"Hey, Saiyoku. Wake up." Riku banged on her doorway, opening the door and flipping on the lights. She jolted from the sudden change in sleeping atmosphere and turned over, her eyes flashing.

"What. Do. You. Want?" She said grouchily, her voice full of sleep.

"Get up." He walked into the room and grabbed her Organization coat lying at the foot of her bed and tossed it to her face—the only visible part of her body.

"Oh sure, I can't come in your room on normal circumstances, but it's just fine for you to come in here." She said, throwing one of the nearby pillows at his face, missing.

"You're obviously awake enough to make sarcastic remarks like that. C'mon, it's 7:00."

She froze, did a double take at the clock and stared him down, "You woke me up at 7:00? Why?" She growled.

"We need to earn more munny."

"And the word 'we' meaning 'me'."

"Precisely."

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"Most fun I've had in a while."

"That's it!" She jumped out of bed and socked him in the stomach. He crumpled over from the blow, "Jeez…"

"Get out. Get out now!" She turned him around and kicked him out… literally, slamming the door behind him.

--

The Sandlot was full of people; banners pinned up on the Struggle building, a huge sign hung across the garage, and the fighting platform in the middle. Fireworks were shot up into the air, making the crowd roar and cheer. A chubby man in a yellow vest and green shirt stepped onto the platform.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Struggle-fiends of Twilight Town! It's time for summer's most sizzling clash! That's right! Today is the day for the Struggle and title match!"

Riku sat on the roof-tops half-watching. He wasn't really interested. Saiyoku approached him from behind, holding two Sea-Salt ice creams in her hands. From her perspective, he looked as though he was half-dead, all depressed looking. She stepped next to him and knocked him on the head three times, as if knocking on a door. He jumped and glared at her, "What was that for?"

She smiled, "I know it's not customary, but I thought I'd at least knock before I crashed your emo party."

"…I'm not emo." He muttered, taking the ice cream she offered him. She sat down next to him, "You're acting like it. Oh! I get it! You're in your denial stage. It's understandable… I mean you're sixteen and stuck inside a forty-year-old's body, your best friend is going to be asleep forever unless we fix his memory, I'm going to annoy you until the day you die, the worlds are falling into Darkness again and the only savior for them is asleep inside a pod, the Organization is rising and Xemnas will soon make his first major move… Yeah, I can see how you're emo yet in denial."

"That proved absolutely nothing. How about you try this reason: I'm tired."

"Oh, YOU'RE tired." She grabbed his hand holding his ice cream and shoved it all the way into him mouth. He spit it out quickly, "Agh! Cold, cold, cold, cold!"

The crowd interrupted them when an outbreak of fangirls yelled, "Setzeerrrrrr!" A man with silver hair and auburn eyes, black jeans, white long sleeve shirt, lavender bandana tied around his waist, a black and gold coat with purple lining wrapped around his shoulders, and the Struggle Champion Belt slung over his shoulder stood before the crowd, feeling oh so high and mighty.

The crowd chanted his name, and the announcer went along with them, "Yes, the crowd is fired up, so you know what comes next: Let's…" He waved his hands and the crowd cheered, "STRUGGLE!" More fireworks burst in the sky, and the announcer was replaced with a new one, a thinner man with blonde hair and a black yellow and orange striped jacket.

"Hey, now. It's time to introduce today's combatants! The four bad boys who struggled their way through the preliminaries!"

"Bad boys my—" Riku began, but Saiyoku shushed him, "Shh! I wanna watch this!"

"—Disciplinary Committee: Seifer! Completely out of nowhere—who knew he'd make it so far THIS year? Vivi! An underground favorite and local attitude problem: Hayner! It's his first trip to the finals! And Struggler number 4, who happens to be my absolute favorite customer: Roxas! So—who will win this sweltering summer Struggle? Who will take home the grand prize? The summa cum laude of Struggle—the Four Crystal Trophy!" The man pointed to a huge trophy that consisted of a huge blue swirl statue with four different colored crystal balls in each curl of the statue.

"AND… a chance to take on our defending champion, Setzer!"

Setzer waved to the crowd and lifted up the Struggle belt in victory. The crowd cheered louder, the many fans all excited for this summer tournament.

"It won't be long now, folks. I suggest our challengers go over the official Struggle Rules before we begin!"

The four contestants gathered around the two announcers. Saiyoku finished her ice cream and began tossing up her stick, trying to keep it from falling off the roof and onto one of the heads of the people in the crowd below. Riku barely ate his, so Saiyoku threatened to eat his for him if he didn't hurry and eat it.

The Struggler returned to the stands except for Roxas and Hayner, who mounted the platform and met with the chubby announcer in the center of the stage. They were handed Struggle bats and Hayner pointed his at Roxas threateningly. Roxas merely looked away, his facial expression not excitement, but sadness.

Saiyoku couldn't hear what he was saying, but Hayner looked good natured about it, and soon cheered Roxas up. They took their stances and the skinny announcer yelled, "Our first match of today's Struggle tournament will be between Roxas and his best friend Hayner!"

--

"And now, the match you've been waiting for: Roxas vs. Vivi!"

Roxas took his stance, but Vivi merely stood there, looking blankly at him. Roxas ran up to him and aimed to hit his enemy on the head, but the air shifted and slowed, making Roxas stop. Both Saiyoku and Riku realized what was happened and moved to stand up or jump down, but as did the rest of the town, they froze, time standing still. Only Roxas was left unaffected.

Vivi began to glow white and morphed into a Dusk, two more appearing around Roxas.

"Again!?" Roxas yelled, on his guard when his Struggle bat changed to his Keyblade, "Again…" He took his stance and took out the Nobodies, one by one. More appeared, but he sent them away like the first three. Roxas was out of breath by the time he was done, but he forgot all about that when he noticed that the town still hadn't unfrozen even though he had taken care of the intruders.

A sudden applause from behind him made him turn around. Another man in a black Organization coat was standing there, still clapping, "Roxas. All right. Fight fight fight."

Roxas just tilted his head, confused. The man approached him and sighed, "You really don't remember? It's me. You know, Axel." Axel lowered his hood to reveal his blazing spiky red hair, green eyes, black upside down triangle markings under his eyes, and his mischievous complexion.

"Axel?"

"Talk about blank with a capital 'B'. Man oh man, even the Dusks aren't gonna crack this one." His quick movements with his arms summoned two fiery chakrams, startling Roxas.

"Wait a sec, tell me what's going on!"

"This town is his creation, right? Which means we don't have time for a Q & A. You're coming with me, conscious or not. Then you'll hear the story." Axel took his battle stance, flipping his chakrams and twirling them in his hands.

Roxas backed away, immediately disliking the stranger who seemed to know him. The air around him shifted again and Axel forgot about his stance, "Uh oh." He looked around, making sure 'he' wasn't arriving. Roxas just became even angrier. He looked at his Keyblade and lifted it up yelling, "What's going ON!?" He threw the Kingdom Key to the ground, sending it skidding to a halt behind Axel.

He stared at it before lifting up his hand, surprised to see the Keyblade reappear there in a flash of light.

"Number 13. Roxas. The Keyblade's chosen one." The red head went back to his stance as the Keyblade seemed to glow with recognition. Roxas seemed to understand, and he took his stance, "Okay, fine! You asked for it!"

"That's more like it!" Axel told him, egging him on. He swung at Roxas with his chakrams, but Roxas dodged and came behind him, hitting him on the back with his Kingdom Key. He continued hitting him, backing him into a corner before coming off the stage and into the crowd. Axel slide dashed around him and threw his chakrams behind Roxas yelling, "Burn!" and fire erupted from his hands and followed the chakrams, trapping Roxas in between his inferno grasp.

When the fire died down, Roxas came back at him with all he had, swinging left and right and spinning around to his enemy's back and attacking him from above. Everything ended when digitalized portal opened on the platform revealing DiZ. Roxas was entirely even more confused but Axel stopped fighting, "So it was you." He jumped back a foot and spun his chakrams by his sides, bringing them up and throwing them at DiZ when they burst into flames.

The fiery weapons merely bounced off an unseen digital force field in front of DiZ, flying back to their master. DiZ turned to Roxas and ignored Axel, "Roxas, this man speaks nonsense!"

"Roxas, don't let him deceive you!"

"Roxas!"

"Roxas!"

"Roxas!"

"Roxas!"

The cries continued, the air shifting again. Roxas refused to listen, cupping his hands over his ears, "Hayner… Pence… Olette… Hayner! Pence! Olette!" He yelled, and everything was back to normal, just like that. The crowd's cheering commenced, and Saiyoku and Riku nearly fell off the roof before collapsing back onto the edge. They looked at each other, "What was that?"

"Time froze again. Roxas, you, and I are the only ones that know that here."

"You saw what happened though, right? Axel was here… and DiZ came here too."

"Yeah, I saw. But they're gone now. C'mon, we need to go talk to DiZ and make sure everything's alright with the simulation and with Sora."

"Okay."

They left the town, Saiyoku just little upset that she didn't get to see the rest of the Struggle Tournament. They explained what they had seen to DiZ, who wasn't at his computer as usual, but instead sitting in a chair inside the Dining Room. He nodded, "Yes, the defense system was down for a bit while you were in there, but it booted back up when I arrived, allowing me to get rid of Axel in there for now."

"So, nothing extremely bad?"

"No, just a few quirks and bugs that are typical for a computer. Of course none of these are good, since that lead to the intrusion of an Organization member who was after Roxas."

"Nothing to worry about?"

"As long as you keep your guard up while you're in there, then no."

"Is the Struggle Tournament still going?"

"No, it ended soon after you two came out."

"Darn!" Saiyoku complained, and left the room for the Computer Room. Riku followed her.

--

The little blue crystal fell out of the machine that transported Saiyoku and Riku to the simulated worlds. Saiyoku picked it up and examined it, "Hey, wasn't this on that trophy?" She asked Riku and handed it to him. He took it and did the same before tossing it up in his hand continuously, "Yeah."

Suddenly, a voice echoed through the room, "You don't remember my name? Thanks a lot, Kairi! O-kay, I guess I can give you a hint. Starts with an 'S'!"

Both Riku and Saiyoku looked at each other and said simultaneously, "Sora!?"

"Restoration at seventy nine percent."

"What was that?" Saiyoku asked, confused, but laughed, "If that was Sora, his voice definitely changed! Ha ha."

"His progress is astounding." DiZ said.

Riku caught the crystal and turned to him, "So what happened?" He placed his play toy inside the munny pouch he stole from Roxas and hid it inside his coat.

"Naminè's encounter with Roxas put his heart in contact with Kairi's. And that, in turn, affected Sora. You see? What you just heard was Sora's heart in contact with Kairi."

"Naminè… She's a wonder." Riku said, but glanced nervously at Saiyoku, preparing for a beating. Saiyoku was gone. She had left to go see Sora.

"She wasn't born like other Nobodies. She can interfere with the hearts and memories of Sora and those aligned with him."

"But whose Nobody is she?"

"I could tell you… But first, perhaps you could tell me your true name?"

Riku stared at DiZ for a moment before removing his hood and saying simply, "It's Ansem."

DiZ looked at him and then back at the monitor, his mouth stretching into a grin and then he burst out laughing, "It's an honor, Ansem!"