The Keyblade Master Meets the Keyblader

In the alleyway of Traverse Town, the very same alleyway that Ward had woken up in merely hours ago, a great portal appeared. From inside, came screaming, and three people were flung out. They landed in a heap on each other, and started pushing to get off of each other.

"Goofy!" cried one, in a raspy voice, "Get your foot out of my eye!"

"Sorry, Donald," Goofy said.

Sora looked around at the portal just in time to see Kairi step gracefully out of the portal. "How'd you do that?" he asked her, bewildered.

"I wasn't in such a hurry!" she smiled. But when she was completely out, the portal started closing. Just inside the shrinking window, the King, Prince, and Riku could be seen.

"RIKU!" Sora cried. He lunged for the portal. All he could see was Riku's face.

"Don't worry Sora!" called the King. "He has to find his counterpart!"

"Or counter-PRAT if he's anything like I was!" Riku laughed. "I'll find you soon enough! You've got Kairi to keep you company this time."
"And what are we," Donald frowned, "Chopped liver?"

"Goodbye, Donald," Riku laughed as the portal closed.

Sora turned around smiling. Kairi smiled at him. Donald frowned. "Sora, are you ok?" he asked. Sora looked at him in surprise.

"Why wouldn't I be?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I think what Donald means is that we gotta start looking for Riku and the King again, and you seem happy about it." Goofy replied.

"Well, if Riku said he'd see me again, he will!" Sora shrugged. "He hasn't lied to me about it yet!"

"Hey Sora," Goofy said, frowning, "This place looks kinda familiar, don't it?" Sora looked around. His eyes grew wide, as he realized that this was exactly where he was sitting nearly two years ago when his own adventure had started.

"Traverse Town!" Ward cried. He took off to where he knew Cid's shop should be. "Come on, guys, lets go see Cid!"

"You mean Cid's counterpart," Goofy reminded, "We're in the alternate Traverse Town now, Sora." Sora stopped.

"Oh…yeah," he replied. Right as he stopped, heartless appeared. Sora pulled out the Keyblade (which was currently the Kingdom Key), Goofy his shield, Donald his staff, and Kairi her own Keyblade, the one Riku had given her in The World That Never Was, which she had named, Every Rose has its Thorns, Rose for short. But before they did anything, a flash of black appeared, the gleam of silver, and every heartless had died, leaving a man in black armor standing in the dark mist that heartless turned into when they died.

"You two," He said, turning and pointing his sword at Sora and Kairi. Donald and Goofy gripped their weapons tighter. "Come with me."

"We don't go anywhere without Goofy and Donald," Kairi said. Donald and Goofy nodded.

"I don't care who comes. But you two are for sure." The man turned and started walking. They didn't say a thing until they got to the house Sora recognized as Leon's in the other universe.

"What's your name?" Sora asked him.

"Garam," replied the man without even looking at him. He knocked on the door, said his name, and the door was answered by a pretty woman with dark black hair. Rinoa smiled at them and said, "Wow, there's been a lot going on tonight…" but Garam interrupted her.

"The two humans are keybladers," he said without batting an eye. The girls eyes widened and she looked at them suspiciously. "And HE," Garam said pointing at Sora, "Seems to have a special one. Show her." Sora pulled out his blade.

"WARD!" Rinoa cried, "That is WARD'S Keyblade! Did you steal it from him? What did you do to him?" Sora nearly fell over in surprise.

"Ward?" he asked, "He was here?"

"Well I think we have some explainin' to do," Goofy said. Everyone stared at him, as though it was rare that Goofy said something so obviously simple, yet no one else seemed to think of it before he did. Even though this happened quite a lot. Rinoa sighed, pulled out some chairs, and they sat down. Quina walked in, carrying a platter of food.

"MMM," it said, spotting Donald, "Me loves roast duck!" Donald squawked and blasted it with lightning, sending it back into the kitchen. For the first time since they met him, Garam smirked. Then he looked over at Sora and said, "Where did you get that keyblade?"

"Well," Sora started. He went into the story about the alternate universes, and about the Prince and the King. He said how Riku was going to meet his own counterpart, and how they were the only ones from entering the portal to stay together. Then he started in on his own story, aided by Donald, Kairi and Goofy whenever he faltered. Rinoa looked startled when Sora mentioned Leon's name, and Garam hid his face (and a few tears) when Donald mentioned beating Setzer in the struggle match.

"…we stepped into the portal, and ended up here." Sora finished. Garam looked at him, and said. "I see."

"This explains everything!" Rinoa said loudly. She pulled a picture off the wall, and showed it to Sora and the others and said, "Here, this is Leon, isn't it?" Sora stared. Sitting in front of him, hand drawn, was Leon. Definitely not a face he expected to see in this world.

"Yeah, but how do you know him?" Sora asked.

"I see him in my dreams," Rinoa said. "I hope I meet him someday."

"I think you could, some day," Goofy said.

"That would be SEVERE meddling," Donald emphasized. Sora rolled his eyes.

"Oh," he said, "and the heartless aren't doing that already?" Donald rolled his eyes, but did not disagree.

"Ok," Reeve said. "We know one thing. You need to meet up with the keyblader…" Sora interrupted him.

"Why do you call him a Keyblader?" he asked. Reeve looked surprised.

"Isn't that what the people in your universe call you?" he asked.

"No, they call me the Keyblade's Chosen, the Keyblade Master, or the Keyblade Wielder." He replied.

"That's just what we call you guys here," Reeve shrugged his shoulders, "Anyway, you need to find him. I've put a tracker on his gummi." He's heading for a certain world…I suppose you could have the old man in the third district help you get there."

"Merlin's counterpart?" Sora asked. "I wonder what he's like?"

"A bit loony, but he's ok," Rinoa replied with a smile. Garam handed him a stone, and a little book. The book was poorly repaired, and the stone had a flower in it.

"This must be like Pooh's story book," Ward said, "And this must be Simba's counterpart."

"Take those to the wizard," Garam replied. "You won't be able to use them, as you aren't from this universe. But I need you to give them to Ward."

"Ok," Ward said, and he and his companions walked out the door. The third district was easy to find, as the town was identical to their own Traverse Town. They remembered the door that needed to be blasted with fire to open it. Sora zapped it, and they went across the familiar steps to what looked like Merlin's house. Sora walked inside, and found an old man sitting in a chair, reading what looked like countless scrolls. He had a pointy blue wizard's hat, a long white beard that scraped the floor, a red robe tied round his waist with a white cord, and next to his chair, was a red and white striped staff. He looked up and said, "Why hello…hmmm…you are not the Keyblader I've been expecting, are you." He turned to Donald, Goofy, and Kairi, then smiled and said, "No, no, none of YOU are the Prince's brother, so that must mean that you are the other Universes Keyblader! Absolutely Splendid! Well, I don't need to teach YOU anything. Place the book on that pedestal, he can see it when HE comes." He finally stopped talking, but only to take a drink of tea.

"Who are you?" Donald asked politely, which was strange coming from the short tempered duck."
"I am the Great Wizard Whitebeard. Call me Whitebeard if you wish," he replied. "I come from a far different world. A world that cannot be reached by the normal gummi, due to its distance. I traveled here and there with magic. My friend and companion Waldo watches things while I am gone, although the poor boy often gets lost in his books. But I suppose you want me to take you to Ward?"

"Yes sir!" Goofy replied, which was the last thing anyone said. With a wave of his staff, the four disappeared.

"Hey!" Ward said, "There's a World up there!"

"No can do Rook," Popple said. "The atmosphere would kill the gummi, and besides that the air ain't breathable."

"You leave-a that to me and my magic," Luigi replied. Popple looked to Birdo.

"Hope you brought your spare tools," he said. She nodded. "Good, cause we are gonna have one heck of a repair job on our hands after this."

They dropped down, the storm in the atmosphere blasting at the gummi bit by bit. Soon they broke through, but a wing had tore off. They were going at break neck speeds, Luigi had his eyes closed, and was sweating profusely. Suddenly, the gummi righted itself, and landed roughly next to another ship, very unlike a gummi.

"DON'T OPEN THE HATCH!" Luigi screamed at Birdo, who was about to look outside. Luigi pointed his mallet at each of them in turn, and they were put into futuristic space armor, complete with helmets with HUD's. There was no defense mechanism, but they didn't need them built into the armor. All they needed was the basics. But like this, they could barely see each other's faces. Suddenly the hatch opened, and a tall figure stepped in. The person was clad in orange armor, with what looked like two giant balls for shoulder guards. The knees of the armor where spiked and sharp. It looked at them.

"Get out," Said a metallic voice.

"Hey man, we aren't looking for a fight!" Ward said.

"Prove it," Said the figure. Ward pulled out the Keyblade. It was impossible to tell what was going on in the figures head. He neither jumped, nor breathed at the sight of it. Finally, he spoke.

"Finally," He said, "Someone who can help me WITHOUT getting in the way."

"What do you mean?" Ward asked. He looked at the figure.

"Well, let's just say the Space Marines aren't exactly the elite. They can handle pirates, and even the stray metroid. But they cant handle these new foes. I'M having trouble. And to make it worse, they are possessing the Pirates. If they possess a single metroid, it would be unstoppable. But imagine a hundred!"

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Ward cried, "Slow down! What on Fate Oasis is a metroid?"

"What on 'Zebes,' actually," the figure corrected. "And you will know soon enough, once I have updated your HUDs.

"My name's Ward, and this is Luigi!" Ward said.

"My name is Samus Aran," The figure replied.

Suddenly, there was a crash outside. Samus dashed out, followed by Ward and Luigi. Lying in a heap where three people, each clad in the same type of armor that Ward and Luigi had. One was red, like Ward, one was wearing blue, the other green. Standing next to them, in orange, was a fourth person.

"Donald, Goofy," cried the one in red, "Get off! Why do we do that every time we get transported?"

"A-hyuck, Hey Sora!" The tall one in green called. His face mask (as well as the one in blue's) protruded out a great deal. They were obviously not human. "Do ya think maybe that's Ward and Luigi?"

"Who wants to know?" Ward asked, pulling out his keyblade. The red one, Sora, walked up to him, and pulled out his own keyblade, which was identical to Ward's. Ward gasped.

"We need to talk," Sora said, in a friendly voice.