A Few Old Friends

III

Leon thought for a second and said, "The last I saw of her is when she said she was going back to the Island."

Sora looked down and then back at Leon "Are you sure that's ALL she said?"

"From what I can remember, yes." Leon replied, pushing back the hair from his face.

"Oh..." Sora said while he let his shoulders sag.

Don't worry Sora" Julia said, putting her hand on his shoulder, "We'll find her again."

Sora looked at her and gave a half smile, "I guess so, but I always come so close, so it's a bit of a downer."

He was interrupted by a small "Ahem"

"Hmm?" Sora turned around to see Merlin standing there with his bag of holdings.

"Sora my boy I haven't seen you in what? Nearly, oh, six? Seven months?" The old magician walked over, "ah but you look so grown up! And a little taller too," the old man mused.

Sora looked down the see that his pants were a little higher, "maybe I should go have the Flora, Fauna and Merry Weather fix them?" He didn't like that his clothes were smaller but it did prove he was still growing and wouldn't be short forever.

"That can wait right?" Leon asked, "There's something that Cid actually wanted to show you."

"I wanted to show him too Leon! Don't forget that," Merlin added. Leon nodded.

"Okay what is it!?" Sora asked; it had to be something special if Cid and Merlin, who weren't always on the best of terms, both wanted to show it to him.

"You'll have to see!" Merlin took off running down the street and threw open the door to his house.

"Crazy ol' coot!" A familiar voice complained, "Runnin' in here like a mad man raving about 'Sora's here! Sora's-' WAIT SORA IS HERE!?"

Leon nodded his head in the direction of the house and the group started walking. "They've been making preparations for a few things they wanted to show you but they kind of gave up after you never came back…"

Sora nodded, "so Cid has been the same too?"

"Of course, I think he actually complains more than before though."

"Is that a good or a bad thing?"

"It's very good actually!" Yuffie somehow jumped in front of them, "it means that he's working on Tron's new upgrade!" She did a cartwheel towards Merlin's house, "Which means soon we won't need you around~" she was joking but Leon still gave her a steely look. "Hey!" she stood up and leaned against the doorway, "I was just joking Leon. It's not like you exactly take on any duties around here!"

"Ah! Before you two start fightin' again lemme show Sora what I've been working on!" Cid spun around in his chair and looked at the little group standing outside.

"Hey Cid!" Sora walked in and looked around, the place was messy as always but it looked like there were a few new things in the room. "What do you have?" he looked at the large computer screen but all it showed was a wall of numbers that were probably for Tron's upgrade.

"Well…" The older man started typing and brought up a new window, "I got a new Gummi schematic for…" he saw Julia standing by Leon silently, "a larger ship. Guess I was right to make it." He pointed to a few concept drawings, "Well there are bunks for sleeping in. A little area for setting up a stove for cooking…ah and there's this…" he pulled up another drawing, "bathrooms and a storage room in the back for haulin' things around."

"Cool!" Sora looked at it; riding in the new gummiship would be more comfortable than ever. "So…where is it?"

"Where's what?" Cid went back to the wall of numbers and typed a few things.

"The new gummiship."

"Oh that…" Cid gave out a half hearted laugh, "well I don't have all the necessary parts to make it so…you'll have to get them. But no worries I only see one extra person."

Sora nodded and then Merlin cut in, "now that he's talking come and look at what I have! It'll probably be of more use than that new fangled machine that hasn't been built yet!" Merlin pulled Sora over to a chalk board that had a large map on it, "this my boy is something I've been working on for quite some time!"

"Ohhh…what is it?" It was a map but Sora couldn't really tell of what.

"Of the worlds!" Merlin made the boy seem like he was crazy, "see this is where we are!" he tapped the world and it got closer on the map which had to be magical. "See and it shows the current status of each world as well!" The miniature turned around and showed how the castle was crumbling but the town was repaired.

"Wow!" He stared at the little Radiant Gardens, "can I try?" Merlin nodded, "Hmmmm…" he watched how Merlin set it back to the large map and then picked a familiar little world. "Here we go!" he tapped it and the little world got bigger.

"Isn't that Twilight Town!?" Donald ran over with Goofy.

Sora nodded he looked a little closer and saw Nobodies running rampant. "Hey! Guys look at this!"

Julia ran over to take a look too; "wow…" she saw that the nobodies had already taken over the train stations. She saw the look on Sora's face, "so are we going there next?" He nodded.

"Well…" Leon walked over and looked, "you guys probably should deal with the problem there but your friend here barely got a keyblade…maybe Merlin should teach her some magic and maybe you could take her to the Olympus Coliseum when you have the time to train her."

"Why I'll start teaching her some magic now!" Merlin dragged the girl over to where all of his spell books were. "Now this…"

Leon motioned for Sora to follow him outside so they could talk.