CHAPTER IV

Tonight We Fly

(NOTE)

Sorry this one took a while to get up. I've been kind of pressured with a huge change in my life lately, which should have counted for the last three chapters, but I guess they were a cowardly way of escaping it. But I'm done escaping and I still love this fanfiction, so I'ma continue. :3

(/NOTE)

"Blank." Quince murmured quietly to himself as he opened the book to a random page somewhere in the middle. He ran his hand down the sheets, and felt nothing odd. Just a blank book.

"Live a little." Riku mocked. He took the book, closed it, and put it in his pocket. "A lot good that did us."

"At least it wasn't a total waste," Sora called back as he blew up an enemy ship pleasantly, "we sealed the keyhole. But I think we should try for another world before we go back to Hollow Bastion. I didn't see enough fighting today."

Nessa, Charity, Riku, and Kairi all groaned just from hearing this. It's not like they needed rest, no. That would be crazy.

"Where to then?" asked Quince, scratching his head.

"I guess we have to go back to... Hula Island." Sora replied, still feeling stupid just saying the name of the island.

"Hu— oh, no. Not with that girl." Riku shook his head.

Sora grinned widely as they landed only minutes later. Practically crashing onto the sand, obviously Sora's landing had gotten no better. They all ran out of the Gummi Ship practically at the same time to feel the warmth against their faces.

"I wish it was this warm in Twilight Town," Charity said happily while the wind slapped her hair against her cheeks, "We have a lake, but it's facing north so all of the cold travels across it and makes it freezing when it isn't summertime."

"Mmhm." Nessa agreed, nodding her head.

"How was Azure Daybreak?" asked Quince. Where was he from again? It was a world called Jewel's Grove. That's all that they could remember. Did it seem like a town that they lived by? Buffalo Grove? Obviously not the same connotation.

"I hardly remember." Nessa replied, becoming slightly aggrieved just from hearing the words.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Riku asked them both, "Three years?"

"Yes." Charity responded quietly as she nodded.

"I just don't get that." Parker snorted while they trudged their way across the beach. Tourists were lining the place; many of which had a strange white substance on their nose. Author's Note: Get your mind out of the gutter. There was one oddly fat one who, just by seeing the group, lost the top of his ice cream to the sand. "How can a world just up and die? Aren't worlds supposed to be eternal?" he asked.

"Apparently not." Sora shook his head, "But I thought the same thing. We haven't seen a trace of Azure Daybreak since."

"We never sealed this place." Kairi reminded them, "We're going to have to find the keyhole ourselves."

"C'mon, Stitch, we have to go feed Pud—!" A little Hawaiian girl running with some blue creature holding on to her hand stopped in front of the group.

"...Lilo." Charity mumbled.

"You didn't die?" she asked Charity unpleasantly nicely.

"Uhm." was all she could muster out.

"Lilo," Sora interrupted, "have you seen a keyhole?"

"Big, cartoon-like, blinks when you poke it?" she asked. Stitch started sticking his own tongue up his nose.

"Yes!" Sora said excitedly.

"Nope." she responded, "But I have to go feed Pudge or everyone on this beach will die of a lightning storm." Certainly, two years had done absolutely nothing to this girl as she skipped away to the ocean, the blue monster known as Stitch shouting something awful to her in an unknown language.

Nessa smiled. "I kinda like her."

There was a scream amongst th tourists, and soon enough the group was being overrun by fat people. When they all cleared out, the group noticed it was nothing but a bunch of Heartless running

around on the beach.

Slashing around only a few times before all of the Heartless disappeared, only more came.

"This is getting us nowhere." Charity complained.

"Then we should leave a Heartless." Riku suggested, "They'll lead us towards the keyhole." Riku was right about this; the Heartless tended to swarm around the keyhole often enough.

"Uhn. Yeah." Charity nodded. Backing away from the Heartless, they watched them disappear as shadows into the ground. Worming their way east from the beach, the group quietly followed.

"This is easier than I thought." murmured Nessa as she nodded. They reached a palm tree, when a surprise so extreme came that they almost dropped their weapons. A black-suited character was pointing a light keyblade at the palm tree, and a blast of white shot out. The Heartless around them fled, and the figure turned around.

"Roxas!" Nessa exclaimed.

He pulled his hood down, Roxas stood there, and smiled at the group. "I can only afford this trip out so I thought I'd help."

"Roxas, what's going on?"

In the little time that he had, Roxas managed to tell everybody exactly what was happening.

"She can give things hearts?" asked Charity.

Roxas nodded, "Which brings me to another point... she's being equipped with memories similar to yours. Periodically, when I pass the room she's being held in, I hear her speaking of Azure Daybreak."

"Azure Daybreak?" asked Nessa excitedly in unison with Charity.

"You don't think," Sora started, "that if that Heartless could give people hearts it could give worlds hearts, too?"

"I guess that all depends on if it was destroyed because it lost its heart." Roxas said.

"It had to have been," complained Charity, "how else could it have been the Red Shadows

that destroyed the world."

"That was an assumption." Kairi shook her head, "It could have been that they just... blew it up or something."

"Don't even say that." told Nessa, shaking her head.

"But it's a possibility." Sora interrupted, defending Kairi.

"That's nothing we have to worry about right now. If I'm here any longer, Xemnas might find out. Just keep unlocking the keyholes." With that, Roxas faded into a dark portal, and found himself back in his room in The World that Never Was.

"Figures." Riku said, trying to end the commotion, "The only easy keyhole was the one that Roxas decided to be helpful with." Riku could never quite get over the feud with Roxas, but they tolerated each other. Now that Roxas had memories of both when he was in the Organization and when he was in the alternate Twilight Town, he had a hard enough time trying to not get those two confused.

"We could always get the one in Hollow Bastion." Sora suggested as they made their way back to the Gummi Ship.

"Was the fight even taken there?" asked Kairi.

"Sora!" came Lilo's voice from far away. Sora bent down to see her in her full height; she was quite wet from swimming, as was Stitch, who was standing next to her and had extra arms and a couple antennae now.

"What's up?" asked Sora.

"Those black things took over the big dummy and now he's after us." The Big Dummy? Who was that? Nonetheless, they had no time to find out as they heard not too distant stomping.

"Riku, Charity, and Broden, you go back to Hollow Bastion and lock up the world if it isn't still locked. We'll stay back here and take care of... uh. The big dummy." Sora told them.

Deciding not to argue because they had all done that enough, they ran back to the direction of the Gummi Ship.

Standing before Sora, Kairi, Quince, and Nessa was a giant, blue alien-like man, but he had a Heartless sign on his chest and his eyes were a glowing, bright yellow. Then again, they couldn't exactly tell if that was normal. Questioning no longer, they readied Destiny Blade, Maybe Memories, Nessa's sword and Kingdom Key.

xxxxx

"Where were ya, Roxas?" asked Axel, who was leaning against the wall of his room. They were becoming accustomed to hanging around in there as Xemnas allowed Naminé to do her work in his room.

Naminé was quietly drawing at the table. The drawings looked very intricate, much more intricate than the ones she used to make just for fun. She didn't seem to be enjoying it either. She did, however, look up and smile brightly while Roxas entered the room. That was enough.

"I was sealing a keyblade." he replied.

"Roxas," Naminé spoke up for the first time in hours, practically slamming her colored pencil next to her paper, standing up. "I want them to make it through the dark barrier and find us as much as you do, but I won't let you risk your own neck for that." She grabbed him by the arms, "If anyone will, I'll do it."

"No, no, no. Definitely not." Axel interjected, "None of us risk ourselves anymore. We'll do what they say, unless it's an attack on them. At that point, we'll sneak Naminé out and we can fight the Organization back."

Fighting the Organization back. Such strange words to hear from the Organization's very own number VII. He had truly reformed.

"Sounds like a plan." Roxas smiled. He threw off his Organization coat and put it on his bed, to reveal his casual clothing underneath; something he was much more used to nowadays. "I'm going to go get water." he lied, walking out of the room. He walked down the hallway slowly and carefully so he wouldn't be noticed, something that reminded him of what Nessa used to do to visit him when she was lonely or confused.

He approached a normal looking door and walked right through it without even pulling the handle so he wouldn't cause a commotion or unnecessary noise from well-trained ears. Walking in the room, it seemed no different than his own. It was dark, although, so he turned on the light.

The Heartless was sitting there; she seemed so much different, if you could even call it a 'she'. The physical appearance was the same, but she was more aware. She knew what she was doing, and much to Roxas's surprise, he found a box labeled 'Nobody Hearts' to the side.

"Does Xemnas know you've made these?" Roxas asked, hoping she would be able to respond.

"They're not right. I don't remember how to make them the right." she mumbled. Although she was now literate and audible, she seemed melancholy in her way of speaking. Although, she had her hands in such a position as if she was holding something when really, there was nothing in her hands. Out of a burst, another heart had appeared in her hands. After only a second of examining it, she sighed, and threw it into the box with the rest.

"How can you tell they're wrong?" asked Roxas.

"I've always been able to tell." Naminé had obviously been very productive on these memories. Roxas thought for a second; maybe if he was able to get it through to this Heartless that she had never lived through these, they would bring Naminé back with the rest of them.

"What's your name?" he asked. Roxas was interested in the name that Naminé had chosen for her.

"...Name?" she asked. She looked down at her hands. "I... name...? What is my name?"

Roxas was truly in utter shock. She hadn't given the Heartless a name? He would have to ask her why later.

There was one name that Roxas had particularly liked. "Calypso."

The girl's head turned. "Hidden." she responded.

Roxas shook his head, "Not the meaning. That's your name; you've forgotten already?" he gave her a lopsided smile.

"That's my name?" she asked. Looking down and saying something, Roxas realized Naminé seemed to give her a sense of humor. "Gullible isn't in the dictionary."

Roxas laughed. "Really. Trust me."

The Heartless turned around. For an imitation of Charity, or a part of her, she really was beautiful. She looked real; like a person. Was Naminé really enjoying making her a 'real person' this much.

"I'm sorry." Roxas said. "That the Organization is making you create these hearts."

Calypso cocked her head to the side. "I've been with the Organization my whole life." she told him. "Don't you remember?"

Nodding sadly, Roxas told her, "Yeah, I remember."

"I made one successful heart last night." she said, right as his hand was on the doorknob. She although, did not move at all.

"For who?" he asked.

"His name was Anton." she replied.

Roxas almost broke the doorknob under his grip. "Where is he now?"

xxxxx

"Where is the keyhole?" asked Charity angrily.

"I think we've looked everywhere." Broden scratched the side of his face, and then stuck his hands into his pockets.

"I wouldn't be surprised." replied Riku as he laid his back against the wall. Charity walked up to him and pressed her body against his. Riku laughed. "Trying to make me happy?" he asked, "Why?"

"Because I think the keyhole might be in Merlin's room." Charity told him.

Obviously he would have needed some comfort beforehand.

xxxxx

"This... thing... won't... die!" Nessa complained, straddling the neck of the giant alien and slashing his thick skin over and over again with her sword, getting absolutely nowhere. She eventually settled for the hilt in hopes of putting him in a coma, which failed as well. The keyblades didn't seem to be getting much of anywhere, either.

Meanwhile, Lilo was trying to get in on the fight no matter how much Sora and begged her not to; she insisted on biting at his leg, both because it 'tasted like chicken' and was the 'only way to really knock him out'.

Stitch, however, was fighting just as hard as the rest of the group. He seemed to be using two odd laser guns that the rest of them refused to ask exactly what they were made of. Unfortunately, these weapons (and possibly Lilo's biting) were the only ones that actually affected him.

"I give up." Sora mumbled, stepping backwards. "There's gotta be a different way to—..." He was stopped as Stitch took his final shot at 'The Big Dummy', and sent him down the edge of the cliff that they had been fighting on.

"There we go." Nessa said brightly.

"Well," Quince said, trying to act as though he was the one that got rid of the creature. He walked up to Lilo and bent over to meet her eye-to-eye, "Things should be okay now. If you ever see any more bad things, little girl, tell us."

"How can we tell you if you live in another world you moron?" asked the little girl.

Quince frowned. "Charming." he trailed off as he stood up to his full height. "Let's leave. This world can be swallowed fucking whole for all I care."

"No need to be Mr. Roger." Nessa shrugged.

"Oh... crap." Sora's voice shook. "They've got the Gummi Ship."

Quince smiled pleasantly. "Oh. Of course. So you're saying that we're stuck on this happy little island with this happy little girl and a happy giant blue alien that could be resurfacing any second because it's a giant blue crapload of 'immortal'?"

Kairi backed away slightly.

"Pretty much." Sora shrugged. Nessa shook her head; surely he wouldn't live more than a couple minutes.

Quince just smiled, and pulled up Maybe Memories, pointing it to his head.

"No, no, no, no, no," Nessa trailed on as she slowly brought his arm back to his side.

"Stitch can take you on his space ship." Lilo suggested.

"Aren't little girls supposed to be happy?" asked Quince.

"Aren't keyblade wielders supposed to be... not suicidal?" she asked.

"SPACESHIP!" Stitch shouted out to them, in surprisingly good Japanese. "WE GO ON SPACESHIP KAY?"

Stitch took Sora by the hand and led him towards the spaceship, everybody following him.

xxxxx

"Anton?" asked Naminé. She shook her head. "I never gave her a memory like that. She must have really done it; it probably means that she's ready to make real hearts." Naminé pressed her pencil to the paper and began sketching a 'good' heart.

"You never named her." Roxas mentioned.

Naminé shook her head. "I couldn't think of anything."

"She's calypso, now." nodded Roxas.

Axel laughed, "That's a weird name, Rox."

Roxas shrugged, "I like it. And it's unisexual, so if you ever wanted to make her a boy, it'd work." he laughed.

Naminé gave a sad smile. "It's a scary thought." she admitted, "to think that I'm really making a person, or a Heartless. I've only strung together a few memories, the farthest I've gone was replacing somebody in Sora's childhood. But a whole lifetime... It's hard and scary."

"I'd believe it." Axel sighed.

Roxas looked around at them; suddenly he felt like they were Sora, Riku, and Kairi. In their own messed-up way, they almost were, and not by the fact that Sora and Kairi were Roxas and Naminé's somebodies.

xxxxx

Charity, Riku and Broden almost died of shock when they finally came across the keyhole, hidden in a place in Merlin's room that they really didn't want to go digging through. Refusing to look, Riku turned his head around and pointed Way to Dawn at the keyhole. It sealed up and they made their way out of the room as quickly as possible.

As they rushed out, they found themselves face-to-face with Tifa. Both Broden and Riku far outdid her in height, but she still seemed intimidating standing right there with a look on her face. "What were you doing in... Merlin's room?"

"Sealing a keyhole that shouldn't have even been there." Charity responded for all three of them. Both of the boys just nodded.

Tifa sighed. "Your friends just came back in a really odd looking spaceship that a little blue monster drove them here in."

All of their eyes widened together, and they rushed out of the house.

"I... totally forgot that we took the Gummi Ship?" Charity tried to take the blame as they came face-to-face with an annoyed Nessa, a scared Kairi, a mental broken down Quince, and the same flowery Sora.

xxxxx

"They're crazy if they think I'm giving away my weapon to that Heartless once she's done with those fake memories." Exie murmured as she stomped down the hallway. She had messed things up in at least eight rooms already and Xemnas had threatened to send her to the basement.

A girl was talking to herself in a room. She stopped in front of the door and pressed her ear to the wooden door. "It's not Larxene." Exie said to herself. As she had sat through one meeting already, she knew of Larxene's annoying voice. This voice was much calmer and much younger, and actually sounded female.

Ignoring all urge to stop doing things wrong so she's not thrown in the furnace, she stepped through the door.

In a flash of white, she was out cold.

xxxxx

A knock on the door woke Riku up from a dead sleep. He was becoming much too big for his bed, as height was the only affect that time had on him. It was doubtful that he would be getting any taller after nineteen.

"Riku?" asked Charity, walking in. Riku sighed out of relief. "I can't sleep." she complained.

Riku smirked. "So are we going back to the times three years ago that we used to talk only by moonlight?" he asked, holding out an arm. Charity laid down on his bed, and snuggled into his arm, resting her head on his chest.

"I guess so." Charity was obviously sleepy, but couldn't sleep anyway; leave it to her. "Maybe it's because my Heartless is gone."

"Could be." Riku mumbled quietly.

"It's weird." Charity whispered to him, "Sometimes I see some of the things that she's seeing or see some of her memories."

"I guess that's natural," he whispered back, "she is a part of you, a potential part or not. Kind of like Nessa and Sada."

"The past, the existing, and the potential. Is that all that we are?" asked Charity. It was true; the past was their memories, the existing would be them, and the potential would be Almost Somebodies and Heartless. "But where do Nobodies lie?"

"They don't." Riku shook his head, "Technically speaking, they're not supposed to exist." Charity nodded. She knew this; it just felt odd being said by somebody else.

As Charity finally managed to close her eyes while lying comfortably between Riku and the wall of the other side of the bed, another vision came into her head. Her eyes shot wide open.

"I think she brought back Anton."

Author's Note: Eventful, ne? I bet you're itching to find out what happened to Exie and Calypso. I love that name; so happy I used it. XD See you next chapter!