A/N: Enjoy that cliffhanger? I hope so, otherwise my ploy to get all of you to excited for a new chapter failed. 10 points if you guessed who the unlucky person in front of Kairi was, even if it was slightly obvious.

Also, I read through all of the chapters so far, and realised how awful I am at noticing wording errors etc., so if somebody wants to proof-read future chapters and spot them all with me, let me know :)

Chapter 10

Kairi lunged forward, keyblade in hand, so fast the it barely had time to register in the onlookers minds. All except for one of them.

Quick as lightning, Sora had placed himself directly in front of the offender. His arms spread wide, head lowered so that his eyes were covered by his hair.

Time slowed almost to a halt.

Kairi's eyes widened in shock, horrified as she felt her powerful blow connect with Sora's ribs.

He grunted slightly, and uttered just a single sentence.

"No... Kairi... You can't... Hurt him..."

"SORA!" Kairi yelled. Her eyes flicking between him and her hated. Sora slouched a little, confident that she would agree to his request.

"Kairi, he isn't that guy any more. He saved my life, gave up his own to do it. I wouldn't be here without him" He stated. He looked into her eyes. They registered shock, and a little awe, but no longer the pure hatred they had shown mere seconds beforehand.

Kairi's mind whirled and knotted and clouded. Was it true? He had saved Sora, and by extension her and Riku? She made her decision. Sora was her guardian. Her protector from all things bad. If he trusted him, then so could she.

Before he even knew it, the girl who had just tried to attack him was now firmly wrapped around him waist, clinging tightly to his red waistcoat.

"Thank you... Axel" Kairi murmured gently.

The tall redhead was confused. He had never really been hugged before. It was just one of those things that never happened. He gingerly put one hand behind his head in a very Sora-like manner, resting the other across her back.

"I'm sorry for what I did to you Kairi. But, one thing;" He pulled away from her hug, and looked her in the eyes.

"Its Lea now" He grinned, pulling his signature move. "Got it memorised?"

The group giggled at him, causing him to pull a confused look, questioning them as to what they were laughing at. Getting no reply, he simply sat back at the table to continue breakfast.

"So Lea, how are you here? I saw you die back on the World That Never Was!" Sora questioned.

"You know, I'm not completely sure myself. When I was fading away, I could feel something pulling at me. When I was gone, I appeared in this weird room.

It was kinda like Castle Oblivion, big white walls, lit up by torches that weren't there. I could see something off in the distance, I couldn't make it out at first, but then I realised. It was Kingdom Hearts. Before I knew it, it dragged me closer to it. I could see it clearly now. Then it spoke. Or at least, I think it did. It said;

'Friend and ally of the chosen; your fates have been interwoven'

And the next thing I know, I appear here, right next to the Cornerstone of Light. With this;"

As he finished the speech, he flicked out his arm, and in his hand materialised one of his infamous chakrams. Out of the end of the handle slithered a stream of flame, brilliant red, enough to light the entire room. It snaked its way outwards for a short while, before bending 90 degrees and forming a symbol, similar to how cartoonists draw a ball of fire. The fire began to crystallise, and suddenly the whole thing flashed a bright light.

It was a keyblade.

Everybody but Mickey and Minnie stared in shock. The rest of breakfast was eaten in silence. When it was over, Lea and Roxas went to the courtyard to catch up, while the others were shepherded by Mickey to the library closest to the throne room.

"This new threat is gonna be a lot tougher than what were used to" The others nodded in agreement. "So, desperate times call for desperate measures."

Mickey threw open the doors, revealing a surprisingly high-tech looking war room of sorts. Colourful machinery covered the walls, and a large circular pedestal had been placed in the middle of the room. Bright screens flashed with maps, databases, communications set-ups, and all manner of useful pieces of information, blinking red and green lights indicating so many things that it was impossible to keep track of. The centre of the pedestal glowed brightly with a map of the Worlds.

The room echoed with a resounding "Whoa" as each of the friends stepped through the doors and took in the impressive sight.

"Well, hiya guys!" "Hey!"

Sora swung round to where the familiar voices had appeared from.

"Donald! Goofy!" Sora yelled with delight. He embraced his old companions tightly. He had missed them over the last few months. Sure, it was nice to not be yelled at by Donald, and not get into trouble for Goofy's laziness, but that was who they were; what made them, them.

"Donald and Goofy won't be joining you this time Sora" Mickey explained as the boy released his friends from the bone-crushing hug.

"What? Why not?" Sora asked disheartened.

"We're gonna help the king and Lea here, silly!" Donald explained to Sora's hurt looking face.

"Yeah, us, Chip and Dale will be in charge of all this equipment, and Mickey and Lea will be helping out any worlds in trouble! Hyuck!" Goofy strolled over to a machine and pressed a few buttons as Roxas and Lea walked in. The room darkened and the map got brighter. Sora could see small landmarks on each spherical blob, bringing back memories of each visited world.

"When the machines detects twilights on a world, this map will show us where it is. Then me and Lea can take the Gummi Ship to go help them out! You may not want to believe it Sora, but this time its bigger than you can handle alone" Mickey stated, becoming more forceful in the last sentence. He briefly looked at Sora worriedly, until a flashing red light caught his attention.

"Looks like something came up! Sora, Riku, Kairi, Namine, Roxas, you guys should go take care of it. We need you to try to figure out what is causing all these disturbances and who's behind them!" Mickey said as he walked past the group. He smiled at them all as they nodded and smiled in agreement.

"Looks like its in Halloween Town Sora!" Donald shouted from across the room.

Sora smiled. Halloween Town may have been creepy, but it was fun being dressed up like it was really Halloween. Plus it'd be fun to see what Riku and Kairi turned into, as well as Roxas and Namine. He saluted at Mickey, Donald and Goofy with a serious face, before turning around and opening up a big, square, pure white portal, and walking into it. His friends followed suit, quickly engulfed by the light as the doorway disappeared.

Mickey stood and stared at the blank space where the portal had just been, deep in thought.

"Gawrsch King Mickey, you sure left them without a lot of information there. Is everything ok?" Goofy spoke slowly, trying not to sound as though he was forcing the issue.

"I don't know Goofy. I just don't know."

He walked over to a console built into the side of the map-pedestal. Clicking a few buttons, he looked up at the map. The many worlds were replaced by just one. But something was wrong.

It wasn't complete. Parts were either missing, or simply shown as corrupted glitches.

And it was red.

Not the red of Halloween Town. A deep blood red. There was something about it that gave you the chills, and Mickey could swear that faces appeared in the sea of red, stretching through the velvet overlay.

If there was ever any doubt before, it was definitely extinguished now.

There was something very, VERY wrong.

And for the first time, the king wasn't sure it could be put right.

A/N: This chapter seems a little emptier than it should have been, i did go into a lot more detail where you'd expect, but i had to cut it down to keep it within my own chapter word-boundaries. I might update it sooner or later to fill it out.

Read and review PLEEEEAAAAASE! I love it when you do, and it encourages me to write better.
Until next time!
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