I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters.

Rematch

Tyler accepted the tea Minnie Mouse offered him, sipping at it and smiling. he wasn't a fan of tea, but it wasn't bad. "Thank you for agreeing to let us stay here."

"Oh, it's no trouble," Minnie smiled sweetly. "Stay as long as you like."

"Do you mind if we ask you a question?" Lightning asked, Minnie turning to her. "We know Oswald was the king before Mickey, and that he was banished, but we don't know what for."

"Oh," Minnie said, her smile falling. "Well, a very long time ago, Oswald was the king of Disney Castle. He was also this world's guardian, and a Keyblade Wielder, Like Mickey. He wasn't a bad ruler or anything. Really...he did nothing wrong."

"Then...why was he banished?" Vanille asked.

"Because I choose to wield Darkness as my strength, not light," Oswald said, everyone turning to him. "Whenever Heartless would appear, I would fight them. However, when Mickey arrived, originally meant to train alongside me under my master's instruction, he didn't approve of my use of darkness. I was further along in my training than him, and our master was training him to use the light because starting out using darkness is too dangerous, but Mickey didn't understand why I would wield the same power that creates Heartless. Soon after, he found the Cornerstone of Light, a crystal sphere that was able to keep darkness, and heartless, at bay. It had been in this world for generations, but because I was using darkness as my power, it was unable to keep Heartless at bay properly, resulting in me needing to fight them. He asked me why I would keep using darkness if I knew that was happening, and I told him that it wasn't something he could understand. He was too young and inexperienced. The reason I used darkness was because I used Dark Corridors to travel between worlds rather than rely on a star charm, which were unpredictable and uncontrollable, as he experienced using his, and if I stopped using darkness as my power, I'd be unable to use Dark Corridors. Mickey pleaded with me to stop using darkness and to allow the Cornerstone of Light to fend off the Heartless again. I refused, so Mickey took matters into his own hands. He fought me for the throne."

"And he defeated you?" Fang asked.

Oswald nodded.

"Sounds like light's better," Tyler said.

"It's not about what's better or worse," Oswald said. "Both are simply a source of power. Darkness just happens to be more wild and harder to control. I used darkness because it granted me a specific power that I wanted. He chose the light because it was safer. However, Mickey was always an exceptionally gifted keyblade wielder. Despite not training for as long as me, he had grown powerful fast. Ultimately, I underestimated him, and it granted him the edge he needed to defeat me. He and Minnie whom he had fallen in love with while he was here, became the king and queen, and Mickey's first act as the king was to banish me and our master."

"Wait, why would he banish your master?" Tyler frowned. "Did he use darkness too?"

"She wielded both darkness and light as needed," Oswald said. "And she was banished with me, because along with being our master, she was also my wife and queen."

Tyler's eyes widened before he fell silent. "What happened to her?"

Oswald was silent for a long few moments. "She died. We were fighting Heartless invading a world we had settled down on, and a stray Firaga brought a cliff down on her."

Tyler stared at the floor. He couldn't imagine. He looked up as Oswald summoned his keyblade.

"This was hers," Oswald said, just before a second keyblade appeared in his left hand. "And this was mine."

Tyler stared at it in shock. It looked a lot like the one he had seen Sora wielding, except that it had a silver guard, a black grip, what looked like a black screw-on paint cap above the guard, a translucent blue blade, then a black section at the end from which the teeth extended. The charm was a silhouette of Oswald's head with the ears extended outward at angles from the top of his head.

"You can wield two?" Lightning asked. "How?"

"It's an ability called Synch Blade," Oswald said, letting both blades disappear. "And it's not a power you want. It's born of having the heart of someone with whom you bear a deep connection sheltered inside of you body. In other words, that person is gone, whether dead or by other means, and you pulled their heart inside of your own, preventing them from moving on to whatever afterlife comes next."

"So then...how did Sora get two?" Sado asked.

"Oh, you've met Sora?" Minnie asked.

"Yeah," Tyler said. "It...wasn't a great first impression."

"Oh, that's too bad," Minnie said. "He's such a nice boy. Our Cornerstone had been tampered with by an evil witch named Maleficent, but Sora stopped it and restored its light."

Tyler smiled. "Our first impression was a misunderstanding, so I'm sure he's different than how we met." He sighed, looking to Oswald. "So, what now?"

"I called Mickey and warned him that we're resting here, and why," Oswald said. "He wasn't happy, but he agreed that we could stay. But now we've got several problems. Obviously, there's the problem of the Heartless that attacked us between the worlds. It needs to be dealt with, which will not be easy. Aside from that is Organization XIII. They've taken an interest in you, and they won't leave you alone while they're alive."

"So we have to take them down," Tyler said. "Where are they?"

"Mickey said that they have a theory about how to find them," Oswald said. "However, there's a problem. It's in Twilight Town, which means they'll have to pass that Heartless, as will we."

"Well, at least we'll have help fighting it," Tyler said. "Do we have a way to fight it?"

"The mechanics that built the king's Gummi Ship are getting ours ready now," Oswald said. "Once it's finished, we'll head for Twilight Town and Mickey should meet us there, along with Sora."

"How long do we have?" Tyler asked.

"Three days," Oswald said. "Then he leave."

Tyler nodded. "Then I'm going to be spending those days resting."

The others all agreed and scattered into the castle to the extra rooms Minnie had given them. Tyler sighed, sitting on his bed and staring up at the ceiling. After a couple minutes, Lightning sat in his lap, straddling his hips, and he smiled up at her.

"Three days to do what we want," he said. "Excited?"

"Extremely," Lightning smiled, kissing him, before resting her forehead against his. "Do you think Caius's Nobody will be a problem?"

"Definitely," Tyler said. "I'm just not sure when, though."

Lightning nodded. "Hopefully we can deal with him easier than his Heartless."

"We will," Tyler said. "You didn't train me that hard for nothing."

Lightning smiled and nodded. "True. So, now that we're alone, what are we going to do?"

"Oh, I'm glad you asked," Tyler said, rolling and pinning her to the bed, kissing her instantly.

Tyler watched as the new Gummi Ship rose into the air. it looked the same as the last, except that this one had more guns, and a barrier shining over its hull. He doubted it would end any differently, even with the new ability Oswald had taught him.

"You're sure this will work?" Tyler asked, glancing at the silver pauldron on his right shoulder.

"No," Oswald said. "Not even close. But we don't have much choice."

Tyler sighed, nodding, summoning his keyblade. "You know, I'm still not great at this."

"You'll be fine," Oswald said. "You've always risen to the occasion since I've met you, and your keyblade has fully accepted you and evolved already, so it will help you."

Tyler sighed again, nodding. He had a horrible feeling about this. But if it worked, it would be a useful skill later. Finally, the Gummi Ship powered up and rose into the air and Tyler rested a hand on the small circle in his pauldron. It shone instantly, and a moment later, his body was encased in armor, a pair of fins on top of his head and angled backward slightly. The armor had blue on his abdomen, silver on his chest and shoulders, a black helmet with blue fins, yellow over his arms' muscle groups with blue in between, a similar color scheme on his legs, and blue shoes. He wasn't a huge fan of the colors, but it would work. He summoned his keyblade in reverse grip before hurling it skyward, the keyblade spinning away before he focused, trying to imagine a type of vehicle that would be fast, yet capable of fighting. A moment later, there was a flash of light and it had transformed into a sort of hoverbike. It had a motorcycle-style, black, leather seat, a pair of handles that were connected to metal rods extending from the bike's dashboard, for lack of another word for it, steeply-angled footrests at the back of the seat, a thruster attached to the back of the bike, a small skid-plate-like piece of metal under the middle of the bike's nose, and a pair of long metal rails extended from the front of the nose for about two feet, making the entire bike about the length of the average car in his old world. He stared at the insides of the rails, sensing magic from the rows of small circles running along their insides. The bike's paneling was light yellow on the nose, blue from around the seat, and then blue on the arms extending from the nose, both of which were about double the width of his arm.

He looked up at the dome of the Gummi Ship, seeing Lightning watching him worriedly. She set a hand against the glass and he let his armor's helmet fade as he raised a hand, smiling and raising a hand. She forced a smile before he reformed his helmet, taking a steadying breath before swinging a leg over the bike. He'd tested Keyblade Glider riding before when training with Oswald, but he'd gotten a different form every time he tried it. However, unlike those times, as soon as he sat on this one, he found knowledge that he shouldn't have filter into his brain. Knowledge on how to pilot it. Tilting one handle forward and the other back to strafe to the side that was forward. Press with his feet to accelerate. Let off on the right to turn that way, and let off the left to go that way. Press both handles forward to dive and pull both back to pull up. Triggers on both handles to fire, though he wasn't sure what he was firing. He did know that he could fire a charged powerful blast of whatever it was by squeezing both, or alternate to fire short rapid bursts as fast as he squeezed.

He took a breath before leaning forward and shoving his foot pedals all the way down, ending up with his feet in a surprisingly comfortable position. He yanked the handles and let off with one foot, the glider reacting smoothly and streaking into the air. He eased off the accelerators as he reached the Gummi Ship and followed it into the Ocean Between. He looked over at it and Oswald met his gaze, nodding, before speeding up to the Gummi Ship's full speed. Tyler matched its speed, pleasantly surprised to find his Keyblade Glider was faster. After a few minutes, Heartless and nobodies in the form of oddly-shaped ships began to appear in front of them and Tyler sped up, getting ahead of the Gummi Ship before beginning to rapidly squeeze his triggers, alternating sides. Instantly, he realized what the arms in front of his glider's nose were. A railgun. One that fired blasts of light magic like a machine gun as he rapidly alternated triggers. The blasts were about half the size of his glider, and when they exploded they were almost the same size as the Heartless, all of which were about a quarter the size of the Gummi Ship, meaning they were about five times the size of his glider. Within seconds, he had killed all of the Heartless, and grinned. Flying the Keyblade Glider was easier than he thought when the keyblade's apparently sentient will showed him how.

"Well done, Tyler," Oswald's voice said in his ear through the use of a sort of magic short-range communicator. "How's it feel?"

"It's amazing," Tyler said. "It's perfect."

"That's good," Oswald said. "But stay sharp. Remember, if you get hit, your armor won't be able to protect you."

"Don't worry," Tyler said. "I can still use magic, since I usually don't use my keyblade for it. I think I can make a barrier strong enough to protect me from these smaller Heartless's lasers."

"Alright," Oswald said. "Just be careful. Lightning's stressing that part."

Tyler laughed. "Let he know I don't have any intention of dying until after I've lived a long, happy life with her."

"Will do," Oswald said, then went silent.

Tyler glanced down at his glider. "I should probably thank you for all the help you've been giving me recently. You've been a huge help. Not to mention you chose me as your wielder to begin with and gave me a way to save Alice. Not sure I'm a huge fan of your new look, though. What do you think, want a new charm? Maybe one that makes you look more like a weapon? You could be a badass and scare the shit out of all the Heartless I'm sure we'll end up fighting." He laughed at himself. He was pretty sure the keyblade wasn't actually sentient, so much as it was able to lend its aid to its wielder when it sensed they needed it. But he needed someone to talk to. The flight was supposed to be an hour long.

Lightning watched Tyler worriedly as they flew. It was almost time. So far, there had only been a few small groups of Heartless, but even then, every time she saw something she had nearly had a panic attack until the Heartless were dead. She wasn't sure how she was going to handle him helping them fight the big thing without being in the Gummi Ship.

"He's going to be fine, Light," Fang said, setting a hand on her shoulder. "You worry too much. Tyler's harder to kill than you are."

Lightning smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "He's not invincible. But this Heartless we're going to fight might be."

"Nothing's immortal, Light," Vanille said, stepping up on Lightning's other side. "Worrying won't change anything. You just need to have faith in him. Alright?"

"Vanille's right," Fang said. "If anyone can pull through this, it's Tyler. He's not going to go anywhere without you."

Lightning nodded, smiling again, for real this time. "You're right."

"Lightning, Fang, Sazh, Noel, get to your seats," Oswald said. "You four are on the guns. We're two minutes out."

All of them ran to their seats and strapped themselves in. A moment later, they were all sent to their guns just as they rounded a cloud of darkness and Twilight Town came into view, along with its guardians.

Tyler swallowed hard as he saw what awaited them. It wasn't just the Heartless. The Heartless was there, but there was more. Massive ships that dwarfed the Gummi Ship several dozen times over had formed a blockade, as well as even larger ships, and a single, massive space station, for lack of a better word for it in Tyler's mind. The smallest ships were all the size of castles, and shaped vaguely like massive square castles sitting on metal rafts, the even larger ones were huge, spiked rectangular boxes, and the station was a massive fortress-like structure with an enormous opening in the front with light shining from it, the Heartless sitting on top of it, and a massive Nobody emblem on the front of the structure, matching the emblems on every ship there, all several hundred of them. Tyler focused magic into the communication device to activate it instantly.

"What do we do?" Tyler asked urgently. "Do we fall back?"

The Heartless spotted them suddenly and roared, standing as its secondary head grew from its quadruped lower body.

"Too late," Oswald said. "We'll have to break through the blockade."

"Great," Tyler said, readying himself for a fight. "Well, if nothing else, at least we know we're in the right place."

"Always the bright side with you," Oswald said.

"Gotta live somewhere," Tyler said, then opened fire at the same time as every gun on the Gummi Ship.

Their blasts began to slam into the ships rapidly as they shot toward them, doing basically nothing besides drawing attention. Suddenly, Heartless and Nobodies began to appear from around the blockade ships, swarming toward them. Tyler grit his teeth, shifting his fire to them and beginning to swerve and weave around their return fire. Just as they were passing under the first massive Nobody ship, Oswald and whoever was manning the upper auxiliary guns focused their fire on it, and just as they got out from under it, it suddenly erupted into a ball of fire, blasting a dozen smaller enemies as they swarmed toward them from behind. The massive Heartless roared and leapt off the fortress, taking off after them and Tyler swore, flying under a Nobody ship, then flipping around behind it and passing back over it, firing a barrage of blasts into the Heartless. Instantly, he noticed the difference. His blasts, being Light-type magic, burned bits of its concentrated darkness body away on impact. The Heartless roared, shooting to the side as it swung its arms and suddenly goo began to rain toward Tyler. He cut his engines and yanked the handles, flipping backward before gunning it and beginning to speed through the blockade. After a moment, thick black goo bullets began to rain past him, blasting the Nobody ships and sending them crashing into each other, destroying them. Tyler bobbed and weaved through the blockade, trying to catch up with Oswald and the others while also struggling to deal with a flood of Heartless and Nobodies, and avoid the giant Heartless's continuing rain of black goo.

Suddenly, a portal opened behind the giant heartless and another Gummi Ship emerged, looking like a gigantic golden cube with a four-sided spike extended from the front, a pair of wings to either side, one set flat and the other raised on either side of the body, a pair of massive fists one either side of the spike nose, and a dozen guns under the ship, including enough laser projectors to fire two dozen lasers at a time, if not more. Then, as it swung around toward the Giant Heartless, more than a dozen panels opened in the front of the nose, revealing even more guns before the ship opened fire, a flood of magic blasts and lasers raining on the Heartless, all of them shining white, despite the guns they were coming from being Firaga-type and Graviga-type cannons. The Heartless shrieked angrily and broke off its attempts to blast Tyler, who sighed, focusing on the enemies around him. However, just as he did, a massive flood of them began to appear from the front.

He swore, veering off, only for Oswald's ship to fly out from behind a Nobody Ship, the top two auxiliary guns spraying it until it exploded as the rest of the guns began to spray the flood of Heartless and Nobodies pursuing Tyler. Except, Tyler suddenly noticed that all of Oswald's Gummi Ship's cannons were firing blasts of light too.

"How'd you switch your guns to fire light-type blasts?" Tyler asked.

"My keyblade," Oswald said. "The same as Mickey is."

Tyler nodded. That made sense. He flipped around a Nobody ship and took off toward the giant Heartless just as another portal opened and a black Gummi Ship flew out, beginning to spray normal shots onto the Nobody Ships, the ships all exploding within seconds from the amount of firepower this new ship had. The ship was build vaguely like an arrowhead with a black hull, spikes extending from the back everywhere, and it had almost as many ships as Mickey's ship had on its underside. as Tyler was passing the newest ship, he was able to see Sora seated in the pilot's seat. Then, he shot past Sora and began to rain blasts of his own on the giant Heartless, carefully manipulating his controls to begin circling it while still keeping himself oriented at it to keep firing, since he could only fire forward. Oswald and Mickey were both doing the same, and between the three of them, all evenly spaced around the Heartless, it had nowhere to run. At least, for a moment. Then, it seemed to remember its body was stronger than a Gummi Ship and sent itself hurtling toward Oswald's ship. He swerved hard, narrowly avoiding the Heartless, which sped to the fortress, then scrambled into it through the opening on the front. Tyler shot after it, but just before he could get to the opening, it suddenly shone and he swerved, narrowly avoiding a massive red beam of energy. He huffed, seeing Sora heading for the fortress from off to the side and he flew over to them, finding an opening where the more Nobody Ships were leaving, as well as Heartless and Nobodies. Tyler caught up with Sora, helping thin the Heartless and Nobodies while Sora mostly focused on the Nobody Ships. Between the two of them, they obliterated everything on the way in. Then, Tyler took the lead, flying through several tunnels and chambers in the fortress, killing more and more Heartless and Nobodies as they arrived, Sora covering the rear.

Finally, they reached an excessively long square tunnel with three doors that opened as they approached before they found a massive chamber with a huge pillar running up through the center, but with a break in it just in front of the station's laser barrel. Floating in the opening was a massive blue sphere of energy with a containment barrier around it. However, as they flew into the room, the Heartless's lower head's jaws snapped closed around the sphere, shattering both the barrier and the pillar above and below the sphere before it swallowed it. Tyler and Sora began to spray the heartless instantly, but the room, enormous as it was, was cramped with the Heartless inside of it. They struggled to avoid it, and it was able to rapidly fill the chamber with black goo, though Tyler and Sora were able to hide behind the pillar to avoid it. As soon as the goo had passed, Tyler shot out from behind the pillar, beginning to spray the Heartless with his blasts of light, Sora likewise leaving and spraying it, though without him knowing how to fire light magic, it wasn't doing much. However, after a moment, the Heartless's lower mouth roared and opened, exposing the core it had eaten. Sora began to target it instantly, Tyler still spraying the Heartless basically everywhere. Then, just as the core began to shine, Tyler turned, taking off upward and making the Heartless turn after him.

A massive red beam exploded off of the core, ripping through the fortress they were in like a hot knife through butter, though it missed Tyler and Sora. Tyler flipped his glider, beginning to spray the Heartless again. It roared, its lower mouth opening again, once again beginning to charge an energy beam, and this time, Tyler targeted the core with Sora. After a moment, the core flashed. Then, a beam of light exploded off the back, punching through the Heartless, which shrieked in agony.

"Tyler, get out of there!" Oswald ordered. "It's going to explode!"

Tyler flipped, flying past Sora's ship's cockpit and motioning urgently for them to follow before streaking toward the tube the laser had originally been fired through. Sora followed just as Nobodies began to swarm in through the far end, trying to stop them escaping. Tyler and Sora sprayed what they could, but the Nobodies were blocking the entrance. Then, just before Tyler and Sora hit them, more blasts of light began to rip through the Nobodies from above, clearing their way out. Tyler twisted around to look back, seeing almost a dozen beams of light shining through the Heartless from the self-destructing core. Just as he saw it, however, the core erupted into a massive fireball more than twice the size of the fortress, beams of energy flashing out of it here and there before it faded. Tyler slowed to a stop, surveying the destruction. The entire blockade was gone. Even before the explosion, it seemed as though Oswald and Mickey had destroyed all of the ships while Sora and Tyler dealt with the heartless. He sighed, smiling, and following the three Gummi Ships down to Twilight Town, all of them teleporting to the ground and leaving their Gummi Ships orbiting the worlds on auto-pilot. Tyler flew his glider down into the small square where he, Lightning, and Fang had first trained before leaving Twilight town, making sure it was clear before flying down. He landed and summoned the glider back to himself as a keyblade before letting it disappear, tapping his left pauldron to make his armor fade before turning to the others in time to catch Lightning's flying hug, barely staying on his feet.

"Are you okay?" Lightning asked worriedly.

"Lightning, I'm fine," Tyler smiled, cupping her face and making her look at him. "I'm fine."

Lightning smiled and nodded, kissing him. He smiled, kissing her back for a couple of seconds before pulling away as Sora walked over, Mickey and Oswald off to one side having a likely very unpleasant conversation.

"So that really was you," Sora said. "That's a fancy trick you used to turn your keyblade into a vehicle."

"It was tricky to learn, but worth it," Tyler said.

"I agree," Sora said. "And the armor?"

"A gift from Oswald," Tyler said, gesturing to the rabbit. "It let me breath outside of a Gummi Ship."

Sora nodded. "I'm glad you're here. You're really strong. And...sorry for attacking you last time. Mickey explained about how you got your keyblade. I'm sorry. I can't imagine."

"It's alright," Tyler said. "The Organization played us against each other for their own gain the same way they played us against an entire of army of Heartless after that giant one we just killed made us crash."

Sora shook his head. "What was that thing anyway?"

"I have no fucking idea," Tyler said. "So, you guys have a way to track down the Organization?"

"We're pretty sure," Sora nodded. "We have to head to the old mansion outside of town."

Tyler nodded. "Lead the way."

Sora nodded just as Mickey and Oswald walked over, both nodding. Then, Sora took the lead, everyone following him through town.

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