So while this isn't the definitive introduction of this arc, it is a definitive moment in our favorite characters' lives, for better or worse as they will probably find out. With that said, I'm pretty pleased with this chapter so have fun reading.


Chapter 53

The War Begins

In his mind Sora had, for some reason or another, imagined this fight to be incredibly easy. Putting aside the fact that the man in question they were fighting looked like Abraxas which should have been enough to spark fear into his heart, the man clearly wasn't Abraxas. Abraxas was long gone. This person they were fighting now was some imposter, a cheap imitation. Not only that, but he hadn't exactly been scared of the MCP the first time around. It was hard to find a giant head without a body terrifying no matter how hard he tried. So Sora had gone into this fight expecting it to be a breeze.

Sora was knocked into the air by the MCP's faux-replica of Abraxas' Keyblade and fell straight to the ground. The MCP had slammed the Keyblade into Sora's side and tossed him into the air like he were a pancake. He then quickly deflected Tron's disc at Luna whose quick attempt at a guard broke, sending her to the ground too.

The MCP plunged the Keyblade downwards at Luna's body. She rolled out of the way and pressed her hands on the ground, erecting jagged rocks that enclosed around his legs, locking him in position.

"Got you. Now be a good little program and give up," she said whilst getting up on her feet.

"Is that the user way? Giving up. My results suggest otherwise." the MCP smiled and walked right through the rocks, or perhaps phased through them would be more accurate, for he had done so as easily as a ghost could walk through walls.

"But how?" Sora asked in shock.

"The moment you entered this world, you chose to submit to this world's rules. All your magic is now nothing but code, you yourselves are nothing but code and seeing as I now have the administrative privileges of this system, that means you are subject to my rules," the MCP answered. "So you see, you cannot possibly hope to win."

"Well like you said. It's not the user way to give up," Sora said. He rushed in and met blow for blow as his and the MCP's Keyblade clashed several times. Luna soon joined in and together they managed to counter the aggressive swings of the MCP.

The MCP dived to Sora's left to get out of their range and swung vertically downwards at Sora's head. Sora quickly adopted a tortoise position, grabbing onto the part of the blade closest to the teeth with his other hand and arching it over his head. The fake Keyblade slammed into Sora's own, enough to make Sora buckle but allowing the Keyblade to absorb most of the damage. Seeing an advantage the MCP had left exposed, Luna jumped onto the MCP's back and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Get off me, you pest!" He yelled as he tried to fight off Luna's sturdy grasp.

"Wish you had your old body back now, don't you?" Luna yelled at him. "Tron, now's your chance!"

"Are you insane? You'd risk putting yourself in danger just to get me? Tron, your duty is to protect the users, is it not? Don't do something you'll regret. Would Sora ever be able to forgive you?"

Tron's mouth parted slightly, seemingly at a loss for what to do. The more apprehensive he was, the looser Luna's grasp would get. That was what the MCP was counting on. With the MCP backing his way slowly towards the edge of the cliff, Sora looked quickly at Tron.

"Tron, do it."

"What, but Luna-"

"Tron, do you trust me?"

Tron gave a slight unsure nod. "Of course I do, but I-"

"Then trust me, and trust her too," Sora said.

"Tron, you will regret your decision," the MCP tried to warn but Tron ignored his remark and readied his disc.

"I don't listen to you." With that said, Tron threw the disc without hesitation. Luna's attempt to jump off in time failed as the MCP turned his back against the edge of the cliff. The disc struck the MCP's chin and he fell backwards, Luna letting go and screaming as she fell backwards.

"Sora!" Tron yelled at him desperately who was already well on his way to the edge. He threw himself forward quickly and caught one of her hands.

"Like hell I'm letting you go this time," Sora said. He tensed his muscles and gritted his teeth, pulling up with all his might. This allowed Tron enough time to run over and take hold of Luna's other hand. Through their concentrated efforts, they managed to pull her over the edge and onto safe ground.

"Ha, ha-ha-ha. Caught ya this time," Sora said letting out a relieved giggle.

"I guess for every down there's an up. Maybe our luck's changing," Luna replied with much the same alleviation in her voice as his.

"I'm glad you're alright, Luna. I hope you didn't think too badly of me for hesitating to help you there. I was conflicted between risk and safety. I don't think it's something I've ever had to deal with before," Tron said. He wasn't breathing as heavily as Sora or Luna but he still seemed quite relieved and perhaps even slightly guilty.

"Tron, you hesitating shows that you care for Luna. If I were in your position I probably would have hesitated too. You're looking more a user every day," Sora told him.

"Huh. Really?"

"Yep, I agree with him. I don't think hesitating is something programs usually do. That was of your own choice. Not Abraxas' or anyone else's," Luna said. "I could never think badly of you. Thank you, Tron. That said, it was a rather close one. Let's try and avoid any type of cliff or mountainous region for a while, shall we?"

"And here I thought you liked falling off cliffs," Sora said with a chuckle before looking around. "Where's the MCP?"

"Down there." Tron peered over the edge of the cliff and looked down. Sora and Luna stood up and followed his gaze to see the body of Abraxas sprawled on the beach below, his hands outstretched and the ISOs that had been wandering out from the sea forming a ring around his body. After suggesting that they should go down so they could more closely confirm the MCP's status, Tron, Sora and Luna travelled down the mountains path which didn't take them too long.

Arriving on the beach, Tron looked on in surprised as flocks of ISOs made their way to him. They seemed confused and lost, like they weren't even in the same place, Sora noted.

"Right now they don't know where they are. I imagine they'll become more environmentally and situationally aware of the things around them in due time. It's similar to the last generation of ISOs," Tron explained seeing Sora and Luna's worried looks. "I'll make sure they're alright. You two go check up on the MCP."

Doing as they were told, the two users soon found themselves standing over the MCP's mangled human body. The MCP was still conscious, but was certainly in no condition to move and seemed to be struggling to keep his eyes open.

"Why did you do all of it?" Luna asked.

"Isn't that obvious?"

Luna shook her head. "No, I mean letting me out of my cell. You captured us only to let me out so I could rescue Sora and Tron. So what was the point of capturing us in the first place if you would eventually bring us back here?"

"Strange. I don't recall letting you out," the MCP said.

"What? No… but it must have been you. You took the form of Abraxas, and opened my cell and then released that rhino. We were in Alexander."

"I may have taken advantage of the data given to me by Abraxas to create a suitable locale in order to convince you. But I don't recall ever having come to you in this form any time before we met here or releasing whatever this rhino is," the MCP answered disinterestedly.

"What? How can that-" Luna cut herself off and stared at the ground instead.

"In any case, it appears you have bested me twice now. When I evaluated our last battle in order to find how a simple-minded user such as yourself was able to overpower me. When Abraxas brought me back and endowed me with his knowledge, I thought I could use the answers he gave me to exact my revenge," the MCP whispered.

"Your revenge, huh? And you still think you're superior to users?" Sora asked. When the MCP refused to answer, Sora continued. "What exactly is your definition of revenge?"

"Revenge is revenge," the MCP answered simply.

"Oh come on, you're a program, be a bit more creative, why don't you? Search your… para-whatever you call them and tell me what revenge is," Sora said.

"Revenge—the desire or act of retaliation for a previous wrongdoing caused to the self or others," the MCP defined after a while.

Sora's mouth formed a perfect circle. "Oh. The desire, or longing, to cause the pain that you were caused. You must have suffered, right? You must have felt angry and dreamed about the day you would be able to take revenge, right? Well, guess what, those aren't any different from the things we users feel. They're called emotions."

"I do not have emotions."
"Yes, you do! You feel sadness, you feel anger-"

"I do not feel emotions!"
"-and all that thrown into a cooking pot as well as the joy you thought you would obtain when you finally defeated us is what you call a user. In trying to destroy us, you let yourself get too attached to us. Oh, try all you might to destroy us, but don't forget yourself because you are just like any of us."

"Argh!" the MCP yelled out in frustration before looking away.

"Denial. Also a common user trait by the way," Sora added. "I think you took more from Abraxas than you might've wanted."

The MCP soon turned back to meet them, but when he did, it was not the serious and deadpan expression his face usually contained. Instead he let out a single chuckle, and then one more, and then one become many.

"What are you laughing at?" Luna asked.

"It's just… the definition Abraxas gave me on perfection. He did not see it the way you interpreted his definition, as an evolution. Instead he saw it as freedom."

"Freedom?" Before Sora could quiz the laughing program further, a large tremor threw him and Luna off their balance, as well as most of the ISOs and Tron. Sora pressed his hands into the sand and looked at the MCP who clearly seemed to be enjoying it. "What was that? What did you just do?"

"The fail-safe for the town. Not this world, mind you. In the case that the system were to ever go rogue, the inhabitants of the user world installed a fail-safe that would terminate the system to keep them safe. Everything inside the mainframe would be deleted. You didn't think I was going to go by myself now, did you? Not this time. The truth is I would rather die a program than become a user anyway. At least I'll die happily knowing you will all be following just behind me. Don't worry; the other users will rot too, in time. It is inevitable as long as they are shackled to the past. In Abraxas' words, to survive they must be… free."

"Shackled to the past? What does that mean? Hey, answer me!" Sora yelled. He grabbed the MCP's coat and pulled him up to meet Sora's face but it was too late. Any trace of life had left Abraxas' body for good.

"We need to get moving and reach a terminal before you two are stuck in here permanently," Tron said, having pushed past the other ISOs to meet them.

"But what about you and the rest of The Grid? We can't leave you," Luna said.

"Don't worry. If you want to help, you'll have to do it from the outside anyway. I'll fill you in once we reach the terminal. We only have ten minutes left, we need to hurry!"

Ten minutes did not seem like a lot of time especially since the city was a lot farther away than ten minutes, and not to mention the task Tron would ask of them once they got back to Radiant Garden. It seemed almost an impossible task, so it was quite fortunate that Tron had been keeping his eye out for one of their journey. After making their way back down the narrow path that overlooked the now stormy sea, Tron pointed towards something that looked completely out of place in The Grid.

"An arcade machine?" Luna asked.

"You were expecting a vending machine perhaps? Sorry, that was a terrible joke," Tron said.

"I actually wouldn't mind a vending machine right now but anyway, what do you want us to do once we get outside?" Luna asked.

"Seeing as how my administrative privileges have been revoked, I need them back. Once you get back you need to open up a command prompt on the computer there and access my command-line interface," Tron began as he rigorously typed something into the keyboard.

"English, Tron, English," Sora said, rolling his eyes.

"Uh, let's see. You hit the menu button, you type command prompt into the search bar, you click on what it gives you, then you go to my name and then go to where it says 'permissions' and change it to administrator. You understand that?" Tron asked.

Sora was about to say no but Luna quickly interjected, "Yeah, we can handle it, no problem."

"We can? Ow!" Sora yelled as Luna stamped on his foot. "I mean, we can! Of course we can… maybe."

"I've set it up. It's all up to you two. No pressure or anything, but you only have three minutes left. See you on the other side," Tron said before pressing a button. There was yet again a familiar sensation of being completely deconstructed and then reconstructed. Sora hadn't even stopped to check that he was all back in one piece before heading over to the computer.

"You're back! Oh thank goodness," Aerith said. "This countdown just appeared on the screen a few minutes ago. Do you know what it's about? Did you find Tron? What happened to him?"

"Too many questions, Aerith. I don't mean to ignore you but I'm trying to do something right now and I only have two and a half minutes left. Let's see…" Sora tried his best to follow Tron's commands, but with Luna, Aerith, Yuffie and Neuge peering over his shoulder, he found it hard to concentrate. "Um, I'd appreciate it if you could ease off a little. Thanks."

"Aw, you should relish in it. It's not every day you get four beautiful girls over your shoulder," Yuffie said.

"Uh huh, and where do you get off calling yourself beautiful?" Sora shot back. Yuffie's mouth dropped open and she was probably about to engage in fisticuffs had Luna not intervened to stop her.

"Let's just… let Sora do his thing, okay? And Sora, that was uncalled for. Yuffie's a great gal, if not a little… ADHD at times," she said.

"You're right. Yuffie, I'm sorry. You're beautiful, you know that?" Sora said in a most sarcastic tone that even Riku would be proud of.

"Aww, I wish I recorded that. Then I'd be able to fall asleep to it at night," Yuffie squealed.

"Okay, now you're just being ridiculous," Sora said. During this time, he had somehow managed to find his way into Tron's thing as he had called it in his mind. Seeing the words 'Set Privileges to Administrator', he awkwardly scrolled down and clicked on it. "Um, it's not working."

"You're supposed to double click on it… really, Sora?" Aerith tutted.

"Hey, excuse me if I'm not tech savvy. I'm sorry for living on an island for most of my life."

"Sora, click it!" Luna ordered.

"Feisty," Sora said and proceeded to double click the words before setting the permission to on. "Did that do it?"

They waited for what seemed like forever. With the countdown at a minute and counting down, they were afraid that they were too late or that maybe the MCP had somehow restricted Tron's privileges. Then the entire screen turned green and a voice could be heard coming out from the speakers.

"Tron here. All is well and good over here. You guys did it!"

"Tron!" Sora and Luna both jumped in joy simultaneously. Sora wiped invisible sweat off his forehead and relaxed.

"And here I thought I screwed up somewhere. Man, that was intense," he said.

"I never once thought you wouldn't come through, because… I trust you both. I trust all the users out there," Tron said. Sora smiled at this. He could even picture Tron blushing and scratching the back of his neck behind the screen. "Go get some rest you two. You've earned it."

"Thanks. What happened to the ISOs by the way? Are they alright?" Luna enquired.

"I helped them back to the city so we can only wait until they've become more aware. And the remaining programs that were taken over by the viruses have also been 'cleansed'. With any luck, the city, and the system as well, should be up and running within twenty four hours."

"We'll leave you to it then. It's nice to have you back, Tron," Aerith said.

"Understood. I'll report back once I'm done," Tron said and with that, a click was heard and the screen went black.

"So, just what exactly happened in there anyway?" Yuffie asked, but Neuge stepped in between them.

"I'm sure they're probably tired, Yuffie. Maybe you can ask Tron when he's back," Neuge offered. "Come along, you two."

Neuge's rather sudden forcefulness and urgency to push Sora and Luna out of the room, but questioning looks, however she chose not to address them until they were a far enough distance from the computer room. It was only once they were walking down the entryway on their way to the roof that she made clear what her reasons were.

"While you two were away, Riku and Kairi have been interrogating the assassin that went after her. She gave us some names of KRONOS members in exchange for her security. They're waiting up top for you two."


Riku and Kairi were quietly talking to each other when Sora, Luna and Neuge arrived on the roof. Neuge gave Riku a nod before setting off on the path back to the town. Sora watched as the last traces of her disappeared from his sight before looking up at Riku.

"You have names?" Sora asked.

"She gave us two names to go on. She also mentioned Ratigan but you two got rid of him so that strikes him off the guest list," Riku said. He turned around, his back facing them, and gazed at the town in the distance. "We have Kefka. We need Pete, Gantu and Hook. Apart from Ratigan, Freya mentioned two more people involved in the Chimera project—a Dr. Drakken and someone named Yzma. As far as we know, they're the only ones they have working on the project. If something were to happen to them, then the project would at least be delayed."

"Good. That's a start," Sora said. "But it's not enough. KRONOS… they've shown that they don't care how many they hurt to get to their goal. Those children suffered because they wanted to get at me. They tried to hurt you, Kairi, because they wanted to get at me. It was their way of saying, don't interfere in our plans or you'll regret it. We've become too involved. Made ourselves too conspicuous… and others are paying because of it."

"Rather than going after us, they're going after the people we're trying to protect in order to scare us away? Then what do we do?" Kairi asked.

"We fight. We hunt KRONOS down before they hunt us. They'll harm people either way if we allow them to continue with what they're doing. If KRONOS want to start a war, we have no choice but to face them head on. Where there's a fire, we'll make it rain," he answered her.

"War, huh? I was hoping I'd never have to hear that word," Kairi replied.

"But he's right, you know. Not just them either. Moira's Crescent as well. They have done anything in a while but if they try to go after Sora one more time, that's all the reason to take them out with KRONOS," Riku said.

"Woah, woah there!" Luna held her hands out in protest. "KRONOS is one thing but if we keep labelling people as enemies, this 'war' is never going to end. Let's just ignore Moira's Crescent for now."

"Ignore them? Or give them a free pass because your friend is with them?" Riku asked.

"How can you say that?" Kairi asked but Luna put her hands up.

"Don't worry, Kairi, I can handle this. Listen Riku, don't you dare bring Astra into this. You know perfectly well what I meant. If we keep being paranoid all the time about when and where something will happen we'll be giving into fear and it will tear us apart," Luna shot back angrily.

"Just tell me this. In the scenario that they continue to target him, would you be able to fight your friend?"

"Riku, stop this. She's right. We focus on KRONOS. Don't forget that they might have Alice. Now they've targeted Kairi. It may not just be me that they're after. The problem here is that we put all the Princesses of Heart in one area where they can be easily reached. Mulan can't protect them on her own," Sora said.

"But it's also too dangerous to send them back to their own worlds," Kairi added.

"We'll figure something out. Mickey asked Donald and Goofy if they could assist Mulan in keeping them safe so at least that's a temporary improvement," Riku said. "And… sorry, Luna. I know you have Sora's best interests at heart, but that also means preparing for the worst case scenario."

"It's alright. I understand. Thank you," Luna said nodding up and down before looking away. Sora could tell that she was still hurt by what Riku had said to her. In fact, this topic in general had brought a rather moody atmosphere among the group, one that Sora didn't quite like.

"You know, me and Luna are starving. Have you guys had something to eat yet?" Sora asked.

"We ate before interrogating Freya. Something tells me though that Neuge just happens to be waiting near a certain grilled steak restaurant ready to treat you guys for your hard work," Kairi teased.

"And she says she doesn't care about us. Really," Luna said exchanging wry smiles with Sora.

"She doesn't see it that way. She prefers to see it as a teacher giving their students a reward for their hard work," Riku said.

"Still a pretty expensive reward though," Luna said gleefully. "Let's hurry, Sora, or else I'll just be nothing but a sack of bones and my ghost'll blame it all on you."
"I really doubt that, but I'll race you there!" Sora yelled before pushing forward for a head start.

"Hey, that's not fair, you cheater!" Luna yelled and followed after him.


The rest of the week passed peacefully for Sora and his friends, notwithstanding the occasional Heartless that found itself at the mercy of the Radiant Garden committee or the operating system's security program. From a town on its knees it had spiralled off into a direction no one could have expected. It had become a fortress in all but looks. Xanatos' funding had of course been a big contributor to this.

Walls and buildings, once decrepit and destroyed, had now been mostly replaced or were in the process of being replaced to provide for more in the way of research centres and gardens befitting of the world's name. On his morning jog through the town, Sora had counted at least six buildings that he had never seen before. One in particular that he had found captivating was a massive dome-shaped greenhouse with plants of various types and sizes, some even being almost encumbered by the glass dome that covered them.

During the evenings, the committee were responsible for holding weekly events like festivals or concerts in hopes of raising money to better the infrastructure of the town. From what Colette had told Sora, Xanatos Enterprises was responsible for putting out high paying job offers to citizens. After being paid, this money was fed back into the economy by encouraging the public to become active and take part in these events, thus allowing the restoration committee to build more projects. Sora and the others had taken part in the previous night's festivities, for example, which had involved a tennis tournament, Colette and Tifa being among those that had participated.

It was a chilly night and Sora had been walking through the streets, not really thinking of anything. That was what Xanatos had recommended to him last night when they had crossed each other's paths at the tournament. He had even offered to be Sora's psychiatrist if he ever needed one. While Sora hadn't taken him up on his offer immediately, it was no secret to anyone that a lack of confidence coupled with recent events starting with Yeul had severely inhibited his happiness. Yen Sid would no doubt recommend that he take Xanatos up on his offer and Neuge hadn't stated this explicitly yet, but he believed that she was trying to help him in her own way.

The shrill shriek of a cat sent his head turning an immediate 90 degrees clockwise. A cat leapt out of the pub quickly and ran past Sora as quick a mouse. A middle aged man with an unkempt beard and steely gaze leaned out of the door and looked down the street before looking at Sora.

"And what ye be lookin' at?"

"Nothing, sir. Absolutely nothing," Sora said quickly before getting an idea. "Do you know if Neuge is in there?"
"Aye, she be there, lad," the man jerked his head inside and Sora made to follow him. He had only been in the pub once before but the dim lights that had occupied it when he last went there had yet to be fixed. He supposed this would be the one place to resist any change in Radiant Garden.

The man pointed at the front of the front of the bar where Sora had seen her last time. He quickly thanked the drunken man, then walked over and sat on the empty seat next to her.

"I'm guessing this is your favorite seat?" Sora asked with a grin. Neuge looked at him for a second and then looked back at her drink, swirling the contents of the bronze chalice around in her hand.

"It's the closest place to the bartender. That way I can my drinks more quickly," Neuge said.

"So what happens if there's someone already in this spot?"

"Hell happens," Neuge responded simply. She was slurring her words a bit so Sora could tell that she had at least been drinking for a while. Neuge when she was fully drunk was much worse.

"She's right you know. She doesn't take kindly to people in her seat," the bartender backed up her words while cleaning out a beer glass in his hand with a piece of cloth.

"And you just let her?"

The bartender shrugged. "She pays."

"Of course," Sora said in a half sigh before looking at Neuge. "Isn't there anything productive you do besides sit here every night?"

"I train you and Luna, don't I?"

"I mean for yourself. You haven't ever thought about joining up with the restoration committee?" Sora asked.

"They seem rather *hic* fine from what I can see. As was only brought here to be your teacher and I think I'll stick to that," Neuge said. She looked around all shifty-eyed before saying in a low voice, "And I prefer to be alone anyway. The only friend I'll ever need is this." She held up her chalice to him before taking a sip.

"So you're a miserable old woman," Sora said, earning a dangerous glare from Neuge that immediately made him regret trying to lighten the mood. This look was soon rescinded with a more gentle expression.

"I'll give you miserable *hic* but I ain't old. Forty-five is not that old," Neuge told him. "When you become that age, you'll realize that none of your elders are impressed with you turning that age. It's the age where you can say you're not young anymore but not old enough to complain about it."

"Well, how about I be your friend? Friendship doesn't exactly have any boundaries, especially not with age," Sora said.

Neuge snickered for a second in an attempt to stifle her laugh before giving in and letting it out. She shakily set the chalice down and laughed into her sleeve before holding up her hand.

"Okay, okay, I'm done. That was a good one," Neuge said. "You ever thought of being a comedian?"

"I'm a bit too tied up at the moment to think about stuff like that. That said, that wasn't a joke," Sora said.

"Of course it wasn't," Neuge replied with a sweet smile before picking up her chalice again. "Kid, you're already down in the dumps. If you were my friend, I'd probably end up giving you depression. Do yourself a favor and save yourself the trouble."

"I'm not going to leave you if you feel that way. You said that before I left for Tron's world that you'd tell me what was going on with you and Yen Sid, didn't you? You even said it would be easier when you were drunk."

"Dammit, I did say that, didn't I?" Neuge cursed under her breath and took a big swig from her chalice before slamming it down on the table. "I really don't want to tell this story, but I promised. Alright, settle in well, kid. This is gonna be a long one."