.:Two Days Later:.

I opened my eyes and rolled over to look at my clock, 5:15 am... I must've overslept. It wasn't too long though which is good, mission wise today should be easy. I simply just to have "patience" with Thirteen. I could even afford to sleep in some more, he doesn't wake until later from what I know. So, I could use the sleep... but wasn't my alarm on? It would probably be tough to go back anyway, so it's better I get up now. With that, I slid out of bed and went to get ready. By the time I had gone to get my cloak, it was 5:30. As I reached for my coat I heard a knock on the door, "Come in." Thirteen had opened the door and walked in, he looked like he was up way too early than he's used to. "You didn't have to wake up early Thirteen."

I felt like I had to, since from what I know Zexion gets up quite early. As in, wow people get up at this hour? I was so tired, but I wanted to impress him. I have to handle this well. "I wanted to. Plus it will give us more time anyway." He looked at me and smirked a bit.

"That it will, perhaps there is more to you than a zombie like daze." I never noticed how pale he actually was. I didn't expect him to have any sort of muscle tone though... It wasn't a lot, but it wasn't nothing either.

I smiled, "Thanks?" I yawned, this was really early.

"Perhaps some coffee is in order then. Do you drink it thirteen?" Zexion slid his cloak on and zipped it up. I tried to act uninterested but it was kind of hard to.

"I've never tried coffee actually..."

"It's good, you can add creamer and sugar or just drink it plain. Many combinations, come along now." Within the next hour I had tried coffee, which was actually pretty good. And we had a small breakfast, with that both of us were ready to depart. We went to Seven.

"Seven, the mission if you don't mind."

"Hm?" He looked up to see Zexion and myself, "Oh, right. You two will be in The Land Of Dragons, there's no real big heartless threats to deal with but you'll need to investigate a rumor. That rumor being on some of the locals taming heartless like creatures. Off you go now, and once your done Zexion can handle the RTC." I nodded and Zexion just gave a slight one, he then summoned the corridor.

"XIII." I went in first and he followed behind me.

Once we walked through the corridor and it closed, Zexion snapped his fingers. "Why'd you do that?"

"To disguise ourselves, to the citizens we look like locals. Since we'll have to pass through town, this makes it a lot easier. Now come along, we'll need to get closer to the mountains." Zexion walked off, I ran after him not wanting to be left behind.

"So... Why Land of Dragons? Wouldn't a place like Agrabah be better?"

"The desert would be alright, but we could get lost or caught in a sandstorm. Here there is plenty of cover, plus the residents are more concerned about other matters, so all the better for us. First we'll start at the mountain and make our way down from there. I have an inkling that they'll be in the forest but it's best to check everywhere."

"Oh, alright then."

It had been a few hours until we reached a clearing in the mountains and Zexion motioned me to stop.
"Here is fine." I looked over to him.

"What now?"

"We train, as per what you had asked of me. After ward we do the mission." Zexion snapped his finger again and both of our clothes returned to normal.

"Oh... Okay, so I wanted to learn how to cast my spells a little better. Since... I don't really use them a lot." I frowned, hoping that Zexion wouldn't mind.

"Alright, what do you know then?"

"Fira, Blizzara, Cura, and Aerora."

He paused and nodded, "That is a decent variety, how is your defense?"

"It's decent, I use it in balance with my weapon."

"Do you have any open panels?"

"Yes, about three why?"

"You'll need to add it in, as well as learn how to incorporate it into what you know now. You have a decent selection there." I added the panel in, and Zexion showed me how to cast it.

"Since what I gave you was a basic reflect it will appear as a medium sized square, it can block a hit or two." He stepped back a few steps.

"So, I can cast it, do I practice on that?"

"I will hit you with an intentionally weak Aero, attempt to block it." Zexion flicked his wrist and cast Aero, It took me a second but I got it at the last moment. "Again." Once again he cast Aero and this time I blocked it with a decent timing, he didn't say again after that and it hit me. He shook his head as if he was quietly laughing.

"Hey! You can't just hit someone when they are celebrating!" A soft smile formed on his lips.

"You never know what will happen in a real fight Thirteen."

He's got a point. "Still!"

"You've got no argument, but back to the point. You now have a basic set of spells. It's nothing that makes you a mage, but will do just fine for now. So, now we will fight using magic only. I will not be using any above the '-aga' range. Since from my knowledge that is the superior's strongest spell level."

"There's a higher one?"

He sighed, "Yes Thirteen, that would be spells that end it 'aja'. I am the only one with a variation of all levels." He will beat me up with magic. "Alright, you can use your keyblade to defend." I sighed, that was better.

"Do we start now?"

"Yes, there's not usually a defined start in a fight." Zexion sent a fireball flying past my head, which I dove out of the way from. Before I could get up he cast Blizzara and Aerora which I cast reflect and managed to block them both. I quickly got back up and cast fira in his direction. He cast a Blizzara to parry it. I should have thought of that! He paused a second before casting quake, which knocked me off balance, I used that to cast Aerora in his direction while I tried to make it look like I was way off balance. It almost hit him. What I mean by that is he cast one of the upper levels of reflect on it. I got so into the fight I forgot I could use my keyblade and was relying on my spells and rolling all over the place. Zexion cast a Thundara spell at me, which I didn't know he did and it shocked me. Literally. I cast fira and actually hit Zexion, what I didn't realize is that when I knocked him off balance that there was a small drop behind the log he tripped over.

"Oh shit!" I pulled myself back up and ran over quickly to see if he was okay, I peered over the rock only to get a snowball in the face. I think my reaction was something to see, because when I looked back after I cleared the snow off Zexion looked amused. He had pulled himself into a sitting position and laid his hands on his lap. "Hey!" I wailed a snowball right back at him. He dodged it and started to form another one. "I thought you said no weapons!"

"Snow, is not a weapon it is simply packed Ice." He threw another one at me and this time I ducked under the log. I saw a small hole that I could roll a big snowball threw and went to do so." I finally got the thing to a decent size when Zexion tried to climb back over, the concerning thing being the crack I heard when he lost his grip on the icy log.

"Zexion?"

"Yes?"

"Do you need any help?"

"Not yet, I'm fairly confident I can pull myself up." I waited as Zexion went to pull himself up again, he lost his footing (I think he hurt his foot) and I grabbed him this time. "There was no need to help Thirteen, but thank you."

"You're Welcome."

"Now, that this matter is resolved we should go investigate those heartless like creatures. As well as some ramen or a warm drink." Zexion snapped his fingers again, and started to walk off. I followed alongside him, I studied his features and figured he can't be that much older than me. I mean, maybe no more than a few years if that... Wasn't he just a kid when he lost his heart?

"So, are we going to start looking in the forest?"

"We don't need to look as much as we need to listen and sense it. Darkness has a scent, it they're doing anything with creatures of the sort we can bank on the scent. If they're talking it will echo and as nobodies we are consciously aware of darkness."

"Oh." It wasn't too long until we heard some talking, and from what we could hear it sounded like quite a few people. Zexion motioned for me to stop.

I lowered my voice, "I can't really tell where it's coming from..."

He lowered his as well, if we could hear them they could hear us. "It seems like it's to the left of us." I moved quietly and started off in that direction carefully listening, Zexion did so as well. I could see them clearly and then he pulled me behind a bush, "Don't stand there like a deer Thirteen, we are not trying to make ourselves known."

We both lowered our voices so they were barely audible. "What are they doing?"

"It looks like a trade of some sort." The two men were talking and one of them handed the other some type of pouch.

Just what are they trading? Heartless are unlikely and the unversed haven't been around for a long time... The one, who had taken the pouch, walked over to a crate and opened it tying a rope to something. It seemed like he walked back over after some struggle and had one of the same creatures I had seen in the town from before. "Remnants..."

"What?" Thirteen looked over to me with a questioning look, "You know what they are?"

"Not fully yet, they seem to be some hybrid of both the nobody and the heartless. They're not 'solid' being as in most of the time you can pass through them. But it seems that they are sometimes." I was curious as to how they even caught them.

"But then... how did they catch them?"

"That's what I'd like to know." I shifted my weight a bit and leaned forward, this was just like what I had seen not too long ago. I hadn't known that such things were possible, hybrids.

Watching was all we could do for now, it had seemed they were just trading. What you'd need these things for is a mystery to me. Perhaps they are like the dusks in a way, the only difference being that these seemed to take a world form in a way. This one in particular looking like a shadow of a china doll. "Should we investigate the clearing?"

"No thirteen, it's too risky. We've got what we need to know for now. Let's get out of here before they realized they are being watched, quietly now." Thirteen was making very careful movements and was making his was back to the path, once he was almost there I followed him. We got out unnoticed, by the time we had gotten all we needed to done the sun was setting. "We should RTC, it's later than I had thought it to be." I heard no reply and turned to look, "thirteen?" A snowball flew past my head, he looked a little disappointed that it missed.

"Yes?" He started to form another one, and I shook my head. This again? I sighed and picked up some snow.

"Is this means of payback, because that was a poor throw." He threw again, this time I swatted it down.

"Zexion! Come on, not all of us can throw snowballs with pinpoint accuracy!"

"Then perhaps we should work on that." I threw one back at him, just to shoot the bull again. He dodged it and laughed. I don't understand why he was laughing, nor shall I try.

"I will hit you this time!" Roxas started packing more snow than before. Silly.

"Will you now?" I smirked, this will be interesting.

"Yes I will." He was still packing his current projectile when I wailed him with the second snowball.

Roxas made an annoyed face and threw his snowball. I almost made it out of the way, but it clipped my shoulder. "Impressive." He smiled, he looked accomplished with himself.

"We should go back now, I think my fingers are ice cubes."

"Alright then."

We both returned, much past dinner it turns out. Which wasn't a problem- apparently it was eleven's job to cook. I wouldn't say seven was "annoyed" but he certainly wasn't pleased. "How did it go?"

I turned to face the diviner. "Fine, all that needed to be done was done."

"Good." He turned and left, it seemed something else was on the beserker's mind. Thirteen smiled and looked at me.

"Thank you Zexion."

"No problem." Thirteen took off, most likely to his room it was a busy day.

"The mission took a while."

"Perhaps the snow could be blamed."

"Is that why there is snow on your cloak?"

"Hm? It's still there?" I brushed it off of my coat, perhaps that lump of snow he threw at me wasn't such a bad idea.
"It was. Did you at least get what you needed to done?"

"Of course, the creatures we were told to investigate seem to be a type of hybrid. It seems amorphous since i've seen it in two different forms."

"What? How two?"

"They're on this world as well, I found them by chance. In the Land Of Dragons it was shaped like a China Doll there."

"I didn't know such a thing could exist."

"It's not impossible, like all of us they share traits of a nobody and like the heartless they share some traits as well. In our cases some of us share traits with both. I share the sensitivity to the darkness like some of our counterparts."

"Is that why you can use it?"

"Not fully, but yes in a way." Seven looked "surprised" at this.

"Do these things follow anyone? Do they attack for the heart?"

"Neither, it seems they do as they please and mind their own business. I'll place the rest in my report, which should answer the rest of your questions Seven."

"Alright then." I nodded and turned to leave, it's best I start in the report however I don't think I want to include all my notes on these. Nor should we let the superior learn too much about these.

A/N:
I apologize that this is really late guys, I've started on Chapter 11 as well so hopefully it won't take me another couple of months to post. Now, unlike some of the prior chapters I have an outline. So that way I should stop jumping all over the place in some chapters.
The remnants are mentioned earlier in one of the chapters (8?) so I've decided to keep them around and use them later on.
And to be cliche, any reviews, follows and favorites are appreciated.