Ok, this chapter is kinda short, because crap is gonna hit the fan next chapters.

Kingdom Hearts (c) to Disney and Square Enix!

Sasuke (c) to Yamichaos27!

Luna (c) to Nintendoman01!

Chapter 16: Stormy Skies

"Are you giving Even and the others trouble, Uncle?" Kairi, followed by her family, walked into the library.

Even sighed. "Indeed he is. He won't take his medicine."

"I don't wish to take it."

"You sound like a kid, Uncle Ansem." Sora laughed.

"Well maybe I want to be a child. Being frail, ill, and bound to this chair are no fun. Sometimes I wish I had worked on that youth elixer long ago. Then maybe I wouldn't be in this position."

Sora and Kairi laughed, but Patria looked on, her face a blatant mask of annoyance.

How could they act so calm? How could they laugh? Pith was still missing, maybe dead.

"Tria," she glanced up at her father's voice, "you OK?"

"Not at all! How can you laugh and make jokes!? Pith could be dying right now! I know you're always smiling, 'Mr. Sunshine, but this is no time for that!"

Sora lair his hand on his daughter's head. "I know. But, I can't despair. I've done that before... Never again. I won't give up, and I'll keep smiling. Because I know he's alive."

Patria sometimes forgot how annoyingly optimistic her dad was.

"Sup guys!"

Lea and his team walked into the room followed by Terra`s.

"Hey!"

Ansem smiled. "It is good to see you all safe. We have been worried."

"Mommy!" Ignore came running in, attaching himself to his mother's leg.

"Hey baby." She scooped him up with a smile.

Ignis laughed. "Mama! I gotta help with Lord Ansem!"

"Yes. He has been a great help."

"Father." A girl in a lab coat with silver-blue hair walked into the room.

Ienzo turned slightly. "Yes, Amelia?"

The girl, Amelia, hurried over, her boots clicking on the floor. "Lord Ansem, may I speak to you... and the other adults."

"Why just adults."

"Because I said so." The girl huffed. "I don't know if we need everyone here, just a few of you, so bye."

"Whatever then..." Patria stomped off. The other kids followed behind, Glacies grabbing little Ignis on her way out. "So, none of us found any hints on my brother..." She let out a long groan. "I'm worried."

Ryo held up a fruit from his pouch. "Well, we did find something that might help in someway. We got this from Rafiki. It's a miracle fruit. He says it can save Angel from the magic spell she's un-."

"Angel!?" Patria reached for the fruit, only for the boy to pull it away. "Why would you get anything to help her!? She's our enemy!"

Blaze raised an eyebrow. "Uh, you do remember that she's a captive and helped us last time before you abandoned her. If we can free her, she could take us to Pith."

"Pith should be our first priority. Not Xehanort's daughter."

"Oh just shut up!" Brim grunted. "You don't care about anyone but yourself. All this talk about Pith is because you cling to him as the only person who won't totally judge you on being crazy."

PJ held up his hand, glancing between the boy and Patria. "Why don't we all just calm down and talk this out quietly..."

Neither one seemed to hear him.

"Shut it you perv!"

"Face it, you're a total psychopath!"

"Say that again, I dare you!"

Ansem grunted as his joints began to ache. "Ameila, what is it?"

"I analyzed that tracker that Master Yen Sid gave everyone. I was able to track two enemies to two different worlds." Her eyes turned to the king. "It's two of the worlds on that list."

"What list?"

"Well..."

"Shut up!"

"You gonna make me!?"

"You wanna go!? Let's go!"

Kairi glanced at the door. "That's Patria and Brim."

Sora turned, dashing into the other room, just in time to see Patria and Brim summon their weapons and leap at one another. The man summoned his Keyblade and grabbed Dawn's Might from its sheath. He managed to jump forward, blocking the two before they slashed one another. "Have you two lost it!? You're friends! Comrades!"

"Then tell him to keep his mouth shut!"

"No! Your daughter is a freakin' psycho! She doesn't care about anything other than herself! We have a way to save an innocent person and she doesn't give a rip!"

"I'm not a psycho!"

Sora knocked their weapons away. "Cut it out! We're all on edge right now, but we can't start fighting each other. And Brim, my daughter is not a psycho. You shouldn't say things like that."

"Then she should stop acting like one! Come on Tria! What do you want to do? Are you going to help save an innocent person, like a normal sane person would do, or are you going to stand by and let them die to save your own interests?"

The red-head glared at him, her body shaking.

What did he know about her?

He didn't know what she was going through.

The dark voice in her mind whispered, "He is mocking you..."

"I'll freakin' kill you!" Patria lunged, only for her dad to drop his weapons and catch her.

Brim, unafraid, crossed his arms. "My point stands. Psycho."

"You know what, screw you!" The girl stormed off.

"Patria, wait!"

The red-head ran out of the room and out of the castle. Turning down into the crystal caves, she soon found herself in a small alcove. Bioluminecent moss shone around, casting a mystical light, only heightened by the crystal's reflections of said light. A small waterfall trickled down into a pond. Little creatures, that looked like stuffed blue animals wandered around the pond. They looked up, cocking their head at the strange human who came rushing in, emotionally distressed.

Patria slumped against a crystal, closing her eyes as emotion threatened to well up inside of her. She felt a tiny appendage touch her. Opening her eyes, she saw one of the little creatures staring up at her. "Go away!"

"Aw, don't be mean to the little guy, he's just a PuPu(1)."

The girl looked up to see Leon and Rinoa's son, Ivan standing by a large crystal. "Why are you here?"

"This is my training ground. Dad showed it to me." He plopped down in front of her with a soft smile. "So, what's up with you? I mean, you look like you want to scream, cry, and kill something all at one."

"Oh, just buzz off."

The boy smirked. "Oh come on. Holding all that crap in is only going to make life worse for you. Look, I swear on my sword, I'll even swear on yours that I won't tell a soul. Come on..."

"You're annoying." The girl groaned. But a moment later... "Fine. Brim called me a psychopath and I couldn't... I had no way to disprove him."

"Brim, that was uncalled for!" Lea towered over his son. "Patria is angry yes, but her brother is missing, and she is probably more stressed than most of us. I'm sure she'll be more cooperative and kind when the stress is relieved."

"Doubt it."

Lea's eye twitched slightly. "Brimstone Roxas Fahrenheit, you will apologize for what you said!"

"Whatever..."

Sora and Kairi stared at the door where their daughter fled. "Kairi, you figure out this whole, thing with your uncle I'll find Tria." He hurried outside, searching for his little girl.

Kairi, rubbing her temples, went back to her uncle. Certainly, she was saddened and angry by her daughter's disregard for innocent Angel, but of course, their entire family was under so much stress at the moment, that she couldn't blame the girl for thinking of her own interests, and those interests weren't even about her for once... they were for Pith.

"Uncle..."

"Patria I assume."

"Yes." The princess let out a long sigh. "The others will be back here soon. But I think Lea is still lecturing his son."

A few minutes later, the others came in, with Lea looking more than a little embarrassed as he approached Kairi. "Sorry about my son."

"It's ok, Lea. We're all stressed out, and we might all say things we don't truly mean." The woman turned back to Ienzo's daughter. "Amelia, please go on."

Amelia, having sat down with her notes looked a little on the annoyed side. "For those who don't know, which is sadly most of you, Mother and I were down in the mines when we stumbled upon an old laboratory. In it, we found this list along with other things."

"The list," another female voice spoke, "held a list of laboratories and experiments created by Gorou, father of Ansem the Wise." Ienzo's wife, Lara(2), walked over to Amelia. "He was a mad scientist, but he didn't get his hands dirty. He funded others who had insane ideas and psychotic notions. Two of the people you are looking for are in two of those worlds."

Terra scratched his chin. "So, we need to check those worlds."

"Yes," Ienzo nodded, "and we have been doing some digging on the potential motives of Braig and his followers by analyzing what we could through the trackers. But, we will need you to check these worlds to double-check our data."

Amelia tapped her pen against her clipboard. "This also might help us get one step closer to finding Pith. If we can analyze their motives, we could predict their movements potentially."

"Then let's do it!"

Sora walked around town, searching for any sign of his daughter. Of course she'd taken off without a trace.

"Looking for crazy-head?"

He turned to see Briana leaning against a wall.

"You!"

The princess smirked. "Yes me. And I've come with a little riddle. One is covered in red and smells of death, and the other soon nears the door to Hell."

"What kind of riddle is that!?"

"Figure it out." The girl warped away, leaving a very confused Sora behind.

"What... does she mean?"

The next chapter will get a bit crazy, so I'm super hyped!

Please review!

Footnotes

(1) PuPu is a Final Fantasy creature seen in 8 that takes things from the map.

(2) If you read my rewrite of my KH3 fic then you know that this woman is the one and only Lara Croft. Don't ask how this ship came to be, I don't know myself, and I wrote it.

VAs:

Amelia Corrigan- Whitney Rodgers (Aguri Yukimura, Margaret, Amelia Evans, Jiro, Lotta Hart, Yozora Mikazuki, Sora)