Usagi: 2 updates within a week! Aren't I generous…and that despite the fact that I only got one review for the last chapter… what's up people? Don't you like me anymore? ):

Sora: I hope so.

Usagi: no one asked for your opinion.

Here comes a chapter filled with a bunch of what I like most about this fanfic: heartless, foreshadowing, random disembodied voices, and messing with Sora's head!

Sora: (Twitch)

Usagi: something wrong?

Sora: oh I don't know… what about: WHY DO YOU KEEP TORTURING ME?

Usagi: BECAUSE IT'S FUN!

Sora: oh… okay then.

Usagi: that's fine with you?

Sora: of course it is. That gives me a good reason to do this (takes out chainsaw)

Usagi: aw…you're going to chop some wood for me. Thanks, but summer's coming so I don't really need it.

Sora: (starts chainsaw)

Usagi: er…Sora…there's no wood in here.

Sora: (walks towards Usagi)

Usagi: … I got a cake in the oven (runs)

Sora: COME BACK HERE! (Follows)

Chapter 11

Return of an Old Enemy

The sun was already about to set by the time the party returned to Nekomata's house, Samehada stubbornly hitched a hike with Demyx, who'd been whining all the way about the fish being too heavy.

By the time they got back, they were all too tired to make new plans.

"I've got a few extra beds if you need them, the couch is still free too" Nekomata said. "However with so many of you I don't think there are enough beds for everyone".

"No worries, we can sleep in the Highwind" Sora said. "Then Flonne and Etna can take the extra beds."

"How nice of you" Flonne said. "Sure there aren't enough beds for the prinnies too?"

"Who cares? But if any of you boys want to share my bed…" Nekomata suggested.

"I do!" Shukaku said.

"You sleep on the couch, good night" Nekomata said and went into her bedroom, locking the door.

"She's unbelievable" Shukaku said.

"Well I'm beat, see you tomorrow everyone" Sora said. "Maybe it'll be easier to come up with a plan once we've got a good night's sleep".

However Sora wasn't going to get a good night sleep. He was having nightmares.

He found himself on what looked like a broken version of the Netherworld, completely devoid of plants and demons, and vicious purple clouds covered the sky.

In the distance was a castle, it looked somewhat similar to Laharl's castle before it was destroyed.

Come to me my servants.

"Who said that?" Sora asked, and tried to look around, but he saw none, that is until a dozen of heartless, most shadows and soldiers, materialized around him.

Prepared for trouble, Sora drew the Kingdom Key, but the heartless simply ignored him, and started walking towards the castle.

"That was strange" Sora muttered, ever since he became the keyblade master he'd gotten used to being attacked by heartless, nobodies and Riku every other minute, and he certainly couldn't remember any time they had just walked right past him…well perhaps other than the times he WAS a shadow.

Sora quickly cast a glance at his hand, it was normal alright, and with the keyblade still there he obviously wasn't a shadow.

Come to me my servants.

Again? This guy sounds like a broken record Sora thought; he figured this voice had to be what called the heartless towards the castle. "This has got to be the oddest dream I've ever had" he muttered

"You better hope you are dreaming" said another voice from behind him.

Sora turned around and saw… himself… only it didn't look just like himself, the version he was looking at had darker hair, yellow eyes and the antennas of a shadow-heartless.

"No!" Sora shouted and sat up, finding himself back in the gummi ship, but still with a heartless staring him in the face.

"…Get of my bed" he said and pushed Ienzo down, something moved in the bed next to him and Kairi looked up, looking tired.

"Is something wrong Sora?" she asked.

"No, I was just having a bad dream" Sora said. "Nothing to worry about."

Kairi looked at him with a concerned look, but turned around and quickly fell asleep again.

Sora sighed. Now that he was awake the dream just seemed absurd. But the disembodied voice… Sora wasn't even sure if he'd actually heard it or if it was just in his head, but it had felt almost real.

"Was that voice a dream too?" he said to himself.

Not so sure about that.

Sora looked up and stared at the shadow on the floor in confusion.

Ienzo was rubbing his head, but when he noticed Sora was staring at him he stared back with a just as perplexed look in his eyes.

Can you hear what I'm saying? He said, or not precisely said.

Normal heartless couldn't talk, having spent quite a while as a shadow Sora had learned that, but they were able to communicate with one another (and in Sora's case; Roxas) with something similar to telepathy. But there was the catch; shadows could not talk to regular people! The only heartless Sora had known to actually talk was Xehanort, Deym, Kyuubi and Laharl, and all four had kept their original forms, more or less.

"I must still be dreaming" he concluded.

Either that or we're both going nuts Ienzo thought/said, whatever. I don't know about you though but I suspect I've got a pretty good excuse to loose it.

Sora wasn't sure if he should laugh at that or not, a shadow talking about loosing his mind was rather amusing, considering how intelligent most of them were, but Ienzo didn't sound at all as idiotic as Sora had felt a couple of years earlier.

"I'm just gonna go back to sleep now" Sora said dropping back down on his pillow, desperately hoping the shadow wasn't going to talk again, his wish wasn't granted.

Did you hear him too? Ienzo asked.

Sora sighed, and got up again, this guy wasn't giving up.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

That voice…I heard it in my sleep…calling the heartless towards it Ienzo said.

So it's true, he's heard it too Sora thought, but he didn't say anything. Kairi's brother or not, shadows creeped him out.

I've heard it before Ienzo said suddenly.

"You have? You mean... you know who it is?" Sora asked, for once he couldn't hide his curiosity.

For a few seconds Ienzo just stared into thin air, finally making him look more like a normal brain-dead heartless.

I've heard it before he repeated. But it was so long ago… and I wasn't the same.

"Back when you were human" Sora said, it wasn't a question, Ienzo just nodded.

Sora just sighed again. "Look, why don't we talk this over tomorrow or something? Right now I need some sleep" he said. "And don't tell Kairi about it will you?"

Couldn't if I wanted to Ienzo admitted, before crawling into the basket next to Kairi's bed, where Zexion was currently sleeping.

Sora cast him one last glance, before falling back onto his pillow again.

The dream he had next was more like the ones he normally had, he had an ice-cream eating contest with Riku, but occasionally he still thought he heard the strange voice.

Time is near, for our revenge.

"Come on, wake up you lazy bum!"

Sora opened his eyes and saw Kairi standing by his bed, looking rather annoyed.

"Just five more minutes" he said, pulling the bed sheets over his head.

"You said that half an hour ago" Kairi said and pulled the sheet away from his face. "Everyone else have been up for hours already, and besides Zexion wanted to talk to you."
That got Sora's attention. "Did he say why?" he asked.

"No, he said it was private" Kairi said. "You'd think he'd tell his own sister…"

"You're pretty new to this sibling-thing aren't you? I'm coming in a minute, would you mind going out? I'm not dressed" Sora said.

Kairi gazed at him, and laughed. "Sora, I've seen you in your underwear before, why does it matter?" she said, winking. "Besides, I'm your girlfriend; I'm allowed to see you naked."

"Well I can still try" Sora said with a smirk.

When Sora came out of the gummi ship the sun was already standing high up in the sky, although this didn't make the Netherworld look much more pleasant, with some kind of monster crawling everywhere, even a few of the tree trunks were alive.

"Erhem" said a voice close to the ship. Sora looked around and saw Zexion there; Ienzo was standing next to him.

"You wanted to see me?" Sora asked.

"Let's go someplace private" Zexion said, and started walking to the other side of the gummi ship. As soon as they had gotten out of sight (and hearing range) of the others, Zexion sat down again. "So" Zexion started. "I hear you've been having some odd dream."

"Just one" Sora said and glared over at Ienzo.

You said don't tell Kairi, you didn't mention him the shadow said innocently.

"Don't blame him; you know how shadows are right?" Zexion said.

"Yes, but I'm still getting a strange feeling he likes to get on my nerves" Sora said.

"Still… I've done a bit of thinking and I think I know why you're hearing this" Zexion said. "Someone is calling the heartless towards them, you're probably hearing it because you were turned into a heartless twice, I guess some of that lingers on, that might be why you're able to hear Ienzo too."

"But I've never been able to talk to another heartless before" Sora said.

Very few heartless bothers to even try to talk to an opponent during a fight Ienzo said.

"Do you know who's calling the heartless towards them?" Sora asked.

Zexion snorted. "I do, and to be honest I'm surprised Ienzo managed to forget, since he was the reason we became like this in the first place" he said. "Though I can't say I'm blameless, I listened to him, I may have been a child genius, but I was naïve, and because of that he managed to push us all into the darkness, me, Elaeus, Even, Dilan, Braig."

Xehanort Ienzo said, even without using his voice Sora noticed the bitterness in that one word.

Of course, the leader of the heartless, the one who had tricked both Maleficent, Sora and Riku in the past. He'd stolen the name of his former master Ansem, kidnapped Kairi and the other princesses of heart and tried to take over Riku's body.

"I thought we'd gotten rid of that guy" Sora said.

"I hoped so too, but remember what Larxene said? You can't kill a nobody or a heartless without killing both at the same time, and since Xemnas was killed a few hours after Xehanort, he must have had time to be reborn first" Zexion said. "Who knows what he's planning."

"We should warn the others" Sora said. "Just, don't let the others know I heard it too, I don't want to upset Kairi."

"We won't" Zexion said.

"If its not one there's the other. I guess its only fair that a few years after we defeated the nobody, the heartless would return" Riku said, after Zexion had told them they thought Xehanort might be back, he'd left out Sora's story however, making it seem like only Ienzo had heard the call.

"But we didn't destroy Xemnas, he could still be out there somewhere" Mickey said. "I don't want to think about what could happen if those two met."

"Or if Xehanort teamed up with Deym" Axel said, but Demyx shook his head.

"I don't think he would want to work under Xehanort" the beaver said.

"I don't think Xehanort would want a partner either. He just likes to give orders" Riku said.

"Does Ienzo know where he's hiding?" Kairi asked.

Zexion merely looked at his heartless, when Ienzo's antennas suddenly perched.

He's near! He hissed.

And Xehanort was indeed near. In fact three heartless were watching the party from afar.

"You've just been busted" Deym whistled.

"It doesn't matter. They can't stop me now anyway" Xehanort said, seemingly pleased with himself. "But this is the first time I've seen any of my co-workers since becoming a heartless, Ienzo's heartless appears brighter than I would have thought."

"Bright? He's a freaking shadow!" Deym said. "Even among heartless they're known as the biggest morons ever."

"Funny, by the short time I've know you I thought that was you" a sinister voice said from behind them. The third heartless didn't look like one heartless at all, but rather eight enormous snakes, sticking out of a cave nearby. "If annoyance was strength, maybe you could have been a worthy opponent."

"Patience. I will find you a worthy opponent" Xehanort said. "And you could even thank Deym here for giving me the idea. You lost against Kyuubi before, but you have much more darkness in your heart, thus as a heartless you could be even stronger."

The snake smirked evilly with all of its eight heads. "Kyuubi. That darn fox will regret ever opposing the great Yamata no Orochi" he said. "A mistake that's going to cost him a lot more than just his own kingdom. The whole Netherworld will pay!"

Usagi: someone's in trouble.

Sora: someone is you. Why do I get the feeling you added shadow-Ienzo as another way to bother me?

Usagi: what gives you that idea?

Ienzo: (pokes Sora) bother bother bother bother bother bother bother bother

Sora: just a hunch…

Usagi: you say the darndest things.

I'm feeling a bit generous after this chapter, you all know I like to add unsolved mysteries in the fic now and then but the mystery behind the last chapter's mysterious stranger was revealed rather quickly… in fact it should have been possible to guess his identity already in the last chapter. The Seeker of Darkness has returned! Now using his real name instead of Ansem…that name got old. I can understand why DiZ changed his name, though I'll always know him as the real Ansem.

Xehanort is in my opinion the real villain of Kingdom Hearts, after all he did start it all, even though he only appeared near the end of the first Kingdom Hearts, he was the final boss, Maleficent was just a pawn after all.

Orochi has been revealed too and Souko can just throw all thoughts of getting him on their side out of the window.

So who's going to win the rematch of Kyuubi no Youko VS Yamata no Orochi?
We'll probably get the answer in just a couple more chapters.

In the meantime. REVIEW! Xehanort demands it.

Xehanort: actually I couldn't care le...

Zakura: DEMAND!

Xehanort: …review.