"Eh, kid wake up."

Roxas groaned and rolled over in his sleeping bag.

"Oh for the love of, GET UP!"

Roxas groaned as a boot connected with his rear, it wasn't a hard kick, but it wasn't gentle by any means. He looked up blearily to find Cid looming over him.

"When was the last time you fed that bird of yours?"

"Uh…." Roxas thought for a moment, "yesterday before we left the castle?"

"Eh, that explains why it's trying to get in. Damned thing is hungry. Come on, you brought it with you, you get to feed it."

Roxas crawled out of the sleeping bag and yawned, stretching as he did so he stood and walked across the junk strewn floor, the guest room was more like a storage room in his mind even though it may have been used as intended at some point there was now so much stuff everywhere it was hard to tell.

"Sora, come on."

Sora opened his eyes and looked up at him blearily. "Huh?"

"Cid wants you to feed Red."

"Why do I have to do it? You're awake."

Roxas smiled at him. "Because you wanted to bring him, get up."

Sora sighed and got out of his sleeping bag yawning as well, from the next room they heard Cid call.

"I don't care if you two sweethearts want to kiss a little but one of you needs to get your ass out here and feed this thing before it tries to eat someone's cat."

"Aw, Dad, lay off them." Came Rikku's cheery voice, she stuck her head into the guest room and promptly solicited a blush from Roxas simply from her outfit. Very short shorts and a bikini top. She smiled at him mischievously.

"Want to help me make breakfast?"

"Uh, I have to feed Red." Roxas said hastily.

"Sora can do that." Rikku said.

"Yeah, you go ahead Roxas," chimed in Sora who pushed Roxas into Rikku, he stumbled and steadied himself, palms on her breasts.

"AH! I'm sorry!"

She giggled and kissed him lightly on the lips. "It's alright," she winked. "Just don't tell Dad."

She took his hand and dragged him from the room, Roxas looked back at Sora, his expression pleading, Sora was grinning.

Sora opened the front door to find Red standing in front of the door and pawing at the ground pensively.

"Have you ever fed this thing before?"

Sora jumped and turned to see Cid, carrying a bucket emitting a foul stench. Whatever was in the bucket obviously excited Red who began chirping insistently.

"Ugh, what is that?"

"Food, now answer the question: have you ever fed him?"

Sora nodded. "Once, I laced some deer meat with a potion to help him heal."

"Deer?" Cid asked curiously.

"Yeah, he'd killed it and I used a piece to get him to swallow the potion."

Cid stared at him dumbly, his jaw hanging. "You let a chocobo hunt? Boy you're either insane or stupid; probably both by rights."

Sora frowned. "Why what's wrong with letting him hunt?"

"What's wrong is that he might have thought of you as food! Think about it, in the wild these things bring down animals that weigh as much as they do in some cases! A human isn't going to be very difficult. That's why we do our damned best to make sure their hunting habits don't get rekindled, think for a moment kid; they're trained as warbirds and they're already predatory."

Sora looked at Red who was warbling plaintively, his eyes fixated on the bucket Cid had placed on the floor. "He wouldn't attack me."

"You're a stupid one if you think that." Cid declared as he hauled the bucket around and placed it in front of Sora. "How'd you feed him?"

Sora looked at the reddish substance and took another sniff, it smelt rancid though there was a faint whiff of berries now that he was getting used to the smell. He reached in and grabbed a handful of the goop, it was cold and gelatinous and he had to cup his hands to keep it from falling onto the floor. He looked at Cid who was watching him with interest as if he didn't expect Sora to be standing in a moment. Sora ignored him and walked up to Red, who chirped happily now that his meal had arrived. His massive beak shot out and bug into the mush that Sora was holding, his jaws clicking rapidly.

Sora giggled. "His tongue tickles!"

Cid's mouth was agape. "You're feeding that thing bare palmed and it isn't trying to take your head off; how the hell?"

Sora grinned. "I told you he wouldn't attack me."

He went back and picked up the rest of the bucket and hefted it in his arms. He carried it back to Red who dug into the bucket voraciously, as the load lightened Sora was able to reach up and struck the top of Red's head. The chocobo crooned happily as he continued to eat.

Cid came up next to Sora, shaking his head. "Damn, now I've seen everything. A chocobo that can be hand fed even after being allowed to hunt on its own, they'll never believe this at the pub."

Later they all sat around the kitchen table and ate, Rikku, with Roxas' reluctant help had cooked up a meal of eggs, sausage, and toast. Rikku of course had insisted that Roxas sit next to him and kept shooting him flirtatious glances out of the corner of her eye. Cid didn't pay attention to this, he was too busy describing in depth Big Red's behavior with Sora, who was embarrassed that such a big deal was being made over something that he'd never even considered to be unusual, Big Red just let him feed him, that was all there was to it.

Yuna was smiling as Cid described the scene. "Is it that big of a surprise? I mean he went the entire day with us and didn't even snap at anyone."

Cid waved his fork at her. "Girl, the bird was allowed to hunt! All the chocobos I've heard of doing that have gone feral and were unapproachable. This boy," he waved his fork at Sora. "Not only had the thing hunt, but he was able to hand feed him shortly afterwards without losing as much as a finger! That's special."

Yuna chuckled, "if you say so Uncle Cid."

"Damn it I do say so! If we could manage what this boy did with the knights we'd be able to double our cavalry force! No one would even dream of attacking us!"

"Aw come off it Dad, there hasn't been a war in thirty years and you know it." Rikku said, sticking out her tongue.

There was a knock at the front door, precluding any further discussion on the wildly spiraling conversation, Roxas hastily stood up to answer it, moving as quickly as possible away from Rikku and to the relative safety of the living room. The knock came again as he reached the door.

Drawing the door open a smile of relief played across his face. "Hi guys."

Cloud returned the smile. "I was wondering if you two were still here."

Behind him Leon was scratching Red under his beak and the big bird was warbling contentedly. "Sora's here too I assume?" He called.

Roxas nodded, but before he could continue he was slammed into by Rikku who latched onto his arm grinning up at Cloud.

"You didn't tell me your little brother was so cute!"

Cloud snorted, eyeing Roxas pityingly. "I was trying to spare him."

Rikku stuck her tongue out, smiling. "I'm not Tifa!"

"No, she at least has a sense of decency." Cloud returned.

Rikku looked shocked. "Cloud you're mean!"

Roxas disentangled his arm from Rikku's grasp and cleavage. "Yeah, he's like that."

Cloud reached over and ruffled Roxas' hair as he pushed past, followed by Leon, Cid came into the room then and crossed his arms.

"Eh Leon, why didn't you tell me you had a miracle worker for a brother?"

Leon looked confused. "You mean aside from the fact that they're both bearers?"

"No! Not that bit of nonsense, the boy let his bird hunt and the thing still is tame as a kitten!"

Now it was Leon's turn to look surprised. "He did what?"

"Is it that big a deal?" Sora asked, joining the group.

Cloud and Leon exchanged looks, "yes." They said in unison.

Cid snorted, "we've got to let Laguna have a talk with him."

"That will have to wait." Leon said, "we're bringing them back to the castle, the King is waiting for them."

"Eh, His Majesty is always waiting for someone, isn't this more important?"

"Cid, you know what the Heartless can do, more than most unfortunately."

Cid's face reddened, though it wasn't embarrassment that caused it. "Shut your mouth boy, I know what they can do by rights. Fine, get your brothers together and we'll go see the King."

Sora, Roxas, Leon, Cloud, and Big Red all waited outside the massive double doors that barred the way to the King's hall. Sora was dozing against Red's side and the chocobo had its head tucked under one wing. Leon was talking and joking with one of the guards while Roxas waited besides Cloud who was leaning against a column with his arms crossed.

"What did Leon mean?"

"What?" Cloud asked, opening his eyes to look at Roxas.

"When he said that Cid should know more than anyone what the Heartless can do."

"Cid lost his wife and little sister, Yuna and Aerith's mother, to the Heartless when Xehanort first started his experiments, it happened years ago, but Cid blames himself for supporting Xehanort's research."

Roxas looked over at Leon. "That's cruel, to say something like that to Cid."

Cloud shrugged. "You don't understand how important the two of you are. For whatever reason there are five bearers, and only five, and they are the only ones that can re-lock our world's heart and bring the Heartless to heel."

"Something's been bothering me, if the Heartless occur naturally, then why is what Xehanort did such a big deal?"

Cloud sighed; he didn't speak for a moment as he collected his thoughts.

"Naturally occurring Heartless are typically docile and only attack on rare occasions. Our world's heart prevents them from being overtly aggressive towards us. However when Xehanort unlocked the heart, he unleashed the Heartless by removing the restriction on their actions that the heart imposed. Things like what happened in Twilight Town will become increasingly common the longer the heart is left unlocked."

Before Roxas could ask any further questions the massive doors opened noiselessly. Maleficent stood in the newly opened doorway and gestured with her staff.

"The King awaits your presence."

They all entered in her wake, the King's other advisors were already assembled, Cid and Merlin stood to one side of the throne, off to one side a tall man with long silver hair and an impossibly long sword stood quietly as he watched the procession.

Sora leaned over to Roxas, whispering. "I think that's Sephiroth, Leon and Cloud's captain."

Roxas eyed Sephiroth, his eyes were cold and calculating, he caught Roxas' gaze and held it Roxas looked away with a shudder. This was someone he didn't want to cross, ever.

The King cleared his throat. "Well, now we have all our pieces in place for the time being."

Maleficent raised an eyebrow. "We are still short by two bearers Majesty."

Ansem nodded. "Yes, but for the time being we shall work with what we have, Sephiroth, I believe you wished to judge the bearers?"

Sephiroth waved his hand dismissively. "They won't hold up in combat. They're weak."

Maleficent smiled. "As I said Majesty, they are not Riku."

Ansem the Wise allowed himself a benign smile that quieted both Maleficent and Sephiroth. "Of course they're not Riku, they were actually raised in a normal family. Sir Sephiroth while I admire you greatly and your Elites have proven vital to our kingdom's peace you are hardly an ideal parent. All three of your sons are in the Elites are they not? As is your wife, the Lady Paine, hardly an environment which begets a normal childhood. Naturally Riku would be different from these two. I would thank you and you as well Maleficent to remember that diversity is not a weakness."

Sephiroth said nothing, while Maleficent bowed slightly as if in apology. Ansem steepled his fingers and stared at Roxas and Sora for a moment. "Now, we have the problem of only having three of five keys, however as I said we must make do with what we have."

He turned to look at Merlin. "I believe both boys will have need of your tutelage Merlin, as such I would ask that they be allowed to stay with you for the time being."

Ansem caste his blue eyed gaze to Leon and Cloud, "provided that is acceptable to their brothers."

Cloud and Leon bowed, speaking as one, "of course Your Majesty."

The King nodded. "Very well, I'll have their things moved to your residence Merlin; in the meantime, while they are not studying the boys may make whatever use of their time they wish until we can make further progress."

Sora stepped up next to Leon, whispering excitedly. "Does this mean I get to see Kairi?"

Leon smiled at him warmly. "You just don't quit, yeah, when you've finished your first lesson with Merlin you can see her."

Sora's face broke out in a smile and despite the crowd he hugged Leon tightly. Leon returned the gesture warmly ignoring the annoyed look that Sephiroth shot him for the public display.