Kingdom Hearts: Past, Present, Future

by NightOwl9810

Alternate KH3 story with more involvement from the KHUX plot. Aqua finds another wielder in the Realm of Darkness. Shortly after, old friends reunite and the mysterious new wielder's past becomes a shocking revelation. But the past may just be what the friends need to look to in order to avoid the same mistakes in the future.

21. Chapter 21- The Serpent's Saber

Hey, everyone!

So sorry for the sudden hiatus. I hit a wall the likes of which I'd never experienced before, and suddenly found myself unable to write this chapter for a few months. It wasn't until I turned my attention to another project that I was finally able to get back into my creative flow, and the rest of the chapter slowly followed.

It's my own fault, honestly. Trying to write 10-20,000 word chapters was a bit too big of a challenge LOL. Seriously, this one chapter is 42 pages long in Google Docs.

Needless to say, I won't be trying to enforce a specific word count after this, and will just write as much as whatever wants to come out. Sorry for the long delay, and I hope you all enjoy!

This chapter is dedicated to Antex-The Legendary Zoroark. Thanks so much for your suggestion!

---

A heartbeat thundered loud in her ears. Light filled her vision, but she found herself unable to block it out as it sharply focused into the view of a massive metropolis. Skyscrapers she could almost touch reached for the clouds, and the city spread out in all directions, colors of all kinds following in the wake. She could only count four or five distinct sections, a desert clearly distinct from a tundra, both clearly distinct from a jungle. Before she could even begin to think about seeing what the people looked like, she watched the city speed away from her at a sickeningly fast pace.

The city shrunk as her gaze took in the greenery around it, advanced trains of all kinds coming from tracks spread all across the country, where smaller cities took residence. She continued to fly backward, until she could see the ocean that surrounded the continent, and the horizons of the World upon which her gaze rested.

She watched breathlessly as the World began to turn, and she fell to skim across the surface, where she swore she could see massive creatures just below the depths. Gaze raising, she could see another body of land coming up to her at a break-neck speed on the horizon.

The scene in front of her seemed to blur as she picked up speed. Faster than she could register, she suddenly found herself in the center of another city, much smaller than the one she had first seen. Instead of steel and brick of many colors, this city seemed to be made up trees and concrete, browns, greens, and tans following a similar theme of swampy jungle as vines and mosses ran up and between the buildings, cypress knees poking up from a muddy moat that seemed to surround the place.

Before she could even comprehend the thought of the city being abandoned, she was jerked away into another scene, dark greens and browns filling up her vision before they once against cleared to show a ramshackle camp with tents of tree-bark and cloth surrounding a tiny fire pit. The scene blurred around her again, faster this time, and she saw the entrance of a cave with curving, scraggly trees on either side, a broken, crooked sign hanging above its entrance. She couldn't read what was written in the piece of bark before she was jerked away once more, directly into the cave.

Darkness surrounded her only for a brief moment before her journey was halted, and she found herself unable to move as she took in the light streaming in from a hole in the cave ceiling, glinting off a long, slender Keyblade that flowed like a vine, spikes and curls making up the head before the lilac metal rose in waves from the dirt it was embedded in to the crosspiece, where a snake sigil stared back at her from its upside-down position, the metal surrounding the snake and the handle sprouting in leaf-like patterns to create the guard. A glint caught her eye, and she focused onto the deep blue eye that stared back at her from the chain of the Keyblade, as if it were staring into her very Heart.

She felt a presence behind her, felt someone place their hand on her shoulder. A breeze tickled her ear, and she heard on the wind:

Come quickly. I'm waiting.

Aqua felt her breath return to her all at once, and she jerked upward, vertigo hitting her as she felt a pair of hands hold her shoulders. Her eyes frantically searched for the owner of the hands, and her gaze rested on Ven, looking at her with blue eyes full of worry.

It took her a moment through the pounding in her ears for her to realize he asked her a question.

She tried to still her breath. "What?"

"Are you okay?" Ventus repeated.

Aqua swallowed thickly, suddenly aware of all of her friends surrounding her, looking at her with much the same expression as Ven. Nightly knelt at the side opposite Ventus, while the others stood around her, waiting for her to answer.

"Um…I think so," she said carefully, feeling a twinge in her Heart. She winced, putting a hand to her chest, where she felt her Heart skip a beat, tugging in a direction somewhere to her right. She looked in the direction, her brow furrowing when she just saw the endless expanse of sky over the edge of the island where the tower was planted.

Ventus and the others had followed her gaze, and when they saw nothing, he asked, "What are you looking for, Aqua?"

"I…" she began, tripping over her words, "I…feel like I'm supposed to go in that direction." Her hand went to her head as she remembered her vision. "I…I saw something. A World. There were cities, and countries, and…and a cave." She looked to Nightly, Ephemer, and Skuld. "I saw a Keyblade."

Three sets of eyes widened, before they gave glances to each other and Nightly asked, "Did it have a snake on it?"

Aqua felt a weighted wave wash over her as she swallowed and nodded.

"It seems," Master Yen Sid said from behind Aqua, "that what Master Ava spoke of is coming to fruition."

Nightly nodded in agreement. "Master Invi's calling out to you. What did you see?"

"Um…" Aqua paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. "There…was a city. A huge one, with different ecosystems all around it. Then I saw a different country, with an abandoned city. Or at least, I think it's abandoned. Then there was a camp, and a cave, and that's when I saw the Keyblade. And now I have this…tugging on my Heart telling me to go that way." She nodded in the direction of the tug.

"What? But…" Ventus stammered. "What are you talking about? What's going on? Who's Master Invi? Who's Master…Master Ava?" His hand rose to his forehead as a wave of dizziness washed over him. He'd never heard that name before…had he? He felt eyes on him, and glanced to see Ephemer and Skuld staring at him with wide eyes, again like they were expecting something to happen. Once again, he didn't know what it was they were looking for, but their eyes…scared him.

What was it that he was missing?

"Such information is not necessary at the moment," Yen Sid said from behind them. "You must make haste to the world in your vision. It is certain others are trying to reach it, as well."

"Yeah," Sora agreed. "Organization 13 might be looking, too!"

"Ah-ha," agreed Donald. "We gotta go!"

With nods to each other, Nightly and Ven helped Aqua to her feet. Aqua looked to each of them, who gave her a nod in return.

She straightened, giving them a nod in return. "Let's go."

---

The Space Between flew by in a mix of purples, greens, and blues. Chirithy gazed out at all the stars passing by the Gummi Ship as he remained in Aqua's lap.

"We heading in the right direction?" Riku asked from the front. He looked behind him, eyes resting on Master Aqua. The blue-haired Keyblade wielder was staring at the floor of the Gummi Ship, eyes seeing nothing as she remained deep in thought.

"Aqua."

"Huh?" Aqua asked, shaking herself from her stupor.

"Are we still headed in the right direction?"

"Oh! Um…yes, we are."

Riku nodded, offering her a small smile, before returning his eyes to the Space Between. He pressed the comm button.

"Aqua says we're still headed in the right direction, everyone. Keep your eyes peeled."

"Roger," Ventus answered, glancing at the Gummi Ship where his friend was riding. He let out a frustrated huff. He had just woken up and his friend was experiencing something he couldn't help with.

Beyond the Gummi Ship, three sets of Gummi Armor flew in no particular pattern. Blue, Red, and Black. Nightly, Ephemer, and Skuld. Three kids who had no idea who they were before a world they can no longer find. Three kids…just like him.

The realization settled a weight unto his shoulders. He couldn't remember anything from before Aqua and Terra. And the way Ephemer and Skuld kept looking at him…like they knew something he didn't. He allowed something that couldn't possibly make sense cross his mind:

Did they hold the key to something from his past?

On the other side of the Gummi Ships, Nightly tore her gaze away from the vast expanse before her and glanced at the Princess of Heart travelling with the group, riding upon her yellow, orange, and red Key scooter. Her Heart pulsed in the red head's direction, giving her a constant comfort that she was right there.

She recalled Kairi telling her about the Rider she used for travel, and the Keyblade that it was formed from.

---

"Destiny's Embrace," Kairi said, pulling her hair back.

"Huh," Nightly thought, looking through a drawer, trying to find some hair ties. "So…how does your Keyblade transform like that?"

"It's a magic I learned from Merlin when I was training with Lea," Kairi explained. "Would you mind braiding this strand?"

"Sure!" Nightly replied, plucking out a hair tie from a small pile. Her finger twisted the hair into place as she asked, "So, do you mind if I ask…kind of a strange question?"

Kairi chucked, "Sure, go ahead."

Nightly hesitated only a second. "What's the name of Master Ava's Keyblade?"

The question caught Kairi off-guard. "You didn't already know?"

"No," Nightly answered. "No one ever did. I don't think it's necessarily that we weren't allowed to, it's just that no one ever asked. So…I'm asking now. Do you know its name?"

Kairi paused for a moment, recalling the name that had flooded her mind when she had first taken her grandmother's Keyblade.

She smiled as Nightly finished the braid. "It's called Requiem of the Heart."

---

"Dead ahead, everyone," Riku's voice coming through her helmet's speaker snapped her out of her thoughts, and she blinked to find herself facing an upcoming World. It was larger than most she had seen, the top and bottom halves showing two cities as different as the night and day. The city on top of the world was bright, colorful, and crowded, and seemed to be spotless as it seemed to radiate its own light. The city at the bottom of the world, on the other hand, seemed to only have three of four main buildings, with clear indications that nature had overrun the what-could-have-once-been booming metropolis.

"So, this is what you sa-?" Sora asked, his voice crackling and stopping a bit too short at the very end.

"Button all the way down, Sora," Riku corrected with a chuckle.

"Right, sorry!"

"Yes, it is," Aqua said, unable to hide her chuckle, as well.

"Where do we land?" Lea inquired.

"I'm not sure. I didn't see—" Aqua stopped, cut off by the world in front of them as it flashed a brilliant white light, suddenly engulfing everyone before they could even shield their eyes. Cries of surprise rose from the throats of the entire party as gravity shifted around them. They felt the sudden appearance of ground at their feet, and felt the light flicker away.

Aqua blinked away the stars still swimming in her gaze. Feeling a little dizzy, she propped herself up on a pole. A very…furry pole.

She jumped back as she registered the odd sensation, seeing the golden fur move as the leg it was attached to also seemed to flinch away from her touch. Her gaze rose to see just who or what was attached to the leg, and met eyes with a towering beast.

Her instincts kicked in, and she summoned her Keyblade, giving the creature before her a scowl.

The monster's eyes widened, and took a step away from her, its back colliding with a wall.

"What the—" it said in an awfully familiar voice. "A…Aqua?"

She stopped, replaying the voice in her head. "What…? Ventus?"

The animal nodded, nervously smiling around awkwardly large incisors. Aqua sent away her Keyblade, taking a step back and looking at her friend.

It was Ventus, alright. His clothing told her that right away, though he seemed to be missing his shoes. Where his skin and human form used to be, he now sported fur, golden with black spots. He seemed to now be in the form of…

"Are you…a cheetah?" Aqua inquired.

"I—uh…I think so," Ven answered. "And, uh…are you an otter?"

Aqua blinked at the question, stiffening. She looked down at herself. Still wearing the clothes she had before, she, too, was now missing her shoes, with small, black paws sticking out of her leggings. Her hands were the same, her fingers now sporting claws and paw pads, and dark fur running up and down her arms.

"What in the world?" she heard Sora ask. She looked to see what he was talking about, and blinked when she saw a young lion wearing Sora's clothes, looking down at his new paws and messing with his mane.

"Sora?" asked a black and white badger staring up at his lion friend.

"Riku?" the lion returned, getting down on his knees to get a better look at the transformed silverette.

"What…is…going…on," said the slow voice of Lea. Aqua's eyes widened at the large, red sloth who now sported Lea's voice and clothing.

"Um…Lea, are you okay?" a red fox asked, wearing Kairi's new clothes.

"I don't…know," Lea said, eyes wide and mouth twitching in a frown. "Why…can't I…talk…normally…"

"I think you're a—" Kairi began, before she was interrupted.

"Right…now," Lea finished. His eyes widened…slowly. "Sorry…I didn't…mean…to…interrupt. I can't…stop…talking…once I've…started…saying…something."

"It's okay," Kairi returned hesitantly, trying to hold in a giggle while she made sure he was one talking, "I was gonna say: I think you're a sloth."

"If he's a sloth," Donald said, "then what the heck am I?" Donald hopped furiously in his new form, his white feathers, now fur, contrasting sharply with the dark bill that now sat upon his face. A wide, thick tail slapped the cement angrily, and he tapped his black, webbed feet impatiently.

"Um…" came Nightly's voice from behind him as she took a tentative step forward, now a young lioness, "correct me if I'm wrong, but…I think you might be a platypus."

"A-yup," Goofy affirmed, now a wolf with fur the color of midnight.

An annoyed sigh rose up from beside Nightly. "Seriously?" came a voice familiar to all except Nightly. Chirithy, wearing clothes of his own, looked down at his paws, now with actual toes and claws that poked out when he clenched his paws. When he heard his voice, his new eyes widened and he put a paw to his throat. "Ugh, seriously?"

Nightly snickered, "Told you you look like a cat."

"Hey!" he rebutted, his cape flaring when he hopped, still around his neck. "Do we have to go over this again?"

Aqua giggled at the antics, taking in everyone's new forms. She looked up at Ven. Before, he would barely reach her shoulder. Now, she could barely reach his hip. Riku was about her height, though he had a few inches on her. Lea was a little taller than Kairi, who was now taller than Riku by almost a foot. Lea was now at Nightly's shoulder, who was at Sora's shoulder, who was only a few inches shorter than Ven. Aqua shook her head in humorous awe at the drastic differences the friends now had between themselves.

"What a second," Nightly said, looking up and down the alleyway the gang found themselves in, "where are Ephemer, Skuld, and Mickey?"

Everyone immediately got quiet as they realized they were missing a fourth of their party.

"We're down here!" shouted Skuld's voice. Everyone jumped, looking down and around their feet until they finally spotted three little rodents near the brick wall of the alley.

"Guys?" Nightly asked, kneeling in front of her friends. The little mouse that was now Mickey scurried over to Riku and Aqua, who looked down at their friend in shock.

Nightly stood back up, her two friends now carefully held in her paws. "What the heck are we, anyway?" Ephemer asked, looking down on himself.

"I think you're…Prairie Voles?" Aqua took a guess.

"I mean…your guess is as good as ours," Skuld said, twisting around to see all of herself.

"Hey, beat it!" a nasally voice shouted. Before they could realize where the voice was coming from, a thin red, white, and black blur zipped around and between everyone's legs. Nightly, Ventus, and Sora jumped, trying to avoid whatever was bobbing and weaving between the friends. Riku instinctually yanked Mickey out of the way, Aqua pressing herself against the closest wall. Goofy stumbled, his arms pinwheeling as Donald grabbed his leg, barely being missed by the mystery figure.

Lea, moving as fast as he could, turned to see what was coming, only to miss it completely, the intruder dodging around him and his friends by the time he finished blinking.

The blur vanished out the other end of the alley, before another voice cried out, "Stop in the name of the law!"

The friends flinched at the sudden appearance of a new figure, this time, gray and blue. The figure stopped, tiny mouth agape as a rabbit in a police uniform stared at her large obstacle with large, purple eyes.

Only a second passed before her eyes hardened and her brow furrowed in determined concentration. "Try to keep up, Nick!" she shouted, before running at the group in full force.

Ventus, the closest to her, braced to stay as still as possible, not wanting to step on the small creature. But to his surprise, the rabbit leapt into the air, grappling onto the closest window sill and launching herself over the heads of all who were present, landing in a roll behind Nightly before continuing her chase.

"What do you mean 'try to keep—' woah!" Ventus's back collided with the brick as he felt yet another crash into his waist. The new creature, a fox in a police uniform, stumbled and fell, catching Riku on his way down. The fox looked up from his newfound position and shouted, "Keep going, Carrots! I'll catch up!"

"Are you alright?" Sora asked, reaching down to help out the fox and his friend.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks," the fox replied, dusting himself off and helping Riku to his feet. "Sorry for running into you like that," he said, smiling apologetically to both Riku and Ven.

"Eh, I've been hit harder," Riku shrugged. "Who was that guy, anyway?"

"The same idiot me an' Hopps have been chasing since before I was recruited," the fox said quickly. "Gotta catch up now, so, see ya!" The fox took off in another sprint, chasing after both his partner and the apparent criminal.

Nightly felt her shoulders relax as the fox disappeared. "Nightly," said a strained voice, "can't…breathe."

She looked down, suddenly realizing in her attempt to get out of the way of whatever first tore through the alley, she had clamped her new paws around her friends to keep them from falling. A little too tightly.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she said, opening her paws once again. Ephemer and Skuld stumbled a bit, using her fingers as supports as they caught their breath.

"It's okay," Skuld assured her, paws on her knees.

"Maybe one of us should carry you guys," offered Riku, easing up his tight grip on Mickey's shoulder.

"Yeah, but…paws don't work as well as they look," Nightly said.

"Hmm…" Sora thought out loud. "Maybe Mickey could stay on my shoulder?"

"That would be just fine," Mickey replied. "If ya don't mind, that is."

"Of course not," Sora answered, kneeling to pick up the tiny king.

"We can stay up here, too!" Ephemer said.

"Stay up where?" Nightly asked, her attention brought back to her paws in time to see her friends jump from her paws and grab onto the straps of her jumper, pulling themselves up to her shoulders. "Uh…" she stammered, trying to see her friends, now out of her eyesight as they grabbed onto her scarf, steadying themselves on either of her shoulders.

"Does this work, Nightly?" Skuld asked.

"Uh…yeah, sure," Nightly answered. "Just don't move around too much, my neck's really ticklish."

"Really? Mine too," Sora said, helping Mickey step onto his shoulder.

"Huh, funny," Nightly replied absently, not even completely aware of what was said as she stood stiffly, hyperaware of her now-tiny friends on her shoulders. "Are you sure you guys are okay right there?"

"We'll be fine," Ephemer reassured her. "If anything happens, we'll let you know."

"Okay," Nightly said, slightly unsure, trying to make herself relax.

"Ven? You okay?" Aqua asked, looking up to the new cheetah. He was looking where Nick had run off to.

"I don't think they're gonna catch the guy," he said.

"Really?" Sora asked, looking where the three disappeared.

"Yeah…I think we should help them," Ven suggested.

"I don't know," Donald objected. "What about 'no meddling'?"

"Aw, come on, Donald," Sora egged on.

"I would be a good way to get used to these new forms," Kairi added.

Donald grumbled his disapproval, but was the only one to do so. "Looks like it's settled," Riku said. Without waiting for any further confirmation, Ventus took off in the direction the three had run off to, leaving only a gust of a breeze in his wake. Sora followed close behind, Mickey giving a shout of surprise at the sudden motion.

"Sora, hold on!" Goofy shouted, he and Donald rushing after the two rogue animals.

"Oh, boy," Riku sighed, taking off, Aqua and Kairi close behind him.

"You guys ready?" Nightly asked, glancing down at Ephemer and Skuld. They nodded, bracing themselves by holding on to her scarf. She took a quick breath, breaking into a jog behind everyone else, Chirithy right on her heels.

"Okay…let's…go…" Lea said, beginning to run. By the time he had taken his first step, the alleyway was clear. His friends had disappeared in the crowd by the time he reached the street. "Oh, come…on!"

---

Officer Nick Wilde panted through the heat building in his uniform as he caught up with his partner. Judy Hopps was dead ahead, Duke Weaselton just beyond her.

'Man, is this guy annoying,' he thought to himself. 'How many times has it been now? Thirteen?'

Just as he wiped his brow, a yellow blur passed over his left shoulder. He blinked as he watched it leap over Judy and land on Weaselton. The two hit the pavement and rolled to a stop, where Nick could finally make out the cheetah from before, now pinning the criminal weasel underneath him.

"Woah," Nick breathed as he came to a stop. The cheetah let up, letting go of the slippery suspect just as Officer Hopps turned him over and slapped cuffs around his wrists.

"Duke Weaselton, you are under arrest," Judy said. "Again."

"Yeah, yeah, whatev'ah, cop'pah," Weaselton groaned as he was yanked up from the cement.

Holding Weaselton by the scruff of the neck, Judy looked up to Ventus. "Thanks for your help, Mr…?"

"Ventus," he answered. "But, my friends call me Ven."

"Ah, well, thank you, Ven," the gray rabbit said with a smile. "I am Officer Judy Hopps, and this is my partner, Officer Nicholas Wilde." She gestured to the fox that had been trailing her.

"Please, just Nick," Nick added, smiling up at Ventus.

"Ven!" came a voice from behind the small group. Judy and Nick watched the others from before catch up to their friend. The larger, male lion, who had called out for his friend, arrived first. Just behind him, they watched a black wolf, carrying a platypus, come next, with a honey badger, sea otter, vixen, cat, and lioness following close behind. On the shoulder of the lion, Nick could see a mouse hanging on to the lower strands of the lion's mane. And on the shoulders of the lioness, he could see two prairie voles holding on to the scarf she was wearing.

"Dude, you're seriously fast," Sora said with a smile. "We should race at the island some time."

Ven chuckled, replying softly, "I think it's this form. I know I was fast before, but…this feels different."

"Oh! Who are your friends?" Judy asked.

"Oh, yeah!" Ventus replied, gesturing to each of his friends in turn. Nick watched as he introduced the lion as Sora; the mouse, Mickey; the wolf, Goofy; the platypus, Donald; the honey badger, Riku; the sea otter, Aqua; the vixen, Kairi; the Palla's cat, Chirithy; the lioness, Nightly; the two prairie voles, Ephemer and Skuld.

"Wait," Kairi said suddenly, looking at each of her friends in turn. "Where's Lea?"

The group of friends looked around, a sudden tension building between them.

"Ah, crap," Riku sighed.

"Did we really leave him behind?" Sora asked, bug-eyed.

Aqua gave a pointed look to Ven, who then softly groaned. "I'll go get him," he conceded before disappearing back the direction they all came from.

"So, you guys new in town?" Judy asked.

"Heh, yeah, a bit," Sora answered.

"Where you guys from?" Nick inquired.

"Uh, well…" Donald began.

"We're from…far away," Chirithy completed.

"And we're actually looking for something," Aqua added. "Would it be possible for the two of you to help us out?"

"Oh, absolutely!" Judy replied. "It's the least we could do, after your friend helped us."

"Are we going somewhere?" Ven asked, now back carrying a red-maned sloth piggyback style. He hefted the sloth on his back and introduced: "This is Lea."

"Nice to…meet you," Lea said as quickly as he could.

Though she tried to hide it, Nick could see Judy's tight-lipped expression cuing she was trying her hardest to hold in her slight irritation. He chuckled to himself, knowing he was partially—okay, fine, wholly—to blame for her aversion to…slower individuals.

The sea otter—Aqua—piped up once again, "Would you mind my asking, um…where we are? It was a long trip, and I…fell asleep on the way."

Ventus stared down at his friend, eyebrow raised as he recognized she was grasping at straws. It definitely wasn't her best explanation, but he knew she was stressed. And he knew that look in her eye, she had noticed something no one else had.

Judy and Nick exchanged a look, communicating confused bafflement between them. Judy answered, "Uh…you're in Zootopia, the largest metropolis in Mammalia."

"Ah, right, silly me," Aqua said, feigning embarrassment.

"Come on, Aqua, we told you like, five times just on the train," Ven picked up without missing a beat.

"I know, I know," Aqua said, waving her hand, smiling sheepishly.

It seemed to be working, Nick and Judy appearing to laugh off the question.

"So, I assume you don't the name of whatever you're looking for, either?" Nick inquired.

"Nope," Aqua replied, chuckling. "But I know what it looks like. It looks pretty overrun by nature, vines and trees everywhere, concrete buildings looking a bit run down. Do you know anywhere that looks like that?"

Nick hummed, "The only thing that seems to fit that bill would be Jungle District, all except the buildings. Everything there is carved right out of the trees."

Judy nodded, adjusting her grip on Weaselton. "Let's get this guy back to the ZPD. We can help you a bit better there."

---

"Woah," Sora marveled, he and the others gazing around at the massive interior of the Zootopia Police Department. Judy and Nick led the group of friends to the front desk, where an overweight cheetah sat with a donut in one hand and a case file in another.

"Yo, Clawhouser," Nick greeted, propping his elbow up on the desk.

"Oh, hey, Nick!" the cheetah—Clawhouser—greeted cheerfully. "I see you two managed to catch that sneaky weasel again, huh?"

"You bet!" Judy answered, handing off Duke Weaselton to a waiting officer who was assigned report filing for that day. She gave her full attention to the waiting cheetah. "Would you mind helping out our friends here?"

"Sure thing! What do you need?"

Aqua answered, "I'm trying to find an abandoned city. Vines and trees running through the buildings—"

"You mean Jungle District?" Clawhouser questioned.

"That's what we thought, too," Nick replied, "but turns out the buildings are steel and cement, and not trees."

"Huh, okay," Clawhouser thought out loud. "Is it outside Zootopia?"

Aqua pondered for only a second. "I…I think so, yes."

Clawhouser hummed to himself as he tapped away on the computer, Judy and Nick hopping up on the desk to help him look. Aqua inwardly sighed, trying not to show her internal struggle. She couldn't explain it, but she was restless. Normally the calm one out of her three friends, she wasn't entirely sure what to do with the dread and doom that seemed to be growing inside of her with every passing second.

Her ear twitched, hearing a conversation across the room, where a television was mounted to the wall at a corner. An elephant and a grey wolf—both wearing police uniforms—were conversing about whatever story was on the screen.

"Have you heard?" the wolf asked the elephant. "Apparently some mammal archeologists got arrested after they found something over in Reptilia that's causing mass panic with the reptiles."

"I didn't," the elephant replied. "What in the world did they find?"

"No one's sure," the wolf answered. "But the way the reptiles are acting makes it seem like it's some kind of weapon. I've heard they're even planning to use it on Mammalia."

"Woah," the elephant breathed. "That's scary."

"Right? It's like whatever they've found officially makes Reptilia better than Mammalia."

"Pfft. Scaly weirdos."

"Tell me about it."

Thoroughly intrigued, Aqua's gaze lifted to the television, where a "Breaking News" screen was pulling viewers away from their commercials and back to the story.

The volume was turned down too low for her to hear what was being said, but thankfully captions were filling her in as a leopard appeared in the anchor seat:

Tonight, military officials are discussing what to do in a situation involving Mammal archeologists in the foreign land of Reptilia. Specific details are unknown, and it is only clear that the archeologists found something important to Reptilia legend.

Pictures of three mammals flashed onto the screen: a mole with large, thick glasses that magnified his eyes; a lynx cat; and a brown-and-cream-hued hedgehog.

Archeologists Dr. Eustace Starr, Dr. Phillis Bobbin, and Dr. Quindolyn Albi have been taken into custody after discovering the artifact that Reptile officials have named 'The Serpent's Saber'.

Aqua pulled in a sharp breath, her stomach dropping when the screen flashing to a bird's-eye view of a city made of concrete, vines and trees seemingly overrunning the metropolis.

Their camp—precise location unknown—was based right outside of the major Reptile city of Zootropolis.

"That's it!" Aqua near-shouted, sprinting to the corner of the police station. The next sentences of captions were covered up by the wolf and elephant as Aqua rushed to hear more.

"Aqua, what?" Ventus asked right behind her.

"That's the place I saw," Aqua explained, straining her ears to hear. The wolf and elephant gave her and Ventus only a glance before they turned their attention back to the screen.

Aqua strained her ears to try and listen, but couldn't make out any words. "I can't hear anything."

"Oh! Here, let me help," Ventus said, and Aqua felt his paws around her waist before she was hoisted onto his shoulder. She blinked stupidly at his smiling face, feeling a blush creep up below her fur. "Feels weird being the short one now, huh?" he teased.

Aqua snorted playfully. "Don't get used to it," she quipped back, looking back to the TV, where the captions and audio continued:

It is unclear what will happen next, but government officials are meeting now to discuss what to do next. We will keep you updated as information develops this evening and tomorrow.

As the captions finished, the screen flashed back to commercials. "Aw, man!" Sora said from beside Aqua and Ventus as the elephant and wolf meandered away from the corner. "Talk about bad timing."

"Aqua, was that the city you saw in your vision?" Mickey asked from Sora's hood.

"Yes, it was," Aqua replied. "We have to get there before anything else happens. Who knows how fast this may escalate?"

Riku piped up, "But if tensions are high between the retiles and mammals, it probably wouldn't be smart to just show up the way we are right now. We'd blend better as reptiles."

"Can your magic do that, Donald?" Kairi asked. "Change us into reptiles?"

"Nope," Donald replied curtly. "Once transformations have finished for each world, they are final."

"You've…gotta be…kidding me…!" Lea slowly exclaimed.

A crackling sound broke the overall quiet in the police station. A deep, authoritative voice boomed from the speakers: "All officers to the meeting room immediately. Repeat: all officers to the meeting room immediately."

"Hey, I'm really sorry, guys," Judy apologized, running up to the group of friends. "We couldn't find anything on the computer, and now that Chief Bogo's called a meeting, we need everyone who's not an officer to leave the building."

"Oh, it's okay!" Kairi replied cheerfully. "But, umm…how would one get to Reptilia?"

The question made Judy freeze. "Well," she struggled to answer, glancing at the TV screen. "With what's going on right now, getting a mammal , let alone a group of mammals," she said, pointedly looking at each of them, "would be nearly impossible."

"Oh…I see," Riku said, trying to think.

"Well, we're sorry for taking up so much of your time," Nightly said.

"It's alright!" Judy said cheerily. "We'll see you around sometime later, okay?"

"Okay!" everyone collectively replied cheerfully.

---

"So now what are we gonna do?" Kairi asked. After leaving the ZPD, the friends wandered the streets, turning down various roads and taking several corners until they happened upon an ice cream shop. After buying snacks, they stayed together in the outdoor seating area, none of them talking but all of them neck-deep in thought of what they were supposed to do next.

"No idea," Riku finally answered. He clicked his claws against the cast iron table, staring at his hand for what must have been the hundredth time. Everything felt so different. The proportions of his body were unnatural now, his face was too long, his mouth didn't want to work right. He couldn't imagine the mess he'd be making if he had chosen ice cream on a stick instead of a cone. He glanced at Sora, inwardly chuckling at how quickly he, Donald, and Goofy had gotten used to the new bodies. How many times had they been through this kind of transformation, anyway?

"Have you seen anything else?" Ventus asked the otter sitting next to him, another bite of ice cream sandwich disappearing between his teeth.

"No," Aqua sighed, another drop of vanilla splashing into the small puddle under her paw. She had barely looked up since they had left the ZPD, too lost in her own thoughts to really pay attention to anything else.

"Can we use the Gummi Ships?" Nightly asked. She, Ephemer, Skuld, and Chirithy each had similar bars of sea salt ice cream.

"I don't think so," Sora answered, receiving a confirming nod from Donald.

Donald picked up, "The Gummi Ships can only take us to and from the worlds where we travel. If we go anywhere inside the world, we have to do what everyone else does in the world."

"So then, what does everyone else do?" Skuld asked.

"No…idea," Lea answered.

"It's too hard to tell right now," Mickey said. "We're gonna hafta look around and ask some people for help."

"But the less people we involve in this, the better," Ephemer said.

"Maybe we can ask Judy an' Nick for help again," Goofy offered.

"Yeah, but they're busy with whatever meeting they're in right now," Sora pointed out.

Goofy chuckled, "Not anymore, they're not."

The group looked to the grey wolf, following his pointed finger. Across the street, they saw the familiar fox and rabbit walking down the sidewalk, seeming to be in deep conversation. Judy said something, and Nick rubbed his head, both of them with concern written all over their faces. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Nick said something back, to which Judy rubbed her temples.

"Hey! Nick! Judy!" Ventus shouted, grabbing their attention. The two ZPD officers looked to the voice, blinked, and waved with clearly forced smiles.

"Wanna join us?" Kairi invited.

After a quick glance at each other, the two quickly crossed the street, hopping over a small, moused-sized car and onto the sidewalk.

"How are you guys?" Sora greeted.

Judy gave a rueful laugh before Nick answered, "Well, it looks like your problem just got a lot more personal for the two of us."

"How do you mean?" Kairi inquired.

Judy replied, "Nick and I have been assigned to go to Reptilia."

"Woah, really?" Ventus replied.

"Yeah," Nick said. "We're not allowed to tell you anything else, for legal reasons, but we leave tomorrow morning."

"Well that was fast," Riku replied.

Aqua asked, "How are you going to get there?"

"There's a sub-aquareous transportation system that runs through Oceana to both countries," Judy answered.

"Would it be possible for us to use that, too?" Aqua questioned.

"I mean…the routes aren't closed…yet," Nick said cryptically. "But who knows how long that'll be."

"Could we tag along with you?" Nightly asked, catching Aqua's drift.

"No," Judy said outright. "It's unlawful for civilians to get involved in official business."

"But…if we're not…on official…business…" Lea paced slowly, "…could we…tag along as…your friends…?"

As Judy's lip twitched, Nick replied, "With what's going on between the countries right now, it may not be the best idea for a large group of mammals to just…show up all of a sudden."

"Oh, trust us," Skuld piped up with a smile. "We can take care of ourselves."

Nick and Judy blinked at the little prairie voles, seeming to decide between smiling genuinely and chuckling at whatever joke the vole was trying to make. When they could find none, Judy asked yet another concern of hers:

"But, will you be able to afford it?" she questioned. "The sub tickets are expensive, and I doubt they'll have enough room for all of you."

The friends in question gave a collective look of mischief. "Don't worry, we'll take care of that," Ventus answered cryptically.

Silence fell amongst the two parties, before Nick pulled on his signature sly smile.

"Well," Nick conceded, "we can't exactly stop you."

"And as Officers of the ZPD, we highly recommend against it," Judy added.

"But…" Nick went on, glancing at Judy, who gave him a nod, "as your friends, we wouldn't mind if…we ran into you at the station, and…let you stick around."

"That is—so long as you don't interfere with our case," Judy added. The group of friends exchanged hopeful glances, sparks of joyous excitement obvious in their eyes.

"We promise not to get in your way," Aqua vowed. "But…would you mind telling us what station to take?"

"And where we could stay the night?" Riku added.

A collective looked of bemused shock lit up Nick's and Judy's faces. They shared a look, then chuckled.

"You guys do not plan your trips well, do you?" Nick teased.

A wave of realization washed over the friends, followed by embarrassment. As coolly as possible, Ephemer waved off:

"Eh, what can we say? We're spontaneous."

---

Nightly stared up at the ceiling, thoughts encircling her mind without a destination. None of them were particularly troubling, but she found herself restless anyway.

After their conversation with Nick and Judy, the group followed their directions to the Lionheart Hotel. While the hotel was mostly designed for larger mammals, it had a few rooms for smaller mammals, as well. To save on time and munny, the smaller of the friends decided to just bunk with their larger companions. They had met to discuss their plan for getting them all to Reptilia, before they all left for their respective rooms, wishing each other a good night.

Nightly sighed, sitting up in her hotel bed. She glanced over to her nightstand, where Ephemer and Skuld slept peacefully wrapped up in her scarf. She rubbed the corners of her eyes, standing in the tiny room and checking on Chirithy, who was curled up at the foot of her bed, sleeping deeper than she'd ever seen him sleep before.

'I wonder if it's the transformation?' she vaguely thought. 'He doesn't normally sleep like this.'

Heaving another silent sigh, she grabbed her keycard and slipped silently out the door. She trudged down the hall, void of all other life. She passed a clock softly ticking by the stairwell:

1:38

'Seriously? I've just been lying there for almost 4 hours?' she thought to herself. Another weary sigh, and she continued on, finally finding what she was looking for.

She stopped in front of a door labeled "Roof Access". She tried to knob. Locked. She glanced both ways down the hall, making sure no one was around while also scanning for security cameras. When she saw nothing, she summoned her Keyblade and took a couple steps back, aiming it right at the lock.

A flash of light and a click later, and she was climbing the short flight of stairs to the door that led to the roof. She shoved it open, feeling the crisp night air ruffle her fur. She jammed the door open a crack with a stray rock and made her way to the edge. Picking the spot with the most light, she carefully sat down, letting her feet dangle off the edge of the roof of the Lionheart Hotel.

She unzipped her Moogle pouch and pulled out The Tale of the King, which seemed to have adjusted to fit her new size. She thumbed it open to where she left off, and began to read.

(If you would like to read this part of the story, it will be up soon, though I can't give an exact date when. This is Part 1: Chapter 1. If you want to check out what I have written for it so far, feel free to check it out by following my profile!)

Nightly let out a sigh through her nose, her brow furrowing at the cliffhanger that ended the chapter. She felt so close to finally finding some answers, if she could just find out what happened during that final fight.

She looked up, seeing the sun was nowhere near rising. Steeling her resolve, deciding she wouldn't get any sleep tonight, anyway, she turned the page.

Only to be greeted by a letter, her name written in an all-too-familiar calligraphy.

Her heartbeat jumped to her throat, and she gingerly picked up the letter, setting aside the still-open book. She stuck her finger under the seal, tearing open the letter, and pulling out the three sheafs of paper contained in the envelope. She felt her throat begin to close up with tears as she read:

Hey, Little Bud,

Every time I write you one of these, I can't help but find myself thinking about where you are when you read these. So, this time, I've decided to actually take a guess. Let me know if I'm close.

I think…you're alone. You're trying to figure this out without your friends so you'll have all the answers ready for them when they finally ask you what's going on. I think…you're up as high as you can get, looking at the stars while you read. You always liked to look at the stars while you were thinking.

And I think…it's been a couple days since you've had a good night's sleep.

Yeah, I'm sure you're surprised. You've always had trouble sleeping, even when you were really little. A lot of the time, I had to put you back to sleep so Mom and Dad could get enough rest for work the next day.

But don't feel bad about that, I got to read you a lot of stories. I got pretty good at storytelling, if I do say so myself.

If I know you, you're asking yourself why you have this trouble. And…I have the answer. You've suffered from insomnia almost your entire life. But, I've been told you aren't supposed to know the specifics just yet. There's a reason you have this ailment, but now's not the time for you to know.

If it helps, I've included one of your favorite stories on the next pages. I tried to write it as similar to how I would tell it to you when you were little. I hope this will help you at least relax a little bit.

Do me a favor, and don't read the next chapter just yet. Just try to rest tonight. I know that's hard right now, considering where you may be and what you're doing at the moment, but…please, at least try.

I love you, Nightly.

Godspeed, Little Bud.

Aerglo

Nightly felt her mind blank as she read the letter over again, her eyes resting on one line and one line only. "You've suffered from insomnia almost your entire life." Something silent clicked inside her mind, a multitude of pieces falling into place until she could hardly think past the connections spreading out before her mind's eye as she breathed, "Oh."

She held the pages loosely in her lap. 'I thought this was all because of the War. This has been a problem for me since before Daybreak Town? So…how much of this is natural, and how much is it me still reeling?'

Truth be told, she wasn't sure why she didn't feel…worse…about the War. When she thought about everything that had happened, she felt like the whole thing happened a year ago.

'Maybe,' she thought to herself, 'because it was a year ago.'

When she had recovered her memories, they had felt far too fresh, flashing in front of her mind like scenes from a movie, moving too fast and too slow at the same time. Now that the shock was over, the memories had filed themselves neatly into her own mental timeline, all the way back to a year ago.

The more she thought about those memories, the more she wanted to cry, scream, something. But the part that kept her from doing so told her she had already lived a year after the fact, that she's moved on, that she's healed. Only for the part of her that had been damaged to come screaming back that no, she had not. She'd been robbed of that. The wound is still fresh, she hasn't even begun trying to process it.

She pushed herself up from the edge of the roof, scooping up the book and shoving the pieces of paper between the pages as she did so. She made her way back down to the hallway below, thinking the whole way.

'This whole time, I've been holding back my feelings for the sake of the others. Everything I've been doing, I've been doing for them. And it's gotten me nowhere.' She opened her room door and slipped back inside without a sound. She glanced at Ephemer and Skuld, before moving onto the bed as far away from them as possible, pulling Chirithy onto her lap without waking him up. 'I want to do something for myself, for once.'

'Well then, what do you want to do?' asked a voice from somewhere deep within her psyche. So deep, in fact, she didn't even notice the voice was different than her own.

Nightly considered the thought, looking down once again at the book that now had three pieces of paper poking out, lopsided. 'I want to figure out where I came from. I want to know why this is so important, and why I'm supposed to know about it.'

Deep in her subconscious, a girl with orange hair smiled. 'Okay.'

Nightly nodded to herself, cracking open the book to where she stuffed the sheets of paper. She left it lying open where the letter had come from, setting aside the actual letter to reveal the fairy tale Aerglo had left for her. She paused when she saw the title scrawled across the top of the page:

Snow-White and Rose-Red

She reached over and snagged a pillow, stuffing it behind her back as she snuggled down to read the fairy tale. As she began, she felt the calm of nostalgia settle on her shoulders and chest. She smiled at the promise between the twin sisters and their mother. She felt a sense of awe at the appearance of the angel; a sense of bewilderment at the appearance of the bear. She wanted to scold the girls when they "played" with their visitor, and found herself giggling when the ungrateful dwarf showed his face. As if she had read the story a million times, she called the ending, smiling brightly when she reached the climax of the story, feeling the contentment of childhood as it drew to a close.

She sighed as she put the papers down, feeling calmer than she had in…a while. She lay on her side, adjusting her pillow as she hugged Chirithy to her chest, re-reading the story until her thoughts were filled with nothing but two sisters and the adventures their peaceful lives brought to them.

---

(Hey, everyone! NightOwl9810, here! If you need a break from the story, now's the time to do it. Get up, take a walk, get some water, grab a snack. Whatever you need to do to rest your eyes a bit before continuing. If it's the middle of the night for you…GO TO SLEEP! The story will be here in the morning when you wake up, I promise. It's not going anywhere.)

(Thank you all so much for reading this story of mine! I hope you're all enjoying it, and I hope you come back for more!)

---

"Nightly, are you okay?" Ephemer asked, putting a paw on his friend's nose, trying to wake her up.

"Chirithy," Skuld tried, taking the Palla's Cat by the paw, "wake up. We can't get Nightly up."

"Hmm?" Chirithy yawned, showing off a row of teeth that would have caused Skuld to run had she been a regular Prairie Vole.

"We can't get Nightly to wake up," Skuld repeated as Ephemer tried and failed to open one of her eyes.

"What?" Chirithy questioned, finally realizing his wielder had an arm wrapped snug around his waist. After a sigh, he pushed against her arm, worming his way out of her grip. He almost lost his pants before he finally broke free, narrowly missing Skuld as he rolled. Only then did he notice the state of his wielder.

She lay on her side, The Tale of the King at her head, the arm she lay on outstretched, where she lightly gripped a couple pieces of paper as she slept.

"What was she reading?" Chirithy inquired.

"Looks like some kind of fairy tale," Ephemer explained.

"'Snow-White and Rose-Red,'" Skuld read, glancing at the title.

"Hmm," Chirithy thought for a moment, the title sending an unfamiliar stab of familiarity through his chest. He looked at the way she was holding the pages, then stepped over to her hand. Gently, he took the pages and pulled them as if to remove them from her grip.

That did the trick. Nightly stirred, her fingers tightening against the removal of the pages. Nightly blinked her tired eyes open to see her friends' worried, then playfully relieved expressions.

Nightly stretched, pushing herself up to a sitting position, she rubbed her eyes with her free hand as Ephemer asked, "How'd you sleep?"

Nightly looked at him a moment, pondering the question as she mentally assessed herself. "Pretty well," she answered sleepily, giving a content smile to her friends.

"Well, I'm glad you did," Skuld said, "but we need to go."

"What time is it?" Nightly inquired.

"Half-past nine," Ephemer answered, playful and curt.

"What?!" Chirithy exclaimed.

"Oh, shoot!" Nightly cried, now fully awake as she hopped off the bed, making the mattress jump and her friends fall. "Sorry!" she apologized quickly, carefully snatching up the book and replacing the papers in the envelope the same way she found them before sticking the letter in the spine as a bookmark. She stuffed it into her Moogle Purse with one hand, grabbing her scarf with the other. She didn't bother to check her reflection as she wrapped it around her neck. She let Ephemer and Skuld climb onto her hands and practically threw them onto her shoulders before she grabbed Chirithy and her key card and all but broke down the door as she rushed out.

By the time she got down to the lobby, she was out of breath, and her friends were feeling a little nauseous. She had, to their dismay, decided against the elevator, choosing the stairs instead. What had followed was a very unpleasantly bumpy ride.

Hearing the commotion, Sora stood as he looked up to see his fellow lioness appear from the doorway.

"Hah! See, I'm not the last one to get down here!" he said happily, pointing at the late comers while smiling teasingly at Riku and Kairi.

"You were the last one out of us, Sora," Riku quipped without even looking up from his magazine. "Still counts."

"Aw, come on!" Sora argued, only to be met with chuckles from Kairi, Ventus, Donald, and Goofy.

"You sleep…late too?" Nightly asked between breaths.

"All the time," Kairi laughed. "You won't believe how quickly he falls asleep on our island."

Another peal of laughter rippled through the friends. "A-hyuck!" Goofy greeted. "It's alright that you're late, we saved you some breakfast." He pointed the quartet over to a table that had four banana nut muffins: two tiny, one small, and one large.

"Aw, thank you!" Nightly replied gratefully.

"No problem!" Donald chirped. "We have to do that all the time for Sora to make sure he eats during our adventures."

"Guys!" Sora cried out in embarrassment, slouching to hide his face.

While laughter swept over the group, the giggling quartet sat down to eat their light breakfast.

"So, just how late are we?" Chirithy asked, before taking a bite full of banana nut. He paused, taking in the taste. He didn't eat much, mostly because he didn't really need to, even though he could. But in this world, with this new form, it just…felt right to have to eat. He didn't really feel hungry, per se, but every time he ate in this world, he felt…full. Something he had never experienced before.

"Well, they left around midnight, I think," Kairi answered. "So, we still have about an hour, right?"

"Yep," Riku nodded in confirmation.

"You okay, Chirithy?" Nightly quietly asked with amusement. The Spirit, lost in his own thoughts, snapped back to reality at her question, and he stared at her with wide eyes and a mouth full of muffin.

He nodded, quickly working his jaw to swallow his bite. "I'm fine," he answered simply. "Just not used to enjoying food."

"You like ice cream," Nightly pointed out, remembering the rare times when the two would take a break on the cliff overlooking Daybreak Town, a stick of ice cream in both of their hands.

"Yeah, but," he returned, "it's never felt like this before. Do you always feel like this when you eat?"

"Well, food helps us re-energize and wakes you up a bit. So if that's what you're talking about, then yes."

"Huh," Chirithy hummed to himself before taking another bite. He smiled softly to himself, and Nightly took a bite of her own to keep her from giggling as she watched the little cat subconsciously rock side to side as he savored the flavor.

"So what made you sleep so late?" Ventus asked the little group.

"We didn't," Ephemer answered, popping the last of his muffin into his mouth.

"Nightly and Chirithy did," Skuld finished.

"Hey," Nightly said playfully.

"Really, it was just Nightly," Chirithy added.

"Hey!" Nightly repeated with a bit more force, laughter breaking up any seriousness that would have been held by the exclamation. "I was reading a fairytale."

"You mean other than the book?" Kairi questioned.

"Yeah. Aerglo put it in the next letter. And he told me to—" she stopped herself, remembering what else the letter had said. Not wanting to worry her friends, she cut herself off before mentioning her insomnia and instead said, "—that he used to read it to me. I fell asleep with it in my hand."

After a small chuckle, Mickey asked, "What did the book say?"

"I didn't learn much more," Nightly admitted. "Mostly that Superbia is a jerk, but that was implied from the very beginning. It left off with him about to challenge The Master. I would've read the next chapter, but that's when I got the letter. I fell asleep pretty quickly after that."

"What was the fairytale about?"

"These two sisters that have a couple misadventures in the middle of their otherwise happy lives," Nightly summarized. She paused. "Actually, it's a lot like 'The Tale of the King', just opposite."

"How do you mean?" Sora questioned.

"So far, what I've been able to tell, Superbia and Verecundi didn't get along very well. But Snow White and Rose Red did. They're both twins, and they both had issues. The difference is two of them faced them together, while the other two actively pushed each other away."

"Woah," Ephemer breathed. "Weird parallels."

A beeping sounded on Ven's comm. "Oh, wow! They're already there!"

"Wait, seriously?" Sora asked.

"Yeah, we've got five minutes," Ventus answered.

Collectively, the group rose. Larger mammals gathered up smaller mammals, spaces were spot-cleaned, and trash was put away as their mutual motion brought them to and outside the door. The antelope clerk at the desk watched the peculiar group leave quickly and quietly, pleasantly surprised at the lack of a mess left by the respectful group. With a small smile, she grabbed her broom and cloth, coming up to the tables that hardly had a series of ring stains of their surfaces.

Outside, the wielders rounded the corner and passed into a dead-end alleyway. Ventus sent Aqua the all-clear, and a moment later, a Corridor of Light sprang up from nowhere, the swirling gold fading into nothingness.

One at a time, the group moved through the Corridor. One at a time, they were met with the sight of three mammals in a similar alleyway to the one they had just left. Aqua's face lit up at the appearance of her friends, while Nick and Judy held identical looks of utter confusion and shock. Somewhere at the opposite side of the building they stood beside, a speaker rang out, "Thank you for traveling the Cretaceous Rip."

"Hey, Aqua," Ventus greeted. "How was the trip?"

"It was amazing!" Aqua gushed. "The view was incredible! The pod we traveled in was on a whale, but there were smaller ones on fish, and there were so many marine creatures traveling beside us." With a smile, she said, "There were mammals and reptiles and fish working together perfectly. You can't even tell there's a difference between them."

"Wow," Sora grinned. "Sounds like Mammalia and Reptilia might want to look there to figure out how to work together, huh?"

Aqua nodded in agreement as they began to walk on, heading toward the front of the building.

"Okay, hang on," Judy said, stopping everyone in their tracks. "What was that?"

"What was what?" Ventus smiled.

"That thing you just did," Judy clarified, waving a paw in Aqua's direction.

"What thing?" Aqua asked, genuinely confused.

"That…that door—or whatever it was!" Judy replied. "The door that brought your friends here! What in the world was that?!"

"We assumed when you showed up alone that you were the only one coming along," Nick added. "We had no idea you were going to bring your friends along, especially like that!"

The group fell silent, feeling like they had just been caught with their hand in the cookie jar as they looked with wide eyes at each other.

Oddly enough, Lea was the first one to speak up. "It's just…something we are…able to…do…"

"Oh no," Judy stood her ground, "we're not going anywhere until you give us a straight answer."

"Yeah," Nick agreed. "You've all been acting strangely since we met. What's going on that you're not telling us?"

At the group's hesitation, Sora opened his mouth. Before he could say anything, however, Donald side-punched his leg, to which the teenager quickly shut his mouth.

"Ah-ah," Donald chastised.

Aqua looked up at her friends, who were making no moves to talk. They knew the rules—all of them did. But…what choice did they have? They needed to get to the Serpent's Saber, and if Nick and Judy were the only key to that, then…

Letting out a breath, Aqua stepped forward. "The truth is," she said, ignoring Donald's protests, "we're not from this world."

Nick and Judy mirrored each other's faces as both raised an unbelieving eyebrow. Nick snorted, "What, is that supposed to be some earth-shattering fact?"

"What…?"

"Come on—what, your aliens or something?" Nick asked. "What kind of bad movie script is that?"

Aqua could only stand there with mouth open, unsure how to respond to his doubt. She heard movement behind her, and looked back in time to see Ventus step up beside her.

"Actually," he said, "that is the truth." He steeled himself, stretching out his hand. With a flash of light, Wayward Wind appeared in a reverse grip in his paw. Nick's smile disappeared when he saw the sudden appearance of the weapon, and instead he seemed like he was trying to figure out a magic trick.

He pulled on a suave, not-fooling-me expression. "Okay," he chuckled, "where are the smoke and mirrors?"

Ventus flipped his Keyblade around and extended it toward the fox, poking him in the chest with the guard. Nick snorted, "What? Is this thing made of foam and pipe?"

"Nope," Ventus quipped. "Take it."

Nick ignored Donald's incomprehensible ranting and took Wayward Wind, Judy watching with a furrowed brow.

Ventus stepped back, holding his hand out again. In a flash of light, his Keyblade vanished from Nick's tight grip, reappearing in Ven's.

Nick's face fell, his eyes flicking from his paw to Ven's and back again. "Okay…that was weird."

"So, wait—what?" Judy stammered. "So, that thing you tried to do is…what—magic? Because you aren't from our world?"

Aqua's eyes rose as she thought, quickly mulling over her words and mentally ironing out technicalities into the simplest answer she could provide. "Yes."

"And we don't normally look like this," Nightly piped up, Donald no longer verbally protesting and now just quietly seething as he tapped his tail.

Nightly's eyes lost focus for only a second, before a small light appeared in front of her. She grasped at the light, and a golden medal appeared from nowhere in her paw.

She knelt down, turning the medal around to show a human Aqua rushing toward an unseen enemy, Keyblade raised to attack.

"This is Aqua," she explained, holding the medal next to the sea otter of the same name. "Or at least…what she normally looks like."

"Wait, what?" the two of them asked at the same time.

Sora added, "There's a type of magic that kicks in whenever we go to another world. It lets us look like the locals so we can blend in without drawing too much attention to ourselves."

"Which is why we look like this right now," Kairi explained, gesturing down to herself.

"And…" Aqua finished. "We're pretty sure this 'Serpent's Saber' is another Keyblade—the weapon that Ven showed you."

Judy and Nick exchanged an unreadable glance, looking back at them with wide eyes.

"So…this thing that's causing all this political upheaval…is something that doesn't even belong on our planet?!" Judy exclaimed.

"Uh…yeah," Riku answered.

"But how did it get here?" Nick asked. "Why is it here?"

"The previous owner left it here for us to find," Aqua replied. "And it's here in order to hide, because there are others who want to get it, too."

"Okay…" Nick said slowly. "And these others are…"

"Bad," Sora deadpanned. "We can't let them get to it. We don't know what will happen if they do."

"More than likely," Riku elaborated, "they'll use it to send the world's as we know them into Darkness." The two mammals before the group fell into silence as the gravity of his words settled.

"So…what do they do?" Judy inquired. "The, uh...Keyblades, I mean."

"Well," Ventus explained, "they mainly help us fight, but they also can open and close paths between worlds."

"And they can unlock any door," Kairi added.

"A Keyblade is drawn to someone who has the same nature as it. Just like people, a Keyblade can be Light or Dark, but there must always be both to maintain balance," Aqua delved.

Nick nodded to himself. "So, these Dark guys, or whatever, are trying to shift the power to Dark, so you guys are coming in to fight back against it."

"Exactly!" Goofy grinned.

Silence fell among the group. Nick and Judy looked to each other, having a silent conversation. With a side nod from Nick, Judy exhaled through her nose, looking back up at the wielders.

"Alright," she said. "You should all follow us to our contact. He has better intel on the location of the Serpent's Saber and where the excavation team set up camp."

"Okay," Riku nodded. "We'll follow your lead."

---

The group stepped through another alleyway, the gray stone beginning to feel claustrophobic. Everything had looked the same since they began their trek, other than the occasional vine and tree that disrupted the monotony.

They hadn't spoken since they began, opting to follow the two locals in silence. Nick had briefly explained the roundabout way they needed to reach their contact to ensure they weren't being followed, and the heroes set on their way.

The entire time, Nick and Judy had been thinking about the revealed nature of their new acquaintances. The idea of other worlds outside their own was not hard to grasp-alien life was a commonly-explored topic of discussion in science fiction-but the idea that their world was in danger because of the aforementioned outside life...well, it wasn't completely settling well. But they had a silent agreement to trust their friends, since they clearly had a better idea of what was going on than they did.

Sick of the silence, Nick piped up, "So you mentioned your Keyblades go to someone who has the same nature as it. So, why do you have to go to this one?"

The group paused, having not thought about it before.

"I think," Nightly picked up, "it has something to do with the previous owners. They wanted to do good, and bring Light to the world. But their Master tried to use them for Dark. They may not be like normal Keyblades because of that."

"We've only found one other like it so far," Kairi explained, calling forth her grandmother's Keyblade. Once again, Nick and Judy stared in disbelief. "So far, it's been like my other Keyblade, but we only found it a couple days ago. If there's anything different, it's been too soon to tell."

The fox and rabbit nodded, rounding another corner. The group stopped when they were met with a dead end.

The mammals stared at the blank wall they had been presented with. Along the walls leading to the dead end were piles of boxes and other garbage, making the alleyway look more like a landfill than an alley.

"Maybe we took a wrong turn?" Nick suggested, looking to Judy for help, who gave a shrug in response.

"No, you most certainly have not done that," came a voice from deeper in the alley, startling the group. The click of a cane bounced around the brick, before a small animal appeared out from behind a dumpster.

"The name's Manny Sickleback. Nick and Judy, I presume?"

The new arrival, a pangolin, hunched over his cane, his back arched slightly as he leaned, supporting his right side. He raised an eyebrow at the large group before him, having only been expecting two mammals to meet him.

"Yes," Judy answered in a nod. "Do you have the information for us?"

"Of course, though..." he trailed. "I didn't expect there to be...fifteen of you."

"They're special agents," Nick explained coolly. "They've been sent in case things go sideways and a fight breaks out."

Manny raised an eyebrow, looking over the "special agents" one at a time.

He snorted, "Did they have to send so many?" He caught Sora's staring eyes. "And what are you looking at?"

Sora flinched. "Uh, sorry," he stammered, rubbing the back of his head. "I was just...trying to figure out if you're a mammal or a reptile."

Riku face-pawed. The pangolin gave the curious cat an annoyed look.

"I'm a mammal," Manny deadpanned.

"You'll have to forgive him," Riku replied. "He's an idiot." Sora lightly smacked his friend on the shoulder, who side-punched his leg in return.

Manny watched the antics with a scrunched brow. "You all seem a little...young...to be special agents."

Dread passed through every mammal present. Thinking quickly, Ven replied, "Exactly. We'll be underestimated."

Another tense moment passed, before Manny snorted a breath through her nose. "Alright, fine. Just know: the bigger the group, the harder this is going to be."

"We understand," Judy assured, "but I don't think you have anything to worry about."

Manny hesitated one more moment before sighing, "Alright, so long as they're part of the mission."

"So what can you tell us?" Nick inquired.

The pangolin raised his brow. "There's not much to say," he explained. "No one has been able to completely reach the Serpent's Saber. There's some kind of...invisible barrier keeping anyone from reaching the inner chamber. This has started a hunt for whoever is able to cross it, deeming them to be the 'chosen one' or some nonsense like that."

Aqua and the others stiffened. Judy asked, "And...have they found someone who can?"

"Someone's come up claiming they can," Manny replied, blind to the looks of horror crossing the "special agents". "Some cobra with an eyepatch. Claims to be from outside our world, or some stupidity like that."

"Pfft, wow, seriously?" Nick asked incredulously. "Jeez, where do they find animals like that?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Manny replied, chuckling. "Even so, I'm prepared to take you all to the camp if you're ready to move forward with the plan."

---

The pangolin stepped through the foliage, carefully to avoid any leaves or twigs that could bring sound to his otherwise silent trek. The forest surrounding him was illuminated only by moonlight and the distant flickering of a campfire-their destination. Behind him, a multitude of mammals followed in single-file, mimicking his steps, as he instructed.

He snuck up to a grouping of sago palm shrubs, crouching amidst the foliage. Nick and Judy joined him on either side, the others fanning out around them, taking care to not be seen or heard.

He had to give it to them: they were good.

The group watched Manny part a few leaves, a small orange light dancing across his face from the fire of the camp.

He grimaced, swearing under his breath. "They're already gone," he muttered. "More than likely, they've headed to the cave."

Judy pondered this for a moment. "That's alright," she said optimistically. "If none of them can pass into the cave, then we'll have them cornered."

Manny looked at her, surprise crossing his features. "That...could work," he nodded with a smile. Peering back into the campsite, he motioned for everyone to follow him before he stepped out into the tiny clearing.

Spilling into the camp, the group looked around. "See if they have a map or something," Nick commanded quietly.

"There's no need," Manny retorted, waving a dismissive claw. "I have the way memorized. Just follow me."

Without a second bidding, the group gathered once more behind the pangolin as he started for a path to the left of the camp. They kept silent as they walked, the light of the campfire—and the shadows cast because of it—slowly faded away, leaving them in the dim darkness once again.

Thankfully, this journey wasn't nearly as long. A dozen minutes later, light was spotted flickering through the trees. "Alright," Manny hissed, "here we are."

"What's the plan?" Nick stepped up beside Manny, signaling for the others to stop.

"Well," Manny confessed, "originally, the plan was to pick 'em off one by one, but now…" he looked around at the significantly larger group. "I suppose a simple blitz would do the trick."

"Okay," Judy nodded with determination, taking aim at a smaller figure as she relayed the information to the others.

"Ready, everyone?" Riku breathed.

He received hums, mumbles, and nods of determined agreement, paws and claws flexing to summon Keyblades, legs prepped to pounce.

With a signal from Manny, the mammals darted into the clearing with a collective shout, aims landing true as feet and paws connected with their targets, effectively sending them to the ground.

Blinking in the brighter setting, Judy looked down at the reptile she had stamped to the ground, realizing she wasn't feeling what she had expected. Instead of scales, her sensitive feet picked up…straw?

Ears suddenly alert, she looked around, finding the others in similar situations, straw and hay dummies trampled beneath them instead of their expected enemies.

"What?" Nick breathed.

Before the rabbit could so much as look at her partner, another roar of voices rose from behind the intrepid group. By the time she picked up the voices, a pair of claws gripped her middle and yanked her up.

Startled, the Bearers summoned their Keyblades, only to be commanded, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

A cry of pain came from Judy as she was squeezed. "Carrots!" Nick shouted, reaching for the rabbit before he was wrenched up by the nape of his neck, the two alligators now holding both members of the ZPD in their unbreakable grips.

One by one, Keyblades flashed away, the group giving each other complacent looks before holding their paws up in surrender as other reptiles of all sizes surrounded them.

"Excellent work, everyone," praised a familiar, gravelly voice. From the darkness of the edge of the clearing slithered an upright, one-eyed king cobra. It nodded to Manny, who simply leaned against his cane, "Told ya it would work."

Manny 'humph'ed. "I must admit, even I was unsure about this plan. But," he shrugged, "they were just as gullible as you said they'd be."

"No way!" Sora shouted. "You were working with them?!"

"Uh, duh," the cobra tilted his head, its tiny eyepatch gleaming in the fire. "After everything we've been through, you should really changed your tactics."

"Xigbar…" Lea grumbled.

"'Sup, Sparky?" Xigbar hissed. "How's this world treatin' ya?"

Lea slowly grit his teeth. "Get to the point," Kairi scowled.

Xigbar barked a laugh. "Well, well! Vixen's got claws!" At a wave of laughter from the reptiles, Xigbar relented, "Alright, fine…here's how this is gonna go: you lot are gonna stay here while I cross the barrier and take the—heh—the Serpent's Saber for myself, claiming victory for the reptiles." His eye gleamed at his own mirth in keeping up the charade.

"No!" Aqua cried out. "You can't!"

"I might as well have already," Xigbar teased. "You won't be going anywhere anytime soon."

The cobra slithered away, a posse of snakes flanking him as they entered the cave without any resistance.

Silence fell among the comrades, all trying to think. It was obvious this wasn't going to end without a fight, but with Judy…what were they to do?

Thankfully, an idea pooped into a certain fox's head, and a sly grin crept up his face.

"So, I just wanted to ask," Nick began with a raised eyebrow. "Are you alligators, or crocodiles?" The large, scaly beasts glanced at each other. "'Cause, I gotta be honest…I just…can't tell the difference."

The one holding him scoffed. "It's obvious," he grumbled. "I'm an alligator, he's the crocodile. You can tell by our teeth."

Nick tilted his head. "Mmmm…nope, still not seein' it."

Sora and Riku exchanged a glance, smirking. "So, are you saltwater, or freshwater?" Riku asked.

The crocodile holding Judy answered, "Saltwater, duh."

"I don't know," Sora drew out. "I've seen saltwater alligators before, and you…eh…aren't exactly the same size, you know?"

The other reptiles chuckled as the crocodile's eyes flashed. "I am not an alligator," he growled.

"I think you might be, actually," Kairi picked up. "You've got so many 'A' teeth, you might as well be."

"I am not an alligator!" he shouted, his hold loosening on Judy.

"Carrots, now!"

At the cue, Judy at once yanked her arms out of the clawed grip, shoving herself up and planting her feet on the crocodile's now-empty fists. With a hop and a flip, she stamped her feet under the reptile's chin. As he tilted from the impact, eyes distant with the knockout, Judy pulled herself onto his snout before lunging for the alligator holding Nick, slamming her powerful feet into his temple.

At once, fighting broke out. The reptiles surrounding the travelers suddenly brandished their weapons, only to be met with flashes of light as Keyblades blocked them from striking true.

"Aqua, go!" Ventus shouted as he defended his friend from a water monitor. With a nod, Aqua bolted for the cave.

Nightly breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the sea otter running away, feeling Ephemer and Skuld hop off her shoulders to face a couple geckos trying to reach her ankles.

Her new sensitive ears flicked as she beat away the gila, sending her to the ground. She looked behind her, the snapped twig giving way to a boa constrictor giving chase, entering the cave mere seconds behind Aqua.

Breath catching in her throat, Nightly raced for the cave, passing Lea running at a tortoise, the two animals matching pace as they both slowly ran to meet each other with weapons raised.

---

Aqua's tiny legs pounded the stone beneath her, carrying her as fast as they could through the cave. She had to be close, they had only disappeared a few minutes before her.

She heard a rustle behind her, but didn't dare to look. She dug her toes into the ground and pushed harder, trying to run faster.

Only to feel the wind knocked out of her as something the size of a tree branch collided with her back.

Before she hit the ground, the branch bent, coiling around her before she hit the ground. With a start, she realized her arms were pinned to her sides. She felt the large, truck-like vice wind itself around her little body; and she looked around frantically, trying to figure out what it was that had her.

She felt the color drain from her face as all she could see was the pale yellow color and the scaly texture of the Ball Python that had wrapped its way around her. She squirmed against the snake, and felt it hiss right into her ear.

"Now, now," it said smoothly, almost cooly, "no need to struggle. It will all be over soon."

The voice made her fight more, and she tried to take a breath before realizing the burning in her lungs. She gasped, feeling the body tighten itself around her with every bit of air she let go.

She choked out a cry for help, trying to summon her Keyblade. She felt it appear in her hand, before it was knocked away a second later.

"Don't bother," the voice hissed. "You won't be able to use that." The snake tightened even further, and she squeaked as she tried to take in a breath. She felt her pulse pick up as her vision began to go dark around the edges.

"No!"

The voice echoed around her, and she heard the summoning of a Keyblade before she was once again knocked aside as the snake cried out in pain. As she caught her breath, she felt something grab her arm and yank her up before hugging her around the middle. She gasped, coughing as she caught her breath. The darkness around her vision slowly faded away as she finally registered her position.

She was two feet higher than she normally stood, and two furry arms lightly wrapped around her as whoever was holding her was running down the cave.

"Are you okay?" her savior asked. This time, she was able to process the voice.

She nodded, swallowing, "I'm okay. Thank you, Nightly."

Aqua felt Nightly nod. "No problem. I'm glad I got there when I did."

"That makes two of us," Aqua replied, allowing herself a relieved laugh.

Though she couldn't see her face, she imagined Nightly was smiling. "Let's get you to the Serpent's Saber."

Nightly rounded the corner of the cave, stopping only a second to see the handful of snakes gathered at the entrance of the inner chamber. They looked up in surprise at the sudden appearance of the girls, and before they could react, Nightly thundered past them, throwing herself into the chamber.

Aqua looked ahead, anxiety rising in her chest. Nightly pushed her legs a little harder. They had both noticed the absence of a certain Organization member in the midst of the rest of the snakes, whom they now heard calling after them.

'Looks like Manny didn't lie about one thing,' Aqua thought, swallowing a lump in her throat. She blinked as she saw something shimmer ahead of her and Nightly. If Nightly saw it, she ignored it, and Aqua instinctually braced for impact against the semi-transparent force.

It never came.

Instead, Aqua felt a wave pass over her body, before seeing light erupt around her through her closed eyelids. She heard Nightly yelp, and felt the girl lose her grip on her.

She didn't fall far, but hit the ground on her knees. She caught herself on all fours before she would have completely face planted. Blinking the remaining light spots out of her eyes, she looked down at her hands as she tried to get her bearings.

Her hands.

With a start, she realized she was looking at hands made of skin instead of paws made of fur. She stared stupidly at the appendages for a moment, trying to figure out what had happened.

"Are you okay, Aqua?" Nightly asked from behind her.

Aqua rose to her knees and turned, seeing Nightly stare back up at her, now as a human instead of the young lioness she had been ever since they had entered this world.

"Yeah," she replied, noticing her sudden change in height. "Yeah, I'm okay. Are you?"

Nightly nodded, grinning apologetically. "Sorry I dropped you."

"It's alright. Come on." Aqua rose to her feet, suddenly realizing how much she towered over the young girl next to her.

Nightly smiled, and the two continued on, creeping forward when they reached a third and final entrance to a larger area at the end of a stretch of cave hall.

There they saw the figure of someone in a black coat, his long black hair held back with a tie at the base of his neck. The strap of an eyepatch sat firmly around his head as he stepped away from where the two were looking.

Aqua heard Nightly give a small gasp, and she looked to ask what was wrong. She only got wide eyes as an answer. She followed her gaze, landing on a sleek, lavender Keyblade. The neck stretched out in twists and points as if made of ivy, its motion ending with the metal curling around itself at the head that was halfway buried in the rock, the bottom half of a heart-shaped sigil just visible in the stone. On the crosspiece, the upside-down sigil of a snake stared back with cold, empty eyes as the intruder reached out a hand to take the Keyblade.

Before Aqua could blink, a flash rushed past her, and Xigbar cried out in pain as Starlight struck his hand and embedded itself in front of Master Invi's Keyblade, standing like a guard against the man who didn't belong.

"That doesn't belong to you," Nightly growled, stepping out of the shadows. Xigbar whipped around to face the girl, his hands erupting in sharp points of light before he fired, aiming his Arrowgun directly between her eyes.

Nightly dodged just as he pulled the trigger, lowering her center of balance. "Aqua, go!"

The brunette launched herself at the Freeshooter, her Keyblade returning to her hand as she thrust it forward, aiming for Xigbar's chest.

He barely managed to dodge in time. He knocked her Keyblade away, throwing himself back, bouncing off one hand and landing back on his feet, ready to fire again. This shot was barely blocked by Starlight, practically at point blank range, and ricocheted off its neck at the same level of Nightly's chest.

Xigbar's eye moved, his face melting from annoyance to anger.

"No!"

A flash of light erupted from behind Nightly, but she refused to look away from the intruder. Something shifted behind her, and Xigbar's eye widened in surprise before he disappeared in a sudden flash of light.

Nightly blinked at the apparent vanishing act. She stared at the now-empty spot for only a moment, before allowing herself to turn around and face who she knew had appeared.

Dressed in her pale blue and purple robes, Master Invi stood before her and Aqua, lightly holding her Keyblade as it stuck up from the earth with one hand, the other pointed where Xigbar had just stood. Her hand lowered, and she looked down at where her hand held her Keyblade, where Aqua's hand rested on top of hers, both holding the vine-like guard of the Keyblade.

Master Invi's face rose, and as it did, her mask seemed to uncoil from around itself, sliding and slithering to her neck, where it disappeared behind her shoulder as her hood fell back, revealing deep blue hair with purple tips that gathered around her shoulders, hugging her face in wisps that flared both outward and inward.

Her scarf fell below her chin, revealing the peaceful smile the Foreteller now wore. She blinked her silver eyes, resting on Aqua's face, which met her at eye level.

"I've been waiting a long time for you," Master Invi said, her voice dancing about the cave.

Aqua couldn't say a word, only found herself staring into a pair of eyes that suddenly felt far more familiar than she'd ever believed a stranger's eyes would be. "You...you have?" she asked in answer.

Master Invi giggled. "Yes. You and those you travel with are the ones who must finish what I and my friends have started." She gave Aqua a sad smile. "I am sorry this has fallen onto the shoulders of those who had no dealings in the origin of our mistakes."

Aqua took Invi's other hand, smiling back. "I know what it's like to have to rely on others to fix something you started. If it means helping you and your friends find peace, I don't mind helping you at all."

Invi's smile deepened, a deep exhaustion sparking somewhere behind her eyes. "This isn't just for our sake. The worlds as you know them will be forever affected by the Darkness you are about to face. You must do all that you can to prevent this from happening."

Her eyes left Aqua's, panning over to Nightly before smiling patiently at the girl. "Have you been reading that book?"

Nightly felt her jaw slacken. "How did you know about that?"

Master Invi chuckled. "There is much you do not know about. Your involvement stretches further than simply surviving the Keyblade War."

Nightly's eyes widened, her hand instinctively going to the book inside her Moogle purse.

Invi grinned. "Keep reading, and you will find the answers you need."

The former Foreteller turned her attention back to her successor, her smile gone. "My task, as appointed to me by my Master, was to observe my friends and provide fair judgment." She frowned sadly. "In following my orders, I kept my involvement in the affairs of my friends to a minimum. This kept me from potentially stopping many conflicts between my fellow Foretellers.

"Do not make the same mistakes I did. There is no point in simply watching the world end when you can do something to stop it."

Invi pressed her hands onto Aqua's, looking into her eyes earnestly. "Do you understand?"

Aqua paused, thinking over all she heard, before she smiled sweetly at the Foreteller. "I understand," she breathed.

Relief flooded Master Invi's eyes. Looking back and forth to Aqua and Nightly, she smiled, "I wish you all the best of luck, and I pray you have the strength to see this through to the end."

Aqua gave a knowing grin, nodding to Master Invi. Invi gave a peaceful chuckle, and in one swift motion, unearthed her Keyblade, presenting it to Aqua.

Aqua hesitated, looking at the former Foreteller one last time before gripping the Keyblade's handle.

---

In the small clearing, the fighting continued. Metal met metal, reptile roaring at mammal, mammal shouting at reptile. Fights sent creatures back and forth across the clearing, intermingling in such chaos that none could tell if one side was winning over the other.

Nightly and Aqua stepped out of the cave, eyes wide at the cacophony presented before them. In the wild motion, they were almost unable to tell which creatures were their allies.

Aqua felt anger bristle in her Heart. 'This shouldn't be happening,' she thought. 'Why can't they see that they're all the same?'

Nightly felt a twinge of panic rise in her throat. This was exactly the kind of fighting that broke out during the War.

'This is the same way the Unions fell apart…'

The two could only are at the fighting in shock, emotions roiling within them. Aqua's anger simmered with the sounds of shouting from either side, rising into her own internal crescendo u t she couldn't take it any longer.

With a flick of her wrist, Master Invi's Keyblade appeared in her paw. With a shout, she raised it into the air.

"ENOUGH!"

Lightning cracked from the Keyblade, startling the contenders into immediate stillness as they looked around with wide eyes, finally finding the source of the sudden flash of light and sharp crack of thunder. Aqua and Nightly saw their friends grinning at them, panting through their exertion.

The reptiles looked on in horror as they realized the weapon being held by the little sea otter was none other than the Serpent's Saber.

"Impossible!" cried the crocodile that had been fighting Sora. "A mammal cannot bear something meant for the reptiles!"

"Then why am I the one who holds it now?" Aqua retorted with a shout. Her words stunned both parties into silence. She drew in a deep breath, and began to speak:

"Is all of this fighting really necessary? What really is the difference between mammals and reptiles? Other than fur and scales, you are all the same." Her eyes found Manny, brandishing his cane like the impromptu weapon it had become. "And sometimes, even then, physical difference means nothing. It only shows how alike you actually are." Manny's eyes fell, the pangolin actually looking ashamed.

Aqua continued, "Just because you look different...doesn't mean you have to be different. Why do you allow this divide to be here? What's the point?"

She was met with silence, mammal and reptile glancing cluelessly at each other, as if waiting for the other to provide the retort they couldn't. Her friends beamed at her, meeting her confidence with pride.

The sea otter blew out a breath. "Let's finish this peacefully, hm?"

A quiet moment passed, nothing but glances passing between those who were enemies not ten seconds ago.

Finally, a python spoke up, "Perhaps…since it is a mammal who was found worthy enough to wield the Serpent's Saber…that means mammals are worthy to be viewed as our equals."

Judy and Nick exchanged a glance. "And you, ours," Judy smiled.

All at once, the silent tension dissolved, reptiles returning the smiles with shy ones of their own. "The diplomats won't be happy about this," a chameleon spoke up.

"Eh, I think we can all handle them," Nick shrugged. "Let's get going."

Collectively, the animals staggered or slithered back into the woods, cautiously keeping their distances from each other, but walking together all the same.

"It'll take a while for them to fully accept each other," Aqua admitted as the rest of her party joined her and Nightly. "But…any progress is good progress."

The group began their trek with the other animals, Judy and Nick glancing back at the lagging Wielders.

"So…" Judy fell in step with Aqua, "that's the Serpent's Saber, huh?"

"Yeah," Aqua smiled, summoning Master Invi's Keyblade, now smaller to fit her size. "Only…it's not actually called 'Serpent's Saber'."

"Oh, really?" Nick questioned, all eyes falling to Aqua. "Do tell."

Nightly felt the world disappear around her as she, Ephemer, and Skuld tuned in to hear Aqua's next words.

With a small, almost sad smile, she answered: "Onlooker of Fate."

Grey line

"So, you really have to go, huh?" Nick asked.

"Yeah," Sora replied. "We have other places to go, other Keyblades to find."

"More worlds to discover, huh?" Judy chuckled.

"Yeah…speaking of which," Riku piped up. "Can you…not say anything to anyone else about us?"

Judy and Nick exchanged a smirk. "About what?" Nick bluffed.

The group of Keyblade-wielding friends smiled back at the dynamic duo.

"Just don't forget us while you're on whatever crazy adventure you have," Nick said.

"And feel free to come back whenever you like," Judy added.

A crackle erupted from the communication devices of all pieces of Gummi tech, making those wearing Armor instinctually try to cover their ears. A distorted, muffled voice came through the speakers.

"Everyone! Can you hear me?"

"Ienzo?" Lea asked. "Yeah, we hear you, man."

"I need…under attack…Organiza…" Ienzo's voice fading in and out of static, before disappearing altogether.

"Ienzo? Ienzo!" Lea yelled. Only more static came from the comm as an answer. Lea swore under his breath.

"We need to get back to Radiant Garden," Riku's voice came through.

"We've got the coordinates," Donald said. "Everyone, follow us!"

---

AHHHH! Goodbyes are hard!

Sorry this chapter took so long to come out! I wanted to give you guys a longer chapter instead of just breaking it up into parts, but that led to a lapse in publishing. And then I hit a block harder than any others I've had, and I needed to take a break to get my creative flow back in order. That being said, I'm probably gonna cool it on the longer chapters from here on out LOL.

So, how'd you guys like this chapter? I threw around so many different ideas trying to figure out where Invi's Keyblade would be. I was trying to find any and all things Disney related to Snakes, but couldn't find much outside of Jungle Book and Aladdin. I almost went with Aladdin 2, but I finally settled on Zootopia, a suggestion of Antex-The Legendary Zoroark!

Once that happened, a bunch of headcanon world-building just kept building and building, and I tried to convey as much of it as I could in this chapter; but that's honestly pretty difficult to do when you're exploring something you're only going to see for a single chapter. How'd I do?

The next chapter is already in production. I'm really excited for you guys to read it! Our heroes will be dealing with something in Radiant Garden that will set off a chain reaction that will lead into the next chapters as they begin looking for Master Ira's Keyblade.

Also, not-so-fun fact: Dr. Quindolyn Albi is a nod to my hedgehog, Quindolyn, who passed away a little over a year ago. Miss you, sweet girl!