When I say I don't want to give up on this fic, I sure as hell mean it. Only way this is dying is if I die, get it?! Cough. Er... Yeah. Anyways... Sorry for the length of time I took for this update. Writer's block totally got to me. Plus there're too many distractions in my home. Meh. Sorry.

To my reviewers:
DusandDan: Is he now? Never jump to conclusions. Especially when I decide that spanners are much for fun to throw into the mix than plot holes.
bailkatanas: You're not surprised? I would've thought that'd be a surprised. Maybe a single mom, but I definitely wouldn't have thought that Sora'd have an abusive father. Hence why I threw it in here.
Shire Folk: I'm hoping the Grace of the Valar'd stop me from getting writers block, but the light of Earendil and Elbereth don't seem to be doing much in that aspect. And flaming will be met with... something you won't like very much. xD But after reading this chapter, you might understand what he went to dispose of.
BlackChaos105: Relax. I have my plans for him. Stay tuned.

On with the story!


Sora sat down at his table, making sure that Oathkeeper was in plain sight. To make his point clear, he purposely left it out of his reach, then absently summoned it to him, making his father shiver in his shoes as Sora glanced at him disdainfully.

Sora wasn't usually this cold; even he was surprised at himself. But then again, he thought he was justified. After all, his father had run out on them when he was three. And then come back only to wheedle as much money out of his mother as she could give, before running to the nearest bar to get stoned. It was, therefore, only natural for Sora to gain a hate for this man, who dared call himself their father.

'Oi Sora, calm down! Hey!' Roxas' voice echoed in his mind, but he blocked it out, concentrating his glare on his father.

"So, what have you come back for? We don't welcome you here anymore." Sora threw his words at his father. "If you're here for money again, piss off."

"We- Well… I uh… just uh… passed by… Dropped in to see how you were doing… and… uh…" Sora's father's eyes flitted around, looking everywhere but into Sora's brilliant white eyes. "Just taking a look at how you've grown…"

"You knew I wasn't here." Sora countered fluidly. His eyes caught the flickering gaze of the older man and bore into them. This was a side of him that he rarely showed. "Which is why you came, isn't it?"

Suddenly, his sister ran into the room, dragging their mother behind her. Tears were running down the woman's face, while his sister's face was set into a determined frown.

"He tried to get more money out of Mama!" The little girl glared at their father, then ran to Sora, hugging him around the waist again. Sora almost didn't acknowledge his sister, the only sign being him draping his arm lightly around her, his eyes continuing to bore into his father.

"I see… So that's why you came here again." He got up. "Didn't I tell you? When I told you to scram a year ago, I told you never to come back." With a simple gesture, Oathkeeper flashed out of existence on the table top into his hand. "I warned you."

Suddenly, his eyes slitted into the yellow irises, and he recoiled in his mind. Roxas did as well. "S- Sora…? What's going on…?"

The dracon eyesight revealed that the man kept shying away at the minute flashes of light from Oathkeeper, his eyes solid yellow, although when Sora was looking at him with the eyes of the Wielder earlier, he looked perfectly normal. He raised Oathkeeper suddenly, and this time, there was no mistake, Sora's father shrank away, cowering on the ground.

"Who are you…?" Sora growled, his voice low. "You're not my father…"

To his surprise, the man started to chuckle, first low and rumbling, then he threw his head back and guffawed loudly, suddenly seeming to show no fear of Sora. "So… you saw through it…"

Sora lunged forward with Oathkeeper, but the man was too quick for him, melting away like liquid shadow and reappearing behind his mother, holding a knife to her throat. "Tsk tsk tsk. I should've raised you better, shouldn't I, Sora?"

Sora's eyes narrowed. "What…?"

The man laughed again, just as Sora's mother passed out, bringing her weight onto the knife. "Whoops!" He grabbed his 'wife's' neck, stopping her right before she could slit her throat on the knife, dangling her in the air.

Sora wasn't exactly sure what happened next, but the door suddenly slammed open, a blast of dark energy rearing inside and snatching the knife out of his 'father's' grip, throwing it so hard it embedded itself up to the hilt in the wooden wall. Sora's first thought was Kurai, his second Riku, but he was mistaken and surprised at the person who stepped inside the house.

"Yo, Sora. Sorry t'crash the party." Leo grinned at him, darkness exploding all around him and the keyblade he held in his hand, crimson eyes glowing.


"Le- Leo…?" Sora was understandably dumbfounded, and his face showed it too.

"Sora, six o'clock." Roxas' voice rang out in his mind. Sora spun around on pure reflex, bringing Oathkeeper up to clang off another knife that the man had somehow conjured out of nowhere.

"Oho…? You don't seem so confident now all of a sudden, Sora."

Sora strained against the man's superhuman strength. Gritting his teeth, he managed to push him back a bit, sending a few rays of light flying off the pure white blade of Oathkeeper. "Argh!" The man leaped back, a hand over his eyes as he lashed out with his knife.

For the rest of his life, Sora would never know what it was that caused his mother to choose that exact moment to step forward. Maybe it was shock, maybe it was fear, maybe it was even pure reflex. But all that Sora knew was that he would have given anything to have been able to stop her. For she stepped right into the path of the blade.

Crimson spray. A death rattle.

There was no scream. For years after that, that would've been the only thing Sora could clearly remember. The knife slid neatly into her neck, cutting off whatever could've been a scream into a kind of gurgling, muffled by the blood that bubbled from her jugular. The knife stopped slicing through her neck, before the man pulled it out. The small slurping sound that echoed throughout the silent room anchored itself firmly inside Sora's head as the knife finally broke contact with his mother's neck.

"Well well well… That was a waste of a heart…" The musing of the man who had killed Sora's mother filtered through Sora's ears. "It would've tasted pretty good too… Full of angst and sadness."

"You…" Sora growled. But he was stopped by a hand gripping his shoulder. He turned around to see Leo shaking his head, then point over his shoulder. "Not now, Sora, you've got bigger fish to fry. I'll clean up this mess."

Looking over Leo's shoulder, Sora saw again the figure who had been haunting him in his nightmares, ever since he first woke up in the fissure just after he entered Kurai's dimension. "The Twilight Thorn…" he murmured.

Leo nodded. "Yup. Apparently, it's not the first time it came here. It seemed to know where to go."

Sora turned to the mysterious teen who had knocked one knife out of the murderer's hand, only for another to appear and take his mother from him. "Leo… Who are you?"

Leo grinned, giving him a thumbs up. "It wouldn't be fun for me to just tell you now, would it? Find out yourself, Wielder of Light!" With that, a sphere of darkness surrounded Sora, moving him outside his house, then slamming the door shut.

"Wait!" shouted Sora. "My sister!" He ran back to try and open the door, but it was held tight with a darkness that he couldn't banish, even with his light. "Leo!"

"Sora! Trust him! Kurai sent him!"

Sora whirled around to see Kairi and Riku running towards him, Kairi throwing her arms around him in relief. "You're safe… you're really safe…"

"What's going on…?" asked Sora, still in a small daze from seeing his mother killed right before him. "Tell me! You guys seemed to be better informed than I am!"

Kairi shook her head, her long red hair flying in the sea wind as she gazed up into Sora's cerulean eyes with her own teary ones. "We don't really know… We were with our family, when all of a sudden Nobodies burst into our houses. Leo came to save us all. We didn't even know there were Nobodies on the island!"

Riku nodded, Way to the Dawn humming darkly in his hand. "That's the gist of it. He told us that he was stationed here at Kurai's request. He also said something about a shapeshifting Nobody running loose on the island." His eyes narrowed as he caught the tears streaming down Sora's face. "Sora…?"

"Shape… shifting…?" Sora murmured, his lips barely moving. "Then…"

Riku walked over to Sora's side, turning around as he arrived by his friend to look at the Twilight Thorn. The massive Heartless seemed to be looking for something, turning his head from side to side, almost seeming to sniff the air. "Sora… What exactly happened in your house…?"

"I can explain that. Later. But for now, we need to eliminate this threat."

Leo had appeared out of nowhere next to them, the door to Sora's house now open. His sister ran out unharmed, darting straight to Sora and throwing her arms around his waist, sobbing heavily. "Mom was… Mom was…!"

Kairi was looking from Sora to Leo in confusion, while Riku's eyes darkened. Turning to Leo, the Wielder of Dawn asked, "What happened to Sora's mom?"

"The shapeshifter killed her." Leo answered calmly. "I took care of him afterwards. Painfully." He looked towards the sobbing girl. "Then I disintegrated her body. I didn't have time for a proper burial. I did it as fast and as dignified as I could."

Riku nodded once, then turned to face the Twilight Thorn. "Sora, I'll take care of this one. Kairi, stay with him for now. Leo, I'd like to take this one alone."

Leo glanced over at the silver-haired teen, thought a moment, then nodded. "Go ahead. I'll be your backup. Princess, stay back."

Kairi nodded, not even reacting to being called Princess by Leo. But then again, she was used to it. A year of being called that during the peace time was enough to get used to it. Her eyes never left Sora's, then finally, she closed her eyes and leant against the shocked Wielder's body, resting her head on his shoulder. Softly, she started to hum under her breath, cradling the teen and his little sister.

"Dawn, you ready for this?" Riku asked his keyblade as he walked casually towards the Twilight Thorn, who had stopped its sniffing and was starting to turn laboriously to face him.

"Hmm… Looks big, but size ain't everything. I say two minutes. Five at max." His keyblade replied confidently in his mind, and he saw again the image of her face back in Soul Society, right before he exited his inner world to the sight of Kurai and the dragon, a beautiful angelic face, yet still terrifyingly powerful.

"Let's go then." With that, Riku leapt off, landing lightly on the Twilight Thorn's arm while leaving a black trail behind him. He stood up, flicking Way to the Dawn out slightly, and the trail solidified, becoming a wave of energy that sliced through the arm he was standing on easily.

The Twilight Thorn roared in pain, firing a blast of energy at Riku, but the agile teen merely dodged, leaping over the blast to drive his keyblade deep into the Heartless' forehead. "Good night."

Pushing away lightly, he landed deftly on the ground as the mighty Heartless dissolved into nothing with a final roar, a large pink heart rising up from thin air where the Twilight Thorn's heart would've been, should it have one, drifting on the winds back to Kingdom Hearts.

"One. Knew two minutes was a bit long." Riku smirked a bit as he hurried back to Sora.


"I guess you can call me a Wielder of sorts. Darkness'd be the one I wield. Riku, you wield Dawn. Sora wields Light. Kairi wields Love. So I guess that leaves me with Darkness. Anyways, I've always liked the night."

Leo grinned at the three teens before him as he explained. Sora still looked slightly sad; there were more lines on his face, and his eyes were lacking their usual sparkle. Yet he seemed to have recovered remarkably well.

"Kurai was the one who sent me here. Y'know, the angel. I don't have any memories of my life before I met him. He was the one who trained me, and although I couldn't learn his manipulation of light, I've kinda mastered his manipulation of darkness. Kinda like you, Riku."

Riku frowned. "So how did you come up here?"

Leo grinned again. "Kurai has his ways of manipulating stuff to turn out his way." He lounged back on the sand, placing his hands behind his head. "Anyways, Kurai sensed a Nobody entering Destiny Islands a while back. It was a long while too, you were probably only a kid back then. This was after the…" Leo faltered a moment, his brow furrowed. "Y'know, that thing with the dragon in him and all…"

Sora nodded. "I got it. Keep going."

Leo nodded as well. "Right. Anyways, he couldn't come himself; he was still busy wrestling with the dragon inside him. He told me to come."

"Wait." Riku held up a gloved hand. "You're saying that while looking our age?"

Leo shrugged. "I dunno. I don't remember a lot about how I was born and all. First memory I had was Kurai telling me to come here. As I did, he gave me some info about him and you guys, as well as my power to wield Darkness."

"How did he teach you…?" ventured Kairi timidly.

"I dunno what it was. Something that lets him speak in my mind. Telekinesis I think it's called."

"Telepathy." Riku supplied. "The ability to talk directly into someone else's mind without having to be close to them. Usually used by high-ranking magi and often associated with E.S.P."

There was silence as the other three looked at him.

"What? I read it in a book somewhere."

Sora face faulted. "I should've known."

Leo chuckled a bit, then continued. "Fine, telepathy then. Anyways, he trained me for a long while, until I could take on the Heartless that he said would soon be coming. I kept out of sight of any of the other guys on Destiny Islands by manipulating darkness to hide me, that's something I've always known."

Sora whistled. "How does Kurai know these things? Like when to come, who's coming and all that…"

Leo sat back up again, grinning darkly. "His dragon. It teases him with little bits of info now and then. It has connections to the Heartless Realm, and apparently, it's pretty high up in the ranks."

Sora frowned. "His dragon…? I thought it was another being, not a Heartless?"

Leo shook his head. "When you speak of a Heartless, what do you think of?"

"No brainer." Riku answered. "You know as well as we do what we think of."

Leo nodded. "Little black guys with no hearts in a literal sense. But what do we call people who're cold-blooded, who're inhuman and who kill just for pleasure, yet who have hearts in a literal sense…?"

"They're heart-" Kairi stopped mid-way, a hand to her mouth and her eyes wide in realization. "I… I see what you mean…"

Leo nodded again. "Bingo, Princess. What we call Heartless are merely a specification of a generic trait. You could say that Nobodies and the members of Organization XIII are heartless as well, but that depends on the way they act. To be honest, not all Heartless are heartless, and not all Nobodies are nobodies, right, Roxas, Namine?"

Sora received a mental image of Roxas nodding an affirmative in his head, and looking at Kairi, saw from the expression on her face that Namine had done the same.

Leo grinned, returning to his normal cheery self. "So, the moral of this story is to never judge a book by its cover."

"Right." Sora nodded. Then his face grew grim. "You said that Kurai knew there was a shapshifting Nobody on Destiny Islands. Why didn't he tell you to just eliminate him straight off?" He balled his hand into a fist. "Then my mom wouldn't have had to die!"

Leo's eyes narrowed as his black depths locked onto Sora's ice cold ones. "Nobodies have the potential to turn good. Kurai wanted to test this Nobody. And I was to be the examiner."

"But he failed." Sora spat out.

Leo shrugged. "So it seems to you. To be honest, he passed with flying colours. He fell in love with your mom. Y'know, he's not your birth father."

"I'm no son of a Nobody!" Sora gritted out.

"Never said you were." Leo countered fluidly. "Now that your mom's… gone, I suppose I'll have to be the one to tell you. She wanted to tell you herself, but I guess she can't now, unless you go to you-know-where."

Sora barely caught that information, instead glaring at Leo. "Out with it."

Leo sighed, throwing his hands up. "Fine. Your birth father left on a voyage long ago, only a few weeks after you were born. I remember seeing you and thinking 'Is this really the next Wielder of Light?' after Kurai told me you were. He was a fisherman, but don't let the name fool you, he's not one of those old codgers with mile-long beards and white hair. He was the only fisherman from Destiny Islands, and the whole place came to him for their seafood. And he was one of the best too. Never had a bad day, always came home with a full haul. Some say he made a promise with Poseidon, the sea god, others say he was a god himself, or even a demon of the water. The truth? Kurai told me. He was the Wielder of Water."

Sora sat back in surprise, and if he could see Riku's and Kairi's faces, he would've seen his face mirrored on theirs.

Leo nodded. "I'm serious. In the world at any given time, there're six elemental Wielders, two emotion Wielders, two cross-Wielders, and two governing Wielders. Of them, the most powerful are the cross-Wielders, the Wielders of Dawn and Dusk. Not far behind them, almost as strong as them, are the two governing Wielders, Darkness and Light. The two emotion Wielders are Love and Fury, which in part, the cross-Wielders have as well, which is what makes them so powerful. Dawn wields Light, Darkness and Fury, while Dusk wields Light, Darkness and Love. However, Dawn is more inclined towards Darkness, while Dusk is more inclined towards Light."

Riku's brow was furrowed, his mind in a whirl. "So… I'm stronger than Sora?" He grinned. "I always knew I could kick your backside in a duel."

Sora punched his shoulder playfully. "Shut up." But his eyes remained fixed on Leo.

"Technically, yes, but it also mean you have a temper." Leo grinned wickedly. "So keep it in check. But it's more than that. You might be technically stronger than me as well, but I can whoop you three times to hell with my hands behind my back. Experience and skill have a lot to do with it as well. But there are times when a governing Wielder can be stronger than a cross-Wielder, and that is when they stand beside an emotion Wielder. Kirin and Ruin are one such example. And Sora and Kairi are another."

The two mentioned Wielders darted their eyes at each other, then just as quickly looked away, red patches forming on their cheeks as Leo and Riku watched in amusement.

To change the subject, Sora decided to ask a question. "So… what's His Majesty? What does he wield?"

Leo thought hard at that. "I don't actually know. He seems to wreck all the rules of the universes as we know it. Not even Kurai know what he is. But then again, Kurai isn't sure what he himself is. He calls himself the Fallen Angel, but he wields a dragonblade, so Dragonlord is another title of his. He used to be the Wielder of Dawn though, so ex-Wielder'd be another title. I guess Mickey's just the Wielder of Gold, since we don't have any other info on that."

Sora shook his head to try to clear up the jumble of information he had just been bombarded with, trying to get back to the subject that had led them on this tangent. "So what caused that Nobody to snap? And what happened to my dad…?"

Leo thought for a moment, considering. "Hmmm… I don't know how much I should tell you, but this is the important thing is this: Your dad drowned."

Sora's face registered shock for the fourth or fifth time in the last hour. "Wha…t? Drowned? But wasn't he the Wielder of Water? Didn't you say he was the Wielder of Water? Why would water turn against him?"

Leo breathed out, leaning back again. "Put it this way: At any one time, only one Wielder from each group is active. Of course, there are exceptions, but that's the general rule. The rest of the 'inactive' Wielders stay in Kingdom Hearts, defending it."

Sora looked confused. "But… didn't you say that you are a Wielder of Darkness? If I'm the Wielder of Light, then you aren't supposed to be here! And what's that got to do with my dad anyways?"

"Calm down Sora, I said there were exceptions. Anyways, I'm not technically a Wielder, just someone who uses the name. And I'm getting to your dad; I figure I can at least tell you that."

Leo stopped for a while, seemingly in thought. "Hmm… Kurai said to limit what I said though." It took a moment for this to sink in.

"…What…? Did you just talked with Kurai?" Sora asked.

Leo nodded. "Yup. Anyways, that's not important. I heard you three can do it, right, Namine?" He grinned in Kairi's direction. "So, Sora's dad first. I can't tell you all the details, but let's just say that the Wielder of Water left him."

Sora looked confused. "What d'you mean? I mean, wasn't my father the Wielder of Water? How could he leave himself?"

Suddenly, Oathkeeper and Oblivion, along with Oathgiver, Eternity and Way to the Dawn appeared in the middle of the circle they were sitting in, bright flashes of silver, black, gold and white lighting up the small clearing they were in. Another flash, and the material forms of the spirits faded into view above the keyblades.

"Yo." Oblivion and Oathgiver grinned at each other giving each other high fives as Oathkeeper and Eternity smiled at each other, then Oathgiver walked over to Oathkeeper and hugged her, while Oblivion did the same to Eternity. Dawn just stood there, hands on her hips, legs apart, a wide grin threatening to split her face apart. Then they all turned to their respective Wielders and smiled at them.

"It got boring in there, so we decided to join in the meeting." Dawn supplied them with the explanation. "Anyways Sora, I'll let Oathkeeper and Oblivion explain to ya."

Oathkeeper nodded, then looked at Oblivion, who sighed and stepped forward. "Well, since Oathkeeper doesn't wanna talk, I guess I'll be the one talking for her. Right, listen up. You guys may be Wielders, but that doesn't mean that you guys are Wielders forever. A Wielder is someone who has opened his or her heart, who is capable of wielding a keyblade. However, sometimes, a Wielder may lose heart. When this happens, usually a Wielder can still summon a keyblade, but he or she'll start feeling drowsy, less… Wielder-ish, I guess you can say."

"What keyblade did my father use?" interrupted Sora.

Oblivion clapped a hand to his forehead. "Oh boy…" he murmured to himself. "Sora, your dad was what we call an inert Wielder. He has the power of a Wielder, in this case of Water, and he had the potential to summon a keyblade. However, he doesn't know of any of it. A Wielder is only summoned when the crisis is dire. Didn't Leo tell you that only one Wielder from each group is active at any one moment? Sometimes, not even that many are. Your father was the Elemental Wielder that was supposed to be active, but who never was due to there not being a crisis."

"So I'm more powerful than my dad? Is this some clichéd dream or what?" Sora suddenly felt a surge of anger roar through him. He didn't know why, but he felt the need to hit out at something, just for the sake of releasing his rage. "If there were so many Wielders, why did none of them help? When I was struggling against Ansem, when Kairi was held by Organization XIII, where were these 'Wielders', huh?!"

Leo didn't say anything, and neither did the keyblades. However, now all eyes were on Sora as he glared at Leo, who was the only person he felt he could lash out at. "Why didn't you come?! You call Kairi your 'princess', where were you then, 'prince'?!"

Leo's hair was hanging down in front of his eyes, hiding them from view, yet there was a faint sign of him looking at Sora, what could be seen of his face expressionless. Then a grin flitted over his face. "Gravija."

"You haven't been listening, Sora."

A small dome erupted around Sora, similar to Riku's Bankai, but translucent and on a smaller scale. Sora suddenly felt an intense pressure on him. Gasping, he fell to the ground. He had only felt like this once before; back in the training cavern when they had heard the old shinigami, Yamamoto Shigenkuni-Genryusai, release his zanpakutou, Ryuujin Jakka. That immense pressure would remain locked in his memory, alongside things both recent and long past, good and bad.

"Leo, you–!" he managed to raise his head a fraction, but the heightened gravity pulled him down again, flat to the ground as he fought to draw air into his lungs.

"Sora!" shouted Kairi, turning to Leo, who was watching Sora, the grin gone from his face, a blankness she wasn't used to seeing on his face now dominant. "Leo, what are you doing?!"

"Dawn." Riku's eyes flitted to glance at the face of his keyblade. To his surprise, Dawn shook her head, then returned to watching Sora. Riku stretched out a hand to hold Kairi, whispering into her ear, "Wait, Kairi."

Finally, Leo spoke again. "Gravija. The ultimate gravity magic. Only a few people in the world can use it. Kurai taught it to me. The original form of the magic named Magnet, Magneta and Magnega." Again a sardonic grin lit his face as he snapped his fingers, releasing the magic and allowing Sora to breathe again, his eyes wide, gasping as he lay on the ground, fatigued.

"Sor…a?" Kairi murmured. Riku said nothing, his silver eyes narrowed.

Leo's eyes flitted up to dance over the faces of the other Wielders. "Don't worry. He's fine. I didn't try to kill him, just knock a bit of sense into him. Princess, why you chose him I'll never know, the blockhead." Kairi giggled somewhat faintly at the last comment.

"Ugh…" Sora stood up wobbly, his legs shaking as he tried to get his breathing back to normal. "Leo you bastard… What did you do that for, dammit?!"

Leo shrugged, gazing at Sora from his crimson eyes. "I don't like people shouting at me. Got that?"

Sora growled. Leo smiled right back at him, then tossed his head. "Well, that's it for today. I gotta go take a look at things around the island. Might've a few Nobodies left, and I need to clean up the mess."

"Wait!" Sora shouted. "You created more questions than answers!"

Leo, who had started to walk off, stopped, then glanced over his shoulder. "Have I? That's good then." He continued walking off.

"At the least tell me the name of your keyblade, Leo!"

Leo stopped again, his head bowed. "Chaos. Final Chaos." Then a shadow enveloped him and he literally faded from view.

"Final… Chaos…" murmured Sora.


"They found out."

"I figured they would. Did the Nobody fail?"

"Yes. The smell of a heart was his undoing."

"I trust you dealt with him appropriately."

"Yes."

"Hmm… it's hard enough to get a Nobody to stop his instincts. This loss will affect us greatly."

"Love can do that, can't it?"

"Heh, yeah, it can. It sure as heck can."


The trio lazed in front of the beach, although Sora's mind was pre-occupied.

"Hey Kai…?"

Kairi tilted her head sideways, gazing at Sora. "Yeah?"

"Is it alright if my sister stays with your parents? When we get back to looking for the Queen?" Sora didn't look at her, his eyes remaining fixed on the pink evening sky.

Kairi was quiet for a second, then she shuffled to Sora's side, draping an arm around him as she lay on her side, snuggling up to the Wielder of Light. "Of course she can. I know my folks will take care of her perfectly."

"What am I gonna tell them?" The matter-of fact words that came from Sora's mouth heralded the first coming of tears since the night before. "What reason would there be for my sis to just spend the rest of her life in your parents' care?"

Kairi whispered in Sora's ear. "Hush, Sora. They won't ask any questions. They won't."

And with those quiet words whispered on the sea breeze, Sora finally let go, sobbing as if his heart would break, sobbing as though his hearthad break, releasing the pent up emotion that had been hidden beneath the confusion of Leo's words. And all the while Kairi kept stroking him, whispering comfort into his ears, tears rolling down her own face as she watched the one she loved weep.

A little way off, Riku smiled, but it wasn't a happy smile, more a snarl of vengeance. His hand, attached to an arm that was as usual folded, balled into a fist. The smile of revenge danced around his lips as he thought of what he'd do to the person who had ordered the Nobody to come to Destiny Islands.

"Yeah, that's right." Dawn's voice in his head toyed around with the various ideas before either discarding them or validating them. "Naw, now this is too weak. I say we take the whole arm off, why just the finger?"

In the shadow of the trees, Leo watched, his crimson eyes glowing steadily like coals in the night.


Blergh. Romance does NOT suit Kirin. Hope that scene wasn't too mushy. Now, in case you guys still can't figure out what Leo was disposing of, it was rogue Nobodies and Heartless running around. xD

As you guys can see, I threw a whole bag of ideas into this fic. Might not suit your taste, but hey, stop reading if you don't like it. Although at the moment, I don't plan on having the fic bombarded with Wielders; this story will still be very much Sora's, Kairi's and Riku's. Well, read and review!