Oilo! It is I, your Senpai, back with another update!

This one took a little longer than I would have liked, but plans almost never come to fruition so, meh.

And a lot of you are going to probably be pissed at me towards the end of the Chapter, but I'll just say now, this story concept has always intrigued me, and I was originally going to write a story that had that concept in it as well, but then I stopped making those first person stories and am now writing a series of third person ones, so I will use it here.

Now, some of you had questions(And some of you had monologues spanning half of the screen- you know who you are.) regarding the story, so I will take to answering any questions asked in the Reviews at the start of every new chapter now(And if I don't do that here or if I say I have no fucking clue what you are talking about, always feel free to PM me about it later.).

Some are wondering if Riku and the others are going to be in the story- I'll say this now, I was originally going to have this be a Sora only fic with no other characters appearing whatsoever(Don't get me wrong, I love Kairi, Riku is a bit of a dick, though(And I absolutely hate how they made him out to be in DDD.), and they nerfed Donald and Goofy hard in the second game, which saddened me, and none of this has to do with why I am not including them in the story at all, so I will stop talking.), but I think I will have them make an appearance next chapter in a cameo, just to write them off and be done with it so I won't get more questions in the future regarding it.

To the question regarding new Blades, well, that is kind of answered at the end of this Chapter, so I won't get into that one(To hnh058513(Thanks for making a name that made me have to switch tabs five different times to spell it right, by the way.), though, I have no idea what on Earth you are talking about, so I am going to have to say... 5? Yeah, sure, that's the correct answer for anything.).

But with that said, I will end the part of the story no one bothers to read anyway and get on with the story!

PRAY TO THE SENPAI!

"So, Pyra, what is this 'Driver' thing you keep mentioning?" Currently, Sora and Pyra were walking through what seemed to be a swamp, and the place was crawling with strange monsters and beasties that Sora had never had the displeasure of seeing before that all seemed aggressive, if the way they kept pouncing on him trying to probably kill him was any indication.

Not that it did them any good, as one good swing of the Aegis Sword thanks to his telekinesis(Which he still didn't have a good answer for other than 'Magic' to give his companion…), they either became knocked out and thrown away, or were bifurcated in half by the power of his swing(He was currently working on how powerful he made his swings, but nine times out of ten, still, he was killing the poor things.).

And as another 'Clap Bunnit'(If what his Scan ability was telling him was to be read as true.) jumped towards him, ready to sink it's teeth into his flesh, the sword did the latter as either side of the ripped in twain bunny like-animal sped past Sora, he couldn't help but be annoyed by that fact.

"Wait, you don't know what a Driver is?" "Mmmm, nope, can't say that I do." He put his hands behind his head as he walked backward, giving the girl an apologetic shrug as they made their way across the land. "But, your weapons, I thought they were from another Blade that you were already bonded with." "Huh? Oh, no, I had the Keyblade as a weapon long before I even learned about, what did you call it, 'Blades'." "Really? Did you create it yourself, then?" "Ah, no, the Keyblade is kind of, sentient, I suppose, and it chooses its wielder, and I happened to be that next wielder." "Oh? Is there any specific traits that made you a desirable handler of it, then?"

Now that he thought about it, why did the Keyblade choose him, of all people? He knew that Riku was meant to take the Keyblade from the very start, but because of his heart allowing the darkness inside of it he lost that privilege, but, why him? If what happened at Hollow Bastion and Traverse Town was any indication, he was never meant to wield one in the first place, and Riku even stole it, showing his aptitude to wield the weapon was above Sora's own, and the only reason he was able to steal it back was because of Riku's heart being the lesser of the two in a time of weakness.

But why didn't the blade go to someone else? Someone with a better ability to control its power, or even someone with more experience than him? Even Kairi was able to use her very own Keyblade back at the Castle That Never Was, so why didn't the Keyblade go to HER, then?

Pushing down his self-consciousness, Sora tried to answer the question as best he could. "Er, well, I guess you could say- OW!" He was interrupted, however, when something fell from the canopy of the surrounding trees and smacked right into his head. "Sora, are you okay?" "Yeah…" Rubbing his head to try and alleviate the ache that settled into it, he scanned the trees above them with suspicion. "But what was that?" Pyra, meanwhile, glanced below to his feet, and saw an odd glimmering a few feet away from him. "Is that what hit you?" Looking at where Pyra was pointing to, he too found the small glint that reflected light hidden away in the tall grass around them.

Kneeling down, the self-proclaimed Keyblade Master plucked the small object off the ground and stood back up while holding it up in the air to get a better view, examining it.

The object in question, was a small silver ring, which looked like it was layered in vines of a deep green, making it look like nature had done its damndest to swallow the small accessory up and prevent the outside world from knowing what it looked like before. Luckily for Sora, the majority of it was still untouched, so he could make out a small engraving on the inside of the ring and the small, forest green stone that was fused into the front of the piece of jewelry. "H-E-A-R-T. Heart?" Flipping it over in his hands to see if he could find anything else of importance on the thing, he was disappointed to find nothing.

"What do you think it could mean?" He asked his red haired companion, but she couldn't seem to make out what the word could mean, either. Clicking his tongue in annoyance, he was about to just put it back down on the ground, when he swore he saw a flash of light coming from the tiny stone inside of the piece of metal. Narrowing his eyes, he studied the stone intently for what seemed like minutes, before he definitely saw the glow that escaped from the gem, making his eyes widen as he recalled a time in the past where he saw similar rocks give out light as if alive before.

Was this a-

"Sora!" Snapping out of his thoughts, he looked around and saw that he had apparently continued walking without conscious thought, and was now standing on a bridge with a dead tree(Which he had been a few inches away from ramming into, it would seem.) laying in the middle, barring further passage across. Not feeling particularly hopeless, he was about to make a move to pick up Pyra and High Jump past this obstacle, when said girl stepped forward and pushed him back a little. "Allow me…" Closing her eyes in concentration, she stood like that for a few seconds before snapping open her eyes that now glowed with a fiery spark, and suddenly the tree combusted into ash, allowing them to move forward unhindered.

"Wow!" That was some master class stuff, right there! If he had tried to do that with any of his spells, it would have just either not been powerful enough and just set the tree(And not soon after-) and bridge on fire, or he would have made it TOO powerful and just blasted away everything in a fifty foot radius. But she was able to minimize the power of her fire enough to actually destroy the tree and not anything else! "Nice going, Pyra!" "Well, you know." She blushed a little at the praise while smiling and fidgeting a little. "It wasn't that special."

Sora just looked at her with an expression akin to a fish out of water.

"Heck yeah that was special- if I had tried that, we'd be falling to our deaths, right now! Your control over fire is astounding!" "Oh, stop." She blushed more and smiled a little bigger. "I'm sure you could have done that if you had wanted to, as well." He gaped more. "Like hell I could! With me it's either not enough or too much, no in between like what you did!" To demonstrate, he moved further ahead off the bridge while slipping the small piece of jewelry onto his left hand's ring finger, and walked to a nearby tree around the same size as the one Pyra had just destroyed. "Watch." Channeling his magic through his veins, he called upon his fire as well, and tried to just set fire to the tree without lighting anything else a blaze, but also tried giving it enough power to make it burn to ash as well.

And was promptly stumped when he did just that, and recreated what Pyra had just done not five minutes earlier.

"Wh-What? How did I-" He looked at his hands in a amazement. "Interesting. You seem to have gotten my control over fire with that, what was it called? 'Form' of yours, along with being able to use the Aegis Sword." She tapped her chin as she moved to stand beside him. "It must have to do with you being my Driver that you're able to do all these things." There was that word again! "Getting back to one of our previous subjects, what exactly is a-"

He was interrupted once more(He was going to find out what it was one of these days, damn it!) by the sounds of battle coming not to far ahead of their current location.

"... We are so continuing this later." Sighing, he and Pyra made their way up the hill they were hiking on to see what was going on, and Sora was slightly disgusted to see that the two (Hopefully ex-) members of the group that tried to kill him were fighting off a giant toad like thing that towered over even himself(And he thought he was going to have nightmares after seeing a Stealth Sneak for the first time- HA!). Grabbing the floating sword orbiting his body, he wound up for a pitch and shot forth a stream of fire that engulfed the creature and eviscerated it into less than dust.

"Wha- YOU?!" "Yes, me." Sora was rather amused at the reaction(Or overreaction, in this case.) of the slightly shorter jumpsuited girl as he made his way over to where she and her pet(Could it be considered a pet? Bah, whatever.) had been about to make their last stand. "What are you doin' here?!" "That seems like a redundant question, so I'll give a redundant answer: I came here for some tiger stew." Shaking her head for asking such a stupid question in such a belligerent way, she tried again. "Right, sorry. It's just- I'm still kind of in shock at what the others were tryin' to do…" "You mean kill me?"

Wow, it was extremely awkward to find out just how desensitized he had become talking about things trying to murder him.

"It's fine, I'm used to it by now. By the way, I didn't quite catch your name when your partners were trying to skin me alive before, my names Sora." He grinned and held out his hand for her to shake. "... Nia." After a few seconds of scrutinizing his limb to see if he looked ready to attack her, she finally took his hand in a greeting. "Well, Nia, I'm glad to see that you are alright after all that excitement." "Yeah. About that- just how did I, er, we, end up here in the first place?" The girl frowned and crossed her arms. "Dromarch said something about white… Things, and a dark portal of some kind, but that seems a little far fetched."

"That's right!" Everyone turned to see Pyra placing a fist into her hand as she just remembered something. "Those things from the ship! They were what held Jin and Malos off long enough for us to leave, and even gave us our means of escape. What were they, though? I've never seen anything like them, and they seemed to defer to you, Sora." He had actually forgotten about that. "Ah, of course you all wouldn't know what those things are. You see, where I'm from, we call those 'Nobodies', because they lost their hearts, and are virtually just empty husks of their former selves, with no other purpose than to either FIND a purpose, or follow the orders of what they consider 'Superiors'."

Seeing that they weren't following along with what he was saying, he went into a further explanation. "You see, people are able to lose their hearts- and if they lose those hearts, then the hearts eventually form a creature called a "Heartless', whose sole purpose is to go out and try to steal MORE hearts, which just continues the vicious cycle. Luckily, there are people that are tasked to put a stop to them and their rampages across other w- lands. I happen to be one of those tasked with preventing them from harming others, which I have, numerous times, in fact. And while there doesn't seem to be any here, you can never know. But what I have only come to find recently, is that with every heart stolen, an empty husk of the person that's heart was stolen is left behind, and from that husk, a Nobody is formed."

"Waaaaaaaaaaa-wa-wa-wait! Stealing peoples hearts? Turning them into monsters? What do you take us for, a bunch of children? You're just spouting a bunch of poppycock!" Nia was entirely skeptical of this information, and all Sora could do was shrug. He didn't have much proof outside the Nobodies that had appeared on the ship(While the girl was unconscious.) and his Keyblade, which could easily just be pushed aside as some strange looking weapon, as there seemed to be several of those in this world.

The only real thing that would prove their existence would be for one to pop up for them to see(Which, as much as Sora didn't like being considered a liar, he would much more prefer to be titled than have any Heartless show up to prove him otherwise.).

"Say what you will, I've seen them first hand, and battled them as well. In fact, I even hold the best defense against them as my own weapon." He raised his hand up and summoned his old Ultima Keyblade into his hand, startling the two in the party that had yet to see him to anything like that. "This, is the Keyblade. It is the best, and supposedly last, defense against the Heartless, and gives me powers I wouldn't hold otherwise, along with being able to unlock ANY lock or keyhole in existence." Once again, the young girl looked unconvinced. "While I admit it has the appearance of a key- albeit a giant one- I doubt it can do more than be swung around a bit for some extra damage you couldn't do with your hands."

Okay, now Sora was starting to get a little annoyed.

"You said that these Nobodies have no real motive other than to try and prove they exist, or follow orders of people they consider higher than themselves, does that mean that you are one of them?" Not one to believe someone would lie about something of this magnitude, Pyra wanted to know more about both these strange beings and her Driver. "Well, not, really. You see, there are generally three types of Nobodies; the Low-ranking ones, the High-ranking ones, and then, there are the Nobodies that were strong enough when they were a full person to actually gain some form of sentience, and even take on a form similar to what they looked like when they were complete. The lower ranked ones follow just about anyone because they are lower on the food chain then everyone else, while the higher ranked tend to only follow their chosen masters, who are the third type I was talking about before."

"Wait, does that mean that you are…?" "No, no! I am perfectly fine, I have a heart and everything! But…" He hesitated a bit at this part. "The Nobodies that you saw before, used to be under the employ of my Nobody. Before you say anything, yes, I lost my heart once, and I did become a Heartless, but I regained myself not long after! But my Nobody was another matter… While I existed, he, too, was still roaming around as well, which is almost unheard of, actually. Eventually, though, we met, and after some… Talking, we fused back with each other, and I became complete once more. But what I don't understand, is why those Nobodies appeared and acted like I, myself, was a Nobody."

Did they mistake him for Roxas, now that they were now the same being again…?

"Maybe you don't have to be a Nobody for them to want to follow you?" Seeing his distant look that meant he was in thought, Pyra tried to come up with an answer. "I don't think that is the case, but then again, I'm not really an expert on them, so who knows? But still. Hopefully we won't be running into more any time soon." Shrugging, he looked up at the sky and noticed it was getting rather late. "Well, it's going to be night soon, and I doubt anyone wants to travel then, so why don't we lay low for the night and continue on in the morning?" Everyone seemed to think that was a decent plan, so they went out to search for a place to set up camp for the night.

"So this is Torigoth?" Sora whistled in appreciation. "Not too shabby, I must say." "Gee, the town appreciates your approval of how it looks." Nia rolled her eyes and made her way into the city. "But it also said to give it a heads up next time so it can put on some make-up beforehand." Sora smirked as he followed behind. "Tell it thanks but no thanks, I prefer natural beauty over fake glamour any day."

After another day of traveling, they had finally reached their destination of the province of the giant Titan(And wasn't Sora surprised to find out that they were situated upon a giant moving, breathing, living creature nearly triple the size of the dragon form Xemnas had transformed into before.). In that time, nothing too eventful had taken place other than Nia asking if Sora was daft when he had to ask, for the umpteenth time what in the hell a Driver was. With Sora heading the pack(Nia and her Blade had insisted he take point when they found out he lazily wielded the Aegis Sword telepathically, and easily killed anything that tried to kill them in turn with one swing.), nothing had halted their strides and they made great time in reaching the only city on this continent.

Sora was slowly becoming more and more worried, however, when he still wasn't returning to his base form, even after literal days had passed, and he was starting to wonder if he would ever be able to go back at ALL so long as he stayed on this world(And considering he promised Pyra he'd help her get back home, who knew how long that would be.). The one time he had tried to revert back to normal the manual way had gone horribly, as well, because he noticed that as long as the thin, golden thread of magic connected him to Pyra, he couldn't exit the form.

Then he had tried something he know considered the worst moment of his young life(Even taking into consideration that he had stabbed himself with a sword through the heart and turned into a Heartless.), and forcefully pushed his magic outward to make an attempt at severing the cord connecting the two of them. That backfired very quickly, when Pyra suddenly gained a panicked look on her face and turned to him so fast he was afraid she might get whiplash on her neck, and he could have sworn that he saw all the surrounding magic flowing in the air collect into the red haired Blade, and then not soon after shoved it's way past his magic that he was using to break out of this form, and viciously slam into him while forcefully reestablishing the connection.

Did he mention that there was a lot of magic surrounding them, and that when it forced itself onto him, he started having an aneurysm from the complete overload of being forced to withstand what was around the equivalent of several dozen tons of pressure compressing itself onto his entire body?

Because that was a thing.

It had been an agonizing five minutes, with blood oozing from his nose, mouth, eyes, and even the ears while he felt like he was being crushed under one of the buildings Xemnas had thrown at him in the beginning of their fight(Or seven, he wasn't really lucid enough to do math properly.). He had to withstand the pain, as well, because any time he tried to bring up his magic to heal himself, the magic that he was starting to think was Pyra's viciously beat it back down, most likely believing it would try another attempt to sever the bond between them, only succeeding to make the pain worse, and when Nia had tried to help, the magic backfired on her(Pyra's magic was apparently really possessive- who knew?).

Thankfully it only lasted five minutes, and afterwards, he was free to cast his magic again(Though now that anytime it was used, he noticed the thread attached to his Drive Gauge would thicken, as if it was already pumping more magic into the bond just in case it needed to make another quick retaliation against another attempt.), but Pyra was beside herself with worry, and the strange thing was that she didn't seem to realize that she was the cause of it, and thought that sending more 'Ether'(Their name for magic, apparently- which, made sense, actually, considering he used Ethers to restore his own magic when it was low-) to him through their bond would help, especially when she felt their bond weaken before completely disconnecting.

When he saw her distraught face, he couldn't bear to tell her the truth, so he said without her, who knew what would have happened to him(One less agonizing experience in his life, but she didn't need to know that.).

That aside(For now-), they all entered into the city, and Sora was confused to see what looked like all the towns inhabitants standing around a pack of people dressed in completely black outfits that made them look like some kind of cult. "Fie! Who has the courage to heed the Empire's call? Your strong heart today, will build a strong Mor Ardain tomorrow!" Sora tilted his head. "What is he talking about?" "What, you don't know what the Empire is, either? Were you dropped on your head as a child?"

Sora looked at her, in shock.

"How did you know?" Cue the sweat drops. "No, I- ugh, nevermind! The Empire is going around for 'Diver Recruitments'." When he still didn't look like he was getting it, Dromarch continued. "The pool of potential Driver's is ever shrinking, so they must go around to where they can to find candidates. They must have run out of them in the army and have come here to find more." They were interrupted from the explanation by everyone in the crowd quieting down when a large man of a man went up to the podium and grabbed the crystal, making him glow a in a golden light as he made some not really reassuring sounds.

"Oooooooh, boy. He's a goner." Sora turned to Nia. "What do you mean by 'Goner'?" She just pointed at the man, whose body finally seemed to give out as the glow disappeared and large tears appeared that soon spurted an unholy amount of blood as the now dead man fell lifelessly to the ground. "WHAT THE FUCK?!" Sora's shout of incredulity went unnoticed in various yells and screams of similar natures that were rampant throughout the large mass of people, while Pyra just covered her mouth to not let the gasp escape it from witnessing the horrid event.

"Oh, all bark and no bite!" The leading man motioned for the other soldiers near him to get the corpse letting blood pool around them out of there while everyone seemed to take some steps back from what they assumed was a cursed artifact. "Nia, what the hell did I just see?!" "He couldn't handle the Core Crystal's power. When someone not worthy of wielding a Blade touches one, something similar to that happens. Although, that one was one of the worse ones I've seen. Must have been really unqualified for the job…"

"Wow, wow, wow!" Sora waved his hands through the air to get her attention. "You mean that, could have happened to ME?" ON the outside he was playing it off as a curious question, but on the inside, a Chibi him was running around in a panic at the fact that he could have been bleeding out on the floor somewhere in the middle of nowhere. "I don't know." She shrugged. "Depends on whether Pyra wanted that to happen or not, I suppose." Suddenly remembering what happened the day before involving Pyra, Sora was immensely grateful that she had not rejected him.

Gotta give love to the small(Or not so small.) miracles.

"Right. The mention of my own mortality aside, we should probably get out of here- you're not very wanted in these parts right now, and if those other 'Torna' members catch a whiff of Pyra's scent from someone who caught a glance at her in this city, they'll be after her in a heartbeat, so let's move." Getting a nod form the girl, they all moved out before anyone would notice them and make a scene about it.

Making their way through the crowded streets, they passed the various vendors and exited the town center into a small trail on the sides of the shop buildings. "Phew; well, at least we have some breathing room, now-" "HALT!" Freezing at the voice, everyone turned around to where they had just entered from, and saw troops similar to the ones they had watched before running up to them. "Um, I don't suppose they are here to sell us cookies?" Looking behind them, Sora was disappointed to see that they had been surrounded. "Oh come on! Why are they singling us out?!"

Everyone gave hima deadpan stare, and pointed directly behind him, to which he turned and sweatdropped as the floating Aegis Sword met his gaze. "... You know, telepathy isn't really a desirable trait when it comes to stealth, as I have just found out." Sora face palmed. "You, there. The spiky haired idiot." "Hey! My hair isn't that spiky!" "You are in the company of an enemy of the state! A member of 'Torna'!" Sora raised a finger. "To be fair, it's ex-member now." They didn't seem to care all that much. "And you yourself look like a Driver. Registration number?" Sora thought long and hard to come up with something to say.

"... 69?" Half the members of his party sent him dry stares while Pyra just put her hand on her head and shook her head. "Bah, lucky guess!" Everyone sent wide eyed looks to the leader of the soldiers. "You obviously just guessed a random registration number, which means you don't have one yourself! You're an illegal Driver, aren't you?" If only they were talking about Gummi Ship driving- wait, was he even legally allowed to drive those ships, now that he thought about it? "Okay, that does it! You're all coming in with me! We'll see what the Consul has to say about this."

Nia and Sora glanced at each other, before Nia pulled out her weapons and Sora grabbed the sword behind him and got into a stance similar to how he used his Keyblades. "W-Wait, are you seriously going to resist?!" The soldiers all looked shocked that supposed 'Criminals' were going to resist arrest, which was rather stupid to both teenagers, as the last thing you should expect criminals to do is go quietly. "F-Fine then! Men, we have them outnumbered, get them!"

As Nia went to one and started to battle him, Sora had to make a conscious effort to not slash into anyone and bisect them in twain(It was pretty hard to do when you are so used to just slicing and dicing with all your strength.). So instead of using his sword, Sora just went up to one and jumped in the air while sending a spinning kick into the helmet of one of the fools, sending him flying back with his head gear busted, most likely unconscious. And as another tried to sneak up behind him, he turned and used his free left hand to punch the grunt in the stomach, leaving him breathless as Sora proceeded to grab the back of his outfit and throw him into a nearby rock head first, bopping him into the land of dreams.

Twisting his sword around so that he was holding the blade part of it like a baseball bat, he swung the handle towards a third approaching man(What was it with the uniforms that made them all look like Darth Vader's bastard offspring?), and slammed it into his chest, sending him back into the other soldier following near him and making them sprawl onto the floor. Running over to Nia afterwards, he grabbed an arm of the man who was about to slam a butt of a rifle into the struggling girl, and threw him back towards where the other were also being piled up. "Nia, lets go!"

Nodding her head at him, the two and their blades starting running away from the beaten members of the Empire, and it looked like they were home free, when they were suddenly halted(Again.) by a wall of blue fire appearing in their path. "Such a commotion." Turning around, they all saw a woman who was obviously a Blade(If the way her hair ended in fire and her legs were encompassed in the same flames as well were anything to go by.) make their way toward them, passing stuttering Imperial soldiers on the way as she drew out a pair of strange looking swords(Then again, who was he to judge strange weapons?).

"A Blade? Are one of the soldiers here her Driver?" "No. My Driver is elsewhere at the moment. I am here alone." Sora tilted his head, once more confused(Seriously, he hadn't been this confuses in his life! Figuring out how the Keyblade worked was like completing a four piece puzzle compared to this!), as he thought a Blade could only be near their Driver, or, at the very least, only fight when near them.

Just more questions to ask Pyra and/or Nia later.

Joy.

"Alone? That seems rather dangerous- for you, I mean." "HAHAHA!" Startled, Sora looked behind the meantering woman to see the Captain of the squad laughing. "Lady Brighid is the 'Jewel of Mor Ardain'! The strongest Blade in the Empire! Even alone, she is more than a match for you!" Not liking being underestimated, Sora let out a quip of his own. "You mean just like me alone was more than a match for you peons?" Smirking at their growls, Sora let out a chuckle of triumph. "Lady Brighid, these miscreants are terrorists working for Torna!"

"Oi! I just said she was an ex-member, and now you've bundled me up in this mess, too?!" "That emerald Core Crystal… Could it really be true?" Ignoring both their bantering, she seemed to lock on directly to Pyra. "Well, well. Captain Padraig, you are not to kill them. Take these ones alive."

Sora clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Funny, you sound like you believe you can back up your statement." The woman whipped out her weapon, making it extend like a whip and covered it in the same blue fire as before, before retracting it again. "And it is funny that you think resistance isn't futile." Sighing in exhaustion, he turned to look at the sweating cat girl beside him. "Stay behind me, I'll deal with them, and we can be on our way." Not giving her time to respond, he gripped Pyra's sword tighter before seemingly vanishing and reappearing directly in front of the blue clad Blade in less than a second.

"What-" The action caused the usually closed eyed Blade's lids to slip open to show her shock, and she had just enough time to lift both her blades to block the new Drivers own when he swung it down upon her. Unluckily for her, though, the force of the swing was still strong enough to send her skidding back some ways away. "M-My Lady!" When the Captain and his remaining men looked like they were about to jump in, the Blade raised her hand to stop them. "Stay back; this one is far above something you and your men can handle. Allow me to deal with him."

The woman raised one of her swords and slashed it out, sending a decently sized blue blaze in a crescent arc towards Sora, who deftly dodged the attack and made to move to retaliate in response. "Sora!" Faltering in his next few steps, the teen glanced behind him and had his eyes widen when he saw the fire he had avoided going for a collision course with his traveling companion.

Nia, for her part, was in awe when she saw the boy she had only met days prior go toe-to-toe with one of the Empire's finest Blades, and even push her back. That awe increased when she witnessed him effortlessly evade an attack sent at him from a scant few feet away that she knew she would have had a tough time blocking, let alone dodging.

That awe then turned to horror when she realized that the blue lighted flames were now heading straight for her. Dromarch barely had the time to move to try and take the attack, let alone put up a shield in time, and Pyra was too shocked to do more than yell, so it looked like she was in for a world of hurt.

"Aeroga!" And just as the blue elemental blast was a scant few feet away from sending her to paintown, a raging, circular sphere of wind roared to life around her, and as the fire touched the outer layers of it, the attack dissipated into tiny blue embers that floated to either side of her harmlessly. "Oh, right." The yellow wearing girl blushed while crossing her arms and looked away. "I forgot you could do that."

"Yes, Nia. You're welcome." Sora rolled his eyes. He got serious, however, when he turned his gaze back to his intrigued looking opponent. "Power over wind, and to such an extent? Then this must truly be the Aegis' power." "Sorry, lady." Sora refuted that statement vehemently while raising his blade to the sky. "What you're seeing is basically just me on steroids." With that said, he gathered magic into the very tip of the blade, causing a large ball of searing hot fire to form. "Fira-" The sword was then thrusted higher into the air, sending the large ball soaring into the air. "GUN!" Sora then swung the sword down, signalling the activation of his spell as the ball split into five separate, but still abnormally sized, fire spells that let gravity affect them once more as they all started plummeting to the ground, and all of them seemingly homing in on the once more wide eyed Blade.

"Wind and fire? HYAH!" Seeing the spells about to pelter her, Brighid had to work over time as she swung both blades twice for maximum power to shoot out two crescent shaped blasts of blue flames to intercept two of the balls of fire, making the attacks on both sides cancel each other out. With that done, she coated her blades liberally in her own fire and slashed at one of the orbs that fell onto her. She stayed locked in that battle for a few seconds, causing perspiration to collect on her forehead from both the intense heat and the effort of trying to fend off the opposing flames, but she was finally able to push it away from her into a rock face off to the side of the battlefield.

Sadly, she hadn't much time for anything else as the last two fell onto her, so she hastily erected a barrier to hold them off, but as soon as the nearest one touched her defense, it exploded in a concentrated explosion that broke her guard and allowed the last one to collide a few feet away from her, but it was still more than enough to injure and send her reeling back on the ground in a heap.

"By the way, I don't take people trying to hurt my friends lightly." Glaring at the struggling form of the Blade trying to lift herself off the ground, he eventually let the expression go to sigh instead. "Come on, Nia. Let's-" "Look out!" Taking the advice at face value, Sora ducked quick enough to avoid a weird, sickly yellow material that was shot at him from the newly arrived soldiers.

"Really? You guys just don't learn, do you?" Ready for the next one that was sent his way, he slipped to the side and slashed at it with the Aegis Sword, and was thoroughly baffled when the glowing blade dimmed and disappeared as soon as the material hit it. "... Uh, anybody know where the blacksmith is?" His answer was being shot with about ten more of whatever it was they were shooting at him.

"Joy." As he was about to attempt to parkour his way out of this situation, he felt a tug at his hood and he watched as Nia and her Blade getting captured by the materials as the girl threw him behind her. "Nia? What are you doing?!" As he was about to move to collect his wayward tagalong, he froze when the recovered Blade thrust one of her swords at the nervous girls throat.

"I would desist, if I were you. One step forward, and this blade will be the end of this girls life." Sora, for his part, was aghast at the sight before him. "What the hell are you doing?!" "I underestimated you. That was a mistake that I was gravely punished for, but no more. You care for this girls life, do you not? Stand down." His expression soon turned into a glare. "You don't want to do this. You saw what I could do, and you also know that isn't EVERYTHING that I could do, as well." The woman nodded at his words. "That is correct. If you were to make an enemy of us now, we would surely be made to regret it in the near future. However, you want to protect this girl. Why, I know not. But you do, and so long as I hold all the cards in this, I hold the edge."

Sora grit his teeth in rage. "You think this- her life- is a GAME?!" "Nothing is a game to me, but the wellbeing of Mor Ardain and his Majesty Niall come before all else, and currently, you are the biggest threat to face both. So I will offer you a compromise. It would be foolish to believe that we would be able to hold you, let alone capture, at this time, so you are free to go, but the girl will be coming with us for interrogation, and if you want her back, come to the embassy in three days time." "You're insane if you think I'll let you have her!" "It seems to me that you don't have much of a choice." She inched her weapon closer to the teens throat, making her gulp. "Grrrrr…" "Sora." Pyra walked up to her Driver and placed her hand on his shoulder to try and knock him out of his anger.

"... Fine." He spat out, directing the full brunt of his rage towards the purple haired Blade holding his friend hostage. "But I'll make sure you regret this." Grabbing his redhead partner around the waist with his left arm, he activated his Quick Run ability and vanished from everyone's sight, but not before sending a one last baleful glare the 'Strongest Blade's way.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" Gritting his teeth, the Keyblade bearer kept pounding away at a wooden wall between some boxes further ahead from where he had to run away. "Sora…" His Blade looked conflicted about whether she should do something to help or just let him get this out of his system. "Damn that woman, damn this stupid 'Empire', and damn me for being so damn overconfident!" He ignored everything but the wall as he continued to bash it with his fist. "If I hadn't of been so cocky, so stupid, Nia would have been here too, and not in the hands of someone that will gladly just kill her when it most conveniences herself! DAMN IT!" An especially hard punch landed this time.

"Sora, maybe we should just take some time to calm down, and figure out a way to take Nia back-" "We CAN'T Pyra! If I try anything, they won't hesitate to kill her! They know she was a part of a terrorist organization, and they won't care whether she lives or dies! One wrong move from me, and she's DONE!" Roaring one last time, he decked the wood one last time, but was surprised when the punch continued on past it as a makeshift door slid open when the boy hit it. "Oomph!" Not expecting the inanimate to ever fight back against him, Sora was unprepared for this and landed face first into the floor as his punch overextended and he was sent sprawling to the floor.

"Are you alright?" While Pyra ran and knelt next to him to see if he was alright, the teen lifted his head off the ground and looked further ahead in the narrow passageway that light didn't seem to touch. "What the heck is this?" Pushing himself up, Sora looked around to examine the hidden area more thoroughly. It somewhat hard to see as there was no source of light to illuminate the space, but Sora was experienced enough in traversing dark places to be able to make out objects and walls, which seemed to be filled with cobwebs and lanterns that looked as if they hadn't been refilled in years.

"A hideaway for some old criminals to stay out of the authorities sights, maybe?" Pyra hazarded a guess. "Hmmmm. Well, only one real way to find out." Turning around, Sora made sure to close the door behind them before they made their way through the unlit hall. "If it is an abandoned hideaway, this might be the perfect place for us lay low while we figure out how to get Nia back from that closed-eyed fiend of a Blade." Continuing on there way, they were soon met with a small, sparce space that had seen better days.

"Dang… It certainly looks like someone used to live here." The brunette commented as he walked forward and slid a finger along a counter near the kitchen corner, collecting all the dust on it when he did. "I mean, that was probably years ago, but still." His red haired companion also went around the room and observed what she saw, agreeing with her Driver that it was obviously not seen any use in a fairly large amount of time. "Indeed. But it looks a bit small for more than one person, and even then it would be a little cramped. I think maybe this was the home of a Nopon, instead."

Sora, still rather ignorant of this worlds terminology, was about to ask what the heck a 'Nopon' was and if he could eat it, when he was distracted by a decrepit, folded piece of paper on the hollowed square table in the middle of the room. Walking to it, he sat down and lifted the paper up, examining it. It was definitely left here as long ago as this place was abandoned, as instead of being a pristine white that most paper was, it was a dull yellow with rips and crinkles in it, showing times affects on it. Wanting to know the contents of it, however, Sora stopped his studying and unfolded it to see what was on the paper.

Dear piece of paper that is Tora's first and last entry of his diary,

Tora did it! Tora completed Dadapon and Grampypon's dreams, and finished first ever Artificial Blade!

… Sort of!

Artificial Blade that Tora nicknamed Poppi, is nearly finished, with the last touches needed being energy source that Tora has not been able to get hands on with the weather drought hitting here so recently, and Ether Furnace- or, should say, WORKING Ether Furnace. For reason Tora not knowing, Ether Furnace Dadapon Tatazo and Grampypon Soosoo not been working lately!

In all pre-recorded tests before this, it work just fine, but it as if Ether Furnace just go copoot and stop working anymore!

If that not bad enough, Tora overhear guards talking about whereabouts of Dadapon, and a factory in Mor Ardain that Tora not supposed to know about, so now Tora is wanted criminal on top of all this! No way Tora will be able to stay in Gormott anymore, and Tora want to look into this so called 'Factory', but the world is dangerous, and without Artificial Blade to offer protection, Tora become a tasty sausage to some monster in wilds!

So, with heavy heart, Tora scrap Artificial Blade Poppi, to work on new Ether Furnace, for new Artificial Blade, Poppi Mk II. New Artificial Blade is almost complete, so Tora will be leaving this place within next 24 hours, and to avoid easier detection and capture, Tora will also be leaving behind Artificial Blade Poppi, and last memoriam Tora have of Dadapon and Grampypon in the original Ether Furnace as well.

Lucky for Tora, this hideaway is especially hidey, so not have to worry about sneaky troopers or snoopy thiefs stumbling upon Artificial Blade Poppi, and even if that happened, only super genius of Tora's family would have the know-how to make any use of it, anyway.

And, if Poppi somehow reading this despite all precautions…

… Sorry.

"Sora!" The teen quickly looked up from his reading at hearing the red clad Blade's gasp and shot up from his sitting position to rush to her side and see what was wrong. "Pyra, what's-" He stopped himself when he looked to where she was gazing and saw what must have been this 'Poppi' that he read about.

She looked about a foot shorter than even Sora(Who, though he despised admitting it, wasn't really the tallest person around.), with a white beret that had some kind of symbol embroidered onto the side of it, as well as having a red, metallic rim topped off with a cute little red ribbon covering metallic blue hair held in pigtails.. The only other mentionable clothing on her(As beside her face, the rest was just grey and silver metal, along with joints and other things Sora had no clue what they were.) was the red cape that reached her knees that ended in rips and tears, along with a pair of short pants that looked similar to something that Shakespeare would wear.

To top her off, there was also a still pristine white flower(Most likely why she was called 'Poppi'.) attached to the front of the cape, making Sora wonder if the flower was also metallic if it was still that alive looking after the years the creator left it there.

"Wow… Hey Pyra, do you know what the heck an 'Artificial Blade' is?" Seeing the quizzical expression on her face at the question, Sora had to take that as a no. "Apparently, this is the first ever Artificial Blade, which I think would mean the first man made Blade. This letter didn't really explain it that well." Handing her the paper, he went over to examine the robot like girl closer.

"Well, it definitely looks something impressive, I'll give this 'Tora' that much. Still, to let something this human looking stand here for the rest of eternity just seems… Wrong. There's gotta be something I can do." Scratching his head as he scanned the body, he was stumped when he asked himself exactly what he could do.

He wasn't exactly the most tech savvy of people, he would say.

So, he decided to do what he did to ALL new mechanical inventions that he ever comes across.

Poke it until it does something.

As soon as his finger touched an orange gem sticking out from under the red cape, however, it started to glow a bit and Sora could see another small cord, weaker, but similar to Pyra's connecting him to the Artificial Blade before him, and he could see that it was sucking magic out of him before the gem started glowing brighter and brighter.

"Not again!"

Instead of the intense pain(He wasn't sure if it would come from this new bond or Pyra's over-possessive one, though.), however, the cord simply attached itself to his Drive Gauge(Which had stopped growing, thankfully, when it was back to the twelve it was after he met Pyra for the first time.), and before he knew it, nausea hit him as he was sent stumbling back by some invisible force, finally catching Pyra's attention.

"Um, is everything okay, Sora?" He was about to respond to her, when he was halted as the nausea finally stopped and he got his footing. "Yeah, actually. Just some weird-" And in a flash of light, Sora was suddenly standing back in his base form, the handle of the Aegis Sword falling to the ground as the magic keeping it afloat went away with his form. "... Was that really all it took to get out of that?"

Now Sora was more annoyed than he was concerned that he was forcefully removed from the form by this new connection.

He had no time to celebrate, however, as he felt his Drive Gauge rise back up from it's previous use not long afterwards, and it still went further after it reached what he thought was his new maximum of 12 and went on to fill up a whole other gauge, before it seemingly maxed out and Sora felt another transformation coming on. "Oh come on, I just got out of the OTHER one!" It didn't really care, as Sora went through a new Drive form transformation the second time in the same week.

As the force of power dimed down, Sora looked down to see his new garbs.

This Drive form definitely had more aesthetic changes then the other one, as Sora could barely recognize his outfit anymore. His once massive shoes(Maybe that was where all his height went?) were now replaced by silver boots that reached to just above his ankles, with grey metal plates placed on the ends to give him more protection and offensive capabilities, with the shins being completely covered in grey greaves. His leggings and shorts had fused to make charcoal colored pants similar to the ones on the robot Blade he saw before, reaching his knees while having red stripes painted onto them.

His upper outfit had an equally big change, as his jacket had been removed to make way for a red cape of his own with a white rose being placed right above his heart, leaving a form fitting dark grey shirt to cover his torso with his necklace now having changed from a crown to a flat flower of the same nature the one Poppi had on her. And while half of his biceps were now revealed, almost all of his forearms were covered in vambraces of a silver color while his gloves had been removed to make way for bronze knuckles that now covered his fingers.

Reaching up hesitantly, he grasped the hat on top of it and pulled it off, letting him see that it was also like the one the Artificial Blade was wearing, however, this one had its colors inverted, with the cap being a deep red with the rims having become white, along with the ribbon turning into a white bow.

"Still not as horrifying as turning into a merman for the first time, I suppose." He muttered under his breath. "S-Sora?!" Glancing at the panicked Blade and seeing that she was pointing a shaking finger towards the smaller figure of Poppi, Sora looked over as well, and had his eyes pop out of his head as the Artificial Blade opened up her amber eyes and locked onto him. "Greetings, Master. My name is Poppi. Please take care of me from now on."

Sora's New DriveForm:

Drive: Tripartite

Action:

Steady Top(Making the Drill Shield spin, it is then thrown to the ground and hit with the Keyblade, making it travel across the field like a pinball, slamming into numerous enemies in it's collision course and sending them flying.)

Key Cutter(Spins the Keyblade in the users hand 360 degrees, cutting into various enemies near it as it does. Increases Aggro drawn from enemies.)

Rigid Counter(Utilizing Guard, the user blocks attacks while storing the kinetic energy transferred into them to the Keyblade, where it eventually releases in a powerful bash. Regenerates health by 10% over 10 seconds.)

Critical Boost(Deals 120% more damage when in Critical condition, uses the Keyblade to snap at a foes legs, sending them Toppling as well if the status 'Break' is applied to them as well.)

Spinning Raid(Covering the Keyblade in a dense layer of stone, Sora throws it at all enemies out of range of Poppi's Spinning Slash, finishing with the Keyblade entrapping foes in stone and Poppi drilling into them with the Drill Shield.)

Sky's Storm(Sora focuses his magic into Poppi's Ether furnace, letting her emit a focused stream of Ether into the air that sucks in foes directly in front of her or pushes them away if outside of it's walls, which Sora then throws his Keyblade into, causing it to sporadically move in the storm and slam into foes trapped in its might.)

Poppi Quake(Poppi charges into the ground with jet propulsion, rocking the floor and sending cracks that enemies fall through across it and forms columns of earth that slam into other foes.)

Land Biter(Charging the drill, Poppi attaches the Keyblade to her back as if it were a dorsal fin, and tunnels through the Earth, going around the battlefield and slashing enemies with the Keyablde while hollowing out the floor before having it collapse on everyone in the vicinity, caving them in.)

Guard

Counterattack

Slapshot

Blitz

Stun Impact

Sonic Blade

Finishing Leap

Round Break

Aerial Dive

Master Magician

Growth:

High Jump MAX

Quick Run MAX

Dodge Roll MAX

Aerial Dodge MAX

Glide MAX

Superstrength MAX(Allows the ripping and rending of Earth with near unparalleled strength, giving the use of the magical element of Earth and the ability to heft the heaviest of objects.)

Support:

Noponic Iron(Boosts Defense by 20%.)

Guard Shift(Increases Guard speed and range by 20%.)

Emergency Mode(Boosts all stats by 50% when in Critical Mode.)

Auto-Shield(Let's Sora telepathically hold on to the Drill Shield.)

HP Gain

Scan

Cheer

Aerial Recovery

Combo Master

Jackpot

Jackpot

Treasure Magnet

Treasure Magnet

Lucky Lucky

Damage Drive

Damage Drive

Item Boost

MP Rage

Quake Boost(Increase damage done by earth-based attacks by 20%.)

Quakera Boost(Increase damage done by earth-based attacks by 30%.)

Quakega Boost(Increase damage done by earth-based attacks by 50%.)

MP Haste

MP Hastera

Once More

Second Chance

Defender

Damage Control

Berserk

Protega

Blade Boost

Weapons:

Magic Consul(Ultima Weapon)

Who-the-hell-do-you-think-we-are?!(Allows Poppi to use the Drill Shield when Sora is in Tripartite form, and the further apart they are from each other, the more their Defense and Evasion increases: 4% for every 5 feet, maximum of 20 feet; Drill Shield.)