"What the heck…Riku?! What…?!" Leon stuttered as Riku kicked the door down, calmly entering the small room carrying a ragged, unconscious Sora.

"Hey, um, grab his feet why don't you? He's heavy, darn it." Yuffie rushed over and picked up Sora's feet while Riku and Leon supported his shoulders. The three slowly worked their way over to the bed and placed him on top of it gently.

"What happened?!" the Gunblade wielder demanded. The silver-haired boy ignored him and turned on a light, illuminating the previously dim-lit room.

"I'll get some…Band-aids?" Yuffie asked. Riku stared at her with disbelief.

"Look at him, Yuffie; he's got a two-inch incision on his neck!! Band-aids aren't gonna even begin to fix that."

"Ohhh, right. Antiseptic?"

"That's a start, yes…" Riku sighed as she and Leon left the room, and then turned back to his passed-out friend. "Sora. SORA!!" he screamed, slapping him lightly on the side of the face. Sora's eyes opened slowly, and he looked up at Riku wearily.

"What…?"

"Good, you're awake." Yuffie came over with the bottle of antiseptic, and Leon handed her bandages.

"All right, let's get this done and over with before Kairi finds out," she said, opening the bottle.

"Where'd Kairi go?"

"To bed. But we might end up waking her up, once Yuffie starts…"

"AUGH!!!" Sora yelled, resignedly slapping Yuffie's hand away. "THAT STUFF STINGS!!"

"Well, it'll have to, or else you'll just die of infection," the ninja girl ordered. "Don't make me tie your hands together."

"But…but…OW!!! STOP THAT!!"

"Sora, shut it…"

"Why'd you have to wake me up before she started with this stupid anti-whatever?!"

"That's a good question, but not for now." Riku handed him a rock. "Bite this instead of yelling your head off."

Sora did, and the rock shattered.

"Either you have really hard teeth, or that hurts."

"IT HURTS, DARN IT!!!" he grabbed the bottle out of Yuffie's hand and hurled it across the room. "CUT IT OUT ALREADY!!"

"That's it," she snapped, "I'm tying your hands together." Taking a handful of bandages, she flipped him over and tied his hands behind his back. "There." Leon jadedly handed her the antiseptic and she continued what she had been trying to do.

"OW!!! Ow, ow, ow…"

"Sora?!" Kairi shrieked abruptly, running into the room. "What happened?"

"Looks like she woke up." Leon grumbled irritably. "The bad only gets worse…"

"We were attacked." Riku explained nonchalantly, shrugging carelessly. "Long story, tell you later," he added, nodding towards Leon. Kairi rushed over to the bed and hurled herself into Sora's arms, which had since been untied, causing him to nearly sob in pain and distress.

"I knew that you shouldn't have gone out there, I knew it…"

"Um, Kairi, you're probably hurting him more…" Riku whispered, but Leon stopped him mid-sentence.

"Just let it go."

"But if I hadn't gone out there…" Sora murmured, clenching his teeth, "they would have hurt you, too."

Kairi's eyes filled with tears, each one falling silently onto Sora's chest. "Oh, Sora…" she sobbed, hugging him gently. Yuffie kindly moved her aside as she bandaged Sora's arm, leg, and neck. Staring at the side of his face, where Xaice had struck him, she paused.

"Do you mind seeing out of only one eye for a couple weeks?"

Sora blinked. "Uh…"

"I'll take that as a yes." She lifted his head and wrapped the bandage around, covering his left eye and the mark left by Xaice's sword, and then smiled. "And now we're done!" Yuffie left, and Kairi resumed hugging the completely exhausted boy. A few minutes later, he finally spoke up.

"Kairi…"

"W-what?" she sobbed, her face buried in his charred sweatshirt.

"I'm really tired."

Lifting her tear-streaked face and staring at Sora, she grinned. "All right, go to sleep." He rolled over onto his side, his back to her. Still smiling peacefully, sniffling every now and then, she lightly stroked his hair. "I'll watch over you."

Leon sighed deeply and sunk into a chair, exhausted. "Well, that was quite the episode, Riku. Thanks for setting off the chaos."

Riku grinned and stretched out on the couch nearby. "Anytime. I'm telling you, it's not my job to solve everything and let the rest of the world…namely, you…mosey along without even knowing."

Yuffie leaned against the wall, crossing her arms. "Is that so?"

"Well, what do you expect me to say?" the younger boy asked, raising an eyebrow. "Stand outside in the dark and wait until Sora miraculously stops bleeding to death?"

"No, but…" Leon groaned, shaking his head slowly. "It would have been better if you had tried to keep it a little quieter than that. Kairi took it pretty hard."

"She'll be fine." Riku protested. "She spent an entire year waiting for him, didn't she?"

"That's the point, Riku." Yuffie answered, nodding to herself. "She spent such a long time waiting for him to come back, that if anything were to happen to him…"

"She'd be completely crushed." Leon leaned forward in his seat. "But we shouldn't be lecturing you on how to handle situations like that. I want to know what happened out there."

At this point, Riku paused for a very long time. He stared out the window, looked at his feet, the ceiling, the walls, everything. Yuffie tapped her foot impatiently.

"Well…?"

"I don't know what happened!!" Riku snapped, his face turning red with frustration. "I have no clue, okay? Sora was attacked and I showed up just when they were about to kill him!!" He stopped for a moment, taking a deep breath to calm himself down. "They said they were with Organization XIII. But they're all dead, so it's impossible, right?"

Yuffie shook her head sadly. "Unfortunately, no. We have no clue what they're capable of, so anything's possible, I guess."

"The Organization is incredibly powerful, and it was something close to a miracle that they were defeated in the first place. There may have been lesser Nobodies that, once the original Organization was defeated, came to power."

"That doesn't seem realistic." Riku argued, cracking his knuckles distractedly.

"He's right, Leon. How could random Nobodies become more powerful just like that? They'd have to have something that could transform them…and besides, Nobodies like Organization XIII were born when someone with a strong heart lost theirs."

"All that means, Yuffie, is that people need to lose their hearts for that to be possible. And who knows how many lost theirs before Sora was able to stop Xemnas."

Riku and Yuffie exchanged glances as Leon let his announcement sink in.

"So then they really are the Organization." Riku muttered with sheer disbelief.

"They are," Leon said quietly, "and obviously, they have a new leader who's after Sora…again. If that's true, then we could have another universal incident on our hands."

"So how do we stop them?" Yuffie asked nervously. Riku blinked.

"The letter…" he muttered, pulling a scrap of paper from his pocket. "From the King."

"I haven't read it, but I know that letter can only mean that he's investigated it himself. It's serious, then."

"It only says this…" he handed it to Leon, who stared at the paper blankly.

Master of Keyblade

Memory of Xehanort

Chasers…

The Lost Two

Keyblade War

Everything is born…because of the Slumber.

"The Slumber?" Leon puzzled, passing the note on to Yuffie. "What can that mean?"

"And the Lost Two…Chasers? Memory of Xehanort?" The ninja girl shook her head. "It's not making any sense."

Riku shrugged. "Maybe not now. But soon, sooner than we'd like, I'm sure, it will start coming together. It always does."

Sora yawned and stared at the ceiling. It was morning, he knew, because he noticed a faint light softly illuminating the room. Everything he saw was awkwardly vague, judging by the fact that he was only able to see from his right eye. There'd be no activity for him until that healed, he realized. Basically sitting around and doing nothing.

Kairi sighed in her sleep, her hand resting on top of Sora's head. The boy smiled and gently scooted away, carefully moving her hand onto the bed. Sitting upright, he stepped as softly as he could on the floor and stood. At first he was fine, but slowly he started to become dizzy. Sora reached out and leaned against the wall, regaining his composure, and then turned back to face Kairi. He leaned over and picked her up delicately and put her in the bed. She didn't wake up, thankfully, but only sighed again and rolled over. Smiling, Sora pulled the blankets over her and left the room.

"Riku," he whispered, poking his friend's head. "Riku, get up."

"Hmm?" Riku groaned, blinking heavily and staring up at Sora drowsily. "You're up already? I'd have slept for days after what you got last night. You practically died."

"I did, didn't I?" Sora looked out the window, where a few people had noticed the battle-scarred terrain and were wondering what had happened. "It was pretty bad."

"No duh." Riku jumped out of bed and walked to the door. "C'mon, we're going to find Leon and Yuffie."

Sora blinked, confused. "They aren't here?"

"Nope," Riku replied, grabbing his shoes and heading for the front door. "They're in the First District. At some shop…"

"The Accessory Shop? With Cid?"

"They did say something like that. Leon wanted you and me to meet them there once you woke up." The older boy opened the door and paused. "You think you can make it okay?"

"I guess so," Sora mumbled, staggering out the door.

Riku rolled his eyes. "I'm so looking forward to scraping you off the pavement when you keel over, smart one."

Sora opened the door to the Accessory Shop and was immediately punched on the shoulder, followed by a very loud greeting of "HOW'S IT GOING, LITTLE MAN?!"

"OW!!!" he shrieked, holding his arm as he winced in pain. Yuffie giggled.

"Cid, Sora's hurt today. You can't just go around punching him."

"Eh, well, you shoulda told me that first." Cid grinned. "So how's it been?"

"Fine, I guess, minus the near-death experience." Sora said as cheerfully as he could. He pointed to Riku. "That's Riku, by the way." Cid nodded and punched Riku on the arm as well. Riku grimaced and waved halfheartedly.

"Hi there."

"Well, after last night…" Leon said, finally speaking up, "…we've decided it's time to get to the bottom of this whole mess. We can't sit around and let it pass."

"What mess?" Sora said desperately. "There isn't a mess."

"Sora." Yuffie said firmly, staring at him with utmost seriousness. "You were attacked by a group of people claiming to be the new Organization XIII."

"Based on what Riku could tell us, and by what this letter says, we believe that they really are the new Organization and that they're trying to finish what their preceding members started."

"No, that can't be right. It's nothing."

"SORA, STOP." Riku snapped suddenly, grabbing his arm and spinning him around to face him. "You have to stop living like this, locked away in your own little world where nothing can ever change. These people tried to kill you, obviously for a reason. We have to do something or else the entire universe will fall apart again."

Sora paused and stared at his feet. Remembering the night before.

"We have reputations to uphold. An Organization to fight for!"

"I'll be back for you, we all will!"

"You have no idea, do you? And you got the news before we did. Moron."

It's true, he thought, tears forming in his eyes. I've been shutting myself off from everything, living in denial of what I really have to do. The whole incident with Nothing, it led to my home being destroyed again. What I found out then, about the legacy of the Keyblade Master, it should have clued me in, but I ignored it, fearing what it could mean. And then I was attacked, almost killed, by Organization members. How can I stand here and say it's nothing, when I know better…when I know that it's more important than I want to believe? Riku's telling the truth. I need to accept it. For myself, for him, for Kairi…for everyone. "You're right," he whispered, nodding slowly. "It's just like before. They're…they're evidently planning something. So it's only reasonable …it's only reasonable for me to leave. As hard as it will be."

Leon nodded. "So you've accepted it. Good, now we can move on." The door opened, and a girl with long brown hair and a pink dress walked in.

"Hello, everyone," she said quietly. A blonde-haired boy glanced at them all from behind her.

"Aerith? Cloud?" Sora asked, slightly shocked at seeing them again.

"Yeah." Cloud mumbled, walking in and sitting on the couch next to a beaming Yuffie. Aerith smiled warmly and nodded.

"Yes, Sora, we've come to help you, once more."

"Help us? How?"

Yuffie jumped up. "Aerith figured out the letter!"

Riku looked at the girl with amazement. "Really?" Aerith nodded. "What's it mean, then?"

"It's actually not that complicated," she began. "We'll begin with the first line-- Master of Keyblade."

"Simple enough." Sora said confidently. "That means me, right?"

"That is correct," Aerith replied, nodding. "But it also refers to the Keyblade Masters before you, all those beginning the line of reincarnation that led to you."

"But what about the next line?" Yuffie asked. "Memory of Xehanort."

"It refers to the memory of Xehanort left behind when he became a Heartless. Xemnas is the memory, the former leader of the Organization. Most likely, it means that his legacy has been passed down to another."

"So there's a new leader of the Organization, strong enough that they inherited the power of Xemnas himself." Leon mumbled, shaking his head with skepticism.

"Chasers," Aerith continued, "refers to those chasing the power of the Keyblade. Those wishing to either harness it, or defeat it."

"The Organization?" Riku asked. The girl nodded.

"Of course, that's what we can assume now. We have no clue what other groups could be involved."

"The Lost Two." Cloud grumbled. Everyone spun around to look at the swordsman, who until now had been completely silent. "It's talking about the two Nobodies that were 'lost' by the Organization."

"Roxas and Namine!" Sora said, shocked. "What do they have to do with this?"

"All we can guess is that they will play a part in the success—or the failure—of the new Organization." Leon answered.

"Keyblade War is the name for what is to come." Aerith said solemnly. "There is going to be a war, a war for the right to bear the Keyblade's power. We have no understanding of what it could entail."

"And the last line…?" Sora asked hesitantly. Aerith shook her head.

"I'm sorry. We don't know. Nothing has ever been referred to as the Slumber. It's something that will be understood at a later time."

"What we're worried about right now, Sora…" Cloud said dismally, "is where you're going to begin your journey, and how."

Cid stepped forward and pulled out a map. "And I think I've got an idea of where to start." He pointed at a spot on the edge of the map. "There."

Sora leaned over and stared at the spot under his finger. "It's the middle of nowhere."

"Yeah, weird huh? It's called Memory Isle…and it's not even an isle, really."

"But judging by our research, a vast amount of dark energy has been gathering there, lately." Yuffie added, walking over. "So we think it's a good place to start."

Sora nodded slowly, staring straight ahead of him as if in a trance. "Right."

"So when do we leave?" Riku asked hesitantly, knowing Sora was slowly becoming more and more depressed over the fact.

"The best time would be this afternoon." Aerith said finally. Sora only kept nodding, and she put a hand on his shoulder. "We know you don't want to leave, but it really is for the greater good that you do."

"So go get yourselves ready and say your goodbyes, all right?" Leon snapped, opening the door. "Go."

The Keyblade Master turned slowly and trudged out the door, Riku behind him. Leon slammed it shut and sighed. The room fell silent for a moment as everyone thought about what had just occurred.

"I wonder if he'll make it, you know?" Leon said suddenly, breaking the silence. Yuffie nodded her agreement, looking at Cid and Aerith as they morosely stared at the map on the table.

"I think we're all wondering that, Squall." Cloud mumbled, ignoring Leon's glare.

Sora sat down on the bed and sighed. "I can't believe this, Riku. Why does my life have to fall apart right when it starts coming back together again?"

"It's not falling apart, Sora, just…." his friend paused mid-sentence. "….it can't always turn out right and be perfect, you know? Things happen."

"Yeah, well, I don't see anyone else being thrown into hero mode for the third time in two years!" he answered, kicking the wall angrily. Riku slapped him across the face in frustration.

"Cut it out, darn it! You need to stop playing this whole 'woe is me' crud! It's annoying and it's wrong and you know that you're better than this, Sora! It's what has to be done! Think of…."

"Think of what?!" Sora retaliated. "Think of the people I'm going to leave behind, the home I've already left and might never see again, and how I could die, you could die, how any one of us could die because of this?!"

"You just don't get it, do you? That'll happen if you don't go through with this. These Organization people will take over, they will kill you, trust me, and everything you worked so hard to fix before will be destroyed beyond repair. Get that through your thick skull and move on. You can't run away from your problems, Sora. I learned that the hard way, and I suffered for it."

Sora stared at his friend as he left the room, pondering what he had been told. Walking into the other room, he pulled up a chair and sat down next to the bed, where Kairi was still sleeping peacefully—blissfully unaware of what was happening at the current moment. "Kairi…" he mumbled, trying hard to hold back the tears. "I'll miss you more than anything else in the world." Leaning over slowly, he kissed her on the side of the face, and then stepped back. "I wish I could say goodbye, but it'd be too hard." As sad as he had ever been, Sora walked out the front door, leaving behind only a small scrap of paper with three simple words scrawled on it.

"You're sure you're ready?" Leon asked, standing with Sora outside the gummi ship hangar. "You can't turn around and come right back or anything."

The boy paused, sighing profoundly. "Yeah, I know. I've done this before, remember?"

"Don't be too sure of yourself, there, Sora." Yuffie said cheerfully, giving him a quick goodbye hug. "Never expect that it's going to be just like every other time."

"All right, I'll be careful, okay? Plus, it's not like I'm going to be doing any fighting any time soon…" he pointed to his bandaged face. "I can't exactly see."

"One more week." Yuffie instructed. "Then take it off, understand?"

"Yep…" he answered absentmindedly. Riku had long since climbed into the ship, and was probably waiting for him to finish saying goodbye. "Um, tell Aerith, Cid, and Cloud I said bye, okay?"

"We'll tell Aerith and Cid…" Yuffie said, grinning, "…but Cloud's going with you!"

"He is?" Sora said, shocked. He turned around to see Cloud leaning against the wall, looking bored as usual.

"Seeing as you're otherwise incapacitated," Leon explained, "Cloud's your bodyguard."

"Not you, Mr. Strongerthananyone?" Sora asked the Gunblade wielder, laughing halfheartedly at his own joke. Leon elbowed him.

"Watch it, squirt, and get in the ship already. You should have left by now." Sora hesitantly stepped forward and climbed the ladder to the cockpit, waving to Leon and Yuffie as he disappeared into the ship. Cloud glanced over at Leon.

"Any last instructions?"

Leon shrugged. "Don't let him die."

The swordsman nodded. "Easy enough." With that, he joined Riku and Sora in the gummi ship, and within minutes, they had taken off, headed for the first destination in their journey.