Author Notes: I word people, College. Nuff said. I was inspired by the Kingdom Hearts fanfic Body and Soul by to do this next arc. :)

Trivia: Timeskip…

It's been days since the encounter with Dark Namine and Rikixa joining the Organization. Namine was safety tucked away in Castle Oblivion, with Marluxia and Larxene watching over her.

Rikixa quickly learned the ropes around the Organization, and became fast friends with Xion, Xion Replica, Roxas, and Axel. She also occasionally partners up with Xion.

Rikixa has quite the personality. Not only is she the bad girl of the Organization, but she sometimes has quite the foul-mouth that would make even Cid Highwind green with envy.

But that's a whole different subject.

The truth is… a lot can happen, especially between Days 185 through 299.

People get stronger. Heartless die quickly. And friendships get damaged…

Advent of the Master's Keeper

Day 299

Twilight Town

Xion Replica sighed as she looked over Twilight Town near the Train Station. Things have taken a turn for the worse the last few days.

Two days ago, she was assigned to take out a giant Heartless right in the same spot where she's at right now. Saix, however, "failed" to mention that the Heartless she was assigned to eliminate was a Dustflier, which was powerful. Little did she know that Saix sent her on purpose in hopes that she's die taking out the Heartless.

However, Xion Replica managed to defeat the Dustflier, passing out after the brutal battle, never managing to RTC in time. But she was never found when Xion, Rikixa, and Roxas went searching for her.

Unknown to them, Riku was passing by when he found Xion Replica and took her.

Saix meanwhile, declared her a traitor, but he wasn't fooling anyone. It was common knowledge in the Organization that Saix wants the puppet dead and thus sent her on a suicide mission.

Needless to say, Xemnas was furious. To him, the more Keybladers the Organization has under control, the better. And it was dangerous for them to be out in the worlds without backup since DiZ was after Keybladers to fulfill his goals.

After giving Saix hell, Xemnas issued the order to find Xion Replica and bring her back, since they cannot afford to lose a Keyblader just yet.

Now Xion Replica was wandering around in front of the Train Station after escaping Riku before she was to be bought to DiZ. However, she couldn't get what Riku told her out of her head.

Before she could dwell on it though…

"Xion!"

She turned to find Roxas running towards her.

"Roxas…"

He stopped and sighed in relief.

"There you are. The others and I have been looking all over for you."

"You have? Sorry about that. That guy Riku took me, making me unable to RTC in time."

"…I see. How'd you escape?"

Xion Replica giggled, "Jumped out a window when DiZ appeared. Anyway…"

Her eyes narrowed, "You really think Saix will let this drop? No doubt he thinks of me as a traitor to the Organization."

Roxas shook his head, "Of course you're not. We all know that he has it in for you."

Xion Replica nodded, "So true."

Both of them laughed.

"Ice cream?" Roxas asked.

"Maybe later," Xion Replica said, "For now thanks to you being here, I can RTC-"

Just then, a fire spell nearly blasted Xion Replica, who managed to duck in time.

"What the-" Roxas looked around wildly while Xion Replica looked confused.

"Well hello there, traitor."

Roxas and Xion Replica turned to find their friend Axel walking towards them.

"Axel?"

Then he disappeared, then reappeared in front of a confused Xion Replica.

"Wha-" she started to talk before her vision was clouded by flames as she descended into a world of pain, making her black out.

"AXEL!"

Roxas was shocked at what he just saw. He just saw his best friend teleport in front of Xion Replica and slashed her, knocking her out.

"What the hell are you doing!"

Roxas ran at Axel who lifted Xion Replica on his shoulder, looked at Roxas emotionlessly, then exited via dark corridor.

"Looks like I was too late."

Roxas whirled around to find the imposter, Riku.

"She should've never escaped. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been attacked."

"It was because of you that she was mistaken as a traitor, even though it was a trick!" An angry Roxas shouted as he summoned his Oathkeeper and charged at Riku.

"Looks like DiZ was wrong again, us usual. Even Nobodies can feel emotions." Riku muttered as he drew his Soul Eater sword.

Activating Combat Mode

Boss Battle: Roxas vs Riku

Cue Music: Tension Rising (Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days)

*static*

Castle That Never Was – The Grey Area

Xemnas was leaning on the wall arms folded, tapping his feet impatiently with an out cold Saix at his feet. The rest of the members lounged around.

A minute later, Axel appeared in a roar of flames.

"Hey Saix, I-… Saix?"

"He's stone cold man." Xigbar said, "What wrong with Poppet?"

"Dude. Did you have to rough her up?" asked Demyx, "She's not a traitor like Saix said."

"What?" Axel was confused, "But he said-"

"A lie."

Axel jumped and turned to see a pissed off Xemnas.

"Boss man!"

"You should know that I will not stand for losing Keybladers." Xemnas said as Axel began to sweat.

"Boss, I- gah!"

Axel was blasted out the window and fell down below as Xemnas caught Xion Replica.

Xigbar whistled, "That's gotta hurt."

Luxord smirked as he played with his cards, "He'll live."

Xemnas, without another word, turned and took Xion Replica to the Medical Bay.

"Where's Xion and Rikixa?" asked Xaldin.

"Right here."

Everyone turned to see Xion and her partner Rikixa entered the Grey Area, both not in a good mood.

"Where Axel?" snarled Rikixa.

Everyone in the room pointed in the window, where Axel was trying to climb through the hole in the window.

"Damn it, Saix just had to-"

"Ahem…"

Axel managed to get back in to find a two less-than-happy Keybladers with their Keyblades out.

"Wait guys. I-"

*CRASH*

Twilight Town

Conflict Resolved

Riku skidded back from the force of Roxas Zantetsuken strike.

"You're pretty good. As good as him I mean." Riku said as he put away his Soul Eater sword. "You really are his Nobody."

"Who are you talking about?" asked Roxas, confused as Riku started to walk away.

"You'll come to know what I mean soon." Riku replied, "But right now, I got things to do. See ya."

With that, Riku opened a dark portal and disappeared into it.

"Him…" Roxas muttered to himself as he put away his Keyblade, "Could he mean…"

The Realm of Darkness

In the world where time is relevant, two Darksides were wandering about, speaking to each other in moans and grunts. Their conversation would be short-lived however, as two orbs of lights suddenly shot through them. They disappeared into the darkness in which they came before they could spot their attacker.

The attacker in question lowered her Keyblade after firing off those orbs of light. She has blue eyes with short blue hair, and wears a black and blue, high-collared halter top, two pink, intersecting belts over her chest; black shorts; white bell-sleeves; tan, fingerless gloves, and a piece of armor on both her upper arms.

She is Keyblade Master Aqua, one of the Three Legendary Keybladers from the Tale of the Tragic Keyblade Masters.

After disposing of the two Darksides, Aqua walked away. Where she is going, she doesn't know, as she took out her charm and pressed it to her chest. Who knows how many years she's been in this god-forsaken realm.

But she's not the type to give up hope. Soon, she'll reunite with her friends, and they'll see the worlds together again.

But first things first…

Master Xehanort must be eliminated. It's because of him that things went straight to hell. Aqua would never forgive him. His desire of a younger vessel to take over cost the body and soul of Terra. His greed for the X-Blade and Kingdom Hearts left Ventus in a comatose state. And because of all that, Master Eraqus is…

A speck of light appeared in front of Aqua, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"What is that? Could it be…"

As she got closer, the speck of light grew better, making Aqua's Master's Keeper Keyblade react.

Curious, Aqua lifted her Keyblade and pointed it at the light. In response, the light became a portal of Light, paving the way out of the Realm of Darkness.

Cracking a smile for the first time in a while, Aqua ran towards the portal, the light engulfing her.

"Terra… Ventus… Wait for me. We will be reunited!"

Castle That Never Was – The Grey Area

"Remind me never to piss them off." Demyx said, hiding behind the sofa, looking at floored Axel holding this groin, groaning as Xion and Rikixa stalked off in a foul mood.

"I second that." Xigbar nodded, "Looks like lil' Miss Poppet and her friend got spunk."

Saix rolled his eyes as Roxas appeared via portal.

"What's going on?"

"Trust us." Luxord sneered, "You don't want to know."

"..."

END OF CHAPTER VII