Kairi and Goofy had been forced to abandon Tom's house, taking him with them. He moaned over the potential loss of his vast store of information, but seeing as none of them could hold off the vaster store of Heartless, they had no choice, and met up with most of the townsfolk, Donald and Roxas in the centre of the town.
Donald was recovering. He'd used all his magic, and exhausted himself. Roxas had refused to give in, taking on the hoard to keep them all as safe as he could. He was beside himself, not usually one to show anger, but right now, there were too many of them, and the strain of his efforts showed.
Eventually, even he had to give up. No one had anything left to fight.
Strangely, the Heartless stopped once they had surrounded them. Not a single person was missing, not a single heart consumed by them. They just surrounded them, forming an impenetrable barrier, preventing them from escaping, or anyone else from breaking in.
No one seemed to have the slightest clue why they were acting so strangely for Heartless. No one understood why they were being kept prisoner here by them, or stranger still, why the Heartless seemed to being food and other such necessities.
What was stranger yet, was that after a few hours of this, there was someone else on the other side heard distantly talking. Then, the Heartless parted ways to let two people through, closing again after them.
Walking into the area still free from Heartless was Axel, wielding a strange looking keyblade, and a young boy, not much younger than Roxas and Sora, holding a tall, dark-green spear, and a confident expression.
Roxas saw through it, and saw Sora where others saw Axel. Tired though he was from his long battle with the Heartless, he got up and headed over, ignoring anyone in his way.
"Just what did you do to these Heartless?" He demanded of Sora.
"Nice to see you too," he replied. "I didn't do anything to them. They're just accepting commands from me for some reason."
"Some reason? It's not that easy to command Heartless, especially not if you've a heart, it's dangerous then."
"You tell me why I can then, Roxas. You're the one who spent all that time around the Organisation, didn't they know plenty about them?"
"As I remember it, Heartless can only be controlled by someone who either has an affinity for darkness and a very strong will. My guess is your Arcology power is enough to count as that affinity, and you've already got the will."
"Guess that explains it."
"So what are you doing commanding them to do this?"
"I didn't do that!" he snapped back. "I told them to leave a farming community south from here-"
"My home, Baxton," Jamie interjected, then looked embarrassed when both Sora and Roxas glared at him.
"I told them to leave Baxton alone," Sora continued. "I didn't tell them anything else, and I certainly didn't tell them to come here and do all this!"
"Fine. So who's the boy?"
"I've sorta got a bit of a favour to ask about that, Roxas."
"Why, what have you done this time?"
"I didn't do anything, honestly, anyone would think you thought the worst of me."
"Sora!"
"Alright, I'm getting to it. His name's Jamie, and I found him at Baxton. I was looking for him for Danny, but the Heartless got to him first. He's a Nobody, Roxas."
"So you brought him to me because I know more than you about it. How nice of you."
Jamie looked confused. "Wait, what? I'm a Nobody? What's that meant to mean?"
"You didn't tell him?"
Sora shuffled his feet slightly. "I wasn't sure how to explain it to him."
"You get rid of these Heartless, and I'll figure it out."
"Sure thing, won't take a moment."
"At least that's useful..."
Sora left them, returning to the Heartless. He tapped one on a shoulder to get it's attention, then stepped back instinctively when it looked at him with the empty yellow eyes.
"I want you, and all the others to leave here, and stop bothering this place. Don't just move on to another place and terrorise them, just go back to whatever you were doing before you attacked me."
It stared at him, unmoving.
"I told you to move!"
It remained still.
"Leave, damn you!"
Still no reaction.
He kicked at it, annoyed, and even then it did nothing, so he took a swipe with the keyblade. It was destroyed, and another moved to take it's place, staring the same yellow eyes back at him again.
"Roxas!" he called. His other joined him, still clearly irritated at him.
"What now?"
"They're not listening to me."
"That usually means someone else has control of them."
"You?"
"No, of course not me. I already tried that."
"Try it again?"
Roxas sighed, calmed himself, then punched the closest Heartless to get it's attention.
"Get out of here, you brainless idiots," he told it. "I don't want to see a single Heartless from anywhere in Twilight Town." As with Sora, it merely stared at him. "Happy now?" he asked, turning back to Sora.
"So who does have control over them?" he wondered aloud.
"I don't know, but you better find out. It sounds like you're the reason they're here in the first place, so go and fix it already."
"Alright, I'm on it." He tried to port himself, and found nothing happened. The Heartless, or something, was blocking him. Ordering the Heartless to let him out still worked, though they wouldn't let anyone else out with him, even if he tried to order them to.
This was very strange. Who else was left that could command them?

Sora decided he didn't have the patience or time left to waste on trying to figure out the Heartless' strange behaviour himself, and instead did what any good Second would have done.
He went immediately to the Jobs Board, and left an entry bluntly asking anyone who felt they were up to it to investigate and report back to him with any findings. Within minutes, there were two takers, one he didn't know, the other was his still jealous friend Seifer.
"Heartless hoards, the Organization – you do get yourself in a grand mess sometimes, don't you Sora?" he'd asked.
"They're acting oddly, even for them. Someone's controlling them."
"I hear that was you."
"It was, now they're listening to someone else."
"Interesting. Alright, I'll investigate, but there's something I want you to do for me in return. It's something even I don't have authority to do, Seconds and above only."
"What's so special about it that only Seconds and Firsts can do it?"
"One of the rules – porting to and from any craft airbourne, seabourne or spacebourne is expressly forbidden to Fifth rank and below."
"Never heard of that one before."
"Yeah, it's an obscure one. I understand it's something to do with movements and stuff, it didn't make much sense to me. Seeing how well you handle porting yourself though, you'll have no trouble."
"So what's the problem?"
"There's a ship that's meant to have arrived in port a while ago, but hasn't, the Destined Star. I was meant to meet one of the passangers, Lyle, from that ship, and when it didn't show up, I investigated. I don't know much, but it looks like a good number of people aboard are dead."
"You want me to find out how many, if Lyle's among them, and bring him back if he's alive."
"That's the idea, yeah. Can you do it?"
"Of course I can do it, I can do anything."
"Silly question to ask you, I guess. You go find Lyle for me, and I'll find out about your Heartless problem."
"Done then."

The Destined Star turned out to be a cruise liner, and an impressive one at that. It was quite strange to see no one about at all, hear no sounds of the ship moving, except for the water washing against the side, and for everything to lay perfectly still. The only break was the sound of distant creaking.
Sora appeared on the bridge with a slightly lurch, unaccustomed to the ship's slight rocking, and feeling a little queasy. It had been a while since he'd been on a ship of any kind.
The bridge crew were definitely dead. They lay sprawled in their chairs or on the floor, all clutching at their necks, and all blue in the face. Clearly they hadn't gone a very nice way. Hopefully whatever caused it wasn't contagious.
The bridge itself reeked of the smell from the rotting cadavers. It was all he could do not to have lunch make another appearance. He left the bridge quickly, getting out into the open, fresher air to recover.
Seifer had given him a rough description. Apparently Lyle would be wearing a teal green shirt, and would have a red suitcase. The suitcase was the most important part of it all, he'd said, and that if Lyle was dead, return with that instead.
While leaning over the rail, he glanced toward the back of the ship, and saw the source of the creaking.
There was a chunk of it missing, exposing the inside. It didn't quite reach down to the water level, but it was enough the entire ship had tilted more to the other side for the inbalance. He wouldn't have noticed if he hadn't seen this.
The waters were clear and calm, with no sign of anything in them that might cause this, but wary all the same, he approached the hole.
It was jagged, some parts deeper than others. It looked like something had made huge bites, taking large bits of ship with it. The water nearby had some debris, but hardly enough to tell what did this.
The exposed area showed a hall on the floor below, and a lot of the remains of quarters, some crew, some passanger. All of it was a mess.
Uncertain of where to start looking, he reluctantly pulled out the same trick he'd used when looking for Jamie, this time modifying it to home in on anything alive, and not need to bounce. It took a while to get right.
The upper decks were all devoid of life, but at the back of the ship, down near the ship's cargo hold, there seemed to be a lot of activity.
There seemed to be no safe way to reach it from here, hoping he wouldn't get lost. Maybe there was a map somewhere.

Jamie sat deep in thought, the odd spear laid across his knees.
Roxas had explained, rather bluntly in his irritation, what he was, and what it meant.
He didn't feel anything about it, he just calmly accepted it. He didn't seem to be able to feel anything. Well, except for these Heartless... there was something about them, they didn't seem right. He could tell they were there.
Then there was this spear. Very light, almost too light for what it should be, and the handle behind the tip was almost swordlike, as if it had been designed for a slashing attack as well. And the business with the air solidifying when he'd attacked Sora...
The Heartless were somehow intriguing to him, he found, and got to his feet, approaching the black wall they had formed around this part of town. One turned around, it's baleful yellow eyes on him instantly.
He stared back into them for a few moments, then looked away, examining the other kinds of Heartless here. The first one still watched.
"I don't suppose you can talk, can you?" he asked it. It didn't react. "I didn't think so. You're like me. You can't feel anything either. No heart to feel things with. I wonder what would happen if you found the heart you were made from?" Still no reaction. It was either unwilling, or incapable of speech. "You're not going to let me out, either, right?"
Finally, it reacted, shaking its head.
"Not even if I order you to?"
Shake again.
"But you did for Sora."
Nod.
"Why?"
No reaction. He realized it was only going to answer yes or no, and tried again.
"There's something different about him, isn't there?"
Nod.
"Does Roxas have it too?"
Shake.
"It's the power he got from that arcology place, isn't it?"
Nod.
"And now someone else is commanding you."
Nod again.
"Someone Sora knows?"
Another nod, but slower this time.
"And Roxas too?"
Shake.
"Someone from the arcology place?"
Nod.
"But who... sorry, I know you can't answer that one."
"That would be me," a soft voice answered from behind him.
He turned, seeing an unusual looking person. He had long silver hair framing his face, wore a long black coat, and had a large navy wing on his right side.
"No need to be alarmed," the stranger told him. "Though I understand as a Nobody, you can't be alarmed anyway."
"What do you want?"
"Oh, nothing much. I'm just stopping by to see what my Heartless are up to. I took control of them some time ago, but recently they were acting oddly, under another's influence. They don't seem to have caused any harm as such, so it's not all bad."
"You can tell them to leave here then."
"Now why would I do that? This is the perfect opportunity for me to find out just how far Sora is willing to go."
"What do you mean?"
"See, Sora and I have battled in the past. He usually beats me." He frowned, taking a seat on a nearby bench. "Always has, actually. Just once, I'd like to beat him for a change, but I digress. Sora became a part of my Arcology recently, and has already made a nice reputation for himself, in less than a week, he's almost a First among them. Quite impressive. But he's still reluctant to tap the full extent of the power he's got from it."
"Your arcology?"
"Well, not actually mine, it took me some time ago, and I made my way to it's pinnacle over time. Since I'm now at the top, it's mine now. That's not the point though. Sora could do a lot more, if he was willing. So, I'm using this situation, which rather ironically was caused by him, as a chance to see if he's willing to let... certain things happen, or stop them by using his full power, making him more powerful, possibly more powerful than me."
"Why?"
"I do believe I just answered that."
"Why do you want to make him do something he doesn't want to do?"
"Ah, I'm afraid on that, my lips are sealed, dear boy. I see you've found your spear."
"It seems to have some kind of odd power."
"Yes, elements. It's something I infused it with when I had it made. Concentrate on air, and you get a wedge of air, think about fire, and you'll have fire instead, and so on. Quite ingenious if I do say so myself, and very powerful in the right hands. Which are yours, of course."
"You knew about me?"
"Naturally. I designed it specifically for you. I had you turned into a Nobody specifically for this. I had planned on giving it to you myself, actually, but Sora kindly handled that for me." He got to his feet, looked Jamie over, then nodded to himself. "Yes, I think you'll do well with that. I'll be back later. If Sora stops by, do tell him I'm looking forward to meeting him for me. I'm sure he'll like to know."
Without another word, he walked toward the wall of Heartless. They moved aside for him without needing his command.

He was homing in on the activity he'd sensed. It was darker down here, colder, and the creaking was louder. It reminded him of the labyrinth below the Arcology.
There were more sounds now, faint voices, made unintelligible by the echoing. Sora kept as silent as he could, reluctantly drawing on a little more power to make himself less visible to others. If he had it right, anyone who did see him would look right past him
He drew closer still to the voices, listening in, picking out words, phrases, a few sentences now.
"... won't just hand it over," a male voice was saying
A female voice replied, "You've no choice in the matter..." the next part was inaudible, then "... not a Foresight right now is because you don't..."
"... not true. I just have no reason to."
Sora turned a corner, then stopped, took in the scene ahead, and flattened himself against the darker side of the corridor, continuing his silent approach.
Lyle, or at least someone who matched his description, was against the back wall of a large, unfurnished room, probably a cargo hold. Several people lined the walls, preventing his escape toward Sora, which was the only exit. On either side of him were what looked like two, rather fat, suits of armour, both holding a huge doubleaxe each, and beside each of them, in the corners of the room, two great stone obelisks. The red suitcase lay open beside Lyle, and a curious artefact was in his hands. It looked like a bottle, but was made of dark brown clay, and had intricate designs carved into it. The obelisks had the same designs on them.
He reached the edge of the cover, unable to procede without getting seen, and paused to listen.
"Just give it to me," the woman in charge said. It was a familiar voice... where had he heard it before? "You don't know how to use it, and you don't want to annoy me."
"You're wrong," Lyle snapped. "I know more than you ever will about it. You're the kind of person I set out to protect it from."
"Don't cross me. I have power you can't imagine." Sora recognised the voice finally. Merle.
"Don't try my patience, or one of your people will become a Foresight."
"So you'll change them over me?"
"You've still got time to turn yourself in. Things will go far easier for you that way."
"Never. Give me the artefact."
The two stood at a standoff, Lyle apparently ready to use the artefact to turn the others with Merle into a 'Foresight', whatever that was, and Merle ready to try to sieze it.
Sora decided he had to take action at this, but didn't want Merle to know it was him, not yet. There was another way. He tried something new, reaching back to his room at the Arcology, finding Roxas' Organization robe in his wardrobe, and porting it directly to him, rather than getting it himself. He stepped back into deeper shadows to ensure he wouldn't be seen, then pulled it on, pulling up the hood, but leaving the robe open. Concentrating his power on keeping him unseeable even in plain sight, he strode confidently into the room, noting that no one reacted, then stood between Lyle and Merle. He faced Lyle, then with a dramatic flourish of the robe, released his focus on being unseeable and turning to face Merle.
"Stop where you are," he told her, doing his best not to sound like him.
"Get out of my way," she retorted sharply.
"You're ordered to stand down."
"On who's authority?"
"On the authority of the First, Danny, of the Dark Arcology, your First."
"I choose to ignore the orders," she replied, hands going to her hips, and a sneer crossing her face.
"There will be consequences to your action."
"They'll have to catch me first."
Sora felt her try to port, and used his own power to block it.
"I already have," he told her. He shook the hood back, revealing himself, and drawing the keyblade, pointing it directly at her neck. "I order you again; stand down immediately."
"You!" she snapped. "You, you little thief!"
"I've stolen nothing, and you know it. The only thief here is you, trying to steal from him." He jerked his head at Lyle behind him. "Now either knock it off, or I'll take care of you myself."
"I don't recognise your power," she retorted. "I don't even believe you're meant to be where you are, you caused me to lose everything, and be dropped right back to second rank."
"Unless you want to be a first rank, you better start reconsidering that quick."
"You wouldn't dare! I brought you into the Arcoloy, I gave you the position you had, I gave you everything you could need, and you lost me my position."
"You lost it yourself by breaking the rules, Merle. Last warning. Stop and leave, and take your friends with you."
"Not without the artefact."
Sora sighed. He hadn't wanted to do this, but there was no choice. "Merle, as your Second, I hereby reduce you in rank to a first rank. You're ordered to come here immediately and take the mark of it."
She couldn't disobey now. He concentrated once on her mark, removing the rank sign, and creating a collar instead. Rather fittingly, he thought, it was in a pure black.
"What of us?" one of her friends asked.
Sora examined them each in turn, relaxing his block on porting. "Go back to the Arcology, and whatever you were doing before you came with Merle. If you weren't doing anything, you better find something before I decide to find out what you're up to, and I don't want to see any of you ever looking for this artefact without the permission of your First or Second."
They each shared a look, then nodded to him and ported away.
"What about me?" Merle, now sullen, asked him.
"You're going to try that again, and do it right."
She stared at him, and almost retorted, but thought better. "What about me, master Sora?"
"Better. You'll stay with me until I say otherwise. Now then," he turned around. "Mister Lyle, I presume. I'm here on behalf of Seifer."
"That's me... you're from the Arcology too?" Sora showed his markings, identifying himself. "So you are. I'm a fifth rank under the First, Sand." Lyle now showed his markings. His was of a dragon's head.
"Seifer said you were meant to meet him when the ship made port, and that if something had happened to you-"
"The suitcase, yes. I took a mission for his First, to retrieve this artefact, except I've had nothing but trouble since getting it. The ship was attacked by some monster creature, and those that weren't killed by it have been poisoned, somehow that poison spread and killed everyone aboard. I was able to protect myself from it."
"Are we in any danger?"
"No, once I was the only one left aboard, I was able to purge it."
"Good. What about these odd statues, and the talk of Foresights?"
"You've answered your own question," he smiled. "This artefact can turn people into Foresights, which is what these are. They're highly powerful, but have to be given orders specifically, as the original mind behind them is lost unless they're changed back."
"These were..."
"Oh, these were two people with me, they willingly went through with it to help protect me from her. Sora, I fear the monster may be returning, and we need to get off the ship before it does."
"I don't think I can port all of us from down here. Maybe from the main deck."
"I agree. I'll change these two back, then we'll be on our way."
Sora nodded leaving him to it, and turning back to Merle.
"What did you think you were doing, coming here? I assume you ported yourself, in violation of another rule."
"Yes master Sora," she replied. "I did it because I wanted my old position back."
"You'll never learn your lessons that way. From now on, you'll have to work hard and earn the right to move up through each rank, no jumps."
"But master-"
"No buts. This isn't for you to negotiate."
"You make a good Second," she told him with a faint smile.
"Good... I hope so. Are you done Lyle?"
"Done, we're all ready to go."
"Then lets get out of this place before I have to reduce anyone else's rank."