Kingdom Hearts: The Light Guardians

by Keyblade Guardian

After Xehanort's defeat, the worlds were saved by Sora again, but that was just temporary. There are still threats out there, so the Keyblade wielders who fought against Xehanort form an organization called "Light Guardians" to protect and help those who need it.

27. The Snake and The Fox

Here's the next chapter, hope you enjoy it. Now I'll go play some 2.5

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Chapter XXVII

The Snake and The Fox

1925hrs, August 17th, 2024
Worth Woodsea, Fiore, Earth Land

Sora dismissed his Keyblade as soon as he finished off the last Heartless of the group which attacked him and his friends. Before he and the girls could continue exploring the forest, a really big group of Heartless appeared and attacked them. There were a lot of Heartless, but they could take care of every one of them, and Mushu was also there to provide them with more 'firepower' as he said. However, he couldn't stay long because Sora's summon ability wasn't as efficient as it used to be since he hadn't summon anyone in a very long time. Also, during the fight, Lucy separated from the group, so Wendy, Levy, Carla and Happy went to look for her while Erza and Sora kept the Heartless busy.

"Was that the last one?" asked Erza.

"Yup, we're done here," replied Sora smiling at the redhead. "Nice job."

"The same to you," said Erza, returning the smile. "It never gets old seeing you slashing off Heartless as if it was the easiest thing in the world."

"Yeah, I'm awesome like that," said Sora, a cocky grin on his face, which turned into an awkward one after a few seconds. "Okay, that sounded better in my head…"

Erza chuckled. "Having a cocky attitude really suits you."

"It does?" Sora took a look around to make sure no more Heartless appeared. Then he turned to look at Erza. "That's…uh…"

"Hey, I didn't say it was something bad," said Erza, smiling at the Keyblade wielder. "It's fine as long as you don't do it all the time, of course. Even I have showed overconfidence in my abilities before."

"Oh, really?" said Sora, smirking at the redhead mage.

"W-why are you looking at me like that?" asked Erza, afraid that she might have given Sora a wrong image of her. "Perhaps I shouldn't have used myself as an example…"

Sora chuckled. "No reason. All right, I guess now we have to look for Lucy…"

The Keyblade wielder turned around, trying to remember which way Levy and the others go when they said they were going to look for Lucy. Meanwhile, Erza just looked at Sora, but she wasn't thinking about the Celestial Mage at this moment. She was remembering the conversation she had with Terra a few days ago. She was thinking that, perhaps, now it was a good moment to talk with Sora about it, but she wondered how she could bring up the subject.

"I think they went this way…or not? Erza, do you-" Sora turned around again to look at Erza and saw that she looked to be engaged in deep and serious thought. He wondered if she figured out something related to the mission. "Hey, what are you thinking about?"

"Sora, could I ask you something?"

"Of course, go ahead," answered Sora.

Erza took a short breath. "What you said about Lucy before, about her being like a big sister to you, did you mean it?"

"That's what she wanted to ask me?" thought Sora, who was expecting Erza to ask him something totally different. The mage's question made him think about what he said to Lucy before and he started to feel a bit embarrassed. "I…Well, I said that without thinking, but I actually think of her as a big sister, although I don't know what that is exactly."

"What do you mean?" asked Erza quizzically.

"I'm an only child, so I don't know how it feels to have a brother or a sister," explained Sora. "Riku is the closest thing to a brother I have. When we were kids he always was there, looking out for me, and he's still doing it. I guess that's what made me start wanting to know how it would feel to be on the other side, being an older brother to someone."

"Oh, I didn't know that," said Erza surprised. "I could be wrong, but I think Wendy sees you as an older brother. As Chelia told you before, she's always speaking highly of you and gets very happy when you come here. I'd be glad if she actually does think like that since the other two people she could look up to are Natsu and Gajeel, and those two aren't good role models for her."

"You think Wendy thinks that?" asked Sora, a small smile on his face. He scratched the back of his head out of nervousness. It made him happy, knowing that Wendy could think of him as an older brother. "But it's not like I'm the only one she could look up to, you know?"

"Who else there it is?" asked Erza, and Sora looked at her as if she just asked something obvious. Then, Erza blinked, realizing who Sora was referring to. "Wait, me? I'm flattered, Sora, but I don't think there's anyone that-"

"I do," said Sora, taking the redhead completely by surprise. "You are strong, cool and a little scary but relied on by everyone. And that sense of justice of yours is one of the things I like the most. Besides, you're always there, looking out for your friends, so I don't know who wouldn't want you as a role model. I remember that when we were in Akane Resort, I heard you reminding everyone that the purpose of the trip was for me to rest. It kinda made me happy to hear that, you know?"

"It seems that Terra was right, after all," thought Erza, who couldn't help but smile after hearing Sora praising her like that. "I was worrying too much."

"Heh, guess that Aqua and Lucy aren't the only 'big sisters' I have," said Sora with a tone that made him sound as if he was joking, even though he was being serious. "Just don't start acting like Aqua did back there, okay?"

Erza stared at Sora for a second before smiling and grabbing Sora. She brought him closer to her and hugged him to her chest a little roughly. Sora's face hit Erza's chestplate, something that always happened every time she hugged someone while wearing her armor.

"Sheesh, stop being so nice," said the Reequip Mage with a happy look on her face.

"Ouch…h-hey, what did I just say!?" said Sora embarrassedly, but Erza didn't answer. The Keyblade wielder was expecting her to let go after a few seconds, but she was still hugging him. "Hey, I remind you we have to find Lucy and the rest of our group! And we're still on a mission!"

"Oh, sorry," said Erza, letting go of the boy. "After hearing that, I couldn't help it."

Sora adjusted his jacket and smiled. "Let's just look for them, okay?"

"Right," said Erza nodding in response. Then, she noticed something in the sky, far away from where she and Sora were. "What is that?"

"Hmmm?" Sora looked at Erza and saw here looking at the sky. He looked up and saw some smoke, as if something exploded up there. "That's strange…What do you think it could be?"

"It could be Natsu's magic," said Erza. "Perhaps he's fighting against someone now. We should check it out. I know he's really strong, but I'd like to know who he's fighting at this moment."

"Let's hope he's not fighting Gray…again," thought Sora. "It's very far from here. Why don't you go there while I look for Happy and the girls? I'll catch up with you when I find them."

"You sure?" asked Erza, and Sora nodded. "All right, I'll be waiting for you there. Take care."

"The same to you!" said Sora before he and Erza split in separate ways.

-TLG-

After separating from her group while they fought the Heartless, Lucy wandered the forest, trying to reunite with them. She didn't like much the idea of being alone since there was something in the forest that was luring the Heartless, so she wanted to find them as soon as possible.

She started to get tired after a while, so she decided to look for some place to rest for a couple of minutes. It was then when she saw someone sitting on a rock nearby wearing a light blue cloak. The Celestial Mage decided to ask the hooded figure about her friends, so she started walking toward the only person who was there besides her.

"Umm, excuse me?" said Lucy as she waved her hand to make the figure look her way. "My name's Lucy. Who are you?"

The hooded figure slowly turned to Lucy and let out a small gasp of surprise and a small 'oh' when he or she saw the blonde mage. Lucy could tell the person under the cloak and hood was actually a girl by the sound of her voice, although there were some other details that could have given away her gender, like her hands or her waistline.

The girl stood up, shook off the dust on her cloak and looked at Lucy. "Greetings, miss…you said Lucy, am I correct?"

"Uh, yeah," said Lucy, a bit taken aback by the girl's politeness. "What's your name?"

"Oh, my apologies," The girl bowed apologetically. "My name is Anguis. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise, Anguis, but you don't have to be so polite towards me," said Lucy smiling. The mage was being careful since she didn't know if the hooded girl was dangerous or not, but it seemed that she was actually nice. "I know we just met, but you can call me just Lucy."

"If that's what you desire, then I'll do as you wish, Lucy," replied Anguis with a small smile, although it couldn't be seen because of her hood. Then, she noticed the mark on the blonde's right hand. "Wait, you're Fairy Tail's Lucy?"

Lucy blinked. "Yes, that's me. Have you heard about me before? Hehe, I'm flattered. Where did you-"

Before Lucy could finish her question, she noticed that Anguis was looking in different directions. It seemed that she felt or noticed something. The mage wondered what was going on, so she decided to ask Anguis why she was doing that, but the hooded girl spoke before.

"Why are they here…" muttered Anguis. "I thought I told Ursus I was going to take care of the Heartless here…or did I forget? And why did Vulpe come? And the other three…oh no…"

"Ummm, Anguis?" said Lucy, snapping the girl in the cloak out of her thoughts and making her look at her. "Is everything all right? You seem quite worried about something…"

"No, no, everything's fine," said Anguis, waving her hands. There was a tad of nervousness in her voice.

"Are you sure?" asked Lucy, eyeing the other girl suspiciously. "You suddenly started mumbling something about some people being here. I think you also said Heartless, but that may have been my imagination…"

"No, I actually mentioned the Heartless," affirmed Anguis.

"Then you know about them, huh?" Lucy put her hands on her hips and looked at Anguis with concernment. "There are a lot of them in this forest, so I'd be careful if I were you. Why are you here, anyway? Did you get lost?"

Anguis shook her head. "As I said, I'm here to take care of the Heartless issue. I know a large number of them started appearing here today, so I came here to see if I could find out why, and I think I'm close to the answer."

"Really?" asked Lucy surprised.

Anguis nodded. "It took me a while, but I think I found something interesting."

"So the job that thirty two mages were assigned to do was done by a single person," thought Lucy, looking away so Anguis couldn't see her whimpering face. "This has to be a joke. We were putting ourselves in danger for nothing. Well, at least we took care of a good number of Heartless."

"Is there a problem?" asked Anguis.

"No, not at all," replied Lucy with a smile. "I'm just quite surprised you were able to find the reason they're here. You must be really amazing, Anguis."

"Oh, that's…well…" Anguis didn't expect a compliment, so she was a bit flustered. "The Heartless are always a serious problem. I'm just doing what I'm supposed to do."

"Doing just what you're supposed to do," repeated Lucy before letting out a small laugh. "You just sounded like someone I know. Say, where is the thing that is luring the Heartless to this place? Or it isn't something physical?"

"Well, to know that I need to do something first," said Anguis as she turned to her right. "Someone put an invisible spell around some kind of mansion that is located right here. When you cast an invisibility spell around something big, it isn't always perfect. I was trying to locate the weak spot of the spell and it took me some time. It seems that the person who did it took their time."

"Wow." Lucy was impressed. The girl in front of her was very smart. "Wait, I didn't interrupt you, did I? If I did, I'm sorry…"

"Don't worry, I finished the same moment you appeared," assured Anguis. Then she stared walking, supposedly to where the invisible mansion was. The girl raised her right hand and touched something that wasn't visible. "Here it is."

Anguis' hand started glowing with a purple shine. Then a small wave came out from her hand and the invisibility spell she told Lucy about was cancelled instantly. The Celestial Mage was really surprised. Not only because of Anguis' magic ability, but also because she recognized the mansion from before.

"That is…"

"Lu-chan!"

Lucy looked to her left, where the voice calling her name was coming from. She saw Levy, Wendy, Carla and Happy running to where she and Anguis where. She noticed that neither Erza nor Sora were with them. This concerned her a bit, but knowing how strong those two were, there was nothing to worry about.

"I'm glad we could find you," said Wendy.

Levy looked at Lucy with scolding eyes. "Geez, you should be more careful. You're lucky Happy and Carla could spot you from the sky."

"Maybe we should put a collar around her neck," suggested Happy.

"What do you think I am!?" asked Lucy annoyed. "An animal you can train!?"

"Well, at least now we know you're fine," said Carla before looking at the person behind Lucy. "By the way, who is that? Someone you know?"

"Oh, right, she's Anguis," said Lucy, introducing the girl to her guildmates. "I found her here, sitting on that rock while I was looking for you. Anguis, these are my friends from Fairy Tail. They are Levy, Wendy, Carla and Happy."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," said Anguis bowing. The mages couldn't see her face, but she was frowning with concern at this moment. "I can't let my guard down from now on. I was distracted talking with Lucy and I couldn't sense them. If he had appeared instead of them, the risk of being discovered would have been too high. I don't think he'll be very pleased to know who I am after what Cornis told him."

Levy smiled. "It's nice to meet you, too."

"It's our pleasure," said Wendy, bowing as well.

"These two will get along well," thought Lucy, smiling at the two polite girls.

"What is a girl doing in this huge forest all alone?" asked a curious Happy. "Did you get lost?"

"She's here for the same reason as us," said Lucy, surprising the others. "Actually, she's already done more than any of us. She has the hunch that the reason the Heartless started appearing in this place is in there."

Levy, Wendy and the Exceeds looked at the old mansion Lucy was pointing at. The Solid Script Mage only saw an old building that didn't tell her anything, but the other three had the feeling they had seen that mansion before the moment they saw it.

"I've seen this mansion before..." said Wendy as she tried to remember.

"I, too, have the feeling this is not the first time we see it," said Carla as she observed the mansion carefully. It didn't take her long to remember when the last time she had been in that old building was. "Isn't this Master Bob's old house?"

Lucy nodded. "I see you remembered. The mansion was covered with an invisibility spell, but Anguis here was able to remove it."

"Have you been here before?" asked Levy quizzically.

"We came here with Sora seven years ago," answered Lucy. She didn't notice, but Anguis flinched when she heard the name of the leader of the Light Guardians. "He came to the guild and told us he found a clue that could take us to the person who was sending the Heartless here, so we came here."

Levy blinked in realization. "Oh, right, he got the clue while he was helping my team with a job. So it was Master Bob's old palace the place where the clue took you."

"So, what does this mansion have to do with the Heartless, Anguis?" asked Happy.

"There's something inside that is making the Heartless come to this forest," replied the cloaked girl. "At least, that's what I think. I'll go take a look."

"Okay, we'll go with you," said Levy.

"Do you want to come?" asked Anguis surprised.

"Of course," replied Lucy with a small grin on her face. "Now that we're here, we'll help you. You basically did the difficult part of the job, so let us at least help you with this."

"You don't mind, do you?" asked Wendy.

Anguis smiled under her hood. "You Fairy Tail people are really kind. I don't mind at all. Thank you for your help. This shouldn't take long."

The mages followed Anguis, who slowly opened the mansion's door. She had to be careful since there could be traps inside and she didn't want to mess things up and endanger Lucy and the others. Once she was sure the entrance was safe, she opened the door completely and went inside, followed by the others. They started walking through a corridor.

"It's…pretty dark in here…" said Levy nervously.

"It's a bit scary…" added Wendy.

"Well, there aren't a lot of windows in this building," said Carla. "Besides, it's also kind of late, so surely it will get dark outside soon."

"You're not helping…" muttered the bluenette.

"Are you afraid of the dark?" asked Anguis, showing concern for the Solid Script Mage.

"I just dislike dark places," admitted Levy, rubbing her arm embarrassedly.

After hearing Levy's answer, Anguis stopped walking and raised her left hand. Using her magic, she cast a small orb of light. She aimed her hand at the wall on her left and the orb traveled in that direction. When it made contact with the wall, the orb stopped and started floating in mid-air, acting as a source of light. Anguis repeated the process two more times, and now the corridor wasn't dark anymore. The Fairy Tail members looked in awe at the orbs.

"Better?" asked the girl in the cloak.

"Much better, thanks," replied Levy, smiling gratefully.

"So pretty," said Wendy, her mouth slightly hanging open. "That spell is amazing, Anguis-san."

Anguis smiled. "It is very useful, isn't it?"

"You seem to be very proficient with magic," said Carla as she and the others started walking again. As they walked, Anguis opened every door she saw. Then Carla spoke again. "Say, are you in a guild?"

"Oh, no I'm not part of any guild," said Anguis.

"Eh, really?" said Lucy surprised. "Have you ever thought about joining a guild? Fairy Tail is always open for new members, just for you to know…"

"Are you inviting me?" asked Anguis, turning to look at Lucy before she put her hand on another door. "Thanks for the offer, but I can't join a guild now. There's something that is keeping me busy these days, and I have to focus on that."

"Well, if you change your mind, you know where we are," said Lucy as Anguis opened the door.

The blonde mage and her guildmates followed the girl inside the room, which appeared to be some kind of study or library. Anguis created more of those orb light she cast before and threw them to different parts of the room.

"Is it here?" asked Happy.

"Look," said Anguis, pointing at something that was in the room.

The mages turned their heads and saw a large sphere made of crystal sitting atop an ornate pedestal. It was like a smaller version of the Cornerstone of Light, but instead of a swirling light inside, there was some kind of dark magic inside.

"What is this?" asked Happy as he flew around the sphere. "It looks really sinister."

"It's like one of those Lacrima Spheres Maleficent is using," said Levy, observing the object carefully. She attempted to touch it, but was stopped by some kind of force field that surrounded the sphere. "Looks like someone doesn't want us to get closer to it."

Wendy looked at her guildmates. "Should we use our magic to break the field?"

"Perhaps we should give that a try," said Lucy, moving her hands to the pouch where she stored her Celestial Keys; however, she was stopped by Anguis before she could summon anyone. She looked at the girl. "What is it; Anguis?"

"You shouldn't use your magic against that magic field," said Anguis. Then, she cast another one of those light orbs and threw it at the sphere. When the orb touched the field around the sphere, it ricocheted off the magic field. "See? If you use your magic here you could destroy this place. I know this seems to be just an abandoned house, but I'd rather not destroy it."

"You…" Lucy looked at Anguis with a shocked expression before putting her hands on her shoulders. Now the mage had a look of happiness on her face, accompanied by sparkles in her eyes. "You really are an amazing person!"

"W-what?" Anguis was taken by surprise. "Where did that come from? I mean, not destroying this house is what a person with common sense would do, right?"

"Lu-chan get a hold of yourself," said Levy.

"You see, there are some members in Fairy Tail who aren't exactly the most cautious people in the world," said Carla, explaining to Anguis why Lucy reacted like that. "They tend to destroy private property every time we go on a mission, so we have to use almost all the money of the reward to pay the repairs."

"That's not right," said Anguis. She turned to Lucy. "You should tell them to not do that anymore. You will get into trouble."

"That's easier said than done…" said Lucy, lowering her head. "Anyway, let's put that aside, okay? How do we deal with this sphere?"

"I'll use a cancelation spell," said Anguis. "It should remove the magic field in a while, so we will have to wait here until it's done. I don't know how much time it will take."

"Guess it's time to wait, then," said Lucy as she sat on a chair.

Wendy looked outside through the one of the room's windows. "I wonder if Erza-san and Sora-san are all right."

"Those two?" asked Carla. "There's no need to worry about them. They're strong enough to take care of themselves out there. Besides, once we destroy this thing, the Heartless will stop coming here, at least to an extent."

"You're right," said the Dragon Slayer smiling.

"Sora…He sure has gotten stronger than the last time," said Levy as she moved a chair to sit close to Lucy. "I mean, I assumed he would be stronger now, but…"

"Yeah, he has trained a lot these years," said Happy. "Who would have thought, knowing how lazy he is. I thought he was napping all this time."

"He's not that lazy," said Levy. "You know he's always very serious when it comes to the Heartless. Besides, after all he's done, I'd say he deserves to rest once in a while."

Carla let out a small laugh. "You…are very easy to read, you know? If you don't want people to notice, I'd recommend you to try harder."

Lucy giggled. "Right? It's so obvious you like him I'm surprised he hasn't noticed. Again, he's kinda dense, so I guess it was to be expected."

"Would you drop that already!?" exclaimed Levy, clearly embarrassed.

"You llllike him~" said Happy, rolling his tongue.

Levy blushed. "No!"

"Levy-san, do you like…" Wendy covered her mouth out of surprise. "I…I didn't know."

"W-wait, Wendy, I-" stuttered Levy.

"I finished casting the spell, now all we have to do is to wait until it's done," said Anguis, walking to where the Fairy Tail members were talking. "What were you talking about?"

"We were talking about how L-"

Happy was interrupted by Levy, who grabbed him and covered his mouth with her hand. The last thing she needed was more people teasing her, although Anguis didn't look like someone who would do that, but the blue-haired girl didn't want to run the risk.

Anguis tilted her head in confusion. "Is something wrong?"

"No, everything's fine," said Levy, smiling awkwardly. As she looked at Anguis, she saw an opportunity to change the subject. "Hey, Anguis, why don't you remove your hood? There's no need to wear it inside a dark place like this. Unless you don't want to, of course…"

"Oh, was I still wearing it?" said Anguis surprised. "I'm so used to it that sometimes I forgot I have it on."

Lucy smiled. "It was a bit awkward to talk with you without being able to look at your face."

"I have to admit it's slightly uncomfortable because of my hair," said Anguis as she removed her hood. When she took it off, Lucy and the others could finally see the face of a girl with long purple hair and blue eyes. She appeared to be the same age as Levy or Lucy. The girl, then, noticed that Lucy, Levy and Wendy were staring at her. "W-what is it?"

"My, why do you wear a hood anyway?" asked Lucy.

"Yeah, if I were you, I wouldn't put it on from now on," added Levy.

"Why do you say that?" asked Anguis confused.

"You're really pretty, Anguis-san," complimented Wendy with a smile.

Anguis blinked several times before blushing. "Ah…I…thank you…"

Lucy laughed. "Come on, there's no need to be embarrassed. I'm sure you've been complimented before, right? By a boy, perhaps?"

"Well, yeah, but that was a long time ago," said Anguis, a tad of sadness in her voice which wasn't noticed by Lucy or the others. "But he used to do it just to tease me and get a reaction from me."

"Oooh, who is he?" asked Lucy, rather interested in Anguis' story. "Mind telling us his name?"

"Sorry, but something happened to me lately and my memory is a bit blurry," said Anguis. "I remember his face, but not his name…I could ask the others, but it is a delicate subject to bring up, so I think I won't do it."

"Are you all right?" asked Levy concerned. "Memory loss is a serious issue."

"Don't worry, I'm fine," assured Anguis, although she didn't sound so sure herself.

"You mentioned other people…" said Carla. "Friends of yours? Are they in this forest as well?"

"Should I answer that? Ursus already left, but Vulpe is still here and she surely is doing as she pleases and started fighting against the people who are in the forest…maybe even against the Guardians," thought an insecure Anguis. "Yes, one of them is here. I don't know what she's doing at this moment, so I'll have to look for her after we're done here. I hope she hasn't done anything bad…"

"Bad?" asked Wendy. "Why would your friend do something bad?"

Anguis crossed her arms and lowered her head. "She…well, not only her. I have four friends whom I used to work with years ago. We all were very close friends; however, after we met again not long ago, I noticed they were acting different. One of them especially changed, it's like he turned into a completely different person. Remember what I said before about being busy with something? I was referring to them…I have to keep an eye on them from time to time to make sure they don't do anything they'll regret."

Levy approached the purple-haired girl. "Anguis, if you need help…"

"No, I appreciate it, but I don't want you to get involved with this," said Anguis. "I've know them for a long time, and I know how to deal with them. I just have to figure out a way to make them come back to their senses."

"Wow, what you said sounded like something Sora would say, right?" said Happy, looking at Lucy.

"It did?" asked Anguis. She remembered that the Celestial Mage said something similar when they were outside.

"Totally," said Lucy nodding. "He didn't want us to get involved with something that was happening some years ago because it would have put us and our friends in danger...Wait a second, we're talking about Sora here, but you don't know who he is…or do you?"

"I think almost everyone in Fiore must know about him, so surely she does," said Carla.

"Oh, yes, I do know about him," affirmed Anguis. "Actually, I was expecting you could answer one question I have about him. Do you mind?"

"Fire away," said Lucy smiling.

"What is he like?"

The Fairy Tail members were a bit surprised at the simplicity of the question. It seemed that they were expecting Anguis to ask something different. They looked at each other with perplexed looks before turning again to the purple-haired girl.

"You're asking about his personality, right?" asked Lucy, and Anguis nodded in response. "Well, he's really brave and heroic. He will willingly risk his life even for people he barely knows."

"Although he can be simple-minded at times, he has a strong sense of justice," continued Carla. "He also possesses a rather strong competitive streak, but that's a common trait in boys."

"He's really forgiving," added Levy, and Lucy nodded in agreement. "And he's also an eternal optimist, always looking on the bright side of the situation at hand and never giving up when things look bad."

"Sora-san's also very caring," said Wendy smiling. "He highly cherishes his friends."

"He is quite impulsive," said Happy, raising his paw. "He tends to jump into things without thinking them through beforehand."

"True that," said Lucy. "He seems more level-headed now, though. It seems he has matured after these years, and I'm glad of it. I'm not sure I could handle another Natsu in the group. Anyway, I hope our answers are good enough for you, Anguis."

"Wow," said Anguis, looking at Lucy and the others impressed. "He sure seems like an amazing person. I haven't talked to him once and I already like him because of what you've told me."

Levy giggled. "He has that effect on people."

"If you want, we can introduce you to him after we finish our job," said Wendy. "I'm sure he'll like to meet the person who helped us stop the Heartless here."

"That'd be nice," said Anguis, a smile on her face. After hearing all those things about Sora, she felt relieved for some reason, especially after hearing what Levy said about Sora being really forgiving. "The possibility of running into Sora here scared me, but it seems he's a very nice person. Still, I'm not completely sure…"

"All right, since we answered your question, now it's time you answer to one," said Happy. "It's only fair, right?"

Lucy looked at the blue Exceed with stern eyes. "Hey, Happy…"

"No, it's all right," said Anguis. "What do you want to ask me, Happy?"

Happy got closer to Anguis. "Why…"

"Why…?" repeated Anguis, and the others also got closer, to hear what Happy was going to ask.

"Why did you say before you were used to wear a hood?" asked Happy, making Lucy and the others fall to the floor comically. "I'm curious, you know?"

Lucy rubbed her head as she stood up. "That's what you wanted to ask!?"

"You hopeless cat," muttered Carla.

Anguis let out a small laugh. "Well, to answer your question, let's say I'm a mysterious person."

"Oooh, you have a joking side, too, I see," said Lucy. "That's good to know. By the way, how is the spell-"

Before Lucy could finish talking, the entire room where she and the others were went dark. The light orbs Anguis cast vanished, making the sphere with dark magic in the middle of the room the only thing illuminating the place, which was practically the same as if there wasn't anything to provide some light to the study. There was already dark outside, so the girls couldn't count on having some natural light.

"W-what happened!?" said Wendy.

"It seems that the orbs I created reached their limit," explained Anguis. "They can't last forever."

"You should have told us that before!" whined Levy. "Eek, something touched my leg!"

"Sorry, I can't see where I'm going," said Happy. Then, a creaking noise could be heard nearby. "Hey…did you hear that?"

"Y-yeah…" said Lucy with a trembling voice.

"WHO DARES ENTER MY DOMAIN?" exclaimed someone with deep and sinister voice which scared the people in the room. Levy, Lucy and Wendy hugged each other, their bodies trembling out of fear. "THIS WILL NOT GO UNPUNISHED!"

"Happy, this is not the time to be joking!" said Carla.

"It's not me, I swear!" said Happy. "Anguis, do something!"

"All right…Who goes there?" asked Anguis.

The girl sent a small light orb in the direction where the voice was coming from. The orb, then, stopped when it touched something. The light the orb emitted revealed a hooded figure standing not far from the girls.

"BLARGH!" exclaimed the figure, raising its arms, making a scary pose.

"KYAAAA!" shrieked the girls. Even this scared the calm and collected Anguis, who didn't scream, but the surprise startled her enough to make her jump slightly.

"We're sorry!" said Lucy, not letting go of Levy and Wendy any second.

"We didn't mean to break in!" continued Wendy.

"Please, forgive us!" pleaded Levy.

The three girls closed their eyes, but when they noticed nothing was happening to them, they opened them again. It was then when they started to hear someone laughing. The figure grabbed the orb made of light Anguis created and brought it closer to its face and then removed its hood. The three scared girls' mouths hung open in disbelief when they saw who the person under the hood was.

"You should have seen the look on your faces," said Sora with a grin on his face. "Priceless."

"Sora, you idiot!" exclaimed an angry Lucy. "You scared the hell outta us!"

"Y-y-you jerk, don't ever do that again!" said Levy, small tears on her eyes.

Wendy whimpered. "Sora-san, that was mean!"

"Sorry, sorry," said Sora, a small smile on his face. "The lights went off and I heard you inside this room, so I couldn't help it. You're not mad, are you?"

The three girls turned their backs to the Keyblade wielder. "Hmph!"

"Hey, come on, don't be like that!" said Sora, taken aback by the girls' gesture. "Maybe I went a bit too far…"

"You really shouldn't have done that," said Carla, looking at Sora with scolding eyes.

"You really are cruel, Sora," said Happy, shaking his head.

"Come on, don't make me feel more guilty than I already do," said Sora while scratching the back of his head. "I get it, I won't do it again."

"You better!" said Lucy after turning to Sora. "If you do, we'll get angry for real."

"I promise I won't prank you again," said Sora, raising his hand while touching his chest with the other. Then, he noticed there was a girl in the room he didn't know and that she was looking at him with wide eyes and her mouth slightly open. "Hey there…I didn't scare you too, right? I'm sorry if I did."

"Oh no, it's just…" said Anguis after she snapped out of her thoughts. "Oh my god, he looks a lot like him…That'd explain why Cornis didn't want to talk about him with Vulpe."

"Who are you, by the way?" asked Sora, looking at Anguis with a kind smile.

"Her name is Anguis," said Levy. "We met here outside."

"She found out why the Heartless stared appearing in this forest," said Wendy, pointing at the sphere in the middle of the room. "It's that crystal sphere. There was an invisibility spell covering this house, but she could remove it and thanks to her we found the sphere."

"Really?" said Sora surprised. He looked at Anguis impressed. "You really are amazing, Anguis. I don't know if we could've finished this mission without your help."

Anguis shook her head and smiled. "You don't have to thank me. I was just doing my job as a…"

"As a…?" asked Sora curious.

"Never mind," said Anguis, realizing she almost said something she didn't want to. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Sora. They have been telling me a lot of good things about you and I really wanted to meet you after hearing all that."

Sora chuckled sheepishly. "Is that so?"

"Yeah, but after what you just did, I think I'm going to take it all back," said a grumpy Lucy.

"I knew you were going to say that…" said Sora, lowering his head. "Oh right, I almost forgot…There was some kind of explosion in the sky far from here. Erza is on her way there. She thinks Natsu could be fighting someone so she decided to go and check it out. I told her I'll go there after finding you."

"Natsu?" said Lucy. "We should go, then. I wonder what he's up to."

"Probably he's just fighting Gray again, but we should go just to be sure he's not in danger," said Carla. "We should do something about the sphere first, though."

"It will take some more time until my spell breaks the magic field," said Anguis while looking at the sphere. "The person who did this really took their time to create a strong field. I'll stay here until it finishes. You can go and see if your friend is all right."

"Thank you, Anguis, really," said Lucy with a grateful smile.

"We owe you a big one," said Sora, smiling at the purple-haired girl. "We'll leave this to you, then. Just be careful in case the Heartless decided to show up here, okay?"

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine," said Anguis, returning the smile.

"All right, let's go, then!" said Happy before crossing the door to leave the study.

Anguis watched how Sora and the mages left the room. She couldn't stop thinking about the Guild Master of the Light Guardians. It seemed that he reminded her of someone she knew or met before, and that troubled her. Also, for some reason, the idea of him and Vulpe meeting each other worried her even more.

"Just who are you, Sora?" muttered Anguis.

-TLG-

"Aaargh!"

Erza cried in pain as she was thrown to the ground with such great force that it was difficult for her to stand up again. After she and Sora split up, she headed for the part of the forest that was below the smoke she saw in the sky. She would have never imagined that when she got there, she would find her guildmates and friends fighting against a girl in a coat. Most of them were already unable to continue, but there were still some of them standing. But what shocked Erza the most was to find out that the person they were fighting was a Keyblade wielder, and it couldn't be a normal one since even Terra and Aqua were having trouble keeping up with her. One could tell that the girl got hit several times by the mages and the two Keyblade Masters because of the damage in her coat, but it didn't look like she was very affected by their blows.

"Erza, are you all right!?" asked Aqua as she helped the redhead on her feet.

"I'll be fine," said Erza, wincing in pain. "She hits really hard. And it doesn't seem our attacks are working at all. We've been fighting for a while and…"

"Come on, now it's not the time to think like that," said Terra, not looking away from Vulpe, the person they were fighting. The Twin Dragons, Gajeel, Kagura and Jura were trying to take her down at this moment. "We can't do this on our own, so don't let us down now."

"Don't worry, I wasn't planning on giving up," said Erza smirking. "Still, I don't know how we are supposed to defeat this girl…"

"We'll come up with something eventually," said Terra. "If not, we'll just have to wait until Sora gets here, although I don't know if it will be different with him here…"

Aqua lowered her head, a sad look on her face. "Sorry I got you into this. I shouldn't have cast that fire spell, but after she took down Araña and the others so fast, Kagura and I needed help urgently."

"Nonsense," said Terra. "You did well. Who knows what would have happened to you and the girls if you hadn't fired that signal."

Then, the five mages who were fighting Vulpe were thrown several feet away by her. They could hit her a few times, but she took all the hits as if it was nothing, and this frustrated them to no end. Their guildmates had been hurt by the girl and they couldn't do anything about it. The Trimens were out cold while the other mages were too tired or injured to continue fighting. Chelia was healing them one by one, but she was also in a bad state so she couldn't heal them all.

"Sting-sama! Rogue-sama!" exclaimed Yukino when she saw the Twin Dragons being knocked away. She tried to stand up, but she was really tired after using too many spirits to fight Vulpe.

"Yukino-san, you have to rest!" said Lector.

"Fro thinks so, too," said Frosch, who seemed to be worried sick about Rogue.

"Don't worry, Yukino!" said Sting, turning back to grin at the white-haired girl. "We're fine!"

"Shit, what's with this chick?" said Gajeel, clutching his arm as he tried to stand up. "She should be out cold after all the times we hit her."

"This is no normal Keyblade wielder," said Jura, who despite being one of the Ten Wizard Saints, his magic wasn't able to knock out the young Keyblade-wielding girl. This was shocking, not only for him, but also for the other mages, whose morale decreased when they saw Jura losing against Vulpe.

"Aqua," said Kagura, panting heavily as she stood up. The blue-haired Guardian looked at her. "It doesn't seem we can do more against her. No matter how many times we hit her, she just keeps fighting as if none of our attacks touched her. I don't know how much longer we'll be able to continue, so we need a different approach."

"Kagura…" said Aqua, her concern increasing.

"All right, who's next?" asked Vulpe casually as she played with her Keyblade, which didn't look very threatening at first sight because of its colors, but judging a book by its cover can lead to bad situations, like the one Terra, Aqua and the mages were at this moment.

"You…" said Aqua, looking at Vulpe with an angry expression. "If you think you're going to get away with this, you're very wrong!"

"Come here and fight me, then," said Vulpe smiling and poking out her tongue, although no one could see that because of her hood. "You know, I was expecting you and Terra to be more of a challenge than those mages. I guess I was expecting too much from you."

"Are you really doing this just for fun?" asked Terra frowning.

"I always enjoy a good challenge," replied Vulpe. "However, as I said before, the main reason I came here was to meet Sora. There's a reason Cornis didn't want to talk about him with me, and I want to know why. However, I ran into those men before, then Aqua appeared and you know the rest. You all just were unlucky."

"But I don't understand!" said Aqua. "You're a Keyblade wielder! Why would you attack people just for your own amusement!? That's not what the Keyblade is for!"

"Is that so?" said Vulpe, the tone in her voice changing momentarily. "As far as I know, the first Keyblades were forged in order to conquer something that I'm sure you've heard its name before."

"Kingdom Hearts," said Aqua, surprised that the hooded girl knew something like that. It was obvious she wasn't a novice Keyblade wielder, but Aqua didn't expect her to know about the origins of the Keyblade.

"There you go," said Vulpe. "Yes, there were also people who defended the light, but don't go saying that the Keyblade was made to protect people or something like that. It is a tool whose purpose depends on its wielder. I'm not saying what you're doing is wrong, though."

A look of bewilderment appeared on Terra's face. "You…Who are you and how can you know those things?"

"Anyway, let's forget about that boring topic." Vulpe returned to her usual attitude. "And instead of worrying about who I am, you should be more worried about the fact that I can kick your butts so easily."

"You really are irritating," said Erza, pointing at Vulpe with her sword. "I don't care who you are, but I can't let you leave this place after what you did without the proper punishment."

Vulpe laughed. "All right, let's have another round, then. However, this time, I'll start."

The hooded girl charged at Erza and the two Guardians, who prepared themselves to fight again. However, someone appeared when Vulpe was half-way to reach them and interfered before the battle could begin. It was Sora the one who stopped the girl's attack with his own Keyblade. His intention was to attack Vulpe, but she reacted fast enough and both Keyblades collided. Sora tried to attack the girl again, but she could dodge every swing of his Keyblade before jumping away.

"Sora!" said Erza when she saw the boy.

"Sorry it took me so long to come here," said Sora, and before the redhead knight could say anything, the rest of her group appeared.

"Erza!" said Lucy as she ran towards the S-Class Mage, followed by Levy, Wendy and the two Exceeds. She looked at Erza and the two Guardians next to her. "Oh god, you guys are really injured. And the others, too! What happened here?"

"That girl…" said Wendy, looking at Vulpe. Then she noticed the key-shaped sword she had in her right hand. "That's a…! It can't be!"

"Yeah, she's a Keyblade wielder," said Terra. "We've been fighting her for a while, but…Well, you can see it with your own eyes."

Happy looked around, searching for his Dragon Slayer partner. "I don't see Natsu here. Wasn't his magic what you saw in the sky, Erza?"

"No, it was mine," said Aqua. "My group ran into that girl. She defeated the girls before I could react, so I shot a fire spell to the sky, hoping any of you saw it. I knew Kagura and I weren't going to last long fighting her on our own…"

Lucy looked at the blue-haired Guardian. "Aqua…"

Despite having seen all her friends, lying wounded on the ground or unconscious, Lucy, found hard to believe that not even Kagura, the strongest mage of Mermaid Heel, and Aqua, a Keyblade Master that according to Sora could be the strongest of the Light Guardians, couldn't deal with that unknown girl on their own. Even Erza wasn't able to match the hooded girl's strength.

Meanwhile, Sora looked at the people who were in the clearing. The Trimens were slowly regaining consciousness, Juvia was helping Gray and Gajeel to stand up, Happy and Carla were helping Lily, Lector and Frosch, and Chelia was healing the members of Lamia Scale, Mermaid Heel and Sabertooth. Jura and Kagura were still standing, but it didn't look they could continue fighting for much longer.

Sora turned to the Sky Dragon Slayer. "Wendy."

The young Dragon Slayer looked at Sora. "Y-yes?"

"Could you please heal Erza and then help Chelia healing the others?" asked Sora as he looked for something inside one of his pockets.

Wendy nodded. "Right."

"Thanks," replied Sora smiling. Then, he tossed two Elixirs, which he grabbed from his pocket, to Aqua and Terra. "Those are the only ones I have, so make it count."

"You don't have to say it twice," said Terra after drinking the Elixir and throwing the bottle away.

Aqua put the empty Elixir bottle in one of her pockets after drinking it. "Sora, about that girl..."

"I know," said Sora, before Aqua could finish. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but I never thought one of them would show up so soon."

"It's doesn't matter," said Terra. "Even if you had told us about them, things here wouldn't have turned out differently. You can tell us what you know when we're done here."

"Now let's focus on our enemy," said Aqua. "Our friends are counting on us now, so we can't let them down."

"Right," said Sora, smiling at the two Keyblade Masters. He, then, looked at Vulpe, who had been standing in the same spot all this time. "Hey, don't you have something to say? Or did the cat have your tongue?"

Vulpe stood there, without moving an inch and staring at Sora. Then, she suddenly removed her hood, revealing the face of a girl with shoulder-length orange hair and green eyes. This surprised the Guardians and the mages, who were wondering why now of all moments Vulpe decided to show her face. She was young, probably the same age as Sora and Levy. At least, that's what it looked like.

"You…it can't be…" Vulpe looked dumbfounded at Sora. The tone of her voice was completely different from before. She sounded far more serious than when she talked with Aqua or Erza. "D-do you know who I am? Do you recognize me?"

"Never met you before, I'd remember," affirmed Sora.

Vulpe brought her hand to her face, as if her head started aching. "You…you are Sora, right?"

"Yeah, that's my name. What about it?"

A sad smile appeared on the orange-haired girl's face. "I see, so this is why you didn't want to tell me anything, Cornis. Guess I can't blame you."

"What's wrong with her?" thought Sora.

"Seeing your face takes me back, you know?" said Vulpe, a small grin on her face. She scratched her cheek nervously. "Well, obviously you don't know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I'm really glad I came here so I could meet you, Sora. I'm Vulpe, by the way."

Sora looked at the girl carefully. There was something particularly strange about her, but he couldn't figure out what it was. The boy decided to ask her a question to buy Wendy and Chelia some more time so they could heal everyone.

"Say…Vulpe, right?" said Sora.

Vulpe smiled cutely at Sora. "Yes?"

"I suppose you know the Keyblade wielder I met yesterday," said Sora. "He had a Keyblade with a Unicorn symbol on it. Does it ring any bell?"

"Yeah, that's Cornis," said Vulpe. "What about him?"

"I'm going to assume you know what he told me, so I'll go straight up to the question." Sora lowered his gaze for a second before looking at Vulpe again. "He told us you guys were going to give us time, so why are you doing this? Why did you come here and hurt them?"

"I didn't come here to fight them, I came here to meet you," replied Vulpe. Her answer surprised the boy. "It's just as I told them before, they were just unlucky to run into me."

"And don't you think you went too far!?" asked Sora, upset by the fact that Vulpe beat up his friends really bad. "And what do you mean you came here just to meet me?"

"You see, when I asked Cornis about you, he didn't want to tell me anything, so I came here to find out why," explained Vulpe. "Now I know why he avoided me. The resemblance is amazing."

"Resemblance?" asked Sora confused.

"Sora, don't let her trick you with her mind games!" said Erza. "She's just messing with you!"

"Excuse me, but we are having a private conversation right here," said Vulpe. It seemed that she was enjoying her little heart-to-heart with Sora and didn't want anyone to interrupt them. "And I'm not trying to mess with his head. I'm being dead serious here, so could you try to keep it quiet?"

Erza growled and her eye twitched. "She's getting on my nerves."

"It's strange," said Aqua, looking at Vulpe with an uncertain look on her face.

Terra looked at the blue-haired Guardian. "What is strange?"

"Her behavior changed the moment she saw Sora," replied Aqua. "She's treating him in a total different way, at least compared to how she treated us. It's like she knew Sora from before, but it doesn't seem Sora knows her at all."

"She did ask Sora if he could recognize her," said Terra, a pensive look on his face.

Meanwhile, Sora tried to understand what Vulpe meant. Did he resemble someone she knew? It wasn't like he cared much about it, but it looked like the orange-haired girl was actually happy because of it. He shook his head slightly, trying to focus and stop thinking about that.

"All right, what now?" asked Sora.

"What do you mean?" asked Vulpe, tilting her head.

"You said you came to Earth Land to meet me," said Sora, whose look on his face became more serious as he spoke. "Here I am, so what are you going to do now?"

"Aww, why are you looking at me like that?" asked Vulpe pouting. "Well, I guess it's because I hurt your friends."

"Wow, you're genius," said Sora.

Vulpe grunted. "Okay, I get it. You don't have to get sarcastic on me, spiky. Tell you what, let's spar a bit. Then, I'll leave."

Sora blinked in confusion. "Did you say spar?"

"Just the two of us, for old time's sake," said Vulpe. Then she realized she said something she didn't want to. She hit her head lightly and poked out her tongue in a cute way. "Oops, I did it again. I'm gonna end up confusing you more than you probably already are."

Sora sweat-dropped. "I don't get this girl…"

"Sora, don't do it!" said Terra.

"Don't listen to her, we have to stick together!" said Aqua, who knew that Sora would get really hurt if he fought Vulpe on his own. She ran towards the boy, only to be stopped by some kind of magic barrier.

Lucy raised her head and saw that a magic barrier separated Vulpe and Sora from her and the others. "When did she…?"

"I knew those two would try to interfere, so I put that barrier," said Vulpe with a smirk on her face. She looked at Sora again. "So, what do you say? You don't have to fight me, if you don't want to, but I'd really like to see your fighting style."

Sora was far from stupid; he knew he didn't have any possibilities to win against Vulpe. The girl had fought against almost the whole group and still looked full of energy to keep going. However, he had to try and do his best. She said spar, but Sora couldn't trust her completely so he was ready to fight seriously. Besides, he thought this could be a good way to find out how strong she and the other four Keyblade wielders were.

"All right, let's get this over with," said Sora, assuming his battle stance.

"Yes!" Vulpe was quite pleased with Sora's decision. "You are so awesome! Hey, I know I said we were going to spar, but if you want to go all out, be my guest. I'm a bit tired after fighting Terra, Aqua and all these mages, so I'll take it easy."

"Right…" Sora gripped his Keyblade tightly, his eyes fixed on Vulpe, waiting for the right moment to attack. "The more I talk to her, the less I understand her. This girl is really strange…It doesn't seem she's completely evil, at least. She didn't kill anyone, and I'm sure she could have done it. All right, let's focus…"

Wendy continued healing the mages with Chelia's help. They were almost done; the only ones left were Sting, Rogue, Gray and Gajeel. She couldn't help but look at the two Keyblade wielders who were about to fight in the middle of the clearing, feeling concern for one of them. She didn't doubt Sora's power, but Vulpe fought almost the entire Alliance and defeated them, so it was normal she was worried about the boy.

"Shit, we have to do something," said Sting, standing up after Wendy finished healing him. "There has to be a way to break that barrier."

"Sit tight, kid," said Gajeel, waiting for his turn to be healed. "You've fought that chick and felt her power on your own skin. You know it won't make any difference if we help him."

"Besides, she could get angry if we interfere," said Rogue. "She said she wanted to 'spar' with Sora alone. Who knows what she'd do if we get in her way."

"Looks like Sora will have to endure some hits until that crazy girl is satisfied," said Gray. Then he noticed that Wendy looked under the weather, most likely because of what he said. "Hey, don't worry about him, Wendy. You know he's a tough guy, so he can handle it."

"I know, but that doesn't make it easier," said Wendy in a low voice. "He knows he's going to get hurt, and he's still willing to do it."

"Well, that's Sora for you, isn't it?" said Gray smirking.

Wendy smiled. "You're right."

"Gray-sama, you're so wonderful~!" said Juvia with heart-shaped eyes, clinging herself to the Ice Mage's right arm.

Gray winced in pain. "Argh, don't grab me there, Juvia!"

Just as Gray finished his last sentence, as he tried to take Juvia off his arm, the battle between Sora and Vulpe began. The boy charged at Vulpe as fast as he could, preparing his Keyblade to swing it at her. Meanwhile, the girl just stood in the same place, waiting for Sora to get closer to her. This puzzled Sora, but he wasn't going to stop and think why she was doing that. The Guardian was now in front of Vulpe, so he tightened the grip on his Keyblade and performed a simple forward slash attack towards the orange-haired girl, but then, Sora stumbled back.

"What?" Sora touched the right side of his face, which was in pain. He deduced that Vulpe punched him in the face, but he wondered when she did it. He had been looking at her all the time. "I only blinked…Is she really that fast?"

"Sorry, did I hit you too hard?" taunted Vulpe with an innocent voice.

Sora frowned, letting Vulpe's provocation get to him. He, then, dashed forwards, unleashing a flurry of several slashes, resetting each time instead of redirecting his attacks, as Vulpe simply dodged each attack, moving her body swiftly in order to avoid them in a very laid-back, but extremely effective style. With every unsuccessful swing, Sora continued moving forward. He was doing his best to hit Vulpe, but no matter how hard he tried, the girl simply dodged his attacks. His last three blows were actually blocked by Vulpe's colorful Keyblade instead of being avoided, allowing the girl to break Sora's defenses and deliver a spinning hook kick, knocking him to the ground.

"You've got to be kidding me…" Sora, still on the ground, turned his head and looked at Vulpe, who winked at him before performing a drop kick. However, Sora dodged by rolling away, and subsequently springing up to attack once again.

Sora dashed forwards, performing a thrusting attack towards Vulpe. The girl, however, moved aside and countered through a pull in redirection of force technique, pulling Sora's arm in with her own left arm, and performing a well-executed ax kick to hit Sora on the chin, before kicking him in the stomach with a perfect side kick.

"Her kicks sure pack a wallop," thought Sora as he managed to not fall to the ground after Vulpe's last kick. He clutched his side with his free hand and turned to Vulpe only to see that she wasn't where she was supposed to be.

"Over here~!" said the girl, who appeared behind the Guardian.

Sora turned around and saw Vulpe charging at him, so he raised his Keyblade to block her. Neo then began attacking and pushing Sora back, now on the offensive, as the Guardian tried to counter her movements with his Keyblade. Vulpe was able to effortlessly land some punches and kicks as she broke Sora's guard repeatedly to do so. She continued doing it, until Sora managed to shoot a Firaga spell directly towards the girl's feet. Vulpe, however, simply performed a backflip and created some distance between her and Sora.

"Phew, that was kinda close…or maybe not?" said Vulpe smiling, taunting Sora, who growled before charging at Vulpe.

The girl waited for the Guardian to get closer and parried his attack when he was in front of her. Then, she countered with a three butterfly kicks, of which Sora could only avoid the first two, the third one sending him a few meters away from Vulpe. Sora quickly recovered and cast a Triple Plasma spell, launching three spheres of electricity toward his enemy. Vulpe raised her Keyblade and blocked the spell, something that Sora expected. He attacked Vulpe, thinking she wasn't able to react fast enough after blocking his spell, but the girl easily dodged with a pirouette.

"You missed~," said Vulpe.

Sora engaged her again and she started blocking his blows. The Guardian tried to use a Blizzaga spell on her, but she made Sora miss by hitting the Kingdom Key before the spell could come out of it. Then, she threw a kick at Sora, but fortunately, he could grab her foot and pull her closer to throw her. However, Vulpe recovered almost instantly and countered by grappling Sora and using her momentum to throw him into the air, making him collide against the top part of the magic barrier. Sora fell to the ground and tried to stand up.

Sora winced in pain. "Argh, dammit!"

Vulpe looked at Sora and sighed. "Hey, I know I said sparing, but you could take this a little more seriously, you know? I'm getting kinda bored. The fight against your friends was much longer and they were, by far, more of a challenge than you. They were more yeah, but it is not like I fought them all at the same time. At least they could hit me a lot of times, but you haven't done it once. I was expecting more from the guy who finished that old man Xehanort."

"She just had to mention him," thought Sora, irked by Vulpe's comment.

"All right, no more playing around," said Vulpe as she stretched her body. She, then, looked at Sora with a smirk and a determined look on her eyes. "This time I'll be using my Keyblade to hit you, so you'd better fight seriously now. I want to see what you're made of."

"Oh no…" said Aqua when she heard Vulpe.

"Okay, we have to do something now!" said Sting.

Jura stepped forward. "Everyone, use your magic to destroy this barrier! We must help him!"

Sora looked confused at her, and the he realized she hadn't been hitting him with her Keyblade. He realized she wasn't joking when she said she was going to take it easy. The boy wondered if she also went easy on his friends. Anyway, this time she was going to fight seriously, so Sora had to go all out, too.

"The plan was just to let her have her fun, but it seems that's not going to work. It's not like I can do much more without using…Damn, guess I'll have to use a Drive Form if I want to return to Radiant Garden with all my bones intact," thought Sora. It surprised him that he was actually considering using a Drive Form. "It's risky using this one, but considering who I'm fighting, I guess I have no choice."

"So, are you going to take this more seriously or not?" asked Vulpe.

"Fine, but you'll have to wait a second," replied Sora as he prepared himself to use one of his Drive Forms.

"Okie dokie, but don't keep me waiting too much," said Vulpe, curious to see what Sora had planned.

Meanwhile, the mages and Keyblade wielders were still trying to break the magic barrier.

"Crap, it's no use," said Gray, punching the force field.

"Aqua, maybe you should try with one of your strongest spells," said Terra. He looked at the female Keyblade wielder and noticed she was looking at something surprised. "Hey, what are you-"

"Look at Sora," said Aqua, a look of concern on her face.

Terra turned to Sora and saw that his body had a bright aura surrounding it. "Don't tell me he's going to run that risk…"

"What is he doing?" asked Kagura as she looked at Sora with confusion.

"I've seen him doing this before…" said Erza, trying to remember when that was.

"Me too," said Wendy. "It was outside Fairy Hills, before we went to Akane Resort, seven years ago. Sora-san told Erza-san and I about an ability of his that changed the colors of his clothes. He could get a lot stronger and use new abilities."

"Drive Forms," said Aqua, and the mages looked at her. "As Wendy said, when Sora uses them, he becomes a lot stronger; however, it has a drawback if he uses them too frequently."

"And what is the inconvenient, Aqua-chan?" asked Lyon.

"Did he just call me…?" thought the blue-haired Guardian, but put it aside and continued. "Sorry, but I don't think that's something I should tell you. Although, I think some of you already know what could happen to him."

"There is a price when you abuse power," said Terra. He was wondering why Lyon called Aqua like that. It was kinda bothering him, but he also decided to put it aside. "And abusing power can beckon the darkness. I'll leave it at that."

"I see, so it was that," muttered Erza, realizing that Sora was actually putting a lot at stake when he used the Drive Forms.

"Erza-san, do you know what it is?" asked Hibiki.

"I came to a conclusion, and it makes sense," replied the Reequip Mage. She turned to the Trimens. "You should know it, too. It's related to what we found out in Sora's trial, seven years ago."

The look on the faces of the four members of the Trimens changed when they realized what Erza was referring to. They had forgotten about the trial and what happened in Crocus, but not completely since they quickly remembered what happened.

"I was checking there weren't any Heartless in Crocus when the kid was on trial," said Gajeel. He was one of the members of Fairy Tail who still didn't know about Sora's Anti Form. "What happened there?"

"Juvia doesn't know either," said the Water Mage, a bit curious to know what the other mages were talking about.

"No one told you anything about what happened in the court?" asked Gray, raising an eyebrow at Juvia and the Iron Dragon Slayer. "I'm surprised something like that didn't spread through Fiore."

"I guess the Council made sure it didn't get spread through the continent," said Lyon. "It's the least they could do, if you ask me."

Gray nodded. "I have to agree with you on that."

"Kagura-chan, do you know anything about this?" asked Millianna.

"I have heard he was put on trial for destroying part of the king's castle," replied Kagura. "I don't know anything besides that."

Aqua's eyes widened like saucers. "He did what!?"

"Oh, didn't you know?" asked Araña. "I heard he got into a fight with someone inside the castle and part of it was destroyed during the battle."

"Oh my god…" Aqua placed her hand on her face. She knew Sora could be really impulsive sometimes, but destroying part of the castle of a king was too much. "Surely he didn't do it on purpose, but still…"

"Come on, don't be so hard on him," said Risley smirking mischievously. "It's not like he's the only of you who has destroyed private property in accident."

Aqua flinched, an awkward expression appearing on her face. "You just had to bring that up…"

"Hey, Aqua…" said Terra in a stern voice, making Aqua flinch again. "What did you do?"

"Nothing, nothing," said Aqua, waving her hands defensively and an awkward smile on her face.

Happy flew towards Terra. "She destroyed an old historical church in Freesia Town."

"H-hey, it was just part of it, not the entire thing!" protested Aqua.

"How could you do something like that?" asked Terra stunned. "I thought you were more cautious than that, Aqua."

"Well, I don't know if you noticed, but our magic is a bit more effective in this world," replied Aqua, who wasn't very happy explaining about her little accident with the church. "I wanted to try a new spell and I miscalculated…"

"You really need to be more careful," said Terra, making Aqua lower her head a bit ashamed.

"Hey, don't scold her!" said Lyon, pointing accusingly at Terra. The mages looked troubled at the scene.

"What's with him, seriously?" thought Terra. "I'm just saying that-"

"Oh, don't worry about that, Aqua-san." Sting interrupted Terra to try to cheer up Aqua. "Terra destroyed an old historic clock tower in Tully Village when we were on a mission there."

"Hey, Sting!" Terra looked at his second Guild Master with a shocked face.

"What?" Sting shrugged. "It's true."

"Oh." Aqua looked at Terra with an unamused face. "So you were here, telling me off, when you did the same thing I did. I see…"

"Hey, it's not the same thing!" protested Terra. "I just made a big Heartless crash against that clock tower because I hit it with too much force! You, however, were reckless testing a new spell!"

Aqua remained calm despite Terra was still telling her off. "It's the same."

Terra was starting to get annoyed. "No, it is not!"

"Yes, it is."

"Magic Nerd!"

Aqua snapped. "What!? Don't call me that, Muscle Head!"

Rogue sighed. "And now they're fighting."

"Sting-sama, you shouldn't have said that," said Yukino.

"Hey, it's not my fault!" said Sting.

"Well, even the best of friends fight now and then, so it's okay," said Erza nodding.

"It is love," said Sherry, sighing dreamily.

"Hey, you two, stop arguing and act your age!" Carla scolded the two Keyblade Masters. "Right now it's not the time to be-!"

Carla was interrupted by a huge flash of light that was coming from inside of the magic barrier that separated them from Sora and Vulpe. It looked like Sora managed to use a Drive Form since the light was coming from him.

"He did it?" asked Terra, covering his eyes with his arm because of the blinding light.

As the amount of light decreased, the people outside the barrier could open their eyes and look at Sora, whose clothes changed to silvery white and black, with symbols on his pants somewhat resembling an eye with a wind pattern. There were also two large sparkles of pure white light that moved randomly around him with a white wisp following them. However, as expected, a second Keyblade didn't appear as it used to when he had Ven's heart inside him.

Lucy's eyes widened, impressed by Sora's Drive Form. "Wow."

"So awesome," said Wendy and Chelia at the same time.

"I've seen that one before," said Erza, touching her chin.

"Really? That's his Final Form, his most powerful one," said Terra. "It would explain why it took him some time to activate it. Guess Sora's going all out, but that's the logical thing to do considering who his opponent is."

"Mmmm, Sora-kun's parfum seems more powerful now," said Ichiya.

"It's kinda similar to your magic, Erza," said Levy. "Well, it's just a recolored version of his usual clothes, but it sure does feel different."

"It's like our Dragon Force, in a way," said Sting, referring to Rogue and him. "Perhaps Sora-san can…"

"I'm not so sure about that," said Terra. "Yes, Sora is much stronger in that form, but that girl is insanely powerful. He'll be able to defend himself as long as the Drive Form is activated, but I don't think he'll be able to knock her out."

"Well, you never know," said Lily. "Sora can be quite unpredictable sometimes."

"That's true," admitted Terra. "Perhaps he has something up his sleeve."

Aqua, meanwhile, had her gaze fixed at Sora. "He's strong…Was it like that the last time I saw him using it? No, it's much more powerful than the last time. It's because of all the training he did with Riku and Kairi these last two years? No, there has to be something else…"

Sora looked at his clothes, a sigh of relief coming from him as soon as he saw the transformation was successful. Then, like Aqua, he noticed something he didn't expect. He felt far more powerful than the last time he used the Final Form.

"What's this? I feel so much power…and this hot sensation going through my body…" Sora looked at his empty left hand. "As expected I can only use my Keyblade, but it looks like, despite that, this Drive Form is more powerful than the last time I used it. I don't think I can defeat her, but…"

"Uuuh, I like the new outfit," said Vulpe, looking at Sora in awe. "So, shall we begin? Let's make it quick. It's getting late, and I don't want to miss out on my beauty sleep."

A smirk appeared on Sora's face. "Sure."

Vulpe raised an eyebrow. "What's with that confident look on his face? I know I was never good at sensing power, but I can tell he's stronger in that form. However, there's no way…Wait, what's this?"

The girl noticed that the wind slightly got up. She took a quick look at the people outside the barrier to see if it was Chelia using her magic, but she wasn't doing anything. Vulpe looked at Sora again and noticed that his body was floating. His hair and clothes slowly flowed as if he was being held by the wind.

"All right, let's see how strong this form is now," thought Sora, the smirk still on his face. He got a tight grip of his Keyblade and assumed a different battle stance from his usual one.

Vulpe eyed Sora as she also prepared to start fighting. She saw how the leader of the Light Guardians was getting ready to run at her, although he wasn't touching the ground so she thought Sora was probably going to glide at her. She got into a defensive position and waited for Sora to attack her.

"Yeah, there's no way-" Vulpe's thoughts were interrupted when the brown-haired Keyblade wielder shot out at her with a speed similar to the Zantetsuken's. Despite her shock, she could keep her guard up and block Sora's attack. The Guardian charged at her with enough force that he was being able to push her back. She, however, could step firmly on the ground and stop Sora from pushing her back more, even though he had already pushed her almost to the limit of the barrier.

"So, how's this?" asked Sora confidently.

"Heh, not bad, Sora," replied Vulpe. "But you'll have to do it better than this if you want to impress me."

Then, Vulpe swung her Keyblade making Sora move back. Before she could attack, the Guardian quickly threw his Keyblade at the orange-haired girl, who simply smiled as she hit the Kingdom Key and sent it away from her and his owner. She found funny that after that unusually powerful charging attack, Sora was trying to hit her with a simple Strike Raid; however, it didn't take her look to find out it wasn't as simple as that. Vulpe noticed how, as Sora smirked at her, the Keyblade she hit stopped mid-air and flew at her.

Vulpe didn't expect this at all. "Telekinesis!? Are you serious!?"

Sora commanded his Keyblade to continuously attack Vulpe as he created a sword made of magic, similar to Ventus' Wingblades. It wasn't the same as having a second Keyblade, but it was definitely better than nothing. Using just one sword while in his Final Form was very inefficient after all. As soon as he was done creating the Lightblade, Sora approached Vulpe and started attacking her with both swords. This time Vulpe couldn't just block, so she had to start dodging too. She was actually managing to avoid Sora's strikes, but she couldn't counterattack.

"Come on, didn't you say you were going to hit me with your Keyblade now?" taunted Sora.

"Oooh, getting cocky, are we?" said Vulpe smirking. Then, when she saw an opportunity between Sora's strikes, she cast a Reflega spell. This was unexpected for Sora, who couldn't stop his swords fast enough before they touched the barrier. He pulled back as the barrier activated a counter blast, which produced an explosion that could have hurt Sora really bad if he hadn't dodged it.

"I made her use magic," thought Sora as his Keyblade and Lightblade moved to his back. "That's good, I guess. At least I'm not making it as easy as before for her."

Then, Vulpe appeared from the smoke the explosion of her spell created. She quickly charged at Sora, attacking him with fast slashes with her Keyblade. The boy almost couldn't react in time, but fortunately, he could block her blows with the Lightblade and tried to counterattack with the Keyblade. Vulpe, however, started moving faster than before and parried Sora's counter and swung her Keyblade at him. Sora moved aside, dodging the attack, and moved back before making a gesture with his right arm. The boy sent the Lightblade, which started spinning incredibly fast, at Vulpe; however, she jumped over it.

"Gotcha!" Vulpe lunged at Sora as fast as lightning, but with a flick of his wrist, the Guardian moved his Keyblade in front of him and blocked the girl's attack. She, then, started swinging her Keyblade repeatedly and with an amazing speed, performing a long combo of quick acrobatic slashes. To Sora, it was like being attacked by Ventus' Ars Arcanum, but it looked like that was Vulpe's natural speed and not a special technique.

If it weren't because of his Final Form, Sora wasn't sure if he could have blocked that flurry of attacks, but since the Drive Form was still enabled, he could use his two swords to stop every single one from landing a hit on him.

Sora chuckled and grinned. "Think again."

Vulpe smiled in return before jumping back, creating some distance between Sora and her.

"I'm impressed," said Vulpe. "You're able to defend yourself from my strikes. However, you still haven't touched me once yet. Come on, if your friends could do it, then I think you can."

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" asked Sora.

"And you?" asked Vulpe in response.

The two Keyblade wielders looked at each other, smiles appearing on their faces before they dashed forward at each other. The two started exchanging blows as they moved fast around the area within the magic barrier Vulpe created. Meanwhile, the others looked at the fight in awe.

Terra turned to Aqua. "Is it me or is he…?"

"Yeah, he's actually having fun," said Aqua, not very pleased. "Boys…"

Terra chuckled. "Well, at least he's all right. But was that Drive Form that powerful? I knew his Final Form was like his triumph card, but it seems much stronger than when he used it in the Keyblade Graveyard the last time."

"Its power increased outstandingly," affirmed Aqua. "I know he has been training with Riku and Kairi these two years, but I didn't expect it to be powerful enough to keep up with that girl. After all this time, he's still getting stronger."

Happy nodded. "Aye, he's the main character, after all!"

"The main what?" asked Aqua confused.

"As I thought, something unexpected happened," said Lily, smiling satisfactorily.

"Tch, to think he had something like that when we fought in front of the guild seven years ago," said Gajeel, who was kinda bothered when he found out Sora wasn't going all out in their duel. Although he should already know since everyone who knew Sora was aware that he only fights with all his power when his friends or his own life is in danger. He wasn't the only one, though.

"So, you don't want to fight him again?" asked Levy.

"Are you kidding, shrimp?" asked Gajeel. The bluenette grunted at the nickname. "Now I want that rematch more than before."

Levy sighed. "You're really hopeless."

Yukino looked impressed at the fight before turning to Lucy. "You weren't kidding when you said he was amazing."

"Of course," said Lucy, a proud smile on her face. "And it was me the one who recruited him for Fairy Tail. I do have an eye for this sort of things, if you ask me. I could tell he was really skilled the moment I met him."

"Well, he saved your ass from the Heartless, after all," said Gray smirking.

"Shut up, Gray," said Lucy annoyed.

"Wow, he sure is strong," said Millianna. "What do you think, Kagura-chan?"

"I have to admit I didn't expect him to last this long against her," replied the swordswoman. "I guess that's why he's the Guild Master. Still, I don't know if that will be enough to take that girl down. He's defending himself quite well, but he still hasn't managed to land a hit."

Erza observed the fight and realized that Kagura had a point. Sora still hadn't touched Vulpe once, but at least all her attacks were being blocked by the boy. She assumed Sora just wanted to satisfy Vulpe to make her leave, but if by any chance, Sora had something planned, he would have to try harder. Thinking about this was making Erza feel a bit frustrated, mostly because of the magic barrier that was separating her and her friends from helping Sora.

Sora and Vulpe, meanwhile, continued attacking each other at high speeds around the filed inside the barrier. The Guardian was impressed at how much energy the girl had, even after fighting almost the entire group. It was making him wonder if the other four were like her, and thinking about it worried him. Then, another thought came to his mind, which was that, perhaps, he could try to capture Vulpe. If he succeeded, the Guardians would have an advantage over the five Keyblade wielders. However, to do that, he needed to take her by surprise, and that wasn't going to be easy.

"My magic should also be more powerful, so a Binding spell should do the job," though Sora as he continued sparing with Vulpe. "But for the spell to work, I need to hit her with it. I still have time until the Final Form wears down, so I think I can give it a try. All right, let's do this."

As she fought Sora, Vulpe noticed that the look on the boy's eyes changed. Then, she saw how he began to raise his arms. She had no idea what he was going to do, but something was telling her to get out of there fast. She jumped highly as a huge twister of flames with fireballs covered Sora. A second later, and she would have been burned by the boy's spell.

"Phew, now THAT was close," said Vulpe as she looked down at Sora.

"I'm not done yet!" Without wasting any second, Sora looked up and started shooting pairs of ice blocks at the girl before she could land. Vulpe broke the blocks with her Keyblade as they got closer to her. Then, Sora shot several barrages of those blocks, but before Vulpe could break them, he cast an Aeroga spell, creating a strong wind stream that started moving the ice blocks around the girl and also kept her in the air. Before the Aeroga spell wore down, it brought the ice blocks closer to Vulpe fast.

"Defense!" exclaimed Vulpe, casting a Reflega spell again in order to protect herself from Sora's ice blocks. The moment the ice touched the girl's magic barrier, a huge explosion was produced by it, surrounding Vulpe with smoke, which wasn't letting her see what was going on around her.

"Gotcha!" Before the girl could even swing her Keyblade to dispel the smoke, Sora appeared from above her. She was shocked when she saw how close he was already. She didn't have time to protect herself and, finally, got hit by Sora's blades. The boy's strike was strong enough to make her crash hard against the ground.

Sora landed as Vulpe stood up after having being sent crashing to the now broken ground.

"Sora, you meanie," said Vulpe, a slight expression of pain on her face. "I'd have never thought you would hit me that hard."

"He did it!" said Lyon surprised.

"But just one normal hit won't work on her," said Sherry.

"That wasn't a normal Keyblade strike," said Aqua, completely sure that Sora didn't just hit Vulpe with a normal attack.

The mages looked confused at Aqua before looking at the battle field again. Their gazes landed on Vulpe, whose body started to feel staggered after she stood up, something she didn't expect. Ropes made of light appeared around the girl's body, not allowing her to move, which surprised Terra and the mages.

"A Binding Strike," said Terra, his eyes widening in surprise. "He had planned to capture her."

"And it looks like his plan was a success," said Araña, observing the apparently captured Vulpe.

"Binding magic, really?" said Vulpe looking at her body and wriggling a bit before turning to Sora again. The expression on her face softened, a small blush tainting her cheeks. "My, who would have thought you liked this kind of things, Sora? What are you going to do now? Feel me up? Please, be gentle~."

"W-w-what!? What are you saying!?" exclaimed Sora, his face completely red. "Why in the worlds would I do something like that!?"

Vulpe laughed at Sora's reaction. "Aww, you're so cute when you're embarrassed. Well, I have to give you props for being able to put me into a Binding spell. I wonder why your two friends hadn't tried to do it when we were fighting. Anyway, I'm sorry, but I'm not into being tied up, so…"

Sora looked at Vulpe and noticed that she was actually managing to break his spell. He could see how the light-made ropes were starting to give in, so he had to do something fast. Another Binding spell should be enough to hold her down. Sora charged at Vulpe, preparing his two weapons as he got closer; however, when he was in front her, something happened. His Drive Form reached its limit and Sora reverted to his normal form.

Wendy gasped. "Oh no!"

"Dammit, he ran out of time!" said Terra, punching the magic barrier.

"What!? Already!?" thought a shocked Sora. "But I should still have time!"

Vulpe looked at Sora with surprise before a sympathetic smile appeared on her face. She broke free from the Binding spell the leader of the Guardians put her into and quickly approached Sora. With a kick, she sent the Kingdom Key away from its owner. Then, she grabbed Sora's wrists and pinned him down.

"Hey, get off me!" said Sora as he struggled, but he was feeling tired. Using the Final Form wore him down and he hadn't enough strength to fight back.

"Hehe, feeling a little exhausted?" asked Vulpe. "You can't expect to be full of energy after using a power like that. I feel kinda bad for tricking you into using that."

"What?" asked Sora confused.

"Come on, did you really think I was going to go all out on you?" Vulpe got her face closer to Sora's. "I just said that to see what you were capable of, and I have to say I'm very satisfied but disappointed at the same time. If you need that transformation to be able to fight against one of us, then I'd recommend you to get stronger. I don't want you to get hurt, so train hard, okay?"

Sora looked at Vulpe with suspicion. "Why are you caring about me?"

"Mmm, I guess I took a liking to you," replied Vulpe smiling. "Anyway, I really have fun sparing with you, so I'll keep my word and leave. But let me give you a small reward before I leave…"

"What the hell is she doing?" said Gray.

"Oh, my. Kids these days are mature for their age," said Happy.

"Hey, Happy, don't-" Before he could finish talking, Terra felt something in his right hand, the one that was touching the magic barrier. He could move his hand forward, meaning that the field vanished. "The barrier's gone!"

After hearing this, Aqua simply drew her Keyblade. She looked at Terra, who also summoned his, and the two nodded at each other before they started running toward Sora and Vulpe. Vulpe was distracted, and they had to take this opportunity to attack. However, the second they started running, someone appeared from above, charging at the orange-haired girl with fire engulfing his hand.

"Natsu!" said the mages.

The pink-haired boy with the hand covered in flames didn't go unnoticed by Vulpe. It was hard not to see someone so noisy charging at you, after all. She quickly jumped backwards, avoiding the Fire Dragon Slayer punch. Natsu stood between Sora and Vulpe to make sure she didn't get close to the Keyblade wielder.

"Sora, are you all right?" asked Natsu. He turned a moment to look at Sora, only to see that he had a strange look on his face. "Hey, what's wrong? You're putting the same expression as Erza when she found out what kind of underwear Lucy wears."

"Hey, you!" exclaimed Lucy, irritated and embarrassed at the same time.

Sora blinked, returning to his senses. "Ah, yeah, I'm all right…Where have you been, by the way?"

"Fighting Heartless all this time," replied Natsu, looking again at Vulpe. "I even took down a huge one. Have you guys been fighting this chick? Is she strong?"

"Yeah, but she's leaving now," said Sora, as he stood up. He only managed to stand on one knee since he still hadn't recovered from using the Final Form.

"What!?" asked Natsu in disbelief. "But I haven't fought you yet!"

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I promised Sora I'd leave after sparing with him." Vulpe created a portal, very similar to a Corridor of Darkness, but made of light instead. "Guardians, mages, it's been a pleasure. And Sora…I hope we see each other soon. Maybe we could fight for real then."

With that, Vulpe disappeared into the portal, which closed after she crossed it. Sora looked at the spot where the portal disappeared. He felt relief, now that Vulpe left, but he was still wondering why she was treating him as if she had known him for a long time. The, Sora realized there was something on the ground, close to him. It was a white and blue fox mask with two pointed ears.

"Did she drop this?"

-TLG-

After Vulpe left, everyone regrouped and went to Master Bob's old house. Lucy, Levy and Wendy told everyone about the girl she met and how she found the big crystal sphere that seemed to be attracting the Heartless to Worth Woodsea. They went inside and saw that the crystal was destroyed, but there was no sign of the girl Lucy and the others mentioned. Now they were outside, in front of the house. Sora just finished explaining everyone about what he learned from the Keyblade wielder he met in Remnant.

Terra crossed his arms and sighed. "Five, huh?"

"And they're trying to take over the worlds…" said Aqua. "But if they are fighting the Heartless, then that means they don't want to cover them with darkness, so they're not working with Maleficent."

Sora nodded. "That's it."

"Geez, I wonder what's with that obsession of ruling over the worlds," said Gray, thinking of Xehanort as he spoke. "Keyblade wielders have a few screws loose. Uh, no offense to you guys."

"None taken," replied the three Guardians.

"So, how many of them do we know already?" asked Ren.

"Well, there's this girl, Vulpe," said Sherry. "That makes one."

"The guy in Remnant, Cornis," said Sora. "Two."

"That crazy girl mentioned someone called Ursus being here," said Risley.

"That has to be the one we ran into before," said Sting. "Three."

"And the guy who left Sora that message in Amestris," said Aqua. "Do you know his name?"

Sora shook his head. "I don't."

"The man we encountered mentioned someone by the name of Leo," said Juvia. "It could be him."

"Is that it?" asked Hibiki. He was using his magic, Archive, to convert all the information about those Keyblade wielders into magical data. "We still don't know one of them, then."

"Anguis," said Levy.

"Who?" asked Eve.

"That's the name of the girl you met, right?" said Beth.

"Wait, you think Anguis is one of them?" asked Lucy somewhat stunned. "Why do you think that?"

"It's true there was something strange about her," said Carla. "She seemed to know more than she let on. Besides, she came to this place all by herself, knowing that there were a lot of Heartless. No sane person would do that, unless they were completely sure they could take care of those monsters with ease."

"Also, her coat…didn't it remind you of the one Vulpe had?" asked Levy. "She even mentioned some friends of her that could be doing wrong things…"

"But she seemed so nice," said Wendy, lowering her gaze with a tad of sadness.

"She could have just been trying to trick you," said Gray. "You've seen how cunning and deceitful that girl we fought was. It wouldn't surprise me if the one you met was like that, too. Sora, you also talked with her, right? What do you think?"

"It is true she appeared to be a nice person," said Sora. "Also, she didn't do anything to them, but Cornis and Ursus didn't attack anyone either, at least not yet…I don't know what to think, to be honest. Wait…Aqua, you said you could feel Vulpe and Ursus, but did you sense a third Keyblade wielder?"

"No, just those two," replied Aqua. "If that girl you're talking about was a Keyblade wielder, I would have noticed."

"Anyway, what are you going to do about these Keyblade wielders?" asked Lily.

"You mean 'we'," said Sora, making Gray and the other mages look at him perplexed. A grin appeared on Sora's face. "Come on, I thought you said you wanted to be of more help to us. You are involved in this now. It's not going to be easy to stop them, so your help will come in handy."

"So we're finally taking part in this," said Gray smirking.

Gajeel chuckled. "If I can crush some strong guys, I'm in."

"I'm starting to regret saying that…" muttered Lucy. Knowing she might have to fight one of those Keyblade wielders in a future scared her, but she wanted to help anyway. She smiled at Sora. "I guess it can't be helped, huh?"

"Oh yeah!" Natsu was obviously pleased with this. "They'll regret trying to mess with us. And I have a score to settle with that girl."

Lucy sighed. "You're still thinking about that?"

"That's Natsu for you!" said Happy.

Sora chuckled before looking at the teams of Blue Pegasus and Lamia Scale. "They're not here, but I'm sure Riku and Kairi will appreciate your help."

"Come on, you don't have to ask." Lyon and his guildmates smiled at Sora. "We were going to help you, even if you didn't want us to do it. We owe you the safety of our world, after all."

"It's been a while since I fought with someone that strong," commented Jura, a look full of determination on his face. "This will be interesting."

"We'll have to get stronger if we don't want to lose again against that lady and her friends," said Ichiya. "Very well, we'll have to start training as soon as we return to the guild!"

"Yes, Ichiya-sama!" said Hibiki, Ren and Eve at the same time.

"At least they're taking this seriously," thought Aqua smiling. She turned to Kagura and the other members of Mermaid Heel. "I suppose you also want to help, right?"

Kagura sighed. "Are you seriously asking that?"

"Mermaid Heel can't let the other guilds take all the good bits, after all," said Araña.

"Those guys will learn to not underestimate us," said Risley.

"Guess our training sessions will have to be more intense, Yukino," said Sting. "We can't lazy around now."

The white-haired Celestial Mage nodded. "I think the same."

"By the way, Sora, do the other Guardians know about this?" asked Rogue. "If not, you should return to Radiant Garden and tell them as soon as possible."

"Yes, another Guardian was with me when Cornis appeared and he went to Radiant Garden already," explained Sora. "But we'll have to tell them about what happened here, so we should return too."

"Take this, then," said Hibiki, giving Sora a sphere made of Lacrima, bigger than the ones Maleficent uses with the Heartless. "All the information we have about those Keyblade wielders is here. You just have to activate with some magic and it will display the information. It also has a recording of the fight."

"Wow, thanks, Hibiki," said Sora gratefully. "Your magic is really useful."

"It's not much, but all the information we can collect about them is useful," said Hibiki. "This is the only thing we have for now. Well, and that mask you picked up."

"Oh, right," said Sora, looking at the fox mask he had in his left hand. "I don't know why Vulpe had something like this, but it seems important. Perhaps we can find who she is with this."

"Now that you've mentioned her," said Erza. "I'm sure you noticed that the she treated you better than she treated us. She was especially nice to you."

"Yeah, I know," said Sora. "According to something she said, I remind her of someone. It must be someone close to her. It makes me curious…How many people we know that look like…"

Sora, Terra and Aqua looked at each other, their eyes wide. It looked like they knew of someone that looked like Sora, and by the look on their faces, one could tell they hadn't good memories of that person.

Aqua spoke after a moment of silence. "You think…?"

"No, it can't be," said Terra. "We would have seen Unversed if it was him."

Erza raised an eyebrow. "Unversed?"

"Uh oh," thought Sora. "It's nothing, forget about it! We should get going! Terra, where did you leave the Gummi Ship?"

"You could try to be more subtle, Sora," thought Lucy amused. "Well, time to get back to the Magnolia. I'm glad we could finish this job, even though it was someone who wasn't part of the group."

"I'll be going with Sora and Aqua," said Terra, looking at the Sabertooth's members. "We can go on more missions when I return to visit."

"Sure," said Sting grinning, fist-bumping with Terra.

"We'll look forward your next visit, Terra-sama," said Yukino.

"Come back soon," said Frosch.

"You're going to leave, too, Aqua-chan?" asked Millianna.

Aqua nodded. "I have to check how the other Guardians are doing. I'll come to visit you before you know it."

"Don't go breaking any churches out there, okay?" said Risley jokingly.

Sora looked at the chubby girl. "What did you say?"

"Nothing, she said nothing!" said Aqua, covering Sora's ears. "Risley, stop that already!"

Risley laughed. "Okay, okay."

"Aqua, I'll be waiting for you," said Lyon. "The next time we see each other, I'll assure you I will be stronger."

Chelia whimpered. "Lyon…"

"R-right…" said Aqua nervously. "Sora, Terra, let's leave now, please."

"All right," said Sora, who was smiling amused at the situation. He turned to the Fairy Tail team. "You guys take care. And remember, I'm counting on you."

"We won't let you down, Sora-san," said Wendy, her eyes full of determination.

"Take care and don't get into trouble, would you?" said Levy smiling.

"Right, right," said Sora, returning the smile. He waved his hand at the mages before turning around, starting to follow Terra and Aqua to the Gummi Ship.

"Ah, Sora-sama, I almost forgot something!" said Yukino, making the leader of the Guardians stop and turn to her.

"What is it?" asked Sora.

"The last day I worked as a soldier in Mercurius, Princess Hisui asked me to tell you something," replied Yukino. "She wishes you luck in your travels and she also informed everyone in the castle about you, so if someday you're in Fiore and have some free time, don't doubt in visiting her."

"I see, thanks for the message, Yukino," said Sora smiling nervously. Then, he noticed how almost everyone was looking at him with teasing smiles. He didn't like that one bit. "What's with those faces, huh!?"

"I didn't know you knew this kingdom's princess," said Terra surprised.

"You really need to stop doing that, Sora," said Aqua with a stern voice, looking at Sora with scolding eyes.

"Stop what!? I didn't do anything!" exclaimed Sora. "Let's leave already!"

-TLG-

---

Well, I wanted to give some screen time to the new Keyblade wielders, so I enjoyed writing this chapter. As you could read, the Final Form is now much more powerful. Does it have an explanation? Yes, but it will be explained later in the story. Also, I know that, in KH2, when you used the Final Form, the Anti Form couldn't be activated, but I changed that. It's going to be mentioned in the next chapter, but I wanted to say it just in case someone asked about that.

Those who read the Fairy Tail manga...I'm not going to spoil anything, but those who read it know that I might have trouble with the Fairy Tail part of this story because of what happened at the end of the last arc. I don't know what I'm going to do with the Tournament Arc, so I need to see what happens in the next chapter of the manga. Mashima is a troll.

To boras1c: Ah, I see. Well, surely I'll throw moments between Roxas and Naminé. I don't know when, but I assure you there will be some.

To AnimeMasterDub: 1) I think you can deduce it from the name I gave her. 2) Answered in this chapter. 3) Don't know, maybe? 4) I don't know. 5) Genie will probably be the next. 6) Answered in this chapter. 7) Yes. 8) Refrain from making any comments about updates. 9) Doubt it. 10) You'll have to wait and see it for yourself.

To Bebuzzu: The same to you! They are official from Square Enix, but they don't have names and they didn't show us their faces or personalities yet either, so you could say they are half official and half OC.

To magical fan18: The next time Sora summons someone it will probably be Genie, so look forward to it.

To MagatsuIza: Well, I'll have to think about it, first. Before using any of that I have to finish the first part of this story, which will end after the famous tournament everyone is eager to see.

To kingdom hearts guy: I know what Skylanders is, but I'm not interested in it.

To Ventusblade: Haha, yeah, surely hearing Sora's comment would make them react like that.

I think calling them Union leaders would be more correct, even though they aren't leaders of those Unions anymore. As you could read in this chapter, each one prefers a different kind of approach. I think it's a good idea having Gemini transform into Roxas or Ventus. It'll be like something similar to the triple Lucy scene.

To Sunny Lighter: Glad to hear that. As for the part of Mushu's lines, when I remembered his line about the armor, I couldn't help but put it here XD

Hearing that only makes me want to put more cliffhangers… :D

To NRG: I'll think about it. There are already a lot of people I'm planning to bring back to live, so I have to start being more selective.

To Red John: Yes, Karakura Town will be part of the Earth, too.

Sorry, but I already decided and I won't change my mind about the Digimon Crossover.

The next time Sora decides to use a summon, it will be Genie.

To animelover276: I'm glad you liked it. The teasing factor is always easy to pull out in this world.

To AgentMcMuffin: Sorry, but that won't happen. I'm keeping this story free of couples unless they're official/canon. Besides, while I support SoraxKairi, there are already many stories with them as a couple, so I want to make something different. A SoraxHarem story is something you don't see in this site very often, so I'm sticking with it.

To GenesisBlaze: Yup, that's it. I took the names from the Unions they belong.

To yak952: Oh, Gravity Rush's main character. Well, I haven't played that game, sorry.

To Mishka-chan0.0: I'm glad to hear that and I hope you liked this one, too!

To Alpha Alchemist: Nah, it's cool. I always like to see long reviews.

1. That's a good idea, I'll use it. 2. Wow, I just noticed the amount of cats in this story. I guess Blake counts too, right? 3. Yes, I couldn't make them appear the first time Sora goes to Death City in this story, so I'll make him go there soon and they will make their debut in this story. 4. Another nice idea, I like it. 5. Yeah, I was planning to make those two interact since they went through a similar experience. I agree, when Blake's secret was revealed, she had it easier than Kim. 6. That'd be an interesting fight in the tournament, but I still have to work out on the teams. 7. I have planned moments like that one, too, so look forward to them.

To colossalblackening: Beacon and Soul Society are the teams I'm having trouble with since there are a lot of characters to choose, especially the Soul Society. Well, thanks for the suggestion; I'll give it a thought as the story continues. The 11th team is Quatro Cerberus and the 12th are the Light Guardians' rivals, the 'new' Keyblade wielders.

To : The Keyblades? Yes, I've seen all of them before.

To Private Funny Phantom: Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying my story.

To keys of fate: There are two more characters I might add to his harem. And I also have been giving some thoughts about adding Yang and Weiss from Team RWBY. Nothing confirmed yet, though.

To Guest: Yeah, but he's leaving to Radiant Garden with Terra and Aqua, so maybe in another time.

To anon: I haven't watched the Aladdin TV series, so I won't be using anything from that.

To crazy fan: I'm glad you liked. Also, thanks for the suggestion, but I'm not interested in Sailor Moon at all, so I won't be using it.

To zackstone13: Well, I'll think about it.

To Guest2: That's the plan. The tournament starts on February 10th, but it will last several days, so everyone will still be in Radiant Garden on the 14th for a Valentine themed chapter. I haven't planned anything for Kagura. It doesn't seem she's very interested in starting a romantic relationship, to be honest.

To Guest3: I planned to have them coming to Radiant Garden, but I'm not so sure about what you said about Tidus and Yuna. You should let me handle the romantic aspect of this story on my own. I'm very picky when it comes to it.

Yeah, I've read the last chapter. I don't think the Guardians should get involved in that arc. I'll make so none of the Guardians visit Earth Land in a while so they don't meddle with the events of the Tartarus Arc.

Sorry, but I already decided long ago to break that canon shipping for this story.

To Wayward Son: Yup, since I'm using the House of Mouse in this fanfic, Pete will be the landlord of the club. He's not working for Maleficent anymore, but he still holds a grudge against Mickey.

To Great fan-M: Sorry, but I'm not going to talk about that anymore. And could you please don't use the review section for this kind of things? This section is supposed to be used for talking about this story.

To 023601: It still didn't happen. I'm thinking of using that small arc in this story.

To Guest: That's great. I hope you liked this chapter too!

To Anonymous: Oh, I like that idea. I'll put it to use when the time comes.

Yeah, I wasn't planning to let them know about other worlds and stuff like that. Tron will give Sora a hand when he enters the game so he can blend with the players.

To Guest 715: I'm thinking about what to do at this moment. That arc ending is really putting me in a difficult situation.

I think I can make Sora take part in the war, but I don't want him to meddle too much. I have to let the Fairy Tail mages to defeat the enemies they defeated in the manga so they can get stronger. I guess I'll have to throw in someone for Sora to take care of. I'll have to give it some thought.

That reminds me I have to make Jellal and Meredy part of this story. Almost forgot about them. Terra and Riku, as you said, are good options.

To krystian: I can't put links here, but I can give you the names of the Keyblades so you can look them up. Sora – Kingdom Key / Riku – Way to the Dawn / Kairi – Oathkeeper / Roxas – Two Become One / Naminé – True Light's Flight / Xion – Oblivion / Terra – Ends of the Earth / Ventus – Wayward Wind / Aqua – Stormfall.

Lea's Keyblade doesn't have a name yet, so I can't give you one. And the Keyblades of new characters don't have names either. You can find their design in the wiki, though.