Chapter 85! We're finally getting around to the World That Never Was arc, and I'm partly excited and partly scared. Excited because it'll be good, and scared because... well. Feelings.

Anyway, enjoy!

Sora should have known better than to think the Gummi ship's final journey would go smoothly. Really, he should have. The encouraging words from his friends had lulled him, though, and strengthened his resolve to the point where it near blinded him to any possibility of danger before they reached their destination.

"Get out of the way!" Donald ordered, mashing a square-shaped button with the heel of his hand. In response, multiple lasers honed in on the swarms before them and rendered them to ash with flaring, bright red light.

"Why are there so many of them now?" Sora groaned. He pushed a myriad of buttons close to the steering wheel, at the same time trying desperately to veer the ship away from enemy fire with his free hand. He knew that dodging this many enemies at once probably required the use of both hands, but if Donald was trying to be helpful, he would too.

"Think of it this way," Char gritted out. She was clinging to her seat with white-knuckled hands and half leaning forward, as though her increased attentiveness would make the attacking ships disappear. "You see the little symbols on their bodies?"

"No," Donald shouted back caustically, "we're not really bothering to look at their bodies, considering they're all coming at us at – wak!"

Sora received that single noise as a paltry warning before white blurred in front of his eyes and practically yanked the steering wheel out of his hand. The Gummi ship lurched to one side, all but toppling Sora and the others from their seats; Donald managed to stay upright only by practically melding his torso with the wheel, and Goofy fairly clung to the ship's dashboard with wild fear in his eyes.

"What was that –?" Sora began indignantly, and then he saw why. Blinding green light erupted where the ship had hovered moments before; Donald's intervention had saved them an unpleasant fate.

The mage was giving him a coldly triumphant look, so Sora tightened his hands around the wheel and muttered an apology. Pay attention! he scolded himself. "What about their bodies, Char?" he tossed over his shoulder. Beside him, Goofy reached forward and flicked a series of switches in rapid succession, causing more lasers to impale the rapidly approaching foes.

Char sighed: a shaky sound, but one whose tremor steadied short of her voice. "The symbols on their bodies," she explained, pointing with her index finger. Surprised into glancing away, Sora blinked at her; how she had gotten a look at any details of the constant barrage was beyond him.

He opened his mouth to say as much, only to jolt forward and almost meet the windshield as something crashed into the ship. Jerking his head back around, he saw the culprit pull back and rotate its multiple turrets around to charge up another blast. The enemy ship's frontal attack had somehow avoided cracking the windshield – a miracle of the technology used by Disney Castle's engineers, he had learned back on his first journey – so he squinted to see what Char meant by symbols.

Sure enough, between the foe's turrets, he spotted a vaguely thorn-shaped insignia, one with multiple other thorns branching out on either side. Now that he was thinking about it, the symbol did look familiar. Sinuous strides and undulating forms came to his mind, both of which belonged to the Dusk Nobodies whose numbers he had reduced.

"Gee, they look like them Nobodies we've fought," Goofy remarked, peering closer. He looked back at Char. "You think these guys are Nobodies, too?"

Char gave a single, tense nod, even as the ship gave another lurch forward. "I'm pretty sure, yeah. And if this many Nobodies are guarding Twilight Town…"

"Then we have to be on the right track," Sora murmured, eyes widening. Somewhere in his chest, a presence whose name he knew all too well was expressing its irritated confirmation: an unspoken I told you so regarding Axel's advice.

He wouldn't lie to Roxas, Sora thought, not to his best friend, but that trod a little too close to the possibility of Nobodies – the very creatures who swarmed around them and followed baser instincts in trying to kill them – having feelings, so he stomped the thought out at once.

Some of his inner turmoil must have shown outwardly, because he could feel Char's eyes searing into his temple. For the second time today, ever since she had spoken the seemingly-innocent question about his information's source, Sora found himself longing to tell her the truth; and for the second time today, he found himself stuffing the words back down his throat. Her distrust toward Nobodies aside, even he knew that the group had taken a huge risk in listening to an Organization member: for all intents and purposes, one of the enemy.

The Nobodies were still his enemies. This aerial assault around them proved it.

A few well-aimed shots brought down the aerial Nobody in front of him in a matter of seconds. That gave the group a moment's reprieve before more swarms of Nobodies appeared in the felled foe's place.

"Crap," Char hissed under her breath. She whipped her head toward Sora, mouth already open in a demand for action, but he was already moving his fingers over the console's buttons and responding. Missiles rent the dark sky around the Gummi ship as they chased down the Nobodies and cleared the swarms of red and blue.

"How'd you figure out the honing missiles?" Goofy asked, tilting his head to the side.

Sora flashed a grin over his shoulder. "I've flown this thing a few times, remember?"

"Yeah, I guess you've learned some stuff about how the vessel works," Goofy said.

"Sora actually knowing what he's doing," Char remarked. "Color me surprised."

Sora's burst of confidence trickled down into indignation at once, and he tossed a sour look Char's way. "Oh, come on." She snorted and looked away, yet he caught the tiniest upward lift of one corner of her lips and realized she was only trying to lighten things. Great, like I didn't feel bad enough around her already.

Light flashed at that moment, assisting his own efforts in shaking the bitter thought out of his consciousness. He returned his attention to the battle before him – which was probably the better idea in the first place – in time to see that light's source. Two jagged gray doors were sliding apart from one another, and something gleamed out from the gap at Sora before more Nobodies darted forward and obscured it.

"Through there," he muttered under his breath. A flick of his wrist pulled the Gummi ship into a sharp dive forward, forcing surprised yelps out of the others at the sudden descent in altitude. Sora narrowed his eyes; as much of a hypocrite as failing to warn the others made him, he did not waver in concentration even in the brief time it would have taken to apologize. The ship barreled forward, shooting the obstacles out of the sky all the while, until it had left the doors behind.

"Warn us before you do that!" Donald yelled, scrabbling at his seat's leather.

"Well, Donald, if he'd taken the time to warn us, we couldn't have gotten out of the way," Goofy protested, but even his attempt to justify the years taken off his life sounded strained.

"Yeah," Char mumbled, "but you didn't have to almost throw us through the windshield."

"Look," Sora said, "do you want to pilot the ship through all these Nobodies?" When his question met with silence and an averted gaze from Char, he sighed, more out of resignation than smugness. "Let's go," he said. "All we can do is keep on ahead." In his periphery, Goofy's ears bounced as he nodded, and even the tense white lines of Donald's shoulders relaxed in his agreement. Char said nothing, only tightened her grip on her armrests, as though steeling herself for the remaining flight.

This is the last one we've got. Let's make it count.

More castle-like structures stretched before them: imposing silver-gray towers arching up into the darkness, the vaguest outline of another gate in the distance, the same gleam that Sora had spotted beaming out like a sun. It almost resembled a city, the way it was laid out ahead of them.

If, of course, a city kept firing persistent rounds and sending its heartless citizens forward to push newcomers back to the gate.

Sora freed one hand from the steering wheel and groped desperately for the console button that would release honing missiles. In the two seconds it took for Donald to realize what the current pilot was doing and slam his palm down on their only hope, more of the turret-like Nobodies had swept in. The missiles exploded so close to the Gummi ship that their resulting light blinded Sora and forced him to throw one hand over his eyes.

He spread his index finger and middle finger apart so he could see to fly, only to drop his hand again and clutch the steering wheel for dear life as he drove the ship to the right. This time, though, proved futile in evading the newest threat: barely seconds later, the ship suddenly jolted beneath them and threw them forward.

Multiple things crashed through Sora's senses in the next few moments – Donald squawking; Goofy's voice breaking free of its normal pitch in favor of a higher shriek; a weight toppling forward into his lap; the feeling of his center of gravity shifting and the console's edges digging hard into his palms in his attempt to not fly out of his seat.

When the ship steadied, he swung his head from side to side, amazed at how he had failed to collide with the console's edge. The Heartless-inflicted wound on his forehead had begun to throb anew, but a moment's probing tentatively about with the pads of his fingers told him he hadn't torn it open. Donald had latched himself onto Goofy, who in turn was rubbing his skull and wincing.

Before the guilt at letting his friend get hurt could plague Sora again, he demanded, "Is everyone okay?"

"I think so," came a voice from slightly below. He glanced down and, with a surge of heat along his entire body, identified the weight that had fallen onto his legs. Char braced one elbow against the seat on the far side of his thigh and squeezed her eyes shut, as though trying to get her bearings back.

Sora did not dare look at Donald and Goofy to see their reaction, but the lack of giggles from their direction told him dizziness still kept them from true amusement. "G-good," he stammered out.

Char opened her eyes, angled her head back to see; then it seemed to hit her just where she had landed, and her cheeks flamed bright red. The first attempt to scramble out of his lap resulted in her head colliding with the steering wheel. Sora tried not to wince at her muffled swearing as she pulled herself back into her seat. And he swore he heard her mutter something to the effect of "why don't these damn things have seatbelts."

He stared determinedly at the skies before him instead of reflecting on what had just happened. Although he still couldn't tell what exactly had rammed the ship, he could see a sizable expanse of gray buildings – the city caricature's extension, it seemed – beyond a few Nobody ships. One of the ships darted slightly to the left, allowing the bright light lining the structures to shine forth, and Sora had to squint to avoid the worst of its piercing effects.

"Look," Goofy's voice sounded from next to Sora; a white-clad finger appeared and he followed its path to where Goofy was pointing. "There's some more doors," the knight went on.

"Yeah, but are they going to open for us? I still don't know how the last couple did," Donald snorted, sitting back in his seat and folding his arms. One webbed foot jiggled at his side, as though he couldn't remain completely still.

"Do we have any other choice?" Char muttered.

"Only one way to find out," Sora said. With the advent of his fingers' pressure on a few buttons, more honing missiles darted forth and eradicated the Nobodies. No sooner had the foes simultaneously fallen did a barely audible whoosh penetrate the sound barrier offered by the windshield.

His eyebrows jumped up on his forehead at the responding gray shift: the gates slid apart, revealed glowing red lights peeking out from within their confines. "What do you know, it worked," he commented.

When a pensive hum sounded from Char's side, he glanced over, at the same time steering the ship closer to the newfound pathway. "What's up?"

She started, then turned her head to look at his face – a gesture that surprised him, considering what had happened barely minutes before. Rather than dwell on the fresh remembrance of her warmth and weight on his lap, though, Sora focused on what she had to say next. "Nothing," she said, the final syllable dissolving into a sigh. One hand moved up to push her bangs off her face. "I just… I can't help but feel like the Organization's making fun of us. Letting us through here so easily and all."

"What do they have to make fun of?" Donald asked from Sora's other side. The console rattled alarmingly, but Sora relaxed, if only a little, when he saw the mage clench his palms from where he had slammed them against it. "We've proven what we can do!"

Sora grinned. "Yeah, I think it's even better that they're underestimating us. It'll be easier to beat them that way."

Char stared at him a moment longer, before her lips slanted upward in a tentative smile of her own. "You've got a point." In spite of himself, Sora felt his grin widen; she had seemed so uncertain this morning, and had hardly bothered to hide it. Whether that uncertainty arose from having to fight her former friends, he didn't know: a strange reason, since she had made her resolve perfectly clear, but Char had surprised him in the past. Now he could see how unfounded his worries had been.

At least I could make her feel a little better.

Char was still smiling as she turned back forward again, only to gasp and lunge to the side. Sora's confused blink encompassed the time it took for the ship to lurch to the left, causing Donald and Goofy to yelp in surprise again and Sora to pitch sideways. Again, he seized the console's edge for support.

The ship righted itself again, and Sora glared at Char, who was lowering her hands from the steering wheel and pressing one to her chest with a visibly relieved expression. "What was that for?" he demanded.

"You almost drove us into a building, idiot," she retorted. "Stop staring at me and watch where you're going." Although her annoyance sounded genuine, her blatantly pointing out his attention's direction wobbled audibly and deadened her voice's edge.

Sora turned back around and realized her words' truth. His periphery gave him a glimpse of the gray tower the Gummi ship had almost just broken before the ship's continuous forward movement left that behind. "Oh," was all he could say.

"At least we're almost out," Goofy said. The shock at his near meeting the false city's skyscraper had worn off, and he leaned forward in his seat to get more comfortable. "That light from before looks kinda close now."

"I don't know how you can tell," Donald grumbled. "All I see are those red lights."

True to his complaints, passing through the gateway, however unceremoniously, brought them into a silver-white room whose uniform brightness seared spots into Sora's vision every time he blinked. The whiteness twitched at some corner in Roxas' memory, but the red lights whose glow ebbed and flowed along the room's walls touched at Sora's recollection of Radiant Garden's Heartless factory. He couldn't help wondering if this held the same significance, but for Nobodies. At the center of the room, a gigantic, pale blue orb sat, light pulsing to the same rhythm as its fellows at the perimeter.

Other than the red lights and blue orb, the Gummi ship was the only splash of color in the room – and the breathing of the ship's inhabitants, the only sound of life. After the constant noise of firing missiles and the group talking, the silence was almost more palpable.

Donald let out an unnerved squawk, while Goofy nodded in agreement with his friend. "This place is creepy," Char breathed.

"Yeah," Sora murmured. A sudden chill wracked his shoulders and made them twitch violently. And cold, too. "I wonder how we can get out of –"

A newfound influx of blue – and not his favorite icy shade – made him whip his head toward the core. Its once-calm rhythm had become erratic in the last couple of seconds, and the lights lining the walls flickered in tandem with it. Sora fought the urge to squeeze his eyes shut against the onslaught and simply squinted against it.

Then, all at once, the brightness bathing his vision lessened. Gratefulness surged through him, only to die when he heard Donald hiss, "You've gotta be kidding."

Sora followed her gaze and instantly knew why the light had lessened. The swarms of Nobodies that had plagued them outside detached themselves from the walls – some long-bodied and marked by the same shade of red as their prior forms, and some shaped like dual turrets joined together – and surrounded the ship.

Goofy gulped audibly, while Char's grip on her armrests grew white-knuckled. "Any bright ideas, Sora?" she gritted out.

"And make it fast!" Donald added, voice equally strained as he stared out at the seemingly endless circle.

Sora hesitated, twitched his fingers against the steering wheel, felt his shoulders grow tense. Although a hint of a red glow shone through the circle the Nobodies had formed, the Gummi ship wouldn't come close to fitting through that gap. From the looks of things, the Nobodies planned on attacking in the next few moments; that gave him maybe that long to think of a concrete plan. The others' stares as he tried to think wasn't facilitating the process, either.

He surveyed the room, pupils darting from one edge of his vision to the other. The Nobodies blotted out the walls' white, though, and kept him from finding an easy escape.

If that blue orb started glowing when they came out, then – His eyes widened. Wait a minute, the orb!

"Hang on, guys," he called. Already, he was bracing one hand against the console, stretching his index finger out toward the button that summoned honing missiles; four deep breaths of preparation resounded in the ship's cockpit before he whipped the steering wheel, hard, to one side.

The Nobodies' once-organized line flew into chaos in an instant. It reminded him of the reaction garnered by stepping on an anthill, but with much deadlier inhabitants: inhabitants whose pincers drew forth energy instead of venom in their bite; whose collision with the offending being caused violent tremors instead of a mild twinge. Sora narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth together even though the latter action made his brain rattle even more in his skull; he tightened his grip on the wheel to give himself some sort of tether to reality. Black fuzz began to converge in his periphery, but he blocked it before it could unite and take his consciousness.

Rather than focus on the chaos raging around him, he honed in on the single glimmer of blue that was steadily widening under his constant assault. He was vaguely aware of his friends' presence around him; whether their cries arose from pain or not, he didn't want to consider. For his part, at least, the only agony built up in his tensed shoulders and forehead wound.

A cramp began to manifest in the finger mashing the missile button, but he clenched his jaw harder against it. With every Nobody his missiles swept aside, the orb's erratic blue glow grew ever brighter, until a gap wide enough for the ship to squeeze through soaked his vision in clear, watery cyan.

"Sora, hurry," Char's voice croaked out from next to him.

He didn't dare risk throwing a glance over at her, just shouted to be heard above the roaring in his ears. "I know!"

One push of the button, and bursts of light embedded themselves into the orb.

The response came almost instantaneously: a bright blue explosion forced him to throw an arm over his eyes, and when he lowered it, the same clear whiteness from before all but blinded him again. Cyan fragments were falling from where the core had been, but other than that, the ship proved victorious as the only color in the room once again.

Sora slouched back in his seat with a quiet breath of relief. One, two, three blinks of his dry eyes swept away the colorful, dancing spots in his vision. I didn't even blink when I was flying through all those Nobodies, he realized.

Now that the danger had passed, he let himself remember that he wasn't alone inside the ship. The others were also beginning to calm down in the wake of the core's disappearance. Donald all but collapsed onto the dashboard with a muffled noise of relief; Sora could hear the chipmunks falling against each other in their small cockpit as well. Goofy slowly uncurled himself from his seat, wide eyes becoming more visible as he lifted his head from his knees and looked around; when he saw the threat had gone, his forehead drooped back onto his knees again. Char slowly opened her own eyes from where she had squeezed them shut: when, Sora guessed with a guilty twinge, he had begun his reckless charge closer to the core. Her slight sickly pallor told him she was probably restraining her breakfast from making a second appearance.

Just as Sora opened his mouth to ask if everyone was all right, a stark contrast in the whiteness drew his eye: from a hole past where the core had been, a glimpse of dark skies peered out at them. "Is that the way out?" he asked, motioning toward it.

"Maybe," Donald deigned to answer. It sounded like a perfunctory response, until he actually saw what Sora was referring to and straightened in his seat.

"Do you think we can get through there?" Goofy asked, glancing back at Sora.

The boy shrugged. "Only one way to find out," he repeated himself. Honestly, he found himself doubting the possible exit's credibility as well. Still, it was their only chance at reaching Twilight Town.

Miraculously, the ship could fit through what had looked like a narrow tunnel from a distance. Sora kept his body tense and one hand close to the missile button the entire time, in case more foes ambushed them.

However, it looked like the core had truly caused all the chaos, and with its destruction came the chaos' destruction as well. True to his sight, the sky's clear, dark expanse met the Gummi ship as it emerged from the core's room.

"Wow guys, look at that view!" Dale piped up from the chipmunks' cockpit.

I can't exactly enjoy it right now, Sora thought, a little irritably, but chose not to voice his thoughts. Instead, he readied an affirmative response, only for it to die on the tip of his tongue when he spotted a familiar, lit shape. A life he hadn't lived floated into his mind at the clock tower's appearance, along with the barely-familiar taste of sea salt ice cream lingering on the tip of his tongue.

"And there it is," Char muttered from next to him.

Light enveloped Sora's vision; an instant later, it cleared and gave way to the dusk-bedizened skies and uniform buildings and winding train tracks of the world that would open the final leg of his journey. The Keybearer drew in a deep breath, held it for a second, let it out again. For some reason, the air tasted different on the exhale.

"Here we go," he murmured.

Sora didn't have to know about Roxas' existence or that he had spent time in Twilight Town to recognize that his companions had only explored one part of the city. Not only did the train tracks whose bridges stood up far in the distance wind off to gods knew where, but the Gummi ship passed many other buildings on its way to a place to land. From this far above, the buildings looked like blocks, and the meandering alleys between them like flowing rivers.

"Where are we going to land?" Donald asked.

"Wouldn't that alley by the Twilight Town gang's place be a good spot?" Goofy piped up.

Sora turned his head and let his eyes linger on the knight. Confusion must have registered on his face, because Goofy elaborated. "Well," he began, "that photo of Roxas has him with Hayner and those guys, right? We gotta ask about that, at least."

"Oh yeah," Sora murmured aloud, eyes widening. "Well, over by the Usual Spot, then?"

Donald nodded. "Yeah, good idea," he told Goofy, who rubbed a finger under his nose sheepishly.

A moment's scrutiny from Sora revealed that they were already close to the back alley that led to the Usual Spot. The ship made a sharp, yet smooth dive – much more soothing than dodging the Nobodies and the core had required – toward the designated spot.

The ground met the bottom of the Gummi ship with a tangible tap. Having finally finished the flight, Sora took his hands off the wheel to flex his wrists. Pain lanced through them as he did so, making him realize just how much tension the aerial fight had put on him.

Char took a deep breath and then let it out with a gusty sigh. Immediately, Donald whirled toward her with narrowed eyes. "What?" he asked.

"Nothing," she snapped back. "Just… preparing myself, is all."

Sora tilted his head to the side. "For what? Fighting your old friends?"

She jerked, as though she hadn't expected him to interject, then deflated visibly. "Not exactly," she muttered.

"Then what is it?" Goofy gently pressed.

One shoulder raised and lowered. "Everything that's ahead, I guess."

"We'll be fine," Sora assured her. "Didn't we tell you before? The Organization won't know what hit 'em when we're done."

Char hesitated, clearly wanting to argue, but she let the matter drop. "Right then," she said. "Are we going to leave the ship sometime soon, or…?"

Her abrupt shift into brusqueness was not lost on the others; Donald kept his eyes in suspicious little slits as he glanced at Goofy, who just looked bemused. "Yeah," the duck said at last. "Yeah, we should go."

Goofy nodded, confusion dissolving into determination. "Do we have all the stuff Aerith gave us?"

"Right here," Char announced, holding up the bag of vials that Aerith had bestowed on them in Radiant Garden.

Sora blinked at her. "Were you holding those the whole time?" he asked incredulously.

She shrugged, a little self-consciously. "No, I just had them in this little compartment." With her free hand, she slid open part of the dashboard's underside.

Donald gaped, while from the mini cockpit, Dale's voice rang out. "Gosh, Char, how did you find that?"

"I don't know, I observe," she said, balancing the bag in her lap. Despite the spread of the bag's weight across her thighs, its contents still threatened to spill onto the floor next to the ship's brake pedal. "Can we divvy these things up now?"

"Okay, okay," Sora said, unable to keep a giggle out of his voice. Just that hint of amusement elicited a scowl from her, so he clamped his jaw shut and took the bag she all but thrust him. Fear didn't necessarily silence him, so much as her agitation. The moment she had one hand free, it flew to her thigh and she began tapping two fingers against it, and she directed her gaze at one particular brick on the nearest wall as though it could soothe her. He felt a surge of frustration at knowing that his words of reassurance couldn't help her.

His wrists nearly buckled under the bag's weight, keeping him from noticing anything else. Fortunately, his reflexes saved the Potions, Hi-Potions, and, the occasional flash of sparkling blue told him, Ethers within from meeting the floor. After a couple of seconds spent steadying the bag on his lap, he stuffed a few items in his pocket, being careful to evenly distribute each kind, and passed it over to Donald. "Careful, it's heavy," he said, only belatedly realizing that his and Char's efforts would have lightened the bag.

"Yeah, yeah," Donald muttered. True to Sora's thoughts, the duck easily grasped the bag and began rummaging around inside it. Glass clinked and plastic rattled, soon joined by Donald muttering under his breath as he took his spoils.

"Hey, don't take all the Ethers, Donald," Goofy said.

"I need magic, all right?" Donald shot back. "We're gonna be fighting a lot. I might run out of mana."

"Duck boy's got a point," Char remarked. Her support surprised Sora – he distinctly remembered her scoffing at Donald's magic – but he said nothing of it.

As Donald finished, albeit after poking his beak into the bag one last time, and handed Goofy the bag, a familiar, high-pitched voice floated up from the miniature cockpit. "I guess you'll be taking your stuff and leaving then, huh?" Chip asked.

Sora nodded, then remembered they couldn't see him. "Yeah, it looks like it."

A pause, then the two chipmunks jumped up onto the dashboard. Sora almost started at how shiny their eyes looked. "Gosh, then I guess this is it," Chip went on, rubbing at his eyes.

"You crying there, partner?" Dale gave a half-hearted quip.

"Of course I'm not," Chip retorted. "I just… have something in my eye."

"Oh, come on," Char muttered. "It can't be more obvious that you're tearing up." At the undisguised harshness in her voice, Sora couldn't help tossing a hard stare her way; to her credit, she seemed to recognize how cold she sounded and simply narrowed her eyes at the ground.

Turning back to the chipmunks, he said, "I'm sure this won't be the end. Even after I go back home with Riku and Kairi, I'll find a way to visit you guys." As unlikely as that possibility was, he found himself clinging to it with everything in his heart. The knowledge that he would never see his Disney friends again after his journey's end had always prowled in his thoughts, like a Heartless ready to attack, but he had shoved anything to that end aside in favor of the present.

He repressed a sigh. Even now, when the end seemed so certain ahead, uncertainties remained on that sunset-lit horizon.

The chipmunks brightened visibly. "If anyone can find a way to do that, it'll be you, Sora," Dale said with an encouraging nod.

Sora nodded back, suddenly unable to speak. The affirmation of just how much faith his friends had in him swelled in his chest.

"Tell Queen Minnie we'll be back real soon with the King," Goofy told the two little pilots, who each gave firm salutes in turn.

"Aye, aye, sir," Chip agreed, sounding as though he spoke around a lump in his throat.

Donald was watching with a newly bright sheen in his eyes, but now he shook his head as if to clear it. "Let's just go," he said gruffly. "The Organization isn't going to take care of itself."

The mage's brusqueness snapped Sora from his touched reverie and pushed him to his feet. He reached out his hand to Chip and Dale, and they each seized his index and middle finger and shook them as firmly as their statures would allow. "It's been great traveling with you guys," was all he could say. Professional, almost mechanical out of context, but he meant every word.

He had bidden many other world natives goodbye over the course of his journey, but only now did he begin to feel pain at leaving behind two companions who had stayed with him for so long.

As he turned away, he heard two respective thuds and recognized those as Donald and Goofy placing their feet on the ground as well. However, it took a couple more seconds before the flash of red told him Char had followed suit.

No sooner had they all descended the ramp into the alley did they hear the whoosh of the ramp receding back up into the ship. Sora turned just in time to see the vessel's bright colors surge up into, and eventually ascend past, Twilight Town's beige. He kept his eye on the Gummi ship's departure until a cloud passed over and proved opaque enough to eclipse its form; when the wind carried the cloud away, the ship was gone. Only pale orange sky met his eyes.

"Goodbye, Chip and Dale," Goofy called, cupping his hands around his mouth to yell after the ship. "Thanks a lot!"

"They can't hear you anymore, you big palooka," Donald reminded him, but his voice's roughness blunted any edge in his scorn.

"You think we won't need them to come back?" Char suddenly said.

Sora tore his gaze from the skies and looked toward her. Her undisguised vitriol took him aback. "What do you mean?" he asked, more out of cautiousness than anything else.

Char shook her head, brought one hand up to palm her forehead and curled her fingers inward to tease her bangs. "I mean what if it turns out your little source lied to you?" she clarified. As her pupils moved from Donald and Goofy and back again, her glare faltered, as though she didn't even believe in her own suspicion.

Donald huffed and shoved his fists against his hips. "Oh, come on," he said. "We've gotten this far, and you're still on about that?"

All at once, Sora realized why she had sounded so angry. Guilt flickered through him once again at his inability to reveal Axel as their advisor. I just don't want to have to turn around, he argued with himself.

"Well," he said aloud, "even if we can't get to the Organization's world from here –" and his heart gave a pang at the possibility, unlikely though it seemed – "we can still ask about the picture of Roxas. Right?"

"Yeah, Sora's right," Goofy added with a nod.

Char rolled her eyes, already dropping her hand and turning away. "I guess you're right," she muttered. Even though he couldn't see her face, Sora could hear her frustration loud and clear. After a couple of seconds, she turned her head and gave them a pointed stare. "Aren't you coming?"

While Donald stomped after her with no small amount of grumbling in his wake, Goofy trailed behind with Sora. The knight's gaze flitted from Sora to Char and back again, and Sora could feel that stare on him, but he could not acknowledge it. Char set a fast enough pace to all but leave the others behind – or at least try to.

The Keybearer kept his eyes on Char's back as she walked. Inside him, annoyance warred with concern at her behavior: so reminiscent of those initial days of this journey that it actually frightened him a little.

He saw her shoulders tense, then relax, as though in that split second she had both agonized over a decision and then put it to rest. Never once did her stride falter or the rhythm of her footsteps change.

It hit him, all at once, why her attitude unnerved him so much: she did not let him walk ahead and lead them. Even on her worst, most prideful days, she had at least let the Keyblade wielder take his rightful place.

Sora rubbed his arms, suddenly wracked by a chill born of more than just the wind tousling his hair. Char's decision to remain in the lead felt so absent-minded, so not her, that the bacon and eggs he'd had for breakfast began a violent dance in his gut.

He felt a tap on his shoulder and looked over. Goofy maintained his steady amble as he leaned in to avoid being overheard. By whom, Sora found himself wondering. "D'you think Char's okay?" he whispered.

Sora sighed, at the last moment remembering to cloak its true extent in a soft exhale. "She's probably just worried about having to fight her friends," he assured Goofy in a low tone.

Goofy looked doubtful, but simply nodded in response. "Yeah, I think you're right," he said. "Gawrsh, I know if I had to fight you or Donald, I'd be scared too."

Sora smiled a little. "You know it wouldn't come to that." His words met with a sheepish shrug.

But it's come to that with Char and her friends, he thought. Is that why she's acting like this?

They approached the red curtain that closed off the Usual Spot from the back alley. When Char reached the makeshift door, she quickly pivoted away so her back faced the wall. Donald, who had directed his glare at the ground, looked up at the sudden absence of color beyond the beige concrete and swung his head toward her. "Now what?" he demanded.

Char raised one palm in an imitation shrug. "They might be doing something in there," she said. "Remember what happened the last time we just barged in on them?"

"Hayner did get kind of mad," Goofy recalled.

"Well, they know us now, so it'll be fine," Sora said – all but tossed over his shoulder, really. Passing by Char, he resisted the urge to check her facial expression for any gratefulness that he had taken the lead again; he knew that would definitely mirror his own emotions, anyway.

He pulled the curtain back, already opening his mouth to utter a greeting. At the same time, his muscles tensed in mental preparation to evade a dart that might have strayed from its original path to the board on the opposite wall. Oddly, he found himself picturing that exact same scene far more vividly than simple assumption would allow – and, rather than picturing Pence as the offender, wild blonde hair bristling under the fingers rubbing over it passed across Sora's mind. The image's lucidity – almost like that of a memory – suggested it was another of Roxas' recollections.

Maybe it has to do with the photo?

Any decision to find out in the next few minutes subsided the moment a room devoid of anything besides boxes replaced red cloth.

"They're not here," he said.

Char gave a stifled snort as she came up to poke her head in beside him. A nudge at his bare calf told Sora that Donald had joined them, and a bemused noise behind him suggested Goofy had done the same. "Yeah, no kidding, they're not here," the redhead said.

"You don't think anything happened to 'em?" Goofy asked, fingers curling anxiously over his chin.

Sora blinked, wondering why the knight had immediately gone to the worst conclusion; then he remembered having to fight off all the Nobodies the last time they had come to Twilight Town. He heard a quiet intake of breath from next to him and, glancing at Char, saw that she was thinking the same thing. A contemplative cast showed itself through her narrowed eyes, though, so Sora spoke to his other companions.

"I'm sure they're fine," he said, more to assure himself than anything else. "We can go check around town and see if they've gone out anywhere."

Donald nodded. "That's a good idea."

Char acknowledged the others' agreement with her own "hm" of assent. Sora took in her folded arms and the finger she pressed against her chin; the desire to ask what held her in such deep concentration threatened to pry his mouth open, but he forced his self-control back against it. Ultimately, his self-control won.

However, the same could not be said of Goofy. "You okay?" he repeated the same question he had directed toward Sora earlier.

Char jolted visibly, as though he had shoved her headfirst into freezing water. The hand on her face dropped at once and settled against the opposite arm. "Yeah," she said. "Let's go."

"Sure, don't tell us what's going on," Donald grumbled. "That's fine."

At his snide comment, Char's jaw clenched visibly, as though keeping back an urge of her own. Like Sora, though, she relented, even though her desire probably reflected something more along the lines of decking Donald than Sora's had.

In the end, she followed them as they turned around and began to walk back toward the middle of town. Before Sora could do more than sweep the curtain to its original position, though, white flashed next to him. It was his only warning before something solid collided with his shoulder and nearly toppled him.

He righted himself and put out his hand to summon the Sleeping Lion; in his mind, white connected to Nobody, and dread scrawled its mark across the inside of his belly at the knowledge that those things were this close to town –

But then Donald snarled out, "Hey, what's the big idea?" and Sora lowered his hand. His assailant's height made him tilt his head back to meet the scornful eyes that he only vaguely remembered from the battle in the sandlot. The name Seifer sprang to his mind, along with mild annoyance at his deliberate shove.

"Can't believe you're back here," Seifer said, lips curling into a sneer that oozed from his words.

"Hello to you too," Char replied.

He spared only a flick of his pupils her way before returning the brunt of his glare to Sora. "So," he jeered, "are you back to cause more trouble? Because I'm not having that."

"Like last time was our fault!" Donald spat, fists flying to his sides as he puffed out his chest.

"Yeah," Sora agreed. Seifer's eyes narrowed sharply; a strange look flashed behind baleful blue and he opened his mouth to speak, but Sora continued. "Didn't you give us that trophy? The one that goes to the 'toughest guy in Twilight Town?'" As he spoke the last part, he folded his arms, fingers twitching against his forearms; only after they had stilled did he realize he had almost set air quotes around the title Seifer had bestowed on him.

Char used to do that, he recalled. She really is rubbing off on me.

Seifer rolled his eyes and folded his own arms. "So? What's your point? Things change." He began to circle around them, gaze roving from Sora to Char and then back again. Sora bristled beneath his stare; the belligerence burning there suggested he was ready to spring to a fight at any moment.

"That doesn't even make any sense!" Donald snapped. "Sora helped you and now you're acting like it didn't happen!"

Goofy had remained silent till now, no trace of the hostility that so easily found a current among his companions. Perhaps as a result of that lack of replication, he startled Sora and the others when he piped up, "Do you know Hayner, Pence, and Olette?"

The trio of names stopped Seifer mid-pace. A beat, then he muttered, "Yeah, I've heard of 'em. What do you want with those lamers?"

"They're not –" Sora began indignantly, only to find green cloth smothering his rebuttal.

Char kept her hand over his mouth. "We need to talk to them," she said. "Do you know where they could be?"

Seifer snorted and raised his palms toward the twilit skies in a mocking shrug. "Gee, I just don't know."

Sora flinched when the hand over his mouth pressed further down and her nails dug into his cheek. When was the last time she had trimmed those anyway, he wondered, before Char spoke through gritted teeth. "We don't have time for this," she hissed. "Unlike you, we don't have time to strut around being complete ingrates to someone who saved their life not too long ago. If you know something, then tell us; otherwise, get the hell out of our way. Because we can't afford to deal with you right now."

Seifer blinked. The combination of her rage-filled words and her own glower trained so fiercely on him lent a spark to the air that soon proved too much for him. "All right, fine!" he growled. "They went to the old mansion. Happy?"

Char withdrew her hand from Sora's face, and the Keybearer let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "Thank you," the redhead said, the tight quality of her voice loosening into her regular tone, albeit with more sickly sweetness. She glanced over to Sora, Donald, and Goofy. "Let's go, guys."

As she strode off toward the outline of the train tracks, veering sharply away from Seifer, the blonde in question shook his head with an audible snarl and stomped off in the sandlot's direction. Sora quickly realized what had just happened and tossed an awkward "uh, thanks" over his shoulder to Seifer before scurrying to catch up with Char.

It only took a couple of seconds for his run to match Char's flounce. Once it did, he slowed up to maintain that pace and tilted his head, trying to gauge her expression. Even his glimpse of the side of her face granted the same unnerving anger that had coursed through her words.

"Uh, thanks for doing that," Goofy said, and Sora fought the surprised jump that threatened to shake along his muscles. In his bewilderment at her outburst, contained though it had been, he had neglected the possibility that their other companions shared that bewilderment.

"I mean, you didn't really have to yell at him," Donald said dryly, "but we know where to go now."

Char rolled her eyes. "Didn't have to yell, my ass," she muttered, before raising her voice. "Yeah, well, if it worked, that's all that counts, right?" Although her brisk walk should have packed breathlessness into her words, somehow, her annoyance sounded unimpeded nonetheless.

"The old mansion is this way," she tossed over her shoulder. They passed beneath an arch; as they did so, bright, green light leaked into Sora's periphery and made him glance over toward its source. What met his eyes was a sign situated above another arch, beyond which the pathway sloped downward. He blinked at the neon-lit 3 that had drawn his gaze, wondered why he was slightly surprised that it wasn't blocked off.

"And how do you know where the mansion is?" Donald inquired, the old suspicious ire immediately back in his words.

Sora spoke up before Char could unleash more of the dark storm rapidly gathering into visibility on her face. "She used to live here, remember?" he said to Donald. "And we did meet her at the mansion."

"Sora's right," Goofy put in.

To Donald's credit, he sounded properly abashed when he grunted his remembrance. Sora risked trying to meet Char's eyes again and found she had beaten him to it. She remained silent, but undeniable gratefulness simmered in previously-shadowed bright blue. That gratefulness manifested in the small smile that tugged visibly at her lips, the sight of which coaxed a smile from Sora in return.

Somehow, he got the feeling that her outburst at Seifer had partially been an outlet for her anger and pain. Despite the pang at knowing he himself couldn't soothe her, Sora still appreciated the fact that she could smile right now.

He turned his gaze straight ahead again. The closer they got to the center of town, the greater the grim outline of sharp towers in the distance became. Those towers reminded him of the first day of this journey: waking up inside the strange pod in that white room, the reasons for which still mystified him; deciding to search for King Mickey and Riku alongside Donald and Goofy; exploring the mansion's foyer and first hearing Char's voice from above; the redhead's abrasive bluntness irritating him; her declaration that she would follow them shocking and confusing the group all at once.

Back then, his awkward, angry new companion had terrified and fascinated him in turns. Now, she was marching alongside him into what might as well have been her personal maw of hell.

Watching her, Sora felt the urge to grab her and hold her rising up anew inside him. Unlike last night, though, when her admission to having an idea of Riku's location had made Sora succumb to that desire, he held it and kept it at his core.

However, thinking of last night heralded the birth of hope as well – a feeling that, unlike its twin, Sora did not try to stifle. Riku and Kairi. They're waiting for me in that world, I'm sure of it.

He let the thought channel throughout his body until it reached his feet and pushed him ahead of the others.

Whenever Riku made a point of avoiding a certain place, he always had a concrete reason. Regardless of Char's jibes – which struck him as hypocritical, since she would rather have avoided Hollow Bastion's streets altogether – he knew he was justified in skirting around anywhere that brought up bad memories. Even dropping off Char in Hollow Bastion had stirred anxiety within him and prodded demons best left asleep. Demons born of defeat, and sorrow, and betrayal whose fault he knew lay with him.

It was funny, then, that the exact same feelings resumed their dull ache inside Riku at a different place entirely. In this world, a white castle lay just ahead of him beyond a vast, dark gulf; in this world, clouds permanently blanketed the sky. Here, Sora's Nobody had taken him down as opposed to Sora himself.

I still had to use darkness to even have a chance against either of them, though, Riku reflected as he stopped in front of the skyscraper. Against the stormy sky's gloomy backdrop, any caricature of city lights looked obscene; indeed, its garish contrast forced his eyes into slits. Squinting proved a mistake, however, as it pushed rainwater that had congregated onto his eyelashes into his eyes.

He blinked a couple of times before lowering his face from the skyscraper. The minutes he had spent in thought had routed his eyes toward it and scored colorful splotches into his vision. Already, Riku could feel impatience setting in to his heart and ramping up its speed. Whether or not that impatience arose from unease at the site where Roxas had fought him, Riku was unsure; however, he did know that he wanted the person he was meeting to get here soon.

Gods know what the other Organization members are doing. I'm surprised none of them have found me yet.

Before he could lift up his wrist to check an imaginary watch, a raspy voice sounded from behind him. "Didn't think you'd actually show up."

Had Riku not known any better, he would have tensed and put his arm out to summon his Soul Eater. But the tone in that voice was that of amusement, and derision that time had all but honed to a fine point within that voice's owner. So instead, Riku spun around with his hand ready to clutch his blade's hilt.

Axel put his palms up in the air. "Aggressive, aggressive," he laughed. That damn wolf grin widened even more, acid green eyes glittering even more in the darkness. "I can't say I blame you, though."

Riku narrowed his eyes, lowered his arm. "Where's Namine?" he asked.

Axel's smile faltered, and he sighed and folded his arms. "Right to the point, as always," he said.

"Why else do you think I'd be out here?" Riku answered, trying to keep his voice calm. Arrogant hedgehog, he thought. "I'm not exactly taking a walk."

If he'd had his way, he couldn't help thinking, he wouldn't have had to trust a member of the Organization with something so important. The fact that Axel had kidnapped Kairi only enforced Riku's mistrust of the Flurry of Dancing Flames. But Ansem having ordered Namine's destruction and Char busy preparing to journey with Sora had given him little choice in the matter. Axel had basically given up Namine so she could bring back Sora's memories, and so he had been the first candidate in protecting her. From the sound of things, Axel wasn't exactly unfamiliar with shielding Namine.

Axel raised one eyebrow, appraised Riku a moment longer. When amber eyes failed to waver from pale green – one advantage of Riku's increased height: he could stare down the gangly Axel with far more intimidation – the Nobody threw back his head and laughed to the stormy skies. "Yeah, okay. You've got a point there, Superior Number Two," he grinned.

Riku flinched. "Don't call me that," he muttered.

Ignoring him, Axel went on. "Namine's on her way," he said.

Riku glanced back up in surprise, annoyance at the nickname instantly forgotten. On her way? What else could she be doing?

His confusion must have shown on his face, because Axel actually deigned to elaborate. "She's gotta get her drawing stuff." One hand reached up to ruffle the back of his spiky hair. "I don't get it, but maybe that's because I can't draw to save my life. Never could."

What life? Riku thought dryly, but said nothing. He shifted from one foot to the other, suddenly uncomfortable. In the continuous drizzle, colors blurred together, and even though Axel's hair was a shade more reminiscent of the flame he controlled, the rain dampened it to a bloodier red –

Blood red. Char's hair. The sunlight spilling onto Char's hair as she told him Axel had taken Kairi.

Focus, Riku ordered himself, before rage could take Axel's red and coat it over his view. He averted his eyes nonetheless, just in case the sight of the Nobody incensed him anyway. You're not here to fight, you're here to retrieve Kairi's Nobody. Sora will have to take care of Kairi.

Still, he couldn't bring himself to believe Char would direct Sora to the Princess of Heart. Not out of any spite toward Sora's former crush – gods, Riku would hope Char wasn't that petty – but because she didn't even know where Axel had put Kairi.

Riku muffled a sigh against the back of his throat. Regardless of his attempt at self-control, though, some resigned sound must have eked out of him, because Axel glanced over. "What's up with you?" he asked, even though his lack of worry made itself obvious.

Riku opened his mouth, not quite knowing what would come out. A flippant reply? A snarl for Axel to mind his own damn business? Personally, he was banking on the latter.

As fate would have it, though, at that moment, swirling darkness unlike that created by the clouds above materialized just next to Axel. Out of the undulating, shadowy whorls, the newcomer stepped forward, one whose pale form and adherence to light colors belied her name as a being of darkness.

Namine looked up at Riku with her lips gradually pushing upward, and he felt his own mouth moving to match her smile. "Hello, Riku," she greeted, adjusting her sketchbook in her grasp.

Riku nodded back to her. "It's been a while," he said. He gestured one hand at the drawing pad in her arms; the thing nearly took up her entire torso, reminding him simultaneously of his increased height and just how small Namine was. The Organization had kept her all but malnourished, but her frame was slight and slender as well. "Got any new drawings for me to see?"

Axel cleared his throat, making the two of them turn to him. "I hate to break up this little reunion," he said, "but if you stand out here in the rain much longer, you won't have any drawings to look at." One black-clad finger lifted up toward the stormy sky.

Riku blinked, then looked back down at Namine. All at once, it hit him just why she was clutching her sketchbook flush against her body. She's wearing white. And it's raining.

Axel's derisive snicker told him just how much red the realization had poured onto his face. Frankly, he was surprised that the rain hitting his face didn't immediately sizzle upon impact with the heat rushing to his cheeks.

"Thanks for looking after her," Riku muttered in lieu of anything sardonic. Anything along the lines of a good retort eluded him, to his annoyance. His search for said retort grew even more difficult, though, when he made the mistake of meeting Axel's eyes. They all but glowed in the continuous mist, and Riku couldn't help but wonder if they had shone like that in the island's sunlight when they had landed on Kairi.

You don't want a fight you don't want a fight just take Namine and go –

"Riku," Namine murmured, and then a tug on his sleeve: brief and gentle, but firm in its unspoken message. Don't.

Riku drew himself up – he hadn't even realized anger had hunched his shoulders – and took a few deep breaths of the stormy air. Of course he had to avoid a brawl; what would Sora and Kairi do if he got too badly hurt in a pointless fight here?

In his attempt to calm himself, he turned away from Axel, whose mouth immediately flattened out into a seemingly impassive line, as though it had previously been fighting back a smirk. After a few seconds of Riku honing in on the rain's continuous, rhythmic cadence and attempting to memorize the exact path of the skyscraper's lights, he heard Namine speak. "Axel, what are you going to do now?"

A pause, during which he imagined Axel shrugging. "I dunno. Probably take a nap or something."

Riku narrowed his eyes. At a time like this?

Then again, taking a nap during the final battle was exactly the sort of thing Axel would do.

He heard Namine emit a quiet sigh. For some reason, it sounded almost resigned.

Then the whoosh of a dark portal opening up behind him resounded, surprising Riku into turning around. He caught a final glimpse of flaming red hair before the swirling shadows swallowed Axel.

In the silence that followed, Riku glanced back down at Namine, only to blink when he found her blue-violet gaze already boring into his. She wanted to catch up on everything he had gone through since their separation a month ago; he could see the longing in her face.

But determination quickly overtook that.

"I know where they're keeping Kairi," she said.

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