Hello everyone! And welcome back finally! So sorry for the delay here. Class and writers block and all that. But TheDeadGirlRisen and I finished this chapter up at least!

Thank you all again for your support on this story! We are thankful you all are enjoying it!

Ch.22

Everyone was back in the First District. Donald and Goofy were off talking to themselves as Sora looked around. He still wasn't entire too sure about going on a journey with the two of them, but he had to keep reminding himself he was doing to find his friends. After a few minutes he walked over to Yuffie, Leon, and Aerith to hear what they had to say.

Leon crossed his arms as he spoke, "Make sure you're prepared for the journey. The Heartless will be after you because of the keyblade you wield."

"Right," Sora responded quietly.

"Don't forget to check out the shops around here. They got some neat and helpful stuff," Yuffie added in.

"Here, this is from all of us," Aerith said as she held out a small bag.

Sora took the bag and looked inside. His eyes widened slightly as he saw the amount of munny that was in the bag. "That's more than I expected them to give me."

'At least it's a good amount to get us started.'

"Spend it as you see fit," Aerith continued. "And this is from Leon."

Aerith held out a small bottle in front of Sora. It looked a bit different than the one he had drank from before to heal up his sore body. Sora carefully took it and looked it over. He then glanced over at Leon, who upon making eye contact looked away, as if he was embarrassed.

'What is that?' Vanitas questioned distrustingly.

"What is it?" Sora asked. He had a feeling of uneasiness inside of him as he didn't know what the item was.

"It's an elixir, it's like a potion, but used for more than just wounds and stuff," Yuffie answered.

'Sounds about right. I do remember the name at least,' Ventus added, hoping to bring some more reassurance to Sora.

"Ah I see. Thank you," Sora replied.

"Well good luck," Yuffie said with a cheerful smile.

"I hope you can find your friends," Aerith added.

Leon finally looked back at Sora and uncrossed his arms. "Look out for each other. Keep your spirits up."

Sora thanked them all again before awaking away, just to have a little time to himself, and to talk with his brothers.

'Tch, as if we need his advice.'

'He is just trying to be nice,' Ventus commented.

'Hmph. I don't trust him.'

"I think I agree with Vani… I just don't know about him."

'Well maybe once you get to know him things may be better,' Ventus offered, trying to sound positive about it.

'It's best to be careful though, people are always willing to turn on others,' Vanitas spoke bitterly

'Some people perhaps, but not everyone.'

"I guess… we will see what happens later on," Sora finally said. "I'm still not really sure about everyone here… but I guess they can't all be that bad."

'Some of them are probably good, I just don't think we should trust everyone we meet with only a few lines of conversation, like I know someone likes to do.' Vanitas spoke directing his 'someone' at Ventus.

Ventus thought to say something else, but nothing came to him when he tried to speak. He ended up staying quiet as Sora made his way over to Donald and Goofy.

"The gummi ship is outside that gate," Donald said as he pointed to the large door behind him.

Sora blinked in confusion. "The what?"

"That's our ship," Donald answered simply.

'Gummi that sounds like a type of food item,' Vanitas spoke derisively.

"Wait 'till you see it!" Goofy added in.

"It's called the gummi, why?" Sora questioned, wondering why it had such a strange name. He also was thinking mostly about the comment Vanitas had made, which made him all the more curious.

"It's the type of material that the ship is made out of. You'll see it when we go out there," Donald answered.

'...so it's made of a food item?'

Sora tried to ask more about the gummi ship, but it seemed that Donald had another subject to talk about. "One other thing. Since there may be Heartless out there, you'll need to learn some magic."

"Magic? You mean you'll teach me how to use it? Can I really use magic" Sora asked as many questions suddenly came to his mind.

Donald nodded and then held out a paper scroll. "We will start we the basic fire spell. It's easy to learn. Just read over this scroll, you can practice more when we are on the gummi ship.

Sora took the scroll and held it in his hands. "Is that it then? Are we going to leave soon?"

"Not yet. Not till we are all ready," Donald answered.

"We'll let ya know when we are all set to go," Goofy said. "Just wait until then."

Sora nodded and walked off to a corner area of the district. He looked down at the scroll before he opened it and started to read it over. Inside he was started to feel more excited than before. "I'm going to get to learn magic guys!"

'Of course, my brother and I already said we were going to teach you.'

"Yeah, but it's still exciting! It's going to be so cool!"

'Magic is cool to use, but you have to be careful with it. Don't want to go accidently setting anything or anyone on fire.'

'Although purposely setting Rin on fire is okay.'

"Hmm…"

'Setting anyone on fire is not okay! Not even if it is Rin!'

'But after all that psychopath has done he serves to be burned,' Vanitas muttered petulantly. He really wanted to see that bully as nothing more than a smoldering corpse.

"I agree with Ven… I wouldn't want to do that to someone. That… it sounds so cruel."

'Fine, but we can roast all the Heartless we want.'

'Heartless are okay to burn.'

"Okay, that's better at least," Sora replied with a sigh of relief.

After he glanced around at what the shops had to offer, Sora noticed that Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith were sitting at the small cafe in the First District. He wondered a bit closer to them out of curiosity, and then Leon spoke up.

"There are dalmatians named Pongo and Perdita living in the Second District…" he said softly before trailing off.

"What? All by themselves?" Sora asked, a bit confused by Leon's statement.

"They're quite upset, these dalmatians. They've lost their puppies," Leon replied.

"And Squall can't stop worrying about them," Yuffie added on.

Leon rolled his eyes as he let out a sigh. "I've told you a hundred times before to call me Leon."

'Oh puppies! We should definitely help!' Ventus said excitedly.

'Are you sure you don't just want an excuse to play with a mutt?'

Ventus was suspiciously quiet to that.

Sora thought it over for a moment. He wasn't really sure about doing more than he had thought to when going on his journey. But he didn't like the thought of little puppies all alone and lost. He started to think if he really would help them out. It didn't sound like too big of a task at least. Besides, he agreed with Ven, playing with puppies would be fun.

"Sora, do you think you could help look for the puppies?" Aerith asked him.

"Help them out," Leon added quietly.

Aerith glanced over at Leon before looking back at Sora. She gave a small smile and leaned closer. "Please, find the puppies for him. I know it would help cheer him up."

Leon huffed, but did not reply back. He only closed his eyes and looked away. Sora was about to leave when Yuffie walked over to him and snickered. She leaned a bit closer and whispered, "Squa-... I mean Leon, is really cute sometimes."

'Does that mean she has a crush on him?'

Sora let out a small huff of air, brushing off Vanitas's comment. He still did not really like Leon so much, the others seemed nice, but Leon still bothered him a little. "Oh really?" he muttered quietly before trying to walk away.

"Don't let Leon's attitude bother you too much," Yuffie replied. "He is just sometimes acts a bit stubborn. He really is a nice guy once you get to know him, he just tries to act real tough and hard headed 'cause he thinks he had to take care of everything and everyone."

'Yet by acting that way, he pushes away people he wants to help. And that only isolates him more.'

"So he isn't... really that bad?" Sora asked hesitantly, still not quite sure.

'No, I don't believe so. Just give it some time, okay?'

'Hmph,' Vanitas muttered. 'Whatever. I still don't trust him.'

Sora sighed and tried to put his thoughts and worries aside. Since Vanitas and Ventus still seemed split on the matter, he didn't want to try and take sides or have them end up arguing about it. He gave a quick nod to Yuffie, as he didn't have anything else to say, before he walked away from the group.

He looked over to where Donald and Goofy stood. They were still talking to each other as they waited by the large door. Sora breathed in deeply as he thought over everything again. He still had a few doubts about everything, but he knew he had to try and go forward. He was going to venture out into other worlds amd search for his two closest friends. He knew they were out there… he just had to look. But it did ease him to know that Ventus and Vanitas were still by his side. As long as they were with him, he knew he could manage through it all.

"All right… let's go," Sora said aloud as he headed to tell Donald and Goofy he was ready to leave.

So we may be a bit delayed again. TheDeadGirlRisen has had a terrible case of writer's block. And she is the main writer for Ven and Vani in our story.

We will try to work through things, but just be aware we may be a bit before the next chapter. But he sure to check out the rest of my stories as well as hers in the meantime!

Once again thank you all for reading and liking this story!