Chapter 5

---------------K-A-Z-U-M-A---------------

Where am I? The burning heat surrounded Kazuma, so he didn't feel like getting up.

"Hey, are you okay?" a man with brown hair stood over him. His outfit was black, and there appeared to be some sort of remote under his belt.

"Yeah," Kazuma replied.

The man reached his hand out towards the boy, and helped him up. "My name is Anakin, Anakin Skywalker."

"Where am I?" Kazuma asked.

"Your on Mustafar, a giant volcano, but why and how did you get here?" Anakin asked.

"I- I don't know," Kazuma replied. Anakin reached into his back pocket, and pulled another remote out.

"The monster's here are dangerous so you'll need to protect yourself with this light saber, just press this button," Anakin tapped the button and a red energy blade appeared, "and abra kadabra." Kazuma took the weapon with pride. "Now I need your help, you need to help," Anakin said.

"Why should I help you?" Kazuma asked.

"Because when you do, I'll give you something that will make it worth you while," he offered.

"Like what?" Kazuma asked.

"The power of darkness," Anakin replied.

---------------?-?-?-?---------------

The boy stroked his long silky blonde hair as he walked through the town's center.

"Excuse me sir?" he asked somebody who had just passed in front of him. "You must be new , I've never seen you around before."

"What?" the boy in front of him asked. "Oh don't call me sir, I'm only fifteen, and it makes me feel old."

"You were looking for something?" the boy asked the other boy.

"Yes," he replied, "and by the way my name is Ryan." Ryan stuck out his hand, so did the boy. They each shook hands.

"I'm Nero, nice to meet you," he said taking his hand away slowly. A girl was on the bench behind Ryan crying into her palms. "Is she okay?"

"Not really, we both came from another city called Monlit City, and the way we got to, and from Twilight Town was through a portal called Betwixt and Between. One of our friends went through that portal, but we can't seem to find either of them,"he said looking back at the girl.

"Betwixt and Between, huh?" Nero said looking around. "Well my teacher was talking about that the other day. Maybe he can help you out with that little problem, his name is Xale."

"Wow really!" the girl yelled jumping up as if she were never crying.

"Um, yeah. Just follow me," Nero said turning around and heading up the hill behind him. They seem nice.

"So, how long have you lived in Twilight Town?" Ryan asked.

"For as long as I could remember," Nero replied staring forward. "My mother moved us here from Destiny Islands when I was only a child as she told me, but I have no memories of that place."

When the trio reached the top of the hill there was a huge clock tower attached to a train station. People rushed in and out of it hoping to get to work on time, or not to miss that deadline for the newspaper.

"Move kids!" one man yelled at them as he shoved passed the three.

"What a jackass," Ryan said.

Nero looked around and saw a man staring out at the ocean, he turned around and saw the three children, "the world is filled with marvelous things. From a small ant to a skyscraper. The question is can we find and explain them?"

"Hello Dr. Xale, these two wish for you to explain Betwixt and Between to them," Nero said moving to the side.

"Betwixt and Between, something I've been studying for years, and years to come. Well basically Betwixt and Between was meant to connect a strange world to this one, but nobody of this world has ever seen it," he said tucking his hands into his pocket.

"What!" the girl shrieked, "but we just came through Betwixt and Between the other day. It seems nobody knows of it, or where it is."

"I'm sorry I wish I could explain more, but I can't. My research isn't almighty," he said as he turned around again.

Suddenly the birds in the sky stopped flying. The air became still, and Ryan and the girl were steadfast.

"What the..." he said walking away.

"Nero," a voice called. "What are you, what have you become?" A man in a black coat appeared behind him and spoke. "It has begun, the darkness will spread in the hearts of all, people will become nobodies, sacrificing their hearts to us making us whole again.

"What are you talking..."

The man grabbed Nero's hand and pulled him, "we might have failed before, but we will only succeed if you truly want to."

"But I don't..."

The man grabbed Nero's hand and pulled him into a dark portal.

"HELP, RYAN PLEASE!" he shouted as he was pulled into the darkness.

---------------R-Y-A-N---------------

"Nero?" I called. "I thought I heard him screaming."

"It was probably just your imagination or something," Xale said turning around. "Well, I really must be on my way."

Xale walked away with his hands behind his back.

"What's happening?" Yumi asked as she sat down on the cobble stoned ground.

"Yumi, everything will be fine. We'll find Kazuma and we'll get back home. You've just to be patient." She was looking down, but I gently tipped her head up, "I'll promise you. We'll find him and we'll be happy again."

She smiled and jumped at me giving me a hug. I felt my face turn red as she backed away.

"Ryan can I ask you a question," Yumi asked me. I shook my head yes. "Do you like me?"

"Well yeah your one of my best friends," I said drawing away. "Why."

"On nothing," she said as she yawned. She layed down on the cobblestone road, and so did I. Good night Yumi.

---------------M-A-X-&-H-U-E-Y---------------

The ship came slowed down as they lowered to the sandy grounds of Destiny Islands. It came to a complete halt, and the door of the ship opened.

Goofy, Mickey, Donald, Huey, and Max all jumped out of the giant ship. Max stretched as Donald, Goofy, and Mickey walked up to a town. It was dark outside and all the lights of the houses were on.

"So this is where Sora lives?" Max asked. He pictured a boy with a staw hat, and a few teeth missing holding a giant key, "ha ha ha, a classic. Ready Huey?"

Huey nodded his head and followed Max as he followed the three older men.

The village seemed peaceful, "I'd live here any day," Huey said as he tagged along behind Max.

"It's nice, but you know what they say, too much of a good thing could hurt ya, ha ha," Mickey said as he walked up the doorway of one of the houses.

"That's true," Donald said.

Mickey knocked on the door of the two story house then waited. The boy who opened the door had dark blue eyes, brown hair, and was wearing a black outfit, with a huge smile across his face. He hugged all of them.

"Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Huey, and who's that guy," he cheered as he broke away from the group hug.

"Guess I'm going to need to introduce myself," he said sticking out his hand, "the name's Max, Max Goof."

"I'm Sora," he said as he shook the hand up and down.

"Nice to finally meet the Keyblade master in person," Max said as he took his hand back.

"Thanks, you guys wanna come inside?" he asked.

They all shook their heads yes. Sora moved aside and welcomed them in.

"Well what brings you guys to Destiny Islands?" Sora asked as he sat down on the chair.

"We just wanted to let cha know that our young ones have taken over our jobs for us and they'll be comin on our next adventure if we have one," Goofy replied.

"Wow that's a pretty big responsibility, but you can still have fun. I mean they did," Sora said pointing at all the men in the room, "and even though being the Keyblade Master is tough work I've had my fair share of fun, but when it's time to get serious we buckled down."

"Yeah like the time we all fought that Ansem fella, and Xemnas, even Riku, and there was another boy, but his name..." Goofy counted off

Sora's face went shallow and he looked towards Goofy. "Does the name Ryan ring a bell?"

Goofy, and Donald gave Sora a blank stare. "Yeah, I remember him. He was at Hollow Bastion wasn't he?" Sora nodded his head and stared at the wall.

"Why am I just remembering it?" Sora asked. "What was his goal, is he still alive, and why did he have the Keyblade?"

"Some things are better left a mystery Sora," Mickey said.

"Yup, ya can't go round solving everything ya think bout," Goofy said.

"Yeah, but can't this be another adventure, to find Ryan?" Donald asked.

"Yes Sora, why don't we make this another silly adventure?" a strange, but familiar voice came from nowhere. "So what would you hope to accomplish during this adventure, have you learned nothing from your friends and past experiences?"

"Who's there?" Sora asked. Max and Huey kneeled behind a nearby couch.

"You still understand nothing after three years of traveling and exploring," the voice seemed to be very close now.

"SORA BEHIND YOU!" Goofy yelled. A man in a black coat hovered over behind Sora. He immediately jumped to his feet and summoned the Keyblade. It had a silver shaft with a gold hand guard, at the end dangled a crown similar to the one around his neck. Goofy, Donald, and the king jumped up with weapon in hand.

"Don't worry I don't wish to do battle, I've just come speak of your endangerment," he said.

"Xemnas!" King Mickey yelled.

"What? Didn't we take him down just a few years ago?" Sora asked.

"Who's Xemnas?" Max whispered to Huey. The little duckling shrugged his shoulders.

"Hmhmhm, you aren't as alert as I thought you would be," Xemnas said. "For only a fool would have fallen for the trick I pulled on you that day.

"Trick?" Sora asked.

"A clone," King Mickey said sadly. "If I were there I would've figured it out, it's my fault."

Sora tapped Mickey's shoulder, "don't put yourself down your Majesty, he forced you out of Kingdom Hearts because he knew you'd see right through his plan."

Xemnas walked up to the King and reached his hand out towards him. He picked the King up by the collar and his Keyblade disappeared.

"What are you doing with the King? asked Donald.

He opened a portal to darkness, he walked towards it, but before he did he turned around and gave us all a hateful smile. He stepped into the darkness along with the King, and disappeared.

"No way!" Sora yelled.

"What's going on?" Max yelled jumping up from behind the couch.

"Yeah, what happened!" Huey yelled.

"We've got to get to the Gummi Ship find the king!" Sora yelled rushing towards the door.

"Okay looks like we're going on yet another adventure," Donald said in a semi exciting voice.

"Hyuk, let's go!" Goofy yelled charging after him.

The two younger kids shrugged at each other and walked behind.

"Looks like this is our first adventure huh?" Max said as he walked along with him.

---------------N-E-R-O---------------

Nero stood in a pearly white room along with a a few white vases. A person in a black coat sat across from him in a chair with their legs crossed.

"Do you know why your here?" the voice was so high, Nero knew it was a girl.

"Because I was kidnapped, and now I'm being held for ransom right?" Nero replied in a joking voice.

"You think your funny kid?" the woman asked. With a blink of Nero's sky blue eye the woman was hovering over him. "Think again."

Nero backed away, but couldn't avoid this woman for she moved to quickly.

"What do you want with me?" he asked.

"It's not what I want with you, it's what you want for yourself," she said.

"What?" Nero asked scratching his head.

"Years ago, when I first met you, you had no heart. You were a cold blooded boy, you hated everybody who even came close to vexing you. Then when we met, I saw that we had a lot in common, I know that I might be about two years older then you, and that I had no heart, but what I had for you I thought was love, but it couldn't have been since we don't exist.

"What do you mean?" Nero asked. The woman removed her hood revealing red hair, and blue eyes.

"I mean, we don't exist, never meant to be, this is our sanctuary, The Castle That Never Was, along with this world, but the superior told us that those who existed stole it from us. So we created our own, and now we live in peace until we become whole again," she explained.

"So why can't I just live the way I did before you found me?" Nero asked.

"Because then you'd be living a fake life, and nobody wants a fake life," she said as she moved in closer. She unbuttoned his shirt, and threw it to the ground.

"What are you doing?" he asked jumping away. She pointed at his chest at a tattoo that resembled a heart.

"It is the replacement of a heart that you once had, in order for you to live life as everybody else," she said as she licked her fingernails.

"Get away from me you creep," he said jumping backwards. Without warning she jabbed her fingers into his tattoo, it started to fade, until it was completely gone replaced by nothing, but flesh.

"Put this on, it's cold," she said handing him a black raincoat. He pulled it over his head gracefully.

"Thanks for that, I was starting to like having a heart," the boy said chuckling.

"I've missed you so much," she said wrapping her arms around hi, and pecking him on the cheek.

"Yeah, yeah, we've got work to do let's go," he said as he advanced to a wide window on the side of the room. "So where's the other one?"

"According to the superior he is in Traverse Town," the girl said.

"Fine let's head there." He replied as he opened a portal to darkness

"Same old Xeorn," she said walking into the portal of darkness along with him.