Several minutes later, the Evangelion was parked in its underground hangar, Ranma was hiding upstairs and Nabiki and Akane were talking to Cait Sith.
"So, my little sis follows her sisters' lead after all," Nabiki smirked. "Maybe you'd like a few tips how to be a hero? I mean, Kasumi and I have quite a bit of experience how to deal with unwanted visitors from another world..."
"I need to find out more about this Keyblade," Akane said. "Why did it choose me? Why now? And what is that keyhole in the dojo?"
"Aaah, the Keyhole," Cait Sith nodded. "The heart of every world... You see, the Heartless are acting on instinct, always hunting for hearts... but the hearts they desire the most are the hearts of the worlds they visit... and those are the keyholes like the one you've seen."
"And... what will they do once they manage to get to that heart?" Akane wondered.
Cait Sith made a little pause. "The world... will vanish in darkness."
"In other words, don't let the bad guys get near the Keyhole, got it!" Nabiki nodded. "Still, where did they come from, all of a sudden?"
"They must have become aware of your world, somehow. As I already said, the worlds are normally separated from each other, but since the Heartless appeared, everything changed."
"And why did the Keyblade choose me as its new wielder?" Akane asked.
Just when Cait Sith was going to answer, the front door opened, and Kasumi and Leormon came in.
"I'm home... oh, we have a guest!" Kasumi noticed.
Leormon approached Cait Sith and sniffed. "You don't smell like a Digimon, that's for sure..."
Then Kasumi's gaze fell upon Akane's Keyblade.
"Oh my!" she gasped. "Akane, so you finally found Mother's heritage..."
Her younger sisters and the two felines stared at her.
"Can... can you please repeat that, Kasumi?" Akane asked.
"I guess I have a few things to explain," Kasumi sighed and put her bag on the floor. She then sat down with her sisters and their guest.
"Let me get this straight..." Nabiki spoke up. "You KNOW about Akane's new little toy?"
"Hey, it's not a toy!" Akane complained.
"Yes, I knew," Kasumi nodded. "I knew about it as long as I knew that one day, you would become an Evangelion Pilot, Nabiki!"
"Well, good to know!" Akane grumbled. "Is there anything else you haven't told me about?"
"Akane, please try to understand," Kasumi sighed. "I didn't tell you about this earlier because Mother asked me not to tell you."
"MOM knew about this as well?" Nabiki wondered. "Did Daddy..."
Kasumi smiled and shook her head. "No, we decided not to tell Father anything about this until the right time."
"And what time would that be?" Akane asked.
"Until the Keyblade would call out for you, of course!" Kasumi said.
"You seem to know quite a few things about the Keyblade..." Cait Sith murmured. "But this world hasn't been visited by residents of other worlds before..."
"I don't really know too much," Kasumi admitted. "I only know that the previous owner of this weapon left it in Mother's care... I don't know the details, and I also don't know who that man was. From what Mother told me, he was very secretive about his identity and covered his head with a dark hood."
"And she just accepted a weapon from a stranger?" Leormon wondered.
"Not right away. He said that the rightful owner of the Keyblade would come to claim his weapon when the right time arrives, and asked Mother if he could leave it in her care. At first, she wanted to send him away. But then, he told her many things he couldn't have known about... things about her past, and our future. He knew about the Evangelion project Mom and her colleagues from NERV were working on, he predicted that beings from a digital world would arrive in Japan... and that I would share a bond with one of those creatures."
"He knew about us Digimon?" Leormon wondered. "It wasn't Gennai, was it?"
"I don't think so," Kasumi replied. "He also told Mother that the princess of a lost kingdom would come to stay with us... for a long time, I didn't know what he meant with that, but after Ranma told us about his former incarnation, the Princess Harmony..."
"He knew that as well?" Akane asked in awe.
Kasumi nodded. "Yes, and all that knowledge made Mother think about it. In the end, she decided to keep the Keyblade. The man 'sealed' it away in the dojo, as he said. It would only appear to the person that is destined to carry it."
"And... you knew it was me?" Akane asked.
"Not at first... after all, both of you weren't born at that time. I wasn't really supposed to know about all of this either, but in that night, when Mother talked to the stranger, I couldn't sleep and came downstairs, where I could listen to everything they said. I was still too young to understand everything, but after the man was gone, Mother tried to explain everything to me as good as she could. And when I was older, I could understand everything.
Still, she didn't tell me about everything at once. She never mentioned the visitors from a 'digital world' to me, of course. Therefore, I was still very surprised when I visited the summer camp with Tai and the others and got sucked into the Digital World."
"Where you met me," Leormon smirked.
Kasumi nodded. "Yes. Nabiki was still too small to remember everything, since she wasn't much older than Tai's sister, Kari."
"And I still haven't been born yet, I know," Akane sighed. "But what...?"
"I'm getting to it. You know, the adventures in the Digital World were pretty exciting, but also horrifying to me. It was the first time I was confronted with death... and, indirectly, I was even responsible for the death of someone. They were evil Digimon, but still..."
"Don't tell me you mourn over Piedmon's death," Leormon said in a surprised voice. "That bastard deserved it!"
"We already talked about this, Leormon!" Kasumi sighed. "I know we had to do it, but I still don't like it. Anyways, I kept on visiting the Digital World and didn't even think of Mom's visitor anymore... until we were told of the alien life forms that threatened our planet."
"Alien life forms?" Cait Sith wondered.
Nabiki frowned. "The Angels..."
"Indeed, and the day the first of them was found turned out to be a huge disaster."
"You can say that again," Nabiki grumbled. "Adam, the First Angel, was found at Antarctica... and only because of incredible luck could we avert what Dr. Ritsuko always describes as 'Second Impact'. We truly got lucky that Adam got hurled into the atmosphere before he caused that explosion. If he had still been on ground level, this would certainly have caused the Antarctic ice cap to melt. Still, he had buddies..."
"We all know about that, Kasumi, would you get to the point?" Akane impatiently groaned.
"Well, I don't know anything and I believe your sister wouldn't have said it if it wasn't important," Cait Sith pointed out. "Please, go on, Miss Tendo!"
Kasumi smiled and nodded. "Well, as Nabiki said, it wasn't long until the other Angels arrived and attacked Earth. Until now, we were able to fight them off, thanks to a new invention: The Evangelion Units."
"The giant mechanoid Nabiki arrived in, I presume?" Cait Sith asked.
Nabiki smirked. "That's right, I'm the pilot of Eva Unit 04," she proudly proclaimed. "Nabiki Tendo, the Fifth Child, at your service!"
"Mother was one of the scientists who worked on the Evangelion project, together with Naoko Akagi, Yui Ikari and many others," Kasumi explained. "When she found out that Nabiki had been chosen as one of the Eva pilots, she was very proud, but also afraid. She knew that I've been in countless dangers on my journeys through the Digital World... but then she remembered the prophecies of her strange visitor. Realizing that both of her oldest daughters have been chose to serve humanity as some sort of hero, she came to the conclusion that Akane would become something similar."
"I see..." Cait Sith pondered. "And the most logical thing would be the Keyblade, of course... I'd really like to talk to your mother about all of this."
"I'm afraid that's not possible, Mr. Cait Sith," Kasumi sighed. "Mother has been gone missing for several years now... most believe her to be dead."
"There had been a similar case before," Nabiki said. "My fellow pilot's mother, Yui Ikari, also mysteriously vanished some time before that."
"I see..." Cait Sith replied. "So, did you know about the Keyhole as well?"
Kasumi blinked in confusion. "The what?"
"I take that as a no, then," Cait Sith nodded. "Fact is, now that Akane has been revealed as the Keyblade Master, the Heartless will be out to hunt her actively."
"Oh my!" Kasumi gasped. "Um... what are Heartless?" she then asked.
"They are the darkness in a living beings heart, given shape and form," Cait Sith explained grimly. "They have a thirst for hearts, but they fear the Keyblade. And that's why Akane is in grave danger."
"But if they all are as easy to beat as those weaklings earlier, I shouldn't have to worry, right?" Akane smirked.
Cait Sith frowned. "If you remember, their sheer number overwhelmed you, and without my help, I don't know if you would have been able to defeat them."
"Th-they took me by surprise," Akane defended herself. "Now that I know about them, I am prepared."
"The thing is, those were just Shadow Heartless, the most harmless form of a Pureblood Heartless," Cait Sith explained. "There are others, bigger and more dangerous than you could imagine. For example, the Darkside, huge Heartlesses with a heart-shaped hole in their stomach.
"Wait a minute!" Nabiki shouted. "That's the Angel we fought... but... no, that means it wasn't an Angel after all? But... the Magi identified it, so how...?"
"Oh my, then I suppose the dark creatures we fought were Heartless as well," Kasumi muttered.
"They were dangerous, all right!" Leormon nodded. "Especially those with the huge swords..."
"Invisibles," Cait Sith nodded. "If the most powerful Heartless show up by now, we have to be prepared for the worst."
"Still, I'd like to know something else first," Nabiki spoke up.
"And that would be?"
Nabiki glared at the little cat with the crown. "Where do you come from, why would you want to help Akane, and how could you know that she would receive the Keyblade today?"
"It was a mere speculation," Cait Sith tried to explain. "I am..."
He didn't continue his sentence, since a loud crash was making the walls shake at just that moment, and they all jumped to their feet in surprise.
"What in the world...?" Nabiki asked.
"Oh, my goodness..." Kasumi said. "I think that came from the dojo."
"The dojo?" Akane gasped. "Oh no, the Keyhole!"
Together, they all hurried over to the dojo. Ranma, who had heard the crash as well, had arrived before them. Right now, he was facing the person who was responsible for the loud crash, as well for the destruction of the dojo wall.
It was a Heartless, they all could see that. But unlike all the other Heartless they had seen before, this one didn't have a pure black body. It was a tall, green monster with root-like legs and vine-like arms that were waving around the air like whips. The creature's neck looked like a flower's stem, and it's scary face was in the middle of a huge rose blossom with black petals. On the Heartless' chest, they could see some weird emblem, and underneath that emblem... a figure they all knew to well was entwined with the monster's vines, which wrapped themselves closely around her body, thereby allowing her to control the Heartless' actions directly.
"Kodachi!" Ranma shouted. "What... what happened? Did that monster capture you?"
"Fear not, my darling Ranma!" Kodachi said with a satisfied smile. "Today, I will free you from the clutches of the pig-tailed witch and the evil Tendos! This Heartless is my creation and my servant... and his first task will be... to kill Akane Tendo! Attack, my Black Rose!"
The plant-like Heartless let out a horrible screech and Akane raised her Keyblade nervously.
"Oh boy..." she grumbled. "This day just keeps getting better and better..."
Leormon let out a feral growl and leapt at the plant-like Heartless. The Black Rose simply lashed out with its vine-like arms and threw the lion Digimon against the wall. Leormon let out a yelp of pain and fell down to the ground.
"Oh no, Leormon!" Kasumi gasped.
Akane deflected an incoming vine with her Keyblade. "Nabiki, Kasumi, get out of here! It's too dangerous for you!"
"You heard him, sis!" Nabiki said and pulled her older sister after her. "Let's get a move on."
"But... but Leormon..." Kasumi stuttered.
"I'm... fine, Kasumi..." Leormon grumbled as he stood back up. "Just a little shaken..."
"Go with them," Ranma shouted while jumping over the Heartless' attacks. "Keep them safe in case more of them are around."
"Got it, Ranma!" Leormon nodded and ran after the two retreating girls.
"My Ranma-sama, why do you play hard to get?" Kodachi smiled. Her body was still embedded in the Black Rose's torso, entangled with vines. "You know you will be mine, sooner or later... why resist?"
"Because you're a creepy maniac, for once!" Ranma yelled and jumped up to pummel the creature's petal-surrounded face.
"That witch Akane Tendo has ensnare your heart, I see, but never fear... I shall save you, my love!" Kodachi shouted. The Black Rose held out several of its vines and they entwined with each other, forming an arm with a small flower on its tip. The Heartless then proceeded to fire explosive bursts of pollen from that flower.
Akane winced when one of those bursts hit her left arm and left a nasty burn. "This thing... it's stronger than the others. And it looks so different... is this really a Heartless?"
"No doubt about it," Cait Sith replied. While his guardian Moogle doll protected him from the pollen rain, the little black cat hide behind it, where he stayed out of Ranma's view. "But it is an Emblem Heartless, meaning a Heartless that did not formed naturally, but was created artificially. Not too many humans can create them... I wonder where she got hers."
"I can say for sure that Kodachi never had anything like that near her," Akane shouted while hacking off a few of the Black Rose's vines. "But can we discuss this later? I'm kinda busy here..."
"Insolent wench!" Kodachi grumbled. "How dare you hog my darling Ranma, Tendo? He is mine and mine alone!"
"Dream on, Kodachi!" Ranma and Akane yelled simultaneously. They looked at each other in surprise, then grinned and leapt away, just in time when another hail of explosive pollen came raining down on them.
"I will force you to love me if I have to, darling!" Kodachi shouted. Her face had turned into a mask of fury and rage. With a swift move, a second arm was formed, and the Black Rose held both of its arms in front of Kodachi's and its own body. A twinkle of light appeared on the flowers that tipped the arms, and afterwards, a shiny shield surrounded the whole creature. It was pale and see-through, but when Ranma tried to attack the Heartless once again, it felt to him as if he was punching a steel wall. Likewise, Akane's Keyblade bounced off its shiny surface.
"Hey, how did she do that?" Ranma asked.
"What the...?" Cait Sith gasped. "That shield... it's the Protect spell. Only few individuals know it... I know that inhabitants of your world can't possibly know it. It has never been used here before. So how did she learn it?"
"Maybe it came with the Heartless," Akane assumed. "Still, if you know that spell, what can we do against it?"
"You can do nothing but surrender, pitiful peasant!" Kodachi laughed. "Ohohohohohoh!"
"Don't listen to her," Cait Sith shouted. "Protect, as it name indicates, protects its user from any sort of physical attack... but not against magic. You have to cast spells on your own to break through her defenses."
"Do I look like a magician to you?" Akane asked impatiently. "I can't do any magic."
"That's not a problem... here, catch!" The little cat threw a small object at Akane, and she caught it with her left hand and stared at it. It was a small, spherical crystal with a tiny spark in it.
"What's that?" she wondered.
"It's a Fire Element," Cait Sith explained. "Combining it with your Keyblade will allow you to cast the Fire spell, something this plant monster should be weak against.
"All right... I'll give it a try..." Akane murmured and touched her weapon with the glowing orb. In a sudden flash, the orb disappeared... but Akane could somehow feel the magic flowing through the Keyblade.
"This is it..." she murmured. She then grinned, took her blade with both hands and aimed it at the Black Rose. "Hey, Kodachi! I have a little present for you!"
She felt her mind become one with the Keyblade, and she commanded the magical energies within her weapon to come forth in a sudden burst of fire. A small fireball came flying out of the Keyblade's tip, flew through the shiny shield and hit Kodachi's Heartless in the middle of its face.
Both the Black Rose and Kodachi yelled out in pain. "You... you meddlesome Tendo wench!" Kodachi hissed. "That HURT!" Before Akane or anyone else could react, two vines lashed out of the protective sphere and wrapped themselves around the new Keyblade Mistress.
"Hey!" Akane shouted and tried hacking at the vines. "Let go!"
Kodachi grinned. "And now, Akane Tendo... you will die!" And she aimed her Heartless' arm at Akane's face.
"Akane! NO!" Ranma yelled. "Damn, if I only could get through that shield... wait a minute!" He blinked, slapped his forehead and reached into his pocket. "I'm such an idiot..."
Raising his transformation pen high above his head, he shouted: "TERRA PLANET POWER... MAKE UP!"
Lights danced around Ranma's body while it was twirling through the air. A sudden shower of cold water, coming out of nowhere, made him assume his female form. Shards of diamonds appeared and danced around her shapely body, covering her torso and transforming into the classical Senshi fuku. Diamond shards also clung to her hips, hands and feet, creating a yellow-brownish skirt, short gloves and shoes with flat heels. Unlike the other Senshi, she didn't wear a tiara, but a golden headband that was adorned with a small diamond. In the end, Ranma's pigtail became undone, and her red hair flowed down her head freely.
Sailor Terra landed back on the ground and raised her fists. "Enough is enough, Kodachi... put my fiancee back on the ground, right NOW!"
Kodachi stopped her Heartless' movement. "R-ranma-sama?" she muttered. "Wh-what happened to you...?"
"Yeah, it's me!" the red-headed Senshi of Earth nodded. "I'm the same girl you always hated... just like your brother hated my male side and was after my girl side. I am also a Sailor Senshi, a defender of love and justice... and of my own fiancee!"
"F... fiancee?" Kodachi stuttered. Then a hateful glare appeared on her face. "YOU LIE!"
"CRYSTAL HAIL!" Terra shouted and fired a barrage of sharp diamond shards at the Black Rose's right arm. The Heartless screeched under the merciless assault, until finally, it got completely severed. It fell down and disappeared before it could hit the ground.
Kodachi clutched her right arm. "My... my arm..." she gasped. "I can't feel it anymore..."
Akane used that chance to break free from the vines. She jumped back down to the floor, next to her Senshi fiance.
"Thanks... but I would have freed me in a couple of seconds," Akane said.
Ranma grinned. "Suuure you would... anyways, let's finish this!"
Akane nodded. "Gladly." She raised her Keyblade and Ranma raised his hands.
"FIRE!"
"METEOR STORM!"
Akane shot fireball after fireball at the big Heartless, while Terra summoned chunks of solid rock that were circling around the creature... and then zoomed inwards, crashing into the Black Rose's main stem.
"Noooooo, Raaanmaaaaaaa!" Kodachi yelled while her body was shaken around in the same manner as her creature. "Why are you doing this to meeee...?"
And then, the Heartless started to disappear. The vines surrounding Kodachi's body vanished as well, and the crazy gymnast fell down with a groan. A gleaming heart of light appeared out of the defeated creature's body, slowly floated upwards, where it, too, vanished.
Akane lowered her Keyblade and sighed. "It's gone..."
Sailor Terra ran over to Kodachi's body and checked her pulse. "She's still alive," she said.
"And it looks she didn't have her heart stolen by the Heartless," Cait Sith explained. "Which means there's still a chance to save her..."
"At least she didn't get a chance to reach the Keyhole," Akane exclaimed, looking over to where she knew the heart of her home world to be.
"Akane... maybe you should seal the Keyhole," Cait Sith suggested.
Terra squeaked when she heard the cat's voice and saw him coming out from behind his puppet. "D-don't come any closer..."
"Don't worry, I'll be careful. Now, Akane..."
"Seal it?" Akane wondered.
Cait Sith nodded. "Yes, it will be safe against all the Heartless. No matter how hard they try, they will never be able to reach it. Just aim your Keyblade at it..."
Akane blinked. "If that's all it takes... I should have done this much sooner." She glared at him. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"Look, I'm sorry, but there were so many things we had to talk about that I completely forgot, okay?"
Akane angrily frowned at him. But then, she just sighed and raised her Keyblade, aiming it at the floor.
Again, the Keyhole appeared, and a thin beam of light got projected out of the Keyblade's tip, hitting the Keyhole in the middle. A faint sound could be heard, as if somebody would turn a key. In another flash, the Keyhole vanished.
"So... and that means the Heartless will never return?" she asked.
"I didn't say that," Cait Sith said. "The Heartless are rarely intelligent, they solely act on instinct. They will still try to harm the world's heart, they just won't be able to do it. But I'm afraid they will continue to come, now that the walls surrounding this world have been shattered..."
"You still have a lot to explain," Akane grumbled.
"Hey, I hate to interrupt, but what do we do with Kodachi?" Ranma asked. "I mean, we could call the police, but what are we supposed to tell them? That she controlled a huge plant monster who wanted to eat the heart of our world?"
Akane wanted to reply, but before she opened her mouth, something happened: A dark cloud of shadows appeared behind Ranma and Kodachi's body, forming something resembling a portal... and then, a woman stepped out.
It was a beautiful blonde, wearing some sort of medieval armor, which only covered her torso, leaving her arms and legs bare. A white cloak was waving behind her, and a strange headband was around her head. She was also wearing a pair of boots. A long sword was in her right hand.
The stranger pointed her sword at the unconscious Kodachi. "Give me the girl!" she said in a monotone voice.
"What? Where the heck did you come from?" Akane asked. "Who are you?"
"I am General Celes Chere," the woman said. "I am here on behalf of my master... now give me the girl!"
"Let's just see you take her!" Ranma grumbled and raised her fist.
"You have been warned..." the woman called Celes said and raised her hand. "BLIZZARA!"
A huge icicle came sprouting out of the ground. Sailor Terra gasped, jumped out of the way in time and growled. "That was a cheap trick!" She then ran at her mysterious attacker. "DIAMOND FIST!"
Sharp knuckles made of diamond shards appeared on her glove as she pulled back her right fist to hit the woman hard.
Celes stepped aside, dodged the attack and swung around her sword...
Terra cried out when the weapon tore open her fuku and left a bloody trail on her back. She stumbled to the ground, tried to get back up immediately, but failed miserably.
"Ranma!" Akane shouted and ran at her fiance's side.
"I've warned him..." Celes said coldly. She calmly walked up to Kodachi's body, looked down at it for a moment and picked it up. She then looked over to where Cait Sith was standing.
'It can't be...' the little cat thought nervously. 'Her?' His gaze then wandered to the strange band around her head. 'Is that... a slave crown?'
Celes gave him a hostile glare, then another portal of darkness appeared next to her.
"Stop! I won't let you escape!" Akane shouted and shot another fireball at the female warrior.
But before it could hit her, she stepped through the portal and disappeared, along with the portal itself... and with Kodachi.
Akane cursed. "Damn, she got away!" She then knelt down next to her fiance. "Ranma... hold on! I'll get some help..."
"Aw, it's nuthin'..." Terra grimaced. "Just a scratch... I've had worse!"
Cait Sith walked up to them. "Maybe I can be of help..."
Akane turned around. "Are you nuts? Ranma's badly injured! Do you want him to run around in fear from you in that state?"
"Not when I can heal him," the two-legged cat insisted. He walked past the astonished Akane and raised his hand. Ranma's eyes widened when he saw him standing so close to her.
"C-c-c-caaaaatt..."
Cait Sith put his hand down on the wound and spoke a single word: "CURAGA!"
A green glow surrounded his hand, as well as Ranma's body. Within seconds, the gaping wound on the Senshi's body disappeared. At the same time, a soothing feeling spread through Ranma's body.
Cait Sith stepped back. "Now, stand up!"
Sailor Terra slowly reached back to feel her backside. She then slowly got up to her feet. "This is amazing..." she murmured. "I feel... perfectly fine." She then looked down at Cait Sith. "And I'm not even afraid from you anymore. How come?"
"Curaga is the most powerful version of the spell Cure," Cait Sith explained. "It can heal physical wounds and mental distress, therefore eliminating your fear towards me."
A big grin appeared on Ranma's face. "Does that mean... I'm not afraid of cats anymore?"
"No... you just aren't afraid of me anymore."
"Oh, dang..." Ranma groaned.
Akane looked down at the little animal. "I still don't know where you came from and what you are, but... you saved Ranma. Um, what I mean to say is... if you say you are here to help, I believe you."
Cait Sith smiled.