DISCLAIMER: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any anger directed towards me, the author of this story, after this chapter.

Chapter 37

A Challenge

"A challenge, is it?"

-Luxord

Sora recoiled on instinct the moment that he felt the blast hit. He covered the back of his hands with his arms and practically covered his whole entire head with them as he crouched, making sure to pay extra special attention to the ears. The explosion was at the castle, a slight distance away and now pieces of rubble and rock were raining down upon them, thankfully overshooting them. None of the Keyblade wielders had time to cast any sort of protective spell as debris came crushing upon them and the explosion proceeded to tear apart the castle. It lasted a good three minutes, before at last all was silent save for the final pieces of debris falling. Sora and Riku were the first to look up and see the sight.

The whole top portion of the castle at Radiant Garden was completely sheared off and much of the lower level rooms were cluttered with an insane amount of bricks, pipes and all other manner of machinery that had still been left in the castle. Those two took the blow hardest. Sora himself had watched that castle being rebuilt over the years and now, most of it was gone, almost completely obliterated. Meanwhile, Riku had stayed in that castle for much a time, even though it was under the control of Maleficent at the time.

But Riku was angry. Gentai had played a game with them. There had only been four minutes left when they set off through the castle gate and it had taken only two minutes to get down there, which was the moment that the bomb went off at last. Gentai had lied. He had detonated it earlier than he said he would. His eyes snapped in another direction as Kairi gave a sharp outcry. For a moment, he had feared that she herself was harmed but she saw the situation was much different. The old woman that they had run out with was crumpled on the ground under a rock that happened to hit her. The old man, her husband as it seemed was kneeling over her sobbing.

"Em…oh, Em…" Floyd sobbed out, hit by the loss of his wife of many years. Kairi was holding Floyd's shoulders to steady him as he sobbed. And yet, after a minute or so of such sobbing, during which Sora had put his arms around Kairi to comfort her, Floyd stopped and on his face seemed to be a look of resolve. "I'm sorry Em…"

"Will you be okay, Floyd?" Kairi asked in the most sympathetic tone in all the worlds. Floyd turned to her and smiled.

"Yes. Though Em is gone…she would not want me to weep. She would want me to continue her work where she left it. And so I shall. With your grace, Your Majesty, I shall rebuild Radiant Garden." Floyd said with a warm smile, and even amidst the destruction, Sora and Kairi couldn't help but smile back. Riku however, held no semblance of joy in his heart.

"GENTAI!!!" Riku cried as loud as he could and it caused even Sora and Kairi to look at him as they stood up. Soon there was a flash of light slightly higher up from them.

"You called, Riku?" Gentai said with a cocky attitude and Riku scowled at him.

"You set that bomb off early!" Riku yelled with a snarl and Gentai shrugged his shoulders.

"You guys had cleared the castle, I figured it was okay to detonate it. I mean, a few casualties here and there…it's all part of the game isn't it?" Gentai said with a wicked smirk back on his face.

"A game?!" Sora yelled incredulously. "You think that this is a game?!!!"

"Of course." Gentai gave a snicker as he stared at the Keyblade wielders below him. "And to prove a point, I'm giving you another chance to play with my next three bombs." All of them took a step back and Gentai arched an eyebrow in their direction. "What? Did you seriously think I wasn't busy while you two were playing around with that Edge at Maxville?" Even more, their eyes widened at this comment. "Oh come on! Are all of you really this naïve? I mean, I would've thought you'd figure out I was tracking your every move through surveillance at my castle. Why do you think I strung Donald and Goofy along until you came back to Disney Castle? Why do you think I jammed Radiant Garden's transmissions and chose not to leave a clue at Twilight Town until the day you came back?! I've been planning this!"

"You…" Riku seethed and Gentai merely smiled at him. But there was no sense of warmth in the smile, only a cold turbulence towards the worlds and all its inhabitants.

"Don't pay me such compliments, Riku. But let's get to the point." He jumped down from his high placed perch and landed without a scratch on the ground right in front of the trio. "I told you that you'd have another chance. I have three bombs, or rather, I've placed bombs on three worlds: Twilight Town, Destiny Islands, and of course, Disney Castle itself. All three will go off simultaneously in one hour precisely. I won't stop you from finding them, I could care less. I mean, that's not to say I won't put up opposition…but really, I think you'll be hard pressed to stop all of them."

"Gentai, stop it! Don't do this!" Kairi yelled, almost pleading with the demented sixteen year old boy. He shook his head and said straight to them, not a flicker of a smile on his face:

"There is no more stopping now." And with that he vanished in a burst of light, leaving them with one hour until oblivion. They faced each other.

"We have to split up." Riku said with authority and the other two nodded. "I'll take Disney Castle."

"I'll take the islands." Kairi said and Sora knew that left him with Twilight Town. They all summoned their Keyblades and opened portals to their respective destinations. Sora arrived into the sunset streaked world of Twilight Town and instantly began thinking about what he needed to do. And the first step was finding Hayner, Pence, and Olette. And he found them soon…or rather, they found him.

"Sora, man!" Hayner yelled as he ran up to Sora and Sora stopped his mad dash through the town. Olette was following slowly behind her husband but soon was able to catch up. "Hey, we have some news we wanted to tell you."

"That's great! And I'd love to hear it but now's not the time." And Sora quickly explained the entire situation to the couple. Hayner listened without interrupting. "Is there any place that we can get everybody into relative safety?"

"The Underground Concourse…" Olette replied in a slightly worried tone. Sora put a hand on both their shoulders.

"Then raise an alarm and get people moving there as quick as possible. We only have forty five minutes left." The two nodded and immediately set off to alert the mayor of the town. Sora himself pelted along through Station Heights to quickly get to the Sandlot. As soon as he was there, he ran into Seifer.

"You again?! You want a fight?!" Seifer yelled and Sora wanted to yell at him to shut his trap but decided that it wasn't the smartest thing.

"No, I'm not here for a fight!" Sora yelled when suddenly one of the creatures from Radiant Garden came pelting in and nearly attacked Seifer but Sora summoned his Keyblade in a flash and was lucky enough to slice through the creature. "This town is under attack! Get moving to the Underground Concourse!" And Seifer, now that he had seen the creature, took off with Rai, Fuu and Vivi as fast as possible. Suddenly, more of the red-eyed creatures began surrounding him and Sora grimaced. They leapt at him.

"Fire!" Sora yelled and a great flame surrounded him and barbecued the creatures. But it wasn't enough to destroy all of them and judging from the clock tower, he was running out of time. Thankfully, at that moment the alarm and announcement sounded telling everybody to move to the Underground Concourse. Of course, Sora knew that the Nobodies inhabited those parts but he nevertheless believed that the citizens of Twilight Town would stand a better chance against them than against the might of Gentai's magical bomb.

Sora knew that Gentai had finally snapped just from this whole little game that he was playing with them. He wasn't even sure if Gentai was bluffing. If he was bluffing then there wouldn't be any real problem…but they couldn't rely on the chance, however small, that he was bluffing. The red-eyed creatures leapt at Sora and he dodge rolled out of the way, jutting his Keyblade into the sky before springing up and jumping over them, spinning his Keyblade around him. Many of the creatures were destroyed with that swipe and Sora knew that he had at last broken through. Well, at least I don't have to deal with Heartless and these things.

Sora glanced at the clock tower as he ran into Tram Common and saw that despite all his best efforts there were already only fifteen minutes left before that bomb hit. He knew he couldn't even try to find it, even if he desperately wanted to. Somehow, he even knew that Gentai had planned for them to fail at this crucial juncture…he had definitely turned down crazy street. Sora saw that the final stragglers were finally making their way out of Tram Common. One of them, a young man with blonde hair stumbled out of his shop but got caught on his desk and tumbled over, damaging his leg. Sora quickly ran over.

"Leave me…my life's not worth anything." The man said with some ounce of sadness. Sora just grimaced and hoisted him up onto his shoulders. He looked the man in the eyes.

"Every life is worth something!" Sora said and he began helping the man along. They finally reached the Underground Concourse entrance in Tram Common and Sora helped the man hobble inside. He looked at the clock; helping the man had taken longer than he thought…there were only three minutes left. Well, hope Gentai doesn't cheat us this time. He knew that he would need those three minutes to cast reflect spells all around the Underground Concourse to make sure it didn't collapse on them. He focused his mind and prepared to spread his magic over the whole area though he knew it would drain him. He waved his Keyblade and a light blossomed at the top, spreading the spell through the entire area just as the clock hit the final second of the hour. And it was then, that Sora felt the shuddering weight of the bomb slamming against his magical protection.

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Meanwhile, at Disney Castle, Riku's arrival and news to both the king and Edge was not welcome. Thankfully, Donald and Goofy had not yet returned and therefore would possibly be safe if anything happened to the castle. But Riku had no time to waste and said he needed to find that bomb.

"Max!" Mickey called out and Max, who was just around the corner, came rushing over and saluted. "I need you to gather everybody from Montressor and get them on their way as soon as possible, in the next hour."

"And get my Order moving so that they can help out." Edge commanded as well, needing his Order to begin helping here of all places. Max saluted and, like his father before him, raced off to do the king's bidding as quickly as possible, even giving an accidental "a-hyuck" as he ran off.

"Your Majesty, how could Gentai even enter the castle?" Riku demanded. "The laws of the castle state that no person with darkness inside of them can enter, you told me so yourself." Mickey put a finger to his chin and thought about this for a moment. However, Edge was the first one to put his theory forth.

"Couldn't it be possible…that Gentai has no darkness in his heart?" Edge said with a shrug of his shoulder and both the king and Riku looked at him. "I mean…it is possible. Not likely, but not unheard of."

"But only the princesses have no darkness in their hearts." Mickey demanded and Riku began shaking his head, remembering the one fact of Gentai's existence that he could remember.

"No…Gentai is the only male with no darkness in his heart and no darkness that could enter it…" Riku said solemnly and Mickey looked completely taken aback. "Apparently he's the first male since Windsor when he formed the Round of the Crown so many years ago…"

"Then that means he could enter the castle!" Mickey yelled out in fear and terror, the most ever heard from the small diminutive king of Disney Castle. Riku nodded his head but cut it off in mid-nod realizing their discussion could drag on forever and they would need to find that bomb.

"Where could he place a bomb where no one would find it without spending too much time looking for it?!" Riku asked, his voice now rushed given the situation. He thought Mickey would have to think about it but it turned out to not be the case.

"The Hall of the Cornerstone!" Mickey yelled, and without another word, both Riku and Edge pelted their way into the Audience Chamber, knowing somewhat of the secret room down below the throne. Mickey rushed in behind them but was soon able to overtake them. "Only I can open the room so stay back!" Mickey quickly darted to the throne and pressed the button that shifted the pedestal containing the throne to move aside and reveal the path to the Hall of the Cornerstone. All three of the Keyblade wielders quickly ran below and found the bomb sitting there.

It was a shimmering rainbow of colors that was sitting there. There were wires sticking out of it but it seemed to be more for the detonation and timing purposes rather than part of the bomb itself. On the whole, the bomb was rather magical and now Riku understood why Merlin didn't want to use any magic for fear that one tiny spark of the wrong magic would set it overboard. Mickey was the one currently examining it and he was quickly able to remark on the fact that there didn't seem to be a timer there but that Gentai had set it internally within the bomb. Overall, that meant there was no way to shut down the bomb and deactivate it. Riku quickly thought about the time they had spent finding the king and Edge, telling Max to get moving, rushing to the Hall of the Cornerstone, their discussion and their examination of the bomb and was quickly able to determine: they had only five minutes left before the bomb would blow them all up.

"Mickey, we have to think of something!" Riku yelled. "We only have five minutes left!" Mickey looked startled at this new observation. Edge was the first one to put forth a suggestion.

"All we can do is attempt to block the blast with our own spells then. Here's where it will be the strongest but if we can keep it in a small field where the blast will merely scorch part of the floor then we can still save this castle." Edge said and he looked into Riku's eyes, silently imploring him to accept his decision. Riku returned the gaze for a moment before giving a short cut nod.

"Between the three of us we should be able to defend this castle from the blast." Riku agreed and all three summoned their Keyblades quickly. Riku kept the mental count in his head as the bomb finally reached its final countdown. 5…4…3…2…1…

They cast their reflect spells over the bomb, hoping that they and the entire castle would survive the blast to come.

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At long last, a minute or two after the blast had begun, Sora released his reflect spell and nearly collapsed, supported only by Pence and Hayner who had come to make sure that their friend was okay. He brushed them off, assuring them that he was perfectly fine. Then he took a glance outside of the tunnel. He couldn't see very much for there was still dust settling n the air. And so he decided that he needed to see everything that had happened for himself. He took off at a brisk pace for the outer portion of Tram Common, Hayner and Pence following him quickly. What Sora saw outside stunned him more than anything in all the worlds could have.

Tram Common was fully obliterated and Sora could only imagine that all the rest of Twilight Town was much the same as it. He looked and saw that half of the woods were burned away fully and completely, not even the trunks withstanding the blast. However, beyond them, the Old Mansion had managed to remain standing, unshaken and un-withered by the destructive force that had just struck Twilight Town. Sora did a quick turn and saw that many of the buildings had their tops sheared off and Sora thought that clearly the Sandlot would be nothing but one huge pile of sand. As he looked towards the station the biggest pang hit his heart: the clock tower was gone.

Sora ran forward, wanting to actually see the site of the largest destruction for himself. Hayner and Pence followed behind him obediently as he ran. After a few moments, the three of them reached what was one Station Plaza. Thankfully, Sora's spell had worked and had protected the gateway here that led to the Underground Concourse. But the tiles were ripped up and bricks scattered all across. The bells from the clock tower lay on the ground, shattered and broken and the metal hands were lying next to them. Sora dropped to his knees and tears came from his eyes as he saw the sight. He heard Hayner and Pence both gasp behind him.

"I can't believe this…" Hayner said in an extremely hushed voice. "I thought our lives would be perfect…but now this…"

"Perfect?" Sora asked with a weak chuckle. But even that felt false to him right now.

"Olette just found out that she's pregnant…we were gonna have a kid, raise him here and now…this place isn't even fit for humans our age." Hayner said and Sora could hear his strained tones, knowing that he was biting back crying. Sora picked himself up and stared at the remains of the once great Clock Tower.

That was when the anger struck. It wasn't a blind rage but just a simple justifiable anger. A million thoughts were roaming his head. The death of Demora, Gentai's rage at the Huntsman, the destruction of Radiant Garden, of Twilight Town, and of Hayner and Olette's unborn child resting in her womb. His face transformed into a dark scowl. Suddenly, in his hand the Keyblade appeared, unbidden but completely welcome. However, it was no longer the Keyblade that Sora usually held in battle. It was dark, almost obsidian were it not metal. Its hand guard was in a circle with a purple diamond shaped jewel set right above it. The shaft itself extended above it in a black network of chains until it reached the very top where it had a very sharp tip and an even sharper, black blade. Hanging from it was a keychain that held a black crown similar to Sora's own pendant.

Sora was at last wielding the Oblivion keychain again…and he could only hope that it would be enough to stop Gentai now…and save the worlds again. But for now, he knew that he couldn't stay here because he was worried for Kairi and the fate of both the islands and Disney Castle.

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Kairi herself was staring at the destruction of Destiny Islands from right outside the Secret Place. She had attempted to save as many people as she could from the moment that she had set foot on the islands again. True, she had been forced to listen to Selphie ranting on and complaining about where she had been for practically a month now (three weeks to be almost precisely exact) but after ten minutes of struggling with the slightly deluded girl she had subdued her and got her, Tidus, and Wakka moving around all the islands and telling them to take shelter on the children's play island or elsewhere, namely Mount Destiny.

Unfortunately, there had been many stragglers in that very same struggle and so Kairi ordered all of them to gather around her while she cast a reflect spell. If Sora had not trained her all those years ago to use magic, and had she not cultivated her white magic skills she could very well had lost more lives that day than had already been lost. After she saw what the death toll was on the island where she used to live she decided that she needed to check out how the people that had gone to the Secret Place had fared. Everyone there was fine, but for the few the few stragglers who were now dead in the sand. However, the island was a completely different story. Smoke was covering out the sky and blotting out the sun and many of the dead bodies were scared, different parts of their body scattered out all over the place.

Perhaps the most crushing blow occurred when she saw the paopu tree. It was gone. It was completely obliterated. And she just knew what she would see next. She closed her eyes and turned away from the crushed and destroyed island that had once held the magnificent paopu tree where she, Sora, and Riku had spent their days. When she opened them her eyes found the last horrible sight that she had been expecting but had not wanted to see.

There was a thick mist swirling around all of the dead bodies and the red-eyed creatures that Kairi had fought with both Sora and Riku on Radiant Garden were there, the mist swirling around and entering their figures somehow. A year ago…she had seen this a year ago in a dream. It had only been once but it had scared her so much that she quaked for hours…even after Riku had assured her that it was just a dream. But now it wasn't just a dream; it was reality. There was death…there was destruction. And if Gentai wasn't stopped there would be more. She collapsed to the beach, her body racked with sorrow. All the hope she had of a peaceful life after this…was all but gone.

But there was one thought that was foremost in her mind. She summoned her Keyblade and created a portal to Disney Castle just as Selphie, who had survived the explosion, came running up to her.

"Take care of everyone…you'll get through this." Kairi said simply, with as much of a smile as she could muster. Then she stepped through the portal. She had to see, had to know whether the castle and her fiancée were all right.

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In the ruins of the castle at Radiant Garden only one sole figure stood, shifting rubble aside with his foot. Gentai was standing there, the wind whipping his clothes about him and ruffling his hair that had grown slightly longer. There were actually tears staining his eyes as he thought about all the things. He took a deep breath but even that proved to be too much for him and he dropped onto one knee. He wanted to stop, oh how desperately he wanted to stop…and yet he couldn't something was driving him to this point. And he knew there was only one way to end this, one way that would allow him to sleep after months of going without it. It would require perfect planning, just as the destruction and practical revenge he had just exacted had. But overall, he knew it came down to one thing:

He needed to fulfill his destiny.

Author's Note: Yes, let the anger fly for my destruction of these two beloved lands. Believe me, I love Twilight Town and it breaks my heart to destroy it…but I had to. I know, it seems like nothing good for this but as the saying goes: "The night is always darkest just before the dawn" and I promise you this, the dawn of this story is coming. Things have to get worse before they get better and I promise you they'll get better before the end (but not too much better since there is a final installment). This should cue you in as to what is going on inside Gentai at this time, and I'll leave it up to you to decide what he's planning to do.

In any case, next chapter is Prydain at last and the final conquest against the Hellfire Club. Now, I must take this time to ask all my readers about Edge as I've got one reviewer (Captain A, that's you) who clearly doesn't like Edge. You are, of course, entitled to your own opinion, but the idea is not for you to hate Edge. You don't have to love his character but I wanted you to like him, and if you don't then I'm not doing my job as a writer. Don't blame him for all of his order's actions as we'll show next chapter and even as we get into Fear of the Darkness, none of this is entirely his fault. I just want to say that. So please drop your probably angry review, and Dare to Be Silly (which is kind of ironic considering I've written such a dark story).