Chapter 13: On the Road Once More!

We're going to have expand or upgrade your ship if we get any more passengers on here," I commented, seeing the three newcomers now joining us. Roxas was inspecting for I didn't know what.

"Knowing Sora, you're probably not human," he pointed out. I nearly jumped. How did he know that?

"Want me to undo the spell?" Donald called out.

"No-"

"Yes please! I'm beginning to feel insecure without my shell!" Bentley cried out.

In a few sparkles, I was furry with a tail again. I still won't get used to that.

Although, based on the expressions that Roxas, Naminé and Xion were giving my gang and I, now that we've all transformed back into our actual selves, it was pretty much safe to say that they were pretty surprised over what we actually looked like.

"Woah," Xion finally said. "So, this is what all of you really look like without that spell on you?"

"It pretty much is, yeah," I answered.

I asked the group, "Before the shadow incident, we were on our way to see Ansem. Are you still up for that? Some of the things Nefarious and Eggman said have me puzzled, and Ansem might be able to help us out."

"To Ansem, huh?" Okay, that didn't sound like Roxas was fond of the guy. Naminé and Xion also looked a little tense.

"Is something wrong? Ansem is a nice person."

"Well, let's just say our experiences of him are... far from ideal," Xion muttered nervously.

"Ansem was hard on them, in a way that he saw them as inferior," Riku explained. I could scoff at that. That was definitely rude.

"Ansem? Seeing these three as inferior to him? That literally makes no sense. He seemed like a very nice man back on Radiant Garden."

"You may think he's a nice person, but to us, he was anything but that," Naminé said.

Okay, this is getting more and more confusing. Why exactly are these three acting as if Ansem was some sort of heartless being? He definitely didn't seem that way when I met him.

I asked Sora, "Does this have anything to do with a part of your story that you haven't told us, Sora? I'm struggling to figure out why those three are acting this way."

Sora gave an unsure look, even doing that posture that just spoke, "I'm not saying."

"It's... more of a personal part for them."

"Say no more. I won't ask any further."

"So just a quick stop at this Ansem guy's?" Carmelita implied. Sora and I nodded.

As long as it isn't too long," Roxas added. Seriously, what exactly is their past with Ansem to make them resent him so much?

"Well then, everyone, time to get this show on the road," King Mickey said. "Off to Radiant Garden we go!"

Hopefully Ansem can help us figure out the mystery of the mark. Le Paradox, Eggman and Nefarious told us that it's important, but why? If only they would stop being so vague.

But I guess it was bad enough for those two for giving even a hint of their plan away.

SKSKSKSK

It only took a minute or two to reach Radiant Garden and even shorter to "port". My gang looked very amazed.

"Look at this place!" Murray said.

This place is just gorgeous!" Carmelita said. "Absolutely gorgeous!"

"I don't think I've ever seen such a place as beautiful as this one before in my life up until now!" Penelope said.

"Welcome to Radiant Garden, everyone!" Sora said with a bright smile on his face.

This place is among the best looking places I've seen since Sora came into my life. "Surprised, everyone? I felt the same way when I first got here."

"I'm guessing that Ansem lives on the castle?" Bentley questioned, pointing to the large structure.

"Yep."

"That's definitely one gigantic castle," Carmelita remarked, a hint of surprise in her voice. "It makes me wonder what kind of man this Ansem is if he's actually living in there."

Now that Carmelita said that, actually, it kind of makes me wonder a bit. Maybe Ansem will have answers as to why Roxas, Xion and Naminé have some sort of fear towards him? I mean, considering how none of them look eager to actually see him in person, I can help but wonder about that at this point.

"Now then, everyone," King Mickey began. "Just follow us and we'll be at the castle in no time!"

I have so many questions regarding everything that's happened since I met Sora. Could there be a greater purpose to what has been going on?

SKSKSKSK

Ansem ran his finger delicately over the design of the mark on my hand. He was very focused.

"What do you think, Ansem?" King Mickey asked.

"From all of my studies and research, there isn't an exact match to this mark," he answered. "But what of this in the center?" He outlined the center with the "L" like symbol.

"I don't know," I replied. I never really thought about it."

"I would infer that this center represents... a clock."

"A clock?" That's a strange comparison. But looking at the center, it did resemble the face of an old-fashioned clock.

"Well, one can interpret the center of this symbol as one, anyway."

Now that just makes this mark even more of a mystery than it was already. Why would that symbol in particularly represent a clock?

"And you're sure that there's no other match to this mark in your research?"

"None that I'm aware of, I can confirm that. This certainly is a mysterious marking you have engraved on you."

And the mystery continues... I wasn't expecting Ansem to know much, but the clock interpretation at least gets us somewhere. Maybe we'll figure this out soon, but I think we're running out of people we know that we can talk to about the mark.

"Are we able to see this symbol?" Riku asked. The wise man nodded before he stood from his seat. Reaching into a drawer, he pulled out a book.

"The clock looks very similar to this." Ansem opened the book and on the left side was a clock symbol similar to the sigil. On the other page was a sun like symbol.

"What's the sun?" I wondered.

"It accompanies the clock for some reason or another." I looked between the two symbols. Something seemed to click when I picture them... Hold on.

"Can you lend a pen and paper?"

"Oh, for what?"

"It's a hunch, but I want to check something." My required essentials were present a moment later. I carefully first drew the days of the sun symbol exactly and then added the clock hands in the center. Now if I flip the sun vertically...

"What?" Ansem hunched over his desk in surprise.

"That's the same as the mark!" Sora gasped.

Sure enough, what I ended up drawing definitely looked similar to the marking on my hand. And needless to say, everyone else was surprised once they saw them for themselves.

"Who knew that that sun would actually end up resembling the same mark on Sly's hand?" Kairi asked with a hint of surprise in her voice.

"Certainly not me," Ansem admitted, clearly surprised by this discovery himself.

Looks to me like we managed to find ourselves a breakthrough of sorts.

I told the group, "Well, I think we just got closer to figuring out what's going on with the mark. That was just a hunch, and even I'm surprised things worked out like that. Is there anything we should know about that book, Ansem?"

"I had recieved this from an anonymous donor upon my return to Radiant Garden. It has no author and nothing that stands out except these symbols." Flipping through more pages, we did see more mysterious designs. Some had sketched descriptions of old ruins and a strange alphabet I had never seen before.

"What did the guards see?" King Mickey asked.

"They never saw anyone in or outside the castle. So it's a mystery how it got in."

I turned the page back to the clock and the sun. I saw more of the strange writing.

"What about these letters?" Penelope pointed out.

"As of now, I am unable to decipher a single word. I can only understand the alphabet we know."

When I looked back down at the book, I immediately rubbed my eyes. There was ancient wording there before, right?

"Uh, Sly?" Sora called, stunned himself. "Tell me the words didn't change so I can read them."

"Good, I'm not the only one."

"What are you two going on about?" Kairi inquired.

"We can read it."

And that's when everyone in the room literally stared at us with surprised expressions on their faces. I swear, a few of them even had their mouths ajar once they heard that.

"You two can actually read what's written in that book?" Penelope asked, clearly dumbfounded upon learning this information.

"Yep, we definitely can," Sora answer.

"It looks clear as day to the both of us," I then answered.

"But... But how?!" A speechless Bentley then asked. "I've never seen those letters before in my life! How is it that you two are able to read it flawlessly?!"

I don't really know, but I do feel that another breakthrough in the mystery is coming because of this book. Are you ready to figure out what's going on, Sora? This book may end up leading us in that direction."

He nodded to me.

"The flow of time is as constant as the stability of space. To understand them, they must be considered as one power, known as Dimension."

"The power of Dimension bends both elements to the will of the user. It is what brings order and foundation to the universe. The Dimension is shaped by the Desires of those created in it."

"The part of space, the astral sun, creates a living environment for new worlds and organisms. The part of time, the grand clock, gives the worlds an ever-changing environment that does not remain constant."

"Dimension is where these two natural elements coexist and where one is affected if the other is as well. While it is stable, it is also dangerous. A single disruption can shake the balance of time and space. Therefore, Dimension must be watched by they that bear both."

That's all on these pages.

And honestly, that sounded pretty complex to me. And it was clear that everyone else that they had the same thoughts as well.

"Is that actually what it says in those pages?" Xion asked.

"Yep, the both of us can confirm this," Sora answered.

"That has got to be one of the most cryptically written messages I've ever heard in my life, if you ask me," Bentley admitted.

I have to agree with Bentley on that one. I have a feeling that the author is someone that none of us have met. And decoding that passage is probably going to take a while. It seems like every answer we get brings more questions...

"Sly, your bag is glowing," Carmelita warned. It must be the Chaos Emerald. Once I retrieved it from my satchel, Sora did the same for his. Both of them were glowing intensely.

"Those gems..." Ansem said aloud. He then flipped through the pages of the book, near the beginning. On both pages were gemstones much like the Chaos Emeralds, a total of seven of them.

"My goodness," Bentley said, staring at the pages Ansem had showed us in surprise.

"Those definitely look highly similar to the same gemstones Sora and Sly have," Kairi commented.

"Yes," Ansem replied. "Very much so."

So, there's actually more than two of these Chaos Emeralds? I'm assuming that's the case, based on what's depicted on those pages in question.

I said to Sora, "I think it's time to see if this book has any info on the Chaos Emeralds that we don't already know. Although there are things in this book that we don't understand fully, I think we'll figure it out eventually."

"Yeah. Let's see what this means first." We looked back at the book, searching for the description. "Here." He pointed to a passage. "The Chaos Emeralds react when in contact with each other. There are also instances when they react to the use of another. The power of all seven Chaos Emeralds can give a single person god like abilities."

"God?" Bentley gulped. Yeah, the memory of a certain, maniacal raptor came to my mind.

"And there's seven of them," Riku reminded. "Yen Sid said that one alone already has a lot of power."

"If that's the case, I'm actually both interested and scared to find out what would actually happen if all seven of them were brought together," Penelope admitted. "You know, other the god-like abilities."

To be honest, I felt like I could relate with Penelope on this. If all seven of these mysterious Chaos Emralds were brought together, there's no telling what kind of powers they could give the one that retrieved them all.

I asked the others, "Does anybody here have an idea why the Emeralds were glowing in our bags a couple seconds ago? The book said they were reacting to something, but I'm not entirely sure if mine was reacting to Sora's Emerald or another one we haven't located yet."

"Well, since yours and Sora's have already been in contact, I would say this is another Emerald," Mickey answered. "Which means, going by your similar circumstances, should be in the hands of someone from outside either of our sets of worlds."

"So we get to go to a whole new world?" Murray asked.

"Most likely."

But now that brings up a question," Roxas said. "Where exactly are we supposed to check out next?"

Roxas did bring up a very good point right there. The other five Emeralds could be anywhere out there and it's obvious that we know nothing of where they could be. Who knows how long it'll take for us to find even one of them.

Then, I thought of something. "Everybody, I have an idea. With all the power the Chaos Emeralds are said to have, it wouldn't surprise me if Le Paradox, Nefarious, Eggman, and possibly some other bad people are looking for them. Maybe they are working with the person who gave them the knowledge of the Keyblade. This could explain Le Paradox's talk of "associates". Ansem, I think that book may be helpful. Sora will probably agree with me on that. Do you think we could borrow it for a bit?"

The wise man of this world nodded.

"As you two are the only ones able to understand the writing, I would more say it was meant for you," he explained. "Take it with you on your journey together. It may hold more information on what the darkness is seeking."

"Thanks, Ansem," Sora said, closing the book carefully and picking it up.

"Well, we've gotten the book, but how exactly is that supposed to help us find out where we're supposed to find the other Chaos Emralds?" Bentley asked.

"Considering that Sora and I are the only ones that're able to read the writing in this book, maybe we can find some clues or something regarding where we should try searching next inside of it," I suggested.

"Let's see if we can figure something out then. I'm actually surprised about the amount of potentially important info in this book, and I think that there is even more that Sora and I have yet to locate."

"The book did say they're attracted in a way to each other," Sora pointed out. "If we focus on that, maybe a Chaos Control can create a gateway to that world."

"A loose idea, but it is the only shot we have," Bentley said.

"I wish all of you the best of luck on locating the other Chaos Emralds," Ansem said. "May you be able to find them all first before they fall into the wrong hands."

"Thank you for your words of support, Ansem," I said. "All of us will do everything we can to find them first."

I asked the others, "So, now that we know what our next objective is, who is ready to see if Sora's theory about Chaos Control is correct? The Emeralds being connected at least gives us something to work with."

"Nothing else to go on," Penelope confirmed.

"We'll be seeing you later, Ansem," Sora said to the wise man, who nodded in return.

SKSKSKSK

Once we returned to the Gummi Ship, Sora and I looked at the book one more time. You know, just to be sure it wasn't playing tricks on us. But sure enough, we could still read every word as if it was our own respective languages.

"Why do you think only we can read it, even though we had never seen the writing before?" he asked me.

"I'm not sure, but maybe for me, it has something to do with my mark," I inferred.

"I don't think I have one."

"How would we know? I've never seen you without your own gloves."

"That's true. So are you saying that I have a mark too?"

"Only one way to find out." Sora then proceeded to removes his gloves. Both of our eyes widened at what we saw.

"This is..."

"Guys, we're ready to make the jump," Murray called. Time to do some Chaos Control. Sora hurringly pulled his gloves back and we went to the bridge.

"You ready to do this, Sora?" I asked, looking in his direction.

"You bet I am!" Sora exclaimed with a bright smile on his face. "Let's do this, Sly!"

I nodded in response and held out the white Chaos Emrald while Sora did the same with the aqua one. They soon began to glow and resonate with each other, the light becoming more and more bright as the seconds passed.

Where will this Chaos Control take us? After what's happened so far, I feel like anything is possible. We know what we need to do, now we just need to figure out how to do it. This is definitely going to be unfamiliar territory for both of our groups.

End Chapter