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Tyler sat down on one of the many rocks around them and sighed, wrapping his arms around Lightning when she sat in his lap a moment later.

"Feels like we've been walking forever," Lightning said.

"No kidding," Tyler said. "I don't think it's too much further, though."

"I hope not," Lightning said. "I want to sleep in a real bed."

"I want to eat something," Tyler said. "Or at least feel hungry."

Lightning smiled, nodding. "Tell me about your world."

"Well, there wasn't actually much in my world," Tyler said. "From what I've seen of other worlds it was pretty big, but there was no magic, or monsters. We were the monsters, most times. We slaughtered ourselves with guns and bombs in wars over natural resources like gas and oil, or for money, or land. We had really primitive technology compared to gravity manipulation, gunblades, or flying cars and bikes. We definitely didn't have giant robot war machines. We had good food though."

Lightning laughed. "I would have loved to see it. When it wasn't in the process of being swallowed by Heartless, at least."

"Well, if I'm right, you're going to get your wish," Tyler said. "I think my heart is guiding me home."

Lightning nodded. "I think so."

"Tell me about you," Tyler said. "Everything you've done. I want to hear stories."

Lightning hummed thoughtfully. "Alright. I'll tell you while we walk. That'll keep us moving."

"Alright," Tyler nodded. "Let me know when you're ready."

Lightning nodded and they remained there for about twenty minutes before getting up to begin walking again. "Our parents died when we were still young, so, I had to take care of Serah. I was young and stupid. I thought changing my name to Lightning would help me grow up faster." She snorted derisively and shook her head. "As soon as I was out of high school, I joined the Guardian Corps. It was like a police force. I wanted to use the job to support Serah, and I rose through the ranks quickly. I had even planned on becoming an officer."

"Sounds like you were a wonderful sister," Tyler said.

"No," Lightning said, face falling. "I was a terrible sister. I forgot why I was in the Guardian Corps to begin with. I pushed Serah away, ignored her, and left her on her own. Eventually she met Snow and fell in love with him, although, I thought she had only started to date him to try and stop herself from feeling alone. When I met him, I didn't approve, but he refused to leave her. He was as stubborn as I am, and had his heart set on being with her. So even when she became a Pulse l'Cie just before my twenty first birthday, he promised to protect her and be there for her forever. And when they told me, her own sister, I told her that if she really was a l'Cie, it was my job to kill her."

"What's so bad about being a l'Cie?" Tyler asked.

"In our world, Cocoon was our planet, and Gran Pulse was a larger one we'd fought a war with," Lightning said. "The war left Cocoon scarred, with a third of the planet destroyed. Our world had machine overseers called Fal'Cie. They would give humans magic powers and make them l'Cie. Those made by Sanctum Fal'Cie, the Sanctum being Cocoon's military, were regarded as heroes. Those made by Pulse Fal'Cie, were monsters. That was how the Fal'Cie brainwashed everyone. How we were raised. It was all a plot to eventually slaughter everyone, but it was what we were raised believing. So if she really was a l'Cie, it was my job to kill her. I never would have, but I told her I would. I was furious that she decided to tell me that not only was she a l'Cie on my birthday, but also that she was engaged to Snow. I thought she was lying about being a l'Cie just to have an excuse to marry him. So I drove them both away. A couple days later, the city was quarantined because there was a l'Cie found. I realized she was right, so I did whatever it took to get to her and try to save her. I resigned from the Guardian Corps and allowed myself to be Purged. It's a process of sending anyone that was deemed to have come into contact with someone from Pulse, or a Pulse l'Cie, to Pulse in order to protect the rest of Cocoon. it was just more lies, but it was the only way. So, I volunteered. Partway through the train ride, I broke free and got my gunblade back, then went to the Pulse Vestige, a flying fortress housing a Pulse Fal'Cie, where Serah was. On the way, most of the others from our group, except Noel and Fang who we didn't meet until later, ended up there too. We found Serah, but as we did, she was put into a crystal sleep."

"Crystal sleep?" Tyler asked.

"When a l'Cie is made, they're given a Focus, a task," Lightning said. "And it's given in confusing flashes of images that barely make any sense. If the l'Cie is able to figure out and complete their Focus, they're encased in crystal and put to sleep. They awaken eventually, in theory, but we don't have many cases to go off of, and the ones we do are all special cases. if the l'Cie fails, they turn into a crystal monster called a Cie'th. Serah succeeded in her Focus, which was to gather us to be made into Pulse l'Cie. We didn't realize what was happening until later, though. We went to demand the Fal'Cie wake Serah up, but instead we were all made into l'Cie and given the Focus of destroying Cocoon. Snow thought we were supposed to save Cocoon, Vanille didn't care about our Focus and just wanted to run away, and the rest of us were all caught up in our own personal problems. I wanted revenge for Serah, Hope, a young boy who died when our world fell to the Heartless, wanted revenge on Snow for Hope's mother's death, which he thought was Snow's fault, even though she died protecting Snow, Sazh wanted to save Dajh, who had been a Sanctum l'Cie, making Sazh his own son's enemy. It was...complicated."

"It sounds it," Tyler said. "I don't imagine your various plans combined well."

"Not even a little," Lightning said, smiling slightly, eyes seeing something thousands of miles away. "We all went our separate ways. Hope followed me to try and learn to toughen up so that he could kill Snow, and I think Vanille went with Sazh, since she was the reason Dajh was made a l'Cie. Eventually we all met Fang and found out the Fal'Cie were manipulating Cocoon to fear Pulse so that they could start another war. We all decided to destroy the Sanctum, and ended up meeting Sazh and Vanille, who had been captured, on the way to kill one of the head Fal'Cie. We failed miserably, and the Fal'Cie, Barthandelus, escaped. The ship we were on was crashing, so we took a smaller ship to escape and wound up in an Ark, a sort of storage facility for Pulse weapons where l'Cie were sent to train their powers. We..."

Tyler glanced at her, then ahead of them and stopped, noticing a light in the distance. "What is that?"

"I don't know," Lightning frowned. "I guess story time's over."

"That's alright," Tyler smiled. "Plenty of time once we're out."

Lightning nodded, smiling, and they headed for the light. After a few minutes of silence, they slowed to a stop as they passed the light, a lantern, finding an abandoned fairy, the stalls all dark and worn down, and the Ferris Wheel in the distance rusted and slightly crooked. Tyler sighed, staring at it all.

"I'm home," Tyler said. "It figures that this is what we find. Out of my entire world, we return to this crappy fair."

"Well, this is where you and I were both in your world at the same time," Lightning said. "This is where we met."

"True," Tyler nodded, starting forward again, Lightning at his side. "Well, I suppose if there's a portal back to the Realm of Light somewhere here, it's probably at the center of the park. And it's also probably guarded."

"Most likely," Lightning nodded. "But that's alright. We can handle anything this place can throw at us."

"Agreed," Tyler smiled, nodding.

They made their way through the fair in silence, both looking around carefully, ready for Heartless to jump out at any moment. However, as they reached the center of the fair, the Ferris Wheel, there was no portal, or guardian. Tyler frowned, looking around. His heart was telling him they were there. And yet, there was nothing.

"Maybe our keyblades can open a portal?" Lightning suggested.

"Maybe," Tyler said. "Worth a shot."

Both summoned their keyblades, and the effect was instant. A deafening roar rang out and something crashed down on the Ferris Wheel, obliterating it and sending bits of it flying in every direction. Tyler shielded himself and Lightning with a barrier, blocking half a dozen jagged chunks of metal before the dust began to settle, Tyler allowing the barrier to fade. Before them was a humanoid heartless about half a person taller than them with a ball of light in place of its feet, its legs turning into a pair of tendrils of darkness wrapped around the balls and flowing endlessly, though not seeming to take any more of its legs, a heart-shaped hole through the center of its torso, an orange scarf with two thin strips of cloth crossing over the heart-shaped hole in an "X" and wrapping under its arms, what looked like a tattered back of the scarf visible behind it through the hole, jagged, glowing orange horns on the sides of its head with a small spike forward, then the horns jutting upward and bent into a sort of lightning bolt, two smaller horns on top of its head with two spikes straight up, then curved pieces near the middle reached toward each other and forming the top of a heart, the base of the smaller horns widening and forming the bottom of the heart. In its hands were a pair of red-wrapped grips, a thick finger guard extending down in front but disconnected at the bottom, a small diamond-shape on the back of the guard, a rounded pommel, and the swords blades both a dark grey-blue with the tip rounded, nearly flat, and sharpened, then a part on the back that extended off the blades' back edges, then had a slightly-curved spike reaching in both directions, reminding Tyler strongly of a keyblade. There was a string of black diamonds like a chain design up the sides of the blades, a pair of small wings on the Heartless's back, and red cloth coiled around its wrists with the jagged, pointed ends sticking off of them on the outside and glowing orange.

"Are those...keyblades?" Tyler breathed.

"This is about to be bad," Lightning said. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah," Tyler said, he and Lightning both readying themselves. "Let's do this."

Both took a step forward and instantly raised their keyblades, barely managing to get them up before the Heartless's blades crashed into theirs, hurling them backward. Tyler flipped, beginning to glow and landed on his feet before taking off, Lightning just behind him. The Heartless shot forward, seeming to skate on the balls of white energy it was standing on, and slashed downward at Tyler, who spun around it and slashed at it. It spun, deflecting his blade as his other slashed at Lightning. She flipped over it, slashing it across the back before a tail Tyler hadn't noticed before, one with two outward-curving blades on either side of a diamond-shaped hole, swung up and crashed into her, hurling her away. Tyler rolled aside from the Heartless's sword as it slashed downward, then shot forward, slashing the Heartless up the front. However, rather than react in any way, its right hand slashed at him and he snapped his right arm up, forming a barrier to block the blade, only to be sent streaking backward anyway. He bounced off the ground and flipped, driving his keyblade into the ground to stop himself. As he did, he looked up, seeing Lightning running around the Heartless, firing small blasts of light out of the end of her keyblade. Tyler began to run as well, keeping on the opposite side from her and also began to fire at it.

The Heartless roared in pain and rage, then suddenly dropped into a pool of darkness on the ground, which unleashed a dozen black and dark blue balls of fire. Tyler swore, leaping away from the six headed for him and sent a Firaga into them, only for them to burst straight through his. He stopped, glowing again, then shot forward, dropping into a slide to pass under them before standing as the Heartless burst out of a pool of darkness in front of him. He flipped over its swords and kicked it in the back, hurling it into its own fireballs, setting off a massive explosion, just as Lightning set the fireballs chasing her off with an Aeroga. Tyler turned back to the Heartless as it stood, and both he and Lightning charged. The Heartless roared, streaking toward Tyler and slashing downward with its right sword and he leaned left, slipping past it and slashing the Heatless across the side. The Heartless spun toward lightning as she reached it and slashed horizontally at her, only for her to duck under it and slash the Heartless up the front. It pulled its right arm back but Tyler removed it at the elbow. The Heartless roared in pain as its sword disappeared in a mass of black flames before it even hit the ground. Tyler transitioned instantly and slashed the Heartless across the back as Lightning slashed across the front, their blades scraping against each other as they passed, and the Heartless's upper body sailed into the air before it faded with an echoing roar.

Tyler sighed. "That wasn't so bad."

"No," Lightning agreed. "It definitely could have been worse."

They looked around again, still seeing nothing. Finally, Tyler sighed, holding his keyblade out in front of himself and taking Lightning's hand in his free one. He closed his eyes, focusing on his memories of Alice. He felt the keyblade respond and light began to seep through his eyelids. He opened them and smiled. There was a sphere of light in the air ahead of him, reaching from the ground to taller than he and Lightning were. He grinned at her and she nodded. Then, they both walked through and the light became blinding. However, after a minute, Tyler's sight faded.

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