Chapter 9, The Battle

Vexen had his eyes shut, fearing what terrors he and his companions would be forced into this time. Once he was confident the gummi had done its thing, he opened his eyes, slowly taking in his surroundings. Larxene and Demyx stood at his side, this time without any nicks or scratches. They appeared to be in a grimy alleyway, not unlike the one in New York.

"Oh, no," Larxene groaned. "This place again? We'll never get home at this rate."

"Wait," Vexen eyed a dumpster behind them. "See here." He began to rub vigorously at the scum smudged on the cannister. "If I'm not mistaken, this brand of waste disposal unit is…" An engraved logo was revealed behind the dirt. "…Nomura Incorporated! Our world's trademarked sanitation company! We did it! We're home!"

"Yeah!" Demyx cheered, dropping to his knees and passionately kissing the asphalt. "I'll never take this place for granted again, with its endless night and its bland castle and…"

"…its grimy streets," Larxene finished for Demyx, her arms crossed.

"…and its grimy streets. I'll never…" Demyx ceased his kissing, realizing he was in fact kissing grimy asphalt. "Ugh!" He gagged in revulsion, getting back to his feet. "Remind me to shower when we get back to the castle."

"Yes. Let's return home," Vexen led the way out of the alley. "I wonder how Zexion and the others are faring. Oh, the stories they'll want to…" Once he stepped out onto the street and into the shadow of Memory's Skyscraper, though, Vexen's enthusiasm dissolved. "…hear."

Demyx and Larxene lagged behind the scientist. "What's the matter, Vexen?" Larxene asked, confused.

"They're here?" Vexen whimpered in disbelief.

"What? Who's…" Demyx trailed off as he saw what the frightened academic was seeing. "…here."

Swarms upon swarms of Heartless populated the Skyline That Never Was, and just ahead legions upon legions of dark demons scurried across the Streets That Never Were. Above them in the heavens, dark corridors were opening and closing, with more and more of these abominations flooding through into our heroes' home world.

"Maybe we came at the wrong time," Larxene weakly suggested, awestruck by these devastating odds. "Literally. What if we have to jump further in the future? Or maybe we overshot the present?"

"HYYYAHHHH!"

The trio looked up to find Xigbar charging the Heartless head-on in the skies above, upside-down and guns blazing. Behind him was Xemnas teleporting here and there, setting up various walls and traps, and behind Xemnas was Luxord, soaring on one of his magical playing cards, dealing various decks of doom.

"No, we seem to be in the right time," Vexen assured Larxene. "It just happens to be a very, very, very bad time."

Things were no different on the Brink of Despair. Soldiers were relentlessly trying to breach the castle's ground defenses. Marluxia stood valiantly among them, swinging his scythe this way and that. He could only do so much, though, as with every attack from the enemy, the graceful assassin was pushed farther and farther to the edge of the broken-off street. Xaldin flew just above him on a dragon made of his own lances, warding off their airborne foes.

"They just keep on coming," Marluxia grunted, teetering between solid ground and a bottomless pit.

"Quit your whining," Xaldin countered as he handily impaled a row of air-soldiers. "Lest you want your last words to be feeble complaining."

Marluxia guffawed. "Ha! As if they'll slay me now when I'm not even in my final forACK!" Just like that, with one more blow, the flowery warrior had lost his balance and was going to fall backwards into the abyss…

"Gotcha!" A hand grabbed Marluxia by the arm, tugging him back on solid ground. Much to his relief and then shock, he realized it was…

"Larxene!" He gasped. "Aren't you supposed to dead?"

"Funny thing about that," Larxene replied, throwing a dozen knives around her, and eliminating the Heartless surrounding them, at least for now. "That's not the first time I've been asked that today."

"Huh." Marluxia squinted at Larxene's odd garments. "And what are you wearing?"

"Dance, water! Dance!" But before she could answer, a calvary of water guitarists suddenly joined the battle, along with Demyx and Vexen.

"Well, I'll be…" Vexen said in awe. "I've been gone for how long? A day? A week, at most? And now the world's falling apart…"

A Large Body took aim at Vexen from behind, but a series of lances defeated it before it could make its move. "No thanks to you," Xaldin growled, landing deftly on the ground beside the scientist. "You chose an interesting time to go on holiday."

"As if I knew there'd be a Heartless invasion, much less that I'd be sent to the Cretaceous Era!" Vexen spat.

"Dare I even ask?" Marluxia quipped, seamlessly rejoining the fight.

"It's a long story," Demyx replied, frantically looking around. "What's going on?"

"What's it look like, boy?" Xaldin scoffed. "The Heartless got through the castle's defenses because said defenses were never activated…"

"…because only I know how to work the machinery," Vexen realized, an odd gleeful smile spreading on his face. "Aha! You needed me! You actually need me! I knew it! I knew I was useful!"

A Powerwild lunged at Vexen during his celebratory rant before Larxene took it by the head and punted it away. "Yes, yes. We love and cherish you very much. CAN YOU SHUT UP AND COME UP WITH A PLAN?!"

"Right. A plan." Vexen stroked his chin, concocting a scheme to save the day. "Of the security measures we have, the sonic reverberator we have in the maintenance wing will do us the most good."

"Sonic whatsit?" Demyx questioned, ducking Bandit's jumping attack.

"Reverberator. It reflects sound and converts it into an explosive blast if it's scaled properly," Vexen explained. "Such a sonic blast will wipe the area of Heartless, or at least even the odds."

"Sound, huh?" Demyx strummed a few notes. "Count me in."

"Are you sure?" Vexen asked, concerned.

"Of course. I may be a Water-Boy, but I'm also a Music-Man!"

A string of lightning bolts shot past them, eliminating a row of shadows. "I don't mean to interrupt your make-out session, but shouldn't you be hurrying to the castle right about now?"

"Right," Vexen nodded. "But not without you. With an attack of this magnitude, the reverberator will need some extra power. And you're our best shot."

"Alright," Larxene replied. "Let's go! It looks like the Heartless have made their way into the castle, so we gotta move!" It was true, as hordes of darkness from the heavens seeped onto the towering structure.

Vexen froze a pathway up to the castle and led the trio up the slippery makeshift incline.

"What?!" Marluxia blurted out. "You're leaving us?!"

"Cheer up, Flower-Power," Larxene assured him. "We'll bail you out in no time."

"How do you know your plan will work?"

Vexen stopped and faced their skeptics. "Because I'm a scientist. Knowing is my specialty."

And the heroes charged onward.

But early in their quest, the trio faced a dangerous adversary in a humongous Morning Star dropping from the heavens and onto Vexen's fragile ice bridge.

"Great Scott!" Vexen gasped, rushing mightily to restore the damage done to his frozen creation with a quick dose of Blizzard magic. "A colossal foe!"

"Quit gawking, start…" But Larxene couldn't finish her bitter insult, the Morning Star slapping Larxene away with a spinning attack. She tumbled off the side of the bridge and towards her doom. Fortunately, were it not for her quick reflexes and fixing a blade into the bridge before she fell into the abyss, Larxene would be no more.

"I know what to do." Demyx formed an orb of H2O in his hand and slung it at their adversary. "WATERBALL!"

The waterball splashed against the Morning Star, proving to be wholly ineffective.

Demyx and Vexen were silent. "It's times like this," the sitarist spoke up. "When I wish I was one of the guys who made things explode."

The duo screamed as they retreated down the slope, the Morning Star rolling after them. Vexen knew their efforts were hopeless. Any amateur physics professor would tell you that something with the mass of the Morning Star rolling down a slope would, eventually, catch up with the two of them. Such was the way of inertia, a cruel mistress indeed.

"LET THE MOON SHINE DOWN!"

A mighty blast erupted behind Vexen and Demyx, sending the two of them flying a couple of yards away onto their stomachs and eliminating the Morning Star behind them. Vexen turned on his back and eyed their savior.

"Saix?" He asked. "Is that you?"

The blue-haired warrior, hovering in the air high above them, his eyes glowing, looked down on the scientist. "GREETINGS."

"Er, salutations," Vexen waved, a bit thrown off. "Thank you for…"

"LET THE MOON SHINE DOWN!"

"…what?"

"PATHETIC WHELP!"

"Excuse me?"

"GREETINGS."

Vexen narrowed his eyes. "It can't be…"

Demyx tugged at Vexen's tracksuit, pointing up at the castle's ramparts. "Vexen, look!"

And so the scientist did, witnessing a legion of black-cloaked figures leaping off the castle ledges and into the battle.

"I don't believe it!" Vexen said, awe-struck.

"You better!" Demyx got to his feet with a wide smile. "It's Organization 26!"

"FLAME ON!"

Replaxel leapt off the balcony and into the sprawling battle, chakrams akimbo.

"That should be all of them," Zexion affirmed, dusting his hands off.

"I gotta tell you, bookworm," Axel smirked, watching the replicas go to town on the Heartless in the skies and on the ground. "This idea—not half-bad."

"Thanks. That should buy us some time."

"For what?"

"I don't know. Something good, hopefully. We just have to…"

Suddenly, a Darkball seeped through the wall behind them and charged at them, giving neither Axel nor Zexion time to dodge.

"Zexion, watch…" But Axel trailed off as a mighty tomahawk flew by them, striking the Darkball down.

"I have to admit," Lexaeus strode past the duo, still frozen with shock. "When I let you go, I didn't expect you'd unleash the Uncanny Valley."

"It's a serviceable plan, no?" Zexion regained his composure, as well as his pride.

"The fight's not over yet," the warrior sternly reminded the young man. "In case you haven't noticed, the Heartless have infiltrated the castle."

"He's right," Axel said, unveiling his own chakrams. "I've got the urge to blow things up."

"Alright, we just have to…" Zexion looked down from their perch. "Wait, that's an ice bridge."

"The work of the Heartless, no doubt," Lexaeus dismissed the odd occurrence.

But Zexion peered a bit more. "No. Something like that could only be the work of…" His face lit up as he saw a platinum blonde figure in a red tracksuit standing alongside a young man in a white tee-shirt. "I'll be damned!"

"What?" Axel spoke up, concerned. "What is it?"

"It's Vexen! He's alive!" Zexion cheered. "By God, he's alive!"

"Well, it's not 26 exactly," Demyx reconsidered. "Maybe 24? 23?"

"Enough of that!" Vexen pulled Demyx up to his feet. "We've got to get going!"

The two ran back up the slope, where Larxene was pulling herself back onto solid ice. "You took care of the thing?"

"Yes, with some help," Vexen answered. "Come on!"

The trio entered the castle, prompting Vexen to lecture to his comrades. "The maintenance room should be a few floors up. We just have to get there in one piece."

"BE GONE!"

Saix's Claymore flew past them and into a group of Minute Bombs, triggering an explosion. Stunned from the blast, our heroes had no time to react when Saix landed before them.

"So, you're alive?" he keenly observed.

"Oh," Vexen coughed from the resulting dust cloud. "You must be the real Saix."

"Explain it, then," Saix demanded. "Did you fake your death and desert the Organization? That warrants a…"

"Five-week suspension, we know," Larxene cut the Lunar Diviner off and ran past him, Vexen and Demyx right behind her. "We'll chat later, OK?"

"But…"

"Stay frosty, man!" Demyx called back before retracting, "Wait, Vex, is that your thing?"

"I don't have a thing!" Vexen reprimanded the boy. "HURRY!"

Saix stood alone, confused beyond belief. But he had little time to remain so, as Heartless after Heartless were making their way into the castle's lobby.

Xemnas somersaulted into the air, destroying a series of Wyverns in spectacular fashion. However, as mighty a warrior the Superior was, he was outmatched, for behind him was a squadron of Wizards readying their staves…

"BULLSEYE!"

A flurry of bullets shot past Xemnas and into the Wizards, destroying them. Xemnas turned to find the one-eyed sniper with a smoking gun.

"Thank you, Xigbar," Xemnas said solemnly.

"Huh?" Another voice behind Xemnas sounded. The Superior turned to find it was also his one-eyed sniper with a smoking gun. "I didn't do anything."

"But…" Xemnas looked between the two Xigbars. "You destroyed those Heartless…"

"AS IF!" Both Xigbars said, much to one's confusion. "What in Sam Hill is going on here?"

"ARE YOU READY TO PLAY THE GAME?"

Time froze. In an instant, a series of playing cards sliced and diced their way through the surrounding Gargoyles, leading to their demise. Time resumed and the Organization's gambler stood at the center of the destruction.

"Wow. That must've been a good hand, huh, Luxord?" Xigbar congratulated his comrade.

"ARE YOU READY TO PLAY THE GAME?"

"…you said that already."

"Go fish, you bastard!" Luxord slashed through the Air Soldier he'd been dueling for the past five minutes. "Hello, gents. You called?" He eyed his lookalike across the way. "What's the meaning of this?"

"I ALWAYS WIN IN THE END."

"I believe I have an inkling…" Xemnas felt two figures brush past him at just the right time, eliminating the Air Pirates that were ready to attack. One was another Xemnas, and the other…

"Xaldin?" Xigbar asked.

"No," Xemnas clarified. "A replica of Xaldin." He eyed the streets below them. "A whole Organization of replicas."

Indeed, joining Marluxia and Xaldin on the streets were Replaix, Replaxeus and Marluxica, helping Marluxia and Xaldin cut through the Heartless army's foot-soldiers.

"Is that…" Marluxia squinted. "…another me?"

"Don't question it," Xaldin hissed. "An ally is an ally."

"GET READY TO SMELL THE ROSES!" Marluxica proclaimed.

"What…?" Malruxia was revolted. "I don't say that!" A Bouncywild almost snook up on the assassin, but he was able to dodge its attack and throw a cavalcade of vines at the cursed ape. "Now who's pushing up daisies?"

Xaldin groaned audibly, but all seemed well as the replicas worked in harmony with their real counterparts. Xigbar and Repligbar shot their enemies from afar, back to back; Xemnas and Replemnas eliminated their foes in tune with one another's spins and attacks; and Luxord and Repluxord played their games effortlessly, defeating their adversaries with little trouble at all.

Vexen and company turned the corner around another corridor, searching desperately for the door to the security room. "It's got to be here somewhere," the scientist muttered, cursing the castle's monotonous interior décor. "Blast this sterile architecture!"

"It wouldn't hurt to hang up some paintings," Demyx suggested. "Maybe a sign to point where you're going…"

"Great, sport," Larxene said sarcastically. "You could mention it at the next faculty meeting."

The trio turned another corner, only to be met with a pleasant surprise…

"Zexion!"

"Vexen!" The apprentice smiled before embracing his mentor in an embrace. "You're alive! How are you alive?!"

"Would you believe the gummi was not a weapon," Vexen excitedly explained, having missed these long intellectual discussions. "But a time machine?"

"Impossible!" Zexion replied giddily.

"Quite the opposite. You see, it sent us back to the Cretaceous Era…"

"Are you sure it wasn't a world that happened to inhabit dinosaurs?"

"I suspected that briefly but my suspicions were confirmed when I met my past self…"

Axel let the eggheads go at it and sauntered over to Larxene. "Dinosaurs, huh? Sounds like you've had a fulfilling Wednesday."

Larxene rolled her eyes. "I don't want to talk about it."

"And how about those threads?"

"I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT."

Feeling left out, Demyx greeted Lexaeus. "Wazzup, Rocky?"

Lexaeus grunted in response, putting an end to that short-lived conversation.

"…and it was this peculiar catharsis…" Vexen realized he was going on a tangent. "Oh, what am I doing? We have to get to the security room!"

"I know where to go!" Zexion dug into his cloak. "I always carry the pamphlet map they gave us on Orientation Day, just for reference."

"Nice one, bookworm," Axel cheered as Vexen scanned the map for their location.

"Here!" Vexen pointed to the map. "And by here, I mean a ways over there!" He pointed to the corridor heading eastwards. "We must make haste!"

Our heroes ran down the hallway, racing past door after door, until they finally settled on their desired room. "Here it is!" Vexen tried to open the door but was immediately met with adversity. "Wha…it's locked. It's locked…because I have the key in my room! WHY?!"

"No worries," Demyx consoled him. "We can just rush back to your room and grab them real quick?"

"Are you kidding me?" Larxene spat. "It was a grand quest just finding this room. By the time we get there and back, we'll be Heartless bait!"

"I just need time to think…" Vexen said hectically.

An explosion sounded off a few rooms down.

"Those better be my illegal fireworks and not the Heartless," Axel muttered.

"You have illegal fireworks?" Zexion blurted incredulously, before his eyes widened in realization. "That's what I'm hearing on Friday nights. You know, I only have so much time to read…"

"THINK. THINKING," Vexen waved his hands frantically. "I'M TRYING TO THINK!"

"Maybe we can use the fireworks to blast open the door," Demyx brainstormed.

"I don't think so," Axel countered.

"Oh, c'mon," Larxene snapped venomously. "I think now would be a time to forget by your pyro-addiction."

"It's not just that. What if they actually did blow up? It wouldn't be worth it to run all the way there and check for nothing."

"Man, I wish the Love Monkey was here," Demyx lamented. "He would know what to do…"

"The Love…" Zexion narrowed his eyes. "…what?"

"ENOUGH!" Vexen exploded, turning to face all of them. "I AM THE BRAINS OF THIS OPERATION! BUT HOWEVER SMART I MAY BE, I NEED PEACE AND QUIET TO THINK! SOLUTIONS DON'T EFFORTLESSLY FLOW FROM MY BRAIN ONTO THE FABRIC OF REALITY! SO IF YOU WOULD PLEASE QUIT YOUR BLUBBERING AND LET. ME. THINK!"

Dead silence.

Lexaeus punched the door with titanic force, sending it flying into the room for a good ten yards.

Vexen stared in shock.

"Huh. I figured that would work." Lexaeus explained bluntly. He walked into the security room.

"I was gonna suggest something like that," Axel added, following Lexaeus.

"Yeah, yeah. Course you were," Larxene scoffed, right behind him.

"I believe you, Axel," Demyx said, sauntering behind her.

"I'm sorry…did you say, 'Love Monkey?'" Zexion questioned after the sitarist.

Vexen heaved a beleaguered sigh and entered the security room, ready to get to work.

"Alright. The sonic reverberator should be…there!" Vexen pointed to some overly complicated piece of machinery in the corner. "First, we have to power it…"

"YOU WILL STAND TRIAL!"

Vexen turned, frightened by this new obstacle, only to find a blue blur charging towards him…

…and a red blur coming to his aid before him. "What's your deal, man?" Axel pushed Saix away, effectively putting an end to his attempted assault.

"My deal is you're aiding and abetting traitors," Saix cursed back at his old friend.

"Traitors?" Zexion scoffed. "We're trying to stop the invasion!"

"I wasn't asking you," Saix hissed, turning back to his old friend. "Regardless, you'd incriminate yourself to save a prisoner, despite my efforts to save you?"

"They had you imprisoned?" Vexen asked his apprentice.

"Well, we thought we killed you," Zexion shrugged. "It was all a series of comical misunderstandings."

"I see nothing funny about this," Saix snapped bitterly. "Why do you feel intent on throwing away our friendship?"

"Oh, c'mon," Axel rolled his eyes. "As if you could be my only friend. Get over yourself."

"You've changed, Axel. And not for the better." Saix dramatically clenched his fist.

"Yeah. I've changed," Axel agreed. "I understand that I don't have to solely rely on you to feel like I'm worth anything." He glanced at Zexion. "I can have more than one friend. Sorry to break it to you, Saix."

Saix was silent. "I see."

"This was beautiful," Vexen feigned a smile, before promptly freaking out. "BUT CAN WE POWER UP THIS DAMNED MACHINE BEFORE WE ALL…"

"LOOK OUT!" Demyx cried, pointing at the window.

For indeed, a gigantic Heartless gummi ship was crashing through the glass panes, creating a tremendous impact stunning them all and wreaking terrible destruction.

Outside the castle, things were only worsening. Even with the Organization's slightly improved odds, they were no match for the great masses of darkness. While the dark corridors had ceased to open, there remained one humongous portal from which creatures both plentiful and strong flooded.

Repaldin was scorched by a series of Flame Cores, sending his burnt husk to the streets below beside the real Xaldin.

"LOVE..IS…FOR THE…WEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAK…" And so the replica perished.

Repligbar fared no better, as a dozen Darkballs withstood his bullets and ran him through. Though it was too late for him, Replaxel acted quickly, and activated his self-destruct measure.

"FEEL THE HEAT!" The replica blew himself up in flurry of dancing flames, taking out that group of Heartless.

But there were more, overpowering Marluxica on the street and Repluxord in the skies. Even Replemnas, who mirrored the powers of the strongest of all of them, succumbed to an Invisible's blade.

The tide was turning to a most dire end.

"We have to hurry!"

Vexen winced in pain. Even opening his eyes proved to be a Herculean task.

"I know you can make it!"

He coughed, the dust from the crash caught in his lungs.

"Don't give up!"

A figure stood over him, one Vexen thought to be… "Ansem?"

"Holy crap! He's awake, guys!" Demyx cried to the others. "Vexen, are you alright?"

"Yes," Vexen snapped out of it. "I'm fine." He saw the Heartless wreckage wedged into the room, damaging nearly every single thing, including… "The sonic reverberator!" Vexen rushed over to the machine, frantically analyzing its remains.

Meanwhile, Axel struggled to his feet, but was aided by both Zexion and Saix. Then there was Lexaeus, tending to an unconscious Larxene.

"She was hit hard by the ship," Lexaeus explained solemnly. "I don't know if I can wake her up."

"Oh, crap," Demyx ran his hands through his hair. "We were right there and now the reverminator is destroyed."

Vexen's face lit up. "Reverberator. And not quite. It can still spread sound, but it won't be able to convert it to an explosion…"

"…so basically, it spreads soundwaves but with little to no impact," Zexion reasoned.

"Not unless those waves carry something other than sound. Perhaps fire…?" Vexen looked to Axel.

"I'd love to," Axel grinned, despite himself. "But I'm not feeling too hot now."

"How about your water magic?" Saix asked Demyx.

"It's not that strong to begin with," he replied nervously. "Why do you think I fall back on a group of water-back-up singers to help me out?"

"Larxene's incapacitated, so her lightning magic is out of the question," Zexion noted. "Vexen, that leaves you as our most gifted mage. Your ice magic could do the trick."

"It'll freeze them, but it won't eliminate them. My spells only last for so long," Vexen rubbed his temples, trying to think of a solution. "Damn me, for being so weak! There must be something, something we can do!"

"The answer's in there somewhere," Demyx assured his newfound friend, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You're a smart guy, Vexen. Remember that."

Reinvigorated by this trust, Vexen began to brainstorm, thinking desperately of each of their different talents, their options, the constants, and the variables. He strained himself, quickly shuffling from plan to plan, the Organization relying on him to survive another day.

His eyes widened in realization. "Zexion: hypothesis." Vexen straightened his posture pacing with confidence. "What activated the gummi to begin with?"

"An exposure to intense heat," Zexion answered.

"So we thought," Vexen countered excitedly. "We've travelled haplessly from time period to time period, to the past and to the future, believing we needed a powerful heat source to do so. But we never considered that the gummi's censor was not only reacting to heat…"

"…but a dramatic change in temperature," his apprentice concluded, catching onto his mentor's lecture.

"Exactly! The gummi only activated when there was a sudden increase in temperature. But what we never even considered was what happened when there was a sudden decrease in temperature."

"So…" Demyx attempted to keep up. "…your ice magic can work?"

"That's the issue! It won't! I've always been a man of science, never of magic. My spells are weak, and if they'll have any impact on the gummi, it'll transport only me to another time period."

"But if your spells were reverberated with this," Zexion gestured to the machine. "They would be spread on a grand scale…"

"…activating the gummi and swiftly sending the Heartless to another time period!" Vexen jumped with joy. "By Jiminy, I've done it! I've saved us!"

Larxene groaned with pain.

"You speak too soon," Lexaeus said gravely.

"She's the catalyst," Vexen explained, kneeling down beside Lexaeus and presiding over her. "Without her electrical capabilities, we won't be able to power up the device."

"C'mon, Larxene," Demyx plead with her. "Wake up…"

A series of muffled voices. Larxene couldn't hear any of them from the abyss. Slowly falling into the darkness, she only felt one familiar voice reach her.

"Throwing in the towel is still an option. How about it?"

Larxene faded into the stygian depths.

"I won't give up…not now…NOT EVER!"

A ray of lightning illuminated the darkness, and Larxene ascended from the abyss with a flare, from the brink of death back to the realm of the living.

Larxene sat up with a conviction, remembering Vexen's final demand before the crash, sending her most powerful lightning bolt to the reverberator. With this boost of energy, the machine was up and running.

"That should do it!" Vexen cheered.

"Cool!" Demyx added. "Now do your ice stuff and let's get this done with."

"It's not as easy as that."

Demyx's smile faded. "What?"

"If I were to do it here, we'd be sent in time with them." Vexen looked up at the masses leaking through the portal in the sky. "I have to travel right in the eye of the storm."

"But what about you?" Zexion asked, concerned. "Won't you be caught in the blast?"

Vexen was silent.

"Oh, no." Demyx shook his head. "There has to be another option…"

"I'm afraid not," Vexen replied somberly.

"But we just got back here! Not to mention we were almost shot and eaten and blown up a few times along the way! God knows where that thing will send you if it takes you with it!"

"I know! But it's a risk I have to take!"

"But Vexen…"

"Listen to me, boy!" Vexen grabbed Demyx by the shoulders, staring him straight in the eye. "If there was any reason Ansem saved my life all those years ago, it was because he believed I was good, and I could do great good! There's no better time to prove that than now." He began to feel choked up, so Vexen returned to the cool and calm analysis of the situation. "So when I cast my spell up there, I need you to play the loudest note you can right at the reverberator. That will amplify my magic and…" Vexen exhaled nervously. "…and the day will be saved. Do you understand me, Demyx?"

Demyx was quiet.

"Demyx!"

"I understand," he spoke up, his eyes watering. "Just tell me when."

Vexen smiled weakly, stepping away from Demyx and looking to the rest of their makeshift team. "If I don't make it, Zexion, please…"

"I'll continue our work," Zexion said weakly. "Good luck."

Axel feebly saluted the scientist. "Go get 'em, tiger."

Vexen then looked to Larxene. "Don't die out there…" She tried to speak past her pain. "…or I swear, I'll kill the hell out of you."

One last time, he looked at Demyx. "Demyx…thank you."

Demyx rubbed at his eyes. "For what?"

Vexen smiled somberly, a single tear falling down his cheek. "For teaching me I was worth saving." He pulled Demyx into an embrace, eternally grateful that though the end seemed near, Vexen would not feel alone as he once was.

Saix looked at this pathetic show of "friendship," unimpressed. "As touching as this is, how are you going to get there in time?"

"Well, I was thinking maybe an ice bridge," Vexen considered. "But that might take an exorbitant amount of time, not to mention exhaust my magic by the time I get there, so I'm not sure…" Lexaeus lifted Vexen with one hand and aimed him towards the Heartless portal through the gaping hole the Heartless ship left. "Wait! What are you doing?"

But it was too late. Lexaeus had thrown Vexen like a football into the heavens, the scientist screaming all the way there.

Stretching his shoulder, Lexaeus turned around to find his colleagues stunned by his athletic effort. "What? I may have forgotten my past life but I'm confident I played quarterback for State."

And so the Organization watched Vexen fly into the sky, depending on him to save them all.

Vexen flew with great velocity towards the heart of darkness, nearing the zenith of Lexaeus's throw. Now was the time.

Surrounded by all kinds of treacherous enemies, he grabbed the gummi from his pocket, and flung it before him. Then, syphoning every bit of his strength, recalling the trials and tribulations that led him to this moment, remembering his friends, new and old…

Vexen cast the spell. "FREEEZE!"

Demyx strummed his sitar with all his might, playing a rocking note right at the reverberator. This triggered the machine, blasting out a multitude of soundwaves from the castle.

And just in time, as at the center of it, Vexen's spell had worked. His measly Blizzard spell, at first encompassing only him, spread like wildfire, eventually encompassing the entire world with its cold winds and snow flurries.

Vexen squinted past the snowstorm of his own making, and saw the gummi's censor activate, a white light sparking in its center. The light was so bright, in fact, it lit up the entire Skyline That Never Was, if only for a moment.

He couldn't help but laugh as he closed his eyes, bracing himself for the impact.

A city of light. That old devil would be proud.

A flash of white light spread throughout the entire city. Demyx and the others took shelter in the room, under tables and behind machinery. In the sky, Luxord acted quickly and summoned a sizeable playing card, behind which he, Xemnas and Xigbar took shelter. Xaldin and Marluxia only had to look up to realize they had to take cover, and so they dove into the closest building there was.

The light cleared, and there was not a single Heartless in sight. Only the first snowfall in the history of The World That Never Was, gently coating every street, every building, and every castle rampart. It was a tranquil sight, the calm after the storm. The battle was won, the Heartless were defeated…

…and Vexen was nowhere to be found.