Naminé winced as Hayner knocked over a piece of lab equipment. She supposed she couldn't blame him for being unhappy with the current situation, but she wished he wouldn't be so restless in a delicate situation. Of course, she never expected that bringing some classmates to Radiant Garden to learn magic would end up with them all more or less locked in Ansem's lab with a sleeping Kairi, but she had long since learned to cope with stressful situations. It might have helped had there been someone around who could more calmly broach the details of the current invasion, but unfortunately it seemed Cid was taking the turn today manning the command center.

If you managed to get past the gruff exterior and the constant interjection of curse words, the information itself that Cid provided was more than enough cause for concern. From what she gathered, a man wearing a unicorn mask had started demanding Leon free the captive Princess of Heart, accompanied by another silent person in an Organization cloak. While Leon tried explaining that Kairi was here of her own free will to the likely time-displaced Keyblade Master, the man didn't seem to want to listen and almost crossed blades with the mayor before his companion intervened. The man had summoned what appeared to be Xehanort's Keyblade and stabbed it into the ground, unleashing some strange spell that split the ground and summoned forth the hordes of Darklings and unicorns that quickly spread throughout the world. Leon had barely escaped and was working on helping evacuate the citizens, but there wasn't a clear way to undo the spell and as of right now it seemed Kairi was still the target.

While Naminé knew Kairi was more skilled with a Keyblade than she was and would be an asset in the current battle, there was the simple problem that she was currently asleep. Selphie had suggested waking her up, but Naminé quickly shut down that line of thinking. After all, Ansem had based this examination of Kairi's suppressed memories on the same procedure Naminé had used on Sora. The dangers of waking someone up from that before things were ready could result in at best a lot of wasted effort and at worst Kairi having completely lost all of her memories. Ansem did have emergency procedures in place, but waking Kairi was still going to be a longer process. This meant the Gullwings and Naminé might have to fight to protect Ansem and Kairi until she could wake up, and the other kids from Destiny Islands and Twilight Town just had to hunker down right in what was likely the target of the invading army.

While most of the room's occupants had either combat experience or at least plenty of experience facing the forces of darkness, the new students had none of that and Naminé could tell the pressure was getting to them. All of them were fidgeting with things, whether it was Pence trying to unravel the mysteries of the technology around them, Hayner seeming to do the same but only managing to cause minor damage, or Tidus taking some practice swings with his oversized sword. That was probably the most dangerous option, so Naminé didn't blame Yuna for continually shooting glances at the islander. However, she wasn't the only one who noticed, and the stress of the situation caused Tidus to snap at her.

"What? You got a problem with me getting some practice in? Sure, I may not be that good with this, but I am at least skilled enough not to lose my grip or hit anything."

The fairy held up her hands in surrender. "Sorry, it's just that sword looks exactly like one used by a famous warrior back home. Where did you get it?"

Tidus scowled. "I inherited it. My father only left behind three things when he disappeared after a couple of weeks of knowing my mother: this sword, me, and the name Jecht."

Rikku immediately flew over and grabbed Tidus's shoulder. "Wait, did you say Jecht? No way! Yuna, we finally know what happened to Uncle Jecht!"

Tidus blinked in shock. "Wait, do you think I'm your cousin or something? Just because some strange guy from my world has the same name as someone from yours?"

Yuna pulled her excitable companion off of the islander before she sighed. "Simply put, no. Rikku and I are cousins—my mom was the younger sister of her dad—but Jecht was one of my dad's best friends and an honorary family member. And I think I know why he disappeared on your mom, and it wasn't by choice. It's a bit of a long story though if you want all the context."

Tidus froze up at this and dropped his sword, not moving until Selphie walked over to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. I think you should hear them out—it might be too late to make up for him not being there for you or your mom, but haven't you always wondered about the truth?"

Tidus seemed to finally catch himself at that and quickly grabbed his sword off of the ground. "Yeah, I just never expected I would actually find it. Assuming this is the same guy, but I guess I'll wait to judge that until the story comes out."

Yuna sighed before signaling to Paine and Rikku to watch the door, allowing her to spend more attention on the story and less on keeping an eye out for threats. "Okay, so Rikku, Paine, and I all come from a world called Spira. And the most unique thing about our world is that we've got a monster known as Sin that keeps trying to destroy us. From what we can tell, Sin first appeared over a thousand years ago in the midst of a great war. A summoner named Yu Yevon sought to protect his city from losing the war, and called forth a giant creature he hoped would bring about the end of the conflict as the ultimate guardian force."

"In one sense he succeeded, but the creature he summoned destroyed his city before turning its sights on the rest of the world. Nothing anybody tried could so much as damage it, and the monster became known as Sin and was viewed as a divine punishment. Eventually, Yu Yevon's daughter Yunalesca devised a spell that was able to end the threat, and alongside three warriors who served to protect her from physical threats she cast something called the Final Summon which banished Sin. For that, Yunalesca became the first High Summoner, and Spira entered an era of calm without war or Sin threatening us."

Tidus blinked. "Okay, but what does that have to do with—"

Yuna glared at him. "I'm getting to that. There are important caveats to the Final Summon. The first of which is the magic comes at an immense cost. It requires the life force of both its caster and of those they have a close bond with. In this case, Yunalesca immediately lost her life, and her three guardians were scattered to parts unknown. It was only through dumb luck that one of her guardians ended up in a populated city and was able to tell the story of the truth before the spell dissolved her body after a couple of weeks. The second of which is despite its power, it isn't strong enough to permanently kill Sin. It buys time, but eventually Sin comes back and another person must take on the mantle of High Summoner. For that reason, we constantly train new summoners to see who has the potential to take on that role."

Selphie gasped. "Wait, you mean to tell me on your world you constantly train people up for a suicide mission?"

Yuna clenched her fist. "Do you think we don't know that? If we had literally any other way that worked to protect our world from Sin, don't you think we'd try it? Every time Sin returns, we try all the methods we've worked on in the time since the last cast of the Final Summon. And nothing else ever seems to do any major damage. It's not like it's a secret that the honor of being a High Summoner can only ever be earned posthumously. But if it comes down to a choice between sacrificing the lives of a small group or letting the entire world be ravaged, we've so far always had heroes who have been willing to set aside their own lives to buy decades of peace."

"I know full well what being a summoner entails, especially one with the potential to be a High Summoner. After all, the Final Summon was last cast one month before I was born by High Summoner Braska—my father. He had his two best friends as his Guardians—Auron and Jecht. It hurt every time I saw the statues our city put up in their honor, but I understood that if he didn't make that sacrifice I might have never gotten to live at all. I agree with his reasoning, which is why I underwent the training."

Tidus started crying. "So, your father died before he could meet you? And if this Final Summon really scatters the guardians, I guess that would explain why nobody would know where Jecht came from or where he went when he appeared on Destiny Islands. I guess I can see why my mom wouldn't have shared this story without proof, but at least I know why my father was never around… I guess I've resented him most of my life for leaving but if it was because he had to save the world—well, it still sucks that he would get mom pregnant knowing he was going to die soon, but I guess I can't be too mad at him…"

Yuna placed a hand on his shoulder and was about to respond before Aerith's voice cut in through the main computer. "Listen up, ready the path to the Keyhole. We're taking too much damage, and I'm going to need to call Holy."

Naminé glanced to see a strange angle of housing flying by, leading her to realize Aerith was running with the phone pointed outward as she fought through various Darklings and unicorns. Immediately, she pointed out the major flaw in Aerith's plan. "What good would casting Holy do? Sure, the Darklings would be destroyed, but the unicorns would just absorb it."

"Not a prob—SHIT!" Whatever Aerith was about to explain was cut off by the sound of explosions, although Aerith's continued panting and grunts showed she at least survived and had started counterattacking. Luckily, Even was able to address Naminé's initial concern.

"Aerith is referring to a spell known as Holy for its religious significance to her people, not the typical light-elemental magic. It's a spell that only the Cetra can use that's supposed to channel the life force of the planet itself into eliminating threats to the world." When things on Aerith's end of the phone calmed down, Even raised his own objections. "However, it isn't foolproof. The Cetra tried to use Holy to stop the fall of Radiant Garden, and it wasn't enough to stop us then."

Aerith must have reached a slightly safer area as she responded. "Well, I'm a lot stronger than my mother was, and this time I'll have access to the Keyhole instead of the Heartless already being there. It's better than doing nothing!"

Even looked like he wanted to continue to object, but he ground his teeth and relented. "Fine, I'll send Naminé to open the passageway. Let me know when you arrive so I can get Ienzo to disable his defenses and you don't get lost."

With that, Even hung up and to Naminé. "The path to the Keyhole is sealed just opposite of the entrance to the Chamber of Repose. We'll need a Keyblade to open the seal, since we made sure to have King Mickey lock it away as soon as we completely reclaimed the castle." Naminé nodded and formed a corridor only for the scientist to grab her shoulder. "Wait until Aerith arrives! If you go now you'd be caught in Ienzo's spell."

Naminé sent a questioning look at Ienzo, who was floating in midair holding his Lexicon and hadn't reacted to anything since she had arrived in the room. Even seemed to guess her incoming question as he answered. "He has the entire castle except this room bound in an illusion that would make Castle Oblivion seem easy to navigate. Now most of true doors in this castle look like walls, many of the walls look like doorways, and some rooms will mess with spatial perception to the point where a person feeling like they have taken a single step will find themselves on the far end of the room or a person feeling like they have walked for miles will have actually only moved a single step."

Hayner whistled. "Okay, remind me never to get on his bad side. But I guess if this Holy spell is as powerful as it sounds, we might be getting out of danger soon."

Rikku groaned. "Okay, everyone get ready. Somebody just majorly tempted fate and that's bound to bite us in the ass."

Tidus wiped away the last of his lingering tears. "Well, I guess I'll have to be quick then. If my father bought your world some time, how much time did he buy it? If we can travel to different worlds, it might be nice to see where he came from, but I don't want to show up in the middle of the fight with Sin and be a huge distraction."

Yuna sighed. "It's really hard to know. We've got records going back to Sin's first defeat, but the length of the ensuing Calm is always different. The shortest we've seen is 18 years and the longest 120. There are always signs of the awakening, but they only give us a couple of days' notice. It's why I'm in such a hurry to break this curse and go home, because I have no idea if we've only got a couple of years left to prepare."

Selphie chimed in. "You keep saying you've been working to break the curse, but how exactly can that happen? I get where Maleficent probably might have been able to do something since she's a powerful witch herself, but how does working for Leon get you to that goal?"

Rikku snorted. "Working for Leon is more of a 'keep us out of jail' measure than a 'directly break the curse' measure. Fortunately, we know exactly how to break the curse: we need to bestow upon the guardian spirit of the temple a, and I quote, 'treasure of legendary value'. It's just finding something like that—provided it is something we can also take and not get another curse from it—that's proving difficult."

Tidus's eyes lit up. "Is 'legendary value' the only qualification? Because that doesn't necessarily mean anything on its own. Things only have as much value as we give them: a gallon of water isn't really that expensive but to someone wandering a desert it's the treasure of a lifetime. Maybe you just have to give the spirit something with a lot of sentimental value."

Yuna sighed. "We tried that and it didn't help. The spirit was a real stickler about it being a thing of legends, and even after some of us tried to argue that their headband was a representation of true love from multiple legends it didn't help."

Selphie's eyes gleamed. "Well, if it's something from legends, and something that's comparatively rare, how about a fruit that binds the destiny of people who share it? It only grows on our world, and it is apparently famous enough that Aqua built her Wayfinders based on a legend that spread to her world from ours…"

Tidus laughed. "That's it! We can just give you a Paopu fruit! Well, I guess if we want to go full into the wording of the legend, we'd need each of you to get a half of a Paopu fruit, since if you take the fruit and split it in half that's technically sharing it between two people fitting the legend."

Selphie groaned. "Come on, do you really have to take all of the romance out of it? Sure, that meets the exact wording but it loses some of the—"

Aerith's voice cut back through the room. "Next time warn me about the GIANT CHASM blocking my way before I fall into it! If Dilan hadn't sent his dragon to catch me I wouldn't get a chance to try Holy. Now, can you let me in?"

Naminé took that as her cue and immediately formed a Dark Corridor to the castle doors, meeting a very irate-looking Aerith. Since the Radiant Garden native clearly wasn't in the mood for conversation, Naminé quickly turned and headed deeper into the castle, ready to open the pathway needed for the spell. It was a bit disorienting watching features of the castle seemingly melt as Ienzo must have canceled his illusions, but beyond that there weren't any issues between the castle gates and the entryway to the Keyhole, which Naminé quickly unlocked with a flourish of Way to the Dawn.

With that obstacle out of the way, Aerith seemed to have calmed down as she shot Naminé a quick smile. "Thanks. Now, casting this spell takes a while and it will be best if there aren't any distractions, so do you think you could wait out here and guard the door? I won't exactly be able to pay attention to my surroundings."

With that, the Cetra entered the room with the Keyhole. Naminé briefly considered locking it behind her to provide an extra layer of security, but decided against it. In the worst case scenario where the castle would fall while Aerith was still casting the spell, she didn't want the woman to save the world only to be stuck in a room with no escape. She would just have to handle guard duty herself—although between Dilan and Aeleus guarding the outer gates, Ienzo warping the perception of those walking through the castle, and the Gullwings and Even guarding Kairi who was still the main target, she wasn't likely to have to face anything herself.

For about a minute, it seemed like her prediction was coming true and she hadn't had to deal with anything other than boredom. However, shortly she noticed a slight annoyance at the edge of her senses, as if there was a dark presence just out of her perception. She started taking deep breaths trying to center herself—she had been in fights before, so there was no reason for her to try and psych herself out now. The feeling wouldn't go away, though, and as the feeling of darkness encroached on her she readed Way to the Dawn. She still couldn't tell if anything was coming—right up until a massive gust of wind knocked her over. When she regained her footing, she saw a swarm of Heartless mainly composed of Malachite Boleros and Large Bodies.

While the incoming swarm would at least explain the feeling of darkness and the burst of wind, it did lead to more questions. While Large Bodies were fairly common wherever Heartless appeared, this was the first known appearance of Malachite Boleros outside of either the Kingdom of Corona or the Caribbean. Why would this type of Emblem Heartless suddenly appear on this world, especially considering the current invasion force only had Darklings among its Heartless? Naminé didn't have time to consider more of the implications of the appearance before she had to dodge through a tornado—and then hastily throw up her guard because a Large Body was already mid-charge and only a foot away.

The attack shattered her hastily raised defense, but before she could take the hit she moved into the next step of her plan. While Riku and Aqua were able to pull this off with much more flair with their Shadow Slide and Teleport skills respectively, Naminé hadn't been able to master those moves but had been able to work with Roxas to learn his Reversal. She slid in a circle to end up behind the rotund Heartless, but unlike Roxas or Sora she hadn't yet mastered the technique where she could immediately flow into a reprisal after the dodge and she had to take a bit to recover. She expected the Heartless to turn and continue attacking her, but instead it just kept running forward—towards where Aerith was casting her spell. Naminé cursed as she cast a Slowga on the assembled Heartless before casting Hastera on herself. Apparently the Keyhole was a bigger beacon to the Heartless than her Keyblade, which meant she'd have to take them all out quickly before any could slip past her. Luckily, between her enhanced speed and the delayed reactions of the Heartless who all had their backs to her, she was able to land just enough hits on them to release all of their hearts just before the spells wore off.

However, before Naminé could fully recover from the time dilation, something smashed her in the head and sent her flying into the wall. She wasn't sure if she was seeing double from the spell effect or the trauma, but when she finally managed to cast a Curaga and the room stopped spinning she recognized her assailant from Roxas and Xion's missions with the Organization. The Large Armor was a nearly fully-armored variant of a Large Body that upgraded from being immune to frontal attacks to being immune to any attacks other than headshots. It also seemed to be a little smarter than the other Heartless, enough to recognize the threat of a Keyblade as more important than an open path to the world's Keyhole. However, the advantages it had over the other Heartless wouldn't make much of a difference, as it was fighting alone and Naminé already knew the weaknesses of this particular variety of Heartless. As soon as it charged at her, Naminé jumped over its head and launched a Crawling Fire at it. The Slow spell infused in the attack affected the Heartless as well, leaving it helpless to dodge as its elemental weakness slowly bored through its body. Not wanting it to have a chance to recover, Naminé emptied the rest of her magical reserves into a barrage of Firas that left the Heartless reeling and allowed a single combo with Way to the Dawn to free its trapped heart.

Naminé took a second to sigh in relief that the fight was over, before she noticed she could still feel a strong dark presence near her—and it seemed to be coming from the direction of the Keyhole. Swallowing her panic, she sprinted into the room and realized she hadn't really been hallucinating—there was indeed a second Large Armor, but it had made its way directly towards Aerith. The Cetra was currently slumped on the ground, but Naminé's eyes were instead drawn to the third figure in the room: a man with long silver hair and three black wings was floating in the air, with a ridiculously long sword currently plunged through the chest of the Heartless.

Naminé blinked in shock. "Wait, aren't you Sephiroth? What are you—" Before she could even finish her sentence, a green flash engulfed her and Naminé knew no more.


Author's Note: So, the main reason I went so much into depth on the FFX lore was at the time I was writing this, I was watching a streamer go through KH2 for the first time and they mentioned that FFX and FFX-2 were their favorite Final Fantasy games. That caused me to look up the story, and then try to see how I could adapt it as well as possible to fit in the established KH version of the characters.

And I have had that ending fakeout with Sephiroth and Aerith planned pretty much from the start of this series. I just had to have them interact in a manner similar to the famous FFVII scene.