Ok, so before I even try to explain this chapter, I have to admit that I almost completely messed up on this story by deleting this chapter completely. I got a new computer and it didn't upload anything I had from my last computer. Luckily I had this on a USB and that saved me, because it would have taken such a long time to do this chapter again. I am excited to announce that it didn't happen though and now you guys and gals can read this chapter!

Have fun with it!

Edd stuck his wand out at the training dummy a few yards in-front of him. Smirking slightly at the scary looking face poorly drawn on it that was supposed to give them more of an incentive to hit it. He felt the magic travel throughout him and he braced himself.

"Fire!" He shouted and the fireball left his want and struck the log straight on. Just a little higher than he had wanted but he felt like he had trained enough, he had shot about ten of the fireballs and was only a little tired.

He felt like he could still do one or two more thunderbolts which meant there was progress. He looked over at Mulan as she swung her sword against another soldiers and noticed how fluid she was and how well she had progressed as they continued to train. He would even go to say that she was one of the best soldiers there, and she was the one keeping the biggest secret. She was strong, stronger than Shang or any of the other soldiers gave her credit for, sure she had been shaky in the beginning but so had he and yet he was being praised for it. She ducked under the wooden sword and swept her leg under his, knocking him on the ground and standing up to pin him with her sword, the tip of it against his chest. He moved his wand in his hand again, the weight not matching his liking. It wasn't like it felt foreign against his palm, it just didn't feel right. Like he had moved past it somehow and it was holding him back, the reach on it wasn't all that good and aiming with it was rough now. He loved his wand, it had protected him from so many heartless and beasts a like, but he wasn't getting his all from it. He knew that, but couldn't quite place the feeling. He let it disappear and walked over to where Mulan was stretching, she gave him a nod and a quick smile before she went back to focusing on stretching her leg. He stretched with her and looked over at the base of the mountain they were going to climb the next day and gulped. He didn't want to do it, but then again it seemed as if it were finally time to put everything he learned to the test. He was ready, he just didn't really want to be. He could feel the darkness pulse from the mountain and he knew there was a very strong enemy ahead in the Hun. He hoped that Mulan stayed by his side, at least for now he could trust her skill and her willingness to become stronger, it was just like him. The desire to continue getting better for the people around him, for the soldiers that stood beside him and the friends that waited for him at home.

Home.

That was what kept him training, made him practice hand to hand combat even when it seemed impossible to keep going. The thought of going home with his friends was what made him stronger. The heartless were in the way of this dream, they were the linchpin in it that he was cursed with the responsibility of exterminating. The soldiers would look up to him, clap for him whenever he walked by, it was almost like he had become a source of hope when in reality it was Mulan who had been their true savior. She was the one working harder then all of them just to prove that she was just as good, even if they didn't know. While he was thinking Mulan had already began training again and He watched her take down one of the soldiers with ease and look back over at him with a smile. Walking over to him with a towel around her neck, her stride was one that was more masculine after he showed her how Eddy would walk. He of course dimmed it down so that everyone wouldn't hate how cocky she looked.

"Shang is telling us that we will go on the mountain top tomorrow." Mulan sat down next to him, he noticed how her finger lightly tapped her knee. She was definitely nervous. "I'm almost certain the Hun and his army are up there."

Edd nodded, trying to consider how he should tell her this information. "I can sense a lot of darkness from that area. If it's not the Hun then there must be a strong heartless residing there." He didn't want to sound grim, but he felt as if Mulan should know what they were getting themselves into. He also wanted her to be more prepared.

She nodded, almost as if she herself expected it as well. "Have you told Shang about what we might find there?"

"Not yet, I don't really know what this feeling is. This sense is new to me and I don't want to give him false information." He had considered telling him a while ago, now that Mulan had said it he was mulling it over again.

She looked over at him with almost innocent eyes, the kind that Ed used to give him. "We trust you here Edd, if you have any information we would hope you would share it with us."

He blushed, this trust that they had for him, he didn't feel like he merited it. People like Mulan were fighting beside him and he was the one that they trusted. He nodded, he thought of a way to approach Shang and got up slowly. "Ok, but I want you to come with me Ping." He wanted to make sure he spoke a little louder so some of the people around them could hear him.

"Why would you need me to speak with Shang?" He noticed how surprised she looked, what he didn't see was the blush.

He shrugged, still standing in-front of her. "I'm going to need you for this kind of conversation."

Without a word she agreed and stood up, walking with him into Shangs tent. The first thing both of them noticed was that he was shirtless, he had also just gotten done training like Mulan. "Hello Edd, Ping." He nodded at both of them. They bowed at his acknowledgment. "What is it that you want?"

Edd sat down on the floor of the tent, Mulan copied him, mirroring the way he folded his legs. "Ping and I have our suspicions of what the Mountain holds." He noticed Mulan jolt at the mention that Edd gave her.

Shang perked up at that statement. "What is it that you think?" They had his attention now, there was no way Mulan could speak about how this wasn't her idea.

"We've been discussing that either the Hun is in the mountains, or one of those monsters that we've been fighting from before. Only of greater strength than them."

Shang looked a lot more surprised than Mulan had before. "I expected only the Hun to be there, do you think he has an alliance with those monsters?"

Edd shrugged. "I can't say." He was frustrated, even with all this new found power he still couldn't be of absolute help.

Mulan stepped in then. "W-well seeing as all these monsters have only come i-in our path I think he might be." She spoke quickly, almost so fast that neither of them understood it. Her eyes shifted from his body multiple times.

Shang stared at her in thought for a while and she started to fidget. "Ok, that sounds right, good job Edd, Ping. I'll prepare the men for the enemies tomorrow."

They both bowed again at Shang and left the tent. As they walked away Mulan lightly punched his arm, not out of anger, but embarrassment at being acknowledged. He had to admit it kind of hurt but they both had smiles on their faces.

They slept in different tents but Edd's was right next to Mulans, while she was changing (he guessed) he laid on his straw mattress. It was itchy, un-kept, and dirty, but if this was the worst thing he would have to go through to save his friends, he could withstand it for another day…he hoped. He slowly went back to sleep, thinking about a certain blonde haired girl that he wanted to be next to him.

He awoke to marching outside of his tent and blinked back the sun before he decided to roll over and wake up. His tent was opened by Yao and he squinted through the light.

"Rise and shine pretty boy, time to kick some Hun hiney!" He looked more excited and awake than Edd ever thought he had.

He grumbled sleepily, he was having such a nice dream of Nazz too. He wasn't going to mope though, he needed to be strong for her. He cleaned himself up and went through his morning routine in his tent before he walked outside to see all the soldiers armed and ready to go. They all smiled and waved to Edd, he could feel their hopes rise and he didn't know if he should give them that feeling.

"Edd, it's nice to see you've finally gotten up." Mulan joked, a small smile on her face.

"I apologize, I was…distracted by a dream." He really didn't know how else to say that and decided honesty would be better.

She lifted her hand and blocked her mouth when she laughed so no one would hear it. Edd could only smile at how honestly cute that was, it kind of reminded him of something Nazz would do.

She was really stuck on his mind recently, as she should be but it was almost to the point where he could almost feel her presence around him. He was just missing her that had to be it.

Shang rode up to them on horseback and nodded, they returned the gesture. "We leave now, the enemy will be on the mountain top by the time we get there." He sounded sure and Edd and Mulan both got in their places as quickly as they could.

The march was brutal, especially through the snow, it was cold and breathing was constantly getting harder. Edd's lungs constantly felt like they were going to explode but he also didn't feel as if he was getting enough air. The snow was beating down on all of the soldiers as well and they weathered the storm by sinking their shoulders and willing themselves to continue.

This went on for longer than Edd would have ever wanted it to but when they were able to finally get to the top of the mountain the Hun had yet to show up and they didn't know his position. They walked around the mountain and shielded themselves with large rocks. The men to Edd's right shook with fear as they walked, whispering about how they were afraid of what was coming, every now and again they would peak over to him and nod in agreement over something. He shifted uncomfortably, he was just as scared as they were if not more so and here they were putting some kind of hope in him like he could do something.

All of a sudden a cannon set off in the cart that Mulan was leading and it exploded into the sky with a thunderous boom. Edd, who was right by the cart looked inside with Mulan to see Mushu and the lucky cricket staring at them with charred faces, Mushu pointed to the cricket to signify it was his fault. Shang rode over with a scowl on his face.

"You just gave away our position, now we..." His sentence was cut short when an arrow went into his shoulder pad armor, just missing his skin and arrows rained down from the mountain.

The Hun had arrived. The men ran away from the constant arrows that stuck into the snow right next to them, Edd held his arm over his head and continued running with Mulan right beside him, dragging the horse and the cart. They were able to find cover in a large rock formation but the Huns men charged towards them in one giant wave. Edd shook with terror, how were they supposed to stop all those people with such limited supplies and man power.

Mulan stood beside him and put her hand on his shoulder, she wasn't looking at him but at the horse and the man that sat atop it above them on the mountain. He couldn't feel her shake, couldn't see fear in her eyes, just someone who was fighting for her father and she let that guide her. He stopped shifting and focused on the light that was spreading through him. Took long and deep breaths to calm himself, his hand's tingled and he didn't know why, but didn't care.

Shang yelled from behind them and swept his sword in one commanding motion. "Attack!"

Edd waited with Mulan and Shang as they watched the Hun storm forward on his horse. They seemed to wait for certain death and Shang looked at Yao, who had one of the few cannons in his arm, he glanced at Edd and Mulan, almost defeated.

"Yao, aim the cannon at the Hun…" He wasn't looking at the boy and the woman that stood next to him and their looks of soul crushing surprise.

Edd looked at the sudden doom that approached them and Mulan looked from her sword to the cannon. Without a word she pushed Yao away with her hip and took the cannon with both arms, charging forward into the fray of soldiers that were about to collide.

"P-ping no!" Edd screamed, running after her. He didn't summon his wand, he didn't want its uneven weight to throw his footing off.

The Hun was going to get to her first, he was going to kill Mulan if he didn't do something. He stuck his arm in-front of him and watched as his weapon flashed in-front of him, it wasn't his wand but he couldn't worry about that now.

With all his might he screamed out and let the magic flow though his arm and into his blade. "FIRE!"

He missed.

Ed took down another heartless and threw his shield at the door, breaking it open and rushing into the room. He grabbed his shield and hit another couple of heartless across the room, the black smoke was the last sign of a struggle when he was done. Well, that and the damage across the candy cane themed room. He frantically searched the room until he found a piece of paper.

HAHA, Santa's not here either!

He pouted and blinked back tears. He heard the sound of a scuffle outside and dropped the sheet. Running back into the soft snow to see Jack battling multiple heartless, they were bigger than the smaller black ones but were similar looking. Ed was about to help but Jack quickly took care of them, moving his body around in a flexible, fluid motion that impressed Ed.

He ran forward, meeting up with his friend. "Are you ok? Did you find anything?" Both of them had gone from house to house trying to find where Santa had been taken. As of right now, since neither of them knew where Santa was they had to go to each individual factory, or house. This procedure had taken a pretty long time. This was about the third time they had met up and no information had been shared.

Jack looked at him, a sad look in his sockets. "I wasn't able to find him, but I did find what I assume is an elf." It wasn't until then that he noticed the person behind his leg.

It was a small elf, a young one at that, or at least what Ed could assume. "He hasn't said anything to me. I think I scare him." He scratched his scalp, Ed wondered if he could actually feel that.

Ed leaned down on his knee, the Elf was shaking and looking from Ed to Jack. Like both were skeletons. "Hey little buddy." Ed spoke to him quietly, not really knowing what to do. "We're not gonna hurt you, I'm actually an elf you see." He pointed to the elf ears he had gotten from Santa, he always kept them in his jacket and he displayed them proudly to his brethren.

After seeing his ears, he looked up with hope and smiled. "You're such a big elf!"

Ed bashfully waved his hand. "Oh shucks, you're gonna make me blush."

"Are you looking for Santa?" The elf asked, looking from Ed to Jack again. "I saw them take him away…" There was a fear in his eyes that made Ed nervous.

Ed didn't want to talk about the situation but knew he had to. "What's your name? I'm Ed and this is Jack." He pointed with his thumb behind to Jack, who was a good four feet away, trying to make his distance.

"I'm Chris." He was less jittery and wasn't looking over Ed's shoulder as much. "They were monsters…like the guy behind you…" He whispered the last part to Ed, leaning in tentatively.

Ed looked over at Jack, who waved at him. "Jack is a great skeleton, he is the reason why I got so far to help!" Ed smiled, patting Chris on the shoulder. "Jack is our friend, he is going to help us save Santa." He didn't know what the elf saw but he could tell that he was comforted.

"Do you know were Santa is?" Jack was behind Ed now, still standing though.

The elf's assured face went to one of concern. "The monsters, they took Santa away and said that they were going to do something to him with the heartless." He looked scared, like he was remembering all of it as it happened. "Santa screamed, they said they were going to take him to the gift packing factory."

Ed clenched his fist, he would need to fight his way through. He knew that, but he didn't want to, all he wanted to do was see Santa. To feel free in traveling the worlds, and here he was, having to fight to save someone. He wanted to travel, he wanted to have fun, but he was a warrior who just wanted to play.

He just wanted to get lost without all the heartless.

"Can you take us there please?" Because even if the situation was dire, he still had to remember his manors.

He nodded, and started shuffling over towards the right. "It's over in this direction!" Even though he was probably running as fast as he could, it took Ed and Jack a light jog to keep up with him.

Ed's shield felt a lot heavier all of a sudden, almost like it was his first time holding it again, it just felt off so he made it disappear and rolled his shoulder a couple of times to shake the stiffness off. They got to the factory after a while, it didn't look all that fancy at all and there weren't that many flashing Christmas lights.

"Here's the present storage factory." The elf commentated, both Ed and Jack nodded like it was important information. "There's a window right over here that leads us to where Santa is." He looked behind him like he was making sure Ed and Jack were still there.

Ed smiled at him and gave him a thumbs up for confidence, something that Eddy would do for him. It seemed to help the elf because he nodded and opened the window for them. They somehow were all able to sneak inside without making that much noise, there was plenty of lighting in the facility and they were able to carefully navigate themselves to a basement door. Right in the middle of the room was Santa, his head down with bruises on his face. Ed jumped into the room without thinking and ran towards Santa with Jack and the elf right behind him.

"Santa are you ok, what did they do to you?!" He was already shaking with anger, they had hurt Santa.

He looked up at Ed with jolly eyes that were cast in sadness. "Oh Ed, it's so great to see you…" Even though he was injured he still found a way to smile.

From behind him he heard something scurry and he turned around. In-front of him were the three children from before, they each looked at him through their masks and even though he couldn't see it, he knew they were smiling.

"Looks like you finally found him!" Lock chided, jumping down from a box.

Ed could feel the elf hugging his leg for protection and he promised himself that he would protect them.

"But a little too late, we still need him for Maleficent." Shock started walking to the other side of Lock with a knife in her hand.

Jack crouched down, looking from side to side and getting ready for the fight. He didn't know who Maleficent was but he would ask after they won.

"So now you gotta die!" Barrel squealed with delight, they were trying to corner them.

Ed stomped his foot down and stared each of the children down. "You are not going to hurt my friends!" He held his arm out and summoned his shield, a blinding flash that made him close his eyes. This wasn't his shield, it felt…different.

The kid's took the chance and jumped forward, the killing intent almost suffocating.

Eddy slowly tiptoed through the rocks following Jack. Will was behind him and each of their swords were drawn. Eddy noticed that his blade was even a darker black now, it wasn't just the color but the weight of it was weird to him now. It no longer was as light as it used to be, it was almost like it wasn't his sword anymore. It still would appear whenever he called on it though so he wanted to stick with it if it stayed loyal with him.

They walked for what seemed like forever, no one saying anything as to not draw attention. After a while of aimlessly following Sparrow they came across an opening where the moon shone in. They were at the other side of the cave now and it was later at night. Jack held the compass out into the light and looked around the area, mumbling to himself.

"Looks like we've run right into a jolly'ol conundrum." Jack looked around at something Eddy couldn't see. His eyes were still adjusting to the light of the outside.

A gun shot just missed Eddy's head and he rolled out of the way to avoid another bullet. They were being ambushed by pirates. He saw a couple of them swing down from the rocks above, aiming their guns at them and firing. Eddy ran back into the cave with Will to avoid the gunfire while Jack hid behind a large rock in the ground. He was going to be surrounded in a matter of seconds and neither of the men in the cave had a long range weapon. Well, not a tradition one at least. Eddy readied his sword and aimed at the men heading towards him.

He swept his sword in multiple directions, focusing his power into his blade and releasing it all at once. What came out of his sword didn't surprised him, long arching cuts through the air that launched themselves at the enemies, it was the color that did, they were black. The long jagged slashes hit their mark and the men went flying backwards, giving Jack enough time to run over to them back in the cave.

He waited there for a while, his stance unchanged and unmoving. The shadows still rose from his hands in soft waves, was he losing himself? Was the darkness taking over?

"Eddy we have to move!" Will pulled his arm and the darkness dissipated from his hands.

He looked off towards the pirates and heartless mounting up against them. He held his sword tighter against him, there were too many, but they couldn't turn back now, they needed that gun and he needed to get back to finding his brother.

He tore his arm from Will's grasp. "I aint running from some pirate pigeons!" He let those words carry him as he sprinted towards them, sword held high. He released a couple more darkness slashes, knocking more of the men over.

One raised his sword to cut through him but he slid under the man's legs, jumping up and slashing him from behind, the moon shone through this area so the man fell forward with a thud.

Out for the count.

Eddy held his sword in-front of him, staring each man down with calculated eyes. Aladdin had taught him how to fight groups well, dodge and counter, rinse and repeat, be quicker than they were, and look good doing it. He added that last part himself.

The pirates were cautious to walk into the moonlight where he was standing, but the heartless bunched up to attack him. He waited for their approach, getting into a proper stance, he took a deep breath and felt the chilling darkness creep up his arms and into his blade. He could feel it, the darkness was slowly moving up to his heart in waves, he just needed to fight it off for a little longer until this fight was over.

Will grabbed his shoulder, which tore Eddy's gaze from the heartless. He forgot that he was showing this to his new friends and he remembered the look Aladdin gave him before he left.

Like he was a monster.

The darkness disappeared again and Will smiled at him. "Did you just refer to pirates as pigeons?"

It reminded him of something Edd would have said and his heart beat quicker, he felt the warmth spread through his body. "Just them, didn't mean all pirates in general."

"Might want to pay a little attention to the monsters venturing out way." Jack sped past them and took on the group that was now only feet away.

Eddy quickly shifted his body and ran towards them, fighting side by side with Jack and Will. They held their ground well, when one lunged from the air Eddy quickly slashed it away, from his peripheral he saw one leap towards his chest and Will batted it away with a smooth sword stroke. Eddy spun past Jack, getting to one knee and slashing a group that had charged forward, Jack leaped over him and knocked a couple backwards.

They were both smiling, this was a team worth fighting for alright.

Slowly they began beating the ranks of heartless and pirates until they were clear of them entirely and each was panting deeply. Eddy leaned against a rock pillar and looked around, all he could see was a beach and the moon shining across the sea. No gun in sight and no other areas to look for.

"You sure that compass is right, I don't see anything that looks like a gun here." He looked skeptically at Jack, who was scanning the area and pulling his compass out of his pocket.

He mumbled something underneath his breath and continued to walk without saying anything to Eddy or Will. Eddy let his sword disappear glaring at the back of Jacks head for not telling him anything, Will pat him on the back as a congratulations for a good fight and he confidently smiled to himself. Eddy followed with a little more pep in his step, feeling better about what they were doing now that his ego had been petted, even if it was dumb to just try and find a gun. They walked for some time before Eddy started to feel a presence, something that called to him. He could feel it pulse and boil his blood, his breathing sped up and he wanted to say something, but he was frozen in place, all he could hear was his heart banging in his ear and his breath between each beat.

"Eddy are you alright?" Will was walking towards him until he saw something appear from a dark portal in-front of them.

A cloud slowly cast itself over the moon and in the darkness they could only see a silhouette of the creature. It didn't say anything, just looked from side to side like it was judging each of them. Jack was the first to speak in this stare down.

"Compass says he has my gun, kill it, kill whatever it is!"

As if Jacks, words woke it up, the monster moved quickly. Eddy could hear the swords swinging through the air with loud whooshes, he ducked down just as one flew by his head then jumped backwards, rolling on his back as another sword dug deep in the sand. The moon finally shone through the cloud and Eddy got a full view of the heartless.

It was a humanoid kind with wide clawed arms that held two long swords. It had a bandana on its head right above its glowing eyes, it was taller than any of the boys there and looked more imposing than any heartless Eddy had seen.

Except one maybe.

Eddy stared down the heartless and held his hand to the side, he could feel the darkness pool in his palm but he fought it down, fought it with the light that still pumped through his heart. That heartless reminded him too much of the one that had separated him from everything he loved. It reminded him of all the heartless that had taken his brother and his friends from him.

"You aint taking anymore from me!" He screamed and he could feel his weapon appear in his hand with a blinding light, one that had never appeared before when his sword came.

It wasn't his sword at all.

Sora sat down in the train with Donald and Goofy, after such a long day his body was exhausted and spent but it was nothing compared to the uncertainty that clouded his mind. How long had he been in that pod? And what was that new place he had woken up in? Way too many questions that he hoped Yen Sid could answer. Donald had been positive that the magician could help them remember all of the lost memories they each had.

Someone had taken them, they had trapped him and left him there until he woke up. His clothes clung tightly to him and he wondered how long he had been asleep, his arms gangly hung out of his sleeves, Goofy had already made fun of him for this and even he could smile at It, he did look ridiculous. Sora looked over at Donald who looked happier than he had seen him before, getting the chance to meet his old master must have been exciting for him. Sora looked back in-front of him at the passing scenery and his heart ached, the pain echoed throughout his body and he could feel himself shake. Leaving was hurting him, absolutely killing him but he didn't know why, he had no connections to that place, didn't know anyone there.

Why was this so sad?

"Sora why are you crying?" Donald was the first to notice the tear streaming down his cheek, even before Sora.

Shocked, the boy reached up and wiped the tear which surprised him was actually there. He stared at his moist hand and shook his head slowly.

"I-I don't know…"

Donald and Goofy reached over his shoulders and held him tightly.

"It's ok, we'll visit there again and you can make more friends there." Donald looked genuinely hopeful when he said that.

"Ya, we can go there after we find Riku and Kairi!" Goofy pat his back again to emphasize what he was saying and Sora smiled.

Another tear rolled down his cheek but he kept smiling anyways.

He leaned against Goofy who was only a little bigger than him now and slowly feel asleep. When he dreamed he saw a couple of keyblades that he had never seen before, but he could definitely see the light that surrounded them.

It's done, and now back to school and other stuff! This will be fun I guess. :P Please review it really helps out!