---CHAPTER VIII---

Riku tried to sleep that night but had trouble. If somebody as powerful as Sephiroth was on the loose, what could he, or really anybody, do to stop him? And what was worse was he was growing even more powerful probably right now. He had heard the report. The only two worlds that had called and asked for aid in fighting whatever was destroying the other worlds was the Land of Dragons and the Caribbean. The Caribbean was having its own problems anyways. Reports of some pirate trouble there.

Riku thought about the battle that was about to engage in. Ansem in Castle Oblivion was one thing, but Sephiroth on an unknown planet was another. That led him to think one more thing; they still had to find out where Sephiroth exactly was. Riku then realized he needed all the energy he could get for tomorrow, and finally forced himself asleep.

In Hollow Bastion, Leon now stood toe to toe with the nemesis he had fought against since childhood. Seifer had a reputation for being the bad kid on the block, but throughout Hollow Bastion he became known as one of the meanest people in the whole world. The thing was, Seifer liked to dream. And he probably dreamt a little too much, which is what led Seifer to fall to the darkness and join the side of Ultemicia. Leon then remembered. He hadn't seen anybody else since they were sent to live in Hollow Bastion. How were the others doing?

"So, still fighting for the light again, eh Squall?" asked Seifer as he drew his gunblade from his belt again.

"Why? Why did you decide to support Ansem and the Heartless?" asked Leon, stunned that Seifer had traded his familiar red emblem on the sleeve of his jacket to that of the symbol of the Heartless.

"Easy, I pick the winning side. I examined how the fight against the Heartless was going, and then I saw how this 'Heartless Revolution' was panning out and… well, you can pretty much figure out which side I chose. Amazing how weak humankind becomes when they're not being led by this Sora kid." Seifer replied with an evil smile on his face.

Leon didn't want to hear any more. He placed his gunblade on the ground and thrust his hand open into the air. Leon thought for a second as a small fireball began to emerge from his hand. Leon fired the fireball and Seifer appeared to have been doing the same. The two fireballs collided and exploded on impact. The explosion sent both Leon and Seifer flying back to the edges of the throne room. Both Leon and Seifer grabbed their gunblades and charged each other. The two gunblades made a loud sound as they collided for the first time and slightly smaller sounds the next several times the two blades met. Neither Leon nor Seifer seemed to be getting an advantage early, as both of them went neck and neck for several minutes of their fight.

An alarm was raised throughout Disney Castle. Riku was immediately was pulled out of bed and taken to King Mickey's throne room. As Riku was led down the hallway by a couple of card soldiers he could see that none of the lights were turned on and it was very dark as they walked down the hallway. Riku was then led across the throne room and up some stairs to a balcony overlooking Mickey's entire world. On the balcony was the King himself.

"This is bad." was all Mickey could say as he watched the engulfing cloud of heartless begin advancing on the castle. The Heartless had already taken most of the surrounding village, but everybody thought the castle would be safe because of the high concentration of light inside the castle. These new Heartless were indeed stronger. They looked like the shadows they had fought previously, but were upgraded to some phenomenal strength. Even Wonderland's card soldiers were having a hard time dealing with these NeoShadows, as the citizens of the castle had already named them.

The Heartless were advancing at an alarming rate, and there seemed nothing the King or Riku could do about it. "This world's lost," said the King with tears in his eyes. "Order everybody to get to the gummi ships as quickly as possible. We need to get some stuff from the basement." Riku and the King ran out and headed straight for the basement.

While the citizens were evacuating Disney Castle, Riku and the King arrived in the storage compartment of the basement. Mickey grabbed some maps and files pertaining to the Heartless, including all of Ansem's report that Sora found. After Sora went to sleep, it seems Naminé took Ansem's report and gave it to Disney Castle for the Meyvn Nooj Historical Preservation Society. For those that don't know, Meyvn Nooj was one of the world of Spira's top historians and devoted much of his life to uncovering the truth about the history of the world. Thus, Disney Castle named their historical preservation society after him.

King Mickey and Riku grabbed what they needed, including a Gummi ship map to a place known as Twilight Town which would be where they were going to meet as soon as they accomplished their business, and headed to the royal gummi ship docks.

King Mickey had prepared two gummi ships. One was to be bound for Castle Oblivion while the other was bound for the world that they discovered had become Sephiroth's hideout. It seems that all the energy Sephiroth gathered had become strong enough that it created a world from Sephiroth's imagination. Thus, from Cloud's reports, they named it the World of Mako.

"Your Majesty. I mean Mickey. Wh… What if I can't defeat him? What if there's no way to stop Sephiroth?" asked Riku, scared about the inevitable showdown.

"Don't worry," said Mickey. "If things start to look too hard, remember this. No matter how powerful the darkness becomes, the light becomes that much stronger. You're both dark and light. This means that you have the potential to surpass even the greatest of enemies. Remember you walk the twilit road to dawn. Remember what you're fighting for."

Riku stood, looking at the ceiling as he knew what the King was talking about. "Home." he said as he began walking toward the gummi ship bound for the World of Mako. Inside the gummi ship he looked at the control panel. "I'm forgetting who I am. I'm not afraid of the darkness!" he shouted as the two gummi ships lifted off.

---TO BE CONTINUED---

NEXT CHAPTER: a new darkness arrives as Disney Castle. As the heartless and this new evil begin a sort of civil war, Riku arrives at the World of Mako as Mickey arrives at Castle Oblivion to save Sora, where he meets the one man he's been dying to face himself…