Xanthas stared in awe at the chrome giant in front of him. Sleekly built, it appeared almost like an arrowhead, with slightly tempered, curved wings that had blasters attached to them. It wasn't as big as a house, but it was definitely bigger than he was. Much bigger. "So," he said, eyes widened, looking up, "we get to fly these things?"

Fox laughed. "Of course. These are the spare Arwings. Of course, they're not as good as mine or Falco's, but they'll do."

Brandon scratched his head. "So how do we get in?"

Fox pressed a button on the panel on the near wall, and ladders erupted from the floor, leading up to the cockpits of the Arwings. The cockpits opened.

"Oh."

Xanthas completely ignored the ladder and jumped right in.

Brandon was surprised at this. "How'd you do that? You just jumped like ten feet in the air!"

Xanthas almost laughed. "Without emotion…much of the energy that was devoted to your heart is divided elsewhere. I think it's fair to say that were I to get back my heart, I would become weak again. However, it's a small price to pay."

Fox laughed. "You two better get going. Falco and I will catch up later, as soon as we get to our ships. Good luck out there."

As Brandon climbed his way into his cockpit, Xanthas paused. Brandon saw the look on his face and showed concern. "Is something wrong?"

"He's found me."

"Who's found you? The leader of Organization XIII?"

"No. The Organization was destroyed many months ago, by a guy named Sora. This guy's bigger than the Organization. MUCH bigger."

"Who is he?"

"Well," Xanthas explained, "Sora thought he'd defeated Xemnas, the Organization's leader, for good. Lots of other people thought so, too. Apparently, though, a part of Xemnas survived. Apparently that single part of Xemnas had enough power to take over a human and transform him into a Nobody again. Without a heart, he was still a Nobody, but he found that absorbing other Nobodies made him stronger. He found scattered small pieces of the Organization's members left behind, and absorbed them, trying to take their powers as well. He had some success, but he couldn't use any of the powers at full power for some reason. For that, he calls himself 'Remnant'. I guess he's saying he's the last remnant of Organization XIII."

Brandon scratched his head. "How do you know all this about him?"

Xanthas shook his head. "He told me so himself. He found me a long time ago, and explained his dilemma. Told me he'd reconsider my offer to join him and that he'd up the ante by giving me control over half the universe or something crazy like that. Obviously, I told him no, that he was nuts if he thought I'd ever join him anyway."

"So what happened next?"

"Well, he got mad, and attacked me. I was able to beat him off with the Nothing Blade, but just barely. I think in a fair fight he'd beat me, to be honest. Now he's trying to absorb powerful Nobodies, and I guess I'm number one on his hit list."

"So, what are you gonna do?"

"Well, there isn't much I can do, except hop a couple more worlds and hope he loses my trail."

"Wait…so I won't see you again?"

"You might. Not sure, really. It's entirely possible, with both of us world-hopping and all. But I don't want this guy to find you. Remnant doesn't mess around. He's here to take over, and anyone who stands in his way either ends up dead…or worse."

"So…you're just gonna leave? Just like that?"

"Don't worry. I'm sure we'll see each other again soon. Just keep fighting for what you believe in. Strong hearts lead people down the right path. If we're to meet again, your heart will guide you to the place. Same as with your friend. If you keep moving along, looking for her, your heart will tell you where to look. Just remember her, and you'll see her soon. Remember me, if you'd like, too. I'll be rooting for the both of you. When I find my heart, I'll do what I can to help you two out."

"Sure thing."

Xanthas laughed. "Sorry to get all sentimental on you."

"It's okay, I'm used to it."

"Well, I'd give you a heartfelt goodbye…But as we both know I don't really have the capacity to do that."

Xanthas chuckled, and a dark shadow erupted from the floor. He jumped down from the Arwing, into the shadow, and disappeared.

"Hm. Weird guy. Well, I guess now I'm stuck alone trying to learn how to fly this thing. Better learn quick."

The hangar door opened as Brandon's cockpit closed above him. He pulled back on the throttle to start the engines, and looked around the console for a 'go' button.

"Hm…this looks about right."

He pressed a large green button, and the Arwing lifted off the ground. It then shot out into space, and Brandon gained full control.

Brandon grabbed hold of the strange joystick control, and jerked it around almost randomly, attempting to get a feel for the handling of the Arwing. "Man, this thing is cool!" he exclaimed as he performed a series of loops and rolls.

Suddenly, two more Arwings flew by him. He heard a voice over his panel's communicator. "Heh. I see he's getting the feel for the Arwing, Fox. You sure this punk's gonna be of any help?"

"Knock it off, Falco. We need all the help we can get."

Brandon rolled his eyes. Obviously there was some sort of command issue between these two.

Fox turned his attention to Brandon as the Arwings flew through space. "Now, Brandon. On the joystick, there are three different buttons. One is for the shield, one is for the lasers, and one is for the bombs. The shield is the center button, the left is lasers, bombs on the right. Be careful, that Arwing only has three bombs in it, and you're not likely to find anymore in space that aren't trying to blow you up. The shield has limited power, but the lasers work just fine. Try 'em out if you want."

Brandon fired a laser blast at a nearby meteoroid, which instantly disintegrated. Brandon laughed slightly evilly. "So, where is this Andross, anyway?"

"He's located in a nearby subsystem. The planet he recently took over was called Venom, but he abandoned his base on the ground for a space station. He won't be easy to get rid of, especially not with his new Heartless friends."

"So, what do we do, then?"

"Simple. We wipe 'em out."

Falco laughed. "Sure, you say it's simple."

Suddenly, they were interrupted by a fleet of ships roughly half the size of their Arwings. They were disk-like, and they bore a strange symbol on their center that resembled a heart with an arrow sticking out of the bottom. Brandon tensed when he saw the symbol. It had already started.

"Get 'em!" yelled a voice over the intercom. It was Slippy, cheering on Fox and Falco.

Brandon looped around a Heartless ship and fired a laser at it, damaging it enough so that it careened out of control and hit another, exploding, but in an instant the explosion vanished, as the oxygen within the ships was used up.

Getting cocky, Brandon did a more complicated loop around the next ship before shooting it. "Just try to keep up."

Falco laughed. "So, it's a game you want? You're outta your league, kid."

He tore through eight ships with the greatest of ease, ramming the last one head-on, without so much as scratching his Arwing. The ship fell back into the fleet and he blew it to pieces.

Fox chuckled. "Well, I guess this won't be a boring battle."

Together, the three made short work of the Heartless fleet. Brandon was growing impatient. "So, why are we just standing around here doing nothing? Why aren't we fighting Andross?"

Fox recoiled in surprise in his ship. "Kid, you only just got here. You can't possibly think you can beat Andross like this."

"Why not?"

"You have no experience piloting an Arwing. It's a miracle you've done as well as you have."

"Heh. I live for miracles. Andross is going down."

Fox laughed. Although he disagreed, he appreciated the confidence.