Looming Darkness: Daybreak

by Shadow Horizons

Part I. Sora, Kairi and Riku are looking forward to a somewhat normal life. However, Maleficent has returned with powerful new allies, seeking revenge and control of Kingdom Hearts. All the while, an old enemy's revival is close at hand. Will our heroes be prepared? Or will they be consumed by the everlasting darkness? Rated M for language, violence, and some adult themes.

26. Recovery

Shadow: Guess who's back?

Olette: Xehanort? (She smirks as Shadow gives her an 'are you serious?' look)

Shadow: Well, yes. But I was talking about me. I'm back!

Olette: Yeah, a month and a half behind schedule.

Shadow: Weren't you only here to give the disclaimer in honor of two hundred reviews and the one year anniversary of this story?

Olette: We hit two hundred reviews over a month ago and the anniversary was two weeks ago.

Shadow: Well, you see... I, um, uh...

Olette: I'm just giving you crap, you know that? Anyways, Shadow Horizons does not own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Square Enix, or Black Cat.

Shadow: And without further ado, enjoy!

---

Chapter Twenty Six: Recovery

Sunday, June 27th, 4794 P.C.

Onboard the Kingdom

In Orbit above Port Royal

Sora watched, helplessly from his sprawled position on the floor as Recovery Seven's index finger slowly pulled the trigger. Luck seemed to favor him, however. Roxas tackled Seven a split-second before the gun went off, causing the bullet that surely would've killed Sora to only embed itself deep in his left shoulder. Sora let out a cry of pain and clutched his hand tightly over his wound. Seven kicked Roxas in the chest with enough force to send the blond sailing into one of the closed warp chambers, shattering the glass covering and causing the entire machine to buckle slightly. Seven's head swiveled back towards Sora as the brunette let out a groan of pain.

Sora forced himself to hold out his hand in front of him and cast Reflega around himself as Seven leveled his pistol at him. A dome of light covered Sora as the armored man fired off seven shots in an attempt to force the barrier to collapse, but to no avail. Roxas pulled himself out of the wrecked warp chamber and summoned his Keyblades to his hands before leaping at Seven. Seven spun and intercepted Roxas' attack by grabbing hold both Keyblades, allowing him to redirect Roxas' momentum with his tremendous strength and throw him into Sora as the brunette started to get to his feet. Seven smirked beneath his visor and turned his attention back on the two unconscious females. Sora wrestled his way out from underneath Roxas and aimed his hand at Seven.

"Burn!" He shouted as his fingertips began to glow red. Seven's head snapped around to look at Sora and saw the Firaga spell forming on the teen's fingertips. He ducked swiftly behind another one of the chambers in the room as three large fireballs raced across the room towards him. Two of the flaming orbs slammed against the chamber and destroyed the cover, rendering it useless, while the third completely missed and left a dark scorch mark on the wall. Seven ejected the clip from his pistol and slammed a new one into its place. He stuck his arm out from behind his cover and fired three shots at the two teens, enough to force them both to duck behind the other chambers. Seven darted out from behind the chamber he had been using as a shield, taking extra caution to keep his pistol trained on Sora and Roxas' hiding spot and ducked behind the controls to the chambers.

"Had enough yet?" Roxas shouted as he leapt at the control station. Seven moved from behind his cover and leveled his pistol at Roxas. The blonde's eyes went wide as Seven fired five shots from his pistol at the former Nobody. Two of the shots were deflected by the Oathkeeper while the other three tore into Roxas' left leg. Roxas howled in pain and dropped his Keyblades as he clutched his injured leg.

"Roxas!" Sora cried out as he forced himself to his feet, ignoring the pain in his shoulder as best he could.

Seven let out a deep growl. Sora looked away from Roxas and over at the Recovery Agent. He was holding an unconscious Kairi up by her arm and was pressing the barrel of his pistol into the side of her head.

"Drop it," he growled, gesturing at the Oblivion with a tilt of his head. Sora glared at the man with all of the anger he could muster. Seven pressed the gun harder into Kairi's head. Sora sighed in defeat and dropped his Keyblade. The Oblivion bounced off of the ground once before vanishing in a flurry of bright lights.

Seven backed towards one of the open chambers and placed Kairi inside, turning his back to Sora for a brief moment. When he turned back, he found the tip of the Oblivion less than an inch away from his face. Seven leaned back as the obsidian blade came dangerously close to shattering his visor. The sharp point of the Oblivion dug into the visor, leaving a long, diagonal scratch across it.

Seven let out another growl and raised his pistol. Sora threw himself behind the only empty warp chamber that was still intact. Seven fired off two shots. Sora winced as he felt one pass close enough to his shoulder to rip through his jacket. He peered around the edge of the chamber as Seven tossed Naminé unceremoniously into one of the other chambers. He looked around as Sora stepped from cover and fired another shot at him, narrowly missing the teen's head.

Sora ducked behind the chamber again as the bullet flew past him and Seven took the opportunity to climb into the only remaining chamber. He turned his head growled menacingly at Sora as light quickly filled the three occupied chambers.

"No!" Sora and Roxas both shouted. Sora burst from his cover and ran towards the chambers. The light intensified with a blinding flash as the chambers activated. "Roxas!" Sora moved quickly to the former Nobody's side as the blond let out a groan of pain. "Are you okay?"

"There are bullets in my leg, and Naminé and Kairi just got kidnapped. What do you think?" Roxas snapped. "Help me get these things out of there. They hurt worse than that time Xigbar found out I ate the last slice of pie and shot me for it."

"Xigbar shot you for eating a slice of pie?" Sora asked as he helped Roxas straighten out his leg. Roxas let out a gasp of pain

"Only because he had dibs on it," he explained as Sora held a shaky, blood covered hand over his former Nobody's leg. His palm lit up from the light created by a weak magnet spell. "And he said he's use anyone who tried to eat it as targ– holy-! Damn, that hurts!" The three bullets rose out of the holes in Roxas' leg with a sickening squelching sound and spun in small circles below Sora's palm. Sora grabbed the bullets and tossed them in the direction of the wrecked chambers.

"Of course it hurts," Sora said. "You act like you've never been shot before."

"Not with bullets, I haven't," Roxas grumbled as Sora pulled the bullet out of his own shoulder. Sora winced as the bullet fell to the floor and he summoned the Oblivion back to his hand.

"Heal," he muttered. Tendrils of green light enveloped both him and Roxas as the Curaga spell worked its way into their flesh, knitting the muscle back together and sealing their wounds, leaving only faint pink marks in their place. Roxas breathed a sigh of relief and slumped back against the wall.

"Well now what?" He grumbled.

"Now, we rescue Kairi and Naminé," Sora said determinedly, not wasting a second as he dashed out of the room. "We're going after that guy." Sora practically threw himself into the pilot's chair as he ran onto the bridge and began powering up the Kingdom. Roxas limped up the stairs to the bridge after him, wincing from the dull pain left over from the wound.

"How do we go after him if we don't even know where he went?" Roxas asked as he sat down in one of the other chairs. "He could be anywhere."

"I can think of someone who might know," Sora said as the engines roared to life. "Who do we know that would kidnap Kairi?"

"Organization XIII?" Roxas suggested sarcastically. "But I'm the only surviving member and I definitely didn't hire this guy to kidnap Naminé and Kairi after shooting us. What does that have to do with the brute in the armor anyway?"

"I'll bet you anything it was Maleficent," Sora said as he punched in the coordinates for another world. "She probably hired that guy to come kidnap Kairi. And we know exactly where she is."

"We do?"

"Don't you remember?" Sora said as he waited for the Kingdom's navigation system to lock on to the World That Never Was. "Maleficent told me that after the Organization was gone, she was going to take the Castle for herself."

Roxas let out a snort of laughter that lacked humor. "Determined old hag, isn't she?"

"Tell me about it," Sora muttered. The monitor in front of him displayed an image of a white-gloved hand giving him a thumbs-up. "Alright, here we go." He spun the wheel and turned the Kingdom around so they were facing away from Port Royal.

"Wait!" Roxas shouted suddenly. Sora looked at him incredulously.

"Why?" He asked. "We have to go save Kairi and Naminé!"

"I know!" Roxas said. "But look!" He pointed out of the viewport towards a small cluster of asteroids. A large Gummi ship was beginning to take off from behind the asteroid cluster. Its fuselage was rectangular and several hundred meters long. The bow was curved downward slightly and lined with half a dozen cannon batteries on each side. The words Hang 'Em High were painted in gold over the jet-black paint of the ship that made it hard to spot. Two trapezoid shaped wings were positioned along the stern of the ship and extended to take up one-third of the ship's length. A pair of large cannons was positioned under each wing. A large, domed bridge was visible towards the stern of the ship, surrounded on all sides by no less than seven rotating weapons turrets. Three large Firagun-class engines at the stern glowed with a bright blue light as the ship slowly began to turn away from the Kingdom.

"Is that a Heartless ship?" Sora muttered, leaning forward in his seat to get a better look. "I've never seen one that size before."

"Do the Heartless usually name their ships?" Roxas asked sarcastically. "I think that's where that guy took Kairi and Naminé." Sora mentally smacked himself. What was he thinking? Why would a Heartless ship even try to run away?

"Good point," he said. "But I don't think the Kingdom could take that thing on. Those cannons look like they could blast us into oblivion, whether our shields are up or not." Roxas pondered that for a moment.

"What if Maleficent didn't hire this guy? Maybe we should follow them just in case. If we just go to Maleficent and you're wrong, then we might never find Kairi and Naminé again," he suggested. "This ship has a cloaking device, right?"

"Not one that'll make us invisible, no," Sora said as he watched the Hang 'Em High start to pick up speed, leaving Port Royal behind. "But it can make it so that we're invisible to their radar. I'm not exactly sure how it works. Cid explained it to me once but he lost me with all of his ship-building mumbo-jumbo that I don't really remember how."

"Well that's comforting," Roxas said as Sora activated the cloaking device. He reached around to the side of his chair and quickly buckled himself in. "It's good to know that you don't know how it works but you're going to use it anyway." There was a low hum from beneath their feet as the Kingdom's Fira engines came to life. "I've got a bad feeling about this"

"Don't say that," Sora said as grabbed hold of the controls. "'I've got a bad feeling about this' is right up there with 'what could possibly go wrong?' Both typically end badly and we don't need the bad luck. Besides, it's us. How much worse can this situation possibly get?"

The Kingdom lurched forward with a sudden burst of speed, forcing both Sora and the unprepared Roxas to be forced deep into the backs of their chairs as they took off into the dark abyss of space after the Hang 'Em High.

LD

Alliance Fallback HQ Library

The Frozen Fields

Olette groaned as she tore her eyes away from the heavy book resting on the ground in front of her and fought back the urge to shiver as the cold from the outside seeped into the powerless complex. With the power out, the heat that had made living comfortable slowly faded away, replaced by the bitter cold brought in from the outside. Not even the fires she had conjured up in each of the library's two dozen fireplaces were enough to warm her up.

She glanced at the pile of books stacked next to her that her Master was expecting her to read by Tuesday and let out a sigh. Normally, she enjoyed reading and studying. She didn't care that back in school she had always been called a nerd. Why shouldn't she enjoy something that came easily to her? But the books Xanthos had selected for her were all books on the varied art of Chasing Keyblades, different methods to create higher grades of Lightsteel, and epic novels that focused on the first Forging and they were all boring, even to her.

"How does he expect me to read all of these by Tuesday?" She muttered to herself. She sat up and stretched her arms above her head, causing the blanket she had had wrapped around her to slide off. A new wave of cold wracked her body and Olette quickly pulled the blanket back around her and buried her face up to her nose in it.

"You look a little cold."

Olette nearly jumped out of her skin as Hayner spoke up from directly behind her. She hadn't heard him come into the library at all and hadn't been expecting him to try to visit her, for that matter. She had specifically told both him and Pence to not bother her while she tried to focus on her reading.

"For the love of-" Olette said breathily as she tried to get her heart rate to slow down. "You scared me." She glanced back at the blond and immediately caught sight of a pair of steaming mugs clutched in his hands.

"Sorry," Hayner said with a wide grin. He sat down on the ground next to her, resting his back against one of the plush armchairs arranged near the fireplace. He unsheathed the short sword he had taken to carrying with him whenever Jenos or Axel placed him on guard duty and rested it against the chair. He offered Olette one of the two mugs of what turned out to be hot chocolate in his gloved hands. The brunette took it gratefully and sipped at it, careful to avoid burning herself. "I figured I'm come check in on you since the power's out and all." Olette smiled at him.

"I'm a big girl you know," she said, taking another sip. "I can take care of myself. But I appreciate it."

"I didn't say you couldn't take care of yourself," Hayner said as he stared into the crackling red and gold flames. "I just thought you might want something to warm you up a little since the heat's all pretty much gone now." He exhaled heavily, watching as his breath faded away. "I know I did. So I brought you some good old fashioned hot chocolate."

"Thanks," Olette said as shifted herself so that she was slightly more comfortable against the chair. The pair of them sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the flames dance on the wood in the fireplace while sipping on the hot chocolate. "What's with the sword? Are you supposed to be on guard duty?" Hayner glanced at his sword for a moment.

"No, Pence has guard duty today and is spending it shooting empty soda cans he's scattered outside of the complex." Hayner explained. "I was planning on training with Axel to keep myself in shape, but that plan fell apart when the power went out and Xanthos dragged him to the generators to figure out the problem.

"You were going to train with Axel?" Olette asked, raising an eyebrow at her friend as she took another drink from her mug. "Do you want to die in a fire?" Hayner laughed.

"I'd just respawn," he said. "But we weren't planning on fighting each other in real life. We were just going to run through one of Xanthos' combat simulation programs." Olette's face visibly paled at the thought of her Master's training simulations. The last simulation Xanthos had put her through involved her fighting a massive demon that could spit acid with only a sharpened stick as her weapon. Needless to say, the end result wasn't pretty.

"You guys were going to use one of Master's training programs?" Olette asked in disbelief. "You two must be insane." Hayner chuckled slightly at the look on her face.

"So what if we are?" He said smugly. "You know that's one of the reasons why you love me." Olette's cheeks flushed bright pink at Hayner's choice of words.

"And, uh, what makes you think I love you?" She muttered.

"We're best friends, of course!" Hayner said with a smirk. "And I personally don't think people can be best friends without loving each other. Heck, I love Pence in a completely heterosexual way. Like a brother, ya know?" Olette stared at him for a moment before she burst out laughing, earning a confused look from Hayner. It took him a moment before he realized what he had just said. He smacked himself in the forehead. "I did not just say that."

Olette managed her laughter enough so she could speak clearly. "You did. You sounded just like Rai!" She giggled a tiny bit. "Ya know?"

"I'm not that mentally challenged," Hayner retorted, struggling to keep a straight face.

"I don't know," Olette said teasingly. "You could've fooled me.

"Now you're just being mean," Hayner mumbled. Olette just gave him an innocent grin. "Do you think they made it out of Twilight Town with the other refugees?" Olette gave him a confused look.

"Who?"

"Seifer and his gang," Hayner clarified. "Don't get me wrong, I'm still not their biggest fan, but still."

"I know Fuu did at least," Olette said. "I ran into her in Radiant Garden's marketplace. She was looking for Seifer and Rai, but I don't know if they got out of there in time."

Silence fell over the pair and they turned their attention back to the crackling flame. Olette lifted her mug to her lips and downed the remainder of her drink before she set the mug off to the side. She shivered slightly and pulled the blanket tighter around herself. Out of the corner of her eye, she managed to catch a glimpse of Hayner attempting to hide his shivering from her. She took pity on him and opened her blanket up, offering half of it to him.

"Here," she said, thankful for the darkness hiding the blush that was appearing on her cheeks. "You look like you're freezing."

"I'm okay," Hayner said with a nervous chuckle. "You look like you're colder than I am." He fought back against his body's natural instincts to shiver again as he spoke.

"For crying out loud, Hayner," Olette sighed. "Suck it up. You're freezing." She moved quickly before Hayner had time to object to her and threw the blanket around both of them. "See? Now was that really so hard?" Hayner considered making an inappropriate joke in response but decided against it.

The two of them sat in a slightly awkward silence for several minutes, both blushing furiously and both thankful for the power outage to hide that fact. Over the years, they had never shared moments like this one. It was rare for the two of them without Pence or one of their other friends, so they hardly ever had alone time. Even when they did, they had never been so close to one another except for the occasional friendly hug.

At the moment, that was all Olette seemed to be able to think about. Her heart seemed to be beating at a million miles an hour and she was very conscious of her breathing. Every now and again, she would steal a glance at Hayner's face, or what little of it she could see in the shadows cast by the dancing flames, wondering to herself what the blond was thinking about, or if he could hear just how loudly her heart was pounding. She let out a sigh and closed her eyes in as she tried to calm her heart rate.

Her head fell against Hayner's shoulder several quiet minutes later. Hayner glanced down at her and let out a quiet chuckle as he realized she had fallen asleep on him. He shifted his back slightly so he was more comfortable against the chair, taking extra care to make sure he didn't wake Olette. His hand found hers under the blanket and gave it a comforting squeeze as he rested his head gently on top of hers. Within moments, he followed her example and drifted off to sleep.

Two figures in black cloaks stepped out from their hiding place behind a massive bust of a roaring dragons head. The taller of the two, Kiram, breathed a sigh of relief.

"I thought they'd never leave," he said in relief. The shorter one, Etos, smacked him on the back of the head.

"They didn't leave, Kiram, they're asleep," he whispered angrily. "So shut up and keep quiet. Moron."

"I am not a moron!" Kiram retorted, failing once again to keep his voice down. Etos clamped his hand over his twin brother's mouth.

"Seriously?" Etos muttered, keeping his one good eye focused on the sleeping pair. "What did I just tell you?"

"I know, I know," Kiram muttered as Etos led him to one of the three ornate spiral staircases that led to the upper levels of the library. "Keep quiet until we have the map, then get the hell out of Dodge before that Xanthos guys shows up."

"Exactly," Etos said as the two of them climbed the steps to the third level. "Good to know that you pay attention sometimes."

"Let's just get the map and get out of here," Kiram muttered nervously. "Dark libraries creep me out." Etos fought back the urge to let out a sarcastic laugh.

"Says the guy that hunts the giant spiders outside the mansion for fun," he taunted. Kiram smacked his slightly shorter twin.

"This coming from the guy who wet the bed until he was fourteen."

"Hey! We swore to never speak of that again."

"Actually, only you said you were never going to speak of it again. I made no such promise," Kiram said, watching his younger brother's anger rise slightly. "And what happened to keeping our voices down?" Etos let out a muffled growl of frustration and ignored his brother, allowing Kiram the silent satisfaction of winning this fight.

Their target glowed softly in the darkness, the small black orb Xanthos had stolen from the Twilight Town Natural History and Science Museum. It rested in a small, glass display case, hovering inches over the crystal display stand that had been crafted for it. Etos grinned greedily as he and Kiram approached the orb. Ever since their encounter with Xanthos back in Twilight town three weeks before, the two brothers had been relentlessly tracking down where Xanthos had taken the orb.

They had traveled from world to world in their desperate attempt to find the orb, knowing that their mother would punish them if they returned home empty handed. Both of them swore to never speak about what happened on all of the worlds they visited. Some things are better off forgotten, they had decided.

Etos stretched out his hand and pressed his hand to the glass. The glass rippled like water disturbed by a pebble being thrown as his hand passed through it to grab hold of the orb. He grabbed hold of the orb and wrenched it out of its display case before tossing it to Kiram. The glass case rippled like water once more before returning to its normal, smooth appearance.

Kiram carefully locked the orb away inside a silver cube-shaped case and tucked it inside his cloak for safekeeping before he created a portal of Darkness.

"Let's get out of here," he said, his sea foam-green eye darting around the dark room nervously. "I really don't want to be around when that Xanthos guy finds out the orb is missing."

"Just a second," Etos muttered. He pulled a small dagger from within the folds of his cloak and drew it across the palm of his left hand. The blood that flowed out defied gravity and rose into the air, changing color until it was black before it took the shape of the orb. The cut sealed itself and Etos grabbed the fake, blood-replica of the orb from the air. His hand passed through the glass once more as he placed the replica on the crystal stand.

"Now we can go," he said, grinning in satisfaction at the idea that he had just out smarted the man their mother respected above all others. He followed Kiram into the portal and they were gone.

LD

External Power Generators

Xanthos let out an exasperated sigh as he stared out at the snow covered landscape. He certainly wouldn't be recommending the Frozen Fields to anyone for its scenery anytime soon since the only thing to look at where the endless snow covered plains. He tried to recall what the endless hills of snow had looked like before the war, back before the Chasers had activated the Armageddon Codex as a last resort measure and unleashed the endless winter upon the world. Nothing, he could only remember the snow and ice. With a sight, he glanced behind him at the trio of large steel towers that served as the HQs power generators. Under normal circumstances, the generators would release an electrical orb of raw self-sustaining energy that traveled between one another, providing an unlimited supply of power to the complex below their feet. He turned his gaze upwards towards a figure in dark red and black armor that was scaling the side of the tallest tower.

"Come on, Axel!" He shouted up at the figure. "I'm freezing my ass off! Hurry it up!"

"Hey, don't rush me! This is high!" Axel shouted as he tore his chakram out of the side of the tower before digging it back in at a higher spot. "Shouldn't I have on safety gear or something?"

"Why do you think I gave you that armor, dumbass?" Xanthos retorted as he took a drink from the bottle in his hand. "It's like having a helmet for your whole body. So stop complaining."

"No, I mean, shouldn't there be like a safety rope, or at least some railings?" Axel grumbled.

"Come on, Axel, use your head!" Xanthos called back. "If we had a rope tied up there already, you could just climb the rope! Stop asking dumb questions." Xanthos took another drink and turned around as someone walked up behind him

"Hey, Xanthos," Jenos said, his voice muffled slightly beneath his deep purple colored scarf. "How are things out here?"

"Cold as the Ninth circle of Hell, but what else is new?" Xanthos said with a shrug. "Did you find the back-up generators?

"Yeah," Jenos said with a sigh. "But they're crushed underneath a lot of stone. It looks like some of the lower levels caved in before we set up shop."

"Damn," Xanthos muttered. "That'll be a pain to clear out. Oh well. I've got Axel figuring out this electrical problem as we speak, so it doesn't really matter."

"Where is he, anyway?" Jenos asked, glancing around their surroundings for a sign of the pyro.

Xanthos pointed up at the middle tower. "Up there."

"Oh, okay then," Jenos said before turning to leave. He did a double take and stared back up at Axel in shock. "What's he doing up there?"

"Help me, Jenos!" Axel shouted.

"Normally, these towers fire bolts of energy between one another and none of them are firing," Xanthos explained, completely ignoring Axel's shouts. "So I sent Axel up the main one to see if he can figure out why."

"Jesus Chri-hi-hi-hi-st!"

"So why didn't you climb up there?" Jenos asked, ignoring Axel's shouting.

"Me?" Xanthos asked as he took another drink. "I'm afraid of heights. I mean allergic! Allergic to heights."

"Everyone's afraid of heights!" Axel shouted.

"You have a fear of heights?" Jenos asked, eyeing Xanthos suspiciously. "Didn't you tell me just yesterday that you used to jump off of skyscrapers and cliffs during the Keyblade War?"

"And how do you think I developed that fear?" Xanthos shuddered. "That shit was crazy."

"There's a bird up here fucking with me!"

"Quit making friends and get up there!" Xanthos shouted. "I'm not paying you to become a bird whisperer."

"You're not paying me at all!"

"My point exactly! Now climb!"

"Shoo, shoo!"

"So you can stare down a horde of Heartless but not climb a tower?" Jenos asked. "I think your priorities are out of line."

"My priorities are always in line. The line I set for them. I like my priorities in that line, thank you very much," Xanthos said. "Besides, would you want to climb a metal tower covered in snow and ice in this weather?"

"That's a good point," he said. He glanced back up at the tower, shielding his eyes slightly from the glare of the sun in the sky. "Looks like he made it. What do you see up there, Axel?"

"What?" Axel called back.

"What do you see?" Jenos repeated.

"What do I see!" Axel shouted back as he peered over the edge of the tower. "I see everything! Because I'm at the top of the fucking world!"

"Can you see the port where the bolt comes out?" Xanthos asked.

Axel glanced behind him. There was a rectangular opening in the tower, blocked up with what appeared to be Gummi blocks. "Yeah, it's right here! But it's blocked!"

"What?" Jenos shouted.

"It's blocked!"

"What's blocking it?"Xanthos asked.

"It looks like a bunch of pieces of a ship."

Xanthos and Jenos shared a disgusted look. "That's disgusting," Xanthos shouted. "Who would climb all that way up there just to do that?"

"I said ship!" Axel shouted, placing extra emphasis on the 'P'.

"Oh, well that makes more sense," Xanthos said as he turned towards Jenos. "How did those parts get up there?"

"What kind of ship is it?" Jenos called up to Axel.

"How should I know? It's in a million pieces!" He shouted angrily. This was definitely not his day, and the wind up on top of the tower was freezing despite the insulated body armor Xanthos had given him. "What difference does it make?"

"Sorry! I'm just naturally curious."

"I'm gonna spit on you, Jenos!"

"What do you think, Jenos?" Xanthos asked.

"It's really hard to say without seeing it, but I guess he could try to clear the blockage," Jenos said into his hands as he tried to warm them up through his gloves. "I'm a little concerned though. If he clears it and that bolt goes off, it could kill him."

"That's an excellent thought," Xanthos said. "And what was the concern you said you had?"

Jenos let out a sigh. He had forgotten that Xanthos wasn't exactly fond of him or Axel. "Forget it."

"Alright then," Xanthos cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted up to Axel, "Axel, we're gonna need you to clear that blockage."

"How?" Axel asked. "These pieces are huge! How am I supposed to lift them?"

"Well, they say people in emotional situations can sometimes get super-human strength," Xanthos suggested unhelpfully.

"Yeah? Well, what about people in situations where they really don't give a fuck?" Axel snapped back. "What kind of powers do they get?"

"Language!" Xanthos shouted. "There are children inside this complex."

"They're teenagers!" Axel shouted. "They've probably heard worse than that!"

"If you can't lift it, just try clearing it with a fireball," Jenos recommended.

"Is that safe?"

"None of this is safe," Jenos reminded him with a smug smirk. "You're gonna start analyzing now?"

"Here, take one of mine," Xanthos formed a large fireball in his hand and threw it like a baseball up towards Axel. The fireball sailed up about halfway before falling back towards the ground and melting a large patch of snow.

"Did you really expect that to work?" Jenos asked.

"Yes, actually," Xanthos said with a shrug. "It was worth a shot. I probably just didn't throw it high enough. Hey, Axel, try this one!" Another bright orange fireball flew from Xanthos' gloved hand and fell short of its mark by about three feet.

"Just because I use fire doesn't mean I can catch fire!" Axel snapped.

"Damn, I can't reach," Xanthos grumbled as the fireball crashed back to the ground and exploded close to him and Jenos. Jenos let out a cry of shock as snow was blasted over the pair of them.

"Hey! Cut it out!"

"Yeah!" Axel grumbled as he kicked one of the Gummi blocks. "Let me get back to work up here." A pair of bright blue ethereal blades flew past Axel's head.

"Did you catch those?" Xanthos asked.

"Seriously?" Jenos said, smacking Xanthos on the shoulder in exasperation. "What did I just say?"

A pair of fireballs formed in Axel's hands. "Okay, here we go." He raised his hands above his head and brought them sweeping back down, sending the twin fireballs hurtling towards the debris. "Oh shit! Where do I go when the fireball-" A loud explosion cut him off as the fireballs exploded, tossing the Gummi blocks that had been clogging the port in the tower up into the air as well as throwing the former Nobody even higher. Axel let out a cry of panic as his ascent reached its zenith and gravity took over.

"Oh no, he's falling!" Jenos exclaimed in a panicked tone as Axel's shouts slowly grew louder.

"I see that," Xanthos said in an uncaring tone He raised his bottle and finished off the last of his drink, side-stepping a small engine Gummi block that threatened to crush him as it plummeted to the ground.

"Should we try to catch him?"

"Catch him?" Xanthos gave Jenos a quizzical look. "Hell no. He'll crush us."

"Then what do we do?" Jenos said. "Chronos never covered this sort of thing with me when they were training me to be a Number."

"I've got an idea," Xanthos said. "We could set up a giant trampoline that will catch him and he can bounce on that until his momentum goes away."

"We have a giant trampoline?" Jenos asked. Xanthos chuckled.

"Of course not. They're too expensive," he said. "How about we act like we're gonna catch him, then we don't? It's a win-win."

"You used to jump off of high places! How about you give him some advice!"

"Oh, right," Xanthos smacked himself. How could he forget? "Axel! There comes a time in life when you have to let go of all the pointless drama and the people who create it. Surround yourself with people who make you laugh so hard that you forget the bad and focus solely on the good. After all, life is too short to be anything but happy!"

"The hell?" Jenos asked, staring at Xanthos with a confused expression on his face. "I meant advice on how to land!"

"Oh, right," Xanthos chuckled. "Axel, what you're going to want to do is-" Axel's screaming came to an abrupt end as he crashed into the ground, sending a small cloud of snow up into the air around him as his armored body struck the stone beneath the snow. Xanthos didn't seem to notice and continued to speak. "-try to tuck and roll at the last second. That will transfer your momentum to inertia, and invert your ker-splat probability."

Jenos sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger. What had he done to deserve getting stuck here? "Hey, Xanthos?"

"Yeah?"

"I think he's down already."

Xanthos glanced down at Axel. "Oh, right." Axel let out a groan of pain. Xanthos chuckled and turned away from the pyro to look up at the power generators.

LD

The Kingdom

In Pursuit of the Hang 'Em High

Sora nearly jumped out of his seat as Roxas let out a low whistle next to him. They had spent the past couple of hours tailing the Hang 'Em High from far enough away that they were out of any radar range while still keeping the massive ship within sight. Thankfully, the Hang 'Em High had been forced to fly through an asteroid field to avoid confrontation with a small fleet of Heartless ships, which had worked out in favor of Sora and Roxas. The Kingdom had a much easier time navigating its way through the field than the Hang 'Em High did and the asteroids provided cover, allowing for Sora to fly them closer to the stern of the ship without being picked up by radar.

"Look at that," Roxas said, pointing below the Hang 'Em High. Sora spared a quick glance down and mimicked Roxas' whistle. They hadn't been flying through a normal asteroid field, they had flown straight through one of six rings surrounding a massive, sand colored world that was now directly below them. Sora couldn't help but stare. He had never seen such a large world before.

"Roxas," Sora began slowly as he steered the Kingdom out of the ring directly after the Hang 'Em High. Roxas glanced over at him. Sora turned his head to match the blonds' gaze. "I just got an idea."

"And your idea is?" Roxas asked, raising an eyebrow as he watched Sora turn back to face forward.

"We're going to force that thing to land on that world," Sora said.

"How?" Roxas asked. "In case you forgot, that thing has guns that are half the size of our ship! It can blow us to Kingdom Come in the blink of an eye!"

"It doesn't have any cannons close to engines," Sora pointed out. "All we have to do is fly as close to the engines as possible and fire our only two missile pods into their at least two of them. Even if the engines aren't completely destroyed, that should be enough to force them to land for repairs, thus buying us time to get on board, rescue Kairi and Naminé , and get out of there." Sora looked over at Roxas, waiting for a response.

"I've only got one issue with your plan," Roxas said. "The minute we move in there, they're going to spot us on radar and blow us up."

"No they won't," Sora said with a confident grin.

"Uh, yeah, they will," Roxas said.

"Nope."

"Yes."

"Nope."

"Of course they will!"

"Not if we jam it," Sora said with a sly smirk. Roxas gave him a quizzical look.

"Jam it?" He asked. Sora nodded. "How?"

"With the radar jammer, duh," Sora said with a grin as he flipped a switch on his console. A periscope descended from the ceiling to rest directly in front of Roxas' face.

"See if you can find their radar," Sora said. "Use the scope to lock on and then press the red button on the left hand side to jam it."

"Got it," Roxas said as he lowered the two handles to guide his aim. He quickly scanned the top of the Hang 'Em High, and spotted his target, a large, slowly rotating radar dish that was installed just behind the bridge. A pair of targeting reticles appeared in the center of Roxas' field of vision, directly over the radar. 'TARGET LOCKED' scrolled across the top of the small screen. Roxas grinned.

"Radar about to be-" he paused for dramatic affect before pressing his thumbs down onto the red button, "-jammed!" He grinned as the Kingdom shook slightly from firing the jammer and peered around the periscope, expecting to see some sort of cool energy beam fire from their ship. What he wasn't expecting was an oversized jar of jam to actually fly out and smash against the Hang 'Em High's radar.

"Huh," Sora said as he and Roxas watched the shattered glass of the jam jar float off into space. "It literally jams the radar. I did not see that coming."

"Me neither," Roxas agreed as the periscope rose in front of him. "Do you think it worked?"

"Only one way to find out," Sora said as he pressed down as hard as he could on the Kingdom's throttle. With a roar of its engines, the Kingdom sped off towards the Hang 'Em High. Sora flicked another switch and three screens around him displayed the message, 'MISSILES ARMED'.

"So far so good," Sora said as the Kingdom drew closer to the Hang 'Em High's engines. "I don't think they spotted us."

"Then why don't we give them a little present?" Roxas suggested as the Kingdom's automatic targeting system took aim at the Hang 'Em High's center and starboard engines. Sora jammed his thumb down on the trigger and two missile pods fired from the ship with a dull thud, trailing flames and smoke behind them as they shot towards their targets. Each pod split apart into ten smaller missiles, which spread out to cover a wider area and collided with the hull of the Hang 'Em High, decorating its stern bow with twenty balls of fire. The two targeted engines sputtered for a moment and died as the force of the explosions forced the Hang 'Em High to lurch slightly forward.

"I would call that a hit," Sora said with a grin as the damaged ship began to descend towards the world below them. "And they're going to land now. Perfect. Let's go rescue Kairi and Naminé."

LD

Hang 'Em High

Bridge

Captain Rob Murphy sighed as he heard the distinct sounds of one of the three dozen technicians on the bridge swear audibly and tried to ignore the small chuckle Recovery Two let out. Murphy glanced at the soldier in light purple armor with lime green accents. He blamed the Recovery force for this. For more than twenty five years, he had avoided the curse his name should've brought. If it can go wrong, it will. That was Murphy's Law, and up until today it seemed, he had avoided just that. He winced as the technician's voice reached his ears over the loudspeaker, a device he suddenly regretted having on board, despite its practical use.

"Sir?"

Recovery Two turned her helmeted head to glance at the technician. Murphy sighed and turned to face the technician. "Yes, what is it?"

"Can I talk to you for a minute, please, Sir?" Murphy nodded at the young man and strode over to stand by him with Two following closely behind.

"Well?" He asked as he stared down at the technician.

"I'm having trouble with the radar, Sir," the young man said into his microphone.

Murphy grabbed it from his hand and hung it up next to the man's station. "You don't need that, son," he said, silently wondering why his crewmen always seemed to be a little too dense. "We're right here. Now what is it?" Behind him, the hulking figure of Recovery Seven appeared. Murphy felt his heart rate rise slightly. Seven always made him fell a little nervous. He hardly ever spoke, except for a grunt here or a growl there and when he used actual words, they were typically in short sentences. At least Two would talk and occasionally remove her helmet. Murphy had never even seen Seven out of his armor once.

"I'm having trouble with the radar, Sir," the technician said, his voice still coming out of the microphone somehow. Seven growled and lunged forward. He crushed the microphone in an armored hand and flung it across the room, where it broke a guard's helmet open, knocking the poor man unconscious. That was the other reason Seven made Murphy nervous. The man had a temper and didn't seem to care who took the brunt of it.

"What is it?" Seven growled. The technician swallowed hard as he stared at his reflection in Seven's visor.

"I, uh, I'm having trouble with the radar, Sirs," he stuttered nervously. Murphy glanced at the man's screen, which had turned completely blue and had tiny text running across it that was nothing more than gibberish to him.

"What's wrong with it?" Murphy asked.

"I've lost the bleeps, I've lost the sweeps, and I've lost the creeps," the technician explained in a hurried tone.

"Come again?"

"You know," the young man said in a tone that implied that he thought it what he was babbling about should have been obvious. The bleeps," he let out a beeping sound. Murphy raised an eyebrow at him. "The sweeps." Once again, the man mimicked the sound the 'sweeps' made. "And the creeps." Murphy sighed as the man made the 'creeps' noise.

That's not all he's lost. Murphy said to himself.

"Sir!" The technician exclaimed suddenly. "The radar, Sir. It appears to be jammed."

Murphy looked at the screen again, and to his amazement, several streaks of red jam were starting to leak out from inside the station and drip down the screen.

"It's literally jammed?" Murphy said. That doesn't seem physically possib-" he was cut off by the sounds of multiple explosions from the stern of the ship as the Hang 'Em High lurched forward. Several technicians and Murphy were thrown to the front of the bridge, leaving only Two and Seven still standing, both seemingly unfazed.

"What the hell was that?" Murphy shouted as he scrambled quickly to his feet.

"Damage to the engines, Sir!" One technician shouted. "Short range missiles by the looks of it." Murphy glanced back at the radar technician's jam covered screen then glared at the Recovery Agents.

"We've lost both the center and starboard engines!" Another technician announced. "The hull has been breached in the Engine room! Atmospheric pressure is dropping at a considerable rate."

"Son of a bitch," Murphy swore. "Tell the surviving crew in the Engine room to put on atmosphere suits and keep that portside engine intact for as long as possible."

"Yes, Sir!"

"Pilot!" Murphy turned towards the woman who had guided them through the asteroid field. "Set us down worldside."

"Aye, Captain!"

"And someone send a message to Radiant Garden, we might need a lift out of here."

"Yes, Sir!"

Murphy sighed and turned to issue more orders only to find Seven standing less than a foot from him.

"We'll be late," he growled. Murphy swallowed and stared firmly up at his reflection in Seven's golden visor.

"If we don't land, there is a good chance we won't make it back," Murphy explained. "We'd only being going in circles with only the port engine still working. You already did your job. You captured two teenage girls. I'm sure you're proud of yourself." Murphy stormed past Seven and began barking orders at the rest of the bridge. Seven watched him for a moment, growling quietly to himself.

LD

Alliance Fallback HQ

External Power Generators

The Frozen Fields

A single orb of red energy was being fired between each tower, remaining stationary at each one only for a few seconds before firing over to the next one.

"Hot ham and cheese!" Xanthos exclaimed cheerfully. "The power's back on."

Jenos gently tapped Axel's unmoving form with the toe of his boot as Xanthos happily watched the energy bolt traveling between the towers. "Um, I think Axel's broken."

"Sad," Xanthos said in a tone that implied he didn't really care. "I always thought I would be the cause of Axel's death. Oh well, fuck it."

"Yeah," Jenos agreed with a half-hearted shrug. "Fuck it."

"Alright, now that we have power again, let's go call give the King a call and let him know that it's ready for more people to come here," Xanthos said as he turned towards the path that led down the side of the hill where the generators were to a side entrance of the complex.

"We're not ready for more people," Jenos said. "Pence and I only just finished setting up the computer mainframe and Hayner's only cleared out half of the hangars."

"Why do you think I'm calling for more people?" Xanthos pointed out. "So we don't have to do anything else except supervise."

"You're a lot lazier than I initially thought," Jenos said. Xanthos simply smirked.

"Jenos, I firmly believe in one concept my Master drilled into my head every day for two years," he explained. "You can do anything you set your mind to so long as you have vision, determination and an endless supply of expendable labor." Jenos let out a chuckle.

"I like the way you think," he said. He tapped Axel with the toe of his shoe. "What about him?"

Xanthos glanced down at Axel's form and shrugged. "Let's just drag him into the entrance hall and leave him for Jenna. I'm sure she can handle it." He motioned for Jenos to follow him and walked over to Axel's body.

Both men sighed as they stooped down and awkwardly lifted the red-head between them. Xanthos struggled to adjust his grip on Axel's arms without dropping him, but failed. He and Jenos simply stared as Axel's head dropped back down to the stone beneath the snow. Jenos raised an eyebrow at Xanthos, who continued to stare at Axel's partially snow-covered head.

"I meant to do that," he said innocently as he stooped down yet again to pick up Axel.

Jenos nodded his head. "You know what, on some level I actually believe that." The two of them struggled their way down the icy hillside with their unconscious cargo. It took them nearly a half-hour to complete a seven minute walk due to the slipping, sliding, dropping Axel and pointless shouting as they tried to blame one another for their current situation. When they finally made their way past the still damaged front doors and into the entrance hall, they simply propped Axel up against one of the tall stone pillars that supported the ceiling.

"That was more work than should've been necessary," Jenos commented as Xanthos dusted off his black cloak.

"Tell me about it," the Chaser agreed. "Want to grab a cold one and see if we can still catch the second half of the Blitzball playoffs?"

"Why not?" Jenos asked. "I've needed some down time." The two of them turned away from Axel and headed off for the kitchens. Axel let out a low groan as they walked away.

"What happened to you?" Axel's eyes slowly opened and he struggled to turn his head. Jenna's apprentice, Nikki, was standing over him, casually munching on a triangular slice of a grilled cheese sandwich while her sapphire-blue eyes watched him with mild confusion.

"Power generator attacked me," Axel moaned. "I think my kneecaps are shattered."

"Sad," Nikki said, taking another bite. "Have fun!" She turned to walk away.

"Wait!" Axel groaned. "Aren't you going to help me?" Nikki took another bite of her sandwich and stared at him for a moment before producing a Mega-Potion from seemingly nowhere and tossing it onto his chest.

"Drink half of that and you'll be fine," Nikki said. "You're injuries aren't nearly as bad as you look, but you're right, both knee caps are shattered but that potion should put you back together. Now, if you'll excuse me." She tossed the last of her grilled cheese into her mouth and strode off. Axel groaned and grabbed hold of the Mega-Potion, snapping the stopper off with a quick flick of his thumb as he did so.

He downed half of the potion as he had been told to do so and immediately felt it take effect. Painfully. In a matter of moments, all of his wounds and injuries were healed. Axel did the only thing that seemed logical. He howled in pain.

"Holy mother of-" He said as his kneecaps and shoulder mended themselves. "Mother fu- Oh, that hurts!" The pain receded as quickly as it had come, leaving him gasping in pain on the floor. After a few moments, he tenderly stretched out his leg and grinned when he saw it move. He rose to his feet and breathed a sigh of relief before summoning his chakram to his hands.

Those two are in for a world of hurt when I get my hands on them. Axel said to himself, cloaking both of his chakram in flames as he headed off down the hallway. He twisted his head from side to side, cracking his neck loudly. If it's a choice between regular and extra-crispy, I want them extra-crispy.

LD

"Well, isn't this just fantastic?" Roxas grumbled as he and Sora pressed their backs against a canyon wall. "We're barely here five minutes and we've already been attacked and we have nowhere to escape to."

"Look on the bright side," Sora said as his eyes scanned the canyon around them. "We could've been attacked by Heartless."

"I'd rather take Heartless over-" a blood-curdling screech filled their ears. Both teens tightened their grips on their Keyblades. "-over whatever that thing is."

"I suppose you have a point," Sora said as the creature that had chased them from their ship into the canyon appeared. It stood on four long legs that were covered with some sort of pale red shell. Its body was made up of a large, bulbous thorax that was covered in several plates of the same red shell protecting its legs. Six short arms protruded from the sides of its abdomen, each one tipped with numerous, razor sharp claws. Its head was rather small and seemed almost disproportionate to the rest of its body. Its mouth was filled with several rows of rotating, jagged teeth and its seven bright red eyes seemed to glow brightly, even in the desert sun.

The creature let out another screech and lunged its head at Sora. The brunette rolled underneath the creature and swung his Keyblade as hard as he could against the closest leg. The Oblivion merely bounced off of the leg, not even leaving a scratch on it. The creature looked underneath itself at Sora and let out another screech. Sora bolted out from under it as it dropped its body down to the ground and raised itself back up with surprising agility.

"Well that was effective," Sora said sarcastically as he rushed up to Roxas' side. After they had destroyed two of the Hang 'Em High's engines, forcing it to make an emergency landing, they had followed the ship into the atmosphere of the world below, where they had immediately been caught by a sandstorm, forcing them to land several miles away from where the Kingdom's radar indicated the Hang 'Em High had landed. And now they were under attack, not that Sora or Roxas was really surprised by it. But it was definitely irritating.

Flames appeared along both of Roxas' Keyblades as he strode towards the creature. "If physical attacks won't work, let's see how this thing can handle magic," Roxas said. He swung both of his arms back and sent his flaming Keyblades flying. The Oathkeeper struck the creature on the side of the head while the Oblivion embedded itself in dead center of its abdomen. The creature screeched in pain. Two of its arms tore the Keyblade from its flesh and tossed it aside angrily.

"Well, Roxas, I can think we've ticked this thing off," Sora said as Roxas summoned both Keyblades back to his hands. The creature screeched again and lunged at the two teens, forcing them to leap away from one another.

The creature's claws lashed out at Roxas. The blonde smirked and deflected the attack with the Oathkeeper "Sounds about right!"

"Are the two of you brain-dead?"

Sora and Roxas looked around as the sound of a female voice reached their ears. A young woman rode past the both of them on what appeared to be a skateboard that floated several inches above the ground, straight for the creature. She was dressed in a tan cloak that concealed most of her body except for her head and left arm. Her eyes were hidden behind a pair of reflective goggles and her short-cropped violet colored hair seemed out of place against the dull browns and tans of the canyon around them and a wild grin was plastered on her face.

She shot between the creature's legs, passing straight under it and effectively grabbing the creature's attention. It screeched at her and spun around to face her. The purple haired girl smirked up at the creature and held her hand up to it.

"Crush," she shouted. Purple energy surrounded the creature and forced it to the ground with a sickening crunch. A bright light shone in her left hand as a weapon appeared from nowhere. Sora and Roxas stared in surprise. She was a Keyblade Wielder.

The Keyblade clutched in her right hand had a black handle with a white tip that was completely encompassed by the lavender colored guard. Each side of the guard was decorated with two spikes that were angled downward towards the base of the blade. The blade itself was lavender colored and had concave edges that met in a point. A large, silver triangle was secured to the point so that the top of the triangle pointed towards the blade. A small, glowing purple eye floated of its own accord in the center of the triangle. The 'teeth' of the Keyblade were formed by a black, circular arc lined with spikes and were only connected to the rest of the blade by the triangle. The Keychain was the same triangle that was connected to the 'teeth', only without the eye.

The girl swung her Keyblade in a wide arc above her head and leapt up onto the creature's back. With a ferocious yell, she drove her Keyblade in between the plates at the base of its neck and twisted. The creature let out a short-shriek as life left it and collapsed. The girl tore her Keyblade from the creature's back, splattering the front of her cloak with its bright yellow blood. Her Keyblade vanished from her hand as she leapt down to stand in front of Sora and Roxas.

"Coming out into Veneschall territory all by yourselves?" She asked as she attempted to wipe the blood off of herself. "Either you're real ballsy, or you've got a death wish." She gave both teens a quick look over. "Maybe both."

"What's a Veneschall?" Sora asked, following the girl as she turned her back on the boys to walk back over to where she had abandoned her hover-board.

"'What's a Veneschall?'" The girl laughed. She caught a glimpse of Sora's quizzical look and stopped almost instantly. "Oh, you're serious. You're not from around here are you?"

"Nope," Roxas said, walking up to stand beside Sora. "I'm Roxas."

"I'm Sora," the brunette said, flashing the girl his trademark grin.

"You're off-worlders, aren't you?" the girl asked as she lifted her goggles to reveal a pair of sapphire blue eyes.

Sora glanced at Roxas, who shrugged. "Might as well tell her the truth," the blond said. "World Order be damned. Between Maleficent, the Heartless, Organization XIII and you, that thing's pretty much useless isn't it?"

"I knew it," the girl said. She grabbed hold of her board with one hand and it suddenly folded itself down into a small cube, which the girl promptly clipped to her belt. "My name's Nanaki."

"Nice to meet you, Nanaki," Sora said, offering his hand to her. Nanaki eyed it for a moment with an expression that made Sora think she was under the impression that it would bite her. He slowly lowered his hand. "Now, what's a Veneschall? And where are we?"

"This is the surface of Lynfael," Nanaki said, gesturing around at the barren wasteland around them. "The surface is too harsh for most humans to live on. Our kind fled into the tunnels centuries ago and we've been there ever since. As for the Veneschall," she kicked the corpse of the creature with a look of slight distaste, "they're the top of the food chain in this area of the surface world. They'll eat anything that moves, just because they can."

"So, this thing is a Veneschall?" Roxas asked. He knelt next to the creature's head, staring into it's glazed over eyes. "If they're so tough, then how were you able to take it down?"

"Because this one is in its larvae stage," Nanaki explained. Roxas visibly paled at her words.

"This thing is just a larva?" He asked nervously. "Then what does a full grown one look like?"

Nanaki grinned. "Pray that you never find out." Roxas stood up and quickly backed away from Veneschall Larvae's corpse. "So, what brings you to our miserable world?"

"We're trying to rescue our girlfriends," Sora explained. "This big guy kidnapped them right in front of us. His ship landed somewhere around here."

"Ship?" Nanaki asked. "Oh! You mean that big flying thing that fell out of the sky about an hour ago?" Sora and Roxas both nodded.

"That's the one," Roxas said. "Do you know where it is?"

Nanaki nodded and pointed off in the distance, away from where Sora and Roxas had originally landed. "About half a day's march from here in the Kellena Valley," she said. "I can take you there if you want."

"Really?" Roxas asked, clearly surprised. "Even though we just met?"

"This sort of thing happens to me all the time," Sora pointed out. "I arrive at a new world, I get attacked. I meet a local, and the local becomes my ally."

Nanaki ignored him. "I'll only help you under one condition though."

"There's always a catch," Sora said. He glanced at Roxas, who sighed and nodded. "Okay, you've got a deal. What do you want?"

Nanaki grinned in satisfaction. "After we rescue your women, and you leave this godforsaken rock, I want you to take me with you."

LD

Alliance Fallback HQ Medical Ward

The Frozen Fields

Naleten hummed softly as he washed the traces of Riku's blood out from underneath his fingernails. His staff hovered of its own accord just behind him, casting its eerie red light around the room. With a small nod of his head, Naleten shut off the water and produced a blood-red hand towel out of thin air. As he quickly dried his hands, he spared a glance back at the unconscious teen still lying on one of the dozen or so beds in the room. His shirt had been left open, exposing his pale chest for all to see.

Naleten smirked emotionlessly as he walked over to stand above Riku's form. The towel in his hands fell to the ground, vanishing into a black mist before it ever touched the floor. The Nobody examined his handiwork. Thirteen powerful seals taken from the Tome of Silence were etched in the Celestial Nine-Point Compass pattern directly over Riku's heart. A perfect seal, carved into the flesh that could only ever be broken under the circumstances decided by the person who formed the seal.

Naleten waved his hand over the seal and watched as the skin knitted itself back together so perfectly, it was impossible to tell that anything had been done to Riku at all. Naleten flashed Riku a grin and summoned a portal of Darkness behind him.

"Until next time, Master Riku," he said with a low bow as he backed into the portal. "Be sure to play your role for me like the good little pawn you are. Lord Thera would greatly appreciate it." The portal closed around him and Naleten was gone.

There was a deep shuddering thud that resounded throughout the complex less than a second later and the power flared back to life. Riku let out a groan as the fluorescent lights came back on in the medical ward and slowly opened his eyes with a groan of pain. His chest felt like it had been carved open like a Thanksgiving turkey. He slowly sat up in the hospital bed, wincing slightly at his chest pains.

A flash of pale orange light in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He turned his head to see Dawn's holographic avatar appear on his bedside table, looking slightly dazed and confused. She shook her head back and forth quickly for a brief moment before she looked up at him with a half-smile.

"Greetings, Master Riku," she said feebly as the orange light that illuminated her body turned blue. "How are you feeling?"

Riku raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you okay, Dawn?" He asked. "You don't look so good." Dawn shrugged half-heartedly.

"It's the power outage's fault," she explained as she changed color again, this time from blue to red. "Power outages to A.I.'s are what hangovers are to humans. Except we don't have fun when we suddenly lose all of our power."

"Why are you changing color like that?" Riku asked in concern. He reached a hand out towards the A.I., forgetting for a moment that she wasn't physically there. Dawn examined the numbers flashing in and out of existence on the back of her hand for a moment as her color changed to purple.

"I'm running a diagnostic scan on myself," she answered simply. "I want to make sure none of my important systems are damaged. So far, it seems I've only lost a few bits of memory data from the past three months. Nothing important, mind you. Not as far as I can tell at least." Her brow furrowed in frustration. "But I definitely have almost nothing from the last two weeks in my data. I think I might've suffered more damage than I thought after we fell off that cliff." She turned towards Riku. "Do you remember what we've been up to for the past couple of weeks?"

Riku crossed his arms and bowed his head slightly as he thought back over what he had done over the course of the past few weeks. Some of his memories of his time in Atlantis were a little fuzzy. Then he and Dawn had gone off in search of… Riku's brow furrowed. In search of what? He could remember flying from world to world in search of something until he had arrived here, on the Frozen Fields. He could remember peering over the edge of a steep cliff to find a field of Keyblades frozen in the ice and snow at the cliff base. The cliffs edge had proven unable to hold his weight and collapsed, sending him tumbling to the ground. He had almost managed to save himself, but a stone had smashed into the side of his head, nearly knocking him unconscious. The next thing he could remember was waking up in the same bed he was in now.

"Judging from his expression, I would say he doesn't remember much." Both Riku and Dawn turned at the sound of the voice. Xanthos' sister, Jenna, strode into the room with a slightly irritated expression on her face. She stopped at the foot of Riku's bed and examined a clipboard she was carrying in her hands. "You suffered a lot of physical trauma when you fell off that cliff," she continued, tossing the clipboard up onto the table where Dawn stood. "Your spine was shattered, you had multiple fractures on your skull, both of your legs were broken in at least five places each, your left wrist was broken, and your ribs were all cracked. One even came close to puncturing your lung. The fact that you're alive is nothing short of a miracle."

"What does any of that have to do with my memories?" Riku managed to ask before Jenna shoved a thermometer in his mouth.

"The fact that the only mental damage you suffered, aside from a blow to your ego I'm sure, is a few memories missing from the past couple of weeks is nothing to sneeze at," she smirked as Riku's cheeks flushed red. "You should be a vegetable. Consider yourself lucky, kid." She pulled the thermometer out of his mouth and glanced at it before setting it aside.

"Don't call me kid," Riku said.

"Whatever you say, kid," Jenna said as she scribbled something onto her clipboard. "To be perfectly honest, you seem to be fine now." She grabbed a bag from under Riku's bed and tossed it onto his lap. Riku gave the bag a confused look and opened it up.

"Your clothes were pretty much shredded," Jenna explained as Riku pulled his clothes from the bag and set them next to him on the bed. "My apprentice, Nikki, was kind enough to repair them for you. Be sure to thank her when you get the chance."

Riku nodded. "I will." He swung his legs off of the bed and got to his feet.

"And before I forget, my brother said that he wanted to see you when you finally got out of here," Jenna added as she turned to leave. "Don't make him wait too long; he's far more impatient now than he was back before the war."

"I'll keep that in mind," Riku said. Jenna gave him a smile and stepped out of the room, letting the door shut itself behind her. Riku sighed and stretched his arms above his head. Satisfied, he went to peel off the pastel-green shirt he was currently wearing but stopped when he realized that Dawn was watching him with a slightly bored expression on her face.

"Do you mind?" He asked. Dawn laughed and rolled her eyes.

"I'm an A.I., remember?" She said. "You could be naked for all I care. It doesn't affect me one bit." She gave him a nonchalant smirk. Riku sighed.

"Will you please just look away?" He asked politely. Dawn let out another laugh and conceded, turning away from him and humming a tune to herself that sounded to Riku like the theme from Tetris. He quickly stripped out of the hospital garb and threw on his freshly repaired clothes in a matter of mere seconds. He glanced down at his clothes in an attempt to find where they had been torn only to find, to his surprise, that there was no evidence of them being damaged. Shrugging it off, Riku grabbed hold of Dawn's portable storage unit as the A.I. turned off the projector and clipped it to his belt.

"What do you say to a little exploring, Dawn?" Riku asked, cracking his knuckles eagerly as he left the medical ward.

LD

Hang 'Em High Landing Site

Lynfael

Sora watched through a pair of night-vision binoculars Nanaki had provided him with as one of the three security patrols circling the area around the Hang 'Em High passed in front of an open hangar door, where at least half a dozen other guards were keeping lookout. In total, thirty well armed soldiers stood between them and getting inside the ship. Normally, Sora would've laughed at those odds. He had taken on a thousand Heartless single-handedly. But the thought of going up against so many guns unnerved him slightly. He wasn't sure if he could outrun a bullet.

Next to him, Nanaki scanned the tops of the cliffs overlooking the ship through her own pair of binoculars, occasionally cursing under her breath. "Like I thought," she muttered. "They've got three snipers up on those cliffs. Even if we create a distraction for the guards down there," she gestured at the ship, "we'd be taken out before we ever make it in."

"I have an idea," Roxas said. Sora and Nanaki both lowered their binoculars and glanced over at the blond. Roxas turned his attention completely on Sora. "Do you remember when we were attacked by all of those Nobodies back on Port Royal?" Sora nodded, wondering where Roxas was going with this. "Remember how the Samurai didn't attack us? Instead, they turned on the other Nobodies and then bowed to me when they left. What if I still can control them?"

"Control the Nobodies?" Nanaki scoffed. "I'd pay to see that trick."

"Roxas used to be a Nobody," Sora told her, before turning to back to the blond. "Do you think it'll work?"

Roxas shrugged. "It's worth a shot," he said. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"You know, I really, really hate it when people say that," Nanaki mumbled. "Something always goes horribly wrong."

"Okay," Roxas said as he straightened up. "Here goes nothing." He closed his eyes and concentrated. It took a couple of moments for him to remember how to summon the Nobody companions that had accompanied him on numerous missions he had gone on for Organization XIII. When it came back to him, he felt some sort of invisible ripple flow out of him, spreading quickly across the universe. It was a slightly unnerving feeling. It made him realize, for the briefest of moments, just how large the universe really was.

You called, my liege? Roxas heard a muffled gasp followed by a dull thump as something fell to the ground and opened his eyes and found himself face to face with a pair of Samurai. Nanaki's eyes were wide with shock and she was covering her mouth with one hand as she stared up at the Samurai. Roxas only spared her a brief glance before looking back at the Samurai. In perfect unison, both Samurai bent at the waist in a formal bow to Roxas, who returned the gesture.

What would you have us do, Lord Roxas? Roxas turned his head towards the Nobody on his left, feeling a little surprised that he had known that it was her who had spoken, and the fact that he knew she was female.

"We need to get into that ship down there," Roxas explained. "The enemy has three patrols of eight people circling the ship and six more are inside the hangar door. There are also three sharpshooters up on that cliff top over there." He pointed in the direction Nanaki had been looking. "We need a distraction so we can slip in. Can you handle that?"

Of course. The Samurai on his right said, clearly male. Do you need them disposed of?

"No," Roxas said hurriedly. "Just, keep them busy long enough for us to get inside. Don't kill them unless you absolutely have to. Okay?" Both Samurai nodded. Roxas grinned. "Thank you both." The Samurai both bowed and vanished in swirls of Darkness.

"So?" Sora asked. "What did they say?"

"They're going to distract the guards for us so we can sneak in," Roxas explained. "So I hope you guys are ready because if there's one thing I remember about the Samurai, they always-" He was cut off by a loud scream as one of the snipers fell off of the cliff top to the hard ground below. The other two snipers turned their attention towards where five Samurai now stood and began firing wild shots at them. Roxas let out a sigh. "They always carry out orders quickly."

Sora peered down the slope in front of them towards where the guard patrols were. All three groups were running towards a group of about ten more Samurai that had appeared at the base of the cliff around the body of the fallen sniper. Bullets flew through the air and were expertly deflected by the Samurai's blades. Sora turned back towards the others.

"That's our cue," he said with a satisfied grin. "Let's go!" He vaulted over the boulder they had been using for cover and skidded down the slope on his backside. Roxas quickly followed suit, albeit more gracefully than Sora and slid down on his feet while Nanaki pulled her goggles over her eyes and grabbed her hover-board before riding down after the other two.

Sora somersaulted directly into a sprint the moment he reached the bottom of the slope, with Roxas at his heel. Three flashes of light lit up the darkness and attracted the attention of the six guards still at the entrance to the hangar.

"I think they see us!" Roxas shouted as one of the guards tossed a handful of lit flares out in their direction, casting a series of sinister red lights between them and the hangar door.

"Spread out!" Nanaki shouted as her hover-board caught up to the two teens, she kept one hand on the holo-controls while the Keeper's Crest appeared in her left hand. "It makes it harder for us to get hit!" She let out a small cry of shock as a bullet narrowly missed her ear. Sora leapt to the side as a volley of rounds struck the ground in front of him and took cover in the darkness out of the radius of light cast by the flares. Roxas summoned both of his Keyblades to his hands and threw them as hard as he could towards the guards. Two of the guards ducked out harm's way only for a third to be struck by both. The man barely had time to cry out in pain before he was thrown further into the hangar and out of sight.

Roxas smirked as he caught his Keyblades and continued his charge. Nanaki zipped past him on her board, leaping off of it at the last second before it crashed into two more of the guards. Nanaki laughed wildly as she landed directly behind the three remaining guards. One of them spun on his heel and drew a knife from its sheath on his shoulder. Nanaki's laughter stopped abruptly as the knife sliced open her cheek. The guard grinned in satisfaction as he saw the blood on her cheek, but it was short lived. The curved 'teeth' of the Keeper's Crest swung up and slammed into the guard's face with enough force to knock a couple of his teeth loose.

The man howled in pain for a moment before Nanaki's foot struck the side of his head, knocking him unconscious. She spun around as another guard raised a large hammer above his head and swung it towards her head with surprising speed. Nanaki's eyes widened in fear as the hammer rushed towards her face. Before they closed in calm acceptance.

The blow never came. Nervously, she opened her eyes to find a mess of spiky-brown hair less than a foot from her. Sora stood between her and the guard with the hammer, creating a barely visible barrier of pure energy to stop the hammer in its tracks. Nanaki stared at Sora's clothes in shock. They were no longer black with red and gold accents. Now they were mostly blue with flame like patterns at the hem of his shorts and at the end of his sleeves, but what truly amazed Nanaki was the fact that he was floating at least six inches off of the ground. The guard stared down at Sora with a look of pure surprise on his face. Sora grinned and thrust his empty palm out towards the guard. The barrier flew away from Sora and sent the guard flying.

"How did you-" Nanaki began to ask as Sora flashed his signature grin.

"It's my Wisdom Drive," Sora explained as the guard struggled back to his feet. "Long story short, my clothes are magic." He raised his Keyblade so that it was level with the guard's chest as the man stood up. "Take this!" A trio of bright, glowing blue orbs shot out of the Oblivion's tip and flew towards the guard. One orb struck the handle of the hammer just below the head and melted it straight through, causing the head to fall to the floor of the hangar with a loud thud. The other two slammed into the man's chest and sent him flying into the remaining guard.

Both men were thrown from the hangar with excessive force and landed heavily on the ground outside. The guard that had been wielding the hammer started to get back to his feet almost immediately. Sora smirked and aimed his Keyblade at the controls to the hangar door. Two orbs of magical energy crashed into it and caused the system to go haywire. The hangar door closed quickly before the guard had time to fully recover, trapping him on the outside.

"Okay, that was pretty cool," Nanaki said, giving Sora a high five as she walked over to her Skimmer. "You've got some pretty fancy tricks there, kid." Sora grinned and placed his hands behind his head in his trademark fashion.

"It was nothing," he said. "Just doing what I do best."

"I'll say," Nanaki said as she powered down her board, returning it to its portable cube form. "What happened to Blondie?"

Sora gave her a quizzical look and then smacked himself. There was a flash of light and his clothes reverted to normal as Roxas appeared out of thin air, gasping for breath. Nanaki raised an eyebrow at him.

"Warn me next time!" Roxas shouted as he scrambled to his feet. Sora just laughed.

"Donald used to say that to me all the time," he said with a grin. "What can I say, I needed an extra bit of speed to save Nanaki and I didn't exactly have time to say 'Hey Roxas! Hope you don't mind, but I need to go into my Wisdom Form and you're the only companion close enough to serve as the base for it. Heads up!'" Roxas gave Sora a look that showed he clearly wasn't amused. Nanaki, however, was cracking up.

"I'm sorry I didn't meet you guys sooner," she said. "It's probably a blast hanging with you two."

"I wouldn't call it a blast," Sora said thoughtfully.

"We're kind of a magnet for trouble," Roxas agreed. Nanaki shrugged.

"I can live with it," she said as she attached her board to her belt. "Let's get going, you've got damsels to rescue from distress, and I've got a one-way ticket off this rock to secure."

LD

Hang 'Em High

Engineering Bay

Naminé peered cautiously around one of the hundreds of large computers that filled the Engineering bay of the Hang 'Em High. Two guards armed with rifles patrolled the grid-like pathways nearby while a group of technicians in white coats complained about being stranded. She swallowed nervously as they both turned their backs to her before diving behind the closest computer across the pathway, briefly appearing as a faint shimmer in the dim lighting.

She reminded herself to thank Xanthos for the invisibility spell when she got the chance as the guards traveled further away. Not only had she been able to trick the guard watching her cell into opening the door for her because of it, she was now safe from the prying eyes of anyone else that probably had orders to shoot first and ask later.

She glanced around the computer to watch as the guards traveled further away from her. She let out a silent sigh of relief and knelt next to the console beside her and placed her hand on it. A label on the side informed/ her that this was one of three consoles in the room that contained Navigation Gummi blocks. If she could disable those, that would buy time for her and Kairi to find a way to escape. A small jolt of electricity passed from her finger tips into the computer. The lights on the console flared brightly for a brief moment before fading to black as the system crashed.

Smiling at her handiwork, she darted away from the console and began her search for the second one. It didn't take too long to find as it was only three consoles away. A jolt of electricity later and she had, for the most part, crashed the Hang 'Em High's Navigation system.

"Just one more to go," Naminé whispered to herself as she darted back and forth between consoles, searching for the final Navigation console.

"All units, be advised, we have an escaped prisoner," Naminé froze as she heard one the voice come over one of the guards' radios from the other side of the console she was currently behind. Her hand immediately flew up to cover her mouth and nose, stifling the sound of her breathing.

"Package Number Two has escaped from Cell Block E," Patrol Nine's voice continued. Naminé's eyes widened in surprise. She had only escaped five minutes before and they were already onto her. She hadn't been expecting that. "Extreme caution is advised. She is highly dangerous. Security footage shows she can turn invisible. Heat sensors are recommended. Capture her alive at all costs."

Oh, no. Naminé groaned mentally.

The two guards glanced at each other and nodded. Both of them pressed a small button on the sides of their helmets and their visors flared orange in the dim lighting before they raised their weapons and turned, to Naminé's horror, directly towards her.

Naminé felt fear sink in as both guards stared at her for a moment before letting out cries of shock. One of the guards took aim at her and fired seven shots. Naminé let out a scream and ducked behind the closest console, abandoning her invisibility spell as she did so. The other guard grabbed the top of his partner's gun and forced it to aim at the floor.

"They said alive, you idiot!" He shouted. "What the hell's your problem?"

"I freaked out!" The other guard shouted back. "I didn't sign up to fight someone who could turn invisible! What did you expect me to do?"

"I expect you to follow orders!" His partner growled as he aimed his rifle at the console Naminé was hiding behind. "Make yourself useful and call for reinforcements." The other guard pulled out his radio and began calling in back up as his partner slowly approached the console Naminé was hiding behind. "Come on out, little girl," he called. "Hands above your head."

Naminé obeyed and stepped out from behind the console with her hands above her head, palms facing the guard as he neared her. The guard grinned and Naminé smiled sweetly. Several bolts of lightning shot from her fingertips and struck the guard's gun. The guard let out a cry of pain and dropped his weapon, shaking his hands violently from the sudden shock. Naminé summoned the Rejection of Fate into her hand and leapt at the guard, intending to knock him out. Several loud cracks filled the air as bullets whizzed past Naminé's head.

The blonde threw herself aside as the other guard fired on her with a pistol. She thrust her hand around the side of the console and sent a fireball flying in the man's general direction. The man let out a startled yell and fell backwards in an attempt to avoid the flames. Naminé dashed from behind cover and sent another fireball at the two guards. Her aim was off and the fire instead struck another computer, which promptly exploded.

Ignoring the cries of pain from the two guards as shrapnel from the computer dug into their skin, and the shouts from the dozen or so technicians in the room, Naminé bolted for the exit. She came to an abrupt halt as she found it blocked by at least seven armed guards who were pointing guns and a couple of swords towards her. Naminé turned around and ran towards another door she had seen. At least four more guards appeared as if from nowhere and blocked her last resort.

Naminé slowed to a stop next to a table covered in technical equipment near the center of the room. The guards advanced towards her, carefully avoiding the consoles while never losing sight of their objective. Naminé swallowed hard and backed into the table. She heard the distinct clicks of more weapons being readied on her left. She turned her head to see the technicians all aiming handguns at her. She raised the Rejection of Fate in a defensive stance while her eyes roamed the room, looking for anything that might help her escape.

Her eyes fell on a small charm that seemed out of place amongst the various tools and pieces of computer equipment. The charm was an oval shape and made out of what looked like silver. In the center of the oval was a picture of a red, diamond shaped jewel surrounded by fire against a black background.

"Drop your weapon and surrender," one guard said. "You will be taken back into custody."

Naminé's eyes lit up and she ignored the guard. It was a summoning charm, just like the ones Sora had collected on his last adventure. Her hand shot out and grabbed hold of the charm. "Lend me your power," she whispered into the charm before tossing it into the air. The guards and Naminé all watched the charm fly up into the air and remain at the zenith of its ascent, glowing with a dark red light. The room swiftly filled with a dark smoke that swirled around into the shape of a tall person in a dark robe. Naminé swallowed nervously as a wave of dread passed through her.

"Rejoice," the smoky figure said in a deep, sinister tone as a pair of glowing yellow eyes took form in the smoke and looked straight at Naminé. "For very bad things are about to happen."

LD

Hang 'Em High

Engine Room

"Is this what you meant by 'we're kind of a magnet for trouble'?" Nanaki asked as she pressed her back against Roxas'. She and Roxas were trapped on a catwalk overlooking the three massive Firagun engines by a large group of a hundred or so guards. The desert night was slightly visible through the cracks in the hull caused by the missile pods Sora had fired at the engines.

"If you're referring to the getting separated from Sora and being surrounded by a bunch of numbskull guards who probably couldn't hit the broadside of a barn, then yes," The blond nodded. "That would be exactly what I mean. I'll admit, I've never been in this particular situation before."

"How did we even get separated from him?" Nanaki asked, as she scanned the crowd around them.

"Who knows?" Roxas said. "It was probably when these guys started chasing us."

"Keep quiet, you two!" A guard demanded.

"They breed these bastards like rabbits, don't they?" Nanaki commented as she flourished the Keeper's Crest in her hands.

"Looks like it," Roxas agreed as he spun the Oblivion and Oathkeeper around before holding them in front of him in an 'X' shape. "They also didn't make them smarter."

"When will they learn?"

"Probably never."

"How many do you think there are?"

"I don't know. Fifty?"

"How about we say five thousand? It makes it sound more badass when you tell people about it."

"I like the way you think, Nanaki."

"Thank you, so do I."

"I said shut up! That's an order!" The same guard shouted again. Nanaki scoffed at him.

"Go to hell," she said. "How's that for an order?" She and Roxas glanced at each other and grinned before leaping at the closest guards, both laughing wildly as they did so.

LD

Hang 'Em High

Bridge

Kairi winced as the door to the bridge slid open with a hiss and Seven tightened his grip on her upper arm. She had been taken from her cell several minutes before to 'serve as a bargaining chip' as Recovery Two had put it. Sora charged into the room, Keyblade at the ready and his eyes immediately locked onto hers.

"Kairi!" Sora cried out. Kairi breathed a sigh of relief. Sora was here. Everything was going to be okay now. She tried to break out of Seven's grip but he only tightened it with a growl. Sora glared daggers at the Recovery Agent.

"Let her go," he demanded in the most assertive tone he could muster. "Now."

Seven chuckled, which Kairi found disturbing. He still sounded like he was growling. Kairi glanced up at Seven's concealed face and saw a dark figure appear in the reflection, just behind where Sora was standing.

"Behind you!" Kairi shouted, whipping her head back around to look at Sora. Sora turned and saw a pair of katana descending towards his neck. Sora brought the Oblivion up with incredible speed and countered both blades.

"You're pretty quick, huh, kid?" Recovery Two said as she leapt back from Sora. "But you're going to have to be faster than that." Sora gave Two a confused look, and then winced as his left cheek was sliced open. Blood flowed down from the wound like a river. Sora stared at Two in complete shock.

"Like I told you," Two said smugly. "You're going to have to be a lot faster if you want to have any hope of beating me." She let out a confident laugh as Sora glared at her.

Kairi couldn't take anymore. She was tired of always being captured and forced to remain on the sidelines. She wasn't going to just sit around and watch Sora fight two Recovery agents all by himself. She spun in Seven's grip, ignoring the spike of pain that shot up her arm from where he was gripping her and placed the flat of her palm against his visor.

"Let me go!" She shouted. A burst of Blizzard magic erupted around Seven's helmet, encasing it and his shoulders in a block of jagged ice. Seven's grip on her slackened as he attempted to break the ice off of him. Kairi pressed her feet against Sevens chest and kicked as hard as she could. Seven's grip was torn from her arm as her kick sent him stumbling back several feet.

Kairi flipped in midair, landing gracefully on her feet. A flash of light emanated from her hand as Destiny's Embrace appeared. Kairi let out a battle cry and charged at Two as quickly as she could. Behind her, Seven snapped off a large chunk of ice from in front of his visor and raised his pistol so that it was aimed at Kairi.

Sora's eyes widened in horror as he realized what was about to happen. He turned his back on Two and immediately rushed as quickly as he could towards Kairi. "No!" Kairi stopped as she heard Sora shout and glanced behind her as Seven pulled the trigger. There was a loud bang as a single shot flew from the gun. Kairi's eyes widened as she fell to the ground, her blood trailing behind her.

LD

---

Olette: So why was this chapter so late?

Shadow: I have my reasons.

Olette: Writer's block?

Shadow: Yup. And I do want to thank Shire Folk for helping me overcome it. Without his help, this chapter still might not be done.

Olette: That bad?

Shadow: Like you wouldn't believe.

Anyway, thanks to all of you for over two hundred reviews! Honestly, I never thought I 'd seethat many when I first started out. You all have no idea how much that actually means to me.

So what did you all think? Good? Bad? Meh? Happy to know that I'm still alive? Your opinions are wanted! Feel free to drop a review.

Contest time! Who can name who the summon Naminé found is? Here's a hint: He once devoured the soul of a monk. It tasted like chocolate. Using Google is cheating, by the way. I haven't decided what the prize for winning will be yet, but I'll announce it to the winner in a PM when I do.

Before I go, here's a bit of fun trivia for you: Lynfael is actually based off of a short story I did back in my freshman year of high school. I came across my old notes a few days ago and decided to include it as an original world.

Here's to another year of Looming Darkness and hopefully another update soon now that I'm over this writer's block.

Until next time!

Aspicio, diluculo Infinitas Noctis.

Shadow Horizons