"Oh, wow!" Asuna gasped, pulling out a familiar set of garment from a dresser. It was Yuuki's old ALO garments, with her chestplate on top of the neatly-folded clothes.

"Yep. I kept 'em around for sentimental purposes." Yuuki answered, grinning at her 'sister'.

After Asuna and Yuuki reunited, the pair left the others to Yuuki's apartment, which was close to where the Usual Place was. The place in general did have a big change; a banner with the name 'Twilight Knights' and the emblem of the guild on either side of the words. The apartment was small, but it contained her own bedroom, a bathroom with a standing shower, and a small kitchen.

"When was the last time you wore this?" Asuna asked, putting down attire back in the dresser, closing it shut.

"It's been a pretty long while." she answered, looking at the drawer, "It might be a bit small for me, now."

"I'll say." Asuna agreed, looking at Yuuki, "Now that I think about it, you were shorter than me last time. But now..." She approached her, and saw the her height change, "...You're nearly the same height as me. Just how long have you been here?"

"Mmm...If I remember, next week would make it seven months since I was reborn into this world. Honestly, I'm kind of surprised by how fast I've been growing." she giggled as she joked, "Maybe I'm just catching up with all the growing I missed out when I was dead!"

Asuna's smile faltered a bit. "You shouldn't joke about your death like that. You know how much I missed you since you were gone."

"You're right. Sorry." Yuuki apologized, "I know I shouldn't talk about that so nonchalantly. But still..." she placed a hand over her chest, looking at where her heart was, "It's still pretty insane that I ended up reviving again. And what's more, I no longer have any terminal illnesses holding me back. I'm free to do whatever I want!"

She smiled eagerly as she looked out the window, with Asuna following her gaze. "I'm able to go to school without looking through a lens. I can hang out with my friends without the need of the virtual world. I can have a normal life...without worrying if my body will suddenly shut down at any moment. I feel like it's too good to be true. That I'll wake up, and find that this is all just a dream, and that I'm still..." She didn't want to finish that sentence, really not wanting such a fear to be true.

Asuna hand suddenly rested on Yuuki's shoulder, and she turned to see her gentle, smiling face staring at her. "I can assure you this is no dream. Want me to pinch you to prove it?"

Yuuki doubtful face became a smirk as she answered, "No. I ask Hayner or the others to do it every morning, just to be safe." She and Asuna giggled at her answer, finding it amusing.

"But still, I guess this means I can fulfill my promise I made a long time ago." Asuna followed up, "I said I would find you again in another world, and we could talk, and I can learn about everything you've been up to."

Yuuki suddenly recalled those words were the last ones she heard Asuna say before she passed away. "Yeah... I guess I did remember you saying that." She agreed, "Though who would've thought it would come true like this." They shared another giggled, agreeing with the irony.

"Although, from what I heard from Hayner, Diavel, and the others, I'm guessing you guys might've had a crazier amount of things you've been through. Why don't you start by telling me everything?"

Asuna rubbed the back of her head, realizing her dear friend was clearly out of the loop of what happened, since everything involving the Keyblade started shortly after Yuuki's funeral. "I...don't know how long it'll take for me to explain everything." She admitted.

"Hey, I'm not going anywhere." Yuuki joked, grinning eagerly, "Why don't you start with how you ended up in this world. Also, I would like to know about those friends of yours, Sora, Donald and Goofy."

Asuna smiled at Yuuki's interest in the trio, and she answered, "They're three dear friends of ours that, had we not met, we wouldn't have gotten far at all. It all started with this new quest that appeared in Aincrad..."

(Insert 'Adamas Amalee ver.', TV version)

Music intro

(Rushing through black darkness, glittering shards of light pass by. As music starts, the three main Keyblades suddenly shoot forward like shooting stars, circling around from a distance, then crossing one another, shining brightly, forming the logo of the series.)

I'm trying to understand it but it's making me numb

(Left half of Sora's serious face, the other half hidden by the teeth of his Kingdom Key.)

This swirl of karma leaving such a bitter taste on my tongue

(Right half of Asuna's determined face, the other half hidden by the Lambent Light's teeth.)

'Cause I know the pain and sorrow, it has only begun

(The upper half of Kirito's face, with glaring eyes, the lower half hidden by the Elucidator's teeth.)

Who-o-oa, Who-o-oa, Who-o-oa

(Flashing through the faces of each hero; Donald, Goofy, Yui, Mickey, Riku, Leafa, Kairi, Axel, and Kayaba.)

Now I'm surrounded by my enemies, but luck's on my side

(In the dusty fields of the Keyblade Graveyard, the camera pans around the circle of the six main heroes as they ready their weapons.)

So I shatter through the walls and change the course of the tide

(In the same field, the camera pans the opposite way around the six other heroes as they ready their weapons.)

Can't stop this surging fate like a volcano set to break, Take a breath until you're set to

(Allies of the multiple worlds they will or have visited pan across the screen, finally ending with the silhouettes of the four Lost Princesses of heart, with the one in the center opening her hands to reveal a bright light.)

face that voice of fear. That god of death that's always looking down on you

(Philia stands on a lone green hill, staring at a card with the picture of Castle Oblivion on it. She feels a hand behind her, and looks to see Flair and Hinata standing behind her, giving assuring smiles, with Tinkerbell coming out of her pocket, and Samson giving a thumbs up.)

"Do you believe yourself?" I won't stop til I've won

(Maleficent and Dr. Temna stand together, with Pete and Tears next to them, and a swarm of Heartless and shadowed foes ready to strike.)

A glimpse of that bright future that's just begun!

(Xehanort's maliciously smirking face appears, as he and fifteen others float together in a circle. Screen splits in half as half of Heartless Oberon and Gouxus take the screen, their eyes shining from yellow to violet.)

Shining like a diamond, The emotions in your heart reflect like crystal

(The six heroes team up together, taking down Heartless, Nobodies and Unversed that come across their path with their weapons, skills and magic.)

As we vow an oath that will ignite your light and mine - And we will rise!

(A Demon Tower nearly falls on top of the six, but they get away, with Kirito, Asuna and Sora in the air, performing Soul Bursts and Keyblade transformation, creating Cloud's Buster Sword, Asuna's SAO Lambent Light, and Sora's twin guns, unleashing a sword beam, ice spears, and magic shots as one.)

So many times I've gotten back on my feet to make it to this moment

(A group of dark energy orbs shoots down the trio from a cliff above, hitting them into the ground. The attack comes from Xehanort, Heartless Oberon, and Gouxus.)

It's time our prayer that's waiting in the dark. Is set free so light the spark and let it shine!

(Sora, Asuna and Kirito get back up on their feet, shaking off their injuries, and raising their Keyblades as they charge forward, beams of sunlight shining upon each of them as they all take a leap at the Organization XVI, with their friends, the other heroes, including Roxas, Xion, Recon, Terra, Aqua and Ven, joining them from behind.)

Song ends.

Back with Sora and Kirito's team, they soon discovered that the hole in the wall they usually had available to them to the mansion was now patched up and gone. After looking about, they learned from Hayner that there was an underground conduit that would lead them to the woods where the mansion was.

"Aw... Do we have to go that way?" Donald whined, looking at the far-from-clean path ahead of them.

"It's the only way to the mansion, Donald." Yui informed him.

"Just try not to inhale through your nose." Sora told him, walking down the steps with Kirito and Goofy. The two shortest followed behind. As soon as they started on the path, Sora started, "So, what's the story about Yuuki? She seems pretty close to you guys, especially Asuna."

"Yuuki was...or rather, is the strongest swordswoman in all of Alfheim Online, the VRMMO Asuna, Yui and I play." Kirito started to explain as they walked, "Her fighting skills and reaction speed are beyond awesome. She's so good, she's even beaten me AND Asuna in one-on-one duels."

"She was that strong?" Goofy asked.

"And is, considering how well she handled that Demon Tide." Yui added, thinking back on how easily she handled the Heartless that attacked them before.

"Aw, we just softened it up before she came along." Donald huffed, not wanting to admit they were helpless against it.

"But, if she was that strong, how did she die?" Sora asked, "You said she died because she was sick?"

"A terminal illness that she had when she was born. AIDS, if you want to be accurate." Kirito answered, "She ended up being placed inside a piece of equipment called the Medicuboid, which allowed her pain to the sickness to be nulled, and she would be in a full-dive state. That's where we met her. She and some of her friends, all of which were patients with terminal illnesses, were Players in Alfheim Online, forming a guild called the Sleeping Knights."

"So, how did you guys meet?" Sora asked, avoiding an icky pool of water by leaping over it.

Kirito stopped and looked up, recalling that day. "Yuuki's guild was planning to tackle a floor boss on their own, so their names could be engraved in Aincrad, and they could be remembered forever. They needed a seventh member to join their raid, so Yuuki started dueling people. She ended up winning sixty-seven duels in a row, including beating me."

"S-Sixty-seven wins in a row?!" Sora gasped, the number shocking him, Donald and Goofy, "That's insane! She's that strong?! And she even beat you, too?!"

"Yep. I'll admit, I wasn't going full out. But even so, I knew it would still not be enough." Kirito admitted, continuing the walk through the conduit, "Anyways, Asuna was her next opponent, and she impressed her so much, Yuuki chose her to be the seventh member. So, they worked together, and they managed to beat the floor boss on their own."

Kirito sadly looked down as he continued, "But Yuuki didn't want Asuna to know about her illness, because she was sure she didn't have that much time to live. So, she tried to cut ties with her. However, thanks to some strings I pulled, she found her again, and learned the truth. Asuna didn't want to stop their friendship. In fact, we helped Yuuki go to school using a piece of equipment I made, and helped her see more outside the hospital and virtual world. She and Asuna became so close, it was like they were sisters. She lived longer than what the doctors expected. But...then her illness took a turn for the worse, and she ended up dying in Asuna's arms."

Sora, Donald and Goofy looked mournfully at these final words for a few seconds, before Goofy, the optimistic character he was, pointed out, "But now, there's nothing to worry about. She's alive again, so you should be happy about that."

"We are. But we're just wondering how." Yui pointed out, "She wasn't like those who died in SAO. Her death wasn't exactly in-game, and her data wasn't stored away."

"Right. Kayaba stored the data of all the Players within the deepest parts of Aincrad's programming." Kirito noted, "And what's more, we ended up needing to use Tron's world and tech to revive the SAO Players. Pence said that he found Yuuki inside the Digital Twilight Town, so maybe there are some clues there to learn how she ended up reviving."

As Kirito was deep in thought, Sora watched him for a while, not having any suggestions to follow up on Kirito's thoughts, nor able to fully understand his 'tech mumbo-jumbo'. So instead, he said, "I kind of get what you are saying, but at the same time, I think you might be overthinking it."

The team nearly reached the stairs to make their way out when Kirito stopped and looked at him, asking, "What do you mean? Aren't you curious?"

"I mean, yeah, I guess..." Sora admitted, "But it really doesn't matter, does it? All that matters is that Yuuki's alive. No use thinking too hard about it."

Donald, Goofy and Yui looked at one another, then Donald said, in a hush tone, "That's because Sora doesn't think too much."

"He never plans how to get from Point A to Point B, anyway." Yui added, "Mama and Papa really do that for him."

"That's just the kind of person he is." Goofy pointed out.

"I can hear you!" Sora argued angrily, causing them to avert eye contact with him.

Kirito laughed at this, and said, "Still, I guess you're right. I shouldn't worry about how Yuuki was revived. Then again, it might be useful to know. In fact, it might lead us to find a way to revive Roxas again."

"You...actually have a point." Sora agreed, "In that case, let's go to the mansion, and see if we can't figure it out!" With an idea set, the five heroes raced up the steps, towards the metal bunker door, opening it up to reveal themselves in the woods they recognized before. They were on the right path to the mansion.

"Hey, look!" Goofy pointed something out to the team. On the exterior of one of the doors was a familiar, Mickey Mouse-shaped divot.

"A lucky emblem!" Yui noticed, turning to Sora, "Let's take a picture!"

"Sure." Sora answered, pulling out the Gummiphone, and preparing to take a photo. Yui was next to the emblem, her hands behind her back, and a grin on her face. Sora took a photo of both of them together. "Got it!" He declared, showing Yui and Goofy the photo.

"Guys, over here!" Kirito shouted. The trio raced over to where he and Donald were at. They halted once they saw two things that caught their attention. The first thing was that there was a bunch of fruit scattered about the ground. They still looked fresh, and didn't look like they dropped from any trees.

"What is this?" Donald questioned.

"I think it's forming a trail." Yui noticed, seeing that it wasn't a random scattering of fruit, but rather it formed a trail, like someone was dropping them as they moved. The trail led to a tree, where the team looked up and saw, hanging in the trees, the second thing that caught their attention; a bunch of monkeys. However, these monkeys had familiar emblems and yellow glowing eyes to them.

"Heartless!" Goofy exclaimed.

"They're Powerwilds." Yui analyzed, "They are very athletic Heartless, able to climb up most places."

"What do ya think they're up to?" Sora asked.

Kirito examined the Heartless closely. They looked like they were surrounding a stump of a tree branch high up. Upon closer inspection, he noticed someone was actually there. A gray-haired rat on its' hind legs was looking about at the Heartless, unable to escape. "I see it. There's a rat on that branch!" he pointed out to everyone, "But why are the Heartless targeting it?"

"Help now, ask later!" Sora answered, pulling out his Keyblade. This reveal attracted the Heartless, and some leapt down at the heroes. The rest of the team brandished their weapons, and they went to work.

"Hey! Since when do Heartless grow on trees?" Donald demanded, unleashing Fire spells at the Powerwilds in the trees.

"It's like Yui said. They're able to climb up places most Heartless can't." Sora noted, switching Keyblades to his Kingdom Key, and striking back a couple of Powerwilds with a couple slashes.

"Ya know, this reminds me of when we fought these things way back in Tarzan's world." Goofy recalled, protecting himself from a flurry of swipes from one of the monkeys.

"I don't remember that..." Kirito noted, unleashing his Second Form, and brandishing his Elucidator sword against the Heartless.

"Oh, yeah. You guys weren't around that time." Sora recalled, already entering into his Second Form, and unleashing a magnetic spiral that attracted the Powerwilds, before blasting and destroying them.

The team decided to stop the chit-chat, and get back to the fighting, as Powerwilds kept coming out of the woodworks to try and take the team down. However, thanks to their forms, magic, and a couple team attacks done by Kirito and Goofy, as well as Sora and Yui, they managed to clear out the Heartless without any extensive damage.

When they were all done, the five heroes gathered at the scattered fruit, which was remarkably untouched by the heroes or Heartless. The rat, who was up the tree, descended down and raced towards the heroes, showing he was just fine.

"Are you alright?" Yui asked him, crouching down to see if he was fine. The rat nodded in agreement, indicating he was just fine.

"Well, take care." Sora waved to the rat, and walked around him, with the rest of the team bringing up the rear.

Yui stood up, and was about to walk off when she noticed the rat was looking about at all the fruit with an anxious look. "Is there something wrong?" She asked him.

The rat looked to her, then at the four others, mainly at the back of Sora's head. It then made a dash to Sora, leaping onto his shoe, and scrambling himself up to the top of his head. He then took two tufts of Sora's spiky hair, and tugged on one of them. All of a sudden, Sora spun around, exclaiming, "Whoa! Wha-what is—?!" He struggled to get control of his body as he robotically started walking back to the fruit.

"Are you okay?" Donald asked, confused.

Yui hadn't moved from the spot, but watched in amazement as the rat shifted Sora's tuft, and made him reach down, picking up an apple. "How is it-?!" She gasped.

"Lookie! That little feller's parked on your head." Goofy noticed.

"It looks like he controlling you with your hair!" Yui gasped.

"Huuuh?!" Sora gasped, remotely turned around to the others by the rat. He then forced Sora to bend down and pick up another apple.

"Sora, you've been hijacked!" Donald realized.

"Is it really possible to control someone's movements by their hair?" Yui asked, tugging on some of her hair.

"It should be impossible...but we've seen weirder." Kirito muttered, mentally adding another impossible thing now made possible in his journey with the Keyblade.

"Ya know, maybe he want you to pick up the fruit for him." Goofy assumed. The rat nodded in confirmation to this assumption.

Sora, a little annoyed by his 'pilot', looked up to him and said, "Okay, that's fine. But I can do it by myself." The rat hopped off his head, and hopped onto the apple in Sora's right hand. "I just need to collect the fruit?" He asked. The rat nodded again.

"Let's all work together to gather them up." Yui decided, grabbing a lime and an orange from the ground.

"Really?" Donald huffed.

"Every good deed helps." Goofy told him.

"Let's make this quick." Kirito added, walking passed the team to start the gathering process.

The five members started to work together to gather up all the fruit. They made sure there was a nice open spot for them, and they piled them up together, making sure they were still fresh and ripe. When they were done, Sora asked the rat, "So, what're you gonna do with all this, anyway?"

The rat made a chopping movement with his hand, before his other hand looked like it was pushing something to one side. Sora, Donald, Goofy and Yui all looked confused, but Kirito was guessing from the hand gestures, "Chopping...pushing to one side...you plan to cut up the fruit for something?" The rat nodded with a smile on his face.

"Guys!" The team heard a familiar voice. They turned to see Vivi popping out of the conduit exit, racing up to them with an empty brown sack over one shoulder.

"Vivi?" Sora noticed as he came to a halt, panting from running so far. The rat, however, folded his front paws across his chest, and looked slightly crossed with his arrival.

"S-Sorry I'm late..." Vivi panted, looking at the rat, "Forgot about the time..."

"You know this little guy?" Goofy asked.

"Yeah. This little guy often asks the Twilight Knights for help." Vivi explains, bringing the sack to the fruit, "We go about and gather ingredients for him."

"For what reason?" Yui asked.

"Dunno, but he apparently works for the Bistro in town." The young mage explained, putting the fruit into the sack, "We don't mind, cause the rewards we get are delicious!" He filled the bag up with all the fruit, and placed it over one shoulder. The rat climbed onto the brim of Vivi's hat.

"Well, okay. You two be careful going home." Sora told the pair.

"Right. See ya!" Vivi told them, hobbling back to the conduit with the bag filled with fruit. The rest of the team waved them off as they left, until they vanished from sight.

"Now that's done, let's keep making our way to the mansion." Kirito told the group, and they made their way to their destination; the mansion.

Back with the others, near the entrance of the conduit, Asuna and Yuuki decided to make their way towards where the others were heading. Asuna had just finished giving the sum up on what happened in the first adventure with Sora and the team, right up to finishing off Xemnas and the Organization, and returning home. As Asuna was partially through talking about the adventure in the second world, up to what happened when they returned to their home world.

"Eeeeh?!" Yuuki exclaimed, her voice echoing loudly through the conduit, "Y-You're adopted?!"

"Yeah. It was a major shock to me." Asuna admitted, fully understanding her dear friend's exclamation, "Turns out, I wasn't even from our home world, either. This Wayfinder was the only other thing that came with me when I was separated from my home." She held out the said white star ornament to Yuuki, who looked pretty amazed at it. "It was later on that I learned that not only was this given to me by my real mother, but that I had an older sister."

"You have an older sister, too?" Yuuki asked, surprised, "Have ya seen her? What's she like?"

"Her name is Aqua, and I only met her one time. She's a Keyblade Master, like me. From what I heard, she was a really strong person, and dedicated to her friends. When I met her, I could see how sweet and kind she was. She was very pretty, too."

"Wow...I would love to meet her!" Yuuki told Asuna, "So where is she?"

Asuna's smile fell at this question. She came to a stop, and after a second's pause, she answered, "She's lost. She's trapped deep within the Realm of Darkness, unable to get out on her own. And although I gained the power to find her, I don't have the strength to save her."

"Asuna..." Yuuki looked to her sisterly figure with a sad expression. She then smiled as she stated, "Well, I know you'll be able to save her. I mean, ya helped me out when ya learned about my condition before, right? And you said you've been to so many crazy places, and fought tough opponents all over the place. I know you'll be able to get your sister back. And then, when ya do find her, I want to meet her. That's a promise, okay?"

Asuna looked back at Yuuki for a moment, then laughed at her undying faith, as she answered, "You're just as confident in my ability to save her as my friends are. You outta spend more time with Sora, cause I get you two are kindred spirits." Yuuki gave a toothy grin at this suggestion. "Okay. When I find her again, I'll bring her back here, and introduce you to her." Asuna promised.

"You'd better do that." Yuuki answered, continuing them on their walk, "I would LOVE to come with you guys to other worlds, and see all there is to offer. But I know I'm better off taking care of things here with my friends."

"Plus, it's a lot more dangerous out there than you think." Asuna warned her, "The Heartless, Nobodies, Unversed, the Organization... I know you are strong, Yuuki, but I don't want you to get involved with battles that are meant for me, Sora, Kirito and the rest of my allies."

Just then, the two heard a shout up ahead, and saw Vivi running as fast as he could, rounding the corner, with a sack of objects over one shoulder, and a rat on top of his hat, holding on for dear life

"Vivi! You okay?" Yuuki asked.

"H-Help! More of those yellow-eyed monsters!" Vivi exclaimed, running past the pair of girls. They looked to see a group of Heartless coming after him; Shadows, Soldiers, and new Heartless that looked like white cats on on their hind legs, and their bodies in yellow jars.

"Heartless!" Asuna growled, readying her Keyblade.

"Keep going, Vivi. We got this!" Yuuki told her ally, producing her sword, which according to her, was named 'Darkbright'. The two girls went into their fighter's stances, and readied themselves to fend off the Heartless.

They moved as one, taking out the first two Shadow Heartless in one strike. After that, they ended up splitting apart, and taking on the Heartless their own ways. Yuuki was easily evading and parrying the attacks that came at her, using nothing but her reaction speeds and her sword. Asuna's skills with her Keyblade, along with her footwork, made her practically untouchable.

Asuna flipped away from the Heartless group, and pointed her Keyblade forward, shouting, "Freeze up!" She unleashed Blizzard, sending a spear of icy energy shooting along the ground, freezing the floor it touched, along with the Soldier it touched. She then used her Flowmotion to slide along the icy trail she made, slashing the Heartless she froze as she made a somersault flip, and stabbed into one of the new Heartless.

"Neat trick, sis!" Yuuki told her as she took out another Shadow Heartless.

"If you like that, you're gonna love this..." she told her, as she felt the Water Cufflink's energy start to emanate up to her Keyblade, "Back off from the Heartless!"

Yuuki doubled back as Asuna made sure to be the center of attention for the creatures of darkness. As they surrounded her, she pointed at the closest on in front of her, and shouted, "Waterza!" The water attack shot forward, and exploded with an intense blast that consumed Asuna and all the Heartless around her. Yuuki fell to her butt, enduring the shockwave of the attack. When the attack, she saw Asuna was still standing there, unfazed and undamaged by the attack she unleashed, but not any signs of the Heartless about.

"Whoa..." Yuuki muttered, rising to her feet again, "You really have gotten stronger."

Asuna smiled at her as she stated, "Actually, I only just recently learned that magic."

"And here I thought Vivi's magic was cool!" Yuuki stated, "I might wanna learn a spell or two..."

"Well, considering Kirito needed to count on magic once in a while, I guess you would do that, too." The Lightning Flash stated, walking back to Yuuki, before the two continued onward to the path ahead, trying to catch up with the others.

Meanwhile, Sora and Kirito's team finally made it to the mansion. They passed the front gate, looking about the place before stopping between the two broken pillars close to the entrance. The team looked up at the mansion for a moment, getting every detail of the place. To Donald and Goofy, they were a bit nervous. To Kirito and Yui, they felt nostalgia. But to Sora, all he could do was look at the window on the left side, on the second floor. The interior was hidden by white, patterned curtains. A part of him, the part that was Roxas, seem to be hoping he would see a silhouette of a person he knew. A person he, and at one point Sora, really cared about. After a few seconds, Sora pulled himself back together, looking at the front door.

"Whaddaya think, guys?" he asked the team, "This place is even creepier than I remember."

"You think?" Kirito responded, "Looks pretty much the same to me..."

"I don't think I was this size when I was here before, so it does feel different." Yui noted, thinking back to the fact that she was in her pixie form every time she was here.

"Well, they do say that this mansion is haunted." Goofy pointed out to Donald, who shuddered in response.

"Be glad Asuna's not here. She would freak at that." Kirito chuckled.

Suddenly, someone came up from behind Sora, and placed a hand on his shoulder, greeting him with a 'Hey there.' With his mind on the mansion being haunted, Sora freaked, startling the rest of the team, as he shoved off the hand, only to see that it belonged to Hayner. Pence, Olette, and Diavel were also right behind him.

Once Sora saw who it was, he gave a sigh of relief, then barked, "Thanks for the heart attack!"

"Oh, what? Did I scare you?" Hayner sassed.

"Not a chance!" Donald squawked angrily.

"Nah. You just had perfect timing..." Kirito added.

"Our bad." Olette apologized.

"So how did it go?" Sora asked, "Did you get any leads?"

Hayner looked to Pence and Diavel, who gave signs that they would answer, and Pence answered, "Nope, 'fraid not. The asking around thing was a total bust."

"No one even had the slightest clue who Roxas was." Diavel added, "One or two people had some familiarity to the name, but were just as unsure of the guy as these guys are."

"Yep." Hayner agreed, "This old mansion is our last hope." Everyone looked up at the mansion.

"Well, guess there's no time like the present." Kirito decided.

"Another Twilight Town awaits!" Pence declared. The rest of the team gave signs of confirmation to this declaration.

When they entered into the place, they found the building...actually a bit cleaner than they remembered. The dirt was cleaned around the place, and broken pieces of furniture and parts of the stairs were fixed up a bit. It wasn't completely back to normal, but it looked a lot more pleasant than before, and much more than it looked on the outside.

"Was someone taking care of this place since we last saw it?" Kirito asked, "I don't remember the interior being this clean."

"As a matter of fact, we were." Pence answered, surprising the team.

"When Yuuki learned about this place, she was all 'If no one is using it, let's make it a base of operation for us Twilight Knights'." Hayner explained, "Since then, we've all been working here once a week to repair the interior of the place."

"Wow..." Yui muttered.

"Forming the Twilight Knights, repairing this mansion... Yuuki working you guys hard." Kirito noticed.

"That is true..." Hayner started to agreed in a slightly exhausted tone, but Pence intervened by adding, "We really don't mind at all. She's a pretty big inspiration to us."

"Yeah. Her way of living life to the fullest, and doing everything worth doing without regrets is something we admire." Olette explained.

"We may not be able to keep up with her, but she does inspire us to go the distance in whatever we need to do." Diavel finished.

"She sounds a lot like Sora." Goofy compared, looking to the smirking Keyblade wielder.

"If he's not being a doofus." Donald bluntly added.

"Hey! Who are you calling a doofus?!" Sora demanded, sparks emanating from between Sora and Donald's glares.

"Stop it, please!" Yui got in between them, and pushed them away from one another.

Kirito shook his head at the moment, but smiled all the same. The way they described Yuuki was something he could understand. After all, before Twilight Town, Yuuki was practically hospitalized most of her life. But even then, she had no regrets on whatever she did in the virtual world. She gave her life everything she had, and she was still doing that now.

"Let's go down to the computer." Pence told the team, and he led the group to the direction to the steps down to the basement.

When they descended the steps, they found themselves walking through a door into a room that was all too familiar to the team, but extremely nostalgic to Kirito and Yui. It was Ansem the Wise's computer room, the same room where they first woke up after the man himself sent them through a dimensional portal from ALO into this one. It was the place where their journey in another dimension truly started.

"Here we go!" Pence raced to the seat of the computer, his fingers already at the keyboard as Kirito came to his side, "The password was 'sea-salt ice cream', right?" He tapped in the password, which worked, bringing up the home screen.

"That did it." Kirito stated, "Now, to activate the digital transporter..." Pence went to try and activate the transporter. However, as he tried to do that, the screen started to glow red, and the words 'DATA ERROR' popped up on a window. Multiple windows also popped up, furthering the fact that something was wrong.

"Oh, man. The transporter's been protected." Pence noticed.

"Protected from what?" Sora asked, while the others looked puzzled or shocked.

"I guess from us?" Pence assumed, "We can't use it to get to the other Twilight Town."

"Why not?" Hayner demanded, "It worked before! We sent Sora there! And we got Yuuki outta there!"

"Well that was then, and this is now." Pence argued.

"Here, let me try something..." Kirito told Pence, waving him off the seat so he could go and sit in it. He started to type away at the computer, trying every option he could think of, when Yuuki and Asuna finally arrived on the scene, seeing the group.

"Hey, guys." Yuuki greeted, "Were you waiting for us to show up before going to the other Twilight Town?"

"By the looks of it, no." Asuna noticed, watching Kirito get more errors on the screen.

"Yui, can you think of anything?" Kirito asked his daughter. She was an expert at cracking through firewalls and computer networks.

"I'm not too sure..." she answered, "If I was inside the computer system, I would be able to hack the issue, no problem. But as I am now, I can only do as much as you can, papa."

"So...is there no other way?" Diavel asked. Kirito shook his head, finding no answer to their predicament. The others looked pretty upset with this, especially Sora. His inability to find a way to return Roxas was a real punch to the gut.

Suddenly, there was a familiar ringtone. Someone was trying to call him on the Gummiphone. The team looked to Sora as he pulled out the said phone, tapping the green button on the screen. Ienzo's face suddenly appeared on the screen.

"Hello, Sora." He greeted the Keyblade wielder, "You wouldn't happen to be in front of a computer?"

The rest of the team was surprised as Sora answered, "Well...yeah. But how'd you know that?"

"I was tinkering with Ansem's computer; you know, to decrypt the Code that was left in it? And I noticed that someone had logged in from another terminal. I figured it might be you."

"Oh! Yeah, the log terminal." Sora feigned acknowledgment at what he was talking about.

"You don't know what he said." Donald noticed.

Sora crouched down to him as he whispered, "Oh, what, you do?"

"I know I haven't got a clue." Goofy noted, though there was no need for him to say it. Ienzo and Sachi, who were on the other side, were giggling at the trio's childish ignorance.

"He means that when we logged into Ansem's computer here, it must've placed an alert that it was being booted up over in Radiant Garden." Kirito explained, taking the Gummiphone off of Sora, "Considering I know WAY more about computers than you, I'll do the talking."

"Sure...okay!" Sora understood, realizing that it was better off in his hands anyway.

"So, does that mean you were the one who logged into the computer, Kirito?" Sachi asked, looking over Ienzo's shoulder.

"Initially, no. He did." Kirito answered, and he turned the screen to aim it at Pence.

"Oh, hi there. This is Pence." He greeted, "I'm the one who logged into the computer."

"Good." Ienzo understood, "As long as it's a user that we know we can trust."

"We definitely trust him." Kirito stated, turning the screen back to himself, "However, we've run into a situation. One of the programs on this computer is now protected, and I don't have an immediate way to activate it."

"What program?" Sachi asked.

Hayner, irritated by the constant questions and issues, angrily answered, "The transporter to the other Twilight Town! It's the only way to find Roxas. You gotta help us."

"Cool your jets, Hayner. Deep breaths." Yuuki calmed him, "Getting angry like that won't get us anywhere." Hayner looked to the sub-leader of the Twilight Knights, and breathed deeply to calm himself.

"Another Twilight Town? And a transporter?" Ienzo echoed, finding all the information intriguing, "Okay... A virtual town inside the computer, made of data."

"So it's a lot like the virtual world of SAO." Sachi understood, not realizing such a world existed apart from Tron's world.

"The datascape!" Jiminy suddenly popped out of Sora's jacket, suddenly realizing something, and turning to Donald and Goofy, who understood what he was talking about.

"Mmm-hm, we've seen one." Goofy recalled, "That's what we used to investigate Jiminy's journal."

"Maybe I can do something." Ienzo suggested, "Kirito, Pence, let's get a network set up."

"Easy enough..." Kirito answered, "Tell me your computer address."

After that, for over twenty minutes, Kirito was tapping away at the computer, establishing the network link between the two world. However, there was a lot of loading time and long, tedious program writing for both sides. Sora nearly fell asleep, even though it has only been five minutes into the work. He was awoke by Yuuki, suggesting that they might wanna go upstairs to wait. Sora agreed, and he, Donald, Goofy, Jiminy, Asuna and Diavel all went upstairs, leaving the rest of the team below.

As soon as they entered the main hall of the mansion, Sora asked, "So, what do you want to do while we wait?"

Yuuki stopped and turned to Sora, answering, "I heard from Asuna that you and I should hang out. So, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind sparring with me?"

Sora looked a bit surprised, looking to Donald and Goofy, before asking, "Uh, you sure?"

"Yeah!" She answered, "Truth is, after all the praise I've heard from Hayner and the gang, I really wondered how tough you would be. So, wanna go?"

"Sure. I could use some training." Sora answered, rolling his shoulder, prepared to fight.

"Be careful, Sora." Asuna warned him, "She is the strongest swordswoman in ALO. Not even Kirito and I could beat her."

"Yeah. Kirito told me..." Sora answered, who stopped loosening up himself, and smiled at Yuuki, "But if she's that strong, I gotta at least take her offer up."

Yuuki snapped her finger as she answered, "Awesome! Let's take it out to the garden!" She raced to the front door, and opened it up for the team to exit the building.

In about thirty seconds, the battlefield was set. Sora was standing closest to the door, while Yuuki was closest to the gate. Everyone else was standing on the sidelines, trying not to be within the area of combat.

"So, what are the rules of this duel?" Asuna asked Yuuki.

"It's just like back in ALO; the battle will be until someone yields or is unable to continue, and I don't mean one of us killing the other." Yuuki explained, "You can use your weapons, sword skills, techniques, magic, however you want. Course, I'll only use my sword in this fight." She summoned her sword into her hand, prepared to use it in battle.

"Just her sword?" Goofy echoed, surprised.

"That was the only thing she used in the fight against the Demon Tide." Asuna recalled.

"Alright. I'm game!" Sora declared, producing his Keyblade, and getting into his fighter's stance. Yuuki also held her sword out in her own fighter's stance.

"Diavel, give us the countdown!" Diavel followed his sub-leader's orders, and raised his hand up, as he counted down. "Three...Two...One...GO!"

Sora charged forward, and made a leaping slash at Yuuki, who parried the attack with a horizontal slash, leaving Sora vulnerable for another quick slash, causing him to go flying in pain. He crashed to the ground, where he appeared face-first into the ground.

"Wow... That was quick." Donald muttered, seeing the state he was already in.

"Yuuki must be really strong still, whereas Sora had the reset button placed on his power." Asuna noticed, "I guess the result was very—."

"I'm not done!" Sora exclaimed, and the team saw him get to his feet, downing a potion to heal his body. Yuuki had not taken one step from where she started, but was smiling confidently at Sora.

(Insert Sword Art Online OST 'Gunland')

Sora pointed his Keyblade forward as he shouted, "Fire!" He unleashed three consecutive Fire spells at Yuuki. She was prepared for them as she unleashed a combo swing that slashed each fireball in two, destroying them before they hit her. The fireballs exploded from each slash, which was what Sora was counting on, and he dashed in with a slash, which Yuuki easily expected. She blocked Sora's Keyblade, and pushed him far away in mere seconds.

Sora gritted his teeth, finding it frustrating that he hadn't found an opening, but quickly thought on the spot. Using magic, he suddenly transformed his Hero's Origin Keyblade into his Kingdom Key, and aimed the tip towards Yuuki.

"Whoa! I didn't know you could switch Keyblades mid-battle!" Asuna gasped.

"He must've learned that trick when we weren't lookin'." Goofy assumed, watching as Sora's Keyblade shined.

"Shotlock: Ragnarok!" Sora shouted, unleashing his Shotlock, sending a storm of light spheres down at Yuuki, who looked surprised at the new attack. It made contact with her, consuming her in a smoke cloud. The team looked surprised at this strong damage, but Asuna and Diavel both knew this was nowhere near the end.

Sure enough, when Sora landed, he looked up, and saw Yuuki dashing straight through the smoke, coming at him with her sword tip pointing right at him. He panicked, and took a step back as Yuuki pushed forward with her left foot, thrusting her blade forward, nearly shaving off the sleeve from his jacket. He recovered, and tried slashing at Yuuki while she was close, only for her right foot to push her away just enough to get out of range.

Sora went in for a combo of slashes, trying to find an opening. Unfortunately, Yuuki was able to see and counter every strike that came at her. Her sword glowed as she unleashed her Slant Sword Skill. Sora placed his Keyblade up in defense, and there was an explosion front Yuuki's attack, causing him to go flying. He fell towards the right side of the house, where Sora's team was at. "Sora!" Donald, Goofy and Jiminy called out in a panic.

Sora rose to his feet, and used his Cure spell to heal his wounds. He looked up at Yuuki, who called out, "You okay? Kinda got you there, didn't I?"

Sora was a bit shaky on his feet, but he controlled himself. "I-It's okay. I can keep going!" He shouted back. He wiped away some beads of sweat coming down his forehead, and placed up a smile to prevent Yuuki from seeing his nervousness.

'Kirito and Asuna weren't kidding about her. She is really, really strong!' He mentally told himself, 'She's way out of my league at this point. I couldn't even touch her with my Keyblade, and my magic isn't even slowing her down! Now, I can't use magic after Cure, but that doesn't mean I have other tricks I can't pull outta my system!'

He focused his gaze at Yuuki, and his feet sparked with magic. He performed his Airstepping technique, shooting himself straight at Yuuki in an instant, surprising her. He unleashed a kickflip, striking her in the chest, and pushing her back. He then slashed strongly at Yuuki, causing her to double-back, but to glare at Sora as he grinned.

"That's plenty enough!" He declared, his body glowing, "Second Form!" He transformed into his former garments.

"Whoa! A wardrobe change?!" Yuuki gasped, impressed by the transformation.

Sora landed on the ground, and charged forward, unleashing a series of slashes, all of which Yuuki parried, followed by a spiral of magic spheres, pushing Yuuki back a bit. Sora pursued with a lunge with his Keyblade, closing the gap on them. Yuuki parried the attack by sending Sora's blade to one side. However, in his quick, thinking, Sora used the momentum of his Keyblade forced to one side, spun around with it, and swung it upwards into an uppercut that caused a Ripple Drive technique, sending Yuuki tossed upwards, sending her outside the mansion's front gate.

"She pushed her up!" Asuna gasped, seeing Yuuki supposedly overwhelmed.

Yuuki suddenly flipped herself until she was upright while in midair, "Not bad. I didn't know about those kinds of moves before." She told Sora as she flew, "But...I think I'll end this duel."

Suddenly, and to the amazement of all except Diavel, Yuuki's back suddenly glowed, as the Imp symbol appeared on it, and from it, she produced her fairy imp wings, stopping herself in the air, and shooting down at Sora. "She has her wings?!" Asuna gasped in shock.

Sora leapt up at Yuuki as her blade glowed a blue hue. Sora swiped with his Keyblade, but Yuuki evaded it, and slashed at Sora's gut. She then struck his left and right side around the same level, before ending with one last slash from behind, completing the Horizontal Square Sword Skill. Sora felt the attack's complete damage, and could barely breath, and he fell to the ground.

"Oh, no!" Asuna gasped, about to race to him to save him from the fall, when she saw Yuuki follow her attack by diving down, and catching Sora around the chest. She slowly descended, making sure his feet touched the ground before she let go of him. Sora collapsed to his hands and knees, gasping for air, while the rest of the team joined their side.

"Guess I got a bit carried away..." Yuuki chuckled, rubbing the back of her head with an innocent grin.

"Heal!" Asuna shouted, and she healed Sora of his injuries with her Keyblade. Sora found it easier to breath, and after a few seconds, got to his feet.

"You nearly killed me!" He exclaimed, rubbing the slash to the front Yuuki made.

"Don't worry. I don't kill my friends." Yuuki assured him, "But still, you really put up a great effort. Great fight out there, Sora." She raised a hand to him, wanting to shake.

Sora looked to the hand, saw Yuuki's smiling face, and his tension eased up. He smiled as he answered, "Yeah. Same here." Sora agreed, taking her hand, "You are really strong, Yuuki. I couldn't keep up with you at all!"

"You struck with a few good hits there." Yuuki pointed out, "Guess exploring other worlds come with ideas of new skills, huh?"

"Even so, you still have it." Asuna pointed out, getting their attention, "Your reaction speed is still beyond amazing, and you even have your wings! How did you gain those?!" The only times she ever produced her Undine wings outside the virtual world was when Yui created a magical connection between those that are capable of flying, like the Magic Carpet in Agrabah, or who can grant the power of flight, like Palutena in Skyworld.

"They came around last month." Yuuki answered, "At some point, I ended up gaining them. I can only use them for a minute or two, but they still work like before."

"Hmm..." Goofy was thinking for a second, then suddenly recalled, "If I remember correctly, didn't Leafa also have the ability to summon her wings, too?"

"That's right!" Jiminy recalled, "If I remember right, she had them when she was in her Limit Form."

"This is making my brain hurt..." Asuna moaned, placing her hand to her forehead, "Even after all this time, I'm still trying to figure out how things work.

"Well, whatever the case, Yuuki's wings have been really useful." Diavel stated, "I mean, at one point, when we were on top of the clock tower. A gust of wind suddenly caused Vivi to fall, and she—."

"Guys!" Olette's voice called out to the group, and they turned to see her standing at the door. "Kirito said that the link should be established at any minute!"

"Alright!" Sora cheered.

"Finally!" Donald sighed in relief as the team went and rejoined the rest back down in the computer room.

When they returned, they found Hayner, Pence and Yui surrounding Kirito as he placed in one final code input, before there was a sound coming from the Gummiphone, which rested on Kirito's lap. They heard Ienzo's voice call out, "Alright. The link has been established."

Kirito gave a sigh of relief as he flexed his fingers, hearing some snapping after all the typing he had done. "Nice going, Kirito." Pence commended him.

"So, were you able to fix it?" Sora asked, as he and the others joined their side.

"Now that our two computers have been successfully networked together, I can take control of the terminal there, and change the privileges." Ienzo answered.

"And Roxas?" Sora further questioned.

"Yeah. In order for the virtual world of Twilight Town to become real, Ansem the Wise would also include Roxas's data in the construct." Sachi explained, "It's similar to how the Cardinal system created backup data for all the Players in Sword Art Online. Kayaba explained that to me."

"Wow, Sachi. I didn't know you were able to understand all that stuff in a short period of time!" Kirito commended her intelligence. She blushed at Kirito's praise.

"To put it simply, we can use the data in that terminal, and decipher Ansem's Code more quickly, AND we can analyze the virtual Twilight Town while we're at it." Ienzo finished.

"Okay, great!" Sora answered, "I can't computer, so...do that."

"You also can't speak with proper grammar, Sora." Asuna poked fun at him.

"I would like to help, but I think our skills are better off elsewhere." Kirito added, "I'll leave it to Pence to help out with the computer work on this end." Pence gave a confident nod in approval to this decision.

"Don't worry, Kirito." Sachi assured him, "You do the things only you guys can do, and leave the rest to us."

"Chip, Dale and Kayaba will be helping us out on our end, too." Ienzo added, "We'll call you back as soon as we find anything more."

"Right. I'll be counting on you guys." Kirito responded.

He was about to hang up when Ienzo spoke up, "Oh, before I forget. A bit of troubling news. It's about one of the Organization's former members. You knew him as Vexen, but to us, he was Ansem's apprentice Even. He was recompleted like the rest of us, but hadn't regained consciousness yet. Then, sometime after Lea left, Even vanished. Aeleus and Dilan, the two you knew as Lexaeus and Xaldin, they went out looking for him. We enlisted the help of the Moonlit Black Cats in the search, but he's just gone. And I'm starting to worry."

The six heroes looked to one another, then Yui asked, "You don't think he could have joined THEM, do you?"

"I think it's a real possibility." Ienzo answered, "He's a devious researcher. YOU should be careful."

"We'll look out for him." Kirito answered, and he hung up the Gummiphone, getting out of the computer chair, and handing the phone back to Sora.

"Oh no!" Hayner gasped, "We got work! I totally forgot!"

"Yeah, that's right!" Yuuki realized, "You guys were suppose to be hanging up those flyers for our client. Vivi's already ahead with completing her job, so you'd better get moving."

"Really? But what about all this?" Pence asked Hayner, waving a hand to the computer.

"Hey, both are important. We're gonna need some cash to go to the beach. Also, don't forget the pretzels. Gotta buy seven now."

Pence looked confused, counting down the list of character. Him, Hayner, Olette, Diavel, Yuuki, Vivi made up six, so the seventh one was... "Oh, I get it." He realized.

"Thinking ahead, are we?" Yuuki asked, nudging Hayner.

"Guess we'd better get a move on." Diavel understood, "Catch you some other time, Kirito."

"You too, Diavel." Kirito answered, as Diavel wandered off.

"Later, Sora!" Hayner waved goodbye to him as he started making his way to the door.

"Right. See ya, Hayner!" Sora replied.

"Bye, Donald! Goofy! Yui!" Olette told the trio, to which they all called out 'Good-Bye' to her.

"Oh, and since I'm manning the computer here, you guys're in charge of earning my share." Pence told his friends.

"No pretzel for Pence." Hayner responded, getting Olette and Diavel to chuckle, while Pence looked depressed at this.

Yuuki patted his shoulder as she said, "Don't worry. Hayner's a joker, remember? You handle the computer, and we'll handle the rest." Pence nodded in approval of this, and went to the computer.

"Let's go back to town again." Asuna decided, looking to Yuuki, "Got any places you want to show us?"

"Hmm..." the former Zekken paused before she answered, "I know just the place. The bistro!"

"Bistro?" Sora asked.

"Didn't Vivi said that rat was a worker there?" Goofy asked.

"The food is pretty incredible." Pence explained, "You won't be disappointed."

"I'll meet you guys there!" Yuuki told them, racing out the door, "Better make sure those guys are doing their job right." With that, she left the scene.

"We'd better catch up with Yuuki." Kirito told the group, and the six heroes raced out of the room, leaving Pence alone.

They had just made their way outside the mansion, and were passing the front gates, when a voice spoke up near them. A sinisterly familiar voice. "So, you think you can bring Roxas back?" The team stopped and turned to where the voice came from. Leaning on the wall next to the gate was none other than Ansem. Not 'the Wise' Ansem, but the 'Seeker of Darkness'. The Heartless of Xehanort, wearing the Organization's coat.

"Ansem!" The six heroes gasped, prepared to draw out their weapon.

There was a Dark Corridor that opened up near Ansem's position, and out came his other half. The Nobody of Xehanort, Xemnas.

"Him, too?!" Kirito gasped, seeing both Heartless and Nobody together.

"Roxas should never have existed in the first place." Xemnas told Sora, "What you seek is impossible."

"Roxas does exist." Sora retorted, "His heart's inside my heart."

"And in the unlikely event you did manage to separate the two, where is it you think you can put his heart?" Xemnas followed up.

This question did confuse the six, though Sora had an assumed answer. "Well... Roxas used to live in the other Twilight Town, right? So, I'm just gonna put him back there."

"Do you even realize what you are saying?" Ansem questioned the boy, "The other Twilight Town is just data."

"We came from a world made of data, and we were able to live there." Kirito retorted, indicating himself, Asuna and Yui, "Heck, Yui's a program, and she was made of data. But she's alive, and she has a heart. So why shouldn't Roxas be able to do the same?"

"And it's funny how you point out Roxas's non-existence, considering you two were part of the same person." Asuna pointed out, "But you two ARE together, and you both exist. So if you're capable of co-existing, Sora and Roxas can act the same way!"

"Yeah!" "I was thinkin' the same thing." "You tell 'em, Master Asuna!" Sora, Goofy and Donald all responded respectively. They turned back to the Heartless and Nobody, their glares showing their resolve will not waver, no matter what they say.

"In that case, by all means." Ansem told the sextet.

"Nothing would please us more than Roxas's return, of course." Xemnas followed.

"You wish." Sora spat, "He'll never answer to you again."

"Still so blind. A Nobody is what's left behind when one gives his heart to darkness." Xemnas explained, "There is only one way to bring Roxas back, which is for you to give up your heart up as well." He pointed at the young boy as he questioned, "Sora, have you finally decided to call upon the darkness?"

"What?!" Sora gasped. This was not a path he wished to take. However, was it the only way to return Roxas?

"Go on then. The shadows are never out of reach." Ansem coaxed Sora. He nodded to an area behind the six, and they turned to see a group of Neoshadows suddenly appear. With a wave of Xemnas's hand, Dusk Nobodies appeared alongside them. The two different species were now working together.

Sora looked at them, then at Ansem and Xemnas, who raised their hands out to Sora, and simultaneously said, "Now, set your heart free." They created their Corridors of Darkness, and vanished from sight.

"Wait!" Sora barked, about to pursue them, but Kirito stopped him with a hand to his shoulder.

"We've got more important matters here!" He told him, drawing his attention to the other four as they prepared to fight the Heartless.

Sora gritted his teeth at the two enemies' words, but he produced his Keyblade as he growled, "It's not darkness. Not if it helps him!" Kirito nodded in agreement, and produced his Keyblade, and the boys joined the others in the fight.

The Neoshadows and Dusks charged forward as the six heroes launched themselves into the battle. They kept each other's backs as they avoided and blocked the strikes of the Nobody and Heartless, while unleashing all the attacks they could muster from their 'bag of tricks', so to speak.

"Guys! I got the feeling for an Attraction!" Sora shouted, backing away from a whip from a Dusk.

"Go for it, you guys!" Asuna shouted, while she, Kirito and Yui pushed back any nearby Heartless and Nobodies, as Donald and Goofy came together to join Sora.

"Let's go! Attraction Flow: Mad Tea Cups!" Sora raised his Keyblade high, and through magic, he summoned three large tea cups on dishes, and the three jumped into each of them, finding a place to sit on the inside. There was a rotation device in the center of it, and the trio began spinning them as fast as they could while the rides moved about the place, ricocheting off the walls and trees, striking down the Heartless and Nobodies. Kirito, Asuna and Yui all avoided the trio as they assisted them in knocking the enemies towards Sora's Attraction Flow attack.

"Bring it in!" Sora shouted as he, Donald and Goofy brought their tea cup rides together, and started grinding against one another as they spun, causing sparks to fly about them, eliminating all remaining Heartless and Nobodies that got close to them. After a few seconds, the attack stopped, and the tea cups vanished, leaving the trio remaining in the middle of an open field. There were still a few more Neoshadows and Dusks remaining, ready to fight.

"Leave this to us!" Asuna called out to the trio as she, Kirito and Yui came together. Yui produced her Keyblade as she raised it high. "Soul Burst: Second Form!" They shouted in unison, summoning their Soul Pacts, and transforming their Keyblades into the swords and rapier they used in SAO.

Sora, Donald and Goofy took a break as the mother, father and daughter trio went to work on striking down the monsters, unleashing their skills from the old days in their attacks. With Kirito's incredible reaction speeds, Asuna footwork, and Yui's heavy swings, the three were not able to give the enemy any open opportunities to attack.

"Time to end this!" Kirito shouted, unleashing his Finisher, Starburst Stream, summoning his Dark Repulser sword via holo-menu, and unleashing his sixteen-hit combo, clearing the enemies on one side of the area.

"You're through!" Asuna declared, unleashing her Finisher, Star Splash, unleashing her eight-hit Rapier Skill, with each strike causing a shockwave effect, and destroying the enemies around the area opposite to Kirito's side.

"I'll take care of the rest!" Yui declared, unleashing her Finisher, Program Delete, channeling a stream of intense flame around her sword, creating an orb that she brought down upon the enemies near the entrance into the forest, eliminating all of them.

With the area clear of enemies, the team gathered together, able to relax for a moment. However, Sora's mind was elsewhere. With his mind out of the battle, he thought about what Ansem and Xemnas told him. There had to be another way to free Roxas's heart from his own, other than accepting darkness into his heart. The others looked to him, worried about what he would decide to do.

Kirito stepped forward, placing a hand on Sora's shoulder, causing the young man to look to him. "We'll find a way." He assured him, "There's more than one way to free Roxas."

"Right. Remember what Herc told you." Asuna reminded him.

Sora paused for a moment, and he answered, "Herc said 'With all my heart'." He looked up to the sky, with a determined expression as he finished, "Okay. Then all my heart it is. I'm getting Roxas out." He smiled at his two fellow Keyblade wielders as he finished, "Thanks, you guys." Kirito and Asuna smiled and nodded in response to this.

Suddenly, their bodies started to glow, and they felt their magic energy connecting with one another. They felt the energy go to their hands, and they held out a single palm in front of them. The magic energy leaked out of their palms, forming three circles that orbited around one another. "What's going on?" Sora asked.

"Heck if I know!" Kirito answered, surprised at the sight.

The three rings suddenly shined, and in an instant, formed four magic orbs. One flew over them, and dove into Donald. The other three went into the three Keyblade wielder's bodies.

"This feeling..." Kirito muttered, looking at his hand, and feeling the aquatic magical power, "Is this the Water spell?"

"I know this feeling." Sora noticed, feeling the cold energy, "I can use Blizzard now!"

"Same here!" Donald called out, getting the same feeling and Sora.

"And that means I have the Fire spell now." Asuna noticed, feeling the warm magic she gained, "I might be wrong, but I think the magic we had individually decided to share with one another."

"Best guess we can get, since we're not experts in how magic works." Kirito stated.

Sora looked to his hands. The magic exchange made him realize something; Even though he was gonna try and free Roxas with all his heart, he knew he would also need the help of his friends to help in his endeavor. If all their hearts became one, there was no doubt he would not only save Roxas, but all those that needed saving, too.

He turned to everyone, including Yui, Donald and Goofy, and asked, "Are you with me, everyone?"

Donald, Goofy and Yui looked to one another, and with smiling faces, they answered as one, "You betcha!"

"Like we would stop now." Kirito told him.

"Let's save Roxas, Aqua, and everyone else!" Asuna declared.

Sora's face became serious as he said, "I don't know what Ansem or Xemnas want, but I think we'd better tell the others to watch out."

"Agreed. Especially Yuuki." Kirito mentioned, "If anyone would pick a fight with them, it would definitely be her."

"Then lets head to the bistro to meet up with her and the others." Asuna decided, and she turned and led the group back into the forest again, making their way back to town once more.

They raced through the forest, before finding the entrance back into the conduits. After a minute of racing through the the underground path, they found themselves upside, and back in Twilight Town once more. They turned the corner, and made their way back to the center of town. "Now, if I remember correctly, the bistro should be around..." Kirito started, about to look about the place.

"Well, bless me bagpipes! It was YOU laddies who rescued my chef!" A voice suddenly spoke up, and drew the attention of Donald and Goofy. They looked and not only discovered the bistro, but also a familiar face. It was a person, or rather a duck they met in Radiant Garden, back when it was still under construction. In on hand, he had his walking cane. Under the other, he carried a sort of to-go box.

"It's Uncle Scrooge!" Donald squawked at the sight of one of his family.

The others looked to him as Sora asked, "Wait... Didn't he sell ice cream in Hollow Bastion?"

"Oh, yeah. He was there doing that, wasn't he?" Kirito recalled, "Leafa and Recon said they got plenty of Sea Salt ice cream from him."

"That's right." Goofy answered, "But Uncle Scrooge here's what you might call a world traveler."

"So...he has a Gummi Ship, like us?" Yui realized.

"How about that..." Asuna muttered, as Donald led the team up to his uncle.

"How are ya, Uncle Scrooge?" Sora greeted him.

"Oh! Hello, Sora, Kirito, Asuna, Yui! You're lookin' hale and hearty." Scrooge noted, looking at the four humans, "I heard ye four were on another grand adventure with these two..." He looked to Goofy and Donald at those words, "...I hope Donald isn't making a menace of himself."

Donald looked startled at those words, then grumbled, "Why did you have to say that?"

"Apart from the complaining and the insulting jabs at us, he's fine." Kirito told Scrooge.

"WHAAAT?!" Donald exclaimed angrily, causing the others to laugh at this blunt comment. They all knew it was so true.

"So, Uncle Scrooge, what's that you were sayin' about a chef?" Goofy asked him.

"Och! Right, right. The chef of me bistro here wanted to show ye his appreciation, so he baked this for ye." He held up the box to Sora and the gang, and the former took it.

"Hmm... What is it?" Sora asked, and he opened the lid on top. Inside was a large tart the size of a cake, with elegantly-patterned fruit decorating the top of it. It was clearly made by a professional pastier.

"Wow! Cake!" Sora, Donald and Goofy exclaimed as one. For some reason, something caused Scrooge's top hat to shuffle a bit, and getting the wearer's attention.

"It's not a cake. It's a fruit tart." Asuna corrected the trio, "But still, it's extremely well-made. And it's all for us?"

"It looks delicious!" Kirito exclaimed, nearly drooling at the sight of it. Yui's eyes were also dazzling at the sight of it.

Scrooge's top hat shuffled a bit again, getting the attention of both Sora and Asuna. "Aye, settle down..." the elderly duck told his hat, "The chef wants ye to know that the lass was right, but it's proper name is 'tarte aux fruits'."

"He does?" Goofy asked.

"Tarte aux fruits...if I know my languages correct, that's just the French way of calling it a fruit tart." Asuna told the others, who nodded in understanding, or in somewhat understanding for Sora, Donald and Goofy.

"Why keep it under my hat?" Scrooge asked, taking his hat off, revealing a familiar face, "May I introduce...Little Chef." It was the rat that Sora and Kirito's group saved in the forest not too long ago, who hopped onto the top of Scrooge's hat, looking at the group.

"Oh! It's you!" Sora gasped, surprised to see him again.

"You know this rat?" Asuna asked, the only one in the group who hadn't met him.

"We rescued him from some Heartless." Goofy explained, "After that, we helped gather fruit for him."

"Vivi said he worked at the bistro, but I didn't think he was the chef here." Kirito muttered, amazed at this new fact.

"Uncle Scrooge, you opened a bistro in Twilight Town?" Donald questioned his uncle.

"Aye." he answered, looking at Little Chef, "It all started a little while ago, when I was enjoying one of the best meals in my life. And when I asked to speak to the chef, I met this wee genius." Little Chef placed his front paws on his hips promptly, rubbing the bridge of his nose with an air of confidence.

"As it turns out, he wanted to expand his culinary horizons." Scrooge continued, "So, I thought: that's an opportunity. And I financed the whole operation."

Little Chef turned to Scrooge, and made some signs with his hands, like he was preparing food, and handing it to someone. "Ooh, I think he wants to cook some more for ye." He understood, looking to the team, "Fortunately, I had Yuuki and Vivi go out to fetch some more ingredients for him. They should be back any second now."

"We're here!" Yuuki's voice shouted, and the team turned to see the girl herself and the black mage boy arrive on the scene, with bags filled with food in their hands.

"Hope we didn't take too long." Asuna told her, "Had to take care of some troublesome monsters."

"Aw, man! I wanted to join in on that!" Yuuki moaned, "Meanwhile, Scrooge McDuck sent Vivi and I on a scavenging run for ingredients all about the place."

"I wanted to get back to the movie theatre again..." Vivi muttered, looking worn down from all the running about.

"Hey, we have some ingredients we found in Hercules' world." Goofy recalled, "We should go get them, and bring them here!" The others nodded in agreement.

"Good! The more the better." Scrooge stated, "The mark of a truly great chef is creating masterpieces out of anything."

"Oh, we know Asuna's especially good with that." Kirito pointed out, looking to their 'master chef', "If there's anyone who's amazing at making great meals, it's Asuna. No questions asked!"

"Yeah. Mama's cooking is amazing!" Yui agreed.

"They always tasted really yummy." Goofy added, with Donald and Sora nodding firmly in agreement.

"Aw, come on, guys." Asuna blushed in embarrassment, "I'm know I mastered my cooking skills in ALO, but still..."

"But you told me you're in your technically in your avatar right now." Yuuki pointed out, "Surely that means your cooking skills came with ya." She turned to Scrooge and Little Chef as she requested, "Why don't you have her join with Little Chef in the kitchen? I can vouch for the others that she makes really great food, so with you two together, the food will be to die for!"

"Hmm..." Scrooge looked to Little Chef, who looked to Asuna, before nodding in agreement, "Looks like he's agreeing with ye. Alright then. Get the ingredients ye have on ya, and we'll start the preparations."

Asuna was guided by Scrooge and Little Chef into the kitchen, while Sora and Donald went to get the ingredients they stored in the Gummi Ship. Everyone else went inside to find a seat for everyone. What everyone was unaware of was the a person watching them from the seat furthest from where they were before, digging into a fruit tart, with her tea cup next to her dessert. She smirked mischievously after hearing what they were doing.

Asuna took the ingredients Yuuki and Vivi hand, and entered the kitchen with Little Chef on her shoulder, amazed at the professional design of the place. It looked like it came straight out of the documentaries about high-class restaurants. "This is a very nice place." She told the rat, who hopped off and went to the sink, grabbing a droplet from the faucet, and wiping his hands. He knew a professional had to have his hands clean before cooking. "I'd better do the same, too." She told him, taking off her detached sleeves, hanging them on a nearby rack for safekeeping, and washed her hands at the sink.

As soon as she dried her hands, she looked about the place, examining where all the utensils were, before placing out the ingredients they had on them already. "Right. I'd better start on the prepping." she said, looking to Little Chef, "So, what should we be making today?"

Little Chef went to an open cookbook, and shuffled through it, before pointing out a fish recipe. "Sole Meunière..." Asuna read, looking at the ingredients, "Sure, I can get started on preparing the ingredients for that." She and Little Chef began gathering the ingredients for it, before getting to work. Asuna was set on getting the fish ready, while Little Chef prepared the sauce.

As Asuna cooked, she noticed how extremely professional Little Chef was at making food, and was strong enough to even stir the pot with a wooden ladle. He was constantly sniffing at the sauce, racing to find the right ingredient, and adding just the right amount into the saucepan. He even went and, without words, showed Asuna how to make sure the fish was baked right in the saucepan, and the right kinds of seasoning to place at a certain time. Asuna was skilled herself, and Yuuki did point out one thing; her cooking skills did improve her handling in the kitchen. But it paled in comparison to this rat's skills.

Sora and Donald quickly made it back to the ship, grabbing the ingredients they found in Hercules' world, before bringing it back to the bistro. Sora chose to go into the kitchen himself, bringing in the ingredients with him.

"Wow! It smells so good in here!" Sora stated in excitement, watching Asuna and Little Chef at work, "Is the food almost ready?"

"We'll be getting one meal done, soon." Asuna told him, "I gotta say, Little Chef is a real expert. I'm learning a lot in here."

"I can't wait to try it out." Sora told her, placing the ingredients on a free spot on the table, "Well, I'll just head back and—." His words were caught off as he felt the scurrying of rat feet going up his arm. Little Chef was already done with the sauce, and was climbing up Sora, getting on top of his head. "Hey!" Sora exclaimed, as Little Chef grabbed a couple of Sora's spikes of hair, and tugged at him, causing him to stumble and move without his own control.

"What are you—?!" Asuna questioned, startled at Sora's sudden movements, as he suddenly went to the saucepan, and started stirring the sauce, "Sora, can you cook?"

"It's not me! It's him!" Sora answered, his eyes looking up at Little Chef, who was controlling Sora's arms by the spikes of his hair.

"He can control you by your hair?!" Asuna questioned in shock, "I never knew that was possible. But then again, we have experienced plenty of weird things." She giggled as she took the pan of fish off the stove, and gently slid the fish onto a plate she had ready next to her, adding in, "Well, I guess your hairstyle can be used for something..."

"So you're gonna make me cook?" Sora whined as he looked up at Little Chef, who was too focused on making sure the sauce was right. As soon as he was done, he made Sora take the saucepan, and carefully drizzled it on top of the fish, which Asuna positioned as instructed. She and Sora then placed little garnishes here and there to complete the dish, before placing it underneath the warming lights.

"Looks like we're gonna need your help on getting the dishes ready." Asuna told Sora, "Ready to help us out?"

Sora looked pretty disgruntled at being controlled like this, but after a few seconds, he replied, "Well, I really, really want to try out the food you guys are making. I guess I'll lend a hand...literally." His hand was raised in a wave, which was done by Little Chef.

"Alright." Asuna answered, wiping her hands with a free towel, before looking to the head chef, "So what's next on the menu?" Little Chef scratched his chin, looking to the extra ingredients, coming up with many ideas.

Meanwhile, inside the restaurant, the rest of the heroes, along with Yuuki, Vivi, and Uncle Scrooge were busy chatting with one another, with Yuuki talking a lot about the things she told Asuna, while Kirito, Donald, Goofy, Yui, and Jiminy told their side of the story involving their adventures.

There was a ring at the bell, and the group heard Hayner call out, "Hey, guys!" They turned to see Hayner, Olette, and Diavel join them.

"You guys made it." Kirito greeted them as they approached the table, mainly to Uncle Scrooge.

"You guys completed your tasks?" Diavel asked Yuuki and Vivi.

"Of course!" The sub-leader answered, "We don't slack off if there's still work to be done. It's in the code of the Twilight Knights." Vivi nodded in agreement.

"Speaking of which..." Hayner started, looking to Scrooge, "We're done with the posters, boss." The name they gave to Scrooge confused the heroes.

"Aye, good work, kids." He commended them.

"You guys work for Uncle Scrooge here at the bistro?" Goofy asked them.

"Um, do we?" Hayner asked, confused.

"Not exactly..." Diavel corrected them.

"He gave us a short job putting up these special posters." Olette explained, unfurling a spare poster, which was a movie poster, with a picture of Mickey Mouse sitting on a giant's hand. However, the Mickey on the poster looked like the version they met in the black and white past world. The title on top was strange, as it was titled 'Mickey & Sora in Giantland'. The name puzzled the group. When did Sora end up in a movie?

"Mr. McDuck's hosting an open-air film festival in the courtyard. Cool, huh?" Olette explained.

"It's the best thing in the world!" Vivi exclaimed, "I often heard of movies, but I didn't even see one before. Now, I go over there whenever I have the allowance."

"Do you guys have that phone on you?" Olette asked the group, pointing towards what Kirito noticed was a QR Code on the corner of the poster, "If you hold your phone up to the poster, you can download a promo game for the film, and try it at your leisure."

"Nice! I didn't know those things were still about." Kirito noticed. In his timeline, QR Codes were no longer a thing.

"You did all this, Uncle Scrooge?" Donald asked his uncle.

"Of course, laddie." he answered harshly, startling Donald, "Provide a bit of entertainment, and then give folks a nice, cozy place to relax. Like me bistro here." He pointed at the window, where the name 'Le Grand Bistrot' was spelled in reverse due to the side they were facing.

"They'll all be happy, an' hungry, an' eager to spend their money." Scrooge chuckled mischievously at the last words.

"Uncle Scrooge..." Donald sighed, knowing his uncle's 'money-grubby' personality.

"Gawrsh, he sure is canny." Goofy noted, "I always wondered how he keeps customers comin' into his businesses over and over."

"And here I thought Liz was the greediest and most cunning business person I knew as a friend..." Kirito muttered, "But if she would compete with Uncle Scrooge, she would lose big time."

"This is why we make sure to stay on his good side." Yuuki added in a warning tone. The others laughed, making words of agreement to her warning. Fortunately, Scrooge was too busy in his mischievous mindset to hear what she said.

"Sorry for the wait!" Asuna called out to the team, and they turned and became awed in amazement. Asuna and Sora had two rolling trays filled with food coming towards them. It drew the attention of many of the customers in the room.

"Little Chef went all out with creativity." Sora noted, "And he made me realized how tough it is to cook!"

They placed out dishes of soup for all who were at the table, which meant Hayner, Olette and Diavel didn't have any, along with the appetizers and the fish dishes. "For the soup, we have a nice Consommé." Asuna explained, "For our appetizer, we have some Mushroom Terrine. And for our main course, we have some Sole Meunière to share. And for dessert, we not only have the Tarte aux Fruits Little Chef gave us, but we even made Chocolate Mousse."

"Wow!" the team gasped at the sight of it all.

"Dig in! And save some for us!" Sora added, getting an elbow from Asuna.

"We made some on the side for us, remember?" She whispered, "Don't get greedy." Sora rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

Everyone dug into the meal, giving high praise for the food. "This soup is incredible!" "Gawrsh, I love this Terry-stuff." "The fish is so good! And the sauce compliments it so well!" "I feel like we truly are eating at a five-star restaurant..."

"Asuna, you really outdone yourself." Kirito complimented his girlfriend, taking a large bite of the Mushroom Terrine he placed on his small plate, "I mean, I love your cooking before, but this...!"

"Honestly, I was stunned at Little Chef's amazing cooking skills." Asuna complimented the head chef, "He taught me some new techniques and skills in the kitchen, so I can use them in the kitchen on our ship, too."

"I can't wait!" Yui exclaimed, taking the last sips of her soup, "And I really want to try that Chocolate Mousse, too!"

"Aye, and it looks like ye might have some more work to do around here." Scrooge pointed out, indicating the customers that started to order from the waiters and waitresses the stuff they were serving to their friends.

"Sora, let's get back to the kitchen." Asuna told him, "I think Little Chef might need our help." Sora nodded in agreement, and went to join the head chef back in the kitchen to help create the meals.

"Oh, by the way..." Yui realized, remember something Sora wanted to do, and turning to the Twilight Knight crew, "We have to warn you about something."

"What about?" Yuuki asked, swallowing a bit of the fish.

"It's the Heartless, and the white creatures called the Nobodies." Kirito explained, "They might turn up again in this town, so be careful. You know full well how dangerous they can be."

"It's not a problem for us." Yuuki told him, looking to Vivi, Diavel and the rest, "But we'll keep an eye out for trouble. Right, guys?"

"Sure. But don't we have you guys to take care of 'em for us?" Hayner asked, looking at the heroes.

Olette suddenly placed the pieces together and asked, in a saddened tone, "You have to leave again?" Kirito nodded in response.

"It's our job." Donald told them.

"But we'll definitely be back." Goofy assured them.

"Asuna would throw a fit if we didn't." Kirito joked, looking to Yuuki.

"We'll hold the fort down here." she assured him, "Leave it to the Twilight Knights to protect our town. Meanwhile, you guys do whatever it is you need to do."

"Sure." Kirito answered, smiling at her, "And when we get a bit stronger, let's have a rematch. I haven't shown you all the tricks I've learned."

"You AND Asuna. I wanna make sure I fight both of you." Yuuki told him, pointing a knife at him, "Don't hold back on me, okay? I'll keep training to make sure I don't lose to either one of you."

"Trust me. We won't hold back." Kirito replied, raising his own knife, and tapping Yuuki's, signaling their declaration to fight one another again. Everyone else watched the pair, seeing the friendship they had with each other, and the promise for the match to come soon between them.

It was about an hour later until Sora and Asuna were finally allowed to leave the kitchen. They were slightly worn from the cooking they had to do fast and efficiently. Fortunately, Scrooge had a couple of chefs ready to come in at that timeto help them in their place. However, thanks to their efforts, the bistro ended up getting a star ranking increase. At this point, all but Yuuki left the heroes sides to go back home, saying they had some homework to do.

"Ha! Me bistro's future is lookin' bright." Scrooge told Sora and Asuna as the seven heroes stood outside the restaurant, "The new recipes are a smash. Those ingredients of yours must really have got Little Chef's gears a turnin'. Soon, we'll be chasin' customers away! Keep up the good work." He handed the two chefs a red-ribboned box, which Asuna took with Sora's insistency.

"We try. Right, Asuna?" Sora asked, smiling at the girl in question.

"Thank Little Chef's instructions." Asuna added, "I had a really fun time working in the kitchen! We should head back her to cook with him again."

"Yeah. I betcha we'll find more ingredients if we go to different worlds." Goofy pointed out.

"Let's head back here when we have a lot of them!" Sora told the team, who nodded in agreement.

"Well, take care of yourselves." Scrooge told them, and he walked back into the bistro once more, leaving the team alone.

"Well, I'm stuffed." Kirito sighed in relief, turning away from the bistro as the team walked back to their ship.

Asuna unveiled the present they got from Scrooge, and discovered a ring inside. "A special accessory of sorts?" she asked.

"I think that might be a Gourmands Ring." Jiminy inspected the ring, "I heard it can give you better skills in the kitchen if you wear it while cooking."

"I never heard of a ring giving you improved cooking skills, but I'll take it." Asuna chuckled, pocketing the ring until the next time she came back here again.

"I'll walk you guys back." Yuuki told them, as they were about to make their way to the hill up to the clock tower.

"You took your sweet time, keeping a cute girl like me waiting." A voice suddenly spoke up. Out of the shadows of the Moogle shop, the heroes suddenly saw a girl slowly walk up and in the path between them and the hill. She was new to them, but it was the same, dark-coat, well-endowed girl with lavender hair that had been watching them from afar. The one who was bossing around Pete and Maleficent.

"Who is that?" Yuuki asked.

"I dunno." Donald answered.

"She's wearing a black coat." Sora noticed, getting into a fighter's stance, "Do you think she could be...?"

"No. Her coat is different from the Organization." Kirito answered, his eyes narrowing at the girl, "But this feeling...she definitely is potent with darkness."

"My daddy gave me approval to finally introduce myself to you." She told the team, "I gotta say, you did a good job dealing with all that trouble in that Greek town before. You put on quite the circus performance." The team looked to one another, realizing she must've been talking about Thebes in Olympus. Was she there? They didn't see her.

"Who are you?" Asuna demanded, "You obviously are no friend of ours."

"With putrid light-hearted fools like you? I would never." She answered, "My name is Tears. My daddy is making sure to take care of gathering the darkness of the worlds, in order to get what he desires. But you so called 'Guardians of Light' are getting in the way of my daddy's goals."

"Your daddy?" Yui asked, confused.

"Oh, there is no need for you to know him, just yet." Tears told them, summoning a large, black claymore with a jagged magenta scar going down it, "All you need to know is who you are dealing with right now." The team produced their weapons, ready to fight this mysterious new girl in front of them.

"But first, I think I might need to introduce to you some of my daddy's toys." She told them, and she snapped her free finger. All of a sudden, Shadows suddenly appeared from the darkness, not from the ground like they usually did, but from miniature black portals. What's more, they all were quite different from the normal Shadow. Each of their left arms and claws were not normal, but totally covered in a dark metal, making them look robotic.

"Heartless?!" Donald and Goofy exclaimed. Citizens began running away in a panic, not wanting to get involved with the monsters that suddenly appeared.

"But wait. Their arms..." Kirito noticed, looking at the robo-arms, "How come they are now made of metal?"

"Let's figure that out later!" Sora answered, readying to fight with his Keyblade.

The seven fighters charged in, and attacked the the Shadows with all they had. Their new cybernetic arms did change the way they fight. Not only did they have improved defenses with their metal limb, but the strikes they made with the claw was a bit tougher than usual. It was a bit more challenging than the usual common Heartless, but the worst was yet to come.

Six Soldier Heartless suddenly appeared, and like their brethren, they had robotic limbs; a metal claw, just like the Shadows, and a sort of cybernetic feet that had rocket-propelled boosters on the back, causing their propellor kicks to become that much more lethal and continuous. The heroes struggled, but they managed to take down the menaces before they had a chance to beat them.

When they were done, they turned to Tears, who seemed a bit bored from watching them. "What were those Heartless?!" Sora demanded.

"They don't look or feel like the same kinds of Heartless we knew and still hated." Kirito pointed out.

"Enough questions. I just wanted to see you guys struggle." Tears sighed, "But it didn't seem enough fun to watch you guys..." She raised her claymore off the ground, and readied herself to fight, "...I'll just have to have a little fun toying with you guys instead."

"Bring it!" Sora declared, charging at the girl.

"Sora!" "Hold on!" Asuna and Kirito tried to stop him, but he was already close enough to attack. He went in for the strike, but Tears already slammed her claymore down on Sora's Keyblade, forcing it out of his hands, before unleashing another upward slash that sent him careening into the wall, creating a crater with his body. The attack was really powerful, and he collapsed to the ground, barely alive.

"Sora!" Donald and Goofy exclaimed, seeing their buddy harmed badly.

"So strong...!" Kirito said in a shocked tone, turning to Tears, who held her claymore over her shoulder, readying a palm forward. Suddenly, dark energy boulders suddenly formed above the heroes, and Kirito was the first to notice. "Move!" He shouted, and they all tried to escape the attack. Unfortunately, Donald and Goofy both ended up cascaded by the attack, and found themselves trapped underneath pile of dark boulders.

"Donald! Goofy!" Yui cried, seeing them.

"Pathetic..." Tears sighed, "Are you really so troublesome, that witch and her fat cat had to warn us about facing you?"

"Witch? Fat cat?" Yuuki asked, confused.

"I think that might be Maleficent and Pete!" Asuna realized, "She must be working for them!"

"FOR them?" Tears gave a pompous, rich girl-like laugh at this statement, "Oh, please. She owes my daddy for saving their lives. THEY work for US!" Her blade glowed a dark purple, and with a swing of her blade, she unleashed a crescent shockwave that came at Kirito and Asuna, who were in front of Yuuki and Yui. The two placed their Keyblades up in defense to this attack. The attack collided with them, and they were sent flying with a scream, soaring over Yuuki and Yui, who were in shock at how easily all of their friends were being beaten.

"No..." Yui muttered, seeing her parents taken down so easily by this new girl. She looked to Donald and Goofy, with the dark boulders still holding them down. Sora struggled to get back up, but he slipped and fell down again. This girl was far beyond their capabilities to defeat.

"My daddy told me not to kill you guys. Said he needed you around a bit more." Tears spoke up, drawing her attention again, "But I guess killing off one or two of your lights won't make a difference." She pointed at Yuuki as she added, "Yours, particularly, shines way too bright to exist. I'd better take you down, right now!"

She made charge forward, and swung her claymore at both Yui and Yuuki. The latter came in, her sword glowing as she countered with a Slant Sword Skill. The collision caused a major shockwave to blast around the surrounding area, creating cracks on walls nearby them, and even send the dark boulders flying off Donald and Goofy, making them fly, too.

Yui managed to brace herself against the intense shockwave, and looked up to see Yuuki actually struggling against Tears's strength. She had actually skidded quite a bit from where she started, but Yuuki held her ground. "You're...pretty strong..." she grimaced.

"Well now. Someone who can actually hold her own against my attacks." Tears huffed, "But I wonder how long you can hold it?" She pressed her claymore harder into Yuuki's sword, nearly making her fall.

"Yuuki!" Yui shouted, unleashing her Tornado, causing Tears to fly away from the pair. She landed neatly on her feet as she glared at Yui. "Why you little..." she started, but she stopped. The moment the pair locked eyes with one another, their hearts suddenly made a loud beat. A sense of familiarity suddenly came across the both of them, as they looked at one another. Tears dropped her claymore, as she grasped her heard. She suddenly gained a splitting headache from this sudden sensation. She grimaced and yelped in pain a couple times. Yui wasn't getting this same feeling, but watched Tears as she struggled. This gave enough time for everyone else to slowly recover and get to their feet again.

"What's wrong with her?" Yuuki asked, bewildered by this sudden change.

Tears slowly recovered, but was panting from exhaustion from fighting this headache. One of her hands covered one of her eyes, but her other was staring at Yui, petrified at the sight of her. "You...who are you...?" She questioned quietly. She paused as she saw everyone else get back up again, then gritted her teeth, about to feel another headache coming on at the sight of Yui. She created a Corridor of Darkness, and slipped into it, vanishing from sight.

"What just...happened?" Asuna asked, walking towards the group.

Sora used Cure to heal himself and the others, as he stated, "I don't know what happened, but she really looked like she was in a lot of pain."

"She looked like she had a headache." Donald noticed.

Kirito looked to Yui as she continued to stare at the spot Tears disappeared to. "Yui...are you okay?" He asked, concerned for his daughter.

"I-I'm okay..." she stammered, looking to her parents, then back at the spot again, "But that girl, Tears...I feel like I know her."

The news surprised the group, as they looked to Yui, then at the spot Tear vanished. "Are you sure?" Sora asked.

"You sure you weren't imaginin' it?" Goofy asked, "Cause I don't remember ever seein' her before."

"No, it was before we met." Yui corrected him, "But...I don't remember when or where we met."

"If it was before we met, then..." Kirito started.

"Could Tears be from our world?" Asuna realized, "But when? Where?"

"I don't know. But I know one thing..." Kirito finished, glaring up at the sky, "If what Tears said is true, we might be dealing with more than just the Organization now. We might be looking at a new group of villainy." Everyone looked up at the at the sky as well, acknowledging that fact. There was a new group of enemies to deal with, and if Tears was anything to go by, they will be a tough group to beat in their current state.

Next Time on Sword Art Kingdom III:

Green Square! Beat Heartless...With Dance?!