Almost at the end of the Luna Rescue Arc. Just one more chapter to go before I get to do my favourite part: the Disney world selections. We already seen Hunchback's return, some Lilo and Stitch and hint of another world, so what's next I wonder? Well how about a world that I've wished to appear in the series for a while? Also, if there are any requests for FF characters to be added in the story, please feel free to tell and I'll try to see how I can fit them in. It will actually become pretty easy to do that after a certain point in the story anyway.


Chapter 15

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Falling asleep was not the easiest thing for the giddy four year old Luna to accomplish. Her eyes darted around the room aimlessly searching for something to take interest in. Eventually her eye movement came to settle on her teddy bear lying on the bed next to her. She placed it on her stomach and started dancing with it uses its hands and legs.

"Luna, are you still up?" her mother's voice called out from the landing. The bedside lamp that lit up Luna's room kind of gave away that she was still awake.

"Yes mom. I'm trying to get to sleep but I can't," Luna replied before sitting up. "Buuuut, it might just help if you were to read me a story."

"Oh you are such a sneaky little one, aren't you?" Kaylah said slipping through the door eliciting a giggle from Luna. Her mother sat on the bed and ran her hand through Luna's hair affectionately.

"And what story would you like me to tell you today I wonder?" she asked. "Swashbuckling pirates charting through unknown waters in search of the ultimate treasure? Of a thieves who dedicated their life to stealing from the rich to give to the poor? Or maybe you're a follower of breadcrumbs in a creepy forest?"

"Something new please!" Luna said leaning her Teddy on her pillow next to her so he could also enjoy and hear.

"Well, that's certainly gonna be a toughie to crack. Let's see... Oh, you remember those shadows that you were certain came out at night?" Kaylah asked. Of course Luna remembered, in fact, despite her mom and dad's dismissal of her claims, she was sure that she saw strange shadows pop up in her bedroom at night every once and a while. It was why she couldn't get to sleep now.

"Well you don't believe me so-"

"I saw them too, when I was your age." Kay confided.

"You did?" Luna asked. Why had her mother chosen to leave this out in their previous conversations about this? For a girl her age this seemed like so much of a crucial detail that she had to get down to the bottom of it as soon as possible.

"It's not just me either. Everyone has at one point or another seen something that they've chosen to dismiss and forget. There's never at time that one hasn't imagined something to be hiding under their bed or in their closet. But you know what? What people don't really take the time to understand is that it's those shadows which are actually afraid of us." Kay said. Luna didn't really understand.

"They're scared… of us? But why?"

"Because we have something they don't, and knowing that frightens them. It's because of the light in our hearts Luna. It's something only they can really see and we can only guess as to what it looks like but we just know it's there." Kay answered.

"And what happens if they get that light?"

"They can't, that's the thing. Their hope only extends to the darkness from which they come out from. As long as that shadow's limit is its own shadow, then they can never reach you. It's only when you let them reach you by fearing them that they finally can move out of their prison.

"There was once a child who loved to look out and see the moon. Every night she'd stare out of the window and watch, the full ones in particular were the best as you might guess. Minutes passed, and she felt as if she could never tire of its beauty. One day however, a large shadow appeared over the moon blocking it from view. The girl feared that the moon would never be seen again and so she went out in search of a way to bring the moon's light back. No matter how hard she tried though, she could not find the moon again but instead… she herself had become lost in the process of trying to find it. She couldn't find her light, or so she thought.

"But then she felt it—the smallest of warmth but a warmth none the less. It provided a comfort and guarantee that she had thought only came from the moon. Her first thought was that the moon had come back, but it turned out to be the light from her heart telling her that she had nothing to worry about. She chose to believe in it instead of running away and, coincidentally, or maybe not, the moon returned in all its beautiful glory the next night." Kay finished. By the time she had, Luna had sunk comfortably into her pillow more than she had ever done so before.

"So I shouldn't worry then. But it's just a story right? Right?" Luna asked.

Her mother simply smiled before kissing her on the forehead. "There's a truth to every story. We just have to look hard to find the truth within the lies sometimes. Or maybe I really am making it up." she said shrugging.

"Oh go to bed mom." Luna said leaning forward to throw a pillow at her mother.

Kaylah dodged the pillow expertly before slipping off the bed. "You first. Goodnight." Kaylah said chirpily before leaving the room. Luna smiled and quickly went to retrieve her pillow before wrapping herself under the warm covers of her bed. She reached forward for the lamp and switched it off, immediately surrounding herself in darkness.

Surrounded by darkness… right now, Luna's favorite place to be certainly wasn't that. The camp she had set up as her new safe zone had been enough to provide her with a night's (or whatever felt like one) shelter. It would not last long however, for she could feel the Heartless on the move and ever nearing her location. She watched the ball of flame that she had used to warm herself a few minutes before go out completely before getting up on her feet and pushing on.

She had finished traversing the seven paths and locking the keyholes in each one. She felt she had at least deserved some compensation for her hard and life-threatening work but she was only humouring herself in this place of isolation. She didn't even know what purposes locking these keyholes served except for her guess that they returned them to the realm of light. Her guess could easily be confirmed if she returned to where Alexander was supposed to be but she was stuck here on the other side.

She clutched Sora's crown necklace while thinking of the memories she had shared with him and everyone else. She had been doing that a lot lately as if she was struggling to maintain whatever hope was left in a heart that was drowning in the blackness of despair. Even if she were to leave this place, would everything be the same again? Somehow she doubted that. And if not, what remnants of her past self would be in that light? To know that, she would have to know what this realm had taken from her and there was only one way to find that out.

"No. I have to believe that everything will be the same. Of course it won't if I don't at least try to make it that way. It will only be scary if I think it so. Right, mom?"


The group of five stood in front of the dense fog that had been found not too far from the mines entrance. According to Aqua, that fog had the tendency to move about from place to place so he was thankful that they didn't have to travel far to find it. If he didn't know any better about the place he was about to head into, he would have considered luck to be on their side.

He had been in this fog twice already. Once in the Pride Lands, and it had almost turned a pride of peaceful lions into vicious and impatient carnivores indulging in their hatred. It certainly hadn't made the already existing feud between the Pride Landers and the outsiders any easier. The second time had been the last time he had seen Luna. He had heard strange whispers in the fog though deciphering any of it was impossible, because that's all it was to his ears.

Aside him he could hear the others discussing the nature of the fog. "Where did it come from I wonder? Is this why we've been unable to see worlds on the scanner that we otherwise would have?" Riku questioned.

"So is this the same fog as the other ones then? I mean you mentioned it appearing in the Pride Lands right?" Kairi said referring to Sora.

"Yeah but… it changed the lions' personalities there. Also I was in it when I was fighting Abraxas. I heard something at the time but I'm not sure what it was. I'm guessing that either it wasn't the same fog…"

"Or maybe it has different properties in different areas. If only there was some way to analyze it." Riku said.

"How can we be sure that it leads into the realm of darkness though? What if it leads to another world which has nothing to do with it? I mean look at the objects around us." Kairi pointed out. As she had said, there were various objects misplaced around the mine and farther in that didn't seem as if they had come from this world. They were sure enough the fog had brought them here but to which world or even worlds they belonged remained to be seen.

Questions, questions, questions. Growing impatient, Sora threw his arms up. "Well none of that matters now! Standing here won't help a thing. If Riku and Aqua say that the fog is familiar to them then that's good enough for me. From here on out, we just have to trust our gut feelings and do this. No regrets." he avowed.

"Okay, let's do it," Riku agreed. He had only gone three steps when he stopped and looked at Kairi. "Oh, um, I just remembered. There's no easy wait to put this but… I don't think Kairi can come along with us this time."

"Huh, why? She's proven that's she just as capable as us at handling the Heartless." Sora defended.

"I don't doubt that but she's a Princess of Heart, remember? Her safety comes first. Also her light will be strong enough to attract any of the Heartless in the area. What we need to do is move quickly, find Luna, and get out." Riku explained.

"Oh yeah," Sora mumbled and watched Kairi's expression carefully. He could tell from her lack of one rather that she was having some difficulty trying to accept this. When Riku glanced at him, he knew his word would be the swing vote. "Kairi, let's be honest here. Excluding Aqua, you're probably the best out of us when it comes to magic and if this were anywhere else I'd definitely have you with us but it's not just somewhere, it's the realm of darkness. There pretty much already a one in a million shot of success and if Luna isn't there then we'll have just ended up putting you in danger for nothing."

"No, it's okay. I understand," Kairi said not looking at Sora directly. She sniffled and cleared her throat before pulling a familiar star shaped charm out of her pocket. "It's my-"

"Lucky charm. Be sure to bring it back to you. Gotcha," Sora said opening his palm for Kairi to place it there. He couldn't even begin to imagine how Kairi must have felt knowing that she had been left out simply because she was different from them but he would have to make it up to her later. He looked at it and smiled before putting it in his pocket. "We'll be back as soon as we can. I promise."

"Time's a wasting, let's get a move on." Astra said. Sora nodded to Kairi and backed away before twisting around and facing the strange fog. It was weird how contained it seemed to be, like it was hitting against a wall except that when Sora outstretched his hand, he found nothing solid there.

Stepping through this fog was perhaps the hardest thing had done in a while. Not because there was some external force preventing him from entering, but because he was afraid of whatever he might find on the other side. When he had ran through this same fog while trying to rescue Luna from Abraxas it had been on sheer impulse and without thinking of the consequences. He figured he should try to approach it like that, looking forward to what was at the end of his journey, not what was in between.

The fog grew thicker and thicker until he could only see misty white around him. He could just barely see the others walking beside him. He was about to question whether they were still in the mines when they emerged out on the other side.

"So this is the realm of darkness? You wouldn't think it was connected to the realm of light just by looking at it, but the stars…" Astra said tensing her fists upon the immediate difference in atmosphere. Darkness took the place of misty white which the various purple and red swirls and orbs lighting the sky. But about the stars… There were stars as well but they didn't seem to twinkle and shine as bright as they usually did. That wasn't the problem though. It was the fact that there were any stars in the Realm of Darkness at all, a place where no light usually shone. Sora had only been here for a short time once and even he could tell that much. "Just how big is this place anyway?"

"It's called the realm of darkness, you figure it out." Riku countered rudely.

"Though I do know she means. We could be here for days and we still wouldn't find her." Aqua said.

"Well we don't have that long, Kairi's on the other side waiting for us!" Sora exclaimed. He was ashamed to admit out loud that he was almost expecting to a solution to present itself to their problems but something like that seemed unlikely. Just then a binding flash of light and a sudden weight in his hands alerted him to the Keyblade's presence. It wouldn't have been weird if not for the fact that he hadn't summoned it. "What's going- agh?" Sora marvelled as the Keyblade jolted forward on its own as if it had wanted to rip its owner's socket off. A bright glow lit up the weapon as it pointed down one of the paths that they had the potential of walking.

"I think your Keyblade wants us to follow it, Sora." Riku stated with a wry smile.


Luna dodged to the side as the third Darkside of the trio that had decided to tag team her threw a punch. She recovered on footing and stepped back a bit before using a Wind Raid to attack all three at once.

"No good." Luna muttered to herself as she watched the Keyblade have little effect on hurting the Darksides. Had they gotten stronger somehow?

This time two of them attacked at once, burying their fists deep into the ground and releasing Neo Shadows from the pools of darkness that they had formed. Luna used their arms as walls, alternating between one and the other by kicking off them and ascending until she reached the height of their heads. She twisted her entire body and cut through both heads taking them both out.

Before she could land on her feet however, the final Darkside caught her mid-air. Luna tried to scream but all that came out were light gasps as she felt her body constrict and her bones on the verge of breaking. Eventually, the Darkside smashed her into the ground along with his fist. Luna couldn't move. She was in too much pain to do anything let alone think. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw more Darksides appearing and moving in.

This is it. This is it. I won't see them again, she kept repeating over and over in her head. She only hoped the end would be a quick one. She gave up on moving her individual muscles and watched as a gigantic fist floated above her head ready to put her out of her misery. But just before it reached her, light erupted from the crown necklace on her neck. She closed her eyes to prevent the sudden and close entity from blinding her. Even limiting her senses of sight, the warmth provided from that light was welcoming and, more importantly, familiar.

When she next opened her eyes, she found herself alone and her vision slowly fading. Sora's necklace was still faintly glowing and even though she felt as if her body was entirely devoid of energy, the comfort provided by the necklace was all she needed.

This light… it feels… good. Maybe I'll sleep, just for a while…


The group cut through the countless spawning Pureblood Heartless as they made their way to wherever it was the Kingdom Key wanted to take them. He had an idea though, or at least wanted to believe, that it was guiding them to Luna.

"Sora, duck!" Riku yelled quickly. Sora bent forward and felt Riku use his back as a support to launch a couple of well-aimed Dark Aura blasts to clear the path. Having specialised in magic, Aqua stayed at the back and cleared away any incoming enemies with her magic.

Sora had also summoned Yuna, Rikku and Paine who were doing their best to distract certain Heartless so that the others could take them out without having to face much pressure.

This left Astra who, along with Riku and Sora, was more physical and up front in her attacks. Her speed and strikes were what surprised them most as they continued through the infinite abyss. She couldn't have been doing this for more than a year and yet she was already on equal terms with her acquaintances.

"Astra, how did you learn to fight like that?" Sora asked once they had taken out the Heartless in the area. He kept his eyes on his independently pointed Keyblade as he talked. "And you were using magic with your free hand like it was nothing. I can understand if you were a powerful magician or maybe you've been close to the darkness… unless you are-"

"Don't be ridiculous. If I were even slightly interested in the darkness, I wouldn't have needed your help," Astra refuted. "I've heard tales of people who were able to cloak themselves in darkness and fully hide in the shadows. They were never seen unless they wanted to be seen and they also used those shadows to travel. Your friend Kairi is a Princess of Heart so I'm wondering if those with pure light could do the same but with the light."

"Now that's a scary thought. Fighting an enemy that's entirely emerged in shadows. How would you even fight such a thing I wonder?" Yuna enquired moving her index finger to her lips thoughtfully.

"Simple. You turn off the light," Astra said. "Sometimes no matter how hard you try you just can't fight shadows with light because those shadows are made from it."

"And you heard this from… Moira's Crescent?" Riku asked Astra with scepticism.

"And you got your attitude from…?" Astra responded just as snidely. "I don't have time for this. Let's just hurry up and rescue my friend, I can't stand another second in this place."

"Here's to the unanimous agreement. I've been here once before and never did I think I'd ever come back. But you know, if it means helping my friends then I'm glad that I could be of any help." Aqua said smiling.

"Looks like you'll be helping a whole lot more. Here they come!" Paine shouted pointing to the alarming numbers of Heartless approaching them. Aqua pulled in front and quickly used Magnet to draw in some of the Heartless before taking them out with Fission Firaga. To Sora, the many sounds of appearing and vanquished Heartless were a constant reminder that they were on borrowed time. Surely Luna could not have taken this many Heartless on her own, especially considering the state she had been in beforehand. No, he was underestimating her. When it was time to run, he believed Luna would do what was best, and if she thought she could handle it then he would believe in her all the same. That's all that needed to be said.

Their road took them past upside down and sideways rock pillars all the while dealing with the unwavering determination of the Heartless to interfere at every single step. He started to doubt that they were getting anywhere. After all, the same repeating landscape as they walked seemed to tell him that they were going in circles.

They soon passed another set of cliffs blocking the way to see a line of light shooting up into the sky up ahead. Now they knew they weren't going in circles.

"That light…" Astra was first to speak, a smile forming on her face unlike any others Sora had ever seen. There was no sarcasm behind it but instead a true happiness and relief that Sora had known when he had arrived back on the islands with Riku and Kairi. "She has to be up ahead."

"Astra, wait up!" Sora yelled but she had already set off and was leaving them behind. Before he could call out to her again, he felt the ground shake underneath his feet. He ended up falling only for Riku to be there to catch him by the arm. "What's going on?"

"I can feel the darkness approaching," Aqua said looking left and right before letting out a startled gasp. She turned to face Sora, Riku and the pixies and looked above them. "Get down!"

Aqua's warning was too slow to stop the tornado of thick dark wind that hit them. Sora felt himself immobilised and unable to hear anything else except for the tempestuous howling of the wind. Occasionally he saw glimpses of small yellow lights moving throughout, and came to the conclusion that the Heartless were also riding this storm and looking for opportunities to attack.

He felt an arm grab him and yank him up. He hadn't even realized that he had fallen down. A barrier wrapped itself around him formed and suddenly he could see Riku, Aqua and the Gullwings clearly by his side.

"We need to get to Astra!" Sora yelled against the ongoing storm.

"We have to wait until this storm lifts. It's not safe!" Riku said just as loudly.

And she is? Who's to say this storm will ever let up?

Making up his mind, he apologised quietly to them before breaking away from the barrier. He could hear Aqua and Riku shouting his name in worry but he ignored them and walked slowly into the heart of the storm. Though his walking speed was severely impaired, he was nowhere near as unable to move as he had been a minute ago. He silently praised himself on whatever willpower he had just discovered, but even that was slowly being drained by this intense rush of darkness the inhibited his senses.

A Dark Ball came from Sora's right and attempted to chomp away at him only to bite at Sora's Keyblade. The glowing light that illuminated the weapon vanquished the Heartless instantly. Sora activated Ars Arcanum and used it to increase his speed by cutting through the thick black wind. Eventually he emerged from the storm and dropped the Keyblade in fatigue.

"Might wanna consider using an ether, no?"

Sora looked up to see Astra's sardonic grin looking down on him, possibly trying to make herself look bigger than him. Sora guessed that she either had a superiority complex, was sadistic, just enjoyed specifically watching Sora hurt, or all three of them. Sora let out a mild grunt and drank down an ether before using the Keyblade to pull himself up. He spun around hoping that at any moment Riku and Aqua would emerge from the wind. The sound of three pops by his ears caused his to jump.

"Did we scare ya? Huh, did we, did we?" Rikku asked hyperactively with a cheesy grin.

"How did you three get out of there? What about Riku and Aqua?" Sora grilled.

"Well you did summon us so I guess we're able to teleport to wherever you are. Man, it really is poopy though that we have to come to your aid whenever you tell us to. I mean, what if I'm in the bathroom and you suddenly call me?" Yuna asked.

"Too much information." Astra muttered shaking her head at the inappropriate comment. Sora could agree with her on that one.

"If you're worried about your friends, don't. They're taking care of the situation. They told us to go on ahead and help you guys out." Paine answered Sora's second question. He wondered at first if it was truly okay to be separated from the others but Astra wasn't the least bit interested in debating this.

"If that's how it is, there's nothing we can do except head towards that light now." she appeared to concede, though it was obvious from her uncaring expression that she had shown no interest in waiting anyway.


They were nearing the strange light now and with this, the road had opened up to become wider. The dread and nerves that had taken hold of Sora's stomach from the moment he had stepped off the Gummi Ship increased ten-fold. Either the Keyblade was trembling in his hands, or it was his hands that were doing the trembling. He should have thought about this sooner, but he had no idea as to what the first words he would utter from his mouth to her would be. It had finally hit him that three months was a long time, and his last memory had been of her letting go off his hand and falling into the darkness.

Sora brought his right sleeve to his eyes and rubbed at them. They were stinging for some reason. He couldn't let her see him like this, though he imagined that when he saw her again, convincing himself not to cry would go straight out of the window.

"Luna!"

Sora removed his sleeve from his face. Astra had already left his side and ran towards the unconscious Luna, kneeling once reaching her and cuddling her. Sora caught up with Astra and was immediately captivated by the peaceful smile playing on Luna's face. Her rising and falling chest at least indicated that she was still alive and that was more than enough to comfort him.

Astra was not as easily accepting of her current state. "She looks so pale. C'mon Sea Salt, wake up. Tell me you're okay." she urged while putting the back of her hand against Luna's forehead.

What was he to do here? Sora simply stood there and watched as Astra offered her words of encouragement, and while he wanted to say or do anything, he found that no words would come out of his mouth. Seeing her here like this, pale and out like a light, forced Sora to once again acknowledge that he had been partially to blame for her ending up like this. He was sure if he tried to say anything, Astra would say the same.

For a moment, his eyes briefly fell upon the glowing crown necklace around Luna's neck. Maybe, just maybe, he was partially responsible for keeping her safe as well then. She's hadn't been alone at all. She had carried a piece of him too when she had ended up here.

Before he could start pondering why the necklace had even glowed in the first place, he was launched to the side by a powerful force. Astra looked up but was unable to prevent herself from being launched as well.

Sora felt as though he were suspended in the air for more than a few seconds before finally coming back down and almost rolling off the edge of the path. He rolled over onto his back and looked around from that position only to find nothing there.

"Astra, you okay?" He yelled out while trying to search for the mysterious creature.

"Well I think I broke something." Astra grunted before getting up. She summoned her Keyblade and walked slowly over to Luna while glancing left and right. She began dragging her Keyblade across the ground and occasionally tapping it.

Sora was baffled by her reaction to this invisible Heartless but the vulnerable Luna lying in the middle of the road dispelled whatever questions he would have posed to her. He stood up and rushed towards Luna again only to be knocked away just as he reached her.

"You idiot. Don't you see the Heartless is using her as bait to lure us in?" Astra scolded.

"What? How would you know that?" Sora asked. He hurriedly took out a potion from his pocket and drank it, the heavy and painful feeling on his chest left by the impact of the attack slowly reverting back to normal.

"I didn't. It was just a theory, until you proved it for me anyway. Nice job genius." Astra said offering a slow and annoying clap.

Sora let out a snarky laugh in reply before looking back at Luna. The Heartless was using her as bait? That almost seemed to imply that the Heartless was thinking, biding its time for the opportune moment. Was it another Chimera?

But there's no way I can fight like this. Not with Luna in the middle like that. Damn it! Sora lowered his head and pounded his fist into the ground angrily. If it could strategize, then it knew that both Sora and Astra were at a disadvantage.

"You're giving up already after coming this far? And what makes you think you deserve to see Luna again? Maybe she would better off without you."

Sora gave Astra a dirty look possibly for the hundredth time since he had first met her before shaking his head and standing up. "I don't know what thoughts you've conjured up in your head about me or what Moira's Crescent told you, but I'll tell you now that you don't know the first thing about me. I may be down, but I'm by no means out."

Astra grinned and raised her Keyblade above her. "Then prove it."


In case I don't update this before Christmas, I'd just like to say have a Merry Christmas. Of course, if I do update (which since I'm in the mood to finish this arc of I guess that will happen) then this automatically becomes obsolete and goes onto the next chapter. And now for some more Adventure Time- seriously this show is so addicting!