Hope I haven't lost anybody yet; and I hope I kept it interesting enough to keep you wanting more.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy, but at least I still own my own characters and ideas.

Hope you enjoy!

EDIT: Dates have officially been added to clear up potential confusion and keep the timeline in order without any discrepancies.

Chapter Three: Memories Part II

Sunday, May 16th 4794 P.C.

While Sora was gasping for breath from the excitement of telling the last part of the story, Jiminy told everyone about their time in Agrabah. "When we arrived," he said, "We were hoping to catch up with Aladdin and Jasmine. But instead, we ran into Iago, Jafar's former pet parrot. Iago wanted our help with apologizing to Aladdin and Jasmine for helping Jafar during our first adventure. Then the Heartless showed up and attacked us. They just kept coming at us. Iago knocked some crates over onto the Heartless and helped us escape.

Because he helped us, we told Iago that we would help him apologize. We went to the Palace to see if they were there and we found Jasmine without Aladdin. She told us that Aladdin hadn't been himself lately and was acting strange, always disappearing into town.

So we went into town, looking for Aladdin. We found him and a peddler chasing Aladdin's monkey, Abu (who was trying to steal a black lamp), through the streets. Aladdin caught Abu and returned the lamp to the peddler.

Aladdin told us that the reason he'd been so sad lately was that after gaining his freedom; he and the Magic Carpet had gone off sight-seeing around the world. Iago interrupted our reunion with Aladdin by informing us that the lamp that Abu had been trying to steal was the same one that had imprisoned Jafar.

We quickly rushed to the peddler's shop and tried to buy the lamp off of him. When he saw just how much we wanted the lamp, he told us that he would only sell us the lamp for a treasure fit for a sultan. Aladdin didn't want to worry Jasmine, so we went to the Cave of Wonders to find a suitable treasure.

After fighting our way through dozens of Heartless and facing two incredibly difficult challenges created by the Cave itself, we found a suitable treasure, only to be attacked by an awful lot of fairly strong Heartless. We defeated the Heartless and took the treasure to the peddler.

When we got to the peddler's shop, we found the man being chased by Pete, who was after the lamp so he could free Jafar and turn him into a Heartless. We followed them to the Palace gates where the peddler and Pete kept taking the lamp from each other until Iago swooped in and Pete finally got it. Then Genie arrived and mistook Pete for Aladdin. Pete got really mad and summoned two really powerful Heartless to fight us. We barely managed to win that fight. Then we helped Aladdin seal Jafar's lamp deep underground beneath the Palace. Aladdin was finally back to his usual self when we left since Genie and the Magic Carpet had returned. And we left for the next world, Halloween Town."

Goofy briefly told them about their journey to Halloween Town. He explained about Jack Skellington's obsession with Christmas, meeting Santa Claus, hunting down the late Oogie Boogie's lackey's Lock, Shock and Barrel, defeating the trio, learning about Santa Claus' capture and Oogie's rebirth at the hands of Maleficent, Maleficent's plan to turn Santa into a Heartless, fighting and defeating Oogie once and for all, and saving Santa.

After Goofy finished, Sora turned to Riku and grinned, "By the way Riku," he said, "Santa sends his regards." Riku turned crimson. "So he's real?" he asked Sora, seeming almost hesitant. Sora just grinned and listened as Donald went on to tell the parents about their trip to the Pride Lands.

"The next world we visited was the Pride Lands. When we got there, we all changed our appearance according to the laws of the world. Sora became a lion cub (Kairi let out a squeak, which drew several looks from the parents and Sora, and hid her face to stifle a fit of giggles), Goofy became a turtle (everybody laughed), and I turned into a tropical bird of some sort (everyone just stared at him)." Donald cleared his throat and continued, "Anyways, these three hyenas decided they were going to eat us for dinner but took off when they heard a lion roar in the distance.

We went to follow them and met a lioness named Nala, who was being attacked by Heartless. We helped her fight off the Heartless and she took us to a mandrill shaman named Rafiki to see if Sora had the qualities to be the next King of Pride Rock (Kairi and Allison both giggled at the idea, Sora just blushed) and he told us no. Then Scar, the current King, surrounded us with a bunch of hyenas and a lion version of Pete. When Scar tried to attack us, Nala stopped him and helped us escape.

We asked her who might be able to stop Scar, and she told us the son of Mufasa, their last king might be able to, but Simba was dead. We told her that Simba was still alive and that he had been one of our allies on our first journey. Nala helped us look all over the Pride Lands for any sign of Simba and we finally found him in an Oasis several miles away from Pride Rock, where he was living with a warthog named Pumbaa and a meerkat called Timon. When Nala tried to talk Simba into returning to Pride Rock and driving away his uncle, Scar, Simba refused. Simba still blamed himself for his father's death.

That night, Simba called out to the night sky, asking his father to guide him. The Spirit of Mufasa appeared before Simba and told him to take his rightful place in the Circle of Life. We returned to Pride Rock with and Simba confronted Scar. Scar made Simba believe that Mufasa died because of Simba. Just when Simba was about to fall to his death, Scar confessed to the murder of Mufasa. Angered by Scar's words, Simba forces him to tell the truth to everybody. Scar and Simba then fought at the top of Pride Rock while Sora, Goofy and I protected Timon and Pumbaa from the hyenas.

Then we watched as Simba defeated Scar, only to have Scar return immediately as a Heartless. We helped Simba defeat Scar's Heartless and saved the Pride Lands."

"Next, we decided to repay a visit to Twilight Town," said Sora, Kairi sat up straighter at this, as if she wanted to say something, but continued listening. "When we got there we found a bunch of Nobodies attacking the locals, so we fought them off and a member of Organization XIII then appeared and asked us if we had seen Axel, who had apparently gone against the Organization. When he left, this guy, Seifer, gave us a trophy that he said belonged to the strongest guy in Twilight Town After he took off, we ran into Pence again who asked me if I knew a girl named Kairi."

Everyone turned to look at Kairi. "That was after Axel kidnapped me."

Melissa and Jonathan both let out cries of shock and rage at this and immediately began fussing over Kairi's well being and making death threats about Axel. "Jon, Melissa, calm down," David said, placing a hand on each of their shoulders, "Obviously Kairi's fine or she wouldn't be here talking about it so calmly. Let's hear what she has to say." Jonathan and Melissa both sat down, still looking worriedly over at Kairi. David smiled at them and back at Kairi. "Okay Kairi," he said as he sat back down, "Go ahead."

Kairi smiled at her adoptive parents and David. "About three months ago, I was standing on the beach, tired of waiting for Sora to come home, and I was trying to come up with some way to go find him. When I was thinking out loud about how maybe waiting wasn't good enough, a voice spoke to me. It said 'My thoughts exactly! If you have a dream, don't wait. Act. One of life's little rules. Got it memorized?' and then a man with red hair and green eyes, dressed in a black cloak appeared across from me on the beach through a black portal.

I asked him who he was and he told me his name was Axel and that he was an acquaintance of Sora's. He offered to take me to go see him and I wanted to see Sora so badly that I was about to take him up on his offer when this yellow dog appeared and distracted me. Then a bunch of Nobodies surrounded me to prevent me from escaping. I heard a whistle and another black portal opened up behind me, away from Axel and the Nobodies. The dog ran to the other portal and started barking at me. Axel told me that 'We've got something in common, Kairi. You and I both miss someone we care about.' He told me that he felt like we were friends already. I told him that he wasn't acting very friendly and I ran through the other portal.

The next thing I knew, I was waking up in Twilight Town. There, I met Hayner, Pence and Olette. I told them as much of the story about what happened to the Islands and to me before Sora left again, promising to come back, and how guilty I felt about forgetting him for a year. They told me I could stay with them and wait for Sora since he had told them that he'd be back.

Then Axel appeared and he grabbed me by the arm and dragged me into the dark portal even though Hayner and Pence tried to stop him. Then a Nobody from Organization XIII named Saïx appeared and took me from Axel. He tried to destroy Axel then, calling him a traitor and Axel fled. Saïx then took me to the Organization's Castle and locked me up in a cell. He kept me there for almost three months, having Nobodies bring me food and water twice a day before I finally escaped. Aside from that, I never saw another being. He only stopped by once, calling me the fire that feeds Sora's anger."

Sora glared at his fists. "The worst part of that story is that Saïx was right. As I was saying, we went with Pence to the train station where we had a brief reunion with Hayner and Olette. They told me that Kairi had been there looking for me before she was kidnapped by Axel. They blamed themselves for her disappearance. When we left Twilight Town, I was really depressed. I had lost the King and Riku, only to lose Kairi again too. Donald and Goofy were trying to cheer me up when the radar on the Gummi Ship detected a massive amount of Darkness enveloping Hollow Bastion."

"When we arrived at Hollow Bastion, we found the place crawling with Heartless and Nobodies," said Donald, "We went to find Leon and the others to find out what was going on. First, we ran into Cloud, who told us he was looking for a man named Sephiroth, a person who embodied the darkness in Cloud's heart. Cloud made us promise to tell him if we saw Sephiroth and we told him we would.

Next, we met with Cid and Merlin who told us that Leon was in the castle, going through Ansem's study. We fought our way through dozens of Heartless to get to the castle, only to find that the inside was in disrepair. Entire walls had crumbled, sections of the walls, ceiling and floors had been removed or were heavily damaged. And to top it all off, the inside of the castle was like a maze. We finally found Ansem's study, which was in almost in as bad as shape as the rest of the castle, but no Leon.

We met a woman named Tifa who said she was looking for a guy with spiky hair. At first we thought she meant Sora, but she told us that the guy that she was looking for had spikier hair than Sora. Then she searched Ansem's study looking for a hidden switch or room. Then she took off and Leon showed up and showed us to Ansem's computer room, which was hidden behind a wall in the study."

"When we went to access Ansem's computer," Said Jiminy, "This blue alien thing fell on the keyboard. Donald got pissed off at it and jumped onto the keyboard trying to catch it. Then a voice came from the computer, calling itself the Master Control Program and warning us that if we continued to mistreat it, it would punish us. Donald accidentally stepped on more keys and the MCP told us we were under arrest. A beam of light came from the computer and turned Sora, Goofy, Donald and me into computer data and transported us into the system.

We met this program named Commander Sark, who served the MCP, and he threw us into a cybernetic prison where we met a security program named Tron. After hearing our story, and telling us about how the system we were in came into being. Tron agreed to help us get back to the real world. In order to do that, we had to go to the energy core in the canyon and turn the power back on in the cell so we could escape. We broke out of the cell and went to the canyon and fixed the energy core after fighting off a bunch of Heartless.

When we went to leave, Tron asked us to do him a favor, He wanted us to find his user and get the password to the DTD (which was the name Tron's User named the dataspace, it was where all of the original programs and data files were stored). We had no idea who Tron's User was so we asked him for a name. Tron told us that his User was Ansem the Wise.

We left Tron's world and returned to Ansem's study. We searched the entire place for the password but didn't find it until we looked behind a massive portrait of Ansem. Behind the portrait, we found a blueprint to a data system and a bunch of scribbles that told us that DTD stood for Door to Darkness.

Then, his majesty showed up, and we explained to him that we were looking for the password to the DTD. The King didn't quite understand what we were talking about and reminded us that the Door to Darkness could only be opened by the Seven Princesses of Heart. That's when we realized that the password was the names of the Seven Princesses. We wanted to stay and talk to the King because he made it sound like Ansem was still around, but Leon reminded us that Tron was waiting for us.

So we activated the computer and downloaded ourselves back into Tron's world. We didn't appear in the cell like we thought we would, but apparently Sark had intercepted the download and made us appear in this place he called a game grid. After we completed Sark's game, we broke out of the game grid and made our way to the cell where we met up with Tron.

We made our way to the dataspace where Tron tried the password and found that it worked. The MCP went to access the DTD and Tron changed the password to stop it. The MCP then loaded a hostile program into the I/O Tower to destroy the town. We quickly rushed to the tower to put a stop to the program. Tron told us the new password; he told us that we, his new friends were the password.

After leaving Tron's world, Leon helped us gain access to the DTD. We tried to find information on Riku and Kairi's whereabouts and about the Nobodies and Organization XIII. But nearly all of the data turned out to be corrupt. While we were searching, a photograph of a man came up."

"And that's when I showed up and told them that it was Ansem the Wise," said Mickey.

Jiminy nodded, "But the man looked nothing like the Ansem we were familiar with. Sora dragged his Majesty from Ansem's computer room and into Ansem's study where he reminded the King that the portrait of Ansem was Ansem, the guy we had worked so hard to defeat. Then his Majesty explained himself to us."

"I told them that the man in the picture was definitely the one who tried to take over Kingdom Hearts," Mickey said, taking over the story, "He was the one they defeated, but what they had actually defeated was his Heartless. The person they defeated wasn't really Ansem; he was just going around telling everybody that he was. I explained that I had been travelling the worlds ever since I parted ways with Riku after Castle Oblivion to look for the real Ansem the Wise. He would've known all about Organization XIII.

Then Goofy came to the conclusion that since the fake Ansem became a Heartless, a Nobody was created. I told him he was right and that the Nobody in question was the leader of the Organization." The parents all let out gasps of surprise, except David who simply had an I-Knew-It look on his face. "I had known that I had met the fake Ansem before and I'd seen the leader of Organization XIII as well, it kind of felt like being around the same person. But I couldn't remember the fake's real name or where I had met him before."

"Then I asked his Majesty if he knew where Riku is and he told me that he couldn't help," Sora said. Mickey turned his gaze downwards, his ears drooping. "So I asked him if he knew where Kairi was. When he realized Kairi had gone missing, his Majesty offered to look for Riku and Kairi with us. Before we could accept, the room lurched violently from an explosion outside.

We ran out of Ansem's study and found Armored Knight Heartless fighting against a group of Nobodies. We fought off both groups and ran as fast as we could towards the bailey. We barely made it out of the castle when a bright light shone from above us and a man dressed in black, with silver hair, carrying a long sword with a single black wing sprouting from his back, Sephiroth. We told him that Cloud was looking for him and he smiled and vanished in a burst of darkness.

We decided to worry about it later and continued towards the town. Leon told us to hurry to the bailey where the King was waiting for us. We found the bailey completely destroyed. The Heartless had blown a huge hole in the outer wall, allowing them access to the town. Thousands of Heartless were storming towards the city from the valley's great maw. We could see small patches where our friends fought to destroy as many Heartless as possible before they could reach the city.

His Majesty arrived and ordered us to go look for Riku and Kairi, saying that there was more than enough help there. We ignored his orders and ran out towards the maw to join our friends in battle, but before we could get there, Demyx from the Organization stopped us. He called me a traitor and tried to kill me. He was definitely a better fighter than when we met him in the Underworld, but we managed to defeat him and he faded away into Darkness.

Then his Majesty caught up to us and reminded us that we had lots of friends to help and admitted his orders had been hasty. Right as we were about to head to our friends' aid, an explosion on the cliffs above us sent a boulder flying right for the King. Goofy pushed him out of the way and was hit in the head by the boulder. When he didn't respond, we feared the worst. Angered, we got separated as we charged headfirst into hundreds of Heartless and with the help of our friends, we tore through them. We regrouped in a cave just above the maw and Goofy caught up to us.

We were so excited that Goofy was alive that we charged into battle again with renewed vigor. When we reached the maw, we found that the Heartless had stopped charging. They were just standing still. Then a member of the Organization appeared on the Cliffside. He removed his hood and revealed that he looked exactly like the fake Ansem. It was the leader of Organization XIII. Then his Majesty remembered the fake Ansem's name, Xehanort. Xehanort had been Ansem the Wise's apprentice when Ansem rule over Hollow Bastion. His majesty charged after Xehanort's Nobody and the Heartless surrounded me, Donald and Goofy. We split up briefly and took on the horde of Heartless by ourselves. I had to defeat about a thousand Heartless before I was able to follow the King, Donald and Goofy.

When we caught up to the King, he called out to Xehanort's Nobody, who didn't seem to remember how long it had been since he had been called that. I told the Nobody to tell me where Kairi and Riku were. He told me he didn't know about Kairi and to ask his Majesty about Riku. Then he opened a portal of Darkness and vanished with the King jumping in after him.

Axel appeared right after that, saying that we had fallen into the Organization's trap. He must've already left the Organization because he spoke about them as if he wasn't one. He told us that Xehanort's Nobody was named Xemnas and that Xemnas was using Sora to destroy the Heartless. He explained that every Heartless slain by the Keyblade releases a captive heart and that the Organization was after those hearts but he wouldn't tell us why. That's when I realized that he was the one who kidnapped Kairi. He finally told us his name and I asked him to tell me where she was. He told me that he was sorry that he kidnapped you." Sora turned to Kairi who had a look of surprise on her face.

"But then Saïx showed up and Axel fled. Saïx told us that he would make sure Axel received the maximum punishment. I told him that I didn't care and asked him to let me into the Realm of Darkness. Saïx told me if it was you I was worried about, that I shouldn't be. He said they were taking good care of you." Kairi's eyes locked with Sora's, who seemed to be telling the story more to Kairi now than their parents.

"I asked him to take me to you. He asked me if you were that important to me. I told him yes and he told me to show him how important you were. So I-" Sora paused taking a deep breath as though the memory of that day caused him pain, "I got down on my hands and knees and begged for him to take me to you." The parents, Riku and Mickey all gasped. Kairi put a hand over her mouth, tears forming in her eyes. "I bowed to my enemy and made myself vulnerable. And he told me no."

"Oh, Sora," whispered Kairi, tears beginning to run down her face. Am I really so important to you that you would bow to your enemy? Thank you.

"I was so furious with him," Sora continued, "He asked me if I was angry or if I hated him. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of saying the truth so I just glared at him. He told me to take my rage and turn it against the Heartless, which he then summoned. He revealed that the hearts released by the Keyblade's rage would join together and form Kingdom Hearts, and that the Organization planned to use Kingdom Hearts to truly exist again. Then Maleficent appeared and declared that Kingdom Hearts would belong to her alone. She then stood between Saïx and the Nobodies he summoned and us. She told us to leave and find a way to defeat the Nobodies forever. She then sent us into the Realm of Darkness where we found a box containing a stick of Sea-Salt Ice Cream and a picture of Hayner, Pence, Olette, and Roxas from the Virtual Twilight Town that DiZ created. When I saw the picture, I somehow knew Roxas' name, even though we had never met and I didn't know he existed. "

Sora glanced over at said Nobody, "Sorry, man."

Roxas shrugged, "No big deal. You'd never met me before, there's nothing you need to feel bad about."

"Anyways," said Goofy, "The picture opened a gateway from the Realm of Darkness allowing us to escape to the Gummi ship. When we got our bearings and had rested up from all of the fighting, we decided to revisit the worlds to hunt for the Organization, Riku, and Kairi. At the Land of Dragons, we landed and immediately ran into a man in a black cloak, the man fled to the mountain summit. We gave chase and ran into Mulan who was also pursuing the man. We followed the man to the Summit only to find that he was nowhere to be seen. Then, a swarm of Rapid Thruster Heartless came over the mountain peak and attacked us we went to charge them but Sora stayed behind."

While the others went on to fight the Heartless," said Sora, "I stayed behind to fight the man in black. We fought for a few minutes before he fled, but he seemed really familiar to me. I recognized his fighting style and weapon. I was convinced that the man was Riku."

Kairi and the adults all gasped, Riku grinned and began softly whistling with an I-Have-No-Idea-What-You're-Talking-About attitude. "Then a giant Heartless burst from the snow and began flying towards the Imperial City," continued Sora, "We rushed to the Imperial Square only to find no Heartless and the doors to the Palace locked. So we broke into the Palace through a window above the doors only to find a man in a black cloak trying to break into the Throne Room. When I asked him if he was Riku, he took off his hood and revealed that he was Xigbar, the sharpshooter for Organization XIII. He summoned several sniper Nobodies and fled. We defeated the Nobodies and rushed into the Throne Room to make sure everything was okay.

The Emperor told us that another man in a black cloak had told him about the threat of the giant Heartless headed for the City. So we rushed outside and fought the Heartless and defeated it. The Emperor thanked us for saving China again and Shang told us that the man in black had told them that 'Three wise guys had arrived and they would take care of things.' That's how we knew that the other man in black was definitely Riku. The emperor then offered Mulan a chance to serve alongside Shang and protect him. Mulan accepted and before we left, I started to think that Mulan and Shang were falling for each other."

"We went back to the Beast's Castle next," said Jiminy, "When we got there, we found the Beast pacing in the entry hall. He told us that he was holding a ball for Belle, and he was really nervous. Donald decided to crash the party so we followed the Beast and Belle into the ballroom. Before the ball could begin, Xaldin appeared saying that he had come to take something the Beast held very dear. Then he summoned several Dragoon Nobodies and vanished, leaving us to fight his minions. We took down the Nobodies and followed the Beast to his room. We found that while we had been occupied by the Nobodies, Xaldin had made off with the Beast's rose.

The Beast lost his temper and blamed Belle for Xaldin's theft of the rose. The Beast then asked us to leave the castle, saying that he would always be a beast and so he should live like one, alone. Belle left for her room and Sora chewed the Beast out calling him a coward. Sora's words broke the Beast from his depressed mood. We ran out to the entrance hall where Xaldin called more Nobodies to fight us. We took them down easily and followed Xaldin out into the courtyard. Xaldin and the rose were nowhere to be found. Belle called out to us from the balcony outside her room, saying that she had found the rose. Xaldin appeared and grabbed Belle and the rose, leapt from the balcony to the bridge. We followed them to the bridge, where Xaldin offered the Beast a choice between the rose and Belle. The Beast chose Belle, who then elbowed Xaldin in the stomach and stole back the rose. She fled to safety while we fought Xaldin and his wind magic. Xaldin lived up to his rank in the Organization XIII, and unleashed all of his power on us. We ultimately proved triumphant and Xaldin disintegrated into darkness.

The Beast thanked Belle for getting the rose back. At our encouragement, the Beast asked Belle to stay with him in the Castle. Belle told him that she would and the two of them finally had their ball together."

"I wonder if they ever broke the curse," Goofy thought out loud. Sora shrugged and resumed the story, "Next we went to Port Royal and immediately found Jack and his crew fighting against cursed pirates."

"Wait a second," interrupted Kairi, "I thought you guys lifted the curse the last time you were there. How could the pirates be cursed?" "That's exactly what we wanted to find out," Sora said, "Elizabeth arrived and told us that Will had gone to the Isla de Muerta but hadn't returned. In exchange for a reward, Jack agreed to go look for Will. So we set sail with Jack for the Isla de Muerta, along the way, we found Will drifting along on a derelict ship. Will managed to wake up and tell us that a man in a black cloak and a bunch of white creatures had stolen the chest of Aztec gold. Elizabeth and the crew took Will below deck to tend to him while helped Jack prepare the Pearl to sail back to the town.

Luxord, number X in the Organization, invaded the ship at that point with a powerful Grim Reaper Heartless and the chest of gold. We defeated the Grim Reaper Heartless and Jack ordered us to throw Luxord overboard, but before we could Luxord invoked the right of parley, which prevented him from being harmed until negotiations were completely. He surrendered the chest to us in exchange for taking four pieces of the gold and giving them to four Gambler Nobodies, who vanished.

Then, the Grim Reaper Heartless reappeared, this time under the curse of the gold and blew us onto the deck of the ship we had rescued Will from. Luxord set the Pearl on a course away from the derelict ship before then using magic to fire all of the cannons on board the Pearl at us, blowing the derelict ship to pieces. When we came to, the pieces of our wrecked ship had washed up onto a rocky outcropping in the middle of nowhere. We found that the Heartless had somehow put the curse onto Jack while we were unaffected, I assume it's because we weren't from that world, so we were made immune to the curse. Anyways, we explored the pieces of shipwreck on the rock and found a couple of the Gambler Nobodies that Luxord had given pieces of the gold to, defeated them and took back the gold.

The crew then sailed up to us on the Pearl, saying that they had rushed above deck when they heard the cannons fire only to find themselves trapped below deck until the Pearl had sailed several leagues from the wreckage. Jack sailed the Pearl to the Isla de Muerta where we found and defeated the other two Gambler Nobodies and took the gold back from them. We sailed the Pearl back to the town after we realized that the Organization would most likely go to a place with a lot of people to collect hearts from, and that Luxord would be there with the chest.

At the town, we found the chest and the cursed Heartless waiting for us, but no Luxord. Jack distracted the Heartless while we returned the gold to the chest to lift Jack's curse, only to find that the gold didn't cause the curse, the Heartless did. Then the Heartless swooped in and knocked the gold from the chest, allowing it to remain cursed and invincible. With the help of Jack's crew, we returned the gold to the chest and defeated the Heartless, lifting the curse. Luxord appeared and commended me for defeating the Heartless. We went out to sea one last time with Jack, Will, Elizabeth and the crew to dump the chest of the cursed gold into the crushing depths of Davy Jones' Locker. Jack then asked for his reward, which he said he wanted my Keyblade."

"He what?" The parents and Kairi asked in unison. Sora laughed, "And I told him sure, and gave him my Keyblade."

"YOU WHAT?" exclaimed Kairi, Riku, the parents and Mickey.

Sora, Donald and Goofy began laughing at everyone else. "Don't worry," said Sora, wiping a tear of mirth from his eye, "He was only able to hold onto for about four seconds before it jumped back to me. I reminded Jack that he always had the Pearl, and he told me that one day, after he had the way to wield it, he and his 'blood-thirsty crew' are going to come for the Keyblade." Allison and Kairi shared a worried glance, "And he said that if he succeeded, he was going to ask Will and Elizabeth to join his crew, and that would be reward enough for him. And Goofy suggested that maybe someday, Jack will be able to wield a Keyblade because he thinks Jack and I are alike. But I don't see it." Donald, Goofy and Jiminy rolled their eyes and laughed at Sora. Sora glared at them and went on, "Anyways, some say Jack Sparrow's the worst pirate ever to sail the Spanish Main. No one could really mean that, because we know he's the best. I hope we get to see him again someday, I kind of do want to see if he can find a way to wield the Keyblade." Donald and Goofy nodded in agreement.

"We revisited Olympus Coliseum next," said Jiminy, "And found ourselves again in the Underworld, where we reunited with Hercules and Meg. Apparently Hercules still wasn't feeling like a hero. Hades showed up, announcing that Hercules was going to fight in the Underworld's own coliseum, the Underdrome. Hades threatened Hercules into fighting by kidnapping Meg again. We fought alongside Hercules through the Hades Cup and made it all the way to the finals. Our opponent was supposed to be Auron, who was having his free will controlled by Hades who had made this statue of Auron. Hercules sent us to find the statue, while he fought Auron one on one.

And so, Hercules went onto the final and we found Auron's statue in Hades' chambers and went to the Underdrome to free Auron. We arrived right as Auron was about to defeat Hercules and gave him back his free will, and ended the fight. Hades then threw Meg into the River Styx and Hercules jumped in to save her, leaving us and Auron to fight Hades. After we realized we couldn't beat Hades because it was his Underworld, Hercules showed up carrying Meg in his arms, offering the help of a true hero. By not hesitating to give his life for Meg's, Hercules realized that a true hero is measured by the strength of their heart. Sora told Hercules not to pull anymore crazy stunts now that he was his old self and he told us that people do crazy things when their in love." Nobody seemed to notice the brief glance Sora and Kairi shared at this, as well as similar ones shared by Roxas and Naminé, or David and Sharon, or Melissa and Jonathan.

"With Herc and Auron helping us, we easily defeated Hades," said Sora, who was blushing slightly although no one seemed to notice, "Hades fell into the River Styx shortly after our fight. Auron departed, looking to shape his own story. Herc and Meg thanked us and Donald and I asked Phil if he thought we were true heroes yet and he told us no, but it wasn't his call, even though he would if he could." Kairi and Allison both looked outright surprised. "After everything you've been through?" asked Kairi, "Whose call-" But Sora held up a finger to stop her, "But the gods on Olympus seemed to think otherwise, and rearranged the stars in our honor." Everybody apart from the story tellers looked shocked.

"You have your own constellation?" Riku asked, dumbfounded. Sora grinned and nodded his head excitedly. "Yup." Riku looked away from Sora and pretended to sulk.

"We returned to Agrabah next and found that the peddler we had dealt with the last time we were there had gone and let Jafar out of his lamp," Sora resumed, "Iago told us that we would find Jafar at the desert ruins. We took the magic carpet to one of the ruins where Iago told us Jafar had gone. We made our way into one of the ruins, expecting to find Jafar, but the ruins were empty. Iago told us that Jafar had forced him to lure us to the ruins so he could attack the Palace without interference. We rushed back to the Palace where Jafar had captured Jasmine and was claiming that he would rule all of Agrabah. Then we arrived and Jafar turned into his genie self and using his magic, tore Agrabah apart and threw the pieces at us. We defeated Jafar, and destroyed his lamp, ensuring Jafar would never return. Genie helped return Agrabah to the way it was and we bid the world farewell as we continued onto the Halloween Town.

During our second trip to Halloween Town, we found out from Jack that Christmas presents were being stolen from Santa's Workshop. We helped Jack find the presents and take them back to Santa. We came up with the idea of using a bunch of dummy presents to lure in the thief. We placed the fakes in a plaza in Christmas Town and hid ourselves in a really big present. When we heard the thief approaching, we burst from the present and realized that it was Doctor Finkelstein's latest experiment that had been stealing the presents. The experiment then attacked us and we destroyed it. Santa and the Doctor believed that the experiment wanted a heart and was stealing the presents to try to find a heart for itself. I couldn't help but feel bad for the experiment. Before we left, Sally explained to Jack that a present wasn't about a box, the paper, a ribbon or what was inside, but the act of giving the present. Jack and Sally finally told each other about their feelings for each other and shared a romantic moment in the snow before we left.

While we traveled to the Pride Lands, Chip and Dale picked up some strange readings on the Gummi Radar. A massive object had appeared and was becoming clearer as we travelled from world to world. And Twilight Town was beginning to show up as if there was two identical Twilight Towns coexisting in the same place. We didn't have much time to think about it as we landed in the Pride Lands shortly after and learned that Scar's ghost had been haunting the Pride Lands. Simba was troubled by the ghost and was trying to be the same king his father had been. We managed to convince Simba to follow his own path, not his father's.

When confronted with the ghost, Simba lost his courage and ran. We followed him to the Oasis, where we found Scar's ghost pestering Simba. The ghost left and Simba insisted that he would never be the king Mufasa had been, despite what we told him. So, we pretended to leave and used Donald's magic to create an illusion of Scar's ghost that we used to taunt Simba and make him realize that he needed to be king in his own way, not his father's. Simba realized that he had friends who would stand by him at that point, something Mufasa wasn't fortunate enough to have.

Then Timon appeared, crying out for Simba. Hundreds of Scar's ghost had appeared in the Pride Lands and Nala was in danger. We went with Simba back to Pride Rock where Simba told the ghost of Scar to get out. The ghosts then all formed a massive Heartless that threatened to destroy the Pride Lands. Together with Simba, we managed to defeat the Heartless and restored peace. Before we left for the last time, Simba asked me if my quest would ever be over, and I told him, that 'as long as the Keyblade stays with me, I'll have to keep fighting.'" Allison stared sadly at her son. She could almost feel the weight of such a responsibility that was weighing on his shoulders. There was a moment of awkward silence where Sora, Kairi, and Riku glanced at their parents, who averted their gazes. They all knew in their hearts that meant that one day Sora would have to leave the Islands again and none of them were sure what to say.

"Rafiki then told us to get out and continue our fight," said Jiminy, ending the silence and drawing attention to himself, "And he reminded us that the key to victory was a strong heart. We then set a course for Hollow Bastion, where we learned that the MCP had taken over the town's defense system, using it to attack residents and creating Heartless in a Heartless Manufacturer that had been built beneath Ansem's study. While Cid worked on a program to delete the MCP, we downloaded ourselves into Ansem's computer again and met up with Tron on the game grid, where the MCP was sending wave after wave of Heartless to eliminate Tron.

We fought off the Heartless, explained the situation to Tron and rushed to the I/O Tower to receive the program from Leon and Cid. We received the program and took it to the Central Computer Core, where we used it to delete both Sark and the MCP for good. Tron thanked us for helping him defeat the MCP. Tron then jumped into the Core and took over the MCP's programming, freeing the town's defense system, shutting down the Heartless Manufacturer and deleting all the Heartless the MCP created. And on top of it all, he found stored file footage of Hollow Bastion when it was first built and reminded every citizen of the world's true name, Radiant Garden.

Before we left Radiant Garden, we helped Leon and the others make sure there was no trace left of the MCP's Heartless that had been unleashed. We searched the outskirts, the Great Maw and the cliff where we had last seen the King. At the cliff, we ran into Sephiroth again. He asked us what Cloud was doing and then demanded to know who we were, threatening us with his sword. When he saw Sora's Keyblade and realized that Sora was the chosen one, he wondered aloud if the Keyblade would choose him instead if Sephiroth defeated Sora. Sora and Sephiroth fought for several minutes before Sephiroth stopped the fight, admitting that Sora was very skilled. Sephiroth didn't even seem injured or tired from the fight, claiming only Cloud could beat him. He told us to tell Cloud that he was looking to settle things. We did and we followed Cloud back to where Sephiroth was waiting. Cloud and Sephiroth clashed for several minutes in an epic sword battle. Right when the fight was beginning to reach its climax, they vanished in a flash of light, and we haven't seen either of them since."

Sora, Donald and Goofy nodded sadly. "Then we went to Twilight Town next, to find the mansion that was in the picture of Roxas we had gotten when Maleficent saved us by sending us to the realm of Darkness," said Sora, beginning to get excited that they were finally reaching the climax of the story, "And we found Hayner and the others passed out in front of the mansion. They told us they were looking for Kairi when they were attacked by Nobodies, apparently that they thought the mansion was the gate to an alternate Twilight Town. More Nobodies showed up, and so did his Majesty who helped us fight them off. He told us that he had figured out where the real Ansem was, Organization XIII's stronghold. We went into the mansion and found the gateway to the virtual Twilight Town that Ansem the Wise had created to keep Roxas.

There we found an entrance to the dark realm and took it. We quickly found ourselves surrounded by an infinite number of Nobodies. As we started to lose hope, Axel showed up and helped us fight. He told me that Saïx had Kairi prisoner in the Organization's stronghold and to go save her while he held off the Nobodies. We fought alongside Axel for a long time but there was never an end to the Nobodies. Axel put his entire being into one final attack, sacrificing himself to incinerate all of the other Nobodies." Roxas looked at Sora in complete shock. "As he began to fade into darkness, Axel told me that he was sorry for kidnapping Kairi and getting her involved. He told me that he wanted to see Roxas. Roxas made him feel like he had a heart and he told me that I had the same effect on him. Then he opened a portal to the Organization's stronghold, The World That Never Was, and faded away into Darkness."

Sora and Roxas both bowed their heads sadly in memory of Axel, before Sora went on, "We found ourselves in a city where the streets were practically a sea of Shadow Heartless. It took us ages to fight our way through them all. The only place in the city where there weren't any Heartless was at the base of a skyscraper that seemed different, in a way, from the rest of the city. Then, several Samurai Nobodies appeared to fight Donald and Goofy, while I met and clashed with Roxas inside my heart." Everyone turned to look at Roxas.

"I wanted to know why the Keyblade had picked Sora," Roxas explained, "So I summoned the Samurai Nobodies to occupy those two while I fought Sora to find out why." He gestured at Donald and Goofy. "I didn't think it was fair that I had to join with Sora to make HIM whole. I was jealous. During our battle, I realized that the Keyblade chose Sora because of the bonds he makes with his friends. Before I left him alone, I told him that I thought he made a good other."

Sora grinned, "Thanks for the compliment, anyways, we made our way through the rest of the Dark City only to find ourselves next to the Organization's Castle, but with no way in."

Naminé then interrupted Sora, "That was when I broke Kairi out of her cell. When she grabbed my hand, her light called out to yours and created a path for you to the castle so the two of you could reunite."

Sora smiled at Kairi, who blushed and looked away.

"While you fought your way through the Nobodies and the castle," Naminé resumed, "Kairi and I were making our escape when we were stopped by Saïx and a pair of Berserker Nobodies under his command. He told us that leaving wasn't an option and was about to attack us when-"

"When I arrived," said Riku, "I destroyed the Berserkers with my new Keyblade that I had just gotten and briefly fought against Saïx before he fled in a portal of Darkness. I was about to follow him when Kairi stopped me. She obviously couldn't tell it was me because I was wearing one of the black coats that the Organization wore, and when she removed my hood, she saw that I had taken on the appearance of Xehanort's Heartless."

"That must've been right before Saïx appeared before us," said Sora, "He thanked us for helping the Organization achieve its goals. He gestured to the heart shaped moon outside that was becoming Kingdom Hearts, saying all that was needed was another helping from me. So he summoned thousands of Heartless into the room for me to fight."

"And that's when Riku and I showed up," said Kairi excitedly, "Riku gave me a Keyblade and we fought off dozens of Heartless to prevent them from getting to Sora."

"Maleficent and Pete then showed up to take the Castle for themselves and left us to take care of all the fighting," said Mickey, "And while you all were fighting the Heartless, I had found Ansem. Ansem said he was obsessed with having his revenge on his former apprentice, Xehanort, and he blamed himself for Riku looking like Xehanort's Heartless. He said that Riku lost a fight against Roxas when he had sent Riku to retrieve the Nobody, and Riku realized he would have to immerse himself in darkness and took on the visage of Xehanort's Heartless. He said you were the victim of his revenge, Riku, not Xehanort."

Mickey nodded at Riku who stared blankly back.

"You were saying, Sora," Mickey encouraged.

"Donald, Goofy and I were just about to fight off the Heartless when suddenly thousands of energy bolts destroyed them for us. Xigbar appeared and called me Roxas and a traitor, saying that I wasn't half the hero other Keyblade wielders had been. I can only assume he had met some before. Anyways, we fought Xigbar and barely defeated him. As he faded back into darkness, I asked him why he called me Roxas and he just laughed at me.

We ran up to the next floor and helped Kairi and Riku finish off the last of the Heartless. Kairi and I shared a brief reunion before I confronted Riku, believing him to be Xehanort's Heartless, before Kairi helped me realize that it was Riku, just looking different. We continued to make our way through the castle. Shortly after we were reunited with Kairi and Riku, Luxord appeared and trapped the others in his cards, then challenged me to a game involving time. He tried to beat me with his tricks and games of luck using his cards. But I managed to wear him down. When I went in for the finishing blow, Luxord attempted to use his cards to protect himself, but I still managed to slice through them and end him. His last words before he faded were 'How could you…. Roxas?' When Luxord faded, the others were freed from his power and e went on into another part of the Castle where we found Saïx, waiting for us while staring up at Kingdom Hearts.

Saïx told me that only Roxas could've made it that far in one piece. I was beginning to get really annoyed at being called Roxas. Donald flat out told Saïx that my name was Sora. Saïx responded simply with 'Different name, same fate.' He then summoned his weapon, a massive berserker claymore and using sheer strength, knocked Kairi and Riku away from us. Then he erected a force field between them and us, forcing Donald, Goofy and I to fight Saïx alone. Under the influence of the Kingdom Hearts moon's power, Saïx broke his calm exterior and became wild and vicious. His constant onslaught almost killed us multiple times over but Donald's magic managed to save us, and we defeated him, despite his fierceness and power from the moon. He limped away from us and asked Kingdom Hearts where his heart was, before fading back into darkness. I felt kind of bad for him, even after all he had done. The only thing he ever wanted was to be whole again.

I asked Riku why everyone was calling me Roxas and he told me that Roxas was my Nobody. He explained that Xemnas brought Roxas into the Organization because Roxas, like me, could wield the Keyblade, but Roxas betrayed them. Riku told me that he fought Roxas and lost, forcing Riku to embrace darkness to defeat Roxas."

"But I don't think I would've had to fight you at all," Riku said to Roxas, interrupting the story, "I think you really just wanted to meet Sora, didn't you Roxas?" Roxas nodded. Sora grinned at his Nobody, who grinned back.

"While these five were fighting your way through the Castle," said King Mickey, "I was with Ansem the Wise, using a machine he had built to convert the hearts that were forming Xemnas' Kingdom Hearts into data. Just before these guys caught up to us, Ansem called himself a fool. He told me that he had spent years studying the heart and still hadn't learned anything. He told me the heart was more than a system like he had thought and that all of his research amounted to nothing compared to Sora's heart. At that point, the machine began to go haywire and Ansem explained that it was further proof that the heart cannot be contained by data. He told me to run that anything could happen when it self-destructed. Then Sora and the others arrived. Ansem told Sora that the rest was up to him and then he apologized to Roxas, even though he wasn't sure if Roxas could hear him or not.

Then Xemnas appeared and mocked his former mentor, calling him pathetic. He blamed the existence of Heartless on Ansem and blamed him for the problems across the worlds. Ansem admitted he was right but demanded to know what Xemnas really wanted, to make his own Kingdom Hearts, one that he could rule. Ansem then told Xemnas that Xemnas and His Kingdom Hearts were destined to fall. Then Ansem told me goodbye, and the device exploded."

"When we came to," said Sora, "Ansem had vanished and was nowhere to be found. His sacrifice wasn't in vain though; the burst of energy from the machine severely damaged Xemnas' Kingdom Hearts (even though this resulted in the birth of thousands of Heartless that then began to swarm the Castle), and turned Riku back to his normal self.

We charged towards the top of the highest tower when we were stopped by the Heartless pouring into the tower. We were prepared to stand and fight, when Maleficent and Pete appeared, telling us to go defeat Xemnas while they took care of the Heartless. Before we left, Maleficent reminded us that she still planned on having her revenge and that when she had destroyed all of the Heartless she and Pete would take the Castle for their own.

We left them to fight the Heartless and we ran to the very top of the Castle where Xemnas stood, waiting for us. He lamented the loss of his Kingdom Hearts and demanded that we bring him more hearts. We told him no and he asked us why we hated the Darkness."

"I told him that we didn't hate the Darkness," said King Mickey, "It's just kind of scary. I told him that everything is made of half Light and half Darkness, which actually made me wonder why we are afraid of the dark."

"And I reminded you," Riku said, "That it's because of who's lurking inside it. Then Xemnas pulled Sora into a portal of Darkness and vanished."

"Xemnas had taken me back into the Dark City and forced me to fight him one on one," explained Sora, "I defeated him and Xemnas warped me back to the others. He then began to urge Kingdom Hearts to join forces with him and destroy anyone who opposed him. We told him to stop but he ignored us and vanished as he fused with Kingdom Hearts. The will of the world's created a doorway for us to use to follow Xemnas. His Majesty said that the worlds wanted us to be the guardians of their destiny. Using our Keyblades, we charged into Kingdom Hearts after Xemnas. Inside, we found that Xemnas had taken the power of Kingdom Hearts and had reshaped it to resemble the Dark City. He told us that it didn't appear to pay to be loyal to our hearts, as he thought they had led us to our deaths. He then used his newfound power to hurl a skyscraper at us, we retreated towards the doorway to avoid being crushed and Kairi and the King ended up trapped on the other side. Donald, Goofy, Riku and I ran on to face Xemnas."

Sora, Donald, Goofy and Riku explained in excruciating detail about their fight against Xemnas, fighting their way past the obstacles that Xemnas threw at them and fighting Xemnas on his throne while he fought back with the weapons and powers of the fallen Organization members.

"When we defeated him," Sora explained, "We reappeared back in The World That Never Was. Xemnas collapsed on the ground, saying he needed more rage and more hearts. I asked Xemnas if he remembered that there was more to a heart than just anger or hate. He told me that he didn't as Darkness enveloped him and he vanished. We briefly celebrated before we realized that we had no way to escape the world as Riku could no longer create a portal of Darkness. We were beginning to wonder how we'd make it out of there when Naminé appeared and created a portal of Darkness that led us back to the Islands. Donald, Goofy, and the King all went through and before we followed. Kairi thanked Naminé who spoke to me and Roxas at the same time, saying that we had met again like we promised. Roxas emerged from me and together they realized that not all Nobodies fade back into Darkness and that they get to live on in Kairi and me. Then Naminé rejoined with Kairi and Roxas with me." Kairi glanced at Sora, noticing that he had intentionally left out hers and Sora's promise to their Nobody counterparts that they would be together every day.

Why would he do that? It's kind of important.

Then she realized that her adoptive father had been watching Sora intently from the moment he had begun to catch on that the two teens meant more to each other than anyone else meant to them. Kairi had noticed the protective-father stares Jonathan had been shooting at Sora but hadn't thought anything of it. And judging by the nervous glances Sora had briefly given Jonathan whenever there was even a slight hint at anything romantic between Sora and herself, Sora was more than aware of the looks he had gotten from the man. Kairi couldn't help but blush.

"Then Kairi went into the portal Naminé had created," Sora was saying, bringing Kairi back out of her musings, "But before Riku and I could make it into the portal, it closed, leaving us trapped in The World That Never Was. Xemnas reappeared, having only been hurt, not defeated like we thought, and pulled Riku and I into a world made of Nothingness. He tried to make us believe that he, like Light, Darkness and Nothingness was eternal. We told him that just because those were eternal; it didn't mean that he was as well. We fought Xemnas in one final battle, where he unleashed his power over Nothingness and his weapons of Nothing in an attempt to finish us off."

"Xemnas attempted to use the Nothing to pull Sora's heart from him and claim it as his own," Riku said, "But I managed to distract him and free Sora. Xemnas then surrounded Sora and I in a dome made of darkness and sent thousands of his energy weapons hurtling at us, forcing Sora and I onto the defensive. The onslaught ended and we were worn out from the constant fighting. Xemnas closed in on Sora and attempted to deal the finishing blow to Sora, who had no time to protect himself. I deflected the first strike, shoved Sora out of the way and took the next blow for him."

"Riku collapsed after that," explained Sora, "And handed me his Keyblade as he fell and I used the last reserves of energy I had left to unleash a barrage of attacks on Xemnas. Riku and I then combined the power of our Light, channeled it through my Keyblade and finished Xemnas off with a beam of Light, once and for all. Riku was too injured to move on his own and I was too tired to heal him with magic, so I helped him walk. We wandered around the world of Nothingness and used the time to catch up. Eventually, we found ourselves on a dark beach in the Realm of Darkness. We realized that since the Realm of Light was safe, we were more than content to let peace wash over us while we sat on that beach. At least the waves sounded the same. We sat there for a long time listening to the waves, when a letter in a bottle washed up. Riku read it first and handed it to me, saying that he thought it was for me."

"My letter!" Kairi exclaimed suddenly, "You got it!"

Sora grinned and pulled said letter from one of his pockets.

"After I read this letter, the Door to Light opened up in front of Riku and me. We stepped into the Light and it took us back here, to the Islands. And here we are now." Sora said, finally finishing the story.

There was a long moment of silence while the parents absorbed the story. Sora, Kairi and Riku exchanged worried glances, wondering just how their parents were going to react. Their parents were all looking back and forth between in each other. Finally, David cleared his throat and said. "I guess I'll be the one to say it. It's a nice story and all, it'd probably make a bestselling book or a fantastic movie, or even a top selling videogame franchise, but where's the proof? It sounds like most of this was just fantasy." The other parents nodded in agreement, except Allison and Melissa who seemed to disagree.

Sora, Kairi, Riku and King Mickey all stood and held their right hands out in front of them where their Keyblades flashed into existence. Their parents gasped in surprise. "So it's all true then?" Sharon asked, her hand resting over her heart. Riku nodded.

"Yes, Mom," he said, "Every word of it is true." They all dispelled their Keyblades and sat back down to a barrage of questions from their parents about the Heartless, Nobodies, how the Keyblades worked, and more about the friends they had made in various worlds (David and Kairi wanted to know more about Captain Jack Sparrow than anybody else). Allison (Being a clothing designer) insisted that Sora show off his different Drive Forms for them, to which Sora happily obliged. And, at the insistence from their parents, Sora and Riku had a mock duel in the middle of the restaurant, using weak spells and not as many powerful attacks so they wouldn't damage the restaurant.

LD

No one seemed to notice that while they had thought the restaurant had been empty, the girl Kyoko had been listening while standing in the shadows by the front doors. While Sora and Riku showed off some of their fighting skills for everybody, she slipped out the doors and pulled out her cell phone. She flipped it open and quickly typed in a number from memory and hit SEND. She heard the other end click when the person she had dialed answered. "They're back," she said with a smile, "It's almost time."

LD

Back inside the restaurant, things were beginning to settle down. Melissa had dragged her husband into the kitchen to grab drinks for everybody. King Mickey was checking a device for calling the Gummi ship to the world to see when they would be able to leave. Allison was beaming with pride for her son as she, David and Sharon discussed, in hushed voices, about their children's story. Kairi pulled her chair right next to Sora and hugged him. "Thank you," she whispered into Sora's ear. Sora looked at her quizzically. "For what?"

Kairi nuzzled her head into his shoulder and glanced up at him, "For keeping your promise and coming back to me." Sora smiled back at her. "No problem, Kairi." He hugged her back. Kairi glanced around before looking back up at Sora and gave him a swift kiss on the cheek to show her appreciation. "Thanks again," She whispered, her cheeks flushing a bright shade of pink.

Sora's cheeks turned a deep crimson as he touched the spot where Kairi had kissed him. He glanced around the table. The only people who had noticed Kairi's sudden display of affection were Donald and Goofy, and judging by their expressions, Sora knew that they were going to never let him live it down. Sora shot them a No-One-Word look.

Melissa and Jonathan watched from the kitchen as Kairi planted a kiss on Sora's cheek. Melissa sighed, "I remember when you and I were like that, John."

Jonathan smiled at his wife and pulled her into a tight hug, kissing her on her forehead. "So do I," he said softly, "It took us months to realize how we felt about each other. And then no one could keep us apart afterwards." Melissa rested head on Jonathan's chest as he held her.

"You're not going to give Sora the typical scare most fathers give to the boys who like their daughters, are you?" Melissa asked as she swayed back and forth with her husband. Jonathan was silent as he considered it.

"Only a little," he said slyly. "But just for fun." Melissa hit him on the shoulder playfully. Jonathan pretended that it hurt more than it did, drawing a laugh from his wife before kissing her passionately. "But it is Kairi's choice on who she dates," he said on a slightly more serious note, "As long as she's safe and truly happy, I'm fine with it. Besides, we know Sora can take care of our little girl."

"Good boy," Melissa said, giving him a quick kiss before taking several glasses of water back to the table to hand out. Jonathan followed her back and helped her ensure that everyone got a drink. The talks continued for a couple more hours. Allison insisted on seeing the scars Sora had received. Sora showed them the silver scar from where he had impaled himself to free Kairi's heart for the second time that night, the countless, almost invisible scars across his back from where his enemies had managed to get behind him. Allison hugged her son while tears streamed down her face. Sora hugged her tightly, assuring her he was alright, and that he had suffered no permanent damage before he had to suffer through several minutes of Donald and Goofy adding up the number of times Sora had taken a blow to the head (it ended up totaling one thousand, four hundred and twelve times). Sora retorted that they had no right to talk as they had been hit in the head more times than that each (Donald: three thousand seven hundred fifteen times. Goofy: seven thousand, thirteen times).

When two in the morning finally rolled around, and everyone was starting to doze off, Kairi having fallen asleep in Sora's lap around one a.m., King Mickey finally announced that the Gummi ship had arrived to take him, Donald, Goofy and Jiminy back to Disney Castle. Melissa locked up the restaurant and they all headed to the beach were the Gummi ship had parked itself. After a long farewell, King Mickey and the others from Disney Castle took to the skies and vanished in a flash of light.

Riku and his parents followed suit shortly after, wishing Sora, Kairi, and their parents a goodnight. Allison, Melissa and David were briefly absorbed in typical end of the night chatter, leaving Sora and Kairi completely alone for the first time since they had gotten back.

"You know," said Sora as he and Kairi gazed up at the stars, "I sure did miss this place."

Kairi smiled softly at him, "Don't worry, Sora," she said, "I'm sure it missed you too." Sora rolled his eyes and gave Kairi a playful shove while she laughed at her smartass comment.

After their laughter died down, Kairi stared intently at Sora, who stared back at her.

"Do I have something on my face?" he asked, running his fingers all over his face. Kairi shook her head. "Then what's up?"

"So, I'm the most important person in all of the worlds to you?" Kairi asked. Sora began stammering immediately, trying to form any sentence but only getting a few words out, all while blushing a deeper red then Axel's hair had been. Kairi giggled, and placed a finger over Sora's mouth, getting him to stop his attempts at forming a sentence.

"It's okay," she said, "Just tell me when you're ready." She hugged Sora tightly for a long moment. Sora couldn't help but smell her perfume, black raspberry vanilla, before she pulled away. "Thank you again, Sora." She gave him another kiss, this time on the opposite cheek than the one before. Sora felt his heart pound and his face turn hot as his blush worsened.

He touched the spot where Kairi had just kissed him as she walked home with her adoptive parents, and smiled.

It's good to be home.

LD

Unbeknownst to Sora and Kairi, a person dressed in a black hooded cloak identical to the ones of the former Organization XIII stood out on the water, watching the Keyblade wielders as they parted ways for the night. The figure checked a stopwatch that hung suspended in midair in front of its face, before vanishing into thin air. There is still time. The figure said mentally to itself. The door is still shut.

LD

Hope you liked it! And just who is the Unknown person in the black cloak? Stick around to find out. As usual, reviews are greatly appreciated, I do enjoy hearing feedback from readers.

Happy reading!

-Shadow Horizons

P.S. Updates this month will be slow unfortunately. In addition to working full time, I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month. But I do promise to have Chapter Four up ASAP and before Thanksgiving.