CHAPTER X

I Hope This Message Finds You Well

(NOTE)

Ah, the last few chapters are here. This one won't be very big, but it certainly will reveal a lot as far as the plot goes and where the characters are going from here on in, and maybe a little more about Yasuyo as well.

Enjoy!

(/NOTE)

"It's done." Calypso whispered to herself as she stared at her own magnificent creation. This is what it all was for; to get the life that she should have had that Charity did, and this was the first step to getting the life that she wanted, no, deserved. Placing the object in a drawer, surprised something so important could be so small, she stood up from her desk, surprised to see Vexen standing right behind her, his arms crossed.

"What is it?" she asked, a bit upset at the intrusion.

"Charity and the others arrived at the second to last world they need to destroy the darkness around The World that Never Was. Don't you think it would be wise to send Yasuyo in right about now?" Charity had looked up papers on Vexen. Surely, his temper had dropped and he was much more precise about his science. But was he accurate?

Taking the risk, Charity nodded. "Send him in. Where's their final destination?" she asked him.

"It's hard to be sure," he shook his head, "right now they are in a world called Jewel's Grove. Their final destination should be Destiny Islands." Author's Note: I do not own Jewel's Grove, Quince's hometown. This world, along with Quince and the newest Ocs to be introduced only for this chapter, belong to Igor Lollipop and her fanfiction, which I really suggest reading; the first one is The Two-Sided Heart, then read the sequel and the one she's working on. Huge recommendation.

"Jewels Grove?" asked Charity. She closed her eyes; why did that sound familiar? "A couple people have come from there."

Vexen nodded. "I'll let him be on his way."

xxxxx

"It's so beautiful here." Charity admitted, breathing in a huge breath of air. This world; Jewel's Grove, reminded her so much of Azure Daybreak that it made her upset; a beautiful, suburban home. Even the park they were currently standing across from looked familiar.

"Keyblade Wielders..." a girl's voice came from down the street. They all turned, to find three figures standing down the other side of the street. One of them was a girl with long, blond hair and black streaks in it, with some other odd colors mixed in. She was wearing intricate yet simple clothing, and looked a bit like Nessa in the face, but not quite enough. Much to the groups surprise, she was holding a Keyblade.

The other girl had medium-length brown hair and chocolate eyes. She was holding a long, blue and white staff with a crescent moon shape on the end. Her simple presence seemed so strong in magic that it almost reminded Sora of Donald. She wore a simple black t-shirt with a yellow undershirt that bared a hood in the back, and blue jeans.

The boy, however, had short, dark brown hair and brown-green eyes. He had a baby face, although much taller than the other two. The boy was wearing just a simple t-shirt and jeans. Author's Note: These are the characters that come from Igor's fanfiction. Since characters cross, I'm simply using these characters, nothing to do with the storyline in her fanfiction; or else things would be really screwed up. Heh.

"Who are you?" asked the blond girl, pointing her keyblade farther out. These people couldn't have been any older than them. Why did they seem so threatening.

"Your world's keyhole is unsealed." was all Charity said as she walked closer up to the girl. Mirroring her, the girl did the same, and they met face-to-face.

A look of pure confusion spread across the girl's face, "How can that be? We just restored this world." After that, she looked down, "Well, it happens, I guess." She glanced up from her overgrown bangs, "Where are you from?"

"A world called Azure Daybreak." Nessa replied to the girl. Getting a look of wariness, she clarified, "It's in the light realm. I'm Nessa, this is Charity, and these are Riku, Sora, Kairi, Broden, Naminé and Roxas." That was a mouthful. She had forgotten that there were so many people with them again.

The girl relaxed; she seemed to think that if they didn't care enough to give her their names that they couldn't be dangerous. "I'm Stefa, this is Nalani," she said, pointing to the girl, "and that's Ceron. You need to know where our keyhole is?"

"Hm." Nalani scowled a little bit. She obviously didn't like the look of Charity and the others. "She looks too much like me." Nalani complained to her friend. Charity couldn't help but to laugh at this; they had a similar personality as well.

"The keyhole," Ceron started, "is on this weird heart painting thing by her house. We'll take you, it's about a half an hour's walk."

"Mm." Charity nodded, "Thanks."

And with that, the group started leading them out of the subdivision. They talked here and there, but not all that much. They rounded the corner to go down a sidewalk close to a busy street; certainly the opposite of Azure Daybreak at that point. It seemed almost like a normal neighborhood.

Suddenly, everything stopped around them. The only one moving was Charity; everyone around her, the cars, the trees in mid-blow were completely stiff. "It's a Nobody..." Charity murmured after getting over the shock.

"Not quite." came a voice. Appearing on the scene was an odd looking boy; he could have almost been normal had he not been holding a keyblade. One hand was on his hip as he looked over at Charity. Completely ignoring her while she readied her keyblade, he simply walked up to her.

"Do you remember what you... found?" he asked her, sticking out his Keyblade. Charity responded only by holding out Savior of Balance.

"What are you talking about?" she asked. Without waiting for an answer, she continued, "I've had too long of a journey to deal with pathetic little cryptic messages. Fight me!" she shouted, attacking the boy with her keyblade.

Hit.

How did the keyblade hit immediately? Wasn't he a Nobody; how else did he make everything else, time, freeze around him?

"Have it your way, Charity." he responded. He certainly was a good fighter; less than five minutes into the battle, she was on her knees, gasping for breath. She had no physical injuries as she used potions like she changed clothes.

"Why did you stop time to do this?" she asked. Although, this question would suggest that she needed her friends to help her in a fight, which she didn't exactly enjoy admitting.

The boy raised his eyebrow. "So Calypso doesn't know that this ever happened. Because she's a Somebody now, she may have the powers of a Nobody, but not the senses."

Charity cocked her head to the side and managed to stand up. She lowered her keyblade and gave the boy a quizzical look.

"Words, although, can be repeated." he responded. As he approached her, Charity debated on whether or not she should back up; she didn't want to deal with fighting anybody so strong like that again. "Hold out your hand."

Regrettably, she held out her hand. The boy placed a neatly folded piece of paper in it, and closed the hand himself.

"What?" she asked.

Before she could ask any more, he put one finger to her lips, shushing her. "I can't stay here any longer. It will be obvious."

Before Charity could even figure out what was going on, everyone around her began moving again. Nessa walked into Charity, and ended up pushing her forward.

"Ow..." Nessa complained.

"S-sorry." Charity responded.

"What's wrong?" asked Nessa. Everyone stopped with them to listen, and Charity told them exactly what happened. At first, nobody believed her, but she showed them the note that he had given her. It read:

Charity,

You musn't under any circumstances let Calypso get to you. You have two more worlds that you need to seal, and then the darkness will be gone enough for you to go to The World that Never Was. I cannot write too much in fear of Calypso seeing this before I'm sent to go get you; but he is not your enemy. I repeat, he is not your enemy. Send him back to the darkness. Defeat Vexen, separate Calypso. I will be waiting at The Radiant Garden.

—Yatsuyo.

"Yatsuyo?" asked Stefa.

"We don't even know a Yatsuyo." Riku shook his head.

"We can't be worried about that right now, first we have to seal the keyhole." Charity decided, folding the note back up and sticking it in her pocket.

xxxxx

"Yatsuyo still isn't back." Vexen reminded Calypso.

"That's a good thing." Calypso started, "It means that he's destroying her as we speak." she smiled into nothing.

"Hm." Vexen only started, "You know that if they make it through this the first thing they're doing is coming this way; to The World That Never Was, and straight to your office."

When Calypso didn't answer, Vexen only elaborated, "And you have no Organization members to stop them from getting here but me."

"Do you want to join them?" hissed Calypso. Vexen dropped the idea; he knew Calypso when she had a temper.

"What do you plan to do in case they make it?" he asked her.

"I'll be in the place they least expect me to." she concluded, "because I have an idea that will force them to go through this last bit of darkness that will eat away at them just by trying to get here while I go finish preparations for something much greater."

"That something you still won't tell me about." Vexen raised an eyebrow.

"That exact something." Calypso stood up and faced her wall-sized radar. Staring at an empty place where a world should be, and not too far away, Destiny Islands. Darkness began to seep through her clenched fists. "Getting rid of the last visible world from sight will only force them through the last bit of darkness in the World that Never Was."

xxxxx

"You trained under Donald?" Sora asked Nalani in amazement.

Nalani nodded; "Donald from Disney Castle. He taught me everything there is to know about magic." she nodded.

"I wish I had Donald as a mentor. I had to learn from Merlin. Thankfully, he wasn't that crazy back then." he concluded with.

"I can teach you some spells that Donald taught me sometime." she told him.

Sora smiled, "That'd be great!"

"What a story," Charity said in amazement after hearing a shortened version of what Stefa had gone through, "Your world disappeared, too? That's what happened to Azure Daybreak."

"Your world was gone?" asked Stefa. "How?"

Everyone seemed to be getting along with these three just fine; it was almost too bad that chances were that they weren't going to see them ever again.

"Here we are." Ceron stopped at a tree in front of a set of duplexes.

Painted on the tree was one, purple heart that looked like it could have been painted by a three year old or a fast painting by a teenager; one that you could never tell who exactly had done it. Charity ran her hand down the bark.

"So familiar, and yet..." she sighed, and pulled out Savior of Balance.

Nalani seemed shocked at the sight of this. "This was the first keyblade to ever perform the light magic!" she said in awe.

Charity blushed, "It was nothing, really." Locking up the tree, they could feel the world secure beneath them. It had sure been an easy going day; all except for Yatsuyo. Charity couldn't get it out of her mind; who was this enigmatic boy? Why was he staying at Radiant Garden, and why was he on her side if he had been working for Calypso? But who exactly was he talking about in his letter when it said 'he is not your enemy'.

"Charity," Riku snapped her out of it, "we should go now. We have to get to Destiny Islands and seal the keyhole there."

Charity's heart dropped into her stomach; she completely forgot that they only had one more world to go before the darkness had completely disappeared from around The World that Never Was.

Roxas looked over at the group of two, "You know, maybe we'll see you again." he always acted quite odd about leaving friends, even just new ones. He knew what it was like to have friends for a long time and lose them so suddenly, as did Sada.

"Sure." Stefa smiled. They all bade them good-bye as they walked back to their Gummi Ship.

"Somehow," Sora said as he settled in the cockpit of the Gummi Ship, "I think we will see them again. Maybe someday."

Author's Note: Really short chapter, I know, I'm sorry, but I want to move things along. The next one will be short, too, but the two after that I promise will be a little more lengthy. If there are two, I'm still between what I want to do. See you next chapter. :DDDD