Twilight Town at last! Roxas, I know you've been looking forward to seeing this place again, so...

Roxas: "Thanks. DarthKingdom doesn't own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Square Enix, or anything else. Just plot and O.C.s."

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Chapter 12: The Town of Twilight

Sora and Kairi continued their training for another two and a half hours. By the end, the both of them were soaked in sweat, and Kairi had almost fully mastered fire.

"Just keep that up, and you'll have absolutely nothing to worry about." Sora said between gasps for air.

Kairi smiled at him and wrapped him in a hug. The forest around them faded, and they were once again in the plain white room. King Mickey pushed open the door and beamed at them.

"You two were incredible!" He exclaimed, "Especially you, Kairi! I've never seen anyone get the hang of magic so fast!"

"Thanks, Your Majesty." She replied gratefully.

"We still have about two hours until we reach Twilight Town. So why don't you guys go clean yourselves up and get some rest?"

They nodded, and walked out of the room hand in hand. They found the room that they would be sharing (marked with a key symbol), and opened the door.

It was a comfortable size, painted mostly with dark red. It could have passed off for a one-room apartment. A single queen-sized bed rested in the middle of a far wall. It also contained a writing desk, table, television, and nightstands. The floor and ceiling also featured that familiar sight of Sora's crown pendant. A door at the far side of the room led to the bathroom.

"You go first." Sora said as he walked over to the bed. "I'll just lay down here for a minute." He collapsed onto the bed, and closed his eyes. He heard Kairi giggle softly, and felt her peck him on the cheek. "What was that for?" He asked with one eye open.

"For being such a good teacher." She said with a smile, then she walked into the bathroom and closed the door.

Sora sighed contentedly and closed his eyes, thinking a quick snooze wouldn't hurt.

After only a few seconds it seemed, he was shaken awake. He cracked open his eyes and saw Kairi standing over him. She was fully dressed, and her hair was damp. He got up, stretched, and walked into the bathroom.

He showered for ten minutes (once again failing to take the spikiness out of his hair), dressed, and went back into the main room.

Kairi was lying down on the bed, idly flicking channels on the TV. She turned it off in the middle of something from a place called 'Midgar', when Sora emerged. She patted the spot on the bed next to her invitingly, and he laid down.

She scooted closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her, and simply sat there enjoying her presence.

"We've got an hour and a half before we reach Twilight Town." Kairi commented. "What do we do until then?"

Sora tilted her face upward to face his. He gave her one of his trademark grins and said, "I've got an idea." He leaned down and kissed her deeply.

Eighty minutes later, the two young lovers entered the bridge again to find it packed with people (and otherwise). Everyone turned at their arrival and most of them smiled knowingly at the sight of their rumpled hair and clothing. They didn't pay them any heed.

The King (in his normal garments now) said, "We're coming up on Twilight Town very soon. Sora, if you will?"

Sora walked back to the pilot's seat and took a moment to observe the moniters that showed the ship's position relative to the world's. The two glowing dots were almost one, and he decided it was time to take them out of warp drive.

"Entering Twilight Town space...now!" The white and gold disappeared almost immediately, and the front view was replaced by a golden world. He glided toward the planet at an easy pace, and brought them to a stop (mostly, as the ship was pulled around in Twilight Town's orbit).

The King spoke up. "Alright, now we don't all need to go down to Twilight Town at once. So I suggest that only nine of us go down at first, with the rest as reserve forces in case something horrible happens."

"Why don't we avoid that?" Yuffie commented.

"I hope we can." Mickey said, "The nine that I think should go down are myself, Sora, Riku and Kairi, since we have our Keyblades. Donald and Goofy, for extra help. And Hayner, Pence, and Olette."

He looked at them in understanding. "I know you want to help your home world, but still be carefull." The three of them nodded.

The King walked over to a glowing red transmission panel at the front of the bridge, Donald and Goofy went to the panels on either side of him. They gave the group a wave, and Goofy said, "Wish us luck, now!" The panels started glowing, and in a brief flash of light, the three were gone; transported to the world below them.

The three Twilight Town natives nervously stepped onto the panels next. When Sora saw Hayner gulp hard, he laughed. "Don't worry, you won't feel a thing." They didn't seem very reassured, but didn't have time to voice their thoughts when they vanished down to the surface as well.

Sora and Kairi took their positions, and expected Riku to follow right behind them. Strangely enough, he was a bit late. When they turned, they saw Yuffie giving him a slightly-more-than-friendly hug. They stood there with their arms wrapped around each other before Yuffie pulled away. Aside from the identical grins on their faces, you wouldn't have known anything had happened.

"Good luck!" She said. Barret gave her a huge smirk as the three disappeared from the ship.

Sora, Kairi and Riku appeared in Twilight Town at the exact same time, about three feet away from eachother.

They weren't expecting what they found.

They stood on Sunset Hill, which gave them a marvelous view of Twilight Town's near eternal sunset. Below them, they saw the Sunset Terrace, a pleasant nieghborhood that sprawled all the way toward a train station.

The hill was being swarmed by enemies.

A group consisting of a few varieties of both Heartless and Nobodies were charging up the hill directly towards them. Some of them were already at the peak of the hill, engaging the ones who had arrived before them.

King Mickey was leaping everywhere, taking down Heartless after Heartless after Nobody. He and his Keyblade were a red and gold blur. Sora had seen the king in action before, and still wondered how a creature with such small legs could jump so high and move so fast.

Goofy was bashing the dark beings away with his shield. Sora noticed it as the "Save the King" shield. A large blue heart with gold wings at the sides and a crown on top of it. While Goofy's method of fighting was unorthodox, it was nonetheless effective. With a good shield, he was protected for a great deal of time, and could attack from behind it.

Donald wielded the "Save the Queen" staff. The tip was a golden heart with light blue wings, and a spiral grip. Donald was expert at using it, focusing his magical energy through it as Sora would the Keyblade. Fireballs and shards of ice spewed from the tip at his command. Bursting into Nobodies or slicing through Heartless. And whenever they got a bit too close for comfort, it served as an effective club.

Sora was more surprised at the Twilight Town gang. He had assumed that they were merely anxious to get experience in the field, but they were faring quite well. In fact, Sora got the feeling that they were naturally gifted warriors.

Hayner was the best of the three, expertly ducking and dodging out of harm's way whenever something got too close. He struck out quickly every time he saw an opening. His sword had a blue and gold hilt, with the king's seal on it in red and black. The silver blade artistically thinned near the hilt, and widened into the blade itself.

The Dream Sword.

Pence was using his newly-aquired shield to block and throw off attacks. It seemed that Hayner's mostly unimpressive appearance hid a solid wall of muscle. He smashed enemies to a pulp by charging them from behind it. Occasionally, he would take another approach, and slash at them with it's edges. The shield was dark red around the edges and black in the middle. At the very center (in red) was the king's seal outlined in yellow.

The Dream Shield.

Olette's staff was actually glowing with all the activity. The glow seemed to get brighter with every Heartless it struck down. She was surprisingly agile, and easily avoided almost every attack. Those she couldn't get away from, she blocked. Her glowing staff was green and bronze. The head was blue, and shaped like the king's seal on top of a section of brown.

The Dream Rod.

Sora took this all in for about five seconds before he dropped into a fighting stance. His hand emitted a strong light, and his Keyblade appeared. Currently, it was in the form of the Oblivion: a pure black Keyblade with a purple gem at the hilt. The keychain resembled Sora's pendant, only black.

He gripped his weapon with both hands, and braced himself. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kairi do the same. On his other side, Riku's Keyblade appeared. Way to the Dawn resembled a bat's leathery wing (much like his former weapon Soul Eater). At the tip was something that resembled the wing of an angel. An angel and bat wing combined formed the blade's hilt. The keychain was the Heartless symbol without the red cross.

Sora thought it's name and appearance suited Riku perfectly. Light and Dark combined.

The nine of them came together in a group. As far as Sora could tell, there were about fifty or sixty enemies still at the hill, and he voiced as much.

"Ah man, this'll be too easy." Riku said in a disappointed voice. Hayner, Pence and Olette sent him looks that said, 'Are you serious?'

Sora chuckled to himself and shot Kairi a quick smile of encouragement.

Sora rushed into the group of enemies first, swiping left and right with the Oblivion, taking out two or three of them with every swing.

Riku followed immediately behind him. He fell into step next to him, and sliced anything Sora missed. Kairi and Donald formed a sort of formation behind them, picking off Heartless and Nobodies from a distance with fireballs, while Goofy covered them. Hayner, Pence, and Olette worked as a team, tackling their opponents all at once.

King Mickey rushed up to Sora, and jumped onto his shoulders. He looked him in the face from the akward angle, and nodded. Mickey jumped directly up into the air, and flipped around to where he was facing him (still above him). The two pointed their Keyblades at eachother, and beams of gold light flew from their tips toward each other.

The beams met in the air, and seemed to split into many separate beams. Those lights flew outward, spearing into a dozen separate Heartless and three Nobodies. The beams faded, and the King landed directly in front of Sora.

They nodded, and took up their fighting stances again. Sora registered in the back of his mind that they were performing a Limit move. He thought it strange that he and the king –no all of his allies on his journeys- had been able to pull it off with no practice beforehand.

"Fight now, think later!" Roxas repremended.

Yeah, yeah.

Sora jumped at the nearest group of Nobodies (which had been giving Donald and Kairi a hard time with their constant evasion tactics) and slammed the ground with Oblivion. The resulting shockwave killed two and sent the rest flying. Mickey arrived right behind Sora. As fast as one could blink, the tiny king rushed in a circle around Sora and slashed those flying enemies with his own blade before they could hit the ground.

They repeated this process for a while until they felt it was time for the finishing move. The two Keybearers stood back to back and lifted the weapons into the air, pointing up.

"Light, give me power!" They cried.

Their blades glowed, and a miraculous image appeared fifteen feet above them. It looked a bit like a multi-pronged crown which was upside-down. It seemed to be composed entirely of light, and pulsed faintly.

Suddenly it's prongs flew from the crown and toward their enemies. As soon as they impacted, they exploded in brilliant, blinding flashes of light. Those unfortunate enough to be hit (which was all of them) were incinerated completely. The explosions occurred almost all at once, and even more prongs came pouring down from the crown. It seemed to go on for hours, but in reality it was only seconds.

The crown faded away, and as Sora and Mickey prepared to continue the fight, they realized that their Limit command had taken out every last one of their attackers.

Sora dismissed his blade and sent the king one of his usual grins. "We're going to have to remember that one!"

Riku was looking out across the town. "The town looks alright." He said "Those guys were probably just to attack us, not the townsfolk."

"Good." Hayner said in a voice dripping with relief.

Sora and Kairi went to stand next to Riku, and looked for themselves. He seemed right. The buildings were intact, and the people that they could see from this distance appeared perfectly calm. They were totally unaware of the battle that had taken place not one mile away.

"So what do we do now Your Majesty?" Donald quacked.

"We need to find Axel." Mickey responded "He's probably at that mansion. But the Heartless and Nobodies will still be after us."

"Why don't we split up?" Riku suggested. "We'll make our way to the mansion from different angles. They'll have to divide their forces to find all of us."

"What'll we do when we get there?" Goofy asked.

"If Axel is there, we'll have to give him whatever help he needs." The King answered, "We'll have to play it by ear from there." He turned to Hayner's group. "We can get there via the train and the tunnels, right?"

"Uh-huh."

He thought for a moment, and said finally, "Let's divide into three groups."

"Goofy, Olette and I will take the train. Riku, you take Donald and Pence through one set of tunnels. And Sora, Kairi, and Hayner will take the other tunnels. We'll all converge on the mansion from our separate directions."

"Sounds okay." Sora commented. Really, he was just satisfied that he'd be able to keep an eye on Kairi.

"Alright, then let's get moving." Hayner said enthusiastically.

They set off at a run down the hill, weapons ready for a fight. As they entered Sunset Terrace, the group split in two. Mickey, Goofy, and Olette ran toward the train station, while the rest took a left turn to the tunnels that honeycombed the entire town. Some of the locals stared at the three anthropomorphs dashing by, and the strange weapons the nine were carrying. But if they expected answers from them, they didn't get any.

Sora entered the tunnnels first, with Kairi and Riku directly behind him. There was blackness for a few moments, until they reached a large, lit square room. It may have been linked to the town's sewer system. The concrete floor was surrounded on all sides by water.

There was already a group of Heartless waiting for them.

Sora sighed in annoyance. "This is going to be a long day."

--

How do you like it? That was Sora and Mickey's "Royal Treatment" limit by the way. I'll be gone for a few days, so I'll update when I get back. Review please!

Shinku Ryuuga: No. Sorry, I just don't write that stuff.

Craxuan: Not funny.

Heaven-Monument:Thanks! As for the rum, 'Couln't resist mate'.