OK, another chapter. I'm still working on revising the early chapters, but it's going kind of slowly. I'll be updating the chapters with the revised versions as well as adding new ones. Though there's at least one chapter that I'll be getting rid of entirely, so the chapter numbers will probably change at some point. When that happens, just know that this is why. Hope you like this chapter.

"I'm sorry, but I can't help you with this," said Merlin, sounding disappointed. "If I don't know what kind of magic created that barrier, then I can't get rid of it."

"I see," said Kairi, disappointed. "Thank you anyway."

She walked out of Merlin's house, leaving the others behind. Minnie stared at the closed door. "I think this is really wearing her down," she said.

"Kairi, you mean?" said Terra. "Of course it is. We finally made it this far, only to have another roadblock put in our path. Of course she's disappointed.

Merlin thought for a moment. "I can't help you, but if you need something to take your friend's mind off her worries, then there might be a job for you."

The four of them left the house, and found Kairi sitting alone on a nearby bench. As they approached, she sat up and walked over to them. "Merlin has a favor to ask of us," said Daisy.

Kairi looked down. "We don't have time for that," she muttered.

Terra stepped closer to Kairi. "Just hear us out," she said.

"Besides," said Minnie, "Helping people out always makes me feel better. Maybe it'll be the same for you."

Kairi sighed. "What does he want us to do?"

Terra took a deep breath, and began to explain. "Well, you know that there's a bunch of people working to restore the town, right? Well, a good chunk of the work around here has been done, but that's not the problem."

She paused. "See, most of the Heartless around here still live in the castle. So there's a smaller group that's dedicated to clearing out the castle. They'd been doing well, but then they ran into trouble. There's a particularly big, nasty one that just showed up. They're preparing to go back and kill it, but they'll need all the help they can get."

"So Merlin wants us to work with them?" asked Kairi.

Rydia nodded. "He told us where one of the co-leaders lives, so let's go pay them a visit. You OK with this, Kairi?"

Kairi nodded. "I guess so. Hopefully, it won't take too long."

The five of them walked down another street. By now, Kairi was beginning to figure out the layout of this part of town. "What are we looking for?" she asked.

Rydia looked down at a sheet of paper, and read the address. "It's supposed to be kind of a weird house. He said you can't miss it."

They walked through the streets, looking for the right one. "Should be right around here," said Terra.

Finally, they found the right street. It was a small, out-of-the-way little place, and the style of the houses was a little bit different. Kairi figured that maybe it had been built at a different time than the surrounding area. They walked down the street, looking for anything unusual. Eventually, they reached a small house at the end of the street. Rydia checked the number, then turned to the rest of the group and nodded. "This is it," she said.

It was a strange place. In front of the house was a small garden, full of all sorts of unusual plants. The center of the garden was dominated by a very tall stalk with an orb at the tip that looked kind of like a lamp. The house itself looked almost as if it had been made of scrap metal. Perhaps it had been.

Kairi walked up to the door, and the others followed. The door resembled the rest of the house, and in the center was an elaborate knocker shaped like a dragon's head. She hesitated a bit, then grabbed onto the knocker and rapped it against the door.

Almost immediately, footsteps could be heard coming from behind the door. The door opened suddenly, revealing the person they were looking for.

She was a tall woman, looking to be somewhere in her mid-twenties. Her skin was lightly tanned, and her hair was long and dark with the tips dyed red. She wore a cropped blue tank top, black shorts, and sandals.

The woman looked at Kairi. "You're not here to sell me something, are you?" she asked.

Kairi shook her head. "Actually, we heard you need help."

"You're in charge of the group that's killing Heartless in the castle, right?" asked Daisy. "That's what Merlin told us."

"Co-leader," the woman reminded them. "Me and my friend. She lives on the next street over."

She examined the five of them. "You all can fight?" she asked.

"We can," said Kairi. "I mean, Daisy's more of a healer, but – "

"You sure you won't get killed?"

"We're sure," said Kairi.

"Good," said the woman. "Because we don't need weaklings holding us back, and we don't want any deaths on our hands."

She extended her hand towards Kairi. "Name's Fang," she said. "I appreciate your help."

Fang motioned towards the door. "C'mon in," she said.

The group followed her through the door. The inside of the house was simple, without much clutter or decoration. Fang walked into what appeared to be the living room, and picked up a phone. " I gotta call my friend," she said. "She needs to know that we've got some volunteers."

She motioned for them to sit down, and they did. She dialed some numbers, and put the phone to her ear. After a few seconds, she spoke. "It's Fang," she said. "We've got five people that want to help us."

Another pause. "Yeah, with the Heartless problem."

Kairi lay back on the sofa, not really paying attention to Fang's phone call. She knew that Minnie was right and that helping this group probably would make her feel better. But at the same time, she wanted to get to Nightshade as soon as possible. They couldn't afford to waste time. But helping someone…that wasn't wasting time, was it? Besides, this town was Terra and Rydia's home as well. If she helped Fang and the rest of them, she'd be doing them a favor as well.

After a few minutes, Fang put the phone down. "Vanille wants to meet you," she said. "C'mon, I'll show you the way."

The other half of the group's leadership lived in a small, cute house midway down the next street. It was painted pale pink, and on the front steps was a flowerpot overflowing with bluish-white flowers.

Fang walked up to the door, and rang the doorbell. "Just a minute!" shouted a voice from behind the door.

A few seconds later, the door opened. The girl at the door looked to be around Kairi's age, maybe slightly older. She had bright pink hair tied into pigtails. She wore a pink halter-top shirt and cutoff khaki shorts, along with light brown boots and a beaded necklace.

She took a good look at the group. "So you're here to help?" she asked.

"We are," said Kairi. "We've heard that you could use all the help you can get."

The girl nodded. "That's absolutely true."

She stepped forward, and grabbed Kairi's hand. "My name's Vanille," she said, cheerfully. "And you are?"

"Kairi," said Kairi.

Vanille looked at all the others. "What about all of you?" she asked.

Minnie smiled, and introduced herself. Daisy did the same, and Terra and Rydia followed. Vanille motioned for them to come inside, and they did so.

The inside of the house was still simple, but it was a lot more colorful than Fang's. She brought them into the kitchen, and pointed to the table. "Sit down," she said.

Fang glanced over at the table, and the three chairs next to it. "Better get some more chairs," she said.

Vanille ran off into another room. "She looks a little bit young to be leading a group of Heartless hunters," said Terra.

Fang pointed to Rydia. "Your friend here is even younger, and I don't see you worrying about her."

Rydia put her hands on her hips. "I can fight just fine!" she protested.

"Well, so can Vanille," said Fang. "You've yet to see her in action, so don't be critical."

"I didn't say that she couldn't fight," said Terra. "I just said that she's a little young for the job."

"Sora was fourteen when everything started," said Kairi, quietly. "But he's done more than any of us could hope to."

Fang looked over at Kairi. "Sora…" she muttered. "I know that name."

"Keyblade master," said Kairi. "He was the one keeping the worlds safe from the Heartless. He's also the one who restored all the worlds that they'd destroyed."

Fang thought for a moment. "You know him?" she asked.

Kairi nodded. "We've been friends as long as I can remember."

Her face changed to an expression of disappointment. "But he's in trouble right now," she said. "Him, and Riku – our other friend – and a whole lot of other people."

She motioned towards Minnie, Daisy, Terra, and Rydia. "That's why we're all together," she said. "We're trying to save them."

"Can't they help themselves?" asked Vanille.

She'd been standing unnoticed in the doorway, with a stack of folding chairs propped up against the wall. "I mean, if Sora can save all those worlds, why can't he just bust out by himself?"

"Good question," said Fang. "Why can't he?"

It was a question that Kairi had asked herself on more than one occasion. She wasn't quite sure why the guys didn't just escape on their own. But they hadn't. So there must be a good reason for it. "I don't know," she said. "But just in case they can't, we're going to help them. We already know where they are – all we need to do is get in."

Vanille walked over to the table, and set up the chairs. Everyone sat down, and she spoke. "If you need to help your friends, why don't you go ahead and do that?" she asked. "Why waste time helping us?"

"No act of kindness is ever wasted," said Minnie.

Fang looked over at her. "Cute," she said. "But you have no obligation to help us. If you don't want to, then don't. We'll be fine without you."

Terra sighed. "This town is my home," she said. "I, for one, would like to keep it safe."

Rydia nodded. "Me too. I wanna do everything I can. If you'll let us help, I'll be glad to."

"I think we have time," said Daisy. "Besides, maybe this will get us back in the mood to continue our journey."

"I agree," said Minnie.

She looked at Kairi. "What do you think? Are you willing to take some time to help?"

Kairi didn't know whether Sora, Riku, and the others were in any immediate danger. But she figured that doing Hollow Bastion a favor wouldn't be a problem. Besides, to not help someone despite being able and willing seemed almost cruel.

She nodded. "Yes. Let's go clean up the castle!"

Vanille put down the phone. "There," she said. "That was the last person. We're all meeting on the edge of town tomorrow morning."

Kairi wasn't thrilled about waiting until the next day, but she knew that everyone couldn't be expected to show up on such short notice. Besides, as Fang had pointed out, it was getting late, and hunting Heartless at night was a bad idea.

Minnie walked up to Vanille. "So how big is this group?" she asked.

"There's around eight of us right now," said Vanille. "Three more have signed up to help with this particular case."

"Isn't that enough?" asked Rydia.

"Usually, it's plenty. But this Heartless is different. It…"

She started waving and gesturing with her hands. "It's a huge thing with armored skin, and it likes to hide, and it attracts other Heartless, and it's way faster than it looks, and…"

She stopped, noticing everyone's confused expressions. "Fang, maybe you should explain."

Her friend nodded. "We've never seen anything like it before, " she said. "For one thing, it's huge, almost twice the size of the Behemoth we ran into a few weeks ago."

Rydia looked confused. "Behemoth?"

"Very powerful type of Heartless," said Vanille. "If you've never run into one, you're lucky."

Fang continued. "It seems to have very hard skin, so it's difficult to damage it properly. It also seems to be able to make itself less visible in the shadows. It's much faster than you'd expect for something its size. Not only that, but sometimes it'll make this shrieking noise, and other Heartless will come to protect it."

"I've never heard of anything that did that," said Terra.

"It's very unusual, that's for sure," said Fang. "I don't know where this one came from, but it's not going to be very easy to kill. That's why we're bringing so many people along. We might not need that many, but better safe than sorry."

She turned towards Kairi. "You'd better sleep well tonight. You have to be prepared for tomorrow."

Kairi nodded. "Gotcha."

"Are you sure you want to sleep on the floor?" asked Terra.

Kairi nodded. "Minnie has the spare bed, and Daisy is using the sofa. I think I'll be OK."

Terra shrugged. "In that case, I'll go get you a sleeping bag."

She walked off to somewhere else, leaving Kairi n the living room.

Kairi was still a little bit uneasy about what would happen the next day. If such a large group had trouble with this Heartless, then would adding a few more inexperienced fighters really make much of a difference?

She wished that Sora was here. With his help, this would be no trouble at all. Heck, with his help, they would probably only need half the group. But he wasn't here. They'd have to manage.

Terra walked back into the room, holding a sleeping bag and a large, fluffy pillow. "Here," she said. "Go ahead and set that up, OK?"

Kairi nodded. She pulled the sleeping bag out of the sack, and laid it down on the floor. The floor was covered with a thick carpet, so just the sleeping bag would be fine.

She lay there for a while, thinking, but was soon interrupted by Daisy entering the room. Daisy looked over at Kairi. "You don't snore, do you?" she asked.

"I don't think so," said Kairi, a little put off by the question.

Daisy smiled. "Of course not. I'm just making sure. I hate sleeping in the same room with people who do."

Kairi was quiet for a while, as Daisy lay down on the sofa and pulled a blanket over herself. "I'm kind of worried," Kairi finally said. "You know…about tomorrow."

"Understandable," said Daisy. "It sounds like a challenge."

"See, after that fight with Nightshade, it became obvious that I'm still not very good in combat," Kairi continued. "I thought I'd improved a lot, but now I'm not so sure."

"You've improved. Believe me," Daisy assured her."

"I know, but have I improved enough? Sure, there'll be a lot of us, but I'll still have to help. I mean…what if something happens? Not just to me, either. What if someone dies? Would I be able to see that and keep going?"

"No one's going to die," said Daisy. "I've been told that there will be one or two other healers there as well. I'm sure that we'll be able to keep everyone in good condition."

Kairi thought about that. Would a few healers really be able to cover such a large group? She really hoped so."

"Besides," said Daisy, "we can trust Fang and Vanille. If they didn't know what they were doing, they wouldn't have lasted this long."

She yawned. "Get to sleep. If you aren't well-rested, then how do you expect to fight properly?"

"Alright," said Kairi. "G'night."

She put her head down, and tried to relax. It wasn't long before she'd drifted off to sleep.

Yeah, I know, more random Final Fantasy characters. I know I've done too much of that already, but I just couldn't resist. Besides, these two are more than just cameos - one or both of them will end up being fairly important.

Anyway. As usual, I don't know how long it'll be before the next chapter is up, but chances are that you can expect a revised chapter or two before then. Keep checking up on the old chapters - the first one has already been redone. By the way, I'd say that the story is probably a little over two-thirds done. I have the whole rest of it planned out, so all I really need to do is write it. I've promised myself that I'll finish this story, and I will. :)