DISCLAIMER: I don't own Kingdom Hearts...or anything else but plot and a character in this chapter.

Chapter 36

Welcome to Your Hollow Bastion

"To the ruins of Hollow Bastion."

-Captain Hook

"Riku, you completely got your butt kicked!" Sora's voice resonated in the halls of Disney Castle. "And you were with Edge so don't give me any of that 'I was overpowered and unprepared' crap!"

"Oh, come on Sora, like you didn't have your moments where you failed miserably in battle!" Riku protested against his best friend before the light portal at last opened in the audience hall and the three Keyblade wielders at last emerged into the currently empty halls of Disney Castle.

"Hey, I've fought over a thousand Heartless in battle with only slight fatigue and that was seven years ago." Sora said with a smirk. "Not to mention that you've been training for a whole year on your little adventure while I've been sitting at home getting fat." Kairi shook her heads as the two boys continued to bicker muttering something that sounded faintly like "Boys…" But before long she saw that their argument would soon become a spar fest and she sought to avoid that unnecessary action.

"Anyway…Sora, what was all that permanent pixie dust thing about?" Kairi asked, actually interested in what Sora had meant when he said that to Royal Pain.

"What?" Sora asked abruptly and he turned to her. "Oh yeah…well, you see, I noticed that Peter was able to fly without sprinkling pixie dust on him every time and he replied that there was such a thing as permanent pixie dust so he gave me, Donald and Goofy a little sprinkling so that if we think happy thoughts, we can fly anytime!"

"Mm-hmmm, mm-hmmm, and what was your happy thought?" Kairi asked teasingly and Sora gave her a most obvious look and his cheeks lightened with a pink tinge.

"You." Riku blanched next to him and Sora would have started wailing on his best friend with his Keyblade if Mickey had not, at that moment, emerged into the audience hall from the colonnade. The moment he saw them he gave a great yelp of joy and ran forward to meet them.

"Edge told me you guys defeated Royal Pain and that you were staying another night there!" Mickey said jubilantly and Sora grinned at him.

"Yep, we locked Royal Pain up so well, not even Maleficent's enchantments could break her out…of course, she failed and we all know that Maleficent does not tolerate failure among her lackeys." Sora said, wagging his finger back and forth. This prompted a giggle from Kairi and a head shake from Riku. Either way, they were feeling pretty good right now from having defeated Royal Pain the night prior. Of course, they knew that it meant they would probably head to Prydain next but they didn't really care.

"So…" Riku decided to take the step forward rather than having the king command it. "I'm guessing that you want us to go to Prydain, right?" Mickey seemed about to answer Riku's query when the doors behind him banged open and Edge strode into the hall. Every member standing in the hall snapped their heads to look at him. He seemed very off-balanced and as he strode forward they noticed that he looked very worried. And it made all of them worried. Jiminy hopped off of Edge's shoulder and slipped back into Sora's hood with a fleeting smile. Edge was out of breath as he stopped but he looked at the king with determination.

"We have a problem, Your Majesty." Edge said with unease and Mickey looked at him confusedly. "You have a transmission awaiting you in the Gummi Hangar." Edge motioned to the still open doors. Mickey looked at Sora, Riku, and Kairi for a moment before all four of them set off down the hallway, Edge following slowly after them. Each one of them knew there was no time to be wasted and so hopped off straight from the railing of the colonnade to the courtyard below before pelting into the Gummi Garage. Chip and Dale were dancing up and down near the terminal where the transmission was incoming. As Mickey approached they immediately went back to work on their Gummi Ship which was just now having the paint job done to it and it would be done. Mickey hit the button on the console and Leon's face appeared on the screen.

"Leon!" Mickey announced with surprise. "This channel is from Donald and Goofy's Gummi Ship. Why are you using it?"

"We're sorry Your Majesty, but there was no other way Leon could contact you." Goofy said sadly off-screen, indicating that though they could not see Donald and Goofy the two were, nevertheless an inevitable presence.

"He's right, Your Majesty. Our communications system was shut down almost a day ago, we were barely able to even get a signal out to the Gummi Ship to let them know we had a problem on our hands." Leon said with very anxious features playing his face. "Thankfully, Donald and Goofy found it and immediately came over here and allowed us the use of the Gummi Ship to contact you."

"What's the problem, Leon?" Sora asked, slightly butting into the picture. Leon looked at him with very stern features and the next words he spoke felt like a hammer-blow to the gut for everyone.

"We found a bomb in the castle…the Grand Hall." Leon said, all amount of amusement drained from his voice.

"The Grand Hall…isn't that where we…?" Riku began, trying to remember where the Grand Hall of the castle at Radiant garden was.

"That's where we fought when you were possessed by Xehanort's Heartless, yes." Sora said, nodding at Riku before turning back to Leon. "But that's in the center of the castle…that thing blows there, the whole castle could topple with it."

"That was our concern too. But even Tron can't identify it or disarm it. It's the strangest type of bomb we've ever seen. From the pictures that Merlin saw on Cid's computer he figures that it's a magical type of bomb…but even he won't go near it for the fear that any magic he attempts on it might cause it to go haywire." Leon said, worry setting into his vocal cords now.

"Could there be any, like, anarchist or something who wants to blow the castle up?" Kairi asked and everybody just kind of stared at her. She shrugged her shoulders; it was a legitimate question.

"I seriously doubt that someone who's wanted this place rebuilt for eight years now would just come and destroy it." Leon said, arching his eyebrows a bit. "And we know Maleficent hasn't been anywhere near here. Tron has the whole world bugged and wired to know if she even places a fingernail in here." Sora, Riku and Kairi looked at each other and they knew instantly what was going on…or they thought they did.

"Gentai…" Riku grumbled out and Sora nodded. Mickey managed to hear him as well and immediately began barking orders (well, at least as much as he could bark orders).

"Donald, Goofy, you guys did a good job now come on back to Disney Castle." Mickey said with a fierce look on his face and you could only hear signs of admiration from off-camera.

"We'll go deal with this, Your Majesty." Sora said, thumping his chest in pride and Mickey nodded at him before Sora looked at Leon. "We'll meet you in the Borough, Leon, right outside Merlin's house." Leon nodded and he left the screen before Donald and Goofy came on the screen for a brief moment. "Sorry to leave you guys out of this, but we don't want you caught in the crossfire." Donald and Goofy just nodded before the connection terminated.

"Get goin' you guys!" Mickey said and the three of them nodded at him. Sora was the one to summon his Keyblade this time and open up a portal to Radiant Garden. Kairi and Riku stepped into the portal first, with Sora going directly behind them. The trip was very short and soon the three had emerged right outside the open door to Merlin's house. Leon was leaning against the house himself. He gave a start when they arrived. Sora was the first to speak up when he saw Leon.

"We think we know who put that bomb in your castle but there's now way to know for sure." Sora said quickly, as though time was of the essence though they had given all clues to indicate that the bomb was detonator rather than time based. But no sooner had the words tumbled forth from Sora's mouth than there was a loud chorus of clapping that echoed throughout the entire borough and seemed to be everywhere all at once.

"Or is there such a way to know?" came a very familiar voice, echoing over any sounds of commotion that caused everybody in the area, Restoration Committee members, Keybearers or not to stop what they were doing. There was a burst of light atop a building directly across from Merlin's house and Gentai stepped out, still wearing the same clothes he had been in when they last saw him on Treasure Planet. The only real difference about him was the lurking sneer on his face and the fact that he did, indeed, look more mature than he had before.

"Gentai! We knew you were behind this!" Sora yelled at the sixteen year old boy sitting atop the roof. "Why are you doing this?! Don't you know you'll hurt innocent people?!"

"Like my world was made of innocent people…like Demora was an innocent person." Gentai chuckled and the laugh sent Goosebumps up all of their spines. "You don't get it! Each and every one of you! You think you're so pure and innocent while you stand by and let places like Agradar happen. You're powerful but you'll still let stronger men like Hikaru take the fall for you! Well no more. This time, all those people that rely on you, they'll see how the mighty fall so far." He laughed even louder and more chilling this time.

"Gentai, you've got to stop this." Riku demanded, his tone taking a biting edge to it. "You don't need to do this to the world."

"Oh, I do, Riku." Gentai said with a snarl. "You see, why should worlds like Radiant Garden get the chance to live while mine perished. All worlds should be equivocal with one another. Death, and therefore destruction, is the great equalizer."

"So, what?" Kairi screamed. "Are you going to blow this whole entire world up just to prove a point?!" Once more Gentai laughed and held up a detonator.

"Oh no…that's much too easy. I have a little game for you all to play. Your fall from grace in the people's eyes is much more satisfying than watching this world die." Gentai's smirk had now become truly wicked. "You can finally experience the realm that is death…the opposite of life and birth in your struggle. Then we can see how strong the Keyblade wielders really are. Clock's ticking guys, you have only thirty minutes before…BOOM!" And he clapped his hands together loudly causing everyone to flinch before he laughed long and loud with abandon.

"I can't believe you! That's it, we're taking you now!" Sora said, summoning his Keyblade in a quick flash of light. Gentai just held up his finger.

"Whoa! You kill me that bomb explodes immediately and then there's no chance to save the people is there. Regardless of what happens you at least have that chance…even if the symbol of all their hard work will come crashing down in twenty nine minutes. Anyone approaches it, even Tron, I'll blow it sky high without a moment's hesitation. But leave it alone and you have the full time to get people to safety, good luck." And suddenly, Gentai vanished in a blast of light. Leon wasted no time. He quickly ran in through the open door of Merlin's house and told Cid to activate the town intercom system.

"Attention residents of Radiant Garden, evacuate the castle and town immediately. Please make your way to the Dark depths as fast as you can. We only have…" Leon checked one of the communications devices he had on for the time. "Twenty eight minutes before a bomb in the castle explodes. Please do not panic but calmly make your way out." He then clicked off. He turned to Cid. "Cid, contact Yuffie and start getting people out. Make sure Tron has those special security measures set up…"

"You got it Leon!" Cid said in his southern drawl and started to move out of Merlin's house but Leon's hand caught him.

"Contact Aerith too, tell her to get out and tend to whatever wounded there may be." Leon said. Cid nodded and he set off right away. Leon then turned to Merlin who was taking out his wand already. "Merlin, set as many defense spells around the castle as you can but particularly the postern and Ansem's Study. We don't want Tron to go offline." Merlin nodded and he poofed away from the sight.

"We'll help get people out of here Leon!" Sora said proudly, raising his Keyblade into the air. Riku and Kairi also summoned theirs in the thought that heartless might attack along the way. Leon nodded and grabbed his Gunblade from where it was sitting against the wall. Sora led the way to the upper level of the Borough and began running along the sturdy stone wall when something suddenly came out of nowhere and tackled him from the side. For a moment he thought it was a heartless as it lay on his stomach until he noticed one distinct feature about it: its eyes were red and not yellow.

Sora tried to struggle from under it but the creature had extraordinary strength for one so tiny. Then Sora noticed something on the creature's chest, however faint. It was a symbol he had only seen once before, two weeks ago when they were attacked and forced to abandon the Gummi Ship in space. Sora grunted and brought his free arm, holding the Keyblade to swipe at the creature but as soon as it would have made contact the creature jumped away with amazing deftness. Kairi helped Sora get up as Riku fired a shot of Dark Aura at the creature but it amazingly dodged that as well.

"What are these things?" Sora asked as more began surrounding them. They certainly looked like the standard Shadow Heartless except for their red eyes. And those red eyes made them scarier than any Heartless could be…and they were growing. Only one thought registered in all their heads at this: this was Gentai's doing. "That little…"

"He wants to prevent us from helping the people! I don't know what these creatures are and I don't care, but I'm not gonna let these people die because they're in our way!" Riku yelled and without so much as a warning he fired a bunch of different dark aura shots into the crowd of these creatures. Sora was sure that many of them made contact and so both he and Riku raised their hands in triumph before they saw that many more had already sprung up to take their fallen comrades places…and they were bigger this time.

"Uhh…crap." Sora said simply and next to him, Kairi was whimpering, thinking of only one thing: red eyes. A year ago, there had been red eyes in her vision and she only hoped that the dream wasn't coming true with these creatures. Riku grimaced.

"Sora, Kairi, go! I'll take care of these guys and meet you at the castle gates. Go and help the citizens!" Riku cried out. Both of them stared at him like he was mad. "We probably only have twenty minutes now get moving!" Kairi was about to resolutely refuse but Sora grabbed her arm and started pulling her along, while attempting to hack through the new creatures that were pressing in on them…it almost made him nostalgic for Heartless. Riku smirked, hoping that being alone would get him into his zone.

The creatures jumped at him but before they could make contact a red fireball came flying out of nowhere and exploded the creatures upon impact. Leon came running up to him, his Gunblade cocked.

"I thought you might be able to use some help. I got some news that most of the people have gotten out save for the hospital and marketplace but Cloud is helping in the marketplace." Leon said rather quickly, and it seemed that he was out of breath. Riku nodded shortly before Leon noticed something. "Where are Sora and Kairi?"

"I sent them ahead. We stand a better chance if we keep these things distracted here while they help the citizens get out." Riku said and Leon nodded, agreeing with his line of thought. He then turned his back to Riku as the new creatures swarmed in around them. He then leapt forward and began hacking and slashing at the creatures. They weren't as easy to hit as the Heartless had been, nor even as easy as the Nobodies. The creatures were pretty dexterous and avoided a lot of his blows magical or otherwise. Pretty soon they had hemmed the duo in.

"Well, I don't think this looks good for us. I've been keeping track of time and we only have eight minutes left. We have to get out of here and to the Bailey fast, that's the easiest way out of here." Leon said and Riku nodded avoiding another attack before whipping around and managing to successfully destroy yet another one of the creatures.

"I have an idea…but I've never tried it before." Riku said, a slight sense of worry creeping into his tones. "It may work but I need you to keep close and don't move." Leon, despite being the older individual in this case nodded and inched closer to Riku, fending off some of the attacks. Riku closed his eyes. He fired a dark aura shot in the air and then created a reflect shield where it would hit. he then quickly calculated where it needed to go, the shot building up speed and power until it was angling towards them. Without another thought he erected a large reflect shield around the two of them but the blow of his dark aura was so strong now the shield was merely absorbing the energy, which Riku used to his advantage. He pushed the shield outward, engulfing the strange creatures until at last the shield could take no more and shattered.

When it did, the creatures were gone at last…but Riku was running pretty low on energy. But Leon told him seven minutes and he knew he had to save it for later. The two ran forward, pushing themselves into the Bailey where they saw Sora and Kairi getting the last of the stragglers through the gate. Radiant Garden had recently decided to add an actual gate in the Bailey so that it could be more accessible and Riku found it was a good thing they did.

"Riku, you're okay!" Kairi yelled when she saw him and he nodded. She then looked up the path to the Restoration Site and saw a group of three people stumbling down: an older couple supporting an injured young man. Kairi recognized them immediately. "Floyd! Emily!"

"Oh, Your Highness…" Floyd wheezed out as he approached, clearly fatigued from carrying the young man. Leon immediately took over and began carrying the man out, indicating they had five minutes left.

"Let's get going Floyd!" Emily said in a very snappy tone. "We'll have time to talk with Her Highness when we're all safe in the Dark Depths." Sora and Riku came running up to the three and skidding to a stop.

"Hey, come on! Four minutes by now, let's go!" Sora yelled. Everybody there nodded and they immediately proceeded to run out of the gate. Thankfully, Sora knew that at their current speed it would take only two minutes to get to the safety of the Ravine Trail which would leave two more minutes to escape the blast…and he knew that everybody had gotten out. he saw a white poof in the direction of the Dark Depths and knew that Merlin had completed his job just as he set foot on the blue and green tiled area of where he, Donald, and Goofy had fought Demyx all those years ago. As soon as he stepped foot there, however, he heard a cry.

"Citizens of Radiant Garden…Welcome to your Hollow Bastion!!" came the familiar voice, crying over the wind. Then, it started as a rumble…but it grew louder and louder until at last Sora heard it:

The explosion that changed the worlds.

Author's Note: And that is where I'm ending the chapter. I know, it's evil, and you'll have to wait for after the weekend to find out what happens next so just be patient. This was a part that was actually one of the first to be conceived in writing this story and I hope this first chapter of it turned out well. For anyone who didn't notice: yes, I brought the Unbirths in because it's fan fiction and I can theorize all I want and not get blamed even if I'm wrong…I will explain my theory on them in due course but not today. Now, I must ask, what did you think of this chapter and my big surprise? Also, do you think that Gentai has, in his own crazy way, a good point? I worked hard on that little speech of his (especially the BOOM part) and I hope it turned out well. In any other case, this shows Gentai's lunacy and also, if you remember the homework assignment at the end of Part I to listen to "Like a Dog Chasing Cars" on The Dark Knight soundtrack…well, just imagine it playing during either this chapter or next and you'll find it interesting…maybe. Until next week then, drop a review please, and Dare to Be Silly.

P.S. I have updated my profile page section on Fear of the Darkness reflecting much more than what I could give before due to the fact I hadn't written this chapter yet.