A/N: Destiny Islands is a neat world if I do say so myself. Well, mostly in the graphics and area of Kingdom Hearts 2. It's a shame we don't visit that world. And the Chain of Memories and Coded was barely much a help.

World: Radiant Garden

"Royal Flush! I win!"

Everyone grumbles and moans in disappointment as Yuffie takes in the winners pile. It's Merlins House in Radiant Garden and Leon and the gang are playing poker. Only they are starting to regret playing it with Yuffie. If I were there, I'd feel lucky they're not playing strip poker. What barbarian made that game?

"Again? This is the fifth time in the row!" Noel says.

"I agree. She must be cheating!" Cid says.

"Come on, guys. Don't hate me cause I'm lucky." Yuffie says.

"Whatever. Set it up! I want my munny back." Cloud says.

Yuffie sets up the cards for the next round. Time passed on this round. The bets are in and everyone is exchanging looks. Tifa gets a close look on Yuffie, but seems to have notice that, for an instead, an extra card has joined her hand.

"Wait a minute!" Tifa says as she slams her deck on the table. Everyone looks at her, Yuffie with worry. "Where did you get that card?"

"I-I don't know what you're talking about." Yuffie says, trying to play it cool.

Tifa stands up, walking around the table to Yuffies chair. "I saw your deck suddenly receiving an extra card." Tifa is right next to Yuffie, she slams a hand on the table. "What are you hiding?"

"Nothing! I'm not doing anything wrong." Yuffie says.

Tifa looks curious, with a raised eyebrow. "Is that so?"

Tifa puts a foot on the chair and kicks Yuffie right off of it. Everyone stands. "Tifa!" Leon and Aerith says.

Yuffie now lays on the ground. Tifa walks up to her, she grabs Yuffie by the feet, holding her upside down, then starts shaking her. "I told you! I! Didn't! Do! Anything!"

Sadly, she's wrong. As Tifa is shaking her, a bunch of Kings, Queens, Jacks and Aces cards starts falling out of her. At first, the gang are concern seeing Tifa like this, but after seeing the cards, they softened. When Tifa was done and just drops Yuffie.

Cid kneels down to pick up a king card. "Hey! Wait a second! You really were cheating!" Cids tone was furious.

Yuffie gets on her feet, only to have Leon, Cloud, Tifa, Cid and Noel walking towards her, either pounding and cracking their fists. Yuffie backs away. "Okay. Oh-okay. I may have...cheated, just a little bit." Yuffie is now cornered. She notices her words aren't really changing anything. "Come on, guys. Let's not be too hasty! Now, why don't we just sit down. Let's just calm down and we can..." Yuffie instantly rushes into her pocket to take out some black orb. "SMOKE BOMB!"

Yuffie slams it to the ground, unleashing a dense smoke in the room.

I arrive at the Central Square, making my way to Merlins house. It's a snowy day in this world. It starts to get chilly so I end up zipping up my coat. I'm not a big fan of the cold, which is ironic given to the fact I carry ice magic and Elsa is apart of my D-linking.

I now stand at the front door of the house, when I open it I'm greeted by a ton of smoke. I start coughing. "What the!"

A shadow runs towards me. For an instant, it turns into Yuffie, but I couldn't make out cause the second she's revealed, she bumps into me, still running. "Out of the way hummer-head!"

I look back to see Yuffie running away, until she's out of sight. "Yuffie?"

I stand back up and walk into the house. I hear everyone coughing. I cast a wind spell to blow away the smoke out of the house. When it's clear, I see a mess of cards and a chair on the floor.

"Yuffie cheating in poker again?" I ask. Everyone answers 'Yay' 'She did' or 'I lost all my munny'. "Hey, I keep telling you guys not to play against her. Don't say I didn't warn yea."

Everyone moans in disappointed. Terra starts walking down the stairs with Serah. I approach the large man, who's still teller then me by a few inches.

"Hey, Terra. You feeling any better?" I ask.

"Yeah. I am, thanks to your friend here." Terra says.

"Well that's good to hear." I say.

Terra and I go for a little walk around Radiant Garden. Right now, we are in the Bailey. The Bailey is restored to its former glory, but with a few changes. There is now a open passage to the castle gate ruins where it leads to where the Heartless War once took place. It's best to leave an opening so, incase another war breaks out, the bailey won't be destroyed.

Terra and I start walking up the stairs, we arrived from the Restoration Site. We are both dressed up for the snow day. My coat zipped up and wearing my hat. Terra has a trench coat with a gray scarf.

"I still can't believe how much has changed. How long I've been gone." Terra says.

"Ven was in quite a shock as well." I say.

Once we're up the stairs, we get a view of the Hollow Bastion castle that belongs to the Heartless. "So this world, Radiant Garden, fell to darkness. It was because of me, wasn't it?"

"It wasn't your fault. It was Xehanort's. He's the one who commended the Heartless to attack us all." I say.

"You know, I remember everything while I was being controlled by Xehanort. I saw all the horrible things Xehanort made me do. But I could not control my body to stop him." Terra starts to look regretful.

"Don't beat yourself up like that. Xehanort is the one responsible for everything you've done." I face Terra, giving him a playful punch on the shoulder. "But we shouldn't worry about him. We won't be seeing him anymore."

Terra now looks serious. "Yeah, but I wouldn't count on it. Xehanort is a trickster. It's only a matter of time before he regains his power and returns."

"That could be true." I say.

Terra and I move onto the Market Row. There, we found Serah doing some shopping. She is also dressed for winter, wearing a red coat with white gloves. She is right now picking some food. Terra and I just watch her from the Borough entrance. We walk towards Serah. "Hey, Serah."

Serah turns and smiles. "Terra. Big brother. Quite a surprise to see you two here." Serah picks up the grocery bags. "I was just on my way back to Merlins."

"Just be careful out there." I warn her.

Serah nods and walks off. "Come to think of it, why does she call you brother? Is she really your sister?" Terra asks.

"No, she isn't. Serah was brought in long ago. Apparently she had lost her world, so we took her in. I guess she pretty much just saw me as her brother. Just as I saw Aqua as my mother." I say.

"Makes sense." Terra and I were silent for a moment. "Hey...is it really true about what happened to Aqua?"

I was caught by surprise about Terra bringing that up. Why did he have to? "Yes, it's true. Aqua's trapped in the Realm of Darkness."

"How did that happen?" Terra asks.

"A nobel sacrifice. I was the one who was being dragged into the darkness, but Aqua dived into the dark to save me. Only one of us could escape, so she choose me." I say.

"Wow...I never would have guessed Aqua would go that far." Terra says.

"Yes it is. She's in the dark because of me. Which is why I have to bring her back." I say.

"I can help too." Terra says.

"I appreciate your offer, but I think you're in the dark too deep and too long. It's probably best if you stay out of this." I say.

Terra says nothing, just look down in shame. Terra and I start walking. We arrive back at the Central Square. Serah is obviously already back at home. Terra stops when we were in the middle of the Square. I stop and look back noticing he stopped.

"Hey, you know. I realize we never had a spar before." Terra says.

"Yeah, that's true. I was usually fighting with either Aqua or Ven." I say.

"Well, it's never too late." Terra summons his Keyblade, then takes position. "How about a duel?"

I smile then summon my Keyblade as well. "I accept your challenge."

Me and Terra are standing in place. Ventus and Serah walks right out of Merlins house. They notice Terra and I are in the square, positioned to fight.

"What are they doing?" Serah asks.

"It looks like they're about to fight." Ven says.

Terra makes the first move, charging towards me. At the last second, I dodge out of the way. Terra realizes the dodge, he turns to see me come at him. I make a strike, but he manages to block it with his Keyblade. Terra pushes me back. We both strike at each other, parrying and dodging each others attacks.

Terra's more skilled then Ventus, at least this will be fun. I jump a backflip to avoid Terras Quakega attack. When I land, Terra starts charging at me. But I see this coming. I cast a Zero Gravija spell, sending him in the air.

"What the!?" Terra says. I let my guard down, walk up to Terra. I give him a devious smile, grab his foot and pull it with great force, causing him to flip at high speed. "Hey! This is not cool!" Terra says.

Serah and Ven are surprise to see this. "Oh man! I wish I had thought of that." Ventus says.

After a while, the Zero Gravity effect wears off. Terra was able to land on his feet, but he was very dizzy. He can barely stand still on his feet. He manages to stand still for a moment, only to short have his mouth full of vomit, then he hulls.

Serah and Ven were disgusted by the sight of that. "That's not pretty." Ventus says.

After upchucking, Terra takes the moment to recover. He looks directly at me, holding his Keyblade out. "I'll show you!" Terra and I continue our battle.

We are striking, blocking and parrying with our Keyblades. At some point, Terra grabs me by the coat and tosses me over his shoulder. The moment I'm on the ground, I sweep kick, knocking Terra off of his feet, then get back on my own.

"This is amazing. It's like they're both equally skilled." Serah says.

"Terra is more experienced, and he's much more stronger then Aqua and I." Ventus says.

I start throwing faster swings with my Keyblade. Terra blocks each of them. When he dodges the last one, my Keyblade shaves off bits of his hair. Terra notices that close shave, he is not too pleased. Terra starts to come coated in darkness as he yells and makes a charge strike.

Ventus and Serah notices Terras rage. "Oh no, not again." Terra says.

I dodge each of Terras attack. Seeing the darkness within him, I use the darkness myself. I knock Terra back then cast Duskja. Terra blocks the dark mists, after that, he was surprised. While he's standing there frozen, I charge up the Explosion spell, then unleash it.

The battle is over and Terra is on his hands and knees. Serah and Ventus approaches us. Serah does a healing spell on Terra and helps him on his feet.

"I almost thought you had time, Terra." Ventus says.

"Yeah. So did I." Terra looks at me. "Of course, I did expect this, coming from the Keyblade Master trained under the great Yen Sid." I nod. "I really owe you for the save back there."

"You don't have too. It's really nothing." I say.

Terra understands, but he reaches into his pocket. "Here, Xehanort found this when he was controlling me." He takes out a Terra Charm and hand it to me. "I don't have any use of it, maybe you do."

I pocket the charm. "Maybe I will."

After our little duel, we turn in for the night. Right now, I'm just sitting on my bed, in my black t-shirt with red sleeve lines and blue-dark blue plead pajama pants. I now hold my Wayfinder on the palm of my hand, gazing down upon it. I think about Aqua, how much longer can she hold out in the darkness?

"Just a little longer, Aqua. I will find you." I say.

In my dream, I am my younger five-year old self, having a picnic with Aqua, Terra and Ventus. This event actually happened. Only instead of happening in the beautiful woods of the Land of Departure, it's happening in the city park of Twilight Town.

How is that possible? I didn't even know that world back then. We eat, laugh, watch the clouds. Up to the point where I fall asleep. I lay on Aqua's side, my head on her lap, while she strokes my hair and watching Terra and Ventus having a fight with their toy weapons.

Aqua sure is happy.

When we were done, we head back home. Aqua was carrying me on her back since I was still asleep. We arrive at the castle gates, only the castle isn't the Land of Departure, it's some strange castle, nearly similar to Aurora's castle in the Enchanted Dominion. Only the symbols on the flags are a Keyblade with the ring on the hilt in the shape of the outlined heart (The Kingdom Hearts symbol) and on the tip of the blade is the shape of a crown.

I've never seen a castle like this, yet it's strangely familiar.

We walk right through the gates, only just as Aqua enters, I was bounced back, like there's some barrier that repels me. I'm left behind, and the trio just walks right in like they didn't even notice me. I am banging on the barrier. "Mommy! Mommy!"

Everything turns dark, and Rasputins sinister laughter echoes throughout the area. Giant dark tentacles bursts out of the ground and grabs me, pulling me into the darkness. I try to fight it but it's too strong. Rasputin approaches in front of me, I look up at him. I don't know who he is yet I know he's dark and evil.

"You cannot escape the darkness! It is everywhere!" Rasputin says.

The tentacles pulls me into the dark portal on the ground. I struggle to get lose or to get out, but both are failing. By the time it's just my hand that's surfaced, something warm and light grabs it. The light grows stronger until it banishes away the darkness.

I open my eyes and gasp. I am not yet awake from slumber, for the area I'm now in is in the swirls of darkness. Let me put it like this: It's the same area as Castle Oblivion, only the building up ahead is really the old mansion that belongs to Twilight Town.

I am also my twenty-one year old self. I stand in front of the mansion, looking up it. "What the? What is going on?" My voice is echoing.

I look ahead to see Kairi. She has her back turned, looking at the mansion. She turns to look at me with a smile. What is she doing here? Kairi walks up to me. She grabs my hand, and puts something on it then closes my hand.

"Kairi, what are-" I stop as soon as Kairi puts a finger on her lips. A way of telling me to be quiet. Without saying a word, she turns and walks away, until she vanishes into nothingness.

Even though she's no longer there, I couldn't take my eyes off. When I do, I look at the object in my hand. It's a star-shaped yellow glass charm. It's nothing like a Wayfinder or Kairi's good luck charm.

Then everything goes dark.

I awaken from my sleep. It's now morning, but the sun has yet to raise. That's the beauty of winter...

I sit up, moaning tiresome. "Oh man...what a weird dream." I wipe the sleep from my eyes, only once I do, I notice there's something on my hand. When I look, I'm wide awake as I scream. It's the star charm I was given from Kairi in my dream. "Or was it...?"