cold cold cold cold cold!" Sora cried out as he jumped away from the frozen ground, casting a fire spell in his hands to warm himself, "Why did you have to be so difficult?"

Yanking the Oathkeeper out of the frozen earth, Sora turned and strode toward the twitching Armor. It was kind of cool looking picture, the earth frozen and spun to center on the Guard Armor which jutted out of the ground as if it were about to jump out. The hands were frozen now as well having been soaked in the water and spinning to close to the ground, making cool frozen arcs in the air where it had splashed water. The only thing able to move freely now was its powerless head.

"I do believe this is my win." Sora said tapping the side of Guard Armor, something that probably no one had done and lived to tell the tale. The Guard Armor's head looked down and stared at him with what could only be described as a quiet rage, its body shaking in an attempt to escape. "Well I better do this before the sun warms you up."

Crack

"Hmm?"

Crack

"Not good!"

Sora was lifted into the air as one of the hands escaped its icy prison and smashed him into the other hand shattering it free as well and trapping Sora. While the feet an body were stuck good, Sora had miscalculated how frozen the hands were and had let himself get trapped into coming two close and being smashed between the two hands which were now crushing him.

"Can't we talk this out?" Sora gasped only to have the Armor squeeze him more, its eyes glowing triumphant.

Sora was in an odd position, his arms were crushed into an awkward angle that kept him from using his Keyblade and with the end pointed down he couldn't cast a spell. He could try to cast fire and have the flames surround him, but there was the chance it might melt the ice and free the rest of the body, not like he had the magic to cast it though; that last spell had spent him dry. Slowly the Guard Armor crushed him more and more, squeezing the air out of his lungs as he tried to think of an idea, but with the lack of oxygen it was growing harder to even do that. Would a summon work, did he have enough magic for that, or what about a thunder spell, or maybe a-

"YIPEE KI YAY MOTHERFUCKER!" Cole screamed as he came crashing into the Guard Armor's head, taking it with him as he landed and causing it to let go of Sora.

"COLE!?" Sora gasped in both for air and in surprise.

"Hey man, just thought I could help." Cole yelled as he bounced the angry head around the hands that were reaching back for its head.

"Wha-What!?"

"Do your job Keyblade wielder." Cole said giving him a serious look.

Sora was shocked, how did he know about his Keyblade, or what it was even called, or how he was a Keyblade wielder. But the situation wasn't getting better as the Guard Armor finally broke free from its ice prison and chased after its head which Cole was throwing around. Jumping up, Sora rushed forward and summoned the Oblivion Keyblade to which he threw into the distracted Armor's back causing it to creak in pain and spin around to grab the blade stuck in its back. Jumping onto its back, Sora pulled the blade out of his opponents back and jumped away as its hands slammed into its own back and Sora yet again tossed the blade into the back, this time impaling and trapping both hands into the back.

"Here you can have this back!" Cole yelled throwing the head into the Armors chest, setting it off balance and causing it to fall back.

And that was that, as the Armor crashed to the ground, the blade in its back was pushed to its core destroying it for good, making the hands disappeared, then the legs, and finally the shivering body, leaving only the head for some odd reason.

"Well that was interesting wasn't it" Cole said striding over to the head rolling on the ground and putting his foot on it.

". . . . ."

"Your jobs not done Keyblade wielder."

"Yeah I guess it isn't." Sora said walking over to Cole who stepped back and let him smash the head into the ground, setting free a heart that disappeared into the sky.

"I guess we're not done talking." Cole chuckled as he walked past, "How about we grab another glass of tea?"

And that's it for this chapter, send in those reviews and tell me what you guys think. See ya next chapter.