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.

18. Treasure Planet

The concluding the chapter to the Treasure Planet arc.

Nuff said.

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.

I'm Nobody Chapter 18: Treasure Planet.

-Montressor spaceport-

The crescent shaped space port was busy as per its usual multitude of scheduled arrivals and departures of ships that went in and out around the station.

Out of the hundreds, if not thousands of ships here, one had remained stationary since its arrival a few days ago now nearing weeks really.

The ship from another galaxy, the Normandy SR-1.

It had been stationed at the port it had docked at since its arrival to the station.

Presently, one of the Queen's representatives was on board the Normandy as he helped oversee some of the first contact protocols. Not only to help exchange bits of information between the two galaxies, but to be informed on what else the Normandy needed for the duration of their stay at this station. All due to the previous arrangement Commander Shepard had agreed upon to take part on a voyage Captain Amelia was presently on.

Today it was the wolf-man, Captain Gandry.

"How goes your… integration, if I remember it correctly, Lieutenant Alenko."

"Well nothing's blown up yet, so that's a positive." Kaidan said straight away, looking through his Omni-Tool. "Engines should be primed and ready to go, life support at a hundred percent, hull integrity stable."

"How soon do you figure you should be ready to sail once more?" Gandry asked, taking a moment to look over the astonishing ship that genuinely felt alien to him in comparison to the ships he had seen.

In all honesty, this was more sophisticated than any vessel he had the pleasure of serving on. More advanced, even.

"Hopefully sooner than later." Kaidan said. "This whole new technology that we're working with is still taking time getting used to."

Before they could speak with each other further, the duo heard two voices up ahead close to the pilots deck of the ship.

"No, no Stitch, remember what happened last time." Came the voice of the Normandy's pilot, Joker.

"Gebbabababa." That was the gibberish of the Normandy's… pet? Muscle? Weird mascot?

Stitch.

"That is bullcrap and you know it." Joker refuted. "And for the last time, no more cake. How many comas do I gotta find you in."

"Cake good!"

"In small doses!"

The unusual pairing continued chattering with one another whilst Captain Gandry listened on.

"I see those two are getting along as per usual." Gandry noted.

"Yeah, yeah, they're keeping themselves entertained." Kaidan remarked, putting away his Omni-Tool and gesturing to the Captain to follow him.

The duo walked through the ship, Kaidan nodding or making brief small talk with the crew aboard the ship as they went about their duties.

"It is heartening to see such a crew in high spirits considering the… jarring ordeal you all must have gone through." Gandry complimented.

"They're focused." Kaidan said. "Which keeps their minds off of dread and despair at the thought of possibly not returning home."

"Do you truly believe in that notion?"

"No, I know we'll get back." Kaidan answered with no doubt in his voice. "Considering the constant weird shit that goes on with us on the daily, we're either getting back home intentionally or accidentally. Or both. An intentional accident."

"That seems astronomically unlikely." Gandry said in good jest.

"We're used to those odds." Kaidan shrugged, smirking in amusement. "I'd be more surprised if something normal were to happen or something went according to plan. Then I'd know something possibly might have gone wrong."

Gandry chuckled aloud at the Lieutenants comments, the two entering into the meeting room of the Normandy.

Upon entering, Gandry was met with the surprising sight of a familiar man in a black coat and flaming red hair.

"Axel, you're back." Kaidan said, approaching the man who perked his head up upon seeing Alenko.

"Hey Kai." Axel greeted, getting up out of his chair and straining himself to crack his back. "How are ya?"

"Busy but we're getting there." Kaidan stated, the two exchanging a small handshake. "Normandy should be good to go within the next-" The Lieutenant brought out his Omni-Tool. "-Three or four days."

"Good, Sheppy will be glad to hear it."

"Sheppy?" Kaidan snorted. "Did you come up with that one?"

"Just did right now. How's it sound?" Axel asked with a small grin.

"Meh, not sure it'll catch on but depending on whether or not it annoys the Commander…" Kaidan left the unfinished statement hanging.

"We'll just have to see." Axel said, looking to the wolf-man beside Kaidan. "You're Gandry, right?"

The Captain blinked in slight surprise. "Pleasure to know you remember me. Though I have the unfortunate situation of not being familiar with you even though we've already met."

"Axel, get it memorized." the Red head said, tapping his temple.

"I shall be sure to do-" Gandry then paused, frowning in thought. "Pardon for me being rude but, I do recall, were you not one of the individuals that were selected by your Commander to accompany her and Captain Amelia aboard the Legacy?"

"Oh yeah, I know that."

"Then… How is it you are here?" Gandry asked. "Did you choose not to accompany your crew?"

"No, no, I was there." Axel said. "I'm just dropping in to give Kaidan a quick heads up on where we are and he's supposed to tell me, so I can tell Shepard everything's A-Okay here."

"How is this-"

"You'll see in a sec." Kaidan said to Gandry before looking back to Axel. "How are things on the Legacy?"

Axel sighed, going over and slumping back down into his seat.

"The Heartless have been a severe pain in the ass since Permusa went supernova." Axel said.

Kaidan was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that the Legacy had bore witness to the collapse, explosion and formation of a black hole. But then again… they were in another galaxy.

"How bad?"

"Every day of every other hour." Axel said. "We've been running into them more and more along the way. In all honesty, my instincts keep telling me that we may be getting close to our destination."

"That bad huh?"

"Could be worse." Axel shrugged. "Could be fighting literal armada of Heartless, oh wait, that's exactly what we've been doing."

"Well, we quite literally survived a nuclear explosion." Kaidan stated. "I'm quite confident you guys will survive this trip. And the Heartless along the way."

"Here's to hoping." Axel said. "How are things here? Normandy still in one piece?"

"You're sitting in it."

"Yeah, but for all I know, this could be the only part of the ship that's intact." Axel rebuked. "The rest of the ship could be in tatters and these walls around us are just propped up to make it look like the Normandy's meeting room."

Kaidan chortled aloud. "You have little confidence in us, huh?"

"Your words, not mine."

The LT let out a 'hmph' of amusement.

"Anything else you wanna tell me so I can report to Shepard?"

"Other than a few Heartless Stitch and I have taken care of on the occasion, nothing else that you already don't know."

"Right."

Captain Gandry, who had been relatively silent for the most part, finally spoke up.

"So, I must ask, how is it that Axel here is back from the Legacy?" Gandry questioned the Alliance lieutenant.

"Our Omni-tools can message each other, even receive calls. But without Mass Relays to help bounce off the signals, it's really hard for us to communicate over long distances. So Axel volunteered to keep both parties up to speed."

Gandry nodded. "But I still am unclear as to how he got here."

"Right, well, since Kai has given me what I need to know and Vice-versa I could head back." Axel said with a two finger salute before stunning Gandry as a dark ovular dome shrouded over the man in black before vanishing with Axel going with it.

"What was that?" Gandry asked in complete astonishment.

"A Dark Corridor." Kaidan explained. "He, Xion and Roxas are the only ones that can operate them and travel anywhere there is out there. As long as they have a clear destination, they can make it there in one piece… without winding up at some random place in the universe."

"Astonishing…" Gandry muttered in awe. "Can the rest of your people do that?"

"Like I said, only those three can operate them. The rest of us can't, due to how dangerous the Dark Corridors are." Kaidan informed the captain. "I mean, they did say their coats can help protect them from venturing inside and if there were more on hand, then the rest of us could probably travel through with no harm towards us."

As the Wolf-man Captain processed this piece of information, a series of rather specific thoughts began to form and connect within his mind.

"Pardon me for asking, Lieutenant, but what you're telling me is that these three individuals you mentioned have the capacity of teleporting virtually anywhere they want should they know where to go?" Gandry asked.

"Yes, that's right." Kaidan nodded.

"And I recall you have told me that you have had no means of contacting your own home galaxy and letting your friend and superiors know of you being alive and well here."

Kaidan frowned, nodding slowly. "Yes… they don't."

"So if what you're saying is true then shouldn't he have, I don't know, popped back up to the galaxy you were previously at and reported things accordingly to your superiors?"

…..

…..

…..

…..

"Lieutenant?"

"SON OF A BITCH!"

-Scene Cut-

From within the barracks of the R.L.S. Legacy, Jim was curled in his hammock and was trying his best to prolong himself from getting up due to all of the loud snores and the flatulent noises the crewmate sleeping above him was giving out.

In all honesty, that last one was truly despicable.

He had been dead tired for a couple of days now ever since the star Permusa blew up and Mr. Arrow's death. Rather than having time to recuperate from such a loss and attack, it's been nothing but a hectic pace of madness now.

The Heartless have been popping up consecutively, making everyone go on edge with their bodies aching with how they're being pushed to their limits. That gigantic Heartless Pirate Ship they had fought aboard the day of the supernova was now constantly harassing them at any given time during the day.

When that would happen, the crew would spring into action and fight off the Heartless with a great deal of ferocity.

Jim was certainly getting a workout.

Since then, he has felt a swelling of energy he did not know he was aware that came with a litany of astonishing abilities.

One of them was the extraordinary ability to call upon both his newly made Solar Surfer and an upgraded version of the energy flintlock rifle he had on him during his first bout with the Heartless.

During these skirmishes with the Heartless, Jim had constantly fought alongside Shepard and her team with him having teamed up with the trio of the black cloak almost every time. There were a few instances of Jim fighting along with Tali, Shepard and Garrus several times but for the majority it was with Roxas, Axel and Xion.

Silver had even participated a few times, showing his prowess with his cybernetic cannon.

Even though they fought off the Heartless valiantly at every step of the way, they were relentless in their attack against the Legacy.

Delbert was even carrying a pistol with him at all times, working usually with Captain Amelia.

It was like they were going through a war.

Whatever spare time there was in between these skirmishes was honestly a luxury by this point. Sleep was amongst them.

A nap was honestly like a pleasant experience, a full night's sleep with no interruptions was like utter paradise. And no one complained about that.

Presently, that latter case is what they were going through right now.

All except for Jim, due to the noise around him.

*PFFFFFFT*

One of Mr. Zoff's tentacles had fallen off the hammock above and came directly into his face. The puff of air and the noise following it caused Jim to fall out of his hammock and fall onto the cold floor.

Jim reeled away from Mr. Zoff's appendages as he didn't want to deal with any more of the flatulating nature the alien had.

With the abrupt awakening, Jim gazed around in order to retrieve his boots. As he did, he noticed a number of individuals were not present in the barracks.

Jim didn't exactly care right now that he figured they were still up from having to perform their watchmen duty for the duration of everyone's sleep time to just needing to perform their original tasks on the Legacy. For instance, Mr. Silver has to prepare breakfast for the ship's crew as he's required to wake up far earlier than the standard norm.

The cabin boy previously knew this, given what days he had to get up to help assist his mom to get the Benbow Inn ready on most occasions.

Finding where his boots were, Jim slipped one on and went to retrieve the other. Reaching out for said footwear, it "jumped" away from him.

"Morph?" Jim muttered, seeing the "boot" scamper off into the corner of the barracks.

Dragging his feet across the floor, he went to the large pile where Morph went into as he'll need to find where his other boot was located. Leaning himself forward, the cabin boy went to look where the shapeshifter is probably at while trying to find his other boot.

"Morph, knock it off. It's too early for-"

Suddenly, he was blown wide awake when he felt a swift kick on his butt.

"OW! HEY, MORPH!"

Whirling back, he saw the "boot" floating in the air as it blew a raspberry at him before shifting back to Morph's original state. Diving onto the side, the little pink blob retrieved Jim's other boot and flew right out of the barracks.

"Hey, come back here!"

"Come back here!"

Jim chased after Morph as he flew across various parts of the deck. Jumping over a ledge, Jim was able to snag his boot and pried it away from Morph as he landed near where the galley's entrance was.

The Hawkins boy was about to slip his boot on and start his morning routine on the ship until he saw Morph shifting into a pufferfish. He didn't know what for, but he soon found out as he received a harsh amount of spit and air hitting his face.

"That's it, you little squid."

"You little squid. You little squid." Morph sounded out as his little body morphed into Jim's head and was soon disappearing and reappearing in and out of the galley's gated entrance.

Jim repeatedly used his retrieved boot as a blunt weapon to hopefully smack Morph when it came back up, yet he was all over the place now.

It was suddenly over when seeing Morph not appear once more.

Wanting to punish the little pink blob, Jim went into the galley below once he got his retrieved boot back on. Once below, he saw the kitchen was not flared with life as it was empty and somewhat dark in there.

'Now where could he be.' Jim thought on not just Morph, but also Silver. The cook was normally here at this time of day.

Putting such thoughts away, Jim had a small idea where the floating blob was hiding.

Peering inside of the purp barrel at the far end of the galley, he saw a pair of eyes forming from one of the pieces of fruit.

"Hah! Busted!" Jim exclaimed, jumping into the barrel.

In an instant, Morph returned to normal and started floating around as Jim tried to catch the wild critter. He did catch him and started to gently tickle the little thing when a voice was heard from outside of the barrel. Jim was on alert with his playful side quickly fading away.

"Look. What we're saying is we're sick of all this waiting." Hushly said one of the crew members as they were walking into the galley.

Taking a gander, Jim peered into the one hole along the barrel's side and saw that just about everyone was down here.

"Outside of Shepard's men, there's only three of them left." Said another.

"We are wanting to move!" Croaked the fat alien with horns rather urgently.

To his shock, Jim saw Silver approach that crewmember. "We don't move until we got the treasure in hand." He ordered.

"I say we kill 'em all now." Scroop suggested with a gleeful smile.

All he got in return was his snout to be harshly grabbed by Silver.

"I say?! What's this, I say?!" Silver snarled. "Disobey my orders again like that stunt you pulled with Mr. Arrow and so help me; YOU'LL BE JOINING HIM!"

The cook threw Scroop at the barrel where Jim was at, causing it to rattle.

The cabin boy kept his mouth shut as he didn't want to get exposed at this time. Even grasping onto Morph's form to keep him quiet as well.

Composing himself, Jim slowly recollected what Silver just said as shock overwhelmed him.

Scroop was the one to kill Mr. Arrow? And he put the blame on him?!

He should've known better since they first departed from the Montressor Spaceport. Scroop and Arrow had been at each other's throats since that fight on the first day. Yet he didn't expect the arachnid alien to actually commit the crime.

"Strong talk. But I know otherwise." Scroop says, reaching into the barrel to retrieve a purp.

Jim's heart stopped beating for a moment because he thought he was caught. That didn't seem to be the case as Scroop was trying to retrieve a purp without looking into the barrel. Acting quickly, he picked up a purp and held it where the claw was at. Moments later, the fruit was snagged and pried out.

"You got something to say, Scroop?" Silver questions.

"It's those boys and that girl." Scroop answers sinisterly as he plays with the fruit before piercing it with his claw. "Me thinks you have a soft spot for them."

Silver's eyes raised for a moment as the others around him gazed at him. The cook composed himself as his eyes quickly became serious.

"Now, mark me, the lot of ya." Silver snarled to everyone present in the galley. "I care about one thing, and one thing only! Flint's trove! You think I'd risk it all for some nose-wiping little whelps?"

At that moment, Jim' stomach churned and his heart started to break. Blue eyes widening in shock as he couldn't catch his breath.

"What was it you said?" Scroop questioned before speaking into a higher pitch, clearly mocking the cyborg. "Oh you have got the makings of greatness in ya."

"Shut your yap! I cozied up to those three to keep 'em off our scent. But I ain't gone soft." Silver tells the crew, making Jim feel even worse.

"PLANET HO!" Onus' yell could be heard from outside of the galley, causing everyone to flee right out of the area and get onto the deck above.

Once they were gone, Jim felt a flurry of emotions within him.

With the sickness he felt, anger was slowly mixed in as well. He was feeling distraught with what trust he had on the cyborg and it was thrown back into his face.

Seemed Silver's actions was all just a fake facade, hiding whatever betrayal he had in store for-

Jim's eyes widened on realization. They were planning a mutiny!

The others were in danger! He needed to warn them immediately!

Getting out of the purp barrel, Jim ran to the galley's stairway.

Making halfway up, he saw Silver standing at the top of them, making the cabin boy widen his eyes in utter shock.

"Jimbo?" Silver said in surprise and looked around for a moment or two. He then starts to come forward towards the cabin boy, who started walking backwards. "Playing games, are we?"

"Yeah. Yeah, we're playing games." Jim replied, bumping into a table and held himself up on it.

It was unsafe to be around Silver and he needed to get away from him.

"Oh." Silver only nodded along. "I see. Well I, never was much good at playing games."

From behind, Silver changed his robotic arm into that of a pistol with a barely noticeable click being heard.

Behind Jim, he felt around, grabbing a sharp utensil and grasped it tightly.

"I always hated to lose." Silver said in a grim tone.

"Yeah. Me too!" Jim shouts, diving towards Silver's mechanical leg and piercing it with the object he retrieved from the table.

Silver screamed from the pain with steam hissing out of his leg.

Jim bolted not a moment too soon and ran as fast as he could, sprinting towards Captain Amelia's stateroom.

Banging on the door, it soon opened up as Jim jumped inside and slammed the door shut.

"Mr. Hawkins?! What's the meaning of this?" Amelia's voice demanded.

Looking around him, he saw Dr. Doppler, Amelia, Shepard and her men present.

"Silver!" Jim cried out, locking the door behind him. "He and the rest of the crew are pirates! And they're about to mutiny!"

"What?!" Roxas and Xion said in unison, stunned by this.

No sooner did he say this did they hear a loud whistle coming from outside the room.

And they heard the voice of one Silver loud and clear.

"We move now!"

This caused everyone else present within the stateroom to get into immediate action.

Rushing towards the cabinet, Amelia pried the doors open. "Pirates on my ship? I'll see that they all hang!"

Amelia retrieved the pistols from the cabinet with a number of magazines as she soon loaded up her weapon.

Loading up another, she tossed one of the pistols to Doppler, who fumbled with the loaded weapon.

"Doctor, try not to shoot anything that doesn't need to be shot."

"I've been practicing, Captain." Doppler said in a mock affronted manner.

Of course he accidentally fired the weapon, causing a shot to destroy a nearby world globe hanging off the wall.

"That one doesn't count."

Rather than roll her eyes like she would have a week or so ago, Amelia found her lip quirking up in slight amusement.

"Well, they won't know what-"

"Keelah, NOW?!"

Everyone turned to Tali who was staring out the back window of the room, the group now looking ahead.

There they saw the damned Heartless Pirate Ship reappear off the starboard, coming right at them and going to the ships side.

"Just our luck." Shepard said, banging her fist on the desk. "We can't stay here; we're surrounded on both sides now."

"Won't the Heartless just attack us all?" Doppler asked.

"Maybe but we'll just get caught in a crossfire." Garrus said. "We need to retreat and regroup on that planet we just arrived at.

"It will have to do." The Captain of the ship declared, reaching into her cabinet for one last item.

Amelia opened up the small chest containing the Map Orb. "Mr. Hawkins. Defend this with your lives!" She said, tossing the map to Jim.

The moment it got into his hands; Morph suddenly grabbed it before he could put it in his pocket.

"Morph! Give that back!" He yelled, prying the orb away from Morph, who whined soon after.

With a quick look, they saw the door starting to turn bright orange.

"They're trying to break through."

"We need to get outta here."

"On it."

Both Roxas and Xion brought out their Keyblades before slamming them into the floor. In an instant, a large hole was made for them all to fall into.

Amelia didn't question the actions as this was not the proper time to do so.

They all jumped into the hole, one by one. Just as the last of them got through, the stateroom's door burst open with the pirates having made their way through.

"Quickly, we're not far from the longboats." Amelia ordered.

They all began sprinting forward.

Along the way however, they were met with Pirate Heartless appearing before their path.

"Blasted scoundrels!" Amelia yelled.

"We've got it Captain." Xion said as she along with Roxas and Axel rushing forward to slash through them all.

As this went on, Amelia and Tali were working the systems to get the Legacy's hatch to open up so they could quickly depart from the ship.

Just when Jim got into the longboat, Morph grabbed the map out of his pocket.

"Morph! No!" Jim yells, trying to grab the map from him.

He was forced to leave the boat and retrieve the map, given how fast the little floating blob was.

As this all went on, Silver was displeased with how things were suddenly turning out.

Everything seemed great for the most part with them finally reaching the fabled Treasure Planet. It was utterly beautiful like the stories of old depicted.

Yet things drastically went south as he made his way back down to the galley to retrieve his spyglass in order to get a better look. Once there, he saw Jimbo was trying to leave.

One thing led to another, causing Silver to start the mutiny right away.

It wasn't long after till the Heartless appeared and was ready to cause a ruckus just when things were about to go underway.

"Captain." the multi-eyed watchman of the pirate crew warily spoke up.

Silver looked behind him and saw the deck of the Legacy being occupied by a litany of Heartless that had yet to make their attack on them.

"What is this?" Silver questioned cautiously, his more advanced cannon arm.

"Why aren't they attacking?" questioned Turnbuckle with a nervous look.

The crew then heard the pleased hiss from one Mr. Scroop who looked on at the Heartless in glee.

"Me thinks they realized the benefits of working together." Scroop declared with one of his clawed hands clenched in victory.

Silver turned to the spider/scorpion based alien and nearly double-take at the literal wisps of black darkness emanating off of him.

"Captain!" The alien pairing of the head and body were pointing down. "They're getting away!"

The pirate crew rushed over to the edge to see a longboat falling away from the Legacy.

Aboard it were the nine individuals that got away from them with the map in hand.

"Parameters met. Hydraulics engaged." Amelia typed away on the longboat's controls with Tali doing the same on the other. Both ships were quickly powering up before they soon took off towards the planet down below.

Back aboard the Legacy, Silver mind raced at the means in which he could use in getting the map from them.

A stray dark thought came to mind with him utilizing his arm cannon to shoot them out of the sky but as soon as that thought came in did the Cyborg squash it down.

Scroop was right.

He couldn't bring himself to hurt those three aboard the longboat.

Luckily, or unluckily, depending on perspective, that decision was made for him.

"That's it! Come to papa!" Said the fat alien with horns, peering through the cannon's sights.

Seeing this happen, Silver rushed over and tried to stop the pirate from harming the longboats. "Hold your fire! We'll lose the map!"

Yet it was too late as the cannon was fired off.

"Captain! Laster balls at 12 o'clock!" Doppler exclaims, ducking out of the way.

Nearly all of the two longboat occupants looked back and saw the laser balls were coming right towards them.

In an instant, Shepard reacted quickly and used as much biotics she could muster and throw up a biotic shield around them.

Granted it wasn't strong enough on the rush job as the first laser ball broke the barrier. Before she could form another, the laser balls struck the longboats, causing an explosion to happen on both airborne vessels.

The impacts had taken out the backs of the longboats, causing them to abruptly fall towards the planet below due to the hydraulics being destroyed.

They crashed through the trees during this whole encounter. Amelia and Tali tried their hardest to render control of their longboats but the damage had already been done. Soon enough, they ended up flipping over completely and slid on the ground for a couple of seconds.

Once everything settled down, the longboats were pushed off.

There were groans of pain from both boats as the group slowly rose up or remained where they were on the ground.

"Is everyone alright?" Shepard asked.

Everyone more or less sounded out after the crash landing.

"Well would you look at that, Gary? Your own work has turned against us." Axel remarked, hands on his hips as he gazed up at the Legacy high above in the air.

"Shut up, Axel." Garrus grumped.

"I mean what's next, the Mako?"

"Shut UP AXEL!"

"I mean by that point, you might as well go through with it, you team killing-"

Shepard clamped a hand over the mouth of her fellow redhead with an aridly dry look to her face.

"Thank you, Shepard." Garrus sighed out. "Don't know if he's worse than Joker on his good days."

"Oh my goodness. That was more fun than I want to have." Doppler sighs, standing up.

Amelia chuckled. "That's not one of my… gossamer landings."

She went to move forward, but immediately grunted aloud, almost falling to the ground. She grabbed her side as she fell to her knees in pain.

"Captain!" Doppler said, helping her stand up.

The others came over to check on her as well.

"Oh, don't fuss. It's only a slight bruising. That's all. Cup of tea and I'll be right as rain." Amelia assured them all as she got back up. She pushed her frazzled hair back and tried to compose herself.

"Ah, Amelia…"

"What?"

Shepard gestured towards her hand, causing Amelia to look down.

Instead of the pristine white gloves she wore, they were now stained in blood. Her blood in fact.

And it didn't take long for her to feel the slight droplets of blood falling down her forehead, due to unintentionally using her blood to slick her hair back.

"Bullocks." Was all she said before collapsing once more.

At this time, Roxas was wondering where Tali was at. Looking back at the crashed longboat, he moved things over again. Soon after, he came to a startling sight.

"Tali…"

The Quarian grunted as she laid there on the ground, a piece of shrapnel had pierced her chest as she was bleeding out.

Roxas's eyes widened in complete shock, instantly by her side.

"Keelah again." Tali said in a rather lighthearted tone, despite how faint it was. "I can't seem to catch a break can I."

No. XIII all the while grasped the piece of shrapnel tightly, looking up at her with the Quarian gazing back into his eyes.

"Don't worry, I got you." Roxas assured Tali with her smiling faintly under her mask.

Firmly grasping the foreign object with one hand, he held Tali's hand with the other. Getting the firm squeeze from her, she slowly nodded to show that she was ready.

With a hard yank, he pried the object right out of Tali, who grunted out in pain. Blood spewed out from the wound, having some little droplets hit his face with some more staining parts of his black leather garments.

The Quarian let out a small cry of pain, the feeling overwhelming her for the briefest of moments.

Roxas threw his hand forward over the wound, his arm glowing a brilliant ethereal emerald color.

"Curaga!"

Roxas felt his magic reserves be dealt a mighty blow, feeling it drain halfway down.

But it didn't matter as he saw the wound had closed up in an instant.

She was alright.

"Thank you." She said weakly, breathing a little shallow.

"You're welcome."

Tali couldn't help herself when she instinctively placed her hand against his cheek.

"That's three times now you went and saved my life." Tali said in a soft voice.

Before Roxas had a chance to respond, the others came over to them both.

"What's going on here?" Shepard asked in concern.

"Tali was hurt." Roxas answered straight away.

Jane's eyes darted back and forth to the Quarian and a particularly large piece of shrapnel that had a portion of it coated in what was clearly blood. Quarian blood, in fact with the purple substance staining it.

The Spectre's eyes widened in shock as the dots connected in her mind. Something the rest of the crew picked up on.

"Tali! Are you alright?" Jane was on the other side of the Quarian, kneeling down to her, taking her hand.

"A little." Tali said meekly.

"A little? You were fucking pierced!" Garrus exclaimed, going into his armor to retrieve some medi-gel.

"Nothing new there." Tali said with the Turian giving her a nearly murderous look.

"Tali… don't."

"Sorry." She said with a coughing chuckle. "I couldn't help it."

The Turian sighed, though a small grin found its way onto his face.

"What about your suit?" Xion questioned, bordering on a slightly panicked tone.

"I'm gonna need to do a patch job." Tali said. "I've already got a small kit on me to get things started."

"Hang on Tali." Roxas pulled out a golden tear drop from his coat and saw that the Elixir liquid was nearly empty by this point.

Holding it up in front of her, Tali stared at it for a moment before nodding.

With the amount there was, she couldn't use her *cough* straw *cough* to slurp the remains. So she had to do it the old fashion way.

Carefully, she removed the faceplate of her helmet with Roxas seeing her face once again.

Surprisingly, unlike last time where she had a tube in her nose, now she only had one in her mouth though there was a trail of blood coming trailing out from said mouth. She still had a pale complexion though it was noticeably lighter than last time.

Slowly, he tilted her head back and placed the Elixir to her lips.

She inclined back and drank down the literal golden nectar and exhaled softly when she drank the last of the liquid.

Instantly, she felt a swell of energy and relief wash over her in her entirety with her face gaining a bit more complexion.

"Well shit, that takes care of one heart attack." Shepard said aloud as Tali slipped her face plate back on.

"How's Amelia?" Tali asked

"She's alright." Jane said. "Garrus already applied some Medigel on her to help with some of her wounds and Xion went a little overboard on using a healing spell soon after."

"Now she's just all hopped up as a result." Axel revealed. "I think the healing spells and medi-gel might have overloaded her senses."

Roxas quirked a brow. "And how hopped up is she?"

"...Well…" Jim began, not really sure how to summarize it properly. "I'd say she's a tiny bit loopy."

"And she's not gonna be on her feet for a while as she's resting up. But Doppler's with her for the time being." Shepard stated.

Roxas nodded as Shepard turned to the Hawkins boy.

"Do you still have the map?" She asked.

Jim pulled the Map Orb from out of his pocket.

Everyone sighed out of relief that it was still in their possession.

Sadly… it didn't last long.

The map floated out of Jim's hand, startling everyone in the process.

"I didn't do anything." Jim defended.

In an instant, the map broke apart and revealed that he had Morph all along.

The little pink blob laughed at everyone present.

"Morph?! Where's the map?!" Jim cried out, feeling dread wash over him.

Morph suddenly turns into a rope pile with another section shifting into the Map Orb. The "orb" entered the "pile", causing Jim to realize what happened.

"Are you serious?! It's back on the ship?!" Jim explained, pointing up at the sky where the Legacy and now the Heartless Pirate Ship were hovering side by side.

"What are we gonna do?" Xion asked, startled on this newfound bit of information.

Shepard looked in the sky and frowned. "You can start by getting down."

Upon hearing her say this, they all heard the sound of an engine whining from above.

"We got company." Garrus said, quickly ducking towards one of the damaged longboats. With his sniper rifle out, he looked through its scope and saw the pirate's longboat going towards where they were hit in the first place; given the smokestack reaching the sky.

"Can't stay here for long." Axel said as he was beside Garrus in a crouched position.

"Axel, why don't you just teleport up there and get the map?" Roxas asked.

"Right now, it's too hot up there." Axel said, pointing up to the Legacy and sure enough they saw the large Heartless Pirate Ship that has been harassing them for their entire journey situated right nearby. "Let's have things settle down up there for a moment and then I'll swoop in and grab the map."

"Agreed. We need a more defensible position." Shepard gazed at Roxas, Jim and Xion. "You three, scout ahead." She then pulled out her pistol and handed it over to Jim.

The Hawkins boy nodded as he slipped the weapon into the back of his pants.

"We'll stay close to ya Jim." Xion said. "Don't know if there'll be any Heartless that'll come out on our search."

"You got it."

Roxas hesitated from leaving Tali's side, but she felt her place her hand on his.

"Go, Roxas. I'll be okay."

He nodded as he soon left her side to join the two scouts.

Departing from the crash site, the three of them, along with Morph, walked down into a deeper part of this unfamiliar territory they were in. All they could hear was Morph chattering behind them as the wind softly blew.

It was a little anxious for them, but they had to keep their guard up.

When they came into a weirdly dense, tube-like forest, they heard some rattling sound coming from behind.

"You hear that?" Roxas asked quietly.

"Heartless?" Jim asked, quickly pulling out the Commander's pistol and having it at the ready.

"They aren't subtle on their approach." Xion said to him.

"For all we know, it could be pirates." Roxas added in.

As cautiously as possible, they crept over to the bush and peaked over.

In what felt like an hour to Jim, nothing really happened.

All of a sudden, something shot out of the bush and screamed in their faces.

"Aah!" Screamed the three teens, more so in Jim's case as he was tackled to the ground.

"Oh, this is fantastic!" Said the attacker. "Three carbon-based life forms come to rescue me at last!"

"Hey, get off him!" Roxas demanded as Xion was trying to pry the being off of the Hawkins boy.

The attacker ignored them as he exclaimed in joy. "I just want to hug and squeeze you all!"

In an instant, the attacker let go of Jim and latched onto Xion as he rubbed his face onto hers.

Xion couldn't handle the sudden weight placed on her, causing her to collapse onto the ground.

"Would you let go of me?!" Xion pleaded, doing her best to push the hugger away.

Once more, the guy did, but then went after Roxas. And once more things were at repetition as he too was hugged.

Roxas groaned from the embrace and with him now really up close to the serial hugger, he saw the person wasn't organic at all…

But in fact a synthetic being. A being of complete machinery.

The person hugging him in utter glee was a rusted bronze robot with green pixelated eyes.

"Would you knock it off?" Roxas said irritated, now getting a bit impatient with how touchy the robot was.

Not that he was against hugs or anything, no, no. He rather enjoyed them.

But these weren't hugs.

The robot finally got the message and calmly got off of him. Once backing up a bit, he quickly apologized. "Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. I've been marooned here for so long. I mean solitude's fine. Don't get me wrong but after being out here for over 100 year, you go a little nuts!" He rambled as he soon wrapped his metal arms around the two present male teens.

Seeing their weirded out reactions, the robot unwrapped his metal limbs from their shoulders. "Oh, I'm sorry. Am I…" The robot stutters, stepping back from them. "I am… Uh… My Name is… Uh…"

Hanging over from Jim's shoulder, Morph then Morphed into a more cartoony version of the robot with a yellow cuckoo clock bird popping out of his head. Amusing as that was, Jim clamped his hand over Morphs head and made him revert back to his usual blobby self.

"B.E.N.!" The rustic robot blurted out. "Of course, I'm B.E.N. Bioelectric Navigator." He says with enthusiasm before turning towards the three. "And you are?"

"Jim."

"Roxas."

"Xion."

"Nice to meet you all. Jimmy, Rocko and Shyanne."

"Wh-Wha-? No, none of that was right." Roxas pointed out.

"...Why am I with the butchered name this time?" Xion pouted.

Jim was about to speak when his hands were ensnared with the synthetic being as they were roughly shook. In mere seconds, the same happened to the two Nobodies beside him.

"Oh, what a pleasure to meet you all!"

"Right." Roxas said slowly.

"Look, the three-" Morph expanded his eyes. "Four, of us are in a bit of a hurry right now. We've gotta find a place to hide and there's pirates nearby just waiting to rain down on us."

The three walked away from the nutty robot in order to continue on with their search for a hiding place.

"Oh, pirates! Don't even get me started on pirates! I don't like them!" B.E.N. exclaims, I remember Captain Flint. This guy had such a temper." The name caught their attention rather quickly. In mere seconds, they looked at each other before switching over to the synthetic.

"Wait." Roxas paused. "You mean, Flint?"

"Captain Nathaniel Flint?" Xion added for clarity.

"You knew him?!" Jim asked, now grasping B.E.N.s shoulders.

Jim knew robots can have a longer life expectancy in comparison to organics, depending mostly on what field they are programmed for. Other times, they are just destroyed for other reasons.

With Roxas and Xion, it was a little different as they were encountering the only synthetic being in their short existences that wasn't out to outright kill them. So it was a little strange this one wasn't attacking them -outside of hugging- let alone having a conversation.

"I think he suffered from mood swings, but I dunno." The android said conversationally as he sat on a rock with one leg crossed over the other. "I'm not a therapist but let me know if I'm rambling."

"Well that means, b-but wait, then that means you gotta know about the treasure!" Jim surmised excitedly.

"Treasure?" B.E.N. repeated in confusion.

"Yeah, the treasure, you know." Jim egged on. "Flint's trove. The loot of a thousand worlds."

Morph changed into a chest filled with gold to emphasize Jim's point.

"It's- well… it's all a little- little- fuzzy." B.E.N. says, starting to spark out a little. "Wait… I-I r-r-remember. I do. I- treasure! Lots of treasure! Buried in the centroid-centroid of the mechanism!"

The three teens jumped back at B.E.N. who was starting to glitch out.

"And there was this big door opening and closing and opening and closing!" The robot's eyes shifted into a triangle as his chest piece popped back and forth. "Captain Flint wanted to make sure that… nobody could ever get to his treasure so… so I helped him…" B.E.N. then starts to massively glitch out, sputtering his words.

"B.E.N.? B.E.N.?" Roxas said before the others joined with by shouting. "B.E.N.!"

"And rebootrebootrebootreboot."

Suddenly Xion quickly slapped the robot across the face as hard as she could in order to get him to calm down.

B.E.N appeared to recompose himself with that.

"...And you three are?" B.E.N. says, narrowing his pixelated eyes at them.

"Wait, wait, what about the treasure?!" Jim asked desperately.

"And the centroid of the mechanism and all that?" Roxas a moment later.

"I wanna say Larry, Lucy and Luka."

"...That is far away from our names!" Xion blurted out.

"I'm sorry, my-my memory isn't what it used to be." The Robot stated. "I've lost my mind." B.E.N. laughed a moment later with his tone becoming whackier. "I've lost my mind."

"Have you three have found it, by any chance?" He said, whirling them around and patting them down as if he's looking for something.

Xion was the first to resist as she pushed the robot off. "Hands off."

"Right, right. Sorry."

"What do you mean by that?" Jim asked

"Your mind, that is? We just got here?" Roxas clarified.

"My missing piece?" B.E.N. answered them by questioning them. "My primary memory circuit?" He turned around to reveal that aforementioned piece he's talking about is gone from the back of his head. All that was shown were a number of wires sticking out with bits of rust creeping into the exposed area.

"Look, B.E.N. Roxas, Xion and I need to go find a place to hide. C'mon guys, let's get outta here." He said, starting to walk forward with the two Nobodies following not long after.

"Oh, uh, so, well, then… I guess this is goodbye then." B.E.N. says forlornly.

The three teens stopped walking and looked back at the android, who was on his metal knees.

"Sorry for being so dysfunctional." B.E.N. sadly said, looking down. "So um… you three go ahead. I understand. I do. Bye-bye."

The three looked at each other for a minute while Morph whined at them.

They felt sympathy for this lonely but nutty robot and didn't exactly know what to do.

Whereas Jim was ready to voice something, he looked at Roxas and Xion as they pulled them aside for a little moment.

"Something wrong?"

"We know what you wanna do, Jim, but are you sure you want him to come?"

"Why not?"

"He's… not entirely in the head."

"He could be fine one moment and short circuit out the next."

"Or attack us." Xion admitted.

"Attack us?" Jim blinked at that comment. "Why would you think he'd attack us?"

Roxas rubbed his head as he exhaled a sigh. "We haven't had the best of encounters with synthetic beings for a while now. Being hostile and all."

"What does that mean?"

Xion was a little sheepish at this point. "Sorry. It's a long story. We're just being precautious."

"I can understand that." Jim stated. "Just trust me on this."

The two Nobodies nodded as the Hawkins boy turned back to B.E.N. "Hey, B.E.N. You can come. But you need to stop-"

B.E.N. interrupted Jim as he leaped into the air and exclaimed in joy. "Hazzah! Ha ha ha! This is fantastic!" He them jumped on them and oddly enough wrapped his limbs around the three of them, who somewhat struggled in his odd embrace. "Me and my best buddies are looking for a-"

"Quiet place." Roxas completed.

"Right." B.E.N. said, motioning his mouth like he's closing up a zipper.

"And another thing. Stop touching us." Jim told him directly.

"Touching and talking. The big no-no's." B.E.N. says, getting off of them.

"Now let's go before the pirates find us." Xion said, wanting to get a move on with the others.

With the pirates and Heartless present and on the lookout, they needed to find shelter immediately.

Before getting far, B.E.N. started to fidget a little. "Say, listen, before we go out on our big search, would you guys mind if we make a pit stop at my place? Kind of urgent."

"Your place?"

B.E.N. pulled back some of the odd tube-trees to reveal a rusty, spaceship shaped structure with a giant opening in the front.

Jim, Roxas and Xion widened their eyes in surprise upon seeing it.

"B.E.N., I think you solved our problem." Jim said with a smile.

"Thank you." Roxas smiled as he patted the robot in the back.

"You just helped us considerably." Xion finished off.

"Oh, well, shucks it's not much but…" B.E.N. said in a bashful manner, kicking his feet on the ground.

At the moment, they found the perfect place to hide out from the pirates and an impromptu fort from the Heartless.

Xion had stayed behind with B.E.N. while Jim and Roxas went back to retrieve the others. In no less than an hour, the entire group was able to get over to B.E.N.'s place all in one piece.

Said place appeared quite good as a defensible position as it was located in a secluded area. And with the wide open field surrounding the place, it's easy to spot anyone who would approach them from the one opening. Said can't exactly be said if they were drawing from behind, yet they would have to contend with the large slope leading up to the entrance.

Doppler had to carry Amelia inside because she was still bedridden from having her injuries mended. And Roxas had to perform the same act with Tali with Garrus hanging not far behind just in case if he struggled to keep the Quarian upright. Luckily for him, the young Nobody had no problems.

"Pardon the mess, people. You'd think after a hundred years, I would've dusted up a little more often." B.E.N. said, trying to clean up his messy home. "But you know when you're batchin' it, you tend to let things go."

It was a little unsettling for Shepard and Garrus when seeing the synthetic talking to them. And sure they were lightening up a little as B.E.N. wasn't a Geth, but after being at the Crescentia station for a while they were forced to interact with other synthetics, even for a little while.

When Doppler and Roxas came into the place with Amelia and Tali in their respective arms, B.E.N. immediately gushed over them. "Aw~ isn't that sweet? I find old-fashioned romance so touching, don't you?" B.E.N. rattled on.

From behind a curtain, the android produced several cups of oil with gears and tools in each.

"How about some drinks for our lovely couples."

The surrounding people reared back in disgust upon seeing the offered… drinks.

"Uh no… No. We're good. And sorry, but we're not a couple." Doppler defended, taking off his jacket and bundling it up to serve as a pillow for Amelia's head.

Amelia smiled a little as her head was gently moved to accommodate the cushion she'll rest upon for now.

Tali, however, sputtered a little as she was gently placed down by Roxas. "W-W-We're not dating, you Bosh'tet!"

Whereas the other Normandy members were somewhat lightening up towards the synthetic, Tali was going to have a little harder time to try to get acquainted. With her people's history with synthetics, it'll be quite a while to open up to the idea of remotely getting familiar with them… without reducing them into scrap metal.

But while the idea of dating Roxas is rather pleasant at this point, she had to deny such a thing is actually going on right now. Not to mention she doesn't know if Roxas would consider dating a girl like her.

"You sure you're not dating?" Axel chimed in, leaning down towards Tali with a wide grin. "Looked pretty comfortable in your boyfriend's arms there."

Tali opted not to respond as steam rose out from her hood and her helmet was fogging up.

"Boyfriend?" Roxas asked. "I'm a boy and I'm her friend, but what's that got to do with-?"

Shepard only sighed good naturedly, throwing an arm around his shoulder.

"I'll tell you when you're older kid." Shepard promised, pinching his cheek with him swatting it away with a pout.

"So now what?" Garrus asked. "We have our fort."

"Plan accordingly for one." Shepard surmised.

Doppler, in the meantime, observed the unique cravings and ruins on the walls of their new hideout.

"Look at these markings. They're identical to the ones on the map." The astrophysicist noted. "I suspect these are hieroglyphic remnants of an ancient culture."

"No doubt they are." Axel said, pulling out his Omni-tool and started taking photos of them.

"What are you doing?" Asked the doctor while noting the hard light construct along the red haired Nobody's arm.

"What's it look like? I'm taking photos. Bet a number of people would just love to take a crack at them."

Seeing this happen, Amelia nodded as she'll no doubt guess her people's government will want to see all of this. Especially since these metal imprints are extremely old.

Pushing this thought aside, she looked at Jim and Shepard's people. "While we're here, you all need to stop anyone who tries to approach-" Amelia hissed as her side still felt sore, despite the medigel and the Cure spell applied on her earlier.

"Yes, yes, we heard you. Now listen to me. Stop giving orders for a few milliseconds and lie still." Doppler scolded, readjusting the makeshift pillow as she tried to get back up.

"Very forceful, Doctor. Go on, say something else." Amelia chuckled, looking at the dog man with a slight mischievous glint.

Witnessing this, Axel, Garrus and Shepard snorted and hid their own bits of laughter in their own manners.

Tali giggled at the display right beside her. And the three teens merely smiled as they saw things were getting a little better for the time being.

Yet the moment was short lived.

"Hey, look guys! There's some of your buddies!" B.E.N. shouted, quickly snapping everyone's attention towards the entrance where the synthetic stood. "Hey fellas! We're over here, fellas!"

In an instant a volley of enemy fire came at the android, causing him to swiftly maneuver around from the incoming assault.

In mere moments, Jim rushed over and pried B.E.N. down from the entrance. Once clear he started firing at the opposition down below.

Garrus and Shepard soon joined Jim and opened fire, especially since from what they noticed, there were Heartless amongst the pirates.

"Heartless!" Garrus yelled out, Roxas and Xion now appearing behind him with their Keyblades summoned.

"We'll take care of them."

Leaping out of the elevated entrance, the two Nobodies dived towards the commotion below and went to work. Hacking and cleaving their way through, there wasn't much the Heartless can do against the pair.

A moment later, a fireball sailed over them, exploding and incinerating a cluster of Heartless coming their way.

"You thought you could leave me out of this, did you?" Said Axel, twirling his Eternal Flames chakrams in his grasp before throwing them at some Mega Shadows stomping their way towards them.

"Not at all."

The trio of Nobody's back by the trio inside the circular structure fought off the Heartless whilst firing at the Pirates situated down below.

Suddenly the fire ceased just as they destroyed the last of the Heartless, causing confusion to come towards everyone else within B.E.N.'s home.

"Why'd they stop firing?" Garrus asked cautiously.

The answer was soon given soon after.

"Hello, up there!" Silver's voice echoed; a small white being waved in his hand.

"That might answer our question."

A wave of anger and nausea washed over Jim's stomach as he saw Silver coming up the hill with a white flag as if to surrender. But he wouldn't let his guard down after what previously happened.

"What is it you want, Silver?" Asked Xion, still having her Keyblade out.

"All I want is to do is speak with Jimbo."

"Yeah, doubt he would want to talk to you now." Roxas said with his arms crossed, staring at the cyborg in front of him.

"What if this is a trick?" Axel pointed out.

"No tricks, just a little palaver."

Silver saw the trio of Nobodies standing on the slopes of the androids home, gazing at Roxas and Xion in particular.

"Rocko. Xion." Silver said with a kind tone with an underlying sense of pleading. "Is that too much to ask?"

The two only stared blankly at him before they both turned away and walked back into their current shelter, not seeing Silver's expression fall.

The Cyborg glanced over at Axel who had his arms crossed with an unreadable expression before he too turned to leave the robotic Pirate captain.

Once the Nobodies were back inside...

"Come to bargain for the map, doubtless. Pestilential…" Amelia scowled as she tried to rise once more. Yet Doppler pushed her back down with a scowl.

Jim rubbed his chin and quickly voiced his thoughts. "Wait a minute, he doesn't know… that it's still on the ship."

Shepard smiled a little. "Yeah, you're right. He thinks we still have it."

"So what should we do then?" Tali asked with a small grunt.

"Staying here is alright for the time being even though they have our position now." Garrus said, sending a not so subtle glare at the robot who saw this and turned away in an innocent whistle.

"One way in, but one way out." Jim murmured. "Guess we'll have to give it a try then."

"Jim, are you sure you want to go down there by yourself?" Doppler asked worriedly.

"I'm sure."

"If anything goes wrong, we'll be there to get your ass out of the fire." Shepard said to the Hawkins boy.

Nodding, the teen made his way out of the hideout-

"Hang on." Roxas spoke up. "I'm coming with you."

"Roxas? Are you-"

"Better to have two of us than one." No. XIII said. "They have the Heartless with them now. So that means things can get crazy down there in an instant."

Jim thought about it for a brief moment before nodding in agreement.

"You better bring him back in one piece." Shepard warned teasingly.

"I'm hurt." Roxas said with faux-hurt in his voice. "Do you even doubt me?"

"Just be careful is all." She said, patting him on the back.

Once meeting Silver down the elevated slope, Morph flew over to the cyborg happily.

"Ah, Morphy! I wondered where you was off to." The cyborg cooed as the floating pink blob played against his finger.

When Jim got in close, he saw Silver switch out what appeared to be a metal cane attachment to his default hand as he sat down on a rock. He rubbed his metal leg that Jim stabbed earlier that day.

Roxas tilted his head at that, unsure as to what had happened to the old Cyborg.

"Oh, this poor old leg's downright snarky… since we had that game attack in the galley." Silver chuckled out.

Remembering what he said back there, Jim glared at the cyborg with a look of anger and disgust. After hearing that, the Hawkins boy lost all trust with Silver.

"Ahh… look… Whatever you heard back there, at least the part concerning you and your friends, I didn't mean a word of it." Silver said, leaning forward before struggling to stand back up once more. "Had that bloodthirsty lot found out I've gone soft on you three, they'd have gutted us both."

'Not without a fight.' Jim thought to himself, given what fighting experience he'd gotten these past few days.

Not knowing what was going through the boy's head, Silver put his cybernetic arm around him. "Listen, if our cards are played right, we can all walk away from this rich as kings." Silver said to him.

Jim held his chin for a moment with a small smile breaking out. "Yeah?"

The cyborg chuckled. "You bring the map to me and a good portion of the treasure is yours to keep. You can split it up with your new friends and the galaxy is ripe for opportunity for you all." He declared, holding out his metal hand to seal this deal.

All that Jim did was stare at it for a minute.

Roxas, meanwhile, looked at the Hawkins boy, wondering what he'll do as he's the one negotiating the terms.

"Boy." Jim finally said. "You are really something." He began to walk around the cyborg. "All that talk of greatness and preaching about the light coming off my sails, what a joke."

Silver recoiled at that. "Now, just see here, Jimbo-"

"I mean, at least you taught me one thing, stick to it, right? Well that's what I'm gonna do." Jim cut him off, becoming angrier by the second. "Well, that's just what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna make sure that you never see one drabloon of my treasure!"

"That treasure is owed me, by thunder!" Silver yelled.

"Well, try to find it without my map, by thunder!" Jim rebuked with a bellow.

"...Oh, you still don't know how to pick your fights, do you, boy? Now, mark me. Either I get that map by dawn tomorrow, or so help me, I'll use the ship's cannons and that Heartless ship to BLAST YA ALL TO KINGDOM COME!" Silver shouted at him, soon turning his back at Jim.

"Morph, hop to it." Silver said to the floating pink blob. "NOW!"

Morph quickly hid behind Jim, shaking at Silver's raised voice.

With a grunt, Silver turned and limped away from the hill.

"Hey." Roxas' sharp voice made the Cyborg halt in his tracks, turning back to the boys. "Why are the Heartless working with you?"

Silver blinked, looking back not to his crew below but up to the Legacy above with the Heartless Pirate Ship floating nearby. He grimaced at the sight of it, his gut twisting slightly in a knot.

"I'm as confused as you are, Rocko." Silver grunted out. "Blasted devils haven't attacked us yet. I'll take the small blessings that I can get."

Without saying another word, Silver resumed his walk down the hill.

Jim gave the cyborg one last look before heading back inside the hideout.

Roxas stayed in his spot for a moment, catching sight of Silver pausing in his limp and appearing to look back for a moment before continuing back down.

Both Cabin boys were back inside B.E.N.'s home and informed the others on what was discussed.

"Sounds like what Silver said is rather personal now." Axel said, leaning against the wall near the only entrance/exit of this place.

"Did you ask about the Heartless?" Xion inquired.

Roxas nodded. "I did, he's confused just as much as we are now."

"You sure it wasn't a ploy?" Tali asked nervously.

No. XIII frowned, rubbing his chin in thought.

"I don't believe he was lying." Roxas said. "He didn't have any of that usual darkness that's affiliated for those who can control the Heartless."

"Then that begs the question, if he's not controlling them, then who is?" Shepard stated.

"I noticed him looking back at the Legacy… or the Heartless Pirate Ship. Hard to tell with how close they are. But whoever has the reigns is up there." Jim pointed out.

"Could it be Marluxia?" Garrus asked with a tense tone.

"Who knows at the moment. At least we can confirm the source is back up there." Axel said with a shrug, nodding his head up in the direction of the two ships.

"What are we gonna do now?" Asked Jim.

"How is it that we'll be able to get the Map?" Doppler inquired. "Silver and his men no doubt have the only longboats to get off this miserable pile of rock."

"Not to mention that even if we do confiscate the longboats, there's no way we could possibly deal with that Heartless ship docked beside the Legacy." Tali added.

Jim then summarized their current predicament. "Without the map, we're dead. If we try to leave, we're dead. If we stay-"

"We're dead! We're dead! We're dead! We're dead!" Morph repeats, then whines in concern.

Jim honestly felt his head pounding from thinking so much.

There was no way they could get the map now.

It was then that one fiery redhead cleared his throat aloud to garner everyone's attention.

"I got an idea." Said Axel.

"You do?" Xion looked to him with Axel nodding.

"Yeah, it's simple really." Axel confidently stated. "Roxas, Xion and I can use a Corridor, get up there, get the map and help take care of the Heartless ship up there."

"That sounds easy enough." Roxas muttered in thought.

"But when it comes down to it, it never really is." Shepard said in a dry voice.

"We cannot separate." Amelia grunted aloud, clutching her wound. "If we do, it will be divide and conquer for those vagrants."

"Pardon, but what is this Corridor you spoke of?" Doppler asked.

"Right, you lot don't really know what it is." Jane said. "You'll see in a second, first we gotta handle this. Axel." Her fellow redhead turned to her. "Much as your idea sounds good, Captain Amelia has a bit of a point. I'd rather you not risk yourselves going up to the ship alone even if you guys can handle the Heartless. Who knows what may happen up there."

"Then it's better we go for a snatch and grab." Garrus stated. "Have at least one or two of them at most go in and get the map. Right now, I gotta agree, I'd rather not see you guys take on a Heartless Pirate Ship bigger than the Legacy on your own."

"There's also Marluxia lurking around." Roxas pointed out. "He could be anywhere."

"True. Though I do wonder if he has even bothered to get the rest of the Organization to come here."

"Doubt it." Axel said bluntly. "If he did, we would've gotten basically every one of them here and that would be a whole mess to contend with. No, old Marly is still playing his own old game. Before I got assigned to Castle Oblivion, Saix spoke of possible traitors in the group that I was being sent off with. He hinted at Marluxia and Larxene rather blatantly."

"So there's even more dissension among this Organization." Jane noted.

"We should be lucky we're only dealing with one member right now." Axel muttered.

"Ok then, so, who is gonna get the map then?" Doppler asked.

"I will." Axel said straight away. "My idea, I'll go through with it."

"When would you plan on doing that?" Jim inquired.

"Perhaps after sunset, take the boys up there by surprise in the cover of night." Axel said. "These coats work real mighty well in that regard."

"Even then, that won't help us find a way out of this place. With that Heartless horde outside, it's gonna be hard to leave without guns blazing." Shepard pointed out, peeking outside their shelter to see Silvers pirates set up a camp within the trees of the planet not too far away from where they are situated.

With this going on, B.E.N. decided to walk off.

"Where you going?" Jim silently asked, not wanting to disturb the discussion not far away.

"Oh nowhere." B.E.N. waved off. "Just wanted to give you guys some space. No need for someone who can't contribute to a plan. So I'll just get out using the back door."

This caused the conversation to halt, having everyone to perk up on what the robot said.

"Back door?" Several of them repeated in bewilderment.

Running over to where B.E.N. was at, they saw him roll a spherical object in the far side of the space that had a hole in the center. Light was protruding from it's opening.

"Oh yeah, I get this delightful breeze through here… which I think is important because ventilation among friends..."

Peering inside, a lot of people saw an incessant cycle of machines, piping and wiring.

"Whoa! Are you guys seeing this?"

"Yeah, what is all of this?"

"You mean the miles and miles of machinery that runs through the entire course of this planet? Not a clue." B.E.N. answered, leaning on the sphere.

"B.E.N." Xion said cheerfully. "You're a lifesaver!"

"I am? Oh… I am. How?"

"I think we got our ticket outta here." Shepard declared with the others smiling.

"Right so we," Axel gestured to himself and Xion, "go get the Map. Once we're back, we slip through this back door and find the treasure."

"To sum it up, yes."

"Hopefully, we will be able to get the Legacy to help pick us up where Flint's trove is located and flee like the dickens." Amelia stated, earning nods from the rest.

"If nothing else, this back door will serve as our emergency exit if things go south."

"And what of later?" Roxas questioned. "At some point we'll need to take care of the Heartless outside."

"And properly securing the ship and getting it to the trove site." Axel added in.

"I highly doubt you or Xion can pilot the Legacy." Amelia said to the red haired Nobody.

"No arguments there, captain."

It was from there that further discussions and planning took place amongst the group until it was finally time to commence it.

-Scene Cut-

A Corridor appeared at the far end of the Legacy's deck. Once Xion and Axel stepped through, the doorway closed behind them.

"What's the plan now?" Xion asked before taking note of the present surroundings. "Ship looks deserted."

"Don't be fooled." Axel chastised them. "There could be some Heartless lurking about outside of their ship beside us. Or pop in if they want."

The two quietly moved towards the staircase that would lead them to the lower decks of the ship.

"Alright, Jim said that the map is below deck next to the longboats in a pile of rope." Axel recalled. "Xion, go down to where Jim said the Map is at. And be careful."

Xion nodded and almost made her way below deck. "What of you?" She asked.

"Gonna secure the place and raise some commotion while I'm at it." Axel stated.

"You sure?" Xion didn't really want to leave him by himself.

Axel only grinned, messing up her hair in a comforting manner. "Yeah, need to put attention away from you while I have some fun."

Xion nodded as she ran down below and made her way towards the ship's hangar to retrieve the map.

Axel, all the while rotated his shoulder and cracked his neck a few times.

Looking around, the redhead frowned before he held up a hand and shot up a small fireball that erupted into a flare.

No less than a few seconds later did multiple Heartless appear all around with a loud hissing coming from above.

"Well hello there, Mr. Scroop." Axel greeted in a casual manner. "I was wondering where you were."

"You." Scroop regarded the fiery Nobody in suspicion, crawling down the mast like the spider freak he was. "I was expecting one of those cabin boys."

"Sorry, but they're busy at the moment. You'll have to chat with them later when they are openly available." Axel narrowed his eyes a little soon after. "Until then, you got me."

From what he learned prior to commencing their plan, Axel -along with the others- was questioned by Jim on something that was somewhat bugging him since this morning.

When asked why they were all in the stateroom in the first place, Shepard told the Hawkins boy they were discussing a number of details. From theorizing how to excavate the illustrious treasure trove to properly detaining Mr. Scroop. When asked why on the latter, Garrus revealed he suspected the arachnid crew member was involved in Mr. Arrow's death.

It was from there did Jim confirm the suspicions when he bluntly heard it from the galley before the mutiny commenced.

Scroop was cautious, as he wasn't going to just recklessly charge at this man.

He had seen just what he was capable of and it was not to be scoffed at.

This man was dangerous and lethal with his combat skills being greatly above his own. So that meant he had to play it smart.

Luckily for him, he wasn't alone.

In mere moments, a dozen Pirate Heartless appeared in plumbs of dark vapors. With a silent snarl and wave of his hand, Scroop ordered the new arrivals to attack.

Their cutlasses cleaved the air to strike down the red haired Nobody, yet he was able to quickly maneuver around the blows. Hardly even using his Eternal Flames chakrams to block and parry the attacks before burning his opponents into cinders.

A couple more came their way as they tried to get him from behind.

Axel rolled his eyes at the oncoming attack, crouching down with his Chakrams hovering over his knees.

Just as the Pirates drew near, Axel instantly glided around them and threw his chakrams forward, destroying the Pirates in an instant.

Scroop winced upon seeing that though he snarled a moment later, throwing his arms forward.

More Heartless appeared, Pirates, Air Pirates, Aerial Vikings and even several Pole Cannons.

"Wow, is this it?" Axel looked around unimpressed at what he was seeing. "This is the best you could come up with? Rehash?"

"And what would you know, dead man." Scroop hissed, leveling one of his claws at him.

Axel only shook his head, completely non-threatened by the arachnid like spider. "You know, you are rather pathetic."

"What?" Scroop snarled.

"Your darkness ain't all that strong to fuel these Heartless here." Axel chortled. "I think they're just grabbing at scraps with how much you're putting out for the amount coming out." He leaned forward with his hands at his hips with a cheeky smirk. "Tell me, have you had performance issues as of late or was this before the voyage?"

Scroop's already red face became an indescribable deeper shade with him now seething in rage.

"Then again, a newbie like yourself can't even comprehend just what he's gotten his hands, sorry, claws on." Axel said, picking his ear slightly.

"Maybe you shouldn't celebrate your victory when I could so easily kill you."

"You? Kill me? That's adorable." Axel guffawed. "Don't worry, all the pretty insectoid and arachnid ladies out there will be thankful for me taking care of ya."

"Oh, really and how are you gonna do that?" Scroop scoffed. "I have these fine folks protecting me at a moment's notice."

Axel merely blinked before snorting out a chuckle at the man's arrogance.

"What's so funny?!"

"You really don't know me at all."

Raising his hand a little, he focused on the arachnid alien and the surrounding Heartless before snapping his fingers.

In an instant, the alien combusted into a plumb of flames as his screams could be momentarily heard. And it wasn't long before he was reduced to ashes.

The Heartless suffered the same fate with all of them being destroyed in bursts of flames. A moment later, the deck was clear.

"Good riddance."

With Scroop taken care of, Axel stood upon the deck of the ship by his lonesome.

There he stood for a few moments before letting out a sigh, walking over to one of the masts and leaned upon it with his arms crossed.

"Alright Marly, enough drama. Come out already." Axel said aloud a moment later.

He got nothing in response for a prolonged number of seconds until…

"Ah, there we go." Axel said as a Corridor of Darkness appeared a few feet away from him to reveal the Graceful Assassin.

"Axel." Marluxia greeted cordially.

"Let's not beat around the bush here, Marluxia." No. VIII said straight away. "I'm just gonna cut to the chase. Why haven't you called upon the rest of the Organization?"

Marluxia didn't reply at first, gazing upon the turncoat member of the Organization with an analytical eye before he turned and walked over to the railing of the ship.

"I believe you should already have an idea as to why you have seen me and only me." Marluxia stated, with Axel letting out a small 'hmph'.

"Well I believe you should speak a bit more plainly with me then your typical intellectual bullcrap." Axel retorted.

Marluxia chortled to himself, looking back at the redhead.

"I still have ambitions of my own, Axel." Marluxia said without an ounce of regret. "I had long wished to unbind myself from Xemnas' clutches and rid myself of the shackles he's imposed upon us. Larxene shares in this sentiment and we had originally intended to conduct our plans with Sora in Castle Oblivion with the assistance of Namine."

"Assistance?" Axel repeated in a disbelieving manner. "You can maybe fool most people with that word Marly, but you're not gonna fool me. Never saw a girl happier than her when she found out you weren't running the Castle no more."

"Hmmm?" Marluxia's brow rose up upon hearing the way Axel spoke with his eyes narrowing a moment later.

A few seconds passed by until realization dawned upon No. XI's face.

"Ah~ I see now." Marluxia said in understanding.

"You got something to say, Marluxia?" Axel asked with an edge to his tone.

The pink-haired Nobody raised a hand in a placating manner.

"I did not wish to antagonize you, Axel."

"Really? Well you've done a bang up job so far." Axel sarcastically remarked.

"I had originally intended to include you into our coup." Marluxia admitted, catching Axel slightly off guard.

"Say what now?"

"You heard me, Axel." Marluxia went on. "Larxene was the one who suggested it and when I took some time, I saw what she saw."

A sinister grin appeared on the Assassin's face whilst Axel's was emotionless and unreadable.

"You were discontent within the Organization as well." No. XI revealed though No. VIII kept up his unmoving expression. "I am unsure as to whom else you had spoken to in regards to your position within the Organization but you yourself had your own plans. It took some time to divulge just who else could it have possibly been that you would be working with but then it came to me. Saix."

Though he remained unphased via his face, Marluxia caught the tightening fist out of the corner of his eyes.

His grin grew with a slight manic gleam in his eyes.

"I see." Marluxia said in validation. "It was indeed Saix. I found it difficult to believe at first but then I recall a fascinating disclosure of information that I believe Xigbar mentioned. Of how you and No. VII knew one another in the time before becoming Nobodies."

Axel's silence only enabled No. XI to continue his little monologue.

"And then, No. VII began moving up the ranks until at long last he was second in command." Marluxia said, holding out both his arms. "Imagine my surprise when I overheard our new secondary leader conversing with No. VIII about plans of their own."

That got a reaction out of the Flurry of Dancing Flames.

"Alright, I've heard your little spiel." Axel said. "What do you want?"

"Did I not tell you my ambitions?" Marluxia rhetorically asked.

"Yeah but a lot of good that did you." Axel countered. "Once again, you're back under the thumb of Xemnas while I got off Scott free for now."

"For now?"

"I'm not an idiot, Marluxia." Axel retorted. "Sooner or later, I knew we'd have to face the Organization after betraying them. Case in point."

"But it doesn't have to be this way." Marluxia implored. "Think Axel. With you, Roxas and the puppet working with me and Larxene, overthrowing Xemnas is attainable. Perhaps even having Saix join in our coup."

Axel was silent after hearing this, closing his eyes, deep in thought.

"You know Marly, I could understand your desire to overthrow Xemnas." Axel began. "Guy was a lying sack of shit who bullshitted us all into joining for the crappiest of reasons."

This statement intrigued Marluxia. The Superior's plans were a falsehood?

"But here's the problem..."

No. XI noticed an immediate uptake in temperature as he saw Axel's expression visibly darken.

"See, from the way Namine described it, you were basically forcibly making her do things she wasn't exactly comfortable with." Axel gazed at him intently. "And I would hate to see what would happen if you truly went on with your plans when that Sora kid was to show up at Castle Oblivion before Roxas went missing."

He pushed himself off the wall and held out one hand in Marluxia's direction with one of his Chakrams appearing.

"Let's not forget that Roxas and Xion have their own Keyblades." Axel said darkly. "Something you crave and desire. What's to stop you from doing the same to them?"

Marluxia held a neutral expression as he saw wisps of fire float off Axel's form.

A moment later, Marluxia chuckled aloud with a shake of his head.

"You are far more intelligent than I give you credit for, Axel." Marluxia said, momentarily glancing over to the spot where Scroop met his demise.

Discreetly, he shifted his hand and clenched his fist a moment later before a Dark Corridor swallowed the Graceful Assassin's form, leaving Axel all by his lonesome on the deck.

It was sometime after did his Omni-tool flare to life.

"Axel, I got the Map."

"Good to hear, Xion." Axel said to his hard light device. "Hope you didn't have any difficulties down there."

"Only a little, nothing I couldn't handle."

"Good girl." He chuckled out. "Now come on up and meet me on the deck. We need to take care of the next step of the plan."

Ending the call, Axel looked at the Heartless Pirate Ship docked not far away from the Legacy.

It was then something open up from the sides of the dark vessel. Plumbs of darkness formed with a volley of Heartless shooting out one by one.

"Great… the flies..."

He recognized the type of Heartless appearing out of the enemy ship. They resembled flying bug-like creatures with largely round and metallic bodies. There were several metallic cones on the side of its face and one at its proboscis. Along the body were the occasional bits of rust, even on the insectoid wings as they buzzed about. And to finish off their appearance was the spinning anchor like stingers on their rumps.

These were the Vaporflies, and like ordinary flies, they were utterly annoying and came in droves.

-Insert Kingdom Hearts III: Vim and Vigor Theme-

Moments after they drew close, Axel unleashed a volley of Fire attacks at the incoming Vaporflies. Each was knocked out of the sky before they were struck down for good when chakrams pierced their bodies to incinerate them.

At some point, Xion came running out from down below to see the battle commenced all over. Seeing her friend needing help, she rushed in with her Keyblade in hand. Leaping into the air, she struck down a few of the Heartless before performing a Thunder spell to help vaporize them.

"Axel." Xion rushed over to her friend. "What's happening?"

"Whaddya think, Xion?" Axel said, his weapons returning to his hands after he tossed them. "These bozos as usual."

The said "bozos" however were soon joined by something even bigger than any of them combined.

"RRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAA!"

The loud roar filled the air, making the two Nobodies whip their heads towards a higher area in the sky. There they saw a giant Heartless was gliding through the area.

It was mechanical and wooden in style with the theme of its vulture-like appearance. The wings of the Heartless were mechanically composed with cannons embedded at the joints. Three chained anchors dangle on the Heartless by its neck and two wing joints.

"That's not good." Axel said with a grim face.

"How are we supposed to get up there to it?" Xion asked, hand over her eyes as she gazed at the large flying Heartless.

"Either we get it to come down to us or…" Axel's eyes shifted about at the multitude of flying Vaporflies. "We try getting to it ourselves."

She looked up at Axel quizzically before she noticed what he was looking at himself.

Nodding in a determined expression, Xion ran forward and jumped off of the ship with her landing atop a Vaporfly.

Pivoting it around, she saw Axel had remained aboard the ship.

"Axel?"

"Someone's gotta stay behind to protect the ship." Axel said plainly.

"Right."

Thrusting herself forward, she commanded her commandeered Heartless to fly towards the vulture Heartless gliding all over the place.

Seeing some other Vaporflies coming her way, she saw them fire out some sort of bullets from their mouths as they tried to shoot her down. She hurled her ride to avoid getting hit before twisting the antennas on its head. This got her to go faster as she zoomed out of the way.

Wanting to properly shoot them down, she glared at the Heartless and popped it's head. In mere moments, bullets were propelled out of its mouth. Smiling to herself, she whirled her ride around to shoot down the opposing Vaporflies.

Once clear, she headed straight towards her target. Getting close to it, she kept firing at the giant Heartless to hopefully immobilize it, somehow. When it flailed a little, Xion leapt off her Vaporfly and landed into a run on this Raging Vulture's wing.

Just as the Heartless flapped its large wing, she used its own motion to propel herself onto one of its spikes on its back, grabbing onto the one closest to its head.

The Heartless appeared to detect her behind him, twisting its head around and screeching at the Keybearer.

"Yeah, hello to you too." Xion grimaced.

She proceeded to smack her Keyblade several times against the Raging Vultures beak in defense as it tried jabbing itself at her.

Xion put all her strength into one of her swings, managing to land a powerful blow on the Heartless with the Raging Vulture's beak visibly cracking.

That seemed to rather piss the flying Heartless off as Xion noticed a visible glint in the Vultures eyes.

Halting her assault, she defensively held up her Keyblade up and casted one of her newer spells that she had been attempting to pull off.

A hexagonal barrier surrounded her just in time when the Heartless unleashed a stream of fire from its opened maw. It's heat encompassed the magical shell and Xion held on as long as she could.

"It worked." Xion cheered for her success, wincing slightly as she felt a small hit on her magic.

'Figures.' No. XIV internally mused. This was still a new spell to her after all.

When the steam of fire ceased, Xion brought the barrier down before resuming her assault. Clubbing it's beak with all her might. And at one point, she unleashed a Thundara spell to complete the combo.

Feeling drained, she was forced to vacate her spot on the Heartless and dived towards a passing Vaporfly. Just in time too as another stream of fire was unleashed where she was once at.

As this went on, Axel was attacking the diving Vaporflies as he tried to be sure they wouldn't damage the ship all that much.

Looking up, he saw Xion free falling down below with the Raging Vulture pivoting down to pursue after the falling puppet.

Rushing over to one of the cannons, Axel was turning on the weapon and got things primed and ready. Using what stuff he learned from Garrus while on this ship, he was able to operate the cannon to some marginal effectiveness.

Seated in the gunner's chair, Axel took aim at the Raging Vulture and fired off a laser cannon round at its belly once Xion was in the clear.

The projectile zoomed across the sky before it eventually struck it's underside-

"RRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAA!"

-resulting in an explosion with the Heartless screeching in utter pain.

Chucking to himself, the red haired Nobody saw the Vulture turning its attention towards him. Narrowing his gaze, Axel primed the cannon once more as the giant Heartless was flying towards the Legacy.

"Come on you blasted thing." Axel cursed, seeing the cannon wasn't fully effectively charged for maximum damage like before.

Xion, having commandeered yet another Vaporfly, she flew after the giant Heartless firing at it as she drew closer.

Bopping the Heartless' head even harder, missiles shot out from its rear and zoomed across the sky. The payloads were successfully delivered as they collided against the Raging Vulture's form, resulting in yet another loud painful screech.

With the cannon fully ready, Axel took aim and fired the cannon once more as the laser ball quickly zoomed through the air. Instead of the belly, it struck the Vulture's head as yet another screech filled the air.

Coming in close, Xion leaped off the Vaporfly and landed on the Vulture's back as it was momentarily flailing. She carefully pulled herself forward to somersault across it's back right up to the neck area. Once more, like before, she drew in the Heartless' attention by striking it's head.

Once the bird's head turned back around, Xion resumed her blows one by one with the Heartless flailing each and every time. Soon enough, seeing the glint in its eyes once again, Xion got ready for a stream of fire about to be fired.

Yet this wasn't meant to be as the Vulture let out a screech once more, this time from yet another laser ball to its chest courtesy of Axel with it beginning to thrash about in the air.

The thrashing launched Xion high into the air, her expression comical as she flailed her arms about trying to get control of her situation.

Gritting her teeth, No. XIV performed an aerial recovery and looked down at the Raging Vulture.

Hovering over the Heartless for a brief moment, she summoned her affinity of Light, concentrating on her Keyblade.

A momentary aura of light surrounded her that went into her Keyblade that soon crackled with magical infused energy.

It was time for the Magic Hour.

Holding her Keyblade overhead with both hands, she flung herself down, spinning rapidly in the air as she drew closer to the Raging Vulture.

As she drew closer to the Heartless, her form began glowing with the elements of fire, lightning, blizzard, air and gravity, utilizing the last element to increase her speedy descent.

The Raging Vulture detected the incoming attack and reared its head up at the projectile-Xion. Opening its mouth, the Heartless unleashed a torrent of flames that Xion had quite literally cleaved right through the fire.

In a burst of power and speed, Xion cut right through the Heartless with it jolting at the attack.

The Raging Vulture seemingly froze in the air for a monochrome of a second, trembling before beginning its fall.

And where did the giant bird Heartless fall?

Straight through the center deck of the Heartless Pirate ship that caved in and both vanished a moment later with two gargantuan Hearts floating up into the night sky before they too disappeared.

Witnessing this, Axel let out a bellow of a laugh, holding his head back as he watched all this in slight disbelief but great amusement.

"Holy shit, that was convenient." Axel said aloud.

Diving from the skies above, No. XIV steered herself to properly land on the ship and not miss her shot.

She reached her mark by landing on the masts before landing on the Legacy's deck. Steadying herself, Xion leaned forward as she placed her hands on her knees. Breathing in deeply a couple of times, she soon pulled out a Hi-Potion, uncorked the bottle and started chugging its contents.

It was at this point did she hear Axel come towards her.

"You okay there?" Axel said with a wide grin.

Xion merely held up her finger, silently saying "one moment please". Once the liquid was down her throat, she pulled out a Hi-Ether and crushed it, feeling her magical reserves be restored.

"Need to stock up after all this." Xion remarked with a small smile, Axel chuckling as he messed up her hair again.

"No kidding." Axel said. "Atta girl, Xion."

His young friend could only beam at the praise.

Opening up a Dark Corridor, the pair went through it in order to rejoin the others.

-Scene Cut-

It was honestly boring for the Hawkins boy as he was on watch, keeping an eye at the pirate camp near the forest's edge. He did have an important task while the group was waiting for Axel and Xion to return. No one wanted to be sure the pirates broke away and tried to sneak their way towards their little stronghold. There was no exception with the Heartless, who stood guard of the encampment

To somewhat pass the time, the others were getting things ready for their eventual departure from B.E.N.'s humble abode. From Shepard and Garrus checking on their weapons and gear, Roxas and Tali conversing with each other (even dragging Jim into a few topics), to Doppler checking up on the still drugged up Amelia.

"How's she holding up, Doc?" Jane asked, looking over to the two.

Doppler held up a hand as he leaned in intently to listen to her struggle out her words.

"Gentlemen… We must stick together and… and…"

"Yes, yes, stay together and?" Doppler encouraged. "We must stay together and what?"

Amelia gazed at Doppler with a soft, dazed smile broke out. "Doctor, you have wonderful eyes."

"..."

"..."

"...SHE HAS LOST HER MIND!"

"You gotta help her!" Jim called out from the stronghold's entrance.

"Dang it, Jim. I'm an astronomer, not a doctor. I mean, I am a doctor, but I'm not that kind of doctor. I have a doctorate. It's not the same thing. You can't help people with a doctorate. You just sit there and you're useless!" Doppler rambled on, putting his fists up to his temples.

"Honestly, she should not be this entirely woozy after so long." Garrus said. "Tali isn't all loopy like she is."

"I think it's because Roxas used two things that you could say … familiar with each other, if that works." Tali said, not entirely sure of her own words.

"Huh?"

"I think Roxas using his Cure spell and the last of his Elixir were kinda familiar substances in a way because of them being magical in nature." Tali clarified, now having a better idea as to what she was trying to say. "But I guess when Xion did it to the Captain and Garrus followed up with the Medi-gel, it had an adverse effect."

"Okay… note to self: don't mix medigel with healing spell." Roxas muttered quietly to himself.

"Yeah, don't wanna complicate a field mission because of that." Tali said, looking up at him in amusement.

"So what should we do about her then?" Jim asked the others.

"I guess all we could do is just wait for her to ride it out." Jane admitted, gazing outside with her eyes lingering at the now lone Legacy.

"Hey." Shepard's voice caught everyone's attention. "Look. The Legacy. It's by itself!"

Rushing towards the entrance, they saw the Heartless ship was no longer there.

"Looks like they did it."

It was moments later that a Dark Corridor appeared some distance behind them. Soon after, Xion and Axel stepped on through with the Corridor disbursing soon after.

"Mission accomplished, Shepard." Said Axel.

Xion only smiled proudly, with her pulling out the map and tossing it up and down and held it in her hands.

"We got it."

"Yes!" Jim pumped his fist several times in victory. "You guys are the best!"

Xion tossed the map over to the Hawkins boy, who effortlessly caught it.

"Huh?" they heard the sound of the Captain stirring, her ears flicking up and down as her eyes cracked open.

"What on earth is all this racket?" Amelia asked in a soft voice.

"Oh, good to see you're getting out of your dizzy spat, ol' Cappi-tan." Axel chuckled out.

"Axel?" Amelia blinked, reaching a hand to rub her eyes. "Commander, Doctor?"

"We're here, Captain." Doppler said softly. "Are you alright?"

Amelia groaned as Doppler helped her sit up. "I could go for a strong cup of tea with a pint to wash down this bloody headache."

"Well, at least you're back to your usual self." Jane said, walking over to the Captain.

"What's the word?"

"We got back the map and the Legacy is more or less back in your hands." Xion reported to the feline captain.

"We just need to get back to it and prep it for departure." Garrus said.

Amelia groaned but managed out a small smile of satisfaction.

"Good, they're secured. Well done all of you." Amelia said before gazing at Jim. "Mr. Hawkins, if you would be so kind…"

With the Map Orb in his possession once more, he made quick work in opening it back up.

In an instant, the green light flowed out of the map and formed a holographic image of Treasure Planet.

"Okay, now what? We're on the planet..."

The hologram then disbursed and turned into a thick green line that led outside, pulsing with every other second.

"Okay, seems we now have a direct course-"

Before anything else can be said, the line retracted and went back into the map.

"...I gotta say, but glad we don't have to go through this entrance. Don't wanna risk being spotted by Silver, his men and the Heartless."

"Think they might have seen it?" Tali asked worriedly.

"Might have, but I don't wanna stick around to find out." Shepard said. "We need to move."

"Then to the back door we go."

-Scene Cut-

In all honesty, it took them an hour to find where the map line was leading them. The group had to venture through the mechanized planet's tunnel system before ending up more or less a mile away from where Silver's camp was located. From there, they traversed through the planet's surface with the volley of odd forestation here and there. It could've taken them a fraction of a time to reach their inevitable destination if they procured one of Silver's longboats, but they didn't want to risk alerting the pirates and the Heartless.

It would've been a bit more of a struggle if Tali, Amelia and Doppler were still with them. With the two mentioned women, they were still recovering from the last leg of their injuries. And Doppler was just a civilian who wouldn't do all that well in trekking through the planet's surface.

Once leaving B.E.N.'s residence and making it a safe distance away, Axel opened up a Dark Corridor for the three aforementioned people to traverse to. He did temporarily relieve himself of his coat by letting them wear it in order to safely pass on through. Each time they got through the Corridor; the coat would be thrown back to the other side to repeat the process until they were no longer there.

Tali, Amelia and Doppler needed to get the Legacy up and running in order to properly head on out at a moment's notice. And both Axel and Xion had to be there with them in case any Heartless were present to cause any further problems.

Once the group was separated, they went on with the next leg of the operation.

Presently, the assembled group was traversing through a thick grove of bamboo-like trees as they were blocking their way. Occasionally, Shepard and Roxas would cleave their way through with their Omni-blade and Keyblade, respectively.

Jim walked in the middle with the Map Orb in hand as Garrus covered the rear in case anything were to come their way. And B.E.N. tagged along as well as the group figured the robot might prove useful later to possibly give any further clues as to find the treasure trove.

After all, this little trek of theirs did have them run into an occasional Heartless skirmish.

When the holographic green line pulses ever stronger, faster and brighter; showing the group that they were starting to get close.

Morph was peeking out of Jim's pocket, making a scared whimpering sound.

"It's okay, Morph. It's okay." Jim said, comforting the scared blob.

"It'll be alright." Garrus said assuringly.

B.E.N. then cuts in between them, getting Jim's attention.

"Jimmy, I don't know about you, but I'm starting to see my life passing in front of my eyes." Said the robot, grabbing his own head. "At least I think it was my life. Was I ever dancing with an android named Lupe?!"

B.E.N. had raised his voice a bit too high for comfort, causing the group to jump in their present spots.

"Damnit, B.E.N." Garrus hissed. "It's already tense as it is. Don't want you to make it even worse with your outbursts."

The rusted robot gave out a nervous chuckle. "Sorry." He said, lowering his voice in the process.

Cutting through the last leg of foliage, the group had a far clearer pathway when the green light got extremely intense.

It was only moments later the pathway was clear did the group come to a startling discovery.

"Okay… Where is it?" Shepard asked bluntly.

What they were looking at now was a cliffside with the green light ending right at it's very edge. There wasn't anything beyond that, just a barren valley with an extremely deep cavern down below.

The group was left confused and lost about where the map led them towards.

It was at this moment did the green light retract back into the map orb. When Jim was trying to open it back up, hoping things could be figured out, it wouldn't budge, not even the buttons.

"Any ideas on what's going on Jim?" Shepard asked, turning to him as he began pressing the multiple buttons but to no avail.

"I don't know. I can't get it open." Jim says, still struggling.

"Here, let me have a go at it." Roxas said, ready to catch it.

The Keybearer figured that if the map can't be opened the traditional way, he could use the Keyblade to force it out.

Jim complied with the suggestion and tossed it to Roxas.

Unfortunately, he overshot the toss, causing it to land and roll towards the cliffside.

"I got it!"

Chasing after it, Roxas was able to stop the Map from falling over the edge by diving towards the ground and catching it.

When he went to get back up, Roxas noticed something odd with the moss covered ground.

"What's this?"

"Is something wrong?" Shepard asked, coming up to the young Nobody along with everyone else.

Roxas brushed away the moss to reveal a circular indent on the ground with markings identical to the map's surface. No. XIII gazed at the circular hole and held up the map in his hand for a moment.

Taking a gander, Roxas inserted the map orb into the hole, causing the entire ground to glow into a bright green color.

"What the hell was that?"

Roxas stood up with some of the others standing back. From where the map presently laid, a green holographic sphere rose from the ground.

Jim was about to reach out and touch it, but soon heard a loud rumbling could be heard.

Looking onward, the group saw a dozen glowing lines quickly travel from the cavernous floor down below and reach towards their location. It wasn't long before a long pillar of light shot into the sky before it spread out to form a triangular portal of sorts.

And by portal, it was one quite literally as they were seeing a swirling constellation of blue, purple and orange clouds mixed together with stars speckling the nebula.

"Spirits."

"Holy…"

"What is that?"

"The Lagoon Nebula?" Jim said, identifying the cosmic location before them. "But… But that's halfway across the galaxy."

In mere moments, Garrus and Shepard pulled out their Omni-tools and held it right in front of the holographic map and portal, respectively.

"Damn, the readings I'm getting are off the charts."

"Same here."

The gazes of both Roxas and Jim shifted from the portal to the holographic sphere.

Jim was the one to properly approach it before touching a random spot on the map. It was at this moment did he remember what B.E.N. said to him, Roxas and Xion on their first encounter.

"A big door…" Jim said aloud before the portal momentarily closed and showed a brightened environment where floating structures were present with a perpetual sunrise of colors. "Opening and closing."

"What?" Shepard said, briefly breaking away from her scanning further on the portal.

"What did you do, Jim?" Garrus questioned the human teen.

Roxas was about to say something when Jim continued to press different spots on the map.

In mere moments, the portal switched onto a windy desert climate somewhere out in the galaxy.

"Let's see… Kinapis." Jim muttered out before catching onto a familiar crescent shaped space station. "Montressor Spaceport."

The moment the icon was pressed, the portal suddenly shifted to the Crescentia Station, making everyone else in surprise amazement.

"So that's how he did it."

"That's how who did it?" Roxas questioned his friend.

Jim smiled as he regaled part of his childhood lessons on the infamous pirate. "Flint was impossible to catch, due to him vanishing without a trace." He then continued to press more and more holographic icons as other worlds flashed before them through the portal. "I think he used this portal to roam the universe, stealing treasure."

"But where'd he stash his horde?" Garrus questioned.

"I agree. There must be some clue as to where it's kept." Shepard turned over to B.E.N., who presently looked at the portal in silent amazement. "You got any ideas where the treasure's at?"

"Treasure. Treasure!" He clenched his head. "Buried in the-"

"Buried in the centroid of the mechanism." Roxas finished off.

Jim smiled even more. "Remember Tali mentioned something about crazy energy readings back at B.E.N.s place while we were waiting for Axel and Xion? If what Tali said is true, then this whole planet is the mechanism and the treasure is buried in the very center of it."

"If that's true, then how can we reach it? We honestly can't dig our way or traverse miles upon miles of machinery to reach it." Shepard pointed out. "It could take days."

Jim merely went back to the holographic orb. "We just open the right door." He said, pressing the icon that was in the shape of Treasure Planet itself.

In mere seconds, the portal shifted once again, showing a lit space beyond them with metal cylinders jotting down from some ceiling.

Cautiously, Jim reached out with his hand when Roxas grabbed his shoulder.

Looking back at him, Roxas gave him a concerned look with the sandy-blond haired teen grasping his hand with his own nodding his head forward.

Getting the silent message, Jim gave his friend an appreciative smile and stuck his hand through the portal. When not feeling anything amiss, Jim turned back to the others and nodded.

Carefully, the group then walked through the portal and stared at the much more clear metal cylinders that continually fired energy beams to whatever it was below.

Before traversing very far, Shepard clasped on to Jim's shoulder and kept him still.

"What's going on?"

"Do you hear that?"

Jim looked around and pointed towards the metal cylinders up above.

Shepard shook her head.

"Not that." She brought her hand down towards their feet. "That."

Looking down, Jim saw a small device with a small laser light hitting his leg. And coming from the device was a faint series of beeping's.

Pulling out her Omni-tool, Shepard was able to connect with the device.

"What are you doing?"

"Seeing what this thing is for." She said. "Could be a bomb as a last line of defense on intruders."

Not far away, Garrus nodded. "Wouldn't put it past this Flint guy in being precautious. Blowing someone or some people up as a form of insurance."

Jim blanched. "A bomb!?"

"At least I'm taking care of this now." Said the Commander as she kept typing away on her device. "Okay, I disabled it… and boy it was on a timer."

"How long?" Roxas asked.

"A couple of minutes." Shepard said, Omni-Tool fading away.

"Minutes? Not seconds?"

"Your guess is as good as mine on the amount of time."

With the trap disarmed, the group traversed even further before hearing someone coming up from behind.

"Well, well."

The entire group rounded about to see none other than Silver and his gang of Pirates right behind him as he gazed upon them all with a smirk.

"Mighty fine job you all did us, leading us right to where we needed to be." Silver said, arm morphed into its pistol form.

Roxas, Shepard and Garrus held up their weapons with Jim pulling out his own pistol and they all held it up at the pirate.

"Now, now." Silver held up his hands, his robotic one shifting back to normal. "No need for such hostilities among fellow adventurers and explorers, eh? How's about a ceasefire?"

"And what in God's name makes you think we can trust a word any of you have to say?" Shepard shot back, her Biotics flaring up around her body.

"Yes, yes, we wanted to mutiny cause we wanted the treasure." Silver openly admitted. "But see, we're not idiots nor are we fools. We know none of us can hold a candle to what you all are capable of. So a parlay perhaps?"

"I find that hard to believe in you wanting to parlay now of all times." Garrus said. "Then again, pirates and treasure. Should be a bit obvious really.

"I speaks nothing but the truth in me heart, Mr. Vakarian." Silver said, overdramatically as he took off his hat and bowed with a small grin in place. "We won't be interfering with any of what you'll be doing and you don't disturb us."

"How can we even trust you?" Roxas asked in suspicion.

Glancing at the boy, Silver's expression visibly softened, something Shepard and Garrus saw before the pirate captain steeled himself once more.

"You do or do not. It's all up to you." Silver stated calmly.

There was a tense standoff between the two groups before it was Shepard who lowered her weapon first.

"Any funny business and you'll get a bullet between the eyes."

"Wouldn't dream of it." Silver promised.

With that, the standoff ended but the tension remained as they all turned back to the cylindrical metal tubes on the ceilings above.

Stepping at the metal ledge, everyone soon saw a true sight to behold.

In front of them was a large pool of gold coins and different colored jewels amongst many other valuable chests and other items that were piled atop of each other on the floor. It reached as far as their eyes could see.

In mere moments, almost every pirate rushed past through Jim and Shepard's men as they cheered with glee, diving towards the treasure all around.

"The loot of a thousand worlds." Silver said in utter awe.

Roxas and Jim stared, completely blown away at what they were seeing with Shepard blinking owlishly with how shocked she is.

"...We're gonna need a bigger ship." Garrus surmised.

Shepard couldn't help but laugh aloud. "Holy fucking shit. We found a literal planet of treasure. Pirate treasure. Can cross that off our bucket list."

Looking back, Roxas and Jim saw B.E.N. holding his head.

"Hey, you okay there?"

"I… I think so. I don't… know why." Responded the robot. "Something is… familiar about this place. Like something is… missing."

"Commander." Garrus spoke up, the Spectre looking at the Turian and then turned her head in the direction he was staring at.

The two teens and the robot followed the same action as they looked onward to see a pirate ship situated on a large hill composed of treasure.

Jim's eyes widened in shock and excitement. "No way… Flint's ship… The Sabre."

"That's our way back to the Legacy." Shepard declared, the group of five now walking towards the ship whilst ignoring the pirates that were still joyously celebrating at the find of the century.

Traversing through the dense flooring composed of treasure, the group made their way to Flint's ship. They did have to take turns getting hoisted up, due to how awkward it was climbing aboard the infamous pirate ship.

Unbeknownst to them all, a man in a black coat stood at the entrance of the portal with his eyes upon Flint's ship.

He detected a lingering darkness in the air and located the source. It was the decomposed body of the infamous pirate, Captain Nathaniel Flint.

Grinning to himself, Marluxia waved his hand towards the space vessel, a coat of dark flames erupted from his hand with darkened rose petals falling down from his sleeve.

Once done, Marluxia was swallowed up in a Dark Corridor and disappeared from the present world.

"I swear, Shepard, you need to lay off the snacks." Garrus grunted out, pulling Jane onto the deck.

"Is there something wrong with my weight Vakarian?" Shepard threatened.

"Maybe."

Jim and Roxas hoisted B.E.N. up, who was babbling on a number of things, as they struggled with the amount of weight the robot had on him.

Once they were all on board the ship's deck, they looked around before coming upon a startling sight.

Sitting on a throne on top of more treasure was a decomposed body of a six eyed alien in a pirates garb.

"Captain Flint?" Jim whispered in utter shock.

B.E.N. sprung up and looked at the slumped over skeleton. "In the flesh! Well, sort of, except for skin, organs… or anything that resembles flesh. That's not there."

Jim gazed at the skeleton intently when he looked down at his curled up hand. Squinting his eyes, Hawkins reached forward and pried it out of the boney hands.

It was a curved device of some kind.

A memory circuit to be exact.

"-And yet it's so odd, you know? I mean I remember there was something horrible Flint didn't want anyone else to know, but I just can't remember what it was." B.E.N. rambled on.

"Was it perhaps the bomb trap at the entrance?" Roxas asked.

"Maybe." Said the android rather unsurely.

Without warning, Jim grabbed B.E.N and whirled him around. "Hang on a second, B.E.N. I think I found your missing piece."

B.E.N. flinched at Jim's sudden touch. "Ha, ha! Jimmy, your hands are very, very cold-"

In an instant, sparks flew with the open circuits at the back of the robot's head flared to life once the memory circuit came close. They suddenly reattached themselves and prying the piece out of Jim's head and back into place into the robot's head.

"Whoa." B. voice slightly warbled as the color of his pixelated eyes changed from green to blue.

As this went on, Garrus and Shepard were working on the controls, trying to see if they could get this pirate ship up and running.

"Man this thing is so unmaintained." Shepard groaned out.

"Well, hasn't it been here for a hundred years or something?" Garrus pointed out. "Who here can maintain it?"

Jane nodded before giving Garrus an even look.

"What?"

"I swear if you try to calibrate this ship like the cannons back on the Legacy…"

"Oh for the love of- will you and Axel let it go!?"

The Android gasped aloud. Feeling everything about him is complete after so many years.

"Wait, it's all coming back to me." B.E.N said happily. "All my memories! Right up until Flint pulled out my memory unit to make sure nobody would know about his booby trap!"

"So there was a booby trap. What for?" Roxas questioned the robot.

"Flint wanted to make sure that nobody could ever steal his treasure, so he rigged this whole planet to blow higher than a Kalepsian kite."

Overhearing this, Jane chuckled to herself. "Man, so glad I picked up on that."

"Or else we'd all be screwed." Garrus finished off.

Suddenly, Captain Flint's Skeleton became engulfed in darkness.

Seeing this, Roxas stepped back and alerted the others. Looking back at the corpse, they became alarmed.

"B.E.N." Jim said wearily. "Are you sure there wasn't something else?"

"Uh… No… it was only the bomb." The android said in confused concern. "Not this."

The darkness around the skeleton swelled and was soon encompassed entirely with the dark glob morphing and shifting into a larger shape.

The dark glob raised itself up with two legs being clear to see and out from the mass came three dark blue balls of fire.

-Insert Kingdom Hearts II: The Corrupted OST-

The darkness dispersed to reveal a large Heartless three times larger than all of them with a cannon for an arm, sword in the other hand, eyepatch on the right eye, a blackish-purple coat and the Heartless emblem on the pirate captain hat it wore.

A Closehanded Captain.

How appropriate that this would be the Heartless of Captain Nathaniel Flint.

"It's the trap we're used to." Roxas said, Oathkeeper in hand.

"Unfortunately." Garrus said, holding up his rifle.

Rearing its large cannon arm at them, it proceeded to fire at the group though Roxas dashed forward and swatted the blast away.

A moment later, he barely held up his Keyblade in time to block the sword the Closehanded Captain swung at him.

Roxas visibly winced as he felt his bones creak as he held back the large sword.

A moment later, Jim had summoned his Solar Surfer and flew up to the head of the Heartless and gave it a face full of his thrusters.

It was enough of a maneuver to get it to remove its sword off Roxas with the boy charging up his affinity of Light.

With a powered strike, Roxas sent the giant Heartless out of Flint's ship and to the treasure trove below. It crashed hard down onto the ground, gold coins and jewels flying up into the air.

Roxas jumped onto the railing of the ship and jumped after the Heartless.

Jim momentarily hovered there in the air, pivoting around to help Roxas.

"Jim wait!" Shepard called out to him, watching as the duo ran towards the Heartless that stood back up.

"Shepard." Garrus called out to her, making her look back to him. "Come on, we need to get this ship up and running. Roxas can handle himself."

Shepard was torn for the briefest of moments before slamming her fist against the railing in frustration, turning back to go and help get the ship working.

In the field of gold, the pirates saw the fight that was about to take place with many of them rushing away towards a safer location as both Jim and Roxas moved to engage it.

Jim flew overhead with his solar surfer whilst Roxas ran at full speed, brandishing his Keyblade.

By this point, the Closehanded Captain had already recovered and had its cannon arm raised. Charging up a shot, it fired a large cannonball and it was joined by several streams of fire that came from the floating fire spheres above its head.

Roxas instinctively pulled off a reversal while throwing out his Keyblade to unleash several shots of Water to douse the flames.

Jim was flying around the Heartless, firing at it with both pistol and rifles in hand, making constant circles to keep it off of him and Roxas.

The Closehanded Captain swung its sword around irritably before it threw both arms up with his weapons clashing together.

Above the Heartless' head, the three spheres of blue fire flared and a moment later, multiple smaller fireballs began shooting out rapidly all around them.

Jim's eyes widened, hastily using his surfer as a shield to absorb the oncoming stream of attacks.

Roxas spun his Keyblade rapidly in front of him to deflect a number of shots before he dove behind a small hill of gold for cover.

The Heartless then took aim at Jim once the fiery onslaught subsided only for Roxas to jump out of cover.

"Thundaga!"

Large bolts of lightning cascaded down upon the Heartless with the Closehanded Captain spasming in its momentary paralysis.

Jim grit his teeth and had his Surfer fly straight down with its sharp nose pointed straight at the exposed eyes of the Heartless. Firing rapidly at the Closehanded Captain, Jim recalled his sail with him angling himself to increase his velocity.

Once getting in close, Jim back flipped off his solar surfer that crashed straight into the Heartless in a brilliant explosion that staggered the Heartless. A moment later, Jim's surfer reappeared back under his feet with him taking to the skies once more.

Roxas ran forward at the opportunity Jim got for him, proceeding to land a series of successive strikes against the Heartless which further damaged it.

His strokes of attacks were not to last as the Closehanded Captain appeared to recover, beginning to counter swing Roxas at every turn with the Nobody deflecting every sword swing sent his way.

However, with every clashing of blades the two shared, beams of fire shout out from the small spheres hovering above the Heartless that went after both Roxas and Jim.

Managing to push Roxas back, it leveled its cannon arm at the young Nobody only for Jim to fly in and smack its face with the flat bottom part of his board.

It lurch back, cannon arm raised upwards now and fired.

The cannonball sailed through the air and struck one of the circular tubes, rattling it slightly.

The explosion caught the attention of the pirates who were far from the action.

Silver looked up and then turned to see Roxas and Jim combating the Heartless together.

"Jimbo." Silver whispered in concern which turned into dread upon seeing Roxas flying back from a nearby explosion that he had dodged only to be caught in its shockwave.

The Pirate captain looked back and forth between the treasure he had in front of him and over to the two lads he had grown so attached to since the start of this voyage.

It was implausible to think that less than a few weeks ago that Silver would be doing this but damned if he would just leave those two by themselves.

"Oh… blast this old Cyborg for a fool." Silver roared aloud, shoving his left arm into his mechanical leg and pulling it out to its more advanced cannon form. "Hang on you two."

Roxas sliced an oncoming fireball in half, throwing his Keyblade up as the Closehanded Captain brought down its sword on him.

He grunted before pushing back against the Heartless' blade.

It reared back for another attack when suddenly, an explosion went off in its face causing it to fall onto its back while inadvertently firing its cannon.

Roxas and Jim turned to see Silver rushing over with a large grin plastered on his face.

"That's how ye bring down one of these over bloated hogs." Silver gloated. "Not going to let the both of you just have all the fun to yourselves now."

The boys could only blink before they couldn't help but smile at the sight of the man who had been a teacher to them these past few days.

However, their happiness was short lived as multiple explosions came from above making them look up in surprise.

One of the Heartless' attacks struck one of the laser machines up above. A series of explosions soon went off, causing it to break away from the ceiling and crash landed on the treasure trove below, the ground now beginning to break apart.

It was there that things went utterly chaotic with the other laser cannons beginning to cut everything in its path.

Rushing towards the edge of Flint's ship, Shepard and Garrus felt their blood drain from their faces.

"Oh fucking hell."

"We need to get this ship up now!"

"I can help!" B.E.N. said aloud.

"What can you do?"

"I was Flint's navigator and leading engineer of the Sabre. I know this ship like the back of my hand!" The android looked at one of his hands and curiously gazed at it. "Oh, that's new."

"B.E.N.!"

"Oh right, sorry!"

Garrus saw Jane looking back to the two boys fighting valiantly against the large Heartless with all their might. It was quite obvious what she wanted to do.

"Commander."

"I know, Garrus, I know." Jane said, returning her attention to the matter at hand.

Back with the trio, they were combating the Heartless with a combined effort.

With two of them now utilizing projectile based attacks, the Heartless was constantly being struck from multiple sides, being unable to focus on just one of them.

It was getting rather frustrating.

Without warning, the Closehanded Captain proceeded to thrash about with multiple cannons and fireballs being sent off in multiple directions.

Multiple miniature explosions went off all around them with the trio trying desperately to avoid them all.

One stray fireball knocked into Jim's solar surfer, straight through its thruster, flinging him off his board and landing hard on the ground.

"Jimbo!" Silver yelled out in concern, instantly rushing over to him.

Jim grunted, holding his side in pain and looked up in time with his eyes widening at the Closehanded Captain taking aim directly at him.

Before he could even process what was happening, Jim felt someone grab on to the back of his shirt and flung him away just as he heard a fiery explosion go off where he was a moment ago.

Roxas, who was dodging all this time, glided forward and smashed his Keyblade across the face of the Heartless.

"SILVER!" he heard Jim's shout from behind.

Roxas whirled around with his eyes widening in shock at the severely hurt Silver who was laying on the ground with his white shirt blackened.

Inhaling sharply, Roxas sprinted over to them, screeching down to his knees as the cyborg groaned in pain.

"I think this comes close to the time when I lost me arm." Silver groaned out in an amused pained grunt.

"Silver." Jim's voice cracked.

The Cyborg looked up at the two with him only smiling.

"It's not all bad, me lads." Silver said. "After all, I got to see it in the end didn't I?"

Roxas clenched his teeth and threw up his Keyblade. "And you'll see it through."

Calling upon all of his magical power, Roxas concentrated with Light surrounding him as he poured everything he had into this one spell.

Firing a beam above that was an ethereal bright green, the energy coalescing into a singular sphere above Silver's body before it slowly lowered itself into the chest of the Cyborg.

A moment later, Silver inhaled a great sigh of relief whilst Roxas fell to his knees with his breath being heavy.

"Rocky?" Silver said in concern.

The boy gave him a weak smile. "Just gotta catch my breath is all."

Before they could do anything else, they heard several stomps on the ground behind them, whirling to see the Closehanded Captain approaching them with its weapons raised.

"Oh come on!" Jim bemoaned, having had enough of the Heartless already. "Can you please just-"

*BVVVVZZZZZ*

Jim's little rant got cut off when a stray purple beam from the ceiling came down and completely annihilated the Heartless. It was even strong enough to release a giant floating Heart into the air.

The three stared at their fortunate turn of events.

"I'll take it." Roxas said, shakily getting back up with the other two not arguing with that.

Sprinting out of the portal, the trio momentarily stopped to catch their breath.

"Silver, you-"

"No need to make a fuss of it, Jimbo." Silver brushed off. "I lost me footing is all, think nothing of it."

Jim couldn't help but smirk upon hearing such a convoluted means of an excuse when-

"Aloha, Rocky and Jimmy!" B.E.N. shouted from above.

The trio looked up to see both the Legacy and the Sabre lowering down to them. And from the Sabre, the robot leaned over the edge to look down at them while holding a panel connected to his chest.

"Hurry, people! We got exactly two minutes and thirty-four seconds til planet destruction!" He informed them.

The trio looked at each other with panicked demeanor.

On the Legacy's bridge, Doppler was manning the helm as he was trying to fly the ship.

Yet it was becoming an utter struggle with his backseat driver constantly pointing out every single detail!

"-You're doing fine, Doctor." Said Amelia. "Now ease her over gently… Gently!"

The Legacy was closer to them, due to it momentarily crashing to the platform the trio were standing on, causing them to hastily get aboard the space vessel.

Once aboard, Xion signaled they made it onboard from the Sabre.

Hearing this, Amelia looked over to Tali and gave the order. "Take us out of here, Miss Zorah!"

"Right!" Said Tali, pulling out her Omni-tool and radioing in Garrus. "Let's get out of here, now!"

"On it, Tali." Garrus' voice said over the line before it went out.

Once done, the two ships propelled themselves forward with the mechanized planet slowly coming apart with flames erupting from down below.

Roxas and Jim ran up the stairs, passing by Silver as he spoke with Amelia with Morph floating beside his head.

"Captain, you dropped from the heavens in the nick of-"

Amelia cuts him off rather angrily with a hiss in her voice. "Save your claptrap for the judge, Silver."

The cyborg let out a nervous chuckle, unsure if he should've just gone aboard the Sabre instead of the Legacy.

Then again, he would more or less receive the same treatment.

The ships seemed to possibly have a smooth sailing course right off the dying planet.

Yet it is never easy.

Suddenly, a piece of exploded debris collided with one of the Legacy's masts, causing part of it to fall down and crash onto one of the deck's generators and cannons.

The R.L.S. Legacy slowed down, causing the Sabre to momentarily slow down as well.

Suddenly, Shepard's voice could be heard over one of the Omni-tools. "What just happened, guys?! Why are you slowing down?!"

Tali to look at the screen before her, causing her to gasp.

"Mizzen sail is demobilized!" Said the Quarian. "By my readings, the thrusters are at only 30% of capacity."

B.E.N.'s voice then came over the line. "By my calculations, you guys won't be able to clear the planet's explosion in time!"

Everyone onboard the Legacy became filled with utter dread, not knowing what to do.

Running over to the rails of the ship, Jim looked back at the portal before shifting his gaze to the wrecked generator and cannon on the deck with an idea forming in his mind.

Coming up to the Hawkins boy, Roxas saw the look on his face.

"Please tell me you got an idea."

"I do." Jim whirled around and spoke to Amelia and Doppler. "We need to turn around!"

"What?" Amelia exclaimed.

Jim jumped down to the deck, with Roxas following, and ran towards the broken laser cannon as he told her. "There's a portal back there! It can get us outta here!"

Doppler was quick to cut in. "Pardon me, Jim, but didn't that portal open to A RAGING INFERNO?!"

"Yes! But I'm gonna change that!" Jim grunted out, prying out a broken sheet of metal from the rubble with a hefty tug with Roxas' help. "I'm gonna open a different door!"

Doppler tried to reason with the commanding officer of the Legacy. "C-Captain, really, I don't see how this is possible-"

"Listen to the boy!" Silver roared out, rushing over to help Jim with whatever he has in mind.

"One minute, twenty-nine seconds till planet's destruction!" B.E.N.'s voice said over the comm lines.

Roxas was helping Jim out to try and attach the thick metal sheets to the broken laser cannon in order to make a solar surfer.

Suddenly, Silver kneeled beside them.

"What do you need, Jim?"

"Some way to attach this." Jim tells Silver, gesturing to the front parts.

"Alright. Stand back. Stand back now." Said the cyborg, switching his metal hand to a welding torch, wielding the board together.

Once attached, Roxas and Silver helped Jim lift the board onto the railing of the ship. Jim hopped onto the board with Roxas standing on the ledge.

Before taking off, the pair looked at Silver.

"Okay, no matter what happens, keep the ships headed straight for the portal." Jim said seriously.

"Fifty-eight second!"

Looking away, Jim stepped on the power button to make the rocket-powered sailboard, launching him away from the ship. And not long after, Roxas jumped off and flew through the sky and went after his friend.

Gazing back, Silver barked out Jim's instruction. "Well, you heard him! Get these plasted heaps turned around!"

In mere moments, both the Legacy and the Sabre indeed turned around and went directly towards the triangular portal.

The pair rode through the destruction, flying in between, over and under all sorts of flying debris. As Jim sailed all around, Roxas glided behind him, slashing through multiple pieces of debris that would be in the way of the ships behind them.

Xion was doing her part, jumping about with light coming off her as she swatted away the chunks that were still in the way of the ships.

At every other moment, Jim's rocket solar sail slowed down to some degree, causing him to step on the power button to propel himself even faster.

Both had to keep their eyes at their target as adrenaline rushed through them.

At one point, Jim had to grind against a large mechanical mass while Roxas ran with all his might along the surface. Soon enough, they pushed themselves away and resumed their flighted trek.

Over on the Legacy, Amelia was barking out orders to Doppler, who was feverishly working the helm to maneuver away from the floating debris.

"Go to the right! The right!"

Doppler then snapped, rearing back and snarled at Amelia. "I KNOW, I KNOW! WILL YOU JUST ME DRIVE!"

Back on the Sabre, Shepard was doing her best to man the helm in staying remotely close to the Legacy.

"I don't know how Joker does it, but I'm not giving him any more crap about piloting after this." She gritted out.

"To be fair, he's on his ass all day, every day with the controls ever so simpler rather than a helm's wheel." Garrus pointed out.

B.E.N. wanted to comment about this Joker person when he noticed their current timetable on their current predicament. "Twenty-five seconds!" He yelled out.

Back over with Jim and Roxas, they were so close to the portal that they could practically taste it.

Suddenly, the rocket powered solar surfer started to slow down. Jim pressed on the power button to make it go faster, yet to his feigned shock, it wasn't going.

"No, no!" Jim cried, still stepping on the button feverishly as he started to plummet down into a crevice with lava at the bottom.

"JIM!" Roxas yelled out, diving downward to save his friend.

Seeing this from the respective ships, some of the passengers gasped in utter worry.

"Come on you two." Silver muttered out.

"Seventeen seconds!"

It didn't take long for Jim to figure out how to spark up the rocket engine.

Whirling his board around, he slammed the rocket part to hit the wall. As he slid down its length, the friction caused the rocket to quickly heat up. It sparked back to life, and he was propelled upward with a sudden thrust.

Meeting Roxas halfway, they grasped onto each other's arms as they glowed a bright light.

Once reaching the surface, the pair exited out of the crevice with Roxas riding an ethereal solar surfer as they raced towards the portal with the two ships right over them. Wanting to make themselves faster, Roxas casted Aeroga, propelling them even faster to get ahead of the Legacy and the Sabre.

"Seven seconds!" B.E.N. yelled out the final countdown. "Six! Five!-"

"Roxas! Montressor Spaceport!" Jim shouted, who reached for the holographic globe.

"Right!" Roxas replied, mirroring his friend's actions.

"-Three! Two-"

The two friends then pressed the Crescentia Station icon at the same time.

The portal changed to their destination with only one second to spare and they all flew through the portal as Treasure Planet exploded from behind them. Soon enough, bits of debris breached through right when the portal suddenly collapsed.

Their success in saving everyone had them all cheering and jumping in utter joy.

"Whoa-ho, yeah!" Jim cracked with excitement.

"We did it, Jim!" Roxas laughed out in joy as they rode alongside each other.

They soon gave each other a high five as they soon rode alongside the Legacy and the Sabre.

The two teens sailed over a number of individuals like Silver, Axel and Garrus who gave them their own high fives.

"Didn't I say they had greatness in him?" Silver asked as the others cheered on with Morph shifting into some firecrackers going off.

Soon enough, Roxas and Jim landed on the Legacy's deck as their respective rides either disbursed into motes of light or just crashed some feet away. The two teens then high fived each other once again as they shared happy smiles on their faces.

"Can you believe it, Roxas? We saved everyone!" Jim laughed aloud.

"Yes I can, Jim!"

Seeing this from the bridge, Tali rushed down to the deck as she left Amelia and Doppler hugging each other in utter joy.

Getting in close, Tali tackled Roxas to the ground and hugged the living daylights out of him as Jim was being assaulted by Morph's lick-like kisses.

"Unorthodox, but ludicrously effective." Amelia said to Jim, once she and Doppler came over to greet their saviors.

"It did get the job done, Captain."

"Quite." The feline woman said with a smile. "I'd be proud to recommend you to the interstellar academy. They could use a man like you."

"What about Roxas?"

"As much as I'd like him to join, he's got his own route to take."

Doppler then greeted his young charge. "Just wait until your mother hears about this!" He tells him proudly before leaning in a little close. "Of course, we may downplay the life-threatening parts."

Jim snorted with an obvious nod.

If his mother were to hear about all of that, she would have a heart attack while wanting to kill them both for what they went through.

Once Doppler went back to Amelia and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, the Sabre arrived beside them. Xion and Axel jumped on over and rushed over to join in on the little hug fest while B.E.N. happily greeted Jim.

The trio of Nobodies with Tali hugged each other tightly, Axel messing up Xion and Roxas' hair to the point of absurdity yet they didn't care.

Until…

"Wait, who's driving this ship?"

Tali, who is now wide eyed, broke away from Roxas and rushed over to the bridge in order to be sure the Legacy won't crash into anything by accident.

B.E.N all the while, ran up to the trio of Nobodies, chattering happily and excitedly.

"Jimmy, Rocky, that was unforgettable!" B.E.N. said happily. "I know you're not all that great with touching but get ready for a big hug cause I gotta hug ya both!"

He then latched onto the two teens as he chuckled. Before he knew it, the robot was hugged back by them with Jim putting him into a playful chokehold before they toppled down, courtesy of Roxas.

B.E.N. was surprised by their reciprocating embraces. "Hey, you guys hugged me back! Oh, I promised myself I wouldn't cry."

Sure enough, he whipped away a crocodile tear before 'crying' in their embraces.

Jim raised his head to look at Silver, only to find that he wasn't in sight.

Jim nudged Roxas and Xion, nodding his head in the direction towards the staircase to the lower decks of the ship

Figuring out where he'll be, the trio went off to find the wayward Cyborg.

Upon reaching the lower decks where the longboats were, they could hear Silver talking in a hushed tone.

"Morph, we gotta make tracks." Beside him was a small treasure chest that he had somehow must've scooped out from Flint's ship.

Leaning against a support beam, Jim crossed his arms as he smiled at the cyborg. "You never quit, do you?" He asked.

Silver looked back at him with a smile. "Ah, Jimbo!" He chuckled, standing back up. "Rocko, Xion, my favorite lads and lady. I was merely checking to make sure our last longboat was safe and secure." He then went back to tie the rope up rather loosely.

Jim merely rose a brow before making his way to him. Kneeling down, he corrected the knot and had it properly secured.

"That should hold it." Said Jim, standing up with a light smile.

"I've taught you too well." Silver said with a chuckle, standing back up. "If you don't mind, we'd just as soon avoid prison." He brought his hand up with Morph in his hand. "Little Morphy here, he's a free spirit."

Said pink blob happily flies around him, that is until Silver caged him in his hands.

"Being in a cage, it'd break his heart." Silver informed, bringing Morph close to him as he petted him gently.

Jim felt a pang of sympathy in his heart, a sentiment he didn't realize was shared by Roxas and Xion who especially felt the Cyborgs' comments about being caged.

Without even thinking about it, Xion reached over to the lever and flipped it open.

Silver gasped on seeing this happen before gazing back at the trio, with Roxas having already untied the rope whilst Jim leaned his hand on the longboat with an expectant look.

The Cyborg gave them all an appreciative smile, before he leaned in conspiratorially.

"What say you ship out with the four of us, laddies?" Silver said with a grin. "Rocko and Xion, Hawkins and Silver..." Silver offered with a growing smile as Morph shifted into a tricorne hat and placed himself on Jim's head. "Full of ourselves and no ties to anyone!"

"You know," Jim said, taking Morph off his head, "when I got on this boat, I would've taken you up on that offer in a second." He then tickled the hat, causing Morph to return to normal. Once he went back to normal, Jim looked towards the open hatch below. "But, uh, I met this old cyborg, and he taught me that I could chart my own course."

"And he was adamant about making sure we stick to our promises and responsibilities." Xion added softly.

"And what do you see off that bow of yours?" Silver asked, walking to them.

"A future." Roxas answered with Jim nodding in utter agreement.

Silver chuckled heartily and smiled in return. "Why, look at you lot, glowing like a solar fire. The three of ya are something special. You're gonna rattle the stars, you are." He said proudly.

Without any words being uttered with only silent tears of validation and joy, the trio found themselves in an embrace with the old Cyborg.

Jim especially, held onto the man tightly whilst trembling as he wished he didn't have to go.

Before long, Silver broke away as he cleared his throat before wiping his cybernetic eye. "Got a bit of grease in this cyborg eye of mine." He coughed. "Oh? Careful there, Xion, looks like you's got somethin' there as well." Silver said, wiping a stray tear away from her who only beamed up at him with fresh tears poking out of the corner of her eyes.

Of course Morph then balled hysterically as he turned into a puddle.

"Hey, Morph. We'll see you around, okay?" Jim said, catching him in his hands.

"See you around…" Morph chittered sadly before giving each of his new friends a lick on their faces.

He then floats over to Silver, giving them a sad, longing look

It was quiet for a minute before Silver broke the silence.

"Morph, I've got a job for ya." He said to the blob.

Said creature looked at Silver and squeaks before being pulled over with him whispering in his non-existent ears. "I need you to keep an eye on this here pup." He said, looking at Jim.

Jim overheard this and was surprised by the decision.

"Will ya do me that for a favor?" Silver asked, playfully pouting.

"Aye-aye, captain." Morph said, saluting him before nuzzling Silver's cheek.

The blob then floated over to Jim and nuzzled his cheek, making him laugh a little.

Before he knew it, he heard the longboat descending. Looking over, he saw Silver was already in it.

"If you don't mind me lads, can ya-"

Roxas already tossed the chest to Silver with the Cyborg catching it. "Ah, thank you, Rocko.

"Stay out of trouble, you old scalawag." Jim chuckled at him.

"Yeah, take care of yourself." Roxas said.

"Good luck." Said Xion.

"Why, when have I ever thought otherwise! And thank you, I will." Silver chuckled, having the longboat properly drop to the open sky below them and taking off to parts unknown, all before waving his hat at them as a goodbye gesture.

"You know we're gonna get in trouble for letting him go." Xion pointed out.

"I know, but I think we'll just get a slap on the wrist. We already went through a lot on this voyage." Roxas stated.

"Point." Xion conceded.

Jim was looking down at the opened hatch with a somber look. "You think we'll see him again?"

Roxas and Xion glanced at one another before the former patted his friends back. "I think so."

"Yeah, he's your friend." Xion happily said. "Of course you will."

Jim 'hmphed' with a happy smile. "Thanks guys."

"For what?"

"Nothin'. Come on, bet they wondered where we went off to."

Soon enough, the Legacy and the Sabre docked to the side of the spaceport nearby where the Normandy was located right next to them. The entry planks had already been lowered so things could be properly taken care of.

"Spirits, I can't believe how relieved I am that we're back here." Garrus said, slumping over the rails.

"Wonder how Amelia is gonna have to explain the loss of her entire crew save for us." Tali said in concern.

"I think pirates with an exploding planet should suffice of an excuse." Axel said. "Sides, look at that haul we brought back."

They looked over to the Flint's Sabre that was docked with Roxas, Xion and Jim aboard it now.

Amelia informed them to watch over the ship until the authorities from the queen could come and properly guard and claim it.

She also made a strange phrase that Jim managed to pick up on that they would be taking advantage of right now.

Currently, Jim stuffed his pockets with some treasure of his own.

"Easy there, Jim, you're gonna burst your pants at the seam."

"Hey, this is gonna go to my mom's inn." Jim shot back. "I plan on making sure it's three times as big as last time."

"Glad to see you're taking up responsibilities for this, Jim." Doppler said from nearby, who was eagerly taking notes of what he was looking at right now. He didn't bother taking any of the treasure, only being on the infamous pirate ship sufficed as treasure enough.

"And some is for myself, obviously." Jim quickly added. "I've read about this treasure for years."

Roxas and Xion laughed aloud at that declaration, the latter being close to the final resting place of Nathaniel Flint, minus his skeletal remains.

The brunette gazed at the pile of treasure, squinting at something brown underneath all the gold.

Reaching in, she felt a handle. Pulling with all her might, she pried it out and saw it was a treasure chest with a six eye socket skull on the lid with a padlock in its mouth.

Rubbing her chin, Xion's hand hovered over the padlock when her Keyblade appeared in her hand. Blinking at it, she looked at her blade then at the chest before she stood up.

She twirled her Kingdom Key Keyblade before slimming it on the chest lid. In an instant, the chest glowed a yellow and green hue as the lock undid itself and fell onto the floor.

"...That's rather interesting." She muttered to herself.

Dismissing her Keyblade, she kneeled down and opened up the lid before gazing inside to see what contents there were.

As were many of the other chests, there were a multitude of gold coins and jewels piled up inside.

Yet this one was rather uniquely different.

On one hand, the treasure was divided separately from another slot that contained scrolls, several books and a few tiny boxes.

Out of everything there, Xion found her eyes set on an unusual item that seemed a bit out of place.

It was a book, a rather interesting designed one at that with intricate markings and symbols. Yet it didn't have a name or title on the cover or spine.

The hardcover book was stylized in ebony and ivory colors with a faint indication of a checkerboard pattern and a lock on the side to keep the book closed. Within the main cover were silver trims and designs on the front, back and the spine. On the front was something similar to the Nobody emblem, but it was right side up, the heart was complete with a pair of wings underneath it. On the back was another emblem vaguely looking like an eight pointed star with a smaller one located on the spine.

Curious as to see what was inside, she went to the little lock on the side and saw how easily it became undone. Opening the cover, Xion gazed upon the title on the first page in stylized lettering: Enchantment of Inheritance. From there she flipped through the pages before her eyes widened exponentially as she leaned in to make sure she wasn't seeing things.

"Roxas." Xion spoke up, gazing at the book in her hands in astonishment. "Come look at this."

"What is it?" Roxas asked, peeking over her shoulder.

"Look!" she held up the opened book closer to him with him squinting at it for a brief moment until his eyes widened.

"Is-is that-?!"

"Yeah." Xion said, closing the book to look at its cover. "This is a book about Keyblades."

What was within the pages they saw so far had information on Keyblades in general! Moves, magic, skills, abilities, everything!

"Where'd ya find this?" Roxas asked in astonishment.

"In the chest under Flint's 'throne'." Xion pointed out.

Roxas went over to the opened chest and gazed at its contents. He then blinked owlishly.

"Huh… why am I looking at Synthesis materials in here?"

"Really? I didn't notice."

Roxas figured it'll be good to give all these materials to Mosh when they got the chance as it'll prove beneficial to help upgrade things down the line.

He took notice of the scrolls inside, to which he opened up one of them.

"Whatcha got there Roxas?" Jim came up from behind.

Taking a moment to analyze the scrolls contents, Roxas blinked a moment later. "This looks like another treasure map of some kind."

"...You kidding me?"

Doppler, overhearing this, was instantly by Roxas's side with him pushing his glasses up.

"My word!" Doppler said, snatching the map out of Roxas' hands. "This isn't a map of any known raid that Flint had conducted in his years. This a map of course charted to some of the more dangerous locations in the galaxy!"

"Treasures even Flint never got to!" Jim added in excitement.

"Unbelievable." Doppler muttered, hand over his chest as a large grin grew upon his face.

"Alright there, Doctor?" Roxas asked.

"I am, Roxas. Just needing a little moment."

Jim chuckled as he nudged Xion. "At least it's not that orb we had to work with."

"Amelia would no doubt wanna take a look at this." Xion noted.

"Most certainly, along with her getting her shot of choosing her own crew this time around." Doppler said aloud, snatching the map. "If you'll excuse me…"

Rushing off the ship, the astrophysicist made his way towards where Captain Amelia was no doubt at.

Roxas then gazed over at the treasure chest, noticing a few more scrolls and books that were untouched and a single small box the size of his hand still inside.

Curious, No. XIII grabbed the small box and held it up to look at it from all angles before opening it.

His eyes widened momentarily before closing it a moment later with a small smile in place now.

"Hey Xion."

The brunette looked over to him as he held out the box in hand with his smile still in place.

"I think you'll like this one." He said with a glint in his eyes that made her curious.

Taking the small box out of his hand, she opened it a moment later with her letting out a small gasp.

Reaching inside, she pulled out a small keychain with a beautiful, curved seashell with a gradient orange and yellow colorization.

"Pretty…" Xion muttered out.

"Figured this would be a great way to start your next collection." Roxas said cheerfully.

She gazed up at Roxas, not realizing she had a small tint of red on her cheeks at such a gesture.

"Thank you, Roxas." Xion said warmly which made Roxas blink before he had a sheepish smile on his face rubbing the back of his head.

Jim chuckled at the sight as Morph mirrored the same beside his head.

Looking out at the port, Jim's eyes widened upon seeing an all too familiar face in the crowd, who was gazing at the Normandy in utter awe.

With a wide grin, he turned back to the others and called out to the two to follow him as he excitedly ran off the Sabre just as several guards arrived in time to relieve them of their momentary guard duty of the ship.

Roxas and Xion shared a look before shrugging and running after their friend to catch up to him.

All the while, the person who had caught Jim's attention continued to stare at the unusual ship docked here, having never seen anything like it.

Suddenly, she jumped in utter fright at a hand that tapped her shoulder from behind. Whirling around, Sarah Hawkins gasped in overjoyed relief at the sight of her son in front of her.

After lightly slapping his arm, she hugged him with tears in her eyes. As they separated, Morph came floating in between them and greeted her. She was confused at first, but instantly warmed up to the floating pink blob as he nuzzled her cheek.

Following not far behind, Roxas and Xion joined Jim in greeting his mother.

Looking back to them, he placed an arm around both their shoulders.

"Mom, these are some of my friends I made on the Legacy, Xion and Roxas. Guys, this here's my mom, Sarah."

"Hello."

"Hey."

Sarah only found her smile widening.

In front of her was her son who had clearly changed a great deal since she had last seen him

"Mom." Jim began, thumbing behind him. "We found it."

Sarah blinked and upon recalling just why it was her son had departed in the first place…

"It's real."

"Captain Flint's ship is right behind us." Jim said with growing excitement.

"The planet nearly blew up." Roxas added.

"We had to fight a lot." Xion said.

"But we made it back in one piece." Jim finished proudly.

"... What now?"

"We'll tell you everything." Jim assured his mother who could only nod.

-Scene Cut-

-Insert KH2 Laughter and Merriment OST-

The following few hours was a bit of a jumbled mess of events with the Queen coming to greet the returning crew of the Legacy, Jim introducing his mother to everyone and the return at last to the Normandy.

"I can't believe you guys found pirate treasure." Joker said in amazement.

"Well, believe it, Joker." Garrus stated, flicking a gold piece into the pilots hand who caught it with an amazed look in his eyes.

"Whoa~"

"There's more where that came from." Garrus stated. "Not selling any of it as I'm keeping them as souvenirs."

"We got to keep a chest to ourselves since we found it." Axel said, sitting on said treasure chest, being the same chest Xion found back on the Sabre.

Though scrolls and maps were handed off to Amelia for the most part with Jim choosing to hold onto Flint's personal journal whilst the rest was the Normandy's crew for the taking.

Once giving Mosh all of the synthesis materials inside, the rest of the crew filled it up to the brim and never looked back.

"Not to mention surviving a black hole of all things." Tali brought up, gazing onto her Omni-tool as she was now looking over the solar sail tech schematics that were uploaded. She had also been gifted some of the cutting edge solar sails as a gift from Amelia.

Not to mention for a bit of equivalent exchange, she helped provide the feline captain with schematics on tech from their galaxy to help expand their own technology.

"And here I was talking shit about you guys that nothing interesting would really happen on your trip." Joker remarked. "How in the hell did you survive that?"

"Story for another time." Shepard waved off. "Anything else productive happened while we were away?"

"Practically done with integrating the Gummi-tech, Commander. Just waiting on you guys returning so we can get back home." Kaidan said from his seat, examining a ruby the size of a tangerine in his hands.

The lieutenant definitely knew he was gonna keep this in a display case somewhere. Or just sell it off and use the credits for productive means.

"Right. Been away for too long."

"Most definitely. Just give us the word and we'll head on out." Joker said.

"Good to hear." Shepard said.

"Also, Shepard." Kaidan looked hesitant about saying this but he knew he had to. "There's something I think you should know. Something Captain Gandry brought up last time Axel came by for his report."

Shepard was confused by Kaidan's unusually embarrassed demeanor.

"Yes, what is it? Did something happen?"

"Not so much something happening but more of a revelation of sorts." Kaidan said, wincing the more he thought about.

"Spirits, what is it Kaidan, it can't be that bad?" Garrus said.

"No." Joker's abrupt dejected look and slump into his seat followed by Stitch flopping down upon the floor face first caught the others off guard. "It's not so bad as it is stupidly bad."

"Keelah, what happened?" Tali asked in concern.

"See… Gandry saw Axel perform his little teleportation trick." Kaidan began.

They looked over at the redhead who had a brow raised at the mention of him.

"Ok, and…?"

Kaidan sighed. "Well… when I told Captain Gandry about Axel, Roxas and Xion having the power to teleport any place in an instant, he remembered a particular detail we overlooked. We spoke about how we had no methods or means of contacting our superiors or our friends back in our galaxy in order to let them know we were alright. But he then pointed out that Roxas, Xion and Axel could have… easily… teleported over… and…"

Alenko didn't need to speak any further as the slow dawning realization began to set in amongst the group.

Jaws dropped and faces had the blank looks of "oh my God, I can't believe we didn't think about that".

To say that they were all ashamed and embarrassed was not even cutting it close to just how strong of a feeling it was.

"...Lieutenant." Shepard said in a voice devoid of emotion.

"Yes, Commander?"

"You will not tell anyone of this."

Kaidan rose a brow as he blinked in confusion.

"Why?"

"...Just… Just don't…"

It didn't take long for him to realize what she meant by that. Especially with the maddening twitch in her eye.

"Understood Commander." Kaidan said resolutely. "This conversation never happened."

Shepard nodded, looking at the rest who were also in a bit of an embarrassed stated themselves.

"Guys-"

"We know, Shepard." Axel said, running his fingers over his mouth. "We will never speak of this ever again."

"Our lips are sealed." Roxas added in, feeling just as much shame for having not thought of that.

"Good…"

First thing she was gonna do once back in her cabin was slam a pillow into her face and scream at the top of her lungs in it. Possibly even murdering said pillow through unconventional means.

Yeah, she was gonna need that for a while.

"Well… let's just say goodbye to the others before we forget that at least." Xion said with the group murmuring in agreement as most wanted to get their minds of such an obvious mistake on their part.

Soon after, the Normandy crew stood outside their ship with Jim, Doppler, Amelia, B.E.N, Morph and Captain Gandry standing outside waiting for them.

"It was a pleasure sailing with you all." Amelia declared with a smile. "I look forward to the day I will get to sail with you all again."

"We owe you much for keeping us safe on our travels." Doppler said humbly. "So safe travels for you my friends."

"I promised myself I wouldn't cry." B.E.N. cried out dramatically, oil leaking out of his eyes Morph joining him.

"Lieutenant."

"Captain."

Both Gandry and Kaidan grasped one another's arms in a firm handshake and nod of respect.

Jim had his own, more personal goodbye for the group.

"When is the next time I'll see you all?" Jim asked.

"Well the first time was an accident." Garrus began.

"Next time, it'll be intentional." Shepard assured.

"Promise." Tali added.

"Take care of yourself Jim." Axel said.

"I'll be sure to remember that." Jim said knowingly with an approving grin as he was now left alone with Roxas and Xion.

No words needed to be spoken as they went in for a hug with one another, Morph nuzzling himself against Xion then Roxas.

"I'll see you guys around." Jim said in a sad voice, as he didn't want his friends to go.

"Yeah." Roxas said softly.

"Good luck with your mother's inn." Xion said kindly.

"And the academy." Roxas added.

Jim only smiled at the two, hugging them again one last time for their final goodbye before they parted ways.

The Normandy was resupplied, repaired and upgraded with it now ready for departure.

And how would they be leaving this station, one may ask?

The same way they got to this galaxy.

Standing by the Normandy's helm, the Keyblades appeared in Roxas and Xion's grasp. They glowed significantly as their bodies soon acted all on their own. Twirling their weapons, they soon shot their wielded arms forward as the tips glowed a bright light.

Before the Normandy, the sky seemed to crack apart before breaking entirely. What contrasted with the deep blue sky now had a noticeable white swirling hole that pierced right through it. And in it's very center was a Keyhole icon.

The Keyblades shot out a pair of streaming lights, exiting out of the Normandy's cockpit and slamming directly to the Keyhole.

Not long after, a loud clicking sound was heard before the Keyhole disappeared.

"...What the hell was that?"

"I believe it's our ticket outta here."

"Alright, off we go." Joker said, operating the controls. "Though if our ship gets messed up going through this again, I'm blaming you two."

"That's completely understandable, Joker." Roxas said, lowering his Keyblade.

The two Nobodies exited the cockpit a moment later with Xion recalling her Keyblade whilst Roxas' stayed in his hand for some reason.

"Roxas?"

In an instant, Roxas' Keyblade was covered in a cocoon of light. He was startled on this and was worried something bad was about to happen once more.

Before long, his Oathkeeper Keyblade was switched out to something else.

It was an odd looking Keyblade with the guard composed of bronze/copper metal that vaguely looked like parts of B.E.N., especially with the compass placed just above the handle. Above the guard was the Map Orb and jotting out of its side was a solar sail. Streaming out of the orb was a glowing green, swirling blade. The teeth of the weapon was the miniature form of Treasure Planet itself. And the keychain coming down the guard's base was some more bronze/copper pieces which lead up to the Map Orb charm.

"Whoa~" Xion gazed upon Roxas' new Keyblade in wonder.

"What are ya gonna call it?"

"I'll think of something." Said Roxas, mentally wishing for his Keyblade to return to normal.

Sure enough, his Keyblade returned to its Oathkeeper form.

"Okay, enough distractions!" Joker announced. "Hang onto something because we're about to have one hell of a bumpy ride!"

Without delay, the pilot thrusted the Normandy's thrusters forward as it shot out into the sky and entered the swirling anomaly. Not long after entering the space, the gateway closed up and repaired itself like it was never there beforehand.

AN

At long last, we have reached the conclusion to the first World arc of this crossover.

Loved the overwhelming enthusiasm and support you guys all had in the reviews for this one and just know that there's gonna be more to come with even crazier places that our band of Nobodies, the Normandy Crew and even our other heroes in the KH franchise are set to appear in.

This was a fantastic first outing with the next few already planned out and "ready" so to speak.

One of our really longer ones, really proud of how this one turned out and now, we return back to the madness that's still ongoing in the Mass Effect galaxy.

Jebest4781: Now with that out of the way, we are returning to your scheduled Mass Effect 1 events so we may finish it up. And not long afterwards we'll dwell into our other stuff we got planned out.

FMW: It's making me shake with excitement considering specifically the moments that we have planned and in mind. If you thought these past few chapters have been game changing, what we have in store for you guys after is gonna blow that other stuff out of the water. You could almost call this the long set up to the true insanity to come.

So yeah, for those of you who have read A Song of Fire, Ice and Hearts, there's a very specific detail J and I included in this story as we saw a chance to utilize it here.

I know those who have read the story know what I'm talking about to those who pay attention to the important details.

Other than that, thanks for supporting this story.

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.