Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Time.

Space.

Reality.

It's more than a linear path.

It's a prism... of endless possibility, where a single choice can branch out into infinite realities, creating alternate worlds from the ones you know.

I am the Watcher.

I am your guide through these vast new realities. Follow me, and ponder the question...

"What if?"

Roxas had just about had enough of this silver haired guy, who he somehow was named Riku.

He had come back to the World That Never Was with Vanitas so they could go through the castle, fight through anyone that got in their way, and make it to Kingdom Hearts, so they could release it. Roxas was sure that it was what he needed to make his way to get Sora, who he desperately needed to find. He had just lost Xion yesterday, and was still feeling incredibly guilty for being forced to do that to her.

Finding Sora was the best way he could get Xion back. He loved her with as much as his empty, heartless chest would allow, and he would do anything he could to get her back, no matter what happened to him along the way.

The only complication at the moment was Riku getting in his way, and Vanitas somehow still not coming to help. Roxas put it up to the Heartless surrounding and overwhelming him, keeping him from being able to show up.

There was a very large amount of Heartless out tonight, for some reason.

Luckily, they didn't get in Roxas's way. Using his Keyblade, he had managed to defeat Riku, then did the same thing just as easily using both of them at once.

At the moment, he had struck through Riku's magic shield, knocking the silver haired teen down onto one knee.

"How many times do I have to beat you?" Roxas asked, pretty pissed at his opponent.

"All right," Riku softly announced, hand on his chest as he glanced up at Roxas. "You've left me with no other choice."

"What?" Roxas asked, confused, as he continued to stand in his battle stance with Oblivion and Oathkeeper drawn.

"I have to release the power in my heart..." Riku announced as he stood up. He reached up and removed his blindfold during his next words. "The dark power that I've been holding back."

Roxas continued to stare at him with confusion on his face as the blindfold fell onto the ground.

"Even... if it changes me forever," Riku announced, broken determination in his voice.

Riku screamed out as darkness started to surround him and he rose up into the air. Roxas raised his Keyblades up in preparation and quickly moved them into battle position once again as darkness continued to surge around Riku. The darkness faded, and Riku was floating in the air with his body once again in the form of Ansem, with the Dark Figure floating behind him to complete the form.

Riku then disappeared and Roxas gasped in surprise as he reappeared in front of him.

Just as the Dark Figure reached forwards to grab at Roxas, the blonde yelled out as he jumped backwards, going across the field to get away from his opponent.

Roxas panted as he stood up straight, looking at Riku with a surprised expression on his face.

"I have no idea who you are, or how the hell you even did that," Roxas announced. He raised his hand with Oblivion and pointed the Keyblade at Riku. "But you are not gonna stop me from getting her back. I loved her with everything I had, and I will fight to my last breath to get her back."

"Well..." Riku said, his voice now matching Ansem's deep baritone. "If that's what it takes."

Roxas twirled Oblivion in his hand before resting it at his side again.

"Bring it on, you son of a bitch," the blonde growled out, glaring angrily at Riku.

He stepped back into his battle stance and prepared himself.

Roxas charged forwards just as Riku floated backwards. The Dark Figure started throwing circular surges of energy out of its hands, which arced through the air as they flew towards the blonde. Roxas rushed forwards to dodge the attacks before hurrying to Riku and delivering a combo attack. Riku quickly floated across the ground before having the Dark Figure gather energy in its hands. The Dark Figure threw its hands forwards, sending two blasts of lightning towards Roxas, which the blonde dodged by surging forwards again, going right between the blasts.

The Dark Figure then disappeared, and Riku landed on his feet and summoned his sword, Soul Eater. Riku lunged forwards and yelled out as he started slashing rapidly with his blade. Roxas used his Keyblades to block against the attacks, and kept blocking until Riku finished. He then used Reversal to quickly move behind Riku, then slashed with both of his Keyblades, releasing slashing energy that knocked Riku forwards.

Riku then floated into the air again, turning to face Roxas as the Dark Figure reappeared behind him. Energy then covered Riku and the Dark Figure, and the two surged forwards through the air, knocking aside Roxas. Roxas landed on his feet and turned around just in time to see Riku and the Dark Figure turn in the air, surging towards him again. Roxas slid forwards to dodge the attack, then kept sliding to dodge as Riku kept surging across the area in front of Memory's Skyscraper, trying to attack with the Dark Figure.

Eventually, Riku and the Dark Figure stopped, and Roxas blasted him with Blizzaga, blasting the ice out of both Keyblades at once. Roxas then quickly ran to Riku, then ended up getting punched in the face by the Dark Figure's massive fists, sending him flying back. Roxas used Aerial Recovery, then blasted Thundaga, at the same time thunder crashed in the distance.

Roxas landed on his feet, then dodged as the Dark Figure blasted black orbs of energy out of its massive fists. The blonde then delivered a combo attack against Riku, dodged the Dark Figure blasting lightning out of its hands, then followed it up with another combo attack. Riku let the Dark Figure disappear, then he started the many slashing attacks with his sword. Roxas ended up getting hit by the first few, but then he cast Reflega. He kept the barriers around him until Riku stopped slashing, letting the shields absorb energy from the strikes and start the retaliatory explosions, which knocked Riku back. The blonde followed it up with another combo attack.

Roxas jumped back as the Dark Figure reappeared and sent the circular, slashing energy at the blonde. He yelled out as he cast Curaga on himself, then dodged it again as the Dark Figure blasted the dark orbs at him. The Dark Figure repeated the action of the orbs, causing one to hit Roxas and knock him back. When he landed on his feet, Roxas could only see one foot in front of himself, so he charged forwards to where he last saw Riku. Riku just smirked and floated to the side with the Dark Figure, amused at the sight of Roxas still charging towards that specific spot with a determined expression on his face.

The Dark Figure then blasted the lightning out of its hands again, but the blast was so loud that it alerted Roxas. He slid forwards to dodge the lightning, then turned towards the sound that it had originated. Roxas's vision came back, so he blasted Blizzaga at Riku again. Riku slid to the side to dodge the attack. Roxas charged at Riku and the Dark Figure, but then the Dark Figure appeared in front of Riku and held its arms out to the side to protect Riku. Roxas then slid forwards underneath the Dark Figure, then started a combo attack against Riku's back, causing the Dark Figure to phase in and out of existence through the attacks.

Riku then dropped to his feet, and yelled out as he started the many slashes with his sword again, this time successfully knocking Roxas around quite a bit before finally stopping, doing a final slash that knocked Roxas aside once more. The Dark Figure reappeared and tried blasting a dark orb at Roxas again, but he cast Reflega again. The shields absorbed the energy from the attack, and did the retaliatory explosions. Roxas blasted Thundaga again before casting Curaga to heal himself.

Riku and the Dark Figure then floated to the center of the road, with energy surging around Riku, while the Dark Figure growled in preparation. Roxas immediately knew something big was happening when the Dark Figure flew up so fast that it quickly left his sight.

Roxas quickly charged forwards towards Riku, not sure if he could do a lot of damage because of the energy surrounding the altered man. He didn't get to immediately sate his curiosity because a puddle of darkness appeared on the ground underneath him. Roxas slid out of the way just before the Dark Figure flew up through that puddle to attack, quickly leaving his sight once again. Roxas continued sliding around across the road, dodging as the Dark Figure repeatedly burst up out of the ground through puddles to try to attack. This went on for a little while before the energy disappeared from around Riku, and the Dark Figure reappeared behind his back.

Roxas then started a combo attack against Riku before dodging as the Dark Figure threw the orbs of darkness at him. Riku and the Dark Figure moved across the ground, then the Dark Figure blasted lightning out of its hands at Roxas. Roxas slid forwards to dodge the attack before using Reversal to move behind the two, slashing with his Keyblades and releasing a big surge of slashing energy.

The Dark Figure then disappeared from behind Riku, and the altered man took out his sword. Roxas slid forwards to dodge as Riku did the many slashes to attack. As Riku did the final stages of the attack, Roxas cast Reflega around himself, letting the strikes hit the shields. Thanks to the blade hitting the barriers, the spell cast the retaliatory explosions, which damaged Riku. Roxas followed it up with another combo attack. The Dark Figure retaliated by throwing the circular surges of energy out of its hands, which caught Roxas off guard and hit the blonde, knocking him back.

Riku and the Dark Figure floated towards the center of the road again, with Riku once again being covered in energy while the Dark Figure growled. The Dark Figure flew up into the air, and Roxas started sliding forwards to dodge, remembering what happened last time. He kept dodging as the Dark Figure appeared as a puddle on the ground before flying up to attack. Roxas successfully dodged most of the attacks, but the Dark Figure was too fast at the final strike, flying upwards and knocking Roxas aside.

Riku and the Dark Figure then slowly returned to normal, so Roxas decided to retaliate with his own big attack.

Roxas moved into a specific spot on the road, and held his Keyblades together. Patterns appeared on the ground, and he floated up into the air as light flew up, changing the sky to look like dark clouds that the sun was peaking through. Roxas flipped in the air before spinning his Keyblades rapidly, sending blue orbs of energy out rapidly. The orbs flew at Riku and repeatedly struck, damaging Riku and doing quite a bit of damage. Roxas kept up the attack for quite a while before ending the attack, letting everything return to normal as he dropped to the ground, landing on his feet again as the fight ended. *1*

Just as Roxas looked up, Riku and the Dark Figure appeared in front of him again, showing that they still had some energy. The Dark Figure was much faster this time, reaching forwards and grabbing Roxas by the tops of his arms, gripping the blonde with a lot of strength.

Roxas winced in pain, struggling against the Dark Figure's grip, to no avail. The darkened monster was too strong, and lifted Roxas up off his feet. Riku and the Dark Figure floated upwards, bringing Roxas with them as they rose up into the air. The Dark Figure held Roxas up, holding him a bit higher above Roxas's head.

Roxas closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as he did everything he could to fight through the pain. Eventually, the Dark Figure's grip became to great, and he had to open up his hands, dropping his Keyblades. Oblivion and Oathkeeper clattered loudly on the ground before they both disappeared in flashes of light. Roxas yelled out in pain once again as he looked down at Riku.

The altered man was just looking up at Roxas with an impassive expression on his different face, showing little to no emotion as he looked at the blonde.

"I have accepted it," Riku announced. "And you have lost."

Roxas's vision slowly started to become blurry as the pain from the Dark Figure's grip started to become too much. He could feel himself slowly start to slip to unconsciousness.

As he did so, images flashed through his mind of his past. There were the days on the clock tower with all three of his friends. Followed by the missions with Axel and Roxas, which included the one on Earth 616 where he met Steve, Natasha, Sam, Maria, and Fury.

Then, the image changed into one of Xion. He saw her smiling at him. Then he saw the missions that they shared where they tried to get back her Keyblade, all of which had him fighting the desire to hold her hand as they walked through the various worlds. It was followed up by their smaller moments together after Axel brought her back into the Organization.

If he had a heart, Roxas swore it was being torn to pieces as the images changed to show him holding Xion in his arms, begging her not to leave him as she faded away.

Seeing those memories once again reminded Roxas how his memories of her had already started to fade. And how he had gotten so close to getting back to the Castle to fulfill her dying wish of setting Kingdom Hearts free.

Newfound determination surged through Roxas's chest, making him pant much more easily. The energy surged through his entire body as he felt himself slowly growing stronger.

"No..." Roxas slowly said, growing more and more loud with each word. "I... haven't!"

Roxas opened his eyes, and Riku frowned in confusion when he saw that Roxas's eyes were glowing with golden light.

The sound of electricity surging deepened Riku's frown. He looked down in confusion, and his eyes widened.

Roxas's hands, which were level with Riku's chest, were opening and closing in determination and preparation, all while blue lightning surged around his fingers. Riku quickly looked back up at Roxas's face, seeing the frown of pure rage shot out of him.

Riku was just starting to re-think his life choices as Roxas yelled out, blasting lightning out of the tips of his fingers and sending Riku flying backwards.

The Dark Figure released its grip on Roxas and let him drop to his feet as Riku was sent crashing into the road, stumbling backwards as he kept rolling.

Riku slowly pushed himself up and looked at Roxas. Electricity was still surging around the blonde's hands, and golden light was still glowing from his eyes as he stepped towards Riku.

Riku raised his hands in an attempt to try to show he surrendered, but Roxas ignored that and pointed his hands at Riku. Even though he was surprised and confused that he could shoot lightning out of his fingers, he decided to ignore that for a moment and kept blasting the electricity out, zapping Riku and doing lots of damage. Riku yelled out and stuttered in pain for quite a while before dropping to the ground, landing on his face and gritting his teeth as Roxas kept blasting the lightning.

After a few seconds, Roxas relented with the lightning and pulled back, slowly dropping his arms to the side and looking down at Riku. Riku was still wincing in pain on the ground, and panted in and out as he glanced up at Roxas.

"I... was gonna say... I give up," Riku panted out in his own voice (which did look weird, hearing the voice of a teenage boy coming out of the body of a grown-ass man). "But... something tells me... you would've kept blasting... even if you heard that."

"You're right, I would have," Roxas confirmed. "Who even are you?"

"My name... is Riku," Riku panted out. "I'm Sora's friend."

"You're also the imposter," Roxas pointed out. "The one who hurt Xion and made her lose her confidence in herself. You made her think she wasn't good enough."

"To be fair..." Riku panted, pushing himself to a sitting position. "I didn't think... anyone would care."

Roxas's frown somehow grew deeper. He reached down, grabbed Riku by his coat, and yanked upwards, pulling Riku up to face him.

"I cared, you bastard," Roxas growled out, pure anger in his voice.

He panted, and Riku could see the start of tears in the blonde's eyes.

"She wasn't just someone in the Organization to me," Roxas snapped at the man. "She was my best friend. And, I..." His voice cracked. "I loved her."

Riku's eyes widened as he looked into Roxas's eyes. He could see that same determination and care in the blonde's eyes that he usually saw in Sora's.

Except it was the look that Sora would specifically only look at Kairi with, a look of love.

Riku immediately felt like the worst person in the world, and looked down as an immense wave of guilt washed over him.

"I'm sorry," he said, since it was all he could offer.

Roxas yelled out as he pushed forwards, shoving Riku hard enough that the altered man fell down onto his back. The blonde panted angrily as he looked down at Riku in contemplation.

Then he pulled a Hi-Potion out of his pocket and tossed it down, where it landed on Riku's chest.

"You're an asshole," Roxas said, pointing at the now very surprised Riku. "But I'm too good a person to let some people die. And while I hate you more than anything else right now, a part of me is convinced you don't deserve it. I guess that's the part of me that comes from Sora." *2*

"Probably," Riku winced out, grabbing the Hi-Potion.

"I'm finishing what I started," Roxas told Riku. "I'm going to that castle and releasing Kingdom Hearts, and I'll fight off anyone that gets in my way."

Roxas turned and started walking down the road, moving past the Skyscraper as he walked down the road to the castle.

"I wasn't lying, though, at least, not to you," Riku said, wincing as he sat up, looking at the departing Roxas. "There's still about six or seven members of the Organization. If you try to go at them by yourself, they'll destroy you."

Roxas slowly came to a stop and looked back at Riku. He was still frowning, but there wasn't the pure rage that was there just a few minutes ago.

"Have you ever been in love, Riku?" Roxas asked.

Riku looked down in thought. When he was a kid, he could admit that he had some feelings for Kairi since she was the only girl in their friend group (that he could stand. Selphie was too damn annoying). And he could admit that before Kairi had even appeared, there were some moments with his friendship with Sora where it felt a bit more like friendship. But as they matured over the years, their feelings became more and more platonic and friendly.

At this point in his life, the only one he felt any romantic feelings for was Naminé, and it hadn't even been long enough for him to consider love.

"I haven't," Riku admitted, looking at Roxas. "At least, not in the way you've experienced."

"Then you don't know how I'm feeling," Roxas said, still glaring at Riku. His bottom lip quivered. "I held her in my arms as she faded away right before me, and I still couldn't say it. She told me to set Kingdom Hearts free, and all I could even say was some stupid words where I asked who else I could have ice cream with. Those were the last words I said to the girl I love more than anything."

The blonde looked down, then looked back up, looking down the road to the Castle That Never Was.

"I'm going to fulfill her dying wish, and then I am going to get her back," Roxas announced, determination in his voice. "No matter what the cost."

The blonde started walking down the road that led to the castle, keeping his emotions in check as best he could as he walked down the path.

Riku watched him depart, and couldn't help but be amazed and impressed by the blonde Nobody. With no heart, and no knowledge of how feelings worked, the blonde was willing to charge headfirst into dangerous territory with no thought of his own safety, all because of two things involving the girl he loved that he lost. He wanted to fulfill her dying wish, and he wanted some way to get her back, even though she was already gone.

This Nobody, Roxas... he probably had more heart than anyone Riku had ever met before.

All of a sudden, a dark corridor appeared next to Riku, so he shakily pushed himself to his feet and used the Hi-Potion, letting it heal his wounds from the battle, especially the lightning blasts.

DiZ then walked out of the portal, and he frowned in confusion when he saw Roxas nowhere in sight.

"What happened?" DiZ asked. "What happened to the Nobody?"

Riku winced as he felt his wounds finish healing.

"You remember how you said that Nobodies couldn't feel any form of emotion?" Riku asked. He glanced down the road that Roxas had walked down before looking at DiZ again. "Well... I think you were wrong about that."

Roxas walked down the road from Memory's Skyscraper to the entrance of the Castle That Never Was, doing his best to put his encounter with Riku out of his mind. The most surprising part of that fight was that he discovered he could shoot lightning out of his fingers. That certainly surprised him, but in the end, he decided that it would just serve as another weapon he could use against the Organization as he fought through them to get to Kingdom Hearts.

He still wasn't entirely sure why he had let Riku go. Part of Roxas had wanted to finish the man off for what he had done to Xion, but another part of him told him that despite how angry Roxas was, Riku didn't deserve it. So, he instead gave the man a Potion and (internally) gave him well wishes.

Right now, Roxas was walking up the road of Brink of Despair, going up the large ramp as he left the large city. Roxas stepped up the brink, finding himself at the edge of the gigantic cliff that led down into the gigantic, bowl shaped teal walled crevice in the ground that extended out as far as the eye could see.

The Castle That Never Was floated high in the air above Roxas, looming pretty dangerously with the entrance walkway powered down, keeping anyone from entering (though the only people who actually inhabited this world were just Heartless and Nobodies).

Roxas looked up at the Castle above him, then summoned both his Keyblades. Pressing the two blades together, the blonde raised the blades and pointed them right at the Castle. Light gathered at the end of the two joined blades before firing out a beam of light. The beam flew high through the air and towards the castle, hitting one of the spinning spokes on the bottom.

There was then a gigantic flash of light, before energy surged out from the castle, making the light blue, projection-looking ramp appear and connect from the broken road to the entrance of the castle.

Roxas lowered his Keyblades and looked up with a determined expression on his face.

"I will not rest until I have her back," he announced.

Dismissing his Keyblades, Roxas began the trek up to the castle.

Within the Round Room deep in the Castle That Never Was, Xemnas was sitting atop the highest throne, staring downwards in contemplation with his eyes closed. There was a brief moment of silence before darkness started surging throughout the room, reaching the ceiling then disappearing as it deposited the members of the Organization there for a meeting. Along with Xemnas, Xigbar, Xaldin, Saïx, Axel, Demyx, and Luxord all sat in their thrones, the only form of color for the very white room.

"To what do we owe the honor of this sudden meeting, Lord Xemnas?" Xigbar asked, looking up at Xemnas with a smirk.

"Yeah, why are we here?" Demyx asked, yawning loudly. "You guys woke me up."

"There has been a new development," Saïx announced, holding his knee against his other leg. "Roxas has returned to the castle."

"He's already returned to us?" Luxord asked with a laugh. "I told you guys he wouldn't last that long. Who was the one that had bet three days?"

"Roxas does not return with positive intentions," Xemnas slowly announced. "He has a mission at the moment that is the very opposite of what we've been working towards. Roxas... he wants to set Kingdom Hearts free."

"What!?" Xaldin exclaimed angrily. "How dare that traitor even consider doing this?"

"He is very angry," Saïx said. "He keeps raving about someone who never existed named 'Xion'."

As to be expected, Demyx, Luxord, Xaldin, and Xigbar all had distant looks on their faces, showing that they didn't recognize the name.

Axel frowned in confusion, wondering why the name sounded so familiar.

And why he thought he felt an aching in his chest at the sound of it.

"Roxas is clearly unhinged," Saïx announced. "I will dispose of him before he can get too far."

Xigbar laughed loudly.

"You?" he asked, gesturing to Saïx. "I hate to be the downer, but don't you remember what happened when he left? You got in his way, and threw the full force of your strength at him. And even though he had half of his strength at the moment for some reason, and he had a little assistance from Vanitas Jordan, he managed to wipe the floor with you. If he goes at you with his full strength now that it's all returned, that's only gonna end in one way: with you returning to darkness."

"Even though I think he's an idiot," Xaldin said, gesturing to a now offended looking Xigbar. "He does have a point, Saïx. His power has returned, which means he must be greater than he was when we monitored him while losing his strength. We must partner up and trample him all at once. He will never stand a chance." *3*

"No," Xemnas announced.

Everyone looked up at the man to see him smiling.

"I have an even better idea..."

Roxas hurried through the rooms of the castle as fast as he could, fighting off all of the Nobodies that got in his way as he went through the rooms, knowing the right path from all the times he went through here. He hurried through Nothing's Call, fighting through Sorcerers, a Sniper, and a couple of Samurai (which did have him feeling betrayed since those were the ones that listened to him).

Roxas then took the elevator of Crooked Ascension, where he easily used Magnega to pick up the Dragoons that appeared. He then blasted them with Thundaga before taking them out with Aerial combo attacks. He then went up through the smaller walkway of Twilight's View, where he easily took out some more Samurai with a strong, special attack.

With them out of the way, Roxas continued up the pathway provided, happy that he had only been using the Kingdom Key as he made his way through the castle, not sure if the other Organization members were watching him or not. He left the hallway and came out into the Hall of Empty Melodies, where he walked across the small bridge onto the central platform.

"Roxas... you took longer than I expected," Saïx's voice called out.

Roxas frowned as he looked up into the air.

Saïx was standing on a ledge near the top of the large hall, while the other Organization members were standing on the walkway on the upper part of the Hall, staring down at him with different expressions on their faces.

Saïx was smirking in victory, like he would be winning in some way here. Luxord looked down at Roxas with a curious expression on his face, no doubt wondering what led to Roxas defecting from the Organization. Xaldin looked down at the blonde in silent rage, angry over the betrayal. Demyx just looked bored and yawned, trying to stay awake. Xigbar, like Saïx, was smirking down at Roxas like his fate was sealed.

Axel was the only one looking at Roxas in pity and sadness. Both from how their last meeting went, and with how it was clear that this would end.

"I'm not here to make idle chitchat," Roxas announced, frowning up at all the people he actually once called allies. "I'm setting Kingdom Hearts free so I can get Xion back."

"Now, these delusions just aren't helping you, or anybody for that matter," Saïx said, smirking down at Roxas.

Roxas looked up at Saïx, and could see a hint of deviousness in the blue haired man's eyes. The blonde's own eyes widened in realization before he frowned again.

"You knew," Roxas announced. "You knew that she would have to confront me like that, and only one of us would be walking away. You played both of us like a sick fucking game."

"Oh, Roxas..." Saïx said, smirking down at the blonde when he saw the pure rage in his eyes. He decided to just give up the goat here. "Obviously. I didn't even care about her from the start. But, I'll be the first to admit: it wasn't even my idea to do all of this."

"Then who's idea was it?" Roxas asked.

"Who do you think?" a different voice called out.

Roxas continued to frown as he looked down, looking forwards since that's where the voice came from.

Darkness surged in front of him, revealing Xemnas standing on the other side of the platform, a small smirk on his face.

"Our original plan with No i. was to form a new vessel from Sora's memories," Xemnas explained. "We named it Xion, and it's original intentions was to copy your powers, before eventually absorbing them and forming into a complete Sora clone. Thanks to the interference at Castle Oblivion, Sora's memories escaped, and some of them found their way inside of Xion, turning 'it' into 'her.' We gained the perfect opportunity to forge our own clone of Sora. But in the end, you prevailed, showing that we really should have invested more of our time and energy into you."

Roxas slowly gasped as he realized the full reason behind his and Xion's existences. He looked down in contemplation before looking up and glaring at Xemnas.

"She was nothing more than an experiment to you," Roxas assessed, trying and failing to restrain his anger. "And in the end, you couldn't have cared less which one of us lived or died, just as long as you got one of us for... whatever it is you have planned."

"Exactly," Xemnas confirmed, shrugging his shoulders as he continued to smile.

Things suddenly started to click into place for Roxas. That talk he had with Xemnas where he talked about how special he and Xion were through their connection to Sora. Xemnas's desire to bring Xion back despite the fact she kept leaving the Organization. The Organization having him set up that device. The devices that had given Xion the different weapons that she used for battle.

Roxas panted in and out before looking up at Xemnas.

"What do you think of that, Roxas?" Xemnas asked, still smiling.

"I think..." Roxas slowly said. "I'm gonna kill you."

Saïx, Xigbar, Xaldin, and even Luxord all laughed loudly at the blonde's plan. Demyx just frowned, still not entirely sure what was going on, while Axel's eyes widened in fear for his friend.

Xemnas just continued to smile at Roxas. Already sure of how this would be ending, Xemnas stepped forwards and held his hands out to his sides.

"Take your shot," Xemnas invited.

"Okay," Roxas said, concentrating a bit.

All of a sudden, the sound of electricity crackling rang out, making everyone frown in confusion.

Xemnas looked down, and his eyes widened in surprise at the sight of the lightning surging between Roxas's fingers.

Roxas then yelled out and pointed his hands at Xemnas, sending the lightning flying out and towards Xemnas.

Xemnas was shocked, but not shocked enough to let himself get hit. The leader of the Organization yelled out and had his electric barrier appear in front of himself, deflecting the lightning and sending it flying across the room.

Xemnas dismissed his barrier, and joined everyone in looking at Roxas in surprise.

"How long have you been able to do that?" Xemnas asked, genuine surprise on the Organization leader's face.

"About two hours," Roxas said. "I have a feeling it's gonna help me take your life."

Roxas yelled out again, blasting the lightning out of his fingers at Xemnas. Xemnas exclaimed in surprise and raised his hand, catching the lighting and sending it flying again. The man then pulled back his arm and tossed it forwards, sending out an orb of electricity out at Roxas. Roxas jumped out of the way as the orb grew to a large size on the ground where he stood moments prior. Roxas yelled out again as he blasted lightning out of both hands, which Xemnas managed to absorb into his own hands.

The lightning continued to fly into Xemnas's hands for a little while, before Roxas decided to finally relent with the attack and pull his arms back down. Xemnas lowered his own arms and glared at Roxas.

"Fine," Xemnas said. "Have it your way."

Xemnas then pushed his arms to the sides in a forceful manner. This caused thorns and lines to surge across his body, transforming his cloak from pure black to white with black patterns, all of which surprised the members of the Organization watching.

"Works for me," Roxas said, a determined frown on his face.

Roxas gripped his fists before slowly raising his hands one at a time. He summoned Oathkeeper to his left hand before summoning Oblivion with his right hand. Everyone watched in shock was Roxas twirled his Keyblades in front of him. The two blades struck in the air before the blonde stepped back into his battle stance, a determined frown on his face.

Xemnas was shocked. From what little memory he had from Xehanort, he knew that only beings of incredible strength could wield two Keyblades at once. The fact that Roxas could do so only helped emphasize that they should have been rooting for him.

Instead of letting that known, Xemnas slowly raised his arms in his own battle stance, already sure of his victory.

Xemnas then appeared in front of Roxas and announced, "We shall go together," holding out a hand to the blonde and making thorns appear around him. Those thorns kept a grip, and launched Roxas up into the air. Just as Xemnas rose up to attack with his Ethereal Blades, Roxas turned in the air and used Reversal to move around and dodge the strike. Xemnas and Roxas then moved around through the air, with Xemnas trying to blast thorns at Roxas, which Roxas only managed to dodge with Reversal, moving both of them higher and higher through the air.

Xemnas then teleported in front of Roxas and tried kicking the blonde, but Roxas moved back and caught Xemnas's leg with both his Keyblades. He then pushed forwards, forcing Xemnas into a backwards spin through the air. Roxas then used Reversal to move behind Xemnas, and started a rough combo attack, knocking the older man around. He then did an overhead strike with both Keyblades, ramming them into Xemnas and making the Leader of the Organization drop to the ground, which he hit pretty hard, doing a lot of damage.

Xemnas floated up into the air, doing a little flip before landing over the ground. The Organization leader yelled out as he threw orbs of electricity out of his hands, which flew through the air and grew larger and larger. Roxas ran across the platform of the Hall of Empty Melodies, dodging the orbs of electricity as he ran around the large area towards Xemnas. Xemnas disappeared and reappeared across the arena, throwing the orbs again and letting them grow to full size. Roxas once again dodged the orbs before closing in on Xemnas. Xemnas threw the orbs once more, much closer since Roxas was closer, but the blonde surrounded himself in Relfega for protection. The barriers absorbed the energy from the attack, then cast the retaliatory explosions, knocking aside Xemnas. Roxas followed it up with a full combo attack with both Keyblades.

Xemnas disappeared after Roxas finished his combo attack. He reappeared in the air, spinning vertically and kicking at Roxas, hitting the blonde in the back of his head and knocking him forwards. Roxas turned and swung at Xemnas, which missed when the man disappeared. Xemnas then reappeared behind Roxas again, spinning vertically and slashing with his Ethereal Blades, striking Roxas in the back and knocking the blonde aside.

"Oh, yeah!" Xigbar cheered from the upper walkway. "This fight's already got a winner."

"Yeah, he successfully hit Roxas twice, in comparison to the twenty times Roxas hit him," Axel sarcastically commented. "He's really in the lead."

While Xigbar glared at Axel, Roxas recovered in the air, then dodged as Xemnas once again spun horizontally, swinging his feet to kick the blonde. Roxas followed it up with an aerial combo attack, then got out of the way as Xemnas slashed with his Ethereal Blades again. Roxas performed a combo attack, stopped halfway to block with Reflega as Xemnas blasted thorns at him, then used the combo finisher, lunging forwards and slashing with both Keyblades.

Xemnas disappeared and soon reappeared with a copy. Roxas charged at one before that one disappeared, and the real Xemnas blasted thorns out of his hands to attack, knocking aside Roxas. Roxas blasted Blizzaga at Xemnas, but the man disappeared and reappeared with a copy across the arena again. The copy disappeared, and Xemnas started throwing the orbs out of his hands again. Roxas dodged the first wave of orbs with slides, got hit by an orb during the second wave, then jumped up in the air and Glided to dodge the third wave.

Once all the orbs were gone, Roxas Glided over to where Xemnas was and started a combo attack, knocking the man around quite a bit before he disappeared. Roxas threw a Hi-Potion into the air, using the item on himself before he dodged Xemnas lunging at him, spinning vertically and slashing with his Ethereal Blades. Xemnas disappeared again and reappeared, blasting thorns out of his hands again. Roxas used Reversal to lunge through the thorns, moving up towards Xemnas and taking his former boss by surprise, performing a combo attack on the bastard that did some damage.

Roxas then started another attack that he could only do with two Keyblades. He surged forwards across the ground, dodging Xemnas's attacks and moving up next to the man, throwing both of his Keyblades in what could only be described as a close range Strike Raid. He repeated this action a few times, making it into a strange combo attack where he moved around and threw his Keyblades to attack the Organization leader. He eventually performed the finisher, which involved him roughly throwing his arms to the side, releasing lots of energy around himself that caused a big slash that knocked aside Xemnas.

"Why don't you vanish?" Xemnas growled out, disappearing and reappearing in a teleport, with a copy.

Both the Xemnases were pointing their right hands at Roxas, so the blonde started running to dodge what he thought would be more orbs of electricity that would be blasted out. Instead, the enemies started blasting red laser bolts out of their hands, taking Roxas by surprise and hitting the blonde, doing a bit of damage.

Roxas recovered pretty easily and went on the defensive as Xemnas kept doing attacks with the red laser bolts being fired out of his hands. Xemnas disappeared and flew around Roxas in a circle, leaving behind the bolts to fire all at once. He did this a few times, and Roxas blocked with his Keyblades every time. Then Xemnas and a copy reappeared, both of them firing bolts rapidly out of their hands. Luckily, Roxas had learned his lesson this time and blocked with Reflega. Then Xemnas just left behind three bolts that Roxas dodged again. Xemnas left behind circles twice more, then fired out bolts at a rapid pace with a copy again, all of which Roxas managed to block before Xemnas ended the attacks.

Xemnas reappeared across the arena and blasted thorns at Roxas, so he used Reversal to lunge through the thorns and perform another combo attack against Xemnas. The Organization leader disappeared and reappeared with a copy, before the copy disappeared and the real Xemnas started launching the orbs of electricity out of his hands. Roxas used Glide to get around the arena and dodge the orbs, before landing next to Xemnas. Xemnas once again threw the orbs much closer, which Roxas used to his advantage by casting Reflega. The electricity hit the barrier, then the spell cast the retaliatory explosions before Roxas followed it up with a combo attack to the older man.

Roxas landed on his feet again, then Xemnas appeared in front of him again, using thorns to pick up the blonde and toss him into the air. Roxas cast Reflega to block as Xemnas lunged at him while swinging his Ethereal Blades, allowing the retaliatory explosions to damage him a bit. The two then went through the air for a little while as Xemnas kept blasting thorns out and trying to kick Roxas, and Roxas continued to dodge by going through the thorns with Reversal.

Xemnas then suddenly kicked Roxas in the chest, following it up with a blow to Roxas's face, knocking the blonde aside. He flew through the air for a bit, but managed to recover. The blonde raised his Keyblades in defense just as Xemnas lunged at him, swinging his Ethereal Blades. The magic weapons met in the air, and the two opponents glared at each other between them. Roxas smirked mischievously and pointed his fingers at Xemnas, blasting lightning out while still holding his Keyblades. Xemnas yelled out as the electricity damaged him, knocking him back and breaking the two out of their lock.

"Damn, that was actually impressive," Demyx commented.

"Yes, we must give him that," Xaldin begrudgingly agreed, looking down in disappointment.

"I am starting to think that Roxas might have a chance," Luxord said. "After all, he has made it this long into the fight and is still not a Dusk."

"He might actually stand a chance," Axel said. He leaned forwards against the railing and raised a fist in excitement, cheering, "Go, Roxas!"

Xigbar angrily smacked him on the arm.

"Whose side are you on?" Xigbar snapped.

Xemnas then started the many attacks with the laser bolts again. A copy of himself appeared, and the two of them blasted the laser bolts rapidly out of their right hands, which Roxas blocked with Reflega. The leader of the Organization then teleported around, leaving behind surges of three bolts at once that blasted at Roxas, which he blocked with his Keyblades. Xemnas then alternated by making a circle of bolts appear around Roxas, the line of three bolts, and the rapid fire out of his hands, doing the three attacks in a row multiple times while Roxas continued to block with either his Keyblades or Reflega.

As Roxas landed on his feet again, Xemnas appeared in front of him and grabbed the blonde with thorns, throwing him up into the air. Xemnas lunged upwards to attack with his Ethereal Blades, but Roxas blocked with Reflega, allowing the spell to do the retaliatory explosions. Xemnas kept trying to attack Roxas, using both the thorns and spinning horizontally to try to kick at Roxas, all of which he managed to dodge with Reflega. Each time he performed the retaliatory explosions, they did a lot of damage against the leader of the Organization.

Roxas landed on the ground, then started dodging as Xemnas launched the orbs of electricity at Roxas. Roxas slid to dodge the first few orbs before Gliding over to Xemnas, performing a combo attack against the man. Xemnas then blasted thorns out of his hands, but Roxas lunged through the thorns and attacked Xemnas with another combo attack. Xemnas disappeared and lunged at Roxas from behind, spinning vertically and slashing with his Ethereal Blades. Roxas cast Reflega in defense, allowing the retaliatory explosions to damage Xemnas even more.

Xemnas then floated up into the air and chanted something, having an orb of blue and black appear between his hands. Xemnas raised that orb into the air, repleasing energy that made all of Roxas's surroundings completely black. He looked up in confusion before that blackness was replaced by hundreds of red laser bolts. Energy surged around Xemnas, and he laughed victoriously as he gestured to Roxas.

Roxas held Oblivion normally, and Oathkeeper backhanded, so he started slashing to deflect the red laser bolts as they started firing at him. The blonde jumped around, slashing with his Keyblades rapidly to keep deflecting the laser bolts fired at him, doing his very best to keep the lasers from hitting him. Roxas kept slashing with his blades, deflecting the laser bolts and keeping all of them from hitting him. The bolts started firing more and more rapidly, so Roxas landed on the ground, and started casting Reflega instead, keeping the shields maintained to make sure he didn't get hurt. He briefly used an Ether to restore his magic before he continued using Reflega to block the bolts from being fired. Eventually, the firing lasers got so great and intense that everything turned white.

When the light cleared, Roxas landed on his feet, and glared up at Xemnas. He then started his big attack, having the patterns appear on the ground as he floated up into the air, which made the sky seen through the skylight change. Roxas spun his Keyblades rapidly, sending the blue orbs of energy out and towards Xemnas. The orbs rapidly hit the leader of the Organization, taking him by surprise and doing lots of damage against the taller opponent. Eventually, Roxas relented with the attack and dropped down onto his feet.

Xemnas floated down, and looked up at Roxas, glaring angrily at the blonde. He held out his hands and had his Ethereal Blades extend out from both palms. Roxas twirled his Keyblades in preparation with a frown. The two opponents charged at each other, and the crowd watching swore time slowed down as they got close enough to each other.

Roxas then yelled out, quickly surging through Xemnas while slashing with his Keyblades, pointing forwards with Oblivion as he came to a stop. Xemnas was knocked into the air as the fight ended, muttering, "Curse you... Keyblade..." *4*

Roxas turned and looked up into the air, staring at Xemnas with a frown on his face. He watched Xemnas wincing as energy surged across him, with lots of white light flying past the Organization leader and gathering behind him. Xemnas looked up with a shocked expression on his face, reaching forwards. White and black thorns rose off of Xemnas as plain lines appeared. Even more thorns and much more lines rose off of Xemnas, rising into the air as Xemnas faded away. Xemnas disappeared with the thorns and lines, leaving behind white and black smoke that dispersed quickly.

Roxas then turned and looked up at the upper walkway of the Hall of Empty Melodies, seeing the other members of the Organization looking down at him with wide eyes of amazement and surprise, especially Saïx. The blonde decided to ignore them and continued his way through the castle.

Roxas left the Hall of Empty Melodies and went up the angled pathway of Naught's Skyway, following the path provided to him to reach Xemnas's highest tower, which gave them view of Kingdom Hearts. The blonde went up the pathway provided and came out onto the upper walkway of the Hall of Empty Melodies.

He walked out into the room again, just in time to see the remaining members of the Organization staring at him in shock and amazement. Xigbar and Xaldin looked prepared to summon their weapons and attack if they needed to. But then Saïx floated down in front of the two and held his arms out to the sides, stopping them from attacking.

"You would not survive an encounter," Saïx told them. "He bested our leader in combat, who was the strongest of all of us."

He then looked at Roxas with a solemn expression on his face.

"We clearly underestimated you," Saïx said. "For that, I offer my sincerest apologies."

Roxas looked at Saïx.

Then he pointed his hand at the man and blasted lightning out of his fingers, electrocuting the man enough that he stuttered and winced in pain before dropping down onto his knees, pretty roughly. Roxas eventually relented, leaving Saïx as a wincing man writhing on the ground.

"That was for Xion," Roxas told the man.

He walked past the still surprised and shocked (not in that sense) members of the Organization, continuing through the castle to get to Kingdom Hearts.

Roxas left the Hall of Empty Melodies, going through the Proof of Existence, followed by Naught's Approach, then Ruin and Creation's Passage. He went up the long staircase to the top of Xemnas's tower, the Alter of Naught.

Roxas walked right across the circular platform on top of the tower, and stared up at the gigantic, heart-shaped moon of Kingdom Hearts. The other members of the Organization were watching from the staircase, but decided not to try anything, already knowing how things would end if they tried.

Roxas glared up at the moon, a determined expression on his face.

'Kingdom Hearts...' Roxas remembered Xion's request. 'Set them free.'

Roxas nodded his head before looking up at the large moon.

Holding out both his hands, Roxas summoned his two Keyblades and held them together. He pointed the two blades up into the air, causing a large amount of light to grow at the ends of the two blades. The light surged for quite a while before firing out a large beam, which flew up to Kingdom Hearts quick and strong. The beam hit the center of the moon, causing a large amount of light to be released.

The light grew large and bright just as winds started to surge out from the large moon. Roxas kept firing the light from his Keyblades, keeping the light glowing from the heart-shaped moon as it started to take effect. With a large flash of light, Kingdom Hearts disappeared completely, sending the pink hearts flying out in all directions. Hundreds of thousands of hearts flew in all directions, disappearing into the night as they returned to where they used to be, most of them returning to the people who had lost them.

Everyone stared up at where Kingdom Hearts used to be with wide eyes and dropped jaws.

The Organization members were all surprised. They had been working towards their goal with Kingdom Hearts for a long time, and it had been taken apart by a single, grieving teenager.

Roxas was staring up at where Kingdom Hearts used to be, panting in and out desperately. There were tears in his eyes as it fully hit him that he had done what Xion had requested. He had fulfilled her dying wish and set Kingdom Hearts free.

But he was also sad. While he knew he wanted to release Kingdom Hearts because it's what she wanted, and it was the right thing to do, it turned out that it couldn't fulfill his deepest desire. Nothing had happened that could bring him to Sora, meaning that he didn't have a way to get Xion back.

Roxas was just about to look down and cry in despair, but then blue light surged in front of Roxas, forming a portal with dark grey clouds.

Hope within his eyes and chest, Roxas didn't hesitate to jump into the air.

"Roxas!" Axel shouted, worry in his voice as he pushed through the crowd.

But he was too late. Roxas disappeared through the strange portal, which disappeared right behind him, transporting him to who knows where.

The remaining members of the Organization stepped forwards, walking across the Alter of Naught with confusion evident on their faces, having no idea what had happened.

Axel was panting in and out in confusion and worry. He had just gotten a chance to get his best friend back, but then he disappeared like that. What had even happened to him?

"Hey!"

Everyone turned towards the stairs at the sound of the voice.

Vanitas Jordan panted in and out as he hurried up the stairs, stepping up onto the Alter of Naught to join the remaining members of the Organization. Dressed in his black robes with the bandana, brown straps across his chest, and the sling attached to his back, the ravenette stepped forwards and held his arms out to his sides, confusion very evident on his face.

"What the hell did I miss?"

Jesse McCartney as Roxas

Paul St. Peter as Xemnas

Richard Epcar as Riku (Ansem)

David Gallagher as Riku

Corey Burton as DiZ

Quinten Flynn as Axel

With as James Patrick Stuart Xigbar

With David Dayan Fisher as Xaldin

With Robin Atkin Downes as Luxord

Featuring Ryan O'Donohue as Demyx

And Haley Joel Osment as Vanitas Jordan

Chapter Text

Time.

Space.

Reality.

It's more than a linear path.

It's a prism... of endless possibility, where a single choice can branch out into infinite realities, creating alternate worlds from the ones you know.

I am the Watcher.

I am your guide through these vast new realities. Follow me, and ponder the question...

"What if?"

Six Years After The Fall Of Radiant Garden

Outworld

Yuffie had sent letters to alert them that she was almost done with her training on Dissidia, so she'd be able to come back home to Traverse Town and be able to start helping them out on missions again.

Unfortunately, they decided to take one more mission before starting to plan the welcome home party.

Vanitas had sworn that the name "Outworld" sounded familiar to him when they saw this world on the index, but he had just assumed that it was a different situation with different scenerios.

He never would have guessed that it was the Outworld from the Mortal Kombat games. Actually, he had been hoping against this.

After landing on Outworld, the trio of Vanitas, Leon, and Aerith had been quickly captured and forced to fight against the emperor, Shao Kahn's, forces in his arena. The trio had obviously disagreed the man's claims, but he threatened to kill them if they didn't.

Though they were 100% sure the man would kill them, anyways, they quickly discovered that they didn't have a choice.

They managed to do well together, fighting through the Kytinn Queen, D'Vorah (she was someone all three of them were happy to kill). After that, they took out the weird Western cowboy, Erron Black. They were reluctant to kill him, but changed their minds quickly when he made a sexist comment about Aerith. After that, they ended up fighting the Blood sorceress, Skarlet. She creeped them out because of her fascination with Vanitas.

"Your blood doesn't flow, and yet, you still walk and act," Skarlet said in her creepy as hell voice. "I find it... intriguing."

She sounded turned on at the thought. Vanitas shot her in the head before things could get even weirder.

They managed to do even better after taking out Skarlet. Baraka and Reptile fell pretty easily.

Although, they did end up facing more trouble when they fought a trio of assassins, Kitana, Mileena, and Jade.

Partly because Vanitas kept gawking at Mileena.

It wasn't exactly his fault since the half-Tarkatan wore a low cut top that made her large breasts very obvious.

Aerith had to fight off the ninja dressed in pink with her quarterstaff and leave Vanitas to try his hand at Kitana and Jade. Of course, Mileena had noticed his weakness and focused most of her attention to teleporting or moving towards Vanitas to attack. She lunged at Vanitas and tried biting out his neck, but Vanitas yelled out as he raised his machete in defense, catching Mileena as she bit down on the blade, instead.

"Why do you have to be so scary and sexy at the same time!?" Vanitas exclaimed. "It always gives me the most confusing boners!"

Leon managed to pull Mileena off of the ravenette, and Aerith swung her quarterstaff at the woman's head, knocking out some of her teeth. Vanitas thanked his friends for their assistance before backflipping to dodge Kitana's fans and Jade's glaive.

The three of them knocked aside the three ninjas, but they decided to spare them since two of them were the emperor's daughters. It was "too the death," but they had a feeling that sparing the emperor's daughters would help ensure that he'd let them go.

Unfortunately, that didn't work.

"My 'daughters' aren't even my real daughters," Shao Kahn boasted to the trio. "I stole Kitana from her father when I took that weakling's wife, and Mileena was created in Shang Tsung's flesh pits in case she ever decided to betray me. I care very little about either of them." *1*

Both the girls glared at Shao Kahn as the man walked forwards.

"Now, you face the final challenge of my tournament," Shao Kahn announced. He held out his hand, and a large mallet appeared within in a flash of green light. "Me."

Leon, Vanitas, and Aerith shared looks before nodding their heads in confirmation. Leon twirled his Gunblade, Vanitas readied his machete, and Aerith twirled her quarterstaff.

The three of them charged together at Shao Kahn, then they all dodged as he swung his hammer at them. Aerith swung her quarterstaff in the back of the knee, then struck him in the neck. The man shrugged off the attacks before grabbing Aerith by her shoulder and tossing her aside. Leon yelled out as he blasted fire out of his Gunblade, which Shao Kahn slashed through with his hammer. He then swung his hammer at Leon, which he blocked with his Gunblade, though the strength of the attack was still enough to make him drop to one knee. Vanitas moved behind Shao Kahn and jumped up, wrapping his legs around his back and using his machete to try to choke the man.

Shao Kahn reached up with one hand and grabbed Vanitas by his jacket, yanking downwards and ramming the ravenette into Leon, knocking both into the ground. Aerith charged at Shao Kahn from behind and struck twice with her quarterstaff. Shao Kahn, barely fazed, turned towards Aerith and swung twice with his hammer, knocking her aside. Once she was far enough away, Shao Kahn pulled back, replacing his hammer with a spear, and tossed it at Aerith. The spear went through Aerith's stomach, and made her yell out in pain as she was impaled on the ground. The spear disappeared in a flash of green light, dropping the woman to the ground.

Vanitas took out an AA12 shotgun from his sling and started firing at the back of Shao Kahn's head. Unfortunately, the bullets just deflected off of his helmet. The emperor turned around to face Vanitas and grabbed him by the neck, lifting him up and slamming him into the ground hard. Shao Kahn's hammer reappeared in a flash of light, and he yelled out as he swung at Vanitas. Vanitas dodged with a side roll, so the emperor just hit dirt. The ravenette jumped to his feet, but then Shao Kahn hit him right in the face with the large hammer, knocking the amnesiac anemic to the ground.

"I felt that even without my life force!" Vanitas commented.

Leon jumped back to his feet and charged at Shao Kahn. The two of them swung their weapons at each other, but the Gunblade and the hammer just deflected off of each other, preventing either of them from taking damage from either of their attacks.

Leon managed to do a good job against Shao Kahn, and even struck the man a few times with his Gunblade.

But then the emperor got the upper hand, punching Leon in the face and knocking him aside. Shao Kahn followed it up with the spear, which he jabbed through Leon's foot, making the brunette yell out in pain. Limping back, Leon dodged another hammer strike from Shao Kahn before he got hit right in the stomach, causing him to fly back before landing roughly on the ground.

Leon winced as he lay on his back, and his eyes widened when he saw Shao Kahn step up towards him. The brunette rolled out of the way as Shao Kahn swung his hammer. The large mallet came down, and instead of striking Leon, it ended up hitting the Gunblade, breaking it in the center and shattering it to pieces that dropped to the ground.

Leon looked at his broken weapon with wide eyes of surprise, his jaw dropped at the sight of his signature weapon being broken and useless now.

Shao Kahn reached down and grabbed Leon by the neck with his free hand, lifting the choking brunette up into the air.

"How pathetic," Shao Kahn growled to Leon. "You claim to be a leader that fights for your allies. And you lose your weapon very quickly in our battle. What kind of a leader are you?"

"A damn good one!" Vanitas exclaimed.

The ravenette charged from out of nowhere and yelled out as he stabbed Shao Kahn in the back with his machete. The emperor yelled out in pain and tossed Leon to the side before focusing on Vanitas. The ravenette pulled his machete out of Shao Kahn as the emperor turned and glared at him.

Shao Khan swung his hammer, and Vanitas jumped back to dodge the attack. The ravenette yelled out as he slashed with his machete, which Shao Kahn dodged by jumping back in defense. Shao Kahn then swung his hammer with both hands and hit Vanitas in the chest, knocking him back. The emperor then yelled out and swung his hammer upwards, hitting Vanitas in the chest and knocking him backwards in a flip, sending him stumbling onto his front.

Aerth had fianlly recovered, having used Curaga to heal the wound through her torso. She twirled her quarterstaff in preparation and blasted Firaga at Shao Kahn. The fire barely fazed the man, so he charged at Aerith, swinging his hammer again. Aerith jumped back to dodge, then dropped to the ground, trying to sweep at Shao Kahn's feet with her quarterstaff. This succeeded in knocking the emperor to the ground.

However, Shao Kahn jumped back to his feet easily and swung his hammer at Aerith. She jumped back to dodge as the the hammer hit the ground where she had been standing just seconds prior. Shao Kahn then reached forwards and grabbed Aerith by her shoulder, pulling her forwards to disorient her. He then yelled out and swung his hammer, hitting the mage in the face and knocking her to the side.

Vanitas and Aerith both managed to push themselves to their feet and charged at Shao Kahn. The emperor replaced his hammer with his spear and threw it at Vanitas, which impaled through the ravenette's side. He kept charging with the spear in his stomach and yelled out as he swung his machete, hitting Shao Kahn in the shoulder. Aerith followed it up with two swings from her quarterstaff, hitting the emperor in the chin and the stomach.

Unfortunately, the attacks barely fazed Shao Kahn, who reached forwards and grabbed Vanitas by the shoulder. The emperor summoned his hammer again and smacked the ravenette in the chest with it. He turned and swung at Aerith's face with his hammer, hitting her and damaging her quite a bit. Shao Kahn then grabbed the both of them and rammed them together hard, causing them to woozily take a step. Shao Kahn tossed Vanitas aside before hitting Aerith in the knee with his hammer, causing her to stumble to the ground.

Leon coughed himself awake and glanced upwards, seeing Aerith on the ground, with Shao Kahn standing over her. Vanitas was knocked aside as the emperor gripped his hammer in both hands and glared down at Aerith.

"You have a choice," Shao Kahn informed Aerith. "You can become one of my concubines, or you will die."

"You are a creep," Aerith remarked. "I will definitely not become a concubine."

"Then you've made your decision," Shao Kahn announced.

The evil emperor gripped his hammer with both hands and raised it up into the air over his head.

"No!" Leon shouted.

Feeling a new surge of energy and determination coursing through his chest, Leon charged forwards with the remains of his Gunblade in his hand. The brunette hurried over in front of Aerith and yelled out as he raised the remains of his weapon over his head in defense.

Light flared overhead as Leon kept his hand raised, and when Shao Kahn swung his weapon downwards to attack, the large hammer ended up crashing into the Lionheart Keyblade, instead.

Leon and Shao Kahn were both surprised by the appearance of the new magic weapon in the brunette's hand, but they managed to recover quickly. The both of them stepped back, with Shao Kahn gripping his hammer in his hands.

Leon and Vanitas watching were both shocked at the appearance of the Keyblade in Leon's hands, but the brunette shrugged it to the side, stepping into preparation to fight once again. *2*

"You gotta be fuckin' kidding me," Vanitas commented, seeing the Keyblade appear in his friend's hand.

Leon and Shao Kahn charged at each other, the both of them swinging their weapons at each other. Leon's Keyblade and Shao Kahn's hammer deflected off of each other as they kept attacking, preventing any actual damage from being taken. They managed to do this for a good, long period of time.

Until eventually, Shao Kahn swung his hammer downwards, which Leon managed to dodge by stepping back. Leon then stepped forwards, performing a combo attack against Shao Kahn while holding Lionheart with both hands. Shao Kahn turned and swung his hammer at Leon's head, but he ducked underneath the swing before kicking the emperor in the stomach. Leon dodged another hammer swing before starting another combo attack against Shao Kahn, knocking him back.

Leon then blasted Shao Kahn with Fire and Blizzard, which the evil emperor just slashed through with his hammer. Shao Kahn replaced his hammer with his spear and chucked it at Leon, which he dodged with a sidestep. He then kicked upwards, knocking the spear into the air. Leon plucked the spear out of the air, then yelled out as he threw it at Shao Kahn in retaliation, impaling the emperor with one of his weapons. Shao Kahn yelled out in surprise and pain before the spear disappeared, letting him drop back to his feet.

Shao Kahn growled in irritation before summoning his hammer again, gripping it with both hands.

"You will bow at my feet!" Shao Kahn bellowed.

"Yeah, that's not happening," Leon remarked, twirling Lionheart in preparation.

Shao Kahn yelled as he charged at Leon again, raising his hammer to strike. Leon raised his Keyblade to block the attack, then moved around the emperor, striking him in the back with Lionheart. Shao Kahn turned and swung his hammer at Leon again, which he sidestepped. The emperor swung his hammer at Leon again, and Leon retaliated with a swipe from his Keyblade, hitting the hammer right under the hammer part, severing the weapon part from the handle part, severing the hammer from the handle.

Shao Kahn looked down in surprise at his severed weapon, and he didn't get much time afterwards to show his surprise as Leon blasted him in the face with Fire. Leon performed another combo attack against Shao Kahn before kicking him in the stomach, knocking him back. Leon remembered Vanitas's stories about using the Keyblade from before and spun Lionheart in preparation. The brunette jabbed forwards with the Keyblade, causing light to gather at the end. A beam of light fired out of the beam and went right through Shao Kahn, burning for quite a long period and damaging him severely.

Shao Kahn softly sighed out in pain and dropped to his own knees.

"I... I do not understand..." Shao Kahn said, glancing up at the heroes. "I was supposed to win 10 Mortal Kombat Tournaments in a row, and then I would be able to conquer a realm. I was supposed to rule over all!"

"Yeah, well..." Vanitas said, wincing and pushing himself to his feet and glaring at Shao Kahn. "That's the thing about destinies. They're more interchangeable than you think, jackass."

The ravenette grabbed his machete and gripped it with both hands. Vanitas yelled out and swung his machete at the emperor's head, sliding it right off and sending the head rolling across the ground. The emperor's body slid to the ground and landed with a thud.

Aerith pushed herself to her feet and walked over to join her friends.

"Well..." Aerith said. "That was something."

"That, it was," Vanitas agreed.

He and Aerith looked in amazement at Leon. Leon himself was staring down at the Keyblade in his hand, his eyes wide and his jaw dropped in shock.

A sudden clearing of the throat got the trios attentions. They looked over to see Kitana, Mileena, and Jade walking over to them.

"Uh..." Vanitas said. He put his machete away and raised his hands in surrender. "You're not gonna do the whole, 'You killed my father, now I must kill you' thing, are you?"

"No," Kitana assured him. She reached up and took off her mask, revealing the rest of her beautiful face. "Jade has just finished telling me that she came from the same realm I did of Edenia. She trained to be an assassin and served under Shao Kahn's orders to watch over me in case I ever turned against him."

"But over the years, I grew to care for her as if she really was a sister of mine," Jade said, looking at Kitana.

"The three of us formed a weird form of friendship," Mileena admitted. "I had just suddenly appeared one day, and I scared the pants out of everyone with my teeth."

"But I still saw who she was in her eyes, and I knew that we were sisters," Kitana said, looking at Mileena. Both of them looked at the trio. "Now, after hearing what our 'father' really thought of us..."

"Thank you for cutting off his head," Mileena said.

"Uh... no problem," Vanitas said, still trying to ignore the woman's large breasts revealed from her low-cut top.

"Kitana, I think we should look for Edenians, see if we can convince them to start restructuring our old home," Jade suggested.

"I can serve as the new Kahn for Outworld," Mileena suggested. "I'll finance the operation and provide assistance with whatever you need."

"Thank you," Kitana gratefully told her sister.

"Well, uh..." Aerith said. She pointed backwards. "We're gonna get going."

"Yeah," Leon said. "Places to go. People to see. Monsters to fight."

"See ya," Vanitas said. He glanced at Mileena's breasts again then raised his hand next to his head, making his hand look like a phone as he mouthed, 'Call me.'

The trio turned and started walking back towards the way they came into the coliseum, deciding to push aside their thoughts of this new development until they got back home.

Traverse Town

The team made their way back to Traverse Town, and quickly explained to Cid what had happened at Outworld. They managed to get through the tournament part quickly, but then they ended up getting to the full battle with Shao Kahn, where a Keyblade suddenly appeared in Leon's hand. Since that was the main attraction of the conversation, they gave that the most attention.

Cid was certainly surprised, and that surprise was enhanced by Leon summoning the Keyblade in front of him.

"Shoot," Cid commented. "Never would have guessed you'd have gotten one before V could get his back."

"Exactly how much do you want to keep all of your limbs?" Vanitas said, glaring at Cid.

The ravenette sighed out and looked at Leon.

"I'll admit, I am a little jealous that you've got a Keyblade now," Vanitas admitted. "And a little envious that you have one and I don't anymore. That's probably going to increase my efforts to try to get my life force and my own Keyblade back. But for what it's worth... I am proud of you."

"So am I," Aerith said, a smile on her face. "I mean, you have a Keyblade! That's exciting!"

"I... I know," Leon said, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment from all the praise.

"And, it'll especially come in handy," Vanitas said. "With a Keyblade on our side, we can lock the Keyholes to worlds, preventing Heartless from entering and doing what they do to fuck up the world's hearts. This helps guarantee the safety of our universe."

"Hey, you're right," Cid said. "Shoot, I hadn't even thought about that, yet."

"Looks like the job's gonna start gettin' a lot easier," Aerith said.

"Uh, maybe," Leon said. "But I'm not sure I'm entirely sure of all of this new responsibility. I don't think I'm entirely ready for the responsibilities as a Master."

Vanitas could understand some of that thanks to his scattered memories of his own time as a Keyblade Master, before he lost everything when his Keyblade exploded. So, he was able to easily figure out what to say.

The ravenette stepped forwards and placed a hand on Leon's shoulder.

"No one thinks their ready," Vanitas assured the brunette. "But we're allowed time and practice before we have to do anything big. And, we get plenty of experience on the field. You're already a great fighter thanks to the work you've done with the Gunblade. But now that you've got the Keyblade... that was all practice. Now it's time for the real test. And I know that you'll pass with flying colors."

Leon looked down in thought, then looked up at Vanitas and nodded his head gratefully.

"Thanks, V," Leon said. "You're pretty good at this."

Vanitas patted him on the shoulder, then turned and looked at his friends.

"If you guys tell anyone I was that good at reassuring someone, I'll kill you," Vanitas threatened.

Aerith and Cid laughed, having completely expected that from the ravenette.

Three Years Later

Over the years, they managed to develop a new routine to their world travels, thanks to two big factors in Yuffie's return as a Ninja, and Leon now having a Keyblade.

When they went to worlds to fight off Heartless, Leon used the Keyblade he had to lock the world's Keyhole, preventing Heartless from being able to enter and making the world disappear. This meant that less and less people were showing up at Traverse Town each day, showing how things were slowly remaining okay and normal throughout the universe.

This helped shift the scales of the war in their favor. There were less casualties of worlds disappearing now that they were working towards locking their Keyholes. The longer they were at it, the stronger and better they got, ensuring that more and more people were safe.

They even used the knowledge they had of Traverse Town to find the Keyhole, locking it away from the Heartless forever and protecting the world.

Eventually, they all realized that with Vanitas's "problem," his body was basically in stasis, keeping him fifteen and unable to age at all. So, even though he had the mentality and attitude of an adult, he was technically still a teenager.

So, when Yuffie turned fifteen, the two of them decided to finally stop dancing around their feelings and go for it.

They started by making out on the dinner table next to the cake.

About a year later, about ten years after Vanitas had lost his life force, they ended up getting two new arrivals to Traverse Town from completely different worlds. There was a red haired girl that had come from a world named Destiny Islands, and a yellow dog that was carrying an envelope in his mouth.

The girl explained through tears that her name was Kairi, and something pretty bad had happened there.

"S-some monsters appeared on the world," Kairi said, hugging her knees to her chest. "The world was lost to darkness. And my friends, Riku and Sora..."

She sobbed sadly and looked down.

"Hey," Yuffie said, placing a sympathetic hand on the redhead's shoulder. "It's okay. They were lost in the darkness, right? Then we'll be able to find them and get them back."

"N-No, it's much worse," Kairi said through another sob.

She slowly looked up.

"A sword like a key appeared in Riku's hand..." Kairi said. "And... he attacked Sora with it. Sora..." She sniffed. "He disappeared in a flash of light."

The team's eyes widened in surprise, and they shared looks. Some boy had earned a Keyblade and immediately used it to strike down his friend like that?

"Maybe he's okay," Aerith assured Kairi. "Maybe he's still out there somewhere, looking for you."

Everyone looked at Vanitas out of Kairi's line of sight to see if he had an answer. The ravenette grimaced and shook his head. The other three members of the team winced when they realized that this meant that this Sora kid was gone.

"There's also this letter from that dog, Pluto," Leon said, holding up the letter with the engraving of a mouse head on the back.

Pluto sadly whined and looked down in disappointment.

Curious, Leon opened up the envelope and pulled out the letter.

"Y-you look a lot like Sora," Kairi said, still sobbing and looking at Vanitas. "Just... a bit taller, older, and with your hair spiked in different ways."

Vanitas frowned in thought from that claim.

"Hey, guys," Leon said. "This letter is from the King of Disney Castle, Mickey."

The rest of the team looked over at Leon curiously, especially Vanitas since he recognized the name.

"'This letter has been written as quickly as I could use a quill and ink'," Leon read. "'My name is Mickey Mouse, and I'm the king of Disney Castle. I hope this has reached the world traveling team consisting of Squall Leonhart, Vanitas Jordan, Aerith Gainsborough, and Yuffie Kisagari. We have seen the progress you've made over the years in saving worlds from darkness. I only wish it were under better circumstances that I were writing this letter to you'."

The four members of the team shared winced, having already expecting what happened to this world.

"'The forces of darkness have ambushed my castle'," Leon continued reading. "'If I'm lucky, my loyal dog, Pluto, will have reached Traverse Town to give you this letter. The armies of Heartless were pounding on the doors as I wrote. I have very little hope that my friends and I will be able to escape, so I know that there's only one hope left for all worlds out there. Leon, as a Keyblade Wielder, you're the only one left who can travel between worlds and lock the Keyholes. The fate of all worlds rests on the shoulders of you and your friends. Leon, Vanitas, Aerith, Yuffie... Good luck'."

Leon, Vanitas, Aerith, and Yuffie looked up and shared expressions before Vanitas winced, feeling a vision starting.

In a large room that looked like a chapel, multiple people stood around a main table, discussing their plans.

There was a man that looked like a living sack of bugs, a woman that was half octopus, a pirate captain dressed in red, a man with long hair dressed in gold and green robes, a man in black robes with blue skin and matching hair made of fire, a man in red and black robes holding a snake scepter, and a woman dressed in purple and black robes with thorns on her head, holding a wooden looking staff with a green orb on the end.

"Our forces of darkness have already taken out two worlds," Maleficent announced. "Destiny Islands and Disney Castle have fallen. With the heroes from Destiny Islands gone, everyone who could stand in our way has now disappeared."

"Ooh, it just makes me tingle to think how close we're getting to winning," Oogie Boogie said, holding the two flaps that served as his hands together.

"No one wants to hear about that," Loki commented, frowning at the living sack.

"Uh, I hate to burst your bubble, but we do actually have a credible threat against the plans," Hades pointed out, crossing his arms. "There's still that little group that's been traveling throughout worlds for years, one of which is a former Keyblade Wielder, while their leader currently has a Keyblade. They could pose a threat to our operations."

"The pyromaniac is right," Hook agreed. "The four of them have saved more worlds over the past few years than we've made worlds vanish."

"We should just simply turn them into Heartless," Ursula laughed loudly. "We took out those Islands and the Castle easily. Let's just send them to their base of operations."

"You are stupider than you are fat," Jafar commented. "Their base of operations is Traverse Town, and they locked the Keyhole there years ago. No matter how many Heartless we send there, they will never be able to take the world."

"Then we must be patient," Maleficent announced. "After all, we have already won. Heartless are spread out everywhere, and they'll be finding the remaining Keyholes in very little time. And with help from our new ally, we'll be able to get the remaining princesses much more easily."

She looked across the chapel to see a new person walking out into the light. This person was a teen boy with spiked silver hair, dressed in a yellow and black tank top, blue pants, and grey and blue shoes.

"Sounds like a better way to see more worlds," Riku said, green light flashing within his eyes. "Sora was only holding me back. With him out of my way, I'll be able to do so much more."

"You struck down your own best friend," Loki commented. He smirked and nodded his head. "I'm impressed."

"Like I said," Riku said, the green light still flaring in his eyes. "He got in my way..."

Vanitas gasped as the vision ended before he quickly started explaining to his friends what he had seen. They quickly figured out that they were all bad guys, so they knew that it was time to get going.

"That Riku kid, it looked like he was being controlled," Vanitas informed his friends. "Maybe what he did to his friend, Sora, he didn't mean to do it. Maybe if we break him out of Maleficent's spell, we can get him back."

"I hope so," Leon said. "I don't want anyone to be lost to darkness that doesn't deserve it."

"So do I," Kairi said. "Maybe once we get Riku back, we can go looking for Sora."

The team once again shared a wince at what happened to the kid, before they left the apartment. Cid promised he'd watch over the girl, so the team went out to their Gummi ship and started flying it off world, ready to begin their adventure to save the worlds. *3*

Wonderland

The first world they reached was one called Wonderland. There, they ended up experiencing a whole bevy of weirdness due to medicine that shrank people, living cards, a talking white rabbit, a talking doorknob that liked to sleep a lot, and lots of Heartless.

They discovered a trial going on, where an innocent girl named Alice was being sentenced to death over suspicion that she was trying to steal the Queen's heart. The team explained that the Heartless were the ones responsible behind the attempt, and quickly lured some Soldiers to the garden to show proof. Even after they destroyed the Heartless, the Queen still got mad at them for "defying" her, and sent the guards after the team, hiding Alice in a bird cage.

The team fought through the card soldiers, with Leon doing some of the best damage with his Keyblade, while Vanitas alternated between his shotgun and sledgehammer, Yuffie used her grown shurikan, and Aerith using her quarterstaff.

Fighting through the card soldiers, the team lowered the birdcage and opened it up... revealing that Alice was gone.

"Um, what the hell happened?" Yuffie asked, gesturing to the bird cage.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was suspended high in the air, with the only way out closed off," Aerith agreed.

"So how the fuck did she get out?" Vanitas asked, surprised.

"How else?" Leon asked his friends. "Heartless. They can do quite a bit with the darkness, remember?"

They all nodded in agreement, remembering moments in the past where they had witnessed this.

The team went further into the world, discovering a large boss Heartless called the Trickmaster in the Bizarre Room. Given that they were still tiny, it was pretty difficult to fight off the Heartless boss. But given that they all had more than a few skills, they managed to do well. Between Leon's aerial attacks with his Keyblade, Aerith blasting spells left and right, Yuffie throwing her enlarged shurikan, and Vanitas getting lots of shots in with his .50 calibre sniper rifle, they were able to finish off the boss.

With the boss defeated, they quickly noticed the Keyhole within the doorknob's mouth, which actually made sense when they thought about it. Leon quickly locked the Keyhole, and they were rewarded with a navigation Gummi for the ship. Vanitas and Yuffie celebrated by making out, and not caring if they got handsy with their actions, to the chagrins of Leon and Aerith. They left the world and traveled through the Gummi ship to the next part of their journey.

Deep Jungle

They ended up experiencing some turbulence in the Lanes Between during their trip between worlds. After a large crash against a gigantic boulder, they ended up flipping around before landing on the next world, Deep Jungle, causing Leon and Vanitas to stumble out of the ship and crash somewhere on the world.

This 'somewhere' ended up being a large treehouse, where they were attacked by a tiger. After knocking aside the tiger, they were assisted by a man named Tarzan, brought to the camp where he and his human friends lived in the jungle. They reached the camp and were reunited with Aerith and Yuffie, who had been picked up by a hunter named Clayton, and met Tarzan's scientist girlfriend, Jane.

"A scientist dating a man who barely speaks English," Yuffie commented. She smirked and looked at Vanitas. "And we thought we had a strange relationship."

They ended up quickly discovering that Clayton was more interested in hunting gorillas than studying them, like Jane was trying to do with the gorillas in the jungle. After Clayton tried gunning down Tarzan's friend, Turk, Jane banned him from being able to even go near the gorillas.

So, naturally, his anger led to the Heartless arriving on the world.

The team went to work with Tarzan protecting the gorillas from the Heartless all throughout the world, occasionally having to fight Sabor the Tiger again. Eventually, they finished off the tiger, which had Vanitas audibly wondering if they would end up going to prison for animal abuse.

After fighting through some more Heartless, they quickly discovered that Clayton had cornered the gorillas at the bottom of a cliff. They fought Clayton and his dozens of Powerwilds before a boss Heartless called a Stealth Sneak appeared, and they had to fight through it, as well. Once it and Clayton had been defeated, the Heartless stumbled onto Clayton, and they both disappeared in a flash of light.

"Welp, we're going to hell," Vanitas said, looking over at his team.

"We've already killed a lot of people over the years," Leon reminded him. "How would this suddenly make us go to hell after the hundreds of other murders we did over the years?"

"He's got a point, V," Aerith told him.

Vanitas shrugged his shoulders.

Tarzan then led them through a cavern behind many waterfalls, where they parkoured up the walls and entered a new area where the world's Keyhole was hidden by butterflies. Leon locked the Keyhole, and they were granted another navigation Gummi. Vanitas and Yuffie once again celebrated by making out, with Yuffie unabashedly grabbing her boyfriend's ass. The team said goodbye to Tarzan and Jane before leaving in the Gummi ship, ready to begin the next part of their journey.

Olympus Coliseum

This trip through the Lanes Between was much more pleasant than the one to Deep Jungle. They reached the next world of Olympus Coliseum, where they discovered that tournaments were held there for people to fight and see who was the best warrior out there. Luckily, they managed to get permission from the man in charge of the Games, a satyr named Phil, to let them join in on the Preliminaries, even though he didn't think much of Vanitas.

They managed to fight through the Heartless pretty easily between Leon using his Keyblade, Aerith using her Quarterstaff, Yuffie using her shurikan, and Vanitas alternating between firearms and hand to hand weapons.

Eventually, they came to the final round, where their opponent turned out to be a man dressed with half armor on, wielding a large sword that was covered in bandages. However, the trio from Radiant Garden quickly recognized the spiky blonde hair that belonged to the man.

"Cloud?" Leon asked. "Cloud Strife?"

"How do you know my name?" Cloud demanded.

"It's me, Leon," Leon said, placing his hand on his chest. He gestured to the others. "This is my friend Vanitas, and those are Aerith and Yuffie."

Cloud frowned in recognition and lowered his sword.

"Guys?" Cloud asked. "How did you guys...?"

All of a sudden, a large, black paw crashed into Cloud, knocking him to the ground.

Everyone jumped in surprise at the sight of a gigantic three headed dog, Cerberus, standing over their downed friend. The team went to work fighting Cerberus, dodging his many bites and blasts of fire or darkness from his mouths, attacking sporadically whenever they could. It took quite a while, with occasional assistance from Hercules jumping in and punching the giant dog and knocking him back. They managed to defeat Cerberus easily.

But then Hades appeared, admitting easily that he had hired Cloud to take out Hercules, and in response, he'd help the blonde find who he was looking for. The man announced that he'd be taking things into his own hands, so the four of him ended up fighting him next. It was touch and go for a while as they dodged his many fire attacks before striking at the Lord of the Dead, knocking him back into the the enemy entrance of the coliseum, where he got his ass kicked by the Heartless hiding ready.

The team regrouped in the vestibule with Cloud, where he explained that he had come here looking for Sephiroth.

"Sephiroth is who Zack was looking for, after all," Cloud reminded his childhood friends. "After all, he looked up to the man since he used to be a great hero. I figured finding Sephiroth would be the best way to find Zack."

"Reasonable logic," Vanitas admitted, shrugging his shoulders. "Although, helping out a guy called the Lord of the Dead for the assistance probably isn't a good idea."

"I'll keep that in mind next time," Cloud said, looking down and sighing out in disappointment.

"Hey, don't worry," Aerith said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You're still you. You're still the Cloud we all know and love. Just remember who you are, and you'll find Zack in no time."

"Yeah..." Cloud said, looking down. He looked up and nodded his head in confirmation. "Yeah."

"We've gotta save some more worlds," Yuffie said. "You stay here and keep looking for Sephiroth. We'll come back once we're done and see if we can find Zack together."

"After all, working together is the best way to figure this shit out," Vanitas confirmed.

Cloud nodded in agreement before grimacing as he felt just how uncomfortable the pedestal he was sitting on really was. The team helped him slide it across the ground, revealing the Keyhole had been hiding underneath. Leon used his Keyblade to lock the Keyhole, protecting the world from the threat of the Heartless. Vanitas and Yuffie made out in celebration, during which Vanitas got to second base. The team said goodbye to Cloud before returning to the Gummiship.

Traverse Town

The next stop of their journey was a quick one back to Traverse Town so that Cid could install the Navigation Gummis to the ship, allowing them to travel to other worlds they needed to go. While he installed the Gummis, they returned a book that he restored to a man named Merlin that lived in a house just outside the town. Along the way, they briefly met a living puppet in the Accessory shop that was looking for his father.

The team went to the house outside of the town, where they met the man, Merlin, who explained that some pages had been taken from the book by the Heartless. They agreed to be on the lookout for the pages as they traveled between the worlds they continued to visit.

As they left Merlin's house and entered the Third District, they quickly ended up facing off some Soldiers in the Third District. The team prepared to fight, but then a teenage boy appeared out of nowhere holding a Keyblade, taking them out with a slash of the blade.

Since Vanitas had shown the image of Riku to his friends before, they had all widened their eyes in surprise at said teen appearing in front of them.

"You're Riku," Vanitas said. "The guy who struck down his best friend on Destiny Islands."

"He was in my way," Riku said, sounding as if he was in a trance. "And I'm guessing Kairi told you about all that."

"No," Leon said. "Our friend just happens to be able to see the past, present, and future through visions. He saw that little meeting you had with your little Legion of Doom at Hollow Bastion."

"What do you want?" Yuffie asked Riku, breaking the ice and asking the obvious question.

"Oh, it's simple," Riku said. "I just want Kairi. I plan on bringing her back home."

"I wish we could help you, but we don't know any Kairi's," Aerith said. "The only people who appeared on the world recently was a dog from Disney Castle."

"I guess you're gonna have to search harder if you wanna find that Kairi girl," Vanitas said, shrugging his shoulders.

"I guess so," Riku said, looking at them with a small, suspicious frown.

The silver haired teen turned and started walking away, leaving the team alone. The quartet shared a look before going in a different direction to leave the Third District.

They reached the apartment complex where they lived, and explained to Kairi what had happened with their meeting with Riku.

"Keep him away from me!" Kairi exclaimed quickly. "Even if he's under someone's control, I don't want him anywhere near me. I still remember how he looked when he had hurt Sora. He was smiling maliciously."

"Don't worry," Vanitas assured the redhead. "Cid will protect you. The old guy might look like just a simple mechanic, but he's actually pretty tough."

All of a sudden, the door to the apartment opened up, and Cid walked in.

"Hey, I got the Navigation pieces installed," Cid informed them. "Now you'll be able to travel further out in our universe, and maybe even to a different universe."

"Hey, Cid," Vanitas said. "How 'bout you show the kid how tough you are."

Cid nodded and walked back behind the couch. He pulled out a large contraption that had the appearance of a large camera.

But then he pointed it up in the air and blasted fire out of the lens, which flew up into the air and burned some of the ceiling. Cid quickly stopped the flames, but there was still quite a bit of fire on the ceiling. Aerith used Aero magic to put it out. *4*

"How have you guys not destroyed this place yet?" Kairi asked, a little surprised.

"Who says we haven't?" Vanitas asked, shrugging his shoulders.

The team shared a nod of their heads with Kairi and Cid before leaving the apartment. They went outside of the town and docked their ship, piloting it up into the air and beginning the next stage of their adventure.

Agrabah

The next world the team landed on was called Agrabah, and Vanitas kept loudly singing a song called "Arabian Nights" as they fought off the Heartless within the town. They stumbled through town and witnessed the conflict involving Princess Jasmine, the royal vizier, Jafar, and the palace being taken over. The team found a flying carpet, and flew outside of the town far into the desert, where they found a man named Aladdin with a monkey called Abu, who had a large Genie that came out of the lamp.

"Remember, Steve, don't let your appetite affect your wishes," Vanitas told Aladdin before looking up at Genie. "And remember to watch out for your wife's car, Homer. She runs you over before every episode now."

They went back into town, with Aladdin promising to use his third wish to free Genie from the lamp. He ended up using two of the wishes to take out a large group of Heartless and to have Genie try to help Jasmine, but Jafar was able to get his parrot, Iago, to snatch the lamp from Aladdin, transferring Genie from the street rat to the vizier. Jafar escaped with Jasmine, leaving behind a large Heartless called a Pot Centipede to attack the team and Aladdin.

The team used the carpet to fly to the Cave of Wonders after Jafar. After fighting a large Heartless in the desert called Kurt Zisa, then fighting the Heartless-possessed entrance to the Cave of Wonders, they entered the underground cave. It wasn't easy, but they navigated through the gigantic catacombs of the cave, fighting Heartless as they made their way to the inner sanctum of the Cave of Wonders, where they discovered Jafar conversing with Maleficent and Loki. Jasmine was unconscious on the ground, and the Keyhole was revealed to everyone.

"Maleficent," Yuffie growled at the sight of the witch.

"You stole our home from us," Aerith said. "Well, we're gonna get it back."

"And we're gonna kick your asses along the way," Vanitas announced, pointing at them.

"Jesus, these people sound so annoying," Loki commented.

"Gotta admit, this guy's pretty handsome," Leon admitted, gesturing to Loki.

"Thank you," Loki said.

He and Maleficent simply faded away, leaving the heroes behind for Jafar.

Jafar and the Genie attacked them, the Genie fulfilling Jafar's second wish and attacking them. They managed to defeat Jafar pretty easily, so he requested to be turned into a Genie for his third wish. The team then fought Jafar's Genie form and snatched his lamp, using it to trap him within and keeping him restrained. Unfortunately, while they were distracted, Riku appeared and kidnapped the still unconscious Jasmine for Maleficent.

After Jafar was defeated, Leon locked the Keyhole, then they escaped the Cave of Wonders together. Aladdin was upset that Jasmine was gone, but he was still a man of his word and used his final wish to free Genie from the lamp. Genie was granted a pair of legs, and was very grateful to Aladdin. The team promised they'd find Jasmine for Aladdin, then they left the world for the next stage of their adventure.

Monstro

The next stage of their adventure ended up being a complete accident. They were flying through the Lanes Between, and their ship ended up being swallowed by a giant whale named Monstro, where they ended up being reunited with the living puppet, Pinocchio, where they also met his father, Geppetto. Pinocchio, being the curious child that he was, ended up wandering out of the mouth and deeper into Monstro.

The team went after him, quickly discovering Riku, who claimed he was just playing around with Pinocchio. Given his history, the team was skeptical. They followed the two throughout the giant whale as they fought through a whole bunch of Heartless, some of them looking like ghosts.

They ended up in an area where they had to fight a large Heartless called a Parasite Cage was holding Pinocchio prisoner in its stomach mouth. Vanitas was sad that he couldn't think of a good quip involving the Heartless as they fought it off.

After defeating the Heartless, it barfed Pinocchio out through a compartment that led to the mouth. The team followed Pinocchio, landing back on Gepetto's ship, where they found Riku at one of the upper parts, holding an unconscious Pinocchio captive.

The team followed Riku up into Monstro's stomach, where they found him placing Pinocchio down on a platform between all the stomach acid.

"Do you have any idea what it is you're doing?" Leon asked the silver haired teen. "You struck down your own best friend, kidnapped innocent people from their homes, and are currently holding an unconscious child captive. Why are you doing all of this?"

"Maleficent and her group promised me that I'd see the magnificence of other worlds," Riku explained, the green light still flashing within his pupils. "And everyone that tried convincing me otherwise just got in my way. And I'll take out anyone who gets in my way."

"And what's your reasoning for the princesses and the kid?" Yuffie asked.

"I'm doing Maleficent a favor," Riku admitted. "She helped me fulfill my dreams. In exchange, she wanted some people brought to her. The Princesses are all part of some plan of hers, and she wanted to perform some kind of experiment with the puppet. I'm just returning the favor she granted me."

"Guys," Aerith muttered. "You've noticed his eyes, too, right?"

"You mean the fact that they're obviously glowing?" Vanitas asked. He closed one eye as he felt a memory flash. "I've seen this before. Control of the body through the darkness in their heart. Maleficent's making her do her bidding."

"How do we break him out?" Yuffie muttered to her friends.

"Well," Vanitas said, taking out his baseball bat. "In my experience, a good smack upside the head usually breaks them out."

Unfortunately, they didn't get to do that. The Parasite Cage Heartless boss jumped down from nowhere and landed within the stomach. Riku disappeared in a surge of darkness while the team fought off the Parasite Cage. Once they destroyed the Parasite Cage, the flashes of light leftover was enough to get Monstro to start sneezing. After dropping Pinocchio off with Geppetto, the team escaped to their ship just as Monstro sneezed them all out.

Earth 616

Since the ship had already been damaged quite a bit from being swallowed by Monstro, it was damaged even more being sneezed out by the gigantic whale. They ended up being launched throughout the galaxy, forcing them to crash land on a new world: Earth 616.

Here, Vanitas almost immediately ended up in conflict with a trio of individuals that went by the monikers of Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor.

From there, they were swept up in the world's problems involving Loki with a scepter, some glowing cube of energy called the Tesseract, a large helicarrier filled with people in an organization called SHIELD, and the one eyed director of SHIELD who apparently knew Vanitas before he had amnesia.

"Sorry, Frozone, but I don't entirely remember you," Vanitas had told the man. "Kinda wish I did since you seem cool."

Of course, the group serving as the team, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Thor, and Bruce Banner, didn't entirely get along and didn't seem that excited to work as a team. Vanitas, Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith were almost embarrassed at the sight of how poorly they worked together. Especially when they found out that SHIELD had been using the Tesseract to create weapons of war, basically inviting conflict from other worlds.

Then Loki's forces attacked, causing even more distress in the helicarrier as they raised hell, helping Loki escape. A positive was that they managed to get Clint Barton out from the Norse god's control. A negative as that Phil Coulson, the man who believed in the idea of a team the most, had been killed.

Fury then explained that the original plan was an "old fashioned initiative" called the Avengers, where heroes from all over would work together and protect the world from whatever forces appeared.

This ended up being the perfect opportunity for them to forge the team.

"We need more diversity, though," Vanitas said as they all prepared for their next attack against Loki. "I mean, seven white dudes and three white women? We're gonna have to rectify this or we're gonna get a lot of angry internet comments saying that the Avengers don't allow diversity." *5*

Quickly figuring out that Loki would strike in New York, the team made their way to the city and regrouped, fighting Loki's forces of Heartless and Chitauri aliens.

They regrouped together on the bridge. Hulk roared out in rage and looked up at the aliens on the buildings. Tony floated down next to Hulk, landing next to Yuffie as she twirled her enlarged shurikan. Next to Yuffie, Clint nocked another arrow in his bow. Next to Clint, Vanitas pulled his hands back into a fighting stance, letting fire appear in front of his palms. Leon spun his Keyblade in his hand before standing in his battle stance. Next to him, Thor spun his hammer in his hand. Next to Thor, Natasha loaded a fresh clip into her handgun. Next to her, Aerith twirled her quarterstaff in preparation. Next to her, Steve tightened the straps of his shield onto his arm.

The team looked up together at one specific building as the Chitauri continued to roar at them.

The team continued fighting against the aliens and the Heartless, with Natasha, Leon, and Aerith managing to get on top of Stark Tower and grabbing the scepter. A nuke was launched at the city, and Tony flew it through the portal and launched it at the Chitauri mothership, blowing up the ship with the nuke before Natasha deactivated the portal with the scepter.

Leon locked the world's Keyhole, and Vanitas and Yuffie celebrated by making out again. The team apprehended Loki before they began repairing the Gummi ship. Promising to return eventually, the team left the world in their Gummi ship, ready for the next stage of their adventure.

Halloween Town

The next stage of their adventure ended up being a surprising one as they went to Halloween Town. The magical protection that formed camouflage around them when they went to certain worlds ended up influencing their looks, making them appear to be from that world.

Leon had the appearance similar to a minotaur, but with the top half seeming to be like that of a silver furred lion, instead. Aerith was dressed in witch's robes with a matching hat, which did make sense since she was a mage. She added her own flare by dying them pink and red with her staff. Yuffie was in what looked like her Moogle costume, except it had green skin instead of white, making it clear that she was supposed to be a zombie Moogle. Vanitas, his skin was grey and cut up, appearing to be dead but not really, with an obvious bite mark on his neck, and his right eye was swollen shut.

The comedy that the one member of the group that was alive and dead at the same time had been turned into a zombie was not lost on the group. Vanitas wasn't amused.

The team quickly discovered that Jack Skellington was trying to create a heart so he could get the Heartless to dance within his show. They agreed to help him find the ingredients for the makeshift heart, fighting through Heartless with him along the way.

They got all the ingredients for the Heart, but then Oogie Boogie had his minions steal it from them. The team went after Oogie with Jack, fighting off the three brats were loyal to him before going through the weird game system lab that he had, where they had to go through some tricks and games before they could even damage him. That was especially annoying, but they managed to defeat Oogie, which somehow tore open his sides and let his bugs fall out.

"That is the nastiest thing I've ever seen," Vanitas said, frowning up at Oogie as his bugs kept falling out. "And I know nasty."

"Same," Leon agreed.

"Same here," Aerith also agreed, nodding her head.

"Oh, yeah," Yuffie agreed.

"So do I," Jack said, raising one hand.

The team left Oogie's Manor, but then it suddenly became a giant version of Boogie. They went along the sides of his manor and destroyed orbs of darkness, which was enough to destroy him and reveal the gigantic Keyhole. Leon used his Keyblade to lock the Keyhole, protecting this world from being swallowed by darkness. Vanitas and Yuffie celebrated by making out once again.

The team tied up a few loose ends with Jack before leaving in the Gummi ship to head on the next part of their adventure.

Atlantica

Everyone was surprised when the next stage of their adventure ended up being an underwater civilization called Atlantica. Luckily, with some more magic, the team were once again changed in a way that allowed them to breathe underwater.

Leon and Vanitas were topless while Vanitas had his sling across his back, and they each had long tails sticking out of their torsos. Leon's was light grey while Vanitas's was black, with the latter convinced he was part shark. Aerith had used some magic on herself and Yuffie so that they were both wearing shirts (despite Vanitas's protestations), while they had long tails that matched their favorite colors (green for Yuffie, pink for Aerith).

The team quickly met the world's inhabitants, which ended up being talking fish and a mermaid named Ariel. They helped Ariel fight her way through the Heartless back to the palace of Atlantica, where her father, Triton, was king. Yuffie accidentally let it slip that they were looking for a Keyhole, and King Triton practically exploded at them denying its existence.

Ariel decided to help them try to find the Keyhole, during which they found a crystal trident head and placed it in a stand on her wall. Triton appeared and ruthlessly destroyed it, making Ariel swim off sadly. Triton then informed the group he knew of the Keyblade and other worlds, and accused them all of violating the sacred principle. The team tried explaining that they were trying to save the world from the Heartless, but he ignored them and swam off.

"Can I kick his ass?" Vanitas asked, angry that this man had belittled his friends like this.

"V, he's the king of an entire kingdom," Aerith reminded him.

"Plus, he's a merman," Yuffie added. "I don't think he even has an ass."

"Ladies, it's V," Leon reminded them. "He always finds a way with this stuff."

They went to the palace for Vanitas to do exactly that, when they discovered that Ursula was here and had used Ariel to snatch the trident. Ariel went with them as they followed Ursula to her hideout, where they fought her off in a large atrium. The sea witch used a cauldron to ward them off, but Aerith's ways with magic helped them out in that department. They then followed Ursula to a large place in the sea where she used the trident to grow to a massive size. The team fought her off once again, eventually defeating her and taking back the trident.

"She actually made me uncomfortable with a lot of the things she said while fighting us," Vanitas admitted after the second fight. *6*

The team went to the palace where Triton admitted he was just trying to protect his daughter, and agreed to let them seal the keyhole, finally seeing that they were trying to help. With Ariel using the trident, Leon sealed the Keyhole, protecting this world from the Heartless. Yuffie and Vanitas celebrated once again celebrated by making out, and were sad that they couldn't do more at the moment due to their half-animal states.

The others laughed at their dilemma before they left for the Gummi ship for the next stage of their adventure.

Neverland

The next stage of their adventure ended up being a little surprising. The team remembered how many people Maleficent had on her roster, and used that as a reference to figure out that they still had to fight Captain Hook.

So they weren't that surprised when a pirate ship crashed into the Gummi ship within the Lanes Between.

They were surprised to find Riku on the ship, apparently in charge of the Heartless. What surprised them even more was seeing an unconscious Kairi laying on the ground behind him.

"You really thought that old man would be enough to take me on?" Riku asked, no shortage of arrogance in his voice. "I knocked him aside and destroyed that blaster. But I left him alive since he was so pathetic, I actually felt sorry for him."

The team was starting to reach a point where they didn't even care that this boy was being controlled, they just wanted to beat the shit out of him.

They were dropped into the brig, where they met up with another prisoner named Peter Pan. They helped Pan escape, then the team went through the pirate ship, fighting Heartless that got in their way as they discovered that Kairi and Pan's girlfriend, Wendy, were trapped in slightly better cells. They were able to save Wendy, but Riku escaped with Kairi to Hollow Bastion. With help from Pan's pixie, Tinker Bell, the team was given pixie dust that gave them the ability to fly. This gave them an edge as they fought Hook.

The team then went to the clock tower in London with Pan, where they discovered a large Heartless called a Phantom. They fought off the Phantom and took it out, before moving the hands of one clock to say 12:00 Midnight. The Keyhole was revealed, and Leon locked it with his Keyblade. Vanitas and Yuffie... Well, I'm sure you knew how they celebrated at this point.

With the Keyhole locked, a Navigation Gummi granted from it, and the world safe from the Heartless, the team left for the Gummi ship for the next stage of their journey.

Traverse Town

The immediate next stage of their journey was back at Traverse Town. First, they visited Merlin's house to return the pages from the book, entering in the tiny world and learning the problems within the 100 Acre Wood and helping out the animals down there.

Vanitas was half-convinced that the whole thing in the book world was just a gigantic trip on Acid.

After that, they found out that Pinocchio and Geppetto had crash landed on the world, and they had found a house to stay in thanks to the mayor setting a few things up.

Then, they found the recovered Cid, and gave him the new Navigation Gummi to install.

"I'm sorry I couldn't keep the girl safe," Cid said, guilt in his voice. "It's just that the kid came out of nowhere with that Keyblade, and he took me by surprise."

"Cid, it's all right," Leon said, putting a reassuring hand on the mechanic's shoulder. "I'm sure you did the best you could. We've all seen how strong people can be with the Keyblade. No one blames you for what happened."

Yuffie, Aerith, and Vanitas all nodded or audibly agreed, which calmed Cid down quite a bit.

"Thanks, you guys," Cid said. "So... Hollow Bastion, huh? You're really goin' back home. How do you guys feel about that?"

"It is, uh, a little weird to think about," Aerith admitted. "We haven't been there in years, and now we have to go back and try to take out all the Heartless, by ourselves."

"It is a little jarring," Yuffie agreed. "Like, how much has the place changed since we've been gone? How different is it now? I mean, there's obviously going to be some changes what with all the Heartless there, but still."

"I know what you guys mean," Leon said. "It's gonna be really weird to just be back there."

"Well, if it makes you guys feel any better, know that we can face all the challenges that are there," Vanitas assured them. "I mean, we're going there to take out the rest of Maleficent's forces and lock the Keyhole. Once that thing's locked away, we can start clearing out the remaining Heartless and fixing the place up. It won't be the place that you guys remember from your childhood, but we'll work to restore as much as we can. Because in the end, that can be enough for us."

Everyone nodded as they fully registered the ravenette's words. Yuffie leaned forwards and grabbed his face, pulling him in for a long kissed that was full of more emotion than most of their previous ones. After Cid finished exclaiming in disgust, the team went to their ship and began the trek back to Hollow Bastion.

Hollow Bastion

It took a while, but they managed to reach the world that used to be Leon, Aerith, and Yuffie's childhood home. They made it up to the castle, where they ended up gaining extra backup in the form of a man called Beast, who looked like a monster thanks to some curse. He promised to explain later, and joined the team as they went through the lower portions of the castle to unlock the front doors.

With the doors unlocked, the team entered them into the grand hall, where they encountered Riku. The silver haired teen showed his great arrogance once again, and the team decided they had enough and started fighting him. Riku used his Keyblade, Vanitas used his baseball bat, Yuffie used her shurikan, and Aerith used her quarterstaff as they all fought the silver haired teen. After they had defeated Riku, his Keyblade disappeared in a flash of light, and it didn't reappear despite his best attempts at summoning it again.

"I guess yours finally realized it had chosen an asshole," Vanitas commented.

Riku growled at him before running off.

Beast reappeared and joined them in going through the castle, going up and down the intricate pathways as they solved the puzzles of the castle, fighting through Heartless as they went deeper and deeper within. Despite the dozens of Heartless in their way, the team and Beast made their way up throughout the castle, knocking aside anything that got in their way.

Eventually, they reached the Chapel, where they ended up fighting Maleficent. It was a form of therapy for everyone involved to beat the crap out of the woman who had caused them so much trauma over the years. Afterwards, they followed the witch into a deeper part of the castle, finding her with Riku who had a different Keyblade and spoke in a modulated voice. He stabbed Maleficent in the chest with his Keyblade, releasing her darkness and turning her into a gigantic dragon, which the team and Beast immediately had to fight.

The dragon gave them some trouble, but they managed to defeat her.

They followed Riku deeper into the castle, where they found a gigantic station set up for the keyhole. The seven princesses of Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora, Belle, Jasmine, Alice, and Kairi were forced to use the light from their hearts to activate the Keyhole. While Beast tried in vain to break Belle out of her small prison, the team went further up into the area, finding Riku.

He then revealed himself to be Ansem, who Vanitas immediately realized was actually Xehanort. The team fought off Ansem, eventually making his body disappear.

However, a new person revealed himself to the team, materializing out of nowhere in front of them. He was dressed in grey and black gear and had long silver hair.

"That boy, Riku, was the perfect vessel for my return," Ansem announced with a smile. "Maleficent used the darkness within his heart to control him, making him do all sorts of actions for her. She increased his dark actions and increased his darkness, making him stronger and stronger with it. And now that you've defeated him, I have gained enough strength to return."

The team shared looks before nodding their heads in agreement. They all took out their weapons and prepared themselves.

Ansem was probably the strongest opponent they had faced so far. The man summoned a minion called the Dark Figure that looked like an evil genie. The team dodged the Dark Figure's many attacks, and rewarded Ansem with their own attacks. Leon attacked with his Keyblade, Yuffie attacked with her shurikan, Aerith used her quarterstaff, and Vanitas alternated between the machete, sledgehammer, and SPAS-12 shotgun. They all fought for quite a long while, successfully doing a lot of damage against Ansem.

Eventually, the battle reached a head.

Each member of the team slashed through an orb of darkness launched at them. Yuffie threw her shurikan, which hit Ansem in the head. Aerith ducked under a left hook from the Dark Figure, then rammed her quarterstaff between Ansem's legs. Vanitas knocked the man aside with a swing of his sledgehammer, then Leon performed a big attack with his Keyblade, knocking him around with strikes and doing a lot of damage.

Ansem was knocked back in front of the Keyhole. The man winced and looked up at the team in front of him.

"This is impossible," Ansem growled out. "I will not lose to the likes of you."

"You know, you were wrong about just about everything back when we were Ansem the Wise's apprentices," Vanitas commented. "And it looks like nothing's changed."

Leon yelled out and held his Keyblade with both hands, pointing it at Ansem and firing a beam out. The beam burned long and bright, tearing through Ansem and finishing him off.

The Seeker of Darkness winced and looked up as blue energy suddenly surrounded himself. The energy burned within the air before completely enveloping him. After a second, the energy disappeared, taking Ansem with it and making both vanish.

"Enjoy hell, you sick son of a bitch," Vanitas said to where Ansem used to be.

Riku's unconscious body then materialized on the ground where Ansem used to be, showing that he was free from the man's control.

Leon then stepped up to the Keyhole and pointed his Keyblade at it, sending out a beam of light that locked the gigantic Keyhole, sealing it away from the Heartless.

The team all cheered loudly at the new development. The princesses were all then released from their prison cells, and Belle and Beast shared a happy reunion.

The team then slowly walked out of the castle and out onto the walkway in front of the large front doors.

"The princesses will be returned to their home worlds eventually," Aerith explained. "Along with Kairi and Riku. Maybe now that the darkness has been defeated, everyone else will return."

"Here's hoping," Vanitas agreed. "I wanna meet this Sora kid, see how much he really looks like me."

"I'm sure the resemblance will be uncanny," Leon said with a smirk.

He looked up and sighed out in contentment.

"I still can't believe it," Leon said, a wistful tone to his voice. "After all these years, we've finally gotten back our home. For the first time in a long time, I feel... free."

"Me, too," Vanitas said with his own smile. "Xehanort's dead, so I've finally gotten my vengeance. Now all that's left is to find my friends."

"We'll help you out there," Yuffie promised him. "After all, we've done so much together. We're a team, a family. We always have to help each other out, right?"

"Right," Aerith confirmed.

"Right," Leon agreed.

"Right," Vanitas also agreed, smiling at his friends.

The two ravenettes leaned forwards and shared a hug before pressing their lips together in a long, passionate kiss. Their friends smiled at the sight.

The moment was broken significantly by the sound of a loud thud on the ground next to them.

Everyone jumped back and turned around, their eyes widening at the sight of a tall robot standing in front of them.

"Uh, V?" Aerith asked. "Ansem the Wise never invented robots, did he?"

"Not that I know of," Vanitas said.

"Vanitas Jordan," the robot said. "Of course you would exist in this universe, too."

"'Too'?" Leon asked. "Wait, 'universe'? Who the hell are you?"

"I am Ultron," the robot announced. "And with my army, this universe and many others... will be mine."

"Anyone know what the fuck this guy is talking about?" Vanitas asked his friends.

"Yeah, what army?" Yuffie demanded from Ultron.

All of a sudden, the sound of wind rushing surged throughout the air. Everyone looked up, and their eyes widened at the sight of dozens of robots just like Ultron flying down through the sky, coming out of strange blue and grey portals as they propelled themselves down towards the castle. Even more were following through the portals and going towards the area.

"I think that army," Aerith said, pointing up into the air.

The team took out their weapons again, with Vanitas grabbing his machete. Even though Ansem and the Heartless were gone, their battle was far from over... *7*

David Boreanaz as Leon

Haley Joel Osment as Vanitas Jordan

Cristy Carlson Romano as Yuffie Kisagari

Mandy Moore as Aerith Gainsborough

Susan Blakeslee as Maleficent

David Gallagher as Riku

Tom Hiddleston as Loki

Jonathan Freeman as Jafar

James Woods as Hades

Pat Carroll as Ursula

Ken Page as Oogie Boogie

Corey Burton as Captain Hook

Featuring Ike Amadi as Shao Kahn

Featuring Hayden Panettiere as Kairi

And Billy Zane as Ansem

Chapter Text

Time.

Space.

Reality.

It's more than a linear path.

It's a prism... of endless possibility, where a single choice can branch out into infinite realities, creating alternate worlds from the ones you know.

I am the Watcher.

I am your guide through these vast new realities. Follow me, and ponder the question...

"What if?"

Vanitas hadn't had the best life so far. After all, what kind of life could you really live when you were just the embodiment of someone else's darkness?

Vanitas hadn't been born the typical way. He had been the darkness within the Keyblade wielder, Ventus's heart, forcibly released by Master Xehanort. He had first appeared without a face, just an empty being in a black and red bodysuit with a glass and silver mask that covered what should have been his head. Then, Ventus's heart had connected to the heart of another, completing his and granting Vanitas a new look of black, spiky hair and golden yellow eyes.

The only problem is that Vanitas's very existence was torture. His body burned every day from the forced separation from Ventus, which helped create the Unversed. Vanitas was desperate, he had begged Xehanort to allow him to return to Ventus for months, maybe years. But every time, Xehanort gave him a dirty look, said that everything was going to plan, and that he needed to shut up and deal with it.

With nothing else to do, Vanitas had no choice but to follow Xehanort and listen to his orders.

Over time, Vanitas grew stronger with the Keyblade, gaining more and more power and becoming a good warrior and swordsman. But as time continued on, he grew angrier as his suffering continued. Xehanort continued to deny him his request to return to Ventus, so that anger ended up being directed towards everything and everyone.

He hated them all. From Xehanort for tearing him from Ventus in the first place. To Ventus for getting the chance to live a normal life while he was trapped suffering with the demented old man. After a while, that anger and hatred was eventually just directed towards everything and everyone because he didn't have anything else to direct that anger towards.

Through Xehanort's torturous, intense form of training, he had sculpted Vanitas into a cold-blooded, bitter, and angry warrior.

Exactly what he needed.

The only thing that Xehanort didn't know was that Vanitas wasn't just content to follow through with his plans to forge the χ-blade and start the new Keyblade War. Ever since this little "endeavor" had started, he had been formulating his own plans against Xehanort. And just like Xehanort's attempt at a plan, they would all come to fruition at the fated land. The place where Keyblade wielders had waged war against each other so long ago.

The Keyblade Graveyard. *1*

The Keyblade Graveyard

Vanitas was proud of himself for doing the ruse long enough to trick Xehanort like this.

Vanitas's plan was to finally strike back when the old man least expected it during their final battles here and (hopefully) take him out. He had followed through with enough of Xehanort's plan to not look suspicious. When the official battle had started, Vanitas had fought against Eraqus's three pupils, just enough to make it look like a strong effort, but not enough to actually hurt them. The worst he had done was blasted Terra with lightning and let the flying Keyblades knock Ventus to the ground.

Okay, yeah, there was also that one surge that broke Aqua's helmet, and the other that knocked Terra off the mountain and hard into the ground.

But other than that, he really was on their side.

When Terra was on the mountain to face Vanitas and Xehanort, Vanitas felt nervous goosebumps on his arms as he realized his moment was coming. He went easy on the battle against Terra, not trying to hurt the man that he would be saving in a few moments.

After a few moments of pretending to go his all against Terra, Xehanort gave Vanitas the orders to "take what Ventus owed him," and to take Aqua's life. The dark apprentice turned and started jogging towards the other end of the mountain. He reached the edge and jumped off before redirecting himself in the air, launching himself down towards the ground.

Vanitas plummeted headfirst down the side of the mountain, moving quickly down towards the ground far below, to where Aqua and the still frozen Ventus were waiting, with Aqua having finished defeating Braig. The pirate with a mullet was gone, leaving the two remaining Keyblade wielders alone. Aqua had turned towards Ventus, and Ventus called out in worry for her, because he had seen Vanitas dropping down through the sky.

Aqua looked up in shock to see Vanitas plummeting down towards her.

However, she was even more shocked to see the masked boy dismiss his Keyblade before flipping in the air. Vanitas then dropped down onto the rough, plateau of a ground right in front of her, landing on one knee.

Aqua gasped in surprise, then jumped back, standing ready in her battle stance with her Keyblade.

"If you wanna hurt Ven, you're gonna have to go through me!" Aqua announced defiantly.

Vanitas just slowly pushed himself to his feet. Aqua, expecting some witty or sadistic remark, frowned when she saw the masked boy raising his hands, looking like he was surrendering.

"I know you have no reason to believe me," Vanitas said. "But I'm not here to hurt you."

"You're right," Aqua snapped. "I don't believe you."

Vanitas sighed out, understanding completely considering how things had transpired over the past few days.

He looked over Aqua's shoulder to see Ventus, still laying on the ground with ice surrounding him. The blonde was glaring right at Vanitas (which looked like an irritated puppy dog; meaning it looked adorable).

Vanitas took a concerned step towards Ventus, and Aqua immediately stepped to that side, getting in front of him once again.

"Stay away from him," Aqua sternly told him.

"I'm trying to help..." Vanitas slowly started to say.

"I don't believe you!" Aqua snapped at the masked boy.

He sighed out before getting an idea.

Vanitas then reached up with both hands, making sure they were seen by Aqua, before placing them on his mask. Aqua narrowed her eyes, while Ventus's widened in curiosity. Vanitas then turned his mask slightly before lifting it up, taking the silver and glass mask off of his head.

Both Aqua and Ventus were surprised to see that underneath the mask, Vanitas looked like a normal teenage boy. He had spiky, raven black hair that had Ventus frowning because of how familiar it looked for some reason. His face was pale, most likely from how much it was covered by the one way dark glass of the mask, but looked around the same age as Ventus. His eyes were a golden yellow, the same shade as Xehanort's due to the darkness within his heart.

Vanitas blinked, his eyes adjusting to the new (if scarce) light in the Keyblade Graveyard. He looked at Aqua and dropped the mask, letting it land pretty unceremoniously on the ground. Keeping his hands raised to still show that he wasn't dangerous, Vanitas looked up at Aqua with an earnest expression on his face.

"I am telling you right now," Vanitas said. "For once, that I'm not here to hurt you or Ventus. I think I know how to help him."

Aqua looked into his eyes and saw honesty within, indicating that he was telling the truth.

She still pointed her Keyblade forwards, holding it right up to Vanitas's neck in warning.

"I'm still watching you," Aqua warned.

"I'd be surprised if you didn't," Vanitas admitted.

Aqua kept her gaze on and her Keyblade pointed at the ravenette as he jogged forwards to the downed Ventus. Vanitas crouched down next to his former body, watching as Ventus shivered slightly from the ice.

"You should go to more worlds covered in snow," Vanitas suggested. "Helps build up a tolerance to it."

"Y-yeah?" Ventus asked through another shiver. "You ever experience something like that?"

"Yes, actually," Vanitas confirmed. "There were little 'training sessions' to build up tolerance given to me by the old man. Those included one or two moments where he stripped me naked, dumped me on a world covered in snow, and just left me there for a week."

Aqua and Ventus's eyes widened in shock as they looked at Vanitas.

"Yeah," Vanitas confirmed. "Believe it or not, that wasn't the worst of it."

The ravenette pointed his hand forwards, and magic surged within. He ran his hand over Ventus's body, doing a scan to see what was wrong with him.

"So, you guys shouldn't be that surprised that I'm helping you guys against him now," Vanitas remarked.

Aqua took another step forwards and looked from Vanitas to the panting and still-shivering Ventus. While some of Vanitas's anger was starting to make sense, the blunette was still wary against the dark apprentice waving his hands next to her remaining friend.

"What are you doing?" Aqua cautiously asked.

"Using the darkness to check his bodily state," Vanitas explained. "Looks like the ice from the old man didn't do much more than just literally freeze his body in place. But this ice is enchanted."

"How so?" Aqua asked.

Vanitas looked up at her.

"It's ice of darkness," he explained. "We can't thaw him out with just normal fire or anything. To break him out of this freeze, the light within his heart is going to have to grow enough to melt the ice of darkness."

Vanitas looked down at Ventus, a confused expression on his face.

"I have no idea how you're gonna do that, though," Vanitas admitted.

Aqua softly gasped and looked up into the air. Vanitas and Ventus followed her gaze to see her looking towards the top of the mountain high above their heads, where Vanitas had left Xehanort and Terra as they had continued to duel.

Vanitas's eyebrows furrowed in remembrance, because he had heard from the old man that Aqua had reached a level where she could sense some amounts of light and darkness.

"There's... much more darkness up there than before," Aqua shakily said.

"The old man," Vanitas said, jumping to his feet. "His plan was for me and Ventus to fight and forge the χ-blade through the quick method of a pure heart of light and pure heart of darkness clashing. But he also knew that he was too old to see his plans with the blade come to fruition. So, he knew he needed a new vessel."

"Wh... what do you mean by 'vessel'?" Aqua asked, confused.

Vanitas looked at her with a grim expression on his face.

"A vessel to put his heart into," Vanitas said. "It's essentially a form of possession. He finds someone, gets them to give into darkness enough for his heart to reside, then he sends his heart into their body, merging their darkness with his to take full control."

Vanitas looked up into the air to where the battle was still happening. Aqua and Ventus's eyes widened and their jaws dropped as they got the full implications of what the dark apprentice was telling them.

"That's what this has all been about," Vanitas continued. "The old man's convinced that there's a 'tyranny of light,' and the only way to achieve what he perceives as balance is to destroy all worlds, then start them over with a clean slate. His way of doing that is to use the Keyblade to release the darkness within Kingdom Hearts to use it to overwhelm all worlds. Then, in the aftermath, he'll guide those that remain in what he sees as 'the true way'."

He internally groaned, remembering how the old man had explained all of this to him practically every night. It was the worst bedtime story imaginable.

Vanitas then turned to look at Aqua, a determined expression on his face.

"Get Ventus out of here," he instructed. "I've got a plan to stop the old man, but he's bitter enough to get revenge on you all if it doesn't follow through. He's still wounded, so take him to Yen Sid's tower. That old sorcerer oughta know something to help him."

He looked up into the air towards the top of the mountain.

"I've got Terra and the old man," Vanitas added.

Aqua looked between the mountain to Vanitas. While she could believe that he wanted to fight against Xehanort, she was still wary of him.

"Why?" Aqua asked. Vanitas looked at her curiously. "Why are you doing this?"

Vanitas's expression changed from curiosity to hardened determination.

"Because that man is a monster," he explained. "He tore me from Ventus, and it burned every inch of my body. My very existence burns me and tortures me. And Xehanort decided to use that to mold me into his perfect little warrior. The only reason he's ever needed me is for forcing the χ-blade. If it wasn't for that, he would've abandoned me to the wolves years ago. Well, I'm not giving him the satisfaction of having the weapon granted to him. I'm fighting back." *2*

He chuckled bitterly and looked up into the air.

"Probably the only thing I've ever done for myself," Vanitas commented. "Go figure."

He clicked his neck and rolled his shoulders in preparation.

Aqua and Ventus stared at Vanitas in amazement during his speech, surprised and shocked that the dark apprentice had been through so much.

Ventus wanted to offer his sympathy, but Vanitas had already sprung into action. The dark apprentice started jogging forwards, and lunged up onto the side of the cliff wall. He placed his feet on the side and started springing up the wall towards where Xehanort and Terra were still clashing.

On top of being worried for Terra, Aqua and Ventus were now worried for Vanitas.

This certainly was a strange day.

Vanitas steeled himself for whatever form of conflict he would end up facing when he reached the top of the mountainside. While he had become a strong enough Keyblade wielder in his own ways, Xehanort was still a Keyblade Master. Moreover, he was the Master that had taught Vanitas everything he knew, and had gained enough awareness of the darkness to use telekinesis and actually reshape reality, something that all of these mountains were proof of.

So, yes, he was a little nervous, to say the least.

Vanitas pushed his nervousness to the side as best he could as he charged up the side of the mountain wall, holding out his hand to summon his Keyblade. Void Gear appeared in his palm just as he lunged forwards, doing a flip or two in the air before he landed on the rocky ground.

Looking across the flat expanse of the mountaintop, Vanitas saw that Terra and Xehanort were still locked in deep battle. Darkness had surrounded Terra as he entered the darkness based Command Style of Dark Impulse. Terra was doing the darkness based combo attacks of Dark Impulse, knocking Xehanort around before doing the combo finisher of making the large hand appear and claw at the old man.

Vanitas knew that if he was going to have any hope of helping Terra and thwarting the old man's plans, he needed to make it so that Terra could no longer be Xehanort's vessel. So, just as Terra knocked Xehanort aside with his combo finisher, Vanitas prepared himself.

The dark apprentice twirled his Keyblade in preparation, and pointed it with both hands at Terra's back. Light gathered at the end of Void Gear before a beam shot out.

That beam hit Terra in the back and made him gasp in shock. The darkness disappeared from around Terra, and light grew in the center of his chest. Through that light, a large orb of darkness suddenly flew out, and went up into the air. That darkness rose for a few seconds before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Terra gasped in shock, while Xehanort looked up with his jaw dropped.

"No..." Xehanort said, shock in his own voice as he looked up to where Terra's darkness vanished. "No, no, no, no!"

Terra placed a hand to his chest and panted in and out, slightly weakened from the sudden change of not having darkness anymore. He looked to the side, and was shocked to see Vanitas step up next to him.

"What... what did you just do?" Terra asked, still panting.

"I released the darkness within your heart," Vanitas said. "That's the old man's plan. He wanted you to give into the darkness, and let it grow within your heart. While Ventus and I were supposed to forge the χ-blade, he would use his own heart to take over your body through the darkness. He would use you as a new vessel to use the χ-blade and reshape all worlds in his image."

Vanitas looked towards Xehanort, who was glaring at the ravenette very angrily.

"You little abomination!" Xehanort snapped. "You've ruined everything!"

"Call it payback for years worth of torture and forced servitude," Vanitas snapped back.

He took a few steps forwards, holding his Keyblade forwards in preparation.

"I'll hold this guy off," Vanitas told Terra. "Get to your friends and get out of here."

"I'm not gonna leave you to fight him alone," Terra weakly said, stubbornness in his voice.

"You're in no shape!" Vanitas rebutted, looking over his shoulder at Terra. "I released the darkness from your heart, and it took a lot out of you. Get out of here, now!"

"I'm not..." Terra started to say, still weak and stubborn. His eyes widened. "Look out!"

Vanitas turned around and exclaimed in surprise. He raised his Keyblade up with both hands just in time to deflect a strike from Xehanort's No Name. The two Keyblades clanged against each other, enough force passing between the two blades that shook the mountaintop.

Vanitas yelled out as he pushed against Xehanort's Keyblade with both hands, breaking through the locked strike. The ravenette then yelled out as he lunged forwards and started his own combo attack against Xehanort, pushing the old man back across the mountaintop. Xehanort grunted with each strike that hit him, before teleporting away. He started to retaliate with his series of slashes and tried following it with the surge of spiked ice. Vanitas managed to cartwheel away from the first slash, but he was knocked back by the sharp ice.

Vanitas managed to recover just in time for Xehanort to teleport to the other side of the mountaintop. The old man cast a spell and made large bursts of lightning come down from the sky. Vanitas managed to dodge the lightning by retreating into the ground. He traveled across the ground to where Xehanort was in the form of a puddle of darkness. Once he got close enough, Vanitas jumped out of the ground while spinning in the air, slashing his Keyblade and sending balls of fire in all directions. Xehanort teleported to dodge, but winced each time a fireball hit him and damaged him.

Vanitas landed on the ground, then Xehanort teleported in front of him. Xehanort started slashing with his Keyblade, successfully striking Vanitas. He did the Finish attack of releasing the sharp ice, and Vanitas left behind a copy. The dark apprentice teleported over Xehanort from behind, grunting as he came down and slashed at Xehanort's back, making his own spiked ice burst up from the ground to damage the old man.

Xehanort disappeared in another teleport, reappearing across the mountaintop once more. The old man yelled out some incantation, and the ground rose up where Vanitas stood, forming another raised expanse that knocked aside the ravenette. Vanitas dropped towards the ground, then grunted when the land rose up once again, knocking him aside once more.

Vanitas managed to land on the ground, and Xehanort cast another incantation that made the powered down Keyblades from the ground surge towards him. Vanitas looked up and saw the approaching surge of Keyblades. He used cartwheels and backflips to dodge the strike of surging Keyblades. The surge then flew right towards him, and Vanitas lunged forwards. He moved out of the way of the surge at the last second before grabbing one of the Keyblades within the surge by the handle. Vanitas flipped in the air and landed on the ground before throwing the powered down right towards Xehanort.

Xehanort grunted when the powered down Keyblade hit him in the chest and wounded him slightly, admittedly impressed by the strike from his apprentice. The old man growled in irritation before teleporting away.

Vanitas panted in and out and looked around. His eyes narrowed when he saw that Terra was still on the mountaintop, panting weakly but still standing ready with his own Keyblade.

"I told you to get out of here!" Vanitas shouted to Terra.

"I'm not gonna leave you to face him alone," Terra said, still weak.

"You're in no condition to fight!" Vanitas tried reasoning with the taller man. "You wouldn't last five minutes. Now, seriously, you need to run! Get out of...!"

But then Vanitas gasped.

Terra's eyes widened in surprise and terror when he saw the front of No Name sticking out of Vanitas's stomach.

"No!" Terra shouted.

Vanitas gasped weakly as he looked down, seeing the Keyblade sticking out of his stomach. He dropped his own Keyblade to the ground with a loud clatter, and slowly looked up.

Xehanort glared down at his apprentice before pulling No Name out of Vanitas's torso. Vanitas fell forwards, landing roughly on the ground. The dark apprentice panted and winced, placing a hand on the wound on his stomach.

Vanitas panted and wheezed as he turned himself around, moving onto his back to glare up at Xehanort.

Xehanort smirked before twirling No Name around so that he was holding it backhanded. The old man gripped his Keyblade with both hands, then yelled out as he stabbed it through Vanitas's chest, making the dark apprentice gasp as more pain flared through him.

Vanitas gasped weakly as he looked up at the sadistic smirk on Xehanort's face. The old man looked down at the ravenette, mock sympathy on his face.

"Any last words?" Xehanort taunted.

Vanitas winced, feeling incredible pain throughout his body thanks to the Keyblade in his chest. His breathing had gotten more hollow, and his eyes were starting to flutter. With all the strength he had, he leaned forwards, wanting Xehanort to hear this.

"I..." Vanitas whispered. "I'll..."

He opened his eyes and frowned at Xehanort.

"I'll see you in Hell," Vanitas told his former master.

With that, Vanitas lost the last of his strength.

The ravenette fell back down onto the ground, Xehanort's blade still sticking out of his chest. Black smoke and lines suddenly appeared around Vanitas, starting at his hands and legs and starting to cover the rest of his body. The smoke and lines covered his face last, and started pulling him down. Within seconds, the darkness had completely absorbed Vanitas, before disappearing completely, taking the dark apprentice with it.

Vanitas was gone. *3*

Xehanort growled in annoyance as he looked at where his former apprentice used to be.

He looked up, and smirked when he saw the shocked look that Terra had, pointed right at where Vanitas had been.

"Tragic, isn't it?" Xehanort asked, trying to egg on the brunette. "The one who worked to save your friends, and tried to save your own life. And yet, you got him killed. Just like you got your Master killed. Doesn't that make you angry?"

Terra breathed in and out deeply. He closed his eyes and looked down, before looking up at Xehanort with a determined expression on his face.

"I'm not gonna let you trick me, anymore," Terra informed him. "You already made me weaken my own father before you struck him down. I don't care about your little plans, anymore. I am only here to protect my friends. And that's what I'm gonna do."

He stood in his battle stance.

Xehanort sighed out.

"Fine," Xehanort decided. "But one thing that Vanitas was right about: you're in no condition to fight."

"I don't care," Terra announced, pushing aside the tiredness in his voice. "I'm not letting you get to them. You'll have to kill me to get to Aqua and Ven."

Xehanort smirked sadistically.

"Okay," he easily said.

Terra internally swore, remembering that he had just witnessed Xehanort murdering his own apprentice.

On the ground far below, Aqua used the abilities she had earned of sensing darkness and light to keep track of what was going on on top of the rock mountain. She had pushed Ventus to the side and watched over him to make sure he was as comfortable as possible despite being frozen by ice of darkness. Using her abilities, Aqua kept track of the situation on the mountaintop by sensing how much darkness and light was on the mountain.

Aqua was certainly surprised by what was going on. Darkness had suddenly disappeared from Terra, leaving him weaker than usual, while the darknesses of Xehanort and Vanitas clashed. Then, the darkness of Vanitas's heart had disappeared completely, and Aqua actually felt sadness when she realized that the dark apprentice had been struck down.

Worry filled Aqua's chest as she sensed that Terra's weakened light was about to try to battle Xehanort's incredibly strong darkness.

Resolve and determination in her chest, Aqua looked down at the still frozen Ventus.

"Ven, I need to do something," Aqua told him. "I need to go help Terra."

"Y-you can't," Ventus shivered out. "V-Vanitas will... he'll do something."

"Vanitas... he's gone," Aqua sadly admitted.

Ventus gasped in shock, feeling sadness for the person that used to literally be a part of him.

"Stay down here," Aqua told Ventus. "You're still wounded, you wouldn't last long in a battle. Trust me."

She looked up into the air.

"I'm gonna go up there, and I'm gonna help Terra," Aqua announced in determination. "And we're gonna defeat Xehanort, and then we're gonna get as far away from here as possible."

"Aqua," Ventus shivered out in protest.

"I'll be back," Aqua informed him, looking up at the top of the mountain.

She held out her hand and summoned Stormfall. The Keyblade Master threw her Keyblade into the air, and it spun around throughout the sky as it went in a large loop before light flashed around it. The light faded, and the Glider flew right towards the blunette. Aqua then jumped up into the air and landed in the seat of her Glider, grabbing ahold of the controls.

"Aqua!" Ventus shouted in worry.

Aqua ignored Ventus and piloted her Glider up into the air. She flew the magic vehicle up into the air, flying parallel to the mountain and quickly moving up the length of the rocky expanse. Eventually she passed the top and flew further up into the air before dismissing her Glider completely. Aqua then dropped down through the air and landed on her feet on the mountaintop.

Standing on the mountaintop, Aqua looked forwards to see the battle happening between Xehanort and Terra.

Her eyes widened.

Terra was on his knees, panting weakly and in a great amount of pain. Ends of the Earth was laying on the ground a short distance away, and Xehanort was standing over the wounded brunette.

"What a disappointment," Xehanort growled to Terra. "You could have been so much more than this."

"That's not what I wanted," Terra said, still panting weakly. "All I wanted... was just to keep my friends safe. The people I love... Something you obviously forgot about."

Xehanort rolled his eyes and looked back down at Terra.

"Well, I guess you've failed in that department, too," Xehanort remarked.

"Terra!" Aqua shouted in concern, starting to run as fast as she could across the mountaintop.

Terra quickly perked up, relieved to hear her voice once more.

Xehanort just rolled his eyes again at the sentimental nature before jabbing forwards with No Name, impaling it through Terra's chest.

"No!!!" Aqua shouted, her eyes wide as she continued running as quickly as she could. "Terra!!!"

Terra gasped weakly, feeling the last prestiges of his strength leave him due to the blade in his chest. Xehanort just placed his foot on Terra's shoulder and pushed him off of the Keyblade, knocking him to the ground.

Terra breathed out one more time and closed his eyes just as cracks appeared around his body, light surging around it to make him look like a giant crystal. More cracks appeared around those crystals, before it shattered completely, making him disappear.

First Eraqus, and then Vanitas.

And now... Terra was gone, too. *4*

Aqua stopped in her tracks and gasped in shock, placing her hands over her mouth and feeling tears in her eyes. Overcome with emotion, Aqua dropped down to her knees and sobbed loudly, letting her shock and total despair out. The man that she loved was gone, and she hadn't been able to help him, or tell him how she felt.

Xehanort had an annoyed expression on his face as he looked from where Terra had been laying to where Aqua was crying on her knees.

"Sentiment..." Xehanort remarked. "It really is one for children. And that's why you will always fail. He held onto his determination to help you, Ventus, and even Vanitas."

He smiled sadistically.

"I really did him a favor," Xehanort announced. "He didn't have to learn the hard way that friends, sentiment, and love are all completely worthless."

Aqua stopped crying and slowly raised her head. Xehanort was almost amused by the very angry glare that she was giving him, tear stains running down the sides of her face.

"I'm..." Aqua panted out, still glaring at Xehanort. "I'm gonna kill you."

"My, my..." Xehanort taunted. "That doesn't sound like a lesson your Master would impart on you."

"I..." Aqua slowly said, pushing herself to her feet.

"Don't..." she continued, holding out her hand and summoning her Keyblade.

"Care!" Aqua shouted, standing in her battle stance.

Xehanort smirked.

"I suppose Eraqus and Terra could use some company, wherever it is they are," he remarked.

Aqua shouted at the top of her lungs and charged at Xehanort.

The two Masters met each other in battle, their Keyblades striking together with enough force to make the mountain shake.

Aqua immediately started a combo attack against Xehanort, following it up with a blast of Triple Blizzaga, wanting to hurt the man. After the fire exploded, Xehanort teleported away and reappeared next to her. Just as Xehanort was about to do his many Keyblade slashes, Aqua warped to teleport behind him, then attacked him with Thunder Surge, surging forwards and hitting the old man while also shocking him with the lightning. Aqua followed it up with another combo attack before gathering enough energy to start the Command Style Thunderbolt.

Xehanort teleported around the mountaintop to get away from Aqua. The old man then cast a spell that made lightning come down from the sky, one of them hitting Aqua. Aqua cast Fission Firaga and let the ball of flame explode as it hit the man. Xehanort then used darkness to make the surge of Keyblades fly up from the ground and move towards Aqua in an attack. Aqua evaded the surge of blades and charged across the mountaintop towards the old man. She yelled out as she lunged forwards with Aerial Slam, doing one strike before Xehanort teleported away to evade the second two.

Xehanort then reappeared next to Aqua and slashed at her again with his Keyblade. Aqua grunted at the slashes, then cast a barrier around herself when the old man released the spiked ice to attack her. She followed it up with a blast from her Keyblade, then followed that up with a blast of Thundaga Shot. Xehanort teleported away once again, then used an incantation to make more parts of the ground rise up to attack. Aqua used cartwheels to evade the rising expanses of land before charging at Xehanort. The blunette Keyblade Master started the attack of Time Splicer, teleporting around Xehanort many, many times to strike and attack, while also casting Stop. Stop never worked, but she was still able to keep striking and damaging Xehanort.

Once Time Splicer ended, Xehanort teleported across the mountaintop, while energy surged around Aqua, letting her start the Ghost Drive Command Style.

Xehanort reappeared a distance away and cast his own version of Blizzard, having three giant chunks of ice fly out of his hand and towards Aqua. Aqua evaded two of them, then slashed through the third one before charging at Xehanort. The blunette Keyblade Master started the Ghost Drive styled combo attacks, repeatedly teleporting and striking at Xehanort while doing lots of damage. She yelled out as she performed the combo finisher before hitting Xehanort with Barrier Surge, sliding forwards over the air to attack.

Xehanort teleported away, then reappeared next to Aqua and slashed her again with his own Keyblade, knocking her aside with the ice finisher before teleporting away again. Aqua cast Curaga on herself, then cartwheeled forwards to dodge as the surge of Keyblades flew towards her again. Once Xehanort reappeared, Aqua blasted him with Triple Firaga before charging at him once again. Xehanort tried slashing his Keyblade again, but Aqua blocked it with a barrier before blasting him once again. She followed it up with another blast of Thundaga Shot.

Aqua then started Ghost Drive's Finish attack, teleporting into various parts of the area and slashing down to make a cone of purple energy. She then released the energy and damaged Xehanort a bit.

Aqua landed on her feet, and was almost immediately knocked aside by an expanse of land rising up from the ground, damaging her and knocking her to the ground.

Aqua winced and pushed herself up onto her knees, panting in and out. Xehanort teleported in front of her and smirked as he looked down at her.

"Just like Terra and your Master Eraqus," Xehanort taunted. "Worthless and too weak. You don't have what it takes to defeat me. Just as you didn't have what it took to save either of them."

Aqua panted in and out as she felt pure rage building within her chest. The anger and hate merged together in a way that they never had before, becoming her dominant feelings.

Aqua opened her eyes and glared up at Xehanort, and the old man was surprised that her pupils were suddenly yellow.

Aqua yelled out in pure anger, pushing herself to her feet quickly and raising her Keyblade again.

Far on the ground below, Ventus winced while still on the ground, still frozen from what Vanitas had said was ice of darkness. He had felt completely useless as he watched Aqua fly up the side of the mountain to try to help Terra and Vanitas, and he felt ashamed of that uselessness because he was still stuck to the ground. The frozen blonde had no choice but to just lay there and wait for Aqua to come back.

As time went on, Ventus's shame over not being able to help grew tenfold when he heard Aqua screaming and yelling in despair. Clearly, something horrible had happened on top of the mountain above him, and he still couldn't do anything to help.

A few moments later, Ventus wasn't sure what happened, but he could feel... something. Somehow, he knew that things had shifted in the balance between light and dark within Aqua's heart. This helped prove his theory that something horrible had happened, and that Aqua needed his help.

Fueled by his determination to help Aqua, Ventus looked down and closed his eyes, concentrating as hard as he could on his determination to help his friend. That determination and desire to help caused a sudden warmth to appear in his heart that spread throughout his chest and the rest of his body. Ventus yelled out in determination as he felt light gather around him.

After a few seconds, the light and the warmth started to face. When Ventus opened his eyes, he saw that he had managed to thaw himself out.

It was just like Vanitas said, the light in his heart had melted the darkness of ice surrounding him.

Determination still in his chest, Ventus managed to jump to his feet. He summoned his Keyblade, then threw it through the air, converting it to his Glider. The Glider returned to him, and once it got close enough, the still-healing blonde jumped up onto the flying board. Wanting to help his friends, Ventus directed his Glider upwards and followed Aqua's lead to fly up the side of the giant mountain.

Once he was high enough in the air, light flashed around Ventus, changing his Glider from a board he was standing on to his Keyblade in his hand. The armored blonde dropped through the air and landed back on the mountaintop.

He looked up towards Aqua and Xehanort, and his eyes widened in surprise and shock.

Aqua and Xehanort were still dueling with their Keyblades, each of them striking at each other with their blades, intercepting each other's strikes. The two opponents moved across the mountaintop as they struck at each other, with Aqua managing to keep pace with Xehanort's strikes, despite the old man's further levels of experience. Xehanort actually had a fearful expression on his face.

That was due to the intensity and anger behind all of Aqua's strikes. She attacked him relentlessly, not slowing down in the slightest in her attacks against the old man.

Aqua yelled out as she slammed an armored foot into Xehanort's knee, making the old man grunt and take a step back. The armored Master swung her Keyblade at Xehanort's knee, hitting it in the same spot her foot had and damaging the old man even more, causing him to drop down onto that wounded knee.

Aqua then yelled at the top of her lungs in pure anger as she raised her Keyblade over the top of her head and swung it down at Xehanort. Xehanort raised No Name up with both hands and used it to block as Aqua kept slamming Stormfall onto her blade, keeping the other Keyblade from damaging him. Of course, Aqua kept swinging her Keyblade more and more, yelling in further anger each time her blade hit Xehanort's.

After enough of this, Aqua swung up, directing Xehanort's Keyblade away and disorienting him slightly. Aqua yelled one more time before jabbing forwards with Stormfall, stabbing it right through Xehanort's chest.

Ventus gasped in shock at the sight.

Xehanort panted weakly and looked up at Aqua as she continued to glare down at him, her eyes still yellow and her Keyblade still embedded within his chest. The old man coughed before looking up at Aqua in a bit of respect.

"Not bad..." Xehanort panted out. "Not bad at all."

Aqua yelled out as she drove Stormfall deeper into Xehanort's chest, making the old man grunt in further pain. No Name landed on the ground with a loud clatter as darkness and black smoke surged around Xehanort. That darkness and smoke grew more by the second before it completely enveloped the old man. After a few seconds, the darkness disappeared completely, taking Xehanort with it.

Xehanort was gone.

Ventus gasped in further shock at the sight of the old man disappearing, then looked up at Aqua, who was still panting in and out, sounding almost like a wild animal with how angry she was.

"Aqua..." Ventus said, still shocked.

Aqua quickly looked up at Ventus, anger and hatred still in her eyes, which scared the blonde a bit.

He still managed to rally himself as he looked at his blunette friend.

"...What have you done?" Ventus asked, shock and disbelief still in his voice as he looked at Aqua.

Aqua looked at Ventus and frowned in slight confusion, not understanding his shock, or the scared look in his eyes.

All of a sudden, blue light suddenly appeared in the air just about a foot over Aqua's head, forming a portal with grey clouds surrounding it. Ventus looked at the portal in shock and surprise, and Aqua frowned in confusion. Aqua followed his gaze up to over her head, and her yellow eyes widened in shock at the sight of the portal.

All of a sudden, Aqua was lifted up into the air, dragging her up less than pleasantly towards the portal.

"Aqua!" Ventus shouted in worry and concern.

Aqua yelled out as she was pulled within the grey and blue portal disappearing completely.

Ventus charged forwards in further worry for his friend and tried to lunge at the portal. But it disappeared in a flash of smoke before he could even get close enough. The armored blonde landed roughly on the ground, right between No Name and Ends of the Earth.

Ventus pushed himself up into a sitting position, and looked up at the portal that took Aqua in shock. The armored blonde was incredibly confused about what just happened, but he hoped against hope that Aqua was okay, wherever she was.

Haley Joel Osment as Vanitas

Willa Holland as Aqua

Christopher Lloyd as Xehanort

Jesse McCartney as Ventus

and Jason Dohring as Terra *5*

Chapter Text

Time.

Space.

Reality.

It's more than a linear path.

It's a prism... of endless possibility, where a single choice can branch out into infinite realities, creating alternate worlds from the ones you know.

I am the Watcher.

I am your guide through these vast new realities. Follow me, and ponder the question...

"What if?"

Xion had finally figured out the truth about her during her brief stint at Castle Oblivion.

She saw in the orb left behind by the other Organization members the reality of why she had been formed. Just like with Naminé, she was born at Castle Oblivion (though no one knew why the blonde originated there), with Vexen creating her as a replica called No. i as a fail safe for the Organization, just in case Roxas didn't follow through with their requirements.

It was jarring to discover the truth about herself, and everything else that was entailed with it. For one thing: she wasn't even born with a face.

That was probably the most surprising thing Xion had discovered, which was really saying something.

But when Xion saw part of the truth, that she was to eventually start absorbing Roxas's powers and Sora's memories to become a complete Sora clone... that was the final nail in the coffin that she needed to stay away from the Organization. Riku telling her about the state of Sora and what she needed to do only made her contemplative about everything.

But no matter how much she tried to stay away from Roxas, Axel and Vanitas, Xion knew that they were still looking for her, along with the Organization. It didn't take too long after that for them to find her and drag her back to the castle, back to their programs and plans.

Everything reached a head the day that she had a mission with Roxas (that Vanitas tagged along on), and she realized that she was now fighting just like Roxas did, and he was made all the weaker. She needed to talk to someone, and her best confidant in the Organization towards that was Axel, so she ran off to find him, almost literally running into him in Naught's Skyway.

"Well, um..." Xion started to say as she reached the redhead. "Something's wrong with Roxas. You don't know why, do you? He says the Keyblade wears him out when he goes to use it. And then today, I was fighting the same way Roxas does."

"You or V would know more about Roxas than I do by now," Axel admitted to the ravenette.

"What do you mean?" Xion asked, confused.

Axel sighed out and looked down. He then turned to face her directly and crossed his arms.

"Well, what do you think, Xion?" he asked.

Xion looked down with worry towards the blonde in her eyes.

"I'm not sure," she admitted.

"Not sure, huh?" Axel asked.

He paused for a second as he prepared his next words, sure that she already knew some of what he knew.

"Is that because you're a puppet?" Axel asked.

Xion gasped in surprise as she looked back up at the redhead.

"You do know that," Axel reminded her. "You're a replica, whose original purpose was to copy Roxas's powers. So if you see Roxas's powers getting weaker, while your powers are getting stronger... It could be that you're robbing Roxas of his powers more than you oughta be."

Xion felt her blood run cold in terror at the very thought of that. She loved Roxas more than any of her other friends... and she was hurting him so bad. She looked down in worry and contemplation, before looking back up at the redhead.

"What can I..." Xion started before changing her mind about what she wanted to say. "Then what should I do?"

"You gotta think for yourself," Axel suggested, gesturing to Xion with one arm. "Cuz I know you're not just a puppet. We're best friends. You, me, Roxas, and V, that is."

He gave a small smile and pressed one finger to his temple.

"Got it memorized?" Axel repeated his motto.

"Sure," Xion softly assured him.

She looked down in thought before looking back up.

"Can I ask you just one other thing?" Xion asked.

"What's that?" Axel asked, crossing his arms in thought.

"I saw a boy today who looks just like Roxas," Xion said. "Who looks like a younger version of V, but with brown hair. Is he who I think he is?"

There was a long moment of silence as Axel contemplated his decision.

"Yes," Axel confirmed, nodding his head to Xion. "That is Sora. I've met him, and he is exactly what he seems like in those memories."

"I thought so," Xion said, nodding her head softly. She looked down in contemplation. "Then I know what I have to do."

Axel frowned in thought and a bit of worry as Xion turned and started running back up the sloped walkway of Naught's Skyway. As he watched Xion run back up the walkway, Axel started to feel a bit more worry, hoping he didn't just make a mistake.

Below him on the Skyway, Xigbar frowned in contemplation, already knowing he needed to share this with Xemnas and Saïx.

Xion retreated to her room and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen that Vanitas had given her. She wrote a long letter to Roxas explaining everything, from her being a puppet made by Vexen, to what she was supposed to do, to how she had been unintentionally draining his powers, and how she had talked to Riku about how she and him needed to go away to restore Sora. She then wrote in the letter that she didn't want to hurt anyone else, so she needed to leave.

Xion wiped away tears as she wrote to Roxas how much she loved him and how hard this was for her, before dropping the letter off in his room. Hearing him just coming down the hallway, Xion summoned a Dark Corridor and quickly left both Roxas's room and the Castle.

The door to the room slid open, and Roxas walked within, frowning slightly when he saw smoke that signified a disappearing Dark Corridor. Curious because to his knowledge there were only about eight or nine people left who could summon those (counting himself), Roxas looked around to see if anything was different.

He quickly found something different, in the form of a closed envelope sitting on his bed. Roxas frowned in confusion and took a few steps forwards, picking up at the envelope in confusion. He opened up the envelope and pulled out a long letter, his eyebrows still furrowed in confusion.

"Dear Roxas," Roxas read, still confused. "This is probably the hardest thing I've ever done, but there's something you need to know. A lot of things you need to know, actually..."

Vanitas sighed out as he sat at the table with Tony and Bruce in Avengers Tower, feeling defeated in his continuous efforts to try to save his friends from their apparent-destined fate. It seemed like they were cornered on all sides.

On one side, there was Riku and Ansem trying to destroy Roxas and Xion in their desperate attempts for revenge (Ansem the Wise) and for waking Sora back up (Riku). Neither of them were even considering another way out, just contenting themselves to having to murder three people who hadn't done anything wrong in their attempts to get what they wanted.

On the other side was the more dangerous group, with Organization XIII and Xemnas determined to use his friends for something involving Kingdom Hearts. Xemnas might've claimed that they were using Kingdom Hearts as an attempt to give all of the Nobodies their own hearts, but considering the man was the Nobody of Xehanort, he didn't trust the guy in the slightest.

There was danger towards his friends on all sides, and Vanitas didn't know what to do to get them out.

"Maybe you could try to hide them away in a world that no outside parties know about?" Tony suggested.

"No such luck," Vanitas said. "Asgard's not helping, and Ansem and Riku would've figured out that I trust this place since it would've been seen frequently on the travel log."

"Maybe there's a spell in the book that can hide the bodies of Nobodies?" Bruce suggested.

"No such spell exists," Vanitas admitted. "I know, I checked all of my books. Twice. Every night. For a month."

"... Okay, then yeah, this seems pretty hopeless," Bruce admitted. *1*

"Come on, you Debbie Downers," Tony remarked, looking between the two sitting at the table. "Just 'cause things seem hopeless doesn't mean that help won't come up on the horizon."

Vanitas and Bruce each raised an eyebrow as they looked at Tony.

"... I've been spending way too much time around the Capscicle," Tony remarked, his eyebrows furrowed in thought.

All of a sudden, a Dark Corridor appeared just a few feet away from their table.

Everyone quickly perked up, jumping to their feet and looking towards the Corridor. Tony pressed a button, and an Iron Man glove appeared over his hand, which he pointed at the Corridor in warning. Bruce started to prepare himself in case he needed to turn green, and Vanitas pulled out his infinite ammo Desert Eagle, pointing it right at the Corridor in warning.

All three of them were surprised, and a little relieved that the person to come through the Corridor just so happened to be Xion, a somber expression on her face as her coat trailed in the wind of the Corridor behind her.

"Xion?" Vanitas asked in surprise and confusion, putting away his Desert Eagle.

He stepped up to the other ravenette, his eyebrows furrowed in curiosity.

"What are you doing here?" Vanitas asked.

"You still haven't been able to figure out the full truth about me, right?" Xion asked, looking up at Vanitas. "Due to the little block on your powers."

Vanitas nodded in confirmation.

"Well, I've figured it out," Xion said. "And I figured you might wanna hear about it."

Vanitas, Tony, and Bruce all perked up, all of them curious and interested in finding out the truth.

"I wasn't a normal Nobody," Xion explained. "I was a Replica made at Castle Oblivion by Vexen, the same place where Naminé was 'born.' The Organization wanted a fail safe in case Roxas couldn't fulfill their desires. So, they made me, and called me No. i."

"And with the naming of Organization members being anagrams with the letter X added, that became Xion," Bruce said, understanding in his voice.

Tony and Vanitas nodded in similar understanding.

"Exactly," Xion confirmed, nodding her head. She gulped. "The purpose of my being created was to replicate Roxas's powers. I didn't even have a face when I was constructed, but then when Sora's memories splintered, some of them found their way inside of me. His memories of Kairi."

The mens' eyes all widened in surprise.

"That's why I look like this," Xion continued. "But unfortunately, that's not all."

She breathed in and out.

"Roxas getting weaker lately... it's all my fault," Xion admitted. "Part of the Organization's plans is that I was to start absorbing Roxas's powers and make them my own. That combined with Sora's memories within Roxas would make me into a complete Sora clone, which is what the Organization wants."

The trio's eyes all widened once again.

"Riku told me that the only way for it all to end, for me to stop hurting Roxas is to return to Sora," Xion told them. "But Axel told me that I need to do what's best for myself."

"Well, that's good for you," Vanitas said, hope in his voice.

"Which is why I need to run," Xion said, a determined expression on her face.

"Wait, what?" Vanitas asked, eyebrows furrowed in surprise.

"Riku told me to do what's best for everyone, and Axel told me to do what's best for me," Xion said, and everyone could see the sadness in her voice. "The only way to protect my friends... The only way for me to protect Roxas... Is for me to get as far away from him as possible."

She started turning towards the Dark Corridor.

"No, no, no, wait," Vanitas said, quickly stepping forwards.

He placed a hand on Xion's shoulder, stopping her from walking through the Corridor again. Xion turned to look at Vanitas, a hopeless expression still on her face.

"There's gotta be another way," Vanitas insisted. "Just because we haven't found one doesn't mean that one doesn't exist. There has to be a way that you and Roxas can still exist and a way for Sora to wake up again all the same."

Xion turned to look at Vanitas, and Vanitas felt his heart break when he saw the sadness and hopelessness in her eyes.

"There isn't," Xion informed him. "As much as I want to stay, to keep living my life with you guys and Roxas... I can't. This is the only thing I can do to ensure that he's safe."

She sighed out sadly.

"Tell Roxas that I'm sorry," Xion said.

Before Vanitas could say anything else, Xion pushed his hand off of her shoulder and ran towards the Dark Corridor, disappearing within. Vanitas tried to follow her, but the Corridor vanished, taking Xion with it.

Vanitas groaned in irritation. Now he knew the truth about what was going on with his friends, particularly Roxas and Xion, but he was still no closer to helping them out. He looked down sadly, still not knowing what to do.

Tony and Bruce sighed out, sitting back down in their seats.

"You all right?" Tony asked in concern.

"No," Vanitas bluntly admitted, still looking down. He sighed out. "If only I had full control over my powers again. Then maybe I could've used my psychic abilities and figured out the right way to help them out."

"Too bad the attempt that we tried to do to restore your life force didn't work," Bruce said.

"Still surprises me, though, that having your Keyblade explode ended up stopping your heart," Tony remarked.

He gave a fake chuckle.

"And who would've thought that one of the people in your way ended up being your old teacher, that dude who kept doing the research into the human heart?" Tony added.

Vanitas then frowned in thought.

He had spent so much time desperately trying to find ways to help his friends in his current state that he forgot about his abilities and who exactly everyone he faced was.

Vanitas kept looking down as he started thinking things over. He had lost his powers and his life force when his heart died because of his Keyblade. If he had his life force back, then he could use his powers in some way that could help out his friends. The best way to get back his life force appeared to be that they needed to restart his heart. None of his attempts with Tony and Bruce seemed to be working on that front.

But the research of someone who's scientific study was about how the human heart worked...

Vanitas gasped and quickly looked up in realization. Tony and Bruce looked at the ravenette in curiosity as he quickly placed his hands on the top of his head.

He then started laughing loudly, and both scientists were sure they heard triumph within his voice.

"I'm a fucking idiot!" Vanitas shouted as he continued laughing.

Tony and Bruce shared a confused look. *2*

Riku sighed out as he stood in the pod room, the same white circular chamber that contained the pod Sora was currently sleeping within.

There still hadn't been any progress in Naminé's work towards restoring Sora's memories, and the fact that the memories had escaped into Sora's Nobody and Xion certainly didn't help things. Like Naminé had said, Sora's memories had mixed in too deeply within the hearts of Sora's Nobody and Xion, meaning that the quickest way they had so far of saving Sora was for both of them to go away. Vanitas had had a problem with that, and he ended up defecting from their little group.

And after battling with the ravenette, Riku could admit that he had his own preservations towards it all. After that battle ended, he had a moment of clarity and realized that his damaged friend was right. Sora wouldn't have wanted Riku to let people die to wake him back up, whether they were never supposed to exist in the first place or not. Naminé had been relieved in his change of character, but she solemnly and sadly admitted that there was no other way if they really wanted to wake Sora up soon.

Riku could also admit that he felt some sadness every time he looked at Naminé nowadays. Part of it was because of how much his willingness to kill people had scared her, and another part was due to how prepared to kill her DiZ also happened to be. The man was under the complete belief that all the Nobodies needed to be destroyed, and Riku had followed along that same line of logic after his experiences at Castle Oblivion. But now he could see what Vanitas was talking about. Even without hearts, the Nobodies still managed to be their own people and deserved to live their lives.

It made Riku sad that, from the looks of things, they wouldn't be able to actually ensure that the Nobodies that didn't deserve it would get to live the lives they deserved. And that made him especially sad because of the growing feelings he was starting to develop towards Naminé. They had been spending a lot of time together lately, and he was starting to think they could be more than friends. But it appeared that that would a doomed endeavor with everything going on.

He just sighed out in resignation before looking up at the pod that Sora was sleeping within, deciding to put aside his feelings towards the situation as a whole and focus more on helping Sora. That seemed to be the only thing he could do at this point.

"This has gone on long enough," DiZ announced before looking away from Naminé to Riku. "Riku... You know what has to be done."

Riku was glad for the blindfold, because it let him hide the sadness in his eyes at the thought that he would have to have people that didn't deserve it die.

"Right..." he said, a bland nature in his voice.

All of a sudden, a bright light flashed right in the middle of the group, making everyone blink as their eyes burned slightly. Once they could see again, they saw that Vanitas was standing within the middle of them once more.

"Hey, you guys," Vanitas frantically said, looking amongst all of them. "Listen, I've got a new idea."

"No!" DiZ sternly announced. "I have had enough of you and your desperate attempts at saving those heathens. Nobodies were never meant to exist in the first place, and they will all be destroyed soon enough."

Behind DiZ, Naminé looked down sadly at that. And if DiZ hadn't done so much to help him and Sora, Riku would've started kicking the man's ass for what he said.

"Listen, Ansem the Wise!" Vanitas sternly snapped, making everyone blink in surprise. "The Nobodies have more personality than you do in your pinkie right now. And I've got an idea that I'm about 86% sure will ensure that all of my friends get to live, Sora can wake up, and none of the people we care about have to die."

"Now, listen..." DiZ started to say.

"I'm in," Riku immediately said.

Vanitas, DiZ, and Naminé all quickly looked at Riku in surprise, with Naminé showing a bit of relief in her eyes.

"What happened to them needing to die to save Sora's life?" Vanitas asked the silver haired teen with a frown.

"I did some thinking after our battle on that bridge," Riku told him. "And I realized you were right. Sora wouldn't want to know that I did all of that to wake him up. If you think you've got another way out that doesn't make us into murderers, then I'm all ears." *3*

Naminé smiled in relief once again, and so did Vanitas, glad that he managed to get the (technically) younger hero to see reason.

Vanitas then frowned then punched Riku in the arm.

"Okay, I deserve that," Riku admitted, wincing and placing a hand on his arm.

"Glad you're aware," Vanitas remarked.

He turned away from Riku and looked towards Di- Ansem the Wise.

"You're still working on machines that can harness the power of the human heart, right?" Vanitas asked.

"Well, yes..." Ansem started to say.

"Show 'em to me," Vanitas requested.

Ansem frowned at being told what to do by his former apprentice. But when he looked around and saw Vanitas, Riku, and Naminé all looking at him expectantly, he sighed out in resignation.

The former ruler of Radiant Garden led them through their facility underneath Twilight Town to a storage room where all of his machinery and weaponry were being stored. Walking into the room, Ansem gestured to a machine on the other side of the room, which had three legs on a central console with a glass orb with a galaxy in the center, along with a ray gun attached on top.

"This machine has been constructed to take apart the Organization's Kingdom Hearts and reconfigure it as data," Ansem explained. "It should be good enough to destroy that Kingdom Hearts above their infernal castle."

"Sounds good," Vanitas said, nodding his head. He looked over at Ansem and gestured to the machine. "You can make another one of these, right?"

"Yes, I can," Ansem confirmed, nodding while frowning in thought with Riku and Naminé. "Why? Do you need to use this one?"

"In a manner of speaking," Vanitas said, resting his hand at the belt on his robes.

Riku looked down, and his eyes widened underneath his mask as he realized that Vanitas was grabbing his sidearm from its holster.

"Wait a minute..." Riku started to say.

Before he could go any further, Vanitas pulled out his Colt M1911 and held it sideways, pointing it in a "gangster grip" at the heart machine. The ravenette fired his handgun four times, surprising everyone in the room.

The bullets broke apart the glass around the galaxy on the machine, and it immediately started humming and shaking dangerously.

Riku, Vanitas, Naminé, and DiZ all looked at the machine as it continued humming dangerously, electricity sparking along the base of the machine. Their eyes were all wide, and while Riku, Naminé, and DiZ all had fear filled expressions on their faces, Vanitas's face was blank in surprise.

"You fool!" Ansem exclaimed, dread in his voice. "You have no idea what you've just done! Its powers are linked to that of the human heart. Anything could happen!"

"That's the idea, Master Ansem!" Vanitas excitedly said with a laugh.

Riku and Naminé quickly looked at Vanitas like he was insane.

"V, have you lost your mind!?" Riku exclaimed.

"You can't lose somethin' you never had!" Vanitas informed him with another laugh.

He laughed again and wrapped his arms around DiZ and Riku's shoulders, pulling them in to keep them close, despite the terrified expressions on their faces.

"Boys, I have no idea what's gonna happen, but I have a feeling it's gonna sting a little bit," Vanitas informed them, still smiling like a madman.

Naminé grabbed Riku's arm and tried to pull him away, but Vanitas's grip on the silver haired teen was too strong. She was stuck with them all as the machine slowly burst apart, and bright white light started to glow brightly, moving across the room and towards them.

"Geronimo!" Vanitas excitedly yelled, quoting his favorite incarnation of the Doctor.

Everyone else yelled out in fear as the light soon covered them all up.

No one was really sure how long they were unconscious, but they were certainly out of it for a while.

When they eventually started to wake up, just about all of them had some form of headache while trying to blink spots out of their eyes. Riku ended up being the first to wake, and as he looked around, he saw that Ansem, Vanitas, and Naminé were all also unconscious. He quickly hurried towards Naminé and picked her up, worry in his covered eyes as he looked down at her.

Naminé gasped awake and slowly opened her eyes as she looked up at Riku.

"Are you okay?" Riku asked, concern in his voice.

"I'm fine," Naminé assured him. "What the heck just happened?"

"My machine has been destroyed," Ansem announced.

He pushed himself up with a wince, the bandages sliding off of his face to reveal his pale face, orange eyes, and blonde mullet.

"That moron has broken apart my machine," Ansem angrily snapped. "It took me months to build that one. I'm gonna need months to make another one."

Vanitas groaned in pain, and the others looked towards the ravenette to see him pushing himself up onto his forearms.

"You know, the whole world doesn't revolve around you, dude," Vanitas complained, his voice suddenly sounding like that of a normal teenager, rather than the deep baritone it had been moments earlier. "Other people have their own problems."

Ansem, Riku, and Naminé all looked at Vanitas in surprise.

The ravenette's eyes widened, and he pushed himself up into a sitting position.

"I don't sound like a porn star, anymore," Vanitas said, realization in his voice.

Looking around, he found his Colt laying on the ground next to him. Vanitas reached forwards and grabbed his handgun, then pointed it into the palm of his other hand.

The ravenette fired his gun, breaking a hole into his hand and sending blood flying out of the other side. Vanitas yelled out in pain as he grabbed his hand to place pressure on the wound.

"Dah! Fuck!" Vanitas exclaimed. "Now I know how Jarra felt!"

His eyes widened in realization, and he looked up at the others. They all knew what just happened thanks to the machine exploding. Like Ansem said, anything could happen. And anything did happen.

Vanitas had his life force back. *4*

They did a quick check up on him to see how his body worked now, and they were able to get the confirmation. After over a decade of his body being in stasis and not aging, the explosion changed him back to normal. He was aging again, and everything was back to normal with his organs working again.

Riku then gave him a Potion to heal the hole in his hand.

"Now this is great," Vanitas said, jumping to his feet. "Because that also means I've got control of my powers back."

He excitedly gestured with his hands, and all of a sudden, a metal tray was sent flying across the room and crashing into a wall.

Everyone looked at the tray, then looked at each other again.

"In a... manner of speaking," Vanitas admitted.

He shook his head.

"But I think there's something I can do with my mental abilities," Vanitas said.

He then stepped up next to Riku. Riku frowned in confusion as the ravenette held his hands up to the sides of his head and just held them there for a few seconds.

Riku was about to ask what he was doing, but then he gasped in surprise as memories started surging to the front of his thoughts. He was surprised as memories he had from long ago, ones that he had forgotten, were suddenly in his thoughts.

"Oh, my God," Naminé said in realization, looking up at Riku's head. "V is sorting your memories."

"He's... he's what?" Riku asked.

"I can do shit in people's minds," Vanitas reminded him. "And it looks like one of those tricks is sorting out people's memories. Right now, I'm doing that with your memories, from childhood stuff, good times, bad times, wet dreams, the whole she-bang."

Riku felt his face turn red at the mention of "wet dreams." He looked over at Naminé, who was similarly red faced and turned around.

'Did you really have to mention 'wet dreams'?' Riku thought in complaint.

'Yes,' Vanitas confirmed, and Riku could hear his smile.

Riku and Naminé's eyes widened in realization.

"If you can do that with Riku, then that means that you can do it with Roxas and Xion," Naminé said.

Vanitas opened his eyes and smiled, lowering his hands from Riku's head.

"Exactly," Vanitas confirmed.

Riku looked at Vanitas, a smile slowly appearing on his face.

"That means..." Riku started to say. "No one has to die!"

"No one has to die!" Vanitas excitedly exclaimed in agreement.

The two laughed victoriously and moved in to hug.

Then they furrowed their eyebrows and quickly jumped away from each other.

"In that case, all we gotta do is get Roxas and Xion here," Naminé said.

"How are we gonna do that?" Riku asked, looking at Vanitas.

Almost like the Fates were helping them (for once), a Dark Corridor appeared behind them in the room. All four occupants of the room looked towards the Corridor, with Naminé and Ansem jumping back, while Vanitas and Riku stood ready with their weapons.

To their relief, Roxas stepped through the Dark Corridor and looked between the two heroes, a desperate expression on his face.

"I need your guys' help," Roxas said, desperation in his voice. "Xion left, and... I don't know where to find her."

Riku and Vanitas sighed out and shared a look before they looked back at Roxas.

"I don't really know where she went, either," Vanitas admitted. "But... there's a lot of stuff you need to know."

Roxas furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, only partly due to Vanitas's voice suddenly being different.

Under Riku and Vanitas's suggestions, Roxas sat down in the nearest chair, and the two of them filled in the blanks and answered all the questions he had about the situation. He looked between the two of them and listened intently as they gave him all the answers he was looking for.

"So, to reiterate..." Roxas slowly said. "Xion was designed by the Organization to drain me of my powers and become a complete clone of Sora for whatever plans they had, which is why I've been getting weaker lately. Ansem there was betrayed by Xemnas's Somebody and wants revenge on him through Sora, and wanted me and Xion killed so we could return his memories that we unintentionally took, and decided to have Riku there perform the killing blows. But he got a heart, and when you figured out a plan for Naminé to extract Sora's memories from us without us dying, you quickly followed through, then helped him get back his life force by letting him destroy a heart machine. And now we need to have Naminé shift around mine and Xion's memories to put them back into Sora, but Xion is missing so we don't know how long it could take to do that."

Riku and Vanitas shared a look before nodding their heads at Roxas.

"Yeah, that's..." Vanitas started to say.

"That's the gist of it, yeah," Riku added, also nodding his head.

Roxas looked between the two of them with an eyebrow raised.

"Okay," he simply said, shrugging his shoulders.

Riku and Vanitas blinked in surprise.

"Y-You believe all of that with no hesitation?" Riku asked.

"You've met V, right?" Roxas asked with an eyebrow raised again. "Nothing normal ever happens to him."

Riku frowned in thought and shared another look with Vanitas.

"He's not wrong," Riku admitted, shrugging his shoulders. *5*

Vanitas frowned.

Roxas then stood up, and punched Riku in the arm.

"Ow," Riku said, placing a hand on the wound.

"That's for telling Xion to kill herself to wake back up your best friend, you dick," Roxas told Riku with a frown.

"... Okay, again, that's fair," Riku admitted.

"All right, it's just a simple process," Vanitas informed his friend. "I just use my little abilities and sort out the memories in your head. Separate Sora's memories from your memories, then Naminé puts 'em back in Sora, and then we just gotta work on the whole 'draining powers' problem."

"Okay, sounds like a plan," Roxas said, nodding his head in determination.

"I still say you're wasting your time trying to help the Nobodies," Ansem remarked from the other side of the room.

"No one asked your opinion, Ansem," Riku informed the blonde with a frown.

Ansem blinked in surprise, not expecting Riku to talk to him like that.

Naminé smiled in pride for that very reason.

Vanitas then stepped up to Roxas and placed his hands next to his friend's head, closing his eyes as he sent out his powers. Roxas raised an eyebrow in confusion and looked towards Riku and Naminé, who nodded at him in assurance. He sighed out and let the ravenette keep working.

It took about a minute of Vanitas standing there with his hands pointed at Roxas's face, which looked weird whether you were in the know or not. But after another few seconds, Vanitas placed his palm against Roxas's temple. Roxas frowned in confusion again, but then Vanitas pulled his hand back, and the blonde's eyes widened in surprise.

Within Vanitas's palm was a form of swirling magic, and through that magic, he was able to see little flashes of images. Those images involved a brunette, younger looking Vanitas along with a red haired girl and a younger Riku.

"Those..." Roxas said. "Those are Sora's memories. Right?"

"Exactly," Vanitas confirmed.

He looked at Naminé, and held the orb of memories out to her.

"You might wanna put these somewhere safe," Vanitas quipped.

Naminé smiled and took the orb of memories in her hands.

"We're one step closer to waking Sora back up now," Naminé triumphantly announced.

"Thank you," Riku gratefully told Naminé. "Just... Thank you. So much."

Naminé blushed at the compliment.

Vanitas then frowned and looked at Roxas again.

"What is it?" Roxas asked, confused.

"I... I felt something else when I was sorting through your memories," Vanitas admitted. "It felt like another form of magic. This one... it was eclipsing something on your body."

"Eclipsing something?" Roxas asked, frowning in confusion.

"Hold on a second," Vanitas said. "I think I can push aside the magic and reveal what it was trying to hide."

Vanitas closed his eyes again and pointed his hands at Roxas again. The ravenette sent out his powers, using the telekinesis and magic he was capable of to reach within the blonde and push aside the the magical barrier.

Once the barrier had vanished, Vanitas opened up his eyes and gasped in realization.

"What is it?" Riku asked, looking at the ravenette.

Instead of answering, Vanitas continued to look at Roxas with his eyes wide. Roxas had a curious expression on his face, not understanding his friend's surprise.

Vanitas then reached onto the nearby table and grabbed a stethoscope.

"Riku..." he slowly said, holding the stethoscope towards his silver haired friend. "Would you mind checking something in Roxas's chest?"

Riku and Roxas both frowned in confusion and even shared a look.

But, deciding that Vanitas had never failed him before, Riku took the stethoscope and placed the buds in his ears. He then stepped forwards and pressed the metal part of it against Roxas's chest.

His eyes widened underneath his mask when he heard a heartbeat.

The silver haired teen looked up at Vanitas, seeing the confirmation in his friend's eyes.

"So you hear it?" Vanitas asked.

"You mean the heartbeat?" Riku asked, standing up straight, his eyes still wide underneath his blindfold. "Yeah, I... I heard it."

Roxas, Naminé, and Ansem's eyes all widened.

"I... I have a heart?" Roxas asked in surprise.

"Yeah, you do," Vanitas said, wincing slightly as he sensed the truth. "It's like we all already knew: Nobodies are born from the empty shells people leave behind when they lose their hearts, and those with strong enough hearts retain human form when they do so. But... something that we never knew is that after a while, the Nobodies in human form eventually manage to grow back their hearts."

Everyone gasped in surprise at that.

"You're telling me that all the Nobodies we've ever seen..." Riku said, trailing off a bit.

"The guys we killed at Castle Oblivion," Vanitas said, listing them off. "The other Organization members, Naminé, Xion..."

He gestured to Naminé, then to the side to emphasize "Xion."

"They all have their hearts back," Vanitas said.

"Oh, my word," Ansem said.

He frowned, the full implications of that hitting him like a sack of bricks.

"I... I almost had you destroy people..." Ansem said, guilt and self-despair in his voice.

"But what was that spell, then?" Roxas asked Vanitas. "What did it do?"

"That was a masking spell," Vanitas said. "One put in by Xemnas to keep you guys from figuring out the truth, because he didn't want you to know you can grow back your hearts."

Roxas softly gasped in realization. He looked up and frowned as he thought about Xemnas.

"That son of a bitch..." Roxas softly said. "He made us think that the only way that we could get back our hearts was to take the hearts from Heartless and combine them to form Kingdom Hearts. He's made me and Xion capture... Thousands, maybe millions of hearts... and we never even needed to do that."

Riku and Vanitas could hear the anger towards Xemnas in Roxas's voice, and they could understand it completely.

Of course, with this revelation, there was only one question left.

"If Xemnas never really needed Kingdom Hearts to re-complete the rest of the Organization..." Vanitas slowly started.

"Then what the hell does Xemnas want with Kingdom Hearts?" Riku asked. *6*

Roxas looked at the two other worldly travelers in front of him.

"We'll figure that out later," Roxas decided, looking between Vanitas and Riku. "You guys said it yourself: to wake up Sora, we need to get back his memories from both myself and Xion. So we still need to get the memories from Xion."

Riku and Vanitas nodded in agreement, while Naminé left, taking the memories Vanitas gave her back to Sora.

"Where can we start trying to look for Xion?" Roxas asked, looking between Riku and Vanitas.

"No idea," Vanitas admitted. "All she said was that she needed to get as far away from you as possible."

"That's not very specific," Riku remarked. "But I think I know a place or two she might go."

"Then let's hurry," Roxas said. "We're gonna find her, and we're gonna help her."

Riku and Vanitas nodded in agreement, seeing the determination in Roxas's eyes.

The three world travelers then turned and started walking towards the door. They left the room, leaving a still-contemplative Ansem the Wise behind. The three of them continued walking down the hall, determination filling their chests along the way. They would do everything they could to ensure the safety of their friends, and take on the Organization all the same.

No one else had to die.

Chapter Text

Time.

Space.

Reality.

It's more than a linear path.

It's a prism... of endless possibility, where a single choice can branch out into infinite realities, creating alternate worlds from the ones you know.

I am the Watcher.

I am your guide through these vast new realities. Follow me, and ponder the question...

"What if?"

The first thing that Xion did after running from the Organization was to take stock of what she had and what she could do.

Still being attuned to the powers of darkness through being a Nobody, Xion knew that one thing she could do was travel between the worlds with Dark Corridors. To stay away from the Organization and protect Roxas and Axel, she knew that she needed to do things differently.

The first thing Xion did after stopping at Earth 616 to tell Vanitas the truth was to go to a world she had considered visiting called Hollow Bastion. There, she used the limited funds that she had to buy herself some clothes that weren't just the black coat of the Organization.

Considering how easily she had found Riku just because he wore the Organization's coat, Xion knew that discarding of the coat would help her out in the long run.

Xion had stopped at a street vendor and purchased a lot of things for herself, on top of some spare clothes. There was a knapsack to carry all the stuff she would need, a flashlight to cast light without using magic, a lighter to make fire without magic, usual toiletries like soap and hand sanitizer (both of which she realized she could have benefitted from months earlier), and a small pillow and blanket for when she needed rest. She also grabbed a fanny pack to carry the smaller stuff so it didn't get mixed with the bigger stuff.

Plus, she liked that it was the color purple.

With the clothes she had grabbed, Xion had tried to find a good blend of inconspicuous and warm enough. The inconspicuous part to help her hide from everyone looking for her, and the warmth part because she was far from used to not having to wear the Organization coat every day. She apparently got cold really easily.

Xion slipped into one public restroom at Radiant Garden and changed into the first set of clothes she had grabbed, disposing of the black Organization coat. This outfit consisted of a dark purple shirt, a black skirt and leggings that tucked into her black boots, and a gray coat that hung down a bit past her waist. She had the fanny pack on around her waist, and her knapsack on her back.

Deciding not to draw anymore attention to herself, Xion decided to stop using the Dark Corridors to transport herself between worlds. She remembered Vanitas telling her about a movie he saw based in the future, where people paid for transport between worlds on various spacecraft, and looked into doing so on Radiant Garden. She ended up finding a group of world-travelers with a Gummi ship, and paid with the little Munny she still had for a ride to their destination.

Xion ended up becoming more or less of a drifter, traveling between the worlds and resting when she could before moving on. One or two of the worlds she visited were ones she recognized from Vanitas's stories from during his Nine Year Rampage with his friends while looking for that Xehanort guy.

Xion had honestly thought (and hoped) that Vanitas was kidding about the three or four worlds filled with flesh-eating zombies.

He wasn't.

After escaping those worlds, Xion ended up on an empty and desolate world called Morag, where she took a whim and climbed into a nice looking ship.

That was a mistake.

The owner of the ship, a man named Peter Quill that liked to be called Star Lord, ended up having to run from a group of mercenaries after him. Afterwards, he went to a world called Xandar and dropped her off, apologizing for getting her and a woman called Bareet into so much trouble.

After wandering around Xandar for a bit, Xion ended up seeing that Quill ended up in trouble with a green skinned woman, a living tree, and a talking raccoon. She tried to help the man out, and ended up in an altercation with the three others. This got her arrested with all of the others, and they were sent to a prison called the Kyln.

After hearing stories from Vanitas about what prison was like, Xion was appropriately terrified about what the prison could have entailed. And those fears were fulfilled by the Kyln, especially when the raccoon named Rocket shared that the corrupt murderers in the facility were just the guards. She decided to stick by Peter, Rocket, and the living tree named Groot.

Their first night in, the green skinned woman named Gamora was almost killed by a gray skinned man named Drax the Destroyer, but Peter promised that if he let her live, Peter could help Drax get to the boss Gamora was betraying, a man named Ronan the Accuser.

Xion didn't know what surprised her more: the situation she was in, or the weird nicknames all these people gave themselves.

Gamora then informed Peter, Rocket, and Groot that she was trying to take the orb that Peter had stolen to a buyer that would supply her with enough credits to escape her murderous adopted father, a man named Thanos. Rocket promised a way to escape, and Xion joined the quartet in their plans for getting out of there.

They made their bid to escape the next day, when Groot decided to jump start Rocket's plan halfway through the planning process. With help from Drax, who tagged along to kill Ronan, they grabbed their gear and escaped the Kyln in Peter's ship, The Milano.

In the ship, they went to a world called Knowhere, where Gamora's contact happened to be. They arrived at Knowhere, Peter and Gamora started to share an intimate moment before Gamora knocked him aside while accusing him of "pelvic sorcery" (something that admittedly had Xion chuckle, though the romantic moment prior made her think of Roxas), then Drax and Rocket got drunk and tried to kill each other.

Xion was starting to notice that this group spent half their time together trying to kill each other. It didn't seem the most... What's the word? Healthy.

After Rocket drunkenly bemoaned his existence and Drax drunkenly bemoaned that they were no closer to killing Ronan, Drax turned and left before Gamora's contact, a man called The Collector showed up. Xion followed the group into the Collector's museum, where he opened the Orb and showed them that it was a glowing, purple stone called an Infinity Stone. He then gave them all a full explanation of the Stones and what powers they contained and entailed.

Xion was appropriately scared at the full scale of power that the Stones appeared to have.

The Collector's assistant then grabbed the Infinity Stone, and it killed her while also blowing up the man's collection. The group took the Stone back in the Orb, but then Ronan and his squad appeared, along with a group called the Ravagers that wanted to kill Peter for betraying them. There was a large space battle over Knowhere that ended with Drax nearly getting killed by Ronan, Xion facing the giant cat called Pete before also getting nearly killed by Ronan, Ronan getting the Orb with the Power Stone, and Peter and Gamora getting captured by the Ravagers.

Peter managed to work through an alliance with the Ravagers to get the Orb and the Infinity Stone from Ronan before he could destroy Xandar. Xion, almost hoping that she died during this to ensure the safety of her friends (especially Roxas), agreed to stand with the group against Ronan and try to help Xandar. They all prepared with the Ravagers before Peter contacted the authorities at Xandar to warn them.

Rocket went with the Ravager fleet in the Milano to protect Xandar, while Xion and the rest of the team flew after the Dark Aster, Ronan's ship. There, they ended up in lots of battles against Ronan's forces, Heartless, and the giant cat, Pete. Ronan then proved himself to be insanely powerful after attaching the Power Stone to his hammer. He managed to destroy an entire Xandarian fleet before they managed to reach him.

While the group tried to destroy Ronan with what Xion guessed was basically a BFG, it ended up not working due to the power of the Stone. Rocket crashed the Milano into the Dark Aster and managed to crash the ship, with Groot sacrificing his life to protect the others.

While the team was saved, so was Ronan. Peter managed to distract the man before Rocket shot the BFG again, destroying Ronan's hammer. Peter then managed to grab the Power Stone before it could hit the ground, causing the immense power of the stone to flow through him really painfully.

Gamora, Drax, Xion, and Rocket each grabbed ahold of Peter and helped take on the power of the Stone. Instead of destroying them, though, they managed to subvert the full power of the stone and use it to destroy Ronan. Then the man came back as a Heartless and they destroyed that, too. Peter then gave the Ravagers a fake orb before they all got a full pardon by the Nova Corps of Xandar.

While the group, now going by the Guardians of the Galaxy, offered to take Xion with them, she respectfully declined. While she had become good friends with all of them, she also knew the dangers she could send their way just by being affiliated with her. They were the same dangers that Roxas and Axel faced, so she couldn't let anyone else experience that. Xion said her goodbyes to the group, and turned and started walking through the streets of Xandar while they left in the rebuilt Milano. *1*

That night, Xion slept on a bench in a Xandarian alleyway, using her pillow as a headrest and her blanket for warmth. As per usual, her dreams were filled with visions of herself hurting Roxas just by being around him. One of them showed an armored version of herself fighting against Roxas, using an ultimate attack of Light to cause a large burst of energy and make Roxas disappear.

Tears slid out of Xion's closed eyes during that dream.

The next morning was a happy one for the rest of Xandar. Everyone was still feeling the relief and happiness over the Guardians of the Galaxy saving their world the previous day, so everyone was excitedly sharing pleasantries with each other.

Xion woke up and winced slightly, the hard surface of the bench leaving her very uncomfortable. She raised her head and pushed herself up into a sitting position, raising up her arms and stretching slightly.

"Well, this is a surprise," a voice suddenly called out.

Xion jumped in shock and turned towards the origin of the voice.

Her eyes widened in surprise.

Standing just a few feet away from the bench that Xion was resting on was a trio that she hadn't expected to see again so soon, a group of people that she hoped she wouldn't see anytime soon. Vanitas, dressed in his ninja like robes, and Roxas and Riku, both still dressed in the Organization black coats while Riku continued to wear his blindfold, all stood just a few feet away from her.

Xion sighed out in resignation before looking up at the three world travelers.

"I guess I shouldn't have expected it to take you guys too long to find me," Xion admitted. "But how did you guys do it so quick?"

"Well, my problem got solved a few days ago," Vanitas said, pointing at his head. His more-normal-sounding voice was clear. "That was able to help me narrow down the search."

"Plus, I sent out some feelers after the three of us decided to start working together," Riku added, gesturing to himself, Roxas, and Vanitas. "And yesterday they sent us a message that a dark haired girl had helped a group of four take down a Kree warlord by taking in the power of an Infinity Stone with them. That was pretty easy to figure out your location."

Xion sighed out. She knew she should have been a bit more inconspicuous.

Roxas then stepped forwards, moving past the other two and walking to stand right in front of Xion. Xion said nothing, just continued to look down sadly. Knowing that Vanitas most likely shared the truth with him, Xion couldn't bear to look at Roxas, not wanting to see the anger or betrayal that she was sure would be in his eyes.

However, to her surprise (and slight relief), Roxas instead leaned forwards and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in for a reassuring hug. Xion softly gasped in surprise, not having expected this.

"Wh... Why..." Xion softly said. "Didn't V share what I said?"

"Yeah, he did," Roxas softly said, nodding his head against her shoulder.

"Then aren't you mad at me?" Xion asked, her voice cracking at the very idea. "I never shared what was going on, or what I am. And I... I hurt you."

Roxas moved back and looked Xion in the eye, concern immediately filling his chest when he saw the tears growing within her eyes.

"Hey..." Roxas said, a calming tone to his voice as he placed a hand on her cheek. "You could never hurt me." *2*

Xion sniffled loudly and moved in, wrapping her arms around Roxas's chest and pulling him in for a hug. Roxas reciprocated and wrapped his arms back around her, just holding her and giving her the reassurances she needed.

Vanitas and Riku immediately felt awkward, feeling like they were intruding on a private moment (even though they were in the middle of a semi-crowded street). They each looked to the sides and avoided eye contact with the couple, deciding to give them a couple of minutes that they probably needed.

After a few moments, Vanitas decided that they had long enough and cleared his throat, getting Roxas and Xion's attentions again.

"Not that this isn't a touching reunion," Vanitas said. "But we have important business to discuss."

"A lot of it actually beneficial to you guys," Riku added.

Xion furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

Roxas then helped the other two boys explain what V had done that helped him get back Sora's memories from Roxas, how he could do the same to Xion, and what they had also discovered involving Nobodies and hearts.

Xion had her eyebrows furrowed in thought during the entire explanation that the boys provided her.

"So..." Xion started. "V's old boss wants revenge against Xehanort's Somebody and wants Sora to fulfill it by destroying the Organization, and he employed Riku in his help to wake Sora back up. Then V blew up some machine that gave him back his life, used that to figure out how to sort out the memories within me and Roxas to safely take out Sora's memories, and when Roxas showed appeared and allowed him to do so, you guys also discovered that Nobodies can grow back their hearts."

Roxas, Riku, and Vanitas shared looks.

"Yeah, that's..." Vanitas started to say, at the same time Roxas said, "That's pretty much..." and Riku said, "I think that's about..."

"It," the three of them simultaneously finished.

Xion looked at them for a few more seconds.

"... Okay," she said, nonchalance in her voice as she shrugged her shoulders.

"I love how blasé everyone is to learning this stuff," Vanitas admitted to Riku with a smile.

"I guess that's the problem with Sora's memories solved," Xion assessed, looking at Riku and Vanitas. She looked at Roxas. "But... I still don't know how we solve the problem where I keep absorbing your powers."

"That's something we can figure out a solution to," Vanitas informed her.

"Yeah," Riku agreed. "Now that we're almost done with Sora, we can start a new project of figuring out how to sever that connection, and maybe even return what you unintentionally took."

"We're not losing anyone if we can help it," Vanitas confirmed, determination in his voice.

Roxas nodded his head in agreement and looked at Xion.

"It might take a while, but I'm willing to endure it if it means we can stay together," Roxas said, giving her a reassuring smile. He held out his hand. "What do you say?"

Xion slowly smiled, with more relieved tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. She reached forwards with her hand and grasped Roxas's hand within hers. Roxas smiled victoriously and pulled her to her feet.

Vanitas smiled for his friends.

Then he furrowed his eyebrows in thought when he heard a surge of darkness signaling teleportation behind them.

"Why do I always get stuck with the icky jobs?" a familiar voice muttered to himself.

Vanitas and Riku shared a look before turning around. The two of them saw that across the street from them, Axel had appeared in a teleport of darkness, a begrudging and reluctant expression on his face.

"Axel," Vanitas said, getting Roxas and Xion's attentions.

"Don't..." Axel said. He sighed out. "Don't try to stop me, V. I'm under strict orders from the bosses."

"Yeah, and your bosses are selling you bullshit," Riku added as Roxas and Xion also stepped forwards.

"You really think I'm gonna listen to anything you tell me?" Axel bitterly snapped to Riku.

"Then listen to us," Roxas said, holding up his hands in a calming gesture to his best friend. "Axel, you know us, and you know when we're telling the truth."

"We've never lied to you," Vanitas added, Xion nodding in agreement.

"I'm sorry, you guys," Axel said, giving a reluctant expression to his friends. "But I've got no choice."

He held his hands to the sides, and bright fires appeared within, causing his chakrams to appear.

Vanitas then pointed his hand forwards and concentrated a bit with his own powers.

Luckily, it worked.

The chakrams were plucked right out of Axel's hands and rose up into the air. Axel's eyes widened in surprise as he watched his weapons of choice rise up into the air. Roxas and Xion watched in surprise as Vanitas gestured back with his hand, and the chakrams flew over their heads before landing unceremoniously on the ground behind them.

"That is the most control I have ever seen you have over your powers," Xion remarked.

"It's easy to do when you got a life force again," Vanitas remarked.

He looked over at Axel.

"Now, you're gonna listen to us for a few minutes," Vanitas informed the redhead.

"Well, it looks like I don't have any options other than that," Axel bitterly remarked, crossing his arms.

"Axel," Roxas said, stepping forwards. "Nobodies can grow their hearts back."

Axel furrowed his eyebrows at that.

"With control of his powers back, V was able to detect a cloaking spell over my body," Roxas explained. "He then dispersed the spell and discovered that I have a heartbeat. Axel, Xemnas knows that we can grow back our hearts and cast the spell over all of us so that we never figured out the truth, then lied to us about the real reason he wanted Kingdom Hearts."

His eyebrows still furrowed, Axel looked over at Vanitas and saw the ravenette nodding in confirmation. The pyrotechnic redhead lowered his arms and looked down in thought.

"If we all grow back our hearts..." Axel said in thought. "Then what the hell does Xemnas want with Kingdom Hearts?"

All of a sudden, a red beam that looked like a laser hit Axel in the side of the head, hitting him with enough force to send him flying with a yell.

"Axel!" Xion yelled in worry.

Axel grunted as he rolled on the ground hard and crashed into a nearby wall. The quartet looked at him in surprise, but they could see that his chest was moving up and down, signaling that he was breathing. He was unconscious, but alive.

Looking away from Axel, the group looked towards where he had been standing, and their eyes all widened.

Xemnas stood right where Axel had been, his Ethereal Blades floating underneath his palms. The Organization leader dismissed his Blades and looked at the quartet.

"That is none of your concern," Xemnas informed them. "Now, I am done playing nice. Roxas and Xion, you are to return to the Organization immediately. And your first order of business is to destroy the Organization Imposter and Vanitas Jordan."

"Get real," Roxas sternly said, brushing his hand to the side. "What makes you think we're gonna listen to you after everything we've done to us? Do you really think we're that stupid?"

"Well, considering who your Somebody is..." Xemnas remarked with a smirk.

"Hey, I'm the only one allowed to call Sora stupid," Vanitas angrily remarked, pointing at himself with his thumb.

"As for why I think you will listen to me..." Xemnas slowly said, frowning at Roxas and Xion. "Either follow my orders... or be destroyed."

"Honestly?" Xion asked. "I think a part of me would rather be destroyed, just to make sure I don't hurt my friends again."

"Don't talk about yourself like that," Roxas requested from his friend.

"We're not gonna let that happen," Riku sternly told Xemnas. "Once Sora wakes back up, then you're finished, you demented bastard."

"How quaint," Xemnas said with an amused smile. "You think you and your friends actually have a chance."

"We do have a chance," Vanitas remarked in determination. "We took down Ansem, and you're just another version of him. We can take you out just as easily."

"Well, then," Xemnas said, looking between the group. "If you really think so..."

The Organization leader slowly looked up, and raised his hands.

All of a sudden, two large spaceships in their ports rose up into the air, surprising a lot of people. The ships followed Xemnas's hands and floated towards him. The Organization leader floated up into a battle stance and faced the group, the two spaceships floating over each of his shoulders, ready to be used as weapons.

The group was surprised, but they rallied together.

Roxas and Xion summoned their Keyblades, Riku summoned his sword, and Vanitas took out his machete while raising his bandana over his mouth and nose. *3*

Xemnas immediately teleported away, disappearing from in front of the group and reappearing behind the raised spaceships. The team immediately scattered as Xemnas tossed the ships forwards, sending them crashing to the ground where they had just been standing.

Vanitas took out his Colt M1911 handgun and fired it three times at Xemnas while walking towards the Organization leader. The bullets hit Xemnas in the chest, but continued to do nothing against the man. Xemnas waved his hands and made three more spaceships rise into the air that he tossed towards the group again. Riku dodged the spaceship before launching a ball of white fire out of his hand and towards Xemnas.

Roxas and Xion dodged the spaceships and charged towards their old boss. Once they got close enough, Roxas started with a combo attack while Xion blasted Blizzaga at the tall man. Xemnas then decided to screw with them, transforming into a large sphere of darkness and quickly moving around the Xandarian plaza. The sphere moved around the plaza for quite a while before Xemnas came out of it, lunging forwards with his Ethereal Blades in his palms. Riku blocked the lunge, then retaliated with a slash of his sword. Vanitas put his handgun away and moved towards Xemnas, performing a combo attack with his machete.

Xemnas transformed into the sphere again and moved around the plaza once again, coming out to briefly hit Vanitas in the back and knock him to the ground. When Xemnas came out of the sphere, he started swinging his Ethereal Blades towards Roxas and Xion. Xion dodged the Blades while Roxas blocked with his Keyblade. Roxas retaliated with a full combo attack, using Thundaga as a combo finisher. Xion then started using Sonic Blade, sliding around and striking Xemnas quite a few times in quick succession. Riku then performed a combo attack with his sword, while Vanitas threw a ball of fire that exploded when it hit Xemnas.

Xemnas then surged away in a sphere again and made his electric barrier appear in all four sides around Vanitas, Roxas, and Riku, all of whom were standing closest together. Roxas and Riku jumped up in time before electricity came from the barriers, hitting Vanitas and shocking him, making him yell out in pain for a few seconds.

"... Why was I so desperate to get my life force back again?" Vanitas asked, his head spinning slightly from being electrocuted.

Xion hurried towards Xemnas and yelled out as she dodged another series of attacks involving the Ethereal Blades. She then started another combo attack before following it up with a blast of Aeroga. Xemnas moved across the plaza and started attacking Riku and Vanitas once again. He managed to trap them, waiting until they were mid-swing before covering himself in the sphere and moving away. Then he moved behind the two warriors and struck with his Ethereal Blades, knocking them aside.

Roxas retaliated for his friends by blasting Xemnas with Blizzaga. He hurried forwards and started another combo attack, before his former boss moved forwards in the sphere of darkness again, moving behind him. Roxas was quick, though, and cast Reflega around himself, so that when Xemnas attacked with his Ethereal Blades, the barrier absorbed the strike and used the energy to send out the retaliatory explosions, knocking the Organization leader back.

Xion then rolled forwards and struck her former boss in the back with a combo attack. Xemnas growled in irritation and turned to face her before casting a barrier in front of himself. The barrier blasted her with lightning, sending her flying back. Roxas yelled out in anger and tried striking Xemnas, which the Organization leader dodged by covering himself in a sphere of darkness again and sliding away.

The Organization leader reappeared, and Riku and Vanitas quickly moved to retaliate. Riku impaled Xemnas from behind with Soul Eater, causing the dragon wing of the blade to come out of the man's stomach, making him yell out in pain. Vanitas twirled his machete around so he held it backhanded, and charged forwards. He lunged at Xemnas and yelled out as he added another form to the attack, stabbing the Organization leader in the chest, furthering his pain.

The three of them ended up in a bit of a lock, with Xemnas yelling out in pain from the two blades through his torso, and Riku and Vanitas grunted in exertion as they kept the blades stabbed through the man's torso.

All of a sudden, a large light appeared around all three of them, making them frown in confusion. That light lifted them up into the air, separating Riku and Vanitas from Xemnas.

Roxas helped Xion up, and they looked at the now-floating trio. Roxas frowned in confusion, while Xion sighed out in annoyance at the action from the Nova Corps.

"You are all under arrest for disorderly conduct!" a man shouted from his spacecraft above them.

"Jesus, cops really know when to strike at the most annoying moment," Vanitas complained. *4*

"For once, I agree with you," Xemnas admitted to Vanitas, frowning up at the flying ship over their heads.

Understandably, the Organization leader had a pretty mean reaction to this.

Xemnas pointed his hand up into the air, right at the Nova craft. He sent out his powers, taking ahold of the ship and breaking the tractor beam light, dropping the three of them down onto their feet. Xemnas continued the strike by swinging his arm to the side, sending the ship crashing to the ground hard, breaking it apart and causing a couple of tiny explosions.

"This has not been their week," Xion commented with a wince.

Xemnas then covered himself in the sphere and moved across the plaza, causing the machete and Soul Eater to drop to the ground with loud, metallic clatters. Glancing towards the crashed ship, Riku and Vanitas's eyes widened when they saw that the pilot was still within, and still alive.

"Help Roxas and Xion," Vanitas instructed Riku. "I'm gonna get the pilot out of that thing."

Riku nodded his head and ran after Xemnas, while Vanitas ran towards the crashed ship, his "hero" instincts taking over at the moment.

Xemnas continued facing off against Roxas, Xion, and Riku. Riku had reclaimed Soul Eater and had joined Roxas and Xion in trying to attack the man. Xion used the attack Aerial Slam to knock Xemnas in the air, then appeared over his head and struck again, knocking him to the ground. Riku swung a kick into the back of Xemnas's knee and made him drop slightly before swinging Soul Eater at his head. Roxas performed a long aerial combo before following it up with a blast of Blizzaga and another blast of Thundaga.

Landing back on his feet, Roxas felt himself get dizzy and leaned forwards, panting in and out as he felt a great wave of exhaustion pass over him. Xion landed next to him and her eyes widened, realizing what was going on.

"This is why I ran," Xion said, sadness in her voice. "The more we fight something together, the more I take."

"I'm fine," Roxas insisted, still breathing heavily.

"No, you're not!" Riku exclaimed, using both hands to press Soul Eater to Xemnas's throat. "Roxas, you gotta get out of here! Take a Corridor back to..."

Xemnas then head-butted Riku in the face, knocking him back a step. The Organization leader then turned around to face Riku, then pulled back his hands. Xemnas yelled out and pointed both hands at Riku, making a barrier appear that blasted the silver haired teen with the electricity and sent him flying back.

With Riku knocked aside and Vanitas still busy, Xemnas turned back towards Roxas and Xion. Roxas was still panting in and out, and Xion resumed her battle stance, moving in front of Roxas to protect him.

Xemnas smirked and flicked his hand, making thorns appear from different directions. Those thorns wrapped around Roxas and Xion's torsos, pressing their arms to each of their sides. The Organization leader stepped forwards, relishing in this moment.

"I'll be completely honest," Xemnas said, glaring at the two Keyblade wielders. "I don't even care about the full plan, anymore. I don't care about who becomes the vessel that we need. Our numbers are already shorthanded enough for one more darkness to make up the effort. Now... I would rather destroy two of the sources of my eternal annoyance."

Roxas and Xion struggled against their binds, just as Xemnas reached them.

He stopped briefly and turned around, raising his hand to use telekinesis and catch the fireball that Vanitas threw at him. The Organization leader then pushed back, sending the fireball flying back in the direction it came. Vanitas grunted as the ball hit his chest and exploded, knocking him right to the ground.

"Ow..." Vanitas weakly said.

Xemnas then turned back around and glared at Roxas and Xion. He yelled out as he cast another barrier, having the electricity hit both of them and sending them both flying back onto the ground hard.

Xemnas then walked forwards, glaring at Xion since she was the closest one. She winced on the ground, her arms still restrained by the thorns. The Organization leader stepped up to Xion and held up his hand, summoning his Ethereal Blade.

"You're time has come... also-ran," Xemnas announced, pulling back his Ethereal Blade in preparation, glaring down at Xion.

Xion still continued to struggle against the thorns holding her arms to the sides, continuing to try and fail to get out.

Roxas managed to get out of his thorns since Xemnas's immediate attention was on Xion. His eyes widened when he saw his old boss pull the blade back in preparation while still glaring down at Xion. Knowing that he still couldn't do much in his weakened state, Roxas knew there was only one thing he could do.

"No!" Roxas shouted, running forwards.

Xemnas started to jab forwards to stab at Xion with his Ethereal Blade.

But Roxas got in the way at the last second, and the blade instead went right through his chest, right through his heart.

Roxas gasped slightly, feeling the Blade sticking right through his chest. He winced at the pain he felt, knowing that this was only the beginning of how badly it would hurt.

Xion's eyes widened, and she gasped in shock at the sight of Roxas with the Ethereal Blade sticking out of his chest.

Vanitas, Riku, and even Axel managed to recover slightly, and all of their eyes widened significantly at the sight.

"No!!!" Vanitas shouted, terror in his voice as he remembered Ventus.

Xemnas then slowly pulled the Ethereal Blade out of Roxas's chest, making him yell out in absolute pain from the burning sensation.

"Not the one I wanted to kill first," Xemnas admitted. "But you would've died eventually."

Rapid gunfire then rang out, and Xemnas felt bullets hitting his back.

Vanitas was on his feet, wielding an AK-47 in one hand and an M4 with an extended magazine in the other. He was shuffling forwards and firing his rifles with both hands, yelling out as he tried to harm the Organization leader.

Xemnas unceremoniously dropped Roxas to the ground and turned around. Riku and Axel had also jumped to their feet and grabbed their weapons, with Axel the angriest anyone had ever seen him. The two fighters yelled out as they charged forwards with Vanitas. Xemnas rolled his eyes and walked forwards to face them.

With Xemnas's attention now towards the other three, Xion was released from the thorns shackling her. Xion quickly moved across the ground, staying on her knees and grabbing Roxas. She managed to pull the wincing blonde up, and rested his back on one of her knees. She had her arms around him and was panting in and out as she looked at Roxas.

"Hey, you're... you're gonna be okay," Xion quickly and desperately assured Roxas. "I mean, hey, we're... we've experienced worse than that and walked off like nothing happened."

Roxas groaned in pain again, keeping one hand pressed against the wound on his chest because he had seen Vanitas do that a lot to people that experienced wounds. Xion took his other hand and gripped it tightly, trying desperately to keep Roxas with her.

"You're gonna be okay, you're gonna be okay," Xion repeated as fast as she could.

She was hoping that if she said it enough, then maybe it would come true.

"X... Xion..." Roxas weakly told her. He panted and looked up at her. "The time we've spent together... All the sunsets and all the cream..."

"No," Xion desperately said, shaking her head with tears in her eyes. "Don't say that. Don't... Don't act like this is it."

"Xion..." Roxas weakly repeated.

And even though he was in immense pain and could barely keep his eyes open, Roxas did his best to give her a reassuring smile.

"It was the best time of my life," he told her, his voice strained from the exertion of staying awake. "And... I... I love..."

Xion interrupted him by quickly leaning down and pressing her lips to his, sealing them in a long, slow, and heart-felt kiss. They stayed in this position for a short period as Roxas tried to give her at least this one moment. The two of them felt the full force of each others lips, feeling the entirety of the weight and emotions towards each other within.

After a few seconds, Xion reluctantly pulled back and looked down at Roxas and gave him a watery smile.

"I love you, too, Roxas," Xion said, her voice cracking.

Roxas gave her a shaky smile once again.

"I love you..." he softly said. "I love you... I love..."

Roxas's eyes closed, and his grip on Xion's hand was loosened.

Xion closed her eyes and started crying, letting the tears flow free as she felt Roxas slip away. Light grew within the wound in his chest before slowly spreading across the rest of his body. After a few seconds, the light completely covered him and started to glow brightly. Xion kept her arms tightly around Roxas in an attempt to keep him with her. After a few seconds, the light died down, and she felt an emptiness in her arms as it started to vanish. Once the light was completely gone, her arms were empty.

Xion placed her face in her hands and started to sob loudly.

Roxas was gone. *5*

Vanitas and Axel yelled out in pure rage, charging at Xemnas with their weapons. Axel spun his chakrams around and tried swinging them at Xemnas. Xemnas caught the chakrams and held on, keeping the weapons from hitting him. Vanitas then yelled out and repeatedly hacked his machete at Xemnas's arms and shoulders, which had no visible effect on him. Riku lunged from his spot and joined in on the fun, striking the Organization leader multiple times.

Electricity surged within Xemnas's hands and surged into the chakrams, electrocuting Axel and knocking him back. The Organization leader then rose up into the air and summoned his Ethereal Blades, spinning and hitting both Riku and Vanitas in the face, knocking them both aside. Riku pushed himself back up and tried swinging Soul Eater, but Xemnas caught Riku's arm before raising him up.

"How pathetic," Xemnas chuckled out as he looked up at Riku. "You actually thought that giving into the power of darkness would be enough to help you get your best friend back. And all it did was push you almost far enough to the edge."

He smirked and pulled Riku in so that they were face to face.

"You were almost as bad as one of us," Xemnas taunted to Riku.

"Yeah, but he got smart and stopped doing that!" Vanitas remarked.

He yelled out and charged forwards, impaling Xemnas from behind with his machete.

Xemnas then sent electricity through his hand into Riku's neck, electrocuting him horribly before he tossed the silver haired teen aside. He then elbowed Vanitas in the face and knocked him back before the machete slid out of his stomach.

Axel gripped his chakrams again and charged at Xemnas, yelling out in anger. Xemnas summoned an Ethereal Blade and deflected some of Axel's strikes, though the redhead was able to get some cuts and slashes in. Axel yelled out in rage and aimed for Xemnas's head with his latest strike, but Xemnas caught it by releasing thorns, stopping Axel's hand. The redhead grunted and tried to get his arm free before swinging the other one at Xemnas, which was also restrained at the wrist with thorns by Xemnas.

"Ever the rogue pawn," Xemnas taunted to Axel. "Knocked from the board early in the game. Utterly useless... and forgotten."

He flicked one hand towards Axel, and the barrier appeared in front of him, shocking Axel and knocking him back, as well.

"And you..." Xemnas said, turning to face Vanitas.

Vanitas yelled out as he raised a knife over himself, swinging it to try to stab the Organization leader in the face.

Xemnas caught Vanitas's arm and twisted it around, bending it too far the wrong way and causing the limb to break. Vanitas yelled out in pain as he dropped his knife to the ground. Xemnas then kicked the ravenette in the knee and sent him crashing to the ground on his remaining good knee.

Vanitas winced in pain, then Xemnas grabbed him by the chin and turned his head upwards, forcing the ravenette to look him in the eye.

"The lost Master who spent a decade bitching about his misfortune," Xemnas taunted. "You lost everything back then, and now... Now you'll lose even more. Everything you love will disappear. And I will take great pleasure in personally slaughtering your brother, and your sister, right in front of..."

Xemnas suddenly froze, his entire body suddenly stiffening and causing his grip on Vanitas to slacken. Vanitas didn't know what surprised him more: Xemnas's sudden stop, or the memories of having a brother and sister returning.

Xemnas then yelled out as he was suddenly lifted up into the air, releasing Vanitas and letting the wounded ravenette fall to the ground. Restrained in the air, Xemnas was slowly turned around, forced to face Xion.

His eyes widened.

Golden energy was surging around Xion, mixing with light to signify how powerful she was at the moment. Her eyes even glowed a bright yellow from the golden energy as she gave Xemnas the biggest frown he had ever seen. Xion kept one hand pointed at Xemnas, showing that she was behind his current, unwilling floating state. She took a few steps forwards to let Xemnas see her better.

He actually felt a bit of fear at the sight.

"You just made..." Xion slowly started, glaring right at Xemnas. "... The biggest mistake, of your fucking life."

Xion closed her fist, and golden energy appeared around Xemnas. He winced in pain as the energy became solid and constricted around him, starting to crush him a bit.

"Well..." Xemnas strained out. "It looks like destroying Roxas fulfilled the part of the plan of the Replica Program. You've absorbed the last of his strength and powers."

"Exactly," Xion confirmed, tilting her head to the side as she continued to glare at Xemnas. "And it did work. But now... I have nothing left to fear."

She held out her hand, and the Keyblade Oathkeeper appeared within her palm.

Xemnas growled and had a sphere of darkness appear around him, which he used to escape Xion's grasp. The Organization leader landed on his feet and stood ready with his Ethereal Blades while Xion stood in her battle stance with Oathkeeper, her eyes still glowing golden as she glared at Xemnas. *6*

Xemnas immediately made barriers appear around Xion on all sides, and they tried to shock her. But Xion jumped out before they could, and sent a wave of golden energy out of her hand towards Xemnas, which hit him right in the head. Xion landed on the ground in a roll and charged at Xemnas. Xemnas started a series of attacks with his Ethereal Blades, but Xion managed to dodge or block the attacks.

As Xemnas tried swinging the blade at her face, but she raised a hand up and used her new powers to catch the Ethereal Blade before it could hit her. Xion then yelled out as she jabbed forwards with her Keyblade and damaged Xemnas before starting a combo attack. She did a full range combo attack, then followed it up with a blast of Blizzaga and another blast of Thundaga, knocking aside Xemnas.

Xemnas became a sphere of darkness again and moved around the plaza once more, raising his arms and using them to pick up the crashed spaceships. The Organization leader threw them towards Xion, and she dodged them either with acrobatics, jumps, or just catching them with telekinesis and tossing them aside again. The last thrown spaceship, Xemnas tossed right towards her, and she caught it with her own powers. Xion then yelled out and jabbed forwards with her hand, sending it flying right back towards her former boss.

The Organization leader managed to catch the ship in the air, stopping it from hitting him. But before he could throw it again, Xion then jumped up into the air over the crashed ship and came down towards Xemnas, swinging her Keyblade at her former boss. Xemnas raised his hand and blocked the strike with an Ethereal Blade, stopping it from hurting him. Xion floated in the air above him, then yelled out in anger as she made golden energy appear behind Xemnas. The golden energy became solid and hit Xemnas right in the back, making him release the attack. Xion followed it up with a long aerial combo attack.

Xemnas covered himself in the sphere and ran once again, moving across the plaza to get away from Xion to try and recover. However, Xion raised her hands, and the weapons that had fallen on the ground all rose up, and Xemnas's eyes widened at the sight of them.

Xion yelled out as she used her powers to make the weapons zoom right towards Xemnas.

The Organization leader tried casting barriers around himself, or even intercept them with his Ethereal Blades, but Xion made them too fast for him. Soul Eater ducked underneath Xemnas's blade and went right through Xemnas's knee, making him drop down. Axel's chakrams evaded the barriers and managed to attack Xemnas, hitting him strongly on the side, and on the neck.

Xion followed up those attacks by waving her hands and making Vanitas's dropped weapons raise into the air. She quickly walked towards Xemnas, gesturing with her hands to make the weapons attack him. Xemnas was wounded and panting weakly, but he still tried to either block or deflect the strikes. It ended up being for naught, as the machete impaled itself through his stomach. Xemnas panted weakly, then yelled out in pain as the knife went into the back of his neck, causing even more damage.

Xion walked forwards with a very pissed off expression on her face. She reached down and picked Roxas's Keyblade up off the ground and continued walking towards Xemnas.

Xion lifted up Roxas's Keyblade with her powers, then yelled out as she sent it flying forwards, impaling it right through Xemnas's chest, making him yell out in further pain.

The Replica resumed her walk forwards, to where her former boss was on his one good knee, wincing as he felt all the weapons impaled through his body. Xemnas winced in further pain and looked at Xion with a desperate expression on his face.

"Please..." Xemnas weakly croaked. "Please... Show me mercy."

"Mercy, huh?" Xion growled out in anger. "Was that mercy you just showed Roxas, you son of a bitch?"

Xemnas coughed weakly, knowing that he didn't have an answer to that.

"Hey," Xion sternly said.

Xemnas winced and looked up at Xion's face, seeing the pure rage even with the glowing light in place of her eyes.

"Fuck. You," Xion growled out. "Fuck! You!!!"

She then yelled out as she charged forwards, slashing her Keyblade right through Xemnas, performing the final blow.

Xion panted in and out as she continued to stand with her weapon raised, having finished the final slash.

Xemnas said nothing as lines and thorns started appearing all over his body. White and black thorns rose off of Xemnas as plain lines appeared. Even more thorns and much more lines rose off of Xemnas, rising into the air as Xemnas faded away. Xemnas disappeared with the thorns and lines, leaving behind white and black smoke that dispersed quickly, making the many other blades clatter loudly as they fell onto the ground.

Xion stood up straight and panted in and out as she started to calm down, the adrenaline from the fight fading, which also drained the energy she was displaying. Her eyes slowly returned to normal as the light and golden energy dispersed.

The others slowly managed to push themselves to their feet. Axel clicked his neck to get rid of the pain, Riku sighed out and held his side, and Vanitas grunted as he snapped his broken arm back into place.

After a full minute of everyone softly breathing in and out in pain, Vanitas gulped and slowly looked over at Xion, preparing to ask a question he knew he didn't want the answer to. But he still needed to ask it.

He hated questions like that.

"Xion..." Vanitas slowly asked, his voice cracking. "Where's Roxas?"

Xion softly gasped and turned around. All of the guys looked towards her and saw that her face had gone red around her eyes, and there were tears sliding down her cheeks.

"Where's..." Vanitas started, his voice cracking in sadness, and a bit of denial. "Where's Roxas?"

Xion closed her eyes and full-on started crying. She raised her hands up to her face and covered it to try to stem her tears.

Tears formed in Axel and Vanitas's eyes in realization. The two of them started sobbing, as well, and quickly stepped forwards. Xion hurried forwards and wrapped her arms around her two remaining friends. The three of them all cried together, sharing their loss and grief.

Riku had softly gasped in the realization of how they had lost a man. And since that man had a connection to Sora, he was able to (slightly) share in their grief. Riku reached up and took off his blindfold, finally revealing his light blue eyes. He blinked slightly as his eyes adjusted, then he looked down and sighed out in sadness.

In coming to Xandar, they managed to win so much.

But they had lost even more.

They made it back to Twilight Town, working through their grief and sadness to at least push through with the original plan of getting Sora's memories back from within Xion.

They arrived back in the lab, and Xion sat in the examination table. While Riku explained the situation to Naminé and Ansem the Wise, Axel stood closest to Xion, wanting comfort from a friend after what had happened on Xandar. Vanitas pointed his hands at Xion and used his powers, sifting through her memories to sort them out and pull out what belonged to Sora.

After a few moments of doing so, Vanitas eventually pulled his hand from Xion's temple, dragging out a small sphere of flashing memories of Sora and Kairi together. He handed those memories to a somber Naminé, who nodded in assurance at the ravenette. She gave a sympathetic expression to Xion and Axel before turning and moving towards the exit of the room.

Riku nodded to the group before moving to follow Naminé. The two of them nodded at each other before they resumed walking together through the halls of the underground base towards the pod room.

Losing Roxas just like that made them both realize how short life was, and how quickly you could be taken from someone you cared about. So, they were both going to try to act on their feelings.

... If only either of them knew how.

"I forgot how blue your eyes are," Naminé shyly admitted as they walked through the hall towards the pod room.

"Thanks," Riku said, blushing slightly. "Now that it's off... I can see how... pretty you are."

Naminé blushed slightly as she looked at Riku.

"I look like Kairi, but with blonde hair," she said, trying to calm down her blush.

"No," Riku denied, looking at her with a soft smile. "You look like you."

Naminé's blush got so red she started to look like a tomato. The two of them resumed their walk to the pod room in surprisingly comfortable silence, both of them ready for whatever came next.

Back in the med room, the trio of Vanitas, Xion, and Axel were still in their place in the corner, with Xion still sitting in the chair. All three of them were still looking down sadly, still processing what had happened.

"For what it's worth, young lady..." Ansem said, taking a few steps towards them. "I am truly, deeply sorry for what you and your friends have endured. You have my deepest condolences."

Vanitas and Axel looked up at Ansem and each gave him a single nod.

Xion was still looking down.

"You're sorry, huh?" she asked.

She slowly raised her head, glaring right up at the man.

"Would you have said that if you went through with your original plan?" Xion growled out. "When you had Riku hunt us down and try to kill us as part of your petty attempt to get revenge at my old boss? Would you have said 'sorry' if this happened last week? Would you have said 'sorry' if you had succeeded at killing us for your own bullshit!?"

Ansem, Axel, and Vanitas all jumped in their spots, none of them having ever seen this level of anger from Xion before. Vanitas looked over at Ansem and mouthed 'Go!' to his former Master. Ansem nodded and quickly turned around, leaving the trio to be.

Xion sighed out and looked down again. Axel and Vanitas shared a look before looking down at Xion.

"Xion..." Axel started to say.

All of a sudden, the entire room started to shake, making them all move move around, with the standing men nearly falling to the ground. Xion exclaimed in surprise and jumped to her feet to join the group in standing as the shaking stopped.

"What the hell was that?" Axel asked in surprise.

"I don't know," Ansem admitted. "This world has never been known for earthquakes."

Vanitas then gritted his teeth in pain and gripped his head, feeling a very large collection of darkness gathering nearby.

"What's up, V?" Axel asked, he and Xion looking at the ravenette for answers.

"It's... a very big number of enemies," Vanitas said. He slowly opened his eyes. "I'm seeing a lot of bad guys. Heartless... Nobodies..."

He frowned.

"Unversed?" Vanitas asked. "I haven't seen those dicks in over a decade!"

"All right, we're underground, right?" Axel asked.

"Exactly," Ansem confirmed. "I had this facility constructed underneath the old mansion."

"Okay, then it stands to reason that these enemies are all above us," Xion said. She shrugged her shoulders. "I mean, that just makes the most sense logically."

"How many you counting, V?" Axel asked, looking at the ravenette.

Vanitas placed two fingers to his temple to use his powers and try to sense the numbers.

"I'm counting..." he slowly said. "Dozens."

He frowned.

"Wait, no..." Vanitas said. His frown deepened. "Hundreds?"

Ansem, Axel, and Xion's eyes all widened.

Vanitas's eyes then widened even more than all of theirs.

"Thousands!?" Vanitas exclaimed in shock.

Everyone shared shocked looks.

"And it's not just here," Vanitas frantically said. "It's on... many other worlds. What the hell is going on!?"

Everyone frantically looked at the ceiling above them, preparing for things to get pretty horrible.

All of a sudden, Xion lowered her head and frowned in thought, looking forwards. She looked to the side and saw some blue light appear on the nearest wall, surrounded by grey smoke. It looked... sort of like some kind of portal.

Though Xion was confused, something about this portal intrigued her. Looking at it, she was pretty sure that... If she went in, it would solve all her problems.

Looking around at the three men, she saw that none of them had noticed the portal, just her. So, she decided to act.

Xion turned and started running towards the portal. Vanitas and Axel quickly noticed and turned towards her, their eyes widening at the sight of the blue and grey portal on the wall. They both called out Xion's name, but she ignored them as she kept charging at the portal. She lunged at the portal, and went right through. Before either of them could do anything, the portal disappeared in a flash of blue light, taking Xion with it.

Vanitas and Axel shared a surprised look before looking at the wall where the portal disappeared. The entire room shook again, and the two of them looked at the ceiling in worry once again.

"I'll repeat," Vanitas slowly said, still looking up at the ceiling. "What the hell is going on!?" *7*

Alyson Stoner as Xion

Jesse McCartney as Roxas

Haley Joel Osment as Vanitas Jordan

David Gallagher as Riku

Alyson Stoner as Naminé

Corey Burton as Ansem the Wise/DiZ

Quinton Flynn as Axel

Featuring Mick Wingert as Tony Stark

Featuring Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner

And Paul St. Peter as Xemnas

Chapter Text

Time.

Space.

Reality.

It's more than a linear path.

It's a prism... of endless possibility, where a single choice can branch out into infinite realities, creating alternate worlds from the ones you know.

I am the Watcher.

I am your guide through these vast new realities. Follow me, and ponder the question...

"What if?"

Things hadn't been going too well for Zack Fair lately, to say the least.

When he was a kid, he always heard stories about a hero named Sephiroth that had done so much to help Radiant Garden, along with a world called Midgar. The hero had done so much, and Zack admired him greatly, something that his friends nearly constantly teased him over. He got more than one gay jokes from Squall and Cloud, but they were more good-natured than one would expect.

Particularly because Cloud knew that Zack's real affections were towards Aerith, a girl in their class.

Of course, being a shy pre-teen that was amazed at even his own friends' willingness to hang out with him, Zack had no idea how he would even begin to broach the topic to Aerith, especially considering the fact that she appeared to have feelings for Cloud, just like Tifa.

The fact that Cloud and Zack were best friends was something that stumped just about everyone at their school, from the students to the teachers to even the principal himself. Zack was a shy kid that had trouble striking up a conversation with anybody he met. Whereas Cloud was calm, cool, and confident. Confident enough that he dated almost three girls at once, and there were rumors that he had lost his virginity when he was twelve.

Zack was the only one to know that Cloud was still a virgin at that age, and currently still was, though, a testament to their friendship.

Despite the unlikeliness of their friendship, the two were as thick as thieves, with Cloud doing everything he could to help out Zack when he needed it. This ranged from letting Zack copy his homework answers, to even give up on pursuing Aerith when he learned that Zack liked her.

And Cloud had never given up chasing a girl before, another testament to Zack on how much their friendship mattered to him.

The biggest problem that Zack saw to trying to ask out Aerith was partly due to the fact that her last crush was Cloud.

Now, that's not saying that Zack was jealous of or angry at Cloud. In fact, he could admittedly understand why so many ladies wanted to pursue his friend. Zack could even admit to having questioned his sexuality sometimes when he thought of how close of friends he and Cloud were.

But the main problem that Zack had was that he didn't know how he could compare to Cloud in Aerith's mind. Between that and Cloud's obvious attraction to Tifa, Zack didn't know how he could try to approach Aerith with the prospect of dating without sounding like he was being desperate. And he honestly didn't see any way it could work out that didn't have Aerith see him as a pity-date.

Then Zack looked at the poster on his wall of Sephiroth, one that he had had custom made from an old picture of the warrior in the newspaper. (He had paid for it with most of his money, and Cloud helped chip in for the difference, another sign of how close they were). The picture was of Sephiroth with his Masamune raised in victory, a winning expression on his face to celebrate his victory against the (at the time) latest threat to the town.

As with every time he looked at the poster, Zack felt a great deal of inspiration and respect for the hero in his chest.

And that inspiration and respect gave him an idea.

He would follow Sephiroth's footsteps, traveling out of the town and to other worlds in an attempt to become a great hero. Surely that would impress Aerith.

The fact that Aerith was starting to actually develop feelings for Zack after Cloud's rejection, and that Sephiroth had never returned to Radiant Garden after a large fire that killed Cloud's mom and Tifa's dad happened, never really occurred to the poor, naïve young man.

The resolve within his chest, Zack went to a local merchant in town who had claimed that he had traveled amongst other worlds before. Wanting to surprise his friends, he hadn't even bothered to leave a note about where he was going, sure that it would be a great surprise to all of them.

They experienced one hell of a surprise, all right.

Ignorant to the immense worry and fear he was going to cause to his friends, Zack when to the merchant and paid with all the money he had available for safe passage to another world outside of town. When the merchant asked where Zack wanted to go, Zack said that he wanted to train somewhere to become a hero.

That was how he had ended up at the world of Dissidia.

When he arrived there, he learned that there were many options available for how he could learn to fight to become a hero. There was training with the military faction SeeD, the warriors that used the quarterstaffs, the mages that used all kinds of magic, the various factions of Ninjas, and the other military faction known as SOLDIER.

Wanting to go with the coolest sounding option, Zack decided to go with SOLDIER.

Time ended up progressing differently for Zack on Dissidia than had progressed back on Radiant Garden for the rest of his friends. Quite a few years passed for him while a single year passed for the others. With no one any closer to finding Zack on Radiant Garden, Cloud decided to leave in an attempt to find his best friend, incredibly worried and scared for what he could be going through.

Zack, further determined to try and become a great hero, left Dissidia and went to a different world called Olympus Coliseum, hearing about a great trainer of heroes on the world named Philoctetes. He arrived at the world, and discovered that Phil was already training a student named Hercules, so he agreed to a little competition between Hercules to see which one would be trained by Phil. Zack lost, and Hercules ended up becoming Phil's permanent student.

Afterwards, Zack stayed on the world to try to gain some hero experience fighting the monsters infesting the town and the Coliseum, and ended up making some nice connections with people named Terra, Ventus, Vanitas, and Aqua, all of whom he was pretty sure were from another world.

During his training, Zack ended up getting a little overconfident and cocky, now believing himself to be better than Cloud since he had had all the training. And it was that cocky nature that had Zack approach Aqua in a way he recognized Cloud used to, trying to make a deal with her for a date. Completely oblivious to Aqua's embarrassed nature (or perhaps ignoring it entirely), Zack went off with the idea that if he were to become a hero, Aqua would agree to go on a date with him.

He really was pretty deluded in his cockiness. *1*

Some time after the group wielding Keyblades left, Zack went up to the Coliseum and leaned against a wall in the doorway that led into the large open field in front. He crossed his arms and smiled as he watched Hercules training with Phil. He could admit that he understood why Phil decided to stick with Hercules. Zack might've become a good warrior after training with SOLDIER, but Hercules was better than him by a long shot.

The sound of something whoosh-ing behind him garnered Zack's attention. His eyes widened significantly.

Sephiroth, the One Winged Angel that he had looked up to for so many years, was standing right next to him in the doorway.

"Oh... My..." Zack softly said, his eyes widening significantly.

But then Sephiroth placed a hand on his shoulder, and Zack's vision went dark.

When he could see again, Zack exclaimed in surprise and took a few steps back, trying to realign himself to his surroundings. Whatever had just happened, it left him pretty dizzy, and he needed to adjust. After breathing in and out for a few seconds, Zack looked around to see that he was in a gigantic room larger than a school auditorium, with blank walls all around him, giant holes in one wall to serve as windows, and a circular door on one end of the giant room.

Frowning in curiosity since he was confused about where he was, Zack's eyes widened once again when Sephiroth reappeared right in front of him.

"Oh, my God, I was right!" Zack excitedly exclaimed.

He took a few steps forwards, completely missing the frown on Sephiroth's face.

"You have know idea how excited I am right now!" Zack excitedly told the One Winged Angel. "I've been following your work as a hero for years! Your appearance at Shinra in Midgar, the way you saved those worlds and my hometown so many times. My friends will never believe me when I tell them how I've met..."

Zack suddenly stopped when he felt a great pain enter his stomach and go right through his torso. His eyes widened and he gasped softly as he registered the pain. Slowly looking down, his jaw dropped when he saw the culprit of the pain.

Sephiroth had grabbed his Masamune and stabbed it right through Zack's stomach, impaling him with the incredibly long blade.

Zack gasped and looked up at Sephiroth, the pain in his eyes as he looked into the blank eyes of his hero.

"...Y-you," Zack managed to get out, his voice straining due to the pain from the wound.

Sephiroth removed his blade from Zack's stomach, and kicked the young man in the chest, sending him flying back through the air so hard that he crashed into the opposite wall. Zack landed roughly on the ground, and with a wave of Sephiroth's hand, chains came down and wrapped themselves around his wrists. His arms were raised up into the air, keeping him in place on the floor.

Zack yelled out in pain as Sephiroth slowly walked over towards him.

"Wh-what are you doing!?" Zack exclaimed in surprise and further pain.

"You're from Radiant Garden, one of the worlds that I frequent with Midgar," Sephiroth explained, glaring right at Zack as he walked towards the ravenette, Masamune still in his hand. "And you have experience with the darkness."

Zack remembered a few days prior, that little "incident" with Hades taking control of him through the darkness.

"And you're going to give me your darkness," Sephiroth continued, stepping right up to Zack.

"But... But why do you need darkness?" Zack asked in surprise. "You're... You're a great hero! You've saved so many lives, and helped my world and Midgar so much. Why..."

"I'm a laboratory experiment!" Sephiroth bitterly snapped to Zack, surprising the ravenette. "Shinra experimented on me for years, injecting me with the cells of an extraterrestrial life form called Jenova. Then they added darkness to ensure that Jenova and I bonded perfectly. When I learned about that, I went insane, and destroyed Shinra before causing trouble on your world of Radiant Garden. I'm sure you noticed a fire."

Zack's eyes widened in remembrance.

"Oh, good... you did," Sephiroth said with a sadistic smirk.

"You... you were behind that fire!?" Zack exclaimed in shock. Sephiroth nodded in confirmation. "Oh, my God! You killed my friend's parents. It got Cloud's mom, Tifa's dad..."

Sephiroth frowned in thought.

"Older blonde woman, and a different dark haired man?" he asked.

Zack nodded in confirmation, confused.

"Oh, those two," Sephiroth said with a nostalgic smile. "They didn't die in the fire. I personally took care of them with my blade."

"Oh, my God..." Zack said, his eyes still incredibly wide at that declaration. "You... you're a psychopath... A monster..."

Sephiroth smirked and leaned forwards so that he and Zack were face to face.

"And a murderer," Sephiroth added with relish. "Don't forget about that."

Zack softly gasped in shock once more, having a hard time believing that the man he once hailed as a hero and looked up to more than anything was... this.

"And now... you're going to give me more darkness," Sephiroth informed Zack.

Zack grunted in pain, but shook his head.

"That's not gonna happen," he stubbornly announced. "I've already experienced what darkness does, and I'm not gonna do anything else involving it."

Sephiroth raised an annoyed eyebrow, and Zack gulped.

After that, Sephiroth started a rigorous torture regimen in an attempt to force Zack into compliance. It went on for weeks, never relenting and coming up with all forms of new ways that he could hurt the young man and make him scream in pain. It was music to the One Winged Angel's ears. No matter how much Sephiroth hurt Zack, though, the young ravenette never gave in to the darkness.

Though, he would be the first to admit that it was because he didn't know how to.

When he decided that Zack wasn't worth the effort, Sephiroth decided to resort to a new tactic.

"You mentioned a friend of yours named Cloud," Sephiroth said, giving Zack a sadistic smile. "The one who's mother I killed. Tell me... how easy is it to anger him?"

Zack gulped in realization.

The torture increased tenfold from there, with Sephiroth increasing the regimen with help from the various monsters down in Tartarus, where they were keeping him. It went on for months, with Sephiroth only allowing a small form of relief between each segment to let Zack heal from their "sessions" to try to keep him alive. While he was determined not to give in due to how close he and Cloud were, eventually, Zack reached his breaking point.

Despite his best attempts, the torture Sephiroth put him through ended up being too much, and Zack told the One Winged Angel everything he wanted to know about Cloud.

"Well, thank you for your cooperation," Sephiroth told Zack with a smile after the ravenette finished telling him everything. "This was an enlightening experience, and your information will certainly come in handy."

"Why?" Zack asked, wincing in pain once more.

"Cloud is here," Sephiroth informed him. "On Olympus."

Zack quickly raised his head and looked up at the One Winged Angel.

"Yeah," Sephiroth confirmed with a sadistic smirk. "And now... I'm gonna use the information you gave me and use it to get what I want from Cloud. He'll give me the darkness that I need, and then some."

"No, no!" Zack desperately cried, wincing in pain with his wrists still restrained. "He's my best friend. I see him as a brother!"

"And I'll be sure to give him your regards as I tear the life from him," Sephiroth darkly told Zack.

The One Winged Angel chuckled sadistically as he turned and left the giant chamber, the door sliding shut and locking behind him, leaving Zack alone.

After a few hours of yelling out desperately for help, screaming his voice hoarse in guilt for what he saw as a betrayal towards his best friend, Zack promptly collapsed in exhaustion. *2*

Something that Sephiroth put into place was that the monsters he had hired down in Tartarus would watch over Zack as he was still restrained down in his castle, making sure that the young man didn't die from the injuries that he continued to receive just from being down in the hellish area. He was so sadistic that he didn't want to grant Zack "the luxury of death."

A few weeks after Sephiroth left with the news that Cloud was on Olympus Coliseum, two Empousa (Greek vampire ladies), a blonde and a brunette, entered the large chamber where Zack was being held to bring him his daily meal of fire from the River Phlegethon. Entering the chamber, the Empousa noticed that Zack was slumped forwards with his head leaning down, pretty unconscious.

Or... was he unconscious?

"Oh, crap," the blonde Empousa sighed out in complaint. "Did we neglect him so much that we let him die?"

"That's exactly what Sephiroth ordered us not to do!" the brunette Empousa exclaimed.

The brunette hurried forwards and pulled out her key, moving to unshackle the chains around his wrists.

"Hey, Sephiroth told us not to do that, either!" the blonde Empousa remarked, placing down the cup of Phlegethon fires.

"Yeah, well, I think he'd be more annoyed at us letting him die than taking him out of his chains," the brunette Empousa rebutted.

She finished undoing the shackles around Zack's wrists, releasing him from his restraints.

Then Zack immediately perked up and lunged at the Empousa.

The blonde exclaimed in surprise while the brunette tried fighting him off. But with the SOLDIER training he had received, Zack was able to overpower her before turning her around, wrapping an arm around her neck, applying force to her throat.

"How'd you trick me like that?" the Empousa breathlessly asked.

"SOLDIER training, bitch," Zack informed her. "Always wait for the best moment to strike. And with my heartbeat slowed from this hellscape, it was pretty easy to pretend I was dead."

Zack then applied even more force, doing enough to snap the Empousa's neck.

The brunette Empousa fell to the ground dead, her body disintegrating from the strike.

Zack looked up to face the other Empousa, seeing her glare right at him. The ravenette moved his arms in preparation, and the vampire lady lunged at him, extending her claws in her own preparation. Zack moved back to dodge each of her claw slashes, waiting for the right opportunity. As she jabbed forwards with her hand to try to stab with her claws, Zack managed to catch her wrist and turn it around, making her jab towards herself, instead.

It ended up working. The Empousa ended up stabbing herself in the stomach with her claws, making her grunt in pain.

Zack panted in exhaustion as the Empousa fell to the ground dead, disintegrating just like her partner. With the threat of enemies out of the way, he ended up stumbling to the ground, landing on his knees before looking up and panting even more.

"Please..." Zack panted out. "I need..."

He coughed a couple of times, his throat incredibly sore from eating and drinking nothing but fire for the past few weeks.

"I need to find Cloud," Zack panted. "I need to help him. Whatever's out there... Whatever's listening... Please... Help me find him."

He panted a few times before looking down, hopelessness filling his chest as he started to think he was praying to nothing.

Luckily for him, someone was listening.

Zeus, the King of the gods, had been keeping an eye out for strange happenings throughout his realm and the realms of his brothers, to make sure that nothing bad or untoward was happening. Since Zack was technically praying for help, Zeus was able to hear it, and he decided to be a just god and help out the young man in need. The King of the Gods waved his hands, and magic surged under his palms in the form of electricity.

Zack, panting weakly on the ground, almost didn't notice as light gathered around his body, blocking out his vision and covering him completely. The light glowed brightly for more than a few seconds, and once it died down, Zack was gone.

It took quite a while for Zack's vision to return to him. A combination of the very bright light that covered his eyes and then his eyes adjusting to the new scenario afterwards ended up leaving him pretty blind for... quite a while. After a few seconds, the blindness in his eyes eventually faded down into just spots that worsened every time he blinked. Eventually, the spots disappeared completely, allowing his vision to clear up.

When he could finally see again, Zack's eyes widened.

He was in a familiar street in a familiar neighborhood. Looking around the streets, he softly gasped when he saw the gigantic buildings of Mako reactors out in the distance, along with some skyscrapers, and a train system that he hadn't seen since he was a kid.

Zack recognized this place from all the times he, Cloud, and Tifa visited it when they were kids.

He was back in Midgar.

Zack softly laughed in relief, relishing in the fresh air entering his lungs for the first time in months.

That laugh immediately stopped when the sound of a giant shockwave burst out, causing the closest skyscraper to implode at the ground. The rest of the skyscraper promptly leaned forwards and crashed into the ground hard, breaking into pieces as it hit the road.

"... I think that's where Sephiroth is," Zack softly muttered to himself.

A figure was suddenly thrown through the rubble of the giant building, and was sent flying through the air, where he crashed into a different building before dropping to the ground hard. This figure was dressed in black robes, had spiky blonde hair, and held a Buster Sword with bandages on it in his right hand.

Zack's eyes widened. Even though so many years had passed between them, he still recognized Cloud easily.

Unfortunately, Sephiroth floated out of the rubble of the building and moved across the ground towards his bruised friend.

Looking around frantically, Zack saw that nearby were the bodies of civilians and soldiers that had no doubt gotten in the way of the struggle, and ended up casualties of Sephiroth's brutality. There was even one body that had a Buster Sword within its hand.

Though he was incredibly weak, Zack reached for the sword and gave a small apology for the dead member of SOLDIER. He then jumped to his feet and weakly charged forwards, yelling out in preparation.

Sephiroth and Cloud looked up, and Cloud's eyes widened significantly while Sephiroth frowned in confusion. Zack yelled out as he raised his Buster Sword over his head and swung it at Sephiroth, who blocked it with his Masamune. He then swung his sword, knocking Zack back, causing him to roughly land on the ground next to Cloud.

"... Ow," Zack weakly said.

"Z-Zack?" Cloud softly asked, his voice cracking in disbelief.

Zack slowly raised his head and looked at Cloud, then did his best to give his friend a reassuring smile.

"Maybe I should have left a note," he weakly quipped.

Cloud softly gasped, feeling immense relief fill his chest at seeing his best friend alive again, though he was in a pretty bad state.

"Aw, how sweet," Sephiroth sarcastically commented, getting both of their attentions. "A friendly reunion. But Cloud, you and I have unfinished business."

He pointed forwards with his Masamune, so it was pointed right at Cloud's face.

"You are going to give into the darkness," Sephiroth informed him. "Or I will destroy this entire town, and kill everyone else within. What's it gonna be, Strife?"

Cloud glared right up at Sephiroth.

"I think I'm gonna go with option #3," Cloud informed him. "And cut off your freaking head."

"I hope you don't mind a little help," Zack weakly said.

The two friends looked at each other and shared a determined nod.

Cloud and Zack jumped to their feet and yelled out as they charged at Sephiroth, feeling determination and desire to protect others within their chests. Light grew within them, and when they swung their blades at Sephiroth, their visions were completely covered by light.

When they could see again, they ended up in a completely different area. Though they were separated, they were on the same world, and just a short distance away from each other.

Zack yelled out as he landed in the snow, just a few feet away from a talking dog and a redheaded woman in black leather.

Cloud yelled out as he landed on top of a terrorist, landing right next to a man in a red, white and blue outfit, and an old friend.

Cloud grunted as he rolled over onto his back, trying to take stock of his new surroundings.

"Cloud?" a familiar voice asked.

Cloud looked up, and with furrowed eyebrows and wide eyes of surprise, he looked up to see a young brunette with spiky hair that he had helped a few times in the past.

"Sora?" *3*

The two friends were picked up by the rest of the team in and around the castle, which included Sora, Vanitas Jordan, Donald Duck, Goofy, and their friends, the Avengers. Zack and Cloud were introduced to Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, Thor, and Clint Barton, though Donald and Clint were bruised from all the fighting. Zack was put on a stretcher and joined Donald and Clint in being checked over by Natasha.

"Jesus Christ," Natasha said, looking at the full analysis that was provided from the medical scanner.

"What is it?" Cloud asked, worried for his friend.

"This guy's been through what looks like hell," Natasha explained. "Multiple stab wounds, slashes from blades of all kinds, impalements from all sorts of sharp objects, quite a few burns, and a bunch of other stuff I don't even wanna tell you guys. He's also incredibly malnourished, with the only thing filling his stomach looking like... fire?"

"V, you're the fire expert," Tony said to the ravenette. "Pretty sure flames aren't supposed to be eaten, right?"

"Uh, no, that would be a pretty shitty appetite," Vanitas said.

"Mr Fair, what happened to you?" Sora asked, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion and worry.

"It... it was Sephiroth," Zack admitted.

Cloud, Sora, and Vanitas all perked up at that, remembering the One Winged Angel.

"He took me... somewhere," Zack explained. "And he tortured me to try to get me to give into darkness. And when that didn't work, he kept torturing me, wanting to know more about Cloud."

He sniffed as he looked at Cloud.

"I'm sorry, man," Zack guiltily told his friend. "I told him about how easily irritable you get, and that's apparently what he's looking for to get more darkness."

"Hey, it's all right, man," Cloud assured his wounded friend. "You were subjugated to torture. Anyone would have cracked under pressure. I don't blame you in the slightest."

Zack smiled slightly in relief.

"But why is Sephiroth doing all this?" Sora asked, confused. "What's the end goal there?"

"From the sounds of it, he wants more darkness," Tony pointed out, hand on his chin in thought. "And from what V's told me, the best way to get more is to be angry and hateful towards something, right?"

Vanitas nodded in confirmation.

"So the bastard wants even more darkness," Cloud said in thought. "And he wants it from me."

He looked down at his wounded friend on the stretcher.

"I'm not gonna give him what he wants," Cloud decided, thinking about the pain the man had caused Zack. "But I am going to kill him, for what he did to you."

"Honestly, I can understand that looking at Zack here," Sora admitted, Vanitas nodding in agreement.

"You have... very, very good reason to want to, man," Zack informed Cloud. "Even greater than you think."

Cloud frowned in confusion.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Zack breathed in and out in preparation.

"Sephiroth... he admitted to me that he was behind the fire," he admitted. "That fire."

Cloud's eyes widened as the full implications from that set in. He looked up, then turned around to look at a wall in contemplation.

"What fire?" Sora asked.

"There... When we were kids, there was a fire at Radiant Garden," Zack explained. "It was pretty huge, covering our neighborhood and killing a lot of people. Including Cloud's mom and Tifa's dad."

"No," Cloud then said, getting everyone's attention.

Sora and Vanitas frowned in thought.

"When... when Tifa and I were at the coroner's office, they informed us that their causes of death weren't from the fire," Cloud explained, still looking at the wall. "The thing that killed each of them was a blade through their chests."

Sora and Vanitas's eyes widened.

"Of course, they were never able to find a blade that fit the description in the report," Cloud continued. "So, they were both reported to have died in the fire."

He slowly turned to face the others, showing the rawness and despair in his eyes.

"Sephiroth murdered my mom and Tifa's dad," Cloud said. *4*

Sora, Vanitas, Tony, and Natasha all felt sympathy for the blonde. Especially Tony and Natasha, because Tony had lost both his parents and Natasha never even knew her parents.

They all understood completely when Cloud yelled out in rage and punched the wall in front of him, leaving a fist-shaped indent in the metal.

"That help?" Vanitas asked.

"No," Cloud admitted, turning to face the others. "But I'm gonna find Sephiroth, and I'm gonna make him pay for what he did."

The others were surprised at the calm tone in the blonde's voice.

"And no one blames you for wanting to do that," Tony admitted. "Lord knows how I'd react to learning that someone murdered my parents."

"We're gonna help you in any way we can," Sora promised Cloud.

"Yeah," Vanitas said, nodding his head in agreement. "That fucker's too dangerous for you to take him on alone. We'll help you out."

Cloud nodded gratefully towards his friends.

They ended up finding Sephiroth sooner than they expected, thanks to the fact that he had teamed up with the villain, Ultron.

They made it to a freighter in Africa, where Sephiroth and Ultron stood ready with their backup, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. While Zack stayed behind at Avengers Tower to continue healing from his leftover torture wounds, Cloud joined the rest of the team in heading to Africa and face off the villains, with Kairi, Riku, and Mickey tagging along to help.

"Cloud," Sephiroth greeted the blonde, holding up his Masamune sword. "You still don't understand the truth. You mustn't let go of your past, but must instead embrace it. That way, you'll find yourself the person you were always meant to be."

"You really think I'm gonna keep buying into your bullshit?" Cloud softly snapped to Sephiroth. "You pulled my best friend down into hell and tortured him for years. And even before then, you ruthlessly murdered dozens of people in my neighborhood just because you were pissed from being lied to. You killed my mom and my girlfriend's dad. I am never going to give you what you want."

Sora and Vanitas nodded in pride, though Vanitas inwardly smirked at the confirmation that Cloud and Tifa were dating.

During the rant, Wanda perked up at the mention that Sephiroth had murdered Cloud's mom and another girl's dad. While Pietro continued to glare at Tony, Wanda felt sympathy in her chest towards the blonde and the hardships that he and his friends had endured, all because of the silver haired man just a few feet away.

While the Maximoffs hated Stark, Wanda was willing to see through the lines and recognize that some people had more evil within them than most. Glancing towards Sephiroth, she was starting to wonder if there was more to the "angel" than he was claiming.

Eventually, she and Pietro managed to figure out the truth when they learned of Ultron and Sephiroth's plans for global destruction. Wanda was able to share the information to the others about Sephiroth's need for darkness, and his desire for darkness from Cloud because they were from similar worlds. Vanitas then started the process of preparing guns with his darkness killing spell, which they would need to take out Sephiroth.

They managed to do a good enough job fighting off Sephiroth and Ultron in Sokovia, before Vanitas and Cloud used their firearms to take out the One Winged Angel. He was completely immolated in his darkness, fading away and disappearing.

Of course, they still had to deal with Ultron and stopping him from destroying the world, so they kept up their efforts. Pietro lost his life saving Clint and Cloud, Wanda destroyed the main Ultron, then they destroyed the city before it could destroy it could destroy the world, during which Vision saved Wanda before destroying the final Ultron.

During the Quinjet ride back to New York, Vision sat with an arm around Wanda, offering her some comfort as she grieved for her lost twin. While this helped fuel Vanitas's thoughts over visions he had had of the future for the couple, he still understood that this was mostly for consolation, and decided not to speak his thoughts since they would seem insensitive.

Everyone offered their sympathies for Wanda, but none of them could really get through since they didn't understand the loss she had endured.

Until Thor and Cloud stepped up.

"My brother, Loki, has transgressed to the halls of Valhalla, as well," Thor told Wanda. "So I can understand some of what you're going through. We live on because that's what they want us to do, and we remember them for what they did for us."

"Yeah," Cloud agreed. "I lost my mom so many years ago, but she's still with me. In the memories I have of her, and the experiences she taught me. So long as we have that, then we haven't really lost them. They're still with us, in here."

He held his hand over his heart to emphasize what he was talking about.

Wanda sniffed loudly and looked up at the two, gratefulness in her eyes.

"Thank you, both," she said, her voice cracked slightly in sadness. "You've given me a lot to think about."

The two blondes nodded in assurance.

It helped sometimes when people could share their trauma.

After the Ultron incident, Tony had a compound built outside of New York for the Avengers to live and train together. It would be their new base of operations and prepare for the next world ending threats. Tony and Clint were retiring, while the off-worlders went back to their respective homes.

Except for Cloud and Zack.

Cloud decided to stay behind to try to be a hero for a bit, wanting to absolve his past sins with a chance to help people. Zack was staying with him, partly so he could finish healing from his leftover wounds, and partly so he and Cloud could stay together. He would even join in on being a hero once he had finished healing up.

"You both oughta be hella good soldiers," Nick Fury had remarked when he met the two.

"Well, we were trained by a military faction called SOLDIER, so we're definitely gonna be good at that," Cloud remarked.

Cloud and Zack were both surprised, and a little impressed at how they managed to get the same trainings with SOLDIER in their own ways.

Some time passed between the two as they slowly built back up their friendship, trying to move past the many years that had passed between them where nothing had happened. They managed to get back their old rhythm of friendship pretty easily, to the point where they played pranks, shared jokes, and even spied on their friends.

The one and only time they pranked Natasha, she hunted them down and made them wish they were never born, so they quickly decided to never do that again.

Their favorite people to spy on were Wanda and Vision, because Vanitas told them about how they get together in the future and they were curious about how it would start.

One night, the two of them stood in the hallway just outside of Wanda's room, the door open so they were able to hear the entire conversation between the couple as they watched an episode of Malcolm in the Middle, and Vision assured her that it was okay for her to feel grief over her brother's death.

"But what is grief, if not love persevering?" Vision pointed out to Wanda.

Cloud and Zack shared a look.

"Damn!" Cloud softly exclaimed in amazement.

"For a synthezoid, that man has an incredibly understanding of feelings," Zack remarked.

"I know," Cloud agreed. "No wonder V's so sure they get together. Hope it doesn't take them too long."

"Wonder how far that relationship is gonna go," Zack admitted.

"Not much farther if you two keep listening in," Wanda's annoyed voice called out.

The two of them jumped in surprise and looked at the wall.

"Damn it," Cloud said. "She's gotten better with her abilities."

"That, and the door is wide open," Vision pointed out.

Cloud and Zack looked right next to them to see that the door, was indeed, wide open.

"Whoops," Zack said.

"Book it!" Cloud informed his friend.

The two of them yelled out in surprise and worry as they turned and started running down the hallway away from Wanda's room.

Wanda and Vision stepped into the hallway and looked down the hall just as the two boys left their eyesights.

"Okay, they're pretty intrusive," Vision remarked.

"They have the mental mindsets of teenagers," Wanda said, sighing out. "Literally, I looked into both their heads and it felt just like looking into a teenager's mind. Being reunited must have mentally aged them down about half a decade."

"Well, they are best friends, after all," Vision pointed out.

"Just like we are," Wanda added with a small chuckle.

Vision shared that chuckle with her.

Then, the two of them shared a look, and immediately looked away, with Wanda's face turning a little pink from a blush.

"Let's, uh... Let's also forget what they were talking about," Wanda decided.

"Of course, yes," Vision said, looking at Wanda. "I mean, just because Vanitas claims we'll end up together doesn't mean that... we really will."

"Yeah," Wanda agreed. "I mean, how often are his visions wrong?"

Vision gulped, not wanting to share that the ravenette's visions were never wrong. While he was sure that he was developing feelings towards Wanda, he also knew that he was a synthezoid and it was still a little difficult for him to interpret feelings. He would wait until he was more sure before... whatever it was he decided to do with those feelings. *5*

Things started to get serious again after a Lagos mission gone wrong. The United Nations decided that the Avengers needed to be controlled, of they would be forced to retire, so they were implementing the Sokovia Accords, written by Secretary Thaddeus Ross, a secretary of State who had "moments" with the heroes before in the past. This had started to cause some unrest with the rest of the team, because some wanted to follow the Accords, and others didn't.

Steve, Sam, and Cloud didn't trust the Accords, Rhodey and Tony and Natasha thought they needed to be reigned in, Rhodey thought that Ross and the UN had a point, Wanda was just scared of having the military come for her, and Vision wanted to protect Wanda but could see Tony's point of view.

Surprisingly, Zack managed to help them with this problem.

"Guys!" Zack announced, getting everyone's attentions. "Look, both sides of this argument have decent points of view. You're both right, but at the same time, you're both wrong."

Everyone raised an eyebrow and looked at Zack.

"Look, I know I wasn't there at Sokovia, but I did see the aftermath and everything that happened on the news," Zack explained. "And I will agree: maybe we should be reined in a bit. We do kinda break a lot of traveling laws with some of the stuff we do, and we never call for assistance. Instead of working for the governments, we should try to work with them, instead."

He held up the packet of the Sokovia Accords.

"Starting with reading these," Zack continued to tell them. "Because I don't know about you guys, but after hearing what this Ross guy did to Bruce, I don't trust him. We should read these and take a case to the UN, making sure which ones are actually on the straight and narrow, and which ones are just Ross trying to control us. And the UN obviously isn't gonna make us retire. If there's another world-ending situation, then are they really gonna try and solve it themselves when they know we can stop it?"

He breathed in and out to get back some air.

"I say we should come to a compromise with the UN," Zack explained. "Like I said, we read the Accords and find out which ones are actually good and which ones are just bullshit stuff put in by Ross. Then, we work with the UN and ensure that we can work through things with all of this, coming to a conclusion that we can all agree on."

Everyone shared looks, then started nodding in agreement. Tony, Steve, Sam, and Rhodey all agreed that this was a decent enough compromise.

Cloud was looking at Zack in shock.

"How the hell are you smart now!?" Cloud exclaimed, gesturing to his friend with one hand. "I still remember when we were in school, I had to help you cheat on your homework, quizzes, and tests. I almost got expelled four times helping make sure you and I stayed in the same grade, and now you're clever enough to help us figure out a compromise with the United fucking Nations!?"

Everyone chuckled at the stupefied expression on Cloud's face, and even Vision cracked a smirk.

Thanks to Zack pointing things out, the Avengers managed to team up and come to an agreement to a compromise with the UN, which they presented to a meeting with the group. Ross tried to sternly announce that the Accords as they were written were to be implemented and no one could change that, showing to them all just how much of an asshole he was. He was promptly arrested and put under investigation.

A day after the event at the UN, a large explosion burst in the building and killed the visiting King of Wakanda, and the news was given false footage claiming that the man responsible was Bucky Barnes, Steve's friend that was brainwashed by HYDRA into becoming the Winter Soldier.

The team managed to pull together and discover that it was really Helmut Zemo, a baron from Sokovia that wanted revenge against the Avengers, because his family died in the battle of Sokovia. He revealed that Bucky, brainwashed as the Winter Soldier, was really the one to kill Tony's parents, and Steve admitted that he knew. It took everyone about twenty minutes of talking Tony down from his desire to blast a hole in Bucky's head, but they managed to get through to him and calm him down.

Afterwards, Zemo was arrested and put in prison, while Bucky went in the ice at Wakanda, where T'Challa's sister would take all of the Winter Soldier programming out of his head.

"I will never stop apologizing for the trouble I caused because of Zemo," T'Challa informed the group.

"That's all right, Your Highness," Tony assured him. "Now that you know the truth, you're doing right by it all. Just let us know next time you act out so we can calm you down with a ball of string."

Even T'Challa smirked at Tony's bad joke.

"You will definitely be an interesting addition if we need you for another world-ending event," Cloud remarked.

"It will be an honor to fight with you all if that happens," T'Challa told them.

The team said their goodbyes to T'Challa before they went back home.

Cloud and Zack celebrated their victory against Zemo by grabbing the blunt and weed, then getting high.

"I've, uh... I've never smoked before," Wanda admitted.

She joined them after a few minutes, and they all ended up laughing like a bunch of idiots, an effect of the weed.

"... I don't know if I can get high," Vision admitted.

He tried smoking the blunt, but he just ended up a coughing mess, which made the others laugh.

After a few more seconds of smoking the weed, Wanda ended up taking the plunge and grabbing Vision by the chest, pulling him in for a deep, longing kiss. Vision was a little ashamed of doing so while she was high, but he decided to give into his own desires and go along with it, kissing her back just as deeply.

Cloud and Zack cheered like a bunch of idiots, another effect of the weed.

It was thanks to Zack's interference that the Avengers were still united when Thanos came.

Mostly.

The initial strike was still at New York, but the only ones in New York at the time were Tony and Zack, and Tony still went to the flying circle ship. Wanda and Vision were taking a break in Edinburgh where Vision was planning to propose, Cloud snuck after them to film it, and the others were visiting Clint.

When the Black Order struck and harmed Vision, Cloud popped into action, followed quickly by the rest of the team. Vision still deposited his theory that destroying the stone would keep it out of Thanos's grasp, but they still went to Wakanda to ensure that didn't happen, where they met up with a reformed Bucky.

"I hear you're the one responsible for making sure Steve didn't do something stupid," Bucky told Zack. "So thank you for that."

"Oh, well, thanks," Zack said with a blush, a little embarrassed to get praise from the super soldier.

The team managed to work together to fight against Thanos's attacking army, with a little help from Thor arriving with a talking raccoon and a living tree.

Cloud just decided not to ask, having accepted that nothing normal ever happens here.

Eventually, the battle against Thanos came to a head in a small forest outside of the barriers of Wakanda. Thanos appeared and used his nearly completed gauntlet to tear through most of the team, leaving Wanda and Vision to reluctantly start their plan to destroy Vision to destroy the stone.

Cloud ended up next to them, and he looked down at his Buster Sword, the one that he had been using for years. With Zack's suggestion, he had removed the bandages from his sword, having come to the conclusion that he had done enough to consider himself a hero. Looking from his sword to the approaching Titan, Cloud got an idea.

"Wanda, Vision," Cloud announced. "Put an ix-nay on that plan for just a few seconds."

"Why?" Wanda asked, a bit of desperation in her voice.

"I've got an idea," Cloud said. "One that's either incredibly brave, or the stupidest thing I've ever done."

"I'm in," Wanda said.

"Wanda, Cloud..." Vision slowly said.

"No, Vision, I've really got a good idea," Cloud said. He turned to face Thanos again. "I think."

"What are you gonna do?" Wanda asked.

"It's actually really simple," Cloud said, holding up his sword with both hands. "If we can't take off that damn glove... then we take off his fuckin' arm."

Before Wanda or Vision could talk him down from that, Cloud started charging forwards, yelling out loudly and raising his sword in preparation.

Thanos easily backhanded him in the face, knocking him into the ground pretty hard.

Cloud was left pretty dizzy for more than a few seconds.

He glanced up through the spots in his eyes to take in the new situation. Wanda was looking at Vision with tears in her eyes and red energy surging within her palm. Steve was standing right in front of Thanos, keeping the gauntleted hand restrained within his own hands with his enhanced strength, yelling out in determination. Thanos frowned in confusion as he looked down at Steve, amazed at the super soldier's resilience.

Cloud decided that this was his time to strike.

Shakily pushing himself to his feet, Cloud grabbed his Buster Sword with one hand and started walking forwards. He gripped his sword in both hands, raised it over his head, then yelled out as he swung his sword downwards, right towards Thanos's forearm.

It ended up working. The Buster Sword, made from a metal that no one could determine and was sharpened to a pretty fine point, managed to sever Thanos's forearm just an inch underneath the golden gauntlet, cutting it off and making it fall to the ground with a loud thud. Thanos bellowed out in absolute pain as some of his purple blood spurt out of the stump.

Cloud, Steve, Wanda, and Vision looked down at Thanos's severed arm on the ground with wide eyes. *6*

"Holy shit!" Cloud exclaimed in surprise and amazement.

He then looked up at Thanos, who was glaring right down at him.

"Fuck you!" Thanos bellowed, raising his remaining fist up to try to strike.

Of course, before Thanos could actually swing the fist, lightning rained down from the sky and hit the Titan right in the chest, forcing him to take a few steps back. All of a sudden, Thor's new axe, the one with a wooden handle and a metal top, swung down from the sky and hit Thanos right in the chest, making him drop down onto his knees.

Thor then dropped down from the sky and landed right in front of Thanos, a very angry expression on his face.

"I told you," Thor growled to Thanos, placing one hand behind the Titan's head, the other onto his axe. "You'd die for that."

Cloud softly gasped as Thor pushed the axe further into Thanos's chest, making him yell out in absolute pain.

After a few seconds, Thanos's head slumped forwards, falling unconscious from the blood loss. Thor placed his hand on Thanos's neck to see that the man had died, a combination of the pain and the blood loss finishing him off.

"Sir Cloud," Thor said, looking at the blonde. "It was a pleasure to destroy this waste of skin with you."

Cloud softly laughed in victory as the others walked over, with Wanda and Vision supporting each other. They all shared their congratulations to Cloud and Thor for taking Thanos out.

"I'm gonna be totally honest with you guys," Cloud admitted, still smiling.

He looked around at the others, down at the gauntlet, then looked up again with a smile.

"I didn't think that would work," Cloud admitted.

Everyone frowned at that.

"And you did it, anyway?" Vision asked.

"Well, it worked, didn't it?" Cloud pointed out, shrugging his shoulders.

Everyone agreed that he had a point there.

The team shared cheers of victory. Vision and Wanda sighed out in relief and hugged tightly. Steve and Bucky shared a friendship hug, as did Rhodey and Cloud. Bruce retracted the mask of his Hulkbuster suit and shared a hug with Natasha, and Zack and Thor shared a hug, which had Zack wincing in pain.

They had won.

Everyone got checked out at the infirmary at Wakanda, where they got patched up from the giant battle they had just had against Thanos. Most of the wounds were easily healed thanks to Vibranium provided from T'Challa and Shuri, while Shuri and Bruce continued patching up Vision, leaving behind only a few remaining scars in his chest from impalements from the Black Order.

Cloud and Zack shared a victorious chug of beer sitting on a bench. Looking up, they saw Wanda and Vision appear just a few feet away from them in the hallway.

"Zack," Cloud muttered.

"Yeah, man?" Zack asked, muttering back as he looked at Cloud.

"Take out your phone," Cloud instructed.

Though he was confused, Zack followed his friend's suggestion and pulled out his cell phone. The two of them pointed their phones at the couple, entering camera mode.

Wanda and Vision shared one more relieved hug before they stepped back from each other.

"I am so sorry for asking you to do that," Vision told Wanda, despair in his voice. "All I was thinking about was the safety of the universe, and I wanted you to be protected from Thanos. You could have been part of the half the universe that had been lost, and I wanted to ensure some way you could live."

"I don't want to live without you," Wanda told Vision, her voice cracking in sadness. "But, I... I understand why you wanted me to do it. You just wanted to protect me, just like you always do."

She breathed in and out and looked up at him.

"But just know that I love you, more than anything I can imagine," Wanda told Vision, her voice cracking slightly once more. "So never make that kind of request again. And if you do, I will work through anything I can find to ensure we can get out of that."

"Okay," Vision said with a soft chuckle.

The two of them shared a relieved chuckle and smile.

Vision then nervously looked down.

"Wanda..." he said.

"Yes, Vision?" Wanda asked.

She was curious because she could feel an immense amount of nervousness within her boyfriend.

Vision then started to crouch down, dropping down onto one knee. Wanda's eyes widened significantly, especially when he pulled a small, velvet box out of his pocket.

"Wanda..." Vision said, looking up at her with hope in his eyes. "You have given me a form of joy that I have never felt before. With you, I can finally understand what people mean when they talk of family, when they talk of love, hope, and happiness. Many things are uncertain about our future, but one thing that I want to know is that you and I will be together, for as long as you'll have me. So..."

He opened up the velvet box, revealing to Wanda a beautiful silver band with a small ruby attached at the center.

Wanda felt immense joy, happiness, and love in her chest towards the synthezoid in front of her.

"Wanda," Vision said, still looking up at her. "You have given me much more than I could ever imagine in terms of love, hope, and happiness. And now, I hope that you don't mind me asking you for a bit more. Wanda... Te vei căsători cu mine?"

Wanda softly gasped at the question, feeling that love skyrocket even more. Relieved tears running down her cheeks, she smiled at Vision.

"Da..." Wanda confirmed in Sokovian, her accent flaring a bit more. "Da, voi."

Vision smiled in relief and stood up, wrapping his arms around Wanda before the both of them shared another long, searing kiss. He pulled back for a few seconds to slide on the ring. Wanda smiled over how right it felt on her finger before she and Vision shared another long kiss. *7*

The moment was cheapened slightly by loud cheering from the other side of the hallway. Both Wanda and Vision rolled their eyes and reluctantly pulled back from the kiss, looking towards Cloud and Zack, who were cheering and clapping their hands in celebration of the couple, their beers still in one of their hands.

"Hey, come on, that was a nice moment between you guys," Cloud said with a smile. "Can you blame us for wanting to be happy for you two?"

"Probably not," Vision admitted. "But I'm still annoyed at you guys interrupting like this."

"Eh, blame the fact that good TV anymore at this point," Zack remarked.

"He's got a point," Wanda admitted. "All the good sitcoms ended years ago. Stranger Things is good, but we still haven't gotten another season."

"Well, we can worry about that later," Vision pointed out. "Natasha mentioned that Tony is still missing, so we can only wait until he eventually finds a way back home. Here's hoping something doesn't happen that makes him miss his own wedding."

"Whatever the case," Cloud said, he and Zack pushing themselves to their feet. "I'm just glad that this is all over and we can take a break from being heroes for now."

"Now, that, I can agree on," Wanda agreed, resting her head on Vision's shoulder. "Now, he and I have a wedding to start preparing for."

Everyone shared a small smile at that.

However, their attentions were quickly drawn to the sound of winds blowing, and magic surging. The four of them looked towards the source of these sounds to see blue light on a nearby wall, surrounded by grey smoke, forming what looked like some form of a portal.

Cloud frowned in curiosity and shared that look with his friends. He then walked over to the portal and tried to look within, seeing nothing. All that he could see of the portal was the surging blue light surrounded by the grey smoke.

"Nope," Cloud decided, shaking his head and standing up straight. "Nope. No."

He turned around to look at his friends.

"I just said that I'm done," Cloud announced. He enunciated each of his next words. "I do not, want, to be, a hero again, for... at least a week."

All of a sudden, an arm popped out of the portal and grabbed onto Cloud's shoulder, tightening onto the fabric of his shirt. Cloud then yelled out as he was pulled through the portal, dragging him to who knows where. Before any of the others could move to help, there was a flash of bright blue light, and the portal disappeared completely, taking out their way of following Cloud.

Zack, Wanda, and Vision shared worried and concerned looks before glancing forwards.

"Wanda, do you think..." Vision started to ask.

"Nothing," Wanda said, shaking her head. "I... I can't feel him or any trace of him. He just vanished completely with that portal."

"Okay, I'll just be the one to ask..." Zack slowly said. He held up his arms in curiosity. "What the hell just happened!?"

The three of them shared another concerned look before looking at the wall where the portal had been just a few minutes or so. Whatever it was that just happened, they hoped that their friend and teammate was okay.

Caleb Pierce as Zack Fair

Cody Christian as Cloud Strife

Tyler Hoechlin as Sephiroth *8*

Mick Wingert as Tony Stark

Lake Bell as Natasha Romanoff

Haley Joel Osment as Vanitas Jordan

Paul Bettany as Vision

Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff

Sebastian Stan as James "Bucky" Barnes

Chris Hemsworth as Thor

Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa

Featuring Haley Joel Osment as Sora Derrik

With Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury

and Josh Brolin as Thanos