Chapter Ten

The Restoration Ball Crashed!

The Return of Organization XIII

Sora walked through a moonlit corridor. He was wearing a black suit with a black bow tie around his neck.

'This is it. I'm going to find out if Kairi loves me. No turning back.' He approached the door and lifted his arm to open it, it slowly creaked open and Sora gulped slightly.

"SORA!" Two female voices screamed out to him. A cry of terror escaped his lips as he jerked backwards. He quickly turned around and noticed three small fairies, each of them very slender and beautiful. The middle one had long brown hair, but a red cloth and a hair band with angel wings tightening the hair so as to make it look like she had short hair. Her eyes were strange; her right eye was blue, while her left eye was green. She wore a white top that had a pink hood, an exotic earring that had a blue hair-like extension below one red bead and one yellow bead, a blue miniskirt with a dress-like accessory tied around it, and brown, knee-high boots with laces.

The fairy to the middle one's right had a big smile on her face. She had long blonde hair put into a long ponytail, two braids near her left temple, and green eyes with spiral pupils. A cloth headband was wrapped around her head. It was red at the top, then went to orange and faded to yellow near her face. She adorned a feather earring in each ear and a scarf made out of the same material as her headband and floated in midair which gave it the appearance of wings protruding from around her neck. She wore a yellow top that showed her midriff, two light brown sleeves, a brown miniskirt with two yellow ribbons on both sides of her hips, white stockings that went up to her thighs, and boots that were yellow at the feet and brown from the ankles up.

The last fairy had a more Gothic look about her. She had pale skin, crimson eyes, short timber wolf gray hair that went up and back down into bangs, and small sable wings on her back. She wore a black band around her neck, a black leather sash with a Gothic-style 'X' attached to it and a coal black tank top which showed about half of her midriff. She also wore long, black gloves, black shorts, a belt with a cartoonish skull buckle, black stockings that went up to her thighs, and tall black boots. She gazed at Sora with only her left eye open.

"Oh, you're the treasure hunters Donald, Goofy, and I met four months ago." The three of them smiled as he remembered them. Sora pointed out, "You never properly introduced yourselves you know."

"He's right! My name is Yuna." The brown-haired girl started first. She did an aerial back flip and crouched down still in midair. She brought her hands out and pointed her index fingers at Sora.

"I'm Rikku!" the cheerful blonde announced. "Yunnie's my older cousin." She flew backwards did a quick spin and struck a pose next to Yuna.

"The name's Paine." The quiet one was also bitter. She disappeared in a flash of light.

"Well she's no fun." Rikku whispered to her cousin. Yuna turned to her and started chatting with her. Sora was trying to figure out what they were talking about because both fairies were talking at the same time.

'Sorta reminds me of Selphie and Kairi.'
"Why ya dressed up all stud-like?" Rikku asked with a sly look in her eyes. Sora started to turn red. "Oh, I get it! You're trying to impress a girl, aren't you?"

Sora's face became beat red.

"I gotta go, see ya!" He said quickly, as he opened the ballroom door, trying to get away from anymore embarrassing questions.

Sora looked at the ballroom in awe, it was extraordinary. It was white with blue heart motifs throughout the room. The chandelier above him was exquisitely made out of crystal and finely polished silver. On the other side of the room were two tall, glass doors that led to a balcony. It seemed to be big enough for a small group of people. Sora looked around for his friends through the sea of people. The chattering was at a low buzz as he searched, then, after a minute of searching, he found them. All four of them were wearing tuxedos as well. Riku had his undershirt untucked and his slacks were baggy enough to cover the top half of his dress shoes. Goofy and Mickey's tuxes had coattails on the jackets. Donald wasn't wearing any shoes or pants because of his webbed feet and huge lower body.

"Hey guys! Nice party, huh?" Sora went up to them through the mass of people.

"It's a bit crowded for my tastes." Riku replied. "Did you find Kairi around?"

"Not yet."

"Gawrsh, I'm sure she's just freshenin' up a bit before she gets here." Goofy assured the young Keyblader.

"Feeling nervous, Sora?" Donald squawked.

A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead. "Of course not! Why would I be nervous?" Sora answered with a nervous laugh as he rubbed the back of his spiky head.

"Hi, Sora." Kairi's voice sounded behind him. He turned around and laid his eyes upon the lovely sight standing before him. A tight-fitting satin dress hugged her body down to her knees and a slit reached up the side to her mid-thigh. Her dainty feet were placed in shining open-toed red heels and her lips had a clear gloss that made them shine. Eyes of indigo stared back at Sora; who stood there with his mouth kind of slack. The only thing he could get out of his throat was, "Hi." He finally got his head straightened out. "You look amazing, Kairi."

She smiled gently back at him. "Thank you. You look great, too."

"Well, looks like you all made it." Everyone turned around when they heard Edward's voice as he and Alphonse walked towards them. They still thought it was a bit strange that Al was the younger brother, but was twice his older brother's height. "I don't really wanna be here, but we've gotta help Vincent protect Ansem. Sorry we can't spend more time with you."

"No problem. You probably won't have to do much, though." Riku answered.

"He's got a point, Brother." Al added with his voice reverberating inside the armor. Ed nonchalantly shoved his hands into his coat pockets and started walking off with a serious gleam in his eyes. "Brother! Aren't you going to say 'good bye' to them?" Edward ignored his brother and continued walking. Alphonse shrugged a bit which made his armor scratch against the different plates. "I'm sorry for his behavior; he must still be mad at Cloud." As Al went off after his brother, Kairi grabbed Sora's hand and together they walked out of the room and onto the outside balcony.

The view from the balcony was beautiful. The moon shone brightly in the cloudless night sky with twinkling stars. The landscape before them was littered with mountains and luminous nocturnal flowers. Sora and Kairi noticed another couple about their age standing near the left hand side of the platform. The girl wore a black satin dress that went down to her knees and showed her back. It had a black rose tattooed onto it with red thorns sprouting from it and grew out onto her arms and thighs. She had sea foam green eyes and brown hair that reached down to the top of the black rose. The boy with her had silver hair and blue eyes. He wore a red shirt with a zipped up black vest over it and black jeans. He had a white, red, purple, and blue flame on the back of the vest.
Sora looked at Kairi, a shy smile was spread across her face and her eyes danced. His heart started to beat faster.

"So Sora," She started softly. "Are you having fun yet?"

After a couple of seconds, Sora replied, "Yeah, I guess." He folded his arms behind his head and leaned against the railing. "I'd much rather out fighting the baddies. I can't wait until this is over so I can go beat the crud outta some Shadows!" One of his trademark grins spread across his face.

Kairi looked slightly crestfallen, but recovered quickly. "Yeah…" She paused then took a deep, quick breath. "Sora…I…" Her voice trailed off.

He looked at her, concerned. "What?"

She shook her head.

"You…what?" He bent down to look at her downtrodden face.

"Nothing…" She muttered.

He let a small smile play on his lips. "Tell me."

She shook her head and wiped at her face.

'Oh crap, oh crap. She's crying! What'll I do?' Sora panicked internally.

"Kairi," he said softly "Kairi, tell me. What's wrong, Kairi…?" He grabbed her wrist lightly and pulled it away from her mouth.

In one sudden, quick movement Kairi wrapped her arms around Sora and buried her face in his chest. "I missed you too much when you're gone!" She sobbed, and hiccupped slightly.

Sora was dumbstruck. He just stared down at her brilliant red hair as it blew slightly in the faint wind. After regaining his ability to think, he wrapped his arms around her tiny waist and pulled her close.

"You have no idea." He whispered into her hair.

This couldn't be happening…could it? Sora felt like he was going to cry as well, his throat closed up painfully and he bit his lip to hold back tears of joy. This was too much to take in at once.

Kairi pulled away and brushed her hair from her face. Her face was still down turned and the shining trails left by the tears glinted in the moon light. The couple behind them coughed to let the pair know they weren't alone. But Sora ignored it.

Kairi took a step back and wiped the tears from her face, then looked up at Sora. His left hand was still on her tiny waist as the right one was on her face.

"I missed you too much to bear." He smiled, leaning towards her slightly. Sora realized that Kairi's eyes weren't really purple at all, they were a deep blue. Her lips were shining along with the tear streaks on her cheeks. Their faces were mere inches apart and Sora closed his eyes to await the soft caress of her lips against his own.

'This is it…No turning back…'

"Whoa! Sora, I don't swing that way." said a gruff, laid back voice. Sora opened his eyes a saw the head of an enemy who supposedly faded back into darkness four months ago. He had black hair with a streak of gray in it and tied into a ponytail, a yellow left eye, and an eye patch over his right. His face had two scars; one where his right eye would be and the other going down his left cheek. Sora let out a scream and jumped back with Kairi. "Ah, was I interrupting the first kiss?"

The other couple on the balcony gawked at the turn of events.

"Xigbar!?" Sora exclaimed in shock. "How-"

"I wouldn't be standing around here if I were you." Xigbar interrupted. "You should be in the ballroom trying to save people." After saying that he disappeared. Sora panicked wondering how Xigbar survived their battle against each other. He, Donald, and Goofy saw him fade away.

'Are all the others still alive also? What about Axel?' he pondered quickly.

"An old friend of yours?" asked the silver-haired boy. The girl stood by his side looking serious.

"You could say that." Sora replied sarcastically. "I'm Sora and this is Kairi." he pointed to her. "Who are you?"

"My name is Himeno." The girl spoke with a quiet tone.

"And I'm Mury." The young man answered. "But we don't have time to waste here. That guy said we should be trying to save people in the ballroom." Sora nodded and the four of them rushed back inside. They shoved open the heavy glass doors and couldn't believe what they saw.

Blood was everywhere. Xigbar had shot three people, killing one instantly with a fatal shot in the heart. His bullets were giant crystal that shone a pale violet light. He grinned as he saw the other two fall to the ground clutching their arms.

Suddenly some of the ceiling fell to the floor. Sora looked up and saw the chandelier was being pulled down by some unknown force. A young boy about Sora's age leaped onto it and raised his arm to the light fixture's anchor. The chandelier broke off of the ceiling and fell to the ground, crushing a man underneath it. The chain stood up straight as if it were still connected to the ceiling. The young boy had short, unkempt, brunette hair, yellow eyes with slit pupils like a snake, and an evil grin that showed long incisors. He wore the same outfit as Xigbar, and the rest of the Organization, a black coat with silver tassels connected to a hood and a long zipper down the front, black gloves, and black shoes instead of boots like Xigbar.

Ansem the Wise was pushed into a wall by a creature with a wizard like hat and held two strange flasks that were shaped like the emblem on its chest. His long silver hair flowed over the front of his face. Suddenly, the temperature of the air around him was dropping. Ice began to encase his entire body except for his head.

Ed turned around to see what happened. "Ansem!" The young alchemist rushed over to free the king of Radiant Garden. Edward felt a sudden pain in his gut. A fist was pushing into it. He gasped as the air was knocked out of him and slumped to ground clutching his abdomen. He looked up to see who jabbed him. It was a man who wore the same outfit as Xigbar and the boy. He had dirty blonde hair and green eyes, a conniving smirk covered his face as he looked down at Ed.

"Little boys such as you shouldn't interfere with the affairs of scientists such as me and Ansem." He mocked in an intellectual voice.

Ed could finally breathe again. "What did you say!?" he shouted fiercely at the man as he tried to scramble to his feet.

"Edward, enough!" Ansem spoke up. "This is between the Organization and I. Why did you come, Even?"

"If you're so wise then you'd know that I go by Vexen." He curtly replied. "You shall see soon enough."

Squall looked around and noticed a glowing rose petal floating down from the air. It suddenly turned into a large scythe with a pink blade and a long green shaft. The scythe swooped around to take his head off, but the swordsman took out his gunblade and parried the blade. A cloaked figure appeared as the blades made contact. The young man had cherry blossom hair and hollow blue eyes. He smiled as he pushed off Squall's sword and landed a few feet away from him.

Flames engulfed a man and charred him to a flaming crisp. The flames expanded and revealed a man with spiky vermillion hair, lime green eyes with glazed over pupils, and two tattoo-like marks under the eyes. He showed no emotion on his face like all the others had. He was like an empty shell.

Lightning came out of the wires from the chandelier and struck another man nearby the flamed area. He let out of deafening scream as he was electrocuted to a blacked form of nothing. A foot stomped down and crushed the corpse into a fine ash. The foot belonged to a young woman with blonde hair with two antenna-like bangs going over the crown of her head and green eyes. She had a sadistic look in her eyes and an evil smile spread on her face as she giggled maniacally.

A huge gust of wind blew the balcony doors open. They shattered as they hit the walls where they were hinged to. The gust flew past Sora, Kairi, Himeno, and Mury. Kairi wrapped her arms around Sora to keep herself from being blown away. The wind flew towards a man and pushed him into the air and into one of the pillars. As he hit it, the pillar broke and sent the man flying into the wall. The man fell to the ground as limp as a wet noodle. The wind let up and another member of the Organization floated through the broken doorway and softly landed. He had long sable hair in dread knots, purple eyes, and long thick sideburns. His face stayed stoic and calm.

Another wind blew through the main doorway and tried to push Cloud away. He took out his sword, drove it into the ground, and knelt down to get leverage. Out of the doorway, wielding a claymore came a man with long and wild blue hair that spiked at the top. He rushed towards Cloud and brought his sword up. Cloud reacted quickly and brought his sword out of the ground and blocked the blow. He looked at his opponents face, a ragged 'X' shaped scar ran across the bridge of his nose and his eyes were all yellow. The eyes started to fade and showed the whites and his pupils. Some of his hair went down as he became calm and collected. Cloud noticed that the moon was behind the clouds as this happened.

One woman began to age suddenly. She started out as a beautiful woman. Wrinkles formed on her skin and she began to get thinner with each passing second. She began to falter and turned into dust. Her dress fell down and turned into a card of the woman. Her former appearance was depicted on the card. A man rose out of the dust of the woman. He had many piercings on both ears, bleached blonde hair with a beard, and hollow blue eyes. He smirked as her bent down and picked up the card.

A man was crushed as the floor beneath him flipped over. In the crater was a huge brute that had spiked dark orange hair and cold blue eyes. He wielded a tomahawk-like weapon in his right hand. His face looked like it was made of stone. He didn't blink or show any kind of emotion.

A huge geyser of water came out of the floor. As it stopped, a young adult man replaced it. He had brownish-blonde mullet with a spiked crown and blue eyes. He looked around to see if anyone was watching him. He grabbed a guy and pushed him right through his body. The man came out wet and out of breath.

"Sorry, I didn't want to get in trouble for not doing anything." He apologized which seemed out of character for someone in the Organization.

"Well, well..." A voice rang out and silenced the chaos in the room. A vortex of darkness appeared in front of the chandelier. A young man stood before everyone. He had blue eyes, but his right eye was covered by a long band of dark blue hair. "It seems we've interrupted something very momentous."

"Zexion!" Riku gasped. 'How is this possible? Did that replica of me not absorb that guy like he told me?' He turned to look at the giant man. 'And I definitely know that I defeated Lexaeus and that he faded away.' He looked at the man with long blonde hair. 'I'm not sure about Vexen, but Axel told me he finished him off.' He turned his attention to the red -haired man. 'Then why is Axel here with them? He betrayed them to help Sora.'

"Ah, Riku. I thought the darkness would have consumed your heart months ago. I guess you're more powerful than I had expected. No matter, you will give into it this evening as you see the return of Organization XIII."

Another Zexion appeared near Ansem. "Ansem the Wise, you just don't know when to die, do you?" Ansem just glared at Zexion with hateful eyes. "Would you like for us to put you out of your misery? Five of your apprentices should do nicely. Or, I'll just let Axel cut you to ribbons."

With the snap of Zexion's fingers, Axel summoned forth two spiked chakrams into his hands. He walked forward with a blank expression on his face and his eyes emotionless. He stopped as he stood in front of the old king and the Cloaked Schemer.

Zexion walked past Axel with a smirk on his face. He turned around to watch what was about to unfold. Axel brought up one of his chakrams and swung to try and put a gash into his chest. Ansem showed no sign of fear in his eyes.

CLANG!!!

Sora's Kingdom Key appeared between Axel and Ansem. Sora looked up at Axel with a distressed look. "Axel! Why are you doing this? You helped me save Kairi by sacrificing yourself. Now you're helping the Organization once more?! Think about Roxas! Think about your best friend!" He gritted his teeth to hold back Axel's weapons.

Axel pushed off the Keyblade and walked away. Zexion looked down at Sora. "He isn't Roxas's 'best friend' any longer. He is only an empty shell with no mind of his own."

Sora's eyes widened as he heard those words. "…no mind of his own?" He repeated quietly.

"Now, I wonder if you'd like to meet your replacement." As Zexion spoke, the young man with dark brunette hair appeared in front of Sora.

"The name's Xonir. And your Nobody must be Roxas. Too bad." He punched Sora in the gut. Kairi flinched as she saw this. She looked back up and summoned her Keyblade into her hand a determined look on her face. Riku put his hand on her shoulder, causing her to glare up at him, but he simply shook his head.

"You really could've helped the Organization." Xonir continued, "Now I've gotta knock you around a bit." He lifted his leg to kick Sora while he was down. He felt the floor beneath him shift. He saw the ceiling realizing he had just been tripped. Xonir used his arm and flipped backwards and back onto his feet. He looked at Sora with rage-filled eyes. They widened as he saw that Sora was no longer there. It was a boy with spiky blonde hair and blue eyes. He wielded two Keyblades. He wore a black outfit with white pants and a white jacket over the shirt. There was a silver four-arrow pendant connected to the shirt zipper. On his left hand, there were two finger bands, one white and one black. On his right wrist was a black and white wristband.

"Well, look who we've got here." He said, chuckling, "Roxas." Xonir said with a toothy grin on his face.