Sorry for the delay on this chapter. I still couldn't finish the Episode 1 chapter, so I'll come back to that later.

Chapter 12: Incident at the Foreign World Control Center: Part 1

Kaa hissed angrily as he slithered around in circles in his den. Maleficent had brought him here after she had discovered that Kairi had escaped him. Kaa still wasn't quite sure how she had found out; he often had the impression that she could read minds.

It wasn't that Kaa was unhappy about getting out of the jungle. After all, that place could get pretty boring after a while. Plus, Maleficent was bound to give him a mission soon, and that meant more humans to hypnotize.

"Though it isss too bad that that one little man-cub eluded me..." Kaa said to himself. "He would have been essspecccially tasssty..."

"Kaa! Maleficent wants to see you!"

Kaa sighed. It was Pete. Why did Maleficent let that oaf onboard anyway?

"What doesss ssshe want?" Kaa snapped, spinning around to look at him. Pete covered his eyes out of instinct. Kaa had already hypnotized him three times since he got here, once right in front of Maleficent. She had taken it more as entertainment than anything.

"Er... big top secret villain meeting," Pete said timidly, still covering his eyes. Kaa slithered to the door, giving a threatening hiss to Pete on the way out, who dropped dead away in fear.

Kaa worked his way through the seemingly endless halls of The Castle That Never Was on his way to the Hall of Empty Melodies, which Maleficent always used for meetings.

Once he got there, he slithered up the the poll he usually wrapped himself around so that he could get onto the table. The room, while once bright and stark white, was now dark and grimy, thanks to Maleficent's touch of Darkness.

Most of the other people at the table were hidden in the shadows. A few, however, were relatively exposed. Kaa was able to distinguish Hades, Lord of the Dead, Captain Hook of the Jolly Roger, and someone else that had been a regular at these meetings...

"Hello, Maleficent," he said. "You look wonderfully Dark today."

"Good day to you, Sephiroth," Maleficent replied from the head of the table. "I'm glad you could join us."

"Cloud had done a good job of disappearing," Sephiroth replied, his silver hair looking rather out of place in the dark room. "I would say he is hiding from me, but I know him too well. More likely he his hiding from his friends... and the Light."

"Well, it's down to business," Maleficent said happily.

"Hold up a sec, Maleficent," Hades interrupted. "I'm not jumping aboard another one of your whirlwind tours unless I know it's going to succeed." He frowned. "And that we aren't all 'disposable factors' in your plan."

"I'm with hot-head," said a young voice in the shadows. "You haven't exactly got the best track record, lady."

"Agreed," Kaa added.

"Here here," a wicked female voice came in from the darkness.

Several of the other people at the table made sounds of agreement. Only Sephiroth hadn't said anything, but that was probably just because the look on his face spoke for him.

"Enough," Maleficent said angrily, bringing silence. "I have called this meeting to lay out the plan to you in the most intricate of detail."

Suddenly a half-transparent image appeared on the table. It was the Shera, rocketing through space.

"Sora and his friends are on this ship," Maleficent started. "Including Princess Kairi."

Few at the table seemed excessively interested in this information, but one did sit up a bit more in his chair and say, "Kairi actually accompanied Sora?"

"Indeed, my fair Chairman," Maleficent replied. "As did her bodyguard, that damned Jacob."

Much more excitement circulated around the table at this. "Jacob? The kid who went after Noir?" "Not him, no!!" "Maleficent, if you told me he was with them, I wouldn't have even considered joining you!!"

"SILENCE!!!!" Maleficent screamed. Instantly there was quiet again. "You do know what Jacob stole when he went up against Noir, don't you?"

The people around the table shook their heads.

"A very powerful artifact called 'Bliss of Heart'. While a great weapon for the Light..." she paused. "It is also one of the greatest tools of Darkness in existence."

"Bliss of Heart, in short, can control the levels of Darkness and Light in someone's Heart."

There was uproar. "Control Light and Dark?!? We could get rid of those pesky Princesses!!" "That's like endless Heartless!!!" "Does that mean that it could turn someone like you into a good guy?!?"

It took a few minutes for the chatter to die down. When it did, Maleficent said, "I can't give you all the answers about this. However, I am sure you would like to ask the man who created the artifact... Noir."

A hush greater than could have possibly been achieved if everyone in the room had dropped dead was suddenly a reality. No one moved. No one spoke. The only sound was that of soft footsteps moving through the darkness towards the table. And suddenly, someone was stepping onto it.

The light revealed a handsome young man, most likely in his mid twenties. Wavy blond hair and dazzlingly blue eyes clashed strangely against the dark. He had fair skin, a few small, nearly unnoticeable scars, and was sporting a long, blood red cloak.

He looked around at the gathered villains. Nearly every one of them seemed to be cowering in their chairs (except Kaa; he was on a poll). Even Sephiroth looked a bit unnerved.

The man smiled and said, "My name is Noir. But, you probably already know that, since Maleficent introduced me." He paused for a moment. His hands were hidden inside his robes, but it could be seen that he was searching for something. He seemed to find it, and started to remove his hands from his cloak. When they emerged, one hand was holding a small leather pouch. "If all of you would be so kind as to not interrupt as I continue," he said, still smiling. He needn't have asked; it looked as though half the villains were going to wet themselves.

The man opened the pouch and reached inside. He pulled out a small amount of a powder-ish substance, and dropped it onto the table. He closed the bag and put it back inside his cloak.

From the spot where the powder had fallen, slowly there emerged a ghostly image of Radiant Garden. But not the Radiant Garden of today. It was what the city had looked like before the rise of the Heartless eleven years ago. It was built of tall skyscrapers, monorail systems, and even a few buildings that hovered in the air. The arid ground that was outside the city was instead a lush forest, and the Great Maw a lake. The Citadel rose even higher than the other buildings, the Heartless emblem missing and a color of magnificent silver, just like all the other buildings in the city.

The image slowly magnified upon the Citadel, making it larger and larger until some of it disappeared. It seemed that Noir wanted to show something specific. Eventually they reached it; a small balcony on which stood a young woman with shocking red hair and a beautiful royal gown of white. In her arms was a small baby girl, who was sound asleep. The woman smiled at her daughter and looked out upon the city, admiring the view and realizing just how beautiful Radiant Garden was.

"The Queen of Radiant Garden," Noir said. "And her newborn daughter, Princess Kairi."

The woman turned around and walked back into the room adjacent the balcony.

"A bit silly, really," Noir chuckled. "The King and Queen had no real power. Just figureheads. Ansem the Wise was the one who had power."

The picture changed, flashing away from the peaceful scene to a quite different one. Buildings were burning, people screaming, Heartless slashing through helpless children and armed men alike.

But Noir didn't linger here. The scene zoomed again to the balcony, where the same people stood. The Queen was older, as was Kairi, now the age of four. Both looked scared, but Kairi's face showed shock and bewilderment, whereas her mother's showed genuine fear and worry. She was rapidly scribbling on a small piece of paper, muttering as she did so. She finished, and turned to Kairi.

"Sweetheart, I want you to go. Go and hide in the special secret place we play in and don't come out until I come to get you," the Queen said.

"Mommy, what's wrong?" Kairi asked, her eyes open and confused.

"Nothing's wrong, honey, but I want you to hide. Alright?"

"Is everything gonna be okay?"

"Everything is going to be fine, sweetie."

"What about Jacob and Mister Ansem?"

"I don't know. But I don't want you to come out until I come to get you. Me or Daddy or King Mickey. Understand?"

Kairi nodded nervously and tootled off into the Citadel.

"Mickey..... I hope this reaches you..." the Queen said, clutching the paper to her chest. She muttered something under her breath, and she must have said something special, because suddenly, the letter disappeared into thin air.

Only a few seconds later, the doors to the balcony burst open and three Neoshadows walked out, followed closely by...

"Xehanort," the Queen scowled, not turning. "Why?"

"It isn't Xehanort any more," the Heartless said. "I have decided to call myself Ansem, after my foolish master."

"So, you think that using the name of someone who aspired to greatness will make you equally great?" the Queen asked, laughing. "You've much to learn."

"Ansem the 'Wise' was never great," Xehanort's Heartless drawled. "He has been driven from this world into the Realm of Nothingness by my Nobody and the Nobodys of my fellow apprentices."

"He'll never really be gone," the Queen said angrily, whirling on him. "Not as long as the people here remain loyal to him and his memory stays alive."

"That is why I am destroying everyone who could possibly remember him," Xehanort said. "The only life I shall spare is that of your charming daughter. Where might she be?"

"Go jump off a cliff."

Xehanort's Heartless only smiled. "You first." He gestured to the Neoshadows and walked into the Citadel. The sound of terrified screaming and tearing flesh was heard as he walked away to find the Princess.

"He found the girl, of course," Noir said, making the villains jump. They seemed to have forgotten that he was still there. "After he found her, he put her into an enchanted sleep, wiped her memory, and cast her out into the Realm of Darkness. He believed that, if she was a Princess of Heart, she would eventually escape to a place where she could be protected. In other words: On a world occupied by a Keybearer. She eventually turned up on the same world as future Keybearers Sora and Riku. The only hitch was, not only were they yet have Keyblades, they were only four and five years old. Xehanort had no way of identifying them."

The projection that had been coming from the powder disappeared. Noir looked around at the villains. "Jacob found her a few years later, and was convinced that she was under the protection of a Keybearer. Too bad he didn't stay around for a while. He left to come after me with his precious little girlfriend. And he may have weakened me and stolen Bliss of Heart, but I did something to him: I shattered his girlfriend's memory and returned her to her home world. He could see her, visit her in her sleep... but he couldn't be with her, and that was about the wort thing I could do to him. Take away what he loved most."

"Not only this, he could not approach Kairi, or risk severing the boundaries of the worlds. He lived a meaningless life on a world called Land of Liberty until he finally returned to the reconstructed Radiant Garden. And now, he is near Kairi once again, fighting Darkness. But unfortunately for him, Kairi doesn't trust him because of her lack of memories of him."

"Kairi doesn't trust him?" a villain asked.

"I believe that your organization is after Kairi, isn't it, sir?"

The villain stood. "I must prepare. Maleficent, if you would allow..."

"By all means, Chairman," Maleficent replied. "We will, of course, continue the meeting in your absence."

"Fair enough." The man stood from the table and walked away.

Noir shook his head in disapproval and continued his story.

On the Shera, two days later...

Jacob opened a drawer in this dresser. Inside was three knifes, an Uzi, two pistols, a tranquilizer gun, a kantana, and several clips of ammunition in the back corner. Jacob reached for two clips, put them on top of the dresser, pulled out the two pistols and loaded them, and shoved them into his back pockets. He closed the drawer, picked up a large suitcase, and walked out of his room, shutting the door behind him.

He walked down the hall of the ship, until he slowly broke into a jog. He nearly bumped into Cid. "Hey Cid, did Sora and Kairi already go down to the surface?"

"Yeah, why?"

But Jacob was already gone.

On the surface of the new world...

Sora and Kairi walked along the baron surface of the strange new world. The ground was a dull gray, and several craters could be seen just in the area near them. Max had stayed behind; he was still a bit weirded out from the visit to India.

"Who do you figure lives here?" Sora asked as he and Kairi started walking in a random direction.

"I don't know..." Kairi replied, looking around. "The place kinda creeps me out though..."

They walked for about ten minutes before they saw something on the horizon: a town. The two quickly worked their way over.

They soon discovered that the town was inhabited by beings that looked like humans... but they couldn't have been humans. Their skin was a soft shade of gray, and they had what looked like gils on the each side of their necks.

Most of the creatures left their homes to watch as Sora and Kairi approached. Soon, they were in the streets, still being followed by the creatures. Eventually they attracted such a crowd that it seemed there was a parade going on. But if it was a parade, it was the quietist ever. A few nervous whispers and the many footsteps seemed to be the only noise on this world.

Sora and Kairi soon realized that they were not leading this group, but instead were being ushered to a large, dome shaped building in the center of town. When they got closer, they saw a sign hanging over the huge glass doors at the entrance. It read: Foreign World Control Center.

Sora and Kairi looked nervously to each other. Were they going to be arrested or something?

"This is by far the strangest world I have ever been to," Sora muttered, looking around at the creatures.

"Really? I'd have though this kind of stuff was right up your ally," Kairi giggled at him.

Sora couldn't help but smiling, but not for long. Up the stairs to the dome were two more of the creatures, each in business suits of sorts. Each of them looked very formidable, with bulging muscles and eyes narrowed upon Sora and Kairi.

As soon as they actually reached the stairs, the crowd seemed to dissolve, giving them an opening. The two teens, somewhat reluctantly, walked up the stairs towards the men-things.

"Come with us," one of them grunted as Sora and Kairi reached them. His partner jerked his head towards the building. The four of them walked inside.

The interior of the dome was stark white, with half-circle hallways and automatically opening doors.

The men lead the way down a hall, and another, and another, through a door, up an elevator, down another hall, and into a small room. The room had black walls and almost no lights, forcing Sora and Kairi to close their eyes for a moment to adjust.

The men sat at a table, and Sora and Kairi did the same.

"Your names, please," one of the men said.

"Er..... Sora and Kairi."

"My name is Tishnyba," the man said. "My associate is called Nizora."

The other man grunted in recognition.

"Are.... we in trouble?" Kairi questioned.

"Why would you assume that?" Tishnyba asked.

"The sign above the door to this building said 'Foreign World Control Center'," Sora replied.

"Oh, you're not in trouble," Tishnyba smiled. "It's just that our people aren't very taking to off-world visitors, which we seem to get every other week."

"Right... so, do we have to leave?" Sora asked.

"Not at all, not at all," Tishnyba laughed. "You just need to stay here in this dome for a while, that's all. We just need to make sure that you two aren't dangerous and all that before we release you."

"How long are we going to have to stay here?" Kairi asked.

"Only a week or so." A beeping noise was heard. "Oh, excuse me, I've a call."

Tishnyba reached for a communication device on his belt and turned it on. "Hello?...... Yes, I've got them right here....... no, not yet......... they're only kids, boss, I.......... What? You sure about that?......... Okay, boss, I'll get right on it.......... Right. Right away." He turned the device off and strapped it onto his belt again.

"So, you two must be thirty," Tishnyba said.

"Er..... kind of," Kairi said. She supposed it would be polite to accept a drink anyway.

"Perfect. Nizora, if you would be so kind as to..."

The other man stood up and walked out of the room into the bright white hallway. He returned almost a moment later with four cups of some strange green liquid.

"Is that..." Sora started.

"Safe for humans? Oh, of course, perfectly safe. But if you did want a little bit of a better taste... Nizora, a little sugar for their drinks, I think."

The man grunted again and pulled a small packet seemingly out of nowhere and sprinkled a pinch of white crystals into two of the cups.

"So? Bottoms up!" Tishnyba said happily, handing Sora and Kairi two cups.

Reluctantly, the two took sips from the drink, but found that the liquid actually tasted very good. A bit like milk with a slight tangy aftertaste. The Sora and Kairi both took another deep drink from the cups. Tishnyba smiled and drank some of his drink too. Nizora just stood there.

"It's quite good, isn't it?" Tishnyba chuckled merrily as Sora and Kairi both drained the last of the liquid from the cups.

"Very good," Sora smiled. "Can we have some more?" Kairi smiled too, looking hopeful.

"I don't think you'll be in a position to drink them in a few moments," Tishnyba said.

Sora and Kairi exchanged puzzled looks.

"Allow me to explain," Tishnyba said. "Three..... two..... one....."

Suddenly, Sora and Kairi both slumped over in their chairs before sliding off onto the ground, fast asleep.

"You did put sleeping potion in, not poison, right?"

Nizora grunted again.

"Perfect," Tishnyba said happily. "I don't know why the boss wanted us to take these two captive though..."

The doors to the room opened, and a perfectly normal, human, non-alien man walked in with two floating stretchers following him. "Put them onto these," the man instructed.

Tishnyba and Nizora both lifted Sora and Kairi onto the stretchers.

"Not a word of this to anyone," the man said. "These two are going to the basement Lab. Maximum Security. I want you to tell everyone to be on the lookout for intruders. Their friends are bound to come after them soon." With that, the man turned and walked off down a hall, the stretchers floating off behind him.

Uh-oh.

I own Tishnyba, Nizora, and the man who just walked in (who was the 'Chairman' at the meeting). I also own the species the aliens are. I'm sure something like them has appeared in comics or something, but if they have, I haven't seen them.

I also own Noir and Kairi's mother. Both will have major impact on the story.

I know that this chapter was a bit strange. Just bear with me please. I'll be posting again very shortly.