Chapter 11: Lining Up the Pieces

Xion and Minnie stood in front of the gigantic pair of purple doors that she had passed when leaving the library before. So, this was the entrance to the audience chamber? She wasn't really sure what to expect. And what was the point of making the doors so big, anyway? Maybe the King had a bit of a showoff inside of him; she did remember how he had named the mountain in Wasteland after him.

Minnie knocked on the doors with her dainty fist, but it wasn't just simple knocking; there was a pattern to it, a rhythm, almost like a song. A moment after Minnie lowered her hand the door replied, soft banging sounds coming from within as if some machinery inside was whirring to life. The sound echoed the rhythm that Minnie had knocked onto the doors. The doors shuddered and Xion took a few careful steps back, expecting them to swing open dramatically. Instead, however, only a small rectangle near the bottom of the doors swung open—a miniature door-within-a-door.

Xion raised an eyebrow while Minnie walked through the opening as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Ducking her head down – the door was just barely too short for her – Xion followed the Queen inside.

The walls of the audience chamber stretched even higher than the doors had, if that was even possible. The ceiling seemed miles away. The white floor was perfectly polished and reflected everything upon it like still water. At the far end, down a red carpet trimmed in gold, was a golden throne. Extravagant designs were built into the wall behind the throne and it was flanked by statues of Donald and Goofy, or perhaps their ancestors. Hanging above was a red and gold tapestry, the King's seal marked on it in black. While Sora, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy stood around the throne, the King himself had yet to arrive.

"Her Royal Highness Queen Minnie Mouse approaches!"

Xion jumped a little bit in surprise at the voice. The speaker was one of many extravagantly-dressed musketeers that stood against the walls of the room. At his word they all stepped forward. The entire crew was composed of more dog-men like Goofy, dressed in red tunics and wearing blue tabards with a golden fleur-de-lis sewn into the front. One nearer to the throne adjusted his brown wide-brimmed hat.

The musketeers stood at attention the whole length of the red carpet connected the throne and doors. As Minnie began walking forward they raised their rapiers in salute two at a time, forming an arch over their queen. Xion followed in silent awe. When they reached the other end, Donald pulled Xion off to the side.

"Hail His Royal Majesty, King Mickey Mouse!"

The lead musketeer, the one who had called out when Minnie entered the room, began rapidly playing a drum. Next to him another one played a merry tune on a trumpet; it was the same as the rhythm that Minnie had knocked on the door to.

"Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me?" Goofy was quietly yet cheerfully singing along to the tune before Donald shushed him. He covered his mouth with his hands and apologized through a giggle.

King Mickey entered the room, looking down at the floor and blushing like mad out of embarrassment. The musketeers stood straighter and raised their rapiers higher up. When the King walked forward they bowed down and stepped back, once again two at a time, and held their rapiers vertically, parallel to their faces. Minnie placed a hand on Mickey's arm when he reached the rest of the group, and as one the musketeers turned and merged the two rows into a single file before marching out the door in time to the trumpet's song.

"…Sorry about that," Mickey said once the musketeers were out of ear shot. He rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish smile. "I don't think we need to do that every time I come in here, but they insist."

"You handled it wonderfully, Mickey," Minnie said with a smile. Mickey's blush grew darker. "It sure has been a while since we've had to go through that."

"Well, we're all here." That was Sora who spoke up, his hands behind his head as he smiled. "What's up, Your Majesty?"

Xion eyed Mickey carefully as he looked up at Sora. There were dark circles under his eyes, like he hadn't been getting much sleep. His voice was strained slightly and the edges of his eyes were red. Had something been keeping him up at night?

"Right… Where to begin?" the little king asked.

Xion inwardly sighed. If anything, what was keeping him up at night would be the concern of the last few months—her, Riku, Braig, Vanitas. She had the feeling that a lot had been happening while she was away, and now she wanted – needed – to know what all of that was. "Start after Braig got a hold of me. What led up to all of this?"

Mickey nodded and sat down in his throne, but he slumped into it rather than sitting straight up. "It was four months ago, just like it was in the other Twilight Town." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a paper, the same letter from Sora and Kairi that had been sitting on his desk in the library. "One day we found this message in a bottle on the bank of the Timeless River outside of town. I knew Sora would use my magic paper eventually, but I never thought it'd be so soon after ya got home. Before even reading it I had the Gummi ship prepared to go out and get you fellas so we could find Riku, figurin' that's what it was all about." Mickey folded up the paper and rested it on the seat of the throne. "But then-"

There was a knock on the door, turning everyone's attention to the far end of the room. Mickey frowned in confusion, evidently not expecting any visitors. The little door inside the larger doors opened a crack and a duck stuck her head inside.

"Daisy?" Donald asked.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," the duck, Daisy, said. "Queen Minnie, could you come out into the kitchens please? The brooms are acting up and poor Horace has no idea what to do. We could use some magic."

Minnie glanced at Mickey before turning to face Daisy. "Of course. I'll be right there." She followed Daisy soon after the duck shut the door, casting an apologetic look to Mickey as she traveled down. The King simply waved goodbye with a small, sad smile on his face.

"King Mickey has been so busy looking for you and Riku," Sora whispered to Xion, "that he's barely been home at all. I think he misses Minnie more than he lets on." Xion looked down at the floor; she knew she wasn't responsible for it in the least, but still she felt guilty.

"Anyway, uh, where were we?" Mickey asked after an extended silence.

"The letter that arrived in the Timeless River." Xion jumped at the voice. Jiminy Cricket was sitting on Donald's shoulder with his book open. She hadn't even noticed him there!

"Oh, right. Well, I figured it would be about finding Riku, so I had Chip and Dale get the Highwind ready to fly over to Destiny Islands. But while they were fixing repairs and all, I finally sat down and read it." He slid further into his seat. "But when I found out you were missin', Xion, I didn't have any real answers. Not at first, anyway."

"How did you learn that it was Braig?"

Sora turned to her and said only one word: "Ventus." Xion brought a hand up to her chest and felt the slow, rhythmic beat of her heart before Mickey continued.

"I didn't know at first that your heart was Ven's heart." Mickey rubbed his forehead. "I mean, I kinda had some suspicions about Roxas after Riku described him to me once - it sounded like he was describin' Ven - but I never woulda guessed that Ven's heart had somehow jumped like it did."

"'Jumped'?"

"Kairi was the one who figured that part out."

Kairi fidgeted slightly as all eyes were on her. She smiled softly, clearly a little bit embarrassed. "W-When my heart was inside Sora's," she began slowly, "there was another person there too. It was never really a clear image; he was kind of…sleeping inside Sora's heart. I think that was Ventus."

Sora's memories flashed through Xion's mind: the Keyblade of Peoples' Hearts, his sacrifice at Hollow Bastion to finish the Final Keyhole and wake Kairi. The moment of Roxas's birth. "So…that's how Ven got inside of Roxas."

Mickey nodded. "Yup; that's what I figure, too. And then you got the heart after absorbin' Roxas when you left Organization XIII."

"But how did that make you realize it was Braig?"

"I never really quite got that either," Goofy chimed in.

Mickey sighed and stood up from his throne. "This is gonna take some explaining." He pressed his hand on the armchair and Xion heard a soft click. The ground beneath them shuddered and moved away, revealing a staircase leading down into the basement. Xion couldn't help but think back to the secret basement in Hollow Bastion where they had found Aqua's armor and the Keyhole, but unlike that this was much more well-lit.

Mickey made his way downstairs without hesitation, and Donald and Goofy were close behind. Xion, Sora, and Kairi followed after looking at each other with curiosity; this staircase and where it led was evidently as much of a mystery to those two as it was to Xion.

"A long time ago,' Mickey explained as they moved downstairs, "in what we call the age of fairy tales, all of the worlds in the starry sky were united as one big World. The World was bathed in light from the heart of all worlds: Kingdom Hearts." Mickey walked off the final step and into a massive chamber, empty safe for the glowing orb that sat on a stone pedestal in the middle of the room. "Kingdom Hearts was protected by a special key called the χ-blade, which is different from a Keyblade."

"It looks like it should be pronounced 'ex-blade,'" Sora said next to Xion.

"You've heard this before?"

"Mickey told us when we got here. He hasn't shown us this room though."

Mickey stopped in front of the orb of light and placed a hand on it. His Keyblade appeared in his other hand. "People wanted Kingdom Hearts. They made weapons called Keyblades in the image of the χ-blade—kinda like how me and Oswald based Wasteland on this world."

Or like how Organization XIII made me in Sora's image, Xion thought with a bit of bitterness—toward Xemnas, not toward Sora. She had tried her best to move on but she'd never be completely free of that fact. Their reliance on each other was proof enough.

Mickey continued. "The battle between Keyblade wielders was called the Keyblade War. In the end of the Keyblade War, Kingdom Hearts vanished into the Realm of Darkness and the World fell. The light in the hearts of children revived the World like we have it today: a bunch of smaller worlds in the Realm of Light. The surviving Keybearers chose to protect the light they still had left." Xion felt her eyes widen ever so slightly. She knew this story—the story Kairi's grandmother had told Kairi, the one Sora had seen a memory of!

Donald frowned. "But how does that lead you to Braig?"

"The χ-blade," Mickey replied softly. "At the end of the Keyblade War, the χ-blade broke apart into twenty pieces—thirteen shards of darkness and seven shards of light. But ya see, ya don't need all twenty pieces to make a new χ-blade." Xion saw Mickey's grip tighten around his Keyblade and his eyes looked distant, as if he was remembering something. "I told ya all before—that my three friends Aqua, Ven, and Terra fought in a battle with a man named Master Xehanort who wanted Kingdom Hearts. The way Xehanort was gonna get Kingdom Hearts was by makin' a χ-blade of his own—one born of equal light and darkness. So he took Ven's heart and- and he split it in half. Ven's darkness became a new being named Vanitas."

Xion felt like the floor had been pulled out from underneath her. She remembered her dream, the one she had had while in Twilight Town. An old man, Vanitas, and three knights standing in a desert—that had to be, without a doubt, the battle Mickey was talking about. So had her dream been it from Ven's point of view?

"When both halves grew strong enough, Vanitas recombined with Ven and they created a new χ-blade. Aqua and I destroyed it and kept Kingdom Hearts away from Master Xehanort. But when Sora told me he had been fightin' a masked boy named Vanitas, I put two and two together."

"So if Xion and Vanitas fight, it's going to make this super-Keyblade and summon Kingdom Hearts?" Kairi asked.

Xion frowned. "But I've already fought him before."

Mickey shook his head. "I think the years that Ven's heart was asleep – gosh, it's almost been twelve years now – I think that weakened it. The light isn't as bright as it was that day in the Keyblade Graveyard." He sighed. "But it could get that strong again. We gotta keep Xion and Vanitas as far apart from each other as we can until we can stop him and Braig."

"How does Braig fit into this?" Sora asked.

"Oh, I almost forgot." Mickey rubbed the back of his head. "That day, Braig was there at the Keyblade Graveyard. He was workin' for Master Xehanort. He and Vanitas gotta be after Kingdom Hearts now."

Xion bit her lip. "When we saw Braig in the World That Never Was, he wanted us to kill Xemnas. Your Majesty, do you have any idea why?"

Mickey crossed his arms in thought. "Gosh…I couldn't tell ya. Like I said when I first told ya about that day, I honestly don't know if Master Xehanort and the Xehanort that took Ansem's name are even the same person. It could be he wanted him out of the way for…somethin' or other." He shook his head. "I really don't know why."

"So," Xion began, "after you figured out that it was Braig, you went looking for him?"

"Yeah." It was Donald speaking now. "We found out that he was using a computer Ansem had under the mansion that Naminé lived in, so Chip and Dale made a computer of their own to get Sora inside!"

Xion nodded silently. That answered most of her questions—all but one. "And what's this thing?" She pointed to the orb of light in the middle of the room.

Mickey glanced at the orb and chuckled. "This is the Cornerstone of Light. Believe it or not, it actually dates all the way back to the Keyblade War! An ancient Keybearer from the part of the united World that would become Disney Castle actually managed to get a little speck of light from Kingdom Hearts and keep it in this magical glass here. The Cornerstone has kept our world safe from darkness for centuries, which makes it the safest place in the universe right now."

"Safest?" Xion frowned and looked around at everyone else. "Why? What's going on?"

Kairi rubbed her arm. "Xion…things have gotten kind of bad while you were asleep."

"You remember the Battle of Hollow Bastion?" Sora asked. How could she not? So much had happened that day: Axel's death, Cid's near death, their first confrontation with Xemnas, the revelation that Xehanort's Heartless was still alive and apparently on their side. "Maleficent wasn't happy just letting it end there. Her Heartless have been fighting Braig and his Nobodies across the worlds."

"What?" Personal losses aside, that battle hadn't caused much devastation in Hollow Bastion because it had stayed out of the city. But if the Heartless and Nobodies fought in a world with a higher, or even just denser, population…

"And that's why the Cornerstone makes Disney Castle so safe," Mickey added. "The Heartless can't come here with its light—a tiny piece of Kingdom Hearts itself is protecting this place. But," he said with a raised finger, "Nobodies can come here since they're not part of the darkness. That's why we had to hide the door that Sora was using to go to Twilight Town, because if Braig found us he could send a whole bunch to attack."

Xion took a step forward. "Where are Braig and Maleficent now? Let's get the jump on one of them and end it before anything horrible happens!"

"Well, we know where they are," Goofy said. "Maleficent is in the Organization's old world and Braig took Hollow Bastion's castle. But…"

"We just don't have the manpower to do that," Sora said softly. "We'd get overwhelmed by Heartless or Nobodies one way or another. You remember when hundreds of them were marching on us before we fought Xemnas."

Kairi nodded. "So for now we decided we're going to focus what we can on finding Riku and fighting the Heartless and Nobodies in other worlds while we search."

"I get it… Then let's get started right now." Xion held up her hand to call forth a corridor of darkness. The sooner they got started the better. Unfortunately, nothing happened; she stood there as the seconds ticked by without any darkness appearing in front of her. Xion looked down at her hands with a frown. "Why can't I…?"

Mickey stepped forward, curious. "If I had to guess, the light in your heart must have grown strong enough to resist calling up corridors."

Xion raised an eyebrow at the little king. "But I've used them plenty of times before."

"Well, it's just an idea." Mickey rubbed the back of his head. "I think maybe as you've fought and grown stronger, the light inside grew stronger too and resists the darkness more now. Like Kairi; she can't open a corridor either, since she's a Princess of Heart." Xion glanced over at the red-haired girl for a moment before turning to Mickey. "When was the last time you used one, Xion?"

That was a good question. How long had it been? She had at least tried using a corridor of darkness in the World That Never Was, but that failure had been because they had blocked outside access; and besides, the darkness had swirled up for a moment then before collapsing. The last time might have honestly been right before she fought Riku at Memory's Skyscraper. Xion stared down at her hand, curling and uncurling her fingers. "Okay then. We'll use the Gummi ship."

Whoosh.

Xion was halfway to the staircase when she heard the sound. She stopped mid-step and slowly turned around, her white and yellow boots click softly on the tile floor. It had been four months since she had heard that noise, but she knew it well.

Whoosh.

Nobodies.

Two Become One was in her hand immediately, and the Kingdom Key and Kingdom Key D in Sora's and Mickey's. Donald and Goofy stood in front of Kairi despite her own protests that she could help and the water beginning to swirl around her clenched fist. But a battle never came. With the last whoosh and the arrival of the thorny white and black vines, only a single Nobody appeared. Most everyone tensed up at its silver body and awaited who would make the first move, but Xion nearly dropped her Keyblade in surprise.

"The Samurai?" The Nobody turned to face Xion and stood in silence. It was, indeed, the sole remaining Samurai from the ones who had pledged themselves to her during the final battle with Organization XIII. Its chest and face were still scarred from Sora's Keyblade when Xion under Xemnas's control had ordered it to attack him.

Mistress XIV, it spoke in her mind and only she could hear. This one lives to serve.

"What's this?" Mickey asked. He hadn't been with them at the castle except for near the end, and his only experience with the Samurai had been during the fight between Xion and Sora.

Xion smiled and walked toward the Samurai, which stood as still as ever. "Samurai served Roxas. Now they're on our side; or, well, this last one is."

Master II commands all others.

So more than just Dusks and Snipers were with Braig? That figured. "Will you help us?" she asked. The Nobody was silent, evidently considering Xion's question. The truth was it had probably never been asked before, just told.

This one- It paused. I will. Xion smiled and crouched down, placing a hand on the Samurai's shoulder in thanks. It vanished then without a word, but Xion wasn't concerned. More likely than not it would arrive at a call, just as she had seen the other Organization members command their Nobodies before. Xion found herself grasping at Stitch's summon charm again. They had more allies than just the ones you could see at first glance.

"Come on. Let's go."

x-x-x

So Xion was gone. Vanitas scowled beneath his mask but otherwise remained composed. There was no need to get upset over this. He had always assumed something like this would happen, because Braig had made it clear time and time again that he really was not good at computers.

The Flood sitting on his shoulder fell apart and vanished into darkness. He still wasn't strong enough to make any more powerful Unversed, and even the Floods were unstable and disappeared soon after their 'birth.' He had to become stronger, so he could send out the Unversed and in turn Ventus's heart would become stronger. Nobodies and Heartless would cut it, sure, but why settle for two groups of enemies when there could be three out there?

Braig walked into the foyer of the abandoned mansion, stretching his shoulders as he left the library. Vanitas stopped trying to call on more Unversed for now and looked up at the man as he came down the old stairs.

"I finally found him," Braig said with a toothy grin.

About time. "So where is he?"

Braig stopped at one of the ruined display cases, casually examining a shard of glass as his grin widened. "Man, you are never gonna believe this."

x-x-x

The wind blew violently, picking up sand and dust from the rugged landscape and tossing it through the air. He stood on the edge of a low cliff, overlooking a field of brown stone scarred with erosion and battle. Great craters dotted the land, and mountains had unbelievably massive gashes torn into their sides. Entire chunks of earth had been sundered, causing spires of rock to reach into the sky like jagged teeth. High up above, the setting sun had transformed the sky into a shade of orange that nearly matched the stone below. Fluffy clouds stained with dirt floated harmlessly in the sky, unaware of the foreboding atmosphere that permeated the world below. With his hood up Riku marched silently forward, delving into this stormy, war-torn place.

An empty world, like a prison. He imagined he would be right at home.