Chapter 26

A step backward

Axel and Kairi hurried out of the dragon while a ball of fire followed them, they had triggered a self destruct sequence after bashing the heartless generator to pieces.

"From now on if Xemnas gives me crap I'll remind him his dragon nearly killed me." Axel pointed out not sounding happy in the least.

Kairi simply ran behind Axel to push him while reminding him that arguing wouldn't help them move faster.

When they ran out a ball of fire followed and a black haired blue eyed girl was waiting, Axel was the first to notice her and stood still like he was hoping to be invisible.

Kairi was about to speak after peering out from behind, but the stranger just pointed and walked away, "Axel I think she wants us to follow her." she said tugging on his arm.

Once the team was gathered the stranger smiled at the fact that they had lined up by height perfectly.

"Heh, you guys are interesting, relax I'm not dangerous... by the way I'm Torch."

The group now were now scattered half leaning on their ship the others just stood around not doing much.

"So, reason why you are here, now." Xemnas ordered looking very stone faced knowing that they had to leave soon.

Torch was not sure if she liked that one to much already, "Sora is the keybearer. Do not get hostile with me, sir! Sora I have a similar calling as you."

Xemnas stepped forward to tear Torch a new hole but Sora and Riku stepped in his path, Xemnas let a small growl slip before settling back against the wing of his ship.

Knowing that Xemnas was contained Sora walked up, how did this girl know him, "How do you know me, have we met?"

"No, but I have heard through other sources, you aren't like much of the others. Either way, I know you are on a mission." she answered holding up a glowing cd not much different from the ones they were after, "Here is your next world disk, I've ordered Narcore to keep his distance from now on. But before you go you need to know something."

Sora stared at the reflection in the disk which was his whole team, "It has something to do with my team right."

"Again no, it's more of a favor really, I need a gummi ship. Tell me where I can get one."

Riku grinned, "Hollow Bastion, it's the last place you could probably get a whole one." he was going to go on till he saw the look Saix was giving him, "What!?" he nearly jumped out of his skin and bumped into the ship.

"Call me when you stop acting weird." Saix answered relaxing a bit.

Riku wanted to shove him[he acts like he's never seen a girl in his life. Riku frowned and folded his arms, "Ever since Xemnas' order fell gummi ships have been scarce, but why would you know about them?"

"Yeah." Sora jumped in.

Torch sighed [Can't ask without questions to answer "Fine, I come from a planet called The Crossroads, it's basically why we have so many methods of travel. I've seen many odd people cross through including King Mickey and a group of odd scientists, oh the things I could tell you but first I need that ship."

The team watched her disappear into a portal and Sora ran up to retrieve the disk which he held like an award, "Wasn't that nice of her, all she wanted was directions to Hollow Bastion." he walked up to Xemnas holding the disk for him to see, "I wonder what the next world is."

The team looked at each other once before hopping in Xemnas' ship and heading back to Hollow Bastion.

Back outside the castle a large freighter class ship was landed in the great maw, even Vexen was impressed at the shear mass and shadow that the machine cast. Xemnas set his ship down along side the large one and they got out.

"Wow!" Sora said staring up almost two stories toward the belly of the beast, "This has to be bigger then Monstro."

Riku nearly jumped him for talking about one of the other worlds... or well fish, "Sora!" he scolded covering his mouth, "We can't talk about that!"

Kairi cracked a grin at Riku and Sora as they bickered before running in to break them up, Xemnas however abandoned them to search for Mickey.

Xemnas returned to the city to pace the streets that he had lived in once, Ansem was gone again probably to be Dark's torture device. Down the street he got an array of different looks, from anger to fear to curious, however Leon's was more or less unreadable. Xemnas stopped upon seeing him, "I'm not going to destroy your home again, if that's what your concerned about... though I doubt that your really thinking." he never liked Leon's mannerisms or ability to hide his every thought behind a stone mask, though he did the same.

Leon watched Xemnas walk by, glaring now, "What are you going to do with Kairi, she lives in Destiny Islands now?" he tried to keep his cool but it didn't seem to work.

"Are you joking?" Xemnas sneered, "What kind of father do you even think I could be to her, I even lost Roxas once, in what way would this be different!?" he never expected an answer and turned to continue on.

"What are you just going to do abandon her, like before like the rest of us. Tell me though what did you gain from that?"

Xemnas could feel his anger boiling, he did not need this or any other crap right now so he stared Leon down and said as calm as he could, "More then you have." he answered leaving Leon speechless and returned down the street heading to find the king once again.

Mickey was back in the castle keeping himself busy with books and wondering which ones did Ansem read and which were Xehanort's, the one he had right now was an extensive collection of every keyblade known and everything about them. Mickey flipped through slowly seeing all the main designs, one for dark, light, and twilight the rest were merely different variations through keychains but each held a unique power.

The last pages had the split twin keyblades that the ruler of darkness wielded, Dispair a weapon with sharp points decorating a rounded frame with a deadly blade attached to the lower half, but it really didn't need to swung a certain way to rip a foe to pieces... spikes on the outer rims of the handle and the rest of it would surely make even the hardest battles a snap.

Mickey recoiled after thinking what the weapon was capable of, he turned to the other half called Hope, it resembled a normal keyblade with a boxy frame and pleasant designs along with silver and red coloring.

He flipped the page seeing the lost keyblades, three weapons from three knights, Mickey would have read further but the book was slammed shut and nearly took off his nose, he glanced up as the book was pulled away to see a very pissed Xemnas at the other end.

Xemnas walked away from the mouse and put the book on top of a bookshelf to keep it out of reach, "I'm sure I never gave anyone any permission to go through my stuff, including you." he leaned on the bookshelf shaking it slightly, "And to think I might have been happy to see you, till now. Mickey how many times will you torment me?"

Mickey knew he ditched the title 'king' on purpose, "When have I done anything to hurt you!" he snapped.

"You were there, after half of me died and reincarnated into Riku, hell your the reason why I'm literally gathering the pieces Dark scattered to the winds and why I lost my memories, and only because you couldn't have come earlier." Xemnas pointed accusingly, "Oh and we ran into a girl named Torch, ring any bells because she knows you."

Mickey was nearly about to go on a yelling match but if Xemnas was done for now then so would he to avoid having to destroy the surroundings, "I think I've met her, she had a ton of ships but no gummi ships said she was hunting for one."

"Oh, she landed a freighter in the maw, told us that she could tell us more later."

Mickey leaned back wondering why Torch showed up, "A freighter? Sounds like her." He laughed to himself then jumped to the ground to see what was going on.

Down on the ground Torch was having a small class gummi ship hauled into the back of the freighter by large robotic arms attached to the ceiling of the larger ship. Once the gummi ship had cleared the hatch the doors closed sealing off the small craft from it's old home. Torch could feel the presences behind her for the whole time, "Impressed?" she sounded cocky but then again she built the freighter 'Stingray' from scratch.

Sora was still staring and had to be shaken by Riku before he returned to a semi-aware state, obviously someone noticed.

"You said you had more to say when we first talked." Riku said while holding Sora in a choke hold, only they had shown up while the rest headed off for pizza and some needed rest.

Back in a small hotel of sorts Xemnas somehow had gotten to sleep, even though sleeping was not what they came for he still found a way to fit in some much needed sleep.

Saix was eating and watching Axel who he believed would pick on his boss any chance he got. Axel however was talking with Kairi, no doubt about whether Roxas was still there or not. Vexen was unsure about the fast food they were eating and was examining every inch hoping it was eatable.

Axel laughed at Vexen taking a big bite of the cheesy pizza mostly to gross him out, "It's not one of your play things it's food Vexen." he said in between bites.

Vexen jumped at Axel's remark, "I'm a scientist, my things are not for playing with!"

Axel laughed loving Vexen's sudden outbursts adding a 'yeah sure' to push the scientist over the edge.

Xemnas by now was starting to wake [Axel says his only friend was roxas, what am I then, I... we were a team but that was a long time ago. Xemnas had really been lying there watching his team and wondering what would happen now, now that the order was broken up, and he and three others had changed sides.

A lot had changed for him over the course of four lives he went from a keybearer all the way to follower of the new keybearer, but did that mean he had to change to fit his new title, frustrated he got up to leave seeing that almost none seemed to notice.

A few minutes later Xemnas was sitting in front of Ansem's desk in his office, it was a place he often found himself whether for telling news or asking permission to do something. The office was still torn up books were everywhere [Ansem would be ticked if he saw this mess Xemnas thought to himself knowing how clean the place was before.

Slowly he made his way to the top of the castle stopping to see if anyone had trespassed in the library again then went up to the keyhole, and looked at where the princesses had be locked up. He began to remember the fights with Sora here though he was in Riku's body, he couldn't tell what drew him here over and over recently.

A few steps from the keyhole he finally heard something, it sounded like a footstep so he he got closer nearly jumping up the steps. At the top he saw a kid with yellow spiked hair staring at him, it had to be a ghost he thought... Ven died.

"Ven?" Xemnas was unsure about the vision he was seeing, heartless and nobodies could take many forms, and he was not about to be fooled.

The kid shook his head, "Boss looks like my memory loss is affecting you now, it's me Roxas."

Xemnas drew back charging his sabers, "That's a lie, Sora isn't here."

Roxas laughed at his answer, "You're sleeping boss, I told you to get sleep before but you never did." he pointed out making Xemnas relax a little.

Xemnas walked over to a railing, "So that's why nobody saw me leave, makes sense anyway."

"Yep, anyway what's this about changing yourself?"

"Not sure just used to it, I changed my name four times so why not, besides I'm not who I was before." he explained.

Roxas leaned back deep in thought before looking up again, "Don't change it's less confusing that way, besides journeying with Sora won't change you unless you want to." he paused then jumped up, "Oh I almost forgot, if you go to The Void protect Sora... Dark won't win if Sora lives, remember I was in the order too." he requested as the place faded.

Xemnas ran forward to stop Roxas from leaving but he woke up before he could, he had been roughly woken when Riku jumped over the couch to sit on his back. Xemnas glared at the young man before throwing him off, "Do I look like a seat to sit on."

Riku pushed himself up to stare at the unhappy Xemnas, "Sorry but I had to you wouldn't wake up and we got to leave now."

"To where?"

"The past."

A unanimous 'What' sounded around the room as all eyes went to Riku.

Riku jumped up and lead the team outside eager to show them.

Outside was a door like the one Merlin whipped up for Sora, Torch was right next to it leaning on the frame like she was waiting for something.

"Nice to see you, I'm sure you have questions." Torch greeted them waiting for a response like she had been planning something, "I'm aware that the door should be familiar by now, if so good your next disk is inside."

Sora looked at the door for a second, "So another trip to the past huh, ok but how do you know so much?" he turned in her direction but the girl had disappeared and the big ship was leaving the atmosphere already.

Axel twitched a bit, "I don't know about the rest of you but I don't trust her." he announced.

Riku walked over to the door, what past was it and how far back would they go, "Well what else do we do, I say we find out what's in there." he decided then pulled on the door handles.

The rest watched the door crack open and a white light enveloped them.