CHAPTER V

BAD NEWS GETS WORSE

"It's up ahead. Right around this corner."

"You mean this place was rubble just a few years ago? It looks great!" Kairi commented.

"Yeah, you'll actually get to meet the head of the restoration committee when we get to Merlin's. She's really nice…and…bubbly."

Sora saw a very rare sight – Merlin's door was wide open and nobody seemed to be around. Merlin was protective of all his belongings – magic was sought after by many people who wished to use it for the wrong reasons, and a clever person could take over a small planet with the kinds of things Merlin just had lying around. Plus, Cid didn't take kindly to anyone touching his computer.

"That's strange…" Sora said half to himself, half to Kairi.

"What is? That building?" Kairi inquired back.

"Yeah…well no, I know the building…but it's never wide open like this…"

As Sora and Kairi drew closer to the door, they heard frantic mumbling and shuffling footsteps. As soon as they got in the doorway, they were bowled over by a frantic Cid carrying his staff, followed by Yuffie holding her ninja stars.

"Sora! Great to see ya buddy! But, ain't got time to talk!" Cid yelled over his shoulder, still clenching a piece of wheat in his teeth. He ran up the stairs toward the bailey.

"Hooray! Sora, you came back to see us! Celebrate later!" Yuffie cut to the chase and bounded up the shortcut, meeting Cid at the top and together they barged into the bailey.

"Wonder what's going on? Kairi, maybe you should stay…" but his words were worthless. Kairi was already following Cid and Yuffie, Oathkeeper in hand. "She's more nuts than Riku!" was all Sora said before he ran after his friends and into the bailey. What he saw when he arrived next to Kairi was unnerving.

Leon, clenching his gunsword, looked up from the bailey at Cid, Yuffie, Kairi and Sora. Next to him was a green requiem. Just one.

"Just one heartless and we're running like it's another war? C'mon guys…how rusty did you get while I was gone?" Sora smiled and ran his hand through his hair. Kairi rolled her eyes.

"Not just one heartless. Two," Yuffie said in a very somber tone.

"Two? Where's the other one?" Sora looked around in all directions, but Cid grabbed the top of Sora's head and turned it so that he was looking directly at Leon. "But…that's Leon! He's a good guy!"

"Was. Sora, a lot can happen in a year, buddy. Ya see, Leon got kidnapped by Pete and Maleficent shortly after you defeated Xemnas…Xehanort…whatever…and they turned him into one of them there heartless. Been givin' the whole town a bunch of trouble…but none of us can do anything but hold him off 'till Cloud shows up. He's the only one who can challenge him enough to make him go back to wherever he's hiding. Leon doesn't like giving up…but his directives tell him that whenever he knows he's outmatched to turn and run."

"How do you know all of this, Cid?" asked Kairi.

"Well, Sora told you all about the MCP and the mainframe computer, right? Well, turns out that Maleficent found Ansem's computer and started using it on her own. And since Tron is on our side, he opened up a link to some pretty vital information that we can access at the computer in Merlin's house. It's a heap of help."

The floating green heartless suddenly whizzed past Cid's ear and towards the town. Sora tried to slash at it, but Yuffie held up her star and stopped him.

"We'll explain that later. Don't worry about him. We need to hold off Leon."

Sora grinned. "I can take him! No problem!" Cid tried to stop him as he jumped to the lower levels of the bailey, but it was no use. He just turned to Yuffie, smirked, and followed Sora down.

"So. Is this a coincidence, or did these pathetic fools actually send for your help? You know, you're absolutely no match for me. I've stepped on stronger things than you, Sora." Leon was never really friendly to Sora and his pals. Now he had an excuse.

"Leon, I'm gonna let that one go. I don't wanna hurt you – you're still my friend."

Cid tapped Sora on the shoulder. "Actually, this is Leon's heartless, remember? He's not really Leon until he meets up with his Nobody, or until his heart is freed and his Nobody can reclaim it."

"So…we can just defeat him and go find his Nobody?"

"There's more to it than that. Kingdom Hearts got all screwed up the last time you went there…it no longer takes in hearts like it used to. Now, if a heartless is destroyed, the heart floats in a sort of…limbo. Much harder to find it that way. But, that's why I invented this – the Heart Harvester. Basically, you can attach it to whatever weapon you slay a heartless with…and this baby will hold that heart until you release it…or it finds it's Nobody, whatever comes first."

"Cool." Sora took the smallish purple disk and touched the handle of his keyblade with it. Instantly, it seemed to grab hold of the keyblade with tiny metallic fingers.

"Excuse me if I'm bored with all this talking, but I have important people to turn into Heartless." Leon took off toward Ansem's study, and Cid and Sora ran right after him.

Leon pulled a small whistle out of his pocket and blew it as hard as he could as he turned the corner.

Meanwhile, Yuffie was catching Kairi up on the details of Leon, Cid, herself and Radiant Garden. But the girl talk ended abruptly when a huge black cat rose from a pool of dark energy at the foot of the bailey. The cat was about twice as big as Yuffie and Kairi put together, and it had a hard metal shield protecting its head, in the shape of a giant spade. Its four tails were also metallic, but spiked and gleaming with what looked like black sludge. The paws of the beast made skateboards look like playing cards, and each bore a huge metallic claw. The Pepper Felis raised his head so the metal shield now looked like a hat, and Kairi and Yuffie saw the worst part – the hundreds of metal teeth peppering the heartless' jaw.

"I thought Leon was supposed to run away when he was outmatched?" asked Kairi.

"He did…but I didn't say anything about him not calling any heartless to give us trouble instead…" replied Yuffie, as they bounded down together and attacked the Pepper Felis. Yuffie's stars spun at super speeds, but were blocked by the metal head shield of the beast. "Okay, well, don't go for the head."

Kairi nodded and did a spinning jump over the back of the Felis, slashing at its exposed back with her Oathkeeper. The beast yowled in pain and swung its tails wildly, connecting with Kairi's back, sending her flying into the rock wall. Yuffie sent a diversionary star toward the beasts left side and threw the other one far over it, missing completely.

"Kairi! Baseball!" was all Yuffie could say before the massive paw smacked her backwards onto her backside. Kairi got up and saw the flying star, soaring nearly overhead. She kicked off the wall and with all her might did a powerful backswing, connecting directly to the star, sending it into the beast's fleshy right side. Yuffie had noticed something out of place in the bailey…Scrooge McDuck's skateboard that Sora had left behind! She hopped on and skated right at the beast from the left, and laid back on the board like a bobsled, sliding right beneath the Felis. The Pepper Felis snapped his jaws between his front legs as he attempted to slice Yuffie with his tails through the back legs…but she was too fast. He connected…his tails slashed into his own unprotected face as Yuffie reunited with Kairi on the other side, pulling her star out of the beast on the way.

"Great! Now lets get him while he's vulnerable!" Yuffie slapped Kairi a high five as they ran to opposite sides of the Pepper Felis. Yuffie threw a star into the wall directly behind the cat, and one into the wall in front. Yuffie and Kairi grabbed each others hands and jumped on the cats back, and at their highest bounce screamed "FINAL FLASH!", spinning away from each other toward the stars embedded in the walls. They hooked their feet between the stars and the walls, holding them firmly in place as they both cast powerful magnera spells. Instantaneously, the cat yowled and did an amazing set of involuntary flips as the magnet spells pulled his head one way and his tails another. In a flash of light, he was ripped apart and vanished in a puff of smoke.

Kairi and Yuffie ran to the center of the bailey and gave each other a hearty hive five. Now, to find Leon and make sure Sora and Cid were okay…

That's what would have been the next thing on their list of things to do, if a familiar, fat and gruff figure wasn't now standing in their way.

"Well, well, well. You'se guys are stronger than I thought. Don't matter though…Maleficent's still gonna turn ya both into Heartless!"

Pete's massive belly shook as he laughed, blocking the girls from anyone who could save them.