Nexus: Heroes Will Rise

by tmb1112

Universal borders have been erased and beings from thousands of universes now live on the same world: Nexus. In the first Saga of Nexus, Awul was saved, but the mysteries of Nexus remain. Now our heroes sail across the sea to Aebrith to search for lost loved ones and save the world. MCs from DBZ, KH, Soul Eater, FT, Blue Exorcist, Bleach, 7DS, OP, Ben 10, SAO, HxH, and many more!

37. Nexus HWR 7-8 No Matter What

Nexus HWR 7.8 No Matter What:

Usopp moaned as he dragged his feet across the dry, loose black soil beneath him. He had a brown shirt tied around his forehead like a bandanna with both sleeves hanging down over the back of his shoulders. The muscular pirate sharpshooter dragged his boots across the ground while his overalls' straps were down off his shoulder at his waist. "This is torture," he groaned as they trudged along the black ground.

Usopp looked behind him and stopped for a moment. He looked between some of his comrades walking behind him and all the way back into the haze of this black desert. "How humid can it get?" He asked, his voice sounding ridiculously dry compared to the last time he spoke as he purposely exaggerated how bad it was.

Still, he was not the only one feeling it. Kirito was sweating pretty bad and he lifted up his black t-shirt, slinging it over his nicely toned left shoulder and then continuing to walk forward. He flapped his wings behind his back a couple of times just to get the sweat off of them. "Damn," he muttered, using his shirt as a cloth to wipe some sweat off his forehead then dropping it back on his sweaty shoulder to continue walking. "You're right Usopp, this heat is sweltering."

"It wouldn't be so bad if some of us weren't such hot heads," Luffy mumbled as he trudged forward a few feet to the right of Natsu.

"And if a certain rubber idiot didn't get us lost yesterday, we would have been out of here already," Natsu replied, with his tongue sticking out of his mouth.

"You want to go?" Luffy asked half-heartedly, lifting up his fists and turning towards the wizard.

"Anytime loser," Natsu replied, this time actually getting Luffy a little pissed. Luckily they had friends around to stop them before Natsu turned up the heat even more.

Nami was walking forward with Sanji walking at her side, constantly fanning her with a purple fan. The wind was nice, but she was still sweating horribly. She lifted up her head a little and looked under the brim of her white circular sun hat. "How much longer is this desert Gray?"

"I keep telling you," the man around her age groaned, turning towards her slightly with much more sweat on his face than on hers. "I have not been here before. So stop asking."

"Nami-san," Juvia started before Nami could snap at her boyfriend. "We are all hot. Please remain patient please," she said in a sweet voice. "Juvia will try to become sad so that we can have rain."

Nami sweatdropped and smiled at the nice girl, "No no no." She waved her hand in front of her. "I'm fine. Don't be sad."

"Alright!" Juvia exclaimed happily. She was wearing a blue tank top that ended above her belly button, and shot dark blue shorts to match. She smiled and did a turn, "It would have been hard for Juvia to get sad anyway. Not with all of Juvia's friends together."

"Aww," Nami said with a smile, then when she released the breath she started panting heavily. Wow it really is hot.

"I'll kill you, you, you rubber bastard," Natsu growled as he leaned closer in towards his skinny rival.

"You already used that one bakaaa! Dragons must not have very big brains," Luffy taunted.

"You take that back!" Natsu roared, and he started to pull back his right fist.

"Well everyone," Sora announced and landed right between Luffy and Natsu as they punched towards each other. The younger boy with brown spiky hair was ready though with his Keyblade out. "Protera," he whispered, and both of his friends' fists hit a large blue spherical forcefield that surrounded him out of nowhere.

Everyone chuckled as their friends bounced away from each other, diffusing the conflict. Sora grinned as well and lowered his Keyblade, allowing it to dissolve into light particles. He continued what he was originally saying, "Dash, Riku, and Ben have spotted the end of the desert up ahead not five miles. If we keep it up we could get there in the hour."

"Yayyy!" Usopp, Rin, and Franky yelled, pumping their fists up in the air.

"After the desert starts a forest, but a safe one with tall oak-like trees, scattered around so that it's easy to see all over," Sora looked at Gray who looked on edge at the sound of a forest, but nodded his sweaty head after that quick explanation. "We're still heading southeast so sooner or later we are going to reach our destination. Everyone, let's go!" He smiled and pointed his arm towards the direction where Dash had run up to him and gave him the update a minute ago.

"At least," Usopp mumbled as he jogged forward to keep up with everyone's quickened pace. "We're finally getting somewhere."

"Remember, when we used to, ride on a boat places?" Rin asked, the half demon kid panting hard as he ran after everyone. "Those were the good ol' days."

"I don't notice the difference," a voice said from his back and he looked over his shoulder to see Kuro's black furry head sticking out of his backpack. "Also it's nice and shady in here so I'm going to take a nap."

"You lazy cat," Rin complained, but his familiar just pulled his head back into the bed and made light snoring noises within a few seconds. "Jeez, and I thought finding you was going to give me a break. Now I'm just carrying extra weight."

Killua jogged far ahead of the rest of the group, his body covered in a light coating of sweat, but nothing over the top. He was hot, but not bothered by it, and he was the first to spot the large black lines in the distance that looked like the start to a forest. "Nice," he whispered, then grinned more as he got closer and realized just how tall those black lines were.

"They're huge!" Natsu exclaimed at the sight of the trees.

"I've seen bigger," Luffy boasted, though he was looking at the awesome trees with a mad grin on his face. "Hey Natsu, how about the first one to the top of that tree wins?"

"You're on!" Natsu yelled and charged forward, Luffy right next to him. Natsu was pulling ahead, but Luffy grinned and punched a fist out to his left side, pumping it and making his body turn red, with steam coming out of him.

Luffy shot forward like a missile and Natsu growled, roaring and making lightning surround his body which sped him up immensely.

Riku, Ben, and Dash were sitting down taking a short rest when they heard noises coming from the other way as the forest they discovered. "Here already?" Ben asked, standing up to his feet in surprise.

"I didn't tell Sora he had to rush or anything," Dash stated with a shrug of his shoulders.

Riku sighed, "It's just those two." All three of them watched two black dust clouds near them, pass them, and almost reach the tree line a hundred yards away in a matter of a few seconds.

Natsu grinned and charged right at the tree, grabbing it at the bottom and then shimmying up insanely fast, crashing right through a bunch of thick branches on the way up, lighting some dark green leaves on fire too.

Luffy meanwhile stopped at the bottom and threw two of his arms up and grabbed the thickest branch he could find. "Gum Gum Jet Rocket!" He shot himself up through the branches like a rocket and then grabbed onto the tip of the tree and started laughing as he saw no one around him.

Natsu reached the top too and started laughing, only to hear laughing on his left. Luffy heard the laughter on his right and the pirate turned towards the mage who turned his way at the same time. "Ehh?" Natsu exclaimed and pointed one arm at his competitor. "What are you doing there idiot?"

"Why are you on the wrong tree?" Luffy asked the pink haired wizard who snarled and yelled back that his was obviously the one that Luffy pointed at. To this Luffy yelled back, "I decided the tree! I know which one it was!"

Both of them opened their mouths to yell some more, when they saw movement further in through the forest. They were at the top of trees over a hundred feet tall, both of them pretty much the same height, though that was Natsu's next argument. At least, it would have been his next argument had a figure not leapt out of the trees in front of them.

"Who are you?" Luffy asked blankly.

Natsu was a little more on edge at the sight of this figure, adorned completely in a black cloak with a hood up that shadowed his face. The cloak had long sleeves and went down below his feet, with a zipper going vertically down the entire front of the cloak, and had a little silver chain that looped around the top of the zipper. The figure put his hands in front of his body and swirled them around as he hovered in the air. "Uhh, what are you doing?" Natsu asked, now the one speaking in a deadpan voice.

"Shut up!" The person in the cloak shouted, his voice sounding like a boy's their age or even younger. He pointed both hands that he was making hand signs with outwards, and they glowed blue for a second.

"Luffy I think we should postpone our-" before Natsu could finish his thought, two large blasts of freezing cold air slammed into the two of them and sent them flying off their treetops and back towards the black desert.

By this point everyone else was getting close. They slowed down and many freaked out at the sight of Lufy and Natsu both falling off their tree tops with their chests covered in icicles.

"Who did that?" Killua asked, looking around the tree top and then seeing a black cloaked figure standing up on top of a tree that was covered in ice. "Him," the kid said in a calm, calculating voice.

The white haired boy started to take a step forward, but stopped as the black cloaked figure suddenly became surrounded in hands that wrapped him up tightly. "Way to go Robin!" Nami yelled as the older woman held her arms crossed and created many more limbs with her Devil Fruit power.

"That was great Robin-san," Juvia complimented the woman.

"Thank you Juvia, I-" Robin stopped talking as she suddenly felt very weak. She clenched her eyes shut and fell down to one knee, managing to pry her left eye open and look up to the top of the trees where the figure had lifted up his own arms and revealed black chains on his sleeves.

Nami's eyes went wide as she put two and two together. "Those are Sea Stone chains! Be careful!" Robin's hands all disappeared and the woman fell to her other knee, panting hard as she had held him as long as she was able.

Kirito frowned at the sound of that, remembering Marco's lessens on the weaknesses of Devil Fruit users. "Can't let him touch me," the teen grumbled, then made three hand signs and slammed his hands down into the ground.

For a few seconds nothing happened, then the ground directly underneath their enemy's tree lifted up high in the air. The tree uprooted but the figure wearing black on top did not miss a beat; he leapt up even higher in the air and started doing flips as he came down.

Riku stared up at this figure in a black cloak and he narrowed his eyes. "I've seen this before," the silver haired teenager began.

Ben and Dash both turned in towards him and watched as Riku's green eyes turned huge. He looked to his left and held out a hand, "Sora wait!" He called out.

The guy doing flips out of the air slammed down on the ground in front of Luffy who had a fist pulled way back and his arm spinning. "Gum Gum Rifle!" The figure in the black cloak sidestepped and the fist flew past his chest, missing by inches. Meanwhile on his other side he heard a yell about some dragon fire or other, and simply hopped up in the air, allowing Natsu to slam into Luffy while the pirate was pulling back his missed attack.

"Guys! Now really isn't the time!" Killua yelled over at the two of them as when they stopped tumbling they started yelling at each other.

"It's his fault!" They both yelled, then turned to each other frustratedly. "Just stay out of my way," Natsu demanded and snorted, literal steam coming out of his nose.

Luffy reached an arm forward and grabbed Natsu by the shoulder. "You stay out of mine-"

The ground underneath their feet cracked open and a dozen vines shot up and wrapped around their bodies. Natsu laughed and shouted at Luffy about how the pirate sure wishes he had fire powers right now. Right before Natsu could burn himself out of his vines however, the green whips filled with electricity and the wizard roared in pain.

"Shishishi! Bet you wish you were rubber right-" a large ball of black formed around Luffy and cut him off mid-sentence. Suddenly he and the vine were slammed down to the ground as if the gravity had just multiplied by ten. "What the-" Luffy growled and pushed down on the ground to get himself up, but the black sphere only pushed him down harder.

"Stop hurting my friends!" Sora yelled as he dove towards the black cloaked figure. The figure stepped to the right, but as Sora's first foot hit the ground he pivoted and swung his Keyblade arm towards the guy. His opponent back flipped and kept flipping backwards, but Sora was relentless and chased him down, only a foot behind every step of the way.

The kid with brown spiky hair grinned and leapt up in the air. He started bringing his Keyblade down with one hand, but as his opponent went to flip again, his feet tripped over some debris from when Kirito ripped up the tree with one of his ninja jutsu. "I've got you now!" Sora yelled and brought down his Keyblade towards the figure's head.

Everything started moving in slow motion for a few seconds. Sora's Keyblade slashed the front of the mysterious figure's hood, it kept going and clanked against something that made a loud ring echo around the landscape. The hood that Sora slashed fell backwards as Sora saw the weapon that had appeared in his foe's hand. Sora landed in front of the figure who finished stepping back to avoid the slash, and then he lowered his Keyblade down to his side.

"Wait, what the?" Usopp mumbled and rubbed his eyes.

"That's not possible," Sanji stated in confusion.

Standing directly in front of Sora was a kid with spiky hair of a lighter shade than Sora's, more dirty-blond than brown. The teenager had Sora's blue eyes, his height, and most importantly, his Keyblade. Every Keyblade they had seen Sora, Riku, Kairi, and even Ben use had all been unique. This one had the exact same yellow hilt and silver steel key-shaped blade sticking out of it, all the way down to the identical silver keychains hanging off the bottom of the Kingdom Keys.

"It's, another Sora," Luffy wondered confusedly as he got back up off the ground, the magic holding him down gone now. He was pretty pissed, but also really wondering what this was all about. "Hey Sora! Why's there another you right there?" He called over loudly.

"I am NOT SORA!" The person yelled furiously.

Gray looked at the black cloak the boy was wearing and he rose up his fists. "The Organization," he growled.

"Roxas," Sora whispered as he stared at the boy in the black cloak in front of him. "But how is this possible? You're... you are supposed to be inside of me," he said, loud enough that a few people close-by were confused and just trying to catch as much of this conversation as they can.

"I've got my own heart now Sora," the boy growled at him. "I'm not a Nobody anymore!" He slammed both hands out to the sides and an all black Keyblade with a circular black hilt formed in his left hand too.

"Why are you fighting me?" Sora asked as the boy closed the distance between them instantly and brought down both Keyblades. When Sora parried, Roxas dropped down and swiped Sora's legs out from under him. Sora fell but placed his right hand on the ground before he completely hit the ground, then used that arm to throw himself feet first at Roxas who crossed his Keyblades to block him. While he blocked Sora's double kicks, the teenager with brown hair bent his knees in and did a roll over the crossing point of Roxas's blades, slamming a fist down on the boy's exposed golden brown hair, and then spinning in midair and slamming his Kingdom Key into Roxas's left side.

Roxas rose his own Kingdom Key to block, but Sora's swipe was too strong and pushed past, hitting him in the arm and knocking him flying backwards. Roxas's feet hit the ground fifty feet away but he was still skidding fast so he put down his black, sharper Keyblade and dragged himself to a stop. "You won't control me anymore!" Roxas roared, slamming his arms out to the sides and making his black cloak glow bright for a few seconds.

When the light faded, red stripes went down both of Roxas's black sleeve arms. The hood resting on his back looked like it had turned fully red with only one black stripe down the middle, and a large swirly red pattern appeared on the chest of Roxas's black cloak. "Drive form?" Riku wondered in amazement from where he watched a hundred feet away with Ben and Dash.

"Who is this guy Riku?" Ben asked his silver haired friend.

"He's Sora's Nobody," Riku replied softly. "At least, he was..."

"So that's your Valor Form huh?" Sora asked as what used to be a part of him charged towards him. Roxas's blue eyes glared into Sora's, and he sped up tree times what his speed was before. Sora lifted up his left arm as Roxas put on that burst of speed, and a green hilt appeared in Sora's hand with a silver blade that had three sharp prongs at the end. He blocked the first of Roxas's strikes with it, then had to spin and block the next with his Kingdom Key.

While they were pushing against each other, Roxas was leaning in towards him and frowning with all his teeth showing. "Damn you Sora!" He yelled at the boy he was created from years ago. "Damn you!" He yelled loudly, pushing down harder than ever and making Sora lean back far.

"He's pushing back Sora," Usopp said in awe to the blond chef and ninja kid next to him. Sanji and Kirito were both watching with a little bit of surprise too, but they only became more amazed. Sora fell backwards on the ground flat on his back, then put both hands with Keyblades up over his shoulders and kicked up, sending Roxas lifting up in the air.

Roxas oofed as he lifted up in the air, then opened his clenched eyes to see Sora hop back on his feet and point just the Kingdom Key at him. "Stop!" Sora yelled. His opponent froze in midair, and Sora yelled up to him while he had him in one spot. "Come on Roxas, just talk to me! I thought we were friends?!"

Sora's smile and the words that just came out of his mouth seemed to really do it and Roxas snarled ferociously, breaking free from the Stop magic and dropping down at Sora with both Keyblades pulled back far. Sora's eyes widened as Roxas being in Valor Form right now, the one that maxed out a person's strength, was not going to be pretty if he tried to block.

The boy wearing a black and red shirt along with red shorts and big yellow boots leapt away from his cloaked Nobody who slammed his Keyblades down where Sora just was. The ground underneath where the Keyblades hit dented down, and then a fifty foot radius shot out in every direction as a crater blew down into the black soil. "'Friends?!'" Roxas roared as he shot out of the smoke his other black Keyblade pulled back. He did a full three sixty and looked like a tornado of Keyblades as he collided with Sora. Sora rose his blades and blocked over and over as they slammed into him. Roxas stopped with one last powerful blow that sent Sora lifting off the ground and flying backwards twenty feet where he skid to a stop pretty fast, grunting every time he hit a bump while sliding on his butt across the ground.

Sora looked up at Roxas who started walking towards him now. The boy with dirty-blond hair looked so mad. "Yeah Roxas," Sora said, "we're friends. I thought-"

"Friends don't abandon each other!" the cloaked figure yelled at him. "They would look for each other if they got separated!" He kept marching towards Sora and held both of his Keyblades down at his sides as he did. "When a friend is in trouble you're supposed to help right?!" Roxas yelled at him. "So where have you been Sora? Why are you so surprised to see me?! Did you not even notice I was gone?!"

Sora was at a loss for words as he stared up at he figure in front of him. "I, I didn't," Sora whispered.

"Well you should have!" He yelled back at him. Roxas clutched his Keyblades tightly in his grips and he took another step so he was standing right in front of Sora. "I, I needed your help Sora," Roxas whispered, "but you, weren't, there!" He rose up his Keyblades and then his body covered in white light. When it was gone, so we're the red stripes covering his body, and apparently his confidence too.

"I shouldn't have said anything," the lighter haired boy stated and reached above his shoulders, grabbing his hood and putting it back up. A large slash cut through the middle of it so Sora could see his Nobody's dark blue eyes glaring back at him from underneath the hood. Roxas glared at Sora and growled loud enough for everyone to hear, "Anyone passing through the forest pays tribute to the Lord of it. It won't be hard to find his castle, don't try to skip out or a squadron of our best fighters will be sent straight from The Dread Fort to crush you. I need to get back."

Roxas turned around and reached down into his pocket at his side. It kind of looked like the pouch Sora used which had an almost endless supply inside it. Everyone stared at the figure as he pulled out a red and white ball and held it in front of him.

"Wait a second, are you leaving?" Luffy asked angrily, marching towards the boy who attacked him. Roxas glanced his way while lifting up the pokeball, releasing the red light from it. Luffy continued angrily while the kid stared back at him under the shadow of his hood, "I have a score to settle with you."

A ball of darkness appeared above Luffy's head and the pirate looked up just in time for a black gravity ball to hit him. He thought he was ready, but this one pushed down at twenty times normal gravity and crushed the ground beneath him along with slamming him flat to the floor.

"Roxas wait," Sora stumbled up to his feet and took a few steps towards a piece of him. The other boy was standing in front of a large blue and white Pokemon that had large wings folded in at its sides and a cute face almost like a puppy's. Sora glanced at Roxas's Pokemon and then back at Roxas's back. "I'm sorry I didn't know you were missing. I spent most of the last two years searching for Riku. I only recently got to this continent. Please, if you need help just ask me."

Sora took another step, but Roxas turned his head a little and glared back from under the shadow of his hood. "It's too late. They have her. And I want you to leave this place Sora. Get out of here now!" He turned back and walked towards the Pokemon. "While you still have the chance," Roxas added darkly. "Latios let's go!" He called out, and his Pokemon spread its wings, flapped them once, and shot up into the sky.

"Damn," Natsu growled as he finally got off the ground where he was lying with his tongue sticking out after being charred by the lightning vines. "Just when I was about to get him," he mumbled.

Sora stared up over the treetops of the forest in front of him, watching as Roxas left. "Friends don't abandon each other... When a friend is in trouble you're supposed to help right? ... Did you not even notice I was gone?!" Roxas, I, I, Sora looked after him in the distance, then heard footsteps right behind him.

Sora turned around and saw Kairi standing right behind him, her hands crossed behind her back and an innocent smile on her cute face. She tilted her head to the side, "Go after him Sora. You want to don't you?"

"Yeah but," he started, not looking at anyone else, just the girl he loved in front of him.

Kairi reached up and grabbed a necklace around Sora's neck, with a small pink good luck charm on it. "You've always held onto this for safe keeping. I'll be waiting for you. Remember, no matter how far we go..."

"I will always find you," he smiled at her and backed away, "I'll come back to you, I promise!" He turned and started running towards the forest.

"I know you will!" Kairi yelled after him, raising her right arm up in the air and waving at his back as he ran away.

Sora reached down and pulled out a pokeball from his endless inventory pouch, feeling it out and sensing which one he wanted. "Lugia!" He yelled, tossing the ball up in the air and releasing a huge red light from it. The ball bounced back to him and he caught it in midair as he leapt up towards Lugia's back.

"How may I help you Sora?"

"Follow that Latios!" Sora yelled and pointed over the trees. "We can't let it get away!"

"Do you wish to catch it?" Lugia asked with interest as Sora seemed really excited.

"Kind of," Sora replied with a laugh. "More like catch its rider! Now let's go, before Roxas gets away!"

Lugia's telepathic voice echoed around, "As you wish." It flapped its massive white wings once and shot up over the tree canopy a hundred feet above in a split second. There was nothing but empty sky for miles, so it wasn't hard to find Roxas and his Latios as a small dot getting farther away.

Roxas was frowning deeply as he flew away, an angry expression on his face but no one to direct it towards. All this time, I thought he was dead. I mourned you Sora, I tried to push away thoughts that you had abandoned me, but you didn't even know I wasn't inside you anymore! Ahh! You idiot!

"Laa, La-aaa," the Legendary bird Pokemon beneath him spoke up and Roxas understood what it was saying to him.

The cloaked figure looked backwards and dropped his jaw at the sight of the massive Guardian of the Sea Pokemon soaring towards them through the sky. "Aaaahh-" Lugia screamed, the sky pulsing out little circles everywhere. It sounded like a rough screech to Roxas, but a few seconds later his bird Pokemon was slowing down.

"Hey Latios, hey!" Roxas looked down and rubbed the top of its head. "Don't listen to it!" He looked back and stared at the boy standing on top of the approaching Lugia. "Damn it Sora," he pointed a hand up at the boy with even spikier hair looking down at him. "That's not fair! Stop controlling my Pokemon!"

"Well then can you stop and explain what's going on with you for a minute?" Sora asked loudly. "I'd really like to help you out. I am really sorry I didn't think to check to see if you were still inside me."

"Haven't you noticed anything strange since you got here?" Roxas asked in annoyance. "You really had no signs that there was something wrong?"

Sora opened his mouth to say no, then froze and thought about when he transformed to save Kairi, and again to fight Orochimaru. His eyes opened wide and Roxas nodded his head, "Who do you think it was keeping your Heartless side in check? With you it was never a big problem, but I knew you must have had at least a few incidents-"

"Do you think I could control it?" Sora asked the teen below him on Latios's back.

"I don't know, you never-" Roxas stopped himself and shook his head over and over. "What am I doing?!" He yelled at himself. "Latios! Snap out of it and use Extremespeed to get us out of here!"

The blue Legendary bird shook its head and then zipped away before Lugia even had its mouth halfway open. "I am sorry Sora, it is out of my vocal range."

"Don't worry Lug'," Sora assured, rubbing his hand on Lugia's long slender neck. "Keep chasing them. Roxas will have to calm down sometime, and then we'll figure out what's going on with him."

"Who is this Roxas?" Lugia asked with interest as it carried its Master across the sky after a smaller creature whose wings didn't take it as far with every flap. "I don't believe you have ever mentioned him before."

That was a low blow and Sora winced as he realized he really had forgotten all about Roxas. "I know," Sora muttered, "He's an old friend who I need to help. So please Lugia."

"Of course," the Guardian of the Sea replied with a nod of its large blue and white head. "Hang on…"

A few miles back, and getting even farther every second, Sora's friends all stood at the edge of the forest. Most of them had seen Sora's goodbye to Kairi and their promise, and Nami and Juvia were tearing up at the complete faith the two had in each other and their ability to find one another anywhere they went.

Nami heard a light, but lower pitched sobbing behind her and she turned to see Sanji with his head buried in his suit sleeve. "Sora, you are a man among men!" He lifted his head up to the air, "But I am so jealous!" He roared.

Kairi giggled as she heard Sanji's shout, but she just kept looking out above the trees where Sora disappeared to. Gray walked up to the girl's side and tried to see if she was hiding any hidden fear or anything, but she was just smiling like always. "Why aren't you worried?" He asked her in a slightly grim tone.

"Didn't you hear him?" Kairi asked, turning her head to Gray. "He said he'd come back. He promised," she spun around to faceless rest of the ground, "Sora never breaks his promises."

"Well that's great for him, but," Killua started, "now we're down our strongest member! I really thought we were screwed with Goku and Timmy leaving but..."

"Strongest?" Natsu asked, turning his head in a little.

"Member?" Luffy continued, also turning in towards the fourteen year old.

"I've seen everyone here fight," Killua stated. "I've been judging my targets since I was a toddler, deciding who was safe to kill, and who was too much of a risk to go for it."

Everyone just stared at the boy in somewhat shocked silence. The fact that he was talking about killing people as a toddler was very unnerving to most... all of them. Killua continued in a confident tone, "I'd be willing to take on all of you, even you rubber man," he told Luffy who would be his biggest challenge without the effective use of his lightning. "But I never wanted to take on Sora. Or Riku for that matter," he admitted and glanced over at the silver haired teen who was ignoring the conversation and just talking to Kairi.

"You think Sora was stronger than us?" Natsu asked the kid with a scoff.

Killua shrugged, "Maybe not in raw strength you brute, but he's got Pokemon, Keyblades, flying, strength, darkness, and most importantly fighting smarts."

"I'm all of those things and more!" Natsu yelled at the boy.

"Whatever you say Fire Guy," Killua replied, putting his hands in his pockets and walking towards the tree line.

"Why you little!" Natsu lifted his fist, not even bothering to cover it in flames he was so confident. He punched down towards Killua's back, and then everyone watching froze with their breaths caught in their throats.

Natsu's fist stopped moving right where Killua's head used to be, but now Killua was on Natsu's right side with his hand held up near Natsu's neck, his sharp fingernails touching the Dragon Slayer's neck. There was another small figure standing on Killua's left side, holding back the arm that's fingernails had just touched Natsu throat and now had blood dripping down them. "What do you think you're doing?" Dash asked the white haired kid who he had thought was pretty cool up until this point, but who he had just stopped from killing their friend.

Killua chuckled as he looked at the quick kid with immense power in front of him. He's not very experienced, but easily the best I have left. Better keep being friends with him. "Whoa Dash," Killua said with a chuckle, losing the murderous intent in his eyes. "Wasn't going to hurt him, come on, you know me better than that. I just wanted to," he looked towards Natsu who still had not looked towards him, but was lifting up his left hand and touching the blood droplets sliding down his neck. Killua chuckled, "Teach him a lesson," the boy finished.

"Creep," Gray growled over at the kid who walked away from his nakama with bloody fingernails.

Killua shrugged, "I thought you would understand most of all Ice Man. This isn't a game. I'm worried about my safety after learning I already died here once. If we split up too much it's going to be very dangerous for each of us. So the fact that everyone's joking around about Sora's desertion, does not sit right with me."

"Desertion?" Riku looked back and asked the kid with a small laugh. "I don't know about Timmy, or Goku, but Sora would never in a million years not come back for Kairi."

"Hehe, thanks Riku," Kairi told the boy next to her who stood up for Sora before she had a chance to.

"Let's just get moving!" Nami exclaimed, one of many people getting fed up with all this drama. "We'll get through the forest, make it to our destination, and hopefully Zoro will be there."

"Yeah!" Luffy shouted, getting excited again. "Let's go!" He yelled, and started marching towards the woods.

"Alright guys, let's go!" Natsu yelled and waved his hand mimicking Luffy and marched off in a taunting way.

"God this is going to be a long trip," Ben mumbled as the two of them immediately began arguing the second they entered the forest and passed the trees they had their climbing contest on before. He looked over to Dash to have a laugh about their older friends' antics, but Dash was just staring over at Killua with a narrowed gaze. "Come on Dash, I'm sure he wasn't really going to hurt Natsu."

"He drew blood Ben," Dash said, turning to his slightly older friend sternly. "What if he had killed Natsu? You heard him, he thinks he could take all of us on, and to tell you the truth I'm pretty sure he's a lot stronger than any of us have seen."

"Really?" Ben asked, looking over and seeing Killua walking forward alone with a pretty large gap around him now. "I haven't noticed."

"Yeah well," Dash started in a quieter voice, "you ever notice how when we get swarmed by monsters he's always the last to help, or only jumps in if the fight is an easy win? I've noticed," Dash continued, glaring at the back of the older boy's head. "I don't trust him Ben," he continued softly.

"Don't worry so much," Ben said and put an arm around his friend's shoulder, pulling Dash's head into his side and annoying the little blond speedster. "When we fought Nox, he died fighting chasing after you. Nox took you and went back to his ship, and Kil was the first one to get there after me." Dash's eyes widened and he looked back over at the white haired kid who kept walking through the entrance to the woods and after Luffy and Natsu.

"He did?" Dash whispered in surprise.

I did? Killua thought in much more surprise than Dash. Ben can't be lying. The fact that Meruem showed up and mentioned it is enough proof, but that isn't like me at all. I should have known when the guy nabbed Dash that I couldn't handle him. How could I be so stupid to die like that?! Gon's face appeared in Killua's mind and he frowned, because next to it was a fainter image, showing Dash. Around that faint image were dozens of other faint images all over the place. Stupid? Dying trying to save a friend is probably what Gon would call the coolest death, Killua sighed and kept walking, hands in his pockets while looking up at the dark tree canopy up above.

Killua was staring up at the trees for a few seconds when he stopped walking. He did it so suddenly, right in the middle of a stride, that everyone else behind him froze as well. The white haired kid stared up and the rustling branches in the air, and then he looked to his left and right.

"What is-" Sanji started calling over to him, but Killua spun towards him and held up a finger to his mouth telling Sanji to be quiet.

Killua pointed up with one finger right above his head. Everyone followed the point up to the tree branches, and stared in surprise as one tree's branch was brushing up another's, both branches ending in the shapes of hands. "The trees are alive," Killua whispered loudly.

"Which ones?" Dash whispered up to the kid who he just learned tried to save his life.

Killua smiled a little that he had regained some trust, and he looked back with a small grin, "All of them," he said.

Nami looked around her as a gust of wind rushed through. The whistling of the wind sounded low pitched, and she looked up to see the branches swaying up above. "Wow," she whispered.

"It's quite amazing isn't it?" Robin asked her friend.

"Juvia has never heard trees sing before," the blue haired woman added on, holding out her arms and smiling as she let in the great feeling of nature around her. Nami's eyes opened wide and she opened her mouth, but one of Robin's hands appeared on her face and covered up her mouth. "Juvia is so happy," the younger woman continued as she spun around, holding her arms out happily.

Robin lowered her hand from Nami's mouth as it looked like the navigator no longer wished to interrupt Juvia. Little strands of water were seeping out of her fingers and making patterns in the air, dancing as if with the trees' song. Water lifted her feet up above the dark forest's floor, and she waved her arms around in a rhythm, as if she were the conductor of an orchestra.

"Wow," Franky admired, lowering the sunglasses from his robot face a little and admiring the girl. "She's gotten a lot better than when we met her," he chuckled, remembering the flustered girl they adopted to their crew back on the first day of Nexus.

The cyborg turned to Gray and gave the younger man a nice elbow in the side. "Lucky boy," Franky said with a chuckle, then laughed harder as Gray's face went red.

He didn't spend much time looking at Franky though, as he was far too interested in Juvia. He looked at the girl floating higher and higher, spinning around and around with a bright smile on her face. The dark leaves of the trees around her actually started to lighten in color, and the dark brown trunks became a lighter shade as the water from her magic seeped into them.

The ground suddenly shook and everyone down below looked to the distance where Luffy and Natsu had disappeared to. "If those idiots are hurting the trees I'm going to murder them," Nami snarled and stormed off through the woods. Most everyone followed after her, though Juvia was staying behind, and Gray stopped himself from going with the others to stay and watch her instead.

Everyone else headed out through the woods in the direction they last saw Natsu and Luffy going. They all ran out of the trees at around the same time and gawked at the sight in front of them. In he middle of the forest was a bridge, a rope bridge, leading out to a large island with drop offs all around the circular island. Between the outskirts of the trees and the fortress itself was a moat all the way around, with steep slopes to get back up if one were to fall in.

The rope bridge was a madhouse at the moment. It looked like people were trying to cut it down from the other side, but someone was standing there and beating them all away. The bridge was on fire and wobbly, and it didn't look like it was going to stand much longer.

On the island the bridge led to, in front of the figure fighting off demons at the bridge, was a large castle. As they were admiring the work of architecture: five stories tall made out of stone blocks, and a couple of acres of square feet making up the base, the entire building shook.

"One guess as to where Natsu and Luffy are," Ben muttered. As the words came out of his mouth, an enormous foot flew out of the top of the castle, coated entirely in black and as it came back down it burst into flames. "HAWK AXE!"

The left wall exploded outwards in a giant hole at the same moment, with a beam of yellow and red crashing through the stone wall. "Lightning Fire Dragon Roar!" Natsu's voice echoed as the huge beam shot out into the woods.

"No!" Dash yelled. The little boy ran as fast as he could. The beam was fast, but he ran around the outside of the moat and slid on the grass right underneath it before it hit the line of trees. Dash slammed both of his fists up and roared, "RAAAA!" As he did, his punches sent Natsu's attack lifting off its original course and going up above the trees, only burning through a little of the canopy above him. "Sorry about that!" He called up to the trees which were apparently alive. He stopped as he started thinking about it, Wait, aren't all trees alive?

Maybe they were, but they definitely couldn't do what everyone started to see the trees doing now. "AaaAAeeeHahhh," a beautiful voice rang out around the forest, and the people watching from the edge of the moat turned around and looked the direction they just came from.

Floating out from in between some trees was their blue haired Rain Woman. Juvia floated forward with her arms risen to her sides and one large pillar of water holding up her feet. Her eyes were huge, and glowing pure white as more water than ever shot out in a hundred different streams out towards the darkened trees all around her.

"Who are you?!" Gray shouted at the woman who stopped responding to his calls of 'Juvia.'

"I am the Dryad who reigns over this forest, a Meliai, daughter of Gaea!" The creature was raising its voice and the amount of water coming out of Juvia's arms was increasing. "This human girl restored my strength and that of my brethren, and now under my possession she will rid the forest of those who defiled it." She floated forward, her pillar of water ripping through the ground as it shot towards the clearing. The Dryad froze at the edge of the trees, where a huge clearing was cut so the most could be built, and that large castle in the middle of it all. "Some of these trees were my sisters," she whispered, seeing stumps of trees around the edge of the most. "This will not be forgiven!"

"Ms. Dryad, Meliai," Kairi called up to Juvia's possessor who was floated forwards. The tree spirit looked down towards the red haired girl who was waving up at her. "A few of our friends are actually over there fighting the people who did this to your forest, so please don't destroy everything."

The Dryad stared at the innocent girl, and then around at her nervous and scared friends. "Very well," she said in a loud commanding tone. "In that case," she floated forward and the pillar of water under her entered into the moat, immediately picking up the water from the wide moat separating the encircling trees from the inner island. "Brothers and sisters," she called out, "Awaken!"

The water around the entire castle, probably a full mile circumference of water on the outer edge of the moat, shot up in the air. The moat dried out in a few seconds, all of the water lifted up in the air and swirling around beautifully. It swirled in different patterns and arced in streams and jets that shot off into the forest in every direction.

Inside the castle, Yokai were running around all over the place. The green, blue, and red demons covered in bumpy skin were shouting and screaming as their walls collapsed around them. "Someone alert Lord Suzaku!"

"He and commander Seiryuu are already locked in combat!" Another demon roared in response.

"What's going on here?" A low voice growled making everyone turn to see a large muscular blue tiger storming up the stairs. He had a fur pelt on and long green hair going behind his muscular back and down to his waist.

"Byakko-sama!" The demons all running around stopped and saluted the man. "There are intruders in the castle, all three of the other four Saint Beasts are already locked in combat!"

"Ahh!" Someone yelled from behind the gathered Yokai. They all looked back to see a demon with one eye and blue bumpy skin backing away from a window.

"What is it you coward?" Byakko growled, charging over and throwing his weak subordinate out of the way. The tiger Yokai stared outside and his green eyes grew wider and wider. "The forest," he whispered, watching as every single tree for miles was ripping itself up by the roots. Some of them formed faces, and others just whistled using the wind. "It's coming to life!" He roared.

"That's the least of your worries," a voice said from behind the tiger. He turned around to see a man wearing a red shiny jacket and similar pants, along with a gray fur coat draped over his back. He held up a silver set of nunchucks that were dripping blood, "You one of these Saint guys or whatever? That stone guy was weak, but at least he lasted a few shots."

"You defeated Genbu? Hahaha, what a weakling he was! Raaa!" His opponent with short spiky white hair and red eyes just chuckled at his opponent's level of stupidity.

All over the castle battles were not going well for the Yokai. "How?!" The Lord of the castle, Suzuku growled as he fell backwards, gripping his side in pain. The orange haired leader of the four Saint Beasts pushed himself backwards. "What are you?"

"Just a simple bartender," the short man in front of him replied, before swinging down his sword's hilt and cutting the castle in two.

A dozen people watched from the edge of the dried-up moat as an army of trees charged the castle. Explosions occurred inside, a lot of demons screamed in pain, and roots tore the walls down. All in all it did not last long, but the ones standing on the sidelines were still disappointed they did not get involved sooner.

The figure who was standing on the other side of the now destroyed drawbridge turned around and looked over towards the people on the outside of the empty moat. A closer look showed the person was actually a girl; she looked pretty young too. She had long white hair kept nicely in a ponytail, and wore a snow white combat skirt that matched her pale complexion. Seeing that no more enemies were coming out of the destroyed castle, the girl swung around her pointy rapier a few times and then slid it down into her sheath.

Kirito smiled at the sight of a rapier, Just like the one Asuna used to use, he became sad thinking about her, but then felt strange as he was staring across the moat at the girl and she was looking straight back at him. Kirito averted his gaze, but out of the corner of his eye he saw the girl sliding towards them.

"Well that's one way to travel," Riku said with a small chuckle. He watched as white circles of magic appeared under the girl and allowed her to slide across the ground without ever picking up her feet. Her glowing circles had arrows on them and directed her in between the army of trees heading for the castle to defeat the demons that tainted their forest in the first place.

The teenage girl with white hair slid all the way up to the edge of the moat they were on and she did a front flip before landing in front of them. She did not draw her sword which they were thankful for, but she did frown at them with an annoyed look on her face. "Wow, that was really cool," Dash complimented the older girl. "You were like Bam! And wham!"

"And you all just stood here and watched," she replied, giving them a sort of disdainful look.

"What, did you need our help?" Kirito asked her.

"Of corse not!" She snapped over at the taller of the two black haired teens.

"Then, what are you mad at us for?" Ben asked, starting to get skeptical that this girl was as serious as the mood she was giving off implied.

"Hmph," she humphed, turning away from them. "Come with me," she stated, and started walking back into the moat.

Dash took a step forward but Ben put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Um, why would we listen to you?"

"Because there's a rubber idiot over there who couldn't see any of the enemies," she looked back at them. "I'm just assuming he's with you."

Nami fumed, her entire face turning red as this girl judged them faster than anyone she had ever met before. "And it's all Luffy's fault," she growled, storming after the younger girl to go find that idiot.

"Well, at least Natsu can see his enemies," Ben said on a positive note. He started walking forward with everyone else, but Gray hesitated.

I've never thought about it, but why can Natsu see demons? Gray wondered. He never mentioned being attacked by them, or them ever being invisible to him in the first place.

"Come on Gray," Dash called back to the older boy falling behind. "Juvia's still possessed by that fairy spirit you know."

"Huh?" The white haired girl leading them asked, turning towards Dash who blushed as the girl looked straight at him. "What fairy? What are you talking about?"

"That girl with water powers is also our friend," Ben told the girl in front of him. "You know, the one who summoned an army of tree people," he boasted.

"They're called ents," the girl corrected and then turned and kept walking. Ben's boastful smile wiped from his face and Riku clapped a hand on his back for at least a good try at impressing this person.

The group gathered up on the center island which was just a mass of rubble now. Sitting on a large stone block up in the middle of the castle at the highest elevated piece of rubble was a kid. He wore a brown sweater vest over a white button down, and black pants, and he had a green hilt visible over his shoulder. His blond bangs went just down to the bottom of his forehead and he had a welcoming smile that said 'Come right on in! Welcome to my pile of rubble!'

A few yards away from him on the left was a guy wearing red shiny clothes and a gray fur coat, though he was in the process of making himself a blue one. The dead Saint Beast on the ground next to him had quite the strong pelt, and he wanted Byakko's fur for himself. "Come on just a little more," the guy with short spiky white hair grumbled, tearing a little harder and splashing some blood up on his face. "There we go," he lifted up the blue fur pelt and slung it over his shoulder.

The man turned his head and pointed his bloody face over at the people standing outside the castle debris. The guy smirked menacingly at them and licked some of his dead opponent's blood off the corner of his lips.

The boy sitting on a stone block in the middle of the castle stood up and looked down at the strange group. "Who're these guys Weiss?" He asked, his voice coming out high-pitched so that he really sounded like a child, even though for some reason his composed stature seemed like that of someone much much older than the twelve year old he appeared to be.

Weiss Schnee looked back at them and shrugged, "They were just watching from the sidelines, Captain."

"We got here late that's all," Ben snapped at the girl. "Hey," he called up to the boy who looked around his age. "You've seen our friends right?"

"Two idiots, around this tall?" Nami held up her hands in front of her, one a little higher up than the other.

Weiss chuckled a little at that one but she quickly regained her composure as the tough serious girl and put back on a frown. "The stretchy guy got his butt kicked," she said with a small grin. "Don't know how he's made it this long without seeing Yokai."

"There aren't as many Yokai on Awul," Riku stated calmly towards the sassy girl who went wide-eyed at his statement.

"Awul huh?" The guy wearing shiny red clothes and a blue pelt asked, stepping towards the group near their entrance (just another broken wall). "We know anybody there Captain?" He looked back over at the little kid.

"You're the Captain of this group?" Nami asked the kid skeptically.

"Yep," the boy jumped off his log and landed ten feet in front of Nami. He walked up to her and looked her head to toe, "37, 21, 33."

Nami reached her arms up to her chest and exclaimed, "How did you know?!" And then she realized what she said, and she realized what he said, and what she said again. Her cheeks flushed red from the bottom up. The guy showed up right behind her moving pretty fast and he reached up for her butt, but a flaming kick flew towards him in that moment.

The small man lifted up a hand and stopped the flaming kick, but still skid back across the ground a little as the man who kicked him's entire body was covered in flames. "Hehe, I was just playing around," he said as he saw the deathly glare the flaming chef with blond hair was giving him.

"Sanji-san, calm down," Nami demanded. The chef's flames went out instantly and he appeared at her side like a loyal dog. She patted him on the top of the head as such, and then glared at the small boy, "I could never get mad at a kid for-"

"I'm not a kid," the man said in a completely normal, but still high-pitched voice.

The others who just met him were skeptical, but Franky shrugged his huge metal shoulders. "Hey, it happened to Goku. He looks like he's ten years old."

"Did you just say Goku?" The blond figure in front of them asked. His smiled faded and he actually looked surprised for the first time since they saw him sitting on top of a castle's remains.

"Yes, and I'm very curious as to how you know him," Ben started, "but could you tell me where my friend is first, pink haired guy?"

"Oh yeah," the taller man with short spiky white hair said and laughed at himself for forgetting. "I forgot him under the rubble," he said, then laughed some more.

"Ban," the small Captain of the strange group started. "You said you would bring him up with you."

"Alright alright," Ban the Immortal mumbled and walked over to a huge piece of rubble that he casually lifted up and tossed to the side. It looked like it weighed several hundred pounds but it was nothing to the crazy man who started digging around. "I'm sure I left him here somewhere."

"Anyway," the guy in charge continued. "Gowther just took your stretchy friend who could not see demons back to Mama Hawk. We'll take you to him."

"What, you're just going to leave this castle like this?" Ben asked, looking around at all the destroyed... everything, around him.

The guy shrugged, "We only came here because they told us we had to pay a toll. I told them to show me their pass from the King, and whether or not they had one, they pretended like they didn't need it." He grinned, "Now we get to keep our money!"

Nami's eyes widened more and more, and then she smiled wide. "I like this man. Let's follow him to the end of the world!"

Everyone sweatdropped at the money-loving woman, but they followed after her and the man leading them. "By the way," the man said, lifting up his right hand and making a little wave over his shoulder, "I'm Meliodas."

"Meliodas?!" A voice exclaimed.

Everyone turned back around towards the outside of the destroyed castle. Gray had stopped out there and talked to the Dryad for a little, thanking her for returning Juvia's body and such. He was helping a confused and dizzy Juvia into the rubble after everyone, when he heard the name and looked up, to see the man himself.

Ban lifted up a gasping pink haired Dragon Slayer out from beneath a bunch of debris that collapsed on him when the castle went down, almost suffocating him. When he heard that voice he dropped the younger man right back down and spun. "What a surprise," the white haired guy with a bloody blue fur pelt over his shoulder chuckled.

"And Ban," Gray said, turning and smiling over at the taller man as well.

Meliodas, the Captain with shoulder length blond hair, went running across the rubble over to Gray. "How's it going?" Meliodas asked, slamming his hand forward and gripping Gray's forearm as the taller man did the same.

"Haha, finally a familiar face," Gray said, sounding relieved. "Been back here for weeks and you're the first familiar face I've seen."

"So you really were on Awul?" Meliodas asked, and he and Gray started walking side by side across the rubble together.

"Uh huh, you would have liked it over there. Nonstop battles for months. It was pretty intense," Gray chuckled.

"I bet you and your friends could use a drink and a place to stay for the night," Meliodas offered, surprising the others who heard nothing of this before, but now because Gray was there it looked like they were getting special treatment.

"Thanks a lot but-"

Nami appeared behind Gray and swung both arms around his face, suffocating him. "Of course we would like to accept," the woman said with a bright smile at the young looking Captain. "Right Gray?" She growled menacingly at the boy whose mouth and nose she was currently holding closed. Gray nodded his head furiously while his face was turning blue and Nami smiled, letting go and clapping her hands together. "Great!"

"Nami-saaaannnn," a low voice growled directly behind Nami. The orange haired pirate woman turned to see Juvia towering over her with red eyes. "Romantic rival, romantic rival," Juvia kept repeating and making threatening hand gestures at her good friend.

"Uhh, it's not like that," Nami told her, swinging her arms around innocently.

"Girls fighting for you and you haven't even taken your shirt of yet Gray," Ban called over with a laugh, then fell over on his back as when he was looking over Gray was actually midway through stripping.

"Shit," Gray let go of the hem of his shirt and became embarrassed. "Let's go eat. We've got a lot to talk about."

"Ughh, yeah," Natsu agreed groggily from in the back where he was stumbling next to the white haired man.

Ban leaned down next to the Dragon Slayer's head and whispered, "Don't mention anything about me knocking you out. Really thought you were a demon there for a second, ha!"

"Y-yeah," Natsu mumbled as he staggered forward, "ha!" He repeated and started laughing in a confused manner.

"Haha, I like you," Ban put an arm around the young mage's shoulder and led them away.

The group walked away from the castle and through the other side of the moat. "The forest isn't that big actually," Meliodas was explaining. "Half a mile away Hawk's Mama is waiting for us."

"What is this Mama Hawk thing he keeps talking about?" Nami whispered into Gray's ear, then wished she hadn't as she could feel Juvia's murderous glare boring into the back of her head.

"You'll see in a minute," Gray said, waving her off with a smile on his face, far too preoccupied to care about the people behind him. "So Meliodas, how's the bar?"

"Great! Surprising how few people visit when we aren't near a big town though," he added.

"That's the opposite of surprising," Gray muttered with a shake of his head. "Not everyone's powerful enough to roam this continent alone you know."

"Looks like you found yourself a new team," Meliodas commented. "You seen Zoro recently? I sparred with him a few months ago but-"

"ZORO?!" Nami, Sanji, Usopp, and Franky all shouted, while Robin just lifted up her eyebrows in surprise.

Meliodas sweatdropped at their reactions. "Yeah," he stated, "that's what I said."

"How long ago?"

"Which way did he go?"

"Was he in one piece?"

"Of course he was what kind of question is that?"

"I mean does he still have all of his limbs?"

"Ohh-"

"Guys, give him some space," Gray scolded the pirates. He turned back towards a confused Meliodas and explained, "They're members of Zoro's crew who he got separated from two years ago."

"Oof," Meliodas said, smiling a little but still making a noticeable wince to show he understood their struggle. "Two years and you still haven't found Zoro huh? Hey, any of you seen a guy named Escanor? What about a giant named Diane? Lis?" No one answered him and the Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins just sighed. "Well, it was worth a shot. Come on, Hawk's Mama is right through here."

The short man with smooth blond hair led them out from between some trees. In the clearing was a nice grassy hill with a bar on the top of it. "Welcome to the Boar Hat!"

Gray started chuckling at the name of the bar, and a few of his comrades looked at him strangely but did not understand the reason behind his laughter until they had all climbed up on the hill. The hill started to move, and everyone freaked out, but were much more scared by the face that two eyes opened up on on the front of the hill. The floor lifted up in the air and Ben flew off the side and down in front of the creature, "Whoa! It's a giant green pig... Ohhh I get why it's the Boar Hat, clever," he added with a smile and flew back up, doing a front flip and landing on the ground in front of the Boar Hat building.

"You can fly," Ban said, a little impressed by the thirteen year old in front of him. "Where'd you learn that?"

"They did mention something about Goku," Meliodas remembered and turned to Gray as he led everyone inside his bar. "How do you know the Super Saiyan?"

Everyone walked into the bar and looked around at the empty tables and bar. There was someone lying out on the bar however, and they sighed seeing a bruised and battered Luffy lying there with a small girl kneeling on his chest, using some sort of magic to try and heal him.

"Here, let me," Riku said and walked across the room towards the pirate on the bar counter. He rose up his right arm and a black and red Keyblade formed in it, pointing right over Luffy's body at the small fairy girl kneeling on him.

A fist gripped around the shaft of Riku's Keyblade and the teen turned to his left to see the tall man in shiny red clothes glaring at him with his red eyes. "What do you think you're doing pointing that at Elaine?"

"Ban, it's okay," the girl said and floated over towards him.

Riku yanked the Keyblade out of the man's grip, who was surprised Riku managed to do such a thing even if his grip wasn't as tight as it could be. "Cure," Riku stated and his dark-looking Keyblade lit up green for a moment, forming a small green dome that wrapped from Luffy's feet to the top of his head.

"You are getting better at Heal magic when you should be working on your offensive power." I have enough time for both. What's the best offense? "A good offense." Wrong, a good defense! You beat Sora down hundreds of times, but unlike you, he could keep healing himself endlessly. "That is... RAAAA"

"Ahh!" Riku yelled out loud and grabbed at both sides of his head as it suddenly filled with pain. It felt like Ansem was being forcefully ripped out of his head.

"Hold still for a moment," the small figure floating up in the air next to Ban said. The Fairy, Elaine, floated down to get closer to him while she held her hands out. "You have something evil that should not be there-"

"RAA! Stop her!"

"Stop it," Riku growled. "Don't take him out," he lifted up his head and his eyes were bloodshot while he clenched both sides of his head trying to hold himself together. "We had an agreement. I won't go back on it," he shouted, making Elaine back up fast and lower her arms.

The pull tugging on Ansem stopped and the man faded back into Riku's mind, staying down as apparently talking to Riku made himself noticeable to this Fairy girl. "What did you do to him?" Kairi asked the little fairy, running over to Riku and leaning him back against the bar counter.

Meanwhile Luffy was sitting up on the counter all healed thanks to Riku's healing magic. He looked around and realized he wasn't in the fight anymore, which pissed him off. "Right at the end there, I started to see them," Luffy mumbled, "Just needed a few more seconds."

"Luffy!" Usopp shouted over at the captain of their pirate crew. "These guys know Zoro!"

"Ehhhh?!" Luffy exclaimed and jumped up on the bar counter.

"Captain," a new voice spoke coming from behind the bar. There was a person wearing glasses, with short purple hair, and a white apron on standing in the doorway to the kitchen behind the bar. "Should the pig and I make enough for everyone here?"

"Go ahead Gowther," the short Captain told the purple haired man over in the doorway. Gray waved over at the man in glasses who just nodded back at him before heading into the kitchen again.

Meliodas poured himself and Gray a few beers, while everyone else talked amongst themselves. "Looks like you've got a new member on your team," Gray chuckled with a glance over towards the door, and the annoyed-looking girl leaning back against it. She looked at Gray and humphed before looking away. The ice mage looked back at Meliodas, "Sure know how to pick 'em huh?"

"Haha, she's not so bad once you get to know her. She's shy around new people. Try feeling her up, she warmed up to me fast after-" the girl with a white ponytail appeared behind Meliodas and snarled the craziest smile with of razor sharp teeth.

"What are you telling him Captain? What exactly were those words that came out of your mouth?" Weiss asked with a menacing look in her eyes.

"Here we go again," Ban said with a chuckle over at the bar where he was talking to Elaine.

"What will it be this time? A hundred and thirty? Thirty one?" Elaine asked.

Gowther poked his head out from the kitchen and commented, "When she loses here it will be Weiss's one hundred and forty ninth loss in a row."

"Well," Elaine began, turning and cupping her mouth. "There is a first time for everything. Go-"

Weiss hit the ground behind Meliodas's seat before most people even saw him move. Dash started laughing loudly and the young boy with spiky white hair near him was snickering under his breath.

Meliodas looked over at them and smirked, holding up a finger to his mouth and going 'shhhh' to them. This only made the boys laugh harder. "What happened?" Ben asked his friend next to him.

Dash covered his mouth and Killua just shrugged. "Guess we'll never know."

"What?" Luffy asked. He saw that no one paid him any mind and looked over at the blond guy who seemed to run this bar. "Why did you take her panties before you knocked her out? I've never seen that attack before."

"Idiot," Killua muttered and face-palmed.

Meliodas chuckled sheepishly, but Elaine flew over and started yelling at him for being inappropriate in front of children.

"And how old are you? Seven?" Dash asked the tiny creature floating in the air who looked no older than eight years old.

She put her hands on her hips and spun to face the boy who dared say that to her. "I am hundreds of years old," she declared to him. "Much older than a human could dream to live to."

"Well, except for Quon," Meliodas said and took a sip of his beer.

Gray lifted up his own beer, "Quon," he said, nodding his own head respectfully and then taking a sip of his friend's good beer. "Mmm, this stuff is good."

"Best brew in the multiverse," Meliodas said, spreading his arms out as he did. "Good new slogan huh?"

"Excuse me," Nami began, trying to get everyone's attention. "So, does anyone know where Zoro is?"

Everyone looked over to see the pirates all gathered around one table talking about it. Nami was the one who asked it, and she looked over to the child bar-owner/ crazy powerful friend of Zoro's.

Meliodas put down his mug and cleared his throat a few times. "Hmm," he hummed. "Last time we saw him, we were heading south towards the Resistance lands. Used to be a lot more customers down there, but the King's forces are wiping everyone out. Only good service is turning out to be in the north nowadays, unless we were to go to the far south, but no one wants to deal with those guys."

Gray slammed his mug down in agreement and everyone from Awul wondered what was so bad about the people from the far south? "Anyway," Meliodas continued. "We were heading south, I'd say three months ago. Zoro's team was passing by and saw Mama Hawk so they stopped by. Said he was heading north for good this time," Meliodas lowered his voice to a slightly grimmer tone, "he looked like he was out for revenge."

"What? Why?" Gray asked.

Meliodas stared at the ice mage, but he really wasn't getting it. "Zoro thought you were dead my friend. Actually, everyone thought you were dead. How in the Hell you got to Awul from the middle of a battle against Chimera Ants is a question for the Gods."

Gray opened his mouth to mention something about Fairy Godparents, but that would only confuse Elaine so he stayed quiet. "Zoro seemed pissed about it?" He asked, actually feeling a little happy because of that despite the guilt gnawing at him for allowing his friends to believe he was dead for so long.

Meliodas nodded his head and then reached down with the hand not holding his mug. "Got a scar," he said. The barkeep lifted up his shirt to show a slash on the right side of his stomach, then turned to show it had sliced completely through his side.

"It didn't heal?" Gray asked interestedly.

"Ha, you know Zoro, bastard figured something out-"

"So where is he?!" Luffy finally yelled, getting tired of this banter about his first crewmate who he was feeling like he knew less and less about by the minute. "Do you know?" He asked, and looked from Meliodas to the others in the bar.

Meliodas sighed and put down his mug. "Sorry," the blond boy/man said. "Wish I could help you. If he's looking for some real revenge though, he'd be heading to the big cities to hit the High Lords."

"Knowing Zoro, I wouldn't be surprised if he challenged the King," Gray muttered, downing the rest of his beer as the thought crossed his mind of Zoro getting massacred trying to avenge him when he hadn't even died. "Ahh," Gray wiped his mouth of the beer and chuckled. "Anyway," he continued talking to Meliodas, "we're on our way south. I have to find out how much of the Resistance is left. Even if they're all gone, I gotta at least figure out what happened to my team who I left on that battlefield."

Meliodas nodded at the ice wizard's conviction. "Well, you are welcome to stay the night. We'll have Mama Hawk stop so that she doesn't take us any more north until you've gotten off." Meliodas stood up to go do that now, and he continued as he walked for the door. "Tomorrow morning, we head for the Dread Fort. It isn't huge, but it is the biggest Cooperative city south of the Cataclysm Line in the West. Plus, it's full of heavy drinkers!" He added and rubbed his hands together thinking about all the business he would make there.

"It's settled then!" Gray exclaimed and shook his friend's hand across the table. "I'll owe you one for this. Sorry for such the big team."

"Ah it's fine," Meliodas admitted. "Though I gotta say when it was just you four, and then when you got that Mystogan fellow to join you, those were the best days to roam these lands. Completely free back then! Not that those new beauties on Zoro's team..."

"Umm," Natsu began loudly from over at a table he was sitting at with Ben, Dash, and Kirito. He looked over at Gray and asked, "Mystogan?!"

"Oh," Gray mumbled. "Well, yeah," he scratched the back of his head a little. "Guess I forgot to mention him. Gajeel was with the Resistance, but Mystogan stayed with Zoro when I left to fight the King." He still saw a glare from his friend and muttered angrily, "It had been while, I'm sorry if I don't tell you everyone I know!" The ice mage shouted, then stared down at his mug that he slammed on the table. "Wow, that was some good stuff."

Natsu groaned at Gray's complete uncaring attitude now that he had reunited with some of his old friends... Or are they new friends? New old friends? The Fire Dragon Slayer grabbed his head in confusion and still in pain from getting hit by Ban earlier.

A green light suddenly wrapped around Natsu and he looked up with a surprised look to see Kairi smiling down at him. "If you're in pain, don't be afraid to say so," she told him. "We have to look out for each other okay?"

"Y-yeah," Natsu said, nodding his head at the girl who was maybe the only person in the room who no one ever had a problem with.

Meliodas was looking over at her interestedly, but Gray tapped his mug on the table a few times to get the Captain's attention before he ran off to go act perverted towards her. "Look at her left hand," Gray said.

Meliodas looked closer and was quite surprised at the sight of a wedding ring on the girl's ring finger. "Who?" Meliodas asked interestedly, looking around to see who the lucky guy was.

"He flew off earlier today," Gray admitted. "Hopped on a Legendary Pokemon, while holding the Legendary Keyblade, to chase after a figure in a black cloak who..."

A glass shattered behind the bar and Gray turned to see Weiss standing there, completely still behind the counter. "Sorry," the white haired girl exclaimed and got to quickly sweeping up the mug she dropped.

Gray looked back at Meliodas with a questioning gaze, but his old friend just shook his head slowly. "I'm telling you Gray," the short man started. "With Resistance land going down, this continent really is going down the drain. You think after I hit the northern cities one more time, Awul might be a good change of scenery?"

"Haha, you're always welcome on Awul," Gray admitted. "Before we headed over here we achieved the destruction of the main criminal organization, the overthrow of the largest and most corrupt Government, and Continent-wide peace with all neighboring lands of that Government we overthrew." Gray looked pretty proud of his achievements and he chuckled, "So if you're thinking Awul, it's a safe bet. No monsters though."

"No monsters!" Meliodas exclaimed in disbelief. The conversation between these two ran on longer and longer with more beer coming out and finally food as well.

Everyone gathered around the table and chowed down on some delicious food. At one point Luffy was eating so fast that he accidentally knocked a plate over onto the floor. He crossed his arms to block the kick he knew was coming from Sanji for wasting food, but Meliodas stopped them. "It's no problem," he assured then cupped his hands to his mouth, "Hawk!"

The kitchen door opened back up, but no one stepped out of it. Everyone heard footsteps though and leaned out of their seats to look towards the end of the counter where a fat pink pig walked around. She looked around at everyone and tilted her snout up in the air, "Sniff sniff, sniff, leftovers! Ee ee ee! Oink!"

The pig charged over to Luffy's fallen plate. "Do not fear. I, Hawk, Knight of the Leftovers shall take care of this!"

Luffy's eyes started sparkling at not only a talking pig, but a talking pig who was also a KNIGHT! That only made his decision all the more final.

As dinner was winding down, Luffy stood up and shouted, "We're going North!" He pointed up, making a few people sweatdrop while most were just staring at him either confusedly or nervously.

"Um, what do you mean?" Ben asked. "I thought we were going south?"

"We are," Gray stated in confusion.

"Nope," Luffy stated.

Nami looked up at her Captain, "Luffy what are you-"

"Why are we going south?" Luffy asked.

"To join up with Gray's friends," Natsu stated out loud, looking at Luffy with a confused and discerning look, as it was not completely unheard of for the pirate to actually make sense sometimes.

"To help the Resistance," Kirito stated. Everyone looked over at the boy in surprise, as this had not been most of their goals. "Goku asked if I wanted to help him out, I said yes. This is what we were going to do together, I'm going to follow through with it and maybe Goku will show back up sooner or later."

"How do you all know Son Goku?" Ban asked, the man totally confused at the casual use of Goku's name by everyone in the room.

"He's the Mayor to my town."

"He saved my life."

"He's like a dad to me."

"He's our nakama," Juvia stated, ending the discussion there, and getting back to the last one. "And, aren't we all nakama?" She asked, looking at Luffy.

"Zoro is too," Luffy said, leaving that question Juvia asked unanswered. "I came because Zoro is here. Zoro is north. We're going north." Luffy looked around to see if anyone else understood what he was saying.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense," Usopp admitted, though he didn't sound too thrilled about it. "I kind of thought we would have to get to Gray's friends to find out where Zoro is, but now..."

"It would just be out of the way," Robin agreed and nodded her head. "You are right Luffy-san."

"I need to find my friends," Gray reiterated, raising his voice a little more.

"So do we," Franky replied as if they were in the same boat. "Chopper and Zoro. We know where Zoro is, or at least a general direction, and that's the best clue we've gotten in over two years of looking for him. Thanks for telling us he was on this continent Super-bro," Franky said to the ice mage, "but we've got a lot of ground to cover."

"On foot?" Nami asked.

"Nami-san!" Juvia exclaimed, having not heard her friend chip in yet but now trying to hold back tears as she talked about going north too.

Nami looked back at Juvia, then turned to Luffy. "Come on Luffy, couldn't we just check out the south way first? Then head up to look for Zoro together? It will still be an adventure."

"Nami," Luffy stated in a firm voice. "I made the decision."

"So what you say goes?!" Natsu yelled across the room at the rubber pirate.

Elaine huddled close to Ban at the bar who was watching all of this with a closed mouth and slight interest, just like the Captain from his seat next to Gray. Meliodas kept a composed look on his face as everyone shouted across the tables he had put together so they could have a friendly feast. "Whoever goes north," the short blond man suddenly said loudly, "will not have to walk."

"Captain!" Ban exclaimed.

"Meliodas-san," Elaine exclaimed.

Meliodas ignored both of them and just chuckled in a small innocent way that really made him look like a kid. "You can come up North with us. The girls will have to work as advertising for the bar, and everyone will have to pull their share, but our team got cut short recently," his voice lowered a little and the atmosphere got darker.

"I'd been wondering where King was," Gray muttered. He didn't put 'the' before King, so some of them were confused. Gray looked over at Elaine, "Are you okay?" He asked.

"My brother was a fool," Elaine replied, her voice hurt as she said it. "But I can't believe he got caught."

"Caught?" Nami asked, looking around and only the people from Aebrith seemed to understand. The entire tone of the room darkened several notches, it was pretty disheartening.

Gray looked over at Nami. "Slavery is legal here in Aebirth. Slaves work for the powerful, they get sold, if they're strong they're sent to the Colosseum in the Capital." The ice mage looked at Meliodas and muttered under his breath, "Any idea where they've taken him?"

"Yeah," Meliodas replied, but still sounded grim. "He's in the Capital. Luckily, he wasn't sent to the Colosseum. Don't know who has him though."

"Shit," Gray muttered, thinking of the small fairy guy who was always pretty fun to hang out with. He was too upset by this now to get really angry at Luffy anymore, and he just looked up at the pirate whose straw hat rested tied behind his neck. "Are you sure about this? We've been talking about lowering our combined strength already, and now..."

"I'm sure," Luffy replied. "I never cared much that people kept leaving anyway," he stated and stuck a finger in his ear twisting it around. "They went off to have their own adventures, it's time for us to go find Zoro." The pirate cracked a smile, "And we get to work at a bar with the Knight of Leftovers!"

Luffy and Usopp went starry eyed, while even Franky posed in his signature way behind them. "So will it just be you six?" Meliodas asked. Luffy looked around at the five original crewmates from back on his world.

"Who are you going with?" Natsu asked the kid with white hair across the table from him. Killua looked back and saw the scabs on Natsu's neck where he cut him earlier that day. He looked up a little and saw the older boy glaring into his eyes.

Killua frowned, "I guess not you," he stated in a cold voice. "Hold on Luffy," he said, turning and looking over at the skinny pirate wearing a red shirt opened at the middle. "Count me in."

"Kil!" Ben exclaimed as the boy just decided to go separate ways as them.

Killua looked back and shrugged his shoulders. He kind of wanted to tell off Natsu in front of everyone for making a big deal out of nothing, but that seemed strange now that he would be leaving them behind. He opened his mouth to mention that it was safer traveling on a vehicle, or towards cities, or away from the people who were fighting the Ant King, but they all sounded like excuses to him. Instead, Killua just replied, "Don't you understand?"

His friends looked at him utterly confused. He held a hand out in front of him and called out dramatically, "I would love to go with you my friends, but unfortunately I must go with my fellow white haired brethren!" He looked over at Ban who started laughing realizing the kid was talking about him.

Luffy laughed too and smiled as he said, "Sure sounds good!"

Riku leaned in and whispered into Kairi's ear. "Sora's not going to like it that not even a full day after he's gone we managed to let the crew fall apart."

"What should we do?" Kairi whispered back.

"There's only one thing to do," Riku replied with a shrug. "I know me and you, and me and Sora, don't have the same special kind of gooey promises you and Sora always make before leaving, but I know we'll all meet again," he whispered to her. "Sora can find both of us. He will be what ties these two groups heading opposite directions to each other."

"Anyone else?" Nami asked, looking around at the big group of people.

"Um, sure," Rin rose his hand. Everyone going with Gray looked over at the boy who rose up his hands in defeat. "What? I'm tired of walking! Besides, someone going north needs to be able to see demons, and that's me." He hesitated for a few seconds, "Plus, did you see that King guy?! I don't want to fight against him. Sorry," he apologized.

"You guys saw the King?" Elaine asked in surprise from her seat at the bar.

Nami looked over at the girl and had to keep reminding herself how old Elaine really was so that she would stop from saying, 'Awwwww,' every time she saw her cute little face and tiny wings. "Yeah we saw him. I'd feel a lot more comfortable if Ben were coming with us," she mentioned and looked over towards Ben. "He's all buddy buddy with The King already!"

"We're not friends!" Ben exclaimed. "I mean, not that he seemed all that bad." He realized he was getting a lot of harsh glares from around the room and he held up his hands in surrender, "Not that I know anything anyway. Sheesh."

Ben looked at Luffy who was smiling back at him, but Ben shook his head. "Sorry Luffy, Usopp," he looked at the two Straw Hats he had known the longest. "I've got to keep to what I said and-"

"I'm going with Luffy," a voice said from the other end of the table. Everyone snapped their heads over and watched as Riku stood up. The silver haired teen looked at Killua and then at Ban, "My hair might be a little darker shade of white, but no one's going to want to walk into a room with us."

Ban and Killua started laughing, and even white-haired Weiss giggled a little, but not many other people were.

"Riku you-" Dash started shouting.

"You can't!" Gray yelled. "A Keybearer could change the tides!"

"Kairi will be going with you," he continued.

"What?!" Nami and Sanji shouted at the same time.

While Sanji just moaned sadly, Nami glared at Riku. "You're going to leave Kairi alone? Sora's already gone and now you-"

"If I were to send Kairi with you I would feel much less safe," Riku started in a cold voice, "than I do leaving her with two of the three other people I trust most on this world." He turned to Ben who was still staring at him silently, trying to figure out, why? "Sorry Ben, it won't be for too long I promise. I'm leaving Kairi in your hands, think you can handle that? Both of you?" He looked at Dash too who was sitting next to Ben.

The two of them slowly started nodding. "That's not very reassuring," Riku stated with a skeptical look.

"We'll guard her with our lives!" Dash exclaimed and saluted with his hand to his forehead at a perfect ninety degree angle.

"You can count on us!" Ben exclaimed as well.

Riku smiled and replied, "I know I can." He sat back down and leaned in, whispering into Kairi's ear, "Look out for them. They're still just kids."

"Aww Riku," Kairi whispered back. "You're such a softie," she teased and Riku turned away, pretending to have no idea what she was talking about.

"So that's it?" Natsu asked as he looked around at all the people in the room. "We come this far with the goal of getting to Gray's base, and now half of you are giving up?!"

"We only ever wanted to find Zoro," Luffy argued with Natsu. "And if you're forgetting, it was my ship that even brought you here. So stop whining you baby."

"God Luffy do you ever shut up?" Nami yelled at her Captain. "We're leaving tomorrow. Can't you just not fight him for one night?!"

"Tell that to him," Luffy replied as Natsu was being held back by Juvia.

"Natsu stop," she begged him. Her eyes were full of tears and they were streaming down her face which actually surprised Natsu into forgetting about the petty argument.

The pirates saw the blue haired girl trying to wipe away tears as soon as they formed. "Juvia?" Luffy asked her, making the girl look at the pirate captain. "You're always welcome on my crew. You're my nakama."

"Then do not leave me," Juvia begged, turning what Luffy thought was going to be a nice heartfelt moment into a sad scene. "Why must Juvia's friends leave?"

"To find Zoro," Luffy explained.

"Zoro-san has a new team now," Juvia sobbed. "He does not sound to be looking for Luffy-san. Why must Everyone find him?"

"Zoro is my nakama," Luffy stated.

"So leaving one nakama for another is okay?" Juvia asked, lowering her hands from her tear streaked eyes.

"You can come with us," Luffy said. "This is the Captain's decision and-"

"Juvia will not leave her Gray-sama's side," she said, her loyalties first and foremost always to Gray.

"Everyone," Riku started loudly, his voice quieting down the room. Elaine stared at the silver haired boy who had that creature inside him, the one that fought her wildly to stay inside him. Everyone watched as Riku lifted up his right arm, and his red and black Keyblade formed in his hand. "Tomorrow morning we are going to split and go our different ways. I'm not as good at these things as Sora is, and I'm sure he's going to rip me a new one for letting this happen while he's off chasing Roxas, but it has to be said. No matter where we go on this continent, we can always count on each other to have our backs. Goku and Timmy and Sora too. If anyone in here ever needs help," he turned to Gray and some of the people in his group, "If fighting the King goes badly and you get captured. If another battle like Metropolis comes up! When that happens we won't split apart like we are now! Alright?" He looked around and held his Keyblade out over the table. "No matter what," Riku repeated. "We come to each other's aid."

Ben looked over at his long time friend who he was still upset at for leaving. "No matter what," Ben said, getting out of his seat and lifting his right hand, drawing a Keyblade of his own. Ben frowned over at Riku who looked back at him, but the younger boy nodded anyway, showing he really meant it despite being mad. Gray went wide-eyed as he had totally forgotten about Ben's ability and was still upset that Riku was only leaving him Kairi. Now the odds seemed a little better though.

Kairi drew her pink Keyblade next and put it in the middle, smiling wide as she did. Everyone stared at the three of them for a few seconds before someone else spoke up. "Heh," Nami chuckled, "makes sense why the Keyblades chose them now doesn't it?" She said out loud, making everyone who had not joined in on Riku's silly pact thing feel bad. "Well, you can count on me," Nami continued, and pulled out her Clima Tact, connecting it and putting it over the crossing Keyblades. "And Timmy, I'll speak for him as his Legal Guardian."

"Huh? When did that happen?" Usopp asked the orange haired woman next to him.

"Shut up and just put your slingshot in the middle dummy," she growled at the sharpshooter.

He made to make the move, but hesitated. To Nami it may just have been something not to think about, but a pact like this was not really that silly. Once one of those things that Riku described comes up, their word would be tested. Who was to say they would not be on the other side of the world about to do something else that also seems important at the time? Reiterating the words 'No matter what' made it even harder to just accept without pause.

"I'm in," Dash agreed. The blond kid vanished and reappeared a few seconds later holding some nunchucks.

"Huh, those kind of look like mine," Ban said, then looked down at his side to check the resemblance between Dash's and his own. He blinked a few times, then snapped his head back up, "Those are mine!" The immortal man yelled at the kid.

Elaine held him back as he tried charging across the room at Dash. "Just wait for them to finish first," she told him. "They will remember this moment for a very long time to come."

"If Nami-san and Kairi-chan are in, then I can not let them go alone," Sanji lifted up his leg and held it in the air with the weapons.

"Can't really say no can I?" Rin asked, shrugging his shoulders and pulling off his Koumaken from his back, holding the sheathed sword out over the table.

Meliodas went wide-eyed at the blade the teen was just holding up without a care in the world. "That sword has a great demonic presence in it," the Captain of the Seven Deadly Skins whispered.

"I know Goku would have been the first one to agree," Kirito muttered, "and I owe more than my life to him, I owe my second chance, my redemption. And I owe it to Sora too for saving me, and actually Timmy." At first he only thought of being saved by Goku from Akuma's Underworld base, but then thought about Sora saving him from Lelouch, and then Timmy saving him in his fight against Blackbeard in Metropolis.

Kirito drew a light blue sword from his back and held it over the table with the others.

"Snif, sniff, Juvia will come running if Juvia's friends are hurt," she hesitated and held back her tears as she added, "no matter what."

Robin stared at the pile of weapons and a foot, and now Juvia's hand. She watched as Franky put a large metal arm over it, opening it up to reveal the cannons inside. No matter what. That is a big commitment, the woman thought, a former assassin herself. She could see why Killua had not yet joined in on their pact to come running even if it meant certain death. Assassins are supposed to make their own luck, this was relying on other people. Robin already trusted her crew, but as she looked around she had no idea who she would be willing to drop everything just to go find him or her. But when she looked back at Luffy, she saw her Captain's reluctant look turn into a smile, and he put a fist out over the pile as well.

With Luffy's fist over the pile, Robin and Usopp both reached out for it. If their Captain was in, then there was no need for hesitation. Usopp put his slingshot in the middle and Robin reached out a single hand, not using her powers which disappointed the youngest members of the group who always got a kick from them.

Before Usopp's slingshot and Robin's hand could reach the middle though, a fist flew out first and stopped right in front of Luffy's. It looked like they were almost about to fist bump each other, but the second fist stopped just before colliding knuckles. The other two lowered down over Luffy, and now Natsu's fists, while the two of them looked across the circle at each other.

The pink haired wizard made eye contact with the rubber pirate making the room silent for a few seconds. "Don't get yourself killed," Natsu said across the table at the pirate. He stopped and smiled a huge toothy grin with his eyes closed as he faced Luffy.

Luffy was truly not expecting that as he stared at the wizard. His face turned to surprise for a second, and then he slowly smiled as well. "Yeah," he told the other boy, for some reason forgetting why he was so angry at Natsu anyway. "Good luck finding Gajeel," Luffy said with a smile of his own.

Natsu's eyes opened back up from his clenched eyes smile, and he looked in surprise at the pirate smiling back at him now. The fact that Luffy remembered their missing nakama's name really shocked the Dragon Slayer, and he nodded once at the pirate across from him.

Everyone had their hands, feet, and weapons held above the table. All except for two. "I," Gray mumbled, looking down at the ground. In his mind flashed Zoro, Zabuza, Takeshi, Gajeel, Gon, Axel, all his friends from the Resistance. "I," he muttered again, a little louder this time. In his mind he imagined all those friends being in danger, but he slowly lifted his head as he thought about it. In the places of those friends became the very people in front of him now, and his face hardened along with his determination. "I now consider each of you as my nakama," the ice mage from Fairy Tail said, smiling around at them softly. "I guess I'll agree to those terms Riku," he added, and held out a hand which created a long ice sword that hovered over the pile.

"You're the only one left Kil,'" Ben teased over to the side where the white haired kid was standing with his hands in his pockets.

Killua stared at their large collection of hands, and after a second or two he stated, "No." Everyone looked at the fourteen year old kid in the bar who was just standing around looking bored and not much else. "I do not know you each well enough to make that swear. I am sorry."

"It's alright," Riku said loudly as some of them were getting depressed by that statement. Riku looked away from Killua as if he weren't there and to the rest of them in front of him instead. "I know when the chance arises you will be there to help us."

Killua's eyes widened as he looked at the older boy facing away from him. What makes you say that? I won't even join in the pact. Why would you trust me? I'm going with you, but I could betray any of you at any time.

While Killua mulled over Riku's words, the older boy with silver hair continued loudly. "Good luck to everyone. Always be ready in case you're called on for help. And remember, no matter what..."

"We'll see each other again," the rest of them continued. They all lifted their, arms, legs, and weapons up in the air. They held them there, and shouted once more as a group, "No Matter What!"

---

A/N A pact is made! No matter what! Roxas?! Weiss?! The Seven Deadly Sins?! Our heroes get news on their respective goals and that news pulls their group apart. Hope everyone enjoyed this part, and the chapter as a whole as I really did enjoy writing it and am glad to have finally published it! After this chapter the crew splits up even more, but before we get into the arcs of our split crew, there's a fun part up next to start chapter 8, where a long-awaited character gets his/her turn in the spotlight! Also, I've now uploaded around 70 thousand words this week to this story, a chapter a day since it began, and I'm going to go through this weekend too, but then take a break as I finish up writing chapters 8 and 9 of Heroes Will Rise and start studying for finals. Don't worry though, out of the 20 parts in the next two chapters, 16/20 are already finished, I have 3 left to write in chapter 8 and only one in 9. Once I'm finished I'll get to posting those too! Anyway, time for review responses, and as always, thanks for reading!

Darugus chapter 36 . 22h ago

Well good to see ben calm down abit
Also I think the reason natsu did the most damage was because was fighting nox after he had to fight everyone else as well him being angry
Also I see your hint when I asked you about fate hopefully it's a good guy and not gilgamesh

Thanks for the review! Natsu's rage was definitely a factor, and Nox was also pretty damaged by the time Natsu showed up. And who knows about the Fate-Stay-Night character? You will after tomorrow's chapter! XD

joebob323 chapter 36 . 21h ago

Nicely done as always. I want to see Goku finally arrive, and the rest of the people beating him up (Or at least trying to) for not coming to rescue them. I still have no idea who the heck the Saiyans you mentioned earlier are. Oh well... Guess its time to play the waiting game again...

Goku's arrival is still yet to come, the Saiyans are a mystery for now, even if Meliodas's gang seems to have heard of Goku before. The waiting game continues! XD Thanks for reviewing!

Darugus chapter 36 . 22h ago

Also hoping for the heroes to get alot stronger since there facing alot

With the crew now split up into smaller groups, will they continue to be able to stop every enemy that's thrown at them? We'll find out in the upcoming chapters! Thanks for the review!

7lights13darknes chapter 35 . 21h ago

OMG! This was by far the darkest chapter made yet. I honestly thought Ussop and Gray were going to die. I figured that it was going to go back in time when. Nox showed up and showed that he was a time traveler. Even so i almost cried when sora and kairi died( i might have if i wasn't at school right now. Ben must be traumatized from this. And know i am really curious as to were Timmy and goku are. I am not surprised dash as so much power. Even in the movie he didn't know his own strength and Timmy only made him stronger. I would say something about how they went back in time because i actually remember that guy who could control time but by only stopping it ( the one that was killed by doomsday) but i won't complain. I don't have any questions or character ideas too much happened this chapter. In all honesty this had to be my favorite one so far. ( when the sora kairi flashback comes it will probably win but be a close call. Also DON'T ANGER SORA OR HURT KAIRI WHEN HE IS AROUND UNLESS YOU WANT A DEATH WISH ! can't wait for the next chapter. Keep up the good work!

;( Usopp Gray nooo! XD I'm glad I got you there for a little, and yeah I guess throwing in a time traveling enemy was a dead giveaway that things were gonna be fixed somehow. Timmy and Goku are still missing, but now Sora goes off on his own too! That may be bad news for Kairi if she no longer has Sora's snapping rage to rely on in a tough situation... and as for Hiro Nakamura (the guy from Heroes you're thinking of) when he fought Doomsday he could not go forward or back in time, all he could do was freeze it. Why couldn't he go back but the Eliacube could? It seems similar to how Goku can't Instant Transmission anymore for some strange reason... XD Thanks for the review!

-Thanks again to everyone who read, faved, followed, and reviewed this story! 'Till next time! Oh wait, here's a list:

Yu Yu Hakusho: Suzuku, Seiryuu, Byakko, Genbu, Saint Beasts, Yokai

7 Deadly Sins: Meliodas, Elaine, Ban, King, Gowther, Hawk, Mama Hawk, Boar's Hat, Escanor, Diane, Lis

One Piece: Luffy, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Franky, Robin, Zoro, Chopper, Blackbeard

Fairy Tail: Gray, Natsu, Juvia, Mystogan, Gajeel

Hunter x Hunter: Gon, Killua, Meruem

Kingdom Hearts: Axel, Sora, Roxas, Riku, Kairi, Ansem (Xehanort's Heartless), Keyblade, Valor Form

Pokemon: Latios, Lugia, Extremespeed

Ben 10: Ben

Incredibles: Dash

Blue Exorcist: Rin

SAO: Kirito

RWBY: Weiss

Hitman Reborn: Yamamoto Takeshi

Naruto: Zabuza

DBZ: Goku

Street Fighter: Akuma

Code Geass: Lelouch

Fairly Oddparents: Timmy Turner