I finally got this chapter finished!

For those who haven't seen this show, it's awesome! Go watch it!

Kingdom Hearts © to Disney and Square Enix!

Gravity Falls © to Disney and Alex Hirsch!

OCs © to me!

Sasuke © to Yamichaos!

Chapter 10: Gravity Falls- Take Back the Falls

"Axel…" Lea and Riku turned at two voices. The images of Roxas and a girl with black hair stood there. "You have to run. This world is turning on you."

"Huh?"

The images vanished as the sky turned red and everything turned into dark red worms with a single eye like Bill Cipher's. "Oh crap!"

"Oh, we need to go!"

Ven and Aqua walked quietly along until Ven paused. "It can't be…"

"Who is that?"

"Hello, Ven." A girl with blonde hair smiled over at them.

"Naminé?"

The girl sighed. "I'd love to talk more, but you have to leave this place. It will host you no longer and it wants you dead."

Ven opened his mouth but she vanished and the sky turned red. Aqua took his hand. "Come on, we need to go."

"Mickey, get out of here." A rabbit in blue clothes stopped in front of the three Disney Town residents.

"OSWALD?!"

"Just go!"

They turned as the sky went red. All of them met up back at the entrance, with Sora dragging Kairi behind him. "We made them mad!"

"No kidding!"

Aqua looked around. "We never found an exit, so we'll make our own." She blanketed the bubble wall with a Blizzardza spell. With one slam, the frozen part shattered, opening up the wall. Just as the group leapt out, the rest of the bubble popped.

"There's the others… and they're riding a giant… pig." Dipper, Wendy, Soos, and a girl they assumed was Mabel landed nearby. They were on a giant pig, but the pig shrunk back down to normal size.

"Hey," Dipper smiled. "You guys made it, and you found your friend."

"And you found your sister."

Mabel looked over, smiling. "So, you're the friends Kairi told me about. Hi, I'm Mabel." Her eyes suddenly widened as she dashed over to Riku, batting her eyes. "But you can call me 'the girl of your dreams'."

"Uhhhh…"

"Mabel!"

"Sorry." The brown-haired girl sighed. "Man, I went nuts back there. I mean, come on. The real world can't be that bad. Right?"

She turned: the sky was red, Bill's castle floated in the sky, a giant goat trampled the city, and the water tower walked around, roaring. "Oh boy…"

Making their way into town, no signs of life remained. "Where is everyone?"

"The town's deserted."

"Did Bill already win?"

Dipper bit his lip before speaking. "Come on guys, let's go hide out in the shack." Slowly and carefully they went to the outskirts of town, to the building Sora had seen before. The Mystery Shack.

As their eyes fell upon it, Lea huffed. "That place is a dump."

"Yes!" Dipper cheered. "It's in shambles! Just like we left it."

"Oh man!" Wendy took off. "This is the first time I've ever felt happy going to work."

They all ran towards the disheveled building, hope rising within them, for it seemed they would have a quiet and safe place to rest, even for a little while. "Hello, house! Hello, porch! Hello, wads of gum I left stuck to the couch!"

"Mabel, that's gross."

Riku reached for the door handle, only to hear shuffling inside. He held up a hand to silence the others. "Everyone, hush." They all tensed up, ready to fight at any moment. Riku looked back at them before breaking in the door.

Everyone rushed in but stopped as they saw a crowd of people and animals. The man in front was old with a fez on his head and a sash across his chest which read "chief". Dipper and Mabel lowered their weapons. "Wait? Grunkle Stan!"

The man lowered the baseball bat he was holding. "Kids?" Dipper and Mabel ran to him, hugging the man. "I can't believe it! I thought I'd lost you two."

The group smiled as the reunions continued. Soon, Stan looked over at them. "And who are these guys?"

"These guys helped us, Grunkle Stan."

"Yes," Mickey piped up. "We are here to help. We want to stop Bill. Actually, the last person to seal Bill away had the same powers as we do."

"Really?"

"So," Dipper looked around, "What's everyone doing here?"

Mabel nodded. "Yeah, there's like monsters and gnomes, and is Pacifica wearing a potato sack?"

A blonde girl crossed her arms. "Hey, even in a sack I still look better than you."

"Hey everyone!" A minotaur yelled out. "Eyebat!"

Everyone closed the doors and windows, ducking down, and going silent as one of Bill's flying eyeballs came over, looking the shack over. After a minute, it flew away. Once it was gone, Sora cast a Fire spell at a trash can, lighting up the room.

Stan sighed. "Welcome to what's left of normal around here. Home base…" There were a few people, gnomes, minotaurs, golf-ball people, a unicorn, and a bear with many heads, among other things.

"How'd this all happen?"

"So, I was hammering signs out back when the sky started vomiting nightmares." Stan grunted, "I listen to a lot of A.M. radio, so I knew what this meant: the end of the world. What I didn't expect was what happened next… I ran into the shack as a weirdness wave came by and it went right around the shack." He looked down at Dipper. "Turns out whatever you and my brother did to the shack with your unicorn voodoo mad the crazy place invincible to weirdness."

Riku smirked. "So, this shack is resistant to Bill's magic? Nice."

Stan nodded. "So that's when 'possum-breath' here shows up with a bunch of injured stragglers through the forest. They needed a place to stay, and since the mayor got captured, I elected myself de-facto chief. The plan is to stay in here and eat brown meat until we run out. Then I vote we eat the gnomes."

"Hey!" a gnome yelled, "I'm short, not deaf!"

"Shh! Shh! Stress will make you chewy."

"Grunkle Stan," Dipper called out, "We can't all just hide inside the shack. There's a town in need of saving. Me and Ford tried to do it, but he got captured by Bill."

"Serves that jerk right!" Stan opened a can of brown meat and sat down. "My brother's had some stupid plans, but going up against an all-powerful space demon was his worst one yet. Trust me, we have everything we need right here. It's not the ritz, but at least the monsters inside know how to massage."

"You'd abandon your brother and all those innocent people?"

Sora shook his head. "We can't just sit here and do nothing. We can't let Bill win!"

"Look, kid, we got a good deal here. Besides, I'm sure wherever the rest of the townsfolk are they're fine." Stan's hand came down on the power button of the television remote control.

The TV switched on to a news channel where a woman, disheveled and scared, stood. "This is Shandra Jimenez reporting live from the inside of Bill's castle. Here, for the first time are images of what's happened to the captured townsfolk. Viewers are advised to look away if they don't want to see their friends turned into a twisted throne of human agony." All the townspeople were stone statues that had been stacked together to form a giant throne, presumably for Bill. "Is there no one who will save the people of this town?" A red light covered the reporter as she slowly turned to stone. "I'm Shandra Jimenez, and I'm being turned into stone, by a flying eyeball." As she became a statue, the television feed cut out.

Ven covered his mouth. "Oh my gosh…"

"Guys, don't you see," Mabel stood up. "Our friends need us, but we can only save them if we fight back!"

Dipper joined her. "Mabel is right. Bill wants us to run and hide; he wants us to think he's invincible, but Ford told me before he was captured, that he knows Bill's secret weakness." This captured the attention of everyone. "Now, if we band together. If we combine all our strengths, our smarts, our abilities, then we might just be able to rescue Ford, learn Bill's weakness, and save Gravity Falls!"

Everyone cheered; Aqua smiled at the boy. "Good job, Dipper."

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Stan waved his arms to get everyone's attention. "Have you all forgotten who's in charge here? Besides, we're only safe inside. It's not like we can take the Mystery Shack to Bill."

Jiminy stood up on Sora's shoulder. "Stan, you can't just give up though!"

"Whoo!" an old man with a long beard and an old hat whooped. "Holy whoot-an-nannies, flapjack-n-fiddle-banjos(1)!" He calmed himself. "Sorry, sorry… got a little excited. What I meant to say is, I think I figured out a way to fight Bill and rescue Ford, but we're all gonna have to work together. Now, listen up…"

"That old man, McGucket, is smarter than he lets on." Lea grabbed a chair and carried it away. The hillybilly's idea to fight Bill was to turn the shack into a giant fighting robot, and somehow it was working.

Sora grabbed a box of electrical parts and went up to the attic. Kairi was supposed to be in the attic, putting together some pieces for one of the weapons. When he reached the attic, he found Kairi sitting down, papers all around her, covered in drawings.

"Kairi? You ok?" Jiminy slipped off Sora's shoulder and stood beside the girls' drawings.

"No…" she sighed, picking up one of the pictures. "I-I just had to do something after what happened in the bubble."

"Are you drawing what you remember about the bubble?"

The girl nodded. "I'm comparing it to my dreams… I think my therapist(2) would want me to that."

Sora knelt down, patting her shoulder. "If you think Dr. Areth(3) would want you to do that, then go ahead. I'll handle working on the weapon."

"Thank you…"

Sora watched as she continued to draw, with Jiminy sitting beside her, quietly talking with her. He'd seen her do this before, as had Riku, only a few months before...

Sora knocked on the door to the Mizu's house. Riku crossed his arms. "Kairi's usually out by now. Something has to be wrong."

The door opened slightly to reveal a woman with black hair. "I thought you boys would come by sooner or later. Come inside, Kairi will be happy to see you."

"Thank you, Mrs. Talitha." The two boys came inside.

Kairi sat at her family's table, papers all around her; from the front door, the boys could see bags under her eyes. A man with purple hair and green eyes sat across from her. The man smiled at her. "Good job, Kairi."

The boys recognized the man as Dr. Areth Himitsu, the island's lead physiatrist. He was the man who diagnosed Kairi's amnesia when she first arrived on the islands. Ever since then, he'd been keeping tabs on her, coming in when she needed help or just checking up on how she was faring.

"It looks like the drawings are consistent with all the others." He adjusted his glasses before writing something down. "This coincides with my initial diagnosis. These dreams are always the same, you never remember them, and you always draw the same things. I still believe that these dreams are your mind reliving the traumatic event that caused you to lose your memories."

Kairi nodded. "Thank you, Dr. Areth. Do you want me to continue working on lucid dreaming?"

"Yes. Now, just let me know if something changes, if you have the dream again, or if you need anything." The man packed up his papers, shook Kairi's hand, and left.

"Kairi, have you had that dream again?"

"Not really." The girl folded up the drawings and stood up, coming to him, the cricket jumping onto her shoulder. "I really need to help you. I can't just sit on my butt all day." She grabbed some parts and used fire magic to weld them together.

Sora laid his hand on hers. "Kairi, I know you think about your birth parents more than you let on, so it's alright to be kinda messed up by what happened in that bubble."

"I know… I just wish I knew something about them. The only thing I have is that image of a woman with red hair and a man with auburn hair, burned into my memory."

"Well…" the boy grinned. "Your dad is the mayor… doesn't he take a census every few years?" She nodded. "Well, if Ansem the Wise is the king of Radiant Garden, wouldn't he have taken a census sometime? We can ask to look into records and see what we can find on your family!"

"Sora, you're a genius!"

Sora laughed, putting an arm around her shoulder. "Then once Bill's done for, it's off to Radiant Garden."

"Yeah!"

Everyone worked together, using what skills they had to put together McGucket's plan. With all the workers, the project was completed in a relatively short time.

Aqua sat beside Dipper, going over the battle plan. "We can only do our best, Dipper. Bill was able to steal the Keyblades of some of our friends. We can try and get them back, and we'll do our best to stop him."

"If Ford's plan works, we may not need to fight him head-on."

The young woman nodded. "Alright, let's do this then."

The night before the attack on Bill, everyone sat around a campfire; a sense of warmth and hope filled the air. The warmth may have been because Mabel made everyone "apocalypse sweaters".

"This is the best day of the end of the world." Mabel grinned. "I think we actually have a chance to beat Bill and win back our future."

Donald looked over at Sora and Kairi, who sat against a tree, snuggled together, sleeping. "I know they think this is a great day."

Riku walked around the camp, patrolling for any of Bill's minions when he heard a grumpy voice. "This whole plan is bonkers. Of course, no one asks the 'chief' what he thinks." The boy walked around the house and saw Stan grumbling to a gnome. "After all I've done for everyone."

The gnome, who had buck-teeth and his eyes in two different directions. "Schmebulock…"

"Yeah, exactly, it's a total load of Schmebulock."

Riku walked over to him, just as Dipper and Mabel came. "You know, Stan, maybe you should not think only about yourself. I get that you and your brother fight, but you're going to hold everyone back…"

"If you didn't know, I already saved him once from a portal, and he never thanked me. He causes the end of the world, and somehow it's still always, 'Stan's the screw-up, Ford's the hero'."

Dipper put his hands on his hips. "Well, maybe people think Ford's a hero because he didn't want to hide in the Mystery Shack…"

"Well, maybe if he hid in the Mystery Shack he wouldn't have been captured. "

Riku stepped between the two, arms crossed. "Look, I don't know you that well, and I don't claim to, but one thing I do know is that siblings fight and sometimes they hurt one another. You might get angry at them, yell at them, but if something were to happen to them… y-you'd never forgive yourself…" He let out a deep breath. "Just think on that…" Turning away, Riku continued his patrol in silence.

Dawn broke upon Gravity Falls and on the Mystery Shack.

"Alright, fellas!" Old man McGucket hollered. "Let's hope this turns out better than my other inventions!"

"Everybody ready…? NOW!"

Dipper pulled a lever and the shack came alive. It stood up with its robotic legs and began walking across what was left of Gravity Falls, heading directly for Bill's floating castle. As they reached the castle, they sent one of the robotic arms, which was actually a tyrannosaurus rex, partially trapped in amber, to punch through the wall of the castle.

Inside, they could see Bill on his throne, with his henchmen all around; said henchmen charged forward, to combat the shack.

Soos stood on the shack's front porch; he tapped a megaphone in his hands. "Hey dudes… is this thing on? Uh, I just want you monster dudes to hand over Ford, or we'll have to like, fight and junk."

"ATTACK!"

The monsters charged, but the people inside the shack were ready. "Like we planned, everyone!"

As the monsters charged and people inside the shack operated machinery, the Keybearers all cast magic spells from the roof, destroying the eyebats that flew around. It did not take long for them to defeat all the monsters.

A minute later, Bill, who was now as large as the shack, came flying out of the castle. He brought down a giant fist on the shack, but a magic barrier appeared, blocking the space demon. "What the…?" The triangle man grew other fists. "No! No, no, no no!" He pounded on the barrier.

"ATTACK!" The dinosaur arm reached out, the reptile biting down on Bill's eye, pulling it out.

"AW! My eye!" Bill reached up to the hole in his head. "Do you know how long it takes to regenerate that!?"

"He's distracted, now's our chance!" Mickey yelled.

"Rescue team, MOVE OUT!"

All the off-worlders, Stan, Mabel, Dipper, Wendy, Soos, and McGucket went downstairs to some pipes; they climbed inside. "Ok, plan is to find Ford, get out, and save the world. Piece of cake!"

"Now you're talking!" Lea cheered.

"Hey, on second thought," Stand fidgeted in the tube. "Maybe we can come up with a plan that doesn't have us plummeting to our certain death?"

"Nope! NOW!" They all shot up the pipes and out the top of the shack.

With Bill still blinded, they flew over his head and directly into the open door of the castle. Aqua and Donald cast Aeroza to cushion their fall, so they were able to land perfectly. As they looked up, they found themselves at the base of the giant throne, made of human statues.

"Oh man, it looks even worse up close."

Lea suddenly gasped. "There they are!" He ran over to a floating keyring where the Keyblades Bill had stolen hung. He grabbed his Keyblade, which glowed and returned to him. "I have missed this thing sooooo much!" The others who lost their Keyblades before came and retrieved theirs.

Mabel pulled out her grappling hook and sent herself flying up to the armrest of the chair. After a moment, she called down to the group. "I found Great Uncle Ford! He's golden, but not in a good way!"

"Great!" Riku climbed up to where she stood; he could see Ford, frozen into a golden statue. "Let's grab him and get out of here."

"But how are we gonna unfreeze the others?"

"I know!" They all looked up to the right of the throne. A small birdcage hung there, and Gideon, the same one who tried to stop them before, was inside. He'd been dressed in a sailor suit and was dancing.

"Gideon… What happened to you?"

The boy wept as he continued dancing. "Bill captured me. He's been forcin' me to do cute dances in this cage for all eternity. I'm so tired of bein' cute!"

"Yeah, you're not cute." Aqua unlocked his cage and created a slide of ice for him.

Dipper narrowed his eyes. "How do we unfreeze them?"

"Mayor Tyler! He's the loadbearing human. Pull 'im out and the whole thing comes down."

Sora and Dipper went over to a man wearing a "mayor" sash. They pulled on his arm and he came out of place, turning from stone to human. The entire chair came tumbling apart and each statue became flesh and bone again.

The off-worlders stood back, watching as people woke up, reuniting with friends and family. It almost made them forget the situation they found themselves in.

Slowly Ford turned back as well. "Kids! You did it! I knew I could count on you!" The man hugged Dipper and Mabel.

Sora looked around at the castle. "Well, we got the townspeople, but how do we beat Bill?"

"Yeah, Ford," Donald squawked. "Dipper says you have a way to beat Bill."

The older man nodded. "Yes, I-I do. Now, does anyone have a pen, pencil, anything? …Ah ha!" Ford picked up a can of spray paint that one of the townspeople dropped. "Perfect!" They all watched as he began painting something on the floor.

When he finished, they all stood around a zodiac: a picture of Bill in the center and symbols in the spaces around him. "A zodiac?" Aqua looked at the symbols around Bill. "These aren't traditional zodiac symbols. That must be part of the magic…"

"It's a prophecy…" Ford knelt down to the picture. "Many years ago, I found ten symbols in a cave. Some I recognized then, some I only recognize now. The native people of Gravity Falls prophesied that these symbols, along with a Keyblade held by a one who has ancient blood, could vanquish Bill. With Bill defeated, his weirdness could be reversed and the town could be saved. This whole time I thought it was just superstition, especially since I'd never heard of or seen a Keyblade before, but seeing you all here now, I finally understand that it's destiny!" He began looking at the symbols and figuring who went where. "Dipper: the pine tree. Mabel: the shooting star…"

Soos stepped onto the question mark symbol, which matched the question mark on his shirt. Mickey noticed the symbol that looked like his silhouette. "I think this one's for me."

"The 'Tent of Telepathy' sign." Dipper pointed at a star. "That must be Gideon." Gideon stepped onto his spot.

"I know where I go." Kairi stepped onto the Paopu fruit symbol.

Ford stepped onto the hand with six fingers. "Hold hands everyone! This is a mystical human energy circuit."

Wendy stepped into the symbol of a bag of ice and McGucket stepped onto the spectacle symbol. Ford nodded. "Now all we need is the Keybearer with ancient blood…"

"Yeah, we don't know who that would be."

Sora's Keyblade appeared suddenly, the tip glowing as it pulled Sora towards the circle. "Hey! What's this Keyblade doing!?" It dragged him into the middle of the circle; he, the zodiac, and all those on it holding hands began to glow. "Whoa!"

"Wonderful! Now, the energy will transfer into your blade. All you have to do is hit Bill with it."

"Great!"

The glow around them intensified. "I think it's working!"

"Yes! This is it!" the older man laughed. "The rest of you, get out." Everyone, save the off-worlders, ran for the exit. Once they left, Ford looked around. "We just need one more person…"

There stood Stan, off to the side, looking away. "Uh, Stan! Get in there!"

"You realize this is a bunch of hogwash right?" Stan grunted angrily. "You really think caveman graffiti is gonna stop that monster?"

"DANG IT OL' MAN! NOW'S NOT THE TIME!"

"COME ON!"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

"STAN! IF YOU DON'T DO THIS BILL WILL WIN!"

The man turned on them, "Whoa, hey! I'm not the enemy here, people. Don't forget who literally created the end of the world." His eyes narrowed at Ford.

"I'm sorry, Stanly, I know. Just help me fix it, please."

Stan let out a huff. "Fine! Just do one thing… say 'thank you'."

"What?"

"I spent 30 years trying to bring you back into this dimension, and you still haven't thanked me! If you want me to hold your hand, say 'thank you'!"

Ford nodded. "Fine. Thank you."

"Ah, see," the other man took his brother's hand. "Between me and him, I'm not always the bad twin."

"Between 'him and me'… grammar, Stanly."

"I'll 'grammar, Stanly' you, you stuck up…!" Stan let go and the magical circuit broke as the two men began to fight.

Everyone rushed to stop the fighting when a shadow fell over them. Bill floated up to the entrance, the destroyed remains of the Mystery Shack behind him. "Oh no, it's Bill… Right? Isn't that what you're all thinking?" The triangle looked over them with his single eye. "Hey Gideon, why aren't you dancing? Chop, chop, huh." He laughed. "Oh, this is just too perfect! Didn't you brainiacs know that the zodiac doesn't work if you don't all hold hands? And what's better, you've brought every threat to my power together in one easy to destroy circle!" With one swing of his arms, the zodiac burst into flames.

Everyone jumped back, the Keybearers summoning their weapons. Red arms of energy snaked across the floor, tying up Ford and Stan as Bill summoned monstrous Heartless to keep Sora and his friends busy. The Heartless came hard and fast, so they could not pay attention to what was going on behind them, only that there was yelling, grunting, a flash of bright red light, and then quiet.

In the chaos, Riku caught sight of the other zodiac members, save Dipper, Mabel, Stan, and Ford. Bill had turned them into tapestries on the walls. Now, a triangular cage rose up around the two kids. "Kairi! Get to Bill!"

"Got it!" The girl flipped over the Heartless and ran at the demon. As he turned around to address the captive Dipper and Mabel, the princess drove her Keyblade into Bill's eye.

"AH! I just regenerated that eye!" The rest of the group managed to defeat the Heartless.

Sora ran over, breaking Dipper and Mabel out. "Run, we'll fight Bill!"

"But…"

"Go!" The twins ran as Bill turned on the Keybearers.

"Your kind have always been a problem!" The demon snarled. "I'm going to slaughter you all!"

Sora's Keyblade began to glow and he felt as if a second pair of hands held his Keyblade. "We'll stop you, Bill!"

"His power is with you…" the triangle held up his arms. "I'LL NEVER BE SEALED AWAY AGAIN!" Fire rose up around the Keybearers, constricting them. The true power of this being set in and fear gripped their hearts(4). "I'LL TURN YOUR BONES TO PASTE! I'LL HANG YOUR CORPSES ON MY WALLS! WHEN I GET OFF THIS WORLD, I'LL FIND EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE YOU LOVE AND REDUCE IT TO ASHES! FIRST, YOU WILL ALL SUFFER! YOU WILL BEG FOR DEATH!"

"YOU WILL NOT HURT THEM!" Eight voices cried out as a brilliant light surrounded the Keyblade wielders.

"What's going on!?"

A soothing, female voice spoke from the light. "Do not worry, Bill will fall, but that is not for you to do. Keyblade wielders had their time in that world, now it is time for those who live there to stand on their own."

The light faded away and they found themselves standing in the gummi ship. "What… the heck…?"

"Aqua, what was that?"

"Do you really think I know, Ven?"

Mickey held up his hand. "Whatever just happened, we need to get back."

"We can't," Goofy shook his head. "The ship is far away from Gravity Falls…"

Sora crossed his arms, "Someone saved us from Bill… but who?"

"I don't know, but did you guys feel a hand on your shoulder when that happened?" Ven shuddered. "I did, and I looked but there wasn't anyone there."

"Something strange happened, but what can we do about it? We're here, and that light is totally gone…"

Aqua sat down, looking around at the entire group. "Well, we do what we can. I have this feeling in my heart that we can trust those voices; if that's the case, Gravity Falls will be just fine. We just need to keep going on our task and see what happens."

"Aqua's right. If we can't get back to Gravity Falls in time to help, we just need to keep going."

Sora moved across the ship to the cockpit. "I'll take over then. You guys rest up."

"Sounds good." As the others left, Kairi looked over at Sora; he grinned and winked at her. When they left, Sora turned the ship towards Radiant Garden.

On Radiant Garden, Ansem pottered about his office and lab, with Even and Ienzo nearby. His computer dinged, catching their attention. "Lord Ansem."

"Ah, Tron, what is it?"

"I have finished sorting through the old records like you asked."

"Very good. And?"

The computer program didn't speak, but another voice piped up, the voice of Tron's new backup program: Nightshade(5). "All of the files from before Xehanort took over have been corrupted. They are virtually unreachable and un-savable, except for one…"

"Oh?" Even walked over to the computer. "What file?"

"A single clip of security camera footage… from the night the world fell. The images come out clear, but we will need time to repair the corrupted audio; however, there are some things that you can still hear."

"Then, may we see it?"

Tron spoke once more. "Ienzo, before we do, you should probably bring Dilan, Aeleus, and Sasuke here. They should see this as well…"

The three guards and three scientists stood before the computer terminal as the video appeared.

At first, there was nothing but static, then the image came through…

The audio was spotty, but they could see what was happening. Horror, pain, sorrow, and anger crossed their features as tears threatened to flow. (6)

"…And she was so beautiful too…"

"Xehan…"

"… little daughter will b…."

"… hated about you, Kan…"

"You shame your title a…"

"Darkness is not an ending, bu…"

"… won't let you lay…."

"How the mighty have fallen…"

When the video ended, Ansem stood in shock, his mind reeling to process what he saw as tears began to flow down his cheeks.

Dilan and Aeleus looked down. The stalwart expressions they always bore, melting away as they both wept. For once, they didn't hide their emotions, but let them flow like the tears the ran rivers down their faces.

Ienzo wrapped his arms around himself, sobbing quietly. Even's hands went up to his face as the cold, scientific shell he held up began to crack and the warm human underneath showed. He cried out, in pain and sorrow as emotion took over.

Sasuke trembled, though he did not know if it was out of sorrow or fury. He clutched his uniform as his hot tears trickled onto the white fabric. "N-no matter what… Xehanort will pay for this…!"

Have some feels and prepare for more later

I hope you guys enjoyed this one!

Please review!

If you are interested in following my other writings (fanfictions, short stories, and upcoming novel) and/or my art, you can look for me on Deviantart (KristenKHVerne), Tumblr (Kristen Verne), Facebook (Kristen Verne), or Twitter (Kristen Verne).

Footnotes:

(1) Trying to write that was just weird so I did my best.

(2) I have NO idea what a therapist would actually have her do.

(3) Anagram alert.

(4) Bill is nearly all-powerful, so he could kill them easily.

(5) She's still in my series too, but she won't have a big role in any arc.

(6) Some of you might recognize this scene from another story...

VA:

Nightshade- Cassandra Lee Morris (Leafa/Suguha Kirigaya, Noriko Paku, Enna Kros)

How to Read the Bible

Isn't that a weird title for a devo?

What I mean is, when we read the Bible, we were intended to be able to look at it and see ourselves and our lives in it and to be able to understand things in a sense that can help us and give us revelation about God and his glory.

I am not here to tell you that one translation of the Bible is better than another. What I am here to tell you is to not read the Bible like it was something that happened and is only applicable long ago. It's not just a book that was written for people back then, using words and phrases only they would get, it holds slang, idioms, and speech patterns that we recognize.

If you look into it, God is sarcastic, sassy, snarky, and has an incredible sense of humor.

I attend a Bible college and my friends and I talk about this stuff around the lunch table. We all agree that one should not read the Bible as if it is Shakespeare: all high and dramatic and just a big story that we might be able to mind some things in if we really dig. We should read it as if it was a modern conversation.

Look at scripture and imagine how people would react in daily situations. In a book that has been translated from another language, it is hard to get the slang and the emotion that is there.

By looking at the Bible in this way, you can see how God is too. You see that we are made in his image and we get a lot of things from him.

I will give you two examples of this.

The first comes from my favorite part of the Bible: Job 38-41.

If you know the story of Job, you know that he suffered and did not curse God, but he did complain and he basically said that he was suffering because he did something wrong, as if he knew God's intentions and God's mind. In Job 38, God speaks and uses a form of communication that we today are fluent in sarcasm.

Job 38:3-5 says, "'Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me… Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements- surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?"

I have read this passage many times and I never saw the sarcasm before… or the sarcasm that encompasses the rest of the chapter and the 3 that follow.

The second example takes place in Matthew 8. When we read about Jesus, sometimes we see him as a figure who spoke perfectly with all formality. We can forget that he was fully God and fully man at the same time.

In Matthew 8:23-27, we read a familiar story. "And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he (Jesus) was asleep. And they (disciples) went and woke him saying, 'Save us, Lord; we are perishing'. And he said to them, 'Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?' then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, 'What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?'"

Imagine this: there is a hurricane blowing and Jesus is sleeping in the boat; the disciples are freaking out and they wake him up. We read this now very formally, but if you're sleeping that hard, you don't wake up and start speaking formally. You're groggy.

In modern terms, Jesus probably woke up and was still half-asleep, and these disciples are freaking out. I mean, if the King of Kings is sleeping during this hurricane, I think you can assume that you're going to live through it. If it was really such a problem, he would've done something about it by now. Not to mention they just watched him heal a bunch of people, and now they're asking, "who is this guy". I could imagine Jesus rolling his eyes at them

Sometimes we jump over some of the most natural parts of the Bible. We read it like it's a book that doesn't appeal to today, but looking closer, we see how real it is to today.

These writers, save a few, were generally uneducated and very real about their experiences and they wrote in what they were comfortable with.

So, when you read the Bible, look at what's really happening and you can see how little has changed in the time since this book was written.