Lea's POV

It had been a few days after the events at Sunset City, and Xion was still really bummed out over not being able to help anyone. I tried to cheer her up by reminding her that she helped the people trapped inside the Heartless, but it didn't help much. Roxas was still off on his mission with Ven, Aqua, and Terra, so they couldn't help; Riku, Sora, Kairi, and the King tried and failed; and Isa thought it best if we gave her her privacy.

Yen Sid tried searching for Braig and Vanitas, but since they weren't in the Realm of Light, he came up short. The huge swarm of Heartless were destroyed when Sunset City collapsed, so they most likely returned to their realm to be regrouped by their masters.

I sighed and ate my ice cream on top of Yen Sid's tower, wondering why Braig would lure the Heartless to a World filled with defenseless people, then just ditch them and let us escape.

"The gears in your head are turning. That's rare." Isa sat down beside me and took an ice cream from my bag. "I know you're trying to make sense of everything: how to help Xion and what Braig's intentions were, I mean. As for Braig, he may have seen a vital flaw in his plan and his ego wouldn't allow him to let it be discovered; or he was just being a maniac like Xigbar." He sighed. "Xion, however, is worrying me, too. Her heart is still new, so it's obvious that she needs to get use to emotions, but sinking this low into depression is strange even for a new heart." He took a bite of the ice cream, then spat it out. "Bleh! Why do you have ovacado-garlic? No one likes that crap!"

I looked at my ice cream for the first time: lemon-lime. "I wasn't really paying attention at the store." I dug through the bag before coming up with some good ice cream: the signature sea-salt flavor. I handed Isa one and we ate for a few minutes. "Hey," I finally said, thinking of something, "has Xion ever been to a carnival?"

"I don't think so," he replied. "Are you thinking about the Twilight Town Carnival tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Everyone already plans on going but her. We just need to get her there and she won't be able to leave."

"Seems a little forceful, but necessary. Let's go get the others to help."

The next day, we had all agreed on the plan. It wasn't at all subtle, but like Isa had said, "necessary." We literally shoved her in a sack and dumped her at the Sandlot, at the center of the carnival. She thrashed the whole time, obviously, and was very annoyed when we dumped her out.

Xion's POV

More like furious! They kidnapped me in the middle of my daily exercises, carry me across the World, and drop me at a public square! What the actual #$&%!

"What are you doing?!" I yelled at them as soon as I was out.

Lea grinned. "You needed a break from your sulking, so we decided to take you with us to the carnival."

Roxas grinned in turn. "Plus there's a Struggle tournament today and I entered everyone."

Aqua looked at him angrilly. "And by everyone, you mean...?"

His grin faded and he backed away from the oldest Master in our group. "You can drop out of you don't want to enter. Except you, Xion. You're having fun today, whether you like it or not, which you will."

A loudspeaker boomed through the town. "Attention, the Struggle tournament will be starting shortly. Participants should begin making their way to the Sandlot immediately."

Reluctantly, I waited with the others for the first round to begin. Once everyone had checked in, the refferey went over the rules. "For this tournament, the fight will continue until a fighter is down for ten seconds or is knocked out of the ring. No armor or extra weapons are allowed in the ring, no exceptions. That is all for the rules." He looked at his clipboard. "First up is Terra versus Seifer." The two went up to the ring and fought, with Seifer winning by a ring-out. "Roxas and Ventus." Roxas won by a K.O. "Aqua versus Xion." I'm pretty sure she threw the match. It went on like that until the semi-finals, which me, Roxas, and Isa had made it to along with a guy called Midnight. He was very out of place, wearing a dark-grey leather coat with the sleeves torn off, a red long-sleeve shirt, black jeans with shreaded knees, black leather boots with red laces, and a chain each around his neck, tucked in to hide the pendant, and in his right belt loops. His spikey black hair had a bit of red on the left side and the rest plain obsidian. His eyes were an unnatural shade of red, like someone had set a ruby into a marble ball.

Roxas was paired with Midnight for the semi-finals, so I started to feel bad for him; he didn't have a chance. The match started and Roxas rushed at Midnight, swinging his bat. The blow was blocked, allowing his opponent to knock his feet out from under him and knock him high into the air. Midnight hit him on the way down, throwing him over the crowd and onto the ground. "The match goes to Midnight by ring-out." Isa and I stared at the boy who had effortlessly defeated our friend. "Next is Isa versus Xion."

We stepped into the ring and raised our bats into our regular battle stances, though Isa had a difficult time switching from a claymore to a bat and had to adjust it. A whistle blew and we rushed each other. I dodged his first strike and hit him in the stomach. He dodged my next attack and hit the back of my knee, forcing me to kneel down. His body and bat started glowing and he rose into the air, entering Berserk mode. He dropped down and went into a frenzy, hitting me as many times as he could without being blocked, which was a lot. I backed to the edge of the ring, panting, sure that the next hit would be the last. He rushed forward and swung the bat, but at the last second I dodged and hit him in the back of the head, causing him to face-plant outside the ring. "Xion wins by a ring-out. The next round is the finals, so go fix yourself up."

I returned to my friends and let them use their Cure magic to heal me, but every second I became more terrified of the finals. "Don't worry about it," Lea encouraged. "You're a warrior, and he's just some kid."

"Some kid that knocked out you, Seifer, and Roxas each in two seconds flat," I pointed out.

They wished me luck and I returned to the ring. Midnight was waiting, spinning his bat on his finger. We waited for the refferey to return, then he started the match. My opponent stayed perfectly still, as though daring me to attack. I looked for something to indincate his plan, but he just seemed to have closed his eyes and tuned everything out. Still cautious of using a direct attack, I instead swiped at his feet. In a flash, my bat was spinning into the air, ripped out of my hands by his. He opened his eyes and raised his bat, obviously planning to take advantage of how close we were to the edge to knock me off. I looked up and saw my bat falling down, spinning faster than before. It landed on his head by the pommel, disorienting him long enough for me to retrieve the bat and hit him in the face with it. He stumbled backwards, to the edge of the ring. He realized where he was far too late and started flailing his arms to keep from falling from the ledge. I grinned, seeing victory for the first time since the semi-finals. I walked over to him and smiled sweetly. He returned it with a nervous, almost begging smile. I took the bat and tapped his chest with it, causing him to lose his balance and fall. "The victory goes to Xion!" The crowd applauded, and I looked down to see that even Midnight was clapping, covered in dust and seated on the ground.

I stepped down and helped him up. "Good job. You'd have gotten me if it weren't for my luck." He rubbed the spot on his head where the bat had landed.

"Yeah, that was... unintended." He pointed behind me. "I think you're friends want you." I turned to see them waving for me to follow them.

I turned back to Midnight. "Wanna come? It doesn't look like you've got anyone to go with."

He looked at my friends. "You sure? I kinda beat the crap out of two of them."

"They're fight-oholics. They probably worship you for it."

He agreed and followed me to my group. I introduced everyone, including Naminé, who had only just arrived, and they agreed to let him tag along. We enjoyed a few games, which I hate to admit he seemed to make more fun, then went on a few rides.

Roxas's POV

I watched as Xion's mood quickly improved to the point that she was enjoying herself more than the others. I was glad that my friend was happy again, but I found it wierd that the whole time she decided to stay with that Midnight guy. She just met him. She can't be- I suddenly remembered several other people we had helped over our adventures; specifically Ariel and Erik, Snow White and Prince Charming, Belle and Beast... you can see what I'm getting at, can't you?

I talked to Lea about my theory, but he just shrugged it off, as he hadn't met any of them and didn't think it was possible. I talked to Sora and Riku next, but neither of them saw why I had a problem with it(which I didn't; it just confused me). I stopped all-out stalking them and enjoyed the carnival, but still looked over at them from time to time.

A crash rang out through the town and we all immediately prepared to fight. A swarm of Heartless scurried down the street, chasing several people. I could here more in the distance. "We can't get them all seperately without casualties," Isa informed us.

"Then let's round 'em up!" Lea suggested. "But how?"

I noticed that Midnight was staring at the Heartless with a dark look. He turned to the group. "I might know how." Before we could ask him, he raised his palm in the air and a ball of Darkness formed. "I'll group them up at the station. See you there!" He ran off, immediately pursued by what seemed to be every Heartless in Twilight Town.

We all set up barriers around the city and guided everyone into them before taking off to meet with him, leaving Kairi, Mickey, and Terra behind as a second defense. We reached the station and found him only just arriving, and immediately jumping to the top of it.

Midnight's POV

The others arrived just as I did. I jumped on top of the station and looked down at the Heartless climbing up the wall after me. Seeing a chance, I held out both arms at and angle, willing the Darkness I was holding to flow around them. The Darkness molded around my arms, forming two scythe blades around my hands and forearms. I jumped from the building, stabbing the blades into the swarm and cutting through it as I fell, destroying countless Heartless. I landed and did a back flip to land by the others. "As promised."

They summoned wierd key shaped swords and ran into the fray, destroying the Heartless with relative ease. Soon the square was empty. Isa immediately came up to me and grabbed me by the collar. "Explain how you can control the Darkness with such ease," he growled.

I shrugged. "Wish I knew."

Xion took his hand off me. "He helped us. That's all that matters."

Riku nodded. "Why're you getting on his case? I use to be able to do that, too. You use to be able to do that."

"We were evil when we could do that," Isa growled. "He might be with Braig and Vanitas."

I perked up at the name "Vanitas." "Hang on, does this Braig guy call Vanitas 'Van'?"

They all looked at me in surprise. "Yeah, actually," Riku responded.

"Then I've met Braig before. Almost killed him, too."

Sora jumped in excitement. "Great! Where were you?"

I shrugged. "I don't really know. I don't have a way to learn Worlds' names, but I'm pretty sure it's in the Realm of Darkness."

"So out of our reach," Sora sighed.

Isa's glare intensified. "Why were you in the Realm of Darkness?"

I found myself stuck with this question. "I... don't actually know. I just woke up there and Braig was there. It's a little fuzzy, but I remember summoning my blades and attacking him. What I don't remember is why I was angry." This lie was going so far that my whole body was starting to itch.

Isa sighed. "Since you seem to have a bit of a memory problem, we'll take you to the old man to get some answers."

"Old man?"

Lea shrugged. "He's talking about Yen Sid the wizard. His tower's just outside of town, and only the magic train can take you there." They took me inside the station and showed me the train. "If Yen Sid can't help, then our other old man Ansem should. He's good with reading Hearts." I hope he's not good enough to tell that I don't have one. We boarded the train and departed for the tower.

We arrived very quickly and I was taken to the top. The wizard watched as we entered. "Hello, Midnight. I've been expecting you."

"No he hasn't," Lea whispered. "He just wants to sound old and wise. He was probably using his magic to watch the whole Heartless encounter earlier."

"Ahem," Yen Sid interrupted. "I know why you're here, but I must request to speak with you alone. Everyone else will wait outside." He waved a hand and the others filed out. "Now, I must apoligize for using Lea's rude comment as a chance to inspect you for the answer they wanted. And I am confident that you lied about your amnesia." Crap! "I must say that a Heartless who keeps its memories and appearance is rare. Another was able to, but only by posessing Riku and molding his body to suit him. You, however, are using your own physical form."

I was surprised that he hadn't tried to kill me yet. "So can you tell me why I'm like this?"

He shook his head. "I gathered all I could. My friend Ansem may be able to provide better insight, however, as he knows more about the Heart than anyone. I will relay a message to him and have Xion escort you to his castle in Radiant Garden tomorrow. For now, we shall tell the others that my search was inconclusive."

"Thank you, sir."