Another odd-numbered chapter, another return to the Destiny Islands crew over in Radiant Garden. Honestly I'm not really sure what else to say to get you readers hyped for what you're about to read. Over a year since my last chapter was published, jeez, I need something to keep my mind on this…

Chapter Theme: Hollow Bastion (from Kingdom Hearts 1)

"...Uh, Ienzo? Even?" Sora asked, a confused expression plastered across his features. "You… kinda lost me about 2 minutes ago."

"Ugh, does Sora always have this much trouble understanding details?" Even groaned. "I feel like I'm wasting my breath trying to explain it to him."

"Get used to it, Sora's a bonehead," Riku quipped.

"Hey, whose side are you on?!"

"Look, before we even start talking about sides, I have a question," Paul cut in. "This… Naminé,you mentioned she's basically a disembodied consciousness inside Kairi… Weird, but honestly stranger things have happened in Radiant Garden. What I don't get is why go through all the trouble of turning her into data, putting her in a body that's in the computer system, and then extract her FROM the system to bring her into the real world. You guys mentioned you've made special bodies for Hearts to inhabit before, what's stopping you from just doing that again?"

"For once, that's a good question," Ienzo replied. "Naminé isn't exactly a normal case, and we don't know for sure if she would need a special kind of vessel since she was formed from Sora and Kairi's Hearts."

"Any attempts at experimenting with different types of vessels could potentially turn catastrophic, so choosing a solution that we don't know will work is out of the question," Even added. "A life is at stake here. Why, she's practically Sora and Kairi's daughter, if you think about it!"

Kairi and Sora both turned bright red at that last statement. They actually HADN'T thought about it, but Even was right. Naminé was basically their daughter. In turn, this hardened their resolve to save her even more.

"How soon can we get her out through the computer system?" Sora asked.

"We're trying to contact Tron now," Ienzo replied. "I'll wager that his help will make the creation of Naminé's new vessel much quicker and easier."

"Trying to contact? He should be responding right away," Sora said. "He's got control of the system, doesn't he?"

"That's what we thought," Even said. "But it's almost like something is blocking any attempts we make to send him a message. It could be leftover programs from our experiments creating Heartless years ago, or Xehanort may have tampered with the system before he died."

"Then we need to go in there and see what's going on!" Kairi declared. "If Tron can't get your messages, something must be wrong!"

"As much as I agree, Kairi, we can't risk you or Sora going in," Even said. "If anything were to happen to either of you, the consequences upon Naminé could be impossible to predict. And as capable as Riku is, I can't say I feel comfortable sending him in alone."

"Then I'll go with him," Paul said. Everyone gave him a look of utter bewilderment, much to his annoyance. "SOMEONE has to go in with Riku, you guys wearing labcoats don't seem willing to do it yourselves, and I need to blow off steam. If there are Heartless programs in there, that just means more targets for me to practice on and cool off."

"Does Aerith know you've been fighting Heartless?" Sora asked. "I mean, yeah, you were holding your own okay, but what would she think if something happened to you?"

"As much as it would bother her, I'm pretty sure nobody else has anything to lose if I get hurt," Paul said. "And I know I sound like a self-absorbed jerk, but Aerith's probably better off not worrying about me, I'm just causing her more stress."

"And the reason you haven't said any of this to my face is…?" a woman's voice cut in from the doorway. Paul whipped around, knowing EXACTLY who that was.

Aerith stormed over to Paul and slapped him across the face. "You can't just go around doing dangerous things like that!" she scolded him. "You're lucky you haven't gotten hurt! If you didn't want to cause me more stress you should have been up-front with me!"

"Aerith, I…" Paul stopped short. He saw the tears welling in her eyes moments before she embraced him.

"Paul, you're my friend, I couldn't just give up on you even if I wanted to," she said, refusing to let go. "Sora can't give up on his friends either, that's why he and the others are here right now… Can't you see that? I don't care that I'm stressing out over you like a mother stresses out over her son, I'm here and I want to be here for you as your friend..."