DISCLAIMER: Unfortunately I do not own it and probably will never own it.

Kingdom Hearts

Twisted Souls

PART II

Convolutions

Chapter 26

What Now?

Convolutions: a complication or intricacy of form, design or structure (also twisting)

"So what are you making me choose now?"

-Riku to DiZ as he leaves Castle Oblivion

Gentai Tanaka stood, overlooking what was once the proud world of Agradar. His pain and grief almost went beyond tears. Almost. And yet, at the same time he could feel the moisture worming its way from his eyes. It had been hard enough to see the dead and lifeless corpses of his parents, the man and woman who had raised him from his very birth. But now he just felt empty…as empty as he had when Hikaru had died a little over a year ago. What was there left in his life now? Why did he have to endure such sorrow and pain?

Gentai crouched down near the ground and bent over the figures of his parents, now lying there as though in a peaceful rest. But even that seemed to be denied to them. Their bodies were now merely charred and scarred. They couldn't even have died unblemished. Tears began to at last spring from Gentai's eyes. He wouldn't sob, but he would certainly let the tears fall from his face unashamedly. There was no shame in grieving for those whose time had come.

Gentai's hands sifted through all of the charred piles and remains until he at last found what he was searching for…the two items he had not seen in over a year and desired so much to have. The first of these items was a small locket of his mother's that was tied around her neck. When he was younger and came into adolescence he remembered his mother telling him that one day that locket would belong to the woman he decided to marry, as a symbol of the love between and in their hearts. It was a simple gold locket, with some slightly fancy engraving on the front.

Gentai's fingers gripped at the opening of the locket and with minimal effort he was able to get it to open with a small hiss. There was no picture inside but merely an inscription. An inscription that Gentai had only heard once before…and it was not from his own planet. Still, the words seemed so far off and so foreign to him even as they sat in the palm of his hands. It was so small he could barely make out the writing but the words were there, plain as day:

Thinking of you wherever you are

We pray for our sorrows to end

And hope that our hearts will blend

But the saying ended there and continued no further in the words that Kairi had told him she said to Sora through a message in a bottle. Gentai curled his had into a fist, the locket resting inside of it before he gingerly placed it into his pocket, there to keep it safe for the rest of its days.

He next delved into his father's charred clothing and into the pocket of his jacket where his wallet had somehow survived the intense heat and malice that Maleficent's flames had poured forth, just as the locket had survived the raging and curdling flames from only moments ago. There was very little munny inside and all that sat there, that was of any true importance, was the picture his father had always kept for so long. Gentai cried a little more inside as he grabbed that picture, remembering the day he had learned about his father's possession inside of his pocket.

"What's that dad?" the small nine-year old Gentai had asked his father, as he stored away the wallet after buying his young son some ice cream from a street vendor. The young boy had caught a glimpse of the multi-colored with a different appearance from munny or the rest of the wallet as the wallet had opened and closed. His father had chuckled and knelt down next to his son, staring him in the eye.

"Gentai, son, you remember that day your mother and I took you to the photographer because we wanted a nice family portrait together?" his father had asked him and the young boy nodded, still not understanding where the flow of the conversation was taking them to. "Well, this is the picture we took." He took the picture out and showed it to his son. It really did show them at their best albeit, Gentai could tell he wasn't comfortable in that suit and he knew he never wanted to wear it again.

"But why do you have it with you dad?" Gentai asked, confused as to why his father would carry around such a portrait of their family when he could see his son and his wife almost every single day.

"Because…someday I won't be able to see you everyday, and neither will you mother. And for the times when we seem to be especially lonely we'll always have this picture to look at and remember just who our son is." His father had said this all rather proudly and Gentai grinned at him, knowing he made his dad very proud inside.

"Don't worry dad, I promise I won't ever leave you!" Gentai said happily and his father chuckled before standing up and walking along the street, eating their ice cream.

"Looks like I broke that promise…" Gentai said to himself. He shook himself from his own reverie and took the picture, folding it up and placing it into the small inner pocket of his jacket. That was all he had left of his parents now…all he had left to remember them by. He wondered if they had ever thought of him as he had been gone. There was always so much fighting and all of it ended up being for absolutely nothing. Gentai truly did want to just break down and cry. There was nothing left in this entire world. So he closed his eyes and allowed himself for just a moment to remember what the world had been like when he had left it. What the world had been like before Maleficent came and destroyed everything.

He remembered Agradar in its entire splendor, the height of its technological revolution. The wonderful hover cabs that could take you from point A to point B with minimal effort on their part. Buildings that towered to the heavens and looked marvelous in their magnificence. The buildings had been of beautiful steel and metal with video display screens that were displaying some new type of product from the science department or elsewhere. Gentai almost wanted to chuckle at how good life had been for him, the people all united under one banner and flag. He himself had come from the small town of Epsilont on the planet, near the Racknic Range of mountains.

As his mind's eye surveyed the former planet he found him walking along the cobblestone paths of his own town. He thought of the wonderful government building located in the capital, and of the consul's chambers located to the north of the capital in Capitulon. He had only been there a few times on vacation with his parents and once on an airship with his friend Tom on their class field trip. But he also knew that the sight he remembered of the world was now long gone. In fact, he even felt to himself that if he tried he could probably feel the ground moving from underneath him, drifting pieces of the land apart.

Gentai stood that way for quite some time and it was only when he heard, or rather felt, the soft padding of footsteps behind him that he emerged from the world of blissful illusion and his eyes snapped open, once more taking a look at the horrible visage that reality had taken before him. He didn't have to look to know who was behind him, but he felt that he at least owed her that. He turned around slowly and gave Demora a look of despair. The tears that had flowed so recently were drying up at last, leaving his eyes puffy and red. Even his nose had a bit of a sniffle to it. The look that he could describe on Demora's face was nothing short of sympathetic, even empathetic. She gave him a very weak smile.

"Donald and Goofy are getting the Gummi Ship ready…though I don't know exactly what His Majesty wants to get it ready for or where we're going." Demora said and all Gentai could do was force himself to numbly nod in her direction. He no longer could feel anything inside of him. Demora continued to stare at him, her own tears beginning to form. "Gentai, I-"

"Save it." he said, but not forcefully. He rather had the tone of a man who had merely given up on everything. "I'll be all right."

"No you won't be." Demora said, and Gentai knew that she wouldn't believe a word he said for a minute. "You can never be whole again." Gentai turned away from her.

"You're right…I can't be whole again…not after this." They stood there silently as the wind whipped around them. In all of their surroundings it was the only thing moving through the world. The only thing that was changing no matter what…but even that seemed to have a dead quality to it. "It's my fault Demora."

"What is?" Demora asked, sidling up to the boy and placing a hand on his shoulder in a comforting fashion. Gentai could fear the tears now ready to come gushing out of his eyes.

"It's my fault they're dead. It's because I'm a Keyblade Master….it's because I wasn't fast enough." Gentai sobbed out, unable to contain his emotions anymore. "I can't help ANYBODY!" Gentai screamed in a feral rage and kicked at a piece of debris that was left on the ground. Demora could feel his pain and so moved her body and wrapped her arms around him.

"It's not your fault…nobody could have seen this coming." Demora said soothingly, trying to take the pain out of Gentai's heart. "Nobody could win against what the hag had planned."

"But I fell for it. Just like with Hikaru." Gentai slithered out of Demora's embrace and his knees collapsed to the ground. "I wasn't fast enough then either and I lost my mentor…the only person in the worlds other than my parents to treat me with any kind of respect."

"Gentai, don't blame yourself. Sometimes things are meant to happen." Demora said, her own painful memories gathering in her own heart, giving her strength to go on helping this boy. She sunk down to his level and kneeled on the ground. "It'll be all right."

"NO! It'll never be all right!" Gentai yelled, not believing the words he was hearing come from her mouth. "I've lost both my parents. The parents I was hoping to see at least one more time in my life. To hear their voices, to feel their touch. But now they're gone!" He buried his face in his hands, ashamed at his uselessness and his outburst. "You don't know how that feels." Demora looked at him in such a vulnerable state and once more wrapped her arms around him.

"I do understand…" Demora said in a hushed tone, trying to convey all the sadness and love into her statements. "Just remember, I lost my parents too. Terra killed them a year ago, and I…I thought he was going to let them live." Gentai looked up from his hands with an ashamed look on his face. But before he could say anything she just silenced him with her fingers and held him closely. "One day…we will live without fear, and without war…there will be no darkness, only light. And when that day comes…all of us will know what love truly is." And she sat there, rocking Gentai back and forth as the wind blew across the world of Agradar, comforting the man who had lost nearly everything in his life.

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There was an ear-splitting sound as four Keyblades pierced through the shiny metal exterior to the very heart of the machine. Only one Keyblade most likely would have done the job, but these four struck with a particular vengeance. Though revenge was not right for them in their book, they still needed some semblance of closure that their trip to Agradar had not been wasted with Maleficent's victory. And to them, the only way that this could possibly be achieved was by destroying the machines she had used to amplify the darkness to destroy Gentai's world.

All four withdrew their Keyblades simultaneously and with grimaces on each of their faces. Every single machine was now destroyed and gone at last. Sora dismissed his Keyblade from his hand before he felt Kairi leaning on his shoulder. She sat there and could almost feel a slight shiver run down Kairi's spine, no doubt from the sobs that threatened to rack her body. Sora stroked her hair, trying to assure her with that simple movement that everything would ultimately be all right. It was only a little over a week ago that he and Kairi were going to be married. Only a week and already so much had happened. Sora looked over at Riku who had no signs of tears, nor indeed of any despair; the darkness had, at last, hardened him, hardened him to the point that grief could no longer make him cry.

But inside Riku was raging. That darkness that for so long remained dormant in his heart was resurfacing. All of his anger and passion was leaping forth into the unbidden darkness within his heart. He truly wanted vengeance against the witch, if not for his friend's sake then for all the worlds. But Riku knew that if he let his anger control him, he would be no better than Xehanort, Xemnas, or Maleficent himself. Therefore, it fell that there was only one question to ask of the group at large.

"What do we do now?" Riku asked and Kairi picked her head up off of Sora's shoulders. Mickey gave a heavy sigh, filled with the grief and despair wrought only in the past few hours. He looked in turn to his fellow Keyblade wielders.

"Maleficent's evil has gone on long enough." Mickey said with the weight of the worlds heavily laced into his voice. "We need to do something about it." Sora nodded, the most determined look ever imaginable etched onto his face.

"You're right, Your Majesty. I'm tired of playing defense." Sora said, anger lacing his voice. "I think it's time we take the battle to Maleficent and her cronies."

"I agree with Sora." Kairi said. But she quickly decided to back up her reasoning to not run the risk that she just wanted to agree with her fiancée. "Think about it, running around trying to protect the princesses has done nothing for us but given more time for Maleficent to plan her attacks."

"Exactly!" Sora stated. "If we wait any longer, who knows what she'll do. We've taken out two of her members which leaves only four more and Maleficent herself."

"Well, I'd hardly suggest taking on the Horned King." Riku said with a scoff. "That guy is nearly as powerful, if not more so, than Maleficent. We've avoided going to Prydain as much as possible." Riku looked at his two childhood friends who were trying to think of who they should attack. They looked to him for a suggestion but he merely shrugged his shoulders.

"So who does that leave, then?" Mickey asked, trying to think of their plan of action himself.

"Royal Pain, and Pete…" Riku said with yet another shrug of his shoulders to indicate that he clearly didn't think that highly of either of them. But then the final member hit him in thought full throttle. "And…the Huntsman."

"Well…" Sora began, pondering nearly each word as he spoke it. "Royal Pain has been seldom seen or heard from so I'd seriously doubt that they're a problem. Pete is always with Maleficent, so that would require storming the Castle That Never Was. That doesn't sound good to me in our current condition." Kairi nodded her head as he said all this and as he finished his last statement all four of the beings there realized what was coming next.

"Then that just leaves the Huntsman." Mickey said with determination. Nevertheless, despite Riku's strength and unyielding bravery, the thought of going up against the Huntsman again was frightening at best. "You said he was from fabled Countryside?"

"Yeah…" Riku sighed out, not liking where any of this conversation was going. He looked to the diminutive king and seemed to see the cogs and wheels turning in his head.

"That's Snow White's world." Mickey said.

"But, Your Majesty, we don't even know if we'll find the Huntsman there." Sora said exasperatedly. He didn't want to be going on a wild goose chase for something that might not be able to be accomplished at the present time. Mickey gave Sora a wry smile.

"Nope, we don't! But it'll at least give us a place to start." Mickey said before he bounded off in the direction of the other four companions who were dutifully waiting their arrival. But after only a short distance he turned to them all. "But what about Gentai?"

"I'm sure he'll be fine. Demora's probably comforting him right now." Riku said, with a small, playful smirk. "It'll be useful to have him along." Mickey nodded and set off once again, Sora and Kairi following quickly behind in his wake. Riku chuckled a bit, though he did know that this was not the time to chuckle. Still, he couldn't help but look at the sky. The thing, the objective, he had dreaded for months to complete was at last here. Their party was hunting the Huntsman.

Author's Note: Yes, I lied, I'm back earlier than I had planned. But updates for this part of the story will come much slower than the past ones did so I won't have to bust my back to make my own quota of four chapters a week. I know this opening chapter was short but I believe that emotional moments and very intense action sequences should be in short bursts so as to preserve the flavor, if you understand what I'm saying. I hope you think I did well with the emotional moments here since I've always found those to be my forte (just wait for later…I think I'll have a field day.) Yes, they are at last going after the Huntsman. The first villain we technically met in the story is now on a one way train to an inevitable showdown. As for the lengths of my subsequent chapters, they will be short for a little bit but when we get to Chapter 5 things will pick up since I devote myself to completing a full movie in two chapters with added scenes of the Kingdom Hearts nature. Either way, in order to tide you over to my next chapter, this is the title, Chapter 27: Hunting the Huntsman. Now please review, and Dare to Be Silly.

P.S. Feel free to give me criticism at any time, I really don't mind in the whole scheme of things...it makes it more exciting and allows me to improve as I go on. Not to mention that when I'm done with the trilogy I will take all criticism into account and fix up the stuff.