He could remember those old dreams of his like they were yesterday. Those hopeless chases, that vengeful giant, the suffocating ends. It'd been well around a month since everything started and he said goodbye to that airless realm for good. These days however, his dreams have become strange. Weirdly lifelike like the ones that came before, but calm and quiet, even eerie. And sometimes, she'd be there to accompany him.

"I guess this beats the platforms," Cody scanned the spacious castle halls nervously like something would attack him at any second.

"From your old dreams, right?" The girl who walked beside him said. "Shouldn't that mean this castle is related to something then?"

First, she was an occasional delusion, now, she was a denizen of his own dreamland. He probably should've been shocked at how real it felt, how she talked like a normal breathing person, but he'd long accepted this sentient hallucination. Where did she come from? Why was she here? It didn't matter. If anything, he was just glad had someone else beside him this time.

"Well," Cody cocked his head in thought. "I've never been here before, so this isn't a flashback."

"Flash forward then?"

"Do dreams work like that?"

"Your old dreams literally worked like that, dumbass. You told me they did."

The past few nights, they'd walk these halls, both knowing their way and not. It felt both alien and familiar at the same time. And despite having no memory of the place, neither of them ever seemed worried about getting lost.

…!

"Hey," Cody pointed forward. "Up ahead!"

An enormous doorway entrance opened itself to its two guests. Beyond the frame, they could see piles upon piles of books intermingled with the lively harmony of flowers and leaves. What was beyond, they wouldn't know. At least for tonight. They were engulfed in the room's gleaming light, and…

…

…

…

"...telling you, we were a big deal!"

Cody wiped the crust off his face. He was in that mood again after the group's MidiCity venture, and the others were kind enough to let him rest in the ship in peace. He peered his groggy eyes that still quaked in their lids up to the front of the ship where everyone was gathered around the dashboard. Tyler and Justin had joined the usual crew and loudly boasted around with candor, one with his words and the other with flashy poses.

"Uh huh," Al nodded with a flat tone. "But you guys didn't sing?"

"Oh, we tried for the first couple of shows, but…" Tyler glanced over to his partner in crime. "Turns out I wasn't really built for that, and Justin…" He waved his arm around. "Well, it's not like he can't speak or sing. He just chooses not to."

Justin flashed cheeky finger guns in response.

"Wouldn't that just make you two the backup band then?" Al responded, his tone even flatter.

"Nah, man, we were definitely more than—"

"Cody, Cody, Cody!"

Mokona was the first to notice him awake and happily bounced over to the back and into his lap in response.

"Yoooooo, Cody, my man!" Tyler sounded off excitedly. "About time you woke up. I'll start from the beginning for you, all the way back at the intersection."

"Great," Al said, somehow even more flat than before.

Cody walked on over and placed Mokona neatly aside. While Tyler went on and on about his and Justin's short lived pop idol careers, he felt his mind float elsewhere. Not that he didn't want to hear what the two had to say, but his second meeting with Trent had left him just as drained as did the last. He wanted to talk to him, maybe have an understanding, but it turned into that again. He did talk to him, but not the way he wanted to. Maybe it was his own fault.

He felt the hard edge of pebbles nudge into him. Loudred had tapped on to his shoulder with his Everstone laden hand. The big guy naturally had trouble controlling the intensity of his voice and likely didn't want to interrupt their guests' storytime, but his worried face spoke loud and clear:

Are you okay?

Cody bit into the walls of his mouth and looked the other way. He bottled it last time and never really admitted what exactly had happened back at the Null Void, but this time, his friends were actually there to witness it. "I'm fine," he whispered back. "Thanks."

"And, bro, our first autograph session."

Justin nodded proudly with hands on his hips.

It looked like those two were still going.

His mind was refocused, but Cody still had some difficulty paying attention. Because he couldn't help but think about the circumstances for the two's current accompaniment. The gang had planned to bring them back with them to Traverse Town, of course, but the duo had actually adamantly defended the idea of just letting them be back at MidiCity.

"We can't just leave the town like this, you know." Tyler had said just before they left. "The place is still wrecked. Justin and I should stick around and help. Wouldn't be right if we didn't"

Justin had nodded solemnly back then.

Then suddenly, Syuzo had appeared to squash it all.

"No, that's alright. You two are from a different world, and it wouldn't be right to keep you tied up in the city's drama."

"But our contract says—"

"Contract's terminated."

"Huh?"

"You."

Cody could remember how the pop prince pointed to him. How those blissfully shining eyes bleated at him with a glimmering smile.

Syuzo looked absolutely terrifying.

"Take these two with you."

"Uhh—"

"Do it."

Just thinking back on it sent shivers down his spine. "Syuzo did not like them, huh?" Cody said to himself, accidentally letting his thoughts run loose.

"Pssh, what?" Tyler laughed it off. "Nah, he loved us!"

Justin elbowed him with a disapproving look and shook his head.

"Yeah…he…" Tyler's confident grin wavered as he started to stare off into the distance with a deflated frown. "Man, he really hated us."

"What did you guys do?" Cody asked.

"I bet they destroyed the stage," Mokona replied in glee.

"Nuh uh! We didn't—"

Justin elbowed him yet again.

"Okay, okay, I might've tripped over wires and stuff once—"

Another elbow.

"A few times!"

A side eye.

"Every other concert!" Tyler threw his arms up in the air in frustration before pointing back at his former bandmate. "Don't go putting all the blame on me! You tried to upstage him like it was a sport."

The two launched into a short bout of bickering, but quickly tired themselves out. "Oh well, past's in the past," Tyler sighed. "Buuuut…" He and Justin exchanged smiles. "You said the others are chilling in the world we're headed to, right? That means Lindsay and I'll have our big heartfelt reunion."

The few times Cody passed her by in Traverse Town, it looked like she might as well have been dating Beth with how much fun the two seemed to have goofing around the place. Not once had he ever heard her drop Tyler's name.

"And Justin here'll be back to having a real fan club."

Cody knew for a fact that Katie and Sadie were preoccupied.

He didn't have the heart to tell either of them.

"What's with the silence? Dude, we're gonna have so much to tell the others. This little story session? Dress rehearsal for when we go spreading our exploits around. We're restarting the band, just me and him. We're gonna be so big, they'll hear about us all the way in MidiCity, and Syuzo will be begging us to come back. We just need a name. I'm thinking, 'The Drama Brothers'. What do you think? Yo, man, what if you joined u—"

"Uh, guys?" Loudred had continued to pilot on in the background. He had remained shockingly silent throughout "The Drama Brothers"'s storytime, seemingly not wanting to ruin their fun, but now something wasn't right.

"Oh no," Alakazam let out a fearful groan. "Don't tell me we're lost again."

"No. We're actually almost there. But…"

Justin was the first to look down out the window in curiosity and immediately pounded on the glass in response, urging the others to take a look for themselves. Indeed, they were right in the skies of Traverse Town, but mixed in with the eternal night sky were the fluttering charcoals of loose flames. A small portion of the buildings in town had been set ablaze while others were tattered or just barely holding on. They could even see the enormous refugee ship in the outskirts of town riddled with obvious dents.

It took quite a while before they were able to properly land. With how big of a mess the town currently was, most of the normal parking spaces were either gone or occupied. It took until their ship was close enough to be flagged out by Cid, Dejiko, Puchiko, and Gema for them to finally find a cramped space just barely within walking distance of the town square. As they carefully crept through the streets, as if they were afraid something even as small as footsteps would make things worse, they realized just how much more dire things were at a ground level. Citizens shuffled around in hushed tones and much of the buildings that towered over looked like they were just one more hit away from turning into ruins.

"Couldn't have come at a better time," Cid and the smaller trio ran up to them. So focused and shell shocked at the state of Traverse Town, they all jumped in response.

"What happened?" Loudred gaped.

Cid shook his head. His teeth grinded so hard into the toothpick in his mouth, it could snap. "Heartless."

"All this?!" Cody gestured to the setting in dismay.

"Those dang things came in droves."

"B-b-but," Mokona blubbered uncharacteristically. "My master's magic should've helped shield everything."

"Your master's magic has its limits."

"It was terrible, nyo," Dejiko pulled the rim of her cat cap downwards to her stressed face. "They were everywhere. I thought I was a goner, nyo."

"They surrounded her, nyu," Puchiko explained in sympathy despite her typical deadpan.

"There there," Gema patted her head. "It's all over now, gema."

"This is exactly how our old world went down, nyo," she began to flail her arms. "I'm a princess! I shouldn't have to deal with this twice, nyo!"

Cody gulped as he once again looked over everything. This was a lot to take in. He saw the Heartless attempt their world ending infestations across numerous worlds. They even succeeded in his own. But this was Traverse Town. This place was supposed to be a safe haven. A place for others who already lost everything. How could this be happening here of all places.

"Guys, guys, guys!"

A certain ninja girl sped into the scene, nearly tripping over herself along the way with how fast she went.

"Y-Yuffie?!" She instantly grabbed hold of Cody's hand and began to drag him away.

"We're having a meeting right now. Since you're here, you guys need to be there."

"But what about those two?" Loudred pointed awkwardly to Tyler and Justin who were left to quietly process the horrific luck they must've had to drop into this mess.

"Cid and the kids'll show them around," Yuffie rolled her eyes in response like she couldn't believe they had any other priorities. "Come on. Hurry!"

She tightened her grip and pulled Cody through like an assembly line. Through their hasty tour around the town, they could tell things weren't any better beyond the square. Even in areas that avoided the bulk of the damage, there was a cloud of doom and uncertainty in place of ransacked buildings. The residents of Traverse Town were used to living in a constant cycle of peace and terror, but it seemed even they were all close to reaching their breaking points. And amidst it all, the town's lone clock tower continued to loom over everything in its frozen gaze. Both reflective of the town's decay with its dinged up brick linings and mocking of their sorrows with its oppressive sight, it stood tall and quiet in its unchanging veneer. It was the complete opposite of MidiCity's Tower which represented the town's pride and resilience. This tower was that of resignation, of people forced to move on knowing they were stuck in place.

And it was six o'clock, just as always.

"Hey, I'm back! Open up!" Having arrived at the waterway, now fully boarded up as a sloppy means for added safety, Yuffie wasted no time to bang loudly on to the newly erected door.

Rather than letting them in, a narrow opening slid open, and a pair of suspicious eyes poked out. "Password?"

"Courtney, it's me."

A second pair of eyes, ones more mocking and mischievous in nature, pushed the first to the side. No doubt, this was Duncan. "Nope. No can do. Rules are rules. Password?"

"Oh, for the love of…" Yuffie threw her arms up and violently pried the door open by force. Cody and the others could practically hear the stomp of her soles as she forcibly led them all in.

"Hey!" Courtney gawked. "You can't just break it like that. We need to keep this place safe."

"Tell your boyfriend to start taking this seriously first!" Yuffie yelled back.

The boys all looked at one another, taken aback. The last time they'd spoken to Yuffie, she'd hosted a two-day theme park party for the crew. But now, the cheerful ninja was uncharacteristically antsy and full of agitation.

With one more harsh tug on Cody's arms, they finally arrived at their destination. In one of the more spacious parts of the waterway, the rotunda that Leon had used as a makeshift training ground the first time they were there, the walls echoed with bouncing chatter. The area was filled to capacity with various folks, all assumedly part of the resistance crew their friends had created. There were many familiar faces in the crowd, from the various alien refugees of The Null Void, to Bridgette and Geoff, still finding time to cuddle in the back, to the tiny demon, Red, dawdling nervously on the floor, to Izzy and Owen loudly billowing about, to Tidus sitting with Katie and Sadie who clung to him with uncertain faces. And in the center of it all were Aerith and Leon.

"Alright," Aerith cleared her throat. "Listen up."

In no time flat, the scene that bustled like a small school cafeteria fell into a silent buzz.

"As we all know, the Heartless raids have grown steadily in intensity the past several months. At first, everything seemed manageable, but it's all ramped up out of nowhere now. I know things are bad right now, but like it or not, Traverse Town is our home away from home, and we need to do everything we can to protect it." She gave a brief pause to look over the audience with the face of a leader. "It used to be just Leon, Yuffie, a few others, and I protecting everyone, but look at how much we've grown in such a short time! We can't start doubting ourselves now. There's way too many of us to be doing that. What we need to do now is start our plan of attack.

"A few of you probably know this already, but in every world, there's something called the 'Keyhole'. It's like a seal that can keep us safe from the Heartless for good. Leon, the others, and I have been trying to find it for who knows how long, but we've never had any luck. But with our numbers, we just might be able to do it this time. We can't afford not to. So if any one of you runs into a lock that feels even a little bit different than a normal one, our Keybearer here…"

Aerith gestured over to Cody, and the curious looks of the entire audience followed suit. He could only wave awkwardly as sweat suddenly began to pour down his brow.

"...You can go to him and he'll seal it up!"

"That's it? We're playing I Spy with this scrawny kid now?" One of the many resistant members loudly scoffed. "My family and I came to this world for safety. You expect me to waste my time looking for a vague concept of a thing when we should be preparing for the next outbreak?"

"Hey," another one piped up. "I don't know your story, but that 'scrawny kid' saved our entire colony. If he can help us, then we should help him."

"Look, bud, if you enjoy playing around when those Heartless freaks can kill us all at any second, be my guest."

"G-guys," Aerith bit her lips. She completely lost them.

The room had returned to the clanging chatters from earlier, only now, they were rotten with anger and in-fighting. No amount of yelling on Aerith's part would do anything. Yuffie started to fume and was ready to march to the center to verbally attack everyone right then and there. But before she could even take a step forward, a puff of flames shot right past the crowd and into the opposite wall. The rocks chiseled into a pure black hue, and everyone was stunned into silence. Back at the center where Aerith had been woefully ignored, Leon stood boldly with his gunblade outstretched and unsheathed. The moments of silence drew on and on, and after making sure they had regained their full attention, he stepped back once more and signaled Aerith back in.

"Anyways," she cleared her throat. "As I said earlier, we've lived in this world far longer than any one of you here. We've fought and we've prepared, and I'm here to say…" Her face grew stern. "With all my years of experience, that just isn't enough. We know exactly what we have to do. You can fight as many Heartless as you want, but they will keep coming. So, please, let's all swallow up our pride here and search for that Keyhole. Alright?"

No response.

"Alright then," she nodded. "Meeting adjourned. Let's get searching."

Murmurs flowed back into the dispersing crowd, spreading gossip about this strange young hero they were expected to answer to. Cody could only continue to slink down in embarrassment, much to the amusement of his teammates who still remembered a period of time when he would've ate this attention up. By the time the crowd grew thin, Cody still felt the need to stealthily duck amongst the remaining few as he made his way to Leon and Aerith.

"Welcome back," Aeritth smiled. In a huge contrast from Yuffie's aggravated state, Aerith still somehow carried an optimistic spunk despite everything. "If your timing was any better, you would've gotten here during the last big fight," she laughed.

"Er, right," Cody glanced behind him as he overheard one straggler express his doubts with the situation. "Things are, uh, pretty tense right now, huh?"

"You two handled that outburst back there really well," Lourdred said happily in admiration.

"Yeah," Al nodded. "Great quick thinking there, Leon."

Leon barely mouthed a "Thanks" before he shoved the four aside and trudged on out. It wasn't the typical brand of rudeness that they were used to from him.

"Don't worry about him," Aerith's tone lowered despite her still bright face. "He's just exhausted. Poor guy's barely gotten any sleep lately."

"I don't blame him," Cody mumbled in sympathy.

"Anyway," Aerith clapped her hands. "You guys heard me back there. Things are bad, so we need to get serious about the Keyhole. Now." She bent down closer to Cody's height and scrunched her brow, unsure if she was pushing boundaries with the sudden request. "I know you guys are busy searching for the King and princesses, but if it's alright, we'd like you to stay here and help if possible."

"Don't worry," Cody responded with a mix of comfort and weary. All his usual eager vibrato was gone after everything they'd all seen. "We're more than happy to help."

"Great," Aerith clapped again. "Okay, so I guess I can help point out specific points of in—"

"Aaaaaaaaaay, Cody Kadoatie!" Right out of nowhere, Izzy sweeped right between the Keybearer and Aerith, forcing everyone to yelp in fright. Not giving them even a single chance to recover, she quickly latched on to the boy's shoulders. "Hey, Airfare, mind if I steal him away for a bit? Got some magic-y business that needs to be done."

"Uuuuuh," Cody slowly edged his eyes back over to Aerith, hoping to be saved from the mage-in-training's grasp.

"Well," Aerith giggled, still a bit taken aback. "I don't see why not. We mostly just need him for the last bits of the plan, so I'll just go grab you two if anything comes up."

That wasn't the response he wanted to hear.

"Cool, cool, cool, cool." Izzy lifted one hand off him to shoot off a barrage of finger guns. "Also…" She sneakily nabbed Mokona's ears like a ripe radish. "I'm gonna need Bunny Baby here too."

"I'm not Bunny Baby. I'm Mokona!"

She zoomed out of there with the two still in her hands before anyone had the chance to ask questions. Despite all the loud protests along the way, the trio arrived in the confines of Yuuko's shop in record speed.

"Hey, Izzy, could you at least—waaaah!" Only a few steps into the door, Izzy unceremoniously dropped both her kidnapees to the floor while she hurried on further to the back. Cody was left to cough and kneel his way back up while Mokona's misplaced laughter droned beside him. "You could've told us what you needed first, y'know."

Right on cue, she sped back over and shoved a book up his face. Not just any book. It was the very sketchbook he'd delivered to Yuuko in what seemed like forever ago at that point.

"Isn't this…?"

"Yeah, so," Izzy forced the book fully into his hands. "I miiiiiight've pushed one button too many on my master. So she gave book scrubbing duty to me with this one."

"You dragged us over here to do your homework for you?"

"Aw, come on," she winked and cheekily nudged her elbow to his side in response. "I bet you're used to that."

"I wanna see! I wanna see!" Mokona hopped excitedly at the sight of the sketchbook. Cody promptly flipped it open like he was ready to start sharing a picture book to a toddler, but his face drooped in horror the moment he processed the contents. The pages were just as blotched in suspicious black ink as the last time he'd laid eyes on it, if not even more so.

"Nothing I do works!" Izzy threw her arms in the air in distress. "If it were black mold, yeah, I could burn that off, but this is, like, blacker than black mold!"

"And you think we can fix it?" Cody raised an eyebrow.

"Well, duh! This is Heartless mold right?"

"Do you want me to bash the Keyblade on it?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Mokona egged him on. "Tear it to shreds!"

"Of course not, ya dum-dum," Izzy rolled her eyes like he'd just given her the dumbest response possible. "I need you to do…this!"

It was hard to understand just what exactly the strange girl was trying to pull. One moment, she tackled both of the boys back on to the ground. The next, she shoved their cheeks into the worn pages like she intended to strangulate them. In fact, in their confusion, there was a moment Cody assumed just that. All he could do in this position was flail around and leak out garbled words of protest until…

…They fell in.

Gonna attempt to wrap up the Traverse Town arc by the end of the year, soooooooo let's see if I've got it in me to do four chapters in two months.