The Time Break Saga III: Clear Skies

by The Unplanner

In the aftermath of Sora's aborted Mark of Mastery exam, Lambda and the other Guardians of Light race against Xehanort and his Seekers of Darkness to prepare for the final clash. Team Riku seeks to revive lost allies, Team Sora seeks to regain lost strength, and Team Roxas seeks to crack Ansem's Code. And deep in the Realm of Darkness, the original Time Break grows ever larger...

4. The Long Darkness

Clear Skies

Chapter 4: The Long Darkness

-"How Many Times Do I Have To Beat You?"-

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[Lambda's POV] Twilight Town: Tram Common...

Defeat the Demon Tide!

Lambda landed next to Hazama, having opted to simply fly over the walls around Twilight Town to get here faster. "Okay, what did I miss?"

Hazama gestured up at the swarm of Shadows that were somehow flying overhead. "I was just minding my own business, checking out this restaurant, when all of a sudden these little shits invaded the town and knocked over my hard-boiled eggs, so of course I cut them into tiny shreds. But the Shadows just respawn way too goddamn fast! I wonder if a Keyblade would make more of an impression?"

Lambda revved up the engines on her Glider. "Let's find out..."

A bolt of Darkness streaked into the plaza and burst to reveal Riku and Mickey. Mickey stumbled around for a bit, unused to relying so heavily on Darkness to travel, but Riku was fully alert. "Okay, what did we miss?"

Lambda replied, "Scanning...Target ID: Demon Tide. Strength: A. Speed: A. Defenses: SS. Shadows are spawning rapidly from a core in the front of the formation. Hazama says Keyblades might be more effective, but the scan data doesn't seem to indicate that."

Riku chuckled and readied his Keyblade. "Let's find out..."

Sora, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy appeared simultaneously near the Synthesis Shop, which was a short distance from the bistro Hazama called them to. Sora called as they ran over, "Okay, what did we miss?"

Replica gruffly replied, "Demon Tide. Attack the core."

Kairi summoned her Keyblade and boosted herself up to the swarm on a blast of air. "Aeroga! I'm on it!" She delivered a lengthy air combo, but the damage didn't stick. For every Shadow she cleaved away, three more spawned. The princess dropped back down to the street with nothing but frustration to show for her efforts. "No good...I guess we're going to need more firepower."

"Did somebody say MORE FIREPOWER?!" A fireball with Lea's voice came streaking over the buildings, only to be tackled out of the way by Xion's Sonic Blade lunge.

Xion and the fireball collided with a wall, and the two of them fell down next to a Dumpster. The fireball faded away to reveal Lea and a lightly toasted Xion, who proceeded to aggressively shake Lea's shoulders. "Lea, don't! You'll blow up the whole town!"

Lea slapped his forehead as he disentangled himself from Xion. "Man oh man, you're right! I've gotta put more thought into this whole last-minute rescue business." He cast Cure on Xion's burns instead of continuing to attack the Demon Tide.

"Don't worry, I've got this." Roxas zoomed into the fray as a ball of Light and leaped up with both Keyblades in hand. His Keyblades spun in front of his hands like buzz-saws as he chopped at various parts of the Demon Tide.

"It's not going to work!" Kairi called out. "I already tried that. And the core is in the front of the swarm anyway!"

As she said, all Roxas accomplished was making the Demon Tide actually notice the abnormally large group of Keyblade wielders attacking it. The eyes of every single Shadow started glowing red at the same time, and the swarm rammed downward right where Sora was standing.

"Yikes!" Luckily, Sora's tried-and-true Dodge Roll proved sufficient to get him out of the way. He looked around to try and keep an eye on the Heartless...but where did they go?

"Kairi, dodge left! They're underground!" With Namine's warning, Kairi managed to evade as the Demon Tide burst out of the ground beneath her feet, leaving behind no hole or crater. Then it crashed down on Riku, who defended himself with a Dark Barrier, but the swarm simply surged around him and went underground again. A trail of dust clouds indicated where the Demon Tide was headed, despite the lack of dust on the undamaged street.

The swarm burrowed swiftly and directly to a new target; Hazama skipped aside as the horde burst up from beneath him this time. "Can't it switch things up? This is getting boring."

Xion summoned her Bot Armor and fired plasma from her arm cannon as the Demon Tide curved through the air for yet another dive against Roxas (who Reversal-ed out of the way), but she didn't do much damage. She boost-dashed sideways as the swarm came back up from beneath her.

"DONALD METEOR!" As the Demon Tide rose back up, a series of flaming rocks from Sora and Donald's combined spell fell from the sky to meet it. While the barrage did manage to make the swarm change tactics, it also caused a bunch of craters in the street, which meant the heroes had caused more collateral damage than the monsters this time.

The Demon Tide swirled around itself, spraying Shadows as projectiles in every direction. Unlike the full swarm, the individual Shadows couldn't pass through walls, so they died upon impact with any solid object. "Protect Option!" Lambda's drone formed a barrier that defended most of the heroes from the barrage. Several dozen Shadows slammed into the barrier hard enough to destroy themselves, but not hard enough to break through Lambda's defense.

Outside the barrier, Riku put up his own Dark Shield to defend Mickey, who had found his bearings and begun charging his favorite spell.

"LIGHT!" A blinding blast spread through the whole plaza, destroying enough Shadows to finally see the glowing purple core within the Demon Tide.

Lambda dropped her barrier. "Everyone pile on that core! Aeroga!" A windstorm filled the space previously covered by the barrier, launching six Keyblade wielders (and Donald and Goofy) right at the Demon Tide's core. All seven of the Keyblades they had at their disposal pierced the blob of Darkness at the same time, rupturing it. The Shadows trailing behind it were sucked back in as the core imploded, then burst in a breathtaking explosion of reddish Darkness.

Naturally, everyone did an impromptu victory pose.

Sora spun his Keyblade around his hand and rested it on his shoulder. "Great work, everyone!"

Roxas swung both of his Keyblades to his sides and dismissed them, turning his back to the defeated Heartless. "We make a good team!"

Goofy saluted Mickey. "We couldn't have done it without ya, Your Majesty!"

Mickey rubbed his neck and dismissed the Kingdom Key D. "Aw, I'm sure you could've!"

"Yeah, I probably could've done that." Replica manifested himself and crossed his arms with a smirk.

"I'll have to come up with a new weapon to handle those." Xion thought to herself for a bit, then summoned a giant, round bomb covered in a red and orange checkered design. The fuse on top crackled and fizzed like a sparkler. "Yeah, these 'Ripple Bombs' ought to do the trick! Sora really did have a move for every occasion." She idly tossed the bulky explosive from one hand to the other.

Sora insisted, "I still do! I just...can't use them right now."

Lea yelled, "Xion, put that thing away! You just called me out over collateral damage!" Xion responded by tossing the bomb way up into the air, where it had room to burst into a multicolored fireworks display.

"Speaking of which...wow, this place really is a mess." Kairi looked around. It wasn't just the craters from Donald's errant meteors; even before the battle, there were bags of trash and empty crates stacked up next to almost every wall.

"It wasn't this messy last time I was here," Roxas noted. "I wonder why...oh! That new restaurant is right where the dump used to be!"

"Now what's all this racket? Yer scarin' away me customers!" Out of the new restaurant came Scrooge McDuck, complete with hat and cane. "Oh, it's me nephew! And it looks like ye've made gobs of new friends since I last saw ye!"

Donald ran up to the other duck. "Uncle Scrooge! What're you doing here?"

Goofy asked, "Didn't we see you in Radiant Garden, comin' up with new ice cream flavors? Did ya ever recreate that flavor you were talkin' about?"

Scrooge recounted his offscreen adventures in a very thick accent. "Aye, that I did, and it was a huge success! But then I finally remembered where I tasted it before, so I got Merlin t' bring me here! Unfortunately, I couldnae compete with the old lady on the other side of the street. Customer loyalty's a powerful thing, lads! I woulda been sunk if it weren't for me Little Chef. With his help, I've set up 'Le Grande Bistrot', and business is booming! ...Or it would be, if someone hadnae torn up the street!"

Donald slumped over. "Sorry, Uncle Scrooge..."

Scrooge turned a sly, half-lidded gaze on Donald. "Ye could pay me back, ye know..."

Donald slumped further over, like a half-melted snowman. "Oh, brother. Here we go..."

Luckily, the recompense Scrooge had in mind wasn't particularly harsh. "Just fetch me some ingredients from around the town. Little Chef needs all sorts of things to get his culinary inspiration churning! Nine different foodstuffs will do the trick."

Kairi turned out to be very on board with this plan. "EEE! Side-quests!" With a grin, she darted off to purchase things from street vendors and pull fruits from baskets around town. (Someone had apparently left baskets of fresh fruits and vegetables everywhere with "Take One" written on the sides. The townspeople certainly weren't complaining.) In no time at all, Kairi was back to present her findings from her Pouch of Holding.

"Aye, that's some good stuff! Thank ye kindly, lass!" Scrooge took the ingredients inside, and judging by the sounds from the kitchen, his mysterious "Little Chef" was already hard at work on his next masterpiece.

Riku righted one of the tables that were knocked down during the battle and sat down. "I suppose we should put in an order while we're here?"

Lambda sat across from him after hefting Mickey into a third seat. "I'm always ready to try new foods!"

"I'm pretty hungry, too," Sora plopped into a chair. "How much munny do we have?"

"I'll pay-Mmph!" Mickey was silenced by Donald shoving a hand over his mouth.

"No! You always overpay everyone, and if you do that to Uncle Scrooge, it'll be a disaster!"

Kairi checked her pouch. "I spent about 200 munny on the fish and bread I brought over, so I'm almost out of the munny I got at Olympus."

"I don't know what a 'side-quest' is, but it doesn't sound very profitable." Xion looked over at Lea and Roxas, who both shook their heads. They hadn't had much of a chance to make munny since their reconstruction.

Sora perked up. "Wait, I forgot about all the munny I made in the Sleeping Worlds!" He dumped about 3000 munny on the table.

"How do you still have that?! Do I still have that?!" Riku checked his pockets and found that he was indeed much richer than he'd been before going to sleep. "Huh. Actually, I remembered having twice this much. Maybe Sora and I were sharing it the whole time, so now we each get half. I guess I can pay for everyone."

"Sora, party of 11, can I take your order?" Sora looked up at Hayner, who was apparently working part-time as a waiter at this bistro. "The owner 'grudgingly sends his regards' for saving the bistro, so everything's 20% off for your group. We can chat after my shift!"

Hayner passed out menus to everyone - which didn't help most of them, since everything was written in French. Aside from Hazama, who learned French during the time loops back in the Azure Timeline (and he just wanted a hard-boiled egg anyway), and Lambda, who could ask the Azure's database what it said (and French was a lot easier to decode than the language of the Neuroi anyway), everyone had to just poke at items from each section and hope they got something good.

Then they waited. And waited. Sora eventually got impatient and went in the door - Donald was too late to stop him.

Sora's panicked voice carried out to the bemused onlookers. "Whoa, what's this on my - HEY! Give me my legs back! Are you...oh. I guess you just wanted a helper to cook this stuff. Well...okay!" With Sora's dubiously voluntary assistance, the food was ready in just a few more minutes, and the rest of the heroes were treated to the very strange sight of Sora wobbling out the door, moving like a puppet on strings, with a platter of amazing-smelling food in his arms...and a gray rat on his head, pulling his hair spikes with its paws like they were the controls of a giant mecha.

Riku chuckled at Sora's predicament as his best friend was coerced into serving him food. "So that's the esteemed 'Little Chef'. Sure, why not? Today's been crazy enough."

Hayner brought out another platter for Team Roxas. "All employees are sworn to secrecy, but I guess Little Chef made an exception for this bunch of weirdos."

Olette showed up with Team Sora's platter and a hard-boiled egg in a little cup for Hazama. "Kairi, is that you? I hardly recognized you with the new hair and outfit!"

"Yeah! Sora and Riku saved me, but I've decided to save myself from now on. I guess plaid is 'in' this year, huh?" Kairi gestured to Olette's and Hayner's clothes, which were in the same style they'd worn before, but now colored black with red plaid pants.

Hayner called over, "Olette! We've got a job to do! You can talk fashion later!"

Olette sheepishly withdrew from Kairi's table. "I hear you. Stop by the old mansion later, guys! Pence has been fixing the computer down in the basement, and I think he's almost done."

"Hayner...Pence...Olette..." Roxas was too dazed to respond as the Usual Suspects went back into the bistro. It really felt like forever since he'd been here. And these weren't his Usual Suspects, but...well, the connections between hearts were confusing, to put it mildly. Xion nudged him toward his food, which was... "This is delicious! I was worried when I picked it at random, but I guess everything Little Chef makes is good."

Still on Sora's head, Little Chef nodded smugly.

Kairi asked the rat, "I'm sorry, but can I have my boyfriend back now? Also, thank you for the food, err..."

The rat didn't seem to say anything besides some unintelligible chitters, but Kairi apparently understood. "Your name's 'Remy', then? Well, thank you for the food, Remy!"

Remy smiled, hopped off Sora's head, and scampered back into the kitchen.

Jiminy Cricket popped out of Sora's hair and shook his tiny fist in the direction of the door...even as he sampled some of Sora's potato soup. "Well I never! This hairdo isn't big enough for the both of us, you scoundrel! ...I must admit, though, he really does make good food."

Hazama deadpanned, "So we're just going to gloss over the fact that Kairi apparently speaks fluent rodent-ese?"

"It sounds like a Princess of Heart thing," Lambda replied around a mouthful of fish. Riku reached over and brushed some sauce off of her cheek with a napkin, making her blush.

Lea snickered, "If it weren't for the contractual obligation to get kidnapped at some point, being a Princess of Heart would be a pretty sweet deal."

Kairi pouted at Lea...only to notice something about Lambda, who was sitting in her line of sight. "Lambda, what is that thing in your pocket?! Keep it away from me!" How did Kairi not notice the thing before?! ...Oh, right. The Demon Tide. The swarm of Shadows was dark and scary in its own right, and certainly better at drawing attention to itself than the thing.

Lambda blinked a few times, then remembered the crystal her team found in the Realm of Darkness. "Oh. That thing." She brought it out, and tried to explain what it was, struggling to be heard over Kairi's sudden descent into total screaming terror. "It's a shard of the original X-Blade's Darkness; I call it a X-Frag. I guess it makes sense that Kairi would have a bad reaction to it...where else can we store it, though?"

Merlin replied, "Luckily, I just so happen to specialize in the safe handling of lost and forbidden knowledge!"

Riku jumped out of his chair when he noticed a fourth seat had appeared at his table. "Whoa, how long have you been here, Merlin!?"

Merlin chuckled. "Only long enough to assess the problem. Yen Sid and I can safeguard this 'X-Frag' for you. If you discover any other fragments during your foray into the Realm of Darkness, be sure to deliver them to Yen Sid immediately."

"Will do." Riku handed off the X-Frag, and Merlin *poofed* away - chair, meal, and all. Kairi immediately started to calm down, so everyone could finish eating. Having finished her meal, Xion pulled her Gummiphone out to post about the full Le Grande Bistrot customer experience. She updated her shirt to read, "Eating and Tweeting: Better Together".

Once everyone was finished, they all headed to the old mansion...Except Hazama, who went off on his own again.

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Excerpt from new GummiNet chatroom: Fun and Minigames...

Xion: [Photo: Remy holding onto Sora's hair] We saved a new restaurant in Twilight Town...with an interesting "head chef!" [chef hat emoji] Hero work tastes good! #TeamEverybody #LeGrandeBistrot #LittleChefRemy #RatControlled #SwornToSecrecy

Lea: if it's a secret, don't post it on a public chatroom! #nocommonsense #gotitmemorized

Xion: [Sweatdrop emoji] Oops.

Kairi: I don't think it's a huge problem. After all, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are sitting right here. #DoubleStandard #SpeaksFluentRodentese #PrincessPerks

Sora: I'm here, too! Don't forget me! #JiminyCricketWasHere #getoffthescreen #sora

Lambda: Are you seriously texting each other when we're all sitting right here? I can do it hands-free, but all of your food is going to get cold at this rate. It would be a huge shame to waste such good food! #TeamEverybody #Multitasking #AugmentedRealityFTW #Delicious

Hazama: I can confirm that the food is good :) #HardBoiledEggs #OneTrueFood #AlwaysSpying

Roxas: to each his own. this tart axe fruit thing is really good too! #justhazamathings #stilltexting #dualwielding #teamroxas #dessert #whatevenisfrench

Riku: Causing a loud scene in public, though...not so much. #Kairi #XFrag #PrincessProblems

Riku: Sorry about that. I didn't want to just leave it where we found it, though; it created a Heartless the size of a cave around itself! #RealmOfDarkness #CaveOfReturn #ProbablyImportant

Kairi: You're forgiven, Riku, don't worry. I'm so embarrassed! I lost all my composure so quickly. That thing really does scare me to death, though... Definitely don't let Xehanort get ANY of them! #GottaCatchEmAll #PrincessProblems #XBlade #EndOfTheWorlds

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Twilight Town: Tunnels...

"Why oh why did they seal up the hole in the wall? I liked that convenient hole." Roxas grumbled as Hayner led the party through the cramped, smelly underground tunnels, which were now the only way to reach the woods outside town (at least for people who couldn't just fly over the town walls).

Olette replied, "The mayor didn't like the idea of evil monsters of Darkness invading the town, so he ordered it to be sealed up right after those Organization guys staged that big invasion with the...time rip things. Can you blame him?"

"I kinda can, since the tunnels are already infested with Heartless anyway." Replica flew over the group's heads into the middle of a group of Shadows, annihilating them with a Dark Burst.

"Proximity alert." Lambda sent a basic Option to shoot an orange pot that seemed to be discarded along the side of the tunnel, revealing it to be a Heartless. "Target ID: Popcat. They're definitely weak, but they might get the jump on someone in these tunnels."

"That's it! I can't stand this mess anymore! I'm going to make up a custom spell. Clean!" Kairi brandished her Keyblade, forcing the people around her to duck. It sprayed iridescent bubbles from its tip that floated this way and that. Wherever the bubbles landed, they popped, causing any piles of trash they touched to disappear into bursts of sparkles until the space around Kairi was spotless. Some of the trash left behind bits of munny, too!

"You can get paid for that?!" Donald now had a vested interest in learning this new spell.

"That wasn't actually how I expected the spell to work," Kairi admitted, "but I'll take it! It's useless in combat, though." She pointed out another Popcat which wasn't affected by the spell. Lambda's Option blasted it.

Hayner got on his knees and begged, "Can you cast that spell on the whole tunnel? Everyone hates the smell in this place."

Kairi giggled. "Sure, Hayner." She bumped her way to the front of the group, and the Tunnels were literally cleaned out soon enough.

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The Woods...

The group emerged into blessed fresh air. From there, it was a short jaunt through the woods (also known as, well, The Woods) to reach the Old Mansion. Unfortunately, the Heartless were all over this place, too.

"It's been a while since I've fought Powerwilds!" Sora blocked a sliding kick from a gray, monkey-like Heartless and retaliated with a strong uppercut that knocked the baddie into the air, allowing Sora to continue his combo.

"These guys are even more annoying than I remember!" Donald tried to cast Fire at a group of Powerwilds clinging to the trees, but he was interrupted by one of them throwing an oversized acorn at his head, leaving him dazed.

"Gravity Option!" Lambda's Option morphed into a boxy satellite that flew around the woods, pulling the Powerwilds in the trees down to the ground with a field of intense gravity.

"Thanks, dear! That makes things much easier!" Riku dove into combat and defeated all the monkeys in a matter of seconds.

"Behind you!" Kairi warned him of a new group of Heartless containing a Large Body and several Vermillion Sambas, which took a moment to summon fiery glyphs before attacking.

The extra delay cost them, as Riku tore the new group of Heartless apart as easily as the others. "These guys are too easy. There aren't even that many of them."

"Maybe you need a change of pace, then!" That wasn't Namine or Replica talking - Xigbar's voice echoed through the trees. Tiny wormholes began opening, spitting glowing pink arrows down at the heroes.

"Protect Option!" Lambda covered the whole party in a barrier, rolled her eyes, and kept walking. "Maybe later, Xigbar."

"As if. You won't blow me off that easily! Now, everybody dance!" Xigbar started firing his blue, defense-penetrating crystals, forcing Lambda to drop the barrier so everyone could dodge...right into each other.

Once the barrage ended, Olette healed everyone. "Curaga! Is everyone okay?"

"...Target locked on. Riku, this way!" Lambda grabbed Riku's hand and ran off the path.

"Fellas, wait up!" Mickey charged after them.

"Your Majesty!" Donald tried to follow, but Goofy stopped him.

"Team Riku can handle that guy, no problem. We need to stick together!"

"Actually, we don't," Roxas pointed out. "You guys have training to do, but we're just waiting on Ienzo to finish analyzing Ansem's Code. You should head to a world called Toy Box; Hazama said Xehanort's younger self is there making a mess of things."

Sora considered it and nodded. "Well...okay. We'll let you catch up with the Usual Suspects, then."

"Say hi to Pence for me!" Kairi teleported her team back to the Kingdom, leaving behind a swirling save point.

Hayner tried to sort out everything he'd just heard. "So, um, Roxas...how do I know you again?"

"That's a long story. I'll tell you after we find Pence and have a chance to sit down." The now manageably-sized resumed heading to the Old Mansion.

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[Team Riku's POV]

Defeat Xigbar!

"Tracing spatial distortions...target locked on." Lambda made a beeline for the specific tree that had Xigbar hiding in its boughs. "Gravity Option!"

A purple field of increased gravity surrounded the tree, but no Nobody came tumbling down. A pink crystal shot out of the foliage and destroyed the Option. "Think you can beat me with Gravity magic? As if!"

"Just checking. Riku?" Lambda stepped aside to give Riku room to jump all the way to the top of the tree and clock Xigbar on the head with his Keyblade. "Nice one, dear!" The sounds of a struggle came from up the tree, but no one could see anything from below.

Mickey arrived on the scene and yelled, "Xigbar! Why are you still on Xehanort's team, anyway? Surely you must've noticed he's the losing side."

The only reply was the whooshing sound of Xigbar's teleportation. Lambda grumbled, "No answer, huh?"

"That's my fault," Riku admitted as he dropped back down. "I went kinda hard on him up there."

Replica chuckled, "Only 'kinda'? You gave him a wedgie and left him hanging from a branch!"

Riku defended, "And he'd never have expected it! Speaking of unexpected things, I wonder if all the Organization members wear Nobody Emblem-print boxers like he does?"

Everyone collapsed laughing on the forest floor. Lambda wiped some tears of mirth from her eyes and offered, "So, are you three up for one of those Trial Worlds now?"

Riku pushed himself to his feet. "Might as well. Pushover or not, Xigbar was clearly only here to split up the group, and he did. So we're back to taking care of each team's own business." He led the way back to the Old Mansion, and from there to the save point, which was thankfully still active in the library.

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[Realm of Darkness] Trial Worlds: Hub...

One door was glowing purple, making it easy to guess where to start. A label was engraved on the door:

Trial World I:

Eclipse Town

"That sounds kind of like the first Training World," Lambda noted. "And if that's the case, we're talking about a large, ruined city that'll be crawling with too many Heartless to track the boss."

"Let's find out..." Riku pushed open the door, and Darkness spilled out to swallow the team...

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Eclipse Town: Ruins...

Everything was as Lambda predicted, except that instead of a full moon overhead to provide a little illumination, there were no moon or stars at all, leaving the whole world in pitch darkness except for the glowing eyes of the Pureblood Heartless that had already gathered around. "Called it. The systematic approach it is, then."

Riku sniffed the air. "No, I can tell exactly where the boss is...but man, it's fast! It's...it's coming right at us!"

At that point, the boss' presence grew strong enough for anyone to detect, enhanced senses or not. It gave them the hair-raising feeling of being watched, but to such an intense degree that the team could practically see out of the bloodshot eyes of the predator stalking them.

Luckily, once they pushed through the terrifying intensity of it, that absolute killing intent made the boss' inevitable pounce really easy to predict and dodge. Behind and to the left! Everyone got out of the way safely, watching a black blur tear through Shadows and Darkballs. Whatever this thing was, it was strong and vicious.

The only three things they could discern about it were A) that it was a Heartless, with the customary round, glowing yellow eyes, but B) the glow of those eyes was red, not yellow, and C) its huge silhouette was somehow even darker than the pitch blackness all around it.

Lambda tried to scan it in the split second it spent in the clearing, but she was too slow. "Scanning...target lost. It got away."

Riku groaned. "Great...now we're going to be stalked by that thing the whole time we're here."

Replica shouted, "It's already coming back! Dodge left!" Everyone dove out of the way as the boss came sailing through the clearing again.

"I recognize these tactics...this is the Heartless I was fighting when you all got caught by the Cave of Return! Light, give me-OOF!" Mickey tried to charge up a blast of Light to illuminate this place, but the boss bowled him over before he could build up enough power.

"Mickey!" Riku zipped over to his fallen friend and put a Dark Barrier over the two of them, sweating a bit as the boss came lunging at them again...

*PING!*While Riku's barrier held up to the assault, the spherical shield was sent rolling away from the clearing and out of sight, leaving Lambda alone with the beast. "Riku! NO!" Lambda tried to run after them, but the boss' silhouette blocked her path.

"No! You won't separate us! Never again! Fire Option!" She summoned a crystal fireball that belched a stream of flames at the silhouette, which dodged by circling around the clearing too quickly to track...but that was Lambda's plan. She fired her Braid Beam off to the side, allowing the boss to barrel into it and stumble to a halt long enough for Lambda to finally scan it.

"Scanning...Target ID: Dark Hide. Threat level: S. Strength: S. Magic: A. Defense: A. Speed: SS. Current movement patterns analyzed." She crooked a taunting finger in the Dark Hide's direction, then launched a Firaga when it charged at her. It took the fireball to the face and stopped rushing. Instead, it closed in on Lambda, clawing wildly with its front legs.

"Blizzaga!" Before it could get into paw's reach of Lambda, a spike of ice drove into one of its glowing eyes, exploding in a burst of frost when it failed to pierce all the way through. "Just die already! Thundaga!" Bolts of lightning crashed down on the Dark Hide, covering its whole body in a painful electric charge...

The Dark Hide arched its back as if roaring, but no sound came out. The Darkness hiding it from view dispersed, however, revealing the nondescript ruins around the clearing and the Heartless itself.

It was canine in appearance, with dark purple, hairless skin. Crisscrossing veins covered it from its head to its feet, but not on its spike-ended, segmented tail. A ring of reddish tentacles formed a mane around its wedge-shaped head. Its mouth was constantly open, tongue lolling out around sharp teeth that seemed to be part of its jaws - a common feature of powerful Purebloods. Unlike Invisibles or Darksides, though, there wasn't any heart-shaped hole in its torso that Lambda could see. Besides the jaws, its primary weapons were the bright purple claws on its four feet; five on the front legs and four on the back. Its front legs wore metal cuffs with chains dangling out to the sides, ending in sharp anchors that flailed about as it moved.

And man, could it move! Now that its stealth advantage was negated, it focused on moving really, really fast. It seemed to surround the clearing in a tornado of claws, only to come spiraling out at random angles like a fanged missile. Lambda put up a Protect option in a half-dome around her, wary of being sent tumbling like Riku was. She attempted to send various Options out to fight while staying inside her barrier, but the Dark Hide wouldn't let them stick around long enough to fire. Lambda knew that if she dropped her barrier to fight it herself, then she'd be destroyed just as quickly.

"Grr! While I'm stuck here, Riku could be..."

...Breaking back into the fray and meeting the Dark Hide's pounces move for move with his own Dark Aura attack! "Are you okay, dear? I'm sorry for leaving you in the lurch back there."

"LIGHT!" A blinding nova blasted the Dark Hide out of its circling pattern and sent it tumbling to the middle of the clearing, right in front of Lambda's shield. Mickey flew back into the clearing with a spinning leap, carving along the Dark Hide's back and landing on top of the barrier. "Sorry about earlier, fellas! I hope I got it right this time!"

The Dark Hide roared again, and this time they could hear the rumbling whoosh of powerful Dark magic behind it. The beast created differently-colored afterimages as it stood back up...but instead of trailing behind it, they ran forward and attacked, effectively giving the boss five extra sets of claws! The ethereal claws sheared right through Lambda's barrier, destroying the Protect Option and sending Mickey tumbling down into Lambda's arms. "Got you, Your Majesty! Let's finish this thing off!"

Before they could aim any more spells, though, the Dark Hide dove into a pool of Darkness and popped up beneath them with a raging orange vortex. Lambda and Mickey were sent tumbling away from each other as the Dark Hide dove underground again.

"I'll handle this." Replica manifested himself and dove into his own pool of Darkness, meeting the boss on its way to Riku. The combined pool bubbled with an unseen struggle, but Replica had no body to be hit. "Dark Riser!" He blasted the boss up into the air and vanished to recover his energy.

"Tow Option!" Before the boss could fall back down, Lambda summoned four flying saucer-like Options with long, hooked cables above it. A pair of Options hooked onto each of the boss' decorative chains, leaving it hanging helplessly in the air. "Gotcha! Everyone let him have it!"

"Holy!" *PSSSEEEEEEEWWWW!* Mickey's spell called down a beam of Light from above.

"Dark Cannon!" Replica hadn't recovered enough for anything really flashy, but he did launch a salvo of eight Dark Firaga balls that homed in all over the boss.

"Bladecharge!" Riku coated his Keyblade in a huge aura of Light before leaping up to deliver a single mighty slash, finally destroying the boss. A wave of Darkness washed over everything, sending them back to the Hub...

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Trial Worlds: Hub...

Everyone woke up in a tangled pile, leaning up against a blank wall where the door to Eclipse Town used to be. The door to the right of that was now glowing and labeled:

Trial World II:

Lotus University

Lambda nodded in understanding. "Yep, it's a pattern. Hopefully we can breeze through all of these as quickly as the last one."

Riku stood up and stretched. "I'm ready for another round. How about you, Your Majesty?"

"Sure am!"

"Hold on," Lambda interrupted, "we should text the others and give a mission report."

Riku asked, "Why bother? We haven't gotten very far with this."

Lambda explained, "Because this is the Realm of Darkness, so we've got to be careful not to lose track of time. Otherwise, years could pass out there before we notice! I remember sending communications into the Training Worlds caused the altered flow of time to synchronize with the real world, which is why Roxas had to join us inside. I'm hoping I can get the same effect here."

Mickey gave her a thumbs up. "Wow, good thinking! I want to keep Minnie up to speed, too." He checked his Gummiphone, but apparently Queen Minnie either didn't have one yet, or she didn't keep it turned on, so he pulled out a bottle, a quill, and a sheet of parchment for his usual letter-in-a-bottle communication while Riku and Lambda logged into the GummiNet.

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GummiNet chatroom: Exploration Log...

Lambda: [Photo: the door to Trial World II] We've cleared the first Trial World! It looks like we're doing a rehash of the Training Worlds for now. I'm glad it didn't take us a day and a half to clear the first one this time! The boss was a doozy, though, and this was just the first of seven! Rescuing Master Aqua is going to be tougher than I thought... #TeamRiku #TrialWorlds #EclipseTown #LotusUniversity

Riku: I've never seen anything strong enough to send me rolling away inside my barrier! #DarkHide #RealmOfDarkness

Sora: hercules did it to pete once #olympuscolosseum #underworld

Riku: I'll keep that in mind in the future. So, how goes the training?

Kairi: [Photo: selfie of Kairi as a doll in Andy's room] Everyone else turned into action figures on this world. Even Donald! So why did I turn into a dress-up doll? The locals confused me for someone named "Barbie." #ToyBox #ToyLivesMatter #DoubleStandard #StillInTraining

Donald: HEY

Goofy: [Photo: Verum Rex box art] They also think Sora's some character from a video game! "Yozora" or something. That character kind of looks more like Riku, though! #VerumRex #AlreadyFamous #StillInTraining

Kairi: [Photo: Buzz Lightyear firing his wrist laser at a Toy Trooper Heartless] We haven't seen Xehanort around yet, but the Heartless are definitely here. Our best lead is a nearby toy store called "Galaxy Toys." Keep in touch!

Xion: Speaking of keeping in touch, it turns out Ansem's computer in Radiant Garden is connected to the one in Twilight Town! Pence got it running, so Ienzo can use some "distributed computing" mumbo-jumbo to analyze Ansem's Code that much faster! [Thumbs up emoji] #TeamRoxas #UsualSuspects #ExOrganization #CrackingTheCode

Ienzo: It's not "mumbo-jumbo", but it is apparently above your level of education. Not that I expected anything different from most of you. On the topic of the Code, though, we've analyzed about 30% of it. So far, it's just copies of Ansem's research into the mysteries of the heart, dated from back before Radiant Garden fell. It seems the most important data is even more heavily encrypted, but steady progress is being made. #ZexionVI #ExOrganization #CrackingTheCode

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A/N: Happy late Thanksgiving, everyone! Speaking of which, I'd like to thank anyone who's still following this. An especially big thank-you is in order for Titano Man XIII, who seems to be the only person still reviewing each chapter. Of course, there are also several new followers and favorite-ers to thank, as well as a crowd of other readers. It really does make my day every time I get another one of those notifications!

Don't worry, not all the Trial Worlds are just watered-down Training Worlds, and it won't be seven chapters until we're past this plot arc. I do have an actual plan for all seven of them, too, so hopefully it won't take forever to write them out. I still have to plan how much the other teams can accomplish in that time, though.