Authors Note: I have had many complaints about my speed of writing for this fanfic. Well, college is almost over, just one week to go (as of 18/06/07) until I am free. In the meantime, here is a chapter hot off the blocks just for you guys. Reason I'm doing this is because I have ideas running through my head for the story at the moment, and I'm not gonna let myself forget them.

Chapter 16: Enigma

Hollow Bastion – 1:00am

"Well, we'd better be off now while it's still dark. Don't wanna be late and get there in the morning." Sora told Cloud.

"Yeah, no problem. I'll tell Cid that you left when he wakes up." Cloud answered.

Sora, Riku and Sophie got ready, until Cloud approached Sora.

"On second thought, how about I come with you?" Cloud said to him.

"Not like you to offer help to people." Sora mocked. That earned him a slap to the back of the head.

"Hey, I'm trying to help. Do you want my help or not?" Cloud said, visibly annoyed at Sora's reaction, but expecting it nonetheless.

"Yes, but why do you offer us help? Usually you stay by yourself and don't want others to get involved."

"But even if that is so, Sephiroth clearly wants something to do with you, and if he's following you, I want to be waiting for him at the end of his trail."

"Double agenda, is it?" By that Sora meant he was looking to help Sora, but he was mainly in this to get Sephiroth and most likely kill him, perhaps once and for all.

"None of your business." And with that, Cloud walked off to his own room to get packed (By the way, in this fanfic Cloud is wearing his clothes from Kingdom Hearts 1, just to let you know, and his bat wing is visible), if he needed to pack. By the looks of things, he was just grabbing his Buster Sword and a picture… wait, a picture?

"So, what was that about?" Riku said as he stood there in Sora's doorway.

"Cloud is coming with us. His choice." Sora stated bluntly while he looked out the window at the full moon.

"Hey, you okay? You seem distant… far off."

"Just thinking about Sephiroth and what he could possibly want with me."

"What made you think that? Something Cloud said?" Riku looked like he would get annoyed if the answer to the last question was 'yes'.

"Sephiroth has always been interested in Keyblade Wielders, no less me, the Keyblade Master. He once said before I battled him…

"I see… so that's a Keyblade. And I suppose you, Sora, must be its chosen Master."

"I wonder if it won't change its mind, and seek a more powerful Keyblade Wielder, once I kill you and take it from you."

(Yes, I know I changed the lines he said in KHII, but I did it for effect! Forgive me!)

…I managed to fend him off, but I never actually beat him. He was just way too powerful. He was going easy on me; I guess he was relying on the chance we'd meet again."

Sora summoned his Keyblade, and looked at it carefully. Riku was surprised to see Sora wielding it again.

"I see you got it back. Nice design, although a bit… crude, for my liking."

"Our Keyblade put the feelings of our hearts into form. The key to our hearts…"

"That's not something I've heard of before, but it makes sense. Where'd you get that?"

"Err… I've always known that. I thought you would too." Sora had to improvise there, remembering what Frank said, to keep their 'meetings' secret.

"Yeah, ok, whatever you say…" Riku was looking at Sora suspiciously, but soon dismissed it as chance that Sora knew something he didn't. 'Guess I must have missed that one…'

"Well, Cloud and I are ready, so if you guys are ready, then let's get going while the suns down!" Sophie announced out loud. Why she didn't just come to their rooms and tell them they didn't know.

"Time to go." Riku said.

"Cid will probably be pissed off about being left alone. But he'll get over it." Sora replied with a hint of sarcasm in the last sentence. Riku didn't get it, not knowing what Cid's temper was like.

Within minutes, the Gummi Ship was up and running with 4 passengers on board. They set off, not knowing that Cid had been woken up by the engines.

"Ya damn kids! Got no respect for your elders!" Cid shouted, furious at being woken up at 1 'o' clock. "Take care of yourselves, damn it." Cid said, with a smile at the end of his sentence before going back inside and closing the door.

"Alright, it seems we can now access more worlds now." Riku said, at the controls. He found it was pretty easy to control, and had gotten the hang of it by the time they left the atmosphere of Hollow Bastion.

"Oh yeah, I just remembered that Hollow Bastion is actually called Radiant Garden!" Sora said as if it was something great or important, but this caused the whole party to moan, and Riku to bang his head once on the dashboard. Sophie attempted to slap Sora round the back of his head, but Sora saw it coming and grabbed her hand.

"Hey, only Riku gets to do that, and I don't even like him doing that." He threw her hand back to her, and she smiled.

"I might just have to take that right from him, then." Sophie smirked.

'Why did I come along for the ride again?' Cloud thought, clearly irritated with them acting like children.

"Anyways, the worlds we can go to are as follows; Land Of the Dragons, Beast's Castle, and Olympus Coliseum, although it's the Underworld, not the stadium that's accessible." Riku announced. 'Hey, that was the starting line-up for my last journey…' Sora noticed.

"So it's Beast's Castle, or the underworld…"

"Why not Land Of the Dragons?" Sophie asked.

"Because it's nearly always daytime over there, and it's freezing at winter." Sora complained.

"Right then, which one will it be?" Riku asked.

"Beast's Castle. Easy one to start with."

"Alright, then. Beast's Castle it is."

Beast's Castle – 4:00am

A figure dressed in nothing but black stepped into the ballroom through the window. The lights were out, and no-one was here. He slowly sneaked across the upstairs segment of the ballroom, taking care not to show himself in the candlelight that appeared every 10 seconds. Knowing what kind of magic was in this world, he did not dare show himself, when the objects of the house tended to be 'animated', meaning getting spotted meant trouble, and while this person could easily deal with anything that threw itself at him, he needed to avoid revealing his presence. At least until the Keyblade master and his friends arrived…

He took position at an outcropping in the ceiling of the ballroom, where no-one, even with the lights on could see him, and waited. He would wait for the opportune moment…

End Chapter