Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I present to you…

29: The Return of MajorTom and KidChaor


Tom: "Maxxor rules."

Kaz: "Chaor rules more." –from Chaotic: From the Deep pt. 2


He took a deep breath and then opened his eyes. He hadn't smelled the cool, evening air that came with the Realm of Darkness or the salty scent of the water that had lapped at their feet.

He'd smelled bacon.

Kaz stood up and ran a hand through his spiky, slightly disheveled, hair, looking around as he did so. One minute he'd been sitting next to Tom on the shore of the Realm of Darkness and the next he'd woken up in…in…where?

"My gosh…" He swallowed, "The Danian Cafeteria. We're back. Tom!? Tom!?" He spun around, searching for his best friend, "Tom!?"

"Kaz!" Tom rocketed up off the floor, looking about wildly, excitement glittering in his brilliant blue eyes, "Kaz, we're back! I smell bacon! Bacon, Kaz, bacon!" He let out a great whooping laugh of joy. Kaz caught up in his excitement danced around on the spot, laughing and shouting.

Then his stomach growled and he looked at Tom. They both laughed.

"Race you." Tom challenged and took off, Kaz hot on his heels. They barreled through the empty OverWorld Cafeteria, nearly tripping over a chair that was in their way, and burst into the crowded Mipedian Cafeteria at the same time with gasps of laughter.

"Hey guys!" Tom panted, holding a stitch in his side as he grinned around at the stunned faces of the Cafeteria's occupants.

"Long time…!" Kaz breathed, doubled over with his hands on his knees, "No see!"

"Kazdan? Thomas?" Tobias pushed through the staring onlookers, eyes wide behind his glasses, "It is." His face broke out into a smile, "They did it. Those irritating, black-cloaked schemers actually did it!"

"This calls for a celebration!" Scotty roared, leaping up to stand on a table, "Light the cooking fires!"

"Turn on the party lights!" Conner leapt up beside him.

"Crank the music!" Scotty pointed dramatically at the karaoke machine.

"Butter the toast!" Conner waved a piece of toasted bread in the air and that broke the silent tension. Everyone laughed.

Matthew skipped over to the karaoke machine and, after a bit of fumbling, managed to turn on some music. Tom and Kaz were hustled over to a table and loaded with food. Laughter and shouting rang above the blaring music. The two boys were bombarded with questions which they ducked as most of it they couldn't answer.

As Kaz set down his glass of milk, he caught a glimpse of someone standing in the doorway to the OverWorld Cafeteria. He nudged Tom in the side and pointed. Tom followed his friend's gesture and nodded slowly. The two slipped away from the yammering crowd and followed the black-clad person into the UnderWorld Cafeteria. The room was empty save for Axel who was standing sentry next to an open Passage of Darkness.

"What's up, Roxas?" Kaz asked, eyeing the Passage with wariness.

"I think it's obvious that the rest of us have left already." The Keyblade Bearer nodded towards the swirling portal behind him, "But Saix wanted me to give you guys a message. He told me to tell you that "you would do well not to speak of us or what happened here to anyone else. Have Tobias Khaos come up with a story that will be circulated. It would be better we were not remembered here." Those were pretty much his exact words."

"Oh," Tom scowled, "Well, that's nice of him to care."

"Hey, hey," Axel unfolded his arms from across his chest and tapped a finger to his temple characteristically, "Lighten up. Got it memorized?"

Kaz gave a snort of laughter and looked up at the two remaining Nobodies with a small smile, "Thanks for the help, guys. See you around." He held his hand out.

Roxas shook it but the smile on his face was a sad one, "No, we…probably won't see you again." He released Kaz and stepped back at the sad expression on the boy's face, "We're going back to our own world and we're locking this path behind us tight."

"Roxas!" Axel cuffed his friend on the back of the head with a smirk, "Didn't you hear what I just said!?"

Roxas sighed, "Fine. Alright. I'm sorry I'm a mood killer." He brushed his dirty golden bangs from his neon blue eyes before turning back to Tom and Kaz, "You two…good luck."

"Uh," Tom swallowed and then nodded once, "Yeah. Thanks. Good luck to you too. I hope you guys find your hearts."

Axel and Roxas shared a look and then the Flurry of the Dancing Flames saluted, turned, and vanished into the Passage of Darkness. Roxas raised his hand and waved. Then he too was gone. The Passage of Darkness folded in on itself and Tom and Kaz were left standing alone in an empty room.

The silence pressed in on them from every direction.

Then Tom spoke in a slow and sad sort of voice, "I feel…like I just lost a very close, best friend." He looked helplessly at Kaz, "And I didn't even know them! Well, not well anyways."

"Yeah, but our Nobodies did." Kaz responded, looking slightly downtrodden, "I hate this feeling; I'm sad to see them go and yet I didn't have anything to do with them!" He stuck his tongue out and wrapped his arms around his stomach, "It's making me sick…"

"Ah, so this is where you two have been hiding." The boys turned around and found Tobias and his brothers standing in the doorway to the Danian Cafeteria. Izaak stepped forward and held his hand out, "They've gone. There's nothing you can do about that. Live in the now, you two. Come on, let's rejoin the party!"

"Tomorrow the tour restarts! You get to sleep in your cabins tonight!" Scotty and Conner put in. Both of them were leaning on Leon's head and the youngest Khaos brother looked none too happy about it.

"Sweet!" Kaz bounced towards the door and looked back at his best friend with a genuine grin, "Let's go, Tom!"

"Alright, but I just have one question for Mr. Tobias." Tom said as he walked forward.

"And what's that?" Tobias asked with an air about him that said he already knew.

"Which Codemaster are you?"

"Ah, but Thomas," The oldest Khaos brother quirked an eyebrow as Kaz stared at his best friend, "That would be telling secrets." Then he knelt down and whispered just loud enough so that Kaz could hear as well, "Codemaster Crullen."

Tom pumped a fist in the air, "I knew it!"

"And what gave it away?" Tobias asked as he, Tom, and Kaz trailed after the other Khaos brothers back into the Mipedian Cafeteria.

"You talk to people the same way you do in Chaotic." Tom said.

"I never was much of an actor..." Tobias tugged his goatee.

"So, what're we going to do now?" Kaz asked, plopping down into a vacant seat.

"There's an awfully big mess that needs to be cleaned up." Leon had come back from the breakfast bar with two plates loaded with toast, eggs, bacon, and balancing two glasses of orange juice, "Eat, you two look starved."

"We already ate." Tom grumbled but started nibbling on a piece of toast anyway. Kaz pushed the eggs around the plate for a little bit and then pushed it all away.

"You're going to open Chaotic back up, aren't you?" He said and it seemed the whole room heard him because everyone stopped talking and turned around to look. Even Tom set down his food.

"After we assess the damage." Joseph replied.

"There's no way we're keeping it closed!" Izaak stated, tossing his head to get his bangs from his face, "Deprive you guys of the greatest adventure of all!? No way!"

Kaz sighed in relief and slumped down in his seat, resting his arms across his stomach with a pleasant smile on his face. Everything was turning out dandy. He suddenly jumped as someone's cell phone went off with a series of loud beeps. Joseph reached into his pocket and pulled out his black phone, flicking it open so that the Chaotic symbol flashed in the overhead lights.

"Yes?" He paused and then hit a button on the side, "Go ahead, you're on speaker."

"I've unlocked all the doors in the building." Said a voice that the teenagers recognized as Greg, the Living Quarters Security Man, "And Mr. Tobias, sir, you'd better come outside and see this. Someone's waiting for you."

"Outside…" Soyokaze breathed. Then he spun and ran for the doors. A crowd of shouting teens and adults alike followed him, shoving their way towards the open air of the lower floors. Tom looked at Kaz and they both grinned, joining the race.

The front doors exploded open as the flood of people burst through them and into the pure sunshine streaming above the trees and mountains. Tom put his face to the wind and closed his eyes, smiling as it tossed his jet black bangs. Someone yanked his arm and he looked around to see Kaz tugging at him and pointing towards the round-about where the rest of the teenagers were chasing each other and laughing. Tom lunged at his best friend and Kaz skipped backwards, mouth open in ecstasy as he ran, egging Tom to chase him.

Tobias, standing with his hands in his pockets in a sunlit portion of the grassy area surrounding his company's building, twitched slightly as someone put their arms around his waist. He turned, tracing his fingers up their arms as he went, and faced his wife. Willy opened her mouth to speak but Tobias was a step ahead. He leaned forward and kissed her deeply. He could hear some of his brothers whooping and cheering in the background but he ignored them. This was his moment.

Across the round-about, Kaz had flopped onto his back in the grass, spread eagle and half panting, half laughing. Tom sat beside him, gasping for air. Kaz closed his eyes, feeling the warm sunlight on his skin, and let out a very loud, "HA!"

Tom lay back, tucking his hands behind his head. He stared up at the blue sky, the giant, fluffy clouds looking like half-melted marshmallows against the azure blaze of the sky.

"This is the best summer vacation ever!" He heard Kaz say from beside him, "Sarah and Peyton are gonna die when they hear about this!"

"Totally!" Tom rolled over onto his side so he could talk to his friend better, "And just imagine, we're getting a bunch of rare scans out of this too!"

"Oh yeah!" The friends high-fived, "Codemasters, here we come!"

"I heard that!" Leon shouted and the two broke out in laughter.

Everything was back to normal; Chaotic was being fixed up, Perim was safe—well, as safe as Perim ever would be—, and Khaos Corporation was no longer under threat.

Things were perfect.

At least for the moment.

It's not over, yet.

Let me repeat myself unless you guys didn't catch that: It's. Not. Over.

That's right. There's still some things that need to be finished off, conclusions that will lead somewhere else, and an endings that have to be written. Keep an eye on those last five words and remember the name of the very first chapter. Hey, it holds true, doesn't it?

Anyway, I just want to thank everyone who read this and left me reviews! It means a ton more than I can express! Thank you to:

UnderwaterMaiden, Courtny911, Starryblossoms, Syuveil, and CosmosDragon.

All of you guys rock!

So stick around as we clean up the loose ends. As usual, thank you so much for reading, please leave a review, and—for the last time—see you guys around! Be on the lookout for "Nice To Be Loved!" Coming soon! See ya'!