Cloud discovered, when he awoke the next day, that the boys had indeed kept to his instruction of only coming to look for him when it was at least noon. Riku had apparently gotten the list of items to deliver from the basement office, though, as both the list and the items were missing. A quick check told Cloud that the boys were not in the house.

He staggered into the kitchen bleary-eyed and began making something that would hopefully make him feel more awake. As he walked by the fridge, he saw a message pinned to it with a magnet.

We're taking the chocoboes. Be right back!

Cloud considered the message for a while. He figured that his chocoboes would probably keep the boys out of trouble. He settled down for breakfast, only to be interrupted by his phone. He almost gagged when he saw that it was Sora's number. He pressed the receive button. "Hello?"

"Cloud! You're not gonna believe this but we were right! We can seal up the holes with our keyblades! That was totally cool!" The voice continued prattling on about some thing or the other.

"What in the world are you doing?" Cloud demanded to know. "Better yet, where on the planet are you?"

Some random sounds and loud noises later, Riku's voice came through. "We're around the desert area. Goldsaucer area, I think. The hole showed up all of a sudden, and... we acted without thinking. We're really sorry about this."

Cloud groaned softly. "Hopefully, no one saw you," he sighed. "Come right back here, you two, and tell me what just happened."

"Okay, see you soon then," Riku agreed, and hung up.

Left with nothing to do but to eat his cooling breakfast while waiting for the boys to return, Cloud did just that.

The boys were back in two hours, by which time Cloud was wide awake and ready to unleash his fury on his wayward employees. Until he saw them trot in, mud on their faces and sand in their hair. He gave them both a pointed look, then jerked a thumb in the direction of the bathroom. The two boys grinned sheepishly and began shuffling into their room to get their toiletries, before taking turns to make themselves clean and presentable again.

"Now you can tell me all about your sandy adventures," Cloud said, when they were down in the basement office after the boys had had their showers.

Riku started off. "We thought we would do the deliveries while you rested, and since the chocoboes were clamouring for attention, we took two out with us."

"Monsters really hate chocoboes!" Sora interjected.

"...The birds can outrun them, but even if they're in the path the monsters just avoid them. It's quite fascinating," Riku added. "Anyway, we were on our way back from that small settlement at the edge of the Goldsaucer desert when we saw a hole suddenly opening up in the sky. We didn't know whether to inform you first or not, but when it started to slowly shrink, we thought we might as well try it out."

"Try our keyblades on it, that is," the cheery voice of Sora supplied.

"Sora gave it a go first. Nothing happened. I tried too, but nothing happened either."

"So we thought, might as well do it together! So we pulled a Reality Shift on that thing and some fireworks happened. After that, the hole flashed bright white and faded out of view."

That was probably about as detailed as they could get for now, Cloud mused to himself. He wasn't sure he remembered what exactly a reality shift was, but going by the context, it had to be something like a combination attack. "You sure it didn't just spin into itself like the one in Cactus Island?"

"Very," Riku nodded solemnly.

"What does that even mean, though?" Cloud wondered out loud. As if on cue, his phone rang. It was Nanaki. Dread suddenly filled Cloud, as he knew Nanaki had been watching the skylines of the planet. The red lion might have noticed something. He picked up the call. "Nanaki?"

"Hello Cloud, and yes, it's me," Nanaki's calm, soothing voice said. "I wanted to let you know that the hole above Midgar has reappeared, in the exact same spot. I was just thinking this piece of information could probably be somewhat helpful, although I don't know what exactly it might be helpful for, hence the call. Any new updates from Reeve?"

"He's going to collect the blocks that dropped out of the hole in Cactus Island, last I heard," Cloud said. "And yes, any information will be of help, so don't worry and keep them coming in, Nanaki."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that," the beast sounded genuinely reassured. "Hopefully Reeve can find out more about those blocks. We have to be getting somewhere eventually with this entire fiasco."

"I'm sure we will," Cloud was already thinking about the hole in Midgar. "If you find more holes, be sure to tell me, okay?"

"Sure, although that's the only hole I've seen so far, since the one in Cactus Island closed. The planetarium isn't extremely accurate, anyway, since it can only playback what the telescopes record. Just for your information. Don't expect too much out of it."

Cloud actually felt guilty about the relief he was feeling in his heart. "Thanks for that anyway. I'll talk to you soon, then," he said, and after bidding his friend goodbye, disconnected the call. Turning to the boys, he said, "Fortunately for you, the planetarium doesn't seem to have captured that hole in Goldsaucer. However, don't think that gives you a free pass to do whatever you want without thinking the next time, all right?" He shook his head. "And don't let me catch you doing deliveries outside the Costa del Sol region again without my permission!"

"Aww," Sora deflated. "But it was fun!"

Not for the first time since meeting Sora, Cloud really wanted to have some of what that boy was on. He cleared his throat. "The hole in Midgar has opened up again. Looks like the holes don't close themselves permanently. They probably just blink out for a while. If that's true, then your keyblades may be just what we need to put a stop to this nonsense at the moment. That also means that you're going to have to explain things to Reeve sooner or later, though."

"We're cool with that," was Sora's immediate reply. "I mean, he's a really nice guy. I don't think he'll react that badly if we tell him we're here to help."

Plus, he had a soft spot for children, Cloud thought to himself. "We don't know for sure if your keyblades work yet, or if the holes really aren't disappearing by themselves. The one in Midgar may be just a fluke. We'll wait for a while more. Nanaki will keep me updated about the appearance of those things."

Sora and Riku nodded. They took their duties as keyblade wielders extremely seriously.

"I was wondering..." Cloud was saying. "If the keyblades can seal the holes up... Does the process go both ways? Can they also... create holes?"

His question resulted in a several confused blinks from the two boys. "None of the holes were opened by us, if that's what you're asking..." Riku frowned.

"Of course that's not what I'm asking," Cloud wanted to sigh, but refrained. "I'm only asking because if it's possible, I was thinking we could try to open one up in the house, to see for ourselves what its effects are."

The bothered glint in Riku's eyes slowly began to clear up. "That's... actually a rather good idea," he admitted. "Except... we don't know if it works both ways."

Sora hopped onto his feet. "We can try!" His keyblade was out in the next instant, and it pointed it at the basement ceiling. "Umm... Open sesame?"

A light shot out from his keyblade, hitting the ceiling and pooling into a glowing puddle there. Nothing else happened.

"That beam of light had better not have gone through the house ceiling into the sky above," Cloud remarked offhandedly.

Riku stood up this time. "I'll go check," he announced, then dashed away to do just that. A rather short while later, he returned. "It hasn't."

"My hands are tiring," Sora complained.

"Here, let me try too," Riku summoned his keyblade and pointed it at the ceiling as well. The beam of light emerged without him needing to say anything. It pooled around the uneven ceiling like Sora's did, but that was about all.

Sora had dismissed his beam of light by now and was staring at the ceiling. "Should we try the Reality Shift again?"

Riku kept the beam of light focused on the ceiling for just a bit longer, then lowered his keyblade. The light vanished along with the action. "Might as well."

Both of them raised their keyblades in unison, and the outline of a double-sided key flashed into view, with each half of the key being made up of a light impression emanating from each of the two boys' keyblade. The basement ceiling wasn't low by any means, but only half of the large, multicoloured mirage key could be seen when it grew to full size. The boys kept the key in that position. Cloud watched as the gathering puddle of rainbow coloured light slowly spread to all corners of the ceiling, glowing brighter and brighter as it did.

Finally, the illuminated key vanished, and the light it had shone on the ceiling transformed in that very instant into a deep, swirling darkness.

"That went better than I thought," said Cloud, as he looked up at the vortex that used to be his basement office ceiling. Even though the basement, being that it was underground, was always rather cool, the temperature in the room had dipped drastically the moment the vortex showed up. There was also a light breeze coming from the gentle spinning of the hole. "I guess that answers the question of whether you can open holes or not, huh?"

Sora was looking up at the dark spot as well. "That's pretty cool! Seems like we learn new things about the keyblade every day we spend with it."

"Where does the portal lead to? Do you know?" Cloud asked.

Riku shook his head. "We have the key to open doors to other worlds, but we wouldn't know exactly what's behind the door until we actually open it."

"So this 'door' leads to another world, then?"

The boys looked at each other. "It's not the usual kind of door that the keyblade opens up..." Sora was saying.

"Going by the keyblade's main function, I'd think it's safe to say that it leads somewhere, at least," Riku continued. He willed his keyblade away and looked back up at the hole. "Only one way to find out."

"Stop," Cloud commanded, before Riku could jump into the vortex. "We're not going to do anything risky. I think it's time to bring Reeve into our confidence. His army of scientists should be able to figure something out without putting either of you through any unnecessary risks."

Before either of the boys could either voice their assent or dissent, however, the portal suddenly flashed bright white. Two confused people fell out of the hole onto the basement floor, and the portal slowly shimmered back into fashionable black.

Sora and Riku had their keyblades out and poised within split seconds.

Cloud reacted a little slower, due to the fact that he recognised the two confused newcomers as allies. He wished he could simply summon his weapon at will like the two boys could. Then again, his memories helpfully reminded him that he could. At least for a time, when he was still gallivanting around with the others in that strange dimension where everything was meshed together. He seemed to have lost that ability when he was sent back.

As his thoughts drifted, the green-haired girl (had she changed her hair colour again?) had gotten onto her feet and turned around. She gasped when she saw him. "Cloud!" she exclaimed, her confusion transforming into jubilance. "Squall was right! You're finally connected as well!"

"Whoa!" The other person, a young man in blue with short, brown hair, had gotten up as well and was apparently more excited about the inside of the basement. "You live in a cave? Like for real?"

Cloud ignored the both of them in favour of addressing the two keyblade holders. "They're with us."

The boys lowered their weapons slightly. "Who are they?" Sora asked, intrigued.

"Terra," Cloud waved at the girl, then at the young man, "and Bartz. Like the both of you, they're from another world."

"That's one way of putting it," Bartz shrugged, and proceeded to make himself comfortable on a random chair.

Terra was a little more hesitant. "Cloud... who are these boys?" she asked to know.

"I'm Sora!" Sora said, all too happy to introduce himself.

"Riku," the other boy nodded in acknowledgement at the girl.

"How is it that you can see us?" came Terra's perplexed question.

Cloud didn't quite understand the question. "I'm supposing, the same way I can see you, or the others from other worlds?"

"We've tried, actually, but no one except those who were involved in the war could use the portals to jump around worlds and be seen by the people of that world," said Bartz.

Come to think of it, Squall did mention something about that. "Jumping around worlds?"

"These holes have been appearing in our skies," Terra explained. "After a while, they start gathering together in one location, and monsters that go near the hole start disappearing and reappearing in other worlds, or other locations of their own worlds. Thankfully, humans aren't being affected yet..."

"Except for us!" Bartz cheerily interjected.

"...and that's why I'm a little surprised to see people on this side of the portal who can actually see us," Terra finished.

Now the bits and pieces of what Squall had been trying to say was starting to make sense. "So... even if you jumped to another world, the people from the other world can't see you, and you can't see them either?"

"We can see them," Bartz corrected, "but they can't see us. Until now, I suppose," he grinned at Sora and Riku.

The amount of pranks Bartz and Zidane must have been playing on the others using that particular scenario made Cloud feel a twinge of pity for the victims. But there was something more important to be discussed. "Is it the same for the monsters?"

"Totally, and that's why we're scrambling all over trying to keep the situation under control," Bartz replied casually, like he was discussing last night's dinner. It was hard to tell if he was being serious or not.

"Some of them are harder to fend off than manikins," Terra commented softly, delivering the confirmation. "They're just so... unfamiliar."

"Almost everyone's seen a Tonberry, though," Bartz grinned again.

This reminded Cloud of something. He turned to the two quietly listening boys. "Besides the sky hole, did the both of you see anything else of significance on Cactus Island? For example... a strange-looking monster?"

The boys looked at each other. Then Sora said, "We saw this really giant cactus... As in... almost as tall as the hole itself..."

Riku added, "Cait Sith didn't seem to pay any attention to it, though, so we thought it was something common on the island, with that name and everything."

"I want to go to a Cactus Island!" Bartz, ever the adventurer, declared. "When's the next trip?"

Cloud wasn't responding, because he had withdrawn into his mind and was thinking. His thought processes were going into overdrive trying to connect all the dots.

Sora and Riku. They were keyblade wielders who could open portals to other worlds - sometimes unknowingly, sometimes forcibly, sometimes just unfortunately. They had no apparent control over what world to connect to. That ability, Cloud had a niggling suspicion, was going to be the key to solving this debacle.

Portals were opening up in this world and the worlds of those who had participated in the war of harmony and discord. The portals were not being opened by Sora or Riku, as far as he and they could tell. There was a strong possibility it could be related to the cyclical war again, although Squall had dismissed that notion.

The barriers between their worlds were made up of something called gummi blocks, which were being dropped all over this world like abandoned bargain sale goods. No signs of Heartlesses, who were usually responsible for such things.

Because barriers were being torn down, worlds were starting to merge together, facilitating invisible monster-and-war-participants-travel. Otherwise, Bartz wouldn't have shown up together with Terra, Squall wouldn't have mentioned Zidane, and Cloud wouldn't be having this giant mess on his hands right now.

Since the worlds were merging through the portals in the sky, and since Sora and Riku had the ability to open (and evidently close) those portals, it would probably be easier for everyone if the boys just dropped by every world and closed up all the portals that were already open.

But who was to say new ones wouldn't open up after they left?

"Are you all right there, Cloud?" Bartz' concerned voice hauled the mulling man back to reality. "I can literally smell the smoke coming up from your head! It's not that complicated, really. Just an inter-world monster hunting adventure, is all."

"Bartz..." Terra frowned disapprovingly at him. "We need to find out how to close the portals too, or the monsters will never stop spilling over to other worlds."

"Right, there's that too," Bartz agreed with a gallant nod.

"So the both of you were chasing some monster when you dropped into the portal?" Cloud asked.

"We didn't drop into anything," Bartz defended himself. "We were just standing around when this new portal suddenly opened up and sucked us both in, completely missing the others with us."

"The Onion Knight must be so worried..." Terra sighed.

"He's in your world too?"

"Yes... as is Cecil. They were with us when this happened."

"Why is everyone over there?"

"Not everyone," Terra shook her head. "Just those who have shown up recently. It's really random sometimes."

"I'm confused," Sora suddenly blurted.

"So am I," Cloud offered. He put a hand on his forehead and sighed. "How long has this 'inter-dimensional monster hunting' thing been going on?"

Bartz and Terra exchanged glances. "There was a lot of flailing before we started realising we had to chase down the monsters, though, so I guess... maybe a few months?" Bartz eventually offered.

"How do you even know if a monster has leapt through worlds?"

"The portals let us know."

"The what?"

"Portals," Bartz was nodding away again. "You can't be transported into another world unless there's a monster from your world in that world. We've verified it already."

"And after you defeat that monster, standing near one of the portals in that world will take you back to your home world again," Terra explained.

After a long silence, Cloud lamented, "This must be what it feels like to catch a movie just before its climax." He turned to Sora and Riku. "Still confused?"

Sora nodded hesitantly, but Riku stayed silent. After a while, the latter said, "I think I sort of understand. Well, the important parts, anyway," Riku shrugged. Turning to Bartz and Terra, he asked, "So the fact that you're here means there are monsters from your worlds in this world, right?"

"Bingo!" Bartz flashed the boy a thumbs-up. He hopped nimbly onto his feet. "So let's go already! There has to be somewhere here that's being attacked by invisible monsters, right?"

Cloud suspected not, since he hadn't heard anything from Reeve yet. "Do you know what monster it is?"

"We usually don't find out until we see it," Terra said sadly. "But since the portals always appear above important landmarks of the world, it gets discovered fairly quickly."

"Except the one that pulled us here, though!" Bartz quickly added. "When I said it just appeared and then sucked us in, I meant it! No warning whatsoever, and it didn't even appear in the sky like it usually does, just right above our heads."

Cloud considered the situation very carefully. "I don't think you're here because there are invisible monsters here," he eventually said. "You're probably here because the two boys opened up a portal that somehow pulled you in here to prove a point."

It was Bartz and Terra's turn to be confused. "What do you mean?" Terra asked.

And so the current members of Strife Delivery Service had to explain everything all over again.

It was evening by the time every question was answered and the situation clarified beyond the shadow of a doubt (at the present moment, anyway).

"We have got to tell the others about this!" Bartz, who had been growing increasingly excited during the course of the narration, literally leapt onto his feet and announced. "And get the boys to come with us and... do something about the whole thing!"

"Wait, Bartz," Terra, ever the cautious, interjected. "Assuming everything is true, what good can be done by getting them to follow us back? They may be able to close the portals, but we'll still need to look for the source of the problem."

"Aww, don't say that!" Bartz protested. "They can see the monsters, can't they? Can't hurt to have more people on the hunting team. Anything else... I'm sure it'll all work out in the end," he finished with classic Bartz bravado.

Suddenly, Cloud stood as well, and all eyes turned to him. He gave everyone present a purposeful look. "You can all keep debating this for as long as you like," he declared, "or you can join me for dinner upstairs."

He didn't wait for them to answer, but as he trudged upstairs with a massive headache and an empty stomach, he could hear several sets of footsteps shuffling after him as well.

Food. It was a multi-universal language everyone understood.

15 June 2013