23

Writer's Note: It's been a long time, and I'm afraid the next update will be just as long is not longer, I must prepare a demo for my team's video game at Portcon, so I'll be incredibly busy as I have been. Yes, I'm using Mulan, which, in my opinion, is the last of the Disney masterpiece collection. Everything that's come out of that cesspool since 1998 has been one major disappointment after another I'm afraid. And if you haven't played Final Mix, may I introduce you to Number 2, otherwise known as the Enigmatic Man, Sora's test (at least most of us think his number is two). He's a fascinating guy, but since he's un-named, I can't fully elaborate on his powers. Maybe I'll add in-between chapters and rewrite after KH2 comes out, we'll see.

Zexion

A boring day. No Heartless attacks for about four days. It was a pattern. Ansem and Maleficient would hit a few worlds at the same time, destroy them all in maybe a week or two, then regroup for a week, then start all over again. Thing is I was getting antsy. I was supposed to develop this sense of smell of mine, but how can I do that when I can't even practice my abilities? Number 2 and Number 3 weren't much help, they didn't like fighting. I suppose I understood, they were weaker than me, but I was the subordinate. They might surpass me soon, we'd just figured out the three tiers for power.

Though I should explain that. See, a person's power with the Darkness (and so we presumed Light as well, with slight tweaks) was based on three dimensions. Each dimension interacts with the other, and when all three points can be charted out, you get a fair knowledge of how strong a person is. The first one is simple Potential. That's it, how much Darkness do you have in your Heart, and what's the maximum you can have. Pretty simple stuff so far. The second dimension is your Link, how entwined your mind and soul are with your Heart, thus with your Darkness. The more you understood it, the more blended you were with it, the more you could maximize your Potential dimension. The third, and most important area, was Will. There was a limit to how far one could plunge yourself into the Darkness without being consumed by it. If you took even one little baby-step beyond what your Heart and soul could control, you'd fall forever into the Darkness, into an abyss that would swallow you up until you became even lower than a Heartless. This was often dependent upon the Light you possessed, not the only factor, but the biggest one. Another was tolerance, you could gradually build up a sort of "immunity" to Darkness, or at least the amount that would drive you insane, like it had Ansem. I didn't really know, Vexen and DiZ maintained Ansem was a master of Darkness, 100, and had his own consciousness, I disagreed, but then again, it wasn't quite my area of expertise.

So while I wandered the garden area of DiZ's home, which had become our new headquarters until we devised a more suitable location, I ran into Lexaeus. He had started to wear his robe after he began to learn about his Darkness from DiZ. At first he thought the robes were too extreme, too girly, too...me. But he'd come around, and had begun to wear it. He didn't need to, they were for concealment against the enemy, and right now, he was still in training. It was odd, to take orders from a guy I could wipe out in a heartbeat, not that I would do that to my best friend, but it just felt wierd nonetheless. "What's up, Lex?" I asked him.

"News from DiZ, he says Ansem is attacking a world. Some place called 'Ancient China'," Lex told me without wasting any time.

"Good, I've been bored," I said. I turned to go get Number 2 and Number 3, but Lex stopped me in my tracks.

"I'm coming too," he said. It was flatlined, so monotone it almost hurt my ears. Discussion was final that meant, Lex was coming one way or another, but just for grins, I decided to see why.

"DiZ say it's OK?" I asked him without looking back.

"Yes, it's my field test. He wants to see how I handle in real battle."

"Is Vexen coming?" I kept on.

"Yes, but not to fight. To investigate, take samples of Heartless, and analyze Ansem," and after a small embarrassed pause, "and to protect me just in case."

"Alright then, let's go," I said, and went to get the others. When we had all assembled, we teleported to the world. We could have used a gummi ship, but that would have been drawing unneccessary attention to ourselves. Despite the small bit of pain you felt afterwards, it was fairly safe travel, the pain always went away, and was growing less and less each time. Number 2 took command of the situation when we got there.

"Number 3, you go with Number 4 and Number 5. Number 6, you're with me." I saw Lex and his group go off to wherever they were headed, which made little sense to me, if they were searching for Ansem, I should go with Vexen, I had the nose, after all, and I had more experience with Lex than anyone else here. Flaws in the chain of command I guess, I'd address them later. For now, I followed my orders. It wasn't long before we ran into a small group of Heartless, they were battling the inhabitants of this world. Black-haired warriors, who fought with swords, cannons, and calvalry. A bunch of white stallions, and their cannon looked like dragons. It was a unique culture. They were battling Heartless, and losing. Men fell, as did horses. The cannons were their only weapons that had any effect at all against the Heartless. Number 2 looked at me, "Let's go."

I summoned my whip, and Number 2 summoned his weapon. It was wierd double bladed sword. Like a staff, but instead of blades, it was a glowing energy source. It hummed oddly. Number 2 leaped straight into the air, and landed right in the middle of the Heartless. He spun his staff in circles, and dozens of the creatures were destroyed instantly. He was getting better, maybe even better than me. Not to be outdone, I fired two of my energy balls, which I had discovered were really star-powered, a gravity spell, on both sides of him, taking out a good portion of the ranks. The natives saw us battling, and though they had no idea who we were, cheered at our arrival. My guess was we had just done more than their entire army had done the entire battle. The remaining Heartless retreated, melding into the darkness and disappeared.

Keeping our hoods up, we went over to the native army, and were greeted by a heavy-looking man, with a helmet with feathers coming out of it. "Thank you," he said, as he bowed before us, "I am General Li, you have saved us all, and we are grateful. China owes you a debt of gratitude."

Number 2 spoke up in a slightly mysterious voice, dramatized for benefit of keeping our identities secret, "There will be more of them," he said, no greetings, though I suppose it was unneccessary, we wouldn't be telling them our names or where we were from or anything. "My associates and I will help as long as we can, but it is a dangerous task, these creatures have destroyed countless...lands many times before, and we have not been able to fully stop them."

General Li saluted Number 2 smartly, "Then we shall aid you in any way we can. My army is yours to advise and command should you see fit."

"That will not be necessary," Number 2 told him, "we like to stay as un-involved as we can, if you understand, to keep a low profile."

"As you wish," Li said with a slight bow, "will you join us at our camp?"

"No," Number 2 answered him again, "we will come to you though when we are needed. Do not worry, we will not break our word." And with that, he faded out, I could feel him some distance behind me. Following his lead, I did the same.

"Was that wise, speaking to them like that?" I asked him, removing my hood.

"I think it was just enough, maybe borderline excessive, but I don't think so."

"And telling them we've been beaten before?"

"It was the truth, wasn't it?"

"Well," I said, my pride slightly injured at the admission, "we haven't technically been beaten, we just haven't been able to stop them. We can fight the war, we just can't guard the keyhole before Ansem finds it."

"Maybe," he said. He looked up at the sky, his hood still on. After a few seconds I thought he'd look back, but I decided to glance up there anyway.

"The sky seems emptier than it did back home..." I softly spoke, more for my benefit than his, but he just nodded, and we stared at all the future battlefields we'd be headed for sooner or later. One star though...I kept looking back to it. It...felt...familiar. Maybe it was home. And it wasn't until that instant, that I finally felt how far I had come from Traverse Town in these past few months. How I had grown, physically and spiritually. How I had come to be enlightened to other worlds, other peoples, and the Heartless.

I felt like crying.