AN: You see? What did I tell you? It might have taken a little longer than I had originally intended it to, but either way, the wait was not long, because we're back again for the conclusion of this story's version of the first trip to Hollow Bastion.

[audience applause]

Yeah, there's definitely a reason for you all being excited, but before we get too far into things, let me take a moment to address one or two reviews, really quick.

First off, to "rmarcano321", I'm glad you're enjoying the story so much, but could please try to keep the stuff you say in your reviews focused on the stuff that happens in this story? Seriously, all that information that you've talked about is interesting to read about, but it's stuff that a lot of us could just read in a wiki or something, and it usually has very little to do with the actual story, so when you make the main body of your review about instances of when Ahsoka appeared in Star Wars media, how people interpret her relationship with Anakin, and a bunch of stuff that inspired her appearance, it makes me wonder if you just think that the story itself is just a side-note thing.

Next up to "Haxorus knight", you don't have to worry about that. Roxas&Namine will be happening in this story series. That was planned right from the start. Of course, don't think that means that Xion won't be playing an import role in the series too.

Namine&Xion: Yes! We're gonna be a big deal!

AN: Okay, girls, I love you both, really (not like Roxas and Riku though), but I need you to focus on the here and now. Or did you forget the earliest either one of you is planned to appear in this series will be in the sequel for this story, if not an epilogue for this one?

Namine: Sorry, but you can't blame us.

Xion: Yeah, I mean, we haven't really gotten a chance to do very much in any of your Kingdom Hearts stories so far. I mean, you're not even anywhere near a point where we might show up in your Hearts of Avengers series, so natrually, we're gonna get a little excited.

AN: Yeah, I guess that's fair. Oh, and while we're here, just one last thing to the "Guest" of March 20, Tidus will be making his return soon, and he'll have both a new friend and a new enemy for the heroes to deal with, both of which you might find familiar if you know both your Kingdom Hearts and your Final Fantasy stuff. Just give it about one or two more chapters.

All right, that's all I wanted to say for today, so don't let me keep you any longer. Go to the disclaimer and get on with the main story already! It's what we've all been waiting for, you know.

I do not own anything from Kingdom Hearts or any other franchise mentioned in this story.

Chapter XVIII

The Grand Hall had become a lot darker all of a sudden, and it was not due to lighting or the power of darkness that was already beginning to flow out of the recently completed Keyhole. No, the room had started to become darker because a hero had just fallen, and his friends had been helpless to do anything but watch as he had sacrificed himself for the sake of both the worlds and the girl he loved. Goofy and Donald were both already crying quite a bit, while Ventus was still down on his hands and knees, mentally apologizing to both his apprentice and friends for his failure. They had been through so much with Sora, stuck by his side when things seemed to be at their bleakest, and fought together against everything that they came up against. After all the struggles, the hardships, and the victories that they had faced, they never once thought that things could have ended like this. The three were all dealing with a great deal of hurt and sorrow, but none of them were taking the loss of Sora any worse than the fourth member of this sad group.

Kairi could hardly do anything more than stare at either where Sora had previously been standing and the sky where the lights that had once been him had just vanished, her mind racing in an attempt to comprehend several different things at once. Aside from the fact that Sora had just sacrificed himself for her, the one thing that was running through her mind more than anything else were the last three words he said to her before he had stabbed himself with that horrible Keyblade. Her heart seemed to skip a beat or two when she thought about what Sora had said, but it also became so much heavier when she thought about what he had just done. She had seen Sora accomplish so much over the course of this journey, watching him from within his heart, and not once had she ever thought that something like this could have happened to him. Kairi had truly believed that when this was over, she and Sora would have been able to go back home together with Riku, and everything would return to normal, but now, she realized that dream may be impossible with Riku having fallen so far into darkness and Sora's sacrifice. It all seemed so much like a dream that had quickly become her worst nightmare, and Kairi was hardly able to bear the weight it carried.

"Sora…Are you really…" Kairi whispered, still trying to comprehend what had just happened before her very eyes. In the end though, any acceptance of the fact never came to her, but instead, a look of defiance filled her eyes as she glared upwards, clenching a fist over her heart as if to keep it from breaking. "No. He can't be! I won't him go," Kairi shouted. She then turned to the blonde who had been training her friend for so long, and asked, "Master Ventus, isn't there anything we can do to bring him back? You must know about something."

That seemed to stir Donald and Goofy out of their own sorrow, but unlike Kairi, they were not defying what they saw; they were just desperate to change it. "She's right! You must know about some way to get Sora back, right Ven," Goofy pleaded, while Donald silently asked the same.

Ventus just stared at the ground for a few more moments before he finally sat up and gave everyone a regretful look as he replied, "I'm sorry, you guys. I truly wish I knew."

"But you have to know something! Sora's our friend! We can't lose him now after everything that's happened," Donald protested.

"Don't you think if I knew of a way to reverse this I would've done it by now," Ven angrily snapped, startling the others with his ferocity. "If I knew of a way to get someone back from the darkness, then don't you think I would've used it to not only bring back Sora, but to bring back Aqua as well?!" When the others only looked at him in slight fear, Ven realized how he must have sounded just then, took a deep breath to calm down, and said, "Sorry guys. I didn't mean to snap at you like that, and I do wish I knew of a way to bring him back. But…I just…"

"He's not gone," Kairi insisted.

"Kairi, I want to believe that Sora's okay, but we all saw him…" Ventus tried to say, thinking that the girl was just going through a few stages of grief.

"I KNOW he's okay," Kairi insisted. She then placed a hand over her heart and added, "I can feel it right here. He's okay, and he's waiting for us to pull him back before it really is too late to save him."

Everyone was silent after they heard that, though mostly because they were unsure of how to respond. Was Kairi really going through a few stages of grief, or did she actually sense what she claimed to be sensing? Either one was very possible, given her nature as a Princess of Heart allowed her to sense things that others could not, but on the other hand, if she felt as strongly for Sora as they knew he did for her, then it would only be natural that she would be so insistent on denying that he was really gone. None of the other three were entirely sure which was more likely, but any option for them to respond was taken from them when someone else suddenly spoke up, getting their attention with both his voice, and the sheer amount of darkness that he exuded just from speaking.

"Ah, the eternal optimism of a Princess of Heart. It is almost as refreshing as seeing that you have awakened at last, Princess," the deep, dark voice noted, and it was at that point that the speaker fully appeared before them from a cloud of shadows, revealing a very intimidating individual to them all, both in terms of appearance and feeling. The man in question had dark, tanned skin and long white hair, while his attire easily reflected his dark nature. The most noticeable part of his attire was the black leather, high-collared coat that was left unzipped to show how it was red on the inside and lined with yellow trim, while underneath this jacket, one could see a shorter, white jacket that was also high-collared. The white coat was mostly unbuttoned and allowed one to see the man's chest before closing up with three buttons and two belts near his waist, only to flare out again due to the remaining buttons being undone. On his hands was a pair of silver-white gloves, each with a gray wrist band, while black pauldrons rested on his shoulders, each attached to the coat by two straps. Rounding out his ensemble was a pair of black pants and black, silver-lined, knee-high boots, but what really got everyone's attention was how the Heartless emblem appeared to be firmly planted on his chest, even if some of them thought that it was probably just an extra decoration for his coat. For Ventus though, the one thing that he recognized far more easily than anything else was the man's amber-orange eyes, and seeing them immediately drew a hateful glare on the individual before him.

"Ansem," Goofy gulped, already starting to deduce that this was the individual that Sora and Ventus had just defeated. Or at least, they thought they had.

"Indeed," the Seeker of Darkness confirmed. "As you can see, I am not so easily bested."

"You…You don't," Ventus suddenly started to mutter, shaking a little as he did, and drawing concern from the others, while Ansem merely quirked an eyebrow at him in curiosity. Finally, Ventus seemed to snap, as he immediately resummoned Guardian Wind and charged Ansem with a vicious glare firmly on his face, all the while shouting, "You don't deserve to call yourself by that name, and you're going to pay for what you've done…XEHANORT!"

While the rest of the blonde's friends froze a little at hearing the name he just shouted, the Seeker of Darkness merely smirked at Ventus, even as he leaped into the air and swung at Ansem. Ven's strike never reached its mark though, but instead struck some form of invisible dark barrier, which held him there for a moment before it finally blasted the blonde away, nearly sending him flying clear across the room. Donald and Goofy were instantly rushing over to Ven's side, while Kairi could only turn back and forth between the Keyblade master and their enemy in shock at what had just happened, trying to comprehend that it did happen. Ventus on the other hand was now slowly rising into a sitting position again, panting hard as he did, and it was clear that Ansem knew why that was the case just as much as he did.

"So, you really do know my true name. A shame though, that you cannot keep your word on that promise since you have exhausted your powers in that last fight," Ansem mused with a grin, while Ventus just growled in reluctant acknowledgement, showing that the villain was right about him being so tired. Even with the Elixir he had drank earlier, Ventus was still really tired from the previous battle and could not really do anything in a fight against Ansem on his own. Ansem then turned his attention back to both the group at large and Kairi in particular as he declared, "The Keyhole is now complete. You have served your purpose, Princess, but now it's over, and you have become something that could potentially be a problem."

"What do you mean," Kairi asked, but she did not really need an answer since one had already wormed its way into her head. Since she was a Princess of Heart, and she and the other six had been so instrumental in opening the Keyhole to darkness, it made sense that she and the others could somehow hold some power to keep it from causing much damage, even if only for a short while. Add in the fact that she was a future Keyblade wielder, even if Ansem did not know that, and there was no doubt in Kairi's mind on why the dark being would want to get rid of her.

Fortunately, Sora was not the only friend she had that was willing to risk their lives so she would be safe, and two of those friends were already rushing to stand in front of her, ready to fight. "Don't make another move," Donald ordered as he brandished his staff while Goofy readied his shield, though it was obvious that he was not quite as confident about their chances as he tried to sound.

Goofy on the other hand made it no secret that he was worried as he whispered to his friends, "Do you think we can stop him all by ourselves, and while Ven's not at his best?"

"I don't know," Donald admitted, mentally adding that he wished that Sora was here right now. That wish only grew stronger as Ansem just gave a short chuckle in response to Donald's threat and began to approach the four, fully intent on finishing them all off.

"Whether we can or not doesn't matter," Ventus panted as he slowly stood up, readying his Keyblade again as he moved to stand in front of Kairi. "We can't let him harm Kairi or do anything with that Keyhole. But if we are going to go down, we might as well go down fighting, and while making sure that this creep doesn't walk out of here unscathed."

While they were not too fond of the idea of going down, Donald and Goofy did admit that they were in agreement with Ventus on at least making sure they would put up a fight before they were beaten, and better yet, one that would see to it that Ansem was weakened somehow. Still, the blonde's confidence was not quite enough to ease their worries as Ansem drew closer and closer with each step, and Kairi could tell from the look in Ven's eyes that he was just as worried as the rest of them were. They were going to need a miracle if they wanted to get out of here alive, and thankfully, they received one thanks to a friend.

Ansem was about halfway to the team when suddenly froze in his tracks for some reason. A minute later, they all heard him grunting and his body shook like he was struggling against some unseen restraints, while a disbelieving look crossed his face as he tried to comprehend what was happening. When he finally figured out what was preventing him from reaching the four, Ansem's eyes widened a small fraction as he gasped, "Impossible…"

The team was a bit confused as to why Ansem appeared to be fighting with himself, but a minute later, their confusion was quickly replaced with both surprise and slight understanding. Out of all of them, only Kairi could smile a little when she saw a faint image of Riku suddenly appearing in front of Ansem, his arms wide as a show of how he was trying to hold back the one who had possessed his body. "No," Riku growled, showing that he was straining just as much as Ansem, but at the same time, he was not willing to give any ground. "You won't use me for this!"

"Riku," Kairi called out, ready to rush towards him until she was stopped by Ven's arm. She immediately looked to the blonde as if to question why he would not let her pass, but her answer ended up being a look that made it clear that he was trying to remind her of Riku's current state at the moment and how dangerous it made the boy right now. Still, Kairi was not going to just stand there and not try to reach her friend. "Riku, push him out of you! I know you can do it, and so did Sora! Fight him!"

"I'm trying…But he's too strong," Riku grunted. His expression then became panicked as he turned back to Kairi and the others and shouted, "You've got to run! The Heartless are coming!"

"Can't you stop them like you are him," Ventus asked, hoping the boy did still retained some of his control over the dark creatures.

Sadly, the Keyblade master's hopes were quickly dashed when Riku shook his head. "Any power I had over the Heartless is now Ansem's, and it's taking everything I've got just to keep him from getting to you guys. Please, just get out of here while I can still hold him." None of the group seemed to move, and Riku could sense that the Heartless were going to start appearing at any minute, so he leveled on last pleading look at the blonde before him and shouted, "Please, get at least one of my friends to safety while you can, Master Ventus! I've already had to watch this guy play a part in destroying one of my best friends, but I refuse to let him take them both!"

Hearing Riku finally refer to him the way he had would have been enough of a sign on its own, but that second statement was what really showed Ventus that the boy truly regretted what he had done up until now and was trying to make up for it the only way he could at the moment. Knowing this, Ventus saw that he had no other option but to grant Riku's request, but the sudden appearance of several Shadows all around them was a great motivator as well. Add in the fact that more and more were slowly forming as well, and Ven could only nod in response to Riku before he turned to his friends and grabbed Kairi's hand so that he could start leading them away.

Kairi was not as accommodating at the moment though, and she proved it by pulling her hand free from Ven's grasp and glaring up at him as she said, "I'm not leaving yet! Not if there's a chance to help Sora and Riku."

"We won't be able to do anything for them right now. If we stay here we'll be overrun by the Heartless in no time. The best thing we can do for them right now is fall back and come up with a plan for later," Ven tried to reason with the girl. His words did seem to start getting through to Kairi, but for the most part, she was still staring at him defiantly, proving that she was willing to stand and fight if she had to, and while anyone else would have gotten frustrated by such stubbornness, Ventus could only smile in relief as he reached into his pocket and added one final comment. "If you really want to do more than just run though, I think it might be best if you had a way of defending yourself better. So, I guess it's a good thing I've got just what you'll need to do that."

A minute later, Kairi and the others watched as Ventus produced a Keychain from his pocket with a red silken chain and a token that looked identical to a paopu fruit, much to Kairi's surprise. Donald and Goofy were not entirely sure what Ventus was planning to do with that, but the widening of her eyes showed that Kairi at least had an idea. Still, one of the two Disney Town natives had to ask him all the same, and Donald ended up being the one to do so. "What're you gonna do with that?"

"I told Sora earlier that Keyblade Masters can awaken a Keyblade that's resting inside of a Keychain for a couple of different reasons, like to act as a substitute for another wielder's Keyblade if it were ever lost to them, or so that they could pass it on to someone who would be worthy of that particular Keyblade," Ventus explained to his friends while gazing down at the Keychain he held with a bit of fondness. "This Keychain in particular was one that belonged to Aqua long ago, but she had left it behind shortly before she had left to try and find Terra in the hopes that someone she trusted would see that it would reach its rightful wielder someday. And I think that I've just found that very person."

Ventus then closed his eyes, focusing as hard as he could so that he could conjure the same spell that he had used earlier to animate Metal Chocobo for Sora, and a moment later, the Keyblade that accompanied this Keychain sprang forth, shining and glittering brightly after it had, while the others could only gaze at it in awe. In truth, the Keyblade seemed to be rather harmless in terms of actual appearance, and had a kind of girly design to it with its round and curvaceous frame. One side of the hilt formed the shape of a breaking ocean wave, while the other side formed a beige vine of sand that wrapped around the shaft. The shaft itself was colored to resemble a sunset, and the teeth were formed by a bouquet of colorful flowers that were entwined to form a heart, and connected to the same vine of sand. Goofy thought it looked pretty, while Donald could only smack his head in disbelief that his friend would summon forth such a weapon, but it was Kairi's reaction that Ventus was most focused on. While the girl did seem to think that this Keyblade was rather harmless and not likely to be of much use at first, he could tell from the look in her eyes that she thought the Keyblade was rather significant and beautiful, and with the way she was staring at it, Ven just knew that she could sense what he had the moment he had summoned it forth from the Keychain: this Keyblade was calling to the girl, proving what he suspected with ease.

Ventus then held the Keyblade out to Kairi and said, "Here, take it."

"What," Kairi gasped.

"This Keyblade is one that Aqua received on her first trip to Radiant Garden. She told me that she believed that it was meant for a very special person she had met there. If I'm right, I think she was referring to you," Ventus reasoned. When he saw how hesitant the girl was, he immediately added on, "You can sense it calling to you, right? That alone is proof that it's meant to be yours. Take it and speak its name, and you'll know for certain as well."

Kairi hesitated for another moment, but eventually, she nodded in understanding and grasped the handle of the Keyblade in her hands. In an instant, she felt a surge of light and power flow through her, and the Keyblade seemed to sense it as well, because it glowed brightly before flashing once more as if to confirm that it was here to stay. After studying the Keyblade for another minute, Kairi finally nodded and said, "I guess this time…I'LL fight too, and with Destiny's Embrace right at my side."

Ventus nodded in satisfaction, seeing as this had just proved what he already knew, and he immediately summoned Guardian Wind once again, and slashed through a Heartless that just tried to get the jump on them before it could harm any of them. He was especially glad that it had been some time since he had animated Metal Chocobo for Sora, because if it had not, he would have been completely useless in any fights right now, and at the moment, he knew that they were going to have to fight in order to escape. "All right, enough chit-chat. Let's get out of here," Ventus ordered, and they all immediately made a mad-dash for the exit, slashing and blasting any Heartless that tried to get in their way as they did, but not before Ventus exchanged one last, quick nod with Riku, which he was happy to see returned by the boy.

As they reached the entrance to the Grand Hall, they all quickly took note of how both Beast and princesses were all no longer present there, but they had no time to wonder about where they had all gone. If they stopped for anything right now with the Heartless right behind them, they knew that they would get overrun, so they kept going. Seeing the empty pods that the princesses were in before did remind Goofy about something else though, and he was not going to wait before bringing that topic up.

"What about the Keyhole," the knight hollered to his friends, slowing down but not stopping in their fleeing of the room.

"It's too late to try and seal it now! We'll all be consumed by the Heartless if we were to stop and attempt sealing it," Ventus informed his friend, inwardly cursing himself for letting what happened to Sora distract him from such an important matter.

"Let's just get out of here! We can worry about the rest later," Donald shouted, to which Kairi agreed with a nod, and they all immediately picked up their pace, with Ventus and Donald pausing for a moment to discourage too much pursuit with a few quick blasts of magic.

As they were running, none of them ever seemed to realize that something very odd was happening at the place where Sora had fallen. Not many people would have been able to so much as notice or even really see it, but for anyone who could, it almost seemed like a very small, black hole had formed in the floor, and something appeared to be struggling inside of it a little in an attempt to get out. Whatever that thing was though, it was hard to really say at the moment, but that was likely to change at any second.

"Please, let me make it in time," Aqua mentally pleaded as she continued running through Dark World, only taking a mild notice of how her surroundings had started to change. It was not until she was well within tropical surroundings that she finally bean to observe the details a little more closely, and she had to sigh to herself when she recognized it as another place she had been to in what was quickly beginning to feel like a lifetime ago. From what she could tell, this place was made up of the remains of Luau Paradise, a world where another friend of hers had ended up on after escaping captivity and had eventually found him a family, and thinking of the little blue alien by the name of Stitch brought a small smile to Aqua's face. She remembered how so many thought the poor little guy was a dangerous creature, but thanks to her and her best friends, Stitch had quickly started changing for the better. You needed no more proof of that than Aqua's memory of how Stitch had made his own Wayfinder after seeing Terra's and hearing how his friend had given to him, or of how happy Stitch seemed to be after she said that he could be part of her circle of friends.

The nostalgic look on her face remained for a minute, until Aqua finally shook her head in an effort to push those thoughts aside, quickly reminding herself that now was not the time to be getting swept up in old memories again even if they were very precious and happy ones. An old friend needed her help right now, and from what she could tell, his light was somewhere in this area. She just needed to figure out where. Sure, this was not the same Sora that had helped her to rebuild the broken bond between her and her friends, but she could tell that it was the one who was just a small boy from Destiny Islands when she met him, and if she were to judge by the strength of his light, she would guess that he had now gained a Keyblade. She was not entirely sure how that was the case since she knew she had not passed the power onto him when they met, but that did not matter right now. All that mattered was that Sora should not be here, and she was going to make sure he did not stay in this place for long. Besides, she already saved a friend from falling into this place once before, so it would not be a problem for her to do so again, even if it was by a different means than the first time.

There was just one small problem with what she was having to do right now. "How is it that I haven't been able to find him yet," Aqua questioned aloud. "Seriously, aside from the Princesses of Heart, this kid's light shines brighter than that of anyone else that I've ever met. Well, maybe not brighter than Mickey's, but definitely close to that if not exactly as bright. Either way, with a heart that shines so brightly with light, it should not be that hard to find him in this place. It's a powerful light in a world of darkness and that literally has darkness in its name. How could it possibly be so hard to find out exactly where he is?"

Aqua had in fact been searching for Sora's light for a while now, ever since she had rushed away from the ruins of Cinderella's world, and the whole time she was going, she had been following the boy's light as best as she could. The main problem was that Dark World was like an ever-changing maze that was always shifting in some strange, and twisted, unpredictable way. There was no set path to anywhere in the place, and anything that resembled a main road never stayed as such for long before changing again, ultimately leading any who traveled that path in several circles if they were not mindful of where they stepped. Add in the fact that the surroundings were practically unchanging most of the time, and anyone would easily get lost in here without something to act as a kind of guidepost. Aqua was lucky that she had a few things to lead her where she wanted to go up until now, with the light of Sora's heart being the most recent thing for her to follow, but just following one specific thing did not mean that the way to reach it was a straight path. There were always several twists, turns, and barriers that one would have to navigate their way around if they wanted to reach their destination, and if it were any other time, Aqua would have been able to remain patient as she figured out whatever puzzle lay before her. This time was different though, because a friend's life was on the line, and she did not want to be too late in saving him before he was trapped here with her.

Aqua was soon distracted from her thoughts when she noticed a few tiki heads were lining the path she was currently on. It was an odd thing to be distracted by and she likely would have paid them little mind, but it was impossible not to notice them when she saw their expressions slowly change out of the corner of her eye. Eventually, the each of the mouths on the large tiki heads opened wide and began releasing massive fireballs at her or into the path in front of her, and it was only out of well-honed instinct and quick thinking that Aqua had managed to cartwheel out of the way before she was burnt to a crisp. An instant later, she had summoned Master's Defender to her hand and began swinging the Keyblade at some of the fireballs so that they would be deflected back to where they came from whenever she was not able to raise a Barrier around her that would have kept her safe.

After spinning on her heel to avoid another fireball, Aqua quickly released a quick burst of Blizzaga to create an icy path on the ground ahead of her, and then jumped on top of the ice so that she could be carried forward at a much faster speed. When she had landed upon the ice, her body instantly lit up with a blue aura of magic, indicating that she had activated the powers of the Keyblade ability Flowmotion. It was a very advanced technique that she did not really use too often before since she had her armor, Keyblade Glider, and friends by her side most of the time, but since she had sacrificed her armor and original Keyblade to save Terra, Aqua found that she was having to rely on this ability quite a bit. Besides, in this place, Aqua could not afford to hold anything back, so a powerful ability like Flowmotion was definitely necessary for both her survival and for getting anywhere fast, be it so that she could escape from danger, or so that she could enter a battle with a powerful impact. Add in the fact that using Flowmotion helped to enhance her attacks and kept her from being seriously harmed by enemy attacks to a slight degree, and Aqua sometimes had to wonder why she did not use it a bit more often before during the journey she had shared with her friends. That was usually followed by the reminder that she had not quite mastered using Flowmotion back then, and if anyone had seen the aura of the ability back then compared to now, they would have known it too.

You see, when one is using Flowmotion, it is always easy to tell if they have mastered the ability or not based off the color of the aura the wielder's body is surrounded in after activating the ability. When a person first starts using and practicing with Flowmotion, their aura is a magenta color that would sometimes be accompanied by two orbiting lights of the same color. However, if they have mastered it, then the aura surrounding them would hold a distinctive blue color, which served as proof of their accomplishment. To this day, Aqua would never forget how frustrated she would get with learning this particular ability as she practiced at the Land of Departure, often times on her own or with either Master Eraqus or Ventus, the former because he was the one who first told her about the ability and helped her in figuring out how to use it, and the latter because he would often be a great pillar of support if she ever got discouraged. Sure, Ventus had a few moments when he helped to figure out how to better use Flowmotion, but for the most part, it was Eraqus that had really helped the most in her getting a handle on the rather difficult ability. Needless to say, despite all of the efforts she had put into mastering this technique, it was not until after Aqua had fallen into this place that she had finally managed to master Flowmotion, and the irony of how someone who fought to keep the light safe had mastered such an incredible power while lost in the Realm of Darkness was not lost on Aqua for a minute.

That said, Aqua was certainly not going to complain about how she had mastered any of her powers if they kept her alive, and especially not right now, because being able to create a trail of ice to Rail Slide across before leaping into the air to Wall Kick from one surface to another in order to speed up her travels was definitely proving to be a great assistance in helping her to reach any destination that she was having difficulty getting too, or was just very far away from her. Said actions were exactly what she was executing at this very moment, using the tiki heads to Wall Kick off of so that she could speed up her race over to where she had sensed Sora's heart. She could not keep up her Flowmotion-enhanced rush forever though, because it did wear off after a short time if one did not chain another action to it, but with all the enemies around, Aqua did not have to worry about it ending at a bad time. Each time she encountered the creatures of darkness that called this place home, she somehow always managed to make it so that she was landing with a Flowmotion Attack that would destroy all if not a large majority of them, usually making any ensuing fight easier for her. This was not a pattern that could continue indefinitely, but considering that these creatures were slow to learn and acted like animals, Aqua was not too worried about having to change up and improvise any of her strategies very often.

For some reason though, there were not too many of the dark creatures in this area, which left Aqua a bit mystified. Everywhere she had turned in Dark World was crawling with these living shadows with beady yellow eyes, so why was it that this area was so vacant of them? Could it be that they were frightened by the powerful light that was slowly entering this place? Aqua immediately dismissed that theory, because if that were the case, they would probably have left her alone for the most part. Aqua did not want to sound like she was bragging, but she did like to think that her heart and the light it held within were both very strong, and the fact that she had not succumbed to the darkness in this place yet served as proof of that for her, and yet, the creatures were constantly hounding her, ambushing her at moments when she was so certain that she would be able to stop and rest for a moment. Time may not flow in this place, but that did not mean that Aqua did not get tired from walking and fighting almost nonstop. The only thing that made sense to her about why she had not met any of the creatures yet was that they were all gathering around Sora's light, likely believing that he was easy-pickings at the moment, and that theory served to spurn her onward even faster than before.

Eventually, Aqua came to a wide open beach that was no doubt very beautiful once with bright sunny skies and a wonderful ocean, and she had to chuckle a little to herself upon realizing that Sora's light was closer to her than ever. "I guess it only makes sense that his heart would end up here," Aqua noted aloud, her small laughter not quite fading yet. "His world is an island as well, and he definitely seemed like the type to enjoy playing on the beach with his friends."

All amusement quickly left Aqua when she laid on eyes on several creatures of darkness scrambling over one another to reach a large, bright orb of light, and Aqua immediately knew that she had found what she was looking for at last. She may not have been able to tell it was him because of outward appearances, but the warm feeling she sensed from this light was all the indication that Aqua needed to know that this was in fact Sora, and seeing these creatures were attacking him, or at the very least attempting to attack him, Aqua saw no reason to just stand here and let them go unpunished, even as she started towards them with a calm, steady walk. Her pace soon started to quicken a little more, namely after she had summoned her master's Keyblade once again, and she was soon breaking into a full run when she saw the creatures finally take notice of her, leading to some breaking off so that they could attack her instead of the approaching light.

"If you want him, then you'll have to go through me," Aqua shouted at the monsters, punctuating that point by slashing Master's Defender through the closest shadow, destroying it in a single blow. She immediately spun around and slashed through another three that were already preparing to pounce, and then batted away another one so that she could have enough distance between her and it to safely cast Firaga in order to destroy it. This place may have been the home turf of the dark creatures, giving them more power than they would have in the Realm of Light, but after wandering for so long, and fighting so many of them as she did, Aqua was proving to not be an easy opponent for them.

Apparently, the rest of the creatures soon realized this, because they all soon abandoned their attempts on getting to Sora, and turned their full attention to Aqua. The young woman had no problems with that, because it meant that she did not have to keep track of two different groups of enemies with different objectives now, but it did make her fight a little more difficult since she was not just fighting the small Shadows anymore. Now, she was taking on the larger, more humanoid versions, which she had come to call NeoShadows, the winged ones that struck from the air that she had dubbed as Flutterings, and the three elemental based enemies that looked like large orbs that were mixed together with whatever elements that they used in battle against her, or at least, two of them used elements against her. The two that fought her with elemental attacks were what she had dubbed as the Water Core and Fire Core, and as the names suggested, they used the elements of fire and water to fight with. She had mainly named the third one as Earth Core because of how it appeared to be partially made up of rocks, which left most of its body invulnerable save for the face. Getting hit by Earth Cores was not something she had any desire for either, considering how often she was left stunned by the things and left open for any other enemies to take advantage of.

Still, it did not matter if she was fighting a small group, an entire army, or the most powerful of all the monsters in this dark place. Aqua was not going to let anything stand in her way if it meant keeping someone from falling into this place with her. This moment while he was still only beginning to enter the realm was Aqua's only chance to keep Sora from falling all the way into the Realm of Darkness, and no matter what she had to go through, she would not fail him. She made this point especially clear when she finally did something that had not happened in years: she activated one of her personal Command Styles: Spellweaver. The moment the creatures of darkness saw her unleash her Unique Command Style, they all seemed to pause for a moment, proving their animalistic nature by pausing at the sight of something that could be considered a very powerful threat, but they soon went on the attack again, not knowing that Aqua was more than ready for them now.

In mere moments, Aqua was gliding across the battlefield, spinning her Keyblade through the air via light magic, which proved to destroy several of her opponents at a time. As she continued fighting, Aqua could not help but notice how the number of hits she could land in a single combo had increased since she had last used the ability, while the actual strikes were now coming much faster than before. She was not sure if it was a sign of her abilities being able to slowly grow stronger due to their long period of inactivity or something else, but Aqua was definitely not complaining, because it was making the fight all the more easier. Nearing the end of each combo, Aqua would vary between just spinning the Keyblade out in a rapid spin at the Heartless or just calling it back to her hand so that she could fire an orb of light magic into a large group, which she noticed was decidedly larger than before, but the mystery of any other changes to her impressive abilities was put on hold when she felt the energies reach their all time maximum, indicating that it was time to either enter a Tier Two Command Style, or simply unleash the finisher for this one. Aqua decided that it would be better to finish this fight now, and entering another Command Style here would not help with that, so her next move was very clear to her.

"Command Style: Spellweaver Finisher," Aqua shouted, and in an instant later, she had thrust her Keyblade up into the air while she started spinning around on the tips of her toes, and a magical aura erupted from the Keyblade to descend down around her spinning form like a powerful whirlwind of energy. It was at this point that Aqua noticed that the finisher for her Unique Tier One Command Style had also changed a little as well, because a large ice crystal suddenly started to slowly form above her head, and then shattered after she came out of her final spin, bringing a very explosive finish to her technique when it did that saw an end to the remaining creatures of darkness. Aqua took a minute to catch her breath and study where her opponents had previously been for a minute, before she finally smiled to herself and said, "Well, I guess even some magic abilities can grow and change when given a chance to rest for a time. I'm definitely not complaining about it either."

With the battle finished, Aqua quickly dismissed her Keyblade and ran over to the orb of light. When she was close enough, Aqua closed her eyes and held a hand out towards it, focusing her senses just to make sure that she was not wrong in her earlier assumption, and found herself smiling a little, despite the circumstances when she recognized that it was Sora's heart. When that confirmation, Aqua immediately looked up to see that a dark portal was still present a short distance above the orb, and that it was one that only Sora's heart could pass through, so she did not kid herself into thinking that she could hitch a ride out of this place with it. Instead, she focused on using whatever spell she could think of to push the boy's heart back up through the portal it had come from, even going so far as to use her Keyblade to try and bat it out. Nothing she tried seemed to work though, and Aqua was beginning to think she had gotten here too late. Then she reminded herself that the Sora she had met would not give in so easily, and if the portal for him to get out was still there, it meant he was still fighting, so she could not give up just yet. She just needed to think of something that would give him the extra push he needed.

In the end, she found herself just talking to his heart in an attempt to keep it from drowning into the darkness. "Come on, Sora," Aqua encouraged. "If you can hear me, then you can't give up just yet. You've still got so much to do on the other side, and your friends still need you over there. All the worlds need you to be their hero, their light in the deepest darkness, and most importantly of all their friend who never gives up on others. I know you can still get back, so go on and do what you do best: beat the odds and rise up out of the darkest so that you can shine brighter than anyone else ever could."

Apparently, Aqua's words had something of an effect, because the orb that represented Sora's heart suddenly paused in its descent before slowly starting to move again, only this time it was going upwards to the portal. Taking that to mean that she was getting through to him, Aqua pressed on, cheering, "That's it, Sora! You can do it, just keep going and don't give up. Don't lose faith and keep believing that you can get back. Kairi and the others are all waiting for you! NOW GO!"

That last sentence was what finally did it, or maybe it was just mentioning Kairi's name that did, but it did not matter either way, as Sora's heart suddenly shot off towards the portal like a rocket, and Aqua had to smile a little when it finally disappeared through the portal, no doubt emerging on the other side where it needed to be. What happened to Sora's heart next was not something that Aqua could be entirely certain of, but she somehow knew that he would be okay now. After all, like she said, he had friends waiting for him on the other side, just like she did. Seeing Sora's heart escape from the darkness helped Aqua to gather her courage once again, and rekindle her belief that she would soon find a way out of here. All that she had to do now was turn and start walking again, and she immediately did just that, feeling that she would be ready for whatever Dark World threw at her next. Besides, if she could get two friends out of this place, finding a way out for herself should not be that difficult, right?

Meanwhile, at the very same moment, a single Shadow had materialized in Hollow Bastion, right out from the black hole in the floor that had unknowingly appeared in the wake of Ventus, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy's retreat. It did not stay there for long though, but instead began chasing after the four, not to attack them like the others of its kind, but for a much different purpose that it did not entirely understand. All it knew was that it needed to reach the four before any of the other Heartless did, and so that it could make sure that they were safe.

Getting out of the Grand Hall and back through the castle chapel again was fairly simple for the four retreating heroes, but when they reached the lift-stop, they were met with very unfortunate news. Nearly every one of the elevators had been shut down due to several emergency systems in the castle being activated, and as far as they could tell, the only ones that were working were the ones closest to the entrance hall. Seeing that they were cornered, Goofy quickly put in a call to the gummi ship and asked for Chip and Dale to teleport them out, but that turned out to be no good. Apparently, the Keyhole to darkness had unleashed so much power and dark energies that the ship was not able to get a proper fix on the team while they were still inside or even too close to the castle, so the only way they were going to get back onto the Kingdom would be to get out of the castle and as far away from it as possible. That did not seem like something they were going to be able to do though, because they were going to need to get all the way back down to the entrance hall if they were going to reach such a position, and without the elevators, they had no way of doing so. At least, none that would be considered safe or very sane.

Looking down over the railings, Ventus saw an opening that he was hoping they would not have to consider, but given the fast approaching Heartless, and how many of them were likely to try and cut them off from the other direction, it looked like they had no choice. "We're going to have to jump for it," the blonde called out to the others just as Donald had blasted another Darkball with Firaga.

Everyone instantly spun around to fix Ventus with looks that were all clearly asking if he had lost his mind, be it through comically wide eyes, jaws that had dropped to the floor, or even both. "That's crazy! We'd never survive," Goofy protested, and he knew what he was talking about since he went through several near-death falls quite a bit back in the day and even now.

"Besides, we can't use Glide like you and Kairi can," Donald pointed out as he gestured between himself and Goofy.

Kairi was quickly fixing Donald a look of annoyance when she informed him, "Just because Sora could use magic abilities like Glide or High Jumping doesn't mean that I can use them too! Even if I was inside of Sora's heart and watching him learn how to use them for nearly this entire adventure."

This argument would have gone a little further had Ventus not whistled for attention after blasting away a Wyvern with a quick blast of Aerora. "Even at this height, it wouldn't be safe to use Glide to reach an area that we could teleport up from. We're too high up to reach that distance without having to circle back around several times over, and we'd be left wide open to attack while we were airborne," Ventus informed them. "Besides, we just need to drop down to some of the lower levels of the castle, and I can cushion our fall with some wind magic. In case you guys haven't noticed, the balconies of this castle tend to stick out quite a bit, and one of the lowest ones leads to a direct path through the lift-stop and back into the entrance hall."

Everyone had to admit that they could see what Ven was thinking now, but that did not mean that they liked the idea any better. They probably would have tried to suggest some other ideas had they not heard several Heartless barreling towards them at that very moment. Seeing as they had no other choice, they all nodded to each and immediately rushed over to the nearest edge so they could be ready to jump. Ventus was about to tell them where they should jump and aim for as they fell, but Donald and Goofy ended up being too hasty out of panic and leapt over the side at a random point, not really thinking about where they should be aiming. "No, wait! Not yet you blockheads," Ventus shouted a little too late, much to his chagrin. He then simply sighed, "Like I said before, this charging ahead thing is going to get them into trouble."

"Well we can't just stand here now while they're falling," Kairi informed him, taking a deep breath so that she would be ready for the big plunge.

"No, we can't," Ventus confirmed, and a moment later, he and Kairi had leapt over the balcony as well. While the redhead did as much as she could to make sure she would not fall too fast, Ven had tucked his arms in and made sure that he fell fast enough to get ahead of Donald and Goofy. When he finally reached the two, he signaled them both to try and direct their falls so that they would be closer to his position, and then maneuvered himself over to where he believed would be the ideal place for them to land.

The two warriors of Disney Town must have gotten Ven's message, because they had quickly redirected themselves so that they were as close to falling along the same path as their blonde friend, and a moment later, Kairi was right behind the three as well. When he saw one of the lower balconies approaching them, Ventus immediately angled his body so that his descent would start slowing a little more, and quickly cast a bit of wind magic beneath them to ensure that they would land safely. When they reached the balcony, only Ventus and Kairi had landed on their feet, while Donald and Goofy both fell flat on their faces, much to the amusement of the two Keybearers. It took a minute for the two highly animated fighters to shake off any disorientation their drop had left them in, but they were soon on their feet again in no time and quickly making their way towards the door that lead to the lift stop.

Just as they were about to go through, Goofy suddenly thought of something and asked, "Hey Ven, why didn't you just summon Tinker Bell so we could fly down?"

"I would have if I could, but that battle with Xeha…I mean, Ansem, coupled with conjuring forth Destiny's Embrace from its Keychain has seriously exhausted most of my magic," Ventus informed him. "If I'm not careful with how I cast a lot of my regular spells, aside from stuff like the wind magic I used just now or some of the other most basic spells, I'll be drained to the point that I'll be lucky to be able to so much as summon or dismiss my Keyblade."

The others all nodded in understanding of this. After all, Ventus may be a Keyblade Master, but he did have several limits that proved he was not invincible, but they were still left wondering about his earlier slip of the tongue. This was now nearly the second time that Ven had referred to Ansem by a different name, and if they had to guess, it was likely going to be the same one as before. They all knew that Ventus had accused Ansem of being someone else before that last battle the blonde had fought alongside of Sora, and when they thought about it, Ansem had not denied Ven's accusations either. Rather, the Seeker of Darkness had seemed to revel in the fact that someone actually knew his "true name," as he had claimed it to be. They would have to wonder on that more later, because even after losing most of their pursuers, they still had several Heartless standing between them and the way out of the castle.

Now that they were not fighting swarms of Heartless that were coming from all directions, Ventus took the time to study Kairi's abilities with the Keyblade, and to be honest, he could definitely tell that she had been paying quite a bit of attention to Sora's lessons while she was inside of his heart. Her form was very close to Sora's and was relatively strong as well, but Ven could already see quite a few flaws in it as well. For one thing, Kairi was obviously trying too hard to go for more power than she was capable of in her strikes, no doubt in an attempt to emulate the way that her two best friends fought, when in his opinion, she should be going for more precision and agility in her fighting, being much more, naturally flexible than Sora or Riku. Then again, he was probably basing this idea off of how he saw Aqua fight in comparison to him and Terra, but as he continued to study Kairi, Ven could definitely see that she was not meant to go for a strong-hand approach in the area swordplay. He made a note of helping her to work on that later when they had a better chance, but for right now, her current approach would have to do, and it did seem to be working for the most part, when she did not accidentally overextend herself and nearly end up falling on her face a few times. Thankfully, she did not actually fall, but instead managed to tuck into a roll before jumping up and landing a quick hit or two on an approaching enemy, showcasing the flexibility that he knew should be worked into her fights.

While Kairi's swordplay did leave a bit to be desired, her magic was an entirely different story. Barely even a Keyblade wielder for that long, and the girl was already casting spells like it was as easy as breathing. Not only that, but Kairi even went the extra mile and started to cast some of the more advanced levels of the three basic spells in short order as well. It was nothing as spectacular or advanced as Firaga, Blizzaga, or Thundaga, but the fact that she could manage casting spells like Fira, Blizzara, and Thundara without needing to practice that much was certainly impressive. Ven was not sure if Kairi had spent some of her time in Sora's heart discovering her own magic source after she had gone through her Dive to the Heart, or if it had something to do with her nature as a Princess of Heart, but he could clearly see that Kairi had a natural talent for magic, just like the blue haired Keyblade master that Ven knew had passed the power onto Kairi, even if it was unintentional. Knowing this, Ventus could not help but wonder just how good of a teacher he could really be for Kairi, assuming he did take her on as an apprentice now, because he knew that, while his own magic was not lacking in any way, shape, or form, it was still not an area he excelled in to a great extent.

The blonde quickly shook those thoughts out of his head, knowing that now was not the time to be thinking about whether or not he would be taking on a new apprentice for multiple reasons. For one thing, he had just lost his first apprentice right before his eyes, and said apprentice was not only Kairi's best friend but the boy she doubtlessly loved, especially if her reaction to the loss of Sora was anything to go by. Asking her to be his new apprentice now would definitely have been in bad taste, and likely would have made Kairi think that he was trying to replace Sora with her. That would also no doubt give her a bad opinion of him, even if she did know a bit about him from her time watching the adventure going on from within Sora's heart, and Ventus did not want her to think anymore negatively of him than she probably already did. Kairi may not have said it, and likely never would, but even if she was a Princess of Heart, she could still place blame for the loss of someone she cared about on someone if she believed they held some small bit of responsibility, and the fact that Ven had been unable to stop Sora from using the Keyblade of Heart on himself, or bring the kid back afterwards made him feel like he deserved to be blamed for that. Add in the fact that they were currently in the middle of trying to escape from the Heartless and Hollow Bastion, and all other reasons pretty much spoke for themselves at that point.

Ventus was soon reminded of the situation when they finally reached made it through the Heartless that had appeared in front of them and reached the entrance hall, proving that they were nearly home free, but just as they had descended the stairs, the blonde and his two friends quickly took notice of the fact that Kairi was not next to them. They all panicked and started to think that they had lost track of her during the fight, but they quickly calmed down when they saw her at the top of the stairs, though she was not making any moves to join them on the lower floor so they could escape. "Kairi, hurry," Goofy urged.

"We can't stay here," Donald quickly added on.

Kairi made no moves to grant their requests, but instead just held her ground and said, "No, I won't leave them behind."

Ventus knew that she was referring to Sora and Riku, and he admired her determination to stay and try to help her friends, but he also knew that there was nothing that could be done for either one of them right now. Of course, he knew that chances of saving Riku were now much better than getting Sora back, but he was not going to tell Kairi that when she was so insistent on the idea that Sora could still be saved. More importantly, he was not going to let her stay here and fight a losing battle when it would have been smarter to fall back and fight another day. "Kairi, if you want to help your friends then we need to leave," Ventus insisted. "There's nothing we can do for them right now."

The redhead seemed to wavering in her decision to stay or leave after hearing Ven, but it was not until Goofy noticed something coming up from behind her that she finally moved to join with the others. "A Heartless is after us," Goofy shouted.

Kairi immediately bolted down the stairs and over to the team when she heard that, but she still kept Destiny's Embrace out and dropped into a battle stance even after she was next to the other three. Ventus was about to do the same, but he paused when he let Goofy's words run through his head again and then looked to see that there really was only one Heartless. A single Shadow, in point of fact, and it was all by itself too. As far as Ven knew, a Shadow never went after someone without being part of at least a small group, and even when there were other types of Heartless around, there were always at least two Shadows, so why was this one all alone? It did not make a lot of sense, but it looked as though Ventus was the only one to really think about this, because the others were a bit more concerned about how they were being chased by an enemy.

"I'll take care of him," Donald declared, and when the Heartless finally came down the stairs and over to them, he immediately bashed it in the head with his staff. To their surprise, the Shadow did not disappear, but instead, it just got back up and ran over to them again, prompting Donald to bonk it on the head again. This time, the Shadow did not even get knocked away, but remained standing right in front of them, which was starting to make Donald a little annoyed. "Confounded Heartless," Donald grumbled as he bonked the Shadow on the head a couple more times. "Get lost, will ya?"

"Whoa, hang on a second, Donald. There's something…odd about this Shadow," Ventus finally intervened, grabbing Donald's arm before the magician could whap it in the head again.

They all then looked on in study of the single Shadow, watching its every move carefully in an attempt to figure out what made it so different from the others. At first, it just flittered and twitched like any other Shadow, but it showed no signs of hostility towards them at all. Then again, they could have figured that out from how it did not try to attack them earlier, or even retaliate for Donald's hitting it on the head. It just stood there for a few more minutes before it slowly turned its head towards Ventus, just staring at him for a few minutes like it searching him for something. When the blonde just kept an even yet intrigued look on his face, the Shadow then slowly walked a little closer to them, prompting Goofy, Donald, and Ven to all summon weapons out of reflex. The Shadow immediately stopped for a few seconds, but then started to slowly move forward again, this time turning its attention to Kairi. Goofy would have rushed to the girl's side, but Ventus quickly signaled for him to wait. Most of his reasoning for that was because he knew that if this Shadow did turn out to be dangerous, he could get to the girl faster than either of the other two, but the rest of his reasoning was the simple fact he was curious about what this Shadow would do.

When it finally reached Kairi, the Shadow just stood where it was, looking up at her, and the redhead stared back, not really sure what it was trying to tell her. At least, she was not sure at first, but after a few seconds or so, Kairi began to feel something from this Heartless that was slightly familiar to her. A few seconds later, a crazy thought entered her head, but after thinking it over and focusing on the feeling she was getting from this Shadow, it quickly became less and less crazy in her mind. "Sora," Kairi quietly asked, hoping she was right. "Is that you?"

The three boys all looked a little surprised by Kairi's question, even if it did make sense that this Heartless could be Sora. After all, a Heartless was born when someone lost their heart, but if this really was Sora's Heartless, then why was it acting so unlike any of the others? Could it be that their friend was still in there somewhere? They did not have any time to try and figure it out, because they were quickly surrounded once again by more Heartless, prompting Donald and Goofy into action while Ventus began blasting away any Heartless that tried to get close to Kairi and what she believed was Sora's Heartless. Kairi was already swinging her Keyblade at the ones that had already gotten too close for comfort, because she had quickly realized that a lot of the Heartless were attacking the lone Shadow as well as her and her friends, and if this really was Sora, there was no way she was going to give these monsters a chance to take him away from her again.

"This time, I'll protect you," Kairi promised the Shadow, and she had to smile a little when she saw the little guy apparently nod in thanks to her.

Ventus quickly realized that the Heartless were attacking the lone Shadow as well, like Kairi had, and since the girl was sticking so close to said Shadow, he made it a point to focus most of his attention on the enemies surrounding both her and her charge. The only downside was that he had to be careful in how he attacked, because if that Shadow was Sora and it got hit by any of Ven's attacks, then there was a real chance that Sora would be lost forever. Not that Ven had any trouble with pulling his punches, because at the rate he had been going lately, he felt like he was going to pass out from exhaustion at any moment. That battle with Ansem and conjuring forth Destiny's Embrace for Kairi had clearly worn him out more than he had let on, and his fatigue was starting to show a little more with every second that they spent fighting this battle. At this point, the only thing that was keeping Ven going was sheer force of will, but that would only do him so much good, especially right here and now of all times. Every time a Heartless got past him because of his exhaustion, he had to curse under his breath a little, but at this point, the only thing he could really do was pray that they would somehow make it through.

Eventually, Ven's fatigue finally got the better of him when a large group of Shadows managed to barrel past him and jump at Kairi and the Heartless she was protecting. Ventus tried to warn the girl, but just when he was starting to call out to her, he ended up pinned down by a number of Shadows as well, letting out a cry of distress that alerted Donald and Goofy to his plight. Ven's shouts did at least get Kairi's attention, but when she saw the Heartless pounce, she instantly panicked and acted on instinct, dropping her Keyblade and spinning around to grab onto what she believed was her friend, both in the hopes of keeping him safe, and hoping that he would somehow save her at the last second like he often seemed to. When the Shadow froze under Kairi's hold, the redhead began to grow even more worried, even as the other Heartless dog-piled on them both, and pleadingly shouted, "Sora, help please!"

Donald and Goofy had been too busy getting the other Heartless off of and away from Ven to notice the threat to the girl until it was too late, and when they heard her shout, all three of them turned to see a mass of Shadows piling on top of both her and the Shadow she had been protecting. "Kairi," Goofy called out in worry.

"No," Ventus shouted in dismay, fearing he had just lost both Sora and Kairi now. At least, that is what he was thinking until suddenly, a miracle happened.

From beneath the Shadows that were swarming the two, a bright light suddenly flashed, pushing some of the Heartless away at first, and when it flared again, all of the Heartless that had been surrounding Kairi and the others were suddenly blasted into oblivion. Everyone shut their eyes, trying to block out the sheer intensity of the light's brightness, and when Ventus, Donald, and Goofy opened their eyes again, they immediately gasped in surprise before grins slowly started to form on their faces. There, standing tall and proud, holding Kairi as close as he could, safely in his arms, was none other than their good, brown spiky haired friend in a red jumpsuit, white and black jacket, large yellow shoes, and crown necklace, and when he opened his eyes to look down at the girl lovingly, they all saw them shining with the same crystal blue that they knew could only be his, but this time, there was an extra special kind of shine to his eyes, which was only reflected by how soft and gentle his voice was when he finally spoke up.

"Kairi, thank you," the wielder of Kingdom Key whispered, and that was what finally prompted the redhead to open her eyes so that she could who was holding her so tightly. She had not done so right after the light had passed because she was enjoying the warm feeling that this hug had been giving her. It was a warmth that she had almost thought she would never feel again, because it only came from one person, and she did not want to get her hopes up in thinking it was him only to have them dashed when she finally laid her eyes on him.

Kairi slowly turned her gaze up to the person holding her, and her eyes immediately widened before a bright smile that seemed to light up the entire room crossed her face as she cheered the name of her returning hero. "Sora!"

Indeed, Sora was in fact standing tall and proud before his friends once again, grinning widely as he gazed down at the girl he loved so much. In fact, his smile was so wide it did not seem like it was ever going to disappear, until Kairi suddenly grabbed him by the face, pulled him down to her a little more, and planted her lips firmly over his, much to his surprise. That surprise vanished almost as fast as his smile just had, especially when he felt Kairi's arms begin to circle around to the back of his head, and he immediately tightened his hold on the redhead a little more as he returned the kiss with every ounce of love he possessed for her, showing her that he had not been giving empty words out of fear of the fact that he was going to die or fall into darkness before. At that point, the two were completely lost in their own little world, like there was no one else in existence besides them as they continued to kiss each other, holding on as tightly as they could in a way that seemed like they thought that the other would disappear if they let go. It probably would have lasted even longer if it were not for the fact that they both still needed to breathe, but when they parted, they were both overjoyed to see that they were sharing the same, tender and loving look with one another.

The moment was quickly interrupted though, because their friends quickly reminded them that they were not in fact the only two in the room at the moment by cheering for the conquering hero. "SORA," Donald and Goofy both cheered as loudly and happily as they could, and they likely would have rushed into a group-hug with the boy had Ventus not waved for them to hold off on that for a moment.

Even though he did silently tell them to wait, Ventus found that he could not, because he was immediately rushing to the kid's side, reaching him just as he had released Kairi from his arms, and locked the young Keybearer in a headlock while he gave Sora a hard noogie, grinning all the while. "Sora, you crazy little risk-taker," Ventus cheered, while Sora just laughed at the noogie he was receiving. The blonde then adopted a more serious expression while his tone became more scolding when he said, "Don't you ever do that again! You scared us all nearly to death! How many times do I have to tell you to wait and think things through before rushing right into it?"

"Sorry, but I was only…" Sora sheepishly started to protest in his defense.

"Save it," Ventus snapped harshly, but a minute later, his expression softened into an understanding smile as he finished. "I know. Believe me, do I ever know."

"Glad you're okay, Sora," Donald stated happily, until his tone became more worried. "Because we're all likely about to die."

"Wait, what," Sora asked, not expecting that at all.

"He's right. I can sense more Heartless coming this way. Whatever you just did to come back, Sora, must've grabbed their attention," Ventus reported, already summoning Guardian Wind for action, despite how tired he still felt.

Sora and Kairi both summoned their Keyblades as well, and when the latter had done so, the former could not help but blanch in surprise at the sight. "Kairi, when did you…" Sora started to ask.

"Ven gave it to me after you disappeared. I'll explain more later," Kairi informed him.

Even though he knew that Kairi thought there was more to it than that, Sora had a hunch that it was actually just as simple as her summary was, so he just nodded and dropped into his battle stance. To be honest though, Sora did not feel like he was up for a fight at the moment. For some reason, he felt extremely drowsy, like he had just gotten up out of bed after sleeping for a really long time, and his limbs all felt really heavy. He was amazed that he was able to summon and hold up his Keyblade at all right now, but if they had to fight, Sora was not going to back down and let his friends go it alone. Then again, the others were not in much better shape than him. Between running to escape the castle and constantly fighting Heartless as they did, it would have been amazing if they were not at least a little tired by now. As the number of Heartless continued to steadily grow, they quickly began to worry that Kairi being better rested than the rest of them was not likely going to be of much help either, since she was still new at wielding a Keyblade. She may have a natural talent for magic, but talent alone was nothing without experience and training to better tune it for battle. The odds were definitely against them, but each one of the five heroes was determined to go down fighting if they had to.

Thankfully, they did not have to go that far, because just when the battle was about to start, a loud roar signaled the arrival of their newest friend onto the scene. Turning to where the roar had come from, they were all just in time to see Beast drop down from above and begin batting and slashing away at the Heartless around them. "Go! Now," Beast roared, making his intentions for them clear.

While everyone was willing to listen to the massive beast, Sora was not so eager to leave his friend behind. "Come with us," he pleaded.

"I told you before, I'm not leaving without Belle," Beast growled. He then turned his back on the five so that he could face the next wave of Heartless when they arrived, and roared, "Now, go! The Heartless are coming!"

Sora wanted to protest a little more, but his arguments died in his throat when Ven placed a hand on his shoulder and pulled his attention towards the blonde. "Sora, we can't do anymore now. Most of us are too tired to really fight at this point, and Beast has made his own wishes quite clear," Ventus informed the boy. "Sometimes, it's better to run so that you can return to fight another day, and this is one of those times. Beast is giving us a chance for us to escape, and we can't waste it arguing with him. If we want to stop the Heartless now, we need to retreat and come back when we're better rested and recovered."

Seeing his master's point, Sora finally nodded in concession. "All right. Let's get out of here," Sora agreed. Just before he and the others took off, he paused for a moment to look back at Beast again and promised, "We'll be back as soon as we can. Keep Belle and the others safe until we do."

"You don't have to worry about that," Beast promised in reply, and the boy then departed with a final nod to his large friend.

When he saw the five finally disappear through the main entrance, Beast turned back to see the approaching Heartless, and let out a mighty roar as a way of daring them to come at him. There was no way that these things were going to get Belle, the other girls, or his new friends without getting past him first, and he was going to make sure that they would have to do more than just work for it. They were going to have to struggle for it like their very lives depended on so much as surviving his incredible strength.

The Heartless must have either run scared or turned all of their attention onto Beast after he had appeared in the entrance hall to save them, because after leaving him in said hall, the team did not see any single one of the creatures of darkness rising up to get in their way. Not that they were complaining; they had no desire to fight anyone or anything right now, especially not in their current condition. All they wanted to do was get back to the ship and put Hollow Bastion as far behind them as possible for now. So, the minute they had stepped out of the castle again, Ventus whipped out his communicator and opened a line to the gummi ship. "Ventus to Kingdom, beam us out of here now," the blonde called, and they all braced themselves for the sensation of the ship's teleporter. Naturally, they were all a little confused when nothing happened, but Ven was more frustrated than confused at the moment. "Chip, Dale, get us the hell out of here!"

"We're trying, but you're still too close to those intense levels of darkness for us to get a proper lock on you," Chip replied.

"If we teleport you up like this, some of may only end up half way here, and that's assuming you come through in one piece," Dale added.

"You've got to be kidding me," Donald moaned. "How much farther away from this place do we have to go?"

"Let's try that archway down in the Rising Falls," Goofy offered, rushing towards the lift that would lead down to said location as he did.

Kairi ended up beating him there though, and had already tapped the device to call the lift by the time the others had gotten there. "Hurry, you guys! The Heartless might be coming after us again at any second," Kairi called out.

"We're right beside you Kairi," Sora said in reply, proving his point by racing to stand right next to her, and not leaving that spot even after the lift had come up to them.

A few minutes later, it turned out that Goofy's hunch was right, because the second that they had crossed the gap between the castle gates and the Rising Falls, the chipmunk engineers reported that the ship could transport them all aboard now, and they immediately shouted for them to do so right away. Soon after, they all breathed a sigh of relief upon laying eyes on the familiar sights of the Kingdom's interior, but they did not waste time taking in the relief or kissing the floor out of said relief. No, they all immediately made their way to bridge, with Ventus hopping into the pilot's seat, Sora copilot, Donald and Goofy taking their usual stations, and Kairi situating herself at what had been Sora's original seat when he first came aboard the ship, right at the main weapons controls. Once everyone was settled and buckled in, Ven gunned the engines, and they were quickly pulling out of Hollow Bastion's orbit to fly away from the darkness-infested world.

No one was willing to relax right after they put Hollow Bastion in their rearview mirrors though, because they knew that it was still likely that the Heartless would try something. Still, several minutes ended up passing and nothing came after them, so they figured that they might as well relax for the moment, or at the very least start getting some answers to a question or two that had been bothering them. Although out of all those questions, there was only one that most prevalent in most of their minds at the moment. "How'd you do it, Sora," Donald finally asked.

"Yeah, how'd you change back from being a Heartless," Goofy elaborated.

"Better question is, how did you manage to retain some level of control over yourself after turning into a Heartless at all? You should've just become like any other Heartless and acted out of animal instinct to attack us, and yet, you only chased after us and tried to approach us like you were asking for help, so how'd you manage all of that," Ventus asked.

Sora crossed his arms in thought, trying to recall the details of that moment in time, before he finally admitted, "I…I don't really know. I can't remember that much of what had happened to me. All I can remember right now is a sensation of falling, something closing in and trying to overwhelm me, sounds of a fight, a pair of voices, and then a bright light that was pulling me upwards until I finally came back through."

It was certainly not much to go on, but one thing did catch Kairi's attention. "You said you heard a fight and a pair of voices, right," the girl asked, making sure she heard right. When Sora nodded, she then questioned, "Could you tell whose voices they were, or what was happening in that fight?"

"I'm not sure about the fight. It sounded a lot like when Ven was fighting with a Keyblade, but still different. Like it was someone on another level of strength or something, and they fought using magic a lot more. I remember hearing a lot more spells being thrown out, and someone shouting out…Spell…something…It's hard to really say. I couldn't really tell who the first voice belonged to was, but it definitely sounded familiar."

"What about the second voice," Goofy asked, while Ventus looked like he had fallen into incredibly deep thought something after hearing that Sora had just said.

"I think…No, I'm sure that it was Kairi's voice," Sora revealed, giving the redhead a smile. "I know that I heard your voice at some point while I was a Heartless, and I think that's what helped give me the extra push I needed to get all the way back."

Kairi smiled a little bashfully in reply, while her cheeks gained a faint blush, and both Donald and Goofy could not help but coo at how cute that little moment between the two was. Ventus likely would have done the same as well had he not been so caught up in his own thoughts at the moment. Something about what Sora said had really hooked into his head, and he was not sure if he should get his hopes up or not about it. Still, he just had to ask. "Sora," Ven called, getting everyone's attention with how serious he sounded. "The first person you heard. You said that they had shouted 'Spell-something.' Did it sound anything like Spellweaver?"

Sora lowered his head in thought for a moment, trying to recall that moment in particular as best as he could, before he finally said, "I'm not entirely sure, but it definitely feels like that might have been it."

"THAT'S AQUA," Ventus shouted as he jumped out of his seat in excitement all of a sudden, startling the others when he did. Seeing that he had freaked the others out a little, Ventus tried his best to reign in his excitement as he revealed, "Sora, Spellweaver is Aqua's Unique Tier One Command Style, and if you heard someone shout that, then that has to mean that…"

"Master Aqua helped to save you from the Realm of Darkness," Kairi finished, her voice betraying how great her awe was as much as the expression on her face.

Despite falling silent after that revelation, everyone was now much more excited. The fact that Aqua had helped to save Sora from falling into darkness must have meant that she was closer than ever to finding a way back home again, which could also mean that they might even see her in person the next time they ran into her, and on this side of the wall between the two realms at the rate things were going. It definitely seemed like something that would be cause for celebration had it not been for two things. The first of those things was the knowledge that there was still a chance something far less friendly could slip through whatever opening was starting to form for Aqua, and that alone made everyone much more worried for how the worlds would survive the coming darkness, which was now much closer than ever because of Ansem's actions. The second thing, however, was the one that was of much more immediate concern, and it proved its point when the ship suddenly shuttered and shook under the force of an explosion, nearly throwing everyone out of their seats or off their feet.

Donald immediately scrambled over to his station to check on the ship's status, and what he saw on screen was not good at all. "Shields just took a serious hit," the duck reported. "They're already down to nearly sixty percent of their maximum capacity, and they're still falling by the minute!"

"What happened? What just hit us," Kairi asked as she climbed back into her seat, making doubly sure that she was well buckled in this time.

"It's the Heartless! Several Heartless ships closing in from the stern," Goofy cried out in a panic, having already started to check the scanners to figure out what had hit them after that first explosion.

"Well, they certainly didn't take long to catch up," Ventus muttered under his breath. "How many are there?"

Goofy checked his scanner over, trying to count both with the computer's help and on his own. In the end though, he just gave up and said, "Way too many to count for both me and the ship!"

"And that's not much better news," Ventus noted, and he quickly began programming several different things on the ship. "Strap in, everybody! I'm getting us out of here. Goofy, lock coordinates on Traverse Town. I'm warping us out of here the minute they're in."

"Coordinates locked in, Ven," Goofy reported the minute he was done.

"And we're out of here," Ventus declared, moving to throw the lever that would activate the Warp-G as he did. Just when his fingers were brushing the control though, the ship shook under another explosion. When it finally passed, Ven wasted no time in pulling the lever, but unfortunately, nothing happened in response. There were not even any sounds to indicate that the Warp-G was powering up, and that instantly made everyone more worried than ever.

"Chip, Dale, what's going on down there," Sora immediately asked when he realized that they were not at warp and Ven was having to take some serious evasive action in order to keep them from getting torn apart by the attacking Heartless ships.

"That last hit did a lot of damage to the ship, and the Warp Gummi was hit the worst," Chip reported.

"It's too damaged to work at all right now! There's no way we can go to warp in this condition," Dale added on seconds later. "Not only that, but we've got a few hull breaches near the main engines as well."

"If we take another hit like that, the Kingdom's main engines are going to go completely nuts," Chip finished.

"Nuts?! Where," Dale asked.

"That's not what I mean!"

"Stop chatting and get fixing," Donald cut in. "None of us want to get blasted out of the sky now or ever, ya know!"

The chipmunks gave a quick affirmative in reply and then went silent, leaving Ven to try and fly them away from the onslaught of Heartless that were closing in from behind. He was not having very much luck though, and the shields' continued rapid failing were a clear sign of that. "Sora, Kairi, man all rear weapons systems! Get as many of those Heartless ships off our tails as you can," the blonde ordered.

The two were immediately activating the main weapons controls, but when she saw the game controller pop out for her, Kairi hesitantly informed them, "I guess this would be a bad time to mention that I'm not that great at video games."

"You're good at button mashing, so go with that for now," Sora quickly told her, remembering how many times that Kairi had beaten him and Riku in some video games just by doing that, at least when she actually got bored enough to join in on that bit of fun.

Kairi quickly nodded to Sora and began doing just that, and soon enough, the sky was lit up with the weapons fire from both the Heartless ships and the Kingdom. Not that the latter was able to send out all that much, because most of the main weapons were mounted on the front of the ship, or were just simply stuck in a forward facing position. Still, the two friends were able to manage for the most part, and it did allow Ventus to fly the ship with a bit more ease, since he did not have to try and pull some crazy flying maneuvers to avoid being hit by enemy fire now, but it was still not by too much. For every ship that Sora and Kairi shot down, it seemed like another five appeared to take its place, and before they knew it, they quickly had more enemies to deal with than they could handle, which forced Ventus back into using crazy flying in order to keep the ship as close to being in one piece as he could once again.

Even with all the weapons fire and impressive flying that the three Keybearers were using though, it did not mean much in the end, because eventually, one or more Heartless ships managed to dwindle their shields down to the bare minimum, and managed to get in one particular hit that proved to be the most problematic for them, as evidenced when the ship shook after taking said hit, and by the explosion that had rocked the entire vessel afterwards. When he noticed that they were quickly losing speed and maneuverability, Ventus quickly grew more and more concerned about just what that explosion had been, but he was still hoping that it was not what he thought it was.

"Guys, tell me that was not our engines that just got hit," Ventus asked the two-man engineering team.

"Well…not all of the engines," Chip admitted. "Just one of the primary engines."

"That's not much better news, you know," Sora shouted in a panic.

"We're not going to make it at this rate," Donald wailed, and everyone looked like they were not too far behind him in freaking out.

At least, not until Goofy spotted something on the ship's maps. "Hey fellers, there's another world coming up to us now!"

"Goofy, I really don't think now's the time to be telling us about possible stops we could make," Kairi pointed out.

"Actually, the timing couldn't be better," Ventus informed her, and even though he still looked nervous, Sora could see that the blonde had a small smirk on his face beneath that. "Sora, give all weapons control to Kairi. I'm going to need you focused solely on copiloting for me. Everyone else, make absolutely sure that you're buckled in, because this ride is going to get a lot more rough before it finally ends."

"What're you going to do, Ven," Donald asked while he double-checked his seatbelts, turning to make sure that the rest of his friends were doing the same.

"I'm going to drive the ship directly for that world that Goofy just spotted, and make an emergency landing. With any luck, most of the Heartless ships will either back off or just be destroyed by the world barrier," Ventus informed him. He then ignored all shouts of disbelief and protest from the others on the bridge, and tapped the intercom again. "Chip, Dale, divert as much of our remaining power into the ship's shields and engines. Give me as much as you can get to what's necessary for a planetary landing."

"Aye, aye, Captain," the two chipmunks replied.

"Ven, this is crazy! I thought we weren't supposed to land the ship on other worlds unless they were like Traverse Town," Sora protested.

"We don't exactly have a choice here. If we don't do this, then we're dead either way," Ventus informed his apprentice. "Now grab those copilot controls and help me land this tub. Everyone else, brace yourselves for what's likely to be one of our roughest rides to date."

Everyone who was not completely essential for Ven's plan had immediately grabbed onto whatever secure surface that they could to brace themselves for the upcoming landing, and the next thing they knew, they were all flying directly towards a large, sandy brown world with several large cliffs and a few small towns here and there at nearly full speed. True to Ven's word, many of the Heartless ships had backed off in full retreat, no doubt thinking that the ship and her crew were done for when they crashed down, but some still continued in their pursuit. Thankfully, Kairi was able to get a good number of them with the Kingdom's weapons, but a minute later, the remaining enemies seemed to explode upon impact with some invisible shield. It must have been the world barrier, because they could all feel the ship rattle and moan under the power of some invisible force, and when the vastness of interspace became replaced by a clear, blue sky, they all knew that was the case. Still, it did not ease their nerves, because they could also see that they were flying downwards far too quickly for most of their liking.

Ventus was now struggling as much as he could to keep them airborne, at least until he was sure that they would not crash into or too close to any forms of civilization, or at least anywhere that was populated in any way, but between the damage that the Kingdom had just taken in that battle and what it had no doubt incurred from passing through a world barrier, he knew that at this point, it would take either a sheer force of will or a miracle to keep it together for much longer. Thankfully, it was made a little easier having Sora help him from the copilot station, and when the ship finally hit the ground, it was not quite as harsh as it could have been. It was still a rather hard impact that nearly pulled everyone out of their seats, despite being strapped in, but it definitely could have been worse, and it almost was, because after hitting the ground, the ship ran along the surface towards a steep-looking cliff that would no doubt have led to their doom if they went over the edge of it. Everyone ended up screaming in terror as they drew closer and closer to said ledge, but their screams died down when the ship finally came to a grinding halt, with only the nose hanging over the side of the cliff.

When the ship did stop, everything in the cockpit suddenly went dark. All the main systems, the lights, and everything in between other than life support systems went completely offline, and that alone was all the sign that the team needed to know just one thing, even without the incoming damage report that Chip and Dale were rapidly giving them. "We made it," Ventus started to say, though his tone was far from celebratory. It was actually very grim. "But for now, we're not going anywhere else. We're stranded here."

"Any idea just where here is," Kairi asked, hoping that it was at least somewhere that would be safe for them.

Ventus looked out the viewport in the hopes of recognizing the world based on their current surroundings, but that hope was in vain, so he ended up having to sadly reply, "Not a clue. Whatever's out there, we're just going to have to hope that it's not more Heartless, and that the locals are friendly."

Around the same time as the most recent plight that had befallen our heroes, far away on a distant world that rested near the very edge of the border between the realms of light and darkness, a young boy had just woken up outside an old, abandoned mansion. The boy in question had golden blonde, spiky hair that looked almost windswept, a somewhat muscular build, and very dull blue eyes that gave off the impression that he was not entirely there. His attire consisted of a black, high-collared jacket with a zipper that looked like a pointed cross. Over this, he wore another jacket that was left unzipped and was colored white with several black block designs and a grey hem on the ends of each sleeve. The white jacket's collar was folded back to reveal the it was red pleated on the inside. His pants were colored black at the top and beige on his legs, starting from just above the knees, while his shoes were black and grey with red straps in place of laces. To round out the boy's attire, he wore a wrist band on his left wrist that had a black-and-white checkerboard pattern, along with a black ring on his left index finger and a white ring on his left middle finger.

After a moment of just lying in the grass, the boy finally stood up, and glanced left and right, not knowing where he was, but not really appearing to care all that much, until he finally looked down. At first glance, one would think he was very deep in thought, but in reality, he was not really thinking that much at all. In fact, he was not entirely sure what he should be thinking, or even feeling for that matter, because he did not really seem to feel anything at all. It was actually right when he had this realization regarding his lack of feelings that he heard something from in front of him, and he looked up to a very tall, rather imposing figure in a black coat approaching him. Even if he were to look up a little more, the boy would not have been able to see the figure's face right away due to the person in question keeping his hood up, but when the individual spoke, his very deep voice gave him away as a man, but his cold, neutral tone seemed to give the young blonde a few chills at first, making him wonder if he should be afraid.

"You seek answers," the man said as if he already knew what to expect from this boy. When the boy nodded, the man waved his hand and a word spelled out in rather fancy letters materialized before the boy. The blonde could tell that it spelled out "Sora", and for some reason, that had a familiar ring to it, and yet it also made him feel like it was not suited for him. "You feel nothing. Nothing is real," the man continued, almost sounding like he was chanting. "I can give you purpose."

The boy was not entirely sure why he felt so hesitant to trust this individual, but considering that he could not remember anything or anyone from before he woke up, he did not think he really had much to lose either, so he simply nodded in acceptance. The figure then waved his hand at the word between them, and the letters started to rapidly circle the boy several times. When the figure waved his hand again, the letters came to a stop while a large, rather oddly decorative letter "X" was added into the middle of them. When the boy looked up at the word again, he felt an odd sense suddenly come over him, like this was a name that would be much more suitable for him, and it must have shown a little, as his once dull eyes suddenly became a little brighter, even as he finally spoke up, slowly uttering the name that was now before him. "…Roxas."

"That's right," the man confirmed, pulling Roxas's gaze up to him, and allowing the boy to see his tan skin, a few hints of silver hair, and amber-orange eyes, along with the smirk on his face. "The new you."

He did not know why, but seeing those eyes made Roxas feel even more uneasy for some reason, but he was not entirely sure how he was feeling anything at all. This man had just said that he felt nothing, and Roxas knew that was true, or at least he felt like it should be, so why did his stomach suddenly start getting an odd ache in it that made him want to be cautious of someone with eyes like that? He did not know for certain, but he also did not want to stay here, and the man had made it clear that he wanted Roxas to follow him, so Roxas ignored the feeling for now and followed after. He did shiver a little when he passed through the rather dark portal that the man created for them though, but that was it. He just had to hope that no one noticed that. When they walked out the other side of the portal, the blonde found himself quickly taking in a whole new set of surroundings.

No longer were they outside of a mansion under a twilight sky. Instead, Roxas and his new acquaintance were in a very dull looking, grey room with a large window that displayed a very dark sky on the outside. There was some furniture here and there about the room, but since it was the same color as the rest of the room and so sparse, Roxas had almost missed it entirely. More to the point, there were some gaps in both the floor and walls, through which one could see some pipes or other inner workings of wherever they were. The only other thing to note was that Roxas and the other man were not here alone, because just as they had come through the portal, a very tall man with crimson red hair and dressed in a black coat like the one worn by the man that had brought Roxas here walked in.

When he saw the two, the redhead immediately smirked a little and called out, "Hello! Didn't know you had gone out, Boss. So, who's the kid?"

"The newest of our number, and our long awaited thirteenth member," the hooded man said, gesturing to Roxas. "Get him a coat while I summon the others so that we may give him a proper welcome."

"Yeah, you've got it, Xemnas," the redhead waved, almost seeming like he did not care too much. He then guided Roxas out of the room to somewhere that Roxas was not entirely sure if he would remember the location of later, and as they were going, the redhead decided now was a good time to introduce himself. "By the way, my name's Axel. Got it memorized?"

"…Yeah," Roxas nodded after a minute.

"Good. You're a quick learner, huh," Axel teased, but he was a little disappointed to see that he did not get any reaction from the kid. "So, what's your name, new guy?"

"Roxas," the blonde replied, and when he heard that, Axel had grin a little, because he had a hunch that he was going to get along really well with this kid. At least, that is what he would say if he was capable of feeling anything.

Ventus's Journal Entry 8

It finally happened. After all this time, after waiting and training for so many years, my Keyblade has finally evolved to its final evolution. I have to admit, it was not quite what I had expected. I mean, I always knew that my Keyblade's final form would look like a more refined and/or powerful version of Wayward Wind, but still, I didn't think it would be so similar to it. I mean, it is longer, and it's definitely still meant for someone who primarily fights with a reverse grip like I do, but aside from one or two other differences, you would be hard-pressed to think it was that much different from Wayward Wind. Still, I have to admit, Guardian Wind is definitely a Keyblade I could quickly get used to using, and more importantly, this means that I might finally be ready to take the Mark of Mastery Exam. The minute I realized that, I quickly went to find Mickey so I could show my Keyblade's new form to him. He looked like he was just as surprised as I was when I first summoned it and the Keychain for Guardian Wind materialized into my free hand, but a minute later, Mickey was grinning like no tomorrow and told me that all my other training for today was canceled so that I could get some rest. When I asked why, he told me that he and I were going to take the gummi ship Imagineer to see Master Yen Sid first thing tomorrow morning. If that's not a sign that I'm going to be taking the Mark of Mastery Exam tomorrow, then I don't know what would be.

Now, I can hardly sleep. I'm just too excited, because tomorrow, I'm finally going to take the Mark of Mastery Exam and prove that I'm ready to be a full-fledged Keyblade master. I don't know if it will be like Terra and Aqua's exam, or it will be something else entirely, given that each master's exams are different, sometimes based on their own style or based on the student that their testing, but whatever it is, I know I will do my best to be ready for it. Mickey said that I should be prepared to face something that I will likely not expect and be caught off guard by, and I believe him. After all, Yen Sid is the most powerful sorcerer in all the worlds and a former Keyblade master for a reason, so I'm already expecting anything to happen tomorrow. No matter what happens though, I'm ready to show everyone from Mickey, to Master Yen Sid, and to all the rest of the worlds and those close to me that I do possess what it takes to have the Mark of Mastery.

AN: Aaaand that's that for Hollow Bastion Round 1. When I was playing through the first Kingdom Hearts game, and even looking back on it, I did sometimes wonder about why Donald, Goofy, and Kairi did not just teleport up to the gummi ship once they were at one of the save points, and while some would say that it would be for plot convenience, or because that teleporting shtick is only a mechanic for the gameplay and that story for whatever reason, I still felt like I had to justify the reason why they couldn't do so here. So, what better reason would there be than the darkness that was spilling out of Ansem's big bad Keyhole to darkness?

Sora: Makes sense to me. I'm just glad that I made it back from darkness.

AN: Yeah, that's what you're glad about. I'm sure that little lip-lock with Kairi was nothing too special in comparison.

Sora&Kairi: [both blush as red as tomatoes]

AN: Before anyone asks, yeah, I did intend for that to happen. It was a last minute decision, but considering what Sora said before he stabbed himself with the Keyblade to free Kairi's heart last chapter, I would've been crazy to not have them kiss in this chapter. Besides, it's not like we haven't all thought that moment would've been the perfect time for Kairi to plant one on her dashing hero in the first game, or at least one of the perfect moments.

Moving right along to our trip to Aqua's side of the story. Not really too much to tell there, aside from one or two details. If you've read Keyblades of Future Past, then you're probably familiar with how I had the heroes of that story venture to the world of Lilo & Stitch, namely the actual movie where Stitch met Lilo and found his ohana. Now with that said, Stitch was going to have to get to Hollow Bastion when we got to the KH2 part of this series somehow, and I figure that part of the reason there would involve his new home falling into darkness. That's the reason why I had it there in Dark World as the location where Aqua found Sora's heart. You know, aside from the reasons that Aqua herself gave. Moving on from that sad detail (seriously, it's okay if you want to go ahead and cry for poor Stitch. I won't judge, and neither will anyone else), let's talk about Aqua's abilities.

I'm sure some of you are already aware of this, but for those of you who aren't, sorry for the spoilers. In Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage, I'm sure no one noticed that Aqua's abilities were a lot different from what they were when we last saw her in BBS. Like the fact that she had Flowmotion, or at least part of the ability as far as we could tell, and her magic abilities were very different in that she used situation commands as opposed to Command Styles, and yadda-yadda-yadda. Well, I didn't want to just cast the Command Styles aside, so I just left that as is, but I did make sure that Spellweaver was shown to have changed since the previous story like it had in that game, and gave something of a reasoning for why the change too. Hey, people do grow when they get a good sleep, so why shouldn't the same be said for certain magic abilities in this instance? As for Aqua's Flowmotion, it's aura was indeed a different color from what it was in Dream Drop Distance, so I felt that needed to be explained as well, along with why Aqua even has it. The answer: a surprisingly simple solution. She's always had it but chose not to use it because it was unnecessary, and she was still practicing. If she had used it, it would have had the same color aura as Sora and Riku's Flowmotion during their Mark of Mastery in 3D, but since she's now mastered it, the color changed to signify her mastery.

Riku: Was it really that necessary to include her here though?

AN: Yes, yes it was. What, you didn't think I would have her show up and start moving to help Sora out of the Realm of Darkness last chapter and not expand on that a little more here, did you? As I've said before, Aqua will be appearing again, and next time, she won't be by herself, at least not for too long.

Kairi: And let's not forget that I've finally gotten my Keyblade, and I'm already really good with it.

Ventus: Yeah, for a rookie.

AN: Well, while Kairi was an awesome Keyblade wielder in Keyblades of Future Past, I couldn't really have her be that good here, because she did just get it. As for the whole scene of how Kairi was given Destiny's Embrace, yeah, I'm well aware that it's almost an exact copy of how Riku gave it to her in KH2, and that's kinda the whole point. It made a lot more sense for Ven to give the Keyblade to Kairi this time around, and only partially because Aqua was the last one to be seen using its Keychain. Plus, now you know a big reason as to why I gave Ven the ability to conjure up Keyblades from their Keychains in this story, besides giving Sora a temporary one after he lost Kingdom Key. I figure that some people might possess such a power in KH, which would explain how Riku was carrying Destiny's Embrace around without anyone appearing to notice it before. Besides, I did mention earlier that Kairi was not going to just sit on the sidelines here, and I'm keeping to that promise.

Kairi: For which, I thank you so very much.

Sora: Hey, is Ven going to explain the whole Xehanort thing to us sometime soon? We're obviously really concerned about that now, considering what was said in this chapter.

AN: Don't worry, he'll get around to it. He's just not too willing to share right now given the current situation and the fact that hearing Xehanort's Heartless use the name of a friend of his like this clearly upsets him quite a bit. As seen here. [points to monitor that shows a replay of Ven's angry attack on Ansem, Seeker of Darkness after he first appeared at the beginning of the chapter] Wow, who would've thought Ven could look that angry at someone other than Vanitas, right?

Ven: Hey, I've glared angrily at other people before.

AN: Not like you had to Vanitas though, and this is a close tie to that. Oh, and by the way, look who showed up sooner than originally planned: it's our main dual Keyblade wielding man himself, Roxas, plus some special appearances by Xemans and Axel as well. I'm sure we all remember seeing how Axel had escorted Roxas into the big meeting room of Organization XIII in 358/2 Days, so here's what I think the reasoning for that was, and besides that, what better time to show how Roxas came to be here than right now?

Roxas: Haha! I finally made an appearance at last!

Axel: And along with your best buddy! Can't forget that, ya know. Got it memorized?

AN: Yeah Axel, we got it memorized all right.

Xion: So not fair that you two get to show up now.

AN: Hey, that's not my fault. You were born a week after Roxas was, so having you appear now would be just weird and a little hard to really explain. Now, onto the final note of this chapter. Of course I wasn't going to make their escape from Hollow Bastion too easy. After all, what better way or excuse could they have for traveling to one of the last two remaining worlds in this story than what happened here? Don't worry, you'll find out more about where they ended up in the next chapter. Though I will give you a hint about it. Think back to one of the worlds that the heroes visited in Keyblades of Future Past, then remember the movie that served as inspiration for the series that world comes from and you'll know that this new, original world journeys to the other side of that very great Story.

Riku: I think that might be a little too vague.

AN: Well hey howdy hey, don't blame me if they can't figure it out without going Onto the Preview!...Ahem, that's the cue to start the preview for next chapter, you know, so get to it already!...

While Donald and Goofy remain to help repair the ship, Ventus leads Sora, Jiminy, and Kairi out to both explore this unknown world, and to try and continue Sora's training while giving Kairi a crash course. The latter is necessary because they all believe Kairi will need to be ready to fight alongside them in the coming days now that she wields a Keyblade as well. What they don't expect is to encounter a rather friendly sheriff and his pals to greet them with a bit of a surprise, or for their adventure to suddenly take a wild west turn. Saddle up and be ready to run the like the wind, next time.

Starting to get it now? If not, then you will when the next chapter is posted. For now though...

Please read and review, and see ya real soon!