Warnings: Language all over the place. And some comic violence.

Pairings: Established Roxas/Namine, Implied Sora/Kairi, innuendo all over the place.

Unravel the Heart

Chapter 1: Nautical Discourse

Unravel ~ Keyblade ~ Soul ~ Balance

Roxas watched in enraptured interest as several multi-colored circles flew down his TV Screen, lighting up in flames and sometimes even lightning as they smacked into the "deadline" in time with Sora's rapid, button-mashing fingers. "I can't believe you can play on this difficulty! Every time I try I end up breaking my fingers and bleeding inside my chest for some reason." Roxas commented, watching Sora wield his plastic Guitar as if he thought it was real.

"I'm just that awesome!" Sora replied, mashing more buttons in time with the music he was supposed to be playing.

However, Roxas decided at that moment that Sora had crossed the line by calling himself awesome, and so he tackled the other boy and began to savagely beat him about the face with his fists. Sora, surprised, took it like a bitch, blood spouting from his nose and ears.

"Take it back." Roxas calmly ordered.

"I'm not awesome!" Sora cried out, tears running down his cheeks as Roxas got off of him, dusting himself off. However, Sora then got up and snapped Roxas's arm in two, grinning like a maniac as Roxas's eyes widened to twice their normal size.

"Sora, what the fuck! What the fucking fuck!"

"You didn't think I was really crying, did you?" Sora laughed, pulling Roxas's arm back further.

"Sora, it's gonna come off! God damn it!" Roxas howled in a panic as he stamped his feet against the ground.

Suddenly, Sora was cracked over the head by a vase, and fell to the ground in a heap. Roxas sighed and turned around, seeing Naminé standing there with a disapproving look on her face. "Ahhh. Thanks Naminé. Geez, I'm gonna have to kick his ass later for that."

"No need," Kairi said, suddenly popping in and grabbing Sora's arm as she dragged him off. "I'll rape him into submission."

"Appreciated!" Roxas called after her before she vanished around a corner, sighing again as he began casting Cure spells on himself. "I'm starting to regret bringing them with us…" he mumbled.

Naminé just grinned at him in a disarming fashion, clearly trying to get him to stop his perfectly reasonable bitching. "But come on! This cruise might have gotten boring without company."

"I guess..." Roxas remarked, leaning on his now-healed arm as he stared out a nearby window at the rolling waves outside. Winning this luxury cruise off of a Sea-Salt Ice Cream snack was the last thing he had really been expecting when he had taken Naminé out at Xaldin's insistence. But it had been a welcome surprise, and she hadn't been too fond of going by themselves – after all, they had only just started dating. She didn't need Roxas getting any rapey ideas or anything till she knew him (intimately~) a little better.

So naturally, she wanted to go on a cruise with their closest friends, and it just so happened that they could bring up to five friends with them. Roxas had invited Sora and Kairi, seeing as they had become tight since Sora beat the shit out of The Organization that one time, and he had also begrudgingly invited Xaldin, since it was his suggestion that he and Naminé go out in the first place (drunkenly, but still).

He had also invited Axel and Saïx, since they were his Homie Gees 360, but he was seriously regretting the entire damn trip lately. Why? Well, because the rest of The Organization are a bunch of dildos and decided to invite themselves, teleporting onto the Cruise Ship without invitations via Corridor of Darkness. And Roxas was getting tired of putting up with their bullshit.

At least Xemnas had done the sensible thing and stayed home. And no one had really seen much of Luxord since Marluxia's funeral. Roxas still looked on that funeral with sadness. After all, with Marluxia dead, he didn't have anyone to style his hair anymore. Naminé had taken to doing it, but she was a fuck up with that sort of thing.

"You're right Naminé. Some friends would have been nice. But I didn't wanna invite the entire damn Organization! I mean, we have no time to ourselves to…" Roxas reached out, brushing Naminé's arm, only to have her drive her Rape Knife into his palm. "AHHHHHHHH. What the FUCK Naminé!"

"Sorry, reflex." She apologized sheepishly. "From when Marluxia was still alive."

Xaldin chose that moment to burst onto the scene, carrying a cane and a pimp hat while sipping some fruity drink and chatting on a cell phone. "Yeah, Lido, I got it. Don't fuck with me bitch. Yeah, I know. Just have the stuff on my doorstep Monday or else I'll have you dismembered. Bitch, don't threaten me. I will fucking end you."

"Who do you think he's talking to?" Naminé asked with interest.

Roxas shrugged. "Probably his drug dealer."

Naminé scoffed. "Xaldin don't do no drugs. He does alcohol."

"He's talking to his mother." Larxene piped in, dropping from the ceiling in a seemingly random fashion. "Don't ask me why he calls her Lido, because I'm not a retard, so I can't begin to imagine what goes through his head."

"That's an odd way to talk to your mother… besides, he's a Nobody."

"So? He still had a mom. And she's still alive. What are you fucking stupid or something?" Larxene spoke to Naminé as though she were the biggest piece of shit on the planet. "You're the biggest piece of shit on the planet."

Naminé was now quite burned. "I am quite burned."

"Good." Larxene then strutted off, swishing her hips around and throwing flirty looks at anyone she passed.

"Wow. She's a bitch." Naminé said, mostly to herself. Roxas detected that some bitter rivalry was now in the making, but ignored this feeling in favor of watching Xaldin attempt to shank his cell phone while he screamed at his mother, telling her that she should have known better than to fuck with him.

"Damn woman…" Xaldin said lowly, hanging up his now damaged phone and stuffing it into his pocket. "Well, Roxas, Naminé, how are things with you?" he asked somewhat conversationally, glancing to the side at the Guitar Hero game that still waited, unattended since Sora's leave.

"Uh, we're good. But why the hell were you talking to your mother like that? I mean-"

"You do not know the fathomless depths of that woman's horror, boy." Xaldin cut him off quickly. One of dreadlocks then lifted itself into the air, wrapping around a comically large time piece and passing it to Xaldin. "Oh, bother. It's already 2:15." Xaldin remarked, staring at the time piece as he absently gave his dread lock a small scratch.

Naminé stared, quite evidently weirded out. "What the…"

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but I must go." Xaldin explained. "For you see, Larxene is about to take a dip in the pool. I have to be there for that." And without another word, the Whirlwind Lancer took off at a run, gone.

"…Was that dreadlock alive?" Naminé asked, very creeped out.

Roxas pointedly avoided the question. "Hey Naminé, your shoes are untied."

"Oh, well…" Naminé remarked, bending over before she realized she wore sandals. However, when she glanced back up, there was only the wind. "Well damn it all." She then whipped out her faithful sketch pad. She was gonna fix Roxas's shit good…

Memory ~ Light and Dark ~ Emerald ~ Time

Zexion reclined on the main deck of the ship, enjoying the relaxing laziness. Above him, several Dusks had contorted their bodies and arranged themselves into a sort of makeshift awning to block the sunlight, keeping Zexion quite satisfied. Another Dusk stood dutifully beside him, its body spasming in that way that only Dusks do, as it awaited orders, such as bringing the schemer a refill on his Long Island Iced Tea.

However, Zexion was very quickly becoming bored. "Sometimes I wonder if it was worth it making that truce with Sora." He remarked to no one. "It's so frightfully boring, not having any new evil schemes to devise." he lamented, longing for the days when he would run around tricking dressy-wearing pansy boys into crying, missing the days he would be emasculated in battle by those same pansies, wished he could relive the days of cursing the heavens as he retreated into the shadows. Being evil was truly such an experience.

"Ya know, you make pretty elaborate hand gestures when you're talking to yourself like a weirdo." Axel mentioned, having walked up with Saïx at his side. The two were adorned in bathing suits, with Axel wearing a pair of water wings and Saïx having a Yellow Ducky Intertube on his waist.

"…What's with the getups?"

"Oh, we're gonna go swimming." Axel responded cheerily.

"…with flotation devices."

"I can't swim." Axel explained, still cheerily.

"And I am terrified of water and need ducky to keep me safe." Saïx dead-panned.

Zexion just stared. "…Kay."

"We were gonna ask if you wanted to come. Larxene's in the water."

"…Did she explode?"

"Nah man, that's really dumb."

"Okay then." Zexion responded lazily. "You two have a blast. I'm gonna sleep here."

At this, Axel seemed to become unpredictably violent, grabbing Zexion's drink and smashing it into his face in a shattering of glass, kicking Zexion's seat over, and spitting on him. "Fine! Be a loser! C'mon Rhy- er, Saïx! Le's bounce, yo!"

Axel and Saïx then quite literally bounced off.

Zexion sputtered, rather shocked that all of that had just happened to him. Even more shocking was that a moment later, Roxas showed up, looking around frantically. He then locked eyes with Zexion and gave him a dead serious look.

"Zexion. Let me hide in your dress."

Before Zexion could even begin to address what was wrong with that statement, Roxas climbed into Zexion's cloak, hiding in it and making Zexion look very fat. A moment later, Cerberus came galloping up to Zexion, barking its three heads and looking really pissed. Hades showed up after a couple of seconds, looking at Zexion. "Hey, Hades, Lord of the Dead, how ya doin', peanuts and cheese, yadda yadda, marijuana. Listen, I'm looking for a kid."

"…and?" Zexion replied.

"Well this albino dame went and called me here with some special sketch pad, said she'd help me put the ol' curtain drop on Mister Hero back home if I helped her out and found her little boy toy, you dig what I'm swinging?"

"…Uh, sure. He went that way." Zexion pointed in a random direction, and Hades and Cerberus promptly ran off. However, Hades stopped and glanced at Zexion's belly.

"Wha's up with that?"

"Oh. I'm preggers."

"Ah." Hades then marched off, seeing nothing wrong with that.

Roxas then climbed out of Zexion's cloak. "Thanks man, you're a life-saver. Naminé is after my blood now because I went and ditched her and so she called those two and… well shit."

"I want you to know that the only reason I helped you is because I was in a state of mental shock. If you ever climb into my cloak again, I will-"

"Ewwwww, Roxas climbed into Zexion's cloak?" Sora shouted, approaching the two with Kairi behind him, as well as Xigbar and Vexen following close by.

Ignoring the exclamation, Roxas raised an eyebrow. "What are you guys doing hanging out with Vexen and Xigbar?"

Kairi smiled. "Xigbar was gonna teach us how to drive. Vexen wants to observe."

"You're gonna learn how to drive… on a ship?"

"Yuhuh."

"Can I come?"

Xigbar glared at Roxas with his good eye. "Dunno little dude. You nearly killed us the last time I took you driving."

"But I've gotten so much better!"

Vexen grinned in a creepy, pedophilic way. "I suppose we could let one more malleable young mind under our careful tutelage…"

"Dude, I already told you," Xigbar admonished. "We're not molesting them. Period."

Vexen looked offended as hell. "I didn't want to molest them! I simply want to observe some Key-Bearers behind the wheel!"

"Yeah," Zexion piped in. "And you want to have sex with them."

"I do not!"

Zexion just laughed, chuckling as he spoke. "Uhh, I'm pretty sure you do."

"Where do you get these obscene ideas!"

"Blame the Fan Dumb." Xigbar replied curtly.

Vexen cursed loudly and stomped off, probably looking for more children to molest.

Hades came back at that moment. "Oh, hey, I just wanted to- Hey! There's the little brat I'm looking for!"

Roxas looked panicked for a second before he spoke quickly. "Um…no! I'm not! I'm a baby! Goo goo. I was just born."

Hades was all smiles. "Oh, my bad little runt. Congratulations," he added, shaking Zexion's hand. "I assume Sora is the father?"

"What? No! This is-"

Sora beamed. "I'm a proud daddy!"

Kairi just stared at Sora with a look that screamed 'I can't believe I like this retard'.

After Hades' final congratulations, he turned and departed, apparently forgetting all about his hunt for Roxas. Xigbar sighed, deciding he had seen enough nonsense for one day, and so took the three teens with him to learn how to drive, leaving Zexion alone once again.

Thank God.

Zero ~ Heart ~ Atone ~ X

Standing high above the passengers of the ship, well out of sight from its perch atop the highest cabins, a lone figure dressed in a black, hooded cloak watched the many passengers mill about the ship in apparent interest. Raising its head, it looked off into the distance, a small island visible from its vantage point.

It laughed. "Very soon."

Lifting a hand, the individual produced a small orb of Darkness, staring at it for a moment from beneath its hood, before releasing it. The Dark Orb launched like a cannonball from a catapult, flying at an intense speed around the ship as it grew larger and larger, before finally crashing into the hull of the liner. Screams were heard as the impact resonated throughout the vessel.

"Now show me…" the figure spoke in a low drawl, watching intently as the scene below unfolded.

- - - - - - - - - - - - Change the Beat! - - - - - - - - - - -

Demyx looked up in avid surprise as the entire ship seemed to rock with the force of a major collision. "Wh-what's going on here?" he stammered, falling over backwards off of his beach chair, where he had been casually enjoying the sun by the pool. Lexaeus was beside him, lifting him to his feet (Demyx had thought it odd that the man had wanted to Sun-Bathe, but was rather thankful for his presence now).

"Something isn't right." He spoke.

"Well no shit man! The ship just hit something!"

Lexaeus smacked Demyx upside the head, causing the boy to careen forward into the pool as blood gushed from his eyes and mouth.

"Oops." Lexaeus mused, forgetting his own strength. "Anyhow, I mean that the collision is not a normal collision." He explained as Demyx climbed out of the water, shaking his hair out and grumbling.

Right on cue, however, a large, black hand was made visible over the railing, clamping down as it pulled the rest of its body up, revealing a feral, monstrous face with glowing yellow eyes and a long tongue.

"Is that a Heartless?" Demyx asked, getting to his feet and watching as the creature pulled all of its bulk onto the deck, large and powerful, perhaps the size of three Lexaeuses. And it only seemed to be growing.

Lexaeus nodded. "Yes. Come, we'll have to destroy it." And with that, he calmly called forth his Axe Sword, standing at the ready to fight.

Demyx followed suit and called his sitar, sighing. "Well, alright, but Lex… do ya have to fight in that thing?" Demyx asked, pointing at the only article of clothing that adorned Lexaeus's form; a speedo.

Lexaeus scoffed. "I'm not about to go change."

Demyx sighed again and tried to block out Lexaeus from his vision. "Sure, whatever…"

Apparently tired of watching them with a hungry gaze, the Heartless launched into an attack then, slashing at the broad man first, who parried the blow with his large, red and black sword, before flinging it back against the railing. Demyx strummed out a few notes, now focused, as the pool water rose into a large, powerful pillar, slamming into the great monster, keeping it pinned against the bars.

"Get it Lex!"

Lexaeus nodded and charged forward, his sandals flopping comically against the deck as he raised his Axe Sword to swing down upon the restrained foe. However, the Heartless had a couple of tricks up its sleeve, as it suddenly split its body into two halves just as the Axe blade came crashing down, crushing into the metal bars of the ship instead of the beast. The Heartless's body then put itself back together around the man's outstretched arm, pulling at it and yanking him into the pillar of water with it, intent on devouring him.

Demyx panicked. "Crap, Lexaeus!" he strummed a few more notes then, dropping the pillar to free the man from drowning, allowing his limbs to move more freely as well, but also freeing the trapped Heartless, which only seemed to be getting bigger by the second. "It's already the size of a Darkside now…" Demyx gulped, watching Lexaeus struggle in its grip, punching at its face with his free hand, his other arm still trapped inside the Heartless's body.

Demyx played a few more chords as his feet tapped to a rhythm he was writing as he went along, conjuring up a swarm of Water Clones which grouped around the Heartless' feet, swinging their watery sitars, knocking the creature off balance. As it began to topple forward, another Pillar of water shot out at Demyx's instruction, launching through the beast's arm and freeing Lexaeus from its grasp.

The large Heartless toppled into the now empty pool, giving the Silent Hero ample footing to pull his arm, and his weapon, free from its body, raising it above him before quickly crashing it down onto the beast's head. The Heartless howled in pain as its arms reached for him, freezing in midair as it began to dissolve into Darkness.

Sighing, Lexaeus shouldered his weapon, hoisting himself out of the pool and giving Demyx an appreciative smile. However, before he could say anything, the Darkness reformed itself in the middle of its dissolving state. Shock adorned Lexaeus's features as he saw two of the same Heartless appear in the pool, both smaller than their previous incarnation, but apparently more nimble as they leaped from the pool bottom and landed on either side of the two Nobodies in a pincer formation.

"Why did it come back? You just smashed that thing's head in!" Demyx complained, conjuring a wall of water to protect him and his comrade. Lexaeus grunted.

"I don't know. But we have no choice but to keep fighting."

As the two prepared to reengage their foes, a stream of lightning shot out from above, striking one of the beasts in the forehead. Immediately it fell backward, clutching its skull and screeching in pain. This was followed by the Savage Nymph, Larxene, falling from above, landing gracefully in front of Lexaeus (much to his non-admitted delight, as he observed the woman's bikini she was currently dressed in).

"What the fuck are these things doing here?" she demanded, standing from her crouched landing and staring at Lexaeus. "I don't need a goddamn buzz kill on my vacation. Also, Lexaeus, you need to put on some pants."

Lexaeus just shrugged her comment off. "I don't know. One showed up, I killed it, and now it has become two. I worry what will happen if we kill it again."

Larxene laughed and waved a non-committal hand. "Psh, that's stupid. Just keep killing it till it stays dead." She then proceeded to demonstrate this point by rushing the downed Heartless and slashing its head off with one of her knives, causing it to erupt in a mist of Darkness.

However, much like before, the Darkness just started to reform itself after a moment, and where once stood one were two more Heartless, this time only slightly smaller than the first.

"Told you," Lexaeus said, blocking an attack from the other, still larger Heartless as Demyx prepared to blast it with a jet of water.

Lerxene just growled as she fried the two new pouncing Heartless with a spray of lightning, before calling up a clone and slashing the two creatures into small pieces with its aid. Unsurprisingly, they both of dissolved into Darkness, only to start reforming again. The vixen grit her teeth as she readied more Thunder Magic.

Lexaeus was sporting a different tactic however. As Demyx blasted at the creature, it was sent flying only to be caught in the flat of Lexaeus's Axe Sword, where he proceeded to whirl around, flinging the creature off the ship. "Larxene, stop destroying them and just get rid of them!"

Larxene wasn't listening however, as she was now contending with eight of the little devils, now no larger than Neo Shadows as they eyed her warily. Lexaeus grunted and headed over, prepared to give them the same treatment as the last one, until said last one suddenly appeared in front of him, having traveled a Corridor of Darkness to get back aboard. Of course. It would figure it wouldn't be that easy. he thought with chagrin.

However, no sooner had it appeared did it suddenly burst into a pillar of flame, howling in disdain. Lexaeus looked over expectantly, seeing Axel, as he had predicted, still adorned in his water wings.

"Sora, now!" he called, and to Lexaeus's surprise, Sora was right behind Axel, firing a beam of light into the dissolving Darkness of the creature, eradicating it. Axel smirked at Lexaeus. "They'll keep comin' back if you don't erase the Dark with some light."

"Pfff, is that all?" Larxene asked, annoyed. She then wiped out her small wave of foes with a single expanding wave of lightning, causing all of them to erupt into Darkness.

"Light!" Sora called quickly afterward, removing the last remnants of the creatures. "Looks like that handles all of these ones."

"There're more?" Demyx asked in disbelief.

"Sure. How do you think we figured out how to stop them?" Axel asked rhetorically. "The whole ship's crawling with 'em."

Sora addressed the three, filling them in. "We were in the sub-levels, driving some car that Xigbar stole, when a big black orb smashed into the wall right near us. A bunch of Heartless came out of it, and yeah. But that's not important! The ship is sinking!"

"What?" Demyx asked, surprised.

"Well, it DID crash into the hull." Sora repeated.

"Right…"

"So we need to get everyone off this ship and into some Life Boats." Lexaeus reasoned.

Axel and Sora's faces both fell. "Yeah, about that…" Sora said, regrettably.

"The Heartless have already gotten just about everyone." Axel explained bitterly. "The only survivors are those of us who could actually fight. Take a wild guess at who those are,"

"You losers let all the passengers get eaten by Heartless?" Larxene asked, pointing and laughing at them.

Sora glared. "We didn't know how to destroy them at first, and they kept multiplying!"

"Excuses. Mine kept multiplying, and I had no trouble killing it every time."

"Just shut up and stop being a bitch." Axel sighed.

Soon afterward, the group was joined by Xigbar, Xaldin, Vexen, Zexion, Saïx, Roxas, Kairi, and Naminé, who had all apparently finished defeating the remaining Heartless and were receiving a debriefing on what they were doing next.

"So since I imagine none of us want to drown in the sea, we should all just open a portal and get off this boat, right?" Larxene asked airily, feeling it was the most obvious thing to do. Vexen coughed to get her attention.

"Unfortunately, Twelve, that won't be possible."

"Why not?" Demyx asked, confusion written over his face more so than usual.

"Because we already tried it and it didn't work." The academic explained. "We don't know why. It's a curious phenomenon, but none of us seem able to open a Corridor."

Lexaeus, Demyx, and Larxene each gave it a shot, to be sure, only to find that the man was indeed telling the truth. "Well this sucks."

Zexion cleared his throat, speaking up. "Well, there's an awfully convenient island over there." he announced, pointing at a speck of land that seemed to be growing larger as their sinking ship grew nearer. "Perhaps Demyx could manipulate the waves and bring us to it before we sink? And you'll need to make it fast, now. I don't believe we'll be afloat for much longer."

Glancing over the railing, the group all noted how much higher the water seemed to be to the Main Deck than before. Demyx nodded. "Awright, but I'm gonna need me some 'inspiration' for this one!" he exclaimed, pulling out a bag of white dust from out of nowhere.

Murmurs were exchanged among the group as they watched.

"What in the…?"

"Is Demyx on drugs?"

"Oh my!"

"I can't believe this."

"Pfff hahaha."

"How long has this been going on?"

"About since he found Marluxia's body in the trash can."

Sufficiently "inspired", Demyx proceeded to play an extremely fast-paced song on his sitar, churning the waves into a tsunami beneath them as it carried the great ship toward the rapidly-approaching shore line.

"D-Demyx! Slow down!" Vexen hollered, pressed flat against the Deck by the speed at which they were traveling, along with everyone else.

Saïx's Duck Intertube flew off of his waist as he was pressed against the Deck as well, sailing through the air and out of sight. "Ducky! Nooooooooooooooooo!" he cried, his hand reaching fruitlessly for it.

"Whooooo baby!" Demyx cried out in glee, somehow still standing, as the ship began to capsize, twirling upside down as it flew off of the giant wave and careened through the air, heading for a crash landing on the beach.

The various members and Keybladers all screamed out, straining their lungs as they hollered in what could be their last moments alive. Except for Zexion, who, pressed against a wall, just chuckled to himself. When all eyes turned to him, their owners still all screaming as they stared, Zexion merely exclaimed "Yes!"

The ship finally crushed itself into the sand with a resounding explosive noise that echoed across the entirety of the island. Sand erupted into the air in a dust storm of activity, showering the island and the surrounding ocean with the pitter patter of it trickling from the sky. Trees swayed back and forth in the colossal resultant breeze, birds took the sky, crying out, and native animals scurried into their homes as quickly as they could. After several minutes had passed, the sand finally settled, and the ship could be seen jutting out of the beach like a giant monument.

And all was silent.