Chapter 48

Mog drifted in the void.

Dorga's death had finally broken the last of the magical seals that held the headquarters of the Chasers together--and in an instant, the entire place had collapsed, cracking apart at the seams and shattering into millions of pieces. Lava from deep beneath the surface of the planet erupted forth from the cracks in the floor, freed when the place's foundations were suddenly destroyed. Explosions of magical energy--all that which was sealed in the ancient room where the Keyblades were forged--rattled what was left of the walls. And then everything just vanished, replaced by a blank gray void.

The World of Nothingness. Mog had heard of it before--it was the strange dimension which the Dark Passage ran through, connecting to each of the other three Worlds like a network of pipes. He had heard many stories attempting to explain its origin, but one particular story always stuck with him more than the rest--and that story was what was running through his mind as he floated through the gray void, not even sure which direction he was going.

The World of Nothingness was a true World once, like those of Darkness, Light, and Twilight. It was the world where those who didn't quite belong in any of the others existed--those who were neutral to the forces that swirled and mixed within the heart. There were humans, those of tribes other than the three ancient ones which populated the three other Worlds long ago. There were Moogles, coming in all shapes and sizes, from countless subspecies. There were other creatures--strange creatures, many of which no longer live today.

And then, something happened. The world was utterly destroyed, leaving only the void in its place. Its inhabitants were flung through the newly-formed Dark Passage, being forced apart from one another and spread throughout the remaining Worlds. None remembered what exactly had happened, or why--only that their home was gone forever, and the worlds they had been flung to were their homes now.

This was what he was always told growing up. It explained how Moogles existed in all three of the Worlds, even before the discovery of the Dark Passage or of space travel. It explained the presence of humans who had no relation to the three ancient tribes--the people of Radiant Garden, and of Twilight Town, and many other places throughout the worlds.

Mog wasn't sure if it was true. No one could know for sure--it was an event lost to history, so far back that even the most ancient sages wouldn't have seen it. Even Dorga and Unne--the two oldest people he knew--hadn't the slightest idea as to whether it was true or not. But, either way, it was all he had left to hold onto in this strange, gray world. As the ancient people of this world had been forced into the other worlds, he had been forced into what was left of theirs.

So he kept the story in his mind, and rather than simply allowing his body to drift in the nothingness, Mog slowly forced himself to stand once again.


Roxas waited in Vexen's lab, sitting in the old scientist's chair in front of the computer that held all the information that Organization XIII had collected over all its years. After sitting for nearly an hour, he started to get impatient--it was almost noon! Why hadn't anyone gone to the lab yet?

So, to pass the time, he began typing away at the computer, opening up the information files on the various members of the group--both past and present. He noticed that Xemnas' file was suspiciously blank, missing such vital details as "favorite food," "age when becoming a Nobody," and "age at death." The files on the other members were quite a bit more interesting--Xigbar's file contained a detailed list of each and every scar on his body (there were more than a hundred of them in all); Xaldin's contained a diagram of exactly how he tied his "draids," as he often called his not-quite-dreadlocks, but not-quite-braids-either hairstyle; and Vexen's file was apparently locked with a password to prevent anyone but himself from seeing anything that might embarrass him.

Before he had a chance to move on to Lexaeus' file, he felt a strange presence ripple through the entire building--one that he had felt before. Shortly afterward came the sound of metallic footsteps in the hallway, coming up from the caves beneath the castle and then stepping out onto the white floor of Castle Oblivion's lowest floor.

"No," he said quietly, "Not her... not now..."

Roxas drew his Keyblades, with the flames from one of the weapons twisting oddly in midair, apparently trying to keep away from the highly-flammable papers on Vexen's table. But before he could make another move, there was a bright light from the hallway outside of the lab, and suddenly the presence was gone.

Not long afterward, Lexaeus and Otonashi came rushing into the room to see what was going on. The two of them had obviously felt the knight's presence as well--she had returned to life, hardly a day after she was killed. And what was worse, she seemed more powerful now than she was before.

"Roxas," Lexaeus said, "You're unharmed... good. We made it here as soon as we could..."

"It's okay," Roxas said, putting his Keyblades back into their straps, "Sofia's gone already... she left before I had a chance to even see her in the hallways."

"Sofia?", Lexaeus asked, "So you've met with them before...? Hmm..."

"Yeah... well, not them, just her. She attacked me in Twilight Town," he answered, "I thought I had killed her... no, I knew I had killed her. I watched my Keyblades cut through the armor on her neck... and... the blood..."

"Yet, somehow, she still lives... very strange," Lexaeus said, walking over past Roxas and sitting down in front of the computer. He typed some information into the computer after exiting the Organization XIII data file, apparently adding in files on the three Warriors of Light that had appeared from beneath the castle.

"So Sofia is the female knight's name... that leaves two more," Lexaeus said, "And quite a bit of missing information to fill in..."

"Yeah... pretty much all I know is that they're with Gil-Neithev somehow," Roxas said, looking over Lexaeus' shoulder at the screen, "And when they die... there's this glow around their body for a minute, and then it just vanishes. Not like the Shin'an--they leave this white dust behind. With Sofia, there wasn't any of that... just vanished into thin air."

Roxas and Otonashi just watched as Lexaeus' enormous hands typed everything into the computer, his fingers moving with a kind of blinding speed that nobody would have ever expected from Lexaeus.


Maleficent looked out over her homeworld from one of the high balconies of the Castle That Never Was, now relocated so that it floated above the ground at the site where her old castle once was. It had hardly taken a day for her minions to conquer the world--with the three fairies who had once stood against her still missing, there was hardly any opposition. Finding Princess Aurora lying dead from a stab wound was a bit of a disappointment, as it meant that one of the Princesses of Hearts was unavailable, but overall, her conquest of the world had been more successful than anyone could have expected.

The world still looked mostly the same, but if you took a closer look into one of the cities, it was obvious that it was now a world enslaved--the townsfolk now worked alongside their former masters, both serving under those who had joined with Maleficent. They were paid only in bread and water--just enough to keep them standing--and when one of the weaker ones died, Maleficent would simply reanimate them as one of the undead and put them to work once again.

Some toiled away for hours forging weapons and armor for Maleficent's followers--Pete now wore a suit of heavy armor and a helmet (specially fitted with holes in the right places for his ears to stick out) rather than his usual clothing, and he wielded a massive spiked mace. For the first time in his life, Pete actually looked somewhat intimidating.

Prince John, the humanoid lion who Maleficent had allied with, was now in charge of keeping the workers working--he was already quite familiar with overworking and underpaying his subjects, so it was a perfect fit. He was particularly fond of overseeing jewelers and tailors, as his old robes were beginning to get dirty and Pete had a nasty habit of stealing his gold.

And, as she watched all this from her castle in the sky, Maleficent began to laugh--not a happy laugh, but a kind of deranged cackle that seemed to echo across the whole world from high above.