Disclaimer: kingdom hearts belongs to square inx and Disney

cut off-

(action)

Chapter 7

Kyo, Yumi, Xehanort, and Shijima made there way quickly down the hallway to the debriefing room. They had managed to stop kyo in about a minute and shijima by that time hade changed into his uniform. Reaching the end they came to a large room with multiple screens and people typing at an inhuman rate.

"I expected you to be here a little more on time." said an irritated voice. The voice had come from a man in a dark blue suit with black tie he had brown hair in an professional looking haircut. As he turned to look at them they noticed that shijima was glaring at the man intensely "I thought the lives of you're fellow keybearers would be important enough for you to get over here quickly."

"What are you doing here Simon." shijima asked in a seething voice

"Who is he?" asked kyo curiously

"Simon Nazareth. He's a minister on the council in the government and only got there by inheriting the position."

"Watch your mouth shijima." Simon said menacingly

"Your lucky that we don't have voters in this government or you'd be out of office in a heartbeat." shijima shot back even more menacingly

"And you'd know all about hearts wouldn't you." said Simon as shijima looked like he had actually been hurt for a few seconds

"Watch it Simon, I'll kill you in a second if you cross that line again. Diplomatic immunity or not." he said glaring as Simon keep his same still face. "Now get on with the briefing."

"What was that all about?" thought all three of his students as they continued to quietly observe

"Alright then. Oh and by the way…" Simon said as he walked to the metal table in the middle of the room "I'm here because some of the agents for the Nirvanian government were also at the archeological site when it was attacked by an unknown force.

"Wait. Archeological site…(Gasp) You don't mean-"

"Yes. The one that was excavated a few years ago on that desert planet." he said typing up a few buttons on the table and showing a hologram of a single desert planet with a few specks of silver scattered around it "The current inhabitants of the planet were not the original native life forms. They were a race of plant hybrids that lived in the once abundant forest, that is…Until Samael and the heartless arrived, They caused a imbalance in the worlds order and plunged it into chaos rapidly changing the climate and wiping out all life. But not before the natives made this."

Punching a few buttons an image of an old looking temple came up. It looked like a cross between a church and a Egyptian crypt and was raised about five stories high "This temple was built about the same time the heartless came and after it was built the heartless seemed to just vanish."

"What do you mean vanish?"

"As in they all just disappeared. A few decades after that the sand completely covered it up and the humans crashed landed on the planet. A few more decades pass and then…" he said pressing a button which zoomed out to show the whole planet "…This happened." suddenly a huge beam of light shot out from the planet and hit the moon dead center. After it faded a huge crater had been left on the moon.

Kyo and the others who had backed away because of the bright light walked back to the table.

"What was that?" shouted Yumi who had just now gotten over that shock of the blast

"I think it was some kind of laser." said xehanort uneasily "But I've never seen one with that kind of fire power launched from the ground."

"We can tell it's a laser!" said kyo "But what shot it!?"

"We don't know what caused it but there are two things we can tell from it." Simon calmly explained as he had already viewed the footage dozens of times "1. That it had to have come from a very powerful source and 2. That it had something to do with the ruins."

"What make's you say that?"

"That's the weird part…Shortly after the laser was fired the ruins were unearthed by the blast and suddenly the energy levels at that place skyrocketed and the heartless start showing up again."

"How did that happen?" xehanort asked curiously "Wouldn't you guy's have been smart enough to monitor that world in case something like this happened?"

"We had but the laser temporarily disabled or destroyed are monitoring equipment. Shortly after a team of excavators along with some agents for security. Everything was smoothly on until…"

"Until the reason we we're called to this mission." shijima said resting his hand on his chin

"Yes. We received a transmission from the excavation site minutes ago before they were killed." Simon said mournfully

"Killed!?" yelled shijima alarmed as he suddenly slammed both hands on the metal table "Why didn't you tell us that instead of labeling it as a search and rescue!!!"

"Maybe the transmission itself will clear things up." he said as he turned to one of the monitors which started to play the garbled last message. In the message explosions could be heard in the background.

"I don't have much time. The data's saved in the computer but we need help now. Our outer defenses were useless against them, they killed most of us the rest are out there but between the heartless and them (loud explosion) Damn it. They broke through already…If there's anyone out there who knows about the heartless listen to me. The heartless are being lead by something else. Samael's only a pawn. The real enemy is-" suddenly the transmission blacked out

"That's when we lost transmission." Simon said as he turned off the screen

"How many others received this transmission" shijima said softly still looking horrified

"Who knows. Could be a few, could be half the universe. But now that you've seen the footage your new mission is to retrieve the data and re-siege the excavation site."

"But that's suicide!!!" yelled shijima "We need more then four of us to even stand a chance against them. So why is it just us being sent out?"

"Because we need a small team to infiltrate and retake the security system. After that we can land on Gunsmoke safely."

"Security system?" asked yumi

"Yes. The security system that controls Gunsmoke defense grid." said a voice from the end of the hall as all of them turned around to see a teenage girl with medium black hair that covered part of her face, green eyes, and was dressed in a cloak as well.

"It was decided when the excavation team was sent to the ruins that it would be used as the base for the defense system due to it's fortified structure. Though it would seem it was a tactical error." kyo who had been zoning out was now fixated on her looks

"wow…she's beautiful…" thought kyo as he started to daydream

"Rena…What are you doing here?" ask shijima sounding surprised

"I'm here to help with you're strategy to retake the site." she replied smiling as if it were no big deal "After all I am one of the head strategist for the tactical board next to you of coarse."

"Yes but your attitude towards the situation has much to be desired." shijima said back

"(Ahem)…can we get back to the matter at hand." said simon irritated "Because of it's secure location an air strike or even landing is very unlikely to work so for this mission alone you will have to use the corridor of darkness in order to get there." he said as shijima's eyebrow raised

"But wont that attract there attention?" he asked "I mean if there anything like me wont they be able to sense when dark energy's been used?"

"Yes and no." answered simon a little unsure "because-"

"Because there are so many heartless there they won't be able to tell it's you who's used the dark energy." rena cut in smiling

"…She's so smart to" thought kyo as he began to blush a little

"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted" said simon through clenched teeth "You will also use the corridor because it offers the element of surprise." he said quickly regaining his composer

"Alright. So we go in, kill an army of heartless, go head-to-head with god knows what, get some data that may or may not be there, and finally retake gunsmoke for nirvana. (chuckles) Sure sounds like it'll be a fun little challenge." he finished smiling almost evilly as both yumi and xehanort shuddered and kyo who still was focusing on rena

"I still get creped out from that smile" they thought in unison

"good to here you feel that way. Now get going, the longer we waste time the more heartless show up." simon ordered as shijima got ready. Lifting his right hand and pointing it to the wall he started gathering energy to open the corridor straining to open it. When the swirling vortex of darkness finally formed he lost balance but was caught by xehanort and kyo who had snapped out of his daydream.

"(breathing heavily) thanks…for the…help" he said as he groaned to stand up "Opening a corridor to a distant planet is hard but" he said getting balanced again "But it's actually making it stay open is the tricky part." he said smiling a little embarrassed that he had lost his balance twice as everyone sweat dropped

"You're not going to fall again are you?" asked rena innocently

"Shut up." shijima said softly to tired to yell "come on. This corridor won't last much longer." and with that all four of them set off into the portal except for kyo who took one last look at rena before going in.

"…And she so caring for others." kyo thought continently not noticing that she had used sarcasm in her comment.

End chapter 7

Preview: Shijima, kyo, xehanort, and yumi arrive on Gunsmoke where life looks like something out of a science fiction western. Where they end up getting help from the most wanted man alive the 60 billion double dollar humanoid typhoon Vash the stampede. If only as a guide. Plus, shijima's big secret comes to light on xehanort's computer.

Review