A/N: Once again, another chapter, please read and review. I hope the readers enjoy the story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Legend of Zelda nor Kingdom Hearts.


Chapter 45: A Full moon once more

Four days later, Link gazed at the refurbished Sky cannon. The ancient contraption was so amazing it was worth every rupee he spent on it. Leaving Epona's side he examined the cannon from all angles and thanked Fyer for his services.

"Don't worry about it" the portly man winked "I've been well paid, besides this thing has got some good innards, see that red circle there? You just have to trigger it and bam! Off you fly to the heavens. Neat huh?" The man shuffled away leaving the Hylian to brood over his words, peering through the openings, Link spied the clawshot point he was talking about. A sudden urge to try it out overcame him, but he quelled his desires. If his suspicions were correct. Master Sora must be tearing at his hair with worry since Link had not returned home in the past three days. All they know is that he disappeared with Shad one day and failed to return.

Mounting Epona, he spurred his horse across Hyrule's fields and decided to do a clean sweep, instead of taking the short route he first galloped to Faron, thereafter he traversed lower Eldin and went north, sniping monsters along the way, after taking care of the bulbins in upper east Eldin, he trotted all the way west. Tying Epona safely he entered the town and made his way to the Kingdom mansion. As he swung the doors open his leader exploded.

"WHERE IN THE GODDESSES NAME WHERE YOU?!" he huffed "I was going crazy with worry, Zelda is going crazy with worry, Rusl was going crazy with worry…EVERYONE was going crazy! Link, you better have a good explanation…more importantly you aren't hurt are you?" Sora's bright blue eyes gave his third knight a once over and settled on his face.

"No Sir, I'm perfectly okay…I stayed behind to oversee the reconstruction of the Sky cannon" he bowed humbly "I apologize to have worried you"

"So, what is the status of the cannon?" asked the first knight calmly in contrast with his earlier outburst.

"It has been completely repaired; we can go to the City in the sky anytime we want."

It appears as if his commander had blanked out since the brunette stared into space.

"Sir?"

"I understand…get to the lounge I have vital information to relay." Link dipped his head and made his way to the designated area where the rest of the knights were seated. Like a pebble dropped into still water, his presence made quite a commotion. Zack leapt up and tackled him and a mist of tension lifted from the knights as they audibly breathed relived sighs. The fifth knight bumped Link on his head.

"Where were you? Master Sora sent a few of us out each day to search even though our main priority was to guard castle town. He himself went out to search for you. Gosh Link you had us all worried!"

The Hylian muttered a few apologies and sat down, the knights all swarmed to him and asked him a multitude of questions about his whereabouts, he was forced to explain the same things quite a few times and was finally released when the leading knight came into the room and sat down. Behind him stood Vanitas, golden irises fixed to the opposite wall.

"Vanitas" the prince began "you owe us a formal apology."

The bearer of courage blinked; there was no way Master Vanitas would apologize. A few snorts from around the table affirmed his suspicions.

The black haired noble made his way to the opposite end of the table and stood there facing the knights and to the astonishment of all present, he bowed and confessed to his sins. Then, loud and clear he uttered:

"I'm sorry for my actions, please forgive me." Straightening up, he marched backwards to his brother's side and fixated his eyes on the marble floor.

"Since we got that out of the way, by a show of hands, who'd like Vanitas to be re-instated as a knight?"

Every person's hands shot up, including Cloud's. Zack was holding up both of his hands. Link peeked at Vanitas and the adolescent sported an unbelieving expression on his visage. He looked guilty and the guilt soon morphed into bewilderment, at last it settled on gratitude. A small, sincerely happy smile was etched on his face and he gripped his brother's backrest in order to steady himself.

"Don't you have anything to say Vans?" Sora questioned roughly.

"Th-Thank you very much" the noble choked with emotion "I'll do my best at killing from now on" his mood did a 360 and he smirked, a few chuckles were heard at the table.

"Cloud…we are indebted to your services" the blonde knight rose from his seat and inclined his head at Sora's words "if we are ever in trouble, or if we have a vacant position…I'll send Zack to fetch you. I hope it's alright." A beaming smile was sent his way. The mercenary smiled in return and waved at his best friend. Securing his fusion sword he walked out the door without saying farewell. Next to Link, Zack muttered:

"I feel lonely already" he crossed his arms over his chest and slumped lower in his chair.

"Right…Vanitas you are hereby re-instated as the tenth ranked knight…since you are the weakest amongst us. Work hard and you will regain your former glory." The noble stalked to his seat after sending Link a friendly glower and sat down heavily. "Now, Link has informed me that the City in the sky is accessible, therefore as I intended, I'll be leading this expedition" the knights in the room all sat up straighter "coming with me will be Link, Vanitas, Ashei and…"

"May I come?" the fifth knight eagerly asked.

"I'm sorry Knight Fair, we need higher ranked knights to defend the city…Auru, please come with me"

The selected knights rose from their seats and followed their leader through the dark corridor


"Wow" breathed Sora as he laid eyes on the magnificent cannon "and you are telling me you simply need to trigger a switch and this thing shoots you to the sky?" His blue eyes were sparkling, however he composed himself. "I'll go in first."

Diving headfirst into the cannon, the first knight waited till Link triggered the clawshot point, with a gleeful shout he burst out of the barrel and the knights watched him soar into the sky with his arms stretched wide open.

"I believe I can flyyyy…"

"…Did he just…scream that where half of Hyrule can hear him yeah?" Ashei quipped and observed the diminutive figure shrinking till he melted out of view.

"Yeah…"Auru agreed "our young master just screamed like a kid when he went soaring into the sky…whose next?"

One by one they shot into the air. Link was the last one to go, as he landed with a very painful thump on his backside he sat up and beheld the ancient city.

It was picturesque. He stood up and a powerful gust nearly blew him off. Securing himself he surveyed his exotic surroundings with an agape mouth till someone jabbed him hard in the back.

"Stop gaping you moron…we have a mission to complete." Vanitas spoke and walked past him. The Hylian followed suit and they all trooped behind the first knight as he entered a door situated on the far side. They came into a chamber branching off into four different directions. Some of floor sections were decorated by blue blocks and there were a few bird type creatures called Oocca.

And apparently Link and all other Hylians were descendants of these creatures.

The Oocca were making strange noises and the green clad hero went near one and picked it up. A bird's body with a disturbingly human face, it gibbled a few times and he kept staring at it.

"I'm supposed to be related to this thing…" he dejectedly spoke to himself. Behind him, Sora, who was reading the map stated:

"If it helps you feel better, Princess Zelda is also related to those things"

Suddenly, Link felt better about his existence.

"Can I kill them?" Hissed Vanitas "the noises they make are grating on my nerves" he summoned Void gear and aimed at an Oocca, sensing danger; the bird squawked and flew off. The first knight got his bearings and ignored the rest of his team as he stepped forward alone. He failed to see the blue blocks and all of a sudden, he found himself sinking.

"Vans!" he screeched and the black haired noble practically flew to his brothers aid, waist half off, he grabbed on to his sibling and dangled. Link pulled on Vanitas' ankles and the two of them dragged a startled Sora to safety.

"Close…" he muttered in a daze "don't go near those blue blocks, they sink without warning." Link looked up and saw a few vines and clawshot holes. Without further ado he swung over the blue tiles and landed on the other corner.

"Nice dude…how in Hyrule are we supposed to get there yeah?" Ashei quizzed heatedly.

"Fly, using the chickens" Vanitas snapped sarcastically, at his statement his brother perked up and did exactly that, floating over to Link with an Oocca in his grasp.

Mortified by his elder's actions, the golden eyed youth simply teleported over to the other side.

Another door later, the posse alighted outside and stared at a broken bridge, again Link disappeared from sight and Sora tried summoning a dark corridor but repeatedly failed. Teleportation did not work as well. As the first knight peered over the edge and confirmed there were no other paths, the bridge started to spin, with a grinding noise, it slotted into another half bridge and the Hylian hero reappeared and ran down the path. The rest followed him much more slowly. They crossed a door and alighted into a long, wide corridor. A few crystal switches were placed and running along the wall, Link saw huge wind turbines. He was about to warn the others of violent gusts of wind when his leader unleashed a thundaga. Blinding lightning scorched and destroyed everything in the room. The turbines hummed no more. The switches were all lit. With a confident stride the knights, except Link went inside.

Nothing happened, a few tile worms surfaced but Vanitas took care of them.

They jumped over gaps in the chamber and continued on their path. And whenever they entered a new room, chamber or corridor the leading knight would fry the interior into oblivion. The strategy worked so well that none of the knights protested since they hardly came across enemies and obstructions, the bearer of courage felt lazy. Impa was right, with Master Sora around; you don't need the other knights.

Moving as a group, the team traversed into a new area and the doors behind them sealed shut. Link drew out his Master sword, however a yellow handled key-blade flew from behind and annihilated the two Dynalfos that materialized in the room. Sliding his sword back in his sheath, the Hylian sighed.

"Give us a break will you!" Vanitas seethed "how are we supposed to have fun exploring this place when you make it so easy? Geez! I regret ever wanting to come with you."

Privately, the rest agreed.

The prince ignored them.

A gate opened before them and Link and his companions shuffled forward, he saw a couple of switches and a hanging chandelier high above them. Without warning another burst of lightning activated everything except the chandelier, which broke. Stranded on a platform, it was the third knight's turn to want to rip his hair out.

"Hmm…nothing happened" the leader mused with a hand on his chin "Link what…"

Sora trailed off and took a step backwards. His knight was snarling and his upper lip had curled to show sharp, sharp teeth.

"The chandelier activates wind Sire, I'm supposed to float to the top using the wind and an Oocca…thank you for destroying our path" he spoke with barely controlled rage, each word punctuated by an audible snarl.

"…I can blitz you up there with an aeroga no problem" The key-blader smiled in an effort to diffuse his knight's wrath.

It took a few bashings into the opposite walls, landing on wrong platforms, falling and almost dying to get Link on the ledge he was supposed to be on.

"Great yeah! And how are we supposed to get there yeah?" Ashei squeaked in surprise as Sora grabbed her and carried her, using Kingdom key, he walked to the edge and dropped an aeroga in the empty space, dispelling his key-blade he jumped and the seventh knight screamed in terror, instead of falling, they flew upwards where a timely snatch from Link's clawshot brought them to safety.

"I…I can't believe I did that yeah…" breathing deeply, the female knight slid to the floor. Several minutes later Vanitas and Auru joined them.

"It was kinda fun" the tenth knight admitted, Auru shook his head in denial and joined Ashei on the floor.

"I'm getting too old for this" he mumbled hoarsely.


In the next few chambers, the prince was careful not to destroy any chandeliers and wind creating devices. The knights had now stopped before a series of wind tunnels and a flock of Ooccas. Vanitas groaned, snatched one of the birds and went first before any other person. His dignity took a severe bashing as he erratically floated, pushed and pulled by the wind. Not one to feel embarrassed so easily, his elder brother delightedly seized his own bird and followed after Vanitas, giving a few whoops along the way. Link went in last, in case anyone was blown off course and needed to be rescued. Luckily they got to the other end without incident, even switching Ooccas midway and jumping from platform to platform. At last, they simultaneously dropped into a room and like the other one, this one also snapped shut.

"Master Sora…you can destroy that chandelier" Link told him. The strong gale blowing beneath the switch died down and a few heartbeats later an aeralfos sailed into the room. Both nobles aimed magic at it the second it appeared and before anyone could process what had happened, a smoking creature lay at their feet.

"Mid boss…" the Hylian muttered "then the treasure chest…there." He zipped across and opened the treasure chest to retrieve another clawshot.

"Link! What did you get? Let me see" His leader's excited voice grew in pitch as he craned his neck.

"Pipe down will you" Vanitas whispered to him "don't forget your façade…and you have the nerve to lecture us…"

The bearer of courage showed the double clawshot to his leader who examined them. Losing interest, they pushed forward. Link, armed with the double clawshots was now able to cover much faster ground than his companions. However it soon became a problem when they entered an area where only double clawshots would get them across.

"What do we do now Sire?" Sora was traversing the temple in unorthodox ways and Link looked forward to how his leader tackled problems, besides after coming this far, it would be lonely to travel alone. He couldn't ferry anyone across since he had both his hands covered with the clawshots. The first son of the house of Kingdom chewed his bottom lip thoughtfully and looked up.

"Where do we need to go Link?" he inquired.

"At the top of the city most likely sir…I'm sure you noticed a huge dragon when we first came here. It is the final boss and a creature that large will probably only fight in an open arena."

"To the top of the city…got it. All we need to do is go up" the spiky haired brunette raised his weapon and blasted a huge hole in the ceiling.

"Wait Sire!" sputtered Link "that is not the way you…never mind"

The leader was already gone; he'd jumped through the hole he had created. Smirking, Vanitas and the others followed his example. Shrugging helplessly, Link too went through the hole in the roof. As he came out a hand grabbed him and his gaze met golden irises. The duo teleported around the city in a circular fashion till the hero was deposited in an open, grassy area bounded by four giant grated pillars. He noticed there was a small ledge to stand on top and his leader was already standing on one, key-blade twirling in one hand. The sky was starting to get dark and clouds rumbled. A flash of lightning announced the arrival of Argorok. Vanitas whistled.

"The dragon would make a good pet" he haughtily stated.

These people are all crazy, the master sword wielder concluded in his head.

"Should we help…or can I simply sit here and watch Master Sora in his glory?"

"No, we need to help him defeat it, when the dragon comes down, go slaughter it and bring its head to me"

The Hylian laughed at Vanitas' words, the chuckles died down as a huge meteor hurtled from the sky. Link stood up and followed the boulder's trajectory with wide eyes. It hit Argorok squarely on its scaly back and with a tremor, it landed on the ground. Still the triforce bearer did not move.

"What are you doing you idiot…go kill it! My brother can't pull a move like this twice!" Nudged out of his stupor, Link yelled and sunk his blade deep into the nape of the shadow creature, with almighty groan it took to the skies with its attacker hanging on for dear life.

"Nice…now we must be careful not to accidentally kill him" the black haired noble growled. Activating ghost drive, he instantly teleported to the dragon's back and sunk Void gear next to Link's sword. Argorok roared and slowly broke down into shadowy streams.

"Thanks for not frying me Vanitas" Link bowed his head and the adolescent merely waved him off.