I'm Nobody

by free man writer

He didn't have anything when he was born. Just a name and number. But over time, what he had grew. He, with his friends began to understand that there was more to their existence then just their name and number. They will prove that they were meant to be real. To exist. To become something more than just a Nobody. Co-written and created with Jebest4781. Fem Shepard. Now on Ao3.

11. I Need Answers

I hope you guys are prepared for this chapter.

This one is gonna be a doozy, plain and simple.

Shit is gonna go down here and in the coming chapters overall.

Welcome to the madhouse, as they say.

Big shout out to one DrWriter21 of the creator of the story called Blank Slate that was a huge influence on this story. Like a really big one.

For those who have read the story, you'll know it when you see it.

So that means no more dilly dallying.

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.

I'm Nobody Chapter 11: I Need Answers

Gazing around, Roxas swore he was by some lake somewhere with the early morning sunrise blanketing the land, with its rich purple sky.

Yet something was clearly off as it seemed familiar somehow.

"Gawrsh, is that all that's left of the Worlds taken by the Heartless?"

Roxas looked over and saw Goofy, Donald and Sora standing by a rock formation as they were stepping on the extremely shallow water to reach one rocky landmass from the last.

"Those Worlds will be restored if we beat Ansem, right?" Sora theorized. "But, if we do beat him and all these Worlds become restored and disconnected, what's gonna happen to this place? And to us?"

It was from here did the Nobody see the trio of companions traverse through an unusual series of areas in the Realm of Darkness. Combating Heartless left and right up till they came across some sort of giant demon situated on top of a mountain.

Suddenly the environment shifted as the trio ended back up at the beach of Sora's childhood home.

Yet it wasn't exactly the tropical paradise as it was all broken up with unnatural formations altering the landscape.

Reaching at a certain sandy shore, Riku greeted them… or rather in fact Ansem.

The silver haired teen's form shifted to that of an adult who vaguely looked like Xemnas to some capacity. His pale skin turned coppery brown with orange eyes peering at the trio with his long white hair flowing along the breeze. The muscle body suit became something else to that of an oddly designed opened coat with the Heartless emblem plastered on his chest.

"All worlds begin in Darkness. And all worlds end. Darkness sprouts within it. It grows, consumes it. Such as its nature."

Soon enough, the trio clashed with the Seeker of Darkness.

"You see, Darkness is the heart's true essence."

The battle was long and excruciating with so many things occurring left and right. The trio separated as they had to fight the waves of darkness before they were able to reunite.

"That's not true!" Exclaimed Sora, floating in the pitch black darkness. Yet there seemed to be some sort of glow around him, Donald and Goofy for them to glide all over the place. "The Heart may be weak. And sometimes, it may even give in. But I've learned that deep down, there's a light that never goes out."

Seeing as he didn't want to admit defeat, the Seeker of Darkness swiftly turned towards the towering, ivory doors in the distance as it was placed on top of a few small grey islands.

"KINGDOM HEARTS!" Ansem cried out desperately, reaching out to the large, gated door in the endless void. "Fill me… with the power… of Darkness." his voice was strained and weakened after being thrashed by Sora and company.

"You're wrong." Sora declared with absolute confidence. "I know now, without a doubt… Kingdom Hearts… is Light!"

The door opened, the light pouring out of Kingdom Hearts overwhelming and at long last defeating Ansem, the Seeker of Darkness.

As Sora, Donald and Goofy tried to close the door to Kingdom Hearts, the brown haired Keybearer peered inside and saw who Donald and Goofy refer to as their king. His silhouette was brightened to some degree as he too wielded a Keyblade.

"Now Sora! Let's close this door for good." King Mickey said, wielding his own Keyblade held above him.

Together, he and Sora closed the door to Kingdom Hearts on both ends.

As the doorway closed ever more, Riku said his goodbyes, not knowing when he'll ever see his friends next.

"Take care of her." Was all the silver haired teen requested, which Sora complied.

Once the door was closed, both King Mickey and Sora used their Keyblade's to seal it up, hopefully for good.

"Kairi!" Sora ran right up to his other childhood friend with her locking eyes with him.

"Sora!"

Suddenly, the ground between them shifted apart with Kairi nearly falling over had it not been for Sora catching her and holding her hand tightly.

"Kairi. Remember what you said before? I'm always with you too." Sora promised with his entire heart pouring into his words. "I'll come back to you. I promise."

Both held onto one another until the distance became too much for them.

"I know you will!"

The Worlds started to reform one by one as their hold with each other broke. The stars in the sky appeared in a mighty spectacle as they were able to come out of the darkness after who knows how long.

Before long, Roxas saw the trio now walking along a dirt path in a wide grassy meadow with no markers to give any proper destination.

"Well now what do we do?" Donald asked, rather unsure of their current predicament.

"We've still gotta find Riku and King Mickey." Sora replied confidently.

"But uhh, where do we start lookin' for that there door to the Light?" Goofy inquired.

No sooner did Goofy ask did a familiar dog walk out of the grass with an envelope in his mouth.

"Pluto?" Donald said, instantly recognizing the Kings trusted dog.

"Gawrsh, that's the King's Seal!" Goofy said, identifying the note Pluto held.

As Pluto ran away, Sora widened his smile as far as he could. Turning to his two friends he gestured to them to follow the wayward pet of King Mickey.

"Let's Go!"

The trio ran at full speed after the dog…

…

…

…

Roxas's eyes snapped open, sitting up sharply.

He was breathing heavily, sweat rolling down his brow.

This was too much. It was becoming far too much.

His head was pounding and his eyes actually hurt.

Teeth clenched, Roxas got up out of his pod and walked off towards the Mako bay to be in the lonely corner he had found earlier.

Leaning on a nearby crate, Roxas let out a heavy breath that he didn't realize he was holding in until now.

Wanting to relax properly, the Nobody pulled out his Omni-tool and scrolled through his music library. There was quite a large variety he got since he first acquired it, due to him wanting to see which genres and artists fit him best.

Right now, he just needed something soothing and upbeat.

-Insert I'm Not in Love by 10CC-

As the song went through the beats and lyrics, he sat back and relaxed. And there he stayed for a time, playing the small minigames he had recently downloaded on his Omni-Tool while listening to his calming music.

As he sat there, he saw out of the corner of his eye Garrus working on the repaired Mako Cannon with Kaidan helping him out.

Wrex stood in his own corner, examining his Gravity Hammer and working out the kinks.

Not far away, Ashley was at her station and she too was examining her weapons as she was dismantling and cleaning the parts.

In another corner, Stitch was doing maintenance on his cruiser before getting to touch up on several parts that still needed to be repaired. If Roxas remembered correctly, his personal ship would be up and running very soon before he went for test flights.

Seeing his friends going about their own business, the Nobody briefly thought of his two friends back with the Organization.

He hadn't seen them in a while but… recently, he really wants to see them again.

No. XIII couldn't help but wonder just how his first two friends were right now.

Were they doing alright? He knows that he should have returned to the Organization but being here… he's learned so much more then he felt he ever would back with the assemblage of Nobodies.

He knew he shouldn't have been away from them for so long, but he wanted to learn more about the "Heart" as he traveled in the Normandy.

Has he overextended his departure? Should he return back soon and at least make his reports back to Saix and the Superior? Would that sate things so he may resume helping the Normandy in taking down Saren?

Only one way to find out.

Which meant he'll have to head back sooner than later.

-Scene Cut-

Within the marble white walls of Castle Oblivion on the first floor, Axel and Namine were following after their friend Xion who was rushing towards the front door.

"Xion?" Axel called out to No. XIV who had run out to the entrance of the Castle. "What are ya doing?"

"I thought I saw something outside."

"Saw something out…" Axel looked around. "Was there a window here that I missed or something?"

"I don't believe there are windows here." Namine murmured next to Axel.

"Right?"

Hearing the front door to the castle open, the duo saw Xion step out with Axel grumbling.

"Hey Xion, wait a sec." Axel called out to her, jogging to catch up with Namine following closely behind.

The two walked outside of the Castle doors, spotting Xion a few yards away looking around.

"Xion, come on back inside." Axel said. "There's nothing out here."

"No." Xion said confidently. "I know I saw something out here."

Axel scratched his head, looking down at Namine with her only shrugging.

"Xion, what can you possibly have seen out he-"

"WOOF!"

Without warning and literally out of nowhere, a yellow-orange furred dog tackled Xion to the ground with Axel and Namine jolting back in complete shock at the hound's sudden appearance.

"A dog?" Namine muttered aloud in surprise.

"What the hell is a pooch doing out here?" Axel asked in complete bewilderment, noticing Xion underneath the paws of the dog. "You alright there Xion?"

Rather than responding, No. XIV stared up at the dog with her eyes sparkling.

"Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~!"

The black haired Nobody then latched onto the dog and let out the loudest 'squee' she could ever muster.

"Holy hell she's loud!"

Xion was squeezing the dog with all her might, rubbing her cheek against it with the dog barking happily.

"Uh…" Axel then realized what was happening. "Oi, Oi, Xion, come on." He said exasperatedly. "You're going to get attached to it by this rate."

"But! But! But!" The dog then started licking all over Xion's face, causing her to giggle aloud. "Th-That tickles! Stoooop~!

Namine giggled, approaching the dog with a kind smile. "Hello there."

The dog turned to the blond girl and woofed happily, licking her outstretched hand with Namine laughing and petting him.

As the two girls fawned over the dog, Axel was left at a slight loss as to what to do.

He was the keeper of Castle Oblivion, not a dog whisperer.

While Xion continued petting the dog, she saw something that was tucked into his collar. "What's this?"

Prying the item from the dog's collar, Xion saw it was some sealed letter with three solid circles attached together acting as the letter's seal.

'Wonder who this is for?'

She was about to open it out of curiosity when she looked at the dog once more. Her blue eyes sparkled as she sniffled a little.

"Say-"

"Don't ask questions you already know the answer to."

"But Axel~" Xion cried out, arms flailing.

"I don't think it would hurt to try." Namine said, looking to the red-head with her lower lip puckered.

"Oh geez, not you to Namine." Axel groaned. "You really think that the Organization is gonna take care of a pet? I sure wouldn't waste my breath. Saix'll never agree to it."

Looking back at the happy-go-lucky mutt, Xion spoke in the utmost apologetic way possible. "I'm sorry, puppy." Tears quickly formed in her eyes as she wailed, hugging the dog once more. "I'm so sorry!"

"Urgh…" Axel slid his hand over his face, hearing his friend in such a despondent mood. "Alright, alright. Fine. I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask."

Xion immediately brightened up. "Really?! "REALLY?! Oh thank you, Axel!"

Axel couldn't help but chuckle at her optimistic tone. "Don't thank me yet, Xion. You still have to get permission to keep it."

"I know I will." Xion declared determinedly. "Then I can have him come here whenever I visit you guys."

"That sounds lovely." Namine said with a serene smile, kneeling down to scratch the dog behind the ears.

"Now, you two keep this dog busy while I go fetch Saix." Axel said, conjuring a Dark Corridor beside him. "Until then, just… do whatever you want, I suppose."

Stepping through, Axel disappeared once the Dark Corridor dissipated.

Namine, Xion and their newfound to-be-determined pet reentered the castle to await the return of Axel with Saix.

After waiting for nearly half an hour, the Flurry of Dancing Flames arrived with the Luna Diviner.

"Here he is." Axel said, gesturing to the dog that bounded straight up to No. VII.

Saix gazed down at the dog panting up at him with his face unmoving to the sheer joy radiating from the dog.

"I suppose I can allow it." No. VII said after a few moments of silence.

"Say what now?/Really?" Were Axel and Xions responses, the former stunned with the latter giddy beyond compare.

"Come on puppy, let's go play with Namine." Xion exclaimed, the dog barking happily as the two ran over to where Namine was standing.

"Well, well. Wonders never ceases to amaze." Axel remarked.

"I was fond of dogs once."

Axel blinked before a small grin formed.

"So you do still have memories from the good old days."

"Wasn't it your life's goal to make sure you were remembered forever?" Saix asked rhetorically, further surprising the red-head.

"Remembered that too?" Axel asked, grin growing.

"I recall calling you obnoxious." Saix's expression was stoic. But his tone…

"Still am. Only way for me to truly die are three things: me physically dying, my name to be said one final time, and the last person who remembers me to pass away as well. So if I want to live 'forever', I need to have so many people remember my name."

*Crash*

Looking over, they saw the dog had knocked over a marble pillar with a large pot placed on top with its remains scattered across the floor. And in the distance, Xion chased after her recently acquired pet with Namine in tow.

"So… about the pottery-"

"Doesn't matter."

With that, Saix left, leaving Axel with Xion, Namine and the new dog with the latter three gathered around the broken pot.

Sighing, Axel snapped his fingers and out popped several Dusks with brooms in hand.

"Alright you two, clean up your mess." Axel said, gesturing to the lesser Nobody's to hand over their cleaning tools.

Aside from surveillance work, Dusks are pretty good handymen. Give them a command and they'll comply right away with any task given.

Yet if the lesser Nobodies tend to have nothing productive to work on, they'll find something to do in some shape or form.

Take for example a while back when Roxas first joined the Organization. Axel went to retrieve Roxas during his first few days with them in order to get him started on training.

When he came into his room, Axel spotted a number of Dusks hovering over him and doing something to the sandy blonde teen. When they left, the chakram-wielder had to suppress a boisterous laugh.

For the Dusks ended up drawing on No. XIII's face while he slept.

It was funny the first time, but it kept happening the next several days. Thus the joke started to grow stale.

If that were to happen to Demyx or someone else who deserved it, then by all means let the Dusks keep having their fun. But don't continuously do the act on a kid who hardly knew a thing.

Breaking his gaze away from the lesser Nobodies, the fiery redhead shifted his green eyes to the playing trio that had finished cleaning, who's yells and barks -respectfully- echoed throughout the hallways.

'Might as well go grab the dog some treats and toys.' Was Axel's thought, letting a Dark Corridor consume him so he may go shopping.

-Scene Cut-

The Normandy had returned to the Citadel once more.

They wouldn't be here for long as they had several assignments to take care so this was essentially a pit stop for stocking up on supplies.

Shepard was currently speaking with Garrus and Kaidan about the Mako's condition when she saw one specific teammate walking towards the exit with his hood up.

Her expression fell slightly, something that both her comrades and friends noticed.

"Shepard?" Kaidan was concerned with Vakarian looking back to what caught her attention, instantly knowing why she had such a facial shift.

Jane blinked, realizing she had just went silent on the two.

"What is it, Kaidan?"

"Sorry, you're just really zoned out."

"It's about Roxas, isn't it?" Garrus surmised.

"It's that obvious, huh?"

"Clearly. Not to mention we're on 'the same boat' as it were."

Kaidan nodded in agreement with Shepard sighing, crossing her arms with her head down.

Since Roxas's outburst at their last meeting, things had been rather… awkward to say the least.

Roxas spoke very little to the crew overall, having kept mostly to himself now. He hardly said anything and just silently resided on the ship most of the time.

Jane rested a tad easier when seeing Roxas was becoming a bit more "human" as it were as he was starting to show more and more emotions since he first came aboard and joined her crew. It made things feel better as he wasn't all out there without being grounded.

Now, it had just regressed drastically with him basically cutting himself off from everyone else.

The commander did request Chakwas to do another scan on him to see if there were some changes since his first examination. When the procedure was done, Shepard was able to get the good doctor's reports in comparison of changes and saw his unusual brain activity seemingly being the same to some degree.

Jane wasn't really much of an expert on such things, but she honestly wished she was to understand things more without the full scientific jargon.

"You think he'll be ok?" Kaidan asked, a slightly worried expression being shown.

"I dunno." Jane admitted. "Whatever that was at the meeting… it felt like it's been growing in the back of his mind. He just didn't know how to address it and just came pouring out."

"Wonder where all that came from?" Garrus murmured in thought.

"He mentioned something about the Keyblade choosing him and his… existence for some reason." Kaidan recalled. "What'd you think that was about?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." Jane said.

Garrus hummed aloud. "Remember when we found out that Roxas has amnesia?"

Both humans nodded.

"He mentioned that by the time he met us, he only remembered a month of, well, everything really." Garrus said.

"Yeah." Kaidan said. "What are you getting at?"

"Did Roxas meet or speak with anyone else before joining us here?"

Jane snapped her fingers. "Yeah, remember? He talked about this… Organization."

Yes, the Organization.

The ground team learned a bit more about this Organization XIII after the Council meeting, given they were interrupted beforehand. With Anderson and Udina, they learned of the initial basics on what this fourteen member group dealt with on a daily basis.

Heartless extermination.

Each were trained experts with all of the members being able to use magic. Traveling from world to world to help rid the planets from the Heartless.

Why hasn't anyone ever heard about them before? Were they relatively new with members banding together and seeking out more for their everlasting fight against the Heartless?

Roxas spoke as truthfully as possible, but there seemed to be things left out.

It could be intentional or their sandy blonde companion didn't get the whole picture.

Then again, he has only been a member for nearly two months by this point. More information would probably be given to him at some point.

"So… where can we find this… Organization?" Kaidan asked.

"I looked through the Codex and all it led me to was definitions." Shepard said. "The only way we'd ever meet any of these other members of the Organization is if they come to us-"

"Or if Roxas leads us to them." Garrus concluded getting a nod from Shepard.

"Think he'll be willing to do that?"

"I don't know." Shepard threw her hands up in annoyance, peeved at how she had no answers to go off of right now.

"Hey now, Tali at ten o'clock." Garrus abruptly said, the trio turning to the Quarian who was jogging to exit the Normandy, possibly to follow after Roxas.

"You think-"

"One can hope." Shepard said with a resigned tone.

Roxas exited the Normandy with his head down, hood up and expression wrought with conflict.

Back on the Citadel, he wasn't exactly sure what to do right now.

Once returning here, that growing need to go back to the Organization had only risen when he stepped back out onto the large structure where his journey here started.

His mind was ablaze, a thousand thoughts running through his head every second.

The visions.

The Keyblade.

The Organization.

His friends on the Normandy.

What happened and what he saw in Noveria.

He didn't understand the whole concept of loss but he knew that it struck a deep chord with his Asari friend and the rest of the team as a whole.

And then there were these visions he kept having.

The intensity just kept ramping up and it was starting to make sleep damn near impossible.

He just…

He just didn't know what to do anymore.

"Roxas?"

The Greater Nobody turned his head back to see a worried Tali gazing at him.

"Are… are you alright?" She asked, placing a hand upon his shoulder.

He found himself unable to find a proper means of responding to her, instead turning back down to the ground.

Tali's expression fell beneath her helmet, now standing right beside him.

"Roxas." She said softly. "Come on, you can talk to me. We can talk about anything..."

She wasn't able to see his face, his hood completely shrouding his expression in complete darkness.

It was rather scary being unable to see Roxas' face.

She then heard him sigh, slowly reaching up to her hand and placing his over hers.

The Quarian felt him gently squeeze her hand before he slowly took her hand off his shoulder and turned his back on her.

She was silent though admittedly nervous yet she waited for him to say… anything really.

"Tali…" his voice was a bit raspy. "I… I need answers."

"Answers?" She repeated. "Answers to what?"

"Just… everything." Roxas said, looking back to her.

She was barely able to catch his blue eyes when a Corridor of Darkness abruptly appeared and without another word, Roxas walked right through it with Tali being unable to follow as the corridor swiftly closed a moment later.

Tali stood there, frozen on the spot with an outstretched she had raised subconsciously as she watched Roxas literally disappear before her.

Without another word, she turned around and bolted back inside the Normandy.

Not seeing what occurred with the pair, the trio only saw the beginning portion of it all and went into their own thing.

"No luck then."

"They did seem chummy earlier."

"If by chummy you mean just sitting together in silence for hours, then yes 'chummy'." Said Garrus. He then pulled out his Omni-tool and showed the pair a picture.

"Oh~ they look cute like that." Jane preened.

Kaidan chuckled at the commander's response of seeing the picture Garrus took of Roxas and Tali practically sleeping against each other.

"How many did you get?"

"A few spread out on their little sleep time. Too bad I wasn't there to get a picture of them waking up. Would've liked to see Tali's response of being in such a position." Garrus chortled.

"Roxas is gone!"

The group jolted at the sudden proclamation, turning to the Quarian they had been teasing just a moment ago.

"What now?" Jane said, mind processing what Tali just said.

"Roxas." The expert engineer stressed. "He just up and left."

"Where? On the Citadel?" Kaidan asked with Tali shaking her head.

"No, he left with his teleportation corridor power."

This put off the trio, exchanging looks with one another.

"Did… did he say where he was going?"

"I don't know." Tali stressed out.

"What do you mean 'you don't know'?"

"It's what I said, Shepard."

"Then do you have any idea for-"

"He said he wanted to find answers… to everything." Tali interrupted.

Ok, that didn't really sit well with Jane for the most part.

"...That is rather vague."

"He'll be back, right?" Tali asked nervously.

Jane opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again.

"Yeah… yeah, definitely."

She didn't really know if she was trying to convince Tali… or herself right now.

-Scene Cut-

Within a castle of contraptions, far below where there were many floating platforms and the water seemed to be rising upwards.

At the lowest platform, a dark corridor appeared, receding moments later to reveal a young teen in a black hood.

Pulling his hood back, Roxas gazed up at the large castle that had the Heartless symbol on it.

"It's real." Roxas whispered to himself. "This is… Hollow Bastion."

These weren't visions or dreams.

They were memories.

Memories of Sora.

…

…

…

What was he hoping to find here?

Standing there for a few seconds, Roxas came to the conclusion that he needed to confirm for himself that this was a real place.

Sora was here.

Then that meant… he was in all those other places.

Those worlds.

Roxas had to be sure.

The Corridor of Darkness enshrouded him once more, teleporting him away to another world.

He came onto a land composed with all cooky craziness where the one prominent rose maze seemed to represent the World. It's residents were rather zany with Card Soldiers, a queen that sprouted "off with their head" for no apparent reason and an odd trio of individuals obsessed with tea of all things.

The next place he wound up at was apparently a treehouse set high above a jungle of all places. He would've explored more, but heard voices coming from inside with the door nearby opening up. Leaping off the nearest platform, he dived towards the rainforest below and used a Dark Corridor to get outta there.

He soon landed upon a dark and dreary place with tombstones set all around. The pale moon light shined down upon the land as he got a better view of the environment. And in the distance, he could see a town of sorts with a chorus number being heard, something pertaining to "Halloween".

Sliding down the curved hill, Roxas used another Corridor to wind up in a desert environment. It's heat blazed upon the land as the coat wearing teen was not affected at all, thanks to his current apparel. Gazing in the distance, he saw a palace.

Seemingly satisfied with seeing the structure, he opened up another Corridor and stepped right through it. Once on the other side, he appeared to be in some sort of city.

"...Huh… Wonder what this place is."

Roxas had pictured a Coliseum, but instead he found himself somewhere else, a city even.

The architecture appeared similar with what he saw in his "dreams". He didn't know if his destination was set off or not, due to him not fully focusing on it or whatever from his quick jumps.

Ascending a flight of stairs, passing by many pedestrians moving along their business, he came to the top and saw something "definitely" familiar.

"Right, there's the Coliseum."

It was in the distance, but it was hard to lose track of it now, given how big it was.

Satisfied with the result, Roxas made his way to a secluded area. He would've used a Corridor right then and there, but he didn't want to startle the locals with his departure.

"Hey, kid."

Roxas looked over and saw a shady looking man approaching him with a red cap and a large grey cloak wrapped around him.

"Yes?"

Suddenly, the man unfurled the cloak, spreading the cloth to reveal-

"Wanna buy a sundial?"

Attached all over his body and most of the cloth were varying sizes of sundials all spread out.

"...No thanks, not interested." Said Roxas before pulling up his arm. "Besides, I got something far better than a sundial."

"Please, like there can be anything-"

In an orange flash, Roxas' Omni-tool appeared around his arm and showed the salesman the current time.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"I should get going now."

Walking away from the man, it didn't take long for the man to yell out at the top of his lungs.

"SORCERY!"

"What in Hades name is goin' on here!" Yelled out another pedestrian, seeing the one salesman freaking out all of a sudden.

"Oh it's just the crazy sundial man." Said another. "Don't mind him. He just harassing another person and finally getting his comeuppance."

After leaving the one salesman behind, Roxas entered a nearby alley and used another Corridor to leave that World.

Next thing he knew, he wound up in another jungle… or was it a forest.

"Weird… this is the second time in a row." He muttered aloud.

Roxas picturing a pirate ship of all things as his destination, but for some reason he ended up… here…

Where is "here" anyways?

Deciding to search once more, Roxas traversed through the dirt path, not knowing he was being followed.

It took a while for him to get through the forest, but he ended up near a cliffside.

"Am I on a coastline?" He questioned himself.

In the far off distance, he saw an island with a skull-shaped rock formation. Looking back, there seemed to be a small village set on a hill some miles out. And when he looked down towards the ocean he finally spotted what he came here for.

"And there's the ship."

He was thankful it was docked near the coast as he saw several pirates doing their business. It's captain was shouting out orders to his crew about "treasure" this or "Lost Boys" that.

Satisfied once more, Roxas was about to leave when something flew right in front of his face.

"WHOA!"

A bright yellow light shined right in front of his face. And for some apparent reason, all he could hear were quick chimes of bells ringing in his ears.

Focusing on his vision, he blinked in surprise when he saw the light was in fact a person; a small floating person at that!

She appeared to roughly be the size of his hand. Her blonde hair was tied back into a high knot with a very small blue ribbon with bangs hanging over her forehead. Her green leafy dress revealed her arms and legs with a pair of green shoes being worn. And on her back were a pair of fairy wings.

Upon closer inspection, Roxas saw her blue eyes sparkle as she wore the biggest smile.

In a flash, she spread her body out with a series of chimes being heard. Next thing he knew, she seemed to hug his head with her entire body.

Suddenly, the Nobody seemed to laugh all of a sudden without his control.

"Hey, quit it, Tink!" He chuckled out.

The moment he said that his eyes blinked in surprise before they widened.

Why did he say that? And in a tone of such familiarity?

He somewhat remembered the fairy's name being Tinkerbell from his "dreams" but him saying it in such a way seemed rather strange.

Yet why did he have this odd sense of happiness rushing through him?

Tinkerbell let go of his face as she laughed.

Once more, she let out a series of bell-like chimes as he saw her mouth open and close.

Was she speaking to him? Apparently so. Yet he can't understand whatever language she's speaking.

"Sorry, I can't understand you."

Tinkerbell waved him off before encircling him.

Trailing behind her, Roxas saw some sort of dust coming off of her as she flew. It spread all over that it started to cake him from head to toe in the stuff.

"Eh… What did you do?" He inquired, inspecting himself and saw the dust seemingly disappearing. "What is this stuff? It's glowing..." When the last bit of dust vanished, he started glowing a yellow aura before it died down. "And what was that?"

Tinkerbell only answered in her usual chimes.

He soon saw her dive towards the cliffside beside him. With her feet placed on the ground, she walked towards the edge and jumped off, soon floating in the air.

"I… don't understand what you're meaning?"

The little fairy did the act once more but emphasizing a whole lot more on the jumping portion.

"Y-You want me to jump?! Why?"

Tink gestured to her wings first before using her hands to move in a fluttering motion.

"...Wait… Are… Are you saying I can fly?!"

Tinkerbell nodded with a smile.

"Well… Alright… I guess I'll have to trust you." Stepping towards the edge of the cliff, he was about to jump when he turned back to the fairy. "If I fall into the ocean and get wet, then I guess you'll get a laugh on the joke you pulled."

Tinkerbell only rolled her eyes before ushering him to jump once more.

Shaking his head a little, he closed his eyes and jumped.

As he descended towards the ocean down below, something flashed before his mind. He didn't know why it came, but it just did.

It was of Sora, doing the same thing that he was about to do. But… running through Sora's mind was of a memory that brought him joy. That gave him belief in what he was about to do.

And with that…

A memory of him being with Axel and Xion, eating ice cream at Twilight Town.

The memory was rather pleasant as he hoped to see his first two friends again, telling them of what he went through since he saw them last.

It was from this memory a series of them came rushing through his head. And all of them had one big connection.

His time on the Normandy.

But more importantly, his time being with its ground crew, it's pilot, it's doctor and it's commander.

When he opened his eyes, he saw he hadn't moved at all. Looking around, Roxas was confused with what's happening.

Until he peered downwards.

"WHOA! I-I did it! I'm flying!"

Well technically he's presently floating mid-air some inches away from his feet touching the water.

But still, flying!

Soon enough, he rose higher and higher into the air. Before he knew it, he was high up into the sky that he was able to see the place where he was presently at.

A giddy feeling arose within him, trembling with excitement as he suddenly laughed aloud, beginning to fly about in the air with unrepentant glee. Loops and flips abound, Roxas was enjoying the liberating feeling of the wind whipping through his hair while he zoomed about.

Funny… he swore he felt like he flew before.

Upon looking at the place down below, Roxas thought he was at some larger landmass; like a coastline or something. In reality, he wound up at some large island with nothing but ocean surrounding it as far as his eyes could see.

Without realizing it, he dived towards the island below as he started zooming all over the place with Tink by his side.

The one village he saw before appeared to have no buildings at all. Instead of stone, wood or steel structures, they were tents. Reaching another part of the island, he came across a cove where he saw a number of mermaids interacting with one another. And soon enough, Roxas' little island tour came to an end when he landed before a large dead tree placed in a large open area.

"Thanks for the gift, Tink." He said with a genuine smile.

The little fairy nodded in glee, accepting his 'thank you'.

Roxas then pondered a little on what was happening earlier. How could he fly?

Was it because of the dust Tink sprinkled on him? Yes. But was there something else to it?

There had to be as he suddenly thought of happy memories all of a sudden with no explanation.

Could… Could happy thoughts and memories be a key to this new ability of his?

Strange...

Soon enough, the little grasped his hand and tried to pull him towards the dead tree as if wanting to introduce him to someone or something.

And yet.

"Sorry, Tink." Roxas said apologetically, prying his hand away. "As much as I'd let you take me… somewhere, I have someplace I need to be."

He honestly wouldn't have minded, but there was something that came up during his flight.

When he was inspecting this island, his mind flashed onto another island. A place that seemed connected to him rather deeply somehow.

Tinkerbell pouted upon hearing this. Even kicking a little as if someone hurt her pet bug or something.

Seeing her disappointment, Roxas gave her a reassuring smile. "Hey, don't worry. I'll come back as a means of me repaying you for making me be able to fly. I promise."

Tinkerbell soon glared at him, pursing her lips and waving her hand at him. It didn't take much guess work for him to realize she was going along the lines of "you better" or "I'll be waiting."

"Don't worry, I will."

Tinkerbell nodded in glee as she waved him off before flying away to parts unknown.

Chuckling to himself, Roxas opened up a Corridor and made his way right through.

He went from a dirt field to a sandy shore.

By the end of his little "tour", Roxas wound up on…

"This is his home." He murmured.

This place was the Destiny Islands.

Where Sora grew up with his friends Riku and Kairi.

Still…

That didn't explain just why he was having these dreams or just who Sora was really.

Looking around, Roxas spotted that familiar lone island with the strangely bent tree that had those star shaped fruits hanging off them.

Making his way towards the tree, Roxas soon found himself standing on familiar ground with a wave of nostalgia hitting him.

Without realizing it, he hopped up on the tree and was seated on the tree with him gazing out at the sunset.

It was… beautiful.

So very familiar as well.

But Roxas was never here before until today. How can he find this place so nostalgic if he never came from here.

He was born without memories but then he started getting these visions.

Were they his memories?

But how can they be?

There were some similarities with Sora but he looked different enough from the brown haired boy that they were easily distinguishable from one another.

So… what was the connection?

Jumping down from the tree, he leaned back against it, head down as he contemplated on what to do next.

He had gone to a number of the worlds that Sora has been to and he now stood where it all began for him.

Even met one of his friends, Tinkerbell.

Where else was there left to go?

Roxas stood there for a number of minutes until he looked back up at the sunset with the lights dancing across the water and sky.

It was breathtaking really.

A lot like the clocktower at Twilight Town.

At the thought of the usual place, Roxas felt a pang of guilt, thinking about Xion and Axel.

He missed them.

He wanted to see them.

…

And they were back in the World that may hold the answers to what he was looking for.

It was time he returned home.

With that, calling upon the Dark Corridor once more, Roxas left the Destiny Islands.

-Scene Cut-

The World That Never Was

He was back.

Back in his old room within the castle of the Organization.

It was so… bizarre to be standing here.

For nearly half of his existence, this is all he had ever known.

But now, in the other half… it was indescribable by this point.

The Normandy and her crew felt more a home to Roxas than this room had ever been to him.

The only real connection that he could think of here was Axel and Xion.

No. VIII was the one he had truly gotten to know when he first started out. The fiery Nobody showed him the ropes, instructed him on his duties and was his first friend.

He's the one who started his border-line addiction to Sea-Salt Ice Cream.

Xion started around the same time as he did and soon after, he befriended her as well.

It didn't take long for her to join him and Axel at the clocktower with the trio spending every single day there at the end of their missions.

He really missed that right about now the more he dwelled within his room.

Shaking his head, Roxas left his room, walking out into the hallway that would eventually lead him down to the old mission room.

It didn't take long for him to get there, standing in the grey colored lounge area as he saw that it was quite empty.

That was certainly strange.

Where was everybody?

Saix wasn't even here.

"Perhaps they were on missions already." He guessed.

Seeing as he wouldn't find anything by just waiting here, Roxas left the room and went searching for the other Organization members.

Scouring the Castle That Never Was for quite a while, Roxas was having no such luck in finding anyone. Not even a shred of evidence of their current whereabouts.

No. XIII was about to call it quits and perhaps try again later in the day when everyone was back-

"How is the puppet's progress?"

That voice… it was Xemnas'.

"Stifling, to say the least, Lord Xemnas." A more dignified voice drawled. "Without Roxas near her proximity, the puppets' Keyblade capabilities are fleeting to say the least. She can summon it regularly now, yes. But much of her abilities leave a great deal to be desired."

That one… was Vexen if he recalled it correctly.

"Can't all be that bad," a more laid back voice said. "Least the Poppet can collect Hearts properly now."

Xigbar. Easily.

"But it isn't enough." Vexen declared. "Without both Roxas and Xion, our plans for Kingdom Hearts will never come to fruition. She struggles in wiping out the more tougher Heartless we send her way on these missions of hers."

Wait… what did he just say?

"It can't all be that bad." Xigbar said. "She may be a puppet but she can still grow on her own. We'll just have her tackle weaker Heartless. Reduce the intake till she gets stronger herself."

The Organization was the ones sending out the Heartless?

How?

From what they told him, the Heartless just appeared and went about collecting hearts for themselves.

Wordlessly, Roxas held out his arm and had his Omni-Tool appear as he started recording this conversation.

"Her experience is a very slow climb without No. XIII around. It's a miracle now that she can barely handle things on her own. Yet she failed on a few of her past missions." Said the resident scientist. "Had to jump in and save her or else she would've been destroyed."

"Couldn't we just use another Replica of yours?"

"As if it were that simple, Xigbar. Her present condition would be hard to make another replacement should she fall. All that power she gained from Roxas before his abrupt disappearance and her current experience would be utterly wasted." Vexen said bitterly.

"Then what is it that you suggest we do, No. IV." Xemnas spoke slowly, methodically even. "We have the entire Organization scouring multiple Worlds for Roxas while unleashing Heartless across them all and we have found nary a trace or hair on our wayward Keybearer."

"At least we know the kid's alive." Said the Sharpshooter. "Been getting an influx of Hearts as of late and Kingdom Hearts is progressing nicely as we speak."

"We must figure out where they're all coming from." Vexen mused aloud. "If you would excuse me, Lord Xemnas. I have work to attend to in Castle Oblivion."

"Oh~" Xigbar said aloud. "I heard some interesting rumors there, Vexen. Is it true? About Riku being in the castle?"

"Indeed, Xigbar." The Chilly Academic confirmed. "I have recently clashed with the young man and have acquired a great deal of necessary data that will prove useful in the future. Even Axel fought with him, out of sheer boredom before asking for his input. Even Zexion contributed."

"Then by all means, Vexen. You may go." Xemnas said, Roxas hearing the familiar sound of the Corridor of Darkness signifying No. IV's departure.

No. XIII stood there in his hiding place, thinking over what he had just heard when the other two members inside the room began speaking to each other once more.

"Without Roxas here, Xion is now a more valuable piece in our goals." Xemnas said in his deep tone.

"Heh~ From sidelines to center stage." Xigbar wiped away a crocodile tear from his lone eye. "I'm so proud of her."

"She will continue to perform as she is instructed until Roxas is found." Xemnas said. "Afterwards… we shall dispose of the Puppet."

"Really? That soon?"

"Vexen has proven to us that he still needs to work out many details with his replicas." No. I declared. "Xion's lack of progress is more of a hindrance than a benefit. And from what I have observed… she appears rather hesitant going about her duties."

"Are we on that much of a timetable?" Xigbar asked.

Roxas didn't hear anything for a moment, not knowing what sort of non-verbal response Xemnas gave to the free shooter.

"How much longer do you think we can keep up the act? They may buy it for now, but sooner or later, they're gonna realize this whole 'Kingdom Hearts for our own Hearts' plan is bogus, you know?" No. II Remarked.

Roxas froze, a cold chill going down his body.

"They will continue to serve if they value their existence."

Xigbar snorted aloud. "You mean non-existence right? Heh~ My Munny's gonna be when they're just about to kick the bucket."

"It might just be for most, if not all who are not in the know." The Superior of the Organization then voiced an inquiry. "What do you think of our puppet?"

"Do not worry, Xemnas. Our spare 'Key' will do as we commanded." Xigbar chuckled. "And by 'we' I mean 'you'. After all, either 'Key' is all a part of your plan. Using the Keyblade's power and all that."

Xemnas only hummed aloud. "She's barely meeting our expectations. And still without Roxas's presence, the transfer has been halted."

"I say we should just follow Larxene's idea and snatch Sora up, wherever he's at, and let Xion get the power directly before we off her." Xigbar said. "When we make a new replica, easy transfer right there. Fully powered up and ready to do our dirty work."

At this point, Xemnas was probably willing to follow up with that offered suggestion.

"If only it were so simple."

"Right… still got no idea where he up and disappeared to after he beat your Heartless self." Xigbar groused out. "Seems both Somebody and Nobody are more similar than we would've thought."

The leader of the Organization only hummed aloud.

"Have you heard any news from Castle Oblivion?"

"Aside from what we already know, not much else." Xigbar said. "Why? Still thinking on having Riku as one of the others?"

"His link with Darkness is… potent, strong. And if given proper time and guidance, will become worthy once again."

"If I remember correctly, your other half already made the connection with the other islander. He could be another candidate to fill the role."

"Indeed."

"So, even if things got out of whack, we can still realign the board in our favor." Xigbar stated. "Just gotta make a new Poppet and send it out and take care of our wayward 'Key' and see who comes out on top." No. II said with a shrug before becoming a bit more serious. "Think we'll find Roxas anytime soon?"

"It shall only be a matter of time." No. I stated. "And when that time comes…"

"We'll have the next vessel." Xigbar stated.

"We only require one with the full and complete powers for our plans… in the end, it doesn't matter which one."

Soon after, more sounds of Dark Corridors were heard with No. XIII being truly alone again. His Omni-Tool flickered off with his hand hanging limply by his side.

They knew who Sora was…

They knew… What was it that they were talking about?

What were their plans?

What did the Organization mean to these two?

By the end of this, Roxas felt something stinging in his eyes. Bringing his leather clad hand up to his cheeks, he wiped it away and pulled back the appendage to see something wet staining the leather.

'Tears?'

He was… crying?

How?

He was a Nobody.

Nobody's weren't meant to feel… anything…

'What if that's not true?'

The stray thought found itself rooted firmly in his mind now.

What if that was also a lie?

What if everything Xemnas, and apparently Xigbar, had said to all the members of the Organization was a lie?

Their goal was, apparently.

So truly… they could not be trusted.

With a blank face, Roxas turned and began to walk away.

Next thing he knew, his calm brisk walk down the hallway became a full out run.

He kept on running with tears openly streaming down his eyes.

Ending back up in his quarters, he closed the door behind him panting aloud with widened eyes.

He quickly rubbed them dry and began pacing around in the room.

Summoning his Keyblade, he peered on to the weapon.

'Why am I in the Organization? Why were we in the Organization?' He thought, tightening his grip. 'We're the only ones able to use the Keyblade. That made us extra special to the rest of the members.' He then gritted his teeth with rage slowly surfacing. 'Xion and I were the only ones able to call upon this damn thing!'

Rearing his arm back, he roared. "What's so special about this, anyways?! This stupid KEY!"

*CRASH*

Next thing he knew, he saw his Keyblade breaking through his window and soaring through the darkness outside.

"...Crap."

He did not mean to break the window.

Someone must've heard it.

It would be an utter miracle if no one heard that.

In an instant, the Keyblade appeared in a flash, hovering before him.

After some moments of self-thought, he spoke aloud.

"...What? Are you telling me we can't rid ourselves of you… No matter how much we run?"

The Keyblade glowed, signifying some answer to him.

Gritting his teeth, Roxas didn't care this time if he was heard. "I've had enough of this! Why'd it have to be me?! To be Xion?!" Fresh new tears soon came streaming down his cheeks as a pain in his chest started to throb. "Why?.. Just… why?"

Wiping away the tears, his blue eyes came across his bed as his Keyblade disappeared from his gaze.

It was then did he see something he didn't remember there beforehand.

Ice-cream sticks with "Winner" pressed into the wood.

And there were a lot of them.

But why were they there?

"Xion…"

Roxas's eyes widened exponentially. She was in danger!

They were planning on destroying her!

And then there was Axel. He had also been lied to.

Xemnas and Xigbar basically confirmed it.

Everybody in the Organization were nothing more than pawns. Tools to be used for whatever it was Numbers I and II had planned.

He needed to find them! But where were they?!

"Wait." He whispered. "They said Castle Oblivion. And Axel's there."

At least he knew the destination, but now he needed to find the directions.

Pulling up his arm, his Omni-tool sprang to life.

With a smirk slowly forming, an idea formed.

"Time to finally test if Tali's lessons really paid off."

-Scene Cut-

Within the small "hangout" room, as Axel had taken to calling it, it was currently being occupied by said individual who gave it the name, Xion, Namine, and their newest dog companion.

Axel was lounging about on the couch whilst the two girls played and fawned over the dog.

No. VIII watched on, a small fond look in his eyes at the sight of the girls having so much fun.

It was a rather calming sight for the red-head.

A nice change of pace rather than lording over a castle that was too damn big for him alone to manage.

He had already heard what was going on in the basements below.

Some kid named Riku apparently had arrived from out of the blue and Zexion wished to observe him.

Fine, whatever. More power to him. Least he had something to keep himself busy. Even himself at one point when he got really bored.

As he continued to relax on the couch, Xion and Namine continued to play with their dog when the latter abruptly stopped.

Her action caught Xion's attention.

"Namine? Is something wrong?"

Hearing Xion's question, Axel raised his head, having also seen Namine's change in demeanor.

"What's up, Namine?" Axel asked a moment later.

The platinum blonde teen didn't respond at first until…

"Sora…"

The two members of the Organization shared a look of confusion.

"Who's Sora?" Axel inquired.

Xion shared the sentiment yet… there was something unusually familiar about that name.

Namine's expression fell slightly.

"He's… he's someone that Marluxia was after." Namine stated, bewildering both her friends.

"What now?" Axel sat up now, fully attentive. "What does old Marly want with this Sora guy?"

The young girl was unsure on whether or not she should divulge No. XI's plan…

But Axel and Xion were her friends.

They kept her company and had been so much more kinder to her than the Graceful Assassin had ever been.

So, it only made sense that she would tell them everything.

To say that Axel and Xion were stunned would be putting mildly.

This Sora kid also had the Keyblade?

And Marluxia wanted that power for himself to control the Organization?

No. VIII couldn't help but scoff at the absurdity to No. XI's plan.

As if that would be enough to overthrow the Organization.

Still, Axel's curiosity was now piqued.

"So why bring him up now then?"

"...Because he's here."

"...Huh? Say what now?"

"When we let out our dog outside for some fresh air earlier, he soon found Sora and… brought him here."

"...Okay, but why? And why am I just hearing about this now?"

"I do not have all the answers, Axel."

No. VIII exhaled a sigh. "Alright, alright. I'll see this kid and see what his deal is. Hopefully, he'll give me as much of a challenge as the other one downstairs."

With that said, he used a Corridor to meet their new 'guest'.

And speaking of 'guest'...

Sora stared up at the large castle before him, Donald and Goofy conversing/arguing nearby.

What was this place?

He didn't know how to put it, but there seemed to be something odd about this place.

Like 'familiar' odd.

Wanting to see what this place was, Sora came up to the front door and made his way through with Donald and Goofy's help.

Once the doorway was opened, Pluto, the King's pet dog came rushing out of the building.

"Pluto!" Donald exclaimed. "Why'd ya up and run off ahead?"

"Yeah boy." Sora reached down to pet the King's dog. "Better yet… how'd you even get in here?"

Upon gazing about the ivory white space, Goofy voiced an inquiry. "Hey, ya think it's okay to barge in?"

"But we gotta do it," said the court magician, "if we're gonna find the king…"

The Captain of the Guard quickly flailed, whirling his head all over the place. "The king!? King Mickey's here?"

"I don't know." Donald admitted. "But something just told me he was here, ok?"

"Really?" Goofy was certainly surprised by this statement. "Cuz, now that you mention it, I was thinking the same thing!"

"Seriously?!" Sora was in disbelief. "Me too! Just one look at this place and… I knew. Our best friends were here."

"But what is this place?" Donald asked, looking around.

From within Sora's pocket, Jiminy sprang out and perched himself on the Keybearers shoulder. "We were following Pluto, who had the King's letter."

Goofy nodded. "Speaking of, where is the letter?"

"Pluto must've dropped it somewhere on accident." Donald guessed.

"Gawrsh, I really hope he's here."

"Nope. Wrong on that account."

The trio jumped in surprise at the voice that echoed around the chamber.

A Dark Corridor sprang behind the trio, startling them in the process as the front entrance closed back up.

When it disbursed, they were greeted with Axel, who faintly smiled at them.

"Hello!" The red head greeted in faux cheer.

"Huh?" Sora said, summoning his Keyblade with Donald and Goofy summoning their wand and shield, respectively. "Who are you?"

"Name's Axel." The Nobody introduced himself. "A-X-E-L. Lord of this castle. Got it memorized?"

"Um…" Sora looked to his two companions with Pluto bounding up to the newcomer before them, panting happily up at him.

This put the trio subconsciously at ease.

It seemed Pluto was familiar and rather friendly with this Axel fellow.

"How do you know Pluto?" Goofy asked curiously.

"What makes ya think I know him?" Axel said cheekily. "Maybe I'm just a dog person."

"I dunno." Goofy said, scratching his head. "Pluto seems awfully friendly to ya."

"Pluto?" Axel voiced, looking at the dog by his legs. "So that's your name, huh?"

At least it's better than Xion and Namine calling him 'puppy' or 'doggie'.

"So… What do you want?" Sora asked warily, standing up straight though keeping his Keyblade still in hand.

As this went on, Jiminy Cricket had his journal whipped out ready to transcribe this latest event.

"Oh, I'm just here to greet my new 'guests'. And yet you three are intruding on private property."

"We didn't mean to, honest." Said Goofy.

"We were just following Pluto." Sora defended his dog friend.

As this went on, Axel gazed down at the Keyblade that Sora still held.

"So… it is true." Axel said aloud. "You can wield the Keyblade just like him."

"What?" Asked Sora

"What?" Donald squawked. "Who are you talking about?"

"Are ya talkin' about King Mickey?" Goofy inquired.

The only other person they knew who wielded a Keyblade these days, asides from Sora, was their old friend Mickey.

Axel suddenly had a sly grin. "Maybe~"

"Tell us." Donald declared.

"Make me~"

To put more annoyance towards the talking duck, Axel blew a raspberry at him.

"That's it!" With a wave of his wand, Donald called out a spell. "THUNDER!"

Axel stood there with his arms crossed, shit eating grin now plastered on his face.

"Was something supposed to happen?" he taunted.

"I… I know I had this right. THUNDER!"

…..

…..

…..

"You know, you can admit if you have performance issues. There's no shame in that."

Donald quickly grew red from both anger and embarrassment.

"Donald, what did he mean by that? Is it because of your spell work?"

Goofy and Jiminy facepalmed at this.

Oh Sora, you poor, pure innocent teenager...

"Okay, okay. Enough teasing."

With a snap of his fingers, something clicked inside of the trio's heads.

They felt a rush of familiarity wash over them, their forms glowing momentarily.

"W-What was that?" Sora rasped out, holding his head a little with his two friends sharing the same action.

"A safety precaution for intruders." Axel explained. "Cuts off one's 'knowledge', or so I am told. But now I gave you 'permission' to use said 'knowledge' to come at me."

In all honesty, he didn't understand the whole thing when Zexion explained everything of his title as "Lord of the Castle".

"Donald." Sora and Goofy rounded on their shortest friend scoldingly.

"Don't go attacking someone like that if they're not gonna attack us first." Sora stressed out with the Wizard realizing his bullheaded action just now.

"Oh… Um… sorry." Donald sheepishly said.

"Least you learned your lesson." Axel chided, smirk returning to him.

"Gawrsh, so you're in charge of this castle?" Goofy asked. "Sorry for barging in like that."

Axel waved the Knight off, descending down from where he stood.

"So, what brings you all here to my… "Humble" abode?" Axel asked, arms crossed.

"We're looking for our friends." Sora declared. "Riku and King Mickey. Have you seen 'em?"

"I may have, I might have not." Axel said offhandedly.

Sora clenched his teeth. "Come on, quit it with the games! Have you seen them or not?"

"Well, how can I have seen them, when I don't even know who you're talking about." Axel countered. "For argument's sake, I could've met 'a' Riku and 'a' Mickey, but not the ones you're specifically looking for."

Sora, Donald and Goofy were unsure how to respond to this strange man's wordplay.

"So… how about we make a deal?"

"A deal?" The trio before him repeated in confusion.

"Yeah, a simple deal. Beat me and I'll tell you what I know."

The trio looked at each other and conversed with each other for a brief moment. Once facing Axel, they accepted the deal.

Snapping out his arms, a torrent of flames appeared before his palms. When they died down, a pair of chakrams were quickly snatched before he dangled them freely in his grasp.

"Now then, Keyblade Master, show me what you got."

Sora and co. jumped back at Axel's sudden conjuring of weapons, the trio wielding their own as they prepared themselves for a fight.

Before the new arrivals clashed with the "Lord of the Castle", the front door was barged open.

"Holy crap that's one heavy door."

Hearing the familiar voice, Axel whirled around with his green eyes widening.

Sure enough, the red-head was greeted to the sight of someone he had not seen in a long while.

"Roxas?" No. VIII said in disbelief.

No. XIII's expression brightened up upon seeing his old friend. "Axel!"

"Roxas!"

The sandy-blond haired teen ran right towards him, running past the bewildered group of Sora, Donald and Goofy.

Suddenly, the moment Roxas was within arm's reach, Axel ensnared the Nobody in his arm, twisted him around and drove his knuckles into his scalp.

"Where the hell have you been you, little shit!" his friend asked, grinding his knuckle into his head.

"Ah! Stop with the noogie! It hurts!" Roxas flailed about in a vain attempt of trying to escape.

"I will once you tell me what happened!"

"I will! I will! Just stop!"

Sora was trying to wrap his mind around what he was witnessing.

"Uh…" Goofy lowered his shield. "Are we not fightin' anymore?"

"I… I don't think so…" Sora was completely unsure as to how to proceed, a sentiment shared with Donald and Goofy.

Axel was seemingly ready to combat them when he dropped that intention the minute this… what was his name? Roxas, was it? The minute this new Roxas kid arrived, Axel no longer seemed to care about fighting him and his friends.

"Hey Donald."

"Yeah, Goofy?"

"Doesn't he look like someone we knew?"

Donald pondered a moment before voicing his thoughts. "Maybe, who knows."

Eventually, Roxas managed to free himself from Axel's grasp.

His hair was disheveled and ruined for the most part but the face on No. XIII's was positively beaming.

"Where the hell have ya been Roxas?" Axel asked, throwing his arms up dramatically. "Wait, how did you find this place?"

"I hacked Saix' computer."

"...You hacked his computer?"

"Yeup."

"You hacked his computer…"

"I just said that."

Axel took a few seconds of silence before he suddenly went into a fit of laughter.

"Oh god that is just too good!"

The laughter lasted about a minute. Once it died down, Axel got a little serious.

"Okay, honest, how did you find this place? As far as I remember, you have no experience working with tech."

"Before that, no. But recently, I've had help."

"Oh from who?"

"More like what."

Holding up his arm, the Omni-tool flared to life.

Axel reeled back in surprise.

"Whoa, what is that?!"

"An Omni-tool. Got it where I've been at since we last saw each other."

The three onlookers who saw this were equally as enraptured with the device on Roxas' arm as Axel was.

"Whoa! Sooo cool!"

Roxas turned his attention away from Axel to the one who just spoke up.

The moment Roxas and Sora had eye contact…

"It's you!"

"Huh!"

"You're Sora!" Roxas said, pointing at him emphatically.

"Uh… yeah." Sora was a bit put off by this. "H-How do you know me?"

"Yeah, how do you know him!?" Donald exclaimed, waving his wand at him.

"My thoughts exactly." Said Axel.

Roxas gazed at the small walking duck and then at the tall dog.

"You're both Donald and Goofy." He said in recognition.

"You know us, too?!" Goofy spoke in a surprised tone.

"Yeah, it's… a complicated story." Roxas trailed off.

"Complicated?" Axel repeated. "Roxas, where have you been? Practically the entire Organization is looking for you when you up and got swallowed by that dark portal Xion mentioned."

"Xion…" Roxas' eyes widened, rounding on the tall redhead with Axel jolting back at the teens frightened look. "Where is she?! Is she alright?! Has anything happened to her?!"

"Whoa! Whoa! Cool your jets, Roxas. She's here, safe and sound on the top floor."

"Wait? She's here too?"

Roxas honestly didn't know Xion would be here as well. Great! That literally saves a trip and a half!

He collapsed to the floor in relief. "She's ok. You're ok. You're both safe."

To say that Axel was greatly put off and quite frankly, a bit concerned about how Roxas was behaving would be understating it.

"...Is there something I'm missing here?"

"A lot actually." Roxas said. "Can you get Xion down here? You all need to hear this. This is really important."

Axel hesitated for a moment.

"Eh… You sure?"

"Positive." Roxas then turned to Sora. "Because it involves him as well. It involves all of us."

Axel still wasn't entirely convinced but decided it was better to go along with this than not.

One thing was certain in the redhead's mind.

Roxas had definitely changed.

He teleported away via a corridor, leaving Roxas with Sora, Donald and Goofy.

No. XIII was looking at Sora rather intently.

"So…"

"So…"

"...I'm Sora."

"And I'm Roxas."

"And… you know me? Us?"

"Unintentionally and not by choice."

"How?"

"I…. kinda wish I knew the answers myself." Roxas admitted. "The best I could say is, I've been having these weird… dreams lately… about you three."

That wasn't awkward at all.

No less than a few seconds later, Axel had returned with Xion and a platinum blonde haired girl in tow.

"ROXAS!"

"Xi-"

Roxas was interrupted when a human sized missile crashed into him, causing him to fall onto his back.

"You're here!"

"Xion, get off please!"

"Noooo!"

Sora however stared at both Xion and the blond haired girl.

"K-Kairi?"

No wait… neither of these girls could be Kairi. One had black hair and the other a platinum blond.

Still… the resemblance was uncanny now that he thought about it.

More so with the long blonde haired girl beside No. XIV.

"Sora." Said the blond girl.

"Uh…" It appeared to be a running theme here that many of the people in this castle knew him while he had no clue who they were. "Hi. Do I know you?"

"You do not, but I know you and Donald and Goofy." The girl said. "My name is Namine. It's a pleasure to finally meet you Sora."

"Um… same as us, I guess." His response only caused Namine to laugh heartily.

Donald, hearing enough, fumed. "Alright, enough! You people know us, but we don't know you!"

"Yeah, Roxas." Axel said. "You mentioned that you needed to tell all of us something really important. So spill it. And after, just where in the hell have you been?"

Roxas looked around at the group, face becoming serious.

"Okay to start things off, I've been away. And in that time, I've been fighting the Heartless."

"Oh well that's good." Axel exhaled. "At least you've been keeping up with your-"

"Axel, Xion… they lied to us. The Organization lied to us, about everything." Roxas said in a grim voice.

Numbers VIII and XIV could only stare at No. XIII in silence.

"...Excuse me?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

Sora, Donald, Goofy and Jiminy were silent as they were clueless as to whom they were referring to.

"What are you talking about?" Axel asked.

Wordlessly, Roxas brought up his Omni-Tool again, stunning Xion and Namine in the process when he played what he had recorded earlier back in the World That Never Was.

The audio recording was rather troubling for those present, more so for the four present Nobodies.

As for the newcomers, it took a bit of work to figure out some of the wordplay… but suffice to say… they were surprised.

"WHAAAAT?!" Sora, Donald and Goofy said simultaneously.

"What do they mean they've been flooding the World's with Heartless?!" Sora asked in complete shock and horror.

"I thought we were already done with them after we defeated Ansem."

"Who?" Xion asked.

"A bad guy." Goofy summarized.

"No." Roxas shook his head. "The Organization is in control now. They're doing this because of me and Xion for about two months now. They need us to harvest their captured hearts to create Kingdom Hearts."

Sora and co felt their brains overload on that piece of information.

"WHAAAAT?!"

"AGAIN!"

"Bu-But we sealed Kingdom Hearts! King Mickey and I did that!"

"Well they're making another one." Roxas replied. "And you heard them mention you, Sora. You're part of whatever Xemnas' real plan is."

"Roxas." Axel's expression was grim, having heard every word that came from that audio recording. He was greatly disturbed and frankly, he wasn't sure if that fear he was "feeling" right about now was a memory of it. "Is… is all this for real?"

Roxas only held up his Omni-Tool, pointing to it. "You heard it all, Axel. Everything Xemnas and apparently Xigbar fed us was a complete lie. None of it was true. They just used that to keep us around and in line."

"Then that means…"

What did that mean?

"So…" Axel raised a hand to his temple. "Everything we know is all bullshit. Then… What is the Organization's real plan?"

"Hey, uh, one of those fellers in that recording mentioned something about a vessel." Goofy brought up. "Does that mean anything to any of you?"

The Nobody's only shook their heads.

"Soon as I heard that they left, I got outta there as quickly as I could." Roxas said.

"Then… What are we supposed to do now?" Sora bemoaned. "The Heartless are wreaking havoc on the World's again, there's this Organization we have to worry about and we still don't know where our friends are."

Hearing this, Axel figured it was best to come clean now.

"Well actually-"

"I thought I smelled someone familiar."

The assembled group whirled around to see Zexion appear from a Dark Corridor with Vexen right beside him. And soon right after-

"Riku! You're here!"

Sora couldn't believe it.

His best friend was here!

Right in front of him!

But… there was something different about Riku.

Why was he in the same garb he had when he was controlled by the darkness and Ansem soon after?

Better yet, why was he with these other Organization guys?

Remembering what he heard personally, Roxas went on the defensive. "That's not the Riku you know!"

"He's right." Axel confirmed, his chakrams having returned to his hands. "That's not the real one."

"And how would you know?" Goofy inquired.

"Because I fought him in the basement levels."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"SO YOU DID KNOW HE WAS HERE!" Donald exclaimed, pointing his wand at Axel in an accusing manner.

"Focus!" Axel said as the large group faced the three newcomers.

"What is the meaning of this Axel?" Vexen spoke up. "What is-Roxas? What in the World?! What… how are you here?!"

"What's going on?" Zexion's tone was sharp.

"So, you're Sora." "Riku" remarked in an unimpressed look.

"Aurgh, what's happening right now?!" Sora exclaimed, turning to Roxas. "What do you mean he's not Riku?"

"He's probably a replica." Roxas said aloud. "Vexen was talking about it with Xemnas and Xigbar at the castle."

"How did you- You were there?!" Vexen surmised. "And eavesdropping no less."

"Only using what you guys taught me, in case you forgot." Roxas retorted.

"What is going on here, Axel?" Zexion inquired again, looking towards the "Lord of the Castle".

The red head looked between the group he stood and the group adjacent to them.

His mind was rushing, trying to come up with something, anything that would de-escalate the situation they had now found themselves in.

But…

Then he remembered what Roxas just revealed to them.

The truth about the Organization.

So truly, there was only one option.

"What's it look like, Zexion?" Axel rhetorically asked, calling forth his chakrams again. "We're betraying the Organization."

"You WHAT?!" Vexen shouted.

"You heard me, Brain Freeze." Axel declared, the temperature around his group beginning to increase. "And frankly, I'd suggest you join us but figure you're in too deep with Xemnas by this point."

"Like I would betray the Superior-"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Axel lifted his arms up, Chakrams spinning in front of his hands while flames enveloped his weapons.

Throwing them forward, Vexen hastily threw up a wall of ice that absorbed the fiery projectiles if only barely.

"You traitorous fools." Vexen exclaimed. "Have you no self-preservation?!"

"What makes you think we wanna work for a team that withholds all sorts of dirty secrets from their own teammates?" Axel said in a taunting manner, Chakrams back in hand.

"Then you shall pay for your fool hardy actions." Vexen snarled, holding out his arm.

Ice and snowy particles appeared around his outstretched arm, a blue shield forming a moment later.

The Riku next to Vexen called forth his own weapon with Zexion waving his hand with a tome appearing before him which split into three around him.

Sora, Donald and Goofy got into their stances with Roxas and Xion doing the same.

And with their stances came...

"What? Keyblades!?"

"But I thought only Sora and the King had them?"

"Yeah! What's going on?!"

The recent chatter caused Zexion and Vexen to pay more attention to the three newcomers as Jiminy quickly hid himself away on Sora's person.

"Aren't they who we think they are?" Said No. VI.

"I believe we do." No. IV said, unable to withhold a cackling smile. "It appears, both Somebody and Nobody have reunited. Both pieces together at last."

"What?" Sora tilted his head.

"Focus damnit." Axel said aloud, jolting everyone. "Namine, stay behind us."

"Yes." Namine said, stepping behind the battle ready group.

Sora was the first to jump in headfirst as he went to clash against Zexion. His Keyblade was blocked and intercepted from one of his floating Lexicons. When the clash occurred, the one Lexicon exploded, sending Sora back with a hail of razor sharp paper.

"Sora!" Donald exclaimed, running forward with Goofy to assist their friend.

Roxas and Xion ran forward, the Riku Replica running forward to intercept them.

In an instant, "Riku" was before the two, Roxas already meeting his weapon with his own.

Xion momentarily stumbled yet moved aside to get behind the silver haired replica. As she did, she was barely able to land a blow on "Riku" before she was kicked back by him.

Axel meanwhile rushed forward and clashed his fiery chakrams against Vexen's ice shield. He casted Fira against the defensive measure point blank, sending No. IV back some distance before the redhead avoided a hail of ice shards. After avoiding the volley of projectiles, Axel threw his weapons at his "elder".

Vexen threw his shield up, grunting as the inflamed Chakrams spun and grinded against his weapon until forcefully sending them flying back into the hands of their owner.

In retaliation, Vexen slammed his hand down on the ground, several lines of Ice spears shooting up from the ground and headed straight for the fiery Nobody.

Axel only 'tsked' in amusement, throwing up a fiery wall around him with the icy spears melting once they got close.

"You'll have to do better than that, Vexen." Axel taunted with No. IV gritting his teeth in irritation.

A moment later, both men reengaged one another, ice and fire flying off of them from their every clash.

Back with Zexion, he had a bit of difficulty dealing with the trio before him. The court magician and captain of the guard of King Mickey's court were quick to assist the one Keybearer. No. VI used his floating Lexicons to unleash a volley of spells left and right. Some were quickly avoided while the others were met by Goofy's mighty shield when he quickly moved to protect his two companions.

Soon enough, the Cloaked Schemer quickly maneuvered from Donald's casted Blizzara spells before sending one back in return.

Goofy was there to intercept the spell, his shield absorbing the blow.

Sora then jumped over his two friends, Keyblade overhead and brought it down with Zexion gliding back, leaving after images in his retreat.

These three would undoubtedly prove to be dangerous adversaries if he doesn't go about this properly.

Zexion conjured another Lexicon behind his back, his main one called the "Book of Retribution", watching as Sora, Donald and Goofy took out his other floating books before they ran towards him.

He readied himself as they drew near.

However…

Just as they were within reach of him, a light started forming something along the far off wall of the First Floor. When it died down, a new door was formed. Shortly after, it opened up with a pair of individuals stumbling out.

"Finally." Muttered out the human individual. "He's finished and we're-"

"Wait." Said the anthropomorphic one. "What's going on here?"

The pair looked over and quickly recognized a specific trio.

"SORA!"

"DONALD! GOOFY!"

Snapping their attention towards the side, the traveling trio saw-

"RIKU!" Cried out Sora.

"YOUR MAJESTY!" Yelled out Donald and Goofy.

Roxas momentarily looked over to what just occurred before turning over to Axel. "Did those two come out from the basement levels?"

Axel tried to give an answer to his young friend. "I…"

"ROXAS!" Xion cried out, drawing his attention back to assist her in combating the Riku Replica.

"XION! I'm coming!"

"SORA." Riku yelled out, overjoyed in seeing his friend again.

"DONALD!" Mickey said aloud, being in a similar boat as Riku. "GOOFY! You're here too!"

"SHUT UP!" Vexen roared, unleashing a wave of cold throughout the room. "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! WILL YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP!"

"Wow don't blow a blood vessel, Vexen." Axel retorted, sending a volley of fireballs at the scientist.

As the trio consisting of Sora, Donald and Goofy were distracted by seeing the arrival of the real Riku and King Mickey, Zexion used this opportunity and quickly made a play.

With his floating Lexicons out, No. VI had them enlarged, open up and "swallow" his three opponents up.

"NO!" Riku shouted, quickly drawing out his Soul Eater.

"Give them back!" Mickey demanded, drawing forth his Kingdom Key (D).

With their weapons drawn, they rushed towards the Cloaked Schemer, only to be intercepted by the Riku Replica.

"You'll have to fight me as well, faker." "Riku" sneered, challengingly.

"No, you're the fake here!" Riku growled back, calling forth his latent dark power and entering into his advanced Dark Mode.

"Riku, our friends."

"Go on ahead, Mickey." Riku said, already clashing with his replica. "This one is mine."

Nodding, Mickey zoomed past his companion since arriving in the Castle's basement levels to combat the Cloaked Schemer.

"Hold on your majesty." A joking voice said next to the King of Disney Castle.

The small Keyblade wielder looked up to see Axel running alongside him.

"You again!" Mickey didn't know if he would be overwhelmed by seeing the acting "Lord of the Castle" join Zexion. But he will be sure he'll use everything he had to combat the pair.

"On your side for this fight." Axel explained. "You'll need my help if you wanna get those three bozos out of Zexion's trap."

When Axel changed dance partners, Roxas and Xion now faced the Freezing Scholar.

"Roxas." Vexen shook his head in disappointment. "How could you even consider betraying us?"

"I've got a lot of reasons." Roxas barked out, glaring at the Chilly Academic. "The lies and what you said about Xion."

No. XIV only turned to Roxas with worry. She herself had heard the recording earlier but was still unsure as to what to truly make of it.

However it was clearly affecting Roxas on a very personal level considering his reaction.

She had never seen anyone that angry before in her short existence.

"So you did hear it all." Vexen then muttered to himself. Note to self be sure no one is listening in on conversations from here on out."

As soon as he finished that statement, Vexen had to raise his shield to block Roxas's Keyblade.

Straining slightly under the boys strength, No. IV pressed his free hand against the back of his shield. Channeling his icy powers, icy needles shot out from the front of his shield forcing Roxas to jump back.

The two Nobody Key Bearers moved around the space to strike the Organization's Scholar. While Vexen's shield was met with Roxas' weapon once again, No. IV conjured up a large ice wall to intercept Xion's. The moment the latter clashed, the ice wall exploded outward, sending a volley of ice at the puppet.

"Xion!"

"I'm okay." She said, quickly casting Cure onto herself.

"Focus on your enemy, boy." Vexen sneered aloud, appearing before Roxas and bashing him back with a Shield strike to his face.

"Roxas!" Xion cried aloud, about to go help him when Vexen turned towards her and unleashed a cold wave littered with ice shards.

She threw her hands up, gritting her teeth in slight pain as the shards bounced off her body.

The two Riku's clashed back and forth, zooming all over the first floor while briefly avoiding and maneuvering around the other fights going on.

Axel and Mickey rolled and jumped out of the way of Zexion's spells. No. VIII had to be extra careful as No. VI was unleashing a wave of Waterga all around to quench his fire. To somewhat combat this, Mickey had to be careful when he casted his Thunder variants so he wouldn't strike his unlikely ally.

Taking a moment to look over to Axel, Mickey couldn't help but wonder what in the world happened?

Why were Sora, Donald and Goofy here? How did they get here after the sealing to the door to Kingdom Hearts?

Better yet, who were those other two teenagers fighting Vexen right now that had the exact same Keyblade as Sora?

Granted, Mickey had a "similar" model as Sora's, but there was a purpose and reason behind it.

So many questions in so little time.

All the while, Namine had to hide behind a far off pillar with Pluto nearby, growling in order to protect his new buddy.

Roxas, all the while, was back up and clashing with No. IV again, the two face to face as they struggled against one another with their weapons.

"So… you want to leave the Organization." Vexen tauntingly asked. "What will you do afterwards?"

"Already have several things that come to mind."

"As if, No. XIII." Said Vexen, bashing his Frozen Pride shield against Roxas. "Apart from the Organization, there is no other place that will tolerate you!"

Roxas retaliated with a powerful horizontal swing that sent Vexen skidding back.

The Icy Nobody stood up straight, shield raised defensively.

"Now think carefully, Roxas. Who gave you your name and place among us? Who gave you a reason to even 'exist'? Only we, the Organization, can provide everything to you if you cooperate. Especially the Heart you seek."

Getting back onto his feet, Roxas growled at the Frozen Scholar.

"Xemnas gave me a name I didn't choose and a Number I never asked for." Roxas shouted back. "But I do have a place where I belong. I found it on my own."

No. XIII began glowing with light.

"And as for having a Heart, with the memories that come with it… I've been gaining one of my own while I've been away."

Vexen hotly scoffed. "Like you can have them without-"

"These are my feelings; my memories and I will accept them!"

"And how long will you be blinded by these lies, No. XIII. Accept the truth!"

As he yelled, Vexen unleashed a Blizzaga Burst, sending a large volley of ice projectiles all over the room. While the other combatants were able to quickly avoid the blows, Xion was hit and had to move out of the way to recover; all in order to quickly join back in.

"Nobody else will decide what I feel, Vexen. My feelings are my own!" Roxas roared aloud, the light radiating off his body flashing vibrantly now, causing No. IV to squint his eyes. "What I feel for Axel, for Xion, for all the friends I've made are real! They're not fake at all."

Vexen scoffed aloud, Ice beginning to swirl around him as he prepared himself for another attack.

"So utterly ignorant!" He berated. "That puppet you call a friend will no longer serve a purpose as both you and her will be replaced. So why do you persist with this folly?!"

Roxas paused for a moment until his expression became fierce. He ran forward at full speed, jumping forward and smashed his Keyblade down upon Vexens shield again, staggering the Icy Nobody.

"Because… Because I made a promise! I made a promise to my friends!"

In a flash of brilliant light, his Keyblade shifted and changed from the Kingdom Key form into something else.

"WHAT?!"

With all his might, Vexen's Frozen Pride broke through, having the newly shifted Keyblade crash into No. IV before sending him flying across the room.

"In-Inconceivable… How is this… possible…?"

With that, Vexen was knocked unconscious.

Shortly before this occurred, Mickey and Axel were able to smash through the floating Lexicons and released Sora and his two old friends. The trio were happy to be released from their confinement as each had to deal with more attacks from other Lexicons present in their "prison".

The trio were quick to jump back in to have another round against Zexion.

It was at this point Sora momentarily saw what happened between Roxas and Vexen, gasping aloud on the end result.

The Keyblade form within Roxas' grasp was all too familiar to him.

"Th-That's…!"

Roxas gazed at his recently changed Keyblade as he took note of the details.

His weapon had a pair of hearts embedded in its design with the handle bearing two white wings with the overall colorization being white, blue and yellow. The blade's teeth had a symbol which pointed at every other direction (光). The chain hanging off the end had a charm resembling a star composed of seashells.

At the end of his inspection, a name quickly flowed right out of his mouth. "Oathkeeper."

Roxas had little time to fully take in his new Keyblade as Zexion had unleashed an illusion that encompassed the entire room.

All the combatants were now in an entirely different realm, a floating island with a dark sphere above.

"What the-?"

"Where are we?"

"How are we back on the Islands?"

"This ain't real, kid." Axel informed. "It's just one of Zexion's tricks."

"Tricks, are they?" Zexion's disembodied voice refuted around them. "Why I'm sadly hurt. Illusions can be real if one believes hard enough in them."

Axel only scoffed. "And let me guess, part of your interest in studying this castle, huh?"

"In a manner of speaking." Flipping open his "Book of Retribution", Zexion summoned forth his personal lesser Nobodies.

Like all members of Organization XIII, each had command of a certain branch of the lesser Nobodies outside of the Creepers and Dusks. And Zexion was of no exception as he rarely used them.

These particular Nobodies resembled those of the Bookmaster Heartless and their several branches of the Rune, Barrier and False Masters. But instead of the colorful themes they bore, these ones were primarily grey in tone and the Nobody sigils were on the book covers instead of on their initial bodies.

And they were not as short and stout as their Heartless counterparts or "Cousins".

These Nobodies were slender and lanky with their heads being completely covered with a hood and flowing robes that covered their bodies.

These were the Arcanists.

"Great." Axel said in annoyance. "These guys."

"Wha-what are they?" Sora asked in worry, having never seen enemies like these before.

"Nobodies, now keep your guard up." Axel said. "They're tricky to fight."

Zexion suddenly appeared before the group with Riku Replica in tow.

Zexion looked on with a narrowed glance. "You'll regret what you've done here. You, Xion and Axel will wind up in Oblivion."

"That's fine as long as it means I messed up Xemnas' plans." Roxas declared, pointing his newly changed Keyblade at the Cloaked Schemer.

The Keyblade chose him for a reason. He had to know why.

With a wave of his hand, Zexion's lesser Nobodies attacked the group with "Riku's" form glowing. A moment later, a dozen more "Riku's" appeared, all running straight at them.

Axel threw his chakrams up, the circular weapons rotating around him with flames bursting forth and surrounding the team.

The Riku Replicas were quickly burned away yet they continually replenished themselves and kept charging.

The Arcanists began levitating around the assembled group, their books glowing.

"Axel!" Roxas shouted, the red head looking up in time to see the Arcanists unleash a torrent of Watera spells, reigning down on them.

Gritting his teeth, Axel charged up his flames and fired back a large fiery sphere that impacted with the water.

Though his flames were put out, the heat of the fire was enough to turn the water into steam that surrounded the area.

"Donald!"

"I got it!" Donald threw his staff up. "Aeroga!"

Wind whipped up around the court Wizard before it burst off from Donald, blowing away the steam in time to show that they were surrounded by Riku Replicas and Arcanists.

"WHACK!"

"Illusions, remember!" The real Riku reminded them.

The islander charged up his Soul Eater and went into a Dark Barrage, cleaving through a number of enemies left and right. He was essentially a darkened blur with a white trail right behind his movements. Before long, a second Soul Eater appeared in his other hand as the blades extended as he performed a Dark Maelstrom prior to slamming them down for a Dark Impulse.

Once it died down, the real Riku yelled. "You're Majesty!"

"Riku!"

Leaping in the air, the two quickly came back to back. Pointing their weapons outwards, the pair started spinning and unleashing their Inverse Burst Limit Break. A volley of light and dark balls of energy shooting out all over the place.

Seeing this, Axel knew that they needed to power their way out of Zexion's illusions.

The more time they allowed for No. VI to continually channel his powers, the more elaborate the illusions would become.

"Can't say I didn't warn you." Axel exclaimed, holding out one Chakram in front of him with the other behind.

Fire erupted around him which was then absorbed into his Chakrams.

He flung one forward, the fiery disk exploding upon impact with the other following suit a moment later.

Both Chakrams reappeared in his hands, still alight with flames with Axel now floating.

No. VIII then sent his Chakrams hurtling forward again, unleashing Sabretooth with the two fiery disks floating around him and expanding to strike the other nearby enemies.

Xion, all the while, improvised her own attack, having thrown her Keyblade up to send up a flurry of spells.

This was herself made Limit break that she dubbed Magic Hour that emphasized her affinity towards magic for the most part.

It was a flurry of multiple smaller spells that came out in numbers, overwhelming and destroying the Nobodies and Replicas she targeted.

Though at its end, Xion was momentarily put into a state of exhaustion, rushing back to some safer ground to properly use up a number of Ethers to restore her reserves.

Roxas went right for his Limit, Event Horizon, sending out a torrent of swings and strikes with the pillars of light exploding off his form.

From their end, Goofy quickly formed an idea.

"Donald! Sora! Help me up!"

"And do what?" Donald inquired.

"Battering ram!"

"Ah! Right!" Said Sora.

Hoisting Goofy up, Sora and Donald soon charged forward and used Goofy as a battering ram as the captain of the guard held up his trusty shield. All of the Nobodies who got in the way were smacked away with the charging force colliding with them.

Once the charge came to an end, more Nobodies came rushing in to strike the trio down.

But they were not done yet.

Donald and Sora soon tossed the captain of the guard in the air just as the court magician casted Aeroga to send him higher up. Repositioning himself, Goofy became an incoming missile aiming towards the ground, impacting it and causing a small shockwave to damage a number of enemies.

To finish things off, Sora glowed a bright light as he thrusted his Keyblade straight up. A magical orb quickly formed prior to the Keybearer jumping and flipping upside down. Jabbing his Keyblade into the floor, a giant glyph formed as it too started to glow. Getting back onto his feet after spinning around, Sora grabbed his weapon with both hands and turned the 'Key'. Once this happened, a powerful light exploded from the ground and vaporized a number of enemies away.

The shockwave of light was enough to stun both Zexion and the original Riku Replica, the two being seen by the group.

"You're finished!" Riku declared, rushing straight for Zexion.

No. VI seized up, desperately throwing up books and pages as a defensive shield yet Riku sliced right through them.

The Illusions surrounding them broke apart, ending the fight with the Riku Replica being knocked out by Xion and Roxas as Zexion struggled to stay upright.

"You know… we won't stop till… we take you back… or take you down." Zexion struggled out.

"Not if we stop you first." Roxas declared, rushing forward at No. VI.

Zexion however, had enough.

With a wave of his hand, Riku Replica and Vexen were enveloped by corridors of darkness before he himself called for his own.

A moment later, all three were gone.

"Are they…?" Goofy was unsure.

"They're gone." Riku declared.

"What now?"

"Now, we need to leave before the rest of the Organization reigns down on our ass."

"Don't have to tell us twice."

"But… where would we go?"

Suddenly, without warning, a dark portal appeared below the group's feet.

"I believe I can be of assistance."

A deep gentlemanly voice echoed around them before they were all sucked into the dark portal. It soon disappeared, leaving no other trace of their presence in Castle Oblivion.

AN

So… this was a big one, if you guys haven't noticed.

I can't begin to describe how jittery I am with what J and I have done here. We are completely off course on the KH side of things.

And soon enough, the Mass Effect side will be joining them.

Yes, he and I had followed most of the first ME timeline for the most part but with subtle changes placed at the start, greater ramifications will be felt later on.

Jebest4781: Like my friend said, many things will be getting altered heavily from here on out. Sure there will be some familiarity, but there's a domino effect with what's happening. And yes, our planning has been a struggle on a number of issues on what we exactly decided. Hopefully, they'll be worked well in bashing through those writing "barriers".

FMW: Indeed. These barriers were addressed of sorts when J and I sat down and went to town on writing out a long outline of the many plans and events to come. Shit is gonna get crazy as we get to ME2, KH2 and basically everything.

Jeb: And the other games and content following will just have to be ridden out from there with certain events not happening or just going sideways.

Yup Yup.

So, once again, DrWriter21, don't know if you'll ever read this but I owe you a lot cause your story Blank Slate greatly influenced me for this story.

Check out the story and support him as well.

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.