Roxas and Ria had been walking through the streets of traverse town in search of the heartless that were supposed to be infesting this world, they had been searching for hours, yet not one heartless appeared. This was odd for roxas, he knew how to hunt heartless, thanks to his experience in the organization. This should have been easy, yet none of the little darkness dwellers were anywhere to be found. The streets should have had people running and screaming in fear, but instead people were taking pleasant strolls while being blissfully unaware of the danger that was hiding itself from them.

Roxas could see that this was going to take awhile. so to pass the time, he had decided to tell ria about his times in the organization, he would talk about his missions, the worlds he got to see, and the Nobodies that were in the organization.

"and then after every mission, me and Axel would always go to the top of the clock tower and eat ice cream, he called it the icing on the cake!."

"so is Axel the only one you ever hung out with?" Ria questioned.

"well, I think there was someone else I used to like, but... I can't seem to remember them" roxas said as he tried to remember this other friend he had. He could swear he used to hang out with someone other than Axel but the memory of that person had never came to him.

"was it a girl? I think it was" he said.

Ria looked at roxas with a concern in her eyes, whatever he was trying to remember must have been taking a great deal of effort, he looked like he was having a hard time trying to wrap his mind around it.

After fighting through the gizmo shop that was crawling with heartless, Sora had finally reached the long ladder to the rooftop that held the great bell of traverse town, once he got up there, he would have to ring the bell three times to reveal the keyhole of this world. Sora put his hands firmly on the ladder and began climbing.

He knew this place was going to have a lot of heartless, but he didn't figure it would be this bad, the place was so full of them that they were practically the only things walking on the streets, every time sora took five steps, more heartless would just show up, by the time he actually was able to keep on moving, he would be exhausted. Sora had a lot of stamina but even then, he couldn't handle all of this by himself.

He was really wishing donald and goofy were here, they'd be a huge help to him, especially now. Goofy would run all the way to the item shop to get sora a potion so he could regain his strength or they'd say something funny that would always cheer him up.

Even though he could fight perfectly well on his own, he still liked traveling with others, the comfort of knowing that you always had someone to watch your back was something he had grown used to, and now that it was just him doing this, he was starting to miss that comfort.

He really wished riku could join him, or if ria had not gotten the idea of splitting up.

He was really starting to worry about her, and he was thinking about her more than usual. Not only was he concerned for her safety but he also just thought about the little interactions he had made with her, she would laugh and giggle at his jokes (which she was probably faking, because sora knew his jokes were terrible). She would be interested in his stories and she also seemed to genuinely care about him, he also seemed to care about her genuinely too, but it still felt rather odd, seeing as how they only met four days ago. And today she literally said 'sora, I want to live on the island with you' it made sora so happy to hear her say that, and it made him even happier when he accepted, the thought of her sitting on the beach with him was a pleasant one.

Yet the odd thing was, they had developed a good friendship rather quickly, if kairi could see how close ria and sora became, she would kill him.

Kairi... sora had almost forgotten about her, she had always been the very reason why he undertook his journeys, to find her so they could all go back to the islands, she was his ambition, his drive, his reason for traveling the worlds, putting himself in great dangers, all for her, and riku too.

It felt strange, he had never really gone this long without thinking of her, maybe it was because he knew she was safe. but still, it felt odd to him.

He soon reached the top of the roof that held the great bell. surprisingly, there were no heartless up here. finally, a break.

He moved two large crates that were blocking his path and then moved into the tight old corridor, there he brushed the spider webs away from the rope that was attached to the top of the bell, giving it a hard tug.

The massive bell sounded its chime and when looking down at the fountain in the 2nd district, the stained glass style mural had begun to move, changing to a different pattern.

Sora gave a second tug, harder this time.

The bell sounded quieter the second time, but that was probably just his ears getting use to the loud chime.

As the bell chimed again, the mural over the fountain had rotated again, this time it revealed a stained glass portrait of a heart.

"one more time" he said as he breathed in and gave the bell one more heavy pull.

The bell chimed the loudest that time, now the fountain had a mural with a stain glass portrait of a keyhole, the direct entrance to the heart of this world.

Now all that was left to do was to climb down there and seal the thing up.

Ria and roxas had heard the three great chimes of the bell and roxas had said that sora must have found the keyhole, now they would have to go and tell him that their hunt went awful.

As they took their steps forward, roxas could spot something out of the corner of his eye, it looked like a humanoid figure in white, roxas knew full well what it was.

"ria, duck!" roxas said as he pushed ria to the ground, and he tilted his head back, almost inches away from the dusk's aerial attack.

The two of them quickly got up, only to find that this dusk had not come alone, it brought friends... many friends.

"it's an ambush!" roxas said, as they observed the numbers of their opponents they were surrounded by what must have been thirty nobodies, every one of them a different shape and size.

Ria summoned her keyblade, as roxas did the same.

He pulled the oathkeeper and oblivion keyblades out from his coat, and twirled them around in each hand, showing off and preparing himself at the same time.

The two of them charged at the surrounding nobodies, both of them slashing here and there, quickly getting rid of them, roxas was fighting on the ground with his two keyblades, hacking and slashing anything that came too close, while ria was attacking from the air, sending her enemies high and then slamming them to the ground, occasionally she'd throw out a dark fireball that would do heavy damage, perfect for taking out the bigger enemies, the more she used her powers, the more she took a liking to them, even if all she could do was throw black fire, it was still pretty cool.

The more they defeated, the more there seemed to be, they had been going for about a good hour and a half, roxas looked like he was going to pass out any time soon, and ria wasn't doing much better.

"how many of you are there?!" she yelled before charging again, swinging her keyblade straight at the head of a dusk, killing it.

"how you holding up, roxas?" she said as she turned around, only to see roxas had passed out, and now all the nobodies were coming for her.

She took up a defensive position and only focused on blocking and counteracting.

A half an hour had passed and ria was able to reduce their numbers, now only ten of them remained.

She tried as hard as she could to continue the fight, but her body wouldn't allow it. Her muscles were sore, her breathing was heavy, her own legs could barley support her weight, it was even a struggle just to hold her keyblade, she just couldn't take anymore.

"i... give up" she said, collapsing to the ground in exhaustion.

It was over, they won. Now one of two things would happen, she would die right her, right now, or she would be hauled back to that awful castle in that dark and gloomy world, probably put in a tighter cell and under constant watch, and once again forced to undo sora's hard work.

The nobodies had succeeded, and to further taunt the fallen keyblade wielders, they began doing some twisted dance in celebration of their victory. Great, add insult to injury. One of the nobodies had now begun to shake and spasm erratically and charged for ria. Guess they planed on killing her.

But before it could land the killing blow, it had just randomly been set ablaze, then a man wearing the same black long coat as roxas and the organization freaks had appeared, he was wielding bright red chakram-like weapons and had been throwing them at the nobodies, setting them on fire as the weapons touched them. The remaining nobodies had either burned to ash or made a tactical retreat. Once the combat was done, the black cloaked man lifted his hood to reveal his bright red hair styled into slicked-back spikes. Roxas soon woke up from his unconscious state and the first thing he saw brought him joy.

"Axel!" he cried, running into the arms of his best friend. Ria looked at them, so this was axel, if that was so, then ria guessed she could trust him... somewhat.

"Axel? Please!, the name's Lea. Got it memorized?" he said as he embraced roxas, who quickly embraced back.

"i missed you so much, Axel"

"i missed you too, roxas. But seriously, call me lea."

the two had then separated from their hug and axel, or now known as lea, looked towards ria.

"who's this, roxas? You find yourself a girl?" he said, making her blush.

"yeah, this is ria, sexiest girl alive" he said, putting an arm around her, making her blush more.

"hey ria, name's lea. Got it memorized?" he said, pointing towards his skull. Was that like his catchphrase or something?

"Uh, yeah" was all she could say.

"good, I like that, you're a quick learner."

roxas had decided to explain the plan to lea.

"hunting our heartless, you sure that's a good plan?"

"well yeah, we all joined the organization to get our hearts back, right?. So if all of org XIII get hearts, then they wouldn't be nobodies anymore."

"i hate to break it to you roxas, but we didn't 'join' the organization, and it wasn't because we wanted hearts." lea said. "we didn't join the organization, we were forced, the only reason we went along with that was because we had no other place to go, and we still don't. It doesn't matter if we have hearts or not, nothing is going to change."

roxas held his head down in shame, he had such confidence in sora's plan, since sora was a part of roxas, so to hear that the entire thing was an awful idea discouraged him.

"hey, don't worry about it, we can think up another plan." ria said, trying to cheer roxas up.

"ooh, a supporter!, you are turning out to be quite the package, girl" lea said.

"hey, im not his girlfriend!"

"of course your not, your ria sayomi, the escaped prisoner who also has the power of darkness at her fingertips" lea said.

"you know me?"

"i read your file" lea said again, putting his hands behind his head in a relaxed position, like sora would do.

"i have a file?".

After a small little chat, lea said that he had business to take care of, and wished his friend roxas a farewell.

"wait, axe... I mean lea, come with us!"

"sorry roxie, but I gotta keep moving or the organization is gonna come after me next, besides, I can't spend the rest of my time babysitting." he said as he stepped through a corridor of darkness, disappearing.

"roxas, you okay?" ria asked.

"yeah, i'm good. I'm just glad he's okay. come on, lets RTS"

"RTS?" ria asked, confused.

"yeah, RTS, return to sora" roxas said.

"oohh, I get it!" she said.

"come on"

sora had finally made it to the fountain in the 2nd district of traverse town, now all that was left was to seal the keyhole, find ria, and get out of here. He hoped she and roxas were able to find any of the organization's heartless.

He summoned his keyblade and held it to the lock, the tip of the key began to glow and a beam of light shot out of the weapon, entering the keyhole, the sound of a lock had been heard and with that the keyhole was sealed, this world was safe once more.

"good job, hero" he heard a voice coming from behind, turning to see who owned the voice, he found a man wearing a black and red bodysuit that looked fairly similar to the one riku used to wear when he was under maleficence's control, the man was also wearing a mask too hide his face.

"w-who are you?" sora asked to the masked man, who had his arms crossed.

"it's a shame, you can save as many worlds as you want, but its so hard for you to save your friends."

"what?" sora asked.

"take ria, for example. You might not know this, but your little girlfriend is doomed." he said. "even as we speak, the darkness inside her is withering away at her heart and soul, rotting her mind. Just like it did to riku."

"riku? How do you know riku?"

"think about it. Even though riku learned how to control and master his power, he isn't the same. And ria will be given a similar fate, when the darkness swallows her heart, she will become the one thing she was meant to be, a slave who follows her master willingly, obeying all orders without question, and of course, all slaves need masters, once the darkness has taken over, i'll be happy to apply for that position, i've always wanted a pet." the masked man finished.

"you don't know what your talking about, ria wouldn't let the darkness into her heart!" sora said as he drew his keyblade.

"she already has. you don't understand, do you, ventus?"

"ventus?, the name's sora!"

"ventus, even in that new body, you're still a little wimp who can't put up a fight." the masked man said as he drew his keyblade.

The keyblade's teeth and head were black with a red outline and possessed a round, cog-like shape. The handle wass red and the guard had the same coloration and cog-like shape as the teeth. The shaft was predominantly colored in shades of grey and sported a copper-colored gear in the center, with two intersecting, black chains wrapped around it. Two more chains were also wrapped around the base of the shaft in a similar fashion. It also had two dark blue cat-like eyes; one located in the head of the blade and one embedded in the hilt. Its keychain was comprised of three small, copper gears and ended in a charm resembling two halves of a gear arranged in an S-shape.

The masked man then went into his fighting stance, raising his sword hand above his head, and outstretching his hand, with the palm facing down. It was similar to the way ria or riku held their keyblades, but it was slightly different enough to be unique for the masked man. Was this like a common stance or something?.

"come on, ventus. Lets see if your new body helps you run away faster."

sora got into his fighting stance, and began his attack.

He charged forth, but the masked man guarded and quickly countered sora's attack, he was agile, fast too. It was almost impossible for sora to land a hit, and the hits he did land didn't seem to do that much damage. It was like this masked stranger was immune to pain.

Sora had been able to get him trapped in a combo of attacks that sora used, but as he was about to land the finishing blow, the masked man disappeared.

"pathetic!" the masked man said as he slashed sora in the back, teleportation, that's what he used.

Sora fell flat on the ground, defeated in only a matter of minutes.

"that really all you got? Man, you are pathetic" the masked man said. "i'd be going against the master's orders but so what?, a weakling like you doesn't deserve to exist." he said as he charged a dark energy in his hands. This looked like the end for sora, the worse part was that he would never know the face of his killer.

"leave him alone!" the masked man was hit in the head with a blast of dark fire, sora turned only to see ria and roxas, keyblades drawn, and dark smoke coming from ria's hand.

The masked man soon recovered from the attack, large cracks were now apparent on the glass of his helmet.

"great" he said as he took it off, revealing his face. "do you have any idea how hard it is to replace this thing?"

Ria saw the face of the brute who was attacking sora. His hair was long and spiky, the same way sora wore his spikes, only this brute had more than sora and his hair was raven black, his eyes were golden yellow too. If you didn't know better, you'd think they were slightly identical twins. This man's was also slightly more built than sora and was about a good two inches taller.

The man re-drew his keyblade.

Ria glared "keyblades are not something you can use to just bully someone around!"

the two of them prepared to fight while roxas went to help sora.

Don't get him wrong, roxas would have loved to beat that jerk's face in, but what mattered more was sora's safety, if he ever died then so would roxas, they were somewhat the same person after all.

Ria had noticed that she shared the same combat stance as her opponent, which meant one thing, he fights aggressively, this stance in usually taken by those who care more about dealing damage then receiving it.

Ria and the brute charged at the same time, their keyblades clashed and the two were both trying to overpower one another with their weight, ria knew she wouldn't be able to last long, he was muscular and her arms were like toothpicks, she hoped that ether sora or roxas would come to her aid so they could outnumber this guy.

Her prayers were answered when a guy in in a yellow vest with silver hair had laid a slash through the brute's back, causing him to react to the sudden attack, which allowed ria to sneak a painful slash though his chest, tearing a bit of the cloth of his bodysuit.

The guy with silver hair had a keyblade as well and joined ria in the fight.

"riku!" sora shouted, giving a name to the newcomer, so this was sora's friend, well ria was glad for the assistance.

Both roxas and sora quickly joind the fight and the four of them had this jerk surrounded and outnumbered.

"four to one doesn't really sound fair" he said as a corridor of darkness opened up behind him. "so I guess im out. Consider yourselves... on probation." he then walked away into the black portal, roxas wanted to go after him but riku stopped him, saying that the brute wasn't worth it.

After everything had settled down, roxas had returned to sora's body and riku was filled in on what was going on.

"so let me get this straight, the organization have been using her to unlock worlds and collect hearts and through some kind of magic plot thing, they are all alive?"

"that's about it, two whole quests to save the universe, flushed down the drain" sora said.

"oh, im sorry, I haven't introduced myself yet, im riku" he said to her.

"im ria" she said as they shook hands.

"so, why are you here, riku?" sora asked.

"i'm looking for my family"

"what family?" sora said.

"i have a missing sister and mother, and their out there somewhere, I want to find and meet them" riku said as he looked high into the skies.

Ria could understand riku's plight, she recently discovered that she had a missing father and brother and she would like to meet them too.

"hey riku, why don't you come with us?" sora asked. "you can find your family while we stop organization XIII... again"

"no thanks" he said

"why not?" sora said with a heartbroken look on his face.

"this is something I have to do on my own, sora. And besides, I can't be seen with a total sap like you". He said as he gave a small chuckle.

"fine, I don't need you anyway" sora said in a playful tone as he walked away. "come on ria" she followed.

Ria gave a quick look at riku, who was standing in the same spot while gazing up at the stars and moon. She turned around and went back to him.

"hey, riku?"

"yeah? Whats up?"

"i wanna wish you luck on your journey, and... if you find your sister, tell her she's lucky to have a big brother like you." she said as she smiled and walked away.

Riku thought about it for awhile, his quest could be easier with sora and the new girl along to help him, and he had never really spent much time with this newcomer, he would like to get to know ria a little more. he couldn't explain it, but he felt an odd need to be close to her, to protect her, it was kinda like a big brother instinct.

"hey wait up!" riku said while running to them.

sora turned. "i knew you'd come crawling back!" sora said as the three laughed.

At the top of the rooftops, master Xehanort stood, looking down on his pupil, it was a shame he never got to see her in action against vanitas, but he was more than satisfied when he saw her face the white husks, the nobodies. The young pupil was growing more close to her power as the days went by, soon she would fully accept and depend on the darkness, whether she knew it or not.

A corridor of darkness opened behind the elderly master, but he knew who was in it.

Vanitas emerged from the dark portal and bowed his head in respect to his master.

"you were going to kill him." Xehanort said.

"he wasn't gonna cut it. Even in that new body, he's still a defenseless loser."

"yes, what do you make of my new pupil?" Xehanort changed his subject

"like my opinion matters" vanitas said sarcastically. "i like her, she's feisty and you know how I can't resist a violent woman. it's too bad that weakling interrupted our fun, I never got to see what she was made of"

"in time, boy, you will get your battle" Xehanort said. "i have great things planned for her" he said as he watched her and the others leave the area.

"great things. When she has exhausted her usefulness, then you may have a new toy to play with."

Vanitas smiled at that idea.