Two O.C.s in one chapter! I really hope you like them, I put a lot of work into them. Now Xemnas?

Xemnas: "DarthKingdom doesn't own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Square Enix, or anything else. If he did-"

You would NOT own Kingdom Hearts! I just got done explaining this to your Heartless!... Please don't kill me.

--

Chapter 21: Nehrut and Xaynew

Weapons appeared in everyone's hands immediately. They were all pointed directly at the edge of the building nearest them. A man stood there with his arms folded across his chest.

Before anyone could respond however, the man raised his hand. "Salus Pax Pacis... Safety and peace."

Confused, the group lowered their weapons –but only slightly.

The man lept down from the building and landed easily on his feet. He was wearing a thin cloak and hood of midnight blue. He wore a thin, flexible breastplate of the same color with some sort of crest on it. It was gold and resembled the letter 'H'. His pants and traveling boots were black. A saber was sheathed at his belt, only it's intricate gold handle could be seen. They couldn't see his face from under the hood. Sora was eerily reminded of the Organization and Ruxik in this respect.

"'Safety and peace'?" He repeated. "Doesn't sound much like the Brotherhood's style to me."

"The Brotherhood?" He said the name as if it were a curse. "Sora, I am hurt."

"How do you know me?"

"I've read Jiminy's reports. I know all about your adventures, and I must say; Bravo! Few others could do any of the things that you have." He gave him a small bit of applause.

This was greeted by silence. "Tell us who you are." Kairi demanded finally.

"As you command, Princess." He said with a small chuckle. He lifted his hands to the hood and pulled it down. A mop of messy dark brown hair that nearly covered his eyes was the first thing everyone noticed. He had dark green eyes and a lopsided smile. He couldn't have been much older than Sora. "My name is Nehrut. And it's a pleasure to meet you all."

He looked vaguely familiar to Sora, but he couldn't place where from. He was about to ask if they had met before, but then...

"Nehrut!" Mickey, Donald, and Goofy exclaimed, and ran forward to hug him.

"I just said that!" He said, and returned their embraces.

Everyone gazed at the four of them for a while before an extremely relieved Sora finally broke the silence. "You guys know each other?"

"We met about three years ago when his world was attacked by the Heartless." Mickey explained. "A portal of darkness sent him to Traverse Town where I was visiting. We've been friends ever since."

"Uh, how come we haven't met you before?" Sora asked, walking forward to meet him.

"I've been, uh," His face fell for some reason, but his smile was back on his face in an instant, "around for a while. The King is gracious enough to allow me to stay at Disney Castle on occasion."

"Well a friend of the King's is a friend of mine." Riku said shaking his hand. "Riku."

"Oh, I know you. And it's an honor."

He shook hands with Sora, Kairi, Axel, and Yuffie, addressing them by their names each time. When he got to Barret however, "Um, I'm sorry I'm afraid I don't know you."

"Barret Wallace, boy." He extended his mechanical hand. "You seem alright."

There's that crunching sound again.

"What're you doin' out here Nehrut?" Goofy asked.

"Working for the King." All eyes went toward the mouse king.

"Oh!" He said. Slapping his palm to his forehead. "Yes, I forgot to mention. I briefed Nehrut about the Brotherhood when we first found out about them. He was at the castle at the time, and well... He knows one of it's members."

"You do?" Sora asked. Nehrut nodded glumly.

"Yes, I tracked him here and found this castle demolished." He swept a hand toward the wreckage. "I searched around for a while. The Brotherhood seems to have left, but I did find somebody, and you'll never guess who."

He got a running start, and actually ran up the side of the building he had come from. He landed easily on the roof and walked out of sight for a few moments. The sounds of a muffled argument filled their ears, and then he reappeared with something large and struggling on his shoulder.

When he landed back on the ground (not quite as gracefully this time because of the added wieght) they saw that it was a person. A very overwieght person. When he set the man down on his backside, Sora, Donald, and Goofy gasped.

"Pete?!"

The large cat-like man glared at them from under half closed eyes. His arms were tied behind his back, and his feet were shackled together. He was sporting several fresh bruises.

"How did you find him?" Mickey asked.

"He was wandering the city, a bit messed up, too. When I arrived, he freaked out and attacked me." At this point he leaned down to Pete's level. "But the fight didn't last very long, did it Petey?"

He growled at him.

"I managed to get a few interesting things out of him, though." He went on.

"Apparently, your old pal Maleficent set up shop in the castle after you guys drove Xemnas out. Though, she didn't have time to do too much. The Brotherhood attacked about a week ago. She fought hard for a while, but it wasn't enough." He smirked. "Her precious Heartless stopped listening to her."

"Told her..." Pete muttered.

"And that's about the only time you've ever been right in your life." Sora said.

Nehrut smiled and continued, "I don't know why they attacked this castle exactly. But my theory is that the Brotherhood wanted her 'removed from the game board', so to speak. Didn't want any competition for Kingdom Hearts this time around."

"Do you know what they did with her?" Riku asked.

"Sorry, but that's all I know. I don't exactly have a reliable source of information." He incined his head toward Pete. "She may be dead, maybe captured, or maybe turned into a Heartless. And although this is pretty grim for me, I personally would prefer the first one."

"Hear hear!" Sora, Riku, and Kairi chorased.

"Oh, I like you three."

Everyone looked out at the remains of the castle. "I guess that there's nothing left to do here, then." Mickey said.

"Oh not so!" Came a voice. "You can die."

Everyone looked around. The voice had come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Suddenly the rain around them poured down harder, and the wind started blowing. Thunder roared, and lightning flashed. Their clothes were all whipping around them as they drew their weapons again.

"Show yourself!" Sora shouted.

"I'm right here!"

A narrow funnel cloud formed where the castle used to be. It touched down in the middle of the ruins, tossing massive chunks of the building into the city around it. Sora and the others struggled to keep their ground.

The funnel died out not long after it touched down, but the storm continued. Floating on the air where the funnel had been was the figure of a man. His arms were crossed, and he looked down on all of them with a look that suggested that they were far inferior to him.

His clothing surprised Sora. It was shockingly similar to Nehrut's, but with glaring differences. The only thing that was completely the same was the color of boots and pants. The cloak and breastplate were dull red, rather than blue. The 'H' shaped crest had been replaced by the same symbol that had been on Ruxik's shirt: The Brotherhood's emblem. On his belt was yet another saber. The hilt was black.

His hood couldn't stay on in the gale he was creating. Sora saw straw-colored hair, and could just make out a pair of blue eyes. He seemed to be about their age.

Sora flicked his eyes back and forth between Nehrut and the newcomer. The similarites were disturbing. But the look on Nehrut's face was more disturbing still.

He was glaring at the man with absolute hatred. The cheery young man that had stood there not long ago was replaced by an extremely angry warrior. His saber was in his hand now, and apart from the Keyblades, it was the strangest weapon he had yet seen (and he had seen some doozies).

The blade was approximately one meter long, and appeared to be made of a pure blue crystal. The crystal blade was glowing brightly with a blue light. When he lowered it slightly, it singed the pavement where it touched, leaving a lightly smoking burn mark on the ground. The puddle of ash inside was glowing blue.

"Yenaw!" He cried.

The man snarled. "I abandoned that name and you know it!"

Nehrut smirked comteptuously. "Old habits die hard!"

A lightning bolt struck the ground at his feet. "It ...is ...Xaynew!"

"Temper, temper!"

Xaynew growled low in his throat, and started spinning in the air. His cloak flapped all around him, and he howled like an animal. The air around him grew violent, forming a raging tornado around his spinning form.

Dust, pieces of buildings, and drops of rain flew everywhere. "Grab a friend!" Someone shouted.

Sora wrapped his arms around Kairi as Riku did the same to Yuffie. Barret and Axel took either of his arms. Goofy scooped Donald and Mickey up into a standing group hug.

That was when the whole group was blasted off the ground by Xaynew's gale.

Sora held on to Kairi for dear life, detirmined not to let her slip away from him even as they tumbled through the air at an unbelievable speed. As the groups spun in every direction, Kairi barried her face into his chest and let out a scream.

He spun wildly, clinging desperately to the girl in his arms. He saw quick flashes that revealed the locations of his other friends. He saw a few sparkling lights far off that might have been emitting from Barret's arm gun. He could see a few bursts of fire in another direction that were either from Donald or Axel. He also thought he heard some bellowing that may have been Pete.

But where was their newest member?

But he didn't have time to dwell on that. A huge, thick slab of the castle was soaring directly at him. Both hands were holding onto Kairi, and he wouldn't be able to let go and summon his Keyblade in time to get rid of it.

So it was quite fortunate that Nehrut was right behind it. Displaying a remarkable sense of coordination, he was able to swing the blade in a wide arc, cutting the slab neatly in two. Both pieces tumbled away and changed course a bit, narrowly missing Sora and Kairi, instead of smashing them like bugs on a windshield.

Sora was about to try and thank him, but he felt the air around him becoming less heavy. They were decending.

Fast.

Sora peered over his shoulder, and saw the ground coming on fast. Reacting purely on instinct, he spun around in the air. He came toward the ground in a kind of backwards midair summersault. His feet did touch the ground, but his momentum was greater than he expected. His feet were on the ground for less than half a second before that same momentum flipped him over again, sending him skidding backwards twenty feet.

He grunted in pain, his back was extremely sore, and he hoped that the wounds from the battle with Ruxik wouldn't reopen. He looked down at Kairi, whom he had still managed to keep a firm hold on. She looked into his face, she was miraculously unharmed, but she was shaking, and her hair was sticking up at odd angles.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, thanks to you." She pecked him on the tip of the nose. "And you?"

She rolled off him and extended a hand to help him up. He took it, but half way up he let out a grunt of pain. His back was killing him. "I've been better." He reached into one of the pouches on his pants and pulled out a small blue sphere: a standard potion.

He cracked it open over his back, and the magical substance treated his wounds the way that little else could. He stretched out his muscles, feeling rejuvinated.

"It's a good thing that Nehrut –LOOK OUT!" He shoved her out of the way of another large slab that had fallen from the sky. There was a loud cracking noise behind them as it collided with the ground and crunched into many smaller pieces.

Sora and Kairi stayed where they were for a moment. That had been far too close for comfort.

They stood up straight again, and looked for a moment at the stone that had nearly killed them. Kairi tossed her arms around Sora and gratefully kissed him hard on the mouth.

"You just have to keep saving me, don't you?" She asked with a coy smile.

"I told you I'd do anything to keep you safe."

The two parted and looked around. They stood in an unrecognizable part of the city, plenty of debri had been blown from the castle, and lay scattered all about them. The thunder and lightning was still going on in full force, but the rain had softened just a bit. Occasionally, a bolt struck one of the buildings, tearing off bits of it which tumbled to the ground.

"Well now what?" Kairi asked.

"We have to meet up with our friends." Came a voice.

The two looked up and saw Nehrut. His sword was embeded up to the hilt in the side of one of the buildings, and he was hanging from it one handed. He smiled at them. Using his legs for better leverage, he pulled the weapon out. He fell several stories, and landed on his feet. He looked fine, the only difference was that his hair was evan messier than before.

"Sorry to intrude on your private moment, but my arm was getting tired." he said grinning.

Sora rubbed the back of his neck; a sign of his embarresment. The two of them still remembered Sora's comment earlier about them being 'walking PDAs'.

"Tell me, do you always make out in the middle of a battle?" Nehrut continued. "Or was that just melodrama for my benefit?"

"Okay, okay, we get it. We'll tone it down." Kairi muttered.

"Oh no!" He retracted. "Really, I don't mind, I just like to poke fun. I'm fine with it."

Sora blinked.

"If there was a bit more love in the worlds," Nehrut went on with a small smile, and a shrug, "We'd probably all act like that. Don't be afraid of showing your love to others."

They both smiled at him. They were liking him more and more every minute. "Thanks."

"Now come on love birds, we've got friends to find, and a little brat to beat the pulp out of." He drew his sword and walked back toward the castle.

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And there you go! Nehrut is loosely based off a guy I know. Please review!

JoBrosCupcakeSwirl: Well, you've met him! How do you like him?

Spirit Okari: Thank you!

SamuraiJedi: Who knew that the Organization would be filled with neat freaks right? Except Proof of Existance. They could have at least picked up the rubble from the smashed tombstones.

Krystal Lily Potter: I can sympathize, my friend. I'm not blonde, but I'm like that too sometimes.

ConfederateofZ: "Your dear Maleficent?" Are you that desperate? (Laughter) Nah, just kidding man. Now you know. And I look forward to your story! And I promise you that I will see my own story through to the very end.

Garuto: Fair point. Anyway, thanks.

Shire Folk: Thank you so much man! I'm glad that I got my point across about Riku and Yuffie, they're just awesome! I'm glad that you seem to enjoy everything, and welcome back!