Chapter 13

Joke of Night

A Corridor of Darkness materialized at the ledge of the Great Crest. Loki trotted out and stepped to the side. Three seconds later, Pete appeared, and nearly walked over the edge. He flapped his arms up and down, trying to balance on one foot, before he swung his other leg back and let himself fall backwards onto even footing. The portal closed and he eased his way back away from the edge, staring down at the houses in the town, appearing tiny from his position. He looked at Loki suspiciously and noticed him smirking.

"Why, I oughta…" Pete growled, angry at the prank.

"Never mind that," Loki interrupted nonchalantly. "This Zeromast character wants us to find whatever research the sage 'Ansem' had gathered regarding the artifacts across the worlds. Do you know where that might be found?"

Pete paused for a moment, caressing his chin and squinting thoughtfully. "Well, from my understanding, there's this study in the basement. I think there's a computer lab down there."

"Fine." Then Loki did a double take. "The basement? You must be joking! If we were supposed to go to the basement, why did you open this portal to one of the higher points?"

"Listen, they got a defense system designed to start shooting if you so much as open a Corridor. The Heartless can barely even survive walking around the hallways without getting blown to smithereens. And the side entrance that leads almost directly there is pretty well-guarded, and we want to keep a low profile," Pete defended himself.

Loki looked up at the wall above the nearby passage. "And that will keep us off the radar?" he asked sarcastically. Confused, Pete followed his gaze and noticed the security camera.

"D'oh!" Pete gasped. "Come on. Let's get down there before they catch on to us."

They ran through the passage and entered the lift stop. Pete waved his hand over the spiked orb, causing a bronze platform to appear off of the ledge. Loki watched bemusedly as Pete vanished right in front of him and reappeared on the platform.

"Say, Loki, could you use your thingamajig to rewire the laser stream to take us to the ground floor?" Pete asked.

Loki frowned thoughtfully, then held his hand open. A golden spear with a grey metal curved tip almost shaped like a lobster's claw that looped around a blue crystal materialized in his grip. Grabbing it with both hands, he jabbed the spear into the base of the spiked ball. The electric sparks bouncing off of the device turned green. He rotated the spear to the right. The holographic line marking the path that the elevator was to follow turned into a straight vertical line. Pete peered into the abyss, scanning how far the line went, and gave Loki a thumbs-up when he was satisfied.

"Now get on here and let's go," Pete ordered. Loki waved his hand over the spiked ball and was teleported onto the lift. The platform descended, following the path of the laser.

Pete noticed that Loki was studying the construction and mechanics of the area with interest and curiosity but not fascination. "You know, I pegged you more as a guy whose society was more magic-based," he addressed the trickster, "but this stuff doesn't seem to faze you much."

Loki turned to face Pete. "Yes, I do prefer my sorcery and illusions, but where I grew up, our technology is far beyond what you are familiar with," he claimed. "What some call magic and others science, to us they are one and the same."

"Hmph. That sounds neat," Pete admitted. A few moments later, the elevator stopped and they were teleported onto the platform leading into a passage in the wall. "Okay, when we go through here, we'll be in the entrance hall. Instead of going down the stairs, we'll take the left turn and go through the door there." Loki nodded in understanding and they went through the passage.

Sora, Riku, Mickey, Leon, and Yuffie stepped into the castle's entrance hall, and Mickey closed the door behind him, locking it with his Keyblade to make sure the intruders couldn't escape through there. Sora and Riku looked around the circular room. It had a blue-green floor and magenta walls, encircled by lilac-colored columns holding up a second floor that looped around the perimeter of the room. A raised level hugged the wall in a semicircular shape, with a curved stairway in front on either side flanking a fountain carved into the form of monstrous grotesques. On the opposite end of the room, above and behind the fountain, was a hallway leading into what Sora and Riku remembered to be the elevator complex in the center of the castle's infrastructure. On the left side of the semicircular level was a door that led to the library. On the other side was another door. Sora and Riku were perplexed, as the door was unfamiliar to them.

"That door wasn't there before, was it?" Riku asked.

Leon followed his gaze and mouthed "Oh" when he saw what he meant. "Yuffie found that a few months after we settled back in," he said. "It was covered up with tapestry. I'm not sure why. Xemnas might have done it to keep Maleficent's crew from finding the computer room and catching on to what he was doing."

Sora looked up and saw the bottom of the platform that floated in the middle of the second floor of the hall. He remembered how that level was accessed by entering the library, going up to the second level (all the while rearranging books in a bizarre maze puzzle) and then exiting through the door up top. "It's been a long time since we were here," he mused. "Right, Riku?"

"Yeah. Last time I was in here, I had stolen your Keyblade and threw a Dark Firaga at you," Riku recalled. "Man, Maleficent and Ansem had really gotten into my head."

"Gosh. Nine years of Heartless infestation and Maleficent's residence really distorted the architecture," Mickey noted, having spent some time trying to take in the fact that the castle had been divided from the town with the Rising Falls between them. "I can barely recognize the place."

"I doubt the Grand Hall looks anything like you would remember," Sora commented, recalling the open pipes pouring out steam, the upright crystal caskets, the carpet with the Heartless emblem imprinted on it, and the massive portal to the chaotic chamber leading to the Keyhole.

"There they are!" Yuffie called out. Everyone turned their attention to the hallway in the back, and saw Pete running out into the room. He stopped dead, eyes wide in surprise, and bucked forward slightly as if something had bumped into him from behind.

Loki stepped out from behind Pete, looking annoyed. "You blundering oaf! What are you…" he trailed off as he saw the group who were there to meet them. Sora, Riku and Mickey summoned their Keyblades, and Leon pulled out his Gunblade. "Oh, rats."

"Hi," Riku greeted snidely. "I don't believe we've met."

Loki took a moment to regain his composure, then gave them a bow, spreading his arms wide. "Then allow me to introduce myself. I am Loki, of Asgard."

The five looked around at each other, wondering if that meant anything to anyone. "Er, sorry. But we've never heard of that," Sora responded apologetically.

Loki was taken aback. "I beg your pardon?"

Mickey shrugged. "There might be something referencing what you're talking about in my library, but I think that's mythology."

"You dismiss me as 'mythology'? You, who are already acquainted with gods, dismiss the God of Mischief as a 'myth'?" Loki retorted, clearly offended.

"Wait, you're a god?" Sora asked for clarification. Loki nodded. Sora started counting on his fingers. "So, that makes him number three?" he muttered.

"What about that friendly one-on-one with Hercules in the Coliseum?" Leon reminded him.

"Oh, right. So, four. He's the fourth."

"Fourth? Fourth what?" Loki asked, confused.

Sora gave him a wicked smirk. "The fourth god whose butt I kick," he answered cockily.

Loki rolled his eyes. "Of course. Hades did mention his encounter with you," he snarked.

Sora raised an eyebrow with interest. "So, Hades is part of your band," he observed.

Pete tapped Loki on the shoulder. "Uh, Loki, I think we should get a move on," he said timidly. "We are going to need to get to that computer."

"Huh. You're going there too?" Yuffie questioned.

Pete realized his error. "D'oh!" he gasped. "Let's move!"

He started to go to the door to his left, but stopped in his tracks when Leon shot a fireball that passed in front of him. Sora, Riku and Mickey closed the gap between the heroes and villains, with Sora and Riku running up either set of stair and Mickey leaping over the fountain and landing on the upper platform. Loki summoned his scepter and swung to hit Sora, but Sora blocked the strike and pushed the scepter upward, throwing Loki off balance. Riku dashed in and struck him in the side, knocking him back.

"Look out!" Mickey called. Sora and Riku turned around and saw Pete roll a glowing metal ball under Mickey's feet right toward them. Before they could react, the ball exploded right in front of them, throwing them through the air. Sora did a flip to recover in midair and landed on his feet. Riku hit the wall but regained his composure by the time he hit the ground.

Sora swung his Keyblade at Loki, but the trickster god dodged out of the way with ease and punch him square in the back. Sora turned around as Loki stepped back. He pointed his Keyblade at him and shouted "Deep Freeze!" A Blizzaga spell hit Loki in the chest. However, aside from being pushed back from the force of the ice block, Loki did not seem to be harmed by it. Curiously, his hands and the lower part of his neck seemed to turn blue, but after a moment they reverted to a Caucasian tone. "Okay, Blizzard doesn't quite work on you," he observed.

"Then let me try!" Riku shouted as he ran past Sora and launched a Dark Firaga spell at Loki. That seemed to have more of an effect, knocking him across the room. Sora followed up on the attack, launching himself to Loki's position with a powerful step and hitting him hard with his Keyblade as he spun around at the end of the dash, knocking him out into the wider part of the room.

Mickey jumped all around Pete, hitting him at every angle and keeping his old rival off-balance. Angered, Pete stomped his feet, creating shockwaves strong enough to disrupt Mickey's footing when he landed on the floor. Pete then brought both fists to the ground, creating a shockwave that sent Mickey flying into a column. Mickey kicked himself off from the column and swung his Keyblade into Pete's chin.

Leon shot a fireball at Loki before the trickster even hit the ground. He then ran toward him and swung his Gunblade at him. The first hit knocked him back, but Loki blocked the next strike with his scepter, then kicked Leon in the stomach, sending him across the room. A puff of smoke materialized to his left and Yuffie dove behind him, throwing a shuriken at his neck. Loki felt the sting and pulled the throwing star out of his flesh, a drop of blood on one of the points. Another puff of smoke appeared to his right, this time close enough to partially envelop him, and he felt the scepter being pulled out of his hand. She ran over to Leon with it and showed it to him, laughing. Loki glared at her, fuming, and Yuffie responded by sticking her tongue out and pulling her eyelid down. Loki turned around and realized that Sora and Riku were coming right for him. He summoned a pair of daggers to counter their strikes, but they were far too skilled, and his weapons were not strong enough to withstand the force of the Keyblades. When a nasty crack formed in one of the daggers, he dismissed them and stepped away. Riku stopped and observed him cautiously, but Sora did not recognize the source of his concerns and thrusted himself straight at Loki, his weapon pointed straight at him, and passed through him with a small sonic boom. Sora stopped and looked at Loki in surprise, realizing that he was still standing there as if nothing happened. The illusion of Loki faded away.

Mickey glanced over at Leon and Yuffie and his eyes widened in shock. "Behind you!" he warned. They turned around and were surprised to find Loki there. He took his scepter out of Yuffie's hand and swatted her aside with a backhand. Leon swung his Gunblade at Loki but the God of Mischief parried it with his scepter and smacked the staff into his head. While Leon was dazed and on the ground, Loki conjured a dagger and prepared to deliver a killing blow, but Mickey shouted "Light!" and sent a pearl of white light into his back, stunning him. Sora closed the distance with a Quick Run step and delivered a blitz of three jumping attacks, hitting Loki in the chest with vertical strikes.

Loki retaliated with a powerful shove, pushing Sora five feet away and disrupting his balance. He then thrust the tip of his scepter straight for his chest, but Riku charged in and conjured a transparent rectangular barrier, blocking the attack. He followed up with a trio of Dark Fire shots, but Loki vanished right before they hit.

Mickey was back to jumping around Pete and hitting from all sides, but this was interrupted when Loki appeared out of thin air and grabbed Mickey by the collar of his shirt. "I would suggest that we leave and continue our business," he said disdainfully, swinging Mickey around to make him dizzy.

Pete regained his composure and nodded in agreement. "Yeah. We lost enough time as is," he admitted.

Loki regarded Mickey with scorn and threw him at the group in the middle of the room. The two villains slipped through the door that would lead to the lower corridors.

The heroes picked themselves up after that surprise. "Everyone okay?" Leon asked. He put his fingers to the side of his head and checked his fingers, noticing that he was bleeding.

"Heal!" Sora invoked. An illusion of a leafy ivy vine with yellow bells sprouting from the ends appeared above the group and showered green sparkles over the group. The five of them felt a refreshing aura and their injuries were cured, their cuts closed and bruises healed. They climbed to their feet, at full health and ready to get moving.

"They went through there," Mickey said, pointing toward the door that would lead to the lower corridors. "We need to catch up to them!"

Everyone nodded in agreement and ran up the stairs, went down the colonnade, and passed through the door.

Pete and Loki ran down the labyrinthine corridor before finally stopping at a wooden door with a unique design etched into it.

"Are you sure those Heartless we left behind will stall them for long?" Loki asked.

Pete shrugged. "Probably not," he replied. "But it should give us time to get started. He turned the knob and opened the door.

They stepped into a round room with a curved metal desk and tall metal chair across from the door and bookcases on every wall. There were some glass pods broken open but stacked on top of the bookshelves rather than scattered across the floor like they were when the Restoration Committee had originally found the room several months ago. A portrait of Xehanort, at that point in time an apprentice to Ansem the Wise who usurped the sage king, leaned against one of the bookcases. Above it, drawings and writing were written on the wall in purple marker. Most of the words were faded but one could make out the words "Hollow Bastion OS" and (barely) "Door To Darkness". Some diagrams with purple boards and teal frames were mounted on the wall. To the left of the desk, the wall was opened up into a path with gray metal walls and floor.

Loki examined the portrait. "Might this have been the master of the house?" he questioned.

Pete shook his head. "Nope. That would be Xehanort," he answered. "He betrayed that Ansem guy and banished him to the Realm of Darkness."

Loki eyed the portrait for a moment longer and grinned. "Well, weren't you the little mastermind," he teased.

Pete and Loki walked through the hall, taking a right turn and then a left turn before the passage opened into a room with a computer monitor and a counter with a keyboard built into it on one side. On the opposite side of the room was a large circular laser projector with a large red lens.

"Now, let's plug the drive in, find the info and start copying," Pete said. "Watch your step." He opened up the computer and found an input box. "Hmm… Zeromast said this thing would need a password. Now, what did he say it was?" He took a moment to think of the code. "Oh, right. 'Sora, Donald, Goofy'." He typed in the names, wondering how their benefactor knew what the password was, and hit ENTER. The password prompt disappeared and a search bar popped up. "Plug that it, will you?" Loki inserted the flash drive into the computer console. Pete started typing key words into the search bar, hoping to find the data they needed. He found one file that piqued his interest, but before he could copy it into the flash drive, the five heroes came in, looking for a fight.

"There you are!" Sora shouted, brandishing his Keyblade.

"Uh-oh! Come on, Loki! Let's bounce!" Pete said as he opened a Corridor of Darkness.

"But the records" Loki protested, but Pete tugged on his arm insistently.

"We ain't gonna get them now!" Pete pulled Loki along and they retreated through the Corridor.

"Get back here!" Sora called out, but the portal closed just as quickly as it had opened.

Yuffie noticed that the computer was open to all of its functions. "How did they know the password?" she asked.

"What could they be after?" Sora wondered aloud, starting to pace back and forth. He was taken out of his train of thought when he tripped over something. He looked at where he stumbled and saw something he did not expect.

At his feet lay a slender man wearing a familiar black hooded duster, as well as black slacks, gloves and shoes. When Sora let his eyes wander to the man's head, he gasped in shock. He would recognize the man's spiky scarlet hair anywhere. On closer inspection, he noticed a small difference, that being there were no purple marks under his eyes, but besides that his appearance was unmistakable.

"Axel?" he identified the man. Riku tapped him on the shoulder and gestured about, bringing to Sora's attention the other people lying unconscious on the floor.

One wore garb similar to Axel's, but had a somewhat more muscular build. His face had sharper and less boyish features. He had blue hair that went past his shoulders, with some hair in front of his ears that approached his chin. Last, but not least, there was an X-shaped scar right between his eyes. Sora remembered fighting this man, known as Saïx, and he both despised and pitied him even after what he thought was his death.

There were two men wearing gray uniforms, white gloves with blue heart designs on the backs, and black boots, giving them the appearance of soldiers. One was very large and had angular and strong features, as well as auburn hair slicked back into messy spikes. The other was of a slightly smaller frame and had long black hair arranged in dreadlocks with pronounced sideburns. Sora did not recognize the first man, but he remembered the second man as a foe known as Xaldin. Nearby were two men wearing white lab coats. One had long, platinum blond hair and the other had steel-blue hair with long, layered bangs that covered much of the right side of his face. Sora did not recognize either of them, but Riku knew them as Vexen and Zexion, and he remembered the large soldier as Lexaeus.

"How are they here?" Riku asked.

"Maybe it really is as they say," Mickey said. "When a person's Heartless and Nobody are eliminated by a Keyblade wielder, the heart, body and soul fade back into darkness and reform, and the person's original self returns to the Realm of Light."

The group heard a groan coming from behind them and turned around to see who was there. They saw a man, conscious and standing but dazed and slumped against the wall right next to the opening to the hall back to the study. He wore a similar uniform to Lexaeus and Xaldin, but he had added a torn red scarf. He had black hair that was turning gray in multiple parts and a yellow eye. There were some nasty scars on his left cheek. There was an eyepatch over where his right eye should be.

"Ugh, I was expecting someone else," the man who had been known as Xigbar blurted absently, putting his hand to his forehead as if trying to calm a nasty headache. Sora, Riku and Mickey glowered, remembering their previous experiences with him.

Leon and Yuffie looked around the scene before them. They had very little experience with them before they became Nobodies and almost no familiarity with them afterwards, but they knew one thing for certain. Seven members of Organization XIII, the cabal that had manipulated Sora into fighting Heartless and supplying them with hearts so that they could form Kingdom Hearts, had returned to their complete selves.