ToL: Chapter 13

Darkness was all that the man could see around him besides the figure of a girl in front of him. It felt like he had been walking for days or weeks at this point until his feet had finally given out a moment ago. He was trying to head towards the silhouette of the young girl. He could hear the girl trying to call out to him in desperation, but he could not tell what she was saying. He had no idea where he was going or who this girl was, but it felt like he had to get to where he needed to go as soon as he could, which was to her; it was very important for him to be by her side.

He could feel himself starting to come to his senses, opening his dark blue eyes as he did. The man sat up to look around at where he was. He was in a house, sitting on a couch with a blanket over him. The man said nothing, only scratching the back of his head in confusion. He looked down at what he was wearing, a black hooded cloak that covered his whole body along with a pair of black gloves and black boots. He could also see a mirror on the wall nearby, getting up for a moment to go look at himself. His hood was down, revealing what his face looked like. He had dark blue eyes and short, spiky blue hair with three tuffs of his hair that stuck out more than the rest. He could see that he had a visible scar on his face, around his right cheek; it looked like he'd had this scar for a long time.

"Oh! You're finally awake!" a voice gasped to him from his right. He turned to see a woman and a man standing near the entrance to a kitchen. They both rushed over to him, "You've been asleep for a while, Alexander. It's almost 3 in the afternoon."

The man looked at the couple with even more confusion, "Who are you?" he asked them; his voice even sounded like Eddy if he was older, confirming this man was Alexander.

"I'm Adam," Adam started to introduce themselves, "And this is my fiancé, Olivia."

The man stared at them before looking around again, "Where am I?"

"You're in a little town called Peach Creek," Olivia replied before asking, "How did you get here, Alexander?"

"… Umm, is Alexander my name?"

"Yes, it is…" Olivia stated as she and Adam looked at each other with worry for a second before realizing, "Do you not know who you are?" Adam asked.

The man shook his head, "No, I don't remember anything."

There was a moment of intense silence between the three adults, "Well, this is certainly going to complicate things," Adam sighed.

Olivia took out the gummi phone from her pocket, "Do you think we should tell the others?"

Adam thought about it for a second before replying, "We should tell the king, but not Eddy; at least not yet. He needs to focus on finding the others. We can tell them about this once they're done or have more information about their missing neighbors. Iris would need to know this as well, but we shouldn't burden her with the news yet."

'… Eddy? Iris?' the man thought to himself while he listened to the couple talk. He placed his right hand on the side of his forehead as if he had a sudden headache, but it quickly went away as soon as he did.

"Right," Olivia replied with a nod of her head before pressing the number to call King Mickey.

It only took him a few seconds to answer back, "Hello?"

"Hello, Your Majesty," Olivia greeted, "Sorry about the sudden call, but we found someone important."

"Really?" Mickey questioned, "Is it any of the missing neighbors?"

"No, it's not that…" Olivia started to say as she turned the gummi phone towards the man in front of them, "It's Alexander, Eddy's past self."

"… My word!" Mickey gasped, much to the man's confusion again, "I hate to break it to you two, but he's not the same person you know."

"Huh?" Adam and Olivia questioned as she turned the phone back around to her, "What do you mean?"

Mickey made a sigh at what he was about to explain, "The person in front of you is a Nobody; he IS Alexander, but only a part of him that's been left behind."

The king then began to explain to them what Nobodies were as best as he could, telling them that when someone with a strong will has their heart willingly released from their living body, they become a Nobody. Most Nobodies have a very similar demeanor to Heartless but are a lot more intelligent and don't act on instinct; they also have no emotions and pretend to have them to fool others. Because of that, some of them can be extremely dangerous or hostile. Some powerful Nobodies can retain what they looked like when their hearts and bodies were separated, and those Nobodies can re-grow their hearts over time, as well as regain the emotions they lost. (AN: Did I remember this right? God, I hope so!)

"… Wow," was all Adam and Olivia could say to the king after he finished explaining, "So, what should we do about this?" Adam asked.

"I suggest keeping an eye on him. He seems to be okay right now, but you should still be cautious," Mickey stated to them, "Besides since he's technically Alexander, he should also be able to summon a Keyblade. I think it would be beneficial to ask for his help if your world is attacked by any tough Heartless you can't handle. I'll also ask Chip and Dale to send over a gummi ship for him to travel here; one that they can drive remotely, but only for one person. It will probably take a few days to arrive there."

"I see, thank you for your input," Adam replied as they waved goodbye to him and hung up the gummi phone.

The couple turned back to Alexander, who was listening to what they were talking about over the gummi phone, "Umm, what are you going to do with me?" Alexander asked.

"Well, the first thing we should do is find you some new clothes for you to wear," Olivia stated, turning to Adam as she did, "What you're wearing now would probably make everyone else suspicious of you."

Adam nodded his head, "Right, maybe we can ask Eddy's dad if he has some clothes he could borrow until I can take him to town to buy him a proper fit. I don't think he can borrow mine, sadly."

As Adam and Olivia were talking, Alexander glanced down at his right hand again for a moment before closing his eyes to think, 'These people mentioned someone named Eddy. Why does that name sound familiar to me? I don't understand…'

Alexander looked back towards his reflection in the mirror to his left, 'They also mentioned someone else's name, a girl named Iris…? Who are they?'

Alexander could feel the same headache he had before starting to come back to him for a short moment before it went away again. He placed his hand on the side of his forehead once more, 'My head keeps hurting every time I hear their names… Is it because I can't remember anything? Or is it because my memories of whoever they are is trying to come back to me?'

He then felt a hand on his shoulder, turning to see Adam next to him, "Don't worry Alex, Olivia and I will help you out as much as we can," Adam said to him before gesturing to the front door, "Come on, let's go get you some new clothes."

Alexander was silent, nodding his head as he followed Adam outside. Olivia watched them leave, making a sad face as she did. She could not help but feel a little nervous. Not because Alexander was somehow still 'alive' in a different way, but because no one had a clue on how or why this happened in the first place.

"I hope everything will be okay with the others…" Olivia sighed, looking down and placing her right hand on her stomach. She could see her stomach was slightly bigger because of the baby; even though it's been about a week since they found out, and her pregnancy was still in its early stages, "All we can do now is to cheer at everyone from afar," she made a smile to herself.

Meanwhile, back in Radiant Garden, we could see the three Eds and the four girls sitting around in a section of the housing area that looked like a park. There were a lot of trees and flowers around, along with a water fountain near the sitting area and a small lake nearby. There were also several other people around in the park, with it being so peaceful right now.

Ed and Ebony were lying on the grass looking up at the partly cloudy sky to see what shapes they could see in the clouds. Double D was also sitting near them on a picnic blanket, reading a book he found at Merlin's house; he asked Merlin if he could take it before he left, of course. Sitting next to him was Shayla, who was resting her head on his left shoulder, reading some of the book Double D held in his hands but was starting to feel tired from reading at that angle.

Finally, we could see Eddy and Katrina sitting on a stone bench that was close to their friends. They were watching over Iris for the most part; she was swinging back and forth on a swing set nearby. Iris was the only kid/preteen there right now, everyone else at the park right now was older than her. Both Eddy and Katrina could see that Iris was enjoying herself regardless.

"… You know, I just thought about something."

Eddy turned to Katrina when spoke aloud, "Iris was the only child on the island she grew up on, right?"

"Uh, yeah, I'm pretty sure," Eddy replied, looking at Katrina in confusion, "Why do you ask?"

"Well, seeing her play by herself on the playground made me realize that Iris doesn't have anyone else her age as a friend, both back then and right now," Katrina stated, looking back over to where Iris was, "I don't count any of us as being her age; we're all older than her by a few years."

Eddy was a bit silent to that statement before replying, "You're right, but there's not much we can do about it," he looked around the area for a short moment, "I don't even see any other kids around right now. Feels a little weird."

"Yeah…"

About a minute passed by them before something strange began to happen. Everyone in the park (as well as in the whole kingdom) could hear a very loud warning siren start to go off. The loud siren caught the group by surprise, but not so much for everyone else in the area. Everyone started to briskly walk away and off towards a somewhat big building that was near the outskirts of the park.

The seven teens grouped back up before Double D approached someone who was making their way to the building nearby, "Pardon me, but what's the siren for?"

"Oh, are you new here to Radiant Garden?" the person asked as they nodded their heads, "It's a Heartless warning that happens every so often. It's telling everyone that a big wave of Heartless is approaching the city in a few minutes. It's for us to seek shelter in time at a building with a Heartless defense mechanism; if the person can't fight them, that is."

"A big wave of Heartless?"

The person nodded their head, "Yes. The wave usually lasts about an hour before anyone can go back outside, but it varies sometimes."

"Okay, thanks for the help," Eddy replied, "Sorry to bother you, go get to safety."

The person looked at him a little in confusion before walking away to the shelter they described up ahead.

"Umm, should we also go to the building?" Ebony asked as everyone turned to her, "I know we can defend ourselves, but if it's too much for us to handle, we should probably go to the shelter."

"Whether we decide to try and stay out to fight or not, we shouldn't put Iris in any danger," Shayla replied, "Merlin says she has some sort of power, but we don't know what it's capable of. We should stay with her there."

Eddy nodded his head before furrowing his brow a little, "Yeah, let's get going before they show up."

The group began to briskly walk towards the building that everyone was going to. As they were making their way there, Eddy and Katrina were ahead, leading the group with Iris closely behind Katrina.

"… You know, you sounded like a real leader back there."

Eddy turned to Katrina with a bit of a confused look, "Huh? A leader?"

Katrina nodded her head, "Yeah, something about the tone of voice you used made me think you were in charge," she said with a smile, 'It honestly sounded like Alex's tone of voice when he was training with Seth and Dimitri when he was the general of Atlantis… I remember Irene watched them a lot when he was training and leading them.'

"Heh… I remember when I thought I was the leader, back when we did a lot of scams when we were younger," Eddy stated, scratching the back of his head a little, "That kind of changed earlier this year, right around the last semester of middle school."

"Really?" questioned Katrina, "What made you decide to change?"

Eddy thought about it for a second before replying, "I don't know, I guess I kind of grew out of doing that kind of stuff. Not like it matters anymore."

Katrina looked at him with a small bit of worry; the way he worded that made him sound like he was trying to avoid talking about it.

The group was now near the building that everyone went to. Before they could enter, the loud sirens finally came to a stop. About two dozen Shadows and Heartless Soldiers appeared in front and around the group; they were surrounded.

"Geez! As soon as we got here…" growled Eddy as everyone took out their weapons. He glanced at Iris to see where she was, "Iris, once we clear a path, you should try to get to the building nearby."

Iris only nodded her head to him, "Okay!"

The six teens soon started to clash with the Heartless, using their new weapons and magic against the crowd surrounding them. Ed was crushing the Heartless he faced with the Earth magic he knew while Ebony was using Fire on her broadsword before slashing into a few Heartless. Double D was jabbing his Keyblade as lightning could be seen at the tip of it while Shayla was using some of her wind magic with her daggers to slice through the Heartless in front of her very quickly. Finally, Eddy was using a Blizzard spell to take out the Heartless he was facing while Katrina was using a Water spell alongside Eddy, making it extra effective. Iris could only watch them in nervousness as she stood in the middle, the six teens were protecting her from the Heartless.

It only took a few minutes for the six teens to clear out the Heartless that had surrounded them, much to everyone's relief. They were about to start walking over to the building when the three Eds all suddenly yelped in shock from something. They felt themselves being forcefully pulled upwards into the sky.

The girls widened their eyes as they could see the three Eds being held up in the air by chains made of darkness. They could see them trying to get out of their binds but had to stop when they noticed how high they were.

It was then everyone heard three laughs echoing around the area, just like yesterday. The Kanker Sisters came out through a portal of darkness in front of the girls, much to the horror of the Eds they now held captive, "Kankers!"

"Nice to see you again, boys!" Marie stated to them as she waved her hand towards them. The three Eds felt their eyes become heavy before they limped a little, falling into a deep sleep from a spell.

The sisters turned to the four girls in front of them. The girls could only glare at the sisters, "Let them go!" Shayla shouted to them.

"Why would we do that?" May asked in confusion, "They belong to us!"

"What?! They belong to no one!" Ebony shouted in anger, "How can you even say that?!"

Lee scoffed at her statement, "Like it matters to you."

The Kankers started to laugh once more at the girls, "If you three are that determined to help them…" the three sisters took out their weapon of choice, "Then fight against us to get them back!"

The three girls widened their eyes before gripping onto their weapons in determination, "W-We accept your challenge!" Katrina yelled to them, despite the fear she felt.

"Heh, how brave of you!" Lee chuckled before noticing Iris standing close to Katrina, "I see we're not the only sisters here. Who's this little munchkin?"

Iris started to feel extremely nervous before Katrina stood in between her and Lee, "Leave her out of this, please."

"Suit yourself," Lee stated with a smirk.

Three six girls soon all stood across from each other, each of them ready to fight one another.

'We have to save them, no matter what!'

Author's Note (February 7th, 2024): Phew! Finally got this done! I'm sorry it took so long to finish this chapter. The next chapter is going to be awesome! Please stay tuned for that!

In other news, Persona 3 Reload is out! It's beyond fantastic!