Chapter XXI
Betwixt and Between

Naminé and I stepped out into an almost identical computer room. The only difference as far as I could tell was that the computer in this room was smashed. "This is the alternate version of Twilight Town that was created by the man known as Díz. As you can see, there are some differences." Naminé said.

"Who did this?"

"A boy not much younger than you. His name was… Roxas, I believe."

That's the second time that name had come up; Xion had mentioned him a while back, at Beast's Castle. Naminé led me into a room just farther on, a large rectangular room with a glowing sphere of energy in a corner. As soon as the door shut behind us, a semi-transparent barrier encased the room, sealing us in, and the exits and the sphere out. Several Nobodies appeared, and from what Xion had shown me, I could identify four dusks, two assassins, and a berserker.

"Naminé, get behind me!" I shouted, summoning my bow. The arrows I fired were charged with ice, from the new bow I received at Halloween Town. The curves were made of black bramble, the arrows pure ice. They traveled slower than my other ammo, but they froze whatever they touched. Three dusks were reduced to puffs of smoke in as many arrows; I've gotten the hang of this thing.

Naminé had crouched low behind me, not wanting to get involved in combat. She probably had no fighting experience. I separated my bow into twin blades to ward off an assassin's strike, parrying it and sending the creature reeling. I lunged, and stabbed its head with both blades, killing it.

The other assassin had noticed the death of its comrade, and moved in close. Before I could take care of it, though, the damn thing exploded on me. Naminé screamed, and as I fell from the force of the explosion, the one dusk I didn't kill was about to get her.

"Shit." Was all I could say as I hit the ground. I launched a random arrow out at the dusk, and it somehow hit. Apparently these arrows had a limited homing ability, as I saw it curve in mid-flight to hit its target. "You okay, Naminé?"

"Yes, but- LOOK OUT!" I turned, and the berserker finally decided to act, about to slam its hammer into my face. I rolled, and sliced my bow through its midsection. Enraged, the Nobody threw its hammer at me, and I barely jumped aside to avoid it. A thought struck me as I banished my Keyblade.

I grabbed the hilt of the large hammer, and swung it over my head at the Nobody who was walking over to get it. If there's one thing I've learned from video games, the best way to kill something is to use its own weapon. The berserker vaporized, as well as the hammer in my hands. A small part of me missed the large weapon immediately. Naminé thanked me for helping her, and she led me to the sphere of light.

(Meanwhile, with the other heroes, *thwack!* And heroines, Ana, sorry.)

"I can't believe it. He disappears into space once, but now in a mansion? I just don't believe it." Mike said, when the group approached the mansion in the woods. Sora gestured to the large lock on the ground.

"Only a Keyblade could've opened that, Mike." Mike grumbled incomprehensively nearby. Through the door, the group was greeted with musky smells and clouds of dust.

"It looks like this place has been abandoned for many years." Xion scribbled hastily. Sora and Donald nodded, a little spooked by the broken furniture and the general "Haunted" feel.

"Hey, look what we have here," Kaitlin said. "Footprints. And we know that only Zack could have made them. Let's follow them." The group, much acting like a certain gang of mystery-solvers, minus one dog, cautiously crept up the west stairs, until they reached the top.

"Look over here," Ana whispered. "Two sets of footprints. And one of them is in heels. Looks like Zack found a girl here, and went this way." A crash was heard farther off. "Let's go!"

The group of… ah… hold on a sec… *narrator of this segment steps into the background* Xion, Mike, Sora, Kaitlin, Ana, Donald, Goofy… yeah, them. *Steps back forward.* So, the group of seven ran towards the sound, and down the stairs in the library. At the computer lab, they noticed a small beam of light in a corner.

"Whadda' ya think this thing is, guys?" Goofy said, reaching out to touch it. As soon as he did, though, he vanished.

(Narrator: Back with Zack and Naminé,

Zack: You're a horrible narrator. I'm glad I'm doing my parts.

Narrator: Shut up, I'm doing a job.

Zack: And I'm doing mine. Acting for the story that pays your salary. Now shut up and let me do my job.

Narrator:…)

The place Naminé had taken me through the orb of light was… odd, to say the least. The half I was on was blue in color, and the other half shown red. We walked, and when we stepped on the purple-ey section in the middle, several hundred dusks appeared around us.

My bow was already in my hands and shooting arrows before I could speak. Nobodies dropped by the second. However, it seemed like a hydra; for every one I kill, two appear to take its place. I wasn't out of options, though. I grabbed the red gem I had used against Xaldin, and let the Nobodies have a taste of full-auto crossbow fire for about three minutes. Even after my red-clothed form faded, there were more than I could handle normally. That's when I remembered my second jewel.

I fished out the blue sphere. "Here goes nothing," I said, slamming it onto the ground. Blue smoke enveloped me, and I felt a surge of power flow, similar to the red gem's strength. I found myself in blue clothes this time, with a black flame design on my shirt and shorts. My bow disappeared, and two small spheres took its place, hovering near my head in a bluish light. When I was about to wonder what they did, the left one fired a laser at a dusk, vaporizing it and ten behind it.

"I could get used to this," I said cockily, running- no, check that. Hovering above the ground. I was lightning fast, shooting lasers at everything. I grabbed Naminé, and flew towards the red end of the world, cutting a path through foes like a hot knife through butter. My form faded as we entered the portal on the opposite end.

The two of us popped out in a sort of city alley, with only one way to go. Naminé led on, moving us through the alley into a smaller one. An odd blue-and-black creature walked in from the opposite direction, and shadow and neoshadow heartless spawned. The creature helped me in killing them, even after I shouted for Naminé to get back.

The last of the heartless went down; it was less hectic than the place in between worlds. The small figure walked up to me, and I was kind of surprised when I understood it. I would learn later that a crew member of a gummi ship has a connection to the ship's universal translator. "My name's Rex. Have you seen a trainer with green hair by the name of Zack?"

I responded several seconds later. "I don't know what you mean by "trainer" or "green hair," since I'm the only Zack I know."

(A/N: So, besides the firing of a new narrator, and a Pokémon spontaneously appearing, this chapter went smoothly. Sorry for not updating last week, things got a bit too hectic for me. Also, update day has been moved to Saturday. Why? Because I enjoy my Friday nights. The new cover art is courtesy of Aquagirl1024, who appears in this story as Kaitlin. It's much better than "Image Pending," am I right?)