Afterdeath

Chapter 6

It was late, but Lea found himself unable to sleep, so he had gone walking again. The details of their plan – or at least, as much as Yen Sid and Merlin were willing to trust them with – was still rolling around in his mind. There were a lot of little details that needed to go right in order for this to work. Lea hated it when a plan was complicated. It seemed guaranteed to go wrong. Or maybe that was just his plans. Hopefully Yen Sid and Merlin's plans went better…

Lea was wandering around in the strange, twilit woodlands that surrounded Yen Sid's tower. There wasn't much to explore: this must have been the tiniest world Lea had ever been on. It was really more like a little island floating among the stars. Lea had a strong suspicion that Yen Sid had created the whole place – land and all – as his own personal retreat. Lea promised himself that if he ever got that powerful, he would definitely make a world of his own, too. A nice, quiet place with sunsets and ice cream, where he could hang out with all his friends…

Lea stopped abruptly. His favorite brooding spot was taken. He started to leave, but the other person turned and noticed him. Lea sauntered up with a casual wave. "Hey, Kairi. Why aren't you off with Sora?"

"He ditched me," Kairi replied with animosity. And a sniffle. "When will he stop trying to 'protect' me by leaving me behind?!"

Uh oh. Lea flopped down on the ground next to Kairi, since she was perched on his favorite rock. "Honest answer? Probably never. He's just too hard-wired to look after people."

"I can protect myself now!"

"Hey, hey – I know it. I've got the bruises to prove it, too." Lea rubbed his arm for emphasis. "Merlin can't stop talking about how well your training is coming. Everyone knows you're not defenseless. It's just… the worlds are still dangerous, for anyone. Even Sora isn't invincible…"

"I know!" Kairi sobbed. "But that's why he needs me! He shouldn't be running off alone! We need to stick together now. Riku was… Riku is my friend, too. I know no one wants to talk about it, but I know that everyone is scared about what happened."

"It really emphasizes that none of us are safe, yeah," Lea agreed. "That's not an easy thing to talk about. So most of us just want to press on with the plan and pretend nothing happened."

"Did you mean what you said?" Kairi asked in a small voice. "That Riku… that Xehanort wouldn't have actually killed him. Or did you just say that to make us feel better?"

"Can't it be both?" Lea asked, trying to lighten the mood. He gave up after Kairi glared at him. "I meant what I said. Xehanort gave us the news in a really dramatic – really cruel way. But if he was already going to go that far, why not send us a body, too, while he was at it? I mean… I can't guarantee anything, of course. But I really do think there's a hope that Riku is still alive. Just… erm, severely inconvenienced in a heart-based way, no doubt."

Kairi shuddered. "That's not really any better, I know. But at least… we know what it takes to fix that." She gave Lea a piercing, curious look. "How bad was it, really? To lose your heart. And then get it back. I know you don't like to talk about it, but please…"

Lea sighed and scrubbed at the back of his neck. "It was… not pleasant. Okay honestly, it was the worst experience of my life. Not the most painful but… horribly uncomfortable in a different way. And when I woke up as a nobody… there was a constant feeling of wrongness. I knew something important was missing. My heart, I guess. Do you remember how it feels, when you realize you've forgotten something important? It was like that, all the time."

Kairi scuffed her feet in the dirt and stared at the marks she made. "I'm sorry, Lea. I just… want to understand better. And then, when you got your heart back? How did that feel?"

"Oh, that was just fine!" Lea brightened. "Just like waking up… from a really long, weird dream… and you're super groggy and can't remember where you are… and you have really bad breath for some reason…"

Kairi laughed at that. "Well, that's good, at least. You seem to be okay now." She looked to Lea for confirmation.

Lea nodded. "Yeah. I'm okay. Or close enough, at least. Don't worry about Riku, Kairi. We'll get things figured out and he'll be just fine."

"Yes. You're right," she said with emphasis, commanding it to be true. Then she sighed. "But now I still have to worry that Sora will go off and do something stupid…"

"He does tend to do that," Lea agreed.

"Riku was the one who was best at keeping Sora from being reckless…" Kairi started sniffling again, and discreetly wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

"So we'll have to take care of Riku's job while he's away. Don't worry, princess – I'll help you keep tabs on Sora." Lea gave a reassuring grin. "We're a team now, and we all look out for each other. Got it memorized?"

Kairi gave him a watery grin. "Thanks, Lea."

"Anytime, Kairi."

They sat together in silence for a while. Lea went ahead with the brooding about the mission that he'd meant to do. Kairi worked on getting her tears and emotions under control.

At last, Kairi spoke up into the silence. "Hey, Lea?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think Sora would take me more seriously if I had a cool catchphrase?"

Lea snorted into his fist. Then he yawned widely. "I think he'd take you more seriously if you weren't yawning through the whole mission tomorrow!"

"I'm not yawning, you're yawning!" Kairi retorted petulantly. She yawned herself at the end of it.

"Go to bed, princess."

She stood and stretched. "Fine. You'd better, too. Don't be a hypocrite."

"Yes, princess. I'll be along in a minute."

Lea lay down on the ground to take a few moments to stare up at the stars. Each was another full, separate world, full of people with hopes and dreams and light and darkness. One of those lights was Radiant Garden, shining again after being darkened for so long. And most of its people were back now – most of them, but not all. "Ah, Isa, where are you? What's he done to you now? What will it take to get you free again?"

Lea kept brooding, lost in regrets and memories, until he fell asleep.

X-X-X-X-X-X

Riku was shocked 'awake' out of his sleep-like state by the sensation of hurtling across the sky at high speed. He landed at high speed as well, and tumbled several times before landing roughly against an immovable object. Riku groaned. Though disembodied, that still hurt. He started working himself up to cast a cure spell, but instead he was grabbed by the shirt and yanked upright.

"Where?! Were?! You?!" Vanitas bellowed, shaking him for emphasis.

Riku was bruised and groggy and had no idea what Vanitas was freaking out about. "Is something wrong?" He cast a cure spell, then immediately cast another.

"You weren't there! I tried to pull you back, but you weren't there!" Vanitas dropped Riku and stomped a few paces away to release a cloud of darkness that formed into red-eyed monsters. The monsters skittered away down the alleyways of the town.

"I'm sorry! I returned to the upper layer of Even's heart as quickly as I could." Riku cast another cure spell. He was feeling mostly functional now, and so slowly, cautiously approached Vanitas. "How long was I inside Even's heart?"

"I don't know." Vanitas abruptly summoned his helmet and put it on.

"You… don't know. Was it more than two hours then?"

"I just said I don't know!" Vanitas yelled back at him.

Riku paused, trying to think twice through his words before saying them. "Did something go wrong, that you needed me back sooner?"

At first, it seemed like Vanitas wasn't going to answer him. Then he finally said, "I saw your heart in the space between me and Vexen. And then it vanished. I didn't know if you made it or… just disappeared."

Riku couldn't help but grin. He still had the mask on anyway. "So you were just—" worried about me? Riku cut himself off a split-second before Vanitas turned around to glare at him. "—just making sure the transfer didn't fail? That makes sense. It actually seemed a little unstable to me, too. You'd better throw me harder next time."

Vanitas just stared at him.

"You know… throw me harder, across the path of chains, to the next seeker's heart." Vanitas was still standing motionless. Riku found himself really wishing the other would take his helmet off again. That blank surface gave no hints as to what the other was thinking. He decided to change the subject. "What were those monsters that came out of you, anyway?"

"Didn't your master tell you about me?" Vanitas sneered. "Those are the unversed. They're my… they're born from me," he snapped and turned away.

"Oh… so that's what unversed are. Yeah, Yen Sid showed me a book that talked about them, but it didn't really describe them much…" Riku trailed off. Vanitas was walking away from him now, clearly signaling he was done having a conversation. But then Riku suddenly remembered that he had one more awkward thing to break to Vanitas. "Wait a second – we need to go back to Vexen's study one more time. We need to get his camera because I promised we'd take a picture for him."

Vanitas stopped and turned, and removed his helmet this time so Riku could fully appreciate his expression of disgust. "You're offering them favors now? Unbelievable."

"Uh, it's actually more like he's blackmailing me…" Riku clarified.

Vanitas shook his head. "You are officially the biggest idiot I have ever met."

X-X-X-X-X-X

Castle Oblivion loomed above them. The entire team had made it, traveling by either gummi ship or dark corridor. The good fairies had provided darkness-resistant clothing for those still needing it: the ex-nobodies, and Aqua who had lost her armor. Sora, Kairi, and Aqua stood in a cluster, talking strategy. Donald, Mickey, and Goofy were standing at attention beside Yen Sid, who had uncharacteristically chosen to leave his tower. Merlin had come with them as well, but was no longer in sight. And Dilan, Aeleus, and Ienzo stood together, with Lea awkwardly sauntering around, trying to look nonchalant.

"Stop hovering," Ienzo said dryly. "I am fine."

Lea rubbed at the back of his hair. "Are you really sure you want to–?"

"Yes, Lea," Ienzo talked over him. "Now stop fussing. I am getting tired of your guilt complex. We have more important things to worry about now."

"Yeah, yeah." Lea still looked uncomfortable. He wandered over to join Sora and Kairi instead.

"All our preparations are in place. Are you ready?" Yen Sid asked Aqua.

Aqua nodded and summoned her keyblade. It was a relatively simple-looking, chunky blade. She closed her eyes and did nothing but breathe deeply several times. When she opened her eyes again, her expression was pure determination. She raised the keyblade toward the castle, and light shot out from its tip, which rapidly grew and enveloped the entire castle. The outline of a keyhole appeared in front of her. Aqua hesitated, but only a second. She lunged and another ray of light shot from her keyblade to the keyhole. A ring of light shimmered around the keyhole, and then it spread to cover their entire castle. Castle Oblivion transformed, in a blinding display of complex magic that made most of those present need to avert their eyes.

The light cleared, and a different sort of castle stood in the place of Oblivion. It was a bright, golden structure, seemingly suspended by massive chains between two spindly mountains. Much friendlier than the dark, disjointed structure it had been before.

And then everyone turned away from the castle at the rushing sound of many dark corridors opening at once. A half-dozen figures in black coats and hoods slowly approached, followed by a veritable army of heartless and nobodies.

"I'm grateful to you for unlocking the castle for us," said one of the cloaked figures. Xemnas, his voice revealed him to be, though he kept his hood up and summoned no weapon yet. "But now I'll be retrieving my friend. And the rest of you should get out of my way or you will suffer a terrible fate," he said coyly.

Yen Sid raised an arm, and at that, a massive, translucent pink bubble descended upon the castle and the guardians of light, leaving the army of darkness on the outside.

Xemnas laughed. "You really think you can stop us? Our master has prepared us for every eventuality." He then summoned one glowing, red Ethereal blade and poked the shield with it. The shield flashed on contact and repulsed the blade with quiet noise. Xemnas grinned sharkily. "A shield that keeps us outside and you in. We cannot reach you from here, but nor can you attack us from where you stand. It would even keep you safe – if it were only to last."

At that impromptu signal, the rest of the black coats approached, each summoning their weapons. Then with no hesitation, all six of them attacked the same spot on the shield at once. The pink shield bowed under the onslaught, then burst. Kairi audibly gasped.

Grinning with pure confidence now, Xemnas strutted forward. "I give you one final chance to surrender yourselves and join with us. Otherwise, you will surely be…"

Xemnas froze in place, his mouth still open on a half-formed word. The other seekers of darkness were similarly still. As were the heartless and nobodies.

"Go now! Time is fleeting!" Merlin declared, suddenly popping into sight, literally from thin air. "You must defeat the dangers of the castle and retrieve Ventus before my time spells fail!"

"Or before Xehanort becomes wise to what we are doing and sends more reinforcements," Yen Sid adds grimly.

"Don't bother casting any time spells of your own, by the way; they won't work correctly. I also have all of us inside a massive hastega bubble. Normally I would be very interested in studying the effects of a time spell inside a time spell, but…"

"Let's go," Aqua said to the others firmly.

Sora nodded. "Lead the way." He had to jog to catch up to Aqua's determined walk.

x-x-x

The entrance hall was filled with Riku replicas. This time, the number was clearly at least a hundred. The replicas were also clearly expecting them. The whole front row immediately began casting dark firagas at the intruders.

"Reflect!" "Aero!"

Those who could cast protective magic did so. Sora, Aqua, and Mickey each batted fireballs back toward the Rikus. With a look of grim determination, Ienzo summoned his Lexicon. At the same time, Kairi raised her keyblade. "Light!" they incanted simultaneously. The whole entrance chamber was flooded with blinding illumination. Some of the Rikus shrieked.

Aqua and Sora dashed ahead into the light, bashing all the targets they could find with rapid combos of keyblade slashes. By the time the double light spell cleared, over half the replicas had already dissolved into nothingness.

Now that they had good visibility again, the remaining their keybearers rushed forward and joined the fighting as well. Dilan and Aeleus advanced slowly at the back, keeping one eye on the front door for signs of additional enemies sneaking in through there. They targeted more distant Rikus by throwing lances or axe sword respectively. Ienzo advanced more confidently and captured several replicas inside his Lexicon. Then with his magic he created three ghostly Riku replicas that he could control and send to attack their fellows with their own powers.

Kairi advanced too quickly and found herself surrounded by Rikus. She tried to cast Light again to break herself free, but the replicas struck too quickly and interrupted her spellcasting. She was forced to turn to blind hacking and healing herself as often as she was able. She grit her teeth and swallowed her pride. "Hey! Can I get some help?!"

Sora dashed to her rescue almost immediately. "Kairi! Hold on!" He dove and slashed at the Rikus and turned them all into wisps of smoke. As Kairi cast Cure on herself, Sora turned to face her. "You need to be more careful! Stick close to me!" And then he turned and bounded off back into battle before Kairi could react.

A wall of Rikus formed between Kairi and Sora almost instantly. Kairi shook her head and cast Light at them.

"Hey, princess. Mind watching my back for a bit?" Lea popped up beside her, not giving any hints whether he had just overheard or not. "I'm feeling a bit out of my depth around all these keyblade masters." He waved a vague hand toward where Sora was literally bouncing off walls to wallop more replicas. "Shall we team up? Just like training?"

Kairi grinned wryly. "Sure. Let's keep moving."

x-x-x

As the number of Rikus dwindled, the remaining ones grew stronger – a fact that everyone had suspected before Sora finally confirmed it. Lea had previously explained the replicas claimed to each have a splinter of a heart – apparently, as the replicas were destroyed, their heart splinters joined with other remaining ones and gave them more power.

In spite of this, they continued progressing forward, following Aqua's directions. The castle layout was mostly straightforward; their destination was the most central chamber.

Finally Aqua halted in front of a massive double door. She turned and addressed the group. "Defeat all the replicas first! I don't want any to get inside!"

In the interests of speed, Kairi, Ienzo, and Mickey all cast Light at the dozen remaining Rikus. They were too strong now to be defeated by the one spell, but they were weakened by it, making it quicker for the keybearers to finish them off. At last, when there were no more replicas in sight, Donald thoughtfully cast Cure on those who were needing it.

"Now," Aqua murmured to herself. She aimed the keyblade at the doors and magically unlocked them. The doors swung open outward on their own. "Come on!" Aqua didn't hesitate as she dashed inside.

Inside was a great hall, with three thrones at the far end. The middle throne was occupied by a sleeping figure, who looked exactly like…

"Roxas?!" Lea gasped, not believing his eyes. "But that's impossible! You said this was—"

"Ventus!" Aqua said affectionately, running to her friend. "I'm glad you're still safe after all this time."

"What?" Lea gaped. "I am so confused."

Goofy and Donald were wandering the room. "Uh, where do ya think the key would be, your majesty?" Goofy asked.

"Yen Sid said that it would appear when it was needed," Mickey mused to himself. Then he snapped his fingers. "Got it! Sora, come here for a second!"

"Uh, okay... What do you need me to do?"

Meanwhile, Lea had wandered up for a closer look at Ventus. "This guy's… wait. Now I'm getting déjà vu. Did he go by Ven?"

Aqua nodded.

"So, that means I met him before." Lea rubbed the back of his neck. "And he totally… uh, that is, we had a friendly sparring match. I remember he had a weird key sword… Why couldn't I remember him until now?"

"He's been sleeping," Aqua said. "Sometimes if a sleep is deep enough, it can pull parts of memories to sleep with it."

"Okay, I don't get that at all, but whatever." Lea shook his head. "But what I really want to know now is why he looks just like Roxas!"

Aqua looked surprised. "Ven looks like Roxas?"

"Got it!" Sora yelled in triumph. He, Mickey, Donald and Goofy all stood in the center of the great hall. Sora's right hand was stretched upward, and a small keyblade was slowly descending from the ceiling towards his hand.

"That must be the key!" Aqua exclaimed. "We have everything we need!"

"Yes, indeed. I must thank you again for that." Xemnas appeared from a side door into the chamber. His hood was down and his hair a bit disheveled, but he looked thoroughly pleased with himself. At his gesture, a dusk dashed from his side and leapt into the air to seize the keyblade before Sora could reach it.

Two more black coated figures entered the hall from the main entrance.

"No!" Aqua shrieked.

Sora had already dashed after the dusk, destroyed it, and claimed the new keyblade. But in that time, Xemnas had dashed in an unstoppable blur to seize Ventus and carry him to the far side of the chamber. "Time to go, I'm afraid," he said cheerfully. He held up a hand and summoned a dark corridor.

Or rather, tried to. The magic orb wouldn't take form.

"What is this?!" Xemnas murmured, angry. Then he had to blur into motion again to dodge Aqua's furious attacks. Xemnas couldn't fight back with his arms full, but nor was Aqua fast enough to land a hit on him.

Meanwhile, the other two black coats had begun attacking the others. Marluxia had his scythe out and sent Dilan flying with a hard strike. Xigbar meanwhile was simultaneously sniping at both Ienzo and Aeleus, keeping them from getting close enough to attack.

"This is a sacred space. You can't connect to darkness in here," Aqua growled at Xemnas, and then finally succeeded in striking him with a magic surge.

Xemnas dropped Ventus and stumbled back, but quickly recovered and scooped Ventus up in his arms again. "So, you blocked access to the spaces between inside this room? That is a clever move." He dodged Aqua again. "But you can never defeat destiny!"

Aqua threw all her remaining strength into a massive magic spell that sent Xemnas and Ventus sprawling across the floor. "Take that, Mr. Destiny!" she gasped, panting from the exertion.

"Marluxia!" Xemnas yelled from the floor. "Do it now!"

"Enjoy your final requiem," Marluxia murmured with great solemnity. He raised his scythe over his head and flower petals exploded out from it, blanketing the entire room. "Sleep Pollen!"

No! NO!

Everyone tried to protest, to fight it, but their movements were sluggish. Aqua, Ienzo, and Kairi succumbed first, exhausted as they were from the battle. Mickey somehow managed to cast Light once again, slowing the nobodies down, but only slightly.

Lea felt the sleep overtaking him as he watched Marluxia and Xigbar dragging Sora away too. Meanwhile Xemnas was strutting away with Roxas slung over his shoulder. No wait – that was Ventus. Or was it Roxas…?

Lea shook his head. He was getting confused. But meanwhile, Xemnas was leaving with Roxas again, and Lea had to do something. Too bad he couldn't just do an ultimate attack like before, when he had sacrificed himself to save Sora and Roxas in the dark corridor.

Actually, why couldn't he do that again? He had nothing else to lose.

Lea held up his keyblade in one hand and summoned both chakram to his other hand. Then he threw everything he had into his one, massive fire spell. Just like before.

Lea shrieked with pain as the fire danced around him, but ran toward those light-accursed black coats and grabbed ahold of Xemnas and held him tight inside his swirling inferno and the black coats screamed and Lea screamed and the fire screamed and everything around him was just burning and burning and

Black.

X-X-X-X-X-X

"Xehanort's calling a meeting," Vanitas unexpected spoke up into the long silence.

Riku suddenly snapped awake from the sleep-like state he'd been in. He looked around at the surroundings of Vanitas's heart and found them unchanged. Not like the last time Vanitas had been summoned. "But he didn't call you? How can you tell?"

Vanitas tapped the side of his helmet. "I can sense the flow of darkness around us. Lots of dark corridors, all opening up into the throne room."

Riku stood up. "So this would be a good time to grab the camera, and sneak out and get the picture."

"No."

Riku sighed. They had already had a long argument about this. "You said you wanted to wait until you were sure it was safe. How much safer can it get than this?"

"Xehanort will be watching us!" Vanitas yelled in Riku's face.

"He's holding a meeting! You said meetings are only for when something has gone wrong. His focus will be on the other vessels." Riku started pacing. "And I'm worried about taking too long on this. Even basically threatened that he would tell Xehanort everything we're up to if we don't get his picture for him right away…"

Vanitas crossed his arms and turned away from Riku. "We can't… get his picture."

Riku gaped. "But we have to! I promised him—"

"You shouldn't have made a promise you can't keep."

Riku stalked toward Vanitas. "Why can't we get the picture? Is Ienzo already dead? What do you know?"

"I don't know anything about that kid, okay?! We just… can't go."

Riku was really getting confused now. "Are you saying… we can't leave this world? Why? You had no trouble going to the Destiny Islands before."

"That was a mistake," Vanitas hissed, turning away from Riku again.

"A mistake?"

"Stop repeating everything I say!" Vanitas snapped back at him.

Riku grabbed Vanitas and spun him around to face him, then yanked off his helmet so he could see his face. Vanitas didn't look angry or spiteful. He just looked… scared. "Vanitas, this could jeopardize the success of our – of your whole plan. I need to understand now, why can't we leave the World That Never Was?"

"It's because of you, okay?!" Vanitas shoved Riku back, and covered his face with his helmet again. "I can't take you through the corridors of darkness with me. You're not protected."

"But I am," Riku countered. "My clothes—"

"Your clothes were left on your body! Your form in here – any form – is just an illusion, built out of memories."

"You have a black coat, though. Those are designed to protect hearts—"

"Xehanort tracks those. He'd know everywhere we went if I wore it to another world."

"Oh." Riku hadn't realized that fact about the black coats. He wondered if that meant Xehanort had been watching his every move while he and Mickey had been trying to infiltrate Organization Thirteen. He exhaled slowly. "We'll just need to risk it. Brief exposure shouldn't hurt me."

"No. I'm not risking you turning into a psychotic heartless inside my heart."

"I'm not going to turn into a heartless," Riku groaned. He went to rub his forehead, but only hit the helmet. He still wasn't used to this form. But that gave him a new question. "Why don't you need to wear the black coat to travel the corridors?"

"I'm literally made of darkness, duh! I'm immune to it."

Immune to it. "Young Xehanort… he told me I was of no use to the organization anymore because I was immune to darkness. I've converted the darkness inside of me to light, so I can't be corrupted anymore…"

Vanitas cocked his head. "You think you can trust what Xehanort says in any form? You're crazy."

"Well, he did say that right before he tried to kill me," Riku noted. "It basically sounded like he was lamenting they couldn't use me as a vessel, too…"

Vanitas considered this. Then he shook his head. "It would be great if it was true… walking everywhere is a blasted waste of time!" He growled under his breath then jabbed Riku in the chest with a pointed finger. "If I detect as much as a whiff of extra darkness from you, we're done!"

"Deal." Riku offered him a hand to shake.

Vanitas slapped his hand aside and moved away from Riku. The sky over the dark town flickered once, as from a black bolt of lightning. Vanitas turned to study Riku intently, then finally shrugged. "Now, where did you say that stupid camera is?"

x-x-x

(This is so stupid. Everyone is staring at me,) Vanitas complained.

(It's your own fault for not wanting to take the time to get real clothes,) Riku countered.

(Shut up!)

Vanitas, wearing makeshift robes and a hood made from draped bedsheets, was wandering through Radiant Garden, hoping for a glimpse of Ienzo. They had portalled into the castle and found it deserted. Vanitas had wanted to give up already, but Riku pressured him to search the surrounding town first.

(Keep moving. Pretend like you belong here, and you're not just a suspicious guy in a bedsheet,) Riku coached.

(Shut! Up!)

Vanitas awkwardly shuffled to an alleyway, and when no one was looking, hopped up onto the rooftops. From there, he surveyed the castle town faster, and with fewer people noticing him. (You spot him yet?) Vanitas demanded. (I'm running out of town.)

(I haven't seen anyone I know here…) Riku was worried. (If there was a problem, they might have headed to Yen Sid's tower…)

(I think it's a safe bet there was a problem. Xehanort wouldn't hold a meeting about nothing, you know.) Vanitas readjusted his bedsheets. (Where's this guy's tower?)

(It's… it's in its own world. I hope my friends are okay…)

(Doesn't matter if they are or not. They won't be able to win. It's all up to us,) Vanitas cheerfully reminded Riku.

Within Vanitas's heart, Vanitas displayed a star chart of the worlds he had visited. Riku indicated the location of Yen Sid's world on the chart. In the real world, Vanitas immediately summoned a corridor of darkness and made the trip.

The successfully arrived at Yen Sid's tower. Unfortunately, it was swarming with heartless and nobodies. As in, the creatures were literally clinging to the sides of the tower, and popping in and out of the windows.

Even Vanitas was taken aback by this. (I think… your friends aren't here,) he finally said.

(Y-yeah…) Riku agreed.

Vanitas opened another dark corridor. (I'm going home. If you insist, we can try searching somewhere else tomorrow.)

(Okay…) The image of the overrun tower was burned into Riku's mind. What had happened?! Were his friends okay? Vanitas had said that Xehanort's meetings meant something hadn't gone according to plan, so that should mean there still was hope…

But Vanitas had also said that, ultimately, his friends' efforts were doomed. That Xehanort would foresee anything they would try, and stop them. It hadn't struck Riku before that he was going to have to watch his friends fail. The horror of it was overwhelming.

The only thing Riku could do now – for himself, for his friends, or for anyone – was make sure that he and Vanitas succeeded.

X-X-X-X-X-X

Endnote: While writing this section, I mentioned to my sisters that I had thought about having Lea light himself on fire. Their response was an immediate "Yes, do it!" Lol. So, I would like to dedicate this chapter to my lovely sisters who have been so great at giving me feedback on my writing. :)

Also, if anyone is curious, Aqua is using Master Eraqus's keyblade here. Her keyblade and armor were last seen in Xemnas's Chamber of Repose. So far as I know, Xemnas is still hoarding them and talking to them in his weird, creepy way. Aqua would prefer to have her own gear back, but she can manage without it.