I don't own Kingdom hearts or Final fantasy or Disgaea or anything that I shouldn't. So don't sue me please. So always remember if you don't like it, don't read it. Honesty no one is making you read it. Anyways on with the next chapter…

Chapter 3

Joe took a headcount then a quick check of their surroundings. Lily was good at what she did, granted, but not even she was good enough to make portal travel perfect. He was pulling pieces of Rinnic out of his hair for three weeks after the last incident. Fortunately everyone was accounted for on this trip, which was the norm. "The Stellar Graveyard?" Laharl said, recognizing the landscape.

"Thursday, begin scanning for Gordan's biosigns." Jennifer said. Thursday was Jennifer's creation, an all purpose super robot. He was pretty useful to have around, and quite possibly the greatest human creation Joe had ever seen. On several occasions he had seen Thursday make incredibly complicated calculations in a matter of seconds and all in his head. But he wasn't all brains, he was also carrying an assortment of the best human weapons money could buy. Joe wasn't afraid of Thursday, but he knew from fighting him before that he wasn't to be underestimated.

"Scanning…" Thursday replied. Joe could hear Thursday's scanners powering up. If Gordan was anywhere in a five mile radius of this place, or had been in the last several hours, Thursday would know. "Detecting faint bio-resin." Thursday said as his three mechanical eyes rotated.

"Is it Gordan's?" Jennifer asked. Joe could tell she was worried. Even though Gordan was a completely ignorant of how Jennifer felt about him, that never changed how she felt. If Gordan was in trouble she was always right there for him, and if he was in any kind of danger she wanted to be right there in it with him. Thursday's mechanical eyes flashed red and yellow.

"Negative, unknown bio signatures." Thursday replied, followed by a few of his trademark beeps. Jennifer's look of worry seemed to deepen, but Joe knew that this was for more then one reason. Flonne looked shocked.

"Um, but I thought that Thursday had a copy of all the creatures in the Netherworld?" Flonne asked. Jennifer nodded.

"Yes he does, I programmed him with the bio signatures of every known creature in all the Netherworld and Celestia. There shouldn't be anything here that he doesn't know." Jennifer said. Laharl crossed his arms in frustration. Joe shot a glance at the new guy. He seemed almost unaffected by all of this, almost. His right hand had developed a slightly tighter grip and his breathing had slightly sped up. He could just be scared, but he couldn't afford to let something like that slip. Jennifer had decided to check Thursday's memory circuits, Joe decided he would take this opportunity to question the newcomer but it would have to come later. There was something new in the area, he could feel it. And from the looks of things so could Laharl.

"What is it?" Kristin asked, placing her hand on her sword. Jennifer quickly closed Thursday. Joe could once again hear Thursday's scanners power up.

Sora knew this feeling, he knew it all to well. It was a feeling that had been plaguing him for the better part of the last four years. It was the feeling they always brought with them, it was the feeling that had haunted his sleep, it was the feeling that had started all of this. God he hated it. "Unknown biosigns detected matching pre-scanned bio-resin." Thursday warned. Sora looked at Jennifer confused.

"Um, what did he say?" Sora asked. Jennifer looked tense.

"Whatever was here before just came back." Jennifer said. Sora suddenly felt very worried. He had seen this happen dozens of times before on dozens of different worlds, none of which had the proper weapons to fight them. Sora drew his keyblades, Oathkeeper and Bonds of Friendship. He could see Joe's eyes widen, his gaze focused on Sora.

"How the hell did you just…" Joe had started to say something but was swiftly cut off by a light shining over them. Sora looked up to examine where the light was coming from, it was exactly what he was worried about. A Search Ghost, a heartless. Sora tossed his keyblade at the Search Ghost hopping to destroy it, destroy before it let the others know what was here. His shot connected with the Search Ghost, destroying it, but he was certain that its light had changed to red just before.

"We have to go, now!" Sora said. Joe grabbed Sora by the scruff of the neck and held him there. Laharl drew his sword and walked up to Sora. Best Sora could tell, the blade was made entirely out of some kind of energy and it didn't look like there would be much left of him after he had a run in with it.

"What the hell was that thing?" Laharl said, demanding an answer. He swiftly took over Joe's position of Sora captor. Sora struggled to get himself free. They didn't have time for this, hell it was probably already to late. Laharl's grip tightened. "Answer me!" Laharl demanded. Sora continued to struggle with Laharl's grip.

"We don't have time for this!" Sora proclaimed. "That Search Ghost just let out our position and in a matter of minutes this place is going to be crawling wall to wall with heartless!" Sora continued to struggle. He was good, he knew how good he was, but he wouldn't be able to fight the heartless and protect them at the same time. God he wished Donald and Goofy were here, at least then he'd of stood a chance.

"Laharl please! Let him go." Flonne begged, trying to get in between the two. "What if he's telling the truth? We all could be in danger. I don't want to lose anyone!" Flonne said. Sora could feel Laharl's grip loosen. It was good to know that not all of them were so aggressive. Laharl shot a look of pure annoyance at Flonne. Flonne smirked and let out a forced giggle. Laharl's grip loosened further but it was still pretty tight. Laharl looked back at Sora.

"What's a heartless?" Laharl asked. Sora groaned.

"I would love to answer that for you but can we please get out of here first." Sora pleaded. Laharl's eyes widened a little and he shot a quick glance towards a pile of junked debris. Sora knew what he was looking at. Thursday's eyes began to flicker red and yellow.

"Multiple biosigns detected, three hundred sixty degree radius!" Thursday bellowed. A number of weapons began to mount them selves upon Thursday. And with that a Large Body heartless came crashing through the junked debris Laharl was so fixed upon. Laharl's grip on Sora disappeared and was now, seemingly, completely focused on his sword.

"Ready prince?" Joe growled his fangs peeking out from the corners of his mouth. It's been awhile since he's had a descent fight. Shooting a quick glance at Kristin Joe noticed a faint look of panic, could she possibly be scared. No, it must be just his imagination. Flonne let out a small shriek as she backed away in fear, more and more tiny creatures appeared from the darkness that now covered the ground. Sora shot a glance at Laharl.

"See!" Sora snapped. Laharl shot a quick glance at Sora then returned his gaze to the large heartless, firing a blast of energy from his sword at it. The heartless was sent soaring back towards the debris but was quickly back on its feet. Laharl looked almost shocked, the heartless wasn't even scratched. Joe took another quick head count, but this time it was of the heartless. They were already outnumbered four to one. They had been in worse situation but that particular heartless just took a direct blast from the Yoshitsuna, Laharl's sword, he hadn't seen anything take that shot and recover so quickly or at all for that matter. He could see Kristin making her way towards Flonne, she knew her job. Joe began beating a path towards Laharl. He didn't think he managed to kill a single heartless the whole way, in fact he didn't even seem to be harming them.

"Prince!" Joe called. Laharl was swinging his sword madly at the heartless around them. Yoshitsuna; the sword so sharp that its weight alone can cut the strongest known metals like they were paper, the sword so strong that only Baal was able to withstand its sting and live, the sword of ten thousand victories was nothing more then an annoyance to these things. No one knew the prince better then Joe, well maybe Flonne, he knew the princes expressions and the prince looked worried. In all the battles they had ever fought Laharl had always been able to pummel whatever he was fighting, always, and he couldn't even dent the heartless. "I think we may have a problem here" Joe snapped the neck of a small heartless making a lunge for his face, or at least it should've broken its neck but he didn't here the familiar popping sound that makes. Laharl didn't answer him, either he didn't here him or he was just to busy to answer him. On the plus side, whatever problem he and Laharl were having, it didn't seem to be occurring to Kristin and the new guy. They were killing these things just fine. Joe landed a few more punches on some armor wearing heartless, they looked a little more dangerous having much more pronounced claws then the other smaller ones. He couldn't see Jennifer and Thursday, he could only hope that they were doing fine as well.

"This isn't right." Flonne stuttered her body shaking. Fear was getting the better of her, and right now someone panicking wasn't a good thing. Her whole body felt as if it were paralyzed. Her mind screamed to run yet her legs remained in the same spot not moving an inch. The smaller group of heartless surrounded the celestian, blocking off any escape. "Flonne move out of the way!" Kristin yelled swinging at the heartless around her. Flonne wanted so badly to do as she commanded but as you know that wasn't possible. The creatures known as the heartless jumped into the air landing onto Flonne's shoulders and head. There claw like fingers ripping and pulling. Covering her face and now trembling quite severely she could hear Kristin scream out to her again. "La..har..l!" Flonne managed to shriek out as she was pulled and knocked over onto the ground. She wanted to hear Laharl's voice answer but everything was muffled out by the large amount of heartless swarmed around her.

Laharl swung his head towards Flonne, she was in trouble, deep. He would be damned if he was about to let these things take her from him. Laharl grabbed a heartless lunging at him and tossed it aside as he began fighting his way towards Flonne. He could see that Sora was doing the same thing. Why was he able to destroy them, did it have something to do with his strange weapons. Laharl couldn't see Flonne under all the heartless but he knew she was there, he intended to fix that. Kristin was cutting the heartless away from Flonne as fast as she could but it was a losing battle, somehow she was able to harm them too. Laharl lunged over one of the armored heartless that was running at him and landed in front of Flonne. He wasn't sure if he was just seeing things but it looked like the pile of heartless surrounding Flonne was sinking into the ground, and Flonne was going with them! Laharl began ripping and clawing at the heartless around Flonne trying desperately to dig her out. One of the heartless bit him as he pulled it off, normally he'd of dealt with this one more personally but he didn't have time for that right now. He could tell Sora was almost there, the sounds the heartless make when they die was becoming louder and louder. The pile of heartless was almost completely gone and he still hadn't found Flonne. "LAHARL MOVE!" Sora yelled as he pushed Laharl aside. Had Laharl seen that coming it never would've worked. Sora drove one of weapons into the pile of heartless and turned it. "Now!" Sora was trying desperately to fend of the heartless with his other weapon. "Pull her out!" Sora said. Laharl immediately dove into the pile and began frantically searching for Flonne, his arms felt so cold. "I cant do this forever!" Sora said. Laharl groaned, he was doing his best for not being able to see a damned thing. Wait what was that he thought. He could've sworn he felt something, other then the heartless gnawing at him. He was right, it was Flonne's ribbon or at least he hoped it was. He started feeling around until he was certain it was Flonne then he braced himself and pulled with all his strength, he needed it because these things just weren't letting go. Laharl gave a few hard tugs and sprung Flonne loose from the heartless. She looked a little worse for ware but she would be ok. What Laharl couldn't deal with was how tightly she was clinging to him. Sora pulled his weapon from the ground and quickly dispatched the heartless coming from the ground.

"Alright this is getting seriously out of hand!" Joe said. Laharl snapped his gaze towards Joe who was starting to get overrun. Kristin and Sora were keeping the heartless around Laharl and Flonne at bay. Thursdays shield was protecting him, but where was Jennifer? Laharl looked all around but couldn't see her, had the heartless managed to do to her what they were trying to do to Flonne or was it something worse? He couldn't sense her around at all. "Prince!" Joe took a quick jump back and used lions roar, an energy blast, to force the heartless back from him. "What should we do?" Joe said. Laharl looked towards Sora, his advice of leaving was starting to sound like a good idea. Laharl didn't want to run, not in the least, but he knew that he couldn't protect Flonne from these things for long. There was just too many heartless and only Sora and Kristin could kill them. Laharl looked back at Joe and bit his lip.

"Retreat." Laharl said. He could see the surprise in Joes eyes. "Everyone make your way back to the portal." Laharl looked to Kristin again. "Kristin, cut a path outta here!" Laharl ordered. Kristin nodded. She turned to face the portal then jumped into the air.

"Dimension Slash!" Kristin yelled. As she swung her sword down a large mass of green energy flowed from the blade and cut a path strait through the heartless. Laharl began running through the path, it wouldn't take it long for the heartless to fill the empty space. He shot a quick glance back towards the others, they were all plowing through the path with Thursday pulling up the rear. Still no sign of Jennifer. Laharl passed Flonne off to Kristin, the next one to reach the portal.

"Take her." He said. He was waiting for everyone else to go first. He was pretty sure he had already lost two vassals today, he wasn't about to lose anymore. "Prince, we lost Jennifer!" Joe yelled stopping next to him but was only to be pushed threw the portal by Laharl. Sora and Thursday jumped into the gate followed closely behind a very angry Overlord.

"What Happened Prince?" Lily said, her voice slightly rose from the sudden commotion. Vassals with in ear shot slowly started to crowed around the beaten and bruised group. Laharl glanced up at her threw in raged eyes.

"WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?" He yelled picking Sora up off the ground and pinning him to the wall. "I've never had to bail out of a fight never…. EVER!" His temper continued to flair scaring off the onlookers.

"We got beat up." Joe said bluntly answering Lily's question. Lily's mouth gaped open, what could possibly be as strong as Laharl and Joe.

"Is that even possible?" She asked almost choking on her words. The shinobi nodded.

"I know. It's scary isn't?" He mocked. Did he look scared no, but Lily knew Joe all too well. Was he scared, possibly? It didn't happen too often.

"I want some answers and, I want them now!" Laharl hissed, venom in his voice. Laharl was furious.

"Prince try and clam down!" Lily asked approaching him slowly, even she was scared of his temper from time to time. What could have happened to make him this angry? It couldn't have been just the fact that he had to retreat. Laharl dropped Sora sending Lily a death glare. His fist tensed up and punched into the wall shaking the very foundation they stood on. Lily shut her mouth closing her eyes, this would be one of those times. Lowering his head he walked away leaving everyone in silence.

Joe walked over to Sora meeting his eyes. "Look kid, I really don't want to beat the information out of you. But, I take my job very seriously." Sora coughed nervously. If Laharl could shake this entire Castle in one punch and Joe here has the job to protect him. Just what was he really capable of?

"I'll tell you what I know." Sora said sighing, he had to tell them something at least. His life depended on it. "Those creatures are called the heartless. They steal a persons heart and destroy every world in there path." As Sora was speaking he noticed Joe cock an eyebrow.

"They steal hearts huh?" Joe was almost laughing. "You're gonna have to do better then that." Joe said. Sora narrowed his eyes in an effort to look more serious, he didn't think they'd believe him. Hell it would be a first for him to be believed this fast.

"I'm telling you the truth. It's not your real heart it's like the essences of it. Understand?" The shinobi shrugged. A great killing machine but far as smarts go, Sora was unsure of Joe. Then again his story did seem far fetched even to himself who had seen it with his own eyes. "I'm telling the truth! Look you want my help right? I was the only one who could harm them so I must be telling the truth." Sora said but his eyes landed on the angel like girl named Kristin, she could hurt them to. "Wait? Why could you harm them? What makes you different?" Sora asked looking at her, confusion plastered on his innocent face.

"They have dark aura's right? My weapon was made for me specially." Sora glanced at her weapon in disbelief. "It looks like it's just old to me." He quickly covered his mouth, good one Sora keep this up and you'll be ripped to peaces for sure. She laughed. "It may look that way but it's blessed by the goddess Poitreene herself." Sora suddenly felt over come with dizziness, he struggled to remain on his feet. Poitreene? That name sounded so familiar yet he couldn't quite place where he had heard it before.

"You alright kid?" Joe asked tilting his head to the side watching him with little interest. Sora shrugged it off rubbing his eyes. "Anyways to put it bluntly it's a holy weapon." Joe rubbed his face in frustration. "I feel so stupid!" He commented shaking his head in annoyance.

"So we just need holy weapons then?" Flonne said walking out from behind Kristin. Her arms were still hugged close to her body and the look of fear still in her eyes. Sora figured the scare must have really shaken her up, not only physically but mentally as well.

"Are you alright Flonne?" Sora asked concerned. She nodded weakly but avoided his gaze.

"Someone should tell Laharl." Kristin said shooting a glance at Joe.

"No way, not me! Are you crazy?" Joe hissed. "I'm not going to talk to him until he talks to me, that's the only way to tell that he's calmed down!" Joe said.

"Celestia! They would have the proper weapons." Lily added finally speaking. Flonne nodded in agreement.

"So should we just heal ourselves up and wait for him to calm down or just go?" Kristin asked glancing from one person to the next. They exchanged nervous glances.

"I really think we should wait a bit. If Laharl is still steamed I say we go and bring him something back." Joe said crossing his arms over his chest. Everyone nodded before spreading out in there own direction.

Flonne walked towards the Netherworld hospital but checking herself over she felt no real injures. But, after what happened with those heartless things why didn't she even have a scratch? It didn't make much sense. Let alone ease her mind. Her dreams would be plagued by nightmares now she was sure of it. "What was that place?" She whispered out loud to herself. Shivering as her mind replayed the memory in her head. Keeping to herself Flonne walked threw the halls quietly, her arms remained crossed pulled into a tight hug. Even here in the castle she glanced around nervously. Jumping at the slightest sound. Thank the goddess that Laharl managed to save her, she smiled despite the scary atmosphere. He was truly her hero, it didn't matter that he was a demon. She liked him just the way he was, even with his faults. But why did Laharl have to lock himself up away from everyone? Losing a battle wasn't something he took lightly but she'd never seen him so upset before.

So what do you think? Like it or not? Kairi is in the next chapter, along with a few other new faces. Anyways, read and review please. Nice comments are always welcome. grins Next chapter will be up shortly.