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.

12. The Paths We Choose

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I'm Nobody Chapter 12: The Paths we Choose

How had they gotten here?

One moment, the large collection of Sora, Donald, Goofy, Riku, Mickey, Roxas, Axel, Xion, Namine and Pluto were standing within the white halls of Castle Oblivion. Having defeated two members of Organization XIII with Replica Riku.

Next thing they all knew, they were sucked into a dark portal.

The entire group floated about in darkness when they found themselves on sturdy ground, all standing before a crumbling mansion.

"Where…" Roxas looked around. "Wait… this is the mansion in Twilight Town!"

"How'd we get here?" Xion asked in bewilderment. "Wait… where's Namine?!"

"I'm here."

The two Nobody's most familiar with her turn to see her coming out from around the mansion gates, Pluto right by her side.

"Riku!"

The group turned to see Sora having tackled his best friend into a bear hug, basically lifting him up off the ground. The older teen laughed aloud in complete relief though he had one hand shoved against Sora's face.

"Let me down, you lazy bum." Riku said good naturedly.

"Lazy Bum?" Sora squawked in a faux offended manner. "Don't you realize what I've been through to find you?"

"Your majesty!"

No sooner had Sora stated this did Donald and Goofy tackle their own friend, the King laughing at his closest friend's reaction.

"How'd you get here?" Sora asked, shaking his head a second later. "I mean, how'd you and the king get out of the Realm of Darkness?"

"Yeah, weren't the two of you trapped on the other side after you and Sora sealed the Door?" Goofy asked.

"That's… a bit of a story." Riku admitted with Sora groaning aloud.

"That's what Roxas over there said." Sora said, pointing to the blond teen who was standing with Xion, Axel and Namine.

"Roxas?" Riku gazed at him inquisitively. He noticed that he was standing with Axel, someone he had fought earlier down in the lower basements of Castle Oblivion.

He then took notice of Xion-

"What is Kairi doing here?!" The islander said alarmingly.

"That's not Kairi."

"It's a complicated matter."

"Guess there's a lot of questions going around." King Mickey said, voicing the sentiment shared by the entire group.

"A whole boatload of them." Axel said, arms crossed.

"What are you doing here, Axel?" Riku asked defensively, recalling his previous clash with the fire user.

"Hey now, is that any way to talk to someone that you just fought alongside?" Axel rhetorically asked.

"Why did you?" Mickey inquired with a guarded tone.

"Yeah, and why did you lie about not meeting Riku and the King?!" Donald asked, hopping up and down in irritation.

"I'm helping out my friends… after we learned a number of truths."

"From that recording Roxas had."

"A recording?"

Roxas was about to bring up his Omni-tool when another dark portal appeared.

However… this one was noticeably different.

For one part, the portal was rather quick to appear just as it was to disappear.

And the one who had used it did not wear the cloak of the Organization.

He was a tall man wearing a complex attire that was mostly crimson red in color. His entire head was wrapped in red bandages and a pair of belts, save for his right amber orange eye and mouth to reveal the dark skin underneath. He wore a long cape with a quadrate crosscut taken out at the chest with the attire's edges being yellow. And this cut exposed a similarly oblong white symbol on a pitch-black shirt.

Overtop the shirt, the man wore segmented grey armor over his sides and abdomen. His legs were covered by a long, black cloth lined with yellow which had several brown straps pinned on the front. Around his waist were a number of pouches, descending downward diagonally on his left hip. And around his neck was a dark colored scarf to finish off his attire.

"Who are you?!" Donald squashed out, thrusting his wand at the crimson man.

"Easy." The new arrival warned. "Is that anyway to treat your rescuer?"

"Hello, DiZ." Riku greeted, with Mickey nodding in response.

"Riku, Your Majesty." DiZ greeted in return.

"Riku, you know this guy?" Sora asked in confusion.

"Yeah… he helped me get out of the Realm of Darkness… somehow. And Mickey piggybacked from there.

"You did?!" Sora turned to the strangely clothed man before giving him a beaming grin. "Thank you so much for saving our friends."

DiZ couldn't help but snort in amusement at the brown haired boy's boisterous nature.

"You are very kind, young Sora." He then turned to the one who yelled at him earlier. "At least he has the decency of paying his aspects."

"Whack!" Donald looked sheepish. "Sorry."

Goofy merely chuckled into his hand.

"Hey." Axel called out to the newcomer with a suspicious look. "How the heck do you know how to use our way of getting around Worlds without a cloak?"

DiZ regarded Axel and the other Nobodies with a slight glare.

"Once you have an understanding of the darkness the way I do, then the Darkness no longer has hold over you."

DiZ turned to the locked gate and opened the lock. With the chains clambering on the dirt floor, he pushed the gate open and ushered the group inside.

"If you would follow me, it's best we discuss things at a safer location."

Seeing no other choice, the group complied and entered the abandoned mansion.

The foyer was mostly a wreck with large cloths covering up certain pieces of furniture. And saw several doorways blocked off with various miscellaneous items.

"This place is in serious need of renovations." Axel drawled, seeing the state of the mansion.

Ascending the nearby staircases, the group followed the crimson man as they eventually found themselves in a stark white room with its furniture being colored as such.

"Almost looks like some of the rooms back at Castle Oblivion." Xion noted with Namine nodding in confirmation.

"If you all make yourselves comfortable, I believe we have much to discuss."

"You're telling me." Sora responded, sitting down in a nearby chair with the others following suit.

The only ones who didn't sit down were Riku and Axel, who leaned against adjacent walls with their arms crossed.

"You have many questions." DiZ began. "That is understandable. But first, I must address you all by group."

The crimson garbed man turned to Sora's group first.

"Sora, Donald, Goofy, the three have you are owed an irreparable debt with your actions in defeating Ansem and returning to the Worlds to what they originally were."

The trio couldn't help but become rather bashful at such praise.

"Ah~ Shucks." Goofy said with his signature chuckle.

DiZ then looked to Riku and Mickey.

"Riku, you have overcome great strife both within Castle Oblivion and internally in conquering the Darkness that Ansem had left behind." DiZ declared. "And I need not espouse what you have already accomplished, your majesty."

The man then turned to the ones with the black cloaks and the lone girl in white.

"As for you four… I honestly didn't account for your presence. Yet things are no doubt changing, hopefully for the better against the Organization." DiZ's voice however was tinged with distrust and suspicion, something Axel easily picked up on.

"You got a problem with us, weirdo?" Axel asked challengingly.

"I have a bit of a problem trusting Nobodies."

"Yeah, well, I didn't ask for this you know?" Axel shot back. "None of us had a choice in the matter. So don't go throwing us looks like that."

DiZ only hummed aloud.

"Wait, DiZ." Sora spoke up. "Roxas here just showed us that the World's are not at peace. This… Organization is sending out Heartless across the Worlds."

"Really? How so?"

DiZ had already noticed an unusual influx of Heartless as of late and had been investigating for some time prior to running into Riku in the Dark World. But it seemed he had some answers within arm's reach.

"Listen." Roxas said, bringing up his Omni-Tool which caught Riku and Mickey off guard.

"Whoa!" Riku said in wonder. "What is that?"

The crimson man eyed looked at the Omni-tool, stroking his chin with interest.

"Fascinating device you have there. Pray tell how you acquired it."

"Got it when I was away from the Organization." Roxas summarized. "Now then…"

He pulled up the audio recording and pressed play.

Once more the recording Roxas acquired from earlier that day rang out. Sora, Donald and Goofy were unsettled on hearing the details once understanding things more than ever after their quick conclusions. Same with the Nobodies.

Pluto, though, was just lying his head on Namine's lap, who was stroking his head for her self comfort.

As for Riku and Mickey, they were quickly startled on the details being implied with several questions forming within their minds.

Though his expression was hidden for the most part, one could easily pick up on the troubled air DiZ gave off upon hearing the recording to its completion.

"This… certainly was not what I was expecting to hear." DiZ admitted aloud.

"What are we gonna do?" Sora asked worriedly. "This Organization is sending out Heartless across multiple worlds. What if some have already fallen to them?"

"Do not be troubled by that regard." DiZ waved off. "Though I have indeed noticed the spike in Heartless across the Worlds, your actions Sora have prevented their abilities in consuming Worlds as they were once able to."

"But people's Hearts can still be lost to them." Riku pointed out with clear concern.

"They were only sent out to find me after I abruptly left." Roxas informed. "They were only ordered to do so and not… whatever you two just said."

"And you think that makes things any better?" Riku snapped.

"Possibly."

"Easy Riku." Sora said. "Roxas didn't know."

"Even then, in case you forgot kid, the head honcho had them out as a ruse for Roxas and Xion to slay the Heartless for their plans." Axel pointed out.

"So this means our work is not yet finished." King Mickey said determinedly. "The Worlds are still in danger and we need to act on it."

"One danger is replaced with another. Something far more fearsome and troubling than the last." DiZ said sagely.

"Then how are we going to do this?" Donald asked. "We just found each other and now… it feels like we might go our separate ways."

"We won't be apart long this time." Mickey declared. "This time, even if we do split up, we can help protect and save the Worlds together."

"True but where could we go and how? We have no way of getting back with our Gummi Ship to travel to the Worlds again." Sora stated. "We left it somewhere in the Lanes In Between before we went to fight Ansem."

Mickey pondered a little and gave his hopeful thought. "I believe someone trustworthy would've gotten it."

"Yeah, like Chip and Dale." Goofy explained. "They made our ship, so they must've gotten control of it and sent it back home."

"You think that's possible?" Donald inquired.

"Maybe." Goofy said. "I figure Chip and Dale are smart enough to have their own set of backup plans on the ship they built."

"Yeah, good point." Sora agreed with a nod.

"But what then?"

"I suggest you five get in touch with Yen Sid." DiZ suggested.

"Yen Sid?!" Donald and Goofy said aloud in disbelief.

Mickey pondered the thought. "That sounds like a great idea."

Everyone else however…

"Who's Yen Sid?" Sora asked, turning to Riku who merely shrugged

The King turned to inform the others.

"Yen Sid is my mentor." Mickey informed them. "Taught me everything I know about the Keyblade and has knowledge of many other things."

"Whoa!" Sora gaped. "Seriously?"

"Uh-huh." Mickey nodded. "He'd be more than willing to help us out."

"And how can we reach him?" Donald questioned. "The only way we could've gotten to his Tower was with a Gummi ship last time. Before that, it was through the Star Shards."

"Go to the train station underneath the Clocktower. There you will find a means of reaching his residency." DiZ advised. "Upon reaching his home, the rest will be left up to him."

"Um, Excuse me." Xion shyly spoke up. "What about us? Where would we go? We're now labeled traitors by the Organization."

"What about you?" DiZ said coolly.

"The hell is that supposed to mean?" Roxas asked. "What's your problem with us?"

"Did you not hear what I had said earlier?"

"And did you not pay attention to the fact that we are completely against the Organization?!" Roxas growled out. "You heard everything I recorded. They lied and manipulated us into joining up with them. And we know that they'll be coming after us."

"So that means, this is much our fight as it is theirs." Axel proclaimed, loathed as he was to admit it.

"Wait a sec…" Sora spoke up. "I don't want to sound rude or anything but… you guys never really told us who you all were? What's your connection to this Organization?"

Roxas looked to Axel. "We should tell him."

"What?" Axel blinked. "Why?"

"He needs to know." Roxas stated. "They all do. If we're gonna be fighting the Organization, then it's better they know about us."

"No need for that." DiZ cut in with a dry tone. "Master Yen Sid shall explain for them instead."

Roxas found himself greatly irritated by this man's rather rude dismissals.

"Will you just, fucking knock it off with that?!" Roxas said aloud in aggravation, greatly surprising all present at such crass words.

"...Damn, Roxas. Where'd you get that mouth from?"

No. XIII released a sigh. "Blame some of the people I've been traveling with. They've been quite the influence on me."

"H-how vulgar." DiZ said in complete shock.

"We're Nobodies." Roxas ranted at the crimson man. "And we're part of the Organization. But not anymore. I just showed you the evidence and you just heard us tell you we're willing to fight against them. But you're still treating us like shit. Who are you to decide what we do and don't do?"

Dammit, it was like the Citadel Council all mushed into one person. He never knew such a thing was possible.

"We're going to fight against the Organization." Roxas proclaimed. "And there's nothing your stupid ribbon head is gonna do about it. This is just as important to us as it is to Sora, Riku or even you for that matter."

DiZ was at a slight loss for words as to what to say, having never been spoken to in such a manner.

Axel however, couldn't withhold the guffaw that escaped from his lips.

"Man Roxas, I don't know where that came from but that was something else." Axel said, patting his friend on the shoulder with the boy getting a sudden sheepish expression.

"Ok…" Sora rubbed the back of his head, still recovering from Roxas's outburst. "So… I guess we all know what we're doing then."

Donald and Goofy nodded with Riku muttering "right".

"But still, where could we go…" Xion said, down casted.

Roxas was silent for a few moments before facepalming.

"Can't believe I forgot…"

"Roxas?"

He pried his hand away from his face before turning to Axel and Xion.

"Hey."

"Yeah?"

Roxas wore a cheeky grin. "Do you guys wanna run away together? I know a place where we could go."

"You do?"

"Yeup."

"Where?"

"Where I've been at for weeks."

"...You sure?"

"Positive, the Organization hasn't found me yet over there."

Xion looked to Axel, the taller Nobody shrugging.

"If you say so."

"Sounds good to me." Said No. VIII, smirking a little.

"I could even get you one of these." Roxas said, bringing up his Omni-Tool again.

"Hey, I want one to!" Sora said with an envious whine.

Roxas couldn't help but laugh.

"Eh… maybe…"

"Please~?" Sora begged.

"A-hyuck. It does seem pretty useful." Goofy admitted aloud.

"Wouldn't mind one myself." Riku admitted, gazing at the Omni-Tool in fascination.

"What does it do anyways, aside from recording?" Mickey questioned.

"All sorts of things like taking photos along with playing music, movies, games…"

"Oh man now I want it even more!"

Roxas looked over at the crimson garbed man in a flat look.

"You're not getting jackshit with the way you've acted towards me and my friends."

DiZ jolted, scoffing at the manner in which he was addressed by the sandy-blond haired teen.

"Come on fellas." Mickey spoke up. "It's best we get moving. We don't wanna stay in one spot unless we want the Organization to find us."

"Hang on a second." Axel said. "We still have one more person we still haven't talked about."

The redhead drew their attention to Namine that had been completely silent for the majority of the discussion, having kept herself occupied with petting a now napping Pluto.

"Namine." Axel said. "Where are you gonna go?"

Namine looked down, biting her lips nervously.

"I believe you should go with Sora and Riku." DiZ declared.

"And why should she do that?" Xion asked defensively, unconsciously stepping towards Namine in response.

"She has capabilities that would no doubt fascinate Yen Sid and with his help, perhaps she would be able to control them over time." the Crimson man elaborated, making Namine look to him and then her friends.

"But…"

"Namine." Axel looked down at her. "It's your decision."

Said Nobody was silent for a few moments, thinking things over on the decision. And it wasn't long before she pointed towards the group of five. "I agree with DiZ. I think it's best for me to go with them."

"I second that." Said Axel. "The Organization will be more focused towards the three of us instead of you."

"Until some point when they track down Sora."

"They'll be after all of us now." Roxas said in a grim tone.

"Then we must make haste." DiZ stated. "King Mickey knows the way. I shall meet with you when the time comes."

A moment later, DiZ vanished in a dark portal.

"That guy… was an asshole." Axel remarked.

"Second it. He ties up with the Council." Roxas stated.

"Who?"

"I'll tell you later."

"I guess… this is goodbye then." Sora said to Roxas, Xion and Axel.

"Not for long." Roxas said. "We'll see each other again, soon enough."

Sora gained a more thoughtful look as he approached No. XIII.

Roxas wasn't sure what Sora was going to do but he was slightly weirded out by the brown haired boy leaning towards him.

"Is it weird how it feels like I know you?" Sora asked, Roxas blinking in response.

"No." Roxas then chuckled. "Strangely, it's not."

Sora couldn't help but laugh a moment later. "I may have known you guys for a few minutes really but… I think you guys are really brave going against everything you know to help us save the World's."

"Heh, now don't get all mushy on us yet, Keyblade master." Teased Axel.

Sora only grinned widely with his friends laughing behind him.

Then, without realizing it, Axel felt a small body hug him tightly.

Looking down, he saw a familiar head of platinum blond hair that belonged to the girl he had been watching over since taking over as keeper of Castle Oblivion.

"I'm gonna miss you Axel." Namine said, holding her tall friend tightly.

Axel scratched his head bashfully while placing his other hand on her shoulder. He looked over to see Xion beaming at him and the others were having similar reactions of their own.

"Ah, don't worry Namine." No. VIII said assuredly. "We won't be gone for long. Xion and I will definitely come see you again the moment we get the chance."

Namine looked up at him with a wide, kind smile.

She hugged him tightly once more before moving on to Xion, the two girls embracing one another.

"Bye Xion."

"Bye Namine."

"WOOF"

Xion was abruptly tackled down to the ground by Pluto who proceeded to slobber her face, No. XIV only laughing happily at such affection.

The others did the same as Pluto was relentless in his licks until Mickey recalled him.

"You know fellas, brief as we have all just met, I look forward to the day we get to fight together." Mickey said, holding up his hand towards Roxas which the Nobody accepted.

"We won't let you guys down." Roxas declared. "We'll all get stronger and when the time comes, we'll all take on the Organization together."

Riku smirked. "We'll hold you to that."

"Come on." Sora said. "Let's go."

Exiting out of the old mansion, the group made their proper separations and waved each other goodbye.

When the group consisted of the two Destiny Islanders and their friends entering the nearby forest, the Nobodies went through a Dark Corridor.

-Scene Cut-

It felt like weeks have passed since Roxas' abrupt departure from the Citadel. In reality, it's only been a few days.

In all honesty, Shepard felt there was this odd void that was placed without his presence there. Some people were less talkative and active as a result.

The Normandy team couldn't really go into a normal shore leave like the past ones. One factor was still with Roxas not being with them. The other was doing a replenishment of their supplies as they were quickly called back for a couple of missions.

Recently, there was a priority distress call that was sent their way from the colony planet of Terra Nova in the Asgard System of the Exodus Cluster.

A metallic asteroid labeled X57 was fitted with massive booster fusion rockets so it can be mined for its resources around the orbit of the aforementioned planet. However, the engineers who were orchestrating the return trip had gone silent and the asteroid was on a collision course with the colony planet which inhabits four million people.

With how dire it was, Shepard had wanted every member of the ground team present. Though they didn't know how much things would go without Roxas being there alongside them.

When they got close to the wayward asteroid, they picked up a distress call from said asteroid, showing there was more to their situation than they realized.

As it turned out, a Batarian extremist group was behind the whole problem, tampering the fusion torches and redirecting the asteroid at a direct course to the planet. And they were led by a man named Balak, a dangerous zealot for his beliefs and he'll go to any extremes to get his point across.

Now most of the ground team were quick to really focus more with how much more dangerous their present opposition was. Wrex was naturally having no problems with the ensuing battle, something that helped relieve his displeasure on what happened back on Noveria. Stitch was in the same manner as the resident Krogan. Garrus, Liara, Ashley and Kaidan were focused on the task at hand as a means of distracting themselves from Roxas' departure.

Tali, on the other hand, was having some trouble on the mission. The Quarian did promise she'll focus more on what's going on after being confronted on her losing focus once taking care of the first fusion torch before the second torch and rescuing the apprehended engineers spread out on certain parts of X57.

Neither Shepard or the rest of the ground team could really blame her. She missed Roxas greatly. Yet she needed to put such issues aside now and focus on something that was really dire.

Now most of the issues on their priority targets were quickly resolved. The only hiccup they had along the mission were some Heartless popping up here and there. After the final fusion torch was taken care of, they had to focus on Balak directly.

At least there wasn't much problem dealing with him as a number of his men wanted to abandon the extremist behind as even they thought he was too crazy. And no amount of credit would make them fully fall in line.

It was honestly surprising to see said Batarians were the opposite of their supposed leader. Helped clean up the stereotyped image their race held, only by a small margin. After all, neither of the ground team knew how long it'll take for some Batarians to go back to their old habits.

Once directed to the main facility, they were met with the extremist leader. And suffice to say, the Normandy team was not impressed upon learning why Balak was doing this.

The reason for this whole debacle: a bullshit complaint of humans hogging all of the "good planets" and leaving the Batarians for scraps while being forced into exile for decades. And he wanted to get attention for his cause as a result.

Right… him complaining about that even though the majority of his race that serve the Hegemony are slavers and host a large number of raids over most of the galaxy. Humanity never dropped asteroids on any of their colonies or raided said colonies.

And Balak had the gall of accusing humanity of not having the Citadel Council helping them when this was occurring. Yet the man never saw past the Council's reasons as to why they didn't intervene on the Hegemony's case.

As Shepard was talking with the extremist leader, the hackers of her team -comprised of Stitch, Tali and Kaidan- went out to secure the last of the hostages. When they did, they learned of the planted bombs and went out to disable the explosives set out in the main facility. And when the extremist tried to set said explosives off, hoping to kill said hostages, he was met with a surprise when none went off.

He and the rest of his men were quickly taken care of with everything settled and back under human control. And just in time too as X57 would've been impossible to put back on orbital course if things weren't resolved in another hour. If it was too late, Terra Nova would've been doomed with almost the entire planet's population wiped out.

As for Balak, he was captured and sent over to Alliance personnel back on Terra Nova for questioning and punishment for his crimes.

After that, the Normandy had to head directly to the Sol System, which is where they were going towards right now.

Admiral Hackett hastily requested their help to resolve a serious problem the Alliance was facing on the training facility on Earth's moon, Luna.

From what he informed her, the station where they tested soldiers, weapons and new technology had been compromised. One of the central VI's which helped in live-fire simulations is no longer responding to override commands and has gone rogue, either due to a glitch or outside interference. And so far in casualties, seventeen marines died before the place was evacuated.

To the Earthers, Skynet from the Terminator series and even Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey quickly came to mind.

To the rest, a whole bunch of references that went right over their heads with the humans promising them movie night to get them up to speed. Of course, it would be a bit of a long process with nearly three hundred years of references. And that's just the movie side of things when it comes to humanity.

Going back to the whole Luna VI situation, Shepard had taken some time in going over the mission file that Admiral Hackett had sent her.

While she got the gist of what was going on, there were several… strange occurrences that she had noticed when the report came in.

The whole point of this mission was really simple.

Go in, get the Luna base back under control from what was basically a Rogue VI.

But… what were these mentions of strange ships being seen within the vicinity.

They were unable to be identified and from what she could tell, they just popped in and out of the Luna bases scans.

This put Shepard slightly on edge, unsure of what to make of it.

She had a gut feeling that this mission was not going to go the way most would think, a growing sentiment since…

Since Roxas had joined them.

Nothing had been the same since he became part of the crew.

Their fights were no longer normal firefights nor were there adventures.

Even their weapons and tools were beyond anything they had once known.

When they had truly taken the time to really think about their journey, well, to put it plainly, Garrus had the exact words needed to describe what they had experienced thus far.

"We haven't gone insane have we? Cause if so, it seems we're just going along with it by this point."

Honestly, it sure felt like it.

"Approaching Alliance Lunar base, Commander."

Jane sighed, pushing down the many thoughts that have been plaguing her mind the past few hours.

"Call up Ash, Kaidan, Garrus and Tali." Shepard ordered.

"You got it, Commander."

Soon enough, Jane's chosen team was seated in the Mako as the Normandy flew towards Earth's closest satellite.

Flying over the Lunar surface, the Mako was deployed with the vehicle hitting the ground rolling.

The Normandy flew back up, entering into orbit over the moon as Joker awaited the call from Shepard once the mission would be completed.

Joker leaned back, getting comfortable in his chair as he went about piloting the Normandy.

He heard the familiar skittering and pattering of a blue fur ball with enough energy to power half the Citadel nearby.

"Stitch, don't drool over the controls this time." Joker warned. "It took days to get the smell out."

He heard the little guy grumble to himself, the grumbles equating to "it was one time".

"Yeah, it was once, but one and done." Joker countered. "Just because you like your own brand and Roxas tolerates it, doesn't mean everyone else should."

Stitch only "roared" back, shaking his fist at joker who rolled his eyes with amusement at the childish behavior.

Honestly, he was still trying to figure out how it was that he became so friendly with this alien life form.

"-Hey!"

Joker and Stitch paused in what they were doing, looking over to the radio transmission.

"Hellooooo~"

They weren't hearing things. Both Joker and Stitch heard a radio transmission over the comms.

"Can someone hear me out there! This is the Spear of Selene SR-2, requesting help!" The voice was female. And frantic.

Better yet…

Who was out here on the moon other than whoever was probably left in the Alliance base? Wasn't their communications cut out?

And Joker had never heard of this Spear of Selene, whatever that was.

Ship possibly. Just a name he never heard before.

Right now, Joker needed to make a call.

"Uh Shepard?"

"Yes Joker?" He heard the Commander grunting and the sound of cannon fire on the other end.

"I'm picking up a strange distress signal. It's on an open frequency but I don't recognize its origin. All I got so far is the name of the ship being the Spear of Selene." Joker admitted, briefly looking back to see Stitch having crawled up on his chair. "I'm gonna get ya patched through now."

In the mako, Shepard quickly got in touch with the sent out comm signal and spoke up. "We hear you, Spear of Selene. What seems to be the problem?"

"Oh finally! Someone actually responded! Been trying for a while now and no one's come to help." The relief in the woman's voice was present as… space day to see.

"Sorry to hear about that ma'am." Shepard said apologetically. "So about your problem…"

"Okay so my ship crashed and I need help."

"Uh… sure we'll be on our way, ma'am."

Shepard looked towards the Mako's occupants and shared a look as if this was some sort of trap all of a sudden. Especially with their present mission to take care of the Alliance training facility.

"Great! And hopefully soon because I've got all these Heartless on me and they're a complete pain in taking care of."

The team were greatly alarmed upon hearing this.

"I'm sorry, but did you just say Heartless?" Jane asked in a sharp tone.

"Yes I did! Now hurry up, please and thank you!"

When the transmission cut out, they saw the signal on the mako's radar to indicate the origin.

"Did she just say Heartless?"

"Yes she did."

"But how can someone know of the name 'Heartless'? Aside from us, only the Council, Anderson, Udina and a few others know of their name."

"Hopefully, we'll find out soon."

Flooring the Mako, Shepard sped across the moon's surface as she drove towards wherever this Spear of Selene crash landed.

When they came to the signal, they quickly saw the person in distress was indeed right. There was Heartless present as they were zooming across Luna's atmosphere and avoiding… laser fire?

Ignoring that for now, Shepard drove in faster and pulled to the side for the gunner to hopefully get a clear shot.

"Garrus?"

"I see 'em." He said, checking through the scope before speaking in utter surprise. "Are those… spaceship Heartless?"

"So these bastards are capable of interstellar travel?" Kaidan dryly asked. "When the hell did they learn to do that?"

"I'm bringing us in close." Shepard said, flooring the accelerator causing the other occupants to jolt.

"Do we really need to request Anderson to put you through driving classes again?"

"I second that suggestion."

"Will you all just shut up and deal with it?"

"Never!" Chorused the Mako's other occupants.

Driving closer for better shots, the driver and gunner was able to see the quite recent shipwreck in a moon's crater. And by the look of things, there was only one person present who they realized was the one who sent out the signal in the first place. Said person was doing her best in fighting the Heartless with whatever armaments she carried on her.

Garrus whirled around the cannon, firing rapidly at the flying Heartless ships, taking them out in rapid succession.

"Well, least they're easier to take down than usual." Garrus commented, blowing another ship out of the sky.

"We are using a larger gun."

"That too."

When the last of the Heartless ships fell and evaporated away into dark vapors, Shepard rolled up closer to the crash site.

Stepping out, they went over to see if there were any problems with the survivor before requesting Joker to pick her up.

"Oh man, I can't thank all of you enough for saving my hide out here. Guess I should've listened to my brother a lot more seriously."

What they were seeing… It made the team question if they were imagining things or not.

The person who sent out the distress signal… was an anthropomorphic creature.

A female duck to be precise with shoulder length white hair.

Instead of wearing a spacesuit, she wore an odd aviator's outfit with a blue scarf around her neck and a synthetic left leg.

"Howdy, thanks for saving me!" The duck woman said jovially, holstering her weapon on her belt.

Rather than getting a proper response, her five rescuers stared at her with varying, yet similar reactions.

"Is… is that a talking duck?" Kaidan questioned with widened eyes. "I'm not seeing things, am I?"

"Is she not wearing a helmet?" Ashley asked, quickly noting that crucial detail.

"How is she breathing in space?" Tali inquired.

"Ok… it's official. We've gone insane." Shepard sadly summarized.

"I'm blaming Roxas for this." Garrus said quickly, earning an elbow strike to his ribs. "Tali! Why?!"

"Because you were bad mouthing him."

"It was only one small thing."

"Aren't you upset with him at all?"

*Thump*

"Ow! What'd you pack in your suit?"

The female duck person merely looked at the interaction going on. Wanting to regain their attention, she coughed into her hand rather loudly.

"Hey there Space travelers." the Anthropomorphic duck greeted cheerfully. "Fine day for traversing the stars, don't ya think?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"What's the matter, is there something on my face?" The walking, talking duck asked with a confused look.

It was difficult to see the looks of five people before with them wearing helmets that covered their faces for the most part save for the eyes.

"You guys ok?" The female duck asked, hesitantly reaching out to them.

"How are you breathing in outer space?" Kaidan asked.

"How are you talking?" Garrus asked a moment later.

"How did you get here?" Tali stressed out.

"Oh, uh, well, I'm Della Duck; adventurer extraordinaire." The duck introduced herself in a grand fashion. "And I was testing the newest Gummi Ship my Uncle Scrooge helped me build but~ I still see I need to work out a lot of kinks. So, what are you guys doing out here?"

…

…

…

"We're… on a mission." Jane finally answered. "To stop a rogue VI…"

"Rogue VI?" Della crossed her arms in confusion. "What's that supposed to be?"

"Virtual intelli- Are we really having this conversation right now?" Ashley abruptly exclaimed.

"Whoa, what?" Della jumped back slightly. "What's wrong?"

"THIS. THIS RIGHT HERE!" Ashley shouted. "I did not join the Systems Alliance military to just… GAH!"

Ashley up and stormed off, going directly towards the Mako and banged her head against the wheel.

Not hard enough though.

She was still in space after all.

"Huh… And here I thought my brother had anger issues." The duck woman snorted. "Like I'm one to talk."

"You'll have to forgive Chief Williams." Jane said slowly, still trying to come to terms with the anthropomorphic duck in front of her. "We've been having some… really strange days."

"More like weeks." Kaidan added in.

"Oh that." Della Duck chortled, thumbing back to her crashed ship. "I hear ya sister, don't we all."

"Right…" Shepard said. "So… you crashed your ship?"

"More like it was shot down." Della fumed. "Those blasted Heartless up and blew me out of the sky! I was really precautious this time around in designing my ship. Didn't want to deal with solar storms ever again like the last time."

As the duck fumed, the crew could only watch.

"GAH, I should've listened to Donald's last letter before I went off." Della bemoaned. "I can't believe I'm saying this but, he was right. I should have been ten times more cautious with the Heartless just floating about out there. They'd attack me in a heartbeat. Ah, Scrooge is gonna kill me."

"You… know about the Heartless?"

"Doesn't everyone?" The duck woman said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"...No…"

"Really?" Della scratched her head. "Where the heck did I land on?"

"The moo- well, Earth's moon really."

"Earth? I landed near a dirt planet?" Della looked towards the planet the moon was orbiting and saw something was off. "Doesn't look like a full on dust giant. There's oceans and-"

"Hold up." Shepard cut her off. "Where are you even from?"

"Disney Castle."

"...I'm sorry what?"

"Oh right, need to be a bit more specific. Disney Castle is a structure over by Disney Town." Della muttered out. "Well to be more accurate I'm from Duckberg on the planet Disna."

"And where in the Milky Way galaxy is that?"

"Milky Way? No no no no. I'm from the Ōkoku galaxy."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...The what now?"

"Wait… are you from a different galaxy?!" Tali exclaimed.

"Yeah, the one right next door to this galaxy." Della said, pulling out a small tablet like device from her pocket and continued to speak when peering on the screen. "Give or take a few… billions light years. Andromeda is just in between us… sort of. You know, I'm not entirely sure. I could read a map but ain't no astronomer."

"Yeah… sure, that explains everything." Garrus quipped.

"It does?"

"NO!" the entire group in front of her bellowed.

"Oh great, and here we're dealing with yet another first contact here. And I thought Stitch was enough."

"Anderson is gonna have a field day with this if this is true."

"Can we at least try to finish up what we're originally doing here and discuss things under a better environment."

Della soon became a little worried. "Hey, hey, I'm not causing you guys any serious problems, am I?"

"Uh, no you're not." Shepard said reassuringly. "We're just going to a facility nearby to resolve our one problem."

"Oh right, your VI problem, I gotcha." Della then brightened up a little. "Maybe I can come with and help."

The Normandy team looked at each other before going back to Della.

"Uh… I don't know." Jane said. "What can you even do, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Shepard, what are you doing?" Ashley whispered.

Jane remained quiet as Della went over her capabilities.

"I'm well versed in hand to hand combat, know my way around with a number of armaments, been getting better in my hacking capabilities and I'm quite agile." The talking duck said, thumping her chest proudly. "Though I do wish I was as well versed with magic as my brother Donald is." Della exhaled a sigh. "Sadly, I only can cast the simplest Cure spells." She then grumbled to herself. "He should've taught me more than just those."

"Healing does help out a lot no matter the circumstances." Garrus stated.

Della blinked before smiling up at the Turian.

"You know what, you're absolutely right."

"Alright, so, you can handle yourself." Jane said. "But we still have a few more questions."

"What about?"

"First off, how the hell are you breathing without a helmet?" Kaidan asked straight away.

"Oh right. I've been able to survive in the ambient atmosphere of space thanks to this!"

Della reached into her pocket, pulled out something and tossed it over. Shepard caught the item before laying it flat on her palm to reveal… a pack of gum?

"Gyro's Oxy-Chew." Della reached into her mouth, stretched out a long strand of gum before releasing and having it snap back into her orifice. "Provides oxygen, water and nutrition."

"...Are you kidding me?" Ashley muttered in disbelief.

"Why would I? This gum saved my life and as you can clearly see, I have nothing else on me to provide me with breathable oxygen out in the vacuum of space."

"She's right on that one." Kaidan said aloud as he kept looking at anything mechanical on her to provide her on such things. Yet the only thing remotely mechanical was her robotic leg.

Della nodded and waved off some bits of concern. "At least this orange flavor I have on me now is far better than the previous batch I went through."

"How so?"

"The last one I had-had this growing flavor of black licorice which lasted for a decade. And that was on just one stick."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"How bad can black licorice be? Let alone why?"

"Because it's the worst flavor ever!" Della stated, stomping her mechanical foot. "You could have chosen any other flavor like Mint or basic bubble gum, Gyro. But noooo~ you just had to go with the gum that tastes like the bottom of a boot."

"Ok… let's just… calm down about the gum… part…" Jane said slowly. "How are we talking about this again?"

"What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing." Jane said, her mental state still a bit haywire.

Save all these difficult questions aside in order to save one's sanity.

"Come on, we can talk more along the way and at the base."

"Sweet. Let me grab a few things from my ship."

Seeing Della off, Ashley spoke up. "Why are you letting her come with, Skipper?"

"First off, first contact with a literal new alien species."

"I don't think a talking duck counts, Shepard." Kaidan interrupted.

"And Stitch barely counts as we're still trying to figure out a better way of understanding him." Tali added in.

"...Second, I don't want to leave her alone out here with more Heartless floating about." Shepard finished, giving her two companions a dry look. "So let's just get this over with before we go even more insane. I'd like to keep whatever semblance of my sanity I have left intact please and thank you."

"Whatever you say, Shepard."

"Oh shut up, Vakarian, you're no better than I am."

Della came back with what appeared to be a military grade backpack with an assortment of gadgets on her.

"Okay, let's shove off."

Hopping back into the Mako, Jane drove back towards the training facility. It took a number of minutes, but the Normandy team was able to resume their original assignment at hand.

"Huh, pretty good defense system here." Della said, stepping out of the Mako with only her gadgets and few weapons presently on hand as her backpack was left in the vehicle. "Far better than the one back on my planet's moon."

"What do you mean by that?" Garrus inquired.

"Well I should tell you that my planet's moon had this one civilization. Highly civilized they were, they honestly have not bothered to set up anything to defend themselves against the local wildlife."

"Like what?"

"These giant mite-like insects the size of these turrets here." Della informed them before she pulled out a notepad and started sketching.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, just some notes I'm taking down for next time." Della said. "Hopefully, my buddy Balthier will be back around to help my uncle and I fix up a better model of the ship. I've had enough crashes for a lifetime."

"Weren't you… shot down?"

"True but I'd like to have less of that please and thank you." Della declared.

As much as they'd like to inquire more on such details, this was not the time and place. Having already taken out the defensive turrets for the Alliance training base earlier before finding the crashed duck, it was a smooth ride back towards the facility.

Upon entering the facility, they were met with utter silence with the overhead lights lighting their way.

"So your ship," Tali leaned forward. "What did it utilize? Element Zero?"

"Element what now?" Della questioned.

"Element zero, or Eezo for short." Tali elaborated. "It's what every ship uses here for interstellar travel."

"Well, we don't have that where I'm from."

"Tali, different galaxy, remember?" Kaidan reminded her. "... Can't believe I just said that."

"At least you're not having yours fueled by precious metals."

"Like what exactly."

"My previous ship, the Spear of Selene SR-1, was fueled by gold." Della said with utter disdain.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Excuse me… Gold?"

"Yeah, ridiculous ain't it?"

"...You mean to tell me your previous ship was fueled by gold?"

"Who does that?"

"Yeah." Della groaned out. "Stupid Gyro had slipped in Gold-tech into it without me knowing; thinking so many planets out there had gold deposits for harvesting. Made getting off our planet's damn moon much harder. Luckily had a gold filling, which I forgot, and our moon's hidden space civilization had nothing but gold all over the place." She snorted. "The giant space-mites had quite the appetite for metal and gold was like a gormey to them. You guys can probably put things together.

"Now that's just dumb." Ashley plainly stated.

"Which one?"

"Both."

"The insect got over it… eventually. But on the former? I know, right? Thankfully when Gummi tech came around, my uncle Scrooge decided to have it integrated into any and all space crafts from here on out." Della said. "Far safer and easily to reconstruct from any form of damage."

"Are we really having a conversation with a talking duck?" Ashley asked, rounding the corner and checking their sights for anything out of the ordinary.

"Ash… just… drop it." Jane said in a defeated tone.

Della went on.

"Now though, Scrooge figured we should use the Gummi tech proper then always relying on our own." Della remarked. "Chip and Dale gave us a few of their schematics but Scrooge can't help but tinker with what we had before."

It was then did Tali halt her movement when hearing something particular a bit more.

"Wait, you said Gummi-tech. Like Gummi-blocks?"

"You know Gummi-blocks?!" Della asked in utter surprise.

The others looked at their Quarian companion with Kaidan asking the resounding question. "Wait, Tali, how do you know that term?"

"Roxas told me."

Kaidan exhaled a sigh. "Of course."

"Still, the question remains…"

"Oh right-"

"Can we discuss this back on the ship once we're done with this mission? Really do not wanna get distracted here." Shepard said, readying her weapon.

"Yeah sure, whatever you say Shepard." Della quickly said.

Upon entering one of the facilities rooms, they saw movement.

"Contact!"

Whipping out their weapons, the group quickly shot down a number of drones flying about. Retaliating fire came soon after, making them duck for cover.

Heh, duck for cover. And they had a duck in their group…

Ok, enough of that.

"Tali."

"On it!"

With her Omni-Tool out, her fingers tapped away rapidly until the drones closest to them short circuited.

Garrus and Ashley popped out from their cover and quickly shot them down.

The other remaining drones were quickly caught in Biotic stasis fields courtesy of Kaidan and Shepard with the duo sending them crashing into the walls.

"Whoa~" Della uttered out, blinking a moment later. "Ah, dang it, I didn't get to do anything."

"Come on, we still have the rest of the base to clear out." Jane ordered, the group moving forward through the base.

"How'd you do that anyways? Magic?" Della asked, looking up to the Commander.

"Space magic if you wanna refer to it like that."

"Eh~ seems offensive if I try to do that. Almost like saying that certain space doors are made out of what, galactic mithril?"

With the one room clear, the group went onto the connecting hallways to enter the next areas. There they were able to repeat the same process as before.

This time, Della was quick on the action and pulled out her weapons.

From her holster, she whipped out a yellow blaster. Pulling the trigger, a stream of condensed lighting blasted out and struck a number of synthetic drones. They spasmed before collapsing to the ground in a heaping pile of smoldering metal.

"Damn, what is that?"

With the last of the present drones taken care of, Della spoke to Ashley. "This here is a Lumarian blaster. Fires condensed electrical charges. While harmful to organics if the settings are set high enough."

"And given what we just witnessed with these drones; they do a lot more damage." Shepard quickly said.

"Exactly."

"It's almost like my one Omni-tool amp." Tali piped up, drawing a quick look from the duck woman. "I'll tell you more specifics along the way."

"Got it."

"Pretty nice weapon there, Della." Garrus commented. "Though not as well as my trusty sniper rifle."

"Do you ever leave it behind the ship, Garrus?" Kaidan inquired with a chuckle.

"After what we've been through, Kaidan, it's staying on my person almost every time I'm out."

"No arguments there." Ashley said aloud as the group of six traversed further into the first bunker.

Meanwhile, in orbit over the Moon, the Normandy continued drifting there as they awaited the completion of Shepard's mission.

Joker was humming along to the Elvis track being played by Stitch with the blue life form doing the same.

Taking a moment to check up on the status of Shepard's whereabouts, something pinged on the Normandy's scanner.

Blinking, Joker brought it up to see what it was.

"Hey Presley, you reading this?"

"Reading wha- The hell?"

"What is-"

The alarms then began to blare, the crew immediately began getting to work to get the Normandy's defenses up.

Joker only looked ahead, his eyes widening upon seeing what was appearing before the ship.

Multiple smaller fighters were appearing with several particularly bigger ones following suit.

And they weren't appearing the way that all ships do in this galaxy via the Mass Relays.

No these ships were quite literally popping up in and around the Normandy.

And they all had one unifying symbol plastered on each ship.

The Emblem of the Heartless.

"Oh, fuck me." Joker said, instantly going into evasive maneuvers.

"Am I seeing things?"

"That's impossible, we shouldn't have any hostiles this close to our homeworld."

"Tell them that."

"Oh boy, brace for evasive maneuvers!"

Joker pivoted the ship about as the Heartless began firing upon the Normandy some stray shots striking the ship.

"Shields at 80 percent."

"What the-? That was only four shots."

"We're dealing with the Heartless Joker." Liara T'soni's voice chimed in from her area in the ship.

"I can see that, but seriously?!" Joker growled, narrowly dodging a slew of rockets.

"Joker."

Oh great, it was the Commander.

"Joker, what's going on up there?"

"Heartless, Commander." Joker stressed out, the ship flying up high and away from the moon with a slew of Heartless following after it. "Got a bunch of Heartless fighters on our ass."

"Get out of there, Joker."

"And leave you behind, Commander? No can do." Joker grunted.

"Ready the guns." XO Presley shouted out.

"We'll handle ourselves up here, Commander." Joker assured. "You just do what you need to. Don't worry about us."

Stitch, seeing what they are up against from the cockpit's window, narrowed his eyes. With a determined look, he ran as fast as he could to the hangar downstairs.

"Stitch! Where ya going?!" Joker yelled out right before he had to quickly focus on the present opposition flying around them.

It took little time at all for the blue furred alien to reach his red space cruiser as he started slipping on the harnesses upon entering. He then closed the glass domed hatch and booted up the systems, making it roar to life.

"The hell, he repaired his ship?! When'd he do that?!" Squawked the Krogan, who stood nearby.

Entering the comms, Stitch patched up to the Normandy's cockpit.

"Joka! Open hatch!"

"What the-Stitch? But-"

"Open now!"

"Okay, okay fine!"

Overhearing what Stitch ordered, the present occupants in the hangar ran to safety.

"Oh for the love of- warn us next time, fur ball!" Said Wrex, scrambling out of the hangar as fast as he could so he won't be sucked out.

When the hatch was opened up, Stitch floored the pedal and had his cruiser move in reverse to zoom out of the Normandy. After a few moments of briefly drifting in space, the ship's thrusters flared to life as he started zooming through Luna's orbit.

Seeing the large assemblage of Heartless Gummi Ships flying around the Normandy, Stitch growled aloud as he thrusted his controls forward, rocketing straight towards them.

Pressing a button and pulling a switch, Stitch had his cruiser pull out its automated turret. Once it started spinning, it fired a stream of green projectiles.

The moment they flew, the cruiser's arsenal was plowing through the Heartless with utter ease.

Once the present amount was taken care of, Stitch maneuvered around to head towards the retreating Normandy. Getting in close, he shot down a number of tailing Heartless before zooming in front of the Normandy.

Wanting to get the pilot's attention, he honked the horn.

Hearing the unusual sound, he and the other occupants in the cockpit saw what was happening.

"What the-Stitch?"

Over the comms, those in the cockpit heard Stitch's cackle before seeing the cruiser rush forward to take care of more of the attacking Heartless with all sorts of sounds going off.

"Wait, when the hell did his ship have police sirens?"

"You're focused on that? I'm more attentive on that turret on its belly."

"And look at it go!"

The turret was tearing right through the Heartless, Stitch performing accel spins for a greater range of fire that took down the ships in droves.

He laughed aloud gleefully at the mayhem, when his ship jolted from a shot that came from behind.

Growling, he looked back to see more Heartless ships appearing and zooming past him.

Nearby, the Normandy was firing back now at the Heartless that got within sight with the entire crew working at full capacity.

The Heartless just kept on coming with every system being utilized to its fullest effect save for the stealth features.

No point in that really when in an open firefight.

"Contact!" A crewman shouted. "And it's a big one."

Stitch angled his ship around to see a new Gummi Heartless appear.

It was mechanical in appearance, as most of the Gummi Heartless were.

It had a green head with it being shaped as a flying saucer. The usual glowing yellow eyes were present with the black head being encased in a glass dome with a short yellow antenna on it. The base of the head was decorated with a jagged, yellow line.

There were four long, thin wings with two on either side of the body all being color yellow with a red angular spiral pattern decorating them. A short tube connected the abdomen to what was the main body and on the abdomen was the Heartless insignia emblazoned on it.

"Looks like a Dragonfly." Joker said aloud.

"Really?"

"Do you have a better name for what I'm seeing?"

"Guess you're right."

The Normandy's cannons opened fire upon these newly present Heartless with Stitch's cruiser charging in to assist his ally.

It took a bit of time to deal with this present enemy, but the pair got the job done.

As they kept destroying the Heartless, those in the cockpit were seeing a number of… colorful things… floating about.

"What the hell is all this debris?" Presley demanded. "They aren't like anything I've ever seen."

"I don't know but they seem to be bouncing off our hull." Spoke one of the servicemen.

"Are they damaging us?"

"I... don't think so." Joker informed, quickly checking the readings and saw everything was alright, aside from the already previous damage reports.

Presley hummed to himself for a little moment. "We'll check the stuff later. For now, they're just a distraction."

"You're right about that." Said the pilot. "Blocking up some of my visuals."

Soon enough, the Normandy whirled around to combat more of these Heartless.

Getting out of the first bunker, the team of six were quick to get into the Mako and drove off towards their next destination.

"You did good down there, Della."

"Thanks. All those years of adventuring have been paying off."

"And what did you do exactly with these adventuring escapades?"

"For a while, it was mostly archaeology, exploring all these dangerous tombs and temples to loot all sorts of artifacts. Not to mention all of the swashbuckling escapades I had to do along the way."

"Oh like Tomb Raider."

"Or Indiana Jones."

Della turned to Kaidan and Ashley with a confused look. "Who?"

"Sorry, human fictional characters. They were pretty much like what you were describing yourself." Shepard said quickly, soon swerving to avoid the coming turret fire.

"Gotcha."

"What else did you do?" Asked Tali.

"Help around my uncle's company on occasions while I pilot a lot of aircrafts here and there."

"Huh, another flyer."

"Wonder how well you'll get chatting with Joker and Stitch."

"Friends, I take it."

"Joker's our pilot and Stitch… is an enthusiast, I think." Jane remarked.

"No doubt Joker will be a better conversationalist for ya."

"Why's that?"

"Can hardly understand what Stitch is saying half the time. And we're not joking about that." Tali clarified.

"Okay."

"Besides, seeing how things are so far with ya, you and Joker might get along well."

"Might?"

"As long as you don't mess around with his controls-"

"Oh believe me, I understand completely." Della remarked. "Moment you said messing with his controls, reminded me of my old partners Brathier and Fran. Those two always made sure to keep their ship running under their terms. Always took pride in that." She then laughed a little. "And then there's Launchpad… boy he's something..."

"Bad experience?" Ashley surmised, clearly hearing the tone Della used a bit ago.

"A book's worth." Della groaned, running her hand over her face. "He's my co-pilot and he's not a great flyer at all. Keeps crashing all over, no matter what vehicle he's driving. Doesn't even know most of the jargons when properly operating and repairing said vehicles."

The Normandy members shared a concerned, confused look.

"Why do you have him as your co-pilot if he's that bad?" Tali asked aloud.

"Out of pity, for one. And two he works directly under my uncle so he has the big say if he gets laid off or not. And three… sad to say but Launchpad has saved our hides a number of dire occasions with his odd antics, so things evened out to some degree."

"Still, that doesn't give him the excuse of still being your co-pilot."

"I know, I know and I've been trying to teach him every time I got when he's available so he can get better and do his own thing one day."

"And has he gotten better under your tutelage?" Garrus asked as he fired the Mako's gun at the turrets they were coming up towards.

"I'd like to think so." Della stated. "Hasn't crashed in a while so that counts for something."

"At least he's progressing."

"Though I do think he has an attention disorder, so there's that to contribute." Della noted.

"Didn't you crash here?" Tali pointed out.

"Shot down, there's a distinct difference." Della countered. "And no, Launchpad's habits are not contagious."

"How is attention disorder contagious?" Kaidan asked, looking to Ashley who shrugged in defeat.

"I don't know. We're talking about a duck that has a mental disorder and can apparently fly ships." Ashley stated. "You tell me, Alenko."

"Not disorder, just… Ugh forget it."

As the Mako drove across the surface of the moon, Jane saw the Normandy fly by with a strange, winged Gummi Heartless in pursuit with a smaller familiar red ship following after them both.

She wanted to help her pilot and ship out but she would have to trust her crew to take care of themselves.

Joker was the best pilot in the Alliance for a reason.

"What the hell was that?"

"Duh, a Heartless." Della said quickly as she barely gazed out of the Mako's window. "And by the looks of it, it's a Gummi type; a… Dragonfly if I got it right."

"...There are more types?"

"Yeup in all of the colors of the disturbing rainbow."

"Let's focus on this next bunker, people." Shepard said, halting the vehicle to a momentary stop to give Garrus a clearer shot at the last turret. Once done, they exited the vehicle and went into the next bunker.

As they entered, the place seemed empty for the most part though they knew that the Alliance Drones were just waiting around the corner in the next room.

Soon as the door had opened to where the drones were most likely stationed, Jane jolted back with her arms outstretched wide to shove the team back from the barrage of rockets sent their way.

"What the hell?!" Ashley exclaimed.

"Yikes! These drones mean business." Della said nervously.

"Sabotage and dampening fields, now!" Shepard ordered out, Tali and Garrus getting quick to work to follow through with Shepards commands.

Once that was handled, the closest drones to them were unable to fire with the team firing back at the wave drones coming their way.

"Okay, this is clearly wrong." Garrus noted, quickly firing at the drones appearing left and right.

"What kind of intel did Hackett give us?!" Ashley yelled out, firing her shotgun left and right. "This is a small army for Pete's sake!"

"Son *BANG* of *BANG* a *BANG* Bitch!" Kaidan swore, using his own shotgun to take down a few drones near him. Feeling claustrophobic all of a sudden, he used his biotics to throw a number of them away in order to give himself space.

Ducking behind some cover, Garrus had set his sniper rifle to go through an updated feature. Once ready, he peered down the scope and analyzed the readout of the coming drones. When the circle around the crosshairs shifted from red to green, the Turian pulled the trigger. His shot fired out and immediately broke off into a dozen or so separate rounds which almost a dozen drones responded to.

Getting behind cover once more, Garrus had to reload the special load as he spoke aloud.

"Spirits, I love this gun. Damn shame I can't do more in this bunker with it."

"I feel ya, Garrus." Della said, firing off her Lunarian blaster. "This place is more suited for a pistol or a shotgun." She then tossed a couple of grenades. They exploded with an EMP blast going off and short circuiting a good chunk of enemies.

Seeing this, Garrus held out his hand. "Can I have some?"

"Sure, why not. Knock yourself out."

Tossing over a few, Garrus had his visor get a quick scan, he let out a loud whistle as Della charged into the fray.

"What's up, Garrus?" Shepard questioned, releasing a biotic warp around the area.

"From what I'm seeing, Della's grenades are really strong. Like strong enough that if we're not careful our suits will go haywire and shut down."

"That bad, huh?" Tali questioned, firing her Geth Pulse Rifle. Once a number was down, she hacked one of the drones and had it fire upon its allies.

"Like needing to replace the suits, bad."

"...Alrighty then. We'll be a bit more careful with those, I guess."

"Then take cover people!" Warned the Turian, waiting a few seconds before he activated the bomb and tossed it overhead.

Not long after, it went off and nearly the rest of the drones fell to the ground.

"Man that was intense." Kaidan commented, coming out of cover and inspected the ruined drones littering the floor.

"More like awesome." Shepard said with a grin.

"You're welcome by the way." Della said, walking over to the group with a big smug grin.

"Which we are very thankful for." Garrus said as he gazed around the wreckage. "Okay, I gotta ask, but why this many drones?"

The lieutenant soon took note of a number of drones and saw how unusual they were. "Now that you mention it, some of these models should not be present here from what I saw in Hackett's reports on this place."

"Makes you wonder what's actually happening here." Ashley commented as they went to disable the bunker in another room. "Asides from this facility being a testing and training base."

"Do you think Admiral Hackett mentioned anything else about this place?" Garrus asked the commander.

"No." Shepard gave her reason. "Anderson told me Hackett is the type of man who doesn't bother beating around the bush."

"So maybe it's something else." Tali guessed.

"The saboteur, most likely." Della said, commenting about what details she learned back in the first bunker. "Would not be surprised if that were the case."

"You sure about that?"

"Shep, with the life I lived and experienced, that is the most likely option to consider."

"Okay… if that were the case, then why do all of this."

"Hopefully, the main bunker will finally shed some answers."

When they finished up disabling the bunker, Della spoke a very interesting question.

"Hey, should these bunkers have any defensive measures?"

"They should." Ashley informed the duck woman. "All military facilities have to have them. Standard procedure."

"Right. Then why weren't any triggered and activated?"

This made the group rather worried about what is being implied here as they eventually left to head towards the final bunker for the mission.

Back with Joker, the Normandy pilot had his teeth clenched as he was making the Normandy "dance" to keep the damn Heartless off his back.

The maneuvers that he pulled off would normally seem impossible to most.

But dammit, he was the best and he was not gonna let that title go to waste nor let down his crew.

"Come on you bastard." Joker muttered, angling the ship out of the way and slowing it down enough for the Dragonfly Gummi Heartless to zip past him.

"Gotcha." Joker declared, firing the Normandy's primary cannons at the Heartless.

The shots impacted the Dragonfly, the Gummi Heartless jerking about upon every impact until the wings glowed and flapped them forward.

Joker's jaw could only get so slack upon seeing the Heartless literally blow the shots being fired at it away.

"... Fuck that noise." Jeff "Joker" Moreau said. "That is such bullshit, that's not even close to fair."

"Joker!"

"Yeah I know Presley." Joker said, instantly firing again. "Stitch, where the hell are ya? This bastard is being a severe pain in the ass!"

"Coming!" was Stitch's response, the Normandy pilot quickly seeing the red ship fly out in front of his, firing at the Dragonfly Heartless.

It flew upwards, Stitch angling his ship up to pursue it.

"What's the status of the ship?" XO Presley said aloud, the Normandy's VI responding a moment later.

"Ships life support systems 100%. Ships weapons systems 82%. Shields at 35%. Hull breach detected."

"Hull breach? When the hell did that happen?" Joker said in alarm.

"We are handling that right now, Joker." Liara's voice chimed through the comms. "You just keep piloting the ship, Joker. We'll fix up what we can."

Much as he wanted to get out of the fight, now wasn't the time for such a thing.

And besides, who was he to run from a challenge.

"Alright you twitchy bug freak." Joker said determinedly. "Time to show you who's the ace pilot."

The Normandy's engines flared, the Alliance ship blasting forward after the Dragonfly to join Stitch in taking it out.

Its weapons were on full blast, riddling the Dragonfly with its firepower.

The Heartless was now on the defensive, constantly trying to get some distance from the Normandy and Stitch's red ship that needed a name but neither gave it any room or quarter. They kept at, tag teaming against the Heartless until at last…

"GOTCHA YA BASTARD!" Joker roared aloud in euphoria, watching multiple explosions go off around the Heartless until it exploded entirely.

Over the comms, the rest of the crew cheered in victory, Stitch being heard the loudest with his cackling glee.

Joker slumped back into his chair, a large grin present upon his face as he saw no new enemy Heartless ships appear.

Lazily, he reached forward to contact the Commander.

"Shepard? Skies are all clear up here."

"That's great to hear, Joker." Came the grunt of a response from the Commander who was clearly in the middle of a firefight. "How's the ship?"

"In one piece."

"That doesn't sound very promising."

"Ah shut up Williams, you weren't up here. Right Stitch?"

"Yeah!"

"Oh buzz off, ya damn furball."

"Standing by Commander." Joker said. "Waiting on you guys."

"Good to know." Shepard remarked, a stray bullet whizzing by her head.

Back down with the ground crew, they had at long last gotten to the last bunker of the Lunar base and were cleaning up the last of the Drones while taking care of the VI conduits.

When the last of the VI consoles were disabled, all comms blared to life. It surprised and startled the Normandy members as they still wore their helmets.

"The hell was that?"

"I don't know."

"I think I'm seeing something."

"Where?"

"On my head's up display."

Some of the members paid a bit more attentive now and saw a series of 0's and 1's going on and off.

"What does this mean?"

Della quickly pulled out her tablet device and did a scan. "Let me check."

Soon enough the 0's and 1's were displayed before she went through a certain application to decode what she's finding.

"H'boy, that's interesting."

As this was spoken, the overhead lights went out with the only things lighting the room were some lights coming from the team's suits and Della's tablet.

"What you got, Della?"

"A couple of things really." Della scrolled a little on the findings. "I was right about the saboteur idea as someone was tampering with the systems."

"What for?"

"From what I'm seeing here… it was for an experiment of some kind."

"An experiment?"

"Yeah, by the coding I got translated, it seems someone was trying to see if they can control… an AI?"

"Control an AI?" Tali said quickly. "Are you certain, Della?"

The duck woman handed her tablet over to the Quarian. "You can check it if you want."

"Clearly that didn't work out so well." Garrus quickly commented.

"Right." Shepard said firmly. "Della, if you would be so kind as to forward this data to us, I believe the Alliance would be happy to look after it."

"Yeah will do, Shep."

Nodding, Shepard radioed Joker as they were exiting the main bunker. "We could use that pick up now, Joker."

"Coming your way, Commander. Anything else to expect from this crazy assignment?"

Jane snorted along with the rest of her team. "Oh yeah, Joker." She said gazing at the easy-go-lucky duck woman as she was conversing with Tali on her interesting tech on her person. "We definitely have something."

"Is it good?"

"Oh she's definitely good."

"...Why did you say 'she'?"

-Scene Cut-

The Normandy was docked in a port on Earth within the city of London.

It had received a bit of damage from the Heartless and was undergoing repairs while the ground team of the Normandy had been called for a meeting with the man who had brought the Lunar situation to them.

Stitch's cruiser would've docked in the Normandy right away, yet he was asked by Presley to help gather whatever materials were floating in Luna's orbit for inspection. There were no remains of Heartless before, but whatever the debris was-was the next best thing.

When seeing the gathered items, Della revealed something rather interesting to the ship's occupants.

"Huh, that's quite a lot of Gummi-blocks you got here. Big ones at that as well."

Della went on to explain a number of details about the Gummi-blocks. One of which was used as building materials like needing to help repair certain breaches. And Della demonstrated by helping out in repairing the hull.

What should take hours was cut to less than an hour.

Even if Della said the blocks can hold the ship together, Shepard and Presley didn't want to take any chances if they were to come apart all of a sudden. And the duck woman was understanding.

Presently, the Normandy ground crew stood nearby the airlock with Hackett before them.

"Admiral sir." Shepard saluted the man with Ashley, Kaidan and Garrus doing the same. Though he wasn't part of the Alliance, saluting those of higher ranking was drilled into all Turians, no exceptions.

The rest simply stood at attention as the Admiral looked them over.

Though, upon reaching the end of the line, it was quite easy which ones out of the group would garner his complete and immediate attention.

Stitch who at first stood at attention was now gobbling on a cake that he had… somehow.

Della Duck, however, remained at comical attention with her chest puffed out and hand snapped in salute for the Admiral.

"Shepard… what-"

"It's difficult to explain sir." Shepard said with a tired look. "And sir… I'm still trying to wrap my mind around everything we learned today."

When Della came aboard the Normandy, she clearly turned heads with many people quickly wanting to get into First Contact protocol. After all, who can ever see a living, breathing, anthropomorphic, sentient being without hallucinating?

And that's not excluding Stitch.

"Admiral Hackett, sir." Shepard said. "We found Stitch here on Feros. As for Ms.… Duck, she was on our moon after her ship crash landed."

Hackett gazed upon the walking, talking duck with an unreadable expression.

"Hiya, Admiral Hackett." Della greeted the high ranking officer with a smile. "Nice to meet ya, Della Duck, adventurer extraordinaire from the Ōkoku galaxy. I can understand we have a whole lot of things to discuss."

Turning back over to Shepard after several moments, once giving the duck woman a firm handshake, he asked her a question. "Are there any other surprises for me, Commander?"

Before a response could be given, something happened nearby, quickly drawing everyone's attention.

"What the hell?"

What Hackett was seeing was a Dark Corridor forming. Looking back, he expected to see the shocked expressions, only to find none at all.

Only except a bit of weariness and… hopefulness?

"...Does that count?"

When the Normandy Crew took a moment to look over at the newly formed Corridor, they noticed immediately that this one was noticeably larger than the usual slimmer variations they had seen Roxas use.

And speaking of Roxas…

From the Corridor, out stepped their wayward teammate. And he wasn't alone.

Right behind him came out two other people, both of which wore the black cloak that he had on.

One was a tall red-head with purple teardrop tattoos under his eyes and appeared to be significantly older, if not closer to Shepard, Ash and Kaidan's age. The second was a young black haired, blue eyed girl who was roughly Roxas' age.

Seeing the assembly of people in front of them, Axel addressed his young friend. "Huh… did you call your pals ahead of time, Roxas?"

"No… I didn't." Roxas said, pleasantly surprised at seeing all his friends present.

"That would at least explain their expressions."

"R-Roxas!" Shepard exclaimed, forgetting her military training and walking right up to him to deliver a small bonk on his head.

"Ow" Roxas whined, comically rubbing his head only for him to get ensnared by one Ashley Williams who was now giving him… "Noooo, not another noogie!"

"This is the first of a thousand ya little jerk." Ashley growled out, really digging his fist into his head. "This is what ya get for making us worry like that."

Roxas couldn't even breath with Stitch immediately jumping on his face, squeezing him tightly.

Watching from the sidelines, Wrex released a bellow of a laugh. "Serves you right, runt."

Kaidan and Garrus merely chuckled when seeing the scene before them. And Liara merely smiled at seeing his return.

Tali, however, was rather silent.

Once released from Ashley's hold, the sandy blonde massaged his head. He soon looked over to Della, stating the obvious. "She's new."

"Yeah, picked her up at the nearby moon."

Della was staring up at Roxas with her eyes wide and jaw on the floor.

"...Ven? Ven is that you?"

"Huh?"

Suddenly Della leaped and tackled Roxas to the ground.

"Ven! It's so good to see you again!" Della was squeezing the life out of him.

"GAH! You're squeezing too hard!"

After gushing for a little moment, Della's happy expression quickly shifted into one of a confused realization.

"Wait a second, how the heck are you still a teen? You should be an adult by now! It's been ten years!" Della exclaimed. "Wait, are you his kid?! Hang on, you literally look just like him around when I saw him last. Wait… are you a time traveler? Ven is it you?!"

Finally, Roxas managed to lightly push Della away with him looking completely disheveled.

"No I'm not a time traveler, I'm just Roxas."

"Roxas? That's a strange name."

"That's what's strange to you?!" Tali, Garrus, Ash and Kaidan all exclaimed at the same time.

"Oh… uh… right."

"What's up with this whole 'time traveler' thing?" Kaidan asked aloud.

"...I've had a very peculiar, interesting life." Della said with a sheepish smile. She then realized she was still standing on Roxas, hopping off with an apologetic look to her face. "Right, sorry about that. You just looked like a friend I met a decade ago."

As the Anthropomorphic duck said this, one of the two newcomers found himself tensing up though it was missed by all present since the focus was solely on the Duck and sandy blond haired teen.

She coughed into her hand and gave herself a proper introduction. "Name's Della Duck."

"Right and you already know my name."

"Yeah, Roxas, right?" he nodded in confirmation before squinting his eyes at Della.

"Say… I'm just shooting in the dark here, but does the name Donald Duck ring a bell?"

Della gaped. "How do you know my brother?"

"Oh, he's your brother?"

"Yes, now answer the question!" she asked frantically.

"We met him not long ago."

"Really?!" Della then bombarded the young Nobody with question after question. "How is he? Where is he? Is he still with Goofy and that Sora kid on their adventure to-"

"Yes, they're alright." Roxas interrupted.

"Last we saw them was back in Twilight Town with King Mickey before going to Yen Sid's place, wherever that's at." Axel informed the duck woman.

It was then at last, everyone turned to the two newcomers that had arrived with Roxas.

"Roxas." Shepard said slowly. "Who are these two?"

No. XIII glanced back to his two friends before turning back to Shepard.

"These are my friends, Shepard." Roxas revealed. "Axel and Xion."

"Axel and Xion?" Jane murmured, recognizing those names. "From that Organization you mentioned?"

"The very same." Roxas confirmed.

The rest of the team regarded them warily when the tall red head stepped forward with a disarming smile.

"Hey there." No. VIII greeted "cheerfully". "You must be the ones that have been looking out for the walking zombie. You have my thanks."

"Walking zombie?" The group murmured.

"I wasn't that bad." Roxas retorted in a grumpy voice making his first friend chuckle.

"Pleased to meet you all. The name's Axel. Got it memorized?"

Roxas smirked slightly at that. He would use every chance presented to him to use that phrase of his.

"Um… Hello." No. XIV said timidly. "I'm uh… I'm Xion."

The little interaction was abruptly cut off when one Admiral Hackett cleared his throat aloud.

"As... Ms. Duck here... said earlier before things went off tangent, we have a lot of things to discuss." Hackett seemed to really be trying to process what was happening here but was barely getting by. "Shepard, if you would."

Shepard nodded as she ushered the 5th Fleet Admiral to the comm room so they could be able to get things underway.

As everyone followed after them, a few people lagged behind.

"Roxas." Ashley said, throwing her arm around the young man. "You damn moron, don't go disappearing on us like that again! Do you have any idea how worried we all were?"

"Speak for yourself, Gunney." Wrex piped up.

"Oh don't even with your tough guy act, Wrex." Ash shot back at him with an accusatory scoff.

"Yeah, you should have seen the big lug." Garrus said, nudging Roxas with his elbow.

"So, you two know Roxas?" Liara said, addressing Axel and Xion.

"Oh yeah, we go way back." Axel remarked with a casual grin. "Showed Roxas the ropes on how to do just about everything. Xion here included."

"That's not true." Xion said with a slight put with Axel ruffling her hair a moment later.

The rest of the group was unsure as to what to ask because to be frank, they didn't know where to start.

"Guys!"

They looked ahead to see Shepard waiting for them.

"Come on, Admiral Hackett wants the full report from all of us."

"Then we'll just wait out here." Axel declared, leaning on the hallway.

"What?"

"We're not army, lady." Axel pointed out. "Hell, we just got here."

Shepard wanted to dispute that but… he did kind of have a point. Hackett wasn't gonna like this.

She was about to persuade the new arrivals in coming with them, due to Hackett being curious about them and wanted to talk to them; yet she saw her Quarian teammate acting odd.

"Tali?"

The Quarian was unusually silent with her appearing to be adamant on not speaking. More specifically, not speaking to someone.

And using her girl's intuition, she could hazard a guess as to who it was.

She looked over to Roxas who was closest to her and noticed how he kept giving glances towards Tali.

Jane sighed, placing a hand on Roxas' shoulder.

He looked up at her and she gave him an expectant look.

"You can talk to her later." Shepard softly said. "Right now, we have a lot to discuss with Admiral Hackett alright?"

Roxas only nodded slowly, still unsure as to what he had just returned to. Best just get one with it.

The Normandy team save for the two newest arrivals went in for a full debriefing with the Admiral.

They had quickly gone over the mission that they undertook to the Alliance Lunar base which in turn led them to encountering Della Duck.

From there, well, it spiraled into exposition madness.

From the reveal of life being present in other galaxies, the Heartless, magic, the Moogle on the ship, Stitch, Roxas' capabilities, their upgraded weapons and so on and so forth.

Eventually, the topic of Gummi's came up, something that completely enraptured the attention of the Admiral. More so with the nearest completed ship is still on the Earth's moon.

From what Della Duck had described it as, this was how she traversed to different worlds, let alone different galaxies.

Basically, the crew has just discovered an entirely different means of interstellar travel and from what Della was insinuating, faster than light travel as well.

When they took a moment to consider what she had just said… it essentially is about to change everything.

Much as he wished to discuss more, Hackett saw that the team had undergone a great deal of trials recently and from the sudden return of this Roxas, they were anxious to catch up with him.

He also wished to speak more personally to this Roxas boy but Hackett knew when not to overstep his boundaries.

Much as he would like to pull rank, throw the human card on Shepard and ask her for a private debriefing with the boy, he had more decency then that.

So with all that mattered for the most part out of the way for the time being, Hackett dismissed the Commander and her crew, departing from the ship with a great deal more questions than answers.

Something the crew of the Normandy had for Roxas and his two friends he had brought on board.

So we're basically on fire right now with our fingers made of literal lightning.

Kinda going crazy is underplaying it with just how fast we got these chapters out back-to-back. But that's what happens when two minds are synchronized to the point where these chapters just write themselves basically.

This is what happens when two minds understand franchises so well that we leave no stone unturned.

Jebest4781: Now if you guys are wondering, Disna is gonna be labeled as the general combined world of Disney Castle, Disney Town and a few other Disney properties which associate with the series of Ducktales, Goof Troop and a lot of things.

FMW: And if you're wondering, Ōkoku translates to Kingdom in Japanese. At first I wanted to name the KH "Galaxy" or conglomerate of worlds really simply the Kingdom Hearts galaxy but in Japanese. You know what it came out to? Kingdamhatsu. Yeah, sticking with Ōkoku.

That's all we got for now folks.

Those reviews were awesome and loved the reaction to everyone just jumping at the part with the canon divergence.

We are truly well on our way now.

And this is a string of chapters that is basically the gigantic setup to it all. The dominoes have begun to fall.

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.