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.

17. The Winds of the Cosmos

Nothing to say everyone other than, thank you for the overwhelming positive reviews for the inclusion of Treasure Planet as a world.

Mandalorian Season 2.

Awesome shit brewing

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.

I'm Nobody Chapter 17: The Winds of the Cosmos

Within the cosmic winds of the Etherium, the ship known as the R.L.S Legacy calmly drifted over clouds with the solar sails fully charged.

It was "nighttime" within the Etherium, the skies around them being entirely dark save for the endless dots of stars off in the light year distances that they were.

Really, it was hard to put down how the laws of physics, night, day and breathing in space for that matter functioned here.

But for a man like Axel, these questions held little value to the Nobody.

Atop the lookout post of the Legacy, Axel sat casually on the edge of the circular railing being completely nonplussed by the height and movement of the ship.

In his hand, a bar of sea-salt ice cream to nibble on as he gazed out at the endless sea of stars.

The crew was asleep for the most part with maybe several of them being awake but that didn't matter to the red head.

Right now, he just needed to keep watch of anything that would cause trouble for the ship.

Easy.

"Surprised you're still awake, Axel."

He didn't have to look back to clarify Shepard walking up to him.

"In case you forgot, I'm a night guardsman tonight."

With the ship's watch, at least two members of the crew needed to be present on deck at every hour to respond to emergencies and hazards ensuring that the voyage would run smoothly. Every four hours, the watchmen's shift ends with some others replacing them for the next go around.

Axel knew the basics when he was back on the Normandy, but it was now being a bit more enforced now that he was on the R.L.S. Legacy as it was his turn as a watchman this night.

"I know that. I'm more referring to the meal back in the galley."

The Flurry of Dancing Flames chuckled. "Yeah, a lot of people were really satisfied with the meal Silver and Roxas made. Most of them are basically passed out by now."

"Did you know he could cook like that?"

"No I did not." Axel said. "But he did admit that Silver did most of the work."

"Seems I'll be needing to thank Silver on whatever he's been teaching him." Shepard remarked, leaning against the railing.

During the past, several days since leaving the Montressor Spaceport, Mr. Silver has been teaching Jim, Xion and Roxas while they weren't doing their chores on the ship. It was mostly his interpretation to iron out whatever problems they had, skill or personality wise.

It started out with simple chores and tasks for the most part really.

Cleaning the ship all over, looking out for clothing of the crew and such.

Then came removing a whole plethora of barnacles that were all over the bottom of the Legacy.

How those came onto the ship, out in space of all places, is beyond their knowledge. Only something the natives of this galaxy would really know.

Then again… they were moving through space via a Galleon that would fit quite well into ancient human times during the Victorian era of Europe. A ship in space where they could breathe naturally with no problems.

So what do they know?

All they really knew was that Roxas and Jim were down there for hours, Xion having joined them sometime later to help out as there were just so many.

Honestly, Roxas and Xion may have a great deal of endurance and stamina but even they felt a bit winded in constantly having to scrape or pry off the barnacles below the ship. They were all quite sore the very next day.

"Seen that Solar Surfboard of Jim's when I was passing by Tali's station earlier." Axel noted. "Gotta say, it looks pretty interesting."

"Tali has been asking a lot from Jim during his lessons under her." Shepard said. "He's quite handy with a wrench and few tools. Quick study, she told me."

Axel only hummed in interest, finishing his ice cream and leaving the stick in the corner of his mouth.

"How many of those can you eat in a day?" Shepard found herself asking suddenly with Axel looking at her in confusion.

She silently pointed at the ice cream stick he had in his mouth with him shrugging.

"I dunno, never tried to see how many I could have." Axel said, making Shepard chuckle lightly.

"Course not."

The two remained silent for a few seconds, idly gazing out at the endless expanse in a comfortable silence.

"Comfortable?" Shepard asked after a few seconds.

"Hmmm?"

"Sitting there. Like that." She clarified.

Axel looked down at his position before shrugging.

"Meh, never bothered me."

"Really this height doesn't-"

Shepard was cut off when Axel tapped her shoulder, making her look to him to see him point down below.

There, she saw Dr. Doppler standing towards the front of the ship with a specially made telescope that he used to observe the stars off in the distance. And on occasions, he would break away, take notes and mutter aloud on some stuff that might affect the voyage.

"Our resident astrophysicist keeping himself busy, I see." Jane remarked.

"Never understood the interest in stars other than them looking pretty." Axel commented. "The only time I did was when the Worlds were falling into darkness one by one."

"You still sure it's not because of supernovas?"

"They would happen on your end, the other occurred in mine."

The Human Spectre only hummed for a moment.

It wasn't long before they saw the ship's captain coming onto the deck with the two slowly conversing with each other. And by the looks of it, things were a tad tense on the atmosphere around them. But from what Axel and Shepard could barely make out, things were a little cordial in the new line of conversation.

"You keep track of what number of arguments the captain and the doc are at now?" Axel inquired a second later. "I think I got ten."

"Lost at about a dozen by this point."

It mostly started out a little simple with Amelia having to remind Doppler on what time he needed to report to the galley for dinner when he almost missed it the first night out. Using military lingo with the twenty-four hours to signify the times of the day, which Doppler was clueless about. Then it progressed with him being informed he needed to take part of the watchmen's duty as he's a part of the ship.

"B-But I'm not a ship hand, Captain." Doppler protested. "You cannot expect me to be able to work like a crew member!"

"Everyone on board must pull their weight." Amelia argued. "Even with this skeleton of a crew you hired and the people I brought with, we need every set of eyes we have on watch and that includes yours."

Thus the arguments began as the pair clashed every so often. It was a literal experience to see a dog and cat fighting against each other, even if it wasn't physical at all. Mostly detailing on who had the higher ground in terms of positions with Doppler being the financier to Amelia being the captain.

It was entertaining at first, but things quickly staled as they progressed. And Shepard did have to come in with Arrow to help break up the fight once or twice when things were getting out of hand.

Granted things did get better, to some degree, when the pair were on some common grounds when it came to their respective environments. Amelia asked for Doppler's opinions on his field of study when they were properly charting their course to Treasure Planet. From the "weather" reports directly from the astrophysicist to what else they could expect when going through certain bits of "terrain". And Doppler did try to make amends by asking more on the Navy and asking about her past experiences in her career from exploring the "known" cosmos.

But sure enough, the fights would come back up at some point, but only to a lesser degree of heat.

Silence fell upon the two as they stargazed for a while.

Not much could really be talked about, until…

"So what's the word with the Normandy today?"

"Same as yesterday." He reported, chewing on his popsicle stick. "The crew got the rest of the initial repairs taken care of, but now are trying to integrate the Gummi-tech into the systems and the ship's hull."

"And how long do you think it'll take for them to be done?"

"Wish I knew, Shep. I'm not a tech wiz like Tali and Garrus. And I even asked Pressly for a brief report to give to you."

"What did he say?"

"Could be a couple more days in total given how delicate the operation is. And after that, there's the simulations to run to the actual testing to see if the drive core can possibly handle it all."

Jane sighed, exhaling some stress as she did so. "Things are never as simple as that. Hopefully, we can be done with this voyage in time to make it back to Montressor's Spaceport to hightail it back to the Citadel and report on what happened."

"If not, then Roxas, Xion and I could make a trip over there and let this Anderson guy on what happened and relay some messages."

"I appreciate that, but I do need to at least need a mind meld with Liara to make a proper report on where Saren and Sovereign will be heading at by now."

Axel glanced over at Shepard whose visage changed into one of a more solemn expression.

"Still getting them?"

"Huh?"

No. VIII didn't respond at first, looking back out at the stars.

"Heard you murmur a few times to yourself about not getting enough sleep. Even after you have your little morning tea sessions with the good captain." Axel revealed. "You still have them I take it?"

Shepard stared at her fellow redhead, with her connecting the dots internally. She sighed after a moment, slouching against the railing.

"A little bit and still can't make heads or tails on what they are, despite the clearer images."

Axel nodded. "Do you wanna at least talk about them? I could help if you want. Don't know much about whatever it is you got going on in your head but I sure as hell know that it ain't healthy with how you talk sometimes."

Jane was silent, taking a moment to consider Axel's proposition before lightly smiling at him and nudging him with her elbow.

"I'll hold you to that, Axel."

-The Next Day-

Jim was busy rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, trying to stay awake whilst Roxas sat by him with Silver standing in front of them.

Today's lesson, more cooking stuff.

Jim was honestly not sure whether or not he really needed this sort of thing with his mom being a cook and all herself but Silver wasn't gonna take "no" for an answer.

He glanced over to Roxas who seemed to be just as tired as he was.

Normally, the sandy-blond haired teen would appear nonplussed for the most part which Silver took as a challenge.

Now he and Roxas would always wake up an hour early sometimes before the rest of the crew so that both would feel the drain of the day.

Hooray.

Jim's routine at this point was getting out of bed, breakfast, Silver's chores, lunch, Tali's lessons, Silver's chores or lessons, dinner and off to bed. Rinse and repeat.

There were a few instances of downtime, Silver didn't run him ragged.

For the most part, Jim spent his time with Roxas as they were both the cabin boys so he got to know his fellow crewmate decently well.

Though… there wasn't really much to go off of.

Roxas didn't have any parents, in fact didn't even know of them. Same as Xion.

He didn't speak much on his past for the most part though he did constantly talk about Shepard, Tali, Garrus, Xion, Axel and this other crew he always spent time with.

And how he phrased it, he meant it in the most literal way.

Talked about a ship called the Normandy which made Jim gape, asking him if it was the ship back at the Montressor Spaceport he saw before getting to the Legacy.

His question of "oh, you saw it?" was the confirmation he needed as he blasted him with a plethora of questions about just what that ship was.

Roxas answered to the best of his abilities but he really didn't know all that much save for surface level knowledge.

Instead, he referred to Tali on this matter as she was their unofficial chief engineer on the ship and knew the most about it.

When they were getting more into discussing the Normandy, the conversation soon shifted with Tali asking him what he knew about engineering.

This led to him being tested on what skills he has. From pointing out the current systems the Legacy presently has when being directed towards them to her requesting him to build a Solar Surfboard, after hearing on what he typically maintains back home until recently.

One thing led to another and he began a pseudo-apprenticeship under the Quarian.

She had admitted that she did not understand how the whole Solar Sails technology worked in the beginning which Jim silently scoffed at.

It was uncanny to him just how quickly she had apparently grasped an understanding of solar sails and was now thinking of ways of improving it.

He wondered where exactly she came from, given she didn't know much about solar tech in the first place prior to their initial conversation.

Still, she was a phenomenal teacher with her bestowing an ever growing wealth of knowledge on being a better mechanic.

This reminded him of the time he built his own solar surfer only this time, he felt that he could make one even better than last time as that was made from scraps.

Tali was quite the teacher and he would soon learn that others from the crew that Commander Shepard had brought on had their own little talents to teach him.

One lesson yesterday involved their best sharpshooter, Garrus Vakarian, stepping in and quizzing him on a number of factors. From how the cannons worked and its armaments as well as its full capabilities. Granted, Jim wasn't entirely knowledgeable on weaponry as their mechanics are a little more sophisticated than everything else.

"Do you understand all that?" Silver's voice cut through his recollections of the past few days, looking up at the cyborg who held up a vegetable of some kind.

"Yes." Roxas said, Silver nodding.

"Right then, get to it." The Cook said, tossing the vegetable to Jim who looked down at it in confusion.

"Are we… peeling today?" Jim asked with Roxas nodding.

"We're supposed to have a few dozen peeled out before he comes back." Roxas said, Hawkins internally thanking him for paying attention while he hadn't.

Walking over to a bowl of the same veggies, Roxas and Jim began the process of peeling the skin off the vegetables with both taking seats atop barrels.

They remained silent for the most part, just going about their assigned task since their minds haven't fully woken up.

After some time, they heard light footsteps from the stairs, the duo turning to see Xion walking down into the galley with her hair frazzled and half-lidded eyes.

"Roxas? *Yawn* Jim?" Xion murmured, rubbing her eyes. "Why are you up so early?"

"Silver." the boys said in unison.

Xion only groaned out slightly in acknowledgement, waking over to the center of the kitchen and grabbing a bowl of whatever it was inside the pot that Silver had made prior.

It was steaming fresh and hot with Xion slumping down next to Roxas, her eyes still glazed slightly in sleep as she raised her spoon up to take a bite when she bit down on air. Blinking, Xion looked down in time to see her soup was abruptly drained of all its contents.

It took a few seconds for her mind to register what had happened when…

"Morph." Xion moaned out tiredly. "Not now, it's too early."

What she got in response was a slobbering lick with her giggling a moment later while trying to swat at the pink blob that was now flying all around her.

Jim had a small smirk at the sight with Roxas sharing the sentiment.

It was strange for the cabin boy. He didn't expect that coming aboard he'd befriend those close to around his age but if Jim was being honest with himself, he was glad that he met Roxas and Xion. It felt nice to have two others on this ship around his age that he could spend time with and kinda relate.

He says kinda as both are slight enigmas to him but they were very friendly for the most part.

That and they suffered just as much as he did with how much Silver made sure to keep them busy at nearly all times.

"Well, well, knew we'd find you three down here."

The trio looked over and saw Axel had now entered the g alley with Tali coming down from the stairs right behind him.

"Hey Axel." Roxas and Xion greeted their tall friend.

"Looks like Silver is still keeping our two cabin boys busy." Axel noted, snatching Roxas veggie out of his hand.

"Hey!"

Axel ignored his friend's protest, grasping the veggie with him heating it up in his hand, steam lightly coming off of it.

"Whoa." Jim whispered aloud. "H-How are you doing that?"

"Hmm? Oh this?" Axel held up his freshly cooked breakfast. "Little trick of mine."

With his other hand, Axel produced a small flame that made Jim stare in complete stunned wonder.

"Whoa." He said in a whisper. "How…? Since when could you do that?"

"Since for a while." Axel said with an intentionally vague tone.

Jim continued to stare until Axel clenched his fist, snuffing the fire out. He looked to the others, seeing that they were unperturbed by the display, the cabin boy drawing the conclusion that they were all quite aware of the redheads' power.

Which only drew the question of just who were these guys really.

Much as he wanted to ask, he knew right now it was better that he gets back to peeling otherwise Silver was gonna hound his ass until the end of the night.

Soon enough, the majority of the crew began to wake up as well, going down for breakfast whilst Silver reviewed Roxas and Jim's work and nodded in approval.

"Well done lads." Silver praised. "Take the day to yerselves."

"Huh?" Roxas and Jim said in unison.

"You heard me lads." Silver said with a small grin. "Time you boys had a breather. I'll come find ya if anything comes up. Help around the ship if need be."

With that, Silver limbered off whilst Jim looked a bit lost for the moment.

All he had been doing was whatever it was Silver had instructed him to do.

Glancing over at Roxas, he blinked to see that he was gone from his side. Looking towards the steps, he saw the blond teen walking up the steps with Xion, Axel and Tali and found himself quickly following after them.

He climbed up the steps in time to see them going over to Garrus who, once again, was working on one of the ship's cannons.

Seriously, that's all he ever really did or so it seemed.

Still, Jim wondered just what the plated was working on all the time. Kinda had a bit of anticipation with just what these "calibrations" were capable of.

"Hey Jim."

The brown haired boy turned to see Commander Shepard standing by him.

"Oh uh, hey Shepard." Jim said politely.

The human Spectre smirked lightly at him, inclining her head towards the front of the ship.

"Got time to talk?" Shepard asked.

This was certainly a surprise. He didn't expect one of the commanding officers of the ship to wish to speak with him, lest it had to do with duties on the ship. Was he in trouble?

Still, she asked nicely enough and he didn't have anything to do for the time being so he may as well.

"Uh, yeah, sure."

Walking towards the front of the ship, Shepard leaned against the railing with Jim doing the same, albeit hesitantly.

"So, Jimbo," Jane teased. "How've ya been adjusting to the trip and all?"

Jim wasn't really sure why she was asking but he figured it's best to answer her then say nothing.

"It's alright I guess."

"Really? Silver hasn't been runnin' you and Roxas ragged?"

Jim scoffed immediately. "Don't know about Roxas but I sure as hell am feeling it."

Shepard chortled aloud at the boy's response. "Well least you're taking it like a man."

"Am I? Cause I sure don't feel like one." Jim flatly said, getting a louder laugh out of the Commander.

"Don't worry about it, Jim." Jane said with a friendly tone. "We all start somewhere in life like this."

"Like this?"

Jane bobbed her head about, her expression holding a reminiscent look. "Yeah, like this. Starting on the most basic of positions where we do the dirty jobs until you move up or move out."

Hawkins didn't really respond to that, only crossing his arms and leaning his head atop them.

"I guess."

"Still, least you're busy then just lying about." Shepard said.

The two shared a brief silence.

"What do you make of the voyage?"

"Hmmm?"

"The voyage. Enjoying it so far?" Shepard asked with a teasing edge.

Jim groaned a bit. "It's nothin' but work… but…"

He momentarily looked back which Shepard saw, taking a moment to see who he glanced back to and smirking slightly.

"Guess I could say I've made a few friends." Jim admitted with a small smile.

"Clearly." Jane said, nudging him with the cabin boy chuckling.

"Uh Commander." Jim felt a bit awkward now in asking this. "But, what about you? What's this trip been like for you?"

The Commander appeared to take the question in stride with a small shrug.

"Well, it's definitely a first for me, that's for sure." Shepard admitted. "First for all of us really, especially me, Tali and Garrus. Not what we're usually used to."

The specification of her and the aforementioned crewmates was rather strange. What about Roxas, Axel and Xion?

"What… what are you usually used to?" Jim inquired with Jane bobbing her shoulders up and down again.

"Mostly a lot of running and shooting followed by more running and shooting with the occasional explosion and near death scenario to keep things fresh." Shepard said in a casual manner causing Jim's eyelid to twitch as he gazed at her.

Was she joking or…?

Cause if not, what kind of life did Shepard and her team live?

"So, I've noticed you built yourself a Solar Surfer." Jane brought up. "What's that about?"

"Oh, you saw that?"

Shepard nodded. "Yeah in passing when I talk with Tali. She told me the two of ya have been working on it but it's mostly your project."

"Yeah." Jim held a hint of pride in his voice. "Tryin' to make a better one then I had back home."

"So you've made one like it before?" she saw Jim nod. "What's it like? Never tried that."

Hawkins held a more fond look to his face now. "It's… exhilarating. Just being able to fly without any worries and nothing to hold you down."

The boy had closed his eyes at this point, cosmic winds rustling his hair as he inhaled deeply with the memory of solar surfing being clear as day in his mind.

"You must really enjoy it." Jane said.

"There's no feeling like it really." Jim stated.

"Clearly."

Jim chuckled a bit sheepishly, catching himself getting caught up in his own memory.

"Hope I didn't bore you with that."

Shepard smirked, patting the teen on the back.

"Nah, ya didn't."

Several seconds later, the two heard a sharp whistle from behind and they both turned to see Silver standing at the front of the door to the lower decks of the ship.

"Rocky, Jimbo, Xion!" Silver called out to the three.

"Yeah?"

"Come with me." Silver stated, turning to open the door and walk through it.

Jim turned to Shepard who simply shrugged, holding her arm out as a silent gesture of 'get to it'.

Over with Roxas and Xion, the two bade their friends bye for now, having Jim joining them a moment later as they quickly followed in Silver's wake.

The trio soon arrived below deck to where the longboats were located. There, Silver was waiting for them as he gathered some rope.

"What's going on Silver?" Roxas asked. "I thought we weren't gonna do anything today."

"That's what I believed so as well, Rocky." Silver said, tossing the blue-eyed boy some rope. "That was until I remembered a very crucial lesson I had yet to teach the lot of ya."

"So what's the lesson for today, Mr. Silver?" Xion asked.

The cook jabbed his thumb to the small solar vessels. "Knowing how to operate one of 'ese."

"What are they for?" Roxas asked, going over to where Silver gestured him to be.

"This be our lifelines in case of emergencies." Silver informed. "If the ship were to be damaged or attacked and we needed a quick escape, these are our go to."

The teens simply nodded in understanding as they opened up the bottom hatch whilst preparing the longboat.

Jumping in himself, Silver typed in the longboats configurations just as Jim untied the last rope that held the small ship as it slowly lowered itself down.

With the longboat lowering itself through the hatch as Silver saluted the trio, something stirred within Jim. It was odd with how it came, but some memories surfaced when he watched Silver sail the longboat out.

It was about ten years ago.

He woke up one morning and heard the faint sounds of arguing from his bedroom as he was still sleeping. It was only with the rough closing of the Benbow Inn's front door did Jim abruptly awaken.

Running down the stairs, he saw his loving mother utterly distraught.

He knew his parents were having troubles for years and he hoped things would have worked out over time.

Yet things were not meant to be.

Jim ran outside and chased after his father, who was boarding a ferry boat to parts unknown. And by the time he reached the dock, the solar vessel left.

No matter how hard he yelled and cried for his father to return, he never came back, let alone looked back.

Things were never the same again at the Benbow Inn after that.

As Silver flew off, Roxas and Xion looked on in intrigue whilst Jim slumped slightly.

Glancing up, Roxas saw the shift in his fellow Cabin Boys demeanor. "Jim?"

The boy didn't respond, his eyes gazing down at the open hatch.

Going over to his end, Roxas placed a hand upon Jim's shoulder and shook him slightly.

"Jim, you alright?" Roxas asked.

"Huh? What? Oh, uh, yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Jim said though that was clearly not the case.

"Are you sure?" Xion asked, frowning slightly at the sight of her friend she and Roxas had made on this voyage.

"Yeah, yeah, it's nothing." Jim murmured in a low voice when they heard thrusters down from below.

In mere moments, the three teens saw Silver return with the longboat.

"Silver?" Xion said in confusion at seeing him back so quickly.

"What are you three waiting for?!" Silver said with a wide grin, waving them down. "Come aboard!"

The two Nobodies looked at each other before taking a quick leap. The longboat shook momentarily and rebalanced. Some seconds later, the space vessel shook once more when Jim landed inside of it.

They each got comfortable as Silver snapped his fingers for them to look to him as he sat at the controls.

"Alright then, kiddos. These here are the basic controls on this here boat." The cook said to the levers, which bent and twisted. He then went to the meter where the levers were attached towards. "Here be your parameters. And these be the hydraulics..." Silver rattled off, unaware that one of his cabin boys had already seated himself at the controls.

Jim, meanwhile, ignored the cyborg cook's little lesson and was quick to configure the solar longboat and having everything engaged with the thrusters building up power.

"Okay, what you need to do now is-"

"Uh, Silver?" Xion spoke up.

"Yes?"

"I think Jim's already getting the hang of it."

Silver then saw Jim grasp both controls of the longboat and thrust them forward. "Wha- WHOA!"

The cyborg barely had enough time to grasp onto his hat and the side of his boat as the longboat flew forward at top speeds.

Jim appeared to be a natural, having a natural ease in steering and controlling the speed of the tiny ship.

"WARN US NEXT TIME!"

Jim didn't bother answering as he was in his natural element now. His smile threatened to break his face as he started to perform all sorts of tricks all in the air.

Roxas found himself laughing with Xion standing up with her arms outstretched as the cosmic winds fluttered over her body.

"Get down lass." Silver said anxiously. "Don't give these old bones a heart attack."

Xion didn't respond either, laughing as the exhilarating feeling of the winds and speed was overwhelming with Roxas at the front of the boat leaning out whilst grasping the sides.

Jim pivoted the ship into an upward climb before angling it down for a drop that made Silver clench onto his hat and the metal pole that held the Solar sail tightly for dear life.

From the R.L.S. Legacy, Garrus was calibrating the other laser cannon when he heard the joyful screams in the air. Breaking away from his work, the Turian looked off to the side and saw the solar longboat sail past with the ship's cook and the three teens inside of it.

"Huh, looks like fun." Garrus murmured, managing to hear the cheers and laughter coming from the ship.

Seeing them go at it like that made him think back on his old hoverbike. Something he took great pride in working on in his youth with his father and left it in his sister's care when he first moved to the Citadel.

'Wonder if Solana is still maintaining it back home.' Garrus mused. 'She probably is. Grew too attached to it if I remember correctly.'

With the teens, they had continued their joyride on the longboat well into the night with the trio switching turns so that Roxas and Xion knew how to operate the ship. And Silver had to properly teach them outside of Jim's recklessness.

At some point, it was back to Jim, the Montressor native gunning the ship forward with the group in a relaxed position.

"Look at that!" Roxas suddenly pointed up above, the group looking up to see a whitish-blue comet with a long streak of cosmic rocks and winds in its wake.

"It's so pretty!" Xion said with starry eyes.

Hearing this, Jim grinned, flying up to glide right alongside the comet.

Then without warning…

"Wait, Jimbo, what are you doing!?"

Soon enough, they entered the dust tail of the passing comet.

There the four saw the beautiful colors of white and blue, the comet's trail peppering them with what appeared to be snow.

"WOOO!" Xion exclaimed, throwing her hands up as Jim had the longboat surf along the tale of the Comet.

The solar sail was furled up just as Jim maneuvers the longboat to spin rapidly within the dust tail.

"Ew! I got some of it in my mouth!" Xion exclaimed, sticking her tongue and having her gloved fingers rub it whilst also hack and spitting it out.

"And?"

"...Bitter…"

Silver bellowed out a laugh with Jim chuckling under his breath.

The longboat fell out from the comet's trail, Silver still laughing as he shook his hat to clear off the dust it had gathered with the group laughing heartily as Jim sped them away from the comet.

After so many hours of having their fun lesson, Silver informed them it was time for their return. He obviously had left the ship without preparing for a proper lunch for the crew earlier, which he will no doubt be reprimanded for. More so if he didn't get the one for supper ready as well.

At least Roxas volunteered to help him cook again to speed things up, much to Silver's appreciation.

They were pulling the longboat back up into the Legacy, slightly winded from their day of fun, still giggling and chuckling.

Roxas pulled a bit ahead, causing Silver's side to be angled lower.

"You having a little trouble there?" Roxas asked with a joking tone.

"Get away from me." Silver laughed off, lightly bumping the teen back over to his end.

The group laughed as they pulled the ropes, having the longboat set in its proper place. Once high enough, the teens secured the lines to keep it secure.

"Oh, Jimbo. If I could maneuver a skiff like that when I was your age, they'd be bowing in the streets when I walked by today." Silver said, taking his hat and slumping down into the boat.

"Bowing in the streets." Echoed Morph, who quickly shifted into Silver's form and acting the same motions.

"I don't know. They weren't exactly singing my praises when I left home." Said Jim as Silver was whipping his brow with a rag. "But I'm gonna change all that."

"Are you now? How so?"

Jim was unsure what to say to the ship's cook. "Uh… I've got some plans." The cabin boy vaguely said. "Gonna make people see me a little differently."

Silver gave the teen from Montressor a soft, yet hard look as he shook his head. "Oooh… Sometimes… plans go astray."

"Not this time."

Neither Silver, Xion or Roxas said anything as each were silently thinking things.

Roxas was mulling over the thought of plans, in particular that of the Organizations that he and his friends had undoubtedly either foiled or thrown a serious wrench in. Them up and turning on them so suddenly undoubtedly shook up the group of Nobodies.

Then came the issue pertaining to their current situation. The Normandy set in another galaxy and their initial plan on returning back to the Milky Way to stop Saren.

Could their recent excursion be disrupting that plan? Could this have caused them to be too late to stop Saren and Sovereign with whatever plans they have with this all so important Crucible?

The Nobody didn't have much time to think about this as he felt a weight on his arm. He looked down to see Xion having leaned over, exhaling tiredly.

"Xion?"

"Just let me rest here for a moment." Xion said softly with her eyes closed.

He had wanted to ask but Silver lifted up his mechanical peg-leg and pulled part of his pants back to reveal some more of the cybernetics. The cook struggled a little in tightening a bolt at the knee joint.

Seeing the bit of concern, Morph shifted into a wrench.

"Oh~ Thank you, Morphy."

Grasping onto his present tool, Silver went to work in maintaining his leg.

As this went on, the three teens gazed at the mechanical leg.

"How'd that happen anyways?" Jim asked.

"Pardon?"

"You becomin' a cyborg." Roxas added for clarity as he himself was rather curious.

Silver didn't reply at first, still tightening the bolt on his cybernetic leg.

"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to." Xion said quietly after a few seconds.

Once done with his small task, Silver looked at the trio with a hard look. His gaze then shifted to his synthetic arm as he slowly moved his robotic digits one by one.

"You give up a few things, chasing a dream." Softly said the cyborg.

"Was it worth it?" Jim inquired.

Silver let out a soft chuckle. "No dream doesn't have its prices. But… I hope it does. I most surely am."

The three teens soon realized the man was still chasing after his dream, not knowing how long his journey will be and where it took him.

But they could tell he was quite determined in reaching it.

*KABOOM*

The ship was violently rocked by something that had come from outside.

The group in the boat barely stayed in with them nearly getting thrown out by the force of whatever it was that struck the ship.

*KABOOM*

"What was that?!" Silver yelled out with Morph clearly startled on what just occurred.

"I don't know. Was there something outside the ship?" Xion asked.

"Not from what we saw." Jim pointed out.

"We need to check it out!" Roxas stated the obvious.

With the ruckus that seemed to go on, the four quickly made their way towards the deck to see what was going on.

-Earlier-

"Do you just have a weird urge to sit on the edge of precarious spots or something?" Shepard asked, gazing at Axel who was casually laying on the long nose of the ship with his arms behind his head and leg casually dangling over the edge.

"Hey, I'm comfortable." Axel stated. "Don't need to worry about me."

"Kinda feel like I have to." Jane dryly said. "What with you slipping and falling into the endless abyss down there."

"Well, so glad you care." Axel said offhandedly.

Shepard only gave him a flat look which he didn't see since he had his eyes closed as he shifted slightly to get into a more relaxed state.

Gazing at him for several seconds, Shepard shook her head with a snort, holding up her ice cream stick for a bite.

Cracking an eye open, Axel saw Shepard's state. "What?"

Jane looked up. "What?"

"What? What is it?" Axel asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm not an idiot, Shepard." Axel sat up, resting his elbow against his knee. "Something's bothering you. What's up?"

Shepard stared at the fiery redhead before letting out a small 'hmph' with an amused look.

"You know, for a so-called being who doesn't have a heart and supposedly no emotions, you sure show that you care more often than not." Shepard pointed out with a wry grin which grew upon seeing Axel tense up before the redhead scoffed with a smirk of his own.

"Hey, I remember what it was like in case you forgot."

"I don't think I'll be forgetting it anytime soon." Jane shot back. "Your introduction to us all was quite memorable."

"So you got it memorized down I see." Axel said with a cheeky grin with Jane rolling her eyes in response.

"You'll take every chance you get with that, won't you?" Jane rhetorically asked.

"Guilty."

"Clearly."

Axel chortled with Shepard joining in a second later.

"You know, because of Roxas and basically you from what he's told me, the entire crew is addicted to these now." Shepard said, holding up her half eaten ice cream bar. "We can't go two days without having one of these to ourselves."

"Couldn't agree more." Axel said, taking a bite of an ice cream bar that he had in his hand.

Shepard stared for a few moments, mind trying to figure out what she had just seen.

"Did… did you just pull that out of your ass or something?" Jane asked. "Where'd that even come from?"

"I have my ways." Axel said with a sly smile which garnered a flat look from the Commander that turned into a small chuckle.

"Hey there you two."

Both individuals looked over to see Garrus coming up to them both.

"Garrus." Axel greeted the Turian. "Did you finally get bored of calibrating?"

"Or did calibrating get bored of you?" Jane chipped in.

"Calibrating and I have a unique and loving relationship." Garrus said, gesturing his hand at Axel and wordlessly, the Nobody seemingly produced another sea-salt ice cream bar and tossed it to the Turian who caught it with ease.

"Becoming seriously addicted to these." Garrus stated, biting into his bar.

"That's what I just said." Jane said.

"Don't know what's in these that's making me want more."

"You're the detective, you can figure it out in time."

"I'll be sure to get on it as soon as I can." Garrus said, seating himself on the rail of the ship though not out towards the infinite cosmos as Axel tends to do.

"So how've you been on this fine voyage thus far, me matey Garrus?" Shepard asked in a pirate accent.

"What's that supposed to be?" The Turian inquired in amused bewilderment.

"Pirate talk." Jane answered.

"Pirates don't talk like that."

"Human pirates of ye old stories do, arrr." Jane said, diving in full to the outlandish accent with one eye closed and a curled grin.

"That sounds dumb."

"You're dumb." Shepard shot back in an almost petulant manner.

"...I get the feeling I need to catch up on this pirate topic once we're back on the Normandy." Axel dryly said, feeling left out in not knowing the concept Shepard was enjoying.

"Hey, this voyage makes it appropriate." Jane remarked. "Anyways, Garrus?"

"I admit, I can somewhat say I'm glad being here at this moment." Said the Turian. "We honestly have never gotten this kind of chance of just stargazing without a helmet in the way. Even without a ship to restrict ourselves from seeing the true endless expanse around us. Nothing to limit our vision, nothing holding us back."

"Wonder if Della felt the same way when she was marooned on her one moon for about ten years." Jane said, twirling with her now finished ice cream stick.

"Probably did, at first, before going insane. I sure know I would if I were in her shoes."

The trio agreed as that was probably the case. Asides from knowing what she primarily did in that time, with repairing her ship and all, Della would've been off her rocker with how limited things were.

"What were you like Axel?" Garrus suddenly asked, changing the subject out of the blue.

"What now?"

"I remember you and Roxas talked about how you both had previous lives before becoming what you were right now." Garrus clarified. "Not gonna lie, it's been something that's been on my mind for a while."

Shepard nodded with a grin on her face.

"You really wanna know before I became this roguishly handsome man before you?"

"Hardy har, Axel." Jane deadpanned, lip twitching up. "But come on, what were you like?"

Rather than answering straight away, Axel's demeanor abruptly shifted with him turning away from the two with his eyes looking out at the cosmos.

"I guess I was the same more or less." Axel said in an aloof manner.

Garrus and Jane blinked at hearing that lack of an answer.

"Oh please~ Sounds boring."

"There has to be something else."

Axel however appeared resolute in staying with his answer. "No, not really much. Just… same old same old."

The Human and Turian shared looks of confusion now, no longer in a joking mood.

"Axel?" Jane said slowly. "Did… did something happen in your previous life?"

No. VIII blinked, looking to them both.

"What? What are you talking about?"

Garrus and Jane shot him a disbelieving look.

"Come on matchstick, you can't seriously just leave us with that." Garrus said.

"In case you forgot, we're military." Jane said, gesturing her hand between herself and Garrus. "And we usually have a knack for spotting when something is bothering someone. So spill."

"And why should I tell ya anything?" Axel asked in a faux defensive manner.

"Cause we're friends." Shepard shrugged. "And I'm your commanding officer."

"Not military, Jane." Axel shot back.

"You're living under my roof… ship… you know what I mean."

"I could just leave."

"And go where?" Garrus challenged.

"Hey, I got two galaxies now to explore." Axel countered. "Lots of places to be. Sights to see."

"Sure~" Jane drawled. "But come on Axel, you gotta tell us something at least."

"Alright then, how's about this." Axel said. "You guys tell me something of your pasts and I'll do the same for you, how's about that?"

Garrus hummed in thought whilst Shepard tilted her head before nodding, Garrus doing the same a moment later.

"Deal."

"You first Gary." Axel said, making Garrus's head jerk at the name, which only made it worse with Shepard laughing at the nickname.

"Thanks for the support, Commander." Garrus grit out.

"No problem detective."

Garrus sighed before turning to Axel. "Don't know if you know this, Flame-brain, but I was raised in a pseudo-military lifestyle all my life before going into basic training. In fact, all Turians are raised like that."

"And how did that work out?" Axel questioned before reigning in a mock-gasp. "Is that how you got that stick up your ass?"

"Hardy-har-har. You're such an original, Axel." Garrus said dryly before chuckling lowly to himself.

"To tell you the truth, most of my people never really liked that. It was just one of the many problems when the Turian Hierarchy was founded. It was decided that when a Turian turns fifteen, they get drafted into temporary service when the developmental stage begins." Garrus looked at Shepard. "Your concept of basic training, Shepard, is breaking them down and building them up, right?"

"It is."

"Turian recruits are built up from the beginning and we can slowly adjust that Turian recruit over a span of four years during our version of basic training."

"Basic training lasts four years?" Axel asked rather bewildered.

Jane merely whistled. "Mine lasted for four grueling, long months in order to weed out rookies not qualified to really join."

"And was it because you signed up with that N7 program of yours?" The Turian asked.

"N7 came afterwards." She clarified before looking back at Garrus. "And what else was there on your training?"

"Whereas your human training is supposed to 'break them and make them' under a short period of time, our training is designed over far longer in a slow burning process where the lethargy and idleness are driven out of the recruits."

"Sounds harsh."

"It was designed to work efficiently; at least that's what our leaders claim it does."

"And we see a fine example right in front of us."

Garrus rolled his eyes on Axel's comment.

"Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it."

The two men blinked as they bewilderedly looked at the commander.

"Where'd you get that from?" Axel inquired.

"Ashley." Responded Shepard. "Something her father crammed into her head along with her sisters -among other things- with their pseudo-military training when they were growing up."

No. VIII hummed a little. "I can probably see where that's going. Having proper guidance and all that. Only problem with that is having the 'child' reluctantly comply with it."

Garrus nodded in agreement.

"I do admit, despite the best of what our military has done for each Turian, there are always going to be those who don't want anything to do with the service. Often they're the ones who end up creating the most trouble for themselves and others. Getting dishonorably discharged and their records tagged, making it hard to find a decent job. And all those Turian criminals you often run off to the Terminus Systems like pirates and mercs are typically the ones who were booted out as it's the only work they can get."

"At least they weren't forcibly drafted into service. With the Alliance, we volunteer as we're motivated to serve." Shepard informed. "People who are conscripted aren't so driven, hence they hate the military until their fifteen years are up… or are just dishonorably discharged for whatever negligence there is."

Garrus hummed as he finished off his frozen treat. "Wish that option was available for the Hierarchy. Could've made things a bit simpler when growing up."

"Then what would've you done with all that free time?" Axel asked aloud.

"Honestly... I have no clue."

Satisfied with getting info from Garrus, he turned his attention more towards the female redhead. "Alrighty, Shep, your turn."

"Yeah, your right."

"So what ya got to share with us?"

Jane began her answer by looking at Garrus. "It seems we have something in common."

"And what's that commander?" Asked the Turian.

"On my end, I somewhat grew up to serve the military as well."

"With the Alliance." Axel clarified. "How so?"

"I'm a military brat as my parents were ones themselves. While my mom still serves… my dad… left that life."

"By… what exactly?"

Neither Garrus or Axel wanted to assume the worst and ruin whatever pleasant mood Shepard was in on accident.

"Honorably discharged after fifteen years of loyal service." Came Jane's response. "He wanted to be a farmer after his time in the service. A means of settling roots for all of us when the time came."

"Sounds like the life to possibly have."

'Yeah… it would've been.' She thought before quickly composing herself.

"Alright Axel, we had our stories." Shepard stated. "Your turn."

"And none of that edgy aloof crap from last time." Garrus said quickly after.

"Alright, alright, lay off, will ya?" Axel said, waving his hand down.

He became silent, gazing down as the other two waited for him to speak.

"Well… before I became," He gestured to himself. "This, I lived in a world called Radiant Garden."

Garrus and Shepard found themselves leaning forwards as the fiery Nobody went on.

"Lived a simple life for the most part really." Axel said with a shrug. "Had my share of friends, my own aspirations and all that."

"What was your World like?" Jane asked.

Axel rubbed his chin. "I always thought it wasn't anything really special. There were some unique individuals in my World here and there; even with having my own thrills along the way. But… that all changed when I lost my World to the Heartless."

A momentary air of silence permeated around them for the briefest of moments.

"Course… once I lost myself, when I woke up a Nobody with all this… power." Axel said with a sharp edge to his tone that genuinely caused a shiver to go down Shepard's spine. "Made me realize just how more special my World was. The first eight members of Organization XIII came from a single World."

That certainly was a rather… frightening thought when Garrus and Shepard thought about it. And the more they did, the more a feeling of dread began to fill up from within.

For all intents and purposes, there were still eleven of these supremely powerful beings that each have a unique ability and affinity to themselves that were equally as powerful if not more so than Axel, Roxas and Xion.

"Before all that…" Axel now had a faraway look to his eyes. "My old friend Is, I mean Saix, met someone in the main castle of our World. Asides from… Saix… I had one other friend that I was close to. And… it's been hard to know if she's alright out there."

There was a long pause between the trio.

"I never found out what had happened to her." Axel said in a dejected manner. "I don't think I should tell you this at all, Shepard. Life ain't always sunshine and rainbow. It wasn't easy."

"I couldn't agree more."

-Insert Kingdom Hearts II: Organization XIII-

The three were startled upon the voice calling out.

Whereas Garrus and Shepard whirled around to find where it came from, Axel bolted onto his feet.

"That voice." He growled.

In an instant, Axel threw his arms up horizontally with fire swirling in front of his hands with his Chakrams appearing a moment later.

Right after, a Dark Corridor appeared.

The moment it formed; the Flurry of Dancing Flames threw his Eternal Flames forward.

When they came close to the Dark Corridor, it quickly dispersed with a pink-colored blade knocking the chakrams away. They flew back into their owners hands who stood defensively in front of Garrus and Shepard who had their own weapons drawn.

"Marluxia." Axel growled in recognition.

Standing before the trio was a man around their age, garbed in the same black cloak of the three Nobodies that were a part of the Normandy crew. There were some differences here and there with his sleeves being more baggier of sorts compared to the thin, nearly skintight ones that Axel has.

His slightly curly-ruffled rose pink hair reached his shoulders with cold blue eyes and his lips were a pale pink as well.

In his hand was quite the unusual-looking scythe. The rose pink blade was rather menacing as it connected to the pastel green long handle. The connection between them was yellow as they resembled pieces of the Nobody icon. Asides from that, it had the vague resemblance of a deformed flower.

"Well~ well~ It clearly took time to find you."

"Organization XIII?" Jane said though she knew it was foolish to even ask.

Of course it was them.

"How'd you find us, Marluxia?" Axel queried, stance at the ready with him grasping his chakrams tightly.

"It was rather difficult at first." Marluxia said, his scythe vanishing in a flutter of rose petals. "Hearts have been streaming into our World at a more constant rate with the Hero of the Keyblade and the King with their companions going through the worlds that we had unleashed the Heartless upon and taking them out. Granted, this helps in the plans of the Organization but we had no idea as to where the hearts Roxas and Xion were harvesting." The Scythe wielding Nobody then gave off a sinister smile. "It just took some time to track where the specific ones originated from."

Jane and Garrus gripped their weapons tightly, keeping them leveled at the Nobody.

"And then… I found an influx of Hearts from a rather isolated World far beyond the usual confines of our reaches." The Graceful Assassin stated as he slowly walked towards them.

"Take another step and we'll shoot."

"Or do what?"

In an instant, Marluxia blurred out of existence, startling the two Normandy members.

Axel was quick to move.

"Duck!" Axel shouted with the two listening to him without hesitation.

Axel's weapons met with a pink crescent curve that he cut through before jumping at Marluxia who merely teleported away and returned back to his original spot.

No. VIII was also quick to make sure he stood before Jane and Garrus as their protector. Both had stood up as well, weapons once again pointed at Marluxia who smirked in a condescending manner.

"What good will those toys do for you?"

"I don't know, asshole, why don't you come here and find out?" Shepard growled, Biotics flaring up with Garrus's gun changing shape into its advanced form.

There was a tense standoff between them until No. XI began chuckling to himself.

"You know, I never would have thought you Axel, of all of us, would be the first to betray the Organization." No. XI declared.

"Oh right, your big, doomed to fail original plan." Axel mocked. "How'd that turn out for ya?"

"Plans don't always go as intended." Marluxia admitted. "But perhaps I can remedy my original plans. Now tell me, where is Roxas and the Puppet?"

"And we're supposed to just tell you?" Garrus asked rhetorically.

"If you value your own existence." Marluxia said dangerously though they stood strong.

"You'll have to do better than that little bad guy threat shpeal." Shepard fired back, the aura of her Biotics intensifying.

The Graceful Assassin merely chuckled darkly. "Hmm… It appears I'll need to draw them out."

With a snap of his fingers, a large Dark Corridor appeared not far away from the R.L.S. Legacy.

Passing through it was what appeared to look like a ghost warship as it floated through space with fog surrounding it. The sinister aura the vessel possessed was not pleasant at all. And seeing the Heartless emblem plastered on the ship's central flags was a further giveaway on what manned them.

It was only once the fog dissipated, the three took note of its titanic size which resembled a dilapidated sailing ship.

-Insert Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days: Fight and Away-

The hull of the ship appears to be made of dark brown wood with faded red additives and yellow highlights. It had two sails on its main mast, and two more, one toward the bow and another toward the stern. The sail closest to the bow of the ship has the Heartless emblem printed on it, and all four of its sails were tattered and discolored. The crow's nest is silver, with yellow highlights, and a bent, yellow spike in its center. This spike is also present on the tips of the bow and stern masts. The bow is decorated by a large, yellow, angular spiral on either side, resembling eyes. It also has a large, silver "jaw" on its lower half, with black and white zig-zagging markings. There are three long, thin, silver engines on either side of the ship's aft end.

The bowsprit of the ship is silver, conical, spike-like with the "mouth" covering and protecting what looked like an enormous skull

The deck of the ship was packed with a number of cannons and Heartless. A large wheel is present on either side of the middle of the ship's hull. Both wheels are colored in dark shades of black, silver, and grey, and both have silver shafts in their centers. Two more wheels, identical to the others save for their smaller size, are placed near the ship's rear.

"Seriously?! Spirits sake, what the fuck is that supposed to be?!"

"Given you're on a ship, I brought one of darkened proportions." Marluxia said with an amused sneer, a dark corridor teleporting him away.

"Real amusing." Jane snarked, just as the Heartless ship fired its cannons upon the Legacy.

*KABOOM*

The ship rocked violently, Shepard running at full speed towards Captain Amelia's stateroom with the feline officer bursting out of her door, Mr. Arrow right behind her.

"What in the blazes is going on out here?!" Amelia cried out.

"We're under attack." Shepard shouted.

Just as she said that the ship was once again struck by another flying Heartless cannon.

*KABOOM*

From below deck, Silver stepped out.

"What in the devil?" The Cook said in bewilderment.

"All hands to stations!" Mr. Arrow shouted. "Prepare for battle!"

Silver whipped his head around at the sight of the large Pirate ship looming close by to the Legacy.

"Devils help me, what in the cosmos is that?!" Silver exclaimed.

"It's the Heartless!" Roxas shouted, both he and Xion proceeding to shock Silver and Jim as they called forth their Keyblades.

"Keep back." Xion said, running forward with Roxas.

Both Silver and Jim's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets at the sight of Roxas and Xion jumping forward off the ship.

The duo sailed forward towards a large cannonball with a jagged mouth and large yellow eyes. Both struck the cannonball back with such force, it careened back to its sender, the explosion destroying one of the cannons aboard the enemy Heartless ship.

With their strike, they had also used it to propel themselves back onto the ship just as the rest of the crew was now on deck.

"All hands to stations!" Mr. Arrow shouted, holding a rifle. "We're under attack."

The crew was quick to spring into action though they were still trying to figure out what in the name of the Etherium was attacking them.

Shepard was firing her weapon rapidly at the fly Air Pirates and Aerial Vikings that were flying towards the ship.

Tali had joined her with Garrus manning his modified calibrated cannon, blasting away at the flying Heartless.

Silver changed up his robotic arm into that of a cannon and began firing at the oncoming Heartless.

"What in the blazes are these blasted invaders?" Silver cried out, cybernetic eye spotting smaller pirate ships with enemies brandishing large, curved swords.

"They're Heartless." Roxas said, landing next to Silver. "Keep your distance and shoot their heads."

"Heartless?" Jim asked in bewilderment.

"Stay behind me lad." Silver said, managing to shoot several of the Pirates off the ship before the smaller Battleships could deliver the Heartless onto the ship.

Jim's eyes were darting about the madness that had completely taken over the situation. All around, the crew was fighting off these Heartless to the best of their ability with very few managing to hold them off.

The ones who appeared to have the most success with these new enemies were the crew that Shepard had brought along.

The Spectre with the three Nobodies and two aliens of unknown origins were fighting back with abilities and firepower Jim had never seen before.

They were fighting them off while he just stood behind Silver for protection. It took a moment after for him to scoff at this thought before he bolted towards the engine room.

"Jimbo!" Silver yelled out in surprise.

The boy simply ran through the chaos, managing to get by thanks to either one of Shepard's crew destroying the Heartless in the way or one of the other crewmates serving as a distraction to the Heartless.

"Blasted boy." Silver groused, hearing something behind his back and turning with his robotic arm raised.

He slouched though at the sight of Xion cleaving through several Heartless at once, looking back to him.

"Are you alright Silver?" She asked in concern.

The old cyborg blinked before huffing with a small smirk gracing his features.

"Aye lass, I am thanks to ya." Silver said with a grateful grin.

Xion smiled up at him only for head to perk up and dash past the cook.

Some of the crew broke through the storage room not far away in order to properly retrieve some weapons in order to fend off the new opposition. As they tried, a few were ambushed by the Heartless and were about to be killed if it weren't for Xion quickly taking care of them.

Instead of saying their thanks, the crewmembers merely ran past No. XIV in order to fight the Heartless.

"...You're welcome." Xion drawled out.

"Xion." Axel said aloud, drawing her out of her annoyed state and making her turn to Axel who was being attacked on numerous sides.

"Hold on Axel!"

All the while, Roxas was combating several Air Pirates, Aerial Vikings and Pirates with Tali assisting him. He was the main offensive fighter with Tali providing him the support.

Since her Omni-tool upgrade, she was able to stun or paralyze Heartless she targeted for a short amount of time which was more than enough for No. XIII to go in for the killing blow.

He took out an Air Pirate in the air, landing on the ground.

Whirling about, Roxas was ready to take on the next set of flying Heartless when the sound of thrusters came from the side.

Turning to his left, he saw Jim Hawkins fly his newly made Solar Surfer straight into the neck of an Aerial Viking. With his speed and momentum, he drove the Heartless into the ground, the tip of his board nearly cleaving through the Heartless.

"Whoa." Roxas said aloud. "Jim, isn't that-?"

"Yeah, it is." Jim said, already moving again as he flew and swung his surfer with his legs to bash an Air Pirate away.

The Air Pirate stumbled in the air before it was destroyed by an Omni-bolt from Tali.

Grinning, Jim pressed on the accelerator at the back of the surfer and accelerated forward to help out Silver, Shepard and Garrus that were fighting together.

The rest of the crew was trying their best in fighting these unusual foes, with Scroop managing to outmaneuver most of the Heartless and the big four-armed alien man handling the rest.

"These bastards are relentless." Amelia exclaimed, riddling a Battleship with holes until it was destroyed.

"My word!" Doppler, who had come out in the commotion, stuck closely to Amelia and Arrow who were fighting together. "What are these ghastly beings?"

"Shepard called them Heartless." Amelia revealed, shooting a Pirate in the head that Arrow grabbed by its neck. "They are quite a tenacious bunch."

"Quite." Doppler stated, wincing at the pillars of flames that Axel had produced around him in a short burst to destroy the Heartless surrounding him.

The dog man looked over to see Roxas fling his weapon forward at a cluster of these Heartless. The weapon destroyed the dark adversaries before it vanished in a flash of light, reappearing in Roxas' hand and the boy proceeded to toss it once again.

"Fascinat-ING!" Yelled out the doctor, being pulled out of the way by the captain.

Amelia soon pulled out a spare pistol and handed it to him. "You know how to use one of these?"

"Oh? Uh, yes I've studied these on many-"

Doppler inadvertently fired the pistol with it scorching the railing next to her.

"Uh, no. No, I do not."

The feline captain briefly sighed before firing her pistol at an incoming Air Pirate. "Then you'll be getting plenty of experience today."

Doppler quickly nodded and did his best to help take care of these invaders.

"Roxas." Axel stood back-to-back with the sandy blond Keybearer. "We aren't gonna make any headway with these guys unless we destroy that ship or their head honcho Heartless."

"Right."

"But how are we gonna get over there? It's not as if we can fly." Shepard said.

Upon hearing that statement, Roxas' vision changed into that of Sora's.

He wasn't in Neverland but… he appeared to jump and proceeded to glide across with the greatest of ease.

Snapping out of that trance, Roxas looked up at one of the pillars of the ship and ran towards it.

"Roxas?" Axel called out to him just as No. XIII got to the closest mast.

Proceeding to run straight up, casually defying the artificial gravity on the ship, he reached the top and with a high jump took out several Heartless along the way.

Rather than fall, Roxas adjusted his body and…

Proceeded to quite literally glide towards the enemy Heartless Pirate Ship with many of the crew aboard the Legacy stopping what they were doing for a moment to gaze upon the literal flying Nobody.

The boy reached the Heartless Pirate Ship and dropped down with his Keyblade raised, slicing right through one of the remaining cannons aboard the ship.

Back on the Legacy, several of the crew were still trying to make heads and tails as to what they had just seen.

"Did… did you know he could do that?" Jane asked Axel who only shook his head.

"That's a new one." Axel said, rushing to the edge of the ship.

"Axel!" Shepard yelled out to him to stop.

Charging up one of his Chakrams, Axel hovered in the air and flung one with all his might at the Heartless ship.

Once it sailed over the deck of the Heartless ship, Axel vanished in a blink of fiery whisps.

He reappeared over his thrown Chakram, grabbing it in the air and falling to the deck's surface. Upon landing, a large plume of fire erupted around him to clear the area around him of Heartless.

"Axel." Roxas said, running over to him.

"Hey buddy." Axel greeted casually, also incinerating a Heartless in the process. "I just got a question I need you to answer for me."

"What's that?"

"...Since when the hell CAN YOU FLY?!" Axel's question was punctuated by him throwing up his Chakram with one of the blades around it piercing through the body of an Air Pirate that attempted a divebomb.

"Just before finding you and Xion at Castle Oblivion." Roxas answered with a grit of his teeth as he deflected several Pirate swords and destroyed their owners.

"And you never bothered to bring that up?"

"No one ever asked."

Axel's left green eye started to twitch. "...You… can't always use that as an excuse, Roxas."

"Why not? You know it's true." Roxas said, casting a quick Thunder spell to clear their surroundings.

His friend only rolled his eyes before huffing with a small smirk appearing on his face.

"You're a strange one Roxas. And that's saying something." Axel stated, charging up his fire.

Back on the Legacy…

Seeing Roxas take off earlier, Jim hesitated for a moment until he took off after him with the thrusters blasting off. He'd rather not leave the two to fight aboard an enemy ship on their own.

It was shortly after takeoff did he feel something landing on his Solar Surfer rather harshly. Looking back, he reeled back in surprise.

"Xion, what-"

"Not gonna leave you alone on this, Jim." Xion said, placing a hand on his shoulder to keep herself steady.

As much as he wanted to refute, he chose not to at this time. Besides, she appeared to know how to defend herself a bit better than him in this situation.

It was at this moment did Silver take notice of their departure.

"Jimbo? Xion?" He gritted out. "What in blasted hell are 'ey doing?"

Along the pathway, Jim stirred his surfer while Xion spun around to attack the incoming aerial opponents. Left and right, they were extinguished.

"Thanks for the assist."

"You are my ride after all."

Jim smirked as he pushed the thrusters harder to get to the Heartless ship even faster.

Once there, Xion leapt off and struck down a Pirate from behind. And soon after, Jim came in as he spun his Solar Surfer around to cleave through a couple of aerial Heartless.

With their entrance known, the duo joined in on the fight to draw out the "captain" of the vessel.

The four fought valiantly aboard the Heartless ship, greatly outnumbered yet they fought on with their abilities and constant maneuvering giving them the edge for the time being.

Back aboard the Legacy, Amelia jumped, flipping multiple times in the air before landing on the deck and shot at a Pirate that Tali was fighting as well.

The engineer nodded in appreciation at the Captain with Amelia returning the gesture before she turned to the Heartless Pirate Ship. her keen eyes spotted the four that had managed to come aboard the enemy vessel and were currently fighting through the Heartless aboard it.

"Blasted reckless youth." Amelia said, though she couldn't really hide her smirk, admiring the quartet that so brazenly moved to attack the enemy ship.

"We need to clear this deck of Heartless and help them out." Shepard said, her Biotics catching several Heartless with her and Garrus shooting them into oblivion.

"Agreed." Amelia said, ducking under a sword of a Pirate

"Mr. Turnbuckle steer us towards that ship! We'll cover you!"

The tentacled alien hesitantly nodded as he complied with the order.

On the Heartless ship, the team of four were slowly beginning to dent the sizable force of Heartless aboard the ship.

They were whittling down the more lesser Heartless until...

A trio of darkened flashes appeared overhead, sending a small team of Heartless diving towards the group.

"Seems the captain has finally come aboard." Axel stated with a grin.

"With friends." Xion added.

The new trio of Heartless wore something akin to a captain's uniform with the jacket and bicorn hat combo. The jackets had grey feathers around their collars with gold and black pads on the shoulders with additional feathers. Their right hands were replaced with a prosthetic anchor as it was attached into a long chain within its left was a large cutlass.

While one wore a red jacket, the other two wore blue, signifying some sort of rank amongst them.

"Yeah, he's the Captain alright." Axel said, gesturing to the red one.

A moment later, the Heartless went on the offensive.

Spinning their anchors around, the trio of Anchor Raiders hurled their one weapon at the four interlopers on their ship. The group quickly avoided getting hit and didn't stick around when the Heartless retracted back to their thrown anchors.

Jim took to the skies, solar surfing around the Heartless. He really needed a weapon right about now. He couldn't just ram right into them all willy nilly and expect the same outcomes from before.

"Jim, you idiot." The cabin boy palmed his forehead before pivoting his surfer back towards the direction of the Legacy.

'Oh, it's coming right for us.' Jim thought upon seeing the ship angle around.

Least the trip was shorter now.

Slamming his foot on the accelerator, Jim rocketed forward towards the Legacy.

"Hang on guys, I'll be back in a second." Jim muttered to himself, flying right at the Legacy.

Back with the Nobody trio, each one was paired off with an Anchor Raider of their own with these Heartless proving to be a greater challenge than the usual fodder they have faced.

Roxas jumped back as the anchor from the Raider he was facing slammed down on the ground where he stood. Landing on the ground, Roxas immediately jumped forward and got his foot on the anchor before running up the chain.

The Anchor Raider, seeing this, quickly retracted its anchor though this proved to be a miscalculation. Lightly jumping off the chain, Roxas "landed" on the returning anchor which drew him in directly towards the Heartless itself.

With a powerful swing, Roxas struck the Anchor Raider in the head which stunned it momentarily until it performed a retaliatory 360 spin. The shockwave it produced sent Roxas flying back though he recovered in the air and glided right back at it for another attack.

As this went on, Xion weaved through the opposing sword slashes and anchor smashing's. Despite her limited capacity in comparison to Roxas, she had to try and be a little creative to make up for it. Casting Aerora to boost herself to quickly get behind the one Heartless before delivering a volley of blows. Before retreating, she fired off a couple of Blizzards prior to performing a backwards roll to deliver a Thundara strike.

Axel, meanwhile, sprinted to another part of the ship as he occasionally chucked his Eternal Flame chakrams. The pair struck the Anchor Raider a number of times as they quickly returned to sender before being delivered again and again. Soon enough, he lit them up for additional damage before dashing in to jab his bladed weapons a number of times. Once done, he leaped back before setting off his own version of Firaga at the floating Heartless. It was quite a large fireball.

As the battle raged on, aboard the Legacy in the crow's nest, Marluxia observed it all with an analytical expression.

"Figured those two wouldn't be far from him." The Graceful Assassin said to himself. His attention then went towards some other interests back over at the R.L.S. Legacy.

Spotting Shepard, Garrus and Tali did make No. XI wonder about a few things.

The first came to mind with how familiar those the red headed woman and avian-based alien he met earlier were with the traitors. If he were to guess, it had to be quite for quite some time.

The next pertained with how their weapons, along with the girl in the odd helmet, were able to take down the Heartless. They clearly didn't belong to whatever territory they were presently in and there's not a lot of armaments which can take out the Heartless easier than other methods; asides from the Keyblade itself as well as those that contain the proper power to do so.

No doubt a number of inquiries will be resolved rather soon.

Back on the deck, the Legacy was at last cleared of the Heartless with the ship now swinging by the Heartless Pirate Ship.

Jim by this point had managed to snag a rifle of his own, returning back to the three Nobodies that were still fighting the Anchor Raiders.

He saw the one Xion was fighting fling its anchor forward.

She rolled out of the way, the anchor embedding itself into one of the Pirate Ships' masts.

Jim took the opportunity to fly down, grinding his surfer against the chain which rattled the Raider whilst firing at it with his new rifle.

The Anchor Raider flinched once or twice but it did have its bell rung when Jim flew right up to its face with his Solar Surfer and smacked the bottom flat part of his board right in its face.

Roxas, all the while, clashed with his own Anchor Raider several times now.

During their engagement, Heartless sent its anchor once again as a projectile at the Keybearer only for him to jump and perform a corkscrew in the air and cut the chain in two.

The Anchor Raider had to resort to using its large sword it carried though it was effective all the same.

Clashing with Roxas several times, it pushed the smaller opponent back several times though Roxas's own swordsmanship and strength had him parry several swings that stunned the raider.

The Anchor Raider however was proving to be quite the resilient foe. And to make matters more difficult, the Anchor Raider slammed its chain down upon the ground and it appeared to be a call to arms as more Pirate and Air Pirate Heartless appeared.

"Oh come on." Roxas said in annoyance.

"We can't let up here, guys." Axel said, grunting a bit as he deflected his Raider's sword.

Roxas glared back at the new wave of Heartless that stood before him when the sound of thrusters followed by his name being called out by a familiar voice came from above.

Looking up behind him, he saw Jim flying down towards him with his arm outstretched.

An unusual feeling welled up inside both cabin boys as Roxas leapt up to grab Jim's hand.

To the native of Montressor, this was a bizarre and new feeling with a strange surge of what he could describe to be… power. Or some kind of energy.

To Roxas however, this one… he had felt this before!

Where?

He blinked as the image of Jane giving him a confident smile appeared.

'That's right!' Roxas internally thought, swinging round behind Jim and standing on the solar surfer. 'With Shepard!'

A flash of light enveloped the two for a brief moment before subsiding.

Jim throttled the accelerator, speeding up towards the large swath of Heartless.

Wind started to swirl around the pair as they started to go faster and faster. And the thruster's flames started to build up with each passing second.

As they drew near the batch of Heartless, the two separated, another surfer of hard light appearing under Roxas's feat. The two made a large circular arch around the cluster of Heartless, firing beams of light and energy before reconnecting on the other end.

Instantly, Jim angled his Surfer up for the two to arch up in a ninety degree angle and sailed above and over the cluster going in for another reign of light and energy beams.

Once reaching the other side, the two split off once more.

Roxas thrusted his hard light surfer around, smacking the Heartless left and right before landing on the ledge of the Pirate Ship. As if directed, Roxas rode along the edges as he thrusted his Keyblade at their opponents and fired off a volley of energy bolts from Oathkeeper's tip.

Jim followed suit on the opposite end, firing off repeated shots that got increasingly larger whilst also slamming into any Heartless along the way.

"Jim!"

"I got ya!"

Kicking off the railing, the pair soon met near the center, grasping each other's forearms before their thrusters sped up their rotations. More and more they went with the wind batting against the Heartless as if they were combating a miniature tornado.

Soaring high into the air, they disconnected from one another and fell down with an avalanche of light energy that decimated the multitude of Heartless with the two landing aboard Jim's Surfer once more.

The newly constructed board glowed alight with powerful Light itself as the two sailed forward and jumped off into simultaneous backflips as the light infused solar surfer sailed directly into the Red jacketed Anchor Raider.

The surfer collided with the Heartless, a brilliant flash of light that turned into an explosion of one that utterly annihilated the Anchor Raider.

Roxas and Jim landed on the deck with a slight stumble, both breathing heavily.

No less than a moment later, Jim's solar surfer magically appeared under his arm completely intact.

"...Whoa." was all Jim muttered out. "What was that?"

"I'll tell you later." Roxas said, fetching an ether out from his pocket. "Here Jim, crush this in your hands and help Xion."

Hawkins only had time to blink as he saw a blue cube of some kind that he instinctively caught in his hand.

"What's this supposed to be?" Jim asked aloud, looking up in time to see Roxas had already run off towards Axel.

Rolling his eyes, Jim held up the strange cube, an unusual hum coming from it.

Roxas told him to crush it in his hands.

What was supposed to happen?

Shaking his head, Jim scrunched up his face in confidence, choosing to believe in Roxas's word. Tightening his grip on the cube, Jim struggled momentarily until cracks appeared and it cracked apart. Rather than falling apart in his hands, the shards of this ether disintegrated and washed over his entire body.

Jim inhaled sharply, a swell of recharged energy coming over him.

"Whoa."

As much as he'd want to know what exactly occurred to him, he shoved such questions aside and took note of his current surroundings.

He saw Xion was still combating her Heartless and quickly ran forward.

Without even thinking, Jim threw his surfer in front of him and jumped, landing on it. In an instant, his small sail popped out with his thrusters activating. He flew forward at top speeds towards Xion, announcing his arrival by angling his surfer where the Anchor Raider got a faceful of a solar charged thruster in its face.

Xion grinned in appreciation at the sudden return from Jim, rushing forward to capitalize on this moment.

Calling upon a new trick she had been wanting to practice, Xion held her Keyblade in a downward diagonal angle towards the ground. Charging up some Fire laced with Light magic, she used the expulsion of the sphere she shot out to send herself flying in the air.

She flew right over the Anchor Raider and with all her might, cleaved straight the head of the captain based Heartless.

Over with Roxas and Axel, the duo were relentlessly assaulting the last remaining Anchor Raider with both their attacks being intense, powered by their affinities.

A moment later, with a combined attack, the two at long last destroyed the last of the Anchor Raiders.

The quartet would have reveled in their victory had it not been for the Pirate Ship jolting violently, slightly throwing them off balance.

"What the-"

"Guys!"

The four looked over to see the Legacy make its appearance off on the side of the Heartless ship.

Tali was waving at them with Shepard by her side. Over at the cannon, Garrus was manning his newly calibrated child, firing at the Heartless ship.

"Come on, get back over here!" Tali said, gesturing her hand rapidly.

"Hiya, Shepard." Axel said cheekily. "You missed out on all of the fun over here."

Jane rolled her eyes and moved her arm back. "Come aboard, guys. We need to get outta here before more show up."

"Don't have to tell us twice." Jim said aloud, activating his surfer's thrusters to propel himself forward to get back onto the Legacy.

The three Nobodies followed suit as they leaped off of the Pirate Ship's deck and landed onto the other.

Once clear, Amelia ordered Mr. Turnbuckle to get them out of there and he couldn't have complied any faster as he wanted to be far away from these Heartless like the rest of them.

Reaching a certain distance away, the presence of the Heartless Pirate Ship was no longer there as it was consumed by a Dark Corridor.

"You think that's the last we'll see them?" Jim asked hopefully.

Others from within the crew more or less thought the same thing.

Sadly, that wasn't meant to be as they saw those from Shepard's party shake their heads.

"We'll see more of them at some point now." Roxas said in a grim tone.

"Surprised we saw them after a number of days now." Garrus muttered out. "Must be a new record."

"Don't tell me you fight those… constantly?" Mr. Arrow asked hesitantly.

"Nearly daily." Xion admitted.

The entire crew heard this statement with many looking at one another in slight anxiousness.

'These guys fight monsters like these on the daily?' was the collective thought of the crew that was still relatively unfamiliar with the team that comes from the Normandy SR-1.

However, before anyone could say or ask anything more…

*Clap, clap, clap*

Clapping soon filled the air, making everyone present confused as to where it was coming from. Soon enough, they looked towards the nearby flight of stairs towards the bridge.

"You did quite good there."

From the top of the steps stood none other than a smirking No. XI of the Organization, Marluxia.

"Who are you!?" Amelia practically hissed at the intruder. "How'd you get onto my ship!?"

"Stay back, Captain." Roxas said, instantly calling upon his Keyblade once more.

Axel, Xion, Shepard, Tali and Garrus followed in his gesture with their weapons drawn as well.

"Keep your weapons on this guy." Shepard shouted to the rest of the wary crew. "He's the one that summoned those bastards that attacked the ship."

"Are you serious?" asked one of the crewmates.

"Do as she says." Captain Amelia barked out, leveling her rifle at the pink haired Nobody.

After her previous encounter with the Heartless, she wasn't going to take any chances; especially with this person who supposedly can control these monstrosities.

Now the Graceful Assassin had practically every single weapon that the crew had all pointed directly at him.

Rather than being tense or nervous, Marluxia's expression remained cocky and unperturbed by all these guns pointed at him.

"It's over Marluxia!" Axel said fiercely, where fire began to emanate off him in small wisps.

"Is it?" he asked in a condescending manner.

"We do have you surrounded." Garrus pointed out.

"So you have." Marluxia then scoffed. "Yet that's not going to stop me."

"It's off to the brig with him." Said Mr. Arrow with a ferocious glare.

"The brig's not gonna be good enough to hold him." Roxas stated.

Marluxia held up his hand in a placating manner.

"See, there is your problem." Marluxia said, tone leveled and controlled. "You are quick to rush into judgements about the purpose of me being here."

"You just called forth a gigantic Heartless Pirate Ship." Garrus pointed out in a voice so dry, deserts would be jealous of it.

"Yes I did, but I did come here with an ulterior motive outside the Organization." Marluxia freely admitted. "They are unaware of my presence being here at the moment. Though, there is a likely chance of that changing after this."

"What are you talking about, Marluxia?" Xion questioned, getting a bit impatient now with how aloof and avoidant he was being on answering their questions.

The Graceful Assassin was about to say something, yet it was halted when he sensed something. Quirking his head to the side, his cold blue eyes went elsewhere. After a couple of moments, he broke his gaze away, letting out a darkened chuckle.

It was greatly unnerving for the crew to hear.

"What's so funny?" Shepard asked, keeping her rifle pointed at the Nobody.

"I believe you all have other concerns to attend to."

"What does that mean?" Roxas demanded.

No. XI soon voiced an inquiry to the young Keybearer. "Tell me, have you ever bothered to learn what my element is?"

"What does that have to do with-"

"Humor me."

"I… don't know. I wasn't told what yours was other than something involving flowers."

Each member of the Organization had their own respective element that balanced things out with the Nothingness and Darkness that each Nobody is composed of.

Xigbar had Space, Vexen commanded Ice, Lexaeus was earth, Zexion wielded illusions and so on and so forth with each member having a specific affinity and specialty.

Whereas each member is unique in their own right, Xemnas was outright the most powerful of them all. Reason being is that his "element" or "affinity" is another dosage of Nothingness, making him all the more stronger than the rest of the Organization.

Yet for the "life" of him, Roxas was outright confused on what Marluxia's was all about.

"Hmm… pity." Marluxia was about to ask Xion the same question, but he figured the puppet was more or less knowledgeable as Roxas. "What about you Axel, mind filling in the blanks?"

Axel narrowed his eyes in suspicion but complied nonetheless. "I never got a clear idea on it, but it has to deal with the transient nature of Life and Death or whatever, for some damn reason. Also, a lot of flowers."

"Flowers?" Tali questioned.

"Don't look at me. It's a thing with him."

"Correct. Now while I won't spoil too much of myself, I can give you a small sample. You see, I can sense when something is about to die. And right now, I sense something truly spectacular is about to die in mere moments." Marluxia's tone was outright sinister with hints of amusement.

A moment later, a corridor of darkness enveloped and teleported No. XI away.

It certainly left a feeling of complete and utter confusion befell the crew as they began murmuring between one another as to what had just happened.

"What the hell was he talking about?" Shepard said, turning to their three specialists when it comes to this sort of thing. "What does he mean he felt something die?"

"You think it's just a trick?" Tali asked nervously.

"Knowing Marluxia, deceptive as he tends to be, I don't think he'd lie about his element." Axel stated, keeping one Chakram out just in case.

Garrus could only groan. "Oh please tell me we won't get any more action anytime soon."

In mere seconds and coming from out of nowhere-

*KRACKABOOOOOOOOOOOM*

It was honestly the largest explosion any person on the Legacy has ever heard in their entire lives. Almost deafening upon mere sound alone.

Right after, a shockwave was felt, causing everyone to almost lose their footing as the entire space vessel was knocked a good mile away from their recent position.

Xion couldn't help herself when she turned to the Turian "You were saying?"

More and more light appeared within the vicinity, causing everyone to grow intensely worried.

"What the devil?" Silver asked.

Doppler however looked out to the side and gasped in absolute horror.

"No, no, no!" Doppler exclaimed in total dread. "Good heavens. The star Permusa, it's gone supernova!"

Tali, Shepard and Garrus had their jaws on the floor, witnessing what most would consider an astronomical unlikeliness back in their galaxy. Utter horror and dread completely filled their entire beings as their blood ran cold and hearts skipped a beat or two.

Amelia gaped though she composed herself a moment later, running towards the helm of the ship.

"Evasive action, Mr. Turnbuckle!" She shouted.

"Aye-aye, Captain!" the multi-tentacled alien began rapidly spinning the wheel in the direction away from the exploding star.

"All hands, fasten your lifelines!" Mr. Arrow bellowed out.

Everyone made their way to the central mast and retrieved some rope for themselves before tying themselves off.

"I don't think rope's gonna cut it here!" Garrus yelled out, seeing no way such material could work.

"You got any brighter ideas for alternatives?" Axel said, hastily tying himself up around his waist.

"I-"

"Garrus, shut up and tie yourself up!" Shepard shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Keelah, it's a Supernova!" Tali exclaimed in a screech, her mind still trying to make sense as to what they were witnessing while fumbling through her rope and securing it around her waist.

Right behind the ship, an oncoming tidal wave of cosmic waves was coming straight for the Legacy while the ship flew at top speeds.

Small pieces of flaming debris, the leftovers of the star began cutting right through the solar sails of the Legacy.

"Mr. Arrow, secure those sails!" Amelia commanded from the bridge.

"Secure all sails!" Arrow yelled out. "Reef them down, men!"

"Garrus!" Shepard shouted, pointing to the cannon with the Turian scrambling onto it.

The trio of Nobodies, all the while, had their lifelines secure and their weapons out.

They were jumping about, using everything they had in their power to swat away any meteorites that came in close or that Garrus didn't shoot down.

Some were successful as they broke apart quite easily, some needed more work. More so with how fast they were propelled from where the Permusa star was once located.

From the masts above, the other crew members quickly furled the sails and did their best to secure the lines as fast as possible.

"Keelahkeelahkeelah." Tali rapidly whispered under her breath as she worked fast to secure the sails with Shepard.

"Stay calm Tali." Shepard said aloud. "Much as I hate to say that!"

Tali only shook her head, breath still erratic as she reeled the sails in.

And from the bow of the ship, Jim and Silver did their best to fulfill their task. Whereas Jim was able to take care of his, Silver was about to finish when-

*KRSSH*

A stray piece of debris struck near where Silver was in tightening his portion of the sail, the cyborg crying out in shock and fear as he flailed about and fell.

"SILVER!" Jim cried out, heart stopping as he desperately jumped forward and grabbed hold of Silver's lifeline.

With all his might, he pulled the old cook back aboard with the cyborg letting out a shaky laugh of relief whilst patting his shoulder. "Whoa. Thanks, lad."

Jim smirked as he helped the cook back to the bow when he saw something out of the corner of his eye that made his face pale into a ghostly white hue.

A far larger piece of debris was sailing directly towards the Legacy, clearly dwarfing them by a large margin as it would be impossible to break down by the ship's cannons alone.

Garrus slumped in his seat with Tali barely managing out a sound.

Roxas, Axel and Xion also had pale faces of abject horror but they shook it off.

Everyone scrambled for safety where the Nobody trio were ready to jump in and do their best to protect the ship.

That was… until…

"...Why is it being pulled back?" Tali asked in a quiet voice that somehow was heard by everyone.

The answer was soon given when they saw the unimaginable.

"Oh, spirits…"

"My God."

To the crew of the Normandy, this was simply within the realm of impossibility.

"Captain, the star!" Onus cried out from the crow's nest.

From the bridge, Amelia narrowed her gaze at the sight before her, all the while Doppler widened his.

It was not just from the bridge, but everyone else saw the two swirling cosmic clouds and materials were being swallowed up into a massively dense sense of gravity.

"Oh, Keelah! It's… It's…" Tali lost her voice.

Doppler gasped, finishing the Quarians statement. "It's devolving into a… BLACK HOLE!"

Everyone could only stare, mouths agape as they were staring at what was quite literally the definition of an endless void with no end. The swirling accretion disk was beating with the clouds disappearing as the halo effect was shown to physically show how intense the gravity is; lensing light from the other side and pulling it up and around.

Garrus soon began reciting a prayer of his people under his breath with Tali quickly doing the same.

"We're getting pulled in!" Turnbuckle yelled out, straining with all his might to keep the helm steady but he was flung aside.

Amelia, however, was quick to rush in and grasped the helm with her barely managing to keep it straight.

"No, you don't you…!" The Captain grunted, feeling her muscles strain under the pressure.

Suddenly, from the black hole itself, a large fiery red wave expunged out from the inside, rocking the ship even more so.

"Blast these waves! They're so deucedly erratic!" Amelia said, barely keeping a hold of the helm.

"No, Captain. They're not erratic at all." Doppler shouted over the commotion. Gazing at the console on the ship's bridge, he was quickly calculating from what he was able to read from the cosmic event. "There'll be one more in precisely 47.2 seconds, followed by the biggest magilla of them all!"

Rather than fall apart at the news, Amelia gained a look of fierce determination with a wild smirk appearing. "Of course! Brilliant, Doctor!"

Tali, who was nearby, overhead this.

"Captain say what now?!"

"We'll ride that last magilla out of here!" Amelia exclaimed.

Roxas, having ran up to check on Tali heard that last comment in time, stopping momentarily cold in his tracks.

"...I don't know who's crazier now, her or Shepard with the ship and mako, respectively." Roxas said in the blandest of tones.

"They're probably more or less the same." Tali said, voice losing any semblance of fear or joy. Just dreaded acceptance.

"All sails secured, Captain!" Mr. Arrow reported from the deck.

Amelia smiled as she gazed back at her first officer. "Good man! Now release them immediately!"

The rock man only gazed at her in bewilderment for a moment, not exactly sure if he heard her correctly.

"...Aye, Captain." The first officer whirled around and barked out the order. "You heard her, men! Unfurl those sails!"

It was at this moment did the crew from the masts above just got down to the deck below, only to respond accordingly.

"What?"

"But we just finished tying them down!"

"Make up your blooming minds!"

The crew once more began scaling up to the sails, Mr. Arrow joining them this time.

From the helm, Amelia called out to the resident Solar Surfer, who was just about to go to the masts above to help with the present task..

"Mr. Hawkins, make sure all lifelines are secured good and tight!"

"Aye-aye, captain!" Jim said, rushing to the lifeline mast.

The crew reached their respective positions atop the masts, beginning to unfurl the sails one at a time as rapidly as they could.

Down below, Jim tugged on every single lifeline.

"Lifelines secured, Captain!"

Amelia gave a firm nod as she gripped the wheel even tighter. "Very good!"

It was at this moment did the ship get knocked back as they were hit by the recent magilla blast.

After the recent one, everyone had to regain their bearings and get back onto their feet.

"Captain, the last wave!" Doppler howled at the top of his lungs. "HERE IT COMES!"

"Hold onto your lifelines, gents! It's gonna be a bumpy ride!"

As the ship fell into the endless abyss, every crewmate clung onto their lifelines and a part of the ship as their visions darkened into eternal black.

Shepard, Tali, Garrus, Roxas, Axel and Xion were all huddled near one another with Silver and Jim right by them with the group just clinging on for dear life.

Xion held onto Axel and Roxas, Tali doing the same with the latter whilst Shepard managed to have herself wedged in between Axel and Garrus.

Jim looked over to Roxas the two sharing fearful looks with one another before they both closed them and waited for the inevitable.

The Legacy fell in, swallowed up by the black hole.

…

…

…

*BMMMMMM*

Then, from the depths of the collapsed star, the final magilla was unleashed with the ship at the center of it all.

The solar sails absorbed all of the cosmic radiation that came from the explosion, the ship propelling itself at speeds unreachable less than a few moments ago.

Everyone who wasn't clinging onto something hard or sturdy was thrown all over the place, almost smacking against the ship's railings or about to be thrown off the ship if it weren't for their lifelines.

When the accelerating moment came to an end, everything seemed to slow down for the Legacy crew as they were now far away from where the Black Hole was once at.

Not long after, the crew was cheering and yelling at the top of their lungs from surviving the cosmic event.

"Holy spirits…" Garrus rasped out, eyes bulging as he was holding his chest. He can almost feel his heart beating out of his armor at this point.

Suddenly, he felt something rise from his stomach.

"Urp." The Turian then ducked his head over the side and felt his entire lunch drain out of his stomach.

Tali was trembling, having fallen back into Roxas' arms who was equally as rattled as he was.

"Keelah." Tali was clutching Roxas with both her hands, still shaking erratically. "Keelah, we… we…"

"We're alive." Axel said, slumping against the railing looking down to Shepard was sitting on her ass. "You alright there Commander?"

Jane held a dazed look in her eyes, head shifting about as she tried to find her voice.

"We… can honestly… say…" The Spectre couldn't quite believe what she was about to say. "We had outlived a blackhole and lived to tell the tale."

"Don't care if we didn't get any video or image footage of that." Tali whispered, barely being heard.

"The others might call bullshit on us." Axel stressed out, plopping downright next to the Commander.

"Granted, but with the situations we've been through so far, they'll be more or less jealous." Roxas tried to lighten the mood.

"Will they?" Garrus bemoaned, arms draped over the railing he still felt a bit queasy. "I wouldn't even want Wrex to give this a whirl."

"Do you think they'll even believe us?" Xion asked, voice muffled as she was basically lying flat on her front with her face planted firmly on the wooden deck of the ship.

"I don't give a fuck." Shepard declared. "I will challenge anyone otherwise to top what we just went through."

Axel couldn't help it as he began laughing uproariously.

"That'll be a sight to see." Axel said, wiping a tear out of his eye.

"Wonder what new elements were formed from that explosion." Tali muttered aloud.

The only thing that came to be back in their galaxy as some result from a supernova has been the extremely rich Eezo deposits. Asides from that and anything else from their galactic periodic table, there was nothing else that seemed different.

In this new galaxy, on the other hand…

"You wanna go back there and find out?" Roxas couldn't help but ask in an incredulous manner.

"...No."

"Good. Then you can just lay there on top of Roxas for a while longer." Axel cheekily said.

"Until I can stand again." Tali said, completely unbothered by the comment, slumping her head back. "Because in all intents and purposes, I think my legs are completely numb for the time being."

"I don't blame ya, lass." Silver said, pulling out a handkerchief and wiping the sweat off his brow.

Jim said nothing as he was lying on his back and trying to control his rapidly beating heart.

"You alright, Morph?" Xion said, laying on her stomach with her hair a complete mess and expression practically vacant.

The pinkish blob was more or less a puddle with swirls for eyes.

From the bridge, Doppler was standing back up and cracking his back, due to how he landed moments ago. Even prying the loose rope off of him.

Upon seeing Amelia walking past him, the doctor couldn't help but unleash his ragged chuckles.

"Captain! That… Oh, my goodness. That was… That was absolutely…! That was the most…!"

"Oh, tish-tosh." Amelia cut him off, soon retrieving a telescopic device to more or less help chart their new path with what just occurred this night. "Actually, Doctor, your astronomical advice was most helpful today."

"Well, uh, uh, thank you." Doppler was certainly caught off guard by such praise. "Thank you very much. Well, I have a lot of help to offer anatomically… amanamonically… astronomically…"

This resulted in Doppler slapping his face in utter embarrassment.

Reaching the bottom of the steps of the deck, Amelia regarded Silver, Jim and the rest of the Normandy crew. "Well, I must congratulate you, Mr. Silver. It seems your cabin boy did a bang-up job with those lifelines."

Silver smiled at the young lad, the two nudging each other back and forth which ended with the old Cyborg rubbing his hand in Jim's face to make the boy laugh.

"And Commander Shepard?"

"Huh?"

Amelia chortled at the response. "I can't thank you and your crew enough after what happened tonight."

Shepard only smiled weakly, saluting her lightly. "No problem, Captain."

"Though do be sure I'll be asking a number of things later."

The commander nodded, knowing full well on what Amelia was implying with Marluxia's presence prior to the star Permusa imploding.

"All hands accounted for, Mr. Arrow?" Amelia asked aloud, turning to the crew.

No response.

"...Mr. Arrow?"

Again, nothing.

A moment later, the crew turned back and saw Mr. Scroop approaching with a forlorn expression. In his clawed hands, he held a familiar black hat.

"I'm afraid Mr. Arrow has been lost." The arachnid based alien said with a sorrowful look, handing the hat over into the hands of a disbelieving Captain. "His lifeline was not secured."

Many who knew Jim gaped and turned to him who's eyes widened in shock.

"No! I checked them all!" Jim said quickly, rushing to the lifelines post.

Upon getting there, he was met with the horrifying sight of a missing lifeline.

"I… I did. I checked them all. They were secure. I swear…" Jim's voice cracked.

Garrus broke away from looking at Jim. He could see the genuine look on the cabin boy's face as he indeed took care of the assigned task earlier.

Being a detective, he had learned to read people's emotions and intentions based on facial expressions. Humans have always been one of the most emotive species he has ever come across.

And Jim was conveying nothing but sincerity.

Shaking his head a little, he paused before looking a bit further to the side. There he saw something that seemed… off.

Mr. Scroop smirking.

Moments ago, the arachnid sailor was sorrowful. Yet now… now it was the complete opposite.

This caused the Turian to narrow his eyes as his mind slowly went to work.

The Captain, however, was unaware of this with her hands tightly holding her dearest friend's tricorne hat.

"Mr.… Mr. Arrow was…" Amelia cleared her throat as she tried to compose herself. "...a fine spacer, finer than most of us could ever hope to be." Her voice started to crack a little, only noticeable by some. "But he knew the risks, as do we all. Resume your posts. We carry on."

The Captain turned away, slowly climbing the steps up to her stateroom with the crew now silent as they slowly returned to their posts.

Returning to her cabin, Amelia was fighting long and hard to keep the tears at bay, but the feeling was too strong to hold back. All she could do was grit her teeth and close her eyes, letting muscle memory carry her back to her quarters.

As this went on, Doppler saw what was going on and went to check after her.

Everyone else simply dispersed.

Time has passed with the excitement from earlier dying down. Almost everyone was resting at this point with a number of people were still awake. Either due to performing their watchmen duties or still disturbed on the fact that Mr. Arrow is no longer amongst them now.

Down in the decks below, one lone Turian was inspecting a piece of rope he had found as the bow of the ship. He held up the edge and narrowed his eyes at the end.

The clearly cut end.

The snap of a rope was clearly different from a cut. He had to learn of this on some of his training back during basics. More so during some of his trips with his father and sister afterwards.

It would normally have been stretched or pulled apart for the most part. The rope strands would be uneven all over. But this was a cleanly cut rope.

And from the looks of it, depending on what was around, there was a limited number of options on this ship.

Like say a sword…

Or a very sharp pair of pincers belonging to one Mr. Scroop.

Much as he wanted to confront the arachnid sailor and put a bullet in his head, Garrus needed to be professional about this and report his findings to not only Shepard but Amelia as well.

Now, however, he had to leave the area and watch his back more until they can properly apprehend Mr. Scroop for Mr. Arrow's murder.

He wanted to bring this to Captain Amelia but right now, she needed a moment to herself.

Last he saw, Dr. Doppler was still with her, the astrophysicist having made her some tea to soothe her and basically not leaving her side.

Hopefully, this trip won't have anything bad in store for them.

Yet knowing their luck so far, something is bound to happen.

Up on the deck, one lone cabin boy sat upon the ropes of the ship, mood as down as it can be after today.

Earlier, Roxas and Xion had tried in vain to speak with him and even Commander and Shepard had their go though he remained silent and just asked to be left alone.

So here was.

Alone.

'Probably better this way.' Jim thought to himself.

Though his solitude was not to last.

The telltale sounds of mechanic limbs came up from below followed by the exhale of a tired sigh.

At the bottom corner of his eyes, he saw Silver leaning on the edge of the ship with pipe in hand.

Taking a deep breath with the smoke filling his lungs, the cyborg exhaled. The smoke coming out from both his mouth and nostrils with the feeling giving him a comfortable warmth on this cold night.

"It weren't your fault, you know." Silver said in a casual manner.

Jim's expression hardened as he gripped the rope he had in his hands, wrapping it around his hand.

"Why half the crew would be spinning in that black abyss if not for-"

Jim threw the rope he had in his hands out towards the cosmos and dropped down to Silver's level.

"Look, don't you get it?" Jim cut the cyborg cook off. "I SCREWED UP! For two seconds, I thought that maybe I could do something right, but-AAGH! I just… Forget it… Forget it…"

The young lad leaned against a nearby mast, shoulders slumped and mood simply in the gutter.

"Roxas… Xion… they were more useful than a mess up like me." Jim said quietly, blinking tears out of his eyes. "Why'd a useless felon like me even go on this journey?"

Eyes hardened for the briefest of moments before they softened. Reaching forward, Silver spun the young cabin boy around with a firm voice that was mixed with hope and a few other things that Jim had a hard time picking up on.

"Now, you listen to me, James Hawkins." Silver said, pointing his pipe at him. "You got the makings of greatness in ya, but you gotta take the helm and chart your own course. Stick to it, no matter the squalls. And when the time comes you get the chance to really test the cut of your sails and show what you're made of. Well… I hope I'm there catching some of the light coming off ya that day."

Silver held his arms out while his head was up with his eyes closed as if picturing that moment clear as day.

Jim, listening to all this could only feel tears stream down his face as he leaned his head against Silver's chest as he wept quietly.

In all honesty, this felt rather awkward on what position he was presently in right now. All that he could do was pat the poor lad a couple of times.

"There, there, lad. It's alright, Jimbo. It's all right."

Soon enough it transitioned into a light hug.

After a manner of moments, Silver broke away and did his best to compose himself.

"Now, Jim, I… I best be getting about my watch, and you best be getting some shut-eye."

Silver ushered the young teen towards the barracks below whilst he stayed behind with only Morph to keep him company. Just before going down, Jim momentarily glanced back at the old cyborg and gave him an appreciative smile which Silver returned, gesturing him to go down already.

Seemingly alone on the deck now, Silver felt Morph hover by his organic ear. Out of reflex, the old cook gently caressed his little blob-like companion, who cooed from his touch.

"Getting in too deep here, Morphy." Silver said un-surely. "Next thing ya know, they'll be saying I've gone soft."

Saying his little peace, he walked off in order to properly begin his watchman duties that night.

Unbeknownst to the cyborg cook, he was being watched by Mr. Scroop from the masts overhead.

The arachnid alien sneered in disgust at what he had just seen, unbelieving that Silver was the captain he had chosen to follow

After all these years, that rough, unflinching edge that had garnered him such a crew is being completely undone by this cabin boy.

Scurrying off, he didn't notice two things.

One, the dark aura emanating off his form.

The second being Marluxia gazing down from the crow's nest above. He had watched this entire scene play out and hummed to himself in thought.

"Hmm… How to proceed with him now."

At first, he had thought about targeting the ringleader of the crew that apparently had more ulterior motives than simply finding whatever it was this ship was journeying to find. But then, he detected traces of… light within the cyborg's heart. While there was a hardened darkness in the cook of the ship, there were traces of light that were beginning to appear and only grew the more he focused on him.

After witnessing the display earlier, all done by this Mr. Scroop fellow… some ideas are shifted. It was clear to the Graceful Assassin that this Silver would not do in his plans.

But the crab-spider alien.

A sinister smirk appeared upon the Nobody's face.

"Yes, he'll do."

A moment later, No. XI of the Organization vanished in a Corridor of Darkness.

-Scene Cut-

Sora furiously slashed through a Fat Body Heartless before rolling over to take out another bunch of Heartless in rapid succession.

Jumping up, the Keybearer sliced through an Air Soldier and fell down to take out a Shadow.

He whirled around, ready to take out another oncoming bunch when thunder reigned down in front of him.

"Alright, that's enough!" Quacked an aggravated voice.

Turned around he saw his friend Donald stomping over to him and whacking his knee.

"Ow!" Sora whined out in pain, hopping on one leg while clutching his other. "Donald?! What was that for?!"

"For running off like that again!" Donald yelled, hopping up and down in annoyance.

"I haven't been running off." Sora retorted with his cheeks puffed.

"Oh really?" said a familiar disbelieving voice.

Sora looked over to see Riku with his arms crossed with a very much unamused expression.

Beside him was a very much concerned Namine and Goofy.

Rather than wearing his old garments, Riku has changed into a new outfit since their group arrived at Yen Sid's tower.

They all have for the most part.

Donald and Goofy were back in their old getup that they had when they first met Sora and Namine retained her white aesthetic with her dress reaching down midway to her thighs and a pair of light blue shoes that reached past her ankles. She wore a yellow vest over her dress with the sleeves being able to cover her arms entirely to retract entirely. Right now, they were pulled back entirely.

A small white bracelet on her right wrist completed her slightly changed up look.

Riku however, had a complete overhaul.

Riku wore a white vest with a large black collar, a yellow back, and a black stripe along the bottom as well as around each arm hole. It is closed with a zipper that is closed just a bit below his collarbone and slightly above his belt. He also wears loose fitting jeans and a black belt with a large silver buckle and a pair of white sneakers.

Sora had also gone through a slight wardrobe update now wearing a black V-neck t-shirt with an incomplete white X across the stomach, the center being left blank. Red shorts that are black below the knee with both built-in pockets and external pockets, and a blue belt. The only thing he retained from his old outfit was his white gloves with the single strap, his shoes and his crown necklace.

"Cause the Sora I know almost never gets angry." Riku said, walking right up to his best friend and jabbing him in the forehead. "Spill it knucklehead, what's been egging you?"

Sora only swatted his friends hand away halfheartedly with a very much force smile.

"Come on, Riku, there's nothing to worry about." Sora said, though it was clear to see that his friends didn't really believe him all that much.

"Gawrsh, Sora, has something been botherin' ya lately?" Goofy inquired.

Sora was about to brush it aside when he felt a firm hand upon his shoulder, looking up to see Riku's eyes boring into his own.

"Sora," Riku's voice held one that wasn't one to be disputed. "What's wrong?"

The Keybearer opened his mouth only to shut it. The others stared at the duo for a few seconds, unsure as what to say now until the spiky brown haired teen hung his head.

"Sorry guys. I just… don't know what's happening to me."

"No kidding. It seems so unlike you acting that way." Donald stated.

"Donald." Namine said, gently nudging him.

"No, no, Donald's right." Sora admitted. "Just… have had a light on my mind lately."

"What's bothering you Sora?" Namine asked softly.

"He's probably hitting puberty already." Goofy suggested. "Maxie was like that when he was Sora's age."

"Wha-What?!" Sora blinked. "N-no, no, Goofy, it's not that at all!"

Riku chuckled aloud. "Yeah, pretty sure it's not that but good guess."

The rather tense mood evaporated as the group shared a small laugh with one another.

It was a much needed one in hindsight.

Since they had met Yen Sid, they had learned a great deal of news that wasn't exactly something that would uplift their spirits.

Much as they had restored the Worlds lost to the Heartless, they were not at peace nor in balance.

They had learned about a new, more powerful and dangerous threat that had the Heartless under their control along with an advent of newer foes they would undoubtedly encounter on their new journey.

Organization XIII and the Nobodies.

Empty husks and shells that retained a lingering will of the one who had lost their heart. Beings that were not meant to exist yet still are.

It didn't take a genius for them to figure out just how dangerous one of those members were.

Before Mickey had departed on his own separate journey, he along with Riku told them about their own personal encounters with three of their members, each one just as dangerous as the last.

And there were eleven of these powerful individuals.

Eleven because thankfully, they had met the trio of Roxas, Axel and Xion who had defected from the group with Roxas in particular being the one who brought this news to them all.

So they have three more allies to help them out when they would undoubtedly clash with the Organization once more.

But on the thought of the trio of Nobodies that defected…

"Look," Sora began, rubbing the back of his head. "I can't… exactly explain what I'm going through cause I don't understand it at all to be perfectly honest with you."

"Like what?"

"That's just it." Sora said exasperatedly. "Every time I think about it, it just gives me a headache. I don't think you guys would understand.

"Try us." Riku said, crossing his arms.

"...I've been having these weird dreams lately." Sora recalled. "I thought they were nothing, but… they feel different."

"Like how?" Namine inquired.

"Like I'm there." Sora emphasized. "It's not a dream but a vision of some kind. Or something, I dunno, something else."

"Like you're there?" Donald said in bewilderment.

"Yeah and… it's to places I've never been to before."

"What are they like?" Goofy asked.

"Super spacey and alieny." Sora said making the boys slump over.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Riku inquired, flicking his friend's forehead.

Sora took it in stride, rubbing his head whilst deep in thought.

"I dunno, that's what I've been seeing." Sora said with a frown. "And what I also think they weren't exactly dreams is because I've been seeing Xion and Axel in them as well."

"Xion and Axel?" Namine said in surprise.

Goofy hummed aloud. "Wasn't there a third person with them?"

"Yeah, Roxas." Sora said straight away.

"What of Roxas?" Namine asked. "Have you seen him?"

"...That's the strange thing, I've hardly seen him at all, yet I occasionally heard his name."

The group was silent for the most part, thinking of what Sora just told them.

"I think we should take this to Master Yen Sid." Goofy said after a few moments. "If there's anyone who may have an idea what you're going through Sora, it's him."

Sora blinked before smiling a moment later and nodding in agreement.

"Right. He should know."

"Well let's head back then." Riku announced. "We've already taken care of the Heartless here and frankly, I've worked up an appetite."

A small rumble was heard, everyone looking to Namine who was blushing up a storm in embarrassment.

The platinum blond haired girl only looked down as the others couldn't help but laugh at her expense.

"A-hyuck, looks like you're not the only one, Riku." Goofy said good naturedly.

"Let's go." Donald declared, the rest simply nodding along and beginning their walk back to the Gummi ship.

Sora, however, lagged behind slightly and stopped for a brief moment.

He looked down at the ground and then closed his eyes a moment later.

"Roxas… I don't know what's going on but… I get the feeling you might be going through the same thing." Sora said quietly. "I don't know what I'll accomplish by doing this but… if you do hear these words, then please come meet with us and maybe you can help us figure out what's going on.

"Sora."

The brown haired teen looked up to see Riku standing there waiting for him with the others slightly ahead of him.

"Come on, think about this stuff later when we're back at the tower." Riku said, thumbing behind him.

Sora only nodded, quickly jogging to catch up to him before resuming their walk together back to the Gummi ship.

All he can do now is hold off on his own until things can be figured out on this whole mess.

Cause, in his honest opinion, it's been ruining most of his nap times.

AN

Alright folks settled another one and things are picking up on multiple ends.

Roxas, Axel and Xion continue their journey across the Etherium, Marluxia is making his movies and Sora, Riku and Co have met with Master Yen Sid to begin the next part in their journey.

In essence, a lot of shit to cover.

Jebest4781: On other news, given there is honestly not much else for the time being… Mandalorian Season 2 has finally come and it's start has been glorious!

FMW: They brought back the fucking KRAYT DRAGON! MY GOD IT WAS AMAZING!

Jeb: Holy hell it was epic on what they did with it on the first episode of the new season. And sure most people are rolling their eyes on the whole "giant sand worm" concept in recent years, more so with the Dune film coming out next year and a big thing is their own "giant sand worm". But to us, the Krayt Dragon was a bit more epic from what was done in Star Wars Legends.

FMW: So in that time, we process the episodes while waiting for the next one. Not gonna lie, there's a part of me that kinda enjoys the whole weekly release thing then the usual binge. It's like the old where I have this specific time during the week where I could say Nobody bother me, I have something I need to watch undisturbed. Bug me at your own risk.

Jeb: Ah~ the good old days when Saturday morning cartoons or late weekday nights all over again on new episodes.

FMW: So yeah, Mandalorian is back, we're still on a roll and a lot of madness is brewing in the story.

Stay tuned for more.

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.