Chapter 61

"LOOK, WE MADE IT!"

Isshin was exhausted. His group got out of the realm of darkness, only to board an imaginary train all the way to the tower. All he could think of was how his dead wife was revived, and now she was walking slowly, realizing that she is alive once again. The rest of the group looked tired, having to recover from the fights they had with the neithermen.

Now, they have arrived to Yen Sid's tower. Masaki looked at the tower with awe. "That tower is really tall! And so magical!"

"I guess that's one way of putting it," said Mickey. "Let's go in and see how Yen Sid is doing!"

They entered the building. Isshin looked at his surroundings with curiosity, wondering about how such a tower can exist. The grand staircase took a couple of minutes to walk through until they walked into...a party.

"Huh?" Mickey was confused at what he saw. There was a table where people were eating sweets and snacks. Isshin recognized those people automatically.

"ISHIDA?! CHAD?! ORIHIME?!" Isshin yelled out loud. "WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING HERE?"

Chad waved while eating a piece of cake. Isshin was busy talking to a man with long hair. Orihime looked up from drinking tea and said "Hello, Mr. Kurosaki! Care for some food?"

"I would love some!" Masaki went in and started to eat. Orihime got shocked so much at seeing her that she almost dropped her cup of tea. Rukia, who was eating some cookies with Renji, was horrified at the sight of Masaki.

"YOU-" Rukia backed away from the table and behind the long haired man. Ansem's Nobody noticed that the man had red eyes with a weird pattern.

"Oh right, we met when I was absorbed by Grand Fisher." Masaki extended her hand to Rukia. "Nice to meet you, Ms. Rukia! I am Masaki Kurosaki, recently revived and at your service!"

"So you got revived? Neat." Ishida looked calm about it, and Chad looked at him. He can somehow be very relaxed about this... Chad thought.

"Riku!" Kairi came up to him, giving a quick hug. "How was the realm of darkness? You saved that keyblade master?"

"He has," Aqua said, coming up to Kairi. "Nice to meet you!"

Aqua suddenly widened her eyes. "Wait! I remember you!"

"Really?" asked Kairi.

"Maybe we can get something to eat before all of you talk about this?" King Mickey's stomach growled. Riku agreed and sat at the table, which somehow had room for a lot of people. They all sat and started eating, talking about different things. Aqua and Mickey talked to Kairi about when she was younger; Ansem's Nobody talked to the man with red eyes, called Madara; Isshin and Masaki caught up with Orihime, Chad, Renji, and Rukia; Riku decided to talk to Ishida.

"Hey Uryuu," said Riku. "I discovered a new power. I was able to use a zanpaktou power when fighting the neithermen."

"Whoa, really?!" Ishida was shocked. "I never heard of something like this!"

"Yeah...it's crazy. I know that you aren't a Shinigami, but I figured that you might know a bit about how I can wield something like that."

"I think I might know why...keyblades and zanpaktou are very similar, if you think about it. A zanpaktou is used to purify souls, and the keyblade destroys the heartless, which releases hearts. In a way, they both purify an existence." Ishida put down his food and picked up his tea. "Since you met Shinigami, you can take on a certain amount of power, and vice versa. Ichigo was able to use the keyblade's power because of meeting you guys. So that means that you having the power should not be too hard to believe, though unheard of."

Riku pondered this before Yen Sid entered the room with Master Merlin. Riku felt like something big was about to be announced, and Yen Sid confirmed it with his update.

"It is nice to see you all back from the realm of darkness. I think you should know first hand that we are celebrating victory today. We captured Vanitas!"

"What?!" Aqua nearly choked on the cake she was eating.

"Well, captured would not be the right word...but our friends here did beat him."

"Yeah!" Orihime pumped her right fist up. "We took him down real good!"

"Yeah you did." A depressed looking Vanitas came into the room. Riku and Aqua looked shocked as they saw his face.

"Sora?!" Riku widened his eyes seeing Vanitas look at him.

"Nope. Related to him through Ventus. Not gonna explain that right now because it is too complicated."

"As is almost anything that is happening," said Madara. "Anyways, I'm surprised that you aren't attacking us."

"I got my butt kicked, and I am drained!" Vanitas sat away from the table, looking up at the ceiling. "As I said then, I didn't want to fight, I wanted to talk. But no, I get attacked and now I can't even believe that I got my ass handed over to me by these otherworldy people."

"Well, that's on you." Kairi looked at him with pity. "I mean, you always come up to people to do harm more than anything. Why would we think differently?"

"Fair enough." Vanitas sighed. "So, now that we have a large audience, I guess you all want to know why I am here, right?"

"More like why did you not want to fight?" Aqua asked.

"Well, I was going to surrender and join you guys."

Everyone fell out of their chairs. "WHAAAAT?!"

"Well...it's a long story. And not one you want to hear, but one you need to hear." Vanitas sighed again. "So...where to begin? Once upon a time, I went to the dream world, and I was tasked with a couple of things. Typical villain stuff, and then these weirdos kick me out of the dream world. Last thing I remember was making a statement that I would end the world of dreams...which was a total joke, all things considering."

"Total joke my ass!" Ikkaku came into the world, pointing a finger at him. "You said that and all the sudden, the world fell apart! And then we all nearly died!"

"Aren't Shinigami technically dead?" said Vanitas. "What comes after death? Not death?"

"No we aren't! We're just spirits, and-"

"Ikkaku! This can wait!" A large lizard came in, scaring King Mickey and Aqua.

"WHAT THE - IS THAT A DINOSAUR?!" Riku looked surprised while Aqua hid behind Chad.

"I'm from another world!" said the lizard like thing. "The name's Bowser, young stranger!"

"Can I get back to the story," asked Vanitas. "You can say hi to everyone new later. This...this is bad."

"What's bad?" Ansem's Nobody looked curiously at Vanitas. "Are you, perhaps, against Xheanort?"

"Yes." Vanitas closed his eyes. Something painful registered to him, and he grunted. "Anyways, after the dream world shenanigans, I awoke, and my Master was talking something about Kingdom Hearts and how he was going to fix things. All of the sudden, he makes an announcement: find Ventus, and destroy him."

"What?" Aqua was shocked.

"My reaction exactly. I wanted to fuse with my brother, not destroy him! I talked to my Master about it, and he just looked at me as if he had pity on me. He said to me that the world will change, and that I have to accept it. There are many things I can accept, being of the darkness and all, but this...this made no sense. Why kill Ven?! I decided to leave then, with my Master saying that he expected it. They already got me replaced. I fought them, and short story was that I got kicked out of the Organization, so now I am here. And then my ass got kicked by a bunch of people. Not a fun time for me."

Everyone was silent for a moment before Riku said, "I am going to call Sora. We need to get to Ven, and now!"

"I agree," said Yen Sid. "He holds the key to unlocking Ventus, according to Vanitas."

"I think I can teleport his ship to here," said Merlin. "Might be faster than calling."

"Then do so as fast as possible!" said Riku. "Vanitas, do you know if any of the members know where Ven is?"

"I think I do," said Vanitas. "I am sure that the others do not. If I am not mistaken, Aqua is the true key to his location..."

"Okay, we can assume that they are not after Ven yet!" said Aqua. "We have to hurry up and move out!"

"Hey guys..." Sora looked around him, feeling odd. "Are we...moving?"

They were flying around the galaxy in the ship when, all of the sudden, they teleported outside of some place. Donald looked out of the window, and he saw Yen Sid's tower.

"We're at the tower?!" Donald was confused. "How did we end up here?!"

"I'm sure that Master Merlin teleported us," said Cloud. "Anyways, we might want to go outside - "

"Actually," said Goofy, "There is a sign out there that says that only Sora should come out."

"Huh?" Sora looked at the sky and saw his name. "They should have called me before all of this."

"Oh come on Sora!" The Genie came out of the lamp. "Where is that sense of adventure?! Come on out and see what they have to say!"

"You're right!" Sora got his pet Rocky to come with him. "Let's go, Rocky! Time to see what the fuss is."

Sora jumped from the ship and began to free fall into the world.