An Old Acquaintance

Sora went to a mission with Death the Kid and the Thompson sisters; they had to find out why people disappeared when they entered certain mansion. After exploring a few rooms, they arrived to one that had a piano and they got an emblem that was hidden behind a secret door, however when they were about to leave the room, a sound made them stop and realize that someone or something was approaching them.

The Keybearer let go of the door knob and moved away from the door. What was behind that door wasn't a Heartless, at least it didn't sound like one. He looked at the shinigami with worried face, hoping that he knew what was coming up the stairs.

Kid understood what Sora wanted him to do, so he closed his eyes for a moment. The boy opened his eyes after a few seconds and looked at Sora.

"I don't know what is coming," he said, "but it has a soul and it's a Kishin Egg."

"Then it is an enemy, we should…" Sora was interrupted by a loud crashing noise. The door was destroyed by a big anchor, and the one who was holding it, entered the room. The team stared at the creature that they had in front of their eyes; it was tall and really muscular, especially in its back since it had a great size compared to a normal one.

"What the hell is that thing?" Liz asked frightened.

"No idea, but you two better transform," Kid said to the sisters and they obeyed. Right after they turned into guns, the creature roared and used its anchor to attack the group, Kid jumped back and dodged the attack and Sora crouched to avoid being hit. Unfortunately for Sora, he was too near the monster and it grabbed him tightly.

"Damn!" Sora exclaimed and drew his Keyblade immediately. Kid saw that he was in trouble and started shooting to the creature in the face, but it wasn't working. Sora also started to use his sword to hurt the monster, but it was no use, the monster moved because of the strength Sora was using to hit it, but its skin was really hard and the attacks didn't do any damage.

"Our attacks don't work!" Kid said, he was trying to think a way to kill that thing and then he noticed something on the creature's back. "Is that…an eye?"

"Try shooting it before that thing hurts Sora!" Liz said.

Kid did what Liz said and aimed at the eye, he started shooting and the monster screamed in pain and let go of Sora. The creature tottered and looked to the person who just shot, it looked more vulnerable when its eye was damaged, so Sora took advantage of it and hit the monster with the Keyblade in the head, making it face him and giving its back to Kid again.

The shinigami shot the eye again, but this time the monster got angry at him and started to swing its anchor repeatedly. Kid retreated, but his back hit the wall and had no escape. The monster was going to smash him, but luckily, Sora was fast enough and thrust his Keyblade through the creature's eye making it fall to the floor and disappear. In the place where the monster died, appeared a deep red sphere that floated in the air.

"Nice job," Kid said.

"I should be the one saying that," Sora said. "You found the weakness of that thing."

Kid let out a chuckle. "That was pure luck to be honest, but we better don't complain."

"Yeah…" Sora looked at the sphere that floated behind him. "Is that a Kishin Egg?"

"Yes," Kid replied, "a human soul that turned into a Kishin Egg."

"Then…that thing was human…" Sora said in realization and grabbed the soul. "So, how do you consume this?"

The girls looked at Sora, they forgot that he didn't know how Demon Weapons worked so maybe a little demonstration wasn't a bad idea; however when Sora was going to hand the soul to Liz, Kid told him to wait.

"What's wrong?" asked Sora.

The shinigami had a nervous expression on his face which made Sora look at him worried, however it wasn't something as bad as he thought.

"I'll collect the soul until we get another one, I don't want that one of them have more Kishin Eggs consumed than the other one," Kid said pointing at his partners.

Liz sighed. "I should have expected that from you."

"This symmetry thing is going to get him in troubles, although I've got to admit that it's funny," Sora thought.

"Hey Kid, can you sense more monsters?" asked a curious Patty and Kid tried to detect more Kishin Eggs, but he didn't see anything.

"It's clear, but don't let your guard down," Kid warned as they left the room. They returned to the hall and started looking for another path but everything was closed, however Kid noticed that the door at the right side of the hall had an indent that matched the emblem's shape. He took the emblem and put it in the indent which made the door open.

"Why do I have the feeling that one of those things is going to be in there?" Liz asked.

"I can't sense any soul, but we must be careful with the corners," Kid said. "They are really dangerous, especially in enclosed spaces."

The group walked through a narrow corridor, there were windows so they could see the rain outside. They stopped in front of a door that, unsurprisingly, was closed.

"Great, another dead end..." Kid said.

"Or maybe not," said the Keyblade wielder. "Unlike the other doors, this one has a lock, so I can do this."

He took his Keyblade and aimed at the door's lock; a beam of light came out of the sword and unlocked the door. Sora walked to the door and opened it.

"Here you go," he said.

"That's amazing!" Patty exclaimed.

"I'm glad that you came with us, unless we would be stuck." Kid said.

Sora looked at the shinigami with a fake annoyed face and a slight smile. "Next time, I'm going to charge you for my locksmith services."

Kid let out a small laugh. "You sounded just like Kim, you know?" he said. "Anyway, let's continue."

"You guys go into the room," Sora said and then he pointed to his right. "I'm going to check up what is at the end of the corridor."

"All right, just be careful," Kid said. "We'll be inside the room when you come back."

Sora nodded and left the group; he crossed the corridor quietly and opened the door that was at the end. The room behind the door was full of boxes and small cages but nothing was out of the ordinary so Sora thought that he should return with the others. When he entered the room where Kid and the sisters were, he saw that the shinigami was sitting in front of a computer while Liz and Patty talked to each other.

"I'll be done in a moment," Kid told Sora without looking away from the computer's screen.

The only thing Sora could do was waiting for Kid to finish his researching or whatever he was doing, so he sat on a chair and started to relax a little. The Keyblade wielder started to think about the events that have happened lately. He cursed himself for telling the people at Shibusen about Xehanort, he didn't want to get more people involved, although Shinigami-sama knew about Xehanort and his plot since he was acquainted with Yen Sid. Also he didn't even wanted to think about the people he met when he left for training after the Mark of Mastery exam, luckily he didn't blurted out something like the Keyblade War or Kingdom Hearts.

"All this is gives me a headache; I hope everything will end soon." Sora was so lost in his thoughts that he startled when he noticed the pair of blue eyes looking at him. Patty was crouched in front of him with a worried expression.

"Are you okay?" she asked, "You look sad. Have you seen one of those monsters again?"

"No, it's just that I was thinking about my other friends," Sora said. "I hope they are fine."

"If they are nearly as strong as you, I'm sure they won't have any trouble," Liz assured. "Remember yesterday's fight, you were incredible despite you almost fell asleep while we were inside the class."

"That's because he wasn't going all out," Kid suddenly said. He was still looking at the computer.

Liz looked at Kid with disbelief. "Come on, you can't be serious."

"I always hold back when I'm fighting against people who are my friends," Sora admitted. "I try to adapt to my opponent's level, I don't like to overdo it."

"And when you fought Black*Star…?" asked the older sister.

"Well, I realized he was holding back, so I did the same," Sora answered.

"Woah, Black*Star holding back in a fight…" Patty said surprised.

"I guess he is finally maturing," Kid commented while he stood up. "I'm done here; the fence behind the stairs in the hall should be open now."

"Have you found out anything else?" asked Sora.

"It seems that in this mansion there were people subjected to experiments that left them completely mutated," Kid replied. "The creature we saw was one of them."

Sora groaned in disgust and Kid continued. "The person who did this is already dead, the only thing we can do is to clear the mansion of these monsters since they have lost the ability to reason and they attack the first thing they see."

"Oh great, now instead of avoiding them, now we're looking for them," said Liz, not happy with the idea.

The team returned to the hall again and they walked to the fence that was behind the stairs which, like Kid said, was open now. After a long walk, they reached a door that led outside; they crossed the door and stood at the begging of a wooden bridge.

"This place is bigger than I thought," Sora said and then he looked at the sky. "At least it has stopped raining."

When they were at the middle of the bridge, a cracking sound could be heard and they stopped walking.

"Did you hear that?" Kid asked and they heard the same sound again.

"Oh god…" said Liz, suspecting what was going to happen.

The bridge collapsed and they fell. It looks that the mission is going to last more than expected.

Sora groaned as he recovered, the fall was big but fortunately he was uninjured. He stood up slowly and noticed that he was alone. He shook the dust from his clothes and started to look for his friends. While the Keybearer started looking for them, the two sisters were doing the same.

"I can't believe this happened…" Liz muttered.

"Don't worry sis," Patty told her. "We'll find them in no time!"

The Thomson sisters walked for twenty minutes, they found neither Kid nor Sora. The place where they were looked like a maze and there was water on the floor but it didn't even covered their feet. They were about to turn a corner, when they started to hear footsteps in the water. Liz poked her head around the corner to see who was there and saw one of the monsters they were looking for.

"We can't fight that thing on our own…" whispered Liz and suddenly she felt someone tapping her shoulder and she was so tense that the girl let out a scream and slapped the person who did that. When heard that her sister was laughing, she opened her eyes and look at the person who she just slapped.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you…" said Sora who had now a red and swollen cheek.

"It's okay, I'm sorry too," Liz apologized.

"By the way," Sora began as he rubbed his cheek, "what were you looking at?"

"We were looking at the monster that is walking around there," replied Patty and then the three looked at each other. They were thinking that if there was a monster near them it could be possible that it heard them.

Suddenly the wall behind the sisters was destroyed by the creature, it looked really angry and it was ready to strike. They couldn't fight with the monster face to face since the place where they were was very narrow, so they chose to hide.

"What are we going to do?" Liz panted.

"I can't get near to it until if it isn't stunned," said Sora, "and we can't split up because we may get ambushed by another one."

Then Patty's got an idea and looked at Sora. "Why don't you use us?"

Liz and Sora looked surprised at her; they didn't expect her to say that although it wasn't a bad idea since Sora could use most Demon Weapons without having the problem of matching the soul's wavelength.

"I could use your help to stun the creature and then take it down with my Keyblade," Sora said. "It could work, if you're okay with me using you."

"Of course," Liz said. "Besides it's our only option, right?"

The two sisters transformed in the air and Sora grabbed them. He felt weird, it was the first time he used guns as weapons and he wanted to make the cut. The Keyblade wielder raised the guns to calibrate his aim and he heard the girls laughing slightly.

"Sorry if I do it wrong, it's the first time I use a gun," Sora said a little embarrassed.

"It's not that," Liz told him. "If you noticed, Kid uses his pinkies to pull the trigger, so we get used to it."

"I get it," Sora said as lowered the guns. "He's quite a character."

"You could say that," she replied.

The three now started looking for the monster, the place could be a maze but at least it wasn't too big. They saw a ladder that could be the exit from this place so they were going to use it after killing the monster.

They saw the creature patrolling an area near to the ladder, so now Sora just had to shoot at its eye when he had the chance. He approached it carefully to have a better aim, and when he was close enough, he shot but, unfortunately, the monster turned right after he shot and the bullet didn't hit the eye.

"Crap!" Sora exclaimed as the creature started to walk toward Sora with killing intents. It started to swing its anchor, trying to hit the Keybearer, but he ducked and avoided the attack, then the monster smashed the floor with its weapon but Sora jumped away before being hit. Sora ran to the anchor and used it to jump behind the monster so he could damage it.

Sora's shots were successful and the monster cried in pain and moved so Sora couldn't hurt it again, but he launched the sisters to the air, so they could damage the eye again. Patty turned human again, grabbed her sister and shot three times which caused the monster to be stunned. Sora summoned his Keyblade and finished the monster.

"Phew, nice job," Sora said as he and Patty high-fived.

"We should look for Kid before leaving this place," Liz said. "Probably he's still around here."

While they tried to find the shinigami, they encountered more monsters, although now they weren't a problem to them since their combination attack could get rid of the monsters in a few seconds. They explored the place, but there was no trace of Kid.

They were about to return to the ladder that led to the exit, when a monster appeared behind them, it was about to hit them with the anchor but suddenly a trap fell on the monster from above. The three started to look around to see who activated the trap and they saw the shinigami standing on a platform.

"Finally I found you," Kid said as he jumped to where Sora and the sisters were.

"Were you the one who activated that trap?" Sora asked.

"Yeah, I managed to kill some monsters with them," answered Kid. "Do you know how to get out of here?"

"There is a ladder that could be the exit," replied Sora and they returned where the ladder was. After climbing the ladder, they arrived to the other side of the bridge that broke when they were crossing it. When they opened the door that was at the end of the path they were dumbfounded at what they saw. There were a lot of Kishin Eggs throughout a corridor and it was strange since they weren't there before.

"I'm starting to think that we're not the only people here," Kid said. They ran and reached a big door that led to a wide library, but there wasn't anyone in there.

"There's no one here," Liz said. "What shall we do?"

Kid crossed his arms. "Well, it seems that all the monsters in the mansion are dead, so we should take the souls and return to Shibusen."

They were about to leave the room, when they heard someone talking to them.

"Hey, are you leaving already?" said the voice. Sora and the others started looking for the source of the voice. The Keyblade wielder found the person who talked standing on a high bookshelf and he wasn't very glad to see him. It was a man with dark hair tied into a long ponytail, a large jagged scar on the left side of his face and an eye patch covering his right eye.

"Hey there, little Sora," greeted the man.

"You again…" said Sora with anger.

"Who is he, Sora?" asked Kid, noticing that the Keybearer knew the man who was talking to him.

Sora thought that it was useless to keep hiding things about Xehanort, so he answered Kid's question bluntly. "His name is Braig and you could say that he's Xehanort's right-hand man."

Kid, Liz and Patty were taken aback by what Sora said, they didn't expect to encounter one of his enemies and it looked that Sora didn't expect it either.

"What are you doing here?" asked Sora who had now a very serious expression on his face.

"Just checking that our old vessel is doing alright," Braig joked. "I see that you left your training to lend a hand to the kiddies of that school."

"Don't call me that!" shouted Sora. He didn't like to remember the fact that he almost became one of the members of the new Organization XIII if it wasn't for Riku.

"Hey, take it easy," Braig said, "you know that the old man is not interested in you for that anymore, however he wants you to get stronger for the upcoming battle. It would be a pity if one of the Lights is defeated easily."

"Are you here just to taunt me?" asked Sora who was starting to lose his patience.

Braig laughed. "As I said, you need to be stronger so I am here to see if you have improved since the last time."

"Then come and get me, you are going to regret it," said Sora.

"That's the spirit," Braig said and then he looked at the shinigami and the sisters. "But first…"

Suddenly, three Wyverns appeared in the room and grabbed Kid, Liz and Patty, taking them away from Sora. The Keybearer tried to help them but they were really fast and Braig sealed the room with a barrier.

"Sorry kid, if I let them interfere, the whole point of the fight would be ruined," said Braig as he descended to Sora's level. "So, shall we begin?"

Sora drew his Keyblade. "Let's do this."