"Soooo…. What world are you from, Marly?"

"I'd rather not say."

"Wow you're no fun. I told you what world I came from."

"He's just embarrassed about-"

"LARX DON'T YOU DARE"


He wished Larxene had been able to finish her sentence. Demyx didn't know what world to try searching first. Of course he could cross off certain worlds from his list. Marluxia had been assigned missions in Traverse Town, Agrabah to his hatred (too dry for his favourite flowers), Olympus Coliseum, Wonderland, and Hollow Bastian. And those were just off the top of Demyx's head. The organization had been adamant about not being assigned missions to your home world, or even visiting them for that matter. Only Luxord got away with it because no one could make sense of Wonderland, even the residents struggled often enough.

He finally reached his cove and began swimming lazy laps around it as he continued narrowing down worlds to the most likely. That left a few that he had been to, but also a few he'd never been assigned. There was one he had always wanted to go to because it sounded amazing for slacking off and getting a nap but…. no…. Marly wasn't a pirate. Still couldn't hurt to visit now that he didn't have Saix breathing down his neck not to mention that Mar might not be a pirate but Larxene… And she's the one who knew where Marluxia was from so finding her was a good place to start.

And in all seriousness, Demyx prayed that being half fish and traveling by portal wouldn't be a terrible idea. He had lucked out in how he somehow managed to wake up in a version of his coat, despite it lacking sleeves and the length, really resembling more of a hooded vest. Of course he had left it in his cove as he wasn't sure if the locals would recognize it, or just in general think he was odd for even having an odd human-made looking type piece of clothing. Or clothing in general.

He popped out of the water and felt for the little alcove in the cliff wall just above the waters highest tide level, unfortunately higher than what it was when he had put the cloak inside it. He really didn't want to add cloaklessness to the list of risks. Fortunately for him, he had only been searching a foot away from where it was and pulled it out.

Now back in what would hopefully protect some of him from the portal, he summoned it. He voiced another prayer to not end up flopping around on land with a tail, and swam through, destination: Neverland.

Demyx couldn't help but close his eyes when he swam into the portal. There was no telling what would happen and everyone knows nothing bad could possibly happen if your eyes were closed. Or at least everyone tells themselves that. He was so focused on chanting his mantra of "please don't let me be a floppy fish on land" that he didn't even notice he had arrived and left the portal for a few seconds. The water felt different. A bit warmer. It also seemed bluer somehow. The fish were certainly different from the ones at his reef.

He popped his head above the water. "Yup. This definitely isn't Atlantica." There was a huge island in the distance with a rainbow that seemed to never go away. "Didn't know there were also mermaids here… that could have been useful information…"

Demyx swam towards the island at an angle, trying to see if there was a place that was a more obvious merfolk friendly area where he could find others and ask around about this world.

It was pretty obvious when he saw it; a lagoon with plenty of rocks to perch on and a waterfall that made it look nice. It also helped that there was a group of mermaids scattered around on the rocks and swimming around. "Shouldn't take too long to see what's going on here…"

Except that it did. It doesn't help when a strange flying boy shows up out of nowhere and startles you with asking several questions like "Who are you?" "Why haven't I seen you around before?" "Are you in league with the pirates?" "I've never seen a boy mermaid here before." There wasn't even a long enough pause between questions for Demyx to answer. He could just float there, stunned at the boy's never ending flow of questions.

"Why are you here anyway?" the boy asked.

It took a moment for Demyx to respond, waiting for another question to quickly follow, "Oh… I'm looking for some friends of mine."

"A lot of people seem to be doing that lately," the boy responded.

"A lot of people have been separated," Demyx stated, still a little surprised he had a chance to answer.

"What do they look like?" the boy eagerly questioned. "More people have been coming here and they might have passed through recently."

"Well…" Demyx thought for a second, "One is a girl with blonde hair that kind of sticks up like antenna and she has a quick temper, the other is a guy with longer pink hair and he likes flowers."

The boy seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, absentmindedly flying in circles and higher and lower. "The girl sounds familiar… I think she showed up here the other day… And I think TinkerBell mentioned someone reappearing that she hadn't seen in ages with pink hair…"

Demyx's dumb luck seemed to have finally caught up with him. "Really?! Where were they last?"

The flying boy almost seemed surprised that his vague description matched enough for Demyx. "I think the girl was heading towards the pirate cove for some reason… I wouldn't be worried though. She had a fairy with her so she can just fly away if something bad happens."

Demyx barely had time to shout out a quick thanks before diving back under the water and swimming as fast as he could towards the boat he had seen earlier. In fact he could barely hear a brief warning of "Watch out for the Levia-" as he drew closer to where he hoped Larxene would be.

He swam closer to the shore, hoping for a quick glimpse of blonde or pink between the trees. Occasionally he'd see a light for a brief moment before it would disappear with a tinkle of bells. As he neared the pirate ship, he slowed and sank further under the waves, just the top of his head poking above them so he could watch for what he hoped would be his friends.

The first thing he saw was the light burst out from the trees and make a beeline for what had to have been the captain with a hat so ridiculous. What was presumably the first mate attempted to shoo the light away, only for it to fly out of reach with the most mocking of bell tinkles. It almost sounded like the light was insulting both of them. Before Demyx could decipher what the light was saying, he saw movement from the ship's hull.

It was just a quick glimpse, but he could have sworn he had seen a dark cloak whip around the side and up, landing on the deck and ducking down where the rail blocked the figure from his sight.

He swam closer, trying to hear better what was going on since he couldn't see anything being in the water. The light was getting easier to understand. He could make out the word "friend" and "captured" and "release or I'll" and what he could only assume were threats of violence.

Only a minute later and the figure was back in his sight, obviously not happy as they flew a mermaid down to the water from the back of the ship and darting back up yelling about hiding someone. Demyx could clearly make out that the cloak the figure wore was an organization one. And considering there had only been a few members left and Sora probably when on a tirade in the World that Never Was, he doubted that this person was on a mission for them. Especially since this seemed like a "destroy then search" type deal with how pirates started getting hurled overboard slightly singed.

Demyx distanced himself again from the ship where pirates were vigorously being tossed off the deck and into the ocean. He wasn't going to get hit and didn't want an unfortunate pirate clinging to him. It was difficult to really make out what was going on as he was too far to hear what was being said, but he could vaguely make out the figure snatch the captain and get into his face in a very threatening manner.

After a moment of shaking him and him trembling, the figure tossed the captain aside and turned to the light. They exchanged a few words and gestures, and then the figure made a portal.

The figure cast one more look towards the island and out to sea, not catching sight of Demyx who was safely peeking at the ship from behind a rock, and took off their hood revealing blonde hair with antenna.

Demyx perked up immidiately. "LARX!" he shouted, quickly ducking under the waves and swimming as fast as he could toward the ship.

She didn't seem to hear him as first the light sped into the portal, and she followed. Demyx popped back up and slowed down. He knew she hadn't seen or heard him, and he unfortunately had no idea where she was going to go. The flying boy had tried to warn him about something, and he knew he didn't want to stick around and find out what it was.

He swam dejectedly back toward the rock he had been by earlier and pulled himself up on it. There were a few options: wait here and hope they return, try to guess what world Larxene would go to next, try to figure out Marluxia's home world.

It was impossible to do the last two things, but he couldn't just sit here. She had just come here and probably wouldn't come back without knowing he was here. Which she obviously didn't. He also didn't want to risk the thing that kid had been talking about to show up.

Maybe he could try to track down another keyblade weilder. He summoned the weapon again, still confused about why he had it. He certainly did like that it resembled his beloved sitar, even being larger than the keyblades he saw Roxas weild. But he doubted he could find Roxas. Even Axel said he hadn't been able to when the weilder first ran off.

Sora was out of the question. Last time he met him and tried to be friends, the kid attacked him and killed him even though he didn't know what would happen to Demyx when he was killed. There was a chance he would blindly attack again if Demyx showed up again, even if it was with a sign that said "I want to be friends."

There was Sora's friend he had heard about… but he wasn't sure if he had a keyblade as well or if he was just someone Sora was looking for. King Mickey had one, but it was probably him who told Sora to destroy the organization members.

Demyx sighed and let the keyblade vanish. He'd probably just wander around the worlds hoping to bump into his friends by chance. Which sounded like it would take a long time. And it was a long list of worlds. Then there were a few that were impossible to really navigate such as Wonderland.

WONDERLAND. That's where Luxord was. He was a sneaky guy, he probably had found out where Marluxia was from. It certainly was a good shot. Luxord had at least some dirt on everyone, and considering how tight lipped Marluxia was about his home world he could probably ask Luxord.

Demyx gleefully splashed back into the water and dove down, portal to Wonderland appearing. This had to be what guided him to meeting back up with at least one friend. He speeded through the portal imagining the reunion that he'd finally get after a full year and a half.