Chapter Four

Sora

I probably shouldn't have laughed at Donald.

When we reached the castle and went inside Donald, Goofy and I were the last ones to go through the door. Donald took the lead and me, being suspicious about something, held back for a moment and let him. Just before he could cross the threshold the door slammed shut on its own accord and Donald ran straight into it and bounced off. Furious he tried to wrench it open to no avail. He pounded on it, tried to shoulder tackle it and even whipped out his wand and started attempting to cast spells at it, forgetting that he currently couldn't exactly do any spells just yet until we all went to Merlin's. It was a pretty funny sight to me and I hadn't had very many things to laugh about recently so I laughed. Hard. Which naturally caused Donald to turn his sights on me and start yelling and hopping because when Donald gets worked up his first instinct is to yell and hop.

"That door won't open without a card." I chuckled.

"What do you mean Sora? It opened for everyone else just fine." Goofy looked confused.

I responded by pulling out one of the three keycards that were in my pocket "This and two other cards materialized in my pocket earlier. I think that we need it to proceed."

"and why didn't you mention something while I was beating on the door?!" Donald demanded. I laughed again

"Because it was funny."

Ignoring Donald's righteous indignation I walked up to the doorway and held up the Key of Beginnings. There was a flash of light and the door swung open, ready for us to enter Leon's office. It would be like the door never shut and technically if we were to go off and do some stuff before I unlocked the door we could and when we finally got back the events of the world would carry on as if hours hadn't passed by. Right this minute I didn't have time for any of that so I lead the way into the room, smiling as I looked around at the faces of friends I hadn't seen in months.

There was Yuffie, cheerful as she ever was eating some ice cream.

There was Aerith, smiling and nodding at something Cloud was saying. Cloud himself looking cold and serious. Cid typed away at a laptop and the three pixies Yuna, Rikku and Paine flew about chattering. The only person who wasn't there was Merlin, predictably. He'd be at his house, frantically searching his library for some way to fend off the heartless threat in his books to make himself feel safer. He was going to need a good pep talk when I went to see him.

Activity paused when we all entered the room and I waved, pasting a cheerful smile on my face as Donald, Goofy and I were bombarded with greetings and small talk. I basked in it, ignoring the fact that none of this was real and just letting myself be happy for a minute. I'd actually get to see the real deal soon enough, as soon as I left this castle and did some business back home on the islands. My friends really were all waiting for me and it would be a lot like this when I saw them.

It would be wonderful.

NGP

Axel

"What could possibly be so important that you must interrupt my experiments?!"

It wasn't surprising to Axel that Vexen was displeased with him. One of the icy nobody's greatest pet peeves was when people barged into his laboratory. Especially when he was in the middle of some sort of research project. It was a necessary evil though, because if Axel wanted his plans for Sora to go the right way he couldn't do it alone. Trusting Larxene or Marluxia was out of the question, they would be furious enough as it was that he wasn't sticking to the script and interfering with the keyblade master on the very first floor.

"There some things going on topside that you've gotta see." Axel said smoothly. If he just flat out asked his fellow organization member for assistance he'd be laughed out of the lab. So what needed to be done was get Vexen curious. Vexen was a slave to his own curiosity and that made him relatively easy to manipulate when needbe. Like right now.

"Whatever it is, I highly doubt it's more intriguing than the discovery of a third keyblade wielder." Vexen sniffed, not looking up from his work on what looked like a silver haired doll. Axel fought to keep the smirk off his face.

"Your right. There's no reason to study a fourth keyblade when you've already got your hands full with the third one." He said casually.

Vexen stopped and looked up "Third?"

"That's right." Axel nodded "One of the phantoms in Sora's heart has her own keyblade. Which brings the number of legitimate wielders up to what? Five if we count Roxas?"

Hook, line and sinker. It was clear that Vexen's interest had been captured.

"Imagine the data you can get from this girl." Axel said "Think about all of the research you could do just by coming up with me and helping me with a little scheme I have."

Vexen's face shut down "The last time I helped you with something we were both on janitor duty for three months when The Superior got ahold of us. We're lucky we weren't turned into dusks on the spot!"

Axel waved a gloved hand dismissively "Come on now Vexen. This will be nothing at all like that…unfortunate incident. This is purely an educational venture. I promise."

Vexen didn't look in the least bit convinced "You do realize I don't trust you as far as I could throw you correct?"

This time Axel couldn't fight off the smirk "You'd be a fool to Vexen. You'd be a fool to."

The other nobody shook his head "I take it you want to leave right this very minute?"

"Of course I do. Can't have Sora finishing the floor and dismissing the memory can we? Who knows if she'll pop up again before Namine boots her out of his heart." Axel shrugged. Namine worked very quickly when she wanted to and once she got her wits back she would have plenty of motivation to get to the bottom of why Sora's memories weren't what they should be.

"Then let's move." Vexen said briskly.

Axel nodded and a corridor of darkness sprang up behind him.

If there was one thing he loved, it was getting his way.

NGP

Sora

"What do you mean I can't go?!"

It didn't take us too long to get down to business. Leon and everyone else brought us up to speed about the large quantities of heartless that were appearing, the training of the younger rookies who were on world and wanted to help defend it and what would be needed of us. Mainly fighting when the time came and using our experience to help train people since after several world hopping adventures we had gotten quite a lot of experience under our respective belts. Donald had to be..gently..reminded in whispers that he'd forgotten all of his spells and abilities and therefore couldn't take over the magic tutorials with any flashy displays. However the real reason we were all gathered here was because on the outskirts of town a nest had been found of heartless, including a boss creature. When large groups of heartless attacked there was typically one or more particularly strong ones needed to be killed in order to scatter the small fry and naturally Yuffie had elected to call them bosses. It eventually stuck. Leon, Cloud, Yuffie and my group were to go to this nest and bring down the bosses, which would scatter the rest and hopefully buy some much needed time before the town was attacked. Who knew, maybe by doing this it would stop the attack all together!

Well. I personally knew it wasn't to be and that the attack was for sure still going to happen but I could at least let everyone else be optimistic. Selphie had quickly caught that she wouldn't be part of the away team and she wasn't at all happy about it. Which is why she was currently up in Leon's face having an argument. Everyone else was wisely staying right the hell out of it because as the de facto leader of the group Leon needed to handle this himself. Me though, it was getting harder and harder to watch all of this play out again without stepping in to say something. My more logical side was telling me to just be quiet and watch, but my more emotional side was snarling that my island friend needed support so hop to it.

"You're green, you're impulsive and all you're going to do is get yourself killed." Leon snapped.

"I have a keyblade and I'm older than Sora was when he first started!" Selphie snapped right back.

"A keyblade you barely know how to use!"

"I don't have to! The keyblade is powerful enough that it'll carry me through until I get some skills on my own!"

Well she had a point. That's pretty much what I did when I first got the keyblade. It explained how I was able to fight off monsters and people who really should have killed me on the spot while Donald and Goofy were knocked out. But at the same time doing that sort of thing wasn't going to fly when the real live Xehanort was running around and it really was one of the many factors beside myself that had gotten Selphie…put down.. in the first place. When I started training her myself, just gotta get back to the islands, I had no intention of letting her pull such nonsense.

Leon was staring at her as if he didn't quite know what to make of such audacity and Selphie was puffed up and looking defiant. Leon closed his eyes, sighed, and then opened them again looking detached. I braced myself, this wasn't going to turn out well.

"I'm sending you home." He said.

You could feel the shock bounce around the room. Even unflappable Cloud raised his eyebrows.

"Wh..What?" Selphie was caught flatfooted

"The invasion ten years ago wasn't a joke. The heartless destroyed our home and if we don't play our cards right they could very well do it a second time," Leon said.

"That's why you need me!" Selphie pointed out "That's why I'm here!"

"No actually. I don't need you. All you are as of this moment is a liability. The idea of just letting the keyblade carry you through the battle? The idea that you won't accept what I said about you sitting a single battle out? The fact that you shouldn't even be here right now, you should be with your friends practicing the spells that Merlin taught you? I'm not dealing with that. Sorry but I've got more important things on my plate than dealing with inexperienced children who wanna play games. Screwing around against the heartless means death. If not you then one of the comrades who had to stop what they're doing and pull your butt out of the fire."

"The King wanted me here!"

"Well if The King wants you trained then he can come do it himself." Leon shrugged.

I couldn't contain myself "Fat chance. That would require some competence."

Donald looked utterly scandalized and Goofy frowned at me. I avoided their gazes and coughed. Riku and I had already fought pretty hard on the subject of King Mickey Mouse and his habits and I wasn't about to rehash it with them. Relying on The King to do anything wasn't high on my list of things to do this time around. Never even mind our so called leader in his tower. He can blow his 'needs of the many' mentality right out of his ass.

"This isn't fair Leon! You can't do this to me!" Selphie actually sounded on the verge of tears. Which wouldn't at all help her case.

"If you actually think life is always fair then that's just another reason to get you off of this world." Leon replied "I'll have Cid set you up with a way home and if I see you back here before the invasion I'm having you arrested."

There were actual guards and stuff now so Leon really could make good on his threat. I wasn't actually sure how to confine someone who could magically summon a key that can undo any lock though.

Selphie looked around the room for some support but no one was speaking up. Leon's leader position really was taken seriously around here and now wasn't the time to divide the ranks with a schism for a girl that didn't arrive here very long ago. Selphie stormed out of the room and Leon relaxed.

"Harsh." Yuffie remarked "Are you going to make bringing girls to tears a habit Squall?"

Leon glared at her. Yuffie might not undermine his authority in front of strangers but once things were settled and dealt with he was open season. I excused myself.

"I'll go talk to her," I said "Soften the blow."

So I turned around and left. When this all went down the first time I was convinced Leon was full of himself and being in a important position had gone to his head. I knew better this time around, seeing the things that I've seen, but I had a script to follow and that script demanded I track down my old friend. After a trip to Merlin's of course.

Me and Selphie? We were going to attack that nest all by ourselves.

Because what's the worst that could happen?