boy, I have long awaited for this chapter to come out. With the changes in the former books, this chapter shows the outcome of these changes. Mainly, that Sora has an inside source to what the heck is going on with the Organization.

enjoy

'Things have been pretty rough lately.' A large man dressed like a guard muses to himself as he scours the outskirts of the castle. 'I hope Even and Ienzo can fix whatever is going on with the computer.' At least one of them has been helping their former King creating parts of the systems currently running on the computer. But it was merely the program sorting the files. Maybe he had more of a hand in it? That he does not know, but Even should have the best chance to stop this new flow of Heartless. He notices an increase of Heartless at the Restoration Site and regretfully has to admit to himself em'This is getting out of hand…'/em Still, his regained resolve to make things right spurs him into action. The guard jumps off the ledge and slams his ax-hammer hard into the ground, destroying several of the Heartless roaming around in their endless search for more hearts. Out of the corner of his eye, he notices another of these foul beings are trying to get him from behind and thought it might get a hit in, but it takes more than— a familiar face, wielding a keyblade strikes the Heartless attacking down. He is surprised to see the teen here but quick to brush it aside and help the returned trio to destroy the remaining Heartless and with the threat over, Sora turns to him. "That was pretty impressive." He lets out a small huff, straightens up and tells the boy simply, "I will bring you to Leon." as the leader of the Restoration Committee is expecting him.

Not sure if he somehow offended this huge man or that's just how he is, Sora, Donald and Goofy follow the man into the castle. On their way up to the castle, Sora asks curiously. "Are you part of the Restoration Committee?"

"No, we aren't." This big guy replies, clearly more focused on guiding him to Leon than having a conversation. "But we do help the Committee whenever we can."

Oh, so this man and others are helping Leon's gang out. That's good; the Restoration Committee deserves all the help they can get. The man brings them inside the castle, like anything else of Hollow Bastion, it is going through some serious repairs. But since Sora has been inside the castle before, he easily recognizes the old architecture of Hollow Bastion. He even saw one of the holes Beast made when he explored the castle for the first time. His reminiscing the past stops instantly when Sora notices voices coming from the corridor their guide leads them down. Sora notices these voices sound to be arguing, can't hear what's being said, though. The large man opens the door and inside a rather messy room is Leon. The leader of the Restoration Committee looks quite annoyed at a young man with steel-colored hair covering most of the right side of his face, dressed in a white lab coat.

The man in the white coat is the one who's speaking as they step inside. "— hence why you cannot expect Even to share all of his research after we have gotten this issue under control." The young man speaks matter of factly.

Leon facepalm, grumbling in defeat: "…You're not making this any easier." and right about there, the two notices Sora, Donald and Goofy.

"So you made it." Leon remarks.

Sora walks over to the man. "Cid said you found Ansem's computer."

Leon nods and explains as he gestures to the one wearing a lab coat. "The former apprentices' of Ansem have been most helpful. They have been aiding us in restoring Hollow Bastion and agreed to share some of their research data with us."

Sora turns to the other man, one who stares at him with some very intense blue eyes. "Apprentices? Wait, you were on Ansem's side?" He asks confused but is getting wary around this young man from what Leon said. He still vividly remembers how much of a threat Ansem was to the worlds and his friends. Sora really does not want to be taking chances with someone allying themselves with Ansem.

"Unfortunately yes, but not anymore." The man in the lab coat nods, the eye visible from that steel-blue hair is filled with deep regret. "Everyone from the castle were…" Sora turns around and even the large man who escorted them to this area nods that he too worked for Ansem. The smaller man speaks again. "Even though we were tricked, we still did horrible deeds that lead to the destruction of our home." The large man drops his head as his only sign of regret. Sora turns to the smaller man, who explains to him. "We all wish to make amends for our mistake in any way we possibly can. One of these ways is to share our knowledge about the Heartless."

Seems fair, these people made a mistake but he clearly see they are good people. Sora nods, accepting the man's explanation. "Alright, so where is this computer?"

The man gestures them to follow and he brings them into another room where a large computer is located. Before it is another man in a white lab coat, he is much older, has long blond hair and his finger is dancing over the keyboard. Sora takes notice of something going on outside the window and looks out. To his utter shock, he sees a machine is creating Heartless. The young man steps up beside him and explains: "Lately, the computer has been using our replication equipment to create Heartless out of data." Sora turns to the young man, who continues matter of factly but in a much more determent voice. "Even and I have been trying to break through the computer's security in an attempt to stop this, but so far…" The older blond scientist curses loudly, angrily hitting the table beside the keyboard, before going down the stairs leading to the machine. The guard follows without a word. "We haven't been successful." The young man admits sullenly.

"Cid is strengthening the claymore's programming," Leon explains the group, glancing down the window where the older scientist is trying to shut down the replicate machine while the guard named Aeleus is keeping the Heartless at bay. "but at this rate, we will be overrun in a matter of a week."

Sora can see that the city is in trouble but is not sure where he fits in all of this. "How can we help?" He asks no one in particular and admits right away, "I don't know much about computers so…"

"Even and I will handle that part." The younger apprentice says and steps over to the computer. "But until we break through, we would need your aid in keeping the city safe from—" Goofy suddenly exclaims in surprise, making everyone look up. On the ceiling hangs some kind of blue creature. It loses its grip when realizing it got discovered and lands right onto the keyboard. The young apprentice gets a smaller freak-out, turning into a bigger one when Donald jumps onto the keyboard after the blue creature. The young man pulls him away, yelling in disbelief, "Don't step on it, you imbecile! This is delicate equipment!" Said blue creature runs off, laughing.

"Hey, something's happening." Sora voices, pointing at the changing screen. Everyone turns to the computer screen, and pretty much their hope it somehow fixed the problem shatters when large letters spelling 'Warning', appears, followed by: "Attention current user. This is a warning. further misuse of this terminal will result in immediate defensive action." A robotic voice warns them all.

"Who's there?" Sora asks and the voice replies: "I am the Master Control Program." Which did not make any sense to Sora but the returned blond—Even sure did by the looks of it. "Do you know what that is?" the large man arrives as well and looks a bit beaten up but seems fine otherwise.

Even nods with a troubled look. "Yes, but it's not supposed to lock us out like this…" He turns to the younger one. "Ienzo, try and see if you can bypass its firewall." Adding much to Sora's confusion, "Might as well put that hacking skill of yours to good use…"

The younger one smiles at the remark and goes to the computer, where he starts breaking through whatever keeps them out. But it didn't work for the Master Control Program caught onto his attempt and the sirens flared again with the computer saying: "Decision gate reached. You are now under arrest!" The young man named Ienzo looks up at those words and asks somewhat cheeky. "And how do you suppose on arresting us? You're nothing but a disembodied voice of a computer, and this terminal is not connected to the Claymore system."

Even facepalm while Aeleus quirks a smile in amusement at this behavior change after Ienzo regained his heart.

Leon scans the room for any sign of this arrest; he spots it at the large computer at the wall, lighting up. Sensing the danger, Leon calls out to the unaware group, "Run!"

Sora, Donald, Goofy and Ienzo all look at him, then at the charging machine, but before they can even consider moving out of the way, a beam hits them and transfer them into the computer.

"Ienzo!" Even cries, an emotion he hasn't felt for a very, very long time spikes and he would've run over if Aeleus hadn't stopped him. Warning the older man, "You'll be caught in it too!" and they both can only watch the keyblade wielder, his two friends and the third apprentice get transferred into the computer. Even dreads how that realm will be like if it's this bad on the outside…

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Sora is the first to gain conscious, very taken aback of what just happened, then he notices the young apprentice named Ienzo and both of their outfit has changed into different shades of grey, which have strong blue lights lines all over. Brushing that change aside, Sora shakes the other one awake.

Ienzo gains consciousness and asks while he's getting up, "Wh-What happened?" before Sora can answer his question, though. A cry from Donald and both turn, spotting Donald and Goofy surrounded by machine-looking Heartless. In Sora's eyes, these Heartless do not look strong enough to capture his two friends that easily call them. "Go on, show them who's boss!" Right that moment, someone looking a bit like them appears, except the glowing lights are red. "Who are you?" Sora asks.

"I am Commander Sark." The man replies. "I am acting under the Master Control's orders to take you in."

That's enough for Sora, he summons his keyblade and lunges at this Commander, but a flash from that red-colored man and he gets electrocuted so badly that he passes out.

With that one out, Commander Sark turns to the other intruder, "Do you wish to resist arrest as well?" but that one seems smart enough to know resisting is futile as he raises his hands in surrender. Sark commands the guards to take them away.

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Sora wakes inside a cell, realizing they are caught, he walks over to where the young apprentice stands, seemly in deep thoughts as he watches the scenery outside the window. "Any idea what this place is?" He asks, for he got no clue, only they have been captured by this Master Control Program lackey.

The young man turns to him and says: "I have. It occurs to me we might be inside the computer."

"WHHHAAAAT?!" Sora, Donald and Goofy cries in disbelief making the young scientist jerk back. To then turn when another prisoner, one they only notice now, speaks up: "That's right, you're inside the computer that was used for town maintenance and research data. This system is a copy of one created by a corporation called ENCOM." The three stare quite confused at this other prisoner, while the young scientist looked as if he got what the man said.

"To think there exist a living world inside our computer, that is most fascinating." Ienzo muses clearly intrigued, while Sora didn't get half of what that other guy said. "Which role did you fulfill for the system?" Huh? What does he mean by that? Isn't that guy a prisoner like them?

"I was the security program before I was thrown into this prison by the MCP. My name is Tron" The person replies.

Well that last part he understands, and Sora decides to introduce himself to this Tron. "I'm Sora."

"I'm Donald."

"And I'm Goofy, nice to meet you, Tron."

"Ienzo."

That last name catches Tron's attention, "Huh? That's one of the main users' names. That must mean you all are Users."

"Users?" Sora asks confused and turns to Ienzo, who not only is able to understand Tron but looks very interested in what Tron has said.

"That's right, I'm one of those who utilized this computer in the past, but something must've gotten wrong." The young apprentice replies Tron. He puts a hand over his nose in thoughts. "We have been blocked out from the system."

"The MCP doing, it believes it is superior to the users and for you to have been captured and put in here…" Tron drops his head slightly. "the MCP must be intending to derez you."

"Derez?!" The group exclaims in shock and Sora, mostly confused as what Tron said mainly went over his head. Still, that last part he got quite well and having no wish in sticking around to let this crazy computer delete them for good. "Is there any way for us to get out?" He asks this apparent sentient program.

Tron walks over to a computer and putting his hand onto it. "You would've been able to return back to the users' world through this terminal, but" looking back to the users, "the MCP has cut off the power. But if we could bring the energy core in the canyon online, we could power it back up."

"How far is the canyon?" Ienzo asks, ignoring Sora, Donald and Goofy's black stares, which makes him wonder how they would've handled this whole situation if he hadn't been sucked into the mainframe as well.

"The canyon isn't far from here, but reaching it will be impossible without breaching the security around the door." Tron replies to the user and right about there notices the look of the others, blinking he asks, "What's wrong?"

He only got half of what Tron said! "Can't you explain things more normally?!" Sora exclaims, all he got they need to go to some canyon to restore power and something about a door. Tron blinks, and Ienzo turns to him and is kind enough to explain: "All in all, we need to get out of this cell and get the power back to that terminal. With the power, we can leave this system."

Okay, that makes it easier to know what needs to be done. Sora nods and turns to the door smiling, "No doors stay closed for me!" he summons his keyblade and breaks the lock to the cell door with a beam of light.

Tron is rather dumbfounded at how easy this user broke the security around this cell. "What kind of program did you use?"

Sora would explain, but like with Tron talking about the system, well... "We will be here all day if I tried." And swiftly leaves the cell "Let's go." the others follow.

Tron takes the lead and brings them to this so-called canyon, though it looks nothing of the sort, more like a scrapyard. In the middle of the room is a sort of machine; Tron explains that it is the computer that powers this side of the sector. The security program points at the machine where parts are clearly missing. "If we can substitute the part by using the scrap lying around, I should be able to turn the power back on." They split up and start searching for suitable parts.

Donald finds a motorcycle between the scrap and finding it cool; he jumps onto it, pretending to be driving around.

But as luck would have it, that motorcycle turns out to be a dormant Heartless, it turns on and starts speeding around the room with Donald holding onto it for dear life.

"Let go of the handles!" Tron calls, but Donald, refuses and for a good reason, the Heartless is driving so fast that Donald might break his neck if letting go at the wrong time.

Sora summons his keyblade, and tries to whack it, but all that did was making the Heartless turn and almost drive into Tron, who is currently holding a part. "Ugh, it would be easier if it stopped moving around!" Sora grumbles loudly.

"Should be in my league." Ienzo speaks and pointing at the speeding Heartless, "Stopra!" the spell hits and both it and Donald freezes in midair. Ienzo turns to Sora, commanding the keyblade wielder, "Take it out!"

"Got it!" Sora jumps and whacks the Heartless, releasing its heart, landing back onto the ground, Sora smiles at the young scientist. "Good thing we have you in here."

Ienzo waves offhanded at him, "It's nothing, really." to then jerk somewhat startled when Donald crashes to the ground after the stop spell ceases.

They help Tron put the part back into the machine and with the power restored, they can return to the real world. On the way back, Tron had asked them for a favor.

"So… what's the favor, Tron?" Sora asks back in the cell.

Tron turns away from the terminal and admits; "I wanted you to ask someone on the outside for the password to the DTD." Blinking when Ienzo jumps and has an expression of utter surprise.

"Do you know it?" Sora asks the apprentice.

Ienzo nods, still a bit shaken up. "Y-Yeah, it's the abbreviation of the research we did back when we worked for the one you know as Ansem."

Tron face lights up, much to the shock of the trio. "That's right, Ansem is my administrator's user name. He's the one who created this system, like Ienzo and five others were the main users." and asks them again for this favor. "I need you to find the password for the DTD, only with it, I can restore the system back to how it was used to be."

How it used to be? But... according to the research notes he, Donald and Goofy found in this castle during their last visit. Ansem was the one who created the Heartless; the cause so many worlds fell to darkness. "But Ansem he isn't…" Sora's words trail off when Commander Sark appears right behind Tron and without warning, Heartless has captured Tron and Sark grabs Ienzo.

"Tron! Ienzo!" Sora calls and runs at them with keyblade in hand, but before he can save the two, Sark electrocutes him, Donald and Goofy.

Forcing the young man to look up to him, "Do my receiver deceive me? Ienzo? One of the main users of this system?" Ienzo glares nervously up to him. Sark smirks. "I think the MCP would be very interested in extracting all the data lying within you." He then turns to the three he considers as viruses, "I want them derezzed at once." He leaves the room, forcing the struggling young apprentice with him.

Not wanting to lose these strange but kind users, Tron fights himself free from the Heartless and quickly sends Sora, Donald and Goofy back to the user's domain. "Go! I'll try and free your friend! I'm counting on you!"

"Tron!" Sora cries before he is taken away.

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back at in the computer room, Even is desperately trying to make the computer stop blocking him out from the system, but this Master Control Program refuses to obey his command, much to his frustrations. It wasn't supposed to be like this, but then again, it seems everything that Xehanort said has been solely for his own benefit. Nothing but whatever goal he wanted to reach mattered, and as much Even hates it… he had for such a long time been on that crazy scientist wagon…

Even stops his attempt to break through the firewall when the machine behind turns itself back on. Not wanting to be sucked into the data scape as well, Even jumps away from the computer.

To his surprise and relief, Sora, Donald and Goofy appear, the relief breaks, replaced with worry when realizing someone is missing, "Where's Ienzo?" he demands. Sora is quiet a tad too long, "Where is he?!" If he had been Vexen, it wouldn't have mattered much to him, but now with a heart. Even can't bear the thought of losing Ienzo, not after his pursuit of science has been the cause that Ienzo had to grow up without a heart, robbing him of childhood.

Leon steps between, "Let him talk." and Even step back, a bit startled he let the emotions control him like that. It seems he still hasn't gotten used to having a heart again.

Sora explains everything, from there being a sort of world inside the computer, Tron, and Commander Sark taking Ienzo away for being a recognizable user. Leading to what the young apprentice had mentioned. "Do you know the password to this DTD?" Sora asks, both Even and the large guard eyes wide at the name, exchanges a look with one another and with a nod from the guard, Even turns back to him, musing hesitantly: "Yes, it's…" his words get interrupted when a woman calls from the office, much to Sora's disbelief, the man leaves to check. Sora follows with the others close behind.

Inside the office, a woman with long raven hair, dressed in black stands, her being the one who called. Spotting people, she asks them, "Have you seen a guy with spiky hair?"

Everyone looks at Sora.

She giggles "spikier" they all shake their head, well, in that case. "Say is this Sage Ansem's room? I hear he would've known just about anyone."

"Master Ansem knew a lot, but not even he would know about anyone." Even replies, this woman sighs and walks over to one of the bookshelves, no longer dusty after his cleaning, and to his great shock and disbelief, she lifts the whole thing! Books dropping to the ground and messing up the papers. "What are you doing?!" He exclaims enraged, "This is important research. Do you have any idea how long it took me—" she casually throws the bookshelf to the side. Sneering in annoyance that some random woman is destroying years of work. "Aeleus, help me out with this." He's not stupid enough to get into a fight with a woman that is strong enough to lift a whole bookshelf.

Nodding, Aeleus steps over and grabs this apparently quite strong woman's left hand. He did expect her to fight back, so he braced himself and when she did try and throw him over her shoulder, he stood steadfast. The woman looks back to him in surprise, he meets her gaze with his hard blue and tells her simply, "Do not destroy this office." and lets go of her, adding; "The man you're looking for is not here." She sighs but does, fortunately, gets the message.

"Fine, I get it. I'm going." Walking past the blond scientist who is picking up the books she dropped when removing the shelf. "Sorry to give you trouble." Did not see him send her a death glare.

Knowing the feeling of looking for someone, Sora sympathizes and calls after this strong woman. "Hey, give us a shout when you find Mr. spiky hair!" She looks back, smiles and walks off with a lifted fist hand. With her gone, Sora turns to the now very grumpy Even and is hesitant to ask him about DTD.

"Even," Leon calls, not really worried about that one's anger. He's more bark than bite really, "the DTD password, what is it?"

Oh right, he forgot about that, thanks to that insolent woman. Even puts the fortunately unharmed books onto the desk. "DTD is the name of the system we used in our research about the darkness in people's heart." He explains Sora, his friends and the leader of the Restoration Committee. "It stands for 'Door To Darkness.'" He can recall how they went about with this research; in the start they did it to help people to understand this unseen yet constant force. But then... Xehanort was taken in, he at first wasn't much of a talker, but slowly, he came out of his shell. Proved to be a brilliant man. Even was at first relieved to have a fellow mind of brilliance on the team, he and Xehanort spoke long hours about their research. It must've been there he was manipulated to turn his back against the king and dwell too deep into the research... Even hates to admit it to even himself, but...

"Okay, but what's the password?" Sora presses, he really wants to help Tron and Ienzo.

Bad time going down memory lane. "Oh yes, of course." Even clears his throat and explains the keyblade's chosen. "The door to darkness can only be opened by the seven princesses, henceforth that is the passwords for the DTD system."

Great, now they are one step closer to save Tron and Ienzo, Sora hurries back into the computer room, but there is a problem. "Um guys?" Sora points at the computer screen that says in bold letters 'ignorant users. Obey the MCP.'

Even tries to bypass it, but he is completely locked out, letting out a curse. "Dammit, I can't input the code." The MCP has become way more troublesome than it's worth. What was Xehanort thinking by infecting the system with that program? Did he want the MCP to infect Hollow Bastion with an endless hoard of Heartless? For what purpose?

"Then… we'll go and tell Tron ourselves." Sora declares, Donald and Goofy nod. They walk over to the computer and are about to activate the system that lets them back inside, Even does stop them: "Before you enter the system." He leaves for a moment, returning with a chestnut-colored book and hands it to Sora. "Give this to Ienzo; it should allow him to aid you in there." Sora gives the older scientist a smile and nods he will, then Even sends him and his friends into the computer again.

I still remember how convenient it was for Sora and gang to find the code to DTD in the original game. It was kinda amusing where Xehanort (or perhaps Ansem?) hid these data. Well, there's no need in the Change of Fate storyline because several of the apprentices have returned.

I really enjoyed writing about how the former Nobodies interact with the others.

Oh and of course Ienzo had to get inside Space Paranoid! The way he is in this series, he is a perfect fit and is a great help to the computer dumb Sora.

I plan to make a drawing to Tron's world, but it's only coming out alongside the next chapter. /b

If you enjoy this series so far, comments or a quick like is greatly appreciated.