Of Keys and Hammers

by zcritic88

In a realm beyond, the Four Chaos has taken notice of a realm tied close to the heart. They squirmed into the darkness and sought to corrupt if to reach a prize beyond the light. Will the Light of Order, be able to repel this ancient evil?

72. The Balance of The Crystal Heart

At a mountain under the gaze of a mighty sun, Sora rolled out of the way of a feral wolf like shadow that pounced from the air, sank into the ground and sprinted at it's prey with a bite, it tried to fly away from a strafing run, Sora shot it with a fire ball for a finishing blow as Riku sliced into his, side stepped it's pounce and riposte for a kill. The danger lightened and Donald saw a strange formation in the distance. "Sora, Riku, Goofy, I think we found Aughra's home!" Goofy looked at the formation and recognized the formation. "I think we did."

Sora had a look and cheered that the days worth of travel had finally paid off. "Finally, these heartless were starting to creep me out." Riku had a look and kept to the path as he laughed it off. "Ha, it's no surprise where these came from. Which is why we got to figure out why that Crystal is so important before we try anything."

Sora admitted with unease. "I just couldn't believe Pete, of all people, had it in him." Donald found it hard himself. "He's been a bad guy for a long time, Sora." Goofy wondered. "Maybe he's been gettin' more ideas after that big one Ventus told us about." Riku guessed how it happened. "And his buddies are giving him credit where it is due, we're going to have to take him a lot more seriously when we see him again."

He and the crew saw red anemone like plants wiggle away at their presence, giving off an odd squeak, they agreed that the world as a whole is strange. They saw a bramble of roots across their path and tried to get through it, more dangled downwards, wrapped around them and hoisted them up, Sora and Donald gave a yelped of a panic at the tangled mess as Riku and Goofy tried to look around for a way out, they found a hand revealing itself, holding a twitching eyeball, connecting it was what looked like a short, blind, elderly female creature, with a small curved horns and curly grey hair, she was in a red dress. She spoke in an alien language and noticed Sora and Riku with the strange swords. "Nia, Keyling, whinch?" She put her eye onto an empty socket on her face, where an eye should have been, blinked to adjust her eye and looked upon the four, she gasped, smelled them and asked. "Are you, Keyling?"

The boys nodded and Sora answered. "Yeah, I'm Sora." He looked to the duck and shield bearer, who introduced themselves. "I'm Donald." "and I'm Goofy, we'd appreciate it if you help us down." Riku pleaded. "Please, we've been getting in close messes all day."

The old woman found it hard to believe. "The Keyling are all dead! Garthim killed all the Keylings, you don't look anything like them!" She sniffed. "Yet you smell like Keylings, though!" She thought. "Maybe you are Keylings!" Riku asked. "We're looking for an Aughra, do you know one?" The old woman had her hands at her hips in a scoff and asked. "Who sent you?"

Sora answered with a desire to get down. "Someone called the Master, the leader of those Mystics." The woman gasped and looked around. "Where is he? Around here?" Riku wished that was the case. "He passed away recently." The woman kept looking, seeing the teenager has underestimated the Mystics. "Could be anywhere then." Goofy realized and asked. "You must be Aughra if you happn' to know him."

Aughra gave a look at the four and asked in an attempt to test their courage. "Are you afraid of me? Think I'm going to" she raised her voice. "eat you?" The boys flinched at the question and realized she was bluffing, Aughra asked. "What do you want of me?"

Donald answered. "A Crystal Shard, now would" he kicked and thrashed. "you let us down?!" Aughra asked. "That's all you want? A crystal shard?" The four nodded, Aughra laughed turned and asked the plant. "Drop them."

The vines let them go, the crew followed her to a cave leading into the formation, they had to crawl in to fit and found what seemed to be a dead end, that slid open from all sides. Revealing a rather otherworldly room, with a rotating machine of orbs, going in all kinds of directions, Sora was speechless as Donald and Goofy recognized the room as an observatory, Riku's mouth dropped as he thought of the implications.

Sora tried to ask something and Aughra asked for him. "What's it for? Hmm? Hmm? Is that what you want to know?" Sora almost fell back from the many questions he wanted to ask as Riku held him by the back of his shirt, pulled him away and answered. "I've read of these kinds of places, this is an observatory." He pointed at the larger orbs. "See, the biggest ones are planets you find in the sky while the smaller ones could be the moons and stars."

He asked Sora. "Didn't you go to a library earlier?" The spiky haired boy got defensive. "I did, but we were never told that we needed to know about this." Aughra pitied him. "Shame! You ever looked to the heavens? Everything about the heavens is here, moving." She ducked from a particular part of the device as Sora admitted. "I seen that a bunch of times already. The sky is always moving when ever we look up to it." Riku wanted to correct him. "Even if the world itself is the other reason."

Sora felt a ding and asked Aughra. "Is this how you know, why the Three Suns are important?" The elder sharply looked to the observant boy. "This is how to know when they are, that's what." She looked at the device. "Suns, moons, stars. The angle of eternity! That's how I know it's coming. How else can I make the prediction?"

The four admitted that the elder could not, without such technology. Aughra had a story to tell as she went to a table of scopes. "A thousand years ago, there was a Great Conjunction. I was there, Three Suns lined up, that's when the Crystal cracked, that's when the Skeksis and the Mystics appeared." She got to the table. "Another Great Conjunction coming up," she searched for something. "Anything could happen, the world might burn up." She gave a small snort. "End of Aughra. Hmm!" She found what she was looking for wasn't quite there and continued. "Better have ya shard before then, Keylings." She turned to them and asked. "Now, ask what the Great Conjunction is. What's the Great Conjunction?"

Sora guessed. "It's when the Suns align and something happens?" Aughra took a triangle with a circle that held a triangle and used it to cover her eye. "That something is the end of the world!" She put the cover down. "Or the beginning! Hmm!"

Goofy knew why either could happen. "It depends on if we can get the Shard to the Crystal before then, if not the Skeksis would keep running this world forever and then there might not be a world in the next Conjunction." Aughra looked around more. "Big change, sometimes good! Sometimes bad, it's all the same." She found a light brown box. "Ah, there it is." She picked it up and approached. "Keylings know little."

Sora and Riku looked to each other at the truth in the matter, they only know the bare minimum of what is befalling the world and nothing about how to really save it. The older boy asked. "But what can we do if we get the Shard to the Crystal?" Aughra answered. "Heal the Dark Crystal!"

Sora blinked. "How?" He realized. "That Crystal, is it close to the Worlds Heart?" Aughra lost patience. "Questions, questions, too many questions, if you want the shard," she tipped the box over and dumped out many crystal shards, three looked like the ones in the Master's visions. Donald and Goofy sorted them out as Riku asked rather annoyed. "Which one of these is the crystal?"

Aughra looked up to them "Don't know." and sat down to show she was sincere. "Don't know. Listen Keylings, there is so much to learn and you don't have time." Sora and Riku took the three crystals, lined them up and tried to figure out which is which, Riku considered Sora's question about the Crystals connection to the heart, raised his hand to the three and closed his eyes. The duck asked. "Riku, what are you doing?"

The older boy answered. "I'm trying something that we've only tested this on. Let me focus on waking up one of these shards." The group gave him mostly silence, save for the mechanical background, Riku was in a zen and delved deep with in the void of the heart.

Thump! He saw a faint purple. Thump! He saw the purple again, convulsing in sorrow. Thump! He opened his eyes and felt strange tears, he saw the middle crystal, glow in purple. Sora felt a faint heart beat and watched his closest friend pick up the crystal and realize something. Aughra asked. "Yeeees! Now that you have it, you suddenly know what to do with it? Anyone told you that, did they?" Riku answered firmly. "It's been something we were trained to do, weeks ago." Aughra was impressed. "Aughra knows what that is."

Goofy heard something skittering from the window, Donald saw hints of crab claws, they warned them. "We got trouble!" SMASH! Smashing through was a large horde of large, crab like monsters, Aughra gasped. "Garthim!" Sora and Riku readied for battle and watched a particular large Garthim smashed a table into dust, causing a fire to break and joined four more in an attempt at their lives. Aughra screamed at the Garthim. "Get out! Get ooout!"

the two felt an instinct that the cramped Observatory is a poor place for a fight, Riku saw the rotating device, jumped on and ordered. "Come on, guys, let's get out of here, there isn't anything we can do here." Donald and Goofy jumped onto one and Sora turned to an Aughra trying to fight against the swarm. "Come on, we got to go!" Aughra was more focused on getting the Garthim to leave, half of the monsters scuttled to the boy, Sora cringed and flowed to the device and to a window Riku jumped to. Donald and Goofy made their jump as the fire got worse and the large Garthim punched the device, causing a malfunction and more sparks. With little choice, Goofy took his shield and readied to lead. "Come on, fellas, we got to get past the window!"

The crew did so, Sora used a little air magic to push the shield through the window and down a slope of vines. They landed in a jungle and stopped by a tree, they got off and turned back to the mountain of the Observatory, finding it bursting in flames and realizing the stakes were higher than expected.

Elsewhere in the jungle.

Kairi back flipped from a sudden sprouting of sucker like plants that have rows of teeth, Ken had Cadia's Light ready to shoot a large sucker like flower with yellow eyes as Lightning flipped her sword to a gun and joined in shooting it. The Gobble Master was shot dead and the excess plants withered away. The Princess felt a sweat and asked. "Was this world like this when you were here last time?"

Lightning shook her head. "The heartless are new and this one didn't come here naturally." Ken asked. "This was sent here after us?! How did we get found out so fast?" Kairi guessed. "Those baddies were expecting us when they found out Baldred was spying on them?"

Lightning had her doubts. "They might, but that would be playing it too prepared, they've probably found out we came here through another means." The Princess agreed to that and heard an eerie song coming at them from the left, the faint sight of smoke gave way to danger, Ken readied to shoot as Kairi and Lightning waited, three strange, fiery specter with a flat nose, pointed ears and long white hair floated through a tree and set it aflame. They gazed upon the three, like they were not welcome in the woods, the children were spooked as Lightning flipped her sword and enveloped it in ice. The spirits silently dashed after the three, Ken and Kairi side jumped side by side as Lightning circled around the spirits and struck at them, cooling the spectral flame and giving the siblings an idea. Kairi asked. "Ken, you got your wind?"

The boy gasped and smirked, he spun his blade, focused and unleashed a gale upon the specters, two of them turned to focus on him as the Princess wanted to face palm, she dashed as Ken side jumped and countered with laser shots. She aimed a freeze spell at the ghosts to cool them down, Ken gasped, face palmed himself and summoned a wisp of flame. He stood still and readied something, the ghosts looked to be snarling with gangling talons and closed in for the kill, Ken crouched, burst in fire and appeared behind them, he went to Kairi's side with a gale of wind forming, letting her know he understood the plan. The duo spun their blades side ways to make a swirl of ice and wind, the Fire Sprites looked behind them and watched the duo unleashed a blizzard that swallowed them whole and caused them to vanish in a flash. The jungle looked quite frosty, Lightning carved into her spirit with no effort and caused it to cool, ripple and vanish.

The battle was one and Kairi wanted to give Ken a scolding frown. "Mmmmr." Ken stuck his tongue out in a blip, like he understood that he rushed a combo, but realized the sync. Kairi giggled as Lightning noticed something from the night covered mountains, something was set on fire, Ken noticed, stopped his blip and quickly put together. "Oh no," Kairi had a look and gasped. "Sora, Riku!" She sensed something, calmed down and let the group know. "I felt something escaping that, what ever happened up there got out of hand."

Lightning agreed. "Very. Hope they got what they were looking for." She turned. "Maybe this path will lead to us converging." Ken hoped so and took the lead. "And nothing to really report that isn't obvious. If those ghosts didn't come naturally, I'd say they brought a Necromancer into this dangerous world and they got a large supply if the Skeksis took as much as they did." Kairi knew the fiend the boy was talking about. "The Horned King, was their whole scheme a way to take advantage of all this?" Ken figured. "Probably, until we came along."

The three ventured deeper into the forest and found themselves stepping close to a marshy swamp. A floral bunch of plants retreated into tubes, startled the three and left the Princess to accept that the world is bizarre. Ken looked on the ground and saw a fresh bare foot print, he whispered. "Someone else has been here."

Rustle! The ladies heard it as well, Kairi followed the noise slowly, to what looked like a small burrow. She and her party readied for what was in there, waiting for them to make a false move. She approached it, cautiously. "HWAAAAA!" A brown furred, canine like creature jolted out of the burrow hole and screamed at Kairi's face, revealing a wide mouth with two sets of teeth, one at the front and the other at the throat, the girl yelped, jumped back and slipped into the muddy swamp. SPLASH!

Ken and Lightning saw the furry thing to be quite small and seemed to be howling out of fear, Lightning waved to it and harshly ordered. "Get!" Kairi felt herself quite messy and saw someone approaching from the shrubbery, a small humanoid in a brown hood, it looked feminine and had long white hair that was partially braided, the girl noticed a face like those of the spirits and held her urge to pout. The figure flipped her hood and revealed a flat nosed face and pointed ears, complimenting strange brown eyes, she looked to the furry thing and asked it in a near alien language. Calling it Fizzgig and telling it that the travelers won't mean it harm, causing it to whimper, scurry from the burrow and hide to her feet. Ken completely forgot that the thing scared Kairi into the mud as the stranger asked the girl something that in her mind translated into. "What are you?"

Kairi answered. "We're travelers, you're the second one around here that was friendly to us." The strange girl gasped. "I thought there was no one else." She giggled in an apology, approached Kairi and offered a hand up. "Here, let me help you out of that."

Kairi took the offer and in an instant, felt faint images in her mind, memories. Of fire, monsters, what seemed to have been a mother trying to protect her child, being abducted by the monsters and the child being found by villagers of pea pod like people.

The girl in turn, had memories of a steam punk town, an outbreak of dark monsters, a terrifying dark looking man with silver hair, reaching for her and landing on an island. Kairi thought as she realized the girl was sharing memories. "What's happening?" The girl answered in thought. "We're dream fasting, sharing our memories."

Kairi saw memories of a simple life in the wilderness as the girl saw memories of two particular boys and a carefree life in the island, the visions began to leave and the two let go, finding themselves back to reality and to the onlookers that felt like something strange happened. Kairi and the girl looked each other in the eyes for a moment, the Princess felt herself sinking deeper, the girl tried not to laugh as Kairi tried to push herself free. The mysterious girl advised. "Don't move." She gave a strange cry to the mud and caused it to bubble, something lifted it's head from under Kairi, a strange, black tadpole like creature with faint red eyes. Ken found it fascinating in a boyish way as Lightning found it adorable and tried not to smile at the scene of Kairi looking down, giving a yelp and jumping off into solid land. The woman asked. "What is this girl?"

The mysterious girl turned to them. "Just a nebrie," she turned to the nebrie to pet her. "She won't hurt you." The nebrie gave a gurgle as the girl talked in a foreign language, Kairi felt a name in her mind and spoke. "Kira, you're names Kira." The nebrie sank into the mud as Kira turned to the Princess in agreement. "We were dreamfasted, you and I, Kairi."

Ken asked. "Dreamfasted?" The Princess nodded to him. "It was like our hearts were telling a story together." Kira whispered Fizzgig, to calm it down and pick him up, he acted like a puppy. Kairi reached to pet him and was given loud barks, Kira called Fizzgig out and got him to stop the barking, the furry thing growled, whimpered and was placed down. The mysterious girl explained. "You all are strange to him." Kairi understood. "He's strange to us as well, though we've seen an animal like him before. They're like that when they get nervous."

She and Kira shared a small laughter as Lightning kept her guard up. "We need to keep moving before something else happens." Kira agreed with her. "Skeksis are watching always, we must go." She offered to lead them towards a safer route, the ladies followed her as Ken watched Fizzgig growl at the nebrie, it gurgled at him and caused him to scamper to his owner. Ken watched two smaller nebries emerge to forage on the plantation, laughed to that and marched onward.

Down the slope in the jungle and far away from the Observatory.

Donald and Goofy signaled that they were not followed and gave Sora and Riku the time to observe the crystal shard from the view of a morning sun. Sora asked. "How did you find out that this was the Shard?" Donald grumbled judgmentally. "By tapping into the crystals dark power." Riku got defensive. "Oh no, that was not what I was doing. I was trying to see if the Dark Crystal is anything like a heart and it feels like it is the Heart of this world." He showed the fragment. "It was crying in the Darkness, it was crying to be whole. Sora, you remember what the Power of Wakening does?"

The spiky haired boy gasped. "That's how we got to heal the Dark Crystal? We got to get to the palace and get the shard in there before that Conjunction happened?" Riku nodded. "And the Skeksis are there to stop us, they and the Mystics are tied to the Crystal. How, I don't know." He tried to focus on the crystal once more, felt nothing and gave it to Sora. "You've connected with a lot more hearts than I have, can you try to find another clue out of this?"

The younger boy took it and tried to focus, Goofy and Donald sat next to him to have a look, the four saw a reaction, a reflection revealing a large crystal of great light and a bird like creature, ready to hit it with a hammer. The hammer made contact with the crystal and caused a crack upon the crystal, the image faded in a spreading crack, the chilling display of blatant abuse gave the four a strong sense of disgust. Goofy pitied the crystal "Gwarsh, looks to me like this world had a pretty hard life." his pity turned into anger to the Skeksis. "and it looks like Lightning was right about who's responsible." Donald asked with a scold. "What's the big idea, treating a heart like that? Have they no shame?

Riku got up to answer. "They've didn't consider why doing this was a horrible idea, it's a wonder why this world didn't end up like the other one we've heard about." He ordered. "Come on, we got to get to that castle and set this right."

Sora got up and saw someone sitting on top of a tree, watching them in a condescending manner, a familiar masked boy in a black and red attire. "Vanitas." The three looked up to the tree and found the intruder asking them. "Do you really think restoring this messed up world's heart is going to change anything?" The four readied for battle as Vanitas disappeared, they looked around and Sora found the demon right behind Riku, ready to impale him with the Gear Buster, Sora had a flash back and charged with a scream. "Watch out!" Parry!

Riku herd the close parry and flip jumped, he watched the demon flicker away to the clearing of the forest, Vanitas taunted. "Woah, someone triggered you, hero." Sora looked like he was about to recklessly charge at Vanitas as Riku stopped him and glared at the fiend. "It's the only chance this worlds got."

That lead to Vanitas asking as the jungle began to distort. "That reminds me, what are you ever doing here in the first place? And don't give me that, the world needs you excuse, I've been hearing that you all were talking about something... dumb lately." He posed for battle. "It's about time I stop this idiotic game for good."

He vanished once more and appeared above the four, Sora and Riku split as Donald and Goofy were knocked asunder by an infernal burst that opened into an eight pointed scorch mark, it unleashed dark fire across the arena and gave a mental timer to the duo. Vanitas flickered behind the boy and tried to strike, Riku had his turn to parry and Sora used the chance to blitz after the demon and bring forth Oathkeeper. Vanitas jumped back and unleashed a slew of hellish chains, Sora rolled right as Riku focused and jumped across the chains with a glow of morning light, he dived at Vanitas for a frontal stab, the fiend flickered away to the right side of the arena, right on top of a shield that was glowing in ice.

BOOM!

A glacier ruptured, sent the fiend flying and giving Goofy the time to pick his shield up, Donald shot out a more powerful freeze spell to keep Vanitas distracted from a combo. Sora and Riku disappeared in rays of light and charged at the demon in multiple directions like spears of light. Tearing at him in a stun lock and stopping to press their blades together in sync, a pillar of light sent the demon flying to the center of an arena that is regaining it's sense to reality.

The demon snarled. "You got all this Light and your deciding to look into the Darkness for something? Isn't that what caused all your problems in the first place?" Sora flinched. "Who told you tha-" he remembered what happened at Pandemonium. "right, you guys were spying on us?"

Riku looked up to the gathering of the three suns and signaled. "He won't care why we're getting a little desperate. Come on, the Conjunction isn't going to wait while we talk to him." Sora agreed with that and followed him, trying to ignore Vanitas's questions, the demon realized that. "Hey. You're ignoring my question." Goofy sharply turned to him with a scowl. "Then you oughta know why we're keep'n things from ya!" Donald aimed his staff at Vanitas's feet, freezing him in place. "And why you're not going to follow us."

Riku approved of the words. "Keep freezing him until he can't break out, he's scared that we're finally fighting back." Vanitas gasped and laughed at them "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! You idiot's don't even know if any of this is going to help you?!" He kept boasting as Donald readied a stronger freezing spell. "Guess what, you're just making yourselves another time bomb. That crazy screw up and that Cursed corpse are just going to lead you into the bowels of Hell, while your worlds burn." He tried to break out and was shot with another freezing spell, encasing most of his body in ice, Goofy went to join the boys in leaving as the demon had one more sharp thing to speak of. "You're looking at the kind of thing you seek. What do you think is really in the Darkness? The Bearer of the Curse, fears it and that screw up is really something when he shows his true colors."

Riku felt the insult trigger him and he turned on the demon. "And Baldred, should fear it. That screw up you and your maker have been chasing around, is also pretty good at fighting through a war that you're happy to cause. I'm surprised that he is getting stronger despite the issues you and those wackos are causing him." Vanitas was in a losing argument as Riku finished with a sharp scowl. "They've starred into the Abyss and when it looked back, they dived in after it. You're going to be the next thing the void will swallow one day, while the rest of us see what's really down there. There is a formula to what we are seeing in this world... that is what we are here to find." He hummed and turned. "It's hasn't been nice chatting with you, smell you later!"

Sora blushed to the brutal burn as Donald whistled. Vanitas barked. "Hold it! I'm not-"

Donald used another ice spell to freeze Vanitas in place. The group ran far away from the danger and took a moment to plan. Riku confessed. "I knew something like that was going to happen. I just didn't think it was going to be so soon." Sora agreed with that and asked. "If he's here, then that means it's going to get a lot worse if they find out what we're trying to do."

Riku put together the knowledge they found. "If the Mystics and the Skeksis are tied together, then they have a connection to the light and darkness with in this world. What the Skeksis have is too diluted to be what we're trying to look for, but if they've done all this to their world, then imagine what they will do if we don't fix this before the Conjunction. That's why we're not going to turn back." He relaxed. "We can count on our friends to find their own answers in this crazy world."

Sora approved of that as Goofy was ready to lead the charge, shield first. "Then come on fellas, we got a Crystal to heal!" The three followed the eager shield bearer across the dangerous jungle.

At the Valley of the Mystics.

Aqua, Ven and Mickey listened well to some of Baldred's tales. "And that was how I traversed all of that, to find my crown once more." The trio clapped as a listening Mystic with a pot of a vegetables strew, looked upon the crown. "Your crown is close to your heart, your journey has been a long one."

Mickey agreed with that. "It was long before he linked the fire and some friends of ours helped him find a new life when fate won't leave him alone." The Mystic offered the pot as Aqua questioned something from the Undead. "But what I don't get is why he let one of my students try... that, to commune with the Keyhole when his light wasn't working?"

Baldred answered. "For that aspect of his heart wasn't what that world needed to see. It formed together into a night sky." Mickey asked. "It wanted to see a balance, but it was a reverse of what the rest of us had to do." He confessed to the Cook. "It was one of the reasons we came here with Lightning in the first place, we needed to learn more about this Balance, where Light and Darkness would be an equal. It's a little confusing."

The Cook looked like he might understand what the mouse was talking about. "Without Light, there is no virtue. Without Darkness, there is no urge. One must be, with the other" Aqua looked into the stew. "Like what's in this pot, its a bunch of ingredients that on their own, might not be edible" Ven took a spoon to taste and found it rather tasty, proving Aqua's point. "but together, they'll make something for the pallet."

The Keyblade Master felt one complication to her comparison. "The problem is how extreme Light and Darkness are, the later causes more problems than it fixes and right now, the worlds are heading towards something this world is in right now. Nothing we do has made a permanent change, we only delay the problems."

The Cook sympathize with the Guardian's situation, he and the other Mystics looked upwards to the sky, a Mystic with simple musical strings, played a tune, the Mystics, in sync, began to travel. The Musician announce. "At last, the Crystal calls." He readied to lead on a journey. "time to return to the castle." With that, the Guardian's felt an odd connection as the Cook they talked to, stopped what he was doing and began a journey. Ven took the pot of perfectly good stew and asked his friends. "Why are they going into the place where the Skeksis are?"

Baldred shrugged like he had no clue. "Perhaps they are connected?" Mickey felt like it was one possibility. "It's like what the Cook said, without that Darkness, there is nothing driving him or the others to getting out there. They are as nice as they come, but what are they missing?"

Ven gasped. "That drive, they're without the Darkness in most peoples hearts?" Mickey nodded. "So this could mean the Skeksis hold the drive but they have nothing to hold it back between them and what they want. Even if hurting people is involved." He asked. "We need to make sure, what ever happens to these fellas, happens. What ever answer we'll see, awaits us at the end."

Aqua approved. "And we know someone with an evil heart is going to attack them anyways." She lead the way. "Come on, we'll find a way to split that pot up along the way." Ven puffed his cheeks at the unconventional meal on the road, yet knew the task at hand.

At the Hammer Heart Arena.

Dupmic was running for his life against a Steam Tank trying to run him over and shoot him with a canon as Xion circled around the tank, rolled to dodge a steam shot from the turret and flung herself at the punctured, wooden engine, blade first. SMASH!

She bashed her keyblade into the engine, caused a valve to blow heat and back flipped, baiting the tank into backing up to run her over. She side stepped to the left and ordered. "Now! We got it this time!" Dupmic nodded, pressed his blade to the ground and caused a hand of earth to form around the engine, it grabbed onto it and gave an aura of draining dark. It crushed the engine, took the explosion and caused the other half of the tank to fall backwards. The battle field, returned to the arena and the duo wanted to lay down at a well earned victory.

The Statue glistened to an accomplishment and Ana was the first to congratulate the two. "That thing got ya by surprise that time, but even the mightiest of machines have one weak spot to exploit." Xion felt a good comparison to use. "Like a thing called a Death Star. I saw it in a movie, it's a giant weapon that blows up planets and had a vent that if someone... shoots into it. It will go boom." She thought more in an inspiration as Dupmic wondered. "I think we can pull what that tank did if we mix fire and water together to make the steam. It's got the force to do a lot." He gasped as Xion agreed. "Maybe we should try it out on our free time, if nothing interesting happens in the towns for the next couple of days."

Wanda heard that as she approached with Stitch playing with her hat. "If ya don't burn your hands off. You've seen how quickly it can do it's work if it connects." She stopped. "But, I've seen where creativity can go." Merlin was the last to enter and congratulate the children. "Indeed, inspiration can lead to new inventions."

Dupmic agreed with anticipation. "And those inventions will lead to inspiration, repeating the cycle. That steam can make clouds of evaporated water, which if charged up with electricity, could make portable storm clouds." He asked. "Tell Aqua and the others to watch out for the special fights, they could bring some contagious ideas if they pay attention. How many more of them are in that?"

Wanda shrugged. "That's the biggest one I could think of." Ana hummed. "And some of mine could be a bit much for your skills, no offense."

Dupmic looked to his shadow for the things he seen. "And some, a friend of ours put in, are in those levels anyways. That's going to get full really quick in a day or two." He asked Xion. "So, think we've done enough?"

The girl thought so as Ana had another look at the arena. "More, than enough. Do you mind if I help guide ya back home, or do you not need me for that?" Dupmic politely refused. "We don't need it, but if something happens at the town and if we need your help, we'll come."

Ana found that fair and lead the group out to a bright night. Merlin gave his fair well and escorted the teenagers back to Radiant Garden, upon exiting the ally way and reaching the front of the house, Merlin smiled the two. "That was quite the turn of events." Xion agreed with a wink. "We've gotten a lot done tonight, once Aqua and the others come back, they are going to love this."

Dupmic jokingly warned the wizard. "Expect them to be wanting to say a few things to you. Heh!" Merlin gave the credit to them. "You two have done most of the work with Lady Ana, I've only provide a little aid in the project."

He gave the two a nod of good night. "Be proud of how far you've come, for that leads to your hearts inner strength." The two were proud of it and wished him good night, they took the scenic route back home, Dupmic felt a scheme in mind. "So, if nothing too important happens, we should... inspect the Arcade in the other town. Boredom is a known killer for kids like us." Xion gasped. "The Arcade? Do we have the munny?"

Dupmic pointed his thumb to himself. "I do. What's the point of enjoying a peaceful place if we don't goof off once in a while?" Xion shrugged. "There wouldn't be. Tee, hee, hee!"

Near the Palace of the Dark Crystal.

The Cabal of Sorcerers and their minions looked on in disbelief at the hedonistic feasts of the Skeksis, a large amount of food that was eaten with bare hands and with utenzils meant for fingers. The loud burping, the Skeksis diving face first into food and some of them picking at their teeth on the table has made Pete puke, left the Horned King and Zonir completely bored, Ztardon quite envious of the food, Maleficent looking away and insulting them. "Gluttonous pigs."

Ahriman watched a Skeksis with a bloated stomach, choke on his own food of noodles and was hoping the Gourmand perishes, a podling slave gave him a heimlich maneuver to get him to spit out the noodles, did so and was smacked for his troubles. The Head Sorcerer was disappointed. "It appears we won't be obtaining any new knowledge from these hedonites. So the time for action is upon us." The golden clad Skeksis in the vision spoke. "It seems to be that the Keylings, have escaped." The New Emperor talked with his mouth full of noodles. "None have ever escaped from my deadly Garthims."

The sheer ignorance proved Ahriman's point and Maleficent asked the Sorcerer. "So what shall we do? Observe the Crystal personally and extract the real knowledge from it?" Ahriman nodded. "But not through a direct siege, at least not yet. Ztardon."

The Tzaangor Shaman looked on anticipation. "You wish of me for this task?" Ahriman answered with his order. "When we give the signal, you are to infiltrate the castle and through your sorcery, find what we seek." He requested to Maleficent. "Would your spell work on Ztardon as it does for Diablo?" The Witch nodded to that. "If he is willing."

The golden clad Skeksis in the image noticed something. "Look, the Garthim return!" The Cabal were surprised and looked at the four constructs, scuttling in with a moving bag, the Skeksis expected the Keybearers, the Cabal expect at least either Goofy or Donald. The New Emperor ordered his constructs that approached before them. "Release the Keylings!" The Garthim undid the giant bag and out of it came an elderly, woman in a red dress, the Skeksis were outraged by the failure and Maleficent held off on turning the vision off, the elderly woman cursed at the Skeksis. "Fools, Skeksis fools! What do you want with me?!"

The New Emperor smacked his hands on the table. "This is no Keyling!" The elderly woman was more annoyed, "Of course I'm no Keyling, you putrid lizards!" an pointed to them all. "I'll get my eye to you!"

Some of the Skeksis reeled in horror of the scolding, the golden clad Skeksis used some common sense. "She was with them, she helped them." He asked in a command. "Where are they!" The Elder answered in spite. "Gone, Keylings gone." She smacked one of the Garthim. "Stupid Garthim." She lashed more at the Skeksis and approached the table. "You want Keyling? Why not ask me? No, easier to send your spore brain soldiers through my home! Now home gone, Keylings gone, nothing but Aughra! Mouldy mildew, mother of mouthmuck, dangle and strangle and death!"

The most flamboyant Skeksis covered his face at the profanity. "Oh! How crude!" The golden clad Skeksis warned Aughra. "Watch your tongue, harridan! We are the lords of the Crystal." The elder nearly balked to that. "Lords?! Not for long. What about the Prophecy? That a Keyling would end Skeksis's power?"

She grunted and sat down. "He'll come, make you crawl, like the worms you are!" The New Emperor ordered his subordinates. "Find the Keylings, now!"

The golden clad Skeksis nodded and ordered a flock of upside down bats with a crystal face. "Crystal bats, fly! Search the land, search the water, search the sky!"

The crystal bats dropped down and flew out of the room, Ahriman and Maleficent cast a spell that cloaked the cabal in illusion. The witch turned the spying spell off and waited until the crystal bats flew out of the castle and into the distant land, she thought of an opportunistic plan. "It appears the Guardian's will inevitably find their way here, we should do something about that."

She waved her hand in green power and called. "Ztardon, come. It is time you show us why Ahriman had chosen you among all others." The Tzaangor snickered and wanted to clap as he stood face to face, the witch blew the green power to the Tzaangor's eyes and caused the vision of herself to appear in the spell circle. "Now go, find the Crystal, but do not let yourself be seen." T

he Tzaangor spun saw the bats have flown and sprinted to the castle, Pete thought about it. "Say, if we're going this route, hows about we do that thing you and your gang had pulled back in the day? Get the world flooded in Darkness and finish these twerps where they are?"

Maleficent shook her head. "Not with the Princess of Heart in this world and especially not with Archaon and Xehanort breathing down our necks. We will waste the value of the hearts with in their forces." Ahriman agreed to that and took out a bag, he lay out an ordinary looking, automated pistol. "But it would be an appropriate time to ensure the Guardians do not thwart our plans." He readied a spell and request. "Maleficent, we should provide Ztardon with the material needed to perform... an assassination."

The aura of a clock surrounded the pistol, Ahriman stopped the clocks hands and let the move, the witch was more keen on the ruthless plan. "And how will this fare us?" Ahriman spoke out loud. "A mixture of temporal magic and the art that my former protege had brought to attention, the art of shadow." Maleficent was familiar with the art. "How intriguing, with a little cloak of shade, they will not see their doom before them."

The two went to work on the pistol, leaving Pete and Zonir with little to do beyond a patrol, the fat minion whispered. "Say, you don't suppose we should look around for the ones those bird brains didn't spy on?" Zonir cracked his knuckles. "It will give me something to do, but do not command me, for I do not loose wagers twice." Pete didn't want to know the details and took off with his partner.

In the swamp of the jungle.

The group of mostly ladies were on a shell like boat going across the water, Kira was rowing and singing a gentle tune to pass the time. Lightning was at the right end of the front of the boat as she recognized the tune and hummed in sync, Ken was at the left end and was completely confused. Kairi whispered to him. "I think Lightning might have met someone while she was here before. Someone that might be a little like Kira."

The boy considered that a possibility and taken to account the Ork issue, or the lack of one. He wanted to ask about it as Fizzgig looked up, saw something and barked. Kira and Ken looked up, found a strange bat with a crystal face, flying on the horizon, Kira whispered as she went for a slingshot. "Get down, get down!" Kairi and Lightning did so as Ken summoned Cadia's Light and aimed.

PEW! Blam!

He shot the bat out of the sky and watched it plummet to the water, he dismissed the blade as Kira was astonished by the sudden laser shot. Kairi and Lightning sat back up and looked to where the bat dropped into, the woman flinched. "Oh no." Ken asked. "What was that thing?" Lightning answered him. "That's a crystal bat, anything it finds, the Skeksis will find. Nice shot, by the way."

Ken appreciated it and asked. "So, anything happened in particular when you and Serah were here?" The one woman army answered with her fingers tapping on her arms. "Besides dealing with the Orks, we might have helped someone the Mystics were looking after get to somewhere as safe as it can get. That was before Serah and I tried to take the fight to the Skeksis, he kind of looks a little like Kira." The strange girl asked. "Another Gelfling? Like me?"

Lightning nodded. "He can take care of himself, once we take care of the issue with the Skeksis, he won't have to worry about them anymore. I'd thought he was the last of his kind," Ken guessed. "Skeksis were the reason for that?" Kairi nodded. "They were, but why?" The boy didn't wish to know and hesitated on texting. "It really doesn't matter, but if that burning mountain was something, I think the guys that were looking for the way to stop them might have found something. I wish we got a way to tell them about that right now."

Kairi wondered, thought about and was in a trance for a moment, she frowned in disappointment. "It won't work that easily unless we know this place." Lightning groaned. "And we don't." Kira whispered to them. "I know one place where we can wait." The humans listened and looked forward to that, unaware of the badly scorched crystal bat floating out of the water and catching a glimpse of them.

Elsewhere in the jungle.

Goofy was completely lost and Riku was using the shard with his keyblade to lead the way. Sora and Donald finished off a strange fire spirit with a combined ice spell and lost track of where they are. Sora asked Riku. "How much longer until we're out of this jungle?" The silver haired teenager answered. "Beats me, I'm just following where the Crystal Shard is taking us." Sora puffed his cheeks at the knowledge.

"Don't ya think you should trust the one who has a better sense of directions?"

The boy heard Goofy's stinging truth and asked. "Hey, what was that for?"

Goofy turned to Sora confused. "I didn't say anythin'" Donald tried to clean his ear like he heard something and turned to Sora. "I thought you said something else, it used your voice, but it didn't sound like something you would say?"

Sora felt numb to the strangeness as Riku smelled something and looked to the right, he flinched. "Guys, something's around here!" Sora sensed a glimmer of light and turned left, finding a flying meteor of light. "Wha-" Riku had a closer look, felt his sight fading and saw a meteor of darkness. "Sora, I know this world is weird, but do these things look like they belong here?" Sora shook his head, Donald sensed something in both and yelped. "Sora, I think this is one of the Endless Spells!" Goofy gasped. "How do you know?"

Donald felt it in his instinct. "Hysh is the magic of Light and Ulgu is the Magic of Shadow. That spell we let Ken transpose had that air." Riku was feeling nauseous and asked. "Sora... could you... try a crystal out? Please, I'm... not feeling so good." Sora did so, took a crystal and applied it to his keyblade, he called the two. "Hey, over here!"

The geminids listened and circled closely to the boy, Riku felt a little dread was lost and watched Sora looking a bit numb and feeling like he heard something harsh. Sora flipped his blade and agreed. "That's why we got to find the answer, you two look like a set." He raised the blade high and caused aetherical tethers to appear, they lassoed the geminids and caused them both to radiate in light and darkness. They were engulfed in grey and were drawn to the tip of the keyblade, the air of danger left and the crystal glowed in grey, Sora took out the crystal and had a look inside, finding the two orbs circling around, one white, the other black.

In a few moments, the group felt like they could get going. Riku had the chance to breath again. "I think Aqua might have talked about the realms of Hysh and Ulgu, they could be so close together in a yin and yang that the magical energies over lap. That's how this weird thing was made. Think you got an idea of how to use it?"

Sora gasped, put the crystal in a bag and wanted to cheer. "Riku, you're a genius!" Riku immediately thought of Sora making use of the twilight spell and double form, combined, he felt the Crystal Shard directing him to a more lush path. Leading him and the group to a river in a swamp, it looked like something left and a wide collection of fresh foot prints were left behind. Sora recognized some of them. "Kairi and the others have been here, but they've met someone as well."

Riku nodded. "And since there wasn't much of a fight, that someone could be another... friend." He turned to them. "At least in the sense they are trying to help them. So guys, how are we going to across this and follow them?" Goofy had his shield ready. "We did this thing before in a bayou, around a week ago. Hiyuck!" Donald remembered the speed. "We're doing that again?"

Riku nodded. "Looks like it, but we should ease up on the air magic, we don't want to get found by something else." Sora stood firmly, like he was about to salute the captain, realized what he done and asked. "Hey," Riku rolled his eyes and promised. "Look, if we go on an adventure like this together again, I promise I won't boss you around this much. There's one in particular that should be a lot more fun than this."

Sora understood why and got on the make shift boat with Donald, Riku and Goofy took the lead and let the two blow out a strong gust of wind, setting sail.

Further ahead.

Kira lead Kairi and the others across some mossy vines and towards the noise of music, the three had a closer look at what was ahead, it looked like a village in the forest, composing of mounds as shelter. Kairi recognized it from the dream fast. "Are these the people who took you in? The ones from the dream?"

Kira turned to Kairi and nodded. "When the Garthim killed my parents, the Podlings adopted me." She faced the rather peaceful village. "They're my clan." From the shrubbery, pea pod like people noticed the arrival. "Huh! Kira!" The many chirped. "Kira!" They spoke in a rather alien language that Kira understood. "Asome, Kairi, Ken, Lighting." The oldest of the group found an odd charm to the Podlings and tried not to think too much into their behavior, Kira lead the three into what is assumed to be a the festive music became more lively, inside the three humans felt more comfortable, if cramped. The Podlings served up something of mixed fruits and vegetables, out of kindness, Kairi found the language confusing and asked Kira. "How do you say thank you?" The Gelfling answered. "Hmm. Oh? Fala vam."

Kairi appreciated it. "Fala vam." She turned to the podling. "Fala vam." The podling appreciated the gratitude and went to do something odd, the humans looked at the hi jinks and thought about their duty, Ken looked at Kira like she was trust worthy. "You know, we're not the only travelers around here. Four guys we knew were kind of a ways away, before we ended up meeting you. They kind of gotten an important job of finding some Crystal Shard before the three suns align."

Kira was intrigued. "Then what are you doing?" Kairi answered as Lightning as feeling a little tense. "We were going to try and go on ahead and look for someone important to Lightning, but I got the feeling that once Sora, Riku, Goofy and Donald find the crystal, they'll be following us."

The woman nodded. "My Sister might have been taken by the Skeksis, I hope those guys get here soon. Things don't stay safe around here for long." Ken didn't want to tense up and had a sip of what tasted like green tea. "I shot that thing as clear as it can get. I think we'll be fine."

A feminine podling approached the boy and seemed to be asking him for a dance, Ken kept his manners and joined in the awkward dance of the creature the size of his ankle. He thought of something, pressed his finger to the podling's finger and let her spin. Kairi imagined a familiar activity with a particular someone and wanted to go try something.

SMASH!

Something punch the wall open, a black claw, followed by a large, crab like monster she remembered in the dream. More, smashed through the walls and were scuttling after the panicking podlings, Ken stopped, let the podling run for her life and sized up the foe that was scooping many podlings and stuffing them in a cage on it's back. He speared one, baited a swing of a claw and jumped back, he fired at the things eyes and caused it to go after him.

"Come of fellas, we got this!" The sound of someone starting a fight from outside gave Ken a hope as he rushed back to a panicking group that had little idea what to do until they heard the voice. Kairi asked her fellow student. "Was that Goofy's voice out there?" Ken nodded. "I think it is, Sis. If we start the fight here, we won't be able to crack these things open without raising the roof."

Lightning groaned. "And the podlings and possibly the next building." Kira was shivering as Kairi picked her up, dashed to a particular crab monster and used her shining blade to knock one over, the other two used the opening to get out of there.

Outside.

Sora, Riku and Donald were getting ready for a fight as they entered a village that was being raided by Garthims, Goofy shield bashed a particular one and was back handed for his trouble, the Garthim turned, set it's sights on Riku and saw the crystal shard, it's eyes lit up purple. The thing rushed at the three to do combat, Sora and Riku circled around the Garthim, unleashed their usual attacks and found the carapace soaking most of the damage, Donald let loose a stream of high pressured water at the underbelly, knocking it on its back. Two more scurried after the boys, one particular raised it's claw and smashed it at Riku, the older back jumped back and speared into the Garthim and followed with a stab with the crystal shard, causing an echo and for the fiend to be stunned for an upper cut. Sora blitzed his on it's back, noticed the other Garthim trying to get up and whistled to Riku to group up, the older boy let loose morning light, stabbed the Garthim with his blade and caused it rupture. Riku jumped to his friend and asked. "Found out that their only weak spot is their most dangerous one?"

Sora nodded. "We're going to be in a lot of trouble if more of them come after us, this isn't a great place to fight them either." Goofy cringed. "But what about these fellas?" Sora answered. "I'm still thinking about that." "Hiya!" At the sound of a battle cry, Kairi leaped at the head of a Garthim from behind, smacked it and sent it rolling, she flipped with a particular girl on her back and stood her guard, Lightning sprinted at the rolled Garthim, stabbed it firmly in the chest and slashed upward to make sure it wasn't getting up. She saw Riku with the crystal fragment and joined in the fight as Ken used his freedom against a Garthim scuttling after him, summoned Firekeepers Wish and stabbed it in the chest. Sora and Riku knew what was following, and shouted. "Ken, don't!"

The one armed boy caused a glow and combusted the Garthim, causing it to fall over limp, Ken jumped back to them and asked. "If I did that, near that, I'll blow the whole building up."

Five scuttling Garthim approached, with the biggest of the five coming at them like a train. Suddenly, a bird like creature emerged from the shadows, stood in between the Garthim and the group and squawked. Causing the Garthim to recoil in fear. Riku settled for the heavier choice. "Kairi, what are these Garthim doing to the podlings?"

The Princess answered with a heavy feeling heart. "Kidnapping them. Do you think we can get them later when they are away from this village?" Riku nodded. "Yep, come on, there isn't much we can do here right now." He lead the group out of the village and into the jungle, away from the large amounts of Garthim and giving himself and the group enough time to recuperate.

Kairi placed a shaking Kira down and promised. "We'll be going after those Garthim soon, we're not leaving those guys just yet." She asked the boys. "Do you know what that bird man even is?"

Kira answered. "Skeksis! He saved us from his own Garthim?" The boys found that confusing and Sora answered. "Those guys have found us at Aughra's, wrecked the place and are coming after us, why would he stop that?"

Donald and Goofy shrugged as Riku changed the subject. "Regardless of the reason, we're not leaving that to chance, we need to find a place to hide, share what we found and get going."

Ken wished he was back in the village. "We found a place before the Garthim came, it's been weird heartless and ghosts non stop." Trip. He fell over something and landed upwards, it was rather hard, Lightning wanted to check if he was alright and noticed what he landed on, stairs. "...That was lucky."

She and Kairi helped the boy get up as Riku gave where it was due. "Luck or not, nice work." The group went into the ruins, were paying next to no attention to the environment and were given a moment to breath. Lightning asked the all male party. "Did you find what you were looking for, at Aughras?"

Riku nodded and showed the crystal shard as Sora explained what the whole thing was. "It's worse than we thought, a long time ago, the Heart of this World, the Crystal was cracked and that was when the Mystics and the Skeksis appeared. Those bird heads did pretty horrible things to the crystal and it became the Dark Crystal. We got to take the Shard to it before the three suns align or there won't be anyway to help this world."

The listeners were not amused, Kairi had her turn. "Our journey was kind of boring until we ran into our friend-" she introduced them to the more aware Kira and spun a tale.

At Twilight Town's Mansion, in the late evening.

Pence was at a computer, typing and sorting through old files, Hayner rubbed his eyes from his own turn at the screen and noticed something. "Here it is." He pointed to a file labeled. Princess of Heart. Pence clicked on it and saw a large collection of data, most were of things he, Hayner and Olette had already known. They felt they were on the correct path as they found files dating back to certain things. One particular caught their eye and Olette pointed. "Here's something, the Keyblade War."

Pence smirked and went to click on it. "I knew Ansem had this laying around." Click! A nine digit password screen appeared, Hayner took over. "The fourth space is a space mark. That's how he is trying to fool us." He typed out loud. "Ice Cream." He pressed the enter key. A red x appeared

Invalid password

Hayner was dumbfounded as Pence bitterly admitted. "Looks like he fooled us." Olette grumbled. "That worked the last time we were here, he keeps this data so close to him that he involves it like ice cream." She rubbed her forehead to think. "Come on, they are counting on us." She moved the password screen aside and looked to the folders predating the desired one, most if not all of them had names involving the Light. She felt something in common with them as Pence asked. "Maybe he takes these a lot more seriously?"

Click!

They heard a door open and sharply turned, there were not meant to be anyone following them. Finding a man with dark grey hair walking in backwards and addressing someone. "I'll see to the rest, Aeleus. Find out what that Nobody is doing with the others. They are taking this burden too deeply." Olette drew out her baseball bat. "And how do we know you're not this Changeling we been hearing about?"

Ienzo sharply turned, yelped at the teenagers, that were prepared to fight and quickly answered. "That balance procedure should keep the Forces of Chaos away from here and my mentor loves ice cream so much that he normally inputs a password involving a particular kind." He spoke about a list of flavors that seem to be going into a triple digit amount, Pence waved his hands, not wanting to waste another hour on that and confessed. "Okay, okay, you're the real deal." He asked. "Still, why did you come here?"

Ienzo answered that and wanted to observe the screen with them. "I suspected you three would take the chance to uncover something unknown, now that the Undead, decided to leave, along with his own secrets." Hayner described most of what was unknown. "He's a bit over there with his talk of the night and he is weird compared to the things we've seen." Olette nodded. "And that says something. He's came here before on his search for a Palace of Twilight and wandered into that world that Sora and the others went into months ago."

That was knowledge Ienzo knew of. "You're correct to think that is bizarre, the things he hasn't been explicit about are not for the faint of heart." He noticed something flash up on the computer and smiled. "It appears Tron gained access to the grid. If Ansem's research is this old, then it has to have been a password concept just as old. You've tried Ice Cream?"

Pence nodded. "Didn't work it has to have been an old file if that wasn't what was on his mind." A voice in the computer spoke. "There we go, I found something connected to the data file, proceeding input!" The teenagers turned to the screen with the encrypted data as Ienzo explained in an impressed manner. "For an old program, Tron has made an efficient recovery from that computer virus. May I?"

The teenagers allowed him to approach the computer and type, a code appeared. Xlu rheta. The teenagers picked up what the password meant and Pence spoke outloud. "Xlu... that's Lux and rheta is heart." He went back to the file on the keyblade war and typed the password. They saw a faint circle, showing the password got through. In a moment, the file showed an ancient drawing of a man in a white robe, along with five others in various, colored robes. Hayner spoke out loud, the title of the white robed man. "Wow the... Master of Masters?"

Ienzo blinked, like he never heard of him. "Ansem wasn't too keen on talking further about this War. So many lives were lost for an attempt at power."

The teenagers knew it was a grim point in history that they had to read about, Olette took over the seat. "He and his acolytes started this?" She read out loud, the story. "And what was whole became two. The Light of Judgement washed away the guilty into Shackles of Darkness, to await a punishment that would last until the end of eternity."

Ienzo guessed. "And these warmongering ring leaders must have taken the worst of the punishments? While those, that followed in the war, perished in a... reaction that ended things."

The four felt they've read enough and closed the log off, Ienzo typed to the program. "That is more than enough, thank you Tron." The screen flashed a green thumbs up and departed back to his home computer, Olette wondered and asked. "Why would Aqua and the others ask about this?"

Ienzo thought into it. "They found information that dates back to this ancient tale, but it should have been common knowledge... unless-" Pence answered that with his own worries. "What they found isn't quite common. The Light of Judgement and the Shackles of Darkness. The Key to Kingdom Hearts became two things."

Hayner gasped. "The Light became the Princess's, but what happened to the Darkness?" Ienzo shrugged. "No one knows and this was where Xehanort got the idea to focus our studies into the Darkness. It was all to make hearts of Pure Dark." He shivered at the things he's seen and had a part of. That was a complete failure in every sense of the word and he considered a compare and contrast using more unwilling hearts."

The teenagers found that completely insane and borderline monstrous, Olette asked. "Yours?" Ienzo added in. "Along with the rest of Ansems students. I believe our friends have discovered the very concept of an actual Heart of Darkness. A heart that composes of nothing but that, from the beginning of it's existence." He was more worried. "Someone needs to talk to King Mickey and the others, their intentions, do not change the fact that this path feels... familiar."

Pence agreed with that. "You all learned the hard way that there are somethings, not worth studying and if you chase it too deep, you'll be regretting it." Ienzo agreed with them. "Precisely! And if I've learned anything from studying those Orruks, is that if it is in there nature, you cannot force change or expect change. If their instincts is to wreck destruction because they feel like fighting is healthy, then that's what they are going to do. If there is someone out there that naturally has a Heart of Darkness, then they have that unholy power at their finger tips and there is nothing we can do to stop that, everything they do is because it revolves around what they are."

Pence felt one example about what one with a Heart of Darkness would do. "Like keeping quiet about it so none of us can find out?" Hayner had his own. "Staying away from the Light?" Olette gasped a rather shocking example. "Staying away from the creeps that are crazy about Darkness?"

Ienzo considered that example, the most valuable of them all. "If they are aware of the other two factors, then they are wise to avoid the kind of villains that would exploit them." He realized the greatest scope of them all. "They are putting themselves in great danger and are going about it all wrong."

Hayner raised an eyebrow and asked. "You got any ideas about what they should be doing?" Ienzo answered with the more chilling confession. "I don't." The four kept silent for an awkward amount of time, the scientist promised. "You can leave the work of confronting them about this, to me." He clapped his hands and asked. "So, do you all know a good ice cream place that is open this late at night?"