Exiting the portal, the trio found themselves in a nice village. Demyx stretched and looked around, "This looks like a nice place to relax for a while."

Larxene rolled her eyes, "We can't just nap every time we go to a new world."

Demyx stuck his tongue out at her, "We also can't swing our keyblades at the air all day."

Sighing Marluxia placed a hand on each of their shoulders, guiding them toward a shaded area at the edge of the village, "I'm glad to see the friendly bickering is still there, but Demyx does have a point."

"HA!" Demyx smiled triumphantly and put his hands to his ears, wiggling his fingers, while sticking his tongue out at Larxene again.

"We'll take a short break and then go back to practicing. You need it most, Demyx," Marluxia finished.

Larxene let out her own snicker at Demyx as he pouted and plopped himself down under a tree. She sat down a few feet away and sprawled out on her back.

"What was that about not relaxing?" Demyx teased as he leaned back on the tree trunk to sleep.

Without moving from her spot, she kicked him in the shin, "Ehhhh you can't judge me. I will starfish if I want to."

Dramatically, Demyx flopped over onto his side, "Marly! Save me! I'm being attacked!"

Marluxia chuckled and sat himself down across from the other two, "You think I want to join you getting kicked?"

Defeated, Demyx remained sprawled on his stomach, "Yes."

Laughing, Marluxia sat and enjoyed the silence that followed. After a few minutes, he realized Larxene had fallen asleep.

Demyx broke the silence muttering, "Hypocrite…" in her general direction, to lazy himself to move to properly tease her.

Marluxia resigned himself to fate and leaned back til he was also lying on the ground. He put his hands behind his head and crossed his legs, staring at the leaves rustling above them.

After becoming a nobody, he had all too easily given up on getting his heart back and convinced himself it was better this way; no heart, no emotions, no mourning for his lost life, and no losing his new life and new friends. He still hadn't said much about his former life to Larxene and Demyx. He hadn't been too truthful and having a heart made it painful to remember. When he had first woken up a somebody he was glad his first thoughts were worry for Larxene and Demyx, but after seeing the two wield keyblades…

He looked back at the two to see Demyx had joined Larxene in sleeping. Marluxia figured they both needed it. Sitting back up, Marluxia stared at his hand. Another thing he didn't miss about having a heart: fear of rejection. Letting out a heavy sigh, he stood back up. His friends would be asleep for at least another hour or two, three minimum for Demyx. Marluxia rolled his shoulders and neck and looked toward the village. A walk would be nice to get these thoughts out of his head.

The village was a nice place. There was colour everywhere and as the sun lowered in the sky, it seemed people were getting ready for a celebration. He recognized a few boxes of fireworks set behind a building and figured Larxene would be thrilled. He whipped his head around as a shrill scream interrupted the cheerful atmosphere with fear. Pushing people aside, he ran to see what had happened and stopped. Not just one heartless, but a small swarm was racing down the mountainside toward the town.

Marluxia took a few steps back and ran back to the tree he had left his friends sleeping under. It took longer than he wanted, wedging his way between panicked villagers and those confused about the screaming. He was relieved to find both Demyx and Larxene sitting up and looking around, clearly having been just woken up by the commotion.

Larxene noticed Marluxia first, "What's going on?" she questioned as she stood up.

Marluxia offered a hand to Demyx and hauled him up as he explained, "There's a horde of heartless. I don't know how they got into this world, but they're coming down the mountainside toward the village. I don't know if you two can take them all, especially since Demyx isn't good close range yet."

Demyx rubbed a hand over his face, "Well we can't just leave. There's gotta be something we can do."

"We can try to fight them off but…" Marluxia's face clearly showed worry. He and Larxene might be able to hold their ground for a bit but Demyx still being untrained…

Larxene gave Demyx's shoulder a light punch, "He'll be fine. He's stronger than he looks."

Demyx jumped from foot to foot and started off in the direction of the heartless, "Come on!"

Larxene quickly took off after him, summoning her keyblade as she ran. Marluxia hesitated for a moment and followed after.

Demyx quickly learned Marluxia hadn't been exaggerating. There truly was a horde. How they managed to all get into the world was beyond him, but he refused to leave these people to fend for themselves. Taking a deep breath, he summoned his keyblade and hoped he was a quick learner.

Marluxia arrived to the frontlines a few seconds after the other two and he immediately began swinging his scythe into any heartless that came near him. He knew every heartless he hit would eventually come back though. Only a keyblade would keep them down for good. He heard a yell and looked over to see that both Larxene and Demyx were struggling. Demyx was doing better, learning as he fought, but neither were prepared to fight so many heartless with unfamiliar weapons. Still afraid of the rejection but terrified for his friends even more, Marluxia let his scythe disappear and reached for the familiar feeling from years ago.

As another wave of heartless reached the trio, Marluxia swung his weapon he thought he never would again. Its shape had changed, it heavily resembled the scythe he had wielded only moments before, but it still felt the same in his hand.

The fight continued for several more minutes. As the heartless began to thin in numbers, the trio saw there was still a final wave coming in their direction.

"We're gonna be swamped!" Demyx yelled, slamming his keyblade into another heartless.

"We can't leave yet. It's the last of them but there's still enough to destroy the village," Larxene yelled back.

Looking back at the approaching swarm, Demyx started charging toward them, "We can at least keep them from getting near it!"

Startled, Marluxia killed off the final lingering heartless in the area and ran after him, "What are you doing?"

Calling over his shoulder, Demyx explained, "I'm best long range, remember? I gotta try something!"

Marluxia looked back at Larxene who shook her head in confusion, "I've got no clue!"

A faster runner than the other two, Demyx quickly covered more ground and left them farther and farther behind. When Marluxia and Larxene thought he would completely vanish from sight, he stopped. The horde wasn't too far off now and Demyx was going to be the first thing in their path that would be trampled.

Larxene and Marluxia pushed themselves even harder and as they got closer to Demyx they saw him holding the keyblade oddly, his left hand was holding the middle section where the useless strings were, and the other hand hovering over the handle where the base of his sitar would have been.

Breathlessly Marluxia asked, "What are you-"

He couldn't finish his question as Demyx raised his hand and the strings on the stem raced to the bottom of the keyblade, and he strummed them once, a burst of water stunning the first row of approaching heartless.

"HA! It WORKED!" he crowed.

Larxene huffed, "What were you going to do if it didn't?"

Demyx shrugged, "Yell at me later!"

With that, he played another note and released more water magic to thin out the horde as it finally reached the trio. All three were tired from the previous waves of them, but with the pillars of water beating down advancing heartless, the numbers were easier to deal with. It still took longer than they would have liked, but eventually the swarm became a few stragglers which were quickly dealt with.

Exhausted, the trio collapsed into the snow and began to catch their breath.

"Hey Marly?" Demyx asked.

Marluxia gave an exhausted "Hhhrm?" as a reply.

"Was that… a keyblade?" he questioned tiredly.

Marluxia waved a hand in the air, "Sleep first questions later."

Demyx nodded in complete agreement.

Larxene wasn't satisfied as completely drained of energy, she hauled herself up and tugged on her black coat, "Ok no. If we're sleeping, it is not going to be on some random mountain." She summoned a portal and watched a Marluxia and Demyx sluggishly stood up, put on their coats, and trudged through it.

Traverse town was thankfully heartless free as the trio shuffled through the inn door and got a room. They had managed to wrestle off the black coats but didn't bother to take off their shoes as Demyx landed face first on the closest bed, legs dangling off the side of the bed. Marluxia, half asleep, shuffled into the room and managed to land completely on the same bed before curling up and falling completely asleep. Larxene, grumpy about the nearest bed being entirely occupied and having to walk an extra five feet to the second bed, angrily flopped onto it and took up the entire mattress before falling asleep.