Author's Note-School...and six hours of sleep is not fun.. –yawns- Anyways, like I said, I don't own KH. Also, it's the character you've all been waiting for coming into this chapter. And by the way, I would just like to thank you guys for all the reviews so far. Well, I'm done rambling. Enjoy!

Red eyes suddenly snapped open. The first thing he saw was the penetrating, nearly blinding light. Oh well. At least that was acceptable. The second thing he saw was not so pleasant.

It was a boy. A boy with waist-long hair pulled back at the low neck in a ponytail. In his hand was a bladed staff, though not a scythe because the blade was at the top, it pointed up. The prince! That damned prince who had ruined everything, ordered his torture, and then finally imprisoned him here.

Instantly he shot up. In a flash his gun was out of its holster and pressed against the prince's forehead.

But in the same instant, the scythe-shaped blade had been pressed to his throat. His metal claw (which he remembered regretfully that it used to be a hand) twitched, by now almost instinctively.

When the prince spoke, it was authoritively, as almost expected of him, of course. "Sir Vincent Valentine, you will lower your weapon immediately. That is a direct order from your prince."

Vincent glared. "No. My prince was a traitor to his people... I refuse to serve under the orders of a tyrant!" Vincent shot back, not lowering the gun.

The prince's eyes narrowed. "I am Prince Yukiro of the light and don't you forget it. Do not confuse me with my wretched twin brother of the dark."

As the prince said this, he noticed the colors. This prince had white hair and crystal blue eyes. His baggy pants and kimono top where white, decorated with gold stars and blue snowflakes-an exact opposite of his twin. The staff was white and the blade was silver, and clean as well-no stains of blood. This boy's aura was light.

Behind him was another boy, one that had shoulder-length white hair that was almost silver (considering on the light) hair and a blindfold. His claw twitched though when he saw that the boy was wearing a black jacket-the mark of one of them. The dark knights, the unit that had replaced his. His aura even matched the latest of the knights, only the inner aura was light, other than just all dark.

Slowly he lowered his weapon, twirling it and putting it back into his holster, and Yukiro withdrew his blade. Vincent then gracefully flipped up and onto the rim of his coffin and looked down at them. Then he bowed slightly. "Prince Yukiro...to what do I owe this...unexpected honor?" he said. There was a fait edge of sarcasm in his voice. He could never forget what the royal family had done to him, and never forgive them. Never.

-----

Yukiro smiled slightly and Vincent raised an eyebrow. Maybe I can't find a professor here. But the knight Vincent Valentine might be able to help just as much if not more. Well, if the rumors are true, that is... he thought.

"Sir Valentine, are the rumors true? About the talk of the temporary dark heart encasement and you becoming a beast that is uncontrolled?"

"..." Vincent straightened, closed his eyes, and bowed his head. "Yes. But only when I am threatened." He looked up. "But why is this information important?"

Yukiro stepped aside and motioned to Riku. "My comrade, Riku, has nearly the same problem. However, his might be a bit more serious. As an occlumist, I need you to give him lessons in such. Only, not like in occlumency, I need you to see his memories and then send him tormenting images like in his dreams. He needs to learn how to defeat those, starting at a low level; his mentality must strengthen." He explained. Riku raised an eyebrow.

"An unusual request... And what do I get in return?" Vincent challenged.

"What?" Yukiro demanded.

"My loyalty to the king and the royal family has dried up. I cannot forgive what your father and your brother have done to me and the others. I refuse to teach such lessons without some sort of payment."

"But I am your prince and that is an order!"

"The kingdom is lost in darkness. Your knights and lands are a mere handful; your status of 'prince' is practically a mere mockery by now. Welcome to the real world, Prince Yukiro. You snuck out of the castle to run and hide among the peasants so many a time that I would expect you to know how to act such as one."

Yukiro sighed, then closed his eyes and crossed his arms, shifting his weight onto his back foot. "So you want revenge on my brother?"

The man with long black hair raised an eyebrow, now in slight interest. "Hm?"

"He was sealed and his heart was shattered about ten years after you were put to sleep. But however, his knights, the Dark Ones, are growing back into power again and thus are trying to reclaim the shattered pieces of his heart to find him and the kingdom and restore his reign. We cannot allow this to happen and so we are questing to assure that it does not. We have a gummi ship and will allow you to join us in our quest should you decide to help us. This is your chance for revenge. I wouldn't advise you passing it up."

Pause. Then, "Alright, fine. I will help you."

Yukiro smiled and opened his eyes. "Music to my ears. Then let's go."

-----

"So Tam. How did you know how to fly this thing?" Taro asked boredly, though a bit curious.

Tam, from the pilot's seat, held up a little booklet without looking away from the view of space. "Pilot Manual. Found it in the glove compartment."

"Well, did you see anything else to read in there? This is completely boring..."

Tam sighed.

"Well, I brought your book along. Hope you don't mind." Sora said, lying on his cot while reading 'The Book of Five Rings.'

Taro blinked, then rolled his eyes and sighed. "Sure, fine...whatever..."

"Taro." Tam called over to him. "If you want to have something to do, then come here and let me show you how to fly the ship."

Taro blinked, then smiled and nodded. "Sure." With that, he went over to the control panel.

Tam pointed the way through it easily, without even missing a beat, as if she had once had a gummi ship herself before.

Taro smiled. "You sure do absorb this kind of stuff pretty quickly." He complemented. "Heh. Wish I was that good at memorizing-I would pass all my quizzes then, even biology."

Tam smiled back softly. "Yeah... I guess so." She said in her quiet voice.

Behind them were the sounds of snoring. They looked over to see that Sora had fallen asleep, the hand clutching the book hanging over the edge of the cot. "Of course..." Taro said, grinning and rolling his eyes.

Tame blinked. "Taro..."

Taro looked over at her. "Yeah?"

"I have a question..." she admitted.

Taro raised an eyebrow and leaned back in his chair, propping his feet up on the dashboard. "Shoot."

Tam nodded. "From what I've seen...you've been through a lot. You've had a lot of danger in your past, possibly even betrayal. It just makes me wonder why you've allowed Sora and I to come along with you. Surely you must have a little mistrust in us. So why did you let us come?"

Taro looked over at her and blinked. "Huh?" he thought for a minute, then smiled. "Well, you have a point. Yeah, now that I think about it, it was kind of stupid of me to bring two strangers along with me, huh? But King Mickey had told me to find Sora, and I knew that he looked like me. And from what I heard, you saved our lives. You even managed to get us this gummi ship, and a brand new model nonetheless. In my book, you guys are good friends." He finally said.

Tam stared out into space. "You give me too much credit..." she said a bit shyly, modestly. "And I guess...I just think of someone like you as too trusting. I knew a person like that once... They trusted some people...but they're not friends..." She shrugged. "But that's just me..."

Taro shrugged and looked back at Sora. "Sora... He's a pretty odd kid, isn't he?"

Tam nodded. "Yeah... He's barely said a word since...well, since I met him. He always acts so cheerful, but I think that's just a cover up. Deep down inside, I think he's just worried about his memories. About if he'll find out who he really is or not. But, then again, I suppose that fits everybody to some extent, ne?"

Just then Sora let out a really loud snore as he rolled over. Tam sweatdropped. "Then again, I guess I could be wrong..."

Taro nodded, then frowned. "...Hey, Tam?"

Tam blinked. "Yeah?"

"Those scars on your hands... How did you get them?"

Tam's look gradually grew troubled as she frowned. She then swiveled her chair back to the view of space. "Let's just say that...I think I just fell into the wrong crowd once. If that answers your question..." she said softly.

Taro frowned slightly, then nodded. "Well enough..." He blinked up at the top corner of the view, spotting a few dots off in the distance. "Hey...what is that?" he asked, pointing to the dots.

Tam blinked. "...Huh...?" Her eyes followed Taro's line of vision to see the dots. "Oh, shit!" she cried. At that moment, the ship shook, being hit by...something. Taro, who wasn't wearing a seatbelt, nearly fell out of his chair.

Sora sat up. "Huh? What? Where's the fire...?" he asked, blinking sleepily.

"What is it?" Taro demanded.

"Heartless ships." Tam said grimly."

"What?! You mean they're in space?!" Taro exclaimed, eyes wide.

Tam nodded. "Right."

"Can't we outrun them?" Sora asked.

Tam shook her head. "'Fraid not. We can't use fight or flight-it's going to have to be fight and flight. That's the only way we can get out of this. Taro, take the weapon controls!"

"You got it." Taro said, jumping into the seat of the weapon controls. When Tam had been explaining, Taro had wondered why there was even a weapons system. Now he knew why.

"Hey, cool! This is so Scared!" he commented when he saw the targeting screen. Sora blinked a bit confusedly. "A computer shooting game on bored. com." Taro explained.

"Ah." Sora said.

Tam just looked over at Taro as if he were an idiot. Taro merely grinned. Sora blinked.

"What can I do?" he asked.

"Just sit down and sit tight. We're going into battle." Tam said, focusing her eyes back on the screen.

Sora nodded, sat down in the copilot's seat, and buckled up.

-----

"Silence. Report. Have you found all of the fragments yet?" the man-the lord of the castle-ordered.

"Not yet, but I have some...theories..." Silence admitted as he bowed a low bow.

"What is keeping you now? The keyblade wielders are closing in-your time is growing limited, Silence..."

"Yes Sir, but I have my doubts that the heart fragments alone will unlock the kingdom." Silence informed him.

The man's eyes narrowed. "...What?"

"I have searched the archaic documents of Kingdom Gaia, or at least the ones that remain on the outside. Its gates have been lost in darkness and so has its prince. We must find the girl who can find the prince."

"And who is this girl?"

Silence sighed. "Regrettably...it is Princess Seika Shukusei, who locked herself within the castle gates."

The man sighed in frustration. "What's our second best option then?"

"Possibly a relative. Somebody closely connected to the princess." Silence responded.

"Then find this person. Use the Heartless, the others, I don't care how and who. But we're running out of time-they'll be here before we know it." The man ordered.

"Patience, my lord. Even if they do arrive, we should be able to handle them well enough. But I shall begin the search, I assure you that. For the fragments...and the person." Silence said, bowing deep and low again. He then turned on his heel and walked out.

Author's Note-Evil is afoot! Heh... Yeah, I just had to bring Vincent in (how can they have a KH game without him?) –sweatdrops- Great, looks like my rough draft just ran out again...well, I'll be sure to write more over the weekend, or at least try to. I will still post before the next eight days is up though, so just read and review! Ja ne!