WOOT! WOOT!!!! Hello all!! I have returned to you with chapter 15!!! With the completion of this chapter, there will be six more left to go. Well, technically five if the epilogue is does not count. Hollow Bastion will be broken up into three parts because there's just too much stuff going on in there and will take forever to get out if I do it as a whole.

But first things first, I'm going to close the poll as soon as the fic is complete so that would new comers a chance to vote. It is a blind poll because I want to surprise everyone with the results. The question is "Do you want a CoM fic after FD?" and the choices are….

A. Yes! I want some Axel baby!

B. No way! Get to KH2!! And the romance!

C. Just give up on life and don't write anymore!

So if you can, please participate in the voting if you have not already. Now we get on to the good stuff! To chapter 15!!!! –jumps into a bat mobile looking gummi ship and takes off-

Fighting Darkness

Chapter Fifteen

Ansem Reports

"Does Cloud hate me?"

Usagi almost spat out her potion at the sudden question causing her to choke a little. "Why would you say that?"

"He's way harder on me than he is on you," Sora said with a pout.

"He just wants you to be strong and ready for whatever might pop up next," Usagi said waving off the thought on how cute Sora looked when he pouted.

The two teens currently sat across from each other in a room that they share in the Coliseum. There was another message waiting for them about another tournament and of course they came and fought and won. But it was not easy. Cloud was really tough to beat. And then there was the fight against the Almighty Hercules himself and Sora decided to fight him one on one. Usagi swears that Hercules let him win. After seeing how happy Sora was when got the cup, she decided to keep her thoughts to herself.

"Besides," the blond continued, "I have a feeling that we are almost done with this Heartless thing."

It got quiet as a similar thought came to both of their minds. Riku would be there and he would be their enemy.

Sora broke the silence, "You don't have to come, you know."

Usagi raised an eyebrow. "Are telling me to stay behind?" Was Sora serious? Did he really think that she would stay like some damsel in distress while he was out fighting? That's not her style. "Forget it."

"But it could get really dangerous…."

"Forget it," Usagi repeated to cut him off. "It's not like it hasn't been dangerous since we first started."

Sora sighed. She had a good point and he had nothing. He thought about using the 'you're a girl' excuse but he knew better. "Just be careful then…" he mumbled.

Usagi smiled to herself, knowing that she won the battle. "Not a problem."

"We should get some sleep," Sora suggested. "We have a lot of thinking to do tomorrow."

"Then you'll need a lot of sleep then," The blond said as she slipped under the covers.

Thirty seconds had passed before Sora shot up saying, "Hey!"

/…/

The trip to Traverse Town was short and quick thanks to the warp. The group entered the town and noticed something different.

"There's a lot more people here, ahyuck!"

Usagi nodded agreeing with Goofy's observation. "They must be destroying worlds pretty fast. Might be getting stronger with every world that's lost in darkness. But we won't know for sure until we find out what's in these reports."

"We should give Cid the gummi first," Donald said.

"Oh yeah," Usagi almost forget about the gummi that was found with a part of Ansem's report on Hook's ship. "We should get that out of the way." She led the way to Cid's shop. When they got there, the old man was busy with someone else, only he wasn't behind the counter. Cid was giving the man instruction on how to run the shop.

Sora tilted his to the side. "Gramps?"

Cid turned and saw the group and gave a friendly gesture. He went to back to the man and said few more things before he went over to the group. "Hey, how's it going?"

"Great!" Usagi and Sora said together.

The blonde dug into the pouch on her hip and took out the gummi. "Is this another navigation gummi?" she asked, holding it out the mechanic.

Cid took it from her and held it up to the light. He let out a low hum before saying, "Just as I thought…"

"Something wrong?" Sora asked. He hoped there wasn't. They're so close to the end and Kairi and Riku. Something can't be wrong!

"This needs another gummi with it. Without it, this is useless."

"Oh no…" Sora groaned. His groan was accompanied by Donald and Goofy's.

Usagi was digging around in her pouch again and she brought out another gummi. "Would this work?"

With a quick look underneath the light, Cid nodded. "Yup, this is it."

Sora let out a sigh of relief. "Where'd you get that one?"

"Cloud gave it to me, remember? He said not to lose sight of it." Usagi's voice went distant, "I guess he knew that we would need it."

Cid cleared his throat. "Well, I'll just get this installed for ya. It'll take some time so you guy can do whatever you want till I'm done."

"How long will it take?" Sora asked.

"Maybe three hours, but I suggest you guys stay the night before head out again. You'll need all the rest you can get."

"We could look at the report!" Goofy suggested a bit too cheerfully.

"That would take a week…" Donald mumbled.

"Get Aerith to look at it." Cid tapped his temple. "She reads a lot. Real smart woman. I'm sure she can simplify that."

Usagi nodded. Cid had a point; Aerith does know a lot of things that other more than likely would not know. "Good idea."

/…/

Concentrate. Think ice. Usagi could feel the tips of her fingers going numb. She released it, "Blizzard!"

"Fire!" Sora yelled to counter the other spell.

The report was given to Aerith and she said it will take some time to decipher it. She recommended that Usagi should practice her magic. With her being a Cetra, she would be more in tune with magic then the others. Donald didn't like that very much. The blond agreed and headed straight for Merlin's place with Sora there to help her out. She holds Aerith's opinion in high regard and is working hard to get better.

"Very good!" Merlin clapped. "That was excellent Blizzaga spell. Now, Sora you try it."

The boy nodded. He concentrated, thought of ice and released the spell. "Blizzard!"

"Fire!"

Merlin nodded in approval. "Good. Very good. Now…" With a wave of his hand, his furniture appeared in the room floating around. "Let's practice accuracy. Use Blizzard and Fire only."

The two teens nodded and began throwing spells at the moving furniture. Sometimes they missed due to slow conjuring. It was difficult to conjure up a strong spell in a small amount of time, but that's what training is for. They had to think faster and spell cast faster. It took some time, but they got the hang of it eventually.

Merlin nodded, clearly satisfied. "Now let's work on Thunder which is a very unstable spell. You can easily hit your comrades with as well as your enemies. But it is also a very useful spell with a wide range and spectacular power!" He called forth his furniture again. "Now use it and try not to hit each other."

/…/

"Find anything?" Usagi called out, taking another book from the shelf.

"No!" Sora called back. "Nothing about centipedes here!"

"Cetra!"

Sora laughed and Usagi smiled to herself. She should let him laugh after she shocked so many times in training. Merlin had then practice cure on each other after the Thunder session. Then they went through Stop, Gravity and Aero. It was a very useful train session Usagi feels even more ready than she did before.

With the magic training done, the blond wanted to look up things about Cetras in Merlin's books. She found nothing and neither did Sora. What book did Aerith read!?

Blue eyes fell on a familiar beaten up book. She pulled it out and saw that it was the book that she and the other had delivered to Merlin. She opened it and saw a page missing, just one. Once again digging through her pouch, Usagi pulled out the page that she had found in Dr. Finkelstein laboratory. She put the page in the book and it mended with the part it was torn from perfectly.

'What a weird book,' Usagi thought. She was about to close it, but she felt something from. She looked back down and felt something trying to pull her in.

"Sora! Usagi! Where are you!?"

She dropped it. Usagi would have to thank Donald for that terrible scratchy voice. She picked up the book and put it back on the shelf. No time for this now.

"Aerith is done with reports! Let's go!"

/…/

"I'm sure you already know about Ansem, right?" Aerith asked, pouring some tea into each of the five cups. "He's the one that researched the Heartless and made the reports."

The group nodded.

"Well, he was also the leader of our world. Everyone respected him and everything was peaceful for a while." The pink clad women let out sigh and took a sip of her tea. Extra sweet, just the way she liked it. "But then he discovered Heartless. He found them in the basement of his castle."

Usagi could just imagine it. An old man dashing down the dark stone hallway, panting. He slammed an old, creaky wooden door open and found hundreds of pairs of yellow eyes staring up at him.

"He began to study them to find out more about the heart. In the process, he made a machine to make artificial Heartless…"

"Say what!?" Donald quacked.

Aerith nodded. "Those who lose their heart get lost in darkness and become Heartless themselves. In order to create more Heartless, he had to synthesize Heartless around the heart's principle."

"Wha…" Sora gave a blank look.

"Have you seen this symbol?" Aerith asked as she pushed the paper to them and pointed to the heart with an 'X' inside.

"That's been on a lot of the Heartless we fought," Sora revealed.

"Someone is abusing the machine…" Aerith let the thought trail off.

Usagi finished it, "Maleficent."

Sora stood, slamming his hand on the table. "Then we gotta stop her!"

"Operation Bust the Heartless Machine is in motion!" Usagi cheered.

Aerith looked at the teens. "You should rest here for a bit. At least stay the night. I haven't encountered Maleficent myself, but I can sense how strong she is. You can't take her lightly."

Usagi noticed the tone changing in Aerith's voice. She was serious. The blond nodded, indicating that took the warning to heart. They will be carefully and she will make sure of it. Before leaving, Usagi decided to drink her tea. Extra sweet, just the way she liked it.

/…/

He must be floating. He has to be. How else could he being seeing this scene from above. There was an old woman in the sitting in chair next to a table. In front of her were two young girls, one with blond hair and one with red hair. Sora knew who they were.

The old woman seemed to be telling them a story, but he couldn't hear. He made the guess based off of the intrigued looks on their faces. But there was one part he did hear.

"Listen well you two," the old woman said as she pulled them into a hug. "Even in the deepest darkness, there will always be a light to guide you. Believe in the light, and the darkness will never defeat you. Your hearts will shine with its power and push the darkness away. Do you two understand?"

Kairi nodded while Usagi shook her head.

The woman laughed and focused he attention on the blond. "Whenever you're in trouble and surrounded by darkness, just ask for help. The world will protect you, both of you. Do you understand now?"

The blond blinked before answering, "No."

The old woman sighed and turned her attention to the red head. "Be sure to watch over Usagi, Kairi. She'll need your guidance for a while.

Kairi nodded.

The scene changed. Sora wasn't in the room anymore. He was outside and there was chaos. Heartless were everywhere, attacking people and stealing their hearts. He heard a familiar battle cry. He looked to his left and was Leon with shorter hair. He looked tired, but he continued to attack the Heartless, desperately trying to decrease their numbers.

He heard another cry, one not so familiar. He looked down and there was little Kairi holding little, crying Usagi close to her.

"Don't worry," Kairi said, "Just believe in the light. They can't hurt us if you do."

Something hit him in the chest and he opened his eyes. "A dream?"

"Do I want to know what kind of dream it was?"

Sora looked over at Usagi who was holding a pillow. That's what hit him. "No, not really."

"Was it a nightmare?" she asked.

Sora stared at her. He can't believe he had just seen the same girl in his dream, crying with Kairi watching over her. He would it be the opposite, with Kairi crying and Usagi watching over her. He had never seen her cry. Not even when Riku pushed her around.

"Is there something on my face?"

"Huh?" Sora blinked. "Ah, no! Sorry, dazed off there."

"Worried about Riku?"

He hadn't actually thought about that, but now that she mentions it. "Yeah, a little."

"I try not to think about it. Should be easy for you." She gave him a playful smile.

He smiled back. "Yeah…"

/…/

"I'm driving."

"No, you're not!"

"Why not?"

"You'll bust it up!"

"Have some faith Donald. I can handle it."

As Donald continued to scream at her, Usagi was putting their supplies in her pouch. Cid was generous enough to give them free potions and ethers. At least, he said they were free, but she had feeling Leon, Yuffie and Aerith had something to do with it.

They said their farewells and climbed on the ship, with Usagi in the pilot seat. She pushed all the right buttons and it took off.

Aerith watched the ship take off with one question weighing on her mind. "Is this okay? For me to let her go like that, it's like she's knocking on their front door."

"You couldn't stop her if you tried," Leon said after a moment of silence.

"…No. I guess not."

/…/

Well, there you have it. Next up is Hollow Bastion. Is anyone excited? I am. Alright no one got the question right, but you all get a cookie anyway for trying. It was really hard. The correct answer to Where were Usagi and Kairi talking? is… The realm of Light. Yeah it was a hard one. But I have an easy one now!

Cookie question: Name two things Aerith and Usagi have in common. One you just learned in this chapter and the other you can put together.

We are so close to the end… Can you all feel it? I'm so proud.

So who wants to leave a review? I got 100! Heck yes!!! Help me get over that limit! Maybe I can get to 200? Psh… I can only dream…

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Now I will see you in chapter 16!!