PrismRain13: hey guys! Here I am back with a new chapter! Thanks so much for the support guys! We're so close to 300 reviews!

Kyra: took you long enough.

PrismRain13: yeah, I know it's been awhile but hey, I've got other stuff going on. But on the bright side; My Rapunzel wig finally came! now I just need to dye a dress...

Kyra: But Halloween's over a month away.

PrismRain13: I'm a cosplayer! I need a head start!

Kyra: whatever. Prism still owns nothing other than the plot and her OCs. KH belongs to Disney and Square Enix, OCs like me and Rusty belong to Mysterygirl7Freak and the theme song Final Distance belongs to Utada Hikaru.

Chapter 38: Familiar Faces

With the three new passengers, the Gummi ship was much more crowded than usual. Sora found himself squashed in between Cloud and Riku on the couch with Mickey taking his place over at the controls (He had insisted Sora take a break and let someone else pilot). Lightning had left with her sister down to the engine room for some unknown reason as soon as she got on. Donald was teaching West about the weapons controls, Kairi was writing in a journal she brought with her and Lea was talking with Max.

As time progressed, Sora noticed Goofy was looking really uncomfortable and doing everything possible to avoid eye contact with Max ever since they left the coliseum. He would start polishing his shield, organize their item supplies and dig his face into an upside-down magazine. Sora had never seen Goofy act like this before and he had to admit, he was a little worried. What was going on with him?

It was then that Sora realized that Cloud had been talking to him. "Uhhh... Sorry, what was that?" Sora asked the ex-SOLDIER, grinning sheepishly.

"I asked if you heard anything from Lightning." Cloud grumbled in annoyance, rolling his eyes.

Sora shook his head. "She's just been really quiet in the engine room. I think she's still sad about her sister. Maybe we should check on her?"

Cloud gave the younger boy a nod of approval as they both stood up from their seat and began walking towards the engine room.

"Hey guys! Wait up!" Lea exclaimed, turning away from Max and running after them. The three walked in silence all the way down to their ship's lower levels pulling open the door to the engine room. Inside, Lightning was sitting on the floor, looking up sadly at Serah's crystal statue. She gave no indication that she heard them come in. Awkward silence filled the room until Sora stepped forward.

"Hey, Lightning?" The spiky-haired boy asked softly. "You doing okay?"

"I'm fine." The pink-haired woman snapped, causing Sora to jump. "I'm fine. just... leave me alone." A hint of sadness slipped into her voice.

"Talking to Serah?" Lea asked. There were a few moments of silence between the four as Lightning slowly nodded. "Did she ever mention accepting that date invitation I made twelve years ago?" The ex-nobody released a laugh at his attempt to lighten the mood, but Lightning clearly wasn't amused.

"Don't even go there." She snarled dangerously as she turned around, glaring daggers at Lea. Then she went back to looking at Serah's crystal. Cloud rolled his eyes at Lea before taking a seat beside Lightning.

"Nervous about going back?" He asked, Lightning shrugged emotionlessly.

"Look, Lightning. I'm sorry about what happened to Serah. But it wasn't your fault, no matter what you might think." Sora told her. "Serah would want you to stay strong. Plus, Zeus said she'll wake up eventually, right? And you'll be right here waiting for her."

"I guess you're right." Replied Lightning, just then the door opened and Max walked in.

"Sorry." He said. "The king just wanted me to tell you that we'll be landing soon."

"Okay. We're coming." Sora replied as he and Lea followed Max back up the stairs. Leaving Cloud and Lightning alone with the crystallized Serah.

"It's funny. Before, all I could think about was fighting and finding Serah." Mused Lightning, pushing herself back up to her feet. "But that kid, the way he talked about staying strong. I feel...different."

"Yeah, Sora does tend to have that affect on people." Cloud replied, just as the Gummi Ship was landing on the surface of Radiant Garden.

~*KHIII*~

The group strode out of the ship as soon as they landed, finding themselves in the middle of the marketplace. Lightning's sister was hoisted up on Lea's shoulder and he clearly wasn't enjoying it. They didn't have to wait long until they were surrounded by two familiar faces. Yuffie and Vincent.

"Hey guys! Whatcha doing back already?" the ninja demanded enthusiastically, pulling Sora into a sisterly hug.

"Just dropping off some friends." Replied Sora, stepping aside to reveal Cloud and Lightning. Both Yuffie and Vincent's expressions turned to ones of complete shock. The ninja was fast to recover as she bounced over to them.

"Cloud! Light! We missed you guys so much!" Yuffie squealed, wrapping her arms around them.

"Missed you too, Yuffie." Lightning replied as she wriggeled her way out of the ninja's group hug.

"Cloud, where've you been?" Vincent demanded. "Tifa said you disappeared after fighting with Sephiroth last year."

"Olympus Coliseum." Replied Cloud, trying to avoid Vincent's gaze. "I have no idea what happened to Sephiroth."

"At least you got more training in. Not that you really needed it." Goofy added.

Mickey laughed at Goofy's comment before stepping forward. "So how have things been here?"

"We think we might have a problem on our hands." Said Vincent.

"Yeah, Kyra went on a special mission for Squall to pick up some new recruits and her ship got attacked on the way back!" Exclaimed Yuffie.

"Is she okay?" demanded West with concern for one of her sister-figures.

"She's fine." Vincent assured her, West sighed in relief. "She got beaten up fairly badly and passed out on the ship, but they managed to get her back. Aerith's tending to her now. She said she wanted to see you guys when you got back."

"Though, it's probably not a good idea if you all go at once." Cloud told them. "It might be too much for Kyra to take in if she's still recovering."

At that moment, Max's stomach started growling loudly. "Hey. Think we can go look for some food soon? I'm starving!"

"Do you have a bottomless stomach or something?!" West giggled, poking his shoulder.

Mickey spoke up, "Whelp, it has been awhile since we had a decent meal, I say half of us go see Kyra and the rest of us goes to find some food."

The rest of the group agreed as they split off. Sora, Riku, Cloud(With Serah on his shoulder), Lightning, West and Lea followed Vincent back up to the castle. While Yuffie, Mickey, Kairi, Donald, Goofy and Max were left in the marketplace.

"Come on guys; I know a great place for lunch!" Yuffie exclaimed, running down the streets with the others following, trying to keep up with the enthusiastic ninja.

~*KHIII*~

Meanwhile, Sora's group was climbing up the path that led to the castle. No one had said anything the entire trip until the front doors of the castle came into view. There, Sora, Riku and Lea stopped in their tracks at the sight of two familiar-looking castle guards.

They were both tall, muscular and dressed in dark blue uniforms white gloves and a red heart on the chest. The first one had ginger-coloured hair slicked back in various small spikes and small eyebrows. The second had long, wild black hair in dreadlocks tied in a ponytail and thick sideburns.

"Lexaeus!" Riku gasped.

"Xaldin!" Sora exclaimed at the same time while Lea snarled. The three of them drew their weapons, prepared to attack the former nobodies. However, before they could do anything, Vincent stepped in front of them, blocking their path.

"Stop! They're on our side." He announced. "Aeleus and Dilan and two others appeared to us shortly after you left."

"Okay..." Sora stated cautiously, lowering Kingdom Key and turning to the two former Organization members. "But why come here?"

"This was our original world." Dilan explained, glaring at Sora. "After we were recompleted, Braig found us and tried to persuade us to join his new organization with that witch."

"We all denied, of course." Continued Aeleus. "Now that we had our hearts back, we saw no reason in it. When we arrived here, we found your Restoration Committee and joined after taking up our old positions at the castle."

Silence spread throughout the group, allowing their story to digest.

"Wow. Guess it's a relief you guys aren't heartless jerks anymore." West mumbled. "So, who else got recompleted or whatever?"

"That would be me." A voice spoke from behind Dilan and Aeleus. They both stepped aside and a tall man stepped out. The bangs of his long, steel-blue hair completely covered one of his aqua eyes. He was dressed in a long, white lab coat, black pants and boots, a grey sweater vest and light purple tie.

"Zexion?" Lea questioned.

"Ienzo." He corrected. "How nice to see you again, Lea. And you too, Riku."

"You mean after your nobody tried to kill me? Yeah, great to see you again too." Riku grumbled sarcastically.

"Well, I can assure you than we mean you no harm." Ienzo stated. "We are not part of the dark anymore and have no desire to be."

"Is this everyone who got recompleted so far?" Lea asked. Dilan shook his head.

"Even was with us when we received our hearts, but after we got back here he took a Gummi ship and left with some of Ansem the Wise's research papers." He replied. "We don't know why he decided to leave, but he mentioned something about unfinished business on another world."

"When we get back in the field, we'll keep an eye out for him." Sora smiled. Aeleus and Dilan nodded their approval before walking over to Cloud and taking Serah off his shoulders.

"We'll take your sister to the castle's medical centre; Aerith will see what she can do." Dilan told Lightning who gave a short nod but insisted that she wouldn't leave her sister's side.

"Is Kyra still there?" West demanded. "Vincent told us that she wanted to talk to us." Ienzo nodded and stepped aside, granting the group access to the castle. With Vincent taking the lead and Aeleus and Dilan carrying Serah's crystal, they strode inside, walked up the stairs and down a hallway with brightly painted pictures of different worlds. And finally stopped in front of their destination.

Vincent pushed open the doors to the castle's medical centre Aerith had taken as her own. Unlike most hospitals Sora had seen, this one had a completely different feel to it. The walls were a warm yellow with a smooth beige floor. Recovery beds and cabinets full of medical equipment lined the walls while warm stained-glass windows were visible near the celing.

It didn't take them long to find Aerith and Kyra, as they were at the only occupied bed. Kyra was sitting with her arms crossed over her chest and an angry look in her eyes while Aerith was trying to calm her down and offer her more potions. Rusty was s curled up on the floor at Kyra's feet trying to take a nap.

"Aerith, I'm fine! Can't I go now?!"

"Are you sure? I don't think you're fully recovered." Aerith said calmly. Dilan and Aleus gently set Serah's crystal down on the bed beside them. Both girls turned their heads and Aerith's eyes widened at the sight of Cloud. She appeared stunned at first, but that soon passed and she beamed with happiness.

"You came back." She smiled. "We were so worried."

"Sorry." Cloud responded, trying his hardest to avoid her gaze. "It's something I still have to deal with." Neither soldier nor flower girl said another word to each other for a long time after that.

"So, Kyra, how're you feeling?" West asked, breaking the awkward silence.

"Yeah, now." the older girl grumbled, standing up and stretching. "I can't believe I lost to that creep."

"Woah. Whoever attacked you must have been a real piece of work." Lea stated.

"That's actually why I wanted to talk to you guys. I still don't know who for sure who he was, but he had a Keyblade." Kyra told them, just as everyone's jaws dropped from shock at the simple statement. They hadn't even thought that it eWorld be possible for their enemies to get a keyblade wielder on their side.

"A Keyblade? Seriously?!" Demanded Riku while Kyra nodded. "Do you remember what he looked like?"

She released an aggravated sigh and rubbed the back of her neck. "Well, he was in one of the organization coats, but he looked really young, like a little older than me. Dark skin, long silver hair and yellow eyes."

"Other than him being young, you just described what Xehanort looks like." Ienzo said thoughtfully. "Fascinating."

"Braig did say that Xehanort was coming back." Riku shrugged. "Guess we should have taken him more seriously."

"So, what? Did he go through a time warp or something?" West asked, "And why does he have a Keyblade?" The group turned to the four former organization members, hoping to gain awnsers.

"I cannot think of any way, or reason why Xehanort would want to make himself appear younger. And I have no idea how he could have received a Keyblade." Dilan told them.

"But we'll keep looking here. Hopefully what Even didn't take of Ansem's research and Xehanort's journals can give us some clues." Added Aeleus.

"You can always ask Tron too." Sora suggested. "His world's inside the computer."

"Great, while you guys get the easy job, we'll be breaking our backs." Lea grumbled in defeat.

West rolled her eyes, "Come on, Lea. You know you like it that way."

At that moment, the door swung open and Snow ran in, looking like he was going to pass out from being completely out of breath. He bent down, breathing heavily. Then, he gasped at the sight of Serah's crystal form. While Lightning stared at him in complete shock.

"Serah?" He beamed with happiness. "You're really here?!"

"You?!" Lightning snarled as her expression shifted to one of anger. It was then that Snow noticed Lightning and cheerfully waved at her.

"Hey sis!" Snow smiled. Lightning glared at him as she stormed over. No one saw it coming when Lighting curled her hands into a fist, raised her arm and punched Snow directly in the jaw, knocking him clean off his feet.

"DON'T YOU CALL ME THAT! I'M NOT YOUR SISTER!" Lightning roared. "LOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO SERAH; YOU CALL THAT PROTECTING HER?!"

The rest of the group quickly dove into action. Cloud, Vincent and Lea tried to restrain the enraged Lightning while Sora, Kyra and Riku helped Snow to his feet. It took awhile until the air around them was calm enough to talk again.

"You guys know each other?" Riku asked, even though he felt he already knew the answer.

Lightning finally composed herself and resorted to glaring a death glare at Snow with her arms crossed. "We were made into L'cie together, with a few others." She replied coldly.

"And Serah's my fiancé." Show added, moving towards the crystal. His fingers softly and gently tracing the outline of her face.

"And does she look protected to you?!" Lightning snapped violently, "While you were slacking off here, I was the one scouring the worlds looking for her!"

"And that's our cue to leave the family reunion." Kyra stated, swinging her wooden bow and quiver over her shoulder, and moving net to Sora's group. Finally waking up, Rusty yawned and stretched before playfully following Kyra. "Where are the others?"

PrismRain13: I just had to add the bit with Lightning and Snow at the end.

Kyra: hey, by the way thanks for having that creep beat me up last chapter!

PrismRain13: it was necessary *kitty eyes* please don't hurt me! Remember to review and stay tuned for the next chapter! Where'd Even disappear to? What's Xehanort planning? And we'll be seeing a familiar face from the prequel fic, Another Side Another Story.

-Jared Reese; thank you for sticking around! It really means a lot! A crossover would be a cool idea.