This chapter follows Chelsea as Sora and Riku explain everything about their mission.

Chapter 55

An Explanation

"Don't you have any other options?" Leon asked.

"What do you mean?" Chelsea asked.

"Like one of them sleep on the couch," he explained.

"Yeah, there is a couch, but no one will be sleeping on it for a while. It is completely covered in dust and could use a good slip cover," Chelsea said.

"You do whatever you want," Aerith chimed in.

"Thanks everyone, I'll see you later," Chelsea said as she began to walk out the door.

She entered the hallway with her backpack slung over her shoulder. Riku and Sora were waiting for her with their own backpacks. They smiled when they saw Chelsea enter the hall. She couldn't help but smile back.

"Are we ready?" she asked.

"I think so. We have everything we need," Sora answered.

"So do I," Riku chimed in.

"Okay, let's go. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can start to clean," Chelsea teased.

Riku and Sora exchanged looks. Sora nodded at Riku and said, "Umm…Chelsea, we have some stuff that we need to tell you."

"Okay…tell me when we get to our base," she replied. By the sound of her voice, you could tell she was worried.

"Don't worry, it will be painless," Riku added after he saw the look on Chelsea's face.

She nodded in response. She wondered if it had anything to do with them leaving her. She put her worries aside and said, "Okay…let's head out."

Sora took the lead with Chelsea and Riku close behind. They stopped at the front desk. Sora handed the man their room key. The man nodded his thanks. They continued out the door and into the Second District.

"So…do we need to pick up some cleaning supplies?" Chelsea asked.

"No, Cid's delivering some for us," Sora replied. He continued to walk forward.

"Cid delivers cleaning supplies now?" Riku asked. His gaze was flicking over at Chelsea.

"Yeah, I asked him to," Sora replied.

Chelsea had continued to stare straight ahead of her. They were heading down the steps by the Potion Shoppe. Chelsea noticed a mass of black creatures inching their way toward the group.

"Guys, look!" she shouted pointing ahead.

"Wha…" Riku began. He broke off when he saw what she was pointing at.

"I guess we have to fight," Sora said. A Keyblade that was white with a blue and yellow star at the top appeared.

"When did you get that?" Riku asked in amazement.

"It's my Oathkeeper. I use it when I miss Kairi. It reminds me of the promise we made," Sora explained.

They had stopped at the top of the staircase. Riku's Keyblade appeared in his hand. He looked over at Chelsea. This sent a shiver down her spine.

"Please let me fight okay," she thought to herself. She summoned her Starkeeper. Her Promisekeeper keychain still hung from her belt loop, just in case.

"Wow, so you learned how to summon your Keyblade already?" Sora asked her.

"Yeah, I have another one too," she answered. She summoned her Promisekeeper into her left hand.

"Wow, you must be a true Keyblade bearer, otherwise you couldn't wield two," Riku said.

"Let's go fight these Heartless so we can get to our base," Sora said. He ran toward the black mass.

Chelsea and Riku ran after Sora. They approached the black mass of Heartless with their Keyblades poised to fight. The group stopped about a foot from the Heartless.

Sora ran to the right, while Riku ran to the left. Chelsea stood her ground in the middle. "Please don't let me screw up in front of them," Chelsea thought to herself.

They noticed the black mass was a bunch of Shadows. Sora began to swing at the nearest Heartless. Chelsea deftly swung her Starkeeper and Promisekeeper defeating any Heartless it came in contact with. She noticed that Riku was defeating the Shadows with and odd attack. He placed both hands on his Keyblade and a small blue fire ball would erupt from the end.

"How are you doing, Chelsea?" Riku asked while he defeated a few more Heartless.

"Great! How about you?" she responded. She stole a glance in his direction. She couldn't help but notice his sharply defined arm muscles.

"Just fine," he replied.

"I've got the last one," Sora said. He ran at the last Shadow and destroyed the small Heartless in one hard swing.

"Well, that's that," Riku observed. His Keyblade had disappeared from his hand.

"You know, Chelsea, you fight really well," Sora complimented. His Keyblade had also disappeared.

"Thanks," she replied. Her two keychains were back on her belt loop.

The three friends stood in the wide open area of the Second District. They did a quick check to make sure there were no more Heartless.

"Let's get a move on," Riku said. He started to walk away from the other two.

Chelsea and Sora ran to catch up with Riku. They continued to the Third District in silence. They stood in front of their new base. They gazed at it in pride. They entered the base and moved a few boxes out for them to sit on.

"So, what did you guys need to tell me?" Chelsea asked timidly.

"We wanted to explain why we are here looking for you," Sora began.

"Yeah, we feel that we owe you an explanation," Riku agreed.

"Okay," Chelsea said with a nod.

"It all started when our good friend King Mickey was kidnapped. The Queen sent us to find him," Sora began.

"When we reached the place where the King was being held, the people that had kidnapped him were waiting for us," Riku picked up.

"They gave us, meaning myself, Riku, Kairi, and Namine, two pictures; one of you and one of another boy. They told us to go find you," Sora said.

"They said that we had to bring you to them, otherwise the King would die," Riku added.

Chelsea sat in silence for a while. She had so many questions running through her head. She didn't know which one to ask first. She took a deep breath and asked, "Who are the people?"

"Xtmat and Chelesax," Sora answered.

"So…they want me, why?" she asked. She was pretty sure that she knew the answer.

"Because you are one of the chosen two Lightbearers," Riku answered.

"Yeah, I know that. So…why did you tell me all this?" she asked. Her gaze was on her feet.

"We decided that we couldn't take you back to them. Riku and I had a long discussion while we were packing," Sora answered.

"That's nice of you, but what about the King?" she asked.

"We haven't gotten that far in planning yet," Riku answered.

"Thank you so much!" Chelsea cried.

"Hey, it's nothing, you are a great girl. We couldn't hand you over to them," Sora said.

"Hey ya guys in there, open up," came a voice from outside the house.

Written by Chelsea