"Did you know about this?"

Maleficent did not look pleased as Ansem eyed her. "If I had known that Mim was in Hollow Bastion I would have told you Sire."

Ansem sighed. "That old woman was shielding the last two bearers from us the whole time waiting for the others to gather." His smile returned after a moment and he started laughing. "I find it hard to feel angry at her though, she played this masterfully."

Sora looked over at Kairi, she was still coming to grips with the fact that she and Namine were bearers, and that her grandmother was an infamous sorceress who had hidden herself in the least likely place to hide from a kingdom trying to find her, in that kingdom's very heart. When the five of them had woken Kairi had been crying because of a nightmare, one that the boys already knew, and had been clutching a keyblade to add to the confusion. Namine had come into her room a moment later with Roxas, with a keyblade of her own and she had comforted her sister until Kairi had stopped crying. Sora still didn't understand how Namine and Roxas had taken everything so easily, though he suspected the girls' grandmother had something to do with it.

When they'd tried to wake her, all they'd found was a note pinned to her pillow:

"To my Dearest girls,

I love you both so much, to think of the monstrous things I once did as Madame Mim when being your Grandmother was the happiest time of my life. So much wasted time. There are something's that can never be forgiven however, and once the King and his lackeys find out who I am they will no doubt search for me, as much as it pains me to leave you both, I must for my own sake and yours. Know that I love you dearly, and I will watch over you until we can meet again.

Love ever more, Grandmother."

"Sire I still say we should pursue her, she is a wanted criminal." Maleficent persisted.

Merlin cleared his throat. "A reformed criminal I would say from the sounds of things, after all she has spent these past years living quietly under our very noses doing nothing more threatening than raising and protecting a family."

Ansem cut in before the inevitable argument could fully develop. "It doesn't matter, Madame Mim or not we now have all five bearers which means we need to find Xehanort now and a way to access the World Heart which unfortunately only he knows how to do." He looked over at Cid, who had remained quiet throughout the discussions. "I don't want any more innocents killed over that man's pursuit of power."

"But your Majesty that woman—"

Ansem raised a hand, silencing Maleficent. "Committed crimes yes, but those crimes were two lifetimes ago Maleficent, I know you and Merlin were there but I was not I am nothing more than a man. I believe that one lifetime is enough to be hunted like an animal let alone two." He turned to look at Namine and Kairi. "If you see your Grandmother again, tell her she is welcome to return to her home and will suffer no reprisals from me or my subjects."

"If I may," Sephiroth spoke up, "from the warning Mim gave us it would appear that the traitor will come for these five, and we need not look for him at all. Why not muster our forces and wait for him with the bearers as bait?"

"Sephiroth, thank you for your insight but I refuse to use children as bait for a madman. I have caused this world enough harm already by committing to brash and cruel actions wouldn't you agree?"

Sephiroth looked away silently, further discussion was paused when the doors groaned open and a soldier ran the length of the hall without so much as a nod to those she passed until she reached the King and handed him a letter case. He unclipped it and began reading; Sora swore he saw bloodstains on the paper.

Ansem the Wise looked up, his expression grim. "Traverse Town has fallen."

"Impossible." Cid spat, finally speaking, "I built the defenses for that city myself when I still had a young back. Nothing could get through those walls."

Ansem sighed, sounding very tired. "They didn't come from the outside," he handed the letter to Cid. "They came from beneath."

He looked to the messenger, "the garrison?"

The young woman looked up and removed her helmet; Sora caught his breath as the three horrendous gashes crossing her face and covered in dried blood were revealed; he was reminded of the scar Leon bore because of him and shuddered.

"I was sent before they reached the barracks or town hall, but the commander did not hold out any hope unless reinforced, given the time that has passed Sire…" She trailed off and no one needed her to elaborate.

Ansem nodded grimly, "thank you for yo—Merlin!"

Merlin rushed forwards and caught the woman as she fell, cradling her in his robes as he held his hand above her chest. There was a soft glow from the tips of his fingers and the wounds on her face closed though the bloodstains remained.

"She will be fine Sire." He said. "She simply needs rest."

The King snorted mirthlessly. "She'll get more than rest; Laguna?"

Laguna stepped forwards, Ansem indicated the messenger. "I want her entered in your Knights; any rider that can come this far with those wounds deserves at least that much."

Laguna didn't even bother to protest he simply bowed and followed Merlin out of the great hall, with the injured messenger floating between them.

Ansem leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers and taking a long slow breath.

"Traverse Town is at least a week's ride from Hollow Bastion less if a mount is pushed, the train lines will not serve Xehanort so there is no need to worry of them though I want them cut now to be sure, and we must assume that the Heartless will have a means to get from one place to the other much faster than a chocobo." He bit his lip, leaning to one side. "Cid, is your toy finished yet?"

Cid grinned viciously, as if he was happy the Heartless were coming. "She'll fire your Majesty, and the Heartless will never know what him 'em."

Maleficent snorted dismissively. "That is if your contraption is even capable of hitting them."

"Enough," Ansem said quietly, yet his voice echoed nonetheless. "I have no time for your bickering. Sephiroth," he bowed to the King. "I want your Elites deployed as scouts on all approaches to the city, a day's ride from the furthest portions of the city; I want all the warning we can have if they come at us from the land. I'll order Soldier to deploy within the city itself, they'll be ready if Xehanort tries what he did at Traverse here."

"Where will we be?" Sora asked eagerly.

Ansem blinked, as if he'd forgotten that the five children were still there. "You will not participate in the battle. I can't risk any of you until we know how to strike directly at Xehanort."

Sora's heart fell, he wanted to help, and Leon and Cloud would be in the middle of everything, as would so many others, why did they have to sit this out?

"It isn't fair!" Sora griped.

"Sora, you have passable combat skills at best and you can just barely cast level three tactical magic, what is the King going to do, throw you at an army of Heartless?"

Sora stamped his foot, glaring at Riku. "You bet! We could take them; we're the keybearers we're supposed to defeat Heartless."

Riku snorted and waved his hand, Roxas spoke up before he could say anything. "We're just kids, we can fail."

Anything Riku might have said was stopped by that statement, Roxas and Riku caught each other's eyes and in that moment all past ills were forgiven on both sides, mostly on Riku's.

Namine put her hand on Roxas' shoulder. "Roxas is right, we don't know anything about war and we can't be of any use to the King if we get in his way."

"Bu—"

"Sora, listen to them." Kairi said, putting her arms around his waist and leaning against his back, Sora fell silent and nodded. She was still taking all of this very hard, one day she'd been a normal girl, and the next she was part of the world's hope for normalcy. It was a lot to take in.

The door opened and Leon and Cloud entered the room, followed by Tifa and Zack.

Zack stuck out his hand towards Roxas. "We haven't really met, I'm Zack."

"Uh, hi," Roxas said.

He nodded and turned to Sora. "I'd shake your hand but I respect a girlfriend's right to cling to her man."

Sora blushed though he made no attempt to shake Kairi.

"What are you four doing here?" Riku asked.

"Well it was just us," Leon supplied, eyeing Tifa and Zack. "Those two just decided to follow."

Tifa smiled. "I'm practically your sister Leon, why wouldn't I come?"

Cloud flushed and looked at the neighboring wall, Zack shrugged. "I'm their squad leader, and I wouldn't be much of a leader without a squad to lead." He grinned, "even if they're the ones leading me."

Leon went up to Sora, smiling at Kairi apologetically. "Give me a moment?"

She released him, and Leon put his hands on Sora's shoulders. "We're going to be deployed as one of the scout squads so we're not going to see you anytime soon alright?"

"You're not going to be here?" Sora said with a look of alarm.

"You'll be fine, I just…well I wanted to tell you that I'm very proud of you, and no matter what happens I love you."

Sora wrapped his arms around Leon who smiled and did the same, holding him close and ruffling Sora's hair playfully.

"It'll be okay, I'll come back I promise."

"You'd better." Sora sniffled.

Roxas looked over at Cloud, not sure what to expect; Cloud looked like he'd swallowed something slimy as he came over and hugged Roxas, though the hug was just as warm and close as the one Leon and Sora shared.

"I'll be back."

Roxas couldn't help it, he smiled. "You're terrible at this."

Cloud scowled. "What do you want me to say?"

Shaking his head, Roxas let Cloud go. "Same thing you always do."

Cloud sighed and shrugged as if in apology, Tifa took that moment to wrap her arms around Cloud's neck. "Don't worry, he loves you."

"I know," Roxas said with a smile. "Take care of him."

She winked. "I will."

Sora and Roxas watched from the balcony of the room they'd been given at the castle as the city prepared itself for a war. Lights still burned brightly in the streets but the hustle and bustle of the city had died down as the people readied themselves for what was to come.

"You know what scares me the most?" Roxas murmured.

"What?"

"No one has ever fought an army of Heartless before; this isn't like going to war with one of the neighboring kingdoms and fighting other people. We know about all the wars and battles between the kingdoms from our history texts but this is completely different."

Sora thought for a moment, he'd never really paid much attention in school, relying on Roxas and others to help him through it all.

"Yeah but they can be killed just like people, we've seen them die. Remember in Twilight Town at the Struggle fight? The militia had no trouble killing them."

Roxas nodded, looking inside the room where Namine and Kairi were sleeping, Riku had gone off somewhere with his family, considering that every member of his family was in the Elites that was no surprise, Big Red was nowhere to be seen which made him sad. They'd sent the chocobo with their brothers, hoping the big goofy bird would give Leon and Cloud that much more of a chance to come back unharmed. It had been quite a sight to see Red being armored for war; a helm was fitted over his head, it stretched from the back of his head to his beak, covering them with metal shears to make the already deadly beak more so. Neck and throat armor was fitted to protect him and metal talons were slipped over his claws; by the time the blacksmith had finished Red had looked like some kind of metal statue. The imposing visage hadn't stopped Sora from cuddling the chocobo who had warbled mournfully when he'd been led away by Leon and Cloud.

"Do you think anything will ever be normal again?" Sora asked longingly.

Roxas looked over at him, frowning. "I thought you liked all this magic and stuff."

"I do…but sometimes I miss when things were simpler."

"You mean your parents right?"

"Well…not that exactly," he looked a little ashamed as he smiled. "I mean that was normal in a broad sense right? I would love to have my mom and my friend's parents back, but I mean, you know back in Twilight when we were just Roxas and Sora, when there weren't any Heartless or keyblades."

Roxas nodded, "yeah I know what you mean. I don't know Sora," he thought of holding Rikku as she died. "I don't think things will ever be the same again."