Something was wrong with the ship. Ethan couldn't tell exactly what, but the fact it he was thrown out of his bed and onto the trembling ground as a wake-up call was his first clue that no good things were happening.

Carefully, he stood up, gently making his way to the doorway, and just got it open, only to be thrown backward and on to his bed by another violent jerk of the ship.

"LUCY!" He called, as loud as he could over the rattling of the loose parts of the ship. "What's going on?!"

"ETHAN, GET IN HERE!"

He grumbled and trudged back to the door, only to get thrown into the door jamb and his knee hit the cold metal with a resounding clunk.

He grabbed the door jamb with one hand and rubbed his knee with the other before slowly and carefully making his way into the hallway, making sure to use the wall for support as the ship pitched and bucked from side to side.

The ship bucked up and went nearly vertical, forcing Ethan to cling desperately to the doorway to the cockpit. He looked up to find Lucy, one foot braced against the control panel while she pulled at the control stick with both arms, leaning back as far as she could.

Slowly, the ship went from vertical... to upside down... and then slowly looped back around again until it had evened out to flat. Ethan took the short opportunity to sprint into one of the pilot's seats and secure himself to it.

"What's going on?" he cried, only to find... they'd somehow ended up in the midst of a warzone.

"I don't know, but those Heartless ship things and the Nobody ship things are fighting and your stupid coordinates are taking us right through the middle of it!" She snarled as she jerked the controls again and the ship rolled between a group of at least a dozen ships attempting some sort of melee maneuvers with each other.

"Why don't you just shoot the ships and blow them up?" Ethan suggested, his hands grasping the arms of his chair with a white-knuckled deathgrip.

"Oh right, and draw their attention to us? Smart. Real smart," Lucidia rolled her eyes. "If I can avoid them going hostile on us for any length of time, it would be great."

As though on cue, a laser sizzled past the hull and a warning claxon went off as it skimmed over the top of a wing, scoring an indirect hit.

"I hope you have an ingenious plan to get us out of here since you put us in this situation in the first place," Lucidia barked as she pulled and pushed on the control, effectively making the ship do a quick camel-back maneuver that had Ethan's stomach jumping into his throat.

"Uhh…" he looked around frantically from left to right, trying to see past the bright flashes of the battle around them, around the gigantic hulks of the Nobody and Heartless ships. "Ah! Lucy, there's a world over there!"

She turned to look at what he was looking at, cocking an eyebrow in the general direction he was now pointing toward. Surely enough, there in the distance was a rather large world, comprised mostly of a gigantic castle. "Do you think it'll let us through into that world, though?"

Ethan frowned. "I'm not sure, but it'll at least be worth a shot. Gun it!"

"Way ahead of you!" the female replied and Ethan suddenly found himself pinned against the backrest of the co-pilot's chair. The ship bucked and pitched as Lucidia navigated swiftly through the throngs of enemy ships.

And then one giant one flew right into their path. Impact warnings blared as the former princess tried her hardest to push the ship into a dive, go under the big ship. But she soon found out that wasn't going to work.

"Damn it all, I'm just going to blow it up!" she called as she pulled down all the triggers at once. A high-pitched whine filled the cabin as the ship shuddered violently and all its guns discharged. The two in the cockpit held their breaths as several differently colored beams lanced out, piercing the giant ship's hull. Nothing seemed to happen, and they careened toward it, with Lucidia still shoving at the controls, trying to maneuver their ship around it, pulling back on the throttle to slow it.

There really were no words to express the noise made as the giant black ship before them suddenly burst into multitudes of parts and pieces, chunks of the Gummi material flying off and smashing into the hull of their ship. They flew right through the middle of the explosion and the ship shook and shuddered, being buffeted in several directions at once before they finally careened through the other side, on a completely different flight path than they'd entered, the controls ripped from the princess' grasp. A moment passed, and then another as the two humans within the cockpit of the black and red Gummi Ship caught their breaths, and finally, Ethan reached over, nearly laying on Lucidia's lap as he did so, and grabbed the controls, pointing the ship back in the direction of the nearby world.

They wouldn't have much of a chance to celebrate however, as the warning claxons sounded again and the ship jolted, impact sensors reading damage over the tail end. Green eyes met blue and the two separated sharply as Lucidia regained control of the ship and hit the throttle once more, jerking the control stick around to make their opponent's aiming as difficult as possible, while Ethan went to work on the computer, readying the pulse amplifier that might just let them get into the next world. As soon as it was ready, he activated it, and spent a breathless moment waiting for the results.

Inconclusive.

His lips pressed into a thin line. What kind of result was 'inconclusive'? Either they could get into the world or they could not.

He tried again.

"What's taking so long over there, Ethan?" Lucidia asked. "The planet's getting awfully close and you haven't said yet whether or not we can even get into it."

"Inconclusive," he called in return. "I don't think the computer even knows if we can get into the world."

"Well wasn't that the reason the thing was built? Worthless piece of junk-"

"Lucidia look out!" he cried and once again the ship was found vertical as it narrowly avoided collision. "Well, I don't know what the hell inconclusive means, but I think we should probably just try. What's the harm in it?" He gripped the armrests of the seat against another violent roll.

"If we crash and survive, Ethan, so help me I will do unspeakable things to you!" Lucidia growled in return as she pushed the throttle as high as it would go. The sky around them turned into a blur, they whizzed past the outskirts of the battle utterly untouched and rocketed toward the planet. Something shined around the exterior of the planet, very lightly tinted a bluish gray color.

"That must be the shield that protects the world from outside forces."

"Well let's hope it doesn't try to keep us out."

Closer and closer they approached, but the shield around the planet didn't seem to be waning at all.

"It doesn't look like the shield's going down yet…" Lucidia commented, her voice high and tight with fear.

"Just keep going, I'm going to try hitting it with the pulse again," Ethan replied, his fingers busily working over the keys of the onboard computer.

"Hurry up please, Ethan!"

"I'm going, I'm going. I can't decide how fast the computer works!"

The world loomed ever closer and yet the shield still seemed to remain up around it.

"Go go go, please baby go!" the musician chanted desperately. The analyzing text at the bottom continued to blink.

"That's it, I'm going to-"

"Got it! Access granted! Go in!" his triumphant cry was cut short as another impact, probably from something large and heavy knocked the ship slightly off course. It was caught by the world's gravity and began spinning slowly as it careened downward.

"ETHAN I'M GOING TO KILL-"

--

"I think he's finally coming to!"

Ethan groaned and turned his head away from the obnoxious sound and the light he now found accompanying it.

"Hang on," a much gentler voice called out and he clenched his eyes shut and brought his hand up to rub them, but was stopped by a short burst of pain that had him grunting. "Don't try to move too much, I'm going to try another Cure spell."

Warm relief flooded through him, and the throbbing ceased for a short duration before starting up again, much duller than before.

He cracked a single eye open and found a pair of females hovering over him, faces a mix of relief and lingering concern.

The one with lighter colored hair and bright, beautiful emerald green eyes smiled gently at him. "Do me a favor and stay in bed for a while longer, okay? Can I get you something to drink?"

Ethan felt an eyebrow rise, but he covered it with a short shrug. "Um, water would be alright." He turned his attention to the younger, darker haired girl of the two.

"I'll go tell Cid and Leon you're awake. I think your lady friend will be happy to hear it, too!"

"Lucy… how is she?"

"She woke up yesterday, but she's still in bed, injured. She probably won't be getting up to walk around any time soon," the young woman replied, her face falling a bit.

Ethan's chest clenched. "Wh- why not?"

"She broke her leg pretty badly… We've got it all splinted and Aerith keeps administering Cure to it at least twice a day, but it's taking some time to heal completely."

The blond man sighed in relief, letting himself sink back into the soft bed and pillow provided to him. The door swung open and the sounds of two pair of feet stepping on the wooden ground broke him out of his silent reverie and he turned a bit to see who had walked in.

"Oh! You guys are back already? How is the data running going?"

"Almost done," a tall brunette man replied, holding up a disc and waving it. The blond man next to him snatched the disc out of his hand and walked toward the computer in the corner of the room. The brunette turned toward the bed where Ethan lied and an eyebrow arched up, slightly distorting the scar that ran diagonally across his face. "I see our other guest has awoken."

"Yeah," the female replied. "I was just about to go out to see if you guys were headed back to tell you. He just woke up."

"Do you think he'll be in any condition to talk anytime soon?"

Short black hair shifted back and forth as the young woman shook her head. "I'm not the judge of that, that's Aerith's department."

"Give him another day," the calm female voice echoed through the doorway as the older woman from before stepped into the room holding a tray of glasses. "Then you can question him." She set the tray down on a table before looking around the room and smiling her gentle smile. "Well, it looks like everyone is here. Let me introduce myself; my name is Aerith." She motioned to the black haired girl. "That is Yuffie. The tall, unfriendly one," and she paused to let a giggle as the mentioned man frowned. "Is Leon, and Cid is over there on the computer typing away."

"Oh ah… nice to meet you," Ethan replied. "I'm Ethan. Ethan Medy. Did you get…"

"Lucidia," a voice interrupted him and he turned to find the said former princess leaning against the headboard of the bed she was in, her bandaged leg propped up on a thick pillow.

"… Her name…" the musician trailed off lamely.

Aerith giggled. "Well, I have it now." She took a pair of glasses from the tray on the table and offered them to both the occupants of the beds before returning and handing the remaining ones out to the other occupants of the room.

"Where are we, by the way?" Ethan said after a short silence that had just begun to border on uncomfortable.

"Well, this world you crash-landed in is known as Radiant Garden. It was formerly known as Hollow Bastion," Leon explained, taking up a post leaning against the wall opposite of Ethan and crossing his arms. "Where are you from?"

"Leon…" Aerith began, but Ethan interrupted her with a quick wave of his hand.

"No, it's alright. I'm from a region called Southern Heights in a city known as New Lanceston."

"I see. And how did you come to being in this world?"

"Well… we were in Traverse Town…" he paused as an unnatural silence descended over the room. Even Cid who had been happily typing away on his computer turned to look at the younger man. "Umm… and Gepetto's apprentice built the ship. We were… looking to see if we could not find our way to our own homes."

Aerith nodded in understanding. "Well, I don't think either of you are from here… and I'm sure Leon would like to know just how you came about being here, but I'll make sure he gives you a day more to recover before you get into the really hard questions." She turned a firm look to the tall brunette man and he gave a curt nod. "So please do enjoy your rest and let me know if you need anything."

Ethan nodded in response and set his glass aside before he laid back down, his head was beginning to throb again and he figured it best to just relax until the following day. He didn't realize when he'd fallen asleep, but he did remember waking up several times during the night to unfamiliar noises outside the room he was staying in.

The next day found him awoken early in the morning by the sounds of quiet chatter in the room. His eyes slowly cracked open and he found himself staring at the rafters for a good few moments.

"I think he's awake," someone whispered from right above his head, and he thought he recognized the voice as Yuffie.

"I'll see," the reply was definitely Aerith, and a moment later he found her blocking his view of the ceiling. "Ah, so you are awake. Would you care for breakfast?"

Food actually didn't sound very good to Ethan at the moment, but his stomach rumbled in protest of his thoughts. He might not actually want anything, but apparently his body needed it. He nodded mutely as he attempted to sit up, finding it much easier now than it had the day before. Aerith stepped away to get him some food and he swung his legs out from under the bedding and onto the cold wooden floor.

"How ya feeling?" Ethan turned to the voice of the young, black-haired girl he'd come to know as Yuffie and smiled weakly.

"I've been better. But it's not as bad as it was yesterday."

Yuffie nodded in response, smiling at him before looking over to the only other bed in the room. "She hasn't woken up yet, but then, she did fall asleep after you. Leon's out doing a quick morning rounds of the castle. There hasn't been a Heartless here in a good couple months but he's gotta make sure, you know?"

Ethan nodded again.

"Be prepared when he comes back. I don't know if he's going to wait until Lucidia wakes up or not to begin the query," the young woman warned and Ethan found himself nodding again.

"Don't worry," Aerith laughed reassuringly as she reentered the room. "It probably won't be as bad as you're thinking it is. Leon may be somewhat of an imposing guy, but he's really nice. He's just concerned for the safety and balance of this world, and any others he can help."

"Can I ask you guys a question before I am on the receiving end?" Ethan asked quietly, his voice a bit hoarse.

"Sure thing!" Yuffie chirped in reply.

"Where exactly am I? I know you mentioned the name of this… world before, but I haven't figured out where I am."

"Oh, it's simple really. This is actually a wizard called Merlin's house, but we use it as a kind of waystation between the town and the castle… he's… never really home anyway. The castle's almost done being rebuilt, so we usually stay there, but when things pop up in the town we come out and stay here," the youngest female replied.

Footsteps approached the door from outside and it swung open as Leon reentered, a sword slung over his shoulder. He turned to notice that Ethan was awake, and looked back to find Lucidia still sleeping.

"I finished breakfast, Leon," Aerith replied, motioning to the tray she had set out on a table. Leon looked at the food for a moment before giving her something of a smile.

"Thank you. Has he eaten yet?" the brunette cocked his head toward the musician.

"Not yet, it just got done."

Leon nodded. "Food first, and then we get down to business."

Ethan could only nod.

Fortunately, breakfast was a quiet affair and Lucidia woke up somewhere in the middle of it to which she was happily served a portion of the meal as well, but as everything wrapped up and Aerith bustled the dishes back to the other room, apparently to be cleaned, Leon's face turned into the epitome of serious as he leaned against the wall.

"So, you say you came from Traverse Town?" He began, looking from Ethan to Lucidia and back again, scrutinizing.

Ethan nodded. "Yes. Geppetto's apprentice built us a Gummi Ship when we figured it was time to begin looking for our homes."

"And how did you end up here?"

A deep breath. "Well, I had set coordinates to a nearby world from the one we had left, there were a couple pre-set within the ship's computer that they figured would help us begin to look. We had been flying for a very long time and had both retreated to go to bed… I was woken up as we were flying through a battle… um… Lucy had already awoken…" He turned to look at his female companion.

"I'm not sure what it was either," she shrugged. "I was woken up by the emergency sirens going off – how Ethan wasn't I am not entirely sure, however I ran out into the cockpit to find that there was this huge battle going on outside between… well, between what I am not sure. But there were black ships against white ships and it kind of looked like a big game of space chess. And Ethan's coordinates… were taking us right through the middle of it. So I switched over to manual control and a second later he came out. We flew through the big battle and decided to escape it by trying to get into a world that we spotted on our way out… which, I guess, happened to be this one."

Leon nodded quietly, before turning toward the computer in the corner of the room. "Those ships… if I pull up some pictures, do you think you could recognize which ships they were?"

Lucidia and Ethan exchanged a look.

"I guess so," the musician replied and Leon began typing into the console rapidly. Before long, a selection of about twelve pictures appeared on the screen. Ethan, squinting to get a better look, stood up and approached the screen, looking them all over.

"Wow, they all kinda look like the ones that were fighting," he commented. "Ah, I recognize that big black one, though." He pointed to the one he saw. "We almost hit one of those. And a bunch of these…" He pointed to a small, white ship. "Were shooting at us just before that."

He backed up as Leon turned around and frowned deeply.

"Heartless and Nobodies?" Yuffie commented from between Ethan and Lucidia. "That's crazy. The Nobodies all but completely disappeared after Organization XIII did…"

Ethan felt his chest clench as she spoke the name.

"Woah… Ethan, are you alright?" He felt a hand on his shoulder and the concerned face of the ninja looking at him from in his peripheral vision.

"C… Can I ask you a question?" he gasped, his breathing suddenly shallow. "… Who are Organi- ah…" A wince as another throb of pain shot through his chest and his head all at once.

"Aerith, get a chair before he faints!" Yuffie called, but Aerith was a step ahead of her and already bringing one toward him. Both women helped the former musician into the seat and he hunched over, gently rubbing his forehead as if it seriously ailed him.

"Org…" Leon trailed off as he saw Ethan wince. "Well, look here…" he brought up a picture of what appeared to be a person in a long, black raincoat with the hood drawn over their face so it was shrouded in shadow. Both Ethan and Lucidia were suddenly at rapt attention. Ethan was trying very, very hard not to let his mouth hang open. Something about that coat reminded him of the dreams he'd been having. He was pretty sure everyone in them was wearing the same coat.

"Nobodies have a certain hierarchy. The lowest, weakest ones are Dusks and Crawlers." A picture of the familiar white-suited creature the two travelers had seen in the book appeared alongside a smaller, sickly looking creature that hunched over and crawled on two legs. "Above them are the specialized Nobodies… Snipers, Dancers, Samurai, Assassins, Gamblers, and Sorcerers." As he spoke, pictures of the higher-class Nobodies appeared onscreen. "And finally… there were them. The Organization. They were the highest level of Nobody, able to keep a fully human appearance, as well as control the other, lesser Nobodies." A picture of thirteen different cloaked beings appeared in a line on the screen. "Or rather, any of them could control the lesser Nobodies, but certain members had supreme control over the specialized Nobodies."

Ethan tilted his head, confused. "Alright then… if they can hold a human form… No, that's not the question I want to ask. The question I want to ask is… what are Nobodies… What are Heartless for that matter? No one explained it really to us, they gave us a kind of general overview and 'stay away from them', but no one really explained what they are."

Yuffie and Aerith exchanged a look before looking back at Leon. The man sighed. "Even though I was supposed to be asking the questions… not knowing what a Nobody or Heartless is seems to be more important because, you are correct, they are very dangerous. This is how it works: Heartless are after the hearts of normal people like you and me, or even just noble animals. Their ultimate goal is to take the hearts from the normal people and use the darkness within them to spawn more Heartless. They have minimal intelligence… only about as much as your average pack-based animal, and a single-minded drive to take hearts. Everyone has darkness in their hearts, some people more so than others. Higher concentrations of darkness tend to create larger, stronger Heartless such as Darksides or even special-looking Heartless depending on who or what was attacked. But, that is only what happens when the heart is taken from a person. What becomes of the body? The answer is the Nobodies. When a person with a strong heart is made into a Heartless, what is left of their body, their spirit gets turned into a vaguely human-shaped shell of its former self. They have no heart within them at all, and that is why you saw them attacking the Heartless who do indeed contain a warped heart within them. They possess a larger amount of intelligence than Heartless given that they are the leftover remains of humans."

"Wait, that's backward…" Lucidia interrupted and Leon shot her a glance.

"What do you mean?"

"Why are Heartless called Heartless if they actually have hearts? You said yourself that they use the darkness in the heart to make themselves, so they do have a heart. But, given that darkness is, as far as I've known, shapeless and formless, they have no bodies. On the other hand Nobodies, which actually do possess a body but in fact do not have a heart are called Nobodies… I'm saying it's backward. Heartless have hearts and Nobodies do not, whereas Nobodies have bodies and Heartless do not."

Leon blinked, surprise actually written on his face. "… I suppose you're right on that. But I didn't name these creatures this… I just call them as I have always been told to." A moment of uncomfortable silence descended before Leon took it upon himself to continue. "As I was saying… the strength of the Nobody depends entirely upon the strength of the person's heart, and I don't mean their nobility or goodness, I mean how strong their will is, how strong they were as a person whether that strength was used for good… or evil. The strongest hearts manage to keep their fully human forms, altered only slightly from the way they appeared to their worlds. They kept their ability to speak and all of their human appearance. I don't know if they retained their memories as memories are tied into the heart, but I do know they still possessed a fully human intelligence, and that was what made the Organization so dangerous. They were, for all intents and purposes, people. Except they lacked a heart, they could not feel any emotions at all and… well. Given that, as it has been proven, in order for something to exist it must have a heart, and given that the Nobodies are nothing but hollow, heartless shells of their former selves… the Nobodies do not truly exist at all. They are locked between light and darkness, struggling to find their hearts again, fighting against the forces that wanted them destroyed for they were not supposed to be there."

Ethan nodded dumbly. "So if… the Organi… urgh…" he bent over and thumped a fist on his chest. "God damn it what is wrong…?"

"Maybe you should lie down again? This was a lot of information to take in…" Leon suggested, his eyebrows only slightly drawn in concern.

"N-no. I'm fine," Ethan waved off Aerith and Yuffie's sudden advance to help him. "So if they are nothing but hollow bodies looking for their hearts, why are they so bad? And heck, as far as I could tell, they attacking the Heartless should be helpful, right? Since the Heartless are really the only threat to the general populace…"

"Therein lies the problem," Leon continued slowly, cautiously. "The Nobodies of the highest order couldn't extract the hearts of the Heartless in a time-efficient manner… as far as I could tell from the data I received, they had a limited amount of time their bodies could maintain living without a heart. What they did was unleash a huge amount of Heartless onto the worlds… being strong creatures of partial darkness themselves they could control the Heartless to an extent, and baited the Keybearer, who could efficiently and quickly extricate the hearts from the Heartless, unlock the hearts from within the darkness. Then they would gather the hearts together, and force them into a place that Xemnas…" Ethan and Lucidia both went pale and neither of them could tell why. "Called… Kingdom Hearts…"

"I can't say it isn't strange... or an eccentric idea. And frankly, I don't think we should be rounding up hearts like cattle in this way, but... we've got to trust the Superior knows what he's doing. He wouldn't be leading us if he didn't have some intelligence."

Ethan clutched at his head. Where did that voice come from?

"I think we should stop," Leon stated with finality, looking at the pallid forms of both Lucidia and Ethan. "Something tells me you both had a nasty run-in with the Organization and it's best not to remind you of it."

"W-wait," Ethan grunted, looking back up at the computer screen. There was a sinking feeling in his stomach, because he had a hunch… a hunch he did not want to be proven right. "Do… do you have any pictures or anything of the… highest order of Nobodies without their hoods up? You say they look human, right?"

Leon sighed and turned back toward the console. "Fine, I'll answer your last request." The key clicked quietly before a set of thirteen pictures appeared on the screen with a small name beneath each one.

Lucidia gasped loudly, her hands quickly covering her mouth, but Ethan couldn't tell why, because he was too busy staring at a pair of sea green eyes that stared emotionlessly back at him. His head began to spin, the sound of the chair hitting the ground as he stood up rapidly was lost to his ringing ears even as he backed up until his back hit the wall behind him heavily.

"Wait a second…" Yuffie began, squinting her dark eyes at the computer screen before looking back quickly between Lucidia and Ethan. "No way… you guys a… xene… yx…"

Ethan couldn't hear her words very well, he couldn't hear anything very well anymore as the darkness closed over his vision and he fell limply to the ground.

-

OKAY FINE. -sniffs- Here's another chapter. I can't promise any more any time soon but maybe one day I'll sit myself down again and force myself to write another one. So it's on a shaky hiatus (not that I needed to tell any of you that.) Read, review, please. It does help with motivation, dontchaknow.