They soon returned to the headquarters, Cid was now gone and the house was empty when they arrived. Leon walked over to the table and took a seat. He motioned for the others to follow. They all sat down. "Nice fight." Leon remarked to all, although they all knew he meant Roxas and Nuxula. "But I got a few questions." Roxas and Nuxula nodded. "First off, where'd you get that weapon?" Leon asked Roxas.
Roxas looked around for a moment then settled his eyes back onto Leon. "I don't know." Roxas said honestly. "One day, it just appeared in my hand."
Leon nodded. "I assumed as much, you're another Keyblade master, Merlin predicted that there would be more." Leon leaned back in his chair and looked at Nuxula now. "How about you? I haven't heard you say a word, where'd you get your weapon."
Nuxula was hesitant. "Same as Roxas, one day it just appeared."
"How old are the two of you?" Leon asked, a simple question, but why did it make Roxas and Nuxula so uncomfortable.
"15." Roxas said.
"16" Said Nuxula.
"Same as Yufie and Sora." Leon muttered.
"Alright, I want some answers," Nuxula proclaimed. "Who is this Sora and Yufie? Tell us?"
Leon shrugged. "Friends of ours, Yufie, was killed a few weeks ago, Sora is out fighting the heartless abroad."
"I'm sorry about your friend." Sora said empathetically. "The heartless?"
Leon shook his head. "No, I don't know what they were, but I am sure that they were no heartless. Heartless are dark, these creatures had a completely different aura to them, and they were silver." Silver, Nobodies, it had to be. Leon noticed the looks on their faces. "You know the creatures?"
There was no avoiding it, Leon knew they knew something, they had to talk. "We do." Roxas agreed. "But you are wrong, they are heartless, we saw them take our parent's hearts, what else could they be?" Another lie, Nuxula knew.
"I thought so too, at first." Aerith said. "But we managed to capture one, it was completely different from the makeup of a heatless, not only did it not have a heart… there was something even more unnatural, something odd."
Roxas swallowed hard, they knew about Nobodies. He quickly change the subject. "So, what's in that castle?"
Leon looked at him. "Nothing, but heartless. It was once ruled by and evil queen, but Sora killed her a while back. We're trying to restore the damage she did. It starts with raiding the castle; we believe that is where the heartless are coming from. We were planning an exploration in tomorrow, we recently uncovered a secret entrance , no other way in." So, they have found the entrance, and they were going tomorrow, perfect! "Do you two think that you're up to coming with us?"
They eagerly nodded, this would be quicker than they had thought. "Thank you, we will not fail you." Nuxula stated.
Leon gave her a meek smile."Do you two have a place to stay? I'm sorry but there's no room here, that's merlin's bed, he won't give it up."
They shook their heads."We'll find a place." Said Roxas.
"Nonsense." Said Tifa, she had barely spoken. "I have a free room at my house and a couple of cots, you can stay there." Roxas and Nuxula smiled and nodded.
Soon after they followed Tifa to her home and crawled onto the two old cots she had supplied them with. Without another word, they both slept, it had been a long day.
The next morning Roxas and Nuxula were quickly woken up by Tifa shaking them and yelling. "Up, up, we're going to the castle before dawn, get the upper hand!"
They both stood and put their cloaks back on but kept the hoods down. They followed Tifa out into the deserted predawn streets. They soon arrived at the bailey. Leon, Aerith, Cloud, and another man who they had not met, were all there already.
This new man was tall and very thin. He wore a long blue robe and had a long silver beard; they both guessed it was Merlin that the others had spoken of. "What took you so long Tifa?" Merlin said with a throaty laugh. He then extended a bony hand out to Nuxula then Roxas and they respectfully shook it, it was cold and bony.
"Tifa laughed, they overleapt."
Merlin laughed again and dipped into a low bow. "Greeting children, my name is Merlin. I am sorry to hear about your parents."
It took them a second to remember their earlier lie. "Pleased they said to him."
"All right, enough of these pleasantries." Leon said gruffly. "The main force of the heartless won't be out quite yet but this will be by no name safe. Once we start we don't stop till we are inside the castle."
They all nodded. Without another word Leon drew his blade and slipped outside. The party was able to get through the trail where they fought the day before without encountering a foe, but after that the situation changed. They looked down to see a large empty, crater-like area. It would have been a straight run had it not been for the hundreds of heartless milling about below. "They all die before we go on." Leon rushed in, the others followed close behind.
Before Leon struck his first victim Merlin sent thunder bolt ahead and struck a large group of heartless and knocked them aside. Aerith then did the same and cleared out a dozen foes herself. By now the rest of the heartless were aware o the foes and soon rushed to attention. Roxas grinned wide, he hadn't been part of a massacre in a while. He leapt past Leon and took out the two heartless Leon had had his sights on. Roxas jumped away from the fallen heartless and laughed. Leon scowled and made for different targets.
Cloud and Tifa were side by side cutting down enemies left and right. Nuxula had quickly taken out a large group of shadows by grabbing one and smashing the others with it. Meanwhile Merlin and Aerith were in the background casting spells at an alarming rate.
Anyone watching the fight would be amazed at how easily the group of seven was destroying the hundreds of heartless. The only big scare came when Cloud was broken off from Tifa and she had to fight alone for a few moments. In those few moments a group of twenty rushed her at once. She had no chance, and if it hadn't been for a huge fire ball from Merlin, she would have surely died.
Soon after, probably thirty minutes since the fight began, Leon and Roxas were finishing off the last few stragglers, and then the crater was clear.
The sun was now begging to creep above the horizon. No one wanted to go on but they knew they could not stop, they ran on. The castle was now in sight. It was surrounded not, by heartless, but by ruble and debris. Leon led the group under and over the mess. He then saw what he was looking for. There was one boulder that seemed out of place, it didn't seem old or worn at all. Leon grinned and dove his sword straight into it, the boulder disappeared. In its place was an old wooden door