*I don't own ANY of the Kingdom Hearts characters. I only own Katie.

"How did you guys find me?" Aqua asked after proper introductions.

The Keyblade Wielders looked at each other then nodded. Repliku stepped forward to answered, "Actually, we didn't find you. A member of our group, Katie, did. She found your armor in a secret passage at Radiant Garden, when she touched it; it transported her and transported us."

"Why isn't she here along with you then?" Aqua asked.

"We don't know why she didn't show up with us." Kairi explained. "She was the first one to touch the armor, so she should've shown up here before us."

"But she didn't." Lea added. "I think that she is also in the Realm somewhere, just not in the same area as us."

Aqua nodded in understanding and apologized, "I'm sorry I'm asking so many questions…but what has been happening since I've been gone?"

Sora laughed, "It's okay! You've been gone for about twelve years!" He continued with a grim face, "The darkness is rising and the Keyblade War is in the very near future. Master Xehanort has returned to get what he's always wanted, Kingdom Hearts and has gathered twelve incarnations of himself and formed an Organization in order to get the Keyblade War started and Kingdom Hearts. It's our job to stop him."

"Xehanort has returned?" Aqua asked with worry edging her voice. "Who's Katie?"

Riku let out a long sigh before he explained, "Katie is from a very far away world called Earth that knows about all worlds. She can wield two Keyblades and is very skilled using them. Before we even met her, she was picked by Xehanort to become his final thirteenth vessel of darkness in order to complete the seven lights, thirteen darkness part of the Keyblade War. This whole entire journey to find you and Ven she has been fighting Xehanort and the Darkness but I'm afraid she's losing her battle…"

"The last time we saw her was with your armor and was acting extremely weird. She wouldn't talk to any of us!" Kairi added. "Katie's has helped us in many ways though. Like telling us where we could find you and Ventus."

Aqua thought for a second then asked the Keyblade Wielders, "…Does she know anything about Terra?"

Lea nodded, "In fact, I think she carries his Wayfinder-thing around with her everywhere. From what she told us, Terra saved her from Xehanort in her home world. Katie wants to find him as fast as possible before Xehanort can do anything to him."

Aqua's eyes lit up with hope to Lea's answer. "Did she tell you where he is?"

Sora crossed his arms as he went into deep thought, he answered, "It was a hunch, but Katie said Castle That Never Was."

'Terra…you're okay…please stay that way…' Aqua prayed in her head. After a long silence, she asked the Keyblade Wielders, "Do you guys know the way out of here?"

"The last time I was in the Realm of Darkness, Sora and I were at this shore then the Door to Light appeared." Riku explained.

"That's the Dark Margin." Aqua told Riku. "I've been to the Dark Margin many times but I've never seen this Door to Light before or heard of it. If you like, I'd show you guys the way."

"That'd be great." Riku said with a small smile.

Aqua nodded and led the group down the dark passages of the Dark Realm. "Stay close to me. Many powerful monsters live here and if you get lost, it'll be the last thing you'll do." The Keyblade Wielders nodded in understanding and followed Aqua closely.

Aqua stopped in her tracks and motioned the Keyblade Wielders to stop and wielded her Keyblade. She looked around with stern eyes, "Barrier!" she suddenly yelled. A very large white crystal barrier surrounded the group just in time, a giant black fist crashed on top of the crystal barrier, only making cracks. Aqua thrusted her Keyblade upwards and the crystal barrier shattered in all directions, making them into sharp projectiles. She went into a fighting stance, "It's one of the monsters. Get ready!" The Keyblade Wielders summoned their Keyblades. They stood their ground when the earth shook to the monster's heavy landing. It was nothing like the Keyblade Wielders have seen. It was a massive, muscular, humanoid monster with dark purple skin. Its legs were rather short and its feet were very thin and curled upward. Its arms were rather long, and is had two relatively small, twisted wings on its back. There was a large, heart-shaped hole in the monster's chest. Its head was covered in dozens of twisted, dark purple tentacles. Only its small, glowing yellow eyes were visible. It roared fiercely at the Keyblade Wielders and Aqua.

"It's a Dark Follower Heartless!" Sora blurted out.

"A what?" Repliku asked. "Never heard of it, where have you seen it?"

Sora opened his mouth to answer then closed it and scratched the back of his head, "…I have no idea…I've never seen this thing before! I got no idea where the name came from, just popped into my head!"

"This Dark Follower looks like a Darkside. It may have the same fighting traits as one also, go for its head. That's its weak spot." Repliku reported.

Aqua raised an eyebrow. "How'd you know that?"

"Repliku's like a Darkness and Heartless expert." Lea explained. "But he's not with the darkness so his skills come very handy."

Aqua thought for a second then nodded in understanding, "Be careful. I haven't gone against one of these before so it'll be hard for us to take down. Go with Repliku's advice and aim for its head but don't go for it if it's too risky, okay?" The Keyblade Wielders nodded and went into a fighting stance. She returned her attention to the Dark Follower and yelled, "Blizzard!" A giant chunk of ice flew out of Aqua's Keyblade. It hit the Heartless square in the head and it roared angrily, the Heartless quickly recovered and threw its closed fist to the ground. All the Keyblade Wielders jumped to the side, narrowly escaping a bone-crushing shock-wave. Lea threw his fiery Keyblade as the Heartless punched the ground. Sora aimed his Keyblade at the Heartless' head and let out a large white bolt of lightning, the Heartless dodged the spell. The Dark Follower swiped at the Keyblade Wielder, but Sora jumped out of the way. Repliku jumped onto the monstrous Heartless' arm and hopped his way to its head, with a yell, he sliced at the Heartless' bulging eyes. The Heartless roared in pain and thrashed around. Repliku lost his footing and was thrown to the ground with a hard thud. Kairi helped him up and shot a Fira spell at the Heartless. Surprisingly, the Heartless deflected it back.

"Kairi! Repliku!" Riku yelled. He rushed over to them and set a large dark crystal wall in front of them. The large fireball plastered onto the crystal wall and pushed it back. Riku's eyes widened when the wall stared to crack, quickly, he moved Kairi and Repliku to the side. Just then, the Fira spell broke the wall and zoomed down the dark paths of the Dark Realm. "You two okay?"

"Yes, we're fine." Kairi assured him. Repliku nodded in agreement, all three of them rushed back into the fight. The Dark Follower slowly lowered itself to the ground and laid slightly backwards. Its heart-shaped hole started to glow a light purple. With a roar, orbs of Darkness shot out of its chest. Lea jumped out of the way of one of the orbs and his eyes widened when it followed him. He sliced the orb in half, but it didn't make them stop. He flew backwards when the two halves crashed into him. Lea slowly got back up to his feet to only get knocked back down again. Sora rushed in front of him as another orb zoomed towards him and blocked it. The orb bounced off of his Keyblade and went back to the Dark Follower, direct hit between the eyes. The Heartless let out what sounded like a hiss and stood back up, it punched the ground. Aqua set a crystal barrier around the Keyblade Wielders and herself and shot the barrier in all directions when the shock wave hit. Aqua sent large thunderbolts from her Keyblade towards the Dark Follower, she glowed with white light. The light broke away and had a bright green aura surround her with little sparks of electricity fly off her skin. Faster than lightning, Aqua rushed at the Heartless and leaped high in the air. Her Keyblade crackled with electricity with each swing and emitted sparks. The Dark Follower howled in pain as Aqua continued to attack it, it tried to move but it couldn't. The Heartless was paralyzed. The Keyblade Wielders moved in on the Heartless and attacked from all directions and areas. Aqua let out a yell and pointed her Keyblade to the sky. Balls of electricity exploded from the Keyblade and shot in every direction, making a powerful static electricity field that zapped anything in range. Aqua's aura faded away and back flipped away from the Dark Follower's head. The Dark Follower slowly recovered and pounded it's fist back onto the black ground, shadows swirled around its fist and blobs of darkness rose from the shadows. The shadows melted away to reveal more monsters.

"Shadows!" Sora growled. As he sliced his Keyblade through a couple and said over his shoulder, "I'll take care of these guys!"

Lea chuckled and joined beside the brunette. "Don't think that you'll get these bad boys all to yourself, Sora. I'm getting rid of some them whether you like it or not!" Lea raised his arms up and jerked them out to his sides; dark vines spiraled around his arms to the palms of his hands. His hands burst into flame and the flames grew as they spun. With a clink, the flames exploded to reveal circular and red weapons in each hand, with silver spikes and circles around the edges, and two black handles shaped like crosses in the middle. Each weapon had eight spikes; they were his Chakrams. Effortlessly, he threw them at Shadows that surrounded him and exploded into flames. The fiery Chakrams returned to his hands. "Man, do I miss these things…" With a smirk, he sent his Chakrams floating around him as a shield and wielded his Keyblade. Over his shoulder, he said, "We got this covered. Get rid of Dark Follower!" The Keyblade Wielders and Masters nodded and went back to the Dark Follower. The Heartless seemed pretty winded but that didn't stop the beast, it swiped its hand at the Keyblade Wielders. Riku jumped over its arm like a hurdle and casted a Blizzaga spell at Dark Follower's head. Unlike earlier, the spell actually froze a section on its head. Repliku leaped into the air, and with the assistance of Riku, he made it up to the Heartless head and lifted Soul Eater high. He stabbed his sword deep into the Heartless' head, making it go all the way to his handle. The Heartless roared in pain and thrashed around to throw Repliku off, Repliku gripped onto his sword's handle tightly. He dug into his pocket with one hand and pulled out a bright blue crown shaped card with the picture of yellow lightning bolt. Repliku lifted it up to the sky and with a chime, the card disintegrated in his hand. Out of nowhere, a large lighting blot shot from the heavens and crashed down onto the Heartless. Repliku jumped off of Dark Follower and landed safely. He looked back up to the Heartless, it screamed in agony and withered in pain as visible electricity ran through its body. The Heartless soon fell forward, the Keyblade Wielders ran out of its way but just before it hit the ground, the Dark Follower disappeared from thin air. They dismissed their weapons and gasped for breath.

"That's why you don't want to get lost down here." Aqua warned. "Those monsters show up out of nowhere and they will try their hardest to kill you." She turned around and said over her shoulder, "Come on, the Dark Margin is this way. It's a good four mile walk so stay with the group and watch out for more of the monsters." With that said, the Keyblade Wielders continued on to their destination that was their only hope for finding a way back home.