At Radiant Garden, a waking up Sora was looking high and low for someone as Goofy and Donald found a occurrence to be most suspicious. The teenage boy yelled to the waking town. "Riku?! Where did you go?" There was no response save for confused bystanders, Sora cursed his luck. "How come I always oversleep in a time like this?"

Donald looked up at the building Sora was standing on and answered. "I don't know." Goofy chuckled. "Well we're still pretty early. You think he was up to something yesterday?"

Sora and Donald noticed a light bulb shine in a lamp post, the duck answered. "Merlin ought to know." The boy agreed with that and jumped over the other side of the building, Donald and Goofy yelped in shock and followed around, finding Sora running towards where Merlin's house is and catching up to the opened door. Donald grumbled, folded his arms and tapped his foot as Sora smiled nervously in an apology. The trio entered and found Merlin minding his own business and looking at a portrait of a gorgeous town and a similar portrait of a town in ruin, the wizard turned around like he was expecting the trio and greeted them jolly. "Good morning gentlemen."

Goofy greeted back. "Mornin Merlin, what are you doing?"

The wizard answered with a pondering thought. "This is but another piece of our restoration project for this world that we need to unlock one day. What brings you here?"

Sora folded his arms and had his hands behind his head as he asked. "You and Riku talked about something and he disappeared. Was... he up to something?"

Merlin tapped his forehead and remembered with astonishment. "Oh goodness! Yes he was and I was to tell you for when you come. Sora, you know the threat of Chaos is not something to take lightly, it has taken a toll upon you and fighting a Chaos Space Marine again would have opened old wounds. That was why Riku took it upon himself to search for this villain and stop his plans."

Sora jolted more awake in worry as Donald agreed with the wizard. "What ever Skygar is up to would be a disaster for all of us." Bleep! Bleep! Sora heard a text from his gummi phone and looked both relieved and annoyed, it was from Riku, asking something that caused Sora to puff his cheeks. "Did you finally wake up and ask Merlin?"

He texted back. "Ha, ha, did you go off to take care of Skygar before he causes more trouble?" He waited for a couple seconds and was given a text back. "Just did it with the help of some new friends you need to meet one day, and a mercenary with an inflated ego. Bryn is helping us gather some blocks and was keeping her own watch, you're going to knock me silly for this?"

Sora contemplated it, shook his head and texted back. "No, but we need to hurry before it gets late. Did you find something important?"

He showed the text to Merlin, Donald and Goofy, letting them know all was well. Riku texted. "Nothing... that urgent, but there were two people that shouldn't be in this world that helped out. One was a wannabe world traveler, the other tried to stop him. I'll meet you at the satellites and be back to work soon. I need to tell the others what I saw."

Sora counted on that and texted. "Okay, glad that you and that world is safe now." He had a more relaxed smile as Merlin asked. "What ever Riku has done, has lifted a great burden from you three?"

Sora nodded. "He tried to leave us out of it and scared us once we found out, but maybe that was for the best." He looked forward to a pleasant day as Merlin routed for him. "Ata boy. Now, don't we have something to see finished?" The trio nodded and Donald lead the way out to answer. "We got to get the blocks for the realm gate, thank you for telling us."

At the gates of the institute.

Hiro asked Riku with a bit of disappointment. "You have to go right now?"

The keybearer nodded and gave Hiro his viser. "For now, but this-" He pointed to a city that had a nasty assault. "can't just be fixed in a single day."

Hiro agreed with that as Baymax looked concerned for Deadpool's condition. "Alright, I'll have the data the AR recorded stored and... we can try shugyo again. Ha." Go Go and Spiderman looked at each other and started looking at the dangerous member of the group, scratching himself unaware, the teenage girl had another thing to be concerned about. "Now we need to know just where Spiderman and Deadpool came from so we can get them back home."

Deadpool flinched. "Huuuuh?!" Wasabi agreed with that and knew Deadpool was a main catalyst for more unusual events in the city. "I don't think Spiderman would mind us helping each other, but Wade's the reason the two of them are in this mess in the first place."

Honey Lemon nodded and asked Deadpool. "We... kind of need to take you into custody, you're not the kind of person we should let loose."

Baymax flickered an image of a body filled with tumors. "Wade Wilson, you are unwell, my scanners detected, multiple, cancerous tumors and further abnormalities from your healing factor."

Deadpool backed away as Fred warned his friends. "This is a bad idea, you can't keep a man this wild in one place for long." The mercenary agreed with him. "Hey, a man as loco as me got to eat. Come on, we stopped that freak show, worlds all sun shine, all's good and happy... right?"

Spiderman wished that was the case. "Yeah and we probably wouldn't have gotten that far with out you. But... you're a mercenary, as long as you get paid enough... you'll be back to killing people and in a time like this... we can't have that. We need to find Wolverine, set things right and go home."

Deadpool clenched his fists and pouted like a child. "And I thought we had something special," He posed over dramatically. "I lost my heart over you guys and-" He flinched and pointed over the yonder. "Oh my God, more Darkness!"

Riku gasped and turned around, the rest of the group turned to look, seeing only shadows of buildings and broken cars, it was definitely darkness, but not the kind they expected. They realized they been had and turned to find Deadpool scuttling away like a crab and making an odd noise, getting far away to where he tossed a box with the image of a virtual moogle and yelled. "Get me back to the shed Kupo." He spun elegantly and weirded out the group, laughing completely unhinged. "This isn't the last you'll read of me! Ha, ha, ha, ha!"

Blink!

Both Deadpool and the box vanished, the group of Big Hero 6 was completely dumbfounded as Peter took a deep breath and put his right hand over his face. "Damn it Wade." Baymax readied to download something as Hiro advised to his robot. "No, we'll get him eventually."

Riku hoped so and promised. "I don't think he's planning to get far and I think you guys got enough data from me and Spiderman to get by with the heartless, I'll be back with some friends so you can shugyo proper." Hiro counted on it, he and Bayamx offered a fist bump goodbye, Riku took the offer and fist bump with them, Hiro raised the fist he used up in the air with dorky style, Baymax raised his up and wiggled his fingers, giving off a mono tone. "la, la, la, la!"

Riku found it silly and gave a more mellow goodbye to the rest of the group, asking Spiderman. "Do you mind... coming with me until I can get out of here? I want to talk."

Peter didn't mind and promised the group. "If you need me, I'll be a web swing away." The two gotten far away, Riku asked Peter. "That door didn't take you and Wade to another city, it took you two and Wolverine into another world. By the sound of it, Wade tricked Logan into a whole different world... knowing he would try to ruin his idea of fun."

Spiderman sighed and looked homesick. "And until we find that door back or know how to get back, we're stuck? Just great." Riku guessed by the tone. "You have a lot of responsibilities in your own world and it sounds like you're not the only super hero there."

Peter shook his head. "No, I'm... just your friendly neighborhood Spiderman." Riku felt sympathy and promised him. "When me and my friends get the time, we'll help you get back home and we'll try to get Wade to understand that he doesn't belong here. If not, he'll be dragged back." Peter nearly laughed. "Ha, good luck with him." He promised back. "I know the Heartless are a pretty big deal and until those kids learn how to take them on, they could use a hand. I'll make sure they and the city stay safe until you get back."

Riku took a deep breath and showed Spiderman his keyblade. "It isn't because they can't fight, but because this is the only way they can take down a Heartless for good. As long as there is someone in this city succumbing to the Darkness, the Heartless will just keep coming. I think with Skygar gone, the Heartless will ease up for a couple of days."

Spiderman felt a little upbeat and saw a high tower to watch on. "Something tells me that someone doesn't have to use the Darkness to get their attention, but it's nothing I can't handle." He readied to shoot web and gave Riku a gesture of goodbye. "Later!" Peter swung high and left Riku to go into an alley way and let light flicker, taking him into a gummi ship that seemed to be shaking from terror.

Riku agreed with his ship. "Things escalated from zero to...Code Doom, in the span of minutes. Let's get back to the satellites before Sora comes around."

The ship turned and flew under order, going to the collection of satellites and finding Brynhildr and a certain gummi ship shooting a fleet of heartless ships and collecting various blocks. Brynhildr flashed a yellow light and turned to the coming gummi ship, she shinned green and a Riku's screen lit up, showing a pouty Sora asking like a typical child. "You went off to do this without us? Bryn was getting blocks all by herself."

Riku tried to answer in a mature tone. "Sora, the stuff with Skygar was escalating and I'm more glad you didn't come." He pressed a button and asked the pilotless ship. "Bryn, how much did you get?"

A second screen shined with a percentage of blocks needed, one reached to 100% while others were half way there. Goofy joined the conversation as Sora was thinking about something. "She was busy, I think we can finish this in another hour."

Sora agreed with that and asked with a rivals smile. "You want to see who won't finish these off first?" Riku gave that smile back. "You're on!"

At a canyon in the Land of Departure.

Kairi, Ana and Ken were lead to a dead end that had a ledge above jumping distance, which lead to another ledge that was even higher and to another ledge higher than that. Kairi asked as Aqua looked ready to jump. "Master Aqua, what are we doing?"

The teacher answered by rushing to the wall, jumped on it with her feet and running up over the ledge, flipping her handing and turning around. "We're free running, you three have seen this done before, but I think it's time you learn how to do it yourselves."

Ana looked confused and asked. "Lady Aqua, with all due respect, not many of us need this. Kairi can double jump a great distance, Kendry has his air magic and I have wings."

Aqua asked back with a lecture like tone. "But those have limits and can only get you so far until you end up in a place where none of those can help you." Ken remembered one incident and agreed. "We were going up against a tall wall this one time and my air magic almost reached a limit."

Kairi cringed and imagined the peril. "If it were any higher, you have been falling all the way back down. Ana, someone might think the obvious with your wings and try to stop those from working. What will happen to you then?"

The Stormcast knew she was in bulky armor, had her glowing wings power down and have them fold down her back. "I won't be nearly as nimble as the lot of you." She looked up and asked. "How are suppose to do this?" Aqua was glad Ana asked. "You need to focus on why you are running up the wall, this is a flowmotion and they all require some kind of want."

The Stormcast had one in mind. "How about I come up there and tell ya why this is still silly." Aqua had a smirk taunting her friend and readied to run to the wall behind her. "Who said the lesson was about running over this wall?"

She made her run and Ana realized what the real challenge was, she and the teenagers watched Aqua run up against the taller wall, Kairi answered as her teacher reached to the top of the second wall. "No one," She squinted her eyes at the wall behind Aqua, leading out of the canyon. "The lesson is about running over that one."

Ken whistled at the length. "The other two are just there to get us ready and when she figures out we are coming for her, she is going to run up that one. So... which one of us is going to try it first?"

Ana answered with a bold rush. "I'm gonna overcome this one no matter how many times I fall. I climbed the Summit of Gravities Bane, I can do this." She jumped and placed her feet on the wall, running two steps and falling down on her back. The boy of the group felt the mental image of a red x and a harsh buzz as he readied for his turn. "I think it is the foot work. Maybe if-" He made a more nimble dash and kicked himself up the wall, taking four steps and falling."

Kairi had a mental image of two red x's and felt her mind buzzing, she shook her head and gasped. "No... it wasn't about getting a head jump," She rushed to the wall and pressed her feet against it and treated it like she was running a steep turn, she nearly lost her balance and caught herself against the ledge, she pulled herself up and realized someone bellow watched that. Tap! Tap! Ken ran up and landed, looking dizzy in the head, Kairi slowly got up and panted. "This... this is harder than we thought."

Ken agreed with that and asked. "You ever had to make a sharp turn? It's like that except your making a turn... up." He turned back and shouted to Ana trying again. "Just act like you're running like normal."

Kairi whipped sweat off her forehead and looked up to find Aqua giving her and Ken a thumbs up, the Princess was ready to take the challenge as the ground rumbled, LEAP!

THUD!

Ana ran up the ledge bellow her comrades and flipped, jumping far and landing ahead of them. The Stormcast noticed Aqua running up the higher wall and puffed her cheeks. "Grr! She's enjoying this." She gave a rallying question. "Are we going to let her taunt us?"

Kairi sparked in determination and answered. "No, we will not!" She sprinted to the higher wall, more focused than before, running up with little to no hindrances, she made the jump on top and heard two more following behind her. Ken reached her and looked back down with a sweat, he turned to Kairi and looked nervous as Ana reached the top and didn't stop on her charge to the third and final wall. The teenagers noticed Aqua reaching the top and Ana running up, Kairi advised to Ken. "What ever you do, don't ever look back down."

The rival agreed and felt his blood circulating. "No distractions are going to cloud us. Come on!" The two rushed to the wall and ran up, ignoring how high they have to reach.

In a few moments, Ana reached the top first and met a giggling Aqua that readied to say congratulations, Kairi and Ken followed the Stormcasts and were greeted with. "Well done, why is it that every time I see you three debate it feels... right."

Kairi had her hands at her hips and wondered. "Why is that?" Ken shrugged as Ana answered. "Because we are working together to learn and do the impossible." The Stormcast squinted her eyes at Aqua and gave a confident smile. "Someone had to give us a reason to meld the ideas together and that unites your hearts."

Aqua smiled back as Kairi realized. "We...can free run now?" Aqua nodded and hummed. "You can and traveling is just one use of flowmotion. You all need to be nimble if you are to attack the enemy and avoid getting hit back ten times harder in return. That is the next lesson when we have the time to do it."

Ken asked more curious. "Or when Merlin gets here and helps set that... thing up so we can fight those kinds of enemies better. With the heartless, there is a ton of them, but they are pretty easy to handle because we are on the move, but when we fight something faster and smarter, that's when this comes in handy."

PHEEEEEEEW! The four heard a distant sound of a horn and knew someone arrived, Aqua answered her student. "When he has the time, until the Realmgate is set up, we're having to put that on hold. With what is going on, we can only do so much at once."

Ken agreed with that as Ana reactivated her wings and thanked Aqua. "And if we can learn that motion, we would learn many more. I'll see what Wanda caught in her eye, it's important if she blows the horn."

The ground walkers let the Stormcast fly off Kairi asked her teacher and her fellow student. "That... combination I was thinking about is mixing light with cura, something that will heal you and stop those trying to hurt us. Should I try it?"

Aqua answered without hesitation. "That's... an interesting combination, but it sounds like it will work."

Ken agreed with that. "Light, life. Light gives the plants life, which gives us life." Aqua agreed back and encouraged Kairi. "It's a rare element, but go for it. We need to combine what we learn in sync and I think we can try that while we wait." She took a deep breath and asked Kendry. "Do you know how to make earth magic work?"

The boy nodded to that. "Focus your mind on the ground and with that, have the world help you."

Aqua corrected him. "It's more that you draw fragments of the world to your will. But you're close, depending on where you are, it's a boon that is yours to take."

Kairi imagined where it would help. "Like down in that canyon, I wouldn't want to have rocks falling on me while dealing with something else."

Ken pouted. "Oh come on, if you turn a jungle into a light show, no evil thing is going to leave in one piece." He looked a little intimidated as Aqua wanted the potential argument to stop. "We'll talk more about that after we finish with the morning. Let's get back to the castle."

At the Castle.

Sora, Goofy, Donald and Riku watched Chip and Dale count for every gummi block as Wanda watched Stitch tear apart a make shift obstacle course. "By Sigmar, what could be driving such destructive instincts?" Sora answered interested. "I don't know, but I think Ven and Aqua might know where this came from."

Riku noticed Bryn and the silver gummi ship watching the chipmunks cross off the list and shrugged. "That's not really important now, Bryn was busy."

Chip crossed one more thing off the list, letting Dale share the news. "Lookee here, that's the last gummi block we need to get started." He and Chip gave a unified. "Thanks guys." The four traveling fighters looked at Brynhildr with gratitude, Goofy waved. "Thanks Bryn." The gummi ship gave a bright pink glow and caused the other to give a serious sounding beep, Donald noticed a drowsy teenager exiting the castle, Ventus was rubbing his eyes and asked with a yawn as he noticed the collection of gummi blocks. "Wha...haaa. What time is it?" Donald answered with his arms folded. "It's still morning, you're getting better." Sora greeted Ven. "Good morning, how did you sleep?" The boy tried recalling. "I... had a weird dream about an armored wizard and odd... things."

He tapped his head and noticed Ana landing, he smiled at the convenience and saw the Stormcast being half impressed by the haul. "Wow, is this all the blocks we need?" Chip nodded as Dale took a schematic out of the silver gummi ship and Wanda following with tools. "Yep, now we need to get started."

Riku explained. "It is a little complicated, but after yesterday, I went to take care of something on my own and Bryn helped me out with that something and more. This is much more thought and consideration than an A.I should have any right to feel, but then I found another machine that isn't much different. Maybe they were on to something about what a machine spirit even is. Ven, can you make out what those things were?"

Ven tapped his head and raised a finger to three. "One... was a disk with odd symbols... carrying the wizard as he summoned cogs. Then a smaller wizard summoned dragon flies to bring dead soldiers back to life."

Ana cringed and sighed. "That must have came from all the talk about the kinds of magic out in the realms. Those are some Endless Spells Arreia told me about. A Dais Arcanum, Chronomatic Cogs and an Emerald Lifeswarm. Those wizards must have been a Lord Arcanum and a Battle mage from Ghyran. Lad, we need to get them out of our head before this turns into an obsession. The Endless Spells are very dangerous."

Ven agreed with that as a Gryphon flew from the land bellow with three people riding on top; Aqua, Kairi and Ken. Stalwing landed and gave a mighty squawk, letting Aqua get off with her students looking at the blocks and getting off themselves. The three waved Ven a good morning as Riku took a deep breath. "We found enough, but while trying to clean up a mess, I found out that someone out there got struck in a world and I want to talk about that before we forget." Sora asked. "Finally, it's going to be a while before the King comes here to check how we are doing, what did you find?"

In the Castle That Never Was.

The Replica hid in the shadows with Shadey and slithered into a cell that had two, large, chained, dark creatures keeping guard and watching an unexpected battle, a knight in battered, burnt armor and a katana stood his ground against an annoyed Vanitas. The fiend snarled. "You'd think you can actually fight back and get out of here? You're nothing but a cursed, hopeless sack of rotten meat."

The knight growled and used a chime to give his katana a glow of golden, electrical light, he switched to his staff of bone, Vanitas looked even more irritated and shot a dark fire ball, the knight raised his staff and waved it, distorting the space around himself, the fire ball made impact and deflected it back to the fiend. PEW!

Vanitas stilled, the fire ball went through him, the knight looked up to find Vanitas readying a slam down, the knight rolled to the left, dodge the attack and ice pulse and slashed back at him with the glowing katana, a jolt of electrical light coursed through Vanitas and left him stunned. The knight slashed again, and again, he rolled back and avoided a counter slash, the knight took out a chime and kneeled, waving it around and causing a dark ring to form around him, pushing Vanitas to the limit of his patience.

WOOSH!

A pillar of dark energy erupted and knocked him off his feet, the knight cursed with a raspy tone and kept his katana glowing with light, approaching Vanitas and was ready for the killing blow. "Go...back...to the Abyss, Child of the Dark."

Vanitas listened and laughed at him. SWOOSH!

A collection of purple chains shot from the shadows surrounding the knight and snarred him in place, forcing him on his knees, the knight gave off a pulse of force, causing the chains to ripple and tighten even more, the fiend slowly walked up and approached, his free hand clenching and causing a chain around the hand holding onto the chime. "The Abyss? Where did you think we pulled your carcass from?"

The knight felt a burning pressure and refused to let go, the pain becoming worse, the knight looked up at Vanitas with a determined, yet hateful glare. The fiend looked at the chime and asked. "Where did you get that piece of junk in the first place?"

The knight refused to answer and held onto the Chime of His Wants. SLASH! A spinning blade shot from the shadows and carved into his hand, then another. The Replica kept Shadey firmly in place with a mental command. "No, I think we seen enough. We need a plan or we won't be able to help this guy." Shadey obeyed, took a piece of itself out and dragged the Replica out of the prison ward, they heard a faint sound of a crack from behind and felt grim in the heart.

Going back to the lounge and finding Xion in her black coat. She had a sparing match with Ztardon and pushing him back with a keyblade glowing in sunlight. The two sneak into the grey room and Xion noticed, she pouted and gave a respectful nod to Ztardon. "My brother is back, thanks for the practice."

The Tzaangor gave a nod of respect back and turned to leave. "You need more experience, yet the boon holds potential. Master would be most pleased." Xion hoped so and let the golden light fade from her keyblade, she went into the room and closed the door behind her, finding the Replica feeling helpless and a Shadey missing a left arm, she gasped and asked her brother in a black coat. "What happened?"

The Replica realized a misunderstanding happened and answered. "Oh, nothing that happened to Shadey, he did that as part of an... experiment of mine, since he is pretty... odd, I wanted to see if he was able to make a short cut straight into the prison hold. He thought he might pull something when we use a corridor to get back. You're right about how that knight is being treated, it's... hard to watch. What's worse is what ever you did for the knight, gave him that hope to fight back, while I don't doubt Shadey would handle those guards, Vanitas would recognize me and I think he would recognize our... aid. Did you find another coat?"

Xion nodded and went to a drawer. "Ahriman had a spare that he was studying, he probably wanted to know how a black coat protects someone from the darkness."

She took out a black coat and asked. "If we pull this off, we need to find another place to go. We won't be safe staying anymore." The Replica agreed and asked. "What gave it away? The fact Ahriman can't keep protecting us, his minions and himself from the kind of people here?" Xion nodded. "And maybe because he is wanting us to break free from him. We need to learn why, because that sounds too good to be true." The Replica shrugged and was ready to open a corridor. "And it actually is true, but it is all part of that plan of his. It's way too confusing and uncomfortable, but if we do this, we are giving him that wish he wanted." He asked his sister. "Once we go past the corridor, there is no coming back here. We get the kid to come help us, we get out with the knight and never look back. If there is anything you want to take with you, now is a good time."

Xion looked at the books and asked. "I don't have anything here, but what about you? These are your books." The Replica nearly laughed and open the corridor. "No, they were all stolen by Ahriman's goons. Even if they were a good selection, if I brought them with me, I'll get into trouble when I go to Twilight Town. We're ready?"

Xion nodded and took a bag as Shadey disappeared into her shadow, she gave a confident, charming smile. "Lead the way."

The Replica did so, all the way to Twilight Town, on arriving, he asked his adopted sister. "Now lets blend in and wait, he'll have to show up soon." Xion agreed and took her coat off. "Why would you think he will be here today?"

The Replica readied to take his coat off. "It's just that, he sticks with usual places and this is one of them. If he asks, we are telling him that we found the knight in big trouble near our apartment, we followed the knight and found him in a cell getting abused. We need to keep this half truth alive until we can make it more believable." Xion sighed and readied her keyblade like one would a great sword, the blade being over her shoulder. "He does and that's kind of what happened, it's why we had to get out of there." She stared at the world out of the shadows, looking more stoic. "Please have a reason to come."

At the Land of Departure, by the front of the castle.

Sora asked Riku in confusion. "So there are three more people out there? What is Deadpool up to?" Riku wagged a finger and warned him. "Don't ever ask that, the guy's insane. But with how he and Spiderman are, the world they came from isn't too different from what the three of us saved." He asked Sora and Kairi. "Big Hero 6 needs to know how to battle Heartless and once we have the chance, we should go back and finish what was started. They aren't going to keep things under control forever and if this First Prince of Chaos is who we remember, they need all the help they can get."

Sora agreed with that. "If that Daemon was responsible for it, we need to get to that soon." Kairi agreed as well. "If not, trouble like Skygar will happen again." Goofy and Donald noticed Mickey arriving and looking at a construction in aw, the two stood firm and addressed him. "You're majesty!"

Sora gasped and stood firm, despite Riku insisting it wasn't necessary, the silver haired teenager greeted him. "We're finished on our end, Mickey. Now what?"

The mouse showed the Star Piece and answered. "Nothing right now. Once the Realmgate is built, we need to talk about who is going over there. Nice job getting what we needed."

Bryn beeped a your welcome as Wanda asked Ana. "So construction is underway, shall we divide who gets what duty?"

The Stormcast nodded and self volunteered. "Wanda and I will make sure this goes uninterrupted from the construction, all the way to when we get the thing activated." Mickey volunteered. "I'll stay here until this is finished." Aqua appreciated that. "And I know what I need to do."

Goofy raised his hand. "Donald and I will help Wanda and Ana keep an eye out." Donald sighed and agreed. "You can count on us."

With guard duty assigned, Wanda took a look at the teenagers and counted. "Three from the islands, one from the town and the sleeping-" She squinted her eyes and counted a bored Stitch. "Sora, Riku, Kairi... you're better off out there for the next couple days than cooped up here."

She pointed at Riku. "If it wasn't for one of ya, a whole world would have been swallowed up by the Forces of Chaos and I bet that they would try something when they know most of us are ere." The trio from the islands heard the order and gave a firm salute the general ordered Ken. "Kendry, you are to make sure our allies get themselves in line. As ridiculous as this Burn Off is."

The boy with the mechanical arm nodded as Wanda looked to Aqua, with one more to be ordered, the Keyblade Master agreed and asked Ventus. "Ven, it's been two days and you need a change in scenery. I think your a day away from recovering and getting back to a schedule, think you can manage that?"

The boy that sleeps a lot nodded firmly. "I think I can. But... where first?"

Sora had a dorky smile for him. "Well... how about we go see this Burn Off? It sounds like it's going to get fun."

Ken flustered from flattery as Kairi warned the boys. "If one sided. The whole point is showing off who can burn the brightest and for the longest. Sora, Riku, Ven... there is something I want to talk about since we will be close to where the amusement park is, once the Burn Off is done... we can go check it out for ourselves."

Sora and Riku had a spark of interest as Ken readied to leave. "I'll go ahead, tomorrow is going to be pretty fun." Kairi agreed with that. "And we will still be ready early."

Aqua knew of the amusement park and wished the group the best of luck. "Go get those passes early before something happens, it would stink if none of us get a break from this."

Ven rubbed his right arm and agreed. "It... would." He picked up Stitch and asked. "We should get going, we got half a day left." He laughed nervously and Sora offered to drive. "A lot changed since you were sleeping, try not to get too weirded out."

At Twilight Town's beach.

Isa tried once more to ask an over confident man that had red spikey hair. "Lea, this could still be avoided if you take some heed to what we are trying to say. The worlds are one moment away from falling into Chaos if any of these lunatics are allowed the chance, we need everyone."

Lea blew at the air and folded his arms. "And I got the feeling that wouldn't get us anywhere but a city of head aches." Isa stared and wanted to say something, disregarded it and asked. "Have that feeling memorized, like it or not, you need to stop pretending you don't remember."

Lea sparked a frustrating feeling. "I told, you, I don't remember." Isa didn't even bother laughing. "That's what we all said to ourselves, but one of us didn't have that luxury. Why is it that you avoid Laurim and Elrena like you do? If you truly don't know them... there isn't any logical reason for you to do that. If you do, then you would know why you three would never get along."

He noticed a blonde boy out of a brown jacket and revealing a purple, sleeveless shirt, complimented by a right arm replaced with a prosthetic and gave a small smile. "But if you won't take this seriously, maybe you need a reminder that things don't revolve around us. Regardless if he can back up his bravado." The boy heard that and gave a firm stare like he heard a gun fire. "I wouldn't be bragging if I couldn't do it."

Lea looked at the boy like he was doing something ridiculous and shrugged. "Oh really? Someone's already fired up." He introduced himself. "Names Lea, commit it to memory kid."

The boy did so and drew out two keyblades, the one on the metallic hand looked more like a gun, the one on the fleshy hand was of burning metal, igniting brightly, he introduced himself. "I will, names Ken." He asked the burning keyblade. "I'm going to use you as a marker, if you don't calm down, people are going to think I cheated."

The burning keyblade's fire dimmed down, the boy placed it firmly in the sands and walked far away, Isa understood exactly what the boy meant. "That... would have lead to a misunderstanding and Dorlu wouldn't let you hear the end of it." He discussed the rules as he noticed various people coming to watch. "This Burn Off is simple enough, use your best fire moves and see which one burns brightest, we have people watching, so have some restraint."

He walked off and attempted to keep the audience at a safe distance, Lea hummed to that. "They are taking this way too seriously." He nearly laughed. "This is going to be one-" Ken stopped him and nearly went stoic. "Don't, say it. We kind of playing with fire and they want to see if we end up getting burned or not." He sparked in fire and walked closest to the right of the shore, he flipped his gun like keyblade and gave an overconfident smile as Lea walked to the left and stretched his arms side ways, two disks ignited in his hands, two spike, metal and red chakrams, he gave an arrogant smile back. "Let's step this up."

He tossed one in the air and caused it to spray into a twister of fire, Ken formed a fiery whip from his fleshy hand and used it to slap the twister back, letting loose a crackling spark, Lea caught it and spun another. "Ha! Someone has an attitude."

Ken agreed with that and aimed his gun like keyblade into the sky as the whip disappeared. "You think that was a spark, watch this." He fired a fiery beam in the air and focused, causing it to condense into an orb of fire that rain down fire balls, like a parody of the sun. Ken snapped his fingers to an idea and concentrated, causing the fire balls to stop, fire beams shot out in their place and caused the beach to heat up. Lea shook his head and tossed his second disk at the orb, letting it sink in as he readied to snap his fingers, the fire orb destabilize and sparked out of control.

BOOM!

The orb blew up and the chakram took its place, it ignited itself into a spinning fire orb, Ken clapped amused and ignited both of his hands, he flipped in the air and flung his keyblade under the orb. He landed with a particular pose and caused the keyblades surroundings to erupt in a fire storm. Pillars made contact with the fire orb and caused it to dissipate. Leaving behind a chakram that fell to the ground, Lea bobbed his head. "That's the best you got?"

Ken shook his head. "Nah, but this is still the part where you top that?" Lea laughed to that. "Ha, don't you know it." BOOM!

The chakram burst like a mine and caused the two participants to be in an arena of fire, Ken felt his feet burning and stepped around frantically as he realized the sand was burning. "Hot, hot, hot."

He formed a fiery tornado around himself and used it to fling himself in the air, he formed three tornadoes and caused them to suck up the fire, Lea jumped in the middle and caused the fire in the tornadoes to expand into pillars of flame that broke against the binding, taunting all the more. "Feeding air into it, that's a great idea."

Ken agreed with that and called his keyblade to him, he gave off a spin that caused the sky to twist in wind and suck up the fire, he caused the sky to turn bright and readied a similar pose from before. "But air makes it burn more and this is what I need for this!" He landed like a storm and caused large pillars of flame to shoot down, the fiery arena broke away from the excessive flames that rushed against the beach, the crowd backed away, nearly in a panic against what was comparable to the mental image of Armageddon. Ken and Lea realized the pillars were taking a long time dying down, the spiky haired man looked on dumbfounded, like he wished to make a joke and couldn't think of one, the boy asked. "I over did it, did I?"

Lea saw faint hints of the fire dying and answered. "Well... at least you won." They heard the song of a guitar and water erupting from the outer arena, pelting the fire as streams of water rushed from the beach to cool down the inferno. Ken felt a sweat and explained. "This was over the top, but over a week ago, me and some friends of mine were dealing with those who pulled off even worse than this and it escalated into an all out war. Now we have another psycho that sounds like he would cause all of it to happen again, I think that might be what the gang is trying to talk to you about."

Lea was rather surprised. "Really?"

Ken nodded as the pillars died down. "If you weren't taking it seriously, do you got a reason to do it now?"

The man snickered. "How about I hear it from them instead of from their buddy. I know where they are."

Ken shrugged and heard people gasping, he looked on to find the beach with patches of glowing red glass, speechless. They heard the sound of a whistle and looked to the direction to find Medy trying to call them out. "You guys said you were going to do a burn off, not a Ragnarok."

Ken called his burning keyblade back and apologized. "I amped up fire tempest way too much, sorry about that." Medy sighed and went to clapping for him, followed by many. "It... earned you this." He asked Lea. "So now are you going to hear us out?"

The man was about to answer as a particular girl called to someone. "Wow Ken, wow." Ken turned to find Kairi, Sora, Riku and Ven trying to keep a curious Stitch far away from the glowing glass, the girl looked nearly speechless as Ven recognized Lea, sparking a familiar memory in the man.

Ven approached and had a dorky smile. "Well, long time no see Lea, how did you end up here?"

The man remembered an identical boy from childhood and gasped. "Ventus?! You look like you didn't age a day." Medy looked at Ventus, flinched and looked on confused as the boy holding the odd blue dog answered. "It's a long story, that nearly went atomic."

Lea agreed with that. "Our bad." Medy awkwardly tapped Lea's shoulder. "Isa is at the usual place, we... should get this over with."

The spiky haired man caused his chakrams to disappear in fire and wanted to follow. "We should." He gave a smile to the other two teenagers, Sora looked confused as Riku looked like he wanted to say something, the man realized more was going on and simply waved. "Eh.. I'll see you around."

Ventus waved back and wished the two the best of luck. "Maybe we can talk at a better time. See you later."

The two left and the crowd cleared, Ventus realized most of the others were conflicted in the manner as Kairi congratulated Ken. "We'll talk about that later. Congratulations on winning," Riku joked about that as Ken mentally cooled down. "Yeah, and that came at a price, you got people scared of a firestorm."

A girl in hearing distance corrected him. "Not really." The six turned and found Olette looking impressed, she asked Ken. "Do you mind coming with me, me and the guys need to know what kind of fire power that was and where it came from."

The boy with the cybernetic blushed and nodded. "I will." Riku conceded and let Ken go off. "Just... don't do that again unless we are far away from town."

Ken promised he wouldn't and followed Olette, leaving the party of five. Sora asked Ventus. "How did you and Lea know each other? I expected that to have gone a little different."

Ven wondered why as Kairi wanted to show the four something. "It's pretty interesting, shall we check the... thing out?" The boys nodded and followed her to the train station.

In a bench at a sand lot.

Xion shook her head and looked terrified as the Replica spoke. "If he pulls that off again in there, we will be in and out of that place in half an hour."

Xion agreed with that. "The sooner he is out of danger, the better." The Replica sighed and noticed four people. "If he keeps a rep sheet like that, it isn't going to matter. But it will really mess up the order if they have another thorn in their side. Ha."

Xion looked to find Ken with Olette, Hayner and Pence, listening to what the one armed boy had to say as he looked at his burning keyblade. "I gotten so use to this things fire that I started using fire magic more, even when I have it called away and knowing about pyromancy doesn't help."

Hayner laughed to that and patted Ken on the back. "Or it does. Did you see yourself back hand that twister."

Ken flared up as Pence agreed. "We knew that the beach would have been perfect, but we didn't think you and Lea would cause so much heat that the sand would have melted."

Olette wanted to remember that. "I never thought we are going to try to sneak into the beach and collect glass, someone might get cut if no one picks them up." She giggled, much to Ken's embarrassment, the boy went back to the subject. "There is more to it than just that, but I think the rest of that pryomancy is lost forever. There is another kind that I'm not going to use and my attempt to substitute was turned down due to Miss giving a pretty good point in what kind of heat I'll let loose on you all if I tried it."

Xion raised an eyebrow as Olette sighed. "I hate to say I saw that coming. We were feeling the fire, even as far away as we were. I hate to imagine what lava would have done." Pence cringed. "He would have made a volcano erupt on the beach, that close to town."

Ken shook his head as Hayner spoke for him. "Nope!" The boy with the cybernetic agreed. "Even if I was able to learn that in a short time, I'm glad Miss showed me why no was her answer." He had a story to tell. "Chaos fire, a fire that could melt stone, it came from someone trying to mess with nature. She, her family and a whole civilization paid the price. That name... is the last thing people want to hear."

Olette agreed with that. "Me and the guys want to go to Radiant Garden and see something in the afternoon. I think its time we gave them our respect." Hayner sighed. "We...owe them that much for trying to keep us all out of trouble."

He, Olette and Pence looked up the clock tower, the boy in the dog t-shirt asked. "But how are we going to let Resira know we are trying to thank her?"

Olette thought of something and asked. "Maybe, we should try something thoughtful?" Ken nearly broke into an outburst. "After everything she and the others did, I want to know why she isn't letting anyone help her back... we...need to know."

Olette asked. "Should we talk with Kairi and the others when we can?" Ken nodded. "Exrirsa doesn't come around unless there is someone trying to cause trouble, but the way she acts isn't healthy." Pence agreed with that. "But until we can help her, we need to be careful."

Hayner wanted to change the subject and asked Ken. "Do you know what you and Olette are going to be doing tomorrow night?" The one armed boy shook his head. "Nope, but I want to be surprised." Olette closed her right eye and asked. "It's... going to be a lot for one night. I hope your teacher is okay with you and Kairi being there for that long."

Ken blinked. "She... seemed okay with it. But... I'll get a second take on that."

Olette winked to him. "Do that, and you'll have no complaints from me."

Ken blushed again and was giggled at as Hayner pulled a pamphlet from his pocket. "We'll meet up at the train station after the guys finish their visit. Don't... go wandering near that gang until the heat dies down."

He chuckled to his own pun as Pence agreed. "If it was pretty important, we don't need to see more drama." Olette waved to Ken. "We'll see you again soon." The boy waved back and parted ways, left alone and space out, he noticed the Replica and Xion pretending that they didn't hear anything, he approached and greeted them. "Sup? You... saw the Burn Off?"

The Replica nodded. "Never do something that stupid again. But... yeah." Xion let go of her jealousy and asked. "That's... why we need you to help us with something. We saw someone in our apartment complex get taken away somewhere by some very bad people and we followed into a creepy place filled with monsters. We need power like that if we are to rescue him."

Ken answered, not suspicious at all. "Who is he?" Xion answered more worried. "A knight... ha. That's the first time that youth rescues one from peril." Ken almost laughed. "It isn't, so how are we going to do it?"

The Replica stepped up and signaled to him. "Follow us, we have a plan that is incredibly suspicious, can go wrong with one slip up and will get us all killed or worse. We need you to fit into something just so this doesn't become your problem." Ken fell for the audacity and dismissed his keyblades. "Not the first time I went to somewhere like that. Ha, ha, ha." Xion cringed and followed. "But... it should be over quickly."

At Disney Town.

The boys were nearly drawn in by the appeal of the amusement park as Kairi looked upon four passes and cheered. "Phew! It's good that we got them when we did, the line was getting long."

Stitch pouted in jealousy and Sora spoke of the rules he saw. "Sorry, but pets aren't allowed. Even Pluto wasn't allowed a pass."

Stitch looked at a grumbling orange dog bickering in jealousy and blabbered something to get his attention, Pluto looked back with a whimper and saw the alien waving to him like he understood what he was feeling. He wandered to Pluto and talked a conversation, Riku shook his head and asked. "At least they aren't venting alone. Ven, you knew that guy?"

Ven chose to ignore Stitch and Pluto's ranting as he answered. "I met Lea and Isa when they were small, what happened?"

Riku took a deep breath and answered. "Sometime later, they lost their hearts to darkness and their nobodies, Axel and Saix, gave us nothing but trouble."

Sora and Kairi agreed with that, the brown haired boy explained. "Axel was best friends with Roxas and I kind of expected Lea to... be asking something else about you." Ven guessed what it was. "You expected him to mistake me for Roxas? That would have been weird, does... every one of those guys recognize me as him?"

Sora guessed so. "Roxas was apart of Organization XIII, if they seen him as nobodies, they might think you were him until you say something."

Ven folded his arms and felt tempted to ask something. "I need to talk to those guys and ask what's up," Riku warned him. "They are up to something, but I don't feel nearly as much vile. Kairi, you said Exrirsa is with them now?"

The Princess nodded. "Or she is keeping them in a close watch, they're scared of her."

The silver haired teenager took interest. "Someone needs to check and see what's going on with her. Without a heart, Exrirsa is acting in a brain length that... isn't human. The Imperium is a dark place to live in and she had a lot of issues, how are we going to talk to her?"

Ven and Sora looked around for a quick solution, finding an ice cream cart and sparking a mutual idea, they asked at once. "How about we talk it over some ice cream?"

They nearly jumped, Riku wanted to disapprove and stopped himself as Kairi approved. "That... might work, I know there is an ice cream cart back at Twilight Town. If she and the other nobodies know we aren't trying to be a threat, will they listen?"

Riku hesitated as Sora answered. "Their nobodies, I don't think it will work exactly as we want it to. But...we got to try," The silver haired teenager sighed. "Fine, but be prepared for the worst." They looked at Stitch and Pluto pouting together, making an excuse to spend time thinking of their words for confronting the nobody.

At Twilight Town's Alley.

Ken looked at the Replica and Xion putting on black coats and looked at the one given to him. "You... weren't joking about how dangerous this can get. I seen some crook wearing this."

The Replica hid his annoyance and asked. "It's needed so the Corridor doesn't hurt you, are you having second thoughts now?" Ken shook his head and went to put in the coat. "No, just... the last time I jumped into the Dark... eek."

He shivered as Xion asked. "Eek?" Ken pulled his zipper up and hid in his hood. "It was pretty gross before we got to the edge of the Abyss, with in was absolutely nothing... besides four soul sucking monsters."

The Replica took the boys word for it and promised him. "We're not going through that, but if we are fast, they will have more reasons to be scared of us. Would you keep a secret?"

Ken opened his mouth as the Replica continued. "Good. Shadey, say hello to our new friend."

Ken felt something moving in Xion's shadow, it had red eyes and a body of shadows, it blinked at Ken, took the form of a dog with a missing arm and oozed to a wall. The boy with one arm waved to him with confusion. "H...Hello. What... is he doing?"

The Replica answered confidently. "While a corridor is unpredictable until we get a route, and doing it in the place we are going is suicidal, Shadey left a piece of himself behind in the shadows that I'm using it as the focus, we'll be exactly where we want to be."

A Corridor of Darkness opened and the Replica readied to charge in, Ken shook his head and charged in with Xion, with in the uncomfortable darkness, the girl explained what they were heading to. "The cell is being guarded by two tough looking monsters, Shadey would take care of one of them, easily, while the three of us focus on the other one. We should have them down as fast as we can. Dupmic, what should we do to keep more guards from coming?"

The Replica had one plan. "I know a warding spell, but it's going to be so out of wack that it might not hold for long unless we have the place in a confined space."

Ken gasped and asked. "I can surround the place in fog and we can use that." The Replica hummed and asked. "That still won't hold back the one person we're scared of, but it would give us the time we need. If Xion and I get into one of the guards face, would you shoot it until it stops moving?"

Ken answered proudly. "Shooting, hitting and running are my big specialties. You can count on me for that." Woosh!

A door way leading to a white room is seen, the trio jumped out and found two monsters guarding a black cell. They were bound in chains and in a strange, black aura, their eyes glowed a wispy white and they rustled. Ken formed Fire Keeper's Wish and focused its power in ashes as the Replica had a mental image of only himself, Xion, Shadey and Ken.

WOOSH! PEW!

A fog blocked the exit and it glistened a strange yellow color, Shadey regenerated his arm and noticed a cell giving off a black mist. The creature took the shape of a tiger and rushed after the monster to the right, the Replica drew out his glowing, feather like sword as Xion drew out her keyblade and caused it to spark as Ken aimed at the left monster.

Shadey dashed to the right monster and saw it shoot out laser beams as Xion and the Replica rushed to the left and saw it spin in fire. Ken focused his burning blade and caused his friends to glow in an orange aura, letting them know. "This should keep you from burning up."

He pressed both keyblades together and fired at the monsters head, the automatic beam caused the monster to recoil and be left exposed to a flurry of attacks, the monster spun into the ground as the monster on the right had its upper torso torn, causing the cage to fall limp. Rumble! Rumble! BURST! Ken jumped back and dodged an armored monster drilling up and shot a more intense beam of heated energy, melting the upper torso away and causing the cage underneath to fall. The cages slowly came apart with a black and white glow, something odd was happening, the Replica warned the group. "Were... these things infected by something?"

Xion nodded. "If they were healthy, they would have dropped the armor when they got hit like that, instead of this."

Thud!

The cages became undone and two odd creatures emerged, the one near the teenagers was a masculine knight in black, heavy armor, with a large shield and sword, his face had white, sorrowful eyes. The one near Shadey was a feminine knight in a white, dress like armor, wielding a smaller set of weapons, her face had black, sorrowful eyes.

The two knights radiated a circle of dark power, forcing the teenagers to fall back and watch the two knights jump side to side. The circles pulsed in geysers of dark power and knocked Shadey away, the black knight took a defensive position over the watchful white knight, waiting for the four to make a mistake. The Replica focused and aimed his hand, Ken blinked and watched the two knight be knocked back by an unseen force, the Replica rushed at the more fragile white knight that flew further as Xion rushed to the shaken black knight. She swung, missed and was countered by a swing of the sword.

PEW!

The black knight was shot in the head by automatic fire and used its shield to block the laser, Xion landed on her knees and looked up to find a laser beam adjusted higher up, condensing into a fire ball that rained down laser beams at the knight. Ken took it as his chance to use a healing spell on Xion, revitalizing her, the knight jumped to the left and used its shield to block the beams, giving the girl the chance to rush behind it and let loose rather aggressive attacks. The white knight was clawed by Shadey and back flipped, leaving behind a geyser of blue energy, Shadey vanished and reappeared next to the knight as the Replica rolled ahead.

WOOSH!

The geyser erupted and shot bolts of energy at the two, forcing them to keep moving as the knight took an opportunistic strike at the Replica. The Replica aimed his hand again and sent the knight flying high, giving Shadey the chance to pounce and tear at it. The black knight landed, growled and tossed its shield at Ken. It held its great sword with both hands and caused it to glow in lightning, Ken side stepped to the right and aimed for its head as Xion pounced at the knights abdomen, the knight swung at her. The girl rolled to her left and struck the knight as a burning beam scorched the knight's upper half, both the Cell Defender and the Cell Watcher fell limp in a thud together and dissolved in an abyssal glow.

With the guards gone; Xion, the Replica and Shadey looked at the cell door giving off a shroud of a black fog that pooled a small set of stairs. The Replica took the lead and asked. "Something isn't right here, what has that punk done?"

Xion shrugged as Shadey shivered in fear, the girl petted the eldritch tiger and answered. "I don't know, but we need to stop it and rescue that knight. The darkness in there feels... strong."

Ken agreed with that and placed the tip of his burning blade on the ground as he kept Cadia's Light in aim. "And I think I know the kind of punk you're talking about, I saw some chains with similar eyes. You guys go on while I make sure he doesn't follow you."

Xion gasped and heeded against it. "Ken, if you do know, then you know why he would try to kill you if he sees you." Ken took a deep breath and looked to the three like he didn't care. "Since I outsmarted him once and kind of made a name for myself, he would try it anyways when he had the chance. He's going to learn that I'm not some spineless puntz for him to kick around. Good luck guys, keep yourselves safe."

Xion clenched her hand holding her keyblade as the Replica had his own advise to Ken. "You keep yourself safe. Once we get what we came for, Shadey is going to come and get you out, whether you are ready or not. Stay strong." Shadey sank into the Replica's shadow and followed him to the black fog, Xion hesitated and followed. "...Good luck."

The three went through the fog and on the other side, felt themselves falling down somewhere. Into a stone gazebo in a strange, cold, cave, they saw something even more odd and a feeling of wrongness, everything was in grey. Xion sensed something ahead and slowly walked, she asked her brother. "Please tell me you meant what you said."

The Replica answered with a heated promise. "I do, Ken's been around a lot of people who know that punk and seen and heard more than he needs to know. He wants to make a point across." Their journey in the odd cave lead to a hut with that had a warrior in leather armor, looking down at something broken in his hands, a chime, the warrior looked ahead to the two, showing a face underneath a helmet, one with a dirty, red beard, pale, deathly skin and grey eyes. An unsettling, depressing sight, the Replica closed his eyes, understood what happened and approached, he unfolded his hoods and took off his sunglasses. "I seen enough, that chime was yours and that bully took it out on that when you wouldn't be his punching bag anymore." Xion, undid her hood and approached, letting the warrior know she recognized him, the warrior looked to be in pain, his grey eyes watered and sparked in urgency, his mouth tried to say a warning.

"Be...behind you."

The two turned to find black mist passing through them, they found themselves on the edge of a keep. Before them was a large floating knight in armor, having a massive shield on his right hand, a large sword on his left and a collection of weapons on his back. A horizontal slit on his helmet glowed, like a hunter sent to pursue. Xion and the Replica looked behind themselves to find a simple ruined fortress, stuck in a perpetual grey, they were confused as Shadey rushed from the shadow to parry a knight that didn't hesitate to strike. The Pursuer blocked the creature with his shield and slashed at him with a blade of darkness, the Replica sighed and used his shadow to fire bolts of power at the Pursuer's own shadow, pushing it back and leaving it to be clawed from behind by Shadey, Xion rushed to the Pursuer's right flank and swipe upward, giving off the sound of a lightning bolt. The Pursuer evaporated in dark mist and swallowed the three up, the three found themselves in the ruins of a prison.

Chains dangled down and they heard an inhuman roar, coming from an old woman in a metal mask, a straight jacket and in wooden hand cuffs, she carried a sword and approached the three in alarming speeds. She swung at the three in an aggressive manner, Xion and the Replica jumped back as Shadey circled behind the prisoner and clawed at her. The prisoner back flipped behind him and swung, Xion and the Replica rushed at the prisoner to defend their eldritch friend and struck her down with aggression. Black mist engulfed them again, they found themselves in a curved hall way with narrow corridors. They heard the sound of horses ahead of them, the Replica noticed broken skeletons reanimating as Xion noticed a robed necromancer trying to command them from a safe corner, she rushed after the necromancer for a swift kill as Shadey looked ahead, grabbed the Replica and rushed to another corridor, the boy had the sight of a two headed, skeletal horse, driving a massive wooden chariot that was design to run people over. A spike nearly got him in the back and he popped his head out to see the chariot run off in the circular hall. "...That thing is going to come back. How are we going to-"

He saw a lever at a wall in the hall way and a gate meant to go down, he smiled arrogantly and went to pull it. Seeing the chariot coming back as he grabbed and tugged. CLICK!

The gate came down at the chariot and caused it to crash, the horse fell to its side as the chariot shattered into countless pieces, the horse tried to get up and was attacked by Xion.

Black smoke puffed and the three found themselves in a keep half buried in lava, a winged demon emerged from the lava and approached. Looking half molten and furious, the Replica aimed his sword and shot bolts of misty ice, pelting the demon that pushed through as Xion raised her keyblade and caused lightning to strike, the demon snarled and breathed fire down upon the three. Shadey found a corner to the right and growled to the duo, having them follow it to safety. The demon charged its right hand with fire and aimed at the three, forcing them to move close to the edge to dodge a super heated beam. Shadey took a more humanoid form and pounced at the demons chest, clawing a large chunk out and causing the black mist to return.

They found themselves in a cave filled with giant spiders, one tried to pounce on Xion and had its fangs ready to pierce her skull, she rolled to the left and found herself surrounded, she flexed and pulsed in light and lightning, sending the spiders flying to the cave wall. The Replica looked up to find a skeleton of a dragon, webs and a giant spider screaming at them. The spider charged and spit seething venom at Xion, the girl rolled to the left and was being cornered as the boy rushed to the spiders head and stabbed deep with in. The spider ram its head at a wall and forced the Replica off as Shadey slipped underneath, appeared behind, saw a second spider head and took the form of a sloth bear. Swiping and clawing, irritating the other head and causing it to fire a beam of energy at the odd siblings, they rushed behind and saw the second head, attacking as one and causing the black mist to appear.

They found themselves in a cave with a burning pit, odd statues and a mound of moaning bodies melded into one, blob like being that wielded a butchers cleaver on its right hand and wore a cage like helmet. Xion shook her head at the Rotten blob and stabbed the ground with her keyblade, causing a pillar of lightning to erupt, the Rotten held its chest with its left hand and vomit up oil at the three, Xion back flipped as the Replica jumped high, raised his sword in the air and hovered, he rushed to a wall, disappeared and reappeared to slice through the Rotten. It wobbled and burst in mist, taking the three to a high point of a raining castle. A silver knight with a mirror shield on his right hand and a sword on his left approached, he charged his sword with lightning and pointed at the three.

ZAP!

The trio felt lightning like beams shot at them. Knocking them to the ground, the Replica was the first to get up, felt nearly exhausted and stood up, the knight approached him and tried to bash him with his shield, the Replica rolled to the left and fired shadow bolts, staggering the knight and giving Xion and Shadey tried to get up. The knight placed his mirror like shield towards them and showed an odd reflection, a smaller knight with a fur cloak. Banging at the mirror to try and escape, crack! Crack! SMASH! The knight broke free and drew a halberd with his right hand. He looked upon the three in a disoriented daze and shook his head, he used his left hand to hit himself in the head, like he was trying to wake up, the glass looking knight approached the nimble Replica, charged his sword and thrust forward, sending out several orbs of lightning at his direction. The smaller knight rushed at the glass looking knight with the halberd in hand and thrust. STAB! The glass looking knight looked down to his chest to find a weapon sticking out, he and the other knight disappeared in black mist and enveloped the trio.

Sending them into the depths of a crypt to find a hall with a large knight wielding large a bell like club. The knight glowed a dark aura and chimed its bell, he knelt and shot a barrage of dark orbs, Xion gritted her teeth, rolled past the orbs and thrust herself to the knights neck as the Replica and Shadey dodged the orbs and watched the girl attack with absolute aggression. Causing another burst of black mist to surround them, they appeared in a keep and were before a stone giant that had a sword on his right hand, the giant looked like a regal king and had a hole where a face should have been. Xion back flipped as Shadey focused and took the form of a massive wyvern with bulky arms, the giant approached the eldritch creature and impaled Shadey. The eldritch creature roared to its face and violently beaten the giant, the group felt a grey distortion take hold and found themselves in a cave, with a naked stone giant having a pillar wedged through his stomach, many swords on his back and a left arm that was torn off and being used as a club, Shadey looked to be cringing, flew above to dodge the club swing and slammed down at the giant, causing the whole place to erupt in black mist.

The trio found themselves before an ashen kiln with color returned, Xion felt she recognized the place and saw a familiar knight in beaten up armor that had red cloth. He sat before the kiln, banging his fists against his own head and looking down upon a broken chime. She approached with her eyes bursting. "There you are!"

She rushed to him as Shadey melted into a humanoid form, looking completely exhausted, the Replica felt something wasn't right and looked behind him to find a white fog. The knight looked up and recognized the girl, looking fearful for her life, Xion extended her hand and asked. "Come on, we're getting you out of here."

The knight hesitated and muttered. "Nas...Nashandra...Nashandra." He starred back down to the chime and caused Xion to feel a grim aura, a raspy voice echo'd from behind. "Brave constructs." The Replica saw something emerge from the mist, a woman like, skeletal creature in a black dress that had skeletons for a gown, he slowed his breathing as Shadey distorted in shock.

Xion turned around to see the entity and realize. "You're...Nashandra." The entity slithered closer to the girl and knight in her answer, giving a tone that was neither spiteful or vengeful, yet cold and calculating. "And no matter how many times you slay me, I will find myself here."

She looked at the knight and raised up her scythe with her right hand and gently caressed it with a finger from her left. "Noble heart, burned down by Flame and drowned by Dark, why do you go on?"

Xion felt disturbed and kept her guard, unaware of something emerging from her own shadow. "Flame? Dark? What are you talking about?"

Nashandra looked upon her and had her attention to the Replica. "The fate of the Undead who became a Monarch," She whispered to the knight holding his hands over his ears. "You once again proven yourself to me, to endure the cycle once more and ascend as strong as you were. You have suffered enough, rest and let me take care of everything."

Xion saw cryptic, corpse like, eyeless, heartless leap out from her shadow and try to reach for her, forcing her to jump back and go to the Replica's side. They and Shadey felt like they were being watched from all sides, leaving Nashandra to reach for the knight and be repulsed by a glittering light, the entity stilled. "So you hold on to hope?" She turned to the trio being surrounded by the odd, husk like heartless. "You broken from the shackles of control, yet you will never be free from the strings of fate." She asked with a beckoning like tone. "Come, return to the Dark." She raised her hands to the air. "Be one, with the Dark."

The horde of heartless shambled forward, the Replica swallowed and raised his sword in the air feeling a chaotic desperation in his heart letting loose pink fire. Xion flung to the approaching horde and tried striking down as many as possible. Shadey struck the heartless with many tendrils and was worn down, overwhelmed. The trio realizing what Nashandra plotted, the entity used her free hand and formed three orbs of darkness, draining away the trios will power, fears of being bard from society, being forever alone, losing ones self, being discarded, took its place. Xion and the Replica were the first to have their legs shake in weakness, Shadey fell and looked to be panting, Nashandra aimed her hand at the trio for a finishing blow and felt a slash at her back.

She turned around to the knight bringing out a black steel katana and readied her scythe. "You show a strong will my King, but it will not matter for you or them in the end."

SWIPE!

She slashed down, the knight rolled behind to the left of her her, took out a bone staff and fired a barrage of arrows of blue light, Nashandra swiped down at him, the knight rolled right and shot a mass of magical energy, pelting her and causing the dark orbs to disappear, they surrounded the knight that formed a circle in front of himself and caused four beams of magic to carve into Nashandra. She placed her glowing hand close to her chest and caused the knight to roll back and caused a focus of will to pour into the bone staff, shooting a massive bolt of energy at Nashandra and broke into four bolts that rushed into her. She stepped back as the knight put his staff away and glowed a hand with fire. Giving off a dark aura as he grunted. "Return, Child of the Dark!"

WOOSH!

An outcry of an dark inferno engulfed Nashandra and caused her to break down, the orbs flickered away and the shambling heartless stopped, falling limp like a collection of corpses. Nashandra was confined into a dark flicker of a soul and the knight reached for it, keeping it close to his person and watching two teenagers and an eldritch creature of shadows fall exhausted.

He approached the three and gave them odd, white stones. He asked them. "C...crush them, please." The trio did so and felt a part of them revitalize, Shadey opened a corridor of Darkness and slithered in as a collection of tendrils as the Replica felt what the creature had planned. "We have a friend out there that was keeping that bully from coming here as well. Shadey is going to fetch him for us while we get out of here. Are you ready?"

The knight looked past the fogged gate and had a different plan in mind, approaching for some vengeance and was stopped by a quick Xion. "No, our friend is going to be fine, it isn't worth the payback." The knight stopped and looked like he wanted to say something, yet doesn't know what, Xion held him by his hand and asked. "Let it go, please?" The knight took a deep breath and let Xion guide him through the corridor, out of the nightmare and hopefully to somewhere more peaceful.

Out of the cell, before the three had a series of battles.

Ken saw the fog over the way out ripple in darkness and kept silent as he aimed and pulled his burning blade out of the ground. He felt a woman whisper to him. "Is thou certain of this?"

Ken nodded and whispered back. "It's about time he reaps what he sows." A dark wind blew out of the fog and Ken felt a presence behind him, he jumped forward and spun to fire at a certain fiend in black and red that swung, shooting him in the chest and sending him back flipping, Vanitas was rather astonished by the dark shroud and the fact the intruder was prepared for him. "What do we have here? A runt decided to come visit us? Do you have a death wish?"

Ken fired above Vanitas and condensed the beam into an orb that fired beams down at him, Vanitas disappeared and reappeared above the one armed boy that jumped left, the fiend rushed at him and the boy side stepped and flipped. He placed his keyblades together and swiped it for an uppercut, scratching the ground and letting loose a slice of fire, Vanitas felt that and took out a dagger. "Silent eh? Well, let's see if my little friends can fix that!"

He flung it at the boy that shot himself in the air with a fiery tornado, the dagger glowed and split into many spinning blades. They flew after him as Vanitas followed with a barrage of dark fire balls, Ken flew higher and raised his keyblades to the ceiling, engulfing himself in a fiery storm that's size was enormous.

Tornadoes of fire rushed to the ground and forced Vanitas to run away from it, fire flung everywhere and a beam of sunlight shot from the clouds. Catching the fiend in the fire, he saw a figure in a black coat shoot down after him and pushed him to the ground.

THUD!

Ken jumped back and formed a barrier around himself, taking the spinning disks and feeling a couple cuts, he pulsed and caused the blades to disappear. Vanitas growled and stabbed the ground, cause the boy to feel a disorienting phantasmagoria. "Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Do you think you're some sort of Boss around here? Have you gotten more stupid?"

Ken looked at his keyblades with an idea as Vanitas shot a barrage of soul shards, the boy in the black cloak felt that and was wobbling as he caused both keyblades to enlarge. They burst into fire and Ken watched his keyblades break into jagged daggers and small bits that reformed into a fanged maw glove for each hand, Vanitas shot out purple chains from the ground on seeing the transformation and Ken flew away from them. The maws shoot a barrage of beams and forced the fiend to roll to the left, Ken pounced with a glow of fire and landed next to Vanitas with a particular pose, causing a fire storm to erupt. Vanitas was caught in the inferno, disappeared in illusions and flung a fire ball at the inferno, Ken rolled out of the way and pressed the maws together, shooting fire at Vanitas. The fire ball ruptured and homed in on the boy that glowed orange and ignored the damage, Ken approached with a calm manner, his maw like gloves burst and surrounded his body, going into his coat and causing him to cringe at something. Vanitas was more dumbfounded. "You had no idea what you just did to yourself?" He was ready to go for the kill. "Not my prob-" Ken gave off a more bestial roar as he formed a single keyblade looking like dark wood and yellow runes, he charged after Vanitas in a more aggressive manner and forced him to take a defensive pose.

The hood shot out yellow and black fire, scorching Vanitas and having him flicker far away behind his foe. Ken jumped high and hovered like he was in flight, he dived down after him, Vanitas readied to block and felt the impact being comparable to taking a jet plane head on, he was sent flying against a barrier and fell forward, Ken's hood gave off an red glow and caught Vanitas in a psychic hold, the fiend in dark felt something burning onto him as the red, single looking glow stared into him. Vanitas roared, glowed black with his keyblade and swiped back like one would a club, Ken jumped back in flight and the red glow vanished. The boy breathed green and red fire at Vanitas, the fiend disappeared and reappeared above the boy that simply flew back, Ken engulfed himself in fire, rushed at Vanitas and dived down with him in an inferno of odd, toxic smelling fire.

WOOSH!

Vanitas flickered to get himself free and landed, nearly on his knees, he watched the cloaked boy on all fours and rising up like he was possessed, the fiend sensed the most disturbing part of this pattern. "You're... still in control in there?"

Ken glared at him and breathed out a red inferno of fire, Vanitas flew far away from that corner and watched Ken stop his fire breath and turned to him, inhaling once more. Vanitas rushed and struck the boy on the chest, Ken flipped back and landed on his knees, slumping his head forward and coughing out a rather pitiful cloud of fire. Vanitas snarled under his helmet and tried to say something spiteful as something shot down out from Ken's hood, a beam of concentrated, white fire, the boy rushed his head upward and caused the fire beam to go towards Vanitas, the fiend flipped to the right and saw a trial of fire erupt from the beams path, radiating a burning aura that forced the fiend in black to keep watch. Ken swiped to his left and leaned back in his attempt to get up, catching Vanitas close to the beam and sending him flying towards him from the explosive. Ken jumped backwards and faced forward, Vanitas crawled away from the beam and was feeling overwhelmed by the heat. Ken coughed and the beam stopped, looking like he was about to fall over as he caught himself and approached Vanitas with his blade in hand, the fiend tried to get up and barked. "Are...you nuts?! Was what ever you came here for, even worth that... inhumane display? Do you think she wou-"

Ken slammed the keyblade to the ground and caused the ground to split in energy, kicking Vanitas on his back, the boy spoke and gave a sound of two speaking at once, his own voice and that of a woman. "In a time of Ancients, there was only one force that prove to be Everlasting." Vanitas felt the voice chilling and realized Ken wasn't even there anymore, having the feeling of his life flashing before his eyes as the entity spoke. "Then came the Flame and the Lords who sought it, even when dethroned, their legacy was Everlasting. Kalameet; feared by the gods and challenged by one of the First of the Lords. Sinh; revered by many and chose to slumber until the foolishness of man irked his wrath. Midir; who devours creatures such as thou and outlived the gods that reigned as he battled the ever consuming Dark." The entity put his free hand on his chest. "Even as they are vanquished by the fleeting form of man, even as the world let go, their names are Everlasting. For they shown what a strong heart could do, what a heart that gained strength, could do." It pointed at Vanitas coldly. "What has thou proven beyond hollow cruelty? What will thou ever prove?"

The fiend gasped and burst laughing. "Bwa, ha, ha, ha! Where did you get that line from? You're the heart that gives off the Dark everywhere it goes, that idiot has only brought doom on himself and others by picking you up." The wood like keyblade flickered and split into two, Ken kept an aim and shook his head, his voice returning to normal. "Then you listen to me, what's the point of being a bully and causing destruction? When you're on the receiving end of it, you start calling us the crazy ones." A corridor opened up behind the boy that looked confused. "Was... that what my keyblade was trying to show me? Is that world's heart... finally speaking?" A tendril wrapped around Ken's waist, he felt more weird and was gently, if quickly lifted of the ground, Vanitas looked just as confused. Ken shook his head. "But I think I wasted enough time, seriously... stop this."

Ken was yanked into the darkness as Vanitas shot purple chains at him, the boy swiped his burning keyblade and formed a whip of fire, melting the chains. Ken watched the darkness close and the tendrils letting go, finding red eyes in the darkness and keeping guard. "So Dupmic and Xion did it?" He looked around and asked. "Where did they go?" Shadey lead the way in silence, Ken followed, feeling uneasy.

In the outskirts of Radiant Garden.

A corridor opened and let out Xion, the Replica and the knight, the last of the three was caught off guard by the castle and the strange world. The Replica looked around and guessed. "I think we are at the side entrance of the town."

The knight found anything hard to believe and wandered down the road leading to a hole in a castle. "What... is... this?"

The Replica saw the hole and found it a convenient place to hide. "This, if those fake memories were anything to go by, is Hollow Bastion. Or if the rumors are true, is called Radiant Garden these days. And that cave is our hide out until we can get out of this."

The knight readied his katana and warned him. "Or it would be our...death."

The Replica pressed his lips together as Xion agreed with the knight. "We don't know this cave, it could have a ton of dangers for all we know."

The Replica guessed. "Like... ten dozen heartless. It's not going to be long."

Ripple!

A corridor opened, Shadey crawled out and Ken jumped off, feeling like he had someone to confess something to and blurt it out. "No wonder she hates using that."

Ken didn't notice the knight and asked what he thought were siblings. "I reckon the mission was successful? Shadey got me out of there before I lost myself." Xion answered as the knight noticed the burning keyblade. "Who cares about that bully? We did it. Thanks to you keeping him off of us so we can rescue our friend."

Ken felt someone staring at him and turned around, he gasped at a knight he recognized, struggled to breath and was given a pat on the back by the Replica. "*Weeze!* I... I know you."

The Replica stopped as the knight backed away and answered. "I don't," Ken guessed that. "It's hard to explain, but we never met before, I only found out you existed." He took a deep breath and looked at Xion and the Replica like they were close friends, he dismissed his keyblades and gave both of them a thank you hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Xion and the Replica felt the warm gratitude and hugged back, Xion blushed and asked. "We,...were suppose to be thanking you. Ha."

She laughed awkwardly and Ken let go to explain. "You have no idea, but this guy had a big adventure we don't even know about. He is an every day guy, who became much more."

He turned to the knight and gave him a knights salute. "I'm Sir Kendry of this very town. It's a pleasure to meet you Sir...Sir..." The knight looked confused and crestfallen, he asked. "What... is my name?" He walked to the hole in the castle and found a hole with yellow ladders, Ken asked. "I know you had one, you have to remember that."

Xion explained. "I tried one, but it only made him more sad. What is he?"

The knight took a deep breath and answered. "Undead... I'm Undead."

Ken sniffled. "That isn't going to be a problem here, the Curse won't reach anyone here and the people here are nice enough to not judge unless you cause trouble."

The knight looked more relaxed and climbed down the stairs, the Replica felt like he found kin and followed as he asked his friend. "You met a guy like him?"

Ken nodded as Shadey disappeared into his shadow. "That guy was the reason I know a lot about pyromancy and I may have had an adventure with him. I know he and Jambert are two different people, but I can tell he has as strong of a heart as he does. Just... promise me one thing."

The Replica was listening. "Anything and we can make it happen."

Ken was relieved as Xion asked. "What do you want us to do for him?" The boy asked. "Promise me that you would help him find peace with himself and if I ever tell you more, that you keep this a secret." He drew out his burning keyblade and told them. "He and this keyblade have closer ties than you think."

The Replica was interested in that as Xion felt herself near crying, she and Ken jumped down the hole, into a purple cavern with hints of blue crystals, the Undead Knight was mesmerized and felt a presence once more, turning to the burning keyblade. Ken looked closer at the wide cavern as Xion whistled. "Wow... this has a lot of space." She and Ken took off their coats, she felt the knight having a feeling of happiness and cheered. "I made my promise, I...I think I know what we should do next."

The Replica climbed down and readied to take off his coat as he suggested. "This is risky, but if we stay here, we can make sure this guy doesn't get into trouble again."

The Knight heard that and took out the abyssal soul of Nashandra, he focused his will upon the soul and caused it to take the shape of the chime he had. The Replica took more interest and saw the burning keyblade reacting to the chime, its fire glowing bright and pushing back the shadows. "So you take the essence of someone of great power and make tools out of it. So long as no one is stupid to break that, Nashandra won't be coming back."

Ken tilted his head and asked. "Nashandra?"

Xion felt nervous and answered. "This... thing that was haunting my dreams and was trying to make our friend give up hope after all the cruelty he suffered. That freak in black broke the old chime."

Ken and his keyblade flared up in anger. "Knowing how important it is to him? There isn't any low for that guy." He pressed the keyblade's tip into the ground and didn't want to think about it. "He and that group of looneys some how found him and treated him like he was dirt when he didn't behave? That was exactly what happened and then you three found out about it? You have a lot of guts to stand up to people like that."

The Replica nearly revealed his anger and grumbled. "And that brought back bad memories our friend didn't want to talk about." The knight walked closer to the bonfire, with a yearning of nostalgia, Xion turned to ask. "He seems to know a couple things about magic and skills, do you think your teacher should know of this?"

Ken nodded. "Miss and the others should. There is a lot we can learn from him when he recovers from-" The knight sat by the bonfire and reached for the hilt, glowing aflame with the blade, the four watched something burn with in the knights armor and the knight gasping in a realization. He grabbed the hilt, pulled and approached Ken, speaking more clearly. "Why is this so familiar?"

The teenagers gasped in shock as the knight gave Ken his keyblade back. The knight looked confused. "It feels familiar," He tapped his helmet and looked to the ladder going out. "...What you speak of, I... don't remember anymore, but... this had to be for the best." He put his chime away and went to the ladder to climb up. "I wish to say it out there. I... owe you this much."

He climbed up and the teenagers followed him out, to the side gate of the town. Where he had a view of civilization and of people, looking at the ruins gave the knight hints of sorrow and he asked. "This place has seen better days?"

Ken nodded. "We got this town back a year ago after several years of people using Darkness to mess things up. It's still going to take a while before this town sees those better days again and I hope it doesn't get attacked again."

The knight heard the word. "Darkness? The...Dark?" He turned to the three and saw the creature of shadows, he asked. "You fought against the Abyss?"

Xion and the Replica nodded, the girl asked. "Like Nashandra? Like those awful people? Yes, why do you know of it?"

The knight swallowed and turned back to the town. "I... fight the Dark... I... use the Dark." Ken cringed and felt there was a change of plans as he sharply warned the knight. "And the town isn't going to like it if they know."

Xion agreed with that and asked. "But does he know how to use the light?" The knight chuckled and drew out his katana and chime, showing the four a wish that caused the katana to glow in sunlight. "It's always there. As the power of the soul and of fire. Ha, ha, ha." He felt he wanted to introduce himself and felt a name in his mouth. "I'm...I'm...I'm...Baldred."

Ken's mouth opened as Xion complimented the knight. "That's a nice name Baldred."

The Replica thought it would be appropriate to introduce himself. "The name's Dupmic and it's good to see that you got some of your memories back."

Baldred agreed to that and felt excited about something. "And... a purpose." He asked the teenagers. "If you seek to know what I know, shall we study that in the cavern?"

The Replica answered without hesitation. "There is... a lot we need to know." Ken shook his head and warned him. "Oh noooooo! You already got some fishy things up your sleeves, do you know how dangerous the Dark even is?"

The Replica laughed to that. "If it has things like Nashandra lurking in it, I got the idea."

Baldred nodded and looked at the Replica. "Listen to your friend, or the Abyss will swallow you up."

The Replica folded his arms and asked. "Then why did you bring it up?" Baldred took a deep breath and answered. "A balance, is needed. What came from the shadows, should stay in the shadows."

The Replica rolled his eyes and realized. "Should stay in... I get it now, it's only if I have to fight and if I don't have better options?"

The knight nodded as Ken advised. "And that should be kept quiet or Miss and the others are going to shut it down. If disaster happens in this town because if it... I'm sorry, but I'll have to stop it." He felt sick thinking about it as the Replica placed his hand on his chest in a vow. "Kendry, I won't abuse this. You seen more than I have and you're right, it's probably more dangerous than I'm taking it for."

Baldred agreed with that. "It will bring out the worst in you, or... you can... channel it another way." He wished to stop talking about the dark. "That other way, is what you need to understand before we talk more about it."

Ken and Xion looked at the Replica with puppy dog eyes, the girl asked. "Could you please take your time and listen before you put yourself in danger?"

The hooded teenager was overwhelmed by the plea and promised. "Alright, alright." He turned to Baldred and asked. "Maybe I should stop thinking about myself. You're as new here as most of us, should we... see the town together?"

Baldred nodded. "It would be my first." Ken offered to lead the way as Shadey fled into the cave, the boy wondered why and asked. "I'll show you some places in town you three can settle in, after that, I got to let the others know... minus the Dark thing."

Xion hoped for the best and thought to encourage Baldred. "No matter how the town accepts us, we'll always be with you, until the very end."

The knight felt the word familiar and followed Ken, who took out a gummi phone. "I got to make this quick. Friends of mine need to know where I am."

At Twilight Town.

By a train station underneath a clock tower; Kairi, Sora and Riku had a text. Sora read out loud. "Got caught up in another adventure and ended up in Radiant Garden. LOL. I'll be back in town in a few minutes."

Ventus kept watch over Stitch and asked. "How did that happen?"

Riku shrugged. "After that fire show, someone noticed and talked him into something they needed. Since he isn't stupid, I think he is alright." He texted back. "Tell us what you found," He was given a surprising text back. "He... posted a toothy smiley face."

Kairi looked forward to the story and smiled in a way very similar to the emoji. "It's got to be a fun one for him."

Sora had the mental image of Ken showing a bauble of some kind most unknown and smiled like the emoji. "Cool."

He looked around to find an ice cream cart as Riku readied to run up the tower. "Now, we all understand the plan? I'll go see what Exrirsa is doing while the rest of you get the... peace offering ready, I'll give you a number."

Kairi shook her head and looked up the tower with confidence. "I'm coming up there too, more of us need to talk to her." She ran up the station and was about to run up the tower, the boys were surprised and Riku followed her up, Sora nearly blushed and asked Ven. "How many are going to be up there?" The older boy guessed by the size of the tower. "Probably not a whole lot." He asked Stitch. "Come on, ice cream doesn't last long and we want this to be perfect."

At the top of the tower, Riku and Kairi entered to find Exrirsa in a meditative state with ten, lesser nobodies doing the same. The ten were faced away from the two, yet it was like they knew they were coming. Riku waved and spoke. "Hey, we didn't come to mean trouble, but this was something we thought about ever since Kairi saw you this morning."

Exrirsa opened her eyes and greeted the two in a stoic manner. "If Kairi did not interfered, the outcome of that villain's fate would have been far worse. So I did listen to her... the results delivered the message far more clearly."

She looked at Kairi with another compliment. "She and the other adept in the art of water has also kept that... foolishness under control. I hope, THAT doesn't get repeated."

Riku hoped it didn't and shook his head as Kairi texted a number. "It won't, but that isn't why we came." He took a deep breath and asked. "Why did you want to stay like this? We talked about what it means to not have a heart, that could have ended with you being... a problem, yet you're keeping your word."

Exrirsa slowly got up, a dusk brought a pair of crutches to help her stand up, she nodded to the nobody in thanks and looked to the teenagers with a question. "You seen how I was, adept in warfare and carrying out the Emperor's will. Regardless if I lacked the technology or physic the Space Marines wielded, regardless if I lacked the powers a psyker would have. That, would be impressive." Kairi felt what the bigger story was. "But compared to that?"

Exrirsa heard something in the stair way bellow and kept her nobodies passive, the crippled looking woman in military gear answered. "I'm only a mortal and even in this state, I still am. You witnessed my heartless half, slew her and lived to tell the tale, all that is needed to bring me out of this state is for this to be repeated. BUT, I will lose this power too soon and I will be limited in maintaining order once more."

Riku's eyes widened. "That's the reason you want to stay like this?" Kairi voiced her own opinion. "And as a Nobody, you got more to go with than just weapons and war skills. It...it's still a pretty selfish reason to keep yourself like this."

Exrirsa didn't deny it. "If I'm seen as a power mad fool, so be it. So long as Chaos never ensues upon my watch, I will have no regrets being a scapegoat for when I'm not needed."

Riku folded his arms and nodded. "After what nearly happened this morning, you're right to think that anything is needed to push that back. Just... don't become the very darkness we are fighting. You know what would happen if a fanatical tyrant goes unchecked."

Exrirsa agreed with a near genuine smile. "Exactly, that is why you and the others are tasked to bring me down, should I stray. I don't hide behind others, so you will know where to strike." The stepping became closer as Kairi looked at the calmed nobodies and felt relieved. "Unless we know about their other halves, that would be a good thing for them."

Sora, Ven and Stitch walked up with a rather interesting surprise, sixteen ice cream pops, Sora held eight and shivered as Ven looked to be having goosebumps holding eight. Exrirsa's smile became an annoyed frown as she asked. "And this is what you considered to let us know this isn't personal? Ridiculous."

She saw her nobodies looking upon the ice cream like it was a wanted luxury as Sora asked. "C...C...come on, is nothing fun for you anymore?"

Exrirsa looked at Sora dully. "You know that is no longer a possibility, naive child." She let her nobodies line up. "But we need to keep remembering what that is like."

Stitch muttered. "Party pooper." Ven agreed with that as Exrirsa ignored the insult and looked at the boy. "And who might you be? You're new."

Ven shivered and helped the nobodies get their ice cream. "Just...brr. Call me Ven. What do you do here?"

Exrirsa answered, humored. "Besides keeping watch when we can, nothing... particularly important. You?"

Ven thought of it. "I woken up from a coma a couple days ago, I... don't have any hobbies."

The Adeptas Sororitas watched the ten nobodies take a pop and saw six remaining. "And I thought I tend to get bored. There is always a time to pick up a hobby, you look like you traveled once upon a time, is there anything to consider?" She picked a pop and watched the five divide theirs up as Sora, Riku and Kairi felt there needed to be a pass time, the Adeptas Sororitas guessed. "There is, but youth such as you never have the time. Perhaps that could be what we should talk about?"

Sora answered with his mind thinking. "That... that could, thanks for the idea." Riku agreed. "Let's think about that while the kid finishes his business. There isn't a whole lot for us to do right now."

At Radiant Garden.

Ken, Xion and Dupmic were caught of guard by Baldred's odd disappointment, Leon put his gun like sword on his back, seeing two teenage boys a bit confused and assuring the knight. "But enough about what this sword is, you're welcome in the town. Sorry that this isn't the kind of tour you wanted."

Baldred looked at a district being rebuilt and didn't mind, he burst into laughter. Yuffie appeared in a puff of smoke and nearly laughed with him. "Ha, if you liked swords like that, you should stay away from a guy with spiky hair, his is even bigger."

Baldred calmed down and apologized. "That, isn't why I was laughing, something about it being rebuilt, even after all the chaos. Ha, that's... comedy. Sorry."

Leon shrugged it off. "Hopefully, we don't have another cycle of destruction come through the town. We heard some one is going to try and attack the town and we could use someone like you if you had experience with fighting."

Baldred nodded on instinct, pulled out his katana and raised it in the air. "You have my word and my blade, it's worth getting back into action."

Yuffie looked at the katana and squinted her eyes. "Hmm, that's an unusual katana." Baldred lowered it and let the ninja hold it. "What did you notice?"

Yuffie took it and felt the weight. "...It is...It's heavy for a katana." She looked at the bone staff on Baldred's left hand and the chime at his hip. "I been hearing that you are a kind of wizard as well, we don't see many of those besides Merlin."

She gave the katana back as Baldred smiled under his helmet. "I've learned sorceries, dabbled in pyromancy and I know the art of miracles to my core. I don't remember where I got this katana or staff."

He looked at them like they were his pride and joy. "But I know they been at my side and will be till the bitter end."

Leon took interest and offered to show him around. "I'll show you the committee, you're going to like it here." He tilted his head to Baldred and smiled, the knight turned to the teenagers and vowed. "I owe you for the kindness you shown and more." He gave a nod and promised. "You won't regret this."

Ken hoped he wouldn't. "This town is very important to us, I think you'll do a great job." He smiled to the knight that looked to Dupmic and Xion. "Thank you, for everything." He turned to Leon and followed proudly, leaving Yuffie to talk with Ken and Dupmic. "He doesn't remember where he got it? Is that a little fishy?"

Dupmic nodded. "If he remembered more, it might have." Ken wondered. "He was in pretty bad shape when Dupmic found him, I think once he knows he is with friends now, the memories will come back." He gave a respectful bow to Yuffie. "Thanks for giving him a shot."

The ninja gave one back. "He might have just picked them up off of somewhere. He'll be in on our defense plan starting tomorrow. So who's your friend?"

Ken and Dupmic looked to Xion, who realized she wasn't being seen, Dupmic introduced himself. "Just Dupmic, I needed to get out of a bad neighborhood and enjoy the scenery. You won't have much trouble from me."

Yuffie looked like she trusted him and thought of something. "Hey Ken, since the Inn is being rebuilt and you're out of town-" The blonde boy was on it. "Good idea, my mom could make use of the empty room."

He saluted. "Thanks for the tip, tell Aerith I said hi if I missed her." Yuffie promised she would. "I think she is finishing up repairing the gardens, thanks for the help kid."

She and Ken parted ways, the blonde boy guided the two to a particular house, Ken turned to Xion with pity. "I'm sorry that happened to you again. I want a word with who ever did this to you."

Xion took a deep breath and hid a crestfallen frown. "It's fine... I can take it. As long as Baldred is happy, then it was worth coming here."

Dupmic tried to plot something as Ken reached a house and knocked the door, it opened and a blonde woman with strong resemblance to Ken opened it. Seeing two teenagers behind him and greeting them. "You're friends of my son?" Xion gasped and smiled as Dupmic answered. "Yes... may we come in, this is kind of awkward."

The woman shrugged and stepped out of the way. "I kind of expected someone else to pay a visit, but any friend of my son is a friend of mine." Ken blushed and asked. "She'll come, just not today because of all this stuff going on." He guided his friends in and to a couch, ready to ask a question of crucial importance.

At Merlin's House

Leon finished introducing Baldred to a suspicious Tifa, a defensive Cloud, a relaxed Cid and a curious Merlin. "And that's how he wanted to help us with these next couple days."

Baldred looked at Tifa's fists and especially Cloud's sword and gave a respectful nod to them. "You lot look strong and capable." Tifa hummed and thanked the knight. "It's what we been doing. How about you tell us more about what you remember," Baldred answered like it was a fantastic dream. "I do things like this on the road. I.." He asked. "If the world became a cruel place where the strong trampled the weak, then do you want to be strong to give the weak a moment of rest and punish those who abuse the strength?"

Cloud nearly broke out of a stoic calm and answered. "People that bully others, tend to run when they see us." Tifa agreed with that. "If not, they'll answer to my boot."

Baldred laughed with her. "Bwa, ha, ha. They'll answer to a lot of things." He took out his staff and approached a potted plant. "And those that don't take a hint will fall for things like this." His staff glowed and the knight shined in a flash of light, the committee were nearly blinded by the shine and saw a potted plant take Baldred's place. Merlin hummed. "The art of illusion, it's unfortunate that most ruffians never reveal their true nature unless they are certain their deeds would go unpunished."

Poof.

Baldred appeared in a cloud of dust as Yuffie entered the room and whistled. "That's a handy trick, are you sure you're just a wizard knight?"

Baldred sighed and took out his chime. "I told you, I don't remember... but these things don't just... come from nowhere." He knelt and pulsed the chime, giving off a glow of sun light, reinvigorating the group, Baldred realized something and risen up, looking at his staff and chime with distrust. Cloud asked with pity. "You really don't remember and you don't trust what you are doing?"

The knight answered confused. "This is too good to be true." Cid agreed with that. "It doesn't make any sense for this to come from nowhere and if you're telling the truth, you made a whole carrier being a vigilante," He asked. "The problem is what is going to happen when you remember who you are?"

Baldred took a deep breath and answered. "I don't feel it would make a difference then as it does now." Cid felt the answer way too honest to doubt. "If it doesn't, then we ought to stop worrying about it. We been getting rumors about something coming and you look like you can hold your own." Merlin agreed with that. "What you done in a past life reflects what you are doing now, you have a considerate heart, but you have a difficulty trusting others?"

Baldred felt the question echo and nodded without much a thought. "You and the others are as honest as they come. But if I can't believe my own words, then am I?"

Cloud sighed. "You'll get use to it. What do you think Leon? Should he be apart of this?" Leon answered with a near forming smile, asking as he looked at Baldred. "I don't know, does he want to?"

Baldred didn't hesitate. "I want to keep this town in peace as it rebuilds, by my sword and soul, it will be back to its splendor." Yuffie smiled wide and patted Baldred on the back, like he was a long time friend. "Whoot!" She asked. "How about later we see how you fight? The Heartless are not a joke unless you got a keyblade."

Baldred turned to answer as he noticed a brown haired woman entering. "If that is what you want, you talk about this katana... what do you know about a weapon like it?" Yuffie gasped like it was a challenge and showed a large shuriken, answering Baldred's question as Aerith stopped an argument. "Could you please not fight here?"

Yuffie turned around to see Aerith tired from a long day and insisted. "We weren't."

Baldred agreed with that. "She showed me my answer, she is a ninja. That's how she know about this." Aerith saw the katana and asked. "Where did you come from?"

Cloud expected to hear the same story and sighed. "That's what he doesn't remember, but we're helping him fit in." Aerith gasped, nodded and asked Baldred. "So where are you staying in this town? It isn't quite ready for travelers yet."

The knight answered. "I found a cavern under a wall that would work. Is there something I need to know?" Aerith answered as most of the group realized what the knight described. "The Cavern of Remembrance. Sora said it was an odd and dangerous mine until he cleared out the Heartless. We're not sure if they won't come back or not."

Baldred took interest and held a question back. "If it is still abandoned, I can set up a home as long as I don't delve too deeply into it. So... please don't go filling it in yet."

Aerith promised they wouldn't. "We want to know more about it ourselves. But why do you decide there?"

Baldred answered that. "Because it fills my yearn for adventure and tranquility. It's... also because I'm Undead and I don't wish to bring that kind of trouble loitering where I shouldn't." Merlin had a more correct term. "You are a revenant, but that doesn't mean you should shun yourself from others."

Baldred bitterly sighed. "You wouldn't be saying that if you see me from under my helmet and a random stranger would think me like among the monsters of the Dark. Please let me make this choice, it's better that way."

Tifa, Aerith and Yuffie cringed as Merlin took a deep breath. "*Huff* Alright, but don't isolate yourself, none of us want to see you go hollow from the world." The knight stilled and asked Yuffie with an attempt to mask something. "I might have fought ninjas before, but they don't have shurikens that large. You have more tricks to go with it."

The ninja nodded and asked. "I do... is... something wrong?" Baldred shook his head. "None of you want to see me go hollow... that... that, makes me feel better." Leon agreed with that, bewildered as he was. "Because we don't, we seen too many people become this close to giving into the darkness. You seen it as well?"

Baldred nodded and felt like something was burning in the back of his mind. "I seen people turn hollow and I nearly went hollow myself." He insisted to Yuffie. "But in all seriousness, this katana is mine and I do remember it being trusty and handy. What's wrong with it?"

The ninja hesitated to answer as Cloud did it for her. "Katanas are normally light for a reason and if it is heavy, it's not going to swing as quickly as it should. It's why some of them are pretty frail. Yours doesn't sound normal."

Baldred agreed with that. "It isn't really heavy, but if you can slash quicker, you will hurt the other just as quick." Yuffie sighed. "It isn't that heavy, let's see what it can do." Baldred smiled under his helmet and followed Yuffie out, Aerith followed with a promise. "I'll make sure they don't get hurt."

At a house nearby.

Ken's mother asked the siblings that were sitting on a couch together. "So you needed to get out of that nightmare of a neighborhood and you think your Dad would be happy as long he knows you will be safe? It takes a strong stomach to do something about that."

She pointed to the room up the stairs. "If my son isn't using that room anymore, you two are free to use it. Think me as... a Nanny. Now, I don't want you two to be acting like bums, so... could you do me and my son one huge favor."

Dupmic was listening as Xion nodded, the woman asked. "Could you help protect the town when trouble comes around? Xion, you say you got a keyblade and that's the best thing against the Heartless... Dupmic, you just got good sword skills and magic to go by and that could help against-" The boy answered. "Those trying to use Heartless or those that are just as dangerous."

Ken insisted to his mother as he leaned against a wall. "They'll do that, they gave Baldred a chance at a better life. I think the guy I beat up is going to be more angry that I was part of a heist to steal his punching bag."

The woman nearly burst in a growl. "That Vanitas psycho was using a human being when Aqua or you wouldn't let him have his way with you. Oh I'll bet more are going to stand up to him if he shows his... no face, around here again."

Xion agreed with that. "We seen more than enough, Baldred should be making himself at home by now and things will get better. He knows a lot despite how he doesn't remember much."

Ken nodded and asked. "If Baldred really does know of soul sorcery and pryomancy, then I really do need to let Miss know about him. If he finds a purpose, that will help."

Dupmic agreed and asked. "Maybe I should focus on something less dangerous. Ken, do you know what is wrong with that guy? Once he touched that keyblade, it was like he started being more human again."

Ken answered. "Like I said, he is Undead. He can't really die until he gives up hope and hollows out, since there isn't a bonfire, I think death would matter for him."

Xion asked. "What is a hollow?" The one armed boy answered grimly. "Like I said, when an undead gives up hope. Their minds go and they aimlessly wander around like a zombie... attacking anything that comes near. It's kind of like what happens when someone's heart gives into the darkness and turns into a Heartless. There is more I don't want to talk about, but getting Baldred out of there was for the best. I think he was about to go hollow and what ever was in the darkness wanted him to give up."

Xion looked teary eyed as Dupmic lowered his head depressed. "And that thing was... trying to get to us as well, she would have if Baldred didn't fight her. But how?"

The woman answered that with a pat on the head. "Because the kindness you two gave, it gave him hope. That's all that's needed to fight back a parasite like that." Xion wiped her eyes and asked. "Parasite?"

The woman nodded. "That voice that tells you things aren't going to get better, that you shouldn't bother reaching out and keep trying. I... would rather think of it as a parasite, nothing good will come from listening to it and there are too many ways to feed it." Ken felt the term made sense. "And I'll bet those with that parasite become bitter and as foul as it."

Xion guessed so. "But is that parasite gone?" The woman shook her head. "No, it's not. It's... never that easy, if Baldred is getting along with the committee and is making friends, then that parasite will be starved out in time." She sat in a chair and asked. "Xion, you and Dupmic are good kids, if you ever start having these kinds of problems. Try to talk to someone." She felt more disgusted. "Who ever was responsible for your condition, really is an awful person. The worst thing you can do to someone besides making them lose hope is to keep them from getting help. If you start feeling down, I'll cheer you up."

Xion blushed as Dupmic felt there was a whole world waiting. "There is something I can't show yet, but my problem wasn't Dad's fault." The woman figured so. "He adopted you and Xion, then tried to help you in his own way, so he has to care about you. Me and my son are still there for the two of you."

Ken agreed with that. "Like you two been for Baldred. Mom, I'm going to head back and tell the others." He asked the siblings. "Make yourself at home. I'm going to keep the details a secret since you don't like having people nose in. Thank you for doing me this favor when others are not around."

Xion promised him. "We'll see this town doesn't worry about the Dark." Dupmic vowed. "We'll do at least that for you since you been a good friend." They smiled to Ken, who smiled to his mother. "Thank you for helping them Mom. I'll keep making you proud of me." He turned to leave, the woman got up to ask. "So, who likes movies?"

At the Tower of Twilight Town.

Toot! Sora, Riku, Kairi, Ven and Stitch heard a train bellow as the swarm of nobodies disposed of wooden pops and Exrirsa asked. "The train is making its rounds, what more is there for the day?"

Kairi guessed. "More lessons for the afternoon, the things we needed done are already finished. The others at... somewhere, somewhere, should be finished with making the something for the you know what."

The Adeptas Sororitas asked. "That somewhere is best left confidential and the something is a project of most importance. Garland will answer for his crimes and then we can focus on Xehanort. So long as any heretic is out there in the stars, the war will just keep continuing."

Ven heard someone running up the tower. "We haven't had a call from the King, so building it has to be pretty boring."

Flip!

Sora heard someone landing on the edge and walking in, finding an energetic Ken who had a brief interest in the nobodies and asked Exrirsa. "May I come in, this is pretty important to share around."

The Adeptas Sororitas allowed it. "This sounds urgent, you may speak." Ken walked in as Sora asked. "What did you find this time?" The boy started with ill news. "I found out those creeps were up to something again and a couple friends of mine needed help breaking someone out of a prison that was in... somewhere." The boys wondered what it was as Kairi asked. "That somewhere... was it a cell in a grey place?"

Ken nodded. "I think that might have been those guys hideout and it was where a certain someone was abusing a knight that needed help. Before I continue, do you know who I had to beat up?"

Ven guessed as Sora and Riku realized where Ken went to. "When you and your buddies showed up, that's when Vanitas showed up to try and kill you." The one armed boy frowned. "And the cell was acting up because Vanitas smashed something that belonged to the knight out of spite, not knowing or caring what that something might have been. It was definitely not something that belonged to the worlds, so my friends had to fight that while I pulled a lot of things in the book. Not giving that bully a single word and going all out. I figured out that form changing my keyblades together might have been a bad idea since Firekeeper's Wish is... starting to come alive, that bully's scared of me now."

Ven hummed. "Good and you can tell Aqua the details of what that keyblade did to you. Did you and your friends rescued the knight?" Ken smiled. "We did and I found something out about the knight." Sora felt the hope and nostalgia as he asked. "He... is the knight you made friends with in the Castle? The real one?"

Ken shook his head and tried to keep himself from crying in joy. "No, but he is another like him that we saw on one of the cards. Baldred, the Knight who claimed a Throne. He is in Radiant Garden making friends with the Comittee guys and agreed to help when Garland tries something funny to the place."

The teenagers gasped in joy and curiosity, Riku smiled wide. "Well, you and your buddies did a good thing to get Baldred out of that dark place. Even if that group of wackos might be getting their blood boiled. What do you know about him?"

Ken wondered. "He doesn't remember much about who he was, but he became pretty protective of the town. He and Yuffie fought a pretty intense match and Baldred got knocked off right at the end... but not before using so much lightning to keep her moving. He knows a lot about the magic from that world and maybe he will show a couple fire spells." Riku looked more interested. "He is a protective knight and he might have found people to fight along side with"

Ken had one more piece of information he was willing to share. "He is also using a cavern that was seen under the castle, as his home. Sora, you know of it?"

The boy with spiky brown hair almost yelped. "That place?! It was crazy in there until me, Donald and Goofy cleared it out." Ken opened his mouth to say something as Sora calmed down. "But... once we did, the Heartless stopped coming back. But... why is Baldred choosing to live there?"

Ken wondered himself. "Maybe... because Baldred is Undead. They were not given any lick of kindness and could become pretty dangerous, should they go Hollow." Kairi was the first to feel pity. "That's pretty sad, is there... anything we can do to help him?"

Riku casually answered. "Baldred is kind of an outsider and we know nothing about him. If the world died, the curse won't spread... do you think that curse became something else?"

Ken scratched himself as Ven asked. "Or... the curse is gone... but if he was that... thing. The fire must have been burning at his heart for a long time and when they... took him from the darkness, all they found was a burnt heart. Ken, is it a good idea to leave Baldred be? I think he doesn't know what actually happened to himself."

Ken wondered and felt like he was agreeing, looking back to the twilight sky. "But if he was the Soul of Cinder, does he really want to remember being that?"

Ven shook his head. "He doesn't, but he needs to know that his world's...gone." Riku added in. "And if he doesn't get the memo that he shouldn't worry about the Curse hurting someone, he would end up baring himself away over nothing."

Sora looked most tempted. "And that could hurt his heart. I think he just needs friends and someone to talk to." Stitch asked. "He needs... family?"

Sora, Ven and Kairi cringed as Riku answered the alien. "Does he even have one anymore?"

Exrirsa doubted that. "If he had one, they were forgotten a long time ago when he was cursed. I'll leave that one to you." Ken looked at Sora and asked. "If you want to go talk to him, I'm not stopping you. He might have heard of you."

Sora smiled nervously. "He sounds alright, I'll go check on him soon." Ven scratched himself as Sora asked the others. "Do you want to come along?" Ven nodded as Riku volunteered. "He should give him a hint that he needs to come with us."

Ken huffed. "He made a pretty big vow to protect the town," Kairi agreed with him. "So he might postponed that." Sora figured it would happen. "But we only heard of that guy's world and Aqua might need to know of that."

Kairi nodded and asked. "Ken and I will go tell Master about him. Stitch, do you want to go with them?"

The alien lowered his ears and huddled up to Ven who felt it was mutual. "He's in a strange world, but once he knows whats going on, things will get better."

Exrirsa hoped so and went back to meditating. "In time, his heart would mend and we will learn from him. But would it be easy?" Sora got up and answered. "Maybe, maybe not. But would he have had a chance if no one helped him?" Exrirsa didn't answer and looked to him stoically as the boy answered for her. "It shouldn't take long."