Disclaimer: I don't own anything Disney or Kingdom Hearts related.

Authors note: I managed to add a few Disney characters within this chapter, yay! I'm debating adding in one or more of the other Organization XIII members, particularly Larxene or Lexeaus. What do you think? Please review :)

Thanks for beta'ing this Mystics Apprentice!

Chapter Six: Cheerful Worlds

Had I made the right decision in helping Master Xehanort? The more I thought about it, I wasn't sure if I had. Though I saw no way out of it now; Vanitas and I would be leaving on our mission at any moment. Yesterday when I had spoken with Xehanort for the first time, he hadn't specified the hour that we would be leaving, but instead just said that it would be sometime today.

I stood up and crossed the room to one of my windows; it looked the same as it always did outside here: all dark with a thick layer of mist covering everything. I actually hadn't seen the sun in a very long time. A thick layer of clouds covered it here, almost giving the impression that the sun didn't exist in this time period.

Vanitas had finally told me only this morning what year I was currently in. His answer had greatly surprised me; I was currently in the year 2482, which had come as a great shock to me for some reason.

As far as I could tell, the only people who dwelt in this time period were Xehanort, Vanitas, Kairi and myself. The land looked completely uninhabited, with the only building for as far as the eye could see being the one I was in now.

I didn't like it here. It was always so cold and depressing. Though part of the reason for the latter could be that Vanitas was very hard to get along with. I really wasn't sure what we were going to do on our quest together. Vanitas was always quite cold whenever I tried to speak to him, though he had gotten a little better since I had first met him. He didn't seem that fond of his master, either. From the two times I had spoken with Xehanort (one having been yesterday after breakfast, and the other two hours ago) he had always been very to nice Vanitas.

Hmm… I guess Vanitas just didn't like other people that much.

I hadn't seen Kairi since the one time down in the dungeons, though Xehanort had told me that he planned to release her shortly after Vanitas and I left.

Just then someone knocked softly on my bedroom door.

"Xion?" I heard Xehanort call through the door. "May we come in?"

"Yes," I answered, turning away from the window.

The door opened and Xehanort stepped in, followed closely by my companion. Vanitas was carrying a rather large bag over his shoulder; in a closer inspection I realized that the bag looked quite similar to a backpack. In Vanitas's other hand he held a similar, somewhat smaller bag.

Xehanort smiled and walked across my room, joining me by my window. He stood there silently, gazing out through the thick layer of mist.

Vanitas also stood watching Xehanort for a moment, before walking over to me. Once he stood within a foot of me, he held out the smaller of the two bags for me to take.

"Here, this is for you," he told me as I took the bag from him. "We got you some different clothes."

I unzipped the middle compartment of it and peered inside. For some reason I had been expecting to see one or two more long black coats, and I was pleasantly surprised to find different colors within the bag.

"You won't be traveling through many Lanes Between where you're headed. But if you like you may bring your coat as well," Xehanort said as he finally turned away from the window. "We will leave you to change. Come out in the hall once you get done."

I nodded. "Okay… Thank you."

"You're very welcome," Xehanort told me. At this, he and Vanitas left the room, closing the door quietly behind them.

I walked over to my bed and sat down, placing the bag beside me. I started taking out the outfits and examining them. This would be the first time that I had ever worn anything besides the typical 'Organization XIII uniform.' For the first few months that I had been in the Organization, I had thought that everyone wore the coat, until Axel had corrected me and pointed out Hayner, Pence and Olette's outfits to me.

It took me about ten minutes to figure out what I wanted to wear, and a short while longer to figure out exactly how to put several accessories (such as a belt) into place.

Once I finished, I was wearing a short turquoise-blue dress with brown straps crisscrossing at the front. At my waist I had a slightly off-centered brown belt. On my hands I wore a pair of soft, brown gloves extending up my arm and falling a few inches below my shoulder. I also wore a pair of matching turquoise tights that were probably two shades lighter then my dress. My feet were concealed by a pair of brown boots with turquoise straps crisscrossing on the top.

I loved the outfit, it was much nicer then my normal Organization coat.

I picked up the bag containing several more outfits and put my coat inside as well, before zipping the bag shut. I picked it up and left the room.

Vanitas and Xehanort were waiting at the end of the corridor, as promised. Vanitas muttering something under his breath as I walked up, though he stopped suddenly upon noticing me. Then he fell silent and scowled.

"Are you ready to go?" Vanitas asked, stooping to pick up his bag from the floor.

"Yeah, I am," I answered him. I then turned to Xehanort and smiled. "Thanks for the clothes, Master Xehanort."

"Your welcome," he replied, beaming. "I thought you might like those."

I looked over at Vanitas as he let out an impatient sigh. The dark-haired boy had changed his clothes as well; he was no longer wearing his red-and-black body suit! He was now wearing some loose jeans, the hem of which occasionally touching the floor. With these pants he also wore a black belt. Accompanying this was a red tank-top shirt with black straps crossing on the front, in the same way that mine did, except for the color.

"Well then," Xehanort said, placing one hand on my shoulder and the other on Vanitas's, whom wore a stony expression on his face. "I do hope to be seeing you both again quite soon. Hopefully this book won't take too awful long to find… Anyway, I wish you both the best of luck!"

He released us and made a sudden motion with his wrist, causing one of those strange portals to appear.

"Unfortunately, you both may be doing a bit of traveling through the passages of time… Though it doesn't take long to get used to," Xehanort assured me, a sympathetic look on his face. "Good-bye."

I watched Vanitas step into the portal and disappear, and then I too approached it. When I was directly in front of it I turned back and waved. Squeezing my eyes shut, I stepped into the portal. The next thing I knew I was on my hands and knees on some colorful street. This time I had fallen from somewhere above rather than simply stepping out of it onto level ground. I heard someone squeal from nearby, and then I heard Vanitas speaking.

"No! Really, we're fine!" I heard him yell angrily from nearby. It sounded as though…he were above me?

"You sure? You look as if you could use some help," a voice said.

"Of course I'm sure!" he exclaimed again. Then I heard a crash and something (or someone) fell on top of me.

I gasped as my breath got knocked out from me. I then twisted around to try and see what was on top of my back. I heard Vanitas grumble something under his breath and then the weight lifted. I sat up and looked around. It had been Vanitas who had fallen on top of me; it looked like he had somehow landed inside a popcorn machine, which was currently broken into several pieces with popcorn flying everywhere.

"What was he thinking?" Vanitas mumbled from beside me, now rubbing his head.

Someone laughed from in front of us, and I glanced around to see who it was. My eyes widened; there were three small ducks standing before us.

"Umm, hello," I told them wearily, glancing between each member of the young trio in turn.

"Hi! I'm Huey," the one in red informed me, grinning from ear-to-ear. "The one in blue's Dewey, and the one in green's Louie. What're your names?"

"Xion," I told them. "Its nice to meet you guys."

Vanitas sighed beside me. "I'm Vanitas."

"Nice to meet you!" the three of them told us in unison.

They stepped forward and dragged the two of us to our feet, Vanitas protesting grumpily.

"You two fell from quite a ways," Dewey said. "Would you like some ice cream? I'll give you some for free if you like!"

"Its okay, you don't have to do that!" I exclaimed quickly as Louie pulled me over towards a small stand.

"Here!" Huey said, handing me some familiar looking ice cream on a stick. Then he held one out to Vanitas, who frowned at it. "Don't you like ice cream?"

Vanitas looked back and forth between the ice cream being held out to him and me. Finally, he begrudgingly accepted it, as Dewey and Louie pushed us both back down into a sitting position.

"Umm, thanks!" I told them, which was returned with grins from all three ducklings. "I love Sea-salt ice cream. But are you sure you don't want me to pay for it?"

"Nah," Louie assured me. "It's fine."

I took a bite of the ice cream, remembering the first time that Roxas and I had sat at the top of the clock tower eating this same flavor of ice cream while watching the sunset…

Vanitas didn't let my happy memories last long though.

"We really don't have time for this," Vanitas groaned, seeming to be speaking to himself. "Really, what was he thinking sending us here?"

"Perhaps he thought that the book might be here?" I asked him. Xehanort had made it sound as though it could be practically anywhere. My guess would be he figured that here was as good a place to start as any.

"It wouldn't be here," Vanitas informed me, sounding very certain of himself.

How could he really be so sure? I took another bite out of my ice cream as I thought about this. I then began to observe all of my surroundings; the town that we were in was very colorful, with several large bushes surrounding the street along with a mailbox. In the center of the plaza there was a small building that had a roof but was covered at the sides… It looked like a nice place to get some shade. Right now, Vanitas and I were standing in what looked quite a bit like a small stage.

"Here," Vanitas said, standing up and thrusting his untouched ice cream into Dewey's hand. "Thanks for the ice cream, but we have to get going. Nice meeting you all."

Vanitas strode over to me and half-dragged me to my feet, then he kept a hold of my arm as he made his way quickly to another street.

"Oh…bye!" I called back to the confused ducklings. I felt really bad just accepting their free ice cream and then leaving before even finishing it. "Thanks so much for the ice cream!"

"Your welcome!" Huey called waving animatedly at me.

"I hope you liked it!" Louie yelled, him and Dewey also waving madly as we rounded the corner.

I turned back around to look at Vanitas when the trio was out from sight. After walking a few paces onto that street, Vanitas opened up a portal leading to the Lanes Between. I pulled my arm from his grasp just before he stepped into it.

"Vanitas?" I asked, causing him to turn around and frown at me. "Don't you think we ought to look for some sign of the book in this world before we head to another one?"

Vanitas sighed and shook his head. "Master Xehanort probably just sent us to the wrong world or something. Because I'm telling you, it's not going to be here!"

I hesitated for a moment longer, thinking hard about what he was saying. Could his master have really just been mistaken? I found that a little hard to believe. Though I suppose that Vanitas would know better then me; he had known Xehanort for years.

"You coming?" Vanitas asked, his foot literally an inch from the portal.

Nodding reluctantly, I walked into the portal and stood just inside it to wait for him to enter. I was quite relieved to be traveling through this portal, because traveling through the Lanes Between was much more pleasant then going through the passages of time. Vanitas joined me inside the corridor a second later.

"Lets go this way," Vanitas told me, before striding off through the dark corridor.

...

Within a few minutes we were walking through an opening to another world, one that I hadn't been to before.

Once we had entered it, Vanitas turned to look at me.

"Radiant Garden, now I think that this world would be a better place to start," he informed me, and then he walked away to take a look around.

I followed slowly, also examining the world that we were now in. I couldn't find any word to best describe it, so I'd have to simply refer to it as breathtaking. We were in a large open area with fountains spurting up in several places, the way they did so, however, cast a sort of pink haze on everything. I could've easily just laid down upon the ground and gazed up at them to listen to the sound of the rushing water, and I would have been entirely content.

For some reason, this place reminded me of something I heard about before… I hadn't been here before though, so maybe someone had told me about it?

"Come on," Vanitas said, now quite a ways away from me and about to turn a corner. "Let's try looking around town."

"Okay," I replied, running over to where he was standing. As eager as I was to stay and keep looking around this area, I was almost just as eager to see what the rest of the world looked like.

…

The town proved to be fairly normal, but I did like it a bit more then Twilight Town. All it needed was a clock tower and then it would have been perfect.

After walking aimlessly around the town for a while, Vanitas turned towards a door to a house. He stopped at the door and stared at it for a moment before reaching out a hand and knocking upon it.

We waited there silently for quite some time before we heard the door unlock and then open. An aged man stood at the door, staring at us with a curious expression.

"Why, hello," he said, looking back and forth between us. "Could I help you with something?"

"Actually yes," Vanitas told him. "We're wondering if you have seen any odd looking book… I'm not sure how to describe it—as I've never actually seen it before. But it'll be old, frayed, maybe even torn."

The man appeared lost in thought for a moment.

"Well, I have seen many books in my day. Some that even fit your description," the man told us. "I have many of them here, you could come in and look for yourself if you like."

"Yes, thank you," Vanitas said as the man stepped aside for my companion and I to pass through.

The man's house was nice and cool, though very messy. There were several bookshelves inside the house however, so it was probably a good place to start looking.

I walked over to one of them and started pulling out books at random, especially any that looked exceptionally old. After taking out about 32 volumes and not finding anything that could be the book in question, I emptied a shelf of books and put them all carefully down on the floor. I then sat down and started looking through each of them in turn. I heard the man start humming from a short distance away at about the same time that I heard Vanitas let out a sigh and let several books fall to the floor.

"Hey!" the man called, hurrying over to us. "Be careful with my books, young man! If you won't then you'll just have to leave!"

Vanitas bent down and picked up the books that had fallen. He straightened out and started putting them back in their respectful shelves.

"Sorry," he muttered in an undertone, while running his fingers through his untidy hair. "He's given us an impossible mission."

"Who gave you an impossible task?" the old man asked Vanitas, curiosity filling his tone. "And I don't believe you two have given me your names. My name is Merlin, I'm a wizard."

"My name's Vanitas," Vanitas informed the man, while glaring at the bookshelf next to the one I was at. "We're helping this certain old man find his lost book."

"I'm Xion," I told the man, offering him a smile. "Its nice to meet you, Merlin."

"Here," Merlin said while heading over to a bookshelf nearby. "I'll help you look."

After about two hours had passed and Vanitas and I (with Merlin's help) had checked every single book, we finally decided that it wasn't within the wizard's house.

"Thank you so much for your help, Merlin," I told him as we headed for the front door.

"Oh, you're welcome," he said as he headed back through his small house. "It was a pleasure."

We stepped out onto the wizard's front steps, Vanitas shutting the door behind us.

"Vanitas?" I started. "What was the world called that got destroyed? You know, the one with the book?"

"You heard Master Xehanort, its gone—or at least changed," Vanitas told me impatiently. "But it was called 'The Land of Departure.'"

"If there's anything left of the world at all, then perhaps we should try looking around there for it?" I asked him, tilting my head to the side.

"We won't be able to get very far in this time era," Vanitas told me, his yellowish eyes lost in thought. "But perhaps we should go there…in another time period."

"Okay," I agreed, as I continued to walk down Merlin's steps and enter the street.

Vanitas took the lead once again as we turned onto a side street. After checking to make sure that no one else was around, Vanitas lifted his palm, wearing a look of deep concentration upon his face. After about three minutes had passed, a portal of a clear pearly white color appeared.

"This should take us to the right time period," Vanitas said gesturing for me to go through it. "And hopefully to the right world as well."

I stepped into it, followed closely by Vanitas, and then everything slowly faded from sight.

…

"Xion."

I opened my eyes and blinked. Vanitas was bent down beside me, and for a moment I could've sworn that I saw a look of concern flash across his face. Actually I was quite sure, as it lingered for a second.

"Don't let anything Master Xehanort says make you think otherwise," Vanitas said while getting to his feet. He then held out a hand to help me up. "You never get used to traveling through those portals."

I laughed bitterly. But, hang on a second… Vanitas had made a joke! Until now I hadn't been sure if he even knew how too.

Vanitas smirked and turned around, his eyes flicking back and forth around the clearing.

"Behold," Vanitas began, gesturing around at the area. "The Land of Departure."