Keys to the Kingdom

by MiniJen

Thirteen Keys, scattered across the worlds. Whoever holds them all is destined to rule the heart of all worlds: Kingdom Hearts. As both light and darkness scour the worlds for these keys, Sora finds himself caught between standing alongside his friends as they fight for the light and struggling against the encroaching darkness invading his own heart. KH3 AU.

25. Chapter 24: Where the Dream Takes You

Oo boy well this one ended up being longer than I wanted it to. But only because lot happens in it, including several things that will be pretty important later on, so you'd do well to pay close attention! Either way I like how it turned out, so let's finish off the second half of our Atlantean adventure with a bang and get started!

---

Chapter 24: Where the Dream Takes You

Where the dream takes you
(Where the dream takes your heart)
Where your heart longs to be
(Your dream will lead you on)
When you finally find that place
You'll find all you need
Where the dream takes you

By some miracle or chance or something else entirely, Sora somehow had the wits about him to roll out of the path of the armored figure's Keyblade just before it could land its devastating blow. He was still soaking wet, still completely out of breath, and still under attack as the armored figure pulled its weapon back up to come in for another strike. Its movements were swift and precise and deadly, or at least they would have been if Sora hadn't haphazardly scrambled to his feet to avoid yet another heavy swing. It said nothing outside of its original remark, one that Sora was still largely reeling from as much as he was from this sudden, daunting encounter in general. After all, he hadn't even seen this armored figure in quite some time, not since his first decisive battle he'd fought against it alongside Donald and Goofy quite some time ago, a battle the trio had barely even managed to win, much less make it out of alive. As a result, he knew all-too well just how incredibly powerful and steadfast this unknown warrior was, even if its motivations for coming all the way here and assaulting him out of the blue like this were a complete mystery.

By now, Sora had absently summoned his Keyblade on instinct, though he'd made no move to attack or even defend against the warrior's maneuvers. Instead, the most he could do was narrowly dodge them, his mind and heart both racing with rising fear and panic. Briefly, he glanced around for any sort of assistance he could find, hoping to see Donald and Goofy rushing to his aid in particular, but instead he was quick to realize that the dock they were on was more or less abandoned. Which meant that he was left to fend off a threat that could very easily destroy him in a matter of minutes entirely alone.

While he normally would have tried his hardest to brazenly fight back against such a threat, Sora knew that doing so now would only lead to devastation, especially with his strength as limited as it currently was. So instead, he decided to utilize a different tactic instead, one that, by all accounts, was every bit as risky as fighting back would have been.

"W-wait!" he finally spoke up, his voice hitching in fear that he didn't even try to hide. His Keyblade was shaking in his uncertain grip as he took a large step backward, though the warrior slowly continued its approach, its own weapon ready for its next attack even as Sora made an anxious attempt at reasoning with it. "I-I… I don't want to fight you!"

"No," the warrior responded simply, not a single hint of any sort of emotion in its tone as it raised its Keyblade high once again. "You don't."

Sora gasped, having no time to react as the warrior brought its Keyblade down in a strike that actually landed this time. The dull side of the broad weapon hit him hard in his side, sending him flying back until he crashed into the crumbling ruins of a broken statue. The impact alone was agonizing, but Sora forced himself to ignore the pain so he could rush to pick himself back up before the warrior could beset him once more. He made good use of the brief bout of time he had to put some distance between himself and the warrior by slipping out of sight behind a nearby column as he shakily continued his nervous appeal. "W-why are you doing this?" he asked, pressing tightly against the pillar as the warrior began searching the area for him. "What do you even want?!"

"You know exactly what I want," the warrior spoke, its mighty Keyblade tearing through another one of the courtyard's pillars, though fortunately not the one Sora was hiding behind. "My body, my heart… Xehanort… It's time for you to give them both back!"

Sora shuddered as the warrior mistook him for Xehanort once more, not even needing to wonder about how it had come to make that connection considering what he now knew. Still, that didn't mean he had to accept such an accusation willingly. "I… I am not Xehanort!" he retorted as firmly as he possibly could.

"...You're lying," the warrior responded after a beat of silence amidst his hunt. "I can feel his darkness in your heart, just like I felt it inside my own."

"You… what?" Sora didn't have time to pursue this question any further as he heard the warrior's Keyblade slam into the column he had taken refuge behind. He barely managed to run out of the way of the falling debris, and though he thought he was in the clear, he quickly found he wasn't as the warrior suddenly appeared directly behind him. He only had time to move his Keyblade to block its next blow, though it did relatively little against such a powerful swipe. The force of it alone tore the Kingdom Key from his grip, leaving him defenseless as he began to fall backward. Yet before he could land, the warrior suddenly caught him, reaching down to tightly grasp the front of his shirt before it harshly yanked him upward into the air.

Sora tried his best to struggle against the armored figure's hold, but there was ultimately nothing he could do to stop the warrior from using its other hand to secure a tight, unyielding grip around his neck. It didn't hesitate to restrict that grip almost immediately, and it wasn't very long at all until Sora found himself gasping for air he couldn't receive as the warrior slowly yet steadily began to strangle him while he dangled helplessly from its hand.

"S-stop…" he choked as loudly as he could, his hands tightly clenched against the much larger one holding onto his throat.

"No," the warrior didn't even flinch at such a desperate plea. "I won't stop. Not until I take back what you stole from me."

"I-I… I don't… I c-can't…" Sora tried to argue, though by this point, every single breath he tried to take was a struggle. His limbs had grown weak and numb and eventually still as the edges of his vision grew dark and blurry, his head light and his thoughts distant as hot tears welled up in his eyes. "S-stop… please…" he begged one last time, his voice practically inaudible as consciousness began to slip away from him. Yet just before it could, a sudden echo rang out from the depths of his heart, an echo he only barely managed to make known in a fading, feeble whisper. "T-Terra…"

The warrior's reaction to this was sharp and immediate. In an instant, it released its oppressive hold on Sora completely, allowing him to fall to the ground at its feet. The moment he was free, Sora wasted no time in taking in a large gasp of air to try and make up for what he had lost as he listlessly lay against the stony ground he had collapsed upon. Still, when he managed to steal a breathless glance up at the warrior, he noticed it taking a step back from him, its manner largely unreadable as ever, though its body language almost seemed to reveal some sort of genuine surprise. And that surprise almost, almost spilled into its tone as it spoke once more. "No… It can't be…" it shook its head as it stared down at Sora incredulously. "Ven…?"

Sora gasped again, though this time it wasn't for air this time. Instead, his vision suddenly shifted, the armored warrior's appearance taking on that of a friend, one who would never hurt him, who had always strived to protect him, even when he stubbornly, foolishly believed he didn't need that protection. He had chased after that friend from the very start, eagerly following his lead in the hopes of showing him that he could be just as strong, just as brave, just as dependable as he was. And now, years later, after so much loss and separation, even if neither of them were really as they should have been, he'd finally, finally found him again.

"When I really need you, Ven," he had said so long ago now. "I know you'll be there."

"I'm here now, Terra," he wanted, needed to say, but the words wouldn't come. "I'm here…"

And just like that it was over, the connection broken as reality set in once more. Sora had no idea what to say as he continued trying to catch his breath, staring up at the warrior in dumbfounded silence all the while. For its own part, the warrior also kept its sights trained on him, its Keyblade gone though it was still clearly on guard for something, though Sora had no idea what. "How can this be…?" it's hollow voice filled in the newfound silence between them. "Xehanort… and Ven…? Who… What are you…?"

As shaken and shellshocked as he currently was, Sora struggled to so much as even speak to answer this question, to finally set the record straight. "I… I'm-"

"Sora!" Donald and Goofy's shared, distressed outcry echoed through the surrounding area, a sure sign that they were finally on their way. And while normally Sora would have been immensely relieved by their arrival, now he thought they couldn't have come at any worse of a time as the warrior prepared to retreat.

"This isn't over," it said, stopping short as it turned away from him. "I promise I'm either going to stop you… or save you, whoever you are."

In a matter of seconds, the warrior called upon its powerful Keyblade once more, tossing it into the air as it somehow transformed into some sort of glider-type vehicle, one that it wasted no time in deftly leaping onto. "Wait!" Sora shouted after it, trying and failing to pick himself up off the ground to go pursue it. "Don't… go…"

He trailed off into a disappointed sigh as the warrior jetted off into the air, making its retreat just in time for Donald and Goofy to arrive. The pair rushed to Sora's side as soon as they spotted him, both of them readily fretting over him as they noticed how beaten and disheveled and stunned he seemed to be. "Sora! We're so glad we found you!" Goofy exclaimed, placing a steadying hand on his shoulder. "Are you ok?"

"Look at your neck!" Donald started, noticing the rather dark bruises the warrior had left on Sora's throat. Bruises that the magician quickly cast a timely, generous healing spell over. "What happened to you?!"

For his part, Sora didn't answer or really even regard either of his companions. Instead, he kept his sights silently set on the sky, or rather on the armored warrior as it flew further and further away. All the while, he could feel his own heart brim with a kind of grief he didn't quite understand, one that was still potent enough to nearly draw out tears as some small part of him wordlessly begged the warrior to return. For his friend to come home.

By now, Donald and Goofy had noticed the retreating warrior themselves, even if it was quite far into the sky to the point that it was barely even visible from their spot on the ground anymore. "Say…" Goofy began, squinting to get a better view of the distant warrior. "Isn't that the armored fella we fought that one time…?"

"I think so…" Donald agreed, confused. "What's he doing all the way out here?"

Sora jolted at this, grounding himself back in the present as much as he possibly could as he finally addressed his companions' wonderings. "I… I think that was… Terra…" he said softly, sadly almost.

"What?!" Donald and Goofy exclaimed in unified bafflement.

"How do ya know?" the captain asked, aptly bewildered.

"I didn't," Sora admitted as he gently skimmed a hand over his heart. "Ventus did…"

The pair exchanged a bewildered glance at this, neither of them sure of what to make of this news as they tried to simply make sense of it above all else. "But… that's impossible!" Donald countered. "You heard what the king and Riku said: the Organization has Terra! How could that guy be him?"

"I know what I felt," Sora protested firmly as he accepted Goofy's aid in standing. "And what I heard. It said… it said Xehanort stole its heart and body. So maybe… what's in that armor is what's left of Terra's mind? Or his memories or something..."

"Gawrsh… if that's true then Terra must be pretty strong for a piece of him to have survived all this time!" Goofy noted, quite impressed.

"Yeah…" Sora agreed, frowning as he looked to the now-empty sky. "...We've got to help it."

"You want to help it? Right after it attacked you!?" Donald asked incredulously.

"It only did that because it thought I was-" Sora stopped short just before he could say too much, the warrior's cold accusations still chilling him in a way he didn't dare let show to his companions. "It… didn't know who I was. It stopped as soon as it started thinking I was Ventus. I guess it must have sensed his heart in mine."

"Well, shucks, Sora, we definitely wanna do whatever we can to help Terra," Goofy said earnestly. "Where do you think we should start?"

"I… don't know…" Sora sighed once more, looking to his heart for answers only to receive no feedback from it this time around. "I don't think Ventus does either. B-but, there's gotta be something we can do! We just need to figure it out."

"Aren't you forgetting something? Again?" Donald asked, crossing his arms. "We still need to find that Key, remember?"

"I know," Sora agreed, finally taking on something of a hopeful smile. "But who says we can't do both at once?"

While the magician let out a bit of an exasperated grumble at this, the captain couldn't help but let out a small, jovial chuckle as he muttered to him, aside. "Well, at least it looks like he's finally getting some of his optimism back."

"I think you mean his bad meddling habit back…" Donald retorted dryly.

"Speaking of the Key," Sora spoke up as he started to lead the way out of the area. "What happened to Milo and Kida?"

"They went ahead to keep lookin' for the Heart of Atlantis," Goofy informed. "They were both pretty worried about you after that crash, but we told them we'd find you and catch up with them later."

"Yeah, we figured we might as well take charge in coming to your rescue, as usual," Donald teased lightly, though the joke hardly struck a chord with Sora.

"You didn't come to my rescue," he clarified harshly, turning away from the pair. "I didn't need to be rescued to begin with."

Donald and Goofy exchanged a nervous glance at this, their shared levity quickly fading at their young companion's almost bitter response. They both prepared to speak to it in the hopes of easing his apparent frustration, though before they could get a word out, a sudden blast, a loud gunshot to be exact, rang out across the entire city, followed in rapid succession by several more, all topped off by a momentous explosion to finish the heavy racket off.

"W-what was that?!" Donald exclaimed, aptly alarmed.

"It sounded like it was coming from near the palace," Goofy pointed out, concerned.

"Let's go check it out," Sora continued pressing on ahead, with his companions following not too far behind.

The trio wasn't exactly sure what they'd find as they neared the palace, though their first shared suspicion was that Vexen or the horde of Nobodies he'd brought along with him were on the attack once more. Yet, as they made it to the center of the city itself, all seemed eerily quiet, almost as if the peaceful Atlanteans who lived there had been forced to hide away out of sight. And when the trio snuck their way into the palace itself and toward the throne room, they were quick to find that this new round of danger wasn't coming from any sort of Nobody or Organization member. Rather, the threat was from the very crew they'd come to the city with in the first place.

The scene the trio found was one of chaos and upheaval. The large stone doors leading to the throne room had been blown to bits, the king's guards forced to stand down as the crew spread out to search the room with no sense of civility whatsoever. But what was most surprising were the deadly weapons each of them toted, guns and knives alike as they pilfered the area almost violently. And at the center of it all stood Rourke and Helga as they used their own weapons to threaten a very upset, quite distressed Milo and Kida.

"You're not applying yourself, son," the commander coldly accused the linguist, forcefully shoving the Shepherd's Journal at him. "There's got to be something else!"

"Look, I already told you, this isn't a good idea," Milo retorted, shifting a brief, worried glance over at Kida, who was being tightly restrained by Helga, despite her brazen struggle to escape. "You don't know what you're tampering with here, Rourke."

"What's to know?" Rourke shrugged, unconcerned. "It's big, it's shiny, it's going to make us all rich."

"That's not true," Milo argued. "You think it's some kind of diamond, I thought it was some kind of battery, but we're both wrong! It's their life force; that crystal-that heart is the only thing keeping these people alive! You take that away and they'll die."

"Well, that changes things," Rourke said almost mockingly. "Helga, what do you think?"

"Knowing that, I'd double the price," Helga remarked, ignoring Kida's resilient attempts to lash out at her.

"I was thinking triple."

"Rourke, don't do this," Milo protested once more, desperately. "You can't just-"

"Hey!" Sora interrupted as he, Donald, and Goofy fully stepped into the room, their weapons already drawn as everyone turned their attention to the trio. "What's going on here?"

"Sora!" Milo exclaimed, clearly relieved. "Donald! Goofy! Boy, am I glad to see you guys!"

"So am I," Rourke interjected as he stepped past the linguist, holding him back all the while. "You boys made it just in time. I was just thinking we could use some backup to help us speed things along…"

"Speed what along?" Sora asked suspiciously.

"Do not listen to him!" Kida suddenly spoke up, harshly pulling against Helga's hold. "They are trying to take-" Before the princess could get another word out, the lieutenant quickly silenced her by slapping her free hand over her mouth. Yet that didn't stop Milo from picking up where she'd left off.

"They tricked us!" the linguist explained as quickly as he could. "They're after the Heart of Atlantis, they want to steal it! You guys can't let them-" Milo didn't get a chance to finish either as Rourke put an end to his brief retelling by pointing his pistol directly at him, much to the trio's immense alarm.

"That's enough, son," the commander remarked condescending, ignoring the linguist's angry glare as he looked back to the trio. "Now, you fellas did agree to help us out down here… didn't you?"

"We agreed to help you fend off the Nobodies," Sora objected, upholding his offensive grip on his Keyblade. "We didn't agree to help you hurt people."

"Yeah, that's right!" Goofy readily agreed.

"Let Milo and Kida go!" Donald added just as adamantly.

Rourke, however, hardly cared for their resistance as he instead met it with an almost disappointed sigh. "I really hate it when negotiations go sour… Guess we'll have to tie up these loose ends after all." Almost as soon as he said this, without any warning at all, the commander turned his gun around and fired off a round of shots directly at the trio. They barely even had time to react to the sudden attack, though while Goofy managed to block the brunt of it with his shield and Donald narrowly evaded it by leaping out of the way, Sora wasn't so lucky. One of the bullets managed to catch him across the shoulder, only lightly grazing it but leaving behind a heavy sting and a bleeding wound that nearly knocked him off his feet entirely.

"Stop!" Milo shouted, not hesitating to race forward to try and stop this senseless violence, only to come to a grinding halt as Rourke turned his gun back on him. Thankfully he didn't fire it this time, though only really because he had a clear and present use for the linguist, at least for now.

"Let's try this again," the commander said, holding up the journal's missing page for Milo to see. At the same time, he snapped his fingers, prompting Helga to position her own gun in turn, aiming it at Kida as an extra form of reinforcement. "Where is that treasure?"

Milo set his jaw at this, sending Rourke a hateful scowl that only wavered as he glanced away from the commander. Kida kept her sights on him, her eyes betraying the fear her otherwise severe expression hid away as she shook her head silently, even despite the weapon pressed tight against her back. At the same time, Donald and Goofy were focusing their attention on tending to Sora's relatively minor injury, with the magician casting a potent healing spell to mostly patch it up, though that hardly set any of them to ease after what had happened. All the while, a handful of the surrounding crew members watched on with expressions that almost seemed to convey sympathy and concern, though none of them made so much as a single move to stop or oppose Rourke's aggressive tactics.

"Look," Milo let out a relenting sigh as he looked over the lost page once more. "I don't know where the heart is. All it says is 'the Heart of Atlantis lies in the eyes of her king'."

"Well, then maybe Old King Cole here can help us fill in the blanks," Rourke roughly tossed Milo aside to approach the king himself. The mostly-recovered trio moved to stop him, only for Helga to keep them where they were by strong-arming Kida once more, silently reminding them just how delicate and uncertain this entire situation really was. "What about it, chief?" the commander interrogated the king as some of his masked cronies crowded around him. "Where's the crystal chamber?"

"You will destroy yourselves," the king advised, gripping his staff firmly.

"...Maybe I'm not being clear." With this, Rourke lashed out, landing a brutal blow to the king's abdomen, one that easily sent the already feeble ruler falling to the ground. Kida let out a harsh outcry in Atlantean at this, fiercely protesting such a vicious, unnecessary attack against her defenseless father, and this time, she wasn't the only one to oppose it.

"Rourke, this was not part of the plan," Dr. Sweet spoke up as he leaned down to check on the heavily injured king.

"Plans change, doc," Rourke said as he moved to take a seat on the now-empty throne. "I suggest you put a bandage on that bleeding heart of yours. It doesn't suit a mercenary. Same goes for you three," he addressed the trio, wryly brandishing his pistol once more. "Unless you want more where that last round came from."

"Go ahead!" Sora challenged, perhaps a bit too brazenly, especially after the almost dangerous scrape he'd gotten last time. "Do your wor-"

"Sora!" Donald and Goofy both snapped to silence him, knowing that his resilient, reckless attitude would do nothing for them right now.

Fortunately, Rourke largely ignored his outburst as he aimed his gun toward the king instead. "Well, as usual, diplomacy has failed us," he remarked, smirking coolly all the while. "Now, I'm going to count to 10, and you're going to tell me where the crystal is. One… two…" The commander cocked his gun, pointing it directly at the weakened king, much to the genuine surprise of several of the surrounding crew members as they realized just how far he was going with this. To violent, malicious lengths that none of them had really expected this to go. "Nine… Te-"

Rourke paused as he happened to glance just past the king, toward the center of his throne room instead. There, lying in the shallow water covering most of the chamber, was a sent of stones, specifically arranged into a familiar symbol. The very same symbol that rested on the cover of the Shepherd's Journal itself. "The Heart of Atlantis lies in the eyes of its king…" he repeated with a growing, greedy smile. "This is it. We're in." Without skipping a beat, the commander marched toward the center of the room, carelessly tossing the journal back to Milo along the way.

"Rouke, for the last time, you've got to listen to me!" Milo argued intently, even if he knew it wouldn't do any good. "You don't have the slightest idea of what this power is capable of!"

"True, but I can think of a few countries who'd pay anything to find out," Helga piped up, tightening her hold on Kida as she dragged her along after Rourke. Milo found he had no choice but to follow, largely for the princess's sake more than anything else, though if there was any chance that this madness could be stopped somehow, he knew he'd gladly take it along the way.

Sure enough, the entrance the commander was looking for was indeed at the center of the throne room, for as he stepped on a previously concealed platform, which began to rumble and lower into whatever lay below it. "You three! Get on!" Rourke shouted to the trio, using Milo as leverage to force them to comply as he yanked him onto the platform and held him at gunpoint. "There's no telling what we'll find down there. And like I keep saying, we can always use the extra muscle."

Though the last thing the trio wanted to do was aid in this twisted campaign, they joined the group all the same, hoping they could at the very least protect Milo and Kida if nothing else. The platform slowly lowered itself underground, into a deep, dark, cavernous chamber, though it was hardly empty. For floating high above the small pool far below it, was a bright, radiant blue light, one that was surrounded by a collection of large, carved stone masks floating gently around it, protecting the very life-giver of the lost empire itself:

The Heart of Atlantis.

As the platform reached the bottom of the cavern, just about everyone stood in awe of such an unbelievable sight, all except for Rourke, who simply smirked in satisfaction at the prize he'd just found. "Jackpot," he remarked, more than ready to make this incredible treasure his own.

At the same time, however, Kida let out a small, soft gasp, especially as she realized exactly who the stone masks surrounding the heart were depicting. "T-the kings of our past…" she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes. Instantly, she collapsed to the ground, bowing in deepest reverence to the homages of these past rulers as she uttered a quiet Atlantean prayer all the while.

Still, Rourke hardly cared for the princess' show of respect as he simply sneered in her direction. "Thatch, tell her to wrap it up," he told Milo unsympathetically. "We got a schedule to meet."

Though Milo glared after the commander as he continued to approach the heart, he still did as he was told, approaching Kida as he broke her out of her worship as gently as he could. "Um… Kida?" he said, slowly helping her back up. "I'm sorry…"

Meanwhile, the trio hung close together amidst both this new discovery and the tense straits they were still under, knowing there was little they could do so long as Rourke and Helga still had the advantage, and the firepower, above them all. Even so, they still had their own mission in mind, even if that mission had grown much more complicated in light of what they'd just gotten themselves into. "So… if this is the Heart of Atlantis…" Goofy began, aside. "Then where's the Key?"

"No idea…" Donald shook his head. "Any ideas, Sora?"

For a long moment, Sora said nothing, his sights instead set on the Heart of Atlantis high above them. When he did say something however, his voice was strangely soft and subdued and every bit as distant as his mind suddenly felt, as everything else around him suddenly felt, save for the heart and the heart alone. "It's here…" he said, his eyes never drifting away from the heart whatsoever.

"It is?" Donald asked dubiously. "Where?"

"Here…" Sora repeated, his voice even quieter this time to the point that it was practically a whisper.

"...What?" the magician asked, still not following in the slightest.

"Say, don't you usually have to feel some certain kind of emotion to get it to show up?" Goofy asked Sora, who hardly seemed to be listening at all. "Maybe you just gotta feel whatever that emotion is right here in front of the heart!"

"That's not how it works!" Donald argued.

"Garwsh, then how does it work?"

"Well, it… uh… mm… I don't know! Ask Sora! He's the one that found the first three to begin with!"

"Ok, then what do you think, Sora?" Goofy asked, only to not receive any sort of answer at all.

Because instead of even being remotely tuned into his companions' conversation, Sora was still completely transfixed by the Heart of Atlantis, largely unable to look at or even think about anything else. Donald and Goofy tried garnishing his attention once more, going as far as to lightly pull on his arm to try and rouse him, only to no avail.

They didn't get much of another chance, however, as the Heart of Atlantis suddenly sparked bright red above them, reacting in response to Rourke absently kicking a stray rock into the sacred pool below it. The heart's once calm blue glow took on a fiery, angry aura, one that dully filled the rest of the cavern and everyone in it its crimson glow.

"Come on, let's get this over with," Helga muttered to the commander. "I don't like this place."

"Alright, Thatch, what's next?" Rourke asked, turnin to the linguist expectantly.

"Ok, well, there's a giant crystal hovering 150 feet above our heads over a bottomless pit of water," Milo began, bitter sarcasm filling his tone. "Doesn't anything surprise you?"

"The only thing that surprises me is that thing's not on the truck yet.'

As the pair continued their debate over what to do next, the others all failed to realize the large beams of light the heart was emitting, beams that hovered around the cavern almost like spotlights in search of something. One of those spotlights happened to pass over Sora, instantly shifting back to its previously gentle blue glow as it did. At the same time, that glow seemed to transfer to his eyes as they stayed set on the heart, banishing any hints of unnatural gold that had found a place within them as it instead flooded them with its own radiant blue, one that was much brighter and much more otherworldly than their usual blue could have ever been. And as it did, everything else around him completely faded into obscurity altogether, nothing else mattering in the slightest but the heart and the connection his own heart had somehow managed to make with it.

Another one of the heart's lights settled on Kida, namely catching onto the crystal hanging from her neck, almost as if it was calling it toward its source. The princess smiled softly as she felt its familiar warmth resonate with her, and, much like it had with Sora, it also overtook her eyes with its gleaming light. Though the biggest difference for her was that it actually began beckoning her toward it, in an unspoken voice that was so familiar she could have sworn she'd heard it somewhere before. And it offered her a call, a summon that tugged on her heart so strongly that she couldn't have resisted it even if she tried.

"Now, move it!" Rourke continued, issuing his impatient order at Milo.

"I don't know how to move it," Milo insisted, severely annoyed. "I don't even know what's holding it up… there…" He trailed off as he noticed Kida suddenly step past him, still engulfed in the heart's light as she continued staring up at its enthralling light all the while. Milo didn't hesitate to try to stop her, though Rourke held him back before he could even take a single step as the princess kept going.

"Talk to me, Thatch. What's happening?" the commander said as almost everyone turned to watch Kida instead of the heart. Everyone except for Sora, who was still every bit as captivated by the heart as the princess herself was.

"L-look, all it says here is the crystal is alive somehow," Milo began, motioning to the Shepherd's Journal. "It… I-I don't know how to explain it. It's their deity, their power source."

"Speak English, professor."

"They're a part of it, it's a part of them," Milo concluded with a heavy sigh. "Look, I'm doing the best I can here!"

"Well, do better," the commander scowled as he started to pull his pistol out once more.

"Oh, I know, why don't you translate and I'll wave the gun around?!" the linguist countered harshly, only to be interrupted by none other than Kida herself.

The princess spoke in Atlantean, her voice steady yet devoid of any sort of emotion as she turned to face the group on shore, her eyes still alight with the heart's mysterious power as she said something only Milo, with his years of experience studying the language, could understand. "All will be well, Milo Thatch," she said, her vacant eyes settling on the linguist in particular. "Be not afraid."

Milo barely managed to hold back a small sigh of relief at this, especially as Rourke glared back at him. "What'd she say?"

"I-I don't know," the linguist lied. "I… didn't catch it."

At this, Kida turned back toward the heart once more, still following its call even out onto the pool itself as she stepped out not just into the water, but onto it. She walked upon its surface, never once sinking beneath it as she slowly but surely continued to approach the heart, much to the genuine awe of everyone watching from the shore. Once the princess reached the center of the pool, she stopped directly under the heart itself, the stone effigies surrounding it starting to slowly pull themselves away from it just for her. As they parted, they revealed a complete view of the Heart of Atlantis, though the heart itself was still largely focused on Kida as its multiple beams of light all converged on her crystal, dilating over it before its power spread through her from it. And still its clarion call continued, to the point that the heart began to draw the princess toward it, pulling her up from the water and ascending her into the air, slowly, carefully holding her in its thrall so she could come to meet it. When she did, the heart welcomed her openly, pulling her into the orb of sacred light it was composed of and enveloping her with that light completely. The stone masks reconverged around them both at this, spinning faster and faster around it as the heart took on a practically blinding glow, one that eventually dimmed only somewhat to reveal the crystal that was the mythical Heart of Atlantis itself.

Or rather, the entirely new form the heart had taken on.

It would have been easy to think that the heart had disappeared entirely, but that was far from the truth. The masks slowed once more and floating gracefully, peacefully in their midst, was none other than Kida. Her entire body was shining blue and transparently crystalline, brimming with pure, raw, commanding energy. To the awestruck, bystanding group far below her, she hardly even seemed to be human, and by all accounts, she wasn't, at least not anymore. For not only had the Heart of Atlantis called her to it; it had bonded with her, infused itself with her, intertwined with her in every way possible.

The Heart of Atlantis had, quite literally, become the heart of its princess.

She descended slowly, her entire form still aglow with the heart's power as she landed to the water below her once more. Since she was somewhat within reach once more, Milo made the first move to approach her, desperate to know if she was even remotely alright after what had just happened to her. Yet before he could take so much as a single step, Rourke was quick to stop him, his tone just as unimpressed and callous as ever, despite the incredible event he'd just bore witness to. "Hold your horses, lover boy."

Milo crossly ignored him, returning his focus back to the princess, who remained still and silent as she hovered just above the surface of the water. "K-Kida…?" he dared to venture, unsure of what kind of response he'd get. She didn't speak to answer him, though she did open her eyes, which were completely blank, bright voids of light, devoid of any sort of expression or emotion or anything that made Kida herself. "Kida…" Milo shook his head, wondering and worrying if there was anything really left of the princess he'd come to grow quite fond of at all.

Her movements were still just as steady and sedated as she began to walk forward across the water. As she did, the stone effigies that had once surrounded her began to collapse from their spot in the air, crashing down into the pool and creating heavy, towering waves that never once hit her. She remained unphased, her sights set ahead of her as she reached the shore and the group standing upon it. Rourke reached out to restrain her, though Milo immediately protested, unsure of how safe doing so would actually be. "No, d-don't… don't touch her…" he cautioned, still watching her to see where she'd go or what she'd do next.

She finally did come to a stop, however, directly in front of Sora. From the moment they'd first arrived in the underground chamber, he had kept his focus solely on the Heart of Atlantis, something that hadn't changed even as the heart itself did. His own eyes were nowhere near as empty as the princess's were, but they did reflect the same sort of ethereal glow to accompany their similarly vacant expressions. Her manner was still all but unknowable as she slowly turned to face him, offering him what almost seemed to be a small, but respectful bow paired with an unspoken message only he could somehow hear:

You are not where you belong…

"I know…" he softly answered aloud, some very small, practically obscured part of his heart speaking for him. All the while, he still remained completely entranced, even as the princess began to move on and even as his companions finally took notice of the full extent of whatever spell the heart had put him under.

"Sora!" Goofy exclaimed, aptly alarmed as both he and Donald stopped their young companion short as he tried to follow the princess and the heart. "What's the matter? Is something wrong?!"

"Something is wrong! Just look at his eyes!" Donald piped up adamantly. Sure enough, Sora didn't spare so much as a single glance at either one of them, his bright, practically glowing eyes still watching the princess, still watching the heart even as they both walked away. "Snap out of it, will you?!" Donald shouted to Sora as Goofy tried waving a hand in front of his eyes to try and break his intense focus, but to no avail. Instead, he simply stepped past both of them, opting to silently trail after the princess as she slowly made her way back to the platform that led back up to the surface.

"Gee, it looks like he wants to follow the princess," Goofy noted fretfully.

"He's not the only one," Rourke said, pressing onward as well. "Time to pack it up. We've got what we came here for."

"C-commander, are… are you sure about this?" Helga asked, uncomfortably shifting her gaze over at the princess.

"Let's not lose our nerve now, lieutenant," Rourke said simply. "Not when we're so close to cashing in…"

"Rourke, wait," Milo protested tensely. "You… you can't do this, especially not now. The heart isn't just some crystal anymore, i-it is Kida! I don't know how but… but it's like it's bonded with her or something! Don't you get it? They're one and the same."

"So?" Rourke scoffed, unconcerned. "I hardly see how that changes anything."

"It changes everything! She's a living, breathing person, just like you and me. Are you really, really going to take her all the way back up to the surface and try to pawn her off to the highest bidder?"

"That's about the long and short of it, son," Rourke concluded with a greedy smirk, saying nothing more on the matter as he prepared to leave the chamber, though not without meeting some resistance first.

"There's no way you're ever gonna get away with a plan like that!" Donald brazenly proclaimed, brandishing his staff as Goofy likewise took up his shield to oppose the commander.

"Yeah! Not on our watch!" the captain soundly agreed.

Rourke hardly seemed phased by their brave resistance, however, as he instead simply continued past them, pulling his pistol out as he slowly, tactfully approached not the princess, but Sora instead. "Oh, I think you two will let me do whatever I want," he grinned, looking back at the pair as he pressed the tip of the gun directly against Sora's back, which was turned to him as he kept his focus only on the princess and the heart alone, the sudden, immediate threat on his life completely lost on him. "At least… as long as his life is on the line…"

All Rourke needed to do to show he was serious was cock the weapon, and that alone was enough to get Donald and Goofy to quickly back down, knowing it was the most they could do to defend Sora in a moment like this when he was apparently unable to defend himself. As satisfied as he was that this cruel tactic had worked, the commander still didn't pull his pistol away, keeping it trained on Sora as a form of leverage against Donald, Goofy, and Milo alike as they all made their way back up to the throne room. It was hardly any surprise that the rest of the crew was waiting just outside the palace, standing by a sturdy metal crate, one that was meant to contain the Heart of Atlantis, though it was clear none of them had expected that heart to essentially be a person. Still, none of them protested Rourke's commands to seal the still-silent princess, or rather, the very prize they'd come all this way to obtain, up in the container to take her away from the world she was from, the world that needed her heart to survive.

The very instant the last of the crates walls concealed the princess behind their cold, concealing metal, Sora finally managed to break out of the longstanding trance the heart had held him under. He let out a sharp, startled gasp as he abruptly stumbled and nearly fell forward, only for Donald and Goofy to catch him and keep him upright just in time. "Sora! You're back!" the captain let out an allayed sigh.

"About time!" the magician chastised impatiently as they both helped their young companion properly stand.

"B-back…?" Sora repeated, confused as he placed a hand against his head to clear it. The abnormal glow in his eyes had finally faded, his gaze finally allowed to drift away from the now-captive heart as he looked to his companions in apt bewilderment. "W-where did I go? What's going on?" He quickly got his answer as soon as he glanced up to see the crew hauling the metal crate onto a large truck, and though his immediate, captivating connection to the Heart of Atlantis had largely been severed, he could still feel traces of its power radiating within its prison. "The heart!"

"No, not just the heart," Milo clarified as he joined the trio. "Kida's in there."

"What?" Sora asked, even more alarmed upon hearing this. Refusing to simply stand by and watch such an injustice take place, he was the first to make a move to stop the crew, Milo readily joining him, only for both of them to be repelled by a handful of Rourke's heavily armed henchmen.

While Sora fell back to Donald and Goofy to look for another way to help the princess, Milo lingered, addressing the members of the crew he used to be a part of as they passively carried out their duties, none of them seeming to even care about the grave travesty they were about to willingly help commit. "So… I guess this is how it ends, huh?" the linguist asked them, his tone openly bitter and cold. "Fine. You win. You're wiping out an entire civilization, but hey… you'll be rich. That's what it's all about, right? Money."

Though the other members of the crew intentionally averted the judgemental glare Milo was sending their way, Rourke was just as proud and arrogant over his crooked victory as ever. "Get off your soapbox, Thatch," he said, strolling over to the linguist. "You've heard of natural selection. We're just helping it along."

"No, Milo's right; what you're doing is wrong!" Sora spoke up sternly. While normal he, Donald, and Goofy would have been the first to draw their weapons to stop this theft in its tracks, they refrained, if only for the sake and safety of Milo and the crowd of Atlanteans who had gathered to mournfully watch their princess be taken away from them. "You're stealing a heart from a world that needs it to survive. What could possibly be worth more than the lives of so many innocent people?"

"I can think of plenty of things that are," Rourke sneered dismissively. "And maybe you could too if you grew up and took a step out of whatever fantasy world you're living in, kid."

"Commander, we're ready," Helga called from the truck, which indeed was fully loaded and ready to go.

"Yeah, yeah, give me a minute," Rourke responded with a wave of his hand. "I know I'm forgetting something… I got the cargo, the crystal, the crew… Oh yeah." Suddenly, the commander spun around, lashing out to deck Milo square in the jaw with the full force of his fist. The blow easily knocked the linguist off his feet as he reeled back in pain, barely aware of the round of stunned, appalled gasps that came along with the vicious punch from everyone standing by. "Look at it this way, son," Rourke mocked, briefly picking Milo's fallen glasses up before carelessly tossing them back at him. "You were the man who discovered Atlantis, and now, you're part of the exhibit."

By now, several members of the crew had finally turned their attention Milo's way as he recoiled from the sharp sting of Rourke's heavy punch and harsh words alike. Even as the commander issued the order for them to finally move out, more than a few of them found themselves hesitating as the growing doubts and regrets about their mission as a whole slowly but surely started to reach their tipping point. Until that point was not only reached, but broken through completely.

Audrey was the first, letting out an annoyed, disgruntled sigh as she hopped out of one of the trucks. Every ounce of her better judgement was advising her against this foolish, downright stupid course of action, but in the end, her conscious rung out just a little louder as she marched over to Milo and joined Sora, Donald, and Goofy in helping him off the ground. As soon as the linguist was back on his feet, Audrey then turned her focus back on her fellow crew members, not even needing to say a word as her severe, yet earnest glare spoke millions for her.

Under that glare, it didn't take long for Vinny to waver either as he broke off from the others, coming over to place a supportive hand on Milo's shoulder. Cookie was next to jump out of the truck, offering Mole an expectant look before they both mutually agreed to join the fledgling group, even if they were giving up potentially untold riches in the process. Even Packard, upon taking a long draw of her cigarette, sighed tiredly before tossing it aside to get with the program. "We're all gonna die," she deadpanned, though still went to take her place among the others.

"Oh, you can't be serious," Rourke scoffed upon glancing back at the stalwart crowd of defectors behind him.

"Dead serious, Rourke," Audrey replied crossly. "It's just like Sora said: this is wrong and you know it!"

"We're this close to the biggest payday ever, and you pick now of all times to grow a conscience?" the commander huffed in bitter disbelief.

"We've done a lot of things we aren't proud of," Vinny remarked. "Robbing graves, plundering tombs, double parking… But nobody got hurt. Well, maybe somebody got hurt, but nobody that we knew."

"Well, if that's the way you want it, fine," Rourke concluded coldly, still stubbornly set in his own choice, however greedy and malicious it might have been. "More for me."

With that, Rourke and Helga shifted their vehicles into motion, the remaining cronies in their crew following suit with the captive princess still securely locked on board. A handful of those henchmen had a fully loaded blaster mounted on the back of one of the trucks, one that was trained on the group they were leaving behind just in case any of them had any ideas about following. Which meant the most any of them could do was sullenly, sadly watch as Rourke made a clean getaway across the bridge that led the way out of the city, taking both the Heart of Atlantis and its princess right along with him.

The effect was immediate; almost as soon as the princess was pulled away from her people, the crystals they all wore swiftly began to darken and dim without the heart that kept them empowered. The surrounding Atlanteans looked to each other worriedly, unsure of what they'd do without the energy that had managed to miraculously keep them and their families alive for so long. Energy that they all largely felt powerless to keep from slipping away from them completely.

And even despite the apparent danger, Milo refused to merely allow something like that happen to such a special, spectacular place and its people. "We can't let them do this!" he proclaimed, brazenly running forward only for Vinny to swiftly pull him back.

"Wait a second," he cautioned, eyeing the bridge just as Rourke and his crew made it to the other side. No more than a second later, the structure, which had been planted with copious amounts of dynamite, was completely blown to bits, ensuring once and for all that there would be no way to stop them. "Ok, now you can go," Vinny remarked simply.

"Milo!" Dr. Sweet, who had also stayed behind to tend to the injured king, called down from the palace steps. "Better get up here."

The linguist didn't hesitate to follow the doctor's lead, eager to see how the king was faring and much less eager to let him know of his daughter's fate. The other remaining crew members were quick to follow, and while the trio prepared to do the same, they were suddenly stopped by the all-too familiar sound of a dark corridor opening up behind them.

"Well, well, it seems as though the prize we're all after has already been claimed," Vexen said with a cool, calculated smile, one that only widened as the trio turned to face him, all three of them immediately on guard. "Or at least, it's been claimed for the time being, but worry not; that's something I have every intention of changing very soon…"

"So do we," Sora countered rigidly as the Kingdom Key flashed into his hands. "The only difference is once we get it back, we're not going to let you get anywhere close to the heart or that Key!"

Vexen simply let out a sinister, mocking chuckle upon hearing this. "Bold words from the boy who can't even face a simple pack of mindless Nobodies without falling apart," he said, clearly taking enjoyment in the obvious rise he got out of Sora from such a callous, cutting remark. "Fortunately while you were aimlessly wandering around this decaying waste of a world, I was actually out getting genuine answers about its many mysteries. And in my in-depth research, I happened to uncover quite an intriguing piece of information that I'm sure you three would simply love to hear."

"Yeah, right," Sora scoffed. "Just like I'm sure you'd love to lie to us about whatever it is."

"To throw us off track!" Donald added angrily.

"Yeah! Everyone knows Organization never tells the truth!" Goofy asserted just as brazenly.

"Oh, now that's where you're wrong about me," Vexen retorted, still upholding his confident, smug smirk. "I'm a researcher, a man of pure science. Which means that, unlike some of my other… colleagues, the last thing I deal in is lies."

The trio took pause at this, exchanging an uncertain glance before setting their mutually distrustful sights back on the researcher. "Fine. Then what's this super important information you dug up?" Sora asked, his expression set in a suspicious glare.

"I am so glad you asked," Vexen grinned proudly. "It appears that the heart of this world and the Key that's allegedly tied to it have much more in common than one might think. That crystal does indeed keep this city and its people alive, but it's quite the symbiotic relationship, really. For as it provides its protection to them, it feeds off of their thoughts, their memories… their emotions. Now, doesn't that sound… familiar?"

"The Key!" the trio exclaimed in a shared, startled gasp.

"Indeed," Vexen nodded. "It seems as though you three aren't as dull as I thought. Which is why it's so unfortunate that none of you will ever get to see the splendor of the one that's tied to this world. For you see, I've already concocted an ideal plan to obtain it; and the best part is, all that's required to carry it out is that heart alone."

"Whatever your plan is, it's not gonna work!" Sora snapped resiliently. "Because we're going to stop you, save the heart, and get that Key! Right, you guys?"

He briefly glanced back at Donald and Goofy, neither of whom actually offered a response as they met his question with what almost seemed to be genuine surprise. While normally they would have been in firm agreement with such a bold, courageous sentiment, they instead exchanged something of a wary glance before looking back to their young companion in apparent concern, catching him off guard and cutting down his confidence with clear confusion instead.

"Yes, go ahead and try to stop me," Vexen said, nonchalantly calling upon another dark corridor to leave through. "I'd be immensely fascinated to observe such a doomed effort. If you manage to even get that far, of course."

Without sparing the trio another word, the researcher stepped into his dark portal, more than eager to carry out his mysterious, devious plan, whatever it might have been. At the same time, Donald and Goofy kept their focus on Sora, their expressions equally fretful as they thought about the conversation they knew they had to have with him. "Sora, why'd you say that?" the magician asked with something of a disgruntled sigh.

"Uh, because we're going after the heart, duh," Sora turned to them, frowning. "...We are going after it… aren't we?"

The pair didn't answer right away as they instead looked to each other apprehensively once more, unsure of how to deliver the conclusion they'd both come to quite some time ago. "W-we are," Goofy began hesitantly. "But-"

The conversation was abruptly interrupted, however, as they happened to notice Milo emerging from the palace alongside the crew. The linguist's manner was severe, yet determined, his expression carrying a resolute kind of anger that every bit matched the sense of clear purpose in his step as he trudged down the palace steps.

"Where are you going?" Dr. Sweet asked as he and the others trailed after him.

"I'm going after Rourke," Milo answered shortly, simply.

"Milo, that's crazy!" Audrey protested as everyone else looked to him incredulously.

"I didn't say it was the smart thing," the linguist shrugged. "But it is the right thing."

The rest of the crew couldn't really argue with that logic as they made the move to join him. "Come on," Audrey huffed, irritated. "We better make sure he doesn't hurt himself."

"Are you guys with me?" Milo asked the trio as he passed by them.

"You bet we are!" Sora was quick to enthusiastically agree, though Donald and Goofy stopped him short as he did.

"Uh, Sora?" Goofy interjected cautiously. "Do you mind if we have a quick word with ya? Alone?"

"Oh, um, sure?" Sora raised a curious eyebrow before briefly turning back to Milo. "We'll be back to help in just a minute."

"Right," the linguist nodded, glad to accept all the aid he could get in what would certainly be a deeply dangerous quest.

Meanwhile, Donald and Goofy managed to pull Sora aside as the rest of the crew came down to assist Milo, hoping to get a bit of much-needed privacy for a conversation that wouldn't be easy to have under any circumstances. Especially not these. "So, are you guys finally going to explain why you're acting so weird?" Sora asked, hanging his arms behind his head as he looked between his companions.

"Um… well, ya see, Sora…" Goofy began, trying to tread carefully. Something that Donald didn't care nearly as much about as he blatantly blurted the sum of the matter.

"You're not coming with us to take back the heart!" he exclaimed firmly, authoritatively.

For his part, Sora was aptly caught off guard, confusion filling his features as he let out a small, involuntary laugh, almost as if he thought they were joking. "W-what do you mean? Of course, I am!"

"No, you're not," Donald reiterated. "You can't. It's not safe!"

"Not safe?" Sora rebuffed, clearly baffled by such a claim. "Since when has that ever mattered? In case you haven't noticed, we're always getting ourselves into danger. It'd be weird if we weren't for a change! And we're always able to handle it just fine; I'm able to handle it just fine."

"Well, yeah, but… that was before… you know…" Goofy trailed off worriedly.

"Before Maleficent captured you!" Donald finished, knowing they simply couldn't dance around the subject any longer.

Sora flinched at this, his entire body tensing up at the mere mention of his horrendous captivity alone. Still, he quickly masked any remnant fear he had with anger; genuine, unsettled, palpable anger. "Of course that's what this is about…" he muttered, his voice low and harsh. "You guys just won't let that go! How many times do I have to tell you? I'll be fine! I-I'll figure out a way to get over it and then everything will go back to the way it used to be!"

"But you haven't yet, and that's the whole problem!" Donald countered just as severely. "It's just like you said: you aren't ready to be here! Did you just forget how you completely froze up when we were fighting those Nobodies?!"

"Or how hurt you got facing off against that armored fella who might be Terra?" Goofy added much more calmly, yet every bit as sincerely as the magician.

"Or how you blanked out again when you saw the Heart of Atlantis?!"

"Whoa, hold it right there," Sora interjected crossly. "I did not blank out over the heart."

"Yes, you did!" Donald argued. "Your eyes were glowing and everything!"

"T-they were?" Sora was quick to shake his surprise over that alarming fact away. "Whatever. That doesn't matter. What does matter is that it wasn't like before with the Nobodies. This was… different. I-I don't know how to explain it, it was almost like the heart was… trying to talk to me or something…"

"Really?" Goofy asked, intrigued. "What did it say to you?"

"...I… it… all it really said was… 'you're not where you belong…'" he answered, lightly pressing a hand against his heart as he remembered just how it had resonated with that of this world.

"Huh?" Donald asked incredulously.. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know," Sora shook his head. "But I want to find out. I want to save the heart, and Kida, and Atlantis, and I want to get that Key! I don't care if it's dangerous and I don't care if you don't think I'm ready for it; I'll be ready when it matters most."

"But Sora," Goofy reasoned earnestly. "You don't know that. Neither do we. Anything could happen out there. And after everything that happened a month ago… w-we just don't want anything else to happen to you."

"And that's exactly why you're staying right here while we go help the others," Donald asserted, a bit calmer this time but still just as resolute. "We'll get the heart back, figure out how to get the Key, and then when we're done, we're going right back to Radiant Garden until you're completely healed, inside and out!"

"No, we're not!" Sora shot back, making no effort to hide just how angry and upset he was over this whole debacle. "Did you just forget about the rest of the Keys we need to find? We can't afford to keep wasting time on stupid stuff like-"

"Like you getting better?" Goofy interrupted with a frown. "That's not stupid, Sora. It's important to us, and it should be important to you."

"I-it is important to me!" Sora lied, because when it really came right down to it, his own long term recovery wasn't significant at all. Not in comparison to the momentous, potentially worlds-saving responsibility he knew he had to fulfill instead.

"Then act like it," Donald concluded, making the first move to leave. "Stay put until we get back. No more arguing about it, that's final."

"But I-"

"Final!" Donald snapped succinctly as he began to walk away.

Goofy lingered behind for just a moment longer, if only to offer some small form of comfort to ease Sora's obviously dejected frustration. "Aw, sorry, Sora…" he said, placing a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. "You know we don't want it to be this way either, but… we're only tryin' to do what's best for you."

Sora simply responded to this with a bitter scoff, crossing his arms as he glanced away coldly. The captain retracted his hand upon seeing the sheer look of betrayal on his face, unsure of what else to say that could possibly smooth this tense situation over as he instead went to follow the magician. Both of them leaving Sora behind on a mission he felt like he should have been a part of, he knew he should be a part of, but, in the end, he wasn't.

By now, Milo had led the rest of the crew to an entire collection of flying Atlantean vehicles, catching the attention of more than a few of the city's residents along the way. Enthusiastic to help their princess, they eagerly volunteered to join the cause, watching as Milo demonstrated how they could use their crystals to get the vehicles started. And, with something of a miniature army of their own assembled, they all felt just a bit more ready to take on Rourke's. Even if they were all still well aware of just how dangerous and daunting the impending battle might be.

"All right, this is it!" Milo called to the others as he led the way on his own vehicle. The remaining members of the crew, the Atlantean volunteers, and even Donald and Goofy followed not too far behind, all of them determined to do whatever they could to set things right. "We're gonna rescue the princess, we're gonna save Atlantis, or we're going to die trying! Now, let's do it!"

A round of excited cheers rose up at this, and not just from the group heading out to battle either. The Atlanteans who stayed behind saw the courageous crowd off with fond waves and well-wishes, all of them confident that their princess and their heart would be returned to them before it was too late.

However, the bold procession wasn't entirely met with levity and cheer as it left the city. Sora stood alone on the edge of a platform near the palace, his sights set to the sky as everyone soared high above him, making their way to the dormant volcano Rourke had retreated to earlier. While he was already quite frustrated to begin with, he only found himself becoming more infuriated upon spotting Donald and Goofy stealing a glance down from their shared vehicle as they passed him by. Sora quickly glared away from his companions as they left, though all the same he made sure the anger, the disappointment, and the disdain in his expression were all clear to see.

In many ways, Sora did in fact, understand why Donald and Goofy had insisted upon him staying behind like this. Because he had indeed lost his nerve against a simple pack of Nobodies, he had only narrowly managed to escape from his confrontation with the armored warrior with his life, and even then it was only because of his connection to Ventus rather than his own merit. Really, ever since they'd left Radiant Garden, Sora realized he hadn't successfully engaged in any sort of battle or fight at all. And in light of that fact, it really was no wonder why Donald and Goofy seemed to believe he couldn't hold his own in a fray anymore.

Yet that still didn't mean he would never be able to again and it certainly didn't mean that he didn't deserve the chance to try. It would have been a risk, certainly, but it was a risk Sora wanted to take, one he knew he needed to take if he ever wanted to fully regain his lost strength again. But that hardly seemed to matter to either of his companions, who had outright refused to let him take that risk, refused to let him regain that strength, refused to see him as anything other than a liability, someone who needed to be restrained and held back and watched over and protected.

Someone who was weak.

Sora gasped as a sudden spark of familiar energy surged through him, his building fury quickly forgotten as he released the tight fists he hadn't even realized he'd been holding his hands in at his sides. Yet as he looked down at his hands, he was rather surprised to see vibrant, visible magic equally composed of radiant light and dark shadows, swirling heavily around them both. Magic that, after over a month of being suppressed and forced to the wayside, was practically begging to be unleashed now.

However, Sora was quick to reject that silent plea, drawing his hands in close to him to try to extinguish the forbidden power surrounding them. It did dull somewhat, but it didn't disappear, still brimming with magic that tugged on his heart and leaned on his mind, its haunting, unspoken call ringing louder and clearer on both with each passing moment. It was such a tempting, tantalizing call too, especially when he remembered just how capable, just how unstoppable, just how strong he felt whenever he'd used it in the past. But each of those memories also came with just as heavy of a reminder, the briefest flash of his own reflection, his eyes drenched in a blazing gold that didn't belong there, gold that only remained in traces now but could only stand to grow if he made any wrong moves. As much as he wished it wasn't the case, this new power, this unknown, alluring, yet dangerous magic, would only end up pulling his heart further down into the darkness that the Organization was all-too eager to watch him fall under.

And yet… this magic wasn't theirs; it was his. It was power he'd discovered, power that emerged from his own hands, his own heart. Really, when it came right down to it, wherever that power had come from, whatever had sparked it in the first place, it was as natural to him as summoning his own Keyblade was. Denying that power, power that was his and his alone by right, would essentially be like denying a part of himself.

And if there was a chance that power could help him get back on track toward regaining his strength, strength he wanted, needed to reclaim, then was it really all that wrong to use it? As long as he could control that magic-which he knew very well that he could, even as unpredictable and mysterious as it was-then was using it to his advantage too much of a problem? He could use it sparingly, slightly, just enough to break through the mental barricades that barred him from fighting on his own until he didn't need it anymore at all. And even then, how likely could it possibly be that he'd actually end up slipping into the darkness if he only used that power when he really needed it the most?

Sora took in a deep, calming breath as he opened his hands up once more, watching with equal worry and curiosity as darkness and light bloomed above them once more, intermingling with each other in what almost looked like a strange, yet beautiful dance. He was acutely aware that what he was about to do was far from the smartest, or the safest thing to do, and when Donald and Goofy inevitably found out, they'd throw a fit for sure. But he couldn't, wouldn't stand idly by on the sidelines anymore. Not when innocent lives were at stake, not when his friends were in peril, and certainly not when he could still feel the stolen heart of this world and the Key connected to it calling desperately out to his own.

So he swiftly turned, marching off toward one of the city's lower levels in the hopes of finding a spare vehicle along the way. The crew had taken off with most of them that had been lying out in the open, but Sora figured there had to be at least one left for him to use somewhere. And though it took a bit of searching, sure enough, he happened to find one, abandoned in one of the city's many hidden coves as it rested against a withering structure, practically buried by vines and foliage. However, it was only as he pulled all that off of the vehicle and briefly checked it over that he realized he had no way of actually getting it started.

"Oh, that's right!" he huffed in annoyance as he placed his hand against the inscription pad, only to get no results. "If only I had one of those crystals or… or some kind of…" He gasped in realization as he remembered what he did have in place of that crystal. "Some kind of key!"

In an instant, the Kingdom Key was in his hands, and though Sora didn't really know if this impromptu plan would work, he pointed its tip toward the vehicle all the same. A beam of light poured out from the Keyblade, connecting with the vehicle as it surrounded it in that same sort of light. And, when he lowered his weapon a moment later, Sora was immensely relieved to see the vehicle roar to life, raising off the ground a bit to a low hover just before he eagerly hopped onto it.

"Sorry, guys," he said to Donald and Goofy, even though he knew they wouldn't hear him. "But I have to help."

And with that, he pushed the vehicle into motion, steering it up above and out away from the city as fast as it would go. He had watched the others fly toward the cavern they had entered Atlantis through before, and now he wasted no time in following their lead, hoping to catch up and offer whatever assistance he could. Yet as he reached the lava-filled chasm that stood between the city and the cavern, he was suddenly met with an obstacle he hoped he wouldn't run into, but should have been expecting all the same.

A flock of winged Nobodies surrounded the entrance to the cavern, hovering around it largely aimlessly until they happened to spot Sora approaching from afar. When they did, they quickly turned all their attention on him, speeding toward him with the intent of launching a wild attack. Sora flinched when he saw them, nearly stopping his vehicle dead in the air as his breathing hitched in the first signs of fledgling panic began to pound through his chest. He nearly fell victim to that panic too, at least until he noticed the darkened light still weaving its way around his arms.

Acting on sheer impulse alone, he lashed out suddenly, not even bothering to call upon his Keyblade as he swung his arm out wide, raw magic flowing out from it all the while. The broad, uncalculated wave of energy struck the Nobodies evenly, completely slicing through them and dissipating their forms in an instant. As the next small horde of monsters came at him, Sora followed suit with the same maneuver, throwing another heavy blast of magic their way to the same results. As he did, he pressed onward toward the cavern, deftly taking out any Nobody he saw along the way, many times before any of them even happened to notice him pass by. In such a way, none of them even managed to get close to him before he defeated them, maintaining a safe distance that Sora couldn't help but take some level of comfort in.

And that wasn't the only reassurance he received from that brief encounter either; for as he finally passed into the narrow cavern, he strangely found himself smiling, exhilarated, elated even by just how easy that encounter had been. When he had tried to rely solely on his Keyblade, he hadn't been able to take so much as a single swing of it out of fear over what could have gone wrong. But now, using his powers in their place, he'd not only survived, but thrived, creating a feeling of steady confidence and pride he hadn't been able to experience in quite awhile. And, perhaps best of all, on top of that, he felt strong, unquestionably, unflinchingly strong in a way he couldn't remember feeling since before that strength had been taken from him in the first place. Which was why he decided to relish that strength for all it was worth, knowing just how much he had yearned for it when it had been gone.

Pushing the vehicle on ahead, it didn't take long for Sora to reach the battle that was already well underway. Rourke was in the midst of trying to make his escape through the top of the supposedly dormant volcano by way of a massive hot air balloon, to which the crate containing both the princess and the heart had been securely tethered to. However, that escape was facing clear opposition from the airborne group of rebellious crew members and Atlantean volunteers that had come to stop them. Their vehicles circled the balloon, dodging and fending off the barrage of rifles, missiles, and attack bi-planes the commander had at his disposal. Both sides of the hectic brawl had already faced quite a bit of destruction, but the main members of the crew seemed to still be in the right in the heart of the action, evading shots from even Rourke and Helga as they tried to defend their prize from the deck of their balloon.

Amidst all this chaos, Sora happened to briefly spot Donald and Goofy across the other end of the cavern, with the captain piloting their vehicle while the magician fired off a barrage of spells at the horde of Nobodies that had also found their way into the mix. Knowing that the last thing he wanted was to be spotted by his companions this soon, Sora steered away from them, turning his focus to the crate containing the princess instead. Audrey, Mole, and Dr. Sweet had already reached it, fortunately out of Rourke's notice as they tried to saw through the chains latching the crate to the balloon that was slowly but surely taking it away.

"I thought you said this thing could cut through a femur in 28 seconds!" Audrey snapped at the doctor, rushing the saw across the sturdy chains.

"Less talk, more saw," Dr. Sweet retorted as he tried to hold the crate steady from his vehicle.

"You guys need some help?" Sora called as he pulled his vehicle up to theirs.

"Hey, there ya are, kid!" Dr. Sweet greeted with a casual grin. "I was starting to wonder if you got lost or somethin'."

"Sure, knock yourself out," Audrey said, offering him her saw. "Just try not to break this thing, it's the only saw we've got."

"Thanks, but I won't need it," Sora assured as he summoned his Keyblade. Certainly, with its unique ability to open just about any lock, it would make easy work of whatever was keeping the crate sealed. Yet, before he could actually use it, the suspended crate happened to turn in just the right way that he caught sight of the box's lone porthole, revealing a glimpse of the princess securely locked inside it. And as he did, the heart that had bonded with her powerfully resonated with Sora once more, dimming everything else, including the explosive battle happening all around him, into obscurity.

"Uh… are you gonna unlock this thing or not?" Audrey asked, confused as she peered down from her spot on top of the crate.

"Sacre bleu!" Mole exclaimed, his jaw dropping in shock. "His eyes! Look at his eyes!"

"Whoa!" Dr. Sweet gaped, noticing just how unnaturally brightly blue Sora's eyes had suddenly become as he stared straight at the crate ahead of him. "Kid! You ok?!"

As captivated as he was by the heart, Sora didn't answer, his focus locked only on the heart, even as trapped as that heart currently was. And, just as it had before, it offered him an unspoken message through the princess once again, a simple statement that seemed to mean so very much at once:

Release the heart to forge the Key.

At that exact moment, a sudden explosion rocked the crate and everyone surrounding it as one of the airship's anchors, intentionally released by Helga from above, struck Audrey's abandoned vehicle. The crate was pushed aside by the ensuing blast, and though it nearly sent the crew members flying, the sudden rough movement actually did succeed in knocking Sora, who was still distracted by the heart, off his vehicle entirely. The moment he was thrown back away from the crate, his awareness returned to him in full-force, especially as he began freely plummeting through the open air toward the ground far below him.

His fall only lasted seconds, however, before he miraculously landed hard onto one of the vehicles flying by, one that just so happened to have been claimed by none other than his own companions. "Sora!?" Donald shouted furiously no more than a second after he landed. "What do you think you're doing here?! We told you to stay behind!"

"Yeah, but come on," Sora huffed, annoyed, as he sat up. "You honestly didn't think I'd actually listen, did you?"

"...Well, we at least hoped you would've…" Goofy noted, briefly glancing over his shoulder from his spot at the vehicle's controls.

"Gah! But we should have known you wouldn't! You never do!" Donald snapped harshly. "Well, as long as you're here, keep your head down and--don't do that!"

The magician practically panicked as Sora outright stood up on the tail end of the vehicle, a precarious perch enough on its own, made only more dangerous as he brandished his Keyblade and began openly swinging at whatever Nobody happened to stray too close. "Sorry, what was that?" Sora asked, sending back a particularly snide grin Donald's way. "I couldn't hear you; I was too busy helping like I told you guys I could do from the beginning!"

Donald was more than ready to fire just as cross of a retort off, though before he could, Goofy caught the pair's equal attention with an aptly startled cry. "Fellas! Look!"

They did so, only to see one of the vehicles, the one that Milo seemed to be on, crashing clean into one of the three main balloons keeping Rourke's airship afloat. Fortunately, the linguist happened to jump off it to clamor onto the largest balloon just in time, but the effect of the impact was immediate as the entire ship began to sink instead of sail through the air.

"We're losing altitude," Rourke scowled, glancing over the ship's railing. "Lighten the load."

Helga did so, tossing whatever unneeded supplies over the edge as she could before glancing back over at the commander. "That's it, unless someone wants to jump."

"Ladies first," Rourke suddenly hoisted her up, abruptly throwing her over the edge entirely. Helga narrowly managed to avoid her end by latching onto one of the ship's lower railings, using it as leverage to throw herself back on board, delivering a swift kick to the commander's jaw in the process.

"You said we were in this together!" she snapped, infuriated as she landed several more heavy kicks in quick succession. "You promised me a percentage!"

Before Helga could land yet another brutal blow, Rourke quickly recovered, catching her foot and stopping her in her tracks. "Next time, get it in writing," was all he said before he tossed her overboard once more, this time for good. "Nothing personal!" He called over the edge as he watched his lieutenant fall to her apparent demise with a smug, jeering grin.

At the same time, Milo, who was still tightly clinging to the side of the balloon just above the commander, decided that it was either now or never for him to make his move. Mustering up all of the courage he could, he pulled the rope he was holding onto loose, using it to swing in to Rourke, barreling into him and sending them both falling over the edge of the railing. The two grappled as they both fell across the rope, slamming into one of the ship's lower mechanisms where they made a narrow landing on whatever sparse space was there.

Rourke groaned in aggravation as he picked himself up, but even so, he quickly picked up his usual haughty grin as he moved in to finish the bothersome linguist off. "Well, Thatch, I gotta hand it to you. You're a bigger pain in the neck than I ever thought possible."

For his part, Milo also stood, lashing out to land a punch on the commander, only for him to easily catch it and turn it right around back on him. The blow nearly ended up knocking him off the ship entirely, though he did manage to catch himself on a piece of collapsed railing just before he could fully fall. That railing did, however, also manage to get caught in the ship's propeller, abruptly stopping both it, and the balloon's ascent entirely.

"I consider myself to be an even-tempered man," Rourke continued as he came to stand high above him. "It takes a lot to get under my skin. But congratulations, son, you just won the solid-gold medal when it comes to getting on my nerves!"

The commander was just about to reach down to finish the linguist off, though he was stopped in his tracks by the sudden burst of fire that lobbed right past him, barely missing his head. Rourke turned, scowling to the air just above him, only to see Sora, Donald, and Goofy flyin by, the former two more than ready to make use of magic again to come to Milo's aid. "Ugh, and so did they…" the commander hissed, pulling out his pistol to open fire on the trio. None of his shots landed, however, as they easily flew out his range, though as set off as he was, that still didn't stop him from trying.

At least, until an unexpected explosion from somewhere far below tore through his remaining balloons entirely.

"N-nothing… personal…" Helga had muttered, her last words from her spot on the ground as she fired off the devastating blast. One final act of vengeance against her former boss before she went out.

The airship erupted into flames, chasing any lingering planes and vehicles away from it for their own safety. Even so, Rourke chose to ignore his sinking ship to pursue a vicious act of vengeance himself as he took up the onboard axe to go after Milo, who was still clinging onto what was left of the ship for dear life. A crazed look filled the commander's eyes as he took his first swing, one that Milo barely managed to avoid as he dropped down onto the crate, unable to do anything else but try to keep his wits about him in a battle he wasn't sure he'd really win.

"Ha! Tired, Mr. Thatch?!" Rourke taunted as he threw his axe down, breaking the crate's porthole in the process. "Aw, that's a darn shame, because I'm just getting warmed up!"

Milo ignored him as he instead glanced at the broken glass of the portal, which, much like its exterior, was radiating with the same mysterious energy as the Heart of Atlantis itself did. Still, the linguist hardly thought anything of it as he carefully retrieved one of those broken glass shards, swiftly cutting it deep across Rourke's arm as he happened to snatch him and hoist him up into the air. As the commander recoiled in pain, Milo quickly made his escape, climbing back up toward the lower platform as the cut began to spark a stark chain reaction. As the crystal's energy mingled with his bloodstream, Rourke's arm began to crystallize from the inside out, hardening and glistening as it began to overtake his entire body. Milo watched the entire agonizing process in alarm as he clung onto the ship's rails, though as Rourke seemed to freeze up entirely in apparent defeat, he couldn't help but let out a small sigh of relief.

"Oh, thank heaven…" he shook his head tiredly, glad to see that it was finally over. Except it wasn't, because if Rourke was nothing else, he was determined, even amidst his own doom. His form had all but been completely crystalized, his veins shining starkly against the heavy blue stone that was now his skin. Yet even still, he continued his almost feral pursuit against the linguist, climbing up to reach him as he let out a fierce, inhuman roar. Unsure of what else to do, Milo acted quickly, flipping over the railing he was hanging from in the hopes of avoiding a vicious attack. This maneuver, however, just so happened to place Rourke directly in the path of the ship's propeller, which had just begun moving again as the obstruction halting it was cleared. And as soon as it struck him, Rourke shattered, his crystalline form breaking into millions of iridescent pieces and ending his greed-driven madness once and for all.

The resounding explosion was finally enough to snap the chains keeping the crate connected to the airship. Milo was quick to take notice of this and hopped into the box as it began to fall, fortunately not too far to the ground as the ship itself was already well on its way there. They both landed roughly, though Milo found there was still no time to recover as the flaming remains of the airship began plummeting his way at a rapid speed. He only had mere seconds to shove the crate aside before jumping out of the way himself as the ship came down in yet another brutal, fiery explosion.

Amidst this barrage of disaster however, Milo was more than happy to see a friendly face as he spotted Sora, Donald, and Goofy pulling in to meet him. "Need a lift?" Sora asked with a grin, offering a hand out to help him.

"You bet I do…" Milo sighed, exhausted yet allayed. Yet, there was no time to celebrate their success as a sudden rumble shook the entire foundation of the cavern. The linguist turned back to the airship's wreckage with a gasp, his eyes wide with alarm as he began to notice the sizable cracks forming in the ground just underneath it. By now, the rest of the crew had arrived, all of them realizing the peril they were now in as Mole aptly proclaimed it aloud.

"The volcano!" he cried frantically. "She awakes!"

"Hey, I had nothin' to do with it," Vinny remarked, tossing aside a spare stick of dynamite.

"This here, would not be a good place to be!" Cookie noted anxiously.

"N-no, wait!" Milo rushed to grab onto the crate's chains, even as lava began spilling out from the cracks ahead of them. "We've got to get her back or the whole city will die!"

"And if we don't get out of here, we'll die!" Audrey snapped, pullin Milo out of harm's way.

"Quick! Everyone!" Sora called to the rest of the crew as they began to scramble forward, Donald and Goofy doing the same. "Let's hitch this thing up!"

"And hightail it outta here!" Goofy added urgently.

"A-and let's hurry!" Donald exclaimed, eying the emerging lava in the distance nervously.

None of the others hesitated to get to work, hoisting the crate's chains around the largest, most sturdy vehicle they had. As soon as they were sure the box was securely fastened to it, they all took off, pulling the crate up off the ground just as the fissures underneath it began to burst open completely. From there, the entire volcano began to erupt in short order, magma spilling out into the cavern from underground in heavy, deadly waves. The group pushed their pack of vehicles as fast as they could possibly go to outrun it, making it out of the cavern just as the lava began to pour out of its entrance entirely.

Without its heart to provide its life-sustaining light, Atlantis was awash in darkness, its citizens gathered near the palace to anxiously watch and see what would become of them and their city. Their spirits were instantly lifted, however, upon seeing the courageous group returning with the princess and the heart in tow, though even as they began to land, there was little time for celebration. Almost as soon as Milo made sure the crate was securely settled on the ground, he began to try and pry it open with a discarded spear, though it to little avail, even despite his best, somewhat frantic efforts.

"The fissure! It is about to eject its pyroclastic fury!" Mole gasped, pointing to the volcano as magma began pouring down its sides.

"Milo! Mole says the wall's gonna blow!" Dr. Sweet translated quickly.

"I-I'm…. working on it!" the linguist grunted, pulling as hard against the spear as he could to open the crate. All in the hopes that the heart inside it could somehow protect its people from the devastation that was about to befall them.

"Here, let me try," Sora offered as he rushed in to help. Milo readily let him, stepping aside as Sora summoned his Keyblade and took aim at the crate. Knowing that he couldn't afford to be distracted this time, he tightly closed his eyes and let the Kingdom Key do its job, unlocking the crate in a matter of seconds. Yet as the heart's light began to pour from the now-opened box, he found that he couldn't resist its radiant, entrancing glow for long, especially as the princess pushed the walls that had once contained her apart completely.

Everyone else watched in awe as the heart's power flowed freely into Atlantis once more, flooding into the ancient runes that covered the city, all the way down to its very core. Called upward by the heart's power, the stone effigies of Atlantis' past kings emerged from the heart's underground chamber, bursting out of the ground as they surrounded the princess, ascending along with her to rise high above what lay below. From there, their combined energy sparked vibrantly, their light piercing the sky to reach what seemed to be several sets of waterlogged ruins along the edges of the city. However, as those ruins rose up from the water, what they really were became clear: massive, titanic stone guardians, an entire legion of them, called to life by the Heart of Atlantis itself to protect it, to save it.

By now, the volcano's eruption was finally starting to reach the city, with flaming rocks catapulting their way toward the town from the force of the rushing magma. Though a few of them happened to strike the emerging automatons, they were hardly phased, their study bodies marching on to the very edges of the plateau Atlantis rested upon. And, as the eruption grew even more violent and uncontrollable, the guardians spread their arms out wide, forming large shields of raw energy that quickly combined to stop any flames that came their way. That shield rose over the city itself, enveloping it in its sturdy, unbreakable might just as a full sea of lava began to flow toward it. The molten magma crashed against the force field, frightening the citizens within it, yet it never touched them, even as it washed over the city in what would have otherwise been an obliterating wave. For all the while, the guardians, the very Heart of Atlantis, continued to defend its own, just as it had once before, thousands of years ago.

Even amidst all this unfolding chaos, from his spot on the ground, Sora still remained completely transfixed with the heart, his eyes glowing every bit as brightly as it was once more. As Donald and Goofy had rushed to help the other crew members escort the terrified Atlanteans to safety, he largely stood alone, absolutely captivated by the heart's continued call to his own. Yet strangely, that call slowly started to shift, as did everything else around him, the heart loosening its tight hold upon him to allow him to see the familiar golden light that had come to surround him. A light that came along with a soft, still unknown voice that Sora couldn't help but find immense relief in hearing once again after all this time away.

"Do you seek the truth?"

It was a strange question, to say the least, though hardly any stranger than anything it had asked him before. And really, the answer to it was a simple one, especially when he thought about his unique connection to the heart of this world, among others before it, about that armored warrior who had mistaken him for Ventus and Xehanort all at once, who itself could have been a long lost piece of Terra, about his own relatively newfound light and dark magic, about where it had come from and what it could do. All mysteries, all problems to solve upon still so many others questions he yearned to find the answers to. All matters that could, perhaps finally be settled, if he somehow managed to find the truth behind each one.

"Yes," he answered evenly, certainly, already extending an open hand out in anticipation for the Key that was about to fill it. "I do."

Sure enough that Key appeared in a vibrant flash of light, its palpable warmth and power washing over him as the light itself faded away. And as it did, the Heart of Atlantis was quick to catch his full attention once more, the newly-claimed Key still in his grip as his hand fell slack to his side. However, as enthralled by the heart as he was, he didn't even notice the dark corridor that was opening up just a few feet away from him.

"Ah, I do love it when everything goes perfectly according to plan," Vexen remarked with a broad grin as he stepped out of the portal. "And here I thought, based on what I've heard from a few of my fellow members, that this whole ordeal would actually be something of a challenge! But it turns out that, as usual, the hands-off approach is the best way to go seeing as how I barely even had to lift a finger to get what I came here for. I really can't thank you enough for doing all of the heavy lifting for me, Sora…"

Despite this smug remark, Sora said nothing to respond to it, largely since he hadn't even heard it to begin with amidst the heart still holding him in its trance. Vexen raised a confused eyebrow at this as he took a step closer, hardly paying any mind to the ongoing cataclysm far above the city himself, even as that disaster began to die down. "What's the matter, boy? Nothing to say in light of your inevitable defeat?" the researcher asked dryly, just before he noticed the unnatural glow still brimming in Sora's eyes.

"Hm… how peculiar…" Vexen mused, briefly waving a hand in front of his face in a failed attempt to get his attention. "You seem to be completely out of it… Ha! This is going to be even easier than I thought! In fact, since your bothersome friends don't seem to be anywhere in the vicinity…" His icy grin grew as he glanced around for any signs of the captain or the magician, or anyone else who might try to stop him, but ultimately found no one at all nearby. "I see no reason not to take both you and that Key back with me. After all, I'm sure I'd earn high praise from the master if just so happened to reign his supposed thirteenth vessel in a bit earlier than anticipated…"

Eager to carry his sinister plan out without any interference whatsoever, Vexen reached forward to grab Sora by the arm to pull both him and the Key through the dark corridor behind him. Yet just before he could, his approach was brought to a swift and sudden halt as a massive Keyblade came completely out of nowhere, slamming down and wedging itself squarely into the ground between the researcher and his proposed pair of prizes.

"W-what in the worlds?!" Vexen exclaimed, stumbling backward out of both fear and surprise. He was abruptly pulled back even more, however, quite harshly by a strong, heavy hand, one that tossed him to the ground just as hard. All the while, Sora never tore his gaze away from the heart, not even as the armored warrior itself came to reclaim its Keyblade, positioning itself almost protectively in front of him. From his spot on the ground, the most Vexen could initially do was stare up at the intimidating warrior in aptly terrified disbelief until he blurted out the most obvious question first. "What… w-who are you supposed to be?!"

The warrior didn't offer an answer as it instead pulled its Keyblade up, pointing its tip directly at the researcher. "You are not welcome in this world," it said shortly, simply. "Leave. Now."

Vexen let out a harsh, appalled scoff at this as he picked himself up off the ground, calling upon his pointed shield as a means of defense against the warrior. "Excuse me? I'm not going anywhere! At least not without that Key and that boy! Now, if you would so kind as to step out of my way so I can-" He cut himself off with a tight, squeak of a gasp as the warrior's Keyblade suddenly slammed hard against his shield, knocking it out of his grip and nearly sending him collapsing to the ground all over again.

"I said leave," it reiterated coldly, clearly prepared to engage in an all-out brawl if it had to.

"N-noted…" Vexen gulped timidly, turning to retreat through his dark corridor. "All those weeks of waiting around for the boy to recover, all of us sitting around doing nothing, for this? What a joke. I'm never going to hear the end of this one…" He muttered bitterly, though all the same he left, the threat of the Nobodies he'd brought to this world disappearing right along with him.

By now, the eruption had calmed, the guardians' shields slowly falling, though the automatons remained standing guard in their spots around the city, which was finally safe from harm. Likewise, the light of the heart began to dim, its purpose fulfilled as a cover of clouds rolled in to conceal its radiance. From his spot near the palace, Milo kept his sights set to where it had been, especially as a soft beam of light poured in through those clouds. And, slowly, gracefully descending from that light, was Kida, no longer bound to the heart as she'd been but still every bit as beautiful as ever, at least as far as the linguist was concerned. He stepped in to catch her, gently holding her unconscious form as she landed safely into his arms. He watched her closely, waiting a moment or two as she took in a deep breath before her eyes finally fluttered open, meeting his almost as soon as they did.

"M-Milo…?" she muttered, offering him a small, tired, but warm smile. One that he readily returned, especially as she suddenly, happily threw her arms around him, locking him into a tight, tender hug. Perhaps the best thanks she ever could have given him for saving her life and her city.

At the same time, the armored warrior happened to turn, glancing behind it to see Sora, the heart no longer influencing him as he instead stared up at it in stunned amazement. "Y-you… you came back…" he said softly, briefly checking to make sure the Key was still in his hand before devoting his full attention back to the warrior. "You helped me, didn't you?"

For what seemed like ages, the warrior said nothing, simply staring down at him without any sort of expression or intention at all. When it did speak, its tone was still just as unreadable as ever, but the words it said were enough to convey just how apparently confused it really was. "When I look at you… I can sense Xehanort's darkness. But… I can also feel Ven's light. I also know you're neither of them. So… who does that make you?"

Sora sighed, though all the same he ventured the slightest of friendly smiles all the same. "I'm Sora, actually."

"Sora…" the warrior repeated almost thoughtfully.

"Y-you're Terra, right?" Sora asked, even if he largely already knew the answer.

Yet even so, the warrior shook its head. "Almost. I'm all that's left of him, his thoughts, his memories… but without his heart and body, I am nothing more than a hollow, empty shell that was only left behind to ultimately wither away."

"I won't let that happen! My friends and I are gonna figure out some way to help you and-"

The warrior put up a hand to stop him. "If you were smart, you'd worry about yourself first."

"Well, I'm not!" Sora proclaimed, though he was quick to realize what he'd just said. "W-worried about myself, I mean. I am smart."

The warrior shook its head once more as it took a step closer to him. "Xehanort is trying to take over your heart, isn't he?" it asked, peering directly down at him. "If you're not careful, you could just as easily fall victim to the same fate I met years ago. Do not let his darkness in willingly; don't make the same mistake I did… It might already be too late for me, but it's not too late for you, Sora."

"It's not too late for you either," Sora insisted earnestly. "I still want to help you somehow, I just… don't really know where to start…"

"...Start with Ven," the warrior said after a moment of hesitation. "If your heart really is connected to his, then you should be able to find him. Aqua too. On my own, there's little I can do to reclaim what I've lost, but with the help of my friends… there might still be a chance to set things right."

"Got it," Sora nodded, resolved. "One of my friends is already out there looking for Aqua, so in the meantime, I'll find a way to help Ventus. And then, once we've got them back, they can help us help you, right?"

"...Right," the warrior agreed, tossing its Keyblade up into the air so it could take on the form of a glider once more. "Thank you, Sora. And good luck."

Sora saw the warrior off with a genuine smile, knowing that it was likely setting out to continue its search for its lost friends on its own. So he let it go, in the hopes that the next time they'd meet, perhaps they'd both be free of the darkness Xehanort was intent on oppressing both of them with.

---

Against all odds, Atlantis had been saved, its heart restored and its light and life right along with it. Its people heralded its bold band of saviors as heroes, especially since the mysterious monsters that had beset them even before their arrival also seemed to have vanished from the city entirely. Yet all the crew asked for in return for their courage, was a vehicle to take back up to the surface… as well as plenty of treasure to stow onto it, treasure that the Atlanteans were more than happy to bestow them with. Kida also made sure to gift each of them their own crystal as keepsakes of their journal and something of a medal of honor for their selfless valor.

"Atlantis will honor your names forever," she said as she handed them out while the crew prepared to pack up to leave. "I only wish there was more we could do for you."

"Uh, you know, thanks anyway, but I think we're good," Vinny noted, nodding over to the large pile of gold and jewels the Atlanteans were loading onto their ship.

"Those crystals will take you as far as the surface, for sure," Milo informed, holding up his own as he stayed by Kida's side.

"We're really going to miss you, Milo," Audrey said with a fond, genuine smile.

"Gawrsh, are ya really sure about staying here, Milo?" Goofy asked, hanging out on the fringes of the group alongside Sora and Donald.

"Yeah, you know, there's a hero's welcome waiting for the man who discovered Atlantis," Dr. Sweet added with a smirk.

"Ah, I don't think the world needs another hero," Milo chuckled with a wave of his hand. "What I'm not sure I understand is why you guys aren't going back up to the surface with them…" His grin faded into slight confusion as he glanced over at the trio.

"Oh, w-well, uh… let's just say we, um… have our own ride back home," Sora said, being careful not to give too much away.

"You would be welcome here if you decided to stay as well," Kida smiled, lightly holding onto Milo's arm as she did. "Atlantis would do well to have brave, courageous warriors such as yourselves."

"Thanks, but… we have to go," Sora reiterated as he allowed the Key to flash into his grip. "After all, we got what we came here for."

"You earned what you came here for," Kida affirmed as she offered Sora a thankful, thoughtful nod.

"I'll say you did," Milo added just as encouragingly. "Thanks, you guys. I'm not so sure we could have done this without your help."

"You're welcome!" Donald proudly quipped.

"Aw, c'mon now, Donald," Goofy said with a small laugh. "Don't let it get to your head."

"Seriously," Sora added wryly, crossing his arms.

"Hey!"

"Can we go home now?" Packard spoke up, as deadpan and bored as ever.

"C'mon, ya'll," Dr. Sweet encouraged, leading the way to the ship. "Let's get one last shot in front of the fish." Everyone went to do so, gathering around the pile of treasure the crew was getting ready to leave with as one of the Atlanteans snapped one last photo of everyone all together. And once that picture was taken, another round of final goodbyes spread throughout the group as the crew began to board their vessel. Milo, Kida, and the trio stood by to see them off as they began their voyage back up to the surface, and once they left, it wasn't long before Sora, Donald, and Goofy parted ways with the couple themselves, though not without plenty of fond farewells toward their new friends first. And with those farewells, the trio was off once more, readying themselves to leave the lost empire entirely, though not without one final, much-needed discussion on the way out.

"Sora," Goofy spoke up, breaking what was otherwise silence between the three of them as they neared the edge of the city. "Before we go, we… we gotta talk."

Sora stopped short, his back turned to the pair as he let out a long, despondent sigh. "What's there to talk about? You guys don't think I can do anything anymore so we might as well just go right back to Radiant Garden like you said so everyone can go on and on about how sad and weak and useless I am all over again. That's what you both want," he glared back at the pair bitterly. "Right?"

"Of course it's not!" Donald quickly denied such a broad claim. "We want you to be ok!"

"Ok?!" Sora scoffed incredulously as he turned to face them. "You really think I'll ever be ok again after-" He swiftly stopped himself, his hands clenched in tight fists as he looked away before he could say anything more.

Yet even so, both of his companions immediately understood exactly where he had been going. "Sora…?" Goofy began gently. "It's ok. Like we said before, y-you can always talk to us about it. You know you can."

"I don't want to talk about it!" Sora snapped, tightly gripping his arms as he shut his eyes to block the tears from coming. Even if they were still well on their way all the same. "I don't even want to think about it! I don't want to think about how scared I was or how much it hurt or how hard it was-how hard it still is just to feel like myself again! But you guys just won't stop bringing it up! You won't stop reminding me about just how far I fell and how I just can't pick myself back up to where I used to be, no matter how much or how hard I try!"

"S-Sora…" Donald attempted to speak up, but Sora was far from finished yet.

"Neither of you have any idea just how much I want things to go back to the way they used to be before all this," he finally choked out a small, miserable sob. "I… I just wish I could forget any of it ever even happened…"

"But you can't…" Donald interjected calmly, softly even.

"That's right," Goofy agreed just as solemnly. "The only thing you can do now is keep movin' forward…"

Sora glanced up at both of them, the tears in his eyes clear now as he shook his head mournfully. "...Then why won't you let me?"

The pair took pause at this, genuinely caught off guard by such a question. "W-what do you mean?" Donald asked, confused.

Sora made a meager attempt at wiping a few of his stray tears away, though it was clear he was still absolutely dejected in just about every way. "I-I… I know you guys are just trying to protect me, but… you can't keep making me wait on the sidelines anymore. I get it, I still have a long way to go before I get all my strength back, but it will happen, I know it will. A-and in the meantime, I want to do whatever I can to help. I just… I want us to be a team again... Please…"

"We are a team, Sora," Goofy affirmed, though the realization soon dawned on him all the same. "We just… haven't really been including you in that team lately… have we?"

"No… You haven't…"

"We weren't trying to make you feel left out," Donald countered earnestly. "We just… we don't want to see you get into trouble again."

"But… that's what you guys are here for, right?" Sora asked, finally cracking the smallest of smiles, even amidst his slowly-fading tears. "To keep me out of trouble?"

"That's our job, alright," Goofy chuckled easily.

"And we take it very seriously," Donald added with a firm, yet playful grin. "But… maybe we've been taking it too seriously lately. So… What do you want us to do, Sora?"

"What do I want?" Sora repeated, quite surprised. "I can't believe it. You're asking me that question, Donald? Really?"

"Yeah, yeah, don't get used to it," the magician huffed, crossing his arms.

"What I want," Sora continued evenly, holding onto a small, hopeful smile all the while. "Is just to feel like I'm a part of the team again. I want to be allowed to actually fight again, a-and if it looks like it might be too much for me, then you're more than welcome to bail me out. But we have to keep going." At this, he took their newly-claimed Key out once again, holding it up for both of them to see. "We may have gotten this one, but we still don't know how many more the Organization might have by now. Not to mention we still need to help Roxas, and Ventus, and now Terra too. We've already made it this far. There's no use in turning back now."

"Are you sure, Sora?" Goofy asked. "There's no telling what we might run into next out there. So if you don't feel like you're ready, then there's no shame in going back and waiting until you are."

"To be honest, I don't know if I'll ever really be 'ready'," Sora replied evenly as he let the Key disappear. "But… the way I see it, I have to try to work my way to that point somehow, right? Besides, I know that if I do end up falling apart again-"

"Then you can count on us to pull you back together!" Donald chimed in encouragingly.

"That's right!" Goofy soundly agreed. "You can count on us to be right here by your side, no matter what happens!"

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Sora replied with a warm, genuine laugh. It was enough to brighten both of his companions' spirits as they all began to set out once more, ready to head out, not back to Radiant Garden, but to wherever their search for the Keys might take them next. And as they did, Sora couldn't help but share a soft, steady smile with both of them, immensely grateful to have their support and solidarity on his side once more. Because though they'd ran into more than a few setbacks as of late, what really mattered was that as long as they were together, as long as they were the team they'd always been, certainly there was nothing, not even all of the danger and darkness the worlds and the Organization could throw at them alike, they couldn't handle.

Right?

---

Ahah well I figured I'd leave you on a mostly hopeful note in this one, cause the next Disney world is certainly going to... not have that. But instead of heading right to that Disney world, we're back on track with our usual schedule of interval chapters between them, so next time around we'll be hearing from someone we really haven't seen in this story yet, so that'll be exciting! But for now, please feel free to let me know what you thought of this one in the REVIEWS! Until next time!